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after texting you J I know you know today we're discussing a case where when it went to trial prosecutors told
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the jury this is going to be the craziest thing you will ever hear in your life and after digging into this
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case I think that is an understatement so buckle up I'm Olivia Lavo the Creator and host of the case File presents
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Bakersfield 3 podcast Casey and I have hand selected some of case File most memorable cases to be featured here
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where you'll have a visual Guide to the story today we're diving into case 180 Bill Payne and Billy Jean Hayworth
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welcome to Mountain City a friendly Hometown that's the greeting you see on a large sign when you enter the tiny
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Tennessee town where most residents own a pickup truck and a gun and are very friendly with their neighbors it was an
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early dreary morning on January 31st 20 12 when a local man named Brad made his usual commute to pick up his friend and
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coworker 36-year-old Bill pain but Bill wasn't waiting outside like usual and wasn't picking up his phone or opening
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the door so Brad let himself in where he could immediately hear an alarm clock going off and what sounded like a baby
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whimpering Brad called out for Bill and was met with silence so he figured bill must have already left for work and he
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didn't want to disturb Bill's fiance Billy Jean so he quietly left a few hours later a neighbor arrived at the
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home to collect some mail of his that was waiting at the house he let himself in and called out to Bill and Billy Jean
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after getting no response he walked down the hallway and noticed what looked like
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blood as he pushed open the door to the bedroom that bill Payne shared with Billy Jean he was met with a horrific
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sight lying in bed was Bill Payne's bloody body his face was clearly badly beaten and his throat had been slashed
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the neighbor ran outside and called out to his wife who was waiting in the car for him the couple went back into the
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home and what was found in the next bedroom was even more horrific 23-year-old Billy Jean Hayworth
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was lying in a pool of blood in her infant son's Nursery it appeared she died cradling her baby boy who was still
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lying in her arms asleep his little onesie was caked in his mother's blood I'm due with my first baby soon and this
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part of the story just really makes you wonder who could possibly do that in front of the baby and leaving the baby
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there in his Dead Mother's arms anyhow both Bill and Billy Jean had been shot in the head in addition to Bill's
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neck being slashed evidence suggested the couple had been attacked either while still asleep or shortly after
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waking up as detectives began looking into the couple's life they discovered that bill and Billy Jean had met a few
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years earlier at a textile plant where they both worked they fell for each other fast and hard and a couple years
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into their relationship they were thrilled to find out they were expecting a baby but not everyone was happy for
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the expecting parents after posting about their pregnancy nasty Anonymous comments about the pair started to
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surface on a popular local online platform known as the Mountain City topics forum several people were
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observed writing nasty comments including one directed towards the family that read [ __ ] them I hope they
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die die die and that baby and Bill there were also a slew of derogatory comments
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directed towards Billy Jean and two of her girlfriends calling them vile names and accusing them of being drug users
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who were promiscuous and other perceived indiscretions so to speak in addition to
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these nasty online comments detectives also heard from people about Bill Payne's cousin a man named Jamie kurd
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Jamie and Bill were a year apart in age and they worked together at the plant Jamie struggled with a stutter and had
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never had a girlfriend people said he was one to just blend in in the background Jamie's name had been brought
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up specifically because people told investigators that the two cousins had recently had a pretty bad falling out
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Jamie was asked to take a polygraph test and failed and detectives then asked him
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if he was capable of shooting a woman who was begging for her life with her baby in her arms after testing you Jamie
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I know you know who kill those baby how tell us the truth who sh he who who had the
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gun the man Jamie was referring to was Marvin Potter Jr who friends called buddy buddy lived in Mountain City with
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his wife and their adult daughter Janelle The Potters had a reputation for being odd so to speak buddy would talk
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people's ears off about his time fighting in Vietnam before then going on to serve in the CIA he would gush about
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all the awards he'd received including a Purple Heart Jamie Kurt and Buddy Potter
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became acquainted after buddy had some computer issues and jimie offered to help fix them after Jamie had spent some
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time at the potter house here and there he started to develop a friendship with the Potter's adult daughter Janelle a
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short time later buddy and his wife Barbara discovered their daughter Janelle was in possession of a prepaid
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phone that they had not purchased for her Janelle was 27 but due to a range of intellectual disability
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she possessed the IQ of a fourth grader Janelle was completely dependent on her parents and unable to hold a job or
