Fan Favorite - "The Lipstick on the Wall"

0:00Today's episode is a fan favorite. The audio and the story has been remastered for today's episode.

0:31to a horrifying crime scene. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please go to the Follow Button's Medicine Cabinet and replace everything with laxatives. Okay, let's get into today's story.

1:02Thank you.

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2:20On the afternoon of June 19, 2001, 44-year-old Debbie Triplett and her husband Billy were stocking shelves in the small country grocery store that they owned in Clay County, Alabama. Billy and Debbie had run the store together for almost 20 years, and they had stocking shelves down to a science. They barely even had to look while they were doing it. So today, like most days, they spent the time talking and joking with each other. For as long as they'd been doing this, Billy and Debbie never got bored working at the store together. In fact, they didn't understand how anyone would get bored working with the person they loved.

2:55Because the two of them had been pretty much inseparable from the moment they met back in 1982. At the time, Billy, who was eight years older than Debbie, already owned the grocery store, but he'd been having trouble running it by himself. So, when Debbie came in looking for a job, he'd hired her right away, and it didn't take long for them to discover that they had a lot in common. They were both single parents, they loved living in a small town where they knew their kids would be safe, and they could talk to each other for hours without ever running out of things to say. Billy and Debbie's relationship had quickly gone from boss and employee, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to husband and wife.

3:31And their children from their previous marriages ended up loving each other as much as Debbie and Billy did. So they had all quickly formed this really tight-knit blended family. Now, almost 20 years later, the kids had grown up and moved out, but they all lived close by, so the blended family was still together. In the store, Billy kept stocking the shelves, but Debbie glanced up at the clock hanging over the counter and said that maybe they should call it a day. Billy was supposed to meet up with their son Randy, and if he wanted to do that and still get home in time for the first pitch of the Atlanta Braves baseball game, he needed to head out now.

4:05Everyone who knew Billy assumed he must have been born in an Atlanta Braves baseball cap, because he wore one pretty much every day. They also knew he absolutely hated to miss a Braves game. But today, Billy wasn't sure if he should just take off, because he really didn't like the idea of leaving Debbie alone at the store. The couple didn't like to talk about it, but on a night about three months earlier, when Billy was closing the store on his own, three men wearing ski masks had burst in, duct taped Billy's mouth, shoved him into the walk-in cooler, and then robbed the cash register. By the time Billy had gotten out of the cooler, the men were long gone, but all he could think was, thank God Debbie was not here.

4:44Debbie could see the look of concern on her husband's face, and she told him not to worry. Those robbers had not been seen again. Besides, their daughter Michelle was coming by to keep her company for a while, and then she'd close the store because she had dinner plans. Billy thought about it for a second and then said she was right. So he gave Debbie a kiss and said he would see her at home when she was finished with dinner.

5:08Later that afternoon, Debbie's daughter Michelle walked into the store, and the two women immediately started talking like they were best friends. Debbie had Michelle and her brother Michael with her first husband, but they had treated Billy as their dad since they were young, just like Billy's son, Randy, saw Debbie as his mother. Still, Debbie shared a bond with Michelle that was special, even among the kids. They saw or talked to each other every single day. Time always flew by when it was just the two of them, and today at the store was no different. They talked about everything that was going on in their lives, and when Michelle finally caught a glimpse of the clock, she said she needed to head out.

5:44But Michelle hesitated, because like Billy, she wanted to make sure her mom would be okay on her own. Despite Billy and Debbie rarely talking about the robbery, Michelle and her brothers knew all about it, and they worried about their parents constantly. Debbie said she'd be fine, she could take care of herself, and after all, she'd been closing up the store for two decades. Michelle knew better than to argue with her mother, so she told her that she loved her, and then she left. Debbie worked a while longer on her own, then started closing the store. She emptied the cash register and put all the money into a metal lockbox.

6:18She turned off the lights and walked outside with the box under her arm. Then she locked the door behind her and climbed into her minivan that was parked out front. And as she drove down the secluded country road outside the store, Debbie felt excited about her dinner plans and she hoped the Braves were winning so Billy would be in a really good mood when she got home.

