- FEMALE NARRATOR: When a pillar of the community
goes missing, a small town is put on edge.
- He'd bought a cup of coffee, and then after that,
it was like he'd vanished.
- BROC: She was concerned for his safety.
- NARRATOR: As an investigation begins,
detectives uncover a chilling scene.
- JAMEY: As I walked around to the corner of the house,
I noticed a, what resembled a body covered under a tarp.
- KEAGAN: This was a very gruesome crime scene.
- NARRATOR: Detectives race against the clock
to preserve crucial evidence.
- JAMEY: She had left the fireplace gas starter on.
- HOWARD: And as soon as that gas hits it,
it's gonna blow everything all to hell.
- NARRATOR: And as detectives work to locate
a missing person, they uncover a string of murders
and fear a serial killer may escape justice once again.
- CARLYN: Who else has she done this to
and we don't know?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: March 13th, 2012,
McDonough, Georgia, a small town just an hour south
of Atlanta, brimming with southern hospitality.
- SOPHE: The relationships and the community aspect
are still really strong and have a, a somewhat
small-town Georgia feel.
McDonough has always been a relatively safe place
to live and raise a family.
- NARRATOR: When Jim Coker comes into
the Henry County Sheriff's Office
and introduces himself as the nephew
of 67 year old Doug Coker, officers immediately
recognize him.
- KEAGAN: Mr. Coker had multiple businesses
and was not only well-known
but he was extremely well thought of in his community.
- NARRATOR: Jim says his aunt, Judy Coker,
had called him in a panic earlier that afternoon.
- KEAGAN: She said, will you please reach out
to law enforcement, she had repeatedly tried
to call her husband and had been unable
to get a hold of him.
No one from his work had been able
to get a hold of him, and it is unusual for Mr. Coker
to go that long without speaking
to any of those individuals.
- NARRATOR: Waiving the normal protocols,
detectives immediately take the case.
- KEAGAN: He's been missing at least for a few hours.
Mr. Coker was extremely close to his family,
kept very close ties with them,
and uh would talk to them multiple times a day along
with people who worked with him,
and he had lost all of that contact.
- JAMEY: He was a little older gentleman that, uh,
you know it doesn't really happen at,
at his age unless there's something going on.
- KEAGAN: That made law enforcement not wait, uh,
the prescribed amount of time and instead
jumped immediately into looking for him.
- NARRATOR: Born into a working-class household
in Atlanta in 1945, Doug Coker was determined
to make something of his life.
- SOPHE: Doug was incredibly sharp.
He graduated from DeKalb High School
and then went on to DeKalb Tech and graduated in 1964.
- KEAGAN: He was an all- around good person.
Everybody basically talked about how wonderful he was.
He was highly intelligent.
- NARRATOR: After college, Doug met and married
a woman named Diane and settled in McDonough,
Georgia, where the couple started a family,
and Doug stretched his entrepreneurial legs.
- SOPHE: Doug was successful in starting
a storage business with uh, Doug Coker Properties
which um, he had countless rental homes
as well as an automotive business.
- BROC: He does own quite a few properties in the area,
uh, all the way from Macon up through McDonough.
- KEAGAN: These are nice properties
that we're talking about.
That any of us would be very happy to live in.
- SOPHE: What I respected most was that
his driving factor was always how he could provide
and give more to his family.
- NARRATOR: While Doug's businesses were booming,
his marriage struggled, and in 1977,
Doug and his wife divorced.
Now single, Doug threw himself into his work
and focused on using his money for good.
- Doug's favorite thing to do with his money
was to provide um, opportunities
to better our community.
He was someone devoting their life to better others.
- NARRATOR: In 1982, Doug met a woman
named Judy Cook Phillips.
Like Doug, she was also self-made after years
of working in the banking industry,
as well as active in charitable causes
in the McDonough area.
- SOPHE: Judy was extremely devoted to our community
and several different civic organizations.
Judy retired as a banker in Henry County.
She is sweet and endearing and loving, a selfless,
kind and compassionate person.
- NARRATOR: Doug and Judy fell hard for each other,
and in 1984, the couple married.
- SOPHE: Judy was always prioritized
and taken care of by Doug.
He just adored her and did everything he could
to provide the life that she had always dreamed of.
- JAMEY: Judy worked closely with her husband.
Uh, she was a real, real nice lady.
