Killer Grannies - Season 1 Episode 07- Granny's Killer Gravy
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00:00Grannies are supposed to serve home-cooked comfort on a plate, but one serving of Rowena
00:12Ledbetter's biscuits and gravy got very, very uncomfortable.
00:17Was she innocently poisoned herself, or did she dish up a serving of death on a platter?
00:26Today's date is 4.23, 2002, and it's 2.40 p.m. by my watch.
00:35I'd really like to hear, from your standpoint, what happened on that Sunday at the house.
00:41I went by Herman's.
00:44When I got there, he had had a pan of biscuits made, four sausage patties.
00:50He was making some milk gravy.
00:52I started eating. I got dizzy. I got nauseated. My heart was gonna jump out of my chest.
00:59I said, Herman, I'm dying. Call 9-1-1. Something's wrong. I've never had this feeling before in my life.
01:06An elderly couple, once all a feather with love. Now it's a deadly, he said, she said. He looked up at me and he said, she tried to kill me.
01:17He was so insane in love with me. He put poison in my food.
01:24A seemingly trustworthy grandma.
01:26Her granddaughter said she was a good woman. Her son said she was a good woman.
01:30They don't believe their grandmother could kill anyone.
01:33And the surprising story that makes the cops question everything.
01:39His father would get sick, go to the hospital, return to Rowena, get sick again.
01:44Why is he getting sick all the time? He'd never been sick.
01:47That kind of makes you wonder, is this person who you think she is?
02:08It was a Sunday morning. A 9-1-1 call came from Mutt Wilson's house.
02:13Mutt Wilson was a police officer for 27 years, retiring as a lieutenant with the Waco Police Department.
02:20A lot of people knew Mutt. He was a great cop. He tells them he's feeling horrible.
02:26Mutt says he was eating breakfast with his girlfriend, Rowena Ledbetter, when he suddenly felt faint.
02:32Now he's having a hard time breathing.
02:35Realizing this is an emergency, paramedics rush to his home.
02:40When the paramedics arrive at Mutt's house, he's in serious distress.
02:45Rowena is not feeling well either.
02:48They said that they were having his favorite breakfast of biscuits and gravy.
02:54And they both got sick at the same time.
02:57There were no obvious signs of anything really that was wrong with them.
03:02They're both elderly, and it appeared that Mutt was far worse off than Rowena was.
03:08They suspected it could be the food, it could be having a heart attack, blood pressure spiking, a stroke.
03:15So they take Mutt in an ambulance to Providence Health Center.
03:19Rowena, who says she's also not feeling well, resulted in the second ambulance arriving to take her to the hospital.
03:25As the second ambulance arrives for Rowena, neighbors gather, wondering what's going on.
03:32I was coming home from church, and I noticed down the road, right in front of Mr. Wilson's house, there was an ambulance.
03:39And I thought, oh no, something happened to Mr. Wilson.
03:42I asked the ambulance driver, is that Mr. Wilson in there?
03:46And he said, no, it's Rowena.
03:49Oh, I thought, how sad, his girlfriend is sick.
03:52He wasn't in the ambulance.
03:54I thought, well, maybe he went ahead of time or something.
03:57So I thought, I'm going to just go and sit with him in the hospital while he's sitting there with his sick girlfriend.
04:03Now, Roxanne has no idea that Mutt is also being rushed to Providence Health Center, but she heads there anyway.
04:11When Mutt got to the emergency room, he was having serious gastrointestinal problems, lots of pain.
04:18While the doctors were attending to Mutt, doctors in another part of the hospital were attending to Rowena.
04:24They were being treated immediately for some sort of food poisoning.
04:30Meanwhile, as a coincidence, Harold Stieg, a long-time wake-up police officer, was working off-duty as a security guard at the hospital that day.
04:40He heard that Mutt was brought into the hospital. He went to check on him.
04:45Harold had a conversation with Mutt.
04:48Mutt states that he thought he might have been poisoned.
04:51Harold Stieg takes this all in, and Mutt's very high blood pressure and heart rate tell him Mutt could have been poisoned.
05:00He finds Rowena in the next room, and she's slurring her speech and fading in and out of consciousness.
05:06His police instincts kicked in, and Stieg thinks that it needs to be investigated, and contacts the Waco Police Department.
05:14Who would poison these two lovely old people in their home on a Sunday morning?
05:19As Waco police are called to the hospital, Mutt's family hears he's fallen ill.
05:26I got a phone call that he was in the hospital, very serious.
05:31So I flew out immediately to Waco.
05:37Herman Mutt Wilson is my uncle on my mother's side.
