Narrator: This is the story of a beautiful young couple.
Rob: We were like ken and barbie,
You know, for back in the day.
Narrator: ...Who value their family above all else.
[ giggles ]
Almost the quintessential american dream.
Narrator: But when medical misfortune threatens
To shatter their world...
There wasn't much else they could do.
Narrator: ...A demon enters their marriage.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
♪♪
It's September 1989 in destin, florida,
On the gulf coast...
...And it's vacation time.
The whedbee family and their relatives are all visiting
From their hometown of knoxville, tennessee.
Rob: That was our getaway place.
My folks owned a condominium there.
Daddy!
That particular trip was lisa, myself,
Our 3-year-old son, justin,
And lisa's family, actually.
♪♪
Narrator: And when the beach gets too crowded,
They kick back together at their pool.
♪♪
Rob's wife, 26-year-old lisa whedbee,
Makes sure 3-year-old justin
Is fully protected from the florida sun.
Justin...Liked to swim a lot.
He would swim to the point
Where I would just be sunburned to a crisp
For being out there with him so long.
Narrator: Lisa watches from dry land
While rob and justin paddle in the shallow end.
Rob: At that age, he would --
He would swim all day if you'd let him.
I mean, I don't think he'd ever get out of the pool.
Narrator: Lisa doesn't stay on the sidelines for long.
♪♪
Lisa was a good mother because she was young,
But you have to learn a little bit as you go.
Narrator: And she's rewarded with some insolent splashes.
Rob: We were almost the poster children
For the all-american family, all-american way of life.
We were like ken and barbie...
You know, from back in the day.
Narrator: Rob and lisa first met 10 years earlier
In the summer of 1979.
Their paths crossed one evening
While rob was cruising the strip
With his friends in downtown knoxville.
Rob: We stopped at a red light.
And a little triumph tr6, I believe it was,
Pulled up next to us with the top down
With two girls in the vehicle.
Narrator: After pulling over,
The passenger introduces herself as lisa outlaw.
Rob: We're just teenagers at this time.
I think I was probably 19 probably,
And she was -- she was two years younger than me.
First thing I liked about her was the way she looked.
I was attracted to her.
She was a track athlete,
And I was a multi-sport athlete,
So we had things in common.
Narrator: After some friendly flirting,
Rob and lisa spend the evening on an impromptu double date.
Rob: She gave me a little note with her phone number on it,
Asked me to give her a call sometime.
Narrator: The pair have an instant connection.
So I called her up and, you know, she said,
"yeah, I'd like to --"
Basically, "what took you so long?
Where the heck you been?"
Narrator: It's not long
Before their relationship becomes official.
Joyce: The first time I met lisa,
Rob brought her by the house.
My husband and I were in the den,
And he brought her in and told us who she was.
And she -- she made a good impression.
She was a pretty girl.
Narrator: Soon, rob and lisa are an item.
We had cookouts and swim parties,
And we had her parents over and she and rob,
They seemed to, you know, get along.
Narrator: Three years later,
In June of 1982, they tie the knot.
Joyce: I remember rob told his dad, I think, first,
And then he told me.
He told us together.
We thought he was too young, of course.
But, of course, we were too young when we got married,
But we accepted it and wished him the best.
♪♪
Rob: Right after we got married,
We started looking for a place to live.
And I happened to see a little house for sale,
Just a little handwritten sign,
The classic -- the number 4 sale in the front yard.
It was a little three-bedroom, one-bath rancher
In an older part of town.
We bought the little house and started working on it,
Fixed it up, moved in there.
Narrator: Rob has even got himself a solid job
Working as an insurance agent at his family's firm.
Rob: Lisa came to help me in the business
For those first years, as well.
Yeah, she was quite good at it.
Narrator: Three years later,
Lisa decides to leave the insurance company
For a bigger project.
Rob: I found out that lisa was expecting,
And that was -- that was the icing on the cake,
I guess, for me in this, you know,
This...Almost quintessential american dream.
I felt like a lucky man.
Narrator: On April 13, 1986,
Rob and lisa are joined by baby justin,
Who's his parents' pride and joy.
♪♪
Little justin changes rob and lisa's world.
Justin was a happy child, and they went, they did things,
You know, they took him places and...
You know, I was all kind of new at the dad thing,
And it just amazed me how smart they are.
You learn a lot of things from them,
And they learn a lot of things from -- from you.
Narrator: As their vacation draws to a close,
Rob has some exciting plans for his son.
