Small Town Murder - #402 - Fornication, Forensics & French Fries - Morris, Alabama
Episode Date: July 7, 2023This week, in Morris, Alabama, a woman finds love, after the tragic death of her first husband, but then finds even more love, with her church's Pastor. This leads to problems in their marria...ges, and some messy conversations. But when someone's spouse ends up murdered, in their own kitchen, a darker plot begins to surface. A plot full of lies, cemetery hook ups, and the cold french fries that somehow solve this twisted crime!!Along the way, we find out that you cooking chili can be an expensive hobby, that a married Pastor's congregation is not a great pool for his hook ups, and that you always want to eat your Milo's french fries when they're hot!! Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.comGo to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.
Yeah, and choo-choo!
Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed.
My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Jimmy Wissman.
Thank you, folks, for joining us all aboard the murder train.
It is time to pull away from the station with a crazy-ass episode, as usual.
And today is no different.
Today is an episode where French fries play a big part in the case.
Big fan.
Which I love a French fry, so that immediately piqued my interest, and I want these French fries.
We'll get into all this.
But we'll get there.
I want these Alabama French fries.
Before we do that, very quickly, definitely want to head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com.
Get your tickets for August 12th, Chicago.
It's going to be our biggest show ever, everybody. We're doing a chicago only live show as well can't wait only place you're gonna see
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$5 a month or more, you get everything.
Back catalog of bonus stuff.
Couple hundred episodes there. New ones
every other week. Two new ones, as a matter of fact.
This week is no different. It's a fun week.
This week is just mayhem, basically.
For crime and sports, which you'll have access to, we're going to talk about theme park disasters.
Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, that's going to be fun.
And then for small town murder, we're going to talk about some of the craziest prison riots in history.
So they're basically the same thing with or without roller coasters.
That's the difference.
One causes the other. That's the difference. Patreon.
That's it.
Patreon.com slash crime and sports.
And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show, which is always fun.
And, of course, it is coming.
Keep an ear out for your stupid opinions.
Show's done.
We're ready to go.
We're ready to have it come out every single Monday morning. And there's just business stuff that has nothing to do with us that we have to just wait for people to do.
And we're waiting and they're doing it.
So it's coming.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and for caring where it is.
We do appreciate that.
So we're not annoyed at all by the questions.
We're like, thank you.
Yes, it's coming.
So your stupid opinion is coming very soon.
That said, Jimmy, I think it's time.
Oh, yeah.
Let's get into this.
I think it's time.
Whoever you are, it doesn't matter where you are.
I don't care.
You paint the house? I don't care where. Yeah, maybe you're. I'm thinking of roofing, yeah. Let's get into this. I think it's time. Wherever you are, it doesn't matter where you are. You paint the house?
Is that what you're doing?
Yeah.
I'm thinking of roofing, actually.
They're on a roof.
You're sweaty.
There's tar.
You're sticky.
Who's that?
You know what?
I don't care.
Throw your mop to the ground or whatever that is, that tar spreading thing.
Arms to the heavens.
Arms to the sky covered in tar and you shout,
Shut up and give me murder.
Let's do this, Jimmy.
What do you say?
Let's go on a trip.
Lousy.
We're going on down to Alabama today.
Yes, we are.
We were in Michigan earlier, and this is the biggest coincidence in the history of small-town murder,
which is saying a lot because we had an episode where the Titanic was involved
and that wasn't on purpose.
And then this week is very strange because the town in Michigan was M-O-R-R-I-C-E
and it was Morris, Michigan.
This is Morris, Alabama.
Really spelled Morris?
But regular Morris, M-O-R-R-I-S.
But still, we have the same town name
and not planned complete i mean complete and total coincidental strangest thing so i guess when you're
above 400 episodes weird shit starts to happen run morris this week odds start falling in favor
of strange things at that point you want to know something really crazy james somebody that listens this has a dog named morris i'm sure that too and definitely cats probably
because people still name their cats morris after that so here we go morris alabama north central
alabama about 20 minutes outside of birmingham so okay you know near that tennessee border up there
and everything it's about four hours to mobile which is all the way down south, just to give you an idea, and almost two hours to Section, Alabama, which was our last Alabama episode,
The Murder Dance. I remember that one. That was a strange one there. This week, Morris population,
it's a small town, 2,248. It's a very small town. Median household income is actually pretty high,
though, because you can work in Birmingham and choose to live out here so right a different deal 61 797 a month is the median household income and the
median home price is lower than the national average that shit stretches 226 000 so there
you go i mean if that's not not a bad deal so the history here people arrived in this area in kind of around the same time alabama
became a state around 1820 ish 1819 is when they became a state that's around when people were
started coming first thing they put up jimmy uh-huh baptist church baptist church baby as we
know baptists are the catholics of the south uh the area. Feel salvation. It's happening, damn it.
The area was known as Shad Town, Kennedysville, and Kennelsville over time.
And they just kept changing it every once in a while.
Was it just a bait shop?
Is that what the Shadville was about?
I don't know, man.
Kennedysville, I assume some guy named Kennedy, some guy named Kennel.
A lot of dog kennels.
I don't know what Kennedysville, I assume some guy named Kennedy, some guy named Kennel, a lot of dog kennels. I don't know what's going on here.
But the railroad came in later on, and, of course, they had neighboring coal fields that developed once the railroad was there to get the coal fields.
That sounds fun.
The Jefferson Coal Company here, one of the owners was named Marshall Morris, and that's where Morris, Alabama, came from.
First name Marshall. Oh, baby. owners was named marshall morris and that's where morris alabama came from first name marshall oh
baby yeah coal from the venture fueled successful tests to determine the feasibility of creating
coke pig iron at the oxmoor furnace is that right yeah that's that smells sounds like it smells
awful whatever's coming out of there what is it the oxmoor furnace they were going to make coke
pig iron okay i don't know what that is.
I have no fucking idea.
I don't know.
Cheap iron?
Good iron?
There's coke ovens out in the middle of the desert, and I don't know what the fuck that is.
It sounds like it smells bad, though.
Right.
When it's a pig and ox, I don't want any to do with it.
No.
So Morris was incorporated in 1885, and then for some reason reincorporated in 1950 do it again no
idea why they did that just you know what like the incorporations renewing vows is what it is
it's like they went to they just went to vegas though it was they didn't invite like the whole
family they went to vegas with like another couple that they hang out with yeah that's all
you guys want to do it too you got come on reviews of this town here's five stars morris is a great place to live and raise a family great schools great community
and has a country feel but is close enough to birmingham for work or fun okay uh five stars
my community is amazing in every way possible okay that's that's a lot no no details that's
it one side oh that's it just every way if you can think That's it. One sentence. Oh, that's it. Just every way.
If you can think of it, it's that way.
That way, too.
That's it.
Four stars.
Morris is a very connected and welcoming community for all of its inhabitants.
It's safe and quiet and manages to provide an overall cozy feeling, with quotes.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
It's not uncommon to go somewhere and meet friends or even family while out on a daily commute because there's 2200 people.
You're bound to run into somebody, you know.
Quiet means there isn't much traffic or crime to be concerned about.
But that also means the nightlife doesn't have much of a presence either.
Yeah, that's kind of how it works.
Morris is a place for families to settle down and for those working to get into the routine of their jobs.
