Sunday School Ambush

When did making plans get this complicated?

It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together.

Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th, and never miss a meme or milestone.

All protected with end-to-end encryption.

It's time for WhatsApp.

Message privately with everyone.

Learn more at whatsapp.com.

Anyone can follow.

It takes something special to be an original.

Which is why the 2025 Lincoln Navigator SUV arrives with new ways of surrounding you in luxury, including the ultra-wide 48-inch panoramic display and the multi-sensory Lincoln Rejuvenate experience.

A true original never stops evolving.

So meet the 2025 Navigator, the original that's all new and better than ever.

Learn more at lincoln.com.

Lincoln and Navigator at Trademarks of Ford or its affiliates.

There was a shooting in an upscale neighborhood in Oklahoma City.

Ballistics identified the use of two different guns, which meant at least two shooters.

These small marks on a shotgun shell, some singed fibers, and a crime reconstruction revealed a plot more twisted than anyone could have imagined.

To outsiders, it looked as if Rob Andrew had everything anyone could want.

He had a high-paying job with an advertising agency, lots of friends, and a growing family whom he described as his source of strength.

Rob Andrew was salt of the earth.

I mean, this is a Christian man, attended church all the time, a loving father, just a great guy, very successful businessman as well.

Two days before Thanksgiving, Rob Andrew left work to pick up his children.

They planned to spend the holiday weekend with his parents.

On the way, Rob called his best friend.

Rob had called my house around 5.30, telling me how hurried he'd been all day and that he was looking forward to picking the kids up and spending a long weekend with them for Thanksgiving.

Rob didn't plan to stay long, so he parked his car in the driveway.

I heard the the overhead garage door start up, and then Rob paused and said, Hey, I'm gonna have to let you go.

As he walked into the garage, his wife Brenda asked him to relight the furnace because it had gone out earlier in the day.

Then there was a commotion.

Brenda said two masked men with guns appeared out of nowhere.

And then they fled.

I've been shot.

My husband's been shot.

Okay,

you and your husband have both been shot?

Yes, yes.

Who shot you?

I don't know.

She doesn't.

I don't know.

They had on black masks.

I don't know.

43-year-old Robert Andrew was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr.

Andrew was shot two times, once to the right side of the body, once to the left side of the body.

And they actually occurred from two different locations.

So that also tells us that two shooters, it's a possibility.

Brenda Andrews suffered a gunshot wound and was rushed to the hospital.

Her wound is in a fatty portion of her left upper arm.

The bullet that hit Brenda went through her arm and lodged in the wall of the garage.

It was from a.22 caliber pistol.

Police found a spent 16 gauge shotgun shell on the roof of Brenda's van, an indication there were two different weapons used in the attack.

The empty cans on the garage floor indicated Rob saw the gunman and grabbed the bag of empty cans as a shield.

As the second gunshot wound is about to be inflicted on him, he is looking up and looking at the face of his killer.

The motive apparently wasn't robbery.

His wallet was not taken.

In fact, some of the pellets from the shotgun went through his wallet.

The Andrews' two children were upstairs in their rooms unharmed.

The attack had all the earmarks of an execution.

Yet, no one could think of a reason why Robert Andrew would be targeted for murder.

With no motive, no leads, and no description of the killers, investigators hoped the autopsy would provide the clues they needed.

News of Rob Andrews' execution-style murder was a shock to the residents of Oklahoma City since crimes like this were extremely uncommon.

Rob and Brenda were a loving couple, they appeared to be.

The picture showed the perfect family, the smiling, happy, loving couple with these two great little kids.

The couple were active members of their church.

Brenda taught Sunday school, and Rob performed missionary work in South America.

Early in the investigation, police learned there had been a prior attempt on Rob's life.

Just one month earlier, Rob called police to report someone had tampered with his car.

Oklahoma City Police Department.

Hi there, I'd like to report a client.

My brake lines have been cut.

Dangerous.

That sounds like attempted murder, don't you think?

A few hours later, Rob was getting his brakes fixed when he received a call from the hospital.

The caller said his wife Brenda was critically injured in a car accident and suggested that he come to the hospital right away.

You're a man's voice saying that his wife is in the hospital about 30 miles away, that she needs him and he needs to get down there just as fast as he can.

Now suspicious, Rob called the hospital back and learned the previous call was a hoax.

Apparently, the same person who cut Rob's brake line wanted him to race to the hospital.

He took it as an attempt on his life.

He realized that in fact he was being set up to drive down there and at a high rate of speed and hopefully get into an accident.

I mean, that's the obvious conclusion.

Several days after Rob's murder, his next-door neighbors returned home from vacation and realized someone had broken into their home.

We unpacked our suitcases and started putting things away.

When I opened my closet door, I discovered that a little shoe rag that I'd had was no longer there.

Then we decided to look around the other bedrooms.

That's when we discovered the spent shotgun shell in one of the bedrooms.

The shell was from a 16-gauge shotgun.

It was immediately sent to the forensics lab for testing.

