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00:10a father and son killed outside their rural home it's a bloodbath the minute I open the car I can
00:18smell a flammable liquid the house had been burglarized back in 2017 this seemed to be a
00:27targeted attack promising leads quickly unravel their wallets were missing but there was no
00:37burglary of the home no broken windows no kicked in doors it was pretty obvious somebody wanted us
00:45to believe that it was a robbery when detectives track down the gunmen their investigation takes
00:52an unexpected turn exposing a betrayal that leaves a close-knit christian community in shock
01:02he said that he was hired to enjoy there was a text message she said yes that was sort of
01:10our code
01:11do what you really want to play stupid i'm serious now
01:18she offered him twenty thousand dollars to commit that murder it didn't sound right to me
01:24i was in complete shock how could they possibly think that she had done this
01:44august 18th 2018 it's just before noon in ori county south carolina and police are responding to
01:53reports of a burned-out vehicle abandoned in a soybean field it was unusual because you know here's this
02:03car sitting in the middle of their field they had no idea how it had gotten there all the doors
02:10were
02:10closed it was obvious that the windows were covered in soot from the inside so the initial officer that
02:18arrived opened the door just to see if anybody was inside nobody was in the vehicle but had obviously
02:24somebody attempted to burn the vehicle he ran the license plate through dispatch got the owner's name
02:33and address and that was robbie ford
02:39they come up with an address roughly 15 to 17 miles away in conway they send an officer to the
02:50house
02:51it's a residence owned by mr robert ford robbie's father the house is in the rural section of ori county
03:00it's mainly family farms it's not very populated the officer goes there knocks on the front door gets
03:09no response attempts to walk around to the back of the house he looked to his right and saw a
03:16male body
03:17laying outside the back door he saw another male body laying on the grassy area
03:29the officer checks for signs of life but both men are dead from apparent gunshot wounds
03:37the older victim appears to be robert ford and the younger one his son robbie they both shared the same
03:45name robbie and then roberts the the dad it's a bloodbath something really bad has happened
03:55the officer immediately called for assistance homicide supervisors all hands on deck there was
04:04no burglary of the home the door was still locked when law enforcement got there there was no broken
04:10windows no kicked in doors so investigators start asking themselves is there something about either of
04:19these victims that will cause someone to target them so they're really looking to who would have
04:24a motive to kill them
04:33initial background checks show that robert marion ford was born on may 21st
04:391959 in conway south carolina robert was a native of the area lifelong resident he was very active in his
04:49church very active in the choir he was married to a lady named sheila sheila and robert had a daughter
04:57named samantha samantha was always apple of his eye she had a great relationship with her dad she loved both
05:05her parents very much the relationship between robert and sheila was strained
05:14so they had gotten a divorce they saw each other from time to time but it was a very chilled
05:21relationship
05:24once he and samantha's mother divorced robert quickly married melda who was robbie's mother
05:32so samantha and robbie were half siblings it seemed as though the family was pretty close pretty well
05:40well-adjusted samantha grew up with her mother but would certainly visit with her father on a regular basis
05:48robbie was always the typical annoying kid brother not that samantha ever treated him
05:54like she was annoyed with him or anything she spent time with him she loved him
05:59as samantha and robbie got older robert worked hard to support them
06:03he had been a very hard worker studiously saving money so that he could provide for his children
06:13robert also invested in his children's spiritual growth
06:18he played leadership roles in the church he was a constant member of the choir and he went several
06:25times a week so everyone in the community knew robert and they all knew samantha they all knew robbie
06:36and they all knew him and they all knew him and they all knew him and they all knew him
06:37but
06:37robert's devotion to the church was challenged when 21 year old samantha came to him with some
06:43difficult news she got pregnant out of wedlock he wasn't happy about the situation but he didn't fault
06:52her but the church frowned upon it even though she has been involved in church her entire life her father
07:01had to step down as deacon because she's an unwed mother
