Even the Devil Went to Church

Speaker 1 the Creator of Homeland, Claire Danes and Matthew Rees star in the new Netflix series The Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

Speaker 3 The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat-and-mouse story about guilt and justice and doubt, now playing only on Netflix.

Speaker 6 Grand Canyon University is one of the largest universities in the country.

Speaker 6 Praised for its community and impact, GCU integrates a welcoming Christian worldview and open discourse into over 300 online programs.

Speaker 6 Redefine your online education through GCU's industry-driven, academically rigorous programs. In 2024, online students received over $161 million in institutional scholarships.

Speaker 7 Find your purpose. Private, Christian, affordable.

Speaker 6 Discover available scholarships at gcu.edu slash myoffer.

Speaker 8 I'm Andrea Canning, and this is one of the strangest stories I've reported on.

Speaker 8 I couldn't believe some of the things I heard surrounding the forbidden romance at the center of this case: sexual relations on a parking deck, a suspicious trip for orange juice at the Piggly Wiggly, and even cold French fries that, believe it or not, became a critical clue in a murder investigation.

Speaker 8 It was a what will they say to me next kind of episode, and the title of the state line, it says it all. Here's even the devil went to church.

Speaker 8 Out here in rural Sweet Home, Alabama, where churches outnumber streetlights, faith is a way of life.

Speaker 9 I grew up in the church. Everyone that I knew went to church.

Speaker 8 Sunday sermons, Wednesday services, church picnics.

Speaker 9 Faith is a huge part and always has been a huge part of Southern life.

Speaker 8 It's how the people of Morris, a small town outside of Birmingham, come together to celebrate life and the word.

Speaker 9 The values are integrated into

Speaker 9 every bit of southern society.

Speaker 8 So when salacious rumors involving a church started swirling, the God-fearing folks who live here hoped the whispers weren't true. But they had to wonder.

Speaker 10 Even the devil went to church.

Speaker 8 And on a cold February night in 2015, the truth began to emerge.

Speaker 11 Police Department, Hey,

Speaker 13 I just got home and walked in the front door and I don't know if the house has been broken into or what the table's been knocked over.

Speaker 13 Okay, let's back up just a little bit.

Speaker 8 Okay, who are you?

Speaker 13 Cindy Henderson Reef. Cindy Reef?

Speaker 15 Uh-huh.

Speaker 8 She said she couldn't find her husband who was supposed to be home. Police arrived quickly, very quickly.
The station was right across the street. Small town, remember?

Speaker 8 Officers entered the home and then made a call of their own.

Speaker 4 We've been called for assistance by Morris Police Department.

Speaker 8 Sergeant Detective Brian Street was on call that night for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. You arrive on the scene.
What do you see?

Speaker 4 Morris had the

Speaker 4 whole scene taped off with crime scene tape.

Speaker 4 I walk in the front door and there's a table turned over inside right inside the door and I could see the victim lying in the back door area through the hallway.

Speaker 2 A victim?

Speaker 8 Yes, a man shot to death. It was clear to the detective he had a murder on his hands.
Are there many murders like this in Morris?

Speaker 4 No, it's very rare. Morris is a small town.

Speaker 8 This must have been a big deal.

Speaker 4 For Morris, yes, it was.

Speaker 8 So who are you told is the victim?

Speaker 4 Michael Reese.

Speaker 8 Michael Reese, just 40 years old, had been killed in his own home. The only potential witness was his wife, Cindy Reese, who had called 911.

Speaker 8 She was outside being cared for by police officers while Detective Street took in the crime scene.

Speaker 4 I needed to see what the scene looked like and wanted to see where the body was, what the position was, anything that I could tell right away.

Speaker 8 Where was the body?

Speaker 4 There was a new construction area that was being built onto the existing house. His feet were right at the back door and he was leaned forward into the unfinished room.

Speaker 8 Michael had been shot once in the back of the head. Does that say anything to you when someone is shot from behind like that in the head?

Speaker 4 Well, it gives us an indication that somebody did this to him, not that it was self-inflicted.

Speaker 8 Was the house telling you anything?

Speaker 4 When we walked in the house, it was consistent with what Cindy had reported on the 911 call. There were things turned over.

Speaker 8 Did it look like a burglary?

Speaker 4 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 8 Whatever happened, it was soon after Michael got home. Investigators noted that his dinner, a burger and fries from a popular fast food joint, sat untouched on a table.

Speaker 8 Detective Street had to wonder if Michael had surprised a burglar and paid for it with his life, or did someone have it out for him? What are you being told about Michael Reese?

Speaker 4 Nothing at this point in time. The Marsh police officers, they knew him from living across the street, but not on a personal basis.

Speaker 8 Michael's friends and family would fill in those gaps for the detective and in the process lay bare secrets that would rock this small religious community.

Speaker 8 Could one of those secrets lead to Michael's killer?

Speaker 8 Coming up, it seems like Michael was loved by everyone.

