- Female narrator: Big city crime strikes
This small tennessee town
When a local legend disappears without a trace.
- Kyle: We have to decide whether that person
Is missing or whether they chose to go missing.
- There was questions about maybe some infidelity.
- Narrator: But a grim discovery changes everything.
- It was not some type of natural causes.
It was a homicide.
- Narrator: To find the truth, authorities must narrow down
The killer between two sets of twisted siblings.
- There were twins, known in this area as the evil twins.
- Brent: There's an old saying that, you know, a friend
Will help you move, but family will help you move a body.
- I didn't know who to believe or who did what
And who I could trust.
- Narrator: And when this 25-year-long cold case
Is finally reopened, it heats up fast.
- They spray that luminol in there, and they told us
It lit up like a christmas tree.
- It was just, thank god, we may find out the truth.
- Can't be nothing else but evil--plain evil--
To do a person like that.
- [gunshots]
- ♪
♪♪
- Narrator: Life moves slowly in the small town
Of pulaski, tennessee.
But on March 29th, 1990,
Deputies race to the home of 43-year-old mary ann hughes,
Who hasn't seen her husband, larry,
In over 24 hours.
- Shane: The morning of the 28th, 1990,
Mary ann and larry got up as they usually did.
- Brent: They lived in the country.
They had a farm, but they also were partners,
Uh, in a hardware store, uh, here in town.
And that's where they worked.
- Tommy: He had took the day off.
She says when she left about 7:00 that morning,
He was in the house,
Drinking cup of coffee and everything was fine.
- She rode to work with, uh, one of the neighbors,
Jeff claude, who, uh, worked at the hardware store.
- [phone ringing]
- Shane: Mary ann said she made an attempt to call larry
Around 12 o'clock that day, and there was no answer.
She returned back home that afternoon,
Sometime around 5:00, 5:30 pm.
- Narrator: Mary ann tells investigators as jeff dropped
Her back home, she immediately noticed something wasn't right.
- Tommy: She goes in the house.
He's not there.
The car's there. It hadn't been moved.
So, she gets in her car
And drives and starts to look for him,
And she goes by her brother's house--rex's house.
And her and rex go looking for larry.
So, they went out there and didn't find him,
So she went back to the house.
- Narrator: With no word from larry in over a day,
Mary ann says her worry intensified.
- So, 36 hours after larry's missing, she contacts
The local sheriff's department and reports larry missing.
- Narrator: With time not on their side,
Investigators hit the ground running.
- You wanna find out what kind of person they are,
What their habits are, how they get along with their family.
And you're hoping tips come along
That will help you find him.
- ♪
- Narrator: Born in 1946, pulaski native larry hughes
Was well known throughout giles county.
- I think everybody in the community knew my father.
It's a tight-knit community.
- Everybody liked him, you know.
Everybody I've ever met that finds out that I'm his nephew,
They always say, "oh yeah, I know him, he's a good man."
- Narrator: In his teens, larry became
A bit of a local celebrity.
- Bené: My father was apparently
An amazing basketball player.
When he was a senior in high school, he had a scholarship
To play basketball in college.
- Narrator: But in November 1964,
Larry had a devastating accident.
- He worked in a grocery store in the meat department.
His hand got caught in a meat grinder.
He lost his hand.
Um, therefore, his college basketball career
Went to the wayside.
- Narrator: Despite the accident, larry adapted quickly.
- Bené: My father losing his hand
Did not hold him back at all.
At some point, you know, he picked up the straps,
So to speak, and moved on with life.
- He could do more with one hand
Than most people can with two.
- I've never seen anything that he couldn't do.
- Narrator: In his early 20s, larry met and married
A young woman named nancy snead,
And the couple soon welcomed their baby girl, bené.
Though the marriage was short-lived,
Larry and nancy remained friends.
- My mother never said anything bad about my father
And vice versa.
They both spoke very highly of each other.
- ♪
- Narrator: Bené and her mother moved to birmingham, alabama,
And larry stayed in pulaski, tennessee,
Where he fell in love again in 1972, this time,
With a single mother named mary ann bailey beets.
