Snapped: Women Who Murder - Gail Gash

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

After detectives discover a beloved fire chief's dismembered torso in his own barn, they must rush to find his missing wife.Season 29 Episode 03Originally aired: April 18, 2021Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'm going deep into my wife's family history, digging up the cold case of her murdered great-grandmother. And did I mention that I'm looking into whether the murderer was actually the beloved family patriarch? Follow Ghost Story wherever you get your podcast. Listen everywhere on October 23rd where you can binge early and add free on Wondery Plus the same day. It's Mr. Ballon here, and I'm here to tell you about my brand new podcast. It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. You can expect things like bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. The disappearance of a well-known couple grips a small southern town. Everyone believed that they were at some risk, not knowing if this was a random act, or if there's something very intentional here. With each passing day, the horror rose. There was scanner traffic about human remains found on the Blue Ridge Parkway. When you have a body that has been dismembered and burned,

that speaks to a high degree of malice. She said that he just got irate, that they got into this fight. She looked like a woman who had been through hell. After a string of gruesome discoveries, a family's darkest secrets are revealed. At that time, I believe he denied the affair. She had agreed to pay the money back. I think it was about 60,000.

There was no hiding the dislike for each other. It was shocking. I mean, the entire courtroom was shocked. Parmoling went, sh- sh- just got real. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in The sheriff's office in Henderson County, North Carolina receives a call from a woman who says she wants to file a missing person's report. The woman says it's been two days since she's been able to reach her close friend, 48-year-old Don Gash. She shared with friends and family that she was concerned

about his whereabouts because they talked frequently and visited with each other frequently and he was nowhere to be found. There was no more communication from him, so they became more and more concerned. The woman tells deputies it's not like Don to go off the grid. Don Gash was the fire chief of the Edawall volunteer fire department, a community icon. You'd see him at the convenience store. You'd see him at the Friday night high school football game.

Don Gash was a good guy, service community, loved the kids community, did things to help other people. Always friendly, he's just not a guy that's going to disappear and stay missing. Sheriff's investigators open a missing person's case and begin a search for Don. At that time, there really wasn't a whole lot of leads that we could follow up on. We had decided to do the health welfare check

that Saturday morning. We approached the home and we're greeted by Don, gash the sun. When detectives ask to speak with Don's wife, Gail, they learn that Don's senior isn't the only one missing. When we arrived and spoke with Don Jr., he said he didn't know where his mom was. Don Gash said that he didn't know where his mom was.

Don Gash said that he had last seen his father on Thursday evening, and had not spoken with him since then, and then had seen his mother, Gail Gash, the following morning, Friday morning, and she was asleep. Later, after he worked, he also noticed that his own car was missing.

But 31-year-old Don Jr. assumes that his mom must have borrowed it without asking, something that wasn't out of the ordinary. He was cooperative, but he didn't have as much information as they thought he should have about his parents' whereabouts. He said that he wouldn't see them for a couple of days at a time. Investigators ask permission to expand their search efforts. They had a large amount of acreage and Mr. Gash,

the son, allowed them to look all over the property. As police canvassed the property, Don Jr. calls his sister, 27-year-old Leslie Gash. My brother had called and said that the place of shown up, Mom was messing and Dad was messing, and he was really freaking out. And I kind of get woke up by that, so I'm kind of like, oh, my gosh, what?

Panic, panic, panic. I don't know anything specific, just kind of like, I need to get up there. There are no words to describe what that morning when I was feeling. I threw a bunch of stuff together real quickly, I'm left and got on the road. Born in 1955, Donald Larry Gash came from tumultuous beginnings.

He grew up in the Mills River horseshoe area of Henderson County. He was actually born out of wedlock and was adopted by his biological aunt and her husband. It was really tough in that house. There was some pretty rough physical abuse between his parents that he witnessed. Despite tensions at home, Don grew into a well-adjusted teenager, active in sports and future farmers of America.

He was outgoing. We had a lot of really close friends. We played football. He was definitely involved in stuff. In high school, Don became infatuated with a popular classmate named Gail Hutchinson. The youngest of three daughters, Gail was raised in a strict religious household.

She wasn't allowed to go to the movies. If church was open, she was to be at church. But when she fell for Don Gash, Gail threw caution to the wind. They started dating in high school. He was a football player and she was a cheerleader. My mom got pregnant her senior year and my dad's junior year.

