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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. And I looked and I could see my mom laying on the floor.
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I pushed the door open and I went to check her to see. She was dead. And I turned and I saw my father.
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There was blood everywhere. This is Season 13, Episode 355 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
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Riverview, Florida is a quiet suburb outside of Tampa that's built around routine.
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Workdays, church services, and family businesses that have been passed down for decades.
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But in November of 2015, that routine was broken. Inside an interview room at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, homicide detectives spoke with a middle-aged woman named Michelle Best.
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Derek and I get up at regular time every morning. We were sitting there having coffee.
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We're just a few minutes away from getting up to start getting ready for work. And I just picked up my cell phone to look at the time.
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it was ringing in and when i answered it he was crying and said you need to get over to mom and
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dad's now and i said what happened he says you need to go here now and we live right across the
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street so put some extra clothes on and i walked over michelle told detectives that on the morning
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of november 12th she received a frantic phone call from her oldest brother robert he told her to hurry
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to her parents' house, a house that sat just across the street from her own. Their parents were 69-year-old Shirley Best and 70-year-old Virgil Best.
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They've been married 40, 45 years. Okay. Other than normal marital differences, any marital issues?
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Nope. Did they grow up here in the Tampa Bay area? My father grew up very poor in Manatee County.
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Okay. Like in the parish area. And then my mom grew up here in Gibson, actually.
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Her father was a fish farmer for 30-some-odd years. So she's been in fish farming her whole life.
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Shirley and Virgil owned and operated Quality Finns Fish Farm, a family business that ran across the five acres of land between their home.
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They have fish ponds out here, and they raise and sell fish. So this that I'm looking at in front of me, that's all his property?
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Yes, all of that. It runs deep, way back there into the width and length. Okay. Virgil handled most of the day-to-day labor on the fish farm,
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and he also employed his 21-year-old grandson to keep it running. Him and Ani, my grandma, I call them Papa and Ani.
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They own the fish farm, and Papa is normally out there working on it, and Ani is counting up fish and helping them with it, but Papa does most of the work.
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So I work with him. Shirley and Virgil were also devout Christians who were heavily involved in their local church.
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They attended services every Wednesday and Sunday, and Shirley sang in the church choir.
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They're big in the church. They go to Gibson to end Baptist. She's in the choir. They're always involved in the church.
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They have been for the last couple years. Okay. Did you see them coming and going last night to church?
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No, because we were in the house. Okay. Alongside their faith, Shirley and Virgil were also firm supporters of the Second Amendment.
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They were comfortable with firearms, and guns were common in their home. Tell me about their guns.
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Papa always has guns near him. He has a gun on his nightstand, and I'm pretty sure he has a gun not on his hip, but in the couch.
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Where does she keep her gun? she i think she just bought a gun um a brand new one and she keeps it in her purse
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or does she keep it in the house you know as soon as you walk in as soon as you walk into your left
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there's like bibles sitting there and it's right next to the bible those are people that
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practically sit with guns in their laps why what happened something happened in the past
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No, they're just really country. They are very old-time believe in the Second Amendment people.
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While they had deep ties to their church and strong beliefs about guns, nothing mattered more to Virgil and Shirley than their three children, Robert, Todd, and Michelle.
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Todd and Michelle lived close by, so close that all of their properties were connected.
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My sister, myself, and my parents' backyard come together. Okay. Go around the corner is my sister and then me.
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Okay. So all of our backyards. Okay. Yeah. So when you leave the house, do you see their house?
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Every morning. Every morning. Every morning. So I want you to think about this morning.
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Was there anything this morning? Yes. Why I left my house like I always do same time I always look at their house I just always look at the house I noticed the living room light on
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The living room light was on. I thought I was on because they always turn the lights off when they go to bed.
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And this was on. And my first thought was, okay, well, maybe they just couldn't sleep.
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And they both got up early for some reason. I didn't think too much of it at that time.
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I still didn't. until my sister called me this morning. Virgil and Shirley were also close to their children's spouses,
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especially Michelle's husband, Derek. Any issues going on? Oh, God, no. Love that man.
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I would do anything for him and vice versa. We just worked on my Jeep about three weeks ago, and he helped me.
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We do Jeep events together. We have no problems. Okay. And what about their relationship as a husband or wife?
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Any issues there? No, they loved him so much. She loved him. She adored him. The only one of Shirley and Virgil's children who didn't live right next to them
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was their oldest son, 49-year-old Robert Best. Even so, he did live nearby, just about 10 minutes away.
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My parents are very private. There's not too many people that go over there. They're very security conscious. They're constitutionalists, you know,
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students there, preppers. Any marital issues between them? I don't believe so. They seem very happy to me.
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As Shirley and Virgil looked ahead to life in their 70s, they started talking with their children about selling the fish farm and finally retiring.
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Their finances were fine. I mean, the farm has been slow. They've been talking the next couple years of retiring.
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selling the farm. Both of your parents sounded very busy. They worked very hard.
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Yeah. They worked very hard their whole life. They're very hard workers their entire life.
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They busted their butt. Nothing like good people. Do they have any enemies that you're aware of?
