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Park Predators
The Wreck
00:40:15
When a Jeep is found wrecked over an embankment in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, red flags go up right away for investigators. The twisted saga of events and acts of betrayal they uncover next lead them to the doorsteps of two lovers.
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Some cases fade from headlines, some never made it there to begin with. I'm Ashley Flowers and on my podcast the Deck, I tell you the stories of cold cases featured on playing cards distributed in prisons designed to spark new leads and bring long overdue justice. Because these stories deserve to be heard and the loved ones of these victims still deserve answers, are you ready to be dealt in? Listen to the Deck now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hi park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia d', Ambra, and the case I'm going to tell you about today takes place along the eastern edge of Great Smoky Mountains national park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Smokies are a geographic region I've covered many times before on this podcast. The NPS's website explains that Great Smoky Mountains national park is the most visited national park in the entire United States. It spans over 500,000 acres between North Carolina and Tennessee and is full of scenic drives, waterfalls, trail systems, and wildlife. As is the case with many vast landscapes that are home to winding roads and dense forests, the potential for tragic accidents abounds. On a cool morning in November 1994, one such scenario emerged, which at first glance appeared to be a terrible accident. A car had gone over an embankment, but as law enforcement assessed the scene and started probing further, the truth behind what happened came to light, revealing that the situation was far from an accident. This is Park Predators. Around 9 o' clock in the morning on Sunday, November 6, 1994, Park Ranger Helen McNutt responded to a 911 call from two tourists who were visiting the Great Smoky Mountains. The callers were from Missouri, and they said they'd been driving along the Gatlinburg Bypass when they decided to stop and admire the view from a lookout point. According to the National Park Service, the Gatlinburg Bypass is about a three and a half mile long road that connects the park to an urban four lane highway that takes drivers between Gatlinburg and nearby Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The bypass is a popular alternate route to get into the park because it's scenic and you essentially avoid having to go through downtown Gatlinburg. I'd imagine this is probably why those tourists were on the bypass, hoping to avoid traffic while getting some breathtaking views of the landscape. According to an episode of Snapped about this case, when the tourists peered over the edge of the overlook they'd stopped at, they immediately noticed a vehicle below them that was in really bad shape. More than 30ft down in the middle of the dense forest was a black 1987 Jeep Wrangler, which seemed to have gone over the embankment and was lodged head first in a tree. Shortly after spotting the wrecked Jeep, the bystanders called 911, and Ranger Helen McNutt was the first official to arrive on scene. And right away, she realized that this was a serious situation, not to mention dangerous. As she began to investigate, she was extremely cautious traversing the terrain around the Jeep because it was thick with trees and brush, and there was always the possibility that wildlife like bears or rattlesnakes could be lurking nearby. Gina Stafford reported for the Knoxville News Sentinel that as Helen approached the car, she saw that the driver's side door was partially opened and the keys were in the ignition, but no one was in the front seat. She also smelled traces of alcohol, which initially led her to suspect that maybe the situation was related to a drunk driving accident. But those thoughts quickly vanished when she saw a man's body in the fetal position in the back seat. From the looks of it, the guy was white and had very noticeable injuries to the front of his face and back of his head. Right away, Helen thought it was kind of strange that the man was in the backseat as opposed to the driver's seat, if he'd been the person driving. However, for the time being, it seems she kept those observations to herself. It didn't take long for her to determine that the guy inside the Jeep was dead, and a quick examination of his body revealed that he'd suffered multiple bruises and lacerations. After making those observations, Helen discovered a wallet on the victim's body, which contained an ID for a 33 year old man named Kelly Lavera, who was from Sevierville, Tennessee, a small city about 14 miles outside of Gatlinburg. After securing the crash scene, Helen contacted the Sevierville Police Department because the NPS had a long standing relationship with them, and the man from the car's ID indicated he was from their jurisdiction. When investigators from SPD arrived at the Overlook, they agreed with Helen that something seemed off about the wreck. Not only was Kelly's body not in the driver's seat, but there was also no blood on the front seats of the vehicle, which was odd because Kelly himself had several bloody wounds. Conversely, though, there was a significant amount of blood in the backseat. According to Reporting by Carol McMahon and Gina Stafford, authorities observed a pool of blood surrounding Kelly's body