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City Confidential Season 9 Episode 5
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00:00This was a pretty violent crime scene.
00:16There was blood all over the dining room, all over the living room.
00:20It was pretty shocking to all of us because you don't hear about a sudden brutal stabbing
00:25of someone who's a member of that community in his own home.
00:28There's a murderer out there.
00:31The police aren't sure who it is.
00:33They don't know where they are.
00:36So I think a lot of people were still on edge.
00:39And in time, as long as you got some patience, people talk.
00:43People cannot keep stuff inside.
00:47We lost a good boy, but the world lost a good man.
00:58From the pulsating streets of big cities to Main Street USA, no neighborhood is safe from
01:03the unthinkable.
01:04These are the stories of innocence lost, of communities changed forever.
01:09This is City Confidential.
01:25Fifteen miles northwest of Atlanta is the city of Marietta, Georgia, a 23 square mile patchwork
01:32of charming neighborhoods set against a dramatic mountain backdrop.
01:37It's a quaint town.
01:39It's a very friendly town.
01:41It's a short drive to Atlanta, so it's a great place for people to come and live and
01:46raise families that's close to the city, but also safe and kind of your quintessential
01:50southern small town.
01:51When you drive down the streets, you see these big antebellum homes.
01:57They're beautiful.
01:58A lot of towns don't have that.
02:00You know, this isn't just a city.
02:03It is a piece of history.
02:08And its history is one for the books, because the city had to literally rise out of the ashes
02:14three times in just the first 50 years it was in existence.
02:18It all started in the early 1800s, when settlers came to the area.
02:26The small village was named after Mary Cobb, the wife of local U.S. Senator Thomas Willis Cobb.
02:33And the town of 100 exploded to 1500 when the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company laid down
02:40tracks.
02:42Soon, hotels and stores lined the streets to accommodate travelers.
02:45And concert halls, saloons, and a horse track were built for entertainment.
02:51But the good times were short-lived.
02:55In 1854, a rooming house boiler malfunctioned, causing a massive fire.
03:02A month after that, sparks from a breaking train set off another huge blaze that wiped out what
03:08was left of downtown.
03:12Five years later, Marietta was back on its feet.
03:17Then came the Civil War.
03:22The Union Army came into Marietta.
03:24They stayed, took over a lot of the houses.
03:27They were here for quite a while.
03:30As they were leaving, they had orders to burn the town.
03:32But residents had been here before.
03:38Every time that there was something, the town rallied around and built the town back.
03:43And when they would build back, it was also not just building of the buildings, but building
03:48of the community.
03:49People rallied around each other and supported each other.
03:55And it's been that way ever since.
03:58The 60,000 people who live here today truly believe they can weather any disaster.
04:04But the city forged by fire faced one of its most challenging times in the winter of 2014,
04:10when a gruesome murder shocked the town and residents jumped in to help police solve the deadly mystery.
04:29It's Monday night, January 27th, when police get a call from the upscale neighborhood of Pine Shadows.
04:35Pam Blair says she'd been trying to reach her close friend and neighbor, 46-year-old Jerry Moore, for days.
04:44After getting no response, she paid him a visit.
04:48His front door was unlocked.
04:51I saw Jerry lying face down on his living room floor.
05:01You could see the stab wounds on him.
05:04You could see the blood.
05:09Yeah.
05:13It's just something that I'll never forget.
05:17Officers from the Cobb County Sheriff's Office immediately arrive at the house.
05:24There was no evidence of forced entry.
05:27The door hadn't been kicked in or anything like that.
05:29This was a pretty violent crime scene in terms of the blood evidence that we saw there.
05:39There was blood all over the dining room, all over the living room.
05:43We could see that by a fireplace there were 90-degree blood drops where clearly Jerry had been standing up for a portion of the assault versus some of the pooling and other areas of blood that we found where he ended up in a different kind of location in the den area.
06:01This was a pretty brutal and sustained assault that Jerry suffered from.
06:05Any time you have a situation where someone is stabbed this many times or he suffered this many wounds, it's normally a level of passion.
06:18Stabbing is a very up-close and personal way of assaulting someone.
