The Betrayal of Kirby Carpenter

Tonight on Deadline, he said there has been a deceased male found. I could hear my mom screaming, my baby, I behavior. I knew it was Kirby. He was an entrepreneur. Yes, he did a golden silver business. When we say that he would carry cash around, this is not your average amount of cash. No, several hundred thousand dollars is what I've been told. I do believe that his business could have made him a target. You two put up cameras and we caught him cutting one of the camera cables. David Barnes was a petty thief who had worked for Kirby. We could clearly tell that he knew more than he was telling us. There was a lot more secrets in my home than I realized. You think it's the entire family who were all involved? Yes. I felt my life was in danger. The betrayal would be incredible. The betrayal is incredible. He had a great eye for gold and antiques, but did he miss the killer right under his nose? I'm Lester Holt and this is Deadline. Here's Andrea Canning with the betrayal of Kirby Carpenter. At the northernmost edge of Mississippi, you'll find Tippa County, where rolling hills melt into lush forests and green pastures. At its heart, the county seat of Ripley, home to just over 5,000 people. One of those people who always stood out was entrepreneur, Kirby Carpenter. Kirby, he lived so big. He dreamed big. Taken the world by the horns. Yes, the world was his. You know, that's how he lived. His store, Mississippi Gold Silver and Coin Exchange, like its owner, drew a lot of attention. At just 36 years old, Kirby was a self-made millionaire, an extraordinary achievement in this modest Mississippi town. Casey Barnes is Kirby's sister. He was one of those people that, if you were out in a mountain town, you're going to run into him. Well liked. Very well. Casey says the family was proud of Kirby's success, and he often shared it with them. On Thanksgiving Day, 2022, he hosted them at his sprawling country home. Kirby's mom, Maddie Jane Jones, lived a few miles away. It was great that day. Everybody was just happy to be together. We had traditionally always had Thanksgiving at moms, but Kirby and Kaitlyn were adamant that we have it at his house. Kaitlyn Spence was Kirby's girlfriend. We lived together and had just welcomed a newborn baby named Anola. Kaitlyn's parents, Jeff and Karen, were staying with them to help out, and the two families celebrated the holiday together. It was warm enough for us to eat outside. We spoke to Turkey. We baked to Turkey. Maddie Jane brought the cornbread dressing over. Then it was time to say good night. Did everything seem fine? It did seem fine. Casey remembers her brother looking happy as they headed out to their cars. Waving to me from the garage, his hair just so, you know, in the nice outfits that he always wore. Just eight days later, a Friday afternoon, Kaitlyn was outside with baby Anola when she made a terrible discovery. I was coming down the hill when you come around the bend. You can see the back of our house. That's when I saw the tarp blowing that was over Kirby's body. And I saw his cowboy boots. And it hit me. I remember going to my knees. I remember getting, you know, like just immediately dialing 9-1-1. Are you telling my knees past the way? It's McAllister, chief investigator with the Tippa County Sheriff's Department, arrived at the scene. What do you see when you arrive here? Several officers, sheriff was out here. So this is already an active crime scene? It is. The first thing I saw was his cowboy boots sticking out from underneath a curtain. Over the curtain was a truck toolbox. There were several loader truck toolboxes that were stacked up as well. Do you think holding it down so it would blow away? That's what I think it was to keep the wind from blowing it away. Investigator McAllister is also the county corner. I examined the body and I saw a shotgun blast to the neck, shoulder area, chest area. Casey was at lunch when her phone rang. A horrible, horrible phone call. Yes, it was a first responder from the fire department. He didn't have to say much because I could hear my mom screaming in the background. And I didn't know what had happened but I knew something terrible had happened. Are you being told what is happening? No, I'm not being told anything. When I seen the officer standing there and I just took off running. Running where? To where they were standing. I saw a lot of blood, dry blood. It looked like leather. It was just like this from here down. It's so hard to see. His eyes was open looking at me. It happened at a curvy or his head. Most beautiful blue eyes. His final moments must have been of such fear. That's the part that is how it's been so bad. Because in each time curvy, even when he was a little bit boy, every needed help. And my mom always helped. And you couldn't help him this time. No matter what, I couldn't help him that time. As the grief set in, Maddie Jane turned to the question that mattered most. Who killed Kirby? Did you make a pact with yourself in that moment that you were going to find out who did this and that they were going to pay? I said two things. I will not rest. Until the tight my last breath, I will fight it. No matter what. Kirby's family would do whatever it took to get justice. But the closer they got to answers, the more painful the truth would become. I said, Carolyn, there's a good chance I'm going to die this morning. If I go down, just call 911 and run for cover. There is a man sitting in jail with a secret who is about to turn this case upside down. Be quiet, keep your mask shut, but you could be next. Kirby's family says that you are a cold-blooded killer and you did this out of greed. [thunder] As lead investigator, Chris McHallister continued to look into Kirby's murder, he made an important discovery. Kirby's body had been moved. It appeared to be drag marks that they were right in this area right here. A body being dragged? Yes, that's what it looked like. Since you're thinking he's been moved, where do you think he was actually shot? They're leaving this car port. So he would have been maybe getting out of his truck coming in here? Yes. Do you think someone was waiting for him then? I do. He had his keys in his hand. When he got out, I'm supposed to go in like the door. We found his keys laying beside a garbage can that had been turned over. Law enforcement secured the crime scene and asked Kirby's family to leave while they collected evidence. His sister, Casey, could barely bring herself to go. I just couldn't leave him with people who didn't know him and didn't love him. It's like you had been protecting him, you know, as the big sister, and now here you were, and protecting him in a different way. Yeah. Casey had always looked out for Kirby, the little brother with the big personality. He was full of life from the time he was little until the time that his life was taken. Kirby had a big family, two half sisters on his mom's side, and three half brothers on his dad's. Robbie Carpenter is Kirby's younger brother. How close? Very close. Very close. He was someone I looked up to, I admired him. He was one of a kind in our area. He wasn't afraid to be who he was. He knew how to keep everybody entertained. When he walked in the room, he was the sinner. And everybody knew it. Music. Music. Lots and lots and lots of songs. After high school, Kirby joined the Marines. He graduated from basic training, but his military career was cut short due to a heart defect. That disappointment didn't hold him back. He learned how to trade gold and silver, and became an expert, buying and selling all kinds of antiques, from guitars to old movie scripts. He knew everything about everything. He was like a walkin' in the soccer media. He's a jack of all trades. And a master of money, I always said, usually you'll hear everybody say, "Hey, he's a jack of all trades, master of none." No, this is the opposite. Hey, you're right. Kirby had bought the original manuscript from the Blazing Saddles movie. We don't need no thinking budgets. From years and years ago, yes. He was so excited, and I remember him getting frustrated with us because we weren't as excited as he was about it. Was there anything Kirby didn't try to sell or create a business out of? Right, he could move a dollar bill for sure. He was good at it. That's what I admired most about him. I wouldn't call it a hustle, but it was a clean hustle. The district attorney Ben Creekmore often spent time at Kirby's Store on Main Street. If we ever had a trial at the conclusion of the trial, waiting on the jury to come back, a lot of times I would take a walk around downtown, I would go in Kirby's