6:47Early the next morning, Debbie's daughter Michelle sat straight up in bed. Sweat dripped down her forehead and she could feel her heart pounding. She was terrified, like she'd just had a nightmare. But Michelle knew the fear she was feeling was not because of a dream. Michelle believed that her connection to her mother was something way stronger than a typical bond between mom and daughter. It was almost psychic, like they shared a sixth sense or something. It was like they always knew when the other one was upset or in trouble. And right now, Michelle knew something really bad had happened. She reached over and grabbed her phone off the bedside table and called her mom.

7:23When she didn't get an answer, she immediately hung up and called her brother Michael. The second she heard Michael's voice, she said something was wrong with their mom, and since he could get there faster, he needed to get over to her house right away. Michael never doubted the intense connection between his sister and his mom, so he said he was on his way out the door. Michelle hung up the phone, got dressed, and ran out to her car. She sped down the road that cut through most of the small rural towns in Clay County, and then a few minutes later, she turned onto a dirt road that led to her parents' house.

7:56As Michelle pulled up in front of the house, she saw her brother pacing back and forth in the yard. and she heard the sound of a police siren in the distance. Michelle got out and ran straight to Michael. He wrapped his arms around her tight and just said, Sister, they're gone.

8:17Early that afternoon, Agent Todd Wheels of the Alabama Bureau of Investigation drove down a two-lane road lined by acres of trees on one side and a river on the other. This landscape, that would cause most people to feel like they were stranded in the middle of nowhere, felt completely familiar to Agent Wheels. He'd grown up in Clay County, which was not too far from here, so for him, it was like he was coming home. That morning, a call had come into the Bureau from the Clay County Sheriff's Department. County deputies had responded to a 911 call at Debbie and Billy Triplett's house. The second they walked inside, they knew the Sheriff's Department did not have the resources to handle this case.

8:56so they had asked the state police for help. Agent Wheels turned onto a dirt road and slowed down as he approached an old white wooden house that sat on a large piece of land that backed up to dense green woods. County police officers had already set up crime scene tape around the perimeter of the house, and a couple of deputies stood out front with a man and a woman in their 20s. Wheels parked his car and looked out at the man and woman, and he felt his heart sink, because he had known both of them since they were little kids. Wheels had grown up in a town not too far from where Michelle, Michael, and their brother Randy lived with their parents, and they had always attended rival schools.

9:34So Wheels had seen the entire family at football games, academic competitions, parties, and church functions for most of his life. Wheels took a breath, stepped out of the car, and walked over to Michelle and Michael. He said he hated seeing them under these circumstances, but he needed to look inside the house, and then he would come back out to talk to them. They both nodded like they barely heard what he said, and Wheels ducked under the crime scene tape, put on a pair of gloves, and headed inside. But before he could even take a few steps, he saw Debbie's body lying on the floor. She was surrounded by a huge pool of dried blood, and there was blood spatter all over the walls.

10:11Wheels had worked homicides in much bigger places than this, cities that had reputations for violence, but this attack on Debbie looked as gruesome as anything he'd ever seen. He crouched down and found Debbie's purse beside her. He noticed bloodstains inside the purse, and it looked like somebody had rifled through it. Wheels thought this could be a sign that this was a robbery gone bad, that somebody had broken in and then when they heard Debbie come home, they rushed over and killed her as soon as she walked inside. Wheels left Debbie's body and walked down a short hallway into the family room, and there, on the couch, he saw Billy's body, covered in blood as well.

10:50This was the first reported double homicide in Clay County in over 40 years, and Agent Wheels could not believe he knew the victims. Wheels approached Billy's body when something on the wall right above caught his attention. When he'd first walked into the room, he thought it was blood spatter. But now, he could see it was red lipstick. And someone had used this lipstick to leave a message for the police. It was a single word. NARC.

11:29At 4pm, several hours after Agent Wheels arrived at the scene, he was back in the family room, staring at the lipstick on the wall for what felt like the 10th time that day. But now, he was with members of a state forensics team that had just arrived. Wheels had gone outside earlier to check on Michelle and Michael, and to ask them if they knew what their parents had been doing the night before. Michael said that he and his wife had met his mom for dinner after she closed the store, and then as far as he knew, she went straight home. And both siblings assumed that their dad had watched the Braves game and then just stayed in for the night.

