WEBVTT
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So it was January fifth, nineteen ninety two, right, I
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believe that's great.
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And on Sunday, Sunday evening, Yes.
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Ed, were you at the video story of that year?
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Yes, I was, certainly it was.
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It was after dark, the dead of winter. Kelly day Wilson,
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a small town girl from Gilmer, Texas, was finishing up
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work for the night with her boss, Joe Henry. They
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were alone at Northeast Texas Video, a movie rental store
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on the town square in Gilmour.
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We closed the store about eight pm. That was an
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normal time to close. I went in the back. Kelly
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stayed up front and do all the reconciling, the cash
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door and all.
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That stuff, you know, for today. I go on back
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in a VCR stuff ready. And when she gets done,
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and she comes back there and we go out the
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back door.
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Set the alarm.
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She goes around, throws the trash away, and when she
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comes back around, I say you open tomorrow and she
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says yes, And I said, okay, I'll see you.
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Joe had a pickup truck, Kelly an eighty five Dodge
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Charger complete with gold paint. Both vehicles were parked on
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a side street next to the video store just across
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from the Upshur County Courthouse in the middle of town.
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It was around eight thirty pm when Joe says they
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left the store. He and Kelly went their separate ways,
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and I got.
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A muchat She got in her car and rased as
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I says.
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What happened next, That depends on who you ask. It's
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a haunting, unsolved mystery that would destroy lives, terrorize a town,
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and go on to confound me and many others for
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thirty years. What we do know is around ten o'clock
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that night, Kelly's mom, Kathy, was already getting worried. She
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was angry too. Kelly was a popular girl, had a
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busy social life, but it wasn't like her not to call,
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at the very least to let her family know she
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wasn't coming home. The next morning, Kelly still hadn't shown up.
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Her stepdad, Robert, went out to search the street before dawn.
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The family lived just two minutes from the courthouse square.
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That's where Robert found Kelly's car park beside the video store.
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The doors of her Dodge Charger were unlocked. One of
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the tires was slashed. Most troubling of all, Kelly's purse
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was still there inside the vehicle. There was no sign
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of a struggle. As for Kelly herself, this girl of seventeen,
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a senior at Gilmour High School, she was just gone.
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I mean, a little town like this, you can just
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imagine one of them impact it had.
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They were just.
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Bump fuzzes.
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I mean, you know, this girl just vanished into the na.
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I remember when Kelly Wilson disappeared, because I grew up
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about twenty miles down the road from Gilmour. If you
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look at a map, the town is a straight shot
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east of Dallas, a two hour drive. To get here,
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you have to leave behind the big skies and open
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prairies of Texas myth and venture into the piney woods
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on the eastern edge of the state, where tall pine
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trees blanket the hills and secrets hide in the shadows.
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Even though I was a kid back then, twelve years old,
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I'll never forget the search for Kelly. There were stories
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on the front page of the local paper, reward money
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and billboards begging for clues. Kelly's school portrait was posted everywhere.
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She was pretty, blonde, had big hair. At first, the
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investigation seemed to go nowhere. Then it took a shocking turn.
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It's an unsolved mystery out of Upshur County involving law enforcement,
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a Satanic cult, and a missing girl.
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Following the story that would give the small East Texas
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town of Gilmour national exposure, but not.
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The good kind.
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Although we were all obsessed with Kelly's story, I guess
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I was too young to fully understand what was going
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on in Gilmer at the time. I just knew it
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was bad. There were reports of cannibalism, devil worship, a
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family of murderers hiding in the forests outside of town.
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It was believed they were part of a Satana cold
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and had kidnapped, raped, and murdered Kelly. Claims made they
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had kept her alive for at least nine days, keeping
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her in a shed and even a toolbox before killing her.
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On a daily basis, they would take Kelly out of
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the shed and take her down to this circle and
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string her up on the tree, and they do these
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horrible things to her, bring her back shackling run.
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East Texas. It's a pretty place, but with all those
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pine trees, you never really know who's out there deep
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in the woods. Or what they're up to. In the
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little town of Gilmer, the story of a lost girl
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became so much more so out of control. No one
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really knew what was real and what was madness.
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I mean, it's just so many twists and turns, and.
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It is so sensational them In this series, you'll hear
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about when Kelly went missing and how a town got
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turned upside down, allegations of unspeakable evil, mass hysteria, stolen evidence,
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and maybe even some good old fashioned local corruption. I
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don't know if Kelly will ever come home, if she's
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living or dead, if any of the crazy stories about cannibalism,
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Satan worship and more actually happened. But I'm here to
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find out everything I can about Kelly and get the
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truth or as close to it as the locals dare.
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From Imperative Entertainment, I'm Wes Ferguson. This is Deviltown. This
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is Chapter one Gone.
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Hello, Hey Anna, Hey, how's it going.
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It's going great.
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Most of the time.
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I don't even know what day it is.
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Well that sounds pretty good, isn't that fun?
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This is Anna Pasino Walker. She's retired now, but Anna
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was the editor of My Hometown newspaper for a long time.
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She hired me as a reporter when I was just
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nineteen years old, my first break. I don't think it
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would embarrass her too much to say that she was
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basically my second mom back then.
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You were my first editor.
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You're the one who turned me into an actual writer,
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and I don't You probably don't remember this, but you said, hey,
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you're the crime reporter.
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Maybe you'll find Kelly Wilson.
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Uh.
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I don't remember, but it sounds like something I would say,
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you know, Wes. Every time that I hear or see
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in the paper, you know, remains where found anywhere in
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the East Texas area, I'm like, is that Kelly? It's
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gonna be Kelly. I wonder if it's Kelly on.
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A move to East Texas with her husband Paul and
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their kids, just a year or two before Kelly disappeared.
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At that time, Leona, our oldest was sixteen years old,
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so it was really close to home, and those the
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details of those things were just you know, you can
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be a hard age newspaper person, but you also you're
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also human. That's just something that you don't even want
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to think about.
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As a parent.
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It sticks with you despite my boss's encouragement. I didn't
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find Kelly as the local crime reporter. I was too
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busy chasing ambulances and car crashes, drug busts and burning buildings,
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the stuff that's got to get done when every morning
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there's another newspaper to fill up with stories. But I
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never stopped thinking about Kelly. It's been three decades since
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she disappeared. If she's dead, her body has never been found.
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No one has ever been convicted of killing her. It's
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left this void that people still feel. As I get older,
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I also realized that I never really knew anything about
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Kelly as a person, beyond the platitudes offered up in
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news clips. It's like her bright, smiling portrait on the
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news was turned into a symbol of victimhood, and that
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doesn't feel right at all. Who was Kelly as a daughter,
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a friend? And while we're at it, who knows what
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clues her loved ones might share if someone would just ask.
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I was twelve years old when Kelly Wilson disappeared, and
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I remember it, you know, just not all the details,
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but I remember like, oh my god, this is happening
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just a couple towns up from my house.
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And then when I.
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Was in college, I met a girl from outside gilmert
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out in the woods, and I remember like riding around
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in her white pickup truck while she's telling me, like,
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out in these trees there the devil worshippers.
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You know in Cannibals.
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Just now that I'm an adult and I just want
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to know what really happened.
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Have you talked to Philip Williams?
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Hmm, good idea. Last spring I went home back to
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East Texas. I drove up to Gilmer one morning from
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my mom's house to see what I could find out.
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Sure enough, my first stop was to see Philip Williams.
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You have a way of introducing the town and explaining
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it to people that I haven't been to.
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Well, I would just be delighted to do that.
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Since I can walk out the back door of this
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farge store I owned to the place where I was
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born in about two minutes, so I'm given born in Bred.
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I have lived here all but six months of my life.
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Philip is kind of like Gilmer's unofficial ambassador. He's been
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a local news reporter for decades, which is how I
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know him. On Deadline, he files stories from a little
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family owned furniture store right off the town.
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Square is a small town in northeast Texas of about
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five thousand, and they started to festival coll Theambry, which
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continues to this day. It's held every October and draws
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thousands of people. And that's probably the most notable thing
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about it.
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There's a yam queen and a barn dance. I've been.
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It's fun. Philip wrote a lot of stories about Kelly Wilson.
