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It was the father-daughter dance at Emily Ferris's wedding in July 2016. Emily wore a white satin dress. Her
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proud father towered over her in a black suit as they swayed back and forth to the music.
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>> All right, let's give it up for Gary and Emily. They took a sweet bow toward each other
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and ended the magical moment. Here's Emily. It was it was a it was a good wedding wedding. I was the bride, so I
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was a little I was a little like probably in another world compared to everyone else.
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You're hearing Emily answering questions from prosecutors in 2024. By then, the investigation of Gary
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Ferris's murder had gone to trial. A wedding is a milestone event, a memorable day where everyone's eyes are
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on the bride and groom. But some eyes at the reception turned from Emily to her mother Melody as she
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spent the night on the arm of a man who wasn't her husband, Gary. From what I understand, um
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they were like dancing dancing together, like canoodling if you will, during the
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reception. Emily was on the stand recounting the shock of her wedding day when her mother
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openly flirted with a man named Rusty Barton. The interactions between the two were of
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of a couple. Like there was like I felt like under the table, like touching, um like
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getting really close together to talk. Um just like like whispering to each other, like into
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each other's ears. She said the scene left the whole family shaken and ashamed. And Daddy said, "That's the last time
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That's the last time she's ever going to embarrass me like that again." Um I mean, I can only imagine how
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devastated he was by that. Prior to her wedding day, Emily said she had suspected Rusty could be more than
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just a friend to her mother. If we're like running errands or going shopping or something like that, like she would
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talk about Rusty. Like she would just like bring him up. When she got her mother's guest list,
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Emily emailed the names to her father. I just wanted you to see who all he she's
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inviting. Her mom's friend Rusty was coming. Emily felt like her hands were tied.
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That's because her parents were paying for the wedding, and Melody had already complained about its nearly $30,000
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cost. So, Emily decided to keep her feelings about Rusty to herself. If I press her on this, she will cancel my
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wedding. Like she will cancel my wedding. She will It'll be over. Emily said she considered Melody's list an
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ultimatum. Invite this man, or else. Turns out all the rumors and suspicions within the family were true.
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Melody had started cheating on Gary with Rusty two years before Emily's wedding.
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On top of that, her children claimed she'd been having nasty arguments with Gary over money. We knew Melody was
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having affairs. We knew that she was constantly lying to people, spending all my dad's money.
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And even before this, she would make up lies about us. Just to make her life a soap opera.
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I'm Peter Van Sant from 48 Hours. This is Blood Is Thicker, the Ferris Wheel. Episode 3, Private Affairs.
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We just got where we just didn't talk. Melody and Gary Ferris had been together for 38 years before his murder in 2018.
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In their early years, Melody worked hard helping support the family and pay Gary's way through university all while
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raising the kids. I was the strict one. We didn't co-parent, we counter parented.
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Counter parented? What does that mean? If I said no, he said yes. I was the one who held my children accountable for
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what they did. Was Gary a good father? He was. And how about husband? Not so much.
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As you can tell, there were deeper problems in their marriage. By the time they moved to the farm in
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2013, they'd been sleeping apart for years. He slept down in the basement in a bedroom and she slept in the master.
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According to Scott, Gary would use the master bedroom to shower and store his clothes, but he always slept downstairs.
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Cuz my dad slept with his CPAP machine. It's loud. It's loud. He, you know, prior to that, he was a very loud
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snorer. Leading up to his death, Gary had been experiencing a mysterious illness.
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We just referred to as the Ferris spells. The Ferris spells? He would get very lethargic.
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Uh would sleep a lot. Uh they there was no rhyme or reason to how often they In April of 2018, one of the spells had
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been bad enough to send Gary to the ER. Here's how Melody described it to me. The night that we carried him to the
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hospital, he was hallucinating. And several weeks beforehand, he believed that there was a party being
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held out in the hot tub outside of his bedroom. According to Melody, the cause was
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uncertain. He had severe vitamin deficiencies, B12 being one of them. Uh we knew that.
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Here's Detective Daniel Hayes. Gary allegedly didn't like going to the doctor. The few times he had gone, they
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hadn't really found anything. Melody suggested it could be Gary's unhealthy lifestyle. She didn't know if he was
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diabetic. She pointed out he drank Mountain Dews and smoked cigarettes all day. Perhaps he was just unhealthy.
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But Hayes said Gary grew suspicious about the timing of these spells. Others that we spoke with about these
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spells, whether it be his secretary, other co-workers, people that that liked him, pointed out it only seemed he only
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seemed to have these spells after he had been home for like a weekend or a holiday
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or something like that. They >> With Melody. They seemed to occur around right after he spent some
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time with her and she prepared his meals. Gary believed Melody was poisoning him.