Store and see what interesting finds the day it has. Kind of did you just decompress for a moment when you were waiting for the verdict? Plus I play guitar and he loved music, he loved the old vintage guitars. By 2020, he had a small town empire. He owned the Golden Silver Shop, a liquor store and a stay-couse diner. Kirby at a former girlfriend shared custody of a son named Towns. But he still had not found the one. Then along came Caitlin, raised in Pennsylvania. She moved to Mississippi to go to vet school. But changed course and worked her way up to manager of a tractor supply company store. It happened to be right next door to Kirby's liquor store. My team and he conspired for him to obtain my number. I wasn't looking to date anybody, but he was very charming and magnetic. And so we started dating. Could he be romantic? Very. In our early dating, I mean, he certainly swept me off my feet. She was down to ours, a country girl like all of us. We feel like she was good for Kirby and Kirby was good for her. We just feel like she was part of the family. And Kirby got along with Caitlin's parents, Jeff and Karen, who were living with them to lend a hand with baby Anola. How is Kirby as a dad? My favorite thing to think about is Kirby as a dad. A typical happy-doting father is how I would describe him. Towns and Anola were his world. Once you got a boy and then you have that girl, it's like it gives you calming. And I've seen that calming in Kirby. I think he was happy to be able to have his son, who he loved very much and a little girl to love on. Now, his two children were left without a father. And investigators had to turn Kirby's life inside out. They started with his businesses, which were primarily cash-based. Kirby was known to carry two things on him at all times. His pistol and a satchel full of money. Both were missing from the scene. No, several hundred thousand dollars is what I've been told in. You know, possibly gold, silver and stuff he's traded for. At one time. At one time. There could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yes. Investigator McAllister thought maybe this was a robbery that turned violent. Or maybe a business deal that went south. He scoured the scene for clues and found something promising. Security cameras everywhere. What would they reveal? This is like a gold mine potentially. It is, it is. Kirby Carpenter was known to carry valuables with him when he was out. And inside his home, he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coins and collectibles. McAllister had to consider whether Kirby's killer came to rob him. But a few clues at the scene gave him pause. So it's becoming clear that whoever did this, you know, went to some effort to move the body and to hide him. Yes. Which kind of flies in the face a little bit of a robbery. It does. I would think whoever robbed somebody and shot and killed him would have got out of there as fast as they could. They wouldn't have took the time to try to move his body. And what kind of robber would leave this? When we checked, Kirby's pockets found about $2,800 cash. Then the investigator spotted something he hoped would change the entire investigation. Security cameras inside and outside Kirby's house. Multiple angles. It is, it is, but our look doesn't work that way. What happened when you started looking to see if you could find the footage? The sink box, we could not find anywhere. This is the sink box is what connects, like the collects all the footage for all the cameras. He had a blank system and it has a sink box that records what's on the video and could not find the sink box. A dead end, he got to work creating a timeline to figure out when Kirby was murdered. Putting on your coroner's hat, what observation did you make? That he had been here a while. It had rained, it had been, been a storm. Looking to his body, told me he had been here probably a couple of days. Then, McAllister looked inside Kirby's truck. Stuff everywhere. There were several guns and receipts from different stores, including the local grocery store. It's the strangest thing we found with four lamb chops. From Kroger? Yes. Okay, so this is dinner, it sounds like. Security video captured Kirby at the grocery store Wednesday at 6.11pm. He was wearing the same clothes when he was found dead two days later. McAllister concluded that Kirby was killed as he returned home from Kroger. That timeline made sense with what Caitlin said when she was interviewed by an investigator at the scene. She told the investigator that before finding his body, she hadn't seen Kirby for two days. But Caitlin says it wasn't unusual for him to disappear. You say there was another side to Kirby, while he could be fun and loving. There was a darker side to him. Yes, I say Kirby one and Kirby two because they were complete opposites of each other. Kirby could be a really hard man. He had very high highs and very low lows. He would stay out late or not talk to you for a time. Yes, he would often go out at night and when he came home would be when he came home. She says one of Kirby's bad moods started after the Thanksgiving weekend. Her parents, who had been there for months helping with the baby, had packed up and left to go home to Virginia. We had to get back to real life and Kirby did not want to deal with real life on Tuesday night. So he shut me out, went into his bedroom and stopped talking to me for the night. So Wednesday was strained between us. She told investigators that later that evening she was running an errand at Walmart with baby Anola and texted Kirby about dinner, but didn't hear back. I asked him if he wanted to have Chinese because I was right there and I got no reply. She says she didn't leave Walmart right away. Before I left to go home, I breastfed Anola in the parking lot. So you come home from town, is Kirby back yet? Kirby's truck was in the driveway, but all the lights in the house were out. The house was locked, but when I went inside, nothing was out of place. Where are you thinking Kirby is at this point? I thought he was down at his cousins. We're close enough to his cousins that somebody could have come and picked him up. She says she put the baby to bed and then went to sleep herself. I wake up and no Kirby in the house. Do you reach out to him that morning to see if you can find him? Does he respond? No, he does not respond. When he wasn't replying to me, I reached out to his mother and his sister. Have you heard from him? Have anyone heard of him? And they have not heard from him. On Friday, Caitlin called Kirby's mom again. I finally just pinpoint, ask her, Kate, when is the last time you seen Kirby? She said Wednesday morning before I went to work. I said that's two knots ago. So that's not sitting right with you? No. Are you getting worried at this point? Yes, I said him angry text messages. I said him frustrated, upset, new mother text messages. Caitlin, so she went outside with the baby and climbed the hill behind their house looking for Kirby. On the way back down, while on the phone with Maddie Jane, Caitlin found Kirby and made the 911 call. Are you suspecting her at all? She's the significant other. Was there concerns about her? I had concerns about her. You want to know more? Yes. Investigators went to the Walmart where Caitlin said she was that Wednesday night. They pulled the store's security video. What do you see on the footage? Really, obviously, if you're entering the store and then when she exits the store, she goes and sits on her vehicle and she stays there for a significant time. The video shows Caitlin sitting in her car where she says she breastfed Anola. That meant Caitlin wasn't home when Kirby was killed. Her alibi checked out. And pretty soon investigators were looking in a different direction. Courtesy of something Maddie Jane found. So there's a note that could potentially point to his killer. Right. Long before Kirby Carpenter was shot dead on his own property, his brother Robbie says Kirby was haunted by a premonition. When he started getting wealthy, he just had just feeling that someone someday would come and try. Try to take what he had. We'll take it. That's an omen when you think about him. Right. Being that concerned? Mm-hmm. When he went to Duke Olden Silver Deals, I would go along with him. You know, I'm like sure nothing went wrong with that. Yeah. I had his back. Re-Sister Casey says his business had him negotiating with strangers all the time. He might have someone call him and want to meet, to look at coins, to look at gold, to look at silver. Or he might. run up on a deal on Facebook and go meet someone to purchase something and he would have the cash on hand to pay for those things. Was it the nature of Kirby's business that he would have arguments with people inevitably because of, you know, he's not working out a shoe store? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, because it was large amounts of money exchanged between people. Money causes disagreements. Absolutely. I do believe that his business could have made him a target, for sure. He was a hard man. He didn't mince words. And he was confrontational. During her conversation with investigators the day Kirby's body was found. Caitlin described a recent confrontation Kirby had over a business deal. He had a conversation over speaker phones with a guy that bought his liquor store. Monday or Tuesday of this week. That man's name was Ray Palmer. He and a small group of investors had bought Arrow, had wine and spirits from Kirby. So, it was almost a year since he had sold the liquor store and Kirby had been back and forth with him throughout the whole year on, you know, trying to collect. Ray and his investors still owed Kirby close to $200,000. Kirby had decided that he was done waiting and that he was going to call in the loans. Kirby got a hold of Ray, put the phone call on speaker phone. Had Ray threatened Kirby that you know of? Yes, he threatened Kirby Tuesday night. This is before he was killed. The Tuesday before he was killed, yes. He said, "Kirby, this is the kind of money that families get hurt over." A little over 24 hours later, Kirby was dead. The timing of this fight happening just before Kirby is killed. Right. Definitely has to peak your interest. Right, it did. Special agent Josh Jarvis with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation joined the case. "In any time, of course, when it's a large amount of money, you need to talk to that person, either to eliminate them or to see, you know, did this person have anything to do with it." Agent Jarvis tracked him down. Palmer admitted owing Kirby the money, but denied making any kind of physical threat. And as alibi, Palmer said he was at the liquor store the night Kirby was killed. "We felt totally comfortable that he was telling us the truth, had nothing to do with it, he was at work, the day that it happened." But Palmer wasn't the only person Kirby was feuding with. As Maddie Jane discovered, when she found a note her son left behind, it described a dust up with a man named David Hancock. David Hancock is another person that Kirby may have had a strained relationship with. "Mr. Hancock is the person that Kirby had purchased the diner from, the little steakhouse diner that he had in Dumas. There was a squabble between the two of them. Mr. Hancock said that Kirby had owed him some money." So Kirby's relationship with David Hancock was so bad that he actually left a note? Right. He left a note that, you know, that David had threatened him. Kirby felt threatened enough. "Well, he wanted it that night." "Just in case." "He wrote it down." "Right." "Yes." In the note, Kirby describes a nasty call from Hancock. He stated that he was going to see me in the street and shoot me in the face. David also stated that he had friends in Ripley that would drag me out in the street and shoot me and leave me laying. Is this something that the police are told about? "Oh, really? Well, they knew it real quick. I made sure that they sang it." According to Kirby's note, Hancock wasn't the only one out to kill him. He wrote, "David states that Adam Gates also has intent to take my life. Adam Gates was a tow truck operator who Casey says had a beef with Kirby, too." "Carby had made comments to us about he and Adam being into it, so to speak. I believe that at one point, some kind of confrontation occurred between Kirby and Adam." Investigator McAllister knew Adam Gates from around town. He also knew there was no way Gates could be Kirby's killer. "Adam was deceased by the time before Kirby was ever killed." That left David Hancock. Investigators needed to find him. This could be your man with a note like that. This could be big. "Could be. Yes." Two weeks after Kirby's murder, family and friends said they're goodbyes. Did you feel the love from this small community? "Absolutely. I could not describe the support and the love that we received. The community was just, you know, they were just they are surrounding us for both the visitation and the funeral." A funeral that was pure Kirby. "Carby loved music, and so we played songs that we knew Kirby loved. There is a blues singer from our area." He actually came and played a couple songs and sang. "How did you feel on that day? How did I. I felt numb. It was a blur for to me. Not a good day, not where you want to be, not where you want to see your partner, you know, playing in a casket." Kaitlyn turned to her parents, Jeff and Karen for support. They driven back to Mississippi and were there for the funeral. Kirby's loved ones were understandably on edge. "The preacher stood there and told us that day. He said I honestly believe the person that killed Kirby is going to be sitting under my voice today." "We were scared. We felt very unsafe. We didn't know who it was. Better scary." "Very scary." On investigators list of potential suspects, one of the men Kirby called out in that note, Maddie Jane, found. Restaurant owner David Hancock. This could be big. "Could be. Yes." Investigators very much wanted to talk to him, and David Hancock wasn't hard to find. "He came to share his office one day." On his own, or did you call him in? "Her Kirby was killed. He came up there on his own." "On his own." "Want to know how he would go about getting his $2,500 out of Kirby's estate." "Really?" "Yes." "If he's the killer, would he really be coming by the sheriff's department, looking for not that much money?" "Exactly. I mean, if I killed somebody and they owed me $2,500, I wouldn't come to the sheriff's department trying to figure out what I needed to do to get my $2,500. I wouldn't be anywhere around." "What's more, whoever killed Kirby left at least that much money right at the scene?" "Curbie had $2,800 in his pocket. That was more enough to cover the debt." "To cover the debt, that's exactly right." McAllister crossed Hancock off his list. The business deal gone wrong theory was not panning out, leaving Kirby's killer still at large. Since the murder, Caitlin was still living at Kirby's house and her parents were staying there too. Even though Caitlin and Kirby had not been married, it was home for her and the baby. "I think that we were all scared for her at that point. There is someone out there who killed Kirby, and what if they're still somewhere close by." Kirby's family went by the house. While they were there, Casey and Maddie Jane began to collect a few of Kirby's things. That's when the relationship between the two families who should have been united in grief began to unravel. Maddie Jane discovered the combinations to several of Kirby's safes no longer worked. "The codes?" "They'd been changed." "They're not working." "You are the only person he trusted with the combinations." "I was the only person that had the combination of that." Outside of Kirby. "Yes." Then in the driveway, she noticed something. Caitlin's dad, Jeff, had backed his Cadillac right up to the garage door. "Something just tells me pop his trunk." And I opened that corridor and reached straight down and popped the trunk. And he had it loaded down with Kirby's silver. "Like." "Jeff Spence." "Yes." "This car was full." "Yes." "Of silver." "He sure was." "So shocking to you?" "Shocking." That's an understatement. Caitlin says her dad was not stealing the silver, but protecting it. She admits she changed the safe codes and says that when Kirby's family started taking things from the house, her dad was worried baby Anola would not get what was rightfully hers. "My dad had decided that at this rate there would be nothing left for the kids. And he had removed items. And I mean, he hadn't removed them from the property. They were, you know, put in his car in our driveway." "Your dad gets the idea to record some of this?" "Yes." "Why did he have that idea?" "Because we didn't know where it was going. Because items were being taken out of the house." In the video, Jeff could be heard talking about Kirby's mom, Maddie Jane, while Casey is crying. "Maddie's grieving, but this is not the way to handle it." He said, "Now, Maddie, we don't need you down here causing problems. And I was like, what is going on?" "This is Kirby's house." "Exactly." That says mom. Kirby's family took the silver out of Jeff's trunk and called the sheriff's office. The time we went out there, we called the