Loading summary
Transcript144 lines
- [00:00]
Wes Ferguson
Hey, it's Wes.
- [00:01]
Podcast Host (possibly Wes Ferguson or Narrator)
Happy New Year. We're going to take a quick break from Killsight this week, but I do have some exciting news I want to share with you. We have got some incredible stories lined up for 2026. You'll be hearing from some of the same people that you've already gotten to know from previous seasons, like my Season one co host, Carol Dawson, plus some new voices that I am incredibly excited to work with. These are dogged reporters and writers who will be sharing the true crime stories that matter most to them.
- [00:30]
Wes Ferguson
This year.
- [00:31]
Podcast Host (possibly Wes Ferguson or Narrator)
We are also going to relaunch my true crime podcast, Deviltown, about the unsolved disappearance of teenager Kelly Wilson in 1993. It's a case I vividly remember from my own childhood in East Texas, and it's one that I have never been able to forget. Right now, I'm going to share the first episode of Deviltown with you, just in case you haven't heard it yet. And you can hear the whole season right now in if you look up Deviltown on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you subscribe, you'll be the first to know when those new episodes drop. Thanks again for being with us as we dig into these cases. Without further ado, here's Deviltown.
- [01:12]
Wes Ferguson
This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Imperative entertainment so it was January 5, 1992, right?
- [01:32]
Joe Henry
I believe that's correct.
- [01:33]
Wes Ferguson
And on Sunday?
- [01:34]
Joe Henry
Sunday evening, yes.
- [01:35]
Wes Ferguson
Were you at the video store that evening?
- [01:38]
Joe Henry
Yes, I was. Certainly was.
- [01:40]
Wes Ferguson
It was after dark, the dead of winter. Kelly Day Wilson, a small town girl from Gilmer, Texas, was finishing up work for the night with her boss, Joe Henry. They were alone at Northeast Texas Video, a movie rental store on the town square in Gilmer.
- [01:55]
Joe Henry
We closed the store about 8pm that was a normal time to close. I went in the back. Kelly stayed up front to do all the reconciling the cash drawer and all that stuff, you know, for the day. I go in the back and get my VCR stuff ready and when she gets done, she comes back there and we go out the back door, set the alarm. She goes around, throws the trash away, and when she comes back around, I say, do you open tomorrow? And she says yes. And I said, okay, I'll see you.
- [02:18]
Wes Ferguson
Joe had a pickup truck, Kelly a muscle car, an 85 Dodge Charger, complete with gold paint. Both vehicles were parked on a side street next to the video store just across from the Upshur County Courthouse in the middle of town. It was around 8:30pm When Joe says they left the store, he and Kelly went their separate ways.
- [02:40]
Joe Henry
And I got in my truck, she got in her car. And the rest, as they say, is history.
- [02:44]
Wes Ferguson
What happened next? That depends on who you ask. It's a haunting unsolved mystery that would destroy lives, terrorize a town and go on to confound me and many others for 30 years. What we do know is around 10 o' clock that night, Kelly's mom, Kathy was already getting worried. She was angry too. Kelly was a popular girl, had a busy social life, but it wasn't like her not to call, at the very least to let her family know she wasn't coming home. The next morning, Kelly still hadn't shown up. Her stepdad, Robert, went out to search the streets before dawn. The family lived just two minutes from the courthouse square. That's where Robert found Kelly's car parked beside the video store. The doors of her Dodge Charger were unlocked. One of the tires was slashed. Most troubling of all, Kelly's purse was still there. Inside the vehicle, there was no sign of a struggle. As for Kelly herself, this girl of 17, a senior at Gilmer High School, she was just gone.
- [03:50]
Philip Williams
I mean, a little town like this, you can just imagine what an impact it had. They were just butt puzzled. I mean, you know, this girl just vanished into thin air.