06:23And just the idea of Mr. Moore taking that many stab wounds, it was kind of hard to imagine.
06:29This isn't a random intruder.
06:31This is someone that knew Jerry.
06:32They had a relationship.
06:35We knew based on the nature of the wounds, too, that this was a rather large knife.
06:39So a component of the investigation was to search the scene in great detail to see if we could recover a murder weapon.
06:45We didn't find one, but we did make note that certain items had clearly been removed from the home.
06:53There was a place for a big-screen TV, and that TV was absent.
06:58But it wasn't a thing of value.
07:00I mean, TVs you can buy for $100 anymore, $200.
07:03So, I mean, to go in and steal a TV and kill a guy over stealing a TV, it just didn't make sense to me.
07:10It became obvious with such a small amount of items being missing that the theft aspect was probably secondary.
07:17And the primary aspect, the primary part of going into this house was actually to kill Mr. Moore.
07:23Homicide detectives, along with the forensic team, spend hours scouring the scene,
07:28hoping to find a fingerprint, a spot of blood, a random hair, anything that will point them toward the killer.
07:35Out of an abundance of caution, there were a number of swabs from different areas that were taken
07:40so we could send them to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to see if, by chance, our perpetrator had inadvertently cut himself.
07:49As they continue sweeping the house, cops find Jerry's phone.
07:53They immediately pull the records and get a goldmine of information.
07:58It painted a pretty tight timeline for us of when we believed he had been murdered.
08:03We knew that he had made a phone call to his mother in Ohio a little bit after 11.
08:08There was also a message that was sent by Facebook around that same time as well.
08:13And then no contact after that, no connected calls or anything.
08:16So we started to believe that perhaps the early morning hours of January 26th,
08:21that's when the perpetrator had killed Jerry.
08:25As cops continue working the scene, they realize Jerry's Jeep is missing.
08:30One of the working theories was that our perpetrator was in the Jeep
08:33and had used it as a vehicle of opportunity to help get the TV from Jerry's crime scene.
08:42Police put out a bolo for the vehicle.
08:45Then they put boots on the ground, hoping they'll find it somewhere in Marietta.
08:49Meanwhile, the news of Jerry's murder spreads like wildfire.
08:55It was pretty shocking to all of us because you don't normally hear of something that brutal happening in East Cobb.
09:02You hear about baseball games and football wins and a new restaurant coming in,
09:07but you certainly don't hear about a sudden brutal stabbing of someone who's a member of that community in his own home.
09:13This is not the type of thing that happens in our area.
09:17It doesn't happen in our neighborhoods.
09:19Is that person still out there?
09:21Am I safe?
09:23Are my children safe?
09:24Are my elderly parents who live in their house around the corner, are they safe?
09:30Do we need to get a security system?
09:33That's one of the first thoughts is, am I going to be safe in my own home?
09:36And what no one realizes yet, in the city where resilience was forcibly fire-hardened into residents' DNA,
09:47the death of Jerry Moore will prove to everyone what the community is made of.
09:52I could not comprehend that it happened.
10:22It was terrible.
10:26There was nothing we could do.
10:33I think that was the awfulest day in my life, because you don't want to ever bury your children.
10:39Police learned Jerry Moore was born in Ohio in 1967.
10:53His parents divorced when he was four years old.
10:57Growing up, he spent his summers with his father and stepmother in the Lone Star State.
11:01He would always want to come and sit your lap and love on you and everything.
11:09He was just great.
11:11Jerry loved to fish.
11:13When he would come to visit with us, Jerry would want to go fishing, and we would take him.
11:20When Jerry was 18, he came out to his family.
11:23We kind of suspected that he was gay early on, you know, but it didn't change the way that his father cared about him.
11:35He still loved him, and his grandparents still loved him.
11:39I mean, we all, there's nothing that would change that.
11:45You just couldn't help but love him, because he was so sweet and nice.
11:49In the mid-90s, Jerry moved to Georgia to work at a credit union, and later got a job installing computer software.
11:59By 2005, he had finally saved up enough money to buy a house in Marietta's Pine Shadows.
