Snapped: Women Who Murder - Teresa Kohnle

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

When a man dies in a house fire, his wife and children must grapple with his unexpected loss.Season 31, Episode 15Originally aired: Oct 23, 2022 Watch 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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Ontario in the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in tragedy. I'm Matthew Scherr, and on my new podcast, We Came to the Forest, we expose the hidden truths behind a shootout that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. Binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest ad-free on Wondery Plus. They were the family that seemed to have it all. And a robot! Every morning we'd wake up, and you know,

it's like we're the Conleys. We had the four-part garage. We had the pool. His business went gangbusters. He had tons of clients. And he was the kindest, most gentle man you'll ever meet in your life. And he was the kindest, most gentle man you'll ever meet in your life.

Until a fire left their lives in ruins. It's what they refer to as a full alarm. Dispatch three engines and a ladder truck and an EMS unit. One day we're living the dream and the next day we don't know what we're gonna do. As authorities try to make sense of this tragedy, secrets soon emerge from the ashes. Having this illness, he's not able to work as much, can't provide for the family. They were close to the house going into foreclosure. It was very bleak for them.

Was this the last act of a devoted and desperate father? Or a cold-blooded betrayal? I left my head and it won't lock itself. and desperate father or a cold-blooded betrayal. Her affairs have been going on for a while. He caught her several times. Once actually in the act of cheating on him. She would benefit highly if you have a fire that takes out the home and the husband. He told me he wanted to die.

June 29, 2007, Ringle, Georgia. It a.m. in the quiet town along the Tennessee border when a proprietor of a local grocery store sees smoke rising from a nearby home. Gary Carlock owned his family's store, Carlock's Grocery. He was the one that first saw the flames and the smoke and called it in. when it first saw the flames and the smoke and called it in. Seven miles away, firefighters with Engine 8 are starting their day when they get the call.

It's what they refer to as a full alarm. Dispatch three engines and a lighter truck. I'm in an EMS unit. No relays. There's now flames visible. So you're trying to get your game plan, trying to think your way through it. Firefighters arrive at 9 42 a.m. to learn from command. They can't contain this from the outside. They are going in. The fire looked like it was on the rear side of the home. It would come in from the upper side. So when we talk about the importance of priorities, you think you may be putting fire out,

you may also be having a victim in there. We'd go through this first hallway, and we're immediately met with extreme heat and smoke conditions. The visibility was pretty low. We made it to the back bedroom. We'd realized that was the fire room for sure. His ability was pretty low. We made it to the back bedroom. We'd realized that was the fire room for sure. We suppressed that fire back,

and one of the guys with us, he was using a thermal imaging camera. The technology is capable of picking up a person's heat signature through smoke. As the fireman scans the room, an unsettling shape appears on the screen. He outified us. He did see what it looked like to be a victim towards the backside of the bed. When we made it around to him, I remember as he was kneeling by the bed in a sense, almost as if he was praying

or something. He was unconscious, but he didn't appear to have thermal burns. He definitely had smoke on his clothes, on his skin. It's usually victims are found very close to the door. They succumb where they just physically can't exert any more energy while they're trying to remove themselves from an environment. They preliminarily ID the victim as the homeowner, James Conley. Jim Conley was a local chiropractor who had a practice in Dalton, Georgia nearby.

who had a practice in Dalton, Georgia nearby. Although Jim Conley wasn't from North Georgia, he found it the perfect place to build a career as a small town chiropractor. My dad kind of grew up all over the place. We come from a kind of a wealthy background. My great grandfather was Roger Conley, who founded Monarch Markings and invented one of the first price tag machines. They have over 300 patents.

However, Jim bucked the family business and the money that came with it to make a name for himself in a new profession. First time I met him, he had just started out, and he was in the back of a beauty shop. He had his chiropractor business back there. And I went in there for adjustments. I did his books, and he did the chiropractic adjustments

for all my kids and grandchildren. for all my kids and grandchildren. From those humble beginnings, Jim worked hard to build a successful and caring practice. Jim's business went gangbusters. He had tons of clients. When he worked on you, you felt good just being around him. Jim was the kindest, most gentle man you'll ever meet in your life. With his business growing by the year, Jim knew he needed additional employees. The woman that answered his help wanted ad was 21-year-old Teresa Boggs.

