Facebook Catfish Murders: Jenelle Potter Tricks Dad & Boyfriend Into Murder 58:49

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a really wild case. This is one, my God, that honestly, I'm just going to straight up tell you it's going to get pretty confusing because we're going to be talking about so many different people and some of these people are not real people. It's also a case that hasn't gotten a lot of coverage and I really think it needs it. It brings up a lot of important discussion. But before we start going over the details of this case, I wanted to

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You can find all my NECMEC merch at kendallray.shop and as always, 100% of the profits are donated. And once again, I know I say this a lot, but I really want to thank and tell you how much I appreciate any of you who have...

purchase one of these items at any point in this entire campaign. I'm really proud to say that we are nearing $450,000 raised and that is just incredible. So please consider treating yourself to a merch item while also giving back. And while I'm on the subject of NECMEC, I wanted to mention that this week's donation will be going to our NECMEC campaign in honor of the victims, in this case, who were parents to a seven-month-old baby boy before their lives were

were taken from them. And their story is one that I'm really eager to talk about because, God, it is just really unlike any case that I've ever covered. At least that I can remember. I'm sure there is something somewhat similar at some point, but I've covered a lot of cases. And I don't remember one that is quite like this. It has so many different elements to it. I'm talking fraud, catfishing, manipulation, harassment,

And yes, sadly, murder. I'm going to be telling you guys about what happened to Billy Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth and the unbelievably upsetting circumstances that led to their murder. These victims were pawns in a game that they did not even know they were playing. And the people who are responsible for it are truly just...

There aren't even words, man. So let's start out by talking about Billie Jean Hayworth and Billie Payne. Now, I do know they have the same name and they are a couple. So it could get a little bit confusing. But when you hear me say Billie Jean, I am talking about the female in this case. And when you hear me say Billie, I'm talking about the male. Billie Jean was born on March 19th, 1988, to her parents, Carl and Martha. And

Even though there's not that much information available on her early life, I can tell you that she loved all things nature. She was known for being clumsy, but she still loved hiking, camping, fishing, running, and any opportunity to really get outside and be active. And living in Mountain City, Tennessee gave her plenty of these opportunities. She was also a very good friend of mine.

She also loved playing volleyball, going to flea markets and yard sales. Lastly, and most importantly though, she loved caring for her and Billy's son, Tyler, which brings me to talking about Billy. Billy Clay Payne was born on July 10th, 1975 to his parents, Billy Ray and Beverly. And he also loved the outdoors. That was something that they really bonded over. He also loved collecting coins and he shared the same interest in yard sales and flea markets. He was also known by many as outgoing,

and a provider and like I said he was the father of Tyler. Billy and Billie Jean met in Mountain City working at a local textile factory in 2010 and their friendship grew into a relationship which eventually turned into having a child and getting engaged. And those who were close to Billie say they were pleasantly surprised by how happy he was.

Honestly, some even said that they were shocked to see how much he changed for Billie Jean. He stopped drinking and partying, and he even began going to a suboxone clinic to get help for his drug dependency. They were living together with Billie's dad and seemed to be doing pretty well, all things considered. That is until someone took issue with

and ultimately ended their lives. On the morning of January 31st, 2012, a man named Roy Stevens and his wife dropped by the home where Billy, Billie Jean, and Billy's dad were living to pick up some mail. Roy's wife actually waited in the car while he went around to the back sliding glass door and went into the house, and he was surprised when neither Billy or Billie Jean said anything.

answered when he called their names. Their car was parked in the driveway, so he knew that they were home. And honestly, the fact that they weren't saying anything immediately made him super worried. So he decided to walk towards one of the bedrooms, and that's when he started seeing this horrific scene. Billy was laying at the foot of his bed with his feet hanging off the side, and he had been shot and his throat cut.

Obviously, Roy goes into a complete panic after seeing this. He runs out to the car, lets his wife know what he has seen, and the two of them call 911. And then they both enter the house, and that's when they found Billie Jean. ♪

She was in a different bedroom, and she had also been shot. Now, Tyler, who was seven months old, was...