to the point where there was even some of it leaking out of the Jeep's tailgate. Another interesting detail was that the windshield was perfectly intact. No cracks, nothing, which logically didn't support a scenario where the jeep fell off the embankment and collided headfirst into a tree. I've personally never crashed a car into a tree, but I've seen plenty of car crashes in my career, and I can tell you it is rare that a windshield goes unscathed. So in Kelly's case, I'd imagine it would have struck the investigators as pretty miraculous that not a single crack was in the windshield of the Jeep he was found in. But you get where I'm going. Overall, the evidence at the scene and on Kelly's body was not painting the picture of someone who'd drunkenly driven off the side of a mountain into a tree. So investigators were beginning to theorize that maybe Kelly had been killed somewhere else and then put in the car and dumped in the park, you know, to make it look like an accident. An episode of I'd Kill for your about this case stated that detectives were fairly confident that Kelly had been killed in, quote, an explosion of rage, end quote. Not in a car accident. So to get even more insight into what might have happened to him, law enforcement had his body transported to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy. And it was there that officials officially confirmed Kelly was the victim. The full results of his autopsy weren't available right away, though. So in the meantime, the police chief of Sevierville, a man named Robbie Fox, visited Kelly's home address. There he spoke with Kelly's wife, 28 year old Shane Lavera, who'd grown up in Gatlinburg and been someone who Robbie had known for a long time. Chief Fox learned that Shane had actually reported Kelly missing earlier that morning. But while they were speaking with her, Chief Fox noticed something unexpected. Shane didn't cry or really show any emotion at all when she learned that Kelly was dead. She also didn't ask any questions about how he'd been found or what his cause of death was. And to the chief, at least, her lack of interest in those kinds of basic details seemed unusual. But she was cooperative and allowed the chief and his accompanying officer to come inside and speak with her. They asked her when the last time she'd seen her husband was and what she'd been up to the previous night. She responded that they'd hosted a house party at their apartment on Saturday night, which wasn't out of the norm for them. She claimed that the last time she laid eyes on Kelly was during the early morning hours after the gathering had ended. She said she'd left with a male neighbor named Brett Ray to go get food at an all night diner and then returned home shortly after 4am she said at that time Kelly was asleep on their couch in the living room but woke up suddenly in a foul mood. Shane said Kelly then began questioning her about where she'd been and what she and Brett had been doing. That spat boiled over into Kelly, sharing that he didn't think she was home enough with him and their two young children. And Shane told police that her response to her husband was to accuse him of drinking too much. Shane said that eventually Kelly voiced he'd had enough of their arguing and stormed out of their apartment. She said the last time she saw him he jumped into his Jeep Wrangler and driven off. She explained to police that she didn't go after him because she was too upset and tired at the time and their kids were already asleep. So she decided to just go to bed. It was only when she'd woken up on Sunday morning that she realized Kelly had never come home. During this interview, Chief Fox and the other officer noticed a pair of eyeglasses laying on the table in the couple's apartment. Curious as to who they belonged to, the duo asked Shane if they were hers or Kelly's and she told them that the glasses belonged to her husband. She stated that Kelly was nearsighted and usually didn't drive without them. The officer accompanying Chief Fox happened to be nearsighted himself so he put on the glasses as I guess a kind of experiment and lo and behold the spectacles were definitely meant for a nearsighted person because the officer's vision was properly corrected. Finding the glasses at the apartment was a puzzling revelation because it proved that Kelly had left his residence without the one thing he would have needed to drive. Well, the question swirling in authorities minds was why in the world would he have done that and attempted to drive in the middle of the night without his glasses? Was he really so angry that he'd simply forgotten to grab the spectacles? Had he never gotten the chance to grab them at all? To Chief Fox, some of Shane's story sounded plausible. But he knew from what had been gathered in the investigation so far that Kelly had not died in some kind of freak motor vehicle accident. So figuring out what had happened to him after he reportedly left his family's apartment but before his Jeep went over the embankment was paramount. When Chief Fox and his colleague wrapped up their interview with Shane, it had only been a few hours since Kelly's body was found and based on what I read in the source material, it seems that they were beginning to suspect that Kelly's widow might know more than she was sharing. But until police could glean more insight from Kelly's body, all authorities had were suspicions. But that changed when the medical examiner wrapped up their review. The autopsy results confirmed that Kelly had not died as a result