Felicia Barden

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Snapped: Women Who Murder

Episode: Felicia Barden
Date: July 12, 2026
Host/Narrator: Oxygen

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Episode Overview

This emotional and chilling episode of Snapped: Women Who Murder delves into the fatal shooting of Mississippi firefighter Willie Barden by his wife, Felicia Barden, in their upscale Olive Branch home. The episode unravels the complex web of family dynamics, conflicting accounts of abuse, mounting marital tension, and ultimately, the cold evidence that points to calculated murder rather than self-defense. Drawing on interviews with investigators, forensic experts, and members of both families, it explores motive, manipulation, and justice.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Crime Scene and Initial Investigation

[00:03–04:49]

• The episode opens with the 911 call and discovery of Willie Barden’s body. Joshua Barden, Felicia's adult son, made the call and guided police to the scene.
• Felicia is found with a forehead injury, acting “frantic.”
  • Quote: “She was crying, she was acting frantic and she did have a gash on her forehead that was bleeding.” — Investigating Officer [03:13]
• Willie is found dead in the bathroom, gunshot wound to his chest; there are sleeping pills on the floor, an open razor, and evidence of a struggle.
• Joshua quickly claims his mother shot Willie in self-defense, but Felicia refuses to speak to detectives.

2. Profiling Willie Barden and His Past

[04:12–09:54]

• Willie described as a devoted family man from a large, loving family with 13 siblings.
• He excelled in school, loved cooking, worked hard, and was deeply committed to his children, even after his first marriage ended.
• His second chance at love came with Felicia Price, a strong, successful IRS employee.
• The couple blended families and built a comfortable life, but beneath the surface, issues brewed.

3. The Investigation Deepens: Conflicting Stories

[10:08–15:02]

• Joshua is open with investigators, explaining he moved the murder weapon from the bed to the kitchen to protect his mother. This, however, implicates him as a potential suspect.
  • Quote: “I hit the gun in the kitchen. I just didn’t want… I just thought that was the right thing to do.” — Joshua Barden [14:11]
• Detectives struggle to reconcile the evidence with Joshua’s and Felicia’s claims, especially as Felicia remains silent.

4. Secret Recordings: The Missing DVR

[15:10–18:03]

• Investigators discover numerous security cameras inside the Barden home, but the DVR (which stores footage) is missing.
  • Quote: “I see people put security cameras in their home, but not normally right above the master bedroom door. That was unusual for me.” — Lead Detective [16:04]
• The DVR is located in the household trash; Joshua admits he removed and disposed of it at his mother’s request.
  • Quote: “She said, grab that box and throw it away. And I was like, what are you doing?” — Joshua Barden [22:58]

5. Family Dynamics: Abuse Allegations vs. Friction

[19:01–24:29]

• Joshua alleges Willie abused his mother, including attempting to poison her food; he also claims past violence toward himself.
• Nicholas, Willie's son, refutes Joshua’s claims, saying any violence was in self-defense against Joshua’s aggression.
• Friends, colleagues, and family describe Felicia as manipulative, domineering, and prone to conflict, while Willie was widely beloved and described positively.
  • Quote: “Willie wanted somebody that could work together and have something and be happy, but that’s not what he got.” — Family Member [28:41]

6. Evidence Mounts: Motive and Manipulation

[25:06–31:16]

• Joshua’s alibi (at work during the shooting) is corroborated by security footage; he is cleared as the shooter but implicated as an accessory.
• Investigators uncover a pattern of domestic disturbance calls between Felicia and Willie dating back to 2009, but no arrests.
• Family and colleagues describe Felicia as “domineering,” difficult to work with, and isolating toward Willie’s children.
• Motive surfaces: weeks before the murder, Willie had told Felicia he wanted a divorce.

7. The Smoking Gun: Security Footage and Digital Evidence

[31:50–36:41]

• Tech specialists recover and review the deleted DVR footage.
• Cameras capture Felicia walking calmly with the gun before the shooting, contradicting her self-defense claim.
  • Quote: “She has no concerns or issues. She just kind of strolls into the garage, comes out and just kind of a slow walk with the gun in her hand. Felicia looks like a psychopath, to be honest with you.” — Lead Detective [33:33]
• Footage shows her later hiding the gun and removing the DVR.
• Forensics find Google searches for “how to get away with murder” and a drafted suicide note on Felicia’s phone.
  • Quote: “On Felicia Barden’s cell phone there was search results for how to get away with murder.” — Forensic Expert [35:28]

8. Arrests and Trial Preparations

[37:04–37:56]

• Felicia and Joshua are arrested; Felicia refuses to speak or even cooperate with her defense.
• Joshua, as an accessory, turns state’s witness in exchange for leniency, testifying to his mother’s actions and mindset.