An analyst placed it under a microscope to compare it to the 16-gauge shotgun shell found in the Andrews garage.

He looked specifically at the brass casings at the base of the shells.

When casings are ejected, each gun creates a unique mark on the brass.

And depending on the amount of correspondence and the preponderance of these matching striations, an examiner can come to the conclusion as to whether these were fired by the same firearm or not.

There was no doubt both shells were fired from the same gun.

Also in the neighbor's attic, police found several unused.22 caliber bullets, the same as those used in the second gun in the murder.

So as if they were just basically accidentally dropped along the way.

They didn't appear to be placed in any type of a pattern, but just like they were in a pocket and they fell out as someone crawled through.

This suggested that the killers hid in the neighbor's home after the murder so they could make a clean getaway later.

Apparently someone went up in that attic and they were either trying to climb up in the master closet access, or they came down and landed on that shoe rack and broke it to pieces.

It wasn't sturdy enough to hold them, and so then they tried to hide evidence of that in a rather feeble attempt by putting it under the bed.

And since the neighbor's home had no signs of forced entry, it meant one of two things: either the killers were professionals or they had a key.

With no solid leads, police asked themselves who would benefit most from Rob Andrew's murder.

Rob's friends told police that his wife Brenda had the most to gain.

And we found that the marriage was rocky, off and on.

They had a few periods of separation.

And we also found that Brenda Andrew was involved in several extramarital affairs.

Mr.

Andrew was convinced at this point that his insurance salesman, Mr.

Pravat, and his wife were having an affair.

48-year-old James Pavat taught Sunday school with Brenda.

And they flaunted their relationship even in front of Rob's children.

James and Brenda had a very interesting relationship.

I mean, even prior to Rob's death, the two of them went on a vacation together down to Texas with the children.

I don't know of any husband who would willingly just say okay

to his wife going down to Mexico with a complete stranger and taking his kids with him.

Just a few months before his murder, Rob demanded that Brenda end her affair with Pavat.

Brenda refused and filed for divorce.

Rob immediately changed the beneficiary of his $800,000 life insurance policy.

Mr.

Andrew made the beneficiary, I think, his brother,

for the benefit of the children.

Since the children were minors, he had to have an adult as the actual name beneficiary as a trustee of that money.

But after Rob's death, police were surprised to learn that Brenda was again the sole beneficiary.

Police were immediately suspicious, and they arranged for a handwriting expert, David Perrott, to authenticate Rob Andrew's signature on the insurance policy.

A signature is produced with style and speed.

It's the thing that you probably write the most in your entire life.

In my analysis, I looked at 13 years of Rob Andrews' handwriting in writing his signatures, 136 signatures.

Not surprisingly, it was clear that Rob Andrews' signatures changed over the years.

Over time, Rob Andrews' signature had become more ornate, more artistic.

And two and a half years before his death, Rob added an extra element to his signature.

That was in the bottom right-hand corner of his signature.

I then began looking at signature after signature after signature,

and that fish was there.

This was a Christian symbol, the ichthys.

Rob added it to his signature as a sign of his faith.

But it wasn't on the change of beneficiary form.

I know that symbol is.

Very significant because he repeatedly used it in the more formalized signatures that he wrote, such as in business documents.

And that symbol was not in the question document.

And there was another discrepancy in the life insurance policy signature.

Rob Andrew had a characteristic of connecting the N and the D in the last name Andrew.

But it wasn't signed that way on the insurance form.

So Parrott concluded it was a forgery, but he was unable to determine the identity of the forger.

Police knew that Brenda Andrew had the motive to make sure she was the beneficiary of her husband's $800,000 life insurance policy.

And her lover, James Pavat,

had the opportunity.

He was the life insurance agent who sold the policy.

Police now suspected Brenda may have been involved in her husband's murder.

So ballistic experts took a much closer look at the photographs of her wound and the bullet hole in her sweater.

They found black rings, gunshot residue, around both.

It is actually the unburned and partially burned powder and soot and hot gases that exit the barrel right behind the projectile.

Using an identical gun, investigators ran tests to recreate the gunshot residue patterns.

And my observations of those patterns and of the sweater and of her wound allowed me to conclude that she was shot at somewhere between actual contact and approximately two inches away from her arm.

This contradicted Brenda's statement that she was shot by someone 15 to 20 feet away.

Police now knew that Brenda Andrew was involved in Rob's murder, but was she the killer?

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock.

Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected.

But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful.

That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats.

If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back.

Save up to 40% your first year.

Visit lifelock.com slash podcast for 40% off.

Terms apply.

This episode is brought to you by Onit.

Want to know the secret to staying locked in?

Onit Alpha Brain.

This daily supplement is jam-packed with clinically studied ingredients that support focus, memory, and mental speed.

Whether you're in your daily grind or deep in the zone, Onit Alpha Brain helps you stay razor sharp.

Visit onit.com for 15% off, subscribe and save, and see what your brain can really do.

Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless.

And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should.

