Snapped: Women Who Murder - Karri Willoughby

Episode Date: April 7, 2024

After a well-known saddle maker passes away from an apparent heart attack, police find reason to question the natural death after rumours about drugs and embezzlement come to light.Season 25 Episode 17Originally aired: June 23, 2019Watch 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.

The queen of the courtroom is back. How did I know that? I have crystal ball in my head. New cases. Leapfrog. A-Long. So, um, this is not a soap. This is a period. Classic Judy. It's streaming. It can say anything.

It's an all-new season. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie. What does it mean to be black in America? In NPR's Black Stories, Black Truths, a collection of stories as varied, nuanced, and dynamic as Black experiences, you'll hear. It means everything. Search NPR Black Stories, Black Truths wherever you get your podcast. With his wife by his side, he spent a lifetime perfecting his craft.

He ran a saddle shop. He was a very profound artisan. But then, sudden heartache. She tried to do CPR on him. She had called the ambulance. From the appearance, it looks like he probably has a heart attack. At that point, they went through the funeral process. Yet new information raises suspicions. You think Mr. Shaw could have taken this online? He's arrested my father.

I took him medicine. Police must dig deeper. They removed the lid from the tomb, exposed the coffin and his body. You just get a multitude of possibilities going through your mind. Why did this happen and exactly how? Authorities eventually suspect a sinister plot. This puzzle began to come into focus.

The pieces began to fit. The indebtedness was 400,000 plus. But this case is no slam dunk. She still had incredibly vocal support. Set up a Truth for Kerry website and Truth for Kerry yard signs. It's got all the elements It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one.

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It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a real one. It's a rural area. It's a very close-knit community. Everybody knows everybody. They might put you in mind of Mayberry or Maycomb County from To Kill a Mockingbird. It was always a comforting place, and I've never considered crime at all. There was something that happened somewhere else,

something that happened on TV. Something that happened somewhere else, something that happened on TV. But just before 5.30 PM on April 22nd, 2008, the DeKalb County 911 dispatch center gets a frantic call from a woman worried about her stepfather. Carrie Willoughby, a stepdaughter of Billy Jr. Shaw, called 911 to report that he was slumped over in the chair. And she said, I'm afraid it's a heart attack.

Carrie explains she's a nurse, and she tried to revive her 65-year-old stepfather before calling 911. She said she put her arms under his arms and pulled him out of the car. And she said, I'm afraid it's a heart attack. She said she was just trying to get arms and pulled him out of the chair and laid him on the floor and then started CPR. Paramedics rushed to the scene and begin to tend to Junior,

but not for long. When the medical people arrived, he had been obviously dead for several minutes. There will be no more evidence of the murder of the man who was killed. tend to Junior, but not for long. When the medical people arrived, he had been obviously dead for several minutes. There will be no saving Junior Shaw. Billy Junior Shaw was born in 1942

and grew up on a farm in DeKalb County. His mother and his dad had, um, like 30-something acres there that they worked at cattle. Junior dutifully put in his time on the family farm, but wanted to do more than wrangle livestock. So he got a job at a saddle shop in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was making saddles. Like a lot of the guys out there that have saddle shops, a job at a saddle shop in nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was making saddles.

Like a lot of the guys out there that have saddle shops, they worked in Chattanooga and learned their trade there. Junior became a well-known craftsman, but outside the shop, he was earning a very different reputation. Everybody out there knew, and they referred to Junior as a drunk. In the early 1980s, a single mother named Susie Hawkins started working at the Saddle-ry to support her three daughters after splitting up with her husband. After they divorced, they didn't see each other, and we didn't see our dad hardly ever. My mom had custody.

Junior was immediately interested, but Suzie wasn't. He wanted to start seeing my mom, but back at that time, he drank a lot, and she wouldn't have anything to do with him. She told him that she wouldn't date him or even see him until he quit drinking completely. Junior took the rejection as a wake-up call about booze. From what I understand from everybody, he pretty well

laid it down, walked away from it, and never had any issues with that again. When he quit drinking, then they started seeing each other and finally ended up getting married. He was a good provider. He worked and had the same common work ethics at the time. Following their 1983 wedding, Junior and Suzie settled in DeKalb County,

taking over the farm Junior was raised on. Suzie's three daughters lived with them, Kim, Frieda, and the youngest, Carrie. She was a baby, you know. She kind of got padded a little bit more than what we did, you know. We call her the favorite. Junior filled an important role in Carrie's life. It's the only father she ever had.