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No. My parents were very involved in church. Everyone loved them. According to their children,
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grandchildren, in-laws, and friends, Virgil and Shirley were kind, well-liked people,
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with no known enemies. Don't we hear that a lot? To your knowledge, anybody had issues with?
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No, sir. Not to my knowledge at all. Neighbors? No. They're the sweetest damn people in the world.
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Sweetest people in the world. They'd do anything for anybody. I could sit here all day long and go on about how great they are.
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And was loved by everybody. Absolutely everybody, especially family, friends, neighbors, churchgoers.
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On the morning of November 12, 2015, Michelle Best was called to her parents' house by her older brother Robert.
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Not long after that call, deputies arrived at the property and Michelle and her husband were left to deliver devastating news to Virgil and Shirley's grandson.
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Then I see Mom and Derek start walking over here and, you know, they can barely speak.
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I mean, they're flabbergasted, and I say, what's going on? And Derek says, nothing, buddy, just you're not going to school today.
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And then right after he says that, Mom says, Papa and Annie have been shot. And I say, oh, my God.
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And then Mom said, I got to get back over there. So we all just got up and went over there.
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That morning, the bodies of Virgil and Shirley were reportedly discovered by their oldest son, Robert,
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who was quickly questioned by a detective at the scene. What I'd like you to do is just kind of tell me, walk me through this morning and what we got going on here.
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My parents had asked us yesterday if we could stop by this morning on our way into court.
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I have a court hearing today and they wanted to pray with us. So my wife and I came over.
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I got here. I saw that they were up. The lights were on and everything. I went around back because we always use the back door.
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and when I went to knock on the door, I noticed that it was just open a little bit
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and I could see through the curtains a little bit and I saw my mom laying on the floor.
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I opened the door and went to check on her and I saw there was blood. I wanted to take her pulse, but there was so much blood
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and I could tell she was dead. And I turned around and I saw my father laying on the floor too.
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I left and I called you guys. Robert explained that after finding his parents dead
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on their living room floor, he quickly went outside, spoke briefly with his wife, called his sister, and then dialed 911.
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Door is open. Do you want to call EMS? No, I checked them. Okay. Where are they in the house?
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The living room. During the 911 call and his interview with detectives, Robert described the scene as bloody.
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It was. Virgil and Shirley Best had been gunned down in their living room. and detectives quickly determined they were dealing with a double homicide.
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When the work on this case started, the detectives did what they always do. They looked at the people closest to the victims.
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In this case, they didn't have to look very far. The question wasn whether the killer was close to Virgil and Shirley Best It was which one of their children had committed this horrific crime
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By the morning of November 12, 2015, two members of the Best family were dead, and homicide detectives were left trying to understand how a quiet home in Riverview, Florida, became a violent and bloody crime scene.
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The victims had reportedly been shot and found inside their living room by their oldest son, Robert.
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70-year-old Virgil Best and 69-year-old Shirley were found at 6.15 a.m. in their home by a family member who called 911.
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Crime scene techs arrived in droves to the five-acre property that contains a fish farm out back.
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The Best's own quality fins, a tropical fish business. Deputies will only use the police speak of upper body trauma to say how they died.
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We're going to keep it very general right now because we're still very early in the investigation.
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deputies are trying to figure out who last saw the couple alive and when for all the questions
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they say they don't believe the general public is in danger generally assigned they have at least a
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theory of what happened after arriving at the scene detectives quickly determined that virgil
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and shirley best had been shot to death virgil had been shot once in the head shirley had been shot
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twice in the head and neck. There was absolutely no doubt this was a double homicide. Naturally,
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the first person investigators wanted to speak with was the man who said he discovered the bodies,
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49-year-old Robert Best. Tell me how we kind of got here this morning. I have a court case in Polk County, and my parents had asked if we could stop over on our way
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this morning, and they wanted to pray with us. And I agreed. So I told them I'd be over there
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between 6, 6.30. And I got over there this morning, and I saw that they were up, or I thought that
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they were up because all the lights were on. When I knocked, I noticed the door was partially,
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you know, cracked open. And I looked, and I could see my mom laying on the floor.
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During this interview, Robert described finding the bodies and even touching them
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to confirm that both of his parents were dead. I pushed the door open and I went to check her to see.
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She was dead. There was blood everywhere. And I turned and I saw my father and I checked him and I just left.
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I walked back out and told my wife not to come in and hand me the phone. And we waited to the police officer to get there.
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I called my sister and told her to call my brother and get over there. Detectives also interviewed the rest of the immediate family, including the couple's middle child, Todd Best.
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This is nuts. This is crazy. What happened here? For this to happen to my parents?
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Something's not right here. Something's not right at all. Natural causes you can understand.
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heart attack. But this, I just know they did something like that. Detectives also spoke with
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Virgil and Shirley's grandson, whose account helped narrow the timeline of the murders.
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We were just talking about Ani sent a message to her hairdresser. I guess her hairdresser had
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some surgery, I don't know, but said, I'm glad you're doing okay at 745 last night.
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So she was on Facebook. How did you know that the hairdresser said that? Yes. At 7.45 p.m.?