It doesn't so much embody
the eventfulness and liveliness of the big city areas it's a small town you could have said one
sentence the last person my community is amazing in every possible way talk to that guy because
period you two need to get together and learn some succinctness four stars here's three stars
not a high crime area but the police are useless well if nobody's doing
anything then what's the difference what do you need that's the point so things to do in this town
tell me plenty as you can imagine just teaming with things to do except meet people the the
morris well strangers anyway right new yeah new people new people morris blue spoon chili fest Right. New. Yeah. New people. New people. Morris Blue Spoon Chili Fest slash chili cook-off.
That's a big deal.
It's $100 to enter the cook-off.
To enter?
To enter.
$100.
Then you have to make all the chili, which is expensive to make, too.
We'll talk about this.
Chili's not cheap.
$75 if you're a first responder or military.
Oh, okay.
MorrisChili.com
You can download the complete
Chili Team packet there.
So if you want to compete here, the Chili
Team, here's what you need.
We provide you with a
we being, Jimmy and I are the
festival now. That's how this works.
We provide you with
a 10 by 10
tent and an eight foot table.
We provide bowls and spoons for sampling chili.
Oh,
that's what they provide for a hundred dollars.
You,
your team.
Now,
all of you out there,
you decorate your booth,
obviously branded up to work.
You bring any utensils to serve the chili.
You keep a way to,
you bring a way to keep it warm so you
got to bring some sort of oh you got to bring a crock pot of some sort yeah you make a large pot
of chili about five gallons that's so much chili that's so much chili like so much meat and that's
expensive to make that much chili that's that water bottle that you put on the cooler that's
five gallons that's a shit
load of that much chili bring that and a hundred bucks and maybe we'll let you stand in a tent and
have people taste it and a and a way to keep that shit warm wow you bring hand sanitizers and
cleaning supplies so you gotta clean your shit up too it's like an airbnb now um chili's disgusting
you bring what you think goes best with chili so you want to serve cornbread or some shit or crackers, crackers.
You bring it.
Cheese on it.
That's you.
You bring it.
You could be one of or all of the following.
Grand Champion Belt, People's Choice Award, Team Spirit Gold Medal, and $500 cash.
Those are all the different prizes.
Last year's, what's that?
I'm going to invest a grand and get 500?
Well, it's 100.
Never mind.
It's 100 plus $100 in chili supplies probably, so it's a lot.
And probably $500 in chili.
Last year's winner was Porky's Pride.
That's the grand champion.
And who else?
Grill Daddy was the People's Choice Award.
Attaboy.
And Team Spirit Gold went to the Blazers.
So there's that.
There you go.
That sounds like a real investment.
I want to buy five gallons of Wendy's chili and go mop the floor with these fucking people.
This is terrible.
Jesus Christ.
Tastes like shit.
What's going on here?
It's all watery and weird and shit weird but i can't stop eating it i
don't know what it is it's disgustingly uh phil i like it so now that we've talked about weird
chili let's talk about something else that'll kill you let's talk about some murder here what
do you say all right all right let's get into this here uh let's talk about a lady first how's that
let's talk about a lady uh cindy Cindy K. Henderson we'll talk about here.
Later on, she'll be Cindy K. Henderson Reese.
Oh.
That's a lot of names.
Yeah.
This is also hyphenated.
Cindy K.
Well, no, K is her middle name, but Henderson is her first married name. Anyway, Cindy is born January 5th, 1975.
She is married for a few years in the early 2000s that ends though pretty abruptly here um
yeah uh as you know relationships end for a lot of reasons sure usually it's it takes a while to
fully extricate yourself from it but if your partner commits suicide it's over quickly and
that's what happened that's a quick one yeah that's over with there so
he ended it he ended it quickly yeah that's a there's no you know we're not going to talk
about it later at that point paperwork's brutal it's rough so her her husband commits suicide
and so she meets another man in a couple years yeah and ends up you know getting remarried here so hopefully he won't kill himself
that would be nice she marries michael earl reese r-e-e-s-e and she becomes cindy k henderson reese
he's born in july of 1974 so he's six months older than her six months they're you know same age
they move into a house at 637 Banks Street in Morris.
That's where they live. It's a little house.
Not a
big one. It's one of those little, maybe
1,200 square feet.
You can kind of see everything from everywhere
in this house. It's got kitchens all the way in.
No basement, probably. No basement. Kitchens all the way
in the back, which is weird.
You walk in and there's a long hallway
where the kitchen is down there. It's strange. It's a weird like on the other side of the bedrooms it
looks like it's a very strange setup architecturally so they have a relationship they get married
they're living there no children between them or anything like that but they do around 2013 or so
2012 ish they get interested in church more okay so they start going to church as a
couple and the main reason they start going to church is because they like this pastor that
is at this one church okay there's a guy named jeffrey david brown jeff brown just he just sells
jesus to us it's just a way he has a way about him he's got a way about him
i mean jesus not this guy so yeah that's how he just sings billy joel songs but replaces whatever
woman was in it with jesus jesus waits for you yeah it's vienna he's got fucking he's got up
up cloud guy the up cloud guy scenes scenes from a heavenly restaurant
yeah yeah there's all these different ones it's pretty it's pretty cool i like it he he's got
he's got a whole catalog that's a good one i like that a lot it's good it's pretty good stuff so
jeff brown here he's born 1980 he's about five years or so younger than these folks here.
He's a former Marine and corrections officer after that.
Sure.
So, yeah, being a Southern corrections officer, I've read books of people who are going undercover being Southern corrections officers in Louisiana and stuff.
It's a pretty miserable job.
It's hot in there.
It's a sm it's a pretty miserable job. It's hot in there. And the kind of the,
the stated goal of prison is to treat these people terrible.
So then they generally treat you worse.
So,
you know,
it's just not a fun job at all.
It's a tough job.
So it's real cyclical.
Everybody treats everybody like shit kind of revolving.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if you,
and if you have to deal with a prison and you know, it's imagine being in a prison and having to deal with that eight hours a day
if you do that never mind living there but you do that and then you're like i could get paid just to
talk about jesus wow that sounds much better and get out of this uh revolving door that has a
monkey just throwing its shit at the
opening i'd like to go to it's everybody i'd like to go to work in a building where i don't be i'm
not searched on the way in that'd be nice i'm not thoroughly searched on the way in i'd appreciate
that probably i'm not even the guy here for punishment no no i'm the guy here for a 401k. Trying to. So he is appointed, Jeff Brown, in 2013.
He's appointed as the senior pastor at the Sardis, or Sardis, S-A-R-D-I-S, Baptist Church in Birmingham, or outside of Birmingham.
It's in Bowes or Boaz, B-O-A-Z, whatever that is, where Cindy becomes the minister of music there oh she like that's a
solid yeah directs the choir and leads those people solid title though it's pretty cool she
doesn't get paid for it i don't think i think it's just a volunteer job where's him that's his actual
job he's senior pastor he gets paid for that shit well that's the guy bringing in the dough he's you
got to give him at least a commission or something because so this guy here jeff brown he's also married and has a family and that sort of deal so they
have i believe there's children from previous marriages involved here but we won't get too
much into them but as these two families they start to because she's the minister of music and
he's a senior pastor so their families become close they start they spend time together go places together go out to eat together um when when somebody is going out of
town or something they'll babysit the other's kids that sort of deal they're the they're the
close family that they know isn't weird and they don't think will diddle their kids and you know
all that kind of shit but the problem with this is as it goes on cindy and jeff start to have a relationship of
their own yeah yeah uh they end up falling in love these two so they're watching each other's
kids and all that and these two are seeing each other and you know all on the side and everything
now they both claim though that there is no physical relationship for a long time here
they call it tonic.
Just it's an emotional relationship.
