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Jillian Betsavalli
Hi, Julia. Bethel Valley.
Patrick Hines
Hello. Patrick Hines, fam.
Jillian Betsavalli
We're doing that thing that we love to do where we're taking the first episode of a series we've recently done on Patreon and dropping it in the regular feed so you can kind of see what we're up to.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. So this is the Rocky Mountain Mortician murder. Yes. Three crazy episodes on, like, hbo, Max Discovery, or what have you.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know we say that sometimes, but it's like, it's really great. You're gonna see in this episode that Jillian is worried the whole time that I'm gon give away the big reveal at the end. I didn't do it. I didn't do it.
Patrick Hines
There are so many big reveals too. They just keep coming.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know, but that one is pretty big.
Patrick Hines
It's pretty big.
Jillian Betsavalli
Stay all the way till the end of this episode to get the big reveal at the end of episode one and then, like, go. All of the episodes are available right now in ad free on Patreon. We have over 400 full ad free bonus episodes there. And then at various levels. We also have after parties where sometimes we talk about, like, other cases that we don't do on the regular feed. We've got the hero belt here where you get the calendar. We also just did the America's next Top Model 3 episode recap just for the hero belts here.
Patrick Hines
I mean, that was a mess.
Jillian Betsavalli
Tyra Banks sat down as though she wasn't there to be, like, excoriated.
Patrick Hines
No, she sucks. She did that stupid voice. She does worst. The worst.
Jillian Betsavalli
So check this out. I mean, really, like, I can't even tell you what it's about because it's so nuts. But basically, you guys move into a town. They. They run. They're like the local neighborhood morticians.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Then there's a murder, and it's like a who done it? But it's also who, like, who did everything.
Patrick Hines
And everyone's terrible.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. There's a bunch of gays. There's so many gays. There's a couple lesbians. It's pretty fun.
Patrick Hines
Yeah, it's nuts.
Jillian Betsavalli
You're looking very nuts.
Patrick Hines
It is so crazy. But, like, come along for the ride.
Jillian Betsavalli
Please do click the link in the show notes if you want to go to our Patreon and check it out, what we have there. And other than that, enjoy.
Patrick Hines
Enjoy. Good luck to you.
Jillian Betsavalli
And good luck to you.
Lynette Griffey
You know?
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. I have not taken your advice. I've not watched this all the way through yet. I'm only. I've only watched episode one. This is insane.
Patrick Hines
Yeah, well, those of us who watched it all the way through, I guess we're on our own, kids.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, my God. Hi. Jillian Betsavalli.
Patrick Hines
Hello. Patrick Hines.
Jillian Betsavalli
Can I make a little bit of a psa?
Patrick Hines
Sure.
Jillian Betsavalli
I went to the doctor today and got my first colonoscopy screening. I'm getting my colonoscopy in April.
Patrick Hines
Great.
Jillian Betsavalli
Everyone do that? Everyone. Like, when you become 45, you need to get a colonoscopy, and I'm a little bit late for my first one.
Patrick Hines
Okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
But my doctor was really impressing upon me today how it used to be 55 and older, but the risks of colon cancer have gone up so much that they moved back to 50. Then they moved it back to 45. Whoa. So this is just the loving nudge. I needed it. Steve made me do it. My doctor yelled at me for having not done it. If this is just like the loving nudge you need, if you know it's time, just go get your colonoscopy.
Patrick Hines
Can I ask what a screening, what the screening entails?
Jillian Betsavalli
You just sit down and they tell you what it's going to be like, and they, you know, check your vitals and then they schedule the actual appointment.
Patrick Hines
And then you have to drink that stuff and get knocked out.
Jillian Betsavalli
And I know the prep is going to be awful, but I'm just going to do it. It's just time. I'm just like. I'm Katie Couragen right now. I'm just lovingly nudging anybody who needs. You know, Sometimes you need the nudge to go to the dentist. Sometimes you need the nudge to go do the thing that, like, you know, you gotta do, but you don't wanna. This is it. That's my loving nudge from you today.
Patrick Hines
Okay? Thank you.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's all.
Patrick Hines
Hi.
Jillian Betsavalli
What are we talking about today, girl?
Patrick Hines
We are starting the Rocky Mountain Mortician murder. It's on hbo. Max, Discovery, whatever this is. Episode one. Brothers, sons and lovers.
Lynette Griffey
Byron Griffey was a pillar of the community.
Eric
He was a really good funeral director.
Lynette Griffey
I didn't view that people would want to hurt Byron at all.
Jillian Betsavalli
He's dead. There's blood everywhere.
Lynette Griffey
Everybody's a suspect. We learned some of these people were hiding some dark secrets. It's weird.
Eric
This story involves sex.
Lynette Griffey
They would have turkey Popeyes and watch porn.
Eric
You got wealth and intrigue, the catfishing going into politics.
Lynette Griffey
What happened to all the gold? The moment we thought we had it figured, figured out we had another dead body on our hands.
Eric
When you move to a small town, anything you want hidden doesn't stay hidden.
Lynette Griffey
Who killed Byron?
Jillian Betsavalli
Who killed Byron Griffith?
Lynette Griffey
Now that's the million dollar quest.
Jillian Betsavalli
Let me just say this. I watching it. So I watched it this morning and then I watched it again to like take my notes and like do the thing you get. This is one of those really well made documentaries where when you watch it the second time you're like, oh, oh, there's a lot. Oh, there's a lot of stuff sprinkled in throughout.
Patrick Hines
There's a lot. Good, bad and otherwise. Here we got a lot. It is going on.
Jillian Betsavalli
This is really. This is what this came out.
Patrick Hines
It was like everyone was talking about it was, you know, because now so many things come out where it's like something can be the big deal for like a day or two or a week or whatever. But this, this was pretty big.
Jillian Betsavalli
There is a twist at the end of this episode that nobody saw coming. Not nobody saw it.
Patrick Hines
So let's go to Florence.
Jillian Betsavalli
Florence, Colorado, population 3,862.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. Anthony Wright is a former resident. He basically says nothing stays hidden in a small town.
Eric
When you move to a small town, there's things that you learn really fast. Like anything that you might want hidden doesn't stay hidden. 1994 is when Charles and I moved to Colorado from Salt Lake City. We wanted to be in the funeral
Patrick Hines
business and they wanted to be, you know, Anthony and his brother Charles wanted to be funeral directors. And by all accounts, they were great at it.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, we meet so many like former employees, other people in the townspeople, townspeople, the non speaking townspeople. They're like, look like they were great funeral directors. Angela's like, I had a really sick dying cat. They like came and took the cat and did whatever needed to be done. They cremated the cat, gave it back to her. Like they like, they were really invested in this. We're going to learn in a minute. They owned like every business in town. Like they really wanted to. They live together as brothers, they work together as brothers. Like they love the community. They really want to be a part of it.
Patrick Hines
And Eric, another resident says, here's the thing about morticians. Death does not weigh heavily on their hearts as it does to other people who aren't. And this is their business.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, they deal with death every single day. Not a job I could do.
Patrick Hines
And then Larry's like, yeah, they make a ton of money doing it.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, it's like a racket. Like selling the caskets and coffins.
Patrick Hines
We've talked about this, like, there are people who believe that the entire, like, funeral home industry is a total racket.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, Ken, when I am dead, I do not care what you do with my body. Throw me in the incinerator and then, look, toss my asterisk a little bit in the theater district, a little bit in front of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop where that used to be on Christopher Street. Other than that, I don't care. Yeah, it's not. It's not for us anymore.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
You know what I mean?
Patrick Hines
At least have, like, a plan a little bit. Says the girl with no plan. I know, but.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. You know, you still don't know what you want, right? We talked about this before. You don't. You don't know if you want to be cremated or buried or what?
Patrick Hines
I guess I'm leaning towards cremated. I just don't know. Yeah, I should be thinking about it now. In these three episodes, the one thing
Jillian Betsavalli
I do not want. Do not put me in a pine box and put me in the ocean. I really, really, really don't want that.
Patrick Hines
Is that like.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's, like, a thing that some people do?
Patrick Hines
Okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. I don't. I really don't want that.
Patrick Hines
I would.
Jillian Betsavalli
I will haunt the living shit out of anybody who does that.
Patrick Hines
I think it's very safe to say that no one would assume that you would do that. No one's the way you're saying it. To me. It's either like, cremation, being buried or being thrown in the ocean.
