Snapped: Women Who Murder - Martha Farmer

Episode Date: April 10, 2022

A parking lot shooting in the dead of night leaves detectives with a long list of suspects, but all along the killer is hiding in plain sight.Season 23, Episode 14Originally aired: May 06, 2018Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIebSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. She was a dedicated EMT who found her soulmate after years of searching. She thought he was the man that she was going to be with us for a life. It was just a lovely, dubbing relationship.

She was always worried about everyone else. As long as everyone else was happy, she felt like she was happy too. But that life of love and sacrifice would be swept away with one breathtakingly vicious crime In the darkness on the edge of town It was dispatched as a possible Hispanic male have been shot the question mark everybody was asking who is this person She stood there and watched the detectives Maybe you're there to see

What they're gonna find. As this shocking case unfolds, investigators must answer one question. Why was this life taken in a remote area of peaceful North Carolina? And who was responsible? We were told this man may strike again, there is a predator out there. If you were to turn around, there's just another angle. Your intensity goes up, your adrenaline starts flowing. What is it that he's worried that she knows about? Specifically.

It's an enforcement. Is it the LZ? Yes. I remember when I found out it was very chilling to me. Because it's not here now. September 5, 2006. It's a little after 1am, the remote corner of Brunswick County, North Carolina. Situated along Highway 211, the area is known to locals

as the Greenswamp. In the heart of the Greenswamp, the middle of the Highway 211 is this restaurant called Becky's Seafield Restaurant. The proprietors of Becky's, McKinley Little and his wife, live next door and are home that night with their daughter, Debbie. My dad was going to bed, and his bedroom is in the end of the house next to the restaurant. As Mr. Little settles into bed, a noise outside jolts him wide awake. A noise outside jolts him wide awake. He heard two gunshots. The first one being he described it as muffled compared

to the second one. He come back out and he said something awful has happened out in the restaurant. The mom said, go see. What's happening out in the restaurant? The mom said, go see. When Mr. Little returns, it's obvious he's witnessed something truly terrifying. He come back in, and he was wild as a ghost,

and shaking all over. He said somebody stayed in the parking lot, somebody's been killed. So I call 911. It's about to come in on one, where's your emergency? She's a dead man, I'm laying in a cell. I'm not. Okay, Liam, do you want to talk to the officer? I want to come out and get out here.

It was dispatched as a possible Hispanic male have been shot. Sergeant Thomas Talley, with the Brunswick County Sheriff's Department Department is one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. I instruct Deputy Now to go to the right side of the building and I'll go to the left side of the building and we start approaching. We fan a part and go around and as soon as we get to the front left corner of the building, we see the body lying there. Walking up, it did appear that it was possibly a spany male. But you get there, and then we realize it's a female.

There was a wound to the middle of her forehead, and also to the side of the forehead, looked like two gunshots. We checked for poles, we checked for anything that we could do, but obviously, she was gone at that point. Who was this woman? And what evil had befallen her

in this remote section of coastal Carolina? To answer those questions, investigators will seek help from a familiar source. A woman named Martha Farmer. A woman named Martha Farmer. Born in 1966, Martha Farmer moved to Brunswick County, North Carolina from Michigan, desperate to start a new life away from a brutish ex-husband.

Martha said it was a rocky relationship. He liked to drink. We don't let her do nothing and stuff like that, so she had to get out of that relationship. Martha, a trained EMT, was trying to outrun other demons besides just her ex. Martha was an EMT years and years ago, but she had a tragic death and infant died on Martha,

and she couldn't deal with that. So Martha just let her certification go. When you see some things, we see it's... and she couldn't deal with that. So Martha just let her certification go. When you see some things there, we see it's, it can hurt you spiritually, emotionally, even physically. And I think that brought her into a depression. A depression that was so severe, it ultimately caused Martha more than just her career.

