01x05 - Hiding in Plain Sight

[bunniefuu]

this case happened about 15 years ago I would just call this m*rder an overkill

because of how many times he's sh*t on the night of August 20th 1998 32

year-old Eric Baxter was found sh*t to death in a house he shared with his mother in rural in Dickson Tennessee

Eric and his mother joy were prominent members of the community and they own several convenience stores in the town

eric was at home one night by himself and he was sh*t multiple times the local

sheriff's office and Tennessee Bureau of Investigations arrived on the scene but there wasn't a lot of evidence and the

m*rder w*apon was never found

did you m*rder no he's lying fifteen years later no one has been arrested for

this m*rder and several suspects still remain sadly Eric's mother joy didn't live long

enough to see justice brought to her son but his very best friend is still helping for that justice good night of

the m*rder Eric had called me he tells me the dogs were barking he said you know something

is out here when I looked over and saw him lying in that casket that's the day

it became real what's the best do you think we can really hope for in this case given all the circumstance well I

hope that by the end of the week we're able to have a strong enough case where we can convince the that he wants to take it to a grand jury

I think this case has been real difficult because there's not enough evidence to be able to point to just one

clear person hopefully we can help you hate to come to town and get everybody's hopes up and then nothing new changes I

know it's very stressful we'll see what we're up against it has been 16 years

and still no at least consider her k*lling a cold ears later the case is still unsolved

[Music] there are so many cold cases out there just waiting to be solved the crime

scene ultimately tells the story of the m*rder we want to bring justice to these

victims nice to meet you Joe Craig nice

to meet you nice to meet you y'all come on back I've been with Dickson County for 23 years about seven or eight years ago I read the Eric

Baxter case and I asked our supervisor if I could look into it I wanted to be the one to solve it nice

I knew joy Eric's mother she was a great lady and I wanted to bring some resolution for them we've got everything

laid out we've got all Joe's materials in all of mine Joe Craig is a special

agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation they were brought in from the very beginning to process the crime scene together all these are copies of

the crime scene yeah I was the agent on call the night of the homicide this was

my first homicide I've had over 60 death investigations and I've got one unsolved and this is it this is it oh my god it's

gonna make you crazy it's it's cause some sleepless nights are the things I would have done different yes they are

I'm a much more seasoned much more experienced investigator would those things resulted in a different outcome

at this point that's a question I don't know the answer to

this week we're bringing in Alan Brown hey Alan Alan k*ll you work for HPD

Houston Police Department in Texas and I was at the DA's office he graduated to homicide I moved up to

prosecuting murderers so we've worked a lot of really tough cases together and he is one of the best cops that I have ever seen from what I've seen in the

case it's got some good clues in it got good witnesses in it so we have a good starting point okay so Eric Baxter is our victim he was

a general manager for convenience store Corporation Eric Baxter wasn't a very motivated young entrepreneur he was in

charge of the block of convenience stores owned by his mother Sarah buddy knew who they were they were well respected most definitely working a

homicide case you develop a victimology if you learn as much about that person as you can and Eric was somebody that

has such a bright future it didn't make sense why somebody would want to do this he was sh*t six times there was overkill

there was post-mortem wounds he had three to four potential fatal g*nshots but the person responsible took the time

to place the g*n to the right temple of Eric and pull the trigger that's overkill this was somebody who had a

reason to develop rage anger and take it out on Eric he knew who was standing on

the other end of that g*n okay so let's talk about the suspects one of the

people that y'all focused on was Tommy Wortham right Tommy had leased one of their convenience stores called Tyson