9. The Trial and Verdict

[38:04–40:18]

• Prosecution presents digital evidence, cell phone searches, the suicide note, and crucially, the security footage.
  • Quote: “The video footage, especially with Felicia coming down the hallway with the gun without an injury to her forehead was the smoking gun, no pun intended.” — Investigating Officer [38:04]
• Prosecution’s theory: Felicia was not a victim, but a calculating perpetrator unwilling to let Willie divorce her.
  • Quote: “She was not going to let him divorce her. She was not losing that battle.” — Investigating Officer [38:52]
• Felicia is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.
  • Quote: “He gave her everything, like everything she asked for, he gave it to her. She could never be satisfied. And it’s kind of befitting that she’s in prison. She has control of nothing now.” — Family Member [40:25]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

On the Nature of the Crime

“I've never had a defendant scare me. She scares me.”
— Investigating Officer [39:34]

On Evidence Tampering

“She said, grab that box and throw it away. And I was like, what are you doing? Honest to God.”
— Joshua Barden [22:58]

On Willie’s Character

“Everybody who knew him know he's an amazing guy, funny guy. I can't even remember him getting mad.”
— Lead Detective [28:24]

On Felicia’s Motive

“She was going to do this come hell or high water.”
— Lead Detective [35:57]

Closing Reflections

“It's just a lot of emotions... once you take the sadness out of it, the emotions out, it just taught me what you're supposed to do in certain situations, even though you hate it.”
— Joshua Barden [40:44]

“Willie was a good man, gone too soon. He loved everybody. He was nice to everybody. Everybody loved them.”
— Willie's Brother [41:03]

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Important Segments and Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------------------|--------------| | 911 Call & Scene Discovery | 00:03–04:49 | | Willie’s Early Life & Relationships | 04:12–09:54 | | Conflicting Accounts, Weapons Handling | 10:08–15:02 | | The Missing DVR Camera Footage | 15:10–18:03 | | Inside the Family: Abuse or Friction? | 19:01–24:29 | | Confirming Joshua’s Alibi & Motive Discovery | 25:06–31:16 | | Security Footage & Digital Evidence | 31:50–36:41 | | Arrests and Trial Prep | 37:04–37:56 | | Trial, Prosecution, and Verdict | 38:04–40:18 | | Reflections by Family Members | 40:25–41:43 |

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Tone and Style

Throughout the episode, the tone is somber, earnest, and suspenseful, balancing clinical investigative details with deep familial loss and emotion. Family members and detectives speak candidly, often with striking bluntness about the devastating consequences of domestic conflict and the personality dynamics at the heart of the tragedy.

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Summary

The episode presents a thorough, nuanced examination of how Felicia Barden’s controlling behavior, combined with unresolved marital strife and calculated tampering, led to premeditated murder. Through witness statements, security footage, and digital forensics, investigators debunk claims of self-defense and expose Felicia's elaborate plan to cover her tracks. The aftermath leaves fractured families and a permanent sense of loss, but also a hard-earned pursuit for justice.

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Transcript

[Narrator]

A Mississippi fireman is shot to death in his own home.

[Lead Detective]

They discovered a deceased male in the bathroom floor.

[Investigating Officer]

The only people that were at the residence were the victim and the two suspects.

[Narrator]

As the investigation unfolds, detectives must assess conflicting narratives.

[Joshua Barden]

She said she shot him.

[Lead Detective]

Okay, but she didn't tell you what led up to that.

[Forensic Expert]

It was suspected that it could have been a domestic type situation.

[Lead Detective]

There's a shelf with a knife that seemed to be really out of place and wires were coming out of the ceiling.

[Narrator]

When a missing clue is discovered, the truth behind the shooting starts to surface.

[Lead Detective]

Would your fingerprints be on there?

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

Maybe he wanted somebody that could work together and they'd be happy. But that's not what he got.

[Forensic Expert]

There was search results for how to get away with murder.

[Investigating Officer]

I've never had a defendant scare me. She scares me.

[Willie's Brother]

I said, she's a tiger and you gonna be the prey.

[Narrator]

November 12, 2019. It's 7:30am in Olive Branch, Mississippi, when the sheriff's Office receives cryptic 911 call.

[Joshua Barden]

Somebody's been shot.

[Lead Detective]

Do you know?

[Joshua Barden]

No.

[Lead Detective]

You don't know what happened?

[Joshua Barden]

I just got home. Switching body to you.

[Investigating Officer]

The caller did not give us their name or provide any other additional information. They're upset, they're frantic. They just want to report the call and they don't give a lot of detail.

[Narrator]

First responders raced to the address, a sprawling home in an upscale neighborhood.

[Investigating Officer]

The first officers who arrived at the scene talked to a young male named Joshua. He indicates that he is the person that called 911 and said someone was shot at this particular residence.

[Forensic Expert]

Joshua lived with his mother, Felicia Barton, and in the home with Willie Barton.