- Kevin: She was an outgoing person.
Her personality, you know, she was always bubbly
And cheerful and smiling.
They seemed to be a good match for each other.
- Mary ann was previously married.
She already had three sons.
- Narrator: After a brief courtship, the two 26-year-olds
Married in February of 1973.
Their newly blended family
Moved into a home perched on over 100 acres of farmland.
- Bené: I would come up to pulaski,
Spend my summers, vacations.
I gained a mom and three brothers when they got together.
We became an instant family.
- Narrator: In addition to farming,
Larry also had a passion for business.
- He ended up buying into the abernathy hardware store
Here in town on the square.
- Kevin: Abernathy hardware was a small business
When uncle larry got into it.
And they built the business up.
Shortly thereafter, mary ann come to work up there with him.
She was a hard worker.
- Narrator: By 1990, after 17 years of marriage,
The kids were grown and out of the house.
With the farm and the hardware store thriving,
The empty nesters seemed like the perfect team.
- Kevin: I always thought that uncle larry and, uh, mary ann
Had a good relationship.
They was always, you know, a loving couple.
- ♪
- Narrator: But on March 29th, after 17 years of marriage,
Mary ann is now desperate to find her loving husband
As she files a missing person's report
With the giles county sheriff's department.
- They had took a--what I would call a general statement,
Uh, from her as to couple of days
Leading up to, uh, his disappearance,
And actually the day of him disappearing.
- Narrator: Mary ann says on March 27th,
The evening before larry went missing,
The couple went out for a nice dinner.
- Tommy: She said that he had chicken and salad and peaches.
They ate around 7, they came home, sat around,
Went to bed about 10:00 10:30.
- Narrator: Mary ann says when she came home from work
The following evening, larry was gone, along with his gun.
- She reported that his .22 pistol
Was also missing.
- Narrator: Investigators ask mary ann
If larry had any enemies.
- Larry was a very respected, uh, businessperson.
Um, there were no enemies that brought forth
Any type of ill will towards, uh, larry.
- Narrator: Mary ann suggests that her husband may be
Too well liked, especially by the opposite sex.
- Mary ann put out the theory that he'd run off
With another woman.
But after a day or two and they still ain't found him,
Then you began to get worried.
- Maybe he walked in on a drug bust.
I mean, there was just insane rumors at that time.
Nobody knew what to believe.
- Narrator: Coming up: A new lead gives investigators hope.
- She said that she's seen larry and, uh,
He was with another woman.
- Narrator: And larry's daughter begins her own
Investigation.
- Bené: I went to his drawer in the bathroom,
And all of his stuff was there.
- Shane: Those would be things that larry
Would not leave the house without.
- Bené: At that point I'm scared.
I'm like, "who's done this?"
- ♪
- Narrator: March 29th, 1990.
Well-known farmer and businessman larry hughes
Has just been reported missing by his wife of 17 years,
Mary ann hughes.
- She said that, "I think he's run off with another woman."
- We have to decide whether that person is missing
Or whether they chose to go missing.
- ♪
- Narrator: While investigators follow up on the possibility
That larry abandoned his wife for another woman,
A different team speaks with larry's worried daughter, bené.
- Bené: It was a shock.
I didn't understand.
Especially when you're talking about a man who stays home,
Goes to work, comes home, works on the farm and that's it.
That's his life.
- Narrator: Bené says based on her own investigating;
She feels something terrible has happened to her dad.
- She said her dad kept all of his personal items
In a drawer in the bathroom.
- Bené: When I got to the house the first place that I went
Was his drawer in the bathroom,
And all of his stuff was there.
- Tommy: His keys were there, his wallet was there,
His ring was there, and his watch was there.
- Shane: Larry was a creature of habit.
If larry was leaving the premises, those would be things
That larry would not leave the house without.
- Bené: I kind of knew in that moment
That I would never see my father again.
- ♪
- Narrator: Investigators ask bené her thoughts
On mary ann's theory of an affair.
