Teacher Secretly Records Her Killer Before She’s Murdered

I'm in the county number one where she was going to stay. If we have an emergency out here on Pockery Road, my girlfriend just looks like she's been shot. The truck's way in the road is in the windows, what's it out of it? Is she being out, if she's being out, she's breathing at all. She's not breathing at all, look like. All right, I have to rub that piece on the way. We have help on my way, okay, sir? Okay, please, thank you, thank you. Minutes after this 911 call comes in, Colombiana County Sheriff's Officers arrive at the home of the victim. 50-year-old high school math teacher, Michelle Long. Family members are already gathered around Michelle's truck, which is parked in front of her mailbox. Inside, Michelle's bloodied body is slumped over in the driver's seat. There, let me see where she is. She's still breathing, she's still breathing. There, let me jump in here. There, all of a sudden, if you catch the birds, the birds are here, all of a sudden. The birds are here, all of a sudden. It's farewell show, on Thanksgiving of the 1976 San Francisco. Paul McCartney, Paul Shawn, and Bart Brooks Hall. We're literally going to be making appearances in the sequel to this final death film. Oh, it's interesting, there's a lot of people on the screen, it's one of those. I don't know, I'd say something like this. And why didn't they say, oh, by the way, she would have been home. No, that's her mom, from her staff, her boyfriend. Okay. She should have been home, we're home. Exactly, house is hers. Right here. Oh, okay. All right. We have the ambulance. A squander, by the company there. You guys, you guys want to go over, we're all good with you guys, and we're here. We're not out of house. Well, why didn't everybody come, she should have been here about 4 o'clock. Yeah, if you want to go in on the house. Once Michelle's family is out of earshot, officers assess the situation. Yeah, I believe she's the same, I don't believe those self-inflicted. Paramedics arrive and pronounced Michelle dead at the scene. She's suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including at least one to her head. So it looks like she was shot for you to drive her sight and wind that. So she pulls up, so I'm, so just from what I already got her mail, the mail's like next. So she was put it in reverse, the back end, and then so somebody, through the window, through her head. All I could do, the other window, yeah, and print on the door, look like a struggle, all right, start, we need to find the casing, you guys back up. File officers secure the scene. Other investigators gather information from Michelle's sister Sarah Lewis and her boyfriend who made the call to 911. So you were the first here with who was the man with you? Robert Morris. Sarah tells officers that around 9 p.m., her mother Karen called her in a panic. Michelle was scheduled to pick up her son at 8 p.m. at his father's house, but she never showed. Karen tried calling Michelle several times, but Michelle never answered. She decided to pick up her grandson herself, and on the way there, she called Sarah and told her what was going on. That's not like my sister not to pick her son up, that's very out of character for her, so I jumped in my car and my slippers and I got here, we pulled up and I saw her truck sitting just as it is right there, no, in the lights were on. We put the smite block behind the wheel because we didn't want it to move, but it was setting still, setting that in reverse. The backup lights were on, but what did you first think you know about it? The window was busted out. Is there anyone out there that could have been there? No. I ran up to the door, and I was pounding on it, screaming at her, I couldn't see in there, anything because you wish to, I was pounding, pounding, pounding. I went to the other side, I couldn't see her, I was pounding, and then I saw the other hole because I thought maybe there was a rock, and then I saw the other hole, so I know it's a gunshot, we shot her, and then I was hitting, and so then I looked at her, we were broken once and I saw her, I saw her, I saw her, I saw her, I saw her, who else lives here? Her son, her ex-husband, they're going through a divorce right now, his father, he's on his way here. Who's the ex-husband? Bill Long. As they're talking, Bill Long arrives on scene. How are we doing here, sir? I have a few questions for you, we're under a medical as you can see that right here, if you have some ID, I would like that, get it through dispatching, and head over here in just a minute, we're asking questions, there's a lot going on right now. But Bill ignores the officer's request. He's in the house, he's fine. Meanwhile, officers continue speaking with Michelle's sister. Has there been any problems with anybody lately? Let's start with that first question, sorry, so they're bringing you up from speed. Her