05:42He was given that nickname, and it stuck at the police force, but the family never called him Mutt.
05:49He was always Herman.
05:51We were a very, very close-knit family.
05:54Mother was the baby.
05:56Uncle Herman was the middle, and his older brother was Leighton.
06:00The whole family was born in Waco.
06:03Mutt Wilson married his high school sweetheart, Nell Marie, right after graduation, and they were married happily for 60 years.
06:12She worked for the Texas Department of Safety, and he, of course, was the Waco policeman.
06:23Mutt and Nell lived happily in Waco until 1998, when Nell died from an aneurysm.
06:30Poor Mutt was left devastated and alone.
06:35After Nell died, Mutt tried to keep himself busy working as a security guard.
06:40He just talked about how lonely he was and how he'd missed his wife.
06:45I just felt bad for the gentleman.
06:48And so one day I baked my own bread, and I brought some bread and I think some soup over or something,
06:54and just sat and visited with him for a while.
06:56That's when he first told me that he had a girlfriend.
07:00He said her name was Rowena.
07:04She was a nurse.
07:05I'd worked at kind of a nice nursing home just about a mile down the road from where we lived.
07:11I said, how did you meet her?
07:13He said, well, she showed up one day, knocked on the door.
07:17And she says, hi, your wife's a Ledbetter, right?
07:22He said she was, but she's passed.
07:25She's not living anymore.
07:27He said, oh, well, I'm a Ledbetter.
07:31Rowena says her husband of 11 years, Dick Ledbetter, had also just passed.
07:37But Dick and Nell were cousins, and Rowena remembered meeting Mutt at a Ledbetter family reunion.
07:44It wasn't long before sparks were flying, and soon enough, Mutt and Rowena were an item.
07:50Once he met Rowena, he was very happy.
07:54She claimed she was 60.
07:56My Uncle Herman was almost 85.
07:59They kept meeting for coffee at his house, and then she would bring him lunch.
08:06After a little while, she would stay overnight with him, and she would stay a couple of days.
08:13Mutt and Rowena dated for about a year.
08:16She was a good cook.
08:17She was a seamstress.
08:19I know she had a son, and he had children, so Rowena was a grandmother.
08:25Rowena's son and grandchildren came from a prior marriage, and the love she showed for
08:31her family caught Mutt's eye.
08:33She was a doting grandmother to two granddaughters, and I think that endeared her to him even more.
08:40With Mutt and Rowena both being in their later years and both recently losing loved ones,
08:45their friends and family members just thought it was sweet that they found someone that they both could enjoy.
08:51I was hoping that it would be a good relationship for him and her both.
08:59With Waco cops on their way, Mutt's neighbor Roxanne arrives at the hospital to support her friends.
09:07When I got to the ER, I asked to see Rowena, and she was laying on a stretcher in the bed.
09:13I said, hello, Rowena, my name's Roxanne.
09:17I'm Mr. Wilson's neighbor.
09:19She goes, just startles.
09:21And I'm like, oh, that was kind of strange, but I didn't think too much of it.
09:25I looked around the room, and I said, where's Mr. Wilson?
09:29And they said, oh, he's here in the next room.
09:33I didn't think anything negative until I walked into Mr. Wilson's room, and there he is in his own bed.
09:41He looked up at me and he said, she tried to kill me.
09:46I'm thinking, he must know something that I don't know.
09:50At that point, the cops came in and they said, we'd like to talk to Mutt by himself if I would step out, which I did.
09:59He insists that he had been poisoned.
10:02And this time, he says, he believes it was Rowena who poisoned him and may have accidentally poisoned herself.
10:09He says, go search my house. He gives them permission.
10:14Given Mutt's a former Waco PD lieutenant, they trust his word and head straight to his house to take a look around before they even chat with Rowena.
10:24It's always imperative that you get to the scene of the crime as fast as possible to preserve any evidence.
10:31When officers arrive on scene, they take note that there was no forced entry.
10:36The only thing that appears to be out of sorts is the kitchen.
10:40They saw the breakfast dishes half eaten. Looks like a meal had been interrupted. And that's most likely when they got sick and call 911.
10:51Investigators wanted to determine, had that food been tainted? Was it bad? Was it poisoned?
10:58Officers take the leftover food and coffee to be tested and continue checking for evidence.
11:05In the kitchen, investigators located a red purse, which contained a pill bottle.
11:11That pill bottle was prescribed to Rowena.
11:14Now, the police know it's not unusual for someone Rowena's age to have a prescription in her purse.
11:21But whatever's in this bottle is not normal.