Springs market joy Marsh had told us they had received information that there

was drug activity going on at the store while tommy operated it she wanted him out of the store he felt Eric and his

mother had offered him the opportunity to buy the store and then they pull back that offer so Tommy lost the store what

else was the deal with him he was a lieutenant criminal investigator for the Hickman County Sheriff's Office honestly

you just cannot have a worse suspect than a cop because they understand the investigative process they know all the

rules that we have to play by they know how to get around those rules and they also could possibly still have people

within their agency that are on their side when it comes time to look at the case who else and all the people that

you looked at back then have a motive as strong as this one Jerry Ragsdale y'all were focused on him

initially because of their relationship you're right correct Jerry and Eric were lovers exactly so in the beginning was

he's worth coming with you about their a relationship no he was not initially Jerry Ragsdale denied having a

relationship later on he admitted that they did have a sexual relationship for 10 years based

on that dishonesty the investigation headed down his road Jerry would have access to this home he knew the family

well he had a key he would come to the residence for cookouts for family events

and at the time and Jerry worked for me so he was in daily communication over there we had learned that Jerry was not

treated well by Eric what else about Jerry Ragsdale made him an initial suspect the overkill thing yeah but the

overkill situations like this you always first look to who's closest to the

victim Jerry and Eric had known each other for years they'd even lived together at one point

if Jerry and Eric were truly in a relationship then maybe this is a crime of passion maybe they were fighting at

the time or Jerry wanted more and it just pushed him over the edge I think we can just about recite this

case at this point and you know you always want that little extra piece that just goes yes I really want to get out

to the crime scene I just want to see it firsthand so it was good in order to

figure out who k*lled Eric Baxter we're gonna go back to the crime scene to see if we can find any new little clues or

leads that we didn't know about what little bit of evidence we do have we're gonna send off to the DNA lab we need to

re-interview witnesses interrogate all potential suspects we have our work definitely cut out for us

fortunately the Baxter family still owns the house they granted us permission to come visit it as we pulled up the one

thing I've noticed is this looks exactly like it did in 1998 this was my first

assigned homicide pulling into that driveway and knowing that I would be trying to piece together a puzzle as to

what happened in that house was something that I will never forget yeah same front door if you came to this

front door nobody would really see you now the theory for the last 15 years has been that some

knocked on the front door so Eric opened it there's either some confrontation or a w*apon is drawing a struggle happens

and it ends up in the hallway Wow looks just like the pictures well it's been

carpet same furniture which way is the room they had been talking on the phone

in right there Eric was talking to Rhonda on the night he was k*lled and later it was determined that he was

k*lled about 30 minutes after that phone call a struggle happens right here because the errant round goes right into

a planner right here straight down here straight down we're thinking possibly struggle between Eric and our intruder maybe he hits the

armored intruder because a b*llet went straight down into the bottom of the stand with a plant on it I think in here

got a hold of the arm got a hold of the g*n and then I think Eric just keeps going backwards or six numerous sh*ts

and he falls and the person took those took the w*apon unloaded it dropped the

rounds in his hand reloaded and in the process dropped alive around we had one live around here at the feet of Eric

they determined through ballistics that the w*apon used was a Smith & Wesson 38 special five-sh*t revolver after the

person reloaded he walks over to Eric and he puts one right into his right temple he knew when he left his house he

had to be dead what's the possibility that our suspect does come in the back can hear him maybe

if he was on the phone it starts to come around this corner and they actually meet right here in this area where the

g*n comes up he's like oh my gosh you know pushed it down I can see how the front door logically would be a good

point of entry based on the fact that Eric had to let this person in but now seeing the layout of the house and

seeing where Eric's body was being backed up into the hallway why would you ever really even try to go there's no

escape route that way I'm now starting to wonder if the back door makes more

sense this is just a primo spot definitely have the visibility from the bedroom all days right looking at the

back of the Baxters house look at all these windows somebody could sit behind that fence line and just watch Eric and he would

never know I'm almost gonna bet coming back in here once he thinks it's clear or safe to get him and go in right

through those doors especially if Eric may be off and on was laying the dogs in and out all night you know right most

people just don't keep locked unlock lock unlock you know there's unlock it I think we should examine the idea that the k*ller entered from the back of the

house so I walked Joe through my thought of the back door comes in back unlocked

door he looks doesn't see anybody he could

still hear Eric he comes around this corner Eric is approaching up the hallway not ready for that one

everybody follow Murdock down he reloads

where he accidentally drops around he comes up and wants to make sure we have

gotten the last sh*t comes back out still making sure no one's here everything's cool

and exits right back out the door back out to the field to a hidden car over on

the back roadway now today 15 years later I think there's as much potential that the person responsible came through

the back of the house if the k*ller came through the back door logically it would point more towards Tommy because Tommy

didn't have a close personal relationship with Eric Baxter if the k*ller came through the front door that would point more towards Jerry Ragsdale

we still have a lot to learn it was a really healthy [Music]