[Joshua Barden]

I got there, didn't know exactly what was going on. My mom's very frantic, walking room to room, room to room. I just had the simple question of where is Willie? And then honestly, it was all adrenaline in the field. So whatever I told the police is just whatever I know that happened. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, dead body, blood, gun shot. It was horrible.

[Lead Detective]

This first thing out of his mouth was, my mom shot Willie in self defense. He's crying a little bit. They get him secured, they get him in the back of a patrol car. They make entry into the house and that's where they find Phylicia Barton.

[Investigating Officer]

She was crying, she was acting frantic and she did have a gash on her forehead that was bleeding. The officers asked if she's okay. She said she didn't know.

[Joshua Barden]

I have no idea what happened. It was the blood on her Face And I was so out of it myself, I didn't really notice, you know what I'm saying? All the injuries.

[Lead Detective]

They bring her out and secure her in the back of a patrol car. Then they cleared the house and that's where they discovered a deceased male in the bathroom floor. The victim was identified as Willie Barden, the husband of Felicia Barden.

[Forensic Expert]

The body was turned over and it was determined that he had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.

[Investigating Officer]

At this point, it looked like a domestic violence situation. We have someone who was murdered and a female with injuries. We don't know anything else.

[Narrator]

Willie James Barden was born on December 29, 1963 to a large and loving family.

[Willie's Brother]

There were eight male children born and six female children born to my mom and dad. Yeah, so a total of 14 kids.

[Lead Detective]

We grew up in Forest City, Arkansas, a little small town about an hour away from Memphis.

[Willie's Brother]

My mom and dad took care of all 14 of us. You know, good Christmas, good Thanksgiving, good holidays. You know, we had a good upbringing.

[Narrator]

With so many siblings, Willie had to find ways to stay stand out.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

He wasn't one of the ones that got in trouble. I'll put it that way. He stayed out of trouble. He enjoyed school.

[Willie's Brother]

Early on he had a vision problem that wasn't recognized and once that was discovered, he got glasses. Then he started to excel.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

Once he started excelling and doing great in school, he was getting our parents recognition for doing well.

[Narrator]

After high school, Willie attended the University of Central Arkansas, but quickly realized it wasn't the right path for him. So instead he dropped out and began working for a cookware company.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

He was a team leader there and I think that's where he met his wife Cassandra. He loved really hard. So like any relationship that he was in, he gave it his all. He would like counters, he would cook flowers, all that. So he believed in treating him on mice. She had an older daughter that he was raising too. He treated her just like she was his daughter.

[Willie's Brother]

That's one of the things that I think Willie wanted for his life was to have a family like his mom and dad had.

[Narrator]

Willie got his wish having two more children with Cassandra over the next several years.

[Lead Detective]

His wife worked at night, so he'd come home, he would cook for everybody and have her food in the microwave for she could eat when she get off, stuff like that. So he was amazing dad, amazing husband.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

From what I saw, he cooked more than my husband did. He always cook. He loved to cook and work and clean. He did it all.

[Narrator]

He might have been a world class Father. But Willie still longed for a career he was passionate about. In the early 2000s, he decided to try being a firefighter.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

He wanted to have a career, and he also wanted to help people. When he took the fireman test and stuff and he got on, he was so excited. He was one of the older guys on the fire department.

[Willie's Brother]

He didn't mind how I worked. He worked hard, you know, all his life, in every way.

[Narrator]

Willie's newfound success came at a cost, however. His marriage to Cassandra ended in divorce, and he found himself splitting time between the firehouse and his children.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

We grew up with both our parents, and that's what he wanted to do as well. But it just didn't work out like that. He tried to make it work. They got back together, but they couldn't make it work.

[Narrator]

In 2005, Willie got a second chance at love with a bright single mother named Felicia Price.

[Lead Detective]

Walmart was his favorite store to go to. I know he used to see her

[Willie's Brother]

in her all the time.

[Lead Detective]

And then one day, I guess he got the courage to say something to her.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

From my understanding of the way they said they met, he gave her his number in Walmart, and she waited a year before she called him.

[Joshua Barden]

My mom is a hard person to talk to, but it was amazing how, you know, his consistency worked, going and talking to her and being very polite to her. Yeah, they got together, they loved watching movies. They hung out like best friends. They were, like, pretty close in that regard.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

My brother, he likes strong women. She portrayed being a strong woman.

[Joshua Barden]

She's very straightforward. No nonsense, no silly business.

[Lead Detective]

She's already divorced once, but she's been successful throughout her life. She went through college. She's got a master's degree. She had a good job with the IRS down here.

[Joshua Barden]

My mom and Willie took the time and I would say about six years till they officially moved in together.

[Narrator]

In 2012. After seven years together, the couple finally decided to tie the knot.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

They told us they were going to Jamaica to get married.

[Joshua Barden]

They didn't invite anybody. They just went off and they got married and they came back. They seemed very happy.

