Snapped: Women Who Murder - Wanda Haithcock

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

When the body of a beloved father is discovered in a South Carolina home, detectives uncover a toxic love affair that had deadly consequences.Season 28, Episode 04Originally aired: September 27, 2020Watch 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.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondries 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. He was a South Carolina playboy with a heart of gold. My dad, he was a little womanizer, but he liked ladies. No, he dated a lot.

When you met Wayne, you loved him. He was just a nice guy. He was a good friend. But a grim discovery in an abandoned home will expose that this bachelor lifestyle was anything but carefree. I thought it was a share cut, but that still was surreal.

It was a happy event, body. He had been there for some time. There was some discoloration on his face and body. They don't know what had happened, and you still have a killer on the boots. As investigators unravel a mysterious murder, accusations swirl. He was being accused by a gentleman of having said for his wife. He had broken it off with her, I know he was done with her. He knew that she could get violent.

She was just stalking me, plain and simple. I got two loves on the door, two loves. So you take him in there? I went outside and I looked up this guy. And I promised him and God that she wouldn't get away with it. January 24, 2001, Conway, South Carolina. While neighboring Myrtle Beach is known for lively parties and busy streets, the pace of Conway is much slower. It's a nice clean town.

It's time to live it. Not a lot of problems. For a county is largely a farming community, the type of community where neighbors know their neighbors and families have been there for generations. But on this breezy Wednesday afternoon, the quiet of Conway is about to be disrupted by a frantic 911 call. I think we have found the good party. be disrupted by a frantic 911 call. abandoned for a number of years. I'm an artist and I knew it was an unhousing bad shape and I thought, well, you know, I just want to look at it.

Oh. And check, she's in the wrong place to take that conclusion. It's with a little work, it's serious. As the two friends explored the abandoned house, they stopped in their tracks upon entry. There was a pile of newspapers and sticking out the end when I'm so hooked. I thought it was a pile of newspapers and sticking out the end when I saw a foot. I thought it was a shit gun.

But that's the real thing. We've got to be dead body. As police arrived and began pulling back the degree, a face emerges. When seeing the victim, I could already tell that he was a male, white, middle-aged, probably in his 40s to late 50s. It was clear to police that he had been there for some time.

There was some discoloration on his face and body. Being that it was in January, it had been cold. So the decop was not that advanced. You could see that he had been there for a while with the decomposition that was present. You're looking at days of decomposition, so you can about imagine the other. It certainly was a bleak scene.

Before we moved the victim at all, we could see that he had some type of injury to his forehead. Although it was a little hard to tell exactly what trauma had occurred. After all the pictures were taken, we expanded our search for potential evidence at that scene. And that search yielded two spent casings. One was located near the closet area above the victim. And the other was closer towards the victim's feet. Looking for possible gunshot wounds. It appeared that the victim had been shot

and the upper part of the neck area and forehead. The scene hadn't been disturbed. The victim was shot and killed at that location. It appeared that the victim was staying not facing the individual that pull the trigger. As police try to identify their victim, they immediately notice his pockets have been pulled out and his wallet appears to be missing.

It makes it difficult when you don't know who the victim is because one of the first stages of an investigation is the victimology. Who would want this person dead and when you don't know who that person is, you can't answer those questions. At that point, police don't know if there is an imminent threat to the community.

They don't know what had happened, and you still have a killer on the loose. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in That evening, the John Doe is transported to the coroner's office, where police hope an autopsy will assist in identifying him. As they await the results, investigators do what they can with the limited information in their possession. We checked missing person reports that would match the description of our victim. Scouring the reports, one case from a nearby town stands out.

