Before dawn on February 6th, 2017, a resident of a small town in North Florida headed to her daughter’s home after the young woman failed to show up for work and didn’t bring her toddler son to relatives as expected. There was no car in the driveway. The front door was locked. When the woman finally managed to get inside, she found her 29-year-old daughter in the children’s room.
Her hands were tied with shoelaces and her body had been secured to a dresser with a makeshift rope. She had a gunshot wound to the head, but she was still breathing. While paramedics fought to save her life, law enforcement was already searching for the person believed to be responsible not only for this attack, but for a series of escalating crimes.
Less than a week earlier, two women had been shot and killed inside a motel room. A few days after that, another woman was murdered in her own driveway. Police believed all of these cases were connected. The main suspect was a 44year-old man with a long history of violence who was now on the run, but there was someone else involved, too.
A woman who was initially believed to be a hostage. Yet, the more evidence investigators uncovered, the more they began to ask a different question. Was she truly just trying to survive alongside a killer, or had she been helping him stay free the entire time? As law enforcement searched the forests of Florida and tracked the pair across state lines, no one knew how many more lives might still be in danger.
Hey guys, let me grab you for just a second. I’m really curious where my audience is watching from. So, I’d love for you to drop a comment and tell me what city you’re in and what time it is for you right now. Thanks for taking a moment. Go ahead and share that in the comments. And now let’s keep going. During the week at the beginning of February 2017, communities across North Florida as well as southern parts of Georgia and Alabama lived in fear of a killer who was still on the run. One local sheriff described
the case as exactly the kind of situation law enforcement dreads most, a known murderer who selects his victims in a random and unpredictable way. As the suspect continued to evade capture, it increasingly appeared that he might not be alone. Police were tracking the movements of a couple crossing state lines.
As investigators followed their trail, they began to ask themselves a difficult question. Was his companion actually a hostage or was she an accomplice? Milton is the administrative center of Santa Rosa County in the state of Florida. Located just north of Pensacola, it sits close to the coastline and not far from the border with Alabama.
In its early years, Milton had a reputation as an extremely dangerous place. Judges from Escambia County would often sent its offenders to serve their time in Milton, which led local residents to nickname the town Helltown. On January 31st, 2017, Milton was under a bright sun with clear, cloudless skies. In the early morning hours, a guest at the Emerald Sands Innotel contacted security after hearing about six gunshots coming from a nearby room.
A front desk employee went to check on the situation and approached the room door. After stepping inside and seeing what had happened, she immediately called 911. Hello. Hello. What’s going on? Um, I had a guest call me tell me that they heard m what they thought they heard multiple gunshots. So, I grabbed my key and I went down there and I knocked three different times like I was supposed to and all I did was put the key in the door, open the door, and I see her laying halfway in the bathroom, him laying in the bed, and everything’s
covered in blood. How many gunshots did you hear? Uh, they said they said five to seven. Are they dead? I don’t know, ma’am. I didn’t walk to them. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered two victims. 30-year-old mother of three, Alicia Greer, and her close friend, 39-year-old Jacquellyn Moore.
Both women had been shot inside the motel room with the same firearm, likely by a single shooter. It didn’t take detectives long to identify the main suspect. When checking into the room, which was registered under Jacquine’s name, Alicia had told motel staff that she was hiding from a dangerous ex-boyfriend. Alicia’s father, Wayne Lane, explained that a few months earlier, his daughter had started dating a man named William Billy Boyette.
Billy was already well known to local law enforcement with a long history of violence, especially against women. The grieving father couldn’t understand what his daughter had seen in him at first. They had met and begun dating right before Thanksgiving. Friends had warned Alicia that Billy was far from the charming prince she thought he was.
Unfortunately, she didn’t recognize the red flags her friends saw immediately. About a week before her death, Alicia was violently assaulted by Billy during a jealous rage, leaving her hospitalized with head and neck injuries. According to the police report she later filed, Billy accused her of cheating, physically restrained her inside her own home, and then stole her vehicle.
She pressed multiple charges against him. Fearing retaliation, Alicia left the hospital and initially moved in with her mother before later relocating to Emerald Sands with her friend Jacqueline. But less than 36 hours after being discharged, Billy tracked her down. Police suspicions about Billy Boyette’s involvement grew stronger after a witness reported seeing a man matching his description outside the women’s motel room just before the shots were fired.
