Original subtitles

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[suspenseful music]

- The church community of Madisonville, Kentucky

is defined by a steady devotion to faith and fellowship.

But in 2003, this pious place

is suddenly ripped apart by the vicious murder

of a beloved church member and matriarch.

- It was really a shock for people in the community.

- Who could have done this?

How could this have happened?

- [Alan] A prominent member of the congregation

beaten to death only steps from her own church.

- She left the church that night.

How can she walk across the street and then be murdered?

- How could anybody do that at all,

much less someone who goes to church?

- [Alan] And no churchgoer, even the most saintly,

is above suspicion.

Now, the devout people of Madisonville

have to go to services with a question hanging over them.

Is that church member sitting right next to them

a cold-blooded killer?

[tense music continues]

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music fades]

[tense music]

- It's January 13th, 2003,

between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM,

and Dr. Bob Fenneman is really worried

about his fiance, Anna Mae Branson.

He had called her the night before at around 9:30,

and she never answered and never called him back.

And that is very unlike her.

Maybe she had fallen and hurt herself.

- Her car's in the garage,

that she should be there at the house,

but she wasn't answering.

[ominous music]

rings the doorbell several times,

and he gets no answer.

So he decides to go close by to First Baptist Church,

which is right down the street from her house.

And he calls her brother, Earl.

So Earl decides to join him, and they call 911,

and police come out and meet them at the home.

Earl knows that there's a key

that she hides in the first bush of the home.

- [Kelley] They made entry through the back door,

and they start calling her name, you know, "Where are you?

Dr. Bob starts goi

[suspenseful music continues]

Earl Winstead, her brother,

had gone down the stairs, gone into the basement.

- [Scott] He walked directly down the stairs,

and then he screamed, "Oh my God, I found her."

[suspenseful music grows]

- [Kelley] The patrol officer,

he's able to tell that she's deceased.

[dramatic music]

I was driving up Main Street,

and the dispatch notifies me

that I need to respond to North Main,

which I knew to be Ms. Anna Mae's house.

Everybody knew who she was.

Dairy Queen is one of the oldest restaurants

here in Madisonville.

Ms. Anna Branson and her husband

owned the business for many years.

Everybody knew where she lived.

That was Ms. Ann's house.

The patrolman tells me, "I've never seen anything like this.

"I've never seen anything this brutal."

As you get to her body, I see her injuries.

I see the defects in her clothing where she was stabbed,

and there's a lot of cast off on the freezer

that is to the left of her head.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Alan] Now that the first cops on the scene have established

that this is a murder, and a vicious one at that,

Madisonville PD gears up for a serious investigation.

[tense music continues]

- [Scott] I got assigned as lead detective on this case.

You start thinking tactically, strategically,

"How am I gonna solve this case?"

So I've got my evidence tech walking through the house

and video recording all the walls and the floors

and everything as he walks through.

In case we happen to miss something,

we can go back months later and see the crime scene exactly

in what form it was in on that day that we were there.

- No murder weapon was found at the scene.

There were so many stab wounds.

It was very sad and very disturbing

to think what this lady had endured.

[tense music continues]

[suspenseful music]

- [Kelley] Trying to think of someone

who could do this to her.

She did live right next to the railroad tracks.

- [Scott] I'm initially thinking,

what's happening here is

probably somebody walking down the railroad tracks,

criminal fleeing from another jurisdiction

or something like that.

But as I looked at the crime scene,

the door was not breached.

- There's no signs of footprints or forced entry.

There's no windows broken or ajar.

- No money taken.

- [Kelley] The engagement ring that Dr. Bob had given her

was very significant.

$30,000 was the engagement ring price.

And that ring was still on her finger.

- [Scott] There was nothing to suggest

that it was a random act of violence

for someone that was walking off of the railroad tracks.

[train wheels clattering]

- [Alan] Based on what the evidence is showing them,

detectives are beginning to form a profile of their killer.

- [Kelley] It took passion and anger to make those wounds.

- [Scott] So we're looking at someone

that's emotionally out of control,

loses it, so to speak.

They don't realize, or they don't care,

or they can't stop themselves long after this victim's dead.

This is somebody who was close to her, that knew her.

And this wasn't just a random burglary gone bad.

This is something else.

