[woman speaking, laughs]
[photographer speaking]
[camera shutter clicks]
Terry had such caring and loving parents.
You just wonder what happened in Terry's life that threw
him off that same road as the rest of his family.
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
[woman speaking]
There was so much love.
He didn't just do this on a whim,
he planned.
I can never forget it or forget.
That stuff is supposed to happen on TV,
not in rural Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
[theme music playing]
[gentle music playing]
NARRATOR: Adelle and Eugene Wimberly live on
a rural plot named after their family.
Wimberly Lane was a small lane approximately
an eighth of a mile long,
something like that.
And Adelle and Eugene, they had a little house on the farm.
NARRATOR: Adelle and Eugene have two daughters, Jean and Beverly
In this home video,
29-year-old Beverly is pregnant with her third child.
So that's Beverly in the purple outfit with the bump,
um, walking with Adelle, her mother.
Oh, you can see she was ready to pop.
I've always heard growing up that Beverly was
always being a goofball or always making people laugh.
NARRATOR: Beverly is married to Todd Wedding.
BILL: Todd was my younger brother.
There was only two of us.
Everybody liked my brother, he was friendly, and he was very
honorable and just a very fine man.
My brother and Beverly were doing
a whole lot of newspaper work.
I think Beverly was a district manager for
I think it was Evansville Courier newspaper,
and they both were in the newspaper business.
NARRATOR: Beverly is close with her younger sister,
24-year-old Jean.
Jean was a hairdresser, and her husband Johnny
worked for a food manufacturing or
distributing company.
And again, they were just perfect people.
NARRATOR: The couple have a young son called Joey.
BROOK: My nana and papa had my dad, Joey Vincent.
You can see my -- my dad smiling
Those videos
definitely give you a sense that it was --
it was a village raising all the children and --
and everybody relied on each other,
trusted each other a lot with that.
[baby crying]
NARRATOR: It's summer 1972, and Todd and Beverly Wedding are
at a funfair and zoo with their new son,
8-month-old Terry.
BILL: That's my brother with the yellow shirt on, and Beverly.
They took very good care of Terry.
I know that, because Terry was the only boy,
and he was the baby of the family.
Terry was looked after, very well looked after --
possibly too much.
BROOK: My nana always talked about Christmas
being her favorite time of year.
And she always talked about the, you know, that being
the one time where everyone can come together as a family.
Put everything aside, put work aside, and just be there with
each other in the moment.
My dad's starting to open and play with his presents.
Then Terry, a little bit younger,
looks like he doesn't know -- quite know what to do.
He's looking like he's trying to find somebody
to help him figure out what to do.
From all the videos,
you know, it seems that, you know, the family as a whole
seems to, you know,
act the same way with all the kids, treat all the
kids equally.
You just wonder what happened in Terry's life that
threw him off that same road as the rest of his family.
NARRATOR: All through their childhood years,
Terry and Joey are inseparable.
BROOK: How close in age they were, and growing up as two boys
riding their tricycles around the house.
You know, you can see how Terry, I guess kind of looks to
my dad as the older cousin a little bit,
and I wonder if he, you know,
looked up to him throughout his life or,
you know, watched my dad throughout his life.
Kind of like how he did in a bunch of these videos
as a toddler.
It makes me wonder, you know, when --
when did he stop looking up to him?
NARRATOR: As Joey grows up, his confidence soars.
Joey, he was very much involved in school
and loved school and very popular in school.
I think he went to four proms.
He played basketball for Graham High School.
And I knew -- I got to know
him through that and -- through that sport.
He was a few years behind me,
but, uh, we -- we got to know each other pretty well
through our high school years.
ANGELA: His mom, Jean, was just absolutely over the moon
with her -- her pride in her son.
She just bragged about him all the time.
NARRATOR: But while Joey is popular, his cousin,
Terry, has a different high school experience.
BILL: Terry was always gentle and kind,
but he was not a person you'd want to cross.
He had a kind of feminine-type voice.
He was a big, big guy,
well-built, and his voice certainly didn't fit
his physique.
And I'm -- I'm almost positive
it's got him into trouble, so he probably was bullied.
Terry did a karate-type martial arts course,
probably for self defense.
I guess he got very good at it.
Somebody would say they didn't like
the tone of his voice or something,
and they would be sorry they said that later.
[chuckles]
DARREN: Joey and I was at one of our softball games one evening,
and Joey explained to me that he is -- he had applied for
the Greenville Police Department.
And, you know, I wasn't surprised because I knew Joey
had the personality and the, uh,
the love for his community
and a love for people.
NARRATOR: For the ambitious high school graduate,
one career isn't enough.
