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[theme music] NARRATOR: North of Jacksonville
in northern Florida is Yulee. An area crisscrossed
by swathes of
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alligator-infested swampland. But it's the color
of the water that gives this forested area its
distinctive, menacing feel.
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JOHN SPIVEY: Even though
this is a beautiful creek, you get a lot of kayakers
in here that love the scenery,
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it's still a sinister place. You see all the cypress trees
and the different trees,
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that's what colors the water. The tannic acid from the swamps
makes it a dark water.
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NARRATOR: One
area, Lofton Creek, is especially popular with
anglers like John Spivey.
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But in February 2001, it
was his father-in-law, a seasoned shrimp fisherman,
who experienced the darker
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side of these waters. [water splashing] JOHN SPIVEY:
My father-in-law came home and told us he had found
a body down at Lofton Creek.
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He had went fishing
early that morning. Cold, cold winter morning. And he came in, and when
he was loading his boat up,
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the boat wake actually pushed a
body from underneath the dock, and it was wrapped
up in something.
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And he was pretty shook up. This is the dock, I
believe, that the body was washed up under.
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And it must have
been at low tide when the body was
dumped, because there's no way for a body
to get under this dock
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at any tide except low water. He tied the body to one
of these cleats on this dock
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so it would not float
away while he went and contacted the authorities. GREGORY FOSTER: I remember
it to be partly cloudy,
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which is typical for that time
of the year and high humidity. Right around lunch time, I
heard over our police radio
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that there was a body that
was located in Lofton Creek. And it was partially
wrapped in what appeared
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to be a shower curtain. It's not typical for us to have
somebody drown in Lofton Creek,
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so I started
responding to the call as the detective
assigned to the area. I'm going through
my mind of, OK,
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do I think this is
going to be a suicide? Do I think it's going
to be a homicide?
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Do I think it's going
to be just a natural death? The information
coming from dispatch,
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it's popping into my mind
that we may be looking at another dump job. The woods, the creeks,
the rivers,
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that's where people
a lot of the time dump bodies after they've
murdered somebody.
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JONI JOHNSTON: Oftentimes it's
for convenience, or proximity, or depending upon
the location, there's
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some hope that
this person is not going to be found because it's
a remote location,
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or some predator is going to
help them dispose of the body. GREGORY FOSTER: Most of the
time when you have a dump job,
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it's going to be criminal
activity-related. So this is a replacement dock. But if this has been
the original dock,
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he would have been
tied off right there. He was down in the water. We could see based
on his position
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that he had tattoos
on his body. Then upon further
inspection, while he was still
in the water, there was
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evidence of a gunshot wound. So on this case, that kind
of starts the ball rolling.
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NARRATOR: Crime
scene investigators could tell the victim was
a Black male in his early 30s.
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But the watery crime scene made
further examination of the body more difficult. GREGORY FOSTER: There were
remnants of the shower curtain.
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And I remember the wildlife
being in the area. It was a pretty gruesome scene. MICHELLE DUPRE: Sometimes
bodies and water are
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bodies found after a few days. The wound's
and the injuries can be obscured by things like
the water, or by insects,
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or other creatures that
may feed on that area. In this case, there was
an injury to the head
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and there were
fish in that area. GREGORY FOSTER: Staring at the
body and staring at the water,
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it's very, very
dark, brackish water. So I knew that this was going
to be a challenge to see what
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evidence may be in the water. Some of the locals
call it coffee water. It's when fresh water
and salt water mix.
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And then you've
got the sediments off the trees off of the bark. NARRATOR: Specialist divers
from the Florida Department
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for law enforcement
were called in to assess the body before moving it. [water splashing]
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SARAH MORMINO: Remains
once they're in water, and especially if they're
in water for an extended period
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of time, become very fragile. In this case, police
divers are faced with the challenge
of being extra careful
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because the remains had
already been altered by those who found them. It added challenge
to this case,
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is the fact that they had
little to no visibility. So everything they have
to do most of the time
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it's by feel, to figure out
the condition of the body, but be careful as to not
destroy any evidence.
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NARRATOR: Police hoped they
could still use fingerprinting to identify the victim.
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- Skin slippage
and wrinkling is very common. This can make it difficult
to collect fingerprints.
