Snapped: Women Who Murder - Kimberly Ross

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

A generous couple opens their home to help others, but a deadly home invasion raises questions about lies and conspiracy under their roof.Season 23 Episode 03Originally aired: February 11, 2018Watch 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.

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From executive producers LeBron James, Maverick Carter, and Sloan Stevens. These kids are four of the top junior players in the world. You have to keep pushing yourself to the limit. Let's go! This summer Amazon presents Uninterrupted's Top Class Tennis. Premiering on Freebie and Prime Video July 18th. Kimberly Ross had a devout religious upbringing. She was a good girl, just always singing and, you know, in church.

And her husband Bill was just as good-natured. Kimberly and Bill were people who would take in others who needed help. People like Ashley Cook and Justin Young. She was calling Kim Mom and calling my needed help. People like Ashley Cook and Justin Young. She was calling Kim Mom and calling my brother Dad. Bill took him into his home. He took him on as another child. One night, Kimberly and Bill's welcoming refuge

turned into a crime scene. Please, not my husband. They shot your husband. Who has shot your husband? I don't know who they were. The two intruders just opened the door to the bedroom and began shooting. Was it a home invasion?

I know a lot of people was alarmed by that and scared by that. Was it vengeance? Kim really made him believe that she was being hurt and that he had to save her. Or had the good girl gone bad? Kimberly Ross was a pathological liar. MUSIC

Shelbyville, Tennessee, February 14th, 2007. It was a little after 2 a.m. in this quiet country town an hour south of Nashville. Shelbyville is small. It's a rural southern town. Everybody kind of knows everybody, and everybody knows kind of everybody's business. And everybody in Shelbyville was about to be shocked. That's County 911. everybody knows kind of everybody's business. And everybody in Shelbyville was about to be shocked. That's county 9-1-1.

Is that a f-----? She was hysterical. The 9-1-1 operator had extreme difficulty understanding her. The caller was 37-year-old Kimberly Ross. Ma'am, you need to calm down so I can understand you. But when she finally managed to make herself understood, it instantly became clear why Kimberly was so hysterical. They what?

Who has shot your husband? Did they come in your house and do this? Yes, sir. She's been a victim of a home invasion, and her husband's been shot and is cleaning to life. Is your husband breathing? You can tell that Mr. Ross is still alive because she's actually yelling at him

to lay still, to be still. Honey, lay down. Lay down. Lay down. Lay down. Please. Quit moving. Lay down. But his condition was dire.

I'm getting a lot of blood. I'm getting a lot of blood. Deputies from the Bedford County Sheriff's Office rushed to the scene. So I was pretty close by. About 2, 15 when the call came out. was pretty close by, about 2, 15, when the call came out. And when they arrived, they found 19-year-old Justin Young lying near the front door, his hands and feet

bound with baling twine. He was living with the Rosses. He was friends with them through Kimberly's son. He was yelling for help. Kimberly was further inside the house, her hands and feet bound with an electrical cord. She was tied around her hands with her hands in front, and the same cable ran down to her feet, and it was wrapped around her feet.

She had managed to get to a phone, cell phone, to make the call. And Kimberly's husband, 40-year-old Bill Ross, was in the bedroom. Despite the horrific nature of his wound, he was still alive. He was breathing, and I could hear him making noise. With Bill clinging to life, the EMTs loaded him into the back of the ambulance,

while sheriff's deputies started going over the crime scene, looking for anything that might help identify the two home invaders. We were looking for any evidence, a weapon that may have been used, a firearm, anything, anything that would connect the dots that way. But for the moment, all they knew was that they had a very unusual crime on their hands.

We had a victim with multiple gunshot wounds. We had two subjects that lived there that were tied up. And the investigation would soon focus on what was happening inside the home of Bill and Kimberly Ross. It's a situation where you want to know what's the rest of the story. Born in 1969, Kimberly Balman grew up in a small Indiana town raised by a family of devout Pentecostal Christians.

