The Wreck

Hi, Park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Dilya DeAmbra.

In the case I'm going to tell you about today,

takes place along the eastern edge of

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in

Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

The Smokies are a geographic region I've

covered many times before on this podcast.

The NPS' website explains that

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

is the most visited national park in

the entire United States.

It spans over 500,000 acres between

North Carolina and Tennessee in

this full of scenic drives, waterfalls,

trail systems, and wildlife.

As is the case with many vast landscapes

that are home to winding roads and

dense forests, the potential for

tragic accidents abounds.

On a cool morning in November 1994,

one such scenario emerged, which at

first glance appeared to be a terrible

accident.

A car had gone over an embankment,

but as law enforcement assessed

the scene and started probing further,

the truth behind what happened came to

the spotlight, revealing that the

situation was far from an accident.

This is Park Predators.

Around 9 o'clock in the morning on

Sunday, November 6, 1994, Park Ranger

Helen McNutt responded to a 911 call

from two tourists who were visiting

the Great Smoky Mountains.

The collars were from Missouri, and they

said they'd been driving along the

Gatlinburg bypass when they decided

to stop and admire the view from a

lookout point.

According to the National Park Service,

the Gatlinburg bypass is about a

three and a half mile long road that

connects the park to an urban four-lane

highway that takes drivers between

Gatlinburg and nearby Pigeon Forge

Tennessee.

The bypass is a popular alternate route

to get into the park because it's scenic

and you essentially avoid having to go

through downtown Gatlinburg.

I'd imagine this is probably why those

tourists were on the bypass, hoping to

avoid traffic while getting some

breathtaking views of the landscape.

According to an episode of Snapped

about this case, when the tourists

peered over the edge of the overlook

they'd stopped at, they immediately

noticed a vehicle below them that was

in really bad shape.

More than 30 feet down in the middle of

the dense forest was a black 1987 Jeep

Wrangler, which seemed to have gone

over the embankment and was lodged

headfirst in a tree.

Shortly after spotting the wreck Jeep,

the bystanders called 911 and Ranger

Helimic Nut was the first official to

arrive on scene.

And right away she realized that this

was a serious situation, not to mention

dangerous.

As she began to investigate she was

extremely cautious traversing the terrain

around the Jeep because it was thick

with trees and brush and there was always

the possibility that wildlife like

bears or rattlesnakes could be lurking

nearby.

Gina Stafford reported for the Knoxville

News Sentinel that as Helen approached

the car she saw that the driver's side

door was partially opened and the keys

were in the ignition.

But no one was in the front seat.

She also smelled traces of alcohol

which initially led her to suspect

that maybe the situation was related

to a drunk driving accident.

But those thoughts quickly vanished when

she saw a man's body in the fetal

position in the back seat.

From the looks of it the guy was white

and had very noticeable injuries to the

front of his face and back of his head.

Right away Helen thought it was kind of

strange that the man was in the back

seat as opposed to the driver's seat

if he'd been the person driving.

However, for the time being it seemed

she kept those observations to herself.

It didn't take long for her to determine

that the guy inside the Jeep was dead

and a quick examination of his body

revealed that he'd suffered multiple

bruises and lacerations.

After making those observations Helen

discovered a wallet on the victim's body

which contained an ID for a 33 year old man

named Kelly Lavera who was from Severeville, Tennessee.

A small city about 14 miles outside of

Gatlinburg.

After securing the crash scene,

Helen contacted the Severeville Police Department

because the NPS had a long standing

relationship with them and the man

from the car's ID indicated he was from

their jurisdiction.

When investigators from SPD arrived at the overlook

they agreed with Helen that something

seemed off about the wreck.

Not only was Kelly's body not in the driver's seat

but there was also no blood on the front seats

of the vehicle which was odd

because Kelly himself had several bloody wounds.

Conversely though, there was a significant amount

of blood in the backseat.

According to reporting by Carol McMahon and Gina Stafford

authorities observed a pool of blood

surrounding Kelly's body to the point

where there was even some of it leaking

out of the Jeep's tailgate.

Another interesting detail was that the windshield

was perfectly intact.

No cracks, nothing.

Which logically didn't support a scenario

where the Jeep fell off the embankment

and collided headfirst into a tree.

I've personally never crashed a car into a tree

but I've seen plenty of car crashes in my career

and I can tell you it is rare

that a windshield goes unscathed.

