Fatal Beauty | 4. There's Something About Camille

Summary

The Binge Cases: Fatal Beauty – Episode 4: "There's Something About Camille"

Host: Cooper Mall
Guests: Glenna Whitley, Eric Miller
Release Date: April 22, 2025

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Introduction

In the gripping fourth episode of Fatal Beauty, titled "There's Something About Camille," host Cooper Mall delves deeper into the enigmatic life of Sandra Bridewell, infamously known as the Black Widow. This episode uncovers the intricate web Sandra wove, her continual evasion of law enforcement, and the relentless pursuit by investigative reporter Glenna Whitley and co-author Eric Miller to bring her to justice.

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Background: Sandra Bridewell – The Black Widow

Sandra Bridewell's southern charm and deceptive grace allowed her to manipulate and eliminate those close to her without drawing suspicion. Cooper Mall sets the stage by recounting how, in an era devoid of pervasive digital surveillance, Sandra operated under various aliases, slipping through the cracks of society.

Cooper Mall [00:54]: "In an age before the Internet could track every move and every deception, Sandra Bridewell moved like a ghost."

Glenna Whitley highlights the allure surrounding Sandra's story, emphasizing society's fascination with wealth intertwined with crime.

Glenna Whitley [02:01]: "This fascination with wealth and crime is what drew people to this story."

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The Investigation Intensifies

Eric Miller recounts the pivotal 1987 D Magazine article titled "Sandra Bridewell is the Black Widow," which sensationalized her alleged involvement in multiple deaths. This exposé not only heightened public scrutiny but also served as a constant threat to Sandra's clandestine operations.

Eric Miller [01:28]: "This woman is terrified."

Despite the widespread gossip and mounting allegations, Sandra adeptly avoided legal charges, leveraging social trust and the absence of concrete evidence to her advantage.

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Enter Glenna Whitley: Relentless Pursuit

In 1989, Glenna Whitley authored the influential piece "Whatever Happened at the Black Widow," solidifying her role as the primary investigator of Sandra's elusive activities. Her dedication was unwavering, becoming a go-to resource for those seeking the truth about Sandra.

Cooper Mall [05:44]: "In 1989, Whitley wrote an explosive story called Whatever Happened at the Black Widow."

Whitley's relentless inquiries led her to numerous contacts across the country, uncovering Sandra's pattern of moving between states, adopting new identities, and exploiting legal loopholes to remain untraceable.

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The Breakthrough: Camille Bridewell

A significant turn in the investigation came with the introduction of Kerry Huskinson, a private investigator, who approached Glenna Whitley with a case that would intertwine their paths with Sandra’s latest alias, Camille Bridewell.

Glenna Whitley [10:41]: "This is where my career actually began."

The investigation revealed that Camille Bridewell was indeed Sandra Bridewell under a different name. This revelation was a critical breakthrough, highlighting Sandra's adeptness at evading detection through meticulous identity management.

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The Story of Jay Benson and Camille Bridewell

The episode pivots to the personal account of Jay Benson, a 46-year-old entrepreneur from Atlanta, who unknowingly became entangled in Sandra’s deceitful web. Attending a conference at New Birth Ministries Baptist Church, Jay met Camille Bridwell, who exuded an irresistible charm and vulnerability.

Cooper Mall [28:17]: "She stood out not only because she was the only white woman in a crowd of black parishioners, but because of the way she moved. Exuberant, expressive, almost theatrical."

Moved by Camille's apparent misfortunes, Jay offered her a place to stay, unaware of the impending danger.

Jay Benson: "I really never even asked her to pay rent because I didn't think it was a permanent thing."

As weeks passed, Jay grew suspicious of Camille's erratic behavior and secretive nature. Her requests for money, unexplained financial woes, and peculiar habits raised red flags.

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Unmasking the Deception

Jay's suspicions culminated in a clandestine investigation of Camille's personal space, revealing startling evidence of fraud and deceit. The discovery of a passport under the name Sandra Bridewell confirmed Jay’s fears.

Jay Benson [33:32]: "The passport name wasn't her. Her name Sandra. Camille Bridewell. Jay freaked out."

Using early search engines, Jay traced the name to the Bridewell Foundation, leading her to connect with Glenna Whitley. The confrontation was tense and revealing, as Glenna confirmed Sandra's true identity and her pattern of manipulation.

Glenna Whitley [34:34]: "She’d been accused of killing."

Armed with this knowledge, Jay realized the imminent threat Sandra posed and took swift action to remove her from her home.

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The Climactic Confrontation

In a nerve-wracking encounter, Jay confronted Sandra, who momentarily shed her deceptive facade, revealing a chilling demeanor. Despite involving law enforcement, Sandra's cunning ensured her escape, leaving Jay to grapple with the narrow miss of potential danger.

Glenna Whitley [36:38]: "She went from this sweet, angelic kind of a face to this demon looking face."