As his business started growing, Teresa was his receptionist. By 1994, Teresa and Jim's working relationship had evolved into a new kind of partnership. There's a more than 20-year age difference between Teresa and Jim. Teresa is in her 20s, he's in his 50s, but they were in love with each other, and the two of them embark on a life together. In 1996, Jim and Teresa welcomed a son, Caleb. I think it was love at first sight when he seen Caleb. That became his entire world.

He was a fantastic dad. They had me, got married a year later, and opened up their practice together, the Alpha Wellness Center. The two of them embarked on this life goal together of building a successful business. It was an all-inclusive health and well-being center. Theresa upgraded her own education and became a trained massage therapist. My mom, she's from

Harlan, Kentucky. Harlan is more like a small town mindset, you know, women stay home take care of their man and that was just never for my mom. My mom always wanted to take care of herself, go off and do bigger, better things. She was a great massage therapist. She really was. They were both great. As their business continued to grow, so did their family. Their second child, Allison, was born in 2000. The family settled into a pretty house on an expansive lot in Ringgold.

Growing up was probably like any little kid's dream. My parents' business was just booming at the time. Every morning we'd wake up and you know, we'd say, we're the Conleys. We had the four-car garage. We had the pool. It's a robot! Jim and Teresa were very doting. The kids did just about everything they wanted.

If they wanted it, they had it. It made me grow up believing that I could be anything, everything, you know? It was amazing, it really was. They were great parents. But on the morning of June 29th, 2007, that charmed life comes to an abrupt end when a fire breaks out in the Conleys home. At this point, we immediately conduct a quick search of making sure that there is no other

victims in there. Fortunately, there's no sign of any additional victims. But the fight to save Jim Conley's life isn't so lucky. After we made entry, he was unconscious when we had carried him out. They tried to resuscitate him, but they were unsuccessful. Jim Conley is pronounced dead at the scene. Jim Conley is pronounced dead at the scene.

Jim's 34-year-old wife, Teresa, is traveling with their two kids to visit her parents out of state when she gets the call from Georgia authorities. My mom's friend Robin answered the phone. And I remember Robin screaming, my mom, you know, Teresa, pull over the car, or Teresa, pull over the car, you know, My mom's friend Robin answered the phone. And I remember Robin screaming at my mom, you know, Trisha pull over the car, or Trisha pull over the car, you know. And she's just like, why, why, just tell me, just tell me. And we pulled over. My mom just let out the ground screaming and crying.

Coming up, investigators sift through the ashes of a life upended. At the time of the fire, he had got behind on their mortgage, their finances were not in good shape at all. That's when the stress got worse for him and everything like that. He was depressed. Do you know what an accelerant is? No. June 29, 2007. A house fire has claimed the life of beloved husband and father, 57-year-old Jim Conley. News of the tragedy has reached Jim's 34-year-old wife,

Teresa, who is racing back home from a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. My mom couldn't even talk. I remember the telling that meant that my dad had died and that our house was gone. And it just, I don't know, it just kinda went numb. At the scene of the fire, investigators from the Catoosa County Sheriff's Office arrive and examine the victim's body.

He had burns on the soles of his feet. He could have burned his feet by trying to put out the fire, or his feet were exposed to the superheated air from lying there on the bed. It appeared that the cause of death was smoke inhalation, but they want to send the body for an autopsy. Anytime we have a, you know, house fire or the fatality, it's automatically investigated, so the fire marshal was called out at that time.