In the 90s, Joey became the pastor
of New Cypress Missionary Baptist Church.
One day, uh, after me and my wife became engaged,
I asked Joey if he would care to officiate the wedding.
At the time, he was, you know,
he was joking about it,
and you know, and -- but he told me,
he said it would be an honor for him to do it.
[Joey speaking]
[camera shutter clicks]
He done an exceptional job.
[indistinct talking]
NARRATOR: In January 1992, four generations
of the Wimberly family come together to celebrate
Grandpa Eugene and Grandma Adelle's
50th wedding anniversary.
[photographer speaking]
ANGELA: Joey was a social butterfly.
He was the one up, um, talking
to everybody, and he was the jokester.
NARRATOR: But while Joey is thriving, Terry seems a little lost.
BILL: After Terry got out of school,
he was a little bit of a loner.
[photographer speaking]
BILL: If he had a future,
I'm not aware of anything that Terry really wanted to do.
NARRATOR: Here's 20-year-old Terry with his mom,
Beverly and his dad, Todd.
[woman speaking, laughs]
[photographer speaking]
[camera shutter clicks]
NARRATOR: After the ceremony, the family gets ready
for the guests to arrive.
[man speaking]
[woman speaking]
Terry still lived at home with his mom and dad,
and I think his mom and dad still provided for him.
[indistinct conversations]
BILL: I thought that was kind of strange that
Terry was still at home at his age.
I don't know if they encouraged Terry
to get out on his own or not.
[overlapping conversations]
DARREN: Joey would get a little upset
the way Terry would treat his mother and father,
uh, Beverly and Todd.
Terry wasn't showing them any respect.
BILL: Yeah, I kinda
avoided being around him too much, to tell you the truth,
because he was sort of unpredictable.
DARREN: His behavior was erratic,
and, you know, he'd go from almost, like, from hot to cold,
just like with the snap of a finger.
DARREN: Joey started with the Greenville Police Department
in November of 1991.
He and I worked the same shift.
NARRATOR: In 1995, while out on patrol,
26-year-old Joey meets a woman who will change his life.
We would go to a place in Depois called The Hill,
and that's where everybody went to party.
My sister, Amy, would go up there a lot.
My dad had got a call to break up the party, and there was
a really pretty girl there that was probably doing things she
wasn't supposed to be doing.
And instead of, I guess, writing her a ticket
or taking her in for the night,
he just lets her off with a warning, and then
maybe asks her on a date in a couple weeks, you know.
ANGELA: Joey came to the house one day, and he said,
and I quote, I think I found the one,
and I said, "Joey, what are you talking about
'you found the one'?"
And he said, "I'm in love and --
and I found -- I found the person I'm gonna marry."
Amy and Joey got married, uh, August of 1996.
ANGELA: Joey just loved Amy.
Um, and he just wanted them to start a life together.
The first time I watched their wedding video, it was so funny
seeing them
in all of their awkwardness, like seeing the nervousness
on their faces --
also their kiss...
[officiant speaking]
...was...
a kiss for the times.
RONDAL: I think Amy and Joey were excited about,
you know, the new chapter in their lives.
They were just so happy.
NARRATOR: As Joey is a popular preacher and police officer,
the line of well wishers is long.
Everybody at the wedding, um, coming through the line just
wanted the best for them,
wanted them to I think grow old together.
[man speaking]
NARRATOR: Joey gets emotional as he hugs
his favorite aunt and uncle, Beverly and Todd.
But their son, Terry, isn't at the wedding.
I do know that
a lot of times socially Terry had more anxieties, and he
definitely preferred to be
by himself or around smaller groups of people,
probably just with his mom and dad.
ANGELA: After the wedding,
Joey and Amy decided to go back and live on Adelle
and Eugene's land, because Joey loved being close to his
grandmother and grandfather, and, um, Amy loved them, too.
NARRATOR: The newlyweds also live across from Joey's aunt Beverly,
uncle Todd, and cousin Terry.
But while Joey and Amy are enjoying wedded bliss,
Terry is struggling with his own demons.
According to Joey, Terry was going through some issues,
mental health issues, and they became quite concerned.
BILL: Terry was, I could tell he was miserable.
He seemed like he was in some kind of zombie state
or something.
[ominous music playing]
NARRATOR: Concerned about his cousin,
Joey speaks to Terry's parents.
I think Joey felt like, uh,
Terry needed more help than what Beverly and Todd were able
to provide for him.
And, you know, he was hoping that there was
a rehab facility that would be able to help Terry.
I think Beverly and Todd didn't even want to
believe that he was suffering
from any kind of mental illness at the time.