Jillian Betsavalli
Burial at sea in the middle of the. I really don't want that.
Patrick Hines
Does not really.
Jillian Betsavalli
If I die on a cruise, put me in the freezer till we get home. And then. I don't care. Just don't. I don't want the middle of the ocean thing.
Patrick Hines
Notice.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay.
Patrick Hines
I don't think you were in danger.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay.
Patrick Hines
If I may.
Jillian Betsavalli
Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm on the record and.
Patrick Hines
But Anthony says, yeah, look, the money was pouring in, but it wasn't about that. It wasn't about that. For him. This was a calling.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. You know, they say that, like, the funeral directors in these small towns are like family. It's a very intimate thing to be the one that is called. I've always wondered that, like, what happened? So you die. What is the very next thing that happens?
Patrick Hines
I totally get that. In these small towns, like, you might be the only funeral home. People trust you. It is this intimate thing. It could be the worst day of your life, probably. Maybe. Or up there, at least. You know, like, I Get why people in small towns like this would feel a closeness to the funeral director that everybody knows.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, it's like, oh, God. I'm gonna have to call you one day, Anthony.
Patrick Hines
Exactly one day.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm gonna need you, buddy.
Eric
Right?
Patrick Hines
Or someone's calling you about me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, God, Anthony, not the ocean. No, not the ocean.
Patrick Hines
I think it's okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay, okay. I just. 30 years from now, they're gonna be like, what did he want again?
Patrick Hines
Yeah, no, I know you're not in danger of that. We learned about Byron Griffey, who was a funeral director slash mortician, and he did it for years and he's now retired. I look this up. Technically, they are two different jobs. Like, the funeral director. Like, the funeral director is more the face of the operation, dealing with the family.
Jillian Betsavalli
And the mortician, social media manager of the group.
Patrick Hines
And the mortician is more like behind the scenes and small towns communities. Like, there of course, is a time where they're doing both. Like, in a small town like this.
Eric
Byron was your funeral director too? He was a really good funeral director. He knew what he was doing. He'd been doing it for a long time. He was a very generous person. He helped us with some equipment when we first got started, and after that we just became good friends.
Jillian Betsavalli
I was just having this thought about, like, why is it I'm on the record as saying that, like, I love you to death. If you were to die right now, I would have to get as far away from your dead body as possible. Like, why are dead bodies so creepy? What is it about that?
Patrick Hines
I don't know, but you shouldn't be offended. I'm not offended by that. Are people offended?
Jillian Betsavalli
I don't know. But, like, bodies go. You go from being you to being a dead body and that. Like, I was just thinking about these morticians. Not the face of the operation, not the fun, happy guys they are.
Patrick Hines
Don't come for me. I understand it, but, like, technically, on paper, they're two different things.
Jillian Betsavalli
I just don't. Like, you're the one that's, like, with the body all day. I can't. I could. I don't know how anybody does that, but I also don't know why it is such a creepy thing.
Patrick Hines
Isn't that what Michael C. Hall did? And six feet under, Wasn't he the guy down with the bodies?
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. It's always got to be in the. Why can't it be in the front room? Why is it going to be the fudgeing Basement.
Patrick Hines
I think it's all about like the, like the cooling and stuff and like, very.
Jillian Betsavalli
This is why I would be the. I'd be the funeral director and not the mortician.
Patrick Hines
I also basically.
Jillian Betsavalli
Operation right here, fam.
Patrick Hines
I also am on record saying that the name Morticia for the character in the Addams Family is one of the most genius of all time.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's good. I like it.
Patrick Hines
Brilliant.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm just getting name. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Patrick Hines
Did you think it was just like Morticia, like from the old Victorian times?
Jillian Betsavalli
The Addams Family is just not really a thing for me.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
So, like, I've not spent much time thinking about it, but now that you mentioned it, genius.
Patrick Hines
Isn't that a perfect name? I think it's so perfectly funny.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Anyway. October 12, 2012.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, can I just say one more thing?
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
I think this is cool. Byron is like, he's the mortician guy in like the neighboring town.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
And when Anthony and Charles move to town to like be like, competition, Byron like, really helps them.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, gives them stuff and helps them, like, learn. Like, I like a vibe where it's like, there's enough room, there's enough dead bodies for all of us. You know what I mean? There's plenty of funerals to go around.
Patrick Hines
God.
Jillian Betsavalli
You know what I mean?
Patrick Hines
The truth. Like the one thing that's going to happen to all of us, it's a
Jillian Betsavalli
little too true, you know? You know what I mean? Am I opening a mortician business?
Patrick Hines
No, you're not.
Jillian Betsavalli
No.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. Fudgeing. Right? Rewatch Six Feet under to get a little taste.
Jillian Betsavalli
No, guys.
Patrick Hines
So it's October 12, 2012. It's lunchtime, 12:15pm and Anthony and his brother Charles go to meet Byron for lunch an hour away at Byron's farm. It's Byron's birthday lunch.
Jillian Betsavalli
He's not there, though. Like, Byron is not like, they get to the farm where he lives. Lives. They're calling him. He's not answering.
Patrick Hines
The gate is locked.
Jillian Betsavalli
The gate is locked. He's not there. They eventually decide to kind of just leave.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
So they're not nearly as pissed as I would be.
Patrick Hines
No. An hour out of their way. Like, come on.
Jillian Betsavalli
And you're just like not answering the phone, like, what?
Patrick Hines
But also like, don't you then go
Jillian Betsavalli
to worry because for me, the only, the only thing would be like, the guy is dead. Right. It's got to be that. But they, they don't think that they leave.
Patrick Hines
So now that it's like noon and
Jillian Betsavalli
they're much calmer than me, I think. Much. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
And they've seen it all.
Jillian Betsavalli
They're both morticians. Neither one of them faces the business.
Patrick Hines
They don't.
Jillian Betsavalli
You know what I mean? Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So by 8:06pm later that night, there's a 911 call and Byron is discovered dead. 911 March emergency. I think my father in law is dead. I think he's out.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay. Is he bleeding anywhere? Yes, all over. He's dead.
Patrick Hines
He's dead. He's cold.
Jillian Betsavalli
There's blood everywhere. Please. Ra.
Patrick Hines
And we meet Lynette Griffey, his daughter. And he. Before we get to like all of that, we're just gonna stop with Lynette for a minute.
Lynette Griffey
My dad took care of everybody when I moved back home with three kids. He bought a house for us which had some land. And he said it would be fun for the kids to grow up on a farm. And then at that point, I met Gina, my wife. When I told my dad I was gay, he said, well, you know, you're not alone. There's a lot of people that are.
Jillian Betsavalli
We're gonna learn eventually that Gina's wife, Gina's mother also lived there.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like. Like Byron took in the entire clan.
Patrick Hines
And like a lot of people, it's not just that they were. He was supportive of them being gay, but supportive of them getting married. Cuz I think that's a very important distinction. A lot of people are supportive until you make that shit official.
Jillian Betsavalli
Y.
Patrick Hines
Then, you know, whatever. They're not. But he seemingly, like, was through and through.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Very supportive of this.
Jillian Betsavalli
I gotta say, I've got really good lesbian dar. But like, I grew up in a place called Cape Cod where, as my friend Mike Jensen says, everybody looks like a lesbian. So when I met Lynette here in this documentary, I. I was still. Even though she looks like a lesbian, I was shocked to hear that she actually was one because, like, I think that, like, I just come from a place that as soon as you turn 45, everybody cuts their hair off and wears the parka vest and has the spiky hair and like the two little earrings. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so I was like, oh, she's like a really a lesbian. I was so thrilled.
Patrick Hines
The real deal or the real deal?
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, the real deal.
Patrick Hines
The real deal.
Jillian Betsavalli
There is. So there's such little gay representation in these documentaries. Even though, like, there's a tragedy that happened to these lesbians, I was so glad they were here.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. And to hear that this our victim here Was like really loving and supportive of this enormous and gay family.
Jillian Betsavalli
Gina's great. I bet her mom is great.
Patrick Hines
I mean, unless she's not.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm only on episode. I don't know, you know.
Patrick Hines
Now let's go back to seven o'. Clock. The on screen text says one hour before Byron's body discovery. I'm like, why is this worded so poorly? It's an hour before Byron's body was discovered.
