[laughs]
[Brenda] They could tease each other all they wanted but they were very tight kni
And they loved each other a lot.
Bill was just an incredibly likeable guy.
[Tim] When they first got married
everything was kind of going along
the way that it should.
He tried to normalize the family
but it just wasn't normal.
He just did the wrong thing.
I've been doing this job almost 24 years
and this is definitely one of the most gruesome scenes that I came upon in my career.
When I found out the whole story of what really happened,
I was completely in shock.
[narrator] It's Valentine's Day, 1986,
in LaPlace, Louisiana.
Friends and family gather to celebrate the wedding of 27-year-old Bill Hudnall
and 24-year-old Charlotte Hoggin.
[Tim] It was a good day.
Bill seemed like he was very upbeat
and happy.
We were happy for him.
Everybody was happy for him.
[narrator] Bill and his 45-year-old mom Billie,
share a quiet moment before the ceremony.
Bill was closer to my mom
than my dad.
She was proud of Bill
and she liked Charlotte.
She was happy that Bill and Charlotte were getting married.
[narrator] Also at the wedding are Bill's two younger brothers
26-year-old Tim
and 22-year-old Joe.
[Joe] We were always laughin and joking
We were close.
You know, we loved each other.
He was a good brother.
That's really how I remember Bill right there
that time period.
[narrator] Bill was born on August 24th, 1959
to Billie and her husband William Senior, an officer in the navy.
Like a lot of military families, they move every few years.
Middle brother, Tim, is born in South Carolina in 1960
and youngest brother, Joe, arrives in 1964,
while the family is statione in Virginia.
[Tim] Being raised in a military family,
you had to adapt to so many things.
You just get used to it.
It meant when we were younge that we were probably our best friends.
We were very close.
[narrator] Billie and William senior's relationship deteriorates
during the early 1970s.
The couple finalizes their divorce in 1974.
Tim moves with his father to Jacksonville, Florida,
while youngest brother, Joe moves with his mom to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
[Tim] I didn't feel like Bill took it too well.
He first started out living with my dad and myself.
[Joe] They were over there a couple of years
and then Bill decided he wanted to come back, live with mom.
[narrator] In 1979, Bill joins the United State Marine Corps.
[Tim] My dad was very proud of him.
And you know, he told him how proud he was.
[Joe] He'd lived in Californ for a while
and then he was stationed in Hawaii
and then he ended up in Panama
and then in Jakarta, Indonesia as an embassy security guard.
When Bill was in Indonesia, the on duty guard committed suicide.
Bill said he was the first one there
and that the guy was still alive.
And this was a friend of his
I think everything changed then. I don't think he wanted to do it
anymore after that.
[narrator] In 1985, Bill moves back in with his mom
in Louisiana.
[Tim] Before Bill was a marine, he was a pipefitter.
And so when he got out of the marines,
he just went back into pipefitting.
[narrator] Bill meets social security administrato Charlotte Hoggin at church
and the pair tie the knot at Charlotte's parents' hous just seven months later.
[Tim] It was a fun wedding.
Charlotte was very much in love with Bill.
She seemed very, very happy
You are supposed to be the next person in line to get married
when you catch the garter.
When Bill threw the garter, he threw it right at me.
And I didn't really have a chance to do anything.
There was a lot of people there at the wedding and at the reception.
So it was a good crowd.
Bill looks good. He was youn
Everybody's happy, healthy.
Those were magical times,
right there, we just didn't realize it at the time.
I miss those times.
[narrator] Fast forward to November 18th, 1988.
Eighteen months after Bill's wedding,
the Hudnall family gathers to celebrate the marriage of Tim and his bride, Brenda
[Tim] My wedding day, Brenda's family was there
and it was just a great day. We had a good time
and it was exciting to get married.
And Bill was very excited for my wedding.
[narrator] Bill lines up as one of his brother's groomsmen
in the United Pentecostal Church in Gainesville, Florida.
