26: Buried Alive and Killed for Cash | The Heartbreaking Story of Carol and Reggie Sumner

Imagine finding your true love after decades of being apart. High school crushes turned soulmates, finally reunited in their golden years. Carol and Reggie Sommer thought that they had beaten the odds, escaping abusive pasts, rebuilding their lives, and finding happiness together, at last. But in the summer of 2005, their fairy tale, it turned into a complete nightmare. Betrayed by someone that they trusted, Carol and Reggie ended up being taken from their own home and subjected to a crime so heartless and so unimaginable that it still shakes people to this very day. And what started as a plan to steal a little bit of money, it spiraled into one of the most disturbing double homicides that Florida has ever seen. And it wasn't just the way that they died, but the cruel, calculated way that their kids, killers, made sure that they suffered. This is a story about love, betrayal, and a death so senseless that it's going to leave you asking, how could anybody possibly do this? Hey guys, I'm Annie Elise, and this is Tend to Life. You may want to grab your tissues, your Kleenex, all of the things, because today we are diving into one of the most devastating and heartbreaking cases out there, the case of Carol and Reggie Sumner. It's going to sound a little corny, but Carol and Reggie Sumner were basically like lovebirds. In 2005, they were both 61 years old. Reggie was just a few months older than Carol, but what really stood out was how much more they shared than just their age. Just by looking at Reggie, you could honestly imagine how much more they shared than just their age. You could honestly just tell that he was like a friendly guy, but also kind of shy. In every single picture he took, he's barely smiling. I mean, it didn't mean that he wasn't happy. He just kind of preferred to keep things, you know, simple, casual to himself. It wasn't really in his nature to be loud or very outgoing. Yet Carol, on the other hand, she always had the widest, most brightest smile. She was just this very happy woman, and the look on her face really spoke to her overall attitude in life. She colored her hair a dark shade of brown almost all her life until finally she kind of just like gave up, threw her hands in the air, gave up to age and let it grow into its natural, more lighter color. Reggie had dark hair, these very prominent eyebrows too, and they were both just like a striking couple. They were also both born in Charleston, South Carolina, and they knew each other all growing up. In fact, while they were in high school, they did have secret crushes on one another, but for whatever reason, neither one of them ever got up the nerve to ask, so they were always just friends. Eventually, kind of becoming each other's biggest, you know, what if, what if I had just made a move? What if I had told him how I feel? What if we gave it a shot? But that obviously did not happen in high school. So after graduation, Reggie joined the Navy, and he ended up getting married himself, which from my understanding, he never had any children of his own, but he did have 10 brothers and sisters, and a bunch of them had kids. So he was like very, very busy being a hands-on uncle. Carol also married two separate times, as a matter of fact, and she had two kids and spent her adult life as a housewife and stay-at-home mom, which to be fair, she had plenty on her plate with two young children and, you know, her efforts to stay alive, literally. What I mean by that is I don't know much about her first marriage, but I definitely do know that her second husband was verbally, mentally, and even physically abusive. And as hard as it is to, to leave that kind of situation, even in the best of circumstances, I imagine that it must have felt especially impossible in those days where you didn't really share that much about what you were going through, where you put on a happy face, you wanted to protect the kids, your image, yourself. And it just, there was more a stigma. I feel like that many years ago, less of what there is today. Still, there is a bit of a stigma and I know people are scared for their own reasons, but it certainly feels like there is more conversation, more conversation around those types of things today. Now, Carol also didn't have a job and she didn't have any way of supporting herself or her kids. And frankly, a lot of people's attitudes about domestic disputes, they just weren't as understanding as they are today. As I said, she didn't really have a support network. She didn't have anyone she could lean on. So she kept her head high, tried to keep her husband happy at all times, and she raised her children. Yet, in spite of that, any time that she went just a little out of line, her husband exploded. Then in 1987, something happened that sent him into a rage. I don't know exactly how the fight began, but at some point he grabbed a gun and he shot Carol multiple times and then shot himself. The whole thing was supposed to be a murder suicide, but Carol was a fighter. She survived the gunshot wound and she made it to a hospital for treatment. Luckily, she was alive. From there, her road to recovery, she was able to get out of the hospital. And she was able to get out of the hospital. this next thing that I'm gonna say is even more cliche so like please don't get the ick but home where the heart is really is true. If you're with someone you love, it doesn't really matter where you are. So even if you're nervous, I think that the excitement and the safety of being with your person makes it feel like an adventure. You know what I mean? So the two of them moved, and that's where things stood for the first chunk of 2005. However, by early July, Carol's daughter Rhonda began to get this very weird and eerie feeling. She hadn't heard from Carol for a few days, which was pretty odd. They usually talked on the phone every single day, but Carol hadn't reached out to her at all. And when Rhonda tried calling her, Carol didn't even pick up the phone. So she started checking in with family members, with some friends, some of Reggie's relatives even, but everybody said the same thing. They hadn't heard from either of them in days. Now that was enough for Rhonda to drop everything and just immediately head down to Jacksonville herself. And as soon as she got to her mother's house, she saw that Carol and Reggie's car was gone. And you might be thinking, okay, well, maybe they ran to the grocery store. Maybe they went to see a movie. They're retired. They have a flexible schedule. Like, who cares? But it's also very important to keep in mind that by this point, they were both in such bad health that they barely could handle things like showering or doing the dishes. Reggie and Carol couldn't just hop in the car for a quick run to the mall. They were, you know, mobile, but like very much tied to the home. So this was very concerning. Then when Rhonda went inside the house, she noticed something on the stove. A fried chicken dinner. And it wasn't fresh. It was old. It was covered in flies. It was hard as a rock. It was just super gross. And the thing with that is Carol was very meticulous. She always cleaned up after herself. So there is no way that she would have just let food sit out like that long enough for her to eat. So she didn't have to rot and just be out in the open. It was crystal clear. This wasn't a couple who had just simply left for the weekend or on an errand. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. There was something else that Rhonda noticed in her mom's house that day. Carol needed a surgical boot just to walk, just to get around. She couldn't go anywhere without it. But the boot was still sitting there, right inside the house. Now on top of all of that, get this. Carol and Reggie's dog was also still at home. It was alive, thank God, but very hungry and very thirsty. Almost like it had been left without food or water for quite some time. Which again, Reggie and Carol, they never would have done that. They never would have left their dog behind. They treated their dog like it was their baby. So that was all enough for Rhonda to immediately call the police and to report Carol and Reggie as missing. And luckily, the investigators agreed with Rhonda. They agreed that everything seemed just way too odd. Although, it was something that they'd have to check out regardless. It didn't seem very likely that this was a case of two elderly people willingly going missing, but they still needed to investigate. Now, I don't even know what the odds are of that kind of situation happening, come to think of it. You never really hear of any stories like that of two elderly people just going missing. So the detectives started looking into it. And of course, they questioned Carol and Reggie's neighbors, asking, "Have you seen anything? Have you heard anything?" But nobody really had anything to say. Most of them barely even knew the couple. Yes, Reggie had owned the home for many, many years, but he hadn't been actively living there. So they were practically both new to the neighborhood. Both of them. Now, on top of that, nobody saw or heard anything strange going on. Basically, getting any helpful tips from the neighbors seemed like it was proving to be useless. So on July 12th, investigators started looking at Carol and Reggie's bank accounts. They figured that if the couple really had just, you know, up and left, the bank receipts would absolutely show where they were, or what they were doing, what they were purchasing. But it wasn't that simple. What the investigators saw was that in the past few days, someone had been making huge withdrawals from the accounts. They weren't using the cards at gas stations or grocery stores. They were just pulling out money left and right. It was pretty suspicious, to say the least. Then, a few days after Carol and Reggie were reported missing, an off-duty officer spotted their 1993 Lincoln Town car on the side of the road in Sanderson, Florida. Which this is about 35 minutes east of Jacksonville. And the car, it seemed to be in normal condition. It's not like it was trashed or broken down. It was just abandoned. Even if Carol and Reggie had been the ones to drive the car there before abandoning it, it just did not make any sense. Why was this car here? There was also no reason that either one of them should have been in Sanderson. They had only moved to Jacksonville together a few months prior, so they may never have even been in Sanderson before. It just wasn't adding up. Then, the police got a really strange phone call that made this whole situation even more suspicious. A man called the main phone number of the police department, asking for the lead investigator on Reggie and Carol's case. And rather than transferring the call right away, the operator just talked with this man for a while. Maybe hoping to get a tip or hoping to just kind of like assess the situation. Except, the caller then said that it was none other than Reggie Sumner. And he didn't seem stressed, mad, just very matter of fact, like, oh, it's me, Reggie, so I want to talk to the investigator on my case. I mean, what? Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Miller. Hey, Miller, this is Davis down at Forsyth. I have a transfer for you. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Hi. How are you doing? Good. My name is Reggie Sumner. I'm at a town with my wife right now. Her sister passed away. And my neighbor just called me and said that, or not, excuse me, this morning, my neighbor called me and told me that my car was missing and the garage was open. That your car was missing? Yes, ma'am. We have two vehicles. We have an old pickup truck and we have a Lincoln, older, not really that old, a Lincoln town car. Okay. Do you know your tag number by heart? No, ma'am. All the information is in the house. Okay. Can you hang on one second for me? Yes. Hang on. I'm going to put you on hold, okay? Yes. Sir? Yes. Sir, who called you? Your neighbor? Yes, Shirley. Okay. She's not really my neighbor, but she lives in that neighborhood and we're friends with her. Okay. And whose car is it? It's registered under me. And what is your first name? It's James. James Sumner? Yes, ma'am. Okay. What is the address where it was at? It's 2015 Reed Avenue. Okay. Sure. Okay. Who lives there? Do you live there? Me and my wife, yes. You and your wife. Okay. What's your wife's name? Carol. Carol. Hang on one second, sir, okay? Yes. Then he got transferred to the lieutenant who was leading the investigation. Hello? Yes. Lieutenant Elliott, who's this? Ma'am? This is Lieutenant Elliott. Who am I speaking to? James Sumner. James Sumner? Yes. And you're -- where do you live, Mr. Sumner? 2015 Reed Avenue. Okay. Where are you calling me from? Delaware. Okay. How'd you get to Delaware? Me and my wife took a plane. She had a sister that passed. Okay. Where'd you leave your car at? The car was in the driveway. Both the car and the pickup truck was in the driveway, and the Lincoln was inside the garage. Okay. What's your date of birth, Mr. Sumner? I was 18. You're 18? Yes, ma'am. Sumner? I'm 18. Okay. Sumner? I'm 18. Sumner? I'm 18. Sumner? September 18th, '43. Okay. Is there a number we can call you back at? Sure. I still have the South Carolina Sailor's Home. Okay. What's that number? It's 843-202-5326. And your wife is there with you? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Sumner? September 18th, '43. Okay. Sure. Okay. What's that number? It's 843-202-5326. Okay. What's that number? It's 843-202-5326. Okay. What's that number? It's 843-202-5326. No. She's with her sister right now. We just received a call about 45 minutes ago. Who called you? Shirley. Shirley Johnson. She lives in the neighborhood. She told us that she drove by the house and went up to the house, and that the garage was open, and the car was gone. And she knew that we were on vacation. Or not really vacation, but she knew that we left. Okay. So she said all your cars are gone? No, no. It's just the pickup is still in the driveway. Okay. All right. No, no. Okay. No, no. Okay. All right. No, no. i'm in delaware right okay so i know that that was a lot but there are a couple things about that call that to me immediately stand out as a really huge red flags i mean first you might think that it's a red flag that he introduced himself as james rather than reggie but that was reggie's legal name he just used reggie as a nickname so i don't know unless going to a funeral and mourning was his idea of a fun vacation it was kind of just a weird way for him to talk about the situation and also do i even need to point out the fact that this caller reggie completely went silent when the lieutenant asked for an address which i get being in a different city and maybe being like hold on a second i don't even