June 15, 2025 • 45 mins
In 2018, an partially burned abandoned car was found in an Horry County field. A subsequent welfare check led police to the gruesome discovery of an executed father and son. DNA and forensic eveidence brought to light the mystery assailant and the tragic story that was fueled by greed.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:25):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes. We're over the moon
thrill that you joined us here this week. I'm one
of your hosts, Matt Hyres, and I'm over the moon
thrilled to welcome back from administratively.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Even sabbatical Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, yes, Danielle's.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thanks for allowing me to come.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yes, yes, pretty egregious. You were suspended without pay.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, that happens pretty frequently. Somebody said something on our page,
and I said, my boss, Matt Hires, he's a stickler.
That doesn't take much for me to get in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So yeah, yeah, but no, a couple couple weeks off
here we appreciate all our fill in guest host Steve
Ranishski and both David and Teresa Rector. Great episodes, a
lot of feedback from last week. Thank you so much.
We've got some special thank yous to dish Out and
dole out here at the end of this episode. We're
(01:36):
episode two twenty six. If you're taking score.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
At home, I do want to tell the guest host
thank you for filling in. Yes, I hope they didn't
do such a great job that I'm going to be
considered being replaced. Well, we'll see, and thank you for
stepping up. Oh, taking care of those.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, just summertime and everybody's schedule, it gets way out
of whack, and then you throw in holidays, birthdays, Father's days,
Mother's days. It gets vacation.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's always this time of year where you and I
have a conflict.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes, yes, and then we go out of town together.
So we will be on location next week. Thank god.
It's gonna be a well needed vacation and break.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I was thinking about it this morning. Mall's finishing up
this episode, and I was like, I am ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, one week from right now, week from right now.
But we appreciate you're bearing with us, sticking through us.
We appreciate the guest host. We will have episodes next
next week, but we do go to grank lengths to
make sure there is one every week for you, because
that's why we do this. It's a hobby of ours
(02:52):
and it entertains you, folks, and we've kind of formed
a family, and we really appreciate this. We appreciate your
support and you're listening and we love bringing you a
new episode every week. And there's no shortage of crazy
in the state of South Carolina, so no, but.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
We've learned that plenty of times since we started doing this,
and I still continue to find a new crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yes, and we're gonna keep on pressing on. We want
to wish all the dad's, the granddad's, stepdad's, special guys
in our life. Also a happy Father's Day today. I'm
gonna be able to make it down and see my dad.
Thank you. Happy Father's Day to Harry Hires stepdad, Darryl Myers,
(03:34):
Robert Thompson, Bobby Thompson, my wife's step grandfather, Bob Bryan
of course her dad, and uh, just wonderful guys all around.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yes, and I have my father in law's Darryl and
Mike who've always stepped in and been there for me,
and my father who is not here anymore, but I
still celebrate him.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So oh yeah, I celebrate him too. He's fun, He's
a great guy. Murph was good. Yeah, So episode two
twenty six and Danielle, you've had a couple of weeks
to marinate and right on this. So this is gonna
be our Father's Day episode, and it's gonna come out
of Rie County, and we hadn't been there in a while,
(04:18):
but we have been to Rie County, Myrtle Beach, Conway,
that area so much. We're just gonna give you a
brief history of the setting here. Now, Orie County for
those not familiar with the state of South Carolina. It's
located in the northeast corner of the state, the furthest
most east, right south of the North Carolina border. And
of course Orie County, like we mentioned, is famous for
(04:40):
South Carolina's grand strand you got Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach,
Atlantic Beach, Surfside, Little River, Cherry Grove, and several other
great communities like Conway, Socastye Ainter and Loris, and that's
where we're gonna be going today. The county itself was
founded in eighteen oh one and named for Revolutionary War
(05:00):
leader Peter Or, who served under Francis Marion as a
brigadier general in the American Revolution. The main drivers of
Rie County's of Rie County's economy are tourism, of course,
the beach is and agriculture. Now those two when I
wrote that down, I said, they don't normally mix. But
(05:23):
Rie County is so huge land wise, it's twelve hundred
and fifty four square miles that they've got enough room
to separate the both.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Oh yeah, and if you take any actually went to
Polly's Island last weekend, and if you're taking those back roads,
I mean you get to see all that farmland, and
I mean the corn everywhere. They've got cotton out there,
so I mean you definitely see where the space is.
Dubai Hammock, I did not, but I did see the stores.
They're a little pricey, but I got to see I
(05:54):
got to see one year a demonstration of how they
made the hammocks. So it's a really cool place.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
But no, I did not, Okay, just just making sure,
just doing a money check, see if we were paying
you too much. But today, Or County is home to
three hundred and fifty one thousand residents and some of
the more famous residents through the years, we've we've gone
over these as well. But a one I think that
everybody knows pop culture wise is Vana White, co host
(06:24):
and still co host of Wheel of Fortune. She outlasted
Pat Sajack. Yeah, so she's on there with Seacress now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And I was about to ask who the new who
the new host was?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, remember your husband, my brother. He gives me a
lot of grief for watching Jeopardy and Wheel at night
when I get home and he's like, man, you're what
are you seventy five? I'm like this good stuff it is.
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I too.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Also from ri County, Madison Iceman or Eisman. She's an actress.
She's been in the Goosebump series, the New Jumanjis, and
she is in the up coming reboot of I Know
What You Did. Last summer.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I saw they were doing that, and I'm excited. I
want to see it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't know that original man, that was good. That
was a good one. I actually went to the theater
a couple of times to see that. Okay, reintroduced me
to Jennifer love Hewitt in that crowd. Also from Oriy County,
Dustin Johnson, PGA and Live tour golfer. He was the
twenty sixteen US Open Champion and the twenty twenty Masters Champion.
(07:33):
So with all that out of the way, let's go
ahead and hop right into this week's episode and take
us away.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
All right, Well, you said this is our Father's Day episode.
It did not occur on Father's Day, but it does
involve a father and son, so I figured I could
try to play that in somewhere.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So, Robert Marion Ford, Junior was a member of Good
Hope Baptist Church, where he was the choir director for
over thirty years, a former deacon, a Sunday school teacher,
a Bible drill leader, and a member of the Good
Hope Quartet. So to say he was involved is an understatement.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, he's at church every time the doors are in low. Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And he was also a very big family man, referred
to as Pappy by his grandchildren, and was the father
of a daughter and a son, Robbie Stetson Ford was
the son of Robert Ford and also a member of
Good Hope Baptist Church alongside his father. He graduated from
or Georgetown Technical College and was currently attending Clemson University,
(08:44):
where he was studying architecture.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, so big dreams. And he followed in his father's footsteps,
and that he was very family oriented, being a caretaker
for both of his grandmothers and his mother before she
passed away in twenty sixteen. So that's a lot for
such a young age.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, that's a lot on the young man's play. How
old did you say he was?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
He is? I hadn't said yet, but he's twenty five, okay,
and his father was fifty.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Nine, far and a way more mature than I was
at twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes, yes, I say that is yes like myself not.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I mean either way.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, in twenty seventeen, Robert Junior suffered from a heart
condition that required him to have surgery, and he wanted
to be able to get his affairs in order in
case something happened, so he turned to his daughter, his
older daughter, Samantha, since Robert Junior was a widower at
this point, because his wife Melba, like I said, had
passed in twenty sixteen. Fortunately, everything went well with Robert's
(09:49):
procedure and the family was able to continue going on
with life as usual until a disturbing call came in
around two twenty six pm on August eight, eighteenth, twenty eighteen.
The Ory County Police Department responded to a report of
an abandoned vehicle in the area of Cook's Circle in
(10:09):
Highway nine seventeen, and there was a the vehicle was
just sitting in a field, very out of the ordinary, weird.