Oh, yeah.
But, you know, nothing physical or anything like that.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
So I'm sure they're disclosing that to their partners.
Yeah, I'm sure there's all of their conversations and what they're doing.
I'm sure it's all very out in the open, probably.
Right out in the open there.
They leave it on just answering machine messages, just letting them flow.
Just voicemails that are loud on home phones because they have home phones is why I say that in this place.
And it's in the 2015s.
Oh, is that right?
Oh, yeah.
So their relationship grows to the point where Jeffindy start kind of making plans for the future
together but they don't have any plans for how they're not going to be in the relationships
they're in or how this is going to work which is they're like well yeah when we're together we'll
do this and that and they're talking about how they're gonna i'm talking like financial things
like we're going to consolidate this when we know we can invest in that and talk about mutual funds
and shit it's weird it's weird. It's weird. Wow.
If that gets you hot, I guess.
I mean, we're not going to fuck, but let's talk about mutual funds.
We're not banging, but we're talking about who's getting the rock.
What's happening? I got interest running down my leg right now.
Yeah, that's how fucking hot I am about this fucking retirement planning.
Contributions to future funds.
Yeah.
Oh, IRA up my ass baby give it to me hard this is just too much oh my god it's so strange so is this is this how they do it we're gonna
open a laundromat and hire people just to come and clean the machines out it's gonna be perfect
so they're this is what they're doing.
The pastor here, Pastor Jeff, ends up filing for divorce from his wife, though.
Okay, so he's dead serious.
Yeah, he's like, I'm done with this.
And I don't know what kind.
There must have been problems to begin with if he's out looking for congregants to fuck or be with or emotionally.
You know what I mean?
That's a lot of these guys just like anybody
else who likes to stand on a stage they like it feeds their ego and they like and you get to all
man of god or whatever it's a guy standing on a stage who gets paid to do it so you think every
comic says shit that they believe in fuck no yeah that's true fuck no they say what they think the
audience wants to hear for the most part that's what it is there's not a lot a lot of George Carlin's walking around anymore is going to try to craft their audience.
They're going to go out.
Beg your approval.
That's it.
So and that's anybody on a fucking stage.
You can pretty much say that for it.
And even the people who really mean well, I'm not saying every pastor is a fucking grifter, but even the ones that mean well.
And there's also a core of them that really likes being on stage and everybody looking
at them and they want the women to think they're handsome and they want the guys to think they're
cool and they want you know guys all put that that whatever clothing on and looked in the mirror
before they went out exactly if they didn't care about you know i mean they wouldn't look in the
fucking mirror there's a certain you gotta be the part it's it's a way exactly and you're selling
it that's your job too so that's how it goes so he ends up filing for divorce and moving out and that's a mess as you can imagine the
senior pastors getting a divorce isn't really going over well with the with the board because
they have a board and the board's pissed about it cindy though has no plans of divorcing michael at
all here oh she's still got michael her husband and she's not she's just
gonna collect husbands that's it um as a matter of fact mike found out about this affair oh boy
after they after the affair had become sexual mike found out about it because she does not hide this
well as we'll talk about later she's not good at this you you know like yeah she's it's very
strange she's like so out in the open about it.
You're like, why didn't you just tell him?
Because this is almost worse than if you just said, hey, I'm fucking the pastor, by the way, to let you know.
I'll be home late tonight.
I got a cock appointment.
Yeah, I got a thing I got to do here.
It's a music and cock together.
It's a, you know what I mean?
You know, it's a package deal.
You get it.
You got it.
So they end up, oh, Jesus, they end up taking, this is, okay, these two of the couple, Mike and Cindy,
they want to try to rekindle their relationship and get back on a right path after he finds out.
Attaboy, Mike.
So they go away together.
Where would two adults who need to rekindle a marriage go to make
everything better what do you where do you think disney world absolutely you're absolutely right
that's why i asked you because i knew that's what you'd say because it's the stupidest answer you
could think of ridiculous yeah a real answer would have been i don't know the bahamas or something
a fucking panama you're in the fucking gulf coast you could go anywhere down there that's much more romantic world fucking i'm taking you to
orlando baby i want to hear i want to go to the home of casey anthony so we can listen to kids
whine and bitch and complain oh yeah whine and bitching complain that they're not getting all the toys they want and going on the rides they want.
While it's 97 degrees and humid, maybe we'll bump into Casey.
What do you say?
Fingers crossed.
Let's go.
I'm going to take you to where the best couple on the planet is, Mickey and Minnie.
Maybe we can learn something from them.
They've been together since the 40s.
Come on. The 30s, I think. think come on jesus let's get in there they can help us here mickey minnie we'd like to ask
you your secrets of marriage they make mouse noises and shit it's not helpful they just
point and you're like you're like ask mulan what. What the fuck does she know? This sucks.
Pocahontas isn't going to help me with this, all right? I need you to.
So January of 2015,
they are going to sit Jeff down
and talk to him about this whole thing
because there's some untoward rumors around town.
One of the board members said
they were going to have a meeting with him
and instead of facing the deacons one Sunday morning, he just chose to get up and resign is that right yeah they
sat him down he went you know what don't bother i quit fuck off i know what you're gonna do yeah
you're gonna complain it's a firing in here yeah or at least a talking to transfer or it's anything
so cindy stops going to church too how dare dare they? Yeah. I don't see this guy.
Fucking ridiculous. They got this guy on there
now. So she did say
you know on different occasions
they still talked about their futures.
They're still together even though she started trying to
work it out with her husband. They're still having an affair.
Jeff and Cindy. Still hot and heavy.
So February 18th
2015. They
have a normal day of work. Cindyy goes to work she sees mike at
the house in the morning she leaves and goes to work during the day she has lunch with jeff the
pastor to just to help him with a divorce paperwork she said they had lunch to help him go over stuff
because he's got divorce shit going on so after work michael gets out of work before she does so michael picks him up picks her up from
her job here michael picks cindy up from her job which is at the jefferson county courthouse in
the accounting department oh that's why i asked her because she works at the courthouse yeah she
knows she's good at paperwork and stuff this bitch doesn't know anything about divorce she's never
been divorced yeah she's got suicide and disney world she has no... Yeah. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed
her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him
to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab
her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again. Leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened
to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime
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It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid.
We're your hosts.
I'm Alina Urquhart.
And I'm Ash Kelly.
And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.
The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people.
With a touch of humor.
I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great.
A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.
This mother f***er lied.
Like a liar.
Like a liar.
And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal.
Or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes you should tune
in to our podcast morbid follow morbid on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts
you can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining wondery plus in the wondery app or on
apple podcasts those are her resolutions so after that they went to his mom's house, Michael's mom's house, to visit for a minute, to stop by and say hi.
Then they went to the post office, dropped off something, mailed something.
Then they went to a church service.
I don't know which church, but some other church that Pastor Jeff is not the pastor of.
So they go to a church service, and then they go home from there.
Okay.
Now, here's the thing.
On the way home from between church and home, they stop for some burgers and fries.
Oh.
At a place called Milo's, which is apparently really popular in Alabama.
That's the shit, huh?
And I looked up their website.
Jimmy, their French fries look amazing they're fucking
crinkle cut and crispy i want them bad i really want to oh i want them bad i want them bad dude
they're just milo's.com milo's after the show please we got a story we're limited time here
only to look at french fries right now so they're so good they look so fucking good though oh my god so they stop and get fries and everything
and they then they go home all right now during the course of the day cindy has talked to jeff
like eight times they've gone back and forth with all sorts of conversations cell phone talking from
the office and everything like that she drops michael and the milos off at home. Okay? She does not eat her Milo's.