Jay Benson [37:07]: "I wouldn't let her out of my sight."

Despite the police's inability to arrest Sandra immediately due to jurisdictional limitations, Jay's decisive actions underscored the persistent threat Sandra posed.

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Conclusion and Forward Look

The episode concludes with a reflection on Sandra Bridewell's ability to evade capture, despite mounting evidence and personal confrontations. The narrative hints at Sandra's eventual downfall, signaling that her manipulative tactics would eventually lead her to prey on the wrong targets.

Cooper Mall [40:08]: "Sandra was a predator. One who changed her means to an end as easily as shedding skin."

Listeners are left anticipating the next episode, where Sandra's continued manipulations and final capture promise to unveil the full extent of her lethal charm.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Cooper Mall [00:54]: "In an age before the Internet could track every move and every deception, Sandra Bridewell moved like a ghost."

• Glenna Whitley [02:01]: "This fascination with wealth and crime is what drew people to this story."

• Eric Miller [01:28]: "This woman is terrified."

• Glenna Whitley [10:41]: "This is where my career actually began."

• Cooper Mall [28:17]: "She stood out not only because she was the only white woman in a crowd of black parishioners, but because of the way she moved. Exuberant, expressive, almost theatrical."

• Jay Benson [33:32]: "The passport name wasn't her. Her name Sandra. Camille Bridewell. Jay freaked out."

• Glenna Whitley [34:34]: "She’d been accused of killing."

• Glenna Whitley [36:38]: "She went from this sweet, angelic kind of a face to this demon looking face."

• Cooper Mall [40:08]: "Sandra was a predator. One who changed her means to an end as easily as shedding skin."

---

Final Thoughts

Episode 4 of Fatal Beauty masterfully intertwines investigative journalism with a personal narrative, painting a vivid picture of Sandra Bridewell's manipulative prowess and the determined efforts of those seeking to unveil her true nature. As the story unfolds, listeners are drawn deeper into the shadowy world of a femme fatale, eager to uncover the culmination of this relentless pursuit.

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Transcript

[Cooper Mall]

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[Cooper Mall]

Listen to all episodes of Fatal Beauty ad free right now by subscribing to the binge. Visit the binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access. Wherever you listen, feed your true crime obsession.

[Glenna Whitley]

The binge.

[Cooper Mall]

In an age before the Internet could track every move and every deception, Sandra Bridewell moved like a ghost. No social media to expose her lies. Former friends and acquaintances who suspected her of wrongdoing weren't sharing their concern online, so Sandra could just find new people to charm who were none the wiser about her past. But in May 1987, that veil of protection wore paper thin.

[Glenna Whitley]

You have one husband die while you're involved with him, and three. A lot of smoke there. So we were looking for fire.

[Cooper Mall]

That's Eric Miller. He co wrote a nearly 12,000 word story titled Sandra Bridewell is the Black Widow. It didn't mince words. The article laid out how the good people of Dallas had long gossiped that she was guilty of at least one murder. It appeared in D Magazine, which has long been a voice of how Dallas sees itself, and Sandra's face landed on the COVID with a headline that read Death and Gossip in Highland Park Picture donning a bright smile that stretched ear to ear and looked a touch like Katharine Hepburn.

[Glenna Whitley]

This fascination with wealth and crime is what drew people to this story.

[Cooper Mall]

To this day, it's one of the publication's most popular pieces. Back in 1987, when it hit newsstands in Highland park, locals devoured every word. By then, Sandra was long gone. She'd left for Marin county, as we told you last episode. But that Black Widow article would complicate things for Sandra for the rest of her life. As she moved from city to city, the article became a warning to people she tried to lure in. Like a woman in the Bay Area who struck up a fast and close friendship with Sandra after meeting at a black tie event who knows how that might have ended had someone not faxed a copy of the article to her. Here's a broadcast from San Francisco's NewsCenter 4 with the scoop.

[Glenna Whitley]

We've learned the FBI took the highly unusual step of issuing a warning to a San Francisco woman who was a close friend of Sandra Bridewell.

[Cooper Mall]

Investigative reporter Glenna Whitley recounted what happened when the feds reached out.

[Eric Miller]

Have you read that article? The article in D magazine? If you took Betsy Bagwell and put her in California, you are Betsy Bagwell. Alluding to Betsy Bagwell's death, her death.

[Glenna Whitley]

By quote, unquote, suicide, the FBI told her to end all contact with Sandra Bridewell, to never be alone with her.

[Eric Miller]

This woman is terrified.

[Cooper Mall]

Incredibly, she did manage to break free. Who knows why she was able to step away and survive while Betsy Bagwell died? We may never know. But here's what's truly scary about Sandra. She's the kind of predator who could stay under the radar. She could get people to underestimate her, to not worry even when they had heard multiple allegations against her. Some people in her affluent circle in California were simply unfazed that she'd been called the Black Widow in print.