[Joey speaking]
[Joey whistles]
So I was born in July of 1997,
um, to two really excited parents, I guess.
[Jean speaking]
Those fingers good?
[Jean speaking]
Those fingers good?
[speaking indistinctly]
[Jean speaking]
[Amy speaking indistinctly]
[Jean speaking]
[Jean laughs]
They were constantly
doting over me.
They were constantly playing with me.
Chin.
I think, surprising themselves with how much
they could love
a little human.
I'm just happy that that little human was me.
NARRATOR: Baby Brooklyn is the center of attention
at every family gathering.
They would all dress up -- on Halloween,
they would all get together and fix big pots of chili,
and they just had a fit
over Brooklyn that first Halloween.
And they just would love all over her.
NARRATOR: Even Aunt Beverly gets dressed up for the occasion.
I did it.
NARRATOR: But someone is missing from the celebrations --
her son, Terry.
Terry is not normally seen in a ton of videos.
I'm not sure whether his mental illness had much
part in that or not or whether that was just
his own personality.
NARRATOR: Terry may be missing Brooklyn's first steps,
but there are some signs that he is making strides
of his own.
BILL: Terry had at least one girlfriend.
We could see them from a distance from time to time.
It seemed like to me they were getting along real well.
And I thought maybe things were going real good for Terry
at that time.
NARRATOR: It's Thanksgiving 1997,
and Aunt Beverly is cooking up a storm.
[Jean speaking]
Thanksgiving was lots of food,
lots of laughter.
NARRATOR: After dinner,
Beverly shows off Terry's first soft toy
that she keeps in her bedroom.
-[Jean speaking] -[Beverly speaking]
[Jean speaking]
Beverly and Todd loved Brooklyn, and I think
they had Brooklyn in their home quite often,
because they didn't have any grandchildren of their own.
NARRATOR: In the kitchen, Beverly stays close
as Terry holds Brooklyn.
BEVERLY: Oh, she said that the...
[Brooklyn sneezes]
[all laughing]
BROOK: That's always such a weird clip for me to watch,
because you wanna look at him and go,
"Oh, yeah, that's just Cousin Terry,"
but instead you just look at it and...
almost
feel sick to your stomach.
[Joey speaking]
NARRATOR: It's Christmas 1997, and 55-year-old Beverly Wedding
is doting on her grand niece, Brooklyn, and her toys.
[child speaking]
ANGELA: If Beverly got a microphone, Beverly was gonna
use that microphone, because she --
she was a kid at heart.
I can picture her unwrapping that
and just belting out into song.
NARRATOR: But behind her smile, she's worried
about her 26-year-old son, Terry.
I never seen Beverly be upset.
I think she did kind of, um, kind of put on a good --
good front sometimes.
DARREN: Joey come to me and told me that he had tried to talk
to Beverly and Todd about Terry having several run-ins
with the law.
I think at that time, Terry was beyond being
able to take care of the problems on his own.
NARRATOR: In 1998, doctors diagnosed Terry as bipolar.
Beverly and Todd came to my house,
tears streaming down her face,
and Beverly said he has a chemical imbalance of
the brain.
NARRATOR: Terry is prescribed lithium,
and by Christmas 1998, it seems like he's turned a corner.
He was very muscular.
I think he lifted weights, but he sure was built
powerful -- almost like the Incredible Hulk.
NARRATOR: Terry begins selling knickknacks from his parents'
home, and in his spare time,
he's a keen hunter.
We lived in a nice hunting area for deer,
turkey and stuff like that.
So I think he did a little bit of that.
But other than that, I don't think he was into anything else.
NARRATOR: On June 15, 1999, Beverly calls Amy terrified.
Terry has not been taking his medication.
Beverly called Amy to take her to the courthouse.
They had to go get a mental health warrant
to help Terry,
and Amy took her up there.
DARREN: The order is actually signed by a judge and it's served
by law enforcement, and they will issue a 72-hour warrant,
a mental health warrant.
It's involuntary, and then they
will take them to Western State Hospital.
For Beverly and Todd to see the need to have
a mental health warrant signed against Terry --
I mean, I knew it had to be bad for them to go that far.
They saw that there was a threat to himself
or somebody else.
[phone ringing]
Joey calling me right at time for him to come to work
and said that -- that Beverly and Todd
had signed this mental health warning against
Terry and that he was gonna help them serve it.
He felt like things would go smoother with him being there.
NARRATOR: Joey and his colleague eventually detained Terry
at his home, but not without a struggle.
DARREN: He called me back and said it
got quite physical because Terry didn't wanna go
at the time, he didn't think he needed it.
