Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Was The Perfect Pastor UNTIL... // The Pastor David Love Story

Episode Date: August 8, 2026

Pastor David Love, the married pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri, engaged in a decade-long affair with a parishioner, Teresa Stone. In 2010, he Love shot and killed Teresa's husband, Randy Stone, inside his insurance office.

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So the story starts with this guy, Pastor Love. and Pastor Love is about 39 when all this begins, and he's living in Independence, Missouri, and he's a well-respected man in his community. He's the senior pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church, and everyone there loves him. And one day in 1999, a woman comes to him for counseling, this woman, Teresa. So Teresa tells Pastor Love all about her problems, you know, whatever they are, and we don't know exactly what they discuss, but I guess they're meeting up on occasion, and he's listening to her and he's consoling her. But then, as the years pass, they meet up more and more frequently, until soon they're meeting like two, three times a week to talk. And before long, Pastor Love

starts thinking that Teresa kind of fine. And Teresa starts thinking that Pastor Love is kind of fine, and eventually they start smashing. Here's the problem with all this church shenanigans, though. They're both already married to other people. Specifically, Teresa is married. to this guy, Randy. And Randy is involved in the church too. He's actually the financial advisor and he teaches Sunday school there. And he has no idea that this affair has been going on. So we're now in 2004. And Pastor Love and Teresa, they're still meeting up multiple times a week for counseling, aka smashin. And it's around this time that life drops a bomb on all of them. So Teresa, she discovers that she's pregnant. And she knows damn good and well that the baby is past her loves.

Mostly because Randy recently had a vasectomy. And the chances of getting someone pregnant after getting a vasectomy are about one and a thousand. Which means that there's a very good chance the baby isn't Randi's. So she goes and she breaks the news to Randy and she tells him that she's pregnant. Now I assume Randy has doubts that the baby is his, but we aren't sure what he thinks about this. But it seems like he chooses to believe her, or at least to wait and see what happens. Regardless, then, she has a miscarriage. So ultimately, Pastor Love and Teresa narrowly avoid having their affair exposed.

Now, you would think a scare like that would make them end the relationship, but it actually does the exact opposite. After the miscarriage, Teresa starts going to Pastor Love for grief counseling, and spending even more time alone with him, and the more time she spends with him, the more distant she becomes from Randy. Now, Randy, he notices her behavior has changed. But he just thinks that she's acting weird because she's grieving the miscarriage, and that Pastor Love is helping her through it.

The last thing he suspects is that they've been hooking up behind his back. In fact, at one point, Randy is distraught over all of this, and he begins meeting with Pastor Love himself, every single morning to talk through his personal problems and through his marital stress, as he considers Pastor Love his friend and his chief spiritual advisor. And if that isn't messed up enough, this whole situation actually brings Randy and Pastor Love closer together as friends. And so about six years go by, and it's now 2010, and this secret affair, it's still going on.

And by this point, Pastor Love and Teresa, they've become emotionally attached to one another, and they've started talking about building a future together. However, there's just one very obvious obstacle standing in their way. She's still married to Randy, and getting a divorce isn't an option that they're considering, because if she divorces Randy and immediately starts dating Pastor Love, that would be a whole scandal within the church, and that might hurt his professional reputation. But most importantly, Teresa, She isn't going to get a divorce because Randy has an $800,000 life insurance policy on him, and she's the beneficiary, and she doesn't want to walk away from that kind of money.

So she doesn't. She stays with him. And here is where the story gets dark. Because here's where Teresa and Pastor Love come up with a plan, a plan to murder Randy. That way, the two of them can take the life insurance money and disappear and start a new life together. Their plan is to have Pastor Love sneak into Teresa and Randy's house and get one of Randy's guns and kill him with it. That way, it'll be harder to trace the murder back to Pastor Love. So they put this plan into motion.

Teresa secretly gives Pastor Love the security codes to her garage and she gives him the combination to Randy's gun safe. Then one day, while no one's at home, Pastor Love goes over to their house and he enters through the garage and he sneak. He sneaks inside and he opens the gun safe and he gets the gun. After that, he drives over to Randy's office where he works as an insurance salesman. It's a small office for like one or two people. So he's there alone. Pastor Love knocks on the door and Randy lets him in because, you know, they know each other. And then suddenly Pastor Love pulls out that gun and blam, he shoots Randy and this unfortunately kills him.

Then Pastor Love walks out of the office and he sends a text to Teresa, letting her know that the job is done. After that, Teresa drives over to Randy's office and she finds him there and she pretends to act all shocked and she calls 911. And pretty quickly, police get there and they start investigating. And there are no signs of a struggle and there's even cash sitting out in Randy's office. So police realized this wasn't a robbery gone wrong. or anything like that, this was planned. So they look for any evidence that they can find. And Teresa, she actually happens to work in this office with Randy as well. So in a trash can near her desk, they discover pieces of a torn up letter. So they carefully tape the pieces

back together. And the letter ends up being from Pastor Love to Teresa. And it reads, Happy Birthday, Love. I'm not in control of things yet, but when we're finally together, your birthdays will always be exciting. And so they compare the handwriting and they determined that this letter wasn't written by Randy. And whoever wrote it seems to be romantically involved with Teresa. Meanwhile, there's a funeral held for Randy and Pastor Love is the one who delivers the eulogy. You know, since they were friends. And he gives like an emotional sermon about what a wonderful man Randy was and how tragic his death is. Jeez, this guy's the worst. But whatever, at this point, no one suspects that he did anything wrong.

And so it's starting to look like he and Teresa are actually going to get away with murder. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

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Until police start interviewing people in the church community. And they start hearing rumors about a secret romantic affair going on between Pastor Love and Teresa. And so they bring Teresa back in for another round of questioning. And this time, she breaks. She tells them everything about the affair and that Pastor Love actually killed Randy. Meanwhile, Pastor Love knows the investigation is zeroing in on him. and that he's about to be a suspect in the murder. So he immediately resigns his pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church,

and he abandons his wife and three kids, and he flees, and he moves to South Carolina. And there, he starts over with a new job as a truck driver, and he flies under the radar, and he lives a quiet life. But eventually, the U.S. Marshals track him down, and bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. Also, bam, they arrest Teresa, too.

Here's her mugshot. And ultimately, Pastor Love takes a plea deal and he gets sentenced to life in prison, while Teresa also takes a plea deal for her part in the murder, and she gets sentenced to eight. A career opportunity is waiting at PTW Energy Services. On August 18, meet the team at a hiring event for welders and fitters from 1 to 5 p.m. Explore the next step, make a strong start, and connect with real openings in the field. Join us on this day. Eight years.