She also lost her children to their father in a custody battle. Martha's ex-husband took her to court to get custody of her two kids in the Michigan area. He got custody. After moving to the Carolinas for a fresh start, Martha bounced from one low-paying job to the next. Although she was just barely scraping by, the fog of her depression slowly began to lift

in her new surroundings. She would have her down days. Even though she was down, she would always laugh, and make you laugh. She just had that love and personality that everybody fell in love with. Martha worked at a gas station, and I went to go get gas, and we just hung out,

and we just became good friends after that. Martha felt a renewed desire to return to the career she had once cherished. I started my EMT course and I was telling Martha about it. So she decided to take the EMT course and then we both graduated. After reobtaining her EMT certification, Marse landed a job with a local ambulance service and volunteered with a local rescue squad. She failed. She was doing something good for people. But the job also brought Marse a something else,

a second chance at love. My name is Clarence. He was one of the guys I worked with on my first drive and we had to eat. guys I worked with, I was driving with him. He drove one truck, I drove another truck. Clarence, Martha and I, we all worked together at Coastline Care. They started to get a relationship together, maybe six months into the relationship.

Clarence moved in with Martha and became a boyfriend and girlfriend. For the next three years, Martha enjoyed the security of domestic life that she had long craved. Just a lovey-dovey relationship. It was getting up at work at 8 o'clock in the morning and getting off at 5, cooking dinner. She thought he was the man that she was gonna be with Restrelai.

However, a few years into the relationship, Martha realized their union was built on a lie. However, a few years into the relationship, Martha realized their union was built on a lie. Clarence had deep down feeling still for someone he had known before he met Martha. He ended up cheating on Martha with that woman, and that kind of ended their relationship. And it hurt her a lot.

With the man of her dreams no longer by her side, Martha turned to her and said, relationship and it hurt her a lot. With the man of her dreams no longer by her side, Marse turned to a close knit group of co-workers for support. We're more family than friends. We'd all go together and hang out. We usually cook something to eat together. We're gonna love to relax your family. Of all her co-workers,

Marse was perhaps closest with 51-year-old Jean Bussard. Jean was an excellent EMT intermediate, but he worked as an EMT firefighter. Jean got hired on where Martha and I worked. He was just an outgoing person. Jean Bussard talked to people, you know, just make you welcome.

Like Marseille, Jean Bussard had recently found himself on the wrong end of an unexpected break up. What I was told by Martha was that Jean was getting separated or filing a divorce. In Jean, Marseille had found a kindred spirit with which to share her relationship woes. Jean also had endured a tough marriage, mostly plagued by his wife's drug problem. The way Martha's personality and Jean's personality, you know, they connected.

Leaning on each other, Jean and Martha began to recover from their respective breakups. And by the summer of 2006, both of them seemed to be back on their feet. Jean and Martha was close to each other. Martha really liked Gene. But their closest friends could never imagine the horrific situation in which Martha and Gene

would soon find themselves. It starts with the shocking discovery McKinley Little makes behind his restaurant on the night of September 5th, 2006. There was a woman found dead at the area of the Old Becky's restaurant in the Greensclaw. And she was shot to death and left for dead and abandoned parking lots. I mean, who does that?

Coming up, as investigators scrambled to identify the victim and piece together what happened to her, they eventually expose a side to Jean and Martha's friendship that was darker and more dangerous than anyone could have imagined. Most of the time, people get murdered because they're doing something they're not supposed to do. By the summer's end of 2006, 40-year-old EMT Martha Farmer had weathered two failed relationships and managed to get back on her feet, thanks in large part to the support of her friends and fellow EMTs. When we worked together, we were always laughing about something, having a good time. Of all her friends, nobody helped Marse through the tough times,

like 51-year-old Jean Bessard. Jean made Marse a feel, happy, and special. But just when it seemed like Martha and Jean had made it through the tough times, a disturbing crime brings a dark cloud back into their lives. It started on September 5th, when Martha's fellow first responders, along with scores of police and homicide detectives,

found themselves at the scene of a murder in a secluded section of Brunswick County, North Carolina, known as the Green Swamp. It's the only business on that road. You have crime scene, you have your area detectives. You're going to have EMS transport. You're going to have equipment for lighting because it was at night.