- [Alan] Next, Detective Sawyer and Troutman

need to speak to the two men who discovered the body,

Anna Mae's fiance and her brother.

- [Scott] Dr. Bob Fenneman and Earl Winstead

are sitting in the car in a driveway.

- [Kelley] Dr. Bob is extremely distraught.

He's an elderly man.

He and Ms. Ann were supposed

to get married and build a house.

I wasn't going to exclude anyone

from being on the suspect list.

However, seeing Dr. Bob's physical condition,

I felt that it would have been very difficult

for him to have committed that crime.

And then I had a brief interview

with Ms. Branson's brother, Earl Winstead.

[ominous music]

- [Scott] Earl is a very stoic individual,

not a lot of emotional response.

I do remember him having

a tear in his eye during the interview,

but that is the limit of the emotion that Earl exhibited.

- [Alan] Detectives make a note to check Earl's alibi,

and then return to the basement

to be sure they didn't miss any clues.

- [Kelley] I can see that she didn't have shoes on,

but she still had her church clothes on.

- [Scott] We were able to locate

people that do go to that church,

and we were able to talk to them and found out

that she did attend church service the previous night.

They didn't describe her acting out of the ordinary.

Just typical Anna Mae Branson

going to church on a Sunday night.

[suspenseful music]

- Church played a big role in Anna Mae's life,

and it did in everyone in the town.

It's just that sort of a town where everyone goes to church.

- This community has so many churches.

I once tried to count.

I think I got up to over 40,

and just kind of stopped counting at that point.

- [Kelley] A lot of our citizens,

they're gonna be at one of the services

several times a week.

- [Alan] This was especially true of Ms. Anna Mae Branson.

- [Karen] She was a faithful attendee

at First Baptist Church Madisonville.

And she was one of those people

that you just knew would be at church.

It was really difficult to imagine

that someone of her stature had been murdered.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Stefanie] Anna Mae Branson was very high

on the church ladder.

She had a lot of money and she used it for good.

She donated to the church.

She donated to organizations that could help other people.

- We were able to establish a timeline

just by what time the church service ended.

It always ends at, like, 7:00.

We knew that she had went home from church,

and all she has to do is cross the street.

Got home probably around 7:15.

- [Alan] Now cops have a window of time for the murder,

between 7:15 Sunday night and Monday morning.

The blood at the crime scene narrows it down further.

- [Kelley] I can see that the blood around her head is dried,

and the blood spatter

that is on the chest type freezer is dried,

and so it would have had to have been

sometime the night before.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Alan] The last ones to have seen Anna Mae alive,

other than her killer,

are the members of her church

who watched her leave at the end of the service.

- [Mary] The church is probably still a very busy place,

so it's possible someone could have walked over,

followed her.

[suspenseful music]

- [Kelley] You're thinking, "Is this gonna be a church member

that she was having issues with?"

"Would they be mad enough to come to her house

and do this to her?"

Having over my career investigate

and respond to incidents with church members,

at any time things can go wrong

and people are people and you never know what's possible.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Alan] Coming up.

- [Scott] We asked the cleaning lady, "What do you think, Judy?

Who could have done this?"

- [Kelley] The cleaning lady tells me that Ms. Branson

has loaned the handyman Wayne a lot of money,

and that he hasn't paid her anything back.

But Wayne, the handyman, says

that Judy, the cleaning lady, owes more than he does.

- [Karen] We have a strong church community.

You always want to think that your community

has good people in it,

and that people don't do things like this.

[suspenseful music continues]

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- [Alan] Word is spreading in Madisonville, Kentucky,

that the revered church matriarch,

Anna Mae Branson, has been murdered.

Detectives believe that she knew her killer well,

that it was probably someone from her own devout community.

- It

Everyone was just trying to figure out

who could have done this.

You always want to think that your community

has good people in it,

and that people don't do things like this.

- [Kelley] The church community and the community in a entirety

were concerned and thought,

"Who could this be and do we know them?"

- As detectives continue to work the crime scene,

Anna Mae's family is learning the dreadful news.

[poignant music]

- I'm Anna Mae Branson's double nephew.

- [J

and they married my dad and his brother, Carol.

I get a phone call on Monday, January 13th, 2003.

It's my wife, Mary, on the p

and Mary hesitated a minute,

and I'm told that Anna Mae was murdered.

[suspenseful music]

- Who could have done this? How could this have happened?