11:25That pill bottle was designed to hold pills. It didn't contain pills. It contained a milky, white, liquid substance.
11:34Is this what's caused this medical emergency? Was he in fact poisoned? And is she the one that actually did it?
11:42The police head right back to the hospital with the purse and the pill bottle.
11:48They want to find out from Mudd and Rowena exactly what happened.
11:53Mudd is insisting now more than ever that Rowena poisoned him.
11:58He also makes an outcry that if he dies, he wants an autopsy.
12:05The investigators at that point make their way to Rowena's room.
12:11She seemed to be fine. The investigators show her the pill bottle and she seems surprised that that came out of my purse.
12:21She admits that it's her purse, but she denies that item being hers.
12:31The investigators try to interrogate Rowena more.
12:35She just basically sits there and smiles at them.
12:39It makes them wonder what this sweet old grandma was up to.
12:46An investigation like this, you never want to rule out anything.
12:50She may still be a victim.
12:52She was just a nice down to earth lady. She was polite.
12:56Rowena was not good for him and she was trying to get into his will.
13:00Herman always told me, I'm going to have you one way or the other.
13:05With ex-cop Mudd Wilson claiming he's been poisoned and his girlfriend Rowena Ledbetter saying whatever's in that pill bottle isn't hers.
13:19Detectives just don't know what is and isn't true.
13:23An investigation like this, you never want to rule out anything.
13:27The worst thing you can do is get tunnel vision.
13:30Because at this point, she may still be a victim.
13:33Trying to suss out Mudd and Rowena's current conditions, investigators follow up with their doctors.
13:41Turns out Rowena has slightly elevated blood pressure, but is otherwise fine.
13:47While Mudd's in much rougher shape, his blood pressure and heart rate are both way too high and won't come down.
13:55The doctors treating Mudd still don't really know if he was poisoned or not.
13:59They really don't know what was wrong with him, but they know that it's serious and they were very concerned.
14:04I sat with Mr. Wilson for just about six hours and he seemed to get more and more sleepy and groggy.
14:10And he never asked me about Rowena at all.
14:15I left at six that night when his other neighbor, Mary Willis, came.
14:20Then she sat with him the rest of the evening.
14:23And at that point, his breathing and everything was still good.
14:26And so I was hoping that he was going to make it.
14:33Then at nine o'clock that night, he died.
14:39He had passed away before I could get to Waco.
14:43And it was, it was sad.
14:52Poor Mudd died without ever seeing Rowena again.
14:56She stayed in her room away from him the entire time.
15:00So the doctors and investigators shift to figuring what might have caused Mudd's death.
15:06They suspect it was a stroke.
15:09When Mudd passed, it changes the scope of the investigation to a potential homicide.
15:19I still don't know how this sweet little old lady may play into it.
15:22Was it poison?
15:23Was it intentional?
15:24Was it accidental?
15:25Did Mudd die of some other cause?
15:28There's a lot of unanswered questions that they needed to get to the bottom of.
15:32Mudd's body is sent to Dallas for an autopsy.
15:36And the leftover breakfast and pill bottle are sent for testing.
15:40The results will take a few weeks.
15:43As an investigator, your work doesn't stop while you're waiting on the lab.
15:48You have to continue to put that puzzle together.
15:51About the same time, Mudd's family finally arrives from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
15:57And police speak with them before they circle back with Rowena.
16:02When I arrived into Waco, he had already passed on.
16:06My mother and I both went to his house and the police were already there.
16:11That's when I found out that they were doing an investigation into him being poisoned.
16:20Investigators asked Joanne and her mother if they know what made Mudd think he'd been poisoned.
16:26The ladies have some chilling tales to tell.
16:30Mudd had had similar mystery health scares before.
16:34He started having these spells, they called it.
16:37His generation, they used the term spells.
16:42It was only when she was there that he would have these spells.
16:47And he'd just be so sick.
16:50No energy.
16:51And then it would go away.
16:54And maybe another week, maybe a week and a half, he'd have another.
17:00And this went on for about a month and a half.
17:03He was almost 85.
17:06So I began to wonder, well, why is he getting sick all the time?
17:09He'd never been sick.
17:12Three weeks before Mudd died, he was sent to the hospital with what appeared to be a stroke.
17:18The neighbors called me and said, Herman's in the hospital.
17:23And so I flew out and went to the hospital to visit him.
17:30And he had a black tongue.
17:32I had asked him, what did you eat before you got sick?
17:37And he said, well, Rowena had brought over Sue.
