02x01 - Murders on the Edge of Town

[bunniefuu]

FEMALE NARRATOR:
On a frigid fall day,

a young mother is laid to rest
after a tragic car accident.

She was really
something special,

very loving and down to earth.

That type of person that would
give you the shirt off her back.

NARRATOR: But questions swirl
around her sudden death.

I'm literally thinking,

how did she get these injuries
to the back of her head?

People felt seriously
creeped out.

Who did this to Sharon?

NARRATOR: How far will
investigators go

to unravel the mystery?

Sometimes you have
to bend with the law.

I decided I would
do an ill*gal exhumation.

NARRATOR: When investigators
dig for the truth,

a scandalous
secret is unearthed.

Who is he?
Oh, he's just a friend.

They started hearing the
gossip about the affair.

NARRATOR: And an unsolved
missing person's case

quickly transforms
into a deadly mystery.

We mention what is
believed to be the body of...

A newscast came across
and you're like, oh my God.

The body has possibly
been found.

It made them wonder if these
two things were connected.

Then they really dove in.

I wanted to know
what happened to her.

It's amazing what
the dead will tell you.

♪

NARRATOR: Nestled on the banks
of the Missouri River,

historic St. Charles
is a quiet suburb

just outside of St. Louis.

St. Charles was kind of
the American dream.

It was the place
that young families went

when they wanted to raise kids
or get away from the city.

It was incredibly safe
and people went there

because it was affordable
and they formed community.

NARRATOR: But even the most
peaceful town

sees its share of tragedy.

It was October the 19th of 1983.

And someone came
over the CB radio

and said he was driving
down the road

and saw the tail lights
of the car off the embankment

on Central Score Road.

He parked his car
and saw the small fire

that was burning on the ground
outside of the car

and he was able
to extinguish that fire.

And he said,
there's a lady inside the car.

She was gasping for air.

NARRATOR: Police race
to the scene

knowing each passing second
could be the difference

between life and death.

When we first pull up,

I saw it was a Cadillac
that was in the creek.

The car is on its front bumper
standing somewhat upright.

I could see that there was a
lady laying under the dash.

Her body's extended
from the center of the car

towards the passenger door.

And then her knees are kind of
bent upward.

NARRATOR: Just as the caller
had described,

Officer Ed Copeland finds the
woman unconscious

and struggling to breathe

after what appears
to be a tragic accident.

The first thing I did was try
to open her airway.

And it was at this point
that I could feel

that the back of her head was
like, it was mush.

She had very severe injuries.

It's hard to witness that.

I'm literally thinking,
how did this happen?

How did she get these injuries
to the back of her head?

None of this makes sense.

So at that point,
the ambulance arrived

and the victim was extricated
from the car.

NARRATOR: EMTs load the woman
into an ambulance

and race to the hospital.

Meanwhile, police quickly
comb the Cadillac

and notice several items.

A purse was in the backseat, 53

but nothing in the front seat.

A driver's license was found
in the wallet.

NARRATOR: The ID belongs to


The photo is a match
for the woman they found

fighting for air in the front
seat moments before.

The driver's license said
she lived probably about

four miles, five miles
away on Gutermuth road.

So one of our patrol deputies
went by the house.

NARRATOR: Police are greeted
by Sharon's husband,

Jim Williams and notify him
of the horrific accident.

In disbelief, he tells them
she only left the house

an hour before
for an evening church service.

Jim quickly alerts
his wife's mother

and his 19-year-old son, Brett.

They both lived in the area
and went to the hospital.

NARRATOR: At the hospital,
all three of them

find Sharon clinging to life.

While the family prays
for her recovery,

investigators learn more about
Sharon and her family.

I've never met grandma Sharon,

but from what my father said
about her,

she was really
something special.

Very loving and down to earth.

She was that type of person that
would give you the shirt off

her back if you needed it.

NARRATOR:
It was Sharon's kindness

that first attracted her
husband, Jim

nearly 27 years earlier.

They met in high school.