So in Kelly's case, I'd imagine it would have struck

the investigators as pretty miraculous

that not a single crack was in the windshield

of the Jeep he was found in.

But you get where I'm going.

Overall the evidence at the scene

and on Kelly's body was not painting the picture

of someone who'd drunkenly driven off the side

of a mountain into a tree.

So investigators were beginning to theorize

that maybe Kelly had been killed somewhere else

and then put in the car and dumped in the park,

you know, to make it look like an accident.

An episode of I'd kill for you about this case

stated that detectives were fairly confident

that Kelly had been killed in quote,

an explosion of rage, end quote, not in a car accident.

So to get even more insight into what might have happened

to him, law enforcement had his body transported

to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

And it was there that officials officially confirmed

Kelly was the victim.

The full results of his autopsy weren't available

right away though.

So in the meantime, the police chief of severeville,

a man named Robbie Fox, visited Kelly's home address.

There he spoke with Kelly's wife,

28-year-old Shane Lavera, who'd grown up in Gatlinburg

and been someone who Robbie had known for a long time.

Chief Fox learned that Shane had actually

reported Kelly missing earlier that morning.

But while they were speaking with her,

Chief Fox noticed something unexpected.

Shane didn't cry or really show any emotion at all

when she learned that Kelly was dead.

She also didn't ask any questions about

how he'd been found or what his cause of death was.

And to the chief at least, her lack of interest

in those kinds of basic details seemed unusual.

But she was cooperative and allowed the chief

and his accompanying officer to come inside

and speak with her.

They asked her when the last time she'd seen her husband was

and what she'd been up to the previous night.

She responded that they'd hosted a house party

at their apartment on Saturday night,

which wasn't out of the norm for them.

She claimed that the last time she laid eyes on Kelly

was during the early morning hours

after the gathering had ended.

She said she'd left with a male neighbor named Brett Ray

to go get food at an all-night diner

and then returned home shortly after 4 a.m.

She said at that time, Kelly was asleep

on their couch in the living room

but woke up suddenly in a foul mood.

Shane said Kelly then began questioning her

about where she'd been and what she and Brett had been doing.

That spat boiled over into Kelly,

sharing that he didn't think she was home enough

with him and their two young children.

And Shane told police that her response to her husband

was to accuse him of drinking too much.

Shane said that eventually Kelly voiced

he'd had enough of their arguing

and stormed out of their apartment.

She said the last time she saw him,

he jumped into his Jeep Wrangler and driven off.

She explained to police that she didn't go after him

because she was too upset and tired at the time

and their kids were already asleep.

So she decided to just go to bed.

It was only when she'd woken up on Sunday morning

that she realized Kelly had never come home.

During this interview,

Chief Fox and the other officer noticed a pair of eyeglasses

laying on the table in the couple's apartment.

Curious as to who they belonged to,

the duo asked Shane if they were hers or Kelly's

and she told them that the glasses belonged to her husband.

She stated that Kelly was nearsighted

and usually didn't drive without them.

The officer accompanying Chief Fox

happened to be nearsighted himself.

So he put on the glasses as I guess a kind of experiment.

And lo and behold, the spectacles were definitely meant

for a nearsighted person

because the officer's vision was properly corrected.

Finding the glasses at the apartment

was a puzzling revelation

because it proved that Kelly had left his residence

without the one thing he would have needed to drive well.

The question swirling in authorities' minds

was why in the world would he have done that

and attempted to drive in the middle of the night

without his glasses?

Was he really so angry that he'd simply forgotten

to grab the spectacles?

Had he never gotten the chance to grab them at all?

To Chief Fox, some of Shane's stories sounded plausible

but he knew from what had been gathered

in the investigation so far that Kelly had not died

in some kind of freak motor vehicle accident.

So figuring out what had happened to him

after he reportedly left his family's apartment

but before his Jeep went over the embankment

was paramount.

When Chief Fox and his colleague wrapped up

their interview with Shane

and it had only been a few hours since Kelly's body

was found and based on what I read in the source material,

it seems that they were beginning to suspect

that Kelly's widow might know more than she was sharing.

But until police could glean more insight

from Kelly's body, all authorities had were suspicions.

But that changed when the medical examiner

wrapped up their review.

The autopsy results confirmed that Kelly had not died

as a result of a car accident,

but rather his head had been severely beaten.

The episode of I'd Kill for You About This Case

explained that the 33-year-old had suffered

around a dozen blows to the head

from what the medical examiner suspected

was likely a baseball bat.