Kim was a little church girl, long skirts, long dark hair, just always singing and, you know, in church. She was a good girl. But when Kim was a teenager, the family moved to Oklahoma. And soon after, the good girl rebelled against her religious upbringing. Stories from the family is she was sleeping around. She got kicked out because she got knocked up. Only 19, Kimberly married before giving birth to a son in 1989.

But the marriage didn't last. She had one child. He was somewhere around the age of two. Barely in her 20s and desperate to support her child, Kimberly found work as an exotic dancer, which was how she first met William Galloway, although at first he didn't realize she was a stripper. Me and some buddies, we were just kind of watching the girls

and talking and drinking. This girl was sitting at the bar in a nice, expensive evening dress. We didn't know who she was. I said, hey, let's put some money up and see if we can get her to get on stage, take that dress off. Well, I guess the trick was on us,

because she act like she'd never done this before, but thought the money was nice, so she got up there and she actually stripped for us. And I didn't find out later that she actually worked there. Discovering that he'd been played didn't do anything to deter William, though. I asked her out, and we started dating, and then she got pregnant, so I asked her out, and we started dating. And then she got pregnant.

So I asked her to marry me. Kimberly said yes, but their happiness would be put to the test by complications shortly after the birth of their daughter, Billy. I had a seizure when I was like a week old. I was in the hospital. Something attacked her brain stem. On one side of her tongue, she don't

have control of the muscles. We had to take her to all kinds of hospitals and doctors. And when it was clear that their daughter would survive, the relieved parents got married. And two years later, the couple also had a son, Kimberly's third child. We did pretty good. We lived out on some acreage and did stuff together.

I would say for the first five or six years, we were really happy. But things changed after Kimberly convinced William to give her the money to buy a friend's bar. We grew apart after she bought the bar. I was just losing money hand over fist in it. The business eventually failed.

And soon after, Kimberly's husband filed for divorce, kicking off a bitter custody dispute over their two children. My divorce got so ugly that I hired a lawyer, but the judge awarded her custody. And things were still being finalized in 2004 when Kimberly's uncle died, and the 35-year-old

went home to Indiana with her children for his funeral. Me and my brothers and my mom drove up there, and then I remember after the funeral, we went to eat with someone, and it was Bill. 38-year-old Bill Ross, who'd known Kimberly since they were kids. Three years older than Kimberly, when Bill was 15, his mother died, and the teenager

moved in with Kimberly's uncle, Andy. He was a good person. He pretty much shaped Bill, I think. Bill wasn't all that close to Kimberly, though, since she moved to Oklahoma soon after. And her uncle's funeral was the first time she'd seen Bill in years. We went to eat with Bill, and they went talking

like they had been friends. She was happy to see Bill. Bill was pretty happy to see her, too. They were both all over each other at the bar after her uncle's funeral. They apparently made a deeper connection because after the funeral, when Bill went back to Tennessee where he'd been living for nearly 10 years, Kimberly soon followed. She moved to Tennessee like within days.

And within months, once Kimberly's divorce was final, she and Bill were married. It's like, this is it, you know? I really like her. I think we're going to do this. After the wedding, Bill and Kimberly settled into a house he bought on the outskirts of Shelbyville, not far from the car dealership where he worked. He was the top salesman, I want to say,

for three consecutive years. He was the breadwinner. Kimberly didn't earn an income. But she wasn't a stay-at-home mom, either. After Kim and her ex-husband agreed to a custody arrangement to avoid uprooting the kids, Kimberly's two youngest children stayed behind in Oklahoma with their father. And while her oldest son, who was almost 16,

did come to Tennessee with his mother, he soon moved out on his own. He was not living in the home at the time, but he was a frequent visitor on weekends, things like that. However, Kimberly and Bill weren't exactly empty nesters. By 2007, they'd taken in a friend of her son's, 19-year-old Justin Young. Justin had a difficult time dealing with the divorce

between his parents and had a difficult time dealing with his stepdad. And Bill, perhaps remembering the kindness Kimberly's uncle had shown him, was more than willing to let Justin stay with them. Bill took him into his home. He took him on as another child. So did Kimberly.