Speaker 16 He was a huge part of so many people's lives.

Speaker 9 He was just a console.

Speaker 8 But investigators wondered if his wife knew something different. Was this about figuring out if there was anyone that they had issues with, that kind of thing?

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 The investigation into Michael Reese's murder was just hours old. But news of his death was already spreading.

Speaker 16 I couldn't even really fathom what was going on.

Speaker 8 Josh Freeman Freeman was one of Michael Rees' best friends.

Speaker 16 He was like an uncle to my kids. You know, he was a huge part of so many people's lives.
You know, such a rock to so many people.

Speaker 16 And then he was just gone. I mean, nobody had a chance to say goodbye.
You know, I talked to him

Speaker 16 three days before he died. You never think that that was going to be the

Speaker 16 last time that you talked to him.

Speaker 8 Josh had known Michael since the seventh grade. He says his friend was Smart, a computer whiz who worked in IT at a hospital in Birmingham.

Speaker 16 He was that art computer nerd, as we called him.

Speaker 8 More than that, says Josh. Michael was funny and kind and was always there if you needed him.

Speaker 16 Think about the fact that he's not going to be there anymore. You don't even know how to work that out.

Speaker 8 Delaine Mullins, a cousin to Michael's wife Cindy, was also reeling from the news.

Speaker 9 It was devastating. He was just a kind soul.

Speaker 8 Delane's heart broke for Cindy. Her husband was gone, and it was a tragedy Cindy had experienced before.
She lost her first husband to suicide eight years earlier.

Speaker 9 She just sort of withdrew within herself more than anything. I think that she just didn't have any motivation or maybe any hope that life was going to get any better anytime soon.

Speaker 8 But all that changed in the spring of 2008. Delane and a mutual friend of Michaels thought he might be a good match match for Cindy.
His first marriage had ended in divorce, leaving him shattered.

Speaker 9 My best friend said, hey, you know,

Speaker 9 he's a good Christian guy. He's very involved in the church, very family-oriented.

Speaker 8 The two started dating, much to the delight of their family and friends.

Speaker 18 Were you happy for him?

Speaker 16 Oh, absolutely. Yeah, if anybody deserved to be happy, it was Michael.

Speaker 8 These were two people who were now coming together for a fresh start.

Speaker 16 Yes, absolutely. They both had their bad times in their lives, so we thought that this was good.

Speaker 8 The couple married a little over a year later with the blessing of Cindy's younger brother, Chris Henderson. How did you feel when Cindy told you she was going to marry Michael?

Speaker 17 He was a great guy who wouldn't want to have him as a brother-in-law. Everything I knew about him, every interaction I'd had with him had been great.
So

Speaker 19 yeah, that was exciting.

Speaker 8 Did Cindy seem happy again later after everything she'd been through?

Speaker 9 Oh, absolutely. My husband even said that he had not seen her that happy in many, many, many years.

Speaker 8 Like many couples in this Bible Belt community, faith was the cornerstone of their relationship.

Speaker 8 Soon after they married, Cindy asked Michael to join her church, Sardis Baptist, where she served as music director. He didn't hesitate.

Speaker 17 He decided to get baptized in the Baptist church, even though he'd grown up Methodist.

Speaker 9 I felt like that that was probably going to allow he and Cindy to grow even closer, both in their marriage and as Christians.

Speaker 8 But five years later, the love story between Michael and Cindy had ended in sudden and shocking violence. It was Detective Street who told Cindy the awful news of her husband's death.

Speaker 8 Now he needed her help solving Michael's murder.

Speaker 11 I record all of my energies, okay, Cindy?

Speaker 8 Detective Street and a colleague spoke with her just five hours after the murder. Was this about figuring out if there was anyone, you know, that they had issues with, that kind of thing?

Speaker 4 Absolutely. We went over

Speaker 4 what they did

Speaker 4 that day.

Speaker 8 Cindy told the detective the day had started like any other. Michael dropped her off at the courthouse where she worked as an accountant for the county before heading to his I.T.
job.

Speaker 8 After work, he swung by to pick her up at five.

Speaker 11 Where did y'all go?

Speaker 11 When Michael picked me up.

Speaker 11 We went by my mom's house

Speaker 11 because today was trash day.

Speaker 8 Cindy said after helping her mother she and Michael went to church from six to seven.

Speaker 11 Where'd y'all go after that?

Speaker 11 We stopped at Milo's

Speaker 11 to get something to eat.

Speaker 8 Milo's is an Alabama fast food chain known for its seasoned french fries.

Speaker 8 As soon as the couple got home with their food, Cindy said she realized they needed a few things from the grocery store.

Speaker 4 She went inside and set the food down and hollered at Michael saying, I'm going to run to Piggly Wiggly and get some items.

Speaker 8 And when she returned.

Speaker 11 I just saw the mass and grabbed the landline,

Speaker 1 the cordless phone. Right.