The examiner also found numerous last-rations

and penetrating wounds around Kelly's head,

face, and left ear.

The Emmy concluded that those cuts were made

by some other instrument than what had been used

to strike Kelly's head,

but they couldn't say for sure what that other instrument was.

Ultimately, the ruling determined that the blows to Kelly's head

had rendered him unconscious

and his brain had swelled and put fatal pressure

on his spinal cord, which was what led to his death.

Regardless of which or how many weapons

may have been used in the attack,

investigators knew without a doubt

that Kelly's death was a homicide.

And to get to the bottom of who was responsible,

they needed to speak with Brett Ray.

And in a stroke of good fortune,

they were about to get a phone call about him

that would change everything.

The End of The End

According to reporting by the Knoxville News Sentinel

and that episode of I'd Kill for You

that I've mentioned a few times,

the same day Kelly was found,

police received a call from a man named James Christopher

Bernie.

James, who went by Jim,

was a local severevill resident who told officers

that sometime between six and seven a.m. on November 6th,

he'd received a phone call from Brett Ray.

Brett was a mechanic who also lived in severevill.

And Jim said he'd called him from a motel in Gatlinburg

asking for a ride back into town.

Jim said that while on the phone,

Brett sounded desperate and kind of out of breath,

but Jim didn't really think too much of it

and agreed to come pick up his friend anyway.

Jim told police that when he arrived at the motel,

he found Brett panicked and covered in mud

and would appear to be blood.

When he asked Brett what was going on

and why he was so dirty,

Brett allegedly responded by confessing, quote,

I did it, I did it.

I put Kelly over a 100 foot in bankman and quote.

Jim said that when Brett made this declaration,

he immediately knew that the Kelly Brett was talking about

was Kelly Lavera because Jim said Brett

had previously discussed different ways

he wanted to kill Kelly.

I know, this is where things get interesting.

According to Jim, Brett had previously

batted around the idea of tampering with the brakes

on Kelly's Jeep or even shooting him at a firing range.

And you're probably wondering, wait, why?

What was the beef between these two?

Well, that's the question authorities wanted to answer as well.

Jim told them that Brett was very much in love

with Kelly's wife, Shane,

and the pair were romantically involved.

This lead was quite literally a bombshell.

And so on November 7th, police took Brett into custody

and eventually charged him with first degree murder.

Initially, he wasn't super forthcoming,

but after a while, he finally relayed

his account of what happened to Kelly

on the night of his death.

Brett said that since he lived in the same apartment complex

as Lavera, as he'd actually seen Kelly storm out

of their apartment in the middle of the night

after they'd hosted a party.

Brett said seeing Kelly in that state

made him worried for Shane,

so he'd gone over to check on her.

However, while he'd been on his way to do that,

Kelly suddenly returned and became even more enraged

than before.

It was at that point that Kelly accused Brett

of having an affair with his wife.

From there, the two men got into a verbal argument

in the Lavera's apartment, which quickly turned physical.

Brett claimed that in self-defense,

he'd grabbed a nearby baseball bat that belonged

to the couple's son and hit Kelly with it.

He said once he realized that he had actually killed Kelly,

he then carried him out of the apartment

by himself and put him into Kelly's Jeep.

After that, he decided to push it over a hill

to make it look like Kelly had died in an accident.

Apparently, in Brett's version of events,

Shane was nowhere inside.

She and the kids were allegedly

sound asleep in the apartment.

And while that version of the story

was theoretically possible,

none of the investigators were buying it.

They doubted that two adult men could have had

such a chaotic fight in such a small space

without waking up Shane or either of the kids

who were reportedly just feet away.

Authorities also couldn't wrap their minds

around how Brett would have been able to move Kelly's body

out of the apartment and into the Jeep

without someone helping him.

But Brett was adamant he'd done everything on his own.

However, detectives were beginning to suspect

that Shane was definitely involved.

Unfortunately, though,

they had no physical evidence linking her to the crime.

And so far, they'd been unable to get into the Lavera's

apartment with a warrant to search it.

They knew they were gonna need a whole lot more

than just Brett's confession

to be able to legally scour the apartment for clues.

So the police department did something kind of sneaky,

but a good kind of sneaky.

They sent an officer back to the Lavera's apartment

to ask Shane a few more questions.