- Bené: I never believed that.
The two of them were so tightly intertwined.
I don't know how either one of them could have had an affair.
- Narrator: After a week of working the case
With zero leads,
Investigators reach out to the public for help.
- Tommy: A few days in, they got a phone call from a lady
That worked in franklin, tennessee,
Which is north of giles county.
And she said that she's seen larry,
And, uh, he was with another woman.
- Narrator: While investigators send deputies to check out
The lead, they get another call about something peculiar
At the hughes' farm.
- Shane: A neighbor contacts the sheriff's department
And says that mary ann hughes is, uh, cutting the mattress up
And attempting to burn it.
- Tommy: She took the mattress outside
And she slashed it like a piece of bread.
And she cut the top and the bottom off,
And she put the cover in a 55-gallon bucket
And set it all on fire.
And she had taken all the stuffing that was
Inside the bed, uh, and put it into a dog kennel.
- Narrator: When investigators arrive at the farm,
They ask mary ann about her sudden urge
To burn the couple's bed.
- Tommy: She told him, "well, I didn't want that bed
Because I was mad, because he'd been with another woman."
- Narrator: Although mary ann's explanation seems plausible,
Investigators collect what's left of the mattress.
- He took what we would call the inner stuffing, or
The inners of the mattress, and placed it into evidence.
- Narrator: Days pass with no sign of larry since a tipster
Reportedly spotted him in franklin, tennessee.
- Tommy: They went down there.
And as they were doing that, he wasn't located.
No one had seen him.
- Narrator: Desperate for answers, larry's daughter
Takes matters into her own hands.
- We were all just like, "this makes no sense."
So, I drove to franklin, tennessee,
And sat down with this woman with pictures.
And she actually identified the woman that was with him
That day that she saw him as my stepmother, mary ann.
- Shane: It was determined that her timeframe was off.
He'd actually had a doctor's appointment--
Uh, cardiologist appointment.
And, uh, he was actually in that restaurant with mary ann.
- It was relief that, "okay, my dad isn't
A bad person, I was right, he's not doing anything crazy."
And now we're back to, "where is he?"
And "what's happened?"
- ♪
- Narrator: On April 13th,
16 days after larry was reported missing,
Investigators respond to reports of a gruesome discovery.
- Tommy: Two kids were playing on a county road in giles,
An area where people just sort of threw trash
Off to the side of the road.
- Tommy: As they got closer,
They realize they've seen a foot.
They realized it was a body.
- ♪
- Narrator: When investigators survey the scene,
They encounter a horrific sight.
- He was there completely nude, no socks, no underwear,
No pants, no shirt, no nothing,
Laying there in that ditch.
- Kevin: Nobody should have to die like that.
Just thrown away,
Discarded like trash.
That ain't right.
- Narrator: A closer look gives investigators a probable I.D.
- Brent: By the time they found his body,
I think it had been 16 days, uh, since he was killed.
So, the decomposition was pretty bad.
But the hand was still visible and was clearly
Identical to the way larry's hand looked.
- Narrator: A subsequent autopsy confirms
The recovered body is larry hughes
And provides more context for his gruesome end.
- Larry had two gunshot wounds to the head.
So, it was apparent that it was not a missing person
Or some type of natural causes.
It was a homicide.
- ♪
- You realize, "okay, he's been found dead.
You're never gonna see him again."
And all your fears just come to a realization.
- This was extremely, extremely hard on my father,
With uncle larry being his--his baby brother.
- Bené: We just all sat around and cried.
And we're all in shock and upset and...
At that point, I'm scared.
I'm like, "who's done this?
Should I be worried about my life?"
It was just a whole lot of questions
And a whole lot of fear.
- ♪
- Narrator: The autopsy report reveals that larry's stomach
Contents mirror those of the dinner he shared with mary ann.
- The stomach contents of mr. Hughes contained,
Uh, chicken, potatoes, salad, and peaches.
- Narrator: The report also notes the recovery of two
.22 caliber projectiles from larry's skull.
