1894
The town was laid out in 1894 as Byron, but the postmaster said there was already a Byron, so it needed another name.
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FILE 229 / 24 June 2021 / 171 MIN / full
We're going all the way to Tea, South Dakota... It's in southeastern South Dakota... It's in Lincoln County. about 0:05:52
The town was laid out in 1894 as Byron, but the postmaster said there was already a Byron, so it needed another name.
about 0:09:10The town fathers wanted a short name; the community produced nine names and could not think of a tenth, and afternoon tea was a tradition in the German-based community, so Tea was added to the list and chosen.
about 0:09:42John Heeron was the first postmaster.
about 0:10:08Henry Hearin, thought to be his brother, was the first male rural mail carrier, starting in 1903, and was dead by 1906.
about 0:10:31The town was laid out in 1894 as Byron, but the postmaster said there was already a Byron, so it needed another name.
about 0:09:10The town fathers wanted a short name; the community produced nine names and could not think of a tenth, and afternoon tea was a tradition in the German-based community, so Tea was added to the list and chosen.
about 0:09:42John Heeron was the first postmaster.
about 0:10:08Henry Hearin, thought to be his brother, was the first male rural mail carrier, starting in 1903, and was dead by 1906.
about 0:10:31Henry's wife Flora took over his mail bag and carried the mail for the next 30 years.
about 0:10:50The town motto is 'Tea, a growing tradition'.
about 0:07:1842%
Biggest faith: Lutheran, 19%
about 0:18:24White 96.3% · Black 0.5% · Asian 0.0% · Hispanic 2.9%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▼ about one third under
Violent crime
▼ about half
Three-bedroom one-bath house
about 0:20:55Four-bedroom three-bath house
about 0:21:26Four-bedroom three-bath house on two acres
about 0:21:47"720"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:15:58
"302"
Comparison: "in 1970". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:11
"4,866"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:16
"up 519%"
Comparison: "since 1990". Direction: above.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:29
"28 and a half"
Comparison: "usually about 38". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:38
"68%"
Comparison: "normal 50-50". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:03
"96.3%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:19
"0.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:28
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:05
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:05
"2.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:21
"42%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:24
"19%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:31
"0.0%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:46
"37%"
Comparison: "last election, Lincoln County". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:51
"60%"
Comparison: "last election, Lincoln County". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:51
"2.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:58
"0.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:19
"$79,978"
Comparison: "national average about $57,000". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:33
"92"
Comparison: "100 is average". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:52
"84 out of 100"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:54
"$195,900"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:57
"about $960 a month"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:20:20
"$144,900"
Comparison: "1,226 square feet". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:20:55
"$315,000"
Comparison: "1,903 square feet". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:21:26
"$685,000"
Comparison: "3,571 square feet". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:21:47
"about one third under"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:25:35
"about half"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:25:55
4.3 / 5 · average of 3
“The town has been an amazing experience; the community is close, friendly and respectful and feels like a family, supporting local businesses and the school, and the town loves its sports.”about 0:11:52
“The reviewer has lived in Tea all their life, had two amazing jobs and a group of lifetime friends, calls the people warm and welcoming, has never locked their car, and has never had a bad day there.”about 0:12:41
“Tea has the small town feel while remaining a good size, with good public schools and caring teachers, but the number of attractions and businesses could always be improved.”about 0:15:30
Barbara Creteau was born on 27 June 1946 in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, the eldest child of Bob and Marie Creteau. Her father was an insurance agent and the family was devoutly Catholic; Barbara was raised in Catholic schools and grew up conservative and religious. She graduated from Assumption High School in 1964 and went on to the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.
He spent much of his childhood with his father, a gambler, at race tracks. At sixteen he came to Chatham, New Jersey with his family; he worked six years as a mechanic and then as a security guard from 1970 to 1972. He divorced his first wife in 1972, one ground being his affair with another woman, and married Barbara on 2 June 1972.
Barbara worked as a librarian for the Veterans Administration, reading to emotionally damaged Vietnam veterans before moving to the medical library. A promotion took the couple to Amarillo, Texas, and later to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Their daughter Heather was born in 1975. Barbara became chief medical librarian and helped found the South Dakota Health Sciences Library Association. She had cancer in 1979 and underwent surgery, but barely mentioned it at work.
A co-worker, Jeanine Elifson, said he received constant calls from women and told her in 1975 that his wife had helped him get citizenship and provided a pay cheque, and that perhaps she would have a hunting accident. In 1981 he had the finance officer Shelly Amado forge Barbara's name on a loan application.
The third plan used the city's old .38-calibre revolver, kept in a safe at the Tea police station.
He said his only alternatives were to leave or kill himself. He loaded the revolver, showed her how to fire it, told her to ride a bicycle because a car would be noticed, to hide the gun afterwards, and to shower and wash her clothes to remove gunpowder residue. He would be at the dog track, with betting slips as an alibi.
She asked Barbara to make coffee, waited until Barbara was at the kitchen sink with her back to the stairs, put the gun close to the back of her head and fired. She cycled home and hid the weapon under the front seat of her car.
When the sheriff arrived, Barbara, 37, was on the kitchen floor covered with a blanket, a sailor-style tie pulled over her face with the knot between her eyes. Everyone said nobody had touched the body. County coroner Donald Anderson and Sioux Falls forensic pathologist Dr Brad Randall suggested she might have slipped on a throw rug and hit her head on the stove handle. Albers noticed the handle was undamaged and asked for an autopsy, which found a small entry wound and a single bullet lodged in her brain between her eyes.
Albers told her he knew she had done it; she replied that she had no access to guns and had not left her house. On 20 July she sought him out and claimed she was being blackmailed over a drunken encounter at a convention in Pierre, that she had paid $1,000 in December 1981 and another $300, and that the demands had risen to $5,000 in 1983, which was why she took money from Elite Uniforms.
A handwriting comparison looked similar. Ballistics matched the bullet to the .38 revolver from the Tea police safe.
The state announced it would seek the death penalty. She said she still loved him.
June 1983 / her home in Tea, South Dakota
As told in the episode, on 24 June 2021.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
about 0:30:00business
about 0:40:58police
about 1:49:52business
about 1:17:40hospital
about 1:54:36other
about 0:39:54other
about 0:40:39other
about 1:17:15home
about 2:02:22school
about 0:46:32school
about 0:47:06hospital
about 0:59:01police
about 1:05:33other
about 1:36:25business
about 2:17:08business
about 2:28:44