The Scott/Taylor families quadruple murder | Ep 239

Summary

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Crime and Coffee Couple — True Crime Podcast

Host: Allison and Mike

Episode 239: The Scott/Taylor Families Quadruple Murder

Date: April 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Allison delves into the brutal 2015 quadruple murder of the Scott and Taylor families in rural Pendleton, South Carolina—a shocking crime that shattered a small community’s sense of safety. With her trademark meticulous research, Allison walks Mike (and listeners) through the overlooked case, discussing the family’s backstory, the investigation’s twists, and the long path to justice. Alongside sobering crime details, the couple’s signature banter brings levity to an otherwise harrowing tale.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Crime and the Victims

• Location: Pendleton, SC — a peaceful town of 3,000, where violent crime is rare ([07:27]).
• Victims (living together in a double wide trailer):
  • Kathy Scott (60, described as bubbly, loving, waitress by trade)
  • Terry Michael “Mike” Scott (58, hard-working DOT employee)
  • Barbara Scott (80, Mike’s mother, beloved community babysitter, great cook)
  • Violet Taylor (82, Kathy’s mother, quiet, “pure sweetheart”)
• Discovery: November 2, 2015 — Amy Vardi (Kathy’s daughter, lived next door) finds all four family members dead and makes a frantic 911 call ([07:27], [13:42]).
• Details: All victims had been stabbed—throats slashed, then shot post-mortem. No forced entry; house otherwise tidy ([12:39], [19:17]).
• Crime scene: Suggested the killings were swift, personal, and likely perpetrated by someone known to the victims ([20:11], [21:21]).

“Each victim had both been stabbed to death and then shot postmortem. There was absolutely no sign of forced entry… everything happened very quickly.” — Allison ([12:39])

2. Family Dynamics & Tensions

• Amy Vardi: Daughter of Kathy, recently married to Ross Velardi; described as volatile, manipulative, with a tumultuous relationship with her mother.
• Ross Velardi: Amy’s husband, a Marine with security training, also lived on the property.
• Ongoing fights in the family—especially about Amy’s parenting, use of money, and keeping children away from her mom and stepdad ([31:04], [32:45]).

“Family members indicated that Amy’s relationship with her mom crumbled after Kathy took Amy’s biological father off life support...she often referred to her mom as a narcissist.” — Allison ([31:04])

3. Motive: Money, Greed, and Deceit

• Mike was known to keep large amounts of cash (allegedly up to $80,000) and gold at home. Family knew, but he was private about details ([27:43]).
• The theory emerges: The murder was motivated by financial gain, especially given Amy and Ross’s dire financial situation ([41:46]).
• After the murders, Amy and Ross paid off debts and claimed a sudden windfall; investigators later tied this cash directly to the murder victims ([44:21]).
• Serial numbers on $100 bills found in the couple’s possession matched those photographed by Mike two days before his death ([44:32]).

“Serial numbers from the bills that they found inside also match the bills that Mike had in his home before he was murdered.” — Allison ([44:32])

4. Investigation & Evidence

• Initial hurdles: No murder weapon found; no forced entry; Amy and Ross provided alibis ([33:07], [52:30]).
• Several guns found, one registered to Mike, but not the murder weapon. $67,000 in cash discovered in Amy and Ross’s trailer ([34:08]).
• Witnesses describe Amy’s odd, unemotional behavior after the murders, and her openly hostile social media posts about family ([39:25]).
• Cell phone data and text messages revealed the couple’s financial distress and contradicted initial alibi timelines ([46:27]).
• Surveillance footage placed Ross buying beer nearby at the time of murders, wearing red ASICS sneakers—matching bloody prints at the crime scene ([47:38]).

“He was wearing red ASICS Speed Star gym shoes—the exact same style shoe that experts determined had left prints in the blood at the crime scene.” — Allison ([47:38])

5. Breakthrough: “Cold Justice” and Financial Forensics

• The case languished unsolved for 8 years until the Cold Justice TV show aided police.
• Experts traced financial records and cash; evidence was solidified by the photo of Mike’s cash and matching serial numbers ([41:46], [44:32], [53:39]).
• Circumstantial evidence, financial records, and “the hand of one is the hand of all” doctrine played pivotal roles in getting Amy (and soon Ross) charged ([54:44]).

"So under the legal doctrine, a person can be convicted if they participated in a common plan, even if they didn't personally inflict every fatal injury." — Allison ([55:10])

6. Aftermath & Justice

• Amy was convicted in February/March 2026 of all four murders after a week-long trial and less than 2 hours of jury deliberation ([57:13]).
• Sentenced to four consecutive life terms ([57:20]).
• Ross awaits trial but is widely expected to be convicted, given evidence ([57:20]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was just an unbelievably violent scene. Each victim had both been stabbed to death and then shot postmortem...” — Allison ([12:39])
• “That’s also overkill a bit. You know, somebody that knows them...” — Mike ([19:17])
• “Amy often spoke terribly about her family and she often made comments that she wished that they were dead.” — Allison ([38:07])
• “On the very day of the funeral, Ross and his family ripped everything out of Mike and Kathy's home and threw each item out into the front yard like it was a piece of trash.” — Allison ([40:42])
• “After a week long trial and 90 minutes of deliberation...the jury found 42 year old Amy Velardi guilty...She was found guilty of murdering her mother, her stepfather, her grandmother, her step grandmother. Over 10 years earlier.” — Allison ([57:00], [57:13])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [07:27] — Introduction to the case; victim & town background
• [12:39] — Discovery of the crime scene; initial police theories
• [19:17] — Forensic details and evidence of “overkill”; questions about number of assailants
• [27:43] — The money motive; Mike’s secret stash revealed
• [31:04] — Amy’s volatile relationships and family tensions
• [39:25] — Amy’s behavior after the murders and social media rants
• [41:46] — The Cold Justice team gets involved, financial records combed
• [44:32] — Serial number match between murder cash and Amy's household
• [46:27] — Timeline contradictions via texts and cell phone data
• [47:38] — Surveillance footage and critical forensic shoeprint evidence
• [53:39] — Arrests made at long last
• [54:42] — The trial, legal strategies, and Amy’s conviction

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Tone & Style

The episode features the couple’s friendly and conversational banter—light-hearted at times before and after the case, but with deep empathy and respect when discussing the victims and family turmoil. Mike’s reactions and questions mirror the audience’s likely thoughts, while Allison provides a thorough, organized narrative with well-paced reveals.

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Final Thoughts

This case underscores how familial greed and long-simmering resentments can erupt into unimaginable violence. Despite a lack of direct physical evidence tying Amy to the scene, dogged investigation—including advanced financial forensics and modern TV partnerships—finally brought some measure of resolution after a decade of heartbreak for Pendleton and the surviving family.

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Recommended for listeners interested in:

• Cold cases and how they’re solved
• Financial forensics in homicide
• Rural family crime dynamics
• True crime with a blend of levity and compassion

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Transcript

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[Allison]

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode with the Crime and Coffee couple. My name's Allison.

[Mike]

And my name's Mike.

[Allison]

Hello, Mike.

[Mike]

Hey, Allison. How are you?

[Allison]

Good. Why do you have a shart eating grin on your face?

[Mike]

You mean a eating grin?

[Allison]

Mike was playing around with the button, so here was our line. What the was he doing?

[Mike]

That guy's a real piece of.

[Allison]

These are the things. You sound like a smoker.

[Mike]

I do. I. It's allergies. I swear you're not going to catch anything.

[Allison]

These the things that make us laugh.

[Mike]

Yeah, we're just like, literally we were taking minutes before this being like, oh, no, you're such a piece of. And this motherfucker. Oh, I mean, nice. Oh, great. Now I gotta actually clip that.

[Allison]

So we were having issues with the camera. I should say I was having issues with the camera. And I was like, I did not hit the record button. And Mike's like, well, it's recording. And it's been recording for about 25 seconds.

[Mike]

I see that it says 25 seconds, 26.

[Allison]

And I was like, well, it wasn't me. He's like, well, apparently there's a ghost in the room.

