The Best Friends, The Cheating Husband and The Lies That Bind

Sue spent many years working in Thailand and ended up writing the hip book The Curse of the Turtle, the true story of Thailand's backpacker murders. The book is about suspicious backpacker deaths that occurred on the island of Katao and is available now wherever you get your books. Sue can be found on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Sue Buchanan. Seventy, Episode thirty two, The Case of the Best Friends, the

Cheat Husband, and the Lies That Bind. For anyone who knew thirty nine year old Brian Davis, the word that would come to mind was fun. Whether he was out on the lake fishing his biggest passion, or in the office working on selling insurance, Brian had a jovial and carefree attitude that was infectious. Friends and family said it was impossible not to have a good time when Brian was around, simply because he was that good natured. But fun wasn't Brian's only good quality. He was also an

outgoing and intelligent man. He could strike up a conversation with just about anyone, and it didn't hurt that he seemed to know a little something about everyone. That intelligent confidence allowed Brian to meet his fair share of ladies, but one in particular caught his eye, a woman named Robin he met at work. Responsible and reserved, Robin didn't care for Brian's personality. Despite both being single parents who adored their kids, Robin didn't think they had anything in common.

Frankly put, she found him annoying. So after three years of working together, Robin was surprised when Brian asked her out, and she was even more surprised at her response. Yes. Despite some trepidations, the two hit it off and were married within four years, living in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Here's Jeff So. While the story between Robin and Brian is certainly important to the case, the real relationship at the core of everything is actually between Robin and her best friend,

a woman named Sissy Saltzman. The two had been friends for over twenty years and they did everything together. When they went to the beauty salon, they had a standing double appointment. They were both Southern women who were fiercely loyal to not only each other, but also the men in their lives. Robin explained their ship, It's the kind of friendship that all people should have, she said. It's the one person that you can call no matter what,

and they're they're regardless. So do you know anything more about Robin and Brian's marriage, Well, I know that women needed to lean on each other when Robin had to deal with Brian, her husband. Despite Brian being a loving husband, he also had a wandering eye. Robin caught him cheating on her at least twice, and one of the affairs was with a woman named Fanny, and that one lasted for two years. According to Fanny, she and Brian loved each other, but it wasn't just Fanny. Brian was potatious

with women everywhere he went. However, Robin gave him a pass. She decided to forgive him and move past it. So it sounds like while their marriage maybe worked, there were definitely some cracks. I think definitely. I mean, obviously he's um, he's a flirtatious guy. He's got a roving eye. And

it's not just the eye that's roving. I mean he's acting on this and he's held down another relationship with this woman called Franny for for two years, So he's, you know, slightly devious, I would imagine, and I'm not quite sure how Robin could look past that and just suck it up. But it seems that, you know, there was enough in the relationship for her to decide to stay with him and stay low to him. Two years is not just a quick affair. That's a real relationship.

I think if you're with someone for two years, you can't put that down to a mistake or one drunken night out where you've done something wrong. I mean explaining away how you've been, you know, having a double relationship for two years. It's not easy, is it. So I'm surprised Robin would would tolerate that. But then maybe she loved him, maybe she didn't want to be on her own,

Maybe she was willing to get past that. Just so you know she didn't end up single, and by all accounts, she really leaned on her friends Sissy in good times

and bad times. I think she had a really strong relationship with to See And obviously, you know, finding out your husband's cheating on you as devastating, so she would have needed her friend a lot for moral support for going out chewing over the fat discussing what her husband was doing, I mean, it has to be pretty devastating, and I'm sure her self esteem was very low, so I would imagine Cissy was the one that pepped her

back up and gave it back her self worth. And it would be interesting to know if if Cissy had ever suggested that perhaps she was in the wrong relationship, if Robin should leave her husband. I mean, who knows. There were also kids involved in the relationship so well, So while we don't know for sure, it's possible that Robin felt like keeping her family together was more important

than maybe happiness in her relationship. And I would imagine being a single mother again would be quite a daunting prospect. That maybe she was willing to not have a perfect relationship was better than going back to being a single mom. And remember this is the South. We obviously know that Robin really cared about her appearances. She went and got her hair and nails done every week, and so perhaps keeping up the appearance of this happy marriage was just

more important to her than having a faithful marriage. Yeah, I'm sure there was an element of pride and not wanting people to know that, you know, perhaps her relationship wasn't all that it seemed to be. I mean, you're not going to go around announcing that your husband's you know, regularly cheating on you, especially when one of the women he cheated with, Fanny, you know, said they were in

