Snapped: Women Who Murder - Frances Truesdale

Episode Date: May 30, 2021

The 1988 roadside murder of a man in Virginia sends investigators down a path fraught with doubts and dead ends, until a long-buried secret is unearthed hundreds of miles away revealing decades-old secrets.Season 26, Episode 9Originally aired: October 6, 2019Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIeb See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. After years of trials and tragedy, she thought she had finally found the one. He loved his job and loved his work, and loved his family.

They were quite happy. Until one night on a lonely Virginia highway, a killer ended 20 years of wedded bliss. The blood was all the way down her chest. She was mostly just saying help him, you know? Help him, I don't know what to do. He said we've got to get out of here. These guys are after me.

But as one determined investigator will discover, this highway to hell is littered with long buried and shameful secrets. Windsboro is a little town. Everybody knows everybody's secrets. I was very suspicious. The story just didn't add up. And he told us to zoom the body.

We had zoomed the body. I glanced at her, and it was like, I will get you. I was scared. I was really scared. MUSIC April 21, 1988. Roanoke, Virginia resident Clarence Crouch is driving down a secluded stretch of interstate 581 when his radio crackles to life.

Clarence Crouch was monitoring his CB radio that night and heard a frantic call from a woman. A lady said that her husband had been shot and that he was on 581. The frantic woman says she's not familiar with CB radios and asks for someone to call police. Clarence recognizes the woman's location. He was close by, so he would figure he would try to find him and try to give him help.

He relayed the information into the dispatch center and also went to her location. Roanoke police officers at Doug Allen and Jean Bush both respond immediately to the scene. My primary concern then is to render aid to the person that's injured. Upon arrival, they find Clarence Crouch and a conversion van parked a skew on the roadside.

He said, there's a lady here. Her husband has been shot in the head. He pointed out that they were in the back of the van. I looked in the back door, and you could see all the way up to the drivers and passenger seats. And there was a gentleman laying there on a blanket. The wife was laying directly behind the driver's seat and was cradling her husband's upper torso in with hers. She was upset upsetting crying.

Her husband's injury is unmistakably grave. There was a lot of blood around his head area where he had been shot. There was a lot of blood on the floor of the van. The distraught woman identifies herself as Francis Trusdale. The man barely clinging to life in her arms is her husband of 20 years Jerry Trusdale.

She was mostly just saying help him. Help him, I don't know what to do. Jerry Trusdale's life began 260 miles south of Roanoke in the sleepy South Carolina mill town of Windsboro, population 3200. Jerry Trusdale was my first cousin, his dad, and my dad were brothers. Jerry was a good boy. He worked hard. He was very, very loved by his sisters and his mom.

Winsboro was a good place to grow up in. You could go out in the yard and I did, and you could play all day long. Not worry about anybody bothering you or hurting you. So that's the kind of little town Winsboro was. In 1967, when Jerry returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam, Winsbro hadn't changed, but Jerry had. Like many returning veterans, he found it difficult to readjust to the slow pace of civilian life. Jerry sought the familiar faces of family and friends.

We hadn't seen him in a long while. At the time, Francis was married to Red, and I actually lived next door to her. And Jerry came by Francis and Little Red's house to see me when he came home from Vietnam. Francis Beasley and her husband, Ronald Little Red Beasley, were fixtures in the community and had been married for two years. While Frances was a stay-at-home mother, Little Red ran a local automotive body shop.

He was Husky built, but he was short and had red hair, so he was called Little Red. Little Red had really sweet demeanor. Very nice, nice to everyone. We'd go out of his way to help whoever he could, never met a stranger. He loved to work on cars. He worked in a shop, a mechanic, and he was a little bit of a, I don't want to climb a roust about,

but a little bit of a daredevil. On the weekends, little red liked to race cars at a local track with his best friend, a police officer named Herman Young. Herman Young was black and little red was white. And in South Carolina in the 60s, those kinds of close friendships, but were rare. Nevertheless, they worked on cars together,