It was not an option for them to not get married. So they went to the magistrate in Greenville, South Carolina and got married. In October 1972, the newlyweds welcomed Don Jr. into their family. Their daughter Leslie was born four and a half years later, and the young family moved onto the 21-acre cattle farm where Don grew up, soon joined by Gail's mom. My grandmother ended up having a trailer on the back of our property.

Gail stayed home to raise the kids while Don punched the clock at the local paper mill. He made pretty good money because he had worked there 15 years and he was a part of the union. So I wouldn't say super well off, but we were comfortable. But in 1984, those lighthearted days were suddenly cut short by a tragic event.

My mom's mom's trailer caught on fire when I was in second grade. My grandmother at the end of her life became an alcoholic. She passed out with cigarette in her hand, and that's how the fire started. Don ran out there and got his mother-in-law out of the mobile home passed out with cigarette in her hand, and that's how the fire started. Don ran out there and got his mother-in-law out of the mobile home while it was on fire. Unfortunately, it was a little too late,

and the injuries that she has sustained prior to him getting her out. She died from... For Don, he felt like that if he could have got there just a minute earlier or something like that, it may have turned out different. Gail just kind of took a down spiral. She blamed herself and that her mother couldn't be saved. It seems like that changed her as a person from their own out.

When her eyes were high, it was really great. And when her lows were low, they were very low. Three years later, in 1987, more bad news struck the family. Don wasn't able to work. He had developed a tumor on his spine. At the very beginning when he was diagnosed, it was kind of like, you know, wow, this is probably gonna kill you. You know, and then it was like, okay, well,

we can do surgery, this could paralyze you. I'll remember being a little kid and, you know, being nosy and finding one of my mom's journals and just kind of, you know, how scary that was for her, how scary that was for my dad. Surgeon successfully removed the tumor, but the operation left Don permanently disabled. After that, he could work a little bit,

but he could not extensively work over time. He couldn't sustain the physical kind of work that he was used to doing. He tried to farm a little cattle and, you know, try to make ends meet the best way he could. Things definitely changed after my dad went out of work after the surgery. I definitely saw, you know, a struggle. To help keep up with the mounting bills,

Gale decided to go back to school, and in 1991, she earned her bachelor's degree. She ended up going to UNCA, which is University in Asheville, North Carolina, and she got a degree in psychology. Mrs. Gash, she had several different jobs throughout the community, the Department of Social Services. she worked for a law firm.

As Gail thrived in her newfound career, Don followed his own passions and became an assistant football coach. He also spent more time at the firehouse. I saw Don compensate by doing things that he was still able to do. The fire prevention program was near and dear to his heart, mostly because I think what had happened with his mother-in-law. It's been a lot of time with you football. His farming, the little businesses, his cattle, his hay,

and the volunteer fire department. That right there would take up a good bit of your time. By the end of 2003, after 30 years of marriage, it seemed Don and Gale had successfully weathered all the adversity thrown in their path. However, when no one can reach the couple in March of 2004, worried family and friends believe they might be in danger. Dawn had been missing for a while.

Gail was also missing, and that became even more confusing for the overall picture, because we truly didn't understand what was going on. I literally don't remember the job there, because it was like a hamster on a whale. It was just a question after question after question. A lot of forcement were very motivated to work to find out what had happened. Coming up, desperation grows with one terrifying development after the next. It certainly looked as if somebody had made some effort

to hide that they had done something. We're looking for somewhere a body could be. It was a large human torso, with the head, arms, legs, all cut off. It was a lot to take in, a lot to try to absorb, and still at the same time going this can't be real. It was a lot to take in, a lot to try to absorb, and still at the same time going, this can't be real. [♪ Music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing There's a mystery brewing in Henderson County, North Carolina. Both fire chief Don Gash and his wife Gail have vanished without a trace.

We have more than one missing person. It just caused a great degree of anxiety, because I think everyone believed that maybe they were at some risk, not knowing if this was a random act, or if there was something very intentional here. By now, a team of deputies has found out across the 21-acre gash property looking for the missing couple and any clues to their disappearance. Don Jr. allowed them to to enter the house and search all throughout the house, allowed them to go back all over the property.

We're looking for somewhere a body could be, or a person could be hiding. Widening their search, another team heads over to the Gash's barn, about 100 yards behind the house. Detectives located at the vehicle, Don Gash, would be driving. That vehicle was found with the keys in the ignition in the on position. The truck was discovered was behind this barn.