They rode the bus together.

And they were married
within two years

and then they had Jim Jr.,
their first born.

And four years after that,
they had a baby boy, Brett.

Sharon and Jim were your
typical St. Charles family.

Jim was an electric contractor
and he was known as a sturdy

kind of pillar
of the community guy.

And they both would do
whatever somebody needed

if they needed help.

So it was really difficult
when the doctors very gently

told Jim that the
brain damage was irreparable

and they would have
to pull the plug.

And he gave his permission.

NARRATOR:
It's a gut-wrenching decision

for Sharon's
heartbroken husband, Jim.

And it's one that weighs heavy
on the whole family.

My dad, Brett Williams

losing his mother,
it hit him really hard.

That was his best friend.

They were really close
to each other.

NARRATOR: The news is no less
distressing for 23-year-old,

Jim Jr. who is living in Florida
when he gets the call.

Jim Jr. was decimated.

You know, to have his mother die
that suddenly

for no obvious reason.

It was really destabilizing.

NARRATOR: Back at the scene,
police work deep into the night

to try to make sense
of how Sharon's car

went off the road
and into the creek.

I started looking
through vehicle tracks.

How did the vehicle
leave the road?

Is there any skid marks
that are present?

None of that stuff was present.

NARRATOR: The lack of skid
marks suggest that no sudden

braking or swerving
had taken place.

From what I was seeing,

this vehicle just rolled
basically right off the road

and into the creek.

NARRATOR: That's not the only
detail that doesn't add up.

She didn't have any facial
injuries that should be there

with a frontal impact
of the vehicle.

But there was an injury
to the back of her head

and there was no damage
to her car that would

explain that injury.

She would have to be thrown
around that car

to have injuries
to the back of her head.

And there would have to be
enough speed to that car

to do that.

NARRATOR: But Copeland
notices that the relatively

undamaged car landed less
than 20 feet from the road.

The way the vehicle
landed in the ditch,

to me, the speed
of the vehicle was minimal.

NARRATOR:
To Officer Copeland,

these inconsistencies
are troubling.

Are her injuries from the crash
or something else?

That was my first thought
that something wasn't right.

NARRATOR: Coming up.

Something made my dad go,
something's wrong.

Something's not right.

NARRATOR: Suspicions escalate
over Sharon's accident.

It was not a
motor vehicle accident.

Sharon died as the result
of as*ault of some type.

People were scared.
Who did this to Sharon?

There is a need
to exhume this body,

but unless I get permission
legally to do this examination,

it wouldn't stand up in court.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: Details at the scene
of Sharon Williams'

fatal car crash
have Officer Ed Copeland

questioning whether her death
was actually an accident.

The car didn't have any damage.

There was a frontal impact.
The car went off the embankment.

Uh, damage to her should have
been on the front of her body.

But as it turned out,
she had some severe injuries

to the back of her head.

So when I expressed my concerns
with the accident,

I was told basically,
it's gonna be followed up on

by the accident investigator.

And based on my suspicions,
they did um,

do a reconstruction
of the accident.

We actually got the same vehicle

and tried to recreate
everything about it.

NARRATOR: A few days
after the crash,

investigators load a dummy
into the same car model

that Sharon had been driving
and send it rolling

down the wet road.

The report that was done
by the accident reconstruction

showed the vehicle hit a tree
with enough speed for her

to be thrown around in that car,

which would cause the injuries
to the back of her head.

The report showed that it was
in fact, an accident

and that there was no suspicion
to the um, to the death.

NARRATOR: The official
cause of death

listed on her death certificate

is accidental cranial-cerebral
trauma.

And no autopsy
is ever performed.

It was the 1980s and you know,
we were a rural community

and accidents like that
happened, but this to me,

wasn't an accident.

But I'm just a
two-year rookie deputy

that doesn't know
what he's talking about.

Uh, that's kind of
how I felt anyway.

NARRATOR:
The ruling doesn't sit well

with Sharon's son, Brett either.