Investigators also discovered that his mother had rented a black SUV, which was also seen near Emerald Sands that same day. Later DNA analysis from the motel room confirmed that Billy had been there. At that point, this was no longer a who did it case. The only question left was where Billy Boyette had fled. Alicia Greer and 39year-old Jacquelyn Moore.
Their bodies were found Tuesday morning inside a motel room at the Emerald Sands Inn. Deputies are looking for William Boyette Jr., a person of interest in the case. He’s considered armed and dangerous. Public outrage quickly erupted over how such a dangerous offender had been allowed to remain free. 44year-old Billy Boyette had previously faced multiple accusations of violent crimes, including domestic abuse and a knife attack for which he ultimately never served time.
Prosecutors were repeatedly forced to drop cases because victims either refused to testify or simply could not be located to appear in court. In June 2015, a woman in Pensacola called 911 and whispered to the dispatcher that her boyfriend was trying to kill her. She said he had been choking her and had taken her phone so she couldn’t call for help.
Somehow, she managed to make the call while hiding in another room. When deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrived, the woman led them to a bedroom where the suspect had fallen asleep holding a large kitchen knife in his hand. That’s where they found Billy Boyette. He was arrested and taken to the county jail facing charges of kidnapping, battery, aggravated assault, and several other offenses.
However, he spent less than a year in custody before being released. Prosecutors were ultimately forced to drop the charges because the victim could not be located. It’s very frustrating that uh uh problem with prosecuting domestic violence cases and other cases as well uh depends on the cooperation of not only the victim but the witnesses and determined that she just although she’d talked to us, she just was not going to cooperate, wasn’t going to show up for court.
Uh so it’s it’s extremely frustrating. Over the previous three years, Billy Boyette had been arrested at least three more times in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, but he never spent more than a year behind bars. Alicia’s family was convinced that her refusal to drop the charges was exactly what led to her murder.
After the double homicide in Emerald Sands, another local family began to worry seriously. reports started circulating that after his most recent release from jail uh about four months earlier, Billy had been spending a lot of time with another woman, a 37-year-old mother of two named Mary Rice.
On the day of the killings, multiple friends began calling Mary’s mother. If Mary wasn’t one of the victims, they feared she might still be in danger. Mary had left her two young children in the care of her mother. Her last text message was sent on February 1st, the day after the murders. In it, she said she was okay, that she had briefly left town and would be back home by February 3rd.
When 2 days passed, with no further contact, her relatives filed a missing person’s report with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. Police then released Mary’s photo to the media. Investigators believe she was in danger and likely with Billy Boyette. Just under an hour’s drive southwest of Milton lies the small town of Lillian, Alabama.
Lillian is a quiet, close-knit place where people often leave their doors unlocked and neighbors know each other well. That calm was brutally shattered on the morning of February 3rd, 2017. Local resident Peggy Bros was returning home after a night shift. She had spent 30 years working as a respiratory therapist at Baptist Hospital, dedicating herself fully to her profession while also caring for her disabled husband.
She loved her job, but just a day before the tragedy, she told her sister Gina that she was planning to take early retirement. Her son and daughter-in-law were expecting a baby within a week, which would have been Peggy’s second grandchild. She was looking forward to spending more time with her growing family. But that morning, Peggy never made it inside her own home after she parked her white Chrysler in the driveway.
She was shot and killed right in her yard. The rented black SUV used by Billy Boyette was later found abandoned in a parking lot just a few hours afterward about 3 mi from Peggy’s home. Surveillance footage from the day of the murder showed Billy and Mary Rice moving through the town of Lillian.
They first traveled in the black SUV and later in a white Concord that belonged to Peggy. They were also seen in those vehicles near her home. Neighbors reported hearing a loud bang and then seeing both the Concord and the SUV leaving the area. Peggy’s father-in-law found her body on the ground near where she had parked. She had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Police believed Peggy was killed simply because she was a lone woman and because she had a car Billy wanted to take. After that, he continued fleeing from law enforcement across Florida. It’s crazy devastating to know that something like this happened here somewhere where you don’t It’s like this is Mayberry to us. This is our Mayberry. Everybody’s a tight-knit community.