they raised cars together. And they just generally goofed around and had a good time with each other just buddies. Red's free-thinking ways were also exemplified by the loving acceptance he extended to his wife, Francis. Francis had been married previously, and got married again, had three children, and they had moved to Windsboro,

and she had gotten a divorce. For Francis' truce day, to move to Windsboro as a twice divorced single mother was kind of gossipy for people in Windsboro. But obviously little red with his wild and a carefree attitude didn't bother him and the slightest. She was in her early 20s at that point

and seemingly they were quite happy. Nice to go to the job with France and Little Red. I did, you know, care for the boys and a clean house. She would always want to be at the shop with Little Red. So that's where she spent her time. Then, one fateful spring day, everything changed for Little Red Beasley. This was in Mars that year,

and that's when he had that brain hemorrhage. Little Red was 29 when this stroke occurred. Little Red was completely paralyzed on one side. As I remember, he had very little usage of his left hand, and Little Red could not walk. He had gone from being a pretty energetic young man to being a paraplegic, a little quadriplegic, actually. Jerry Trusdale and the rest of the community

rallied around little red and Francis. But red's drastic transformation from charismatic husband and father to complete invalid proved almost too much for his loved ones to bear. It was very sad because he'd always been so independent and to see him come back and have to be lifted and moved from one chair to another. That was humiliating for him to see that he couldn't talk well at all.

His father has said he always thought the little red would somehow fight through the stroke and get back most of his faculties. But he never did and seemed to get worse and at least not better. Jerry watched helplessly, as the burden of caring for red, consumed Francis' every waking moment. Then, on July 6, 1967, tragedy struck again. Someone had pulled up and said, did you hear about Little Red? He just committed suicide. The story that I got was that Little Red

beesley allegedly shot us in. It was very sad to see that all of that had happened to him. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Francis found comfort in the arms of the one person who could understand her loss, Jerry Trusdale. It was quick out the little red death of Francis and Jerry. We got married. They were just ready to just accept it and move on.

So they just said, you know, little red death is maybe a blessing because of the shape that he was in. The newlyweds, Jerry and Francis, left Windsboro behind and made a new start in North Carolina. He's truck driver, long distance truck driver. So he spent a lot of time on the road. No matter how far a field, Jerry's trucking career took him over the next two decades. He always knew Francis would be waiting for him at home.

Jerry Troubles was married to her, you know, everything was fine and dandy. Now the same arms that Jerry Troubles day-alonged to come home to were cradling his nearly lifeless body. Jerry was laying there. He was struggling to breathe, but he was still alive.

My primary concern at that point was getting Jerry to his day of hell. He does have a pulse, but the gunshot was preventing him from being able to give me any information. Francis said to me that they had been at the rest area and that there had been some sort of an altercation between her husband and some other gentleman

and that they had shot him. Coming up, a terrified eyewitness recounts a desperate race for survival. Jerry jumped into the van and said, we've got to get out of here. These guys are after me. And a surprising caller sends the investigation in an entirely new direction.

She had some doubt as to how the incident had taken place. In the early hours of April 21, 1988, a call from a good Samaritan led police to a grizzly scene by the side of a Virginia highway. Officers found 41-year-old Jerry Trusdale lying in the arms of his wife Francis and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the forehead. The key to this was to get him to a medical center as quickly as possible. He still did have a pulse, and so they immediately put him

on an ambulance and took him to the closest hospital, which was community hospital. They put him on an ambulance and took him to the club's hospital, which was community hospital. After we had transported Jerry to the hospital, I was preparing to get Francis to the same hospital so that she could be with him. At this point, Francis realizes that she doesn't have her purse with her. It's still in the van. And I told her I would go back and get her purse for her and she insisted that she be the one that got her purse. At that moment, it didn't really make a lot of sense to me. She didn't ask how he was doing once he was transported. She was more concerned with other things like her purse.

When I got her to the hospital, I didn't stay with her very long at the hospital, but she was crying, but it wasn't like what I would expect. She was almost cold. Doctors rush Jerry into surgery and give investigators their first clue about the weapon used in the attack. When Jerry was in the surgery, they found out it was a, you know, it was a small caliber gun.

