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00:10that morning a neighbor heard two explosions and looked outside and saw the fire the woman
00:18was found dead inside the house she was gone i was devastated my mom never hurt nobody the evidence
00:28that they found in the home is normally used for outside grills my mom had been in the fire service
00:34she knew that you didn't store that in the house this is not by accident this is premeditation
00:41but arson is hard to prove especially if you don't have any witnesses
00:47then police get a tip that turns the whole direction of the investigation
00:52now a woman thinks she's seen the ghost the victim is still alive this was a diabolical plan to kill
01:01that was two years in the making we needed to find out what's going on before he was too late
01:29i was a firefighter for the horn lake fire department
01:34i got to work a little early that morning it was a quiet morning but at about 6 15
01:42we got a fire call a neighbor heard an explosion in northwood cove and looked outside and saw the
01:51smoke and the fire and called 9-1-1
01:58when we got there we laid a big line in from the fire plug and then one of the people
02:04on the scene
02:05came up and said she was linda lead them and she said a neighbor called her and told her about
02:11the fire
02:11because she was lula young's best friend she said lula was in the house in the back
02:18some of the firefighters were shocked to see that the home belonged to lula young they said lula had
02:23worked with the fire department so several of them were actually friends with her when we found out that
02:30she was in there we immediately assembled a team and we went around the back the neighbors pointed
02:36where the bedroom was that supposedly lula was in so we broke the window as we entered the room
02:44you could see the fire coming through the top of the door and you could feel the heat
02:48so we started crawling looking for lula we looked around the bed and found her between the bed and the
02:55wall lula was not breathing so getting her up was hard to do and then as we were trying to
03:03rescue lula
03:05there was another explosion uh-oh there's something else happening here we didn't know whether it was a
03:12trap set in that room or in the hallway so it was real important that we got her out of
03:18there as fast as
03:18we could dead or alive once the firefighters were finally able to get lula out of the home she had
03:28died
03:29already presumably from smoke inhalation
03:36once the fire is out all the hot spots are done there was a quietness nobody was talking to anybody
03:45and linda leadom was devastated by the death of her friend
03:54me and lula's son mike were preparing to go hunting we got a phone call from linda
03:59a factor telling us that lula's house was on fire he talked for a minute and he hung up and
04:08he said
04:10there's been an accident at your mom's it's not good i said she all right he goes no she didn't
04:18make it
04:22we left and probably drove the better of a hundred all the way home when i pulled in
04:31i'm just in shock i found it hard to believe that she was gone the house that i grew up
04:40in was gone
04:43i was devastated
04:47investigators want to speak to lula's family at this point to find out more about our victim
04:55my mom my dad got married when they were 18 and have two kids i'm the oldest and my sister's
05:02day
05:02she's six years younger than i am but then in 1981 her and my dad divorced she had to go
05:10find a job and
05:12take care of two kids on her own she became an emt for the ambulance service and then she had
05:18started
05:18the cleaning business she worked hard to provide what she could for me and my sister she was always
05:25still happy with life she never let it get her down but then 85 lola found out she had breast
05:31cancer
05:33she had to have a surgery and she did chemo and radiation which made her sick of the dog but
05:39she
05:40never complained and her friend linda leadle was a big blessing to lola along the way she'd make sure
05:47lola had groceries in the house and she would know what her appointments was and make sure she got to
05:53them and she developed leukemia and probably mid-summer of 94 mom had gotten to where she was having
06:01trouble getting around and mom lived by herself so she had to have a wheelchair because she couldn't
06:09stand she was taking pain medicines she was in pain a lot
06:16i talked to mom the day before the fire and she said that she was in good spirits and
06:22she still felt pretty good she was gonna beat cancer or die trying that was the last time i spoke
06:30to her
06:39while i'm standing at the house the roof was gone off of it you could see through the house from
06:45one
06:45end to the other it was awful i wanted to know what happened
06:53the arson investigators go in and start looking for how this started where it started what caused it
07:01the evidence that they found in the home immediately raised a red flag
07:06the investigators find a space heater by the front door it was determined that the heater was plugged in
07:15and turned on at the time of the fire the placement of the heater was odd why would a space