Speaker 11 Did you holler for Michael? I did holler for Michael.

Speaker 8 The detectives asked Cindy if she had any idea who could have done this.

Speaker 11 I really don't know.

Speaker 11 Honestly. Did he have any enemies? Don't know.
I really don't know.

Speaker 8 There had been a contractor at the house, Cindy said, building the extension. She doubted it was him, but it was a potential lead for detectives to run down.

Speaker 8 And there was someone else Detective Street needed to ask Cindy about. He'd heard rumors, gossip.
People had seen things, things that might reveal the motive for Michael's murder.

Speaker 11 He was a pastor at Sardis Baptist.

Speaker 1 Coming up.

Speaker 8 It was the kind of gossip that spreads fast, especially in a small town.

Speaker 4 We had some complaints that people were having sex in the parking deck.

Speaker 2 Most holiday gifts end up in a drawer or the back of your closet or accidentally left at your cousin's house. Not this one.
Mint Mobile is offering unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 2 That's their best deal of the year, aka a holiday gift you'll actually use every single day. Don't get them socks.
Get them premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 2 Shop Mint Unlimited plans at mintmobile.com slash dateline. That's mintmobile.com slash dateline.
Limited time offer. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for 6 months, or $180 for 12 months.

Speaker 2 Plan required. $15 per month equivalent.

Speaker 20 Taxes and fees extra.

Speaker 2 Initial plan term only.

Speaker 2 Greater than 35 gigabytes may slow when the network is busy. Capable device required.
Availability, speed, and coverage vary. See Mintmobile.com.

Speaker 20 If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right, Granger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible.

Speaker 20 So when a conveyor motor falters, Grainger offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem.

Speaker 20 With Granger, you can be confident you have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.

Speaker 12 Granger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 21 A massage chair might seem a bit extravagant, especially these days. Eight different settings, adjustable intensity, plus it's heated, and it just feels so good.

Speaker 21 Yes, a massage chair might seem a bit extravagant, but when it can come with a car,

Speaker 21 suddenly it seems quite practical. The Volkswagen Tiguan, packed with premium features like available massaging front seats, it only feels extravagant.

Speaker 8 The murder of 40-year-old Michael Reese had investigators scratching their heads. Homicides didn't happen in Morris, Alabama, especially not across the street from the police station.

Speaker 11 I remember helping him get the milos in.

Speaker 8 Detectives spoke to Cindy Reese for hours, taking her step by step through the night of the murder.

Speaker 11 When I saw the table and the stuff in the floor, I didn't walk past that.

Speaker 8 But there was something on Detective Street's mind,

Speaker 8 something delicate that he needed to talk to Cindy about. It had to do with her and a man who wasn't her husband.

Speaker 4 We had some complaints that people were having sex in the parking deck.

Speaker 8 The county employee parking deck. The detective was told it was Cindy being intimate with with a man in a pest control truck of all things.

Speaker 8 It was a lead the detective immediately shared with his partner, Sergeant Ellen Shire.

Speaker 15 Sergeant Street actually called me at home the night the homicide occurred and woke me up and said, you're never going to guess whose homicide I'm working.

Speaker 15 Michael Reese and then told me that Cindy is the one that was in the parking deck.

Speaker 8 The investigators soon learned the rumor had made the rounds in Morris. Cindy's cousin Delane Mullins had heard about it from Cindy herself.

Speaker 9 She told me that none of it was true and I believed her.

Speaker 8 I mean, this is the woman who's in charge of the choir at church, who spends many days a week going to church.

Speaker 9 Yes, and always had.

Speaker 9 Everything about her life up to that point

Speaker 9 was completely pure.

Speaker 8 And what was even more outrageous, Delane thought, was who Cindy was accused of being in the truck with. It was the pastor of Cindy's church, the pastor who baptized Michael.
His name was Jeff Brown.

Speaker 9 The elders of the church said that they had seen them in the car together and they were accusing them of an affair. And I said, well, ergonomically, that's not even possible.

Speaker 8 Like the two of them couldn't fit in the car to have a sexual act because of their size?

Speaker 9 Yes, it just Yes, it didn't even make sense.

Speaker 8 At the time, Jeff had gotten a job at a pest control company. His truck had a small two-seater cab.
Cindy and her cousin agreed the rumor was laughable.

Speaker 8 Did you ask her how Michael was handling the rumors?

Speaker 9 I did. And, you know, she acted like that he didn't believe them either, that they were working through things.

Speaker 8 But soon, Delane started to hear things that made her wonder if Cindy's relationship with Pastor Jeff had crossed the line. Does something start to feel a little off?

Speaker 9 Well, Cindy started telling me that she had started working out. She said, I'm walking with Jeff.

Speaker 9 And that's when I started thinking this really, really doesn't feel right.

Speaker 8 Yeah, these two are just feel closer than Pastor and Prishner.

Speaker 11 Right.