07:09to robert the decision was simple when samantha gave birth to her daughter
07:14he was there for her despite the scandal it caused in the congregation
07:21he had a grandchild so in in ways their relationship was strengthened
07:26he was an amazing grandfather he loved his kids he's happy
07:34within a few years samantha gave birth to twin boys but her relationship with the children's father
07:41didn't last however when she met and married a man who worked at the nearby detention center
07:48samantha found the stability her children needed he had adopted her three biological children that she had
07:56from someone else samantha maybe did some work here or there but nothing steady she was always involved
08:05with her children she stayed at home a lot with the kids while samantha settled into family life
08:11robbie was building a life of his own robbie was also very highly thought of he had been in school
08:20at
08:20clemson studying for an architecture degree and seemed at least on the path to a good career he had a
08:28good
08:28relationship with his niece and nephews still had a really good relationship with samantha they talk regularly
08:37but in 2016 the family faced heartbreak when robert's wife melda suddenly died over the next two years robbie
08:48and samantha became his support system as he dealt with the grief it was just robbie and robert living at
08:56the home when robbie was not in college there were quite a number of text messages they would spend time
09:03with each other visit with each other so at first blush the family certainly seemed very close
09:15but on the evening of august 18th 2018 both robert and robbie have been found shot to death
09:23outside their home shortly after the discovery detective peter sester arrives to begin an investigation
09:33we've got a young male he has what appears to be a gunshot wound in his upper right shoulder
09:40and a gunshot wound to the back of the head
09:44the second victim that would be robbie's father robert ford his gunshot wound is a contact wound under the
09:53chin they had some to-go cups with them maybe some leftover food or something in a bag with them
10:02so they are just peacefully coming in
10:08you begin to think okay robert ford had to have been shot first because there is no indication of a
10:16struggle
10:16that tells me the suspect standing right there and waiting for them robbie ford is probably attempting
10:24to flee from the back of the house when he's shot more than likely in the upper right shoulder first
10:31that puts him to the ground the second shot is then the suspect coming up behind him and shooting
10:37him in the back of the head at close range you could see that blood is coagulating it's beginning to
10:43turn
10:43darker i've got to assume it's probably anywhere from six to to 12 hours earlier that this occurred
10:52both of the wallets were gone one of the cars is in the driveway and obviously the other vehicle
10:58what's in the farming field belongs to this residence a robbery attempt seems possible
11:08but a search of the home quickly dismisses that theory the neighbors were probably about two football
11:16fields away this seemed to be a targeted attack in part because someone went specifically to that
11:25location in a very rural area that suggests that they had some knowledge of who lived there or what
11:32they might find there both of these two individuals are quiet law-abiding citizens the father is is a good
11:46church-going man and robbie's looking forward to going off the school in charleston
11:51the fact that the father is shot up close and personal you can't help but think this is a
12:01close friend or a relative that's behind this murder the initial questions would be do they have any
12:08enemies who would want to do this who gains from their death
12:17coming up detectives get a lead from something the killer left behind cigarette butts are a perfect
12:26source of dna and an insight into the killer's mindset is revealed a mass shows that this was not spurred
12:36the
12:36moment this was planned out
12:54to south carolina police the murders of 59 year old robert ford and his 25 year old son robbie ford
13:02and his 25 year old son robbie appeared to be the result of a targeted attack but it seems the
13:07killer tried to make it look otherwise their wallets were missing robbie's vehicle was missing but it looks
13:16like a homicide made to look like a robbery gone bad this crime appears to be committed solely on these
13:24two
13:24individuals that's telling us that we need to be looking for somebody that may be closely connected to these victims
13:38news of something happening at the ford home gets back to loved ones quickly
13:44samantha did show up at the scene it's my understanding that people had called to tell her there was a
13:51law
13:51enforcement presence at her father and brother's house she approached law enforcement they told her
