Talking about Cammy is very emotional,
but I want to share the story that changed
our entire family's, uh, landscape.
The people who she
is supposed to love the most, and probably did love the most,
she ended up hurting the most.
But I still
believe in humanity
and the good that there was supposed to have been,
and I'm sorry it couldn't have turned out that way for her.
[voice breaking] Just a minute, please.
She'll serve her sentence and get free
and be walking the streets of society.
I will be watching and being very
careful when and if that does happen,
because I feel like that there
is potential for Cammy coming after me.
If my sister were to
come after me in revenge,
I would not
hesitate
in pulling a trigger against her.
[The Paper Chase's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" plays]
[strings continue playing sinister tune]
[static crackling]
[knock at door] [creaking]
[banging on door]
[creaking]
[water dripping]
[banging on door] [creaking]
[sinister chord strikes]
This is me and my middle sister, Cammy.
There was exactly three years between us.
A bond was developed
very early on,
because I adored her.
She loved to get in the bed with me and us have a playtime.
I would make her giggle.
I would tickle her belly.
It was a wonderful time in my life,
and I hope in hers -- maybe it's not remembered, but...
it's still in there somewhere.
We grew up in Marion, North Carolina.
I'm the oldest of three daughters.
As Cammy got older, she would come to my bed
when she had a nightmare, and I'd snuggle her up.
What's wrong? You have a bad dream?
I can remember lots of times reading to her.
Once upon a time...
CINDY: And I could remember her looking up at me
as I read to her.
Certain things kind of stick in your head.
That does, that sticks, that little smile,
because it was just so sweet.
I wish you could see it in my head. [laughs] Um...
She had the cutest little smile.
Probably around the age of six,
I started seeing a behavioral change in my sister.
She enjoyed seeing me upset.
Growing up,
it was very important to me to have things precise
and orderly.
I don't want to say I had OCD,
but I just liked order.
I remember one time in particular
where I got very upset with Cammy
for holding her elbows out after she washed her face,
because water
would roll down her arms and get all over
the sink and floor.
And I snapped at her.
Cammy! Why are you always making a mess?
If you made her upset, then she got revenge.
She went into our bedroom, took all of our drawers,
and dumped them in the -- In the middle of the room.
I walk into the room,
and I see the bed spreads
and top sheets and pillows
thrown into the middle of the floor.
Cammy, why would you do this?
I was so angry, and seeing that, I would say,
"Cammy, clean up that room."
Well, she wouldn't, and she would laugh.
She was actually being very entertained at me being angry.
Well, don't just stand there -- Help me!
I think that the laughing when seeing me so upset
was even worse than the actual deed of the destruction.
Her intentions were to deliberately antagonize me.
Cammy took pleasure in eliciting responses.
She loved to see
me cry.
In early teens, I became overweight,
and I was very self-conscious,
and if she caught me standing in front of a mirror,
she would attack that Achilles heel
that caused me great distress.
I was one day looking in the mirror,
and she came in the room
and started laughing
[laughing]
And going, "Just look at you,
look at you, look how fat you are."
It was awful.
And she just went -- Kept on and on with it.
And I think that did probably reduce me to tears.
You're looking a little chunky. [laughing]
How could she say that to me?
I would never say that to her.
It was joyous cruelty.
She knew what she was doing,
she knew she was hurting me, and she was being entertained
by that. - God, you're disgusting.
She enjoyed doing that on a regular basis.
She had a distorted viewpoint of me her whole life.
And she enjoyed seeing me cry.
Mostly it was a rivalry with me,
and I don't think that there was hardly that much between
Cammy and Sharon as there was between Cammy and myself.
Once, I shared a secret
with my sister, Cammy,
and she ended up usin' it against me.
I could not go on a date
until I was 16,
which I thought was a little bit strict.
So one time, I kissed a guy,
and I felt real badly about it.
I shared it with Cammy.
I leaned in,
and I kissed him.
You kissed him!
And she was very, very sweet
and very, very loving... at first.
Did you like it?
[laughs] Of course.
She responded with, "Oh, Cindy",
"don't -- Don't worry about that.
That's not that bad."
She was comforting.
But seriously, you can't tell anyone.
I promise. I won't tell anyone.
Okay.
I realize now, she would think through how can I hurt,
uh, Cindy the worst?
All of a sudden, she thinks, oh,
I have leverage.
I can use this.
And, of course, that's exactly what ended up.
Two days after the incident,
she started blackmailing me with my mom.
[sighs]
Mom would divide cookies or a candy bar,
and I would not give her my share.
Give me them.
I'm not giving you my cookies.
And she threatened to
blackmail me by using the secret that I had told her.
No, Cammy, you promised.