She says she'll eat it when she gets home from the Piggly Wiggly.
Yeah.
Oh.
I'm not kidding.
She has to go to the Piggly Wiggly.
People not from America, the Piggly Wiggly is a store that people go to,
and there's food inside.
It's weird.
It's funny as shit, and believe me,
everywhere outside of the places where there
are piggly wigglies we go the fuck are you named piggly wiggly for real but that's what's that's
what's there she got they call it the pig by the way down there do they really multiple people in
the story when i went to the pig then she went to the pig and i'm like oh my god they have a
fucking nickname for piggly wiggly so she went there because she had to get a couple of things, which is sliced ham, you know, like the pre-sliced ham in a plastic package and orange juice.
Had to have those two things.
So, yeah, she gets into the house.
She gets back.
She's got her orange juice in her ham.
And she walks into the house and sees a coffee table turned upside down.
Oh, and things seem to be like a mess.
Things are thrown about.
Things are tipped over.
So she immediately grabs the cordless phone and calls 911.
I know it's a cordless phone because that's important later.
So she sees the overturned table, just immediately calls.
And here's the it's 8 p.m.
Here's the 911 call.
Operator says, police department.
She says, hey, I just got home and walked in the front door.
And I don't know if the house has been broken into or what.
The tables have been knocked over and I can't find my husband.
Okay.
All right.
There's a lot wrong with that, by the way, with all of that.
But we'll talk about that later.
So the operator says, okay, let's back up just a little bit.
Just, okay, who are you?
Number one, you got to get an address and all that shit.
She says, Cindy Henderson Reese.
Cindy Reese, uh-huh, your address, all that.
That's how the 911 call starts.
Okay.
The police arrive, the local cops here, the Morris police, and they come in just to see
if, oh, some lady thinks somebody broke in her house.
Go fucking walk through and make sure there's nobody in her house so she can whatever.
Her dog probably knocked the table over and that's kind of how they think.
Everybody's crazy.
So she gets home, you know, they get over to her house and it's a mess. It's not only shit's overturned, but think. Everybody's crazy. So they get over to her house, and it's a mess.
It's not only shit's overturned, but I've seen the pictures.
It's a mess to begin with.
There's shit everywhere.
There's shit everywhere.
It's a small house.
It's very cluttered, and now there's shit knocked over, too.
So it looks like people are in the middle of moving, and they just stopped and said,
Fuck it.
I'm leaving.
Never mind.
Call the cops.
I'm out of here.
So the Morris police, they walk through the house.
Immediately when they walk in the house,
they see the overturned table,
and they see everything else overturned,
and they look down the hallway, which is visible.
The kitchen is visible from the front door
if you look down the hallway,
and they can clearly see a man lying on the floor
in a pool of blood in the kitchen.
Oh. And that's Michael Earl Reese a pool of blood in the kitchen oh and that's michael earl reese he is shot in the kitchen um he has been shot with a single
gunshot wound to the back of the head oh it's a 38 38 caliber so decent size too yeah and so at
that point morris police call the jefferson county sheriffs and they go where y'all we're gonna fuck
this all up if y'all don't get down here and help us.
Yeah.
We're going to be, the mayor's about to be here.
It's going to be a mess.
I'm telling you right now.
It's going to be a mess.
We don't deal with a lot of this type of deal.
It's a small town.
It's not their fault how much homicide happens in this town.
Right, right.
They don't have experience.
Hurry, there's fresh Milo's here.
Yeah, there's a, it's still kind of warm.
I think if you you could
salvage it probably hurry y'all got an air fryer in here and all this shit mess god damn it if you
got an air fryer these are gonna be delicious i'll tell you what refresh these in a sec it's gonna be
three minutes i'll get them they're gonna be real good because they're not even like
refrigerator cold you know what i mean they're in a room temp. So they call them in just before 10 p.m.
10 p.m.
to ask for assistance investigating a homicide.
The Morris officers reported that they got there at eight.
It was a report of a burglary.
And this is what we found.
So they immediately see the county officials that there's no signs of forced entry into
the home.
OK.
None of that.
And doors and windows intact.
And they have Cindy and they have cindy and they
go what's missing and there's nothing missing in the house except for she says a few pieces of
of her jewelry so a couple of that maybe two three pieces of jewelry that's it nothing else
jewelry and my husband's life and my yeah and the the life force of my husband. Part of my husband's brain.
Those.
They don't recover a weapon.
There's no weapon in the house or anything like that.
So it's a mystery.
It's a mystery.
The detective, the lead detective, tells the press,
we don't believe the people in the community should be concerned about this being a random act.
It would be a very unusual time of evening for a burglary to occur.
Yeah, early evening is a weird time for a burglary.
It just is.
That's not your norm.
Probably, I would say,
the least amount of burglaries take place in the early evening.
It seems like dinner really will change
your attitude about burglary.
That's when people are home the most.
All the lights are on.
It's still daylight out if it's summertime,
which, you know, it's how it goes.
The vast majority of households still gather for dinner.
That's the thing that we do.
People are watching TV.
You don't want to break in at that point.
So he says that along with the fact that there's no forced entry usually means the victim knew the suspect and we will not be surprised to learn that moving forward.
They have theories already.
to learn that moving forward.
They have theories already.
Our detectives are busy speaking with family, friends, and associates to try and determine any possible motivation
for someone to take this man's life.
Whoever it was was pretty cold-blooded.
We owe it to the victim to find out who did this
and make them answer for it.
We will use all of our resources to do exactly that.
Okay.
Wonderful.
His obituary is in the paper here
and says he survived by his loving wife of five years, Cindy Henderson Reese, and his parents are still alive, Earl and Sondra.
And he's got a sister and a niece.
He does not have any children.
I know that for a fact.
He doesn't have any children anyway.
And all these people and his friends love him.
And he's a very well-liked guy, by the way, Michael.
He seems like kind of an easygoing.
I mean, he finds out his wife is fucking the pastor and just goes
to Disneyland with her like that's pretty easy going
pretty forgiving
kidless guy at Disney World
cause he's happy that's why
he hasn't been
driven to the point of madness so
he's just like I mean we'll just go to Disney World
it'll be alright but all those kids that's alright
once we walk out
the gate we don't have to hear them again.
It's fine. Guess what? They ain't mine.
They ain't mine. I'll smile
and go, yep, that's right.
So, he's dead.
Basically, within about a week of this,
Pastor Jeff moves into
the house. Get out of here.
Oh yeah, he moves right into the house.
There's still, I don't even know if the brain's cleaned up off the kitchen walls yet. He's in the house already out of here oh yeah he moves right into the house there's still i don't even know if
the brain's cleared cleaned up off the kitchen walls yet he's in the house already living there
wow which obviously just explodes this town with even more gossip than ever before now yeah the
pastor that everybody rumored that she was fucking now moved in after her husband's been murdered in
the kitchen holy shit and he's divorced oh god this is he's not working at the church anymore this guy is a
madman scandal all in our faces up all up in our grill pieces here jesus christ all up in our milo's
grill so the investigation the deputy uh sheriff's deputy chief deputy randy christian he's kind of
the lead investigator who gives statements to the press.
He said there are some things that are very clear.
You know, it's very unusual for a burglary to happen that time of night and with no forced entry.
So the home being in a little bit of disarray, it's a good possibility that was staged.
He tells the press.
Oh, yeah.
