July 21, 2024 • 52 mins
The last time anyone saw 49-year-old Emily Anderson was December 29, 2005. As husband, Jerry Anderson was naturally the first suspect. But he seemed to be able to account for his time that day and he passed a polygraph. After an anonymous call, Emily’s body was discovered on January 7, 2006. As the investigation ramped up, police found that the Andersons’ marriage was on the rocks and Jerry had recently taken out more life insurance on his wife. Part 1 of 2.
Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Erica Kelley & Andrea Marshbank
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder & Erica Kelley
Suggested by Susan and Christen
Sources: https://southernfriedtruecrime.com/emily-anderson
This episode is brought to you by:
Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Erica Kelley & Andrea Marshbank
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder & Erica Kelley
Suggested by Susan and Christen
Sources: https://southernfriedtruecrime.com/emily-anderson
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Southern fried True crime covers cases thatare not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit languageused. Listener discretion is advised. The
morning of December twenty ninth, twothousand and five was gearing up to be
a beautiful day in the small ruraltown of Sawmills, North Carolina. When
(00:24):
forty nine year old Emily Anderson gotout of bed at six point thirty that
morning, it was about forty sixdegrees out. It was chilly, but
no rain or snow. Not thatsnow is common in this area, nestled
in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but it would have been the rainier
part of winter on that day.Snowfall is not common in Sawmills, but
(00:47):
you may see a few light snowfallsthere each season. As a dairy farmer,
Emily would normally be grateful for suchclear weather anyway, but as it
was, it was shaping up tobe a nice day for running errands,
which is what she had planned.She put on a cozy, old navy
sweatshirt as she got ready to headout that morning. It was supposed to
(01:08):
get up to near sixty degrees later. There was no need for a jacket.
That morning, Emily probably tossed backsome coffee fast because she was out
of the house early to do listready. She was doing the normal errands
and tasks necessary to run the dairyfarm she owned with her husband, Jerry.
(01:29):
The only thing different about that daywas a dinner party she and Jerry
were attending that evening friends of theirswere hosting, and Emily was looking forward
to it. She knew her husbandwas chronically late, so she made a
point of reminding him to be ontime. That was early in the day
when she touched base with him brieflyat the farm. The plan was she
(01:52):
would meet him at the dinner partylater, and when Jerry arrived at the
dinner party that evening, he wason time. In fact, he was
thirty minutes early, but Emily wasn'tthere. Jerry called her to see where
she was. Her errands shouldn't havetaken that long, but Emily didn't pick
up. A Few hours later,Jerry contacted the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department to
(02:17):
report his wife missing. Welcome toepisode two twenty one, The Disappearance and
Murder of Emily Anderson, Part one, Emily Young Griffith was born on July
eighth, nineteen fifty six, inLexington, Kentucky, to doctor and missus
(02:39):
Joseph R. Griffith. Her mother, Amanda, had been a Waterson before
she married Emily's father. Doctor Griffith, was a World War Two veteran.
According to government documents, he workedfor the military as a physician, and
at one point, doctor Griffith wasa prisoner of war, but thankfully he
(03:01):
made it back home in the springof nineteen forty five, which is when
he and Amanda married and soon begana family. They had three kids.
Emily was the middle child. Shehad one older brother named Mike and one
younger sister named Dee. They allgrew up in Kentucky, just like their
parents before them. Although Emily wasborn in Lexington, she spent most of
(03:24):
childhood one hundred miles south in adareCounty, Kentucky. The Griffiths moved to
Dareck County when doctor Griffith began workingat the local health department. The Griffiths
lived in a historic two story brickhouse in Columbia. Doctor Griffith was a
beloved physician from the health department andthe whole family were strong Adair Countians with
(03:47):
so many friends. Judge Anne Meltonwas friends with both Griffith's sisters and became
blood sisters, with the girls breakingtheir fingers and touching them together. De
said we were blood sisters for afterthat, she said. The oldest Mike
Griffith, was a prankster but excellentstudent who grew up to be a veterinarian
(04:09):
an animal lover like his sister,d short for Adelia, became a second
grade school teacher. The Griffiths seemedto have lived a charmed life. In
the nineteen seventies, Emily attended AdairCounty High School. She was briefly on
the drill team, but her friendsand classmates remembered her more for her sense
(04:29):
of humor, quick smile, andinfectious laugh. Even after Emily graduated from
high school in nineteen seventy four,her laughter would continue to be one of
her most defining traits. In thenineteen eighties, she lived in Corbin,
Kentucky. There she met a womanwho had become a lifelong friend. Her
(04:50):
name was Patricia Thorpe. Emily andpat worked together at an Optometrius office.
Pat told the Hickory Daily Record.The best time when she was in the
car with me and my daughter,and I would deliberately get them both tickled,
and then you'd have two snorters inthe car. The more they snorted,
the more they laughed. It washilarious. More than once I've had
(05:12):
to pull off the road because Iwould be laughing so hard at the two
of them, I couldn't drive.Emily also had a fantastic singing voice.
Pat said Emily would call her everyyear on her birthday. When she picked
up the phone, Emily would singHappy Birthday to her sweet friend. Emily,
who was a pretty devout Christian,also sang in her church's choir,
(05:34):
and she also taught Sunday School andvacation Bible School. Those who knew Emily
said she was a loving woman.She cared deeply for her friends and family.
She is described as witty and warm. In her obituary. She was
known as Annie em to her sixnieces and nephews and four great nieces and
(05:56):
nephews. I love that like Annieem from the Wizard of Oz. Emily
was also loved by her friends assuch a caring and compassionate woman. She
was the kind of friend who woulddraw hours to attend the funeral of the
parent of one of her friends.She had lost her own parents just a
year apart from each other when shewas twenty three. That's still so young.
(06:21):
I am positive that colored her beautifulempathy for the rest of her life.
Another friend said of Emily, sheloved everyone for what she saw in
them and made us feel as ifshe was honored to be in our presence.
Emily was also a member of theAmerican Red Cross. She donated blood
(06:41):
regularly, and she helped clean upthe damage in the wake of the nineteen
ninety seven tornado that ripped through CaineValley, Kentucky. Emily brought breakfast for
the other volunteers. Pat described Emilyas a trusting soul who never saw the
bad in anyone. But Emily wasn'tjust kind of people. She had a
(07:02):
big soft spot for animals too.It was fairly common for Emily to take
in strays, and she was ahuge fan of the beach. She loved
to just sit and watch the water. She found the waves soothing. Emily
married for the first time in Julyof nineteen seventy three, when she was
only seventeen years old he was nineteen, but the couple didn't last long,
(07:27):
and Emily remarried in August of nineteenseventy nine, when she was twenty three,
about the time when she lost herparents. This husband was about six
years older than her. Emily seemedto falter in the relationship and marriage department.
It happens some people are just unluckyin love, but she kept on
(07:48):
trying. According to her attorney,Emily was married two more times before she
met Jerry Anderson, her final husband, in the late nineteen nineties. Jerry
Lee Anderson was born in nineteen sixty. Like Emily, Jerry was also from
Kentucky. We don't know much abouthis childhood, but he was a dairy
(08:11):
farmer when he and Emily met.Around nineteen ninety six, Jerry moved to
North Carolina. He managed a growingdairy farm there with approximately five hundred heads
of cattle. The dairy farm,which was called Carolina Holstein's, was located
in Sawmills, North Carolina. Jerrywas described by some who knew him as
(08:33):
talkative, nice and kind, butothers said he wasn't overly friendly. I
get the feeling that Jerry didn't expressa lot of emotion. He was described
more as hard working and driven.Some said work was his life, so
a serious man. Before Emily,Jerry had been married two other times.
(08:54):
He had a son with his firstwife, named Matt, born in nineteen
ninety three. Around the year twothousand, Jerry and Emily got married.
Jerry was forty and Emily was fortyfour. We don't know much about their
private life, whether it was alwaysthe plan or not, but they never
had children together, though Matt didlive with them some Over the years.
(09:20):
With the help of some fellow investors, Jerry was able to purchase the Carolina
Holstein's dairy farm. Now he wasthe owner and operator, and after Emily
married Jerry, she also had awide range of responsibilities. But she was
especially good at handling the young calves. Diyke's wilson, whose family previously owned
(09:43):
Carolina Holstein's, told the Charlotte Observershe get out there and wrestle them cows
and give them shots. Over thecourse of about five years, Jerry and
Emily became very involved in the localsawmills community. They were both div Christians
who attended draw Pins Baptist Church regularly, and they would assist in church events
(10:07):
like ice cream socials. In asmall town like this, where everyone knew
everybody, the townspeople were aware ofwho Emily and Jerry were, even if
they didn't know them personally. Butalthough Emily and Jerry were newer to the
area than some locals, they werestill fairly well known and had made many
friends. They made a point tosocialize in their community, and they were
(10:31):
well liked. That's why when Emilywent missing, the town of Sawmills was
shocked and rallied to try and helpfind her. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. OnWednesday, December twenty eighth, two thousand
(10:52):
and five, Emily got her hairdone. She told her stylist she wanted
colored freshly before dinner parties. Sheand Jerry you were going to the next
evening on Thursday. So on WednesdayEmily had her roots touched up with some
blonde highlights. Then on that Thursday, Emily's day began like any other.