Based on the amount of material that's been burned in the residence and the scope that the smoke has taken over the house, it was established that the fire started around 9 o'clock. They want to look for a point of origin of the fire to determine whether it was some sort of accidental cause or a non-accidental cause. You can determine that often by looking

by the fire markings on the walls. As the fire marshal walks through the home, two things in the kitchen catch his attention. Marshal walks through the home, two things in the kitchen catch his attention. The oven was on and toast was in a little toaster oven on the countertop. But it appeared the oven hadn't really been used, although it was on.

Could there have been a fire started here? Or is it just coincidental? The Fire Marshal moves on to the back of the house where the damage is more severe. The bulk of the moves on to the back of the house where the damage is more severe. The bulk of the fire was in the master bedroom and a side like office sitting area where you had a lot of fire damage. The arson investigators decided the origin of the fire

was along a common wall between the office and the bedroom where the victim was found. common wall between the office and the bedroom where the victim was found. T.S. Teresa arrives at the scene just after 4 PM with 11-year-old Caleb and Teresa's best friend, Robin Simmons. My mom was so distraught.

I mean, she was just like me. Her whole life was gone in a day. Detectives at the scene start by asking Teresa to lay out her timeline of the morning. Teresa kindly indicated she and her friend, Robin Simmons, and her two children left her home around 8 15, and she was on her way to meet her parents in Knoxville to pick up a car.

Shortly after she left her residence, they went to Chick-fil-A in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Teresa says they then dropped her daughter, Ali, off with a babysitter and started the two hour drive to her parents' house. Robin Simmons confirms Teresa's story with one difference. Robyn Simmons confirms Teresa's story with one difference. Teresa said they left 8.10 to 8.15 a.m.

Her driver, Robyn Simmons, said it was at least 8.45 a.m. Her time was a little bit different from Teresa Conley's, but she wouldn't expect people who had just gone through such trauma as that to have a precise timeline. Investigators intend to follow up with both women at a later date. For now, they give Teresa time to grieve with her family and friends. I mean, here everything's falling apart. We don't know what we're going to do. We stayed with my mom's friend Rob and that night that it happened.

As the Connellys grapple with their loss, inside the family home, the fire investigation continues. The Georgia State Fire Marshal's Office, those guys are trained to extremely high level on locating the cause of this fire. They can look for, you know, naturally caused fires, gases, fuels, lightning strikes, things that are in electrical wires. They're trained to look for accelerants. A specially trained dog named Smokey is brought to the scene.

Within moments, he makes a startling discovery. He found presence of an accelerant placed in that location where he determined the fire had originated. It was pretty clear that it was an arson as opposed to an accidental origin for the fire. Authorities start to realize this is, in fact, an arson case. And carpet samples are taken and sent off to the lab.

Authorities don't initially know who set the fire and why somebody would set a fire at the home. And naturally, authorities want to talk to Teresa. On July 5, six days after the death of Jim Conley, investigators bring his wife Teresa into the Sheriff's Office for questioning. Investigators tell Teresa they need an exact chronology for the morning of the 29th.

We always woke up 6, 37 o'clock, drank coffee together, called. I was sitting in the car, taking a shower. Talked to the kids a little bit. Say you didn't feel well. They told me to see me later and they said I tell me to doze and be careful. Who's the last one to leave half? I left some to Gav. You don't want to get it?

Yeah. The timeline is pretty critical. They can give a fairly accurate indication of when the fire started. And it was established that the fire started around nine o'clock. If they had left around eight o'clock to 8.30, as Teresa Connolly originally said, then she would have been on the road at the time the fire was likely to have been started.

fire was likely to have been started. Investigators pressed Teresa about the state of her marriage. There are days you don't like them, you love them, but you don't like them. Teresa reveals that recently, the family has been under quite a bit of strain. At the time of the fire, Connelly had got behind on their mortgage. Their finances were not in good shape at all. Both of my parents' vehicles had just been repossessed, and my grandparents were giving

my mom a car. So we were meeting them in Knoxville that morning halfway so that they could give us the car, and we were driving the rental car. Teresa explains that their financial problems began when Jim contracted Lyme disease a few years earlier. That's when things, the stress got worse for him and everything went bad. He was depressed, but he loved life and he loved what he'd done. Forty-five minutes into the interview, detectives put their cards on the table.