- Shane: The significance of the .22 projectiles
That were removed from, uh, mr. Hughes, uh,
If you recall, there was a .22 arminius revolver,
Uh, that ms. Hughes reported missing.
- ♪
- Narrator: Investigators collect projectiles
From larry's target range on his farm.
- Shane: Those bullets, along with the projectiles removed
From--from mr. Hughes's body was sent to the tennessee
Bureau of investigation where they were compared.
- Tommy: The same gun was used at target practice was used
To kill larry hughes, which would then leave one to believe
That it was his weapon.
- ♪
- Narrator: Coming up: Investigators uncover
A promising new witness that could be the key
To solving this case...
- Narrator: And a curveball throws the investigation
Into a tailspin.
- The community was very afraid of them.
- Tommy: The folks that they killed is folks
They believed that did them wrong.
- [gunshot]
- ♪
- Narrator: April 14th, 1990.
Less than 24 hours after the body of 43-year-old larry hughes
Was found shot to death, investigators interview
Larry's worried neighbor, elmer rainey,
Who says he might have some key information.
- Shane: Mr. Rainey says that at 3 o'clock on the morning
Of the 28th, he sees a vehicle backed in over there at
The hughes' house, and, uh, he doesn't recognize the vehicle.
- He sees a pickup truck back up under the canopy
And the porch light come on and then the porch light go off.
And then a little while later this truck leaves.
- Shane: It concerned elmer rainey to the extent that,
Uh, when mary ann left at 6:30 that morning, elmer walks over
To the house at 7 o'clock and knocks on the door.
Gets no response.
He calls multiple times and even calls mary ann at work
And says, "hey do you know where larry's at?"
He's that concerned.
- ♪
- Narrator: Sensing mary ann knows more than she's letting
On, investigators consider the possibility of her involvement.
- Tommy: Larry was a big guy.
No way mary ann hughes, with her stature, could even move him.
So, she would have to have help.
- There's an old saying that, you know, friend will help you
Move, but family will help you move a body.
- Tommy: Her brother is a big guy.
And he drove a pickup truck.
So, that would make you to lead to believe that
Rex was involved.
- Narrator: As they dig deeper into their new theory,
Investigators subpoena phone records from the hughes' home
And find some intriguing activity
On the night of March 27th.
- Tommy: There was two phone calls from that house
That night, one at 10:30 and one at 12:30.
They were from the hughes' household to rex
And then rex to the hughes' household.
And remember, she said she went to bed.
- Narrator: Investigators contact rex and ask him
To provide an alibi and an explanation
Of the late-night phone calls.
- Shane: They had talked to mary ann's brother, rex bailey.
He recalls, on the night of March the 27th,
There was two distinct phone calls.
He does remember at one point in time that he talks to larry.
And larry is upset,
Talking about mary ann's going to leave him.
- Narrator: After rex passes a polygraph, investigators
Confront mary ann, who originally claimed
She was asleep by 10:30 pm on March 27th.
- Tommy: She said in her statement she don't remember
Anybody calling and she don't remember
Larry getting out of bed.
She was given some polygraph examinations,
And she failed all of them.
- Narrator: Despite mary ann's suspected deception,
Investigators lack hard evidence to bring any charges.
- Tommy: You didn't have the evidence to go by
Or any physical evidence.
So, they didn't charge anyone with anything.
- Narrator: But several months later, on August 1st,
The case is turned on its head when a shocking tip comes in
From the local jail involving two serial killers.
- Tommy: Pete and pat bondurant were twins, uh,
Known in this area as the evil twins.
They peddled in drugs, and the folks that they killed
Is folks they believed that did them wrong.
- Brent: The community was very afraid of them.
They were known to be ruthless murderers.
- Shane: There was a jailhouse tip that one of the bondurants
Had confessed that, uh, they killed mr. Larry hughes.
- He said they went to the hardware store
And got this businessman,
Carried him out the backdoor, carried him up, uh,
Out in the county and shot him.
- Shane: The investigators focused in a lot on that.
