- FEMALE NARRATOR: A gruesome crime
rocks a small-town community.
- DAVID A: She had discovered the head
of a decapitated victim.
- The torso was cut in half. The arms were just gone.
- Who does that kind of thing? Who is that monstrous?
- NARRATOR: The hunt for answers will uncover the story
of a pastor's widow with a new lease on life.
- DR. PLASTER: She kind of spread her wings.
She was making friends and--and living her own life.
- NARRATOR: But did this innocent grandma put her faith
in the wrong people?
- It turned out he was married.
- LINDA: It's a story of a sweet woman
that had no idea who she was taking in.
And she was deceived, she was lied to.
- They brought this woman in, and she looked normal.
I started thinking: is this the woman who killed my mother?
- ♪
♪♪
- NARRATOR: October 6, 1989.
It's a quiet afternoon
just outside of Springfield, Missouri,
as school teacher Jean Walker drives home
from a long day at work.
- She's driving home.
She just happens to notice off to the side a black bag.
- It was about two feet into the roadway, so she pulled over.
- SARA: She's curious enough to open it,
and she made a horribly gruesome discovery.
- DAVID T: Inside, she found a set of garden shears.
Also inside was a knife and some bloody paper towels.
And that obviously alarms her very much.
- NARRATOR: Jean quickly flags down a passing neighbor.
- She talks with her neighbor,
who is the chief of police for her town.
- NARRATOR: As the chief inspects the bag
with the bloody items, just a few feet away,
Jean makes a far more horrific discovery.
- DAVID T: She noticed something that she hadn't noticed at first
wrapped up in a trash bag.
- She had discovered the upper torso of a body.
- The torso was cut in half.
The body had been decapitated.
And the arms were just gone.
It was a pretty graphic, horrific crime.
- NARRATOR: As officers arrive on the scene
and begin to search the area, the horror escalates.
- They discovered the head of a decapitated woman.
- They had found a single gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
- NARRATOR: The victim appears to be an older woman,
but detectives need more information to secure an ID.
- They did a drawing that their police sketch artist
had done from the severed head,
trying to help identify the victim of this crime.
- DAVID A: It was posted in the news
in effort to locate this person.
And it didn't take long for people to start calling.
- NARRATOR: Word of the chilling discovery
sends shockwaves through the area...
especially for the family of missing person Wilma Plaster.
- LINDA: My daughter called, and she said they said on the news
that there's a body that's been found.
It was so out of the blue that this could have happened.
All I knew was a body.
I didn't know any of the other details.
I was scared...
because I think in--in some ways,
it was in the back of my head that this could be my mother,
but I didn't want to admit it.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Born in Ozark County, Missouri, in 1923,
Wilma Plaster was known for her heart of gold.
- LINDA: She really wanted us to do the right thing.
To be good people.
To love God, to love them, to love others.
- NARRATOR: For more than four decades,
Wilma's partner in life was a former naval pilot
that she met at the tender age of 15.
- They were very young.
Uh, Daddy was, uh, 18 when they married.
Mom was 15, and she turned 16 two months later.
- DR. PLASTER: They fell in love.
They went to the same church. I think that's where they met.
My dad volunteered to go to the South Pacific with the Navy,
where he flew a variety of aircraft at that time,
and came home and decided he was going to become a preacher.
He dedicated his life to preaching the gospel
and pastoring churches.
- NARRATOR: Wilma reveled in the role of a pastor's wife.
- LINDA: As a pastor's wife,
she had to kind of get out in the forefront, you know,
and go with Dad wherever he needed to go,
and, uh, be with him and, you know, greet people, and--
and go see sick people, and, and grieve with them
as they're dying, and--and all of that.
And--and she, you know, she was compassionate.
- NARRATOR: Wilma also fit effortlessly
into another role... motherhood.
- She, for the most part, stayed at home
and took care of our-- our family.
- LINDA: We were very, very close.
I followed her around like a puppy.
Uh, everywhere she went, I went.
- NARRATOR: After her four children moved out of the house
and started having children of their own,
Wilma was thrilled to take on the role of grandmother.
- DR. PLASTER: My boys loved her.
She was sweet to them when she was around them.
- NARRATOR: But in 1984, after 45 years of marital bliss,
tragedy struck.
- My father developed Lou Gehrig's disease,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and ALS, and,
and unfortunately succumbed to this disease rather quickly.
- LINDA: He lived 5 months, 15 days from diagnosis to death.