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However, there are
several ways that dive and forensic professionals
can combat this issue.
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One of the most common
ways to roll prints is to actually carefully
remove the skin from the hand,
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slide a living hand into that,
and then roll the prints. Another method is when you
have significant wrinkling,
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is you can actually
rehydrate the finger which causes the wrinkling,
it kind of tightens
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the skin then resulting
in the ability to roll prints. MICHELLE DUPRE: Identification
was relatively quickly
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in this case,
because the body had only been in water
for three to five days, and so the fingerprints
were relatively preserved.
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NARRATOR: The dead man was
identified as Paul Shealey. - Paul Shealey's name
was in the database
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because of a minor infraction,
so it was already there. And when they ran
fingerprints, they got a match.
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Paul had his children
tattooed on his body. And in this case, it
proved to be very valuable.
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NARRATOR: Detectives
discovered Paul Shealey was a father of eight. Lofton Creek, where
his body was found,
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was just 24 miles from
his home in Jacksonville. GREGORY FOSTER: He was a
resident of the northwest side
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of Jacksonville, which
is an area commonly known to us as being a violent
area that homicides
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do take place in. JIM CARUSO: So many questions
come up when you're presented with a gunshot wound death.
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Whether or not the body has
spent time in the water. First is, was this
self-inflicted
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or do we have a homicide? Most people who
shoot themselves, shoot themselves either
on the side of the head
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or under the chin
or in the mouth. JONI JOHNSTON: So I think
the initial call of a suicide
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need to be taken
seriously because it's always a possibility. And so given the fact
that we don't know that,
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they're going to then start
doing what we forensic psychologists call like
a psychological autopsy, which
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is to begin researching
that person's life and the events leading
up to that death
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to see if does this person have
the risk factors of suicide? What indications do we
have that this person
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was thinking about it? And as they began
doing this, there was nothing in Paul
Shealey's background or
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recent history
that would suggest he was in that frame of mind. NARRATOR: The position
of Paul's bullet wound
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also ruled out suicide. JIM CARUSO: So we
have an entrance gunshot wound in this
particular case
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on the forehead. According to the investigation,
the wound was caused by a 38-caliber
firearm, and it was
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matched back to a weapon that
Paul Shealey himself owned. And if that weapon is fired
fairly close to the head,
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one would expect
significant injuries to the skull and the brain. And depending on which part
of the brain is injured,
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death can be very, very quick. NARRATOR: The autopsy
suggested Paul died instantly.
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- Paul was actually found
wrapped in a shower curtain and one gunshot
wound to the head.
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He would not have been able
to have done that to himself, to wrap himself in a shower
curtain after he shot himself.
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Therefore, it was
determined to be a homicide. - And that's really
where we start
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the process of gathering
information and starting to formulate in our
mind what may have taken place.
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Start coming up with
predictions of where, when, who might have
committed this crime.
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NARRATOR: In Florida, police
now know that the body found in a creek with a gunshot
wound to the head
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is 31-year-old Jacksonville
man, Paul Shealey. He's been murdered. Evidence from
the body also suggests
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there's a second crime scene. JIM CARUSO: The fact that
there was no significant fluid
00:11:35
in the lungs indicates to me
that the primary scene is not the creek, and that
Paul Shealey was
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shot somewhere else,
and then the body was dumped in the creek. MICHELLE DUPRE: We
don't find any evidence
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that there is blood
there, or that there is any kind of tissue, or
anything to indicate a struggle
00:11:55
at that crime scene. So everything that
we find indicates that this was
purely a dump site,
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that Paul was killed
someplace else, put in the shower curtain,
and then taken to this place.
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[sinister music] [water splashing] JONI JOHNSTON: I think one
immediate question would be,
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why is this person
in this creek? And who would have
knowledge of this creek? Who's familiar of this area?
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We do know that
most perpetrators tend to place a body-- most of them, not all--
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place them relatively
close to their home or in areas they're
familiar with. So that would be one, I
think, potential avenue
00:12:43
of questioning. JOHN SPIVEY: My theory is
it was dumped off the bridge and washed under here.
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And the people that
disposed of the body must have knew
the area, the tidal, the gators that were in here.