of a car accident, but rather his head had been severely beaten. The episode of I'd Kill for your about this case explained that the 33 year old had suffered around a dozen blows to the head from what the medical examiner suspected suspected was likely a baseball bat. The examiner also found numerous lacerations and penetrating wounds around Kelly's head, face and left ear. The ME concluded that those cuts were made by some other instrument than would have been used to strike Kelly's head. But they couldn't say for sure what that other instrument was. Ultimately, the ruling determined that the blows to Kelly's head had rendered him unconscious and his brain had swelled and put fatal pressure on his spinal cord, which was what led to his death. Regardless of which or how many weapons may have been used in the attack, investigators knew without a doubt that Kelly's death was a homicide. And to get to the bottom of who was responsible, they needed to speak with Brett Ray. And in a stroke of good fortune, they were about to get a phone call about him that would change everything. Look, starting something new, especially a business, can be intimidating. You have to wear multiple hats and the number of tasks you have to juggle can get overwhelming pretty fast. Fortunately, we live in the day and age of Shopify. The platform acts as your built in business partner and simplifies all your tasks. It also acts as your own personal marketing team, creating email and social campaigns to reach customers wherever they're scrolling. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, driving 10% of US E. Commerce. From household names like the Audio Chuck Shop to creators just getting started. So start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com parkpredators go to shopify.com parkpredators that's shopify.com parkpredators. According to reporting by the Knoxville News Sentinel, in that episode of I'd kill for you that I've mentioned a few times. The same day Kelly was found, police received a call from a man named James Christopher Birney. James, who went by Jim, was a local Sevierville resident who told officers that sometime between 6 and 7am on November, November 6, he'd received a phone call from Brett Ray. Brett was a Mechanic who also lived in Sevierville. And Jim said he'd called him from a motel in Gatlinburg asking for a ride back into town. Jim said that while on the phone, Brett sounded desperate and kind of out of breath. But Jim didn't really think too much of it and agreed to come pick up his friend anyway. Jim told police that when he arrived at the motel, he found Brett panicked and covered in mud and what appeared to be blood. When he asked Bret what was going on and why he was so dirty, Bret allegedly responded by confessing, quote, I did it. I did it. I put kelly over a 100 foot embankment, end quote. Jim said that when Bret made this declaration, he immediately knew that the Kelly Bret was talking about was Kelly Lavera, because Jim said Bret had previously discussed different ways he wanted to kill Kelly. I know this is where things get interesting. According to Jim, Brett had previously batted around the idea of tampering with the brakes on Kelly's Jeep or even shooting him at a firing range. And you're probably wondering, wait, why? What was the beef between these two? Well, that's the question authorities wanted to answer as well. Jim told them that Bret was very much in love with Kelly's wife Shane, and the pair were romantically involved. This lead was quite literally a bombshow. And so on November 7, police took Brett into custody and eventually charged him with first degree murder. Initially he wasn't super forthcoming, but after a while he finally relayed his account of what happened to Kelly on the night of his death. Brett said that since he lived in the same apartment complex as the Lavera's, he'd actually seen Kelly storm out of their apartment in the middle of the night after they'd hosted a party. Brett said seeing Kelly in that state made him worried for Shane, so he'd gone over to check on her. However, while he'd been on his way to do that, Kelly suddenly returned and became even more enraged than before. It was at that point that Kelly accused Brett of having an affair with his wife. From there, the two men got into a verbal argument in the Lavera's apartment, which quickly turned physical. Brett claimed that in self defense, he'd grabbed a nearby baseball bat that belonged to the couple's son and hit Kelly with it. He said once he realized that he had actually killed Kelly, he then carried him out of the apartment by himself and put him into Kelly's Jeep. After that, he decided to push it over a hill to make it look like Kelly had died in an accident. Apparently in Brett's version of events, Shane was nowhere in sight. She and the kids were allegedly sound asleep in the apartment. And while that version of the story was theoretically possible, none of the investigators were buying it. They doubted that two adult men could have had such a chaotic fight in such a small space without waking up Shane or either of the kids, who were reportedly just feet away. Authorities also couldn't wrap their minds around how Bret would have been able to move Kelly's body out of the apartment and into the Jeep without someone helping him. But Brett was adamant he'd done everything on his own. However, detectives were beginning to suspect that Shane was definitely involved. Unfortunately, though, they had no physical evidence linking her to the crime, and so far they'd been