So they called police to say, hey, what's going on
with this? You know, you want to check this out.
When they arrived, police found a two thousand and five
FOURD Escape that had been partially burned, and they were
(10:31):
able to get a plate number and it ran it
in the system and it came back as being registered
to Robert Marion Ford Junior. They were able to get
the address and went to the home of Robert Junior
to conduct a welfare check to find out, why was
your vehicle partially burned abandoned in a field?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, are you here? Did you know this happened?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah? It was your car stolen? Did something happened whatever?
So they decided to go do a welfare check, and
when they got there, they stumbled upon a very disturbing
scene at the Ford home. Police didn't see anything out
of the norm when they checked out the exterior of
the home initially until they made their way to the
back of the house and in the backyard. Lying in
(11:16):
the middle of the backyard, they found two bodies lying
in the middle of the yard who were soon identified
as Robert Marion Ford fifty nine and his son, Robbie
Stetson Ford twenty five.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They both had apparent gunshot wounds. Robert Junior had been
shot twice in the head and Robbie once in the
side and once in the back of the head. Crime
scene investigators began processing the scene where the abandoned car
was found, and they located three cigarette butts on the
ground outside of the driver's side door and a partially
(11:51):
burned skull cap in the on the driver's side floorboard.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Skull cap like a like a do rag.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I kind of think, I think about it almost, you know,
like when you're like, I have one, not a skull cap,
but I have like it's like a beanie and you
like flip it up to kind of have like a
little like I have a car heart one, but then
there's I think this is one that just slides down
to I guess so I call it a beanie, okay,
but they described it as a skull cap. DNA was
(12:23):
taken off both the items that they found and put
into CODIS, but a profile could not be matched to anyone,
meaning that the person or persons responsible had never committed
a crime, or they had not committed a crime before,
or they committed a crime before. DNA was required to
be taken and we've encountered that before. Though there were
(12:47):
many interviews, forensic analysis, and constant follow up investigative techniques
in an attempt to find out who was responsible for
this horrendous crime, the leads turned into a dead end
and eventually the case went cold. Two years later, the
ri County Police Department reached out to Authorm I think
(13:08):
is how that's pronounced. It is a company dedicated to
solving cold cases through genetic genealogy, and they hoped it
could help them to assist identifying the person responsible.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I think we've talked about I think it's Authrum or Oathroom,
yeah before in previous episodes. Where are they based in VIRGI.
I believes that, right. Yeah, and they've they've come into
play and really been an asset to the law enforcement
community and getting these things solved.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, and they have it. They have the how, they
have a lot of I think the people that they
have are former like prosecutors or detectives, people who have
this background in investigative techniques and they can look into
other things. And then also they have all this UH
software and things where they can run this DNA that
(14:01):
police departments don't have, so they have a lot of resources.
Authorom's in house genealogy team performed forensic genetic genealogy to
find the person responsible for this murder and using the
DNA from the cigarette butts and the skull cap, they
were able to get a match to a man by
(14:21):
the name of Randy Dean Granger of Loris, South Carolina.
And when we come back from the short break, we're
going to find out exactly who this person is and
what was his role crime.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
All right, folks, we'll be right back after this quick
word from our sponsors, and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(15:03):
episode two twenty six, coming from Or County, South Carolina.
And when we left off a real mystery to Ory
County Sheriff's Office. Fifty nine year old Robert Ford Junior,
his son Robbie Ford, aged twenty five. They were found
deceased in the backyard of their home. This was in
(15:27):
twenty eighteen, and the only real I guess treasure chest
of clues was Robert Ford Jr. The elder Robert Ford.
His abandoned vehicle was found in a field. There was
a skull cap, cigarette butts found. And when we left off,
(15:48):
you said that the forensics company was able to narrow
down the dn I to one our DNA to one
Randy Dean Granger.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Okay, And by this point it was twenty twenty, so
two years had passed since this murder had been committed.
And when the name came to detectives, it was, I
guess kind of a head scratcher because this man's name
was not anywhere in this investigation.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So their thought is who is this person and how
does he fit into what happened? Because stranger on stranger
crime is not totally common, no, and so well they
decided this name has never been brought up, and they
weren't able to find any connection between Randy and the
(16:38):
two victims. So the next step was speaking with him
to find out exactly why his DNA was found on
multiple items at a scene where two men had been murdered.
When they brought Randy in, it didn't take long for
him to admit that he was the one that pulled
the trigger and killed both of them. But it still
(16:58):
didn't answer the question as to why. And I mean,
were you just out and to see these two people
in the yard and decide to shoot them or that
didn't make any sense? Yea, you explained it. Nothing was taken,
so this wasn't a robbery. And they still don't have
a connection between the three men, so it couldn't be
(17:19):
like this personal vendetta.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah. I think he would have popped up by by now,
I mean two years later and then say hey, this
is They had a beef with this guy. But he
was nobody to them.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No, he wasn't on any of the people they had interviewed.
He wasn't any on any possible suspects. No witnesses had
said that they knew this connection. This man was an
absolute stranger.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But then Randy mentions another name as to who was involved.
There's another person that was involved in this, and it's
a woman by the name of Teresa Ann Martin and
she is fifty four years old at the time. Okay,
we have another person, who is she? This name still
(18:08):
does not ring a bell. This is not any on
our list of people we have investigated. So this still
does not help them, and they decide, you know, okay,
we still need a connection. And that's when Randy gives
the detectives a third name.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
He's just spilling all the tea.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Oh he is yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You could, you could probably try to lie about the
fact that you have an involvement in this, but it's
really hard when you're the only one who's DNA is
on in this scene. But it's almost like, well, I'll
admit it, but I'm gonna take everybody else down with
me because some people don't want to name other people.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, but I'm also interested to see if they actually
had a role in this, or if he's just trying
to throw him off the sea and be like, well, yeah,
I might have pulled the trigger, but it was these
people that was.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like, I'm starting to start spitting out names until something sticks.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So the third person, so the third person that the
detectives here from, Randy, is a name that does sound
familiar to them, and that's when things click and things
begin to fall into place. Randy tells them that Teresa
Martin came in came to him at the request of
Samantha Ford Raven, which is Robert's daughter and Robbie's half sister. Wow,
(19:40):
and Teresa and Samantha were not just acquaintances, they were
cousins on I believe probably her mom's side. So she
is Samantha's a product of Robert's first marriage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, so she was older than Robbie.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yes, she's thirty nine at the time. And so now
it's and I believe it sounds like Teresa might be
a cousin on the mom's side. These are things I'm
just having to do context clues on. Okay, Well, it
turns out that when Robert Junior had his heart procedure
the year before, and Samantha was asked to go through
(20:17):
his assets and try to get his affairs in order,
she learned something. Well, like in most cases, Melba, Robert's
deceased wife, when she passed, everything went to Robert Junior,
you know, usually goes to the spouse, and Robert Junior
wanted Melba's assets to go to Robbie, their son. So
(20:40):
Robert the third, No, he's he's not a third Okay, yeah,
they just have the first name. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I just don't want anybody to get confused.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Maybe I can call him or I'll put r.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Robert Jr. Is the elder, yes.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Okay, but the but his son Robbie is not.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
A third rob rob Burt and Robbie all right.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I guess it makes it easy for them to remember
the name.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I don't know all of Melba's wealth transferred, and that's
South Carolina. I think the state law probate it goes.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
To the spouse, yes, which was Robert Jr. And Robert Jr.
Was like, I want, if something happens to me, my
deceased wife's assets to all go to our son, Robbie,
that we share together, and then half of out my
stuff will be split between Samantha and Robbie.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
M M okay.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And so that would mean that Robbie would get the
majority because he would be getting his half of his
father's stuff and all of his mom's stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So he's getting three quarters of the.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Loop and then Samantha would only get half of what
her dad had because Melbourne was her stepmother got it.