- [04:04]
Wes Ferguson
I remember when Kelly Wilson disappeared because I grew up about 20 miles down the road from Gilmer. If you look at a map, the town is a straight shot east of Dallas, a two hour drive. To get here, you have to leave behind the big skies and open prairies of Texas myth and venture into the piney woods on the eastern edge of the state where tall pine trees blanket the hills and secrets hide in the shadows. This is lush country, the old south. Rivers, lakes, grazing cattle. When you hit the back roads, another town emerges every 10 miles or so, like it was carved from the woods, then left behind by the rest of the world. Even though I was a kid back then, 12 years old, I'll never forget the search for Kelly. There were stories on the front page of the local paper, reward money and billboards begging for clues. Kelly's school portrait was posted everywhere. She was pretty, blonde, had big hair. At first the investigation seemed to go nowhere. Then it took a shocking turn. It's an unsolved mystery out of Upshur county involving law enforcement, a satanic cult and a missing girl following the story that would give the small east Texas.
- [05:11]
Michelle
Town of Gilmer national exposure.
- [05:13]
Lee
But not the good kind.
- [05:15]
Wes Ferguson
Although we were all obsessed with Kelly's story. I guess I was too young to fully understand what was going on in Gilmer at the time. I just knew it was bad. There were reports of cannibalism, devil worship. A family of murderers hiding in the forests outside of town.
- [05:31]
Philip Williams
It was believed they were part of.
- [05:32]
Wes Ferguson
A satanic cult and had kidnapped, raped and murdered Kelly.
- [05:35]
Philip Williams
Claims made they had kept her alive.
- [05:37]
Wes Ferguson
For at least nine days, keeping her in a shed and even a toolbox before killing her. On a daily basis, they would take Kelly out of the shed and take her down to this circle and string her up on the tree and they do these horrible things to her, bring her back, shackling her up. East Texas. It's a pretty place, but with all those pine trees, you never really know who's out there deep in the woods or what they're up to. In the little town of Gilmer, the story of a lost girl became so much more, so out of control. No one really knew what was real and what was madness.
- [06:15]
Philip Williams
I mean, it's just so many twists.
- [06:17]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
And turns and it is so sensational.
- [06:22]
Wes Ferguson
In this series, you'll hear about when Kelly went missing and how a town got turned upside down. Allegations of unspeakable evil, mass hysteria, stolen evidence, and maybe even some good old fashioned local corruption. I don't know if Kelly will ever come home, if she's living or dead, if any of the crazy stories about cannibalism, Satan worship and more actually happened. But I'm here to find out everything I can about Kelly and get the truth, or as close to it as the locals dare. Foreign. From imperative entertainment. I'm wes ferguson. This is deviltown. This is chapter one. Gone.
- [07:32]
Ana Pesino Walker
Hello?
- [07:33]
Wes Ferguson
Hey, Anna.
- [07:34]
Ana Pesino Walker
Hey.
- [07:35]
Wes Ferguson
How's it going?
- [07:36]
Ana Pesino Walker
It's going great. Most of the time. I don't even know what day it is.
- [07:40]
Wes Ferguson
Well, that sounds pretty good.
- [07:42]
Ana Pesino Walker
Isn't that fun?
- [07:43]
Wes Ferguson
This is Ana Pesino Walker. She's retired now, but Ana was the editor of my hometown newspaper for a long time. She hired me as a reporter when I was just 19 years old. My first break. I don't think it would embarrass her too much to say that she was basically my second mom back then. You were my first editor. You're the one who turned me into an actual writer. And I don't. You probably don't remember this, but you said, hey, you're the crime reporter. Maybe you'll find Kelly Wilson.
- [08:18]
Ana Pesino Walker
I don't remember, but it sounds like something I would say. You know, Wes, every time that I hear or see in the paper, you know, remains were found anywhere in the East Texas area. I'm like, is that Kelly? It's gonna be Kelly. I wonder if it's Kelly.
- [08:38]
Wes Ferguson
Ana moved to East Texas with her husband Paul and their kids just a year or two before Kelly disappeared.