My mom tried to take care of him as best she could at home,
but it was hard on her.
All of a sudden, she's by herself.
And I think she felt lost.
- NARRATOR: After some time, Wilma met a woman at church
named Janice Cook whose husband had also recently passed away.
- DR. PLASTER: Janice was a widow also.
And so she and Janice became good friends.
It really, really helped her.
- NARRATOR: At 60 years old, Wilma and Janice started going
out on the town together.
- LINDA: The lounges-- or most of them,
it was like country line dancing.
That's what she and, and Janice got into with.
And they--they enjoyed it. It was exercise.
It was--it was a way to get out and meet people.
- DR. PLASTER: She's still a pastor's wife,
uh, a pastor's widow.
So yeah, her idea of living a wild life would--
would not be what we--what most of us would--would think of.
It looked like she was doing fine with making friends
and living her own life.
- NARRATOR: In time, Wilma took another big step.
- She had formed a romantic relationship
with a man named Carl.
- LINDA: She had met him actually at one of
the country line dancing places.
- She liked Carl.
And that, uh, maybe even loved Carl.
- He was just amazingly sweet to her.
Really treated her nice, took good care of her.
- NARRATOR: Wilma seemed to be enjoying her third act in life.
But on October 3, 1989, her children become worried
when they struggle to get ahold of her.
- The last time I spoke to my mom was on a Tuesday morning.
And she said she'd talk to me in a couple of days.
I called her a couple of times and didn't get a hold of her.
And called her the next day, didn't get a hold of her.
My mother always answered the phone,
and she always let me know where she was going.
It registered in the back of my mind that she's missing.
Where is she?
- NARRATOR: On Friday, October 6,
3 days since she last spoke with her mother,
Wilma's daughter, Linda, has just heard news of a body
discovered in Springfield.
And she and her husband begin
to frantically call friends and family.
- DR. PLASTER: My brother-in-law Mike Baker called and said
something that just stopped me in my tracks.
And he said, "We-- they found a body
outside of Springfield."
- I said, "There's something wrong.
There is something wrong. I don't know what it is."
But I prayed like crazy...
that my mother was still alive.
- NARRATOR: Wilma's worried family contacts authorities,
and detectives ask them to come to the station
to look at the forensic sketch broadcast by the news that week.
- LINDA: He said, "I need you to look at this, Linda."
And he, he asked me to look at this paper.
I shoved it back to him and I said, "No, it's not her.
Don't make me look at it again."
And he pushed it back. And I said, "I can't."
Of course, by this time I'm-- I've broken down into a puddle.
- NARRATOR: The family is spared from having to ID the body
when dental records come in
from the medical examiner on October 8.
Their Jane Doe is identified as widow Wilma Plaster.
- DAVID A: Through dental records,
Wilma Plaster was positively identified.
- DR. PLASTER: It was a feel like I'll never forget.
I was--I felt like an orphan.
Here I was--you know, I was thirty some-odd years old.
I was a father of two boys.
And--and I felt like an orphan.
- LINDA: It was just so hard to believe.
She was just a mother, a grandmother.
She was a pastor's wife.
She was a good person. Why her?
Who could have done something to such a sweet little lady?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up: Is there more to this elderly widow's
personal life than meets the eye?
- LINDA: She cried all the way home because she was--
she felt so betrayed by him.
- NARRATOR: And detectives uncover a frightful scene.
- The crime lab found blood residue there.
A lot of blood.
- It was obviously the scene of a butchery.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: October 8, 1989.
Two days after a body was found dismembered
along a rural roadside outside Springfield, Missouri,
an autopsy has just revealed
the victim is 66-year-old Wilma Plaster.
- She had been dumped along a rural highway
like yesterday's trash.
And it was like, "Who does that kind of thing?
Who is that monstrous?"
- NARRATOR: Detectives pour over the autopsy results
hoping for a lead.
- Not only was the victim decapitated,
she was shot in the head.
That ultimately was the cause of death--
was the bullet wound to the head.
It was a .38 caliber that was used to shoot her.
- SARA: Chopping the torso in half,
removing the arms and legs,
all that happened after she had been dead.
The investigators speculated
that the killer cut the body up into smaller pieces
because then it would be easier for them
to move it and dispose of it.
- NARRATOR: To detectives, the gruesome disposal of the body
suggests the crime may not be the work of a stranger.