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Yes. Shirley's last known contact was a Facebook message she sent around 8 p.m.,
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and her son Robert called 911 just before 6 a.m. the following morning. That gave detectives a window of roughly 10 hours in which the murders could have occurred.
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From there, investigators started narrowing that window even further. The living room light had been left on,
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Something family members said Virgil and Shirley never did before going to bed. They wouldn't answer the door, especially turn on a light to answer a door.
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They had... It happened before they got in bed. Yes, they have the light on, they're probably watching TV in the living room,
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and they always get the light on when they're watching TV. Detectives believe the murders most likely occurred between 8 p.m. and midnight.
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With that window in mind, they started asking a simple question. Where was everyone during that time?
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And then yesterday, I didn't go over there. They were on the farm. I didn't see mom up there.
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She was in the house putting up decorations. About what time was that? It was still daylight, so it was probably about 4, 4.30.
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Todd Best told detectives he had last seen his father earlier that day and stayed home for the rest of the night until leaving for work the following morning.
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He had no alibi, and no one could confirm that he hadn't left his house during the window when the murders occurred.
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Virgil and Shirley's daughter, Michelle, told investigators pretty much the same thing.
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Okay, did you go anywhere last night? No. We had dinner at home. Derek grilled out.
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We ate there and dinner and got showers, got cleaned up, sat on the couch. We were in the whole evening.
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Okay Did you see your mom and dad yesterday No Did you talk to him No As it goes from last night what time did you go to bed What do you say We probably retired to the bedroom a little early because we were tired
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I guess it was probably around 8.30, 8.45. Michelle explained that she, her husband, and their son went to bed fairly early that night.
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Her husband confirmed the same account. She came home. I grilled chicken. We made chicken alfredo, and that was it.
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spent the evening on the couch. Okay, so you were home while eating? Yes, sir. Yeah, we were both home while eating.
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Everyone in Michelle's household said they were home for the night. But realistically, any one of them could have slipped out without the
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others noticing. Just like with Todd Best, there were no airtight alibis for anyone. And
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this uncertainty naturally drew some attention to the grandson. You're pretty close to them. I work with them.
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The farm is my main source of income. Do you have a key to get in? Me personally, no, but Mom and Derek keep a key near the microwave in our house.
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While everyone in the family remained a potential suspect, one person stood out more than the rest.
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The oldest sibling, Robert Best. He found them on the floor in full blood. And I asked him, I said, was the door, was the door, you know, busted open?
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And he said, no, it was just kind of cracked open, just a little bit the back door.
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He said, I don't know what happened. I don't know. And then I guess he told the deputy that he had went in just to check them.
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Did he say he was by himself? No, his wife was with him. Did she walk in, I guess?
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Oh, no, I don't. I don't think so. He didn't say anything about Marisol. all. From the start, some family members felt there was something off about Robert, particularly
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the way he described finding the bodies and touching them. But it wasn't just that he
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was the one who discovered them. Robert also had a long criminal history. Ever since I
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was a teenager, he's always been in trouble. He spent about 11 or 12 years for conning.
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he's a con artist basically. Years ago he was into he stole a lot of stuff. He would be arrested for stealing
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from a baseball card shop I remember. Then he got into credit card fraud. Robert had spent much of his adult
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life committing fraud and conning people out of money. By the time of his parents death he had been convicted of 38
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felonies. My brother, he's involved in a lot of things. And he's a white collar crime guy. He,
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you know, he's been in prison. He, he walked into a Cadillac dealership. I was telling the
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detective about that. He portrayed that he was, was it his dad was a doctor and he's got money
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and he had a friend of him portray my dad as being that doctor and he ended up writing a check for $35,000 and driving out with a brand new Cadillac.
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Robert had spent years in prison for his various schemes. But his biggest con didn't happen on the outside.
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It happened while he was already behind bars. His big thing was while he was in jail for something,
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he had apparently conned a blind woman that lived out of state to send him, you know, all this money.
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It was like a million dollars or something. I don't know. And when he got out of jail that time, he come to the house fully suited and bought trucks and had a girlfriend already.
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And he bought my parents a car and he was spending all this money. This was probably 20, 19, 20 years ago because I have a 21 year old.
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And he was like two when all of this happened. Okay. While incarcerated, Robert managed to con a blind woman he had never met out of more than $1 million.
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After his release, he went on a spending spree, including buying expensive gifts for his parents.
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Within months, federal authorities came a-knocking, seizing the assets, and Robert was sent back to prison.
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And he went out buying all this stuff, bought her kids all kinds of toys and stuff, went and bought mom and dad a Lincoln, a brand new Lincoln town car.
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And like literally within a month or a couple weeks from what it was, the feds came in and took it.
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And he was hauled off back to prison. They got him with wire fraud. So he spent like 11 or 12 years, 10 or 11 years in federal prison.
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But like I said, you know, he spent his whole from 18 years old all the way up till then, in and out, in and out, in and out of jail.
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Of course, when detectives asked Robert about his million dollar scam, he played it down as best he could.
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No pun intended. My charges were money laundering for counts of, I think, wire fraud.