[Eric Miller]

The fact that she had never been charged, you know, she wasn't arrested, she wasn't indicted, you know, that seemed to mean that it was all gossip by vindictive people that didn't like her because she was so beautiful and so, so pretty.

[Cooper Mall]

In those days, people gave other people like them the benefit of the doubt. There was an unspoken trust and Sandra capitalized on it. Law enforcement hadn't been able to rein her in. With no one to stop her, she continued to hatch her next plot. Sandra was now on the move. It was going to take an army of self appointed vigilantes to expose her misdeeds. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is Fatal Beauty. I'm Cooper Mall Episode 4 There's something about Camille Tracing the path of Sandra Bridewell is not a task for the faint of heart. I know from experience it is painstakingly complicated and at times frustrating. But there's nobody who knows this woman like Glenna Whitley. For Eric Miller and his co author Skip Hollingsworth, their 1987 D Magazine article may have been the end of investigating Sandra, but for Whitley, it was only the beginning.

[Eric Miller]

I inherited their file on Sandra Brightwell.

[Cooper Mall]

In 1989, Whitley wrote an explosive story called Whatever Happened at the Black Widow. After that, she became the person strangers called when their paths crossed with this intriguing beauty. They didn't call the cops they called Whitley one day.

[Eric Miller]

I was in a meeting, and the receptionist came in and said, glenda, there's a call for you.

[Cooper Mall]

She didn't ditch meetings for a phone call, but the receptionist practically twisted her arm.

[Eric Miller]

She was very insistent.

[Cooper Mall]

Whitley went to see who was on the phone.

[Eric Miller]

It was a man who described himself as an architect from Arizona, and he was visiting someone in Dallas.

[Cooper Mall]

He had come across a story about the California chapter of Sandra Bridewell, a beautiful, mysterious woman known in Highland park as the Black Widow.

[Eric Miller]

And he said, is this story true? He couldn't believe it. He thought, well, you know these journalists, they just make things up. I said, no, this is not made up.

[Cooper Mall]

Glenna assured him that the piece had been meticulously researched, vetted, and fact checked.

[Eric Miller]

And he said, well, this woman is in my house and in Arizona. And I was just stunned.

[Cooper Mall]

The man confided in Glenna that he and Sandra were not only dating, but.

[Eric Miller]

She had quickly moved into his house and was very pushy about expanding their relationship, extending their relationship to another level.

[Cooper Mall]

Whitley knew where this could be headed.

[Eric Miller]

I had to tell him, I think you should get her out of your house.

[Cooper Mall]

Whitley couldn't stop thinking about who Sandra might be targeting next. She felt compelled to expose her, to warn others.

[Eric Miller]

And I know people thought that I was obsessed with her, that I wrote so many stories about her. And in a way, maybe I was obsessed with it, but I had a good reason to be obsessed with it. I believed that she was responsible for murder.

[Cooper Mall]

Law enforcement had seemingly given up on stopping Sandra. If not Glenna, then who?

[Eric Miller]

Especially as the Internet began to become more widespread. People would use Google searches for different names, and they would ultimately lead back to the D Magazine story.

[Cooper Mall]

And then they'd call Whitley with a slew of questions. Sandra had started tweaking her name ever so slightly. Sandra Camille Powers was her name as a child.

[Eric Miller]

She changes it to Sandra Camille Steagall, and then Bridewell. She uses a variation of those. First names and last names on legal.

[Cooper Mall]

Documents, leases, identified IDs. She played musical chairs with her name, I think, to try to outrun her reputation as a Black Widow. Back in the 90s, Whitley had become a hotline.

[Eric Miller]

Even later, after I left D Magazine.

[Cooper Mall]

She'D go on to write for the Dallas Observer.

[Eric Miller]

People would track me down, and they would call me and say, do you know this woman? It was a pattern that would repeat itself many times over the next 20 years.

[Cooper Mall]

Each name change made tracking her harder. So did her frequent moves. Whitley found Sandra's web of deception stretched across the country. She had addresses in Connecticut, Hawaii and Massachusetts. And she would use PO boxes to keep her address a mystery.

[Eric Miller]

For a while, she was using different people's Social Security numbers.

[Cooper Mall]

And if you're wondering, yes, it's illegal to use someone else's Social Security number. She was opening herself up to serious criminal charges. But it was nearly impossible to pin her down anywhere for long. For a moment there in the early 90s, the phone calls came to a halt. Whitley thought she may have lost her for good.

[Eric Miller]

She kind of vanishes.

[Cooper Mall]

The trailer becomes sparse. Sandra wasn't popping up in public records and databases.

[Eric Miller]

That is when she reemerges as Camille Bridewell.

