Opal Williams

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Unlucky in love, a single mom poured herself into her children.

Her kids always came first.

Then, a kind single dad changed her mind about men.

He ended up kissing me for the first time.

She called me and said that she had gotten married, and he was the one.

But a sudden disappearance puts their second chance at true love in jeopardy.

She tried to file a missing Kristen court three times.

He hasn't been at work.

I've been calling family and friends.

I don't know where he's at or what's going on or anything like that.

What starts as a missing person's case soon morphs into a murder investigation.

There was blood, not just a little bit of blood.

Something happened in the band.

I was freaking out.

I was like, what is going on?

As they dig deeper, detectives uncover the truth about a heartbreaking crime with a twisted motive.

He's dying, but he's on the phone.

He was actually pleading for his life.

Why would you do this to my dad?

Things are falling apart, and it just all starts crumbling down.

Indianapolis, Indiana.

Well, it's a larger city.

It's where a lot of people come to

relax, read, jog, ride the bike trails, and just enjoy a calm and steady normal life.

It's a great city to live in.

While Indianapolis prides itself on small town values, it also has its share of big city problems.

March 17th, 2015.

An Indianapolis Metro Patrol officer performs a routine check under the Raymond Street Bridge on the banks of the White River.

There, the officer notices something suspicious.

He found this van down by the Bright River, where there used to be a homeless camp at one time, and no one's around it.

The officer runs the plate and makes a discovery about the registered owner.

The person was missing.

His name was Stephen Williams.

And this was Stephen Williams' van.

Three days earlier, on Saturday, March 14th, authorities had received a 911 call from Stephen's worried wife, Opal Williams.

Okay, and you said he's been missing?

Since very early Wednesday morning, between midnight and 2 a.m.

is the last time I've seen him.

And he hasn't been at work.

He hasn't even called at work or anything.

Now, Stephen's van has been found.

And next to it, a troubling clue.

There was a spot of blood also found somewhere on the ground near the van.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1963, Stephen Doyle Williams grew up in a humble but loving household.

It was a happy childhood for the most part.

Parents divorced early.

My mother raised us by herself.

We didn't have a lot of toys and things like that.

You know, we had clothes and we had the necessities, but not a lot of extras.

Stephen, he was real intelligent, you know, real book smart.

At 18 years old, Stephen fell in love for the first time with a young woman named April.

They married and had three kids together, Amanda, Kelly, and James.

My dad, he was strict, but not that strict.

He was always there for us.

He made sure we had a better life than he did.

That's one thing I about my dad.

He was just there for us.

As part of that effort to provide a stable life, Stephen joined the Army in the mid-80s.

There, he discovered a passion that would stay with him for the rest of his life, computers.

Once he learned computers, it was it.

He didn't just have a computer, he had computers, you know, several of them, two or three, and they're all hooked together and you could do things that most people couldn't do.

In 1995, Stephen and April decided to part ways.

And then, you know, Stevie filed for divorce.

They started, you know, raising the kids on his own.

By 2006, Stephen had been honorably discharged from the Army and was working as a computer programmer near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Though he loved his children, Stephen had grown increasingly lonely.

He wanted someone there, and I guess he just missed being loved.

That all changed one spring night when Stephen was hanging out with friends and spotted 25-year-old Opal Drebenstedt from across the room at a karaoke bar.

The very first time we actually seen each other, he was singing karaoke.

I had just gotten off work.

I was doing deliveries at the time.

Opal was born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1979.

Her best memories from childhood were created at 55 miles per hour.

My father was a truck driver, so I've been on the road since I was three.

I've been everywhere but six states.

So the happiest times I had of my childhood was when I was on the road with him.

When Opal was 18, she married a man named Don, and the couple eventually had two sons together, Stephen and Takota, though the family struggled financially.

Her kids always came first.

If they didn't have enough food or funds to go around, she would do without to where her kids could eat and have clothes.

But after two years, the marriage failed and Opal and Don divorced.

When Opal met 42-year-old Stephen Williams in the Cedar Rapids karaoke bar in 2006, she was in the middle of a custody battle and in need of some fun.