Jillian Betsavalli
It feels like that was a nine hour meeting. How exactly do we make this the clearest as possible?
Patrick Hines
One hour before Byron's body discovery. Have you ever heard it put that way?
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, because. Is there some question that's like, was it a murder or a suicide? You know, matter.
Patrick Hines
I know he was still discovered an hour ago.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's true. Look, I'm with you. As long as you don't bury me at sea, I'll do whatever you say.
Patrick Hines
I was like, what? I had to stop and read that and then type it and then look at it again. Like, why? Unless it's some grammar thing that I am too dumb to know. But it felt even saying it. One hour before Byron's body discovery sound, right? An hour before the body was discovered
Jillian Betsavalli
doesn't roll off the tongue. You know what I mean?
Patrick Hines
Hbo.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know. Hbo. My God, am I right?
Patrick Hines
And like Discovery Channel or whatever, this is your bread and butter. These documentaries get it together.
Jillian Betsavalli
Speaking of bread and butter, they're sitting down for dinner and Byron, once again, everybody wants to dine with the guy on his birthday. He doesn't show up. He's not answering his phone. They say they always. He always answers the phone.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
So they go over to his place and like Lynette is in one area of the house, Gina's in another. Gina's like screaming because Lynette, when they
Patrick Hines
call around the town and everyone knows each other, they also learn that Byron never showed up for lunch with Anthony and Charles, the brother. So they're like, oh, so he's been missing for hours.
Jillian Betsavalli
Hours.
Patrick Hines
What the fuck?
Jillian Betsavalli
And Gina finds him. She's the one that calls 91 1.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. So we meet Captain Carol Coates, formerly of the sheriff's department. Sheriff's department.
Jillian Betsavalli
Also the Sheryl's department. I love her because she's just here to be like, I know this all sounds ridiculous.
Patrick Hines
And it like just.
Jillian Betsavalli
Can we just take it one step at a time? You know what I mean?
Patrick Hines
Because there's a. There we get. There are so many moving parts here.
Jillian Betsavalli
Carol does. I think we don't see it But I'm assuming she does a big gp. Like, right before her interview starts, she goes like this. Yeah. And then they start.
Patrick Hines
She might have notes.
Jillian Betsavalli
100%.
Patrick Hines
I don't know. There's a lot here. So she.
Jillian Betsavalli
I like Carol a lot.
Patrick Hines
She describes the scene.
Lynette Griffey
We went in. We found Byron Griffey laid out on the floor in the middle of a bedroom that was empty. He was just off the wall, probably about two and a half feet. Crime scene was very clean. I mean, there was nothing there. The family had moved out of the farmhouse. There was no forced entry or sign of struggle of any kind. No defensive marks on him. There was very little blood. I think my words were, it's weird.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, we do see a crime scene photo and, like, we've done this a lot. So, like, I can comfortably and confidently say it does look weird.
Patrick Hines
It's a little.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like there's some blood on the wall and then the body. But, like, nothing is a mat. Like, normally in a murder, there's blood everywhere.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
Or there's blood nowhere if they've tried to clean it. One of those things where there's, like, blood on the wall and the body is laid out and. But like. But there's nothing else in the room. It just looks very strange.
Patrick Hines
Captain Carroll said then and now. It's weird.
Jillian Betsavalli
It's weird.
Patrick Hines
So Bob Fowler, the coroner, he agrees. He says there's no weapon at the scene.
Jillian Betsavalli
Can I ask you a question?
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Did his family settle this town? Because we're in a town called Fowler.
Patrick Hines
We are.
Jillian Betsavalli
We are. Because there's two towns.
Patrick Hines
There's the one that I thought we were in Florence.
Jillian Betsavalli
No, Florence is where Anthony and Charles live. And then Fowler is the name of the town where Byron lives.
Patrick Hines
He have roots in this town.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm like, did. Is. Did his family come on the Mayflower and go, like, right to Colorado and settle this town?
Patrick Hines
Colonize the shit out of this town?
Jillian Betsavalli
I mean, it gets Fowler from. Fowler wild, Right?
Patrick Hines
Wouldn't he have said that?
Jillian Betsavalli
I mean, maybe there wasn't enough. There wasn't enough room on the screen to. To present it the way HBO wanted to be. Bob Fowler, the guy who moved here with his family and founded this place, and also the Coroner.
Patrick Hines
You need 10 extra words. I know 10 meetings about all the extra words you need to have, but
Jillian Betsavalli
I was like, oh, Fowler from.
Patrick Hines
That's interesting. I don't know. We'd never learn that.
Jillian Betsavalli
We never know. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Unless we do. And I didn't pay attention to that.
Jillian Betsavalli
There's, you know, we're gon learn a lot in this documentary, in this episode so we can move past this one.
Patrick Hines
But he says he's like, yeah.
Eric
There was no weapon readily available. The blood splattering on the wall was not consistent with what I'm used to. This was very strange. Byron is laid out almost like body in a casket, and he's laying flat on the floor, face up.
Jillian Betsavalli
He was staged and it looked like he was staged. Like, it looked like he was on his back staged. Exactly.
Patrick Hines
James Bullock, the district attorney, is like, oh, it was absolutely saved.
Jillian Betsavalli
Jim Jay Bullock.
Patrick Hines
Jim Jay Bullock.
Jillian Betsavalli
Who's that? Jim Jay Bullock is like the gay guy that was on, like, the reboot of Hollywood Squares. This guy's name. James Bullock.
Patrick Hines
James Bullock. The only Bullock I know is Seth Bullock from Deadwood. What about Sandra Timothy Oliphant and that and Sandra Bernhardt? I didn't mean that.
Jillian Betsavalli
I just mean that Sandra Bernhardt or Sandra Bullock. Oh, what is happening? It's a wacky documentary.
Patrick Hines
I don't know what's going. I just, like, I saw the word Bullock and I said Bernhardt. What a weirdo.
Jillian Betsavalli
You know, it's sometimes fam. This is a good example of, like, it's been a long week. We've gotten a lot of snow. We're in a fancy new studio. There's just like, it's a little off the rails.
Patrick Hines
There's been a lot happening, like, in my personal airspace.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's true.
Patrick Hines
As of late. I'm just feeling. Is one of those things where I'm like, is this chair solid? Because I'm not 100% sure. Like, I know I look like, like six extra times before crossing the street. I'm like, I'm not. I don't, like, trust myself right now.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know what I mean. You're doing great.
Patrick Hines
Thank you.
Jillian Betsavalli
It's burn. It's Bullock. Not Bernhard. Sandra, Not. Not Sandra.
Patrick Hines
Right. Okay, I'm in. I'm back up. So he's lying flat on the floor, face up, like in a casket.
Jillian Betsavalli
Stage. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Now cue Randy and scream. Everybody's a suspect. Everybody's a suspect because Byron was a pillar of the community. Everybody knew him. This is a teeny, tiny town. They're looking at everybody. And as we've learned in these towns, lots of people have lots of secrets. And sometimes they're pretty big.
Jillian Betsavalli
Sam, you don't even know, like, don't say anything. Not going to say. I'm not going to. But, like, I. I screamed. Like, I screamed when we get to the twist.
Patrick Hines
So. Which I'M shocked about.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know you're so worried that I'm going to give it away. I promise I won't. I promise I won't.
Patrick Hines
Because I have a whole. Like, I know.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm not. I know that I do that to you sometimes. I'm not going to do it. I promise.
Patrick Hines
So. It's October 13, 2012, 12 hours after Byron's body was discovered. I don't know how they worded it. I'm saying it the real way.
Jillian Betsavalli
The discovery of that once belonged to Byron.
Patrick Hines
Like, but see, like, hbo. Don't do this to me.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know.
Patrick Hines
So. And Georgia, Byron's friend, is like, what the hell happened? What is going on? Everyone is shocked. And Anthony and his brother Charles are like, wait a second. We were right there. Are you telling me that he didn't answer the phone because he was dead?
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, here's the thing. Once again, I've only seen the first episode, but Anthony and Charles, who were there with, like, the body was there, but they didn't know it. They're like, why don't we turn ourselves into the FBI? It's a little something to me.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. The cbi, the Colorado Bureau.
Jillian Betsavalli
You're absolutely right. The cbi.
Patrick Hines
So I'm like, okay, so what's the deal with Charles and Anthony, their brothers? Like, but we learned that they were, quote, very entwined with the community.