- [Jack] And after Mary got home later that night,

we knew we would be going immediately

the next day to Madisonville.

- [Alan] As the news races through the community,

a small crowd gathers at the police tape outside.

- While the detectives are still on scene,

Judy Harvey, the cleaning lady, shows up.

[suspenseful music]

Judy didn't live too far away,

so whenever she saw all the police cars at the residence,

she came to see what was going on.

And she seems really adamant about wanting to help us.

[officer speaking indistinctly on radio]

- [Kelley] We started her interview.

Judy states that she was at home the night before,

and that she called Ms. Branson

'cause she was supposed to come by the next day.

- [Scott] Judy told us that she had a phone conversation

with Anna Mae Branson on Sunday night, 9:00.

- [Ala

sharpen their timeline of the killing.

Anna Mae would most likely have been killed

soon after 9:00 PM.

That would have left time

for the blood at the crime scene to dry.

The detectives suspect that the killer was familiar

with Anna Mae's daily routines,

especially her church schedule,

so they're eager to hear what Judy has to say.

- We ask her, "What do you think, Judy?

"Who could have done this?"

And she was adamant she thought the handyman did this.

- [Kelley] She said that Wayne, the handyman,

was the perpetrator.

[suspenseful music continues]

[ominous music continues]

- [Karen] Mrs. Branson was a very astute businesswoman.

- [Jack] Anna Mae started buying rental properties

when she was about 50,

and she wound up with 43 or 4,

and managed those full-time.

To take care of that many houses in her old age,

I don't know how she did it.

She kept journals, collected the rent.

She had a handyman

that she would call for plumbing or roofing.

[suspenseful music]

- [Kelley] The cleaning lady tells me that the handyman

makes extra work that he charges Ms. Branson for,

but she feels that it's mostly made up

and that he actually has no work to do.

Judy says that Ms. Branson has loaned Wayne a lot of money

and that he hasn't paid her anything back.

[suspenseful music]

Judy tells me that she doesn't know where it is,

but that Ms. Branson has a ledger

that she keeps all of the loans

and payments from people that she's loaned money to.

And she said that it should be written in that book,

how much money Wayne owes her.

- [Alan] Detective Sawyer makes a note

to find the handyman and interview him.

That's when the patrol officers on the scene

bring the detective surprising news.

[suspenseful music]

- [Kelley] Before I left the scene,

I was notified that the handyman was also present.

I went out the door to speak with him.

I asked Wayne about his loans

that he's gotten from Ms. Branson.

He tells me that he's only gotten a small loan

and that he had paid her back.

And if I check, that Judy will owe more money than he does.

He seems very upset.

I mean, he is obviously devastated.

However, I'm thinking to myself,

"Well, could this man have done this to her?"

[suspenseful music]

so if he had committed the murder,

[suspenseful music continues]

and then he was there

and he was distraught over his remorse,

I mean, that's a possibility.

And I feel that, especially at that moment,

I need to know where you were.

I need an alibi.

If I don't have a strong alibi,

then you're gonna be at the top of my suspect list.

[dramatic music]

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- Detectives have identified a suspect

in the brutal murder of churchgoer Anna Mae Branson.

Judy, the cleaning lady, insists Wayne, the handyman,

who took care of Anna Mae's rental properties,

was the perpetrator.

- [Scott] Judy was really adamant about how this handyman

is the one that probably did that.

- [Kelley] The handyman had an alibi of being out of town

with his daughter the night before,

and that he just came back that morning.

I asked him if he would take a polygraph.

He said, "Absolutely. Let's go."

- [Scott] I took him to the

Kentucky State Police Polygraph Unit.

Before a polygrapher

will administer a polygraph examination,

one of the things that they ask about is

do you have any heart conditions?

- [Kelley] Wayne explained to him

that he had a heart condition.

- [Scott] The polygrapher said, "I can't do it.

I cannot polygraph him

because it might trigger a heart attack."

Wayne starts crying.

[tense music continues]

And he just wanted to clear his name.

He wanted to take a polygraph worse

than anybody I've ever seen in my career.

The only reason why we we're suspected him

and going through the process with him is because

his name had been brought up so much by Judy Harvey.

From the beginning, Wayne Shelton seemed very distraught

over the fact that Anna Mae had been murdered.