The report showed she had a
big, ole bump on her noggin.

You don't get that from a car
going 30, 40 miles an hour

like it was supposedly said.

NARRATOR: But when
he shares his suspicions

with his father, Jim,
he gets a surprising response.

Dad told me that when he did
bring this up to grandpa Jim,

that he was kind of just like,
it was a car accident.

And that,
that was the end of it.

NARRATOR: The case is closed.

And two days later
on October 22, 1983,

Sharon is laid to rest
at Fountain Cemetery.

Everybody was pretty emotional.

Um, knowing that what happened
and uh,

it was devastating
to say the least.

NARRATOR: Little does the
grieving community know

Sharon's story is far from over.

As months slowly tick by,

Sharon's loved ones each grapple
with her death in their own way.

Jim tries his best
to move on with his life

and eventually remarries.

Dad told me that grandpa Jim,

it was always very
monotoned about it.

And he really didn't
talk much about that.

NARRATOR:
But Brett seems caught

in an endless spiral of grief.

Dad was 19.

Going through your
later teenage years

and then having your mom
not there.

Dad always talked about how much
he had missed Sharon.

It was every day.
He's like, I miss my mom.

NARRATOR: Brett's not the only
one who can't let it go.

Officer Ed Copeland still lives
with the nagging feeling

that Sharon's death
wasn't an accident.

And four years later,

he gets another chance
to make his case.

I'm Dr. Mary Case.

I became the
chief medical examiner

in St. Charles County in 1986.

Before Dr. Case came on board
as our medical examiner,

we had a chiropractor
for a coroner.

NARRATOR: Coroners are elected
by the community

and don't necessarily need
to have any medical training.

The coroner did not have
the qualifications

that Dr. Mary Case does

to determine what could have
happened to Sharon.

NARRATOR: Dr. Case's
medical background

allows her to perform autopsies,
a fact that Officer Ed Copeland

hopes will breathe new life
into Sharon's investigation.

I was introduced to Dr. Case
and I relay to her

the suspicions that I had
about the accident.

The police brought me
a large amount of material

that concerned Sharon Williams.

I could see where here's where
the car went off the road.

Then her car is kind of
nose down, so the impact

would be front.

And then I had the medical
records and I can see that

there are skull fractures,

but most of these fractures are
towards the back of the head.

So the question is,
why would you have that

if the injuries are coming
from the motor vehicle accident?

That was very suspicious.

My impression at that time was,

there is a need
to exhume this body.

NARRATOR: But the process
to exhume a body

is not an easy one.

I cannot just go out
and exhume bodies,

so I'm working to get
that state's attorney

to ask for a court order.

And he just kind of ignored
my request.

I think for a long time,

exhuming a body seems like
treading on sacrosanct ground.

You did not want
to disturb the dead

and there was just a very
conservative, conventional

attitude toward it.

As we got into 1987,

I realized that I was not going
to get an order of exhumation.

But I decided that

the value of an exhumation
was so great

that I would have to do an
ill*gal exhumation

without permission from a judge.

It was an absolutely
critical point.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: Suspecting that
Sharon Williams' death

was a homicide,

Mary Case decides to perform
an ill*gal exhumation.

One that takes place
without a court order.

If she's wrong,
she could face a steep fine

or even prison time for
tampering with an interred body.

It had to be done to find out
that, that's a homicide.

Of course, I hope that we can
demonstrate the cause of death,

so that the judge will give me
an order to legally do it again.

NARRATOR: But before
she moves forward,

Dr. Case takes on
the difficult task

of alerting the Williams family
about her suspicions.

When dad had found out
that uh, grandma Sharon

was possibly m*rder*d,

it was uh, devastating for my
father to say the least.

NARRATOR: But in the four
years since Sharon's death,

Brett's father,
Jim seems reticent

to dig up the past.

As far as grandpa Jim,

there was really no um,
emotions there.

NARRATOR: With his father
wrapped up in his new marriage,

Brett is on his own
to face the unthinkable.