It was a 22. While Francis waits outside the OR for news of Jerry's condition, police cordoned off the crime scene. We called him an evidence technician or an ET, and one responded, we always did that for any crime scene. We didn't, at that point, know where the gun was, or if the gun had indeed been in the van. So evidence technicians, from the run,

it's the police department, searched it, looking for the gun. The search of the van turns up nothing, so they're focused shifts to who might have fired a weapon. The evidence technicians check and see if there's any gunpowder residue or anything on the hands of anybody, President, really. They're the ones that go over to the hospital and they do the gunshot residue on the hands of the victim and Francis.

She would simply use tape and you would tape around their hands and then send it off to a laboratory somewhere and have it analyzed. As the GSR samples are being sent off to the lab, the hospital releases a grim update. Jerry's prospects of survival are next to zero. That is when Mr. Kazee showed up from state police and took over the investigation. Barry Kazee was the state investigator that was assigned to handle the call.

Barry kind of takes on the chore of trying to find out what exactly happened in that van that night. So he came and got our reports and spoke with myself and Sergeant Allen. Virginia law enforcement legend, Barry Cazze's reputation precedes him. Barry Cazze is one of the best state police homicide investigators that I've had in the pleasure of meeting.

He's the kind of guy that would walk out of a movie set with a rumpled hat, rumpled suit, and a rough voice that sounds like he's smoked way too many cigarettes, but he's to the point, and very matter of fact. You did not want very Kazee dog in you, but call it he never gave up. He never closed the case until in his mind, it was 100% closed. He never left anything open, and he got very, very angry if he, if he run into dead ends and couldn't go any further

with. After getting a thorough look at the scene, Detective Cazee immediately turns his attention to Frances Trusdale, the sole eyewitness to Jerry's attack. I sat in on the original interview with her with Detective Cousé. Frances told us that they were on their way to Tennessee. She and her husband had been traveling down in the state 81,

and they stopped at a rest stop. Frances told them that they ran into a couple of guys from New York that tried to get money off of. Jerry jumped into the van and said, we've got to get out of here and said these guys are after me. And so she was driving and he was in the passenger side and the two guys in the car were chasing them and kept trying to cut them off with their vehicle.

Francis says that their pursuers quickly outmaneuvered her. They followed them down the road, taught up with them and cut them off. Jerry got angry about them trying to hurt them and everything, so he told her stop the van. I'm going back and talk to him. She said that he got out of the van and walked to the rear of the van and a guy stepped out of the car and shot him in the head. She said she had grabbed him and dragged him back up into the van.

Francis' detailed description of the chase and the shooting holds investigators spellbound. But when it comes to a description of the chase and the shooting holds investigators spellbound. But when it comes to a description of the attackers, she doesn't have much. She said it was two males that were in the confrontation with Jerry. Usually you'll get what they were wearing a plaid shirt or they were in green tennis shoes or something. Something sticks out in their memory, but she could give no information about either one of these two people. While Francis is unable to offer a description of the two men, she does remember crucial details

about their car. She said that the last that she saw down, they were traveling southbound on 581 in a light-colored Ford Granada with New York tags. She said that it was a New York plate with RUD on it. So I immediately told our dispatchers to notify and we had officers that worked districts all the way up to the city limits.

We contacted New York to see if they could get us some more information on the vehicle. And we just kind of start picking up from there. At that point in time, we're taking things in face value on what she's saying, because that's all we've got to go of. As day breaks, investigators can vis-the-interstate for clues. We went and searched areas looking for guns, you know,

along the roadway. We drove that whole entire shoulder looking for some form of blood. There was no blood in the roadway. We drove that whole entire shoulder looking for some form of blood. There was no blood in the road. There was no blood in the road. Of course, she was at when we found her. There was no blood in the shoulder of the road all the way up to 81. Not finding blood on the outside anywhere. That's a lot of bells going off there. We eventually towed the van and did more of the work with the van down at our compound. You know, they took blood tests and stuff and they printed for other strange handprints and all of that.