(11:13):
As I said in the beginning,By six thirty am, she was up
and ready to run errands, asI'm sure you'd guess, like any farmer.
Jerry was up before the sun andready to hit the farm by six
point thirty himself. First, shestopped by the grocery store for a couple
items, and the clerk noticed thatEmily's hair was different, lighter, and
(11:33):
also that Emily was more dressed upthan usual. Instead of her usual farm
work clothes, she was wearing khakis, brown loafers and had tucked in her
shirt. When the grocer asked herwhy she looked so nice, Emily replied
that she was just running errands thatday. By seven am, she had
(11:54):
purchased a new pair of work glovesfrom Sawmills Hardware. It was owned by
Tim and Jenny Wilson, the couplewho were having the dinner party that evening.
After chatting with Tim, Emily headedout to the farm to drop off
the gloves. While there, shealso spoke to Jerry. She made a
point of fussing at Jerry to beon time for the dinner party. After
(12:18):
that, she traveled about eight milesto Lenora, North Carolina. She got
there at about eight fifteen am andpaid a bill at Martin Marrietta Materials.
Then she was supposed to go toSam's Club in the nearby town of Hickory,
but that's where her trail ends.We know she never made it to
Sam's club. By six o'clock thatevening, Jerry was at Tim and Jenny's
(12:43):
house for the dinner party. Hehad made sure he was there before six,
since Emily had specifically warned him aboutbeing late. He was on time,
but Emily wasn't there, which wasstrange, if not alarming. Yet.
He called his wife's cell phone tosee what was going on, but
she didn't pick up, so hefinished dinner with their friends and then he
(13:05):
went home. Jenny Wilson also triedcalling Emily and left her a couple of
messages. Now it was becoming alarmingbecause Emily was known to live by her
phone. You got to remember thiswas two thousand and five, and while
people had cell phones, they weren'tthe many computers we are obsessed with today.
(13:26):
The first iPhone was released in twothousand and seven. Not everyone used
a cell phone regularly, but Emilyhad her clip to her belt. You
also got to remember she didn't justneed it for work. Her family lived
in Kentucky, her best friend livedin New Jersey, and she liked to
talk to the people she loved often, so she was a dedicated phone chatter.
(13:50):
By eight pm, Jerry still hadnot heard from his wife, so
he drove about eight minutes to thenearest police station in Granite Falls. He
asked if his wife had been reportedin an accident. He worried he needed
to file a missing person's report.The communications employee he first talked to said
he was calm and didn't seem tooconcerned. At just before ten pm,
(14:13):
a Caldwell County Sheriff's deputy arrived atJerry's home. That's when forty nine year
old Emily Griffith Anderson was officially reportedmissing. Search for Emily began immediately.
A bolo was issued for her truck, her description passed out, and the
tough phone calls to friends and familywere made. She drove a white two
(14:35):
thousand Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Shehad been driving it when she vanished,
and it was nowhere to be found. Local authorities used helicopters to try to
find her truck. The Dry PondsBaptist Church passed out more than twelve hundred
flyers with Emily's photo on them.They held prayer services dedicated to her safe
return, and their church letter boardread please pray for Emily Anderson and her
(15:00):
family. Emily's disappearance left Sawmills Residencescared and confused. Reverendret Cross from Emily's
church told the Charlotte Observer. Iam as mystified as anyone else. That
doesn't happen in this area, thissmall community we have, everybody trusts everybody.
(15:20):
It's been an eye opener to peoplehere that this could happen here.
But then most small town folks willtell you that Sawmills is six point three
square miles with a commanding view ofthe Appalachian Mountains. Incorporated in nineteen eighty
eight, it's called the biggest littletown in the Foothills, with around five
thousand residents. The Town of Sawmillswebsite touts it as having safer streets as
(15:46):
a bedroom community to the big citiesaround it, but actually the crime rate
is fifteen percent higher than the nationalaverage. It has its good areas and
it's not so good areas. I'mnot trying to crap on Sawmills, but
just wanted to give you a fairlook. Anyway. Despite the best efforts
of those who looked for Emily,no one had a clue where she was.
(16:08):
No one knew if she had leftof her own volition, or if
something worse had happened. For nearlyten days, Emily's case grew colder and
colder. Then, at twelve thirtypm on Saturday, January seventh, two
thousand and six, an unknown mancalled a waffle house in Duncan, South
Carolina. The anonymous caller said thatthe white pickup truck in the parking lot
(16:33):
of a hotel behind waffle house wasconnected to a North Carolina missing Parsons case.
The caller said that someone should checkit out, So a Duncan police
officer arrived at the waffle house justoff Interstate eighty five and ran the truck's
tags and realized that Caldwell County waslooking for this exact vehicle. It was
(16:53):
Emily's truck. Initially, this discoveryled to more questions than it answers.
The Duncan waffle house and the qualityand parking lot her truck was found in
were more than one hundred miles awayfrom where Emily was last seen. It
wasn't even the same state. CaldwellCounty authorities decided to tow Emily's truck back
(17:15):
to North Carolina. There they searchedthe vehicle. When they pried opened the
toolbox compartment in the truck bed,they found Emily. Her body was stuffed
face down in the toolbox in herown truck bed. It was clear that
Emily had been shot to death.Emily Griffith Anderson's funeral was four days later
(17:37):
at four pm on Wednesday, Januaryeleventh, two thousand and six. Her
service was held at the Dry PondsBaptist Church. Grissom Funeral Home held a
memorial service the next day, Thursday, at three pm, at the Cane
Valley Christian Church in Columbia, Kentucky, back in Emily's home state, in
lieu of flowers, her family askedfor donations to be sent to the Red
(18:02):
Cross or Humane Society. A privateburial ceremony for the family was held not
long after. Emily's obituary noted thatshe was survived by her husband, Jerry
steps On Matt as well as herolder brother, doctor Mike Griffith, and
younger sister d Watson. Her sixnieces and nephews were also named, as
(18:23):
well as her four great nieces andnephews. Her headstone reflects her special family
relationship as beloved aunt. It readsAnnie m Emily Young Griffith without her married
name. The epitaph below cherishes Emily'smemorable laughter. It reads take time to
(18:45):
laugh. It is the music ofthe soul. She was buried in the
Cane Valley Cemetery in Kine Valley,Kentucky. I'm going to pause nowitar a
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That's neutrofol dot com promo code SouthernFried. Before Emily was buried, an
autopsy was conducted as the formal investigationinto her murder got underway. The medical
examiner confirmed that Emily had died fromtwo gunshot wounds. One bullet had entered
(23:55):
her back to the left of herspine. It tore through her ribs along
and her heart before exiting through herupper chest. The second bullet had entered
the left side of Emily's abdomen.It passed through her ribs, spleen,
a kidney, and her spine,then it exited through her right lower back.
(24:15):
Emily had also suffered multiple abrasions aboveboth eyes, on the bridge of
her nose, her left cheek,her chin, her right hand, and
her right knee. Her old navysweatshirt had holes from the bullets, and
there was dirt and grass in thebottom of the toolbox near Emily's face and
hands. The items in Emily's pocketsincluded her damaged cell phone, thirty dollars,
(24:40):
a pocket knife, and a setof keys. Later, concerns were
raised about why the authorities hadn't foundEmily's body before moving her truck more than
one hundred miles back to North Carolina. After all, who knows what evidence
was lost during that trip. Anythingcan fly off at seventy plus mis miles
per hour on a highway. Thelieutenant on the scene claimed that he hadn't
(25:04):
seen any blood in the truck bedwhen they started their journey from the waffle
house. I'm going to go aheadand simply question why the truck wasn't searched
in South Carolina. This was amissing persons case, not just as still
in vehicle case. I would thinkany law enforcement officer would or should know
the importance of blood and trace evidenceor any kind of evidence really in a
(25:30):
victim's vehicle. I mean, hell, there could have been a damn ransom
note in the glove box anything.But Duncan, South Carolina, is an
even smaller town than Sawmills, witha crime rate twenty one percent lower than
the national average. So maybe localPD just weren't accustomed to this kind of
crime. I guess it's not surprisingthat they just called Caldwell County in North
(25:53):
Carolina to deal with their own case. And I guess they lifted up to
Caldwell County call in the FEDS ifthey wanted to. Emily and her truck
were taken across state lines. Thateasily makes it a federal case, I
guess, unless you believe she wasdead before she was taken over state lines.
Later, an SBI agent working withthe FBI was said to have been
(26:17):
consulted. According to an investigating officerexplaining to the Charlotte Observer quote, the
vehicle was locked, there was noodor coming from it. It was clean
as a whistle, though it didhave a flat front tire. But interestingly,
by the time law enforcement arrived attheir headquarters, Emily's blood pulled underneath
(26:40):
the toolbox. Later on in court, jurors could clearly see her dried blood
and crime scene photos. So I'mcalling bullshit on this clean as a whistle
crap. I don't think they looked. Local officers ran the plates and called
it into Caldwell, and perhaps theywouldn't have been given clearance to search it
anyway. But I still find thatreally troubling, because again, this was
(27:03):
a missing person's case. What ifEmily had been alive, bound and gagged
in that toolbox. Police show up, she hears them and thanks God,
now she is saved, and noone searches the truck. I mean,
I know that didn't happen, butit could have. That's why this feels
like such a serious mistake to me. Then Caldwell County showed up and decided
(27:26):
to tow it home before searching it. That's an even bigger mistake than local
Duncan officers made. Caldwell knew theywere investigating a missing person from their community.