[Narrator]

With two children each from previous relationships, Willie and Felicia bought a large home in Olive Branch to accommodate their blended family.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

He wanted to be married and wanted to settle down and, you know, just raise his children. He just wanted a happy life.

[Narrator]

It appeared Willie and Felicia had built the perfect life together. Now he's lying dead on the bathroom floor of their dream home.

[Lead Detective]

At the scene that day, Joshua initially tells the deputies where the gun is located. In a Drawer under the kitchen sink that is collected.

[Narrator]

Unlike Joshua, Felicia was not open to talking.

[Lead Detective]

She is in the back of a patrol car. She's kind of slumped down. I try to approach and talk to her, but she's not really responding very well.

[Narrator]

After paramedics treat Felicia's head injury, she and her son Joshua are taken to the station for questioning. Investigators give Felicia an opportunity to tell her story, but she stays silent.

[Lead Detective]

A lot of people, when they get into a situation like this, they shut down. And that's exactly what she did. She wouldn't tell me anything about her head, but the wound to her forehead seemed at the time to be self inflicted to me because it was perfectly straight up and down right in the center. I've seen people hit themselves in the head before, and it leaves that perfect line. That was the first thing that I had, that something wasn't really quite right.

[Narrator]

Coming up, investigators find signs of a troubled marriage and volatile temper.

[Lead Detective]

He did initially describe her as kind of a domineering personality.

[Narrator]

And a witness comes under fire.

[Lead Detective]

This is your chance to tell the whole truth, even if it's something you did that you shouldn't have done.

[Narrator]

Desoto county sheriff's deputies are questioning Phylicia Barden and her 23 year old son Joshua about the fatal shooting of her husband Willie.

[Investigating Officer]

You would assume that a domestic violence situation occurred based on the evidence, but it doesn't mean it necessarily did happen. At this point, we don't know why he was shot.

[Lead Detective]

I don't take anything at face value when you first hear it because everything kind of runs the gamut. So I listened to everything before I can make a determination of anything.

[Narrator]

So far, Felicia has refused to say anything. But Joshua seems more than willing to talk.

[Lead Detective]

I could tell that he really wanted to tell the story that he had. So I got him back to the office pretty quickly to interview him. Doc, from what I understand, you weren't on the scene.

[Willie's Brother]

All right?

[Lead Detective]

Your mom called you, so that kind of makes you a witness. But I'm gonna read you your Miranda rights anyway just so you understand where we are. Do you want me to read these to you, or are you capable of reading them yourself? Can you calm down? Take a breath.

[Joshua Barden]

I have anxiety. I'm gonna calm her down as much as I can.

[Lead Detective]

What happened today?

[Joshua Barden]

I was at work. I received a call. I can't tell any too many details because I was panicking. All I know is that she said that he was shot.

[Lead Detective]

Do you know about what time she called?

[Joshua Barden]

Send me something. I know because I Was supposed to be off work. I get a call from my mom. She said it was a horrible emergency and I was like, immediately hung up. I just felt very adrenaline filled and had to get there for the family. I was driving extra fast in the moment. I didn't care if I get pulled over.

[Lead Detective]

What'd she tell you happened once you got there?

[Joshua Barden]

She didn't say nothing. She was just frantic.

[Lead Detective]

She never told you anything?

[Joshua Barden]

She said she shot him.

[Investigating Officer]

Okay.

[Lead Detective]

But she didn't tell you what led up to her?

[Joshua Barden]

She has a, like, bleeding and like. Like on her head and like. Like she was kind of crunched. So I felt like it was like a fight that happened maybe.

[Lead Detective]

He said his mom shot Willie, his stepfather, in self defense.

[Joshua Barden]

Like, well, it looks like self defense. I wasn't there, but at the same time in that moment, yeah, I was terrified. I don't know what happened. So just seeing the blood on her, I was scared for my mom, period.

[Narrator]

When investigators ask him about the gun, he is open about why he knew exactly where it was.

[Joshua Barden]

I hit the gun in the kitchen. I just didn't want, you know. Where did you stick it? On the bed. It was on the bed when I came in.

[Lead Detective]

So you moved the gun from the bed to the kitchen?

[Joshua Barden]

Yes.

[Lead Detective]

Why would you move the gun?

[Joshua Barden]

I didn't want any. I didn't want anything. I just thought that was the right thing to do. Okay. I mean, that's fine.

[Investigating Officer]

The fact that he knew where the gun was and he said he hid the gun also implicates him as a suspect.

[Narrator]

Joshua's answers are consistent with his 911 call, but investigators want to compare his story to the evidence at the scene.

[Investigating Officer]

They didn't have much to go except what Joshua told them. At this point, they only had a dead body and his mother has an injury, and we don't know how that occurred.

[Narrator]

Back at the Bardon house, detectives have been conducting a more thorough search, starting with Willie's body.