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Their eldest son, Chris, questioned if his father had taken the threat seriously enough. He's like, "Oh, I'm
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okay. I'm okay." Like, "No, you're not okay. What's the deal?" I was like, "What's the deal? For my
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dad?" This is Chris at the sheriff's office a few weeks after the murder. Chris recalled his father telling him
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about feeling unwell after eating Melody's freshly baked cookies. He He just like, "Oh, I think she's
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trying to poison me or something." And just laughing it off and I thought, "Oh my god, you know, like, nah, man. Come
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on, you know, maybe." But he said, "Well, then a few weeks before that, she brought home a pasta dish
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and the same thing happened." I brought this up with Melody. Did you know at the time that Gary had
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speculated with at least two different people that he thought you were poisoning him? Were you? No. Absolutely
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not. But while Melody denied poisoning Gary, detectives learned that Gary and Melody's relationship had been strained
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to the breaking point in the months before his death. We found evidence through, you know, the
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cell phone data, text messages, and things that he was taking action, taking steps to cut her off, and control her
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spending. Detective Hayes said that Gary controlled their finances and created a
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separate account for her to access money. It wasn't attached to the main account
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with all the big money. You know, it would be smaller amounts of money, a few thousand dollars instead of
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multi-thousand dollars. Here's Melody. I had a debit card. It had his name on it.
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I was free to use it however I wanted to. His name on it. You didn't have a debit card with your name on it.
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>> not. But just like Gary did with their son Scott, he monitored her spending. Anything over, I believe, $25 went
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immediately to his email. And while she admits Gary was controlling, Melody claimed he was not
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angry with her. But was there financial arguing going on Was there financial disputes going on between the two of you
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during the course of your marriage? When he Was he angry at your spending? >> No.
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Son Scott and Chris Ferris said that's simply not true. They told detectives in 2018 their
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father was upset. Here's Scott. That's what irritated my dad. Um, you know, spending money stuff on
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that we did not we needed to spend money on. They said their mom loved to shop, spending lavishly on stuff they
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considered useless like fur coats, jewelry, and art. It seemed like she thought she had an endless bank account.
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She would just, you know, spend money whatever. Melody once even withdrew a $50,000 line of credit without telling
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Gary. But money wasn't the only thing dividing the Ferrises. Gary believed his wife was
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having affairs. He said she he's caught her. Oh, yeah. He's been He >> what? Caught her cheating? Yeah, he's
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gotten he's gotten emails from you know, people saying, "Oh, she's doing this with this person." And he was
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right. And how many affairs did you have? Two. Melody Ferris admitted to me that she
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had two affairs during her marriage with Gary. But our conversation was years after the investigation started.
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Back in 2018, she was, shall we say, deceptive. Here's Melody talking to Detective Trent
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Kuykendall back then. Any boyfriend at all? Yeah. Even though she said no, Detective
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Kuykendall rephrased his question. When's the last time you had one? I won't call him a boyfriend.
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But it was a my sister-in-law's boyfriend at the time, but we were all >> How long ago? Ted?
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>> That's been 2 years. Ted? Yeah. Ted was Ted Wiley, and you heard that right. Melody said she was seeing her
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husband's sister's boyfriend. Ted dated Gary's sister for about 20 years. The two never married, but the
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Ferrises treated him like family. He lived in Alabama. Melody said he helped her back in 2007
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as she cared for her mother who had cardiac problems. She had a open heart surgery that did not go well.
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I was pretty much gone for a year taking care of her. Melody basically moved to Alabama.
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He was there to help with things. We would go horseback riding together, but my sister-in-law was right there.
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Detective Kuykendall asked Melody more about Ted. You had a relationship with Ted many, many, many years ago.
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Was that physical as well? Yeah. That was never physical. >> Yeah. Her son Scott told detectives otherwise.
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I was the one who discovered my mom was running around with Ted because I was helping her take care of my grandmother
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in the hospital and the house and everything. One night at the bar we went to uh That
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was 2007. >> Logan's Logan's Roadhouse or whatever. I saw Ted grabbing my mom's rear end.
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He confronted his mother. She just told you you don't know what you're talking about and blah blah blah.
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I tried to tell everybody else. Nobody else would listen to me. Ted later admitted the affair went on
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for several years. But in 2018, Melody wasn't easily sharing those details. She denied that there had been another
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man in her life in the years leading up to Gary's murder. So, when was the last time you had a
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physical relationship with somebody, your husband or anyone? Oh, Gary? Mhm. It's probably been 4 years again. Okay.
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So, when was the last time you had an an a sexual interaction with anyone else? 4
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years again. The detectives wanted to ask her about something they found in her purse.
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She had told them she had a debit card with Gary's name, and she did. But they also found a second card with a
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different name on it. What about Roy? Roy? Last time you guys talked Barton? Barton?