They said that from what they figured out, though, they had a dog and Michael Reese opened the door to let the dog outside.
And they believe that's when he was shot in the back of the head when he bent down to pet the dog or something before they went out.
He fell face forward into two studs that were sticking out of a piece of wood, which was being used in an ongoing construction project at the home.
Fuck. So, yeah, that's awful. piece of wood, which was being used in an ongoing construction project at the home.
Fuck.
So, yeah, that's awful.
So right away, though, they say, we need suspects.
Who could this be?
One person they're suspicious of is a contractor who had done some work at the house.
They say maybe while he was in there, he saw something of value that he wanted to steal, and this is how he's coming back to do it.
Or did you guys get along with him?
Did you stiff him on a payment? Did he think you owe him more? You know, who is how he's coming back to do it or did you guys get along with him did you stiff him on a payment did he think you owe him more you know who knows
that's a lot this is this is the way i'm just gonna get my only amount i'm only gonna take
what they owe me uh with her a couple with her bracelet like right she's got a pair of earrings
look real nice they owe me six this is probably worth eight. I'll take it. I'll take it. In his life. Wow.
So the house, though, there's a certain, when you see a ransacked house, we've talked about this before.
People who investigate a lot of murder scenes and things like that and investigate scenes like this can tell the difference between a actual ransacking looking for valuables and ransacking, and just somebody tipping stuff over.
Because when people rob shit and shit's a mess, there's reasons for it.
They take out a dresser drawer, dump the contents,
toss the drawer looking for shit.
They pull stuff out that's that.
They might cut a mattress open looking to see if something's in it.
They'll do that.
They don't just tip over an end table because there's no reason to do that.
Why would you do that?
How does that get you money?
You're getting in and out as fast as you can.
They're also not worried about taking care not to break things.
That's the other thing.
If a hinge breaks, they don't give a fuck.
They don't care.
It's like, I'm going to have to fix that.
That's the other thing.
All of the furniture that's the good stuff that's tipped over, nothing's broken.
There's not a leg broken
off everything everything looks like it was laid down and it's not ransacked the correct way where
something would be ransacked if if you're ever going to stage something like that rob the place
and look like you're fucking robbing it how would i rob this if i have five the cops will be here in
five minutes how do i rob this place it wouldn't be let me push some furniture over gently so some cabinets apart make it yeah make it irreplaceable not fixable have to make it
replace a box of cereal torn open fucking lucky charms spread across the kitchen maybe there was
coke in there you don't know that's right god damn it with the sparkly rainbows and
fucking horseshoes so they said it's just tipped over nothing of value is broken just
three pieces of jewelry and that's it so they talked to cindy down at the station because
maybe she knows something so yeah during this the whole time she cries with no tears it's
nothing coming out of her eyes no wiping nothing like that like that she they ask him have you
have you been told that he's been killed you know michael's dead
and and she said yeah she's she's just been told that he was shot and she doesn't know you know
she didn't know so the detective says i'm so sorry i'm so sorry and cindy says i just saw this mess
and called 9-1-1 on the cordless phone and the detective said did you holler for Michael? That's just how he said it. Did you holler for Michael?
And she said, I did holler for him.
And the detective said, did he have any enemies?
She said, I don't know.
I really don't know, which that's a terrible answer.
The answer is no or yes.
That's your husband.
I've been married twice.
I know every fucking person my wife doesn't like i know
and i know exactly why she doesn't like them and i know who doesn't you know what i mean and she
knows who i don't like and exactly why we know our enemies you know your spouse's enemies because
who else would they bitch about that person too so i don't know talk about conflict for sure. That's 100 percent.
Definitely.
So the detective said, did it make it easier?
This whole thing, the murder.
But the way he says it, this detective is good. Actually, he says, did it make it easier because you were in love with Jeff to let your relationship with Michael fall to the side or and left it open for her to speak?
Which is, again, great technique.
And did it make it easier?
He doesn't say to kill Michael or other.
Did it make it easier?
And let her fill it in because maybe she'll take it as that.
Really good technique there.
Cindy, laughing for some reason at this point, says, no, no, no.
I have a lot of guilt.
Like nervous laughter.
Like, no, no, I feel guilty about that, you know, about their affair.
Ah, you know about that.
Damn it.
So, detective said, was it a controlling thing?
Jealousy?
Like, is that why you didn't want to be with Michael?
Because he was controlling and jealous.
And Cindy said, quote, I really think he was jealous of mine and Jeff's relationship.
Really?
Weird.
Weird that you'd be jealous that your pastor's plowing your wife.
That's strange.
Wow.
What a fucking asshole.
I'm telling you.
Mike.
Jesus, man.
What's up with that?
I really don't think he was.
I think he was jealous.
Wow.
That's really shocking.
I can't imagine.
Be thrilled with it.
You mean he didn't get you like a gift certificate to the Outback and told you guys to, you two
kids have a wild night out there?
Like, what the fuck?
She said.
Bloomin' Onions are on special.
Hey, yeah.
Get in there.
This is a 75.
You can get a Bloomin' Onion and a couple of steaks with this bad boy.
One of those horse shit concoction drinks they make, too.
Something blue.
We came up with something different.
No, you haven't.
You just called it something different.
That's it.
You just called it something Australian, mate.
That's all.
You threw the word koala on it.
Yeah.
Now it's a koala kick and not a fucking.
Koala cooler.
Fuck you.
I don't want that.
Jesus Christ.
So Cindy says, and because our relationship kind of turned into more, I understood that jealousy.
Oh, mighty big of you.
Wow.
That is a very casual way to say I blew the pastor.
I blew the pastor.
So I understood my husband might be upset about that.
Would have turned into more.
Oh, more.
You made the guy come.
Fuck you.
Based on Jesus, though. Yeah yeah yeah based on jesus and music so i think it makes it okay she said and i tried to be uh he started
being controlling you know didn't want me to fuck the pastor like I had been and stuff. He told me no.
He told me no.
So then the detective, he has, this is a whole, he has a little soliloquy for her now where he's going to try to get her to talk.
And he says, quote, when I was talking to you before about Jeff, your face would actually light up.
You were having fond memories of that.
Then you'd talk about Michael and your forehead would wrinkle up a little bit and you'd be able to see a little tension in your face.
Nice observations.
He's analyzing her body language and telling her that he's doing it.
So now she's going to be self-conscious about what she does.
And he's playing with her mind.
It's brilliant.
This guy's a really good interrogator.
Like for a small county in Alabama, they got a real star over here. He's pretty good. Whether she gives it up or not,
it doesn't matter. So this is smart. She said, he said, you'd have fond memories about that.
Your forehead would wrinkle up. You'd be able to see a little tension and deservedly so because
of what's been going on in your life. You know, the biggest thing was when you started talking
about getting home from church you wanted
to cover your face you wanted to cover your eyes you wanted to cover your mouth so now she's going
to be real worried about where her hands are the whole time too she's nodding along with him yeah
you're right i am doing that which if you can get people to nod along you really get them on so
she said quote or then he said he keeps going going, do you know why? Because you, this is brilliant.
Listen to the way he puts this.
Because you saw something that hurts you.
Oh.
So that means, he's saying, even if you killed your husband, I know it hurt you.
I understand.
And I get it.
This is brilliant.
You didn't want to see it.
You didn't want to talk about it.
And before, he says, I don't even know if you remember, but before you said you went out to the pig, the Piggly Wiggly, you almost started crying.
And she starts nodding twice as fast at this point.
He said, because you knew exactly when and what happened, and it terrifies you.
