A parent's connection with their child can be extremely strong.

Raising them and teaching them everything they know can form a bond that's hard to break.

Usually it's a positive situation, but for Stephanie Hudnall, she used a manipulation to keep her daughter Guenevere completely under her control, so much so that she was willing to kill for her mother.

This is monsters.

Stephanie Hall was born on April eighth, nineteen seventy.

Not much as known about her childhood, but it seemed that she was born in Florida and had lived there her whole life.

She ended up meeting a man named Bill when she was twenty years old, and they married quickly.

William Hudnall, Junior, who went by Bill, was born on August twenty fourth, nineteen fifty nine, to William and Billy Hudnall in Jacksonville, Florida.

William Senior was an officer in the Navy, which caused them to move around a bit during his childhood.

He had two younger brothers, Tim and Joe.

Since they were never in one spot long enough to make good friends, the brothers became each other's best friends.

William Senior and Billy eventually divorced in nineteen seventy four, and the boys split between the parents.

Bill originally went to live with his father, but after a few years he chose to go live with his mother in Louisiana.

When he graduated from high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps.

After a few duty stations in the US, he was sent to Panamon, then worked as a security guard at the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

While there, he was the one who found one of his friends, a fellow Marine, after he had ended his own life.

It speculated that that caused Bill to want to leave the service, which he did in nineteen eighty five.

He moved back in with his mother and returned to his previous career working as a pipefetter.

Bill met a young woman named Charlotte Hoggin at his church and they married seven months later in nineteen eighty seven.

Charlotte worked for the Social Security Administration, and Bill's family said the couple seemed very happy.

Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last, and the couple split up about a year later.

Bill dated a bit after that, but never found the right woman and continued to work for the next few years.

It was in nineteen ninety that he ended up meeting Stephanie Hall.

It was only a few dates before Stephanie got pregnant and the couple decided to marry.

The wedding was in January of nineteen ninety one.

First child, a son named Joshua, was born in February of that same year.

A daughter, Gwenevere, was born in April of nineteen ninety two.

They eventually had a third child, another daughter named Ruby Grace, in August of nineteen ninety eight.

Stephanie wanted to stay home with the kids, so Bill became their only source of income.

That meant he worked a lot, and josh would later say in an interview that he didn't see his father much.

His mother was always there, but she seemed much more focused on his sisters.

He said his childhood memories were filled with frequent moves, and though his parents never told him why they had to move so often back then, he later learned it was because Stephanie constantly got them into financial trouble.

She was a chronic overspender and would eventually run out of money, not being able to pay the rent in utility bills.

When the landlord or bill collectors came knocking, they would pack up and move to a new city, from Luisy to Pennsylvania, to Virginia, and finally to Florida.

They were constantly moving around, running away from the debt Stephanie was creating.

Bill made good money as a pipe fitter, but it wasn't enough for Stephanie.

He did his best to keep the peace in the family, but the financial strain caused their marriage to fracture.

There was even a period where Bill's mother let them live with her in Louisiana rent free.

While there, Stephanie refused to do any cleaning and still managed to complain about how much she hated living there.

Eventually, Bill's mother got fed up and told her son that he had to move out.

Bill had started withholding money from Stephanie so he could pay the bills himself, and he saved some which he used as a down payment on a house.

Stephanie was so unhappy that Bill wasn't giving her as much money as she wanted, so she waited for Bill to go away to a job out of state and she took the kids to a woman shelter.

Once there, she claimed that Bill had been abused using her and though Josh told the counselor that his father had never hit anyone.

They stayed at the shelter for three weeks.

After that, they returned home and Stephanie was able to get more money out of her husband.

With the money he had been saving, he went out without anyone's knowledge and purchased a manufactured home in Keystone, Florida.

He surprised the family with a permanent home.

He wanted to put down some roots and stop moving around, and he hoped the purchase of the house would help insure that, but the situation did not improve.

Stephanie stayed home with the kids, homeschooling them, and she didn't do anything to keep the house clean.

While growing up, Stephanie maintained tight control over Gwen.

She would give her anything she wanted, and if there was ever a problem, she said it was Bill's fault.

If there was something wrong at the house, it was because Bill hadn't provided them with a good enough home, when in reality it was because she wasn't taking care of the house.

Gwen went to stay there night with her cousin Wants, and Stephanie called constantly to check on her.

Her aunt ended up turning her phone off and then not inviting her back.

That same aunt suggested helping Gwen sign up for college classes, and Stephanie stopped her.

She didn't want Gwen to go to college and gain knowledge along with any independence.