Obviously, they had prior knowledge about the bondurants
And--and what they were capable of.
- Narrator: When confronted,
The bondurants refuse to cooperate.
- When the bondurants name came up, it seems like
That's when the case just became kind of fractured
And--and the investigation lost its focus.
- He wouldn't have had any interaction with them.
I never believed it or understood it.
- Narrator: Despite their efforts, the case
Grows cold again and remains unsolved for decades.
- I didn't know who to believe
Or who did what and who I could trust.
There was a lot of fear.
And I hightailed it back to birmingham, alabama,
And just kinda cut myself off.
- ♪
- Narrator: Finally, 25 years later,
Lt. Shane hunter is tasked with re-examining the case.
- Shane: Basically, there's a new sheriff in town.
We've got these cold cases.
Can we revisit them?
We're looking at 25 years.
Technology has definitely changed a lot.
So, we reached out to bené and said, "look,
We want to revisit this."
- ♪
- Narrator: On January 7th, 2015, lt. Hunter sits down
With larry's daughter, bené, who for decades has held onto
Suspicion of her estranged stepmother, mary ann.
- I didn't wanna believe it,
And I tried not to believe it,
And went to denial about it and--but it's always been there,
All these years, in the back of my head.
Everything leads back to her.
- She, uh, thought she was going to get
Some insurance money-- $100,000 to be exact.
And when she got the money, she realized
She didn't get the $100,000.
That money went towards paying off the hardware store.
It was an agreement between larry and the other owner.
- Brent: Mary ann was very angry when she found out that
Most of it was going to have to be paid to the partners,
Uh, at the hardware store.
- Narrator: Bené says the partial payout
Didn't stop mary ann from flaunting her money.
- When you take the totality of, uh, the evidence,
The projectiles from mr. Hughes,
The projectiles from the target area,
You know, obviously, she was spending a lot of money.
It becomes very clear who the primary suspect was.
- Narrator: Investigators try to narrow down
Larry's time of death
By the food found in his stomach during the autopsy.
- When we researched that and talked to some experts,
It was determined that after eight hours that you eat,
The food is unrecognizable.
- So basically, from 7:00 pm, sometime within
The next 6-8 hours, uh, larry, uh, was murdered.
- I don't think they ever recognized that back in 1990.
- Narrator: Despite this revelation, the 25-year-old
Cold case is riddled with its share of setbacks.
- Kevin: They built a new jail.
And when they moved to the new jail, everything got lost.
A lot of the original evidence and stuff they had
From the original investigation was--was lost.
- Tommy: We realize pretty quick some evidence is missing.
We'd lost the bullets.
It was all gone.
- Narrator: Luckily, the mattress stuffing
Is still accounted for.
- We sent the mattress stuffings to the lab to see
If they could find any blood or anything on it.
- Narrator: While investigators await results, they interview
Jeff claud, the man who gave mary ann a ride to and from work
On March 28th, 1990.
- Tommy: He didn't see larry that morning.
He didn't see larry that afternoon, which was strange
Because he usually sees larry standing in the door
Or out on the porch.
- Narrator: But, jeff says, even more unusual
Was what mary ann said right as he dropped her off...
- Narrator: Coming up: When investigators put
Larry hughes' widow in the hot seat, tensions mount.
- She leaned back and she crossed her arms,
And she became defensive.
- Narrator: And buried secrets come to the surface.
- I asked, I said, "what type of evidence you looking for?"
He said, "really anything." I said, "what about blood?"
- [gunshot]
- ♪
- Narrator: January 26th, 2015.
It's been 25 years since the murder of larry hughes,
And investigators now have reason to believe his widow,
Mary ann, was his killer.
- Tommy: I started asking her specific questions.
"you know his .22 pistol, how did you know that it was gone?
He keep it beside the bed?"
She goes, "well, he used to, but now he keeps it in the shed."
- Tommy: I said, "so you knew the gun was gone from the shed?"
"yeah, I went out there and I didn't see it."
I said, "well, okay."
And then we went on about the bed.