It terrifies you.
Then he moves his chair closer to her like
here's what i know gets up in her airspace where yeah you everybody knows that everybody had for
lunch in this this smell my aftershave let's talk yeah smell my aftershave and a blooming onion
well i went there to get the gift card what do you think i wasn't gonna stop and get an onion
while i was there they They're fucking delicious.
Don't tell the boss I had a koala cooler.
I did.
I did.
I did. You know, hey, it's a tough job.
What do you want from me?
A lot of stress.
He then says, again, I am so sorry.
I'm so sorry that this has happened.
But will you talk to me and maybe tell me what happened?
It's fucking brilliant, man.
It's awesome.
She starts getting real loose and says her relationship's been lousy because Michael was more interested in playing video games than being with her.
Now she opens up about, Mike, this is what the fucking deal is.
She said, but Jeff was totally different and he was caring and attentive and you know loving and all that the investigators
had before they talked to her had already learned that she was having an affair with jeff like it
was around town and people in town all over town had seen them making out in their cars and making
out over here in parking lots yeah everybody it's 2200 people you can't fuck someone and not have
some people everyone know about it you can't
even if you go to the motel the motel
guy is going to tell everybody they came here to fuck
like you're screwed
yeah it's not a doctor there's no confidentiality
to the motel 6 guy
and why are you both staying in a
hotel room in a town of 22 you both
have homes yeah unless you're driving
for a long time and can't possibly make
it to a better town.
This is what's happening.
It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid.
We're your hosts.
I'm Alina Urquhart.
And I'm Ash Kelly.
And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.
The stories we cover are well-researched.
He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people.
With a touch of humor.
I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great.
A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.
This mother f***er lied.
Like a liar.
Like a liar.
And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal,
or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes,
you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid.
Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Welcome to the small town of Chinook,
where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper.
In this new thriller,
available exclusively on Wondery Plus,
religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks
the isolated Montana community.
Everyone is quick to point their fingers
at a drug-addicted teenager,
but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced.
She suspects connections to a
powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church
for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer,
unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions,
and her very own family. But something more sinister than
murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa
Lathan and Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media
would have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife.
Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier.
I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx,
and I'm excited to bring you the official Jinx podcast.
We'll be revisiting all six episodes of part one
and watching along with part two as it airs on Max starting April 21st.
Bye-bye.
The official Jinx podcast.
Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts.
So she says that all those people that saw them making out all over town, that was all just a big misunderstanding, though.
Okay.
It was just he had something in his eye all the time and i'm always trying to get it out that's
all it is we played a game he didn't think i'd get the blooming onion out of his mouth with my tongue
and i did got it uh spoiler alert i win and tie it in a knot tie an onion fucking
onion petals in a knot that's amazing she claims that her and jeff's relationship was only emotional
until about a month ago now she claims before that it was only emotional here um she also admits to
having a savings account with him they opened up the savings account um here with jerry or with
jeff and having her name on his title of his vehicle and on the lease of his apartment as well.
What?
She said she only let him use her credit.
She was just co-signing for him because he was getting out of a marriage and
he was getting divorced.
She never paid any bills associated with the car or apartment,
which we know isn't true because there's deposits and,
you know,
checks to pay his rent for his apartment.
So she paid, she paid his rent into his apartment so she paid she paid his rent into
his apartment to made out to the you know apartment complex or whatever she also acted strange because
they said she never asked how anything about her husband from the time she went out outside the
house so the cops look around she never said is my husband okay where's my husband is he all right
is he alive is he dead is he she never asked once my husband okay where's my husband is he all right is he
alive is he dead is he she never asked once she only knew because they offered it yeah because
they told her that she went oh yeah they told me he was shot but she didn't ask now the big clue
here the big clue that gets to tick is right now she looks guilty but oh yeah it would really suck
to be having an affair and to go to the pig go to the old pig here and come home and just have some random person have seen your husband open a door to let a dog out and shoot him and kill him and fucking, you know, try to find some shit and ransack the place poorly and you get blamed for it.
So that would be terrible.
So they need a big clue.
And here's the big clue.
It's not DNA.
It's not forensics, although they'll have some of that later.
And here's the big clue. It's not DNA. It's not forensics, although they'll have some of that later. Nope. The big clue is that Cindy's story was that they had gone to church and picked up dinner at Milo's on the way home. Rather than stopping at home with Michael to eat, she went to the grocery store to Piggly Wiggly and found him dead. One detective said, quote, they have absolutely some of the best French fries I'd have to say in the world.
He said, so the interviewer said, that was the red flag moment for you that Cindy didn't stay and eat her fries. How American is this? And he says, quote, this is on Dateline on television.
Yeah. And he says, as bizarre as it sounds, yes.
line on television yeah and he says as bizarre as it sounds yes you ain't going to the pig without eating your fries without your fries first he said that they are famous for their seasoned fries
milo's but everybody around here knows this is like a you know uh this is uh uh my cousin vinnie
talking about how long it takes for water to soak into a grit.
He says, everybody knows, every self-respecting southerner knows that those fries are not good when they're not hot.
They're only good when they're fresh and hot.
So nobody around these parts would say, I'll eat my Milo's fries later because you might as well throw
them in the garbage now.
They'd eat them if nothing else.
If nothing else.
Milo stays five degrees warmer
in your kitchen than any other place
on the face of the earth.
I might have believed
that a seasoning comes off
a french fry as it gets cold
faster in your kitchen than any other place in the face of the earth am I is that what you're saying
so that's what it is and they go that's bullshit she'd have taken them in the car to the piggly
wiggly or something that's bullshit I'm sorry how about it they're crinkle cut they look so good so
they say we got to talk to Jeff let's have have Jeff sit down here. They say, well, how long have you known Cindy?
Where'd y'all meet?
And he says, I was the pastor of the church from August 2013.
Worship leader.
He said, you know.
You know.
You know.
Kind of a big deal.
Kind of a big guy there, you know.
Yeah.
The detective said, did you, was she with Michael?
Was she already married?
And he says the same thing.
We had an emotional relationship, but they she already married and he says the same thing we had an
emotional relationship but they didn't fuck until he left the church and that you know mike knew
about the affair but there's no bad blood everybody was fine everything's happy you know we give each
other high fives he says also i have an alibi i was 50 miles away in another town when this happened
oh so the detective said would you say that his curiosity or his suspicion was warranted?
And Jeff gets this, I just fucked the lady in church smile on his face and nods so vigorously.
Oh, yeah.
When you see a fat guy, because everybody in this story eats a lot of Milo's.
Let's just put it that way.
But when you see a fat guy with his arms crossed, nodding his head vigorously with an evil smile on his face, he fucking means it.
And the detective said, well, of course they were.
Yeah, like I know that, stupid.
He wants to see if he'll give him at least that much honesty.
Anything, yeah.
So they look at the 911 call again, another suspicious thing.
She doesn't state the fact.
She starts her narrative.
I got home and saw that not my house is being burglarized.
Here's my address. House is being burglarized, you know, it would be here's my address.
House is being burglarized, I think.
Well, I think there's burglars.
Send somebody.
I'm scared to go inside.
Not I just got home from church.
I didn't eat my Milo's fries, but I did go to the Piggly Wiggly.
Now, the other thing they notice is when you walk in, the table's overturned.
The table's right here.
Your cordless phone is right next to it.
And if you just look with your eyeballs down the hallway is the kitchen and you can see Michael.
So for her to see the table, she saw Michael too.