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And it was a woman that I was with and she was in love with me and she had a bunch of money and she sent me money all the time to start a business.
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And then I met somebody. She became psychotic. I mean, really, really psychotic.
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I met somebody. She found out about it. Did you give her her money back? I mean, since you didn't want to be with her?
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Well, the thing is, I bought a house. So it was things like that. For this fraud, Robert was sentenced to several years in prison.
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And when he got out, he seemed committed to living a law abiding life, at least for a while.
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And, you know, he got out a while back and got married and him and Marisol had two babies and had cleaned up his life.
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I mean, you know, they've always moved from one home. They've never stayed in one place more than a year.
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You know, he says he has a job. We love him because he's my brother. And, you know, they always come to the holidays and we always have birthday dinners and everything together.
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But my parents have always been guarded with him because of his past. Even though Robert had seemingly turned his life around, his parents were understandably hesitant to trust him again, as was the rest of his family.
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between you me and the recorder i wouldn't trust as far as i could throw it and i don't mean to
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throw anybody under the bus but i just don't know it okay you know and what i do know of him
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i wouldn't trust okay um i know he's an ex-con or felon whatever i know they had a dateline
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episode on this guy that's how good he is and i'm sorry i'm former marine so if i get blunt
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but it's fine i prefer blunt if it smells like shit and looks like shit it's probably shit
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was coming around with a brand, well, I say brand new. He had a Ford Platinum Edition pickup truck.
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Is that the black one that was parked in the house? Yes. Okay. This is a man that doesn't have a job that I know of per se.
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He apparently had just bought a Harley. I mean, he was kind of, I don't know, I won't say it was a joke,
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but we all in the family said it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time for he gets busted because he will, and it'll happen.
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But what does he do? He don't have a job. but he's always going out to expensive restaurants and buying this.
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And he's always up to date with the new computer gadgets and new cell phones and iPads and tablets.
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And we're all, how do you afford that? How can you, what do you do? And I know, I know my mom made a comment, your brother's back in it again.
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Back in what? He's doing something he's not supposed to be doing. I can know it. I can feel it.
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After several years of avoiding trouble with the law, it appeared that Robert was up to his old tricks.
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Somehow he was supporting himself, his wife and his two kids without a legitimate job.
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Do you know anything that he does? No, I have no clue. He says, this is what he tells the family, that he sells medical equipment like MRI machines overseas to China.
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Does he know anything? I mean, is he educated in medical devices? that you know of now.
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He knows about as much as medical as I know about being a brain surgeon. Talks, but I don't pay any attention
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because 99% of things come out of his mouth is not true. It's a lie. It makes you think it's true, but it's not.
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He's good at talking. Very good. And we always told him he could be such a good salesman
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and make tons of money the right way, the legal way. But he won't do it. Within the family, there was a quiet assumption that Robert's freedom was temporary.
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That sooner or later, he would end up back behind bars. Because of that, contact was limited.
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Outside of holidays and rare family gatherings, most of them kept their distance.
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Robert was the black sheep of the family. And on the morning of November 12, 2015, that black sheep claimed to have found his parents dead on their living room floor.
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The first initial thought was, why is he there that early in the morning? He never goes there that early in the morning.
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Who's? My brother. Yeah. My little brother. Okay. He's never there. Every time I've ever seen him, it's always been in the afternoon or late afternoon or something like that.
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So why would he have been there that early in the morning? Strangely, investigators never pressed Robert on why he went to his parents' house that morning.
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Instead, they turned to his wife and asked her to explain what the two of them were doing there.
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What was the conversation about today with mom and dad? It was just a time of coffee and prayer.
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My husband was supposed to be going to trial today for his case, and they wanted to just sit with us and pray with us.
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What was that case about? Alleged. Sex for the minor. Do you know the minor? Yeah.
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They used to babysit for us. As if the situation wasn't already horrible enough, Robert was scheduled to be in court that same morning,
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facing charges that he had sexually assaulted an underage babysitter. Robert and his wife told investigators that they had gone to Virgil and Shirley's house for what they described as a brief prayer visit, if you want to buy that shit.
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Of course, no one else could confirm that Virgil or Shirley were expecting them.
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Did anyone hear this directly from Ani and Papa? I didn't. I just heard that Ani called and said, meet me for prayer before you go to court.
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because he came over at like 6 a.m. to pray with them before he went into court,
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and then he found them. Okay, so you're just repeating what you've heard. Yes. Okay.
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There was one more thing that troubled the family. In the aftermath of the murders, emotions ran high for everyone.
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Well, everyone except Robert. While the whole family wept, Robert appeared cold and mostly unaffected.
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I wonder why that was. How did the Marisol behave while you were there with him?
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Marisol was crying. I was hugging Marisol, but was teary-eyed, but he wasn't sobbing.
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But I was hugging Marisol, and Mom and Derek were just sobbing. They could not believe what was going on, and I was sobbing with Marisol.
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After detectives spoke with the entire family, Todd Best put their concerns into words.
