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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
And I looked and I could see my mom laying on the floor. I pushed the door open and I went to check her to see.
No, she was dead. And I turned and I saw my father. There was blood everywhere.
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Chapter 2: What were the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Virgil and Shirley Best?
Virgil handled most of the day-to-day labor on the fish farm and he also employed his 21-year-old grandson to keep it running. Him and Ani, my grandma, I call him Papa and Ani. They own the fish farm, and Papa is normally out there working on it, and Ani is counting up fish and helping him with it, but Papa does most of the work. So I work with him.
Shirley and Virgil were also devout Christians who were heavily involved in their local church. They attended services every Wednesday and Sunday, and Shirley sang in the church choir.
They're big in the church. They go to Gibson 10 Baptist. She's in the choir. They're always involved in the church. They have been for the last few years, a couple years.
Okay. Did you see them coming and going last night to church?
No, because we were in the house.
Okay. Alongside their faith, Shirley and Virgil were also firm supporters of the Second Amendment. They were comfortable with firearms and guns were common in their home.
Tell me about their guns.
Papa always has guns near him.
He has a gun on his nightstand, and I'm pretty sure he has a gun not on his hip, but in the couch. Where does she keep her gun? She, I think she just bought a gun, a brand new one, and she keeps it in her purse. Or does she keep it in the house, you know?
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Chapter 3: How did the investigation into their deaths begin?
We were supposed to have coffee with my parents when I came over, and the back door is open.
Do you want to call EMS? No, I checked them. Okay. Where are they in the house?
The living room.
During the 911 call and his interview with detectives, Robert described the scene as bloody. It was. Virgil and Shirley Best had been gunned down in their living room, and detectives quickly determined they were dealing with a double homicide. When the work on this case started, the detectives did what they always do. They looked at the people closest to the victims.
In this case, they didn't have to look very far. The question wasn't whether the killer was close to Virgil and Shirley Best. It was which one of their children had committed this horrific crime.
By the morning of November 12, 2015, two members of the Best family were dead, and homicide detectives were left trying to understand how a quiet home in Riverview, Florida became a violent and bloody crime scene. The victims had reportedly been shot and found inside their living room by their oldest son, Robert. 70-year-old Virgil Best and 69-year-old Shirley were found at 6.15 a.m.
in their home by a family member who called 911. Crime scene techs arrived in droves to the five-acre property that contains a fish farm out back. The Bests own Quality Fins, a tropical fish business. Deputies will only use the police speak of upper body trauma to say how they died.
We're going to keep it very general right now because we're still very early in the investigation.
Deputies are trying to figure out who last saw the couple alive and when. For all the questions, they say they don't believe the general public is in danger. Generally a sign they have at least a theory of what happened. After arriving at the scene, detectives quickly determined that Virgil and Shirley Best had been shot to death. Virgil had been shot once in the head.
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Chapter 4: What did the family reveal about Virgil and Shirley's relationships?
My brother, he's involved in a lot of things, and he's a white-collar crime guy. He, you know, he's been in prison.
He walked into a Cadillac dealership and I was telling a detective about this.
He portrayed that his dad was a doctor and he's got money. And he had a friend of him portray my dad as being that doctor. And he ended up writing a check for $35,000 and driving out with a brand new Cadillac. Robert had spent years in prison for his various schemes. But his biggest con didn't happen on the outside. It happened while he was already behind bars.
his big thing was while he was in jail for something, he had apparently conned a blind woman that lived out of state to send him, you know, all this money. It was like a million dollars or something. I don't know. And when he got out of jail that time, he, he come to the house full, fully suited and bought trucks and had a girlfriend already.
And he bought my parents a car and he was spending all this money. This was, This was probably 20, 19, 20 years ago, because I have a 21-year-old, and he was like two when all of this happened.
Okay. While incarcerated, Robert managed to con a blind woman he had never met out of more than $1 million. After his release, he went on a spending spree, including buying expensive gifts for his parents. Within months, federal authorities came a-knockin'. seizing the assets. And Robert was sent back to prison.
He went out buying all this stuff, bought her kids all kinds of toys and stuff, went and bought mom and dad a Lincoln, brand new Lincoln town car.