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drive a car The Potters were not happy when they realized that this phone had come from Jamie kurd so he had a way of
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secretly communicating with their daughter The Potters told jimie to back off anyhow back to the police interview
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now after Jamie kurd brought up buddy Potter being the shooter he then asked investigators is the CIA here is the CIA
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here CIA oh no he explained he thought that they might be involved considering Buddy's past working for them he also
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told investigators that he only participated in the double murder because he was afraid of Buddy and
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thought he had no choice Jamie was asked to call Buddy and ask him questions that
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would be incriminating when Jamie told buddy that investigators were poking around buddy replied oh Jiminy
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Christmas budy told Jamie there was no reason for anyone to suspect him because the murders looked like a drug deal gone
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bad you got rid of everything from day okay I make up there as instructed by the cops Jamie
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asked you got rid of everything that was bills right uhhuh was Buddy's response it wasn't quite a confession but it was
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enough police descended on the Potter residence and arrested buddy while in the home investigators heard a ripping
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sound and noticed Buddy's wife Barbara had torn up a stack of papers a behavior that of course was immediately
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suspicious the documents were printed out emails that included handed photos of Billy Jean and her girlfriends that
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had been talked about on that online Forum the emails had subject lines like Billy [ __ ] detectives then found three
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large garbage bags filled with shredded paper in buddy's truck now it turns out before Jamie kurd ever mentioned buddy
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Potter as the shooter the Potter name had already come up in the investigation to the point where one of the
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investigators had already been to the Potter home to question them apparently the Potters had conflict with numerous
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residents in Mountain City but especially Bill and Billy Jean the feud started online but escalated to an
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inperson dispute with Buddy admitting that he had confronted Bill Payne at his home in the past though he adamantly
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denied being the one who killed him and Billy Jean according to town gossip shortly after The Potter's moved to
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Mountain City Janelle Potter had become acquaintances with Bill Payne and his fiance Billy Jean Hayworth and had added
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them on Facebook after bombarding Bill Billy Jean and several other friends with constant messages the couple
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decided that the best course of action was to unfriend Janelle on the social media platform apparently this caused a
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huge Rift between Janelle and other members of the social Circle and it escalated to serious conflict both
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online and in person with different friends taking sides as the dispute continued things started to get quite
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nasty which is where those messages I mentioned earlier began Janelle's profile was apparently hacked and fake
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profiles started popping up using Janelle's photo The Potters believed it was Billy Jean and a couple of her
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girlfriends behind the harassment though they suspected Bill Payne was also probably involved now after arresting
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buddy Potter police asked him if he was a cold-hearted killer or just his family's protector buddy responded I'm a
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protector of my family to start with but I did not do this as the hours wore on buddy became emotional and broke down
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about how bad things had gotten between his family and Bill Payne and Billy Jean
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ever since all this crap started I've been I've had my life threatened my wife has been threatened
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they've threatened to take now cut her head off when you hear people plotting to take your catch your
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daughter in a restroom and murder her they wanted to rape her because she's a virgin
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and just so much Buddy started to sob and asked if he could call his wife Barbara yeah
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before you find out from somebody else I want you to know I was involved in it I
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did it some of it but Barbara Potter did not sound shocked instead she calmly responded to her husband that he could
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not be the killer because he was at home with her at the time of the murders detectives weren't sure what to make of
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it was this a loving wife trying to provide an alibi for her husband or was Buddy Potter innocent both buddy Potter
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and Jaimie kurd were charged with first-degree murder but the investigation took a hit when Jaimie
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suddenly recanted his confession nonetheless detectives remained certain that jimie and buddy had carried out the
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murders and worked quickly on Gathering evidence to prove it one agent was tasked with literally piecing together
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the shredded paper in the garbage bags found in buddy's truck literally piecing it together Shred by Shred the agent did
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an astonishing job she managed to reconstruct around 100 pages that provided to be both enlightening and
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confounding two weeks before the murders Barbara Potter had emailed herself two links one can God forgive a murderer and
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questions about forgiveness and murder which certainly did not look good but most of the printed out paper were email
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correspondence between buddy Potter's wife Barbara and a mysterious man named Chris now this is where it gets real
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interesting Barbara referred to Chris as son and signed messages to him as Mom in
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turn he ended his emails with I love you all your son Chris but the police were not aware of The Potters having a son