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If you told me all that was gonna happen, We're
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going to have a seventeen year old girl advanced to
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then air and one of my best friends in high
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school is going to be the last guy seen with it.
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I would have thought you were a good candidate for
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a statemental hospital. But it all happened and I was
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right in the middle, cover and all of it.
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Philip's friend is Joe Henry, the video store manager.
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Well, I've known him for over fifty years. Like I said,
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I saw him today. I want to bring out some
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diet drink Cities place and I are still good friends.
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Joe has always been a very hard working person. He
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was fascinated by movies and back when we had video cassettes,
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there was a video store here in Gilbert where he
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was the manager and Kelly Wilson worked. Joe would have
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been willing to do his twenties then, and she was
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sixteen or seventy.
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Joe was actually thirty six at the time Kelly was seventeen.
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He just hadn't to be in wrong place at the
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wrong time.
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The movie store closed a long time ago, but Joe
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still grills Hamburgers around the block right across the street
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from the County Courthouse.
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Joe Hetty's Hamburger place back then too. It's been in
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Vena since nineteen seventy four, but he also was managing
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that video store. He workoholic basically, and a good guy.
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After I left Phillip's Furniture Store, I walked over to
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the Hamburger joint, but not before stopping on a street
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corner outside the video store where Kelly was last seen.
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These days, the building is not much to look at,
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just an old brick storefront. Then I rounded the corner
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and there was Joe's placed Brittain Street from the court house,
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gone up the steps, big juicy hamburgers. It was kind
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of dark inside, just a long, narrow room plus a
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big window that opened up to the kitchen. In the back,
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all the wall space was covered with movie posters from
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Hollywood's Golden Age. To my left, all these blue collar
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guys were sitting in a row of old theater seats.
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They were all chowing burgers and watching an old timey
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black and white movie playing on the TV above the
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soft drinks on the right side wall. Way in the back,
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a little guy with thin gray hair was manning the grill.
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The grill was sizzling. I was worried that Joe wouldn't
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want to talk. He's often been named as a suspect
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in Kelly's disappearance, at least on message boards where Internet
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sleuths hang out and parse the clues of the case.
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Instead of introducing myself, I placed an order.
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Or can I keep you?
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I'd like a cheeseburger and fries.
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All playing yes, okay, you do am now, thank.
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You, thank you. I joined the guys eating burgers from
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the theater seats. We watched an old movie about tourists
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in Hawaii. I waited for the lunch rush to pass.
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I didn't want to bug you earlier because I could
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tell how busy you were, probably sick of talking about it.
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But I just wanted to.
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Introduce myself in and see if there would be a
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time maybe you would be willing to chat with me.
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Yeah, I guess so. Do you think it might be
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okay today?
246
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Three?
247
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If you won't to you? Yeah, okay, you want to
248
00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.759
come in? Yeah, sir, come on in, all right, all right,
249
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all right, thank you, I'll be back.
250
00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.960
You're well delicious burger well a hammer.
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When I came back later that afternoon, Joe handed me
252
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a bottle of water and sat down in one of
253
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the theater seats. He was an older guy in his sixties,
254
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a little stooped and a great T shirt spattered in
255
00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:59.879
burger grease. He sighed deeply.
256
00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:04.120
Yeah, man, I just can't begin to tell you. This
257
00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:05.679
has just been an unbelievable thing.
258
00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:10.120
It is just it's almost saw something of crazy fictional story.
259
00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:13.600
Joe explained that back in the early nineties, he was
260
00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:17.639
basically the manager of the movie store Northeast Texas Video.
261
00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:20.919
He was more of a business partner than an employee,
262
00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:24.799
getting paid fifty percent of every rental. He also made
263
00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:30.120
side money repairing VCRs. Kelly worked the cash register, reshelved movies,
264
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kept the place clean, Over time, Joe says he and
265
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Kelly got kind of close.
266
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Well, very bubbly personality, you know. Friendly at Bobby's the
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best word I.
268
00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:44.120
Can come up with. And friends to a lot.
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00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:47.840
Of people, tue sins and guys that were not I
270
00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:49.279
wouldn't say the best in the world.
271
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Eventually, Kelly also began to confide in Joe.
272
00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:56.759
Yes, she did about the divorce a lot.
273
00:14:57.320 --> 00:14:59.399
She was just very upset about her mom and dad's divorce,
274
00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:04.840
very very sword just a sticky divorce, just not a good,
275
00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:06.960
not a good, pleasant divorce.
276
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:11.399
Yes, Kelly's parents had split up six or seven years earlier.
277
00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.759
The custody battle had been very ugly, with both parents
278
00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:19.080
fighting to keep Kelly and her little brother Kyle. For
279
00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:23.240
a while, the siblings lived with their dad, Robbie, in Nakodish, Louisiana,
280
00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:27.879
but they ended up with their mom, Kathy in East Texas. Eventually,
281
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:32.440
both parents remarried, but during her senior year, Kelly couldn't
282
00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:35.840
decide which set of parents to live with. That winter,
283
00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.639
she told her friends she was moving back to Louisiana
284
00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:41.879
to be with her dad and stepmom Waverin.
285
00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:43.000
She wanted to.
286
00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:46.440
Leave after Christmas break and go to live with her dad.
287
00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:48.799
One night of there, she was really to say. She
288
00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.440
was crying and she said, I just don't want to leave. Well,
289
00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.080
you don't have to leave. I mean, you know, it's
290
00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:56.440
no big deal. And so that was sometime in December,
291
00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.360
and I think she basically wanted to stay and graduate
292
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:02.200
with her friends. But her mom and dad had a
293
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.200
pretty bad divorce and it was pretty uh you call
294
00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:09.000
it uh tomon if she was that, that's a good word.
295
00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:11.000
It just wasn't good, and cand it was very had
296
00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:12.080
been very upset about that.
297
00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.320
We ended up spending the Christmas holidays together in New Orleans.
298
00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:19.559
That's Kelly's dad, Robbie.
299
00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:23.600
We stayed in the French Quarter. We had a chance
300
00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:25.639
to have a couple of long talks, and she wasn't
301
00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:29.759
happy there, so she wanted to come back, and I
302
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:32.960
was reluctant to let her come back because I didn't
303
00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:34.840
think it was healthy for her to just just yo
304
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:38.480
yoing back and forth. And I listened to her argument
305
00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.440
she wanted to finish school with her legacy friends here
306
00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:43.399
but that she growed up with, and I kind of
307
00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:44.000
understood that.
308
00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:48.039
Even though Robbie was sympathetic to his daughter's wishes. He
309
00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.279
also took some convincing the last time she lived under
310
00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:53.840
his roof, things hadn't ended well.
311
00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:58.200
She didn't leave my custody under really great circumstances. She
312
00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:02.600
was angry with her dad because her dad had some rules,
313
00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:06.759
and I, you know, I tried to teach her some discipline.
314
00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.519
You know, she couldn't just run the road. She had
315
00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:11.200
to be a you know, she had to meet curfew,
316
00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:13.920
she had to do her do her lessons. You know.
317
00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:17.400
That's uh. Plus her mother was just you know, steadily
318
00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:22.839
agitating the situation. Like I said, it was a very
319
00:17:22.839 --> 00:17:25.759
contentious wow cushion fact.
320
00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:28.960
For the record, Kelly's mom declined to speak with me,
321
00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:32.359
so we're only hearing Robbie's point of view for now.
322
00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:35.920
You know, I was not thrilled about them moving moving
323
00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:37.519
up there with her mom because I knew she wasn't
324
00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:41.400
gonna she just wasn't going to keep them disciplined like
325
00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:43.839
I would be. And I'm not I'm not a I
326
00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:47.720
wasn't that tough on, trust me, but I did. I
327
00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:49.799
did have some rules that I expected the fall.
328
00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:54.079
Robbie says he finally relented Kelly could move back in
329
00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.079
with him and Waverlin, her step mom, to finish her
330
00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:01.200
senior year and go to college in Louisiana within state tuition.
331
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.799
She was a week away from moving back starting the
332
00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:05.880
spring semester here.
333
00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:09.359
Do you know how how her mom took that news?