Thankfully, still alive, but he was covered in her blood. And God, it's horrible to even have to say this, but they believe that she was holding him when she was shot. Now, to shoot a mother who is holding their baby is...

is next level evil. It's hard to even wrap your mind around. And that's what officers with the local police department as well as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation noticed when they arrived on scene. And they began looking into this double homicide immediately. While the home was being searched and processed for evidence, a few key discoveries were made. And the first of those discoveries being two bullets. One was found in Billie Jean's pillowcase and the second was

was found on baby Tyler's bouncing chair. And because no shell casings were found, investigators were led to believe that the victims were shot...

with a revolve-type weapon. And the next thing that was discovered was meth. A pipe and remnants of the white powder were found in the home, and at first, it led investigators to their first theory about these murders. The thing is, Mountain City is no stranger to drug use, and Billy was known to be a very low-level drug dealer. So of course, after seeing the drugs in the home, investigators started to think that maybe this is some type of

drug-related incident. Maybe there was money owed, maybe there was a dispute that had happened and they were killed because of the drugs. And that was just the first initial theory. But that theory did not last very long at all because the more that they looked around the house, they realized that

pretty much everything else was intact. Besides, you know, the general mess that you can have when you have a baby in the house, there was no sign of forced entry. Nothing was out of the ordinary and nothing had been stolen, including the drugs. I mean, surely if this was drug related, whoever had committed this heinous act probably would have taken

taken the drugs or at least taken something of value from the house. But because that wasn't the case, it looked like whoever did this just wanted this couple dead. But why? What's interesting, too, is investigators even said that this looked like a professional hit. So, of course, they interview neighbors and...

None of them had seen or heard anything, which makes it even less likely that there was some major dispute over drugs. And by this point in the investigation, which is very early on, they are...

Pretty sure that this had to be something very personal. But who would have wanted this couple dead? And who would have been evil enough to kill them in front of their seven-month-old baby while the mother is literally holding them? So, of course, at that point, they start talking to friends and family, trying to see if there was anyone out there that they think may have wanted to seek revenge on this couple. And...

It didn't take long before they realized that one name kept popping up. There was one common denominator, and that was the name Janelle Potter. Now, Janelle, Janelle, Janelle, Janelle, where do I even begin? There is so much to say here. So let's just start by rewinding a little bit and giving some context here.

as to who Janelle Potter is. And I'll start with the fact that Janelle wasn't originally from Mountain City, but it is where her and her parents moved in 2004. And even though she was nearly 30 years old, she did live with her parents, Marvin and Barbara. Janelle also had a sister named Christy, but she didn't move in with their family because she was estranged from them. And the more I talk about them, the more you might see why. ♪

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The thing is, Marvin and Barbara were very, very, very strict. And that paired with the fact that Janelle had health issues meant that she lived with them full time. Just to name a few of her health conditions, Janelle suffers from a pulmonary condition, diabetes, high blood pressure, and also has severe hearing loss that requires her to wear hearing aids. Plus, it's also really important to note that her cognitive function is slow.

that of an adolescent. Janelle is someone who had always struggled to read body language. She would often misinterpret humor.

and just struggled to read general social cues. And so it was because of all these things that it was best that she lived with her parents. And normally I would really have sympathy for someone like Janelle. I mean, I have people in my life who are similar that I love and have sympathy for. However, when you hear the evil that Janelle has in her,

I think you will have less and less sympathy. I mean, I think we can have understanding for that while also holding them accountable for such diabolical crimes. I guess what I'm really trying to say is none of that is an excuse for what Janelle would end up doing. Now, as for the household dynamic, Barbara was the main caretaker because Marvin, who I'm going to be referring to by his nickname Buddy, also had health issues. Now, I will say Buddy is...

An interesting dude. He is a veteran, and I definitely have respect for him for that. He served in the Vietnam War up until he injured his back and had to discontinue his service at that point. But he was very proud to be a veteran. And another thing to note about him is that he loved his Second Amendment rights. I mean...

That was very, very important to him, and he wanted that to be well-known. Buddy was never not carrying at least one gun on himself at all times. And at any given time, you could find the oxygen tank that he used draped with a sleeve of bullets. So...

He was big about showing it off, you know? Now, according to Buddy, he wasn't just a veteran. He also told his family that he worked for the CIA. But was that part true? Well, no. But we will get back to that later. I'll just let you hold on to that piece of information for now. But truth be told, this family was known in Mountain City as a little off. People definitely had their judgments against this family. I mean...

Tons of people talked about how they saw Janelle as an adult who lived at home, couldn't drive a car, and didn't have friends. And they saw her dad as this gun-slinging army vet who often rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He was known for saying obnoxious things and just being a little blunt. But despite how they were perceived by others, they had every opportunity to live a perfectly normal life out in East Tennessee. There was absolutely

absolutely no reason for anything bad to happen but something bad did happen and i would argue that is mostly thanks to janelle without janelle's mental manipulation and flat out lies billy and billy jean would still be here and their son tyler would still have both of his parents now to explain the

What I mean by that, I need to explain how Janelle ended up becoming friends with one of the victims. And it started in 2009 when Janelle met Billy's sister, Tracy Greenwell, who worked at the local pharmacy. And Tracy knew that Janelle didn't have a lot of friends and I think she really felt bad for her. So she decided to make an effort to befriend her. But this certainly was not a typical type of friendship right off

the bat because of how strict mr and mrs potter were even though their daughter was nearly 30 years old they wouldn't allow her to spend time with people that they did not know decently well so basically tracy had to spend time with janelle in their house they had to get to know her before they could ever leave the house and go spend time together anywhere else but eventually she did earn their approval and she started going out with janelle and introducing her to her other friends

and this included her brother, Billy. And both Billy and Tracy made an effort to make Janelle feel welcomed among their friends and did what they could to bring her out of her shell. But the thing about Janelle, which I've already sort of explained, is that she did not have a lot of friends. And because she functioned more like an adolescent...

in-person adult friendships were very difficult for her. And this is 2012, of course, so MySpace and Facebook were two platforms where she spent a lot of time. And that's where most, if not all, of her friendships existed.