We found out that Wayne Shelton had multiple heart surgeries

and currently had four or five stents in his heart.

- [Kelley] So, therefore, he would not have the strength

to have caused that many injuries

and those significant blows to her head.

At that point in time,

Judy's floating toward the top of the suspect list

when everybody else was sinking rapidly.

[ominous music]

- [Alan] The following day, Anna Mae's nephew, Jack,

and his wife, Mary, arrived from Georgia

to visit their Uncle Earl and other family.

- [Jack] Earl had a son and daughter, Russell

and Angela, who's the oldest,

and my mother was very close to Russell.

Anna Mae, of course, loved Russell.

Russell taught Sunday school at the church he attended.

- [Mary] Anna Mae loved her nieces and nephews.

She didn't have any children of her own,

and these were her children.

We go to Earl's house.

We knock on the door, and Russell answers.

He looked so brokenhearted and sad, and I hug him.

We go into the l

Earl is there, and Jack speaks up,

and he says with a lot of emotion,

"I wanna be there when that killer is caught,

and I wanna see the life go out of his body."

And Russell says, "You'll have to get in line."

Russell is an engineer at the mines.

He's known for being the calm person.

When there's an emergency,

everybody knows that Russell will stay calm.

- [Alan] After the family visit,

Jack and Mary head to the town police department

to check for any updates on the case.

- [Jack] Mary and I stop at the Madisonville Police Department,

and we go in.

- [Mary] And all of a sudden, this lady comes up to us

and starts talking about all of the suspects.

She says, "I'm Judy Harvey,

and I'm Anna Mae's cleaning lady."

- [Jack] And she said, "I have someone you need to consider."

I said, "Okay, who?"

It was Anna Mae's handyman.

Wayne was his first name.

[tense music continues]

- [Mary] I get a little nervous as she's talking

because she's solving the crime for us,

but she's very eager to place herself in the investigation.

[tense music continues]

- [Alan] In spite of Judy's accusations,

detectives confirm Wayne's alibi,

that he was with his daughter out of town.

This along with his medical records

mean Wayne is dropped from the suspect list.

produces an autopsy report for Anna Mae Branson.

- [Scott] The medical examiner

shared some of her initial findings.

One of the things we asked for is

how many times was she struck?

And she said at least 97.

[tense music]

We were able to ascertain that she was killed

very shortly after she got home from church

because the food that she had eaten for supper

had not even began its absorption in her stomach.

[tense music continues]

- [Kelley] Ms. Branson's autopsy report

gave an estimation of her time of death at 7:30 PM.

That would have lined up

with when she was seen leaving church

and when she made it across the street

and made it into her house.

- [Alan] But if Anna Mae Branson was already dead at 7:30,

one of the witness statements doesn't make sense.

- [Scott] Something was wrong. Something was not adding up.

We immediately go back to Judy Harvey's interview

where she said she talked to her Sunday evening

9:00 on the phone.

Judy was very adamant that she did in fact talk to her,

and then that's when we went and got the search warrant

for the phone records for her and Anna Mae.

And those records provided no indication

that the two of them had talked on the phone that night.

- [Kelley] There was no possibility

that she actually spoke with her on the phone that night.

She's obviously lying.

- [Scott] Why is Judy telling us the wrong time?

Now she's trying to create a smoke screen defense

by saying that she talked to Anna Mae Branson

at 9:00 on Sunday night.

- [Kelley] She's at the higher end of the suspect list

just because of her demeanor and her untrustworthiness.

It makes all of us question

whether she has told the truth about anything.

[suspenseful music]

- [Alan] Before going back to question her again,

police want to drill down on another of Judy's claims,

that Anna Mae Branson kept detailed records

of her personal finances.

- [Kelley] Judy had explained that Ms. Ann kept a ledger,

that Ms. Branson writes down every payment

and every loan that she has made to any individual,

whether it's family or friends.

[suspenseful music]

So we're going back to the residence for a second search.

I decided to take the den that was right off of the garage.

Upon searching, I found a red telephone address book,

and opening that up and just looking through there,

[tense music]

I start seeing the loans.

I see that Wayne, the handyman, owes her nothing,

and that Judy, the cleaning lady, owes more than Wayne.

and I'm like, "Oh my gosh.

This is a large amount of money."

