Patricia McMillion

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Speaker 4 A hard-working family man vanishes into thin air.

Speaker 6 He didn't show up for work. He's not a person to miss work.

Speaker 12 My gut's telling me something's not right here.

Speaker 4 And a gruesome discovery in a Louisiana swamp exposes a suspect.

Speaker 6 We were notified by some fishermen there was a body in the canal.

Speaker 13 And my cell phone rang, and that's when I was informed that it was time to go to alligator Country.

Speaker 4 But an unlikely hero will bring the real killer down.

Speaker 15 I would never guess that I went undercover to solve a murder.

Speaker 16 I'm not going to get any sleep tonight. I need to know that anything that's going to come up.

Speaker 17 I would have never dreamt in my Christian life that this would have ever happened.

Speaker 4 June 16th, 2008, Luella, Texas.

Speaker 4 Around 6:30 p.m., dispatchers at the Grayson County Sheriff's Department receive a phone call from 50-year-old Rhonda Hudson.

Speaker 4 She's worried about her friend, 53-year-old Kenneth McMillian.

Speaker 6 Rhonda and her husband were good friends, friends and she allowed Kenneth to stay with them while he was going through a divorce.

Speaker 12 She was wanting us to do a welfare check on Kenneth McMillian because he hadn't come home yet and she hadn't been able to get a hold of him.

Speaker 4 Not only that, Rhonda tells police that Kenneth hadn't shown up for his shift at the local Raytheon manufacturing plant.

Speaker 6 Raytheon advised that he didn't show up for work. That wasn't like Kenneth to do that.
And that was really concerning to Rhonda.

Speaker 4 Rhonda says she last saw Kenneth when he was leaving to meet his ex-wife, 48-year-old Patricia McMillian, at the home they'd once shared.

Speaker 18 Kenneth and Patricia McMillan had gone through a divorce. Ultimately, he had been awarded their house.
She was well overdue for moving out.

Speaker 19 He was going out to the property and he had not been heard from since he had went out there.

Speaker 18 There's all kinds of things that I'm sure go through officers' heads when they hear that someone is missing. The sheriff's office didn't disregard that.
They immediately went to check on him.

Speaker 4 Kenneth McMillian was born on June 20th, 1954, to parents Leroy and Martha Macmillan. Kenneth spent his childhood in Sherman, Texas.

Speaker 19 He grew up in the country. I think his high school had a class of 12 or total 12 in the school.

Speaker 19 After high school, he discovered there was a machine shop where they did metal fab for various Texas Instruments programs and he was able to get hired in into that machine shop.

Speaker 20 I worked with Hillman, his brother, several times. He was very well-mannered, shy, slow to speak.
He just took things and did his job and was good at his job.

Speaker 21 It was in the late 1970s when he met his future wife, Patricia Dunlap.

Speaker 21 She was born June 19th, 1959, in Missouri.

Speaker 22 She always had her makeup done.

Speaker 23 and always had her hair styled.

Speaker 15 She did have family in Sherman, but there was no real connection to the family. And as far as being, feeling like she was a part of the family, I don't think she felt that way.

Speaker 4 When Patricia met Kenneth McMillian in 1978, she found the lasting connection she'd always longed for.

Speaker 4 After three years together, they married in 1981.

Speaker 20 He would do just about anything it could to make her happy.

Speaker 20 I don't know of anything that he wouldn't have done for her.

Speaker 21 Not long after they got married, they bought a plot of land, 15 acres, built a home.

Speaker 2 And it was a big, beautiful home.

Speaker 4 And Patricia just loved to show off her home.

Speaker 25 She was very proud of what they had done.

Speaker 4 In 1988, Patricia gave birth to a daughter.

Speaker 25 They were perfect couple.

Speaker 22 I mean, then you got your daughter. You just built the house.

Speaker 4 They were a happy-go-lucky family.

Speaker 4 Kenneth continued to work at the plant. In between ball games and school functions, Patricia launched her own business on the side.

Speaker 20 She was a seamstress, loved to sew.

