← GBNF: A True Crime Podcast
GBNF: A True Crime Podcast
179. The Murder of Charles Taylor by Amanda Taylor (The Selfie Killer)
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Recently, in an episode that I covered for Patreon, I posed the question of when a killer should be forgiven and their crime be forgotten. The answer is, honestly, never. However, this week we will look at a killer who believed that the police should simply leave her to take her own life after she murdered her father in law for reasons that she deemed completely justifiable. This week we look at a sick and sordid version of Romeo and Juliet. Hello, my name is Lance and Welcome to episode 179 of GBNF, the murder of Charles Taylor by the Selfie Killer. Amanda Taylor. Sa. Amanda Barbara Nicole Taylor had what many would call a difficult upbringing, even though she herself has said multiple times over the years that that was not the case. And she in fact says that she had the perfect childhood and that her family looked after her and cared for her very much. Amanda has never met her biological father and it's been reported that he in fact had been sent to prison for a homicide conviction. Not long before she was born, Amanda and her mom, Melissa would make a move from Florida to Virginia in search of a fresh start and to be closer to family. However, not long after they made the move, Melissa had to go back to Florida where she needed to serve a short jail sentence. At that time, Amanda and her sister moved in with her uncle and he took care of them both as though they were his own children. Amanda has said that her uncle became a very strong father figure in her life. Amanda, though, as many teens do, went through a period in her early teen years where she started to self harm harm and she started to have suicidal thoughts. When her family realized that she was struggling, they actually took her and checked her in for a psychological evaluation so that she could get some help that they realized she was very in need of. Around the age of 12, Amanda would meet the girl who would become her best friend, Mariah, and the two became thick as thieves, literally. When they were 12 years old, they tried to run away from home together after they stole a car. They did not get very far though, and they were brought back home by the police. They would again make the same sort of attempt though, when they were 16 years old. Maria would become a central piece of Amanda's life, but so too would a boy that Maria introduced her to, Rex Taylor. When Rex and Amanda met, Rex was 16 and Amanda was 14. Rex and Amanda quickly developed a bond and they also soon found out that they were Both born on March 27th and so they believed that that was a sign from the universe that they were meant to be together, 327 would become their special day and their special number as they fell further and further in love. Rex would send Amanda a message every day at 3:27pm When Amanda was 15 years old, she found out that she was pregnant and the child was, of course, Rex's. The pair decided that they wanted to keep the baby and Amanda would ultimately drop out of school when she was 17 and she and Rex got married when Rex turned 19 in 2007. After they were married, Amanda and Rex would trade off living with Amanda's mother and living with Rex's father, Charles, and his grandfather, who lived in the same house. Amanda told everyone that Charles was very good to her and very good to her son, but she said that the relationship between Charles and Rex was very different. She said that their relationship was strange because the two acted more like friends, friends and party pals than they did like a father and son. Amanda said that for as long as she had known Rex, Charles had been giving him painkillers in the form of opioids to, as she put it, try to help Rex with his mental health and depression struggles. Amanda said that Charles believed that being on drugs helped Rex and so he constantly provided him with pills and and Rex turned into a functioning addict who more often than not did not ever seem to be stoned when he was on the drugs. Aside from a love for one another and a love for their son, Rex and Amanda also shared one other interest that became central in their lives. Both of them were obsessed with true crime, not with the cases per se, but rather with the convicts themselves. The couple reached out to numerous convicts and started to have pen pal relationships with many different serial killers. One of the most prominent was Paul Runje, who was a serial killer who had sexually assaulted and murdered at least six women and one girl between 1995 and 1997 in Illinois. He was originally sentenced to death, but he had his sentence commuted to life in prison when capital punishment was abolished in Illinois. Paul was of utmost interest to Rex and Amanda because his case seemingly aligned with one of their other true passions in the realm of crime. The movie Natural Born Killers. For those of you that have not seen Natural Born Killers, it is a movie that follows Mickey and Mallory Knox who had traumatic childhoods and and then became lovers and mass murderers and they became glorified in the media. Paul's wife Charlene was believed to have lured the women into the family home for Paul to assault and murder. Rex and Amanda developed deep relationships with some of the killers that they corresponded with with Rangy even being considered a part of their