The Murder Years: Ep. 6 - Mr. Billingsley

This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters who are played by actors.

Oh yeah, the fall in nineteen eighty six, we were finally seniors.

Y yep, Ethan Rooney is still my boyfriend. It's been ten months and we're still going strong.

It really felt like we've been through Helen back and there was finally some light at the end of that tunnel. Graduation, you know, something that felt like a normal part of life.

I couldn't wait to graduate and go to college. I mean, if you'd been through what we'd been through, wouldn't you want to get out of this town?

Honestly, the year was off to a really good start. At least, you know, that's what we have thought.

I'm Nancy Clark. This is The Murder Years, Episode six. Mister Billingsley.

Good morning, students, Principal Baalumbo Year. Today is November seventeenth. As you know, it's volunteer week and the sign up sheets are outside the main office. Let's show the community what great and giving young men and women you are. Let's give back to Mount Pine, Okay mountaineers.

In between home room and first period I ran to the main office and sign up to volunteer at the women's shelter. My friend Tatiana signs up too.

I wanted to volunteer at the hospital. I loved the idea of helping people, and I always wanted to be a candy striper. The outfit was so cute, right, Plus volunteering would look really good on college applications.

The following week is Thanksgiving Week.

And we have the whole week off.

It's really a nice break for me, at least. Monday, December one, we're back at school. Carla, Tatiana, and I are in the same history class. I remember that Monday was a long first day back. Last period we all had us history senior year. That was the only class that we all had together. And that day we had a sub. Yep, we have a substitute and she makes us watch a history movie about the Native Americans. It's pretty interesting.

Honestly, I was just happy to zone out and watch a movie. I didn't care what it was.

The next day, school's pretty normal. Last period. I walk into class and that sub is back again. Why where's mister Billingsley.

Nine one one?

What's your emergency?

I walked in the house to check on.

Oh my god, sir, what is your emergency.

I'm in his house.

Oh my god, he's dead. Marcus Diffin.

Around two pm, Mount Pine police arrive at seven twenty four Maple Lane, a red brick colonial style house located in the New subdivision near the brand new mall.

What I got there, It was a hectic scene.

Detective Tom Wallace is the lead on the case. By November of nineteen eighty six, he's worked three brutal murder cases, Lisa Anderson's in May of nineteen eighty four, Daniel Walters in February of nineteen eighty five, and Charlotte Murphy's later that year. And now he's got another one.

Charles. Here we go again, right. I had to go get my notes and reports before talking to you about this one. When I arrived at the scene, I was briefed by the responding officer who told me the victim was a white male in his late thirties or early forties. When I entered the dwelling, I saw a victim lying on his stomach in the foyer on the threshold of the living room. His head was turned to the side. It looked like He'd been severely beaten in the face

Back in November of nineteen eighty six. Mister Palombo, Eric Palumbo was our jovial high school principal.

I told the detective we knew Mark wouldn't be back the Monday after Thanksgiving break.

He was going to visit family out of state.

Today. Mister Palumbo is eighty six and living with his wife in Sarasota, Florida.

But when Mark didn't show up for work on Tuesday, that was odd. He would never just not call in. So we got a sub last.

Minute and I decided to go to his house at lunch to check on him.

I asked mister Plumbo if he knew of any troubles Mark was having. He said no. He said Mark was a great guy and a dedicated teacher. Mark would be the last person he could ever imagine this happening too. I let him know I may have more questions for him later, and I would probably want to come to the school and go through Mark's desk. Maybe there was something in there that could help our investigation.

For hours, the police process the scene. They take photographs and desper prints. The shoe print on Billingsley's face and the ones down the hall appeared to be from a size nine and a half or ten tennis shoe.

Blombo told me Billingsley's parents were no longer alive, but he had a younger sister with a family in another state. That's who he was visiting over Thanksgiving break. So when I got back to the station, I looked up his sister, Emily Sparks. I called the authorities there and asked them to make the death notification.

Late Tuesday night, Detective Kurt Peters is tasked with going and interviewing Billingslee's sister. Detective Peters worked the Dawn Cartwright murder at the drive in a little over two years earlier.