She talked to people, she added as friends, but these were often people living in different states, you know, people that she had never actually met before. So being kindly welcomed into a group like this was new for her. I mean, it hadn't happened in a very long time. And it's really hard to think about how...

What started as an act of kindness, an act of inclusion, ended in such tragedy. I mean, they had no idea what they were bringing into their lives. Billy and Tracy even introduced her to their cousin, who they thought was very similar to Janelle, that they had, you know, similar interests and could possibly be.

you know, really enjoy each other. And his name is Jamie Curd. Like Janelle, Jamie was shy. He was a little awkward. And despite being in his mid-30s, he still also lived at home with his mom, which I just want to make clear here. I am not shaming anyone who lives with their parents. In fact, in many cultures, this is

definitely the norm and, you know, it's what works for everyone. I'm just reporting the facts of this case. But when it came to the two of them getting along, they were right. Janelle really seemed to take an interest in Jamie and she asked Billy if he would give him her phone number and their relationship, if you can call it that, really started to grow from that point. But because her parents, Barbara and Buddy, were so strict...

Jamie and Janelle kept their relationship a secret. And in order for her to be able to communicate with him, she would only call him for 30 to 40 seconds at a time, which to be honest, I don't truly understand why she did that. I

I mean, maybe she had it in her mind that if she had these sort of short spurt type conversations, 30 to 40 seconds, that there would be less of a probability that her parents would find out that she was talking to him on the phone. I don't really see the logic in that, but there really isn't logic in any of this. So just bear with me. So Jamie and Janelle continued their relationship through these very short phone calls, which

And eventually, he did get the opportunity to start coming to the house. But he could not come over as Janelle's boyfriend. Janelle ended up telling him that their family home computer needed fixing. And with the very basic computer skills that he had, he began coming by the house to try and fix it. Now, this was around the same time that Jamie bought Janelle a prepaid phone so that the two of them could talk more often. And obviously, they kept this phone on the DL. And he started coming over to the house regularly.

A lot more often. He honestly became kind of a regular at the Potter home because he was always there trying to fix the computer. And for a while, Buddy and Barbara were none the wiser that their daughter and Jamie were secretly dating. But after a while, they did discover that phone that he bought her and...

Then they definitely figured out that they were in some type of relationship and Buddy actually forced the two of them to break up. However, this did not last long. It actually only lasted a few days before they were back together. Secretly, of course. Her parents were just overall very disapproving people and for a while they really disapproved of Jamie. However, that eventually did change because Jamie's mother died.

And I think they felt a lot of sympathy for him at that point. Barbara told him that she would be there for him if he needed anything. And honestly, I can't say exactly why his mother dying really made them change their attitude towards him. I'm guessing probably just because they felt bad for him and kind of saw him as more of a human in such a dark time.

But from that point forward, he was welcomed into their home. But to be clear, he still wasn't welcome to be their daughter's boyfriend, but he sort of became a family friend at that point. In fact, he became so ingrained in their lives that eventually he found himself in the middle of a feud that would eventually lead him to murder. And it's honestly hard to even know where to begin when it comes to this feud because it got out of control immediately.

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So Jamie and Janelle met and began dating in 2009. And despite the fact that the two of them were together, many believe that Janelle actually still wanted to be with Billy. People believe that she had a crush on him instead and was just dating his cousin to get closer to him. And then when Billy and Billie Jean began dating in 2010 and later went on to have a baby, this became quite a thing.

quite an issue for Janelle. So much so that she began saying terrible things, not only about them, but about their other friends too. Eventually, because they were sick of how she was treating them, they stopped inviting her to hang out. Just as easily as they brought her into their circle, they were now kicking her out.