It was a gloomy day. It was a very remote area. I was airy. The first task for investigators is to determine how this unidentified woman was killed. She was laying on her stomach and we could see clearly when we got there that she'd been shot in the head. There was one wound to the center of the forehead, which the skin was split open, and another wound above the temple, which looked like another entrance wound, and a wound at the side of the head

where it would have been exit wound. We know that when she was shot, she was shot right there, look like not transported somewhere else, and looking at the angle and the entry she died fairly quick. With the cause of death apparent, investigators look for some way to identify the victim. looking at the angle and the entry she died fairly quick. With the cause of death apparent, investigators

look for some way to identify the victim. There was no personal items, no wallet, no purse, no cell phone, anything would have been on her person was not with her. The odds were stacked against us when we determined that we have, you know, homicide and no identity. So we start looking for have homicide and no identity. So we start looking for anything, any simple clue.

We slowly went through everybody of the parking lot and looking for any shell casings or even a weapon itself. Nothing we've located. Investigators also interview McKinley Little, the owner of the restaurant, and his daughter Debbie. But neither of them can provide anything more than scant details. He heard gunshots, and he looked out the window, and saw our vehicle leaving the area. We couldn't identify the car because it was dark, and it backed up.

There wasn't anything we could really tell them except there was a dead person in our parking lock. There wasn't anything we could really tell them except there was a dead person in our parking lot. With no way to identify either the victim or the perpetrator, investigators fan out across the green swamp area in search of other potential witnesses. Nobody in the area seems to have seen or heard anything. But a pair of officers managed to uncover some important physical evidence. We had our investigator go in different directions. One of the uniformer had located a shirt with blood on it, which was some distance down the road on Highway 211. It didn't look like he would fit the young lady that was laying in the parking lot, nowhere near her. We had that, and the same time the investigator had found an apron. I think it was obviously a work apron.

The apron gives in details. We figured out that the victim was probably a waitress. As investigators take a closer look at the body, they discover another important clue, one that's been obscured until now. She had a name tag on her shirt, Carla. The name tag is from Eddie Rominelli's, a well-known Italian restaurant just outside the city of Wilmington. Now we're looking at three o'clock in the morning,

so we make phone calls, find the manager of Eddie Romanelli's restaurant. It's probably 30 miles away, at least. So we go up there and meet with him. He explained that, uh, he was a little bit more than I thought, but he was a little bit more than I thought. with him. He explained that he knew Carla and described her as Carla Bizarre and that she was an employee there, a waitress. So it's important for us to establish the identity, make contact with as many people as possible within that person's life to put together a picture of who they are,

what they were about. So we can establish how they got to this point. Detectives relay this information to officers at the station. When they run Carla's name through the system, her picture matches the woman in the parking lot. They also learn that 36-year-old Carla has a criminal record. We researched the background of our deceased victim, Carla Bazar, and they were determined

that she had some run-ins for the law. Carla had a troubled past. He was a DUI and maybe a drug paraphernalia charge. Meanwhile, back at the restaurant, detective speaking with the owner learned Carla had worked the previous night shift and had left the restaurant a little after 11.30 p.m. He said that to his knowledge,

she had arranged to meet with an individual known to him as Bitt. Carla's boss describes Bitt as a middle-aged Caucasian woman, but he doesn't know her real name or where she lives. Then he goes on to tell investigators that the rumor going around the restaurant is that there's a man in Carla's life who's been causing her problems for months. As we're at Eddie Romanole's discussion turned to an estranged husband. That man is 51-year-old Jean Bessard. Jean and Carla Bessard had been married for quite some time,

and they had recently separated from what I understood. It was Carla who had left. According to Carla's boss, the separation wasn't amicable in the least. And apparently, the biggest point of contention between Carla and Jean was who would get the couple's prized red Mustang. Carla's pride was getting that Mustang.