17:41And I said, Uncle Herman, isn't it strange that you only get sick when she's around you?
17:48And I specifically said, if you get sick again and they come to pick you up in an ambulance,
17:56you tell them, I think that she poisoned me, but please stop seeing her.
18:05He said, OK, I agree there's something wrong.
18:10I will stop seeing her.
18:13Well, that lasted maybe a week and a half.
18:16And then she was back in his life.
18:19The morning after Mudd's death, poor Joanne and her family struggle with both the terrible loss
18:26and the likelihood that Mudd's granny girlfriend killed him.
18:30The cops need to talk to Rowena right away.
18:33Investigators returned to the hospital.
18:35They're met by hospital staff and told that she had already checked out after a visit from her husband.
18:44That came as quite a surprise to the investigators because nobody knew that she was married.
18:49Waco police, who are thinking that their former lieutenant, Butt Wilson, was poisoned,
18:59head back to the hospital to speak with his girlfriend, Rowena Ledbetter.
19:03But wouldn't you know it?
19:05She's gone.
19:07And she left with her husband.
19:11Rowena was checked out by her husband, Cecil Forsen, and was taken to another hospital.
19:17Is this man a jealous lover?
19:20Does he know about Mudd?
19:21Does he know where Mudd lives?
19:23Does he have access to that house?
19:25Did he tamper with the food?
19:27You can't force an investigation to fit your narrative.
19:31You have to find out what's going on.
19:34Hospital staff say that Cecil told them he and Rowena have only been married for two months.
19:40With all kinds of new questions swirling, the cops are tempted to shift their focus to Cecil.
19:46But they keep their sights set on Rowena.
19:50After learning that Rowena is actually married and maybe not telling the whole truth about other things,
19:56police just wondered what else this sweet old grandma was to tell the truth about.
20:01What more was there to be learned about Rowena Ledbetter?
20:05Before tracking Rowena down, police speak with Mudd's loved ones to see what they can gather about his relationship with her.
20:14Mudd's neighbors, Mary and Everett Willis, reported to the police that Mudd had to take out a reverse mortgage on his home.
20:21Because he had drained his life savings paying for his wife's medical expenses during her battle with cancer.
20:28Just two short weeks after Mudd received the money from his reverse mortgage, Rowena showed up at the home and a short time later they were involved in a relationship.
20:40Rowena, on multiple occasions, was supposed to move in with Mudd.
20:46However, every time that occasion rolled around, she had an excuse why she couldn't.
20:52One of her main excuses that she leaned on was the fact that had she moved in with him, she would have lost her late husband's retirement and social security.
21:04Mary was pretty negative about Rowena.
21:07Said Rowena was not good for him and she was trying to get into his will.
21:12Mudd's attorney, John Malone, told police that Mudd asked him several times to either put Rowena in the will or take her out.
21:21The final time Mudd and Rowena visited his office, it was two days before Mudd died and the reason they were there was so he could put Rowena back into Mudd's will.
21:32In the final version of his will, Mudd left Rowena the house in spite of his friends' and family's concerns.
21:41Even after we had told him, Uncle Herman, stay away from this lady, something's wrong, he couldn't.
21:49She made him feel like a young man again, that he was worth something.
21:55Investigators from Waco PD received a phone call from Ronnie Rigney, who was Mudd's friend.
22:02Mudd had confided in him that in the days prior to that Sunday morning breakfast that he was having financial troubles.
22:11But part of that was brought on by a white Lincoln town car that he had purchased for Rowena.
22:21Ronnie then shares a surprising new tidbit about Rowena.
22:25Mudd had confided in him that she had been indicted for theft in 2001.
22:32While she was working as a vocational nurse at Ridgecrest Retirement Center, she would enter the rooms of some of these patients and took $20,000 worth of collectibles such as Hummel figurines, pocket watches, jewelry.
22:47She even took a painting off the wall of one of the residents there.
22:52After looking into the public records, police found out that the charges against Rowena remained pending, but the state licensing board revoked her certification to be a nurse.
23:02We don't know what this woman was thinking. All we do know is that who she presented publicly and who she was privately, there's a lot of dissonance there.
23:13A lot of things they found were troubling and it really made them wonder what this woman who appeared to be just a sweet old grandma was up to.
23:21Evidence against Rowena is piling up, but the cops still haven't figured out what's going on with her and Cecil.
23:29They find out that she's back at home in their duplex.
23:33We found out that even though they were married, she lived on one side of the duplex and he lived on the other.
23:40Detectives get eyes on Rowena and ask her to come down to the station.
23:45What do you know? She agrees.