Anybody that would drive even to the barn would not have seen this truck have they not walked behind the barn and observed it there. It certainly looked as though somebody had made some effort to hide the fact that Dom was gone. Detectives noticed something else near the barn. There was evidence of some sort of a burn pile of some description, which is not unusual with debris that gets cleared in that kind of thing.

Inside the barn itself, investigators search for anything not unusual with debris that gets cleared in that kind of thing. Inside the barn itself, investigators search for anything out of the ordinary. The barn probably had seen better days, not necessarily kept very clean, but it was functioning for the animals that they had. In the barn area, there's a tub that was located one of those large, rubber storage containers. A deputy opens the lid to reveal something straight out of the horror film. It was a large human torso with the head, arms, legs, all cut off.

With the head, arms, legs, all cut off. They could observe that those lamps have been severed with a sharp instrument. Investigators are able to discern that the victim is male with a large, unique scar on his back. It was partially scorched, looked like somebody had tried to burn. The torso and was unsuccessful because I mean, it takes a lot of heat to destroy that much flesh.

With the discovery of a body, police stopped down further investigation. We backed off, and at that point, I was designated to go right and search warrant. As authorities secure the scene, Leslie Gash steps right into a nightmare. I'm coming up on the edge of our property. I see Sheriff's Deputy vehicles. And like, police cars and just a lot of people in uniform and everything at my house and it was, yeah. Part of my language just got real.

Because I didn't know what it was, but I knew whatever that was that I was saying was not good. Suspecting that the mutilated corpse is Don Gash Sr., investigators ask if Don had any distinguishing physical characteristics. He had a pretty good-sized scar on his back. It was still really prominent. Kenneth Gatti, with the Sheriff's Department.

He told me that they had found my father's torso on the property. And they knew it was him because of the scar on his back. After that, it's fog, haze. With Don Sr. presumed as their victim, investigators turned their attention to his wife. Everybody wanted to find out where was Gail Gash. Was she a suspect, or was she also a victim? It was a lot.

A lot to take in, a lot to try to absorb, and still at at the same time going this can't be real. Where's Mom though? We need answers and we really weren't getting them. As investigators brought in their search perimeter, they make a key discovery. The car that was known to be driven by Don Edward Gash's son was located in a cemetery probably a half a mile walking distance from the house. When they looked in the car, there appeared to be blood on the seats in the steering wheel.

The keys weren't in it. Who was driving that car? Where are they now? Why would they park it away from the house, rather than at the house? Don Gash, the son told investigators that his mother was the one he thought had driven that car. Was she abducted from this car? Or is she hiding?

You know, nobody knew. As investigators begin processing the vehicle for Prince and DNA, a search party sets off into the nearby woods. We had used both patrol canons and bloodhounds to track and find someone that's missing. We had enough boots on the ground, so to speak, that we were able to cover all the ground between where the car was and the residents. to cover all the ground between where the car was and the residents. When the search fails to yield leads,

investigators call Don senior's children to the station and put them through critical questioning. That's when it kind of started with wanting to like separate me and my brother to start asking his questions and assuming all of this stuff. And it was just, uh, it was really disheartening and instantly made me angry. Put me against my mom, put me against my dad, put me against my brother, boss versa.

I just want to find out what's going on, you know, we want to help. While investigators work to clear Leslie, they're becoming more concerned with her brother, Don Jr. At the time, he told us that he had been there at home the whole week. It didn't make sense that someone could be there every day and not have at least had some concern that something had happened. He said that he would not see his parents for days at a time

while he is living in this house. Why would his dad go off for a couple of days at a time when there's cows and things, you know, on this property that he maintained and took care of? There were things that didn't add up with what he was saying. His behavior that day led to investigators at the time to take DNA and fingerprints.

As detectives look for other possible leads, news of the brutal murder spread through town. I think the overall reaction of it was just... no way. This belief kind of shocked, you know, what the heck's going on? It's like, why? You know, why would someone do that?

The dawn that I knew would never provoke such an incident. There is no way that I could imagine that he would have caused such rage in anybody to do something like that. The shock felt through the community is also accompanied by fear. That's just not a crime that, you know, you expect to see anywhere and not really in this area. When you have a body that has been dismembered and burned,

that speaks to a high degree of malice. That's what I think causes a high amount of concern to the community. This was a very mean-spirited crime, and they were wondering if this person or persons were still at large, and if it others would be at risk. Coming up, as the search heats up, everything cops think they know about the Gash family

is about to be turned upside down. It was obvious that they were having trouble making ends meet. Maybe in a lot more problems than a relationship than the public knew about. That was just mortified. Just mortified, just mortified. On March 27, 2004, the discovery of Don Gache's torso stashed in his own cow barn has all of Henderson County clamoring for answers.

