# The Betrayal of Kirby Carpenter

- **Show:** Dateline NBC
- **Published:** 20 Oct 2026
- **Source:** https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline
- **Transcript:** https://podcasts.opennash.com/shows/dateline-nbc/the-betrayal-of-kirby-carpenter-f14abf/
- **Provider:** OpenNash Podcasts (machine-generated)

## In brief

This Dateline episode tells how Kirby Carpenter, a 36-year-old self-made millionaire from Ripley, Mississippi, was shot dead at his home in 2022. Investigators first suspected a robbery or a business feud. They ended up convicting Jeff Spence, the father of Kirby's girlfriend, Caitlin. The central argument is that the danger came from inside Kirby's own household.

The case turns on a lack of hard evidence. There was no weapon match, no camera footage and no proof Jeff was in Mississippi. Prosecutors relied on Jeff's history, a jailhouse witness and Caitlin's testimony under a plea deal. The first jury split 6 to 6. A second trial, with new witnesses and license plate evidence, produced a first-degree murder conviction.

## Key insights

1. **The crime scene argued against a simple robbery** The killer dragged Kirby's body and covered it with a tarp. Investigator Chris McAllister said a robber would have fled, and Kirby still had about $2,800 in his pocket.
2. **Rival suspects were ruled out by facts** Ray Palmer, who owed Kirby about $200,000, was at work that night. David Hancock walked into the sheriff's office asking for his $2,500, an odd move for a killer.
3. **Missing security footage pointed to an insider** The recorder's thumb drive was gone, so investigators concluded the person had a key or knew where the spare was. That narrowed the list to people close to Kirby.
4. **Jeff Spence's past shaped the case against him** His daughter Carolyn and her husband Gio described a $175,000 construction mess, cut camera cables and a sudden life-insurance request. Their anonymous letter helped put Jeff at the center.
5. **A plea deal made Caitlin the key witness** She pleaded to accessory after the fact and got probation in exchange for testifying that her father had essentially confessed. Defense lawyers attacked her credibility, and the first jury deadlocked.

## Questions this episode answers

### Who killed Kirby Carpenter, according to the courts?

A jury in Jeff Spence's second trial found him guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison. He denies it and is appealing.

### Why did investigators stop thinking it was a robbery?

Chief investigator Chris McAllister said a robber would not have taken time to move and hide the body. Kirby also had about $2,800 left in his pocket.

### How did the first trial end?

The jury deadlocked 6 to 6 after four and a half hours, so the judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors chose to try Jeff again.

### Why did Caitlin Spence get probation if she was charged with murder?

Prosecutors offered a deal: plead guilty to accessory after the fact and testify truthfully against her father. Her lawyer said there was no proof she took part in the killing, and the prosecutor admitted it was not perfect justice.

### What new evidence helped in the second trial?

A friend, Tracy Delp, testified that Jeff tried to hire him to kill Kirby. Investigators also found a license plate hit for Jeff's maroon van heading toward Mississippi on the day of the murder.

## Facts

- **Andrea Canning** [0:02:32]: "At the northernmost edge of Mississippi, you'll find Tippah County, where rolling hills melt into lush forests and green pastures."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:03:22]: "On Thanksgiving Day, 2022, he hosted them at his sprawling country home."
- **Speaker 6** [0:05:45]: "I examined the body and I saw a shotgun blast to the neck, shoulder area, chest area."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:09:54]: "After high school, Kirby joined the Marines. He graduated from basic training, but his military career was cut short due to a heart defect."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:11:29]: "By 2020, he had a small town empire. He owned the Gold and Silver Shop, a liquor store, and a steakhouse diner."
- **Speaker 6** [0:16:53]: "When we checked Kirby's pocket, found about $2,800 cash."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:24:22]: "Ray and his investors still owed Kirby close to $200,000."
- **Speaker 6** [0:37:46]: "The Cadillac was on the tag reader in Knoxville, Tennessee, the night before Kirby's murder,"
- **Andrea Canning** [0:39:21]: "The deer was an enormous, white-tailed buck named Goliath, worth $1 million because of its breeding potential. Jeff served nine months in jail for stealing the deer from another breeder."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:42:59]: "Jeff and Karen abruptly quit the construction project, leaving Carolyn and Gio on the hook for about $175,000 to fix the mess."
- **Andrea Canning** [0:54:37]: "Investigators decided they had enough on November 30th, 2023, one year to the day that Kirby was murdered. U. S. Marshals, with the help of local police, arrested Jeff Spence in Virginia"
- **Speaker 4** [1:05:31]: "She would have to testify truthfully against her father, and she would have to enter a plea of guilty to accessory after the fact capital murder."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:07:15]: "Even with Caitlin's testimony, prosecutors faced an uphill battle when Jeff Spence's trial began in September 2025."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:08:44]: "Virginia investigators also found the shotgun wrapped in a coat under Jeff and Karen's bed. There were no shell casings at Kirby's crime scene to make a ballistics match, but still,"
- **Andrea Canning** [1:17:36]: "Four and a half hours into deliberations, the jury foreman sent the judge a note. They were deadlocked 6 to 6."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:19:04]: "Jeff Spence's second trial began in March 2026. Carolyn again faced the father she lived in fear of."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:21:14]: "McAllister had the plates run through tag readers across the country. There was a hit. One of Jeff's vehicles, a maroon van in Tennessee, heading south toward Mississippi."
- **Speaker 5** [1:26:23]: "We the jury find the defendant, Jeffrey Dean Spence guilty of 1st degree murder. Guilty."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:27:47]: "After her testimony, Caitlin was sentenced to five years probation. Her mother Karen entered an Alford plea to accessory after the fact to grand larceny and was also released on probation with a ten year suspended sentence."
- **Andrea Canning** [1:27:47]: "Jeff was sentenced to life in prison. He is appealing."

## Transcript

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**[0:01:03] Ad read:** Tonight on Dateline,

**[0:01:04] Speaker 2:** He said there has been a deceased male found. I could hear my mom screaming, My baby, my baby. I knew it was Kirby.

**[0:01:17] Andrea Canning:** He was an entrepreneur. Yes, he did a gold and

**[0:01:26] Speaker 6:** No, several $100,000 is what I've been told.

**[0:01:30] Speaker 2:** I do believe that his business could have made him a target.

**[0:01:33] Andrea Canning:** you two put up cameras.

**[0:01:36] Speaker 4:** And we caught him cutting one of the camera cables.

**[0:01:40] Lester Holt:** David Barnes was a petty thief who had worked for Kirby.

**[0:01:45] Speaker 11:** We could clearly tell that he knew more than he was telling us.

**[0:01:51] Andrea Canning:** There was a lot more secrets in my home than I I realized realized. You think it's the entire family who are all involved.

**[0:01:57] Speaker 4:** I felt my life was in danger.

**[0:02:00] Andrea Canning:** The betrayal would be incredible.

**[0:02:03] Speaker 2:** The betrayal is incredible.

**[0:02:05] Lester Holt:** He had a great eye for gold and antiques, but did he miss the killer right under his nose? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Andrea Canning with the betrayal of Kirby Carpenter.

**[0:02:32] Andrea Canning:** At the northernmost edge of Mississippi, you'll find Tippah County, where rolling hills melt into lush forests and green pastures. At its heart, the county seat of Ripley, home to just over 5,000 people. One of those people who always stood out was entrepreneur Kirby Carpenter.

**[0:02:51] Speaker 2:** Kirby, he lived so big, he dreamed big.

**[0:02:53] Andrea Canning:** Taken the world by the horns.

**[0:02:55] Speaker 2:** Yes, the world was his, you know, that's how he lived.

**[0:02:59] Andrea Canning:** His store, Mississippi Gold, Silver and Coin Exchange, like its owner, drew a lot of attention. At just 36 years old, Kirby was a self-made millionaire, an extraordinary achievement in this modest Mississippi town. Casey Barnes is Kirby's sister.

**[0:03:16] Speaker 2:** He was one of those people that if you were out and about in town, you were gonna run into him Well-liked. very well.

**[0:03:22] Andrea Canning:** Casey says the family was proud of Kirby's success and he often shared it with them. On Thanksgiving Day, 2022, he hosted them at his sprawling country home. Kirby's mom, Mattie Jane Jones, lived a few miles away.

**[0:03:36] Lester Holt:** It was great that day. Everybody was just happy to be together.

**[0:03:39] Speaker 2:** We had traditionally always had Thanksgiving at mom's, but Kirby and Caitlin were adamant that we have it at his house.

**[0:03:45] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin Spence was Kirby's girlfriend. They lived together and had just welcomed a newborn baby named Anola. Caitlin's parents, Jeff and Karen, were staying with them to help out, and the two families celebrated the holiday together.

**[0:03:59] Lester Holt:** It was warm enough for us to eat outside. We smoked a turkey, we baked a turkey, Mattie Jane brought the cornbread dressing over.

**[0:04:07] Andrea Canning:** Then it was time to say good night. Did everything seem fine?

**[0:04:11] Speaker 2:** It did seem fine.

**[0:04:13] Andrea Canning:** Casey remembers her brother looking happy as they headed out to their cars.

**[0:04:17] Speaker 2:** Waving to me from the garage, his hair, just so, you know, in the nice outfits that he always wore.

**[0:04:27] Andrea Canning:** Just eight days later, a Friday afternoon, Caitlin was outside with baby Anola when she made a terrible discovery.

**[0:04:37] Lester Holt:** I was coming down the hill. When you come around the bend, you can see the back of our house. That's when I saw the tarp blowing that was over Kirby's body, I and I saw his cowboy boots. And it hit me. I remember going to my knees. I remember getting, you know, like, just immediately dialing

**[0:05:00] Speaker 3:** nine one one. Are you telling me he's passed away?

**[0:05:12] Andrea Canning:** Chris McAllister, chief investigator with the Tippah County Sheriff's Department, arrived at the scene. What do you see when you arrive here?

**[0:05:19] Speaker 6:** Uh, several officers, the sheriff was out here.

**[0:05:22] Speaker 3:** So this is already an active crime scene.

**[0:05:24] Speaker 6:** It is now. The first thing I saw was his cowboy boots sticking out from underneath a curtain. Over the curtain was a truck toolbox. There were several other truck toolboxes that were stacked up as well.

**[0:05:35] Speaker 3:** Do you think, like, holding it down so I believe it wouldn't blow it, I believe away?

**[0:05:38] Speaker 6:** that's what I think it was to keep the wind from blowing it away.

**[0:05:42] Andrea Canning:** Investigator McAllister is also the county coroner.

**[0:05:45] Speaker 6:** I examined the body and I saw a shotgun blast to the neck, shoulder area, chest area.

**[0:05:52] Andrea Canning:** Casey was at lunch when her phone rang. A horrible, horrible phone call.

**[0:05:57] Speaker 2:** Yes, it was a first responder from the fire department. He didn't have to say much because I could hear my mom screaming in the background. And um, I didn't know what had happened, but I knew something terrible had happened.

**[0:06:08] Andrea Canning:** Are you being told what is happening?

**[0:06:11] Speaker 4:** No, I'm not being told anything. When I seen the officer standing there and I just took off running

**[0:06:16] Andrea Canning:** Running where?

**[0:06:17] Speaker 4:** to where they were standing.

**[0:06:20] Speaker 3:** I saw a lot of blood, Blood dry blood. It looked like leather. It was just like this from here down.