♪♪
[ chuckling ]
Getting ready to...
Probably go fishing again.
One of our favorite activities,
Mine and his as well, was fishing.
Justin was, with help, you know,
He was a fairly proficient fisherman off of the dock.
We could catch pinfish and all these kind of things.
Narrator: Lisa's brother charlie
Captures the precious father-son moment.
These were excellent times, to say the least.
Narrator: But while their vacation might be over...
...There's still some surprises left in store
For the whedbee family.
Narrator: When lisa and rob whedbee
Took their son, justin,
On vacation to florida's gulf coast,
They knew it was going to be a special trip.
Because it's their last as a family of three.
As these images are filmed, lisa is already pregnant.
Rob: I told justin that he was gonna be a big brother.
He was excited about it.
Everybody was. The whole family was.
What's wrong?
[ speaks indistinctly ]
Narrator: On March 7, 1992,
Lisa gives birth to their daughter, brittany.
Rob: You got the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy,
You got mom and dad here, barbie and ken,
And now you've got the little girl.
And if she looks anything like mom, she's gonna be,
You know, little barbie.
And, you know, you got made.
Narrator: Their picture-perfect family seems complete.
But it turns out all is not quite so perfect.
[ baby crying ]
The doctors have noticed something off
About brittany's responses.
Rob: I first noticed a nurse that was looking at brittany
With what I thought was a critical eye.
And I asked her, I said, "what are you looking at?"
And she said, "oh, nothing, I'm just looking."
And I started to worry about that.
The next day, there was a pediatrician.
And he came in the room and sat down and he said,
"you know, I have got some bad news for you."
"we're 95 plus percent sure that your child
Has down syndrome,"
And my heart just sank.
♪♪
Narrator: The whedbees are shaken.
But little brittany's troubles don't end there.
She had a hole in her heart.
It's actually called a vsd.
That's where there's a hole between the two chambers
Of your heart that's allowing the blood
To mix between those chambers, where it's not supposed to.
Narrator: Brittany will require an operation
To correct the problem.
Lisa is overwhelmed by the diagnosis.
She wanted everything perfect, and brittany wasn't perfect.
She was an imperfect child.
Rob: The way I felt about it was, you know,
This is our child,
And we're gonna -- we're gonna do our best for her,
Regardless of what limitations she may have.
Narrator: Brittany's ongoing health problems
Have the young family coping
With a steady stream of hospital visits.
It required more of my time to help her
And to, you know, go to doctors' appointments
And to be involved with her care.
So my parents became more involved with justin
At that point and helping us.
Narrator: To ease the pressure on rob and lisa
As they focus on brittany,
Rob's parents help out with justin.
Joyce: He had a room at our place in gatlinburg.
And he went with us a whole lot of the time
While brittany was hospitalized.
But we tried to keep him busy.
But he -- he loved to go with us wherever we went.
He was -- he was ready to go. He and pops.
Narrator: The pressure on the family has been intense,
But by christmas 1991,
Things are looking much brighter for little brittany.
Rob: After the surgeries, brittany actually did
Pretty well.
She learned to walk.
Narrator: The family's tension begins to ease.
And they can look forward to the holidays.
Christmas at the whedbee household was all about
Eating, opening presents, and attending church.
Too much to eat, too many gifts.
You know, I guess the american christmas.
After a difficult year, rob makes sure to capture
These precious moments.
He films lisa with their children
As they unwrap their gifts.
[ speaks indistinctly ]
Joyce: We always had big gatherings at christmas,
And we had a good time as a big family.
[ indistinct conversations ]
♪♪
Narrator: Justin and brittany are giddy with excitement
As they sit among the pile of presents.
Joyce: A sleigh full of big packages.
[ speaks indistinctly ]
Justin and brittany were our only two grandchildren,
So we fussed over 'em.
Narrator: There's no sign of the hardships
The family has endured over the last year.
But within a month of these peaceful christmas scenes,
Brittany starts exhibiting more worrying symptoms.
One Sunday morning, brittany was cruising,
And she fell over.
She didn't get up, and I thought, "hmm."
So I got her up, and I stood her up at the table,
And she stood there for a few seconds, and she fell back down.
And then I knew something was wrong.
Narrator: Brittany's new diagnosis is a tough one.
She's suffering from an extremely rare disorder
That can often lead to stroke and death.
Lisa struggles to come to terms with the devastating news.
Rob: There was detachment. There was avoidance.
Our relationship is beginning to become strained.
Hello. Call mama.