23:48I'd really like to hear, from your standpoint, what happened on that Sunday at the house.
23:59Well aware of Rowena Ledbetter's shady business and rap sheet, Waco police sit her down to have a little chat.
24:09What we know about her is that she seems to be this one person, this nice person, incapable of doing what she's accused of.
24:20But when you start digging in the weeds and you see some of the decisions she's making behind everybody else's back, it's very suspicious.
24:28My name's Detective January.
24:30Yeah.
24:31I'd really like to hear, from your standpoint, what happened on that Sunday at the house.
24:37I went by Herman's. When I got there, he had had a pan of biscuits made, four sausage patties.
24:47He was making some milk gravy.
24:50She conveyed to law enforcement officers that her reason for going to see Mutt that day was to let him know that she wasn't going to move in with him and that she was going to call off the relationship with Mutt.
25:04I said, Herman, our relationship is going to have to end because I'm married, and it's been a problem for me since February, and he got very angry.
25:17First of all, he didn't know you were married.
25:19Till that day.
25:21She told investigators she hadn't informed Mutt about her marriage to Cecil because her and Cecil were having problems.
25:30I told Herman, I said, we've made up.
25:34And I said, I'm not going to be able to live in with you.
25:38As a matter of fact, I'm going to quit coming over here because it's causing me too much problems.
25:45He was over there stirring the milk gravy, and I could tell he was mad.
25:51I set my purse down, went to the bathroom.
25:54He said, well, eat a little bit anyway.
25:56And I said, okay.
25:57Okay.
25:58Rowena continues to tell investigators that she decided to sit down and eat.
26:04I got dizzy.
26:06I got nauseated.
26:07I broke out in a sweat.
26:10I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest.
26:14And I said, Herman, I'm dying.
26:16Call 911.
26:17Something's wrong.
26:18I've never had this feeling before in my life.
26:21I feel like Herman decided he couldn't have me.
26:28And I feel like he poisoned me.
26:31He put poison in my food.
26:35Why would he poison you?
26:36And why would he poison himself?
26:38Because he knew I wasn't coming back.
26:41Because he loved me so much.
26:43He really loved me.
26:45And Herman always told me, I'm going to have you one way or the other.
26:50It's evident that Rowena is laying the groundwork for what appeared to be a murder-suicide initiated by Mutt.
27:00Not buying Rowena's story, including the he said, she said about who made breakfast that morning, Detective January switches things up.
27:12Trying to see if there's any similar funny business with Cecil, he asks about all of her exes.
27:19How many marriages have you had?
27:22I'm thinking I've been married five times.
27:25Okay.
27:26Do you remember your husbands?
27:28Bill Hoover was my first one.
27:29First?
27:30He was your third one.
27:31Mm-hmm.
27:32And then H.C. Deaton.
27:33He's passed away now.
27:34And then I married Kenneth Malk.
27:35And then after that, I married Dick Leadbetter.
27:37Dick Leadbetter.
27:38and then H.C. Deaton, he's passed away now,
27:44and then I married Kenneth Monk,
27:46and then after that, I married Dick Ledbetter.
27:50Dick Ledbetter.
27:52And then I married Cecil Forson, and that's it.
27:55You've been married to Cecil since February,
27:58so about three months?
27:59About three months.
28:01They met when his former wife was a resident
28:06at Ridgecrest Retirement Center.
28:10That's also where Rowena committed theft in 2001.
28:15January asked Rowena why, if she was already married,
28:20did she want to be in Herman's will?
28:22Herman and I, we were going to get married in February
28:25before I married my husband.
28:26And so I said, Herman, I will move in with you.
28:30I don't want your money.
28:32I said, the only thing I would like is for you
28:35just to put the house in my name
28:38is that in case something happens to you,
28:40I don't want to have to be kicked out.
28:43Okay.
28:43Herman and I were going to get married.
28:45We took out a marriage license,
28:47but I didn't let it go through.
28:50Why?
28:50Because Cecil Forson,
28:52I liked Herman as a friend,
28:57but as far as being in love with Herman, no.
29:00And I never did want to hurt his feelings
29:04because he was such a good fellow.
29:10Suddenly, the cops have new doubts swirling.
29:13Is it possible she's telling the truth
29:15and Mutt poisoned them both to frame her?
29:19Or does she have all of them wrapped around her finger?
29:23A person who's been married seven times,
29:25you have to wonder,
29:26so what is it about them, perhaps,
29:28that they can't stay married?
29:30Does she pick abusive men?
29:32Some women do that.
29:33You know, they go from one abusive relationship
29:35to another.