ex-husband? Okay. Elise learned that for the past several years, Bill and Michelle have been embroiled in a nasty divorce. With that information, an officer immediately pulls Bill aside to question him. Again, these questions are just all, we just got here in a little while ago, we're trying to make heads or tails of what's going on. We understand these rights as I've read them to you, but maybe I should get them a little at her. I was just going to ask you, the basic question, but the last time you saw her, talked to her, and I picked him up at school, and she walked out, I see her, but I didn't say a word. It turns out Michelle taught at the same high school her son attends. So that was earlier today? Two, three, I'm going to pick him up at school, two, three, four, three, four, three, okay. Who called you about coming here, like we notified you, sorry, okay? Well, if you want to give a statement, if that's fine, I know absolutely nothing. In addition to his lack of cooperation, the officer notices Bill doesn't seem upset about Michelle's death. I don't know, just a year, do I? Just for a little while longer, you can wait in the car, you don't know anything about the service, but other people, did you guys have anything like that whatsoever? No, we don't get along. You have heard of them, okay. You guys are getting divorced, correct? With that, Bill's done talking. Bill collects his son and prepares to leave the scene, until police spot a firearm inside his truck. We are telling the vehicle, yes, we're telling the vehicle and we're not taking a firearm right now. We're going to secure it. It's a firearm that goes out really, it's a firearm that a vehicle, a firearm inside a firearm. Police also sees his cell phone. As Michelle's body is removed from the scene and transported to the medical examiner's office, officers go door to door to see if any of Michelle's neighbors saw or witnessed anything suspicious. The only thing I heard was gunshots and it was about 545 subsequent. Yeah, so if you want to raise statement, you're living in this house. What do you say? I think it's 20 kilo and quarter of a six-hour two-boots. We would be shot into this type. And I would look, came out and I looked, the lights were blinking and everything, and I thought, "We'll spin the engine, brother." All right. So you're saying at 545 PM? Yeah. 40 to 50. Yeah, I want to be 5. Okay. 545. So I heard two booms, I looked at my watch and that's what it said. I got up to the window and I said, "Well, neighbors, fuck the bloody engine." "Blakers were flashing and everything." I thought, "Well, they're going to get help or something." And I knew reading. Got to walk down there and take a look. Next on the neighbor's statements, police surmised the shooting took place around 545 PM. But oddly, despite searching for hours, they're unable to locate any bullet casings around the crime scene. The next morning, the medical examiner performs Michelle's autopsy. In his report, he says Michelle was shot a total of five times. To detectives, this looks like overkill, which means the motive behind Michelle's murder was likely personal. And when officers sit down with Michelle's sister Sarah to get more insight into Michelle's She says the moment she discovered her sister's dead body, she knew exactly who was responsible. And I was screaming. He murdered her. Who's he? Bill Long. What what made you think it was Bill? He's threatened to kill her in the past. He was intoxicated at the time and I do have to say he said that he did apologize to my sister for saying that but it was the last straw that she knew that he was changing and not for the best. How so? Very angry, very volatile. I mean the relationship you could see just how he would treat her and make her cry. And Michelle and Bill were married. Is that right? Yes. How long were they married for? 20 years. And they just got recently divorced? Yes. One of those. All guess first it was finalized? Of this year. Of this year. Sarah says from the moment Michelle filed for divorce in 2022, Bill's animosity towards her amplified. Things got even worse when a judge ordered Bill to pay Michelle $100,000 as part of their divorce settlement. He made his ruling and Bill was supposed to pay her, get everything signed over and pay her the $100,000 within like a week. And well he had two weeks to contest, you know what the judgment was and then after that everything would have been owed. And then the very last day he could have contested the findings he contested which then held everything right to okay you're still then paying what you're paying but he quit paying the house payment, he quit paying everything. He was still supposed to be paying all these other things because he ended the content, you know he contested a divorce so none of that went and was all really all over the place. Bill is not himself. He really appears to have gone off the deep end for a long time now. What makes you say that? How so? What's changed in his behavior? It's not so much what has changed. It's more of what's intensified. Okay. Bill has always been a bit hotheaded. If you cross me, I'll cross you and his behaviors with my sister like putting her down for the past two years have steadily increased verbally. It was just so hurtful to hear it. I mean one time I was just sitting or crying because just hearing how you would say things. What would he say? You're stupid you can't even take care of anything. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to do anything and then he would start when it escalated, started bringing him into it. Your mom's so stupid isn't she? She's just dumb. Michelle's mother Karen corroborates Sarah's description of Bill and Michelle's toxic relationship. What kind of relationship did Michelle and Bill have? The nicest word is tough. She says things turned really dark in 2016 when Bill and Michelle suffered a devastating loss. Their oldest son Jacob died by suicide. Tell me so. Was that a turning point in their marriage? I don't know that it was it held. It didn't help. They're relationships obviously. Were things rocky between Michelle and Bill prior to that? I think always. Okay. Okay. Karen says after Michelle filed for divorce, she tried to keep things civil. She didn't want to go to court. She wanted to settle what do you call it? The solution? The solution. And so she worked out a agreement and Bill didn't agree with it. Of course I looked at it and I said I want you to kind of give him everything you're kind of forgetting yourself. But he wouldn't agree with that. He would not agree. This agreed on everything. And I kept saying, oh my gosh. Where's this mind? Because he's not thinking. If you go to court, he's losing, you know, but you he's not going to listen to me. And so anyways they end up going to court. Anything else you want to tell us? You didn't think of? No. I just want you to find the right person. I don't want to. It's exactly what we're trying to do. I don't want it to be myself. Because do you think he's capable of it? In my heart. I'm going to say no. In my head, good possibility. How much do you say that? Because he's angry. He's he's been hurt. He's angry. And as many times as he tried not agreeing on any of this, just vindictiveness, I see him. Michelle's family gives detectives handwritten letters that Michelle wrote to Bill. In one of the letters Michelle expresses her heart break over Bill's violent threats. Michelle's colleagues say she confided in them about these threats too. She shared with me last year that he had held a gun to her. I told her he was going to end her life. I had expressed to another coworker at the time that I was scared he was going to kill her. At the time she was going through a divorce with Bill. And she was telling me some of the things that were going on with the divorce. The worst thing that she ever mentioned about Bill was and again, this was in the middle of the proceedings. They had gone to dinner. They went to a dinner and at the time Bill had, according to Michelle, had promised to stop drinking. Well, they went to the restaurant and I guess he put on this big scene and said something like I'm going to kill you. Something along those lines. There should be an audio recording of that. She told me she had made a tape of that that she was going to give to her attorney. Michelle's attorney provides police with the recording from her cell phone. In the video, Bill berates her in front of their son. On the drive home from the restaurant, Bill continues to berate Michelle and things escalate. For detectives, after hearing this recording, there's no doubt Bill is their primary suspect. But now it's up to them to prove he pulled the trigger. The next day, police obtain a search warrant for Bill's residence and seize several items, including multiple electronics, more firearms, and boxes of ammunition. Bill is at home when the warrant is served. Once again, he declines to speak with police. He seems more concerned with getting his white truck back more than anything else. But the actual owner of the house, Bill's girlfriend of two years Leanne, does agree to talk. Do you know any of the details about Bill and Michelle's relationship? Not when they were together. I mean, I kind of tried to stay out of it, but I mean, it's common knowledge that it was a messy divorce. Have you ever heard of any threats towards Michelle? No, not towards her, but I mean, he said, "Nothing I've literally heard him say is the eyes of ask answer, but as far as never in a million years did it cross my mind that he's actually going to go kill Michelle." Did you ask Bill if he did it? I did. What did he say? He said, "What the f***ing person do you think I am?" Police shift their focus to Bill's timeline and whereabouts on the day of Michelle's murder. "I'm going to sing your day on Wednesday, November 29th." "I