know the address let me ask somebody where this house is even at but you stack that up with all of the other weird moments in this call and it feels like a lot of red flags but he did eventually give an answer here's 214 and i believe the street is justina justina justine justine yes and what city is that in corpus corpus delaware yes and where's your wife at she's with her sister which is where i believe in the bar the store or something oh they went shopping not really shopping just went to the store not too long ago okay so she but you're at her sister's house yes okay so you're just waiting for her to come back yes okay all right that's corpus delaware like corpus christi texas i believe so yes okay 214 justine do you know if that's lane drive court i believe it's just justine okay and it's 843 202 5326 yes okay apparently from the information we received uh your house was found in disarray and it looked like y'all had been abducted and now they found your car in a different county so they're thinking that that that possibly y'all were victims of foul play they've been searching for y'all with helicopters so the house was broken into apparently so yeah apparently so i mean does anybody have keys to the house besides y'all was someone supposed to be watching the house or no no hello yes oh okay yeah well i mean we found your car in baker county baker county where is that um baker county is um like glen st mary um is that near jacksonville you watch in between jacksonville and lake city okay yeah so like i said we just received a phone call not too long ago and that's what i called directly here okay okay well i have one of our detectives give you a call back and now we're probably gonna have to send somebody out there to verify that y'all are there okay yes ma'am all right thank you thank you all right so that seemed like it was the end of it reggie claimed that he was okay that there was nothing to worry about nothing to investigate and he hung up but then a little while later he called back jacksonville sheriff's office welcome walker this is dave i got your answer for you thank you go ahead sir jacksonville sheriff's uh yes ma'am jacksonville sheriff's office um yes how you doing this is james something i was just talking to a lieutenant i believe i don't remember her name it was a female my name is james sumner i was just giving her my information and i was giving her the city to where i'm at and i told her that it was corpus and it's not corpus it's chorus hold on one moment what was your last name sumner okay hold on one moment hey mr sumner yes ma'am hey what's the city yes it's not corpus it's chorus c-o-r-o-s c-o-r-o-s yeah i found a piece of the mail okay and it says 214 justine it doesn't say court lane street road anything like that okay all right do you this neighbor who called you did she um i mean there's been police at your house for the past three days she hasn't seen all that going on uh no she said that she drove by there this morning and she saw that the vehicle was that excuse me that the garage was open and that the Lincoln wasn't there yeah okay okay well i um somebody will be calling you back in shortly okay thank you all right bye-bye now i will be honest in my opinion the lieutenant sounds extremely skeptical she's asking these questions like uh did your neighbor not see all of this going on nobody contacted you to say like hey are you actually missing like how was any of this adding up and she was truthfully smart to be skeptical because just out of curiosity i ended up looking up her name and i was like oh my god what's going on what's going on what's going on what's going on what's going on what's going on he's saying that he is reading off the address off of a piece of mail right so it should be fairly easy to look into but unless google is just not hitting these days and you can definitely correct me if i'm wrong here but coros delaware isn't even a real place let alone 214 justine in coros delaware and regardless of what was being said on the phone it would be pretty easy for someone to figure out whether they would be able to figure out whether they would be able to figure out whether the caller was lying or not if reggie and carol flew to delaware wouldn't that be easy to track down just look into flights looked into flights to delaware even if they had paid in cash there's got to be a receipt or their names on the boarding list on the plane you know there's got to be something it's not like they could board with fake names or something like that so the whole thing should be easy to piece together or in this case easy to pull apart and once this alibi of a flight was out of the picture there really wouldn't be any other possibilities they definitely wouldn't have driven there their car was abandoned on the side of the road nobody was driving that thing to delaware obviously but either way eventually that call ended and the guy claiming to be reggie got off the line but only to call back a third time check for sheriff's office walker do you need a chance for nicole thank you go ahead sir check for sheriff's office walker yes ma'am i was not even saying something i've just called that's wrong i was speaking with a lieutenant about one of my vehicles that was missing hold on a moment it's lieutenant elliott yes ma'am how you doing this is james hey how you doing i'm sorry i gave you the wrong phone number too i gave you our old number okay what's the number it's uh 843 area code again two zero two uh-huh five four four nine okay did your wife get back yet no ma'am she hasn't okay did your wife get back yet no ma'am she hasn't okay did your wife get back yet no ma'am she hasn't okay did your wife get back yet no ma'am she hasn't okay did your wife get back yet no ma'am she hasn't okay what's her date of birth here what's okay what's her date of birth here what's okay what's her date of birth here what's your wife's name because i'm not familiar your wife's name because i'm not familiar your wife's name because i'm not familiar with the case with the case with the case carol and what's her date of birth it's uh and what's her date of birth it's uh and what's her date of birth it's uh february 16th february 16th february 16th of what year of what year of what year 44 40 44 okay okay we're still trying to get in touch we're still trying to get in touch we're still trying to get in touch with a detective he's uh with a detective he's uh with a detective he's uh on the way to baker county so uh to look on the way to baker county so uh to look on the way to baker county so uh to look at your car so uh we're trying to get at your car so uh we're trying to get at your car so uh we're trying to get him so him so him so we'll call you back shortly okay thank we'll call you back shortly okay thank we'll call you back shortly okay thank you okay bye-bye i mean this guy is you okay bye-bye i mean this guy is you okay bye-bye i mean this guy is giving me whiplash changing his address giving me whiplash changing his address giving me whiplash changing his address his contact information what's next his his contact information what's next his his contact information what's next his name like it is just you're telling on name like it is just you're telling on name like it is just you're telling on yourself if i mean if it's not the truth yourself if i mean if it's not the truth yourself if i mean if it's not the truth you're obviously telling on