13:58your father and half-brother had been killed she seemed pretty shocked about the whole incident
14:07kind of a normal reaction you would expect from from a daughter they begin asking when's the last time
14:15you heard from them do you know what they had been doing recently and samantha told investigators
14:19that robert and robbie had been down in charleston looking for an apartment for robbie who was going to
14:25be spending a semester of school down there she communicated with them the night before
14:31and knew that they would be arriving back on saturday
14:39she described her relationship with her father as an excellent relationship they were very close she would
14:45go and clean his house bring them meals she could not think of anyone who would want to harm either
14:51her father or her brother
14:56according to samantha the only trouble her father had in the recent past is a break-in
15:03the house had been burglarized back in 2017 and several items had been taken from the house at that time
15:09during that burglary a 38 revolver was stolen some jewelry in a laptop to investigators it seems unlikely the
15:19burglars would return a year later and not steal anything they leave samantha to grieve and make arrangements to
15:27follow up with her
15:32they canvassed the neighborhood and they went to one of the closest neighbors who was kind of
15:37across the field the night before around 8 45 that neighbor was outside in his yard and he heard a
15:43gunshot followed by a scream and another gunshot he didn't report that to the police at the time
15:50because in that area of our county hearing gunshots is not particularly unusual the timing corresponds to
15:57what samantha told investigators
16:04detective sester directs his attention to the soybean field where robert's car was abandoned
16:12this is significant because whoever brought that vehicle air decided that they were going to try and
16:19destroy evidence by setting the vehicle on fire i arrive on scene you're looking for any type of evidence
16:31i find nothing until i get within about five to ten feet of the vehicle
16:41and just outside the driver's door of the vehicle on the ground
16:48there are three cigarette butts that are smoked down almost to the filter
16:53the minute i open the car i can smell a flammable liquid gasoline or something of that nature
17:01they also see inside the vehicle and i think is significant is on the driver's side floor there is
17:08like a wool ski cap when people set out to burn a car they don't realize that the car has
17:15to have
17:15a lot of oxygen to continue the burn the killer he didn't roll any windows down or crack a window
17:22so the fire quickly smothered detective sester collects the pieces of evidence and reseals the car
17:32to preserve the crime scene cigarette butts are a perfect source of dna skin cell saliva from your mouth
17:42is on the filters of those cigarettes so that's going to definitely yield a significant profile for us on who
17:50our killer may be while the crime lab begins analysis of the dna samples investigators consider the other
18:01evidence left behind a mass shows that this was not spur of the moment this was planned out
18:14with the investigation underway the shocking news spreads across the small community
18:21robert ford's family was horrified that he had been murdered and really wanted some justice
18:27samantha was completely devastated she didn't even know like up from down at that moment they told her
18:36they couldn't rule her out at that point we just assumed that was typical protocol but when
18:44investigators contact samantha to give a statement she provides an airtight alibi there was a convenience
18:52store that showed samantha on surveillance video during the time of the murders the investigators also
18:59got samantha's phone records there was no evidence that her phone was using a cell tower near her father's home
19:11a few weeks later the dna samples collected from the burned vehicle provide detectives with a possible
19:18new lead the state law enforcement division sled determines that both the cigarette butts and the
19:25skull cap had the skull cap had the same single source dna profile that's like gold in an investigation because
19:33it's one person i vividly remember there was celebration we don't know everything but we fully expected
19:43the killer to be in codis
20:01it's been 30 days since the murders of robert and robbie ford and ory county investigators have just
20:08gotten a huge break in the case the dna profile is that of a white male we're excited we're thinking
20:17the
20:17minute they load that thing in the codis we're going to get a hit you know this person's got to
20:22be in
20:22it unfortunately codis did not come back with what we call a hit so it didn't lead anywhere at that
20:29point but we now have that it is a white male
20:38experts suggest detectives send the samples to a company specializing in ancestral dna