unable to get into the Lavera's apartment with a warrant to search it. They knew they were going to need a whole lot more than just Brett's confession to be able to legally scour the apartment for clues. So the police department did something kind of sneaky, but a good kind of sneaky. They sent an officer back to the Lavera's apartment to ask Shane a few more questions. While talking with her, the officer walking around the apartment noticed one of Kelly's diplomas displayed near the couple's couch, which is where Shane had originally told Chief Fox her husband had been laying when she returned from getting food at around 4am on Sunday. As the officer studied the diploma, he noticed that there were what appeared to be specks of blood on the corner of the frame. The officer realized in that moment that where the diploma was positioned in the room next to the couch was the perfect spot for blood to land if, for instance, the person who'd been struck had been lying on the couch. This revelation was enough for authorities to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant for the lovera's place. When a team of investigators descended on the apartment, they didn't immediately find anything other than that blood that looked suspicious. But they were confident that if they got down into every nook and cranny and sprayed luminol, it would reveal much more than what met the eye. If you're not familiar with luminol, it's a chemical agent that will react with certain enzymes, including enzymes found in blood. Typically, no matter how hard you try to scrub blood off a surface, there are still proteins that stay behind. Instances where luminol isn't really helpful are when certain cleaning products like bleach are used to clean up blood anyway, according to what Chief Fox told producers for I'd kill for you when police asked everyone to step outside the apartment so they could do the luminol testing, Shane protested and didn't want to move off the couch. That wasn't going to fly, though, and ultimately, some of the officers had to physically make her stand up and walk out. After the team sprayed the whole house, the results showed traces of blood on the front and back of the couch, almost as if someone had been brutally attacked while laying down and then pulled over the back of it and dropped onto the floor. There was also a trail of blood that extended down the hallway and into, of all places, the couple's children's bedroom. Then it went out a window inside of that room. To authorities, it appeared that whoever had moved Kelly's body didn't want to drag him out the front door of the apartment. So instead, they'd chosen to get him out of the house by pulling him past his sleeping children outside of the residence. The blood evidence just kept coming. The luminol testing showed the trail going out of the kid's window and across the lawn of a church to where investigators believed Kelly had parked his jeep. In essence, everything they'd found seemed to tell a slightly different story than the version of events Brett had confessed to. Investigators were now more confident than ever that a second person had to have been involved, especially when it came to moving Kelly's body. And in their minds, that second person was likely shane. So on December 13, just over a month after the slaying, they arrested Shane and charged her with first degree murder. She vehemently denied being involved in her husband's death and claimed that Brett was just some guy who'd been weirdly obsessed with her. Not long after their arrest, both defendants were indicted for the crime, but their trials wouldn't start for another 15 months. This was partially because forensic evidence that was collected from the apartment needed to be tested for DNA. And unfortunately, according to Gina Stafford's reporting for the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Tennessee bureau of Investigations crime labs were experiencing a major backlog at the time. So while everyone waited for that additional testing to be done, both Brett and Shane posted their bonds and were released pending trial. Brett went back to work as a mechanic in a repair garage, and Shane, along with her and Kelly's two kids, moved in with one of her cousins who lived in nearby Kodak, Tennessee. During that time, investigators continued to build their case against the pair, which mostly included uncovering as much information about their alleged affair as possible. According to the coverage about this case, Kelly and Shane had moved to Sevierville four years before his death. Of the two of them, it seems that Shane was the more well known person in the area. And that's because of who she was, or rather where she'd come from. According to coverage in the Hamilton Spectator, Shane's birth name was Alicia Shane Good. Though she seemed to always prefer to go by her middle name, Shane. She'd grown up in a rural area of Tennessee with little means. When she was 3 years old, her mom left Shane's father and the two of them moved to Gatlinburg. Soon after that, her mom began dating and eventually married a well known man named Brent Mills, who worked as the president of the First national bank in Gatlinburg. Brent adopted Shane when she was about 7 years old. Growing up, Shane, her stepfather, developed a really close bond, and according to the source material, she considered him her best friend and father figure. Her mom's marriage to Brent drastically changed the mother and daughter's lives, and their social standing also shifted. They became part of one of Gatlinburg's