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most of Barbara and Chris's conversations were about the harassment that her family was dealing with and
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their Mutual hatred for Bill Payne Billy Jean Hayworth and Billy Jean's girlfriends Barbara and Chris were
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particularly worried for how this was all affecting Janelle whom Chris referred to as his little sister now
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investigators knew they had to figure out who this Chris person was that Barbara was messaging constantly despite
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referring to each other as mom and son it seemed that Chris and Barbara had only actually been in contact for about
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a year it began with an email that Chris sent to Barbara where he revealed he had
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been on the Mountain City topics forum and had seen the distain towards the potters and Chris said he wanted to help
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end the conflict but things only escalated from there one day Janelle showed her mother an email that she had
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supposedly received from one of Billy Jean's friends it read quote your ass is mine you're a [ __ ] [ __ ] remember
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that I can get you and will your daddy can't do [ __ ] to me I'm above the law dumb [ __ ] [ __ ] wow following this
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The Potters became regular visitors to the local police station where they filed numerous complaints about those
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targeting Janelle police were also called to The Potter's home after a rock had been thrown through the house and it
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apparently had Billy Payne written on one side and Billy Jean written on the other The Potters felt the police did
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not take the feud seriously and really nothing was done when Barbara expressed her frustrations to Chris through email
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he promised Barbara that if anyone harmed Janelle that he would quote do what he was trained to do now we it was
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clear from the pair's discussions that Chris worked for the CIA and through this had connections to Buddy Potter
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Chris mentioned shooting people in the line of duty and said I knew it was us or them so I had to kill but I love to
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shoot now and killing does not bother me at all Chris expressed a desire to kill
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the Mountain City residence that had caused the Potter so much grief but there was always a reason he had as to
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why he couldn't carry out the slayings himself instead he would tell Barbara that if her husband buddy took matters
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into his own hands he would be fine because the CIA would protect buddy and Barbara appeared to agree this was a
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fine plan and told Chris that while buddy was a patient man he had been pushed too far for too long and was fed
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up since buddy apparently didn't ever use a computer and I guess didn't know how to Barbara would print out emails
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from Chris and give them to Buddy to read and then Shred the paper afterwards hence why there was all those shred up
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emails now the emails were baffling to investigators because they were confident that whoever this Chris person
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was he was not a real CIA agent so who was he on Janelle Potter's Myspace page she wrote about Chris and how he was
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like a brother to her she said that he lived in Pennsylvania with his wife where he worked as a cop and then
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investigators found saved photos of Chris on The Potter's computer that had a last name attached Chris Jaden was
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very much a real person and he did have law enforcement experience but not in the CIA my name is Christopher
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Jaden she was uh you know one of those kids that she's very strange and when detectives reached out to him and asked
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him about his relationship with Janelle Potter he told them that he did go to high school with her and remembered her
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as being someone who often threw tantrums and had a lot of issues with classmates they were not friends and
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Chris certainly had never viewed her like a sister furthermore he had not had any interaction with her since
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graduating high school 12 years prior and he had never met anyone in her family he told investigators he hadn't
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even accepted a Facebook friend request that Janelle had sent him so why in the world was Barbara Potter referring to
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him as a son whoever Barbara Potter had been emailing it was pretty clear that it was not the real Chris Jaden so who
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was it based on the email address that this Chris character had been sending messages from
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investigators had a prettyy good idea now remember Janelle Potter supposedly had an IQ of 72 which is approximately
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equivalent to that of a fourth grader at 27 she was still living with her parents
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didn't have a job or really any Independence so she sought soless on the internet she struggled to build
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friendships face to face and people often felt that Janelle lacked social awareness and acted like knew them
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really well when she didn't at all after being unfriended on Facebook by Bill and
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Billy Jean Janelle was hurt by this and started venting about being dumped by her new friends on the Mountain City
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topics forum and while she gained sympathy from some a lot of people around town knew that her version of
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events was not totally accurate but Janelle maintained she was the victim and showed her parents messages that she
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said were being sent to her such as one that read quote bill is going to kill you he has said that and I hope he does
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none of us want you around nor living you're a waste of air and time for everyone you are
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nothing now when the cops spoke with Bill Billy Jean and her friends about these messages they adamant denied
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sending anything like this and said they just wanted Janelle to leave them alone Billy Jean and her two