12:02Back in the family room, Wheels and the forensics technicians could still not get over the violence that was inflicted on Billy. This was even more brutal than the attack on Debbie. This kind of rage made Wheels think that the attack must have been carried out by someone who had a close emotional connection to Billy, or by someone who was out for revenge. And the word narc also had strong connections to the drug world. As Wheels stood there, fixated on the wall, he heard people shouting outside, and he snapped out of his trance. He immediately turned around and ran out of the house. In the front yard, Wheels saw a man physically struggling with two deputies and yelling that he and his siblings needed to get inside.

12:44Their parents were in there. Wheels recognized this man as Billy's son, Randy. Back when they were teenagers, Wheels and Randy had been on their respective high school's Scholar Bowl teams, and they had developed a friendly rivalry with each other at academic competitions. Wheels darted across the yard, joined the deputies, and in his calm southern accent told Randy he needed to back off. Randy stopped struggling and looked up at Wheels, and this look came across Randy's face like he didn't understand why this man was standing there. Randy squinted a little and then just said, Tom? Agent Wheels said he wished this was not how they were seeing each other for the first time in a while, but he needed Randy to calm down and step back.

13:25Randy took a deep breath and apologized to the deputies. He told Wheels he had lashed out because he was mad at himself. He'd missed the messages he'd gotten from Michelle and Michael, and he felt like he'd let his brother and sister down by not getting here earlier. Wheels said he understood. While the two men talked, Wheels heard someone shouting his name from across the yard. He looked over and saw a forensics tech standing by a minivan that was parked near the side of the house. Wheels told Randy to go wait with his siblings, and then he walked over to the van. The front passenger door was open, and the forensics tech said the van had been unlocked.

14:01He pointed to the passenger seat and Wheels saw the keys to the van sitting there. But Wheels also saw something in the passenger side floorboard. It was an open, empty metal box turned over on its side. Wheels called out to the deputies to bring Randy, Michelle, and Michael over to the van. And when the three siblings got there, they didn't look surprised at all. Wheels asked them what the container was and they told him it was the money box their parents put the cash from the register in every night when they closed the store, and their mom had a terrible habit of just leaving the box in her van when she got home.

14:33This clue definitely played into the idea that these murders were connected to a robbery, but maybe it was not a home robbery that got interrupted. Wheels asked the siblings if it was common knowledge around town that their parents put their money from the store in the box every night. Would someone have known Debbie had all that cash and maybe followed her home? The kids looked at each other for a moment like they were talking without saying anything, and then Michelle said a few months earlier their parents' store had been robbed by some men at closing time, so these men might have known exactly where their parents put the money from the cash register.

15:07Wheels got a few more details about that robbery, and then he told the siblings they could go. They should have some time to grieve together in private.

15:19Wheels spent the whole day at the house, and it was dark outside when he met the members of the forensics team to get a final report for the day. They believed that Debbie and Billy had been killed the previous night. The team had also pulled blood samples from both bodies and from the rooms where they were found, and they had done a thorough sweep of the minivan. But the van appeared to have been completely wiped down before any investigators had even touched it. However, investigators were confident that with all the blood and all the fingerprints found inside the house, that they would still likely be able to get the print and DNA samples that belonged to the killer.

15:52At the time, DNA testing in Alabama was still a relatively slow process. It could take several weeks or even months to get results. Still, Wheels had a lot of faith in DNA testing, so he was willing to be patient. In the meantime, he had two distinct theories about the case. This was either a robbery gone bad, or Billy really had ratted somebody out to the authorities, likely over something having to do with the drug trade.

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17:01On June 21st, so the day after the bodies had been discovered, Agent Wheels followed Michelle into her house, which was just a few miles away from her parents, and they sat down together in the small front room. Wheels spoke in the calm voice he almost always used on the job. He said he didn't want to imply that anybody was lying, but he had met with county police and they had no record whatsoever of a robbery that took place at Billy and Debbie's store. So, Wheels wanted to know what Michelle and her brothers had been talking about. Michelle sighed. She and her brothers were telling the truth.