[Mike]

I was there a minute and a half ago and you were there 30 seconds ago. So you. I don't know how it happened, but

[Allison]

you had to have done it.

[Mike]

You're a magic lady. You are a magic lady is what you are. How's life going for you? And, oh, just in case you're new here, we should do a quick intro, but yeah, We Allison tells a new story every single week.

[Allison]

I'm Allison.

[Mike]

Yes, we already did that. They know Allison. Mike, you got that much down? Well, you do a new story every week, Hours and hours of meticulous research. I've never heard any of it. And I keep touching you with my pen.

[Allison]

I was just making sure you didn't have the pen side on. Me.

[Mike]

I could. Let's see.

[Allison]

Yeah. So Mike has hearing the case for the first time right alongside you guys. So it's all news to him.

[Mike]

Yeah, I'm kind of reacting, asking the questions you might have too.

[Allison]

This is our fifth year of podcasting and we're loving it. And we thank you all for being here, listening, because without your support, we wouldn't have anything to be doing.

[Mike]

Yeah. And we have about a 5 minute, 5, 5 to 8 minute coffee chat beforehand just to kind of warm things up, you know, you guys are all our friends. You know, catch you up on how things are going. You guys can tell us, we'll listen. You know, we're listening right now. Go ahead, tell us how things are going. I hope it's going well.

[Allison]

And we come to find that some people hate banter. Some people love it. But I always read the quote, if you try to make everyone in life happy, you're going to lose and you're going to make yourself miserable. So you can skip. We have a little button if you want to skip the banter. Feel free to do so.

[Mike]

Or leave us a terrible review like some people do and just say, I don't like the banner. It's like, okay, well, you don't have to. And then I love. Our listeners are like, they're. They literally put it in the description if you want to skip it. So.

[Allison]

And speaking of reviews. Reviews. Yeah. If you guys would leave us a five star review, we would so appreciate it. Sometimes the reviews just kind of stall. I think people just forget to leave reviews. So if you haven't and you feel inclined to do so, we would so appreciate it.

[Mike]

Yeah, Apple doesn't do any favors. It's kind of hard to find.

[Allison]

But in other news, we have Mike's parents visiting us from Illinois, and they're 82 and 78.

[Mike]

My dad's 82, mom 78. Ish.

[Allison]

Yeah. And sometimes I guess when you get to a certain age, eating just doesn't occur to you any longer. It's more of a hassle. So I'm like, I'm getting these folks to get some pounds packed on. So I'm like, it's kind of like fat camp, but the opposite of it. Yeah, it's like feeding camp.

[Mike]

Like a normal fat camp is trying to like, get people skinnier, you know, this is like actually fat camp. Let's get fatter.

[Allison]

So I'm like slinging food at them, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And they're just not used to eating three meals a day. So I'll go to feed them lunch, and they're like, oh, we're just ate. I'm like, yep, that was breakfast. And that was five hours ago.

[Mike]

It's time to eat again. This is how life works.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Well.

[Allison]

And they've both been feeling better, sleeping better. It's. It's actually been really good.

[Mike]

Well, you said this morning, my mom's like, yeah, my skin looks better. And it's like, because you're drinking, you have hydration, your body's fulfilled, you're getting nutrients. Like, my back in Illinois, where they live, like, she doesn't get around and do much, even though they live in a 55 and over community. And here in our pool, she's like doing aerobics. Like, she's not the kind of lady that will like, go out of her way to, like, exercise much, you know,

[Allison]

she loves those damn water aerobics.

[Mike]

She gets in there for hours. It is like, not like her. You would never guess that she would do that in a million years.

[Allison]

Yeah. And they have a pool at their community where they live that's indoors because obviously in Illinois it's very cold in the winter, but they have the option of the indoor. I don't know, maybe she feels foolish just independently doing the aerobics in front of other people.

[Mike]

I think, like, after a certain age, you don't really care what you do about anything. I'm kind of near that age, even though I'm not 50 yet.

[Allison]

But it's. It's been nice having them and just knowing that, you know, they're being well fed and cared for. We're going to take them out on a little field trip today.

[Mike]

Y go out in the city of Tampa, go by the Riverwalk. If you haven't been to Tampa ever, I wouldn't say it's like a must do and must get here activity. Tampa.

[Allison]

It's pretty, though.

[Mike]

Yeah. But like, you know, if you happen to be in the Tampa area, Come on, check it out.

[Allison]

Yeah. Just walking along the river. So we're going to do that with them today. It's. It's kind of fun.

[Mike]

Yeah. For work the other day, I went to a Tampa Bay Light Lightning game. And I was excited. You know, I like going to see some hockey. And I. I realized I was already out in the city somewhere, so I was just going to go straight from what I was working and go straight to the game. And it's always cold in a hockey arena. So I was like, oh, man, I got to get, like, a quarter zip. Because that's like the corporate standard for men, the uniform. Yeah, everybody has a quarter zip. So I went. I was like. Went to this store called Bell's B, E, A, L, L, S and got a nice quarter zip. It was like 20 bucks. I was so excited because it's. You know, they could easily get 40 for it, probably. And I was like, all right, cool. So I left it. I brought it to the game. Actually left it in the car in the parking lot and got into the place. I was like, oh, no, now I'm going to have to buy one at the team store. And then my friend, you know, coworker, he's like, I bet you won't be too much. I'm like, that. That's crazy. That's the worst thing anybody said. I'm like. He's like, I might get a jersey if it's under 85. I'm like, there won't be a jersey under 150, much less 85. He's like, no. I'm like, walk in. We walk in, I see a sweatshirt. I'm like, caleb, how much do you think that one is? He's like, I don't know. And I was like, I bet you it's at least 80 bucks, and it's like 79.99.

[Allison]

Did you look at the price of the jerseys?

[Mike]

Yeah, I think it was 1:80.

[Allison]

Yeah. That doesn't surprise me at all.

[Mike]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Allison]

So I am shocked that Mike just didn't stick it out and freeze the entire time. That's how extremely frugal he is. He would be miserable and freezing and not buy the quarters up, I think.

[Mike]

And, like, now that I'm losing weight because I got the injection pen, zeppelin and all that stuff, I'm getting a little skinnier. Not as fat as I used to be, not as much layers, and I could get cold faster.

[Allison]

You get chilled?

[Mike]

Yeah. I'm just a baby.

[Allison]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Oh, man, that buffet was awesome. There's so many shrimp, I probably downed, like, 20 shrimp.

[Allison]

Yeah. Mike was telling me about the sushi. I'm like, I don't know about stadium sushi.

[Mike]

It was fine.

[Allison]

But anyway, are we ready to dive into this cup of coffee?

[Mike]

My Coffee's hot. My attention is ready.

[Allison]

My husband is hot. We're ready to.

[Mike]

Whoa. Hey. We'll take that. Let's do it, folks. Hold on. Let's take a quick pause here. We'll be right back after.

[Allison]