We all look out for each other and it’s just sad cuz she had no enemies. She was a loving person and just I hope they catch him. When police searched the abandoned black SUV, they found several receipts from purchases Billy and Mary had made over the previous days. Investigators then obtained surveillance footage from the stores listed on those receipts that allowed them to reconstruct almost step by step the couple’s movements after they left Milton.
And it was exactly those recordings that made law enforcement start looking at Mary Rice in a completely different light. She might not have been an innocent hostage after all. On February 2nd, security cameras at a Walmart in Crest View, just northeast of Milton, captured Mary buying two boxes of 38 caliber ammunition, chemical hand warmers, and a sleeping bag.
At that time, investigators already knew that Billy only had one firearm with him, a 38 caliber revolver that had been used in the killings. Police believe that while Mary was inside the store, Billy was waiting for her in the vehicle in the parking lot. The receipts also led investigators to other purchases made a few days earlier.
One of them came from a CVS pharmacy in Longwood on January 31st, the same day as the first two murders. Longwood is located roughly 6 and 12 to 7 hours away from Milton. It appeared that Mary had been on the road with Billy since that very day. Surveillance cameras captured them again just one hour after Alicia and Jacquine were killed in their motel room.
After reviewing all of this footage, both county and state authorities stopped referring to Mary as a victim. From that point on, she was treated as a possible accomplice in a multi-state killing spree. For her family, it came as a complete shock. Heart-wrenching to find out that she’s even involved in all this stuff.
At first, I thought they were just friends. Uh, somebody later told me that they had just started dating. Okay. I don’t know if that was credible or not. This meaningless, senseless killing and rampaging it. No, it’s nothing like her. We just want to see her home safe and find out the truth of what’s going on.
In Bula, Florida, Loretta Crocker lived just a short distance from her 29-year-old daughter, Kayla. On the day she was scheduled to work, Kayla would drop off her 18-month-old son with relatives before starting her shift at a local McDonald’s. On February 6th, around 6:30 in the morning, Kayla still hadn’t brought her son over, even though she was supposed to be at work by 6:00.
Worried, Loretta decided to drive over to check if everything was okay. When she arrived at the house, she immediately noticed that Kayla’s car, a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, was missing from the driveway. The front door was locked. Loretta quickly went back home to grab a spare key. When she returned and went inside, she found Kayla in the children’s room.
Kayla had a gunshot wound to the head, but she was still breathing. Her hands had been tied with shoelaces. On top of that, her body had been secured with a homemade rope to a dresser, making it impossible for her to leave the room. Loretta managed to free her daughter from the bindings and tried talking to her, trying to keep her conscious, but Kayla wasn’t responding.
Kayla was immediately rushed to the hospital. We’re obviously not going to reach a lot of information on Miss Crocker. She is currently in one of the local hospitals. Uh she did sustain a gunshot wound. I’m sure there was additionally uh she had a 2-year-old son who was also present in the house. He is unharmed.
Uh to the best of our knowledge, he did not witness this. He seems to be relatively calm. Uh he’s with his grandmother right now. Imagine we don’t want to give you all the techniques that we’re going to employ here uh you know to find Mr. Boyette and his accomplice. Uh Miss Rice we believe is the lady that is with him.
Uh so for the family members of Miss Rice who be concerned about whether or not she’s still alive. To the best of our knowledge she is. They have I want to assure the public that we’ve called in all of our available resources. We have the Florida Department of Law Enforcement engaged. US Marshians are engaged of course ourselves, Santa Rosa, any law enforcement agency in our area and of course out of state with Baldwin County and the appropriate police departments and Alabama Highway Patrol.
Again, we need your assistance. He cannot hide unless someone does not report uh something that they have seen. We don’t care how small your information is or how insignificant you may think it is at the time. Please, please pick up your phone and give us a call. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to contact or engage with Mr. Boyette.
This gentleman has gone far and above, you know, what we normally deem as incorable. You know, this gentleman is a killer. Uh he’s shown that proclivity time and time again. Later on, police discovered an abandoned Concord vehicle that belonged to Peggy Bros. It was parked about 3 miles from Kayla’s home, and one of the tires was flat.
Later that same morning, witnesses reported seeing Mary Rice behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Cobalt that belonged to Kayla. Trail camera photos taken in a wooded area of Escambia County captured a couple moving items through the forest. The camera was located not far from the area in Bula where Kayla had been injured. Taking into account the purchases made at Walmart along with the images from the forest camera, investigators concluded that Billy and Mary were hiding out in that exact area.