And like literally within a month or a couple of weeks on what it was, the feds came in and took it and he was hauled off back to prison. They got him with wire fraud.
So he spent like 11 or 12 years, 10 or 11 years in federal prison. But like I said, you know, He had spent his whole from 18 years old all the way up until then, in and out, in and out, in and out of jail.
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Chapter 5: What was the timeline of events leading up to the murders?
Robert was arrested for failing to appear in court, even though he had been with police all morning. Naturally, an elusive judge was blamed for that very shady decision. So we can't control what the judge... I couldn't.
I wasn't allowed to go. No, I agree. But once the judge... They put the warrant in the system. Only way we can clear it, you'll have to go and the judge can take it off.
Well, I told them, you guys are the quickest way to get that done. And if you know it's not my fault, if you call up there, you can get in to talk to the judge. This arrest put an immediate end to Robert's cooperation. Once he was told he was being taken into custody, his demeanor changed, and he refused to answer any more questions.
I'm not cooperating anymore with you guys. Well, Polk County did this, not us. Well, it's still. You guys were supposed to make sure that that didn't happen. And I was assured that it was going to because I told them I wanted to go. I know that they know. I know that Polk County knew that you've been with us. Well, it is now. I'm not giving permission to search. Nothing.
I don't want none of my stuff. Nothing.
Okay. No, this is bullshit, man. Of all times, you're going to fucking do this shit. Robert was arrested, buying detectives time to determine whether he was responsible for his parents' murder. And they didn't have to wait very long. Less than 24 hours later, they had their answer.
I asked you if there was more that you needed to tell me, and you told me that you had gone to the house last night and you had some prayer time. Yes. Okay.
Talk to me about that.
I had called earlier on my way back just to see if I could stop by. I had a little prayer session. I did. We talked for a good 20, 30 minutes. And then I blanked out. Honestly. In a surprising twist, Robert's wife Marisol requested another interview with detectives. During that conversation, she admitted to going to Virgil and Shirley's house on the night they were killed to pray with them.
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Chapter 6: How did Robert Best discover his parents' bodies?
happened or triggered you to black out?
They were not happy with him and they haven't been since his mess up with the federal case years ago. They've never forgiven him for it.
And the one time that he needed them to be with him, they weren't. None of his family was supportive.
Of course, detectives weren't satisfied about Marisol's claim that she blacked out because clearly it's bullshit. And they pressed her for more details about what happened to Robert's parents. I don't know. I'm just hearing all that negativity and knowing that all he needed right now was family to be with him and support him. Because we're going to trial the next day and he had nobody except me.
What did they say exactly? Do you remember?
They were just disappointed in him. They said that he has no excuse. You know, he's been dealing with this long enough. He should know better. And to have family just deny you loyalty is just heartbreaking, especially a family like that that is always so caring and loving. Marisol claimed that instead of the encouraging prayer session she expected, Virgil and Shirley only criticized Robert.
According to her, the conversation was harsh and escalated into insults. Then something inside of her snapped.
What happened inside the house? Did you guys start yelling and screaming at each other?
No.
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Chapter 7: What were the police findings at the crime scene?
About a week before Robert's release, detectives met with him one final time, this time to discuss his wife's upcoming murder trial. One of the first questions they asked was how Marisol had behaved on the night of the killings before Robert knew his parents were dead.
Once she arrived back home, what was her demeanor? What was she like?
I don't know. It's just in hindsight, you know, but I mean, at the time I'm thinking she was really nervous about the next day, about going to trial. She seemed very distressed.
Did Marisol at any point tell you or allude to you at all what she had done?
That's one of the things that hurt, is that if she did this, that she knew what I was going to find and let me walk into that, you know, with no warning whatsoever. Robert maintained that Marisol never told him what she had done. Whether that's true is something we'll probably never know for certain. If you want my opinion... Who knows? Really? What do you think?
What is your plan? Staying here. I'm going to stay here. We're supposed to get a place with my in-laws so I can be with the kids and stuff like that.
Okay. What's your plan with her?
We've got kids.
Do you plan on divorcing her at some point? The purpose of the recording, is that a yes? Yes. Okay. All right.
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