334
00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:12.960
Not well, but I think she agreed to let her
335
00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:16.000
come back. I mean, I don't think she was going
336
00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.000
to stop it or could stop it. So, you know,
337
00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.880
once I said she was given that, I mean, Kelly could.
338
00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:24.559
Kelly could be a handful. She was giving them hell,
339
00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:27.640
they were ready for her to leave. She could stir
340
00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:31.559
things up, acting out, you know, the same way she
341
00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:33.960
did here here when she wanted to go there. You
342
00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.880
know what I mean, she was She was She's a tarist.
343
00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:40.240
She was legitimately, you know, headstrong like that.
344
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.039
During that heart to heart in the French Quarter, Kelly
345
00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:47.720
also told her dad something that to this day has
346
00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:48.440
stuck with him.
347
00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.400
But she told me that night that there was there
348
00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.480
were some things going on there that she needed to
349
00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:57.000
she just needed to share with me. At some point
350
00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:59.680
in time, She said, I wouldn't like it, and I
351
00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:02.599
don't worked out of the way it was. I wouldn't
352
00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:04.359
need to know. At some point in time she really
353
00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.920
wanted to get out of there and come back here.
354
00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:08.440
You still don't know what that was.
355
00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.319
But no idea never did to get a chance to
356
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:11.039
talk to her again.
357
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.440
So Kelly told her manager Joe Henry that she wanted
358
00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:31.720
to stay in Gilmer. She told her dad she wanted
359
00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:35.000
to move back to Nakedish. She also told Robbie that
360
00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.319
she had a secret she needed to share, something he
361
00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:42.440
wouldn't be happy about. Whatever the secret, whatever the truth,
362
00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:46.720
Kelly returned to East Texas after her Christmas vacation in
363
00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:50.799
New Orleans, either to pack her bags or get ready
364
00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:53.839
for her last semester at Gilmour High School, home of
365
00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:58.039
the Buck Guys. But school wasn't starting back up just yet.
366
00:19:58.200 --> 00:19:59.480
I'm not gonna lie. You know. We were trying to
367
00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:02.240
the party, you know, we were going to parties together,
368
00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.079
or going to the lake together, or you know, doing
369
00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:08.039
all those fun things silly girls did back in the nineties.
370
00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.680
That's Kelly's friend Lee, She was a senior that year too.
371
00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.799
Everyone thought we were so bad. Like I remember being like,
372
00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.119
you know, we were, you know.
373
00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:19.240
The wild group, And I look back at it and
374
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:20.880
I'm like, we were not wild.
375
00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:21.880
Like that was so innocent.
376
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:24.599
Lee and Kelly had been friends since Kelly showed up
377
00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:27.440
in Gilmour a couple of years earlier. Gilmer's not a
378
00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:30.519
big place, so a new girl in town was noteworthy.
379
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.799
I just remember her moving to school, you know, and
380
00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:36.720
you know, we only I mean, I can probably count
381
00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:39.880
on one hand how many girls, you know, our age,
382
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.920
or kids our age moved in to our school and
383
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.359
actually stayed. And she was just one of those girls.
384
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:47.119
And she moved in and you know, I feel like
385
00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:48.759
I probably had a class with her or something, and
386
00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:51.279
we were just fast friends. She just, you know, she
387
00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:53.960
was just one of those girls. She was just a
388
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:58.680
fun always happy, you know, she was cute, just you know,
389
00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:01.640
one of those girls that fit in, I think with everyone.
390
00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:04.519
And I can remember like being at school and like
391
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:07.839
gathering up all of our coin change so we would
392
00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:10.559
have enough money to go, you know, cruise around after
393
00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:12.799
school and stuff, or cruise around.
394
00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:14.240
On a Friday nine.
395
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.319
Back in town after Christmas and New Year's, Kelly had
396
00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.359
somehow heard about a party outside of town. It was
397
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.839
on a Sunday night, but with no school the next day,
398
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:24.440
she didn't want to miss it.
399
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.079
So I was supposed to go to a party with
400
00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:31.519
her that night, and I don't remember where the party was.
401
00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:33.480
I feel like I didn't even know who it was.
402
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:35.559
It was like a party in a different count.
403
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:39.119
Kelly was always meeting new people. She just had that personality.
404
00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:41.720
It didn't hurt that she worked at one of the
405
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.799
only video stores for miles around. Teens from other communities
406
00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:48.519
in the area were always driving into Gilmer to rent
407
00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.640
movies at Northeast Texas Video, where they were introduced to
408
00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:54.519
this friendly girl, Kelly, who'd never met a stranger.
409
00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:56.640
She had friends we didn't even know she had.
410
00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:58.359
And then I always just kind of thought, because she
411
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.319
worked at the movie store, she met people, and so
412
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:04.559
I think a lot of people came in she connected
413
00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.119
with that. You know, I never even came across because
414
00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:12.519
she was she was so friendly, so nice.
415
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:14.839
I worked at the shop.
416
00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:19.200
At the time, that's the local pharmacy, and she worked.
417
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.759
At the movie store at the time.
418
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:23.880
We had talked about getting together and going to that party,
419
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:25.279
and I was like, Okay.
420
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:25.720
Well, I'll just meet to.
421
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:28.880
You, you know, after work, And when I caught off work,
422
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.519
I drove by and she was still in their vacuuming
423
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.039
because I could see her through the front windows. I've
424
00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:37.200
gotten something all over me.
425
00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:39.200
She had to go home because she got something on
426
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:39.680
her clothes.
427
00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:43.160
That's Kelly and Lee's other friend, Michelle.
428
00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:44.079
And so I was like, you know what, since she's
429
00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.000
still vacuuming, I'm going to run home and change. And
430
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.759
when I got home, i'd say it was eight thirty.
431
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:55.839
Between eight thirty and eight forty five. My mom said
432
00:22:55.880 --> 00:22:59.400
I couldn't go to the party, and then like shortly after,
433
00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:00.960
my mom was no, you're not going.
434
00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:03.839
It's too late to go out now. No no, no, no, no no.
435
00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:05.839
And I was like, damn, I should have just never
436
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:07.759
come home, you know, I should have gone straight to Kelly's.
437
00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:11.079
Lee was stuck at home. Michelle was also home that night,
438
00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:14.880
but not because her parents were strict. Michelle was probably
439
00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:18.079
Kelly's first friend in Gilmer. They met when Kelly and
440
00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:21.079
her mom were still unloading boxes to move into their home.
441
00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:23.640
It was when she had first arrived in a town.
442
00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:25.960
She didn't quite know anybody yet.
443
00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:26.680
So I got to.
444
00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:28.319
Talking to she and her mom, and I ended up
445
00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:32.279
helping him move because they were moving, and we became
446
00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:37.240
fast friends. And Kelly was just outgoing. She laughed a
447
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.119
lot she was always had a positive attitude. She was
448
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.720
just fun, but she was also a good listener, like
449
00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:46.039
she had to issue or problem.
450
00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:49.720
During their junior year, Michelle had some big stuff to
451
00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:50.160
deal with.
452
00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:53.680
I ended up actually getting pregnant high school, which is
453
00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:58.559
never fun. And Kelly really rallied behind me and stood
454
00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:02.160
by my side and was a real great friend of
455
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.119
mine through my pregnancy and me and my baby actually
456
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.480
moved in with she and her mom for a short
457
00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:11.160
period of time when my daughter was about six months old.
458
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:16.359
Kelly was selfless, her generosity went way beyond the average teenagers.
459
00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:18.240
With Kelly and not being closed, I think I was
460
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:21.039
venting to her about issues I was having at home,
461
00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:24.680
and she was very concerned about that, especially since I
462
00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:28.680
had Taylor. And she actually came home with me a
463
00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:30.759
couple of days, like two or three days, because she
464
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:34.119
said she wanted to kind of observe and see for herself.
465
00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.839
Kelly and her mother approached me and said, it really
466
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:40.640
isn't a good environment and if you'd like to move
467
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:43.319
in with us, we'd be happy to have you move
468
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:45.680
in with us and help you with Taylor and provide
469
00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.680
a good environment for the both of you.