One, it's $15 a month.

Two, seriously, it's $15 a month.

Three, no big contracts.

Four, I use it.

Five, my mom uses it.

Are you playing me off?

That's what's happening, right?

Okay, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

Upfront payment of $45 for three months plan, $15 per month equivalent required.

New customer offer first three months only.

Then full price plan options available.

Taxes and fees extra.

See mintmobile.com.

Church's Smokehouse Chicken is back, but not for long.

Get an original or spicy hap chicken with a honey butter biscuit and a jalapeno starting at $5.99.

Offer valid at participating locations.

Tax extra.

To find out what role, if any, Brenda Andrew played in her husband's murder, investigators sent her bloodstained clothing to Tom Bevel, an expert on blood spatter analysis.

Beville noticed that many of the bloodstains on her jeans had an elongated shape consistent with blood dripping from her arm onto her pants.

We have some low velocity blood drips.

That would be blood that is breaking away primarily due to gravity dripping down onto the jeans.

DNA tests confirmed this blood was Brenda's.

But Bevel also found mist-like blood spatter on Brenda's jeans below the knee.

which had penetrated deep into the fabric.

That it is from a high velocity occurrence, such as a gunshot, in this case, multiple gunshot pellets, that has spattered the blood traveling back from him, referred to as back spatter, and then subsequently landing on her clothing.

DNA tests confirmed that this was Rob's blood.

This proved that Brenda was standing only a few feet away from Rob when he was killed.

The backspatter on the pants, I think that gave us that one bit of evidence we needed in order to put that gun in Miss Andrews' hand.

Prosecutors believe Brenda planned her husband's murder for months.

She may have forged Rob's signature on the life insurance policy, making her the beneficiary.

Her first attempt on Rob's life involved cutting Rob's brake lines.

Police believe it was James Pavat who called Rob with the fake story that Brenda was in critical condition at the hospital.

When that didn't work, the couple devised an elaborate shooting scenario.

They planned to kill Rob when he came to pick up the children for the holiday weekend.

On the night of the murder, Pavat hid behind the van in the garage.

When they heard Rob's car, they set the plan in motion.

Rob walked into the garage expecting to see the children.

Instead, Brenda asked him to fix the furnace while she got them ready.

Pivot fired the first shot from behind the van.

Then handed the rifle to Brenda.

The blood spatter on Brenda's pants proved she was less than two feet away.

Pivot used a.22-caliber pistol to shoot Brenda's arm, but he fired it from a couple inches away, leaving the burn marks.

I've been shot.

My husband's in shot.

Brenda called police with the fake story of the two masked men.

Pivot hid in the empty house next door.

The homeowners had given Brenda the key for safekeeping.

Pivot stayed there for at least a day until police were finished at the scene.

He ejected the spent shotgun shell when he heard the homeowner's son walk into the house to pick up his parents' mail.

Fortunately, the man didn't go upstairs or he might have been killed too.

Investigators never found the murder weapon, but they did find some important information.

During our investigation, we also found that Mr.

Pavat had purchased a.22 caliber pistol at a local gun store with the use of a credit card about a month before the homicide.

Everything was a piece of a puzzle.

All of those little things out there by themselves meant nothing.

But when you started laying it all out, clicking the pieces together, making the matches,

it just started pointing.

There's no way this woman couldn't have been involved.

Brenda Andrew and James Pavat were both charged with first-degree murder and were tried separately.

Pavat's trial was first.

We, the jury, having heretofore found the defendant James Dwight Pavat guilty of murder in the first degree, fix his punishment at death.

In Brenda's trial, prosecutors portrayed her as a heartless sociopath.

The jury saw photos of her vacationing with Pavat and the children while she was married to Rob.

They also heard the messages Brenda left on Rob's telephone answering machine, in which she belittled Rob for his parenting skills and other perceived slights.

Hey, it's Brenda.

You half-late dad who can't even return calls about your children.

You ought to call me if you even care one little ounce.

Oh, that's right, you don't.

We've been able to figure that out.

And the jury also heard this call between Rob and Brenda's mother before the murder.

She does not like me.

That makes it really hard to live there.

I mean, I look at her, I just want to break out and cry because I love the girl so much, and I have loved her for a long, long time.

And the one thing that I knew that Brenda liked was money.

Brenda Andrew was also convicted of first-degree murder.

The forensic evidence was impossible to overcome.

We, the jury, impaneled and sworn in the above entitled Clause, do upon our oaths, having hereto found the defendant, Brenda Evers Andrew, guilty of murder in the first degree, fix her punishment at death.

She is now the only woman on Oklahoma's death row.

Prosecutors describe it as one of the most cold-blooded murders they've ever seen.

The complexity of the case was a problem.

It's a hard case to talk about in a short amount of time.

There's so many different different pieces of evidence.

But in what we believe any juror wants to hear is what happened at the key moment.

The physical evidence will tell a story.

And it's just simply up to the person that is trying to put this together to understand what the physical evidence is saying.