Now, investigators anxiously await word of a match for the make, model, and partial New York plate they've circulated. We never got back anything from the surrounding jurisdictions that they had seen a light-colored granada. After two days of chasing dead ends, detectives get a dreaded update about Jerry. We got word back from the hospital

that he had in fact passed away. So it became then, rather than a shooting, it became a homicide. The shortage of evidence puts the murder investigation in limbo until a phone call changes everything. Very busy received a call from Jerry's sister, and she had some doubt as to how the incident had taken place. She called up to Roanoke, and she ended up talking to Barry

Gasey. She got the ball rolling. Coming up, a witness's conflicting stories are brought to light. He can't stop the blood from flowing, but there was a rat. And an old friend unearths a deadly scandal from the past. The very night that he got elected, she said, that's going to be my first priority. The rumor had been around for 21 years. [♪ Music playing in background, talk show hangout, but with a smart list twist.

We are diving deep into David Letterman's incredible career in the moments that shaped him into the beloved icon he is today. Our interview with David Letterman was reported live in Brooklyn in front of thousands of our biggest fans from our smart list tour. This is the fourth of 10 interviews with new episodes releasing every Thursday. We're talking with celebrities and icons like the Great, Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Kimmel, so many more. Join us for an unforgettable conversation that will have you laughing, pondering

and quite possibly contemplating growing a beard like Letterman's. I know I have. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wondry app, or on Apple Podcasts. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ After two weeks of searching, police in Roanoke, Virginia have found no trace of the two mysterious men Francis Trusdale claims are responsible

for the roadside murder of her husband Jerry. But the investigation takes a sudden turn when Detective Barry Kazee receives a phone call from Jerry Truzdale's sister Ann Lettrek. She loved her brother dearly, and when she was in the hospital. Francis had told the family a couple of conflicting stories. Francis originally said he was shot outside of the vehicle

and that she had grabbed him and pulled him up and put him between the seats. Later on, she says that he was shot inside the vehicle and that he slumped over, and she just kind of maneuvered his body between the seats and laid him down. The conflicting stories Francis shared with Jerry's family raised significant doubts for investigators. I do not think that she would have been big enough or strong enough to deadlift him off the

ground and get him into the van as small as she was and as frail as she was. And see, if she had pulled him from the back of the van to the front of the van where she was setting, there would be a blood slide all the way back through the van. He can't stop the blood from flowing, but there was her. According to Jerry's sister Anne, another incident took place decades earlier and hundreds of miles away in Winsboro, South Carolina. It appears Jerry isn't Francis' first husband to die under suspicious circumstances. She believed that Francis had killed read beastly. That's what caused Barry Kazee to go to Windsboro to start investigating the suicide of Little Red Beasley. To find

the truth about Ronald Little Red Beasley's death, Kazee must start with the official version of the story. Barry goes directly to their chair of department there and pulls the records of the suicide and starts to talk to the investigators down there. Because he quickly learns that the recorded facts don't add up and that the whole community knows it. Windsboro is a little town and as a little town,

everybody knows everybody's secrets. And they also know everybody's rumors. And the rumor that Francis Trujale had actually killed Little Red and faked it to make it look like a suicide had been around for 21 years. Through a series of one-on-one interviews with family members, friends, and caregivers, Barry Kazee pieces together a very different version

of events. Following Little Red's debilitating stroke, rumors swirled about Jerry Trusdale and Red's wife, Frances. Maddie and I always help to take care of everything around the house, so Francis could be free to stay with Little Red. Jerry would come over at the house a lot, and I would see them sitting on the sofa or whatever,

kissing and making out. According to the beesleys, then 17-year-old housekeeper Maddie Caldwell, the morning of July 6, 1967, began much like any other. I do remember Jerry Trouce de la Cain by the house that they friends went to the car and they talked. And Jerry left and she came left and she came back inside. Maddie says that Jerry's visit was brief,

but as the morning unfolded, she noticed a change in Francis. It was a lot of weird behaviors going on. She got real nervous after Jerryere Toothstair came back. Francis told her to go outside and fold clothes. This is in the summertime when it was hot. And she said that Miss Troubles will close all of the doors and the windows. Francis had the radio turned up loud,

both television and the radio. And while I was at the clothesline, it was about 10 minutes or less. I hear the gunshot went off. I heard France running to the door calling me. And when France opened the door, she was all bloody. She told me, Maddie, come here, come quick. So I went inside and little red would line face down with the rifle on the left side. The friends said he shot at her and they stuck to going in the mouth and shot himself.