She wanted Gwen to rely on her and always believe everything she told her.

There was a similar incident later where Gwen expressed her desire to be more independent to her aunt and uncle, so they offered to let her come live with them.

On the day they were supposed to pick her up, Gwen called them and said she couldn't move because her mother needed her home.

Josh explained that there were multiple incidents that happened over the years that made more sense in hindsight.

There was an evening where Bill got extremely sick after dinner.

He said that his father rarely got sick, but that time he was vomiting for three days before finally getting better.

He believed that as Much had actually poisoned his food, but there was no evidence to prove that.

Another suspicious incident came to light when Josh found his father in his parents' bedroom replacing a piece of carpet.

Bill said that Stephanie had dropped a candle and burned the carpet, but the location of the burns seemed off.

Josh said he later heard that Stephanie told a friend that she had tried to light the bed sheets on fire while Bill was asleep, but he stirred and caused her to abandon her plan.

Not long before Josh turned eighteen, Stephanie tried to get him to sign an application for a restraining order against Bill.

She had convinced his sisters that their father was abusive, but Josh had never seen him abuse anybody.

Bill worked away from home in the times he was home.

The only way he quote unquote abused Stephanie was by taking her bank card away.

Josh refused to sign the paper and left the house.

When he returned, Stephanie was in the kitchen and she attacked him with a knife.

Josh said he managed to lock himself in his room, and while she was pounding on the door, he grabbed some clothes and hopped out the window.

He stayed with a friend until his father returned from an out of state job.

Bill asked Josh if he wanted to file a police report, but Josh declined, saying he knew it would be his word against hers.

And that Gwen would back up whatever his mother said.

After that, Josh knew the only way to remain safe was to leave the house, so he joined the US Army.

By the time Josh had completed training, the US was deep in the Iraq War and he was shipped over.

Despite the dangers there, he said he was more comfortable than he had been with his mother.

The main two reasons he gave for that was because the rules of engagement were clear, and he had people there to watch his back.

When his mother chased him with a knife, he didn't know what to do.

Should he have picked up a knife and attacked his own mother.

In Iraq, if someone shot at him, he shot back.

There was no question, and at home his father was often gone and his sisters were under Stephanie's thumb.

But in Iraq he was surrounded by people who were on his side.

So though it seems weird at first, it does make sense why he found some comfort being in a war zone.

He wasn't about getting away from danger.

It was about certainty.

He could relax because he knew who the enemy was and how to fight them.

The first year he was there, his mother started calling him, and though she acted sweet at first, she always ended up asking for money.

Josh always said no.

She would tell him the bills were piling up in beg but Josh never gave in.

He eventually told her to stop calling.

Then, in June of twenty eleven, he got an email from his cousin with devastating news.

In the years after Josh left, Bill and Stephanie's relationship only got worse.

There were multiple reports of violence from Bill, but it's not clear what actually happened.

During Gwen's first interview, the detective asked her, but she couldn't really give any details about the supposed abuse.

She said they had to leave the house, but that her mother didn't really tell her why.

During Stephanie's first interview, she described the abuse.

You know, what was the deal with the separation or been separated?

You know a few times back and forth.

He was abusive, could be very mean, very very controlling.

A lot of times he.

Give me a little better like abusive, how physically abusive, family abusive, sexually abusive sexually If I did something that he wasn't happy about his he wouldn't.

He usually wouldn't hit me because he didn't want to leave a mark or anything.

But know, his favorite form of punishment was in the bedroom.

And I mean what what did he do?

Like how was.

Like as far as how that details, well, I mean I kind of need to get a mindset of what was going on.

And you guys alike, for how did you know you guys separate and things like that?

Did you ever turnam in or talk to anybody?

Or I stayed a domestic violent shelter in Gaines and Okala.

Once we were living in Gayzelle.

I stayed in the shelter in Okalla And that was when the kids were young.

The two oldest ones were still in diapers.

So was he abusive through the entire relationship?

Off and on?

Now, I mean he would get you know, we'd be separated and he would get better or you know, things would be okay for a while and then you know, sometimes he'd be fine for six months, sometimes three months and sometimes less than that.

But you know, he it was just it was back and forth.

So when over the years.

When you did something he didn't like or whatever the case may be, it was.

Physical, like did he hit you ever?

I mean was there he did hit me?

He hit me a few times.

One time he actually did hit me in the face.

The only specific detail she really gave was the time they went to a women's shelter when the children were really young.

The claims of abuse were always somewhat vague, and I'm not sure if they're backed up by any police reports.

Eventually, they split up for good in August of twenty ten, and Bill moved to a different house.