It was a very beautiful red Mustang that she wanted out of the divorce. According to Carla's boss, Jean wasn't willing to give up the car. He wasn't giving it back. There were several times that he said he would, but he wasn't. He kept lowering it on.

She was telling her other employee he'd going to get that musta day. It could be a domestic violence situation that just completely got out of hand. There were so many variables going on at one time. After speaking with Carla's boss, investigators dispatch patrol officers to make contact with Jean Bessard.

But as they wait for that to happen, investigators look into the possibility that Carla's criminal record might have played a part in her demise. From that, it expanded our scope as potentially who may want to hurt her, who she runs with. We had to keep that in the back of our mind. Carla knows a lot of people.

Coming up, as detectives chased down these leads, another possibly dangerous suspect surfaces in the murder of Carla Bessard. Ponytail, red truck, guy, kind of a rough-looking guy. He told us that we have to find this man. He may strike again. But there was a very dangerous man out there. Hey, listener.

It is Jason Bateman. We have been fortunate to attract so many A-list guests to our SmartList podcast, but we've never put together a lineup quite like this. I'm talking about Will Ferrell, Conan O'Brien, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Kimmel, Matt Damon, and more available four weeks early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. If you've seen our Docu series, SmartList on the road, you know we had an incredible time on our tour, where we recorded 10 amazing interviews, Sean. This is Sean Heiss. Not only are these some of the best episodes

that we've ever recorded, but the atmosphere with the live crowd is unlike anything we've released before. It was incredible to engage with an audience of thousands of our biggest fans as we traveled all over the country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early

and add free with 1-3 plus, find 1-3 plus in the 1-3 app, or on Apple Podcasts. And this is Will Arnett. I'm telling you, you really should listen. Do it, do it, do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Detectives in Brunswick County, North Carolina are less than 24 hours into the murder investigation of 36-year-old waitress, Carla Bessard. Though police are investigating Carla's own criminal past, they're also looking at her pending divorce from 51-year-old EMT, Gene Bessard, as possible motive. It seems tension between Gene and Carla had flared up over the couple's beloved red Ford Mustang. We made a phone call to him that we needed to talk to him about his ex-wife.

We met him at a location in Wilmershire, D'Alessio, and Lana. When Gene arrives, he's driving the red Mustang. But Jean appears distraught over the news of his estranged wife's death. Deterpied myself, and once we met with him, we confirmed that his wife had passed away. It was very, very emotional and very upset because his estranged wife had died very, very devastated. Jean describes Carla as someone who had worked hard to put her past transgressions behind her. She went through cancer at one time, beat it,

and she got into a rough crowd at one time, and she was getting away from that crowd. She had a very exceptional job at a restaurant. I was trying to make something of herself. Gene admits that their separation had been bitter and that he and Carla had been arguing about who should get their Mustang, but he's adamant that he would never harm her.

We asked him about the last time he saw his strange wife where he was last night. According to Gene, the previous day, he'd worked his regular EMT shift, and after that he went to work at his second job. He worked at a military facility in our county at the time, and it was on duty when that happened. My detectives were able to look into Gene Brizard's alibi and confirm that he was at work. Although Jean's alibi checks out,

there's something he says just before the interview wraps up that strikes investigators as odd. Her friends and others would call Carla crazy Carla because she was not stable. And he would not very descriptive about the bad, but that was his term crazy Carla. Anytime you start talking bad about somebody that just deceased as another clue.

