In a Missouri bar altercation, a man lost his life. His identical daughters' podcast aided in making an arrest related to the incident after a lapse of 35 years.
Martin's battered corpse was uncovered in a close-by street during the early hours of the morning. According to officials, he received a lethal strike to the head during a pub brawl that escalated outside.
His 11-year-old twin daughters, Angela Williams and Andrea Lynn, found out about their father's tragic demise when they were abruptly awakened during a slumber party at a family friend's camper. Martin had promised to take them to a yard sale that day.
In the ensuing weeks, the twins would ride their pink bicycles to local newsstands to read about their father's passing. Their small town of 6,000 people, renowned for its extensive lead mines, saw such infrequent homicides that they commanded front-page headlines.
A suspect was apprehended for Martin's murder but was released when the charges against him were dropped just days before his trial, the twins recalled.
As the months turned into years without any further arrests, some witnesses passed away, while others vacated the town. The case was left unsolved.
The sisters questioned why justice was taking so long for a crime that took place near a popular watering hole and had numerous witnesses.
By 2007, the twins had turned 29, the same age their father was when he passed away. Their yearning for answers took on a new sense of urgency and significance.
“That’s when it hit me how young he actually was at the time,” Lynn said. “Because when you’re 11, 29 seems so old. And then when you actually get to 29, you realize, wow, he was so young.”
They contacted local authorities to reopen the case but claimed they never received a response. Determined, they gathered the autopsy report, police reports, and coroner's records, and organized them in a binder they named "Jimmie's Bible." They visited residents and pleaded with anyone who might have information to come forward.
“If we saw a name in the report, heard a name mentioned, or heard a rumor about something that happened that night, we would just show up at someone’s house and say, ‘Will you please talk to us?’ ” Williams said.
In late 2020—31 years after their father's homicide—the twins and their two cousins, Shawn Lee Martin and Chris Hulsey, launched a podcast called “Small Town Forgotten” to share the information they had collected.
A few months later, the St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney's office announced it was reopening the case.
This month, police apprehended a man, Wesley Paul Marler, 69, who has been charged with assault in the first degree and has pleaded not guilty.
Their father’s murder had a profound impact on the twins' perception of Friday the 13th
Bonne Terre, a small city located about 60 miles south of St. Louis, was a tranquil place at the time of the murder, with only one traffic light. Everyone knew one another, and loyalties ran deep among the locals, the sisters said.
Their father was killed on Friday the 13th, a day that cemented the twins' belief in the negative connotations and conspiracy theories surrounding the date.
“Since then, I’m very superstitious about Friday the 13th,” Williams said. “I try not to do much on that day.”
Marler, the latest suspect, is being held on a $500,000 bond. According to his attorney, the case is unique due to the passage of time.
“Many of the witnesses of the incident are now deceased, memories are not as sharp and reliable after 35 years, and any physical evidence that was gathered has been sitting for 35 years,” attorney Christopher G. Hartmann said in an email.
“We believe that when all of the evidence has been presented and reviewed, Mr. Marler will be exonerated on this charge and his innocence will become evident.”
However, the twins are convinced that the evidence points to Marler, who was present at the Coal Bin Tavern that night. In speaking to Bonne Terre residents, they learned that Marler had accused their father of having an affair with his wife. The twins said their parents were experiencing marital difficulties and had separated at the time.
The twins, now 46 years old and living in the nearby town of Farmington, initially believed that the man arrested in 1989 and released before trial had killed their father and managed to evade prosecution. However, this belief began to unravel after they spoke to residents and learned about their father's tense history with Marler, they said. Approximately a month before the fatal altercation, the two men had engaged in a physical altercation, Lynn claimed.
In November 2020, the sisters made an appeal on their podcast.
“Please, if you know anything ... It’s not like he got sick and died at the hospital,” Lynn said, her voice trembling. “He lay on the side of the street and bled to death. If it were me, I don’t think I could live with myself if I knew something.”
Hartmann declined to comment on his client's alleged tense history with Martin or a presumed motive.