Speaker 8 Now, Cindy's husband was dead, shot in the back of the head. And Sergeant Street was looking for answers.
Using a gentle touch, he asked Cindy about the most intimate details of her private life.

Speaker 11 I'm so sorry that we have to talk about again such intimate things and to a stranger.

Speaker 8 Cindy quickly admitted she and Michael had been having marital problems.

Speaker 11 He just didn't want anything to do with me. We just...

Speaker 11 We stopped having sex and making love to each other.

Speaker 11 He started playing on the computer more. It was like,

Speaker 11 you know,

Speaker 11 he doesn't love me anymore.

Speaker 11 He started saying a lot. You know, it was time for me to leave.

Speaker 8 She revealed she turned to Pastor Jeff for solace.

Speaker 11 And I just finally asked him if we could talk.

Speaker 11 And the more I opened up, the more he was seeing.

Speaker 11 With him helping you through what you were going with at home,

Speaker 11 do you think that that's how y'all became closer?

Speaker 11 Probably.

Speaker 8 She said their relationship started off innocently enough, but.

Speaker 11 The more we talked,

Speaker 11 the more we just kind of fell in love with each other.

Speaker 11 So you did fall in love with Jill?

Speaker 11 And he, he, you?

Speaker 11 Yeah.

Speaker 8 Still, she was adamant the rumors about them having sex in the parking deck weren't true. But she said the elders in her church couldn't be convinced otherwise.

Speaker 11 The more

Speaker 11 we tried to fight it, the worse it got. So I just resigned.

Speaker 8 She left the church and her position as music director. The detective knew there had to be be more to this story.

Speaker 11 When did

Speaker 11 y'all's relationship actually

Speaker 11 progress to the point of

Speaker 11 physical

Speaker 11 or whatever else?

Speaker 11 It was around the time I resigned. Okay.

Speaker 11 Starting to have an affair.

Speaker 8 And there it was. What are you thinking when she tells you this? Pretty Pretty scandalous.

Speaker 4 Absolutely. An affair in a Southern Baptist church

Speaker 4 is bad enough. And then it's coming in in the middle of a homicide makes a suspect.

Speaker 8 And that led the detective to his next question.

Speaker 11 Did you shoot Michael?

Speaker 11 I could do it.

Speaker 11 I would not be able to do that. I can't even shoot an animal when it's done

Speaker 8 she admitted she was an adulterer not a murderer she told the detective there was no reason to kill her husband michael already knew about everything i had a lot of guilt and

Speaker 11 i

Speaker 11 i told michael

Speaker 11 i had an affair so you did tell him about

Speaker 11 yeah

Speaker 8 She said they were trying to make their marriage work and had even gone back to Disney World for a second honeymoon.

Speaker 11 We just went back for our fifth anniversary.

Speaker 11 Our fifth anniversary. I ain't even got the picture yet to put in my frame.

Speaker 8 Of the three people in this love triangle, Michael was dead. Cindy claimed she was innocent.
That left Pastor Jeff. What would he say? Investigators were about to find out.

Speaker 11 I'm going to come out and ask you: did you shoot Michael in the head?

Speaker 8 Coming up, Jeff Brown seemed as shocked as anyone by the death of his rival.

Speaker 11 Jeff, how do you you feel about Michael being dead?

Speaker 11 I don't have words.

Speaker 8 I just don't have them. And this is what mattered most.
He claimed to have an alibi. He wasn't around when this murder took place.

Speaker 4 That's what he said.

Speaker 8 Less than an hour after police finished interviewing Cindy Reese about the murder of her husband.

Speaker 11 I'm all in this interview.

Speaker 8 They brought in Jeff Brown, the man who'd been Cindy's pastor and her not-so-secret lover.

Speaker 11 Jeff, how do you feel about Michael being dead?

Speaker 11 I don't have words.

Speaker 11 I just don't have them.

Speaker 8 But detectives had words. They considered Jeff a suspect and told him so.

Speaker 11 You preacher with two kids. You also have an affair with a married woman, right?

Speaker 22 That's you're absolutely right.

Speaker 22 Don't hate the sin, hate the dummy. Don't hate the sinner, hate the sin.

Speaker 11 This guy turned up bed, shot in the back of the head. And the only two people that have motives are you and his wife.
Sound like a lifetime movie, though.

Speaker 22 Sounds like a horror movie.

Speaker 8 As you're watching him, he seems sort of nonchalant as you bring up the affair.

Speaker 4 He was very defensive about the affair. He was grabbing the arms of the chair so tightly that his knuckles were white, trying not to give away any indicators of deception.

Speaker 11 Are you in love with Cindy? I am.

Speaker 11 Still?

Speaker 22 Absolutely.

Speaker 11 Do you see yourself with Cindy?

Speaker 22 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 At this point, Jeff had been fired from his job as pastor because of the affair, and he said he and his wife were getting divorced.

Speaker 11 Did it bother you at all that you were actually following through with your divorce and Cindy was not?