Though his alibi seems airtight, investigators decide to keep gene on their radar. They then turn to their only concrete lead and attempt to track down the woman known as BIT, whom Carla was allegedly planning to meet up with after work. So our effort then was to locate this individual BIT, whom Carla was allegedly planning to meet up with after work. So, our effort then was to locate this individual BIT, a white female that works at EMS type work in Brunswick County. Investigators asked Detective David Crocker to reach out to the Brunswick County EMT's

office. On his first call, his efforts quickly pay off. I identified myself, told him I was looking for a subject named BIT, and she said, , that's me. And I said, what's your name, Martha Farmer? The nickname Bitt is Martha's nickname, her mother came for years and years and years ago. So we drove down there and asked her about meeting with Carla that night. We started the conversation as to, do you know Carla Bazar?

And she said yes. And we asked her as to, last time she saw her and she indicated that she had picked her up at Eddie Romila. The night before. She tells them that she had been friends with Carla and Carla's husband, Jean Bazar. At the time, Jean and Carla weren't separated, but Marse could see the writing on the wall. What I was told by Martha was that Carla and Jean was getting separated. Marse also states that as Jean and Carla's marriage

fell apart, she had no choice but to side with her friend and coworker. But according to Marse, she'd grown close to Carla as well. After Jean took the Mustang, Marse would often give Carla rides. In fact, Marse tells police that's what happened on the night of September 5th. Farm indicated that she picked up Carla there at the restaurant in the parking lot and never got a car. And that she was taking her to meet with an individual known as Wayne, approximately 15, 18 miles from Edrum Ellis.

But who exactly is Wayne? And why was Carla going to meet him in the middle of the night? According to Martha, Wayne was Carla's new lover. She was indicating that Carla was excited about meeting with her new lover boyfriend, Wayne. Martha indicated that Carla was evacuated with Wayne and that she wouldn't go to such degree about her sexual nature, that she was very graphic about it.

Marcia goes on to say that when she dropped Carla off, she and Wayne seemed very much in love. She was indicating that Carla was being very secretive about him, but was excited about seeing him. Investigators believe Marza is telling the truth. They ask Marza if she can provide them with a description of Wayne. We had a composite artist come in and do a composite sketch

of the person at Martha Identified. He was five-nine. Then he wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans and a scraggly go-t and ponytail and that he drove a red truck. After the composite was done, we broadcasted in the local news. We set up a 800 number at the Sheriff's Office for intake of any information and the phones just started ringing. We broadcasted in the local news. We set up a 800 number at the Sheriff's Office for intake of any information and the phone just started ringing. We're getting calls from people that know a Wayne, people that know a Wayne with red truck, and people that look like the pilot.

We take every call serious you have to because it's just that one little piece of information that could be the key to the case. Every police officer, deputy, and investigators was out and those 24, 48 hours really beating the bush for a wane and his red truck. Hewitt says investigators are looking for evidence along highway to 11 and hoping for a call from someone who knows wane. The search for wane was a pretty big deal around here. In the press conference, they were begging the public for help.

We were told, this man may strike again. There is a predator out there. But despite dozens of leads pouring in, none of them ultimately pan out. Me and my partner, we start scouring. The different areas looking for this truck and we do not find it. So we were just running and dead in.

Back at square one, detectives again turned their attention to Marse a farmer and called her for more information. We had more questions for her. Was she supposed to pick her back up? What during the discussion about that? Any phone calls made with Wayne? Did she have any numbers?

Marse says she had made no plans with Carla to pick her up later that evening, and she has no additional information about Wayne. She does, however, give police the name of another potential suspect, Tom Pollard. Carla had dated Tom after separating from Gene Bessard, but before she started seeing the mysterious Wayne. Farmer at this point is indicating that there was a romantic hot and heavy relationship with this time individual. He lived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Tom was wanting more of a relationship than Carla was able to give and that he would be somebody of interest for us. She didn't indicate at this point that Tom knew Wayne and that Tom was a violent type person.