My father had said
that he was not happy

that she was being exhumed.

But for autopsy purposes,
it needed to be done.

NARRATOR: Nearly four years
after Sharon was laid to rest,

investigators gather
to unearth her body.

For the officers and Dr. Case,
the stakes couldn't be higher.

I was excited that she was
going to exhume the body

because I wanted to know
what happened to her.

It was a sunny day.

It was not real warm,
but it was not bitter cold.

It was kind of an
early spring day.

NARRATOR: Dr. Case
holds her breath

as the coffin is raised up.

So we wanted to look
at the external appearance

of the coffin,

and the coffin was
pretty pristine.

NARRATOR: But the moment
of truth won't come until

they get Sharon's body
back to the morgue.

We open up the coffin
and she's laying there.

She's dry and
she's in very good shape.

So she had
on the front of her face,

she had a small laceration
over the brow.

And then she had a little
abrasion on the other side.

So these two marks on her body,
those are consistent

with a frontal impact.

Actually having
the body fall forward,

it's a very superficial injury.

But at the back of her head,
there were two vertical

lacerations that crossed
the entire back of the head down

into the base of the skull.

She has been struck twice
very powerfully

to the back of the head
by a blunt object.

So this is a massive injury,
a massive injury.

A massive impact.
This is the cause of death.

NARRATOR: Since nothing else
was found inside the car

to cause such an injury,

Dr. Case believes there's
only one conclusion.

So it was obvious to me
that this is a homicide.

Somebody has k*lled this woman.

NARRATOR: Dr. Case reports her
findings to the St. Charles PD.

And after four, long years,
the case is reopened.

The exhumation of Sharon
was the most powerful piece

of evidence that we had going
forward with the investigation.

NARRATOR: The realization
that Sharon was m*rder*d

is a difficult pill
for her family to swallow.

There was a lot of family
emotions that dad had said

that he had seen
for the first time.

And it hit my dad really hard.

NARRATOR: Brett makes it
his mission to help police

any way he can.

He wanted grandma Sharon
to have some justice.

I mean, that was his mom.

NARRATOR: Investigators
start from scratch

interviewing Sharon's friends
and neighbors.

And quickly find
that Sharon's charmed life

might not have been as perfect
as it seemed.

When investigators reopened
the Sharon Williams' case,

they started hearing the gossip
about the affair.

According to those close
to the couple,

Jim may have been seeing
his current wife, Joann,

before Sharon passed away.

Brett tells detectives
that he too had some suspicions

about his dad's infidelity.

Dad had mentioned quite a few
times that grandpa Jim

was taking work calls
at weird hours of the night

like 9:00, 10:00 at night.

Not coming back home, you know?

And dad kind of was going,
wait a minute.

After his mom's death,

Joann started to be
at the house a lot.

He saw Joann wearing his
mother's bracelet.

That is when he realized
that there had been an affair

before Sharon died.

NARRATOR: At the time,

the revelation came as a painful
shock to 19-year-old Brett.

And now almost four years later,

it's equally alarming to investigators.

NARRATOR: Joann No the is
is a name they've heard before.

On December 27, 1983,
two months after the death

of Sharon Williams,
we had received a call

from Joann because her husband
left the residence

to go on an errand
and never returned.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: Police have just
uncovered that Jim Williams

and Joann No the is might have
started seeing each other

early in 1983,
several months before

Jim's wife, Sharon's
October m*rder.

And in an eerie twist,

just two months
after Sharon's death,

Joann's husband
mysteriously vanished.

On December 27, 1983,
Walter No the is

was reported missing
by his wife.

NARRATOR: Is it possible the
two cases might be connected?

For answers,
investigators do a deep dive

into Walter's now cold,
missing person's case.

Starting with the interview
they had with Joann

the night she first called.

Walter and Joann went
to a Christmas party

at his parent's house.

And so when he drove Joann home,
and the battery light was on,

she said, oh my God,
go, get a battery

because we're gonna
wake up tomorrow,

it'll be freezing all night and
we're not gonna have a car.