**[0:06:31] Andrea Canning:** That's so hard to see.

**[0:06:32] Speaker 3:** His eyes was open, looking at me.

**[0:06:34] Speaker 4:** And he curry up, he's headed. Those beautiful blue eyes.

**[0:06:42] Andrea Canning:** His final moments must have been of such fear.

**[0:06:46] Speaker 3:** That's the part that has haunted me so bad. Because any time Kirby, even from when he was a little bitty boy, if he needed help, in the end, Mama always helped.

**[0:07:00] Andrea Canning:** You couldn't help him this time.

**[0:07:03] Speaker 3:** No matter what, I couldn't help him that time.

**[0:07:06] Andrea Canning:** As the grief set in, Mattie Jane turned to the question that mattered most Who killed Kirby? Did you make a pact with yourself in that moment that you were gonna find out who did this and that they were gonna pay?

**[0:07:19] Speaker 3:** I said two things. I will not rest until the take my last breath. I will fight it no matter what.

**[0:07:28] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family would do whatever it took to get justice, but the closer they got to answers, the more painful the truth would become.

**[0:07:37] Speaker 4:** I said, Carolyn, there's a good chance I'm gonna die this morning. If I go down, just call nine one one and run for cover.

**[0:07:42] Andrea Canning:** There is a man sitting in jail with a secret who is about to turn this case upside down.

**[0:07:48] Speaker 4:** Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, or you could be next.

**[0:07:51] Andrea Canning:** The betrayal would be incredible.

**[0:07:54] Speaker 2:** The betrayal is incredible.

**[0:07:55] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family says that you are a cold-blooded killer and you did this out of greed. As lead investigator, Chris McAllister continued to look into Kirby's murder. He made an important discovery. Kirby's body had been moved.

**[0:08:22] Speaker 6:** It appeared to be drag marks that they were right in this area right here.

**[0:08:27] Andrea Canning:** Like a body being dragged.

**[0:08:28] Speaker 6:** Yes, that's what it looked like.

**[0:08:30] Andrea Canning:** Since you're thinking he's been moved, where do you think he was actually shot?

**[0:08:33] Speaker 6:** Leave in this carport.

**[0:08:35] Andrea Canning:** So he would have been maybe getting out of his truck, coming in here. Do you think someone was waiting for him then?

**[0:08:41] Speaker 6:** I do. Had his keys in his hand when he got out, I'm supposing, to go and lock the door. We found his keys laying beside a garbage can that had been turned over.

**[0:08:52] Andrea Canning:** Law enforcement secured the crime scene and asked Kirby's family to leave while they collected evidence. His sister Casey could barely bring herself to go.

**[0:09:00] Speaker 2:** I just couldn't leave him with people who didn't know him and didn't love him.

**[0:09:04] Andrea Canning:** It's like you had been protecting him, you know,

**[0:09:06] Speaker 3:** The big sister and now here you were and protecting him in a different way.

**[0:09:12] Andrea Canning:** Casey had always looked out for Kirby, the little brother with the big personality.

**[0:09:17] Speaker 2:** he was full of life from the time he was little until the time that his life was taken.

**[0:09:22] Andrea Canning:** Kirby had a big family, two half sisters on his mom's side and three half brothers on his dad's. Robbie Carpenter is Kirby's younger brother. How close were you to Kirby?

**[0:09:33] Speaker 8:** Very close. He was someone I looked up to. Um, I admired him. He was one of a kind in our area. He wasn't afraid to be who he was.

**[0:09:41] Speaker 3:** He knew how to keep everybody entertained. When he walked in the room, he was the center and everybody knew it. Music, music, lots and lots and lots of songs.

**[0:09:54] Andrea Canning:** After high school, Kirby joined the Marines. He graduated from basic training, but his military career was cut short due to a heart defect. That disappointment didn't hold him back. He learned how to trade gold and silver and became an expert buying and selling all kinds of antiques, from guitars to old movie scripts.

**[0:10:13] Speaker 3:** He knew everything about everything. He was like a walking encyclopedia.

**[0:10:17] Andrea Canning:** He's a jack of all trades.

**[0:10:18] Speaker 3:** Yep, and a master of many. I always said, You usually, you'll hear everybody say, he's a jack of all trades, master of none. None, right? This? This No, he, you're

**[0:10:27] Andrea Canning:** is the opposite.

**[0:10:28] Speaker 2:** Kirby had bought the original manuscript from the Blazing Saddles movie

**[0:10:35] Speaker 3:** We don't need no stinking badges.

**[0:10:38] Speaker 2:** from years and years ago. Yes, he was so excited, and I remember him getting frustrated with us because we weren't as excited as he was about it.

**[0:10:46] Andrea Canning:** Was there anything Kirby didn't try to sell or create a business out of?

**[0:10:51] Speaker 11:** right, he could, he could move a dollar bill, for sure. He was, he was good at it. That that's what I admired most about it about him was just his. I don't know. I wouldn't call it a hustle, but it was a clean hustle.

**[0:11:02] Andrea Canning:** The district attorney Ben Creekmore often spent time at Kirby's store on Main Street.

**[0:11:07] Speaker 13:** If we ever had a trial at the conclusion of the trial, waiting on the jury to come back. A lot of times, I would take a walk around downtown. I would go in Kirby's store and see what interesting finds that he had had. I

**[0:11:20] Andrea Canning:** Kind of to just decompress for a moment while you're Decompress. waiting for the verdict.

**[0:11:23] Speaker 13:** Plus, I play guitar and and he loved music, he loved the old vintage guitars.

**[0:11:29] Andrea Canning:** By 2020, he had a small town empire. He owned the Gold and Silver Shop, a liquor store, and a steakhouse diner. Kirby and a former girlfriend shared custody of a son named Towns, but he still had not found the one. Then along came Caitlin, raised in Pennsylvania, she moved to Mississippi to go to vet school, but changed course and worked her way up to manager of a tractor supply company store. It happened to be right next door to Kirby's liquor store.

**[0:11:56] Speaker 3:** My team and he conspired, uh, for him to to obtain my number. I wasn't looking to date anybody, but he was very charming and, uh, magnetic, and so we started dating.

**[0:12:11] Andrea Canning:** Could he be romantic?

**[0:12:12] Speaker 3:** Very in our early dating, I mean, he certainly swept me off my feet.

**[0:12:17] Speaker 2:** She was down to earth, a country girl like all of us. We felt like she was good for Kirby, and Kirby was good for her. We just felt like she was part of the family.

**[0:12:24] Andrea Canning:** And Kirby got along with Caitlyn's parents, Jeff and Karen, who were living with them to lend a hand with baby Anola. How is Kirby as a dad?

**[0:12:32] Speaker 2:** My favorite thing to think about is Kirby as a dad. A typical happy doting father is how I would describe him. Towns and Anola were his world.

**[0:12:42] Speaker 3:** Once you've got a boy and then you have that girl, it's like it gives you a calming and I seen that calming in Kirby.

**[0:12:50] Speaker 13:** I I think he was happy to be able to have his son, who he loved very much, and and a little girl to love on as well.

**[0:12:58] Andrea Canning:** Now his two children were left without a father, and investigators had to turn Kirby's life inside out. They started with his businesses, which were primarily cash-based. Kirby was known to carry two things on him at all times his pistol and a satchel full of money. Both were missing from the scene. When we say that he would carry cash around, this is not your average amount of cash.

**[0:13:21] Speaker 6:** No, several $100,000 is what I've been told, and, you know, possibly gold, silver and stuff he's traded for At one time, at one time.

**[0:13:30] Andrea Canning:** there could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Investigator McAllister thought maybe this was a robbery that turned violent, or maybe a business deal that went south. He scoured the scene for clues and found something promising. Security cameras everywhere. What would they reveal? This is like a gold mine, potentially. yes, it is, yes,

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**[0:16:12] Andrea Canning:** Kirby Carpenter was known to carry valuables with him when he was out, and inside his home, he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coins and collectibles. McAllister had to consider whether Kirby's killer came to rob him, but a few clues at the scene gave him pause. So it's becoming clear that whoever did this, you know, went to some effort to to move the body and to hide him. Which kind of flies in the face a little bit of a robbery.

**[0:16:39] Speaker 6:** it does. I would think whoever robbed somebody and shot and killed him would've got out of there as fast as they could. They wouldn't have took the time to try to move his body.

**[0:16:50] Andrea Canning:** And what kind of robber would leave this?

**[0:16:53] Speaker 6:** When we checked Kirby's pocket, found about $2,800 cash.

**[0:16:57] Andrea Canning:** Then the investigator spotted something he hoped would change the entire investigation. Security cameras inside and outside Kirby's house, multiple angles. This is like a gold mine, potentially.

**[0:17:08] Speaker 6:** Yes, it is, yes, but our luck doesn't work that way.

**[0:17:13] Andrea Canning:** What happened when you started looking to see if you could find the footage?

**[0:17:17] Speaker 6:** The safe box, we could not find it anywhere.

**[0:17:21] Andrea Canning:** This is the safe box is what connects, like the That's, yeah, collects all the footage for all the cameras.

**[0:17:25] Speaker 6:** yes. He had a blink system and it has a safe box that records what's on the video and could not find a safe box.

**[0:17:35] Andrea Canning:** A dead end. He got to work creating a timeline to figure out when Kirby was murdered. Putting on your coroner's hat, what observation did you make?

**[0:17:44] Speaker 6:** That he had been here a while, it had rained, it had been been a storm. Looking at his body, he told me he'd been here probably a couple of days.

**[0:17:52] Andrea Canning:** Then McAllister looked inside Kirby's truck.

**[0:17:55] Speaker 6:** Stuff everywhere.

**[0:17:57] Andrea Canning:** There were several guns and receipts from different stores, including the local grocery store

**[0:18:02] Speaker 6:** Strangest thing we found was four lamb chops.

**[0:18:05] Andrea Canning:** from Kroger. Okay, so this is dinner, it sounds like. Security video captured Kirby at the grocery store Wednesday at six eleven p. m. He was wearing the same clothes when he was found dead two days later. McAllister concluded that Kirby was killed as he returned home from Kroger. That timeline made sense with what Caitlin said when she was interviewed by an investigator at the scene.

**[0:18:29] Speaker 4:** So the last time you clearly see him was Wednesday morning, and he was still sleeping, and he was the only one, you know, only one in the house.

**[0:18:37] Andrea Canning:** She told the investigator that before finding his body, she hadn't seen Kirby for two days. But Caitlin says it wasn't unusual for him to disappear. You say there was another side to Kirby, while he could be fun and loving, there was a darker side to him.

**[0:18:54] Speaker 4:** I say Kirby one and Kirby two, um, because they were complete opposites of each other.

**[0:19:00] Speaker 3:** Could be a really hard man. He had very high highs and very low lows.

**[0:19:05] Andrea Canning:** He would stay out late or or not talk to you for a time.

**[0:19:09] Speaker 3:** Uh, yes, he would often go out at night, and he when he came home would be when he came home.

**[0:19:16] Andrea Canning:** She says one of Kirby's bad moods started after the Thanksgiving weekend. Her parents, who'd been there for months helping with the baby, had packed up and left to go home to Virginia.