woke up at four when he was leaving for work, to make a buy. I want to work at 8.30, we talk, you know, we talk all day. I knew it was his day with me, so I said I'm going to run up tonight, I was going to go shopping, because they always hang out in the garage, that's what they do." "You just to clarify, when you say they were out at the garage, is that a garage that your residence on, or somewhere else?" "He has a garage that is, well, it's his dad's garage, but they work in their constant. I mean, that's what him and, so it's at his dad's place." "Yes." "Six o'clock? I called him. I went shopping, and I asked him what he wanted to know, what he wanted from Chick-fil-A. He had an answer on the phone, so I typed the sound. I said, "Is your dad in the garage?" and he said, "No." "So you had indicated that you tried to get a hold of Bill, and you were unable to?" "I called him at 6 o'clock, and he didn't answer the phone." "Okay. And then, what time did you establish contact with him again?" "I can't say exactly, if I had my phone, I'd show you, but I would say it was like ten till seven, he called me." "Is it uncommon for him to miss your calls?" "He does, but he'd normally call me right back. I mean, if they're working in the garage or whatever. And sometimes, he'll leave it, like, say, even ask, and I said, "Did he leave his phone in the garage?" "Because he does that sometimes." "The phone is not in the garage," she said. "Yeah, I said, I asked him," I said, "Did he leave the phone in the garage?" He said, "No." "Well, thanks, though." And I did text my daughter in the meantime, too, I forgot. I said I'd bail him and she said, "No." Leanne says when Bill called her back, he offered up an explanation. "I was mad at him because he told me when he called me, I said, "Where are you?" He said, "Some screen around in the garage, and I said, "Bull," said you're not out of the garage, which is the half-hour difference or whatever. And he said, "Bull, Momo's there." He said, "I had to run a home and text you." I was like, "Well, I was pissed off at him because he lied to me. I said, "Why are you lied to me?" He said, "It's like I didn't." He said, "I just. Nothing was a big deal." He said, "That's what we've been doing, which they had been." When police meet with Michelle's son, he vouches for his dad, confirming that after Bill picked him up after school, they went to the garage. But he also admits that sometime around 5 p.m., Bill left for a little while. "Do you recall your father leaving?" "Yeah. Did he tell you why he was going into town?" "I think. I think he said he was just going to Lans for whatever reason." Has your dad talked to you about what he did when he was at Lans? "I don't know. I don't know. I took his white truck and left, but it's hot right now." Lianne told police her daughter was home that afternoon, and didn't see Bill. So detectives interview her, too. "All right. What can you tell me about last Wednesday?" "Well, I was home all day after school. I got home at like 3 o'clock, and Bill wasn't around all day. He might have showed up after school, but I just went to our rooms. But if he did, he would follow like two or three minutes." "Okay." "I didn't see him at all until I left at like 6'10, and he wasn't there when I left." "And help me understand like what you were doing in the house from I guess 3 to 6'10." "I was just sitting in my room cleaning pretty much." "Okay. Would you have noticed if anyone came home?" "Yeah, because my room is right where the driveway is. I would have heard it and heard the door shut." "Did you hear anyone use the restroom during that time period?" "No." "So you're certain you didn't see William Long?" "No, not at all that day." Like everyone else, Lianne's daughter says Bill's hatred of Michelle was an open secret, but she also reveals new information. "He used to keep a like an old pistol revolver, everything in his drawer. And that night, I knocked on the line, I did go in and look in his nightstand, and it wasn't in there." "Okay, I appreciate you telling me that. When's the last time you had seen the revolver in the home?" "Probably month ago." The detectives obtain a list of Bill and Michelle's divorce assets. In those documents, it includes Bill's extensive firearm collection. One of the firearms listed is a 44-magnum revolver. But Bill's revolver was not the firearm police seized from inside his truck at the crime scene. And it wasn't part of the firearms seized from Lianne's house either. According to Bill's lawyer, Bill says he sold it, which only adds to detective suspicions that Bill is behind Michelle's murder. As detectives continue uncovering more information, one of Bill's close friends reveals he spoke with Bill on the afternoon of Michelle's murder, and just so happened to see him on his way home. "The last time would have been the night I get that night because I got off work, it was like I left here about