You know what an accelerant is? No. Something that helps the fire get going. OK. There's accelerant on the floor. OK. On your house. OK.

Teresa seems dumbfounded. She tells investigators she has no idea who started the fire inside their home. I don't know anything about the fire. All I know is that man was my life. And he will be the rest of my life. Dead or alive. Coming up, how a debilitating disease undermined a happy life. The fact that he felt that he could take care of his family

was more than he could take. And could a grieving wife be hiding her own secrets? There were whispers that there was some infidelity going on, her seeing other men. At 24, I lost my narrative, or rather it was stolen from me. And the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by false narratives, callous jokes, and politics. I would define reclaiming as to take back what was yours.

Something you possess is lost or stolen, and ultimately you triumph in finding it again. So I think listeners can expect me to be chatting with folks, both recognizable and unrecognizable names, about the way that people have navigated roads to triumph. My hope is that people will finish an episode of Reclaiming and feel like they filled their tank up. They connected with the people that I'm talking to and leave with maybe some nuggets that help them feel a little more hopeful. Follow Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to episodes everywhere on February 18th.

What's up everybody? It's Jason Kelsey and I'm here with my slightly famous little brother, Travis, AKA Big Yeti Kelsey. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're here to bring you a next level entertainment experience with our show new heights Where the Lumbaby reigns supreme? We're covering all the hardest-hitting topics in order of importance UFO sightings the ideal PB&J combo and tram becoming a big-time Acting star big time is a big stretch. We've got can't miss A-list interviews though. That's right. And of course, next level access to life inside the NFL and in the booth.

Just because I retired doesn't mean I'm out of the game. Yeah, I mean, the old dad shoes suggest otherwise, but those are the I'm out the game shoes right there. Listen and watch New Heights wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to listen to us first without any interruptions and get bonus content, join One Three Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. A week has passed since the sudden death of Jim Conley. After locating an accelerant inside the

Conley residence, the case is officially labeled arson, leaving detectives questioning who would have motive to set the fire. When the fire marshal looked at this one, he said, yeah, this is an arson. Somebody poured the accelerant and set it up. During the days that follow, investigators find that Jim's finances had been in decline after a recent diagnosis. My dad was diagnosed with Lyme's disease. He received it from a tick. Either running in the woods or camping, we're not really exactly sure where he got it at. His work days went from five days a week, sometimes six, to two or three, sometimes none.

sometimes six to two or three, sometimes nine. And when Jim didn't work, he didn't get paid. Friends say he fell into a deep depression. His business started dying down. People started going to other chiropractors that they could see. They were close to the house going into foreclosure. It was very bleak for them. The fact that things were happening the way they were for my dad killed him inside. The fact that he felt that he could take care of his family was more than he could take.

Was Jim so depressed that he took his own life? The theory gains momentum when a friend of Jim's contacts detectives. There was an issue of a crude will that Jim supposedly wrote and sent to a friend. Now, it had no value as a will because it wasn't properly executed under Georgia law. I think had he really wanted it to be effective, he would have done it properly with counsel. But it did have some value potentially as to show his intent. The handwritten will is dated May 2, less than two months before Jim's death. It threw some fuel toward the fact that perhaps he knew he was going to die. However, there's one stumbling block for investigators.

Even if Jim was suicidal, self-immolation is a rare and extreme act. I've never seen anyone intentionally commit suicide by fire. That seems to be a real stretch. If you're going to commit suicide, there are a lot easier ways to do it When Jim's autopsy report is completed the findings raise even more suspicion The mode of death is smoke inhalation But toxicology results come back and there were antidepressants and sedatives in Jim's system. When we factor that in with where the burn was on his

body, most significantly at the soles of his feet, that could be because he tried to stamp out the fire. These things don't quite add up to somebody who was going to kill themselves and going to do so by fire. The coroner rules Jim's death a homicide. When detectives interview Jim and Teresa's coworkers at the wellness center, they uncover more secrets. There were whispers that there was some infidelity going on, her seeing other men. Everybody kind of knew it.