**[0:19:26] Speaker 4:** We had to get back to real life, And and Kirby did not want to deal with real life on Tuesday night. So he shut me out, went into his bedroom and stopped talking to me for the night.

**[0:19:37] Speaker 3:** Uh, so Wednesday was strained between us.

**[0:19:41] Andrea Canning:** She told investigators that later that evening she was running an errand at Walmart with baby Anola and texted Kirby about dinner, but didn't hear back.

**[0:19:49] Speaker 3:** I asked him if he wanted to have Chinese because I was right there and I got no reply.

**[0:19:55] Andrea Canning:** She says she didn't leave Walmart right away.

**[0:19:57] Speaker 3:** Before I left to go home, I breastfed Anola in the parking lot.

**[0:20:02] Andrea Canning:** So you come home from town, is is Kirby back yet?

**[0:20:06] Speaker 3:** Kirby's truck was in the driveway, but all the lights in the house were out. Uh, the house was locked, but when I went inside, I nothing was out of place.

**[0:20:16] Andrea Canning:** Where are you thinking Kirby is at this point? Do you try to reach I thought he out to him?

**[0:20:19] Speaker 3:** was, I thought he was down at his cousin's. We're close enough to his cousin's that somebody could have come and picked him up.

**[0:20:26] Andrea Canning:** She says she put the baby to bed and then went to sleep herself.

**[0:20:30] Speaker 3:** I wake up and no Kirby in the house.

**[0:20:33] Andrea Canning:** Do you reach out to him that morning to see if you can find him? Does he respond?

**[0:20:38] Speaker 3:** He does not respond. When he wasn't replying to me, I reached out to his mother and his sister. Have you heard from him? Had anyone heard from And they had not heard

**[0:20:47] Andrea Canning:** him? from him, On Friday, Caitlin called Kirby's mom again.

**[0:20:51] Speaker 2:** I finally just pinpoint asked Herb, Kate, when is the last time you've seen Kirby? She said Wednesday morning before I went to work. I said, that's two nights ago.

**[0:21:01] Andrea Canning:** So that that's not sitting right with you. No, are you getting worried at this point?

**[0:21:06] Speaker 3:** Oh, yes, I sent him angry text messages. I sent him frustrated, upset I new mother text messages. text

**[0:21:15] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin says she went outside with the baby and climbed the hill behind their house looking for Kirby. On the way back down, while on the phone with Mattie Jane, Caitlin found Kirby and made the nine one one call. Are you suspecting her at all? She's the significant other. Was there concerns about her?

**[0:21:34] Speaker 6:** I had concerns about her.

**[0:21:37] Andrea Canning:** You wanna know more?

**[0:21:39] Speaker 3:** Investigators went to the Walmart where Caitlin says she was that Wednesday night. They pulled the store's security video.

**[0:21:44] Andrea Canning:** What do you see on the footage?

**[0:21:47] Speaker 6:** really. I would see her entering the store, and then when she exited the store, she goes and sits in her vehicle and she stays there for a significant time. The video shows It shows Caitlin sitting him

**[0:21:58] Andrea Canning:** in her car where she with says she breastfed Anola. That meant Caitlin wasn't home when Kirby was killed. Her alibi checked out, and pretty soon investigators were looking in a different direction, courtesy of something Mattie Jane found. So there's a note that could potentially point to his killer. Long before Kirby Carpenter was shot dead on his own property, his brother Robbie says Kirby was haunted by a premonition.

**[0:22:37] Speaker 3:** when he started getting wealthy, he just had this feeling that someone someday would come and try try Try to kill to try to take Kill him what he had.

**[0:22:45] Andrea Canning:** or take it. That's an omen when you think about him being that concerned.

**[0:22:50] Speaker 8:** When he went to do gold and silver deals, I would, I would go along with him, you know, make sure nothing went went wrong with that. I had his back.

**[0:22:59] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's sister, Casey, says his business had him negotiating with strangers all the time.

**[0:23:03] Speaker 2:** He might have someone call him and want to meet to look at coins, to look at gold, to look at silver, or he might, um, run up on a deal on Facebook and go meet someone, you know, to purchase something. And he would have the cash on hand to pay for those things.

**[0:23:17] Andrea Canning:** Was it the nature of Kirby's business that he would have arguments with people inevitably because of, you know, he's not working at a shoe store.

**[0:23:26] Speaker 2:** Yeah, absolutely, so, you know, because it was large amounts of money exchanged between people.

**[0:23:32] Andrea Canning:** Money causes disagreements.

**[0:23:34] Speaker 2:** Absolutely, I do believe that his, um, business could have made him a target, for sure.

**[0:23:40] Speaker 3:** he was a hard man. He didn't mince words, and he wa- he was confrontational.

**[0:23:46] Andrea Canning:** During her conversation with investigators the day Kirby's body was found, Caitlin described a recent confrontation Kirby had over a business deal.

**[0:23:54] Speaker 3:** He had a conversation over speakerphone with a guy that bought his liquor store Monday or Tuesday of this week, of this week.

**[0:24:05] Andrea Canning:** That man's name was Ray Palmer. He and a small group of investors had bought Arrowhead Wine and Spirits from Kirby.

**[0:24:11] Speaker 3:** So it was almost a year since he had sold the liquor store and Kirby had been back and forth with him throughout the whole year on, you know, trying to collect.

**[0:24:22] Andrea Canning:** Ray and his investors still owed Kirby close to $200,000.

**[0:24:26] Speaker 3:** Kirby had decided that he was done waiting and that he was gonna call in the loans. Kirby got ahold of Ray, put the phone call on speakerphone.

**[0:24:34] Andrea Canning:** Had Ray threatened Kirby that you know of?

**[0:24:38] Speaker 3:** Yes, he threatened Kirby Tuesday night,

**[0:24:41] Andrea Canning:** This is before he was killed.

**[0:24:42] Speaker 3:** the Tuesday before he was killed. Yes, he said, Kirby, this is the kind of money that families get hurt over.

**[0:24:49] Andrea Canning:** A little over twenty four hours later, Kirby was dead. The timing of this fight happening just before Kirby is killed definitely has to pique your interest.

**[0:24:59] Speaker 11:** right, it it did.

**[0:25:01] Andrea Canning:** Special Agent Josh Jarvis with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation joined the case.

**[0:25:06] Speaker 11:** And any time, of course, when it's a a large amount of money, you need to talk to that person. Either to eliminate them or to see, you know, did did this person have anything to do with it?

**[0:25:18] Andrea Canning:** Agent Jarvis tracked him down. Palmer admitted owing Kirby the money, but denied making any kind of physical threat. And his alibi? Palmer said he was at the liquor store the night Kirby was killed.

**[0:25:29] Speaker 11:** We felt totally comfortable that he was telling us the truth, he had nothing to do with it. He was at work the day that it happened.

**[0:25:36] Andrea Canning:** But Palmer wasn't the only person Kirby was feuding with, as Mattie Jane discovered when she found a note her son left behind. It described a dust up with a man named David Hancock. David Hancock is another person that Kirby may have had a strained relationship with.

**[0:25:54] Speaker 2:** Mr. Hancock is the UM person that Kirby had purchased the diner from, the little steakhouse diner that he had in Dumas. There was a squabble between the two of them. Mr. Hancock said that Kirby had owed him some money.

**[0:26:06] Andrea Canning:** So Kirby's relationship with David Hancock was so bad that he actually left a note.

**[0:26:11] Speaker 3:** Right, he left a note that, you know, that David had threatened him. Kirby felt threatened enough Well, he wanted it threatened that he that out just in case,

**[0:26:19] Andrea Canning:** he he wrote it down. In the note, Kirby describes a nasty call from Hancock. He stated that he was going to see me in the street and shoot me in the face. David also stated that he had friends in Ripley that would drag me out in the street and shoot me and leave me laying. Is this something that the police are told about immediately?

**[0:26:39] Speaker 3:** wow, they knew it real quick. I made sure that they seen it.

**[0:26:44] Andrea Canning:** According to Kirby's note, Hancock wasn't the only one out to kill him. He wrote, David states that Adam Gates also has intent to take my life. Adam Gates was a tow truck operator who Casey says had a beef with Kirby, too.

**[0:26:58] Speaker 2:** Kirby had made comments to us about he and Adam being into it, so to speak. I believe that at one point, um, some some kind of um confrontation occurred between Kirby and Adam.

**[0:27:11] Andrea Canning:** Investigator McAllister knew Adam Gates from around town. He also knew there was no way Gates could be Kirby's killer.

**[0:27:17] Speaker 6:** Adam was deceased by the time before Kirby was ever killed.

**[0:27:22] Andrea Canning:** That left David Hancock. Investigators needed to find him. This could be your man with a note like that. This could be big.

**[0:27:29] Speaker 6:** Could be, yes.

**[0:27:43] Andrea Canning:** Two weeks after Kirby's murder, family and friends said their goodbyes. Did you feel the love from this small community?

**[0:27:51] Speaker 2:** Absolutely, I could not describe the support and the love that we received. The community was just, you know, they were just there surrounding us, um, for both the visitation, a and the funeral.

**[0:28:04] Andrea Canning:** A funeral that was pure Kirby.

**[0:28:07] Speaker 2:** Kirby loved music, and so we played songs that we knew Kirby loved. There is a blues singer from our area, he actually came and played a couple songs and sang.

**[0:28:20] Andrea Canning:** How did you feel on that day?

**[0:28:25] Speaker 3:** How did I? I felt numb. It was a blur for to me. Not a good day. Not where you want to be, not where you want to see your partner, you know, laying in a casket.

**[0:28:41] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin turned to her parents, Jeff and Karen, for support. They'd driven back to Mississippi and were there for the funeral. Kirby's loved ones were understandably on edge.

**[0:28:50] Speaker 4:** The preacher stood there and told us that day, he said, I honestly believe the person that killed Kirby is gonna be sitting under my voice today.

**[0:29:01] Speaker 2:** We were scared, we felt very unsafe, we didn't know who it was.

**[0:29:04] Andrea Canning:** That is scary.

**[0:29:05] Speaker 2:** Very scary.

**[0:29:07] Andrea Canning:** On investigators list of potential suspects, one of the men Kirby called out in that note Mattie Jane found, restaurant owner David Hancock. This could be your man with a note like that. This is could be big.

**[0:29:19] Speaker 6:** Could be, yes.

**[0:29:21] Andrea Canning:** Investigators very much wanted to talk to him, and David Hancock wasn't hard to find

**[0:29:26] Speaker 6:** He came to the sheriff's office one day.

**[0:29:28] Andrea Canning:** on his own. Or did you call After Kirby him in?

**[0:29:30] Speaker 6:** was killed, he came up there on his own.

**[0:29:32] Andrea Canning:** On his own? Why?

**[0:29:33] Speaker 6:** Wanted to know how he would go about getting his $2,500 out of Kirby's estate.

**[0:29:39] Andrea Canning:** Really? If he's the killer, would he really be coming by the sheriff's department, looking for not that much money?