And this is ultimately what kicked off the online feud that would eventually lead to murder. What you have to understand about it, though, is that there is a lot of he said, she said going on and that Janelle claimed to be the victim in all of this from the beginning. So here's a summary of how she started.

said it all started. According to Janelle, her issues with everyone started when Billie Jean's friend, Lindsay, cussed her out at a grocery store for using a food stamp card. After that, she said that Billie Jean and her two friends, Lindsay and Tara, made three Facebook profiles imitating Janelle, and that they used those fake accounts to harass her. And before we go any further, just fair warning, there is a lot of foul language that's about to be used

Because that is just the nature of this case and the messages that were going back and forth. But just a heads up on that. Janelle says that she was receiving messages that said things like, we want you dead and I'll stomp your fucking ass. And that's just the beginning of it. Over the course of this year-long feud, Janelle claimed to receive threats of being beat up, raped, and even killed. And that the people responsible were Billie, Billie Jean, Lindsay, and Tara.

And she not only accused them of making these fake accounts, but she also accused them of hacking into her own social media accounts and using them to further harass her. Then there was an instance where a rock was thrown into Janelle's bedroom window. And she said that she knew Billie and Billie Jean were responsible for it because...

Their names had been written on the rock. Yes, people, you heard that right. She is claiming that they wrote their names on rocks and then threw them through her window.

Yeah, because someone would definitely want to leave proof like that behind. Makes total sense, Janelle. And then according to Buddy, her father, he says that they also poured sugar into his gas tank, that they scratched his car and also broke their garage door. And I mean, there were no doubts that these messages were being sent. There's proof of these messages that they exist.

and that there was definitely threats being made, but who was really behind them? Well, of course, Janelle says that it was Billie Jean and her friends, but they said that she was actually the one orchestrating all of this. They said that Janelle was the one making fake accounts and posting threats about herself, and that she had created the drama to make them look bad.

All because she was jealous. And if you thought that was it, you would be severely mistaken because this gets even wilder, so buckle up. Because next, a handful of accounts popped up on a gossip website that's called Topics. I had never personally heard of this one, but anyway, these, quote, people were doing to Billie Jean, Billie, Tara, and Lindsay what they were allegedly doing to Janelle. Someone who called themselves Matt Potter, with apparently no relation to Janelle Potter,

began saying terrible things and spreading vicious rumors about all of them. Some things were as mild as calling them no-good whores and saying that they were drug dealers, sex workers, and spreading HIV. But that was tame compared to how bad it got. These posts ranged from flat-out mean comments to literal death threats. And it wasn't just from sex.

There was someone named Kelly, someone named Mike, and also someone named Dan. And I know it's getting confusing here, but one of these accounts, Matt, Mike, Kelly, or Dan, would make a post, and then the other accounts...

would comment under it and add the mean remarks and kind of like have conversations with each other. But coincidentally and conveniently, none of these accounts ever had anything bad to say about Janelle. And here's an example of this. Okay, this is Matt talking about Billie and Billie Jean. And just a warning ahead of time, the grammar is really bad. So bear with me. It starts with LOL in all caps. I hope she loses that baby in time.

It don't need a mother like Billie Jean and Billie. He's no father by the way he acts and talks. Sooner they move out of town the better. I think something about getting a house. I hope he can't get it. I hope they have to live out in the woods. More better for Chipmunk.

And here's another post. This one is from Mike, and it says,

And it says, And yes, it says month. And in response to that absolutely unhinged post, Matt replied and said...

Now, this is just a fraction of what was posted, and that's definitely not where this ends, because both Tara and Lindsay actually had to file charges against

against Janelle after she went absolutely batshit on them when they unfriended her on Facebook, which I think we can agree makes absolutely no sense. I mean, if Janelle hates these girls and feels like she's being harassed by them, why would you care if you were friends with them on Facebook? Wouldn't you want them to? She's asking constantly, leave Janelle alone, leave Janelle alone. So they do. They unfriend her and she goes wild. The unfriending thing seemed to be

The straw that broke the camel's back. I mean, she was pissed. It was so bad that Tara actually had to file an order of protection against Janelle because after she unfriended her, she kept obsessively calling her over and over. Sometimes it was just the sound of someone breathing into the phone and not saying anything. And sometimes it would be a man's voice screaming at Tara to stop harassing Janelle. And to be clear, Tara knew exactly who was calling because of the caller ID.

Yeah, it said Janelle. But according to Janelle, these mean girls were actually spoofing her phone number and they were the ones who were actually calling Tara, which I know this is probably getting hard to follow at this point. This was a tough one to figure out on my end, too.

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Now, Lindsay had basically the same thing happen to her with these phone calls. And so she had ended up having to file a phone harassment charge because she was getting these calls upwards of 20 times a day. Unfortunately, though, both of these cases they filed were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Oh, and then there's this. During the months that the online harassment was really at its peak, Janelle's

Janelle and her mother Barbara drove up on Billie Jean while she was at the gas station and started screaming at her, telling her that she didn't deserve to be a mother. And when I say that all of this really only scratches the surface, I mean it. All of the things that were said and done over the course of a year were truly beyond words. And the truth was, Janelle was the one behind it.

