Case 180
Bill Payne & Billie-Jean Hayworth
“This is going to be the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard. This is going to be the craziest thing you’ve ever heard. There is nothing in your lives or background that has prepared you to understand the Potter family. You have never seen anybody like them.”
When the bodies of Bill Payne and Billie-Jean Hayworth were discovered in their Mountain City, Tennessee home on January 30 2012, many questions were raised. The young couple had recently been the victims of nasty comments online, and while many residents came to Bill and Billie-Jean’s defence, others had embraced the online vitriol being directed at them.
What followed was an unbelievable case involving a CIA agent, a secret relationship, and an impressionable local man named Jamie Curd. At the centre of the chaos was the Potter family: ‘Buddy’, Barbara, and their daughter, Jenelle.
CREDITS
EPISODE:
Research & writing – Eileen Ormsby
Creative direction – Milly Raso
Narration – Anonymous Host
MUSIC:
‘Flatline intro’ and ‘Come play with me’ intro and outro – www.dl-sounds.com
Audio production – Mike Migas
Music – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn
OTHER:
Logo and website design – Paulina Szymanska
RESOURCES
COURT DOCUMENTS
BOOK
Too Pretty To Live: The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee – Dennis Brooks
VIDEOS
Police Build Case Around 2 Suspects in Murder of Young Couple – ABC News
20/20 episode “Unfriended” – ABC TV, 2015
OTHER
Ongoing reporting in The Tomahawk, including daily updates of the trials
Archives of the Topix forums for Mountain City (retrieved via the Wayback Machine)
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