A cherished family at the center of a small town...
They laughed and they joked around
and they were happy together.
They were loved and well respected
in our community.
...is gunned down in cold blood.
I'll never forget walking into the house that morning
and seeing what I saw.
Who could have done this?
Was it somebody that they knew?
Maybe this person had sought some type of revenge.
Detectives pursue a trail of suspects.
He was actually set to gain from the death.
And then his behavior was alarming.
During the polygraph,
he started tearing this stuff off.
I know they had had issues within their relationship.
They said, "Well, I could take care of that problem
"for the right sum of money."
But the killer remains elusive.
What are we missing? What are we not doing?
Until a shocking confession reveals the true culprit.
Then she agreed to wear a recording device,
and elicit some more information.
I mean, it was just incredible, it was disturbing.
The killer was about the most unexpected thing,
it was such a shock.
Columbia, Kentucky,
is a small but tight-knit rural community.
Everyone knows everyone else.
Your neighbors feel like family.
People watch out for one another.
Not uncommon, you'd be walking downtown,
you'll stop, run into friends or family.
Very, uh, friendly atmosphere.
One of the most beloved families in Columbia
are the Wellnitzes.
They own a veterinary clinic
just steps away from their home.
I just remember that environment at the clinic
was a place that I, as a kid, wanted to spend
every spare moment that I had
just because it was a great place to be.
Joe and Beth, their kids Dennis and Meg,
they were kind, they were loving,
and they were fun to be around.
On February 26th, 1993,
the town forever changes
after two of Joe and Beth's employees
make a grim discovery
just after 8 a.m. at the Wellnitz home.
Two employees had shown up for work.
But Joe and Beth were not at the clinic.
The clinic was adjacent to the residence.
So, the gentleman walked over to the house,
went in the back door,
and discovered Joe's body
in the, uh, in the downstairs area of the home.
The lady that had also shown up for work that morning.
She then went to the house,
uh, discovered two bodies upstairs.
Joe and Beth and their son, Dennis,
they'd been shot.
Then she ran out and called the police.
Investigators rush to the scene.
I'll never forget walking in the house that morning
and seeing what I saw.
It was just total shock.
I knew what kind of people they were.
I knew how kind they were
and how compassionate they were
with their work that they did, I couldn't believe it.
When we entered the house,
there was Joe laying on the floor.
He was on his stomach.
His hand was underneath his chest.
He had a pair of- of gray sweat pants on
and a white T-shirt.
It looked like he came out of the bathroom
and had been shot and fell face first,
blood had pooled around the body.
My initial reaction was shock.
But then I realized shortly thereafter
that I had a job to do
and my job was to take care of the scene
to see if we could find out
who did this horrible thing.
Around the scene where Joe was found,
there was multiple shell casings,
and you could see bullet holes in the walls.
We went from there to the upstairs
and we found Dennis's body laying there in his bedroom.
He had no shirt on.
You could see bullet holes in his back.
There was also shell casings laying around it,
looked like he was crawling on the floor
and was executed by the killer at that point.
Entering into the back bedroom,
that belonged to Joe and Beth,
you could see multiple shell casings back there.
Beth was found on the side of the bed,
nearest to the doorway,
she appeared to have been standing
when she was shot
with multiple gunshot wounds to her head and upper torso.
The Wellnitzes were all found either in,
or near a bed, or in clothes
that suggested they had been sleeping.
So it was apparent that it had happened
during the night at some point or early morning hours.
After examining the bodies,
police scour the rest of the house for clues,
but there's no sign of a murder weapon.
There were no broken windows.
There was no furniture turned over.
The house had not been ransacked.
It was significant that there was no forced entry
that at least gave the impression
that it was somebody with some degree of familiarity
with the home and with the Wellnitz family.
It appeared this family had been targeted.
Who could have done this?
You know, who is the person that would have done
such a horrible crime in this community
that that is usually so gentle.
Was it somebody that they knew?
Maybe this person had sought some type of revenge.
Once we saw that these three people had been murdered,
we immediately wanted to know,
where is Meg Wellnitz at, so we can find her
to make sure she's safe, first of all.
Make sure she's not a victim.
We were able to locate her.
She was at school in Lexington and was unharmed.