12:05And it didn't take him long to become a beloved neighbor.
12:10I met Jerry when my husband and I were having a yard sale, and he came strutting over there to see what we were selling.
12:17And I knew I had a friend in Jerry the first moment I met him.
12:23He was very outgoing, never met a stranger, wasn't afraid to adventure out, or put himself out there, I guess, and meet people.
12:35He was just a good all-around guy that just wanted to be loved and liked by everyone.
12:41And Jerry became known throughout Marietta for his elaborate holiday displays, making his home a local landmark.
12:52Every Christmas, cars would line up every Halloween.
12:56Those were the two main holidays that he would decorate, and it was just a joy to see a lot of people would come through the neighborhood and stop and let their kids see the decorations.
13:04You know, you could hear the squeals of the little kids if you were outside, you know, people walking their dogs coming by, and it was nice.
13:14Although Jerry was known for being fun and playful, he was also considered a good businessman.
13:20He was smart with money, and by 2007, Jerry could afford to quit his day job and use his savings to flip houses.
13:27To help keep his expenses low, he took in a roommate, 44-year-old Ross Byrne, who was a chef at a local bakery.
13:36And that relationship led to another business opportunity.
13:39When the bakery where Ross worked went up for sale, Jerry and Ross bought it together.
13:45Jerry was basically just a silent partner, you know, kept the capital going.
13:51I think he would pick up the receipts and, you know, handle the books.
13:55He was very good at what he did.
14:00Jerry and Ross called their new venture the Best Dang Bakery, and the community supported it from the day the doors opened.
14:09But a year later, the sweet smell of success was washed away by a massive Georgia flood.
14:15After the flood, and then them having to redo everything, remodel, it's like starting over, that Jerry and Ross started to having problems.
14:37Because Jerry was financially always trying to save a dollar here and there.
14:43In other words, don't make ten pies when you only need five.
14:49Jerry was very laid back.
14:51Ross was more flamboyant, know-it-all, kind of my way or the highway.
14:56Ross had a Ford Explorer, which was plenty big.
15:02It would carry anything in it, but he wanted a Cadillac Escalade.
15:08He wanted a new car.
15:09He thought that would be nice to have a new car.
15:12And he would beg, beg, beg for it.
15:15And he would complain about it, that Jerry would tell him, you know, we don't have it in the budget right now.
15:22Their relationship became so strained that in December of 2013, Ross moved out of Jerry's house.
15:31A few weeks later, Jerry's dead.
15:36Cops wonder if the bakery feud became a recipe for murder.
15:40We did some research on Ross Byrne, figured out that he had moved into a condo up in Woodstock.
15:49Went up there that night, made contact with him, it was pretty late.
15:54He's an older gentleman, seemed like a nice guy.
15:57Ross told us that he and Jerry didn't get along that well, weren't great roommates, though they were roommates for seven years.
16:02They didn't hang out together, there was no romantic relationship.
16:05Between the two, Ross also told us he was gay.
16:12But those two had never had any kind of physical relationship together.
16:16Just strictly roommates, and then they got into this business together.
16:22Ross admits he and Jerry had problems that stemmed from Jerry's chokehold on the bakery's finances.
16:29Saying there was no money to be had, and Ross is saying, well, the business is doing great.
16:33I'm selling out every day.
16:34So he knew money was coming in, but where was the money going?
16:38And that was kind of an issue.
16:42They asked Ross where he was when Jerry was murdered.
16:46He says he was hosting a housewarming party at his new home on Saturday night.
16:51Ross told us that Jerry was not invited to that, and he provided us a list of individuals that had actually been at the party.
16:57We were able to get a cell phone for him, and do something called geo-location analysis.
17:04And sure enough, looking at his cell tower information, it appeared to match up with what he was telling us in terms of his alibi.
17:13Ross burns in the clear.
17:15But before police can even look elsewhere, they get word.
17:20Jerry's missing Jeep has just been found.
17:23Six hours after Jerry Moore was found dead in his home, his missing SUV is recovered.
17:41One of the supervisors found it in a neighboring parking lot.