No, we will not. We will continue forward. So this is a listener suggestion from Melissa. So thank you so much. And this is a story of the Scott Taylor family quadruple murder. So Pendleton, South Carolina, it's a very small town in the northwestern portion of the state where violent crime is truly a rarity. With a population of only maybe 3, 000 in 2015 when this case takes place, residents of the town being small, they knew one another and that just gave them a sense of safety. You know, that's just how small town life is. When you live in a city, you're more likely violent crime because there's a lot more people. So however, that sense of safety completely shattered on Monday, November 2, 2015, when at about 12:30pm 32 year old Amy Vardi placed a frantic 911 call and she told the dispatcher that she had just gone over to her mom's house and she had found four members of her family deceased inside. So Amy and her husband of only one week, this is 28 year old Rossmore, but he went by Ross Velardi. They were living in two mobile homes like between the other family. So they were very, very close to the other mobile home. And this is on a property just outside of town, outside of Pendleton. And the other mobile home at 2217 Refuge Road was where four members of the family lived. This was her 60 year old mother, Kathy Scott, her 58 year old stepfather, Terry Michael, who went by Mike Scott and his 88 year old mother Barbara Scott, as well as Amy's 82 year old grandmother Violet Taylor. So Ross and Amy's house, like I said, it was situated less than 50 yards away from where her mom, stepdad and her grandparents were living in this very rural area about a two hour drive smack dab in between Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina. So according to Staff Sergeant Scotty Hill, he was on duty that day as a detective with the Anderson County Sheriff's office when Amy's 911 call came in. He said that the home where the Scott family lived was actually, like I said, just outside of town. That made it especially rural, which meant that it had very little car and foot traffic because there were so few homes there. So it wasn't a place where people were just driving to get from one place to another. You really only went that way if you live there or you were going to visit someone. So when Detective Hill got this call, he didn't know anything. He didn't know if the killer was still at the scene. But by the time he pulled up, he did see that it was chaotic. There was a flurry of activity there. Detectives were arriving, as were forensics, and he could see these two mobile homes situated unleashed, excuse me, on at least a few acres of land. One of the trailers was a double wide, the other was a single wide. So according to their family, 58 year old Mike Scott, he was a very hard working guy. He was dedicated to doing good for his family, his friends and his neighbors. They lived a pretty simple life. You know, it was basically working to support themselves in being with the people that they loved. So his 80 year old mother, this is Barbara Scott, she was a wonderful cook. She loved doing kind things for others, just like her son did. And she often babysat for people in our community. She really enjoyed being with the babies. So 60 year old Kathy Scott was a bubbly person. She loved making other people laugh. And for much of her life she worked as a waitress in various restaurants. And this was something that was perfect for her because not only was she making money, but it gave her the chance to, you know, socialize. So her 82 year old mom, this is Violet Taylor, she was a super peaceful, quiet woman. She had this pure sweetheart. She never had a bad word to say about anyone. It reminds me of my grandpa. He was exactly that way.

[Mike]

He such a nice guy, man. He's just like always smiling, always just like ready for a good time.

[Allison]

Right. Never got involved in any of the drama or gossip. Just had this really peaceful personality that's very hard to come by.

[Mike]

Plenty of drama within your family too.

[Allison]

Oh my gosh.

[Mike]

He was a big guy.

[Allison]

Yeah. So as police were arriving, they found Mike, Barbara and Violet, they were sadly deceased in the living room. And meanwhile, Kathy's body was in the bedroom. And it was just an unbelievably violent scene. Each victim had both been stabbed to death and then shot postmortem. There was absolutely no sign of forced entry into the home. And it really appeared that everything happened very quickly. There was no sign of a real struggle and the victims likely had little chance to fight back. So whatever happened to them happened very, very quickly. So other than this horrifically bloody, violent scene of these four innocent victims lying on the floor, the house really looked otherwise tidy and orderly. It had not been ransacked. So at first glance of the crime scene to detective hill. And again, this is him walking in and just doing a quick assessment. He thought maybe it could have been a classic murder suicide, Since Kathy was found in the bedroom away from the other three victims. And he wondered maybe if she possibly shot her husband, her mother, mother in law, before then retreating to the bedroom to kill herself. But this theory quickly dissolved, because not only did Kathy not have a gun in her possession, but he soon learned that she had actually died from stab wounds. She had gotten, or, excuse me, one single stab wound to the chest Rather than the two gunshot wounds to her head. And neither murder weapon was found at the scene. So Amy told detectives that she and Ross had been out of town for the weekend. And when they got home on that Monday, she approached the back door of her mom's house, and she noticed that the door had just pushed open. She didn't even have to turn the knob or anything. So when she stepped inside, she said she flipped the light on because it was dark. And this is when she saw the three members of her family deceased, because, of course, her mom was in the bedroom Away from that site.

[Mike]

What a scene. Just coming in, expecting to see everybody. It's like a much worse scenario.

[Allison]

Yeah. And she told the dispatchers that their bodies felt cold. It was just horrific. And even the coroner, you, know, who had been doing this for so, so many years, Said that he had never seen something so awful, Especially in this area.

[Mike]

It's not like this kind of stuff happens.

[Allison]

It's not the big city. So Kathy and Mike had been married for nine years, and according to Mike's sister, Pam isbell, Although they had dated all the way back in junior high, they ended up breaking up because they had gone to two different high schools. So it wasn't until much later in life when they reconnected and fell back in love.

[Mike]

That's kind of cool.

[Allison]

It's really cute. So each of their mothers were living with them, and while Kathy stayed home to take care of their elderly mothers, Mike was working for the South Carolina department of transportation. And according to his sister pam, since he was out on the road crew, he was outside a lot, moving around, not just sitting at a desk. And this was something he really loved about his job. So after the couple got married, Kathy's mom, Violet, she moved in because she started dealing with some health issues, and they just thought it would be better for her to be taken care of. Kind of interesting that we were talking about that with your parents. And then shortly thereafter, Mike's mom, Barbara, she moved in as well. So while Kathy, Mike, Violet and Barbara were living in this double wide trailer, Amy, Ross and Amy's two children were living just a short distance away in the single wide trailer that sat parallel to theirs. So over the weekend of the murders, Amy's children hadn't been there. They had been out of town visiting with Ross's parents in Columbia, South Carolina. The couple had actually gotten married on his family's property on October 24th. So the his parents just said, hey, why not just let the kids stay here? You guys can just have some time to yourselves. So Amy indicated that after a couple of days of not seeing her family, she decided to walk over and check on them. And then this is of course, when she found their bodies. So she tearfully made, you know, a plea to the media or was basically telling the media that she felt like she was stuck in this horrific dream that she was unable to wake up from. So Pam had last spoken with her brother because of course, the investigators want to get a timeline of approximately when this horrible thing happened. So Pam is saying she last spoke with her brother Mike on Saturday. This is the evening of Halloween. And he and Kathy had been looking forward to spending time with their grandchildren the following day. And she hadn't heard from him on Sunday. This wasn't unusual. So Again, this is November 1, 2015, the Sunday that she didn't hear from her brother. But it wasn't unusual because normally they didn't necessarily talk a lot over the weekend. He did call her each weekday. So on Monday, when Mike's call didn't come through as it normally did, she picked up the phone and called her brother and he didn't answer. So she left him a message. She wasn't worried at the time and she didn't hear about the family's death because of course she's not just losing her brother, her sister in law, but she's also losing her mother in this tragedy. So a cousin had called her and she was just obviously devastated. So as investigators began to piece together the timeline, although they weren't sure of the exact time of murders, the they determined that the foursome had likely been killed two days before Amy place that 911 call on Halloween, Saturday, October 31, 2015.

[Mike]

And that's also kind of a clue, a little bit like it could be a random occurrence where somebody was out doing dumb crap on Halloween. I don't know, just that I was expecting it to be Halloween night.

[Allison]

Yeah. So detectives were able to narrow the time frame down since Kathy's Brother Roger normally stopped by the Scott's home on Sunday afternoons. He just came by to say hi, check on everyone. But on this particular Sunday, November 1st, there was no answer at the door when he knocked. So he just left without seeing them. So Detective Hill believed by this time they were already inside on the other side of that door, deceased. Although the coroner's office ruled their deaths as being on November 1st, Detective Hill does believe they were killed on Halloween night. So the last activity in their bank accounts was from the night of Halloween when Mike and Kathy went out to dinner and there was still a bowl of Halloween candy sitting next to the front door. And obviously they're living in this very rural area. It's very unlikely they were going to get a lot of trick or treaters. But they did have the candy out and ready to go. So Ross and Amy indicated that they had seen Mike mowing the lawn at about 5:30 or 6pm on Saturday. And she said that they had a quiet evening. They cooked dinner, they went to bed at about 9pm and according to Ross, they left for Columbia at about 4:30 to 5am on Sunday morning. They were heading to his parents house to get the kids. So when they got back on Monday, Ross said he left with the kids to run errands. And this is when Amy noticed that her mom's dogs hadn't been taken out, so she walked over and found the bodies. So Ross told detectives that he had gotten this frantic phone call from Amy and she was telling him that he needed to come back home immediately and go straight to their trailer with the kids so that they didn't know what was happening to their grandparents. So he said he never went into Mike and Kathy's trailer after they were found murdered. So not only had each victim been shot in the head, but each of their throats had been cut, making it the bloodiest crime scene that Anderson county detectives had ever witnessed.

