[gunshot blasts]
HARRELL: This was a very savage shooting
at very close range.
It was very personal.
Jody Wilder was fun to spend time with.
HOLMES: He liked to sing and do his karaoke.
HOLMES: Was it a targeted killing?
Was it a road rage incident?
Did he know who his killer was?
[gunshot blasts]
ARNTFIELD: Without a plate, without a description,
just about anybody is a suspect.
NARRATOR: Every day in North America,
dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case,
detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline --
the minutes and hours containing evidence that can
help unlock the mystery and catch the killer.
Serene Douglas County, Georgia,
like its big city neighbor, Atlanta,
has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 25 years.
In 1998, Douglas County was a community of
working class people who went to work every day
just living their lives.
Being right outside of Atlanta,
we had commuters that would work
in Atlanta but liked that country life.
HOLMES: There was a big boom in the nineties.
During those years, there was a lot of construction,
a lot of businesses being built.
We prided ourselves in the fact that
we had a very low crime rate.
NARRATOR: But on the night of August 7th, 1998,
that perceived safety of suburbia is pierced.
Douglas County sheriff's office gets
an urgent call from a commuter.
[sirens wailing]
NARRATOR: Lieutenant James Harrell
of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department
responds to the call.
When I arrive, I observe a red Ford Explorer parked
in the emergency lane with its lights on.
So I approached the vehicle.
The driver's side window had been shattered out and there
was a bullet hole through the windshield of the vehicle.
There was an individual inside the vehicle that had been shot.
The person was deceased.
He was slumped to the far right-hand side,
and there was a large amount of blood.
The victim had multiple gunshot wounds to his body.
We removed his wallet
and that's when we got his identification.
Joseph Henry Wilder.
NARRATOR: Known to his friends and family as Jody,
the 46-year-old father of three is a local building
contractor who's been working
in the area for almost 30 years.
Investigators searched Jody's vehicle for clues.
Anything that might explain why he was gunned down
on the side of the highway and by whom.
It didn't appear that anything was taken,
it didn't appear that it had been rifled through.
There was a single bullet hole in the windshield.
The other bullets appeared to
have passed through the door window.
Somebody standing outside the vehicle would have
shot into the vehicle, striking him multiple times.
This was a very savage shooting at very close range.
There's a number of scenarios that go through your head.
Was it a targeted killing?
Was it a road rage incident that spilled over into gunfire?
Did he know who his killer was?
[gunshots blast]
HARRELL: We found six 45-caliber shell casings
on the ground located on the driver's side of
the vehicle.
We gathered those shell casings as evidence
and then they were sent to the crime lab.
NARRATOR: Investigators also find something on the shoulder
of the highway that catches their attention.
In front of the maroon Explorer was a flat piece of plastic
that didn't match anything on the Explorer.
We didn't know if it was part of the crime scene.
We didn't know if it came from the suspect vehicle,
but we went ahead and gathered it as his evidence anyway.
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Harrell takes statements from
several drivers who witnessed the shooting.
HARRELL: As they were driving by,
they saw a maroon Ford Explorer in the emergency lane.
And there was a pickup truck
parked in front of the Ford Explorer, and they
heard several loud pops.
They realized that there was a white male
standing outside of the maroon Ford Explorer...
[gunshots blast]
shooting a gun into the vehicle.
The shooter walked away from the maroon Explorer,
was walking towards his truck.
He stopped, turned and fired
a last shot through the windshield.
[gunshot blasts]
They had a vague description of the subject --
tall, thin white male.
They indicated that he got into a full-size pickup truck,
maybe black or dark blue, and then the pickup truck
drove away.
The witness was able to remember enough about that
person to be able to do a composite sketch.
NARRATOR: Another witness reports, the shooter wasn't alone.
He claims to have seen someone
in the passenger seat of the truck.
He couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.
Witnesses also tell investigators they saw the same
two vehicles driving recklessly
just minutes before the shooting.