[suspenseful music fades]

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- [Alan] Detective Kelley Sawyer

has found Anna Mae Branson's accounting books,

and just as Judy, the housekeeper, promised,

one of them contains detailed records

of every personal loan Anna Mae made

until the day she was brutally murdered.

Could this ledger open up the possibility of more suspects?

- [Kelley] I start seeing the loans to everyone.

And then, in the ledger, I see the largest amount of money

that was being borrowed from Ms. Ann

was Russell Winstead, her nephew,

Earl Winstead's son.

[ominous music]

- As of January 10th, 2003,

Russell Winstead owes his aunt over $74,000.

[tense music]

- [Alan] Detectives still aren't convinced

that Judy, the housekeeper, is in the clear.

But after seeing the loan records,

Russell Winstead is the man

they want to look into immediately.

[ominous music continues] [bell ringing]

- [Stefanie] Russell Winstead is very active in his church.

He also teaches evening Bible study, so he is someone

that is well-known in the church community and well-loved.

- [Alan] Detectives learn Russell is an attentive father

to his children from his first marriage,

and an employee at a local mining company

who's looking to get ahead.

[ominous music]

- [Jack] Russell had been borrowing large sums of money,

$10,000 that range, to buy mining equipment

that he was going to resell and make a profit

and be able to pay her back and make some money for himself.

[ominous music continues]

[suspenseful music]

- [Kelley] I see that the last entry,

he had written her a check on Friday for $12,000.

Ms. Branson told her friend

that her nephew gave her a check for $12,000

that she needed to deposit right away,

so she was gonna go to the bank

as soon as they opened on Monday morning.

- [Alan] Detective Sawyer immediately schedules Russell

to come in for questioning,

[phone ringing] [ominous music]

and that's when the phone rings at Madisonville PD.

[ominous music]

- [Kelley] We had a witness call,

and he informed us that he had information

on what he bel

He came to the police department,

and he proceeds to give information

that he went with Russell Winstead, Saturday night,

to Evansville to the casino.

Russell tells him that he has to win a lot of money,

and he will be at a certain table

just if he wants to come and check on him periodically.

[ominous music continues]

Short amount of time later,

he goes over to check on Russell.

Russell tells him that he's losing,

and that Russell appeared to him as being extremely upset.

Russell begins to curse

and says that he had to pay his aunt back by Monday morning,

and he didn't know what he was gonna do.

[ominous music continues]

They get back to Madisonville

and they go their separate ways.

[ominous music continues]

[crow cawing]

A couple of days later, the witness saw the paper

that shows Anna Mae Branson's murder

on the front page of the paper.

He realizes that Ms. Branson was Russell's aunt.

At that point,

he became extremely concerned for his own safety

and slept with a shotgun.

We subpoena Russell

and his wife's bank account information.

We see no sign of a $12,000 check.

- [Kathy] It was never deposited into Mrs. Branson's account,

and it never cleared Russell Winstead's bank account either.

- [Stefanie] That's supposedly the check that he wrote to her?

Where is it? Where did it go?

And could that have been motive for her murder?

- [Alan] When Russell Winstead comes in for his interview,

Detective Troutman wants to get a sense

of his relationship with Anna Mae

and to see if Russell can confirm her generous lending.

- Russell said he loved his aunt, Anna Mae.

- [Detective] Okay.

- [Scott] He did offer up

that she had loaned him money on several times,

but she didn't care when he paid her back.

- [Scott] We asked him to give us an alibi.

- [Scott] He told us that he went to church

at Olive Branch Missionary Baptist Church.

- [Scott] He and Terry, his wife, they drove separate

so that he could take his son back to his ex-wife's house.

- [Scott] Terry came home after church

while Russell went and took his son home,

and then he came home.

- [Scott] Russell said, "I think I was back home by 7:25."

- [Scott] After we concluded the interview with Russell,

we interviewed Terry.

[suspenseful music]

We asked Terry, "What time did you get home?"

We said, "What time did Russell come home?"

And the two times that Terry gave us

were exactly the two times that Russell gave us.

- So it was that point in time that we realized

that there's a very good chance

that Russell and Terry had rehearsed this timeline

to establish his alibi.

The difference with Russell's interview

is that we had the polygrapher on standby.

We said, "Would you submit to a polygraph?"

He knows that we've asked this of everyone, right?