17:45It was about .7 miles away from the crime scene, which was significant to us.
17:50Why would you take the time to get in a car, move the car, and then just leave the car so close to the home, not take it and park it somewhere else, you know?
17:57There's no sign of blood in the Jeep, but police are hopeful there's some trace evidence.
18:03They take it to the Cobb County Sheriff's Office for processing.
18:08Their crime scene investigators did a really detailed analysis of the Jeep in the hopes that maybe they would find fingerprints or some sort of blood evidence that could help to identify the perpetrator.
18:1724 hours later, bad news from the lab, the samples from the Jeep and the crime scene show no foreign hair or DNA, and all the recovered fingerprints belong to Jerry.
18:34It's pretty obvious that someone had probably taken the time to cover their tracks, clean up the crime scene.
18:40This was not going to ultimately be a forensic case.
18:44We knew that we were going to have to try to solve this case through other means.
18:47As cops continue working the case, the community of Marietta is getting more fearful by the moment.
18:58Everyone had a lot of questions.
19:00We didn't know what happened other than the fact that he was brutally stabbed in his own home.
19:05So there were a lot of people that were speculating over who could have done it or why someone would have done this.
19:12I think all of the neighbors, friends, everyone, we were all concerned.
19:18We kind of watched our backs, looked around before we shut the door and shut the garage.
19:24I went and bought a gun.
19:26The not knowing of that was what scared me, and I wanted protection.
19:31The community is definitely up in arms about it, wanting us to solve this as soon as possible.
19:38While we understand their angst, we're still trying to find a person of interest, a lead.
19:45We're trying to put them at ease, that we don't think this is a crime of opportunity, that we believe that this is somebody that the victim knew, just due to the heinous scene we had to walk into.
20:02Cops turned to Jerry's best friend, Randy Doolittle, to see who might have wanted Jerry dead.
20:09They had met early on, sort of on a club scene, and kind of hit it off.
20:13They didn't have any romantic relationship with each other, but Fastly became good friends because of Jerry's kind of quirky nature.
20:21Since they were such good friends, Randy spent a lot of time at Jerry's house.
20:25So cops ask him if he'll take a look around to see if he notices anything missing or out of place.
20:34I was very apprehensive about going over there, but I had a strong desire, like, I need to go.
20:41I need to go inside that house.
20:42I need to see what is left of the crime scene that maybe I can piece together a theory.
20:55When I entered that house, the only knowledge I had was that there was a home invasion.
21:03So for me, a home invasion would mean to me that somebody's there to steal something.
21:12And I did take note that a work laptop computer that normally sits on that dining room table was not in sight.
21:21And when I went into his other spare bedroom that he used for his personal office, the computers were gone.
21:31As I looked into the other rooms of the house, one thing I noticed is Jerry's closet in his bedroom had been rifled through.
21:43I knew that's where Jerry kept a lockbox, and I knew that there to be quite a sum of cash in that lockbox.
21:54Randy tells police that he knew Jerry had more than $130,000 stashed in that lockbox.
22:01Despite the exhaustive search by crime scene investigators and detectives, we never recovered that lockbox.
22:07So that was a significant development for us.
22:09So cops' working theory that whoever did this knew Jerry is shoring up.
22:16And then Randy tells police that the lockbox wasn't the only thing Jerry was hiding.
22:21Three days after Jerry Moore was found dead, his best friend Randy Doolittle tells cops Jerry was single, lonely,
22:40and his desperate need to find a partner led to some questionable choices.
22:45He shared with me that he was writing to guys that were imprisoned.
22:50I think he had just felt that, you know, he just couldn't find love here in Atlanta.
22:57I would say things to caution him.
22:59I wanted to support Jerry in every way, but I knew that there was discussions of one that was going to be released,
23:07and Jerry was encouraging that person to come see him.
23:11Detectives go back to Jerry's house looking for any kind of correspondence from an inmate.
23:20In Jerry's office, tucked away in a drawer with a bunch of old mail, they find dozens of letters from three different men.
23:27And one was in Texas, one was in Kentucky, and one was in Tennessee.