You know, her biological father wasn't in the picture ever. So this was her dad. Although Junior continued to raise livestock on the family farm, he dreamed of opening his own saddlery there as well. In 1985, he and Susie were able to make that dream come true. They opened their own place, built it right beside their house, and started doing it from home.

He's a very well-equipped and profound artisan of his craft. He made great saddles. They were well-renowned in this community. They always made sure everything was done right. It wasn't sloppy work. It was very, like I said, good quality work. By the early 90s, Frida and Kim had moved out, leaving the vivacious young Carrie in the home.

While through junior high and high school, she was a cheerleader. She liked beauty pageants. She was in a lot of those. Like I said, she's outgoing, bubbly. She's just, she's a people person. She was always hyper. Life of the party, always smiling, always just,

you know, let's go, let's go do this, let's go do that. She was just one of those people that you couldn't help but grin when you were around them. Able to choose from a host of suitors, Carrie started dating a star athlete from a nearby high school, Jason Willoughby. Just two weeks after Carrie turned 18, the couple married. Junior walked her down the aisle.

It was just a beautiful wedding. Everybody seemed happy and just gorgeous. Eventually, Jason became a teacher, and Carrie pursued a career as a caregiver. She was a traveling nurse, and he would find, you know, jobs wherever they traveled to. They wanted to travel before they had kids. So they had went to Huntsville and lived.

They went to San Francisco. By the time Carrie was 30, she and Jason had two kids and settled back into Cabb County. Every Sunday, they took their kids to Junior and Susie's for a meal with the family. Susie insisted on it. She always cooked Sunday dinner and expected us to be there. She wanted us to stay close.

We always had Christmas, Thanksgiving. We always had it at her house. For Susie and Junior, a lifetime of hard work was finally paying off. Their place where they lived, it was paid for. Their business done fairly well. They was able to pay for stuff with cash. You know, they didn't have to go in debt for anything.

They had the lake property that we would go to on the weekends. Just being with the family and cooking out, you know, just sitting around talking and having a good time, that we would go to on the weekends. Just being with the family and cooking out, just sitting around talking and having a good time, just being together. What should have been the best years of their lives turned tragic on April 1st, 2008, when Suzie was just 65 years old.

My mom, she had emphysema and COPD. She was on oxygen. Junior said that she wasn't feeling well. They was working in the sales shop. She was going to go in the house for a little while. He said she sat down on the porch. She had a spail, got to where she couldn't breathe, and she fell.

And when she fell, she hit her head on a concrete step. and she fell, and when she fell, she hit her head on a concrete step. And she died just a short time after that. It was basically trauma to the head, brought on by respiratory difficulty. Susie's daughters were distraught, but it was Junior who took her sudden passing the hardest. Folks in that community, family, church members,

they all said that he was very depressed, very saddened. My dad was going up there on a daily basis to check on him, to sit with him, and made comments that he just seemed depressed. And he would make comments about, you need to hope that you pass away before your wife. You don't want to know how I feel. Just seemed really depressed over it. At the urging of family,

Junior slowly started getting back into a routine. He was mowing his grass. He was talking to several customers about saddles that he was preparing to make for them or some that he was preparing to make for them, or some that he was finishing. Still, Junior's stepdaughters kept a close eye on him. We kind of tried to take turns going up there, you know, checking on him and making sure he, you know,

had something to eat and all that. But it was hard. On April 22, it wasy's turn to check in. That's when she discovered him unconscious and tried to revive him. It was obviously unsuccessful, and he was obviously dead. The EMTs call law enforcement to the scene. At the time of the incident, I was the commander

of the major crimes unit. So we had a new protocol that all unattended deaths, and the police were able to get him out of the car. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital.

He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital.

He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital. and then they checked the eyes for a petechiae to make sure he hadn't been smothered and that sort of thing. There was nothing suspicious at all about the condition of the body, the position of the body. There was no indication at all of any kind of foul play. Coming up, a grieving family shares new suspicions. He was just to the point of suicide. And Kerry fears Junior might have done something terrible.