07:22heater be
07:22located inside the front door instead of in a normal location where a space heater may be next to
07:28someone's chair or bed in the same area fire investigators find a propane tank up against the wall
07:39upon investigation they did find that the valve was opened about a quarter of the way and that lets
07:45out just enough gas for it to be a problem why would a propane tank that's normally used for outside
07:53grills
07:53be located inside a house and why would lula who worked for ems with the fire department have a
08:01propane tank with a valve open in a room next to a heater at this point investigators are looking at
08:09the possibility that lula's house fire was set intentionally it seems like now we have a murder
08:14investigation on our hands so we needed to have an autopsy and figure out what happened
08:25there was no damage to lula young by fire so she had been properly identified
08:32and the autopsy came back and confirmed that lula's death was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning
08:39also toxicology reports showed that there were sleeping pills in lula's system sleeping pills are a
08:47common medication that people use all the time but the questions raised were was this an accident did the
08:53sleeping pills found in her system cause poor decision making like leaving the propane tank valve open
08:59and the heater on or did someone else did at this point investigators need to question friends and
09:07family to determine how the propane tank got in the house why was the heater there was it common
09:12that lula took sleeping pills i talked to some investigators and i told them i have stopped by that
09:20friday before to see mom and there wasn't no space heaters there and there was not the propane tank in
09:26the
09:26kitchen i said she had been in the fire service she knew that you didn't store propane in the house
09:33and to my knowledge she never took sleeping pills i had been a farmer for almost eight years i knew
09:40enough to know that something wasn't right the math wasn't mapping
09:46the presence of sleeping pills raised the question did someone give her the pills and was it meant to
09:53keep lula asleep but without a witness or without someone admitting they did it it's almost impossible to
10:00prove that so investigators are still going through the evidence and searching for what they can to
10:07back up their suspicions i was a reporter covering the death of lula young lula had been in a community
10:17about 20 years she was well loved she was well known so the community took this investigation a little
10:24personally at this point they want to find the answers
10:33two weeks later investigators get a tip that really turns the whole direction of the investigation
10:41we receive a call from a woman and she tells us that she just ran into lula at a local
10:48shopping center
10:50she thinks she's seeing the ghost police are shocked and confused to hear this
10:55how could this be possible what is she talking about
11:02someone had actually taken out four insurance policies on lula young's life
11:09and those policies added up to nearly a million dollars
11:13this wasn't just a murder it was a blueprint for the ultimate act of betrayal
11:33a woman named brenda driver calls in to give a tip on the case brenda shared how she had heard
11:39about
11:39lula's death on the news but swears she had just saw lula at a local shopping center in horn lake
11:47the investigators know this can't be possible because lula had been positively identified
11:52using photos but brenda says she's an agent for nationwide insurance and four months prior to lula
11:59young's death she had been to lula's house and sold lula a 500 000 life insurance policy
12:07and she said a policy of that value requires a medical evaluation the medical evaluation showed
12:15that lula didn't have any health issues police found this odd because in their background on lula
12:24they had found out that she had just undergone treatment for breast cancer brenda is sure
12:32that the woman she saw come in the discount store was lula young and she's positive that this person is
12:41still alive investigators wonder if brenda is getting confused and so they decided to do a photo
12:49lineup with different women from horn lake as well as linda layham and lula young
12:57looking at the lineup brenda driver immediately said that's the woman she sold the insurance policy
13:03as well as the person she'd seen at the store a few days before and points to a photo of
13:09lula's best
13:10friend linda layham all the more shocking lula had put the beneficiary on the policy to be linda
13:22leadham investigators are beginning to wonder whether linda layham posed for lulu young
13:30so the police go speak to linda layham about the insurance policy investigators are shocked and linda
13:39admits to the insurance fraud but says that it was lula's idea according to linda lola decided to
13:48get the life insurance policy and put linda as the beneficiary so that if and when she died linda would
13:56use the money to take care of lula's family and the money not go to the kids and then spend
14:01it all at one