For law enforcement, this created even more complications. According to people who knew him, Billy Boyette was extremely familiar with those woods, practically knowing them like the back of his hand. Police issued a warning to residents on both sides of the state line. Do not travel alone unless absolutely necessary. Lock your doors, stay alert to your surroundings, and if you see Billy or Mary, do not approach them.
It is difficult to speak about this, ladies and gentlemen, because these are the cases that we in law enforcement fear where we have what is apparently with the last two victims anyway, a random selection. And so therefore uh much to our disappointment and much primarily to our frustration, you know, we’re cha we’re chasing a lot of shadows and a lot of rumors.
You know, we’ve asked our citizens from our first press conference again to practice situational awareness till such time that we get Mr. Boy and Miss Rice in custody. Uh you know, again, practice some common sense when you go to work, when you come home, make sure a friend or family member knows where you are, what your expected time of arrival is.
Again, these may seem like measures in the extreme, but you know, we’re dealing with an extreme situation here. And let me tell you just how extreme. We’ve received information from more than one s source on Mr. Boyette. He is a member and has been a member for a long time of the drug culture. Uh he’s known to be a heavy user of spice.
These people stay awake for four, five, six days at a time. Uh so again, he’s made this statement to many, many people that he will not be taken alive. It is hardly surprising that in an atmosphere filled with fear and uncertainty, social media quickly became flooded with rumors and misinformation. Posts spread across Facebook and other platforms claiming to track the pair’s movements, often presenting unverified information as established fact.
Reports also began circulating about additional murders supposedly committed by the fugitives. Throughout the region, the number of applications for concealed carry permits increased sharply as concern and anxiety continued to grow. When you put out information that this murder was as a result of a Craigslist post, which turns out to be completely false, or when you put out information on your different social media platforms and groups that you have formed that Mary Rice was shot and killed or someone has been arrested, then understand
something that requires a reaction from us in law enforcement. And I will tell you that some of these rumors have been fueled by the media. Tragically, Kayla Crocker died at the hospital less than a day after her mother found her. As her family and friends mourned the loss, communities across North Florida, South Alabama, and far beyond were living in fear.
Law enforcement agencies received hundreds of tips from people across the country reporting possible sightings of the fugitives. Almost none of those leads proved to be credible. That continued until a call came in at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon on February 7th. An anonymous caller reported spotting Kayla’s 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt in West Point, Georgia.
The caller saw the vehicle near a local store and recognized it from news reports as the car that Billy and Mary had recently been using. The witness then followed the pair to the West Point Motel. They watched as the two got out of the vehicle and entered one of the motel rooms. Deputies from the Troop County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that it was the stolen vehicle.
Federal US Marshals and the Georgia State Patrol SWAT team were called to the scene. The building was quickly surrounded. What followed was a standoff that lasted approximately 3 and 1/2 hours. Police had every reason to believe that Billy still possessed the 38 caliber revolver that had been used in the murders.
Whether he had access to any other weapons remained unknown. Even so, law enforcement was not focused on negotiating a voluntary surrender. They made it clear that they intended to take Billy Boyette into custody by whatever means became necessary. Just one day earlier, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson had publicly stated that there were only two possible endings left for Billy, prison or the cemetery.
Um, according to the sheriff, the choice belonged to Billy himself. When the pair refused to come out voluntarily, SWAT officers eventually forced their way into the motel room. During the entry, Mary Rice surrendered. Moments later, a single gunshot rang out from inside. Billy Boyette was found dead in the room from a gunshot wound to the head.
He had chosen not to return to prison. After weeks of searching for them, Billy Boyette, Mary is dead. Mary Rice is in custody. And it all happened here. They weren’t coming out is what he said. And he even said that at one point they were opening the port curtains and waving. Uh I said, “Is that a form of taunting?” And he said he’s not going to speculate, but essentially yes, it could be.
Uh he did say that Mary Rice looked very shaken, visibly shaken when she did come out of the hotel room. And then it was like you said after that that they did hear a single gunshot in the hotel room. Inside the motel room, investigators discovered additional receipts documenting purchases Mary had made throughout the week, along with handwritten shopping lists of needed supplies that were believed to have been written by Billy.