Speaker 22 She kept very, very busy with her business and trying to build it up and make it bigger.

Speaker 4 Patricia was generous generous with her time and skills.

Speaker 19 Patricia was very nice to me. She was always cordial, and she would ask me how I was doing.

Speaker 25 She was reserved, but Patricia was very helpful.

Speaker 22 She wanted to help me with the children's home that we did for Christmas time,

Speaker 22 and she helped with embroidering.

Speaker 4 She helped out every year.

Speaker 22 She was very pleasant.

Speaker 4 By 2007, after Patricia and Kenneth's daughter had entered adulthood, their once loving marriage had deteriorated.

Speaker 21 Kenneth and Patricia were married for 27 years.

Speaker 21 And once they became empty nesters, there was a shift in their relationship.

Speaker 20 He was telling me certain things that had gone on, and he was trying to figure out why all of a sudden she didn't like him no more.

Speaker 20 She had moved to a different room of the house. It's like they had turned into roommates instead of married partners.
He was trying to figure out what he could do to not have to go through a divorce.

Speaker 20 But when he started working night shift, then he was gone all night. And it pushed him further apart because she didn't want nothing to do with him anymore, pretty much.

Speaker 20 He was ready for it to be over.

Speaker 21 In August of 2007, Kenneth McMillan filed for divorce. During that time, he lived with Rhonda and her husband, Phil, in the spare room.

Speaker 4 In the months after Kenneth moved out, Patricia reconnected with a former coworker and friend, Harold Ballard.

Speaker 18 He and Patricia McMillan had worked together at a local factory, and that's how he knew her. And in some way, he found out that she was getting a divorce and he had contacted her.

Speaker 18 Not long after that, that relationship became a romantic one.

Speaker 4 Kenneth and Patricia's divorce was finalized on April 17, 2008.

Speaker 6 Part of the deal is that she move out of the house and she was to get $110,000 for giving up the house.

Speaker 21 He was awarded the home, but Kenneth did allow Patricia some time to get her things moved out.

Speaker 21 It did seem with the divorce finalized and the plans for Patricia to move out that they would be able to get a fresh start and go their separate ways amicably.

Speaker 4 But just two months later, on June 16th, Kenneth is reported missing by his friend, Rhonda Hudson.

Speaker 4 Before Grayson County deputies head to the home Kenneth used to share with Patricia, they discover an incident report for the same address from earlier that morning.

Speaker 6 It's around 6.30, 7 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 6 Patricia McMillian had contacted Kenneth by phone and was asking about a trailer that was on the property that she could not find, and she thought it might be stolen, and told Kenneth that he needed to come out there and make a police report, which he did.

Speaker 4 According to the report, When the deputy arrived at the home that morning, he found Patricia, Kenneth, and Patricia's love interest, 60-year-old Harold Ballard.

Speaker 6 Harold was helping her move out from 176 Snapp Road. During the meeting with deputies, there was words said between Kenneth McMillian and Harold Ballard.

Speaker 6 Kenneth didn't like the fact that Harold was there helping her. He thought he had a cocky attitude.

Speaker 4 Kenneth accused Patricia and Harold of stealing a trailer.

Speaker 6 Kenneth McMillian ordered Harold Ballard off his property and he asked deputies to give a criminal trespass warning to him.

Speaker 20 The deputy told him he was trespassing and that he couldn't come back on the property.

Speaker 4 At the request of the deputies, Harold left, but he didn't go quietly.

Speaker 27 Harold had made actual threats in the presence of a police officer against Kenneth, who was now missing.

Speaker 4 11 hours later, sheriff's deputies prepare to head back to the Macmillan home.

Speaker 12 I made contact with Patricia, who was there, and explained, you know, I'm doing a welfare check. Nobody's heard from Kenneth.

Speaker 4 Patricia says that Kenneth left soon after the deputies escorted Harold off the property.

Speaker 6 Patricia McMillian said that Kenneth left around lunchtime saying he was going to get something to eat. She hadn't seen or heard from him since.

Speaker 12 I asked her for consent to walk through the house, and she was with me the whole time.