470
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.440
The house became a refuge for Michelle and her baby daughter, Taylor.
471
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.640
I it was a wonderful home life. It was so
472
00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:57.200
refreshing for me compared to the home life that I had.
473
00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:00.680
It was a very normal home life. Actually I didn't
474
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:02.440
have a car. Kelly did, so she would take me
475
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.480
to pick up Taylor that's my daughter's name. If I
476
00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:07.559
needed to go to the grocery store to get baby
477
00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.599
food or whatever, I mean, Kelly took me. It was
478
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.240
It was always just fun because Kelly and her mother
479
00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:17.519
instead of dwelling on any negativity, there's just a lot
480
00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:20.680
of laughter. And they would help me feed Taylor. Kelly's
481
00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:24.000
mom actually taught me a lot about taking care of
482
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:28.720
Taylor Too's helped me choose different foods, and it was
483
00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:31.880
just it was a very wonderful experience being able to
484
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:34.839
come home and have that mother figure. And Kelly was
485
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:39.000
very motherly too. She was like I kind of always
486
00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:42.039
described her as an old soul because you know, she
487
00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.680
recognized right away that I had in need and wanted
488
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:46.960
to fulfill it. And a lot of teenagers aren't like that.
489
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.279
If you're not fulfilling their needs, they're going to move on.
490
00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:54.200
And she wasn't that way. She wanted to be the
491
00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:58.200
one to be helpful and fulfill somebody else's needs. And
492
00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:00.880
I felt like she was always very pure, defective of
493
00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:04.200
me and shielded me, I think, from a lot of
494
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.200
negativity because she wanted Taylor and I to have a
495
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:10.319
good start. That's what kind of friend Kelly was.
496
00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.480
The way Michelle talks about Kelly and her home life
497
00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:16.359
in Gilmer, it's basically the opposite of what I was
498
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:19.200
told by Kelly's dad, Robbie. I'm not really sure what
499
00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:22.039
to make of that. Michelle does not remember Kelly and
500
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:26.160
her mom, Kathy, having a troubled relationship, especially not the
501
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:28.200
way Kelly's dad, Robbie describes it.
502
00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:28.599
Well.
503
00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.160
Kelly and her mom, I always saw it as positive
504
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.200
because they were both so positive with me and maybe,
505
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:37.279
and let me tell you, teenage girls oftentimes don't get
506
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.839
along with their moms, right, But I'm sure there were
507
00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:42.759
times that they didn't, but it never happened when I
508
00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:45.759
was there. Both of them their focus was on me,
509
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.200
helping me, teaching me, and they really gave me a
510
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:52.519
big boost in life. Kelly's mom is the one who
511
00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:55.559
gave me the confidence to be a mother, all I
512
00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:58.559
remember about all of that is positivity. And I don't
513
00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:01.839
remember one argument between Kelly and her mother. That doesn't
514
00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.839
mean there wasn't one. It just probably means that I
515
00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:07.720
didn't think twice about it if they got aggravated with
516
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:10.319
each other, because my home life was a lot worse.
517
00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:14.720
But there was not a good relationship with her dad.
518
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:19.599
We spent many hours in her bedroom with her crying
519
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:23.920
sometimes about her dad, and I honestly can't remember all
520
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.880
the specifics, but she was very torn because she wanted
521
00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.720
to go to LSU really really bad.
522
00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:34.000
To qualify for in state tuition at Louisiana State University,
523
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:38.119
Kelly couldn't stay in Gilmer, Texas she needed to move
524
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:46.599
back in with Robbie across the state line in Louisiana.
525
00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:51.839
Money was a big factor for her dad, and he
526
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:53.960
kind of held a lot of things over her head
527
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:55.839
and said, well, I'll do this for you if you
528
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:58.640
moved back with me. It was always a bargain, and
529
00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:01.599
he wanted her to not be with Kathy and be
530
00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:04.240
with him, but she wanted to live in Gilmer with
531
00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:07.279
her friends and her mom. But she also had that
532
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:09.839
goal of wanting to go to LSU. So she was
533
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:10.680
so torn.
534
00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:14.400
By then, Michelle was living with her parents again with
535
00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:17.720
all of her responsibilities as a mom. Michelle hadn't seen
536
00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:19.559
Kelly that much during their senior year.
537
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.480
I was not living with her, and we were not
538
00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:25.240
talking on a daily basis, and she had gotten really
539
00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:29.960
close to other friends. In December, it was the very
540
00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:32.480
last time. I think it was the very last time
541
00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:36.640
I saw her. Me and another girlfriend went over to
542
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:39.720
her house. A guy she was very close with, Josh,
543
00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:43.559
was back in town, and so we all got together
544
00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:46.279
over there, and she was very upset that day because
545
00:28:46.279 --> 00:28:48.759
she was torn and didn't know what to do because
546
00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:50.519
it was down to the wire and she had to
547
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.079
move back to our dad's if she wanted to go
548
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:54.640
to LSU. We were all out of loss and didn't
549
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:58.240
know what to tell her to do. So it was
550
00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:01.680
just kind of that time we all had together was
551
00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:04.960
not a great mating because she was upset.
552
00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:08.200
That last hangout with Michelle and Josh. An ex boyfriend
553
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:12.400
of Kelly's, happened sometime in December, just five days into
554
00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:14.599
the new year. Kelly was supposed to go to that
555
00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:17.799
other party, the one outside of town, with her friend Lee.
556
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:20.079
I didn't even I don't even remember who was having
557
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:22.079
a party, but I didn't really know anyone out there.
558
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:25.039
I had just seen this cute boy was asking if
559
00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:26.920
he was going to go, So that's why I wanted
560
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:28.599
to go. I was like, Hey, when I get off work,
561
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:30.960
I'll just come up to the video store and we
562
00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.960
can either go to your house if you need.
563
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:34.039
To, or just leave from there.
564
00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:37.880
And so, you know, that's really about all I can remember,
565
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.039
to tell you the truth, I just saw her vacuuming.
566
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.880
I saw her car on the side of the video store.
567
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.000
I remember seeing her car on the side of the
568
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.000
video store. I did not, you know, it was dark.
569
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:53.720
I did not look, you know, I didn't see if
570
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:55.920
tires were slashed or anything like that. I didn't look
571
00:29:56.119 --> 00:29:58.599
hard enough for that. But I remember seeing her car
572
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:00.759
parts on the side of the video store. And then
573
00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:06.039
I pulled around to the front and she was, you know,
574
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:10.039
just in the front of the store of vacuuming.
575
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:13.799
From what I understand, Kelly never showed at that party
576
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:17.440
with her dad Robbie expecting her in Louisiana, It's possible
577
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:19.759
that Kelly still hadn't made up her mind about whether
578
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:23.960
to leave Gilmour We didn't know where she was, whose
579
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:27.640
lives might be destroyed, or what kind of evil lurked
580
00:30:27.640 --> 00:30:30.160
in the shadows of all those pines.
581
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:35.039
None of us foresaw this thing mus rooming into the
582
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:37.559
big controversy that Edma Cain.
583
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:41.599
Coming up this season on Deviltown.
584
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:47.200
It's much bigger than anybody could anticipate. If one girl
585
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:51.000
could expose what's going on and bring that many powerful
586
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:56.720
people down, She's not going to survive. Kelly was snatched
587
00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:59.960
off the Gilmer Square. She was a sweet young girl.
588
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:03.920
It wasn't a random act. We all know it wasn't random,
589
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:06.920
so that means there had to be a reason behind it.
590
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:15.119
From seven years old, my head's been full of devil worshiping, killers, cannibalism,
591
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:17.039
sexual misconduct.
592
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:21.640
I was a good guy and then all of a sudden,
593
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:25.279
I'm in jail going I'm killing eight to seventeen year
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00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:29.039
old girl and sacrifice ten babies to the devil.
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00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:33.200
Deviltown is a production of Imperative Entertainment. It was written
596
00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:37.079
and created by me Wes Ferguson. Executive producer is Jason Hoak,
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00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:40.680
Audio engineering and editing by Shane Freeman and Jason Hoak.