Aaron Baxter was m*rder*d 15 years ago right now we only have two suspects in every case we always want to learn

everything we can about our victim stuff we're gonna go visit his very best friend Rhonda Talbert you happen to be

on the phone with him 30 minutes before he was m*rder*d Eric and I met in high school we had a

lot of the same personality he's like a brother Eric was a godfather of our two

children he loved them because he was a big kid himself I didn't know of anybody that would want him dead

you know we're laughing 30 minutes prior and having a phone conversation and I

remember him saying somebody's out here because the dogs they just continued to bark to the point where he put him

outside okay his exact words were there is

something out where something is out here Rhonda do you know when he put him outside which door he put him outside

the French doors he open it go to the backyard look back so back did y'all ever think that whoever did it just

pulled up in the driveway and knocked on the front door I didn't because of the dogs barking I thought that somebody had

been watching him and was waiting for him to get off the phone and you know joy actually walked in and saw her her

son's feet at the edge of the hallway she said she thought he was playing a practical joke because that's that's

Eric and she said get up from there when he didn't move she went over and he was lying in a pool of blood

and she said she just began screaming that image was forever embedded in her head so you know it took an emotional

toll on her she was consumed with it very much consumed did she ever become aware that they were

sort of talking about Jerry Ragsdale yeah because they kept drawing a circle

and saying that this was somebody that Eric knew and back then you know Tommy Wortham was in the purchase of doing the

lease purchase and that all kind of fell apart how much did you know about all that from talking to Eric well I knew

that that they weren't gonna renew his lease did Eric ever have any problems

with Tommy I think Tommy mainly dealt with joy I don't even know that they had

conversations he didn't really know him how do you think joy would feel about us reopening the case Oh she'd be ecstatic

yeah it was her mission that she was gonna find this k*ller

after talking to Rhonda we need to get back to the crime scene to test our backdoor theory okay this is our

driveway right now I'm looking at the garage yeah so here's the woods and back in here nobody's gonna be coming

nobody's gonna be coming probably down this it's dark you could Park all in here and if you sneak up on the house

there's a little rise there where they would never see you coming or see anything let's walk this real quick and let's see if this is even possible watch

out for snakes great watch out for that barbed wire we have on the right shoes

yeah see something like that if you don't know to look for it it's cut

Yolanda this fence is cut it's cut right here too girly is it real yeah look it's

cut right here it's all cut there's no way of knowing for sure when the barbed wire was cut but if our suspect did cut

this wire that's huge it goes to show deliberation premeditation and planning can you get

through there right over what's this be careful all right

remind me to hit the treadmill I really do believe this is the way our k*ller

had gained access into Eric's house Tommy didn't know Eric well enough just to show up at the front door so this

would be more of a way that Tommy would gain access if Jerry was the k*ller they were lovers

I could see Jerry just going right up to the front door but before we can rule Jerry out so we know he's alive at 10:30

we know he's dead at 10:59 at 1103 joy calls Ragsdale could Jerry made it back

in time for that phone call let's go we're going to see if he had enough time to be able to drive from

Eric's house back to his apartment and then answer that frantic call from joy Eric's mom he only had 34 minutes to do

all of that I don't think he's gonna drive like a maniac he's probably crying and upset

right now absolutely was freaking out he's hysterical he's not in perfect control of his faculties so you're

coming up on six minutes only now now you're gonna go right or in ten

minutes and forty seconds right now so we're on this street right now there it is go out to the door and I'll

time you stop right you got 13 minutes

37 seconds we have 34 minutes to play with and so we still have 20 minutes of

unexplained time Gerry had more than enough time to m*rder Eric and get back home in time to get that frantic phone

call from joy that happened about 30 minutes later so he could be our k*ller 20 minutes is a lot of time word is

spreading fast across the town about the investigation so TBI agent Breedlove and sheriff

