If You Leave, I'll Kill You

0:00 Speaker 1: The grave beneath the dead tree. The laughter echoed through

0:03 Speaker 1: the room as family members passed food around the table.

0:07 Speaker 1: Children ran between chairs, adults exchanged stories, and Christmas lights

0:12 Speaker 1: glowed softly against the walls. Hey, what sucks do you want?

0:16 Speaker 1: Someone called from across the room. In the middle of

0:18 Speaker 1: it all sat Jackie Waller, smiling as she prepared to

0:22 Speaker 1: celebrate her thirty ninth birthday the next day. To anyone watching,

0:26 Speaker 1: she looked happy. No one could have imagined that six

0:29 Speaker 1: months later Jackie would be dead, and even fewer could

0:33 Speaker 1: have imagined who would be responsible. Jackie Waller was the

0:37 Speaker 1: kind of mother who seemed born for the role. Living

0:40 Speaker 1: in Saint Genevieve, Missouri, she balanced a demanding career with

0:44 Speaker 1: raising three energetic children, triplets she adored more than anything

0:49 Speaker 1: in the world. Her sister, Cheryl hadn't always been close

0:52 Speaker 1: to her. Cheryl had married young and was already raising

0:56 Speaker 1: children while Jackie was still growing up. But everything changed

0:59 Speaker 1: when Jackie became pregnant. The pregnancy created a bond between

1:04 Speaker 1: the sisters that had never existed before. We were stuck

1:07 Speaker 1: together at the hip, Cheryl would later say, for the

1:11 Speaker 1: first time in their lives. They truly understood each other. Unfortunately,

1:15 Speaker 1: as Cheryl grew closer to Jackie, she also learned more

1:19 Speaker 1: about Jackie's husband, Clay Waller, and what she learned worried her.

1:24 Speaker 1: Clay was awkward and socially strange. He had a speech

1:27 Speaker 1: impediment and often came across as insecure. Jackie frequently defended him,

1:33 Speaker 1: telling people she felt sorry for him and needed to

1:35 Speaker 1: take care of him. But Jackie's family saw something else.

1:39 Speaker 1: Her father disliked Clay from the moment they met. There

1:42 Speaker 1: was something about him that felt wrong. Even former colleagues

1:46 Speaker 1: from the Sheriff's Department, where Clay had briefly worked as

1:49 Speaker 1: a deputy, described him as deceptive. Over the years, Clay

1:54 Speaker 1: bounced from job to job, unable to maintain stability. Jackie

1:59 Speaker 1: meanwhile became the family's provider. She worked long hours at

2:03 Speaker 1: a major insurance company while simultaneously raising three children, and

2:07 Speaker 1: according to those closest to her, she was essentially raising

2:11 Speaker 1: a fourth Clay. Jackie handled nearly everything, the diapers, the feedings,

2:17 Speaker 1: the sleepless nights, the school responsibilities, the bills, the house.

2:23 Speaker 1: Clay contributed very little. Friends and family said he rarely

2:27 Speaker 1: helped with the triplets at all. Yet Jackie kept going

2:31 Speaker 1: because that's what she did. She loved her children fiercely.

2:35 Speaker 1: Even when life became overwhelming, she laughed through it. But

2:39 Speaker 1: behind closed doors, the marriage was collapsing. Jackie confided in

2:44 Speaker 1: Cheryl that Clay had repeatedly cheated on her. Every time

2:47 Speaker 1: she confronted him, he denied everything. Worse, she claimed he

2:51 Speaker 1: had become emotionally and physically abusive. Eventually, she decided she

2:56 Speaker 1: wanted a divorce, but she was terrified. She knew leaving

3:00 Speaker 1: an abusive relationship could be dangerous, so she began planning carefully, slowly, quietly,

3:08 Speaker 1: trying to protect herself and her children. What she didn't

3:11 Speaker 1: know was that Clay was already planning to By late

3:15 Speaker 1: twenty ten, Jackie had started documenting everything on her work computer.

3:20 Speaker 1: She kept a diary, a record of threats, warnings, promises

3:24 Speaker 1: of violence. One entry described the moment she told Clay

3:28 Speaker 1: she intended to divorce him. He responded, chillingly, I have

3:32 Speaker 1: a feeling one of us won't be around to watch

3:35 Speaker 1: our kids grow up. Months later, another entry appeared, he

3:40 Speaker 1: told me a divorce would be my death sentence. Then

3:43 Speaker 1: came the most horrifying one. If I couldn't get you,

3:47 Speaker 1: Clay allegedly said I would kill the kids. Jackie wasn't

3:51 Speaker 1: just afraid, she believed him. One day, she looked Cheryl

3:55 Speaker 1: directly in the eyes. I know what he's capable of.

3:59 Speaker 1: Then she said something that would haunt her sister forever.