Jillian Betsavalli
I mean, the least were they ever, like. So Anthony and Charles, they're half brothers. Charles, he's got a funeral business we're going to learn later. He's got a guitar business. He's got a restaurant on Main Street. He becomes the mayor.
Patrick Hines
The mayor.
Jillian Betsavalli
Then he becomes the president of the Chamber of Commerce. Then he starts a church.
Patrick Hines
These two were being awarded citizens of the Year. And at the church, Charles was the bishop and Anthony was the deacon.
Jillian Betsavalli
Now, may I? I don't know if I'm allowed to say this or not.
Patrick Hines
What?
Jillian Betsavalli
But this is when I made the realization. Everybody in this documentary is here except for Charles.
Patrick Hines
Charles is not here.
Jillian Betsavalli
Charles is not here.
Patrick Hines
Yeah, I have that note here, too. Like, that's in. We don't know why yet, but Charles is not here.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay, I don't know what that means, but, like, Anthony is here, Anthony's here. But Charles. Charles. Charles, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the mayor, and, like, the deacon of this church is not here.
Patrick Hines
But Laura is a townsperson and parishioner.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes, they go every Sunday.
Patrick Hines
And she's like, the church was all about peace and love. It was like one of those Good churches, you know, it's the kind of
Jillian Betsavalli
church I would literally go to.
Patrick Hines
And Eric from before says so.
Eric
They own several businesses in town. The funeral home. They own smashing good guitars shows. The guitar shop that I worked at on the Main Street Grill. And they're huge collectors. They collect everything. I started collecting guitars, guns, dogs, cats, birds, horses. If I saw an animal that needed help, I took it. I even had a squirrel.
Patrick Hines
Anthony had a squirrel. If an animal needed help, Anthony was taking them in.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know these cars.
Patrick Hines
They had 37 different cars. Like, very cool, old timey, but in
Jillian Betsavalli
from the, from the funeral business.
Patrick Hines
Right. It's so many cars. 37. I know that there was a big bowl of keys and every morning, which is kind of fun, Anthony would like pick at random, like, oh, I guess I'm driving this one today.
Jillian Betsavalli
My only thought on that was like, please let it have a keychain that tells you what car it is. Tell me you're not going around to 37 cars. Which one does this? I'm sure, yeah, they've got 19 businesses to run in a church to parishioner over. Like, they can't just be willy nilly with the car.
Patrick Hines
So many cars that he's like, oh,
Jillian Betsavalli
where are you parking 37 cars?
Patrick Hines
Well, they have like all this land, you know, so whatever.
Jillian Betsavalli
So Paul, we meet Paul, who's Eric's brother and Laura's son. Like Laura, Eric and Paul are a family. You don't really need to know that yet. Yeah, but like Paul is saying that Eric got close with Charles and Anthony because Eric worked for them at the guitar store.
Patrick Hines
And then they were like just always around.
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, they bring Anthony and Charles into the family and like, Anthony and Charles are like surrogate dads to these kids. They're hiring them. Like, they're using them to like do things around the funeral parlor.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
They're spending holidays together.
Patrick Hines
Right. And Paul's like, okay, yeah, yeah. I thought they were like your bosses, but now, okay, fine. But Charles would always talk about his kids and he was like, really proud of his kids. But it was also really sad because they were around, but no one really knew why and no one really talked about it.
Jillian Betsavalli
So, like, Charles is estranged from the kids that he's very proud of, but we don't know why.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
Charles is also not here. Have I mentioned that?
Patrick Hines
Yes. Charles is also described as the brains and Anthony is described as the brawns.
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, we described that as the funeral director versus the mortician.
Patrick Hines
I guess so. Yes. Like, Charles would come up with all the ideas. And Tony, the one sitting down for the documentary, would be the guy to make it happen.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
And now we cut back to Anthony's voluntary.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Police interview. Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
So he's the one who's, like, sitting down the cbi. And, like, we learned from Officer Carroll, they get Byron's phone, and they see that Byron got Two calls at 12:43pm Remember, Anthony and Charles were there trying to get Byron for lunch. These are calls from Charles. His phone.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. And Anthony says, look, just to be clear, like, yes, we were there maybe around the time of his death. But just so you know, like, I was closer to Byron than my brother Charles was. Like, we were very, very close. We had actually only been to the farm, like, one or two times before this, and the last time was five months ago. Like, this is a lot of information for a lunch date that never happened.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
They were like, we couldn't actually also see the door where we were standing because, remember, the gate was locked.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. And they say, like, they waited for 15 or 20 minutes. They left and, like, the CBI officer, like, it wasn't. Like, this wasn't weird. And they were like, honestly, like, Byron had made plans to come to our house before and just, like, didn't show up. So, like, Byron was an older guy, ghosted them before. Yeah. They're, like, not taking it personally. They don't really care.
Patrick Hines
So before they go home, though, which is an hour away.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
They drive around this town because they're looking for Byron's house because they didn't know where it was exactly.
Jillian Betsavalli
Remember, like, Byron and his whole clan had just moved out of the farm and had moved into a house downtown.
Patrick Hines
So it is weird for Byron to be like, yes, meet me at the farm. Maybe I'd work there. We don't know why Byron is there, but, like, they didn't know where the house was. They just knew it was downtown somewhere. So they just kind of drove around the small town looking for the house. And when they couldn't, they just realized, we'll go back home.
Jillian Betsavalli
But then we also see Charles's interview with the cbi, and they're like, is Byron the kind of guy that would kill himself? He's like, Yep.
Patrick Hines
Yes, absolutely. 100%.
Jillian Betsavalli
I would say that he absolutely would. And, like, Charles and Anthony have guns. And so Charles is saying that a while back, Byron asked me for a gun, and he was so worried about what Byron was going to do with that gun that he didn't give him one.
Patrick Hines
And he's like, My brother Anthony would never give him a gun either. So, like, he definitely didn't give him this gun.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So the brothers are thanked. They're sent home. Here's my card. Call me if you think of anything. The end.
Jillian Betsavalli
So, October 16th, we get the autopsy results.
Eric
The autopsy on Byron indicated that he was shot from the back, and it was just a single back to front gunshot wound to the neck. There were soot right on the entrance wound, which means it's basically a contact wound. So you couldn't really shoot yourself the way he was shot unless somebody was holding a gun at his neck on the backside.
Patrick Hines
So it's. The official ruling is homicide.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Which is a big deal.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes. And Carol also tells us this was not a robbery. Like, he had his watch on, his phone was there. Nothing was taken because nothing was there.
Patrick Hines
And his wallet, though, like, all of the valuables on his person were still on Byron.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
And this is where we learned that he was also a big collector.
Gina
Byron was a huge collector. He collected stamps, coins, old money, antiques.
Lynette Griffey
My dad had a secret room in the back of the garage. Only a few people knew that the room was there. And he had. I don't even know how many safes in there. Byron bought a lot. Lot of silver and gold coins. It was probably pretty close to a million dollars.
Jillian Betsavalli
Lynette, the daughter, is saying, like, most people didn't know.
Patrick Hines
And I'm like, well, let's make a list. Who knew about that?
Jillian Betsavalli
Exactly.
Patrick Hines
Lynette.
Jillian Betsavalli
Right.
Patrick Hines
Gina.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm sure Carol made a list, like, you know. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So now let's go back a year before the murder. There was this attempted robbery of all of these valuables.
Jillian Betsavalli
People keep trying to break into Byron's house. Like, like, somebody with knowledge of all of, like, the money that he's got is, like, trying to break in and, like, I guess not finding it so they could try it.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. They couldn't, like, break into the safe or whatever. Like, one of the cops is, like, they made more of a mess than anything. They didn't take anything, but they left this noose hanging as, like, really scary threat.
Jillian Betsavalli
And we're.
Patrick Hines
We'll.
Jillian Betsavalli
We'll learn that, like, this is why the family moved off the farm. Because all. I'm sorry, all it would take is one attempt to break in. I'd be grabbing my nickels and I'd be out of there.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. I think it was one, they said
Jillian Betsavalli
multiple, really attempts to break it. Yeah. Like, it's kind of. I mean, maybe at first you're like, did Someone try to break him.
Patrick Hines
The noose is all I need.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, the time. There was a time that we got broken into when we were home and asleep, and it took us, like, five hours to even realize it had happened.