family. He would even send birthday cards for their son every single year. Rex and Amanda even became so obsessed with serial killers that they gave themselves serial killer names. Rex called himself the Butcher and Amanda called herself the brunette bomber. Amanda and Rex would have a second child together, but all the while, Rex's addiction issues were an ongoing problem for him and for the couple. All of that would come to a head in April of 2014 when Rex was driving his vehicle under the influence and almost got into a very serious accident with both of his children inside of the car. Amanda then gave Rex an ultimatum at that point because she was tired of watching him suffer at the hands of his addiction and was now terrified for the lives of her children. Amanda told Rex that she still loved him dearly and wanted to be with him, but he needed to leave the home until he got sober. Rex did leave and he moved back in with his father Charles and Charles father, which was certainly a bad move as Rex's addiction issues and his depression became far worse. Sadly, Rex didn't get any better. And In August of 2014, on Rex and Amanda's side son's seventh birthday, Rex would take his own life by hanging himself outside of his father's home in his father's shed. As one can imagine, Rex's entire family was overcome with grief. The one outlier of that though, was reportedly Amanda. Amanda's mom said that Amanda never truly seemed to grieve. She said that Amanda almost went dark when Rex passed away, saying it was as though Amanda had died with Rex. Amanda, of course, blamed Charles, who she believed was at fault for creating the dependence and addiction of Rex on drugs from a very early age. But in return, Charles blamed Amanda for the death of his son. He believed that Rex took his own life because he was so depressed from being kicked out of his home and and being forced out of the lives of his children. By taking the time to look at Rex's obituary, you can certainly see that there was some disdain for Amanda. She was completely left out of it. Rex's family said that he loved music. He was known by everyone as a very loving person. Rex was a great father and obviously he loved Amanda and their children dearly and they loved him the same way. Rex was known as someone who would truly go above and beyond for anyone and do anything to help someone that was in need of help. Rex was 25 years old at the time of his death. People desperately tried to cheer Amanda up and help her to get back to living like she had, but it was very much to no avail. Paul Runji even sent Amanda $1,000 from prison as a gift to express his condolences for her loss. After Rex took his life, the couple's two children pretty much became under the full time loving care of Amanda's mother, Melissa. Because everyone could see that Amanda was not in the state of mind or place to be looking after her children. Amanda's lone solace, if you can call it that, was was spending time with her best friend Mariah and Mariah's husband Johnny. While she was spending time with them, she got to know their roommate who lived in their basement, a 32 year old man named Sean Ball. Amanda and Shawn started to spend a lot of their time together and Shawn started to develop deep feelings for Amanda. Shawn told Amanda that he was ex military and that he had spent time overseas in Afghanistan and that he had killed before when he was serving. This, as you can imagine, was very appealing to Amanda and she started to grow a deeper friendship with Shawn. Amanda though, was not interested in Shawn romantically at all. In fact, Amanda would even tell Maria on numerous occasions that she loathed Sean, but that he was valuable to her because she could manipulate him very easily and he would do anything for her. She told Maria that she could control Sean like a well trained dog. Shawn, on the other hand, fell more and more for Amanda and at one point he even believed that Amanda may be pregnant with his child, A thought that Amanda had seemingly put into his head, which meant that even though she claimed to have no interest in Sean, she had certainly slept with him. Sean said that Amanda made him feel important and seen two things that he had never felt before in his life. On March 27th of 2015, Amanda and Rex's shared birthday, Mariah, her husband Johnny and Sean all took Amanda out to try and lift her spirits and to celebrate her birthday. However, the evening turned dark because Amanda continued to dwell on the fact that even though it was indeed her birthday, it was also Rex's birthday. Amanda eventually convinced the other three that they should go to Rex's grave in the middle of the night. And begrudgingly knowing it was a bad idea, they did accompany her there. While standing at Rex's grave, Amanda reached into her purse and pulled out a knife and tried to slit her own throat. She was stopped at the last moment by Maria, who tackled her to the ground and wrestled the knife out of her hands. Maria and the two men took Amanda kicking and screaming, mind you, the entire way to her mom's house where they knocked on the door at 3am Amanda's stepfather, William, would answer the door and he saw the four fighting. He said that Amanda said it was hers and Rex's day and that she wanted to go and be with Rex. And then she ran away. The police thankfully, or perhaps not, found her and took her to the hospital where she was checked in for a psychological evaluation. Her