It was related to the investigators that they had a possible match. A white male was missing who appeared to fit the physical descriptors. The victim was the subject of the missing person report out of Merle Beach. Missing report was of Wayne Coates, who was a local resident here. Wayne Coates was last seen January 5th. The information that we had was he was driving a, a, a issue of the Ford Explorer that he was 53 years old, about 160 pounds

with a mustache, was not dating anybody at the time. I had a number of friends. Hoping to get more information on Wayne, Ori County police reach out to Wayne's closest relative, his 32-year-old son, Kenny. Last time I saw him, was December 28, about 2000. He called my mom on January 5th to see how I was December 28th of 2000. He called my mom on January 5th to see how I was doing

to check on me. And then towards the end of the month, I get a call from my aunt, Linda. One note I know where my dad is. Apparently at this point, he's been missing for over three weeks, one on four. And nobody had any idea where he was. We had to try to figure out what had happened.

Tennis Wayne Coats was born and raised on the South Carolina coast. All of my dad's family is from that area, the Grand Strand area, Fox T, Surfside, Garden City, and family all through there. Wayne was from Painter, which is just a Western Catholic. Growing up, Wayne proved to be a hard worker,

a gifted athlete, and the life of every party. It worked hard for what he had. He didn't expect any handouts. If he wanted something, he would go get it. What Wayne wanted most in high school wasn't recognition or achievements. It was a pretty classmate named Margaret Taylor. My mom and dad met at a skating rink in North Mordell Beach.

They got married in 1966. Eager to provide for his new bride, Wayne enlisted in the military. He was a combat engineer, went to a boot camp, and I think AIT, and went to a letter of wood Missouri, and then he got stationed in Germany. After serving four years in the military, Wayne and his young wife returned home, where Wayne focused

on building a family and a career. My father was a structural engineer, but he trained himself. He got books and called himself out of the draw and do everything. In 1969, the couple welcomed their only child, Kenneth Wayne Coates, Jr. I lost my dad. I'm named after him. I'm a junior. I grew up wanting to be like my dad.

When I was a child, you know, he was my hero. While his bond with his son only deepened over the years, Wayne's marriage to Margaret took a different turn. They actually got married twice once before I was born. And after, I guess, like, seven years, they ended up getting divorced. But then they wanted to give another try for me. And they got married again for about three years.

But when the couple divorced a final time, Margaret and Kenny moved to North Carolina, while Wayne remained in Mertle Beach. I still had a relationship with him. I would go down and spend the summers down there with him. And my mom and I would always go back to the beach area, the relatives at Christmas time. So I mean, I just feel solemn and so the twin

on the phone regularly. Although his marriage failed, Wayne's career soared. We used to tease him about how it's funny he made. And we just just jerked his chain a little bit. He was good guy. In his free time, Wayne was a social butterfly. Wayne was a very engaging, charming man. He would talk to everybody.

If he walked into a bar or a restaurant, you know, and sat down next to somebody, they would become his friend. Though it seemed like Wayne could make friends with anyone, in January 2001, his son Kenny now fears his father had made at least one enemy. And investigators in Oory County, South Carolina are anxious to track that person down. You don't know if there's a danger to the community, what had taken place, why he was there.

Coming up, could Wain's bachelor lifestyle have led to his death? It was one of those kind of guilty pleasures that he couldn't seem to give up. And investigators zero in on a suspect. They just wanted to know what happened that Friday night. That's last time anybody saw Wayne Cotes alive. It's all Wayne Coates alive. MUSIC Detectives in Oory County, South Carolina

believe the body they've discovered in an abandoned farmhouse is that of 53-year-old Wayne Coates. During the autopsy, it was discovered that the victim had a set of dentures and from those dentures, his identity was confirmed. It was like being in a nightmare. I was devastated, I was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through.

I'd go days without eating, days without sleeping. Hoping to figure out a motive for Wayne's murder, investigators learned from Wayne's son, Kenny, that his father was known for his extensive dating history. My dad, he was a womanizer, but he liked ladies, and he dated a lot when he was after him and my mom divorced. And I met a lot of his girlfriends. He was just a very charming guy. And he was very good with the ladies. He was very quick to chat up a lady, a charming smile, and his eyes would light up. The laid-back low-country lifestyle

suited a bachelor likelike Wayne well, until he met a woman that would change his life forever. Wanda Haitok. Charleston, South Carolina native Wanda Ward, was a free spirited person by nature. She's beautiful. She's charismatic. She's, you know, she's outgoing. She's got a great personality.