23:30We narrowed it down to an inmate in Kentucky that had been recently released.
23:39So we definitely need to check this guy out.
23:43Cops reach out to the former inmates' parole officers.
23:46They tell Cobb County detectives they've been closely monitoring the guy since his release,
23:52and he's been in the state of Kentucky the whole time.
23:56The other inmates Jerry was talking to are still behind bars,
24:00so Jerry's prison pen pals are crossed off the list of potential suspects.
24:04Just days in, and the case is losing heat.
24:12Then the medical examiner's report comes in and sparks new outrage.
24:18The autopsy revealed that Jerry had been stabbed 32 times.
24:22There were different clusters of stab wounds throughout his body.
24:25Most of them were to his back.
24:26He did have some defensive injuries to his arms as well.
24:29The depth of the wounds suggests the killer was in a rage
24:33and used a large knife with a fixed blade, similar to a hunting knife, to butcher Jerry.
24:40Based on body temperature, the ME confirms cops' suspicions
24:44that Jerry died in the early hours of January 26th,
24:48and the killer once again made sure to keep things clean.
24:52There's not a trace of him to be found on Jerry's body.
24:54While cops try to get a bead on the monster of Marietta,
25:01Jerry's remains are sent to his hometown of Oroville, Ohio, for his funeral.
25:18Jerry had a lot of local support from his hometown.
25:21There were a lot of friends, and so he had probably, I'd say,
25:27maybe close to 30, 40 people that attended.
25:33We lost a good boy, but the world lost a good man.
25:38Because I don't think he ever met anybody that he didn't talk to and, like,
25:51and, and meet as a friend, you know.
25:57It was, like, you know, he was, he was well-liked.
26:03Oh, goodness.
26:18In the swirl of sadness and heartfelt remembrances,
26:22Jerry's family and friends can't help but notice
26:25someone significant seems to have forgotten him.
26:28Looking around the funeral home, I was going by kind of just reading,
26:34you know, like all of the different arrangements that were sent.
26:38And it puzzled me that I never saw anything sent there on behalf of the bakery.
26:45And that struck a chord with me.
26:49Ross knew very well who Jerry's mother was.
26:51She was in the home, so I felt like of any just compassion for Jerry's mother and family.
27:00That should have come from Ross, but there was no showing of that at all.
27:06And when Randy learns that Ross hasn't reached out to Jerry's mom
27:10about settling the estate for the bakery,
27:12he and Pam Blair realize she needs help.
27:16They immediately volunteer to wrap things up in Marietta for her.
27:19We went through Jerry's house.
27:24We would look for paperwork,
27:26try to find anything we could to provide for the family.
27:31It takes a couple months,
27:33but they finally find a copy of the Best Dang Bakery Partnership paperwork
27:37and write there in black and white,
27:40a potential motive for murder.
27:42When I read that agreement,
27:46one of the provisions had either one of the business partners died.
27:53The other one walks away with every bit of it free and clear.
27:58And so I exclaimed to Pam,
28:00I said, Jerry signed his death warrant when he signed this.
28:03Nearly three months into Jerry Moore's murder investigation,
28:17his best friend Randy Doolittle tells police he's found a legal document
28:21showing why he might have been killed.
28:23And I said to them,
28:25I knew the person who stood to gain the most was definitely Rossborough.
28:30He gained it all.
28:33And I think I kind of saw
28:35the detectives just kind of maybe like look over at each other just briefly,
28:42like trying not to be noticeable.
28:44So I think they probably thought I was on the right track.
28:46And that gave me a good feeling.
28:48And I went back and shared that with Pam.
28:50I said, okay, girl, I think,
28:52I think we're following the right snake.
28:58Once we learned that there might be some sort of financial motive,
29:01we thought, hey, maybe this is going to get solved pretty easily.
29:06But it turns out this was a case that would become a whodunit.
29:11That's because Ross Byrne has an age-old motive,
29:15but he also has a rock-solid alibi.
29:19So we decided to do a deeper dive into Ross's cell phone records
29:24to see if we might find anything of evidentiary significance.