How could they not search that truck. That truck should have been treated
as a crime scene, carefully searchedfor clues about Emily's whereabouts, and then
given to forensic investigators to come throughIf they had done this, she would
(27:51):
have been found and surely the truckwould have been investigated properly rather than towed
back to Caldwell. But who knows, they may have still made that choice.
Immediately after Emily's body was discovered,law enforcement officers told the Charlotte Observer
that the case was wide open forsuspects. They had no clear ideas about
who had killed Emily. I knowwhat you're thinking. Emily was a married
(28:17):
woman, so we know her husband, Jerry was the first suspect. But
when Emily was still missing, Jerryhad provided the authorities with a statement.
That statement detailed his exact whereabouts onThursday December twenty ninth, the day Emily
went missing. For the most part, Jerry's time appeared to be accounted for.
(28:38):
Jerry claimed that he had gotten outof bed at four thirty am,
then he went for a walk beforegetting ready for work. He arrived at
the dairy farm at about six thirtyam, right about the time that Emily
was getting out of bed. ThenJerry said that he had a quick meeting
with his employees. Later that morning. Jerry said he saw Emily briefly.
(29:00):
He said she gave him a listof items that she needed, and then
she reminded Jerry not to be latefor their six o'clock dinner party. Then,
he said, she loved to gofinish her errands. I do wonder
what was on the list she gavehim since she was doing errands herself.
A to do list he was theboss at the farm, A honeydew list.
(29:22):
Maybe details like this bother me Anyway, As his wife went about her
day of errands, Jerry said,he checked his emails and read an online
newspaper. At eleven fifteen am,he said that he left the farm.
After that he ran into his neighbor, Tony Ramsey. They were both at
the Hickory Home and garden store.Tony would later verify that this was true.
(29:48):
He specifically remembered their conversation. Tonywas trying to get the things he
needed to fix his lawnmower. Hehad been having ongoing issues with it.
He remembered. Jerry said, Iguess Santa Claus didn't bring you a new
lawnmar and you have to fix theother one. Next, Jerry said,
he called Emily. He asked herto pick up owl filters for their tractors.
(30:11):
After that he ate lunch at alsDiner at about twelve fifteen pm,
then he went to the Granite Fallspost office. According to Jerry, he
was back at the farm by onefifteen PM, and he stated the farm
for the rest of the afternoon,Jerry said he was working on fixing a
broken tractor. At approximately five tofifteen pm, he said he went to
(30:33):
get gas. That's when he sawhis friend Walter Moore. Walter would later
say this was accurate too. Ultimately, the only time that Jerry was unaccounted
for was for a few hours inthe afternoon, and that's when Jerry claimed
that he was working on the dairyfarm as he usually would be. Before
(30:56):
Emily's body was discovered. Jerry hadalso's so taken a three question polygraph test.
The first question of the test wasdid you have anything to do with
Emily's disappearance? Jerry responded no.The second question was right now, do
you know where Emily is? Andhe said no. The last question was
(31:17):
do you know for sure where Emilyis right now? And Jerry said once
more no. According to the polygraphmachine, Jerry was telling the truth when
responding to all three questions. Butkeep in mind polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable.
We all know that the results arerarely admissible in court unless the prosecution
(31:37):
and defense both agree to allow theresults to be entered as evidence. Even
then, many courts do not allowit. But anyway, all this is
to say that when Emily's body wasfound, Jerry wasn't necessarily a suspect,
but I'm sure he remained a personof interest, especially since investigators noted that
(31:57):
Jerry's reaction to learning about his wife'sdeath was odd. According to court documents,
Jerry had shown very little emotion,and at one point he even laughed.
But people react to trauma differently andgrieve differently. It's impossible to predict
how a person will react to ahorrific situation, but I'm willing to bet
(32:20):
most investigators either have gut feelings orthey've seen enough reactions to feel confident about
their own assessments, and others wouldlater testify that Jerry did cry about Emily's
loss. These people even noted thatthey distinctly remember Jerry crying because of how
rare it was. He wasn't knownto be a demonstrably emotional man. Around
(32:45):
the time investigators found Emily's body.Jerry told the Charlotte Observer, there's comfort
that she's home now. It's notthe way I wanted her home, but
I'm glad she's home and I'll dealwith the rest later. She's safe,
She's dead, sir, not safe. Yeah, quotes can be taken out
of context. And I know whathe means. But would you really say
(33:07):
your murdered wife was home safe.That was just weird. But Jerry was
kind of different, very dry,kind of all business. In some ways.
It probably hurt how he was perceived, and others his friends said he
was the same old Jerry regardless,it seemed that Caldwell County investigators weren't pointing
(33:29):
a finger at Jerry yet, orat least they weren't in the beginning.
Then they spoke to Emily's friends andfamily, because although Emily and Jerry ran
a thriving business together, their marriagewas not as successful as their dairy farm.
For about three years, their relationshiphad been strained, and two years
(33:50):
before, in two thousand and three, the Andersons had separated for about six
weeks. During that time, Emilystayed in Kentucky. Most of Emily Lee's
family still lived there. We're notsure what caused Emily and Jerry to take
this break, but her court documentsJerry had at some unknown time found cards
addressed to Emily from a man namedBill and someone, though we're not sure
(34:15):
who sent Emily flowers on at leastone occasion, but they evidently made up
because eventually Emily returned to her NorthCarolina home with Jerry, and their merry
life seemingly continued on as usual.But two years later, in the fall
of two thousand and five, Emilyand Jerry were on the rocks again.
(34:37):
A few days before Thanksgiving that year, Emily visited her older brother Mike in
Nicholasville, Kentucky. Emily told Mikethat she was considering leaving Jerry. She
said that Jerry overworked and bullied her. He belittled her in front of their
employees. But Emily's brother urged herto stay with Jerry, at least for
(34:58):
a little while longer. He thoughthe had a good reason. Emily and
Jerry were planning on moving to MountainCity, Tennessee. There, they planned
to build a new cattle feeding operationcalled High Mountain Holsteins. This new farm
was going to bring in more moneythan their dairy farm in North Carolina.
And at this new farm, Emilywould be a part owner. She wouldn't
(35:21):
just be working for Jerry, shewould be a partner. Mike advised Emily
to wait until she was an ownerof this new farm to divorce Jerry.
That way, she would get alarger settlement. According to the Charlotte Observer,
Mike said, get as much asyou can out of it. I
don't think Mike was particularly vindictive towardhis brother in law. He just wanted
(35:45):
what was best for his sister.Though Mike would later state that he thought
it was weird that Jerry never wentto any of Emily's family functions. He
seemed to pretty much stay away fromhis in laws. Shortly after speaking with
her brother about a pta divorce,Emily called her friend Pat Thorpe. I
mentioned her earlier in the episode.Emily and Patt met when they worked together
(36:07):
in Corbin, Kentucky. By thistime, Patt had moved to New Jersey.
Despite living multiple states away, thefriends still talked on the phone regularly.
That's how Pat knew that Emily andJerry's relationship had been going downhill.
According to Pat, Emily often complainedthat Jerry was verbally and emotionally abusive towards
(36:30):
her. She told the Charlotte Observer. I talked to her many times when
she was in tears because of thingshe had said to her. He had
told her basically that she wasn't smartenough to do anything really. Patt did
clarify that Emily never mentioned Jerry physicallyabusing her. Still, it's clear that
(36:52):
Emily was very unhappy in her marriageand felt emotionally abused by Jerry. And
since her brother seemed to be worryingabout Emily's finances, going so far as
advising her to wait to get outof the marriage until she was co owner
of their business, maybe Jerry wasfinancially abusive. He held the purse strings.
(37:12):
Later it was found he even rana credit check on his wife.
He was pissy that he found aVictoria's secret credit card that he didn't know
about, especially since Emily was knownonly to wear long John's. So the
Saturday after that Thanksgiving, on Novembertwenty sixth, two thousand and five,
Emily called Pat told her that shehad finally gotten the courage to leave in
(37:37):
divorce Jerry. Pat told the Charlotteobserver. She told me she was going
to contact a lawyer, that shehad made her mind up. She said,
I have to get out. Emilyalso explained to Pat that she was
waiting to tell Jerry about the divorce. She wanted to be out of the
house before she let him know shewas leaving him. She was afraid of
(37:58):
how Jerry would respond. Concerned forher friend, Pat asked Emily, is
it really that bad? And shesaid Emily said yes, it is.
Following this, Emily reached out toanother friend for a divorce attorney recommendation.
She was referred to divorce lawyer RachelLeclair. During Emily's consultation with miss Leclair,
(38:22):
she said her relationship with Jerry hadreached a tipping point. Emily said
that Jerry had a bad temper.She claimed he would treat her like a
child or a dog. When sheapproached Jerry about his disrespectful behavior, she
said that Jerry would ignore her.He would even go so far as taking
out his hearing aids Without hearing aids. Jerry was about seventy percent death and
(38:47):
she said she and her husband hadn'tshared a bed since late October were early
November of two thousand and five.Just like Emily's brother, Miss Leclair suggested
that Emily stayed with Jerry until theyhad started their new farm in Tennessee,
but Emily was adamant that she couldn'twait that long to end things with her
(39:08):
husband, and all of this wasjust a month before she went missing.