29:36Or is she one who picks men who are vulnerable
29:39that she can be in charge of?
29:42And it happens again and again and again.
29:44Why?
29:45What does it say about her?
29:47The amount of calm in her
29:49while she was being interviewed,
29:51it raises the question,
29:53is she experienced?
29:55Has she done this before?
29:56The police just need more info.
30:00They turned to her loved ones.
30:03Police later interviewed members of Rowena's family,
30:06including her granddaughters,
30:08Crystal and Michelle.
30:10The granddaughters sing Rowena's praises,
30:12saying she was a great grandmother,
30:14a loving person,
30:15what you expect a grandmother to be.
30:18They don't believe their grandmother
30:19could kill anyone.
30:21The investigators also spoke to Rowena's sister,
30:26Patty Krueger,
30:27who also sang her praises
30:28and said that Rowena was a talented
30:31and gifted caretaker.
30:33She loved people
30:34and that everything she did was,
30:36quote,
30:36just perfect.
30:38The contrasting portraits
30:40they were getting of Rowena
30:41left them wondering
30:43if they were on the right track.
30:45Waco police decided to dig into the background
30:47of Rowena's seven prior marriages
30:50and a lot of the things they found
30:53were troubling.
31:00Of course, now,
31:02Waco police hear only rave reviews
31:04of Rowena from her family.
31:07They decide it's time to dig deeper
31:09into her exes.
31:10The fact that she's been married
31:12that many times
31:13tells us that there's something wrong
31:15with the way she attaches to people.
31:17What was it about
31:18those other relationships?
31:19How did they go bad?
31:22One of those marriages
31:23was to a man named Kenneth Mock.
31:26My father met Rowena in 1983.
31:29They were married in 1984.
31:32I knew she had her son, Billy,
31:35and Billy had daughters,
31:36so she did have grandchildren.
31:37I liked everything about her.
31:41She was just a nice,
31:42down-to-earth lady.
31:43She was polite.
31:44She seemed to be always there.
31:46She needed something.
31:48When I re-enlisted in the Marine Corps
31:50and went on deployment on ship
31:52to the Mediterranean,
31:54there were two times
31:55that she baked cookies
31:57and sent them out.
31:59That was very thoughtful of her.
32:01Despite a happy start
32:03for the new family,
32:04it wasn't long
32:05before Kenneth decided
32:07Rowena couldn't be trusted.
32:09She was forging my dad's name
32:11on credit card applications.
32:15My dad did not like credit cards.
32:17He paid everything in cash.
32:20When he found out about it,
32:22that was just a non-trust issue,
32:25and once you have a non-trust,
32:28it's time to move on.
32:29That's when he started
32:31the divorce proceedings.
32:33When I found out
32:34why I got divorced,
32:35I was in shock.
32:36It just didn't seem like her.
32:39After the divorce in 1986,
32:42the Mocs decidedly
32:43did not keep in touch
32:45with Rowena.
32:46But news of Mutt's death travels,
32:49and the family of her next husband,
32:51Dick Ledbetter,
32:52has a few allegations
32:54of their own.
32:55Dick Ledbetter's son,
32:57Phil,
32:58contacts authorities
32:59with the concerns
33:01that his father
33:01may have also been poisoned.
33:07Phil told police
33:08that his father
33:08married Rowena
33:09seven months
33:10after his mother died,
33:12and he was shocked
33:13at how quickly
33:14his father remarried.
33:15Dick's former wife
33:18was a resident
33:20at Ridgecrest Retirement Center
33:22where Rowena was employed
33:24as a vocational nurse.
33:27Phil said that
33:27after his father
33:28married Rowena,
33:30his father grew
33:30more and more isolated.
33:33Phil stated that
33:34his father would get sick,
33:36go to the hospital,
33:38return to Rowena,
33:40get sick again,
33:41and that cycle
33:42continued over and over.
33:45And then following
33:46his father's death,
33:48Rowena took everything.
33:50Heirlooms,
33:52purple hearts,
33:53things that matter
33:53to the family.
33:55Rowena walked off
33:55with them
33:56and kept them.
33:58As an investigator,
33:59you have to take
34:00allegations like this
34:01seriously.
34:02Almost always,
34:03older women who kill
34:04do so in nonviolent means.
34:06Poisoning is a prime example
34:08of how you can kill
34:09somebody nonviolently.
34:11And if in her history
34:13she had success
34:14in gaining material
34:17things from men
34:18and it worked
34:20and she was able
34:21to move on
34:22to another relationship,
34:23she's going to feel
34:24rewarded
34:24and it keeps her
34:26moving along
34:26that same path.