29:28And what we noted is that there was one phone number
29:31that showed up both in Jerry's phone records
29:33and with Ross around the time of the murder.
29:37Cops traced the number.
29:39It's registered to a local woman.
29:42We tracked her down.
29:43She said that she didn't know Ross Byrne or Jerry Moore.
29:46And she revealed to us that while the phone may have been in her name,
29:49it was actually a phone number that was associated with her ex-boyfriend,
29:53somebody she had dated in the past, named Jonathan Wheeler.
29:57Cops quickly look into Jonathan Wheeler.
30:00They learn he got out of prison in 2010
30:01after serving 10 years for armed robbery.
30:05His weapon of choice, a fixed-blade knife,
30:08just like the one used to kill Jerry Moore.
30:12And that's not all.
30:14After Wheeler was sprung, he landed a job as a pastry chef
30:18at where else?
30:20The Best Dang Bakery.
30:21And even though he made a mean croissant,
30:25he ended up getting fired.
30:27But oddly, he didn't seem to hold a grudge against Ross Byrne.
30:32The fact that he worked for Ross,
30:34the fact that he still talked to Ross,
30:36the fact that he was talking to Jerry,
30:38the fact that he committed a crime with a fixed blade,
30:41all that stuff adds up.
30:42So he was definitely a person of interest.
30:45When detectives subpoena Wheeler's old phone records,
30:49they see he was very busy the night Jerry was killed.
30:54We were able to review the cell tower activity,
30:57and we knew Mr. Wheeler's phone
30:58was in the area of Ross Byrne's house.
31:02At some point that evening,
31:04you see Mr. Wheeler begin moving south
31:06down to the Marietta area where Mr. Moore was living.
31:10When cops bring Wheeler in for questioning,
31:16he says despite getting fired,
31:19he and Ross are still friends,
31:21and Ross has been helping him find new work.
31:24He can also explain why his phone pinged at Jerry's house
31:27the night of the murder.
31:29Jonathan told us that Jerry wanted some work done on his house,
31:32apparently a debt built or some kind of awning
31:35or something on the front of the house,
31:37and that's why he had been contacting him,
31:41and that's why he had went down there,
31:43and that's why his phone would have been there,
31:45which legitimately, that's an alibi.
31:49When cops check with Ross,
31:51he backs up Wheeler's story.
31:54The lead goes up in smoke.
31:57As time went by,
31:59I think some of the tension
32:01and wariness somewhat increased
32:05because now people are thinking,
32:07okay, so there's a murderer out there.
32:09The police aren't sure who it is.
32:11They don't know where they are.
32:14They don't know if it's one, if it's two.
32:17So I think a lot of people were still on edge.
32:20And like police,
32:22Jerry's closest friends are still convinced
32:24that the friendly local baker
32:26was somehow involved
32:27with the ruthless butchering of Jerry.
32:29So they do what Mariettans are known for.
32:33They band together to try and help.
32:37Our focus every day
32:39was studying the habits of Ross Byrne,
32:44following his movements,
32:48seeing what was going on.
32:50I had Ross's address,
32:53so we would drive up there
32:54and have a looky-loo
32:56and see what we could see.
32:58And that's when I saw an Escalade.
33:01And I was thinking,
33:03wow, um, hmm.
33:05You always wanted a new Escalade.
33:07That's what you wanted
33:07and you asked Jerry for.
33:09And then all of a sudden,
33:11you have one?
33:13I believe he took the cash money
33:15out of that lockbox
33:17and he went and bought himself that car.
33:19We had turned over the imagery
33:21to the detectives
33:23where they could run the plate.
33:24So I said,
33:25I bet you'll find that
33:26possibly the Cadillac
33:28was paid for in cash.
33:30Cops follow up
33:31and Randy's right.
33:33Ross did pay for the car with cash.
33:35But that's bad news
33:37for the investigation
33:38because there's no way
33:39to trace the money.
33:41It's another dead end.
33:44But Randy and Pam
33:46are still hell-bent
33:47on helping turn this case around.
33:49They keep their eyes peeled
33:51and noses in Ross' business.
