00:00:07
Can Can I just say a couple things to you? Sure. Look, it's a while to get here, but nevertheless, that's just part
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of the business, and I want >> On July 24th, 2018, nearly 3 weeks into the investigation of Gary Ferris's
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disappearance and suspected murder, Detective Daniel Hayes and Sergeant [music] Ashley Pope traveled from
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Cherokee County, Georgia, to Coffee County, Tennessee, to meet [music] the traveling country
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salesman who they thought could break the case wide open. We kind of view this as you coming on
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our side of the table, okay? And it may be uncomfortable, but I think it's something that needs to be done for
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yourself. This would be the third face-to-face [music] meeting with Rusty Barton, the man who had been having an
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affair with Melody Ferris for years, and who investigators believed [music] knew
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some of her deepest secrets. So far, he'd given them nothing. But this time, Rusty [music] was ready
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to open up. I feel the best way to do this would be just to let you tell us what you want to tell us, and
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then if we have any questions at the end to fill in. Okay. Is that fair? Yes. For years, Rusty and Melody talked
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almost every day on the phone, >> [music] >> and their phone calls had become a key
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part of the investigation. I think [clears throat] there was only one conversation that is what you're looking
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for. Okay. The one conversation in question between the lovers was around 2:20 a.m. on the
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4th of July, an unusually late hour for them. Rusty said [music] they'd been talking
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for quite a while when Melody said something chilling. Probably the last minute of the last
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conversation, she said, "Gary is in the burn pile." No, she said, "He is in the burn pile."
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That was more than 24 hours before Melody and her children would go searching for Gary on the property and
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discover his charred remains. And I said, "What?" And she said, "He's in the burn pile." And I said,
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"Do not say another word, and do not tell me anything. I do not need to know." And with that, the phone call ended. And
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that is everything Peer Chief discussed with her. Period. It sure sounded like Melody had
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implicated herself in the murder of her husband. Detective Daniel Hayes told me he had a
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theory that Rusty knew what was going on. That he knew what had just happened, >> [music]
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>> and he either didn't want to know about it or did did not want her to say it over the
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phone. Detectives felt they were getting closer to an arrest, but they would need Rusty on their side
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to seal the deal. Are we talking wire bug or taped phone conversation? Maybe. Guys,
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I'm Peter Van [music] Sant. From 48 Hours, this is Blood Is Thicker: The Ferris Wheel.
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Episode 4, The Reluctant Witness. As Detective [music] Hayes and Sergeant Pope pressed Rusty Barton, they zeroed
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in on what Melody [music] told him during that phone call. 48 Hours got access [music] to the full
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detective interview. And you said something to [music] the effect what when she said, "Gary's in the burn
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pile." Or he's in the burn pile. >> He's in the burn pile. I said, "Don't Don't say nothing else. Don't tell me. I
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don't want to know." So, I want to get into like your head a little bit about it.
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>> "He is in the burn pile" were [music] the specific words she Yes. To my That's
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Rusty's lawyer chiming in. >> [music] >> He was also present the day of this interview with the sheriff's office.
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>> [music] >> Rusty told Melody not to tell him any additional information >> [music]
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>> after her big reveal. Sergeant Pope pointed out to him why some [music] people might find that
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response a bit unusual. My question would be if I'm just going to play this out of
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Daniel. Me and him were not only coworkers, but we're friends, and we know intimate details of each other's
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lives. If he called and said something like that to me, there's a couple things. So, if my first
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instinct was like, "What? Don't say anything else." There would have been something that led
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me to believe that this was an incident of murder. >> [music] >> Right? Right. Mhm.
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What wasn't Rusty telling [music] them? That's >> Well, I'm also concerned with too that
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you're leaving stuff out that might implicate you further in something. Does that make sense?
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We have to think about that, too. What >> I shot Gary. What do I do now?" Go throw
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diesel fuel >> Why are you calling me about this? I don't want to know. >> Hey, if that is the case, we need to
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know that. >> Yes. If that was the case, I would tell you. At this moment, Detective Hayes
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didn't want to press Rusty too hard, so he moved on. And then you had an hour-long
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conversation with her the next morning at 6:30. Which is not unusual. Not unusual, and
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that was just a regular everyday conversation. >> Regular everyday. No stranger to
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talking, Rusty described what a regular conversation with Melody was like. What we talked about was the normal
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we talked about we always talked about we talked about you know, the kids and the grandkids.
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You can probably take a guess at what we just bleeped. Rusty continued with the timeline,
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saying that Melody texted him at 11:00 a.m. on July 5th, the same day the family began searching for Gary.