HOLMES: The vehicle that was driven by Mr. Wilder was speeding
and had rammed into the rear end
of this dark colored Chevrolet truck,
hit the rear bumper of it on at least two occasions,
leading up to what happened on the side of the interstate.
[gunshot blasts]
MYERS: Based on the autopsy report,
Jody was shot seven times in the arm
and the side abdomen multiple times
and once in the chest.
NARRATOR: Based on the initial evidence,
the final sequence of events seems clear.
Two drivers speeding on the highway escalated
to road rage which ended in homicide.
[gunshot blasts]
The wounds Jody suffered were fatal wounds.
He would have died instantly.
NARRATOR: Sheriff investigators turn to the grim task
of notifying the victim's family.
HOLMES: We notified Georgia Allen,
Jody's sister, and gave her the news of Jody's passing.
Her relationship with her brother Jody
was a very fond one.
Jody kind of looked out for her and looked out for her mom.
AYCOCK: Jody was a general contractor who not only
renovated houses, but he also did handyman work.
MYERS: Jody Wilder was a hardworking person who was happy-go-lucky.
He was fun to spend time with.
HOLMES: Jody had a son from his first marriage
and two children from his second marriage
who were in their early twenties.
And at the time of his death,
he was separated from his second wife.
NARRATOR: Jody's sister, Georgia, has no idea
who would want to kill her brother.
In order to solve the murder,
investigators need to reconstruct the last 24 hours
of Jody Wilder's life.
HOLMES: Jody liked to go to the Topps Two bar
which does a lot of karaoke.
Jody liked to sing, and so he
would go in there and do his karaoke.
He was at Topps Two the night of his murder.
NARRATOR: The bar is just 12 miles from where Jody Wilder was murdered.
Investigators pay a visit to Topps Two bar to see the owner.
AYCOCK: The owner told investigators that Jody was
a regular at the Topps Two karaoke bar.
She told investigators that Jody was in good spirits
and that he had actually signed up for
a few karaoke songs that night.
HOLMES: She told us that he was in the middle of singing a song
when he received a page on his pager,
he looked down at it.
He ended up finishing the song.
But after the song was over,
Jody left Topps Two at about 9:15 that evening,
and they never saw him again.
NARRATOR: Sheriff investigators now have the first part
of Jody's timeline shortly before his murder
HOLMES: Jody left the karaoke bar at 9:15,
and we started getting the 911 calls around 10 o'clock --
that's 45 minutes.
And to get from Topps Two bar to the location
where the homicide happened
takes anywhere from five to ten minutes with traffic.
So we're still looking at a 30- to 35-minute timeframe that we
need to narrow down.
NARRATOR: Something happened in the 35 minutes
leading up to the shooting.
What was it?
Was there an argument at the bar or in the parking lot
that may have spilled over to the location on the interstate
where he was shot?
NARRATOR: Investigators now know when the shooting took place
but have no idea who pulled the trigger.
[gunshot blasts]
Without a plate, without a description,
just about anybody is a suspect.
You have eyewitness evidence confirming that
this looks like a random roadside execution.
But investigators also have to consider
that this may be set up to look that way,
and it may have some other explanation.
NARRATOR: When investigators search Jody's name in their database,
they get a hit.
Just weeks earlier, sheriff deputies had been called
to Jody's last known address
to settle a fight between Jody and his former roommate,
Max Proctor.
HOLMES: Max Proctor suspected that Jody
may have been stealing from him.
So Max kicked him out.
NARRATOR: Max evicts Jody, but Jody refuses to leave.
HARRELL: Max had to call our deputies to come to the scene
and give Jody a criminal trespass warning
and tell him not to come back to the house.
NARRATOR: Deputies escorted Jody from the property,
but now investigators consider whether
the conflict ultimately turned deadly.
[gunshot blasts]
STOCKDALE: It's an unusual crime scene.
It does suggest a high level of anger.