Speaker 22 It concerned me.

Speaker 8 He also admitted it more than concerned him that Cindy and Michael were still sleeping together.

Speaker 22 I'm not going to lie to you, it sickened me

Speaker 22 touching her because she would describe some of it to me and it was just nasty.

Speaker 8 But he said it wasn't a motive for murder. Besides, he seemed to have a good alibi.
He said he was 50 miles away at the time Michael was killed.

Speaker 22 I was headed up Carson Road and I was trying to get to my buddy's house because I wanted to go out my storage unit.

Speaker 8 So Jeff had no problem answering Detective Street's next question.

Speaker 11 Did you shoot Michael in the head? No, I did not. Okay.
Do you know if Cindy shot Michael in the head?

Speaker 22 I do not have a clue.

Speaker 8 After more than an hour, detectives let him go.

Speaker 4 Even though I had suspicions,

Speaker 4 I did not have enough probable cause for arrest.

Speaker 8 But the investigation was just getting started. So many leads to follow, questions to answer, like who was Pastor Jeff Brown?

Speaker 8 Detectives learned this married father of two with one on the way had an eclectic past. Where had he come from? What kind of jobs had he done? I mean, he's driving a pest control truck.

Speaker 15 Yeah, he was in the military previously.

Speaker 14 He was a Marine.

Speaker 15 He was a Marine.

Speaker 8 He also worked as a police officer for two years for a moving company, and he was a hairdresser.

Speaker 15 So he's kind of a jack of all trades.

Speaker 15 and good at none, I guess.

Speaker 8 As you can imagine, in tiny Morris, Alabama, Alabama, Michael Reese's murder was the talk of the town. Everyone had an opinion.
Jerry Vincent, the town's building inspector, certainly did.

Speaker 8 He thought Jeff was obsessed with Cindy.

Speaker 10 I saw him in the park all the time, sitting on the bench looking at Cindy's house. Was he waiting for Mike to go to work or waiting for Cindy to come out? I mean,

Speaker 10 you know, what was he doing down there?

Speaker 8 There was even one story Cindy's cousin Delaney heard about Jeff literally getting between Michael and Cindy. It happened after they moved to a new church.
What happens to Pastor Jeff?

Speaker 9 He starts showing up at the church and there were even elders of the church that said when he would arrive, if Cindy and Michael were already seated, that sometimes he would even come and sit in between them.

Speaker 9 And yeah, that's, you know, that's what I had heard.

Speaker 8 The more police looked into Jeff, the more they found people who just didn't like him. What had you heard about Jeff Brown around town?

Speaker 10 Can you say man whore?

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 8 It is dateline. You know, we've heard worse.

Speaker 10 I heard it wasn't his only girlfriend. I mean, he was a cad.

Speaker 8 Cindy's uncle, Roy Henderson, agreed.

Speaker 24 The only opinion I had from the very beginning is this is a con man.

Speaker 24 He tries to worm himself into environments to make himself look better and to get what he wants.

Speaker 8 And what he wanted was Cindy. According to her mom, Judy, Michael knew all about it.

Speaker 23 He said, Jeff is trying to take my wife.

Speaker 8 What advice do you give to your son-in-law?

Speaker 23 Well, I said, Michael, are you sure?

Speaker 23 And he said, yes. And he said, I am afraid of Jeff.
And I said, you think Jeff might hurt you? And he said, yeah, I know he would if he got the opportunity.

Speaker 8 Her son-in-law may have been right. Detectives were surprised to learn that about a month before the murder, Jeff allegedly asked two of his coworkers at a moving company to kill Michael.

Speaker 4 He was offering up his car and some possible money after the deed was done.

Speaker 8 The men reported Jeff to a different police department, not the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. That's why the detective was only hearing about it now.
This is a nice gift to your investigation.

Speaker 4 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 Things weren't looking good for Pastor Jeff, but he did have that one thing working in his favor. He wasn't around when this murder took place.

Speaker 4 That's what he said.

Speaker 8 So detectives waited on his cell phone records, hoping to prove or disprove his alibi. Meantime, they turned their attention back to Cindy.
There was something they needed to clear up.

Speaker 8 One of the clues I know that really stuck out to you involved food.

Speaker 15 Correct. As bizarre as it sounds, yes.

Speaker 8 Coming up, was Jeff Brown a kept man?

Speaker 15 There was a file, and inside of it was the lease for the apartment that she had rented for him, the car note.

Speaker 8 She's paying for everything.

Speaker 15 She's paying for everything.

Speaker 5 Hey, everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson.

Speaker 5 It's called Where Everybody Knows Your Name and We're Back for Another Season.

Speaker 5 I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it.

Speaker 5 Listen to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrison sometimes, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 25 Hi, we're Emochi Health, your long-term weight loss solution. We'll connect you with a board-certified provider to discuss your unique goals.

Speaker 25 Eligible patients can access custom formulated GLP-1 medications at an affordable fixed price. Deliver to their door monthly.