Meanwhile, on the phone, she said, I can't find my husband.
Another thing, she already had orange juice and ham in the fridge.
What?
She had a little bit of orange.
It was a gallon thing of orange juice with like you know a little
bit left but enough for a couple of glasses and a thing of nasty sliced plastic cam too she already
had that they also find in her office she has framed pictures of both her and jeff and her and
mike on her desk what the fuck oh yeah her and je Jeff right on her desk and then on a shelf right above it in her cubicle is her and Mike.
What?
Just like both of the happy couples.
It's crazy.
They found out she'd been paying his rent.
Also, Mike said that he was afraid of Jeff.
He had told a coworker this because this coworker, he had good reason.
This coworker had come to Mike and said, hey, I just heard a rumor from a guy I know.
Guy I know said that Pastor Jeff guy that's fucking your wife.
We've all seen her fingering her in the cars and everything.
He just offered my friend money to kill you just so you'd know that.
I would watch out for that.
The pastor, oh, so religious?
Yeah.
He's offering dough to yeah wow yeah he's trying to get full
employment is what it is just yeah it's a job creator that's what he is so you know
fuck so at the same time on the 911 tapes it reveals that she cindy was actually talking to
someone else when the 911 tape came on because you could hear her say myself
my cell battery's almost dead quietly on she was talking on the cell they look at her records
and she was talking to brown through this whole time she was talking to him through the phone
call to 911 and before that and everything else so she was telling him just in case it cuts my
cell phone battery's low it's low yeah but
she's calling 9-1-1 now and all this type of shit so they think that he was on the phone at least
during all this shit so they found her on phone records when cindy while cindy was at the pig
jeff texted her quote keep me posted okay then cindy made a call to jeff around the time where
they think the murder happened she was still on the phone with him when she called and dialed 911.
They checked Jeff's records.
He wasn't 50 miles away.
He actually pings on the same cell tower that pings to their street.
So he was at least in their neighborhood or down the street from there.
FBI cell phone analyst also said that there was records that Reese called Brown, Cindy called Pastor Jeff 11 times
between the morning and between the morning of the 8th, February 18th or the night of February 18th
and the morning of February 19th. He called she called him 11 times. He called her seven times.
So also they find some of Michael's blood on Jeff's Bible in Jeff's car.
Oh, no, that's not good.
So these two are having lunch together, living together.
All this.
They go out to lunch together, Jeff and Cindy.
And as they're driving away, they get pulled over and arrested from a lunch date.
And they're both being held in county jail with a bond set at one hundred thousand dollars.
And yeah.
So that makes sense.
Pretty sure you two did this.
Yeah.
The prosecutor or the detective said,
I think we all understand matters of the heart and ups and downs and ebbs and flows of relationships.
What we can't understand and never will understand is someone getting so twisted, dark, and lost
that they believe cold-blooded murder is the answer.
Yet here we are with three families ruined because of Darkheart's stupidity and extreme selfishness.
Our detectives worked
very hard on this case and they are to
be commended. Our hearts and prayers
continue to be with the victim's family.
This will be hard for them to digest.
Cindy bonds herself
out but leaves Jeff in jail.
Is that right? Absolutely.
She's a little selfish asshole.
So he's stuck in jail while trial's coming up, and they get Jeff to say, all right, fuck it, I'll flip on her.
I'll tell everything.
She's out?
Oh, I'll tell you everything.
They left him in there.
They gave him a deal.
So he accepts a 20-year jail term in exchange for a plea to manslaughter rather than murder, and he agrees to testify against her.
Uh-oh. Oh, yeah. to manslaughter okay rather than murder and he agrees to testify against her oh yeah he said while they while he and his wife filed for divorce he said he was upset because cindy never had any
plans of divorcing michael she did mention though getting rid of him completely saying that on
several occasions she intended on either shooting him or poisoning him and she could never figure
out what was the best way to go about it. He also claimed that she requested him to hire someone to do the deed, but they didn't
want to do it.
That's, you know, this happened a couple of different people.
He said that, you know, they, he maintained Cindy killed Michael and there's some proof
of this too.
That makes sense a little bit here.
Pastor Jeff also said that Cindy would often, they'd often meet for lunch and talk in the
Jefferson County courthouse parking deck and after her co-workers accused her of having an affair then they went to
the cemetery behind the community college instead to hang out so there he said in the cemetery that's
when they began talking about killing Michael hanging out in the cemetery he said she would
say things like I wish he was gone.
He also, which I mean a lot of people say, I wish they weren't around, but not, I wish
he was gone.
He also claimed that she would talk about shooting Michael with a.38 revolver or poisoning
him.
She said she would plead insanity and she had the meds to prove it.
She's one of those like, I got doctors, it'll back me up.
I'm crazy.
Guessed the caliber.
Yeah, I think that's the gun she maybe had.
So she said that he said it was weekly conversations about killing Michael.
He claimed that he was instructed by Cindy to find someone to take care of it.
He admitted asking one of his coworkers to kill Michael in exchange for his car.
He wasn't even going to give him cash.
He was going to give him a car.
He said, wow.
Yeah.
He said, I reported back to her.
He said the multiple times he asked friends to kill him and nobody would do it.
So in a small town, that's going to get back to the guy eventually.
Yeah.
A week before the shooting, Cindy allegedly told Jeff that she planned to shoot Michael,
take items from the home and knock over furniture to make it look like a robbery.
Okay.
So February 18th, he said he talked to Cindy throughout the day.
And again, after she and her husband left church, he said he overheard the two arguing before they went to Milo's in the post office.
She called him and just had him on the phone, but put the phone in her pocket so he could be on the phone with her.
He said Cindy was going to meet up with him later that night to give him money for gas.
When Cindy arrived home, she called him again.
He said he overheard the couple arguing about who was going to feed the dog before Cindy said,
I'm so sick and tired of that dumb nut to Pastor Jeff on the phone.
Then he said he heard a popping noise before Cindy came back on the phone
and said, we need to meet now.
Oh, boy.
He says that they went home after church,
and she said that when he bent down to pet the dog,
that's when Cindy shot him,
then turned over some furniture,
went to the Piggly Wiggly,
because this was all before,
then she went to the Piggly Wiggly
like nothing happened,
and came back.
But on the way to the Piggly Wiggly, she actually met Jeff at the Shell gas station in the neighborhood that's why
he's pinging to the neighborhood there he said that he met her at the gas station where she gave
him the 38 revolver and the jewelry that was hers that she stole he later dumped the gun on highway
75 in Pinson and gave the jewelry to another woman because you know
nice guy yeah he's why let it go to waste he's fucking unbelievable um then she went on and got
the uh ham and oj to the piggly wiggly and came home and went oh no 9-1-1 hello that's what
happened i'd like to dig up her ex-husband find out what happened thank you i was gonna say do
that's the big thing we have for this.
I really want to find out what the fuck
happened with her first husband because
I'm not buying this suicide shit now at all.
Not at all, man. Someone whose husband
killed themselves before isn't going to kill
their next husband probably. No.
That seems like the last person that would do it.
Now the prosecutor at her trial
said instead of just
divorcing her husband, she quote, broke her vows in a heinous, horrific, and deadly way.
Solid.
That's a my cousin Vinnie prosecutor.
Didn't that guy say heinous?
In a heinous.
He did say it.
He did.
Horrific, hideous, and then he ran out of H's.
He said, deadly way.
Deadly way.
Just deadly.
She's deadly.