He had two puncture marks, one in each arm. Junior might have died under suspicious circumstances. Just weeks after Junior Shaw had to bury his wife, Suzie, and the police were able to find him. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead.

And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. And that's when we found out that he was dead. had any kind of outside external trauma to the body. Investigators asked Kerry to step into another room so the coroner staff can do their work. Following protocol for any unattended death, authorities meticulously document the scene. One of the reasons we take the photographs is in the event something were to come up later, or there were questions from the family,

we'd be able to have photographs detailing the scene as it was, in a sense to preserve the scene for future reference, if needed. While they were going over the body, the coroner did notice that there were a couple of puncture wounds. He had two puncture marks, one in each arm. They were perfect, right in the vein, needle marks, it seemed. While the marks could be easily explained

as part of routine medical care, they are worth noting. And so I said, well, let's find out what those were. Because they don't know where the needle marks came from, the district attorney makes a request that is not standard protocol. We had not normally done this in the past, but on that day, for providential reasons, I suppose, I told him to go ahead and draw blood

and have it sent off just to make sure that there wasn't anything unusual about it. Michael Dale ordered that blood be drawn for testing, because it was not clear exactly why he died. So we started drawing blood just to cover a basis. You just never know. After Carrie has some time to process the death, authorities ask her to review what happened that day.

Carrie says that she thought it was going to be like any other visit. She routinely would call and check on him, see if he wanted anything to eat. And because he had been so depressed and all, she was checking on him more frequently. She relayed the details of how she got there and found him unresponsive.

She pulled him out of the chair, started CPR, and then went to the kitchen phone and dialed 911. Kerry explains that as a nurse she has a pretty good idea of what probably happened. The theory was it was a death of natural causes. Perhaps it was a heart attack. He was aging. He was sad. He wasn't eating well. His wife had recently died. He was so depressed over his wife dying three weeks before.

Investigators asked Carey about the marks on Junior's arms. She stated that he had gone to the doctor earlier that week and that they probably drew blood. Everything leading up to this seemed natural. that he had gone to the doctor earlier that week and that they probably drew blood. Everything leading up to this seemed natural, and the scene itself appeared to be consistent with how Kerry Willoughby had presented it to law enforcement and to the coroner.

It just appeared like he went home, sat in his chair, had a heart attack and died. There was no reason to suspect there might be foul play. Authorities decide to forego an autopsy. At that point, they proceeded as though it was a natural death, and they went on to embalm him and then go through the funeral process. For the second time in less than a month, the Shaw family's loved ones find themselves attending a funeral. The chapel was pretty full. He was pretty active with the church. So there was a lot of church members there.

Folks said that he was a staple in the community, that he was a farmer, that he was active in the church and seemed to be friendly with neighbors and a good family man. They had customers that came, neighbors came. That was probably close to a hundred people. Everybody was still upset about our mother passing, so it was kind of quiet and just solemn. It was very hard.

Carrie is especially distraught. I remember Carrie being really upset, as all the girls were. She was saying to wake her up, you know, wake me up, wake me up, tell me this is not real. Wake me up. Tell me this is not real. After the funeral, as Carrie and her sisters try to pick up the pieces, investigators forward Junior's blood to the state lab for testing,

the last task before closing the book on Junior's death. We send those out to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. And then it's usually several months before we'll get a report back. to Junior's death. We send those out to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and then it's usually several months before we'll get a report back. Authorities move on to other cases while they wait. Then, on May 17, three weeks after Junior's death, Billy Dalton, the husband of Junior's oldest stepdaughter,

Kim, contacts investigators because he just learned new information. We got a phone call from Kim's husband. And he said that his wife had come in and let him know that she was at a ball game with Carrie and another person. And a conversation started up about, well, did y'all ever hear what happened to Junior? According to Billy, Kim was shocked when Carrie mentioned that she had handed over some drugs for Junior

to use on a bull on the farm. Carrie told her that she had gotten it from her work and that it was pretty potent medicine and that it was designed to put the bull down. potent to medicine and that it was designed to put the bull down. Kim did ask her, what medicine are you talking about? And Carrie went so far as to name the two drugs. She named propofol and vechironium. Then Carrie said she was worried that Junior had used the drugs in a much more disturbing

way. She was fearful that he might have done something with them that could have hurt himself. Kerry was basically sitting there with these ladies saying, well, I hope he didn't kill himself with that medicine I gave him. Junior Shaw's death first seemed a natural one, but now investigators wonder, had he taken his own life? The judge's decision to call the case a case of murder was a natural one.