[Cooper Mall]

It seemed all bets were off getting law enforcement to do a thing about Sandra. But Whitley wasn't the only one keeping tabs on her. Other people had taken up the hunt, too. It was only a matter of time before they'd band together.

[Eric Miller]

And in 1994 is when I heard from a private detective.

[Cooper Mall]

This is when Kerry Huskinson, PI reached out to Whitley. Here she is.

[Glenna Whitley]

This is where my career actually began. So I had a friend who had a husband who was having an affair.

[Cooper Mall]

And you guessed it, the husband had taken up with a certain smoldering seductress with long brown hair and a tight waistline. And the friend wasn't one to rock the boat.

[Glenna Whitley]

This is a woman who we would Firmly call a 1950s housewife. Submissive. He has control of everything. You know, this kind of a thing.

[Cooper Mall]

This is all going down in Northern California. At first, the friend wrestled with the thought that she may just be paranoid that her husband, a successful businessman, might not be cheating.

[Glenna Whitley]

But I kept pointing out things that, you know, didn't add up. For example, when her husband apparently went to New York for work, I asked, where is he staying? The response I got was, well, he doesn't know. He said he'd call me once he gets there and gets a place. A businessman doesn't take a dump without a plan.

[Cooper Mall]

Huskinson wasn't buying it, but her friends still didn't want to face it. Only solid evidence of her husband's infidelity would convince her. Not long after, Huskinson heard from the wife again. While she and her husband were away at their vacation condo for the weekend.

[Glenna Whitley]

I got a call at about 3:30 in the morning. She was crying. And then she said she had found long black hairs on her pillow.

[Cooper Mall]

Oh, hell no.

[Glenna Whitley]

And I told her to go in there, wake his ass up, and ask him who the hell this belongs to.

[Cooper Mall]

It's unclear if the housewife approached him that aggressively, but whatever she did, she managed to get him to confess.

[Glenna Whitley]

So he did acknowledge that he was having an affair. And that's when she found out her name was Camille. In 2009, three days before Halloween, a grisly crime stunned the seaport town of Anacortes, Washington.

[Cooper Mall]

Mark was known as the dog whisperer of Anacortes.

[Glenna Whitley]

They soon discovered a story tangled in obsession. Who was the hunter and who was the hunted? Follow and listen to Train to Kill, the Dog Trainer, the heiress and the bodyguard on the free Odyssey app or.

[Cooper Mall]

Wherever you get your podcasts, ladies, you'll.

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[Cooper Mall]

Huskinson told me these were devout Christians. Divorce was out of the question. But the wife wanted to know more about this Camille lady.

[Glenna Whitley]

She mentioned hiring a private investigator.

[Cooper Mall]

The but the guy she'd hired couldn't cut the mustard.

[Glenna Whitley]

Ran background checks, but predominantly on her husband, trying to find a connection somewhere. Nothing about the woman finding something on.

[Cooper Mall]

The other woman was the whole point. Huskinson wasn't impressed.

[Glenna Whitley]

I kept making these recommendations on, well, they should do this, they should do that. And so she just popped up and said, I'm hiring you.

[Cooper Mall]

In an instant, Huskinson's career crystallized.

[Glenna Whitley]

I had a built in nature, I guess you could say, for sniffing things out. And I took it upon myself to go ahead and dive in.

[Cooper Mall]

If you can't already tell, she doesn't mess around. Huskinson wanted to do this by the book. She took a course in private investigation, learned all the rules and policies, then dove in headfirst into finding out everything there was to know about Camille. The mission to track the mistress down was going to be complicated, but the husband was smarter than that.

[Glenna Whitley]

He moved her from California to Boston. We didn't know where in Boston, but we did have a phone number. I called directory assistance over and over and over, trying to get someone to give me the address. That went to the phone number.

[Cooper Mall]

Operators weren't budging. It was a private listing. They couldn't just give out the address. So Huskinson tried a more unorthodox approach as a means to an end.

[Glenna Whitley]

I pretended to be emotional and I said, well, here's the thing. I was adopted and this is my mom and I just, I just want to see her. And I pretended to be upset and she immediately blurted out, number 3 Myrtle street, and then she hung up.

[Cooper Mall]

The operator didn't give her a name, but this was something.

[Glenna Whitley]

So then I caught a plane and I went to Boston.

[Cooper Mall]

But get a load of this part.

[Glenna Whitley]

I sat dressed as a homeless person for two days up on Beacon Hill, surveying the home.

[Cooper Mall]

In her two day stakeout. She didn't observe any comings and goings.

[Glenna Whitley]

But I was able to get into the building and get a view of the mailbox where I noticed her last name, Bridewell.

[Cooper Mall]

Now she had something to go off of, a last name.

[Glenna Whitley]

But I needed more because at that time I did not have access to any computer databases.