- [08:44]
Ana Pesino Walker
At that time, Leanna, our oldest, was 16 years old. So it was really close to home. And the details of those things were just. You know, you can be a hard edge newspaper person, but you're also human. That's just something that you don't even want to think about as a parent. It sticks with you.
- [09:09]
Wes Ferguson
Despite my boss's encouragement, I didn't find Kelly as the local crime reporter. I was too busy chasing ambulances and car crashes, drug busts and burning buildings. The stuff that's got to get done when every morning there's another newspaper to fill up with stories. But I never stopped thinking about Kelly. It's been three decades since she disappeared. If she's dead, her body has never been found. No one has ever been convicted of killing her. It's left this void that people still feel as I get older. I also realize that I never really knew anything about Kelly as a person beyond the platitudes offered up in news clips. It's like her bright, smiling portrait on the news was turned into a symbol of victimhood, and that doesn't feel right at all. Who was Kelly as a daughter, A friend? And while we're at it, who knows what clues her loved ones might share if someone would just ask. I was 12 years old when Kelly Wilson disappeared. And I remember it, you know, just not all the details, but I remember, like, oh, my God, this is happening just a couple towns up from my house. And then when I was in college, I met a girl from outside Gilmer out in the woods. And I remember, like, riding around in her white pickup truck while she's telling me, like, out in these trees, there's the devil worshipers, you know, and cannibals. Just now that I'm an adult and I just want to know what really happened.
- [10:42]
Ana Pesino Walker
Have you talked to Philip Williams?
- [10:44]
Wes Ferguson
Hmm. Good idea. Last spring, I went home, back to East Texas. I drove up to Gilmer one morning from my mom's house to see what I could find out. Sure enough, my first stop was to see Philip Williams. You have a way of introducing the town and explaining it to people that haven't been here.
- [11:05]
Philip Williams
Well, I would just be delighted to do that since I can walk out the back door of this furniture store I own. To the place where I was born in about two minutes. So I'm Gilmer born and bred. I have lived here all but six months of my life.
- [11:18]
Wes Ferguson
Philip is kind of like Gilmer's unofficial ambassador. He's been a local news reporter for decades, which is how I know him. On deadline, he files stories from a little family owned furniture store right off the town square.
- [11:32]
Philip Williams
Gilmer is a small town in northeast Texas of about 5,000 and they started a festival called the Ambry which continues to this day. It's held every October and draws thousands of people. And that's probably the most notable thing about it.
- [11:47]
Wes Ferguson
There's a yam queen and a barn dance. I've been. It's fun. Philip wrote a lot of stories about Kelly Wilson.
- [11:55]
Philip Williams
If you told me all that was going to happen, we're going to have a 17 year old girl bashed in thin air. And one of my best friends from high school was going to be the last guy seen with him. I would have thought you were a good candidate for a state mental hospital. But it all happened and I was right in the middle covering all of it.
- [12:10]
Wes Ferguson
Philip's friend is Joe Henry, the video store manager.
- [12:14]
Philip Williams
I've known him for over 50 years. Like I said, I saw him today. I went up there and got some diet drinks at his place. He and I are still good friends. Joe has always been a very hard working person. He was fascinated by movies and back when we had video cassettes, there was a video store here in Gilbert where he was the manager and Kelly Wilson worked. Joe would have been well into his 20s then. She was 16 or 17.
- [12:44]
Wes Ferguson
Joe was actually 36 at the time. Kelly was 17.
- [12:48]
Philip Williams
He just happened to be in wrong place at the wrong time.
- [12:53]
Wes Ferguson
The movie store closed a long time ago, but Joe still grills hamburgers around the block right across the street from the county courthouse.
- [13:01]
Philip Williams
Joe had his hamburger place back then too. It's been in business since 1974. But he also was managing that video store. Workaholic basically, and a good guy.