Speaker 12 I'm looking to see, is there anything to indicate that something happened here?

Speaker 12 Blood, the overturned furniture in a room, any indication of a struggle.

Speaker 4 Deputies don't find anything suspicious, but after leaving the residence, their concerns linger.

Speaker 12 I kind of started sounding the alarm with my supervisor that, hey, we don't really have anything concrete to say something happened yet, but my gut's telling me something's not right here.

Speaker 4 Coming up, intimate details of Kenneth's life come to light.

Speaker 21 Rhonda was married, and his relationship with Rhonda was not purely platonic. They were romantically linked.

Speaker 4 From there, the secrets continue to unfold.

Speaker 17 The only thing I could suspect is that he's running around with her like he ran around with me.

Speaker 4 After Kenneth McMillian is reported missing on June 16, 2008, Grayson County officials investigated an incident that took place that same day at the home Kenneth used to share with his ex-wife, Patricia.

Speaker 12 Patricia was there, but Kenneth's car is nowhere inside. I didn't find him up at the house, and we hadn't been able to get a hold of him.

Speaker 6 We were briefed after deputy chairs went out to the scene, and he was indicating that things didn't seem right.

Speaker 4 Investigators immediately contact Kenneth's boss at the manufacturing plant. He confirms that Kenneth never showed up for his shift.

Speaker 20 His immediate boss had came by and asked me if I had heard from Kenneth or if I knew anything, and I told him that he didn't show up and people were concerned already.

Speaker 6 He said this was not like Kenneth to miss work.

Speaker 4 But when investigators speak with Kenneth's coworkers in the days following his disappearance, they learn something unexpected about Rhonda Hudson, the woman who reported Kenneth missing.

Speaker 21 One of Kenneth's coworkers shared that his relationship with Rhonda, who was married, was not purely platonic. They were romantically linked.

Speaker 4 A fact Rhonda didn't share when she made the call.

Speaker 18 Anytime someone isn't consistent with you, but their stories begin to change, red flags go up on that about

Speaker 18 what is it you're trying to hide. Is this simply maybe embarrassment, or is this significant in this investigation?

Speaker 4 With more questions than answers, investigators arrange an interview with Rhonda and her husband, Phil.

Speaker 21 With Rhonda and Phil, we're trying to just really understand what that relationship was.

Speaker 4 The couple explains they took Kenneth in following his split from Patricia.

Speaker 6 Rhonda and her husband were friends of Kenneth and allowed Kenneth to stay with them while Patricia moved all of her stuff out of the house.

Speaker 4 The arrangement had sparked a romance between longtime friends, Kenneth and Rhonda.

Speaker 20 Kenneth and Rhonda, they were kind of dating basically, even though she was still married. He was staying at that house.

Speaker 20 Her husband still lived there and I thought that was kind of an odd situation, but he seemed to be a happier person when he was around her.

Speaker 4 Phil tells investigators that he is aware of their relationship and it is no surprise to him.

Speaker 21 Phil didn't seem to have any issue with Kenneth having a relationship with Rhonda even under the same roof. It sounds like the three of them had a great relationship.

Speaker 21 Rhonda and Phil actually seemed to agree that they were headed their own separate ways.

Speaker 6 There was no signs of deception and she was forthcoming with information, and she helped us to put the pieces together.

Speaker 4 With no reason to suspect Phil or Rhonda were involved in Kenneth's disappearance, investigators wrap up their interviews.

Speaker 4 Investigators ask Patricia to come into the sheriff's office and answer a few more questions while they attempt to locate Kenneth's vehicle, a 2006 Honda.

Speaker 6 We learned that Kenneth McMillian's vehicle has a GPS-based system on it.

Speaker 6 Law enforcement can hone in on the signal and it will lead them right to where the vehicle's located.

Speaker 4 A hit quickly comes through, but the location comes as a surprise.

Speaker 18 It was located in Dallas in the parking lot. of the Million Dollar Saloon, which is a gentleman's club, as it were.

Speaker 4 As they make the hour drive to Dallas, investigators wonder, did Kenneth simply head out of town to blow off steam?