**[0:29:49] Speaker 6:** exactly. I mean, I if I killed somebody and they owed me $2,500, I wouldn't come to the sheriff's department. Trying to figure out what I needed to do to get my $2,500. I wouldn't be anywhere around.

**[0:30:02] Andrea Canning:** what's more, whoever killed Kirby left at least that much money right at the scene

**[0:30:06] Speaker 6:** Kirby had $2,800 in his pocket. That was more enough to

**[0:30:10] Andrea Canning:** to cover the debt.

**[0:30:11] Speaker 6:** to cover the debt. That's exactly right.

**[0:30:13] Andrea Canning:** McAllister crossed Hancock off his list. The business deal gone wrong theory was not panning out, leaving Kirby's killer still at large. Since the murder, Caitlin was still living at Kirby's house and her parents were staying there too, even though Caitlin and Kirby had not been married. It was home for her and the baby.

**[0:30:31] Speaker 2:** I think that we were all scared for her at that point. There is someone out there who killed Kirby, and what if they're still somewhere close by?

**[0:30:40] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family went by the house. While they were there, Casey and Mattie Jane began to collect a few of Kirby's things. That's when the relationship between the two families, who should have been united in grief, began to unravel. Mattie Jane discovered the combinations to several of Kirby's safes no longer worked. The codes were they not?

**[0:31:00] Speaker 3:** they'd been changed.

**[0:31:01] Andrea Canning:** They're not working. You were the only person he trusted with the combinations

**[0:31:06] Speaker 3:** I was the only person that had the combination to the

**[0:31:08] Andrea Canning:** outside of Kirby. Then, in the driveway, she noticed something. Caitlin's dad, Jeff, had backed his Cadillac right up to the garage door.

**[0:31:17] Speaker 3:** Something just tells me Pop is drunk. And I opened that car door and reached straight down and popped the trunk, and he had it loaded down with Kirby silver. Like, Jeff Spence. His Yes, car was full of yes,

**[0:31:32] Andrea Canning:** of silver.

**[0:31:33] Speaker 3:** it sure was.

**[0:31:33] Andrea Canning:** So shocking to you. Shocking.

**[0:31:37] Speaker 3:** That's an understatement.

**[0:31:39] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin says her dad was not stealing the silver, but protecting it. She admits she changed the safe codes and says that when Kirby's family started taking things from the house, her dad was worried baby Anola would not get what was rightfully hers.

**[0:31:53] Speaker 3:** My dad had decided that at this rate, there would be nothing left for the kids. And he had removed items, and, um, I mean, he hadn't removed them from the property. They were, you know, put in his car, uh, in our driveway.

**[0:32:09] Andrea Canning:** Your dad gets the idea to record some of this. Why did he have that idea?

**[0:32:17] Speaker 3:** because we didn't know where it was going, because items were being taken out of the house.

**[0:32:22] Andrea Canning:** In the video, Jeff can be heard talking about Kirby's mom, Mattie Jane, while Casey is crying.

**[0:32:28] Speaker 4:** Maddie's Maddie's grieving, but this is not the way to handle it.

**[0:32:30] Speaker 2:** And he said, Um, now, Maddie, we don't need you down here causing problems. And I was like, what is going on? This is Kirby's house, Exactly.

**[0:32:40] Andrea Canning:** that's his mom. Kirby's family took the silver out of Jeff's trunk and called the sheriff's office.

**[0:32:46] Speaker 6:** The time we went out there, we called the county prosecuting attorney, and he basically said that that part was civil, that we couldn't get involved with it. Everybody, you know, leave everything where it is,

**[0:32:57] Andrea Canning:** You're trying to solve a murder, and then you've got these two families feuding. This was getting messy

**[0:33:05] Speaker 6:** It was.

**[0:33:06] Andrea Canning:** and would get even messier. The families learned Kirby hadn't left a will.

**[0:33:10] Speaker 2:** We hired an estate attorney. We wanted to ensure that everything that was left from Kirby was left for Enola and Towns, not who knows what done with by the Spences.

**[0:33:22] Andrea Canning:** The court put Mattie Jane in charge of Kirby's estate, including the home he shared with Caitlyn. And then Caitlyn, the baby, and her parents left for Virginia.

**[0:33:32] Speaker 2:** Within a couple days after Kirby's funeral, Caitlyn and Enola left. And within those first, you know, few weeks, we had some communication with Caitlyn and she would communicate back, and then eventually all communication just stopped. Um, that's your niece. Yes, and so we were worried about Enola. We couldn't hear from Enola. We felt like, you know, if Kate loved Kirby the way she said she did, why was she not trying to fight with us and get answers?

**[0:33:59] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin says she was grieving and overwhelmed as a single mother to a newborn baby. And if there was a lack of communication with Kirby's family, she says it's because they became adversarial toward her. Still, Kirby's family was growing impatient with the Spences and the investigation.

**[0:34:16] Speaker 3:** I didn't think nothing was moving fast enough.

**[0:34:19] Andrea Canning:** But Mattie Jane kept moving, and pretty soon she would find another piece of evidence for investigators to look at. One that just might tell the real story.

**[0:34:28] Speaker 3:** I knew it had to be an inside job to him.

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**[0:36:35] Andrea Canning:** With Caitlin, Jeff and Karen back in Virginia, Kirby's mother began to clean out her son's house. In the safe room, she found something detectives had been looking for, the missing sync box that recorded video from the home security cameras. Okay, we're getting somewhere. What happens when you analyze it and you take a look?

**[0:36:53] Speaker 6:** the thumb drive that should have been in there to record was gone. No thumb drive.

**[0:36:58] Andrea Canning:** So you needed the actual

**[0:37:00] Speaker 6:** I needed a actual thumb drive. physical thumb drive, Yes, I did.

**[0:37:04] Andrea Canning:** but it was not a complete dead end. The missing thumb drive convinced investigators that someone had taken it to cover their tracks, and that meant he or she was likely someone who knew a lot about Kirby, including how to get inside his house. You think whoever did this actually had a key to the house.

**[0:37:21] Speaker 6:** Had a key or knew where the spare key was.

**[0:37:24] Andrea Canning:** That's narrowing down your potential suspect list.

**[0:37:28] Speaker 6:** It is.

**[0:37:29] Speaker 3:** I knew it was an inside job.

**[0:37:30] Andrea Canning:** Inside job.

**[0:37:31] Speaker 3:** I knew it had to be an inside job to him.

**[0:37:34] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin and her parents all had easy access to the house, but Caitlin was at Walmart when Kirby was killed, and Jeff and Karen Spence had left Mississippi in their Cadillac for Virginia the day before the murder. How did you confirm that?

**[0:37:46] Speaker 6:** The Cadillac was on the tag reader in Knoxville, Tennessee, the night before Kirby's murder,

**[0:37:53] Andrea Canning:** Which is on the way back to

**[0:37:55] Speaker 6:** on the way back to. Yes, Virginia.

**[0:37:57] Speaker 2:** All we could do was sit and think about who did this and talk about who did this.

**[0:38:01] Andrea Canning:** The more they talked, the more Casey and Mattie Jane found themselves circling back to Caitlin's dad.

**[0:38:06] Speaker 2:** The fact that Jeff loaded his trunk up with bags and bags of Kirby's silver. It's almost like he saw opportunity there and he took what he wanted.

**[0:38:17] Andrea Canning:** McAllister was also thinking about the Spences and took a closer look at Jeff's and Karen's alibis. He pulled their phone records to check their whereabouts around the time of the murder. Karen's cell was clearly in Virginia, but he couldn't confirm a location for Jeff's.

**[0:38:32] Speaker 6:** his phone, he was on it constantly, except for, you know, like, off the face of the earth about sometime on the twenty-ninth, and it didn't pop back on till later on, like the fourth or fifth.

**[0:38:44] Andrea Canning:** Hm, and that's before and after. Kirby was killed.

**[0:38:48] Speaker 6:** yes, just very little activity. There was some activity, but very little.

**[0:38:53] Andrea Canning:** Suspicious, but not proof of anything. So investigators and District Attorney Ben Creekmore, who had joined the case, set out to uncover everything they could about the Spences. They quickly learned Jeff, at one point, a professional deer breeder, had an unusual criminal history.

**[0:39:09] Speaker 3:** He had already been arrested for a felony crime up north for stealing a million dollar deer.

**[0:39:17] Andrea Canning:** Who does that?

**[0:39:18] Speaker 3:** Yeah, I mean, it's it's a strange crime.

**[0:39:21] Andrea Canning:** The deer was an enormous, white-tailed buck named Goliath, worth $1 million because of its breeding potential. Jeff served nine months in jail for stealing the deer from another breeder.

**[0:39:32] Speaker 2:** I just looked up to him and felt like he was a great father.

**[0:39:37] Andrea Canning:** This is Carolyn Awiyo, Jeff and Karen's other daughter. She says growing up, she believed her dad was wrongfully convicted.

**[0:39:45] Speaker 2:** I wrote him a letter every day because I felt like this is an innocent man just sitting in jail right now. Cause they couldn't find the guy that did it.

**[0:39:52] Andrea Canning:** Both Carolyn and Caitlin say their mom and dad were good parents.

**[0:39:55] Speaker 2:** Overall, a lot of my memories of my childhood are just, you know, a happy family, idyllic childhood, exactly. My mom and dad were very active in our lives. I, I would say, a very close, loving relationship.

**[0:40:09] Andrea Canning:** Were they at all your sporting events or activities, things like that?

**[0:40:13] Speaker 2:** Oh, um, yes, I taught Sunday school, were soccer coaches, swim coaches.

**[0:40:20] Andrea Canning:** The sisters grew up in Pennsylvania, where mom Karen worked as a nurse, and Jeff tried his hand at everything from the deer breeding to landscaping to beekeeping.

**[0:40:28] Speaker 2:** Did your dad ever have a regular job, or was it kind of a little of this, a little of that?

**[0:40:33] Speaker 4:** A little of this, a little of that. He would get something started and then it just never seemed to last very long as far as before something fell apart.

**[0:40:41] Andrea Canning:** Geo Awiyo, a former police officer with the Marines, is Carolyn's husband.

**[0:40:45] Speaker 4:** How you doing, ma'am?

**[0:40:46] Andrea Canning:** He got along great with his in-laws.

**[0:40:48] Speaker 4:** I thought I hit the jackpot. It was something out of, like, what you would see off of, like, Everybody Loves Raymond, where, like, they were the the sweet, polite couple.

**[0:40:58] Andrea Canning:** Soon after you two got married, Jeff and Karen started having some pretty serious financial issues.

**[0:41:03] Speaker 4:** Yes, ma'am, very, very soon.

**[0:41:06] Andrea Canning:** The newlyweds suggested they come live with them.

**[0:41:08] Speaker 3:** So I was like, let's do that for a little while, and we can help them find a place and help them settle in somewhere they'll. They'll be comfortable with, like, once they've recovered a little bit from this setback.

**[0:41:19] Andrea Canning:** A little while stretched into more than a year. The parents even tagged along after Carolyn and Gio found their dream home, a log cabin on ten acres of land in Virginia.