She would immediately start calling for mom.
Fine, have it your way.
- Mom! - Wait! Wait!
I would say wait, wait, come back.
Here, you can have this.
Here.
CINDY: Because I didn't want that to happen.
Thank you.
Cammy blackmailed me for several months.
A normal person would not do that to another person.
But she doesn't care about getting along.
She doesn't care about friendships.
It became a miserable way to live.
And finally, one day, I had had enough.
I went, and I said, "Mom, can I talk to you about something?"
And I told my mom myself.
I have something to tell you.
Once I told my mother the secret,
I felt so free.
The load was gone.
That one incident
changed the landscape of our relationship
for the rest of our life.
Because I never could trust her fully again.
This is a picture of my baby sister, Sharon, and...
Cammy, and myself.
I was 14, and Cammy was 11.
I desperately wanted to have a close relationship
with Cammy, but our relationship was very strained.
Very seldom do
I remember her being sweet
and nice -- I didn't recognize that
the abnormal behavior would last for a lifetime.
I didn't know that.
As time went on,
we noticed that Cammy became
more and more obsessed
with revenge.
And as she grew older, around eight years old,
she started using weapons.
One day, we were on the school bus coming home,
and I was teasing her about a particular boy that liked her.
We got home,
and then it started.
Come on, Cammy. I was only joking.
CINDY: She just decided that she was
gonna go get a kitchen paring knife.
I heard the drawer open, and I was standing
in the living room,
What are you doing?
And totally unexpecting
that she would throw a knife at me.
She just took it by the knife part and threw it.
[gasps]
And it lodged in my wrist.
What is wrong with you?
CINDY: It was, like, very, very bloody.
I was trying to stop the bleeding.
You could have killed me!
She walked by like, that's what you get, that serves you right.
Did not say, "Oh, I'm sorry."
Just walked on by and went on her merry way.
There was no remorse, but I think satisfaction.
I really think satisfaction.
When I told mom and dad that,
she got 25 licks with a belt.
But sometimes after a spanking, Cammy would laugh
just to show that it didn't and wouldn't affect her.
She would act like nothing happened.
No one or not
anything could affect that resolve
that she would be in control.
It was frightening living with Cammy,
because I never knew what would set her off.
One time, we got into a huge fight
us sisters, and she demanded
that my sister and I leave the premises,
to get out of the room,
Get out!
CINDY: And we refused to do that.
No, If you don't like it, why don't you leave?
She went into my parents' bedroom.
And she got a rifle, a hunting rifle.
She come carrying, coming through their door,
pointing at us and demanding that we get out of the house.
I said, get out!
Just calm, cool, and collected.
Just y'all get out, or I'm gonna -- I'm gonna shoot you.
Of course, we're thinking that she's teasing,
but we're not taking any chances, right?
I mean it.
I can remember trying to get Sharon out of the house.
Let's go.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go."
And she then locks us out.
And we stay out until mom and dad get home.
They didn't know what to do.
My mother took Cammy to our pediatrician,
and she asked him what
she could do to get Cammy help,
and he reprimanded her verbally
and just said, "She's a middle child.
"She needs extra attention.
"She needs extra love.
Just love her and give her special attention."
Absolutely the wrong advice from that pediatrician.
I don't think they knew what to
do with her when she was little.
You could not reason
with Cammy.
It wasn't that I hated her.
You just don't want to have a relationship anymore.
And there was times where we're teenagers that were good.
Cammy was 21 or 22 when she got married.
I was 24 when I got married.
We were close then.
Well, close enough to -- to -- The only time that we really saw
one another was, like, Mother's Day,
Easter -- it was just your normal,
see you later,
hello, how are you?
You know, kind of thing.
Well, we were on our way to a niece's third birthday,
which is Sharon's daughter, and, um, I had
Cammy with me and two of my sons, and Cammy was saying
cruel things about my nephew.
I really -- I can't stand him.
Cammy, please, not in front of the boys.
It's their cousin.
It was aggravating me, and I asked her to stop
several times.
He's so spoiled.
Of course, he'd turn out like this.
After she kept on, I said,
"Well, if you don't stop now,
"I'm pulling off,
and you will get out of my vehicle."
Shut up. You don't tell me what to do.
She turned around in the passenger's seat
and started kicking with every ounce
of her strength in her leg.
Stop it! Are you trying to kill us!?
She kicked me in my face,
um, and on my arm, my ribs.
I mean, here we are on the interstate.
Here we have our children
with us -- she did not care.
Cammy was acting with reckless abandon,
because the need to control
and get revenge was greater than survival
at that point in time.
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
I pulled off, and I made her get out of my car.