In advertisements for firearms that were found among their belongings, several weapon models had been circled, suggesting attempts to acquire additional guns. The fact that Billy allowed Mary to surrender to police instead of harming her and appeared to wait until she had been safely taken into custody before pulling the trigger further, convinced investigators that she had not been a hostage, but rather an accomplice.
During questioning, Mary denied any direct involvement in the murders. She told detectives that after the double homicide at Emerald Sands, Billy arrived at her home in the middle of the night carrying a firearm. According to her account, he ordered her to gather her belongings and leave with him. Mary recalled that he had a head wound at the time and repeatedly insisted that everything had happened by accident.
When officers searched her trailer, they found evidence suggesting that she had indeed left in a hurry. Valuable possessions had been abandoned, personal belongings were packed carelessly, and no arrangements had been made for the care of her pets. Her children were already staying with relatives at that time.
Mary maintained that from the moment Billy appeared at her trailer covered in blood, she became an unwilling participant in the events that followed. According to her, he repeatedly threatened to kill both her and her children if she failed to obey his orders. She later described the entire ordeal as a real life manhunt. Every day he said this serious was going to kill my kids.
do a big phone call. He was going to kill me if I didn’t do what he said. Only by God’s grace am I sitting here today. After her arrest, Mary received medical treatment. She had numerous cuts on her arms. She also reported that Billy had sexually assaulted her earlier that day. A medical examination was conducted and the results did not rule out the possibility of non-consensual sexual contact.
Investigators needed to determine the true extent of her involvement in the murders. However, inconsistencies began to emerge in her account. She claimed that Billy would not allow her to eat and had kept her confined in the basement of an abandoned building for several days. Yet, surveillance footage and witness statements indicated that the two had been together continuously throughout the week.
Mary also claimed that Billy constantly smoked spice and forced her to roll drugs for him, even though she said she never used them herself. Later, Billy’s autopsy revealed that no narcotics were present in his system at the time of his death. Following the murder of Peggy Bros in Alabama on February 3rd, investigators obtained surveillance footage showing a woman stepping out of a black SUV near Bower Road and US 98 before getting into Peggy’s white Chrysler.
Investigators believed that woman was Mary Rice. The footage appeared to show her driving the black SUV on her own. Detectives concluded that if she truly had been with Billy against her will, this would have been an ideal opportunity to escape. Detectives with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office reached a similar conclusion after reviewing surveillance footage from Walmart.
In the video, Mary exits a black Ford Edge while another person believed to be Billy remains inside the vehicle. Mary entered the store by herself, took her time shopping, never asked employees or customers for help, and then calmly returned to Billy afterward. To your knowledge, did the thing the incident at the Emerald Sands in did that happen before he picked you up? Yes. Yes, to my knowledge.
All right. Where where did you go from there? We went riding um and then and he made me go to a Walmart and in a gun place. Did he stay out in the car? No, he he was in he was in Walmart. I knew he was watching me. I knew he listening. What did he go to Walmart? Um ammunition. Ammunition. 38. 38.
Okay. Okay. How much? Two. Two boxes. Okay. Now, at this point, when you were staying in the woods, were you guys still in the the SUV? The black is SUV, the darker SUV. Yes. So, cuz you uh I got to get another ride. I I got to get another ride. I don’t know where we’re Let’s go back here in early morning hours.
He said he’s talking about getting another ride. What happens then? I don’t know. He comes back with white car. He was gone like 5 minutes. So he’s he goes off with the the black the dark SUV and comes back with a white car. Yes. Yes. Where did he leave you? He left me at duct tape to the tree. He had somebody with him. They had a gun on me.
They’re in the back. They didn’t even get a good glimpse of where they were or anything. I know they’re laying on in the floor. They got they got to go to the side. Had to follow him in this white car to a parking area. Which which car were you driving? I had to drive the the black one. He was in a white one.
Um when we caught the black one, um the person stayed with it. He took me and by the hair and and I ended up in the white vehicle with him. The other this other guy you’re talking about, where did he come from? I don’t know. And I’ve never seen him. However, no witness ever reported seeing a third person, and none of the surveillance footage collected from the many locations visited by the pair showed another man accompanying them.
Mary continued to deny any involvement in the murder of Peggy Bros. insisted that she was not at the crime scene at all. Instead, she claimed that Billy had taped her to a tree in a wooded area on the outskirts of town and that sometime later he returned driving Peggy’s vehicle. If I were to tell you that numerous people saw you and Billy following the person in the white car to her home where the white car was taken.