Here we go again, right, So yeah, I drove a long time. I think it was eight hours, and I got there pretty late. Miss Sparks was there waiting for me when I arrived.

Back in nineteen eighty six, Emily Sparks is twenty eight years old, an elementary school teacher, married with a five year old daughter. Today she's sixty four.

I remember, I just couldn't comprehend that my big other was dead.

She was very, very upset, right LI, So I asked her about her relationship with her brother, if they were close or if they had any problems. She said she loved him. They had a good relationship, but didn't talk as often as they used to. You know, life was busy. Then I wanted to know how Thanksgiving was, how did her brother seem did Billingsley share anything that might help our cads? Did anything seem off about him? And when

Thanksgiving?

No, I told him Mark never came for Thanksgiving.

Mount Pine Police detective Kurt Peters is interviewing Emily Sparks, Mark Billingsley's younger sister, and she just said something he was not expecting.

I told the detective, my brother didn't come for Thanksgiving. He had plans too, but on Tuesday, it was two days before Thanksgiving, he said something came up and that he couldn't make it and he would just see us at Christmas.

Well, that changed everything. I wanted to know what a game up?

Did Mark say anything before about why he wasn't coming for Thanksgiving? She said she didn't know. He was vague and she didn't cry. She told him she was disappointed, but when he promised he'd come for Christmas, she'll let it go. I asked if Billingsley was dating anyone.

She said no, did eating drugs?

No? I then asked if there was anyone anyone at all? She could think of who would want to hurt her brother, and she said no, and an emphatic no.

I couldn't think of anyone who would have wanted to hurt my brother, let alone kill him. I told Detective Peters it had to have been random. No one, no one who knew him, would ever want to hurt him.

Unfortunately, Emily couldn't help point detectives in any substantial direction.

I remember thinking the ransacked house made it look like it was a robbery, but officers at the scene reported back that it didn't seem like anything had actually been stolen. The kitchen drawers and cupboards open and rifled through didn't make sense to me, So we were all scratching our heads and we considered maybe this was staged to look like a robbery.

The next day, Detective Wallace says, the autopsy results come in. Mark Billingsley had multiple broken bones in his face, including all seven of his orbital bones. He had several skull fractures, had five teeth knocked out, his jaw had been broken, and his collarbone was shattered. His cause of death as a cerebral hemorrhage which led to a stroke, and the corner thinks It was done manually, meaning with hands and fists. The time of death was determined as Sunday night, around ten pm.

It was a gruesome death.

He was the coolest teacher as just a really kind person. Gosh, I remember I was I was so so sad.

I felt like he cared about us, which was kind of rare, and it didn't make sense. We kept losing kids left and right, and then we lost a teacher. God, I mean, how much more were we supposed to take?

Principal Columbo Here, I'm asking for all students and teachers to report to the gymnasium immediately for an assembly.

We all file into the gym. Teachers are crying, kids are crying.

I mean, we all loved mister Billingsley.

Melanie, Tatiana and I find a spot and sit down together.

Let's all take a moment of silence and remember mister Billingsley.

The principal tells us they're a psychologist available to talk to us if we need it. But here's the thing. It wasn't just because of mister Billingsley's death. They knew we had been through so much shit, so much death those last couple of years, and so many of us were really screwed up trying to process it all.

Detective Tom Wallace takes the lead on this case. He salved two other murders before this one, but he says this case was trickier.

So yeah, I remember, we weren't able to get any clean fingerprints from the scene, so that was a dead end. It just didn't look like a robbery or a drug deal gone bad. I needed to know more about Billingsley's life in Mount Pine, so after school that day, mister Palumbo escorted me to his classroom and I looked through his desk, which didn't turn up anything useful, But Principal Palumbo told me that Billingsley's closest friend was a fellow

In nineteen eighty six, Jesse Clayton is the hot teacher. He teaches creative writing in English. We used to joke that mister Billy was the robman to mister Clayton's batman.

I was sick to my stomach that mark was gone.