598
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:44.960
Original score is by Robert Ellis, recording by Austin Sisler
599
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.759
at east Side Studios. If you like the show, leave
600
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:50.279
a review, and don't forget to tell your friends thanks
601
00:31:50.279 --> 00:31:50.359
for
1
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So it was January fifth, nineteen ninety two, right, I
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believe that's great.
3
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And on Sunday, Sunday evening, Yes.
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Ed, were you at the video story of that year?
5
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Yes, I was, certainly it was.
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It was after dark, the dead of winter. Kelly day Wilson,
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a small town girl from Gilmer, Texas, was finishing up
8
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work for the night with her boss, Joe Henry. They
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00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:32.920
were alone at Northeast Texas Video, a movie rental store
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on the town square in Gilmour.
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We closed the store about eight pm. That was an
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normal time to close. I went in the back. Kelly
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stayed up front and do all the reconciling, the cash
14
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door and all.
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That stuff, you know, for today. I go on back
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in a VCR stuff ready. And when she gets done,
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and she comes back there and we go out the
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back door.
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Set the alarm.
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She goes around, throws the trash away, and when she
21
00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.520
comes back around, I say you open tomorrow and she
22
00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:57.960
says yes, And I said, okay, I'll see you.
23
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Joe had a pickup truck, Kelly an eighty five Dodge
24
00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:06.159
Charger complete with gold paint. Both vehicles were parked on
25
00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:09.000
a side street next to the video store just across
26
00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.359
from the Upshur County Courthouse in the middle of town.
27
00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.079
It was around eight thirty pm when Joe says they
28
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:18.200
left the store. He and Kelly went their separate ways,
29
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and I got.
30
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A muchat She got in her car and rased as
31
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I says.
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What happened next, That depends on who you ask. It's
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00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:31.719
a haunting, unsolved mystery that would destroy lives, terrorize a town,
34
00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:35.400
and go on to confound me and many others for
35
00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:39.319
thirty years. What we do know is around ten o'clock
36
00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:43.840
that night, Kelly's mom, Kathy, was already getting worried. She
37
00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.400
was angry too. Kelly was a popular girl, had a
38
00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.480
busy social life, but it wasn't like her not to call,
39
00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.079
at the very least to let her family know she
40
00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:57.120
wasn't coming home. The next morning, Kelly still hadn't shown up.
41
00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.799
Her stepdad, Robert, went out to search the street before dawn.
42
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.079
The family lived just two minutes from the courthouse square.
43
00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:07.760
That's where Robert found Kelly's car park beside the video store.
44
00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:11.400
The doors of her Dodge Charger were unlocked. One of
45
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:15.479
the tires was slashed. Most troubling of all, Kelly's purse
46
00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:19.280
was still there inside the vehicle. There was no sign
47
00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:24.000
of a struggle. As for Kelly herself, this girl of seventeen,
48
00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:28.120
a senior at Gilmour High School, she was just gone.
49
00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:31.159
I mean, a little town like this, you can just
50
00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:36.400
imagine one of them impact it had.
51
00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:38.439
They were just.
52
00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:40.599
Bump fuzzes.
53
00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:43.000
I mean, you know, this girl just vanished into the na.
54
00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.759
I remember when Kelly Wilson disappeared, because I grew up
55
00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:50.360
about twenty miles down the road from Gilmour. If you
56
00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.520
look at a map, the town is a straight shot
57
00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:55.439
east of Dallas, a two hour drive. To get here,
58
00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:57.759
you have to leave behind the big skies and open
59
00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:00.879
prairies of Texas myth and venture into the piney woods
60
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on the eastern edge of the state, where tall pine
61
00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.919
trees blanket the hills and secrets hide in the shadows.
62
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Even though I was a kid back then, twelve years old,
63
00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:13.400
I'll never forget the search for Kelly. There were stories
64
00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:16.120
on the front page of the local paper, reward money
65
00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:20.520
and billboards begging for clues. Kelly's school portrait was posted everywhere.
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She was pretty, blonde, had big hair. At first, the
67
00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:28.599
investigation seemed to go nowhere. Then it took a shocking turn.
68
00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:32.520
It's an unsolved mystery out of Upshur County involving law enforcement,
69
00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:34.960
a Satanic cult, and a missing girl.
70
00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:38.240
Following the story that would give the small East Texas
71
00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:41.319
town of Gilmour national exposure, but not.
72
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The good kind.
73
00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.439
Although we were all obsessed with Kelly's story, I guess
74
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I was too young to fully understand what was going
75
00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:49.919
on in Gilmer at the time. I just knew it
76
00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:54.439
was bad. There were reports of cannibalism, devil worship, a
77
00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:58.240
family of murderers hiding in the forests outside of town.
78
00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.439
It was believed they were part of a Satana cold
79
00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:03.879
and had kidnapped, raped, and murdered Kelly. Claims made they
80
00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:06.319
had kept her alive for at least nine days, keeping
81
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:09.039
her in a shed and even a toolbox before killing her.
82
00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.360
On a daily basis, they would take Kelly out of
83
00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:15.520
the shed and take her down to this circle and
84
00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.000
string her up on the tree, and they do these
85
00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.399
horrible things to her, bring her back shackling run.
86
00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:23.959
East Texas. It's a pretty place, but with all those
87
00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.120
pine trees, you never really know who's out there deep
88
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:31.800
in the woods. Or what they're up to. In the
89
00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.480
little town of Gilmer, the story of a lost girl
90
00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:39.040
became so much more so out of control. No one
91
00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:42.000
really knew what was real and what was madness.
92
00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:45.879
I mean, it's just so many twists and turns, and.
93
00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:51.040
It is so sensational them In this series, you'll hear
94
00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:54.279
about when Kelly went missing and how a town got
95
00:04:54.279 --> 00:05:01.399
turned upside down, allegations of unspeakable evil, mass hysteria, stolen evidence,
96
00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:07.720
and maybe even some good old fashioned local corruption. I
97
00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:10.720
don't know if Kelly will ever come home, if she's
98
00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:15.160
living or dead, if any of the crazy stories about cannibalism,
99
00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.560
Satan worship and more actually happened. But I'm here to
100
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.759
find out everything I can about Kelly and get the
101
00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.720
truth or as close to it as the locals dare.
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00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:48.279
From Imperative Entertainment, I'm Wes Ferguson. This is Deviltown. This
103
00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:59.759
is Chapter one Gone.
104
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.720
Hello, Hey Anna, Hey, how's it going.
105
00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:05.759
It's going great.
106
00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:06.279
Most of the time.
107
00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:07.560
I don't even know what day it is.
108
00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:10.439
Well that sounds pretty good, isn't that fun?
109
00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:15.000
This is Anna Pasino Walker. She's retired now, but Anna
110
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.240
was the editor of My Hometown newspaper for a long time.
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00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000
She hired me as a reporter when I was just
112
00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:24.600
nineteen years old, my first break. I don't think it
113
00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:26.839
would embarrass her too much to say that she was
114
00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:28.920
basically my second mom back then.
115
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:30.879
You were my first editor.
116
00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:33.040
You're the one who turned me into an actual writer,
117
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:39.920
and I don't You probably don't remember this, but you said, hey,
118
00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:40.839
you're the crime reporter.
119
00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:42.560
Maybe you'll find Kelly Wilson.
120
00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:45.839
Uh.
121
00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.360
I don't remember, but it sounds like something I would say,
122
00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:54.480
you know, Wes. Every time that I hear or see
123
00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:57.639
in the paper, you know, remains where found anywhere in
124
00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:02.240
the East Texas area, I'm like, is that Kelly? It's
125
00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:05.800
gonna be Kelly. I wonder if it's Kelly on.
126
00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:08.399
A move to East Texas with her husband Paul and
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00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:11.680
their kids, just a year or two before Kelly disappeared.
128
00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:15.399
At that time, Leona, our oldest was sixteen years old,
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00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:20.160
so it was really close to home, and those the
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details of those things were just you know, you can
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be a hard age newspaper person, but you also you're
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also human. That's just something that you don't even want
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to think about.
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As a parent.