Officers are tasked with breaking the news
to Joe and Beth's daughter.
Meg was told that her mom and dad and brother
were murdered, were dead, I really felt sorry for her.
I thought now how is she gonna go on?
You know, how does she recover from this?
We got a phone call just a little while after I got up
and they said, "Beth and Joe have been killed."
And at that moment, we didn't know
Dennis also had been killed.
And I just stayed in my room that day and just cried.
Just couldn't believe that they were gone.
They were like a second set of parents for me.
One of my family members had called.
They gave me the horrible news
that Joe and Beth and Dennis had all been murdered.
And that's... that's a day you don't forget.
Joe Wellnitz was born in 1942
and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.
From a young age, he always loved animals
and turned that passion into a career.
Not many rural communities anywhere
would have been able to boast of having a veterinarian
with the background that Joe had.
Joe was one of the most caring,
kindest gentleman that you will ever meet.
In his 30's, Joe met Beth Preston,
a woman 10 years his junior.
Both divorced, they married in 1979,
and Joe adopted her two kids, Dennis and Meg.
Two years later, they moved their family
and Joe's clinic from Lexington to Columbia.
Meg would come in and out of the clinic.
Dennis would mostly I would just see him outside.
He was only 20 years old.
Dennis was popular in school.
He had worked in town. He had attended college.
He was a just a well-liked young man.
Beth was the one I was closest to.
She was the face of the clinic.
She was the person everyone saw
when they walked in the door.
Always had a smile on her face.
The relationship between Joe and Beth
was perfect to me.
They laughed and they joked around
and they were happy together.
They were a very happy family.
But one horrific night has changed everything.
Who could have wanted to kill the Wellnitzs, and why?
The two employees that discovered the bodies
were certainly interviewed that morning.
There was really no motive.
And the way the two of 'em arrived that morning,
there was really no opportunity
for either of them to commit the murders.
They were dismissed as suspects.
In Lexington, police ask Meg
to help them piece together her family's last movements.
She says she visited them for dinner two days ago,
but had returned that night as she had school.
Meg told the police that she'd been in Lexington
the night before the bodies were found
and that she'd been playing cards
with some friends, her boyfriend,
as well as another couple, Bill Meece,
and then Bill Meece's wife.
When asked if Meg was aware of any problems at home,
she gives police their first lead.
There was a couple that were tenants of Joe and Beth's
they may had had issues with
and their names Brenda and Dave Cowell.
The Cowells had been living in a cabin
on the Wellnitz property.
They were living there rent-free
in exchange for doing some work for Joe and Beth.
There was some discrepancy there
about whether they were doing the work sufficiently or not.
Joe and Beth, felt like they weren't.
so they gave them a bill for $1,800 for the rent.
And ultimately they never paid it.
They filed bankruptcy.
Were the Cowells angry enough to want the Wellnitzs dead?
Was this murder payback?
They were persons of interest,
people that we needed to talk to.
We needed to prove or disprove
whether they were involved in it or not.
Coming up...
Fear races through the community.
We thought,
if this could happen to the Wellnitzes,
it could happen to any of us.
Who would be next? People were scared.
Everybody wanted to know who did it,
why they did it, and how they did it?
Everybody was just guessing, you know, gossiping.
And police unearth family secrets,
indicating a potential motive.
It was a surprise to me
to learn that there was another child involved.
There was actually a will giving him so much money
out of the estate.
Before a shocking confession...
...reveals a killer no one could have imagined.
It was a bombshell. I couldn't believe it.
Police investigating the homicide of Joe, Beth,
and Dennis Wellnitz have their first suspects,
tenants who had recently clashed with the family over money.
When we learned about the bankruptcy,
about the-- uh, them living on the property,
this discrepancy about the work they were doing,
whether it was sufficient or not, you know,
especially when it came to the money
and then this bill for $1800, you know.
We thought, well, this could be a motive for them
wanting to do something.
We knew that we had to talk to them.
We had to see if we, if they were involved.
Police learn the Cowells no longer live on
the Wellnitz property.
Maybe they left there disgruntled.
We went on that theory
maybe they had went to the Wellnitz house that morning
and got into it with them
and then that's when all this escalated from there.
While detectives track down the Cowells,
officers canvass the area for witnesses.