Patt spoke to Emily one last timeon December twenty sixth. Their conversation wasn't
long, and she said that Emilydidn't reveal any information pertinent to the investigation.
But in an interesting turn of events, Jerry actually called Pat on January
(39:31):
third. This would have been whileEmily was missing, but before her body
was found. Jerry and Patt spokefor seventy two minutes. During their call,
Jerry acknowledged that his marriage had notbeen going well. He told Pat
he was pretty sure Emily had lefthim for another man, which surprised Pat.
(39:53):
While Emily had complained at length abouther marriage, she had never told
Pat that she was having an affair. But now multiple people could confirm that
Emily Anderson wanted to leave her husbandand was making plans to just a month
before she disappeared and was found murdered. I'm going to pause now for a
(40:15):
final commercial break. Equipped with thisnew information about Emily and Jerry's marriage,
law enforcement held a news conference onJanuary ninth, two thousand and six.
Sheriff Gary Clark said that he wasconfident Emily's case was solvable. He said
(40:37):
it again on January fifteenth in aphone interview with Fox News. He would
later appear on National TV on aFox station. By January twentieth, the
authorities got a search warrant for Jerry'shome and the farm. Less than a
week later, on January twenty sixth, investigator searched his properties again. Following
(40:59):
that second search, an investigator toldthe Charlotte Observer that they had found very
compelling evidence, but they wouldn't sharewhat that evidence was not yet anyway.
That same officer later said during anews conference, this story's only beginning as
far as I'm concerned. Shortly afterthat second search, employees from Jerry's dairy
(41:22):
farm contacted the authorities. These employeestold investigators that they were scared of Jerry
Anderson. They were worried he wouldharm them. Law enforcement would not disclose
why these employees were worried, oreven how many employees had reached out,
but this concern caused the authorities tomove quickly to arrest Jerry, even though
(41:44):
the investigation was ongoing, and theypublicly said they were still open to other
suspects. So on Friday, Januarytwenty seventh, forty seven year old Jerry
Lee Anderson was arrested in his homejust after midnight. The Caldwell County Sheriff's
Department charged Jerry with first degree murder. He was held in the Caldwell County
(42:07):
Jail without bond during his arrest.Jerry fully cooperated with the authorities, and
he requested a court appointed defense attorneyright away. He was indicted by a
grand jury on first degree murder twoweeks after his arrest. But a few
days after Jerry was arrested, thelocal newspapers began reporting that Jerry had taken
(42:29):
out a life insurance policy on Emily. Initially, the Sheriff's department would not
confirm how much that life insurance policywas worth, and since the search warrants
and affidavits related to this case weresealed from public viewing, there was no
way for anyone to find out.So the Charlotte Observer and the Associated Press
(42:51):
requested that Caldwell County unseal those documents. They had questions that they believed these
documents could answer, like what witnesseshad the authorities talked to so far?
And what evidence had investigators found onJerry's properties. The prosecuting lawyers were opposed
to this. They argued this information, among other things, might bias the
(43:15):
community of potential jurors. But thepresiding Caldwell County judge believed that the court
shouldn't put its judgment ahead of thepublic ability to understand the legal system,
he said, and on Monday Februarytwentieth, two thousand and six, that
same judge unselled sixty pages of documents. The information within those pages caused an
(43:38):
absolute uproar. On the morning ofDecember twenty ninth, the day that Emily
went missing, several people had seenEmily and Jerry together at the dairy farm.
They saw the couple go into atree filled area behind the property.
Jerry had driven his tractor and Emilyhad followed behind him in her truck.
(44:00):
Shortly after, multiple witnesses heard gunshotscome from the same area where Jerry and
Emily had gone. Then Jerry emergedalone Afterward, Jerry asked some of his
employees to powerwash his tractor, atask that, according to Jerry's employees,
(44:21):
he had never asked them to dobefore. During the authority's investigation, they
found traces of fluid inside the tractor. Samples of this fluid were sent to
the North Carolina State Bureau of InvestigationCrime Lab for DNA analysis. While the
crime lab was able to confirm that, yes, this fluid was blood,
(44:42):
the samples were too small for DNAtesting. They couldn't even tell if it
was human blood. It may havecome from an animal. But this didn't
mean Jerry was in the clear.In fact, for these court documents,
he had exhibited even more concerning behaviors. Sometime after dis Zember twenty ninth,
Jerry asked an employee to replace theoil filters for some tractors. Those filters
(45:06):
he had asked his wife to buythe last day she was seen. The
employee was supposed to write that day'sdate on the oil filters, but Jerry
told them to put down twelve twentynine, two thousand and five, even
though that day had since passed.Jerry also wanted this employee to tell anyone
who asked that he was working withhis employees between nine am and ten am
(45:30):
on December twenty ninth, and Jerryalso wanted the employee to say that they
had both been working on changing theoil filters between one thirty pm and three
pm that same day. Then Jerryhid the old tractor oil filters that had
been replaced During the two searches ofJerry's properties, investigators found these discarded oil
(45:51):
filters in a nearby drainage ditch andminer pile. You can imagine how damning
this information was. Jerry, whosewife was actively seeking a divorce, was
seen going into a secluded location withher. Then gunshots were heard coming from
that area. Afterward, he hadallegedly asked his employees to lie about his
(46:12):
whereabouts from nine am to ten amand one thirty pm to three pm.
Those afternoon hours were the exact samehours that Jerry had been unaccounted for during
that statement he had provided to theauthorities. Also, Emily's phone record showed
that she had not used her cellphone at all since December twenty eighth,
(46:35):
the day before the last witness intown saw her, and that's not the
end of it. Also revealed inthese unsealed court documents, Jerry had recently
taken out a one point five milliondollar life insurance policy on Emily. This
newer policy was in addition to apreviously established life insurance policy for three million.
(46:59):
In total, Jerry would receive approximatelyfour point five million in the event
of Emily's death in twenty twenty fourdollars. That's almost seven million. And
as if that wasn't enough, Jerryhad also obtained his passport on January fifth.
For context, that would have beena week after Emily went missing and
(47:21):
only two days before her body wasfound on January seventh. Dude, come
on, I guess you could seethis as an innocent man with nothing to
hide, or as a man aboutto flee the country. Most people would
think the worst. The realization thatdairy farmer Jerry Anderson might have killed his
(47:42):
wife caused chaos in this rural NorthCarolina community. A neighbor who lived across
the street from Jerry's dairy farm toldthe Charlotte Observer, the whole incident has
been difficult for our entire community.There are thousands of unanswered questions right now,
and we're patiently waiting for them.Answers. Some of the biggest questions
(48:04):
were, had Emily truly intended todivorce Jerry, did Jerry have time to
get to Duncan, South Carolina thatafternoon? And why on God's green Earth
did Jerry get a passport so soonafter Emily's disappearance. He had to have
known how bad that would look.Local residents were split in their opinions.
(48:24):
Some stood by Jerry. They couldn'tbelieve that he would harm his wife.
Jerry was their friend and neighbor,a fellow churchgoer. They couldn't fathom that
Jerry there Jerry could do this.One member of the Dry Pond's Baptist church
told reporters, I believe in Jerryuntil he tells me that he killed Emily,
(48:47):
which wow, okay, but wouldn'tyou at least want him to legally
clear his name? And one neighborof Jerry's said, ninety percent of the
people around here think he's innocent.Anyone who knows Jerry doesn't think he did
it, But there were plenty ofother people who thought Jerry did kill his
(49:07):
wife. The manager of a localgrocery store in Deli, Jean Bristol,
told the press after Jerry's arrest.I think it's more of a sigh of
relief. I know it is fora lot of the women. And Another
Dry Ponds Baptist church member said shewasn't shocked in the slightest about the news
about Jerry. She told the HickoryDaily Record that he never showed no tears,
(49:30):
no emotions. It's a real shame. For months and months, Jerry's
innocence or lack thereof, was ahot button topic in the Sawmills area.
One local told the Charlotte Observer,if the paper comes out with an article
about Jerry on the front of it, it will be sold out in two
(49:51):
minutes. If something like this happenedin Charlotte, it just be an ordinary
thing. But when it happens ina small community like this, it just
threw you off center. And thatis the stopping point for Part one,
folks. As this started as aone episode case. Part two will come
out pretty quickly in the next coupleof days. I appreciate your patience.
(50:14):
Some cases like these drag you downrabbit holes and you keep going and suddenly
it's fourteen thousand words, which iscrazy. That's almost as long as a
feature length film and I know alot of you love two parters. Anyway,
Jerry's trial and more details about theinvestigation will be covered in the next
episode. This case is a wildride with a twist I didn't see coming,
(50:39):
so stick with me. It'll beworth it. Southern Fried True Crime
is hosted and produced by me EricaKelly. Today's episode was researched and written
by me and Andrea Marshbank. Asusual, any editorial comments and opinions are
my own. Southern Fred's original musicas by Rob Harrison of the game I'm
(51:00):
a Radio and the original graphic artistby Khely Horner. Today's episode was edited
and mixed by Sarah Wendell of VWSound LLC and Erica Kelly. Thank you
to Sarah and Kristen for suggesting today'scase. If you have any case suggestions,
please go to my website, SouthernfredTrue Crime dot com and click on
the listeners suggestion tab or email SFTCResearch at gmail dot com. This is
(51:23):
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(51:45):
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Southern fried True crime covers cases thatare not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit languageused. Listener discretion is advised. The
morning of December twenty ninth, twothousand and five was gearing up to be
a beautiful day in the small ruraltown of Sawmills, North Carolina. When
(00:24):
forty nine year old Emily Anderson gotout of bed at six point thirty that
morning, it was about forty sixdegrees out. It was chilly, but
no rain or snow. Not thatsnow is common in this area, nestled
in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but it would have been the rainier
part of winter on that day.Snowfall is not common in Sawmills, but
(00:47):
you may see a few light snowfallsthere each season. As a dairy farmer,
Emily would normally be grateful for suchclear weather anyway, but as it
was, it was shaping up tobe a nice day for running errands,
which is what she had planned.She put on a cozy, old navy
sweatshirt as she got ready to headout that morning. It was supposed to
(01:08):
get up to near sixty degrees later. There was no need for a jacket.