“Once all the evidence has been presented in the courtroom, and in the court of public opinion, my client’s innocence will be shown,” he said.
With their help, the twins traced their dad's last moments. They discovered that the dispute began in the bar and then moved outside.
"They chased each other ... and they went through some people's yard and ended up on the next street over," Williams stated. "It was such a major bar fight ... I feel like there were numerous brawls that night."
The initial suspect was an outsider visiting nearby relatives at the time. He informed the twins that he observed a fight and picked up a roadside landscaping timber. He swung it around to attempt to halt the fight, striking an unidentified individual.
He later reported the occurrence to the authorities and confessed to striking someone. The man was detained despite not matching the witnesses' description of the assailant, as per the twins.
When the investigators displayed a photo of Martin during the preliminary hearing, he informed them that it wasn't the individual he'd struck, the sisters claimed.
He had a criminal background for drug possession and minor infractions, and he had admitted to striking someone - which made him an attractive suspect.
"They were like, yeah, he confessed. He did it," Williams said. "He was from out of town. You could see the tunnel vision in the police reports. It was an election year, and it was more convenient to pin it on him."
The twins also visited the bar's former location and the spot where their father's body was found. It was enclosed by houses, but none of the neighbors intervened that night.
"Witness statements said the residents were watching out of the windows. They never turned on any lights," Lynn said.
"It was chilling knowing that was the last place he was," she added, struggling to hold back tears.
The autopsy showed that Martin suffered multiple blows that fractured his skull, but he had no defensive wounds. In the podcast, the coroner who conducted the autopsy stated that he was likely struck from behind and lost consciousness.
"That was a difficult one for me, knowing that they struck him from behind, so he had no opportunity to defend himself," Lynn said.
The sisters stated that their father didn't usually initiate conflicts but wasn't one to back down either. They recounted an incident where someone made an inappropriate comment to their mother while he was present.
"Those two guys, my father knocked both of them out and was like, 'Come on, Babe, get in the truck. Let's go.'” Lynn said. “The individuals who killed him probably struck him from behind because they didn't want to confront him face-to-face. They knew he could hold his own."
After three decades, the sisters finally received the call they had been waiting for
After years of ambiguity, the sisters received a call in February 2021 informing them that the case was being reopened. The St. Francois County prosecuting attorney at the time, Melissa Gilliam, told local media that the sisters’ podcast “was a conduit that brought the case to our attention.”
"New leads have emerged in the case and investigators are diligently working to uncover information that could lead to charging the person responsible for Martin’s death," Gilliam said in a 2021 statement.
The county chose a new prosecuting attorney in 2022. CNN has contacted them to determine what role the podcast played in the arrest.
Earlier this month, the sisters got the call they had longed for years: Authorities had arrested Marler and charged him with assaulting their father.
"Thank goodness I was off work, because I couldn’t handle all the emotions that went through me," Lynn said. "I laughed. I cried. I screamed. Just emotions everywhere."
Williams said her limbs trembled for hours after receiving the news. "You would be on cloud nine one second, and then crying the next," she said.
It remains unclear why prosecutors did not charge Marler with murder. They failed to respond to CNN's inquiries for comment.
The sisters claim they hope justice is finally being served after years of feeling defeated. They still mourn their father's absence, as he didn't live long enough to see them grow up, marry, or meet his grandchildren. They yearn for the person who took him away from them to be brought to justice.
Their most fond memories of their father involve shared activities. He was trim and athletic, and he would execute random backflips in their backyard, they said. He'd dive into the public pool with such confidence that strangers gathered to watch him and applaud, Lynn said.
For the sisters, justice means finally learning the truth about what transpired that night. They believe their podcast has played a significant role in reopening the case.
"We were not intimidated by anyone just because they killed our dad," Williams said. "They should be intimated by us."
The twins regularly shared their father's story with their friends and family, expressing their hope that justice would be served for "us."
As they delved deeper into the investigation, they recognized the importance of their role in bringing attention to the case, stating, "We were not intimidated by anyone just because they killed our dad. They should be intimated by us."