Sorry for the confusion, I had to little and doing
some math, yea acrossing some te's I'm like, this is yes,
my with my hair's on fire. The total amount of
(22:03):
the inheritance equaled over a million dollars, and if her
father and half brother were out of the picture, the
next person in line to get the full amount would
be Samantha, as opposed to her just getting a portion,
which I put in parentheses. I am absolutely okay with
getting a portion of a million dollars. I don't need
(22:25):
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah. Well, well that some people are.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
That coupled with the fact that that Samantha was having
financial difficulties at the time, Samantha decided the only solution
and this problem was to have her half brother and
her father killed.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So so on August seventeenth, twenty twenty, almost two years
to the day of the murders, Oory County Police Departments
Criminal Investigations Division served multiple search warrants and all three
suspects were taken into custody and held without bond. Teresa
(23:03):
Martin was questioned by detectives, and she told them Samantha
asked her to bring Randy to see her and then
asked him if he would kill her father and half
brothers so she could inherit all of her father's money.
Speaking with Randy and Teresa, detectives were able to piece
together what exactly happened with his murderer's plot. So when
(23:25):
we come back from this last break, we're gonna find
out what exactly transpired.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
The whole story. Yes, all right, folks, we'll be right
back after this quick word from our sponsors, and welcome
(23:59):
back to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty six out of
Ori County, South Carolina. And this picture of what happened
to Robert Ford, Junior and his son Robbie Ford, it
got a lot clearer. It was motivated by greed. It
sounds like some jealousy. And I'm interested to see how
(24:23):
this Randy Granger that did pull the trigger, how he
got involved with these two ladies, Teresa and Martin and
Samantha Ford Rabin who was set to be the sole
beneficiary of the one million dollar inheritance. And interesting to
see how this plays out. So smart smartness up.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
At this point all three suspects have been arrested and
police have questioned and spoken to Teresa and Randy and
they both have been open and they have admitted their
parts and have not hidden anything. Samantha never admitted anything.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Okay, she kept her mouth shut.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yes, so pretty much her name came in just because
they were like, they've got two people saying she's the
one that kind of steered this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, and she's got a giant, one million dollar motive
to do this.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And after speaking with at least, you know, Randy and Teresa,
police were able to piece together everybody's part in this,
and it was determined that Samantha said that she would
pay Randy twenty thousand dollars and even provided him with
a pistol that she had stolen from her father the
year before. So it kind of makes you wonder if
(25:43):
because the year before was twenty seventeen, which is when
her father had this heart procedure, when she started going
through his asset and when she started realizing she wasn't
going to be getting She's still getting a good bit,
but not compared to her brother.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Quarter million dollars is nothing to sneeze it.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, I'm not mad at that, and you know, so
it makes you wonder if she was. It sounds like
this was already in play way before it actually happened.
He Randy agreed. I don't think there wasn't anything that
indicated where, you know, he really knew Samantha that well.
(26:22):
I think he kind of knew of hers, But he
was just a person that Teresa Martin knew and I
think had a little bit of a you know, shady
background and got in trouble before it probably knew that
he was a guy that if we can throw money
at you, you'd be willing to take it. Yeah, So
he was kind of like a pawn in all of
(26:42):
this and was the person that they were like, well,
if there's a person that's gonna do something like this,
it'll probably be him. So that's kind of where he
came from. Me, let me speak to him, Let's have
a meet up and we'll talk about this.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You can't really shop around for hit men. I've always
said that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You've always said that.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, say that all the time, but you can't really,
I mean, because once the cat's out of the bag,
you're gonna have all these people like, well, yeah, they
approached me and asked me to kill them, and I
told them, hell no, And.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
That's happened with stuff in the past where people will,
you know, a person ends up getting killed and then
someone will come to police and be like, look, they
came to me a few months ago and asked me
if I would, you know, offered me money to kill
this person. And I thought they were joking or didn't
think anything of it. But now that this person's dead,
I think you probably need to know something's going on here.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, and there's a name for those people. It's called
witness for the prosecution. Yeah, that's that's what they usually
end up being. But yeah, that's while that a people
would even still think that way. And I mean twenty
thousand dollars, I think that's probably one of the largest
sums we've heard. And maybe a murder for hire on
this on this program.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, Well, Randy agreed, and she ended up giving him
a date in a time where she knew that Robert
and Robbie would be together at the home. On August eighteenth,
twenty eighteen. It was a Tuesday, and Randy asked Teresa
if she would drop him off at Samantha's daddy's house,
which she did and later picked him up, So that's
(28:20):
where her part comes in. Randy laid in wait and
when the father for when the father and son arrived
at the home, while Robbie was still in the car,
Robert got out and headed towards the door, and that
was when Randy came up behind him kind of got
his attention. Randy turns around, Robert turns around, and that's
(28:41):
when Randy shot him.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Robert fell, and he was not dead at the time,
he was just injured. And at this point is when
Randy turned towards Robbie, who had seen what had just
happened and ran out of the car and was attempting
to run away, and Randy ended up following behind him
and shot Robbie in the back.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Robbie fell, and Randy came up behind him and stood
over him and shot him in the back of the head,
god killing him. He then went back to Robert, who
was still lying by the door injured, and shot him again,
this time in the head, killing him as well. It
was estimated that from the time Randy got Robert's attention
(29:33):
to both men being dead was about thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Holy Cown just two lives.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And very brutal. And you have to think Robbie sees
his father get shot, and then even if he doesn't
see it, Robert hears his son get shot. Yeah, so
just very brutal, very cold. Offer some money these people
(30:05):
that I don't think that he really knew. He was
just new of them. Randy then tried to steal the
car and took it to a field where he was
trying to burn it. I don't understand where why that happened.
I don't know if he decided I'm gonna steal the car,
but then they can probably the car is gonna get stolen,
(30:25):
I'm going to be associated with it. He decided to
burn it. I don't know what I mean. It doesn't
make a whole lot of sense. But this is where
they said he got sloppy. After he set fire, he
left the windows rolled up and shut the doors, and
that is the only thing that kept the fire from
fully consuming the car oxygen. And then he dropped his
(30:47):
skull cap and apparently I don't know if he I
think I'm envisioning him standing here smoking these three cigarettes,
watching this car burn to see what exactly it's doing.
And then proceeds to leave all three of the butts
right by the iver side door.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, you're gonna stand there and rip some SIGs.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And that's ultimately what ended up being the tie with
him is the DNA on the those cigarette butts and
the DNA on the skull cap. If those things would
have been there, they wouldn't never this case would probably
still be cold.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, and it it. It remained cold for quite a while. Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So Teresa ended up striking a deal with the prosecutor
and agreed to testify against Samantha and Randy. She pled
guilty to accessory after the fact on April third of
twenty twenty three and was sentenced to three years and
she is currently at least correctional and is expected to
be released in September of this year.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Randy's trial began on April third, twenty twenty three, and
he was eventually found guilty of two counts of criminal conspiracy,
one count of arson and the third degree, and two
counts of murder. On April sixth, after just a couple
hours of deliberation, he was sentenced to two consecutive life
sentences without the possibility of parole. Teresa and Randy both
(32:13):
agreed to testify at Samantha's trial. You gotta think the
prosecution doesn't have a whole bunch without these two main people.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Yeah, it's all hearsay without And on top of that,
everything that they're gonna put out there is pretty much
going to be circumstantial, and that creates that doubt which
could cause her to go free.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
And they both decided, you know, I don't know she
she picked the wrong people, I suppose because these were
people who were not afraid to say, yeah, you're you're
the one responsible for this, and we're not gonna go
to jail, and then you're gonna just be out living
your life with all this money.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, she's the mastermind.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
So they testified at her trial, which to this day,
I do not believe that she's ever admitted to anything.