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The last text message was, "We're looking for Gary. Call you ASAP." Okay. >> That was the last communication.
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>> Which that's strange because he told you he's in the burn pile. >> Yeah, I knew where he was.
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The detectives were perplexed. Why would Melody text Rusty that Gary was missing after telling Rusty on the
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phone that he was in the burn pile? And there was one other curious thing detectives discovered when they reviewed
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Rusty's online search history. He had Googled whether police could have access to his past text messages.
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Rusty didn't like it when asked about that search. I didn't murder nobody or have nothing
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to do with it. Again, my whole thing about what worried about was all the pictures and the porn and the
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talk of all that kind of stuff. Yeah. You just didn't want us to read that cuz it would have embarrassed you. Yeah.
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Weeks after finding the human remains, Melody and Rusty had continued communicating, but not on Melody's main
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phone. So, that is a uh an extraction of your phone. All right? And you can see this is the phone number that she used.
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>> That's 678 number. >> Right. That's her burner phone. That's the one we know is her burner phone.
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Okay. That's right. Melody was using a burner phone to talk to Rusty. Scott had seen her use it and was quick
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to tell investigators, while Rusty wasn't as forthcoming. Detectives wondered what else he might
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have left out. Before questioning began, detectives tried to intimidate Rusty. They laid out fake unsigned warrants on
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the table in front of him, showing potential serious charges Rusty could face. But if he helped them out, well, that
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was another story. You need to for you record every time you talk to her on the phone. Rusty's lawyer sided with the
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detectives. I'm telling you that it >> Yes. You feel Does that make sense? Yeah.
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So, Rusty [music] took his attorney's advice, and about a week later, he got on the phone with Melody.
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Once Rusty though was cooperating with you, tell us how he helped the investigation about the tape recordings.
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Um so, we got a year's worth of data from him. Um you know, we we were able to install
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a investigative tool on his phone. I spoke with Detective Hayes [music] in 2024.
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We send him a text message, and he accepts it, and it it kind of >> [music] >> assigns your phone a new phone number.
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So, we had to work in a conversation with her of why Rusty [music] has a new phone number now that she's
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supposed to call him on, which she knows about. And you know what he basically told her?
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"I got this new phone for me and you since all this other stuff's going on. Just call this number." She would.
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Every time Melody would call that phone, [music] detectives monitored and recorded the conversations.
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On August 2nd, 2018, Rusty and Melody were on the phone. She knew that Rusty had recently talked
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to detectives. [music] They talked about concerns over his possible arrest. They said that I would
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that I would be arrested here, and then they would have to uh uh take me you know, extradite me to
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Georgia. Right. She sounded worried that they had their eyes on him. You all need to get
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any information that proves that you were in town that time. Rusty was already on top of that, documenting his
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days in Tennessee the week Gary disappeared. I wrote down and made up a timeline,
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you know, per day of where I was, who I talked to, that kind of stuff. Melody remained calm as Rusty got worked
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up about their situation. But I been upfront dying. I know you are. I so am I. So am I.
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Melody told Rusty that she believed the sheriff's office didn't have any evidence against them.
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She said her attorney thought the detectives were lying. He said, "All they're trying to do is scare you." I
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said, "No [ __ ] well they're doing a good job of it." Rusty told her what happened during his
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meeting with detectives. Well, you know, like I told them, I don't have nothing to hide.
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Right. You know, I know I wasn't there. I didn't have nothing to do with it. I don't know what happened.
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I talked to her that night, yes, she called me three times. I talked to her that night. We
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we just talked. It was just normal [ __ ] As you can hear, Rusty left out that he
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had shared details of what Melody said about the burn pile with detectives. I didn't tell her nothing, she didn't
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tell me nothing. Yeah, cuz there was nothing going on. My balls are running a plum out of
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steam, baby. I know it. I know. Melody then pauses before saying, I know you were scared to death, and so am I.
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Then Rusty said something rather curious. Baby, are you sure the house is clean?
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Baby, there's nothing in the house. And then he asked her if she got rid of the gun.
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And here's the thing of it, baby. >> There was no gun. There was no gun. Why are you so sure that the cops didn't
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find anything? Cuz there was no gun in there. If this was Rusty trying to reel Melody
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in, she didn't seem to be taking the bait, >> [music] >> even when he directly asked her about
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who killed Gary. Baby, do you know who did it? Who [music] killed him? >> No, I do not know.
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I mean, somebody killed him. No. No. >> [music] >> Who Who could have done it? I don't know.
