so a while back I was watching a true crime show on one of the channels I don't know if it was oxygen or what it was a TV show that was called like cooking with fire or something like that and it focused around murders and uh other items as you can maybe guess from the title cooking with fire but anyway I was watching the show and during the show they don't show you any crime scene photos they don't take you to the places where any of it happened and I imagine they probably didn't show you anything because this happened back in the 80s but the story itself like caught my eye it was absolutely horrific it was wild and crazy well the day that that show aired I jotted down some notes and I made it a mission of mine to get that information to try to get crime scene photos to try to find out the locations where the story took place so that I could tell it so I have submitted a foia request to Rockdale County here in Georgia that's the Rockdale County Courthouse behind me and I have received photos and locations and all of that stuff and so today I'm finally here today we're going to be talking about a young girl and then one day out of the blue she's in her apartment somebody knocks on the door and says the you got a phone call from the pay phone out in front of your apartment so she goes to pick it up and she vanishes no one saw what happened to her but she wasn't heard of and so her her boyfriend files a missing persons report and they start investigating and come to find out his ex-wife was responsible for it all and you're not going to believe what she did to this woman after the kidnapping like I said a moment ago today I'm in Rockdale County and this is the murder of Catherine Whitehead it's very sad and very tragic [Music] in 1983 21 year old Catherine Louise Whitehead Tucker she went by Kathy she lived right here in Rockdale County and she was preparing to move in with her fiance John short now Kathy had a great reputation and everyone loved her they thought that she was just the nicest person ever she was so sweet Kathy and her fiance John were just about to move in together and they were looking forward to planning their future together John had been married before to a woman named Hazel and John and Hazel had been married for 21 years prior to this and they had a couple of kids together and if you think about it Kathy was 21 John and Hazel had been married for 21 years meaning that they got married like the same year Kathy was born John claimed that Hazel was mean and cold to him on a regular basis he said that she was evil and manipulative and he claimed that she just made him miserable constantly John was a police officer over in Porterdale County which is the next County over and one day he got called out to a theft call someone broke into a car and stole something and the victim of that case was Catherine Whitehead so the two of them met that day and despite the fact that she was like 40 years younger than he was the two of them started talking so about a year after they started dating they decided that they were going to move in together right before they were about to move in John officially sent Hazel the divorce papers which she did not sign right away John left it alone he didn't say anything he didn't press the issue but after nearly a year had passed John and Kathy were so happy that he had asked her to marry him and she immediately said yes so it was here that John went back to Hazel and kind of pressed the issue a little bit and told her he needed her to sign the papers and he told her that he had met Kathy and he was in love and that they were going to get married Hazel told John that she would sign the papers even though that she was very upset that he had left her for this younger woman a friend of Hazel's would later say that Hazel told her that she was not going to sign the papers no matter what that she wasn't going to let him leave her Hazel was still hung up on John and she was holding out hope that he would come back a little more time passed and John went back to Hazel for a third time asking her to sign these papers and it was here that Hazel told John that she was not going to sign the papers in that she was not going to let him leave her for a home wrecker half of his age and John pretty much had to flat out till Hazel that their divorce had nothing to do with Kathy he said it was all because of Hazel and he told her that she was an evil woman and he just he didn't want to be with her no more now Kathy Whitehead worked for a catering company here in Conyers and she was in charge of the kitchen as she was preparing to move out of her apartment and in with John strange things started happening to her at work for starters she had an employee working in the kitchen it was just a slob and he was always late he constantly got orders wrong forcing them to have to redo it and costing them money he just wasn't a great employee so Kathy went to the owners about this line cook and he ultimately got fired from the company now shortly after this this was the same time that where John had gone to Hazel for the third time to get her to sign the papers so shortly after this strange things started happening to Kathy like she would get phone calls where somebody would ask for her but then when she would go pick up the phone no one would say anything and she could just hear breathing on the phone one day her car got keyed real bad and Kathy started feeling like she was being watched every night after work as she was walking from the building to her car she could just feel like somebody was sitting somewhere watching her on top of that Kathy started getting letters sent to her home that were all very aggressive and threatening like one of them said that you're gonna die for what you have done b word and these letters