Wanda married young and settled down in Conway with her husband, an army veteran turned clumber named Bo Haythcock. She met her ex-husband in Charleston, and they got a divorce. They were married at least 15 to 20 years. She was a stay-at-home mom. In her early 40s, Wanda reentered the dating scene and soon fell head over heels for the notoriously charming Wayne Coates. He was very nice to her, you know, he opened doors for. He, um,

pull a chair out for, I mean, he was just a real gentleman, you know, so I'm sure that was very attractive to Wanda because she wasn't used to that. She was petite, very, very pretty girl. She was absolutely gorgeous, waying seen her as eye candy, I think. Before long, Wanda joined Wayne at all his usual, myrtle beach haunts. I met her when Wayne brought her into a

hard game. Real nice. She was outgoing, maybe pretty good. You know, she took the teasing that girls got in and put up with a lot of the guys in there. She was always kind of loud. I kind of wanted to be the center of attention. While one does a brush personality didn't always rub everyone the right way,

it didn't bother Wayne one bit. I think that her personality fit in to him nicely with his personality and his outgoing spirit. They got along well, had same interests, same social interest, it appeared. They seem to be pretty happy whenever they first got together. She thought she had met a nice man, you know,

somebody that was gonna work with her, stand beside her, you know, she was planning on marrying. Things between the happy couple moved quickly, and soon Wayne and Wanda decided to invest in their future together. Wanda and my dad did end up acquiring a couple pieces of property together. One was the condo townhouse in Myrtle Beach, and one was a manufacturing home in Conway.

It seemed like a normal relationship. Wanda and my dad didn't bite or anything at that time, but I knew of everything just seemed normal. However, Wayne wasn't always an open book when it came to his relationships. By the late 90s, Wayne's friends noticed he didn't bring a wand up around as much as he once did. You didn't know how he was feeling. He never wore out his feelings to you and tell you that something was bothering him. By 1999, after eight years together, the once burning flame between Wayne and Wanda flickered out. It's really hard to describe the relationship between the two of them because it wasn't a clean breakup.

It was a breakup that she was doing her thing and having a relationship with other men. He supposedly was having relationship with other women and then they would get together. It was one of those kind of guilty pleasures that he couldn't seem to give up. It seemed Wayne was destined to be a bachelor for the rest of his life,

but his son Kenny was holding on to another dream. My mom and dad were kind of joking around that maybe one day they would end up back together again. Just personally speaking, that was always my biggest dream. But that dream came to an end on January 24th, 2001, when Wayne was found dead in an abandoned house. Now, sitting with Wayne's son Kenny, investigators need to piece together Wayne's final moments.

I was with the detectives. It was a lot for me to do, but I dedicated myself. Kenny explains that this all began on January 5th. He didn't show up for work on Saturday, and he didn't show up for work on Monday. And we went, gee, something's wrong. There was some evidence that he had on occasion just kind of gone off for two or three days,

but never this long. I kind of blew it off because I had no Wayne for years. I think Wayne might have just jumped in his car and went to Florida or I thought everything was okay. Kenny says Wayne's friend Phil Whitaker was one of the last people seen with his father the night before his disappearance. If that's the last person seen with Mr. Copes, then you obviously wanna talk to that person

to get any information they may have, or to even see if they're possibly involved with the disappearance. Investigators track down Phil and bring him in for questioning. The police contacted me and they came in and sat down and told me what they were there for to inquire about Wayne Cougs. They just wanted to know what happened that Friday night.