4:02 Speaker 1: I just don't want to be dead. Spring arrived. Then

4:06 Speaker 1: something unexpected happened. Clay lost another job, the family lost

4:11 Speaker 1: their house. To Jackie, it felt like freedom. She moved

4:15 Speaker 1: out with the triplets and into Cheryl's home. Clay moved

4:19 Speaker 1: over an hour away to Jackson, Missouri. For the first

4:22 Speaker 1: time in years, Jackie could breathe. Both of them started

4:26 Speaker 1: seeing other people. The separation seemed to be moving forward peacefully.

4:31 Speaker 1: Jackie even told Cheryl she thought they'd finally turned a corner.

4:34 Speaker 1: Maybe Clay was accepting the divorce, maybe the nightmare was ending.

4:39 Speaker 1: She couldn't have been more wrong. June first, twenty eleven,

4:44 Speaker 1: it was supposed to be an ordinary day. Jackie met

4:47 Speaker 1: Clay at their attorney's office to discuss final divorce arrangements.

4:51 Speaker 1: Their son, Maddox, had supposedly spent the weekend with his

4:54 Speaker 1: father after the meeting, Jackie called Cheryl. I'm pulling up

4:59 Speaker 1: to Clay's she said, said, I'm going to grab Maddox

5:02 Speaker 1: and then I'll be home. Those were the last words

5:05 Speaker 1: Cheryl ever heard from her sister. Hours passed, Jackie never returned.

5:10 Speaker 1: By evening, Cheryl's stomach was tied in knots something was wrong.

5:15 Speaker 1: She repeatedly called Jackie's phone, no answer, Then she called

5:19 Speaker 1: Clay nothing. Finally, she left a message, if I don't

5:24 Speaker 1: hear from my sister in five minutes, I'm going to

5:27 Speaker 1: the police. Moments later, Clay called back, Hey, Cheryl, what's

5:32 Speaker 1: going on? She exploded, You know exactly what's going on.

5:36 Speaker 1: Where is my sister. You've done something to her. Clay

5:40 Speaker 1: remained calm. If I see her, I'll tell her to

5:43 Speaker 1: call you. Then he hung up. Cheryl didn't hesitate. She

5:48 Speaker 1: drove straight to the Jackson Police Department. The moment she

5:51 Speaker 1: walked through the doors, she made a declaration, I know

5:55 Speaker 1: Clay Waller killed my sister. Most missing person cases don't

5:59 Speaker 1: receive ve immediate attention. This one did. Something felt wrong

6:04 Speaker 1: from the beginning. Investigators quickly questioned Clay. His story was bizarre.

6:09 Speaker 1: He claimed Jackie had come to his house voluntarily. They talked,

6:14 Speaker 1: taken a nap together, argued, then she simply walked away,

6:18 Speaker 1: left on foot, disappeared. Detectives weren't buying it. Then they

6:23 Speaker 1: found Jackie's abandoned car beside an interstate highway. One tire

6:28 Speaker 1: was flat. The first glance, it looked like a roadside breakdown,

6:32 Speaker 1: but experts quickly determined the tire had been punctured while

6:35 Speaker 1: the vehicle was stationary. The scene was staged. Someone wanted

6:40 Speaker 1: police looking in the wrong direction. Search warrants followed. Investigators

6:45 Speaker 1: examined Clay's truck and the home where he was staying.

6:48 Speaker 1: Inside the house, something immediately stood out. The hallway carpet

6:52 Speaker 1: was missing, gone torn up, yet strange stains remained on

6:57 Speaker 1: the walls. Evidence markers quickly filled the hallway. Something violent

7:02 Speaker 1: had happened there. Then investigators discovered a crawl space beneath

7:06 Speaker 1: the floorboards. An FBI agent squeezed inside. Moments later, he

7:11 Speaker 1: emerged with astonishing news. The missing carpet was hidden underneath

7:15 Speaker 1: the house, cut into pieces, soaked with blood. Laboratory testing

7:20 Speaker 1: confirmed the worst The blood belonged to Jackie Waller. Investigators

7:25 Speaker 1: now believed she was dead, but they still had no body,

7:29 Speaker 1: and without a body, proving murder would be difficult. Meanwhile,

7:33 Speaker 1: Clay seemed almost amused. He taunted search teams, mocked volunteers,

7:39 Speaker 1: drove by organized searches, and laughed. Whenever investigators tracked him,

7:44 Speaker 1: he led them on wild goose chases. He appeared to

7:47 Speaker 1: enjoy the attention. Then he made a mistake. While Cheryl

7:51 Speaker 1: cared for the triplets, Clay posted an online threat directed

7:55 Speaker 1: at her. The message was unmistakable. Federal authorities stepped in.