14:02time linda told police lula wanted her to represent her during the medical examination the intent of the
14:13identity swap was so that lula could hide evidence of her cancer then linda tells investigators that lula
14:24wanted to commit suicide with the fire because if she had died through cancer the children would not
14:30have received any money from the insurance policy sure it was plausible that because of her illness
14:37lula was involved in the insurance fraud part of it but dying by fire is an extremely painful way to
14:45die
14:46surely you would never agree to die in a house fire i'm thinking there's definitely something strange
14:53going on but linda insisted that she didn't have anything to do with setting the fire she said she had
15:00been with her family all night so investigators call her family and her alibi checks out
15:09i am a private investigator insurance companies will hire when the claim is suspicious
15:16in this case investigators knew linda didn't start the fire but she is not an innocent woman linda took the
15:24medical exam on lula's behalf and even though she claims that lula asked her to do it is still fraud
15:34so the case is elevated to the fbi and the postal inspector because she was putting the insurance
15:42policies in the mail and using the u.s postal services to commit insurance fraud is criminal
15:49and looking at all the evidence they decided to go forward with the insurance fraud and mail fraud aspect
15:55of the investigation through further investigation we find that linda had already received several
16:03hundred thousand dollars from the insurance payout so by this time 275 thousand dollars of the 500
16:12thousand dollars has been paid to linda lead them but payments are now haunted due to the fraud
16:20investigation when investigators talked to linda she had told them lula knew that linda would use the
16:28money to take care of lula's kids and so now investigators need to go interview the kids and find out
16:35about what they know about the situation i had a conversation with a postal inspector asked me did i
16:48know about uh insurance policies i said mom told me that she had a ten thousand dollar life insurance
16:55policy basically the insurance policy was supposed to do the burial but then he said she had insurance
17:03policies over 500 000 i started laughing at him i said there is no way i said she couldn't afford
17:09the
17:09premiums for 500 000 life insurance policy so i know she wouldn't have it the investigators made it
17:17clear that linda had been posing as mom and had received all this money and i told him linda never
17:25gave
17:26me money from mom's insurance policy at this point i'm very angry to the fact that she would do this
17:37because mom trusted linda with everything
17:43at this point investigators need to find out more about the relationship between lola and linda
17:50the investigators did call us a couple times and i told her approximately 1978 when lula and john young
17:57moved into horn lake one of their neighbors was linda leadham and her husband linda and mom got to
18:04talking and stuff and they kind of hit it off they would go out to lunch to the flea markets
18:11things of
18:12that nature she had been my mom's best friend for 20 years she was a good friend of lola she
18:19was even
18:20friend with the rest of the family she would come to my grandmother's with my mom and linda did taxes
18:27she did taxes for my mom she did taxes for both of my aunts uh one of my uncles
18:35linda ledham did accounting for people in horn lake her father was a police commissioner linda
18:43ledham was very well respected in the horn lake community her full-time job is working as a nurse and
18:51she saved up her vacation days so that she could use those days to work on taxes where she could
19:00make up to
19:01a hundred thousand dollars residents in horn lake say that linda ledham had a healthy obsession for money
19:17and further investigating the case and digging through linda's financial records it was found
19:24that linda had gone on a a spending spree she's buying cars she's buying homes linda is spending the
19:35insurance money rather quickly little if any of that money has gone to the children of lula young
19:41that is shocking at this point we know linda ledham is the only person with a motive and she got
19:50a huge
19:51dollar amount motive which raised the question was linda really capable of killing lola or had she paid
19:59someone else to do it
20:19once linda ledham lula's best friend admitted to the insurance fraud aspect it gave the investigators
20:28motive that she could have been involved in lula's death investigators tried to keep everything as
20:36tight as they could as far as what they knew and how they were operating but linda ledham knew people
20:43around the community she knew people at dispatch and she was trying to check in to how the investigation
20:50was progressing that looked suspicious to investigators linda ledham is our primary suspect so we wanted to
20:59make her think that the case was rude an accidental fire so the fire investigators told her it could have
21:06been a faulty electric cord that could have started the fire at this point in the case there's more than