NARRATOR: At Joann's request,
Walter left the house

to pick up a car battery,
but just a few hours later,

Joann told police she got a call
from the mechanic.

About 9:30 that night,
the mechanic called

and said, hey, where's Walter?

She said, at first
she wasn't really worried.

Walter tended to be late,
to be unpredictable.

NARRATOR: In fact, his
exciting, unpredictable nature

was exactly what attracted Joann


to the traveling musician

who went by the stage name,
Walter Scott.

Walter No the is,
who everybody in St. Louis

knew as Walter Scott
was the lead singer

for Bob Kuban And The In-Men.

And they were a fairly,
cool band in their day,

but they were a local band

until Walter sang,
"The Cheater".

He belted that thing out.
Everybody wanted to dance to it.

He watched it rise all the way
to number 12 on the pop charts.

And he became a sensation
and so did the band.

Walter was introduced
to Joann who was a starstruck


And Joann got his attention.

NARRATOR: The two soon
began a torrid affair.

There was only thing standing in
the way of their relationship.

He was married to Doris

and had two sons,
Scotty and Walter Jr.

But she finally wore him down

and convinced him
to leave Doris.

NARRATOR: In the 12 years
since Joann and Walter

tied the knot,

she'd often known him to take
last minute gigs

or lose track of time
catching up with someone

he knew around town.

And so when he disappeared,
Joann called around.

NARRATOR: One of the first
calls she made

was to Walter's son
from his first marriage.

She called.
Your dad's missing.

You know, have you been
in touch with your dad?

And my reply was no.

Dad was never around anyway.

It wasn't a normal father/son
relationship because

of his traveling and being
on the road all the time.

I just thought he just left.
His life was pretty secretive.

I just didn't know
what happened.

NARRATOR: Joann told police
that as the hours ticked by,

her concerns grew.

Lately, Walter hadn't been
quite himself.

At first their marriage was
sparkly, you know?

But friends started
to notice that Walter

seemed very depressed.

We didn't know if he
disappeared on his own accord.

Did he go off in a
fugue of melancholy?

Or was he maybe thinking
of suicide?

NARRATOR: The next day
on December 28, 1983,

detectives begin contacting
venues for Walter's upcoming

gigs to see if he'd reached out.

That's when they make an
unbelievable discovery.

Joann was canceling
appearances by Walter uh,

that were in the future.

Why are you canceling shows when
you don't know

when he's gonna return?

NARRATOR: When investigators
spoke to Walter's parents

in the weeks
following his disappearance,

they uncovered yet another
strange detail

about the night
Walter went missing.

My grandma and grandpa,
they went over to their house

and then they see Jim sitting
there at the table.

So they're like,
what is he doing here?

Who is he?

Oh, he's just a friend and,
but they're like,

this is not just...
There's something wrong here.

NARRATOR: In light
of the new information

that Sharon was m*rder*d,
what seemed inappropriate

to Walter's parents
four years earlier

was now deeply suspicious
to investigators.

Now you've got one of them
with a missing spouse,

the other who's a widower.

And they're together
very quickly.

And it really made
investigators wonder,

had Jim and Joann
worked together

to get rid of their spouses?

♪

♪

NARRATOR: It's been
four years since Walter No the is

went missing and
Sharon Williams was m*rder*d.

And police now suspect

that their spouses might have
conspired to k*ll both of them.

Just a lot of coincidence
that Sharon Williams was k*lled

and then Walter goes missing.

And Jim and Joann are then
conveniently together.

NARRATOR: For investigators
there's only one problem.

Walter's body was needed
to bring the charge of m*rder.

NARRATOR: Investigators know
they have to act fast

and without tipping off
Jim or Joann.

So in March of 1987,

just a month after Sharon's
ill*gal exhumation,

they zero in on someone
in the couple's inner circle

who might be willing
to give up information.

My father,
Brett was the youngest

and he has
an older brother, Jim.

Jim and his dad,
Jim Williams Sr.