[Brenda] The first time I met Bill was at my wedding rehearsal
My first impression was that he really, really loved his family.
He was so proud of his brother,
um, and honored to be in the wedding
and he treated me like famil the minute I met him.
He helped calm my nerves about some of the things going on with the wedding,
so instant brotherhood.
[narrator] Bill attends his brother's wedding alone.
He split from his wife, Charlotte, in 1987
after less than a year of marriage.
[Tim] Charlotte was a very devoted wife.
And she took care of Bill.
And when Bill and Charlotte didn't work it out,
we all definitely thought it was a loss
and that Bill had let, probably the best woman for him,
just kind of slip through the cracks.
[Joe] He dated a number of girls and then just,
I guess they weren't what...
what he was looking for.
[narrator] In 1990, Bill's life takes a positive turn
when he meets 20-year-old Stephanie Hall.
Bill and Stephanie met and they went on a date.
[Tim] Dad would ask him what he was going to do
because he didn't have any money
and so Bill told him he was going to do a picnic lunch
by a lake there.
[Brenda] They dated once or twice and then she ended up getting pregnan
[narrator] Bill and Stephani agree to marry.
The couple ties the knot in January 1991.
Baby Joshua arrives on Valentine's Day.
A year later, Stephanie gives birth to a daughter, Guenevere.
[Joe] Bill loved his kids.
He took good care of them.
And he always talked about the things he would do with the kids
You know, he'd bring them to the park, bring them different places
and do things with them.
He was trying to provide for his kids.
But he never pretended that the relationship was okay.
[Brenda] So as their family grew,
Stephanie quit her job, because she felt like she needed to be at home
watching the children.
[Tim] Bill was the sole breadwinner.
Even though he was happy to do it,
you could always tell that he felt like
there was a deficit because she would not work.
She wanted to be pampered.
She wanted to be spoiled.
She wanted to be given thing
And she wasn't willing to lift a finger for it.
And it was just a bad situation.
[narrator] Christmas 1994.
Tim and Brenda gather with the rest of the Hudnall clan
at Grandma Billie's home in Louisiana.
During the holidays, we would always spend Christmas with Billie
or we'd go to my parents' home.
[narrator] Joe films his daughter, Jessica,
as she helps her uncle Tim with the presents.
We had wonderful Christmases. Large gathering, a lot of food.
All the kids playing together.
You know, the passing out of the presents.
Everything was usually very lighthearted and very fun
and everybody was always joking about something, you never knew.
[narrator] One big part of the Hudnall family is missing this Christmas.
Bill wasn't there and you know, we're looking forward to seeing him.
[Joe] It's always missed Bil But Bill had been gone for years.
Just his life took different paths.
You know, the military and then family and jobs.
[Brenda] Bill, I believe at the time was living in Florida
because he had gotten another job over there.
We were aware that Stephanie was putting a lot of pressure on Bill
to make a lot of money, and Bill tried.
[Joe] You know, Stephanie was spending all the money, Bill was working.
So in between jobs, when the job would finally end,
if you hadn't developed some savings,
you were going to have severe financial issues.
And during one of those times,
they had moved in with Mom.
[narrator] A year earlier, in 1993,
Billie invited Bill, Stephanie, Josh and Guen
to live with her in Louisian
[Tim] Stephanie would tell anybody that would listen
how much she didn't like staying with my mom.
You've got somebody cooking and cleaning and taking care of you
and you're griping about your living conditions
And it's not costing you anything to be here.
[Brenda] She was just very, very disrespectful
toward Mom and toward her things.
Mom would come home and the house would be a mess
and there was no reason for it because Stephanie wasn't working.
And so, Mom finally told Bill he was going to have to leave,
he'd have to bring Stephanie and the kids somewhere else.
[Brenda] Mom basically kicked Stephanie out of the house.
[narrator] Two years pass before Bill, Stephanie and the kids
visit Billie again.
The Hudnall clan gathers at her home in May 1995.
Joe cracks a joke about Bill's receding hairli
but it's not a happy occasio
Billie has cancer.