love with each other. I mean, two years is a substantial amount of time to be dullying with somebody else. I mean there must have had, you know, some level of love for each other for it to last that long. Otherwise, why would why would he stick around? On June two thousand and nine, Brian was about to fulfill a lifelong

dream of buying a fishing boat. Ever, the supportive wife, Robin, joined her husband for a day of shopping, but after a few hours, Robin grew tired of looking at boat after boat, so around three thirty pm, Robin said that Brian dropped her off at home. He then switched cars and took off in his under accord it would be the last time Robin would ever see her husband alive. At ten PM, when Brian hadn't returned home, Robin called nine one. Police told her she had to wait twenty

four hours to file a missing person's report. For two days, friends and family were panicked about Brian's whereabouts. It wasn't like the father of four to just up and leaf. Two days after disappearing, a man found Brian's body on wagon wheel drive, a small dirt road that is miles from Brian's house and near the expanse of Marshland in the region. Brian's body had been laying close to a swamp for at least two days in the southern summer heat,

so there was a fair amount of decomposition. However, the coroner determined Brian had been shot four times in the back. Gunshell casings were also strewn around the area. Police studied the entire crime scene and made some interesting findings. Despite Brian's car being jacked up as if there were a flat tire, the tire itself was in working condition and

wouldn't have required changing. Someone had also taken Brian's cell phone, wallet, laptop, gun, and GPS device, but detectives didn't think this was a robbery. Brian was still wearing his ring and watch. Police surmise that if someone were trying to rob the man, they would have taken all the valuables. But the most mysterious thing about the scene was the fact that Brian's shoes were off and his belt undone. One thing was clear.

This case was not cut and dry here, Sue. Well, we know that Robin told the cops that she was really worried about Brian after he failed to come home, and she told the police she'd called him quite a few times and she'd left multiple voice messages before she eventually called nine one one. She was obviously really concerned about his whereabouts. But while all that seems like the right thing to do, Robin struck a nerve with Brian's family because she never called them so he was missing.

Brian went missing on Monday, and his family didn't find out until Wednesday, and that was only when Brian's ex wife called his sister to ask her if she could help search for him. The sister was furious. She called Robin and Robin told her don't freak out, she could handle it, and as we know, later on that day Brian's body was found. Well, it seems like Robin had her own way of dealing with it. The police were hard at work trying to figure out what happened to Brian.

Nine days after finding his body, the police brought in Robin's best friend, Sissy, for questioning. She was very close with the deceased and his wife, so it stood to reason she would have some information. Let's take a listen to some of her interview. The night before Sunday night, when I went to get in my car, it would start, so I just too his car home because he was taking her truck to work. Sissy told the cops that the last time she saw Brian was the day before

the murder. What she said was that she borrowed his car because she was having trouble with hers. Cissy said that she dropped it back at his house the morning Brian disappeared. Where did she spend the day, cops asked. Sissy said that she had been harm between eleven am and three thirty pm, waiting for Robin to pick her up. Take a listen to her explaining her schedule to the police,

didn't you anywhere come back? In all of the missing people's cases I've covered or even watched on documentaries, suspicion always goes to immediate family, normally partners. Do you have to wonder what family's husband was doing around this time. I don't think it's unusual to to bring people into questioning, you know, the wife, the friend of the wife, close family. I mean, that's where you're going to get all your

information from. But I do find it strange that Robin didn't bother to tell his family he not shown up that night. You know, if someone was missing from my life, the first thing I do is call around and see if they'd seen him. That is weird. We know she was concerned enough that she said she called him multiple times, so you would sort of think, like you said, that she would also call his family and ask if he's there,