Kim doted on Justin like that was her son. Before long, Justin acted like one too. Justin called Kim mom. And that suited Kimberly just fine, since having Justin around the house also filled the void left when her youngest children opted to stay in Oklahoma. She had this need to be some kind of a mother figure. She had a need to be accepted by someone.

She needed something to call family. Justin wasn't the only member of her surrogate family either. There was also 23-year-old Ashley Cook. She was somewhat of a transient. She lived several different places, was not working. She'd also been arrested a few times for possession of marijuana. somewhat of a transient. She lived several different places, was not working. She'd also been arrested a few times for possession of marijuana.

She had misdemeanor stuff, stuff that, you know, you don't want to see on a young person's record, but you're not really shocked when you do. Nevertheless, when a friend introduced Kimberly and Bill to Ashley, the older couple decided to help out the troubled young woman. Kimberly was paying her bills and giving her money to keep her up.

My brother helped pay for a place for her to live. And while Ashley didn't live with Kimberly and Bill, it was evident that she considered them family. She was calling Kim Mom and calling my brother Dad. But on Valentine's Day, 2007, after a brutal attack that left her husband fighting for his life, the authorities would be asking, did Kimberly's need to take care of others lead to a tragic betrayal? Coming up, the investigators questioned Justin and Kimberly about the home invasion. Justin reported that he woke up to discover a black male

holding a gun to his head. But will the evidence say otherwise? There were minute details that didn't match up. At a little after 2 o'clock on the morning of Valentine's Day 2007, the Bedford County Tennessee 911 Center received a frantic call from 37-year-old Kimberly Ross. She's been a victim of a home invasion and her husband's been shot and is clinging to life. Is your husband breathing? A lot of blood.

Oh my God, a lot of blood. A lot of blood. clean life. Is your husband breathing? Within minutes, deputies arrived at the Ross home just outside Shelbyville, Tennessee. When you enter the house, it's weapons drawn. I mean, we were told on dispatch that the two assailants had left the scene. So obviously we have to clear the residence. Inside the house, the deputies found Kimberly and 19-year-old Justin Young, who lived with the Rosses. Both had been tied up. Justin was tied with string like you might bail hay with.

Kimberly had been tied with some type of a cord, an electrical cord. It was loose enough for her to get a cell phone and make a phone call to 911. Kimberly's husband, 40-year-old Bill Ross, was in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. It appeared there was gray material oozing from the wound, which would obviously be brain matter. So without a minute to lose, the EMTs loaded Bill

onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. You're changing the scene and possibly destroying evidence, but that's just something that has to be done. I mean, the human life is way more important than the investigation. And a life-flight helicopter from Nashville was already en route, even as the EMTs rushed Bill to the local hospital. They have a helipad there, so they would go to the helipad and then meet the helicopter there.

But by the time Bill reached the helipad, it was too late. He passed away in the back of the ambulance. Bill Ross was dead. And in an instant, the focus shifted from saving his life to solving his murder. I had deputies tape the scene off because just because the crime actually was committed in the house, I mean there's evidence possibly outside the house and also to keep people away from the scene as well.

And while the crime scene tape went up outside the house, Kimberly and Justin were inside giving sheriff's deputies a detailed account of the attack. The assailants were described as two unknown black males who had apparently crawled in through a window. The window was in Justin's room. Justin reported that he was asleep in bed. He woke up to discover a black male holding a gun to his head and another one tying him up.

He said that one of the males came to his room and was armed. Held him at gunpoint and told him that if he would be still, be quiet, that he would be OK. He would not be harmed. Meanwhile, according to Kimberly, she had been in the living room watching television. The first moment she's aware there's a problem

is when Justin Young is being escorted down the hallway with the two intruders armed with guns. They tie her up and basically shove her to the floor. Kimberly said that based on what she'd overheard, the two men were looking for someone. She stated that she had heard the name. They were looking for William and Jimmy. She didn't know who William and Jimmy were,

except her husband's name is Bill. She said that she had no idea why they were there, who they were, what they were upset about. And she had no explanation for what the two men did next. They then inexplicably just opened the door to the bedroom where Mr. Ross was asleep and began shooting. ["GUNSHOTS"] Kimberly said that the killers had fled after the shooting.