It was just you and Billy. Right. Right. And then and then when you guys got to the It’s actually a food tiger where the parking lot was. There’s there’s surveillance of you guys. Billy getting out of the white car and unloading stuff out of the black car. You getting out of the black car and helping to move stuff from the black car to the white car as well.
And then you both get in the white car lane. Yeah. You see where he gets mad at? So, like I said, there was never a third person up there. Okay. Why did you tell me that? Well, I understand you’re scared and I mean, this is a The truth makes more sense than the story at this point.
You know what I mean? The truth. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. And that’s the only thing I fell as thank you for being honest. I’m scared. I know you are. Eventually, Mary admitted that she was present when Billy shot Kayla Crocker. She acknowledged that she entered the house and at Billy’s direction tied the young mother up with rope.
However, Mary insisted that she was not the one who fired the shot that killed Kayla. She claimed that she was outside the house when she heard the gunshot. Mary Rice was charged with being an accessory after the fact in connection with the murders of Alicia Greer and Jacquellyn Moore. In addition, she faced a capital murder charge in Alabama in connection with the death of Peggy Bros, a charge that carried the possibility of the death penalty as well as a first-degree murder charge in Florida for the death of Kayla Crocker. Mary,
do you have anything to say at all to anyone in Northwest Florida, to your family? Were you fleeing or were you a hostage? I got excuse your side of the story, man. Mary was extradited from Georgia to Florida where she was set to stand trial on charges of aiding and abetting as well as first-degree murder.
In Alabama, where she could potentially have faced the death penalty, prosecutors were also seeking justice, but those proceedings had to be postponed. Mary remained in custody in Florida with bail set at $750,000. Meanwhile, her attorneys prepared their defense, arguing that Mary had been a victim for most of her life and that the cycle continued after she became involved with Billy Boyette.
Investigators determined that Mary and Billy met just a few months before the crimes took place. They first communicated as pen pals while Billy was still in prison. After his release, he moved into Mary’s trailer in Milton and the two began a romantic relationship. Mary had a long history marked by violence and hardship.
The first allegations involving her stepfather surfaced when she was only 11 years old. By her teenage years, she was already struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Court records show that by the age of 16, she had undergone psychological counseling and had attempted to leave her family home. Time and again, people she trusted betrayed her.
In recent years, close friends whom she had allowed to live in her home had repeatedly stolen from her. During one such theft, nearly everything she owned was taken just before Christmas. Just as Billy was well known to the local court system as an offender, Mary was well known as a victim. To some, her past made her especially vulnerable to manipulation by a man like Billy.
To others, it appeared that years of living as a victim had ultimately broken her and that she eventually crossed the line and became a criminal herself. My first impression is she was scared to death. She was lucky to be alive, very grateful to be alive. She was not a willing participant in anything.
She was there because of threats and abuse from Mr. Boyette. She is as much of a victim in this case as anybody. If someone’s life is threatened and their family’s life is threatened, they might be willing to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do. I look forward to representing Miss Rice. I think she’s got a good case.
When the trial began in 2018, defense attorney Kenneth Brooks portrayed Mary as a woman paralyzed by fear. He argued that Billy had manipulated her for many months before the crime spree began, giving her the attention, affection, and sense of love she had been longing for in order to gain control over her.
The evidence will show that she was basically tortured. And if she didn’t do exactly what he wanted to do at exactly the time he said to do something, he would use pain to bring her back in line. You’ll you’ll hear about evidence of cigarette burns on her body, cut wounds on her hands, wounds across her forehead from pistol.
It started in Florida and it ended in Georgia and there was a whole lot going on in between. You are going to see traces of Billy and Mary’s whereabouts, some of the places they traveled, some of the things that they purchased, and you will see this through receipts that they left behind. She actually went inside Kayla’s home and helped tie her up.
Kayla Crocker’s hands were bound in front of her tightly with some shoelace type strings. Prosecutors argued that Mary not only purchased ammunition, but also bought camping gear so she and Billy could hide out in the woods after the first two murders. During their attempt to evade law enforcement, she made multiple stops at gas stations, filled up their vehicles, and even purchased a road map.