I've not seen anything where she's given any official statement.
At her trial, her defense team even tried to shift
the blame to Samantha's mother, Robert's ex wife, basically saying
(33:16):
she's the one that wanted him killed. But they were
easily able to say she didn't have anything to gain.
They weren't hadn't been married, you know, Melba and Robert
got married in eighty eight. Yeah, I mean it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Twenty years after the fact.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah. So, and I said that that's pretty low that
you would even try to like allow your own mom
to take the fall for something like that. Samantha was
eventually found guilty of two counts of solicitation to commit murder,
two counts of criminal conspiracy, and two counts of murder.
She was sentenced to two life sentences wow, plus thirty years,
(33:58):
all to run consecutively. And she is currently at Graham
Correctional And I did have they did. There was one
thing that they had. It was a text message or
it was a Google search that she had on her
phone that they were able to find from her history
that says, can you clean up a double homicide in
four hours?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
What does she mean clean up?
Speaker 3 (34:22):
I guess it was she was. This probably was in
the maybe the early stages when she was trying to
figure out exactly how she was going to have this executed,
like how she was going to like how are we
going to do it? And so maybe she was like, okay, so.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Make it look like a car robbery or.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Who knows, but she had you know, this guy's stop
researching what you're gonna do with crimes? Please? This always
comes back.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah. I mean we've we've talked about our Google Google
machine search, and.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We can absolutely we have enough evidence to be like,
this is what we were doing it for.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
But I hope, I hope I did anybody ever tries
to get us, We're doomed, dude.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Oh, they'll be like, the whole trial will be nothing,
but this is their Google searches or the tax exchange
between the two of them. And I'm like, I don't
know what.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
To say, place like you know, and.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
They say it's for a podcast, like it is. So
since he testified against Samantha, randy sentence was reduced to
two concurrent life terms, meaning he's going to serve them
at the same time, okay, and he is at liber
correctional tough place. The Ford family filed a law a
(35:34):
civil lawsuit to ensure that no one involved in the
murders benefited from their deaths, mostly Samantha. In October of
twenty twenty four, eight eyewitnesses testified, including Randy and Teresa,
and by the end of October, the jury awarded the
amount of seven hundred and thirty eight million dollars our
(35:56):
one thousand, No a million.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Seven one hundred and thirty eight million. Yeah, where'd they
get that money from?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
I don't know. That's what that was. What the federal
case was, or it was like a civil suit and
the jury was like, we're awarding holy cow, this money.
But no, I was like, no, it's not that, is it. No,
it's no seven hundred and thirty eight million dollars. And
if you want me to tell you how they believe
they came up with that, I can tell you. But
if not, that's what they came up with. And though
(36:28):
there aren't sufficient assets to satisfy the award, they were
able to prohibit Samantha from receiving any benefits from the
life insurance policy and instead having those benefits be paid
to Robert's family members. So everything from his estate and
everything will go straight to his surviving family members they said,
(36:48):
specifically his grandkids.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Okay, because I did have a question about, well, what
happens to the money in these cases, but I was
going to throw that out.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
To the crowd, but well, I guess it depends. But
this is the case where they were like, clearly, there's
not enough for this amount to be divvied up, but
everything from his stuff is going to go to his
grandkids and they will be able to benefit from that
and she will never ever able to ever be able
to receive any of that money.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, or get out no, wow.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Senior Assistant Solicitor Ellen Walter said, in my thirty years
of prosecution, these are the most heinous murderers I've ever seen.
The idea that someone would have their family killed out
of pure greed is untenable. She ain't wrong, and they
said that that's exactly what this case was. It was greed. Wow,
(37:42):
it was. It was unfortunate because it's like your own
family member had this set up, and it's like, how
many times was she hanging around her half brother and
her father knowing that this was something that she was plotting.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, just hoping, waiting for her chance and wait.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
So the other two did, like I said, they were
very transparent. They owned up to everything. They have their
day in court, and they are in prison. She is
the only one, Samantha is the only one who to
this day, I don't have any I haven't seen anything
where she's tried to explain away anything. No appeal, She
(38:21):
hasn't tried to say anything. I don't know if she's
gonna give an appeal because it was pretty recent, but
she's never outwardly admitted to anything.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Gotcha, gotcha? Wow? Wow. They sounded like good guys. I mean,
the elder Robert Jr. I mean, very active in his church,
trying to do the right thing, living a great life,
enjoying himself, and to suffer through the loss of his
wife health issues. And then Robbie, he was just getting
(38:53):
life started m and he was.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Still holding on. You know, he had this burden of
being caretaker to women in his family and being loving
and like I said, following in his father's footsteps. And
he was going to college to make something of himself
and had plans. And you know, unfortunately the community lost
two great men.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, agreed for no reason. Wow, well, thank you for
bringing that one to us. Tragedy all around. I was
really surprised at samantha sentence since she wasn't the trigger person,
but she got two counts of murder as well. And man,
(39:36):
they threw the book at her.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Two life sentences plus thirty years.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, so incredible, and.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Hers are consecutively. So they wanted to make sure.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, you're gonna die twice then thirty years yes, wow, well, Danielle,
thank you so much for bringing us that one. Thank
you to all of you for listening this week. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Thanks just you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Got back in the saddle on a good one there.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Thank you. Yeah, it's good to be back.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yes, yes, but thank you to all of you. Thank
you to everyone that has gone over to Carolina Crimesstore
dot com and purchase some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia. We
want to say thank you to Donna Wessinger and Robin Fogel.
Thank you to those of you that are listening on
Apple iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Threw us a five
star review, mash that purple subscribe button and told us
(40:24):
a little something about yourselves. Thank you to Juliana eighty nine,
Doom Buggy ninety three, Amanda and Mack, Miss Allison, m
I Z. Yes, our CPC f R N and AL
has gone so from creative Creative names. Thank you also
(40:48):
to Andrea Derek, Mark Fagala, Morgan Wilson, Holland, Seek Sharing Cribs,
Deanna McWaters and Rebel. Thank you to Russ Schumard, Beth glaze.
We love seeing pictures of her ponies. Thank you to
Daniel Snow, Nancy Hart, the patron Saint of Carolina Crimes,
Rita Schuler. Thank you to Susan Henry and her two pups,
(41:12):
Zeus and Zena. Thank you to Kak and her little
fur baby it is a dog named Kitty. Thank you
to Doreenda Coronado and all her fur babies and grandkids.
You made a big collage of those. Thank you to
Kirk Albertson, to Lisa Marie and her pups, Aries and Atlas.
(41:33):
Thank you to Steve Patten, Cody Gooch, Evan Steiner, Amanda Hall,
Dawn Still, Eric Cheek, Robin Fogel again in the video
of the pig she sent us, I don't know if
that's hers or you're gonna have to do some explaining there.
Thank you to Jennifer Lyons, Lakwanda Coaxham, Rose Howe, Katalina Fortner,
Alison Green, Kirsten Harkness and the statue she sent me
(41:59):
of the lizard man. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Ashley will not have that in her yard. She's already
said that. But thank you for the thought she did.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
She needed to go ahead and get ahead of that.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yes. Thank you to Ashley Richards and her pup, Trusty Jack.
Thank you to Eric Bryan, Christy Mize, and Drew Vickery
Jody Wright in the Evil ostrich She sent a picture
of thank you to Missy Hooper, Andrea, Derek Penny Kiner,
Julie Kane, Anna Hudson, Erica Belle, Rebecca Cockrell, and Tiny Willis. So, folks,
(42:32):
we appreciate you joining us here this week and next
week we're going to be on location in Beauford County
and a special story from there. Folks, thank you for
listening to Carolina Crimes.