**[0:41:30] Speaker 4:** You felt so close to them that you offered for them to build a house on your property.

**[0:41:36] Speaker 6:** Absolutely, it sounded like a perfect scenario. They would, they would have their own place.

**[0:41:41] Andrea Canning:** What could go wrong? Apparently, everything.

**[0:41:44] Speaker 4:** I said, Carolyn, there's a good chance I'm gonna die this morning. If I go down, just call nine one one and and run for cover. I

**[0:42:04] Andrea Canning:** Before Kirby's murder, his girlfriend Caitlin's parents, Jeff and Karen Spence, had been staying with them, very much like years earlier, when they moved in with their other daughter, Carolyn, and her husband Gio. Carolyn says that arrangement was a mistake that nearly cost them everything.

**[0:42:19] Speaker 2:** You don't ever really imagine that your parents have a second life.

**[0:42:22] Andrea Canning:** It all started when Jeff began construction on a house on their property. Carolyn and Gio say he hired a contractor without getting a written proposal or contract, putting the couple at risk for fines. They say they confronted him about it. This doesn't go well, though, right?

**[0:42:37] Speaker 2:** No, as we were talking, uh, he was increasingly irritated, agitated, like he was very upset at both of us. There's an anger in his eyes that I'm just not even understanding the level of, like, hatred at that point.

**[0:42:52] Speaker 4:** Was this the dad you knew?

**[0:42:54] Speaker 2:** No, he said. You know, your mom and I are out, we're done, you guys figure it out.

**[0:42:59] Andrea Canning:** Jeff and Karen abruptly quit the construction project, leaving Carolyn and Gio on the hook for about $175,000 to fix the mess. By then, the parents had moved to another location, but it wasn't the last Carolyn and Gio would see of Jeff.

**[0:43:14] Speaker 4:** Then the sabotage started happening.

**[0:43:17] Andrea Canning:** They say he came back to vandalize their property. You two put up cameras. Were you catching some things that, you know, could be considered disturbing?

**[0:43:27] Speaker 4:** Yes, he went behind the shed and we caught him, uh, cutting one of the camera cables.

**[0:43:32] Speaker 2:** We had tied the gate, so he just cut it and then opened up the gate to go back into the back of our property.

**[0:43:41] Andrea Canning:** Then he dismantled the gate altogether. Carolyn and Gio called the sheriff's office. That led to a falling out with her sister Caitlin.

**[0:43:49] Speaker 2:** She said, Did you call the cops on dad? I said, Yes, she said, I've heard enough and hung up the phone.

**[0:43:55] Andrea Canning:** Jeff Spence was arrested for destruction of property and trespassing, but the military police officer and Gio made him wonder if his father-in-law was up to something more sinister. He thought back on a tense conversation, he says he had with Jeff about the construction issues, and right after that, Jeff proposed this.

**[0:44:14] Speaker 4:** He said, We want to get a million dollar life insurance policy on you that we will be happy to pay for.

**[0:44:21] Andrea Canning:** That's unusual.

**[0:44:22] Speaker 4:** That's a weird transition. We just kinda had a little mini argument, and then, uh, you asked to put a million dollar life insurance policy on me. So at this point, I I felt my life was in danger. I felt like, uh, he was going to find a way to take me out. He was an avid hunter, a marksman.

**[0:44:42] Andrea Canning:** Geo says one morning in particular left him on high alert.

**[0:44:46] Speaker 4:** There was a tree or log put across the driveway at a ninety degree angle. I know what an ambush looks like. I went back inside and I said, Carolyn, there's a good chance I'm gonna die this morning. If I go down, just call nine one one and and run for cover.

**[0:44:59] Andrea Canning:** There's no way to know how the log got there or why. Later, the couple got a no contact order against Jeff. In exchange, the trespassing and destruction charges were dismissed. Carolyn and Gio moved, and out of fear, they didn't tell anyone, including Caitlin, where they were living. But when Carolyn heard her sister was pregnant, she reached out.

**[0:45:20] Speaker 2:** When we talked, it was strictly about, you know, the baby coming. I'm thinking that, you know, this is just a time to support her.

**[0:45:29] Andrea Canning:** After Anola was born, they found out that Jeff and Karen were staying with Caitlin and Kirby.

**[0:45:34] Speaker 4:** In my mind, I was like, Do I call him and warn him about who his father-in-law or potential father-in-law is?

**[0:45:40] Andrea Canning:** Yeah, did you?

**[0:45:41] Speaker 4:** No, to my regret, to my shame, I I, I didn't make the call.

**[0:45:45] Andrea Canning:** How did you get the news that Kirby was dead? And and what were you told?

**[0:45:50] Speaker 4:** One day, I felt like the the Lord was speaking to me, and he said, Go ahead and look him up. Um, so I, I opened the phone and I just I googled his name, and my stomach just dropped. And, uh, the first words I just it, it was just uttered out of my mouth to Carolyn. I said, Carolyn, they killed him.

**[0:46:09] Andrea Canning:** Carolyn, did you call Caitlin right away to ask her if what happened? Are you okay?

**[0:46:15] Speaker 2:** Yes, I need to find out if Kate's okay, if Enola's okay. So I called, and I called again. She's not picking up.

**[0:46:22] Andrea Canning:** They say they followed the police investigation for a few weeks and then took action.

**[0:46:27] Speaker 3:** We decided to share the information we had and show the parallels we saw of what happened to us and then what happened to Kirby.

**[0:46:38] Andrea Canning:** The couple wrote an anonymous letter to law enforcement, urging investigators to look closely at Jeff and Karen. They accused them of a string of financial crimes and wrote this. Please ensure due diligence and investigate this couple so they do not harm any other person.

**[0:46:53] Speaker 3:** That letter really indicated to law enforcement that they're, uh, they're on the right track.

**[0:47:00] Andrea Canning:** Carolyn and Gio didn't stay anonymous for long. They eventually reached out to both Kirby's family and investigator McAllister.

**[0:47:06] Speaker 4:** I told him what we knew about him, uh, and and then what we had been through.

**[0:47:13] Andrea Canning:** With that account, plus Jeff's attempt to take Kirby's silver and questions about his alibi, Jeff was now the investigator's prime suspect. But there was not a shred of physical evidence tying him to the crime. There was no weapon, and they could not even prove he was in Mississippi the day of the murder. In order for Jeff to carry this out, he would have had to drive home to Virginia and then drive back to Mississippi, commit the crime, and then drive back to Virginia.

**[0:47:42] Andrea Canning:** Possible.

**[0:47:43] Speaker 6:** possible, very possible.

**[0:47:45] Andrea Canning:** You just weren't finding that connection that had him or his vehicle

**[0:47:48] Speaker 6:** I was not.

**[0:47:49] Andrea Canning:** getting to Mississippi.

**[0:47:51] Speaker 6:** I was not.

**[0:47:52] Andrea Canning:** Carolyn had an idea about that. She told police how her dad would evade detection back when he was on probation for that deer theft.

**[0:48:00] Speaker 4:** He traveled across state lines, and, you know, I said, What if you're getting in trouble with your probation? And he was like, Oh, when I have to do that, I just leave my phone with your mom, and mom's covering for him, and mom has his his phone.

**[0:48:12] Andrea Canning:** McAllister had to consider whether Jeff had help from his wife and his daughter Caitlin. From the start, he found Caitlin's story suspicious, questioning why she didn't find Kirby's body for more than thirty six hours. He also wondered about the moments before Caitlin found Kirby's body. She told investigators she walked up the hill behind the house to look for him.

**[0:48:34] Speaker 6:** There's no way I don't believe a lady with a baby can climb that hill.

**[0:48:38] Andrea Canning:** Yeah, cause she says that the baby was on her chest. McAllister was certain Caitlin was hiding something. What would Caitlin's motive be then?

**[0:48:47] Speaker 6:** her and Kirby had been having problems. Kirby has another child, and it just went through a pretty nasty child custody thing. I guess Caitlin probably thought, Hey, I don't have the money or anything like that to go through this.

**[0:49:04] Andrea Canning:** The investigator had his theories, but just that not enough for an arrest. Frustrating,

**[0:49:10] Speaker 6:** Yes, extremely.

**[0:49:12] Andrea Canning:** but a potentially huge break was just around the corner. That is, if you believe this guy,

**[0:49:18] Speaker 3:** That's what he said.

**[0:49:20] Speaker 4:** Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, or you could be next.

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**[0:51:07] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family never stopped hounding police with questions about the investigation, even as weeks turned into months. Were you worried that the case would go cold, as so many cases do,

**[0:51:18] Speaker 3:** Yes, I was.

**[0:51:19] Andrea Canning:** and time time passes and just nothing?

**[0:51:22] Speaker 3:** I was. I was worried about that. Very worried about it, but I wasn't gonna shut up.

**[0:51:27] Andrea Canning:** They hope talking about the case on social media might shake out some new leads. You started a Facebook group called Justice for Kirby, a page.

**[0:51:35] Speaker 2:** I did, and you know, there's a lot of armchair detectives out there. The true crime community is huge.

**[0:51:40] Andrea Canning:** The family was growing frustrated.

**[0:51:42] Speaker 11:** The family was naturally because of that happening to their loved one in such a brutal way, really.

**[0:51:48] Andrea Canning:** And no arrest.

**[0:51:49] Speaker 11:** No arrest.

**[0:51:50] Andrea Canning:** Then, four weeks before the first anniversary of Kirby's murder, the case took a sudden turn. Investigators arrested a man named David Barnes for a series of burglaries.

**[0:52:01] Speaker 2:** David was a guy that Kirby would hire often to do like small jobs with him. If he needed someone to ride with him to load up, like an antique car that he had purchased or something, David was his guy.

**[0:52:14] Andrea Canning:** Barnes, who had a long rap sheet, mentioned how much he missed Kirby. Curious, investigators asked him if he knew anything about the murder,

**[0:52:22] Speaker 3:** I wish I could, I wish I could say he did. I don't know.

**[0:52:25] Andrea Canning:** but they had a hunch he might be able to help them. Agent Jarvis brought him in for another chat.

**[0:52:30] Speaker 3:** Trust me. If I would've known anything, I would have come forward and told it. I've done told everything I know, basically.

**[0:52:38] Speaker 11:** When we first started talking to him, he was apprehensive. He would just kind of try to withdraw and stuff. He started crying,

**[0:52:47] Andrea Canning:** So are you thinking, with all of your experience, this man knows more than he is saying?

**[0:52:53] Speaker 11:** right? We could clearly tell that he knew more than he was telling us. I believe you had nothing to do with it, but I think you know something you're not telling us.

**[0:53:02] Speaker 3:** I'm not, I'm not. I've told everything about it.

**[0:53:05] Andrea Canning:** Jarvis kept up the pressure.

**[0:53:07] Speaker 11:** If you do know something, your friend deserve

**[0:53:11] Speaker 3:** I know.

**[0:53:12] Speaker 11:** for you to tell us that so we could try to get justice for his death.

**[0:53:17] Andrea Canning:** About thirty minutes into the interview, Barnes did an about face,

**[0:53:21] Speaker 3:** Can't believe I'm gonna do this.

**[0:53:23] Andrea Canning:** out spilled a story about the day Kirby was laid to rest.

**[0:53:27] Speaker 3:** I said, Kate, please tell me what happened. I need to know. Please, I need to know.

**[0:53:34] Speaker 11:** At Funeral Home after Kirby's funeral, David went up to Caitlyn and he said he asked her what happened.

