- FEMALE NARRATOR: As a beloved matriarch and businesswoman,
she ran everything in this small Georgia town
from a car dealership to a carpool.
- Loved her family, good businesswoman.
- Our grandmother absolutely loved her grandkids
and-and her kids.
Family was always extremely important.
- NARRATOR: But tragedy brings this dignified rural family
to the brink of collapse.
- She is in the bathroom floor, and there's a lot of blood.
Everyone thinks that we are arriving to a home invasion
where she was attacked.
- The house is now an active crime scene.
- NARRATOR: As investigators sift through
a list of suspects a mile long, in this small town,
it seems every suspect hits close to home.
- Her status financially would make 'em a target.
- He had financial problems.
- All the sudden they couldn't find him.
She knew if she didn't do something,
she would lose everything.
- NARRATOR: A crime rooted in greed would reveal
that the ties that bind, sometimes break.
- Whenever Nanny was killed, our family just died.
- [theme music]
- NARRATOR: February 4th, 1991, LaGrange, Georgia.
This picturesque small town's tight-knit community
is nothing like the hustle and bustle
of its neighboring big city, Atlanta.
- On Monday, February 4th at approximately 12:30
in the afternoon, 911 received a call from Priscilla Matula.
She was at her mother's home.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla's mother is 66-year-old
Margaret Abernathy,
one of the town's most well-known
and wealthiest residents.
- Priscilla Matula tells the dispatcher that
there's been a burglary and her mother's been hurt.
Her mom was not speaking and she was lying in the bathroom floor.
- There's a lot of blood.
Her mother was injured and she needed an ambulance.
- I went over to check Ms. Abernathy.
I called the EMTs to come on in and, and uh,
proceed on the medical assistance.
And they did.
And they couldn't find anything wrong with her at first.
- She was alive.
She was not conscious, but she was making...
It was described as snoring sounds.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla Matula rides in the ambulance
to the hospital as her mother desperately clings to life.
With Margaret's vitals dropping fast,
ER doctors are shocked to discover
the true cause of her injury
and immediately notify police.
- Doctors discovered that she had been shot twice.
- The house is now an active crime scene.
- NARRATOR: When investigators first arrive,
they look for signs of the burglary
that was reported in her daughter's 911 call.
- Everyone thinks that we are arriving to a home invasion
where she was attacked.
- The front door was locked and there's an appearance
of forced entry through the back.
The rear window had a little bit of broken glass from the pane
that was in the door.
- NARRATOR: When detectives inspect Margaret's room,
they begin to theorize how the crime may have unfolded.
- You see a bed that had the covers turned down.
You see blood on a pillow.
From the blood being in the bed, you knew that
she was most likely asleep when she was first attacked
or at least lounging in the bed when she was attacked.
- She was able to obviously get from her bed
where she had been shot.
She was able to actually get into the bathroom.
- And in the bathroom, you could see blood on some toilet tissue,
and it appeared that Ms. Abernathy
was attempting to clean herself up.
- NARRATOR: As law enforcement awaits an update
on Margaret's condition, the pressure to find
who attacked LaGrange's most prominent resident
begins to rise.
- It was a pretty high-profile case for LaGrange.
The Abernathys were pretty well-off people and they,
they lived a good life.
- You would assume that her status financially
would make 'em a target.
- It was real important to talk to the people
that knew her schedule.
No stone should be left unturned to find out who was around,
who had access, who had ability to commit this act.
- NARRATOR: When it came to the citizens of LaGrange,
Margaret and Bill Abernathy stood tall among their peers.
- Nanny Abernathy and granddaddy Abernathy
were huge businesspeople, especially in our local town.
It was a small town, but they were a part of everything,
whether it was you know, being on the board for
the local electric company or the Board of Commissioners.
- NARRATOR: The fuel that kept the Abernathy's hometown empire
moving forward was their local car dealership.
- It was successful enough that they were able to invest
in real estate and a number of rental properties
and things like that.
It is my belief that they were pretty well situated.
- They had a farm, and I just remember granddaddy
having buckets and buckets of vegetables at the dealership
that people could pick up.
They were always willing to give to the, to the town
and to the uh people of LaGrange.
- NARRATOR: The Abernathys also had three children who were all
part of the family business, Alect, Priscilla and Melody.
- Margaret was an extremely generous person.
She would do anything for her kids.