We did not know what their mode of transportation was, whether it was on foot, whether they had left in a vehicle or what. But that all changed once the investigators escorted Kimberly out of the house to take her down to the station for a formal statement. Once I got her outside the house, she immediately started screaming,

my car, my car. They took my car. Was it the break that could lead investigators to the killers? They get a description of the car, got on the radio, and bollowed that to other officers to be on the lookout for that vehicle. And that wasn't the only clue the investigators

had to work with either. Outside the house, they found something that seemed to confirm Justin's story about the intruders coming in the window. They noticed, here's a stepladder outside Justin Young's window. And processing the bedroom, crime scene technicians made an important discovery about the murder weapon.

There were a couple of shell casings on the floor at the foot of the bed. They were 380 casings. But elsewhere in the house, they made another puzzling discovery. There's a gun cabinet in the living room with a door open. And they discovered there was a box of.380 ammunition in there, but they did not see a.380 caliber weapon.

Is it a coincidence that Mr. Ross was shot with a.380 pistol? After all, according to what Justin told the investigators, the killers didn't need to shoot Bill with his own gun. The facts that they were told was that both assailants were already armed when Justin Young was awakened. If Justin was right, why would the killers take one of Bill's guns? We had no idea what we were looking at.

Was this a drug deal gone bad? Was this an old vendetta over something else? We had no clue. What they did know was that something wasn't adding up. So investigators turned to their two witnesses. It was six o'clock that morning before the investigators were finally able to sit down with Kimberly and Justin to take their formal statements. They were transported to the hospital, checked out, and then brought to the Sheriff's Department.

And ushered into separate interrogation rooms. They each gave essentially the same account of the shooting that they'd given at the scene. Kimberly and Justin repeated the story of this home invasion. However, the investigators soon noticed something about their individual stories. They told basically the same story substance but there were minute details that didn't match up. They had some discrepancies in the description

of the perpetrators, what they were wearing, some of the sequence of events. Of course a certain amount of discrepancy was expected. You get that when you have people that have been subjected to a traumatic event. Especially someone like Kimberly, who just lost her husband. She seemed a little shaken by it all. There was a little bit of like a bewilderment type look. Justin, on the other hand, didn't look bewildered.

He just seemed like a very nervous young man. So already suspicious of his claim that both intruders had been armed when they came in his window, one of the investigators brought Justin back into the interrogation room for a second interview. We went in and told Justin Young, you know, that essentially that he just didn't believe him, that, you know, there were a lot of inconsistencies

between what he and Kimberly were saying. There were a lot of inconsistencies between what he and Kimberly were saying. There were a lot of inconsistencies between what he was saying and the physical evidence. He got caught in a web of his own words. And once tangled in it, he tried to talk his way out. At that point, Justin did change his story. In fact, Justin didn't just change his story.

He started naming names, including a name the investigators had yet to hear. Justin broke and said that Ashley's the one that done the shooting. She's the one that killed him. Coming up, the investigators bring Ashley in for questioning. It was not a plausible story. It didn't add up. And that leads to a shocking accusation.

Kimberly led Ashley to believe that Bill had been abusing Kimberly. History teaches. History defines. History sometimes repeats. It gives context to the world around us and feeds a hunger for knowledge. So go deeper into the events that define our world and discover more to the story with Wondry's top history podcasts, including hit shows like American History Tellers, American Scandal, legacy, and even the royals. Expand your knowledge and be entertained along the way. Whether you're a history buff or a new history fan, Wondery shows go behind the scenes to tell the stories of well-known and otherwise forgotten moments that define our reality. From deep dives into iconic figures like J. Edgar Hoover, who made even the most powerful men in the world nervous, to unknown facts that may surprise you,

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Legacy, and Black History for Real. On Valentine's Day, 2007, Kimberly Ross's husband of two years, Bill Ross, had been shot to death in his home outside Shelbyville, Tennessee. Kimberly said that two black males had entered the home, shot her husband, and tied her and Justin up and left. And at first, 19-year-old Justin Young, who lived with the Rosses, had told a somewhat similar story. A lot of their facts were similar, but they had some details that were different.