There's multiple shots to make sure that this person was dead.
So there's a level of rage here that implies
some sort of relationship between the killer
and the victim.
NARRATOR: Given the dispute over money that only
Sheriff deputies could diffuse at the time,
it's possible Max Proctor decided to settle it
with a gun.
This is an individual who immediately moves to
the front of the list as a possible suspect.
It was entirely possible that Max Proctor shot Jody Wilder.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: Just hours after finding 46-year-old Jody Wilder
shot dead in his truck
on the shoulder of interstate I-20 outside Atlanta, Georgia.
Douglas County Sheriff investigators pay
a visit to Jody's last known address.
It's the home of Max Proctor.
Max was Jody's former roommate who sparred with him
over money a few weeks before Jody was killed.
Going to Max Proctor's house that night was to find out if
he has an alibi,
find out where he was at
when Jody Wilder had been shot.
We questioned him about the relationship and
him allowing
Jody to live with him for a period of time.
Max told us that Jody had been kicked out of his
house by his second wife and that he had nowhere to go.
And so they kind of worked out a little deal that he could
live with
Max and kind of help him with some remodeling that he was
doing with the residence.
NARRATOR: But after only a few weeks of living together,
their friendship turned sour.
From what Max was telling us,
Jody was struggling with his recent separation from his wife
that was weighing heavily on him.
HARRELL: He said that Jody had really fallen off,
that he had started pawning all his tools,
Jody's business was failing and that Jody was supposed to
be completing some work for him that he would never complete.
And Max was pretty upset about it.
NARRATOR: Jody owed Max money and was reneging on their deal.
Max was furious,
but was he angry enough to follow Jody onto the highway,
coax him to pull over, and shoot him point blank?
[gunshot blasts]
HOLMES: We questioned Max about his whereabouts
during the time of the homicide.
Max told the investigators that he was at home that night
NARRATOR: Despite having no new roommate who can confirm Max was home,
deputies can confirm that they woke Max from a sound sleep
just minutes after the shooting miles from
the crime scene.
It became apparent
from the interaction that we had with him
that he didn't have anything to do with the homicide.
NARRATOR: Even with Max eliminated as a suspect,
investigators still need to account for a block of missing
time from when Jody left the karaoke bar at 9:15
to when he was found dead at 10 PM
in a place that was just 10 minutes from the bar.
To pin down that time,
investigators focus on Jody's last page.
[pager beeping]
There was some analysis done on the pager, and we learned it
was his ex-wife who had paged him,
and he called his ex-wife back from a pay phone.
We traced that phone that he made the phone call from
to a pay phone at a Waffle House.
NARRATOR: Jody's call and drive from the Waffle House
accounts for the missing time
between his exit from the karaoke bar
to the murder site.
Obviously, the ex-wife had to the contacted to
find out what her alibi was for that night.
Although, we have been told that it
was a male who had done the shooting.
That doesn't preclude the fact that she
may have had somebody do it for her.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: Whatever ill will
Jody's ex-wife may have still harbored against him,
her description of Jody as a man in decline
matched the description given by Jody's ex-roommate, Max.
HARRELL: It looked like Jody's life was really
taking a downward spiral in recent weeks
prior to him being killed.
We learned that Jody had been using methamphetamine, or crank
as it's sometimes called
Jody had connections to drug suppliers.
Investigators have to question whether there is some link
between what happened to him
that day and these criminal associations.
NARRATOR: Investigators learn that one of Jody's close associates is
local drug dealer, Ethan McGlade.
Ethan McGlade was supplying Jody with his illegal drugs.
HOLMES: Ethan had been in some trouble in the past with narcotics.
So, he was known to the law enforcement community.
NARRATOR: Investigators track down Ethan,
and he agrees to cooperate.
HARRELL: Ethan explained to me that he had been a bartender
at a local establishment in Douglas County
that Jody frequented.