Money never really seemed like
it was that big of a deal to Margaret.
If somebody needed help, she would help them.
- She was very thought out in her process of
taking care of her children,
making sure that they had their dreams come true.
She helped all three kids do different adventures in life.
- NARRATOR: Middle child, Priscilla, took a keen interest
in the family business from an early age.
- Priscilla was the most involved as far as
with the dealerships.
There was a huge age difference between all the siblings, and so
my mom was a good bit younger. She was the baby of the family.
So Priscilla was the one that was the most pick
of the family to put in charge.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla did her part
to help grow the family operation,
but there were also times she leaned hard on her mother
to help weather life's storms,
from the death of her first husband early in their marriage
to raising two children as a single mother.
- Margaret was Priscilla's support system.
She really wanted to help her get through this tough time.
- She was gonna be there for her financially and emotionally.
- She was involved in everything that Nanny Abernathy did,
all the business transactions,
all the different clubs and things,
Priscilla was right there along with her.
They were inseparable.
- NARRATOR: By the late 80's,
Priscilla had fallen in love with a local man, Nick Matula.
- Nick and Priscilla get married.
He steps up and becomes a stepfather to her two kids
and then goes to work at the family business.
- NARRATOR: In 1989, the family banded together once again
when the family patriarch, Bill Abernathy fell ill.
- We would try to be over there a couple of nights a week.
Sunday dinners were a big thing.
It slowly got to where he couldn't come out of the room.
His health continued to deteriorate,
and he had to have a lot of assistance.
- NARRATOR: A friend of the family, Diakka Andromalius
was looking for a place to live when Margaret asked him
to move in and help provide care for Bill.
Diakka took up residence in a spare bedroom.
- It was, it was nice having him there because he was able
to actually help, uh, Margaret with a lot of stuff.
He was a gentle giant.
Ultimately, his diabetes led into congestive heart failure,
which is what ended up taking his life.
- After Mr. Abernathy passed away,
Diakka continued to live there with her.
- Margaret decides to sell the family businesses and retire .
That's when Priscilla and Nick decide they wanna start
their own business and buy a local dealership.
- The problem is they didn't really have enough money
to purchase the store themselves.
And this is where Ms. Margaret came in.
She had agreed to front the money
to help them to purchase the dealership.
When she committed to help Priscilla and Nick
purchase the store,
then she wanted to see exactly what was going on,
what was being done, who was doing what.
- NARRATOR: As someone who grew up in the car business,
Priscilla looked more than ready to take the wheel.
- Nick was over the service department.
Nick was very, very strong minded,
but Priscilla was very easy to get along with.
She was very soft spoken, and she was extremely friendly.
She appeared to me, to do a good job at what she did
as the office manager.
She more or less, you know was responsible for paying
all the bills of everything, ordering materials and stuff.
- NARRATOR: As the heir apparent of the family business,
Priscilla relied heavily on her mother's guidance.
- Ms. Margaret and Priscilla's relationship
was extremely close, I mean extremely close.
- NARRATOR: But now, as Margaret Abernathy
lays in critical condition,
the entire family's future is in doubt.
- Ms. Abernathy had two gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
One was just under the skin and the other one had, um,
hit the brainstem.
- NARRATOR: Friends and family soon gather
alongside 41-year-old Priscilla
keeping vigil outside Margaret's room.
- Ms. Abernathy's daughters were at the hospital
and maybe some of the extended family.
- NARRATOR: As the family tries to stay optimistic,
they are met with a grim prognosis.
- She basically is put on a monitor, and she can't move,
she can't speak, she's not responding.
- They put her on temporary life support for a short time.
She did have a heartbeat, but she had nothing else.
She was in a coma, pretty much.
- The brainstem hit is what took her life.
They had to unhook her and just let her pass.
- It's one of those moments you'll just never forget.
You know, when your parents call you in and sit you down
on the edge of the bed and tell you they got to talk about what
happened to Nanny.
- NARRATOR: Margaret's death is officially ruled a homicide
and the investigation to find her attacker intensifies.
- My thought process was just unbelievable.
Who in the world could have caused this?
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
detectives learn the cruel details of Margaret's attack.
- Margaret had at some point tried to stop the bleeding,
which means there was time
in between the first and the second shot.
- NARRATOR: And the evidence points to someone in
Margaret's inner circle.
- It's like somebody was trying to make it appear as a burglary
when maybe it really was not.