Stephen was more than happy to oblige.

It started going out every night with the same people, singing karaoke and stuff like that.

And then he ended up kissing me for the first time.

And I'm like,

okay, what was that for?

He's like, well, how about a date?

I'm like, okay.

He wasn't looking for a relationship.

She says she wasn't looking for a relationship.

It just kind of happened.

She called me and said that she had gotten married and she had met the man that made her very happy, that he was the one, and that he had two daughters.

And she absolutely loved them.

Steven, he's a software engineer.

He ended up coming here to Indianapolis to start work here.

And then the kids and I followed.

Opal loved being a stay-at-home mom to her and Stephen's growing brood.

She taught me how to do makeup.

We love to bowl.

We are a big bowl family.

Sometimes we'll go to the water parks.

They were a very happy couple, a very happy family.

The kids got along very well.

By 2014, Stephen's kids had moved out, leaving only Opal's sons in the home.

With a partially empty nest, Opal was eager to pursue a lifelong dream.

I've always wanted to be a truck driver.

I love the road.

I love to travel.

I just love everything about it.

It's just a sense of freedom.

Opal obtained her commercial driver's license and began driving a big rig.

But her life on the road put a strain on her marriage, and she and Stephen began to drift apart.

We're different.

I mean, me, I love traveling.

He falls asleep after two hours in a vehicle.

God, you can't get much opposite than that.

Sometimes they slept in separate rooms.

They had arguments.

But Opal and Stephen weren't quite ready to give up on their marriage, and they weren't the only ones having problems.

In August 2015, the couple got a call from a woman named Linda.

the new wife of Opal's first husband, Don.

Linda explained that she needed time away from her relationship with Don, but had nowhere else to go.

She asked Opal and Stephen for help.

She didn't have a vehicle.

She was stuck there.

She needed help, so they rescued her.

And so Stevie, the white knight that he is, is going to step up and save Linda.

Stephen and Opal told Linda she could stay with them while she figured out what to do about her marriage.

Opal and Stephen learned they would have more house guests when Stephen's 20-year-old daughter, Amanda, asked to move back in, along with her boyfriend, Stephen Brian.

I call my dad, it's like, dad, I gotta tell you something.

He's like, what, you heard it?

I'm like, uh-uh, yeah.

You want to be mad, but he couldn't get excited because he gets a grandchildren.

So we move back, because we needed that help.

Six months later, 51-year-old Stephen and 35-year-old Opal became grandparents.

Opal was smitten with the new arrival.

When our daughter was born, she came into hospital right away and saw our daughter.

It was very loving.

She just sat there and wanted to hold the baby.

When we moved in, there was actually a lot of people there, but it was really peaceful in the beginning.

So everybody got along really well.

But on March 17th, 2015, just over a month after Opal's granddaughter was born, everything the Williams family held dear would be turned upside down.

Indianapolis police have just discovered Stephen's van abandoned near the White River with a pool of blood nearby.

The officer calls for detective Ryan Bartlett, who had been working the missing persons case opened on Stephen just three days earlier.

After IMPD contacted us, myself and the detective went to the river to go check the van out.

Inside the van, more worrisome evidence.

One thing that caught the detective in my eye was it looked like there was some type of maroon colored liquid on the seats of the van, which had a possibility of being blood.

Things are getting kind of sketchy and I maybe need help here soon.

Coming up, how a worried wife started the search for her husband.

He's supposed to be taking high blood pressure medication and all that to your home.

And a new 911 call puts everyone on edge.

We were contacted by Indianapolis Fire Department that stated someone had jumped off the bridge.

In 2015, Opal and Stephen Williams had a full house in the suburbs of Indianapolis.

But in March of that year, everything started to fall apart.

On March 14th, Stephen disappeared.

Three days later, a police officer discovered his van abandoned under a bridge near the White River.

There's a pool of blood outside the van and what appears to be more inside.

You get something like that and you really don't want to just dive right into it and say oh my gosh someone was killed in this vehicle.