20:45you can't dna everybody it's a it's a violation of people's privacy but we'll pay ourselves to send
20:54our dna into two three and me and all these other companies well the one thing they don't tell you
20:59when
20:59you sent your dna off through the mail is through forensic genealogy law enforcement can have access to it
21:07that takes time it was a lot of hard investigative work that went into this patience and the longer
21:17it takes you the fear of memories of evidence of things happening to people that they're not going
21:25to be around later on as the months pass samantha rabin moves on with her life
21:36i had gone to her home which was formerly her father's home her and her husband and her kids moved
21:44into it samantha rabin acted pretty quickly in laying claim to robert's assets and to any money that was
21:52available to her and i think that certainly got investigators attention that she was behaving so
21:58quickly police found out from robert ford's sister that he had insurance policies and that samantha
22:06rabin was the beneficiary of those policies but robbie was actually the primary beneficiary
22:13robert had a lot of insurance and he had a lot of land so if anything were to happen to
22:20robert
22:21robert robbie would get that money i know that afterwards she was obtaining money from various
22:30insurance policies after her dad and brother had been murdered and she was renovating her home
22:38so she was benefiting from her father and brother's death for sure
22:45in august 2020 two years after the murders the dna lab contacts detectives they come back with a partial
22:55match our suspect has two other brothers and that's great information and they're both incarcerated
23:04so their dna was collected in jail problem is they they weren't out of jail so it's definitely not them
23:13but from that we then develop a potential suspect and that's randy granger
23:24turns out that he has a criminal history he had been in prison for i believe about 15 years
23:38data obtained from the cell tower near the burned vehicle puts randy in the area when the crime took place
23:46they discovered a phone number associated with randy granger as making a phone call to somebody else
23:53on this night and that phone number came back to a woman named teresa martin
24:01randy granger and teresa martin were dating boyfriend and girlfriend teresa martin once investigators start
24:08looking into her is discovered to be a distant relative of samantha rabin's mother she is a cousin
24:18of course it raises eyebrows that randy granger whose dna is at the soybean field is calling the cousin
24:25of samantha rabin on the night that her father and her brother have been murdered
24:33coming up a co-conspirator makes a confession when he was done with the job she came to 20 000
24:42known and exposes the puppet master he said that he was hired to do what kill her daddy
25:07nearly two years after robert ford and his son robbie ford were found murdered south carolina
25:15police interview two new suspects a relative of samantha rabin theresa martin and theresa's boyfriend 50-year-old randy granger
25:27they're brought in and and placed in separate rooms and and questioned we know he was involved so even
25:35at that point we've got to get a story as to why this happened going into it it's like what
25:42is your
25:42connection with these two randy is confronted with photos of the burned vehicle and items containing
25:53his dna randy you have any idea why you're here no what's that self-worth escape
26:03you ain't never seen it you ain't never seen it before no okay it's a cigarette book
26:10with dna on it
26:13it was left right south corner randy wouldn't say anything about anything
26:20i know you didn't do this by yourself what i want is the person who asked you to do it
26:24do what
26:26you really want to play stupid i'm serious now
26:33because i got you right now for at least two counts of murder
26:38arson
26:44hitting a brick wall with randy detectives hope theresa will give them more just because you know
26:52something doesn't mean you're involved in it doesn't mean you can be in trouble for it
26:58but by lying to us that's where a problem comes does that make sense yes
27:03yeah at first teresa sidesteps their questions about randy but she eventually admits he called
27:12her to pick him up on the day of the murders and what did he say nothing he just got
27:19in the car and
27:19he said let's go home as police continued to interview her she engaged in what we call progressive
27:27truth-telling she kept giving them just a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit
27:30more
27:57about a week before the murders teresa says
28:02she overheard randy and samantha discussing the plan she told him
28:10like i said she had a job for him to do and i wanted to take care of my daddy
28:16and my brother