- At that point the officers knew that the crime scene
had been staged.
- NARRATOR: February 4, 1991,
the murder of beloved businesswoman,
66-year-old Margaret Abernathy,
has authorities in LaGrange, Georgia
looking for answers.
Detectives arrive at the hospital
soon after Margaret's death
to interview her daughter, Priscilla
who discovered Margaret shot in her home earlier that day.
- Priscilla is there with other family members
and she's in shock.
- NARRATOR: Investigators ask Priscilla to walk them through
the events leading up to the discovery of her mother.
- She leaves for work between 7:20 and 7:30.
Gets to work between 8:00 and 8:15.
She went into very specific details about
getting behind school buses and getting food.
- She got there by going down Highway 29,
which she does every day when she goes to work.
Says that she was there a little while.
She left to go to the bank and to the post office.
And when she got to the post office,
there was a lot of traffic there, a lot of long lines,
and she drove around the block two or three times,
and decided to come back at a later time.
So she ends up going back to the dealership.
- The amount of detail that she gave the investigators
when she interviewed with them seemed excessive.
She's got a narrative that she wanted to put forth.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla further explains that she went back
to the post office and bank around 10:00 AM
and then returned to work once again.
She tells investigators that even though she was going
about her business, she was distracted and worried.
- She said that she always talks to her mom in the morning.
Sometimes her mom comes to the car lot.
- NARRATOR: But that morning
she hadn't heard a peep from Margaret.
- She calls her mother several times, calls some other people
trying to find out if they've talked to her,
if they know where she's at, if they've seen her,
if they've heard from her.
- I had overheard Priscilla and Linda Frazier,
who was another employee there,
discussing that Ms. Margaret had not come in,
she had not called,
and that she was not answering her phone.
- NARRATOR: By lunchtime, Priscilla knew
she needed to take action.
- Ms. Matula went to the house.
She said she let herself in through the front door.
The lights were off. She called for her.
She didn't hear anything.
She went toward the bedroom,
saw her mother on the floor of the bathroom
with an agonal breathing,
saw the bloody tissues that her mother had.
She called 911 and her words, I believe were, my mama's hurt.
And then she waited for the paramedics to arrive.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla's story seems clear,
but autopsy details of Margaret's injuries
suggest a disturbing timeline.
- She had two gunshot wounds directly to her head,
indicated a small caliber weapon with a small bullet.
One gunshot did not penetrate her skull
and if that had been the only shot,
they would have been able to take care of her
at the hospital and save her life.
- There was bloody toilet paper in the bathroom,
which means that Margaret had at some point
tried to stop the bleeding.
And that goes to show you that there was time in-between
the first and the second shot.
- The second shot perforated her brainstem, which meant
at that point she could not do nothing, walk, talk, anything.
Which means the shooter had to shoot her once in the bedroom
and once in the bathroom.
- NARRATOR: While Margaret's family grieves at the hospital,
Priscilla's husband, Nick Matula and brother, Alect Abernathy
have arrived at home to try and assist police
in catching Margaret's attacker.
- While we're outside talking to the family members, of course
we ask them did they have any suspects at all?
Did they know of anybody that's had problems with Ms. Abernathy?
- NARRATOR: Alect and Nick inform investigators that
Margaret didn't live alone.
- Some of the family members while we were at the scene
advised us that there was a young man named Diakka
that lived with Ms. Abernathy.
And that of course, he had access to the house.
- It was told, he was not there that day.
He was at work.
- NARRATOR: The family insists that
just like most people in LaGrange,
Diakka Andromalius adored Margaret
and would never hurt her.
- Ms. Abernathy was a well-respected woman,
loved her family, good businesswoman, kind,
never heard anything negative said about her.
And in a small town where everybody knows everything
about everybody that's pretty, pretty big.
- NARRATOR: The family is convinced that Margaret
had no enemies and that this must be the result
of a burglary gone wrong.
- They told us that if it was a burglary
there would be certain items that would be missing.
It would have been a mink coat, some expensive jewelry,
and a derringer.
They gave us the location of the items.
Of course, when we went back in and looked for the items,
they were missing.
A derringer is a small-caliber weapon.
And that's of interest because Margaret was killed
by a small-caliber gun.
- NARRATOR: Investigators also discover evidence of a break-in.
- Within the house, they've noticed that there were
drawers that were open as if there had been possibly a
burglary where somebody was looking for something valuable.