33:53And in the summer of 2014,
33:55they see Ross living his best life.
33:59Every July,
34:00Ross would shut down the bakery
34:03for about a week or two,
34:05I believe,
34:05to go on vacation.
34:07So I thought,
34:08hmm, let me get on social media
34:10and see what I can find.
34:11Well,
34:13I found that Ross was in Key West
34:16posting pictures
34:17drinking margaritas
34:18and a lot of money
34:20was being spent in Key West.
34:22And Ross was not alone.
34:25He was posting pictures
34:26with a guy named
34:28Jonathan Wheeler.
34:30So I went to
34:30Jonathan Wheeler's page
34:32and looked at him
34:33and looked at his profile
34:35to see what he was about.
34:36And under Jonathan's page,
34:39I noticed that he had put down
34:40something to the effect of
34:42Ross Burns is my mentor.
34:45I'm really learning a lot from him.
34:48I'm going to be a millionaire one day.
34:51And so I didn't know
34:53who this person was.
34:54I just knew that
34:55they were having a good time
34:57in Key West
34:58while we were still sitting here
35:00wondering who killed Jerry.
35:02Pam and Randy
35:04take the Facebook discovery
35:05to cops not knowing
35:07that investigators
35:07have already been looking
35:09at the baker
35:09and his buddy for months.
35:12But it's still not enough
35:13to make an arrest.
35:15It's circumstantial evidence
35:17and you're trying to put somebody away
35:19for the rest of their life for that.
35:21But, you know,
35:23in time comes good information.
35:25And in time,
35:26as long as you got some patience,
35:28people talk.
35:29I always say loose lips,
35:30shank chips.
35:31And this was that case.
35:42Seven months after Jerry Moore's murder,
35:45cops get a call.
35:46A man named Michael Thomason
35:48says he's related to Jonathan Wheeler
35:50and he's got some information on the case.
35:54What Jonathan's half-brother revealed
35:56was that Jonathan had confessed
35:58while he was intoxicated
35:59and that he had been involved.
36:00in a brutal murder
36:02north of Atlanta.
36:05Jonathan didn't name names,
36:07but Michael looked up the details
36:08he gave him online
36:09and found the unsolved Jerry Moore murder case.
36:13That's when he called police.
36:15After Michael confirmed
36:16that Jonathan Wheeler
36:18had confessed to him,
36:19we now had enough evidence
36:20to finally charge Wheeler with murder.
36:22But when cops go to get him,
36:24when cops go to get him,
36:25Wheeler's long gone.
36:28They quickly launch a nationwide search.
36:32Four days later,
36:33a call comes in
36:34from an Ohio police department
36:35600 miles away.
36:38What we learned
36:39is that Jonathan Wheeler
36:40had committed a traffic violation
36:41and the Ohio State Patrol
36:43had tried to pull him over.
36:44Instead,
36:45he went on a chase
36:46with the police.
36:48Eventually,
36:48he stopped the van
36:49and took off running
36:51and he was arrested
36:52after a short flip chase there.
36:56Cops bring Wheeler
36:57back to Georgia.
36:59That's when they hear
37:00from Michael Thomason again.
37:03He says he's just learned
37:04that another family member,
37:06Cynthia Wheeler,
37:07has additional information
37:08about Jerry Moore's case.
37:12She was a cousin
37:13of Jonathan Wheeler
37:14and they lived together
37:16down on the south side of Atlanta.
37:17They were in a romantic relationship.
37:20Cynthia Wheeler
37:21had told Michael
37:22that Jonathan confessed to her
37:24to being involved
37:25in Jerry Moore's murder.
37:26He claimed that
37:27he had trashed the crime scene
37:29and he asked her
37:30to help him clean up
37:31to make sure
37:32that he had not left
37:33any evidence
37:33that might identify him
37:34as the perpetrator.
37:35She and Jonathan
37:37had actually gone back
37:38to the crime scene
37:40the day after the murder
37:42and had taken some items
37:43and had removed
37:44Mr. Moore's car
37:45to try to make this
37:46look like something
37:47it wasn't.