17:33There had been a robbery. Their parents had just never reported it. Wheels looked totally confused by this. Why on earth would they keep something like that to themselves? Michelle laughed a little and said it was stupid, but her dad had been illegally selling wine and beer, and even a little moonshine out of the back of the store. And he thought if he reported the robbery, the cops would find out about it. In 2001, Clay County, Alabama was what's known as a dry county. This meant it was illegal to sell any alcohol within county limits. When Agent Wheels heard this news about Billy, he laughed just like Michelle had.

18:08This was the kind of thing he'd heard about his whole life growing up in Clay County. He knew Billy wasn't running some major bootlegging operation like people had done back during Prohibition. Instead, he was most likely just selling booze to his friends and to some people from town. But at the same time, Wheels could not shake the image of the word narc written on the wall above Billy's body. So he told Michelle he was not worried about Billy selling alcohol to his friends, but he needed to know if Billy was selling anything else illegal. Was Billy mixed up in the local drug trade. This question absolutely floored Michelle.

18:43She said there was no way her dad was dealing drugs. Wheels listened, and he didn't say anything, but he agreed with her, and not just because he had known Billy and the family. Wheels was familiar with the growing methamphetamine problem in the area, and he knew from working with colleagues in the state narcotics unit that a lot of the drugs were coming in from out of state, and that Billy did not fit the profile of most local meth dealers and users, who were often younger guys who didn't have steady jobs. So, Wheels stood up and told Michelle that was all he needed for now. He said he'd check him with her as often as he could.

19:16But before he made it to the door, Michelle told him to wait. Wheels turned and walked back toward her. Michelle said again there was no way her dad was mixed up with drugs. But she did know somebody who was. It was a guy named Leonard Southers, and he happened to be one of Billy and Debbie's closest neighbors.

19:40Later that day, so still just one day after the discovery of the bodies, Agent Wheels pulled up to a house over a mile away from Billy and Debbie's. Michelle had been right. Everything was so isolated and spread out around here that this was definitely one of the closest homes to her parents. wheels stepped out of his car and he saw the lawn was completely overgrown and there were tools and a bunch of other stuff piled up all around he took a few steps towards the house and the screen door flew open a skinny man in baggy jeans and a t-shirt rushed outside demanding to know who wheels was and what he was doing here wheels said everything was okay and then asked the man if he was leonard the man nodded and said who's asking wheels introduced himself and said he was with the state police, but Leonard was not in any trouble.

20:27In fact, he needed Leonard's help. Wheels took a few more steps towards Leonard, and as he did, he could see track marks on both of his arms, clearly from injecting drugs. And the way Leonard fidgeted and picked at his skin made Wheels think he likely was a meth addict. Looking at Leonard, Wheels mostly just felt pity. This man obviously needed help, but that's not why Wheels was here right now. All of a sudden, Leonard raised both hands into the air to show he was not carrying a weapon, and then he moved towards Wheels. He leaned in really close and then pointed to the trees surrounding his house, and in a hushed voice, he asked if Wheels could see the men up there.

21:05Wheels turned and looked up at the trees, and as he did, Leonard started laughing. He said the men were in camouflage, so they were almost invisible, but he knew they were there. And he knew they were men like Wheels, agents that the government sent to watch him all the time. As calm as Wheels was, and as genuinely sympathetic as he tried to be whenever he was working a case, he knew he could change his personality on a dime when he needed to. It was like there was a switch in his head. And in that moment, Wheels flipped the switch. He stood up to his full height, raised his voice, and said Leonard was absolutely right.

21:40There were agents hiding in the trees. And if Leonard didn't tell him everything he knew about the deaths of Billy and Debbie Triplett, these agents in the trees would swarm. They would take Leonard away, and he would no longer be a free man. Leonard suddenly looked scared, but he quickly said he did want to help. He had heard Billy and Debbie got killed, and he was sad about it. They were nice people, both of them. Wheels flipped the switch again, and his calm voice came back. He told Leonard if he wanted to help, he needed to tell the truth, and admit if he had gone over to Billy and Debbie's house to rob them, maybe for drug money.