Never really
got along very much.

At the time
of the investigation, uh,

Jim Jr. was incarcerated
in Florida.

NARRATOR: Sharon and Jim's
son, Jim Jr. had always

been a bit of a troubled kid.

Jim went to prison
a couple of times.

Uh, just for drugs
and so on and so forth.

NARRATOR: Police guess he
might be willing to talk

in exchange
for a commuted sentence.

So the investigators
responded to that facility

and interviewed him there.

And then they say,
we know now that your mother,

her death is the result
of a homicide.

And we believe
that your dad did this

and that he also k*lled
Walter Scott.

NARRATOR: Jim is
immediately distraught.

It's the first he's hearing
about what might have happened

to his mother.

They said,
if your father had a body,

what might he do with it?

The young man said,
well, dad had a cistern

in the backyard where he lived.

And in the spring of 1984,

he put this big, heavy planter
filled with dirt,

so nobody could move it.

Jim Williams indicated
that it was very cold,

the ground was frozen.

Uh, he thought it was suspicious
that his father would have

a flower box built
in the dead of winter.

NARRATOR: The planter
had been placed five months

after Sharon's death,

which was just three months
after Walter disappeared.

And so the 10th of April,
they now are going

to Jim Williams' home
to open that cistern.

NARRATOR: Although the
property is owned by Jim,

a search warrant is served
to his son, Brett Williams

who is the home's
current occupant.

When officers show up,

Brett is extremely confused
about what police are

looking for, but shows
detectives to the backyard.

I was called 7:00
or so in the evening

and asked if I would respond
to this scene.

NARRATOR: Dr. Case
and other officials

gather around as police begin
to dismantle the planter.

And when they slowly pull up
the heavy lid,

they're met
with a horrifying sight.

We observed a body floating
on top of the water.

The wrists were bound.
The knees were bound.

And the ankles were bound
with a yellow, nylon rope.

So it's like,
this is not a natural death.

I know that the manner of death
is a homicide.

When I'm looking down
into the cistern,

first of all,
what I see is the head

is totally skeletonized
and it's separate.

I was afraid that maybe they
wouldn't be able to get it out.

It was very concerning
in that it could be damaged.

The head,
that's where the teeth are.

We've got his dental records.

If this is Walter, we can
immediately demonstrate that.

So I laid down on the ground
and had to reach down into

this watery hole and take out
a body part in bare hands.

And then the rest
of the body was retrieved.

NARRATOR: The discovery
of the body in the backyard

of his family home
horrifies Jim's son, Brett

who is suddenly forced

to see his father in a deeply,
unsettling new light.

My father was always
on the fence.

He was going,
could he have done this?

Or did something else happen?

And it kind of dawned on my dad
going, well, maybe he did this.

And that was hard.

NARRATOR: The gruesome finding

also creates a firestorm
of press attention.

Believed to be the body of the
entertainer, Walter Scott

is in a cistern
behind this home.

The medical examiner is
on the scene.

I do remember.

I was uh, 21 years old,

and I was sitting there watching
a TV and a newscast came across,

the body of Walter Scott
has possibly been found.

MALE NEWS: Authorities are
in the backyard searching

through a cistern where they
believe they have found the body

for former St. Louis
entertainer, Walter Scott.

It was pretty crazy.
I call my brother, Scotty.

I said, Scotty,
did you hear this on the news?

I think they found dad.

And they said that the body
was found behind Jim's house.

I'm like, oh really?

It was a little weird,
a little overwhelming to take.

NARRATOR: The damning evidence
found in the cistern

is enough to take Jim into
custody for questioning.

But he refuses to talk,

which makes identifying
the body even more important.

We had the dental records
from the time Walter is missing

and he had very good teeth.

From the ones
that were preserved,

it was very easy
to make this identification.

And it was in fact, Walter.

The positive identification is
a huge step forward.

Next for Dr. Case will be to
figure out

exactly how Walter died.