28:18when he was done with the job she'd give him 20 000 and she wanted it done before he left
28:26to go to
28:26college because she knew if just her daddy got killed then she would have to split everything
28:39robbie was actually the primary beneficiary so it wouldn't have done samantha much good to kill her
28:43father if her brother didn't die at the same time then she is the sole beneficiary of all assets
28:51those assets include pension plans life insurance lots of acreage that her father's home was on
28:57including the home all these assets up to almost a million dollars
29:06so how did how did how did he get to robert's house well i took him and dropped him on
29:14and he told me that he got the gun from samantha he said he's gonna wait in the woods
29:29there was a text message from teresa martin to samantha raven i'm home alone they confronted her with
29:36that at first she denied that it meant anything eventually she said yes that was sort of our code
29:43that i had dropped randy off
29:48the interview gives detectives what they need to secure an arrest warrant for samantha
29:54she is immediately arrested at her mother's residence they actually timed samantha's arrest for the
30:02two-year anniversary of the murders samantha raven was initially charged with murder and criminal conspiracy
30:10news of the alleged murder plot stuns everyone in the community i heard all these rumors but i took it
30:17with a grain of salt because it didn't sound right to me this is not the young lady that i've
30:22grown to
30:23know i was in complete shock when they arrested her how could they possibly think that she had done this
30:31once samantha's arrested she doesn't talk she doesn't claim to be involved in any way shape form or
30:35fashion if i'm gonna ask you any questions i just want you to know i already talked to randy
30:41randy's in jail okay do you want to talk to us no now does my lawyer come here like what
30:49happened to them
30:53now with a warrant police obtained samantha's cell phone investigators turn it over to a detective who
31:02specializes in electronic crimes i deal with anything that has digital evidence i got the cell phone i
31:11began using keyword searches and searching for insurance um i began to show up murder and different
31:20different search criterias to go through the device some of the more interesting web searches were how
31:29quickly you can clean up a double homicide um how quickly can you get a passport there were other
31:35searches does god forgive murderers can you be a suspect in a murderer and never get charged
31:41there is a lot of real damning search history that really feeds in to the fact that she has played
31:49a
31:50significant role in the death of her father and her brother
32:10after two years of investigation samantha rabin has been charged with plotting a murder for hire to get
32:17rid of her father and brother once the case is handed over to prosecutors they focus on getting samantha's
32:26co-conspirators to turn against her teresa martin had basically admitted some of her involvement
32:35and she quickly agreed to cooperate randy granger would not so i determined that it was easier to try him
32:44first on april 3rd 2023 teresa pleads guilty to being an accessory teresa martin never goes to trial takes
32:54a plea and agrees to testify in both randy and samantha rabin's trials the same day she takes a plea
33:03she provides witness testimony at randy's trial
33:09the police get what we call a buckle swab a known dna standard from him that dna standard is sent
33:15to sled
33:16and sled is able to say yes that dna standard matches the single source dna profile from the
33:22cigarette butts in the ski cab at the scene randy granger is found guilty and sentenced to two life
33:28terms for the murder of robert and robbie ford after his conviction of two counts of murder arson and other
33:39charges randy has a change of heart randy at that point agreed to testify against samantha rabin
33:50according to randy samantha's relationships with her father and brother weren't as rosy as police had been
33:58led to believe samantha was the child of a previous marriage whereas robbie had grown up with both of
34:07his parents in the same home so i think there was a little bit of tension there because robbie may
34:12have
34:12been perceived as being the favored child in the family dynamic there was talk about samantha being
34:19unhappy about robbie maybe getting a little more inheritance than she did randy says samantha approached
34:29him at her mother's house with a plan to profit off their deaths randy granger said that samantha rabin gave
34:36him the gun that day on the porch she said that they both had to die at the same time
34:42and she offered him 20 000 to commit that murder about a week later randy and teresa executed the plan
34:56teresa martin dropped randy off at robert and robbie ford's home randy granger waited hours and hours and