[Mike]

Yeah, and that's also overkill a bit. You know, somebody that knows them, they

[Allison]

use the word overkill, which of course would make it a more personal murder. So not only were quadruple homicides in and of themselves very rare, but the fact that the killer or killers had utilized multiple weapons was also puzzling. But it made investigators believe that there had been more than one killer. So because the murders had been so aggressive, like I said, it suggested that there was a lot of rage and hate behind their deaths. So a forensic pathologist determined that the most of the victim's gunshot wounds appeared to be post mortem, while the stab Wounds were focused to their neck and their upper chests. So each victim, other than Mike had defensive wounds to their hands. They must have had a chance to hold up their hands and protect themselves, whereas Mike had not had that chance.

[Mike]

And he'd be the one you'd want to target first, of course.

[Allison]

So Mike was found face down in the living room with a massive pooling of blood surrounding his body. Because he lacked defensive wounds, it's likely he was murdered first for multiple reasons. He, he's a 58 year old guy, he's the strongest of the group. He'd be the one, like Mike just said, you'd want to take out first. I know that sounds very callous, but that's what likely happened here. So there was like little doubt, you know, that he was the strongest victim in the house. Especially when you're living with an 80 year old woman and an 82 year old woman. So since there was no sign of forced entry, it's likely that the person or people who did this were welcomed into their home. And, and the picture kind of painted a story of what went down. And it's likely they were gathered in the living room watching TV when they were just suddenly attacked out of the blue and unexpectedly. And odds are their guard had been down. And this suggested that they had again likely known their killer. So not only had there been no sign of forced entry, but just the way the picture presented itself with the lack of chaos, is that it looked like they had been comfortable when this sudden attack happened.

[Mike]

I remember you saying that earlier. No chaos, nothing thrown about. It's like it all kind of happened almost like the same time. Which is why it might be multiple killers too. It's almost like, okay, ready, go.

[Allison]

Right. Because you have four people to corral.

[Mike]

Yeah. Usually somebody would be running around something. I don't know, you know, how obviously the older folks, they might not get around as easy, so I don't know.

[Allison]

So it, it really diminishes the picture that this random killer just busted through the front door and began attacking them. So Mike had been stabbed in the neck six times with one wound that was over six inches long. There was a gunshot wound behind his left ear. And because of the lack of hemorrhaging seen to the surrounding soft tissue, it was likely he had already been deceased at the time that he was shot. 82 year old Violet and 80 year old Barbara, they were lying on the living room floor side by side. Violet's neck had been slashed so severely that she had been nearly decapitated. This peaceful, sweet, 82 year old woman died this way.

[Mike]

It's such a thing against them. It's crazy, horrible, defenseless old ladies, you

[Allison]

know, it's just, I mean, what it's like children and elderly, you know, they're the most vulnerable of the people. She had also been shot twice in the head and she had defensive wounds to her left hand. Of the four victims, Barbara, 80 year old Barbara had the most extensive injuries. She had not only been stabbed about six times in the neck, chest and left shoulder, but there was also a gunshot wound behind her right ear that had been fired at very close range. Kathy, who had been found away from the other three victims in the bedroom, she had two gunshot wounds to the head as well as a single stab wound to the chest that went on to puncture her right lung and it caused extensive internal bleeding. There was bruising that was present from the force of the knife's handle that was striking her skin as she was being stabbed. And this suggested a combat type knife that was utilized for this crime. So because they thought that there was a guard at the base of the knife that would have left this bruising.

[Mike]

Yeah. With the stabbing, it stops itself.

[Allison]

Yes. And then it bruises the skin around. So Detective Hill felt that the person who held the knife had been very skilled and comfortable with knives. And it hadn't been someone who was just in the house, got mad and randomly picked up a butcher knife and began stabbing in a fit of rage.

[Mike]

Yeah, like all the knives I have are pocket knives. They don't have that stopper. No, I'm thinking more like a Rambo knife. You know, you see that little base at the bottom?

[Allison]

Yes.

[Mike]

And somebody's probably in the military or police force or something like that.

[Allison]

That's exactly what they thought. So it was likely someone, based on these wounds and the way that this whole crime was carried out, that had been trained on how to use a knife. The wounds didn't appear to be from a typical kitchen knife. And it's likely that this killer brought this weapon with them. So it just so happened that Ross was a marine and he had security guard training, so he would have used these exact type of knives. Interesting that killers thought was used in this crime.

[Mike]

Remind me who Ross is.

[Allison]

Ross is Amy's husband of about one.

[Mike]

Oh, okay. Yeah, they live in the other trailer.

[Allison]

Okay, well, so when asked about this, he indicated that he didn't even know where his knife was or if he really even had one at this point. So the hallway that led to the bedroom where Kathy was found Was tracked with bloody footprints. Because, of course, these four victims are deceased, they can't tell their story of what happens. So they have to look at this crime scene and try to play out in their minds, how did this go down? So this suggested that she was stabbed in the chest while she had been in the living room, and then she ran towards the bedroom before she collapsed. The stab wounds themselves had been fatal even before she had been shot twice. So there was an empty gun holster under the bed near Kathy's body that may have contained a.38 caliber revolver. This is the same caliber of gun that was used to kill the family. So investigators theorize that she likely ran to the bedroom to get this gun in order to try to protect herself and her family. But this gun ended up getting ripped out of her hands, and then it was used for the murders. So the holster had a small droplet of blood on it that suggested that Kathy had been standing over it after she had been stabbed.

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[Allison]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. So had this been the case? The killer or killers had come to the house with a combat style knife. And after stabbing each of the four victims, they chased after Kathy to her bedroom, pulled this gun out of her hand, and then they went back through the house, shooting each of the victims to be sure that they were dead. And again, most of the gunshot wounds were inflicted post mortem. They had already been deceased by the time they were shots.

[Mike]

So he probably went around stabbing and, you know, cutting throats.

[Allison]

Yes.

[Mike]

And then Kathy went to try to get her gun, and he got it and then shot them all. Maybe.

[Allison]

Right. So the killer hadn't even likely planned to utilize a gun, but once they had it, that's where they went back around, just to be sure. So the fact, again, that two weapons had been used suggested that two people are involved. One that held the knife, the other held the gun. So the lack of forced entry suggested that the killer or killers, again, had been let into the home. And in speaking with other family members, Investigators came to learn that in addition to Mike's full Time job. He also bought and sold gold. And since he didn't trust banks, he preferred to work with cash rather than debit or credit cards. And those that were close to Mike, his family members, his sister, things like that, they were aware that he kept a lot of cash in their trailer, Sometimes as much as $80,000.

[Mike]

Well, yeah, that's like inviting terrible things to happen. Right? That's a really. If you, you know, the word gets out that somebody carries a lot of cash.

[Allison]

And not only did he have extensive amounts of cash, as much as $80,000 in the trailer, he also had a lot of gold in the house. They didn't know where he kept it. Mike wasn't a stupid guy. He didn't go around broadcasting that he had $80,000 in his trailer.

[Mike]

But it's a stupid idea to have that much cash. I get it. You know, you don't trust the institutions or whatever you like, and it's easier to hide from taxes and stuff. So that's probably the main reason. But it's. It's obviously. But you're a target.

[Allison]

So again, he's thinking in his head. He is only telling the. The only people that aware that he has these valuables in his trailer are people that he truly trusts. We're talking like siblings. So, you know, that's something that could be a motive for murder.

[Mike]

Absolutely.

[Allison]

Although they may have had large amounts of cash in their home, Mike and Kathy were certainly not flashy people. They were working class people. They drove modest cars. They didn't live a flashy life. So if they were out in public, say, at a restaurant, no one would look at them and see them climb into this luxury car and be like, oh, let's follow them home, Because I'm sure they have a lot of money.

[Mike]

You'd have to know them.