county prosecute and attorney. And he basically said that that part was civil, that we couldn't get involved. Would everybody, you know, leave everything where it is?" "You're trying to solve a murder and then you've got these two families feuding." "Right." "This was getting messy." "It was." And would get even messier. The families learned Kirby hadn't left a will. We hired an estate attorney. We wanted to ensure that everything that was left from Kirby was left for Inola and Towns, not who knows what done with by the Spinses. The court put Maddie Jane in charge of Kirby's estate, including the home he shared with Caitlin. And then, Caitlin, the baby and her parents left for Virginia. Within a couple days after Kirby's funeral, Caitlin and Inola left. And within those first few weeks, we had some communication with Caitlin and she would communicate back. And then eventually, all communication just stopped. Yeah, that's your news. Yes, and so we were worried about Inola. We couldn't hear from Inola. We felt like, you know, if Kate loved Kirby the way she said she did, why was she not trying to fight with us and get answers? Caitlin says she was grieving and overwhelmed as a single mother to a newborn baby. And if there was a lack of communication with Kirby's family, she says it's because they became adversarial toward her. Still, Kirby's family was growing impatient with the Spinses and the investigation. I didn't think nothing was moving fast enough. But Maddie Jane kept moving and pretty soon she would find another piece of evidence for investigators to look at. One that just might tell the real story. I knew it had to be an entire job to him. With Caitlin, Jeff and Karen back in Virginia, Kirby's mother began to clean out her son's house. In the safe room, she found something detectives had been looking for. The missing sink box that recorded video from the home security cameras. Okay, we're getting somewhere. Yes. What happens when you analyze it and you take a look? The thumb drive that should have been in error record was gone. No thumb drive. So you needed the actual. I needed the actual thumb drive. Physical thumb drive. I did. But it was not a complete dead end. The missing thumb drive convinced investigators that someone had taken it to cover their tracks. And that meant he or she was likely someone who knew a lot about Kirby, including how to get inside his house. You think whoever did this actually had a key to the house? Had a key or a new word of spare key was. That's narrowing down your potential suspect list. It is. I knew it was an inside job. I knew it had to be an inside job day. Caitlin and her parents all had easy access to the house. But Caitlin was at Walmart when Kirby was killed. And Jeff and Karen Spence had left Mississippi in their Cadillac for Virginia the day before the murder. How did you confirm that? The Cadillac was on the tag reader in Knoxville, Tennessee, the night before Kirby's murder. Which is on the way back to Virginia. All we could do was sit and think about who did this and talk about who did this. The more they talked, the more Casey and Matty Jane found themselves circling back to Caitlin's death. The fact that Jeff loaded his trunk up with bags and bags of Kirby's silver. It's almost like he saw opportunity there and he took what he wanted. McHallister was also thinking about the Spenses and took a closer look at Jeff's and Karen's alibis. He pulled their phone records to check their whereabouts around the time of the murder. Karen's cell was clearly in Virginia but he couldn't confirm a location for Jeff's. His phone he was only constantly except for like, soft face at Earth about sometime on the 29th and it didn't pop back on until later on like the fourth or fifth. And that's before and after. Yes. Kirby was killed. Yes. It was very little activity. There was some activity but very little. Suspicious but not proof of anything. So investigators and district attorney Ben Creekmore who had joined the case set out to uncover everything they could about the Spenses. They quickly learned Jeff at one point a professional deer breeder had an unusual criminal history. He had already been arrested for a felony crime up north for stealing a million dollar deer. Who does that? Yeah I mean it's a strange crime. The deer was an enormous white-tailed buck named Goliath worth a million dollars because of its breeding potential. Jeff served nine months in jail for stealing the deer from another breeder. I just looked up to him and felt like he was my great father. This is Carolyn O'Waio. Jeff and Karen's other daughter. She says growing up she believed her dad was wrongfully convicted. I wrote him a letter every day because I felt like this is an innocent man just sitting in jail right now because they couldn't find the guy that did it. Both Carolyn and Caitlin say their mom and dad were good parents. Overall a lot of my memories of my childhood are just you know happy family. A Dillock childhood exactly. My mom and dad were very active in our lives. I would say a very close-loving relationship. Were they at all your sporting events or activities, things like that? Oh yes. I taught Sunday school where soccer coaches swim coaches. The sisters grew up in Pennsylvania where mom Karen worked as a nurse and Jeff tried his hand at everything from the deer breeding to landscaping to beekeeping. Did your dad ever have a regular job or was it kind of a little of this a little of that? A little of this a little of that who'd get something started and then it just never seemed to last very long as far as before something fell apart. G-O-Waio, a former police officer with the Marines is Carolyn's husband. He got along great with his in-laws. I thought I hit the jackpot. It was something out of like what you would see off of like everybody loves Raymond where like they were the sweet polite couple. Soon after YouTube got married Jeff and Karen started having some pretty serious financial issues. Yes ma'am very very soon. The newlyweds suggested they come live with them. So I was like let's do that for a little while and we can help them find a place and help them settle in somewhere they'll they'll be comfortable with like once they've recovered a little bit from this setback. A little while stretched into more than a year. The parents even tagged along after Carolyn and G-O found their dream home. A log cabin on 10 acres of land in Virginia. You felt so close to them that you offered for them to build a house on your property. Absolutely. It sounded like a perfect scenario. They would they would have their own place. What could go wrong? Apparently everything. And I said Carolyn there's a good chance I'm going to die this morning. If I go down just call 911 and run for cover. Before Kirby's murder his girlfriend Caitlin's parents Jeff and Karen's spends had been staying with them very much like years earlier when they moved in with their other daughter Carolyn and her husband Gio. Carolyn says that arrangement was a mistake that nearly cost them everything. You don't ever really imagine that your parents have a second life. It all started when Jeff began construction on a house on their property. Carolyn and Gio say he hired a contractor without getting a written proposal or contract putting the couple at risk for fines. They say they confronted him about it. This doesn't go well though, right? No. As we were talking he was increasingly irritated, agitated. Like he was very upset at both of us. There's an anger in his eyes that I'm just not even understanding the level of like hatred at that point. Was this the dad you knew? No. He said you know your mom and I are out. We're done. You guys figure it out. Jeff and Karen abruptly quit the construction project. Leaving Carolyn and Gio on the hook for about $175,000 to fix the mess. By then the parents had moved to another location but it wasn't the last Carolyn and Gio would see of Jeff. Then the sabotage started happening. They say he came back to vandalize their property. You two put up cameras. Were you catching some things that you know could be considered disturbing? Yes. He went behind the shed and we caught him cutting one of the camera cables. We had tied the gate so he just cut it and then opened up the gate to go back into the back of our property. Then he dismantled the gate all together. Carolyn and Gio called the sheriff's office. That led to a falling out with her sister Kaitlyn. She said did you call the cops on dad? I said yes, she said I've heard enough and hung up the phone. Jeff Spence was arrested for destruction of property and trespassing but the military police officer and