And he says, "Yeah."

And the polygrapher begins the polygraph.

[tense music]

[clock ticking] [man speaking indistinctly]

- [Scott] After the conclusion of the polygraph,

the polygrapher meets with myself and another detective,

and he says, "I've been a polygrapher for over 20 years,

and I've never seen this much deception."

[tense music continues]

So we walk in there,

and I'm basically telling Russell,

"Listen, man, the gig's up.

We know your alibi's not true.

We know about your gambling addiction.

We gave you a chance to tell us the truth about the money

that you borrowed from Anna Mae Branson.

You didn't mention gambling one time.

We know about the check.

We already know."

[clock ticking] [tense music continues]

looked back and forth between the detectives

and he was trying to figure out what to say.

And then he leaned forward and he grabbed my arm,

he said, "Look at me, Scott.

I did not do this."

[tense music continues]

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has fallen on her nephew, Russell Winstead.

To clear his name, he volunteers for a polygraph test,

and he flunks it badly.

[suspenseful music]

- [Scott] He was grabbing my arm so hard

you could feel how desperate he was.

He was out of answers, out of lies.

He had ran into someone,

myself and the other detective,

that wasn't gonna buy his baloney.

It was at that moment in time,

if I had any doubt that he committed it,

it was gone.

- [Alan] The police have no hard evidence,

so they let Russell go back to his daily life,

and begin their search beneath the veneer

of this well-known church leader.

- [Scott] As we began digging deeper into Russell,

we found out the double life that Russell was living.

- [Kelley] When we start subpoenaing the casino records,

we find out that there are other casinos

that he actually was going to.

- [Stefanie] Russell Winstead was going to a casino

more than 200 times in one year,

and he spends thousands of dollars.

He rolls in in limos that are provided by the casino.

He has his own blackjack table.

And he is having an affair with a waitress

that works at the casino.

[tense music]

on the suspect list,

Russell Winstead has just jumped right to the top.

There's just one problem.

Russell's wife, Terry, has sworn

that he was with her the night of the murder.

- [Kelley] His wife had given him an alibi,

and so we've got to figure out what's going on.

- [Scott] I'm like, "Terry, how well do you know your husband?

Do you know he goes to the casinos

and do you know he gambles?"

"Yeah, I do. It's no big deal."

"Okay, fair enough.

Let's say the worst night,

how much money do you think he loses?"

And she goes, "Maybe 2,000."

I said, "Try about 30,000."

And she just broke down and started bawling

because she knew they didn't have that kind of money,

that that money came from somewhere else,

and that somewhere else

just happened to be Anna Mae Branson.

[poignant music]

Terry's just trying to be a loyal wife,

and after she had had some time to think about it,

that's when she wanted to come back

and recant her initial statement.

She tells us how Earl called a family meeting

and said, "Hey, listen,

the cops are wrongfully looking at Russell.

They're trying to pin this murder on him,

and here's what I need you to say."

- [Kathy] And it was not the truth.

Russell had the opportunity to commit this murder.

- [Scott] We found out later on

that Judy had been rehearsed

by Earl Winstead,

and that's why Judy was giving us t

and that's why Judy was throwing up a smoke screen.

[tense music continues]

- [Alan] Determining if Russell's father, Earl,

or Judy are to be charged with obstructing justice

will have to wait.

For now, detectives believe they have finally put together

the puzzle of Anna Mae's last hours.

- [Stefanie] Russell Winstead wrote Anna Mae Branson

a $12,000 check, and he knows that check was not gonna clear.

He lost that money at a gambling casino the night before.

[casino noise humming]

The night of Anna Mae Branson's murder,

Russell Winstead went to church.

After he went to church,

after he took his children home,

he then went to his aunt's house.

He probably went to her and asked for more money.

She finally reached a point where she said no,

and he finally snapped.

[tense music grows]

[suspenseful music]

- [Scott] It fits the crime scene

and it fit the term crime of passion

which we had characterized this case being from start.

- [Kelley] If someone is getting ready to expose

your secret life,

we've got opportunity, motive, and means.

- [Scott] We have the evidence we need.

We've got the witness statements we need.

We've got the phone records

and we've got the financial documents.

And then we received a tip

from a lady that worked at Casino Aztar

and she said Russell had already made a trip to Costa Rica

and was scoping out a couple places to live.