All of it. She was actually the one who was bullying and threatening herself, as well as the one bullying and threatening the others. But investigators didn't know any of this at the time of the murders. So if we fast forward again to January 31st, 2012, all investigators knew was that Janelle's name and this online feud kept being brought up by friends and family of the victims. So what did they do? Of course, they'd go to her house to talk to her about it.

On February 2nd, just two days after the murders, investigators went to the Potter residence and immediately noticed that the house was littered with guns. I'm talking about dozens and dozens of guns, which was definitely interesting to them, but that wasn't exactly why they were there. They were there because they wanted to know what Janelle and her parents knew about the murders, which, according to them, was nothing. Buddy made it seem like everyone was overreacting,

was always blaming their family. And Janelle, well, she said that she didn't want to harm any of them, but took this as an opportunity to talk about how they had been harassing her. She told them about all the threats that they had made against her and how the only thing that she had ever did to them was tell them to stop. And according to Janelle, the reason that she was getting all this harassment from them was because she was too pretty.

Yeah, her whole story about why they were harassing her and threatening her over the past year was because they were jealous because she was so pretty. Scott lost with a Tennessee girl. Okay, nice to meet you. What we're doing right now is investigating the Doha house. Very serious matter. Everybody always points a finger at us for some reason. No, there ain't nobody pointing a finger. Do you know of anybody that would hurt them? Won't hurt you.

And then yesterday morning when I got on Facebook is when I found out. And I mean, I'm sorry it happened, but I mean, that's all I could tell you is they had been harassing and living...

she also told investigators how she didn't really hang out with billy or billy jean because one time she had gone over to their house and they were doing drugs and she felt uncomfortable and didn't go back which to investigators made it seem like janelle was just trying to paint this picture of their murders being the result of a drug deal gone wrong and i definitely agree that that's

Probably what she was trying to do. But like I already explained, investigators had moved on from that theory at this point. In fact, they already had a suspect in their mind, and that was Janelle's boyfriend, secret boyfriend, Jamie Curd. And that's because his name had also come up a lot to investigators specifically about a fight that he had had with his cousin, Billy. Over the last year, as the online feuding was really getting worse...

Billy and Jamie had definitely grown apart, and not only that, they were also fighting. Jamie was, of course, taking Janelle's side on everything, and Billy was upset about that and didn't understand why Jamie was believing all of her lies. And it actually got so bad at one point that Jamie had threatened to slit Billy's throat, which, if you remember, was actually one of the injuries that he ended up sustaining. And when investigators got a tip about that two days into their investigation...

they definitely had their eyes on jamie and so a few days after the murders jamie curd was brought in for an interview but despite being told by investigators that he was one of the only people they found to have had an issue with the victims he denied any connection to their murders he did however agree to take a polygraph two days later and was allowed to leave the station for the time being and in that time

A joint funeral was held for Billy and Billie Jean, and the community came together to lay the two of them to rest. They were buried together, which their loved ones think that they really would have wanted to.

Two days after their funeral, Jamie returned to the station to take his polygraph test. And after severely failing it, investigators continued questioning him until they got their confession. And they were basically like, listen, dude, we know you failed the polygraph. We know you know who did this. And we know that you're probably, you know, riddled with guilt from all of it. So now is probably a good time to just come clean.

And eventually, he did come clean. Jamie admitted that he was there when the victims were killed, but that Buddy was the one who shot them. He was just the one that slit Billy's throat. He who? Buddy?

But the interview wasn't over after this because Jamie had an extremely bizarre question to ask investigators. He asked if the CIA was there. Here's the CIA. CIA? No. Did I ask the question? Why did you ask about the CIA? Because they...

And I'm sure at this point you're really confused. So let me explain. He starts to tell investigators this strange story about how he was contacted by someone in the CIA, which obviously they thought was bogus. And their focus at this point wasn't all of this.

CIA crap, which they couldn't even really make sense of at the time. It was about getting Buddy to admit to his involvement. So they ended up having Jamie call him right there in the station so that they could listen. They recorded the conversation and luckily they got exactly what they needed. They had Jamie ask Buddy if he had gotten rid of everything from the murders and he replied saying, uh-huh. They're holding fingers.

