Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Part 5: The Prosecution Rests
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Epilogue: Changed Forever
Acknowledgments
Note to self: Never die mysteriously in a small town.
Many murders go unsolved. Both large and small cities often lack sufficient staff for lengthy investigations. But in addition to work overload, small towns can face inexperience and insecurity.
Small-town officers spend their days serving as crossing guards for elementary schools and ticketing drivers with expired tags. The only dead bodies most encounter are traffic accident victims and old people who died in their sleep. Small-town police are well-trained in what they do everyday. Yet because of understaffing and strained budgets, they’re seldom taught to handle complicated murder investigations. Police chiefs must play the odds, hoping their officers won’t need the extra training.
When such inexperienced officers come upon a murder scene where the victim is a prominent multimillionaire with several blows to the head and nearly one hundred stab wounds, they’re in unfamiliar territory. But their desire to be the ones to apprehend the killer can keep them from seeking help from those more experienced. And when state and national agencies are forced to step in, small-town law enforcement sometimes shows its insecurity.
Add all these dynamics and you may have a crime scene waiting to be swept under a small-town rug.
That’s the beginning of this story.
Add that the crime took place in the Bible belt, where church involvement is a way-of-life—even for killers.
Add that those closest to the victim are honest believers who respond to the tragedy in often unique ways.
Add international extradition struggles.
Add family secrets, lies lived and told to neighbors, addiction and greed.
Add that one of the people closest to the victim is a federal agent and you have a true crime story with an unusual perspective, accurate inside details and emotional insights not usually available.
Murder in Mayberry is not a clinically researched crime story. It’s the emotional journey of my family, as we moved from normal to changed forever.
I’ve shared Ann’s story as honestly as I know how. And I realize that in doing so, I’ve broken many of the ties to the small town where I grew up, where I married my high school sweetheart and where our children attended public schools.
For many years, the newspaper in the town where Ann died included a quote from Lord Byron as part of its masthead: “With, or without offence to friends and foes, I sketch your world exactly as it goes.” That’s the honesty with which I’ve tried to write.
To understand it all, you need the entire story. Impressions, perspectives, exact quotes, real actions and reactions. The lovely and the not-so-lovely. What I’ve written is my reality of Ann’s murder.
Ann deserves an accurate account of the motives, investigation and greed that surrounded her murder. By telling her story accurately, I feel that I’ve brought dignity to her death.
Mary Kinney Branson