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Then, at about [music] 45 minutes in, Rusty got more specific. He brought up their phone call in the early morning
00:12:45
hours of July 4th. [music] Listen to me, okay? Okay. We need to be on the same page.
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Okay. We need to be on the same page, meaning we've got to get our stories [music]
00:13:01
straight. All right, and and so I I don't want to be confused. [music] But I reme-
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I remember you telling me he's on the burn pile. Mhm. He asked her to explain [music] what
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happened. At first, Melody was just silent. I can tell you that there should not have been as much
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damage as there was done. I don't know what that means. That body should not have been burned
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up. So, who burned it up? I think Scott did. >> [music] >> You can't I think Scott did.
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This was a new accusation that detectives had never heard from Melody. Yes, she had talked in earlier police
00:14:05
interviews about tensions between Scott and his father over money, but she hadn't been this explicit about
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Scott killing his father. Now, I honestly don't know what Scott did or anything. I don't know.
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Uh, do I have speculation? Yes, I do. Rusty decided to ask Melody yet again if she had told him that he, meaning Gary,
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was on the burn pile. I don't remember. Another long pause. I think all that I remember saying to
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you was that Gary had started the burn pile. Okay. Cuz I and I don't remember. I was trying to
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put it all together, and that was what I was coming up with. Rusty told Melody that now he wasn't entirely sure because
00:15:02
he had a few drinks of Crown Royal that night and had taken some Advil PM. I was just kind of in and out, so
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Did you ever tell them that you had had drinks and Yeah. Advil PM? Okay. That detail seemed important to Melody,
00:15:20
that Rusty made it known to police that he had been drinking and may have been under the influence of medication during
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that late-night chat. Don't give them any more information than, you know, um, of course they're not going to be
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talking to me. Rusty responded, Yes. I just I don't know what to say or not to say, you know, if we get
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if we both get locked up. You don't say anything. You say nothing. Melody and Rusty talked for nearly an
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hour before finally saying goodbye. Okay. Okay. I love you. I love you. Their phone calls continued in the
00:16:08
following days. >> [music] >> Detective Hayes told me that Rusty agreed to keep recording, but then
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learned something rather startling. Unfortunately, within the first few phone calls,
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um, we learned Rusty told her that we were trying to record her phone calls. Um,
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so we didn't believe what we were hearing to be real >> [music] >> as far as genuine. We thought that some
00:16:31
of it was staged because we know Rusty told her we were trying to record her. So, what we just heard from Melody, was
00:16:38
that all an act? A means of throwing detectives off her scent? Whatever the case, authorities still
00:16:45
thought Melody was the killer. But until the autopsy report provided a positive ID that [music] Gary Ferris was
00:16:54
the murder victim, all detectives could do was wait. We have verbal confirmation, we didn't
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have any documentation [music] yet. There have been times in the past where sometimes
00:17:05
the verbal confirmation and the written confirmation don't, um, match. And in this case,
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[music] that meant waiting for almost a year. The Ferris [music] family was a family
00:17:30
divided. As they waited for the official investigation to conclude, [music] the brothers and sisters had made their
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own conclusions >> [music] >> about their mother's potential involvement. Here's Detective Daniel
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Hayes. Emily, um, >> [music] >> Scott and Chris, they believed their mother had something to do with it. She
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either did it or she had it done. >> [music] >> Um, Amanda did not. Amanda sided with
00:17:53
her mother and basically defended [music] her. Scott and Chris had even gone down to
00:17:59
the sheriff's office and shared additional information [music] that implicated their mother,
00:18:05
offering financial motives, revealed her [music] affairs, and disclosed that she
00:18:10
might have even tried to poison [music] their father. Yet for the next several months, Scott
00:18:16
continued to live on the same property as his mother. Did you ever have a conversation with
00:18:24
her that said, "You know, this looks bad for you. I think you were involved in this." Did you ever say anything like
00:18:29
that to your mom? No, not directly towards her. So, she's, you know, she was kind of like bipolar in a way.
00:18:41
She'd be nice one minute, and then she'll be your worst enemy the next. Scott told me that he stayed as far away
00:18:49
from his mother as possible while still living on the farm, and attempted to make what money he
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could now that his provider was gone. Cherokee County froze all accounts. Mom's, my dad's,
00:19:06
my sister's, they froze them all. So, we had no access to money whatsoever. So, I would go and find work, you know,
00:19:14
under the table type pay work. Um, That's because in a homicide, they don't want a potential killer to benefit
00:19:23
financially from that, so they freeze the assets until the case is adjudicated. >> Yeah. Scott said that Melody made living
00:19:30
on the farm extremely difficult after Gary's murder. After all this started, I would be up at the barn working or
00:19:39
something, she would come up and just start screaming at me and threatening me and stuff.