8:00 Speaker 1: Months after Jackie vanished, Clay was arrested, not for murder,

8:05 Speaker 1: for threatening Cheryl's life. Still, prosecutors knew it was only

8:09 Speaker 1: a matter of time. They kept building their case, peace

8:13 Speaker 1: by peace, blood evidence, surveillance, footage, witness statements, threats, lies.

8:20 Speaker 1: Every stone was turned over for nearly two years. Finally

8:25 Speaker 1: prosecutors were ready. Clay Waller was charged with murder. Yet

8:30 Speaker 1: one major obstacle remained. Jackie's body had never been found.

8:34 Speaker 1: The family wanted justice, but they wanted something else even more.

8:39 Speaker 1: They wanted Jackie to come home. So when Clay's attorneys

8:42 Speaker 1: proposed a plea agreement, prosecutors listened. Clay would plead guilty.

8:47 Speaker 1: In return, he would reveal where he buried Jackie. The

8:51 Speaker 1: location wasn't unfamiliar, a remote Mississippi River sandbar known as

8:57 Speaker 1: Devil's Island. Investigators had searched it before more than once,

9:02 Speaker 1: and now Clay was leading them back. Even then, they

9:05 Speaker 1: didn't trust him. He couldn't even identify the exact burial spot.

9:10 Speaker 1: She's somewhere around here, he said. Then detectives remembered a

9:14 Speaker 1: strange detail from his confession. Clay said he had dumped

9:18 Speaker 1: fertilizer onto Jackie's grave. Too much fertilizer can kill trees.

9:22 Speaker 1: Investigators scanned the landscape. Three trees stood nearby, Two were healthy,

9:29 Speaker 1: one was completely dead. The ground beneath it was excavated.

9:33 Speaker 1: Soon investigators felt something human remains. Jackie Waller had finally

9:39 Speaker 1: been found, buried beneath a dead tree, didden for nearly

9:43 Speaker 1: two years. The discovery brought closure, but it also brought

9:47 Speaker 1: unimaginable heartbreak. Cheryl had to sit down with the triplets

9:52 Speaker 1: and explain the truth. Their mother was dead, their father

9:56 Speaker 1: had killed her. Everyone cried. There were no words sufficient

10:00 Speaker 1: for a moment like that, only promises, promises that they

10:04 Speaker 1: would be loved, protected, raised in a home where they

10:08 Speaker 1: would never again fear violence. As part of his plea deal,

10:12 Speaker 1: Clay had to confess on camera. What emerged was chilling.

10:16 Speaker 1: He admitted threatening Jackie long before the murder. If you

10:20 Speaker 1: take those kids from me, he told her, I'm going

10:23 Speaker 1: to kill you. He admitted digging her grave the day

10:26 Speaker 1: before she died. He admitted striking her, strangling her, loading

10:31 Speaker 1: her body into a trash can, transporting her corpse in

10:35 Speaker 1: the back of his truck, then meeting his girlfriend and

10:38 Speaker 1: son afterward as if nothing had happened. Yet, even during

10:42 Speaker 1: his confession, he minimized his actions, blamed Jackie, claimed it

10:47 Speaker 1: wasn't premeditated, despite having already dug the grave. Few believed

10:52 Speaker 1: his version of events. The evidence told a far darker story.

10:57 Speaker 1: Many were outraged by the sentence. Twenty years for murder

11:01 Speaker 1: seemed inadequate, But fate wasn't finished with Clay Waller. During

11:06 Speaker 1: his confession, he revealed something important. He had crossed state

11:10 Speaker 1: lines to commit the crime. That detail allowed federal prosecutors

11:15 Speaker 1: to charge him under the Interstate Domestic Violence Act. The

11:18 Speaker 1: result was devastating for him. An additional thirty five year

11:23 Speaker 1: federal sentence to be served after his murder sentence, a

11:27 Speaker 1: total punishment that would likely keep him imprisoned for the

11:30 Speaker 1: rest of his life. Years later, the deepest wounds remain.

11:35 Speaker 1: The triplets grew older, their aunt Cheryl and her husband Bob,

11:39 Speaker 1: officially adopted them. Together, they built a new family from

11:43 Speaker 1: unimaginable tragedy. The children still remember their mother, her kindness,

11:49 Speaker 1: her laughter, her love. Maddocks especially remembers standing in court

11:53 Speaker 1: and facing the man who destroyed their family. You killed

11:57 Speaker 1: our mom, he told his father. Undo that, and he

12:01 Speaker 1: was right. Nothing can undo it. Nothing can bring Jackie

12:05 Speaker 1: Waller back. But the woman buried beneath a dead tree

12:09 Speaker 1: is no longer a mystery. Her story survived, her children survived,

12:14 Speaker 1: and despite everything Clay Waller tried to take from them,

12:18 Speaker 1: love survived too. That, in the end, is something he

12:21 Speaker 1: could never bury.