[Allison]

You'd have to know them to know. And again, because their house was in such a rural location, odds were whoever killed them wasn't just someone driving or walking by. So detectives noted a shelf that was inside the main bedroom closet that appeared that it had fallen down, and it may have been previously holding a really heavy item. They were suspecting that it was a safe that had been full of cash. So Detective Hill, as they're combing through the home, he just so happened to find a small safe that was stuffed with $20,000 of cash. Just a small safe. He said it was very well hidden. He almost missed it. It's likely that the killer had completely overlooked that safe because otherwise it would have been gone. So since Mike utilized Facebook and ebay to sell gold, jewelry, coins, and guns. Investigators were wondering if this could have been a connection to an unsavory person that handed over a large amount of cash in exchange for gold, and they wanted to go back and steal their money back.

[Mike]

Yeah. You know, you said he only told certain people about his cash offerings, but when he was doing deals on Marketplace or ebay or whatever, it's like those people. Every single one of those people knows there's some cash there. They might not know there's 80 grand there, but there's probably 5 grand or 10 grand because he has to deal in cash.

[Allison]

Right. So according to Kathy's brothers, when Mike was selling items for his side business, Kathy often went with him. I'm sure they met at a very public spot.

[Mike]

I like to meet at police stations.

[Allison]

Like, you sold a PlayStation once back

[Mike]

when the PlayStation fives were super hot. I was selling them for, like, seven or 800 bucks. Sorry, guys. I just took an opportunity. Yeah, that's what it is. And, yeah, it made some kids happy.

[Allison]

So not only did Kathy come with him for just an added person, and I'm sure they met in a very public place. To their knowledge, they never, ever had people come to their trailer for safety purposes. So investigators came to learn that Amy had a volatile relationship with the victims and was known to use her children against her doting mom and her grandparents.

[Mike]

Interesting.

[Allison]

Family members indicated that Amy's relationship with her mom crumbled after Kathy took Amy's biological father off of life support. Excuse me? Life support. Apparently, Amy's dad had been working on a car, and it had fallen on him and crushed him. And, you know, Kathy had made the decision to take him off of life support.

[Mike]

So why was that Kathy's call instead of Amy's?

[Allison]

Because Kathy is. Was the wife.

[Mike]

Oh, okay.

[Allison]

Yeah. So she often referred to her mom as a narcissist. So before marrying Ross only one week earlier, Amy had been married a handful of times before. And although her family had been invited to each of all of her previous weddings, they hadn't been invited to this most recent one after they had a falling out. And I'll tell you about this falling out with Mike and Kathy. So when Amy first started dating Ross, all seemed well. Mike got along with him and felt that he was a really likable guy. He seemed like a good guy. However, there was this incident that happened on the 4th of July, and Kathy and Mike had taken Amy's kids to this fourth of July celebration at their church, and when they came back home, they saw that Amy and Ross were having a party. There was a lot of alcohol involved. People were inside that were intoxicated, and they were like, we're not letting the kids stay there. They're coming back with us to our trailer.

[Mike]

Yeah, I mean, it's not really their choice, but I mean, yeah, but as

[Allison]

grandparents, you know, you don't want your, your grandkids to be around drunk.

[Mike]

No, no, it's. It's a better thing to do for sure.

[Allison]

So this caused a big rift. And not only did Kathy and Mike not agree with how Amy was raising the children, but Kathy and Amy also constantly argued about money. That was like a huge, huge thing in a relationship.

[Mike]

What, that Amy wanted some of their money?

[Allison]

Amy just wasn't very good with her money. So after investigators obtained a search warrant for the couple's trailer, they came across a vast array of guns, including one that was registered to Mike. But the murder weapon wasn't found. And keep in mind, too, we're in the south, we're in this rural area. Having a lot of guns is not a rare thing.

[Mike]

I was at a business meeting and the two guys talking about their guns, it was like, oh, I got this one. This one of them had like seven guns. The other guy had like 10. It's a very, like everybody, every house here has plenty of guns, right?

[Allison]

So they also found $67,000 in cash. I can tell you, if you walk into our house, you probably won't find more than $20 in cash. If even that.

[Mike]

If I knew I was going to a valet that only took cash before we were leaving the house, I don't know if I'd be able to scrounge up $5.

[Allison]

No. So my mother in law, bless her heart, she paid for our nails, she treated us, and she paid in cash. And she goes, but you got the tip. And I'm like, I. I don't have cash.

[Mike]

Not unless I take a card for the tip. Yeah, this is all virtual. All these, all these, like, dollars are just like virtual points out there. I don't know where they are. Yeah, it's their credit. Call them credits. I don't even know.

[Allison]

So $67,000, that's a lot. But then you could say, well, maybe Mike's ways of living kind of rubbed off on Amy. And maybe they didn't trust banks and they kept a lot of cash in there.

[Mike]

Oh, they found it at Amy's house.

[Allison]

Amy and Ross's place.

[Mike]

Okay. Yeah, interesting.

[Allison]

So they found these guns. One was Registered to Mike, but they did not find the murder weapon, and they also found $67,000 in cash.

[Mike]

Did they get a. A search warrant? I don't.

[Allison]

Oh, yeah, they had a search warrant. Okay, so this is something. Of course, the police officers, when they found find this vast amount of money, they're going to ask, where did you get all this money?

[Mike]

Yeah. You're supposedly bad with money.

[Allison]

Yeah.

[Mike]

But you have 67 grand in your house.

[Allison]

And also, finances don't lie. It's. It's like, if you listen to Dave Ramsey, it's pretty cut and dry. What comes in, what goes out.

[Mike]

It's like getting audited by the IRS. It's like, okay, I see this $20,000 deposit. Where did that come from?

[Allison]

Right? Exactly. You have to explain it.

[Mike]

Yeah. You have a $67,000 fall here. Like, what happened? Did you guys. If you made it legitimately on ebay, that's fine. Just show me where.

[Allison]

So they claim that this was from their life savings as well as money they earned from their pet grooming business. However, when they spoke with this woman named Hannah Taylor, this is Amy's cousin, who also was a former employee at the Pendleton based grooming business Styles for Miles, she told investigators that the couple had been struggling terribly with their finances. And things were so dire that oftentimes Hannah's paychecks came up short or late. And she started her shift at the grooming business by checking voicemails. And oftentimes there were bill collectors leaving all sorts of messages. So only a month or two before the murders, Hannah had actually been fired after she had confronted Amy and Ross about not getting paid. And they were like, you gotta go. So she also claimed to have seen a large military style knife in Amy's car. So according to Mike's sister Pam, Kathy had basically raised Amy's two children. She bought them all of their clothing, she took them to school, to church, she fed them, she changed their diapers when they were little. She described Amy as a wild child who was living off, you know, outliving her life. And meanwhile, her mom was picking up all the responsibilities. And that's why we always say there's a before and an after after you have children, because before you can come and go as you wish, but after you have children, you need to buckle down and, you know, be stable.

[Mike]

I guess you don't have to if you want to be a piece of crap, but once you have kids, like, they didn't ask to be born, so it's your turn to turn on the Parenting light, right?

[Allison]

And Kathy already raised her children. Now it's your children and it's your job, Amy.

[Mike]

You're a big enough girl to have babies. You can go ahead and take her of them.

[Allison]

So after Amy had taken her kids back from Mike and her mom on the 4th of July, after they had this big falling out because of the intoxication, the party, they were no longer allowed to see their grandchildren moving forward. And of course, this was a major punishment for Kathy because she really loved her grandchildren. She essentially helped raise them.

[Mike]

And that's part of why they kept them away from the house with the parties and drunkenness. It was like they wanted to protect them.

[Allison]

Right. However, Mike went over to their trailer on the week that Ross and Amy had gotten married. Again, this is only a little bit more than a week before everyone gets killed. He was hoping to smooth things over, and it did seem to help. Amy stopped by their home and told her mom that when she got the kids back from her in laws the following weekend, meaning the weekend of Halloween, they would be able to see them. And the crime scene showed that there were some children's things out, which showed that Kathy was probably getting ready to spend time with her grandchildren.

[Mike]

Excited.