- There were some drawers open,
and stuff was taken out of the drawers, and it was neatly set,
you know, in the floor.
- Normally burglars, they could care less about
what kind of mess they make.
They throw stuff out of the drawers onto the floor,
turn 'em upside down.
Open every drawer looking for anything they can find
that's worth stealing.
That didn't appear that way here.
- NARRATOR: And while some valuables are missing,
others are in plain sight.
- There was no TVs missing, no electronics were missing,
no cameras, no anything.
- NARRATOR: At the back door, investigators closely examine
the broken glass pane where it appeared the intruder entered,
but the clue itself is misleading.
- Most of the glass was on the outside of the door instead
of the inside, which would make you assume that the glass
was broken from the inside of the house.
- Actually, the hole was real small, as if somebody had just
tapped it to break it to try and fool whoever that someone
had done that to make entry into the residence.
It didn't make sense.
It was so small that you couldn't reach a hand
through there to do anything to get in the residence.
- It's like somebody was trying
to make it appear as a burglary when maybe it really was not.
- At that point the officers knew that the crime scene
had been staged.
- Usually, if it is a staged scene,
it is a person that is closely related
or friends with the victim.
- NARRATOR: Now that burglary is ruled out
and with new evidence of the scene being staged,
investigators have to consider one person
who had easy access to the property,
Diakka Andromalius.
Though Margaret's family thinks it impossible
that he would do this.
- Diakka is naturally someone that police and investigators
are gonna wanna speak with. He lives there.
He has access to everything in the home.
He knows where the valuables are,
and he could've been there at the time of the crime.
- NARRATOR: Knowing that Diakka works at
another local car dealership, investigators place a
phone call to locate him.
- His boss at Johnson Motors said that he clocked in at 8:00,
went to lunch at 11:30, come back at 12:30,
and then all of a sudden they couldn't find him.
- Diakka's boss doesn't know where he is.
He's disappeared.
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
while police search for Diakka,
they learn that some of the Abernathy children
have secrets of their own.
- They were in the red.
They had no financial safety net beyond Ms. Abernathy.
That was it.
- NARRATOR: With a potential motive in hand,
investigators take a closer look at a very complicated alibi.
- According to Priscilla, she was nowhere near
her mother's house before lunch on February 4th.
- She lied about where she was before the shooting.
- NARRATOR: Just hours after 66-year-old businesswoman
Margaret Abernathy died from two gunshot wounds to the head,
sheriff's investigators in Troup County, Georgia
have zeroed in on their first person of interest,
Diakka Andromalius.
- Diakka lived with Margaret.
And according to Diakka's supervisor,
he left the car dealership where he worked,
and no one knows where he is.
- NARRATOR: But just a few hours later
detectives receive a phone call
from Diakka Andromalius's supervisor
saying that he has returned to work.
And they immediately head there to interview him.
- He told us, he didn't know anything about anything going on
at Ms. Abernathy's.
I told Diakka that Ms. Abernathy had passed.
That someone had come into the house and shot her two times
and that she was deceased.
And then, of course, we told him, and he got upset.
Diakka got emotional and started crying
and they don't understand what happened and, you know,
you just can't console him.
He valued her or treated her like his grandmother.
I mean, he cared a lot about her, Ms. Abernathy.
- NARRATOR: Diakka tells them he had nothing to do
with Margaret's death, but he does admit that
he tried to slip away unnoticed from his job.
- He left because he actually had a job interview
at another dealership.
And he didn't want his boss to know.
- He was afraid if he told him he went for an interview
at another business, he would fire him.
- NARRATOR: Investigators end their interview with Diakka
and quickly check on his claim that he left the dealership
for a job interview.
- According to him he went to interview at another business
and of course, the other business advised that he did
come there for an interview, which sort of said there ain't
no way he could have been there to commit the crime.
- NARRATOR: With Diakka's alibi holding up,
detectives remove him from their list of potential suspects.
When they speak with Margaret's son-in-law, Nick Matula, again
this time on his own, he offers up a disturbing theory.
- According to Nick Matula, he told us that Alect had told
them at one time that he was just waiting on his dad,
Mr. Bill Abernathy and his mom, Margaret Abernathy to die so
that he could get some of the family inheritance
in order to take care of his loans, his money problems.
- Nick was you know, throwing shade on Alect Abernathy.