The court ruled that the suspect's death first seemed a natural one. But now investigators wonder, had he taken his own life? Authorities reach out to the state lab where Junior's blood still awaits testing. The district attorney's office contacted the Department of Forensic Sciences, and that is the unit who was actually conducting the blood test and suggested that they also test for these drugs that she had named. It was beginning to seem perhaps we

were looking at something different than what we originally thought. Coming up, more surprises begin to surface. Kerry Willoughby said that he had been to the doctor. Turns out he hates doctors and had not been to one in years. Had Kerry's attempt to help her stepfather turned deadly. Tell me what I did. I mean, I did it.

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Tell him the truth. All of it. The world is in lack of whites. All we really have are the people we trust. Alex Ryder. New episodes now streaming on Amazon Freebie. The passing of 65-year-old saddle maker Junior Shaw first appeared to be a natural death. But after Junior's stepdaughter, Carrie Willoughby, mentions Junior had access to powerful drugs,

DeKalb County investigators are taking a second look. Her story was she believed that her stepfather had committed suicide by an overdose. She began to offer an alternative theory. You know, I got him these drugs for him to catch a bull. And oh, my goodness, he's grieving his wife, and he has committed suicide. Carrie told her sister she had handed Junior two drugs

to use on the bull, propofol and Vecorozol. suicide. Carrie told her sister she had handed Junior two drugs to use on the bull, propofol and Vecaronium. At that point, we notified the lab and said that we'd like it to be tested for these substances, the blood. But they were unable to do so at that time at the state lab, so they farmed it out to a Pennsylvania lab. The results will take weeks.

Until then, investigators review the only other evidence, photographs of the scene and Junior's body. Originally, Carey suggested the needle marks on Junior's arms were likely from a blood draw. But I was a medic for 28. And the injection marks on both arms were very precise into the veins. So we knew whoever injected him did a very good job of it. Authorities follow up on the possibility that the marks came from a doctor's hand.

The doctor's hand was very precise. And the injection marks on both arms were very precise. And the injection marks on both arms were very precise. And the injection marks on both arms into the veins. So we knew whoever injected him did a very good job of it. Authorities follow up on the possibility that the marks came from a doctor visit. If he had been to the doctor, he could have been given something.

But once we checked all the medical records, his doctors, he hadn't been to the doctor in quite some time. Turns out he hates doctors and had not been the one in years. Investigators received surprising news from the crime lab. The toxicology report showed excessively high levels of both propofol and becaronium. The reports from Pennsylvania gave us exactly

what the drug levels were. However, the report does not reveal how the drugs entered his system. We needed tissues and samples from his body that confirmed the presence of those drugs other than the blood. We were going to have to get the body exhumed. We had to get a court order first.

So we petitioned the court to exhume the body. On May 13, 2009, a full year after Junior Shaw was buried, investigators arrive at the Fuller Cemetery in Ider, Alabama. The Department of Forensic Sciences brought a van down. One of the folks at the funeral home was willing to use the backhoe to remove the dirt to expose the tomb. They removed the lid from the tomb, exposed the coffin, and then they transported the body to Huntsville to the forensics lab for the pathologist to do her work. to do her work. At the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office,

investigator Wade Hill skips the exhumation to conduct an interview with Carrie Willoughby. We set everything up, got Carrie to come in. So we literally were interviewing her while Junior's body was being examined. Right now we just want to talk to you about what transpired with Mr. Shaw's death. And I understand that you're his stepdaughter. Is that correct?

Yes. Carrie tells authorities the same story she shared with her sister, Kim. He'd been having trouble with this one particular bull. He was trying to load the bull up, perhaps to take it to the cattle sale. And he had asked her if she had anything that would help him. And she volunteered that she had these paralytics that

would probably subdue the bull to enable him to go into the trailer to take to the sale. Investigators ask Carrie how she got the drugs. I have a box of expired medications that I use when I do training for my nurses. She was actually involved in training other ER and acute care nurses in how to administer substances like propofol and becaronium. You said you gave it to him, right?