[Allison]

Just another added sadness to this case. So when investigators spoke with family's neighbors, they said that they hadn't seen or heard anything unusual on the night of the murders. But of course we're talking about a rural area. Odds are neighbors aren't just a stone's throw away. There's probably a distance between homes. So while they describe the Scott family as the sweetest people who everyone loved, they indicated that Amy often spoke terribly about her family and she often made comments that she wished that they were dead.

[Mike]

Man, that's Amy sounds kind of like a scumbag.

[Allison]

And there was also a video that I watched because I watched a documentary about this or a show about this, and it was recorded that depicted ross arguing with 80 year old Barbara outside. And he made this flipping comment, hope you die.

[Mike]

Oh, that's not a good look, Ross. Not a good look.

[Allison]

Awful. So Kathy's brother described their niece as odd and indicated that Amy and Kathy had a toxic relationship with fights that had even turned physical.

[Mike]

Geez, that's crazy. Come on. Like after your parents get a certain age, it's just like, I mean, don't

[Allison]

touch, you know, your parents.

[Mike]

I get your, you know, like I can hear. I've heard some stories like we're like teenagers and stuff. Act out or whatever. I've never gotten physical with Our kids. But it's just like, see, maybe, you know, like, that's. But when your parents are elderly, like, physical fights, that's just off the table.

[Allison]

I can't imagine. So everyone knew that she used her children as a weapon against her mom, as a way to manipulate her and get money from her. As many of their arguments, like I had said before, were based on Amy's financial issues. And during her falling out with her mom, Amy took to Facebook and she was ranting and raging on there, airing all their personal issues. And, you know, family's like, come on, Amy, take that crap down.

[Mike]

Like, I. I don't get why people do that. Nobody gives a crap. Like, there's. There's everybody right now listening. Can think of that person in your family or cousin or whatever that, like, just gets on Facebook and unloads. It's like, why are you doing this to yourself? You look like an idiot.

[Allison]

Right? It's just. It's so trashy.

[Mike]

You look so trashy and stupid. Like, everybody reading this thanks to your piece of crap, even the ones that say, you got this girl, or you go strong, the whole time, they're laughing at how stupid you are. Just so you know, they're going back

[Allison]

in the kitchen and going, she, you

[Mike]

got to read this. This chick's crazy.

[Allison]

So Mike's niece Jennifer and her husband Shaffer recalled the horrific phone call they received about the murders. And when they immediately came over to the trailers, they couldn't help but notice that Amy really seemed unfazed and everyone else was grief stricken. This demeanor carried on to the funeral, and this part was very weird to me. They said that Amy wore a red dress with a Kentucky Derby style hat to her family's funeral. That's really weird.

[Mike]

It's a choice. That's a choice is what that is. That's. That's odd. She's. That's. I don't know. I don't have to look this up.

[Allison]

And she approached Jennifer and Shaffer at the funerals and said, I didn't do it.

[Mike]

And nobody asked you, but that's weird that you would offer that.

[Allison]

Why did you offer that information? So on the very day of the funeral, Ross and his family ripped everything out of Mike and Kathy's home, and they threw each item out into the front yard like it was a piece of trash.

[Mike]

Somebody's gonna have to pick it up.

[Allison]

Well, they were gonna have a junk company, I'm sure, come and take it. So Ross and Amy immediately got busy selling their belongings, including Mike's Gold. Sadly, more than eight years went by though, and no charges had been filed.

[Mike]

I can't believe that. That's crazy.

[Allison]

Isn't that crazy? And it was just so disgusting to the family to think that these four innocent people were brutally murdered in their home and no one was facing justice.

[Mike]

Meanwhile, like, Amy and Ross can go spend all this money and they will, they're not going to save anything. They're just going to blow it all in probably a year or two.

[Allison]

We all know people like that. As quickly as they get the money, it's as good as gone. Yeah. So this is around the time this is the show that I watched. It's Cold Justice. If you've heard of this case or the show, it's where they come back around to unsolved cases and try to help solve that.

[Mike]

Fun.

[Allison]

So their team worked with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office and they utilized a digital forensic expert to dig into Amy and Ross's financial records. And this is where I say finances really don't lie.

[Mike]

Yeah, it's black and white.

[Allison]

So they found that two years before the murders back in 2013, Ross received a, a $25,000 military disability settlement. And the couple had also collected about $17,000 from their pet grooming business as well as another 5,000 from a tax refund. This all totaled 47,000. However, moving forward to early 2014, they were quickly blowing through this money. They spent $14,000 on a truck, 5,800 on a Ford Mustang, and about 15,000 on two Harley Davidson motorcycles. This totaled about 34, 800, which would have left over about 12, 200. And that same year their pet grooming business brought in only 2, 700.

[Mike]

So although Amy, they made all this money and have all this cash stash and that didn't even bring in the amount of money.

[Allison]

No. God, no. So although Amy was claiming, you know, when she would talk to investigators and such that her pet grooming business was very profitable, how the hell did these

[Mike]

investigators not first catch this?

[Allison]

That's what I don't understand how horrible years went by and why the Cold justice team had to come in and

[Mike]

find this like me and you are not like investigators. Right. It's just kind of basic. I mean, I guess we kind of are at this point, but it's just like, it's like the lowest hanging fruit. She's got a, a crapload of money in her house and she's terrible with her money from what everybody says. And you're not going to follow and try to find where she said she told you where it came from. You're not going to look and see in the books that the. And she probably said, well, it's mostly cash. It's under the table. I'll bet you that's what it was. But it's like, that's a lot of money under the table.

[Allison]

Yeah. So that's. That's the thing, though, is that it took this show to kind of really dig this up. So, again, she's claiming that her business was very profitable in 2015, the year that her family was murdered. They made about $27,000, which was in stark contrast to this $67,000 in cash that investigators found in their home.

[Mike]

And that, you know, there's. Being a business person, I'm always curious, is that revenue? Is that profit? Like, if. If that was just revenue, that means how much they charge their customers. Right? And then they got to pay out their employees. They got to pay out the rent they got or whatever and supplies and crap. And then there's the profit at the end.

[Allison]

I would imagine that that was their profit.

[Mike]

Right? If that was the profit, then, yeah. Still. Still way short.

[Allison]

So this is even more damning, but serial numbers from the bills that they found inside also match the bills that Mike had in his home before he was murdered.

[Mike]

Now, how would they know that?

[Allison]

I'll tell you exactly how they knew that. It was proven from a photo that Mike just so happened to snap and send to a friend. In a Facebook message. This picture depicted 5, 100 bills two days before the murders.

[Mike]

Okay, so they saw the numbers on there.

[Allison]

Yes.

[Mike]

And now they're in possession of Amy and Mike.

[Allison]

So now we know for sure that this was Mike's money. Partially. We know because the serial numbers were in plain view in this photo he took two days before the murders, which was then matched to the serial numbers of bills found in Ross and Amy's trailer.

[Mike]

But now, legally, that is their money, right? Technically, because.

[Allison]

But it was found, you know, because,

[Mike]

like, they get all the money that they.

[Allison]

I have no idea how Mike and Kathy's will was broken down.

[Mike]

Well, they did say they got all their gold and stuff, so, I mean, if it wasn't theirs and they stole it, so it was probably.

[Allison]

There were some issues, too, with all of that. So not only was money a motive for Ross and Amy to kill her family, but cell phone data was also highly damning. On September 4, 2015, Ross texted Amy, honey, please don't spend any more money. We only have $40 left in the business account on October 15, 2015, Amy texted Ross that people were at their shop raising hell about the rent payment. He responded, what would you like me to say to them, babe? I mean, at the moment we don't have any money. So on October 22, this is only nine days before the murders, they discussed that they needed to pay someone $7,000. That was due by November 1, one day after the family was killed. And this paired with the fact that Amy's two children were out of town when the family was murdered. This all suggested premeditation.

[Mike]

Absolutely.