Alect had problems. He had financial problems.
He was in trouble.
- Nick Matula said that Alect had made a comment that
he needed his inheritance, so his parents needed to
go ahead and pass away.
- NARRATOR: According to Nick, Alect did not work
at the dealership, but was a constant fixture.
- Nick Matula pretty much threw it all on Alect Abernathy.
I know that investigators looked at him very strongly
because of his financial situation.
I know that he was definitely a person of interest.
- Nick Matula told us that he felt like Alect Abernathy
had something to do with Ms. Abernathy's death
due to the fact that he owed a bunch of money
and she did have a big insurance policy
and Alect was named in it.
That it would help Alect with his debts
and felt like that might push Alect into doing something like
committing this homicide.
- He was going to be the beneficiary of a double
indemnity life insurance policy, so he was looking for $40,000
upon the death of Ms. Abernathy.
- NARRATOR: But investigators find
that he too has an air-tight alibi.
- Alect sometimes worked at the same dealership with the family
and Priscilla Matula.
And according to Linda Frazier, he never left until
he was called later on to come to Ms. Abernathy's house
because of something happening to her.
- NARRATOR: Forty-eight hours have passed
since Margaret was murdered
and Troup County investigators
have ruled out two potential suspects.
They fear that if someone knows something, they aren't telling.
- LaGrange is a small town.
And although people like to know about other people's business,
they don't always want to be the one setting things in motion.
- NARRATOR: Just when police need it the most,
they receive a tip that shines a damning light
on another one of the Abernathy children.
- Two days after the homicide, we received an anonymous call
from the Bank of Troup County from someone who said that
Ms. Abernathy had come to the bank the Saturday two days prior
to her death and wanted to take Priscilla Matula
off of all their business accounts.
- We went to the Bank of Troup County
on the sixth and talked to the branch manager.
He told us that Margaret had been there on that Saturday
and that she was adamant about making some changes.
They said she seemed to be really upset, angry.
Said that her blood pressure had been going up, I guess
'cause she had gotten mad according to whatever it was
going on with the bank accounts.
There was some discrepancies on some of the business accounts
they had, which was the reason Ms. Abernathy wanted
Priscilla Matula taken off.
She didn't want her to have access or the authority to write
any checks or make any decisions according to any of the accounts
at the bank.
- She was physically agitated, emotionally distraught.
She wanted it to be fixed instantly.
She was distressed. She was almost inconsolable.
- They had told her they couldn't do it right then.
They just didn't have the personnel there
that could do it.
That she had to come back Monday morning.
- She told them that she would be back in on Monday.
She was gonna have it done.
And of course, she never made it.
- Once we received that information in reference
to Ms. Abernathy wanting Priscilla off the accounts,
of course, it made her a viable suspect.
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
when police look into Priscilla and Margaret's finances,
it appears the apple has fallen quite far from the tree.
- We called a financial expert from the GBI.
She came, she went over all those records, and said
there was a scheme going on.
- NARRATOR: Had desperation forced Priscilla
to do the unthinkable?
- She said, she had the authority to do
what needed to be done.
- NARRATOR: 41-year-old businesswoman Priscilla Matula
has gone from grieving daughter
to a suspect in her mother's murder.
- We went back to the sheriff's office, got a subpoena to
subpoena all the financial records
for the business accounts
to make a determination what was the cause
for Ms. Abernathy wanting to remove Priscilla Matula
from the accounts.
- NARRATOR: They learn that Margaret had been very generous
in helping Priscilla get her dealership up and running.
- Mrs. Abernathy had put up her house for collateral and
a CD for collateral to allow Nick and Priscilla
to purchase this car dealership.
I believe that Ms. Abernathy had given Nick and Priscilla Matula
$130,000 to help them purchase this dealership,
so she was already in fairly deep with them financially.
- NARRATOR: When investigators look deeper,
they discover Priscilla's business was in serious debt
and she had taken some illegal steps to cover it up.
- We called a financial expert from the GBI, she came,
she went over all those records,
and said there was a kiting scheme going on.
- Check kiting is basically robbing Peter to pay Paul.
It's writing checks where you don't have the money
to cover it.
- She would write a check to make a deposit,
say to Troup County Bank.
And then she would go to another bank and
write a check to cash on that check, which was no good.
And this bank would cash the check for her then,
and they would do that back and forth.