His body, besides his head,

which was pretty
much skeletonized,

the rest of his body is
in a condition that we refer

to as adipocere.

So it looks almost like
bread crumbs,

but if you touch it,
it kind of falls apart.

And I can't see
any injuries to the body

because the condition of the
clothing and the body.

NARRATOR: The level
of decomposition

leads Dr. Case
to order an x-ray,

which is where she notices
the smallest of details.

It's just tiny, little
fragments of lead in the chest.

We call this
snowstorm appearance.

His cause of death
was a g*nsh*t wound.

NARRATOR: The placement
of the fragments

tells Dr. Case that Walter was
shot on the upper, left side

of his back.

The b*llet had hit him right
in the heart.

The results of the autopsy are
enough to also arrest Joann

who is charged along
with Jim for Walter's m*rder.

But for the couple
to be charged in Sharon's death,

investigators face
one more obstacle.

Unless I get permission
legally to do this examination,

it wouldn't stand up in court.

♪

♪

NARRATOR: To successfully
try Joann and Jim

for Sharon Williams' m*rder,
Dr. Mary Case must

get permission to exhume
her body one more time.

That grandma Sharon had
to be exhumed a couple of times,

it was uh, devastating
for my father to say the least.

He wanted grandma Sharon
to be at rest as anybody would.

Um, but this needed to happen
to continue on with the courts.

NARRATOR: Sharon's sons and
mother diligently lobby a judge

to approve
the order of exhumation.

The family was instrumental
in getting the second exhumation

of Sharon Williams' body
approved by the courts.

So when I get permission
legally to do this examination,

I know that this information
that I have gotten

from this ill*gal process
is so worthwhile that now

I legally exhume the body.

And the second autopsy report
looks just like the first.

Sharon Williams' death is
attributed as a homicide.

NARRATOR: Police can now use
the exhumation evidence

to build their case against
Joann and Jim.

And in November of 1992,
Jim faces a jury of his peers

for the murders of Walter
No the is and Sharon Williams.

At trial,
the prosecution presents

how they believe
the murders went down.

On October 20th,
as Sharon Williams heads out

the door to attend
the night-time church service,

her husband attacks her
from behind.

Some blunt object struck
very powerfully

to the back of the head.

Based on conditions
of the vehicle

and the position
of Sharon Williams,

it appears that Jim Williams

was probably driving
that vehicle at the time

and her body was
on the passenger side

when the vehicle was wrecked.

And then he made a small
fire on the ground

outside of the car.

NARRATOR: Two months after
Sharon's death

on the evening
of December 26, 1983,

Joann convinces Walter
to head out to the mechanic.

He's intercepted by Jim Williams

who shoots him in the back,

hogties him with yellow rope,

and ruthlessly tosses him
into a cistern in his backyard.

But Jim's plan to live happily
ever after with Joann

is short lived.

It was pretty crazy.

I mean, and you're like,
oh my God,

what happens if they say,
you know, he's not guilty?

I mean, that was what
we were all worried about.

NARRATOR: After three days
of testimony,

the jury reaches a verdict.

Jim Williams was convicted
of m*rder

and sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility
of parole.

NARRATOR: Realizing the deck
is stacked against her,

in February of 1993,

Joann pleads guilty
to hindering the prosecution

and serves only 18 months.

So she still has a life.

But I would say,

I don't know how you live
with yourself.

You do know there is a Maker
and you're gonna have

to stand in front of him

and He'll be the judge.

You don't need to k*ll people.
That's just crazy to me.

I don't understand
that part of it.

I kind of wonder in my mind
to this day,

had they listened to me
and investigated the accident

as a suspicious death,
um, maybe uh,

things would be different.

Without the um,
exhumation of grandma Sharon,

this would probably still be
sitting in a cold case file.

And that's what let her
have some justice.

Sometimes you have
to bend with the law.

It was kind of the key that
turned and opened up

the rest of the investigation
to move forward.

Until you exhume a body,
you know,

the dead will keep
their secrets.

It's amazing what the dead
will tell you.

♪