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close friends named Lindsay and Tara were both getting in excess of 20 calls a day from The Potter's home phone
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number and when they would pick up they would either hear just breathing on the other end or Janelle would just start
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screaming when The Potters reported a rock being thrown through their window with Bill and Billy Jean's names on it
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police were highly skeptical that if the pair were going to do that that they would write their names literally on the
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evidence and to law enforcement it seems that it was actually The Potters escalating things including a
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confrontation when Barbara and Janel pulled up to Billy Jean at a gas station and screamed at her that she was white
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trash and didn't deserve to be a mother Billy Jean reportedly told onlookers that the mother and daughter Duo
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followed her around constantly and we always making horrible comments like that to her around this time buddy
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Potter Janelle's dad was at a local grocery store where he supposedly told an employee that if he was given the
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chance he was going to put a bullet through Bill Payne's head all the while as the feud went on Barbara Potter was
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messaging with Chris about the issues the family was dealing with despite having never met him it was clear from
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from their correspondents that Barbara was very trusting of whatever Chris said however when investigators were trying
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to establish who Chris actually was they discovered that all of the emails from Chris were coming from one person's
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email address Janelle Potters yet Barbara continued to believe whatever Chris was telling her in
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including his explanation as to why his emails were coming from her daughter Janelle's email
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account so think about this Chris told her that his emails had to come through Janelle's email account in order to
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protect his CIA credentials and to Barbara that seemed perfectly reasonable now during this intense social media
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Feud Janelle was was spending a lot of time using the family computer and when there was an issue with the computer
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remember it was Jamie kurd who was called to come and assist with fixing it Barbara and Buddy Potter were clear with
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Jamie that they wanted him to stay away from their daughter Janelle but despite this the two had developed a
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relationship you might also remember that The Potters had discovered that Jamie had given Janelle a prepaid phone
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so the two of them could secretly talk which they were Furious about well it turns out that it was Janelle's idea to
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keep their relationship a secret not Jamie's Janelle made it clear that she didn't want her parents to know about
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him and jimie who had never had a girlfriend before was fine to do really whatever she wanted slowly but surely
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The Potters did end up accepting Jaimie more and more and inviting him over for dinner though apparently they still
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didn't approve of him as a potential Suitor for Janelle who knows regardless he was
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determined to stay in their good graces probably hoping that they would eventually be okay with him dating their
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daughter and so when The Potters showed Jaimie the messages that Janelle had apparently been sent he was horrified
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and immediately took their side essentially ending his once close relationship with his Cousin Bill Payne
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but that wasn't quite good enough for Barbara Potter she started asking jimie questions like what was he going to do
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to protect Janelle from these threats shortly after this Jamie also began receiving emails from the mysterious
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Chris Chris told Jamie that he was concerned that Janelle would soon have to be hospitalized due to stress and
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worried that she was suicidal and then Chris told Jamie that his life Jim's life was also in danger Chris said that
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he had gotten Intel from the CIA that apparently Billy Jean was urging Billy Payne to kill Jamie kurd because he had
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taken the Potter's side in their Feud and like Barbara Jamie also wasn't suspicious at all of the fact that
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Chris's emails were coming from Janelle's email account meanwhile Bill Payne was
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incredibly sick of the drama and had tried to smooth things over with the Potters numerous times and tell them
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that Janelle was lying to them about these supposed threats that she said that his fiance and his friends sent her
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he even gave buddy a massive folder of documents that he said would prove it was Janelle who was the aggressor in the
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feud with Billy Jean and her friends he told buddy no one had hacked Janelle's account and there certainly was not a
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bounty on the Potter family Bill even suggested that all of these Anonymous towns folks commenting about the feud
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between Janelle and Billy Jean on the town's online Forum were really all Janelle just trying to drum up more
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drama but the Potters believed their daughter and evidently along with with Chris and Jamie came to the conclusion
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that the only way to put an end to Janelle's torment was to end the lives of Bill and Billy Jean on a cold January
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night in 2012 Barbara Potter called Jamie over to the house for computer help but when he got there buddy greeted
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him and asked him for a favor he said he needed a ride to Jaime's cousins Bill Payne's house early in the morning he
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agreed and after jimie left the Potter home Janelle texted him to not bring his cell phone with him in the morning and