- [13:14]
Wes Ferguson
After I left Phillips Furniture Store, I walked over to the hamburger joint, but not before stopping on a street corner outside the video store where Kelly was last seen. These days the building is not much to look at, just an old brick storefront. Then I rounded the corner and there was Joe's place. Red brick street from the courthouse going up the steps. Big juicy hamburgers. It was kind of dark inside, but just a long narrow room. Plus a big window that opened up to the kitchen in the back. All the wall space was Covered with movie posters from Hollywood's golden age. To my left, all these blue collar guys were sitting in a row of old theater seats. They were all chowing burgers and watching an old timey black and white movie playing on the TV above the soft drinks. On the right side wall, way in the back, a little guy with thin gray hair was manning the grill. The grill was sizzling. I was worried that Joe wouldn't want to talk. He's often been named as a suspect in Kelly's disappearance. At least on message boards where Internet sleuths hang out and parse the clues of the case. Instead of introducing myself, I placed an order.
- [14:32]
Joe Henry
Okay, what can I keep doing?
- [14:34]
Wes Ferguson
I'd like a cheeseburger and fries.
- [14:36]
Joe Henry
All right. Everything on it?
- [14:38]
Podcast Host (possibly Wes Ferguson or Narrator)
Yes.
- [14:39]
Joe Henry
Okay. Be just a little bit and I'll teach you up.
- [14:41]
Wes Ferguson
Thank you. I joined the guys eating burgers from the theater seats. We watched an old movie about tourists in Hawaii. I waited for the lunch rush to pass. I didn't want to bug you earlier because I could tell how busy you were. Probably sick of talking about it, but I just wanted to introduce myself and see if there would be a time maybe you would be willing to chat with me.
- [15:04]
Joe Henry
Yeah, I guess so.
- [15:05]
Wes Ferguson
Do you think it might be okay today at 3?
- [15:07]
Joe Henry
If you want to.
- [15:08]
Wes Ferguson
Yeah, okay.
- [15:08]
Joe Henry
You want to come in?
- [15:09]
Lee
Yeah.
- [15:09]
Wes Ferguson
Yes, sir.
- [15:10]
Lee
Come on in.
- [15:10]
Wes Ferguson
All right.
- [15:11]
Joe Henry
All right.
- [15:11]
Lee
All right.
- [15:12]
Wes Ferguson
Thank you. I'll be back.
- [15:12]
Joe Henry
You're welcome. I try to get cleaned up.
- [15:15]
Wes Ferguson
Delicious burger.
- [15:16]
Joe Henry
Well, I just. A hamburger.
- [15:18]
Wes Ferguson
When I came back later that afternoon, Joe handed me a bottle of water and sat down in one of the theater seats. He was an older guy, in his 60s, a little stooped, and a gray T shirt spattered in burger grease. He sighed deeply.
- [15:33]
Joe Henry
Man, I just can't begin to tell you this has just been an unbelievable thing. It is just. It's almost like some kind of crazy fictional story.
- [15:43]
Wes Ferguson
Joe explained that back in the early 90s, he was basically the manager of the movie store, Northeast Texas Video. He was more of a business partner than an employee, getting paid 50% of every rental. He also made side money repairing VCRs. Kelly worked the cash register, reshelved movies, kept the place clean. Over time, Joe says he and Kelly got kind of close.
- [16:09]
Joe Henry
Well, very bubbly personality, you know, friendly. Bubbly is the best word I can come up with. And friends tell a lot of people. She was friends and guys that were not. I wouldn't say the best in the world.
- [16:22]
Wes Ferguson
Eventually, Kelly also began to confide in Joe.
- [16:26]
Joe Henry
Yes, she did about the divorce a lot. She was just very upset about her mom and dad's divorce, but very, very. What's the word? Just a sticky divorce. Just not a good, pleasant divorce.
- [16:40]
Lee
Yes.