They had been friends for eight or nine years,
at that point.
Ethan indicated that he and Jody Wilder had an argument.
Jody Wilder had a really hard time controlling his temper.
It could escalate
into physical violence apparently very quickly.
NARRATOR: Detectives now consider if Jody's drug dealer
ended their argument permanently.
[gunshot blasts]
Did Ethan kill Jody Wilder over a deal gone bad?
Ethan is adamant he had nothing to do with
Jody's murder.
HARRELL: Ethan said that they had put that all behind him,
that they were friends and that there was no bad blood
between the two of them at all.
Ethan was pretty forthright with me,
and he told me that he was not involved.
He was able to provide an alibi,
and so he was eliminated as a suspect.
NARRATOR: The lieutenant has one last question.
Does Ethan know who might want Jody dead?
NARRATOR: 21-year-old Nolan Wilder is Jody's son from
his second marriage, and he's at odds with his father.
HARRELL: Ethan told me that in the divorce, Jody was supposed
to be staying away from his ex-wife,
not having contact with her and that he and Nolan had
gotten into some arguments
because Jody was still coming around his ex-wife's apartment,
and there had been some conflict
between the two of them.
Investigators realized that there is friction within
the family, that Jody and his son
are somewhat estranged, and the son may have been motivated
to carry out this crime.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: To find out more about that conflict,
Sheriff investigators contact Jody's ex-wife
looking for their son, Nolan.
Nolan was nowhere to be found.
He was away, and that was a little on the odd side
it being his father that was murdered.
NARRATOR: Nolan was also a no-show at his father's vigil
and investigators discover
something else that looks like more than a coincidence.
HOLMES: We find out that Nolan had a pickup truck
that resembled
the one that we were looking for that night of the shooting,
the GM-style dark-colored pickup truck.
NARRATOR: And when investigators compare Nolan's driver's photo
to the composite sketch of the killer,
the Sheriff's team members are not the only ones
that see the likeness.
HOLMES: Even Jody's sister acknowledged that composite
kind of does look like Nolan.
This was a very up close and personal kind of thing
NARRATOR: Was Nolan settling a personal vendetta with his father?
We had to put hands on him.
He was a potential suspect.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: Three days after father of three,
Jody Wilder is shot dead on the side of a highway outside
of Atlanta, Georgia.
Douglas County Sheriff investigators suspect Jody's
21-year-old estranged son,
Nolan, had motive to kill him.
He was kind of nonchalant with the investigators,
which kind of sends mixed messages to us.
Investigators would expect the son of a crime victim to
come in and show emotion, to be sad,
to be devastated.
So when they don't see that,
the question is why -- is it related to the relationship
they had, or is it related to this homicide?
Nolan described their relationship as
kind of a rocky relationship.
NARRATOR: Nolan's mother had a restraining order
against his father Jody,
but Jody ignored it and continued to show up at
their home.
So Nolan stepped in to protect his mom from his dad.
I asked Nolan if he was afraid of Jody.
When the investigators asked him where he was
at the night that his father was murdered,
Nolan ended up telling him that
he was hanging out with his friends.
NARRATOR: Detectives need to corroborate Nolan's alibi,
and there's something else they want to check on.
That day that Nolan came to the Sheriff's Office,
he drove up there in this truck that we were needing to
look at to see whether or not it was linked to this case.
NARRATOR: The dark color matches the truck seen fleeing from
the murder,
but is it missing a piece that
matches the one found at the crime scene?
HOLMES: After the interview, investigators went outside to
Nolan's truck to examine it, and they were able to
determine that that truck was not what we were looking for
and eliminate it as the vehicle in question.
NARRATOR: The team also confirms Nolan's alibi,
so they eliminate him as a suspect.
Nolan didn't kill his father
With all of Jody Wilder's closest family
and friends eliminated,
investigators tap their confidential
sources for potential news.