Patrick Hines
That's crazy.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know. Absolutely terrifying.
Patrick Hines
So obviously they all have to leave.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So now we're with his daughter Lynette. She has had a suspect from day one, from second one, this person named Corey hit pigs. And the cops were called about Corey many times, we're told, when Lynette and her family were at the farm. And Lynette has always been scared of Corey. I'm scared of Corey every day. I'm like, damn, who is Corey? Yeah, he's Gina's son.
Jillian Betsavalli
He's Lynette's stepson.
Patrick Hines
Like.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like they. Like, he's part of the family.
Gina
Life with Corey was not easy from ever. He is an extremely intelligent, but also violent and manipulating. Corey pulled a knife on his siblings. He grabbed me by the neck and choked me out.
Lynette Griffey
When he was 16, 17, Corey went into foster care, and the court said, least contact with us, the better.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, and here we learned that when he was 16 or 17, he went into foster care. And the foster care system people said, like, the less contact with Gina and Lydia, that, like, the better.
Patrick Hines
Like, the. The women are saying they couldn't handle him, so they put him in the foster system.
Jillian Betsavalli
But this is my question. Do we ever learn, are Gina's kids all biological? Because I was as a foster parent, like, we go through all kinds of training to handle kids just like this that go into the system. So I was unclear if he came to Gina from the foster care system and then was being put back into the system to go to another home or if Corey was her biological son. Son I was just confused about. Like, we never hear about the dads of the kids.
Patrick Hines
That's true.
Jillian Betsavalli
And then the foster care system is brought in, which is a very, very extreme measure to take.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
So, I mean, unbelievably extreme measure to take.
Patrick Hines
So there are a lot of questions here, but what the documentary is trying to.
Jillian Betsavalli
Can I just say one more thing? Because, like, when this was going on in my family, like, my mother found a place for my. My brother to go live. Like, that's typically what happens for treatment. For treatment. Like, you don't. You don't typically take a dangerous, violent kid out of one family and put him into another.
Patrick Hines
That was confusing to me. Yeah. There's no information about that.
Jillian Betsavalli
I didn't know if we get more on that Later.
Patrick Hines
No. And what's interesting is that like, clearly what the documentary wants us to think, whether it's true or not, is that like, this is how violent Corey was.
Jillian Betsavalli
And no question, like, the stuff that we hear about what Corey has done is terrifying. Pulling a knife on like the little. Unlike your younger sibling. Terrible. Terrifying.
Patrick Hines
Yeah. And I'm not saying I don't know the story. There are two. For me, there are too many question marks. But, like, it's very clear that from where Lynette and Gina are sitting.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
This 16 year old was so violent that their only choice was to put him back in the foster system. Which I. Which just begs many questions for me. But what's interesting is Corey is in the foster system. But the foster system, according to Gina and Lynette, tell him that it would be good for him to spend time with old grandpa Byron.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm just gonna say this quickly.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
This to me, as somebody who was in the foster care system for a long time, feels like Corey came from the foster care system and is being put back into the system. That's what this feels like to me. We. I guess we never find out about that.
Patrick Hines
Right. Yeah, I, No, I, I. That there it is not clear because at all.
Jillian Betsavalli
And it, it seems like something that also would be done. Like the idea that, like, we don't want to, like we're going to remove him from the parent that he was with, but we're going to keep him also in contact with this man who's like a father figure for him.
Patrick Hines
And Lynette right now doesn't understand why,
Jillian Betsavalli
because it's crazy, right?
Patrick Hines
Yeah. But it's like, well, there must be some answers, Lynette.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
And Gina, you're his mother, so there must be some things here that we're just not being told for whatever. Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
But it's also like, if the idea is to remove him from like the, the younger kids, whatever they're keeping him in, in Byron's life. And for a minute, like, Byron and Corey both seem happy about that.
Patrick Hines
Well, yeah, because we're told that their relationship, like Corey needed a father figure, Byron wanted someone to nurture and the business. And it sounds like they were giving what each other what they really needed in some way.
Jillian Betsavalli
The thing that gets skipped over here is Lynette, Byron's daughter is like, he always wanted a kid to take over the business and now he has. I love that Lynette has absolutely no interest, which is like, I mean, I hear you, Lynnette. I'm not taking over My parents. Funeral home business either.
Patrick Hines
No. You know, that's got to be okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, yeah. 100.
Patrick Hines
No matter what it is. Even if it's like, yeah, the little restaurant that the other guys or the guitar store, whatever, it's got to be okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
I got to tell you, you're going to hate that this so much. I'm not putting any pressure on her, but like, I want Daisy to have a podcast someday.
Patrick Hines
Why?
Jillian Betsavalli
Because I love it and I think she'd be good at it.
Patrick Hines
But like, if she doesn't want to do it.
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, she says she does. When I ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she says a cab driver, a podcaster, a teacher, and. And a waitress.
Patrick Hines
What's the cab driver thing about?
Jillian Betsavalli
Who knows? Kids. Kids are weird.
Patrick Hines
Yeah, no, kids are super weird.
Jillian Betsavalli
Not like being a taxi driver is weird, but like, she probably just had fun in a taxi once.
Patrick Hines
No, I love, I love of little like weirdo kid thing. Yeah, like the weirder.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Like, what's that? Like that there was that kid who went viral who was like obsessed with vacuums, that his mom like. Like he was a vacuum for Halloween. Like, oh, like, or whatever it is. Like, I might be misremembered, but something like that. Like, totally give me the kid who's like, got to be the stand up old timey vacuum.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, yeah, for Halloween. Oh, I love it.
Patrick Hines
Give me more stories like that.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Anyway, they were inseparable. Corey was like brought into the business officially. They would dress alike on funeral.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's pretty cute.
Patrick Hines
But everything, everything was going perfect until it wasn't. That's like the theme of this entire podcast. But like, things changed when Corey violently attacked his mother.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. Like broke her shoulder.
Patrick Hines
And we also. There's a lot of question marks here too, because we learned that Corey was, quote, in trouble for something. We're not told what. Then he gets up to get a gun that is just around in the house. Not like locked up or anything. Just there.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Gina step. His mother steps in front of him to stop him from doing that and Corey, quote, turns violent and breaks. Breaks her shoulder.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, I just want to say this again, like as a, as a, as a person who was in the foster care system for a long time, we never hear Gina say, I love him, but we never hear Gina say, like, he's my son and I love him, but he can't live with us. He can't be around.
Patrick Hines
I think that's on purpose. I think they're trying to make the statement.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. Here yeah.
Patrick Hines
Good, bad, I don't know. Right or wrong? I don't know. But like, that is clear to me.
Jillian Betsavalli
I agree. But it stands out as, like, I want more information about how Corey came
Patrick Hines
into this family and like, what was he in trouble for?
Jillian Betsavalli
Right.
Patrick Hines
For this instance. Right. Like this is a major thing because this changes everything for Byron.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
They were as thick as thieves and now they're not. Because Byron, of course, is going to look at him differently, be hard on him, him, you know, like, Corey is
Jillian Betsavalli
dangerous and he needs help. Like, he needs to not be rehomed to another family. He needs to, like, he needs serious treatment.
Patrick Hines
So we're only hearing like the big explosive punchline.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
But we're missing a lot of pieces here. Yes, for me.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
So Corey quote, ages out of foster care.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Which is how they were to it. And now he.
Jillian Betsavalli
Which is a very real thing.
Patrick Hines
Right. In my understanding is you can't, like, if a kid wasn't already in the system.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Let's just say I have a kid and I don't want the kid anymore. Can I just give it to. I'm not saying I would do this, but you can't like put a kid in the foster system who wasn't already in there, Is that right?
Jillian Betsavalli
I mean, my understanding, at least in New York is that kids get removed from homes. You don't give your kid to the system. Like there was a woman that was. I was just reading about this woman who like, who gave her 8 year old up for adoption because she didn't want to be a mother anymore.
Patrick Hines
Oh my God.
Jillian Betsavalli
Horrendous. But you don't give the kid to the foster care system. Like, kids are removed from homes, they're not given to the foster care. So that's what I thought. In my opinion, what's happening here is that Corey was a kid that came to Gina through foster care. It didn't work out. He got dangerous and he's going back into the system. And I have seen this happen.