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true
(00:25):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes. We're over the moon
thrill that you joined us here this week. I'm one
of your hosts, Matt Hyres, and I'm over the moon
thrilled to welcome back from administratively.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Even sabbatical Danielle Myers.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, yes, Danielle's.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thanks for allowing me to come.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yes, yes, pretty egregious. You were suspended without pay.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, that happens pretty frequently. Somebody said something on our page,
and I said, my boss, Matt Hires, he's a stickler.
That doesn't take much for me to get in trouble.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So yeah, yeah, but no, a couple couple weeks off
here we appreciate all our fill in guest host Steve
Ranishski and both David and Teresa Rector. Great episodes, a
lot of feedback from last week. Thank you so much.
We've got some special thank yous to dish Out and
dole out here at the end of this episode. We're
(01:36):
episode two twenty six. If you're taking score.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
At home, I do want to tell the guest host
thank you for filling in. Yes, I hope they didn't
do such a great job that I'm going to be
considered being replaced. Well, we'll see, and thank you for
stepping up. Oh, taking care of those.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
No, just summertime and everybody's schedule, it gets way out
of whack, and then you throw in holidays, birthdays, Father's days,
Mother's days. It gets vacation.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's always this time of year where you and I
have a conflict.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yes, yes, and then we go out of town together.
So we will be on location next week. Thank god.
It's gonna be a well needed vacation and break.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I was thinking about it this morning. Mall's finishing up
this episode, and I was like, I am ready. I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, one week from right now, week from right now.
But we appreciate you're bearing with us, sticking through us.
We appreciate the guest host. We will have episodes next
next week, but we do go to grank lengths to
make sure there is one every week for you, because
that's why we do this. It's a hobby of ours
(02:52):
and it entertains you, folks, and we've kind of formed
a family, and we really appreciate this. We appreciate your
support and you're listening and we love bringing you a
new episode every week. And there's no shortage of crazy
in the state of South Carolina, so no, but.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
We've learned that plenty of times since we started doing this,
and I still continue to find a new crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yes, and we're gonna keep on pressing on. We want
to wish all the dad's, the granddad's, stepdad's, special guys
in our life. Also a happy Father's Day today. I'm
gonna be able to make it down and see my dad.
Thank you. Happy Father's Day to Harry Hires stepdad, Darryl Myers,
(03:34):
Robert Thompson, Bobby Thompson, my wife's step grandfather, Bob Bryan
of course her dad, and uh, just wonderful guys all around.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Yes, and I have my father in law's Darryl and
Mike who've always stepped in and been there for me,
and my father who is not here anymore, but I
still celebrate him.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So oh yeah, I celebrate him too. He's fun, He's
a great guy. Murph was good. Yeah, So episode two
twenty six and Danielle, you've had a couple of weeks
to marinate and right on this. So this is gonna
be our Father's Day episode, and it's gonna come out
of Rie County, and we hadn't been there in a while,
(04:18):
but we have been to Rie County, Myrtle Beach, Conway,
that area so much. We're just gonna give you a
brief history of the setting here. Now, Orie County for
those not familiar with the state of South Carolina. It's
located in the northeast corner of the state, the furthest
most east, right south of the North Carolina border. And
of course Orie County, like we mentioned, is famous for
(04:40):
South Carolina's grand strand you got Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach,
Atlantic Beach, Surfside, Little River, Cherry Grove, and several other
great communities like Conway, Socastye Ainter and Loris, and that's
where we're gonna be going today. The county itself was
founded in eighteen oh one and named for Revolutionary War
(05:00):
leader Peter Or, who served under Francis Marion as a
brigadier general in the American Revolution. The main drivers of
Rie County's of Rie County's economy are tourism, of course,
the beach is and agriculture. Now those two when I
wrote that down, I said, they don't normally mix. But
(05:23):
Rie County is so huge land wise, it's twelve hundred
and fifty four square miles that they've got enough room
to separate the both.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Oh yeah, and if you take any actually went to
Polly's Island last weekend, and if you're taking those back roads,
I mean you get to see all that farmland, and
I mean the corn everywhere. They've got cotton out there,
so I mean you definitely see where the space is.
Dubai Hammock, I did not, but I did see the stores.
They're a little pricey, but I got to see I
(05:54):
got to see one year a demonstration of how they
made the hammocks. So it's a really cool place.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
But no, I did not, Okay, just just making sure,
just doing a money check, see if we were paying
you too much. But today, Or County is home to
three hundred and fifty one thousand residents and some of
the more famous residents through the years, we've we've gone
over these as well. But a one I think that
everybody knows pop culture wise is Vana White, co host
(06:24):
and still co host of Wheel of Fortune. She outlasted
Pat Sajack. Yeah, so she's on there with Seacress now.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And I was about to ask who the new who
the new host was?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, remember your husband, my brother. He gives me a
lot of grief for watching Jeopardy and Wheel at night
when I get home and he's like, man, you're what
are you seventy five? I'm like this good stuff it is.
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I too.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Also from ri County, Madison Iceman or Eisman. She's an actress.
She's been in the Goosebump series, the New Jumanjis, and
she is in the up coming reboot of I Know
What You Did. Last summer.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I saw they were doing that, and I'm excited. I
want to see it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't know that original man, that was good. That
was a good one. I actually went to the theater
a couple of times to see that. Okay, reintroduced me
to Jennifer love Hewitt in that crowd. Also from Oriy County,
Dustin Johnson, PGA and Live tour golfer. He was the
twenty sixteen US Open Champion and the twenty twenty Masters Champion.
(07:33):
So with all that out of the way, let's go
ahead and hop right into this week's episode and take
us away.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
All right, Well, you said this is our Father's Day episode.
It did not occur on Father's Day, but it does
involve a father and son, so I figured I could
try to play that in somewhere.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So, Robert Marion Ford, Junior was a member of Good
Hope Baptist Church, where he was the choir director for
over thirty years, a former deacon, a Sunday school teacher,
a Bible drill leader, and a member of the Good
Hope Quartet. So to say he was involved is an understatement.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, he's at church every time the doors are in low. Yes.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And he was also a very big family man, referred
to as Pappy by his grandchildren, and was the father
of a daughter and a son, Robbie Stetson Ford was
the son of Robert Ford and also a member of
Good Hope Baptist Church alongside his father. He graduated from
or Georgetown Technical College and was currently attending Clemson University,
(08:44):
where he was studying architecture.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yeah, so big dreams. And he followed in his father's footsteps,
and that he was very family oriented, being a caretaker
for both of his grandmothers and his mother before she
passed away in twenty sixteen. So that's a lot for
such a young age.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, that's a lot on the young man's play. How
old did you say he was?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
He is? I hadn't said yet, but he's twenty five, okay,
and his father was fifty.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Nine, far and a way more mature than I was
at twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes, yes, I say that is yes like myself not.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I mean either way.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, in twenty seventeen, Robert Junior suffered from a heart
condition that required him to have surgery, and he wanted
to be able to get his affairs in order in
case something happened, so he turned to his daughter, his
older daughter, Samantha, since Robert Junior was a widower at
this point, because his wife Melba, like I said, had
passed in twenty sixteen. Fortunately, everything went well with Robert's
(09:49):
procedure and the family was able to continue going on
with life as usual until a disturbing call came in
around two twenty six pm on August eight, eighteenth, twenty eighteen.
The Ory County Police Department responded to a report of
an abandoned vehicle in the area of Cook's Circle in
(10:09):
Highway nine seventeen, and there was a the vehicle was
just sitting in a field, very out of the ordinary, weird.
So they called police to say, hey, what's going on
with this? You know, you want to check this out.