We did a neighborhood canvass to talk to people
to see if they--
anybody in that area had heard anything,
seen anything, or had any other information
that they could provide.
We were not able to-to identify anybody
that did hear anything that went on that night
during the shooting or anything.
Four days after the murder, detectives locate the Cowells
and bring them in for separate interviews.
Brenda claims she didn't hold any grudge
against the Wellnitzes.
She told us, even though they had not paid the money
t-that Joe and Beth felt like they owed,
they had worked out the discrepancy
and everything had moved on from that.
Police ask Brenda where she was
the night of the murder.
They ended up, moving off the farm.
She said she was not there.
She was at home when it happened.
When detectives speak with Brenda's husband Dave,
he's unable to confirm her alibi,
because of his own.
Dave was working in Louisville, Kentucky,
which is almost in Indiana,
probably 100 miles from where this happened at.
He adamantly denied any involvement in this.
He didn't want to do harm to them.
Investigators speak to friends of the Wellnitzes
to confirm the dispute with the Cowells had been resolved.
When we were talking to-to friends in that area,
we were able to determine that
that situation where those hard feelings were
had been resolved
and a long time prior to this happening.
They were ruled out as far as having anything to do
with this murder.
With no arrests made, fear begins to grip the town.
We thought if this could happen
to the Wellnitzes, it could happen to any of us.
It could happen to anyone.
They were loved and well respected in our community.
And so if they could be killed, who would be next?
People were scared.
Everybody wanted to know who did it,
why they did it, and how they did it?
Word travels fast.
Everybody was expressing their opinion
as to what may or may not have contributed to this.
But everybody was just guessing, you know, gossiping.
It's got the whole community in an uproar
about what happened,
we had to get some answers pretty quickly
to make sure that it wasn't some random killing
and that other people may be coming next.
When we started thinking about who could have done this,
we started thinking about, the veterinarian business.
People get very sensitive about their pets.
So we thought, well, maybe somebody had
gotten disgruntled over that.
We learned from the employees there
that there was an issue between Jerry Yarberry
and-and the Wellnitzes where he had brought in his dog
to have treatment done to its eye
and the dog ultimately was blind.
So we thought, well, maybe this might be a motive
for somebody to do harm to them.
Some of the key questions that we wanted to know from--
from Jerry was, how did he feel now,
toward-toward the Wellnitzes and how did he feel toward
what had happened between them?
Police bring Jerry into the station
for questioning.
He told us that he-- he was very upset about his pet.
He refused to pay the bill that was owed to the Wellnitzes.
They ended up having to file a-a lawsuit against him
in order to recoup the funds.
While Jerry admits he was angry with Joe,
he says he isn't a killer.
He adamantly denied doing anything
to the Wellnitzes as far as going to that extreme.
When we talked to Jerry, we learned that
he's home watching TV with his wife and kids.
And we were able to confirm that that's where he was at.
And therefore, we were able to
eliminate him as a suspect in this case.
There's frustration on the part of the police
because they want to see a crime solved.
They want to see a murderer in this case held accountable.
They wanna see that person punished
and there's frustration because
we don't know if justice is ever gonna be served.
As the case threatens to stall,
a friend of the Wellnitz family contacts police
with pertinent information.
I said, "I'm a real estate broker
and now we're getting the property ready to sell."
There was an indenture, kind of a rectangle
in the floor of that master bedroom closet.
I knew for a fact Joe and them kept a floor safe
upstairs in their bedroom, in the closet.
I'm assuming, that's where he kept
all his important papers his deed,
anything that was of significance.
It gives you the opinion that
the safe was part of the plan all along,
that they-- that the killer knew where that safe was at.
It was not sitting out in the open
where you would commit these three murders
and say, "Okay, there's a safe.
I'm gonna take t-that with me."
It was hidden back in-in a closet.
It certainly caused the officers
to focus their attention on who would want that safe,
who would know the safe was there,
and who would stand to have some benefit
from removing the safe, especially in light of the fact
that nothing else was taken, nothing else was disturbed.
If we could locate that safe then very easily
that's gonna put us on the trail of whoever committed this crime.
Police investigating the first triple homicide
in Columbia, Kentucky
are searching for an object stolen from the scene
they hope will lead them to the killer.
