friends that if anything happened to her, that allen had something to do with it. allen denied any involvement in judy s murder. however, he clearly had a motive. judy was seeing another man. and if judy were to die, allen would gain sole custody of their son in addition to her life insurance. but he had no history of violence and didn t own a .9 millimeter handgun. i understand people s suspicions. there was nothing other than a husband and a wife who are having troubles. lord knows if every marriage that i just described resulted in homicide, we d have to build a lot more cemeteries than we have. investigators were perplexed and turned to the note found at the murder scene. although the signature was illegible, the name at the top of the note was clear, melanie binney. since the note was addressed to my wife, melanie,
it appeared that the killer fired twice. one bullet hit judy in the abdomen, the other missed. the shot that took place in the hallway traveled across the hall and actually lodged in an adjacent bedroom in the box spring. and we believe that is the shot that struck judy. when investigators searched through the crime scene, they discovered something unexpected in allen southern s private office. once inside the house, we discovered a recording device on the phones. allen had been recording phone conversations on the home phone out of his suspicions for an ongoing affair. police soon learned that relations between allen and judy southern were extraordinarily strained. marital discord was well documented between judy and allen. recorded phone calls is unusual. it is a sign of a troublesome marriage. judy s twin sister said both
which he did it. there were cigarette butts everywhere, and they weren t the brand that either allen or judy smoked. which would lead one to conclude or at least need to investigate whether or not the assailant left those cigarette butts, because it was a different brand. there was no sign of forced entry. from shell casings at the scene, the murder weapon was a .9-millimeter handgun. in the yard near judy s body was a crumpled note. this is for my wife, melanie. i love you. sorry it had to end like this. i leave everything that i have to my loving, caring wife. the note was signed jonathan, but his last name was hard to decipher. it looked like binney or barry. judy had mentioned this name to her husband before she died. does she know who shot her? she gave me a name of
because he said he would be somebody s bitch in prison, that he wanted to go as a murderer. binney said he didn t know the southern family and that allen had nothing to do with the murder. based on the forensic evidence and his confession, binney chose the southerns home at random while driving down the street on his moped. he entered the empty home through an unlocked window, then cut the phone lines. since his intent was murder, he would have killed whoever came home, and he had no way of knowing whether it would be allen, judy, or their 5-year-old child. while waiting, the evidence shows he had some lunch, went through the family s personal belongings, and even took a shower. judy came home at 3:30 from her mail carrier job and probably found binney s suicide note.
at the scene of judy southern s murder, investigators found a suicide note addressed to, my wife, melanie binney. and on the note was her address, just a few miles from the southerns home. a background check revealed melanie s husband, 26-year-old jonathan binney, had recently been arrested. jonathan binney is out on bond for the rape of his 3-month-old daughter. in the suicide note, binney said he planned to kill himself because the thought of going to prison for the rape of his child was too much for him to bear. the pressure i am or was under was intense. i couldn t deal with it. certainly found it to be a vital piece of evidence in the case. knew that we would be able to get handwriting analysis.