I felt badly
about leaving my sister on the side of the interstate,
but that was overridden
by the thought of keeping the occupants
of that vehicle safe.
I did the right thing.
She could have killed us.
All right, this is my sister
and my dear brother-in-law, Thierry,
and they are in France, maybe on their honeymoon.
After the divorce from her first husband,
Cammy met Thierry at the Department of Revenue in
Raleigh, where she worked, as well.
Their relationship, mostly,
was volatile.
But there were times like this where
you could sense some fun-loving.
It's wonderful to see them like that.
She looks genuinely happy.
I know how much he loved her.
I'm not sure the other way around.
When Cammy married Thierry,
she knew he had a kidney condition, and she commented
once that the only reason that
she married him was because he had
a kidney disorder and that
she didn't feel like that he would live that long.
I really like him.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
We'll see how long it lasts.
And that he would have good insurance.
I cannot remember exactly my response,
but I do know that I would reprimand her.
If I'm lucky, he won't last long.
It's not right.
It's insanity. That's evil.
That's -- that's a terrible thing to say.
I'm surprised that it slipped out.
I don't think that
she intended necessarily to
reveal that.
Maybe she did.
Maybe she liked the shock factor.
It was a very Cammy-like thing to do.
When Cammy and Thierry divorced,
it was a terrible custody battle for the children.
Thierry and I started talking about it.
Thierry thought that Cammy had broken into
his apartment, because little things would be altered.
He noticed that his underclothes drawer had been
tampered with,
and his medicine cabinet had been tampered with.
He needed medication daily.
Was she actually trying to kill him then?
I don't know.
I believe that Cammy was always trying
to send messages to everyone in her life.
We're seeing a progression
of that sinister behavior, that darkness.
After Cammy lost custody,
her behavior became even more about it.
He would leave to take the children to school in
the morning, and she'd follow him,
and she had a wig on.
That's when he first realized that she was stalking him,
watching, always watching.
When Cammy lost the children
and Thierry became their full guardian,
she blamed me
and said that I had paid off
the judges and paid for his lawyers.
Of course, that wasn't the truth at all.
But that was what she believed.
Cammy had a seething rage that was directed toward me,
because she thought that I was directly responsible
for her losing her children.
She never openly threatened, but there were several times
that Cammy had called me,
making reference to things she wouldn't have known about
unless she had been stalking me.
You're not scaring me. Stop calling here.
And sometimes, at night,
I would get this eerie feeling
or sensation that someone was watching me.
I immediately shut all blinds and locked all doors.
It's like that almost panic -- Do it now.
I felt like she could come into my home and hurt me
while I was sleeping,
while I was watching TV.
I felt like my life was in jeopardy.
CINDY: I feel like court issues and losing her children
really put Cammy over an edge.
[phone ringing]
One day, I got a call from the detective...
Hello?
...in the city that she lived in
stating that a report was filed against me,
because I was poisoning her food.
Wait... she did it again.
I would get a call once a month,
at least, with them saying that
she was reporting a crime, that
I had been in her house and had poisoned her food.
And the next time, it would be the water.
You know this is ridiculous, right?
CINDY: She really believed that I hated her that much.
As a matter of fact, once she called me, she was crying
almost uncontrollably,
and she said, "What have I ever done to make you hate me
like you do?"
That was tough.
That was so tough to hear.
Anyway, she believed it
and still does.
I was home with my family one day for my birthday.
Cammy comes in my house and brings me a birthday cake,
and I said, "What the world is that?"
Cammy?
And she's got this solemn look on her face,
and she said, "It's a birthday cake."
I baked you a cake.
I said, "Do you literally think that I would eat that",
after all you've accused me of?
Why not?
CINDY: I thought that there was a possibility
Cammy poisoned the cake that she brought me.
I told her to take the cake back.
Don't you think things are going too far?
And I said, "Why can we not be friends?
Why does it have to be this way?"
And she said, "I did not take your children away from you."
- But you helped them take mine! - I had nothing to do with it!
At that point in time, I lost all
manner of control, and I literally attacked her.
[arguing indistinctly]
I had just had it
with her shenanigans toward me for years.
I kept shaking her and saying, "You need to take medication."
And then my husband, David, came,
and he said, "Cammy, you need to leave."
You gotta go. You gotta go now.
CINDY: She would listen to him more so than she would me,
so she left.
But I wouldn't have put it
past her to come back for revenge.
She thought that I was out to destroy her.
I have no clue why.
Our last Christmas together, she wasn't invited,
because she had a restraining order,
and she wasn't supposed to be near the kids.
Merry Christmas.
CINDY: And she came.
What are you doing here?
No, you're not supposed to be here.
CINDY: I was watching her hands in her coat pocket.