Speaker 6 One of the reasons why we went there was because Kenneth McMillan himself could be inside there. It's unknown what a person's thinking sometimes, and they might just want to get away.

Speaker 4 At the parking lot, investigators locate Kenneth's empty vehicle.

Speaker 6 We did not find anything of evidentiary value in the vehicle.

Speaker 6 We went ahead and notified management who we were and asked them if they knew who owned the car or seen anybody park the car.

Speaker 6 We had pictures of Kenneth McMillian and we showed him, but they didn't recognize him.

Speaker 4 Even more puzzling is that footage from cameras inside the club also show no trace of Kenneth.

Speaker 20 He did not drink, he did not party, he did not hang out at places like that, and nor would he if you invited. He wouldn't do that.

Speaker 20 And for them to say his car was totally deaf there, I knew that wasn't him.

Speaker 4 Despite agreeing to answer questions, Patricia fails to show up at the station.

Speaker 4 Investigators track her down at a local storage unit she secured before moving out of the family home.

Speaker 1 I'm sure you're busy. You got things you need to do.

Speaker 16 Well, we need to follow up on some stuff.

Speaker 16 He was supposed to come up to the sheriff's office.

Speaker 5 You got tied up.

Speaker 17 Because I've been in here looking for Kenneth's references for

Speaker 17 his relatives.

Speaker 18 Well, I tell you what, we could probably wait on that.

Speaker 17 Okay.

Speaker 16 Where do you think Kenneth is?

Speaker 17 I have no idea.

Speaker 17 I said the only thing I could suspect is that he's roaming around his rondo. I like to ran around with me.

Speaker 17 When

Speaker 17 we were still married, he would take off and just leave.

Speaker 1 Where would he go?

Speaker 17 I don't have any idea. And he would never tell me.

Speaker 4 Hoping to gain more background, investigators asked to continue their interview at the station.

Speaker 16 Would you feel comfortable coming up to the office?

Speaker 17 Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 Finally, at the station, law enforcement conducts an official interview with Patricia.

Speaker 4 They start by asking her about the argument between Kenneth and Harold Ballard the morning Kenneth went missing.

Speaker 13 What was Harold's demeanor at that time? Was he a little pissed off? No.

Speaker 13 He wasn't?

Speaker 25 No, he wasn't.

Speaker 13 Did he say anything to Kenneth at that time?

Speaker 13 I'm thinking I'd be a little mad.

Speaker 17 He knew that Kenneth's wanting me out and he's been hounding me and harassing me to get me out. And then Kenneth throws him off the property and then that leaves me high and dry.

Speaker 6 Harold was upset because he couldn't be there to help Patricia move.

Speaker 4 Patricia seems certain that Kenneth isn't really missing, that he left by choice.

Speaker 4 With nothing to hold her on, investigators are forced to let her go.

Speaker 6 We were concerned that he just didn't want to be found. People sometimes are unpredictable.

Speaker 4 But before they can dive into that theory, investigators get a phone call with groundbreaking information.

Speaker 6 I got a phone call advising they had found Kenneth Mamillion's body in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

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Speaker 4 June 19th, 2008. Three days after the mysterious disappearance of Kenneth Macmillan, authorities receive a shocking phone call.
Kenneth's body has been found 450 miles away in the Louisiana swamp.

Speaker 6 Cameron Parish Sheriff's Office been notified by some fishermen there was a body in the canal down there.

Speaker 18 It's very unusual to have someone last seen in Sherman, Texas, car found in Dallas, Texas, body found 450 miles away in Louisiana. And so everybody's wondering, What happened, who did it?

Speaker 21 The body was found face down in the marsh.

Speaker 6 He wasn't wearing a shirt. He had ropes tied around his feet and it appeared to be a gunshot wound to his back.

Speaker 18 He had been tied down with blocks, but not well tied, so it had floated up.

Speaker 6 A person don't normally tie cinder blocks to themselves and then jump in the water.

Speaker 6 It's hard to shoot yourself in the back.

Speaker 6 So they knew there was foul play involved.

Speaker 12 They were able to identify Kenneth through the use of an orthopedic insert in his shoe.

Speaker 6 The pathologists were able to recover a 22 round from his back.

Speaker 6 So now we knew what kind of weapon was used, meaning caliber.

Speaker 6 Somebody had shot Mr. McMillan and then dumped his body in Louisiana.

Speaker 4 Grayson County deputies pay a visit to Patricia to deliver the news.

Speaker 6 We told her that Kenneth's body had been found.

Speaker 6 I asked Patricia, was there anybody that might hurt Kenneth or did he have any enemies?

Speaker 6 and she couldn't come up with any.

Speaker 4 Patricia also has no idea why Kenneth would have been in Louisiana, nor does anyone else who knew him.

Speaker 22 He never talked about taking a trip to Louisiana or anything like that.

Speaker 8 And he wouldn't have come by himself.

Speaker 22 That was totally odd.

Speaker 20 Kenny would not do that.

Speaker 14 He did, he

Speaker 14 very straight-laced, go to work, go home, go to work, go home.

Speaker 4 With nothing else to to go on, investigators follow up on the only lead they have left, Patricia's new flame, Harold Ballard.

Speaker 6 We had already had our suspicion about Harold Ballard because he had a confrontation with him.

Speaker 6 When I interviewed Harold Ballard, the body had already been found, and I didn't let him know. I wanted to get him locked into a statement.

Speaker 4 Harold admits there was tension between himself and Kenneth the morning Kenneth went missing.

Speaker 13 He decided he was going to put his finger in my chest.

Speaker 28 Did he actually make contact with me? Oh, yeah, he did. And what did you do?

Speaker 13 I told him not to do it.

Speaker 4 But Harold insists that he wasn't there to fight with Kenneth. He was there to help Patricia.

Speaker 28 And I know somebody sticks their finger in my chest, I'm not going to be happy.

Speaker 13 Well, I wasn't happy, but nevertheless, I wasn't there to cause trouble.

Speaker 4 They asked Harold what he did that morning after he left the Macmillan home.

Speaker 18 He said, Hey, after that confrontation, I needed to get out of town.

Speaker 18 So Harold Bowler claimed that he had gone to Turner Falls, Oklahoma, and decided to spend the night.

Speaker 28 You slept on the side of the road and stuff like that?

Speaker 14 I sure did. Okay.

Speaker 28 And did you make contact with anybody on your trip?

Speaker 13 I didn't talk to anyone.

Speaker 13 All I know is what I told you. I haven't seen Mr.
Macmillan since Monday, the day that I was ordered off the property.

Speaker 4 Investigators take a break from questioning Harold and leave the room.

Speaker 4 Without more evidence, investigators have to let Harold go

Speaker 4 and they start checking his alibi.

Speaker 18 On this day in time, one of the best ways to tell where people are is where their phone is.

Speaker 18 Once we got those records on an emergency type situation, his phone pinged down in Louisiana the night that he said he was in Oklahoma. So we immediately knew Harold wasn't shooting straight with us.

Speaker 6 His phone was pinging off a tower 20 miles away from where the body was found.

Speaker 6 We had his statements, his phone records, the fact that he had had conflict with Kenneth and the fact that he was one of the last persons to see Mr. McMillan alive.

Speaker 4 On June 20th, investigators place Harold under arrest for the murder of Kenneth McMillian.

Speaker 6 Harold and Patricia was out there and they were playing dominoes, I believe. When we approached him, we advised him he was under arrest.

Speaker 4 Patricia's reaction attracts attention.

Speaker 18 Patricia didn't appear to be emotional at all, wasn't surprised at all, didn't appear to upset.

Speaker 4 Investigators are certain they have the right man, but they wonder, did he work alone?

Speaker 21 It would be very difficult for one person to dispose of this body, drive it all the way to Louisiana, 400 miles away, and place the car at the Dallas Strip Club.

Speaker 4 At the same time as the arrest, investigators seize Harold's truck.

Speaker 6 We had had a search warrant for his pickup truck. And when we seized Harold, we seized his vehicle as well.

Speaker 21 They could not find the the gun itself, but they did find 22 ammunition in Harold's truck.

Speaker 21 And they knew it was a 22 that had been fired into Kenneth McMillan's back.

Speaker 4 But before investigators can question Harold about the bullets, Harold's lawyer reaches out to them.

Speaker 27 Well, Harold's lawyer contacted us, said that he wanted to talk.

Speaker 21 At that point, he realized that he was in pretty deep and it was time to come clean.

Speaker 8 Coming up.

Speaker 4 An unlikely individual helps investigators with a high-stakes sting.

Speaker 17 Can't tell you who's too confident. Yes.

Speaker 4 And loyalties begin to crumble.

Speaker 13 Neither one of us said anything. We just drove in silence.

Speaker 29 I regret still today that I didn't see how desperate she had gotten.

Speaker 4 On June 20th, 2008, investigators arrested Harold Ballard for the shooting death of Kenneth McMillian.

Speaker 4 After three weeks behind bars, Harold's claims of innocence appear to waver.

Speaker 18 His defense attorney said, My guy wants to talk with y'all.

Speaker 29 Patricia, she was a sweet person from the beginning, but it was a whole different person 20 years later though.

Speaker 29 I regret still today that I didn't see how desperate she had gotten. It was kind of like bridge had kind of started to burn because

Speaker 29 a real friend would not let another friend take the rap for something they knew they did.

Speaker 4 On July 11th, Harold meets with investigators.

Speaker 4 He says that on June 16th, he got a call from Patricia just after 9 a.m.

Speaker 14 A cell phone rang,

Speaker 13 and that's when I was informed that it was time to go to Alligator Country.

Speaker 28 Call on cell phone.

Speaker 28 When she said we're going to Alligator Country, did you know what she was talking about?

Speaker 13 Well, she had talked about

Speaker 13 she had gotten to the point where she didn't know how much more she could take.

Speaker 28 Okay, how would you relate Alligator Country to what she said, though? I mean, had she talked about doing something like this prior to that?

Speaker 13 You know,

Speaker 13 off-handed, I think she did.

Speaker 18 Harold said that she had mentioned once before about it'd be nice if Kenneth disappeared and alligators ate him.

Speaker 28 And what did Patricia say over the phone happen?

Speaker 24 She said he was dead.

Speaker 4 Harold immediately drove to the home on Snap Road.

Speaker 29 I saw that his car was still there and it kind of made me kind of weary. I just stopped about maybe two or three feet away and just looked.

Speaker 29 And when I looked towards the house, she was standing in the window. I knocked on the door.
I asked her where he was.

Speaker 30 She said he was around there to the south of the house.

Speaker 13 I walked around there to see him and he was sure he was laying face up.

Speaker 6 Did she say what happened?

Speaker 29 She never did say.

Speaker 13 But after looking at him,

Speaker 13 I gathered that she shot him.

Speaker 4 Harold said they hatched a plan for him to return at night to move Kenneth's body.

Speaker 29 We wrapped his body up in some types of heavy plastic, put it in the back of my truck that night.

Speaker 11 This around Christmas time, so they covered the back of the pickup truck with Christmas decorations, ornaments, I think a tree.

Speaker 29 I convinced myself that I was doing the right thing for a friend. But it sounded like, oh, you should know better.
But I just saw a friend who reached out to me.

Speaker 4 With Patricia driving Kenneth's Honda and Harold in the truck, they set out for Dallas.

Speaker 6 They went up to the Million Dollar Saloon and after she dropped the vehicle off at the Million Dollar Saloon, that she got in the truck with him and they drove to Louisiana.

Speaker 29 We stopped and found a pretty well secluded spot before we could back up and kind of like throw her body, push it off the back of the truck.

Speaker 13 She wanted to use some blocks.

Speaker 13 Some cinder blocks. I was cinder blocks to his head and to his feet.

Speaker 28 Was the cinder block used?

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 4 They hastily shoved Kenneth's body into the water and headed back to Texas.