Now, this wasn't much, of course, but it was enough for investigators to go ahead and get a search and arrest warrant. And of course, when they arrived at his house to arrest him, the first thing that he did was

for his gun. This wasn't an issue. They were able to apprehend him without any problems, but I'm definitely not surprised that he did that. He was then brought into the station and meanwhile, a team of investigators executed a search of their home and they confiscated a lot of

items. They took the family's computer, hard drives, several guns, and even bullets from Marvin's car that had the same markings and were the same caliber as the ones used to kill Billy and Billie Jean. They also found a spiral-bound notebook, which contained what appeared to be a list of passwords and names, as well as messages from the Topics website. And what's really weird is when they found this, they looked over and they see Barbara ripping up papers that

And of course, they take them from her. And she was ripping up pictures of Billy, Billie Jean and their friends, which is not only just creepy, but it's also incredibly stupid. Why are you doing this right when investigators are there? I mean, super subtle, Barbara. Oh, and then there's this. Sitting in the back of Buddy's truck were several trash bags filled with what a

appeared to be hundreds of pieces of shredded paper. And it was these papers that ended up being some of the most crucial evidence in this whole case. And while all of that was sent to the crime lab to be processed, Buddy was being questioned about his connection to this double homicide. And I'm sure you will not be surprised to hear this, but just like Jamie, Buddy initially tried to deny any involvement in these murders. ♪

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No purchase necessary. Voidware prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. Thanks. Somebody's told you I'm the one who killed somebody. Here's the thing. We don't think you killed, but now you killed. How did? Wait a second. We have evidence. We have testimony. We have you talking about it. Okay. Me talking about it? Hey. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Who did you talk to tonight? I

But that luckily did not last long because

he was literally caught on tape admitting that he had gotten rid of evidence and so he was clearly backed into a corner and had to eventually come clean about what he had done he said that when he heard that they were planning to kidnap janelle take her to a field and then rape her he had no option but to kill them when you hear people plotting

No.

And after admitting all this, Buddy called Barbara so that he could be the first to tell her what was going on. Barbara, go for you. Find out from somebody else. I want you to know I was involved in the scene. I did it.

And this call is super weird because despite the fact that he is literally telling her that he did it, she starts saying, no, no, you didn't. You were at home with me. And it's pretty obvious she was trying to give him an alibi, even though he was already confessing. So...

Just very strange. But regardless of whatever she was trying to insinuate, Buddy was charged with first-degree murder, just like Jamie had been not long before. And truthfully, it could have ended there. Buddy and Jamie were arrested for the murders, and technically that would have been justice. But that wouldn't be total justice, now would it? Because yes,

Now they have arrested the two people who actually carried out the murders, but to investigators, it seemed obvious that there were other people involved. Two other people specifically, and that was Janelle and Barbara. It turns out that one investigator had to spend an entire month...

piecing together those shredded pieces of paper from the back of Buddy's car. And those documents revealed a bombshell. On one of those pieces of paper, they found dozens and dozens of emails between Janelle, Barbara, Jamie, and an individual named Chris. And yes, I am bringing up another person at this point, Chris.

Chris has now entered the chat, and if you think things couldn't get weirder, buckle up because they do. We know that Buddy and Jamie were the ones who actually murdered Billy and Billie Jean, but what I haven't really explained is what led them to do it. Yes, of course, it was a result of the perceived harassment and threats that Janelle had been receiving, but there was an individual at the center of it all who was baiting them to do it. And that individual was a CIA agent...

named Chris. And if you were just listening to this episode, I want to put a huge emphasis on the fact that I put quotations around CIA agent because Homeboy was not a CIA agent and

In fact, homeboy wasn't even a boy. So who is Chris, the CIA agent? And what role did he play in all of this? Well, it all started when Barbara received an email from him claiming that he was an old friend of her daughter. He explained that he had been seeing what was going on online and that he was there to help protect Janelle from the people who were supposedly threatening her. Chris even told Barbara about his history of, quote, getting rid of people.

and said that he loves to shoot people and that killing, quote, doesn't bother him. And the two of them became extremely close to the point that he started referring to her as mom in his emails. Yes, the CIA agent Chris starts calling Barbara mom, and Barbara would even refer to him as son. And yes, people, it is as bizarre as it sounds. At one point, Chris even tells Barbara that he can kill her other daughter, the one that's estranged from the family.

And this is how she responded. Barbara said, you are welcome to shoot any of them, but let Miss Groover, that's her daughter, Christy, be found. We have a life insurance policy on her, so we may as well collect it.

I know that sounds mean for a mom to say, but she hates me, wants me dead, as well as dad and Janelle. Yeah, she really said that about her own daughter. You can kill her just as long as you make sure we still get the life insurance money. So obviously, if she's okay with this random man, this CIA agent killing her own child, what else is she okay with him doing? Probably a lot, right? And throughout all of this, Barbara never even met Chris in person because he said it wouldn't be good for the case.

Obviously, that's so ridiculous and just screams that this is fake. I mean, everything about this screams that it's fake. Really, in what world would you believe that any of this is true? But she did. And here's really the icing on the cake, okay? These emails from CIA agent Chris are actually coming from Janelle's email address. Yes, you heard that right. And Barbara apparently believed that Janelle

This CIA agent didn't have his own email and had to use her daughter's. Like...