21:13one
21:13investigation going on there's the fire investigation there's a possible murder investigation and then
21:19there's the insurance fraud investigation first investigators put together their insurance fraud case
21:28once the investigators started digging looking through the databases it was found that linda had actually
21:34taken out four insurance policies on lula young's life there was two metropolitan insurance policies
21:43one for seventy five thousand dollars and one for two hundred thousand dollars the third insurance
21:49policy was with nationwide in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars and then there was another small
21:55insurance policy a month before the fire in the amount of thirty eight thousand dollars
22:02and linda once again is set up as the beneficiary so at this point the investigation was turned
22:10over to the u.s attorney's office because arson is hard to prove especially if you don't have any witnesses
22:18or someone who confesses to starting the fight so the u.s attorney's office want to first prosecute
22:25linda for insurance fraud while detectives build a case for lula's murder
22:34two years later the feds finally indicted linda for the insurance fraud and mail fraud and she actually
22:42pled guilty on those charges also linda had to give back the money from the insurance policy and was
22:49put on probation while we continued to work on the murder investigation
23:00it really made me think linda was connected to the death of my sister lola because of the
23:04fact she was one that had something to gain i felt that she was responsible but i didn't know how
23:12because linda's a lot of things but she didn't have the stones to do it on her own
23:19nor did she have the knowledge so she might have wanted mom dead but i didn't understand how she could
23:26have got mom dead and i was told to trust the process that they was working on things to get
23:31that
23:31answer there was a mountain of evidence against linda for murder but it's all circumstantial evidence
23:43and linda had an alibi on the day of the fire investigators know the tools that were used in the
23:50arson
23:51that being the propane tank with the valve slightly open and the electrical heater in the room it's
23:59just that they don't know who exactly did fire always messes up everything where it's hard to determine
24:07what happened and fire can destroy any evidence that could be left behind
24:13linda's not admitting anything and efforts to prove that linda has done anything other than the
24:20insurance fraud have not come to light it's very frustrating because at this point we're at a dead end
24:28the fire investigation and the murder investigation have pretty much stalled out
24:41and then just months later there's a big break in the case when the da's office receives a tip from
24:49a jail informant a man claimed he was close friends with both lula and linda and had learned of lula's
24:57death and it was weighing heavy on him he dropped the bomb he told us he knew the person who
25:05killed lula
25:06linda this is the lead we have been waiting for
25:25i received a call one day from county jail stating that they had a guy named david vinson
25:32that claimed he knew something about the death of lula young so i go to the jail and talk to
25:41david vinson
25:44he told me that somebody that done some work for him named charles wayne dunn
25:50had confided to him one day that he burned lula up in a house fire for linda later david the
26:01confidential
26:01informant hadn't come forward before this point because he didn't think linda was really capable of
26:08killing lula
26:16david had explained to investigators that he just wanted to keep his head down but then guilt started
26:22to get the best of it he felt like he had to let somebody know what done had told him
26:28about and getting
26:29the investigation pointed in the right direction when i finished that interview with david
26:35and it becomes imperative that i come up with a way to corroborate his statement
26:42so i checked into dunn's past and saw where done was on probation for a possession of cocaine charge
26:50so i called dunn's probation officer and said have him come in for a meeting
26:55i want him to just sit in the lobby of the probation office and then i took david out of
27:02jail
27:02wired him up and sent him into the probation office lobby like he was getting on probation
27:10when charles walks into the parole office he's surprised to see david there
27:16the two strike up a conversation and catch up on old times david eases into the conversation
27:24with him gets him relaxed and brings up wanting to kill somebody and how he remembered how guilty
27:30done felt and charles kind of shakes his head at david and says to think twice about it because he's
27:40had
27:40a hard time escaping his own past he didn't deny he didn't say what are you talking about i didn't
27:48ever
27:49tell you i did any of that his response affirmed that he had indeed had that conversation with david in
27:55the past about killing lola i'm thinking that this is what we needed to move forward and questioning dunn
28:06so i go to pick up dunn to bring him in for questioning on the case when he opened the