That morning, Emily probably tossed backsome coffee fast because she was out
of the house early to do listready. She was doing the normal errands
and tasks necessary to run the dairyfarm she owned with her husband, Jerry.
(01:29):
The only thing different about that daywas a dinner party she and Jerry
were attending that evening friends of theirswere hosting, and Emily was looking forward
to it. She knew her husbandwas chronically late, so she made a
point of reminding him to be ontime. That was early in the day
when she touched base with him brieflyat the farm. The plan was she
(01:52):
would meet him at the dinner partylater, and when Jerry arrived at the
dinner party that evening, he wason time. In fact, he was
thirty minutes early, but Emily wasn'tthere. Jerry called her to see where
she was. Her errands shouldn't havetaken that long, but Emily didn't pick
up. A Few hours later,Jerry contacted the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department to
(02:17):
report his wife missing. Welcome toepisode two twenty one, The Disappearance and
Murder of Emily Anderson, Part one, Emily Young Griffith was born on July
eighth, nineteen fifty six, inLexington, Kentucky, to doctor and missus
(02:39):
Joseph R. Griffith. Her mother, Amanda, had been a Waterson before
she married Emily's father. Doctor Griffith, was a World War Two veteran.
According to government documents, he workedfor the military as a physician, and
at one point, doctor Griffith wasa prisoner of war, but thankfully he
(03:01):
made it back home in the springof nineteen forty five, which is when
he and Amanda married and soon begana family. They had three kids.
Emily was the middle child. Shehad one older brother named Mike and one
younger sister named Dee. They allgrew up in Kentucky, just like their
parents before them. Although Emily wasborn in Lexington, she spent most of
(03:24):
childhood one hundred miles south in adareCounty, Kentucky. The Griffiths moved to
Dareck County when doctor Griffith began workingat the local health department. The Griffiths
lived in a historic two story brickhouse in Columbia. Doctor Griffith was a
beloved physician from the health department andthe whole family were strong Adair Countians with
(03:47):
so many friends. Judge Anne Meltonwas friends with both Griffith's sisters and became
blood sisters, with the girls breakingtheir fingers and touching them together. De
said we were blood sisters for afterthat, she said. The oldest Mike
Griffith, was a prankster but excellentstudent who grew up to be a veterinarian
(04:09):
an animal lover like his sister,d short for Adelia, became a second
grade school teacher. The Griffiths seemedto have lived a charmed life. In
the nineteen seventies, Emily attended AdairCounty High School. She was briefly on
the drill team, but her friendsand classmates remembered her more for her sense
(04:29):
of humor, quick smile, andinfectious laugh. Even after Emily graduated from
high school in nineteen seventy four,her laughter would continue to be one of
her most defining traits. In thenineteen eighties, she lived in Corbin,
Kentucky. There she met a womanwho had become a lifelong friend. Her
(04:50):
name was Patricia Thorpe. Emily andpat worked together at an Optometrius office.
Pat told the Hickory Daily Record.The best time when she was in the
car with me and my daughter,and I would deliberately get them both tickled,
and then you'd have two snorters inthe car. The more they snorted,
the more they laughed. It washilarious. More than once I've had
(05:12):
to pull off the road because Iwould be laughing so hard at the two
of them, I couldn't drive.Emily also had a fantastic singing voice.
Pat said Emily would call her everyyear on her birthday. When she picked
up the phone, Emily would singHappy Birthday to her sweet friend. Emily,
who was a pretty devout Christian,also sang in her church's choir,
(05:34):
and she also taught Sunday School andvacation Bible School. Those who knew Emily
said she was a loving woman.She cared deeply for her friends and family.
She is described as witty and warm. In her obituary. She was
known as Annie em to her sixnieces and nephews and four great nieces and
(05:56):
nephews. I love that like Annieem from the Wizard of Oz. Emily
was also loved by her friends assuch a caring and compassionate woman. She
was the kind of friend who woulddraw hours to attend the funeral of the
parent of one of her friends.She had lost her own parents just a
year apart from each other when shewas twenty three. That's still so young.
(06:21):
I am positive that colored her beautifulempathy for the rest of her life.
Another friend said of Emily, sheloved everyone for what she saw in
them and made us feel as ifshe was honored to be in our presence.
Emily was also a member of theAmerican Red Cross. She donated blood
(06:41):
regularly, and she helped clean upthe damage in the wake of the nineteen
ninety seven tornado that ripped through CaineValley, Kentucky. Emily brought breakfast for
the other volunteers. Pat described Emilyas a trusting soul who never saw the
bad in anyone. But Emily wasn'tjust kind of people. She had a
(07:02):
big soft spot for animals too.It was fairly common for Emily to take
in strays, and she was ahuge fan of the beach. She loved
to just sit and watch the water. She found the waves soothing. Emily
married for the first time in Julyof nineteen seventy three, when she was
only seventeen years old he was nineteen, but the couple didn't last long,
(07:27):
and Emily remarried in August of nineteenseventy nine, when she was twenty three,
about the time when she lost herparents. This husband was about six
years older than her. Emily seemedto falter in the relationship and marriage department.
It happens some people are just unluckyin love, but she kept on
(07:48):
trying. According to her attorney,Emily was married two more times before she
met Jerry Anderson, her final husband, in the late nineteen nineties. Jerry
Lee Anderson was born in nineteen sixty. Like Emily, Jerry was also from
Kentucky. We don't know much abouthis childhood, but he was a dairy
(08:11):
farmer when he and Emily met.Around nineteen ninety six, Jerry moved to
North Carolina. He managed a growingdairy farm there with approximately five hundred heads
of cattle. The dairy farm,which was called Carolina Holstein's, was located
in Sawmills, North Carolina. Jerrywas described by some who knew him as
(08:33):
talkative, nice and kind, butothers said he wasn't overly friendly. I
get the feeling that Jerry didn't expressa lot of emotion. He was described
more as hard working and driven.Some said work was his life, so
a serious man. Before Emily,Jerry had been married two other times.
(08:54):
He had a son with his firstwife, named Matt, born in nineteen
ninety three. Around the year twothousand, Jerry and Emily got married.
Jerry was forty and Emily was fortyfour. We don't know much about their
private life, whether it was alwaysthe plan or not, but they never
had children together, though Matt didlive with them some Over the years.
(09:20):
With the help of some fellow investors, Jerry was able to purchase the Carolina
Holstein's dairy farm. Now he wasthe owner and operator, and after Emily
married Jerry, she also had awide range of responsibilities. But she was
especially good at handling the young calves. Diyke's wilson, whose family previously owned
(09:43):
Carolina Holstein's, told the Charlotte Observershe get out there and wrestle them cows
and give them shots. Over thecourse of about five years, Jerry and
Emily became very involved in the localsawmills community. They were both div Christians
who attended draw Pins Baptist Church regularly, and they would assist in church events
(10:07):
like ice cream socials. In asmall town like this, where everyone knew
everybody, the townspeople were aware ofwho Emily and Jerry were, even if
they didn't know them personally. Butalthough Emily and Jerry were newer to the
area than some locals, they werestill fairly well known and had made many
friends. They made a point tosocialize in their community, and they were
(10:31):
well liked. That's why when Emilywent missing, the town of Sawmills was
shocked and rallied to try and helpfind her. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. OnWednesday, December twenty eighth, two thousand
(10:52):
and five, Emily got her hairdone. She told her stylist she wanted
colored freshly before dinner parties. Sheand Jerry you were going to the next
evening on Thursday. So on WednesdayEmily had her roots touched up with some
blonde highlights. Then on that Thursday, Emily's day began like any other.
(11:13):
As I said in the beginning,By six thirty am, she was up
and ready to run errands, asI'm sure you'd guess, like any farmer.
Jerry was up before the sun andready to hit the farm by six
point thirty himself. First, shestopped by the grocery store for a couple
items, and the clerk noticed thatEmily's hair was different, lighter, and
(11:33):
also that Emily was more dressed upthan usual. Instead of her usual farm
work clothes, she was wearing khakis, brown loafers and had tucked in her
shirt. When the grocer asked herwhy she looked so nice, Emily replied
that she was just running errands thatday. By seven am, she had
(11:54):
purchased a new pair of work glovesfrom Sawmills Hardware. It was owned by
Tim and Jenny Wilson, the couplewho were having the dinner party that evening.