She felt like there is foul play here in any way involved. Tom would be in the middle of it. Investigators consider the possibility that a jealous Tom might have caught wind of Carla's alleged late-night rendezvous with Wayne and waited until the couple were together to exact revenge. We're thinking about different motives and theories and here we have... Is there a love triangle? Coming up, before investigators can run down this new lead,

the case will take another even stranger turn. Kertesy once again, of their now go-to source of information, Marce of Farmer. source of information, Martha Farmer. She cuts. What's up, guys? Who's she? For more than 24 hours, lifelong EMT, Martha Farmer, has been aiding Brunswick County detectives with their investigation into the death of her friend,

Carla Bessard. Martha told investigators that just after midnight on September 5th, she dropped Carla off for a date with her new boyfriend, Wayne. But when police couldn't locate Wayne, Martha supplied them with another name, Tom Pollard. Farmer gave us the name, Tom, and a complete information about him. We felt comfortable that we had to go find him.

Myself and my partner were able to locate this Tom at his residence in Murdo Beach. Detectives make the 90-minute drive to South Carolina to meet with Tom. For a guy with an allegedly vicious temper, Tom appears quite shaken up by the news of Carlos death. He was surprised to hear the news, visually upset. Tom said he had known the victim, collar, and he had seen her the prior weekend, but had not seen her that week.

He gave us where he was, the mighty question. And as I recall, he didn't even come into the state north of Atlanta. And then he'd stayed there, though, time. We had nothing to indicate he was in our area at all. He seemed honest, willing to help. Didn't seem like he'd had anything to do with it. Investigators are quickly able to verify Tom Pollard's

alibi. And with Carla's elusive boyfriend Wayne still nowhere to be found, investigators ask Tom for his take on their primary source of information, Martha Farmer. We started talking about Farmer, and I'll get indicated that Farmer had made Carla upset recently. He was told from Carla that Farmer had indicated that her strange husband, Gene, had either missing or been killed.

Detectives are confused. Gene Bessard is clearly alive and well. So why would Marse a farmer tell Carla her estranged husband was dead? And do so just days before Carla herself was murdered. Tom Pollard shares detectives concerns. He was trying to find the answers like we were. In fact, he was very suspicious of Martha Farmer.

Investigators now have a sneaking suspicion. Martha Farmer has been playing them all along. When a new farmer was somewhere in the background dictating things going on, that we need to look at her more. And every time we turn around, people were saying, just something's not right here. Before detectives bring Martha back in for questioning, they decide to take a look at the evidence

from the crime scene for more clues. Namely, the bloody shirt found near the crime scene. The roadway in front of the restaurant, we had found a bowling shirt, which was size 5x. The shirt had an emblem of a local bowling alley and had the name clearance on it. A 5x shirt is not exactly a common shirt,

so we call the bowling alley. And from that, it led it to the gentleman who owned the shirt, who had a relationship with Martha Farmer. It turns out the gentleman is the ex-boyfriend who had broken Martha Farmer's heart. Clarence Biggs. Subtaining, we went to the, does he know where this t-shirt is? And did he own one?

Yeah. I said, where is it? And he said, last place, I left it was in Mark the Palmer's house. If what Clarence tells police is true was Martha Farmer wearing this oversized shirt the night Carla was killed, and if so, was Martha somehow involved in the crime? After confirming Clarence's alibi for the night of the murder,

investigators come across another bizarre piece of information. One, they only realized when they reviewed a log of officers and EMTs who were at the scene the night Carla was murdered. Everybody's put on a crime scene log. That way we looked like she was signed in and where she was on scene. Martha was a volunteer EMS worker. she was on scene. Martha was a volunteer EMS worker.

She was actually the one who responded this call. Sinking back on the night of the murder, police were desperate to identify Carla's body. Now the question is, why didn't Martha speak up? The question mark everybody was asking who is she. You was obvious that we were all making every effort to find out. Farmers were sitting next to officers, and she was sitting right there, and just remained mute. She never got upset, never showed emotion, never showed any connection at all to the victim.

She stood there and watched the detectives. Maybe you're there to see what they're going to find. I remember when I found out days later, however long it was, it was very chilling to me. The fact that Marse was at the crime scene the night of the shooting casts even more suspicion her way. And on September 6th, detectives obtain a search warrant for her home. In the home itself, we were looking for maybe a murder weapon, any blood, anything I could tie her to the crime.