- SOPHE: They were just kind of a power team um,
throughout our community.
- NARRATOR: Over the next few decades,
the Cokers devoted themselves
to charitable causes.
But their true passion was their kids and grandkids.
- SOPHE: When Doug and Judy met and got married,
they each had two children from a previous marriage.
They had six grandchildren.
He treasured every minute that he got to spend
with his grandchildren.
It was just one great, happy family.
- NARRATOR: In 2012,
as their 70th birthdays approached,
Doug and Judy wanted to focus their golden years
on leaving a legacy to the community they adored.
- KEAGAN: He had decided that he was going to take
these 40 properties that he owned
and he wanted to set up a nonprofit organization
that would help provide homeless people
with homes to live in.
He wanted to give back to his community
because he had reached a point in his life
where he could do that.
- He was just branching out um, with a new endeavor
that he had always dreamed of.
- NARRATOR: But now, the nearly 70-year-old
Doug Coker is missing, and his nephew, Jim Coker,
reports his disappearance to police on March 13th, 2012.
- KEAGAN: He's been missing most of the day at this point,
and we are concerned where he may be.
- BROC: We have a missing elderly person
that would cause us to look into it a lot faster
than say uh, a middle-aged person that just disappeared,
hadn't heard from a day.
- KEAGAN: They became concerned, you know,
he may have some sort of medical issue going on.
- NARRATOR: One thing that does feel out of place
to detectives is the fact that Doug's wife,
Judy Coker asked her nephew
to report him missing for her.
- KEAGAN: Law enforcement will look at a spouse in any
given missing person's case.
What they're looking at is is there a large insurance policy
that goes along with Mr. Coker.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: detectives track down
the last person to speak with this
missing businessman.
- KEAGAN: She doesn't appear to have any emotions
or concerns about Mr. Coker or where he may be located.
- NARRATOR: And a background check offers
a chilling new lead.
- KEAGAN: They put together that wait a minute,
she was a person who had gone to prison for murder.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After receiving a missing person's report
for prominent McDonough, Georgia businessman,
Doug Coker, detectives with the Henry County Sheriff's
Office immediately drive to Doug's home to speak
to his wife of 30 years, Judy Coker.
- Law enforcement was first contacted not by Doug's wife,
but by a nephew.
Uh his wife had contacted the nephew and said,
will you please reach out to law enforcement,
I still haven't been able to get a hold of him.
- NARRATOR: When detectives sit down with Judy,
they're suspicious as to why she didn't simply
make the call herself.
- KEAGAN: Judy Coker said she decided to pick out
a person who could contact law enforcement
and be able to relay information
without all of the emotion that goes with quite frankly
a wife of 30 years calling and being extremely upset.
- NARRATOR: Detectives then ask Judy to go over
the day's timeline of events.
- KEAGAN: She said that morning was like
any other morning.
They had gotten ready for work.
She gave him a kiss goodbye.
Mrs. Coker at that point knew that he was headed
to a meeting that morning.
She didn't know much more than that.
- NARRATOR: Judy claims that she went to work
soon after and tried to check back in with her husband
after lunch.
- BROC: She had tried to call him by phone,
and she was not getting any answer
which is unusual for him.
- NARRATOR: Finally, around 2:30 PM,
Judy's phone rang.
- JAMEY: She did receive a phone call from his phone,
uh, with nobody, uh, talking or nobody saying anything
through the line of it so they, they just hung up
and nothing else was said.
- KEAGAN: She had tried back multiple times after that.
He didn't answer any of those particular phone calls.
- BROC: So that made her more concerned
that he might be having a, some type of
medical emergency.
- NARRATOR: Judy tells investigators her husband
had a recent heart aneurysm, and she worries
that he might be in trouble.
- KEAGAN: Mr. Coker had underlying medical conditions,
which would make locating him quickly a,
a very important task.
- NARRATOR: Detectives obtain a list
of Doug's properties and begin their search.
- BROC: He had approximately
41 rental properties uh, that was where
we were gonna start looking.
Because it was possibly where he could be at, uh,
visiting or following up on something.
Uh, so that would take a long time to check
each one of those.
We'd also produce a BOLO,
notify surrounding jurisdictions to see
if they could check that area.
- They reached out to the hospitals
to see if anybody unknown had come in as a John Doe,
uh, to the hospitals.