The missing fire safe was certainly
a critical piece of evidence
that the officers were investigating.
They tried to determine more specifically
what the contents of the safe were,
what was in there,
what was going to perhaps turn up
that might then be a clue.
In talking to the family, we were able to learn that
there was possibly,
could be insurance papers in that safe
maybe even up to around $1,000.
In this case, the only motive
was to either cause the death o-of the Wellnitz family
or to take the safe out.
As detectives put out an APB for the safe,
the autopsy results come in.
One of the crucial things that we need to know
is the time of death.
As far as the timeframe of the death
the internal examination of the bodies was consistent
that they had been killed within a few hours
prior to the bodies being discovered.
It's estimated Joe, Beth, and Dennis
were murdered around 4 a.m...
The medical examiner was able to determine that--
that each victim died as a result of
multiple gunshot wounds.
None of the victims had defense marks
on their bodies,
meaning they had likely been taken by surprise.
Additional projectiles were recovered from the bodies
during the autopsy.
The firearms examiner did determine that
all of the shots were fired from a nine millimeter handgun.
It did seem likely that they were all fired
by the same person, given the fact that
they were all fired from the same gun.
Obviously from there, we're gonna start
doing multiple interviews to try to eliminate
or show who has killed these three people
who could have that much of a grudge against them?
During our investigation, we were able to-to learn that
Joe had another son by the name of Eric.
From my previous personal experience
with Joe and Beth, I didn't know about Eric
until after the murder.
Joe had adopted him much the way that he did
with Meg and Dennis and then that marriage broke apart.
It was a surprise to me to learn that
there was another child involved
that-that Joe had adopted at a young age.
We started receiving information, documentation
showing that-that Eric was actually
still set to gain from the death of Joe.
There was actually a will giving him so much money
out of the estate,
to the tune of a quarter million dollars.
Eric was somebody that we needed to talk to
because that much money, obviously,
would be a motive for somebody to do something like this.
Police track the nineteen-year-old down
at his home in Lexington.
When Eric was interviewed, he was shocked that it occurred.
They had had issues within their relationship,
him and Joe,
it was a very distant relationship
and then nonexistent after a while.
Eric also indicated that
he-he felt like he was replaced by Dennis.
They had completely become estranged after so long
and had stopped any contact with each other.
One of the things that we learned
was that Eric did resent Joe.
Part of that resentment was because of this estrangement.
Had Eric settled a score and inherited a fortune
by killing the family?
When police question him about the will,
they're taken aback by his response.
When he learned that
he was a beneficiary to this will,
he was actually surprised that he was included in it,
you know, because of the-- they've been estranged
for that many years.
But detectives can't just take Eric at his word.
The motive is there, the possibility.
So we needed to know whether he had any type of alibi
that we could substantiate to make sure that
he wasn't in Columbia that morning.
We learned during our interview with Eric Wellnitz
that he had worked that night and then once he got off work,
he went to a friend's house and slept at that friend's house.
Eric says he was in Lexington the entire night,
two hours away from Columbia.
So we were able to talk to that friend
and determine that he did not have the opportunity
to commit this crime.
We felt pretty certain that he was not a suspect
at this point.
We eliminated him and moved on.
I was shocked, and it was an odd situation
being questioned by the police officers.
The fact that I was named in the will,
if that was something that I had known,
then that for sure gives me a motive.
But, there's no way in the world
I could have ever done anything like that.
Yes, I was angry as a child.
You know, having your dad disappearing out of your life,
you know, kinda in a snap of a finger.
It was hard and I was angry, but not that kind of anger
where I wished, wished anything bad.
Detectives learn that Meg,
the only other surviving member of the family,
is also named in the will.
Could she have anything to do with the murder?
I really felt bad for Meg at that time
because I knew Meg.
But, we had to get some answers.
When we when we approached her about the will,
she didn't know about it.
She also wanted answers you know.
She loved 'em, Joe and Beth and Dennis.
She was so bright, and-and intelligent,
and loving.
Police ask Meg about her relationship
with her parents.
She says it was good, but she raises one concern.
Officers did learn that that Beth and Meg
had had some disagreements over some of the people
that she was now spending a lot of time with.