Speaker 28 This whole time, did Patricia talk or say anything? I mean, she just committed murder.

Speaker 13 No, she didn't.

Speaker 6 She didn't say nothing.

Speaker 13 Matter of fact, neither one of us says anything. We just drove in silence.

Speaker 13 I know that now that I shouldn't have done what I've done, but I had nothing to do with Mr. McMillan's death.
That's the honest God's true.

Speaker 4 Harold tells them that after sitting in jail for several weeks, he realized Patricia would gladly let him take the fall.

Speaker 31 And now that I think about it, I guess I think she was setting me up,

Speaker 12 sister.

Speaker 29 I was disappointed.

Speaker 30 I thought we had a better friendship than that.

Speaker 4 Investigators believe Harold's story, but in order to arrest Patricia, they will need more.

Speaker 6 The evidence is starting to be real strong, but Harold Ballard is a co-conspirator. It's his word that she's the one that committed the murder.

Speaker 4 Then, on July 17th, investigators have a chance meeting with Harold's brother, Joe.

Speaker 15 I came down

Speaker 15 one day to visit Harold and one of the detectives on the case wanted to know if I had a few moments for him to talk with me.

Speaker 6 We tell him the truth that we had taken Harold to Louisiana. He had confessed to his part and asked him if he had made contact with Patricia.

Speaker 6 Joe said that, yeah, she's actually trying to get a hold of me and she wants to meet up with me.

Speaker 15 I knew Patricia through my brother, and they said, well, the only way that we cannot charge your brother for murder is if we get a confession from Patricia.

Speaker 4 Authorities ask Joe if he would be willing to help his brother out by meeting up with Patricia and wearing a wire.

Speaker 4 He agrees.

Speaker 15 I would never guess that I went undercover to solve a murder, but life has a lot of twists and turns to it.

Speaker 15 And you never know what you're going to be asked to do or what you're going to need to do to help someone that you love.

Speaker 4 Joe arranges to meet up with Patricia on the evening of July 19th.

Speaker 4 Police survey the sting from nearby, but stay out of sight.

Speaker 30 So I get there, pull in.

Speaker 15 She gets in on on the passenger side.

Speaker 24 Of course, everything is going through my mind as far as, you know, is there anybody else here with her or are we alone?

Speaker 15 I'm getting a little nervous, but sweating a little bit. I'm in now.
I can't, there's nothing I can do now.

Speaker 24 And I know that the detectives and the Texas Rangers,

Speaker 15 They are nowhere in sight.

Speaker 14 I'm on my own.

Speaker 15 So I kind of turn to her and we just start talking.

Speaker 15 You can talk to me. Right.
Harold is my brother. I love him to death.

Speaker 16 And I'm here as your friend. Okay.

Speaker 16 He has shared that he's concerned with the gun itself.

Speaker 17 It's gone. It's gone.

Speaker 9 It won't be found.

Speaker 17 I went and done like to exon.

Speaker 17 They have no case. As long as Harold sits over here quiet as a church mess, they don't have a case.

Speaker 16 So you know I'm not going to get any sleep tonight because I got to wrestle with this. I need to know, is there anything that's going to come up...

Speaker 17 Can I tell you this in confidence? Yes.

Speaker 17 Kenneth was just there by himself with me.

Speaker 17 I will bring our children.

Speaker 17 I would have never dreamt that I would even go this far.

Speaker 17 I would have never dreamt in my Christian life that this would have ever happened.

Speaker 27 Joe Ballard was able to steer the conversation toward what he knew that we had to have in that recording, and that was that she pulled the trigger and that Harold wasn't there.

Speaker 2 Coming up.

Speaker 4 Authorities are ready to make their move.

Speaker 6 We sit up all night making sure that she didn't leave.

Speaker 4 But will Patricia's shocking accusations derail the case?

Speaker 21 She was afraid for her life there was some sort of a scuffle.

Speaker 4 A little over a month after Kenneth McMillian disappeared, investigators are finally ready to arrest his ex-wife, Patricia McMillian, for his murder.