- [16:41]
Wes Ferguson
Kelly's parents had split up six or seven years earlier. The custody battle had been very ugly, with both parents fighting to keep Kelly and her little brother Kyle. For a while, the siblings lived with their dad, Robbie, in natchitoches, Louisiana, but they ended up with their mom, Cathy, in east Texas. Eventually, both parents remarried. But during her senior year, Kelly couldn't decide which set of parents to live with. That winter, she told her friends she was moving back to Louisiana to be with her dad and stepmom Waverlyn.
- [17:15]
Joe Henry
She wanted to leave after Christmas break and go to live with her dad. One night up there, she was real upset. She was crying, and she said, I just don't want to leave. I said, well, you don't have to leave. I mean, you know, it's no big deal. And so that was sometime in December. And I think she basically wanted to stay and graduate with her friends, but her mom and dad had a pretty bad divorce, and it was pretty. What you call it. Tumultuous, if that's a good word. It just wasn't good. And Kelly had been very upset about that.
- [17:45]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
We ended up spending Christmas holidays together in New Orleans.
- [17:50]
Wes Ferguson
That's Kelly's dad, Robbie.
- [17:52]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
We stayed in the French quarter. We had a chance to have a couple long talks. She wasn't happy there, so she wanted to come back, and I was reluctant to let her come back. We called out. I didn't think it was healthy for her to just yo yoing back and forth. I listened to her argument. She wanted to finish school with her legacy friends here that she'd grown up with, and I kind of understood that.
- [18:17]
Wes Ferguson
Even though Robbie was sympathetic to his daughter's wishes, he also took some convincing. The last time she lived under his roof, things hadn't ended well.
- [18:26]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
She didn't leave my custody under really great circumstances. She was angry with her dad because her dad had some rules. And I, you know, I tried to teach her some discipline. You know, she couldn't just run the road. She had to be, you know, she had to meet curfew. She had to do her. Do her lessons. She, you know, plus her mother was just, you know, steadily agitating the situation. Like I said, it was a very contentious crossing your fight.
- [18:59]
Wes Ferguson
For the record, Kelly's mom declined to speak with me, so we're only hearing Robbie's point of view for now.
- [19:05]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
You know, I was not thrilled about them moving. Moving up there with her mom because I knew she wasn't gonna. She just wasn't going to just keep them disciplined like I would have been. And I'm not. I'm not a. I wasn't that tough on them, trust me. But I did. I did have some rules that I expected to follow.
- [19:23]
Wes Ferguson
Robbie says he finally relented. Kelly could move back in with him and Waverlyn, her stepmom, to finish her senior year and go to college in Louisiana with in state tuition.
- [19:34]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
She was a week away from moving back at the start of the spring semester here.
- [19:39]
Wes Ferguson
Do you know how her mom took that news?
- [19:42]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
Not well. But I think she agreed to let her come back. I mean, I think she was going to stop it or could stop it. So, you know, once I said. Cause she was giving them. I mean, Kelly could. Kelly could be a handful. She was giving them hell. They were ready for her to leave. She could stir things up, acting out, you know, same way she did here when she wanted to go there. You know, I mean, she's a Taurus. She was legitimately, you know, headstrong like that.
- [20:13]
Wes Ferguson
During that heart to heart in the French Quarter, Kelly also told her dad something that to this day has stuck with him.
- [20:21]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
She told me that night that there were some things going on there that she needed to. She just needed to share with me at some point in time that she said I wouldn't like it. And I don't know what. I don't know what it was. I would need to know at some point in time if she really wanted to get out of there and come back here.
- [20:39]
Wes Ferguson
You still don't know what that was?
- [20:41]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
I have no idea. Never did get a chance to talk to her again.
- [20:53]
Wes Ferguson
So I thought I was placing an order for myself to get a gorgeous and soft crew neck sweater from Quince.
- [21:01]
Lee
And what actually happened was that I.
- [21:05]
Michelle
Got a beautiful hult sweater from Quince.
- [21:09]
Wes Ferguson
Yeah, that thing migrated from my side of the closet to my wife's very quickly.