concerned Kathy now Kathy had also been married before to a man named Frank Woods Frank was very abusive to Kathy he beat her up and hit her all the time but they also had a child together so Kathy hung out in that relationship for a couple of years before she finally got fed up with all the abuse and she went up taking her child and she left and it was like one of those where Frank left to go to work and she packed up her bags real quick and left in the middle of the night and went into hiding so Frank wouldn't know where she was and when all of this stuff started happening to her the letters coming in and her car getting keyed and all that stuff she told John that she thought this was her ex-husband maybe he had found her and John reassured Kathy that he had no clue where she was and he flat out told her then that that he would protect her no matter what on April the 14th of 1983 Kathy was here at her apartment with her mom she was packing and getting ready to move out so that she can move in with John when all of a sudden there was a knock at the front door Kathy answers the door and a young man that she doesn't know is standing on the other side of the door and he says that he was down at the laundromat washing his clothes when the Payphone out front of the office started ringing so he went out and answered it and on the line there was a man named John who asked him to come up to that apartment and get Kathy and have her come back to the phone saying that there was an emergency now back in the 80s it was a different time we didn't have cell phones and Kathy already had her landline service disconnected at her home so Kathy started thinking to herself who else would know that she did not have a phone at her home her mom was there it's the only other person that would know would be John so she immediately believed it and she walks out of her apartment gets in her car drives around the corner to the office right here there was a payphone sitting right out front and that was the last time that Catherine Whitehead was seen alive just as she walked out of her apartment and went down to the Payphone the next morning Kathy's mom who was at the apartment with Kathy that night she said right after Kathy left to go get the phone call she went to bed and she had no clue that Kathy did not return that night so she gets up early in the morning and she realizes Kathy isn't there and she realizes that nothing else has been touched in the house so she knows that Kathy never came back after going to that phone call so she leaves the apartment walks over to the office and she goes looking for Kathy she saw Kathy's car sitting there the driver's door was open and the the receiver on the pay phone it was just hanging down it wasn't connected so she immediately knew that something was wrong so she hangs up that phone and she uses that same pay phone and immediately calls 9-1-1 and as soon as she's done talking to them and she knows that the officer's on the way she dials John's number and she calls John to tell him what happened and John also races over here to the apartment complex and he actually makes it here before law enforcement does so he and Kathy's mother explain what happened to the officers when they show up and they tell them that they feel like something bad has happened she just disappeared from the pay phone almost immediately a missing person's report is filed investigators come here to the scene and law enforcement start looking for Kathy the Rockdale Sheriff's Office they would search for months leaving no stone unturned but they never found any sign of Catherine Whitehead investigators were able to track down every person who had anything to do with Kathy or John and they were able to talk to them they talked to the Cook at the restaurant that had gotten fired because of Kathy he had an alibi his wife even verified that he was home all night they spoke with John and Hazel's children who said that they had no clue what happened but investigators got their first red flag in the case when they talked to Hazel and Hazel claimed that she didn't even know who Kathy Whitehead was but law enforcement already knew that that was a lie because just a few months prior Hazel had gone over to John's Apartment to pick up her son and Kathy was there she was enraged that Kathy was there in John's apartment and she asked her son if that was who her dad was dating and her son said yes so Hazel walked right back in to John's apartment and smacked Kathy right in her face slapped her right across the face and told her that you're the reason why my husband left his family so the sun grabbed Hazel and got her out of there real quick afterwards once John was told about all of this because he was a police officer you know he encouraged Kathy to file a police report and have documented proof that this incident happened and she did just that there was a police report showing that Hazel had slapped Kathy in the face they didn't want to press any charges they just wanted a report file so law enforcement had documented proof that Hazel was lying to him and that she knew who Kathy was ultimately though her line to them really didn't go anywhere at this time because Hazel had an ironclad Alibi for the night that Kathy went missing after John told the investigators about all of the letters and everything that she was getting and how Kathy thought it was her ex Frank who was threatening her they were able to also track him down but ultimately he was ruled out as well he had no clue where Kathy was until this point now he knew it was Rockdale County because Rockdale County investigators came to talk to him investigators exhausted all of their leads they talked to every person they could they ran out of places to look and Kathy Whitehead's case went cold a