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then the plan was in motion Jamie drove buddy to Bill Payne's home where buddy then handed Jamie a gun and told him to
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guard the front door while buddy went inside Jamie heard gunshots and watched Billy Jean run from the bedroom to her
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son's nursery and then more gunshots followed it's so horrible she definitely ran in the nursery to try to protect the
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baby Jamie told police that he ran from the house and began vomiting and shortly
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after received a text from The Potter's family friend agent Chris that said the problem was over now armed with this
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testimony from jimie kurd investigators had the evidence they needed to charge Barbara and Janelle Potter as well with
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first-degree murder and conspiracy and despite Janelle reportedly having a childlike IQ detectives believed that
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she was The Mastermind behind all of it when police interviewed Jamie kurd buddy
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and Barbara Potter it was apparent that they genuinely believed Chris was real and they never once suspected that Chris
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was really just Janelle Janelle had successfully catfished her own parents and boyfriend for well over a year and
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she did so pretty flawlessly with her main target being her mother Barbara knowing that her mom would talk her
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father and ultimately her boyfriend Jamie into carrying out the double murder Chris AKA Janelle was also the
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one who repeatedly told the potters and Jamie that bill and Billy Jean wanted to
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kill Janette and they believed it and what was remarkable to investigators was Janelle
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never actually had to ask her parents or her boyfriend to kill for her as herself
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Janelle had only asked that through her madeup online Persona of Chris and as they kept digging detectives discovered
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that bill Payne had been right those horrific threats made against Chanelle were created by none other than Janelle
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herself all of those comments weighing in on the feud on the Mountain City online Forum they had all been made by
00:29:09
accounts created by Janelle for someone who supposedly had the IQ of a fourth grader she had orchestrated what was a
00:29:20
very intricate web of deat where she painted herself as quite the sympathetic victim now buddy Potter was the first
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defendant to be charged for the double murder of Bill and Billy Jean during which prosecutors exposed that buddy was
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never in the CIA or even in the military like his daughter he was an amazing liar
00:29:42
and had convinced his wife Barbara and Janelle his daughter of this completely madeup career that he never actually had
00:29:52
Budd he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison and Jamie kurd who remembered was Bill Payne's own cousin
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he took a plea deal as part of his cooperation with police for his role in the murder and was sentenced to just 7
00:30:10
and A2 years in prison before being eligible for parole of which he was granted in April
00:30:18
2024 now when it came to try Janelle and Barbara Potter the prosecutors opened the trial by telling jurors quote there
00:30:26
is nothing in your lives or background that has prepared you to understand the Potter family you have never seen anyone
00:30:36
like them Janelle's defense attorney definitely hit hard on her low IQ suggesting it just wasn't possible for
00:30:43
someone like her to concoct such an intricate scheme in an A&E documentary about the case Janelle's attorney said
00:30:52
quote she doesn't have the mental capacity to have orchestrated these crimes I've defended criminal
00:30:58
masterminds and this is not a criminal mastermind the defense attorney also called a psychologist as a witness for
00:31:07
Janelle's defense who testified that Janelle was essentially operating as a child though in response to this the
00:31:15
prosecutor asked the psychologist well can a 9-year-old be manipulative to which the psychologist replied well of
00:31:23
course 9-year-olds manipulate their parents all the time perhaps the most insightful witness during Janelle's
00:31:30
trial was her estranged older sister christe Christy talked about how Janelle's social issues during their
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childhood dominated most of her parents attention Christy also said that Janelle
00:31:43
would make up health issues and claimed that Janelle had once lied about having cancer she also gave little examples of
00:31:51
Janelle's Behavior saying how at school Janelle would pretend to collapse in the
00:31:56
hallway and would just lay there until someone would notice and make a fuss over her and as it pertained to her
00:32:03
social issues apparently in Middle School Janelle had conflict with another girl in her class that ended up in court
00:32:12
really wish we knew more about that it's wild anyhow over time Christine said she
00:32:18
came to believe that her sister's disabilities weren't actually nearly as bad as everyone around her said they
00:32:25
were and she felt that Janelle was very good at manipulating others particularly
00:32:32
her parents ultimately both Barbara and Janelle Potter were found guilty on all charges and each given two life
00:32:41
sentences Bill Payne's mother told the media we are still hurting and we will always be hurting she also had a comment
00:32:49
for Barbara Potter referring to one of the emails that had been read out loud in court whater youing to know you're
00:32:57
going to H yeah you're going to hell and if I have to forgive any of viance Stay
00:33:02
Out of Hell I'll see you there shortly after the trial 2020 covered the case and titled the episode
00:33:10
unfriended both Barbara and Janelle who were serving their sentences in the same
00:33:15
prison were interviewed on camera and they continued to deny any involvement in the murders Barbara said that Jamie
00:33:22
kurd had authored all those damning emails using her name okay that's a new Theory now agent Scott
00:33:32
lot an investigator who worked relentlessly on the case was also interviewed and he said he did not
00:33:39
believe that these murders occurred because Janelle was unfriended on Facebook by Billy Jean and her friends
00:33:46
he believed that the true motive was one as old as time jealousy he and other law
00:33:55
enforcement believed that Janelle Potter had an allc consuming crush on Bill Payne and was Furious that it hadn't
00:34:03
been reciprocated the agent told 2020 it wasn't defriending on Facebook it was a
00:34:10
jealousy issue and someone with too much time on their hands I truly don't know that I have heard of a case with this
00:34:17
many layers of Deceit where in the end you have two murders that are so so senseless so pointless two new parents
00:34:27
who were killed for what it's unreal I know I always say this but this is one that I would really love to hear
00:34:36
your comments about until next time thank you for watching