- [21:13]
Michelle
And I don't think you're going to see it again.
- [21:15]
Robbie (Kelly's dad)
Oh, gosh.
- [21:17]
Wes Ferguson
Starting the year with a wardrobe refresh. Quint's has you covered with luxe essentials that feel effortless and look polished. They're perfect for layering, mixing, and building a wardrobe that lasts. Their versatile styles make it easy to reach for them day after day. Unless your wife steals them from you.
- [21:36]
Michelle
Guilty.
- [21:37]
Wes Ferguson
Refresh your wardrobe with quints. Don't wait. Go to quints.com unforgotten for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada, too. That's Q u I n c-e.com unforgotten to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com unforgotten. So Kelly told her manager, Joe Henry, that she wanted to stay in Gilmer. She told her dad she wanted to move back to Natchitoches. She also told Robbie that she had a secret she needed to share, something he wouldn't be happy about. Whatever the secret, whatever the truth, Kelly returned to East Texas after her Christmas vacation in New Orleans, either to pack her bags or get ready for her last semester at Gilmer High School, home of the Buckeyes. But school wasn't starting back up just yet.
- [22:40]
Lee
I'm not gonna lie. You know, we were kind of a party group. You know, we were going to parties together or going to the lake together or, you know, doing all those fun things silly girls did back in the 90s.
- [22:50]
Wes Ferguson
That's Kelly's friend Lee. She was a senior that year, too.
- [22:54]
Lee
Everyone thought we were so bad. Like, I remember being like, you know, we were, you know, the wild group. And I look back at it, I'm like, we were not wild. Like, that was so innocent.
- [23:04]
Wes Ferguson
Lee and Kelly had been friends since Kelly showed up in Gilmer a couple of years earlier. Gilmer's not a big place, so a new girl in town was noteworthy.
- [23:13]
Lee
I just remember her moving to school, you know, and. And, you know, we only. I mean, I can probably count on one hand how many. How many girls, you know, our age or kids our age moved in to our school and actually stayed. And she was just one of those girls, and she moved in and, you know, I feel like I probably had a class with her or something, and we were just fast friends. She just, you know, she was just one of those girls. She was just fun, always happy, you know, she was cute. Just, you know, one of those girls that just fit in, I think, with everyone. And I can remember, like, being at school and, like, gathering up all of our coin change so we would have enough money to go, you know, cruise around after school and stuff, or cruise around on a Friday night.
- [23:56]
Wes Ferguson
Back in town after Christmas and New Year's, Kelly had somehow heard about a party outside of town. It was on a Sunday night, but with no school the next day, she didn't want to miss it.
- [24:07]
Lee
So I was supposed to go to that party with her that night. And I don't remember where the party was. I feel like I Didn't even know who it was. It was like a party in a different town.
- [24:17]
Wes Ferguson
Kelly was always meeting new people. She just had that personality. It didn't hurt that she worked at one of the only video stores for miles around. Teens from other communities in the area were always driving into Gilmer to rent movies at Northeast Texas Video, where they were introduced to this friendly girl, Kelly, who'd never met a stranger.
- [24:37]
Lee
She had friends we didn't even know she had. And then I always just kind of thought because she works at the movie store, she met people. And so I think a lot of people came in that she connected with that, you know, I never even came across because she was, she was so friendly, so nice. I worked at the shop at the.
- [24:57]
Wes Ferguson
Time, that's the local pharmacy, and she.
- [25:00]
Lee
Worked at the movie store at the time. We had talked about getting together and going to that party and I was like, okay, well, I'll just meet you, you know, after work. And when I got off work, I drove by and she was still in there vacuuming because I could see her through the front windows. I'd gotten something all over me.
- [25:19]
Michelle
She had to go home because she got something on her clothes.
- [25:22]
Wes Ferguson
That's Kelly and Lee's other friend, Michelle.