yourself you're obviously telling on yourself you're obviously telling on yourself like and panicking which at one point in like and panicking which at one point in like and panicking which at one point in one of these calls one of these calls one of these calls reggie really focused in on he and reggie really focused in on he and reggie really focused in on he and carol's bank accounts carol's bank accounts carol's bank accounts he explained that they were having he explained that they were having he explained that they were having trouble with their accounts they were trouble with their accounts they were trouble with their accounts they were frozen or something like that and he frozen or something like that and he frozen or something like that and he knew that the police were investigating knew that the police were investigating knew that the police were investigating them as missing persons so he wanted to them as missing persons so he wanted to them as missing persons so he wanted to know if that was part of the reason that know if that was part of the reason that know if that was part of the reason that they were having trouble with their they were having trouble with their they were having trouble with their accounts accounts accounts then he even asked if they could then he even asked if they could then he even asked if they could unfreeze the account so that he and unfreeze the account so that he and unfreeze the account so that he and carol could get their money carol could get their money carol could get their money but of course these detectives i mean but of course these detectives i mean but of course these detectives i mean they weren't that gullible they knew how they weren't that gullible they knew how they weren't that gullible they knew how to sniff out they knew what was to sniff out they knew what was to sniff out they knew what was going on here so they basically just said going on here so they basically just said going on here so they basically just said like look i'm sorry mr sumner of like look i'm sorry mr sumner of like look i'm sorry mr sumner of course you can access the accounts we'll course you can access the accounts we'll course you can access the accounts we'll make sure that all of it is taken care make sure that all of it is taken care make sure that all of it is taken care of then sure enough they did unfreeze of then sure enough they did unfreeze of then sure enough they did unfreeze the accounts but afterward they tracked the accounts but afterward they tracked the accounts but afterward they tracked every single withdrawal every single every single withdrawal every single every single withdrawal every single transaction they kept track of exactly transaction they kept track of exactly transaction they kept track of exactly when and where somebody was getting when and where somebody was getting when and where somebody was getting money out of the bank account they were money out of the bank account they were money out of the bank account they were gonna just like let this person have a gonna just like let this person have a gonna just like let this person have a heyday with the money so once they heyday with the money so once they heyday with the money so once they started tracking all of it they then started tracking all of it they then started tracking all of it they then went to those businesses those atms went to those businesses those atms went to those businesses those atms those banks and everywhere else that those banks and everywhere else that those banks and everywhere else that they were pulling out money so that they they were pulling out money so that they they were pulling out money so that they could request the cctv footage could request the cctv footage could request the cctv footage and the idea was that if it really was and the idea was that if it really was and the idea was that if it really was reggie as unlikely as that seemed that reggie as unlikely as that seemed that reggie as unlikely as that seemed that the detectives would be able to confirm the detectives would be able to confirm the detectives would be able to confirm his identity and that everything would his identity and that everything would his identity and that everything would be fine but if it wasn't reggie they be fine but if it wasn't reggie they be fine but if it wasn't reggie they would have plenty of evidence to build a would have plenty of evidence to build a would have plenty of evidence to build a case against whoever had made reggie case against whoever had made reggie case against whoever had made reggie and carol disappear and whoever was and carol disappear and whoever was and carol disappear and whoever was stealing their money and making these stealing their money and making these stealing their money and making these phone calls phone calls phone calls now all of the transactions weren't in now all of the transactions weren't in now all of the transactions weren't in delaware but they were in south delaware but they were in south delaware but they were in south carolina even though that man on the carolina even though that man on the carolina even though that man on the phone claimed he was in delaware so the phone claimed he was in delaware so the phone claimed he was in delaware so the investigators went through the list of investigators went through the list of investigators went through the list of withdrawals one by one all to see if any of them had been at any ATMs that had cameras there. And sure enough, they were able to pull plenty of footage. To nobody's surprise, it wasn't Carol or Reggie pulling out this money and spotted on footage at these ATMs. It was a young man with light colored hair, possibly young enough to be in his 20s or 30s. So the question now was how to find him. And I know that this guy gave an address to the police when he was on the phone with him, but it clearly was not going to lead them to a real actual address. It was a fake address. But the detectives were able to use cell phone data to figure out where he was when he made all of those calls to the station. And sure enough, to no surprise at all of anybody, it also was in South Carolina, not Delaware. Specifically, the calls were made from a motel. So the police got a search warrant. And when they went to this motel, they found three people, two men and one woman. Now, one of the men was definitely the guy from these ATM clips. Their names were Alan Wade, Michael Jackson, not to be confused with true Michael Jackson, and Tiffany Cole. But who were they? And how did they know the Sumner couple? And as detectives began digging into Carol and Reggie's inner circle, that's when they uncovered a name. Someone who had been much closer to this couple than anyone expected. Someone whose involvement would blindside everyone. It turns out that pretty much from the moment that the Sumners had arrived in Florida, things started going downhill. Not long after they moved into their new home, Carol was diagnosed with liver cancer. She started curing her liver cancer, and she was diagnosed with liver cancer. chemotherapy, which gave her a shot at beating the cancer. But it also left her feeling very weak and sick the majority of the time. Because of that, Carol's two children called her and Reggie almost every single day. Since they didn't live in Florida, it wasn't practical for them to come and check up on her in person very often. But they were doing