[Lead Detective]

He was laying face down on the floor. One arm was out just a little bit, but his face was smashed into the floor. Just a little bit of blood was coming out from underneath him. When he does have his underwear on, it does appear that he is about to shower for his job. There were spent showcasing in the bathroom underneath the cabinet. There were sleeping pills scattered all over the floor. We found a razor, an open razor blade. We collected that because we knew she had the wound to her forehead.

[Narrator]

While trying to make sense of the scene, investigators search every room of the house.

[Investigating Officer]

While they were looking through the House. They noticed that they had cameras all over the house.

[Forensic Expert]

There were several security cameras inside and outside the house. Notable, there was one right above the master bedroom door.

[Lead Detective]

I see people put security cameras in their home, but not normally right above the master bedroom door. That was unusual for me. You have to wonder what the security concerns were.

[Narrator]

Whatever reason the Bardens had for installing the cameras, their presence could provide detectives with some much needed answers.

[Investigating Officer]

They thought, wow, this is great for us, this is great for our investigation. If we can get that footage, we're going to know exactly what happened. That led them to try to determine where the DVR was in the house.

[Forensic Expert]

We did find a location upstairs in the closet where all the wires came into, but the system itself was missing.

[Investigating Officer]

It appeared that it was ripped out of the wall.

[Lead Detective]

I saw there's a shelf with a knife that seemed to be really out of place and wires were coming out of the ceiling.

[Narrator]

As far as investigators are concerned, there's only one reason why someone would get rid of the recordings.

[Forensic Expert]

It tells us there's possibly evidence that is useful on that system.

[Investigating Officer]

Knowing that this is such a critical piece of evidence, the officers were prepared to do whatever it takes to try to locate this.

[Lead Detective]

You'd be surprised the amount of people that throw evidence in garbage cans and one of the detectives just happened to lift it up to look in and there's a DVR just sitting basically on top of the garbage.

[Investigating Officer]

We knew that if we were able to get that information off that DVR that it would blow the case wide open. We were either going to see evidence of a domestic violence situation or a cold blooded killer.

[Narrator]

After recovering the security system from the Barden's trash, detectives immediately reconnected to see if Willie Barden's shooting was caught on tape.

[Investigating Officer]

That's a critical piece of evidence. We're still not sure that we're going to be able to get it to work. Our concern was that we wouldn't because at this point in the investigation, all we had was what Joshua told us.

[Forensic Expert]

So we had to leave it in the DVR system and go through the software contained on the dvr. Part of that was there was administrative password and it locked it down.

[Narrator]

The device is sent to tech specialists to unlock it. As investigators consider their next steps that

[Investigating Officer]

led officers to go back to Joshua. They thought, maybe Joshua knows about this, maybe he can shed some light on why it was ripped out of the wall.

[Narrator]

With Felicia still too upset to talk, they get Joshua back in an interrogation room and turn up the heat.

[Lead Detective]

This is your chance to tell the whole. Even if it's something you did that you shouldn't have done or something that your mom had you do, this is the time. You don't want me to find out later, okay? Because there's still a whole team of people at that house doing stuff. So be honest.

[Willie's Brother]

Okay?

[Narrator]

Joshua starts by describing what life was like in the Barden household.

[Joshua Barden]

When I was 18, I immediately moved out, went to college, but I was just living by myself, so my mom begged me to come to stay with her. Eventually I moved back and it was not that great.

[Lead Detective]

Joshua did initially describe his mother as kind of a domineering personality, can be difficult to be around.

[Narrator]

Joshua says he saw Willie and his mother fight a lot, but he never actually saw him hurt her.

[Joshua Barden]

I witnessed, like, just yelling, screaming, but I would never, in my presence, let somebody touch my mom.

[Lead Detective]

That's what I'm asking. So you scream, yell at each other that you've never seen nothing for.

[Joshua Barden]

And I don't think you would do it while I was there. My mom was a. She was a yeller.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

She.

[Joshua Barden]

It's just hard to talk, hard to. Whenever she wants it one way, it's gonna be that way. It's basically how she usually acts, and that's just how it is. They had normal arguments like any other couple, and that's as far as it got in my eyes.

[Narrator]

While he never saw any violence, Joshua says his mother did accuse Willie of abuse.

[Lead Detective]

He did say that Phylicia, about a week prior to the shooting, told him that Willie was sexually and physically abusing her.

[Joshua Barden]

She told me she suspected of him poisoning her food because she was sleep louder than she needed to.

[Lead Detective]

Did she takes that he is putting sleeping pills in her food?

[Joshua Barden]

Yes.

[Investigating Officer]

And if Willie was hurting his mother, that makes sense that he might be protecting her.

[Narrator]

And according to Joshua, his mother wasn't Willie's only target.

[Investigating Officer]

Joshua also indicated in his interview with officers that he did not get along with his stepfather. He said his stepfather had pointed a gun at him during an altercation and he also grabbed him by the throat. Joshua said that Nicholas, who is the victim's son, was present when this occurred.