Narrator: And as brittany faces life-threatening surgery...
Rob: She had the heart condition.
She had down syndrome,
Which I just thought, "I don't know --
I don't know if she'll survive this."
Narrator: Rob and lisa's marriage
Is starting to crumble.
Narrator: In March of 1982, rob and lisa whedbee
Prepare for a life-threatening operation
On their daughter, brittany.
Rob: It was one of the hardest things that I've done
To just watch them wheel her, you know, in there
Knowing that I might not see her alive again.
It was very hard.
I felt like if it gave her an opportunity
To have any better quality of life,
It's worth the risk,
But I was preparing for the worst, honestly.
♪♪
Narrator: Thankfully, brittany pulls through
And comes home.
The situation has driven a wedge
Between her parents.
With each diagnosis of something else,
Lisa was becoming more and more unhappy by the day.
And it just drove her
Into higher and higher degrees of unhappiness.
♪♪
Narrator: The whedbees have been attending their local church
In knoxville for years,
But in her time of need, it becomes a sanctuary for lisa.
Joyce: Lisa did spend a lot of time at church.
Every time the door was open, lisa was in there.
Narrator: She joins the choir and becomes devoted to it.
Rob: Her choir practice, I think,
Was always wednesdays or something like that.
You know, I didn't necessarily see that as a bad thing.
She had a small nucleus of people at the church
That sort of had a little support group.
Narrator: Lisa soon befriends one of her fellow altos,
The music teacher at a nearby elementary school.
Rob: Lisa told me about her new friendship
With a lady at the church named tracy,
Who is married to a man named michael frazier.
I'd known michael for years.
He was our church organist and had recently been,
I guess, promoted
Or asked to take over the duties of choir director.
Narrator: Lisa tells them about her struggles with brittany...
...And michael finds her story inspirational.
Rob: Michael was a newspaper reporter
Of the "lifestyles" section
Of a small newspaper called "the oak ridger."
Michael decided to write
A very touching mother's day piece focused on lisa
And the struggles of raising brittany and so forth.
Narrator: Lisa hopes the article will help other mothers
Going through similar struggles.
But helping with the article,
Along with the church commitments,
Leads to lisa's spending more time away from home.
Choir practice would start at 5:00 or 6:00
And should go on to about 8:00 maybe.
But she would come home at midnight.
And "oh, well, we went out, you know,
To have a little dinner and a couple of drinks."
That's fine. You know, no big deal.
But it became more and more and later and later.
At this point in time, you know, our marriage was in a shambles.
Narrator: Lisa and michael's close relationship sparks rumors
In the small community.
I confronted lisa about it.
I said, "hey, lisa.
Martha said she bumped into you and michael
Having lunch down at so and so's.
And you were a little, uh, a little friendly."
I said, "what -- what can you tell me about that?"
And she said, "oh, my gosh."
She said, "you know michael and I are just friends."
And I said, "I know that."
She said, "rob, if I was gonna cheat on you,
Don't you think I could do better than michael frazier?"
I thought, "yeah, you probably could."
[ chuckles ]
Narrator: On may 9, 1993, an excited lisa
Scoops up the copy of "the oak ridger"
Sitting in her mailbox.
Lisa was put in a wonderful, wonderful light.
Lisa's reaction was complete elation.
Narrator: And the article has an unexpected upside.
Rob: She came to me and said, "you know,
I believe that we really should try to work on our marriage
And try to come back together for the sake of...
Justin and brittany."
Maybe it's looking up here, you know.
Maybe she's had time to get all this digested,
And, you know, I just took her a lot longer
Than I thought it would.
And I was happy to hear that.
Narrator: By June 7, 1994,
All seems well at the whedbee home.
Justin is sleeping over at his grandparents'.
Lisa is upstairs trying to get brittany to sleep.
I had just completed a softball game.
Lisa had some fried chicken, of all things, on the table,
And I like that.
That's one of my -- one of my favorite fast foods.
Narrator: After a few bites, rob heads down the hall
To say good night to a sleepy brittany.
Rob: I went back there and talked to her for a little bit
And read her a couple of pages of something.
You know how you read the books to them and...
Narrator: And with brittany fast asleep,
Lisa turns her attentions to rob.
Rob: She's, you know, coming over and rubbing my shoulders.
And she says, "hey, are you gonna --
You gonna work all night
Or are you gonna come to bed in a little bit?"
Of course, I'm not the smartest guy in the world,
But I figured that one out, you know.