Maddie and others agreed, however, that Francis' disabled husband simply couldn't have committed suicide in this way. My first reaction was, why did Francis shoot Marie? I said, there's no way this boy ain't killed himself. There was a 22 rifle. I've been in the corners office for 40-something years, and I've only known two people that committed suicide with 22 rifle. I've been in the car in his office for 40-something years, and I've only known two people that committed suicide with 22 rifles, and a little red beastly was one of them.

There was no way that red beastly was able to get up, get a gun, get the bullets off the top shelf of the cabinet, load the gun, and commit suicide, because he was bed-bound, chair-bound, unable to do anything for himself. And if police records were to be believed, Red Beasley's death was actually his second suicide attempt in a span of two weeks.

I remember in particular one day before the shooting. I went to his room to make sure he was okay, and Francis blocked me, and said, oh, don't go in there. He's tried to kill himself. He's tried to cut his throat in his wrist. And when I looked into the room, the sheets and cover were covered with blood. And he was just like a little pitiful monger.

She called 911, and Little Red was rushed to the hospital, where they patched him up. And he went home. It was barely a week later when Little Red supposedly got the gun and committed suicide. Barry Kazee, when he heard this, founded very shocking. He said, how does a man who can only move his left hand cut his left wrist?

If he would move his left hand, he would have cut it right wrist. So he found this very suspicious. In fact, it seems the only people who accepted Francis' version of events were the local police. If you knew Francis, you would understand that she had a way of convincing the police that Little Red was in such a state of mind that that would have caused him to try to commit suicide. It tended to be a town that respected authority. It was very insular. The sheriff was the boss.

And in this county, in that time, I think the sheriff only had five deputies. And the case had been dropped and no one raised their suspicions, at least to anybody officially. I was scared. I was a teenager. And the police back then were different than they are now. They didn't have all the technology and everything that they have now. But nobody wanted to listen to me anyway. I was just a teenager. They believed her. They believed what she said. While police decided not to investigate further, Red's friends and family have no doubt

what motivated Francis' actions. Francis, she wanted to get rid of Lurin, so she could be with Jerry Toursdale. Jerry came back from Vietnam. He was handsome, and here she was, you know, had an ambitolid husband, and she was attracted to Jerry. Partist hit was Red's best friend, Herman Young.

Well, I was told at Francis through a big part of the day after Little Red was shot. Herman Young came by Francis and Little Red house that Friday night to sit with Francis, you know, console her. Herman said he heard all the laughing, screaming, dancing, music. He said he just sat there in his car and sobbed

and never went in. In the decades since, the officials who signed off on Little Red's suicide have passed away. Kaziz' journey to the truth brings him to the current Fairfield County South Carolina coroner. Very good see. It was telling me about Francis Truesdale

and her husband Jerry. He said, but as I'm investigating this case, I'm hearing about another husband that died in your county. And was you to coroner then? And I said, no sir, I wasn't a coroner then, but we were working on that case. died in your county and was you to coronet in, and I said, no, sir, I wasn't to coronet in, but we're working on that case.

Coroner Joe Sylvia tells Barry Cazee he's not working alone. As it turns out, little red beesleys old friend Herman Young has recently been elected sheriff of Fairfield County. Herman Young made a promise that if he was ever elected sheriff, that he was going to do his best to reopen that case. And Herman Young knew like I did from day one at Little Red Beasley didn't kill himself.