I received a tip from an informant, and the informant
had stated that they were at a house
in a subdivision off of Lee Road,
and that a man had showed up at the residence trying to sell
a large quantity of methamphetamine and that he had
said that he had got it from the dead man off of I-20,
which immediately leads back to Jody Wilder's homicide.
NARRATOR: The informant identifies the drug dealer
as 32-year-old Ryan Stewart.
Ryan Stewart was known to the Sheriff's Office
as being involved in the drug trade.
He had previous arrests for drug possessions and was
in fact on probation for it at that time.
Apparently, Ryan Stewart was claiming that he had been in
one of the vehicles that night
and had fled from the scene.
NARRATOR: Did Ryan Stewart kill Jody Wilder
[gunshot blasts]
and steal his meth?
Someone boasting that he stole a quantity of methamphetamine
from a dead man on the highway.
Investigators need to start considering again
the hypothesis that this was actually a drug rip
and not a random act of violence following an act of
road rage.
HARRELL: Once I got the tip, we immediately started
trying to track Ryan Stewart down, to no avail.
However, I was able to locate Vanessa Maaler who was Ryan's
girlfriend, and she did agree to come in for an interview.
NARRATOR: Vanessa Maaler is adamant her boyfriend Ryan
had nothing to do with it.
HARRELL: She said that the tip that we got about Ryan Stewart with
the methamphetamine was incorrect, and she
was able to tell me that Ryan was with her the night of
the homicide.
HARRELL: She said that they had been to Hooters,
that he had nothing to do with Jody Wilder's homicide.
NARRATOR: Investigators insist on hearing it from her
boyfriend Ryan himself,
but she's evasive about where he may be.
She said that he was running from a warrant
from another county and that she had not seen him.
NARRATOR: Eight months later, sheriff investigators finally
locate Ryan Stewart
and bring him in along with his girlfriend, Vanessa.
Investigators rely on a polygraph to confirm
their statements.
Ryan denied any involvement in the homicide,
and Ryan and Vanessa both passed a polygraph.
So at the end of the day,
it just didn't appear that
this was gonna be a viable lead at all.
And really at this point,
we had alibied everybody that was a possible suspect.
And in June of 1999, we had come pretty much to a dead end.
NARRATOR: As the days turn into years, no new leads emerge,
and Jody Wilder's murder case goes cold.
HARRELL: You want to bring closure for the victim's family,
because they're agonizing over this every day.
And when you can't do that, it, it's very frustrating.
NARRATOR: Then 17 long years after the murder,
Douglas County Sheriff investigators receive
a promising lead from almost
1000 miles away, just outside Austin, Texas.
A woman from tiny Pflugerville, Texas,
claims to have a story to tell.
In Douglas County, Georgia,
Lieutenant Ken Aycock and a new team of Sheriff
investigators are assigned to pick up the lead.
In 2015, we got a call from a Molly Oakley
in reference to the Jody Wilder homicide.
MYERS: Molly gives me a little bit of background
about her relationship with a person named Jeff Kilpatrick,
and she tells me that she believes that Jeff and his
brother were involved in that homicide that occurred on
Interstate 20.
Molly Oakley sat on this information for approximately
17 years, and she finally
came out with the information to purge herself of the guilt
that she felt.
NARRATOR: The new team jumps at the chance
for a fresh lead on an old case.
They're even willing to travel 1000 miles out
of state to hear Molly's details in person.
I fly to Pflugerville, Texas, to meet with Molly Oakley.
NARRATOR: Investigators look past the possibility that
this may be another wild goose chase
and hope that Molly Oakley can bring justice for Jody Wilder
NARRATOR: 17 years after the murder of Jody Wilder outside of
Atlanta, Georgia,
Douglas County Sheriff investigators travel 1000
miles to meet Molly Oakley in Pflugerville, Texas.
Molly claims the brother of her
ex-boyfriend could be the killer.
Molly told us that in 1998, she had been
dating a man by the name of Jeff Kilpatrick.
