Have you ever ever heard the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished?” This occurred, however instances ten worse than it wanted to be, to the loving and saintly couple Bud and Melanie Billings, after a gaggle of armed males broke into their dwelling and murdered them each execution type. It’s one of many worst true crime tales Florida has ever seen, so why did they do it?
It’s a savage crime that left investigators scratching their heads, and most of the people shocked by the brutality of all of it. Like many crimes, issues went sideways and the assailants didn’t even get what they have been on the lookout for in the long run.
Even worse, greater than ten of the couple’s disabled foster kids have been in the home when the break-in occurred. Certainly one of them witnessed their father get shot. A complete of 5 males broke into the home, with one ready outdoors to drive everybody away. When it was throughout, Bud and Melanie lay useless, and finally all of the perpetrators concerned have been captured and given prolonged jail sentences.
Nobody got here out forward, and a bunch of particular wants kids misplaced their rich, loving mother and father. Let’s get to know them somewhat extra.
Who have been Bud and Melanie Billings?
Byrd “Bud” Billings was 66 years previous when he handed and his spouse, Melinda, was 43. He was an entrepreneur who even owned a strip membership earlier than settling in as a used automotive seller, a job that made him very rich.
He divorced his second spouse and married Melinda simply simply 4 months later. They lived in a really good $700,000 dwelling in Pensacola, Florida. Melanie beloved nation music and feeding the homeless. She had an excellent coronary heart and that rubbed off on Bud, who had extra of a checkered previous.
They met at Bud’s strip membership when he employed Melanie as a waitress. They acquired married in 1993, and each expressed a need to have quite a lot of kids. The couple each had two youngsters from earlier marriages. At one level, 13 kids lived of their dwelling, however across the time of the homicide, they lived with 9 kids, aged from 4 to 11, with numerous developmental points and particular wants.
One household buddy stated they have been a “modern-life Brady Bunch.”
What occurred on the night time Bud and Melanie Billings have been murdered?
Melanie’s grownup youngster, Ashley Markham, made a name on July 9, 2009 to inspect her mother and her adopted siblings. It was round 7:30 p.m. and one of many kids, Jacob, who was 10 on the time and had Down Syndrome, answered the cellphone.
He was in shock. He handed the cellphone to his autistic sister Ashley, and she or he relayed that her mother and father have been merely laying on the ground. A distraught Ashley known as a neighbor to go examine on them, and sped over to the home. The neighbor found the our bodies and known as police. When Ashley acquired there, it was an energetic crime scene, with cops in all places. Nobody knew precisely what had occurred.
Lower than an hour earlier, Bud and Melanie have been nonetheless alive. At round 7 p.m., a purple van pulled up to the home and 7 males dressed like ninjas rushed into the house from the back and front doorways. They’d been planning this heist for a month, and have been informed they have been stealing from a drug seller who stored thousands and thousands in the home.
It was supposed to come back off with navy precision. It didn’t. The Billings had 16 cameras round the home, not for safety, however to control the youngsters in case one thing went fallacious. These cameras would show to be pivotal within the eventual identification of the robbers.
Bud was simply in his front room watching TV when the assailants broke in. A surveillance digital camera caught that second too. They broke the again door and the entrance door on the identical time, rushed in, and zip-tied Bud.
The assailants carried rifles, and have been wearing all black garments.
For some cause, Bud was shot in each legs, then dragged into the main bedroom – the one room in the home with out cameras. One of many youngsters, aged round 6 or 7, stood and watched as the person shot his dad within the legs after which dragged him off.
The entire thing took about ten minutes. They have been solely in the home for 4 minutes, and in that point, each Melanie and Bud have been murdered execution type.
9 kids have been dwelling when the burglars broke in. Whereas none of them have been bodily harmed, the three that witnessed the break-in have had to deal with that psychological trauma their entire lives.
So did the robbers make it out with thousands and thousands? Effectively, they have been on the hunt for a protected that supposedly contained unimaginable quantities of money. There have been really two safes in the home. One protected contained $160,000 in money with some vintage jewellery besides. Did they discover that one? The eight particular person crew (a driver and a girl who helped plan the heist included) would’ve netted about $15k every.
Not likely sufficient to justify what they ended up doing, however undoubtedly higher than nothing. Solely they by no means discovered that protected. They discovered a distinct protected, this one full of kids’s adoption paperwork, and a few sentimental worth.
Think about planning a heist for months, botching it by killing two folks, after which getting away with no cash. That needed to sting.
How did the Bud and Melanie Billings killers get caught?
The primary factor investigators needed to go on was the van. The lads, although they didn’t get away with any cash, have been in gloves and pretty cognizant of leaving clues. There was additionally a black boot mark on the door from when it was kicked in, however the van confirmed essentially the most promise.
It confirmed up fairly clearly within the surveillance footage. The Escambia sheriff’s workplace talked to native information and despatched out an alert for folks to be looking out for a purple van matching that description. Then they acquired a tip that somebody noticed behind a shed on somebody’s property.
The decision got here in on July 11, two days after the murders. It was on the dwelling of a person named Leonard Gonzalez, who initially stated the van didn’t work. Investigators additionally discovered a shoe field for black fight boots just like the boot mark they discovered.
When investigators informed Leonard he was going through the loss of life penalty, he spilled the beans. He informed investigators concerning the six different males concerned, together with his son Patrick. He stated it was all about money and by no means about homicide, however issues went sideways.
Patrick denied every little thing however investigators discovered Walmart footage of Patrick shopping for black garments and boots. That led them to extra names: Wayne Coldiron, Donnie , and Gary Summer season. Then Patrick broke. All left now have been two extra suspects: Rakeem Florence and Frederick Thornton.
These two rapidly turned on Patrick, saying he was the ringleader and set off man, and that they have been every provided about $3,000 to assist. There was only one extra piece: The place have been the weapons, and the protected?
Seems they wanted to speak to a realtor named Pamela Lengthy Wiggins, who would rent Patrick as kind of an enforcer when she wanted hire collected. She was captured on her yacht, purportedly making an attempt to flee to Mexico.
Wiggins was the final arrest. She admitted to disposing of the weapons, and the protected was discovered on her Florida property, after she agreed to a plea deal. In actual fact, everybody agreed to plea offers besides Patrick, who would go to trial, lose, and be sentenced to loss of life. Leonard and Wiggins each died in jail. Patrick remains to be on loss of life row.