While talking with her,

the officer walking around the apartment

noticed one of Kelly's diplomas displayed

near the couple's couch,

which is where Shane had originally told chief Fox

her husband had been laying when she returned

from getting food at around 4 a.m. on Sunday morning.

As the officer studied the diploma,

he noticed that there were what appeared to be specks

of blood on the corner of the frame.

The officer realized in that moment

that where the diploma was positioned in the room

next to the couch was the perfect spot for blood to land.

If, for instance, the person who'd been struck

had been lying on the couch.

This revelation was enough for authorities

to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant

for the Lavera's place.

When a team of investigators descended on the apartment,

they didn't immediately find anything other than that blood

that looks suspicious,

but they were confident that if they got down

into every nook and cranny and sprayed luminal,

it would reveal much more than what met the eye.

If you're not familiar with luminal,

it's a chemical agent that will react

with certain enzymes, including enzymes found in blood.

Typically, no matter how hard you try

to scrub blood off a surface,

there are still proteins that stay behind.

Instances where luminal isn't really helpful

are when certain cleaning products

like bleach are used to clean up blood.

Anyway, according to what Chi Fox told producers

for I'd kill for you,

when police asked everyone to step outside the apartment

so they could do the luminal testing,

Shane protested and didn't want to move off the couch.

That wasn't gonna fly though,

and ultimately some of the officers

had to physically make her stand up and walk out.

After the team sprayed the whole house,

the results showed traces of blood

on the front and back of the couch,

almost as if someone had been brutally attacked

while laying down and then pulled over the back of it

and dropped onto the floor.

There was also a trail of blood

that extended down the hallway

and into, of all places,

the couple's children's bedroom.

Then it went out a window inside of that room.

To authorities, it appeared that whoever had moved Kelly's body

didn't want to drag him out the front door of the apartment,

so instead they'd chosen to get him out of the house

by pulling him past his sleeping children.

Outside of the residence,

the blood evidence just kept coming.

The luminal testing showed the trail

going out of the kid's window

and across the lawn of a church

to where investigators believe Kelly had parked his jeep.

In essence, everything they'd found seemed to tell

a slightly different story than the version of events

Brett had confessed to.

Investigators were now more confident than ever

that a second person had to have been involved,

especially when it came to moving Kelly's body.

And in their minds, that second person was likely Shane.

So on December 13th, just over a month after the slaying,

they arrested Shane and charged her

with first-degree murder.

She vehemently denied being involved in her husband's death

and claimed that Brett was just some guy

who'd been weirdly obsessed with her.

Not long after their arrest, both defendants

were indicted for the crime,

but their trials wouldn't start for another 15 months.

This was partially because forensic evidence

that was collected from the apartment

needed to be tested for DNA.

And unfortunately, according to Gina Stafford's reporting

for the Knoxville News Sentinel,

the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Crime Labs

were experiencing a major backlog at the time.

So while everyone waited for that additional testing

to be done, both Brett and Shane posted their bonds

and were released pending trial.

Brett went back to work as a mechanic in a repair garage

and Shane, along with her and Kelly's two kids,

moved in with one of her cousins

who lived in nearby Kodak, Tennessee.

During that time, investigators continued

to build their case against the pair,

which mostly included uncovering

as much information about their alleged affair as possible.

According to the coverage about this case,

Kelly and Shane had moved to Severeville

four years before his death.

Of the two of them,

it seemed that Shane was the more well-known person

in the area.

And that's because of who she was,

or rather where she'd come from.

According to coverage in the Hamilton Spectator,

Shane's birth name was Alicia Shane Good,

though she seemed to always prefer

to go by her middle name, Shane.

She'd grown up in a rural area of Tennessee

with little means.

When she was three years old,

her mom left Shane's father

and the two of them moved to Gatlinburg.

Soon after that,

her mom began dating and eventually married

a well-known man named Brent Mills,

who worked as the president

of the First National Bank in Gatlinburg.

Brent adopted Shane when she was about seven years old.

Growing up, Shane her stepfather developed a really close bond

and according to the source material,

she considered him her best friend and father figure.

Her mom's marriage to Brent drastically changed

the mother and daughter's lives

and their social standing also shifted.

They became part of one of Gatlinburg's

most respected families, essentially overnight.

You see, because Brent wasn't just

an influential banker in the community,

his grandfather had actually founded

the First National Bank of Gatlinburg

and played a big role in putting Gatlinburg on the map.

Brent's father had followed the same path

and was also a pillar in the community.