- It just didn't seem like it was a random crime that--
that someone would attack a stranger,
kill them and chop up their body like that.
- It was a definite crime of premeditation.
- NARRATOR: That afternoon, investigators sit down
once again with Wilma's children
to gain as much insight into her life as possible.
- She had no enemies.
She was well loved.
People were shocked.
- NARRATOR: Wilma's children tell detectives they should
speak to their mother's best friend, Janice,
for more information about their mother's day-to-day activities.
- They were together, very good friends,
constant friends for almost-- right at about six years.
- NARRATOR: Wilma's family states that the two friends
hadn't seen each other in a while,
but kept in contact over the phone.
- Janice had started to have a relationship with a gentleman
and was possibly going to get married.
And Mom was feeling left out again.
- I know that my mom was deeply, um, disappointed.
She may have felt a little abandoned.
- NARRATOR: Janice wasn't the only person Wilma had recently
distanced herself from.
Wilma's children explain
that a few weeks before Wilma disappeared,
she abruptly ended her romance with Carl.
- LINDA: She had started dating Carl four years ago.
Carl was from Arkansas, and so he didn't live local.
- It turned out he was married.
- LINDA: She broke up with him.
And she told me later that she cried all the way home because
she was--she felt so betrayed by him.
- NARRATOR: After concluding the interview at the station,
detectives head to Wilma's home in Branson in search of answers
for how this elderly woman met such a horrific end.
- When we entered the home, it looked pristine.
It even smelled tidy.
- There was no evidence of any struggle
or anything of that nature.
- NARRATOR: Despite the perfect façade,
detectives are able to prove
that two items found with Wilma's body--
the garden shears and knife--
appeared to have originated from the home.
- DR. PLASTER: There's a knife missing here.
And, uh, it was that butcher, that--that butcher's knife--
a wooden-handled knife with a big heavy blade.
- DAVID T: They also determined
that Wilma Plaster's Chevy Beretta was missing.
There was no car in the garage.
- NARRATOR: Detectives immediately put out an APB
on Wilma's vehicle and continue processing the garage,
where they make a startling discovery.
- It was pretty obvious the garage
had recently been cleaned.
And so they sprayed luminol in the garage.
- They found some blood in a--in a swirling pattern,
indicating that there might have been some effort to clean blood
off of the floor of the garage.
- DAVID A: The crime lab found blood residue there.
A lot of blood.
We felt like the actual decapitation
and body dismemberment occurred in the garage of Wilma's house.
- It was obviously the scene of a butchery.
- NARRATOR: Investigators fan out to speak with neighbors,
hoping they may have noticed anything unusual
in the last few days.
One neighbor recalls hearing a loud pop
on the night of October 3.
- DAVID A: There was a neighbor nearby Wilma Plaster's home
that heard a loud bang, like a gun.
It was later in the night, and it frightened him to the point
that he went in his own garage and was looking around for
something that might have fallen.
- He had no idea that, uh, it--it was a gunshot.
He just didn't put two and two together.
- NARRATOR: Another neighbor recalls seeing a silver car
at Wilma's residence over the last few days.
- They talked with one of the neighbors who twice could say
she had seen a silver car parked at Wilma's house
and, at one point, the car had pulled into the garage.
- NARRATOR: Detectives put out another APB
for the suspicious silver sedan.
As they await results,
they track down Wilma's former flame, Carl Hughes.
- It's in our best interest to identify everybody involved.
And so, he agreed to talk,
even though he was a potential suspect.
- NARRATOR: When they sit down with Carl,
detectives ask him point blank
if he knows anything about Wilma's death.
- Carl was Wilma's boyfriend who lived in Arkansas.
And upon being contacted and interviewed,
he indicated that he was home in Arkansas
at the time preceding her death.
- NARRATOR: When detectives press Carl
about a potential love triangle,
Carl claims his wife didn't know about Wilma.
- It turned out he was married.
I don't think she knew about my mother.
- NARRATOR: Carl's alibi is verified by his wife.
In addition, detectives find no record of him
owning or renting a silver car.
- Carl did not own a silver vehicle described
as being at Wilma Plaster's residence.
That helped eliminate him as a suspect.
- NARRATOR: With Carl cleared as a suspect,
detectives move on to another member of Wilma's inner circle.
On October 9, 1989, 3 days after Wilma's body was found,
detectives sit down with Janice Cook,
previously one of Wilma's closest friends.