I mean, he knew that in his heart just like I did. And he carried that around for all of those years and I did as well. Coming up, Justice Threatens to slip through investigators' fingers yet again. He said, you all have a better case against Francis down here in South Carolina than we have against her in Virginia. Welcome, y'all, they're trying her.

In our gut, we felt like she was a suspect in a committee to murder, but we really had no proof of it. MUSIC MUSIC After a tip led Virginia state investigator, Barry Kazee to Winsborough, South Carolina, the suspect list in the roadside murder of Jerry Trusdale has narrowed down to one name,

Francis Trusdale. Detective suspect Francis may have the blood of two husbands on her hands. Anne Litteracku was a Jerry Trusdale's sister, alerted Detective Barry Cazee that she thought that Frances Trusdale had also killed little red beasley back in 1967. Barry told me that it was in his professional opinion that it's impossible to have been a suicide.

I think it's a very big coincidence that both of the husbands died from gunshot winds of a 22 caliber weapon. While Little Red's death was swept under the rug in 1967, Kazee has made contact with two men in Winsboro, South Carolina, who've made it their business to prove that little red was murdered, coroner Joe Sylvia, and the new Fairfield County Sheriff,

Red's best friend, Herman Young. When Herman Young was elected sheriff, the very night that he was elected, I asked him, I said, Herman, what do you think about opening up this little red beasley case? And he said, that's going to be my first priority. All signs point to Frances Trusdale as a potential black widow killer,

responsible for the deaths of two husbands. Very guzzy. He said, you know, he said, you all have a better case against Frances down here in South Carolina than we have against her in Virginia. Welcome, y'all ain't trying her. And I said, well, we're working on trying to get her. In our gut, we felt like she was the suspect in a committee deberter,

but we really had no proof of it. And stuff, you run into that very frequently, where you feel certain that this person is guilty, but you just can't prove it. Despite a meticulous search of Jerry Trusdale's crime scene, police haven't obtained sufficient evidence to charge and convict. Now, believing that Francis has killed before, Kaziz team focuses on motive. They weren't necessarily fighting

or talking about divorce, maybe at that point, but she was having a very active lifestyle while her husband was on the road working. Barry told me that Francis was probably having an affair. A search of the couple's financial records provides the final piece of the puzzle. Barry was convinced that Francis Trujsteau had killed her husband to gain a $250,000

dollar life insurance policy. As far as I know, he was in perfectly good health at the time. And so the killing once, in this case, appears to have been purely for financial gain. Investigators now believe they know what really happened that fateful night on the highway. In my head, she was driving the van, Jerry was sleeping in the back, on the blanket and everything, and she shot him in the head.

I think she planned that whole trip, and I think she shot him, and then I think she disposed of that weapon, and Carl gave him enough time to probably bleed out, and then was calling for help. Just like she tried to do with La Red. Her whole case, when they were investigating Jerry's murder, was that she didn't know anything about guns, so she couldn't possibly have been involved with shooting him.

She didn't even know how to shoot a gun. But detectives discover that Francis' claims don't hold water. As Barry did more investigation, he found out that she was actually quite comfortable with weapons and had fired them on more than one occasion. I took care of her at Fearfremel Moral Hospital, owner's Saturday and saw a gun in her pocketbook. Miss Francis walked around and then days with a handgun in her purse all the time. And she was intimidating. So people were scared of her. We surmised that possibly the gun had been in that purse. And that was the reason that she was very hesitant

to let me touch it. Although the case lacks a confession, a murder weapon, and indisputable forensic evidence, Virginia investigators believe the inconsistencies in Francis' story are enough to finally seek an indictment. We didn't have a whole lot of physical evidence and Barry's doing what he can, but it's not something that just falls in your lap.

It's a lot of investigation and Barry did a lot of leg work to pull that together. Early November of 1990, we were told that we were going to be subpoenaed because they had in fact charged her with the death, with the homicide. It was big news that Francis had killed another man in Virginia and basically, the talk around town was that she probably killed Little Red Beasley as well.