So much so that he was given the nickname Mr. Gatlinburg.

After Shane's mother and Brent married,

they had a daughter of their own,

but Shane still had her own special connection

with her stepdad and was said to have him

wrapped around her finger,

especially when it came to getting material possessions.

Brent would buy his stepdaughter pretty much anything she wanted.

From expensive clothing to her own luxury Buick Riviera,

which was the car she drove in high school.

In addition to having wealth,

Shane was also well-liked, pretty, and captivating.

And she loved the limelight,

succeeding academically, being in social clubs

and participating in the Junior Miss Pageant program.

By all accounts, the Mills family was seemingly

living the perfect life.

Until 1984, Shane senior year of high school.

That year, one of Brent's bank employees

was reportedly caught laundering money

for drug dealers via his bank,

which led to a huge investigation

into the financial institution.

Although law enforcement never found any evidence

that Brent himself was involved in the scandal,

he was still in the crosshairs of suspicion

due to being the bank's president.

So the whole ordeal really cast a negative light on him

and the Mills family name.

It was an extremely stressful time, especially for Brent,

because he'd been required to meet with the FBI

and bank examiners and suspected that his job,

his family's reputation and the business itself,

were all at risk of being ruined.

People around him saw the pressure mounting,

but his friends and family never expected

what would happen next.

According to the coverage in this case,

in May 1984, authorities discovered Brent had sustained

gunshot wounds while in his bed,

and they quickly ruled the incident as a suicide.

The natural assumption was that Brent had taken his own life

because of the embarrassment and stress

of having his bank's loan practices questioned by authorities.

For months and even years after his death, though,

people from the area speculated as to whether his death

was the result of foul play,

but nothing ever came of those rumors.

Whether he died by his own hand or someone else's,

the loss was devastating to his family, especially Shane.

Her high school graduation rolled around

and the only father she'd ever known wasn't there

to celebrate or help her transition

into the next phase of her life.

In the wake of Brent's death,

Shane's mother learned that the family's

financial situation was also not very good.

So by the time the entire investigation into the bank

was over, the mills were left

with almost nothing to survive on.

And after all that hardship,

Shane was more than ready to get out of Gatlinburg for a while,

so she enrolled in a small college in Columbia, Missouri.

She joined a swimming class and quickly met Kelly Lavera.

He was about five years older than her

and was originally from a city in Missouri

about 20 minutes southwest of the heart of St. Louis.

After graduating high school in St. Louis in 1979,

Kelly enrolled in the University of Missouri at Columbia

with the goal of earning a degree in mathematics.

He loved music and had been active

in his high school's jazz and symphony bands.

He'd also been a competitive swimmer

and helped coach a swim club.

That hobby continued on into college,

which is how he met Shane.

And the two of them hit it off right away

and quickly fell in love.

Even though Kelly was known to be a bit of a math nerd,

the I'd kill for you episode describes him as a quote,

all-American college boy, end quote,

who was also athletic, amicable,

and someone who liked to have a good time.

By all accounts, he was the type of guy Shane had been looking for

and Kelly, of course, couldn't resist Shane's beauty and charm.

While they dated, Kelly became a safe place for Shane.

She'd come to college still reeling with grief

from the loss of her stepdad

and when she was with Kelly, he made her happy.

At that point in time, she'd been struggling

with a lot of self-doubt about her future

and having a stable and mature boyfriend

helped her not be so down on herself.

The pair dated for one month and then moved in together

and just six months later, in 1985,

they officially tied the knot.

Kelly eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree

in mathematics, but Shane ended up dropping out

before completing her studies.

She had their first child, a boy, in 1987

and a daughter not long after that.

In the late 80s and early 90s,

Kelly taught at various high schools in Missouri

while Shane stayed home to take care of their kids.

In 1990, the whole family moved back

to Shane's home state of Tennessee

so Kelly could continue his education

and get a master's degree from the University of Tennessee.

After settling down, he took a job teaching

at what was known at the time

as Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville.

The pay wasn't much, but he was hopeful

the opportunity could lead to a tenured

professor position one day.

For her part, Shane seemed genuinely excited

to move back to Tennessee.

However, because finances were tight,

the family couldn't afford to live in Gatlinburg

where she'd grown up.

Instead, they rented an apartment in nearby severeville.

The apartment complex was a place that locals

referred to as Frog Alley.

Apparently, when the building developers began

to build in the area, they knew ahead of time

that it was gonna be low-cost housing,

so they didn't bother to fully drain

the surrounding swamp land.