whole year would go by with nothing happening on Kathy's missing persons case the Conyers investigators started questioning whether or not Kathy could have just ran off somewhere and um her family and John they all told him that this was ridiculous though she had responsibilities her child was in the apartment with John he was living with John at this time so there was no way that she would just leave her child like that now John and Hazel they had two children together Freddie and Tina so Freddie went back and forth between John's house and Hazel's house whereas Tina kind of resented her father for leaving her mom and she pretty much stayed with hazel all the time it was during this time that this Tina John's daughter was dating a guy named Donald Glenn Everett now I'm telling you that to explain this about a year after Kathy's disappearance Donald who was guilt-ridden he was in a bar one night he was drinking he was drunk and he tells a stranger that sitting next to him that he felt guilty and he needed to clear his conscience he basically told this person that he needed to tell them but they needed to keep it a secret he just had to tell someone to get it off his chest so Donald proceeds to tell the stranger at how he was involved in the death of a woman this stranger who Donald was talking to was in disbelief at what he was saying and although they promised to keep his secret as soon as they left the bar they went straight to law enforcement and told them everything that he said so the next morning when the Conyers investigators knocked at Donald Everett's door he immediately dropped his head knowing why they were there because Donald felt so bad about what happened like I said he was guilt-ridden and he knew that he had been caught Donald sits down with the detectives and he tells them everything he confesses to all of it finally shedding light on what happened to Kathy Whitehead a year prior Donald tells investigators that it was him who knocked on Kathy's door that night telling her that John was on the phone and he says that this whole thing was just to coax her out of her apartment Kathy got in her car drove around to the pay phone and as soon as Kathy got out and grabbed the phone Hazel John's ex-wife grabs Kathy throws her into the trunk of her car and took off Donald says that he and Hazel were in the front of the car with Kathy in the trunk and they drove around almost the entire night with Kathy just locked in the trunk she had not been hurt at this time so she was just locked in this dark trunk all night not knowing what was going to happen to her then Donald says at one point Hazel pulls over to the side of the road she gets out and she goes to the back of the car she opens the trunk and Kathy gets her first Glimpse at what is happening who's doing this to her Donald says that he was sitting up front and Hazel popped the trunk he did she didn't say nothing to Kathy she just took a knife and she stabbed Kathy in her stomach once and in her leg not bad just like you know small Cuts but she stabbed her in her stomach and then a couple of times in her arm just to kind of punish her just for fun Hazel was stabbing Kathy just for fun so Hazel uh slams the trunk again goes and gets back in the front and they continue driving around with Kathy screaming in agony in the trunk she's now bleeding everywhere on the back from being in pain and from being stabbed so a few more hours go by when finally Kathy feels the car come to a stop a few moments later the trunk pops open again and it's daytime now so Kathy gets blinded by the sunlight after being locked in this dark trunk for so long but uh as soon as the trunk lid pops open Hazel snatches her out of the car and onto the ground here at this uh well it's an old trailer park now this trailer park here it looks a lot different today than it did back then there were only a few trailers here and Hazel owned a lot of land out here she had junk cars everywhere so they're here on Hazel's property right here in this trailer park area and Hazel pulls her out of the car Hazel proceeds to start yelling at Kathy telling her how she ruined her life Hazel calls her a [ __ ] and insinuates that uh Kathy used her private areas to steal Hazel's husband and this whole time Kathy is on the ground on her knees pleading with hazel to stop and asking her why are you doing this Kathy at one point said I'll give you anything you want just please don't hurt me but Hazel was vengeful and she wasn't having any of it so Kathy is kneeling on the ground begging for her life Hazel's pissed off at her and yelling and screaming Kathy would have seen with her own eyes as Hazel picks up a gas can again Kathy's begging for her life and pleads for hazel to stop but Hazel ignores her and Hazel picks up the gas can turns it up and dumps gasoline all over Kathy after Hazel empties the gas can on top of Kathy Hazel then pulls out a Zippo lighter and she lights it making sure Kathy can see it lit in her hand and Hazel then takes one last jab at Kathy Whitehead by calling her a [ __ ] this whole time Kathy's looking up at Hazel and Kathy starts to say something but before Kathy can get anything out of her mouth Hazel tosses that Zippo lighter on to Kathy setting her on fire Kathy obviously is screaming out in agony after a few minutes the fire goes out Kathy is suffering she's severely burned all over her body but she's still alive so Hazel then grabs a wire rope and she proceeds to strangle Kathy to death to finish her off after Hazel and Donald Everett were sure that Kathy was deceased this time they enlist Tina to come help dispose of Kathy's body so they load up Kathy's lifeless body in the back of the car again and they bring her here right here on the right you can see there's this old shack looking build it