Speaker 6 After the wiretap, we knew that she had went back to Knap Road, and we sat up all night making sure that she didn't leave.

Speaker 6 Typing warrants, it takes a lot of time.

Speaker 6 We wanted everything right.

Speaker 6 We arrested her the very next day.

Speaker 27 Patricia's daughter started off with us somewhat resistant to the idea that her mother had killed her father, but ultimately the evidence was overwhelming to the point where she understood.

Speaker 4 In June of 2009, the case goes to trial.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors paint Patricia as a murderer driven by rage.

Speaker 6 Patricia didn't like the outcome of the divorce. She was still bitter that she had to move out of the house.

Speaker 18 I think that it was simply anger and a woman who felt like she needed to get even.

Speaker 4 But Patricia takes the stand and counters with an explosive claim.

Speaker 21 Patricia gave testimony that she had suffered abuse from Kenneth McMillan. Verbal abuse, she felt he was controlling.
She even alleged physical abuse.

Speaker 4 Patricia claims that on the morning of the murder, she and Kenneth got into an argument that turned physical.

Speaker 21 She painted the picture that she was afraid for her life, that she had the 22, and that there was some sort of a scuffle.

Speaker 4 Prosecutors asked Patricia to demonstrate how the incident led to her shooting Kenneth in the back.

Speaker 2 I had a toy gun that I had bought,

Speaker 18 and I gave her the toy gun and got her down off the stand.

Speaker 18 So I want you to take the jury through how this murder went down.

Speaker 18 And we actually got down on the floor with her all kind of on top of me, and she stuck that gun in my back and started pulling the trigger.

Speaker 8 Click, click, click.

Speaker 27 Ten, it was pretty riveting to see her in the courtroom well, wrestling with the prosecutor and ultimately showing her made-up version of how she shot Kenneth.

Speaker 4 It was riveting but unconvincing. Patricia's defense unravels.

Speaker 18 And not only did she shoot him in the back

Speaker 2 at fairly close range,

Speaker 18 Then when you go hauling the body down like they did and dumping it, most people who act in self-defense don't do that.

Speaker 18 The daughter testified there was not abuse going on in the home. No one else indicated any abuse.
No coworkers ever saw any bruises on her, heard her complain about the husband.

Speaker 18 So her claim that this was necessary to prevent further domestic violence was simply false.

Speaker 4 On June 10th, 2009, the jury returns a verdict.

Speaker 27 Well, the jury listened to this evidence and they were not convinced of Patricia's self-defense story. And they convicted her and sentenced her to 80 years in prison.

Speaker 4 In August 2009, Harold takes a plea deal. He receives a reduced sentence, 10 years of probation in exchange for helping prosecutors.

Speaker 29 The truth will set you free.

Speaker 14 Even though I make some dumb mistakes, if I could rewrite the part of that life, I would write it a whole lot different.

Speaker 24 Definitely do it a lot different, that's for sure.

Speaker 18 The judges said, I sentenced you to seven years in prison. I'm going to probate or suspend that to 10 years probation.

Speaker 18 But if he messed up his probation and we revoked him, he could get up to seven years in prison.

Speaker 4 For Kenneth's friends and family, the end of the trial marks the beginning of a different but still painful era.

Speaker 22 There was no closure for the friends, the family,

Speaker 22 anybody who knew Kenneth Macmillan.

Speaker 22 Why didn't she just plain walk away?

Speaker 22 That wasn't the Patricia I knew.

Speaker 22 That was a woman that was full of hate, and only God knows why.

Speaker 19 She was very much controlling Kenneth most of his life.

Speaker 19 And I think that him making a choice to take his life in a different direction broke that control that she had over him. And I don't think she knew how to handle that.

Speaker 19 The number one victim is their daughter. Not only did she lose a father, she's lost her mother.
Kenneth was just an overall good person, so the world lost goodness.

Speaker 14 That is sad

Speaker 19 because the world could be much better with more people like him in the world.

Speaker 4 Patricia McMillian is serving an 80-year sentence at Carroll Young Complex in Texas.