friends and her family told the hospital that Amanda had attempted to kill herself and even threatened to kill her children. They held out hope that the hospital would hold Amanda for more than 72 hours for evaluation because it had become abundantly clear to everyone that Amanda needed help. Melissa felt that the hospital had given her the impression that they would in fact keep Amanda for 30 days so that she could be observed and further evaluated. However, as soon as Amanda was legally allowed to leave, she tried to check herself out. The hospital said that they could not let her leave alone and they would only let her go if she was left leaving with a responsible party who was willing to take custody and responsibility for her. First, Amanda called her mom and Melissa refused. She told Amanda that Amanda was exactly where she needed to be so that she could get some help. When Melissa refused, Amanda then called Mariah and Johnny and they also refused to take custody of her and get her out of the hospital. They were worried also for her well being. When neither of those options worked, she called the one person that she knew would be at her back and her beck and call and would do her bidding. Sean. Sean was in the middle of his shift at work when Amanda called, but immediately he left work and dropped everything to help her out. He went to the hospital to help her leave and had the intention of bringing her to his place. He was still renting though for Maria and Johnny. When they arrived at the house. However, Maria and Johnny promptly kicked them out of their home and told Johnny that he wasn't allowed to stay there any longer. They couldn't understand how Johnny could check Amanda out of the hospital after almost watching her take her own life that night. Shawn and Amanda spent the night at a hotel and made plans for what they were going to do next. Amanda told Shawn that she wanted to become just like Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers and Sean was thrilled at that premise. He knew that in the movie, Mickey and Mallory were lovers and so that meant to him at least that Amanda wanted to be his lover. Amanda opened up to Shawn and told him that she wanted to go on a killing spree at truck stops and just driving down the street, but that she wanted to Start off by killing someone that she knew. On April 3, Shawn took Amanda to his parents home and they would steal weapons and firearms from the house, with Sean stealing a hunting rifle and two handguns from his father's gun cabinet. Shawn then purchased a bayonet knife for Amanda from the army surplus store. The following day, Amanda and Shawn went to visit Rex's father, Charles. Charles had told Amanda that he wanted to give her some money so that she could buy Easter candy and goodies for her children. It seemed as though Charles may have been extending an olive branch here to Amanda, but one thing would become abundantly clear. Amanda was not interested in peace between the two. Shawn and Charles were sitting on the couch and smoking cigarettes when talk turned to Rex and things started to get rather emotional. Sean said that Charles was even crying while reminiscing about his son. In conversation, Charles said that he wished that he was with his son and Amanda questioned him about that. And that was when things started to happen. Amanda looked at the clock and she saw that it was 3:27pm and as she had planned all along, she pulled the bayonet out and attacked Charles, stabbing him over and over. Charles started to yell at Amanda and he even managed to grab her hair, momentarily trying to defend himself. But. But that is when Shawn struck. At Amanda's pleading and because he wanted to protect her, Shawn pulled a tire iron out that he had hidden inside of his pants and he struck Charles in the back of the head with it while Amanda continued to stab him. Amanda would later say that she chose to use a knife because she wanted to be close to Charles and she wanted Charles to know that it was her that was killing him. After Charles was dead, Amanda would do something strange and simultaneously the thing that would help her become notoriously known as the selfie killer. With the bayonet still dripping blood, Amanda posed for a selfie with a half duck lips, half smile look on her face and with Charles's body in the background of the photo. She would later post that photo to social media. In all, Amanda stabbed Charles a total of 31 times. And the medical examiner would later state that at least 11 of those stab wounds had the potential to be lethal on their own. Later that evening is when a 911 call would come in and it was said that the home was covered in blood and that Charles was not breathing and believed to be dead. When police attended to the scene, they were taken aback by what they found there. The scene was indeed very gruesome. There was blood on the walls and even on Picture frames inside of the living room, on the walls. And it was very evident that Charles had been stabbed many, many times. It was very evident from the beginning that this homicide was very personal and likely a crime of passion. The only question was who had committed such a heinous crime. That would not remain a question for very long, however, as police quickly found that Charles father had been in the home at the time of the homicide. He was very frail and essentially confined to his bedroom, but he was able to tell investigators that he