Investigators find no physical evidence tying Martha to the murder, but they do find a disturbing piece of circumstantial evidence. We had found a picture of Jean. I looked like he had been ripped from a second person that was in the picture, and later we discovered that it was a picture of Jean and Carla together. Why would Martha Farmer have a long picture of Jean laying on her coffee table in her house?

We need to press her more. Now we're absolutely going from a potential witness to she got in bomb. On September 7, detectives bring Martha in for more questioning. They ask her if there's something going on between her, Jean and Carla, that she's been keeping from them. How did that feature of Jean and that there are different roles? How did that end up there? Jean gave you that or did she?

Jean gave you the vision. It was that hand pictures in my clip. We're in front of everybody. Detectives press Martha about why she didn't identify Carla on the night of her death. You were just feeding away from a friend that you knew died. Why wouldn't you tell us? She couldn't explain that. You're not understanding that what it is you're asking me?

Why? Three little whips. Why more? I don't know. And I don't have to move. Nork can Martha explain how Clarence's shirt ended up at the crime scene. And he said he left it in her house. But she never would have missed.

She wore that piece of her that night. She couldn't explain how it was there. Don't know. For hours, detectives grill Martha to no avail. But just as they are about to wrap up the interview, Martha unloads a bombshell. Farmer changed her story again. She did admit to being their own scene.

But she said that Wayne was the assassin, and that he's the one that committed the act. Martha tells investigators that rather than dropping Carla off at the location she'd mentioned in her original statement, she'd actually driven Carla out to Becky's restaurant to meet Wayne. But Martha claims that when they got there, Wayne shot Carla as soon as she stepped foot

outside Martha's car. Then, in a bizarre twist, Wayne forced Martha to fire the next shot. The first shot that Wayne hit shot her in the head, the second shot Wayne had grabbed Farmer's hand and made her squeeze the trigger with Wayne holding her hand and shoot car to the final time. The confession strikes investigators as suspect. In fact, they've come to believe that maybe Wayne isn't even real.

We can finally lead the Wayne, and we felt like Wayne was nonexistent. We felt like we were pulling teeth with Farmer, that she was holding stuff back and wasn't truthful with us, and that it was more to be answered. We're not buying the events that she told us, Wayne did not exist. I confronted her with a cheat lying,

and explained to her that you have to tell the truth, that you're not going home. I know I'm placing you on the rest. I ran to her Miranda Rice. That morning, just 48 hours after Carla Bessard's death, Martha Farmer is charged with murder. The news comes as a shock to her friends and coworkers. She was my best friend.

I didn't think Martha could actually take somebody's life. We worked on the ambulance instead of taking somebody's life. We're actually trying to fix their life. Less than a week later, as the shock of Martha's arrest is still setting in with her friends and co-workers, detectives receive a call from her attorneys. Just your attorneys office have been approached by two local council attorneys to give us a formal statement as to what happened. So we sat down with Martha. to give us a formal statement as to what happened. So we sat down with Martha. This time, Martha vows to tell the truth,

and she starts with an admission that turns her previous confession upside down. She admits that Wayne, the man she claims orchestrated Carla's murder, is a figment of her imagination. In the law, you told her to do guy didn't wait and you didn't exist. Out of no tea, wait, it's almost like cousin, and when was this fuckhead dude? Martha also tells detectives that the person that really wanted Carla dead

was her friend, Jean Bussard. She indicated that Jean was upset because he thought Carla had not been faithful to Jean and had just respected him. Martha tells detectives that Jean urged her to do the deed, and she claims Jean's ties to a local biker gang made it impossible for Marcia to say no. He cuts. It's not his house.

Who cut people's lives out? Jean. OK. He was a dead head on his right shoulder. I have no reason to doubt. You don't get that unless you've built somebody. Martha would prompt me to indicate that Jane was an enforcer and that she had to do this for fear of her life.