They asked me what we had done that night. We made it this part that we always need that for half-yard. We had a few cocktails and chatted it up. There were some people in there, up some old friends. We shot pooled there for a good hour, hour and a half. Karaoke started up. So we sang a song with Karaoke. And we just happened a good time, good Friday night out.

About two o'clock, it was closing time. So we left. Wayne and I lived right about a mile and a half from the last bar. And when you just made one, one right, and I followed him down the road, I turned off to go to my house. He went straight to go to his house. That was last time anybody saw Wayne coach alive.

Police have to wonder, is Phil telling the truth? Everybody's a person of interest, until we eliminate. The cops ask me about if we run into anybody, if there's been any arguments with anybody, and Wayne was non-confrontational. According to Phil, Wayne was in high spirits on the night of January 5th. He always got a Christmas bonus,

and that night when we went out, it was on weight. He had his Christmas bonus with him, but it was cash and he was buying his drinks. Every place we went, you know, we'd buy some drinks. And when we got back to another bar, he splashed a little cash for some other people for some things. The details from Phil lead police to consider whether he had his eyes on his friend's money. He said, you're a suspect. You're the last one seen with Wayne alive. And obviously, you know, I was taking it back at this.

They thought that I could have followed him on down the road. And when he turned in, I could turn in behind him. And he wouldn't have known for Madam that it was me going to hit him on the head and take his money. But Phil insists he's been just as concerned as everyone else about Wayne's disappearance. In fact, he and Wayne had made plans to play golf on January 6th.

The next day, I get up and I call Wayne, no answer. And you know, we were supposed to be in the golf course, you know, no big deal. So I went ahead and took off, went to the golf course, went in there, called him again. And I mean, I burned his phone up. I probably called him six, seven times, only to get his voicemail.

So he didn't show up that day. If we're able to get his voicemail, so he didn't show up that day. We were able to get a pretty good feel for the first person that we talked to being the last person to solve Mr. Codes. Certain he's a person of interest, but we have to have more than the fact that he's sitting around in the beard and talking. And as it turned out, he was not involved in any way. With Phil cleared, investigators circle back to another aspect of Wayne's life that could have led to his murder, his dating history.

We found out through the investigation that Wayne was part of the term a lady's man. Coming up, investigators discover salacious details hidden behind closed doors. They had a volatile relationship. Those type of situations, you know, due to, in vote, a huge amount of emotion, you have to look at jealousy. Everybody knew that she was bad news. Ah, the Bahamas.

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was a bit of a ladies man. Wayne just had an air about him in Aura, and when he walked into the bar, if there was a new lady there, it wasn't five minutes before he was talking to her. And he was a charming, charming kind of guy. And he would just, he'd become your friend almost immediately. And he was a ladies man. He liked talking to the girls, chatting them up.

He was like a social magnet, whenever he walked into a somewhere, many people were just drawn to him. He was always described by everybody as a very charismatic person, very flirtatious. After interviewing Wayne's friends, detectives begin to wonder, could Wayne's flandering ways have gotten him into trouble? A manicure came up having an affair with his wife. According to one of Wain's friends,

Wain believed the man was out looking for him. If certainly it's worth looking into, it's certainly evidence. Anytime that you have severe emotions that come into play, such as Mr. Koch's affiliation or relationship with a married woman, clearly those type of situations, do invoke a huge amount of emotion. You have to look at jealousy. But when investigators locate the woman

at the center of this alleged love triangle, she is adamant her husband didn't even know Wayne's name. People of interest are gray, but those are the ones that are eliminating out of the pool. At an impasse, detectives begin looking into the names of other women Wayne's friends claim he had dated. We have to dig deeper. It puts more people out there that you're going to have to follow up with and eliminate as actual people who would be involved.

Among the list of ex lovers, one name comes up more than the rest, Wanda Hathcock. I had heard about their relationship and that it was rocky. But everybody that knew Wanda knew that she was bad news. At that point in time, Wanda Hathcock becomes our prime suspect. While officers fan out in search of Wanda, detectives decide to circle back to Wayne's 32-year-old son, Kenny, hoping to learn more about his father's relationship with her. I was super stressed. I couldn't go to school, but I kept my mind on what I was, you know, my schoolwork. And then I got a call that the detectives wanted me to come down to Merrill Beach to speak with them.