You just take the evidence for what it is.

So we were taking, I'd say, baby steps in this investigation.

We searched the area along the river, in the van.

We searched everywhere we could just to see if maybe he was around.

There was a lot of video footage taken,

a lot of photos taken of the scene as well.

Now we were out there for a few hours.

Following an exhaustive search of the area, detectives find no new evidence.

We contacted our evidence technician and our tow trucks to come pick up the van.

Had it transported over to a secure location where our CSI team processes that evidence under a search warrant.

While the processing of the van begins, Detective Bartlett returns to the station and reviews his file on Stephen Williams' missing persons case.

It all started when Opal Williams made a 911 call to Indianapolis authorities.

He hasn't been at work.

He hasn't even called at work

or anything.

On the call, Opal worried that Stephen was without important medication.

He's supposed to be taking high blood pressure medication and

crossing all to help him so so you can be on the bypass machine and all that is here at home.

Opal explained that she'd last seen Stephen at a restaurant four days earlier, where the couple ate with her cousin Charlie Lehman and a family friend named Ricky King.

We had a little bit of an argument, but

and

he took off.

And this is how I go.

Because more when we have a disagreement like the the next morning, or, you know, within a few hours, we're calling each other, apologizing.

And just go on.

And that's not like him.

After Opal's original 911 call and the day before the van was found, Detective Bartlett had interviewed Opal, who still had not heard from her husband.

Stephen is missing.

She hasn't seen him for a couple of days.

Says that she has no idea where he's at.

Opal states that Opal and her friend Ricky drove to Oklahoma to look for Stephen on their way to Texas, where they believe that Stephen may have went to go see a daughter.

In that initial interview, Opal told Detective Bartlett that she and Ricky had been stopping at every truck stop along the way, looking for Stephen.

When asked about the disagreement she mentioned in her initial 911 call, Opal explained it was about their rather complex home life.

She told Detective Bartlett about her and Stephen's marital troubles and about all the people living under their roof, including a woman named Linda, who had just separated from Opal's first husband, Don.

Opal said that after they took Linda in, Stephen and Linda started having an affair, and Stephen suggested adding an unexpected twist to their troubled marriage.

Opal said Stephen introduced introduced the proposal to Opal that Linda would be the sister wife to their relationship.

Obviously, as most would say, infuriated Opal, she did not like that one bit.

I'm wanting to make it work.

This started my second marriage.

Been together 10 years, married for nine years.

I'm not ready to throw it down the drain.

I'm not ready to let go yet.

According to Opal, they actually tried the sister-wife arrangement for a while.

But after just a few weeks, it became clear to her that it wasn't going to work.

Opal would go on to say that while Stephen was at work, Linda would say things to Opal that would make her mad and she would antagonize her and just kind of poke at her the whole day.

In her first interview after the 911 call, Opal said that on the night of March 10th, 10th, she asked Stephen to meet her at a local restaurant to discuss the issue.

Her friends Charlie Lehman and Ricky King came along to offer her emotional support.

She stated that

they had all met at a fast food restaurant in Indianapolis to hash out this sister-wife and these differences.

Opal told Bartlett that the discussion got heated and Stephen took off.

Stephen just drives away in the white van and leaves him behind.

According to Opal, when Stephen didn't come home the next day, Linda decided to leave.

Opal also explained that her husband had a history of depression.

She insinuates that he's suicidal.

He's taken some pills before in the past and has cut his wrist before.

Now that Stephen's van has been recovered, Detective Bartlett contacts Opal again.

Opal explains that she and her friend Ricky are still in Oklahoma, but haven't found any sign of Stephen.

Detective Bartlett tells her about Stephen's abandoned vehicle and explains that it's unlikely Stephen is headed to Texas and that Opal needs to come back to Indianapolis.

I told her immediately when she gets home that I really need to talk to her and get the statement from her.

She was happy that he called and then happy to turn around and come back to Indianapolis.

Opal promises to meet with detectives as soon as she gets back.

At this point, detectives have more questions than answers.

Has Stevens simply left town to blow off steam?