Her affairs had been going on for a while, but it got worse as time went on. Co-workers also report inappropriate emails between Teresa and the business's former accountant. Witnesses talked about times when Teresa and this individual would go into a massage room for somewhere between two and three hours, far longer than any massage clients were ever seen. It's an important clue.

Detectives wonder, did this love triangle turn violent? When they interview the accountant, he basically says that he did become close to Teresa Connolly. But he denied a sexual relationship, but he did admit that they had had some sort of romantic connection. And that's the reason he stopped coming over there to Dr. Connally's office. Teresa Connally denied having the affair as well. The accountant claims he hasn't been in contact with Teresa in years and has no reason to want Jim dead.

with Teresa in years and has no reason to want Jim dead. With no evidence that the accountant had any involvement in the crime, and autopsy results indicating Jim could not have done this himself, investigators must determine who was the last person to leave the Conley home that morning. During the course of an investigation, you consider all possibilities. I looked at Teresa Connelly and Robin Simmons since the timeline was pretty far off. I don't think they were free to ignore any discrepancies.

Investigators circle back to Robin Simmons and press her further about their conflicting timelines. Robin said she and the kids, they were in the driveway for 15, 20 minutes waiting on Teresa. She had gone back in to do, they did not know why, but had gone back in. Again, she claimed they left at a much later time than what Teresa Connolly had been saying. And she said Teresa was trying to convince her that they left at 8 15, and she wants Robyn to say that as well to investigators. Investigators asked Robyn point blank, did you see the fire?

Robin Simmons never indicated that she saw any fire or smoke at the residence. Shortly after they left her residence, they went to Chick-fil-A in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Investigators head to the restaurant, in Georgia. Investigators head to the restaurant, hoping to obtain video surveillance from the day of the fire. The cameras at the Chick-fil-A in Fort Ogilvor, which is less than 10 minutes away, showed

them driving through at 9.17 a.m. Investigators time the drive from the Connally residence multiple times, and not once does it take more than eight minutes. She claims her leaving around 815, and then video surveillance says that she's there more than an hour later, around 920 or so. As the officers kept investigating the timeline, they discovered Teresa would have been at the house

about the time the fire had started. Having punched a hole in Teresa's timeline, investigators obtain a warrant to search the home. Fire investigators are really smart. They look for what isn't there. Fire investigators are really smart. They look for what isn't there. Personal photos, things that are irreplaceable. They found out in a garage a lot of the clothes for the kids had been put out there,

so they weren't smoke damaged or fire damaged. You've taken stuff that arsonists take, pictures of the children, stuff that you can't replace. As investigators continue their search of the home, they find more incriminating evidence. They found an insurance policy for a lot of money on Dr. Connelly's life. And there was also some divorce papers

that apparently had never been filed that were found there in the residence. He had papers drawn up several times for divorce, and he was going to leave her. If you have a fire that takes out the home and the husband, Teresa would benefit highly from Jim being gone and the house being in shambles. Coming up, suddenly Teresa's story starts to change.

He told me to leave the house, and he said, don't ask me no more questions. And devastating allegations come hurling Teresa's way. Several months prior to the arson in Teresa Connolly had a miscarriage. After she lost the baby, she got real depressed and started doing the drugs. 10 days after the death of Jim Connolly, Georgia authorities are homing in on one suspect,

his wife Teresa. Teresa has presented them as a happy couple with no problems, no difficulties, but authorities have located documentation that they were in fact going to file for divorce. Detectives widen the scope of their investigation, interviewing several former employees, starting with Bonnie White. The detectives learned that several months prior to the arson, Teresa Connelly had a miscarriage. After Teresa had the miscarriage,

she wasn't working for three or four months, and she got real depressed and started doing the drugs. According to people who worked at Dr. Connelly's office, she was using that time she noticed that Teresa was embezzling money. I went to Jim and I said, I think Teresa is stealing from you. One month she had wrote 16 checks to herself. He confronted her in front of me and she said, no, those checks were voided. And I said, well, voided checks don't clear the bank. Here's the bank statement.