[Cooper Mall]

Huskinson thought if she could just get into the apartment, she'd be able to get a much better picture of who this Bridewell woman really was. Then an opportunity presented itself when no one would be home and someone else would be in town.

[Glenna Whitley]

One of their daughters had graduated from Harvard and was going back there for some type of reunion.

[Cooper Mall]

This daughter was clued into her father's misdeeds and wasn't happy about how dirty he'd been doing her mom. Huskinson thought perhaps she could use that resentment in angst to the advantage of the investigation.

[Glenna Whitley]

And I asked her, I said, would you be willing to do something kind of sly? And she said, okay, what do you got?

[Cooper Mall]

The two were officially in cahoots.

[Glenna Whitley]

So I came up with a plan. I knew that the lease was in both names, and from being there, I knew that both names were on the mailbox. I knew that the daughter shared the last name.

[Cooper Mall]

To call Huskinson creative would be an understatement.

[Glenna Whitley]

I instructed her to go to a bar, have a couple drinks, spill a couple of drinks on herself, and call LOCKSMITH at about 2:30, 3:00 in the morning and ask him to unlock the doors. It worked.

[Cooper Mall]

If you're like me, you're probably wondering where Camille and her suitor were when this little break in went down.

[Glenna Whitley]

He had gone to, I think it was South Carolina, maybe North Carolina for some type of work for his business. And he wouldn't admit that she was with him.

[Cooper Mall]

His Wife was at her wit's end. So Huskinson called around to hotels and verified Camille was in fact with him. The dude was still lying, but it.

[Glenna Whitley]

Gave the daughter two days alone in her apartment. And she went through everything, took down a ton of notes, went. We also got the Robert Bridewell will, last will and testament, as well as documents regarding stock. I believe in Bridewell Enterprises.

[Cooper Mall]

Those were Bobby's documents. Sandra's second husband. And all those papers led back to Dallas. Then another clue and another name.

[Glenna Whitley]

The Neiman Marcus card with the name Sandra Bridewell. But here's the thing my client and myself didn't realize. Sandra and Camille were one and the same.

[Cooper Mall]

They shared a last name. Could he be sleeping with sisters? Huskinson thought this man now had not one, but two mistresses. How the hell was she going to break this to her friend? Sometime after that, Huskinson caught wind that Camille and her three timing husband were back in California at the same vacation condo where her friend had found the long black hairs on the pillow. At this point, they brought in some backup.

[Glenna Whitley]

We had used an investigator in California to surveil him and her.

[Cooper Mall]

They used this guy to let the wife know when they'd left the apartment she wanted to do some sleuthing of her own.

[Glenna Whitley]

And while they were away, the wife looked through things and waited for them to come back.

[Cooper Mall]

The wife had grown a backbone. It was time for some answers. She wanted to see her husband's mistress, See this woman for herself, once and for all.

[Glenna Whitley]

They came through the door. She waited till they got pretty far into the condominium and then came out.

[Cooper Mall]

Needless to say, they weren't expecting a visitor.

[Glenna Whitley]

Both of them looking shocked.

[Cooper Mall]

The wife locked eyes with the other woman.

[Glenna Whitley]

Hello, Camille. I thought we should meet. Both Camille and the husband tried to make a beeline for the door. She said, no, we're all going to talk about this.

[Cooper Mall]

I can only imagine her heart was pounding. But now Camille was backed into a corner.

[Glenna Whitley]

And during the course of their conversation, my client mentioned the name Sandra Bridewell.

[Cooper Mall]

Did Camille know about the other. Other woman?

[Glenna Whitley]

But that moment, the look on her face was shock. She was astonished. You know, where did you hear that name?

[Cooper Mall]

And that's when the penny dropped for Huskinson and her client.

[Glenna Whitley]

And that was a real, you know, Turner, it's like, why is she worried about that name? Is she really Sandra instead of Camille?

[Cooper Mall]

For the wife, at that moment, this mistress's real name wasn't the most pressing issue. She wanted her out of their lives.

[Glenna Whitley]

The three of Them sat down and discussed, you know, how much she would need to move forward and so forth.

[Cooper Mall]

When we spoke, Huskinson couldn't remember the precise financials. This was 1994, after all. But during this, what I can only imagine as a painfully awkward meeting, the couple agreed to pay Camille to leave them alone. She'd get to stay in the Boston apartment for a few months while she got on her feet. But the affair would end today.

[Glenna Whitley]

And after the meeting, he took her and dropped her off at a hotel, and then he went back to the condo to be with his wife.

[Cooper Mall]

This husband and wife may have come to some sort of reconciliation, but Huskinson was still stuck on who Sandra might be. There was more to this woman. She was sure of it.

[Glenna Whitley]

I stayed up all night calling every bridewell around Dallas area that I could get the listing for everyone. About 5am in the morning, my time. A little bit later, theirs. I reached a man. He said, well, he goes, you know what time it is? I said, yes, I'm sorry to bother you, but this is so important. And I started telling him about this woman. He goes, I'm not that bride. Well, but I know who you're talking about. Yeah, she was known as the Black Widow. I said, what? Yeah, she apparently murdered her husband.