Patrick Hines
Okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
I have seen it and I've seen it happen where a kid gets fully adopted, becomes incredibly violent and puts the other kids in the home at risk, and then is like literally legally unadopted and goes back into this. It's, I mean, it is devastating and heartbreaking. Make everything worse.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
All the way around. It's, it's horrible. But to me, this is what's happening here. Corey came to her from the foster care system and now he's being removed and put back into the foster care system.
Patrick Hines
Because when they say that he ages out of foster care, he's on his own. Own. He's not getting treatment anymore.
Jillian Betsavalli
He's not getting treatment. He's probably getting money. When kids age out of the foster care system, at least in New York, they get. They get money from the state until they're 21, which is how he's able to, like, get a place to live.
Patrick Hines
Well, and where he lives, he gets this place across the street from the farm.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So what the women are saying is he absolutely would have known if Byron was there at the farm or not, because he has eyes on the farm. He lives right there.
Jillian Betsavalli
And more than that, Gina and Lynette are saying, like, his motive for killing Byron would be because we loved him, and it would make our lives terrible to hurt them, is what they're saying.
Patrick Hines
So Corey is questioned by Captain Carroll, and she says that she knew him from, quote, previous incidents.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. And we hear this interview.
Eric
I slept most of the day, actually. I was at my house in Fowler.
Jillian Betsavalli
Was there anybody else there?
Eric
Not during the day. It's about 3:45 or so, my friend. I went down for play practice. I talked on the phone, I texted. But there was nobody really with you? There was nobody with me, like, physically. And I have my location settings on. On my cell phone. It doesn't really give an address. And that's where I'm kind of running into trouble here.
Jillian Betsavalli
Carol says he lived about a mile and a half down the road. He could have walked there, killed Byron and come back, or left his phone
Patrick Hines
so that it pings at home.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, that feels like something that would you do in the middle of the day where there could be a million people seeing you on the street walking in the direction of Byron's house or.
Patrick Hines
I don't think we were at a place where it's a million people. We're out at the. We're an hour away from the small
Jillian Betsavalli
town out at the Y, I guess. So. Carol does not seem to think of Cory as a good suspect at this point.
Patrick Hines
And Gina, his mother, is here to
Gina
say, Carol Coates, she's a good cop, but he's a master manipulator and controls every situation. He played her just like he does everybody else. I feel guilty being his mom and feeling the way that I feel, but. But I know he did it or had something to do with it. I 100% believe that.
Jillian Betsavalli
And Lynette is the same. Like, there is no convincing them that anybody other than Corey did this.
Patrick Hines
Right. So now we're at Byron's funeral a week after his murder, and the whole town shows up.
Jillian Betsavalli
Charles does the eulogy.
Patrick Hines
Well, why wouldn't he? The mayor and, and, and the president
Jillian Betsavalli
of the Chamber of Commerce does that, does the eulogy.
Patrick Hines
And Charles and Anthony did the service or, you know, like, took care of Byron' and she and Lynette's like, they did a great job. And now, like, Anthony's here to say, like, coming from a fellow I know, mortician, funeral director, like, that's high praise, like, that their family would trust you.
Jillian Betsavalli
I don't know why that made me chuckle. I was like, anthony, it's just a
Patrick Hines
world we'll never know. It's like a world.
Jillian Betsavalli
No, that is so far. And I was just like, anthony, I get it. You're great at your job. We get it.
Patrick Hines
But at the funeral, a woman approaches Lynette, Byron's daughter, and goes, you know, Tommy did it. And I'm like, what? Suspect number two. Tommy, Tom.
Gina
So Tommy Tomlin was Harry Tomlin's brother. They are complete polar opposites. I would trust Harry with my life. Tommy Tomlin is scary.
Jillian Betsavalli
My brother Tommy Tomlin did have a drug problem.
Eric
Meth, heroin, whatever drug was out there.
Jillian Betsavalli
Tommy was violent. He was capable of doing anything. Anything. Tommy has a serious drug addiction. So that's really what's going on.
Patrick Hines
I mean, meth, heroin, someone says, whatever drug was out there.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Now, Harry was the last person to see Byron alive before he was killed. And they are very, very good friends.
Jillian Betsavalli
Harry had done some work for Byron and was meeting Byron at the bank.
Patrick Hines
Yep.
Jillian Betsavalli
And saw him like right around noon. He was the last person to see
Patrick Hines
him alive so that Byron could pay him.
Jillian Betsavalli
Exactly.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, exactly.
Patrick Hines
So, but also, Byron hired Tommy. The like, ne' er do well brother for odd jobs farm. Because Tommy never had a steady job. And Harry was his very dear friend. He's helping out his friend's brother who needs work.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
So Lynette says Tommy was around when Tommy needed money, and that was all the time. And then the guy who didn't have money is suddenly flashing around $100 bills and everyone's like, where'd you get the money, Tommy?
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, we hear so many stories because, like somebody says, I think, I think Lynette is telling us that, like, yeah. Did you hear about how Tommy, like, showed up at a party covered in blood? It was like, hey, do you all hear that Byron died? I'm like, that's a little on the.
Patrick Hines
Had a stack of bills with them.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, yeah. Carol's like, that didn't happen. The money thing apparently did happen. But, like, the showing up at a party all bloody and being like, hey, Byron said, anybody hear about a story's
Patrick Hines
crazy enough, please don't add or one more time.
Jillian Betsavalli
She does.
Patrick Hines
It's too much.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Now we see Tommy's interview with law enforcement. He waves his right to a lawyer, and he agrees to be interviewed. And he agrees to a polygraph, but not before flirting with the cop. My, Jody, what gorgeous eyes you have. Like, he's the wolf in little red whiting. And like, this also justice for the wolf. That was his turf.
Jillian Betsavalli
Truly, this God love this cop who, like, knows how to deal with this in dirtbag. Flirting with her while he's getting a polygraph about, did you murder that guy? He left Byron's house at about 11:30, goes to a blue house. We're going to learn later. This is a house, like an abandoned home where he does drugs with his friends and then gets home to his house at, like, 12 or 12:30.
Patrick Hines
And even though he had, quote, old money on him, which is something that Byron collected.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
He is maintaining he did not kill Byron and he had no part of what happened. And then Jody with the gorgeous eyes.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Is like, well, it seems pretty obvious to me that, like, you're not telling me the whole story.
Jillian Betsavalli
And he totally flips out. He's, like, terrifying.
Patrick Hines
And that's, like, such a tactic, right? Like, he's not. She's not saying he failed the polygraph. It's just like she's trying to scare him into talking more, which is something they do all the time.
Jillian Betsavalli
But there's something you're not telling me.
Patrick Hines
But this guy says, like, I got to say, like, he's making some good points. He's like, don't you understand what hell my life is?
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Don't you understand that I'm fudgeing miserable and can never get on my feet? Like, now you're going to try to pin a murder on me? Absolutely not.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay, I hear you, Tommy. But can you also understand that, like, we know that you know that this guy has money because he's helping you out all the time. And, like, you have no alibi for the exact window when this guy dies.
Patrick Hines
Right. And then they start fighting.
Jillian Betsavalli
Sorry for asking the tough question.
Patrick Hines
But then he, like, tells her to shut up.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Then he's like, I don't like this, and you can cut my junk off if I'm lying. I'm like, you don't need to go there.
Jillian Betsavalli
I Can everyone.
Patrick Hines
Everyone just take a deep breath? But he is, like, adamant. He did not kill Byron.
Jillian Betsavalli
He will not usually are.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
You know what I mean. I know you know more than I do, but.
Patrick Hines
But I am just. I'm just saying, like, he's making. I know that, like, you can't trust someone.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
In this altered state. But there is a part of me that that's like, what is his motive here? This guy would just give him odd jobs to help out his brother, who's his friend. Like, this is where. This was his cash cow.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah, yeah.
Patrick Hines
Like, yeah, his life is miserable.
Jillian Betsavalli
And like, honestly, all the money that he would be stealing from this guy is in, like, quarters and silver bars. So, like, it's not like money. You can just like, cash in unnoticed.
Patrick Hines
Also, Tommy, you can walk away at any moment.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
You don't have, like. I know crazy to me that we live in a world where one that's not, like, common knowledge. I'm not saying it's anyone's fault, but the system.
Jillian Betsavalli
I wonder if we didn't do this, if I would remember that in a moment of being questioned about this. Something.
Patrick Hines
I don't. I think it's built that it's built.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know it is.