Gio made him wonder if his father-in-law was up to something more sinister. He thought back on a tense conversation he says he had with Jeff about the construction issues and right after that Jeff proposed this. He said we want to get a million dollar life insurance policy on you that we will be happy to pay for. That's unusual. That's a weird transition. We just kind of had a little mini argument and then you asked to put a million dollar life insurance policy on me. So at this point I felt my life was in danger. I felt like he was going to find a way to take me out. He was an avid hunter, a marksman. Gio says one morning in particular left him on high alert. There was a tree or log put across the driveway at a 90 degree angle. I know what an ambush looks like. I went back inside and I said Carolyn there's a good chance I'm going to die this morning. There's no way to know how the log got there or why. Later, the couple got a no-contact order against Jeff. In exchange, the trespassing and destruction charges were dismissed. Carolyn and Geo moved, and out of fear they didn't tell anyone, including Caitlin, where they were living. But when Carolyn heard her sister was pregnant, she reached out. When we talked, it was strictly about, you know, the baby coming. I'm thinking that, you know, this is just a time to support her. After Anola was born, they found out that Jeff and Karen were staying with Caitlin and Kirby. In my mind, I was like, do I call them and warn them about who his father-in-law or potential father-in-law is? Yeah, did you? No. To my regret, to my shame, I didn't make the call. How did you get the news that Kirby was dead and what were you told? One day, I felt like the Lord was speaking to me, and he said, go ahead and look him up. So I opened the phone and I just googled his name and my stomach just dropped. And the first words, I just uttered out of my mouth to Carolyn. I said, Carolyn, they killed him. Carolyn, did you call Caitlin right away to ask her what happened? Are you okay? Yes, I need to find out. If Kate's okay, if Anola's okay, so I called and I called again, she's not picking up. They say they followed the police investigation for a few weeks and then took action. We decided to share the information we had and show the parallels we saw of what happened to us and then what happened to Kirby. The couple wrote an anonymous letter to law enforcement, urging investigators to look closely at Jeff and Karen. They accused them of a string of financial crimes and wrote this. Please ensure due diligence and investigate this couple so they do not harm any other person. That letter really indicated to law enforcement that they're on the right track. Carolyn and Geo didn't stay anonymous for long. They eventually reached out to both Kirby's family and investigator McAllister. I told him what we knew about him and then what we had been through. With that account, plus Jeff's attempt to take Kirby's silver and questions about his alibi, Jeff was now the investigator's prime suspect. But there was not a shred of physical evidence tying him to the crime. There was no weapon and they could not even prove he was in Mississippi the day of the murder. In order for Jeff to carry this out, he would have had to drive home to Virginia and then drive back to Mississippi, commit the crime and then drive back to Virginia. Yes. Possible? Possible. Very possible. You just weren't finding that connection that had him or his vehicle. I was. Getting to Mississippi. I was not. Carolyn had an idea about that. She told police how her dad would evade detection back when he was on probation for that deer theft. He traveled across state lines and you know I said what if you're getting in trouble with your probation? And he was like oh when I have to do that I just leave my phone with your mom and mom's covering for him and mom has his phone. McAllister had to consider whether Jeff had helped from his wife and his daughter Caitlin. From the start he found Caitlin's story suspicious, questioning why she didn't find Kirby's body for more than 36 hours. He also wondered about the moments before Caitlin found Kirby's body. She told investigators she walked up the hill behind the house to look for him. There's no way I don't believe a lady with a baby can climb that hill. Yeah, because she says that the baby was on her chest. Yes. McAllister was certain Caitlin was hiding something. What would Caitlin's motive be then? Her and Kirby had been having problems. Kirby has another child and it just went through a pretty nasty child custody thing. I guess Caitlin probably thought I don't have the money or anything like that to go through this. The investigator had his theories, but just that, not enough for an arrest. Frustrating. Yes, extremely. But a potentially huge break was just around the corner. That is, if you believe this guy. That's what he said. I think why keep your mask shut, but you could be next. Kirby's family never stopped hounding police with questions about the investigation, even as weeks turned into months. Were you worried that the case would go cold as so many cases do? Yes, and I was. Time passes and just nothing. I was. I was worried about that. Very worried about it, but I wasn't going to shut up. They hope talking about the case on social media might shake out some new leads. You started a Facebook group called Justice for Kirby, a page. I did. And you know, there's a lot of armchair detectives out there. The true crowd community's huge. The family was growing frustrated. The family was naturally because of that happening to their loved one in such a brutal way, really. And no arrest. No arrest. Then, four weeks before the first anniversary of Kirby's murder, the case took a sudden turn. Investigators arrested a man named David Barnes for a series of burglaries. David was a guy that Kirby would hire often to do, like, small jobs with him. If he needed someone to ride with him to load up like an antique car that he had purchased or something, David was his guy. Barnes, who had a long rap sheet, mentioned how much he missed Kirby. Curious. Investigators asked him if he knew anything about the murder. I wish I could, I wish I could say that I don't know. But they had a hunch he might be able to help them. Agent Jarvis brought him in for another chat. If I would not only think I would not come forward and tell everything I know about his point. When we first started talking to him, he was apprehensive. He would just kind of try to withdraw and stuff. He started crying. So, are you thinking with all of your experience? This man knows more than he is saying. Right. I believe you had nothing to do with it, but I think you know something you'd have to tell us. I'm not telling everything about it. Jarvis kept up the pressure. If you do know something, you're free and deserve, I know, for you to tell us that so we could try and get justice for his death. About 30 minutes into the interview, Barnes did an about face. Outspilled a story about the day Kirby was laid to rest. I said, "Kate, please tell me what happened. I need to know, please, I need to know." It's funeral. After Kirby's funeral, David went up to Caitlin and he said he asked her what happened. She grabbed my hands and she said, "Dang, take it up. It escalated and it got us and chose my baby killed him." And that says that word that she said. He said Jeff Spence was right there watching and threatened him as he tried to walk away. "Be quiet. Keep your mouth shut. You can be next. That's it. That's what he said. Be quiet. But you could be next." This is a huge break in this case. To have a witness like this. Yes. But of course they had to consider the source, a guy facing significant time behind bars. Was David Barnes asking for a plea deal or something that would get him out of his burglary mess? Never has asked for that. To this day still has not asked for that. He's still in jail. This was really the straw that broke the camel's back. Yeah, it was a big break, for sure. Investigators decided they had enough. On November 30th, 2023, one year to the day that Kirby was murdered, US Marshals with the help of local police arrested Jeff Spence and Virginia. Back in Mississippi, investigator McAllister asked Maddie Jane to come see him at the sheriff's department. He said, "I want to show you something." And he took me into one of the rooms and he's like looking up a video on his phone and I look at it and he's like, "He's got Jeff and handcuffs." I said, "What?" Jeff Spence has been arrested. Yes, he'd been arrested. What is going through my mind? I'm like my knees hit the floor mark. Oh, my God. You know, I just