They were living together and she said that Jeff
actually came home one day and was very agitated.
Jeff discloses to Molly that his brother Ricky
had murdered somebody and Jeff had the firearm.
Jeff shows Molly the firearm and says that
he was going to have their father destroy it.
Molly described a semiautomatic handgun,
which matched
the basic description of the weapon used in the homicide.
NARRATOR: But investigators pick up on something
in Molly's story that doesn't add up.
NARRATOR: Jeff told Molly that his brother Ricky
killed a man on a highway in Georgia.
But is it possible Jeff was lying to protect himself?
Molly explained that both Jeff and Ricky were very
violent people,
and they were quick-tempered and would not hesitate to
hurt somebody.
She was scared to death that they would kill her if
she talked.
NARRATOR: Investigators believe Molly is scared,
but they need more than
her suspicion that her boyfriend Jeff Kilpatrick
or his brother Ricky killed Jody Wilder
17 years ago on the I-20 in Georgia.
When we started looking into Ricky Kilpatrick,
we learned that he did have a criminal record.
NARRATOR: Ricky Kilpatrick's criminal history
includes drug possession and battery.
But his younger brother, Jeff's criminal record is
even worse.
Jeff's had ag assault charges and a more violent past.
NARRATOR: They include charges of domestic violence
and robbery.
Investigators also note that Jeff bears a close
resemblance to the composite sketch of the killer.
Based on the past, it seemed like Jeff was
a more likely candidate for the murder of Jody Wilder.
STOCKDALE: When someone has a history of aggravated assault,
it shows,
and really willing to use a higher level of violence
to achieve whatever goal it was in that situation.
This could escalate into lethal violence.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: Besides the brother's criminal history,
investigators need to know what make and model vehicle
each brother owned at the time of the murder.
AYCOCK: Back in 1998, witnesses came forward and said that
the suspect vehicle that they had
seen on the interstate was a blue or dark-colored Chevy
extended-cab pickup truck.
We were able to find that several months prior to
the homicide,
Ricky had actually purchased a brand-new
1998 Chevy dark-colored extended-cab pickup truck.
Ricky actually sold that truck
a couple of years after the homicide.
NARRATOR: Not only does Ricky's truck match
the description of the shooter's vehicle,
investigators turn up something even more surprising.
I learned that Ricky was pulled over by
the Douglasville Police Department
a few months before the homicide.
NARRATOR: As routine for safety on a traffic stop,
the officer asked if the vehicle held any weapons.
Ricky had one and showed it to him.
The officer checked the serial number on a Llama .45 caliber
handgun to make sure it wasn't stolen.
NARRATOR: The officer confirms that the gun
was legally registered to Ricky Kilpatrick's father,
and he returns it to Ricky.
But for Douglas County Sheriff investigators,
it sets off alarm bells.
Well, it raised a lot of questions because the type of
caliber that we were looking at in the shell casings
from the crime scene indicated that it was
was a .45 caliber Llama semi-automatic that was used
in this homicide.
That serial number was still on file.
I searched that serial number through state databases and
found that that
weapon was reported stolen by their father two months after
the homicide.
NARRATOR: The timing of the Kilpatrick stolen gun report measures with
the timing of when Jeff Kilpatrick told Molly he needed
to destroy one.
The information is there, but it's not direct evidence.
Lots of people own Llama .45's.
Lots of people have trucks of that description.
We needed evidence that would ultimately
tie them specifically to that homicide scene.
Investigators need to figure out how they're going
to put both of these suspects at the scene.
Otherwise, this 17-year-old murder will remain unsolved.
NARRATOR: The truck that Ricky Kilpatrick sold years ago might hold
the evidence they need.
But a decade and a half after he sold it
means that truck could already be scrap metal.
NARRATOR: 17 years after father of three, Jody Wilder, was killed outside
of Atlanta,
Douglas County Sheriff investigators finally have two
viable suspects --
brothers, Ricky and Jeff Kilpatrick.