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It's really close
to the highway, but they knew that the tide
would wash the body out
00:13:07
or a gator would get it. [tense music] GREGORY FOSTER: In the state
of Florida, especially
00:13:16
in northeast Florida,
it's common for people to dump homicide
victims in water, thinking that alligators are
going to get rid of the body
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or dispose of the evidence
from the body. MICHELLE DUPRE: When
a body starts to decay,
00:13:29
there again is this
odor, this putrid odor that typically will
put off alligators
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and they won't attack. SARAH MORMINO: Alligators
and crocodiles are predators. However, they are
not scavengers,
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which is why in this case,
although the remains were in a body of water with several
gators known to be in the area,
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there was no
trauma to the body. NARRATOR: Next, detectives turn
to Paul Shealey's background,
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looking for a possible
motive to his murder. GREGORY FOSTER: So we were able
to determine that he did not
00:14:07
have a Monday through
Friday full-time job, but he did have
at least $1,000 in cash
00:14:14
on him at any given time. But also that he had twin
380-caliber pistols that he liked to carry with him.
00:14:23
Gang activity is prevalent
in that area of Jacksonville, also narcotics activity.
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Is he involved
in the drug trade? It may have ripped
off somebody, not paid them, owed
somebody money,
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and was that what caused this? NARRATOR: They
also discovered he had a complicated love
life with eight children
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by several different women. [tense music] One of his girlfriends
at the time was Aisha James.
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AISHA JAMES: I met Paul when
I was about 24 years old. I met him working
at a men's clothing store.
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Yeah, Paul was a very,
very much of a ladies' man. He loved women. He just came up
to me that asked me,
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would I help him with
some clothes, and I did. He was nice-looking short,
but he was nice-looking.
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He had a great
style by himself. Kind of goofy,
but he was sweet. He was very, very sweet.
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And then afterwards, he was
like, can I get your number or can I take you
out for a drink.
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And I was like,
sure, no problem. And then we hit
it off from there. He was pretty much
a free spirit,
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spontaneous, loved to travel,
loved to be around family. He spent a lot
of time with his kids.
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He took them shopping. The latest tennis shoes
came out, Jordans, He was there buying all of his
kids clothing, all of the kids
00:16:09
shoes and just everything. He spoiled his kids. JONI JOHNSTON:
One of the things
00:16:15
I think is important
to realize is that even though had multiple
children with different women
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and didn't really
seem motivated to settle down with
any of the women, he absolutely
adored his children
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and tried to be very
involved in their life. And as a matter of fact, had
their names tattooed on him.
00:16:32
And people who knew him said
he talked about his children all the time. NARRATOR: His eldest son
was Paul Shealey III.
00:16:41
He was only 10 when his
father's body was found. PAUL SHEALEY III:
My dad definitely
00:16:47
when it came to his children,
he did above and beyond. He was a hell of a guy. I carry his name, you
know what I'm saying?
00:16:57
I look like him, walk like
him, talk like him, dressed like him, act like him. - Paul loved to dress
from head to toe.
00:17:05
We had to match, including down
to his socks and underwear, his shoes, everything.
00:17:11
Paul loved to wear jewelry
from like necklaces to watches, rings. PAUL SHEALEY III: He had
a lot of jewelry, for sure.
00:17:24
Anywhere from
$20,000 to probably $25,000 worth of the jewelry. AISHA JAMES: Paul was
very, very flashy.
00:17:32
He would pull out
lots and lots of money and buy anyone
a drink that he knew. - He had a lot of cars.
00:17:41
So it's not like it
was just one car. GREGORY FOSTER: He also liked
the Jacksonville Jaguars,
00:17:46
our NFL professional
football team. So he had his vehicles painted
like a Jaguar fan would
00:17:53
have their vehicle painted. AISHA JAMES: He had it
painted in the Jaguar colors.
00:17:58
He had it painted
in teal and gold. GREGORY FOSTER:
So this is a person that liked to draw people's
attention towards him.
00:18:09
Was he so flamboyant
that he shows so many people that
he had money, jewelry, guns, everything like that?
00:18:16
Did somebody just
decide to rob him? NARRATOR: At first,
evidence from the body seemed to support
the robbery theory.
00:18:27
GREGORY FOSTER: We noticed that
he was not wearing any jewelry. He was not wearing
flashy clothes.