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Here is where the Ferris wheel really gets a spinning. Roy Barton was Rusty Barton.
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Remember Rusty? He's the man Melody invited to Emily's wedding. What was the last time you
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interacted with Rusty? Oh, it's been months and months and months ago. Melody tried to downplay her
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relationship with Rusty, but the detective pushed. Like years? Like months? >> No. It seems like it's been within the
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last year. Yeah. It seems like you've had a you have a boyfriend. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, I
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would still talk to him on occasion. But I mean, it's >> When was When was it physical with
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y'all? Oh. It's been quite at least a year ago. Melody told me that she and Rusty went
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way back. Well, Rusty Barton and I first met at when his dad and my cousin got married.
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I was 15. Um we would see each other occasionally through the years. Not very often.
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They met in 1975. Rusty was 22. The two of them didn't start a romantic relationship until almost four decades
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later, when in 2014, Melody's mother called. She asked Melody to take her cousin,
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Martha Jane, to the doctor. Martha Jane was married to Rusty's father. So, Ted Wylie was her sister-in-law's
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boyfriend, and Rusty was her cousin's stepson. Follow? And I said, "Sure, I'll do it."
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And I did. I went up there. Uh his dad had a stroke on the day that I had taken Martha Jane to Nashville to
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a cardiologist. And he and I you know, started out as, you know, basically working together to take care
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of his dad and his stepmother, which was my cousin. So, in 2014, as they cared for their
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loved ones, Rusty and Melody also started caring for each other. And one thing led to another.
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>> One thing led to another. And you you started an affair? >> Mhm. Rusty lived in Tennessee, about a 3-hour
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drive from the Ferris farm in Georgia. Handsome and filled with Southern charm and humor, Rusty's white hair and goatee
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gave him a charismatic look. And you guys would meet in Dalton, Georgia. How often would you do that? Uh it would
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depend on what he had going, what I had going. It was 2 years into their affair when
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Melody put Rusty on Emily's guest list. At your daughter's wedding, you you brought Rusty Barton. He was there. And
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isn't that kind of an in-your-face move to everyone? Wasn't that a Gary knew I was taking
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>> terrible thing to do? >> I had invited him. Why would you even have done that? Cuz
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you know, your daughter was very upset that here you are touching each other during the course the of the reception
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and dancing. >> It was after all this happened that she said she was upset about it.
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She never said a thing about it then. That wasn't a nice move on your part, was it? No. In hindsight, no.
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But Gary didn't file for divorce or separate from Melody. Then in October 2017, a woman named
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Christina Grant emailed Gary. She claimed to be, if you're ready for this, Rusty's girlfriend.
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In Christina's first email to Gary, she wrote, "Just FYI, your wife and Rusty Barton have been lovers for 3 years."
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Gary responded, "Do I know you?" Christina then said, "You want to talk?" He replied, "Not right now."
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But according to Melody, Gary wouldn't have minded it because Melody told me that Gary was the first to cheat.
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Gary had an affair? When I was pregnant with Amanda. He was the first to cheat. Absolutely.
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The not dynamic of Melody and Gary Ferris were they lived separate lives. In 2018, Detective Daniel Hayes with the
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Cherokee County Sheriff's Office heard that Melody and Gary had an unusual marital arrangement, one where they each
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slept in separate beds and at times with separate lovers. We did find evidence of both. Both had
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affairs. Yes. Both are living on different floors of a house under the same roof
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but not really living as a married couple. Correct. They're roommates. Melody told me that it wasn't always
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this way. Things changed in the late '80s. That's when Melody was pregnant with their fourth child. I found out that he
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was having his first affair when I was pregnant with Amanda. Amanda was born in 1989.
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Then we moved to Atlanta in 1995 and he brought his secretary, who he had been having an affair with, with him.
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And you knew he was having this affair. >> Oh, absolutely. As Melody tells it, Gary's infidelity
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was the real reason they started sleeping in separate rooms. And if this southern soap opera couldn't
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get more tawdry, Melody claimed that Gary confessed to something big, really big.
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He confessed that he had fathered a child to somebody. Very shortly after that, I packed my
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clothes and I left. He came, talked to me, begged me to come back. And I did. I came back.
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Until on I believe it was in January of '09, I believe, don't hold me to that, that I got a credit card
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statement. And he had joined match.com and several other dating websites. I went down, handed it to him, already
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had my stuff packed, and I said, "I'm going to go stay at my mom's for a while."
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But eventually, Melody came back. She didn't tell me the identity of this mystery mother.
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I'm still not getting why you the two of you just didn't split up and go your separate ways.
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I don't get it. I still wanted a home that my children could come to. I didn't want them to
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have to go to two separate places. Her son Scott told me in 2024 that he believes his mother is lying.