Speaker 25 Take our free eligibility quiz at joinmochi.com and use code Audio40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership. That's joinmochi.com.
Results may vary.

Speaker 25 Eligible GLP-1 patients typically lose one to two pounds per week in their first six months with Mochi when combined with a healthy lifestyle.

Speaker 26 Think advertising on TikTok isn't for your business?

Speaker 27 Think again. With TikTok ads, we went from 250,000 downloads to over a million downloads in less than a year.

Speaker 28 I'm Eve. I'm Anam, and we're the co-founders of Valenia.
Valenia Advast is an investing app for Gen Z. We run 50 new ads per week with three variations thanks to TikTok's Smart Plus campaigns.

Speaker 28 If you're not advertising on TikTok, you're missing out.

Speaker 26 Drive more app downloads only on TikTok. Head over to getstarted.tiktok.com/slash TikTok ads.

Speaker 8 A week into the murder investigation of Michael Rees, detectives had questions for his wife Cindy. Things she told them weren't adding up.

Speaker 8 Beginning with that 911 call when she said she couldn't find her husband.

Speaker 11 Everybody's been kind of docked around in the house and I can't find my husband.

Speaker 4 What was strange to me is as soon as I walked in the house, I could see the victim lying in the back door, which was standing wide open.

Speaker 4 It would have been hard for her to be looking for her husband and not have seen him laying there.

Speaker 8 And her description of a possible burglary gone wrong? On closer inspection, the detectives weren't so sure. Was the burglary theory making some sense?

Speaker 15 Well, the first thing that I noticed was there was no forced entry into the residence.

Speaker 8 And as for the construction worker who had access to the house, he had a solid alibi.

Speaker 4 His alibi was that he was actually in church, and we were able to verify that.

Speaker 8 Police were becoming more suspicious of Cindy. They even wondered about the death of her first husband by suicide, a gunshot to the head.

Speaker 15 We did reopen that case and look at it, but we could not find anything to validate that she was responsible.

Speaker 8 But their list of clues in this case was growing, including a highly unusual one.

Speaker 15 Well, here in Alabama, there's Milo's hamburgers, and they have absolutely some of the best French fries. I'd have to say in the world.

Speaker 8 And everyone around here knows you have to eat those fries while they're hot.

Speaker 8 So police were puzzled when Cindy said on the night of her husband's murder, she dropped off the bag filled with burgers and fries and told Michael she was off to buy groceries at the Piggly Wiggly.

Speaker 11 Before or after you ate?

Speaker 11 We had to eat.

Speaker 8 That was the red flag moment for you that Cindy didn't stay and eat her fries.

Speaker 15 That's as bizarre as it sounds, yes.

Speaker 8 And not only that, Cindy said she raced off without eating because she needed orange juice and lunch meat for the next morning.

Speaker 15 There was actually ample lunch meat and orange juice inside the fridge and there was really no need to go to the store immediately.

Speaker 8 And what happened next also made detectives' ears perk up. She told them as she was headed to the grocery store, her phone rang.

Speaker 11 Jeff called and said that he left his wallet at home

Speaker 11 and he needed some gas.

Speaker 11 So I met him at the gas station.

Speaker 11 gave him $15.

Speaker 8 If Cindy was claiming she was trying to make her marriage work, detectives wondered why she was meeting up with her ex-lover to give him money.

Speaker 8 The wheels must be spinning now, as these stories aren't completely adding up.

Speaker 12 Right.

Speaker 8 With a warrant in hand, they searched Cindy's office.

Speaker 15 We walked in and the first thing that I saw was there was a picture of her and Michael Reese in an 8x10 frame. And then underneath it was an 8x10 frame of a picture of her and Jeff Brown.

Speaker 8 She's basically laying out the love triangle right there at her office.

Speaker 15 That's correct.

Speaker 8 And detectives found more.

Speaker 15 There was a file that was labeled Jeff Brown and inside of it was the lease for

Speaker 15 the apartment that she had rented for him, the car note.

Speaker 8 And she's paying for everything.

Speaker 15 She's paying for everything, that's correct.

Speaker 8 Throughout the investigation, detectives were keeping prosecutors Joe Hicks and Dane Stewart in the loop.

Speaker 8 It was becoming clear to everyone in law enforcement, two people, Cindy and Jeff, might be guilty of murder.

Speaker 29 I think there was an idea that they wanted to be together, and the way for them to be together was to eliminate Michael Reese.

Speaker 8 So prosecutors set out to build a case against the former pastor and his music director. Sometimes they said the work was disturbing.

Speaker 19 I don't know how many naked pictures I had to look at

Speaker 19 on a phone dump from Jeff's phone or Cindy's phone.

Speaker 8 Sexting between each other?

Speaker 19 Yes.

Speaker 8 Sexting that continued right up to the murder. But what was more important for the prosecutors was what the cell record showed the night Michael was shot.