00:18:30
And every time the newest
version of the Nike Air Jordan came out, he was
the first one to have it.
00:18:37
So finding the body without the
flashy clothes, the jewelry, and specifically
the Air Jordans,
00:18:42
which are high-dollar shoes,
that gave us a little bit more of an idea that this
may have been a robbery.
00:18:50
[sinister music] AISHA JAMES: Our last
conversation, it was on Sunday. We stayed out together
for a long time,
00:19:06
just talking to almost
the wee hours of the morning. And we had a deep conversation
just about life in general.
00:19:17
I told him I loved him
and he told me he loved me. And things are going to be OK.
00:19:25
But at the same time,
it was like surreal. I called him on a Monday and I
didn't hear any word from him.
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I just had a bad feeling. - It wasn't a day going by that
my dad didn't talk to his mom.
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So for her not to hear from
him one day, it's weird. But two or three days, it's
just-- that's something wrong.
00:19:51
Something's not right. [tense music] My grandma came and picked
me and my sister
00:20:03
up from daycare one day. And when we got
back to the house, there was a note
on the mailbox.
00:20:07
A detectives car, actually. And say give me a call. So she called him. I remember he said, "you
might want to take a seat."
00:20:17
And she just fell out
and she just started crying. She was like, "my baby gone,
my baby gone, my baby gone."
00:20:26
You got to understand
my grandmother was told that she couldn't
even have kids and that was her only child.
00:20:31
So there was no words
for saying that, "hey, your child is gone
and he's never coming back."
00:20:40
AISHA JAMES: Because I
seen the news report about a guy,
they found the body, and over 31-year-old man.
00:20:50
It was like an eerie
feeling when I seen it. And I went around to one
of his friend's house,
00:20:58
and the look on his face
kind of told it all. His friend told me
that it was Paul.
00:21:07
I broke down crying. It was very, very emotional. NARRATOR: The autopsy
put Paul's murder
00:21:16
between 3 and 5 days
before his body was found. It also raised serious doubts
about the investigation's
00:21:24
working motive for the killing,
which was robbery. MICHELLE DUPRE:
One of the things
00:21:29
also looked at at autopsy
is something we call defensive injuries. In this case, there were
no defensive injuries
00:21:35
found on Paul,
and that indicates that there was no struggle. JIM CARUSO: He had no
significant blunt force trauma,
00:21:44
and there were no antemortem
injuries consistent with binding
of the hands or feet
00:21:51
by ligatures that would have
left bruising on those areas. GREGORY FOSTER:
Most information
00:22:00
that we got was that
he was very streetwise, that he always paid attention. He always knew when there
was trouble brewing.
00:22:06
He did not want to get
involved in the trouble. So that started really
making us go down that path
00:22:11
of, OK, it's not robbery. NARRATOR: There was also
no evidence Paul's murder was related to gang crime.
00:22:19
- So when we started getting
the information that he would leave town to be involved in
whatever activity he was being
00:22:25
involved in, he would
come back with large sums of money, which would point
towards criminal activity.
00:22:30
But the information that we
gathered from family members and friends was that
they never saw anybody
00:22:37
come in town to deal with him. NARRATOR: After eliminating
several lines of inquiry,
00:22:44
investigators were left
with one probable motive for Paul's murder. - Paul had several children
with several different women.
00:22:52
And in fact, during
the beginning parts of this investigation,
we had determined
00:22:56
that there was
a young lady that was pregnant with
Paul Shealey's child but it wasn't
the person that he was
00:23:03
currently with at the time. Do we have a crime of passion? Do we have a situation
where a girlfriend, a lover,
00:23:11
had found out that he
was being unfaithful, and could that be part of this? [sinister music]
00:23:31
NARRATOR: Detectives
investigating the murder of Paul Shealey
found dumped in a Florida Creek
00:23:36
with a gunshot
wound to his head now suspect one of his many
lovers could be the killer.
00:23:43
They launch a fingertip
search of the swampy water where his body
was found, looking
00:23:48
for evidence to support
their theory that this is a crime of passion. [tense music]
00:24:02
GREGORY FOSTER: When
a body is found in water, there's a lot of complexity
to the investigation.