When they arrived, police found a two thousand and five
FOURD Escape that had been partially burned, and they were
(10:31):
able to get a plate number and it ran it
in the system and it came back as being registered
to Robert Marion Ford Junior. They were able to get
the address and went to the home of Robert Junior
to conduct a welfare check to find out, why was
your vehicle partially burned abandoned in a field?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, are you here? Did you know this happened?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Yeah? It was your car stolen? Did something happened whatever?
So they decided to go do a welfare check, and
when they got there, they stumbled upon a very disturbing
scene at the Ford home. Police didn't see anything out
of the norm when they checked out the exterior of
the home initially until they made their way to the
back of the house and in the backyard. Lying in
(11:16):
the middle of the backyard, they found two bodies lying
in the middle of the yard who were soon identified
as Robert Marion Ford fifty nine and his son, Robbie
Stetson Ford twenty five.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Gosh.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They both had apparent gunshot wounds. Robert Junior had been
shot twice in the head and Robbie once in the
side and once in the back of the head. Crime
scene investigators began processing the scene where the abandoned car
was found, and they located three cigarette butts on the
ground outside of the driver's side door and a partially
(11:51):
burned skull cap in the on the driver's side floorboard.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Skull cap like a like a do rag.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I kind of think, I think about it almost, you know,
like when you're like, I have one, not a skull cap,
but I have like it's like a beanie and you
like flip it up to kind of have like a
little like I have a car heart one, but then
there's I think this is one that just slides down
to I guess so I call it a beanie, okay,
but they described it as a skull cap. DNA was
(12:23):
taken off both the items that they found and put
into CODIS, but a profile could not be matched to anyone,
meaning that the person or persons responsible had never committed
a crime, or they had not committed a crime before,
or they committed a crime before. DNA was required to
be taken and we've encountered that before. Though there were
(12:47):
many interviews, forensic analysis, and constant follow up investigative techniques
in an attempt to find out who was responsible for
this horrendous crime, the leads turned into a dead end
and eventually the case went cold. Two years later, the
ri County Police Department reached out to Authorm I think
(13:08):
is how that's pronounced. It is a company dedicated to
solving cold cases through genetic genealogy, and they hoped it
could help them to assist identifying the person responsible.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I think we've talked about I think it's Authrum or Oathroom,
yeah before in previous episodes. Where are they based in VIRGI.
I believes that, right. Yeah, and they've they've come into
play and really been an asset to the law enforcement
community and getting these things solved.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, and they have it. They have the how, they
have a lot of I think the people that they
have are former like prosecutors or detectives, people who have
this background in investigative techniques and they can look into
other things. And then also they have all this UH
software and things where they can run this DNA that
(14:01):
police departments don't have, so they have a lot of resources.
Authorom's in house genealogy team performed forensic genetic genealogy to
find the person responsible for this murder and using the
DNA from the cigarette butts and the skull cap, they
were able to get a match to a man by
(14:21):
the name of Randy Dean Granger of Loris, South Carolina.
And when we come back from the short break, we're
going to find out exactly who this person is and
what was his role crime.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
All right, folks, we'll be right back after this quick
word from our sponsors, and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,
(15:03):
episode two twenty six, coming from Or County, South Carolina.
And when we left off a real mystery to Ory
County Sheriff's Office. Fifty nine year old Robert Ford Junior,
his son Robbie Ford, aged twenty five. They were found
deceased in the backyard of their home. This was in
(15:27):
twenty eighteen, and the only real I guess treasure chest
of clues was Robert Ford Jr. The elder Robert Ford.
His abandoned vehicle was found in a field. There was
a skull cap, cigarette butts found. And when we left off,
(15:48):
you said that the forensics company was able to narrow
down the dn I to one our DNA to one
Randy Dean Granger.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Okay, And by this point it was twenty twenty, so
two years had passed since this murder had been committed.
And when the name came to detectives, it was, I
guess kind of a head scratcher because this man's name
was not anywhere in this investigation.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So their thought is who is this person and how
does he fit into what happened? Because stranger on stranger
crime is not totally common, no, and so well they
decided this name has never been brought up, and they
weren't able to find any connection between Randy and the
(16:38):
two victims. So the next step was speaking with him
to find out exactly why his DNA was found on
multiple items at a scene where two men had been murdered.
When they brought Randy in, it didn't take long for
him to admit that he was the one that pulled
the trigger and killed both of them. But it still
(16:58):
didn't answer the question as to why. And I mean,
were you just out and to see these two people
in the yard and decide to shoot them or that
didn't make any sense? Yea, you explained it. Nothing was taken,
so this wasn't a robbery. And they still don't have
a connection between the three men, so it couldn't be
(17:19):
like this personal vendetta.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah. I think he would have popped up by by now,
I mean two years later and then say hey, this
is They had a beef with this guy. But he
was nobody to them.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No, he wasn't on any of the people they had interviewed.
He wasn't any on any possible suspects. No witnesses had
said that they knew this connection. This man was an
absolute stranger.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But then Randy mentions another name as to who was involved.
There's another person that was involved in this, and it's
a woman by the name of Teresa Ann Martin and
she is fifty four years old at the time. Okay,
we have another person, who is she? This name still
(18:08):
does not ring a bell. This is not any on
our list of people we have investigated. So this still
does not help them, and they decide, you know, okay,
we still need a connection. And that's when Randy gives
the detectives a third name.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
He's just spilling all the tea.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Oh he is yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You could, you could probably try to lie about the
fact that you have an involvement in this, but it's
really hard when you're the only one who's DNA is
on in this scene. But it's almost like, well, I'll
admit it, but I'm gonna take everybody else down with
me because some people don't want to name other people.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, but I'm also interested to see if they actually
had a role in this, or if he's just trying
to throw him off the sea and be like, well, yeah,
I might have pulled the trigger, but it was these
people that was.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like, I'm starting to start spitting out names until something sticks.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So the third person, so the third person that the
detectives here from, Randy, is a name that does sound
familiar to them, and that's when things click and things
begin to fall into place. Randy tells them that Teresa
Martin came in came to him at the request of
Samantha Ford Raven, which is Robert's daughter and Robbie's half sister. Wow,
(19:40):
and Teresa and Samantha were not just acquaintances, they were
cousins on I believe probably her mom's side. So she
is Samantha's a product of Robert's first marriage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, so she was older than Robbie.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yes, she's thirty nine at the time. And so now
it's and I believe it sounds like Teresa might be
a cousin on the mom's side. These are things I'm
just having to do context clues on. Okay, Well, it
turns out that when Robert Junior had his heart procedure
the year before, and Samantha was asked to go through
(20:17):
his assets and try to get his affairs in order,
she learned something. Well, like in most cases, Melba, Robert's
deceased wife, when she passed, everything went to Robert Junior,
you know, usually goes to the spouse, and Robert Junior
wanted Melba's assets to go to Robbie, their son. So
(20:40):
Robert the third, No, he's he's not a third Okay, yeah,
they just have the first name. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I just don't want anybody to get confused.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Maybe I can call him or I'll put r.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Robert Jr. Is the elder, yes.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Okay, but the but his son Robbie is not.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
A third rob rob Burt and Robbie all right.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I guess it makes it easy for them to remember
the name.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I don't know all of Melba's wealth transferred, and that's
South Carolina. I think the state law probate it goes.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
To the spouse, yes, which was Robert Jr. And Robert Jr.
Was like, I want, if something happens to me, my
deceased wife's assets to all go to our son, Robbie,
that we share together, and then half of out my
stuff will be split between Samantha and Robbie.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
M M okay.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And so that would mean that Robbie would get the
majority because he would be getting his half of his
father's stuff and all of his mom's stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So he's getting three quarters of the.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Loop and then Samantha would only get half of what
her dad had because Melbourne was her stepmother got it.