People want to know if the murder had something to do with his work as a firefighter or, you know, what else was happening and occurring in his life that would have brought about this turn of events. Adding to the mystery, Don's wife, Gail, is still missing. Hoping for more leads, investigators dig into the couple's home life. Maybe a lot more problems in a relationship

than the public knew about. People around in this area, they don't err in their dirty laundry, they keep things to themselves. You know, as a husband, you could tell that Don had some challenges there. There was a common suspicion in the family about Don's relationship with a close family friend.

My dad and her clearly spent all their time together, because my mom worked when I was in high school. A lot of the time she couldn't come to my advance, but my dad always brought her and actually people thought that was my mom. Gail was aware, and she actually confronted Don, and at that time, I believe he denied the affair. It was never 100% confirmed by anybody. My mom was definitely uncomfortable by it,

because they were literally together all the time. And then after a while, it was just, it was. It was embarrassing. About four years before their disappearance, Don and Gale started sleeping apart. First, they tried to blame it on my mom snoring and my dad grinding his teeth. Of course, that's why.

They're sleeping in separate rooms. And then it just kind of became that's what it was. My mom slept in the room, my dad slept on like the pullout sofa. And then that's how it was up until everything happened. Investigators also discover that Gail's suspicion of infidelity wasn't the only problem plaguing their marriage.

My parents had gotten behind on their mortgage. My mom, they want my dad to lose the property. And she made a really terrible decision. Don wasn't making a lot of money, so Gail ended up taking on multiple jobs. She took one job in particular at a milk plant. And while she was working at that particular job, she began stealing money from the organization.

I believe she was the administrative assistant for the president. She got a new vehicle, you know, we got a new stove. You know, some things we needed for the house. Subsequently, she was caught and charged with obtaining property by false pretence. That was just mortifying, just mortifying. She had fully confessed to her involvement in doing that

and I think it was about 60,000. Dog did what he could to help pay off Gale's debt, but it wasn't enough. And it was obvious that they were having trouble making insme. It was then, in 2001, that the already strained marriage plunged to an all-time low. There was no hiding the dislike for each other.

There was no hiding my dad being up till one and two in the morning on the phone for several hours. At that point, it just kind of became like, well, who cares? Armed with a deeper understanding of Don's senior's personal life, investigators reach out to the alleged mistress who was the first to report Don missing. The woman denies having enough fare with Don, but admits they were very close friends.

She had last had telephone communication with Don the night before he was likely murdered. Her alibi was that she was home. She was quickly ruled out as having had any motive and his death or disappearance. However, the woman has a message from Don to share with detectives. Don had told her that if he ever went missing or ever was killed to suspect his wife and his son.

It's a stunning accusation, but before investigators can track the new lead, they receive word of a grizzly new development 30 miles away. LIMMS and AHEAD were found off the Blurge Parkway. They could observe that those limbs have been severed with a sharp instrument. Knowing what we had already heard in the community about the fire chief and then the subsequent rumor of that

his wife was missing as well, it seemed to be that it was all adding up to an obvious conclusion. The remains found on the parkway to be that it was all adding up to an obvious conclusion. The remains found on the parkway are collected by crime scene investigators. On March 29, two days after the search for the gash has began, the body parts are analyzed and confirmed

to be a match to Don Gash. In looking at the head, the medical examiner was able to determine that Don Gash had died of blood forced trauma. His skull was fractured. He had received multiple blows to his head and face area. Surrated marks suggest the body was dismembered with a saw. The medical examiner determined that any of the burning and that any of the severing of limbs, all of that was done post-mortem.

Though the autopsy provides more context for Don's murder, investigators are no closer to knowing who killed him. Plus, they've still found no sign of Gail Gash. There was no indication that she had been killed, but there was also no indication yet that she was alive. Gail Gash was missing the car that she had been thought or believed to be driving was found within a half mile of their house.

And so investigators went, just brought in the search of the area. Investigators secure a search warrant for the gash property and surrounding areas. On March 30, they execute an intensive search. They began looking for signs of, you know, human life around, around there. And that's what led them to a neighbor's crawl space. And they located her. After more than three days of searching, police have finally found the second half of this missing

couple. She was in a crawl space under a storage shed, and she was in a wrapped in a blanket. Coming up, a discovery of evidence leaves investigators stunned. They turned over the mattress and found copious amounts of what appeared to be human blood. There was an intake of breath at the moment when

at first we first saw it, because it was just so overwhelming. On March 30, three days after the discovery of Don Gash's dismembered torso, investigators have finally found his wife, Gail. And she's alive. She was found hiding under a neighbor's crawl space. The neighbor had no idea that's where she had been. She said she had been there since the Saturday before. She was in bad shape.