Suspicious, the investigators had brought Justin in for a second round of questioning, and the result was a breakthrough. He figured he's telling a lie. It's not gonna hold up any further, and so he needs to start telling the truth. It's not going to hold up any further, and so he needs to start telling the truth. So Justin's next version was that this home invasion

by two unknown assailants was bogus. Instead, Justin said that it was Ashley Cook who'd killed Bill. That's the first time we had heard the name Ashley. Ashley's name may have been new to the homicide investigators, but she was no stranger to the victim. Another troubled young person like Justin, Ashley didn't live with Kimberly and Bill, but she did depend on their generosity.

The Rosses provided financial support. Including the trailer outside Shelbyville where Ashley lived. They paid the rent, they paid the utilities, things like that. So why would she kill the golden goose? It was simple, according to Justin. Bill Ross was going to cut it all off. Justin said that Bill's decision must have made Ashley furious

because she was the one who'd actually crawled in his window early that morning. Ashley came over, came through the window, came down the hall, grabbed the gun out of the cabinet, chambered around, and then shot Mr. Ross. According to Justin, Ashley's the one that came up with the story about the gentleman breaking in, and she tied him up and told him this is

the story you tell. But if that were true, why would Justin and Kimberly actually tell that story once the sheriff's deputies arrived? Hoping for an answer, the investigators brought Kimberly back in for another round of questioning. Kimberly says that she lied in the first statement because she was afraid of Ashley. And like Justin, Kimberly said Ashley had murdered Bill because he decided to stop supporting her financially. I do recall Kimberly saying Ashley got mad at Bill,

and that was her reasoning for shooting him. However, while Kimberly and Justin's new stories essentially matched, the investigators didn't necessarily believe them. Why wouldn't you have told that in the first place? To say that you're afraid, well, now you've got a bunch of police officers, you're going to be safe from that point.

Why aren't you pointing law enforcement in the direction of the person who did it? It was not a plausible story. It didn't add up. And yet, at just after 7.30 that morning, while the investigators were finishing up with Kimberly and Justin, patrol officers made a discovery that appeared to confirm

at least some of their story, Kimberly's stolen car. It was abandoned in a church parking lot about a half a mile or so from Ashley's house. Had Kimberly and Justin actually been telling the truth? The vehicle was basically clean. There was no weapons. There was nothing that was tied back to the crime scene. However, even without the murder weapon,

finding the car so close to Ashley's trailer was enough to send the deputies looking for her. They got her and brought her to the Sheriff's Department. And without telling her right away that Justin and Kimberly had accused her of murder, they asked Ashley what she knew about Kimberly's car. At which time she basically started telling a story that Kimberly had given her the car and told her to take it.

And Bill's murder. According to Ashley, she'd had nothing to do with it. She was told at that point, look, you know, Justin and Kimberly have ratted you out. They have pointed the finger at you and said that you alone did this. The news appeared to take Ashley by surprise. She became quite emotional.

She felt like she had been sold out by Justin and Kimberly. And in her anger about the betrayal, Ashley ended up making a damning admission. She's now saying that this was a conspiracy involving myself, Justin Young, Kimberly Ross. Although according to Ashley, Kimberly was the mastermind. Ashley said Kimberly had put her up to this, to do this.

She was given $30 and was told she could keep the car for murdering Bill Ross. Ashley claimed that the money and the car weren't the main reasons she'd done it, though. Kimberly led Ashley to believe that Bill had been abusing Kimberly. Kimberly said she couldn't get a divorce because she would be left with nothing.