After chatting with Tim, Emily headedout to the farm to drop off
the gloves. While there, shealso spoke to Jerry. She made a
point of fussing at Jerry to beon time for the dinner party. After
(12:18):
that, she traveled about eight milesto Lenora, North Carolina. She got
there at about eight fifteen am andpaid a bill at Martin Marrietta Materials.
Then she was supposed to go toSam's Club in the nearby town of Hickory,
but that's where her trail ends.We know she never made it to
Sam's club. By six o'clock thatevening, Jerry was at Tim and Jenny's
(12:43):
house for the dinner party. Hehad made sure he was there before six,
since Emily had specifically warned him aboutbeing late. He was on time,
but Emily wasn't there, which wasstrange, if not alarming. Yet.
He called his wife's cell phone tosee what was going on, but
she didn't pick up, so hefinished dinner with their friends and then he
(13:05):
went home. Jenny Wilson also triedcalling Emily and left her a couple of
messages. Now it was becoming alarmingbecause Emily was known to live by her
phone. You got to remember thiswas two thousand and five, and while
people had cell phones, they weren'tthe many computers we are obsessed with today.
(13:26):
The first iPhone was released in twothousand and seven. Not everyone used
a cell phone regularly, but Emilyhad her clip to her belt. You
also got to remember she didn't justneed it for work. Her family lived
in Kentucky, her best friend livedin New Jersey, and she liked to
talk to the people she loved often, so she was a dedicated phone chatter.
(13:50):
By eight pm, Jerry still hadnot heard from his wife, so
he drove about eight minutes to thenearest police station in Granite Falls. He
asked if his wife had been reportedin an accident. He worried he needed
to file a missing person's report.The communications employee he first talked to said
he was calm and didn't seem tooconcerned. At just before ten pm,
(14:13):
a Caldwell County Sheriff's deputy arrived atJerry's home. That's when forty nine year
old Emily Griffith Anderson was officially reportedmissing. Search for Emily began immediately.
A bolo was issued for her truck, her description passed out, and the
tough phone calls to friends and familywere made. She drove a white two
(14:35):
thousand Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Shehad been driving it when she vanished,
and it was nowhere to be found. Local authorities used helicopters to try to
find her truck. The Dry PondsBaptist Church passed out more than twelve hundred
flyers with Emily's photo on them.They held prayer services dedicated to her safe
return, and their church letter boardread please pray for Emily Anderson and her
(15:00):
family. Emily's disappearance left Sawmills Residencescared and confused. Reverendret Cross from Emily's
church told the Charlotte Observer. Iam as mystified as anyone else. That
doesn't happen in this area, thissmall community we have, everybody trusts everybody.
(15:20):
It's been an eye opener to peoplehere that this could happen here.
But then most small town folks willtell you that Sawmills is six point three
square miles with a commanding view ofthe Appalachian Mountains. Incorporated in nineteen eighty
eight, it's called the biggest littletown in the Foothills, with around five
thousand residents. The Town of Sawmillswebsite touts it as having safer streets as
(15:46):
a bedroom community to the big citiesaround it, but actually the crime rate
is fifteen percent higher than the nationalaverage. It has its good areas and
it's not so good areas. I'mnot trying to crap on Sawmills, but
just wanted to give you a fairlook. Anyway. Despite the best efforts
of those who looked for Emily,no one had a clue where she was.
(16:08):
No one knew if she had leftof her own volition, or if
something worse had happened. For nearlyten days, Emily's case grew colder and
colder. Then, at twelve thirtypm on Saturday, January seventh, two
thousand and six, an unknown mancalled a waffle house in Duncan, South
Carolina. The anonymous caller said thatthe white pickup truck in the parking lot
(16:33):
of a hotel behind waffle house wasconnected to a North Carolina missing Parsons case.
The caller said that someone should checkit out, So a Duncan police
officer arrived at the waffle house justoff Interstate eighty five and ran the truck's
tags and realized that Caldwell County waslooking for this exact vehicle. It was
(16:53):
Emily's truck. Initially, this discoveryled to more questions than it answers.
The Duncan waffle house and the qualityand parking lot her truck was found in
were more than one hundred miles awayfrom where Emily was last seen. It
wasn't even the same state. CaldwellCounty authorities decided to tow Emily's truck back
(17:15):
to North Carolina. There they searchedthe vehicle. When they pried opened the
toolbox compartment in the truck bed,they found Emily. Her body was stuffed
face down in the toolbox in herown truck bed. It was clear that
Emily had been shot to death.Emily Griffith Anderson's funeral was four days later
(17:37):
at four pm on Wednesday, Januaryeleventh, two thousand and six. Her
service was held at the Dry PondsBaptist Church. Grissom Funeral Home held a
memorial service the next day, Thursday, at three pm, at the Cane
Valley Christian Church in Columbia, Kentucky, back in Emily's home state, in
lieu of flowers, her family askedfor donations to be sent to the Red
(18:02):
Cross or Humane Society. A privateburial ceremony for the family was held not
long after. Emily's obituary noted thatshe was survived by her husband, Jerry
steps On Matt as well as herolder brother, doctor Mike Griffith, and
younger sister d Watson. Her sixnieces and nephews were also named, as
(18:23):
well as her four great nieces andnephews. Her headstone reflects her special family
relationship as beloved aunt. It readsAnnie m Emily Young Griffith without her married
name. The epitaph below cherishes Emily'smemorable laughter. It reads take time to
(18:45):
laugh. It is the music ofthe soul. She was buried in the
Cane Valley Cemetery in Kine Valley,Kentucky. I'm going to pause nowitar a
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That's neutrofol dot com promo code SouthernFried. Before Emily was buried, an
autopsy was conducted as the formal investigationinto her murder got underway. The medical
examiner confirmed that Emily had died fromtwo gunshot wounds. One bullet had entered
(23:55):
her back to the left of herspine. It tore through her ribs along
and her heart before exiting through herupper chest. The second bullet had entered
the left side of Emily's abdomen.It passed through her ribs, spleen,
a kidney, and her spine,then it exited through her right lower back.
(24:15):
Emily had also suffered multiple abrasions aboveboth eyes, on the bridge of
her nose, her left cheek,her chin, her right hand, and
her right knee. Her old navysweatshirt had holes from the bullets, and
there was dirt and grass in thebottom of the toolbox near Emily's face and
hands. The items in Emily's pocketsincluded her damaged cell phone, thirty dollars,
(24:40):
a pocket knife, and a setof keys. Later, concerns were
raised about why the authorities hadn't foundEmily's body before moving her truck more than
one hundred miles back to North Carolina. After all, who knows what evidence
was lost during that trip. Anythingcan fly off at seventy plus mis miles
per hour on a highway. Thelieutenant on the scene claimed that he hadn't
(25:04):
seen any blood in the truck bedwhen they started their journey from the waffle
house. I'm going to go aheadand simply question why the truck wasn't searched
in South Carolina. This was amissing persons case, not just as still
in vehicle case. I would thinkany law enforcement officer would or should know
the importance of blood and trace evidenceor any kind of evidence really in a
(25:30):
victim's vehicle. I mean, hell, there could have been a damn ransom
note in the glove box anything.But Duncan, South Carolina, is an
even smaller town than Sawmills, witha crime rate twenty one percent lower than
the national average. So maybe localPD just weren't accustomed to this kind of
crime. I guess it's not surprisingthat they just called Caldwell County in North
(25:53):
Carolina to deal with their own case. And I guess they lifted up to
Caldwell County call in the FEDS ifthey wanted to. Emily and her truck
were taken across state lines. Thateasily makes it a federal case, I
guess, unless you believe she wasdead before she was taken over state lines.
Later, an SBI agent working withthe FBI was said to have been
(26:17):
consulted. According to an investigating officerexplaining to the Charlotte Observer quote, the
vehicle was locked, there was noodor coming from it. It was clean
as a whistle, though it didhave a flat front tire. But interestingly,
by the time law enforcement arrived attheir headquarters, Emily's blood pulled underneath
(26:40):
the toolbox. Later on in court, jurors could clearly see her dried blood
and crime scene photos. So I'mcalling bullshit on this clean as a whistle
crap. I don't think they looked. Local officers ran the plates and called
it into Caldwell, and perhaps theywouldn't have been given clearance to search it
anyway. But I still find thatreally troubling, because again, this was
(27:03):
a missing person's case. What ifEmily had been alive, bound and gagged
in that toolbox. Police show up, she hears them and thanks God,
now she is saved, and noone searches the truck. I mean,
I know that didn't happen, butit could have. That's why this feels
like such a serious mistake to me. Then Caldwell County showed up and decided
(27:26):
to tow it home before searching it. That's an even bigger mistake than local
Duncan officers made. Caldwell knew theywere investigating a missing person from their community.
How could they not search that truck. That truck should have been treated
as a crime scene, carefully searchedfor clues about Emily's whereabouts, and then
given to forensic investigators to come throughIf they had done this, she would
(27:51):
have been found and surely the truckwould have been investigated properly rather than towed
back to Caldwell. But who knows, they may have still made that choice.
Immediately after Emily's body was discovered,law enforcement officers told the Charlotte Observer
that the case was wide open forsuspects. They had no clear ideas about
who had killed Emily. I knowwhat you're thinking. Emily was a married
(28:17):
woman, so we know her husband, Jerry was the first suspect. But
when Emily was still missing, Jerryhad provided the authorities with a statement.