What was going through my head, I say, violent justice coming for a little red, you know? That was going through my head. Coming up, a long dead victim helps make the case for murder. He told us the zoomed body, we had zoomed body. The zoomed body. In February of 1992, 50-year-old Francis Trusdale's murder trial gets underway in Roanoke, Virginia. She stands accused of killing her husband

of two decades, 41-year-old Jerry Trusdale. Despite their belief Francis executed Jerry in cold blood, prosecutors are apprehensive about their lack of concrete evidence, and Francis knows it. I think that she had pretty much already made a promenade that no one would convict her with the circumstantial evidence that we had. And so she was kind of emotionless.

Francis remains unmoved as witness after witness testifies to Francis' changing story and a history of gun-toting intimidation stretching back decades. And I was the last person to testify. She just looked hard. She stared at me just like I'd just had never been stared at before.

And when I finished and gotten off of the witness stand and walking out, I glanced at her. And it was like, I will get you. A verdict comes swiftly. I believe that Jerry may have been out a couple of hours. It was not a long time. They did find her for a second degree murder in that she was sentenced to a 20-year sentence

in Virginia. While Jerry Trusdale's family and supporters cheer Francis' conviction, the legal victory doesn't leave them entirely at ease. I always had in the back of my mind that she may come up for parole one day and get it and get out. I was glad that she was incarcerated, but I didn't think she got enough of time for killing Jerry Truzdle. Down in Fairfield County, South Carolina, Sheriff Herman Young and coroner Joe Silvia

struggled to get their own day in court to get a first degree murder conviction for the death of Little Red Beasley. Herman Young, the sheriff, was somewhat frustrated. The case wasn't moving forward. And they wanted it to go to trial. I knew deep down that the solicitor didn't want to try this case. I knew it.

And it goes, Herman Young knew it as well. But we kept working on it. Well, the very thought that Francis Truzdale could be out without the case of a little red beastly suicide being retried, concerned a lot of people. And electric. It said, if you all would have done your job back in the days when little red beastly got murdered by Francis, then my brother might still be alive today.

South Carolina's state solicitor finally agrees, but with conditions. He told us to exume the body, so we exume the body. We had a forensic pathologist on site when it was being done. In order to prove that Red Beasley didn't shoot himself, prosecutors need to track the path of the bullet that killed him 20 years ago.

They wanted to find out where the bullet had lost in his mouth, and it was lost in a roof, a little red mouth. Little red, despite being basically completely paralyzed, it somehow managed to put it to barrel in his mouth, and using his left toe, which is one of the few things on his body, it could move, kill himself. There was no way he could have done any of that. Based on the Exhumation Evidence and Eyewitness Testimony,

a grand jury in Dites, Francis Trusdale, for the 1967 murder of Little Red Beasley. Her trial begins on November 18, 1996, nearly 30 years after the crime. The first thing we threw my mind was, I cannot believe you have all the years that I'm sitting here in the courtroom for Francis. But just be dying to have a little read. The trial that was decades in the making lasts a mere two days. In November of 20th, 1996, Francis was found guilty. The judge asked Francis if she wanted to say anything or appear.

And she said, no, sir. So that when he, the judge, you know, sentenced her and told us she had life in prison, the fight for all. Everyone greeted each other, cried on each other's shoulder, and they was, you know, happy that Justin had been served. I was very, very relieved that she had been convicted and that she would be in prison a long, long time, and she would not be able to get out

and hurt anyone else. In the years since Francis' conviction, the town hasn't lost sight of their victory. Let her rest and have other family members. And whenever they see me in the supermarket, they will always stop to speak to me and they were thanking me for my testimony that was given that day at the trial. My hat goes off to Herman Young in Barry Gazee

and Anne Electric, the sister, because they were all instrumental in pushing and digging and they kept on until they got what they needed to bring justice for the beastly family, which was so long overdue. It really made me feel really good about law enforcement. Barry Keys retired from the Virginia State Police in 2005. Herman Young served as a fairfield county sheriff for 22 years. He retired in 2014. Francis Truesdale died in prison in July 2014.

She was 73 years old. for more information on SNAPED, go to oxygen.com.