Or did he and Linda leave together in order to start a new life?

Maybe he just doesn't want to be found.

Maybe he's just,

maybe he's upset.

Maybe he decided he was just wanting to be missing for a few days.

But what about the blood found near the van?

If it turns out to be Stevens, he could be in grave danger.

He could have got attacked by a mugger at the bottom of that river shore.

So

there are other possibilities that could have occurred.

One of those possibilities could be that the blood outside the van is the result of self-inflicted injury.

Before detectives have the chance to track down and question Linda, they get an important call.

We were contacted by the Annapolis Fire Department that stated that there was a report of a person seen a few blocks north on the river that jumped over into the water.

Someone had jumped off the bridge, and it could have been Stevens.

Coming up, startling new evidence surfaces in an unexpected place.

They could see what they thought was the top of a human head.

And more bizarre family secrets are revealed.

Things are falling apart in this house.

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After Stephen Williams goes missing, Indianapolis police discover his van parked under a bridge with a pool of blood outside and possibly more inside.

The evidence suggests Stephen may have been the victim of a violent crime.

But now, detectives are faced with another possibility, that the 52 year old Army veteran and computer programmer took his own life.

Law enforcement was aware of a dispatch of a person or a jumper being seen jumping off a bridge.

I met with Indiana conservation officers and Indianapolis fire department and told them that we were missing a person from Johnson County whose van was found by the river and that if a person had jumped over the into the water that it could have been Stephen.

Maybe Stephen had climbed up the bridge where the van was and jumped in.

We got our ranked officers involved, go all down to this location to find out what exactly we were really dealing with.

We also had a sonar being used, we had holding equipment out.

As the search team scours the river for Stephen's body, investigators receive word that preliminary testing on the substance found in Stephen's van is back.

My evidence technician, after initially getting into it, immediately contacted me and said, hey, there's blood in the back seat.

Not just a little bit of blood, but enough blood for someone to be concerned that something happened in the van.

Opal said Stephen had been suicidal in the past, had tried to cut his wrist.

Had Stephen cut himself in the van before jumping off the bridge.

After they had concluded their search and could not find a person that jumped in the river, and Stephen's not found.

The officers did not find anything in the water, but they do report making an odd discovery along the shoreline.

They had found a roll of carpet down in a homeless camp by the White River, where the van was towed away from.

They found a rolled-up piece of carpet with what they believe to be bloodstain coming from within the rolled-up piece of carpet.

At first, I'm like, what could it be?

It could be a person.

Located about 15 yards from where Stephen's van was originally discovered, the carpet roll had not been visible during the initial search of the area.

Earlier those weeks prior to Stephen being missing, we had some rainfall, and we believe that that carpet had been covered by water at one time.

And when the water receded, the carpet was there.

We peeled some of the carpet back.

The goal was to be confirmation that there was a human being inside of there.

They could see what they thought was the the top of a human head rolled up inside of the carpet.

We then decide not to peel the rest of the carpet back here because in that carpet could lie a lot of evidence.

So the whole piece of carpet, including whoever or whatever is inside that carpet, is picked up and transported into a van to the coroner's office where they can take this carpet apart.

uh very strategically you don't know who or what is exactly rolled up inside of that carpet and so that's why it's important to have the autopsy done.

At the coroner's office, authorities carefully unroll the carpet.

Inside is the body of a middle-aged Caucasian male that fits the general description of Stephen Williams.

His body was still in great physical shape.

The water was cold, so there was not much decay there at all.

We got him positively identified.

It was Stephen Williams.

The autopsy reveals he had suffered a brutal death.

His throat had been cut.

There was also a stab wound to the chest that was observed at the autopsy and seemed to be part of the cause of death.

The cause of manner and death was ruled a homicide due to stab wounds.

The gruesome nature of Stephen's death, coupled with Opal's initial missing persons account, makes investigators wonder, is it possible that after the fight with Opal, Stephen made good on her request that he put an end to his relationship with Linda, and that in turn, Linda had lashed out at Stephen in a jealous rage?