According to the prosecution, those actions directly assisted Billy in avoiding capture. Mary also arranged a meeting with a man who was selling a rifle. She paid for the firearm in cash and the transaction took place in the seller’s front yard. During his testimony, the seller stated that he had a clear view of the vehicle Mary arrived in.
He said he did not see anyone else inside. According to his account, while Mary handed over the money and took possession of the rifle, she never once asked for help or indicated that she was in danger. The seller testified that if she had done so, he would have immediately stepped in to protect her. If this lady had um asked you for help or to call 911, would you would you have helped her? Of course.
Did you have a firearm on you at that time? Yes, I did. And were you on your property? Yes, I was. Prosecutor Jensen also presented the jury with hours of surveillance footage collected during the investigation. In the videos, Mary Rice could be seen at a Walmart browsing through cosmetics, at a GNC store purchasing a dietary supplement and signing up for a loyalty card, and at a gas station where she bought Bud Light beer.
The testimony from store employees, however, was far from consistent. Some witnesses said they noticed nothing unusual about her behavior and saw no signs that anything was out of the ordinary. Others believe she may have been under the influence of some substance or simply appeared as though she had not slept all night.
Scared? No, ma’am. Did she seem like she was in distress? No, ma’am. Miss Reinhardt, if Miss Rice had passed you a note or asked you for help, would you have helped her? Yes, I would have. Receipts discovered by investigators inside Kayla’s vehicle as well as in a motel room in Georgia became another important lead in the investigation.
At first glance, they may have seemed like a minor detail among the large amount of evidence that had already been collected. However, detectives carefully examined every purchase, every date, and every store listed on those receipts. That painstaking work allowed them to reconstruct part of the route the suspects had traveled after the crimes were committed.
The receipts eventually led law enforcement to surveillance footage from a Dollar General store in Alabama. For investigators, this provided an opportunity to obtain independent confirmation of Mary and Billy’s movements during one of the most critical periods of the case. As they reviewed the video recordings, they were able to see something that had previously been known only through circumstantial evidence and witness statements.
The footage showed Mary shopping alongside Billy inside the store. According to investigators, the pair purchased additional supplies as they continued their journey. Those images became another piece of evidence that helped detectives establish the sequence of events and confirm facts that had already been uncovered during the investigation.
Testimony from a store employee later drew particular attention during the court proceedings. She explained that over the years she had learned to recognize signs that someone might be a victim of domestic abuse. According to her, she often paid close attention to customers behavior, emotional state, and the way they interacted with the people around them.
Looking back on that day, she said Mary gave her exactly that impression. The employee testified that Mary’s behavior and overall appearance concerned her and reminded her of other people she had previously believed might be victims of domestic violence. While those observations did not answer every question surrounding the case, they became another detail that caught investigators attention and was ultimately presented during the trial.
How did she appear to you? Scared. Did uh she have any words with you? No. Did you try and strike up a conversation with her? I asked um how they were doing, which is part of our customer service. How are you doing today? And he um said to me, I just killed my girlfriend. Okay.
What was your response to that? Um I thought he was joking. Okay. And I said, “I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never done something like that.” Were there any mannerisms that you noticed? Was it matterofactly? What was it? It was a matter of factly. Yeah. So, it’s just straight out that was just a statement like your experience with abused women is is partly your experience.
Yes, sir. And you were also with other women who’ve been abused. Yes, sir. And I’ve been through therapy. Okay. You you’ve seen what abused women look like? Yes, sir. When they’re hit, they’ve hit rock bottom. Correct. Yes, sir. Nothing further, Judge. She didn’t look scared.
I mean, I I wasn’t knowing what the situation was. Well, that’s my question, though. So, you have this man who just said, “I killed I just killed my ex-girlfriend, and he’s with a girl who looks scared to you, and there’s not some thought there to maybe call 911.” No, I thought he was joking. But you just said he said it very matterof factly.
He did. And you said he’s motioning to her. Um, did he was he laughing at all? Was he smiling? No. Later, the text messages exchanged between Mary and Billy before the crimes ever began became one of the most important pieces of evidence used by the prosecution during the trial. Investigators carefully reviewed those messages and prosecutors presented them to the jury as a key part of the overall picture of what had happened.
According to the prosecution, the contents of those conversations helped explain the nature of their relationship and the motivations that may have driven the events that followed. Particular attention was drawn to messages in which Mary and Billy told each other they were in love several months before the murders.