That statement detailed his exact whereabouts onThursday December twenty ninth, the day Emily
went missing. For the most part, Jerry's time appeared to be accounted for.
(28:38):
Jerry claimed that he had gotten outof bed at four thirty am,
then he went for a walk beforegetting ready for work. He arrived at
the dairy farm at about six thirtyam, right about the time that Emily
was getting out of bed. ThenJerry said that he had a quick meeting
with his employees. Later that morning. Jerry said he saw Emily briefly.
(29:00):
He said she gave him a listof items that she needed, and then
she reminded Jerry not to be latefor their six o'clock dinner party. Then,
he said, she loved to gofinish her errands. I do wonder
what was on the list she gavehim since she was doing errands herself.
A to do list he was theboss at the farm, A honeydew list.
(29:22):
Maybe details like this bother me Anyway, As his wife went about her
day of errands, Jerry said,he checked his emails and read an online
newspaper. At eleven fifteen am,he said that he left the farm.
After that he ran into his neighbor, Tony Ramsey. They were both at
the Hickory Home and garden store.Tony would later verify that this was true.
(29:48):
He specifically remembered their conversation. Tonywas trying to get the things he
needed to fix his lawnmower. Hehad been having ongoing issues with it.
He remembered. Jerry said, Iguess Santa Claus didn't bring you a new
lawnmar and you have to fix theother one. Next, Jerry said,
he called Emily. He asked herto pick up owl filters for their tractors.
(30:11):
After that he ate lunch at alsDiner at about twelve fifteen pm,
then he went to the Granite Fallspost office. According to Jerry, he
was back at the farm by onefifteen PM, and he stated the farm
for the rest of the afternoon,Jerry said he was working on fixing a
broken tractor. At approximately five tofifteen pm, he said he went to
(30:33):
get gas. That's when he sawhis friend Walter Moore. Walter would later
say this was accurate too. Ultimately, the only time that Jerry was unaccounted
for was for a few hours inthe afternoon, and that's when Jerry claimed
that he was working on the dairyfarm as he usually would be. Before
(30:56):
Emily's body was discovered. Jerry hadalso's so taken a three question polygraph test.
The first question of the test wasdid you have anything to do with
Emily's disappearance? Jerry responded no.The second question was right now, do
you know where Emily is? Andhe said no. The last question was
(31:17):
do you know for sure where Emilyis right now? And Jerry said once
more no. According to the polygraphmachine, Jerry was telling the truth when
responding to all three questions. Butkeep in mind polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable.
We all know that the results arerarely admissible in court unless the prosecution
(31:37):
and defense both agree to allow theresults to be entered as evidence. Even
then, many courts do not allowit. But anyway, all this is
to say that when Emily's body wasfound, Jerry wasn't necessarily a suspect,
but I'm sure he remained a personof interest, especially since investigators noted that
(31:57):
Jerry's reaction to learning about his wife'sdeath was odd. According to court documents,
Jerry had shown very little emotion,and at one point he even laughed.
But people react to trauma differently andgrieve differently. It's impossible to predict
how a person will react to ahorrific situation, but I'm willing to bet
(32:20):
most investigators either have gut feelings orthey've seen enough reactions to feel confident about
their own assessments, and others wouldlater testify that Jerry did cry about Emily's
loss. These people even noted thatthey distinctly remember Jerry crying because of how
rare it was. He wasn't knownto be a demonstrably emotional man. Around
(32:45):
the time investigators found Emily's body.Jerry told the Charlotte Observer, there's comfort
that she's home now. It's notthe way I wanted her home, but
I'm glad she's home and I'll dealwith the rest later. She's safe,
She's dead, sir, not safe. Yeah, quotes can be taken out
of context. And I know whathe means. But would you really say
(33:07):
your murdered wife was home safe.That was just weird. But Jerry was
kind of different, very dry,kind of all business. In some ways.
It probably hurt how he was perceived, and others his friends said he
was the same old Jerry regardless,it seemed that Caldwell County investigators weren't pointing
(33:29):
a finger at Jerry yet, orat least they weren't in the beginning.
Then they spoke to Emily's friends andfamily, because although Emily and Jerry ran
a thriving business together, their marriagewas not as successful as their dairy farm.
For about three years, their relationshiphad been strained, and two years
(33:50):
before, in two thousand and three, the Andersons had separated for about six
weeks. During that time, Emilystayed in Kentucky. Most of Emily Lee's
family still lived there. We're notsure what caused Emily and Jerry to take
this break, but her court documentsJerry had at some unknown time found cards
addressed to Emily from a man namedBill and someone, though we're not sure
(34:15):
who sent Emily flowers on at leastone occasion, but they evidently made up
because eventually Emily returned to her NorthCarolina home with Jerry, and their merry
life seemingly continued on as usual.But two years later, in the fall
of two thousand and five, Emilyand Jerry were on the rocks again.
(34:37):
A few days before Thanksgiving that year, Emily visited her older brother Mike in
Nicholasville, Kentucky. Emily told Mikethat she was considering leaving Jerry. She
said that Jerry overworked and bullied her. He belittled her in front of their
employees. But Emily's brother urged herto stay with Jerry, at least for
(34:58):
a little while longer. He thoughthe had a good reason. Emily and
Jerry were planning on moving to MountainCity, Tennessee. There, they planned
to build a new cattle feeding operationcalled High Mountain Holsteins. This new farm
was going to bring in more moneythan their dairy farm in North Carolina.
And at this new farm, Emilywould be a part owner. She wouldn't
(35:21):
just be working for Jerry, shewould be a partner. Mike advised Emily
to wait until she was an ownerof this new farm to divorce Jerry.
That way, she would get alarger settlement. According to the Charlotte Observer,
Mike said, get as much asyou can out of it. I
don't think Mike was particularly vindictive towardhis brother in law. He just wanted
(35:45):
what was best for his sister.Though Mike would later state that he thought
it was weird that Jerry never wentto any of Emily's family functions. He
seemed to pretty much stay away fromhis in laws. Shortly after speaking with
her brother about a pta divorce,Emily called her friend Pat Thorpe. I
mentioned her earlier in the episode.Emily and Patt met when they worked together
(36:07):
in Corbin, Kentucky. By thistime, Patt had moved to New Jersey.
Despite living multiple states away, thefriends still talked on the phone regularly.
That's how Pat knew that Emily andJerry's relationship had been going downhill.
According to Pat, Emily often complainedthat Jerry was verbally and emotionally abusive towards
(36:30):
her. She told the Charlotte Observer. I talked to her many times when
she was in tears because of thingshe had said to her. He had
told her basically that she wasn't smartenough to do anything really. Patt did
clarify that Emily never mentioned Jerry physicallyabusing her. Still, it's clear that
(36:52):
Emily was very unhappy in her marriageand felt emotionally abused by Jerry. And
since her brother seemed to be worryingabout Emily's finances, going so far as
advising her to wait to get outof the marriage until she was co owner
of their business, maybe Jerry wasfinancially abusive. He held the purse strings.
(37:12):
Later it was found he even rana credit check on his wife.
He was pissy that he found aVictoria's secret credit card that he didn't know
about, especially since Emily was knownonly to wear long John's. So the
Saturday after that Thanksgiving, on Novembertwenty sixth, two thousand and five,
Emily called Pat told her that shehad finally gotten the courage to leave in
(37:37):
divorce Jerry. Pat told the Charlotteobserver. She told me she was going
to contact a lawyer, that shehad made her mind up. She said,
I have to get out. Emilyalso explained to Pat that she was
waiting to tell Jerry about the divorce. She wanted to be out of the
house before she let him know shewas leaving him. She was afraid of
(37:58):
how Jerry would respond. Concerned forher friend, Pat asked Emily, is
it really that bad? And shesaid Emily said yes, it is.
Following this, Emily reached out toanother friend for a divorce attorney recommendation.
She was referred to divorce lawyer RachelLeclair. During Emily's consultation with miss Leclair,
(38:22):
she said her relationship with Jerry hadreached a tipping point. Emily said
that Jerry had a bad temper.She claimed he would treat her like a
child or a dog. When sheapproached Jerry about his disrespectful behavior, she
said that Jerry would ignore her.He would even go so far as taking
out his hearing aids Without hearing aids. Jerry was about seventy percent death and
(38:47):
she said she and her husband hadn'tshared a bed since late October were early
November of two thousand and five.Just like Emily's brother, Miss Leclair suggested
that Emily stayed with Jerry until theyhad started their new farm in Tennessee,
but Emily was adamant that she couldn'twait that long to end things with her
(39:08):
husband, and all of this wasjust a month before she went missing.
Patt spoke to Emily one last timeon December twenty sixth. Their conversation wasn't
long, and she said that Emilydidn't reveal any information pertinent to the investigation.
But in an interesting turn of events, Jerry actually called Pat on January
(39:31):
third. This would have been whileEmily was missing, but before her body
was found. Jerry and Patt spokefor seventy two minutes. During their call,
Jerry acknowledged that his marriage had notbeen going well. He told Pat
he was pretty sure Emily had lefthim for another man, which surprised Pat.
(39:53):
While Emily had complained at length abouther marriage, she had never told
Pat that she was having an affair. But now multiple people could confirm that
Emily Anderson wanted to leave her husbandand was making plans to just a month
before she disappeared and was found murdered. I'm going to pause now for a
(40:15):
final commercial break. Equipped with thisnew information about Emily and Jerry's marriage,
law enforcement held a news conference onJanuary ninth, two thousand and six.