37:51Eight months
37:52after Jerry Moore
37:53was found dead,
37:55Jonathan Wheeler
37:55is indicted
37:56on an array of charges
37:57including malice murder
37:59and felony murder.
38:01Cynthia Wheeler
38:02is charged
38:03with concealing a death,
38:04burglary,
38:05and tampering
38:05with evidence.
38:10News of the arrest
38:11spreads through Marietta
38:12as quickly
38:13as those flames
38:14that torched the city
38:15back in the 1800s.
38:19I just started crying.
38:21I just went down
38:21on my knees
38:22and started crying
38:23and said,
38:24thank you, Lord.
38:26I was ecstatic.
38:29That was the happiest
38:32I think I had been
38:34since Jerry was murdered.
38:40But at the PD,
38:42there's no celebration yet.
38:44Cops aren't done.
38:47They believe
38:48the neighborhood bakers
38:49set this whole plan
38:50in motion
38:51for a different kind of dough
38:52and they want to make sure
38:54they nail him for it.
38:56So they devise a strategy.
38:59First,
38:59they need to make sure
39:00the charges against
39:01the Wheeler stick
39:02or there's no hope
39:03of proving
39:04this was a hit.
39:07Finally,
39:08two years later,
39:10they get lucky
39:11when Cynthia agrees
39:12to testify
39:13against her cousin
39:14slash former lover
39:15in exchange
39:16for a lesser sentence.
39:23On August 20, 2018,
39:26Jonathan Wheeler
39:26is convicted
39:27of all charges.
39:29He's sentenced
39:29to two consecutive
39:30life terms
39:31without the possibility
39:33of parole
39:33for the murder
39:34of Jerry Moore.
39:39Ten days
39:40after the sentencing,
39:42cops visit
39:42Ross Byrne at work.
39:46I was on my way
39:47to have my hair cut
39:49and I looked over
39:52towards the bakery
39:53and I saw
39:54all the marshals
39:56standing outside
39:57front and back
39:59with their guns drawn
40:01and I whipped it
40:03across four lanes
40:03of traffic,
40:05pulled into
40:05the shopping center
40:06across the street
40:08and called Randy
40:10on the phone
40:11and said,
40:11you will not believe
40:12what's going on.
40:14She even sent me
40:16the photos
40:16of him in handcuffs
40:18being stuffed
40:19into the patrol cars
40:21and I responded
40:23in much glee.
40:27And while we were
40:28on the phone,
40:29the prosecutor
40:30called Randy
40:31to tell him
40:32that they had
40:32Ross Byrne
40:33in custody
40:34and we just laughed
40:35because we already knew
40:36but that night
40:39is the night
40:39I slept the best
40:41was when Ross
40:42was put in jail.
40:44On April 8th, 2022,
40:56Ross Byrne pleads guilty
40:57to multiple conspiracy counts
40:59including conspiracy
41:01to conceal the death
41:02of another
41:03and criminal solicitation
41:05to commit murder.
41:06He is sentenced
41:07to 20 years in prison.
41:09Jerry's dad, Larry,
41:13did not get to see
41:14the case ended.
41:18He had a massive coronary
41:20on March the 19th.
41:27So Jerry's dad
41:29did not get to hear that.
41:30He was my baby
41:36and Jerry would
41:38always be my baby.
41:40I loved him so much.
41:47And today in Marietta,
41:49the spirit of Jerry Moore
41:51is still very much alive
41:52every holiday season.
41:54As the festive lights
41:55shine throughout the city,
41:57it's a reminder
41:58to the community
41:59that if you live here,
42:00you're a part
42:01of something special
42:02and you will always
42:03be remembered.
42:05It was great
42:06to see the community
42:08come together
42:08and help solve the case.
42:10I mean,
42:11this really is something
42:12that we should all
42:12strive to have
42:13and Marietta has that.
42:17We have survived
42:18so many things.
42:20Tragedies,
42:21war,
42:23fires,
42:24floods,
42:25and we continue
42:27to rebuild
42:28and persevere
42:29and just continue
42:30to grow
42:30and take care
42:31of each other
42:32and survive.
42:34survive.
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