**[0:53:41] Speaker 3:** She grabbed my hands and she said things heated up. It escalated and it got out of control. My daddy killed him, and that's just that, word that she said.

**[0:53:54] Andrea Canning:** He said Jeff Spence was right there watching and threatened him as he tried to walk away.

**[0:53:59] Speaker 3:** Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, you can be next. That's it. That's what he said. Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, or you could be next.

**[0:54:10] Andrea Canning:** This is a huge break in this case. To have a witness like this. But of course, they had to consider the source. A guy facing significant time behind bars was David Barnes asking for a plea deal or something that would get him out of his burglary mess.

**[0:54:27] Speaker 6:** never has asked for that to this day, still has not asked for that. He's still in jail.

**[0:54:32] Andrea Canning:** This was really the straw that broke the camel's back.

**[0:54:34] Speaker 4:** Yeah, it was a big break, for sure.

**[0:54:37] Andrea Canning:** Investigators decided they had enough on November 30th, 2023, one year to the day that Kirby was murdered. U. S. Marshals, with the help of local police, arrested Jeff Spence in Virginia, back in Mississippi. Investigator McAllister asked Mattie Jane to come see him at the sheriff's department.

**[0:54:55] Speaker 2:** He said, I wanna show you something. And uh, he took me into one of the rooms and he's like looking up a video on his phone. And I'm look at it and it's like he's got Jeff in handcuffs. I said, What?

**[0:55:11] Andrea Canning:** Jeff Spence has been arrested.

**[0:55:12] Speaker 2:** Yes, he'd been arrested. What is going through I was like,

**[0:55:16] Andrea Canning:** your minds?

**[0:55:16] Speaker 2:** I'm, I'm, I'm like, my knees just hit the floor. I'm like, Oh my God,

**[0:55:23] Speaker 10:** You know, I just started crying. I just started crying. I was so, um, relieved to know that someone was going to be held accountable.

**[0:55:32] Andrea Canning:** But that wasn't all right.

**[0:55:33] Speaker 2:** no, that wasn't all.

**[0:55:35] Andrea Canning:** Karen Spence was also arrested in Virginia and over 400 miles away at Kaitlyn's grandmother's house in Pennsylvania. Marshals brought Kaitlyn in, too. Investigators believed even if Jeff pulled the trigger, his wife and daughter helped with the plan. The motive greed. Investigators theorized Jeff Spence wanted the money in Kirby's satchel and the valuables kept in his safes. You believe this was a family affair?

**[0:55:59] Speaker 6:** I believe it was.

**[0:56:01] Andrea Canning:** Diabolical family affair.

**[0:56:03] Speaker 6:** I do.

**[0:56:04] Andrea Canning:** Explain what that is like to, uh, find out that law enforcement believes your mom, your dad, your sister are all involved in a murder plot.

**[0:56:14] Speaker 9:** I mean, it's it's shocking, um, but I I mostly it's just heartbreaking. You're wanting them to be the the people that you thought they were.

**[0:56:24] Andrea Canning:** All three were charged with murder. Now, investigators went looking for more evidence to bolster their case, executing search warrants for the Spence's electronics, vehicles, and homes. But the most explosive evidence would come from the woman at the center of it all. You're ready to talk, and this is going to change everything about this case. Kirby's family was relieved Jeff Spence was finally behind bars, but the arrests also brought the painful realization that Kaitlyn, someone they loved and treated like family, could be involved, too.

**[0:57:12] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family believes that you knew your father was going to kill Kirby, that you helped plan it, that all of you were involved, your dad, you, your mom. What do you say to them?

**[0:57:22] Speaker 5:** that's not the truth. I loved Kirby. I didn't kill him, and I didn't have anything to do with the killing of him. I, I lost him, too.

**[0:57:34] Andrea Canning:** Kaitlyn says the story David Barnes told investigators about Kirby's funeral was just that, a story.

**[0:57:41] Speaker 3:** She said, not every kid.

**[0:57:43] Speaker 5:** I didn't have that conversation with him. The story is not true

**[0:57:47] Andrea Canning:** Why do you think he would make that up?

**[0:57:50] Speaker 5:** because I think he was influence to try and solve the the case. He had gotten into some more trouble. That's when he, you know, told, said that that was a conversation I had with him.

**[0:58:05] Andrea Canning:** She says she was blindsided when Marshals showed up on her doorstep, guns drawn.

**[0:58:10] Speaker 5:** Shock, but also I, I, I knew I had not killed Kirby. My my daughter was my focus with the guns drawn. I mean, honestly, in that situation, what do you? what? I'm a I'm a. I'm a good girl, like I. The cops are here, I'm obeying anything that they are saying and doing.

**[0:58:34] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin, Karen and Jeff all pleaded not guilty and sat behind bars. 16 months went by and then

**[0:58:42] Speaker 6:** Kaitlyn's attorney had reached out and said that she had some information and that that she wanted to talk.

**[0:58:49] Andrea Canning:** you're ready to talk, and this is going to change everything about this case. It's Kaitlyn was brought from her jail cell to a meeting at the TIPA County Sheriff's Department.

**[0:59:00] Speaker 6:** You also have the right to stop answering anytime to talk to a lawyer. You understand those rights. Yes, sir.

**[0:59:05] Andrea Canning:** Kaitlyn was there with her attorney, Tony Ferrace, to tell police about what she says happened after Kirby's murder. Starting with a conversation she had with her father about a delivery on the day of the murder.

**[0:59:16] Speaker 6:** He told me that he had brought

**[0:59:16] Speaker 10:** A package to Kirby on Wednesday, he said that he, you know, had left it there and gone, that, you know, Kirby was not there, that he didn't have any interaction with him.

**[0:59:22] Speaker 6:** a package to Kirby on Wednesday, he said that he, you know, had left it there and gone, that, you know, Kirby was not there, that he didn't have any interaction with him.

**[0:59:30] Speaker 4:** And what did the package contain?

**[0:59:32] Speaker 10:** I don't know what the package contained.

**[0:59:34] Speaker 4:** What did you say? They contained? Narcotics, illegal drugs? Did he say he was supplying Kirby with illegal drugs?

**[0:59:42] Speaker 9:** he said that Kirby and him had

**[0:59:46] Speaker 5:** made the deal that Kirby wanted to make some quick money. Uh, dad knew of a source in Virginia.

**[0:59:52] Andrea Canning:** Kirby and Jeff dealing drugs, that was news, and so was the timing of the deal. Jeff's alibi was that he was home in Virginia that day, not Mississippi. She said her dad then told her Kirby's killer was probably someone who went to the house to buy the drugs, only she wasn't buying it.

**[1:00:10] Speaker 4:** Did you later have a conversation with your father? Uh, where you pressed him on what happened and where you pressed him on whether he had killed Kirby?

**[1:00:21] Speaker 5:** All right, tell the officers about that, please.

**[1:00:24] Andrea Canning:** She told the officers what she told us.

**[1:00:26] Speaker 5:** It had been about six months after Kirby had died, and I was starting to just piece together bits and pieces, and I had questions for my father. I asked to take a walk and have a discussion, and he immediately got very aggressive with me and just kept shutting me down. He told me that he had done, you know, what he had to do, and that I was to not look a gift horse in the mouth. And that the investigators, you know, would find out, you know, who killed Kirby, and that was not my job.

**[1:01:08] Speaker 5:** My job was to make sure Anola was loved and cared for, and and that that I was to keep my nose out of it.

**[1:01:16] Andrea Canning:** How did you take this? What is he trying to tell you? Do you think?

**[1:01:22] Speaker 5:** I mean it, it made me I. I believed he was confessing to killing Kirby.

**[1:01:30] Andrea Canning:** So you're reading between the lines that my dad, it appears, has killed Kirby?

**[1:01:38] Speaker 5:** Yeah, it's. It's not the lines I wanted to be reading, but that's. That's what our conversation opened up those thoughts and the possibility. And that, I mean, I, I shut, I shut down, and I went to my grandma's. I didn't know what to do with it.

**[1:01:57] Andrea Canning:** Were you scared?

**[1:01:59] Speaker 5:** It was just broken, like, I, no, I wasn't scared of him. He's my dad. I didn't wanna believe it. I didn't. I didn't want it to be true.

**[1:02:14] Andrea Canning:** Did you know that Kirby was going to be murdered?

**[1:02:18] Speaker 5:** No, I did not.

**[1:02:19] Andrea Canning:** Did you? Were you involved in the

**[1:02:20] Speaker 5:** No, I was not.

**[1:02:21] Andrea Canning:** planning? Did you think your mom was involved as well?

**[1:02:24] Speaker 5:** I did not. And even after our conversation, I didn't wanna believe it. I rationalized that I was misreading what he said.

**[1:02:37] Andrea Canning:** But now, after sitting in jail for nearly a year and a half, she was in front of investigators turning on her dad.

**[1:02:43] Speaker 2:** He said he did what he had to do.

**[1:02:44] Speaker 5:** He said, for you not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

**[1:02:49] Andrea Canning:** Why did you not take this information to law enforcement sooner?

**[1:02:53] Speaker 5:** Because I didn't, because I didn't wanna lose my daughter, I didn't wanna be taken from my daughter. I don't wanna cause harm to my father. I didn't want to be the one who was responsible. I had faith that law enforcement would would solve it.

**[1:03:14] Speaker 9:** and I and I did not, I did not, I, I didn't step up, I shut

**[1:03:22] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin had given police her version of what happened. Now, with the murder trials approaching, the question was, would anyone believe her? You feel like Caitlin is not telling the whole truth? I'm a skunk

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**[1:05:16] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin Spence had turned on her father, Jeff, telling police he had essentially confessed to killing Kirby. Now, prosecutor Ben Creekmore's office was offering her a chance to get out of jail. Explain what the deal was going to be, what she had to do to get it.

**[1:05:31] Speaker 4:** She would have to testify truthfully against her father, and she would have to enter a plea of guilty to accessory after the fact capital murder.

**[1:05:40] Andrea Canning:** And if she did that, what would she get in return? Probation. Kaitlyn's attorney, Tony Ferres, How did you get the prosecutor to agree to what some see as a very light punishment?

**[1:05:55] Speaker 5:** Well, every case is different. In my opinion, the state of Mississippi needed Kaitlyn's testimony to convict Jeffrey Spence, and as the evidence showed, there was no proof, uh, that Kaitlyn was involved in the killing of Kirby.

**[1:06:11] Andrea Canning:** Maddie Jane thought Kaitlyn's deal sounded like a get out of jail free card. You feel like Kaitlin is not telling the whole truth,

**[1:06:17] Speaker 2:** No, she's not.

**[1:06:18] Andrea Canning:** you think she's leaving out parts that would implicate her?

**[1:06:21] Speaker 2:** Yes, very much so.

**[1:06:23] Speaker 10:** we didn't believe the story that she did not know until months after the fact. Um, we felt like there were too many red flags that showed us otherwise.

**[1:06:34] Andrea Canning:** From the beginning, they couldn't understand Kaitlyn's story about finding the body. How Kirby could have been dead on the property for almost two days without her noticing. In fact, even the prosecutor agrees Kaitlyn may know more about the murder than she's saying. What do you say to anyone who says, Wow, that is a sweetheart deal for Kaitlyn getting probation if you believe she's involved?

**[1:06:58] Speaker 4:** I, I would agree, but practically, you know, on a circumstantial evidence case, knowing that she wasn't there, that she didn't pull the trigger, it's not perfect justice. You know, we just we do what we think is best at the time.

**[1:07:15] Andrea Canning:** Even with Caitlin's testimony, prosecutors faced an uphill battle when Jeff Spence's trial began in September 2025. You didn't have the camera footage, you didn't have a full confession from Jeff Spence to Caitlin, you didn't have any hard proof placing him at Kirby's house with the shotgun. This is, uh, very circumstantial. Did you worry that the jury would have a hard time with all those missing pieces?

**[1:07:42] Speaker 4:** Yes, yes. As far as a circumstantial evidence case goes, probably the biggest mountain we'd ever have to climb.

**[1:07:52] Andrea Canning:** So they told the jury what they did have.

**[1:07:54] Speaker 5:** I'm Brad Johnson.

**[1:07:55] Andrea Canning:** Sergeant Brad Johnson, one of several Virginia police investigators who helped with the case, took the stand. He testified that when Jeff was arrested, he was found with several keys.

**[1:08:05] Speaker 6:** So there was keys to, uh, in small envelopes that appeared to be to safe deposit boxes, and then also to, um, an A one storage unit.

**[1:08:16] Andrea Canning:** Investigators searched the boxes in storage unit. They found silver coins, bars of gold, a check Kirby had written, and receipts from his bank accounts.

**[1:08:25] Speaker 4:** Those are the types of items that Kirby would normally carry in the bag that he carried with him all the time. So whoever had those items had that bag, whoever had that bag was the one that shot and killed Kirby Carpenter.

**[1:08:44] Andrea Canning:** Virginia investigators also found the shotgun wrapped in a coat under Jeff and Karen's bed. There were no shell casings at Kirby's crime scene to make a ballistics match, but still,

**[1:08:55] Speaker 4:** It had buckshot in it, consistent with the type of shot, uh, that was used to kill, uh, Kirby Carpenter.

**[1:09:03] Andrea Canning:** this could be your murder weapon.

**[1:09:04] Speaker 4:** Could be a murder weapon, so that that was a really critical piece of evidence.

**[1:09:10] Speaker 9:** I'm Carolyn Aguayo, Jeff Spence's daughter.

**[1:09:13] Andrea Canning:** Carolyn took the stand for the prosecution and faced her father for the first time in six years. What was that like?

**[1:09:20] Speaker 9:** It's terrifying in a sense. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I would see that anger in his eyes again. I didn't know if he would try and intimidate me while I was up there.

**[1:09:30] Andrea Canning:** Did you make eye contact?

**[1:09:31] Speaker 9:** I did several times, he would not look at me. When he cut the camera cord, we called the sheriffs, cause at that point I had. I had tried to reason with him, Geo had tried to reason with him.

**[1:09:43] Andrea Canning:** Carolyn told the jury how she and Geo felt terrorized by her dad, and then she recounted something he once said about murder.

**[1:09:50] Speaker 9:** We were watching a movie and he said, you know, oh well, if I was ever gonna have to kill someone, I'd use a shotgun. And that's because you wouldn't have to worry about the casing.

**[1:10:01] Speaker 4:** Specifically, did he say anything about the shell shotgun shells? Do you recall?

**[1:10:07] Speaker 9:** Yes, a shotgun shell is huge. I'm sure most of you know that you're not gonna be looking around for little bullet casings.

**[1:10:14] Andrea Canning:** But the prosecution's star witness was Caitlyn. What's that like being across from your dad? It's awful, And you are testifying against him, this man that you had this wonderful relationship with at one time.

**[1:10:28] Speaker 10:** it's awful. It's awful to be put in that situation.

**[1:10:34] Andrea Canning:** Did you see your sister during the trial?

**[1:10:37] Speaker 9:** I saw her come into the courthouse, um, and of course, I wanna go give her a hug. And then you're slapped in the face with the reality of why you're in that building. And so it was really just heartbreaking.

**[1:10:50] Andrea Canning:** In a measured voice, Caitlyn testified about that conversation with her dad.

**[1:10:54] Speaker 9:** I asked him if he had anything to do with Kirby's death. He said that it wasn't I.

**[1:11:01] Speaker 5:** My job to find, you know, who Kirby's killer was. He said that I shouldn't let a gift horse in the mouth.

**[1:11:08] Speaker 4:** How? How did you take this conversation with respect to Kirby's death?

**[1:11:17] Speaker 5:** That he was confessing to me that he had killed Kirby.

**[1:11:20] Andrea Canning:** Then it was the defense's turn, and Jeff's attorney wasted no time hammering at Caitlin's credibility.

**[1:11:26] Speaker 6:** You have to deliver what they need, they being the state of Mississippi.

**[1:11:32] Speaker 9:** No, sir, I'm to testify truthfully to the facts that I know of. I'm not delivering for anyone.

**[1:11:40] Speaker 6:** The truthful facts that you know of weren't reported to anybody for 17 months. Am I right about that?

**[1:11:47] Speaker 9:** I gave, I gave statements to the police as I knew

**[1:11:52] Andrea Canning:** The defense attacked Kirby, too.

**[1:11:54] Speaker 6:** He had people coming to the place where you live, selling drugs.

**[1:11:59] Speaker 9:** we had people coming to the house for a number of things.

**[1:12:02] Speaker 10:** It was for a number of things.

**[1:12:04] Andrea Canning:** Was there any evidence to suggest that Kirby might have been involved in drug dealing with all the with all the cash?

**[1:12:09] Speaker 6:** No, was not. I was the narcotics investigator for years for the county, and I actually used to work for the state narcotics, and I never heard his name.

**[1:12:22] Andrea Canning:** Defense attorney David Hill said one thing was clear there was nothing to link Jeff's shotgun to the crime.

**[1:12:27] Speaker 5:** There's no evidence at all linking Eckman to Mississippi. The how many people on the show? I will allow it.

**[1:12:37] Andrea Canning:** And still no evidence that Jeff was even in Mississippi when Kirby was killed.

**[1:12:42] Speaker 5:** What's the proof?

**[1:12:44] Speaker 6:** Don't have proof he was there exactly

**[1:12:46] Speaker 5:** There's a lot about this case that you don't know. correct.

**[1:12:51] Andrea Canning:** In his closing argument, defense attorney Hill said there was proof Jeff was in Virginia. A text Karen sent to Caitlyn the night Kirby was killed. She wrote that she and Jeff were about to eat hamburgers and that Jeff had been working at home that day.

**[1:13:05] Speaker 5:** It tells you that Karen and Jeff on November 30th are at have been in their own pool.

**[1:13:17] Andrea Canning:** Prosecutor Creekmore turned that text on its head in his closings, telling the jury it was more likely Karen helping Jeff fake an alibi. And he said there was more to that text, a line at the end that he believed was a coded message.

**[1:13:32] Speaker 5:** The hound dogs are back on the porch now. That means the hunt is over.

**[1:13:38] Speaker 4:** The hunt is over. If you're a coon hunter, squirrel hunter, using dogs, deer hunter, you say the hounds are on the porch. That means the hunt is over. And in this case, And the kill, in this case, was Kirby Carpenter.

**[1:13:53] Andrea Canning:** after three days of testimony, it was time for the jurors to decide Jeff Spence's fate. They never heard from Jeff, but we did. Jeff, did you kill Kirby Carpenter? Ma'am, Jeff Spence did not testify during his murder trial, but he did agree to talk to me on the phone from behind bars. Jeff, did you kill Kirby Carpenter?

**[1:14:30] Speaker 5:** Ma'am, I absolutely did not.

**[1:14:33] Andrea Canning:** Kirby's family says that you are a cold-blooded killer and you did this out of greed.

**[1:14:38] Speaker 5:** That is absolutely not true.

**[1:14:40] Speaker 3:** Not true. I am not a murderer. I have never been involved in anything like this in my life.

**[1:14:48] Andrea Canning:** If you say you didn't kill Kirby, who do you think killed Kirby?

**[1:14:51] Speaker 3:** I have no idea, and that's that's the plain truth of it.

**[1:14:54] Andrea Canning:** Why, Jeff, would your own daughter make a make a deal to turn on you or to go against you, you know, if you hadn't done this?

**[1:15:03] Speaker 5:** Very, very simple. She had been kept away from her baby that she adored. The prosecution and the police keep people in jail, put a hold on them, won't let them out until they are willing to say or do whatever the police want to get out.

**[1:15:20] Speaker 3:** In a way, of course,

**[1:15:22] Andrea Canning:** If you're innocent, don't you feel betrayed by Caitlyn?

**[1:15:24] Speaker 3:** I in a way, of course, but that doesn't mean that I didn't understand the pressure on her. It's

**[1:15:34] Andrea Canning:** It sounds like you kind of understand, but it still it must hurt. Okay, well, of course, Jeff doesn't deny that conversation with Caitlin, the one she says amounted to a murder confession, but he says she misconstrued what he meant. One thing I would love to know is, what did you mean when you said to Caitlyn, don't look a gift horse in the mouth?

**[1:15:54] Speaker 5:** what I meant by that was, you have to understand the conversation we were having.

**[1:16:00] Speaker 3:** We were having. She was paying attention to social media. I said, let the police do their work, and I said, you are up here at your family's home with your baby safe from the people who are threatening to kill us in Mississippi. Social media was on fire about it.

**[1:16:23] Andrea Canning:** There was a text on the family group chat that said the hounds are on the porch. The investigators believed, you know, that the the hunt is over, the the murder has been carried out.

**[1:16:35] Speaker 5:** That is so ridiculous that it should be an episode of Mission Impossible or something.

**[1:16:41] Speaker 3:** We had a hound dog that guarded our house. We lived in the mountains of Virginia, where we had a half a dozen black bears living within a mile of our house. So that's the whole hound dog thing. You

**[1:16:56] Andrea Canning:** Your daughter, Carolyn, and your son-in-law had some really awful things to say about you. They're terrified of you. Your son-in-law said that he feels lucky that you didn't kill him.

**[1:17:08] Speaker 5:** and what evidence is there that I ever threatened him or or or had any intention whatsoever of doing any harm to him? There isn't.

**[1:17:18] Andrea Canning:** Well, he, he's. He said you suggested that he take out life insurance and that you would be the recipient.

**[1:17:26] Speaker 3:** Oh, absolutely not. And I never, ever threatened Geo in any way, and I never, certainly never threatened my daughter in any way.

**[1:17:36] Andrea Canning:** So who was telling the truth, Jeff or his daughters, Caitlin and Carolyn? Four and a half hours into deliberations, the jury foreman sent the judge a note. They were deadlocked 6 to 6.

**[1:17:48] Speaker 4:** Y'all have any choice? Declared mistrial, y'all consult your calendars about when you may want to whip it in. You wanna retry this case?

**[1:17:56] Speaker 2:** I end up hyperventilating and I pass out. You literally faint Yes, passed out completely.

**[1:18:07] Andrea Canning:** at over this deadlocked jury.

**[1:18:09] Speaker 2:** Yes, because I'm thinking he's gonna get away with this.

**[1:18:14] Speaker 9:** My first thoughts immediately went to what happens now? I was not prepared for a mistrial.

**[1:18:23] Andrea Canning:** Kaitlyn's deal to testify failed to deliver prosecutors a conviction, but that didn't stop them from going after her dad again. Was it an easy decision to say we're doing trial number two?

**[1:18:34] Speaker 4:** Oh yeah, oh, absolutely. And my next thoughts were for the family. And just to let them know, Hey, we're not going anywhere. This ain't over. We're ready to fight again.

**[1:18:46] Andrea Canning:** Prosecutor tells you, we're going again.

**[1:18:49] Speaker 2:** Yep, I said, Well, you better, you better step your game up.

**[1:18:54] Andrea Canning:** Miss Mattie Jane, Kirby's mom, said that she told you, you better step up your game.

**[1:18:58] Speaker 4:** I, uh, I think she said that more than once.

**[1:19:04] Andrea Canning:** Jeff Spence's second trial began in March 2026. Carolyn again faced the father she lived in fear of.

**[1:19:11] Speaker 4:** Was there anything about his demeanor that was significant to you?

**[1:19:15] Speaker 9:** At that point, there was there's blood in his eyes. I knew that we were done, like, done, done.

**[1:19:24] Andrea Canning:** And Caitlin told her story again.

**[1:19:26] Speaker 4:** You entered a a plea of guilty to accessory after the fact.

**[1:19:31] Speaker 9:** Yes, for the, um, knowledge that I had after of my conversation with my father.

**[1:19:38] Andrea Canning:** In the months between the trials, prosecutors had stepped up their game. With the help of Virginia investigators, they found a new witness with an incredible story.

**[1:19:47] Speaker 4:** Tracy, tell the jury who you are. Uh, Tracy Dell, a friend of Jeff's.

**[1:19:52] Andrea Canning:** Tracy Dell helped Jeff with odd jobs, including fixing up old cars.

**[1:19:56] Speaker 6:** And you would work on them for him, and he and he would pay you. Yes, sir.

**[1:20:01] Andrea Canning:** He testified that Jeff made it clear he was no fan of Kirby's and tried to hire him for a different kind of job.

**[1:20:08] Speaker 4:** Mr. Spence ever talk to you about doing anything about the way he felt about Kirby? Yeah, what did he say? That's right, he wanted him killed. All right, did he ever ask you to do it for him?

**[1:20:30] Speaker 6:** Yes, sir.

**[1:20:30] Speaker 5:** All right, and did he offer to pay you money?

**[1:20:33] Speaker 6:** Yes, sir.

**[1:20:34] Speaker 5:** Do you remember how much? I I think he said, five grand to split with someone. Okay, did you agree to do it? No, sir.

**[1:20:42] Andrea Canning:** He testified they spoke again after the murder.

**[1:20:44] Speaker 4:** What did he tell you? Said he shot him in the face with a pistol, in a pistol. Yep,

**[1:20:50] Andrea Canning:** Tracy Delp's testimony wasn't the prosecution's only new evidence this time around.

**[1:20:54] Speaker 5:** You're right, and face the court court of law here, please.

**[1:20:58] Andrea Canning:** Investigator McAllister testified that he'd taken another look at security video from the Virginia home Jeff and Karen lived in when Kirby was murdered. It showed Jeff had several cars parked in his backyard.

**[1:21:10] Speaker 6:** It had tag numbers of vehicles and things like that on there.

**[1:21:14] Andrea Canning:** So you're trying to think maybe Jeff Spence took a different vehicle to Mississippi? McAllister had the plates run through tag readers across the country. There was a hit. One of Jeff's vehicles, a maroon van in Tennessee, heading south toward Mississippi. What date?

**[1:21:34] Speaker 6:** on the 30th, the day Kirby was killed,

**[1:21:38] Andrea Canning:** Day Kirby was killed? This is your gotcha moment.

**[1:21:41] Speaker 6:** that's it.

**[1:21:42] Speaker 4:** you've got a van coming southbound, 08:30 in the morning on November 30th with his tag on it.

**[1:21:52] Andrea Canning:** The prosecution's smoking gun, or was it? Law enforcement has found new evidence. How do you get around that?

**[1:22:11] Speaker 4:** Everybody in this courtroom knows it.

**[1:22:13] Andrea Canning:** The prosecution had upped its game. Now it was time to see what the defense would do.

**[1:22:18] Speaker 5:** There's no proof that Jeff was even in Mississippi when Kirby was killed.

**[1:22:23] Andrea Canning:** Jeff Spence had new attorneys, Claiborne Ferguson and John McNeil. Law enforcement has found new evidence. They have identified the license plate of one of Jeff's vehicles, and when he's supposed to be in Virginia, that car is traveling, they say, toward Mississippi. How do you get around that?

**[1:22:46] Speaker 6:** Well, the first thing about that van is that license plate hits about 450 miles away from Kirby and Caitlyn's house, and there's not a single other hit on that van traveling that direction for 450 miles.

**[1:23:03] Speaker 5:** Do you have proof that Jeff was closer than 450 miles away from Tippah County the day Kirby Carpenter was murdered?

**[1:23:11] Speaker 3:** I have direct proof.

**[1:23:14] Speaker 5:** No direct proof. Might it be possible that Jeff was going to tend to some of his beehives in North Tennessee? Possible.

**[1:23:24] Andrea Canning:** More than possible, according to what Jeff told me.

**[1:23:27] Speaker 4:** I'm a beekeeper, I have beehives in four, five locations, and that's what I was doing the 1st morning after I came back from being away from them was to go check on my beehives.

**[1:23:39] Andrea Canning:** I'd like your thoughts on Tracy Dell, who said that you asked him to help you kill Kirby, and then eventually you admitted to Tracy, according to Tracy, that you killed Kirby.

**[1:23:51] Speaker 10:** all of those statements are false. He will say or do whatever he needs to say to either get drugs or help himself out of a situation with the police. You're a thief, yeah, I have been, yes, sir, because you gotta pay for your drugs, right? Yes, sir. And you're not very truthful to police officers. You've gotten in trouble before for giving false testimony. Yeah, once.

**[1:24:18] Andrea Canning:** The defense had Tracy Delp's story about Jeff Spence included details that were obviously false, like the murder weapon used, which both sides agreed was a shotgun.

**[1:24:26] Speaker 4:** You referenced the fact that the weapon in this case was a pistol. That's what I was told. That's all I know, but

**[1:24:35] Andrea Canning:** Mentioned that Jeff told him he killed Kirby with a a pistol, which we know wasn't true. It's all a fantastical story. Um, and you'd have to ask Tracy Dub why he told it. You mind if I call you Caitlin? That's fine, And when he cross-examined Caitlin, McNeil used the same line of attack the defense used in the 1st trial, questioning her motivation.

**[1:24:55] Speaker 4:** you got to hug your daughter after you're released from jail.

**[1:24:59] Andrea Canning:** What do you want jurors to see while you're talking to her?

**[1:25:02] Speaker 4:** I want the jury to understand that she is testifying against her father, and it is only because she's sat in jail for a year and a half away from her child. What is it that you have to do to keep from going to prison for 20 years?

**[1:25:21] Speaker 9:** testify truthfully against my father and mother at that time.

**[1:25:25] Speaker 4:** Who determines whether or not you're telling the truth?

**[1:25:29] Speaker 10:** The court, I assume. Members of the jury,

**[1:25:33] Andrea Canning:** Once again, a jury went to decide Jeff's guilt or innocence. How are you feeling as the jury goes out to deliberate this time?

**[1:25:40] Speaker 2:** A lot better, but you got twelve jurors there, anything could happen.

**[1:25:48] Andrea Canning:** There were several charges to consider capital murder, which in Mississippi is murder in the commission of another felony, in this case, stealing Kirby's valuables. The jury could also find him guilty of 1st degree murder or manslaughter.

**[1:26:01] Speaker 5:** You'll have a reason to murder. Is that correct?

**[1:26:05] Andrea Canning:** After just over 2 hours, the jury had a decision.

**[1:26:08] Speaker 5:** We the jury find the defendant, Jeffrey Dean Spence, not guilty of capital murder.

**[1:26:13] Andrea Canning:** You hear not guilty. Did that worry you that this was going down a bad path?

**[1:26:20] Speaker 2:** Sure did.

**[1:26:21] Andrea Canning:** But the judge kept reading.

**[1:26:23] Speaker 5:** We the jury find the defendant, Jeffrey Dean Spence guilty of 1st degree murder. Guilty.

**[1:26:28] Andrea Canning:** Guilty 1st degree murder.

**[1:26:30] Speaker 2:** 1st degree murder.

**[1:26:31] Andrea Canning:** They got him. Yep, and that's What's going through your mind, your body in that moment?

**[1:26:36] Speaker 2:** I'm just trying to enjoy the words, or I don't know if I should say enjoy the words, but I was trying to comprehend that it his happened.

**[1:26:54] Andrea Canning:** Your father was found guilty of 1st degree murder, and you're essentially the star witness who led to that.

**[1:27:00] Speaker 9:** It's it's still very fresh, and I f. I know that I will continue to have conflicting emotions. I testified to the truth, and it's heavy, it's heavy to be that person, but I I did what I had to do. I, I did what was right.

**[1:27:31] Andrea Canning:** Was there any part of you that was grateful that she was turning on her dad, at least to help get him?

**[1:27:38] Speaker 2:** That's hard to say. Maybe a little bit, but I wanted all of them that was involved.

**[1:27:47] Andrea Canning:** After her testimony, Caitlin was sentenced to five years probation. Her mother Karen entered an Alford plea to accessory after the fact to grand larceny and was also released on probation with a ten year suspended sentence. Jeff was sentenced to life in prison. He is appealing. Kirby would surely be proud of how his family handled this and how you all fought for him.

**[1:28:10] Speaker 10:** I would go to my grave fighting if I had to. If justice was gonna come during this lifetime, you know, I felt like anything that I had to do to fight for it, it was worth it.

**[1:28:21] Andrea Canning:** Caitlin has custody of Anola, and Kirby's family has regular visitation. Maddie Jane makes sure to remind Anola of the father taken from her all too soon. What would you tell her about her dad?

**[1:28:34] Speaker 2:** What I tell her every time, your daddy loved you so much, and your daddy's in heaven. Your daddy would walk up to you and he would go toot toot on your nose, and, uh, she'll do that to me, just like Daddy goes toot toot.

**[1:28:56] Speaker 10:** We don't want Kirby's legacy to be what happened to him. We want it to be the life he lived, the spirit that he had, just that, you know, just living life to the fullest on just a normal Monday or Tuesday. He made the most of every day.

**[1:29:16] Ad read:** That's all for this edition of Dateline, and don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast, which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode. Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9:00 8 central. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News. Good night. Mazda has been named Consumer Reports safest new car brand. It starts with our approach. Every Mazda comes standard with proactive safety features, so you're more aware of what's around you, more focused on the road ahead, and ready before problems ever start.

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