00:24:07
The body can travel
because this is a tidal area. So anytime the ocean
tide goes out,
00:24:13
our tributaries go out also. It also affects
where we're going to find evidence that may have
been dumped with the body.
00:24:23
So when they dive
in the water, they use a combination
of intense lighting to try to see
what's there, metal
00:24:30
detectors, side-scanning
sonars, and then just touch and feel. [water splashing]
00:24:40
SARAH MORMINO: When police
divers have to conduct searches in water where there is
no or limited visibility,
00:24:46
this often requires the diver
to be tethered by a line, and someone on shore is
guiding them through the water
00:24:52
using a search pattern. The diver is responsible
for slowly pulling themselves along the bottom
of the water, feeling anything
00:25:02
that comes along their path. Once an item is found,
the diver at that point should use some form
of flotation device
00:25:11
to actually mark the location
of the item in situ. It is up to the dive team
to properly recover the item
00:25:19
while minimizing the amount
of contamination. NARRATOR: As well
as the shower curtain
00:25:26
Paul's body was
wrapped in, divers retrieved a large rug, a gold
chain, and a pair of glasses.
00:25:34
JONI JOHNSTON:
And these glasses look like women's glasses. And because they were found
in the proximity of the shower
00:25:41
curtain, they're really
hopeful that this might be a significant
piece of information,
00:25:45
particularly if they can
find somebody they belong to or somebody who has a similar
pair of glasses like these.
00:25:52
NARRATOR: While they
waited for forensic results on the items found
in the creek,
00:25:56
detectives began to get
a clearer picture of Paul Shealey's love life. AISHA JAMES: We were
seeing each other probably
00:26:04
just a couple of months. Then I got pregnant
and he was like, OK. He told me that he was going
to be there for me and my son.
00:26:17
He was like, when
the baby is born, I'll be there to help
you out no matter what.
00:26:25
We saw a lot of each other
while I was pregnant, and we talked on the phone
pretty much every other day.
00:26:33
I called one day to find out
where he was because he was supposed to come and visit me.
00:26:41
And when I called,
a female answered, which was his girlfriend
at the time, Olicia Lee.
00:26:47
I knew that he was in a
relationship in the beginning of our relationship. NARRATOR: Olicia Lee,
a single mother of three,
00:26:56
had been living with
Paul in Jacksonville for more than a decade. JONI JOHNSTON: He was dropping
off one of his kids at daycare.
00:27:04
She was a daycare
worker, and they really hit it off right away. And I think this was pretty
unusual for Paul to actually
00:27:12
have that kind
of relationship where he moves in with somebody. So I think he was
quite smitten.
00:27:16
I also get the sense
that, in some respects, she was kind of different
from a lot of the women
00:27:22
that he had relationships
with that were more casual. And I think from
Olicia's point of view,
00:27:27
I don't think that she
thought of philandering, for example, as part
of that relationship
00:27:33
or an acceptable part of it. AISHA JAMES: Olicia told me
that she's his girlfriend.
00:27:40
They've been together
for 10 years, and pretty much he's
not going anywhere. So, you just leave him alone
and stop calling his phone.
00:27:49
I proceeded to tell
her, I said, I'm not sure if he
told you or not, but I was pregnant
with his son.
00:27:58
I could sense from her
the phone conversation that she was very, very
hurt, very disappointed and
00:28:07
disgusted with him. - I think she would have
certainly told herself that he wouldn't
do this to her,
00:28:13
because they had a different
kind of relationship. And I think it would have
been very frustrating
00:28:19
and cause a lot of rage
and disappointment to discover that, no, you're
not special in that way,
00:28:26
that Paul's behaving
with you just as he has with every
other woman in his life.
00:28:34
AISHA JAMES: We
exchanged words, cuss words back and forth, and
after we hung up, that was it.
00:28:41
- Ms. Lee's very upset. So now we've
determined, OK, that was within a couple of days of Paul
going missing, not being seen.
00:28:51
That kind of gave us
more of that idea of, OK, there are some
heated passions here.