Speaker 8 While Cindy sat with Michael in church, Jeff sent her a text that said, keep me posted.

Speaker 19 And that came in, I think, at 6.57. So right, right before church lets out.

Speaker 8 Prosecutors believed that text meant the two were plotting to kill Michael that night, and they had even more proof.

Speaker 29 And after they leave the church, she's immediately contacting him again.

Speaker 8 They assumed Cindy called Jeff and secretly left the line open so he could listen in to what was was happening between her and her husband.

Speaker 29 At some point is an open line of communication for around 30 minutes that stays open all the way through presumably to when Michael was killed.

Speaker 8 And they have evidence that showed when Cindy got home after going to the grocery store, she was still on the phone with Jeff, even when she used the house phone to call 911.

Speaker 19 What she didn't know is 911 calls start recording as soon as the ring starts. And you can actually hear her talking to Jeff.

Speaker 19 Cell phone's almost dead.

Speaker 19 And it's a very calm, my phone's about to die right before she's acting hysterical to 911.

Speaker 8 So while the phone is ringing to 911, it records.

Speaker 18 It's recording. Yes.

Speaker 8 I had no idea. While prosecutors were able to gather a wealth of information from the cell phone records, they could not tell who actually shot Michael.

Speaker 8 They could tell, however, that contrary to his alibi, Jeff was not 50 miles away.

Speaker 29 It's not specific enough to say that it was inside the Reese house, but it was specific enough to say within hundreds of feet.

Speaker 8 Since they had no evidence placing Jeff in the house, their best guess, Cindy was the shooter.

Speaker 29 Most likely, he was lying in wait, either around the corner or on a close but nearby street.

Speaker 8 Because their takeout dinner hadn't been touched, they believe the murder happened as soon as Michael and Cindy came home.

Speaker 8 Michael headed to the back of the house to let their dog in, and that's when they think Cindy shot him in the back of the head.

Speaker 8 And even though they couldn't prove who pulled the trigger, they weren't worried.

Speaker 14 Under Alabama law, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 19 If you are involved and take substantial steps in the process,

Speaker 19 you're in for the whole deal. It doesn't matter who pulled the trigger.

Speaker 8 It was now time to get these disgraced lovers behind bars. Detectives arrested them at the same time outside Cindy's office.
They'd just come back from lunch together.

Speaker 8 Did you hope at this point that one of them would turn on the other?

Speaker 4 We were counting on it.

Speaker 15 Absolutely.

Speaker 8 Coming up.

Speaker 19 There's no reason to think that he was going to plea at that point.

Speaker 8 It doesn't sound like anyone is going to squeal.

Speaker 10 She looked me in the eyes, dead in the eyes, and said, My lawyer says I got nothing to worry about. They can't prove a thing.

Speaker 8 Less than a month after the murder of Michael Reese, all eyes in Morris were on his wife, Cindy.

Speaker 10 What's that old saying?

Speaker 10 If the spouse is killed, talk to the one that's breathing.

Speaker 8 And the one she's sleeping with. Police had talked to Cindy and her lover, former pastor Jeff Brown, and both had now been charged with murder.

Speaker 8 And as he followed the case, Morris resident Jerry Vinson wondered if one would flip on the other. So when he bumped into Cindy, who was out on bail, I said, Cindy,

Speaker 10 first one to squeal gets the best deal. And I think you know who's squealing, she looked me in the eyes, dead in the eyes, and said, My lawyer says I got nothing to worry about.

Speaker 10 They can't prove a thing.

Speaker 8 Who do you feel like you're looking in the eyes?

Speaker 10 A cold-blooded killer.

Speaker 8 To prosecutors, the notion that Cindy or Jeff would squeal for the best deal had all but evaporated by August 2015 when Jeff's trial was set to start.

Speaker 19 There's no reason to think that he he was going to plea at that point.

Speaker 8 But just minutes before they started picking a jury, Jeff turned to his lawyer in court and told him he wanted to make a deal.

Speaker 8 I just feel like it's one of those TV moments where you're ready to go, you've been prepping for months, and then suddenly this thing is flipped on its head.

Speaker 29 There's some peace in knowing that he is going to take some responsibility for his part in this murder.

Speaker 8 Jeff Brown finally admitted he had a hand in Michael Reese's death. He pleaded guilty guilty to manslaughter and agreed to testify against Cindy.
Her murder trial started in November 2016.

Speaker 8 Michael's family and friends, like Josh Freeman, were there.

Speaker 16 We had a large group of people that were there that were just for Michael to make sure that, you know, that he got the justice that he deserved.

Speaker 8 But there were others in the courtroom, like Cindy's uncle Roy and her mother Judy, who held a very different view of what justice should look like.

Speaker 23 In my heart, my heart of hearts, hearts, I know that she couldn't have done it. She is not a murderer.

Speaker 8 You believed you knew who murdered Michael.

Speaker 24 Oh, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 8 Who was that?