34:29With Rowena
34:30once again
34:31in the hot seat,
34:32investigators finally
34:33speak with her
34:34current hubby,
34:35Cecil.
34:35They want to know
34:37what,
34:37if anything,
34:38he knows.
34:40Cecil told police
34:41that he was shocked
34:42to learn
34:43that she was seeing
34:44another man.
34:45Cecil says
34:46that he had
34:47absolutely no knowledge
34:49of Mutt
34:49until Rowena
34:51and Mutt
34:51were hospitalized
34:52at the same time.
34:54Cecil is embarrassed
34:56to death
34:56because here he is
34:58married to the woman
34:59suspected of
35:00poisoning her boyfriend.
35:03He felt tricked
35:04and he had planned
35:06to file for divorce
35:07immediately.
35:07Investigators
35:10can't link
35:11Cecil forced
35:12into Mutt
35:12or the crime scene
35:14or any involvement
35:15at all.
35:17Investigators decided
35:18at that point
35:19Cecil was no longer
35:20a person of interest
35:21in this case.
35:22With the now
35:23very real possibility
35:25that Mutt
35:26isn't Rowena's
35:27first victim,
35:28police are desperate
35:29for those test results
35:30to prove
35:31that she poisoned him.
35:33On May 17th,
35:34investigators
35:35were made aware
35:37that the results
35:37of the toxicology
35:38were available.
35:40It was determined
35:41that the food samples
35:43and the coffee samples
35:44contained a high concentration
35:46of a poison
35:48called bendyocarb.
35:51It was also discovered
35:52that tissue samples
35:53taken from Mutt
35:54contained the same poison.
35:58Lastly,
36:00the milky white substance
36:01in the pill bottle
36:02located in Rowena's purse
36:04was determined
36:06to be bendyocarb.
36:09They take that bendyocarb
36:11and they want to know
36:13where it comes from.
36:15They find out
36:15that one of the places
36:17it comes from
36:18is Vicom W,
36:20which is an insecticide
36:22used to kill fire ants
36:24as well as other critters.
36:26On May 22nd,
36:30the medical examiner's report
36:31lists Mutt Wilson's death
36:34as insecticide poisoning
36:36and considers
36:37the manner of death
36:38a homicide.
36:42The following day,
36:43Rowena Ledbetter
36:44is arrested
36:45for the murder
36:46of Mutt Wilson.
36:48I thought,
36:50what a relief.
36:51So now,
36:52we know
36:53what killed him
36:55and we know
36:56she's going to be
36:57convicted.
36:59At least,
36:59we hoped.
37:01Once Rowena's arrested,
37:04the case lands
37:05on Senior Prosecutor
37:06Mike Freeman's desk.
37:08But Mike thinks
37:09they're missing
37:10a key piece of evidence.
37:12We had the poison
37:13in the food.
37:14We had it in the pill bottle.
37:16The pill bottle
37:17being in our purse
37:18is a connection.
37:19But I want
37:20a strong connection.
37:21I want the jury
37:21to be convinced
37:22beyond all reasonable doubt.
37:25The only way
37:26that you could establish
37:27that as the ultimate poison
37:29was to have her acquiring it.
37:32We had to put the chemical
37:33in her hands.
37:42In order to eliminate
37:43all reasonable doubt
37:45that Rowena Ledbetter
37:46is guilty,
37:48Prosecutor Mike Freeman
37:49needs proof
37:50that she intentionally
37:52acquired the poison
37:53she used on mutt.
37:55The police department
37:56begins to search
37:57where can we locate
38:00Bendio Garber
38:01via Cam W
38:02that is attached
38:03to Rowena's name.
38:06They get a call.
38:08And the call
38:09is from a guy
38:10named Brad Hyman
38:11at Estes Incorporated.
38:13He says,
38:14I've looked into
38:15our records
38:15that show
38:16that Rowena Ledbetter
38:17purchased
38:18by Cam W
38:20in late 1999
38:22and 2000.
38:24There were three boxes
38:25of it,
38:26each box
38:27containing
38:27ten packets
38:29that puts the chemical
38:30in her hands.
38:33This is
38:33the key
38:34to proving
38:35this case.
38:36Once they link
38:38that poison
38:38to Rowena,
38:40police and prosecutors
38:41decide to circle back
38:43and see if maybe
38:44Dick Ledbetter
38:45was poisoned too.
38:47Mr. Ledbetter's
38:48body was exhumed
38:49and the police
38:51said the results
38:52were inconclusive.