most respected families essentially overnight. You see, because Brent wasn't just an influential banker in the community. His grandfather had actually founded the First national bank of Gatlinburg and played a big role in putting Gatlinburg on the map. Brent's father had followed the same path and was also a pillar in the community, so much so that he was given the nickname Mr. Gatlinburg. After Shane's mother and Bret married, they had a daughter of their own. But Shane still had her own special connection with her stepdad and was said to have him wrapped around her finger, especially when it came to getting material possessions. Brandt would buy his stepdaughter pretty much anything she wanted, from expensive clothing to her own luxury Buick Riviera, which was the car she drove in high school. In addition to having wealth, Shane was also well liked, pretty and captivating. And she loved the limelight, succeeding academically, being in social clubs and participating in the Junior Miss pageant program. By all accounts, the Mills family was seemingly living the perfect life until 1984, Shane's senior year of high school. That year, one of Brent's bank employees was reportedly caught laundering money for drug dealers via his bank, which led to a huge investigation into the financial institution. Although law enforcement never found any evidence that Brent himself was involved in the scandal, he was still in the crosshairs of suspicion due to being the bank's president. So the whole ordeal really cast a negative light on him and the Mills family name. It was an extremely stressful time, especially for Brent, because He'd been required to meet with the FBI and bank examiners and suspected that his job, his family's reputation, and the business itself were all at risk of being ruined. People around him saw the pressure mounting, but his friends and family never expected what would happen next. According to the coverage in this case, in May 1984, authorities discovered Brent had sustained gunshot wounds while in his bed, and they quickly ruled the incident as a suicide. The natural assumption was that Brent had taken his own life because of the embarrassment and stress of having his bank's loan practices questioned by authorities. For months and even years after his death, though, people from the area speculated as to whether his death was the result of foul play. But nothing ever came of those rumors. Whether he died by his own hand or someone else's, the loss was devastating to his family, especially Shane. Her high school graduation rolled around, and the only father she'd ever known wasn't there to celebrate or help her transition into the next phase of her life. In the wake of Brent's death, Shane's mother learned that the family's financial situation was also not very good. So by the time the entire investigation into the bank was over, the Mills were left with almost nothing to survive on. And after all that hardship, Shane was more than ready to get out of Gatlinburg for a while. So she enrolled in a small college in Columbia, Missouri. She joined a swimming class and quickly met Kelly Lavera. He was about five years older than her and was originally from a city in Missouri about 20 minutes southwest of the heart of St. Louis. After graduating high school in St. Louis in 1979, Kelly enrolled in the University of Missouri at Columbia with the goal of earning a degree in mathematics. He loved music and had been active in his high school's jazz and symphony bands. He'd also been a competitive swimmer and helped coach a swim club. That hobby continued on into college, which is how we met Shane. And the two of them hit it off right away and quickly fell in love. Even though Kelly was known to be a bit of a math nerd, the I'd kill for your episode describes him as a, quote, all American college boy, end quote, who was also athletic, amicable, and someone who liked to have a good time. By all accounts, he was the type of guy Shane had been looking for, and Kelly, of course, couldn't resist Shane's beauty and charm. While they dated, Kelly became a safe place for Shane. She'd come to college still reeling with grief from the loss of her stepdad, and when she was with Kelly, he made her happy. At that point in time, she'd been struggling with a lot of self doubt about her future, and having a stable and mature boyfriend helped her not be so down on herself. The pair dated for one month and then moved in together, and just six months later, in 1985, they officially tied the knot. Kelly eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, but Shane ended up dropping out before completing her studies. She had their first child, a boy in 1987 and a daughter not long after that. In the late 80s and early 90s, Kelly taught at various high schools in Missouri, while Shane stayed home to take care of their kids. In 1990, the whole family moved back to Shane's home state of Tennessee so Kelly could continue his education and get a master's degree from the University of Tennessee. After settling down, he took a job teaching at what was known at the time as Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville. The pay wasn't much, but he was hopeful the opportunity could lead to a tenured professor position one day. For her part, Shane seemed genuinely excited to move back to Tennessee. However, because finances were tight, the family couldn't afford to live in Gatlinburg, where she'd grown up. Instead, they rented an apartment in nearby Sevierville. The apartment complex was a place that locals