00:28:57
Could that be the way
that this went? JONI JOHNSTON: One of the
things that becomes clear
00:29:03
is that there were some
bad blood between them and some serious jealousy. When you look
at the motives for murder,
00:29:13
love/jealousy/revenge,
that's at the top of the list in terms of why
people murder other people
00:29:24
that they're involved with. NARRATOR: Detectives questioned
Olicia Lee about the days
00:29:30
before the discovery of Paul's
body in Lofton Creek. [sinister music] GREGORY FOSTER: Ms. Lee had
provided a little bit of a time
00:29:49
frame for the Sunday,
a potential time that this could have occurred. She advised that Paul had come
home, either from out of town
00:29:58
or somewhere else
in Jacksonville, that she believed that he was
with one of the other girls
00:30:03
that he was having
a relationship with. And then when he got
home, he went to sleep.
00:30:09
She got her children up. She got them dressed. She had them eating
breakfast in the kitchen.
00:30:14
She takes them to church. Pretty consistent with what
she's done in the past. She drops off her children
at the aunt's house
00:30:21
and then goes back
over to her house. When she returned
home, Paul was gone, that the car was gone.
00:30:30
She decided to replace
the mattress on her bed that her and Paul share. Why would you replace
the mattress all of a sudden,
00:30:41
actually on a Sunday morning? We determined we needed
to get the Florida Department
00:30:46
of Law Enforcement
forensic team out there and process the house
with a search warrant.
00:30:53
NARRATOR: The team
did forensic tests in the main part of the house. - They did come up with
a small amount of blood
00:31:00
in one of the sinks. Again, not consistent
with the amount of blood that would have been
lost during a gunshot wound.
00:31:05
There were no shell casings. There was no other
physical evidence that was found during this processing.
00:31:12
[sinister music] One of our main concerns with
a case like this is it turning into a cold case, turning into
a situation where we know there
00:31:30
was a homicide, we have
potential suspects, but we cannot prove what occurred. We have a good idea
that, OK, this probably
00:31:39
happened in the city
of Jacksonville, but we cannot prove that. Nobody's talking.
00:31:45
Nobody's giving us any more
information than giving us an idea of who he is. So we know that it's
just going to take
00:31:52
that one person to tell us,
yeah, this is what happened. To blow this thing
open, unfortunately, we
00:32:00
were unable to get over that
hurdle in the initial part of the investigation. JONI JOHNSTON: It's very
hard, I think, for a family
00:32:07
to really grieve,
not knowing what happened to their loved
one, not having justice,
00:32:14
not having answers. And unfortunately, this
case for a number of months, just kind of stagnates.
00:32:25
GREGORY FOSTER:
So it starts moving into that cold case
field, which is very difficult to get out of.
00:32:35
And then one day I got a phone
call saying, "hey, guess what? Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
busted the case wide open."
00:32:44
[tense music] NARRATOR: For nearly
a year, Florida detectives have drawn a blank
in their hunt
00:32:54
for the killer of Paul
Shealey, whose body was found in a Florida Creek. They suspect this is
a crime of passion
00:33:03
committed by his long-term
girlfriend, Olicia Lee, but can't prove it. GREGORY FOSTER: We have
potential suspects, but
00:33:11
we cannot prove what occurred. There was nothing
indicating any other way that this was going
to go, but we just could
00:33:18
not get over that last hurdle. NARRATOR: DNA tests
on the items found near the body in the creek--
00:33:25
a pair of women's glasses,
a gold chain, a shower curtain, and a large rug also
offered no answers.
00:33:34
[water splashing] SARAH MORMINO:
The evidence that was found in the water
posed several difficulties,
00:33:46
especially when considering
an item such as a rug. Because of the fact it
was in very murky water,
00:33:53
there likely would have been a
lot of algae, vegetation, mud, and other debris on the rug.
00:34:01
So the investigators
are now faced with the challenge
of trying to find a way to remove the debris
while still preserving
00:34:08
any forensic evidence,
and also without removing too much of those
environmental factors that link
00:34:15
the rug to that body of water. The type of water that
evidence is recovered in will directly impact
if any DNA can be recovered
00:34:26
from the pieces of evidence. Where there's a lot of debris,
a lot of vegetation,
00:34:31
and when they're
in warmer environments like the state of Florida,
there's a lot of bacteria.