00:19:45
>> About what? Oh, about, you know, I should be giving her the money that I'm making. So, you
00:19:52
would argue? She would try to argue. Over the course of several months, the sheriff's
00:19:58
department got multiple calls from the farm. For the police to come out to the house. What was the nature of these
00:20:04
calls though, do you know? Um you know, Melody made allegations that Scott was threatening her. Uh
00:20:11
um things on those lines. Melody had told the sheriff's office that Scott didn't want her near the barn
00:20:18
or his stuff. Now, Scott called 911 on you apparently six different times. What was that about?
00:20:29
The I know two of them. I'm not sure about the others. Uh one was that I had stolen my own trailer.
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It was a trailer that we had on the property that we used. In one incident report, Melody claimed
00:20:45
that Scott told her, quote, "You need to leave or I will make sure the same thing that happened to my daddy
00:20:52
will happen to you." But for Scott, Melody was the one harassing him. He even turned to Detective Hayes for
00:21:01
some advice. Well, I called Detective Hayes and I'm like, "Look, she keeps doing all this stuff.
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And how can I protect myself? Because I know it didn't look good on any of us because they're investigating all of
00:21:19
us." According to Scott, Detective Hayes suggested he start using the voice memo
00:21:25
app on his cell phone to record his mother. So, that's what I started doing. And I had
00:21:33
a lot of recordings of her harassing me. Scott discovered that someone [music] had broken into his apartment on the top
00:21:44
floor of the family's barn. The lights were on. He saw a drawer in the kitchen [music] and drawers in his
00:21:51
bedroom had been left open. The place looked ransacked and he called the police. [music]
00:21:57
The sheriff's office checked the place, but nothing was missing and they couldn't prove who did it.
00:22:04
That was April 2019. [music] At this point in the investigation, Melody had lawyered up and had stopped
00:22:12
[music] cooperating with detectives. But she was already their number one suspect.
00:22:18
While everyone awaited the autopsy, detectives spent [music] their time combing through data
00:22:25
and conducting various ballistic tests to see if Melody should have been able to hear a gunshot inside the house.
00:22:34
Finally, after 11 months, >> [music] >> the autopsy report was released. It confirmed the remains [music] in the
00:22:42
burn pile were Gary Ferris. Six days later, the sheriff's office made [music] their move.
00:22:50
Melody was in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where Rusty lived. She learned deputies were looking for her. So, we had to have
00:22:59
Rusty drive Melody to us at the uh police uh department up there. On June 18th, 2019, Melody turned herself
00:23:08
in. Melody [music] was charged with murder, concealing the death of another, false
00:23:15
statements, and aggravated assault. Do you believe that Rusty could have been [music]
00:23:21
a motive for her killing her husband? I absolutely do. Uh she obviously wanted a life with Rusty.
00:23:28
They needed Gary's money and the only thing in between Gary's money and Rusty and Melody was
00:23:33
Gary Ferris. [music] Shortly after arresting Melody, Detective Hayes decided it was worth
00:23:39
talking to Rusty again. [music] So, we went back up to interview him and that's when he told us. He was like, "Oh, by
00:23:44
the way, I was I was wrong." Rusty was about to flip again. This time on detectives and dramatically change
00:23:53
his story. Was it out of love or self-preservation? From 48 Hours, this [music] is Blood Is
00:24:08
Thicker, the Ferris Wheel produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Van Sant.
00:24:17
Judy Tygard is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Original reporting [music] by 48 Hours producers Betsy Schuler,
00:24:26
Ryan Smith, and Hannah Vere. Jamie Benson is the [music] senior producer for CBS News podcasts and Mara
00:24:35
Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance [music] from Allan Pang and Alana Myers.
00:24:44
Special thanks [music] to CBS News podcast vice president Megan Marcus. Blood Is Thicker [music] was written and
00:24:53
produced by Alex Schumann. Stephanie Serrano [music] is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris.
00:25:02
Our associate producer [music] is Zoe Kalikin. Theme and original music composed by
00:25:09
Hansdale She. Cedric Wilson [music] is our sound designer and mixed the episodes.
00:25:17
We also use music [music] from Epidemic Sounds. Fendel Fulton is our fact checker.
00:25:24
Our production [music] manager is Tamika Balanc Kolasny. If you're enjoying the show, [music]
00:25:31
be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting.
00:25:38
Thanks for [music] listening.