[Allison]

So their cell phones place them each at home on the night of the murders. Although they initially told investigators that they had gone to bed by 9pm on Halloween, because of course, they're saying they got up really early the next morning to head over to get their kids. Amy texted Ross at 8:36pm she said, Everyone is up now and talking. Hahaha, take my car and grab a six pack. So detectives wondered if she was talking about the family members that lived in the trailer next door, that she could hear them. And days later, on November 5, she texted, hey babe, we need to go ahead and run. So when investigators reviewed surveillance footage from a local convenience store, they saw Ross buying beer on the night of the murders at 9:38pm Again, this is 38 minutes after they said they had gone to bed. That's not even a bit of the trouble that this has caused with him being on the surveillance footage. The biggest part was that he was wearing red ASICS Speed Star gym shoes. This is the exact same same style shoe that experts determined had left Prince in the blood at the crime scene.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Allison]

These shoes have never been found, so they can cannot argue that the prints were made after the fact. Even though Ross told investigators initially that he had never gone back into Mike and Kathy's trailers after, or excuse me, trailer after Amy found the victims. But this can't be argued with because there were drops of blood on top of the bloodied shoe prints. So you could see that the prints had been made and then drops of blood had come on top of them. So it was clear that they had not been from someone walking through the crime scene after the fact. Also, the sweatshirt that Ross was wearing in the surveillance video, just like the shoes, has never been recovered.

[Mike]

It's like you're trying to tell me you don't know where these shoes are, you don't know where the sweatshirt is, you don't know where anything is that you were wearing that night. That's, that's highly suspicious.

[Allison]

So when the Cold justice team reenacted the crime scene. They believed that it was Amy who gathered the family together in the living room on the night of Halloween. And then Ross likely followed shortly thereafter, approaching Mike from behind. He is unsuspectedly sitting in a chair in the living room. And Ross came from behind and began stabbing him in the chest and slashing his neck back. And Barbara then stood up to flee. And when Ross began stabbing her, Kathy ran toward the bedroom. Meanwhile, when Violet stood to flee, Amy blocked her path while Ross slashed her throat to the point of near decapitation. By this point in time, Kathy had come back into the living room with the gun as Ross stabbed her in the chest. And Amy pulled the gun from her mother's hand. Kathy then ran back to the bedroom, where she collapsed before Amy shot her twice at close range.

[Mike]

Jeez.

[Allison]

So once back in the living room, Amy then shot each of the three remaining victims to be sure that they were all deceased. Although some of the team believe that Ross did both the stabbings and the shootings and that Amy's job was just to corral everyone. Yeah, they were kind of torn on that.

[Mike]

I couldn't see. I mean, I don't know her. I mean, she's a complete waste of life. But I mean, shooting your own family like that.

[Allison]

I mean, either way, you're there as being viciously attacked.

[Mike]

Yeah, but that's like the moment, you know, it's like maybe she just told her husband, like you do all. All this.

[Allison]

Maybe.

[Mike]

I don't know.

[Allison]

So in the years that followed the murders, Amy and Ross remodeled the double wide where the murders happened. And then they moved in with their own.

[Mike]

Not. Not even their own money, the money that they. They murdered them for. So they allegedly. Sorry.

[Allison]

They were involved in a civil litigation over the property. And during the investigation, funds were seized, because that's the thing. They were probably doing things, and the money was belonging to other people, you know. Yeah. So eventually, they relocated to West Columbia, where they opened a mobile dog grooming business. It was called Right Way Mobile Pet Grooming.

[Mike]

Well, they did so well with the last one, they should open another.

[Allison]

So as recently as September 2, 2022, she and Ross were providing complimentary services for canines of the Casey, South Carolina Police Department. So according to business filings on record with South Carolina Secretary of State's Office, Ross Velardi was a registered owner for two corporations that were headquartered at their home address in West Columbia. Not only just the pet grooming business, but another business called Bikers Only Customs. So when detectives spoke with Ross, this was all filmed because it was part of cold justice. This happened in December 2023. He was describing his relationship with Kathy, and especially Mike, as good. He admitted, though, that things had turned sideways after they had this 4th of July 2015 fallout out. So they knew as they're sitting in the car and cameras are rolling, that this is all a bunch of bs. So when he was asked what he thought happened, he pointed a finger at Mike's sister Pam, claiming that she had a lot more to gain financially from her brother's death. This is like Pam, who talks to her brother Monday through Friday. They have this great relationship. Yeah, Pam went over to the trailer and killed everybody. Oh, okay.

[Mike]

That's just like. Also, it's a woman versus a man. It's like, I don't know.

[Allison]

So he told the investigators that before the murders, he had made judges just shy of $100,000 from his mobile grooming business. But this is despite the fact that records show that he made only 27,000.

[Mike]

It's just that number keeps climbing. Yep. It has to be over the 80,000 that they had. Of course it does.

[Allison]

Well, it was 67,000 that they had in the house. So he also said that he left for his par or they left for his parents house on Halloween night, even though in their initial statement, he said they left the following morning. So when confronted about the most damning thing is that these red AS six that he was wearing in the surveillance footage on the night of the murders, they were telling him, ross, these match what was found at the crime scene. He's like, I have no idea what happened to them. He was just completely playing dumb.

[Mike]

Right. That's all you can do at that point.

[Allison]

So they finished talking to him, and then it was Amy's turn to come out, and they're like, okay, Amy, come in the car. We want to talk to you.

[Mike]

I can't believe they're talking, by the way. Freaking dumb asses.

[Allison]

She refused to get in the car, and she. She's like, I. I just don't feel comfortable in confined spaces. So she chose to stand out front of her house smoking. And like Ross, she also said they believe that they headed over to Columbia on Friday night. This was the day before the murder. So she's trying to now place them totally away from the crime scene. And it just didn't match any of what they initially told investigators.

[Mike]

Like, the more you talk to them, the more it's like, no, we were gone a week before Halloween, three weeks. We're in Europe, we don't even know what was happening. We met, made $7 million on our dog grooming business.

[Allison]

I don't think you did.

[Mike]

No, you didn't.

[Allison]

So during much of her conversation, though, she was focusing on the trauma that she suffered at finding the four deceased members of her family and the therapy she later had to receive in order to cope. So only days later, Amy and Ross Vardy were finally, finally arrested on December 15, 2023.

[Mike]

I like to have a little clapping session. That's good.

[Allison]

And they were charged with four counts of murder. This is a little over eight years after Mike, Kathy, Barbara, and Violet were brutally murdered in their own home. So In February of 2024, an Anderson county judge denied their bond, and they were to remain in prison until their trials. So although prosecutors pushed for the couple to have a joint trial, accusing Ross and Amy of being co conspirators on February 11, 2026. This is just very recently I actually had to go back and, you know, add to my research, because I did this research as Amy was starting to go to trial. So the judge made the ruling that they were going to have separate trials, and Amy's trial would be first. So her trial began on February 23, 2026, in Anderson County, South Carolina. And although not a single piece of evidence that was presented during the trial directly tied Amy to the crime scene, prosecutors told the jurors that money had been the reason that she had done this.

[Mike]

And that's probably why they've never been charged at this point, because there nothing

[Allison]

direct, no fingerprints, DNA, nothing. So Assistant Attorney General Joe Kozak told jurors that evidence would show that Amy and Ross had acted together in the murders. He went on to say, in South Carolina, the hand of one is the hand of all. So under the legal doctrine, a person can be convicted if they participated in a common plan, even if they didn't personally inflict every fatal injury.

[Mike]

I'm good with that.

[Allison]

So despite the fact that Mike Scott had been described by his family and friends as a frugal man, they all knew that he kept cash in their home. Amy and Ross had been struggling financially. And after the murders, suddenly they quickly paid off all of these outstanding debts, including that $7,000 payment they need to make. Made, excuse me, by November 1st, suddenly, they had $40 in their account, and suddenly they're paying $7,000, and then no

[Mike]

more texting each other that we don't have the money, don't spend. That it?