Bledsoe are gonna go talk to Tommy see if they can catch him off guard and ask him a few questions there's no DNA

sample from Tommy on file from the initial investigation I don't think they

ever got it because maybe they never felt they had enough to approach him so we're hoping to get a sample for me so

the lab could compare it to any possible DNA profiles that are obtained from Eric's clothes Tommy can we have a

minute of your time I say you still smoking I've got to quit you getting any younger man you still

think about this case every day Tommy how can we eliminate you as a suspect

well we're trying but we gotta eliminate you first I've never k*lled anybody in my life I

have nothing life we've been in the business you know well I think that's why I'm being looked at so artists I was

a detective so I know how to do it and get by with there have been several

people who said that you did on a 38 don't be anybody that's ever worked for me every deputy I've ever worked with

I've never owned a 38 we know the connection relationship between you and Eric have you ever been in Eric's house

ever don't know where he live his mother Leah there would be no reason whatsoever

that your DNA would be anywhere in the house that's what you're saying okay would you

have any problem with me get there gonna swab okay well why don't we do that and we'll be out of here in out of here here

[Music]

we did get the DNA samples great it's good news that we have

Tommy's DNA samples so that we can compare it if the lab does develop any

profiles but I'm really kind of wondering why he gave it up so easily kind of does make him look a little less

like a suspect he agreed you let him take it toast now

Allen and John are going to go try to track down Scarlett Tommy's ex-wife she knows something

about that night and now that they're divorced maybe she'd be willing to talk

scarlet I just got a text from John they couldn't find scarlet but they're

bringing in April Davis her sister yeah okay well hopefully she'll know where scarlet is the air Baxter m*rder

occurred you and your sister talked a lot well all I remember is she told me that she don't know what happened what

did she say about Tommy where was Tom uh she didn't say she said he wasn't there

you definitely remember her saying Tommy wouldn't home that night right Tommy wasn't there when they interviewed Tommy

after the m*rder he said that he'd been home all night but now April says that Scarlett told

her Tommy wasn't home that night it's two totally different stories I'll ask

you a question I want you just tell your answer okay do you think oh I've always

had question I knew this something to do with Costas brains Tommy Wortham was in the process

of doing a lease purchase on the store that Eric Baxter and his mother joy Marsh owned by many different witness

accounts Tommy Wortham was not happy about the store deal going south and he did not like Eric or joy because of it

Scarlett talked to you about this no she don't talk about it much at all she called me just now can you call her right now and let us

talk to her and see if she'll come down and talk to us yeah sure can you just

talk to her hi are you trying to call it

detective Steve so talk to me Scarlett you come talk to me tomorrow how about say 8:30 here at the sheriff's

office okay and I'll see you tomorrow

we're just dying to see if Alan Brown can get any new information out of scarlet at first she said that Tommy

wasn't even home that night then and now she's changed her story saying that he was home now they're not married so

there's no telling what she might tell Alan Brown today thank you for coming up to talk to us today

so obviously you know why you're here yes okay you talked to your sister yesterday yes about Tommy no we don't

talk anymore let me ask you a question did you m*rder Eric Baxter no okay then

you don't have any reason to be nervous and the reason you keep being brought down here is because we haven't got the

straight story we have a statement from you that says that Tommy wakes you up and tells you you tell them that I have

been here all night I didn't talk to him that morning Tommy told you that because

we have a statement from you that says that no I didn't tell me that he was with me as far as I remember

okay well now yesterday your sister told us that you and her had a conversation

and you told her that Tommy had left and you didn't know where he went all night

now she said right in that chair right there yesterday afternoon and she said all I can tell you is no you are lying

call your show me the statement sir it's only this thing let's go back in your talk okay I am just telling you what

your sister said yes where see my sister wasn't in the right of me okay I'm just

telling you what she said she said that you told her that he had left sometime during the night and that she didn't

know where he went to bed together that night mm-hmm unless he snuck out of the house and me not knowing we didn't have a good

relationships dude I got pregnant and we don't dr*gs I want to hear how how mad

she'll say it taught me was about the store well then let me ask you this so let's just back that like okay y'all were leasing