heard and recognized Amanda's voice inside of the home. He said he had heard the entire attack take place. Shawn would later say that he had talked Amanda out of killing Charles father as well. Police were still at the scene and investigating when they got word that Amanda had posted the aforementioned selfie to her social media account. Charles Ernest Taylor of Ellet, Virginia, was 59 years old when he lost his life at the hands of Amanda and Shawn. People that knew Charles said that they couldn't make sense of the murder at all. Charles had a lot in common with Rex. He was known as a man who was loved by everyone, and he was someone that most people had a lot of sympathy for because of his consistent physical and emotional pain that had only been compounded when Rex had taken his life. Charles was survived by his wife Joyce, and two grandchildren, as well as many other friends and family members. Shawn and Amanda did not stick around after they committed their crime. They stole $220 from Charles wallet that was certainly earmarked for Amanda anyways for those Easter gifts for her children. They would then flee down the Blue Ridge Parkway and make a stop along the way at a sporting goods store to purchase ammunition for the guns that they had stolen from Shawn's parents home. Police tracked the couple by using surveillance videos from gas stations and when they stopped to purchase the ammo. But they also were able to use Amanda's incessant use of social media to track them as well. While on the run, Amanda also reportedly called Charles wife Joyce and told her what had happened. She said that she had killed Charles for the things that he had done to Rex. Amanda said that Charles had done really bad things to Rex and that he needed to pay for his transgressions. Amanda said that she loved the high that she felt when she killed Charles. The pair stopped for the night in Tennessee, and that was when Amanda told Shawn that she wanted to kill more people. The following day, as they were driving, they passed two girls and Amanda said that she wanted Shawn to kill them so that they could steal their car. Shawn refused to do it though and said he couldn't follow through on shooting strangers. When Shawn said that he wouldn't do it, Amanda just kept driving and Sean eventually fell asleep in the car. Sean said that he was awakened by a gunshot. Amanda had taken a shot at a woman that was jogging along the roadway, which was very similar to a scene from Natural Born Killers. Amanda then turned on Shawn and she said that she wanted him to know that she had only used him for guns and for his car. And then she pointed the gun directly at his face and pulled the trigger. Amanda would leave Shawn on the side of the road, but she again took a photo of her crime. She then made another social media post that seems said everything I did was for the right reasons. I stabbed my father in law to death because he destroyed my husband with drugs and depression. I wasn't the perfect wife, but this was one last good thing I could do for Rex. I don't care what anyone thinks. I loved Rex more than the world. This was for you. Sean's dead, but I finally have closure with Rex after Charlie. If you keep looking for me, more will die. Just let me get to the place Rex and I always wanted and I'll be free without having to kill more. Till we rot, Rex. Till we fucking rot. Later that day, her same Instagram account showed a photo of a gun sitting across her lap. And in the caption she asked her mom to take care of hers and Rex's children, saying alright, it's about that time. I'm going to go find my husband in hell and finally be at peace. I love you mom and my beautiful crazies. I know you'll give them the life I just couldn't. After everything, I'm finally going to be free. While she was on the run, Amanda was said to have stayed in touch with family and friends by using burner phones along the way. She believed that that would prevent the police from being able to track her. But somehow she still didn't realize that all of her social media obsession was giving all of the information that the police needed. Finally, she was spotted on Interstate 40 in Asheville, North Carolina by police who followed her for about two miles in a chase. When she refused to pull over, she was stopped by spike strips and she was taken into custody and charged with murder for the death of Charles. What she believed that she knew was that a second murder charge would be incoming that for the death of Shawn. However, she was in for a surprise. Around 7pm that night, a passing motorist spotted Shawn, who had been shot in the jaw with a single bullet. Sean was lying on the side of the road and he was barely alive. Sean says that all he remembers is feeling immense pain unlike anything he had ever felt in his life. He doesn't even remember hearing the gunshot. He said he remembers just the pain and seeing Amanda drive away in his Jeep. Shawn was taken to the hospital where he was placed in a medically induced coma. He was in critical but stable condition. When Amanda was apprehended and arrested and brought to the station, she openly talked about everything. She did believe that Shawn was dead, though. And when she was told by police that the bullet had passed through his jaw and he had only passed out from the pain and was still alive, she was shook. Both Amanda and Sean would ultimately be extradited to Virginia, and both were charged with second