For prosecutors, those messages supported their argument that Mary was not acting under coercion, but was instead willingly supporting a man to whom she was deeply emotionally attached. The prosecution maintained that the correspondent showed her willingness to follow him and do whatever was necessary for the person she loved.
However, the letters Mary began writing to friends and family after her arrest painted a very different picture. They lacked the tone and emotions that prosecutors had highlighted in her earlier communications with Billy. Instead, those letters reflected despair, resentment, and repeated attempts to explain her situation.
In one such letter dated February 14th, Mary wrote words that would later draw attention as well. I truly met a real monster. I do not deserve to be sitting in this cage. That brief statement clearly reflected her position after her arrest. She tried to convince those close to her that she had become a victim of both circumstances and the man with whom she had chosen to build her life.
Prosecutors, however, viewed the case very differently, arguing that the evidence pointed to her knowing and voluntary involvement in the crimes. When it came time for the defense to present its case, Mary made the decision not to testify before the jury herself. She did not take the witness stand and did not answer questions from either side.
Instead, her mother and brother testified on her behalf before the jury. They attempted to present a different side of her character. They spoke about the Mary they had known throughout her life and insisted that she would never willingly harm anyone. According to them, such behavior was completely inconsistent with her character and the person they had known for many years.
The trial itself lasted 5 days. During that time, both sides presented their arguments, evidence, and testimony while the jury listened carefully to every detail of the case. Once the hearings concluded, the moment arrived that would determine Mary’s future. The decision, however, came surprisingly quickly.
The jury needed only 2 hours of deliberation to reach a conclusion and deliver a verdict on all charges. The speed of that decision suggested that after reviewing all of the evidence presented during the trial, the jurors formed their opinions relatively quickly and did not require lengthy debate behind closed doors before reaching their final verdict.
Verdict as to the charge in count one, we the jury find the defendant Mary Rice guilty of first-degree murder as charged in the indictment. as to the charge. In count two, we find the jury, we the jury, find the defendant, Mary Rice, guilty of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder as charged in the indictment.
Not long after that, Mary Rice heard the court’s final decision for the murder of Kayla Crocker. She was sentenced to life in prison. The verdict marked a major turning point in one of the most high-profile chapters of the case and meant that she could spend the rest of her life behind bars.
For the victim’s family, the ruling represented an important moment after a lengthy investigation, numerous court hearings, and many months spent waiting for justice to be served. In addition to that, the court sentenced Mary to another 30 years in prison for her role as an accessory after the murders of Alicia Greer and Jaclyn Moore.
That additional sentence was added to an already severe punishment and reflected her involvement in a series of events that had drawn the attention of law enforcement agencies across multiple states. Even so, the case was not entirely over. Authorities in Baldwin County continued to pursue Mary’s extradition to Alabama, where she could potentially stand trial for the murder of Peggy Bros.
At that time, however, the chances of that happening remained highly uncertain. Attorneys and law enforcement officials noted that her transfer was unlikely to take place in the near future because of the complex legal procedures involved and her existing legal obligations in Florida. Legal experts explained that before any possible extradition could move forward, all appeals related to Mary’s current conviction would first have to be resolved.
Another possibility was that she would need to serve at least 80% of her sentence, which would effectively amount to roughly 30 years in prison. Until one of those conditions was met, the question of transferring her to another state remained unresolved. Only after that could Florida consider turning her over to Alabama for a new trial.
But even then, there was another major obstacle standing in the way. The situation was made even more complicated by the fact that prosecutors in Alabama could seek the harshest possible punishment for Mary. The death penalty, that possibility alone made any future legal decisions especially complex and potentially lengthy.
One source in Florida told us it could be decades. Uh and we’re hoping that that is wrong. We’re doing our due diligence and trying to make sure that we get everything done so that we can get her back here as quickly as we can. When this process gets drawn out, as long as it can, sometimes it is not justice for our victims or their families.
In 2019, Mary filed her first appeal in an effort to challenge the sentence handed down by the court in Florida. Her defense team hoped to secure a review of the case and persuade the judicial system to take another look at arguments they believed could have affected the outcome of the trial.
However, after examining the case records and considering the arguments that were presented, the appellet court found no grounds to overturn or modify the original ruling. As a result, Mary’s first appeal was denied and the sentence that had previously been imposed remained in effect.