And so the plan was hatched that she would come over and commit the murder. However, according to Ashley, that wasn't the entire plan. They had conspired to basically blame a couple of young black men as the perpetrators. Not just in a generic sense either. Ashley said they'd planned to set up two men she knew. They'd hung out together, done drugs before,

things like that. And on the night of February 13, Ashley had invited the two men to come to her trailer. They drove over, was hanging out with her. She said, I've got to go take care of something. Y'all just hang out. I'll be back shortly. Ashley told the investigators that she'd taken a cab

to the convenience store not far from Kimberly's house. So then she walked to the Ross house. She told how there was a stepladder outside. She climbed up the stepladder. That was left in place through the window. Justin had previously loaded the gun, chambered around, and wiped it down so there would be no fingerprints on it. He loaded the gun because she didn't know how to use it.

She had never fired a weapon, or I doubt, baby, that she had even held a weapon prior to that night. Then she claims she just opened the door without even looking, sticks her arm in the doorway, and fires three or four shots. And after shooting Bill, according to Ashley, she'd tied up Kimberly and Justin, but not too tight. Kimberly was left in a situation to where she could make a phone call, a 911 call.

Although by then, Ashley was supposed to have carried out the rest of their plan. It was her intention to give the vehicle with the gun in it to the two black males that she left at her house. They'd be driving through town. About the time there was, they'd be on the lookout. And they would get picked up, questioned, find a murder weapon, dead man's car, and deflect any further investigation on their end.

At least that was what was supposed to happen. But according to Ashley, when she got back to the trailer, the plan to frame two innocent men for murder had quickly gone awry. When she returned, they were gone. She didn't know what to do. She left the car at the church. She walked back to the house.

But according to Ashley, before ditching the car, she had decided to hang on to the house. But according to Ashley, before ditching the car, she had decided to hang on to the gun. She had told them that it was under the mattress. And the.380 caliber pistol was still there when the investigators searched her trailer a few hours later. It all come apart so fast that by the time we got to her, she hadn't had time, really, to get rid of the weapon. The gun was enough hard evidence to place Ashley

under arrest for murder. It matched. The shell casings found at the scene. But it didn't prove her account that Kimberly and Justin had been involved. The determination was made to go back and talk to each one of them again. And since Justin had been the first one

to break last time around, the investigators started with him. He would be the most likely to cooperate and tell the truth. And sure enough, Justin does. He agrees that this is a conspiracy. And according to Justin, he'd gotten involved in the murder plot for pretty much the same reason as Ashley. She told Justin that my brother was abusing her.

Kim really made him believe that she was being hurt and that he had to save her. Although according to Justin, when Kimberly brought up killing Bill, he'd tried to talk her out of it, at least initially. He had urged Kimberly to get a divorce. She responded that she would be left with nothing if she went through a divorce.

But if Bill died, there would be much more. She said that there was a million dollar life insurance policy. He was promised that she would move to Oklahoma, and he would move with her, and they would live on a ranch. When the investigators brought Kimberly back in for another round of questions and confronted her with what they'd learned from Justin and Ashley, she didn't deny it.

She was pretty open about being involved in a conspiracy to have Bill murdered. And she fully backed up everything that Justin and Ashley said about Bill's alleged abuse. Kimberly stated that he had raped her the morning of the murder. And it was hardly the first time, according to Kimberly. Her statement begins with literally, Bill Ross is a horrible individual who has raped me, he has beat me, he has bruised me,

he has burned me. Which in Kimberly's mind meant that Bill had gotten what he deserved. She's admitting that she was involved in a plan to murder her husband, claiming, I'm justified in what I did. But would a jury see it that way? At the end of her third round of questioning,

the investigators placed Kimberly under arrest for murder. She was charged with a conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and first-degree murder. And so were Justin and Ashley. It clearly involved these three people. But was there another person involved in the story? Another name that the investigators hadn't heard yet. Coming up, Bill's sister makes an unexpected discovery.

I called the number, and he said, who the hell is this? But will it reveal a new motive? They had been engaged to be married for approximately five years. By the afternoon of February 16, 2007, it had been less than 48 hours since Kimberly Ross's husband Bill had been murdered in their home outside Shelbyville, Tennessee. The story was given that it was a home invasion.