Not only did they have law enforcement involved,
but again this was a very close family,
and he was extremely well thought of,
so they had friends out helping with that.
- NARRATOR: By nightfall, there's still no sign of Doug.
Detectives are forced to consider a grim possibility.
- KEAGAN: There became great concern
whether he was missing
because of a medical condition or whether
he was missing because there had been some sort of
foul play involved.
- JAMEY: You want to stay on top of it.
Asking, you know, questions about where was he going;
what was he doing here, things of that nature?
- NARRATOR: That evening, detectives meet
with Doug's wife Judy a second time.
Once again, she repeats her earlier story
and seems distraught over the idea
that someone may have harmed her husband.
- Law enforcement tends to start looking into foul play
a lot faster than the families tend to.
Families tend to hold out hope that, uh,
it's not foul play.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Judy
about the couple's home life
and financial situation leading up to
Doug's disappearance.
- KEAGAN: He had been married 30 years.
He was in a very happy relationship.
They were a tight knit family.
And all of the Cokers seemed to do well for themselves.
They seemed to all have good work ethics and family ethics.
- NARRATOR: Judy explains to detectives
that their finances were in good shape,
and she has no financial motive to hurt Doug.
In fact, Judy offers to let detectives review
the couple's phone records and gives the names
of coworkers who can vouch for her whereabouts
earlier that day.
- Law enforcement knew early on that
Judy Coker was at work.
- NARRATOR: With Judy's alibi confirmed,
she is cleared of any involvement,
and detectives start focusing on Doug's cell phone records.
- KEAGAN: The easiest way for law enforcement
to start trying to track down a missing person is to do
what they call ping a cell phone.
And then what they look at is well,
where's the last known cell phone tower that you pinged?
In this particular case, they did ping his cell phone
and it was determined that the location
was supposed to be at the Bass Road McDonald's
in Macon.
- BROC: He had received several calls early
in the morning at the restaurant.
Uh, that gave us an idea that he was actually in that area.
- NARRATOR: That evening, detectives obtain surveillance
footage from the McDonalds in Macon.
They quickly scrub to 11 o'clock that morning
when the calls from Doug's phone were placed.
- KEAGAN: You can watch him come inside the McDonald's.
You can tell he comes in with paper in his hand.
He goes up to the front desk.
He orders a coffee.
He checks out with a cashier.
He's drinking his coffee.
- BROC: The video can confirm
that he's able to function so a medical problem
is not going to be a, a reason of concern at this point.
- NARRATOR: The video shows that at 11:05AM,
Doug pulls out his phone.
- You can see Mr. Coker take a phone call
on his cell phone, and he starts writing down
on the piece of paper information.
- BROC: We could not read the note,
but it does give us an idea that, that he's just jotting
something down real quick
because it was not a long note.
He was there for a short time he, he was able to get coffee,
take the note, take a phone call and left.
- AMY: He'd bought a cup of coffee, and then after that,
it was like he'd vanished.
- NARRATOR: Detectives know they need to figure out
who was Doug talking with before he disappeared?
- You can compare the time that he is on his cell phone
in the video with the same exact time
according to the phone records
that he is having a phone call.
- BROC: And based on his calls logs it shows
that he was receiving a call from Pamela Moss.
- NARRATOR: As far as detectives know,
Pamela Moss is the last person to ever speak
to Doug Coker, so they reach out to Doug's family
to see if Pamela Moss' name rings a bell.
- KEAGAN: Judy Coker did not know much
about Pamela Moss at all.
Nobody knew who she was.
So that was, to begin with, that was really what they
were trying to find out.
An investigator was able to break that wide open
for law enforcement.
She was not who she said she was.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: detectives uncover
alarming intel on a potential suspect.
- JOY: They called her the Black Widow of Macon.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On March 14th, 2012,
24 hours after prominent Georgia businessman
Doug Coker's disappearance, phone records show
that the last person Doug spoke to was a woman
named Pamela Moss.
Detectives with the Henry County Sheriff's Office
work quickly to reach out to Pamela.
- BROC: We make contact with Pamela Moss by phone
to arrange a meeting to, to speak with her, uh,
about her relationship with Mr. Coker,
and if she had seen him or talked to him recently.
She claimed she was out of town.
- NARRATOR: Pamela agrees to meet investigators
the following day in Marietta.
In the meantime, she tells detectives
about her connection to Doug Coker.