Today, Jesse is the principal at Mount Pine Middle School. He agrees to talk with me there.

I mean, Mark Billingsley was like my best friend. He was definitely my best work friend. So I asked Clayton if he and Billingsley spent any time together outside of school. I told the detective that we did lots of stuff together. You know, we played soccer, we went to the movies, always action movies. We'd play pool at my house, we'd watch sports, you know. Sometimes we even went on double dates.

I mean, the fact that he was dating was news to me. His sister said he wasn't seeing anyone. So who was he dating and was it serious?

I told the detective. Her name was Colleen Mulligan. She was a little bit younger, twenty seven ish. She had a kid from another relationship. I told him they've been dating for six months or something like that, and Billingsley was completely crazy about her, but he kept it totally quiet for some reason. The relationship was a secret. In fact, Mark told me that it was Colleen who didn't want anybody to know about the relationship at all. And I think it was getting tumultuous between them.

Interesting, the relationship was tumultuous, how, I wondered. I pressed Clayton some more. Told the detective.

It seemed to me that Mark was way more in love with her than she was with him, and not long before he died, Mark told me that it felt to him like she was playing games or pulling away, but she didn't say why. He kept telling her how much he'd loved her and he adored her son, but she just kept getting more and more distant.

Detective Wallace sets out to speak with Colleen Mulligan. Immediately, he leaves the school and goes directly to Blue Balloon Kids hair salon, where she works.

I was surprised to see a detective at my job. That didn't happen every day.

Colleen Mulligan agrees to talk with me about Mark Billingsley and everything that transpired back in nineteen eighty six. Today she owns her own hair salon in Mount Pine.

Yeah. I was in the middle of a haircut when this detective asked me to go outside and talk.

I remember she acted surprised, which didn't make sense to me, I mean, given the recent tragedy. So we went out to the back alley and that's when I told her that her boyfriend Mark was found dead. Well, she just lost it. How hadn't she known that her boyfriend was murdered. At this point, it was all over the news. She was acting like she's hearing it for the first time. I asked when she saw or talked to Mark last.

I told him that Mark and I had talked on the phone a few days before, maybe maybe four days before, and well, everything sounded normal with him.

I wanted to know specifics. I wanted to know what they talked about, and she said that Mark wanted to see her, but she was busy, and could she see him the following week. Then I asked her how their relationship was. I told her it had been described as tumultuous. Remember, she looked surprised. She said, sure, it had its ups and downs, like any relationship. It was her first relationship in a while. I'm going to read from my notes now,

I remember being thrown by that question, you know, like why was he even asking about my son?

And this is very clear in my memory. She got very defensive, which of course made me suspicious. She hammed an awe, then said her ex was not a good guy. Then she started to shake and cry.

Look, I was afraid my ex was a scary guy, or he used to be a scary guy back in like eighty four. He used to hit me. I actually spent some time at the woman's chilter because of him, and he did some time for it. But then early around eighty five he got out and he changed. He was in counseling and anger management for a few days

I asked her if her ex knew she was dating. She paused.

I told the detective yes, yes, and that he hated Mark with everything he had.

It's Thursday, December fourth, nineteen eighty six, and Detective Tom Wallace is talking with Colleen Mulligan in the alley behind the hair salon where she works. She just told him she's afraid of her abusive ex boyfriend.

Colleen said her ex didn't know Mark personally, all that mattered was that he found out she was dating, and she said her ex was especially jealous that Mark was spending time with his son. Then I'm just going to read this right from my notes, I wrote. She got this look on her face like oh no. She collapsed against the dumpster and started crying. I asked Colleen her ex's name in between her sobs. She said Darren mcmay.

Detective Wallace asks where Darren McVeigh lives. Colleen tells him he lives at the rain Tree apartment complex near the Inner State. Detective Wallace calls for a backup, but when they arrive, Darren mcveigh's not there.

Colleen also told me that McVeigh did some odd jobs over at Pinewood Farm.