They're highlighted. Bonnie says she quit her job after that incident. While detectives find that Teresa was never charged with embezzlement, other past employees come forward with even more alarming allegations. Teresa has told several witnesses that she has been putting lithium in her husband's coffee. She says this basically keeps him quiet and sedates him. Dr. Connelly himself has suspected that she's doing this

and has told people that he thinks Teresa has been drugging him. So it seems pretty certain that this has been going on for several months. Lithium can be used as a medical treatment in small amounts, but if not carefully administered, it's highly toxic. For a person who has been given higher than normal doses over a cumulative period of time, lithium toxicity can be incredibly damaging to the internal organ functioning of a human being.

Authorities now start to ask the question, did she intend to kill him? Maybe she thought if she slowly poisoned him and his system and his health slowly declined, maybe he would eventually just die. And people would assume it was Lyme disease. On June 9th, investigators bring Theresa in again and demand the truth. Much to their surprise, she agrees to a lie detector test.

I explained that nobody can make her take a polygraph and that if she tells me the truth, then she'll pass the polygraph. If she does not, she will absolutely fail the polygraph. I'm not going to lie to you. In Georgia, polygraphs are inadmissible unless you sign a stipulation first that says it will be admissible.

And they convinced her to do that. Regarding the fire at your residence, do you intend to answer truthfully each question about that? Yes. Did you start that fire? No. I know I did not start that fire. I was gone. What? After administering the exam, Detective Scroggins studies the results.

Like I told you before, I'm just a real direct guy. Been doing this for a long, long time. I don't want you to be the other way. I have big problems with this test. Polygraph chart scoring is a mathematical kind of thing. The computer indicated her level of deception was in excess of 100%. People come in thinking, I can beat this test.

I can go in here and convince them I didn't do anything wrong. And I'll tell you, you can't. And then, Teresa drops a bombshell. He told me he wanted to die. And he told me to leave the house. And he said, don't ask me no more questions. And I said, baby, why? Just tell me why.

He said, I just want you to know that I like you and I love you both. And why have you not shared that little bit of information with the investigators up until now? In the first 60, 90 seconds, she makes her first admission. Detective Scroggins brings in the two lead investigators who reveal another shocking piece of information. The detectives at the Catoose County Sheriff's Office had sent out subpoenas for the telephone records of Teresa Connelly's cell phone. I'm just curious.

Somebody calls you and says, Hey, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but your house burned down and your husband's dead. And your first call is to whom? I don't think I made a call. I don't know. You didn't call mama. I don't know. You didn't call mama. You didn't call his mama.

You called your insurance agent. Does that not strike you as a bit strange? The accusation is clear. I know we're in the shadow of a doubt. I know we heard it. I can't prove we heard it, but I he had it. I can't prove he done it, but I can prove it. I can't prove I didn't do it, but I know I didn't start it.

I didn't know it was going to happen. He just told me, go and don't ask me any questions. I don't believe anything you told us. I've come to grips with that guy, and I've come to grips with, I thought we need to go there and turn him. Investigators arrest Teresa and charge her with malice murder and first degree arson. I'll never forget this day.

Teresa's up for me. She's got her handcuffs on, so she puts them around my neck, and she's just bawling. She's just like, it's okay, baby. It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay. You know, you've gotta be strong for your little sister. We're gonna get through this. You know, we're the colonies. Remember, we can handle anything. And then they walked her back and put me and my sister both in interrogation rooms. Did your mom make some clothes out of the house for you before the fire? No. No? No.

No? No. Not anything. Not anything. Caleb is decidedly closed-mouthed. Caleb's traumatized. He's grieving. He's clinging to the parent that he knows and loves.