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It sticks with you despite my boss's encouragement. I didn't
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find Kelly as the local crime reporter. I was too
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busy chasing ambulances and car crashes, drug busts and burning buildings,
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the stuff that's got to get done when every morning
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there's another newspaper to fill up with stories. But I
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never stopped thinking about Kelly. It's been three decades since
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she disappeared. If she's dead, her body has never been found.
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No one has ever been convicted of killing her. It's
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left this void that people still feel. As I get older,
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I also realized that I never really knew anything about
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Kelly as a person, beyond the platitudes offered up in
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news clips. It's like her bright, smiling portrait on the
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news was turned into a symbol of victimhood, and that
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doesn't feel right at all. Who was Kelly as a daughter,
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a friend? And while we're at it, who knows what
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clues her loved ones might share if someone would just ask.
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I was twelve years old when Kelly Wilson disappeared, and
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I remember it, you know, just not all the details,
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but I remember like, oh my god, this is happening
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just a couple towns up from my house.
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And then when I.
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Was in college, I met a girl from outside gilmert
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out in the woods, and I remember like riding around
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in her white pickup truck while she's telling me, like,
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out in these trees there the devil worshippers.
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You know in Cannibals.
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Just now that I'm an adult and I just want
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to know what really happened.
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Have you talked to Philip Williams?
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Hmm, good idea. Last spring I went home back to
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East Texas. I drove up to Gilmer one morning from
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my mom's house to see what I could find out.
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Sure enough, my first stop was to see Philip Williams.
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You have a way of introducing the town and explaining
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it to people that I haven't been to.
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Well, I would just be delighted to do that.
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Since I can walk out the back door of this
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farge store I owned to the place where I was
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born in about two minutes, so I'm given born in Bred.
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I have lived here all but six months of my life.
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Philip is kind of like Gilmer's unofficial ambassador. He's been
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a local news reporter for decades, which is how I
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know him. On Deadline, he files stories from a little
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family owned furniture store right off the town.
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Square is a small town in northeast Texas of about
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five thousand, and they started to festival coll Theambry, which
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continues to this day. It's held every October and draws
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thousands of people. And that's probably the most notable thing
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about it.
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There's a yam queen and a barn dance. I've been.
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It's fun. Philip wrote a lot of stories about Kelly Wilson.
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If you told me all that was gonna happen, We're
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going to have a seventeen year old girl advanced to
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then air and one of my best friends in high
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school is going to be the last guy seen with it.
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I would have thought you were a good candidate for
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a statemental hospital. But it all happened and I was
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right in the middle, cover and all of it.
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Philip's friend is Joe Henry, the video store manager.
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Well, I've known him for over fifty years. Like I said,
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I saw him today. I want to bring out some
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diet drink Cities place and I are still good friends.
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Joe has always been a very hard working person. He
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was fascinated by movies and back when we had video cassettes,
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there was a video store here in Gilbert where he
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was the manager and Kelly Wilson worked. Joe would have
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been willing to do his twenties then, and she was
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sixteen or seventy.
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Joe was actually thirty six at the time Kelly was seventeen.
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He just hadn't to be in wrong place at the
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wrong time.
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The movie store closed a long time ago, but Joe
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still grills Hamburgers around the block right across the street
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from the County Courthouse.
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Joe Hetty's Hamburger place back then too. It's been in
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Vena since nineteen seventy four, but he also was managing
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that video store. He workoholic basically, and a good guy.
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After I left Phillip's Furniture Store, I walked over to
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the Hamburger joint, but not before stopping on a street
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corner outside the video store where Kelly was last seen.
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These days, the building is not much to look at,
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just an old brick storefront. Then I rounded the corner
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and there was Joe's placed Brittain Street from the court house,
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gone up the steps, big juicy hamburgers. It was kind
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of dark inside, just a long, narrow room plus a
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big window that opened up to the kitchen. In the back,
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all the wall space was covered with movie posters from
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Hollywood's Golden Age. To my left, all these blue collar
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guys were sitting in a row of old theater seats.
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They were all chowing burgers and watching an old timey
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black and white movie playing on the TV above the
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soft drinks on the right side wall. Way in the back,
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a little guy with thin gray hair was manning the grill.
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The grill was sizzling. I was worried that Joe wouldn't
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want to talk. He's often been named as a suspect
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in Kelly's disappearance, at least on message boards where Internet
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sleuths hang out and parse the clues of the case.
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Instead of introducing myself, I placed an order.
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Or can I keep you?
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I'd like a cheeseburger and fries.
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All playing yes, okay, you do am now, thank.
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You, thank you. I joined the guys eating burgers from
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the theater seats. We watched an old movie about tourists
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in Hawaii. I waited for the lunch rush to pass.
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I didn't want to bug you earlier because I could
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tell how busy you were, probably sick of talking about it.
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But I just wanted to.
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Introduce myself in and see if there would be a
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time maybe you would be willing to chat with me.
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Yeah, I guess so. Do you think it might be
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okay today?
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Three?
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If you won't to you? Yeah, okay, you want to
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come in? Yeah, sir, come on in, all right, all right,
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all right, thank you, I'll be back.
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You're well delicious burger well a hammer.
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When I came back later that afternoon, Joe handed me
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a bottle of water and sat down in one of
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the theater seats. He was an older guy in his sixties,
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a little stooped and a great T shirt spattered in
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burger grease. He sighed deeply.
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Yeah, man, I just can't begin to tell you. This
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has just been an unbelievable thing.
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It is just it's almost saw something of crazy fictional story.
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Joe explained that back in the early nineties, he was
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basically the manager of the movie store Northeast Texas Video.
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He was more of a business partner than an employee,
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getting paid fifty percent of every rental. He also made
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side money repairing VCRs. Kelly worked the cash register, reshelved movies,
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kept the place clean, Over time, Joe says he and
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Kelly got kind of close.
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Well, very bubbly personality, you know. Friendly at Bobby's the
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best word I.
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Can come up with. And friends to a lot.
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Of people, tue sins and guys that were not I
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wouldn't say the best in the world.
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Eventually, Kelly also began to confide in Joe.
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Yes, she did about the divorce a lot.
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She was just very upset about her mom and dad's divorce,
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very very sword just a sticky divorce, just not a good,
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not a good, pleasant divorce.
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Yes, Kelly's parents had split up six or seven years earlier.
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The custody battle had been very ugly, with both parents
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fighting to keep Kelly and her little brother Kyle. For
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a while, the siblings lived with their dad, Robbie, in Nakodish, Louisiana,
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but they ended up with their mom, Kathy in East Texas. Eventually,
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both parents remarried, but during her senior year, Kelly couldn't
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decide which set of parents to live with. That winter,
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she told her friends she was moving back to Louisiana
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to be with her dad and stepmom Waverin.
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She wanted to.
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Leave after Christmas break and go to live with her dad.
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One night of there, she was really to say. She
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was crying and she said, I just don't want to leave. Well,
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you don't have to leave. I mean, you know, it's
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no big deal. And so that was sometime in December,
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and I think she basically wanted to stay and graduate
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with her friends. But her mom and dad had a
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pretty bad divorce and it was pretty uh you call
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it uh tomon if she was that, that's a good word.
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It just wasn't good, and cand it was very had
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been very upset about that.
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We ended up spending the Christmas holidays together in New Orleans.
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That's Kelly's dad, Robbie.
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We stayed in the French Quarter. We had a chance
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to have a couple of long talks, and she wasn't
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happy there, so she wanted to come back, and I
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was reluctant to let her come back because I didn't
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think it was healthy for her to just just yo
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yoing back and forth. And I listened to her argument
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she wanted to finish school with her legacy friends here
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but that she growed up with, and I kind of
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understood that.
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Even though Robbie was sympathetic to his daughter's wishes. He
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also took some convincing the last time she lived under
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his roof, things hadn't ended well.
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She didn't leave my custody under really great circumstances. She
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was angry with her dad because her dad had some rules,
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and I, you know, I tried to teach her some discipline.
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You know, she couldn't just run the road. She had
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to be a you know, she had to meet curfew,
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she had to do her do her lessons. You know.
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That's uh. Plus her mother was just you know, steadily
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agitating the situation. Like I said, it was a very
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contentious wow cushion fact.
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For the record, Kelly's mom declined to speak with me,
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so we're only hearing Robbie's point of view for now.