What? Anytime that it was Chris emailing her from Janelle's email address, he would put Chris like at the top of it or somewhere in the document to signify that it was from him. But it's coming from Janelle's email. And just when you think this couldn't get any more bizarre, it does because not only was Chris emailing Barbara, he was also emailing Janelle from her email address. And then Janelle would respond back through her email. She was sending and receiving emails through the same email address.

I mean, Chris was sending emails to her and she was responding through the email address. I'm sure you understand what's really going on here at this point, though, right? But yeah, she and Chris were emailing back and forth on the same email address, talking about how badly she was being harassed and yada, yada, yada. At one point, Chris even made a post from Janelle's Facebook account, because why wouldn't a CIA agent post on Facebook and do so using someone else's account, right? Makes total sense. To Billy Payne, Billie Jean Hayworth, Lindsay Thomas...

and Tara and Brad Osborne and etc. Please leave Janelle alone and stop with the harassment and trying to run her life.

Look at your own lives and work on that. Because you all are just a bunch of white trash, no good, ugly people that love to hurt others. Well, you need to think of this. Take care of your kids, Bill and Billie Jean. And Lindsay, get off of your meth drugs. And stop going after my sister and my family. Thank you. Or you can just go jump off a mountain for all I care. You all need to get out of my sister's life. And if you're confused by...

Chris using the term sister. I mean, if you forgot, he is now calling Barbara mom and Barbara is calling him son. So that would make him Janelle's brother, right? Yeah.

Right. So yeah, lots to unpack here, I guess. First of all, no CIA agent is posting something like this on Facebook, obviously. And second of all, no CIA agent has that bad of grammar. I think that's one of the funniest and strangest things about the whole Chris thing is that for someone who is part of the Central Intelligence Agency, he certainly wasn't that intelligent. I mean, dude,

But

But Chris had ingrained himself into their lives and was really egging them on to commit these murders. He was planting the idea in all of their heads that Billy and Billie Jean and the others were out to get Janelle. He said that they had put a $3,000 bounty on her head and that something had to be done to stop them. And at one point, investigators learned that Barbara had actually Googled, "'Can God forgive a murder?'

But anyway, she actually emailed Chris and said that as long as he did the right thing for mankind, that he wouldn't be judged badly for it. But because Chris clearly wasn't a real person, the manipulation needed to penetrate deep enough that someone else would do the killing. And that obviously wasn't going to be Barbara, which...

leads us back to Buddy and Jamie. Jamie began receiving emails from Chris as well, who explained that he was like a brother to Janelle, and that he just wanted to help protect her. He filled Jamie's head with the same crap that he filled Barbara's head with, and that was that Janelle's life was seriously in danger. He said he was worried that Janelle might take her life because of all the stress that was put on her and how bad it has been for her health. Chris would constantly hound him that Billie and Billie Jean needed to be stopped,

And Janelle and Barbara were telling Jamie the same thing. Every time he would come by the Potter's house, Barbara would get him up to speed on the situation and ask him specifically what they were going to do to put an end to it. Between the three of them, Jamie was repeatedly being told just how dangerous the victims were and how someone had to do something about it. And then there's Buddy, who heard all of the same things except in a slightly different way.

The thing is, Buddy didn't actually use a computer, so there was no way for this Chris person to get in touch with him. So anything that Chris had to say to Buddy was relayed to him through Barbara. In fact, she would print out all of Chris's emails and then hand them over to Buddy to read for himself. And part of this scheme was to convince Buddy that Chris would...

somehow make a CIA badge for him, which would protect him from being held accountable for the murders if he was caught.

Riddle me that. I mean, I guess the thought process was if the CIA has given us the green light and we have an official ID badge, then we're in the clear, right? Plus, don't forget, Buddy claims that he was a former CIA agent himself. So they're all good. No, no, no, no, no. Because obviously there was no CIA agent and there is no justification for murder, period, pause.

Point blank. That's it. But when investigators uncovered all of these emails, the whole thing really started to make sense, especially the comment that Jamie had made about the CIA when he was initially being interrogated. But what didn't make sense is why anyone would believe any of this. Like I said, the spelling and grammar and just overall tone of Chris's messages made no sense to be coming from a CIA agent. And they sounded a lot like the way that Janelle

would speak and write messages. So both she and her mom were asked to provide writing samples to investigators, and they were quickly able to determine that Janelle's writing was, shocker, a match to Chris. Not to mention that all of Chris's emails were sent using the same IP address as the Potter household, which just guaranteed that it came from at least one of them. Oh, and let's not forget that all of these communications were coming from Janelle's email. I mean, how much more obvious does it get? It didn't take them long to figure out Janelle was

chris all along and ultimately it didn't take long for investigators to see this as what it was a conspiracy to commit murder they determined that janelle was jealous of billy jean in billy's relationship and over the course of the last few years she had orchestrated a completely made-up online feud to make it look as if her life had been threatened then to make matters worse she catfished as a cia agent and manipulated her family into believing that a legitimate

government organization saw the harassment and threats and green-lighted them to commit a murder as a result. Now, what I don't know and I don't think we'll ever truly know is if Barbara was in on it from the beginning. And I personally have such a hard time believing that she really read any of those emails and believed that they were real, that she really thought she was communicating with a CAA agent through her daughter's email address.