She was cold and dirty and all indications that she had not been back to her home. She had been in the elements for several days. I don't know how she sustained herself, but she looked like a woman who had been through hell. Based on the conditions in which she was found, investigators doubt Gail was anyone's victim. It didn't look like she had been placed there

against her will or anything like that. It was somewhere where she could go in and out of. But it clearly looked like she had been hiding. Sometimes people hide because they've been traumatized so much they don't know who to trust. But certainly a vast number of people that hide from law enforcement is because they've been traumatized so much they don't know who to trust, but certainly a vast number of people that hide from law enforcement is because they've committed a crime.

Though investigators are incredibly suspicious of Gail's involvement in her husband's murder, they won't be receiving any answers from her straight away. She was, I think, suffering from hypothermia. She was conscious, but she would not speak. She wouldn't talk to them. She was, I think, suffering from hypothermia. She was conscious, but she would not speak. She wouldn't talk to them. She was not in good shape. She was taken immediately to the hospital. Authorities can only hope a formal search of the gash farm will fill in the blanks.

When they did execute a search warrant, they entered the home and there was a pullout bed in the living room, which Don slept on. Once investigators pulled that couch open, they turned over the mattress and found copious amounts of what appeared to be human blood on this mattress. They then did further, deeper search of that room found what they thought was probably cast off, type of blood up there on the ceiling. When someone is bludgeoning someone or hitting them with an instrument, the blood from the victim

gets on whatever weapon is being used and can sling off as they're bringing the weapon back over their shoulder and can splash onto the seal and on the side walls and that kind of thing. Assuming they may have found their murder scene, investigators spray luminol all over the room and turn out the lights, waiting for the chemical to glow in the presence of blood. Unfortunately, it looked like a starry night. Just so many illuminations, it lit the room back up. There was an intake of breath at the moment

when at first we first saw it, because it was just so overwhelming. The amount of blood indicated that he was killed there, as far as where he was dismembered, it's certainly consistent with it occurring there, but it also could be consistent with the wounds to his head, leading in that particular location. That's when I really got a clear picture of how much cleanup had had to be done, and how much carnage was there.

With evidence that Don's murder took place inside the house, suspicion grows toward the other two residents of the home, Gail and Don Jr. In search of a clear motive, investigators make a game-changing discovery. There's a policy on Don of life insurance. I believe it was $150,000 that would benefit Gail and the children if Don Gash died. Investigators now feel that they have enough to charge Gail with murder The charge against a gale gash was based on circumstantial evidence. It was based on the fact that she was the one that was hiding her car, that she was driving, that she alone was the one with this financial burden, and was under the control of the community. The charge against a gale gash was based on circumstantial evidence.

It was based on the fact that she was the one that was hiding her car, that she was driving, that she alone was the one with this financial burden and was under that kind of threat of going to prison, if she couldn't come up with this money, had the life insurance policy on him. And so when you put all of these circumstances together, that's what the detectives had to go on, and they believed that she had committed the crime of first-remer. On April 1, 2004, Gail is arrested outside party hospital and is placed in the Henderson County jail under no bond.

At that point, there was a certain sigh of relief. Though Gail is behind bars, investigators suspect she didn't act alone. Gail was a small woman, and for her to be able to overpower Don, who was much larger than her, and much stronger than her, despite his disability, I just don't see how it could be done alone. There was a lot of circumstances that the detectives thought made Don Jr. a likely participant in his father's killing. Dom was known not to get along very well with his dad.

He was known to get along more with his mother. Detectives believed that Gail Gash physically could not have lifted the torso, could not have dismembered him. You know, how could one person have done this all by herself? Prosecutors hope this question and more will be answered in court. But for now, Don Jr. receives no charges. At that time, he weren't able to find any evidence that tied Don Jr. to the crime.

Gail's attorneys get to work on her defense and one of their first moves aims to combat her husband's prominence within the Hendersonville community. There was a motion to change venue and this was a motion based on the media swirl about this homicide. Don was put on this pedestal of being, you know, a pillar of the community, fire chief, someone that people respected and looked up to and could do no wrong.