[Allison]

Yes. So the money that was found in their trailer could be directly tied to the family thanks to the Facebook message that Mike sent to his friend that depicted the cash that showed the serial numbers in plain view. So after the family was killed, the couple quickly left for Columbia in hopes of proving that they had been elsewhere at the time of the murders. But because family members would talk to the family, they stopped by. They were able to deduce that they were killed on Halloween night. So I think that Amy left for Columbia thinking that she knew her uncle, stopped by to see the family every Sunday. And I think she was hoping he would have entered that trailer and found the bodies and called 91 1. But that didn't happen. So now they're back home on Monday and it's left to her to walk over and find the bodies and pretend that she's shocked. So that's what ended up coming down to. So on the fourth day of testimony, Amy's former cellmate also told jurors that during one of their conversations they had inside their cell, Amy told her that she had gathered the victims in the living room and then her husband did the deed. However, the defense argued that this woman was simply looking for a way to get out of jail, Pointing out inconsistencies in her testimony.

[Mike]

Yeah, you can't trust.

[Allison]

So after a week long trial and 90 minutes of deliberation. Mike, what do you think? The jury found 42 year old Amy Velardi guilty. They found her guilty of murdering her mother. You want to clap, Mike?

[Mike]

Hold on, let me see if I can find the applause. There we go. That's our in studio audience there. Good job. Good job.

[Allison]

So she was found guilty of murdering her mother, her stepfather, her grandmother, her step grandmother. Over 10 years earlier, Judge R. Scott Sprouse handed down four consecutive life sentences, one for each victim. 60 year old Kathy Scott, 58 year old Terry Michael Scott, 80 year old Barbara Scott and 82 year old Violet Taylor. And then 38 year old Ross Velardi's trial, it has yet to be scheduled. But seeing as looking good, his footprint is the one in the trailer. We can all deduce if Amy was found guilty, I don't see any possibility that Ross will not as well. And I imagine he will get the same four consecutive life sentences. But again, I'm just, I'm speculating his trial has yet to happen.

[Mike]

All alleged or whatever.

[Allison]

We always say innocent until proven guilty. But you know, take what you will,

[Mike]

big air quotes on that one.

[Allison]

So more. For more than a decade, the quiet town of Pendleton, as well as a victim's family members and their neighbors waited for justice. Mike, Kathy, Barbara and Violet weren't just victims of violent murder. They were also family members. They were neighbors and people that were loved. People really loved this family. They were good people. And their deaths left an entire community stunned and searching for answers. So while we wait for Ross's trial to begin, we know that Amy at least will spend the rest of her life behind bars for her role in the murders. Because for eight years after they died, they were out living their lives and spending the cash that they didn't earn so long before their names were ever spoken inside of a courtroom. Mike and Kathy had built a life in Pendleton and they had welcomed their mothers, Barbara and Violet into their homes to help with their care. And in one single night, all of it was taken away, leaving an emptiness that can never be filled by people that they should have been able to trust. And that is the sad story of the Scott Taylor quadruple murders.

[Mike]

I'm looking up pictures of the scumbags killed him. One one allegedly, but the other one allegedly.

[Allison]

But again it. Amy's footprint wasn't seen at the crime scene and she was found guilty. So, you know, deduce what you will see when Ross's trial is scheduled, hopefully soon. And then it could all just be put behind the family because more than 10 years has gone by.

[Mike]

It's a long time.

[Allison]

That's a long time.

[Mike]

So this is all because of that Cold justice show, basically, like thank goodness. How. What a great, great idea. Because a lot of these smaller police stations and communities, they can't afford all the DNA testing, everything. So the cold justice comes in like, hey, we're going to give you 100 grand cash injection but we're going to own all this footage. Is that cool? And then they help them with some of that stuff. Like that's a great idea. Like now it only sucks if they try to make people guilty. That warrant, you know, they're very like,

[Allison]

Kelly Siegler is in there. She's, I love her. And she's a prosecutor, former prosecutor. And just they're very level headed. If you've ever seen Cold justice, this very factual. I like the way that they method, methodically rule people out. And then when they think like, okay, Amy and Ross, they list why, why could it be them? And they break it down factually because again, they had that financial expert break down exactly what they were bringing in and then they comb through those text messages to see they had no money, none like $40 in an account. We know that they got. They fired the cousin because they could not pay her. And then all of a sudden, days after the. The murders, they're paying off all these bills worth thousands and thousands of dollars.

[Mike]

That's crazy.

[Allison]

You know, it's just. It's pretty black and white when it comes down to it. And despite the fact that Amy's DNA wasn't directly tied, like, you know, her hair wasn't found on any of the victims or anything like that, based on all the circumstantial evidence that was really tight, they were able to find her guilty.

[Mike]

Yeah. No fingerprints on guns. No guns.

[Allison]

No. No murder weapon was ever recovered.

[Mike]

And that wherever they took care of it. I was looking up where cold justice is available. It's on oxygen.

[Allison]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Where'd you see it? We don't have cable.

[Allison]

Prime Video, I believe I. Or maybe it was Peacock. That's where I was having trouble. It was like wanting me to do, like, the Peacock exclusive or some crap. I don't know.

[Mike]

She. We are. Now we have two subscriptions to Peacock because this one can't figure out how to log into the one.

[Allison]

And she's like, what are you talking about? I have. Have Peacock. How do you think I watch all my Bravo?

[Mike]

I have Peacock. So I just hit subscribe again.

[Allison]

So I did it wouldn't let. It said, you are not able to watch this show with your existing subscription.

[Mike]

We had whatever. Peacock Plus. So you can watch.

[Allison]

Let me watch it.

[Mike]

I don't. Because you weren't logged in, I think.

[Allison]

Of course I was logged in. I watch all my Bravo shows on Peacock.

[Mike]

I don't know.

[Allison]

Yeah, I watched King of Queens.

[Mike]

You were watching the Peacock through. I admit it's very confusing because Prime Video, you were looking at Prime Video and looking at the Peacock thing through Prime Video. So it wasn't within Peacock. You were under the umbrella of amaz.

[Allison]

I'm not a fool. I got out of Prime Video, went into Peacock, and I couldn't. It wasn't coming up. I'm not an idiot.

[Mike]

You're not an idiot. You're beautiful.

[Allison]

Don't poke me with your.

[Mike]

Did I just poke you?

[Allison]

You were a second ago. It's like, stop poking my shoulder.

[Mike]

It's so. You're so strong. Big muscles. She has big muscles. Look at this things, man. She works out. What do you work out four days a week?

[Allison]

Five days a week.

[Mike]

Five days a week.

[Allison]

She's Monday through Friday.

[Mike]

Do you just do everything right? It's crazy.

[Allison]

No. God, no. I clearly, I don't. If we're paying for two peacocks of pe. Pe Pepop.

[Mike]

Pe Pops. Pe Pops. We have a peacock that lives in our subdivision.

[Allison]

Oh, we do. His name is Blue Cocky.

[Mike]

That's a great name.

[Allison]

And we learned this week that peacocks fly cuz our peacock was calling at us. It could. Here's what it sounds like.

[Mike]

Oh, it does.

[Allison]

And we were like, where's Blue Cocky? And we look up and Blue Cocky

[Mike]

is in a tree with his big tail feathers.

[Allison]

Oh, he's beautiful.

[Mike]

He's gorgeous.

[Allison]

So we google do peacocks fly? And they said yes, they have have sudden bursts of flight. So they don't like fly around. When they need to get from point A to B, they'll do a quick flight.

[Mike]

I mean, he's holding like pounds of feathers.

[Allison]

He is a big boy and he's beautiful.

[Mike]

Beautiful.

[Allison]

And I never ever want him to leave our neighborhood because I love him so much.

[Mike]

Well, just like Blue Cocky, you guys are beautiful as well.

[Allison]

Absolutely.

[Mike]

In your own way, I'm sure.

[Allison]

Thank you guys so much for listening. We appreciate all of you. Every single Sunday, we come out with a free episode. If you're running out of content, we got you covered. Wednesdays, bonuses, you can find us over on Apple subscriptions. Going to we're for Patreon.

[Mike]

We've been around for a while. So there's hundreds of bonus episodes.

[Allison]

Yeah. Many, many hundreds.

[Mike]

Go get it. Go get it. You deserve it.

[Allison]

Yes. And we hope you guys are having a great weekend. Stay safe, take care of one another, and until next time, bye.