ANGELA: After it was all over with,
I do know that Adelle, Joey's grandmother, told me he just
stood in the -- in the yard and wept,
like he just sobbed because he just had to do that.
Mm.
[sniffles]
AMY: He gave her the whole album.
NARRATOR: While Terry is in the hospital, Amy films
her husband, Joey, riding an ATV with two-year-old Brooklyn
in his lap.
Amy loved filming Brooklyn, because
that was just their world, and they wanted to capture
every moment of Brooklyn, they didn't want a moment
to go by.
And they just enjoyed her
and loved her so much that they just wanted to be able to
capture every moment of that child.
NARRATOR: Two days later, on Wednesday, June, 23,
Terry is released from the hospital.
DARREN: When Joey came to work on Thursday,
he told me that Terry was released from Western State.
I asked him, I said, well, do you think
he's made any progress?
And Joey's exact words was,
"He seemed a little bit frustrated."
And I said, "How do you feel
knowing that you were part of serving this warrant?"
And he said he would do it again.
And he said, but Amy's concerned,
she was scared that something was gonna happen.
She was scared of Terry.
I was at my house, um, and it was Thursday.
Amy come in that night, and she said "I want to see you, um,
"because I'm not gonna live much longer.
"We're not going to live much longer.
"And this is probably gonna be the last time I see you,
"and I just want to sit here and have some coffee
and tell you I loved you."
She never said specifically her concerns
regarding Terry,
but Amy was scared to be by herself.
She felt like someone was watching her,
and that -- that was our last conversation.
That was the last time I saw Amy.
NARRATOR: On June 27th of 1999, a 911 call came into the central dispatch.
The 911 call stated that something was
going on out at the Wedding residence.
[police siren wailing]
I received a call at home stating that, uh,
there was an officer down, shots fired,
and they gave me Joey's address.
[police siren wailing]
And when I got to the house,
I was like the 3rd officer on the scene,
I saw Joey laying between the door and the car
with the car door ajar.
And I ran to Joey to check for pulse on him,
couldn't find one.
I knew in my heart that he was gone.
NARRATOR: Inside the family car, Darren spots another victim,
Joey's wife, Amy.
And then I got inside the car and checked on Amy,
and she was leaned across -- her arm was leaned across
the console, kind of like
she was trying to start the vehicle.
She didn't have a pulse.
NARRATOR: At the couple's home, Amy's brother Derek appears.
DARREN: Amy's brother saw everything.
He was at the door telling me that he's got Brooke.
When he said "he," I knew he was referring to Terry Wedding.
Said, "He's got Brooklyn, and she's in their house."
Amy's brother said Terry had shot Joey through the window,
and then he walked to the car and shot Amy, took Brooklyn,
and then went back into -- went back to his house.
NARRATOR: Officers have to consider that Terry is armed and dangerous.
It was probably one of the scariest parts of my life,
because there wasn't a whole lot of cover between
where me and the other officers were in the house,
and we didn't know which window he had shot Joey through.
So we ended up taking cover until
state police got there.
When I arrived at the scene,
there were several officers there from Greenville City.
They had guns drawn because we didn't
know exactly what kind of weapons Terry Wedding had.
So, yes, they were, um, prepared
if he decided to shoot at them.
I was concerned that Terry might
try to use Brooklyn as a hostage.
I mean, he had just killed her parents and he had taken her in
the house with him, and we have no idea what
he will or won't do at that point.
NARRATOR: Suddenly, Terry appears at the door.
My biggest concern at that moment was when he came out
of the house is that Brooklyn was in the line of fire.
I didn't tell him that he was going to be arrested.
I just told him that we needed to talk to him.
When he came out,
he actually placed Brooklyn down,
and he surrendered.
I went straight for Brooklyn.
I wrapped her up in a raincoat,
and I actually took her to the ambulance.
And just the sense of relief to see that she was okay.
And... for a brief moment,
because then reality hits you again.
NARRATOR: As Terry is arrested, news of Joey and Amy's death spread.
I remember I was asleep and I remember get-- uh,
the phone ringing at the house.
And, uh, my sister Miriam answered the phone
and I -- all I could hear was,
uh, "What? Slow down.
I can't understand what you're saying."
And, uh, it was Derek on the other line
trying to tell us what was going on.
But of course, you know,
he could barely talk because he was in shock, you know.
It's kind of a blur, you know,
because everything went so fast.
But yeah, it was shocking.
It felt like somebody just took
a fist and punched me in the gut, and I --
I couldn't comprehend it for a minute.
We all went to our church,
and that's when reality really,
really set in is when I heard
what had happened to Joey and Amy.