- KEAGAN: Mr. Coker and Pamela Moss
first met each other at a business function
that she had gone to up in the Atlanta area.
- BROC: Pamela explained that she was a grant writer,
and she was there to assist Mr. Coker
in obtaining a grant.
- KEAGAN: Pamela Moss was supposed to be setting up
a charitable organization.
In this charity, 40 homes were gonna go to
homeless individuals.
- BROC: She asked Doug for funds to apply for a grant.
Mr. Coker had loaned her $85,000 to start
this non-profit which would give him a grant
for this non-profit to start.
- NARRATOR: Pamela tells police that the pair met up
every few weeks to discuss her progress.
In fact, on March 13th, 2012, she and Doug
had agreed to meet at the Macon Mcdonalds.
- When she called him, she was telling him
that she was going to be late.
- So what she did was when he was coming out
with his coffee, she saw him in the parking lot.
They had a very quick meeting and they were done.
- BROC: She stayed in the parking lot.
She didn't go inside and that's why we did not see her
on the video.
She claimed after she met with him at the restaurant in,
uh, Macon that they did part ways.
She does not know where Mr. Coker went after the meeting.
- NARRATOR: Detectives thank Pamela
for her time and agree to meet in person
the following day.
While her story sounds plausible, for detectives,
something doesn't sit right.
- KEAGAN: She doesn't appear to have any emotions
or concerns about Mr. Coker or where he may be located.
- NARRATOR: To be safe, detectives run
a background check on Pamela.
- KEAGAN: They put together that wait a minute,
Pamela Moss is Pamela Frye.
And Pamela Frye was a person
who had gone to prison for murder.
- NARRATOR: Pamela Sutton was born in Rome, Georgia
in 1957.
She was a gifted student, graduating
with a degree in psychology from Mercer University.
- KEAGAN: She was such a, and is such
a highly intelligent person.
She actually worked for a psychologist
for a number of years administering IQ tests.
- I'd say she's a little bit more of
aggressive type personality.
She's very go-getter.
She's very outgoing.
- MAGGIE: She was funny.
She seemed bright, we talked about the same books,
and we both, you know, got along,
she had a mean sense of humor,
I have a mean sense of humor.
- NARRATOR: Pamela dreamed of earning
a graduate degree in psychology,
but her plans were derailed when her stepfather died
suddenly while at work.
- KEAGAN: If you looked at the autopsy of, uh,
the father, he died of a mixture of an alcohol
and Elequil overdose.
- HOWARD: Its intended purpose is
that it, among other things, is a antidepressant.
Um it's a sleep aid and it is also used in conjunction
with migraine headaches.
- NARRATOR: Pamela stepped in to take care
of her mother, 64 year old Barbara Frye
until tragedy struck again in 1996.
- According to Pamela Moss, her mother falls down
the stairs and ends up hitting her head
and that caused an injury that she went
to the hospital for.
- NARRATOR: Pamela's mother recovered enough
to be sent home with her daughter.
But on February 16th, just a month
after her fall, Barbara unexpectedly passed away.
- HOWARD: It appeared that Mrs. Frye
had ultimately succumbed to injuries
based on this previous fall.
- They buried her mother and didn't think much about it.
- NARRATOR: The sudden death of Pamela's mother
was never investigated until detectives got
an unexpected tip.
- KEAGAN: One of Pamela's mom's friends
actually wrote a letter and said that she believed
that her friend had been murdered
by the daughter, Pamela Moss.
- HOWARD: Her friends thought
that the circumstances around the fall
just didn't add up to them.
Her condition after she got out continued to worsen,
according to them.
She should be getting better and not getting worse.
There was enough on the table
that we felt like it warranted doing an autopsy.
- KEAGAN: So, the body was actually exhumed.
When they exhumed the body of the mother,
they found that there was an indent on her head
that actually matched the shape of a hammer.
And so, the thought process was
she had actually not fallen down the stairs, but, in fact,
had been hit in the head with a hammer.
- They did a toxicology report and it came back
that she had several drugs in her system.
- KEAGAN: She ended up passing
from an Elequil overdose.
Miss Moss had quite a number of people in her life
that died of an Elequil overdose,
her father died of one mixed with alcohol,
uh her mother died of an Elequil overdose
we know for certain so it seemed to be
a nice pattern there.