In the first few years after the apartments were built,

there were more frogs living in and around the structures

than actual people.

I know, not a great way to attract new residents.

And the family's new digs were certainly

not what Shane had envisioned for her future.

The living situation in finances caused resentment to rise

and that put more pressure on the couple's marriage.

In the episode of I'd Kill For You,

Kellyanne Shane's friends stated that it was around this time

they began to see cracks in Levere's relationship.

For example, at Shane's 10-year high school reunion,

her former classmates were counted that while Kellyanne

was showing everyone pictures of their kids

and giving off a calm, sweet, fatherly demeanor,

Shane was acting like she was a teenager again,

even flirting with the bartender in front of her husband.

Aside from those problems,

the money issues between the couple

only got worse the more time passed.

Apparently, Shane had no problem spending money

in ways Kellyanne thought were unnecessary.

And their disagreements over their finances came to a head

when Kellyanne bought his black 1987 G.

Reportedly, Shane was adamant that she needed

to have one exactly like it,

even though the family didn't have the money

or the need for a second car.

Eventually, though, Shane got what she wanted

and ended up with a vehicle just like her husband's.

In the summer of 1994, several months before Kelly's murder,

Shane's half-sister, Kim,

moved into the same apartment complex as the Levere's.

Kim's place had two rooms

and so she wanted Shane to help prevent possible roommates

so she could make some extra money on the side.

One of the people who Kim interviewed

was 24-year-old Brett Ray.

Brett was described in the episode of I'd Kill For You

as a quote, good old Tennessee boy.

It was reported that his main concern in life

was partying and looking for ways to have the most fun.

He'd previously served in the Navy

but had been dishonorably discharged

after punching a fellow officer.

His dad was a financially well-off publisher

who operated a local newspaper in Severeville

called The Mountain Press,

which is actually where some of the source material

for this episode came from.

Anyway, Brett had a reputation for being a risk taker

and kind of rebellious.

Basically, he was willing to do whatever to have a good time.

He made a good impression with Kim and Shane right away

because he fit into their crowd of friends

who loved to party and he didn't take life too seriously.

So Kim offered him the extra room in her apartment

and he took it, which put him that much closer to her

and of course her sister Shane.

Not long after Brett moved in,

Shane learned from Kim that he didn't have anyone

to spend his birthday with,

which prompted Shane to go pay him a visit

and deliver a gift.

While she was there, Shane and Brett hung out

and had a drink together

and that's sort of where things started

as far as their affair.

Fast forward to after their arrests though

and Shane's main defense had always been

that she had nothing to do with her husband's murder

and Brett was just a violent man who'd been obsessed with her.

But if that was the case,

then law enforcement knew that it wouldn't look good

if for instance the two of them were caught

seeing one another while out on bond.

So without their knowledge,

police began keeping tabs on the defendants

by assigning a detective named Steve Ratcliffe

to surveil them.

And what he saw was damn.

Detective Ratcliffe caught Brett and Shane

meeting up on multiple occasions

while they were out on bond awaiting trial.

In April of 1995, about five months after Kelly's murder,

he witnessed them meet alone at a hotel room

and later that month witnessed them drive

to a recreation area to have sex and change Jeep.

These encounters did not support Shane's claim

that Brett was some obsessed dude

who was dangerously into her,

but rather that the pair was in a voluntary romantic relationship.

And if these sexual rendezvous weren't bad enough,

in January of 1996,

less than a month before their trial was set to begin,

Brett decided to jump his bond and flee to Mexico.

According to a series of articles

for the Knoxville News Sentinel,

Brett reportedly left his job at around 11 a.m.

on Monday, January 22 and drove away in a red Mazda.

This impromptu trip came right after the prosecutor

had recently announced the state was going to seek

life without parole for the defendants

instead of the death penalty.

And it didn't take long before a federal warrant

was issued charging Brett with interstate flight

to avoid prosecution,

which allowed the FBI to then get involved

with the search for him.

On January 28, after less than a week on the run,

he was apprehended while trying to reenter the country

and arrested in Miami, Florida

by agents with the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Meanwhile, back in Tennessee,

Shane's bond was revoked

and she was taken into custody that same night.

At that time, Kelly's mother

took temporary custody of Kelly and Shane's two kids.

According to Jamie Satterfield's reporting,

Shane was later charged with additional counts

for knowing that Brett was going to run

and wait for it,

had funded his escape with her own money.