referred to as Frog Alley. Apparently when the building developers began to build in the area, they knew ahead of time that it was going to be low cost housing, so they didn't bother to fully drain the surrounding swampland. In the first few years after the apartments were built, there were more frogs living in and around the structures than actual people. I know. Not a great way to attract new residents, and the family's new digs were certainly not what Shane had envisioned for her future. The living situation and finances caused resentment to rise and that put more pressure on the couple's marriage. In the episode of I'd Kill for your, Kelly and Shane's friends stated that it was around this time they began to see cracks in Lavera's relationship. For example, at Shane's 10 year high school reunion, her former classmates recounted that while Kelly was showing everyone pictures of their kids and giving off a calm, sweet fatherly demeanor, Shane was acting like she was a teenager again, even flirting with the bartender in front of her husband. Aside from those problems, the money issues between the couple only got worse the more time passed. Apparently, Shane had no problem spending money in ways Kelly thought were unnecessary, and their disagreements over their finances came to a head when Kelly bought his black 1987 Jeep. Reportedly, Shane was adamant that she needed to have one exactly like it, even though the family didn't have the money or the need for a second car. Eventually, though, Shane got what she wanted and ended up with a vehicle just like her husband's. In the summer of 1994, several months before Kelly's murder, Shane's half sister Kim moved into the same apartment complex as the Laveras. Kim's place had two rooms and so she wanted Shane to help her vet possible roommates so she could make some extra money on the side. One of the people who Kim interviewed was 24 year old Brett Ray. Brett was described in the episode of I'd Kill for your as a, quote, good old Tennessee boy, end quote. It was reported that his main concern in life was partying and looking for ways to have the most fun. He'd previously served in the Navy but had been dishonorably discharged after punching a fellow officer. His dad was a financially well off publisher who operated a local newspaper in Sevierville called the Mountain Press, which is actually where some of the source material for this episode came from. Anyway, Brett had a reputation for being a risk taker and kind of rebellious. Basically. He was willing to do whatever to have a good time. He made a good impression with Kim and Shane right away because he fit into their crowd of friends who loved to party and he didn't take life too seriously. So Kim offered him the extra room in her apartment and he took it, which put him that much closer to her and of course, her sister Shane. Not long after Brett moved in, Shane learned from Kim that he didn't have anyone to spend his birthday with, which prompted Shane to go pay him a visit and deliver a gift. While she was there, Shane and Brett hung out and had a drink together. And that's sort of where things started as far as their affair. Fast forward to after their arrest though, and Shane's main defense had always been that she had nothing to do with her husband's murder and Brett was just a violent man who'd been obsessed with her. But if that was the case, then law enforcement knew that it wouldn't look good if, for instance, the two of them were caught seeing one another while out on bond. So without their knowledge, police began keeping tabs on the defendants by assigning a detective named Steve Ratcliffe to surveil them. And what he saw was Danny. Hi, everyone, it's Delia d' Ambra here and I want to tell you about a podcast that's one of my personal favorites that I know you're going to love too. Dark Down East Hosted by my friend and fellow investigative journalist Kylie Lowe, Dark down east dives into New England's most haunting true crime cases. From unsolved mysteries to stories where justice has been served, Kylie brings her meticulous research and heartfelt storytelling to uncover the truth behind these cases. If you love the way I take you deep into the details of a case, then I know you'll appreciate Kylie's dedication to honoring the victims and uncovering their stories. There are so many episodes of Dark down east already waiting for you, and new episodes every Thursday. Find Dark down east now wherever you listen to podcasts. Detective Ratcliffe caught Brett and Shane meeting up on multiple occasions while they were out on bond awaiting trial. In April of 1995, about five months after Kelly's murder, he witnessed them meet alone at a hotel room and later that month witnessed them drive to a recreation area to have sex in Shane's Jeep. These encounters did not support Shane's claim that Brett was some obsessed dude who was dangerously into her, but rather that the pair was in a voluntary romantic relationship. And if these sexual rendezvous weren't bad enough, in January of 1996, less than a month before their trial was set to begin, Brett decided to jump his bond and flee to Mexico. According to a series of articles for the Knoxville News Sentinel, Brett reportedly left his job at around 11am on Monday, January 22, and drove away in a red Mazda. This impromptu trip came right after the prosecutor had recently announced the state was going to seek life without parole for the defendants instead of the death penalty. And it didn't take long before a federal warrant was issued charging Brett