35:06smoked cigarettes while he was waiting for them to come home he knew that they were going to be at
35:13dinner he just didn't know exactly when they would get home
35:21randy's home around 8 45 p.m he heard tires on the gravel driveway
35:28robert got out of the passenger side of robbie's car first and was walking
35:32to go up the back steps to his home and he shot robert ford in the face
35:43randy says he hears robbie scream and he is running and so he shoots robbie in the back
35:54of the head and then he goes over and shoots robbie in the back of the head
35:59he walks back over to robert and shoots him under his chin
36:10and he takes their wallets and he takes the keys to the ford escape that was robbie's
36:17and he drives it to a field and he attempts to burn it
36:27once the car was on fire randy called teresa to pick him up but he'd made a few crucial mistakes
36:40he has smoked basically a pack of cigarettes and then he put the cigarettes in his socks
36:48to keep from leaving evidence there he didn't realize that his socks had rolled down and the
36:54cigarettes he'd been stashing from robert's house had fallen outside the car onto the ground
37:01and he thought that the skull cap would have burned up but they didn't the intent was to
37:08completely destroy the vehicle he just neglected to leave a window open to allow oxygen to get into it
37:20after the double homicide randy found out it was all for nothing
37:27he never received 20 000 from samantha rabin randy was upset at first but you can't call the police
37:41with randy and teresa's help prosecutors believe they have enough to convict samantha
37:48but they know when it comes to juries a guilty verdict is never certain
37:55i think the strongest thing that we had going for us was clear motive but anytime you were dependent
38:03on a testifying co-defendant you always worry because it's very easy cross-examination for the
38:08defense attorney well you're doing this to get a better deal they have a built-in motive to fabricate
38:14so there was a lot of pressure on us to get the right result
38:34on february 21st 2024 samantha rabin stands trial for the murders of her family members robert and robbie
38:43ford it was a full six years after we discovered that uh gruesome scene off highway 19 so way past
38:53due
38:54for samantha's trial the whole victim side of the courtroom was packed with family with friends
39:01there were still some supporters for samantha rabin on her side including her husband and some other family
39:08members
39:13prosecutors rely heavily on randy granger's testimony i will say i thought randy's testimony was extremely
39:21effective it had a ring of truth to it that you couldn't deny
39:28they argue the burglary at the ford home during which the murder weapon was stolen
39:37it does seem that samantha rabin was certainly responsible for that burglary which shows us that
39:42she had been thinking about having her father killed and her brother killed for at least a year before and
39:47was actually going to use her father's own gun to do it samantha finally reached a breaking point
39:53her income was not meeting her out go and i think she snapped because there was a solution
40:02and that solution to make her a millionaire was going to cost her her dad and her brother
40:12samantha's defense team attempts to undermine randy's credibility
40:18the defense of course is going to paint a cooperating state's witness a man that admits to pulling the
40:25trigger as not to be trusted brandy granger did tell us what he had done with a gun he said
40:32that he
40:32threw it into sort of a creek running along a road but we were never able to find the gun
40:40samantha rabin was adamant that she didn't do it and just because she benefited i'm sure she probably
40:45thought that doesn't mean i'm a murderer on february 28th 2024 after two hours the jury reaches a
40:56decision when he said that she was guilty inside i was screaming and crying and having a complete
41:06breakdown she was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole and was taken away that
41:16day i still don't understand i'm just still so overwhelmed and lost in the feeling of there's no
41:25true factual evidence that i can see 100 justice was served she is the one that set this plan a
41:34motion and
41:34she is where she belongs
41:51i know there was a huge sense of relief for robert's family and i know there was a huge sense
42:05of relief for
42:05and for that community where robert lived he was extremely active in his church and had a lot of
42:11friends out there and i think they were relieved to finally see some justice in this case who would
42:17want to think that anyone in their family would have the ability to draft up a plan like this to
42:24have
42:24somebody executed simply over over money samantha felt she needed it all greed got the better end of her
42:36so
42:37so
42:47you
42:47you
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