The aim of the defense was to try to get this trial switched from Henderson County to Bunkham County. The concern by the defense was that potential jurors had already formed an opinion about the guilt of his client. Judge Marlene Hyatt ruled against the defense on that motion, so we were set for trial in November of 2006. Coming up, a community eager for resolution hears a version of Don's final moments. She confronted him about some things in their past, and that they got into this fight, that he began to assault her. And lingering suspicions of an accomplice haunt the courtroom. I just don't see how anyone could sleep through that

and not hear anything. What we wanted more than anything was for justice to be served for Don Gash. November 7, 2006. Just as Gail Gash's trial is about to begin for the murder of her husband, Don Gash, a sudden development takes the courtroom by surprise. We all went to court thinking that the trial was going to start that day, and they came out and announced that there was going to be a plea deal.

She ended up playing to a second-degree murder. I was disappointed. What we wanted more than anything was for justice to be served for Don Gash, but also we wanted the truth to be told. During her sentencing hearing, Gale's defense presents their client's version of events. The defense case was that Gail Gash and Don Gash were son and Don Gash the victim. We're all in the house together the night of March 25th, 2004.

And Gail Gash had gone to put fire on the fireplace. The don gash had made some advances towards her that they got into an argument that she confronted him about some things in their past, and that she said that he just got irate, that they got into this fight, that he began to assault her, and that she grabbed for a piece of wood, and just started beating him about his head.

She said it was like a jack in the box. Like, he came right back up. And she remembers hitting him again, but not really much after that. The entire courtroom was shot family, those watching pinnare everybody. Her version of events was after she killed him, she panicked.

She didn't know what to do. She hadn't planned this, and so she knew that she had to keep this from her son. That her son was away in his bedroom that he would be getting up in the morning in a few hours to get to work, so she had to hide this body. She went and got a dolly, put him into an area of the house

that nobody went to. She hit him there and tried to figure out what to do. That's when she decided that she would dismember him, took off his head, his arms, his legs, with a saw. She went and got a tub, rolled the torso into this tub, and wheeled it to the burn area where she attempted to burn the torso. But Gail's defense claims she became impatient

with the incineration process. It was taking longer than she thought it would. So she got spooked and put his torso back into the tub, put the tub in the barn, and then once she dumped the body parts that were located off the bluish parkway, including Mr. Gash's head, arms, and legs, she then came back. She parked that car at the cemetery. She ran to the neighbor's house

to their outbuilding. And that's where she said she hid for days until she was found. Following the defense's presentation, the prosecution calls Don Jr. to the witness stand. Long suspected to have been involved, they ask him about the night of his father's murder. For someone to be asleep in the home while your mother is bludgeoning your father to death and then later dragging his body through the house, I just don't see how anyone could sleep through that and not hear anything or notice anything. But Don Jr. testifies that he had no prior knowledge of the murder, nor was he involved.

Don Gash, though, was never charged with any crime. There was never any actual evidence that we found that tied him to any part of this. Leslie Gash takes the stand in her mother's defense, testifying that her dad could get easily agitated. Towards the end, I was drinking a lot. I know that that was an issue. When the goods were good at home, they were really good.

And when the bads were at home were bad, they were really, really bad. At the conclusion of the hearing and as a part of her plea, Gail is sentenced to 15 years in prison, leading to a general air of disappointment within the community beyond the courtroom walls. People definitely didn't think Justice was served. They felt like the story of Don seniors, murder wasn't told. They felt the facts weren't put out there for everyone, you know, to hear. And that Gail did not get the sentencing that they felt she deserved.

But for the Gash family, the tragedy is twofold. The tragedy is a family that completely was torn apart. The tragedy is a man that had so much to give to the community was denied, given it in his later years. It was just a sad thing. I felt really bad for the kids. I'm sure it was something that the kids deal with to this day.

Even like sitting here, I'm so kind of like, why am I doing this? I think it's just because for... It was so long, it's... We really couldn't say anything. It wasn't all terrible at home. There were some good times. There was a lot bad.

My mom's not a terrible person. And how these actions, these choices, you know, that were made, whether it was 25 years ago, of not getting into the worst war, you know. 30 years ago, wherever getting married, or, you know, that all those actions have consequences. Whether you're a woman, a man, a kid,

and you're in any form of a bad relationship, get out, talk to somebody. Don't stay quiet, because I promise you, it's not like it just poof goes away one day. It doesn't. It has long-lasting effects. After serving four years of her sentence, El Gash died of cancer in 2010.