with interstate flight to avoid prosecution, which allowed the FBI to then get involved with the search for him. On January 28, after less than a week on the run, he was apprehended while trying to re enter the country and arrested in Miami, Florida by agents with the U.S. immigration and Naturalization Service. Meanwhile, back in Tennessee, Shane's bond was revoked and she was taken into custody that same night. At that time, Kelly's mother took temporary custody of Kelly and Shane's two kids. According to Jamie Satterfield's reporting, Shane was later charged with additional counts for knowing that Brett was going to run and wait for it, had funded his escape with her own money. She'd reportedly given Brett $250 to get to Mexico City, Mexico, and after he called to tell her he'd been injured after wrecking his car there and running out of cash she'd wired him another $500 that she borrowed from co workers. Apparently this whole situation happened because she believed that she had a lesser chance of being convicted if Brett was absent from the trial. But there were witnesses that Shane likely had no idea were already working with authorities. For example, her longtime friend of 15 years, a woman named Mary, had been cooperating with the police case, and Mary ended up testifying against Shane as a confidential informant at a pretrial hearing. According to Mary, in conversations she'd had with Shane while Shane was out on bond, Shane had threatened to leave Sevierville on multiple occasions. She'd also told Mary that she and Brett had a plan to go to Mexico and would leave a note in which he'd take all the blame for the murder. I imagine that Brett, fleeing the revelations about Shane assisting him and a confirmed backlog at the TBI crime labs were all factors as to why the trial ultimately got delayed to March 26, 1996, more than 16 months after Kelly's murder. Although they were represented by different defense attorneys, Shane and Brett were tried together in front of the same jury. At trial, the prosecution presented witnesses, including members of law enforcement, forensic scientists, two of Shane's family members, Brett's friends, and even another man from the Lavera's apartment complex who Shane had had an extramarital affair with. Many of these folks helped to build a fuller picture of what the state believed happened the night Kelly was killed. Prosecutors and a forensic pathologist went over the details of Kelly's autopsy as well as all the physical evidence that had been gathered in the case. It was pointed out that post scene analysis had shown that the blood on the floor of Kelly's Jeep had run uphill, not downhill, which literally defied the laws of gravity if one were to believe he'd been killed in a vehicle crash. Crime scene texts had also discovered one of Brett's fingerprints in Kelly's blood on a lamp inside the Lavera's apartment, which of course was pretty damning evidence. However, Brett's story had always been that he hadn't intended to kill Kelly, but rather what had happened was birthed out of self defense. It was also revealed in court that near where Kelly's Jeep was discovered, investigators had found a blanket from the Lavera's couch, a shirt that belonged to Brett and some plastic wrap. The prosecution then called various witnesses to describe Shane and Brett's thoughts and actions before and after the murder. Jim Bernie testified to Brett's confessions to him about pushing Kelly off the embankment, as well as his Prior ideas for how he might kill Kelly. Another one of Brett's friends, a guy named Mike Stepp, also testified that Brett confessed to him about killing Kelly, telling him, quote, I've got a favor to ask you. I need you to keep your mouth shut. I did it. The risk was worth the money, end quote. And you're probably wondering, wait.
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What money?
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Well, investigators found out through talking to Shane's friend Mary, that the laveras had taken out a life insurance policy on Kelly that would be doubled if he died in an accident. It seemed that Shane had promised not only to give Brett her love and devotion if he killed Kelly, but some of the insurance money as well. This is why Brett ultimately staged Kelly's death as a car crash. In regards to Shane's culpability, detectives had discovered that she had not just been cheating on Kelly with Brett, but also with that other guy from their apartment complex. He testified that Shane had complained to him about how Kelly, quote, unquote, cramped her lifestyle, and she'd even asked him for suggestions of undetectable poisons that were fatal. Detective ratcliffe also got on the stand and recounted the various instances he'd caught Brett and Shane meeting up and having sex while they were out on bond. To further solidify the sordid details of the couple's affair, Shane's cousin, who she'd been staying with after Kelly's murder, also testified before the jury. She said that not long after Shane moved in with her, Shane began seeing a mysterious man who she only came to know as Corey. Shane had told her cousin that Corey was a prominent member of the community and he was married, which is why Shane made it such a big deal to keep his true identity a secret from her cousin. Eventually, Corey began visiting Shane regularly, and Shane always asked her cousin to stay in her own room so she wouldn't see him while on the witness stand. Shane's cousin testified that on January 14, 1996, which, by the way, was just over a week