Sheriff Gary Clark said that he wasconfident Emily's case was solvable. He said
(40:37):
it again on January fifteenth in aphone interview with Fox News. He would
later appear on National TV on aFox station. By January twentieth, the
authorities got a search warrant for Jerry'shome and the farm. Less than a
week later, on January twenty sixth, investigator searched his properties again. Following
(40:59):
that second search, an investigator toldthe Charlotte Observer that they had found very
compelling evidence, but they wouldn't sharewhat that evidence was not yet anyway.
That same officer later said during anews conference, this story's only beginning as
far as I'm concerned. Shortly afterthat second search, employees from Jerry's dairy
(41:22):
farm contacted the authorities. These employeestold investigators that they were scared of Jerry
Anderson. They were worried he wouldharm them. Law enforcement would not disclose
why these employees were worried, oreven how many employees had reached out,
but this concern caused the authorities tomove quickly to arrest Jerry, even though
(41:44):
the investigation was ongoing, and theypublicly said they were still open to other
suspects. So on Friday, Januarytwenty seventh, forty seven year old Jerry
Lee Anderson was arrested in his homejust after midnight. The Caldwell County Sheriff's
Department charged Jerry with first degree murder. He was held in the Caldwell County
(42:07):
Jail without bond during his arrest.Jerry fully cooperated with the authorities, and
he requested a court appointed defense attorneyright away. He was indicted by a
grand jury on first degree murder twoweeks after his arrest. But a few
days after Jerry was arrested, thelocal newspapers began reporting that Jerry had taken
(42:29):
out a life insurance policy on Emily. Initially, the Sheriff's department would not
confirm how much that life insurance policywas worth, and since the search warrants
and affidavits related to this case weresealed from public viewing, there was no
way for anyone to find out.So the Charlotte Observer and the Associated Press
(42:51):
requested that Caldwell County unseal those documents. They had questions that they believed these
documents could answer, like what witnesseshad the authorities talked to so far?
And what evidence had investigators found onJerry's properties. The prosecuting lawyers were opposed
to this. They argued this information, among other things, might bias the
(43:15):
community of potential jurors. But thepresiding Caldwell County judge believed that the court
shouldn't put its judgment ahead of thepublic ability to understand the legal system,
he said, and on Monday Februarytwentieth, two thousand and six, that
same judge unselled sixty pages of documents. The information within those pages caused an
(43:38):
absolute uproar. On the morning ofDecember twenty ninth, the day that Emily
went missing, several people had seenEmily and Jerry together at the dairy farm.
They saw the couple go into atree filled area behind the property.
Jerry had driven his tractor and Emilyhad followed behind him in her truck.
(44:00):
Shortly after, multiple witnesses heard gunshotscome from the same area where Jerry and
Emily had gone. Then Jerry emergedalone Afterward, Jerry asked some of his
employees to powerwash his tractor, atask that, according to Jerry's employees,
(44:21):
he had never asked them to dobefore. During the authority's investigation, they
found traces of fluid inside the tractor. Samples of this fluid were sent to
the North Carolina State Bureau of InvestigationCrime Lab for DNA analysis. While the
crime lab was able to confirm that, yes, this fluid was blood,
(44:42):
the samples were too small for DNAtesting. They couldn't even tell if it
was human blood. It may havecome from an animal. But this didn't
mean Jerry was in the clear.In fact, for these court documents,
he had exhibited even more concerning behaviors. Sometime after dis Zember twenty ninth,
Jerry asked an employee to replace theoil filters for some tractors. Those filters
(45:06):
he had asked his wife to buythe last day she was seen. The
employee was supposed to write that day'sdate on the oil filters, but Jerry
told them to put down twelve twentynine, two thousand and five, even
though that day had since passed.Jerry also wanted this employee to tell anyone
who asked that he was working withhis employees between nine am and ten am
(45:30):
on December twenty ninth, and Jerryalso wanted the employee to say that they
had both been working on changing theoil filters between one thirty pm and three
pm that same day. Then Jerryhid the old tractor oil filters that had
been replaced During the two searches ofJerry's properties, investigators found these discarded oil
(45:51):
filters in a nearby drainage ditch andminer pile. You can imagine how damning
this information was. Jerry, whosewife was actively seeking a divorce, was
seen going into a secluded location withher. Then gunshots were heard coming from
that area. Afterward, he hadallegedly asked his employees to lie about his
(46:12):
whereabouts from nine am to ten amand one thirty pm to three pm.
Those afternoon hours were the exact samehours that Jerry had been unaccounted for during
that statement he had provided to theauthorities. Also, Emily's phone record showed
that she had not used her cellphone at all since December twenty eighth,
(46:35):
the day before the last witness intown saw her, and that's not the
end of it. Also revealed inthese unsealed court documents, Jerry had recently
taken out a one point five milliondollar life insurance policy on Emily. This
newer policy was in addition to apreviously established life insurance policy for three million.
(46:59):
In total, Jerry would receive approximatelyfour point five million in the event
of Emily's death in twenty twenty fourdollars. That's almost seven million. And
as if that wasn't enough, Jerryhad also obtained his passport on January fifth.
For context, that would have beena week after Emily went missing and
(47:21):
only two days before her body wasfound on January seventh. Dude, come
on, I guess you could seethis as an innocent man with nothing to
hide, or as a man aboutto flee the country. Most people would
think the worst. The realization thatdairy farmer Jerry Anderson might have killed his
(47:42):
wife caused chaos in this rural NorthCarolina community. A neighbor who lived across
the street from Jerry's dairy farm toldthe Charlotte Observer, the whole incident has
been difficult for our entire community.There are thousands of unanswered questions right now,
and we're patiently waiting for them.Answers. Some of the biggest questions
(48:04):
were, had Emily truly intended todivorce Jerry, did Jerry have time to
get to Duncan, South Carolina thatafternoon? And why on God's green Earth
did Jerry get a passport so soonafter Emily's disappearance. He had to have
known how bad that would look.Local residents were split in their opinions.
(48:24):
Some stood by Jerry. They couldn'tbelieve that he would harm his wife.
Jerry was their friend and neighbor,a fellow churchgoer. They couldn't fathom that
Jerry there Jerry could do this.One member of the Dry Pond's Baptist church
told reporters, I believe in Jerryuntil he tells me that he killed Emily,
(48:47):
which wow, okay, but wouldn'tyou at least want him to legally
clear his name? And one neighborof Jerry's said, ninety percent of the
people around here think he's innocent.Anyone who knows Jerry doesn't think he did
it, But there were plenty ofother people who thought Jerry did kill his
(49:07):
wife. The manager of a localgrocery store in Deli, Jean Bristol,
told the press after Jerry's arrest.I think it's more of a sigh of
relief. I know it is fora lot of the women. And Another
Dry Ponds Baptist church member said shewasn't shocked in the slightest about the news
about Jerry. She told the HickoryDaily Record that he never showed no tears,
(49:30):
no emotions. It's a real shame. For months and months, Jerry's
innocence or lack thereof, was ahot button topic in the Sawmills area.
One local told the Charlotte Observer,if the paper comes out with an article
about Jerry on the front of it, it will be sold out in two
(49:51):
minutes. If something like this happenedin Charlotte, it just be an ordinary
thing. But when it happens ina small community like this, it just
threw you off center. And thatis the stopping point for Part one,
folks. As this started as aone episode case. Part two will come
out pretty quickly in the next coupleof days. I appreciate your patience.
(50:14):
Some cases like these drag you downrabbit holes and you keep going and suddenly
it's fourteen thousand words, which iscrazy. That's almost as long as a
feature length film and I know alot of you love two parters. Anyway,
Jerry's trial and more details about theinvestigation will be covered in the next
episode. This case is a wildride with a twist I didn't see coming,
(50:39):
so stick with me. It'll beworth it. Southern Fried True Crime
is hosted and produced by me EricaKelly. Today's episode was researched and written
by me and Andrea Marshbank. Asusual, any editorial comments and opinions are
my own. Southern Fred's original musicas by Rob Harrison of the game I'm
(51:00):
a Radio and the original graphic artistby Khely Horner. Today's episode was edited
and mixed by Sarah Wendell of VWSound LLC and Erica Kelly. Thank you
to Sarah and Kristen for suggesting today'scase. If you have any case suggestions,
please go to my website, SouthernfredTrue Crime dot com and click on
the listeners suggestion tab or email SFTCResearch at gmail dot com. This is
(51:23):
the best way for me to getthose little known cases. Y'all always send
me. Please remember that I donot accept suggestions on social media private messages,
but please do come join our Facebookgroup Southern Fried True Crime Fans discussion
group where we swap recipes, worshipDolly Parton, and share memes. We
do, of course discuss true crime, not just Southern Fried, but all
kinds, but it is still verymuch a southern lifestyle group. Our group
(51:45):
is a safe in fun corner ofFacebook. I'm by God, we mean
it when we say oh shit,us is allowed. It's not just a
motto, it's how we run thegroup. If you enjoyed today's show,
don't forget to subscribe and please tella friend or rate and review. I'm
on all large platforms like iTunes,Aheartspotify, on audible and YouTube. Until
next time, thanks so much forlistening, y'all. Take care,
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