These two fellas came in, shot Bill, and escaped. But within hours, Bedford County Sheriff's investigators had arrested 37-year-old Kimberly, 19-year-old Justin Young, and 23-year-old Ashley Cook for Bill's murder. This is definitely not a home invasion. It was reported that way to start with and I know a lot of people was alarmed by that and scared by that and then justifiably,

but that's not the case. Kimberly was the main actor in this. It was Kimberly Ross that put them on a path to murdering Bill Ross. Who pulled the trigger? Ashley. The other woman? Yes, I was tied up.

They thought I'm abusing me, and they couldn't take it no more. According to what Justin had told the investigators, Bill's alleged abuse and his million dollar insurance policy had motivated the murder. But after doing a little digging, the investigators had their doubts. Mr. Ross had a life insurance policy of $25,000. And they suspected Kimberly's claims of abuse were also a lie.

And doing the background with coworkers, family, associates, I couldn't find anybody that had anything bad to say about Bill Ross. Not one single person ever reported that he had a temper or that he was an angry person or that anything like that. But if Bill wasn't abusive and there was no million-dollar payoff, what motivated the crime?

The first clue would come that afternoon, but it wouldn't be the investigators who found it. What motivated the crime? The first clue would come that afternoon, but it wouldn't be the investigators who found it. By two days after the murder on the 16th, the investigators had finished gathering evidence at Bill and Kimberly's house. After they released the crime scene, Bill's family were allowed in there to collect his things.

And while Bill's family were allowed in there to collect his things. And while Bill's sister Tammy was packing his personal effects, she heard a cell phone. I looked around and it kept going off, and we found it underneath some clothes on the dresser top. It wasn't Bill's phone, though. I already had his phone that he had laid on the bedside table, and I knew it wasn't it. She had found Kimberly Ross' cell phone.

And since the sound that led her to it indicated an incoming text, Tammy looked at the log and discovered a series of recent messages. They were saying, sweetheart, where are you? You know, I'm waiting at the airport. I called the number, and I said, who is this? And he said, who the hell is this? And when Tammy explained that Kimberly was in jail, under arrest for murdering her husband,

the man on the phone became even more confused. He said, her husband. I said, the murder of her husband. And he said, wait a minute, she's my fiance. He was calling from Oklahoma, and he said that they were engaged to be married and that he was supposed to pick her up for the air at the airport that morning.

And she was moving there. Law enforcement talked to him, and we got a really complete picture of the kind of person we're dealing with with Kimberly Ross. The man told the investigators that he'd known Kimberly for years, back when she'd lived in Oklahoma, and that they'd gotten engaged before she moved to Tennessee. They had been engaged to be married

for approximately five years. Kimberly's fiance said he'd been expecting Kimberly to move back to Oklahoma to join him, but that she'd kept putting things off because of her oldest son. Kim had told him she was trying to get custody back of him, but that she'd kept putting things off because of her oldest son. Kim had told him she was trying to get custody back of him, and so she was traveling from Tennessee to Oklahoma all the time.

And what about Bill Ross? Kimberly's fiance told the investigators that he knew the name. He even knew that Kimberly had been living with him, but he'd never heard anything about them being married. He had no clue. He thought that Bill Ross was Kimberly's cousin. However, according to the fiance,

their long-awaited wedding was finally supposed to be happening, which explained all the frantic texts about waiting at the airport. On the 14th, she was planning on flying out of Nashville back to Oklahoma, and they were going to be married and live happily ever after. Was the future husband waiting in the wings Kimberly's true motive for murdering Bill? I believe Kimberly's motive was simply she wanted out of the marriage. And while there was no million-dollar insurance policy,

there was money at stake. Cash Kimberly was getting from her Oklahoma fiance. I found all kinds of Western Union receipts from the fiance from Oklahoma. He was paying Kimberly's bills. He was sending her quite a bit of money, anywhere from $400 to $600 a week, uh, for her upkeep. Small sums that eventually added up to some serious cash.