They asked me who I thought might have done it. And the first person I said was Wanda. According to Kenny, the couple had broken up several years earlier. I think they dated. We're told with like eight years from what I can gather and up and down roller coaster type relationship. They continued to have communication

and contact with each other. They still had fights because we still had domestic reports after he had moved out accusations by both against each other. And from what we understand, they still continue to have a sexual relationship. Kenny also tells investigators that long after their romantic relationship ended, his dad and Wanda remained linked by their shared assets.

They owned the property together on summer drive. That's where they used to reside together with a very turbulent relationship volatile. When they split up, there was some animosity over how things were going to be divided. The property they had, they would switch back and forth. She would want to stay one place and be like, okay. And they would move and dab and settle in.

They'd start fixing the place up. After a few months, she would come up and say, no, I want to go back to the townhouse. They finally settled with a lawyer and he took the townhouse and that was it. That's where my dad was residing when everything happened. While speaking to Kenny, investigators must cut the interview short. We spoke for a little bit. They got a urgent phone call and they had to go. They had found his explorer. The location of the vehicle points detectives to a familiar name, Wanda Hasecock.

A member of Wanda's family ended up calling police and reporting that Wanda's vehicle was parked behind a home on John's Island. It seems that when news of Wanda's death finally reached the Charleston area, Wanda's family grew uneasy. They had found his explorer at Wanda's sister's house. Wanda had taken it there and asked her sister for permission to park it on her property. Apparently her sister didn't feel good about it, so she called the Charleston County Sheriff's Department. The vehicle is impounded and soon searched by authorities. Police didn't find

anything incriminating in the search of the vehicle, but it's still suspicious that the vehicle was there to begin with. The fact that she had possession of Wayne's vehicle tells us that she is most likely the last person to be with Wayne when he was alive. A few days after the discovery of Wayne's body, investigators are eager to speak to Wanda Haythcock directly, but there's a problem. As soon as it was announced on the news that a body had been found at that location, Wanda went check herself and told mental hospital. Unable to question Wanda, investigators quickly realize that details about Wanda's relationship

are hard to come by. As charming and outgoing as he was, he kept his personal feelings to himself. He was pretty much private when it came to his feelings. After their last interview was cut short, detectives meet with Kenny again. He wanted to provide as much information as possible. He came down to the police department several times.

He was instrumental. He wanted to find out who had done this to his dad. According to Kenny, he'd noticed a shift in his dad's personality prior to his death. My dad seemed kind of distant. And times he didn't seem like my regular dad, you know, happy and easy going, you know, cracking jokes and stuff. Kenny believes Wanda had a lot to do with Wayne's change

and demeanor in the last months of his life. He had faded to me that she was harassing. He had stated to me that she was harassing him. Coming up, evidence recovered from Wayne's phone may help solve his own murder. He is recording phone conversations. Apparently, he was wearing something. I'm not letting you go now. I'm getting my head shut because you game by yourself because you actually stole everything.

And the sun makes a solemn vow. I went outside and I looked up to this vow. And I promised him and God that she wouldn't get away with it. Authorities in Oory County, South Carolina are zeroing in on their prime suspect in the murder of Wayne Coates, his ex-girlfriend, Wanda Heathcock. Everything pointed to Wanda. She was up to something. I said, if you want to find out what's going on, you need to find out what's going on with

Wanda. She had been very volatile. She was known to have done some things that were out of the ordinary, committed some petty crimes against Wayne. According to Wayne's son Kenny, the first incidents began in 1999, shortly after Wayne and Wanda broke up. She would constantly call him and harass him. She stole his golf club.