- Janice Cook, who is Wilma Plaster's
neighbor and friend,
was concerned because she hadn't seen her in several days.
- LINDA: Janice was going a different direction.
And Mom had had this constant companion for all this time.
And now all of a sudden, she was going to be alone.
- DR. PLASTER: I don't think Janice
was ever a serious suspect.
I think that they might have had, you know,
your typical friendship tiffs.
I think they were good friends right to the very end.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Janice if she knows of
anyone else who was close with Wilma.
- DR. PLASTER: Mom had mentioned a new friend.
That's when I found out about Shirley Phillips.
- LINDA: Shirley was a friend that she met at one of these
country line dancing places there in Branson.
- DR. PLASTER: Mom was excited about having a new friend.
Janice had started dating somebody and kind of moved on
away from their relationship, and she was sort of alone.
And so Shirley stepped in and filled the gap.
- NARRATOR: Janice says Wilma
and 53-year-old Shirley Jo Phillips
had become inseparable over the last few weeks.
- I don't think their relationship was all that long.
My understanding from what Mom had said,
it was maybe three weeks to a month is all she knew her.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Janice
what kind of car Shirley Jo drives.
- Shirley Jo Phillips had a silver Cadillac.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up: detectives learn more about
Wilma's new friend, who may be harboring a dark secret.
- She told her what she wanted to hear and, man, she was in.
Mom took her in.
- NARRATOR: And a witness comes forward
with a terrifying realization.
- She was scared out of her mind.
She realized that she probably was, uh, friends with a killer.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives in Springfield, Missouri,
are on the hunt for the killer
of 66-year-old grandmother Wilma Plaster.
During an interview with Janice Cook,
they learn that a new fixture in Wilma's life,
53-year-old Shirley Jo Phillips,
owns a silver Cadillac matching the one seen at Wilma's
prior to her disappearance.
- Obviously, that was the car
seen by the neighbor of Wilma Plaster.
That was a piece of evidence
that turned us more towards Shirley.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo Phillips was known for her lively spirit
and zest for life.
- JACK: I just thought the world of her.
And she just thought the world of me.
She just had the greatest laugh and smile.
Uh, she was a very beautiful woman.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo's beauty
had always captivated the attention of men.
- JACK: She worked in an office.
My aunt was dressed to the nines. You know?
She always--her makeup was perfect.
She carried herself very elegantly.
- MICKEY: She was very energetic.
She had this way about her, a smile and just a personality
that you were immediately attracted to.
- NARRATOR: After a brief marriage and subsequent divorce
during the '60s, Shirley Jo found herself
a young single mother to a son-- Glenn "Buddy" Minster.
- She loved her son. She took care of her son.
I don't think he really wanted for anything.
Back in the '60s, you know, she had jobs in Wichita,
she had jobs in Dallas.
You know, you can barely have an apartment and raise a child
and you don't have a husband, you know.
It's not an easy life.
You basically did what you had to, to get by.
- NARRATOR: Faced with many hardships,
Shirley Jo found other ways to provide for herself and her son.
- My mother always said, "Your aunt's a kleptomaniac.
She can't come in the house without stealing something."
So, we always watched out for, you know, sticky fingers.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo's mother, Lela Kyle,
did not agree with her daughter's life choices,
and wanted better for her.
- It was always a combative relationship.
She didn't like my aunt's lifestyle.
- My grandmother blamed her for her lifestyle.
It made for a very bad situation between them.
- NARRATOR: By the fall of 1984, Shirley Jo seemed
to take another turn, and not for the better.
- She wasn't as friendly, uh, almost depressed.
- JACK: There was a change in my aunt.
She was cold, no pulse, no feelings.
She barely looked at me, wouldn't talk to me.
And I even commented to my grandmother, I said,
"What's the deal?"
And she's like, "Your aunt just changed in a bad way."
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo started using her beauty
to con men for money.
- She was--would find--find men, take all their stuff,
go to another state, and had a huge yard sale.
- MICKEY: She usually chose men.
But when men no longer availed themselves,
she looked for other people.
And, uh, when she found somebody,
she took them for everything she could.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Now, detectives investigating the murder of
Wilma Plaster wonder if Shirley Jo
may have taken her latest con too far.
- LINDA: My mom was an easy target.
I think she realized how--how lonely Mom was,
'cause Shirley Phillips popped in there
and she told her what she wanted to hear
and, man, she was in.
Mom took her in.