Speaker 1 Jeff Brown.

Speaker 8 Prosecutors believed both were involved in Michael's death, but they were convinced Cindy was the mastermind. Her motive?

Speaker 19 Getting a divorce in this community is really looked down upon.

Speaker 19 And rather than her looking like someone who was having an affair and got a a divorce, she can be looked at as the victim if her husband gets killed.

Speaker 8 Right off the bat, prosecutors knew they needed to shatter the image of Cindy Reese, the God-fearing music director.

Speaker 29 This Christian lady, grieving widow image that she was working so hard to portray, it really made sense to show that she was not that person.

Speaker 8 To prove it, they laid out all the evidence that had been gathered against Cindy.

Speaker 8 The paperwork for the car and apartment found in her office, the cell phone data, those cold Milo's fries, and of course, her affair with their star witness, Jeff Brown, who told the jury an astonishing story.

Speaker 29 I think what Jeff did, as it relates to Cindy's trial, is it filled in a major piece of the puzzle.

Speaker 8 That major piece? How the murder actually went down.

Speaker 29 While he was on the phone with her, he heard a pop, and then after the murder at a local gas station, she told him, it's done. He's gone.

Speaker 8 Cindy shot Michael, Jeff claimed. He wasn't even there.
Jeff then testified that Cindy gave him the murder weapon at the gas station that night and told him to get rid of it.

Speaker 29 It pretty much was the final nail in her coffin, so to speak, as far as her trial went.

Speaker 8 Or was it?

Speaker 30 We hoped that the jury would see that he was a liar.

Speaker 8 Cindy's defense attorney, John Robbins, told the jury that Cindy couldn't have killed Michael. It was impossible.

Speaker 8 Michael was three inches taller than Cindy, yet the trajectory of the bullet indicates his killer loomed above him.

Speaker 4 The angle of the bullet is in a downward angle.

Speaker 30 Cindy is too short to create that angle.

Speaker 8 Not too short? Jeff Brown, said the defense.

Speaker 8 Robbins also reminded the jury that there was no physical evidence linking Cindy to the crime. No blood, no gunshot residue.
Not only that, he said, Jeff had the motive, not Cindy.

Speaker 8 Would you characterize Jeff and Cindy's relationship that Jeff was obsessed with Cindy? Or was it vice versa?

Speaker 30 I would think that Jeff was obsessed with Cindy because

Speaker 30 she was kind of his gravy train, so to speak.

Speaker 8 Do you think that gave Jeff Brown the perfect motive that he needed Michael out of the picture to continue that gravy train?

Speaker 30 That certainly, that certainly is a motive, isn't it?

Speaker 8 And in an effort to wrest control of Cindy's image from the state, the defense took a calculated risk and put her on the stand. She told the jury she didn't shoot her husband.

Speaker 8 And while she admitted her marriage to Michael was rocky, she said she didn't want him dead and was adamant she knew nothing of Jeff's plan to kill him. Why did you decide to have Cindy testify?

Speaker 30 I think she, you know, one, she wanted to. And two,

Speaker 30 is I think with Jeff getting on the witness stand,

Speaker 30 I think she had to.

Speaker 8 Which image of Cindy would the jury believe? The church going grieving widow or the church going cheating widow? It didn't take long to find out. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes.

Speaker 8 And the verdict?

Speaker 12 Guilty of murder.

Speaker 8 How were you feeling in that moment?

Speaker 16 It was great that she was found guilty, but she's still alive. You know, so she eventually will probably get out and live her life and stuff.
And Michael doesn't get that chance.

Speaker 8 On the other side of the courtroom, different emotions for Cindy's family.

Speaker 24 Heartbroken, destroyed.

Speaker 23 In a state of shock, really not believing what I had just heard.

Speaker 24 She was convicted for being an adulteress and sentenced as a murderer.

Speaker 8 But Cindy's cousin Delaine thinks the jury got it right.

Speaker 9 There was overwhelming evidence that Cindy was definitely involved.

Speaker 8 The why is something she continues continues to struggle with.

Speaker 9 Did she just get consumed by the moment and get caught up emotionally and it got out of hand? Or is she

Speaker 9 a monster and did she plan it?

Speaker 8 Important questions that are unlikely to be answered. As part of his plea deal, Jeff Brown received a 20-year prison sentence.
Cindy Reese got 40 years.

Speaker 8 As for Michael Reese, the unwedding victim of a love triangle he wanted no part of, that's left of him now are memories. Memories of a kind and gentle soul with a big laugh and an even bigger heart.

Speaker 8 How do you want people to remember Michael?

Speaker 16 He was just a funny guy. He enjoyed life so much.
He was just a good person. And anybody that ever knew him will tell you the same thing.

Speaker 2 This time of year, many are checking off their holiday gift gift lists. But identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them.
Protect your identity with LifeLock.

Speaker 2 LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back.

Speaker 2 Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com/slash dateline. Terms apply.