Questions like have you seen him? Have you heard of her m Those are all things that the family might not Yeah, of course, because potentially if he's not at home, then maybe he's called rand to see his family. You know, maybe his mother fell ill, maybe he suddenly had to divert to the family home, so that would seem to me to be a logical place to start looking. But

apparently she didn't make that call. And to play devil's advocate, we don't necessarily know her relationship with his family, and so maybe it wasn't the kind of relationship that she would even call in kind of a scary time. To me, it does seem weird, but again, we don't know the dynamics of this family. Even if I didn't get on with my in laws, I still want to knock off list of potential places he could be. But yeah, you're right,

maybe they didn't have a good relationship. We don't know that, so difficult to stay, but certainly not unusual for the place to bring in, you know, close friends and family in this kind of investigation. In my experience, I'll just find interesting that his ex wife knew he was missing before his immediate family. As police looked at the people in good natured Brian's life, they wondered who would want

him dead. It seemed that one person might have motive, the husband of Brian's long term mistress, a man named Shane Deets. Here's what we know about Shane. He had been married to Fanny who was having that two year affair with Brian. Fanny, the mistress, had allegedly told her husband Shane about the affair just two months before Brian was found dead. Getting back at the man who was sleeping with your wife would certainly be a good enough reason to kill So what else do we know about

the relationship between Fanny and Brian. So we know that Fanny gave emails to the police between her and Brian, and in those emails, Fanny and Brian often talked about Brian's interest in public sex. And remember when he was found his belt and shoes were off. Could he have been out on wagon wheel road to meet Fanny for a trust? Not so fast. People who knew Brian said he was obsessed with his car and wouldn't have taken it down such a dirty and bumpy roade for nothing.

In fact, Fanny said that even if he had flies on his windshield, he immediately got the car washed. But perhaps he was lured there by Shane and the false presentses about an open air rendezvous with Fanny. It turned out that, despite seemingly having a pretty good motive to kill him, the cops never even called Shane before questioning him. The police called his place of work instead, and his boss said that Shane had clocked in the day Brian disappeared.

That was good enough for detectives to dismiss him as a suspect. It just seems weird because we don't actually know when Brian was killed, just the day that he disappeared. But in any case, Shane was never an official suspect. Let's clarify that, because we know that Brian was last seen sometime in the afternoon, either at the boat shop or dropping his wife off, and as far as our research could tell, we actually don't know a time of death because if you look at the decomposite Shan, Brian

wasn't completely decomposed when the cops found him. And having covered a fair amount of these true crime cases, we know that a body can decompose in the summer quickly, and in Louisiana this time of year, Brian could have been decomposed very quickly. So I think, you know, there's very little evidence here in terms of time of death and the whereabouts the potential suspect. We're going to take

a break, we'll be back in just a moment. I just can't believe that cops would not even call Shane because at the very least he would have information about the case. What if Fanny had been the killer, Shane could have at least provided some sort of insight into Brian's frame of mind or the relationship between Fanny and Brian. And it did say that, you know, Fanny and Brian have been having an affair for two years, but it seems like it possibly could have come to an end.

And if she was really upset that he was going to stay with his wife when perhaps previously she thought she'd end up together with him, then that that gives someone else a motive. And you know, as anyone checking for a DNA, is anyone checking for firearms or anything in Fanny's car or Shane's car? I mean, why aren't these people being adequately investigated? That's a very good question.

I mean, did Fanny have a gun? You know, did she go to the shooting range, did she have a temper as she got, any history of previous criminal activity? And the same goes for Shane. So you have two people here with a potential motive, and yet they've really not been investigated at all. What do we know about Shane's history. You know, has he got any criminal record, has he been involved in anything like this before, has he got a temper? I mean, who is this guy?

We know so little about him, and so in your experience covering criminal cases, do you think that the police should, in their due diligence look at every single suspect thoroughly. From the information got here, I would say the police have shown no due diligence and it was a really shodly investigated case. I mean, you know, you've got a couple of potential suspect, you've not even been questioned, and they're just taking Shane's boss's word for it that he

clocked in. Where's the proof he clocked in? You know, and we don't even know if that day was the day that Brian died anyway, so you know, they should be checking his whereabouts for you know, at least forty eight hours from him going missing to his body being found. So it doesn't seem like a very tight investigation to me. In fact, it seems that, you know, quite the opposite. It really just seems that there's no true diligence going

on here. I wouldn't trust this police force as Shane was cleared of the crime, police turn their attention back to the two best friends who seemed to have a lot to hide. While Robin told the police she had called Brian numerous times when he failed to come home from boat shopping, her phone records proved otherwise. As it turns out Robin never called Brian. It wouldn't be the last lie the besties would allegedly tell. Sissy had told

officials she had been home the day Brian disappeared. The police looked to sell tower records to see if this was true. It was not. Starting at one thirty pm, Sissy's phone picked off a tower that was eleven miles from her home. It also happened to be the closest tower to the crime scene. This means she made a call near the scene of the crime. According to cell tower experts, there was no way Sissy's cell phone would have picked from that tower if in fact, she had