Sorry for the confusion, I had to little and doing
some math, yea acrossing some te's I'm like, this is yes,
my with my hair's on fire. The total amount of
(22:03):
the inheritance equaled over a million dollars, and if her
father and half brother were out of the picture, the
next person in line to get the full amount would
be Samantha, as opposed to her just getting a portion,
which I put in parentheses. I am absolutely okay with
getting a portion of a million dollars. I don't need
(22:25):
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah. Well, well that some people are.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
That coupled with the fact that that Samantha was having
financial difficulties at the time, Samantha decided the only solution
and this problem was to have her half brother and
her father killed.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So so on August seventeenth, twenty twenty, almost two years
to the day of the murders, Oory County Police Departments
Criminal Investigations Division served multiple search warrants and all three
suspects were taken into custody and held without bond. Teresa
(23:03):
Martin was questioned by detectives, and she told them Samantha
asked her to bring Randy to see her and then
asked him if he would kill her father and half
brothers so she could inherit all of her father's money.
Speaking with Randy and Teresa, detectives were able to piece
together what exactly happened with his murderer's plot. So when
(23:25):
we come back from this last break, we're gonna find
out what exactly transpired.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
The whole story. Yes, all right, folks, we'll be right
back after this quick word from our sponsors, and welcome
(23:59):
back to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty six out of
Ori County, South Carolina. And this picture of what happened
to Robert Ford, Junior and his son Robbie Ford, it
got a lot clearer. It was motivated by greed. It
sounds like some jealousy. And I'm interested to see how
(24:23):
this Randy Granger that did pull the trigger, how he
got involved with these two ladies, Teresa and Martin and
Samantha Ford Rabin who was set to be the sole
beneficiary of the one million dollar inheritance. And interesting to
see how this plays out. So smart smartness up.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
At this point all three suspects have been arrested and
police have questioned and spoken to Teresa and Randy and
they both have been open and they have admitted their
parts and have not hidden anything. Samantha never admitted anything.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Okay, she kept her mouth shut.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yes, so pretty much her name came in just because
they were like, they've got two people saying she's the
one that kind of steered this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, and she's got a giant, one million dollar motive
to do this.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And after speaking with at least, you know, Randy and Teresa,
police were able to piece together everybody's part in this,
and it was determined that Samantha said that she would
pay Randy twenty thousand dollars and even provided him with
a pistol that she had stolen from her father the
year before. So it kind of makes you wonder if
(25:43):
because the year before was twenty seventeen, which is when
her father had this heart procedure, when she started going
through his asset and when she started realizing she wasn't
going to be getting She's still getting a good bit,
but not compared to her brother.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Quarter million dollars is nothing to sneeze it.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, I'm not mad at that, and you know, so
it makes you wonder if she was. It sounds like
this was already in play way before it actually happened.
He Randy agreed. I don't think there wasn't anything that
indicated where, you know, he really knew Samantha that well.
(26:22):
I think he kind of knew of hers, But he
was just a person that Teresa Martin knew and I
think had a little bit of a you know, shady
background and got in trouble before it probably knew that
he was a guy that if we can throw money
at you, you'd be willing to take it. Yeah, So
he was kind of like a pawn in all of
(26:42):
this and was the person that they were like, well,
if there's a person that's gonna do something like this,
it'll probably be him. So that's kind of where he
came from. Me, let me speak to him, Let's have
a meet up and we'll talk about this.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
You can't really shop around for hit men. I've always
said that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You've always said that.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, say that all the time, but you can't really,
I mean, because once the cat's out of the bag,
you're gonna have all these people like, well, yeah, they
approached me and asked me to kill them, and I
told them, hell no, And.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
That's happened with stuff in the past where people will,
you know, a person ends up getting killed and then
someone will come to police and be like, look, they
came to me a few months ago and asked me
if I would, you know, offered me money to kill
this person. And I thought they were joking or didn't
think anything of it. But now that this person's dead,
I think you probably need to know something's going on here.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah, and there's a name for those people. It's called
witness for the prosecution. Yeah, that's that's what they usually
end up being. But yeah, that's while that a people
would even still think that way. And I mean twenty
thousand dollars, I think that's probably one of the largest
sums we've heard. And maybe a murder for hire on
this on this program.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, Well, Randy agreed, and she ended up giving him
a date in a time where she knew that Robert
and Robbie would be together at the home. On August eighteenth,
twenty eighteen. It was a Tuesday, and Randy asked Teresa
if she would drop him off at Samantha's daddy's house,
which she did and later picked him up, So that's
(28:20):
where her part comes in. Randy laid in wait and
when the father for when the father and son arrived
at the home, while Robbie was still in the car,
Robert got out and headed towards the door, and that
was when Randy came up behind him kind of got
his attention. Randy turns around, Robert turns around, and that's
(28:41):
when Randy shot him.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Robert fell, and he was not dead at the time,
he was just injured. And at this point is when
Randy turned towards Robbie, who had seen what had just
happened and ran out of the car and was attempting
to run away, and Randy ended up following behind him
and shot Robbie in the back.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Robbie fell, and Randy came up behind him and stood
over him and shot him in the back of the head,
god killing him. He then went back to Robert, who
was still lying by the door injured, and shot him again,
this time in the head, killing him as well. It
was estimated that from the time Randy got Robert's attention
(29:33):
to both men being dead was about thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Holy Cown just two lives.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And very brutal. And you have to think Robbie sees
his father get shot, and then even if he doesn't
see it, Robert hears his son get shot. Yeah, so
just very brutal, very cold. Offer some money these people
(30:05):
that I don't think that he really knew. He was
just new of them. Randy then tried to steal the
car and took it to a field where he was
trying to burn it. I don't understand where why that happened.
I don't know if he decided I'm gonna steal the car,
but then they can probably the car is gonna get stolen,
(30:25):
I'm going to be associated with it. He decided to
burn it. I don't know what I mean. It doesn't
make a whole lot of sense. But this is where
they said he got sloppy. After he set fire, he
left the windows rolled up and shut the doors, and
that is the only thing that kept the fire from
fully consuming the car oxygen. And then he dropped his
(30:47):
skull cap and apparently I don't know if he I
think I'm envisioning him standing here smoking these three cigarettes,
watching this car burn to see what exactly it's doing.
And then proceeds to leave all three of the butts
right by the iver side door.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, you're gonna stand there and rip some SIGs.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
And that's ultimately what ended up being the tie with
him is the DNA on the those cigarette butts and
the DNA on the skull cap. If those things would
have been there, they wouldn't never this case would probably
still be cold.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, and it it. It remained cold for quite a while. Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So Teresa ended up striking a deal with the prosecutor
and agreed to testify against Samantha and Randy. She pled
guilty to accessory after the fact on April third of
twenty twenty three and was sentenced to three years and
she is currently at least correctional and is expected to
be released in September of this year.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Randy's trial began on April third, twenty twenty three, and
he was eventually found guilty of two counts of criminal conspiracy,
one count of arson and the third degree, and two
counts of murder. On April sixth, after just a couple
hours of deliberation, he was sentenced to two consecutive life
sentences without the possibility of parole. Teresa and Randy both
(32:13):
agreed to testify at Samantha's trial. You gotta think the
prosecution doesn't have a whole bunch without these two main people.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Yeah, it's all hearsay without And on top of that,
everything that they're gonna put out there is pretty much
going to be circumstantial, and that creates that doubt which
could cause her to go free.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
And they both decided, you know, I don't know she
she picked the wrong people, I suppose because these were
people who were not afraid to say, yeah, you're you're
the one responsible for this, and we're not gonna go
to jail, and then you're gonna just be out living
your life with all this money.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, she's the mastermind.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
So they testified at her trial, which to this day,
I do not believe that she's ever admitted to anything.