the store we lost this short I didn't let it get to me like you know it wasn't

a big deal I think it's like he did but he took it harder I guess he had lost his cop job just everything was falling

apart so close together in her interview scarlet admitted that things were really bad for Tommy right

before Eric's m*rder Tommy Wortham vas and lost re-election to sheriff so he was no longer gonna get to be a cop

scarlet was eight months pregnant he had no financial security his world was falling down around them in the

middle of that crumbling world were the Baxters I do have a few questions myself sometime question well somebody had

questioned me they asked me where Baxter lived and I said Chavez creep and Tommy doesn't want to tell me where they lived

yes we was running around one day backroads and he pointed out their house in previous statements Tommy Wortham has

said to the police that he didn't know where Eric lived and that he had never been to the house so the fact that

scarlet can tell us that Tommy absolutely knew where Eric live and in fact even shown Scarlett the house where

Eric lived is huge I talked to Tommy he got all my head and I said I you told

me where they live I know I did I felt like wait man you took me to this house why are you lying man he keeps saying

quit talking to everybody you're gonna get me in trouble so then it got rowdy

want to come in for questioning anymore the every other weekend he would get the kids was a humongous break for me I

needed him to in my life so I was like it'd be better for maybe used to not answer any questions scarlet in the past

has always protected Tommy because they were married and they had children together now Scarlett's opening up more

that's the great thing about cold cases people's lives change and in their stories change what kind of g*ns did you

see Tommy with different kinds machine g*ns and short revolvers seems like we had one at the

store I want I think even the employees knew it was there you know several people if I were

to show you one when you take a look at it yeah yeah this is this is unloaded yeah okay yeah okay

scarlet proved to be very helpful he's giving us a lot of information and Tommy is looking more and more likely as a

suspect Jerry is about ten minutes out I just got off the phone with him okay that's

awesome because he's our only other suspect on the board we need to talk to Jerry Ragsdale worked for Eric and also

Jerry and Eric had an intimate relationship in the beginning of the investigation you made the mistake of

not come and clean with their whole relationship and the drive time between Eric's house and where Jerry Ragsdale

lives isn't such that it can eliminate Jerry Ragsdale as being the k*ller we

need to sit him down and eyeball him see if he's the kind of man who could do something like this thank you for coming we're reinter

viewing everybody just going over it one more time we know in the beginning that you weren't totally honest and because

of certain reasons and we want to cover all that something it's actually

something it does hinder investigations when people are not totally honest

because it throws up red flags because there's nothing bigger than a m*rder investigation cuff somebody's lost a lot I was I've never done that right I did

it about it I just had one question did you k*ll her no okay no that's why my family

okay what was your take on y'all's personal relationship outside of those

little be dated or anything nothing like that and just like we had we got it fine did you have other relationships besides

Eric with men at that time no what about Eric one of his friends I'm just sort of

a little bit how'd that make you feel that anger you know what was the last time you saw Eric that day tell me not

like I'm not coming in tomorrow I'm not doing the NC not if I've done this I've done that so far Dan I've just basically

if I see something I don't feel they have it so I'll call you know I said I'm sorry you know for being such a but

mm-hmm you know I'll go ahead and come in tomorrow you know I did he's timid I feel sorry for him do you own a firearm

you've never owned a farm ever with the

experience and call it intuition if you want to there are certain things that you can go by Jerry Ragsdale doesn't

seem like the type that would commit m*rder but more importantly Jerry Ragsdale knows nothing about g*ns so if

this had been an amateur k*ller in the middle of a crime of passion where they've lost it and they're not thinking clearly we would have evidence all over

the place but this was an immaculate crime scene no we are still working on

about appreciate your time thank you very much you have to use your common sense it was 1998 it was small town in

rural Tennessee and understanding why he lied about the relationship makes perfect sense there's no way that Jerry

had anything to do with with Erics death he's like I would never own a farm never owned a firearm no doubt he needs to

come off the board everybody's good he's cleared he couldn't k*ll a Fang now that we've ruled out Jerry Ragsdale as being