Where would he have kept that stuff? No, I don't know. When I gave it to him, it was on top of the microwave. Carrie also says that Junior wasn't the same after her mom died. What was this frying of mine since she passed? I checked on him every day. I usually came back in the evening. He would just say things like he didn't know how he could go home without mom.

You know, that he didn't want didn't want him to live without her. And that he never had a chance to have him. Carrie tells investigators she fears she unintentionally helped Junior end his life. You think Mr. Shaw could have taken his own life? I think so. And how do you think he did that? I think it was my fault. How could it be your fault? You weren't even there. I took him medicine.

Not for him, for his health. How much would it take to make him quit breathing? Not much. Really? Not much. How quick would it act? Within a minute. How long would it take for him to stop breathing?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. How much would it take to make him quit breathing? Not much. Really? Not much. How quick would it act? Within a minute. It seems Carrie is holding a lot of guilt over what Junior might have done with the drugs.

We need to get this worked out. We need to bring it to a successful conclusion. How can you help us do that? But if Junior used the drugs to kill himself, why didn't authorities find evidence of them near the body? The syringes, the vials, everything would have been right there at the scene. Instead, we have no drugs, no syringes at all at the scene. They've never been found.

He just has two puncture wounds. We don't know if anyone having done away with the syringes or the needles or the vials. If I did, I would tell you because, quite frankly, it would help me. I'll just come out and ask you. Did you inject him? Do you know if he did?

She said, I provided this. It was a mistake. But I provided this so he could catch a bull. Turns out he was more depressed than I knew, and he killed himself using these drugs that I'd gotten him for veterinary purposes. If I could help you, I would,

because I know this looks bad on me. I gave him the medicine, and I had to go home. It's my children. It's my fault. This is never gonna be my kids. Detectives feel certain that Carrie knows more than she is letting on. I think at that point, suspicion began to fall upon Carrie Willoughby.

I need to know the entire whole story in your body language and everything that's coming. That there's something. And I don't know what it is. But there's something that we don't know about this that you're holding onto. What is it? That's how you can tell right now.

I don't. I told you everything that I know, everything that I can remember. Authorities now suspect Carey was involved in her stepfather's death. But if so, why? We had a victim that was possibly murdered, that was buried, already embalmed,

and a possible suspect. We had to find a motive. We had to find her means, her opportunity. Coming up, detectives uncover a potential motive. The indebtedness was 400,000 plus. And a small town rallies behind one of its own. The whole community was just littered with Truth For Kerry yard signs.

MUSIC In DeKalb County, Alabama, detectives aren't buying the story that Kerry Willoughby furnished her stepfather, Junior Shaw, with drugs so he could deal with a bull on his farm. Carrie said she signed out the medicine, took it to Junior, and then worried that maybe he committed suicide.

But by pulling up the photographs, you could tell that these were precise injections. These weren't something that somebody could do themselves. And where are the drugs? Where are the syringes? It's the absence of evidence that that crime scene that is so suggestive that it's a homicide rather than a suicide. Then, the pathologist submits her autopsy report

on Junior's recently exhumed body. She was able to eliminate other item natural causes. You know, heart attack was eliminated. There was a significant amount of drugs in the body. It was at different levels and different tissues, and there were very good, precise injection points to the veins. So at that point, we were certain

that the cause of death was the injection of the propofol in the vexeronium. The exact cause was acute propofol intoxication. Propofol, when it's administered, you go to sleep, and then vexeronium paralyzes you. And you literally, if you can imagine your chest wall, your muscles in your chest, if you paralyze that diaphragm and chest muscles, you can't breathe.

So if you put somebody to sleep with propofol and then administer Vecuronium, they just quit breathing. For detectives, the report affirms that Junior could not have taken his own life. If you gave yourself one of these drugs in one arm, you'd been unconscious in seconds. There's no way he would have been conscious to then turn around, put a tourniquet around the other arm,

and give himself the second injection. Either one of those injections would have stopped him from being able to perform the second. That couldn't have been self-administered. Somebody had to do that. Junior was literally put to sleep. He was euthanized. It wasn't suicide.

They ruled the suicide out. The death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, which is death at the hand of another. The report also disputes one of Carey's claims from the 911 call. She said she had done CPR, which was dispelled by the doctors and the pathologists. There was no bruising or any indication of that.