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You know, I was not thrilled about them moving moving
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up there with her mom because I knew she wasn't
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gonna she just wasn't going to keep them disciplined like
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I would be. And I'm not I'm not a I
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wasn't that tough on, trust me, but I did. I
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did have some rules that I expected the fall.
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Robbie says he finally relented Kelly could move back in
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with him and Waverlin, her step mom, to finish her
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senior year and go to college in Louisiana within state tuition.
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She was a week away from moving back starting the
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spring semester here.
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Do you know how how her mom took that news?
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Not well, but I think she agreed to let her
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come back. I mean, I don't think she was going
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to stop it or could stop it. So, you know,
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once I said she was given that, I mean, Kelly could.
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Kelly could be a handful. She was giving them hell,
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they were ready for her to leave. She could stir
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things up, acting out, you know, the same way she
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did here here when she wanted to go there. You
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know what I mean, she was She was She's a tarist.
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She was legitimately, you know, headstrong like that.
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During that heart to heart in the French Quarter, Kelly
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also told her dad something that to this day has
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stuck with him.
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But she told me that night that there was there
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were some things going on there that she needed to
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she just needed to share with me. At some point
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in time, She said, I wouldn't like it, and I
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don't worked out of the way it was. I wouldn't
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need to know. At some point in time she really
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wanted to get out of there and come back here.
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You still don't know what that was.
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But no idea never did to get a chance to
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talk to her again.
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So Kelly told her manager Joe Henry that she wanted
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to stay in Gilmer. She told her dad she wanted
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to move back to Nakedish. She also told Robbie that
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she had a secret she needed to share, something he
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wouldn't be happy about. Whatever the secret, whatever the truth,
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Kelly returned to East Texas after her Christmas vacation in
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New Orleans, either to pack her bags or get ready
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for her last semester at Gilmour High School, home of
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the Buck Guys. But school wasn't starting back up just yet.
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I'm not gonna lie. You know. We were trying to
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the party, you know, we were going to parties together,
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or going to the lake together, or you know, doing
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all those fun things silly girls did back in the nineties.
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That's Kelly's friend Lee, She was a senior that year too.
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Everyone thought we were so bad. Like I remember being like,
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you know, we were, you know.
373
00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:19.240
The wild group, And I look back at it and
374
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:20.880
I'm like, we were not wild.
375
00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:21.880
Like that was so innocent.
376
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:24.599
Lee and Kelly had been friends since Kelly showed up
377
00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:27.440
in Gilmour a couple of years earlier. Gilmer's not a
378
00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:30.519
big place, so a new girl in town was noteworthy.
379
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.799
I just remember her moving to school, you know, and
380
00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:36.720
you know, we only I mean, I can probably count
381
00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:39.880
on one hand how many girls, you know, our age,
382
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.920
or kids our age moved in to our school and
383
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.359
actually stayed. And she was just one of those girls.
384
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:47.119
And she moved in and you know, I feel like
385
00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:48.759
I probably had a class with her or something, and
386
00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:51.279
we were just fast friends. She just, you know, she
387
00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:53.960
was just one of those girls. She was just a
388
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:58.680
fun always happy, you know, she was cute, just you know,
389
00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:01.640
one of those girls that fit in, I think with everyone.
390
00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:04.519
And I can remember like being at school and like
391
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:07.839
gathering up all of our coin change so we would
392
00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:10.559
have enough money to go, you know, cruise around after
393
00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:12.799
school and stuff, or cruise around.
394
00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:14.240
On a Friday nine.
395
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:17.319
Back in town after Christmas and New Year's, Kelly had
396
00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:20.359
somehow heard about a party outside of town. It was
397
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.839
on a Sunday night, but with no school the next day,
398
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:24.440
she didn't want to miss it.
399
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.079
So I was supposed to go to a party with
400
00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:31.519
her that night, and I don't remember where the party was.
401
00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:33.480
I feel like I didn't even know who it was.
402
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:35.559
It was like a party in a different count.
403
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:39.119
Kelly was always meeting new people. She just had that personality.
404
00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:41.720
It didn't hurt that she worked at one of the
405
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.799
only video stores for miles around. Teens from other communities
406
00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:48.519
in the area were always driving into Gilmer to rent
407
00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.640
movies at Northeast Texas Video, where they were introduced to
408
00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:54.519
this friendly girl, Kelly, who'd never met a stranger.
409
00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:56.640
She had friends we didn't even know she had.
410
00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:58.359
And then I always just kind of thought, because she
411
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.319
worked at the movie store, she met people, and so
412
00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:04.559
I think a lot of people came in she connected
413
00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.119
with that. You know, I never even came across because
414
00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:12.519
she was she was so friendly, so nice.
415
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:14.839
I worked at the shop.
416
00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:19.200
At the time, that's the local pharmacy, and she worked.
417
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.759
At the movie store at the time.
418
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:23.880
We had talked about getting together and going to that party,
419
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:25.279
and I was like, Okay.
420
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:25.720
Well, I'll just meet to.
421
00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:28.880
You, you know, after work, And when I caught off work,
422
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.519
I drove by and she was still in their vacuuming
423
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.039
because I could see her through the front windows. I've
424
00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:37.200
gotten something all over me.
425
00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:39.200
She had to go home because she got something on
426
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:39.680
her clothes.
427
00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:43.160
That's Kelly and Lee's other friend, Michelle.
428
00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:44.079
And so I was like, you know what, since she's
429
00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.000
still vacuuming, I'm going to run home and change. And
430
00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.759
when I got home, i'd say it was eight thirty.
431
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:55.839
Between eight thirty and eight forty five. My mom said
432
00:22:55.880 --> 00:22:59.400
I couldn't go to the party, and then like shortly after,
433
00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:00.960
my mom was no, you're not going.
434
00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:03.839
It's too late to go out now. No no, no, no, no no.
435
00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:05.839
And I was like, damn, I should have just never
436
00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:07.759
come home, you know, I should have gone straight to Kelly's.
437
00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:11.079
Lee was stuck at home. Michelle was also home that night,
438
00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:14.880
but not because her parents were strict. Michelle was probably
439
00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:18.079
Kelly's first friend in Gilmer. They met when Kelly and
440
00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:21.079
her mom were still unloading boxes to move into their home.
441
00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:23.640
It was when she had first arrived in a town.
442
00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:25.960
She didn't quite know anybody yet.
443
00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:26.680
So I got to.
444
00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:28.319
Talking to she and her mom, and I ended up
445
00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:32.279
helping him move because they were moving, and we became
446
00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:37.240
fast friends. And Kelly was just outgoing. She laughed a
447
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.119
lot she was always had a positive attitude. She was
448
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.720
just fun, but she was also a good listener, like
449
00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:46.039
she had to issue or problem.
450
00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:49.720
During their junior year, Michelle had some big stuff to
451
00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:50.160
deal with.
452
00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:53.680
I ended up actually getting pregnant high school, which is
453
00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:58.559
never fun. And Kelly really rallied behind me and stood
454
00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:02.160
by my side and was a real great friend of
455
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.119
mine through my pregnancy and me and my baby actually
456
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.480
moved in with she and her mom for a short
457
00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:11.160
period of time when my daughter was about six months old.
458
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:16.359
Kelly was selfless, her generosity went way beyond the average teenagers.
459
00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:18.240
With Kelly and not being closed, I think I was
460
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:21.039
venting to her about issues I was having at home,
461
00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:24.680
and she was very concerned about that, especially since I
462
00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:28.680
had Taylor. And she actually came home with me a
463
00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:30.759
couple of days, like two or three days, because she
464
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:34.119
said she wanted to kind of observe and see for herself.
465
00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.839
Kelly and her mother approached me and said, it really
466
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:40.640
isn't a good environment and if you'd like to move
467
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:43.319
in with us, we'd be happy to have you move
468
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:45.680
in with us and help you with Taylor and provide
469
00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.680
a good environment for the both of you.
470
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.440
The house became a refuge for Michelle and her baby daughter, Taylor.
471
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.640
I it was a wonderful home life. It was so
472
00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:57.200
refreshing for me compared to the home life that I had.