I was afraid of a gun.
I didn't trust her.
The children went to the basement with Thierry.
I took her aside, and I told her that
she wasn't supposed to be there,
and I told her to leave, and she
got a little smirky look on her face.
I was
obsessed with watching her hands in her pockets.
It's Christmas.
I do think that she was deeply,
deeply hurt.
Having Christmas, which is the grandest of all
holidays in my family, and for
her not to be able to be invited.
I feel like she was deeply wounded and hurt, and I'm sorry.
I was starting to be fearful for Thierry and myself.
His life could be in trouble.
One day, I had ice cream with Thierry, and I said,
"Can I talk to you about something?"
And he said, "Sure, sis, what's on your mind?"
I'll never forget that.
I just...
I feel like she's up to something.
I said, Thierry, "You know, both of us are in danger of"
"being killed.
Cammy could come after us, either one of us."
And he said, "Yeah, sis, I know that."
I said, "Well, what are you doing about it?
Are you doing anything?"
He goes, "Well, I'm working on some things."
That conversation was one month before it
actually happened.
On March 24th, 2006,
I was at home, -[phone ringing]
and I got a call. - [phone ringing]
Hello.
It was the detective,
and he said,
"I need to tell you, your sister...
has shot your brother-in-law."
She shot him?
I went totally out of kilter with that call
and just started screaming.
No, no!
I just kept saying,
I know, I know, I know.
I said, "Can you tell me what happened?"
Thierry and Cammy met in the park that day.
She convinced Thierry, even though it was disallowed
to meet her for pizza
in order to see the children.
They met,
and she said, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
And he said,
"Yes," and Cammy shot Thierry in the stomach.
Were the kids there -- The kids were there?
I am believing
he thought she would never do this
in front of her children.
Oh, no, no.
She went back to be with the children, telling 'em
that everything was gonna be okay, that daddy
was gonna be fine.
The children were eight years old
and six years old.
I felt pity for the children.
It's almost like, in your own ears,
you can hear the shot ringing out.
I can almost see them as they saw their father fall.
I don't think that Cammy meant to kill him.
She was planning on scaring him into submission.
No, no!
This is a picture
of my precious, precious brother-in-law
and his children.
Just a beautiful family,
totally destroyed by the decisions of one person.
I was much closer to Thierry than ever
I was to Cammy.
When Cammy shot Thierry, and he died,
I was devastated with the news
that he was gone.
Every time somebody that we really love leaves
the earth, a piece of us goes with them.
I'm not doing real well.
Thierry survived the initial shooting.
He was the one that called 911,
and immediately, the police were there,
and she was arrested.
She was taken immediately to Wake County jail.
And even though I really was still angry with her,
I visited her in jail.
And I walk in.
Of course, she's behind the glass.
And she has the most
horrible look on her face.
Between anger and devastation.
It's almost a spiritual darkness.
And I say, "Cammy,
what in the world is the matter?"
Why did you do this?
And, once again,
I heard the words, "I did not
have your children taken away from you."
But you helped them take mine.
So at that point, I told her that the next time
that I saw her hopefully would be in the next life.
And she immediately laughed
and said, "If you're talking about
heaven, you're not gonna be there."
I can't do this anymore.
I told her that I would not be
visiting her again ever as long as I lived.
I hung up the phone, and I just walked out.
That was in 2008.
I never went back to see her.
Cammy was charged with second-degree murder.
I can remember one attorney that met with my family,
and he said, "She will be doing very well"
"if she escapes
the electric chair."
I didn't feel like that was enough.
I mean, we're talking about murder here.
I was hoping for life.
I think that it would have been
a blessing if it had been the death penalty.
And I say that with full love in my heart
for her best interest,
because I'm not sure what kind of
life that she has ahead of her.
She'll serve her sentence and get free
and be walking the streets of society,
and shortly.
I feel like that there is potential for Cammy
coming after me.
But I'm not scared for Cammy
to be released from prison, because I'm prepared.
As soon as she's released, I will get a restraining order,
but I also got a concealed carry,
and I will carry,
if that day happens,
all the time.
I think this is when she was in jail.
She just looks so sad.
I'm sorry for the pain that she has brought
to people's lives,
but this picture makes me want to hold her.
I wish I could make things okay for her.
I wish I could make her mind well and reverse
people's hurts,
for her children, for Thierry.
It's pretty devastating.
I wish I had the ability to reconstruct her life
and make decisions for her that would turn out to be happy.
I want her to be happy.
Yes, I do love her very much.
Even with all the pain that
she's brought myself and other people,
I still love her
very, very much.
It's an unconditional love.
I wish you could have believed I never meant any harm for you.
Some day, you'll know the truth.