their best to be there for them emotionally and just check in. Luckily, though, Carol and Reggie did have someone else who was looking out for them. A 24-year-old woman named Tiffany. She was a family friend, and she always seemed willing to check in, to make sure that they were okay, see if they needed anything, that sort of thing. In South Carolina, Tiffany had been Carol's neighbor. They were very close. They knew each other for years. And while they were living on the same street, Tiffany's dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Which, it's worth mentioning that when he got this diagnosis, Tiffany wasn't living at home. She had moved out when she was 16, because she and her father just didn't get along. Not at all. But now, when she realized that he didn't have much time left, she moved back into the house, and she took care of him until he passed away. Then, when Carol and Reggie moved to Florida, they had offered to sell Tiffany Carol's car, a green Chevy. It wasn't anything super fancy, but it was exactly what Tiffany was looking for. And when Tiffany admitted that she didn't really have a lot of spare cash, and she didn't know if she could afford it, Carol told her, you know, hey, it's okay, we'll work out a payment plan. The point was, she didn't have to make as much money as possible, or offload this car for a lump sum. She just wanted to simplify her life. She wanted to help out this friend, and say, it's fine, just take the car, we'll do payment plans, like, just a nice woman. So Tiffany agreed, and the car was hers. After that, she drove down to Florida almost every single month. She hand-delivered the car payments directly to Carol, and sometimes she would even stay for a few days, just visiting and checking in on Reggie and Carol. Now, technically, she was only coming over to pay them, but there definitely was some sort of friendship between the three of them, between Tiffany, Carol, and Reggie. Sometimes, she would even bring her boyfriend, a man named Michael Jackson. Which, again, not that Michael Jackson. But the point being, the fact is, she felt comfortable enough around Carol and Reggie to let them meet her boyfriend, and that showed how close they all really were. Now, the first name might not be familiar to you, but the other two names should ring a bell. Tiffany was the neighbor who visited Reggie and Carol all the time, the good friend. Michael was her boyfriend. They were in that motel room. Michael was also the guy who had been withdrawing the money from the ATM machines. And as if that wasn't incriminating enough, the police also searched the room, and they found Carol and Reggie's credit cards, debit cards, checkbooks, and IDs. So, of course, the police had a lot of questions. Kind of like, okay, well, where did you get this? Where are Carol and Reggie? But Alan, Tiffany, and Michael, they stayed quiet. None of them would say a word. So, they were all arrested, and they were brought back to the station where they still just played clueless. At least, that is, until the police pulled them into interrogations, one by one. Now, during Alan's interview, during his interview, Alan accidentally slipped up, and he mentioned a guy named Bruce Nixon. I don't know exactly what Alan said, about Bruce, but I do know that the two of them were best friends. And whatever Alan had to say about him, it was enough for the police to go out and arrest Bruce as well. And Bruce, Bruce was more than willing to talk and cooperate with the investigators. He probably saw the writing on the wall, right? He realized that he was going to go to prison, probably, and he figured his best bet was to just cooperate, pray to God for a plea deal, and, you know, work out everything best for his situation. So, on the other hand, Bruce was more willing to talk and cooperate with the investigators. Unlike everybody else, Bruce right away started talking, and he said that he knew exactly what had happened to Carol and Reggie. But before I get into that, I do want to quickly fill in some background and some extra context that will kind of help you follow everything that I'm about to cover. See, Bruce didn't know Tiffany or Michael very well. He was just good friends with Alan, and he knew Tiffany and Michael through Alan, but it's not like they were some, like, proxy or acquaintances, if you will. So, anyway, Bruce knew that Alan knew about something that had happened one time when Tiffany and Michael were staying over at Reggie and Carol's place. Apparently, during this visit, the couple had started talking about finances with Tiffany and Michael, not in a braggy kind of way, but kind of just how you would maybe talk with a friend. They were talking about how they had sold Carol's house back in South Carolina, how they had profited about $90,000 off of it. They also talked about how they had sold Carol's house back in South Carolina, mentioned that they had sold some furniture, that they had taken the rest on the move with them, but left some behind. I mean, just, like, casual chit-chat, but saying, like, oh, we sold this, we earned this, we made this, all of this. Now, I say casual because at least it was casual for Carol and Reggie, but when Tiffany and Michael heard this story, it was like their brains just started going, kind of, like, thinking through it and being like, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, adding all of these things up. Then, one of them got the idea, in the moment, that they should rob the couple. Now, as for who actually came up with that plan, well, according to testimony, it has been pretty contradictory. We don't know who the plan originated with. Tiffany said that Michael wanted to steal from Carol and Reggie, and that she never had anything to do with it, that she was just an innocent bystander. Michael admitted, yes, that he did help come up with the plan, but he said that Tiffany was an equal participant, and that they had worked out all the details together. So, you know how it goes. You're thick as thieves until you actually do the thievery, and then you flip on each other. Then, somewhere along the way, they decided to bring in their friend, Alan, to help out with this robbery. And then, Alan brought in Bruce, which, I guess, they figured that it was going to take a lot of them to pull this off. I don't know. It was, I guess, they thought it was a big heist or something, so that it was okay bringing in two extra accomplices, which, I will just say, for any future criminals listening, the more chefs in the kitchen, the more likely there's going to be a spill, okay? I don't know if that's an actual saying. I kind of just made that up, but maybe it is, and maybe I've heard it somewhere. So, I don't know, but whatever. So, on July 8, 2005, the four of them went to a convenience store so that they could buy the supplies that they needed. Shovels, plastic wrap, duct tape, and it took them the majority of the day to get all of the supplies, which I will just say, first of all, that is not the kind of supplies you need to buy a for a robbery. That is if you are planning something far more sinister. Second, it actually ended up taking them the majority of the day to get the supplies, which ended up being fine for them because the next step of their plan needed to happen after sunset, when it was dark out. So, finally, when the hour arrived, the four of them piled into a Mazda that they had rented in South Carolina. I