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They didn believe Robert was capable of killing his own parents but they did believe he was capable of bringing someone dangerous into their lives Someone who could So basically what I getting at is you know is there somebody he pissed off or he borrowed money from that he can pay
00:30:10
And I know where you live and, you know, you're not going to give me the money. What was he doing there at 6 o'clock this morning?
00:30:20
You know, I have no idea. I didn't know he had a court. by the time detectives finished working their way through the family one thing was clear
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nothing about this case was clean the timeline didn't line up the alibis weren't solid and the
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man who found the bodies carried a lifetime of baggage into the interview room with him
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Even so, investigators had enough to act. And Robert Best was arrested. But what came next changed everything.
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Not long after Robert was taken into custody, detectives obtained a confession. And it was a confession that no one could have possibly seen coming.
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On the morning of November 12, 2015, Virgil and Shirley Best were found dead inside their Riverview home.
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Both had been shot, and detectives were left with a narrow timeline, no clear alibis, and a family where nearly everyone had opportunity.
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Their initial focus settled on the person who found the bodies, the victim's oldest son, 49-year-old Robert Best.
00:32:01
His criminal past, his emotional detachment, and the circumstances surrounding that morning raised immediate red flags.
00:32:10
Investigators believed he was responsible, and they moved to arrest him. But as detectives worked to lock in their case, they still needed to account for everyone connected to that morning.
00:32:24
And that included Robert's wife. We're speaking with a Ms. Marizal. I have your spelling and your first name M-A-R-I-S-O-L. Is that correct?
00:32:35
Yes. Okay. And the last name of Best, B-E-S-T? Correct. And your date of birth of February 24, 1985?
00:32:42
Correct. All right. When detectives interviewed Marisol, they first focused on the morning Robert found his parents dead.
00:32:51
Marisol told them that when they arrived, Robert went inside alone while she stayed outside.
00:32:57
We got there in the morning. We were supposed to have coffee and have a little prayer together.
00:33:03
We got there. My husband has long legs, so he was ahead of me. he went into the back, knocked on the door and noticed the door was slightly open.
00:33:14
When I didn't hear any response, I kind of stayed back. He went in. I didn't hear anything from him for the next couple of minutes.
00:33:23
And he came out crying and told me to stay where I was. How long have you guys been married?
00:33:27
Seven years. Going on seven years. We got married in 08. Okay. And prior to that, how long did you guys know each other before you got married?
00:33:33
Two, three years. Two or three years. All right. And where'd you guys, how'd you guys meet again?
00:33:37
MySpace. Okay. That's horrible. What's your age difference? When Robert and Marisol started dating, she was 23 and he was 42.
00:33:49
The age gap was significant. And seven years into the marriage, the relationship was clearly strained.
00:33:56
Divorce had already been discussed. We've been kind of on our rocky path lately.
00:34:03
But we've been trying to work it out. okay I've even living in the same house together yeah okay was there a divorce
00:34:12
in the making he was thinking about it over what was why not being the best housewife okay yeah it's kind of hard to fill his mom's shoes so seriously due to
00:34:26
the fact that you're not a good housewife and you're gonna be okay yeah I was okay
00:34:31
of it. I mean, we were still going to be in touch. We're still best friends. That's my best friend.
00:34:37
The next thing detectives wanted to know was where Robert and Marisol were on the night
00:34:41
the murders happened. So when did you get home yesterday? Actually, I dropped off my kids yesterday afternoon. I got home after 8.30, 9 o'clock.
00:34:52
In the evening? Yeah. My parents live over in Winter Garden. So, as far as you are aware, was at home yesterday from, well, the entire time you were in the garden?
00:35:05
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he was on the phone. I think he was playing Diablo. Marisol told detectives that she dropped her children off at her parents' house that night, leaving Robert home alone.
00:35:17
She said she spoke with him by phone and believed he never went anywhere. According to Marisol, he was at home all night playing video games.
00:35:27
When detectives spoke to Robert, his account matched hers. He told him he never left the house.
00:35:33
How long had you been at your house by the time you went to bed? All day. All day.
00:35:37
We only left the house once. We took my son's birthday today. We took him to the village inn to have lunch.
00:35:46
And we came back and I stayed there. we all took nabs and when she got up she took the kids
00:35:53
to her parents house okay do you remember about what time that was I want to say around five five or six Okay Can you think of anybody that would want to do harm to your family I cannot imagine anybody
00:36:08
Everybody loves them. During this interview, Robert talked about the strained relationship he had with his parents.
00:36:15
He admitted that his criminal past and the embarrassment of federal agents once showing up at their door
00:36:22
meant they never fully trusted him again. How was your relationship with him? It's good. I mean, I was a black sheep of the family.
00:36:30
You know, I got in trouble early in light and stuff like that. But I've been, you know, trying to make it up and do right.
00:36:35
I got kids and I have responsibilities and everything, you know. And, you know, they've been very supportive.
00:36:40
He claimed, despite his criminal past, his parents continued to support him. That raised questions.
00:36:48
If Virgil and Shirley were so supportive, why weren't they planning to attend his upcoming criminal trial?
00:36:55
Because my mom really didn't want to go, you know, read text messages about sexual things and everything.