But the body had some bruising on it that indicated that he had been grabbed forcefully around both wrists and held. His wrists both bruised significantly. Carrie Willoughby was the prime suspect. She's a nurse. She could deliver a shot in both arms perfectly and hit the vein without hesitation.

She's already said that she was the source of the drugs that were used in a lethal injection to kill Junior Shaw. The primary focus at that point was, if in fact she killed her stepfather, why would she have done that? And so at that point, we had to begin to develop a potential motive. We had to get the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together. Detectives place Carey's life under a microscope

and subpoena her financial records. It doesn't take long to discover that she and her husband were struggling. They were living well beyond their means. They had serious financial difficulties. She was a binge buyer. She would go get a $500 credit card and max it out in two or three days, and then go sell everything she bought at yard sales for cash, and did consistently over and over and over again. She filed a bankruptcy in 2002 and enlisted indebtedness something like $140,000.

And by 2007, when they filed again, the indebtedness was $400,000 plus. When Detective Sapina Junior's financial records, they learned that Carey tried to solve her money problems with Junior and Suzy's cash. They had put her over the business. She was actually the financial manager. She had access to those accounts and was placed in a position

where she could siphon money off. Carey was on the books as one of the signatories for the Saddlebury account. And when she started running into debt again, she did something called a chargeback. So whenever her personal account ran dry and a check came in that was bad, it would charge back to the Saddlebury business account. So she was never going to have a bad check under that scenario. It would just drain out of her family's business.

As the investigation developed, we learned that she had gotten credit cards in her mother's name that her mother was unaware of. Because she was a financial manager, she was able to keep those hidden. But not forever. They had started getting phone calls from credit card companies and people wanting to know when they're going to make payments.

They'd had enough. They were just going to basically write Carrie out of everything they had. And they actually went to the bank to take her off of everything. That very day, Susie passed away. It's really weird that the day they go change the bank account, she falls over dead at home.

Detectives learned that after Susie's death, Junior moved forward with trying to cut Carrie off. He's taking steps to remove her from her positions of trust. He's shutting down her capability to move and transfer funds to her own benefit. Junior's estate was valued at the time of his death as somewhere around $300,000 ballpark. valued at the time of his death was somewhere around $300,000 ballpark.

With the motive taking shape, investigators are now ready to issue an arrest warrant. Carrie had got word that they was going to come arrest her, and she didn't want them to do that in front of her kids. We let her turn herself in. Her lawyer brought her down and turned her in. She was going to be charged with having murdered Junior for pecuniary gain.

That is, financial gain or reward of some kind, which under Alabama law made it a death penalty eligible case. As news of Carey's arrest spreads through DeKalb County, many of her friends and family are outraged. Her community was absolutely shocked. It was unbelievable to them that this was happening. She still had an incredibly vocal support

within the community. They set up a Truth for Kerry website and Facebook page. It grew to almost 1,300 participants. During the course of this process, they had bake sales, they sold bracelets, they had fundraisers. In addition to that, they had yard signs. The whole community was just littered with something called Truth for Kerry yard signs.

A friend of hers started the Truth for Kerry movement and really got it going pretty big. She did a lot of interviews, was on a lot of news channels, and she had a lot of response out of it. There were very few roads you could travel in this community where you didn't see a Truth for Kerry sign. It was pretty aggressive. Kerry refuses to make another statement to police, but speaks to her supporters through social media updates. She would get them to her husband,

and then he would then upload this information to the Facebook page. There was not a time that she faltered in her innocence. Carrie becomes a local celebrity and she milks it. Carrie is a very charming woman. She had pictures of herself made and she autographed them and gave them to different members of the staff at the DeKalb County Jail. She said that when they made the movie about her,

that she hoped they would get Angelina Shulling to play her. She had no prior criminal history that we were able to find. She was able to portray herself in the community as a great mom and a great daughter. She was active in her church. She was involved in the youth program in her church. It was clear that the people that trusted in her,

who loved her, who wanted to support her, were seeking the truth that would ultimately exonerate her. Coming up, Carey continues to surprise investigators. She was having a love affair with another murder suspect. And will the former nurse manage to instill reasonable doubt in a jury of her peers? It was a very intense moment. In DeKalb County, Alabama, Carrie Willoughby stands accused of fatally drugging her stepfather, Junior Shaw.