Bill was worried because this was her second bout.
She had had it eight years earlier
and now she's got it again.
We tried to make the best of it
even though there was some strained relationships
between Bill and his mother and Stephanie, definitely.
[narrator] Away from the camera, Bill and Stephanie's finance
are stretched to breaking point.
Stephanie said that there was not enough money.
That was absolutely not true.
I believe that Bill made plenty of money
in all his jobs. Those were high-paying jobs
She was just spending it faster than he could make it
I would always tell him to keep it in your pocket, don't give it to her.
I've got to give it to her. No, you don't. She's not buying food.
She's just buying junk.
[Tim] I was like, Bill, you work the same job that I work.
You're making the same paycheck that I'm making,
and I'm paying my bills.
[narrator] On August 13th, 1998, Stephanie gives birth to another daughter, Gracie
I don't think the impact of another child was anywhere near as significant
as Stephanie's spending habits.
Her refusal to spend the mon on the correct things
like a house, bread, power bill, you know.
And so the debt collectors would be coming after her.
[narrator] Bill saves money in a secret bank account.
In 2007, he uses the funds to buy the family a home in Florida.
[Brenda] The mobile home in Keystone
Bill actually went out,
by himself, didn't tell Stephanie, didn't tell anybody,
and then comes home and says Stephanie, I bought us a hou
and this is going to be the last house.
He was thrilled.
[narrator] While Bill is away working,
Stephanie decides to homeschool the kids
without consulting her husband.
I think she didn't want to send her kids to school,
because she didn't want them going in and talking about home life.
How she took care of her household, her kids, her lack of.
[Brenda] The house was in squalor.
The children didn't have any new clothes.
[Tim] I had been trying to get Bill to leave Stephan for years
and take his kids with him.
But Bill would never leave Stephanie
because he looked at it as
her having the ability to get a good attorney
to fight about it. And I told him, I said, Bill, it's not like that anymore.
The state of Florida has laws in place
that ensure that you're going to see your kids.
Why in the world would you stick around somebody like that?
It wasn't shortly after tha
that him and Stephanie did, finally, split up.
[Brenda] When Bill moved out initially she would let the kids visit.
However, if they would tell their dad they loved him,
Stephanie would say, look at this house.
Your dad never does anything for us. This is all his fault.
He never gives money to support you
and he doesn't love you.
One time when Guenevere was visiting,
Bill offered to get her classes in the community college
and Stephanie put a stop to it and said, no, you're not going to do that.
Stephanie didn't want Guenevere to do anything outside of her control
and college would mean that she would be outside of her control.
[narrator] In May 2011,
19-year-old Guenevere goes t Uncle Tim and Aunt Brenda's house,
to hang out with her cousins
Guenevere actually was only allowed to stay over one time
and Stephanie called constantly.
So I actually took the phon and turned it off.
And I told Guenevere that I'll deal with her mother about it.
And that emboldened Guenevere to
tell me about
how she wanted to try to branch out on her own
and do her own thing.
Tim and I offered to take Guenevere out of that situation
and let her move in with us
When it came time to actually leave,
I called her, told her we were coming,
and she said she was not going to leave because her mother needed her.
And we were very concerned.
We couldn't make her leave.
Our hands were tied.
My husband and I knew that it was just going to be downhill from there.
[James] I heard the call come out
that a male was found bloody inside his house by his wife and daughter.
When I arrived on scene, Mr. Hudnall was laying in his bed,
he's got his bedsheets tucked under his arms,
pulled up to his armpits
and he is just head, chest, covered in blood.
Then he had an axe lying next to him on the floor,
with bloodstains on the floo as well.
The fact that somebody picked up this axe,
and used it at least 17 times against Mr. Hudnall
is fairly significant.
The first thing went through my mind that this was pure hate and violence.
This was a crime of passion.
Upon my arrival at the scene, Stephanie and Guen were out in the yard.
Stephanie was showing a lot overexaggerated emotion
and Guen was...
