CHAPTER 31

While attorneys for the Headricks, the Daltons, State Farm and Woodmen of the World were presenting their cases to the courts to determine the true beneficiary of Carolyn Headrick’s life insurance policies, Investigator Rhonda Jackson and her team had been poring over Randy Headrick’s alibi yet again, hoping to find a weak spot that might have been previously overlooked. The coworker who had vouched for Headrick, the man who said he had worked with him from 12:45 until 3:00 P.M. on July 7, 1995, was asked and had agreed voluntarily to take a polygraph exam at the TBI office in Chattanooga. On September 30, 1996, he went with investigators Jackson and Phillips to the office, where he made a written statement prior to the test. The man waived his right to legal counsel and confirmed that he was undergoing the polygraph voluntarily. He also verbally answered the three key questions that he would later be asked during the test:

1. Was Randy with you on July 7, 1995, from 12:45 until 3:00 P.M.? The man answered, “Yes.”

2. Has Randy ever told you that he committed these murders? The answer was, “No.”

3. Are you withholding any information concerning these murders? The man answered that he was not, but then added something that he had forgotten to tell the investigators when he was first questioned.

“On the day of the murders, while Randy and I were loading the truck, Randy told me that he was fixing to come into enough money to retire on,” the man said. “I told him I knew where he worked and he wasn’t going to be able to do it from there. Randy looked kinda funny and didn’t say any more about it. The reason I didn’t tell you about this when I was interviewed the first time was that I didn’t remember it.”

The man then took the polygraph test, after which the examiner concluded that he was telling the truth and was not practicing deception when answering the relevant questions. It was also determined that he had not lied in any of the statements he had given to the DeKalb County sheriff’s investigators. His truthfulness had been verified, and his willingness to cooperate was proven, but nothing else had been brought forward that could help to put Headrick’s alibi in doubt.

As had been the case in the previous year, the holiday season brought a much-increased workload for the investigators, as well as all the sheriff’s personnel. Home burglaries, domestic violence, house fires and intoxicated drivers kept the Headrick case temporarily moved to the back burner during the holiday season, which, unfortunately, seemed to be less joyous for some than for others. But Carolyn and Dora Ann remained in the forefront of Rhonda Jackson’s thoughts every day, and in her prayers each night. She was determined never to give up until she could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Headrick was guilty of their murders. She was certain in her heart that he was responsible for the deaths of his wife and mother-in-law, and she believed that eventually God would provide that vital, key piece of evidence that would bring justice for his two victims.