One person in particular,
Meg's boyfriend Randy Appleton.
Beth and Joe didn't want him around
so we needed to talk to Randy.
Randy, became a viable person of interest.
After three members of the Wellnitz family
are gunned down in their own home,
police now have a new suspect,
the boyfriend of surviving daughter Meg,
20-year-old Randy Appleton.
Joe didn't go into any details, but he had a concern,
I think, of the direction that Meg had taken
as far as who she was associating with.
That could be a motive for Randy Appleton.
Detectives ask Randy where he was
the night of the murder.
He was leery about talking to us.
Randy tells police he was playing cards
with Meg and her friends until 2 a.m.
the night of the murder.
Then he mentions something that grabs detectives' attention.
We learned that he was interested in firearms.
We had learned that he had frequented a firing range.
If the murder weapon had been used
at the same firing range,
where he in fact acknowledged having been practicing
with a nine millimeter,
it would be a very critical part of the investigation
if if those shell casings collected from the range
match to the murder weapon that was believed
to have been used to kill the Wellnitz family.
We're starting to see red flags at this point.
Randy was one that liked guns.
He did like to go to that firing range
and did use a weapon there.
We actually ended up going to the firing range
and collecting several spent shell casings.
All of them were submitted to the crime lab.
Our hope was that we could match those rounds
through the laboratory,
to some of the nine millimeter shell casings
that we had located.
Two weeks later,
police receive the results on the shell casings.
They were not able to find any casings
that matched as having been fired from the murder weapon
that that was used to kill the Wellnitz family.
It was very disappointing that we were unable to tie
any of those shell casings to Randy Appleton.
It suggested either that they used a different weapon
at the firing range than was used to to murder the family,
or that it could have been somebody else.
Despite the setback,
Randy's love of guns and familiarity with
means he is still a suspect.
Police look to confirm his alibi
with those he and Meg claimed
to have been with the night of the murder,
Bill and Regina Meece.
We had to talk to them to see if that was
what they were doing,
playing cards during the early morning hours,
because that was Randy's alibi.
Bill was cooperative.
Bill had agreed to talk to us about certain things.
Bill corroborates Randy's alibi.
They were all four together playing cards
'til you know the early morning hours.
He agreed to take a lie detector test.
During the process of the polygraph,
the polygraph examiner asked him if he knew anything
about what happened, if he had any involvement
about what happened.
And then his behavior was was something that was alarming,
it was something that caused some concern with the officers.
He started tearing this stuff off that you put on
during a polygraph and just shut it down right then.
And then the polygraph was over at that point.
So he did not complete the polygraph.
He was just very mad.
Definitely raised red flags with us
that he knows more than he's telling us
and that he's afraid of that polygraph,
'cause that polygraph might tell us
more than he wants us to know.
Despite his behavior,
police have nothing concrete on Bill
and are forced to let him go.
We tried to talk to Regina,
but Bill did not want us to interview her.
He, you know, he would get very controlling with her.
It's over at this point.
We were still running down leads.
Obviously, you always get leads that you're gonna follow.
But one of the things that I thought early on was
if we ever get to a point
where Regina and Bill are not talking
we need to go back and reapproach her.
Lacking any new developments,
months turn into years, leaving detectives
and the Wellnitz's loved ones frustrated.
What are we missing? What are we not doing?
They're friends of mine.
And this was one of those cases
that you wanna solve before your career is over.
It was just like you're at a dead end.
And we couldn't figure that out, you know.
When the case went cold,
it was very disheartening just knowing
that someone had committed this terrible crime
and that they may possibly never have to pay for that.
I just remember feeling so sad.
Beth and Joe were just such a light in our community.
You don't have any answers when it happened,
I had no idea of who could have done it
or why they would have done it.
There was so little information coming out,
it just kind of fell to the wayside.
It's just sad.
The case remains cold for nearly a decade.
But in 2002, detectives decide to take a fresh look
at the triple homicide.
This case is still on my mind.
I had never forgot it.
I said, okay, what's the condition
or what's the status of Bill and Regina
and I learned at that point that they were separated.
That was the thing that we were waiting on before,
is when this separation occurred, to go see
what Regina had to say outside of the control of Bill Meece.