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My father didn't have a a relationship with anybody. They didn't have an open marriage.
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But Gary Ferris's former assistant, Angela Phillips, admitted she did have a relationship, an affair, with her boss
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in the mid-1990s. Angela wouldn't call the relationship romantic. In her words, she said they
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were physical for about a year. The sex stopped, Angela said, after she met Melody, and And two, in her words,
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became friends. After years of allegedly playing musical beds, Gary did file for divorce in 2010.
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That was about the time Melody said she ended her relationship with Ted Wiley. And long before she started seeing Rusty
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Barton. Scott remembered that when he was serving in Iraq, his dad emailed about
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the troubles back home. He goes, "Hey, I just want to let you know that I filed for, you know, I got
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paperwork for a divorce." And I responded back with, "I'm glad you're able to see, you know,
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what, you know, what's going on and all, but I can't deal, I can't hear this stuff while I'm over here." Scott's
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brother Chris claimed Melody hid in the bedroom when his father tried to serve his mom with those divorce papers in
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2010. But Gary eventually called off the divorce, and the Ferrises didn't separate. Instead, they bought the farm
00:22:10
for a fresh start. But in the months leading up to Gary Ferris's murder, Melody admitted things
00:22:17
were getting vicious. Gary and I said some horrible things to each other. We did.
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Gary was very much one who cut to the bone, and I got to where that I would throw it right back at him.
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But there was one argument on July 2nd, 2018, that caught detectives' attention.
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It occurred the day before investigators think Gary was shot. Here's Scott. One day I was planting some plants or
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something, and she comes out of the house with a plate in her hand, and she's screaming and cussing, and she
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throws the plate up against the wall of the house, and breaks it, shatters it all into pieces.
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And she says, "I can't wait till that man's dead. I can't wait till I don't have to live with him anymore.
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But Melody told me she didn't throw the plate because of Gary. She threw it because Scott had yelled at her for not
00:23:13
having dinner prepared for him. He's standing there screaming his lungs out at me.
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And I told him, I said, "I hope that there is a day that I do not have to live with you screaming at me." My
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35-year-old man child screaming at his mother for not cooking him dinner. You live free on this
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property. And that's when, according to Melody, the plate took flight. Melody and Scott have different versions
00:23:39
of that incident. But Gary's recovered cell phone records showed that he pulled out his phone and hit record.
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This is what happens when you leave a plate, forget to take it upstairs, a minor temper temper tantrum.
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Gary is saying, "This is what happens when you leave a plate and forget to take it upstairs." As he shows the
00:24:05
shattered pieces scattered on the ground. He adds, "Minor temper tantrum." Plus, I had supper tonight, and it was
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fixed for me, so I'm sure I'll be feeling poorly here within minutes. But we'll see.
00:24:22
In that last part, he's saying that he had supper and that it was fixed for him, so quote, "I'm sure I'll be feeling
00:24:29
poorly here within minutes." Directly referencing the idea Melody might be poisoning him.
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The next day would be his last. I could see he finally reached a point that he was tired.
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He finally got so tired of fighting for the marriage that he's just like, "It's time to end this." Tired of the
00:24:55
fighting, the lies, the humiliation, the secrets. Scott said his father was ready
00:25:02
to finally divorce Melody. She's going to continue on having affairs, and he was
00:25:08
ready to move on. And detectives believe that Melody may have also wanted out. And how serious is
00:25:20
this relationship between Melody and Rusty? Depends on who you ask. Um the evidence showed it it it appeared to
00:25:29
be pretty serious. They were researching wedding bands. Uh you know, they were discussing
00:25:34
what life looked like without Gary in it. The clues from the case were pointing to
00:25:39
Melody as the likely murderer. But detectives didn't make an arrest that summer.
00:25:45
Instead, they turned to Melody's lover, Rusty Barton, to see if he would secretly record their main suspect.
00:26:07
From 48 Hours, this is Blood Is Thicker, the Ferris Wheel, produced by Sony Music
00:26:13
Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Van Sant. Judy Tygard is the executive producer of
00:26:21
48 Hours. Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Betsy Schuler, Ryan Smith, and Hannah
00:26:29
Vere. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for CBS News podcast, and Mara Waltz is the
00:26:37
senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Alana Myers. Special thanks to CBS News podcast vice
00:26:49
president Megan Marcus. Blood Is Thicker was written and produced by Alex Sherman.
00:26:57
Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Calkin.
00:27:08
Theme and original music composed by Hansdale Shee. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and
00:27:16
mixed the episodes. We also use music from Epidemic Sounds. Fendall Fulton is our fact checker.
00:27:26
Our production manager is Tamika Balance Kolasny. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to
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rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. Thanks for listening.