before Bret would flee America, she'd caught Shane kissing Corey goodbye in their apartment. To no one's surprise at trial, when Shane's cousin was asked if Corey was in the courtroom, she confidently pointed to Brett Ray and said he was the guy who'd come and gone from her place while visiting with Shane. Another damning piece of evidence prosecutors presented at trial was a taped phone conversation between Brett and Shane. That conversation had occurred the night of Kelly's murder, and in the recording, the pair can be heard making plans to meet at Brett's apartment after the Lavera's house party. Once the prosecution rested its case, the defense began their arguments. Brett chose not to testify in his own defense, likely because he didn't want to implicate Shane on the witness stand. I'm sure he figured without his testimony, she likely had a better chance of being acquitted. Shane, on the other hand, despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence against her, chose to testify. She claimed that Brett had blackmailed and threatened her into covering up Kelly's murder. But in the end, Shane's story must have fell on deaf ears because the jury deliberated for only 90 minutes and returned a verdict of guilty for both her and Brett on the count of first degree murder. Before sentencing, both defendants agreed to plead guilty and waived their rights to appeal their convictions in exchange for life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years, instead of facing the possibility of receiving life in prison without the possibility of parole. And Kelly's family ultimately agreed to this because they knew that an ongoing appeals process would be difficult to cope with, especially for the Lavera children. Baked into the arrangement, Kelly's mom, Monica Lavera, who had custody of the children at the time, would take the kids to visit Shane one last time in prison. In an episode of Snapped about this case, Shane and Kelly's daughter recalled this meeting, which happened when she was seven years old. She explained that after that one time, she didn't see her mom again until she chose to go visit her when she was 19 and about to become a mother herself. Even though she had never really felt like Shane was a mother to her, she still wanted to see her. But the reunion only confirmed for her that she had no connection with her mom and there never really had been. Brett and Shane both attempted to file appeals despite the fact that their sentencing plea deals didn't really allow that. They claimed that the details of their initial plea agreements were not well explained and they weren't properly informed of what rights they did and didn't have. But the court wasn't having it and rejected both of their arguments. Shane tried again for post conviction relief in 2013 and 2016, but both those requests were also denied. In October 2020, she had her first scheduled parole hearing because the parole board wanted her to get a psychological evaluation beforehand. That hearing was delayed until 2021. In April of that year, the board voted 4 to 2 in favor of her release, and she walked out of prison in January 2022. As part of her release, Shane was ordered to reside in a recovery residence and do community service until she could secure Employment. What's interesting to me is that during her parole hearing, she still claimed that she had nothing to do with killing Kelly. She emphasized that any conversation she might have had which discussed murdering him were only, quote, dark humor. And, of course, the prosecutor who helped convict her was disappointed with the result of her parole hearing, telling journalist Jeff Farrell, quote, I question letting her out when she still denies her guilt. She's obviously not rehabilitated. I think it's known if a person never owns up to their conduct, they're more likely to reoffend than someone who does accept responsibility and show genuine remorse, end quote. I guess based on the conversations the parole board had with Shane and the results of her psychological exam, which are not public, they felt that she wasn't a danger to society anymore. Brett, on the other hand, has been denied parole in all his hearings as of this recording, and to date, he remains incarcerated in Tennessee. According to the Tennessee Department of Correction. His next parole hearing is right around the corner. In April 2026, after Kelly was killed, his remains were cremated and a fund was set up for his two children, who are now adults. His reputation as an outstanding educator lived on as well. In a letter to the editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, one of his former students at Pellissippi State Community College wrote that he had a knack for making mathematics studies interesting, which he said was an accomplishment in and of its own right. It's heartbreaking to me that Kelly's life was stolen from him far too soon, because I, for one, firmly believe he probably would have gone on to do great things in his career. And as a father, whenever you find yourself helping the kids in your life with their math homework or trying to figure out what a fraction of a fraction is, I hope you think of Kelly Lavera. Because from everything I gathered, it's clear that he was a problem solver. And I'm grateful that the investigators who handled his murder case solved the problem of who took his life. Park Predators is an audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com and you can also follow park predators on Instagram arcpredators. I think Chuck would approve.