the k*ller we can really focus on Tommy Wortham Jeff hey John Patterson hey

Tommy Wortham used to work for the Hickman County Sheriff's Department so I'm interested to talk to all of those

cop buddies that he worked with to find out what kind of a cop he was but I don't know if these cops are still

friends of his so I don't really know if they're gonna be forthcoming and open earth they're gonna be hesitant

maybe even defensive or hostile where did you know Tommy from I worked with him at the Aiken County Sheriff's Department

what kind of cop was he lazy lazy my

opinion Tommy would never show up for work or he wouldn't answer he's following or his pager we started seeing

a lot of things that didn't add up and didn't look right there was stuff coming up missing out of our closets you mean evidence room yes ma'am like

weapons like dope dr*gs dr*gs I'd heard he was doing some cocaine and doing some

marijuana okay Tommy was upset about that the story issue with this lady the lady that's

going yeah that owned it basically what he said was is that they had backed out of the deal and that he had already paid

X amount of dollars to the lawyer he was just pissed about it pissed about losing the case how'd you know that Jerry was

he said it I mean he would talk to us about that when we would be working you know and then all of a sudden boom that

happens I mean it's quiet for just a short time there pal Indians are dead do you remember ever

seeing Tommy of any g*ns in specific yeah 38 snubnose doctor ever deputy I've

ever worked with anybody everybody and I've never owned a 38 he made it a point

to like kind of hide it as he was trying to stick it back in his drawer I said what do you got there man and he said a

little sudden those 38 I picked up we actually went to a bar one night I said tell me you've got a 38 in your back

pocket here you're not taking it in the scope how'd you know that I could see it it was in his pocket at first 38 yeah

the 38 that's Tommy we're not taking that in there it's a bar joint you're gonna be drinking and he said no I'm most take it right he's stuck it in here

and he covered it up what would you say if you heard Tommy told us that he's never owned a 38

I say he's lyin

what would you say if you heard Tommy told us that he's never owned a 38

I say he's lyin cuz that's what he's saying he's lying would you have any problem standing up in a courtroom and

saying what you just said absolutely not good for you it seems that Tommy was a crooked cop and after talking to all of

his cop buddies they didn't think very much of him at this point in the investigation we really need to talk to Tommy Wortham

so we sent sheriff Bledsoe out to see if he can convince Tommy to come down to the station to ask him questions to see

what he'll say about everything okay his truck is here times approximately 2:30 9

p.m. and I do see Tommy Tommy man have

you got a minute yeah what I want to ask you other day we talked to you you was interested in wanting to get your name

cleared on this okay 15 years of this

yeah that's why we give you a chance to talk to him before it gets to the point that they try to start pushing something

to the grand jury and I've told everything I know to tell you no I don't want to turn around and say something different than what I said before for

lack of memory well if you don't no need to remember like a lighter I don't know as I say they can indict a ham sandwich

and it's figured out you know what I mean over something twisted word or

something me go to jail on my life friend this may mark you off the list from from now on I know I didn't k*ll it

boy I mean that there's no way anybody could ever prove that because it didn't happen right circumstantial evidence could lead to at

least you having to go through all that mess up Jeff let me talk to my wife or my family

let me think about it won't be today but yeah probably

all right yeah me all right

[Music]

good morning morning well I thought I'd start off by saying Tommy didn't show up

this morning not even a phone call and DNA results came in and it wasn't enough

trace DNA to work with they didn't get any profiles at all on it right okay

the lab was not able to extract any kind of DNA from the evidence so now we have

Tommy's DNA sample but we don't have anything to compare it to so we just lost our last chance of having any

physical evidence in this case and we would like to have those great little things happen but it's the real world of

cold cases and I feel like after all this week's worth of work we had that whole board full of circumstantial

evidence and details and inconsistencies and I gotta say I would be comfortable taking this case against Tommy Wortham

for m*rder to the district attorney well I'll be honest with you Kelly I feel a lot better than I did before but I mean

it's still totally a circumstantial case and that's a bad thing it's a scary

thing but look at it like this John a circumstantial evidence case is a case where you don't have an eyeball witness

and you don't have a m*rder w*apon and you might not have DNA but you have all these little bitty things up here that

tell you what happened when the crime happened so let's say our big circumstances is who won't pick one he

doesn't have no alibi for where he was that night okay and that's our circumstance there we are and who had

the motive Tommy Wortham Tommy lost the store he lost the store on July the 1st

which is six weeks seven weeks before m*rder happened right he lost his cop job so he's got no source of income you

have Scarlett saying I don't know where he was what did she say about Tommy where was Tommy she said he wasn't there you have the fact that he's using dr*gs