So Detective Wallace and the patrol cars drive to the other side of town to Pinewood Farm. When they pull up, they see four guys standing next to a tractor armed with his mugshot. Detective Wallace walks right up to the man in the middle. He stands face to face with Darren McVeigh.

And I remember he seemed completely unfazed we were there. I asked him if he'd be willing to come to the station with us and answer a few questions, and he said he would.

At the station Detective's Wallace Peter's interview Darren.

McVeigh, Yeah, I remember how cool he was acting.

How odd that seemed to me.

I asked him about his relationship with Colleen. I had some anger issues in the past that I took out on her, but the past is the past.

I did my time.

I'm in a much better place with her and myself. I asked him about being on probation now after being convicted on domestic battery charges last year. He brushed it off as nothing again. I'm just gonna read to you from my notes, let's see, I wrote. I noticed some small cuts and bruises on his knuckles. When I asked him how he got them, he said it was from working on his truck and at the farm. He couldn't

I swear in that moment his face changed, right before our eyes.

I saw rage. Then he said I want a lawyer. Interview was over.

At that point. We had enough to hold him for forty eight hours, so we did, and then we reached out to Prosecutor Ben Blythe to see if we could get a search warrant for mcveigh's apartment and vehicle.

Early Friday morning, the judge signs the warrant.

Now we're in business. We went to Darren mcday's place and searched a small, one drew apartment. I remember I fill his like three hours to go through everything. We went through his drawers and closets, his garbage, he can cut open his mattress. We searched his garage space which had a small storage area, and we searched his pickup truck. Nothing, no bloody clothes, nothing. This was disappointing.

If Darren McVeigh did kill mister Billingsley, he could have disposed of all the incriminating evidence in the last few days and they may never find it. So the detectives asked Prosecutor Ben Blythe to go back and try and get a search warrant for Pinewood Farm, where McVeigh works. The judge signs the warrant, but with conditions.

We were only allowed to search the areas Darren McVeigh had regular access to, so we searched the WORKSHD, the barns, and the garage where they housed the farm equipment. Again, we found nothing.

When forty eight hours are up, they let Darren McVeigh go, but out of concern for Colleen and her son's safety and in case McVeigh tries to run, they put a surveillance team on him and one week later it pays off.

It was around one am one of our undercover officers who'd been watching McVeigh saw him come out of his house with a duffel bag. He then put it in his truck and drove off. The undercover followed him to a storage facility just outside Mountain Pie. He watched McVay as he went into a storage unit. When he returned, he was empty headed.

Detective Wallace calls the owner of the storage Facility and Learns storage unit number B one seven to one was being rented by Darren mcvay's brother, Thomas. An hour later, Detective Kurt Peters is at Thomas mcvay's house asking if he would be willing to open up the unit to police.

He agreed, so Thomas is there.

There are several officers, Me and Detective Wallace arrives soon after the search begins. It was an eight or twelve unit and it was pretty packed, lots of Foxes, kids stuff, old cough clubs, electronic equipment.

We pulled everything out.

And went through everything meticulously. Towards the back was a big tool storage cabinet. It was on wheels, so we were able to wheel it out pretty easily. When we opened it, there it was the Duffel bag. I remember. We all just looked at each other like, oh shit. And when we opened the Duffel bag, inside was a black plastic bag full of blood splattered clothes and shoes.

Bingo. We got him.

Later that same day, officers arrest Darren McVeigh as he's walking into an appointment with his probation officer. He's on probation after being convicted of domestic battery charges the year before. Because proving premeditation might be hard. McVeigh is charged with second degree murder, as well as weapons and probation violation charges.

I'm telling you it felt good. Yeah, it felt real good to get him off the streets.

In the weeks that follow police are able to confirm the clothes found in the storage unit were, in fact Darren mcveigh's. The blood on them matched Mark Billingsley's blood type, and the shoes a size ten tennis shoe matched the impression on Mark's face and in the house. Mark's girlfriend, Colleen says she feels responsible.

When I learned that my was arrested for killing Mark, well, I just wanted to die. I felt so hopeful, and I felt like it was all my fault.

Five months later, the trial begins. Prosecutor Ben Blythe feels confident in the state's case.