00:34:38
That bacteria can
quickly eat away at any DNA evidence that might
be left on any of the items
00:34:44
found in the water. And that's exactly what
happened in this case. [water splashing]
00:34:57
NARRATOR: Then detectives
got a breakthrough. Daniel Reddick, who was serving
time for attempted burglary,
00:35:05
confessed that he
and three accomplices dumped Paul's body
in Lofton Creek. - This is an acquaintance of
both Ms. Lee and Mr. Shealey,
00:35:15
had been arrested and started
providing information on what actually took
place that Sunday,
00:35:21
how the body was dumped,
where the body was dumped. - Prior to her shooting
him and wanting him dead,
00:35:29
what did she say to you, sir? - She asked me, would I do it? - Do what? - Was it hard to kill anybody?
00:35:38
- And what did you tell her? - I told her no. NARRATOR: Reddick
denied shooting Paul.
00:35:45
Instead, he claimed it
was Shealey's girlfriend, Olicia Lee, who had planned
and executed the murder.
00:35:52
- She said she sent
him on his way. - Meaning? - She sent him home. - Meaning what, sir?
00:35:56
- She killed him. JONI JOHNSTON:
He pretty quickly fesses up and says that he
did help hide this body,
00:36:07
and that he did this at the
request of Olicia Lee, who had made no bones
about the fact
00:36:15
that she wanted
Paul Shealey dead. He said that she had asked
him if he would murder him,
00:36:22
and he had said,
no, I won't do this. And he said, I thought
that was the end of it,
00:36:27
until she calls
me out of the blue and says that she's done it. NARRATOR: Reddick admitted
he and three friends
00:36:35
helped Olicia Lee dispose
of the body and the mattress. Then Lee rewarded them
by divvying up Paul's jewelry
00:36:45
and expensive sneakers. - And I think it's just-- it is
somewhat mind-boggling that you
00:36:51
have these four individuals
who have had nothing to do with the actual murder, who were
willing to just assist her
00:36:58
in getting rid of his body. NARRATOR: Now certain that Paul
and Olicia's Jacksonville house
00:37:08
was the primary crime
scene, forensic teams returned for a second time. Their focus--
the master bedroom.
00:37:17
- The brain starts working,
that mattress, that bedroom. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
took their forensic unit.
00:37:24
They luminol that
bedroom, and they found plenty
of evidence showing that the crime had actually
occurred in that bedroom.
00:37:35
So now it's time
to bring in your person of interest, the only
real suspect you've had
00:37:39
during this entire process. You bring Ms. Lee
in and start questioning her, and that was
ultimately successful.
00:37:50
NARRATOR: Lee denied
murdering her partner, but it was the pair
of women's glasses
00:37:54
found with the body, which
would finally prove her guilt. GREGORY FOSTER: When they
were interviewing her,
00:38:02
they provided her with
something to read, and she actually pulled out
a set of reading glasses,
00:38:08
and a very astute
detective remembered seeing those glasses
in the pictures of the physical evidence
that was collected
00:38:15
at the bottom
of Lofton Creek, and it was an absolute
match for the ones that she had on her then.
00:38:22
NARRATOR: Lee had
lost an identical pair in the shower
curtain she'd used to wrap Paul's dead body in.
00:38:30
- That's what took
the wind out of her sails, along with everything else,
that made her finally confessed
00:38:35
to committing the murder. NARRATOR: Later, Lee
re-enacted for detectives the moment she shot Paul
in the head as he slept.
00:38:46
- And this hand
was shaking and I was trying to hold this
hand with that hand and pull the trigger.
00:38:51
- And shot? JONI JOHNSTON: What
did surprise me, and I thought was
interesting, is her demeanor
00:38:57
during this confession. She's very matter
of fact in how she talks about
the very specific
00:39:05
details of murdering him. - Did anybody
promise you that-- - No. - Why are you doing this?
00:39:14
JONI JOHNSTON: I don't get
any sense of remorse from her. It is jealousy. I think that
motivated Olicia, but
00:39:24
I think it was more revenge. [sinister music] NARRATOR: Olicia Lee was
charged with first degree
00:39:38
murder and sent to trial. - This is what
we think happens. Paul Shealey had come home.
00:39:47
He had gone to bed. The children were
in the kitchen. She's made up her
mind to kill him.
00:39:54
She recalls that
Mr. Reddick had advised her that a way to
silence a gun is with a potato.