28:13door
28:14he said i've been waiting on you guys to show up it was at that point and i bring in
28:18charles
28:19wayne dunn to the district attorney's office for questioning when charles is brought in to the
28:25investigator's surprise he immediately confesses to starting the fire that killed lula
28:33dunn stated that he knew lula and he was also friends with linda leadham and actually dated her
28:39daughter and in 1994 a month prior to lulu young's death linda had approached dunn with a proposition to
28:47kill lula linda stated she'd pay him five thousand dollars to kill lula to make it look like an
28:53accident and said that lulu was a part of the plan because she was dying from cancer and they didn't
29:00want to take any chance of the policy not paying from the cancer of course i believe lula would never
29:07agree to be tortured by fire dine claims that linda had told him that she was such good friends with
29:16lula that she couldn't bring herself to kill lula but she could get someone else too linda wanted lula dead
29:24at all costs
29:30dunn stated that him and linda came up with a plan to make the fire look like an accident
29:36that the plan involved using a propane tank and a space heater and we didn't share that information
29:45with the public which led us to believe that dunn was being truthful in the minor about what happened
29:50and how it was done according to dunn linda gave him the funds to make the purchase of the heater
29:57and linda dropped the propane tank off at lula's house asking her to store it there
30:03because it was a christmas gift for one of her kids
30:08after dunn confessed he was arrested and charged with captain murder and arson
30:16when i found out that they had arrested mr dunn for the murder of lula and we found out they
30:22tried
30:23to convince investigators said lula committed suicide it did surprise me because lula will always believe
30:30that we fight on plus one of my mom's biggest fears was burning she would never be part of a
30:40plan of a
30:40suicide i was very angry to the fact that they would do this mom never saw this coming not in
30:50a million years
30:55now that i have done in custody i devised a plan to wire him up and send him into linda's
31:02house
31:03we needed her to admit her involvement in lula's death to prove this was a cold-blooded premeditated murder
31:13i'm thinking we finally have her
31:28in order to try to corroborate charles dunn's statement linda led him had paid him to he said
31:33lula's house and fire so i devised a plan to send dunn to linda's house with the wire
31:39and they talked to linda
31:43charles mentions the police has been sniffing around and they've been asking him questions
31:48about lula and he wanted to know what to do linda's a pretty savvy lady linda doesn't take the bait
31:57she just says hey i'll give you five hundred dollars to get out of town this is not the behavior
32:04of an
32:05innocent woman but linda did not say anything incriminating that would give us the evidence
32:12necessary to charge her so investigators need to get more information from dunn about what happened
32:21on the night of the fire
32:25dunn reveals to me that he went over on the night of december the 18th and parked his car in
32:31lula's
32:31driveway and goes in the house him and lula were friends and it wasn't uncommon for him to go visit
32:38with her dunn and lula were socializing and lula asked him to fix her some tea and he slipped the
32:45sleeping pills in her drink while he was fixing the tea charles tells them after lula went to sleep
32:53he was able to go to his truck and retrieve the heater he brought the heater into the house plugged
32:59it in cropped up newspapers and opened the valve to the propane tank that linda had dropped off earlier
33:07and then he left the house and drove off into the night a few hours later the heater ignited the
33:13paper
33:14and caused the explosion
33:19dunn told us the next day he went to leadham's house and she paid him a thousand dollars with
33:25the remainder of the balance to be paid in smaller increments over a period of time
33:29the things he told us lined up with the arson investigators findings on the case
33:36which led us to believe that dunn was being truthful about what happened and how it was done
33:43at this point investigators got a judge to issue a search warrant for linda's home
33:50when investigators went to linda's house she was in shock she acted as if she didn't know why they was
33:57there while i was doing the search at linda's house i located the four separate policies on lola young
34:06they also discovered another insurance policy that listed linda as a beneficiary set up for a man named
34:15robert stovall
34:18at this point investigators are concerned was linda plotting more than one murder
34:27investigators need to speak with robert stovall as soon as possible to find out if he knew linda and if
34:35he agreed to make her a beneficiary of an insurance policy
34:42in checking up on his background we learned robert lived in somerville tennessee in a home
34:49designed for special needs fashion so we went to talk to him investigators uh quickly realized that
