Relative Danger
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What disturbing statement did Melody Ferris make about her children?
This is horrible to have to put all the secrets out on the table. Melody Ferris was upset that her family's private lives were now public record. She was talking to detectives Daniel Hayes and Trent Kuykendall in Cherokee County, Georgia. And just so you know, I am sincerely sorry for you and your family's loss. I didn't know what to think. It was on the morning of July 6, 2018, the day after Gary Ferris' remains were found. Melody was at the local sheriff's office. Unlike her earlier conversations with the detectives, this one would go on for nearly eight hours as Melody spun stories of intrigue and suspicion. I had nothing, nothing to gain by him dying. I had everything to lose. Everything to lose.
Almost as soon as they started recording, Melody didn't hesitate to point fingers. The only thing I found odd was that he wanted to leave immediately. Melody was talking about her oldest son, Chris. He had left the farm not long after investigators arrived. Melody said she didn't trust him. And he left and came back. He came back after Emily got there. I forbid him from being in my house without me being there. The two had been feuding for at least a year. Melody would go on to share disparaging details about more of her children that day. And that's the worst part of it is, I raised them. Tensions were high. Midway through her marathon interview with detectives, Melody casually alluded to a parent's worst fear.
I'm sitting there thinking, what if I, you know, could one of my children have done it, which is the worst nightmare, is to think that one of them could have done it. That's my worst nightmare. I'm Peter Van Sant. From 48 Hours, this is Blood is Thicker, The Ferris Wheel. Episode 2, Relative Danger. Peter, we're pulling up now. This is the Ferris property here on the right. Right here? It is. That big house off in the distance there? Yes. This is beautiful. When I pulled up to the Ferris property with Detective Daniel Hayes, it was hard to believe it had been a crime scene just a few years earlier. We believe Gary was shot and killed based on the evidence, and we know he was burned. What we don't know is exactly when those two things occurred.
Based on a few drops of blood in the house, this is what Detective Hayes believed happened to Gary Ferris. First, he was shot in the kitchen. Wounded, Hayes said Gary then ran downstairs, where he was likely shot a second time. He believed Gary didn't try to fight with his attacker. He was trying to take the path of least resistance to get out of that house. which at the time was down the stairs and out those side doors that led to the backyard. Investigators found blood both upstairs and downstairs, and they discovered Gary's DNA on a bullet they found in the basement. Which told you what, then, about what may have happened in that room? That told me that that bullet went through some portion of Gary Farris' body.
And if he was shot in both that kitchen area and also in the basement, there would have been, I would think, an enormous amount of blood loss.
What evidence suggests financial disputes in the Ferris family?
That's part of the mystery to me. Is it to you? Yes. Again, we get a lot of our, a lot of people get their information from Hollywood, you know, watching the movies. And, of course, you want a lot of blood coming out. But on the same token, has the bullet been in the floor and not been lodged in something? Not every scene that you expect to be that way is that way. Gary was a large guy. We know at least one bullet didn't come out of him because we found it in his ribs. So investigators believed they knew where Gary was shot, but what about the when? Sorting out all the evidence was a daunting task for Detective Hayes. We don't have a lot of homicides and murders in Cherokee County. So this was my second one being named lead detective.
This is your case. Just your second murder investigation. Second one ever. And this is the first case I've been involved with with so much electronic forensic data. You know, the cell phones, the computers, cell phone tower dumps, all these, you know, big words that I've had to research to figure out even what they were and how to utilize this data that we got to our analyst.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What disturbing statement did Melody Ferris make about her children?
0:01–4:10
2
What evidence suggests financial disputes in the Ferris family?
4:10–7:25
3
How did Melody's suspicions about her children unfold during the investigation?
7:25–11:30
4
What were the key findings from the crime scene investigation?
11:30–16:08
5
What role did technology play in uncovering evidence in Gary's murder?
16:08–19:56
6
What motives did investigators explore regarding the Ferris family?
19:56–24:17
7
What were the implications of Scott Ferris's actions during the investigation?
24:17–25:28