He was just a bank person. Kenny explains his father had been so suspicious of Wanda that he'd begun to record their conversations. All right, you know, you can get to my home and host you guys. And then someone came back. All right, you know, I think that's my own thing. I don't know exactly his motive for doing it. I guess he's just trying to cover himself. Got two loves on the door at the house. So you can't get in there.

Most of them just do that, Wayne. Oh, you've got to do it. Tell me what you want. I'll meet me up there. Anything happened anything happen for I'm not letting you go and ask anybody else out because you have stolen everything. Food is my story. And flour is the identity of your shirt.

That's not the only evidence Wayne kept on hand. My dad had a stack of these pink papers where she had been charged for a solve. She threw it on iron and had him right in front of the cop. She got arrested. She was violent, I could tell. She was, without a question, described by many as the crazy extro-friend.

Kenny says every time his father would push her away, Wanda would come back with more demands. As far as I know, the title of these and the property were all settled, but she was always wanting more and more and more. She didn't want to work. She wanted somebody to just give her money all the time. And my dad, he was done with that. Wanda was very dependent on weighing to provide for her wanted somebody to just give her money all the time. And my dad, he was done with that.

Wanda was very dependent on weighing to provide for her. We had appeared from what we were able to glean at the time that she wanted to maintain a relationship with him, and that he was not interested in continuing or maintaining a relationship with her. He knew that she could give violent. She was just stalking it, plain as simple. With a potential motive coming into focus, investigators look for evidence tying Wanda directly to Wayne's murder.

For detectives, that begins by piecing together Wanda's whereabouts in the days and weeks surrounding the crime. From speaking with Wanda's sister Cynthia Pryor, police learned that Cynthia dropped Wanda off her mother's home on January 25th after they parked Wayne's vehicle on John's Island. When detectives reach out to Wanda's mother, they learn Wanda had left behind a damning piece of evidence. Wanda's mother turns those items over to police. And when they search them, they find a receipt. They had found the receipts for the 25 caliber handguns. On January 29, 24 days after Wayne Cotes was last seen alive, detectives execute a search of Wanda's residence.

I located several items when executing that search warrant, and the most important item was on a hook shelf in the living room. I located a live round of ammunition that was 25 caliber and matched the same brand that was located at the crime scene. We never found the gun, but I think that really solidified our position. On February 1st, 2001,

detectives obtain a warrant for Wanda's arrest. I was with the detectives down at the police department. We drove the arrest warrant for Wanda. And it was just a couple of days later before it was served on her when she was released in the hospital. When they finally said that Wanda was arrested for the murder of Wayne Coates, we all went. Yeah, we knew at the whole time this was Wanda.

Coming up, Wayne's friends and family endure the slow wheels of justice. I just saw some point lost a lot of hope. It was like a ominous sign that she was going to get off. In the spring of 2001, while prosecutors prepare a case against 48-year-old Wanda Hathcock for the murder of Wayne Coates, his son Kenny is overwhelmed with emotion. I made up hell.

I went outside and I looked up to this guy. And I promised him and God that she wouldn't get away with it. Over the next few years, I've dedicated myself to that. I left school. I was never able to return to that. I quit my job. It was just so much to do trying to tie up the loose ends with this.

As prosecutors build their case, their first hurdle is Wanda's purported struggle with her mental health. The trial, it got postponed a couple of times because she would check herself back into a mental hospital. And she was on medication for depression, anti-acid, and so on. The department of health expert came down and had determined

that she was unfit to assist her attorney in the trial of the case because she had not been under the effects of her medication and that she would not be able to understand what we're doing on the core ring. The results of Wanda's mental health evaluation put pre-trial proceedings on pause. Naturally, there was no way I wanted to go forward under those conditions and the law specifically prohibits it, but what we were trying to do is get Miss Haftcock a fair trial. So we all agreed that the best thing to do, Miss Haftcock was going to remain in custody, but yet we'd be in a mental health facility and we can give an attempt to see if she could regain her ability to understand what was going on and

assess her counselor and her defense. I hoped that things would go quickly, that I would get my guilty bird egg and she would get punished. It just seemed to drag on and on, you know, almost three years. and on, you know, almost three years. Finally, in 2003, Wanda is deemed competent to stand trial. She can just continue to maintain the counseling and things like that.