- NARRATOR: It isn't long before
an informant contacts police on October 10.
- Nora Martin was a friend of Shirley Jo Phillips.
She worked at a jeans factory in Harrison, Arkansas,
which is about a hundred miles south of Springfield.
- She had called the police saying, I think I have evidence.
And she was scared to death.
- NARRATOR: Detectives rush to the home of Nora Martin.
- LINDA: She was frightened. She was shaking.
And she relays to the police that Shirley had come down
and had--actually had spent a couple of days with her.
- NARRATOR: Nora tells detectives that as soon as
Shirley Jo had arrived,
she started cutting the passenger side seatbelt
out of her silver Cadillac.
- DAVID T: Shirley said that there was--
the seatbelt wasn't retracting,
and it kept getting caught in the door.
So she was cutting it out of the car
so that that wouldn't happen anymore.
- NARRATOR: Nora says after that,
Shirley Jo suggested they both take their cars to the car wash.
- DAVID T: They went to a car wash that was nearby.
While the two of them were at the car wash,
Shirley vacuumed her car out three separate times
and washed it twice.
- SARA: The women then go back to--to Nora's.
And they're watching the news.
And they see a report about, about the murder.
- DAVID T: Nora told police that
Shirley became very nervous and upset.
And she said, "My fingerprints are all over Wilma's house."
- NARRATOR: Though Shirley Jo's behavior certainly seemed odd,
Nora admits she didn't think much of it at the time.
That is, until she found some items
Shirley Jo had left behind.
- There's a bunch of stuff stuffed under her front porch
in trash bags.
- DAVID: Inside the trash bag, police found hundreds of checks
belonging to Wilma Plaster.
- SARA: There were some bloody towels,
there were the floor mats,
there were other things from the car.
They find a receipt from Walmart for cleaning supplies.
- DR. PLASTER: This person also found, uh,
the carpet that was cut out of Shirley's trunk,
which was deeply bloodstained.
And when it kind of dawned on her what her friend had done,
she was--I mean, she was scared out of her mind.
She realized that she probably was, uh, friends with a killer.
- NARRATOR: Nora hands over all the content left behind
by Shirley Jo and allows detectives to search her home.
- That is where they found, um, the gun.
- DAVID T: The gun that the police found under the porch
was a .38 caliber revolver.
Ballistics testing was later done in comparison with
the bullet fragments taken from Wilma Plaster's brain.
And the expert determined that those fragments had come from
that gun that was found under the porch.
- So, it just kind of brought everything together.
Plus, all the evidence of the checks.
The forged check and the other checks from Wilma.
- NARRATOR: The gun, however, is not registered to Shirley Jo,
but to her son, Glenn "Buddy" Minster.
Detectives quickly call him into the station for an interview
wondering if there is a darker side to Buddy.
- DAVID A: In the interview with Buddy, he was quite candid.
- JACK: Here's the thing.
He's a thief. He'd steal from you.
But, you know, murder? What do you mean?
It didn't compute.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up: detectives double down on
finding Shirley Jo and catch a break.
- DAVID T: When the police arrived,
they determined that this car
was Wilma Plaster's Chevy Beretta.
- NARRATOR: But another discovery proves
far more shocking.
- They had recovered nine pounds of human flesh
at a roadside park.
This case just exploded.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: October 10, 1989.
It's been 4 days since 66-year-old Wilma Plaster's
dismembered body was found alongside a roadway
just outside of Springfield, Missouri.
Investigators are now speaking with Buddy Minster,
the son of Wilma's close friend, Shirley Jo Phillips.
- In the interview with Buddy, he had alibis.
He had witnesses to verify where he was.
- NARRATOR: After interviewing him,
it seems the murder of Wilma Plaster
is far beyond his usual crimes.
- JACK: He's been in jail off and on, had went to prison.
He'd break into a place.
But violence, murder--my cousin wasn't like that.
- Buddy was absolved from any involvement.
- NARRATOR: Now detectives look back to Buddy's mother.
And the evidence suggests that Shirley Jo Phillips had been
stealing from the late widow.
- SARA: Police found hundreds of checks
from Wilma Plaster's account.
They also were able to determine that Shirley Jo's fingerprints
were on those checks.
- DR. PLASTER: The investigators basically asked us,
"Is it plausible that your mother would have written
a $4,000 check to Shirley Phillips?"
And we all said, "Number one, it's not plausible.
And number two, that's not her signature."