This caused us alarm,

which created a greater sense of urgency

for us to make an arrest.

And when we're at the point when we're ready to make arrest,

it's too late, Russell's gone.

[dramatic music] [airplane engines roaring]

[dramatic music fades]

[s

[sus

[suspe

[suspens

[suspensef

[suspenseful

[suspenseful m

[suspenseful mus

[suspenseful music

[suspenseful music]

- [Alan] Police have finally zeroed in on the church leader

they believe brutally beat Anna Mae Branson to death.

Her own nephew, Russell Winstead.

But before they can take him into custody,

Winstead has fled the country, headed for Costa Rica.

Now, police have two challenges.

They have to find him and they have to get him back.

[tense music]

- [Scott] The fact that Russell was in Costa Rica

and we were struggling to get him back

was extremely frustrating

to myself and other members on the investigative team.

- [K

who supported Russell was his father, Earl.

- I had an individual come forward to tell me,

"Hey I'm doing something I don't think I should be doing.

I wanna let you know about it."

And I'm like, "Okay, what are you doing?"

He's like, "I'm wiring money

to Russell Winstead in Costa Rica for Earl Winstead.

It's like $3,500 every week."

And I'm like, "Okay, you're working with us now."

We wired him up and collected the recordings

of Earl giving him the instructions,

and Earl gave him the cash.

We recorded two of these instances.

And on the second one, we confiscated the money

and was eventually granted a warrant for Earl's arrest too.

- [Alan] Earl is released on bail.

The detectives now turn their full attention

to tracking down his son, Russell.

[suspenseful music] [waves breaking]

- [Jack] I think Russell Winstead did his homework.

He looked for countries that had gambling.

He looked for countries

that had strict extradition policies online.

Costa Rica will not extradite

anyone who's facing capital punishment.

- [Kathy] One of the investigating officers

reaches out to America's Most Wanted

and got our story of this case on the air.

[phones ringing]

- [Alan] After the broadcast, the hotline starts to ring.

Russell has been spotted in the capital, San Jose.

- Tips came into the line

that he was gambling at the Horseshoe Casino.

- [Alan] Bingo.

At the urging of U.S. officials,

Costa Rican authorities mobilized quickly

before he can slip through their fingers.

- [Kelley] They observed him at the casino.

[tense music continues]

They actually caught him

and arrested him as he was leaving the casino.

[suspenseful music]

- [Scott] Costa Rica got the documentation that they needed

to assure them that the Commonwealth of Kentucky

would not seek the death penalty,

and then Costa Rica let the U.S. Marshals

extradite him back to the United States.

- [Alan] It's taken nine months to get Russell Winstead

back from Costa Rica after his arrest.

Earl Winstead is sen

for sending his son money.

The prosecutors declined to charge Judy, the cleaning lady,

with obstructing justice,

preferring to put their effort and focus

into the murder case against Russell.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Stefanie] They brought in a girlfriend from Costa Rica

who said that he threatened her life.

- One time he said, "If you talk with the police,

"I will burn your house with your family inside."

And he did say, "If I kill my aunt,

why I cannot to kill you?"

- It's always very nerve-wracking

to wait for a jury verdict in a criminal case,

especially a criminal case of this magnitude.

- We, the jury, find Russell Winstead

guilty of murder under instruction number six.

[suspenseful music continues]

- [Kathy] Russell Winstead received a sentence

of life without parole for 25 years.

- [Alan] But in a community as religious as Madisonville,

the story does not end in prison.

For these churchgoers,

redemption is a real possibility.

- [Mary] He will be eligible for parole in a couple of years.

Russell's still our family.

We have forgiven him.

And as far as I'm concerned, if he's a changed man,

he deserves a second chance.

- [Stefanie] A lot of times when this happens

and a murderer returns to these small communities,

it is the church family that takes them in.

It is the church family that gives them a second chance.

- [Jack] Anna Mae will always be a big part of our family.

She's just such a part of not only Mary and me, our family,

but our children, our grandchildren.

Her legacy in our family will never die.

- [Alan] No one involved in this case

would forget its unavoidable lesson.

No matter how vicious the crime,

the killer might well be someone

from your very closest circles.

Your family, your community of faith.

It may seem unthinkable,

but sometimes the killer is the most trusted among us.

[suspenseful music fades]