- [25:24]
Lee
And so I was like, you know what? Since she's still vacuuming, I'm going to run home and change. And when I got home, I'd say it was 8:30. Between 8:30 and 8:45, my mom said I couldn't go to the party. And then like shortly after, my mom was like, no, you're not going. It's too late to go out now. Na na na na na na. And I was like, damn, I should have just never come home, you know, I should have gone straight to Kelly's.
- [25:50]
Wes Ferguson
Lee was stuck at home. Michelle was also home that night, but not because her parents were strict. Michelle was probably Kelly's first friend in Gilmer. They met when Kelly and her mom were still unloading boxes to move into their home.
- [26:03]
Michelle
It was when she had first arrived in a town she didn't quite know anybody yet. So I got to talking to she and her mom and I ended up helping them move because they were moving and we became fast friends. And Kelly was just outgoing. She laughed a lot. She was always had a positive attitude. She was just fun and. But she was also a good listener. Like she had an issue or problem.
- [26:28]
Wes Ferguson
During their junior year, Michelle had some big stuff to deal with.
- [26:32]
Michelle
I ended up actually getting pregnant in high school, which is never fun. And Kelly really rallied behind me and stood by my side and was a real great friend of mine through my pregnancy. And me and my baby actually moved in with she and her mom for a short period of time when my daughter was about six months old.
- [26:53]
Wes Ferguson
Kelly was selfless. Her generosity went way beyond the average teenager's.
- [26:59]
Michelle
With Kelly and I being close, I think I was venting to her about issues I was having at home. And she was very concerned about that, especially since I had Taylor. And she actually came home with me a couple of days, like two or three days, because she said she wanted to kind of observe and see for herself. Kelly and her mother approached me and said, it really isn't a good environment and if you'd like to move in with us, we'd be happy to have you move in with us and help you with Taylor and provide a good environment for the both of you.
- [27:30]
Wes Ferguson
The house became a refuge for Michelle and her baby daughter, Taylor.
- [27:35]
Michelle
Oh, it was a wonderful home life. It was so refreshing for me. Compared to the home life that I had, it was a very normal home life. And actually, I didn't have a car. Kelly did. So she would take me to pick up Taylor. That's my daughter's name, if I needed to go to the grocery store to get baby food or whatever. I mean, Kelly took me. It was always just fun because Kelly and her mother, instead of dwelling on any negativity, there's just a lot of laughter, and they would help me feed Taylor. Kelly's mom actually taught me a lot about taking care of Taylor. Tues helped me choose different foods. And it was just. It was a very wonderful experience being able to come home and have that mother figure. And Kelly was very motherly, too. She was like. And kind of always described her as an old soul because, you know, she recognized right away that I had a need and wanted to fulfill it. And a lot of teenagers aren't like that. If you're not fulfilling their needs, they're going to move on. And she wasn't that way. She wanted to be the one to be helpful and fulfill somebody else's needs. And I felt like she was always very protective of me and shielded me, I think, from a lot of negativity because she wanted Taylor and I to have a good start. That's what kind of friend Kelly was.
- [28:53]
Wes Ferguson
The way Michelle talks about Kelly and her home life in Gilmer, it's basically the opposite of what I was told by Kelly's dad, Robbie. I'm not really sure what to make of that. Michelle does not remember Kelly and her mom, Kathy, having a troubled relationship, especially not the way Kelly's dad, Robbie, describes it.
- [29:10]
Michelle
Well, Kelly and her mom always saw it as positive because they were both so positive with me. And maybe, and let me tell you, teenage girls oftentimes don't get along with their moms, right? But I'm sure there were times that they didn't, but it never happened when I was there. Both of them, their focus was on me, helping me, teaching me, and they really gave me a big boost in life. Kelly's mom is the one who gave me the confidence to be a mother. All I remember about all of that is positivity. And I don't remember one argument between Kelly and her mother. That doesn't mean there wasn't one. It just probably means that I didn't think twice about it. If they got aggravated with each other because my home life was a lot worse. But there was not a good relationship with her dad. We spent many hours in her bedroom with her, crying sometimes about her dad. And I honestly can't remember all the specifics, but she was very torn because she wanted to go to LSU really.