- NARRATOR: Detectives reach out to Wilma's bank
for more information.
- Her bank account had been totally drained.
Her bank account being empty totally shocked us all.
- NARRATOR: With evidence beginning to point to
Shirley Jo's involvement, detectives catch a lucky break
when a lead comes through on Wilma's Chevy Beretta.
- DAVID T: The staff at the hotel of the Ramada Inn in
Springfield called police because they had noticed
a red Chevrolet Beretta had been in their parking lot
for several days and hadn't been disturbed in any way.
When the police arrived, they determined that this car was
Wilma Plaster's Chevy Beretta.
But there was no evidence of a struggle from the car.
- NARRATOR: While detectives decide their next steps,
something unexpected happens.
- Shirley walked into the police station and said,
"I hear you're looking for me."
And sat down.
And started talking to them.
- DAVID A: She repeatedly would refuse to admit
that she wrote the check.
She would just say, "She"-- referring to Wilma--
"Handed it to me."
We said, "Now, tell us the truth, Shirley.
Just tell us the truth."
Even though she confronted in that manner at times,
she held her ground. She wouldn't confess.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo insists that Wilma issued the checks as
payment for some of her furniture.
But detectives aren't biting.
- It was completely implausible that my mom would
purchase anything from Shirley for $4,000--
any furniture.
- She denies that she killed her friend.
She denies that she chopped up the body.
She--she's just, you know,
"How could you possibly think I did this?"
- NARRATOR: But Shirley Jo tells detectives
she might know who did.
- Shirley said that the two of them had gone to
the hotel bar at the Ramada Inn in Springfield.
- She made the statement that
she was leaving with a strange man.
- NARRATOR: Investigators ask Shirley Jo
for a handwriting sample
to compare with Wilma's forged signature,
and shockingly, she complies.
- DAVID A: From the handwriting samples,
the calligrapher determined that the check for $4,050
was not signed by Wilma Plaster.
That was not her handwriting
and was confirmed as being Shirley's.
- It just became, um,
pretty much irrefutable in our minds
that it was Shirley Phillips.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo is detained on suspicion of
check forgery, and investigators reach out to the bartender
at the Ramada Inn to confirm Shirley Jo's story.
- No one at the hotel had seen the two women there that night.
That was just where Shirley Jo
took Wilma's car later and left it.
And then she tried to make up some story
to explain why the car was there.
- NARRATOR: Detectives then issue a search warrant for
Shirley Jo's car, and unlike Wilma's Chevy Beretta,
this car yields some damning evidence.
- DAVID A: When Shirley came to headquarters for the interview,
she brought the car with her
and provided a consent to search on her Cadillac.
- Police found blood in the front seat area of the car
and also in the trunk.
Luminol testing shoed that there was blood residue in the areas
of the back seat, and particularly under the place
where the floormats would have been in the back seat.
- NARRATOR: After the luminol search of her car showed
evidence of a violent struggle,
a search of Shirley Jo's home also reveals
the same type of ammunition used in Wilma's murder.
- In Shirley's bedroom, police found numerous
.38 caliber bullet rounds.
- The evidence reconfirmed and--and tied together
some theories they were already working from.
- NARRATOR: On October 12,
detectives arrest Shirley Jo Phillips
for the murder of Wilma Plaster.
- We knew she had decided to go in and talk to the police.
Um, but she never left.
It had been a hard, hard time.
You're so relieved, you almost are exhausted.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Three weeks after Shirley Jo's arrest,
detectives get disturbing news
from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation.
It seems Wilma may not have been Shirley Jo's first victim.
- This case just exploded, mushroomed.
We were contacted by Broken Arrow, Oklahoma,
in reference to nine pounds of human flesh
they had recovered at a roadside park.
This was recovered back on about Mother's Day of that year.
And, uh, what it was--was four fingers of a left hand,
a part of an upper lip,
a nose, an ear, and other body parts.
They couldn't develop blood type or DNA at that point, you know,
the investigator brought us the body parts.
We, of course, photographed them and fingerprinted them.
- They were able to then identify her for sure
as Lela Kyle, and Shirley's mom.
- NARRATOR: It seems 76-year-old Lela Kyle
had gone missing 7 months earlier.
- The story from my aunt was she ran off with some guy.
Well, my grandmother at 76 years old
with no car didn't meet a guy and run off with him.
- DR. PLASTER: It was ironic because she had used exactly
the same language when she was questioned about
her mother's death.