473
00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:00.680
It was a very normal home life. Actually I didn't
474
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:02.440
have a car. Kelly did, so she would take me
475
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.480
to pick up Taylor that's my daughter's name. If I
476
00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:07.559
needed to go to the grocery store to get baby
477
00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.599
food or whatever, I mean, Kelly took me. It was
478
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.240
It was always just fun because Kelly and her mother
479
00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:17.519
instead of dwelling on any negativity, there's just a lot
480
00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:20.680
of laughter. And they would help me feed Taylor. Kelly's
481
00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:24.000
mom actually taught me a lot about taking care of
482
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:28.720
Taylor Too's helped me choose different foods, and it was
483
00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:31.880
just it was a very wonderful experience being able to
484
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:34.839
come home and have that mother figure. And Kelly was
485
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:39.000
very motherly too. She was like I kind of always
486
00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:42.039
described her as an old soul because you know, she
487
00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.680
recognized right away that I had in need and wanted
488
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:46.960
to fulfill it. And a lot of teenagers aren't like that.
489
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.279
If you're not fulfilling their needs, they're going to move on.
490
00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:54.200
And she wasn't that way. She wanted to be the
491
00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:58.200
one to be helpful and fulfill somebody else's needs. And
492
00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:00.880
I felt like she was always very pure, defective of
493
00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:04.200
me and shielded me, I think, from a lot of
494
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:07.200
negativity because she wanted Taylor and I to have a
495
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:10.319
good start. That's what kind of friend Kelly was.
496
00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.480
The way Michelle talks about Kelly and her home life
497
00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:16.359
in Gilmer, it's basically the opposite of what I was
498
00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:19.200
told by Kelly's dad, Robbie. I'm not really sure what
499
00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:22.039
to make of that. Michelle does not remember Kelly and
500
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:26.160
her mom, Kathy, having a troubled relationship, especially not the
501
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:28.200
way Kelly's dad, Robbie describes it.
502
00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:28.599
Well.
503
00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.160
Kelly and her mom, I always saw it as positive
504
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.200
because they were both so positive with me and maybe,
505
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:37.279
and let me tell you, teenage girls oftentimes don't get
506
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.839
along with their moms, right, But I'm sure there were
507
00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:42.759
times that they didn't, but it never happened when I
508
00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:45.759
was there. Both of them their focus was on me,
509
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.200
helping me, teaching me, and they really gave me a
510
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:52.519
big boost in life. Kelly's mom is the one who
511
00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:55.559
gave me the confidence to be a mother, all I
512
00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:58.559
remember about all of that is positivity. And I don't
513
00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:01.839
remember one argument between Kelly and her mother. That doesn't
514
00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.839
mean there wasn't one. It just probably means that I
515
00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:07.720
didn't think twice about it if they got aggravated with
516
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:10.319
each other, because my home life was a lot worse.
517
00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:14.720
But there was not a good relationship with her dad.
518
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:19.599
We spent many hours in her bedroom with her crying
519
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:23.920
sometimes about her dad, and I honestly can't remember all
520
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.880
the specifics, but she was very torn because she wanted
521
00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.720
to go to LSU really really bad.
522
00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:34.000
To qualify for in state tuition at Louisiana State University,
523
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:38.119
Kelly couldn't stay in Gilmer, Texas she needed to move
524
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:46.599
back in with Robbie across the state line in Louisiana.
525
00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:51.839
Money was a big factor for her dad, and he
526
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:53.960
kind of held a lot of things over her head
527
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:55.839
and said, well, I'll do this for you if you
528
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:58.640
moved back with me. It was always a bargain, and
529
00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:01.599
he wanted her to not be with Kathy and be
530
00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:04.240
with him, but she wanted to live in Gilmer with
531
00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:07.279
her friends and her mom. But she also had that
532
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:09.839
goal of wanting to go to LSU. So she was
533
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:10.680
so torn.
534
00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:14.400
By then, Michelle was living with her parents again with
535
00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:17.720
all of her responsibilities as a mom. Michelle hadn't seen
536
00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:19.559
Kelly that much during their senior year.
537
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.480
I was not living with her, and we were not
538
00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:25.240
talking on a daily basis, and she had gotten really
539
00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:29.960
close to other friends. In December, it was the very
540
00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:32.480
last time. I think it was the very last time
541
00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:36.640
I saw her. Me and another girlfriend went over to
542
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:39.720
her house. A guy she was very close with, Josh,
543
00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:43.559
was back in town, and so we all got together
544
00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:46.279
over there, and she was very upset that day because
545
00:28:46.279 --> 00:28:48.759
she was torn and didn't know what to do because
546
00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:50.519
it was down to the wire and she had to
547
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.079
move back to our dad's if she wanted to go
548
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:54.640
to LSU. We were all out of loss and didn't
549
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:58.240
know what to tell her to do. So it was
550
00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:01.680
just kind of that time we all had together was
551
00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:04.960
not a great mating because she was upset.
552
00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:08.200
That last hangout with Michelle and Josh. An ex boyfriend
553
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:12.400
of Kelly's, happened sometime in December, just five days into
554
00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:14.599
the new year. Kelly was supposed to go to that
555
00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:17.799
other party, the one outside of town, with her friend Lee.
556
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:20.079
I didn't even I don't even remember who was having
557
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:22.079
a party, but I didn't really know anyone out there.
558
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:25.039
I had just seen this cute boy was asking if
559
00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:26.920
he was going to go, So that's why I wanted
560
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:28.599
to go. I was like, Hey, when I get off work,
561
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:30.960
I'll just come up to the video store and we
562
00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.960
can either go to your house if you need.
563
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:34.039
To, or just leave from there.
564
00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:37.880
And so, you know, that's really about all I can remember,
565
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.039
to tell you the truth, I just saw her vacuuming.
566
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.880
I saw her car on the side of the video store.
567
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.000
I remember seeing her car on the side of the
568
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.000
video store. I did not, you know, it was dark.
569
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:53.720
I did not look, you know, I didn't see if
570
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:55.920
tires were slashed or anything like that. I didn't look
571
00:29:56.119 --> 00:29:58.599
hard enough for that. But I remember seeing her car
572
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:00.759
parts on the side of the video store. And then
573
00:30:00.839 --> 00:30:06.039
I pulled around to the front and she was, you know,
574
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:10.039
just in the front of the store of vacuuming.
575
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:13.799
From what I understand, Kelly never showed at that party
576
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:17.440
with her dad Robbie expecting her in Louisiana, It's possible
577
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:19.759
that Kelly still hadn't made up her mind about whether
578
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:23.960
to leave Gilmour We didn't know where she was, whose
579
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:27.640
lives might be destroyed, or what kind of evil lurked
580
00:30:27.640 --> 00:30:30.160
in the shadows of all those pines.
581
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:35.039
None of us foresaw this thing mus rooming into the
582
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:37.559
big controversy that Edma Cain.
583
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:41.599
Coming up this season on Deviltown.
584
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:47.200
It's much bigger than anybody could anticipate. If one girl
585
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:51.000
could expose what's going on and bring that many powerful
586
00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:56.720
people down, She's not going to survive. Kelly was snatched
587
00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:59.960
off the Gilmer Square. She was a sweet young girl.
588
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:03.920
It wasn't a random act. We all know it wasn't random,
589
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:06.920
so that means there had to be a reason behind it.
590
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:15.119
From seven years old, my head's been full of devil worshiping, killers, cannibalism,
591
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:17.039
sexual misconduct.
592
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:21.640
I was a good guy and then all of a sudden,
593
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:25.279
I'm in jail going I'm killing eight to seventeen year
594
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:29.039
old girl and sacrifice ten babies to the devil.
595
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:33.200
Deviltown is a production of Imperative Entertainment. It was written
596
00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:37.079
and created by me Wes Ferguson. Executive producer is Jason Hoak,
597
00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:40.680
Audio engineering and editing by Shane Freeman and Jason Hoak.
598
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:44.960
Original score is by Robert Ellis, recording by Austin Sisler
599
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.759
at east Side Studios. If you like the show, leave
600
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:50.279
a review, and don't forget to tell your friends thanks
601
00:31:50.279 --> 00:31:50.359
for