But after all these years,
investigators still have no proof that either one of them
was at the crime scene.
One of the goals that we had as investigators is to
try to tie Ricky Kilpatrick's pickup truck to the original
crime scene.
We actually recovered the bumper from
the suspect's vehicle at the original homicide scene.
So, if I'm able to track that vehicle down, and it's
still intact, I can compare
the bumper we have in evidence to that vehicle.
NARRATOR: Using the vehicle's VIN number,
detectives track its record of sale hoping they can locate
the truck and that it's still in one piece.
After Ricky Kilpatrick sold the vehicle,
it went through multiple owners and multiple states.
Ultimately, the truck ended up in Ironton, Missouri,
where it was purchased from a used car
dealership by a gentleman that
was purchasing it for his 16-year-old son.
The engine actually blew in it
and he had it parked in his yard.
We talked to the current owner of the vehicle to ask him
specifically if a bumper plate was
on the vehicle when he purchased it, and he said there
was never a bumper plate on it.
We had an investigator bring that bumper plate found at
the original crime scene to Missouri to try to match it
up to the bumper
on the back of Ricky Kilpatrick's old vehicle.
That bumper set in evidence storage waiting for 17 years.
AYCOCK: The investigator was able to place that
bumper plate onto the back of that vehicle
and in his words, it was an exact match.
NARRATOR: Investigators are now
sure Ricky's truck was at the crime scene 17 years ago,
but a key question remains.
Who actually shot Jody --
was it Jeff or Ricky?
NARRATOR: Or could it be someone else entirely
since investigators still need to confirm
who was in the truck that night.
Investigators now need to figure out
who was the actual trigger man.
NARRATOR: Sheriff investigators have enough evidence to secure
a wiretap on the Kilpatrick brothers' phones.
Now they just need to get them
talking about a 17-year-old case.
So they come up with what I thought was a brilliant idea.
AYCOCK: We devised a fake newspaper article
where we can talk about new leads and new technology
that has come available to law enforcement
to help us solve this old 1998 case.
NARRATOR: The fake newspaper article shows
a photograph of Ricky Kilpatrick's
recently-recovered truck
and an age-corrected composite sketch made to look exactly
like his younger brother,
Jeff Kilpatrick.
The plan is that when the brothers see the article,
they'll be alarmed and call each other to discuss it.
But how do investigators make sure they'll read it?
We had to make sure that that newspaper
article was delivered to both Jeff and Ricky Kilpatrick.
So we enlisted the help of the US postal service
who delivered those newspaper articles to both Jeff and
Ricky Kilpatrick.
And then that was the trigger for
us to listen to their phone calls.
NARRATOR: The plan works like a charm.
Sure enough, Ricky makes a call,
but it's not to his brother, Jeff.
One of our first initial intercepted calls was from
Ricky Kilpatrick talking to his friend at the time,
Marcuss Herndon.
Ricky was telling Marcus that it was an accident,
that Jody had a gun and that it was in self defense.
The second that Ricky told Marcuss that it was
self defense,
we knew that Ricky was our shooter.
[gunshot blasts]
NARRATOR: Ricky Kilpatrick pulled his truck over
on the night of the murder
and killed Jody Wilder.
The intercepted calls also reveal who else
was riding in the truck that night,
and it's not who investigators expected.
We learned that Marcuss Herndon
is the passenger in Ricky's truck
at the time of the shooting.
NARRATOR: Marcuss Herndon has known Ricky since he was a kid
and he's helped him cover up a murder.
The recorded calls also confirm that Ricky's
brother, Jeff, told his girlfriend Molly the truth.
Jeff wasn't there at the time of the shooting.
AYCOCK: We believe that Jeff had intimate knowledge
of the crime itself from Ricky
but didn't have any direct involvement with it.
NARRATOR: On September 30, 2016,
Ricky Kilpatrick and Marcuss Herndon are apprehended.