...quite the opposite.
The first thing that came to mind was
the possibility of both being in shock.
When you find people that are in shock,
some will be overexaggerated
and some will have no emotion whatsoever.
[Brenda] I was at home,
and I get a phone call from Guenevere.
She'd say that, "Brenda, something has happened to dad."
I said, "what do you mean something has happened to dad?"
And she said...
"He's dead."
"Somebody broke in
and killed him."
When we arrived,
I was always to speak to Stephanie and Guenevere when we got to the scene.
We...
...needed them to know that we were gonna be there for them.
[Det Myers] I had Detective Phillips
and Detective Viscone start interviewing
both Stephanie and Guen,
on the scene to get their stories.
[narrator] Stephanie claims that she discovered Bill's body
when she returned his truck earlier that morning.
She says that she and Guen had borrowed the truck the night before.
Stephanie advised that she and Guen
had gone to the home of Bill in the Mustang
to pick up his vehicle to borrow it
the following day to take Gu
to different massage school
in Ocala, as the Mustang that they had
did not run very good and the air conditioner didn't work well.
Stephanie stated that she le by 8:00, 8:30
and she drove the Mustang ho because the taillights didn't work in it.
And she wanted to have it home before dark.
And she said that Guen then drove
Bill's vehicle home.
And she was home somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 that evening.
[narrator] Next, detectives interview Guen Hudnall.
[Det Myers] The story that Guen gave was that
they were there to pick up the vehicle
to take a door off to go to the local dump.
Guen said she drove her Mustang home.
And her mom drove her dad's car home.
[narrator] Detective Phillips asked Gue
if she and her mom made it to the dump the following morning.
Guen replies, "No".
We realized that they had conflicting stories.
Their stories were inconsistent on
the reason why they were borrowing the vehicle,
who drove the vehicle home the night before.
And that made us believe
that we needed to look more into these two
as possibly being involved in this.
They were asked by the detectives to come in originally
to do elimination fingerprin and DNA.
While they were there doing that, they were asked if they would speak to me,
as I'm the lead detective on the case.
[narrator] Detective Myers interviews Stephanie first.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[narrator] Stephanie's account matches
what she told Detective Phillips the day before.
Then I asked her what transpired that morning.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Stephanie on voice call]
[dispatcher speaking]
[Stephanie speaking]
[narrator] Detective Myers interviews Guen next.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen speaking]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen speaking]
[Det Myers] She changed her story.
Her story was completely different
than what she had told the detectives,
the day prior.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen speaking]
[Det Myers] Everything in Guen's interview,
now was beginning to slowly match up
to Stephanie's interview.
It was obvious to me,
one or both of them were lying.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[Det Myers speaking]
It was a thought of mine to do a polygraph,
due to the fact that both of their statements had been inconsistent
from the very beginning.
[Tom speaking]
[narrator] Guen must answer each of the examiner's questions
either yes or no.
Her test is scheduled to take 90 minutes.
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Det Myers] When you tell a lie on a polygraph,
your blood pressure goes up
your breathing gets sporadic,
um, your hands get a little sweatier.
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[narrator] The examiner ends the test after just 19 minutes.
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Tom speaking]
He confronted her with the fact that she was being deceptive
and was lying about what happened.
[Guen responding]
[Tom responding]
[Guen speaking]
[Tom speaking]
She was called out flat on it.
And he knew that she was involved in this.
[Tom speaking]
[Guen, voice breaking]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen speaking softly]
[Tom speaking]
[narrator] Guen describes what happened on the day of Bill's murder.
Guen went to her father's house that evening to stay the night.
Not to borrow his truck, as she claimed previously.
[Guen speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen speaking]
[Tom speaking]
[Guen whispering]
[Det Myers] I was very surprised.
At no point in this investigation did I think,
she was the one that physically did this.
[Tom speaking]
[Guen responding]
At this point, I felt like that there was a lot more to the story
and that Guen was trying to keep her mom out of it.