00:40:03
AISHA JAMES: She waited
until he was good and asleep. She made sure her children
were busy in the other room.
00:40:12
She went into the closet and
got his gun and got the potato and put it on there
as a silencer.
00:40:21
And then she just
she went in there and just shot him
while he slept. - And then goes
about her business
00:40:29
for the rest of the day,
taking the kids to church, taking them over
to the aunt's house,
00:40:33
and then dealing with
the four other people to get rid of the body,
get rid of the mattress,
00:40:38
get rid of the evidence,
take it up to Nassau County, and dump it into Lofton Creek.
00:40:44
- Well, when I was
told, it shocked me because I didn't
think or suspect that she would have
did anything like that
00:40:54
because she was such
a quiet person, a laid back, chill person. JONI JOHNSTON: When
you look at Olicia Lee,
00:41:02
it's hard to see anything
at all in her background that would predict this. She goes to church, she
takes her kids to church.
00:41:12
She has a steady job. She's a childcare worker. She's responsible. This is somebody you
would never think
00:41:20
would engage in some kind
of violence, certainly murder of somebody they're
in a relationship with.
00:41:30
PAUL SHEALEY III:
The story and how she did it is the most
disgusting thing that I could
00:41:38
ever think of like,
you killed them and then you got your kids
ready for church.
00:41:43
You took them to church, came
back, and disposed of the body with some friends. She actually came
to the funeral.
00:41:53
She was on the porch
with us crying and consoling my grandmother. That is wild to me.
00:42:03
[tense music] NARRATOR: In March 2006,
Lee accepted a plea bargain, admitted second degree
murder, and was sentenced
00:42:20
to 30 years in prison. Her four accomplices
got between three and five years for disposing
of Paul's body in Lofton Creek.
00:42:32
GREGORY FOSTER: What
makes this case so bad was not only
the fact that she had done this while her
children were in the house.
00:42:39
She then drew other people
into this murder investigation, into this conspiracy,
had them help
00:42:47
her get him to Lofton
Creek in Nassau County, and then to pay them by telling
them that they can divvy up
00:42:56
those flashy jewelry pieces,
the flashy clothes, everything that everybody had told
us in the beginning
00:43:02
was part of Paul
Shealey, what made Paul Shealey, Paul Shealey. It was just-- it
was cold blooded.
00:43:11
JONI JOHNSTON: You're not
giving that person any chance to defend themselves,
explain themselves,
00:43:15
think of other options. I mean, you've made a decision. You've made a unilateral
decision that I'm going
00:43:21
to end this person's life. That, I think, is cold. Do I think that perhaps
in Olicia Lee's mind
00:43:29
she justified it by saying,
"Paul made me do this. I've reached
the breaking point.
00:43:35
He pushed me over the edge"? I can see her thinking that. Nobody pushes anybody
over the edge.
00:43:41
They step across that line. But I do think that that
would have been possibly a reason for her,
a justification
00:43:50
for her making the decision
to end his life. NARRATOR: Justice was done,
but Paul Shealey's family and
00:43:59
those involved
in the investigation would feel the consequences of
his murder for years to come.
00:44:07
PAUL SHEALEY III: It
definitely affected my life, especially during that
time because I was
00:44:12
getting in so much trouble. I was rebelling and I
don't have a father, and I'm not getting the things
that I'm used to getting.
00:44:22
It was hard. It was hard. JOHN SPIVEY: My father-in-law
actually was a little afraid
00:44:30
that his name would get out. And the people that
had murdered the victim would come after him
because he found the body.
00:44:42
And that was something
that disturbed him the rest of his life. AISHA JAMES: Paul had eight
kids and my son was number 9.
00:44:56
I think he would have
been a proud dad. If he was still
around, he would be there at everything that
happened in my son's life.
00:45:08
PAUL SHEALEY III: Still to this
day, I'm still to this day, still angry for sure because
the hurt never goes away.
00:45:18
People speak of closure,
but there's no real closure. GREGORY FOSTER: Being
here in this context, not
00:45:29
a lot of change here and it
really brings it back to mind the sadness
of a father of nine
00:45:37
coming to this end, in this
location, in this manner. It's a terrible thing. [somber music]
00:45:58
[theme music]