- Back in the 90s, I mean, it might've took three-to-five days
or longer for a check to even get to the bank
and then you know, get cleared.
- She had kited checks in the amount of $20, $30,000,
so that it looked to be that she had a positive cash flow
at the car lot.
- She was showing some of the vehicles on the car lot sold,
that wasn't actually sold.
Like she would say it was sold
and she got all this money for it.
Some of the bank statements that were coming showing
these discrepancies.
- NARRATOR: Police believe Margaret discovered the
accounting irregularities and became convinced
Priscilla was stealing from the business.
- I believe that when Ms. Margaret found out
about what was going on,
Priscilla was confronted by her mother and
told that she was going to be taken off of all of her accounts
and that Priscilla would no longer have access to that.
That's when I think this... creature came out in Priscilla.
- She was gonna cut her off and Priscilla would lose everything.
- NARRATOR: With a strong motive in hand,
investigators take a closer look
at Priscilla's alibi.
- According to Priscilla, she was nowhere near her
mother's house before lunch on February 4,
but when investigators start canvassing the area,
they interview a convenience store clerk
that says Priscilla came in after 7:00am
the morning of the murder.
- She was at the convenience store
down from her Mama's house, so she lied about where she was.
- NARRATOR: As their neighborhood canvas continues,
investigators find another woman who was doing a walkthrough
of a rental property on the morning of February 4th.
It just so happens the home is located right across the street
from Margaret's residence, and she remembers seeing
a sedan parked on the property.
- She had seen Priscilla Matula's car,
her Jeep Premier at her mother's house in that time frame
between 10:00 and 10:30.
- She goes inside this rental house looking at it to see if
she wanted to rent it and while there heard what she
thought was a gunshot.
She wasn't sure where it came from, sounded like it might've
came from across the street.
The question of course was, well, did you call the police?
But of course, in rural Troup County, hearing gunfire,
she didn't think to call the police.
She figured that somebody just might've been out in a field
shooting a gun.
- NARRATOR: With Priscilla's vehicle
being spotted at her mother's,
investigators contact Linda Frazier
who Priscilla claimed would verify her story
about being at work at the time of the shooting.
But Linda only pokes further holes in Priscilla's alibi.
- Priscilla had come to work
normally at around eight o'clock.
Shortly after, she had left going to the post office
and to the bank.
She was gone for a little while.
Came back, said that she didn't actually get to go in the
post office because it had a long line, she couldn't get in.
- We know at 10:00, between 10:00 and 10:30,
she was at her mother's house.
We know that at that time when she was at her mother's house,
gunshots were fired.
She was the only one to be there.
She was the only one that we could point to being there.
- NARRATOR: Once back at the office,
she made a point of showing concern for her mother.
- She couldn't get in touch with her.
She was worried about her.
She thought she was supposed to go to uh,
get her hair fixed somewhere.
Each time she came back she was talking about her mother.
Has my mother called?
And she would call somebody to see if they had seen her.
- NARRATOR: Around lunch, Priscilla announced
she was going to check on Margaret.
- Linda Frazier said she told her,
you don't need to go by yourself, Priscilla.
I'm going with you, just in case something is bad wrong.
And said Priscilla refused, said no.
She didn't need her to go with her.
She'd go by herself.
- NARRATOR: Shortly after Priscilla left
for the last time,
the 911 call came in from Priscilla herself.
With her alibi in shambles and financial misdeeds exposed,
investigators arrest Priscilla on February 12.
- During her interview, when you'd ask her about
anything in reference to the homicide,
she just wouldn't talk to you.
- She doesn't even acknowledge that she's being asked about
her mother's murder.
You know, tell us what happened that day.
She doesn't acknowledge any of it.
- NARRATOR: When it comes to financial malfeasance,
Priscilla insists that everything was on the up and up.
- When Priscilla was asked about the finances of the dealership.
Of course, she said, she had the authority
to do what needed to be done.
She said you know, she was on the account.
She had the right to write checks and carry on business
with the dealership.
- NARRATOR: But despite her claims to investigators,
Priscilla's motive is crystal clear.
- They were in the red.
And once she realized that she had no financial safety net
beyond Ms. Abernathy, that was it.
The only thing she could do was kill her mother so she could
still have access to her money.
- She knew if she didn't do something between that time and
Monday when her mother started her day,
that she would be done.
- NARRATOR: Coming up,
Priscilla makes a brazen move to clear her name.