That they did the same evaluation. She was fine. She was able to assist her counsel in her defense. Inside an Ory County courtroom, prosecutor Bert von Hermann begins to plead his case. Wayne's recordings of his conversations with Wanda help illustrate the conflict within their relationship. I'm so fed up with you. I'm so flanged to go on my own. We're not having a split watching. He went in a hallowed pit running his day on the mountain.

While prosecutors don't need a motive to prove their case, those following the trial have their own theories. She is the only one that really knows what happened. Nobody knows but Wanda. She knew how much money he had. It was bonus time, and that he probably had his bonus in his pocket. And she killed him in cold blood for money.

The motive was jealousy. Wanda wanted Wayne all to herself. And she felt that he was not there for her anymore. And I think he possibly could have broken it off completely with her just prior to the crime. She was very possessive of a blame. I think Wanda was angry that my dad didn't want to be with her. He wanted to live an easy life, but one of my dad made the one to provide it, and he

wasn't going to do that. Prosecutors present their theory of how wings murder played out. Prosecutor basically told the jury that wanted to take my dad out there, that abandoned house. She had lowered him out there on the pretense of possibly sex. possibly sex. She decided that if I can't have it, nobody will. And so she killed it. She took him inside. And she shot him first in the back of the net. And then he fell down.

And then she went and shot him. To become 20's eyes. And shot him in the forehead. to begin 20 died and shot even the forehead. I think that we were able to build and show with the purchase of the magazine, obviously, that was purchased for a reason. The gun, the bullets, you combine all of those things, the entire lifestyle facts and temperament that's certainly pointed an awful lot towards her.

Juan does attorneys disagree. For those of the offenses they claim it was all circumstantial, their defense was, she didn't do it. She's not guilty. You can't prove it. On October 23, 2003, a jury retires to determine Wanda's fate. The outcome of the very first trial was a hung jury.

I didn't know if there was a technicality. We were pretty frustrated over the fact, how can it be a hung jury? How can everybody not see these facts that this is how it happened? And she did it. It was like the ominous sign that she was going to get off. And I just, at some point, at that point lost a lot of hope. Wanda's second trial gets underway a month later in November.

Prosecutor Bert von Hermann lays out his case against Wanda once again with the help of a ballistic expert. The ballistic expert testified at the second trial, spent bullet casing. They found another scene and the bullet they found at her house. That had been fired, that cycled through the weapon. And you know, they matched up. This time, it's enough to convince the jury.

On November 5, 2003, Wanda Haythcock is found guilty of the murder of Wayne Coats. I did get up in front of the judge, poor San Vincent, told him that she showed my father no mercy when she executed him and asked that he showed her no mercy when he sensed her. And to my surprise, he gave her the minimum sense. He had served every day for 30 years. Even now, Juan de Sentence troubles Wayne's friends and family, especially in light of all she took away from them. You know, it's not just me that was hurt by this.

A lot of lives were hurt, which toy. Wayne, I don't think everybody that was this grand, that's something to miss. The biggest thing I miss most about Wayne was he could talk to him about anything. And his engaging smile, he shared it with everybody. And if you were sitting there having a beer and he looked at you and he would joke

and he would smile at you and we'd go play a game of bull. And he just missed being with him. He was just a good, good guy. Losing my dad forever changed my life. I mean, it's totally different. It's nothing like you could have been, you know, being this had to happen. It's just forever altered my life.

I've been this had to happen. It's just wherever I've been in my life. Wanda Hadecock is currently incarcerated at a correctional facility in Columbia, South Carolina. She will be released from prison in October of 2033. She will be 80 years old. you