[Lead Detective]

Why did he get so mad? What happened in that moment?

[Joshua Barden]

I was asleep and I do not know. He was talking to my mom and he doesn't like me staying there, to be honest, he doesn't like my demeanor. Like, he said that I had a thuggish demeanor.

[Narrator]

So far, Joshua has stuck to his initial story of how Willie was shot.

[Joshua Barden]

I got her to the house. She was pretty Hurt just sitting there in the room.

[Lead Detective]

You called the police?

[Joshua Barden]

Yeah, I called the police on my phone.

[Lead Detective]

Did you help move anything?

[Joshua Barden]

Like in what way?

[Lead Detective]

Anything at all? Did you, other than the gun? Did you pick up movement alter?

[Joshua Barden]

Nope.

[Investigating Officer]

They proceeded to tell him that they found the DVR in the garbage can in the backyard.

[Lead Detective]

You need to like, just come clean if you know something because you know we're gonna fingerprint. Would your fingerprints be on there?

[Joshua Barden]

Yeah, maybe.

[Lead Detective]

That quickly unraveled to him at his mother's direction, removing it, ripping it out of the wall and throwing it into the garbage can.

[Joshua Barden]

She said, grab that box and throw it away. And I was like, what are you doing? Honest to God.

[Lead Detective]

So you knew at that moment it wasn't right?

[Joshua Barden]

No, I promise to God I didn't.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

Okay.

[Lead Detective]

Do you have any idea why she would want to throw that box away if it's getting back up her story?

[Joshua Barden]

I have no clue.

[Investigating Officer]

Now we know that he has tampered with critical evidence that could possibly tell us exactly what happened.

[Narrator]

Cecilia. Suspicions continue to grow when investigators follow up with Willie's son Nicholas.

[Investigating Officer]

They wanted to talk to him specifically about the instance that Joshua had talked to investigators about claiming that Willie had held a gun to his head.

[Lead Detective]

I asked Nicholas about that incident and his version was basically completely opposite of what Joshua's was.

[Investigating Officer]

Nicholas says that Joshua actually had a plate that he was going to throw at Willie and that's when Willie drew his gun.

[Lead Detective]

Joshua told the story that he was in his room, basically minding his own business, and Willie comes in with a gun. He did not, according to Nicholas, didn't point it at him, but basically told him, you're not going to attack me in my own home.

[Willie's Brother]

Nick said that in the home was chaos all the time. There was this chaos all the time. He just got so tied up that he had to leave. He said he couldn't take it.

[Investigating Officer]

That was a key piece that Joshua left out of that story. And why would he do that?

[Narrator]

Coming up, a background check catches detectives attention.

[Lead Detective]

They said she is really domineering and difficult and they eventually suspended her.

[Narrator]

And when police finally cracked the dvr, the video evidence is chilling.

[Investigating Officer]

We knew that that was the piece of the puzzle that was going to put everything together.

[Narrator]

After poking holes in Joshua's initial account, investigators question everything he's told them about Willie Barden's murder.

[Lead Detective]

He did give basically an alibi of why he wouldn't have been involved, that he was at work at Circle K. So myself and another detective, we went to the Circle K to try to see if they would let us look at their security footage.

[Investigating Officer]

They have video footage of him leaving the gas station after he received the call from his mother, corroborating what he said to police initially. So we knew he was at work at the time of the murder.

[Narrator]

Despite their suspicions, it's clear Joshua couldn't have been the one who pulled the trigger.

[Investigating Officer]

So now that Joshua has been ruled out as a suspect, we're focusing in on Phylicia. Was it a domestic violence situation, or did Felicia just murder Willie?

[Lead Detective]

Sometimes people that kill somebody in self defense, they will lie about some of the smaller stuff involved, but they're not gonna lie about, I was basically brutally attacked enough that I had to kill somebody to save my own life. They want you to know everything that happened. So it's pretty unusual for somebody to want to claim self defense but then try to destroy all the evidence that would help your claim.

[Narrator]

While specialists work on cracking the security camera footage, detectives check police records for any history of domestic violence.

[Lead Detective]

What we found out with Phylicia and Willie was, I mean, all the way back in 2009, we were finding police reports from Memphis where they were calling 911 on each other.

[Narrator]

Although an arrest was never made, investigators know from experience experience that situations like this often escalate.

[Investigating Officer]

Typically, if somebody's involved in a domestic violence relationship, it happens more, more than once. When speaking with Phylicia's family members, none of them seem to be aware of any issues going on between the couple except Roland, who is Phylicia's brother.

[Lead Detective]

Right before the homicide, Phylicia had told him that Willie was trying to poison her, put stuff in her food to kill her, which was basically what Joshua described in the beginning.

[Investigating Officer]

Being concerned for his sister, Roland did contact Willie and asked him about the allegations. Willie denied it. He said, there's nothing going on. We'll work this out. And Roland seemed to be satisfied with that answer.