At that time, Linda was still a person of interest.

Detectives track down Linda, who is now back at home with her husband.

Linda appears shocked that Stephen is dead and claims to have no knowledge of what happened.

The conversation with Linda was very, very simple, very plain.

She didn't have a lot of information to offer up to the investigation.

Authorities have no evidence linking Linda to the crime, but they can't take her off the persons of interest list.

Seeking more information, detectives question several of Stephen's family members, including including his daughter Amanda.

They start with a very difficult death notification.

My thing is, I like,

why would you do this?

Like, who done this to my dad?

I sat in the middle of the room and cried in front of the police officers.

He was my best friend.

He was basically my second dad.

And it still hurts.

Family members confirm that Stephen and Opal did try an open marriage, as Opal had mentioned.

But they say it wasn't Stephen's idea.

It was Opal's.

She proposed the

open relationship to him.

They were going to see other people, but still be married and, you know, live together and all that.

The family explains that Opal was the first to seek affection outside the marriage by hooking up with a fellow trucker, 56-year-old Ricky King, the man who, the day after Stephen's disappearance, allegedly accompanied Opal on her search for her husband.

Our boyfriend was a trucker.

I mean, I know she had, you know, she had a quite history with truck drivers.

According to the family, Stephen was initially opposed to the idea of an open marriage.

At first, no.

No, he didn't want to.

He's like, you're my wife.

I don't want to share you with some other guy.

No.

The family says that Linda moved in a few months later, that August.

And that's when Stephen began an affair of his own.

Stephen Williams was having a sexual relationship with Linda.

She lived in the house.

Opal was aware about that.

And she felt that Stephen Williams was more attracted and physically attached to Linda than he was to his own wife.

She was jealous of the second wife in the house.

Things are falling apart in this house.

I think everybody's looking for something that they don't have, and the feelings are getting upset, and it just all starts crumbling down.

Based on this new information, Opal Williams and her alleged paramour, Ricky King, become even more important persons of interest.

The fact that they left town together after Stephen vanished casts an even darker cloud of suspicion over them.

Most family members that report someone missing usually stay at their home waiting for a phone call or for that person to show up.

And in this case, the wife, Opal, had left the state.

Not only had this left the house searching herself, but had left the state, not just one state away, but several states away.

It was a red flag to me and other guys in the office, but you know, sometimes people do things that are strange.

That doesn't necessarily make them guilty.

While investigators wait for Opal and Ricky to return, they pay a visit to Opal's two sons.

Myself and another detective go to the school school to make sure they're going to school, make sure that they're there, make sure that they're doing okay.

What starts as a simple welfare check is about to yield new evidence that will change the investigation.

Coming up, a young boy's statement paints a disturbing picture.

He hears the adults say, we need to go take care of business.

And as the picture of what happened to Stephen Williams becomes clear, authorities race to catch a killer.

We give him an opportunity to flee.

I knew then that the clock was ticking.

Indianapolis authorities believe Opal and Stephen Williams' open marriage might have led to murder.

You've got a relationship, there's husband-wife, and it's starting to fall apart, And then the sister-wife comes in, and it falls apart further.

Awaiting Opal's return to town, detectives meet with her eldest son and ask about the night of March 10th, the night Stephen allegedly disappeared.

Opal's son tells them he had a school play that evening.

In our interview with the child, he states that they all went to Wendy's, excluding Stephen.

The young boy's statement contradicts Opal's story about that night.

He said that Stephen got in a van and he left off at the windows.

Opal's eldest son explains that following the meal, Charlie and Ricky brought Opal and her sons to a relative's house.

Because of all the chaos that's happening, they decided to take the kids to grandma's house for them to spend the night there.

Opal's son says that before the men left, he overheard an ominous exchange between Charlie, Ricky, and Opal.

He says he hears the adults say, we need to go take care of business.

That immediately sends up a red flag as to what did that child hear and what does that mean.

After speaking with the son, Detective Bartlett calls Opal.

He purposefully does not reveal that they've found Stephen's body.