She'd reportedly given Brett $250 to get

to Mexico City, Mexico.

And after he called to tell her he'd been injured

after wrecking his car there and running out of cash,

she'd wired him another $500 that she borrowed

from coworkers.

Apparently, this whole situation happened

because she believed that she had a lesser chance

of being convicted if Brett was absent from the trial.

But there were witnesses that Shane likely had no idea

were already working with authorities.

For example, her longtime friend of 15 years,

a woman named Mary had been cooperating with the police

and Mary ended up testifying against Shane

as a confidential informant at a pre-trial hearing.

According to Mary in conversation she'd had with Shane

while Shane was out on bond,

Shane had threatened to leave severe ill

on multiple occasions.

She'd also told Mary that she and Brett had a plan

to go to Mexico and would leave a note

in which he'd take all the blame for the murder.

I imagine that Brett fleeing the revelations

about Shane assisting him and a confirmed backlog

at the TBI crime labs were all factors

as to why the trial ultimately got delayed

to March 26th, 1996, more than 16 months after Kelly's murder.

Although they were represented

by different defense attorneys,

Shane and Brett were tried together

in front of the same jury.

At trial, the prosecution presented witnesses

including members of law enforcement, forensic scientists,

two of Shane's family members, Brett's friends,

and even another man from the Laverra's apartment complex

who Shane had had an extramarital affair with.

Many of these folks helped to build a fuller picture

of what the state believed happened

the night Kelly was killed.

Prosecutors and a forensic pathologist

went over the details of Kelly's autopsy

as well as all the physical evidence

that had been gathered in the case.

It was pointed out that post-scene analysis had shown

that the blood on the floor of Kelly's jeep

had run uphill, not downhill,

which literally defied the laws of gravity.

If, one were to believe he'd been killed in a vehicle crash.

Crime scene techs had also discovered

one of Brett's fingerprints in Kelly's blood

on a lamp inside the Laverra's apartment,

which of course was pretty damning evidence.

However, Brett's story had always been

that he hadn't intended to kill Kelly,

but rather what had happened was birthed out of self-defense.

It was also revealed in court

that near where Kelly's jeep was discovered,

investigators had found a blanket from the Laverra's couch,

a shirt that belonged to Brett, and some plastic wrap.

The prosecution then called various witnesses

to describe Shane and Brett's thoughts and actions

before and after the murder.

Jim Bernie testified to Brett's confessions

to him about pushing Kelly off the embankment,

as well as his prior ideas for how he might kill Kelly.

Another one of Brett's friends, a guy named Mike Step,

also testified that Brett confessed to him

about killing Kelly, telling him, quote,

I've got a favor to ask you.

I need you to keep your mouth shut.

I did it.

The risk was worth the money, end quote.

And you're probably wondering, wait, what money?

Well, investigators found out through talking to Shane's friend,

Mary, that the Laverra's had taken out

a life insurance policy on Kelly

that would be doubled if he died in an accident.

It seemed that Shane had promised not only

to give Brett her love and devotion if he killed Kelly,

but some of the insurance money as well.

This is why Brett ultimately staged Kelly's death

as a car crash.

In regards to Shane's culpability,

detectives had discovered that she had not just

been cheating on Kelly with Brett,

but also with that other guy from their apartment complex.

He testified that Shane had complained to him

about how Kelly, quote unquote, cramped her lifestyle,

and she'd even asked him for suggestions

of undetectable poisons that were fatal.

Detective Ratcliffe also got on the stand

and recounted the various instances he'd caught,

Brett and Shane meeting up and having sex

while they were out on bond.

To further solidify the sorted details

of the couple's affair, Shane's cousin,

who she'd been staying with after Kelly's murder

also testified before the jury.

She said that not long after Shane moved in with her,

Shane began seeing a mysterious man

who she only came to know as Cory.

Shane had told her cousin that Cory was a prominent

member of the community and he was married,

which is why Shane made it such a big deal

to keep his true identity a secret from her cousin.

Eventually Cory began visiting Shane regularly

and Shane always asked her cousin to stay in her own room

so she wouldn't see him.

While on the witness stand, Shane's cousin testified

that on January 14th, 1996, which by the way,

was just over a week before Brett would flee America,

she caught Shane kissing Cory goodbye in their apartment.