It takes them completely by surprise.
AYCOCK: We brought Marcuss Herndon in for questioning,
and he was extremely helpful.
He put himself in Ricky's vehicle at the time of
the shooting.
He stated that he had heard the shots being fired
and that Ricky had jumped back in the vehicle
and they had left.
NARRATOR: Ricky Kilpatrick has his own version of how it happened.
Ricky Kilpatrick's story about what happened was
that they were traveling down the interstate
and Mr. Wilder started ramming the back of
Ricky's new truck that he had just purchased.
NARRATOR: After Jody Wilder rammed the truck,
both vehicles pulled over to the side of the interstate and
Ricky got out to assess
the damage to the back of his truck.
According to Ricky, Mr. Wilder tried to run Ricky over
and pin him between his vehicle and Mr. Wilder's vehicle.
He saw that Mr. Wilder was bending down,
and he thought that he was trying to grab a firearm.
It was at that point that Ricky produced his own firearm
and shot Mr. Wilder seven times.
[gunshots blast]
NARRATOR: Knowing Jody's volatile nature,
Ricky's story seems possible, but it
doesn't hold up against the evidence.
MYERS: A firearm was never recovered at the scene or anything to
indicate that Jody shot at Ricky at any point in time.
Also, witnesses never saw Jody try to run over Ricky.
There was no evidence collected at
the initial crime scene to support anything he said.
NARRATOR: Investigators now believe they know what happened on
the night Jody Wilder was killed.
After work, Jody Wilder went to Topps Two
to have a few drinks and sing a few songs.
AYCOCK: At 9:15 PM,
Jody receives a page and leaves Topps Two.
According to Ricky Kilpatrick and Marcuss Herndon,
they were playing golf all day, and they stopped to purchase
marijuana before heading westbound on I-20.
At 9:50 PM,
Ricky Kilpatrick and Marcus Herndon approach
the Thornton road exit right as
Jody Wilder takes the Thornton Road exit ramp to
merge onto I-20.
I think maybe Jody Wilder was pulling
out right to get on the interstate,
and Ricky Kilpatrick cut Jody Wilder off causing him to
go into a rage and follow him down the interstate.
At 9:55 PM,
drivers see Jody Wilder's Explorer driving fast trying
to catch up with Ricky Kilpatrick's Chevrolet
pickup truck.
AYCOCK: Jody rear ends Ricky's truck twice
HARRELL: At 10 PM, both vehicles pull over into the emergency lane.
AYCOCK: Ricky Kilpatrick approaches Jody's SUV
and fire six shots through the driver's side window.
[gunshots blast]
HARRELL: At 10:01 PM,
Ricky Kilpatrick walks back towards his vehicle, stops and
turns, and fires one last shot
through the windshield of Jody Wilder's Explorer
striking him in the chest.
AYCOCK: Ricky Kilpatrick then walks back to
his truck, gets in, and speeds away.
HARRELL: On December 6th. 2017, Charles Ricky Kilpatrick is
found guilty of the murder
of Jody Wilder and sentenced to life in prison with
the possibility of parole.
Marcuss Herndon was not charged for the murder of Jody Wilder,
but instead used as a witness for the prosecution.
NARRATOR: Jody Wilder continues to be remembered by friends
and family as a stormy but also well loved person.
When people spoke of him,
you could tell that they actually cared about him.
As you track what was going on in his life,
and it did appear that it was
just a classic case of a downward spiral.
And I guess it just came --
all came to a head that night in August.
I was glad that our department
never closed the book on this case.
AYCOCK: It was challenging to devise a plan to get
someone to talk about a 17-year-old incident,
but it was exciting to be able to put all the pieces together
and ultimately put a killer behind bars.
HARRELL: Because of the hard work of a lot of people,
and through innovative ideas,
we were able to bring some closure for Jody Wilder's
family, and I'm very happy that we were able to do that.