- Priscilla is fairly pushy and telling her that
I wasn't there. You must be mistaken.
- NARRATOR: But could a missing piece of evidence end the case?
- It was mostly a circumstantial case.
We did not have a murder weapon.
- NARRATOR: LaGrange, Georgia homicide investigators
have charged Priscilla Matula with the shooting death
of her mother, Margaret.
As her murder trial approaches,
authorities get one final piece of evidence.
- A key witness for the prosecution was
a convenience store clerk who said that she saw Priscilla
the morning of the murder.
In February of 1992,
she calls the Troup County Sheriff's Department.
- Paige Hester called us and said that Priscilla
had called her and left a message for her I guess,
and wanted Paige to call her.
- NARRATOR: Hoping Priscilla is about to incriminate herself,
investigators convince Paige
to call her back while they tap the line.
- Investigators listen in as Paige calls Priscilla
at the house where she's out on bond.
- She wanted Paige Hester to deny that she was there,
and she kept telling her, she said you know,
are you sure it was the 4th?
Maybe it was another day when you saw me there.
- Priscilla is fairly pushy and telling her that I wasn't there.
You must be mistaken.
- Of course, Paige Hester told her, no,
it was the day of Ms. Abernathy's death.
- Priscilla was very cagey
in the way she was speaking to Paige.
There was no bribery, no real coercion.
She was pretty much just trying to adjust her memory.
Nothing illegal happened.
It was just clear that she was trying to
create testimony for Paige.
- NARRATOR: Investigators share this information
with prosecutors who believe
it will help prove Priscilla's guilt
when her trial begins in August 1992.
- The hardest part was trying to make a jury understand,
and I think the hardest part for anybody is the fact that
who kills their mother?
That was the hardest part, trying to get into the
desperation she must have felt to-to do this act.
The theory of the case was that Priscilla must have been
confronted by her mother on Saturday.
Her mother was so distraught at the bank
that had to have been conveyed to Priscilla.
At that point, Priscilla was told that her financial lifeline
was gonna be cut off on Monday.
Priscilla apparently didn't have any other resources.
She had to have stewed over that.
- With her being taken off that account and
losing the dealership, her and Nick were destitute pretty much.
It was either make Ms. Abernathy
not take her off the account,
or stop her from taking her off the account.
- She was desperate.
She obviously decided on Monday
that the only thing she could do was kill her mother,
so she could still have access to her money.
- Prosecutors believe that Priscilla
snuck into Margaret's home and fired a single shot
into her sleeping mother's head.
- I'm sure she thought she had killed her at that point.
She comes back a few hours later
to find her still alive and in the bathroom.
Insetad of helping her,
shoots her again to kill her.
She ended up knocking one of the glasses out of one
of the doors from the inside of the house,
instead of the outside.
And of course, called 911 and reported it.
And then acted like somebody burglarized the house
and shot her mother.
- Prosecutors believe that Priscilla
even got rid of her mother's jewelry and mink coat
just to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.
- NARRATOR: Priscilla's attorney argues that
the prosecution's case is conjecture and not fact.
- It was mostly a circumstantial case 'cause we didn't have
a person that actually saw her do anything,
and we did not have a murder weapon
that we could link to her.
- It's a hurdle to not have the murder weapon.
It would have been nice to have been able to have
a murder weapon.
The hardest part was trying to make a jury understand
the evidence the way I understood the evidence.
- NARRATOR: On August 28th, 1992,
the jury announces its verdict.
- She was found guilty and got a life sentence.
Life with parole.
- NARRATOR: For those seeking justice for Margaret,
it's a bittersweet moment
for this once proud and happy family.
- I've always thought that just for that instant that Priscilla
lost her mind.
I believe that she probably got the sentence that she deserved.
- Cases where family's lives are torn apart like this,
those stick with you.
A daughter killing her mother is, to me personally,
unimaginable, so you have to go to
a really dark place to understand this.
- Finding out that Priscilla had killed Margaret, you know,
my aunt had killed my grandmother,
somebody that I loved and cared for, you know,
with everything I had.
Anger definitely is one of the first emotions that comes out.
- Whenever Nanny was killed, our family just died.
And I don't know how else to explain it.
The family events, the vacations, the dinners,
all of it was gone.
So for Priscilla to be gone, yeah, it was a big deal,
but really everything was gone.
- *