- I said, "well, what were you gonna do when larry
Walked back through that door and he didn't have a bed?"
"well, he didn't like it either," was her reply.
- Narrator: Unconvinced by mary ann's answer,
Investigators turn up the heat.
- As we went, her demeanor changed.
She leaned back and she crossed her arms,
And she became defensive.
- Shane: Just reading her body language, you could see it.
That may have been the really the tipping point for me
Was sitting across from her and realizing that this is
The person that killed larry hughes.
- Narrator: Investigators continue to push mary ann
By suggesting another reason she may have destroyed the mattress.
- Tommy: We were trying to see if--if we could get her
To confess to the homicide of larry hughes.
We give her every opportunity to tell us a story,
And she just wouldn't.
- She said, "whatever," and went on out the door.
- [door squeaks]
- Narrator: Investigators know they are closing in
On their prime suspect, they just need stronger evidence
To make an arrest.
And on January 29th, 2015, they obtain a search warrant
For the couple's former home, hoping to find it.
- They, uh, told us they were reopening the case,
Wanted to know if they could come down,
Look around the property.
And I told officer shane hunter, I asked, I said,
"what type of evidence you looking for?"
He said, "really anything."
I said, "what about blood?"
His eyes got big as half a dollars.
- Narrator: Homeowner richard pierce tells
Investigators he and his wife, kathleen,
Had bought the house in the late '90s.
- We had heard that there's a possibility
He had been murdered there.
- Narrator: Richard says he never thought much of the rumors
Until he decided to put hardwood floors
In the main bedroom in 2006.
- So, when I pulled the carpet to take press wood up,
I found a big ole circle of blood in the bedroom.
As soon as I'd seen it, I hollered at my wife.
I told her, "well, I just found out where larry got killed at."
- Kathleen: I go, "what?"
And he said, "yeah."
They were just rumors at the time,
But now I see it wasn't a rumor.
It actually happened here.
- Narrator: Investigators ask where the stained flooring
Is now, and richard says he disposed of it long ago.
- They asked me that, "why I didn't call 'em?"
And my exact words to the state was, "I figured you'd done
All the investigating you were gonna do."
- Narrator: With richard and kathleen's permission,
Investigators tear up the bedroom floor,
Hoping for a miracle.
- Richard: They talked to the tbi or somebody and told them
That if it was much blood as I said it was, it'd go through
The press wood into the plywood subfloor.
- That was something that really sparked some hope in
Us that we were going to--absolutely
Going to nail this case.
- Richard: They finally got down to it, and they spray
That luminol in there, and they told us
It lit up like a christmas tree.
All them years later.
- Narrator: The subfloor samples are sent to the lab
For testing.
As they await results, investigators try to elicit
A confession out of mary ann's brother, rex bailey.
- Unfortunately, in cold cases, ah, a lot of time that's
What it comes down to is the only option you have is to try
To get some sort of confession, uh, or admission.
And, uh, rex, ah, being a lot like his sister,
Wasn't going to admit to anything.
- ♪
- Narrator: With no confession, the entire case
Hinges on the floor and mattress samples.
- Shane: Ultimately, we get a, uh, call back from the tbi
That they have a male, uh, dna marker
From the blood stains that are on the mattress--
The mattress stuffings.
- Narrator: To confirm the blood on the mattress is larry's,
Investigators need his dna for comparison.
- The family did agree to--to exhume the body.
- Bené: We were all for it.
Anything that we could do to help them prove the case
Or to find out what exactly happened to my father,
We were willing to do.
- Narrator: On September 1st, 2016, the results come in.
- Tommy: The profiles we got from the bed stuffings
Matched the body dna taken from larry hughes.
So, then we knew the blood at the home was larry hughes.
And general cooper seeked indictments
For mary ann hughes' arrest.
- Narrator: Coming up: A devastating setback
Threatens the pursuit of justice.
- That's when the cold case comes to haunt you.
- Kevin: It seemed like somebody is going to pay
For what was done to my uncle.
And, bam, just like hitting a brick wall.