38:55We just couldn't
38:56come up with enough
38:57evidence
38:57to prosecute
38:58that case.
38:59It's an unfortunate
39:01setback
39:01with Dick Ledbetter,
39:03but Rowena's trial
39:04for mutt's murder
39:05begins
39:06and in opening
39:07statements
39:08her defense
39:09is clear.
39:10Defense attorney
39:11John Donahue
39:11tells the jury
39:12Rowena's version
39:14of what happened
39:14that day.
39:16Mutt was
39:16suicidally depressed
39:18after the death
39:19of his wife
39:19and learning
39:21that Rowena
39:22was married,
39:23Mutt actually
39:24had it poisoned
39:25her
39:25and framed her
39:26as only an
39:27experienced
39:28law enforcement
39:29officer could do.
39:30The only information
39:32the defense
39:32gave the jury
39:34was that
39:35she's a good
39:36grandmother,
39:36she's a good
39:37mother
39:37and she sat
39:40there mildly
39:41smiling
39:42the entire time
39:43but it just
39:45really didn't
39:45touch upon
39:46the events
39:46of the case.
39:48Once the
39:49prosecution
39:50and defense
39:51finish their
39:52arguments,
39:53the jury
39:53heads off
39:54to deliberate.
39:56The jury
39:57in Rowena
39:58Ledbetter's case
39:59deliberates
40:0030 minutes
40:01before coming
40:01back with
40:02her verdict.
40:03I was sitting
40:04there next
40:05to Detective
40:06January
40:06and they
40:08announced
40:08guilty
40:09and I can
40:10remember
40:10just
40:12so relieved
40:15and glad
40:15and my hand
40:16landed on
40:17poor Detective
40:19January's
40:20leg and I
40:21was squeezing
40:22it,
40:23bless his heart,
40:25just relieved,
40:27excited and
40:28glad that the
40:29jury could see
40:31the evil in
40:32this lady.
40:35It didn't take
40:36him long to
40:36come back
40:37with a life
40:37sentence.
40:39I was glad
40:41when she was
40:42given life
40:42in prison
40:43because I
40:45wanted her
40:45to sit there
40:46in prison
40:47and suffer
40:48for the rest
40:50of her life
40:51but she
40:53didn't suffer
40:54long enough.
40:55just months
40:59after Rowena
40:59being sentenced
41:00to life
41:01in prison
41:01Rowena
41:02died by
41:03choking on
41:04her own
41:04vomit
41:05at Texas
41:05Department
41:06of Criminal
41:06Justice.
41:07The report
41:08from the
41:09penitentiary
41:09where she
41:10was held
41:10indicated that
41:11she died
41:12from choking
41:13while consuming
41:14food.
41:14with Rowena
41:23dead
41:23everyone
41:24in her
41:25destructive
41:26path
41:26is left
41:27behind
41:28to deal
41:28with the
41:29terrible
41:29aftermath.
41:31My brother
41:32or my dad
41:32told me
41:34that she
41:34had passed
41:35away
41:35in prison
41:36and the
41:37reason that
41:38she was
41:38there.
41:40That was
41:41hard for me
41:42to believe
41:43that the
41:44lady I
41:45knew those
41:45few years
41:46when she
41:46was married
41:47to my
41:47father
41:47would
41:48actually
41:49commit
41:49murder.
41:52We did
41:53bury him
41:54with his
41:54police hat
41:56on his
41:57chest.
41:59He loved
41:59the police
42:00force
42:00to the end
42:01all his
42:03life.
42:04That's what
42:05he lived
42:05for.
42:07When I was
42:08sitting with
42:08Mr. Wilson
42:09at the
42:09hospital
42:10he talked
42:10about his
42:11faith
42:11and that
42:12everything
42:12would be
42:13okay.
42:13he knew
42:14he was
42:14going to
42:15heaven
42:15and he
42:16sees
42:17wife
42:17again.
42:19It really
42:20angers me
42:21when someone
42:22like Rowena
42:23will be so
42:24manipulative
42:25and come
42:26and take
42:26advantage
42:27of a
42:27poor
42:28old man
42:29who has
42:30just lost
42:31a wife
42:31of 60
42:32years.
42:33That is
42:33really a
42:34despicable
42:34thing for
42:35me to
42:36see someone
42:36doing
42:36something
42:37like that.
42:38Not a
42:39good
42:39grandmother.
42:43God
42:45can't
42:46do
42:46what
42:47do
42:48things
42:49like that.
42:49I
42:53can't
42:55do
42:56nothing
42:56but
42:57I
42:57can't
42:58do
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