- HOWARD: The investigators executed search warrants
for her office and for her house.
She was taking the prescription pads
from that office and using it, using them to write
large amounts of prescriptions.
Also, we learned Barbara had a fairly substantial insurance
policy at that point and that Pam was the beneficiary.
We knew that there was some link between Pam
and her mother's death.
- JAMEY: They were able to get an indictment
on Miss Moss for killing her mother.
- NARRATOR: Although prosecutors suspected
the murder was planned, much of their evidence
remained circumstantial.
- KEAGAN: She entered a plea to manslaughter,
and she received a ten-year sentence.
She ended up serving approximately seven years
of that sentence.
- NARRATOR: After her release in 2005,
Pamela stayed in Macon,
but her past haunted her.
- JOY: They called her the Black Widow of Macon,
and it was like the talk of the town
for a long time that she had done that.
- KEAGAN: Pamela changed her name to Pamela Frye,
so that when she came out, nobody knew who she was.
- NARRATOR: Pamela landed a job at a local bookstore,
and it seemed like she was off to a fresh start.
Soon, she fell in love with a man 17 years her senior.
65-year-old retired contractor, Gene Moss.
- JOY: They were just happy, always giggling and laughing.
I never saw anger between them at all.
- MAGGIE: He had very old-fashioned manners.
He seemed very considerate of her.
And indulgent of her.
- NARRATOR: Just three months after meeting,
the couple married.
- KEAGAN: By all accounts, he didn't have any idea
that she had ever been to prison.
- NARRATOR: The pair were happily married for 6 years,
until October 26th, 2011,
when Pamela called 9-1-1 in tears.
- JOY: She said that she heard
the water running upstairs, and so she went upstairs,
and she said she found him in the shower, and apparently,
he had fallen in the shower.
- KEAGAN: He is deceased.
Law enforcement goes out.
He has a, uh, red round mark on his head.
- NARRATOR: Officers theorize the mark
on Gene's head was simply an injury he sustained
during his fall.
At the time, Pamela and Gene's family believed
that Gene's death was caused by a massive stroke.
- KEAGAN: Pamela Moss had said that he had been sick
leading up to this, uh, they, didn't do an autopsy,
and she pretty quickly has him cremated.
- JOY: I was in disbelief. My dad never talked
about being cremated.
He always talked about how he wanted to be buried
next to his mom, next to his parents.
I really questioned it.
- NARRATOR: Now, five months later,
detectives investigating the disappearance
of Doug Coker are wondering if he had met the same fate
as the other three people in Pamela's circle of trust.
- BROC: We were fairly certain that she had a major
involvement in his disappearance.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: investigators go toe-to-toe
with their chief suspect.
- NARRATOR: And just as authorities
make a gruesome discovery,
they fear they're walking into a trap.
- JAMEY: I smelled natural gas coming
from around the house.
- HOWARD: My first thoughts would be to get the hell out.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After uncovering Pamela Moss'
violent past, investigators fear she is involved
in the disappearance of 67-year-old Doug Coker.
Detectives ping Pamela's cell phone
and subpoena her phone records,
hoping to connect her to the crime.
- BROC: The location that she was supposedly at
was not lining up with cell phone records,
and that was a, a big red flag for us.
She kept trying to say that she showed up
at the McDonald's, but we were able to show
that she didn't based on her, on her cell phone records.
- NARRATOR: On March 15th, detectives meet Pamela
at a coffee shop in Marietta, Georgia,
and confront her with their findings.
- NARRATOR: When Pamela sticks to the story
she told them before, detectives begin to turn up
the heat.
- We confronted her about the location
of where her cell phone was pinging.
It showed that she was not at the restaurant
or even in the area of the restaurant.
- BROC: She was very nervous.
She tried to act as though there was a mistake.
- NARRATOR: Pamela abruptly ends the interview
and agrees to come in for a formal statement
the following morning.
When Pamela is a no show the next day,
Detective Jamey Jones drives to her house
on the evening of March 18th, 2012.
- JAMEY: Sunday night, I have the inclination
of going to her house.
So, I went out at night trying to see if she was at home.
- KEAGAN: He knocks on the door, does not get an answer,
however, he smells a horrible odor.
- JAMEY: I started smelling a real foul odor of death
and followed that scent.
As I walked around to the corner of the house,
I noticed a, what resembled a body covered under a tarp.