Many in the community refuse to believe it's true. It was hard to convince some people that a young mother of small children who had just bubbly outgoing personality could do something so evil. I mean, they could not understand why this woman who was in church every time it was open was very involved in her community with her kids. It was absolute shock how that could have happened.

More shock emerges when prosecutors get a hold of letters Kerry has written from the DeKalb County Jail. We intercepted those and found out she was having a love affair with another murder suspect in jail who had yet to go on trial himself. She was sending very graphic, explicit letters. One of them, she even titled the freak nasty letter. She was very graphic in what she wanted to do.

I got copies. They would make you blush just reading them to yourself. Very intense letters. For Carey's attorneys, the letters pose a risk to her defense. There were some theories under which I think some of them would have been admissible in the trial against her. And we didn't want that at all.

On February 8, 2012, as Carey's trial begins, the DeKalb County Courthouse is packed. She had a large presence the day that the trial was to start, and we went all the way through picking a jury, seated the jury, and the gallery in that third-floor courtroom was nearly full of people who had come to give her support. You could pretty much cut the tension with a knife. It was suffocating.

With the jury seated, instead of opening statements, the prosecution and defense teams suddenly disappear into the judges' chambers. Everybody goes into the back room, and I'm just kind of, you know, I'm sitting, I'm waiting. And I noticed the defense team come out. Prosecutors emerge next. All eyes are on Carey.

She had a segment of supporters there. And of course, she had been maintaining her innocence all along. She turned to the audience and said, I'm sorry, Malfed, I'm sorry. And turned around and said, I'm sorry, mouthed, I'm sorry, and turned around and said she killed her stepfather. When she got up there and actually stood in front

of Judge Raines and pled guilty, her supporters were astonished. It was a very intense moment. There was crying, some gasping. People could not believe that that had just happened. Carrie lost a lot of friends that day. By pleading guilty, Carrie avoids a potential life sentence. Carrie could have gotten life without parole.

So given what we were facing, when we got a 20-year offer, we were just ecstatic. But Carrie took a little longer to convince. As part of the plea deal, Carrie Willoughby admits that on April 22, 2008, she entered her stepfather's home armed with drugs that, as a nurse, she knew would kill him. She injected him with one, then the other, and waited for him to die.

Prosecutors believe the motive was twofold. Kerry thought she'd inherit some of her parents' money, and she didn't want Junior to expose her embezzlement. She expected to gain financially from his death, but alternatively to hide the financial crimes that she had committed against her stepfather. The fact that greed would motivate someone like that and self-preservation would motivate her to do something that she didn't want to do. She was a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, crimes that she had committed against her stepfather. The fact that greed would motivate someone like that

and self-preservation would motivate her to do that, that's very sad. Her turning around and saying, I did this, was really the only way I think that peace could have been restored to that community, and she could be seen for who she really is. In front of a stunned courtroom, the judge hands down carries sentence.

A 20-year sentence, and she would be eligible for parole consideration after serving 15. That's a long time for her to be without her kids and her kids to be without her. It took nearly three full years to unlock the mystery and make a killer pay for a murder that was so well planned, it almost went undetected. A sinister administration of a poisonous drug,

an exhumation of a body 13 months afterwards, you know, the inheritance of... It's got all the elements of a classic southern thriller. Carrie Willoughby had planned what we viewed as perhaps the perfect murder. But this puzzle developed, and as each piece came into focus, the pieces began to fit for us,

and they fell apart for her. fit for us and they fell apart for her. On February 8th, 2012, Carrie Willoughby was sentenced to 20 years. She will be eligible for parole in 2025 when she will be 47 years old. The wait is over. So far you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience. Quickly, I see that.

Ding! The queen of the courtroom is back. I didn't do anything. You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face. I see he's not intimidated by anything. I can fix that. New cases. She wanted to fight me.

Leap her. A-Long. OK, so, um. This is not a so. This is a period. Classic Judy. Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor.

You married his cousin. His brother. That's not him. Yes, ma'am. I would make a beeline for the door. The Emmy Award winning series returns. How did I know that? I have crystal ball in my head. It's an all new season.

It's streaming. It can say anything. Judy justice. Only on Freebie.