Patrick Hines
That you don't know or that it's so official now or whatever.
Jillian Betsavalli
You're just like, you're doing that thing where you're just having a con. Oh, you need a lawyer. Like, that's going to make us think. Why would you need a lawyer?
Patrick Hines
And also they're legally allowed to lie to you.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes, I know.
Patrick Hines
That's all. That's all part of it.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So anyway, they take DNA from both suspects, Corey, the kid and Tommy, but it's meaningless because as we've been told a million times, the crime scene is, quote, too clean. So there's nothing even, like, tests.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes, exactly.
Patrick Hines
So we have no DNA, no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no leads. We're stuck at square one. Captain Carroll. What is she going to.
Jillian Betsavalli
Captain Carroll just really doesn't know. So we get, like, what. We get the. We get the timeline right. Once again, Harry met Byron at the bank downtown at 12:10.
Patrick Hines
Also, Harry Tomlin is, like. Is like a block away from. In my mouth sounding like Harry Hamlin.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh. And I keep thinking Lily Tomlin, Harry Hamlin. Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Who got that?
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, my God.
Patrick Hines
Oh, my God. I can't wait to tell Harry Hamlin. That's, you know, Lisa and his whole thing is like. Because Rob on the Traitors, the finale of the Traders is tonight. So whatever I'm going to say is outdated. But no one can, like, look at Rob because he's, quote, so hot or whatever.
Jillian Betsavalli
Boston Rob. No. Okay.
Patrick Hines
Rob from, like, Love island or something. Whatever. I don't care. But Lisa was a traitor with him,
Jillian Betsavalli
and he's like, is that a spoiler?
Patrick Hines
Not. No. Everyone knows who the traitors are.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, okay, great. I don't watch the show.
Eric
No.
Patrick Hines
Like, the View, the audience, we all know. So she was a traitor. And she's like, all. She went on TikTok, and she was like. Everyone was, like, fawning over this guy. Like, they couldn't look at him. He was so cute. And she's like, you guys forget I was immune. I have Harry Hamlin at home. She's, like, alive from whatever. She was. Like, I don't. Like, I can, like, actually talk with him and, like, strategize with him. And, like, I wasn't falling for it. I got Harry Hamlin.
Jillian Betsavalli
That's amazing. The guy who threw his career away to play gay in, like, 1982. Harry Hamlin.
Patrick Hines
But he then. He was Cutler and Mad Men. He had a great career after. He did.
Jillian Betsavalli
But he. He talked openly about, like, he didn't care. He wanted the job and I did. Yeah. And he, like, threw his, like, movie career away, like, early in his career. What a great guy.
Patrick Hines
I don't care. I have Harry Hamlin.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So anyway, not Harry Hamlin.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Harry Tomlin.
Jillian Betsavalli
Harry. Harry Tomlin meets Byron at the bank downtown, 12:10. Byron tells Harry that he's going to have lunch with Anthony and Charles. We get. He gets the phone call from Charles at 12:43 that he doesn't answer. So Carol is saying he was killed somewhere between 1215 and 1243.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
Bodies not found until 8pm because. By Gina and Lynette. By the way.
Patrick Hines
By Gina and not eyes on the lesbians. Look, that's. That's almost eight hours for that other people need to account for.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
It's a lot of time and a lot of people who need to account for.
Jillian Betsavalli
And I'm just going to say this, like, Gina is going to inherit $1 million quarters. Like, it's not nothing.
Patrick Hines
That's just the quarter. That's not the rest of the collection.
Jillian Betsavalli
I know, right? So I got my eyes on the lesbians as much as I love them.
Patrick Hines
So for those eight hours, what was everybody doing? Tommy Tomlin. Tommy, not Hamlin, was at an abandoned house doing drugs with a friend.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Corey was home alone, sleeping, watching tv, with no alibi. Down the road from the farm.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
And also, Byron's gold is missing.
Jillian Betsavalli
Right.
Patrick Hines
Just gone. And nobody knows where it is. And remember a year earlier, someone like, violently tried to break in and left that noose as a message when they couldn't actually take the gold. After the attempted robbery, Byron calls the brothers Charles and Anthony. He's like, look, someone tried to break in. You got to help me protect my stash. Because these guys are also collectors. They have a ton of valuables. They have a ton of guns.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
He's like, you just need to help me out. This makes sense to Byron. He knows them, he trusts them. They're all in the funeral business.
Jillian Betsavalli
It's just not making any sense to you guys. Like, Byron's got a ton of money on his property that he's like keeping. Like he's holding it himself.
Patrick Hines
So he goes to the brothers Anthony and Charles, who are also collectors, who were the guys who showed up and he didn't answer. And then they were like, I guess we'll just leave.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
They are two of the people who know about the stash.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Collectible.
Jillian Betsavalli
They're going to hold some of Byron's money there for safekeeping.
Patrick Hines
So now Eric from the guitar store has an interesting story.
Eric
They had a call at like 10 o' clock tonight. Charles and Tony, they're like, hey, come over and give us a hand. It was just boxes on boxes of quarters. $500 boxes of quarters from each state. I mean, I'm talking a whole truck that I was like, why is this all in points? Like, this is ridiculous. Charles explained to me, well, if you put all your money into quarters, then it's technically a coin collection, so it can't be taxed.
Patrick Hines
Technically, it's a coin collection and you don't have to pay taxes on it.
Jillian Betsavalli
This seems like something the government should look into. But also, like, we shouldn't worry too much about this because if you got a million dollars in quarters A, you got to keep it in the basement. Anybody can steal it.
Patrick Hines
Right.
Jillian Betsavalli
He literally had to move out of his farm because of his quarter collection.
Patrick Hines
But, like, the point is all these guys, these brothers that are like being voted citizen of the year every year.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Are dodging the taxes.
Jillian Betsavalli
Right.
Patrick Hines
And. And like having kind of a scheme. And Eric is like, okay, I don't. Cool.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes. But it seems like a lot of work.
Patrick Hines
And all of these quarters are organized by state. Almost like it really is a coin collection.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
Could it be Byron's coin collection in a way that's like, it is Byron's coin collection. Right. But, like, why. Why are they now reorganizing it without Byron and Eric over for help in the middle of the night? Like, what? Like, it's a Weird. To me, it's like, oh, that's weird.
Jillian Betsavalli
I just thought Eric was helping move the quarters from Byron's place to Charles and Anthony's place.
Patrick Hines
I guess so. It's another thing that's not clear.
Jillian Betsavalli
It doesn't really make it, because the whole point here is that Byron moves a whole bunch of his money to Charles and Anthony's house, realizes he made no official record of it.
Gina
Byron did not keep a full record of what he sent to Charles and Anthony. He called them several times after they took the coins and said, hey, can I come up? I need to document, you know, what I gave you.
Lynette Griffey
Charles and Anthony were always busy. They always had a funeral or something. It begins to paint the picture that Charles and Anthony might be hiding something.
Patrick Hines
And they just never had time for that to happen.
Jillian Betsavalli
Suddenly, there's lots of funerals.
Patrick Hines
There was, like, they were really busy, and, like, there could never be an official record of what Byron gave and how much it was worth so that Byron could keep track of it.
Jillian Betsavalli
This is also why you don't put your life savings in quarters. This is very messy.
Patrick Hines
Lots of shady shit going.
Jillian Betsavalli
Lots of shady shit.
Patrick Hines
Here's another thing that's weird. The brothers, or a couple of things that are weird. The brothers show up to take Byron out for his birthday lunch, and they make plans to meet at the farm, which is odd because Byron doesn't actually live there.
Jillian Betsavalli
And Lynette said that she's like, it'd be weird that why would they meet there? Like, it doesn't make any sense. We don't live there.
Patrick Hines
Which also. Then to that point. Point. Why would Corey living down the block from the farm even matter?
Jillian Betsavalli
Right. Exactly. So there's that. And then I guess that's what they're saying. Like, they would have. Like, he. Somebody says, Corey would have known that he was there. Meaning, like, maybe he saw Corey, saw him drive by.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
Or whatever. But also, this is where Lynette said. Because when being questioned by the. The. The cbi, The. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Anthony and Charles are like, we couldn't get in. We couldn't. Like, we couldn't go to the front door to find him because the gate was locked and there was no other way to get. Get in. And the CBI guy is like, you didn't know about the back entrance? And they're like, no, we had no idea. Cut to Lynette, who's like, when they picked up all the quarters, they only came in through the back entrance. They didn't know about the front entrance.