[Cooper Mall]

Huskinson might have been up all night, but now she was wide awake. She stayed up a bit longer until the Dallas Morning News opened and got a hold of a woman in their archives who confirmed that Sandra and Camille were the same woman. Just when she thought her friend had dodged a bullet, Camille resurfaced months later with some news.

[Glenna Whitley]

She's saying that she's pregnant.

[Cooper Mall]

When Sandra told Allen she was pregnant, she was still at an age where this was believable. Now, though she was about 50 years old, the odds of this were vanishingly slim. Camille had proof, though.

[Glenna Whitley]

She had provided him with a sonogram.

[Cooper Mall]

Then she claimed she delivered their child.

[Glenna Whitley]

He immediately caught a plane, went to Boston.

[Cooper Mall]

In the apartment, he noticed more signs.

[Glenna Whitley]

Of childbirth, some type of fluid, where she claimed that her water had broken, but no baby.

[Cooper Mall]

There was an explanation for that, too. She told the guy while he was in California, she had gone and delivered.

[Glenna Whitley]

The baby, put it up for adoption, and was home within 24 hours.

[Cooper Mall]

It just doesn't happen like that. He had no choice to inform his wife. He'd been patching things up with Huskinson, caught wind of this perplexing development and remembered something the daughter found in the apartment search.

[Glenna Whitley]

A current bottle of Premarin.

[Cooper Mall]

Premarin is basically estrogen. People who take it typically are in menopause or have had a hysterectomy, not pregnant people. Huskinson's mind was officially on fire. She decided to take a trip to.

[Glenna Whitley]

Dallas, and that is the first time that I met Glenna Whitley. I was staying at a motel. I'll never forget it. She pulled up, and before she'd really even let me get too close, she goes, I need to see your id. So I showed her my id, got in her car, she went through all these stories regarding the hysterectomy and so.

[Cooper Mall]

Forth, how she'd played the same game with Alan.

[Glenna Whitley]

I started sniffing around to find out more about this alleged hysterectomy, and I found a friend of hers who basically said, yeah, she had a hysterectomy. If she's telling people that she's pregnant, there's no way on earth.

[Cooper Mall]

The same friend claimed to have driven Sandra to the very appointment. Knowing what I know now about Huskinson's impressive skill set, I had to ask, were you ever able to find any record of her hysterectomy?

[Glenna Whitley]

No comment.

[Cooper Mall]

But she did share what other intel she got on the pregnancy.

[Glenna Whitley]

She went the whole 10 yards on.

[Cooper Mall]

That one, that sonogram, and it turned.

[Glenna Whitley]

Out she had actually cut it out of a magazine. We told the husband there was no baby.

[Cooper Mall]

But around this time, Sandra showed her true colors. She started demanding money, or else she'd tell anyone who'd listen he'd had an affair with her, that they'd had a bastard child. Here's the thing.

[Glenna Whitley]

Because there was no documented proof of a hysterectomy, there was always these very slight potential. Maybe there was a baby, meaning maybe she could get it back and then require him to pay child support for the next 20 years, or go public, discredit him, ruin his business, his companies. So it was basically blackmail in a sense. You know, either you give me what I need, or I'm going to totally destroy your family.

[Cooper Mall]

Sandra had done it again.

[Glenna Whitley]

He was informed as well as the wife that they had all the grounds to go ahead and press charges against her for fraud.

[Cooper Mall]

Lying about being pregnant isn't illegal, but using that lie for financial gain, you bet it is.

[Glenna Whitley]

And it was like, no, we don't want to do that, because that might result in publicity and, you know, so forth. And so they just chose to drop it. She basically just disappeared.

[Cooper Mall]

And the next time she popped up, Camille was a Christian missionary, a woman of God who's gone here, there, and everywhere. Spreading the good word. She played the part flawlessly. The soft voice, the comforting presence, the unwavering devotion to Christ. She wasn't just a believer. She's a shepherd guiding the lost toward salvation. Or at least she said she was.

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[Cooper Mall]

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[Glenna Whitley]

Priceline.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay Benson, a then 46 year old entrepreneur, was attending a conference at New Birth Ministries Baptist Church when she first noticed a new face in the congregation.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She was standing up and waving her arms and in like a worship kind of a stance.

[Cooper Mall]

None of this was out of the ordinary. New Birth Ministries is a megachurch in Stonecrest, Georgia, just outside Atlanta with thousands of devotees. It's a Baptist institution with deep roots in the black community.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

The person that I was with, that I was getting a ride home with, he kind of pointed her out to me.