He said, he was left there. It's about Cindy Reese, what she did, and deadly she's deadly she said he was left there it's about cindy reese
what she did and what she's guilty of the defense said that this is crazy the the fact that she
wouldn't divorce michael quote that bothered jeff completely he is potentially losing his cash cow
meaning because she's paying for his shit and he said that jeff was the shooter and he was inside
the reese home waiting for michael to arrive then he said quote there was the shooter and he was inside the Reese home waiting for Michael to arrive.
Then he said, quote, there's two sides to every story.
Two sides.
Two sides.
One, yeah.
Identical.
Mike's father testifies saying that Michael had a $50,000 life insurance policy and that Cindy is the beneficiary of it as well.
Jerry also testifies and says, quote, she would say
things like, I wish he was gone.
She would say she would plead insanity and had
the meds, like we said before.
But the defense attorney says, you stood
in the same place for 45 minutes
talking about waiting and laying in wait
for Michael to come home and all
of that and says, you did all this
and the pastor just says,
I didn't kill Michael Reese.
I didn't do it.
That's that.
They also said, are you hoping your sentence will be decreased from 20 years after you
testify?
And he said, yeah, of course.
Well, sure.
Duh.
I'd like to not do any time, but I mean.
I mean, it's fine.
Cindy testifies.
Oh, she's got it.
She has to.
She's got a copless saying this is what happened.
She's got to be more for everything.'s got it. She has to. She's got to accomplish saying this is what happened. She's got to be more for everything.
That's it.
She denied ever asking for him to hire anyone to kill Michael.
She denied making comments about wanting to poison or shoot him.
She said that they she began to have an affair in 2013, but they didn't have sex until the spring of 2014, which is like a year earlier than almost a year earlier than he says they started having sex, the pastor.
She said the sexual nature lasted
until the fall of that year when
Cindy and Michael went on the trip to Disney
World and reconnected.
But she said that
during the time at Disney World that
Pastor Jeff called her constantly, quote,
Jeff wouldn't leave me alone and let me enjoy my
vacation.
She's real like taken aback that these guys are upset.
She's fucking other guys.
Wouldn't even let me just fuck my husband and like, what the fuck?
It's amazing.
She's so shocked.
Wow.
She said when she returned home from Disney World, the physical part of their affair ended,
but she continued to speak to Pastor Jeff on a daily basis.
She said that she and Michael went to Milo's
while on the way home,
and Reese told her husband
that she needed a few groceries from the Piggly Wiggly.
She said that she helped her husband
take the Milo's inside.
You don't need help taking in
two people's worth of fast food, probably.
And then she...
A couple of drinks.
That's what I mean.
She left to go to the grocery store.
The Investos,
probably just in case anyone saw her coming in,
going in the house.
The police investigator said when they arrived at the scene,
at the night, the Piggly Wiggly bag containing the ham and orange juice
were there.
She said she met Brown at the gas station, Pastor Jerry,
where she gave him $15 for gas.
She didn't drop off murder weapons and pillaged goods.
Jeff, Pastor Jeff, yeah.
And she says that she didn't give him a gun or any jewels or anything
like that that's crazy she said I just call all I did is call 9-1-1 man I don't know anything
yeah she said that she does not remember even talking to the police now this is what she says
on the stand because she was swiftly put in the back of a patrol car when officers arrived just
to sit her there not cuffed or anything she said she was in extreme shock, which is an
effect of her post-traumatic stress disorder, which she developed after the death of her first
husband. She also agreed to that. She said that bits and pieces of Pastor Jeff's stuff was true,
but that's it. The rest of it was lies. And they said, why didn't you tell your attorney about the
closed back door on the first day of the investigation? Something to do with whether the door was open or not.
She said, I was in shock.
Shock is part of my PTSD.
The defense in their closing said, quote, the state has gotten in bed with Jeff Brown.
Oh.
Which the prosecution, when they came up, should have said, we wouldn't be the first ones.
So did your client friend jesus christ
they point out that the police did not take jerry uh pastor jeff i'm sorry pastor jeff's clothing
on the night of the murder or scan his hands for gunpowder residue so there's that jury deliberates
on cindy for an hour and a half and they come back guilty on her.
They're sentencing. You, ma'am,
may fuck off
40 years in prison, they give her.
Wow. 40 years. Parole
chance in 2030.
She's 50, yes? Yeah, she's in
her 40s at that point. She has an
appeal that's denied here
and then in June of 2019
she's moved.
She has a 40-year sentence, okay?
She's moved from the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women to a work release program in Birmingham.
Wait, what?
In fucking within four years of this murder.
Right around the corner from where it happened?
Where it happened.
They said it's right by Michael Reese's family.
They're very upset. The father, Mike's father, said it makes me sick to be honest with you so it's very painful to be
honest it's hard to wrap my head around it's very disheartening they're all the prosecutors
flipping the fuck out they said we sentenced this person and this is bullshit the alabama
basically the way alabama department of corrections did it is based upon some rules or regulations
they made a decision that essentially if you're considered less dangerous than others, they'll
just move you to work release.
It's based on your your risk.
But if she's convicted of fucking cold blooded killing person shooting a man in the back
of the fucking head while he pet a dog.
But once she's in prison, I don't know.
She's a nice 45 year old lady talks about church and stuff.
She's not going to hurt anybody.
She's less of a risk than this one.
But after there's so much uproar, the Alabama Department of Corrections say that they're taking it all back.
They said they're in the process of relocating the inmate to non-work-release correctional facility.
We are bad.
Are bad.
We didn't think you'd hear about it.
By the way, Jeff's going to be up for parole pretty soon here.
And about a week ago, they just came out with a change.org petition and a big online thing to, quote, do not parole Jeff Brown.
And it's change.org.
Do not parole Jeff Brown.
They need 200 signatures.
They have 129 right now.
Rock that up, guys.
Bang that out.
Fuck that guy.
So the quote from it, please do not let this man out one day before the end of his 20-year sentence, especially only six years into the sentence.
Please do not put so little value on our friend's life.
I beg of you.
He deserves so much more.
Please consider this plea with your board please do not let jeffrey uh jeffrey david brown
co-conspirator and men in the manslaughter plea agreement of taking the life blah blah blah so
yeah please don't let him out there there's also do not parole jeff brown petition on other ones
that's deeper texted keep me posted he was very well aware what was gonna happen he knew what the
fuck was going on man this is this is ridiculous so they said it was a pre-planned disposal of the gun that was used and he confessed to disposing of
it michael's blood was on jeff's bible and jeff's car give me a fucking break here this is ridiculous
now the house itself 637 bank street in morris is no longer in existence. It has been razed. It's a fucking vacant lot with a $12,000 estimate right now.
Wow.
Not even rebuilt.
They just fucking wiped it out.
Wiped it out.
Salt the earth, everybody.
0.382 acres is what that is on there.
Great.
Holy shit, son.
It's gone.
She has an inmateaid.com account, by the way.
Fuck you.
You want to help her out.
She's in Bessemer, Alabama, it says at this point.
So enjoy there.
I wouldn't help her with shit, though.
And Michael is buried at the Bethel United Methodist Cemetery in Warrior, Alabama.
That's crazy.
They're likely trying to keep this below radar so they can both get out without anybody hearing anything about it.
Guess what?
A lot of people are going to hear about it now.
Dateline heard about it now.
We're bringing it back.
So, yay, here we go.
Wow.
There you go, everybody.
That's Alabama.
Morris, another Morris.
So, enjoy.
What a story.
It's fucking crazy.
If you like that, tell the world about it.
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Enjoy your Milos.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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