00:37:00
My mom just, she almost had a nervous breakdown. So she asked my wife if we were on our way, if we would stop over and just let them pray with us.
00:37:11
Robert continued to insist that his parents wanted him to come by that morning to pray for him.
00:37:17
But outside of Robert and Marisol, no one else knew anything about this supposed plan.
00:37:25
For detectives, this raised a troubling possibility. Were they hearing the truth, or were they being worked by a man who had spent much of his life conning people into believing whatever suited him at that moment?
00:37:39
What else is in your history about, you know, going to play out? Just stupid kid stuff.
00:37:47
What does that mean? When I was late teens and early 20s or whatever, I had burglary, breaking in places and stuff like that.
00:37:57
Just what, into homes or into cars? It was a business and a car. I had a Mustang convertible and drove around.
00:38:07
It was stupid. Oh, you stole the car? Oh, so it was grand theft. You broke in and then you took it for him.
00:38:16
You still had that piece of you inside of you? No, believe me, that's been excised, no doubt.
00:38:23
But you've tried to kind of be on the straight and narrow since then? I tried. I have been.
00:38:28
You know, my wife laughs at me or whatever because I won't jaywalk. In an attempt to confirm or disprove Robert's account of the supposed early morning prayer meeting with his parents,
00:38:40
Detectives asked to review his text messages. Robert wasn't enthusiastic about this request, and he flat out refused.
00:38:48
Does that surprise you? Would you allow me to look in your phone? To look in my phone?
00:38:54
For what? Just to look in it. You can always tell me now. No. I'm not trying to be a jerk, and I want to help you in any way possible.
00:39:01
There's nothing in my phone that's going to help you, though. Okay. For a man who claimed to be living a law-abiding life, to the point of saying he even avoided jaywalking, Robert appeared unusually guarded.
00:39:16
He certainly came across as a man with something to hide. With that in mind, detectives made a controversial move.
00:39:25
Robert was arrested for failing to appear in court, even though he had been with police all morning.
00:39:30
Naturally, an elusive judge was blamed for that very shady decision. So we can't control what the judge.
00:39:39
I couldn't. I wasn't allowed to go. No, I agree. But the judge, you know, once the judge, they put the warrant system away, we can clear it.
00:39:49
You'll have to go and the judge can take it off. Well, I told them, I agree. You guys are the quickest way to get that done.
00:39:56
And if you know it's not my fault, if you call up there, you can get in to talk to the judge.
00:40:01
This arrest put an immediate end to Robert's cooperation. Once he was told he was being taken into custody, his demeanor changed, and he refused to answer any more questions.
00:40:14
I'm not cooperating anymore with you guys. Not after doing this to me. Okay. On today.
00:40:19
Okay. Well, Polk County did this, not us. Well, it's still you guys were supposed to make sure that it didn't happen.
00:40:27
And I was assured that it was going to because I told them I wanted to go. I know that they know. I know that Polk County knew that you've been with us.
00:40:34
Well, it is now. I'm not giving permission to search. Nothing. I don't want none of my stuff. Nothing.
00:40:39
OK, no, this is bullshit, man. Of all times, you're going to fucking do this shit.
00:40:44
Robert was arrested, buying detectives time to determine whether he was responsible for his parents murder.
00:40:50
and they didn't have to wait very long. Less than 24 hours later, they had their answer.
00:40:57
I asked you if there was more than Gina tell me. You told me that you had gone to the house last night and you had some prayer time.
00:41:05
Yes. Okay. Talk to me about that. I had called earlier on my way back just to see if I could stop by.
00:41:14
I had a little prayer session. I did. We talked for a good 20, 30 minutes. I'm going to blank out, honestly.
00:41:24
In a surprising twist, Robert's wife Marisol requested another interview with detectives.
00:41:29
During that conversation, she admitted to going to Virgil and Shirley's house on the night they were killed to pray with them.
00:41:37
And she claimed to have blacked out while she was there. Something must have happened or triggered you to black out.
00:41:46
They were not happy with him, and they haven't been since his mess up with the federal case years ago.
00:41:54
They never forgiven him for it And the one time that he needed them to be with him they weren None of his family was supportive Of course detectives weren satisfied about Marisol claim that she blacked out because clearly it bullshit
00:42:12
And they pressed her for more details about what happened to Robert's parents. I don't know, I'm just hearing all that negativity and knowing that all he needed right now was family to be with him and support him.
00:42:28
Because we're going to trial the next day and he had nobody except me. What did they say exactly? Do you remember?
00:42:37
They were just disappointed in him. They said that he has no excuse. You know, he's been dealing with this long enough, he should know better.
00:42:44
and to have family just deny you loyalty is just heartbreaking, especially a family like that that is always so caring and loving.
00:43:01
Marisol claimed that instead of the encouraging prayer session she expected, Virgil and Shirley only criticized Robert.
00:43:09
According to her, the conversation was harsh and escalated into insults. then something inside of her snapped.
00:43:18
What happened inside the house? Did you guys start yelling and screaming at each other?
00:43:22
No. That's the thing. They were frustrated and pissed off, and I don't know how something snapped.