Will Stephanie, Gwen, and Gray stayed at the manufactured home.

On June eighth, twenty eleven, Stephanie and Gwenevere went to Bill's house on Southeast seventy first Avenue in Hawthorne because they said they needed to borrow his truck.

In Stephanie's first interview, she described wanting to use use the truck to drive to multiple places in order to look at massage therapy schools for Gwen.

She said that their car would overheed if they drove too far.

In Gwen's first interview, she said that they wanted to use the truck to take some stuff to the dump.

Stephanie told the detective that they arrived in the evening and stayed there for a little while talking before Stephanie left to return home.

Gwen stayed behind and talked with her father a little longer before leaving in the truck.

Stephanie explained that she wanted to use the truck the entire next day and then bring it back to Bill the following morning, but when Gwen got home, she told her mother that Bill needed the truck back at eleven the following morning.

That made them cancel their plans to go to schools Well, she.

Had said, she had told me the night before that, you know, he needed the truck back and everything.

It was like the Winno sents him getting up early because you know, there just wouldn't be enough time to go and come back.

I fear since we had the truck, I had a door in the house that needed to go to the dump, so we took that to the dump.

And he wanted the other two chairs for his for the dining room table.

And so about what time did you get up?

Maybe, oh, money, I have no idea with us, Probably nine thirty ten o'clock could have even been later than that, when I wasn't even later than that, Probably about nine thirty ten maybe, Okay, I don't know.

You know, none of us work right now, so it's like we don't really.

Get that much attention to the clock.

So you get up, I mean, take me through your morning.

What do you do.

Prior to leaving, you go to the you know, take me through your entirety.

Just tell me first, start to finish what you think as you wake up.

We met, like, I took a shower, I know, one took a shower.

Before we left.

We made cinnamon rolls.

I had a little bit to eat, and that was I mean, that was pretty much it.

We loaded up the chairs in the truck, We put the door in the truck, and you know, we kind.

Of looked sick through anything else that we could really take.

But his toolbox was in the back of the truck.

He's got a big, huge, orange toolbox and it takes up pretty much about two thirds of the back end of that little truck.

It's a Toyota or something, maybe a little a little suv ish thing.

Yeah, so the toolbox took up the majority of the back of the truck.

So we had to We took the tire out that was.

In there, and I actually meant to put it in the Mustang to take it to him, and I forgot about it.

And it's still sitting there in my art.

But this is one of those interviews where the person being interviewed talks too much.

It raises alarm bells for me.

Stephanie just talks too much for the situation.

Sometimes it's just about random details, talking about Bill's garden, about the dog, about a car Bill owned that was ugly.

She made jokes and giggled.

Other times, it's claims that make Bill sound like a bad person.

Obviously, there were claims of abuse, but she also claimed he told her he had three other children she didn't know about.

There's no evidence that that's true.

She also told the detective how he didn't want her to work and how he liked her to be at home depending on him.

Everybody that knew them said she was the one who refused to get a job, always claiming she had to stay home with the kids.

Stephanie's first interview eventually turned from her describing her activity surrounding the murder to her just bitching about Bill and his family.

Near the end of her interview, she told this story, so we started.

Walking down the driveway, and we started walking.

He started talking or quiet, and he's like, well, the story.

Starts off like this, and he's telling me this, and he what he was telling me, though, was that I was seeing somebody.

He went happy about it, and he said that if I didn't quit seeing this and take him back, that he was going to have them killed, their whole family, my mom, my stepdad, two or three of my friends plus their husbands and all their children.

One of my best friends I've known since I was like seventeen, eighteen years old.

He said that he was going to kill her husband and her daughter.

But he wasn't going to kill her.

He was going to sell her.

He already had people that had offered him five thousand dollars for her.

And I'm like, you're out of your mind.

You have completely lost your mind.

And he's like, oh no, I'm perfectly saying I know exactly what I'm talking about.

And I'm like, how are you going to?

What makes you think you can do all of this?

I'm like, you can't kill all these people, and he goes, oh no, I'm not going to.

I'm not going to.

He says, I've got I've got friends that are going to do it for me.

And I mean he was totally straight faced, totally straight faced.

Nobody who knew the hudd DAWs believed there was any truth that story.

There was no evidence anywhere that Bill had ever been violent.

Stephanie also conveniently made sure to explain how she tried to get Bill to talk louder while they were outside near Gwen's window, but that Gwen didn't hear any of it.

In Stephanie's first interview, she spends a lot of time telling various stories of how Bill was a bad person.

