A Deadly Love

In February 2002 Alan and Terra Bates were living in Maryland, where they worked together for a theatre production company. Alan had grown up outside Birmingham, Alabama, the middle of three sons of Philip and Joan Bates, a close, churchgoing family. He was class president three years running at Shades Valley High School, an honour student, a drummer in gospel and Christian bands and a keen hand at technical theatre. details of the account remain covered until revealed She was the opposite of him, and she latched on hard. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Alan was flattered. Six weeks after they met she was pregnant. They married on 26 January 1990, their first daughter was born on 20 March 1990, and a second daughter followed on 16 November 1992. Alan studied at the University of Montevallo, did landscaping and handyman work and played in a gospel quartet. The marriage soured. this part of the story is covered for now He left her the Montevallo house and kept paying the mortgage, and he agreed that the girls should stay with their mother.

details of the account remain covered until revealed In 1998 she came to Alan's apartment to drop the children off, picked a fight, scratched him, shoved him down the stairs and broke his arm. She then scratched her own face and rubbed herself against a brick wall before the police arrived, and told the first officer to look at what he had done to her. There were two witnesses. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The custody fight grew vicious: she withheld visitation, moved without telling him, pulled the girls out of school and put them in new ones, and left him sitting in driveways. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed By then Alan had met Tara Klug, an architectural historian from Clemson, South Carolina, who had studied art in London and worked for the Historic American Building Survey. She gave up a career in Washington to stay with him in Alabama. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now They were to collect the girls at six that evening and drive them to Philip and Joan's house in Marietta for the weekend. details of the account remain covered until revealed The depositions ended about 3.30, the couple ate in downtown Birmingham, and they never arrived. At ten that night Joan began to worry; at 10.45 the family called the police. A Hoover officer, Scott McDonald, went to the covered names' house on Murdlewood Drive. The house looked deserted, the windows were covered from inside with towels or sheets, and a handwritten sign said the front door was broken and to come round the back. Nobody answered. There were no cars in the drive and the garage windows were covered too.

At 3.30 the next morning four friends driving to a chicken show along Old Mill Road in Rutledge, Georgia, saw a glow above the trees. They turned onto Hawkins Academy Road and found a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am ablaze beside a cow gate, the woods burning around it. Deputy John Eugene Williams arrived at 3.50 to find the fire crew had the blaze mostly out. The fire had been set: the car was burned to a shell. In the trunk, beneath a comforter, were two bodies, a man and a small woman. Alan wore a wedding ring and had a hole through his wrist. Terra had four bullet wounds, in the back, the armpit, the chest and the flank, consistent with her raising her arms to shield herself and falling. A .44 Magnum casing lay ten to fifteen feet behind the car and a spent bullet was found in the trunk. Two duffel bags, one with clothes and one with court documents, had partly burned. A paper towel printed with a little boy and girl survived, and a woman's engagement ring without its stone lay under where Terra had been placed. The car was traced through its VIN to Avis at Birmingham airport and to Alan Bates. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had already asked Avis to pass their number to anyone asking about the rental, and Philip Bates, ringing round the rental firms, was given it.

this part of the story is covered for now He said the couple had spent a belated Valentine's evening at the pictures, a strip club, a water tower and Home Depot, and produced ticket stubs for The Lord of the Rings. The chief called him in for a disciplinary talk, he refused to answer questions, and he was fired. details of the account remain covered until revealed The family room had been hastily redecorated: new tiles, new wallpaper over a bullet hole, a matching bullet in the garage, blood on a glass coffee table and another bullet hole covered with contact paper. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now She described the films, the strip club, the sunrise and the trip to Home Depot. The prosecutor pointed to her 6.45 p.m. voicemail asking where Alan was: the bodies, he said, were on the couch in her den when she made it. She said she had driven two miles for an antacid because she did not shop at the centre next to the cinema. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed The killings were meant to look like a carjacking on the road to Marietta. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He was eligible again in 2022, with no decision reported. Alan and Terra's daughters went to live with Philip and Joan Bates.