00:43:30
I'm not like that at all. Do you know what was said that just made you snap? They were just disappointed, always.
00:43:39
He couldn't ever do right, and that he's always going to end up leading the same road,
00:43:44
and that's why he's in trouble again with this. And it's like, I said, you guys were always so happy
00:43:51
because I married him and he's doing better. It's just all so fake. As far as that?
00:44:00
As far as being religious and, you know, well, it's God's will, whatever happens.
00:44:07
You know, he doesn't deserve to be going to jail in the first place. Marisol told detectives that as the conversation devolved into criticism of Robert,
00:44:18
she excused herself and stepped outside. She went to her truck, retrieved a gun, and then returned to the living room.
00:44:27
When you came back in, what happened then? I went to the bathroom and that's about it.
00:44:32
They kept talking to me as I was walking to the bathroom. It was more negativity.
00:44:37
Where did you put the gun at? Was it in your pants? Was it in your hand? Was it under your shirt?
00:44:42
Like I said, I was so angry. Okay. I just remember coming out of the bathroom, and as I was walking, I said, okay, let's do the prayer.
00:44:54
That's about it. I was so frustrated. With a handgun tucked in her pants, Marisol told Virgil and Shirley she was ready to pray.
00:45:07
They complied, bowed their heads, and started praying for their son. I remember them getting up off the couch and wanting to hold my hand, and I didn't want to hold their hand, but they insisted.
00:45:20
Did they have their heads bowed and their eyes closed praying? I wouldn't say yes.
00:45:26
Did they see it coming as far as the gun? I don't think so. I don't think they expected it from me.
00:45:34
While Virgil and Shirley had their heads bowed in prayer, Marisol drew the gun from her waistband.
00:45:42
Then she aimed at Virgil's face and fired. And that's because he was the most negative.
00:45:49
I mean, his mom, I expected him because she was always so judgmental. And when he started talking about how he was always a disappointment to him and all that,
00:45:59
it was just kind of upset. You don't get upset. I had two toddlers. I'm not allowed to be upset.
00:46:07
After shooting Virgil, Marisol turned the gun on his wife, Shirley, and fired two more shots.
00:46:13
Where did you shoot, Papa? I just, I remember that. That's it. I just remember pulling the gun and I know it was towards Papa.
00:46:23
That's it. I just aimed. I don't know where I aimed. I just pointed. That's it. Okay. Where did you shoot Yanni? Bonnie?
00:46:35
That, again, I don't know. Virgil Best was shot once in the head. Shirley was shot twice, once in the head and once through the neck.
00:46:46
It's likely they both died instantly. After you pulled the trigger and shot them,
00:46:53
did you stick around there for any period of time or did you immediately leave or something else?
00:47:01
I think I went around and just tried to open drawers, you know, just to kind of, I don't know, make it seem like something went wrong.
00:47:13
After killing her in-laws, Marisol attempted to stage the scene as a robbery gone wrong.
00:47:20
She left drawers open, knocked over a clock, and left the back door open. This level of deliberate action conflicted with her claim that she had just blacked out.
00:47:32
Even so, detectives now had a confession. And in many ways, Marisol's account held together.
00:47:39
But one question remained unresolved. They couldn't yet rule out Robert's involvement in the killings.
00:47:46
Because I'm not so sure that he wasn't there. He was at home the entire time. He could track his phone calls.
00:47:53
He was talking to his attorney most of the time. and you would not be okay with us at all.
00:48:00
Or if he even knew about it, or even attempted to think about something like that, he loved his parents.
00:48:08
Regardless of what they thought of him and how they treated him. He may get upset with them and, you know, just want to move.
00:48:16
But nothing like this, ever. He wasn't there, I promise you that. I'll, I'll, I'll believe that.
00:48:24
Marisol insisted that Robert had no involvement in the murders and wasn't present when his parents were killed.
00:48:31
She told detectives he had no idea they were dead until the following morning, when the two of them discovered the bodies together.
00:48:39
How did it come about this morning when you guys go there and find them? How did that happen?
00:48:47
He walked up and the door was open. Did you stay in the car or did you go up to the door with him this morning?
00:48:56
He beat me out of the car per usual. So I was lagging behind a little bit. Were you lagging because he knew what he was going to find?
00:49:06
No, I was just lagging behind. I was extremely exhausted and I was just lagging behind.
00:49:12
Detectives told Marisol they believed her. And the record suggests they meant it.
00:49:18
Prosecutors appeared to reach the same conclusion. Robert Best was never charged with any crime related to his parents' murder.
00:49:28
Marisol, however, was arrested immediately after giving her confession. On Wednesday, 30-year-old Marisol Best met with her in-laws, Virgil and Shirley Best, at their Riverview home.
00:49:40
Deputies say when she left, they were dead. She was upset about some of the comments, negative comments that they were making about her son and got angry and unfortunately took out her anger on her in-laws.
00:49:54
The argument was over her husband, their son, Robert Best's upcoming court date in Polk County.
00:50:00
It involves sex acts with a minor. She apparently got so mad she grabbed a gun and opened fire.
00:50:07
Marisol was charged with two counts of premeditated murder and pleaded not guilty.