[Narrator]

When investigators talk to the couple's friends and co workers, however, they say Phylicia was the one prone to violence.

[Lead Detective]

We spoke to her work. They said she is a difficult woman to get along with, really domineering and difficult, and they eventually suspended her.

[Investigating Officer]

However, we could not find one person anywhere to say anything negative about Willie Barden. We spoke with both of his bosses who couldn't say nicer things about him. He was a great employee. He was always on time. He never missed work. He was pleasant. He got along with everybody.

[Lead Detective]

Everybody who knew him know he's an amazing guy, funny guy. I can't even remember him getting mad.

[Narrator]

According to Willie's loved ones, Phylicia was a source of conflict long before they were married.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

Willie wanted somebody that could work together and have something and be happy, but that's not what he got. He got somebody that wanted to control him and manipulate him and separate him from his family, including his children.

[Willie's Brother]

She had an error about herself that she felt like she might be better than most people. She could be a little rude and crude at times. She couldn't admit when she knew she was wrong, you know, at all. After I had met her, he called me and said, devoiry. He said, what do you think about me marrying Phylicia, Willie? I said, my first impression is not a good impression. I said, I think she's a tiger and you gonna be the predator.

[Narrator]

They say things only got worse after Joshua moved in.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

Willie was like a clean, very clean person. Organized. But from my understanding, Josh wouldn't clean or do anything.

[Willie's Brother]

My brother didn't want to smoke and weed in the house. He wouldn't abide by his rules. They didn't really have a good relationship at all.

[Joshua Barden]

It was a big kind of, you know, argument, argumentative thing over anything. But at the same time, you know, people have emotions. I understand why he would be upset because we would. We smelled like marijuana all the time. And that's probably the thing that ticked him.

[Lead Detective]

One of his co workers at the fire department he worked at, he had told him that somebody's got to leave the house, either him or Joshua.

[Investigating Officer]

In talking with Willie's other family members, they indicated that he recently, within weeks prior to the murder, told them that he was going to divorce Phylicia.

[Narrator]

And it seems Phylicia knew Willie was planning to leave her as well.

[Lead Detective]

Willie's brother did tell us that Willie had told Phylicia that he planned on divorcing her.

[Investigating Officer]

You know, that certainly could be a motive for murder. Was it just that if she can't have him, nobody can?

[Narrator]

Less than 24 hours into their investigation, Mississippi detectives are questioning everything they've been told about Willie Barden's death. And the one person who could clear things up still refuses to talk.

[Investigating Officer]

Investigators met with Felicia to see if she wanted to give a statement. She exercised her right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer.

[Narrator]

Detectives only chance of finding out what really happened is locked away on a security camera recording.

[Forensic Expert]

We had a little trouble with this particular system because we couldn't remove it from the DVR to extract the data from. So we had to leave it in the DVR system and go through the software contained on the dvr. Fortunately, in this case, we were able to bypass the administrative password and from there we were able to view the video and export the video.

[Narrator]

Although the cameras do not cover the bathroom where the shooting took place, they do give investigators an extensive view of the rest of the house.

[Lead Detective]

The camera right above the the master bedroom door showed the stairway, the hallway and the living area. There was one, a security camera in the kitchen. It showed the entire kitchen. In another little hallway, there was a security camera that showed another back part of the house that has security cameras everywhere.

[Investigating Officer]

From the video footage, you can tell that the day before was like any other day. You see that Willie and Felicia actually hug at one point.

[Lead Detective]

She hugs him back like you would expect a husband and wife. There's no doesn't appear to be any animosity or fights between them. He goes into the bedroom and that's the last time you ever see Willie.

[Narrator]

On the morning of the shooting, Phylicia appears on camera bright and early around

[Investigating Officer]

6:45am you can see her come from the master bedroom, walk down the hall, go left out the door to the garage. When she comes back into the house, she's walking down the hall with the gun in her hand.

[Lead Detective]

She has no concerns or issues. She just kind of strolls into the garage, comes out and just kind of a slow walk with the gun in her hand. Felicia looks like a psychopath, to be honest with you. I mean, she looks like she is not bothered at all by what she is about to do.

[Investigating Officer]

She didn't have a care in the world. She wasn't frightened, she wasn't scared, she wasn't crying.

[Narrator]

Investigators can only speculate about what happened next.

[Investigating Officer]

It looked like Willie was getting ready for work as he normally did. He was in the bathroom about to take a shower. We know that the gunshot was close range. So she went into that bathroom where he had no escape, no way to get out, and shot him in cold blood.

[Forensic Expert]

A little while later, Phylicia Barden comes out of the master bedroom with a firearm and appears to go into the living room and possibly place it under a couch cushion.

[Investigating Officer]

She then proceeds to go to the master bedroom for approximately three minutes. Then she comes back out to the living area under that same couch cushion. She retrieves something. You can't see see it, but presumably it's the gun that she just hid. Then you see her run up the stairs, presumably to unplug the DVR or get rid of it, and the video goes black.