I've not seen anything where she's given any official statement.
At her trial, her defense team even tried to shift
the blame to Samantha's mother, Robert's ex wife, basically saying
(33:16):
she's the one that wanted him killed. But they were
easily able to say she didn't have anything to gain.
They weren't hadn't been married, you know, Melba and Robert
got married in eighty eight. Yeah, I mean it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Twenty years after the fact.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah. So, and I said that that's pretty low that
you would even try to like allow your own mom
to take the fall for something like that. Samantha was
eventually found guilty of two counts of solicitation to commit murder,
two counts of criminal conspiracy, and two counts of murder.
She was sentenced to two life sentences wow, plus thirty years,
(33:58):
all to run consecutively. And she is currently at Graham
Correctional And I did have they did. There was one
thing that they had. It was a text message or
it was a Google search that she had on her
phone that they were able to find from her history
that says, can you clean up a double homicide in
four hours?
Speaker 2 (34:19):
What does she mean clean up?
Speaker 3 (34:22):
I guess it was she was. This probably was in
the maybe the early stages when she was trying to
figure out exactly how she was going to have this executed,
like how she was going to like how are we
going to do it? And so maybe she was like, okay, so.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Make it look like a car robbery or.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Who knows, but she had you know, this guy's stop
researching what you're gonna do with crimes? Please? This always
comes back.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah. I mean we've we've talked about our Google Google
machine search, and.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We can absolutely we have enough evidence to be like,
this is what we were doing it for.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
But I hope, I hope I did anybody ever tries
to get us, We're doomed, dude.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Oh, they'll be like, the whole trial will be nothing,
but this is their Google searches or the tax exchange
between the two of them. And I'm like, I don't
know what.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
To say, place like you know, and.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
They say it's for a podcast, like it is. So
since he testified against Samantha, randy sentence was reduced to
two concurrent life terms, meaning he's going to serve them
at the same time, okay, and he is at liber
correctional tough place. The Ford family filed a law a
(35:34):
civil lawsuit to ensure that no one involved in the
murders benefited from their deaths, mostly Samantha. In October of
twenty twenty four, eight eyewitnesses testified, including Randy and Teresa,
and by the end of October, the jury awarded the
amount of seven hundred and thirty eight million dollars our
(35:56):
one thousand, No a million.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Seven one hundred and thirty eight million. Yeah, where'd they
get that money from?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
I don't know. That's what that was. What the federal
case was, or it was like a civil suit and
the jury was like, we're awarding holy cow, this money.
But no, I was like, no, it's not that, is it. No,
it's no seven hundred and thirty eight million dollars. And
if you want me to tell you how they believe
they came up with that, I can tell you. But
if not, that's what they came up with. And though
(36:28):
there aren't sufficient assets to satisfy the award, they were
able to prohibit Samantha from receiving any benefits from the
life insurance policy and instead having those benefits be paid
to Robert's family members. So everything from his estate and
everything will go straight to his surviving family members they said,
(36:48):
specifically his grandkids.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Okay, because I did have a question about, well, what
happens to the money in these cases, but I was
going to throw that out.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
To the crowd, but well, I guess it depends. But
this is the case where they were like, clearly, there's
not enough for this amount to be divvied up, but
everything from his stuff is going to go to his
grandkids and they will be able to benefit from that
and she will never ever able to ever be able
to receive any of that money.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, or get out no, wow.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Senior Assistant Solicitor Ellen Walter said, in my thirty years
of prosecution, these are the most heinous murderers I've ever seen.
The idea that someone would have their family killed out
of pure greed is untenable. She ain't wrong, and they
said that that's exactly what this case was. It was greed. Wow,
(37:42):
it was. It was unfortunate because it's like your own
family member had this set up, and it's like, how
many times was she hanging around her half brother and
her father knowing that this was something that she was plotting.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, just hoping, waiting for her chance and wait.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
So the other two did, like I said, they were
very transparent. They owned up to everything. They have their
day in court, and they are in prison. She is
the only one, Samantha is the only one who to
this day, I don't have any I haven't seen anything
where she's tried to explain away anything. No appeal, She
(38:21):
hasn't tried to say anything. I don't know if she's
gonna give an appeal because it was pretty recent, but
she's never outwardly admitted to anything.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Gotcha, gotcha? Wow? Wow. They sounded like good guys. I mean,
the elder Robert Jr. I mean, very active in his church,
trying to do the right thing, living a great life,
enjoying himself, and to suffer through the loss of his
wife health issues. And then Robbie, he was just getting
(38:53):
life started m and he was.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Still holding on. You know, he had this burden of
being caretaker to women in his family and being loving
and like I said, following in his father's footsteps. And
he was going to college to make something of himself
and had plans. And you know, unfortunately the community lost
two great men.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, agreed for no reason. Wow, well, thank you for
bringing that one to us. Tragedy all around. I was
really surprised at samantha sentence since she wasn't the trigger person,
but she got two counts of murder as well. And man,
(39:36):
they threw the book at her.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Two life sentences plus thirty years.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, so incredible, and.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Hers are consecutively. So they wanted to make sure.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, you're gonna die twice then thirty years yes, wow, well, Danielle,
thank you so much for bringing us that one. Thank
you to all of you for listening this week. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Thanks just you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Got back in the saddle on a good one there.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Thank you. Yeah, it's good to be back.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yes, yes, but thank you to all of you. Thank
you to everyone that has gone over to Carolina Crimesstore
dot com and purchase some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia. We
want to say thank you to Donna Wessinger and Robin Fogel.
Thank you to those of you that are listening on
Apple iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Threw us a five
star review, mash that purple subscribe button and told us
(40:24):
a little something about yourselves. Thank you to Juliana eighty nine,
Doom Buggy ninety three, Amanda and Mack, Miss Allison, m
I Z. Yes, our CPC f R N and AL
has gone so from creative Creative names. Thank you also
(40:48):
to Andrea Derek, Mark Fagala, Morgan Wilson, Holland, Seek Sharing Cribs,
Deanna McWaters and Rebel. Thank you to Russ Schumard, Beth glaze.
We love seeing pictures of her ponies. Thank you to
Daniel Snow, Nancy Hart, the patron Saint of Carolina Crimes,
Rita Schuler. Thank you to Susan Henry and her two pups,
(41:12):
Zeus and Zena. Thank you to Kak and her little
fur baby it is a dog named Kitty. Thank you
to Doreenda Coronado and all her fur babies and grandkids.
You made a big collage of those. Thank you to
Kirk Albertson, to Lisa Marie and her pups, Aries and Atlas.
(41:33):
Thank you to Steve Patten, Cody Gooch, Evan Steiner, Amanda Hall,
Dawn Still, Eric Cheek, Robin Fogel again in the video
of the pig she sent us, I don't know if
that's hers or you're gonna have to do some explaining there.
Thank you to Jennifer Lyons, Lakwanda Coaxham, Rose Howe, Katalina Fortner,
Alison Green, Kirsten Harkness and the statue she sent me
(41:59):
of the lizard man. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Ashley will not have that in her yard. She's already
said that. But thank you for the thought she did.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
She needed to go ahead and get ahead of that.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yes. Thank you to Ashley Richards and her pup, Trusty Jack.
Thank you to Eric Bryan, Christy Mize, and Drew Vickery
Jody Wright in the Evil ostrich She sent a picture
of thank you to Missy Hooper, Andrea, Derek Penny Kiner,
Julie Kane, Anna Hudson, Erica Belle, Rebecca Cockrell, and Tiny Willis. So, folks,
(42:32):
we appreciate you joining us here this week and next
week we're going to be on location in Beauford County
and a special story from there. Folks, thank you for
listening to Carolina Crimes.
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