To no one's surprise at trial when Shane's cousin

was asked if Cory was in the courtroom,

she confidently pointed to Brett Ray

and said he was the guy who'd come and gone

from her place while visiting with Shane.

Another damning piece of evidence prosecutors presented

that trial was a taped phone conversation

between Brett and Shane.

That conversation had occurred the night of Kelly's murder

and in the recording, the pair can be heard making plans

to meet at Brett's apartment after the Lavera's house party.

Once the prosecution rested its case,

the defense began their arguments.

Brett chose not to testify in his own defense,

likely because he didn't want to implicate Shane

on the witness stand.

I'm sure he figured without his testimony,

she likely had a better chance of being acquitted.

Shane, on the other hand,

despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence against her,

chose to testify.

She claimed that Brett had blackmailed and threatened her

into covering up Kelly's murder.

But in the end, Shane's story must have fell on deaf ears

because the jury deliberated for only 90 minutes

and returned a verdict of guilty for both her and Brett

on the count of first-degree murder.

Before sentencing, both defendants agreed to plead guilty

and waved their rights to appeal their convictions

in exchange for life's sentences

with the possibility of parole after 25 years,

instead of facing the possibility of receiving life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

And Kelly's family ultimately agreed to this

because they knew that an ongoing appeals process

would be difficult to cope with,

especially for the Lavera children.

Baked into the arrangement,

Kelly's mom Monica Lavera,

who had custody of the children at the time,

would take the kids to visit Shane one last time in prison.

In an episode of Snapped About This Case,

Shane and Kelly's daughter recalled this meeting,

which happened when she was seven years old.

She explained that after that one time,

she didn't see her mom again until she chose to go visit her

when she was 19 and about to become a mother herself.

Even though she had never really felt like Shane

was a mother to her, she still wanted to see her,

but the reunion only confirmed for her

that she had no connection with her mom

and there never really had been.

Brett and Shane both attempted to file appeals

despite the fact that their sentencing plea deals

didn't really allow that.

They claimed that the details of their initial plea agreements

were not well explained

and they weren't properly informed of what rights

they did and didn't have.

But the court wasn't having it

and rejected both of their arguments.

Shane tried again for post-conviction relief in 2013 and 2016,

but both those requests were also denied.

In October 2020, she had her first scheduled parole hearing

because the parole board wanted her

to get a psychological evaluation beforehand

that hearing was delayed until 2021.

In April of that year, the board voted four to two

in favor of her release

and she walked out of prison in January 2022.

As part of her release, Shane was ordered to reside

in a recovery residence and new community service

until she could secure employment.

What's interesting to me is that during her parole hearing,

she still claimed that she had nothing to do with killing Kelly.

She emphasized that any conversation she might have had

which discussed murdering him

were only, quote, dark humor, end quote.

And of course, the prosecutor who helped convict her

was disappointed with the result of her parole hearing,

telling journalist Jeff Ferro, quote,

I question letting her out when she still denies her guilt.

She's obviously not rehabilitated.

I think it's known if a person never owns up to their conduct.

They're more likely to reoffend than someone

who does accept responsibility

and show genuine remorse, end quote.

I guess based on the conversations

the parole board had with Shane

and the results of her psychological exam

which are not public,

they felt that she wasn't a danger to society anymore.

Brett, on the other hand,

has been denied parole in all his hearings as of this recording.

And to date, he remains incarcerated in Tennessee.

According to the Tennessee Department of Correction,

his next parole hearing is right around the corner

in April, 2026.

After Kelly was killed,

his remains were cremated

and a fund was set up for his two children who are now adults.

His reputation as an outstanding educator lived on as well.

In a letter to the editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel,

one of his former students at Pellissippi State Community College

wrote that he had a knack

for making mathematics studies interesting,

which he said was an accomplishment in an of its own right.

It's heartbreaking to me that Kelly's life

was stolen from him far too soon

because I for one firmly believe

he probably would have gone on to do great things

in his career and as a father.

Whenever you find yourself helping the kids in your life

with their math homework

or trying to figure out what a fraction of a fraction is,

I hope you think of Kelly Lavera.

Because from everything I gathered,

it's clear that he was a problem solver.

And I'm grateful that the investigators

who handled his murder case

solved the problem of who took his life.

Park Predators is an audio-check production.

You can view a list of all the source material

for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com.

And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram

at parkpredators.

I think Chuck would approve.

I think Chuck would approve.

I think Chuck would approve.

I think Chuck would approve.