five after five, I was going down 164, I was on the phone with him and I was like, is that you, Billy? And the truck?" "Mm-hmm." "He's like, yeah." "You know?" "It was a, it was a, it wasn't that long of a conversation, I just said, oh, what do you eat on?" "You know, just taking this truck out for, you know, ride because it sets." "Okay." "You know, it was one, the older truck, his other truck, not the white one." Detectives learn Bill owns another truck, a 2005 Blue Chevrolet. Bill's friend pulls out his cell phone and shows detectives his call log. "Yeah, okay, I'm looking here now." "Okay, would have been, last time would have been November 29th, 508, seven minutes and 30 seconds." Police obtain a search warrant and sees Bill's Blue Chevrolet from his father's house. But the search of this truck doesn't turn up any new evidence. However, using the information provided by Bill's friend, as well as information gathered from previous interviews and phone records, police start to build a timeline. Based on Michelle's son's statements, Bill left his dad's garage around 5pm. At 5.08pm, Bill spoke with his friend for seven minutes and 30 seconds. During the call, Bill's friend saw Bill drive past him on Route 164 in his Blue Chevy truck. At 5.45pm, Michelle's neighbors reported hearing gunshots. At 5.54pm, Leanne called Bill. He did not pick up. At 5.58pm, Leanne called Bill again. He did not pick up. Then at 6.12pm, Bill called Leanne back. Police also mapped the driving distance between Bill's father's garage and Michelle's house. Detectives search for security cameras along Route 164 and make a key discovery. On November 29th at 5.17pm, a business along Route 164 has cameras that captured Bill's Blue Chevrolet truck heading northbound in the direction of Michelle's house. Then at 6.15pm, those same cameras captured Bill's Blue Chevrolet truck heading southbound towards his father's garage. Based on the footage and the timeline evidence, detectives are confident Bill left the garage, drove to Michelle's house, shot her, then drove back to the garage. As detectives continue building their case against Bill, Michelle's family and friends gather to pay tribute to her life. In one of many loving tributes, Michelle is remembered as a devoted mother and "always kind, intelligent, and helpful to everyone. This earth has lost a beautiful soul." Once go by and Bill long remains a free man, despite all the evidence that points to his guilt, police are still missing a key piece of the puzzle, the murder weapon. So they go back and restage their crime scene. Using a metal detector, police locate a spent bullet projectile on the property across the street from Michelle's house. Ballistics testing confirms it's from a 44 magnum revolver, the exact same weapon Bill used to own. As the investigation heats up, one of Bill's friends comes forward and recounts a chilling comment Bill made to him in the spring of 2023. "Every time I talk to him, he's squealed about how to pay her element, and how she kept these stuff. He's very angry about this, and when we talked about it, then he, a few more words out of his mouth was, "If I don't get my way in court this time, I'm just going to shoot her, and let the county in the state take care of me and let him figure out that I did it." He said that he was going to shoot her, her being Michelle, his wife, ex-wife, and - This one's left the state here who overtake Kara. Is that right? - That's right, take care of me, yeah. - Okay, put me in jail and take care of me. He was all upset about having to pay her out. - Even without the murder weapon, detectives are now confident they've got their killer. In May of 2024, Bill Long is arrested and charged with aggravated murder, murder, and discharging a firearm upon a roadway. He pleads not guilty. In February of 2026, the case heads to trial and Bill takes the stand to proclaim his innocence. After six days of testimony, the jury reaches a verdict. - All right, Mr. Long, please stand. As to count one, aggravated murder, the verdict reads, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of aggravated murder in violation of Ohio Vice Code Section 2903.01a being an unclassified felony. All 12 jurors signatures are contained on that verdict. Count two, murder, the jury verdict reads, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in violation of Ohio Vice Code Section 2903.02a, being an unclassified felony. All 12 jurors signatures are contained with the four-person signing twice. - The jury also finds Bill guilty on the firearm charges and the judge sentences him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 14 to 17 years to be served consecutively for the firearm charges. After the verdict, judge Megan Bickerton comments, quote, "People think what could I have done to protect Michelle so she was here today?" Because that's the most tragic part of it, is that she can't come back. (upbeat music)