I had absolutely no doubt in Darren mcvay's guilt and the case we were going to present. We had the physical evidence, the bloody clothes and shoes, we had the plastic bag, and we were going to argue his motive was blind rage and jealousy.

Colleen Mulligan, Mark Billingsley's girlfriend and the ex girlfriend of the accused. Darren McVeigh, is the star witness for the prosecution.

I remember it was beyond scary to be on the stand with my ex boyfriend Darren caring at me. I mean, he was literally on trial for killing Mark. I was shaking. I was so worried he was going to jump, run up and just jump me or something, you know. But I did what I had to do and I told him everything. Darren and my relationship started out great.

You know.

We met at a bar, we were both out with friends, and well, we fell for each other pretty quickly, and he moved in with me. After five months. Things started to just change for me though, when he became almost too invested in me in our relationship. He was kind of obsessed with being with me and buying me things, and he wanted me to only spend time with him.

Him, Colleen says. Shortly after the birth of their son, things started to go downhill again fast. The next time Darren hits her, it's pretty bad. He punches her in the chest, knocks her to the ground, and pins her there. When he finally gets up and leaves to go drinking, she packs some things for herself and her son and goes to the woman's shelter. Once she's safe, she calls police and they arrest him at the bar. Darren is convicted of domestic battery and sentenced to a year in county jail.

When he got out, he was mandated to go to anger management classes and counseling and atten AA meetings and all of which he did, and it seemed like he was doing better, I mean for a while anyway.

Until.

Until Darren finds out she's dating Mark.

Shit.

When he found out, it was just a few weeks before the I saw some of the old Darren back. He was acting angry and jealous. It was one of the reasons I was distancing myself from Mark only I thought that he would do something to me. I never thought that he would do something to Mark, and I never told Mark. I never warned Mark, and now I know I should have. He had no idea.

Colleen says she doesn't know why Mark didn't go to his sisters for Thanksgiving, but she wishes he had.

He called me wanting to get together over the break that I had said that I had too much going on and that I would just see him the next week. God, I really really wish Mark had gone to his sisters. No, I wish I had broken up with him just to spare him, and maybe this would have never happened.

The prosecution also calls to the stand detectives Wallace and Peters, Darren mcveay's probation officer, a pathologist, and psychologists, as well as some coworkers at the farm.

We had four days of testimony and a pretty rock solid case. We believe Darren went to Billingsley House with the intention of warning him to stay away from Colleen and his son. A fight ensued and mister McVeigh beat Mark to death.

We didn't think we could prove premeditation.

We had nothing to prove McVeigh went there with intent of killing Billingsley. The one thing we could never figure out was where mister McVeigh hit the Duffel bag of bloody clothes and shoes before taking it to the storage.

The jury deliberates for seventy eight minutes, then comes back with the verdict of guilty. Darren McVeigh is sentenced to twenty five years to life. Mister Billingsley's sister feels justice was served, but she's still angry.

Oh never forgive that piece of shit for taking my brother from me. But I'll also never forgive myself for not being more involved in Mark's life. I just didn't know what was going on. I guess he didn't know either. I just should have been more involved. But I got to say I felt so bad for our family, but I also felt so bad for Mark's students. They loved him.

After school that day McVeigh was found guilty, the whole student body went to the courthouse and just sat on the steps. Everyone held hands, cried, and shared memories of mister Billingsley. I would say it was nice, but it was really so sad.

As a teacher at Mount Pine and as Mark's best friend, I didn't know what to say anymore to comfort the kids, to comfort myself. We were like a bunch of zombies walking through the hallways. We didn't know what to do or say. We just wanted it to be over, Like, could we just put all these tragedies behind us? It was killing us.

No, we couldn't. Next time on The Murder Years, nine one one, what's your emergency?

Look my god?

Yeah, so we'll just broke into the house city, hang up the phone.

Now we're out.

A new killer as all of Mount Pine fearing for their lives. The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia Executive producer Eliza Rosen for AYR Media co executive producer Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Seltich. Original concept developed in partnership with Anne,