Most of those examples she claimed that she kept from Grace, but that Gwen knew about them from what Bill's family, including Josh, believed.

Those were all stories that Stephanie had told Gwen to get her to believe Bill was a bad person.

Stephanie continued describing their activities that morning.

Were there.

We went to the dump to drop off the door, which on two fourteen in Kiston.

I told the detective Detective Phillips and the guy that was with her, I told them.

Where it was, how to get there, because they didn't know where it was.

So we went there, dropped off the door, went on into town because both of us needed gas because you know, she'd picked the truck up from him.

It was pretty much empty.

So I put like ten dollars in the car and ten dollars in the truck.

And then we went on to to Hawthorne.

She had asked me if she could stop and get something to drink before we got there.

We stopped and got gas and I didn't even think about it, and she didn't.

We started to pull out, and she's like, can I get it?

Can I stop and get a drink?

And I'm like, yeah, you go ahead and go on in.

She's like, well, I'll just wait till we get over there.

So so when we got through there, I went on through the intersection and she pulled in.

There's a shell station right there.

Because we'd go.

We go a back way, but so.

She stopped right there at the shell station and got something to drink.

And then by the time she got to the house, I had already I was already on the phone with Fine on one.

Can you tell me what happened?

Okay, you just got there, and what did you find?

What did you find when you just got there.

You need to keep it together for me so that I can understand what's going on.

What happened when you got there, What did you find?

He's in the bed is he conscious?

Honey?

I'm trying to help you, but you really need to keep it together for me and help me here.

Okay?

Is he breathing?

I can't understand your honey.

Okay, I've got I've got people coming to help you, but you need to help me now.

Okay, Okay, I want you.

I want you to tell me is he breathing?

So he's not conscious and he's not breathing?

Whoa?

Okay?

What's all over the bed?

What's all over the bed?

Honey?

There's all over the bed.

This is an extremely frustrating call.

If you want to torture yourself and listen to the entire twenty minute call, I'll be posting it and the full interrogations on my channel within a day of this video.

For more than two minutes, she doesn't say anything.

She just sobs uncontrollably into the phone.

Then, when she does start answering questions, she continues to talk through sobs and is completely unintelligible.

Obviously, finding a family member dad is traumatic, but this seemed over the top, more so when you take her demeanor during her interview into account.

She's not only calm during the interview, she's almost in a good mood.

She chatted away with the detective, even making jokes and chuckling.

She talked about different guys she was dating, even claiming she thought about becoming a sister wife with a polygamist.

Armand is what is called a Christian polygamist.

What does that mean?

He told?

My younger started that she goes, oh, so you're Gay's funny.

Yeah, he laughed too, he goes, no, right.

Now, they believe in having more than one wife.

He and I had discussed possibly, you know, me joining the.

Family and whatnot.

But when you.

And I mean, I guess, I know what a polygamist and all that means.

But when you say Wayne in the family, does that I mean by getting married, I guess, and being his.

Wife or I mean, well it's called a like a.

Well they call it.

I mean, he called it getting married.

But it was basically just like you know, we kind of stood there and said, you know that we were committed to each other, and that was kind of what you know, would have taken place, basically, but he ended up doing The girls were very much against it.

It was during her nine to one one call that she mentioned that Bill had been watching someone for the first time.

What's he upset about anything?

I can't understand you.

I know it's tough breast for me again.

Okay, been watching?

So he told you that somebody had been watching him?

No watching, corridoral Rod, Okay, I need you that I needed to take another breath for me, and I need you to tell me what you just said.

Did you say told you that somebody had been watching him, or that he had seen somebody somebody in car and her voicycle?

So he told you something about He told you something about a car and a bicycle.

Is that what you said?

It was one of the first things she told the detective during her interview.

The only thing that we've been able to think of.

Bill had told us a few weeks ago, and that keeps asking me, Okay, well you know when exactly.

I couldn't tell you exactly what day.

He told us a few weeks ago that he had been watching somebody in a car Sadan.

He said it was dark.

He couldn't really tell if it was black or blue or green, but it was a dark car with shiny rams, and he said there was they would meet up with somebody.

He assumed it was a black person.

He did not know for sure, but he said he thought he saw dreads, you know, sometimes they had a hat on or something, but thin, usually on a bicycle that was too small, you know, looked like a big person on a kid's bike.

He said he'd been taking notes and watching them, and honestly, when he first told us about it, we really kind of blew it off.

He had just taken the security guard class to get certified to do security work or whatever, and we thought it was just you know, I coactive imagination, yes, or something, you know.

But and then when we were over in the night he said something about it again.

It seemed like that was her story that she had planned to tell in order to place suspicion onto someone else, someone who didn't exist.

Another detail that raised suspicions with the detective was the fact that Stephanie and Gwen's stories didn't match.

When an officer talked to Gwen at the scene, she said that she had driven the Mustang home and her mother drove the truck home, the opposite of what Stephanie said.

She also said that they had borrowed the truck specifically to go to the dump and never mentioned anything about visiting schools.

Stephanie had said they borrowed the truck in order to go to schools and when they realized they wouldn't have enough time, then they decided to go to the dump.

Gwen also said that they didn't end up going to the dump that morning.

When she was interviewed the falling day, her story had changed and suddenly matched Stephanie's story.

I could be.

Wrong, but I'm thinking you when I thought Detective Phillips had told me that when she that she talked to you and you said that you didn't go to the dome, that something about you had planned on going to the dump but didn't go to the dump.

We plan on going to dump, but like all the trash, like we planned.

On taking all of it, but we didn't have enough time to take all of it and then go to dump and then come back and then go.

I'll like go back and forth.

I mean, so we just like chopped off the door and went.

That's what I'm saying.

I don't know, it's I found.

I remembered her telling me that you said that you guys did not go to the dump.

Did you tell her that or do you remember?

I think the mine had told her that but then I was like, oh snap, we went to the dump.

We jopped off the door and that's all we did.

I forgot we jumped off the door all the way there.

Because it plans on light.

When you originally planned on getting the truck the truck, it was to take a lot more stuff off to the dump.

So that was the original plan for why you were supposed to get the truck.

I got you.

Oh snap, you told the wrong story.

Even that story was not entirely the same.

Though she said they were going to take a bunch of stuff to the dump.

Well, Stephanie only mentioned the door.

It was clear that they had made an effort to get their stories straight, but it was still a little off.

Gwen was not as chatty as her mother, which seemed to match her personality.

Stephanie was the dominant of the two.

Now I get comments every time I mentioned a polygraph in a video, and I know that they aren't admissible in court.

I'm not advocating for polygraph tests, but they are still part of the story when they're being used.

When I say that authorities claim someone passed or failed a polygraph, that does not mean I am claiming a polygraph is legitimate.

I am simply telling you what happened in this case.

With that said, Gwinevere was asked to take a polygraph and she agreed.

The test was supposed to last for ninety minutes, but she was only questioned for seventeen.

Before twenty ten, did you ever heard anyone did you participate in any way in the death of that man before this year?

Did you ever heard anyone who trusted you?

Now?

Did you hit that man with that ax?

Before January of twenty eleven?

Did you ever think about hurting someone out of anger?

Do you know for sure who hit that man with that ax?

Yeah?

Do?

Hand scoring is a matter of my train I didn't really need it.

And I have to say I was a kind of surprised and after speaking to you, but not a doubt in my mind.

At all that you were involved in the death of your death, not a doubt in my mind at all.

Absolutely absolutely, And here's the thing.

Ordinarily, what I do in this situation, because there's also no doubt in my mind you're not a seashopath.

This was not a cold blot of killing.

That's not what this was.

Ordinarily, what I do in this situation is I just go to the detectives, and I say, you get your person, do what you gotta do.

But from talking with you and speaking with you again, I know you're not a seashiopath.

I determined that when I talked to you beforehand, you're not that type of person that I have to worry about is happening again, which means that you're not gonna be a serial killer.

You're not the kind of person, which.

Means there is some really truly compelling reason why you felt this had to happen.

There has to be some truly compelling reason why you felt that it was necessary to do this.

Do it.

There's no I'm going to tell you right now, no doubt in my mind at all, none whatsoever.

You didn't even come close to passing this thing I believe I have to do right by everybody.

Does that make any sense?

Okay?

So I know for a fact that in order for you to have done this, and you did, not a doubt you did it.

But in order for you to have done this, there had to be a truly compelling reason why you felt it was necessary for it to happen.

You were either protecting yourself or you were protecting someone else, and if that's the case, I want to know that.

Okay, if that's the case, I want to know that because I don't for a second believe that you're just a cold blood and killer.

The biggest reason any law enforcement agency use as a polygraph is to manipulate the suspect.

I'm sure that there are some officers out there that believe a polygraph is legitimate.

The device does measure your body for changes that can occur when someone lies, but not in any way that's reliable.

Not all bodies are exactly the same, not everyone reacts the same way.

It's literally just a blood pressure, heart rate, and sweat monitor.

Can those things change when you lie, Sure, but that's not proof that someone is lying.

Those things can also change when you're scared, or stressed or angry, all feeling someone can have if they're being accused of a crime and being questioned about it.

In this case, the polygrapher did something that I've seen done many times.

They do a test run where they have the test subject intentionally lie so they can get a baseline.

Then they tell the subject how clearly the machine showed that they were lying.

They make a big deal about how easy it will be to tell that they're lying.

That makes the subject more nervous and more willing to accept the results when they ultimately tell them they failed the test.

Then afterwards they used the test to explain how clear it was that they were lying.

This polygrapher even mentioned standing in front of a judge, something he would never do because a polygraph is not admissible in court.

That's how unrually liable it is.

But Gwen doesn't know that.

So the plan worked, and she eventually admitted to killing her father.

Who came seeing a free thing, a free scene, had nothing.

Who's in the house, and here he is, he who buying his house?

He has plenty of money, he had six grand, six grand?

You how much he gave us?

Four hundred dollars.

Our lives were about to be turned off.

We have no car in church, has nothing.

And this is supposed to be someone who's caring for you.

Yes, the entire time.

He's been married to my mom twenty years nineteenth anniversary.

Oh, I have three other kids besides arthury twenty years.

I don't have I'll have any patience for people who don't take care of their kids.

I don't either.

I've got two that I love and that I will care for, and that I would do anything for.

And I can tell you, I can't imagine what it would be like to have a parent who didn't feel the way that I feel.

I can't imagine what that would feel like.

I had no choice.

I had to do it.

I understand that.

When I understand that, listen to me.

When listen, this is why I said, tell me your whole story.

Don't just say that the guy was a jerk.

Tell me specifically.

All right, Clearly, he's not taking care of you.

I get that.

Okay, I understand that what specifically was he doing other than just with holding money you?

Was threatening to kill people?

Who was he threatened to kill mom?

Why?

Because he won't take she want to.

Take him back?

Okay, Now I understand that your mom told me that there was a long history of sexual abuse by him.

Is that correct?

That is correct?

Isn't it?

As far as I.

Know, I have no reason to not believe them.

I mean, I'm just That's what I'm telling you.

This is what I'm saying.

I want to build as much as I can so that people understand what it is, why it led up to this, so that they don't just see the black and white.

This is why I want to tell your story to understand.

Gwen claimed that she had no choice but to kill her father.

According to her, Bill had three other children, and he was threatening to kill people, things that she had not heard from Bill and had only been told to her by her mother.

When she was asked if it was true that Stephanie had been sexually abused, Gwen answered quote, as far as I know, because she only knew what her mother had told her.

None of the things Stephanie told Gwen about her father were ever witnessed by her or anyone else for that matter.

She explained to the polygrapher that she had killed Bill on her own and that Stephanie was not involved.

She said she took a pickaxe from the property and hit him with it repeatedly as he slept.

She hit him multiple times until he stopped making noise.

She ransacked the house to make it look like a robbery.

Gaunt bad and most people believed that Stephanie had been there to help.

Then she said she went home and burned her clothes.

Now, the fact that polygraph tests are mainly used as a means of manipulation does not make Gwen any less guilty.

She had killed her father and the polygraph was away.

The authority successfully manipulated her into confessing.

Of course, when Gwen came in and told her mother that the investigators knew she had done it, Stephanie played dumb.

News.

He knows, oh, he knows.

I just took it holygraft test.

I failed the polygraph test.

Mom, he knows what I did.

He knows that I did it.

Stephanie suddenly went from chatty cathy to speechless.

It seemed like she was taking much more time to consider her answers, and it's likely because she has to come up with a news story on the spot.

The detective took Gwen back into the other room and interviewed Stephanie alone, and there's no way for her to know what Gwen had told them.

Now, she's just making up new details to make it seem like she wasn't involved.

Her method was to claim that Gwen had told her she killed her father, but that she didn't believe her.

She said, he.

Made me mad, and I said what did you do?

And she's I don't want to talk about it.

I'm like, well, what do you mean.

You don't want to tell what did he say?

And she would not tell me.

And I said, well, okay, you know, was it that bad?

And she's like, yeah, it was that bad.

And I want to told them what honey, and she goes, I killed him.

I just couldn't deal with it anymore, and like what And she's like, I just I don't wanna talk about it.

And that was it.

I mean, like I said, I, oh my god, I sure.

I did not believe.

I still wow.

So what did you guys do with the clothes that she was wearing?

She what do you mean with the clothes?

She was wearing the clothes that she had on while she was at her over there?

Sh she came home in the same clothes she had on, right.

And at that point, what what did wood has been done with those clothes?

Where those clothes.

At nothing that I know of, I mean they where would they be?

She'd be at the house.

She said that they were.

Hurt in the backyard when last night or or Wednesday hunder Thursday morning.

She said, that's the only part that you kind of really knew about it.

I don't know about any burning burning.

Like a pot or a barrel or something.

Do you have like a burn pit, you know, burn barrel.

Well, we have a we hadn't been used in a long time, and we have a a burn s like a little hole that uh we dug a long time ago.

Somebody was supposed to have given us a a a pool and we were gonna we were both said we had to prep the the ground and and dig a spot for it, and we use that to burn the stuff, you know, but usually just I don't know, like d trash or or or something, uh, cardboard.

The kids, you know, put your sticks and stuff in there and roast marshmallows and and whatnot.

But that's the only I mean, we have guys.

To burn anything in that last night, I didn't know, I mean, not that I know of.

If she did, I mean, it may have been after I went to bed or something that courts.

Their stories already start diverging from each other.

Gwen had already told the polygrapher that she went home and burned her clothes, which makes sense because if she had beat someone to death with a pick axe, she would have been covered in blood.

So Stephanie shrugging off gwen arriving home in the same clothes was highly suspicious.

Gwen would have arrived home covered in blood, so it wouldn't have been hard to believe she had killed someone.

Then, of course, Stephanie over explained their burn pig, giving the detective the completely unrelated details about having been promised a pool.

That's always been something guilty people do in my opinion.

But even more suspicious was her claim that Gwen had told her she killed the Bill and she did not push her from information.

They just hung out, watched TV, and then went to bed.

Stephanie told the detective that she asked Gwen what she meant, and Gwen said she didn't want to talk about it, and that was it.

She just let it go.

Then the following morning, when she found her husband dead, she still didn't believe that Gwen had killed him.

Stephanie also made a really big deal about not understanding why Gwen would have wanted to kill her father, but that was after she spent over an hour describing Bill as being abusive and having threatened to kill people.

Then she broke down into the worst fate crying I've ever seen.

The detective went into the other room and talked to Gwen, and their stories continued to not match.

Gwen explained that her mother dropped her off at her father's house and that she was supposed to spend the night there.

She said that Bill told her he wanted to get back together with Stephanie and if she wouldn't get back together with him, he would kill her.

The detective asked her how she responded to that, and Gwen and said she didn't say anything, and then they went to bed.

I don't believe Bill actually said that to her.

It would be so unnatural for him to make that statement have her say nothing and then go to bed.

I believe Stephanie had convinced Gwen that Bill had threatened to kill her, and Gwen wanted to use that as the reason for the murder, like she had to protect her mother.

But I don't think Gwen had ever heard her father threaten her mother.

Josh would later say that he believed that Stephanie wanted to groom him to be the one to eventually kill his father, claiming Bill was abusive and trying to get him to sign an application for a restraining order, but he had already become too independent, so she moved on to conditioning Gwen into believing Bill was violent.

Gwen told the detective that she used the pickaxe to kill her father and then drove his truck home.

So you went, found his keys, got his truck key, take the truck.

Where'd you go from that?

Got?

When you got home with your mama?

And what did you say and tore her?

Alright?

You walk in and you say, first of all, was she surprised that you were home?

So what'd she say?

She asking me?

What I was going home?

And what'd you say?

What?

I just got down?

What'd she say?

When she was freaking out?

She said, we have to get rid of everything.

Did you tell her why or what happened?

Like?

Did she say what happened?

She asked that an't tell her cause I don't want I didn't want her to know.

I didn't want anything to come back on her.

So she asked what happened?

And you were like, what'd you say?

I said, I just did it.

I said I had to take care of my family.

And she didn't ask anything else.

So okay, she said, alright, we gotta get rid of everything.

So what did you guys do from that point?

We took all my clothes outs when and we took him outside of Burnon?

And is there like a burn barrel or burn pit.

I mean, where would you have burned the clothes?

There is a like a cast iron pot that.

Would put me in.

That story completely contradicted Stephanie's claim that she knew nothing about burned clothes.

Gwen went on to explain that together they made a plan to go to the dump, then go back to his house and find the body.

They also came up with the story about Bill watching some suspicious activity near his house and tossed the place to make it look like someone had broken into commit a robbery.

The detective also seemed to be concerned with how worried Gwen was about what was going to happen to her mother.

It was clear that Gwen was pretty much telling the truth by then, but it did feel like she was still trying to cover for her mother.

That's when detectives went back to interview Stephanie some more.

It was very clear that she was lying, Her story still didn't match Gwen's, and her acting was just terrible.

It took some time, but Stephanie finally admitted that they never needed to borrow the truck, that was just a cover.

Then she went on to explain some other details a.

Settlement from it was a four oh one k I think, and he cashed it out or something, and oh my god, he got like almost six thousand dollars.

And we're, you know, we're losing our house and and and I'm not working.

Gwen hadn't been able to get a job.

He he kept telling us that he'd gotten this thing and that it was like.

Fifteen hundred dollars.

And then we get in the mail of the basically like a check stub or something from it, because that our house was the last address that they had on it.

Oh my god, I know she was mad.

He went through like sixty three hundred dollars in two weeks.

Hadn't given us money in months, and he gave.

Us four hundred dollars out of it had six thousand.

Yes, and like just two or three weeks later, Gwyn asked him for money for something and he told her he didn't have any money.

He didn't have anything, and and he.

If something were to happen to him, no with him being on on on social security the disability.

And she said, well.

That I went and talked.

To the Social Security office in.

Placca and they told me that the only thing and he had gotten all this information for me, like for my social and Gracy social and all this other stuff to you know, to follow the case and everything.

Well, I went over here cause he would never tell us anything, never tell us anything.

And I I.

I was told I could go over there and and talk to them because I'm his wife and you know, with Gracy and everything, that I could go and and.

Talk to him and they would, you know, they would tell me.

And they the.

Guy told me he's well, the only the only person that's on this.

Case is William that he had never he told us that he had, you know, filed this whole thing for that it would cover me and Gracie.

And you know he never did any of that, right and he told you he filed it to cover you guys.

Yeah, and.

Right and standing up for me.

So for tonight, the rest go to jail.

Turn your hand.

Do you have anything in.

Your pockets or anything that I need to know about, like do you smoke or anything?

How not that the now pope skipped me anything in my pockets.

Okay, I'm gonna check your pockets just for his safety.

You know, money was clearly the motive for Bill's death Stephanie wanted Bill dead so she could collect his Social Security checks.

She had been giving Gwen information for years to make her believe her father was abusive and that killing him was the only way to survive financially.

Josh didn't make it back to Florida until after Stephanie and Gwenevere had been arrested.

He told the detective about what he believed were two previous attempts to kill his father, the poisoning and the fire.

Investigators went to the manufactured home and found burn marks on the subfloor underneath the carpet, which had been replaced.

He also said in an interview years later that his father didn't get six thousand dollars and he gave most of what he had gotten to Stephanie.

Stephanie likely lied about it in order to make Gwen angry enough to kill her father.

Both Stephanie and Gwen were charged with first degree murder, and Gwen, when was eligible for the death penalty, she ended up making a deal with the prosecutor to testify against her mother in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table.

She claimed that not only had her mother planned the entire murder, she had been at the house at the time of the murder.

They had dropped Grace off at a friend's house to stay the night in preparation of the plan, though Stephanie continued to claim she had not been at the house during the murder.

Both women pleaded no contest to a charge of second degree murder and were both sentenced to forty years in prison.

The last time Josh Hudnall talked to his mother he visited her in prison, where he asked her why she killed his father.

That was when she blamed him, saying that if he had sent her money when she asked for it, it would have never happened.

Josh never spoke to his mother again.

He did his best to move on and unfortunately passed away on August fourteenth, twenty eighteen, of liver failure.

He was only twenty seven.

Ruby Grace Hudnall had been staying with friends on the night her father was killed.

Details about her status after her mother and sister were convicted have remained private.

Some people never stop wanting more, they never have enough, and they don't seem to want to work for it.

Stephanie wanted to spend Bill's money on herself, without ever taking care of the family's responsibilities.

When Bill cut her off from her wild spending, she decided his death would be the best way to continue receiving his money.

Instead of getting her own hands darty, she manipulated her daughter into believing that Bill was a danger and that he needed to die.

Though she wasn't the one who swung the axe, she was just as much a monster.

If you're the victim of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for help.

Please talk to your local shelter, Call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine nine safe that's one eight hundred seven ninety nine seven two three three, or you can go to the hotline dot org to chat with someone online.

If you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else, or even just need someone to talk to, please contact your local mental health facility call nine one one, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline by simply dialing nine eight eight in the United States, they're available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and we'll talk to you about any mental health issue you might be facing.

If you're a member of the LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression, or are in need of any support.

Please contact the LGBT National Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four three four five six four, or go to LGBT Hotline dot org.

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