started crying. I just started crying. I was so relieved to know that someone was going to be held accountable. But that wasn't all right? No, that wasn't all. Karen Spence was also arrested in Virginia. And over 400 miles away at Caitlin's grandmother's house in Pennsylvania, Marshall's brought Caitlin in, too. Investigators believed even if Jeff pulled the trigger, his wife and daughter helped with the plan. The motive? Greed. Investigators theorized Jeff Spence wanted the money in Kirby's satchel and the valuables kept in his safes. You believe this was a family affair? I believe it was. Diabolical family affair. I do. Explain what that is like to find out that law enforcement believes your mom, your dad, your sister are all involved in a murder plot. I mean, it's it's shocking, but mostly it's just heartbreaking. You're wanting them to be the people that you thought they were. All three were charged with murder. Now, investigators went looking for more evidence to bolster their case. [BLANK_AUDIO] executing search warrants for the spends's electronics, vehicles, and homes. But the most explosive evidence would come from the woman at the center of it all. You're ready to talk. And this is going to change everything about this case. - Yes. (upbeat music) (dramatic music) - Kirby's family was relieved. Jeff Spence was finally behind bars. But the arrests also brought the painful realization that Caitlin, someone they loved and treated like family, could be involved too. Kirby's family believes that you knew your father was going to kill Kirby, that you helped plan it, that all of you were involved. Your dad, you, your mom, what do you say to them? - That's not the truth, I loved Kirby. I didn't kill him and I didn't have anything to do with the killing of him. I, I lost him too. - Caitlin says the story David Barnes told investigators about Kirby's funeral was just that, a story. - She said, "I'm out there to kill you." - I didn't have that conversation with him. The story is not true. - Why do you think he would make that up? - Because I think he was influenced to try and solve the case. - He had gotten into some more trouble. That's when he, you know, told, said that, that was a conversation I had with him. - She says she was blindsided when Marshall showed up on her doorstep, guns drawn. - Shock, but also I knew I had not killed Kirby. My, my daughter was my focus with the guns drawn. - I mean, honestly, in that situation, what do you, what do you? - I'm a, I'm a, I'm a good girl. Like, I, the cops are here, I'm obeying anything that they are saying and doing. - Caitlin, Karen, and Jeff all pleaded not guilty and sat behind bars. 16 months went by and then. - Caitlin's attorney had reached out and said that she had some information and that she wanted to talk. - You're ready to talk. - Yes. - Caitlin was brought from her jail cell to a meeting at the Tipa County Sheriff's Department. - You also had the right stuff and to any time, do you tell the lawyers you understand those rights? - Yes, sir. - Caitlin was there with her attorney, Tony Ferris, to tell police about what she says happened after Kirby's murder. Starting with a conversation she had with her father about a delivery on the day of the murder. - He told me that he had brought a package to Kirby on Wednesday. - He said that he had left it there and gone. That Kirby was not there. That he didn't have any interaction with him. - And what did the package contain? - I don't know what the package contained. - What do you say they contain? - Pills. - Narcotics, illegal drugs. Did he say he was supplying Kirby with illegal drugs? - He said that Kirby and him had made the deal that Kirby wanted to make some quick money. - Dad and me were the source in Virginia. - Kirby and Jeff dealing drugs? That was news. And so was the timing of the deal. Jeff's alibi was that he was home in Virginia that day, not Mississippi. She said her dad then told her Kirby's killer was probably someone who went to the house to buy the drugs. Only she wasn't buying it. - Did you later have a conversation with your father when you pressed him on what happened and where you pressed him on whether he had killed Kirby? - Yes. - All right, tell the officers about that place. - She told the officers what she told us. - It had been about six months after Kirby had died. And I was starting to just piece together bits and pieces and I had questions for my father. I asked to take a walk and have a discussion. And he immediately got very aggressive with me and just kept shutting me down. He told me that he had done what he had to do and that I was to not look at gift horse in the mouth and that the investigators would find out who killed Kirby and that was not my job. My job was to make sure Enola was loved and cared for and that I was to keep my nose out of it. - How did you take this? What is he trying to tell you? Do you think? - I mean, it made me, I believed he was confessing to killing Kirby. - So you're reading between the lines that my dad, it appears has killed Kirby? - Yeah, it's not the lines I wanted to be reading but that's what our conversation opened up those thoughts and the possibility that I mean, I shut down and I went to my grandma's. I didn't know what to do with it. - Were you scared? - Just broken. Like, no, I wasn't scared of him, he's my dad. I didn't wanna believe it, I didn't want it to be true. - Did you know that Kirby was going to be murdered? - No, I did not. - Did you, were you involved in the plan? - No, I was not. - Did you think your mom was involved as well? - No, I did not and even after our conversation, I didn't wanna believe it. I rationalized that I was misreading what he said. But now, after sitting in jail for nearly a year and a half, she was in front of investigators turning on her dad. - He said he didn't what he had to do. - He said for you not to look at get torsion in the mouth. - Yes. - Why did you not take this information to law enforcement sooner? - Because I didn't, because I didn't wanna lose my daughter. I didn't wanna be taken from my daughter. I don't wanna cause harm to my father. - I didn't want to be the one who was responsible. I had faith that law enforcement would solve it. And I did not, I did not, I didn't step up, I shut down. - Caitlin had given police her version of what happened. Now, with the murder trials approaching, the question was, would anyone believe her? You feel like Caitlin is not telling the whole truth. How she's not? - Caitlin Spence had turned on her father, Jeff, telling police he had essentially confessed to killing Kirby. Now, prosecutor Ben Creekmore's office was offering her a chance to get out of jail, explain what the deal was going to be, what she had to do to get it. She would have to testify truthfully against her father and she would have to enter a plea of guilty to accessory after the fact Capitol murder. - And if she did that, what would she get in return? - Probation. - Caitlin's attorney, Tony Ferris. - How did you get the prosecutor to agree to what some see as a very late punishment? - Well, every case is different. In my opinion, the state of Mississippi needed Caitlin's testimony to convict Jeffery Spence. And as the evidence showed, there was no proof that Caitlin was involved in the killing of Kirby. - Maddie Jane thought Caitlin's deal sounded like a get out of jail free card. - No, she's not. - You think she's leaving out parts that would implicate her? - Yes, very much so. - We didn't believe the story that she did not know until months after the fact. We felt like there were too many red flags that showed us otherwise. - From the beginning, they couldn't understand Caitlin's story about finding the body. How Kirby could have been dead on the property for almost two days without her noticing. In fact, even the prosecutor agrees Caitlin may know more about the murder than she's saying. - What do you say to anyone who says, "Wow, that is a sweetheart deal for Caitlin." - Get in probation, if you believe she's involved. - I would agree, but practically, you know, on a circumstantial evidence case, knowing that she wasn't there, that she didn't pull the trigger. It's not perfect justice, you know. We just, we do what we think is best at the time. - Even with Caitlin's testimony, prosecutors faced an uphill battle when Jeff Spence's trial began in September 2025. You didn't have the camera footage. You didn't have a full confession from Jeff Spence to Caitlin. You didn't have any hard proof placing him at Kirby's house with the shotgun. This is very circumstantial. Did you worry that the jury would have a hard time with all those missing