He had apparently sent her more than $100,000 over the years. But was he also involved in Bill's murder? After interviewing the fiancé, the investigators concluded that the answer was no. There's no doubt in my mind that he would have been the next victim, eventually. Nor would he be the first person Kimberly had tricked out of money. Digging into her background, the investigators

uncovered a laundry list of various frauds and schemes that she perpetrated back in Oklahoma. She claimed that she was a pastor of a church. She claimed a lot of things that just weren't true. And she had even been arrested for once impersonating a police officer. She had a uniform. She had a ID. It showed she was a police officer.

Kimberly Ross was a pathological liar. And she'd had no trouble convincing Ashley and Justin to go along with her plot to kill Bill. Justin believed that Kim was being abused. Kim kept feeding him that lie. But was that Justin's only motive? The way she doted on him, it wasn't a natural relationship that you would have with your best friend's mother.

There was a suggestion, you know, that she and Justin engaged in sexual activity. It wasn't true, according to Kimberly. She vehemently denied any of that. And as she and her attorney prepared for trial, Kimberly confidently stood by her claims of abuse. She had a sense that it was a winnable case, that she wouldn't be convicted of first degree murder.

But was she right? Could she pull off an acquittal? After all, she'd already been able to convince people that she was a pastor and even a cop. She can manipulate people easy. So was it unreasonable to think that she could convince a jury that she'd been abused? If so, then maybe she did decide to kill her husband,

you know, out of some need to get away from that. Or would it turn out that Kimberly had one more surprise in store for everyone? Coming up, can the prosecution convince Justin to take the stand? We made no promises to him whatsoever. Or will Kimberly's power of manipulation prove decisive? They played right into her hand. On Wednesday November 7th 2007, Kimberly Ross walked into the Marshall County

Courthouse in Lewisburg, Tennessee. It had been almost nine months since the 38 year old had been arrested for masterminding the murder of her husband, Bill. She was laying the foundation for this story that my brother abused her, trying to get people to believe it, you know, months before she killed him. And according to the prosecution, she'd recruited 19-year-old Justin Young and 24-year-old Ashley Cook to help her carry out her deadly plan. She was very manipulative. They were very, they were young, impressionable, and they played right into her hand. But since Kimberly was the alleged key to the conspiracy, the prosecutors had decided

to put her on trial first. They had a very good case, but not an exceptionally strong case. Kimberly vowed to fight the charges, but as the trial date approached, something happened that made her reconsider. Justin turned state's evidence. When we met with Justin, we made no promises to him whatsoever. If you want to cooperate, you can. If you don't want to, you don't have to. I believe Justin Young was sincerely remorseful

that he had decided to become involved in this. And his testimony could be very damaging to Kimberly's claims of abuse. He never saw any of that. He lived there. He said he saw no signs of that. He certainly never overheard an angry word between them. But would he ever take the stand?

When Kimberly found out that the prosecution had been talking to Justin, her reaction was immediate. She just basically threw her hands up and said, well, it's over, then. So then I called the DA, and we worked out a deal fairly quickly. And when Kimberly went to court on November 7th, it was to plead guilty to first degree murder. The judge accepted her guilty plea and sentenced her to life with possibility of parole. Kimberly has to serve 51 calendar years before she's eligible for parole.

The police and prosecutors were satisfied that justice had been served. She was a very cold, calculated killer. She was 100% a part of this. She may not have pulled the trigger, but she might as well have. Bill's sister is satisfied, too. But that doesn't make

the murders aftermath any easier. We're supposed to pray for our enemies, you know, and I can do that with the woman that shot my brother, but I have to this day no sense of forgiveness in my heart for Kim. And perhaps most telling of all, neither does Kimberly's own daughter. My mom was evil. She didn't care who she hurt

and didn't have feelings for anyone but herself. Ashley Cook was convicted of first-degree murder and given a life sentence. After testifying against Ashley, Justin Young pleaded guilty to second degree murder. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. This Prime Day, discover Wondry Plus on us. Wondry Plus brings you a premium podcast experience with early access to series like Even the Royals, Morbid, and more. Get access to exclusive content only available through Wondry Plus and binge the newest seasons of your favorite series before anyone else.

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