If somebody looks good in the face and tells you, if you don't do this right or if we don't do this right, they're going to come out front. Who looked at you and the face and told you that she did? According to Marse, Jean gave her the gun and instructed her to lure Carla to the green swamp by promising that he would be there to hand over something Carla couldn't resist.

Did he tell you what to tell her how to get her to go? What was that? She was just being in the car. The red musta. Marse says that when they arrived at the restaurant, she and Carla got out of the car. She said that she had to use the restroom, told Mr. Carla.

Carla said that she had to also. They had pulled over to the side parking lot. And at this point, I said she approached Carla and just shot her in the head. What did you do to the water? She killed me. But Marse says that single shot didn't kill Carla. Oh, shut up.

I asked her to stay down. I was just standing down. Oh, shut up. I asked her to stay down. Just stay down. What was she saying? Is that my name? You shot at the second time. Did she move after that? No. It's a stunning confession. but after so many lies,

is Marse a finally telling the truth? Coming up, as detectives dig deeper into Marse's story, the allegations of Jean Bessard ties to a murderous biker gang come into focus. We need to cooperate, what you're saying. As Jean never heard anybody else? Specifically. In some case, we can look at, say, yeah, he is bad.

On September 7, 2006, detectives in Brunswick County, North Carolina have placed Martha Farmer, a well-loved local EMT, under arrest for the shooting death of 36-year-old waitress, Carla Bessard. Martha now alleges that her own best friend, Carla's estranged husband, Gene Bessard, coerced her into committing the crime. Gene Blackmailed Martha.

Jean was with the hell's angels. Jean wanted Carla to leave him alone. Martha said, well, what do you want done? And Jean said, I want her dead. Jean basically told Martha, if you don't do this, I know where your family lives, and I'll take care of them if I need to. After interviewing Marse.

Investigators start looking into her claims that Jean is involved with a notorious local biker gang. We got very little substantiation from anybody else. There's nothing we could have presented in court at this point against Jean more than just by her staying alone that it was his idea. She wanted to keep her laying that in fear of my life, I had to participate to the level of my dear,

so my words gonna hurt me. But there was no proof of that. Despite the lack of evidence to support Marth's allegations, detectives still have a lot of questions for Gene Bessard. After the final interview with Farmer, we decided to focus our attention on Gene Bessard to make it quieter inquiry more than just knowledge should be had to be participating in this. He was in a local hospital and he was terminally ill.

And just a couple of days later, he actually died. When I found out of Gene's death, I was shocked because Gene wasn't sick at all at work, you know. He didn't have no chemos that he did or anything that we knew of. Later, investigators inform Martha of Jean's death. She's stunned. I don't know what triggered Martha to do it, but I don't think she would have done it if she knew he was about to die. With no hard evidence to support Martha's allegations

that Jean was a member of a violent motorcycle gang, and no way for Jean to confirm or deny his own involvement in Carla's murder, investigators begin to draw their own conclusions about what might have pushed Carla into Mars' crosshairs. From what we saw from the evidence and from her lack of statements, I feel comfortable that there was feelings toward bizarre.

And for a woman that had endured so many heartbreaks in her life, maybe that's all she really wanted. The outcome would have been that Martha and Jean would have been together because Carla was out of the picture. We feel comfortable that there was a relationship between her and Jean to some degree. She absolutely wanted to do it so that potentially she could have him to herself. On June 11, 2007, Marse pleads guilty to first degree kidnapping and second degree murder,

and a sentence to a maximum of 28 and a half years in prison. Even with the sentence, questions still linger. Like, how did a desire for love turn a selfless friend and dedicated EMT into a vicious killer? She stood there and watched the detectives process to crime scene. And to me, that is, again, something really, really cold-blooded.

Martha will be eligible for release in 2029. She will be 63 years old. For more information on SNAPT, go to oxygen.com. you