And initially, he gives them nothing. Coming up... A stunning admission. What did you say? Mom, no. This is nothing to her so far. She told me not to worry about it. And she said, okay, so we just kept driving. Six-year-old Allison and 11-year-old Caleb Conley are placed in the care of Georgia's Children and Family Services on July 9, 2007, following the arrest of their mother, Teresa.

On July 16, investigators obtain permission to speak to Caleb again, this time with the help of an expert. Forensic examiners at the Children's Advocacy Center are specially trained in how to interview children and know how to establish that rapport and to make in the car. Yeah, it's OK. She went back inside a little while. She came back outside. Then what? I was looking at the fence and there was smoke behind her. OK. So did you say something to her?

Yeah. What did you say? She said, mama, I think the house on fire. She said, no, that's just some other papers. We would burn stuff every day out in the yard. My mom was big on burning boxes. My mom would go around and pile them all up and burn them. She told me not to worry about it.

And she said, OK. So we just kept driving. Did you see the papers burning? You saw the smoke and told your mom. Did Robin see the papers burning? No, but I saw the smoke. You saw the smoke and told your mom. Did Robin see that too? I don't know. She didn't see anything. It, of course, made absolutely no sense that she would have chosen that time to burn some papers. That early in the morning when you're getting ready to go on a trip out of town.

early in the morning when you're getting ready to go on a trip out of town. By him being satisfied by his mother's explanation that they were burning trash, that allows Caleb to preserve his affection for his mom. For investigators, it's the final piece of the puzzle. They believe they know what happened on June 29, 2007. I think Theresa had probably planned this out for some time. They were in financial straits. If she killed her husband, she would get insurance money for the loss of her husband.

She wouldn't have to worry about the dangers of a divorce where she might possibly lose her kids because she was having affairs and using drugs herself. She gets Jim up that morning. She knows she's going to be leaving to establish her alibi. She drugs him through the coffee. He ends up going back to bed. She then sets the fire immediately before she goes out. Then they drive off with the house burning behind them. All indications were that he had enough in him, even under the sedation, to move about a little bit, so he ended up getting off the bed.

But that was as far as he was able to make it when he died from the smoke inhalation. With the evidence stacked against her, In the last few years, Teresa has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with attempted murder, and she has been charged with

attempted murder, and she has been charged with evidence case. I advised her that it was very bleak, but that she had the right to a trial. And that's what every defendant has. They were supposed to go to trial on Monday. And the Friday before, I get this call and, hey, we've got a plea deal. In lieu of malice murder, Teresa agrees to plead guilty to felony murder and first and second degree

arson. Teresa Connelly ended up claiming in her plea of guilty that she was involved in setting the fire that ultimately killed her husband. Her husband decided that he would save the family by burning the residents down and then getting the insurance money. He accidentally killed himself in doing this. She admitted taking instructions from Jim to help set the fire, essentially. She denied and still denies to this day

killing Jim with any intent. When we start to ask the question about did she intend to kill him, the fact that she made the decision to systematically and slowly poison him, it seems only reasonable that her primary focus in this situation and goal was to end Jim's life. In December of 2010, Teresa is sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

I lost both my parents. I was just 11 years old. My dad loved helping people. He just loved putting a smile on someone else's faces. And I think that's how most people read my father. I think that's how anybody should want to be remembered. Theresa Lynn Conley is currently housed at the Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville, Georgia. Her first opportunity for parole will be in 2041.

She will be 67 years old. In the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in tragedy, but the official narrative doesn't add up. I'm Matthew Scherr, and on my new podcast, We Came to the Forest, we peel back the layers of secrecy surrounding a deadly confrontation that shook a community to its core. Through exclusive recordings and never-before-re released eyewitness accounts, we expose the hidden truths behind a shootout that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. As we dig deeper, we uncover a web of conflicting testimonies and missing evidence.

From the idealistic dreams of young environmentalists to the complex motivations of local officials, this story challenges our understanding of justice, activism, and the lengths people will go to protect what they believe in. Follow We Came to the Forest on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.