- [gunshots]
- ♪
- Narrator: In October of 2016, after 26 years,
The suspected killer of larry hughes
Is almost in investigators' clutches.
- Tommy: We spent several hours in the grand jury
And were successful in getting an indictment for
Mary ann hughes' arrest.
We went and served her at her house.
Brought her in.
I think the motive was money, plain and simple.
All about money.
- ♪
- Narrator: After evading arrest for years,
Mary ann hughes, now 69,
Could spend the rest of her life in prison,
If convicted.
- Bené: I was in shock.
I mean, I knew the whole time that she was looked at
As the main suspect, always had been.
But I couldn't believe it had finally happened.
- Kevin: I was thankful that something had finally been done.
That finally we was gonna get some kind of justice.
- ♪
- Narrator: With mary ann in custody,
Prosecutors work to strengthen their case.
- Brent: The theory was that mary hughes wanted larry dead.
And, uh, you know, we didn't have
Any smoking gun proof of why.
We did have the life insurance policy.
If she did think larry was running around on her,
That's also a motive to kill larry.
- Narrator: Gathering all the evidence, prosecutors
Piece together how they believe larry spent his final moments.
- Shane: At some point between 10:30 and 12 o'clock,
Larry was shot, uh, with his own revolver,
In his bedroom, in his bed.
- Tommy: It could've been an argument that night.
He could've simply been asleep, and she says, you know,
"enough's enough," and pulls the trigger twice.
- [gunshots]
- Two gunshot wounds to the head.
- Brent: There would've been a lot of bleeding,
Which would have caused blood to soak into the mattress
And possibly even leave a large puddle on the floor.
She contact her brother.
He comes over at 3 o'clock in the morning and then they take
Larry and the gun and drive him out to those dumps.
Rex bailey was never charged with his, ah, role in this case,
Even though we believe he was involved.
We never had the--the proof we needed.
- Narrator: Though the state feels confident in its argument
Against mary ann, taking a case to trial
With a 25-year lapse in the investigation
And missing ballistic evidence proves risky.
- Brent: We knew there's a decent opportunity we would
Walk out with an acquittal, if we go to trial.
And, uh, that's the last thing you want,
Uh, with a murder case.
- Narrator: As they weigh the odds,
The state asks larry's family how they want closure.
- Brent: The ultimate decision that--that we came to,
With the family, was that we wanted for history to record
Through these court records
That mary ann hughes was responsible for the death
Of larry hughes.
And that was more important than the satisfaction of trying
To go for first degree murder and a life sentence.
And the only way to guarantee that was to come up
With a plea offer that--that mary ann would agree to.
- Bené: The plea deal was brought forward.
I was ready to go to trial, but I--I let my uncle
Make that decision, 'cause that--it has run his life.
And we all agreed to accept the plea deal.
- Narrator: In August of 2019, after 29 years of denial,
Mary ann hughes pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter
In exchange for time served and ten years' probation.
- Tracy: She spent a little bit of time in jail
While they were waiting to bail her out.
And then once they bailed her out, she was out.
- Kevin: It seemed like somebody is going to pay
For what was done to my uncle.
And, bam, just like hitting a brick wall.
It's not fair that she got so little time for what she done.
You might as well say she got away with murder.
- Tracy: I mean, my uncle, my dad's brother,
Bené's father...Is gone.
He's not in our life anymore.
She still has her three sons and her freedom.
And to me, that is not justice.
- She didn't get what she deserves.
That's--that's for sure.
But she had to admit she killed larry.
And, uh, you know, that's-- that gave--
That gives me satisfaction.
- Bené: I feel like we all get what we deserve in life.
Somehow, someway, we pay for our bad deeds.
God takes care of it.
- Narrator: While mary ann may have admitted to killing larry,
She'll likely take her reason to the grave.
- Bené: We'll never know what the motivation was.
We'll never know, you know, the reason behind it.
What actually happened that made her snap.
- Kathleen: Evil. Plain evil.
What else could it be?
Can't be nothing else but evil to do a person like that.
- ♪