I lifted the tarp up and noticed immediately
a red plaid shirt that uh Mr. Coker was last, uh,
known to have on.
I immediately knew it, that that was Mr. Coker.
That's when I backed off and called for backup.
- NARRATOR: Officers soon surround the house.
- JAMEY: We knock on the front door, and at that time,
I smelled natural gas coming from around the house
and around the windows of the house.
- HOWARD: You have no idea how much it has saturated
the surroundings, and you have no idea
what ignition source is nearby.
And as soon as that gas hits it,
it's gonna blow everything all to hell.
- JAMEY: We backed out and called
the natural gas company to come out
and turn off the gas to the house.
- KEAGAN: Fire department crews had to come out
to the home to clear it.
They make entry into the home to determine
that there is nobody in there that is in danger.
- JAMEY: Miss Moss had left the fireplace gas starter on
is why it had, uh, filled up the house.
- KEAGAN: Presumably she hoped for an explosion
which for her purposes would have been great
because all of the evidence so to speak would have gone
up in flames.
- NARRATOR: When the fire department finally gives
the all clear, detectives discover a brutal scene
inside Pamela's home.
- JAMEY: I noticed that there was a big blood splatter
on the floor and wall in her living room area.
It sends chills up your spine.
- KEAGAN: This was a very gruesome crime scene.
There was blood, um, still on the ceiling.
There was blood on picture frames, um,
family picture frames.
- NARRATOR: In the kitchen, investigators recover
the murder weapon.
- KEAGAN: It was a red hammer.
She had attempted to clean the hammer,
but there was still blood on the hammer itself.
- JAMEY: I noticed that there was some burnt matches
in the kitchen sink that she had lit to burn up the house.
- NARRATOR: Fortunately, the matches had burned out
before igniting the gas.
Now, detectives need to find Pamela.
As law enforcement fans out over the county,
Doug's body is sent to the medical examiner's office
for an autopsy.
- KEAGAN: It was very easy to tell
that there had been blunt force trauma
to the left side of his head.
You could not recognize him from his face
because the majority of the left side of his face was gone.
- NARRATOR: Word of the prominent businessman's
death leaves the Macon community reeling.
- JOY: I told my husband what had happened.
He was in total shock, disbelief.
We didn't know what to think. We were just in shock.
- NARRATOR: On March 19th, officers receive
an eerie lead from a friend of Pamela's.
- Law enforcement actually gets a tip
that a friend from church picked Pamela Moss up
close to a hospital parking lot.
Law enforcement starts searching that hospital
parking lot and they actually find Mr. Coker's vehicle.
Once they located Mr. Coker's car, forensically,
there was nothing important that you would hope
or expect, located in there.
There was not blood.
There was nothing along those lines.
- NARRATOR: With no evidence found
in Doug's vehicle, investigators continue
searching for Pamela, and the mystery
of her whereabouts finally ends later that night.
- KEAGAN: Pamela's sister called 9-1-1
when she found uh, Pamela Moss,
unresponsive down where her sister lives
because she had tried to commit suicide with Elequil.
- NARRATOR: Detectives rush down
to Wayne County Memorial Hospital,
where they find Pamela clinging to life.
While at the hospital, they meet Pamela's half-sister
Carolyn Holland, and inform her of Doug's murder.
- CAROLYN: It just shocked me so bad, I, I'm thinking,
uh, why, what did she do?
I was so hurt and just confused.
- NARRATOR: Though Carolyn claims
she has never met Doug, she did speak to him
on the phone on March 13th.
- CAROLYN: Pam told me that she wanted me
to talk to Mr. Coker.
I talked with Mr. Coker and he told me you know
about the non-profit you know
what he was wanting to do.
And a few minutes later the phone just went dead,
just dead.
I was saying "Hello?" "Hello?"
You know, and I thought well, bad connection.
- KEAGAN: Pamela Moss calls her sister back
and according to Ms. Holland, Pamela Moss tells her
she doesn't know what happened that Mr. Coker
just up and left the home all of a sudden.
- NARRATOR: Detectives suspect
that Pamela's strange excuse is covering up
something more sinister.
- KEAGAN: It was my belief that during that phone call
somewhere around 11:51 is when Miss Moss
starts hitting Mr. Coker over the head with a hammer.
- NARRATOR: After two days in the hospital,
Pamela survives her suicide attempt,
and when she awakes on March 21st, 2012,
detectives arrest her for first-degree murder.