[Cooper Mall]

She stood out not only because she was the only white woman in a crowd of black parishioners, but because of the way she moved. Exuberant, expressive, almost theatrical.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She had this glow and this look about her. And whatever it was, you just almost you get drawn into her energy.

[Cooper Mall]

That glow captured Jay's friend. She attended the conference with the magnetic pole extended at the parking lot where he offered her a ride home with him and Jay. She introduced herself as Camille Bridwell. That's Bridwell, not Bridewell. She dropped an E. The guy who.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

Gave us a ride home literally was enchanted with her. You just like he was just hanging on every word.

[Cooper Mall]

After their initial meeting, Bridget, their paths continued to cross in their faith based circle. At a lunch hosted by the same friend who'd given both women a ride. Camille and Jay got to talking more.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She was telling us how bad her circumstances were, how horrible her living conditions were.

[Cooper Mall]

Camille spoke of being forced to sleep in near squalor of church members who had turned a blind eye to her misfortunes. This was no way for a woman pushing 60 to be living. Jay, moved by a sense of Christian duty, extended an offer.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I had a three bedroom condo on Lenox Road and I thought, you know, well, I'm there by myself. She's a church goer member. Why wouldn't I just let her move in? So I just felt very sorry for her and I just said, oh, well, you can come and stay with me.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay was new to Atlanta and newly divorced. She had room to spare.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I really never even asked her to pay rent because I didn't think it was a permanent thing.

[Cooper Mall]

But what seemed like an act of goodwill soon turned into something far stranger.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

It happened really quickly.

[Cooper Mall]

As weeks passed, Camille proved to be peculiar when Jay would attempt to get to know her new roommate. Camille kept personal details close to her chest.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

We didn't ever really get in depth about what how she lived before she came to Atlanta.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay did learn Camille was widowed, but her husband Bobby had died of cancer and that there was even a foundation in his name. Camille had also told her she was a mother of three, but she wasn't exactly eager to talk about her children. By then, her kids were grown ups in their late 20s and mid-30s.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

When I would ask her about her kids or something about her past, she would always change the subject.

[Cooper Mall]

Her demeanor would shift like a shadow against the light. It was odd, but Jay just figured it was none of her business. Speaking of business, Camille was eager to jump into it with Jay.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She kept asking me to go into business with her and then kept talking about key man insurance.

[Cooper Mall]

Keyman insurance is a type of life insurance policy. A business buys it to protect against financial loss if a key employee dies or becomes disabled. Jay hardly knew this woman. Take out a life insurance policy? No way. Plus, Camille's financial situation wasn't exactly rock solid.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She was always talking about how she's owed all this money.

[Cooper Mall]

She told Jay she was waiting on money from a trust fund. She was always short on cash.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I left my money. My money hasn't shown up. And I thought it was going to be on my card or just something. Always something. She kept asking me for money. I wouldn't give it to her, but she was becoming such a pain.

[Cooper Mall]

An uneasiness set in. Jay began to lock Onto Camille's habits that were just weird. She operated under a different clock, awake at all hours of the night, stepping out onto the veranda to murmur under the moon.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

It was like she was speaking in tongues or something. I just kept feeling something was off.

[Cooper Mall]

Small, unshakable doubts formed into something sharper. After about two months of living together, she had a nagging suspicion there was something dishonest about Camille.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

One day, I just had this feeling came over me to just look in her room.

[Cooper Mall]

Camille had just stepped out to go window shop at the mall. So Jay snuck into Camille's bedroom, and.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

That'S when I discovered all of the crazy crap under her bed.

[Cooper Mall]

She carefully turned over the air mattress.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She was hoarding food under there. Like, she'd get food out of the kitchen, but she'd put it under her bed like somebody was gonna take it from her or something. She had all these little notes. She would have all these little weird sayings how she's gonna get money and how God is bringing her money. Just floods of money, windfalls of money, Just all kind of money scribbles. They were on little torn pieces of paper, and these were just stacked, like, under her bed. It was just like a little trash sheet.

[Cooper Mall]

It was an absolute rat's nest. Jay's gut began to churn. Just as she was trying to process how the hell Camille could live like this, something else caught her eye. A passport.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

The passport name wasn't her.

[Cooper Mall]

Her name Sandra. Camille Bridewell. Jay freaked out.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I was just pissed. This woman has wormed her way into my house, eating up my food, you know, living under my roof. Living under a nice roof, mind you. And you know she's a liar.

[Cooper Mall]

Curiosity turned into urgency. She turned at the early days of search engines, Scrolling through Google and Yahoo, typing in the name from the passport, A charity name surfaced. The Bridewell Foundation. Something Camille had mentioned in passing. A fax number was listed, and in a moment of reckless need, Jay sent a message asking for any information. The next day, she received a cryptic response.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

It was literally this fax that came over of Glenna's article, and then it said at the top, call me.