mean, I guess they knew that it was probably bad for Tiffany's car to show up on camera, but it also indicates that this was definitely thought through and premeditated. They all were aware of what was going to happen next, so much so that they rented a car to enact this plan, and then they drove to Reggie and Carol's house. Alan and Bruce knocked on the couple's door, and that is when the plan was in motion. Now, I don't know how they decided that it should be Alan and Bruce rather than Tiffany and Michael. Maybe they thought that it would be too suspicious for Carol and Reggie's friends, from several states to just show up unannounced in the middle of of the night. I don't really know, but there was also the fact that Carol and Reggie were just really kind people. They were also older and a little bit naive, so I think that Tiffany knew that if these random two strangers showed up on their doorstep asking for help, they would help, no questions asked. So that's exactly what they did. Meanwhile, Tiffany and Michael sat in the car far enough away that Reggie and Carol wouldn't see them, but close enough to watch everything that went down. So as I said, Alan and Bruce walked up to the front door and they rang the doorbell. Carol answered, and when the two men asked if they could use her phone, she was more than happy to let them inside and use her landline phone. But the second that Alan and Bruce were inside, it was game over. Alan grabbed the phone cord and yanked it out of the wall so that nobody would be able to call the police or get help. And at the same time, Bruce pulled out a gun. Well, it was technically a very realistic looking type of gun. It was a toy. He couldn't actually shoot anyone with it, but Reggie and Carol, they didn't realize that. It looked completely real to them. It looked like a real gun. So then Bruce directed them to both go into a bedroom, saying, if you don't go into that room, I'm going to shoot you. Just simple as that. Now, obviously, they complied. They knew that there was no point in fighting back. I mean, besides the fact that they thought that Bruce had a real gun, they were also old. They were frail. They had a difficult time getting around. They were sick. And Bruce and Alan were young men in their prime, like, easily could overpower them. So once they were in the bedroom, Alan and Bruce tied them up with duct tape. Not that they needed to tie Carol and Reggie up to keep them in place. Again, they weren't physically well enough or strong enough to defend themselves. And if that wasn't bad enough, they also beat and attacked the couple the entire time, that they were taping them up. It was completely unnecessary and just barbaric. And the only reason that I can think of for them to even do something like this was if they actually enjoyed it and if they were having fun and felt powerful doing it. It's just sick. So once they finally decided that enough was enough and they were taped up, they forced Reggie and Carol into their garage and inside the trunk of their own car. Now, remember the car that was missing? Say that, I say that loosely, quote unquote, missing when fake Reggie called the police station, also known as Michael? Well, that was the car. The plan was for Alan and Bruce to drive all the way to Georgia with Carol and Reggie in the car with them. Tiffany and Michael were then supposed to follow them in the rental Mazda and basically act like some sort of decoy. The idea was that if there were any cops on the road and if the police seemed like they were at all suspicious or interested in Alan and Bruce's car, they would be able to get them to the car. And if they were then Tiffany and Michael were supposed to go speeding past them so the police would get distracted, chase after them, give them a ticket, and Alan and Bruce would be free to just keep driving. Which, I have to say, that is one of the dumbest plans I think I have ever heard about in any case. Could it work? Maybe. But I also think if officers see a suspicious car and they think that there's something going on, whether it's drugs, murder, whatever it may be, and somebody goes past them speeding, I don't know that they would divert their attention. So, I don't know, maybe. I'm not a cop. But at the end of the day, they never had to put their decoy car plan into action and to the test. They got to their destination without any encounters with the police and without getting pulled over. So, they all parked in this secluded area in the middle of nowhere, just in Georgia. It was dark. It was quiet. There were no witnesses around who could help or hear Reggie or Carol. So, they all parked in this secluded area in the middle of nowhere, and there was this giant hole in the ground that everybody apparently had dug in advance. And what they did next is absolutely haunting. I honestly cannot even begin to imagine what those few moments felt like for Carol and Reggie. If they saw Tiffany and Michael and they knew that they had been betrayed by people they considered friends, I mean, can you imagine how scared they were? How awful that feeling of betrayal would be? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't be. And how scared they would be when they saw that hole. They also didn't bother begging or pleading for their lives. Instead, they just held on to each other as best as they could, and they just prayed with each other. Meanwhile, Alan, Bruce, Tiffany, and Michael were just completely callous, unmoved. They didn't show any sort of sympathy, remorse, hesitation. Instead, Reggie and Carol asked a million questions about their bank accounts, their passwords, their PIN numbers, security questions, those sorts of things. Which, talk about being completely heartless. Like, you're watching this elderly couple, sick and frail, scared for their lives, knowing they're about to die, right next to this big hole that has been dug. And instead of pleading or begging or doing anything, they're just holding each other and praying together. Just, it breaks my heart. Then, once these monsters had, what they wanted, they threw Carol and Reggie down into that hole. And they just started piling dirt on top of them, pile after pile. And remember, they both had been very badly beaten over the course of the night, but they were also both very much still alive. So, in other words, Tiffany, Michael, Alan, and Bruce, they were burying Carol and Reggie alive. They just kept heaping shovelful of dirt on top of them, until there was no sign that two people had just been lying there, alive and relatively well. Then, they just left. Left Carol and Reggie to choke to death in the dirt. It is so scary. And murder is always ugly. It's scary and it's heartbreaking to hear about. But the thought of being buried alive with the person you love, just in a hole with them, and you're helpless and you're holding on to each other. You can't save them. You can't save yourself. It is horrific. And it is so, just incredibly evil. So evil. Like, and I just have to say too, like, I don't know, maybe it's because I can't personally fathom ever doing that to somebody. But if I were to ever bury somebody alive, I would have this hyper paranoia that would just sit with me after I left of, what if they somehow broke through the dirt? What if they got, what if they now can identify me? So it's like, the fact that that's not even a concern on your radar tells me how deep they buried them and how heavy the