- KEAGAN: She didn't have anything to say.
There were no interviews with Miss Moss directly afterwards.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: does Pamela have
one final card to play?
- She was not gonna go back to prison.
- AMY: They planned on arguing that Ms. Moss
actually suffered from multiple personality disorder.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In March 2012, Pamela Moss is being held
for the murder of prominent McDonough, Georgia
businessman, Doug Coker.
To secure their case, detectives subpoena
Pamela and Doug's email records.
In them, the pair discuss the status
of Doug's non-profit grant.
- BROC: The e-mails showed that he was concerned uh,
about what Pam was doing with the money
that he had given her.
He had asked for his money in the past,
and she continued to try to push it off.
Uh, she eventually told him that she had used
some of that money, and she would be returning it to him
as soon as she could.
- It appeared as though Ms. Moss
was trying to live life
until the insurance policy came in from her husband.
Her income was essentially doing what she was doing,
which was scamming Mr. Coker.
- NARRATOR: By March, Doug had grown weary
of Pamela's excuses.
- KEAGAN: He had told her she either needed to give
the $85,000 back or he was gonna go to law enforcement
and she was gonna go to prison.
- NARRATOR: Detectives believe that for Pamela,
who had already spent seven years behind bars,
Doug's threat was enough to push her over the edge.
- KEAGAN: She was not gonna go back to prison.
She was gonna make sure he couldn't talk.
- NARRATOR: Detectives theorize
that Pamela arranged a meeting
and then lured Doug to her house
on the morning of March 13th, 2012.
- MAGGIE: He was asking questions
that she didn't have any good answers to
and that she was furious about being questioned.
- NARRATOR: Investigators believe
that is when Pamela offered to put her half-sister, Carolyn,
on the phone to vouch for her trustworthiness.
- The entire reason for Pamela Moss
having her sister have a phone call with Doug Coker
was to distract him.
While he's sitting in the chair with his back turned,
that's when we believe she took the hammer to him.
- ♪
- This was an extremely horrific murder.
- NARRATOR: After Doug was dead,
Pamela set about covering up her crime,
and calling Doug's wife to make it seem like
he was still alive.
- KEAGAN: She then later takes his car,
drives the vehicle, abandons it at a hospital parking lot
up in the Griffin area.
She tried every way she could to cover up
and clean up the mess that she had left.
Um, and, and when she figured out
she couldn't do that, presumably her next best way
was to set the house on fire.
- NARRATOR: When the case goes to trial
on August 26th, 2013, Pamela's lawyers
dispute the idea that Doug's death
was a premeditated attack.
- AMY: In opening statements,
the defense attorney told the jury
that they planned on making an insanity defense,
arguing that Ms. Moss actually suffered
from multiple personality disorder.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors, Doug's family,
and even Pamela's closest friends don't buy the act.
- MAGGIE: Nothing ever indicated to me that Pam
was out of control of herself.
She knew where she was.
She knew what she was doing.
There weren't extra Pams lurking under the surface.
- KEAGAN: She worked in a psychiatrist's office
for a number of years.
I believe she had the knowledge
to try to fool even a trained professional.
- NARRATOR: But Pamela isn't able to fool a jury,
On August 29th, 2013, after just 30 minutes
of deliberation, Pamela is found guilty
of first-degree murder.
- AMY: Ms. Moss received a sentence of life
without the possibility of parole.
- JOY: I was very thankful that it was without parole.
Very thankful.
It's exactly what she deserved to be locked up lonely
for the rest of her life.
If you really loved me, you definitely would not
have taken my daddy away, killed him
like I believe that you did.
- KEAGAN: We're dealing with a person
who has no remorse, uh, who does not value human life,
who values quite frankly money over anything.
- NARRATOR: Despite Pamela's conviction,
questions still linger to this day.
- CAROLYN: I know she killed her mother.
She went to prison for that.
I believe she killed Gene, but she covered that up
so there's no way anybody will ever know.
We know she killed Mr. Coker.
It's often run across my mind many, many times
who else has she done this to and we don't know?
She's a serial killer.
- Family get-togethers have never felt the same
since Doug's passing.
The world needs more Doug Coker's in it.
People who are willing to give back
to those less fortunate, and to spread joy in a world
that desperately needs it.
- ♪