Police track Regina down
and what she has to tell them is shocking.
When we met with Regina in Lexington,
she told us that she had proof
of who killed the Wellnitzs.
Nine years after the murder of Joe and Beth Wellnitz
and their son Dennis,
police finally have a break in the case.
One of their surviving daughter Meg's best friends,
Regina Meece, says she knows who the killer is,
and has proof.
When we approached her, she immediately said,
"I've got this piece of evidence."
She essentially wanted some assurance
that she wouldn't be charged with tampering with evidence.
And I assured her that if if she,
in fact, turned it over to law enforcement,
I didn't think it would even constitute a crime.
Now, at that time, we didn't know if she had photographs
that perhaps were taken during the commission of the crime.
We didn't know if she may have had the firearm
that was used in the commission of the crime
or what piece of evidence that she had.
But she shared with us that she had, in fact,
retained possession of the fire safe that had been removed
from the back closet in the bedroom upstairs
of Beth and Joe's home.
When police ask Regina how she got the safe,
she says the person who gave it to her
is the one who shot the Wellnitzs.
Regina is the one who started the ball rolling.
Everything started to fall in place.
Regina told us that Bill Meece was the one responsible
for the death of Dennis
and the death of Joe and Beth Wellnitz.
It was very shocking. Very shocking.
She had been interviewed by the police before,
but had been told by her then husband, now ex-husband,
not to talk to the police, not to tell them anything
and it certainly appeared, at least, to be a burden lifted,
that she was able to share this information.
It was a huge deal when we heard what she had to say
that was the part that we needed to happen
and that from there on it steamrolled from there.
Regina takes police to her home
to see the fire safe.
It was the same type and everything
that we were missing from the house that night.
It was the same measurements, that same dimensions
that we had measured when we were in the Wellnitz house
and discovered that the safe was missing.
When we later compared the bottom impressions
on that fire safe to the imprints
taken from the closet, it was-- it was a perfect match.
And in fact, it was the the fire safe
that was stolen from the Wellnitz home.
Nothing of significant value is found in the safe.
But Regina delivers another explosive revelation
to police...
She tells them that Bill is planning to kill again.
Interviewing Bill Meece's ex-wife,
it came to the attention of the police
that-that a mutual friend
had had an encounter with Bill Meece,
where he had offered to kill her boyfriend.
Bill had told her
that he would commit this murder for her for $500.
I mean, it was just i-incredible.
It was disturbing.
Was Bill some kind of twisted serial murderer?
Police decide to move before he can strike once more.
We initiated this investigation
and, uh, contacted that lady that Bill had approached.
She agreed to wear a recording device,
speak with Bill Meece.
He was provided a certain sum of money as a down payment.
And the police then arrested him,
for offering to kill this mutual friend's boyfriend.
With Bill in jail, police question him
about the Wellnitz triple homicide.
There was no statements made, um, about the Wellnitz murder,
um, that-that he was willing to make at that time.
When we interviewed him there,
I mean, we did not get a confession from--
he denied it at that point.
Even though we knew, uh, that, uh, we were on the right track,
it still takes evidence to-to put this together.
As detectives work on building their case
with Bill still in custody, news spreads quickly
about his arrest, and possible involvement
in the shooting of Joe, Beth, and Dennis.
When I first heard about Bill being a suspect,
it sent shivers up my spine
because I-I immediately am flooded with the memories
of being in junior high with Bill and, uh,
having very, very strange interactions with him.
I was 13, 14 years old,
he at one point stabbed me in the leg with a pencil.
He had been open about talking about murder and-
and proceeded to threaten me
that if I said anything about it,
that he'd kill me and my family.
I hadn't seen my dad in years when I went to school with Bill.
Um, I don't know how they knew each other.
One question remains for police:
if Bill murdered the Wellnitzs, what was his motive?
Detectives learn another piece of shocking information
when Regina tells them Bill might have pulled the trigger,
but someone else masterminded the killings.
She did share with us that Meg
had-had been involved in the planning of this murder,
and that she had wanted it done.
Certainly that was shocking to everybody.
She said that Meg had ridden with Bill Meece
from Lexington down to Columbia late night, early morning
when these murders occurred.
Meg was a big part of the planning
and, uh, execution of the-the plan at her parents' house.