been home. The police's theory was that Brian never actually went home and switched cars like Robin had said, and that Sissy had never returned the car after borrowing it like she had said. The police thought that Sissy called Brian from wagon will drive, pretending to have a flat tire, and when Brian and Robin arrived, one or both of the woman shot him. Robin stood to gain more than six hundred thousand dollars and insurance out She did, in fact, attempt to cash in on that policy just two weeks

after her husband's death. She had recently lost her job and had racked up considerable gambling debts, and the couple were on the verge of losing their home. So so why would Saysie also be involved? Well, that would be sheer loyalty to her best friend. I guess so often we see in these cases that money becomes the motivation, or at least what the police think is the motivation,

to commit murder. I'd agree with that, but I also think that if I was about to lose my home and I had gambling debts and he had life insurance policy, I would be thinking of making myself financially secure anyway. I mean, you know, that's what life insurance policies are born. So if one of you dies, the other one doesn't you know, land in the suit. So although I think

it's a motive, I don't think it's that unusual. And I also think if I had killed my husband, I would be waiting more than two weeks before I cashed that in because they're looking too obvious. So you know, it's either not a very well thought out plan. But then on the other hand, it could be a smoke screen because she could say, well, you know, if I killed him, why would I be claiming on the insurance two weeks later? So there's different ways of looking at it.

That's a very interesting point. If he had died of a heart attack, no one would bet an eyelash that she waited two weeks to collect the money. In fact, that would probably seem like a long time. So if she didn't actually kill him, the two week timeline doesn't really mean anything. No, I wouldn't have thought so. I mean, we know she'd lost her job, so you know, it seems quite radical to kill your husband to get money just because you've lost your job. Then he was also

having affairs. If he died of natural causes, then you know, waiting a fortnight before trying to make yourself financially is actually quite a long time. Also, the fact that they sold insurance, I think speaks to this two week timeline. It's her job to know the system. So she knows very well that when someone dies you have to file to claim the money. And when you've lost someone you love, I mean six days is not going to bring him back, but it takes this thing out of it when you're

not struggling for money. So and don't forget, you know, she's got his kids and her kids. She's got six kids now between them. Of course she's going to want some money. Six months after Brian was found dead, Robbin and Cissy were charged with murder. Internally, the police were referring to the investigation as the Felmer and Louise case. The two women would stay on trial as they did

everything else together. We know that. The May two thousand and twelve trial, the defense talked about the lack of physical evidence. I mean, we've got no fingerprints here, we've got no DNA, And they also pointed to the fact that a local bar had a surveillance camera on the road and that would have easily proved if Robin and Cissy were guilty because the CCTV would have picked them up driving down that road. But amazingly, the cops actually

lost the take. The defense went on to say the cops were incompetent to their theories just could not be trusted. And they also showed surveillance of Robin the morning of the murder shopping for a boat with Brian, and she could be seen wearing white capri pants and really flimsy flip flop sandals. No one, they argued he was planning on murdering their husband in a marsh would be wearing

such an impractical life bit. The defense also performed tests with the cell phone towers that found when a tower becomes overloaded with calls, they get bounced to other towers, meaning Sissy might have been telling the truth. However, unfortunately for the defense, that test was ruled an admissible in court. So I want to go back to what the defense was saying about the outfit, because I think it's pretty interesting.

They argued that Robin, who allegedly was the murderer, would not have worn white pants and sandals to go kill her husband. Basically, it's just an impractical outfit to do such a strenuous and potentially dirty activity. I mean, from my point of view and from my investigations, I mean there's a couple of points raised here. I mean, you know,

she was wearing that at the time. But if she premeditated this murder and she's been dropped off at home, was to say she hasn't got changed, And then you've got to decide was it premeditated or not. You know, if she just decided to kill her husband and hadn't pre planned it, you know, she's hardly going to be worried about what she's wearing. So you've got the idea here of premeditation or not premeditated, So you have to

look into that. And also I'd be interested to know if she had ever shot a gun, you know, did she have a gun, did she know how to shoot a gun? And she got any experience with firearms? And she'd go to a shooting club, but she's been shooting with her husband and also Sissy, you know, did Cy have any experience with firearms. There's no information to say, you know, whether these women would even know how to handle a firearm. I know my mother certainly wouldn't. She's

never touched one, so that's something else. I think it is quite interesting. But I think the fact that you know, the telling surveillance camera from that bar, that the fact that police lost it, did they not watch it. First, where's the evidence in court about what was on that tape? Even without the footage? You know, if someone has seen it, then that's another witness. That's a really good point. We

don't know the answer to that. I would imagine if it had been good for the prosecution, someone would have come forward and said, oh, I saw that tape. I mean, how ad you lose the evidence like that? And like, you know, I can't deny the defense are right really when they when they suggested the cups are incompetent, but losing one piece of valuable evidence that would pinpoint who was at the steam Let's stop here for another break.