I heard you had the fact that he said all along he never owned a 38 and now

you have cops saying he owned a silver 38 I say he's lying he's also lied to

the sheriff and never been to that house don't know where motherly up and you have scarlet is

saying yeah he's been to that house we was running around one day back roads and he pointed out their house the whole

way we've decided that he entered through the back door of the house the way someone whose train comes up on

enterprise is Eric all these little bitty things are circumstances and when you add them all up there's no way you

can break them circumstance cases are all these little baby elements all pointing back in the same direction that

you can't do anything about because they are the truth to me they're better than any other kind of case and take all this

over witnesses and the reason is is because by Tommy's own spoken words we can refute everything he said it's

always gonna be this do we jump off the cliff now issue with coal cases you can't sit around as a prosecutor your

whole life thinking maybe I'll find a g*n window you're not gonna ever find the g*n so there comes a day where you

have to decide it's time to do something about this case and tell me where them faint should soon be in the hands of a

grand jury I think we're ready to take this to the DA's office and see what he says I feel the tremendous sense of relief

everything we've done has not been in vain and we might be able to offer this family a little bit of closure in this

case we piled together so we're not late alright Joe and John took the case to

the district attorney this morning and so now we're waiting to hear what the DA thinks about all the evidence good

morning if he thinks that he has enough to present the case to a grand jury he'll take the evidence to 12 citizens

of this county and see if they believe there's enough evidence there to warrant an indictment if they do then that means

one day there'll be a trial where 12 citizens of this county decide if they believe there's enough to convict Tommy

Wortham for the m*rder of Eric Baxter let me first say I really appreciate the work that's being done this is a case

that I've followed since the day had happened I was on the crime scene and it's a case that I've always felt like

could and should be solved occasionally I look back at cases that

are unsolved and I think boy I wish we had done this or I wish we had done that but I think this case has been well work

from day way yes sometimes you just need the passage of time to help you get there in this case kind of benefited from that

good things are happening and based upon what I've heard this morning I think our grand jury ought to hear the

investigation with a goal to getting an indictment and then advancing to the more important part and that is seeking

justice and saying that a conviction is had I think that's perfect what I'm

happy with that I agree and I think we still will keep working you know doing our part after all these years to present this case to

a grand jury couldn't be any better we want to see justice and that's great that's great well thank you so much

thank you it just makes us feel like all the work that's been done is gonna be validated Thank You general there was a

wonderful moment he was elation I mean I was just so glad to hear him say that he felt we've been able to establish that

Tommy Wortham might have committed this crime knowing joy Eric's mother personally I'm just so proud that we finally reached

our goal and I really look forward to the day we take this case in front of a jury

this is the fun part Rhonda's been

waiting 15 years to have any answers on this case so you've been waiting all

week to hear what happened I have pretty much talked to everybody that we needed to we took the case to the DA this

morning at nine o'clock he's decided that he's gonna take the case to a grand jury to ask for the indictment of Tommy

Wortham Wow Wow that's incredible that's

a cruel I am just so hopeful that he's going to get justice you know I think

you will I think he will do this is a long time coming you know this almost 15 years I want to jump up and scream at

the top of my lungs joy we did it Eric would be happy to know that we

cared so much on behalf of you know Eric's family in ours I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for

everything that you guys have done to get this where it is right now it means a lot it means a lot to

everyone that's dustier to be able to help you to do some good thank you so much thank you

I'm so happy that Rhonda and Aaron's family can put this terrible event behind him and begin to heal and that

Jerry Ragsdale can know that he will never again have to worry about being arrested for a crime he didn't commit

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