weight of that dirt was on top of them, but also that they just didn't care. Like, they didn't, it wasn't even a thought that entered their mind that these two people were still alive, buried under the dirt. It's awful. And as awful as it is, it gets even worse. The police later found Carol and Reggie's bodies, thanks to the testimony that they had from Bruce at this point. But they were only about four miles north of the Florida-Georgia border. And investigators recovered them on July 16th, 2005. And when they found the two of them, their hands were free. Meaning that somewhere along the way, they had gotten loose from the duct tape. They had gotten loose from the duct tape. And they had gotten loose from the duct tape. And instead of successfully trying to dig their way to freedom, which they honestly might not have been strong enough to do, Carol and Reggie had just accepted their fate. They had their hands free and they just held on to one another, waiting for the end. In fact, they were still hugging when their remains were recovered. It is so awful. Their autopsy report said that they had suffocated in the dirt, which, of course, makes sense, given that they were buried alive. But it also said that they probably died about three to five minutes after the dirt covered their heads. That's about how long it would have taken them to suffocate. Which might not sound very bad. You might have thought it could be hours or something like that. But just try to imagine even spending three to five minutes knowing that you're going to die and that there's nothing you can do to stop it. Also, right next to the person that you love the most in the world. Knowing that you're going to die. And that there's nothing you can do to stop it. And that you're going to die too. And think about that too. If you're hyperventilating and breathing in, because I would imagine when that realization sets in, so does panic. So your heart starts racing, your breathing gets heavy, you're breathing in faster, you're just inhaling more and more dirt. It's just, oh my god, it is awful. Now as for the murderers, in their minds, once Carol and Reggie were taken care of, once they were buried and not going to get away or be a problem for them anymore, Alan, Bruce, Michael, and Tiffany went back to their homes back to Carol and Reggie's house. And they went through the entire house, looking through everything, looking for valuables, cash, jewelry, computers, anything else that had any sort of monetary value. They took it all. And when they went to the ATM to try and empty Carol and Reggie's bank accounts, guess how much money they got? They got $1,000 in cash. Which, I mean, a pretty measly amount. I mean, maybe measly isn't the right word. I know it's not the right word, but I know that is a lot of money, but is $1,000 enough kill over, enough to torture a couple to death, especially when you're splitting it four ways, that's just $250 a person. Tiffany also pawned some of the jewelry and other things, but as you can imagine, it wasn't like she hit the jackpot. So they had just committed this horrible crime for a few hundred dollars each. I mean, was it worth it? It was so pointless and so horrible and just such a complete waste. The one good thing, though, to come out of all of this was that Bruce, he just spilled his guts to the police about everything. And it was enough for them to not only find Carol and Reggie's remains, but enough for them to close the case and get to work on pressing charges and getting a conviction. Sure enough, Bruce accepted a plea deal where he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, also kidnapping and some lesser charges. So in exchange, the death penalty was offered. He also agreed to testify against the other three, Alan, Michael, and Tiffany, and he was ultimately sentenced to 52 years to life. Now, in that trial testimony, Bruce said that Michael was the ringleader in all of this, the one who came up with the entire plan in the first place. Michael, of course, denied that, and he really had from day one. Fingerprints. That's all I'm going to say. Fingerprints. Do fingerprints? Wear gloves and not leave fingerprints. Come on, now. Even a six-year-old watching CSI on TV is afraid to wear gloves. So if I was at the crime scene, right? I mean, y'all got enough forensic science to prove if I was at that crime scene or not. Get your own word proving you're at the crime scene. You know what I'm saying? Buy my shoe. Yeah, but at the same time, my word, that's recorded. That's recorded. No, I mean, don't get me wrong. That's enough. But at the same time, it can be recorded. Don't get me wrong. That's enough. But at the same time, it can be broken up. That recording can be broken up. It's just like. I got to get these for today's entirety. But let's go ahead. But it can't be. I don't know that for a fact. Let's look at this kind of stuff, though, you know? If all I had in this entire thing was one conversation with you, maybe we could argue. Like I said, the credit card got me dead bang, man. I know this. Hold on, hold on. Your phone call to the sheriff's office? Posing as the victim? Don't get me. I didn't even ask you. Because you were talking to me on the phone. Which, by the way. Which, by the way. Where it says me and the girl called requesting access to the bank accounts. That's what it says in the indictment. Let me explain something to you, okay? All of that, every bit of it, every bit of it was recorded, okay? I'm pretty sure it was. We pressed play any time. In fact, I played some of it for you in the interview room, I believe. Yeah. No. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I hit play. Because you said I didn't do nothing. I said, that's not. You just showed me the pictures of the people and the pictures of their car and the pictures of their house. I pressed play on it. To Alan, y'all might have done that. Y'all ain't played nothing for me. But, I mean, even still, though, I mean, you asked me. You sat right there in that corner. You was like, remember talking to me on the phone? Remember talking to me on the phone? I remember the whole thing clearly. And you said, yeah. Clearly. Because first you said, no, I didn't. That's stupid. I never do that. I said, you talked to me on the phone. You said, all right, yeah, you got me there. Uh-huh. Come on, now. What just happened? You find the truth, man. That's it. I know it just ain't. I mean, like I said, man, if. Micah, you want to sit there and minimize what happened and all that does is make it look worse and worse. I mean, if it wasn't your idea, tell me whose idea it was, okay? If it spun out of control, tell me how it spun out of control. But listen to what you're telling me, right? You're saying. I mean, I'm already violating now, you know what I'm saying? My lawyer first time. Don't talk to these people. Damn, my lawyer. I ain't got time for my lawyer right now. My whole point thing is, like I said, first thing you tell me is, just by me knowing about it, I can be charged for the whole thing. So it's like. Not knowing, being there with it, okay? You put yourself there. Being involved in it. Holding a flashlight for him for crying out loud. Oh, man. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like Bruce seems a lot more credible to me than he does. Just my opinion. And I mean, Bruce's testimony never had any inconsistencies or major holes in it. He was honest from the moment that they brought him into the police station. And what's kind of ironic is that years after his confession, he actually did try to take it all back. I was on Xanax and methadone at the time. So it was in and out of consciousness, you know what I'm saying? So he filled in the blanks for me and told me what to say. I was guided into my testimony. And now I'm 30,000 people at this time. He could be prosecuted for perjury. And possibly, it's his plea agreement that he should have signed. The good thing is, nobody believes that. But I will say, what I find interesting is that we really don't. don't know what his new story is. Besides the fact that he was high as hell and apparently coached into confessing. Now, before he could come up with some elaborate alibi, claiming he wasn't at the crime scene or whatever the heck he had in mind, the judge took him off the stand and didn't allow the defense to cross-examine him, which I'm sure would have given us those answers. Then, in the end, the judge had somebody explain to him privately what getting in trouble for perjury could look like. So the whole thing was dismissed. Even though it was a definite curveball in all of this, I also kind of can see why Bruce at least tried to do it. Apparently, once he actually got to prison, he wasn't very well-liked, and he had a reputation for being a snitch, which, fair enough, he certainly was. Nobody trusted him, and nobody wanted to be around him. So I could see where he tried to walk it back. And the theory was that people were picking on him and giving him a hard time, and that he wanted to take back the confession and now sort of create this new reputation for himself. But like I said, that was all years later, a long time after he testified against Michael, Tiffany, and Allen. Tiffany was the first of the three to go to court in October of 2007, and it lasted for about a week, and she didn't exactly put forward the most solid defense. When it came time for the jury to deliberate, they only took about an hour and a half to reach their decision. They found Tiffany guilty of first-degree murder, and they voted 9-3 in favor. And the jury voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty. Which I'm sure that when Michael and Allen saw how Tiffany's trial went, they were probably panicking. But not enough to accept a deal or to cooperate. In fact, when Michael's trial began, he insisted that he didn't have any direct involvement with the murders. And I say "direct" because he had admitted to being there when Carol and Reggie were buried. But in his version of the story, he didn't come up with the plan or even help bury them. He just didn't want to come up with the plan. He didn't want to be the guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, which, pfft, okay. At one point, he even tried to say that Bruce was actually the ringleader of all of this, and he was the one who came up with the whole plan, which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Bruce didn't even know this couple personally, so there was no way that he ever could have even, like, dreamt up this plan or known about them selling their house or making all this money off of it or whatever it was. Michael was found guilty of first-degree murder, also of robbery and kidnapping. And like Tiffany, the jury ruled in favor of the death penalty. Then came Alan's trial. And if he didn't think he was screwed after Tiffany's trial, he definitely knew it now. Because when it came time to defend himself, he chose not to even testify. He was ultimately found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Which, no surprise at all. Now, during the penalty phase, Alan's mom and sister, his former youth group pastor, and his middle school assistant principal all shared brief stories about Alan. They basically all said that he was a good person at his core, that he had been a good kid, but then he got taken on the wrong side of the tracks after his parents split up, that he did drugs, he got involved with the wrong people. I mean, you know the drill. It was definitely some damage control. And I'm sorry, my parents are divorced. A divorce and drug use in your teens and hanging out with the wrong crowd, it doesn't make you bury someone alive. I literally went through all of that. And you see me? Burying people alive? No. Instead, I'm talking about douchebags like you who are doing that. And the jury also wasn't swayed by all of this testimony. So once again, just like the others, Alan was sentenced to death. So in the end, Bruce was the only one who managed to come out of it with a prison sentence rather than an execution. Or at least, that was all true 20 years ago, when everyone was going to trial. But recently, this case made headlines again because of a new law that went into effect in April of 2023. The new law was that a person could only get sentenced to death if the jury was unanimous, if all of them agreed that execution was the correct sentence. The law then changed again, stating that you could instead sentence someone to death with a vote of 8-4. Or a two-thirds majority. Now, on paper, this shouldn't have had anything to do with Tiffany, Michael, or Alan. They had already been sentenced to death. The fact that it was easier to give them that sentence at the time wouldn't seem to affect anything. But because the criminal justice system is very, very complicated, the new law meant that all three of them got to go to new sentencing hearings to see if the death penalty should still apply. Alan and Tiffany's resentencing went very well for them. Both of them were handed a life in prison sentence rather than the death penalty. Michael, on the other hand… other hand was yet again sentenced to death which I'm just glad that there was at least a sliver of justice being served after that and that for the most part Carol and Reggie's killers will be spending the rest of their lives in prison but I do want to know what you think about that do you think that they should have been resentenced do they still deserve the death penalty do you think that that was fair do you think that they should serve more severe punishments I mean based on these horrible deaths of Carol and Reggie these things these horrible things that they were subjected to I mean I think you know where I stand with this but I would love to know what you guys think so let me know in the comments thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of 10 to life as a reminder we have got new episodes every single Tuesday for you available not only in a video version on YouTube but also as a podcast for free on all podcast platforms and little pro tip if you want the episodes earlier and you want them uncensored you want to listen to them on the podcast because YouTube makes me do a whole bunch of censoring in post-production and if you want all of these episodes ad free if you want the video version ad free go to patreon.com slash Annie Elise you can get access at the lowest tier available and you'll get all episodes ad free video episodes that is and if you are a podcast listener and you want them ad free go to the Apple app subscribe to the Annie Elise plus channel you'll see it right there on the podcast app for 10 to life or if you listen to serialist Lee you'll also see it there and you can get every episode of 10 to life and serialist Lee completely ad free so thank you again so much for tuning in and until the next one stay safe bye