34:57robert stovall is a 44 year old disabled man who was incapable of agreeing to have an insurance
35:06policies taken out on him not only did robert stovall not consent he didn't even know linda
35:13that within itself is a crime because in order to take out a insurance policy there must be consent
35:22from the insured party i'm thinking maybe linda had also asked dunn to kill robert stovall
35:30investigators head to the jail to re-question charles dunn
35:36dunn admits that after lula's murder linda then approached him with the request to kill robert
35:43stovall linda offered him ten thousand dollars to commit the murder and he said that he'd do it
35:51dunn told me linda's mother was robert stovall's home caregiver and this is how linda learned about
35:59his disabilities and decided to target him in another insurance scam
36:03fortunately the scheme was never carried out because charles was arrested on unrelated charges
36:10detectives had long believed that linda was responsible for lula's murder
36:16but they could not prove it until now
36:28finally more than two years after lula's death we presented the facts of the case to a desota
36:34county grand jury and a warrant was issued for linda's arrest to look at linda you wouldn't think
36:41that we had a killer here but she was arrested for capital murder and conspiracy to commit capital
36:48murder arson and three counts of fraud
36:55well i was pissed you were supposed to be my mom's best friend we treated you like family and now
37:03you know
37:03you're gonna do my mom in i found it very disturbing i have never wanted to
37:11inflict harm on someone so bad until that day
37:19linda ladum has gone from the nice lady next door that everybody knows to a criminal mastermind
37:26just about everyone had concerns that if for some reason she got found not guilty
37:31on the murder and only got convicted on the insurance fraud the time would have been minimal
37:36at this point we still need to prove linda plotted for months and then carried out a brutal murder
38:03this case had finally come to fruition the courtroom was packed linda laden was stoic she
38:10she didn't show a lot of emotion and linda's defense was that lula was a part of this plan to
38:19get the
38:19insurance policies benefits to her children but there was no way that lula would have chosen that manner
38:30of death and the children didn't receive a dime from the policies and then prosecutors laid out all the
38:39evidence and piece together the steps of linda laden's diabolical plan to kill that was two years in the making
38:53first in 1992 linda laden begins purchasing life insurance policies under lula's name those policies
39:01added up to nearly a million dollars then two years later in november 1994 she approaches charles
39:09wayne dunn with a proposition and a complex plan to kill lula in the fire linda purchases a propane
39:18gas tank and asks lula to keep it in her home lula agrees never questioning the motive of her friend
39:26the next day linda gives don money to purchase a small space heater on the night before the fire charles
39:35don goes over to lula's house and spends time with her during the visit he slipped sleeping pills into
39:42her drink to sedate her once lula is asleep don retrieves the heater from his vehicle and sets it up
39:50inside the house he then crumples up paper scatters it around the heater and then opens up the propane tank
40:00after several hours the combination of gas buildup and heat results in a deadly explosion
40:07and lula dies in the fire the next morning linda pretends to be distraught over the death of her best
40:13friend then over the next few months linda cashes in on the four life insurance policies
40:24linda leadham had been planning my mother's demise for some time this was the most premeditated coldest
40:35callous murder that i've ever seen from an individual this wasn't just a murder it was a blueprint for
40:46the ultimate act of betrayal the court does not side in linda's favor they find her guilty of capital
41:05murder and guilty of conspiracy to commit capital murder the judge told her and i quote you do not
41:13deserve to stand in the light of freedom and i'm going to make sure that you never see the sunshine
41:21without a prison wall in front of it i hereby send it to you to life without the possibility of
41:27parole
41:28plus 20 years
41:34i feel like it was a just sentence linda's got to wake up every day locked behind bars
41:40and think about why she's there and what she done with the person that she called a friend
41:59my mother never got to see my son
42:05i would like to think that she would be proud of who he is a kid that
42:12is more willing to help somebody than to hurt them
42:18my mom never hurt nobody
42:22she tried to help everybody
42:26and for a young man
42:30that never got to see his grandmother
42:33i see so much in him
42:36from her
42:40that makes my heart feel good
42:44and that's what i want the world to know
42:51and i want to know
42:56and i receive all the time
42:56and i believe so
43:00and i will see you
43:00in the through
43:00and i will see you
43:01You
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