pieces? - Yes, as far as the circumstantial evidence case goes, probably the biggest mountain we'd ever have to climb. - Who would say that? - So they told the jury what they did have. - I'm Brad Johnson. - Surgeon Brad Johnson, one of several Virginia police investigators who helped with the case, took the stand. He testified that when Jeff was arrested, he was found with several keys. "So there were keys to small envelopes that appeared to be two safe deposit boxes and then I'll say to an A1 storage unit." Investigators searched the boxes in storage unit. They found silver coins, bars of gold, a check Kirby had written and receipts from his bank accounts. Those are the types of items that Kirby would normally carry in the bag that he carried with him all the time. So whoever had those items had that bag, whoever had that bag was the one that shot and killed Kirby Carpenter. Virginian investigators also found this shotgun wrapped in a coat under Jeff and Karen's bed. There were no shell casings at Kirby's crime scene to make a ballistic smash, but still. It had buckshot in it, consistent with the type of shot that was used to kill Kirby Carpenter. This could be your murder weapon. It could be a murder weapon, so that was a really critical piece of evidence. "I'm Caroline and Wyow, Jeff's sister's daughter." Caroline took the stand for the prosecution and faced her father for the first time in six years. What was that like? "It's terrifying in a sense. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I would see that anger in his eyes again. I didn't know if he would try and intimidate me while I was up there." Did you make eye contact? "I did several times. He would not look at me." When he cut the camera cord, we called the sheriff's, because at that point, I had tried to reason with him. Geo had tried to reason with him. Caroline told the jury how she and Geo felt terrorized by her dad, and then she recounted something he once said about murder. "We were watching a movie and he said, 'Oh, well, if I was ever going to have to kill someone, I'd use a shotgun.' And that's because you wouldn't have to worry about the casing." "Specifically, did he say anything about the shotgun shells? Do you recall?" "Yes. A shotgun shell is huge. I'm sure most of you know that. You're not going to be looking around for little bullet casings." But the prosecution's star witness was Caitlin. What is it like being a cross from your dad, Awful? And you were testifying against him, this man that you had this wonderful relationship with at one time. "It's Awful. It's Awful to be put in that situation." Did you see your sister during the trial? "I saw her come into the courthouse and of course I want to go give her a hug and then you're slapped in the face with the reality of why you're in that building. And so it was really just heartbreaking." In a measured voice, Caitlin testified about that conversation with her dad. "I asked him if he had anything to do with Kirby's death. He said that it wasn't my job to find who Kirby's killer was. He said that I should live a gift horse in the mouth." "But how did you take this conversation with respect to Kirby's death?" "Did he was confessing to me that he had killed Kirby?" Then it was the defense's turn and Jeff's attorney wasted no time hammering at Caitlin's credibility. "You have to deliver what they need, they being the state of Mississippi." "No sir, I'm to testify truthfully to the facts that I know of. I'm not delivering for anyone." "The truthful facts that you know of weren't reported to anybody for 17 months. Am I right about that?" "I gave statements to the police as I knew." The defense attacked Kirby too. "They had people coming to the place where you live selling drugs." "We had people coming to the house for a number of things." Is there any evidence to suggest that Kirby might have been involved in drug dealing with all the cash? "No. It was not. I was the narcotics investigator for years for the county and I actually used to work for the state narcotics and I never heard his name." Defense attorney David Hill said one thing was clear. There was nothing to link Jeff's shotgun to the crime. "There's no evidence at all, there's nothing that can permissive the thing, how many people, how many shots, how many five." And still no evidence that Jeff was even in Mississippi when Kirby was killed. "What's the proof?" "Don't have proof he was there exactly." "There's a lot about this case that you don't know." "Correct." In his closing argument, defense attorney Hill said there was proof Jeff was in Virginia. A text Karen sent to Caitlin the night Kirby was killed. She wrote that she and Jeff were about to eat hamburgers and that Jeff had been working at home that day. "I tell you that Karen and Jeff are no them from the third age. They're about to happen in the real cool." Prosecutor Creekmore turned that text on its head in his closings, telling the jury it was more likely Karen helping Jeff fake an alibi. And, he said there was more to that text, a line at the end that he believed was a coded message. "The hand of dollars are back on the porch now, that means the hunt is over." The hunt is over. If you're a keen hunter, squirrel hunter using dogs, deer hunter, you say the hands are on the porch, that means the hunt is over. And in this case, in the kill, in this case, was Kirby Harper. After 3 days of testimony, it was time for the jurors to decide Jeff Spence's fate. They never heard from Jeff, but we did. Jeff did you kill Kirby Carpenter. "Mam." I absolutely did not. Kirby's family says that you are a cold-blooded killer, and you did this out of greed. If you say you didn't kill Kirby, who do you think killed Kirby? "I have no idea, and that's the plain truth of it." Why Jeff would your own daughter make a deal to turn on you or to go against you if you hadn't done this? "Very, very simple. She had been kept away from her baby, that she adored the prosecution in the police, keep people in jail, put a hold on them, let them out until they are willing to say or do whatever the police want to get out." If you're innocent, don't you feel betrayed by Caitlin? It sounds like you kind of understand, but still, it must hurt. Jeff doesn't deny that conversation with Caitlin the one she says amounted to a murder confession, but he says she misconstrued what he meant. One thing I would love to know is, what did you mean when you said to Caitlin, don't look a gift horse in the mail? What I meant by that was you have to understand the conversation we were having. She was paying attention to social media, I said let the police do their work, and I said you are up here at your family's home with your baby safe from the people who are threatening to kill us in Mississippi, if social media was on fire about it. There was a text on the family group chat that said the Hounds are on the porch, the investigators believed that the hunt is over, the murder has been carried out. That is so ridiculous that it should be an episode of Mission Impossible or something. We had a hound dog that guarded our house, we lived in the mountains of Virginia where we had a half a dozen black bears living within a mile of our house, so that's the whole hound dog thing. Your daughter Carolyn and your son-in-law had some really awful things to say about you. They were terrified of you. Your son-in-law said that he feels lucky that you didn't kill him. What evidence is there that I ever threatened him or had any intention whatsoever of doing any quality of this? He said you suggested that he take out life insurance and that you would be the recipient. Oh, absolutely not, and I never, ever threatened G.O. in any way, I never, certainly never threatened my daughter in any way. So who was telling the truth? Jeff or his daughters, Caitlin and Carolyn? Four and a half hours into deliberations, the jury foreman sent the judge a note. They were deadlocked, six to six. I feel like having any choice, declared mistrial, consult the calendars about when you may want to whip them in, you want to reach out of this case. I end up hyperventilating, I don't know. Pass out. You literally faint. Yes, passed out. At completely. Over this deadlocked jury? Yes. Because I'm thinking, he's going to get away with this. My first thoughts immediately went to what happens now. I was not prepared for a mistrial. Caitlin's deal to testify failed to deliver prosecutors a conviction. But that didn't stop them from going after her dad again. Was it an easy decision to say we're doing trial number two? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And my next thoughts were for the family. And just to let them know, hey, we're not going anywhere, this ain't over. We're ready to fight again. Prosecutor tells you we're going again. Yep. I say, well, you better-- you better stepby game up. Miss Maddie Jane, Kirby's mom, said that she told you, you better step up your game. [LAUGHS] I think she said that more than once. All right. Jeff Spencer's second trial began in March, 2026. Carolyn again faced the father she lived in fear of. Was there anything about his demeanor that was significant to you? At that point, there was blood in his eyes. I knew that we were done like done, done. I'd never seen him quite to that level before. And Caitlin told her story again. Do you enter a plea of guilty to accessory after the fact? Yes, for the knowledge that I had after my conversation with my father. In the months between the trials, prosecutors had stepped up their game. With the help of Virginia investigators, they found a new witness with an incredible story. Tracy, tell the jury who you are. Tracy, they'll frame the Jeff Spencer. Tracy Delp helped Jeff with odd jobs, including fixing up old cars. And you would work on them for him, and he would pay you? Yes. He testified that Jeff made it clear he was no fan of curbies and tried to hire him for a different kind of job. Mr. Spencer ever talked to you about doing anything about the way he felt about curbie. Yeah. What did he say? Try only to kill him. All right. Did he ever ask you to do it for him? Yes. Yes, me to find somebody to go with me to do it. All right. And did he offer to pay you money? Yes, sir. Do you remember how much? I think he said $5,000, and the split was some more. OK. Did you agree to do it? No, sorry. He testified. They spoke again after the murder. What did he tell you? Said he shot him in a face with a pistol. In a pistol? No. Tracy Delp's testimony wasn't the prosecution's only new evidence this time around. Where did you find that info? Who would be familiar with this? Investigator McAllister testified that he'd taken another look at security video from the Virginia home Jeff and Karen lived in when curbie was murdered. It showed Jeff had several cars parked in his backyard. It had tagged numbers of vehicles and things like that on their walls. So you're trying to think maybe Jeff Spence took a different vehicle? Yes, yes, the Mississippi. Yes. McAllister had the plates run through tag readers across the country. There was a hit, one of Jeff's vehicles, a maroon van, in Tennessee, heading south toward Mississippi. What date? On the 30th, the day curbie was killed. Day curbie was killed. This is your gotcha moment. Let's see it. You've got a van coming southbound 830 in the morning on November the 30th. His had gone. The prosecution's smoking gun or was it? Law enforcement has found new evidence. How do you get around that? Everybody in this courtroom knows it. The prosecution had upped its game. Now it was time to see what the defense would do. No proof whatsoever that Jeff was even in Mississippi when curbie was killed. Jeff Spence had new attorneys, Clayborn Ferguson, and John McNeil. They have identified the license plate of one of Jeff's vehicles. And when he's supposed to be in Virginia, that car is traveling. They say toward Mississippi. Right. Well, the first thing about that van is that license plate hits about 450 miles away from Kirby and Caitlin's house. And there's not a single other hit on that van traveling that direction for 450 miles. Do you have proof that Jeff was closer than 450 miles away from Tippa County? The day Kirby Carpenter was murdered. That great proof. No direct proof. Might it be possible that Jeff was going to tend to some of his beehives in North Tennessee? Possible. More than possible, according to what Jeff told me. I'm a beekeeper. I have beehives in four or five locations. And that's what I was doing the first morning after I came back from being away from them was to go check on my beehives. I'd like your thoughts on Tracy Dell, who said that you asked him to help you. Kill Kirby, and then eventually you admitted to Tracy, according to Tracy that you killed Kirby. All of those statements are false. He will say or do whatever he needs to say to either get drugs or help himself out of a situation with the police. You're a thief. Yeah, I have been, yes, sir. Because you got to pay for your drugs, right? Yes, sir. And you're not very truthful to police officers. You've gotten in trouble before giving false testimony. Yeah, we want to. The defense said Tracy Dell's story about Jeff's fence included details that were obviously false, like the murder weapon used, which both sides agreed was a shotgun. You referenced the fact that the weapon in this case was a pistol. That's what I was told. That's all I know. He mentioned that Jeff told him he killed Kirby with a pistol, which we know wasn't true. It's all a fantastical story. And you'd have to ask Tracy Dub White, told it. You mind if I call you Caitlin? That's fine. And when he cross-examined Caitlin, McNeill used the same line of attack the defense used in the first trial, questioning her motivation. You got to hug your daughter after you're released from jail. Yes. What do you want jurors to see while you're talking to her? I want the jury to understand that she is testifying against her father. And it is only because she's sat in jail for a year and a half away from her child. What is it that you have to do to keep from going to prison for 20 years? Testify truthfully against my father and mother at that time. Who determines whether or not you're telling truth? The court, I assume. Once again, a jury went to decide Jeff's guilt or innocence. How are you feeling as the jury goes out to deliberate this time? A lot better. Let you get 12 jurors there. Anything can happen. There were several charges to consider. Capital murder, which in Mississippi is murder in the commission of another felony. In this case, stealing Kirby's valuables. The jury could also find him guilty of first-degree murder or manslaughter. Do you have a risky murder? Is that correct? Yeah, I don't. After just over two hours, the jury had a decision. Were you through trying to defend Jeff's innocence not guilty of cap murder? You hear not guilty. Did that worry you that this was going down a bad path? Sure did. But the judge kept reading. Were you through trying to defend Jeff's innocence guilty of first-degree murder? Guilty. First-degree murder. First-degree murder. They got him. Yeah. What's going through your mind, your body, in that moment? I'm just trying to enjoy the words, or-- I don't know if I should say enjoy the words, but I was trying to comprehend that it has happened. Your father has found guilty of first-degree murder. And you're essentially the star witness who led to that. It's still very fresh. And I know that I will continue to have conflicting emotions. I testified to the truth. And it's heavy. It's heavy to be that person, but I did what I had to do. I did what was great. Was there any part of you that was grateful that she was turning on her dad at least to help get him? That's hard to say. Maybe a little bit, but I wanted all of them that was involved. After her testimony, Caitlin was sentenced to five years probation. Her mother, Karen, entered an Alfred plea to accessory after the fact to grand larceny and was also released on probation with a 10-year suspended sentence. Jeff was sent to jail. to life in prison. He is appealing. Kirby would surely be proud of how his family handled this and how you all fought for him. I would go to my grave fighting if I had to. If Justice was going to come during this lifetime, you know, I felt like anything that I had to do to fight for it, it was worth it. Caitlin has custody of Anola and Kirby's family has regular visitation. Maddie Jane makes sure to remind Anola of the father taken from her all too soon. What would you tell her about her dad? What I tell her every time. Your daddy loves you so much and your daddy's in heaven. Your daddy would walk up to you and he would go to toot toot on your nose and she'll do that to me. Just like daddy goes toot toot. We don't want Kirby's legacy to be what happened to him. We want it to be the life he lived, the spirit that he had just that, you know, just live in life to the fullest on just a normal Monday or Tuesday. He made the most of every day. That's all for this edition of Deadline and don't forget to check out our talking Deadline podcast and which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Deadline feed, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9/8 central. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night.