Before long, you know, we're asleep.
Narrator: But the whedbees are in for a rude awakening.
Narrator: At 1:00 a.M. On June 8, 1994,
The whedbee household is sound asleep.
I don't really know what actually woke me up.
♪♪
The next thing I remember is smelling smoke.
Like, not a fire, but cigarette smoke,
A real heavy odor of cigarette smoke.
♪♪
Nobody smoked in our house.
♪♪
So I remember in that little "twilight zone" kind of thing,
When you're just trying to wake up,
I noticed that the window next to our bed...
Was different than when I went to bed,
Because I always shut those blinds.
And I noticed they're open.
♪♪
And then about that same time,
I saw something that was really strange.
♪♪
It looked like it was a person
With something in their hand.
Then the next thing I know, there's pressure on my leg.
And then all of a sudden, whack.
He hits me.
It's a man with a knife in his hand.
He split my earlobe.
He's trying to stab me and now the fight's on.
Lisa! Lisa!
[ grunts ]
My mind is just spinning,
You know, a thousand miles an hour
And trying to figure out, "what is he doing here?
What has he already done?"
I can sort of see lisa's side of the bed,
And it doesn't look like she's there.
So I'm thinking now, "oh, my god.
Did he kill her?
Roll her off on the floor?
What's going on with brittany?"
You know, now everything's just going nuts.
Narrator: Rob catches glimpses of his attacker.
Rob: I can see a stocking mask.
I noticed he has on a black t-shirt
That says "phantom of the opera."
I grabbed for his wrists,
And I got the knife blade... By mistake.
You know, I'm just trying to find something to get.
And he starts turning that blade,
Trying to make me let go of it.
And he cut me down to the bone on my left thumb
Right where it meets your hand there
And it just started bleeding like crazy.
Lisa appears in the doorway with one of my bats.
She's in shock. She's not sure what to do.
He's really struggling now.
I mean, he is putting on, you know,
An all-hands-on-deck effort.
I stood up, and I picked him up and I threw him into the corner.
By the nightstand, and I took off.
Narrator: 10 minutes later, knox county sheriff's office
Gets a call from the whedbees' next-door neighbor.
Units are immediately dispatched to the area.
Knox county sheriff's detective dan stewart
Arrives to find a chaotic incident.
Stewart: And it was a pretty active scene
For that time of the morning in that area.
Narrator: The first person he sees
Is a badly wounded rod whedbee.
He was agitated, waving his arms around,
Pointing at his home, pointing at the neighbors.
He tried to stab me.
I caught the knife in my hand.
When I was starting to learn what had happened,
I realized why the man was so agitated.
A masked intruder broke into their home and attacked them.
Narrator: Rob tells detective stewart that his wife, lisa,
Is safe at a neighbor's house and baby brittany is unharmed,
But there's no sign of the attacker.
According to mr. Whedbee, the man ran out the garage door
And off into the wooded area near the residential lots.
Narrator: Detective stewart orders a search...
Stewart: I immediately got with the officers present
To hopefully capture this man before it got too much later
And hopefully catch him quickly,
And he would still have the same clothing.
There would be possibly blood on his clothing.
Narrator: ...Before turning to the house
To inspect the crime scene.
We arrive at his bedroom, and it was in shambles.
Bed clothing was torn across the room,
The sheets were just sort of knotted
And gnarled up on the bed,
And you could tell there had been a struggle in the room.
♪♪
A knife attack is usually accomplished
By someone who wants to -- to get into your personal space
And use that weapon on you
And do as much damage as possible.
That indicates a personal motive.
Narrator: Rob tells detective stewart what happened
After he ran from the bedroom.
As I -- as I ran through the garage door
Out into the garage, I hit the garage door opener,
Which opened the garage door, but it also turned on the light.
He came out that same door with the knife in his hand.
Now I saw his face,
Even though it was through a stocking mask.
♪♪
Michael frazier was definitely that man.
Stewart: He said, "I know him.
He's a -- he's a choir director at my church.
He's one of lisa's friends."
I realized we had to talk to the wife
And get her statement
And see if she, in fact, would corroborate
What mr. Whedbee was saying
Or if she would tell a completely different story.
Narrator: Detective stewart has lisa whedbee join him
In his car for a private talk.
You have to have an open mind
And just simply try to gather all the information
And all the relevant facts you can find as quickly as possible
While it's fresh in people's minds.
Narrator: He records their conversation.
Her body language and her demeanor,
Her emotions weren't present as they should have been.