[Narrator]

The video also confirms Phylicia's wounds had to be self inflicted.

[Lead Detective]

You can still see her face clear enough that she still does not have any wounds to her face.

[Investigating Officer]

It appears to be premeditated because she paved the way for a self defense claim.

[Narrator]

Detectives obtain a warrant for Phylicia's cell phone and its contents further prove her intent to kill her husband.

[Forensic Expert]

On Phylicia Barden's cell phone, there was search results for how to get away with murder.

[Investigating Officer]

We also located a text from the night before the murder where she had saved it as a draft and it appeared to be a suicide text.

[Forensic Expert]

That would imply that this was not a spur of the moment crime, that it was maybe premeditated because she had to think, put some thought into this message.

[Lead Detective]

She was going to do this come hell or high water.

[Investigating Officer]

We had suspected that this would be a murder suicide and I think that's why she made the error of not turning those cameras off. She changed her mind and realized, I've got to get rid of the video because that's going to implicate her as the murderer.

[Lead Detective]

She started to panic and wanted help. The only person that she had or could think of was her son.

[Investigating Officer]

To call him to a murder scene that she committed murder and get him involved reflects the type of person that she is.

[Lead Detective]

I think it just boiled down to narcissism that I'm gonna be smarter than everybody and I'm gonna get away with this.

[Investigating Officer]

Anytime you have a case like this that is potentially a domestic violence situation, the jury wants to know, they wanna know that it isn't. So it was important in this trial to prove that it wasn't.

[Narrator]

Investigators now have all the evidence they need to arrest Phylicia Barden for murder. Her son Joshua is also arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact.

[Lead Detective]

Phylicia didn't tell anybody anything, wouldn't even speak to her lawyer.

[Investigating Officer]

We did not know what her defense was going to be. So we felt that it was helpful to our case to cinch up some of the holes with Joshua. So we did approach his lawyer and asked if he would be a cooperating witness for the state and he agreed to do that.

[Joshua Barden]

I didn't want to do it, but that was how I got myself free away from the situation and I was just basically telling the truth, you know what I'm saying? So that's, yeah, horrible, horrible situation, horrible time.

[Narrator]

In June 2021, two years after Willie Barden was shot to death, Felicia's trial finally begins.

[Investigating Officer]

The main witness for the prosecution was Joshua. Since he had most of the information. We also included numerous exhibits. We had Google searches from Phylicia. We had the suicide note. The video footage, Especially with Phylicia coming down the hallway with the gun without an injury to her forehead was the smoking gun, no pun intended. In this case, the jury was on the edge of their seat when they knew that was coming.

[Narrator]

Prosecutors paint a picture for the jury of a woman so psychologically disturbed that when her husband said he was leaving her, she snapped.

[Investigating Officer]

My goal was to prove to them that this was not a domestic violence situation. She was not a victim, but that her husband wanted a divorce and she was not having that. She was not going to let him divorce her. She was not losing that battle.

[Lead Detective]

She couldn't stand the thought of not being with Willie. I don't think she's the type of person that will let things go. And when he couldn't put up with her or her son any longer, she determined that if I can't have you, nobody's going to. I'm sure the divorce would be absolutely shameful to her. You know, she likes to put that show on for everybody. She's already divorced once, so to have a second divorce would probably be too much for her.

[Investigating Officer]

This woman is very calculating. She wanted Willie to look like the bad person in this situation. She wanted to look like the good person. She wanted to be remembered as a victim. I've never had a defendant scare me. She scares me.

[Narrator]

Despite the mountain of evidence against her, Phylicia still refuses to set the record straight.

[Investigating Officer]

Phylicia did not speak during the trial, nor did she take the stand. So in essence, there was no defense. Her attorney's hands were tied because she would not speak to her attorney.

[Narrator]

The jury takes little time to reach a verdict.

[Lead Detective]

Felicia Varden was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

He gave her everything, like everything she asked for, he gave it to her. She could never be satisfied. And it's kind of befitting that. She's in prison. She has control of nothing now. You know, trying to control someone, now she's being controlled.

[Joshua Barden]

The whole situation's horrible. Just love my mom always. She loves me. Like, once you take the sadness out of it, the emotions out of it, just taught me what you're supposed to do in certain situations, Even though you hate it. It's just a lot of emotions.

[Willie's Brother]

Willie was a good man, gone too soon. He loved everybody. He was nice to everybody. Everybody loved them.

[Lead Detective]

During the holidays and time we share together, you know, we send out a prayer for them. And we know Willie watching over us.

[Family Member (possibly sibling of Willie)]

I miss him. I love him. I love his children. And I want them to be okay. I know that you know, this time helps, but it does not heal.

[Willie's Brother]

People choose to walk with God or they choose to walk with Satan. I said, her choice is made. There was no redemption for her.