- [30:11]
Wes Ferguson
Really bad to qualify for in state tuition at Lewis, Louisiana State University. Kelly couldn't stay in Gilmer, Texas. She needed to move back in with Robbie across the state line in Louisiana.
- [30:29]
Michelle
Money was a big factor for her dad, and he kind of held a lot of things over her head and said, well, I'll do this for you if you move back with me. It was always a bargain. And he wanted her to not be with Kathy and be with him. But she wanted to live in Gilmer with her friends and her mom. But she also had that goal of wanting to go to lsu. So she was so torn.
- [30:53]
Wes Ferguson
By then, Michelle was living with her parents again with all of her responsibilities as a mom. Michelle hadn't seen Kelly that much during their senior year.
- [31:02]
Michelle
I was not living with her and we were not talking on a daily basis. And she had gotten really close to other friends. In December, it was the very last time. I think it was the very last time I saw her. Me and another girlfriend went over to her house. A guy she was very close with, Josh, was back in town. And so we all got together over there. And she was very upset that day because she was torn and didn't know what to do because it was down to the wire and she had to move back to her dad's if she wanted to go to lsu. We were all at a loss and didn't know what to Tell her to do so. It was just kind of that time we all had together was not a great meeting because she was upset.
- [31:47]
Wes Ferguson
That last hangout with Michelle and Josh, an ex boyfriend of Kelly's, happened sometime in December, just five days into the new year. Kelly was supposed to go to that other party, the one outside of town with her friend Lee.
- [32:00]
Michelle
I didn't even.
- [32:01]
Lee
I don't even remember who was having a party, but I didn't really know anyone out there. I had just seen this cute boy, was asking if he was gonna go, so that's why I wanted to go. I was like, yeah, when I get off work, I'll just come up to the video store and we can either go to your house if you need to or just leave from there. And so, you know, that's really about all I can remember, to tell you the truth. I just saw her vacuuming. I saw her car on the side of the. The video store. I remember seeing her car on the side of the video store. I did not. You know, it was dark. I did not look. You know, I don't. I didn't see if tires were slashed or anything like that. I didn't look hard enough for that. But I remember seeing her car parked on the side of the video store. And then I pulled around to the front and she was, you know, just in. In the front of the store vacuuming.
- [32:53]
Wes Ferguson
From what I understand, Kelly never showed at that party with her dad Robbie, expecting her in Louisiana. It's possible that Kelly still hadn't made up her mind about whether to leave Gilmer. We didn't know where she was, whose lives might be destroyed, or what kind of evil lurked in the shadows of all those pines.
- [33:13]
Philip Williams
None of us foresaw this thing mushrooming into the big controversy that it became.
- [33:22]
Wes Ferguson
Coming up this season on Deviltown.
- [33:25]
Michelle
It's much bigger than anybody could anticipate. If one girl could expose what's going on and bring that many powerful people down, she's not gonna survive. Kelly was snatched off the Gilmer square. She was a sweet young girl. It wasn't a random act. We all know it wasn't random. So that means there had to be a reason behind it.
- [33:49]
Philip Williams
From seven years old, my head's been full of devil worshiping, killers, cannibalism, sexual misconduct. I was the good guy. And then all of a sudden, I'm in jail going, I kill an 8 a 17 year old girl and sacrifice.
- [34:09]
Wes Ferguson
10 babies to the devil. Deviltown is a production of imperative entertainment. It was written and created by me with Wes Ferguson. Executive producer is Jason Hoke. Audio engineering and editing by Shane Freeman and Jason Hoke. Original score is by Robert Ellis. Recording by Austin Sisler at Eastside Studios. If you like the show, leave a review. And don't forget to tell your friends. Thanks for listening.