00:50:12
Robert's legal troubles followed a different path. In the separate case involving allegations of sex with a minor, he accepted a plea deal.
00:50:22
He was sentenced to about a year in jail, followed by four years of probation. Prosecutors declined to explain why that deal was offered About a week before Robert release detectives met with him one final time this time to discuss his wife upcoming murder trial
00:50:42
One of the first questions they asked was how Marisol had behaved on the night of the killings
00:50:47
before Robert knew his parents were dead. Once she arrived back home, what was her demeanor?
00:50:55
What was she like? I don't know. It's just in hindsight, you know, but I mean, at the time I'm thinking she was really nervous about the next day, about going to trial.
00:51:04
She seemed very distressed. Did Marisol at any point tell you or allude to you at all what she had done?
00:51:13
That's one of the things that hurt is that if she did this, that she knew what I was going to find and let me walk into that, you know, with no warning whatsoever.
00:51:22
Robert maintained that Marisol never told him what she had done. Whether that's true is something we'll probably never know for certain.
00:51:32
If you want my opinion, who knows, really? What do you think? What is your plan?
00:51:40
Staying here, I'm going to stay here and we're supposed to get a place with my in-laws so I can be with the kids and stuff like that.
00:51:48
Okay. What's your plan with her? We got kids. Do you plan on divorcing her at some point?
00:51:56
The purpose of the recording is that a yes? Yes. Okay. All right. About two years after the murders, in 2018, Marisol's case went to trial.
00:52:07
Her defense team focused on creating reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury by pointing the finger at Robert Best.
00:52:15
Is this a case of blind devotion or cold-blooded murder? Marisol Best's attorney floated one theory to the jury.
00:52:23
The evidence will show that Mayor Saul Best would do anything, anything to protect her husband, Robert Best.
00:52:33
Even take the fall on a double murder charge. You're going to hear that Miss Best's husband, Robert, has been convicted of 38 felony charges.
00:52:48
He has had a lot of problems. Problems, they say, soured his relationship with his parents.
00:52:54
Shirley and Virgil Best were very unhappy with their son Robert. In the end though the jury rejected the defense argument and sided with the prosecution But it clear now that the jury did not buy the defense theory We just found out minutes ago that in fact the jury did come back with a verdict guilty on both counts of murder
00:53:17
She will now be sentenced at the end of this month. Following her conviction, Marisol was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
00:53:28
Do you doubt that she did it? I mean, obviously, I think that she did it. You know, if she's going to admit that she did it, I think that she didn't do it.
00:53:37
Why she would do it, that's the thing I want to know. That's what I want to ask her.
00:53:41
You know, I want to know why. There's nothing that my parents could say to me that would make me even want to slap them,
00:53:49
much less do something like that. And I can't imagine her either doing that. As far as motives go, this one can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around.
00:53:57
A brutal double murder. Not for money, not for revenge, not for self-preservation,
00:54:06
but because someone said something nasty to your spouse. On its face, that explanation is absurd.
00:54:15
People say hurtful things all the time. Families argue. I mean, have you ever been to Thanksgiving?
00:54:23
None of that usually ends in gunfire. but motive isn't about what makes sense to us it's about what mattered to the person
00:54:34
who pulled the trigger my parents are very critical you know they're very opinionated
00:54:40
a lot of older people are and you know they would get on to me about this situation that
00:54:44
i was in and everything if i hadn't been going to a real church instead of this church you know
00:54:48
it wouldn't have happened and you know and i just let it go in one ear and out the other you know
00:54:53
It's just them. I love them. And it's mom and dad. It's mom and dad, you know. But she would get very upset about it, you know.
00:55:00
She'd take it very personally that they should be supportive. Robert described his parents as critical people.
00:55:08
Judgmental, blunt, and often harsh. To him, it was mostly background noise. Something he'd lived with his entire life.
00:55:18
He'd learned to let it roll off his back. but Marisol was a different story. She didn't. She couldn't. Her back held on to things,
00:55:31
apparently When Robert could dismiss Marisol absorbed What he heard as nagging she experienced as condemnation In her mind the criticism wasn just aimed at Robert It was aimed at her and
00:55:46
her ego. A rejection. A betrayal. A reminder that no matter how long she'd been part of the
00:55:55
family, she would always be seen as the black sheep's wife. Sometimes, the only explanation for a horrific
00:56:03
crime is that someone couldn't tolerate the way they felt and chose violence to silence it.
00:56:12
Virgil and Shirley Best never got the chance to explain themselves. They didn't get a final
00:56:18
argument. They didn't get a moment of understanding. And sadly, the reason they died doesn't offer
00:56:27
clarity or closure. It leaves the rest of the family, and quite frankly all of us,
00:56:35
sitting with an uncomfortable truth. Reality is messy, incomplete, and deeply unsatisfying.
00:56:46
And people are petty, egotistical, self-centered, and some people are just shit.
00:56:57
That does it for another one. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, you can head on over to swordandscale.com to find out more.
00:57:18
Download our app on iOS and Android. And we'll see you right back here next week for some more murder.
00:57:25
until then stay safe Thank you.