Patrick Hines
Right. Like, they only use the other way.
Jillian Betsavalli
Exactly.
Patrick Hines
That they are now suddenly claiming that
Jillian Betsavalli
they don't know exist, which is such a provable lie.
Patrick Hines
So then smack on screen, text suspects three and four, Charles and Anthony.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
So once again, it's like, what is the deal with these brothers? They, like, they have their. Their myths and everything, don't they? Church to the funeral home, to the pillars of the community to the guitar store. Like, they're doing a whole lot of shit and, like, cheating on their taxes.
Jillian Betsavalli
Cheating on their taxes. We also learned that, like, we see Charles only in his interview with the cbi.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
He agrees to a polygraph test. Anthony does not. Yeah, but Anthony says, I will give a DNA sample because DNA is just like, it's. It's fact. Whereas polygraph is not. So fine.
Patrick Hines
Fine.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
I wouldn't give the polygraph either.
Jillian Betsavalli
Totally.
Patrick Hines
So Laura has, like, a lot of wonderful things to say about them, especially Anthony.
Jillian Betsavalli
Now, Laura, once again, is the mother of Eric and the other one. Yes.
Patrick Hines
Yeah.
Jillian Betsavalli
So, like, that's the little family unit. Laura and her sons, Eric and Paul,
Patrick Hines
who, like, brought in the brothers together. And then they call one of the sons in the. At 10 o'. Clock. I keep saying, the middle of the night for me.
Jillian Betsavalli
Well into the middle of a little
Patrick Hines
bit of casual tax evasion.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, fine. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
So Laura and Anthony are getting, like, super close. And Laura and Anthony gives Laura's phone number, which he'd never done before. He says. And I'm like, really? Okay.
Jillian Betsavalli
Anybody? Okay.
Patrick Hines
They're texting. Feelings are forming.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
And now it's January 20, 2013, four months after Byron's murder. Laura's son Paul is away at school just trying to live his life.
Jillian Betsavalli
He gets a frantic call from his mother's friend who's like, mandy, call me back. We hear the voicemail.
Patrick Hines
This is Mandy.
Jillian Betsavalli
Please, please comment.
Patrick Hines
You should get this. I need to talk to you. There's drama. Please call me. Yeah. This is so fudgeing annoying because his mother, Laura, is hysterical, screaming in the background. And Mandy's like, there's drama. I don't know if I'm even allowed to say it. Can people stop doing this to their kids? I know he's away at college. It's not his job. I'm so sorry.
Jillian Betsavalli
Somebody's dead. It's like, not his job.
Patrick Hines
This is like Renee on Mob Wife screaming at AJ about his father. Like, it just is. Like, he's way a handle your shit. Grow up.
Jillian Betsavalli
I totally agree.
Patrick Hines
I was so turned off by this. And for Mandy to talk to the son like he's an equal, there's drama.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Like, it just. It irked me to no end.
Jillian Betsavalli
Also, Paul's first week of college.
Patrick Hines
Like, can he just go? Can't wait to get out of there.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
Like, just leave him alone. However, there really is drama.
Jillian Betsavalli
There really is.
Patrick Hines
So they're calling. They're also calling Eric, the other son who still lives in town.
Jillian Betsavalli
He lives locally. Yeah.
Patrick Hines
And he tracks down his mother, who is screaming in the middle of the street.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yes.
Patrick Hines
And it is so bad, they have
Jillian Betsavalli
to put her in an ambulance.
Patrick Hines
And it's like, oh, nothing can be this bad.
Jillian Betsavalli
No, but the thing is, they don't take her to the hospital. They take her to the police station for questioning. I'm like, laura, what did you do?
Patrick Hines
What is going on?
Jillian Betsavalli
The last we know, she's been texting with Anthony, the funeral director. They are in love. Everything's going great. Now she's hysterical.
Patrick Hines
Turns out the brothers, they're not brothers.
Eric
Charles and Tony are not brothers. They're together. They're lovers. Yeah. They're not brothers, Cliff.
Jillian Betsavalli
No.
Eric
How long have you known about Charles and Anthony's relationship?
Jillian Betsavalli
2:00 this afternoon.
Patrick Hines
They're lovers.
Jillian Betsavalli
They're lovers.
Patrick Hines
And Anthony dumped Charles to be with Laura, and Laura found out today at 2:00 clock in the afternoon.
Jillian Betsavalli
Well, we didn't. I didn't even. It doesn't end with us knowing what
Patrick Hines
happened with Charles, which also is another reason don't stop screaming hysterically and having Mandy to call your son so you can, like, emotionally manipulate him while you're screaming in the middle of the street.
Jillian Betsavalli
My one. Here's the piece of clarity I need. They are not half brothers. And. And lovers. They're. The half brothers thing is a lie.
Patrick Hines
Brothers, bullshit.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay?
Patrick Hines
They're strictly lovers.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh, my God.
Patrick Hines
Now I have no idea why Laura is so beside herself. Because I don't.
Jillian Betsavalli
Like, I'm like, is Charles dead? Is that why he's not here?
Patrick Hines
Like, I was personally not that surprised that the brothers were actually together.
Jillian Betsavalli
I'm saying, watching it a second time, you're like, these guys are a little squishy.
Patrick Hines
But you know what? You know, Mandy was right. There was drama.
Jillian Betsavalli
There was drama.
Patrick Hines
Pissed me off in the moment. I'm like, you know what, Mandy?
Jillian Betsavalli
You got this one, all right?
Patrick Hines
But I still don't know why she's hysterical.
Jillian Betsavalli
I thought she killed the guy.
Patrick Hines
She did it.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay.
Patrick Hines
Sorry. She didn'.
Jillian Betsavalli
Okay, okay. Oh my God, girl. We did episode one of Rocky Mountain Murder Mystery or whatever.
Patrick Hines
Mortician murder.
Jillian Betsavalli
This is wild. It's been a while since I've been like jumping up and down in my chair.
Patrick Hines
Let me tell you something.
Jillian Betsavalli
Yeah.
Patrick Hines
We are just getting started.
Jillian Betsavalli
It gets crazier.
Patrick Hines
It gets so you're like. You don't know which end is up. You don't know where to turn.
Jillian Betsavalli
Oh my God.
Patrick Hines
The stories are, are. It's just. It is wild.
Jillian Betsavalli
All right, well, stay tuned, fam. I'm gonna go home and watch the rest of this tonight. I am so excited. Oh my God.
Patrick Hines
It's crazy.
Jillian Betsavalli
All right, we love you.
Patrick Hines
We love you. Stay safe, please.
Jillian Betsavalli
Bye.
Patrick Hines
Bye.
Podcast: True Crime Obsessed
Hosts: Jillian Betsavalli & Patrick Hines
Episode Title: The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder Ep 1 (from our Patreon feed!)
Release Date: May 9, 2026
In this lively and engaging episode, Jillian and Patrick recap the first installment of the true crime docuseries "The Rocky Mountain Mortician Murder." The case unfolds in small-town Colorado, where the murder of beloved funeral director Byron Griffey triggers a convoluted whodunnit with unexpected twists, town secrets, questionable coin collections, and a cast of eccentric locals—including morticians, a tight-knit LGBTQ+ family, and a more-than-meets-the-eye set of "brother" suspects. Expect the classic True Crime Obsessed blend of humor ("hero belt" mentions, Six Feet Under asides), heart, sass, and gasps at every turn, all while grappling with the murder's oddities and community dynamics.
Reveal: Anthony & Charles are not half-brothers as they claim, but lovers. The revelation sends shockwaves through the close-knit community and adds a fresh dimension to the web of deceit, motives, and relationships at the heart of the case.
Host Reaction:
Stay tuned: The episode closes with a promise that the story only gets wilder from here.
This recap offers a comprehensive walkthrough of the episode's core narrative, the major suspects, and the podcast’s signature blend of jokes, speculation, and heart. Whether you’re here for the true crime, the LGBTQ+ moments, or Patrick and Jillian’s delightful tangents, this summary readies you for the full ride—or provides a solid substitute if you just can’t listen.
Notable Quotes
[End of Summary – For further intrigue, catch the rest of the series or join the Patreon feed for bonus coverage!]