That she had saw her walk away with a strange man.
- They were trying to tie the cases together.
But basically, you know, they--they couldn't get enough
evidence to do that.
Plus, they had enough evidence in the Wilma Plaster case
to go to trial, and they felt very confident about that.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up: a new theory emerges that might just
let Shirley Jo walk free.
- SARA: She clearly had her attorney go after her own son.
- One of the prosecutors referred to
the defense strategy as Shirley Jo
offering up her own son as a sacrificial lamb.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In February of 1992, Shirley Jo Phillips stands trial
for the murder of her supposed friend,
66-year-old Wilma Plaster.
- DR. PLASTER: They brought this woman in, and she looked normal.
It was the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen in my life.
She was a middle-aged woman, attractive,
who seemed to be completely possessed of herself.
And I started thinking about,
"Is this the woman who killed my mother?"
It was unbelievable.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors paint Shirley Jo
as a ruthless con artist,
ready and willing to do anything necessary
for her next score.
- DAVID T: A major focus of the State's case
was that Shirley had killed Wilma for money,
focusing on the forged check that was found
and that had been made out to Shirley Jo
in the amount of $4,050.
- DAVID A: It's my opinion that
the homicide occurred after her source of funds had dried up.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors theorize that Shirley Jo befriended Wilma
solely to take advantage of her.
- Wilma Plaster would have been somebody that she--
another woman of her age,
that was a widow that was looking for a friend.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe that Shirley Jo
earned Wilma's trust.
But on the night of October 3, 1989,
Wilma likely learned the truth about her new friend.
- They think Wilma discovered that money
was missing from her account.
And they were in the car when she confronted her.
- DR. PLASTER: The murder was committed
in--in the front seat of the car.
Either she looked away or was getting out of the car because
the gunshot wound was from the left back of her head.
- LINDA: Shirley had taken every dime she had.
She would have no money to live on.
And...
Mom had to be--had to be gotten rid of.
- [gunshot]
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors assert Shirley Jo
then tried to cover her tracks.
- The blood all over the place suggested that the dismemberment
occurred in the garage.
- SARA: Then they think she drives back up to Springfield,
past Springfield, up into Greene County,
and dumps the body off the side of the road.
Then at some point, she drives down to Arkansas
and dumps the bloody floor mats, the gun, the checks
at her friend's house.
- NARRATOR: The defense, however,
offers up a theory of their own.
- She clearly had her attorney go after her own son
and try to blame him for killing this other woman.
- I don't think Buddy even knew what was going on...
until all of a sudden,
he realizes that they're trying to pin this on him.
- DAVID T: One of the prosecutors referred to
the defense strategy of attempting to blame Buddy
as Shirley Jo offering up her own son as a sacrificial lamb.
- NARRATOR: In the end, the jury sides with the prosecution.
- The jury found Shirley Jo Phillips guilty of murder
in the first degree for the killing of Wilma Plaster.
- There was just this incredible weight
lifted off my shoulders.
- JACK: You know, it may have not been
for my grandmother's murder, but a justification and--
and just glad to see that
this endless cycle of kleptomania, violence,
murder was going to come to an end,
and no other family was going to have to suffer
what Wilma's family did.
- NARRATOR: Shirley Jo is sentenced to death.
But six years later, an appeal reduces her sentence.
- We were contacted by a new prosecutor in--
in Missouri who said that some evidence had surfaced
that would allow them to appeal, uh, this case.
- DAVID T: The argument that Shirley Jo's lawyers made was
that this was exculpatory evidence that should've been
turned over by the State to the defense.
It was not presented at Shirley Jo Phillips' trial.
- Her sentence was commuted to life in prison
without chance for parole.
- DR. PLASTER: The fact that she couldn't kill somebody else,
well, that was the--
the basic minimum that--that we felt good about.
- NARRATOR: Though time has eased the pain,
the impact of Shirley Jo's horrific actions still haunts
those affected by the case.
- LINDA: It's the story of a sweet woman that had no idea
who she was taking in.
And she was deceived.
She was lied to.
And ultimately, she was killed by.
- DR. PLASTER: She lived a long and loving life
prior to the last evening.
And the last evening will not define her.
She loved her kids. She was incredibly proud of us.
- LINDA: She would have reveled in all of this,
to see her children succeed.
To see her grandchildren grow.
But she missed out on so much.
So much.
- ♪