But she has maintained her innocence from the beginning. Both she and Janelle were arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and they both pleaded not guilty, which is exactly how Buddy pleaded despite making a full confession. However, in October of 2013, Buddy Potter was found guilty on both counts of first-degree murder, for which he is serving consecutive life sentences.

As for Jamie, he was offered a deal in exchange for pleading guilty, which he took. He received a 25-year sentence for facilitation of first-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Janelle and Barbara. The two women ended up having a joint trial in 2015, and the state used digital evidence to prove that they conspired to have the victims killed.

Specifically, they argue that Janelle knew exactly when the murders were going to happen and even helped set it up that day. Yep, that's right. The night before the murders, Janelle had texted Jamie and told him that her dad needed his help to do something. And she even told him that when they go do this something, that he should not bring his cell phone. Because that's not suspicious at all. And that wasn't the only thing tying her directly to this.

The prosecution said in the early morning hours of the 31st, Janelle texted Jamie to let him know that her dad was on his way to pick him up. Specifically, she said, daddy's leaving. And we all know what happened after Buddy picked him up. I mean, you really think Janelle was texting Jamie, letting him know that her dad was on

on his way to pick him up to do something if she didn't know exactly what they were going to do. What was unfortunate during this trial, though, was that Jamie ended up being a terrible witness because he testified that neither of them actually conspired with him. But luckily, it didn't end up mattering in the end. Even though the defense would try to argue that Janelle didn't have the mental capacity to plot something like this and Barbara was an innocent victim in it all.

The jury disagreed. After an eight-day trial and five hours of deliberation, both women were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. And if you thought we were done, then think again because they both appealed their convictions. In what's called a post-conviction hearing, both Janelle and Barbara attempted to appeal their convictions. However...

Barbara was the only one who was granted a new trial on the grounds that she wasn't given fair counsel the first time around. Her attorney argued that because her attorney also represented Buddy that there was a conflict of interest. And actually, the judge agreed. But rather than take a shot in front of a jury again...

She accepted a plea deal that reduced her life sentence to just 25 years, and she's now eligible for parole in 2028. Of the three family members convicted in the murders of Bill Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth, only one has a shot at release from jail. That's mother Barbara Potter, who alongside her daughter Janelle and husband Marvin was originally convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. Conviction for murder was wrong.

The jury got it wrong. Yesterday in court, Barbara Potter admitted guilt to a lesser charge, facilitation of first-degree murder, meaning her life sentence is now reduced to 25 years in jail. She straight up pled guilty.

So she was wanting to accept fault. For the state, the plea deal was not ideal, but they say in doing so, they insisted she not allege innocence. I didn't want that. And I said, you're going to have to plead guilty. You're going to have to admit under oath that you have responsibility for these people dying.

Potter has already served the required 30% of her new 25-year sentence since she's been behind bars for eight years. That means she will soon be eligible for parole. Quite frankly, it made me sick to write out the judgments that would allow her to see a parole board.

I feel bad for the families of the victims that have to worry about a parole hearing. But he has also failed at appealing his conviction. So as it stands, he and Janelle are both still serving life sentences for the murder of Billy Payne.

and Billie Jean Hayward. Now, I'm very curious to hear your thoughts on this case overall, but especially on how all of this ended up playing out in the end. Do you think everyone received a fair sentence for the roles that they played in these horrific murders? Should all of them be in prison for the rest of their lives? Or is 25 years fair for Barbara? I definitely want to hear your thoughts on that. But I have to say this was...

definitely one of the most bizarre cases I have ever covered. It's like the most horrible gift that just keeps giving except the gifts are one horrible detail after another when you just think it can't get any worse. But when all is said and done, it is just such a sad case. I mean, for such young parents to be killed the way that they were

Billy and Billie Jean did not deserve any of this, and their child certainly did not deserve to spend the rest of his life without his parents. And one day he, I don't know, I mean, I guess this was in 2012, so I'm not sure how much he knows, but to learn the details of this has got to be so traumatic for him. I did want to update you that their son Tyler is now safe in the care of Billie Jean's mother,

But God, I just really, really feel for him and for their whole family. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon. But until then, stay safe out there.

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