degree murder. Amanda described the murder to investigators by saying that it reminded her of how she felt when she had taken her first ride on a roller coaster. She was exhilarated and thrilled and having the time of her life. During her interrogation, she told police that she had tried to stab him in his chest as much as possible to ensure that he died. She nonchalantly explained that she had no blood on her because the knife was so big. And she showed them, by acting it out, how she was stabbing him and explained that she had kept the blood from hitting her. Amanda was eventually told that Shawn had lied to her as well and that he had, in fact, never been in the military. That upset her greatly. She learned that she had been fooled. He tried to enlist in the military, but was not allowed to. He had previously spent time in prison, though, for 24 counts of burglary. Amanda would even admit to the police that she had tried to get in touch with ISIS after her arrest. She said that she had no intention of joining them. And why would she ever admit to that and potentially also face terror charges? She said that she had simply been obsessed with ISIS for some time. She also admitted that she had taken the selfie with Charles body because it was just something that made her feel really happy. She told police that she wanted the death penalty. However, that seemingly all changed when she went to court, because instead, she pled not guilty. The case for the prosecution here was obviously very strong. They had Amanda's confessions, the photo of her with the murder weapon and Charles's body, as well as interactions with friends and confessions that she had made on social media. The defense, therefore, did not deny that Amanda had killed Charles, but instead they presented that she believed that the act was justified and that love was a powerful and overwhelming motivator for the crime. Throughout the trial, Amanda was seen laughing and smiling as her crimes were explained and dissected to the jury. In the end, the jury took less than an hour to deliberate before returning to the courtroom and announcing that they had found Amanda guilty of first degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. The judge told Amanda that she was evil personified. And he said that he did not believe that she had killed out of some skewed sense of justice or some sense of loyalty. He said that he believed instead that Amanda had killed Charles for the fame and for the thrills, based on her previous comments and the fact that she was broadcasting it all over the Internet. For his part, Shawn took a plea deal. He agreed to plead guilty to first degree murder in exchange for 60 years in prison to be suspended after 41 years. Sean will serve 42 years and one month and then will be placed on probation for 10 years. Sean expressed remorse at his sentencing hearing and he said that he was truly sorry to everyone involved. Conversely, Amanda has still to this day, failed to show or express any remorse for what she did, even two years after her prison term had started. Amanda said that she had zero remorse. She said that she did exactly what she wanted to do. And she said that she wanted Charlie to feel the pain that she had felt because of the loss of Rex. She said that killing Charlie had made her feel the most alive she had felt since Rex had taken his life. She even went on to say that she was happy that she finally got all of her pent up hatred and pent up anger out of her system by taking everything out on him. She said that after she took Charlie's life, she felt free. In March of 2017, the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld Amanda's sentence. Amanda Taylor is presently serving her time at the Fluvanna Correctional center. She is presently 34 years old. Sean Edward Ball is presently serving his time at the Green Rock Correctional center, and he is 42. His present release date as constituted is January 30, 2051. He will be 68 years old. So this, to me is another one of those cases that scares me a lot. There are. These are the types of cases and people that give people like you and I a bad name and make those eyebrows go up when we say that we are into true crime. I genuinely hope that anyone listening to my voice doesn't ever believe that they should or could or will follow through on any criminal act, much less murder, regardless of what happens in life, we certainly can find options that are far less rash and far less permanent. We all struggle at times, but please, if you feel yourself losing control or find yourself having dark thoughts, go and talk to someone and get some help. The world we're living in is a bit mad sometimes, most of the time in fact, and there is nothing and certainly no weakness and no harm in seeking out the help that is available to you. I will close the episode by thanking you for listening and for dealing with a Patreon slide over episode last week with the devastating ice storm here in Ontario. I was happy to get back to researching this week and writing this week and am certainly looking forward to doing the next two cases with Bailey. So stay tuned for that. If you haven't already, please consider supporting the show over at patreon.com gbnftruechrime for more episodes, a shout out on the show and all kinds of other perks. Thank you for spending time with me every week and I pray until next time that you stay well, stay safe and of course be better. Take care.