over here now it wasn't an open area like this it was way way overgrown back in the 80s and but you can still see the the old wooden Barn that was start already starting to fall down on itself back then and now they've cleaned it out but they drive the three of them drive here to this old barn with Kathy in the trunk and there used to be an old well out behind the home that had like a piece of plywood and an old sheet of tin from like a roof just sitting on top of it so they moved that plywood and stuff and they dumped Kathy's body down inside of that well then they put the plywood and stuff back on top of it and then they just left and went back home and acted like nothing happened once they got back to Hazel's home Hazel Donald and Tina all worked it out so that they all had the same story and that they all had an alibi so when law enforcement went and talked to Hazel Hazel told them that she was in a poker game with her daughter Tina and some of their friends so when law enforcement went to verify her Alibi Tina and Donald told them the same thing which all gave them Alibi they all said that they were all in the same place together and uh at first law enforcement took that as their alibi chances are we would have never found out what happened to Kathy Whitehead had Donald ever not grown a conscience and squealed so law enforcement they're they're sitting there talking with Donald and he's told them all of this information Donald Everett was immediately arrested placed in handcuffs and charged with Kathy's murder and then he took investigators to the will here behind this old barn where they were able to recover the remains of Catherine Whitehead a year after her death and then investigators left immediately from recovering Kathy's remains and they immediately went looking for Hazel and Tina but they were nowhere to be found while they were on Hazel's property they did some investigating and looking around when they found in Hazel's junk cars out here this Plymouth and in the trunk of this Plymouth they found blood that they were able to positively identify and match up to Catherine Whitehead now it had been an entire year and apparently at some point during that year the car became inoperable and they were using it for for parts or something in that point in time but they were able to positively identify that this was the car that was used to transport Catherine Whitehead the night she disappeared so they immediately put out an APB for Hazel and Tina Nationwide and shortly after the APB went out Hazel was arrested in Texas she was arrested and officially charged with Kathy's murder and then a little bit later Tina was arrested in Nashville Tennessee and she was also charged with Kathy's murder all three individuals Donald Glenn Everett Hazel short and Tina short they all set in jail waiting for their trial they also arrested another person who was involved with the whole Alibi scheme named Nikki who was Hazel's nephew and Tina's cousin but um there just really wasn't enough evidence to hold them so they Nikki was arrested and then released and all of their charges were dismissed now while Hazel and Tina and Donald were waiting for their trial Tina actually caused a little bit of a situation because back in the 80s you know she was a very pretty girl so she was able to manipulate a guard and she convinced this corrections officer to take her like on a shopping spree he took her over to a mall and then took her to a fast food place and got her something to eat and this caused problems in in the the deputy actually wound up going under investigation and ultimately resigned because of this Donald Glenn Everett was found guilty and convicted to life in prison for kidnapping but in 1993 he was granted parole and was released Hazel was also convicted of Kathy's murder and she was sentenced to life in prison with parole in 2018 she was granted parole and was released and Tina short was also found guilty and convicted of her role in Kathy's Murder She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and she served six of those years before she was released on parole after I filmed this episode I have since learned that Tina's short is actually now back in prison she was called trafficking methamphetamine so she's serving like a 40-year sentence in prison right now to this day there's not a whole lot of information out there on what happened to John short after all of this I imagine he was probably crushed because he was so in love with Kathy Whitehead and then she was brutally murdered at the hands of his own ex and I'm sure that devastated him his son I would assume probably moved in with him after all of this while Hazel and Tina and all of them were locked up and then again I'm not really sure what happened to Kathy's son either but I'm pretty sure he probably went to live with some of Kathy's family as I said in the intro this story was I saw it on TV and there it was just the story there was no pictures of Kathy or Tina or any of them or the crime scenes or nothing and I I I don't know what attracted me to the story it was so heinous and I decided then that I wanted to get this information that no one else had and get it out there and make this story and I mean you know I've been preparing to talk about the story for some time now as I've been Gathering up all the details that is going to do it for this episode today from here in Rockdale County Georgia I want to thank you all so much for watching I really appreciate it if you're new here go down hit that subscribe button then hit that notification Bell so you get notified every time I upload a video thank you all I will see you again in the next one please all of you stay safe and stay healthy much love to you all [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause]