Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hey
0:02
there, it's Kristen.
0:09
On
0:11
Murder, She Told, I share with you the stories
0:13
of lesser-known crimes in Maine,
0:15
New England, and away. In
0:18
a similar vein, I want to recommend to you
0:20
a show called Black Girl Gone,
0:22
hosted by Amara Kofer.
0:24
Each episode takes you on a heart-wrenching
0:26
journey through the stories of missing and murdered
0:29
black women and the families they left behind.
0:31
Each week, Amara works
0:33
to uncover hidden truths and bring
0:35
the important stories of these women to the
0:37
forefront. I'm gonna play a clip from
0:40
Black Girl Gone, and I encourage you to
0:42
find and follow Black Girl Gone in
0:44
your favorite podcast app, or by clicking
0:46
the link in the show notes.
0:48
I hope you enjoy.
0:50
On April 16th, 2005, the bodies of 38-year-old Glenda Pulley and
0:55
her 10-year-old son, Tyler Jones, were
0:57
found inside their Warren County, North Carolina
0:59
home. They
1:00
had both been shot to death. Investigators
1:04
believed that they knew what had happened to Glenda
1:06
and Tyler.
1:07
And within days, they were declaring
1:09
their death the result of a murder
1:11
suicide
1:12
orchestrated by 10-year-old Tyler.
1:15
No one in Tyler and Glenda's family, including
1:18
his father, Daniel, believed that Tyler
1:20
could ever be capable of doing something like this.
1:23
Like
1:23
I said, by all accounts, Tyler
1:25
was a normal kid, very active,
1:28
full of energy. And if you're
1:30
raising boys, you know exactly what kind of
1:32
energy they can possess.
1:35
He'd like to ride four-wheelers and play outside
1:37
with his friends and cousins. And there was
1:39
no history of him being a troubled child or
1:42
having behavior issues. But
1:44
when investigators spoke to Dennis at the home
1:47
after the murders, Dennis sang a
1:49
different tune about Tyler.
1:51
Dennis told investigators that Tyler had
1:54
anger issues. Now, Linda's
1:56
family said that police didn't ask anyone
1:58
close to Tyler if he had anger issues.
2:01
According to them, they did not try
2:03
to confirm what Dennis said with anyone else
2:06
in Glenda and Tyler's family or circle. And
2:08
instead, they took what Dennis said as
2:11
proof that Tyler had committed this crime.
2:16
Investigators used Dennis's words in
2:19
the official report and it was noted
2:21
on the medical examiner's report. By
2:24
6pm that evening on the 16th,
2:27
investigators had finished processing the scene.
2:30
And according to Daniel,
2:31
the home was opened back up and people
2:33
were allowed to come and go.
2:36
Now, that would give you the impression
2:38
that police had collected all the evidence that
2:40
they needed in seven hours and were
2:43
not going to need to go back in the home because why
2:45
else would they allow people to go back inside the house?
2:49
But
2:49
the reason why is because they
2:51
had decided at that point that the case
2:54
was essentially closed.
2:56
And when a suicide note was found,
2:59
all of the investigator's beliefs about Tyler
3:02
being the perpetrator were confirmed.
3:06
But how and when the suicide note
3:08
was found is not clear and is
3:10
actually kind of confusing. Now,
3:12
according to an article two days after
3:14
the murder, the investigator on the case
3:17
said that a suicide note was found under a
3:19
pillow in the home, But
3:20
he does not say who found the note.
3:23
But on the episode of Still a Mystery, Daniel
3:26
says that police did not find the note and that the funeral
3:28
director found the note. Which
3:31
is interesting because the funeral director would
3:33
not have had access to the bodies until after
3:36
the medical examiner had completed the autopsies. And
3:39
so that kind of makes it seem like the
3:41
note was in Tyler's pocket. And if it was
3:44
in Tyler's pocket, then that would raise the
3:46
question about the question about why police
3:48
would not have
3:49
found it immediately. I mean,
3:51
even if it was under the pillow, if police
3:54
were not the ones who found it, then how
3:56
thoroughly did they actually process this
3:58
scene? Now, this
4:00
is no shade, but smaller police departments
4:03
don't have the resources to deal with crimes
4:05
of this magnitude, and these
4:07
kind of crimes don't often happen in their communities,
4:10
so their experience with this sort of
4:12
thing is limited.
4:14
But in this case, state investigators
4:16
had also been on the case the day of the murder,
4:19
although they later claimed that they had a very limited
4:22
role in the investigation.
4:26
The suicide note for investigators, however, was
4:28
the final piece that they would need to officially
4:30
rule this case, a murder-suicide, and
4:33
close the investigation.
4:35
In the note,
4:36
10-year-old Tyler allegedly writes,
4:38
quote, Sorry, everybody. I'm
4:41
sorry for killing my best mom. So
4:43
I'm going to write a little song and then kill
4:46
myself.
4:47
My dad don't even care for me. He
4:49
doesn't even call me.
4:51
And if you want to understand me more, listen
4:53
to 50 Cent, The Massacre.
4:56
He then writes the words, My Life
4:58
and Really Large Letters. And then the letter
5:00
is signed from Tyler.
5:03
The police photo of this letter shows that the
5:05
letter was creased multiple times
5:07
like it had been folded up.
5:10
Now when Daniel is shown the note, he
5:13
tells investigators that his son did not
5:15
write that letter. And
5:17
he's not the only one who didn't believe that Tyler
5:19
had not written that letter.
5:21
Glinda's cousins also did not believe that
5:23
Tyler was capable of writing a letter like that.
5:26
I mean, even the fact that a suicide note
5:29
was left at all was suspicious.
5:31
I
5:31
mean, a 10-year-old had the wherewithal to
5:34
compose a suicide note after he had
5:36
shot and killed his mother with a shotgun.
5:39
Glinda and Tyler's family didn't believe
5:41
that Tyler would be able to formulate those kind
5:43
of thoughts. But
5:45
police, however, did not agree with them.
5:47
They believed that Tyler was a troubled child
5:50
and that he murdered his mother and then himself.
5:52
Case closed. For
5:55
Glenda's family, however, it was far
5:58
from close case.
6:00
They knew that Tyler was not capable
6:02
of killing his mother and then himself.
6:04
But it wasn't just what they knew about Tyler
6:06
that made them believe he wasn't the person who did
6:08
this.
6:10
It was what they knew and then soon found
6:12
out about Dennis that solidified
6:15
their suspicion that this was not a murder-suicide.
6:19
It was a double
6:19
murder.
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