The things she was saying didn't ring true.
Narrator: Detective stewart changes his approach.
Stewart: I said, "lisa, you've told me everything
That happened tonight, and you told me in great detail,
But I want you to tell rob what happened."
I took her in the house.
Lisa looked around the room, looked at everybody in the room,
Looked at me and looked at rob and started to talk.
Narrator: With michael frazier still on the loose,
Lisa whedbee is about to talk and tell a whole new story.
She explained how she had brought frazier
Into the home that evening,
Early in the evening, long before rob got home.
But lisa did know that brittany was asleep
Just down the corridor and didn't care.
Rob leaned forward and looked at lisa and said,
"I just want to know one thing, lisa.
I want to know what you did in this house."
If someone had dropped a pin right then,
Everybody would have heard it.
Dead silence, absolute silence.
♪♪
Lisa leaned forward, looked at rob and said,
"we did everything in this house,
And I mean everything."
The -- the bottom just dropped out.
It all sort of came into focus.
Previous to this evening,
Two or three weeks ago, maybe a little more.
She wanted to see my life-insurance policy,
Which was about a million and a half dollars,
But she showed particular interest in that section,
Which, looking back, I found a bit odd
Because she really didn't have any expertise
In that particular area.
Narrator: Detective stewart agrees.
Stewart: I had enough probable cause to believe
She was involved in a conspiracy to commit murder,
And I told her.
I said, "lisa whedbee, you're under arrest
For attempted murder."
Narrator: Three hours later, the knox county officers
Staking out frazier's home
Happened upon a surprising figure...
...Michael frazier.
About 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning,
He came to his residence.
He was wearing the black "phantom of the opera" t-shirt.
Officers confronted him there and arrested him.
Narrator: Frazier is charged with attempted murder.
And in September 1995, he stands trial.
Frazier admits he intended to kill rob that evening,
But he claims he and lisa were in on it together.
Stewart: The plan was to keep frazier in the house
And at the appropriate moment, she would go get him,
Bring him upstairs, where he would take the knife
And stab mr. Whedbee to death.
Narrator: Michael claims that lisa told him
She was being abused by rob.
His story was simply he was protecting lisa
As she was being victimized by this brute of a husband
And she had no one to help her or protect her.
Narrator: Michael's attorney tells the court
That two weeks prior to the attack,
Lisa met with a divorce lawyer
And filed a protective order against her husband.
She had talked about divorce.
She had even seen a divorce attorney.
I had resisted it.
I still -- I guess I blame it on my raising.
It's just not, in my opinion, the best thing for the kids.
And I still wanted to work it out.
Narrator: And the couple remained living together
Throughout that period.
I supposedly abused this woman for years and years
And that michael was her defender.
That allegation hurt me
Almost as much as the -- the rest of the betrayal.
Stewart: There was never any evidence of rob abusing lisa.
Narrator: Prosecutors contend the truth
Is much more straightforward.
Lisa and michael cooked up a plot to kill rob
For his life insurance.
Stewart: This was simply a murder for hire.
Lisa most likely, the beneficiary,
Would have received all the money.
He probably would have received
Some of the proceeds of the insurance.
Narrator: But they hadn't counted on rob fighting back.
But the jury believes michael was led astray.
They find him guilty
Of attempted voluntary manslaughter,
And he gets just four years in prison.
In June the following year,
Lisa was convicted of solicitation
To commit second-degree murder.
She accepts an alford plea,
Meaning that she maintains her innocence
While acknowledging the evidence is sufficient to convict her.
Lisa was represented by a very competent attorney,
And as a result of the proceedings,
She got off relatively free without a great penalty.
Narrator: In exchange for waiving the trial,
She receives one-year jail term and three years' probation.
They both got extremely lucky
And very light sentences.
Narrator: Lisa serves a single year
And has been free for over two decades.
Now a single father,
Rob does his best to rebuild his life
And those of his children.
I don't understand why she couldn't just leave.
If she was that unhappy,
Why she had to try to -- to kill me.
I suppose it was for profit, honestly.
Joyce: They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,
But it was a tough row up.
But we stood by rob and the children
And he -- he made it out of it.
Rob: I had two children to raise.
I had a daughter with profound special needs.
I rebuilt my life based on the need to proceed.
We don't have any contact with lisa.
She, as far as I know, doesn't desire any.
She completely disregarded what it would do to her kids...
[ indistinct conversations ]
...Especially her son.
She didn't value her family at all.