So we walked her into the room.
Where Stephanie was sitting.
[Guen, voice breaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Det Myers] She tried to play it off like,
she had no idea that Guen had done this.
And that she had no involvement and nothing to do with it.
And that's when I sat down with Stephanie again
and I pushed her to be a little more honest with us
about what happened that night.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers] Stephanie had be lying from the beginning.
And now, she was slowly starting to throw Guen under the bus.
She was trying to take herself out of the equation
and put Guen there.
I started to believe that Stephanie was more involved
than either one of them let on.
This entire plan was nothin
that Guen would have been able to come up with on her own.
I knew that Stephanie had more to do with this.
[Det Myers] At this point in the investigation,
there was no doubt in my mind that
Stephanie had a lot more to do with this entire thing from start to finish.
When I went back to speak with Guen,
I asked her to run me through everything that had happened
after she murdered her father.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen mumbles]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen responding]
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen responding]
Her mom helped her put her clothed in a pot
and they burned the clothes
In an attempt to help her cover up what she had done.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Guen responding]
[narrator] Detective Myers interviews Stephanie one more time.
-[Det Myers speaking] -[Stephanie sobbing]
-[Stephanie responding] -Right.
She knew at that time that she was in trouble as well
and that's when she started talking a little bit more.
[Stephanie speaking breathily]
[Det Myers] She went into detail about the fact of the money.
And that they needed help
because they were losing their home.
Guen said that it was because of her father
that they were getting evict from the house in Keystone.
And it was obvious she would not know any of this,
had this not been told to her
and put in her mind by Stephanie, her mom.
[Det Myers speaking]
[Stephanie responding]
[Det Myers] I did believe th it was pre-planned between the two of them
that Guen was going to kill Bill.
There's not a doubt in my mind that Stephanie kn
that she was driving Guen
to go kill Bill on that nigh
The two of them were arrested that evening.
On the homicide charges of Bill Hudnall.
[narrator] Guen agrees to adhere with prosecutors to testify against her mothe
It would have been more difficult to convict
Stephanie, uh, without Guen's testimony.
Guen is the one that lays ou
the level of her involvemen and the level of her plannin
Guen admitted that the murder was premeditated.
We also knew that Stephanie was culpable
and highly involved, and that she assisted Guen in committing this murder.
And she helped plan with Guen to commit this murder
and she helped to cover up the murder
by the burning of the clothes and coming up with stories to tell law enforcement.
[narrator] Prosecutors piece together what led Guen Hudna to murder her father.
[Det Myers] Stephanie had gotten in Guen's head
that the two of them were going to get rid of Bill,
so they could get his social security check.
Stephanie made Guen feel like
this was the only way for the two of them to make it financially.
Guen went there with the intent to kill her dad.
Because it was going to make her mom and her lives
easier without him being alive.
She went and got the pickaxe
Walked into the bedroom.
Behind him, where he was sleeping.
And started hitting him with the axe.
[narrator] The job done, Stephanie helps cover her daughter's tracks.
Stephanie cuts a deal when she learns
that her daughter will testify against her.
Both women agree with prosecutors to plead guilty to second-degree murder.
[Brenda] They took a plea bargain down to second degre and she gave her mother up.
Because we, as a family, sai it was more important to us
that her mother get charged with this,
then it was for Guenevere to be put to death.
[narrator] On Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
a judge at Alachua County Criminal Justice Center in Gainesville,
sentences both Stephanie and Guen to 40 years in prison.
[Tim behind camera]
[Brenda] Bill was all about family
[voice breaking] and he was a good friend.
He was a great brother-in-la and a brother.
And I'm gonna miss him. And I do miss him.
[Tim] I loved Bill, he was my brother.
I believe he made a lot of bad choices.
But even in his bad choices
he still meant well.
[Joe] I remember Bill now like when we were kids, teenagers.
And we always kinds threw rocks at each other, you know?
Joking and teasing, you know?
You know, we loved each other. He was a good brother.
You know...