[Cooper Mall]

She dialed immediately. A woman who worked for the foundation picked up the other end of the line.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

And when I called her, her first words were, well, you might want to sit down.

[Cooper Mall]

Boy, did Jay have no idea what she was in for.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She told me about the three husbands, the friend that mysteriously died. She would tell men that she was pregnant, and then she wasn't pregnant. You know, she really wasn't pregnant and how she used her looks to get what she wanted.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay's blood ran cold. The woman living under her roof, the woman that she had fed, housed, trusted, was a fraud. She had been accused of killing.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

It was like, what? Like, this is a church lady. Like, what are you talking about? And I told her, you know, she's been at my house. She goes to this church. It's like, oh, she doesn't have a church bone in her body. Body.

[Cooper Mall]

She certainly didn't, by the sound of it. Sandra was a predator. One who changed her means to an end as easily as shedding skin. Neither Whitley nor Huskinson was the one to warn her, but she'd been warned. She still had a chance to save herself. Jay hung up the phone and at.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

This time, she was in the shower.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay had to act quickly. She wanted Sandra out of her home.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

So I went in to the kitchen and got a butcher knife.

[Cooper Mall]

Next, she called for backup.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I just decided before I confront her, I need people to come here like I need people at least to be on the way. I went back to my room. I called my brother and his friend. He was with a friend. I said, get over here now. I called the police. And all this was. I shut my door. I was this. I was whispering in my room, please get here. I don't know if I have a murderer in my house.

[Cooper Mall]

With help on the way, Jay decided it was time to approach Sandra herself. She knocked on the bedroom door, her heart racing. When Sandra emerged wrapped in a towel, she greeted Jay with her usual syrupy warmth.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I just said, who are you? And she said, what do you mean? What do you mean? You know who I am?

[Cooper Mall]

For a fraction of a second, Sandra's face twisted into something else, something chilling. Her mask had slipped.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

That is something I'll never forget. She went from this sweet, angelic kind of a face to this demon looking face, like it was the weirdest and craziest, scariest thing I've ever seen.

[Cooper Mall]

Then she stepped toward Jay.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I pulled that knife and I said, if you take one more step towards me, I will drop you where you stand.

[Cooper Mall]

Sandra stopped right there.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

Once she understood that I knew the whole story. The game was up. I said, you might want to get some clothes on because we have company coming. You're going to be going to jail today.

[Cooper Mall]

She got dressed. Under watchful eyes.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I wouldn't let her out of my sight.

[Cooper Mall]

Jay led Sandra to the living room and ordered her to sit on the couch while the police were en route, her demeanor chilling.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

Who was A cucumber. And that's when I knew I had been scammed like she was not. You could just tell she. She'd been down this road before, as.

[Cooper Mall]

If she knew from experience the police couldn't touch her. When officers arrived, they ran Sandra's name.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

She didn't have any outstanding warrants, no.

[Cooper Mall]

Immediate cause for arrest. What is it about this woman that keeps her walking away scot free?

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

The female cop looked at me and says, well, you know, according to Georgia law, she's getting mail here. You're going to have to go through the courts to evict her.

[Cooper Mall]

But Jay didn't need the law to do what had to be done.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

I looked at her and I said, oh, well, she can stay if she wants to. And I just kept staring her down. And she says, no, I think I'll be leaving. I said, good idea. Good answer.

[Cooper Mall]

Sandra left that night. She took her suitcase, her lies, and her carefully curated Persona with her. By the time Jay went outside to check the parking lot, she was already gone. She had no money, no immediate means of escape.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

The one story she told over and over again is how you had to believe in manifestation. Because she would say that I just went to the airport and manifested a ticket and was able to travel where I needed to go and just show up because God would take care of me and get, you know, somebody put the right person in my path to give me money to buy my ticket. So I guess that's what she did when she left my place.

[Cooper Mall]

Later, after Jay had some time to sit with everything that happened, someone pointed out how close she'd come.

[Pluto TV Advertiser]

He said, you need to be grateful that you found this out, because I have no doubt that had she kept at you to convince you to get insurance, you wouldn't be here.

[Cooper Mall]

Next time on Fatal Beauty.

[Eric Miller]

Sandra started taking over Ms. Sue's finances. Then she started taking over Ms. Sue's mail. She wouldn't let Ms. Sue see any of the statements that were coming in through the bank or any letters.

[Cooper Mall]

Sandra finally gets caught when she messes with the wrong family. So they take her outside, put her.

[Glenna Whitley]

In the police car, and she's sitting there like nothing. She had no emotion.

[Cooper Mall]

Unlock all episodes of Fatal Beauty ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts, all ad free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series that's all episodes all at once. Search for the binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to access wherever you listen. It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumbacasino.com it's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba casino has over 100 online casino style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus [e-mail] sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Void where prohibited by law.

[Glenna Whitley]

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