What we also learned was that they had been planning this
three months prior to the murders, before they did it.
We believed at this time that Meg and Bill Meece
were the ones responsible for the murders.
We had ruled out Regina and Randy Appleton at this time.
It was a bombshell for us to-to learn that information.
I couldn't believe it, totally unexpected.
Ten years after Joe, Beth, and Dennis Wellnitz
were shot in cold blood,
police now believe Meg Wellnitz wanted her parents dead
and asked her friend Bill Meece to kill them.
Based upon my prior history with Meg Wellnitz,
I would have never dreamed that she would have been involved
in that murder of her parents and sibling.
She had become that type of person,
uh, not the one that I knew from before,
and now all of a sudden I see her
in a completely different light
when she has no compassion for life.
Before they can lay charges,
detectives need hard evidence against Meg and Bill.
One of the things that we learned
during the investigation, they had purchased
a nine millimeter high power Browning Automatic.
We knew they had done that.
They used a false I.D. and they used it
to make the purchase of the gun.
We were able to-to learn that through a-a report
from, uh, ATF.
And we actually identified who sold that gun to 'em
and that, uh, the person that sold it to 'em
actually identified Meg and, uh, Bill as being
the ones that came in. - On February 27, 2003,
detectives finally have the evidence they need.
This case was presented to an Adair County grand jury.
And the grand jury indicted
both Meg Wellnitz, uh, and Bill Meece.
Meg is arrested at her home in Lexington,
but refuses to speak to police.
Bill, who is serving a 12 year sentence for
the murder for hire plot, is ready to talk.
During his statement, he certainly indicated to us
Meg Wellnitz was involved in the planning.
This was done at her urging.
Uh, this was her idea and that she wanted it done.
We had the motivation, the motivation being money.
What we learned was that Meg and Bill
drove from Lexington that morning down to Columbia,
and that, uh, Meg gave Bill the key to the front door.
She stays in the car. She does not go in the house.
It truly was a-a chilling account
of-of just how cold hearted he was,
not only in doing it, but in talking about it.
Police confront Meg with Bill's confession.
She agreed to then give a statement.
When we met with Meg, you know,
my observation and my perception of her demeanor
and her statements to us certainly
was-was not one of any remorse.
It was a matter of fact description
of-of what she had done
some years prior in having her family killed.
I don't think I could have ever thought of Meg
committing a murder or being a part of a murder plan.
I know that life insurance might seem like a lot of money,
but when you put that cost on lives, it's nothing.
Like that's-- it's unfathomable to think that
she considered their lives that invaluable.
Bill Meece was convicted by a jury
of three counts of murder, robbery, and burglary,
and he was sentenced to death.
Meg Wellnitz was convicted of complicity
to three counts of murder, complicity to robbery,
and complicity to burglary.
And she received a sentence, uh, of life in prison
without the possibility of parole for at least 25 years.
It's very disturbing to know that this little sweet girl
that I remember has been the one
that actually, uh, played such a-such a big role
in, uh, in the-- in this murder.
Meg orchestrated one of the most horrendous crimes
that you could imagine,
killing your mom and dad and also your brother.
I do not think that Meg receiving
25 years was a just sentence.
I think she was as guilty as Bill Meece,
and I think she should have been given the same type
of sentence as Bill Meece. Death.
For their daughter to have been the killer
was about the most unexpected thing.
It was such a shock to try to wrap your head around
how could a daughter carry out or be the mastermind.
It does not get any more heartless than that,
and it does not get any more sickening than that.
She didn't deserve to ever be free again.
In 2014, having served eight years
of her life sentence,
Meg is found dead in her cell of an apparent suicide.
I certainly could never have imagined
that things would have turned out this way.
I just feel sad that
Joe wasn't able to live out his life
the way that he deserved to
and continue to give back to the community
that he was a part of and, uh,
be a father to Dennis and to Meg, even.
I'd-- I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with him.
It's just hard to understand, um, sometimes
why-why things happened
and why-why they had to lose their lives in that way
when they had so much ahead of them.
It was a very tragic ending.
The community lost a cherished family.
And we miss 'em as friends.
We miss 'em as, uh, as part of the community.
They were just fine folks.