Opal tells me that her and Ricky are coming back into town, and they say that they're coming back about 10 p.m.

I wait, I wait for a phone call, she doesn't call me.

10 p.m.

comes, I don't get a phone call.

12 o'clock comes, I don't get a phone call.

I send our road units deputies over to the house and they're watching it for me to see when they show up and they show up, I think roughly about 2 a.m.

Whole goal was to try to get them in town without them understanding that a body had been recovered, and it worked.

Deputies pick up Ricky and Opal and separate them and transport Tim to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for an interview.

I had to make a decision on who it is that I wanted to interview first

and decided on Opal.

She doesn't know what's going on.

She doesn't know that we found Stephen.

I don't let her know that.

I merely tell her that I really need to talk to her and go over some things.

Detectives ask Opal about Stephen's relationship with Linda.

You would see her face expression change when she spoke about Linda because she did not like Linda at all.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I couldn't take the fact that she was underneath that roof.

It was just really, really, a really, really, really bad situation.

Three days before Christmas in 2014, I gave him an all-time.

It's either her or the kids and I.

And he chose her.

Opal tells detectives she and her sons moved out about that time.

She says that less than a month later, Stephen called and begged her to come home.

He told me Linda had left and that she's gone out of the house.

So

I packed our stuff up in my car

and drove back up here, come to find out she wasn't gone.

Opal claims that even though Linda hadn't moved out, she decided to give her marriage one more shot.

They had reconciled in that time period and decided not to get divorced.

But Opal tells tells detectives that on March 10th, the night of her son's play, Stephen did something she felt was the final straw.

They're all at the play.

She's upset with Stephen Williams for not going to the play.

Stephen decided not to go.

He stayed behind in the home with Linda.

Opal claims she demanded Stephen meet her at the fast food restaurant so she could give him a peace of her mind.

An argument ensued and Stephen drove off.

She asked Ricky to take her over to another relative's house, the grandmother of Charlie Laban.

And she went over there and she complained about Stephen Williams not wanting to leave the house to go to the play and that he's having this affair with Linda and it's more in love with Linda than what he is with Opal.

Opal claims that at that point, Ricky and Charlie started making what she believed were empty threats.

We already take take care of business.

We're going to take care of Stevens.

He's not treating Opal right.

And we're going to take care of this.

Opal says before they left, she warned Ricky to keep his anger in check.

At the time, they want to go to leave.

I told her, I says, Rick, don't do anything stupid.

The men drove off.

Opal says that a few hours later, she got a disturbing phone call.

Opal explained to me that

Charlie called back and said it was done.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

Exactly, what are you talking about?

Because I didn't know.

I didn't know what was going on that night.

Charlie explained that he stabbed Stephen Williams in the chest.

Opal Williams has just admitted that she has been aware of her husband's death and has been lying to authorities since her first call to 911.

But according to Opal, she had nothing to do with Steven's murder, and Charlie and Ricky had acted on their own.

I don't know what was going through Charlie's head.

I don't know what was going through Rick's head.

There was some minimizing that was taking place on Opal's behalf.

She was trying to even manipulate me.

Whether she realizes it or not, Opal's statement incriminates her in the crime.

Opal had now given me information of how she was involved in the murder of her husband.

Detectives keep Opal in custody and turn their attention to Ricky King.

I interviewed Ricky King.

Ricky King's statement was fairly in line with Opal Williams.

While detectives believe they are finally getting to the bottom of what happened to Stephen Williams, they aren't convinced they have the full story.

And there's still one more suspect to chase down.

I stepped outside the room and I instructed law enforcement officers to get involved in the search for Charlie Lehman.

I knew then that the clock was ticking and that I could not take another day to get Charlie in because it would give him an opportunity to flee once he learned that someone had been taken into custody.

Coming up, detectives get a glimpse into the final harrowing moments of Stephen Williams' life.

He's dying, but he's on the phone with his wife.

At the Indianapolis Police Department, Opal Williams has just told detectives that her cousin, Charlie Layman, killed her husband, Stephen Williams.

