On Dec 20, 1977 on the Flint River south of Atlanta, two duck hunters find the naked body of a woman wrapped in plastic and weighed down with cinder blocks. They call police. Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson arrives and notices she has two gunshot wounds to the head, both .38 caliber. He sees downriver something red. They discover a second body, dead only a few days, shot in the abdomen, leg, and back of the head, wrapped in a red sleeping bag and also weighed down with cinder blocks. The crotch of her pants has been cut out.
The two month old corpse is sent to Clayton County. The two day old corpse is sent to Fayette County where they immediately identify her as 31 yo Liddie Evans who lived with her boyfriend 28 yo Joe Cleveland, a firefighter. A few days later, the two month old corpse is identified as 45 yo Betty Jo Ephlin.
Police can’t find Joe Cleveland. When they talk to Liddie’s family they tell the police that Liddie and Joe were supposed to go camping on Dec 17. Joe hung out with a rough crowd.
Clayton County police discover Betty Jo was seeing Fred Wyatt, a career criminal who drove a truck with marijuana. He also left bruises all over Betty Jo. They had just married then a few days later he called her daughter to claim that Betty Jo was missing. People assumed she’d finally run off to escape the abuse, but her daughter knew something was seriously wrong. Fred is also missing.
Police find Fred Wyatt dead too. He was killed in a car accident with a train on Nov 12. From the crime scene it’s obvious he was that Fred’s body was placed in the driver’s seat after the car was placed on the tracks because the seat is much too close to the steering wheel for such a big man. He has a .22 caliber gunshot wound to left ear. Sixteen days after Fred’s death, there was $16,000 in insurance payout to 46 yo Marie Jackson Wyatt, Fred’s girlfriend before Betty Jo. They had been together for years, but Fred never married Marie, even though she took his name.
The best suspect for Fred’s murder is his 27 yo nephew Carl Patton. He was Fred’s enforcer for when people owed Fred money. He told everyone that Carl was part of the Dixie mafia.
Liddie’s family tells police that the camping trip was with Carl and Norma Patton. So now all three victims are connected to Carl Patton. Joe Cleveland is still missing. Those who know Joe say Carl was his best friend. When police meet with Carl and Norma, they both claim that Liddie and Joe were fighting so called off the camping trip. But suspiciously neither of them asks what happened to Liddie or Joe. They search Carl’s vehicle and find blood. So they arrest Carl and get a search warrant. In the house they find two .38 caliber shells that match Liddie’s wounds, sleeping bags similar to the one Liddie’s body was wrapped in, and a cushion with blood stains.
Liddie has a rare blood type found in only 5% of the population. The same blood type is found on the cushion. But police don’t have enough to keep them.
Clayton County searches their house next because witnesses saw Carl and Joe taking Betty Jo’s furniture out of Betty Jo and Fred’s house. Betty Jo’s daughter Linda accompanies the Clayton County police on their search, looking for anything that belonged to Betty Jo. Linda finds a ton of items belonging to her mother. Her mom’s bedroom furniture, her mom’s photo album, her mom’s jewelry, and Norma is wearing her mom’s sweater vest.
Joe Cleveland’s body eventually surfaces in the Ocmulgee River 60 miles away. He was wrapped in a sleeping bag and anchored with cinder blocks like the others. And he has a .38 caliber gunshot wound to the head. Ballistics match it to the same gun that killed Liddie Evans, Carl’s gun. The blood type in Carl’s trunk matches Joe’s.
For 25 years, police don’t arrest Carl. Then finally cold case investigators reopen the case and find blood on a Polaroid photo inside that bloody cushion. Major Bruce Jordan knows the old blood could be tested with new DNA techniques. The blood on the cushion is an exact match to Liddie Evans and only Liddie Evans. So police go to arrest Carl.
Police question Norma and she confesses. Carl wanted to change his arrangement with Fred. Fred beat Carl, so Carl hated Fred. Carl also saw Fred beat Norma and that bothered him a lot. So when Fred dumped Norma, he was very angry. Joe idolized Carl and the money he got from marijuana. So Carl got Joe to help him get rid of Fred. In Oct 1977, Carl and Jo drove over to Fred and Betty Jo’s home. He wasn’t home, so they waited. Betty Jo bragged about Fred and that’s when Joe could see Carl getting angrier. So Joe shot Betty Jo, stripped her down, rolled her in a blanket, and dumped her in the trunk of her own car. They anchored her and dumped her in the Flint River.
Four weeks later, Carl called Fred and they went out to the country to shoot. Carl shot Fred as he was setting up cans to shoot. He called Joe and they loaded Fred into his own car then they drove it onto the train tracks. For awhile it was deemed an accident.
In the weeks after committing the two murders, Joe told Liddie. Liddie told her mother who told other people. This got back to Carl. So Carl and Norma agreed they had to get rid of Liddie and Jo. They invited them camping. One of the days they were camping, Joe and Carl were swapping handguns. Once Carl had Joe’s gun he shot Liddie in the head then Joe. Norma helped him take the bodies to the camper then she cleaned up the crime scene. Carl hated Liddie so much, so he raped her dead body after cutting out the crotch of her pants. At nightfall, they loaded them into the car and dumped Liddie in the Flint River then dumped Joe in the Ocmulgee River.
Carl accepts a plea deal. He tells police Marie planned all of this. She wanted Fred dead. It wasn’t the first time he killed for Marie. He killed Richard Jackson, Marie’s husband, in 1973. He was abusive too. Joe helped him kill Richard too.
Carl Patton is sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.
Norma Patton is given parole in exchange for her testimony.
Marie Jackson Wyatt is never charged.
Bibliography
Swamp Murders, Season 1 Episode 2: Chain Reaction, air date: Jun 10, 2013. (A New Zealand production.)
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