The other thing I've been interested in is m if this theory that you know he wasn't in his car, they hadn't switched cars, and you know he'd gone down in in Robin's car, then why aren't we testing the other car? Steve it had been down there? Look, you know, why aren't we checking the tires while aren't we checking you know, marsh soil would attach itself to the underside

of a car. You know, why aren't they scraping to to do soil matches to find out where the cars have been or at least where Robin's car has been. That's another great point. It just seems like a really ineffective investigation to me. I mean, there's just so many points that haven't been covered, or at least if they have,

we don't know about it. What about muddy footprints in the footwell, you know, if Robin's been down there and shot her husband in this marshy land, you know, and she and she's got away in her car, why aren't we checking the footwell of her car? Why aren't we checking her shoes? Why aren't we checking her clothes to see if there's any splatterings of this marsh? You know, there's there's really not much going on here in terms

of pinpointing where she might have been. After both the prosecution and defense rested, Robin and Sissy remained pointedly emotionless as the jury deliberated for three hours. By a vote of eleven to one, the women were both found guilty. So you might be wondering how this was possible. As you might know, in nearly every state in America in

eleven to one jury split with Cosmos trial. But Louisiana actually has a lab that only ten jurors voting guilty are needed for a murder conviction, not a unanimous decision. Like most states, people who supported Robin and Cissy called into question the ethics of this law. So it seems like up until the very end, there's just some things here that did not go right, from the police losing the tape to focusing so much on Robin from the beginning to now this law that allows a jury to

convict the pair without a unanimous decision. Through it all, I just don't know if Robin and Cissy got a fair shake. It doesn't sound to me like they had a fair trial. But then you know, we have one juror that was completely convinced that women didn't do it, but the others were, So you know, what were they basing that decision on, Because from what I understand about

the case, I wouldn't be finding them guilty. I think it was a completely inadequate investigation, and they presented very little in the way of evidence, and you know, there was no physical evidence. Where's the murder weapon and where are the belongings that were sing? And you know, why would you rob your own husband but leave you know, his watches if you're going to try and make it like a robbery. Then that was kind of bungled too.

So yeah, I'd be interested to know what it was that these this jury found so compelling that they convicted them. And had this trial had been in any other state, this would have been a mistrial and they would have walked away. As the judge sentenced the women to life in prison without a chance of parole. The pair held hands. Today, Robin and Sissy are both serving their sentences in the same prison and claim they are closer than ever again.

You can find Suzanne Buchanan on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Soue Buchanan seven zero. Her book, The Curse of the Turtle from Wild Blue Press is available now wherever

you get your books. Yeah. The only thing I'd like to say about, you know, been the author of the Curse of the Turtle, which is the true story of Thailand's backpack and murders, is that you know, I've also spent a lot of time investigating cases where there's massive amount of evidence missing um and where the more questions you ask, the more questions you have, and where police investigations have been pretty shoddy, and where families have walked away,

you know, very unsatisfied with what's happened because nothing adds up. And this case is incredibly interesting to me because it's very similar to all of the cases that I've investigated in Kotao on Thailand. So, you know, I really feel for these kinds of stories because I've spent seven and a half years investigating crimes, despicious death, evidence that doesn't add up, you know, theories that just don't make any

sense whichever way you look at it. And as a journalist, I've always said, if you can't figure out a story, it's because you've got the wrong information or you don't have all of the information, and that certainly seems to be the case with this police investigation, because you know, whichever way you wrap it up, it still doesn't make sense. Shameless plug. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love, leave us a review and listen to season three of our hit

series The Piked and Massacre. New episodes there every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Katie Underscore Studios. Crazy in Love is produced by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Grieves, and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff Ta. Crazy in Love is a production of I heart Radio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you listen to your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,