And Opal's lover, Ricky King, has admitted to being involved in the murder.

Investigators have already determined that Linda, who'd once had an affair with Stephen, was not involved in the murder in any way, which leaves 20-year-old Charlie Layman as the only suspect who's unaccounted for.

Detectives quickly track down Charlie and bring him in for questioning.

Charlie tells investigators Opal begged him and Ricky to help her get rid of Stephen.

Opal had convinced him that Stephen Williams had battered her, that she was a domestic violence victim.

According to Charlie, Opal said she would make it worthwhile for him and Ricky.

She told them that Stephen Williams had a $100,000 life insurance policy, and she would share it if they carried out taking care of Stephen Williams.

Charlie admits that he agreed to do it for two reasons.

He was upset because he believed that opal had been battered in the possible financial gain of the insurance policy according to charlie ricky king also agreed to opal's offer he was in love with opal and when you're in love let's be honest you'll do anything for love

you'd do anything stupid or not

charlie explains that the three of them came up with a plan to lure Stephen to his death on March 10th, 2015.

They called

Stephen Williams, the victim, and made it seem as if Oprah had been hurt and they need to come and pick him up.

Charlie says that when he and Ricky arrived, Stephen grew suspicious of their story and did not want to go.

Stephen wasn't buying.

And at that point in time, there was no turning back.

He was forced into the van.

Charlie tells detectives Ricky drove Stephen's van while Charlie brutalized Stephen.

Charles beat him up in the back of the van.

And that's where the blood came from, is during the altercation in the backseat of the van.

Charlie explains that Ricky parked the van under the bridge near the White River.

When they pulled Stephen out, Charlie stabbed him in the chest.

When Stephen didn't die right away, the men reached out to Opal.

They called Opal and told him what they were preparing to do.

Stephen knew at that point in time that they were getting ready to take his life.

He was consciously aware that this was getting ready to happen.

He was actually

pleading for his life over the phone with Opal Williams.

You got a guy being stabbed down by the river.

He's dying, but he's on the phone with his wife talking to her.

Opal had one last chance to call things off.

She did the opposite.

You had Opal saying, Charlie, you need to do it.

You need to go ahead and take care of business.

Charles takes that as an order to kill Stephen and goes and slashes Stephen's throat,

killing him.

According to Charlie, the two men tried to cover their tracks using a roll of carpet they found near the river.

Ricky King and Charlie together rolled Stephen Williams up into the carpet.

They threw the carpet into the river.

Then they went home, they got their story together, and that's when Opal decided to call and report her husband missing.

Charlie's confession makes one thing clear.

Opal Williams wasn't just aware of Stephen's murder.

She was the mastermind behind it.

Opal's the ring leader.

She orchestrated everything.

Never in my wildest dream,

did I think that they would have killed him.

It was a little unusual.

I never had a case quite like this where someone in a family's ordering up a murder like this.

Authorities formally charge Charlie Lehman, Ricky King, and Opal Williams in connection with the murder.

Investigators never found any evidence of Stephen being abusive and believe that Opal made it up to get Charlie and Ricky to kill.

While in custody, Opal maintains her innocence.

I did not have anything to do with it.

I didn't have any say in it.

However, as her trial approaches, Opal feels the weight of the evidence against her.

I pled out, yeah, because I was scared.

I was scared.

Opal Williams pleads guilty to murder, and in February 2016, a judge sentences her to 50 years in the Indiana Department of Correction prison system.

Charlie Layman also pleads guilty to murder and receives 55 years in prison.

Ricky King pleads out as well and earns a 45-year sentence.

For those caught in the wake of Opal's crime, why she did what she did is still difficult to comprehend.

Why would you do that to my dad?

Because I thought you loved him.

I thought you cared about the family.

She was angry.

She was in actual enrage over Linda.

She was jealous over Linda.

She was in love with Ricky.

And I think she wanted to start another relationship.

She wanted Stephen out of the picture.

There's such a shock that all that happened.

He was a good dad.

He's a good father to his kids.

And he he was a good brother.

And I miss him.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our town.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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