But that was -- that was
by far the hardest day of my life.
CAROLYN: We went into Mr. and Mrs. Wedding's house to see
if there was any evidence in there connected to
Joey's shooting.
When we moved the portable fireplace,
that's where the weapons were.
And we found that combat rounds were set up in every room.
Combat rounds are where you sent two bullets or ammo
side by side where you can pick them up
and load them quickly, and you have them in every room
so you don't ever run out of the ammo.
You can fire, walk by and grab it, and put it in.
He was prepared for...
for -- for basically war.
Inside of Todd and Beverly Wedding's house,
there was no one in there at the time that we were in there.
When the phone started ringing,
we started answering it because it kept ringing,
and it was people wanting their newspapers.
They delivered the Evansville Courier paper at that time
in the mornings,
and people were calling and saying they hadn't gotten their
papers yet.
Something was really amiss.
We realized we have
two missing people.
I went to, um, the post and interviewed Terry.
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
I said, Terry, we need to find your mom and dad.
He didn't say much about that in the beginning,
and I said, "Terry, where is your mom and dad?"
So he begins to tell me that his mom and dad,
they were at what he called a wildlife refuge.
He had beat his dad with a baseball bat,
and he shot his mother in the head with
a ten-gauge while she was sitting in the truck.
[gunshot blasts]
There was a trooper in the room with me that went to
tell dispatch where to go to look for his mom and dad.
This wetland area where Terry put his --
his mom and dad after he killed them is
along the side of a road.
NARRATOR: Police find Beverly's body faced-down in some
standing water just 15 feet from the road.
CAROLYN: Todd was in the same area that she was in.
They were not very far apart, probably 10 or 12 feet.
He told me that his -- he took his father out to
the cemetery.
And he said, "Then I beat him with a baseball bat."
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
NARRATOR: The morning after killing his parents,
Terry lies in wait for Joey and Amy to leave for church.
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry sighs]
[gunshot blasts]
BROOK: It's blurry,
like a dark hue over the day.
While I don't remember,
I was told that not only did he spare me in the sense,
but he cared for me that day just like
any family member would.
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
[Sgt. Carolyn Boyd speaking]
[Terry speaking]
CAROLYN: Terry was very angry that
he had to go to Western State.
Joey was one of the officers who
had chased him down because he ran,
and his father helped chase him down.
Amy and the mom went to the county attorney's office
to get the mentally ill warrant.
So when he got out, he was really upset with that
whole bunch.
He would get very angry during the interview and say no,
that's not the reason.
That's not the reason.
But I believe that that is
the reason why he murdered these people.
NARRATOR: Terry is charged with four counts of murder.
But there is 5th victim that he didn't know about.
CAROLYN: When they did the autopsy on Amy,
they found that she was pregnant.
And so, that baby was
lost as well.
♪ Swing low
♪ Sweet chariot
I went to the funeral, all four funerals
was held at the same time.
Our whole agency was present that day.
[man speaking]
I did go to the funeral and the visitation,
but I didn't stay.
I went home to keep Brooklyn, because we
kept Brooklyn while this was all going on.
And I was sitting there rocking her,
I watched her mom and dad come out the house in a hearse.
Um,
I can't describe the -- the emotions I had,
but there was many that day
at that moment.
NARRATOR: On February 27, 2001,
Terry Wedding pleads guilty but mentally ill
to four counts of murder
and is sentenced to life without parole.
DARREN: I was -- I was angry.
Guilty but mentally ill.
That's his -- that's his plea
on all four counts
when he's referring to his mother, his father,
his cousin, and his cousin's wife and their unborn child...
with no signs of remorse.
He's never going to get out,
and that's the safest place for him.
Todd, he was just a wonderful person.
So was Beverly.
I don't know what happened
that turned out things the way they did.
Todd and Beverly, they were wonderful people,
and I loved them both.
Oh, if I could talk to Joey and Amy now, I would say, um,
I miss you.
Um,
I hope I've done well
with trying to help with Brooklyn,
[sniffles]
and we're okay.
And thanks for the memories.
When I see Brooklyn, my heart breaks for her,
because, uh,
she's been cheated out of a life with her mom and her dad.
Definitely makes me wonder a lot what I could have had.
Um, my mom was pregnant when she passed.
So I know that I was going to be a big sister, and from what
everybody has told me,
my parents would have had multiple kids.
It definitely hurts knowing that
I was going to have some -- something like that, um,
but I didn't get to have it.
NARRATOR: Next time on "American Monster"...
WOMAN: Brittany loved June.
I was scared for her, concerned for her safety.
He could go from being so loving
to being so horrifying.