353: Mary Lynn Witherspoon

It was a summer morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2003. A woman glanced out her window and saw a man standing in her backyard. He was bundling her underwear into a pillowcase. Months later, that same woman would fail to show up for work. And when police forced their way into her home, they would discover that the system meant to protect her had failed in the worst way possible.


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Speaker 1: Charleston in South Carolina sits on a peninsula where the

Ashley and Cooper Rivers made before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

It was founded in sixteen seventy and is one of

the oldest cities in the United States. It's a place

where centuries of history are pursue in cobblestone streets, church steeples,

and the pastoral colored facades of homes that have stood

since before the Revolutionary War. The city's weathered wars, earthquakes, hurricanes,

and the weight of its own complicated past. But throughout all,

Charleston has maintained a particular character, a commitment to tradition,

to preservation, to the careful maintenance of grace and civility

in daily life. By the early two thousands, Charleston's Historic

District had become one of the most sought after addresses

in the South. Property values reflected not just the real

estate itself, but the privilege of living within a designated

historic sown, where architectural integrity was protected by law and

social expectations ran deep. Trad Strait in particular represented Charleston

at its most quintessential. It's one of the four original

straits laid out when the city was formed. The houses

that line it sit close together, their narrow facades press

shoulder to show in a colonial style, their shutters and

porches facing directly onto the street. Many of the homes

date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, single houses

with piazzas, Georgian town houses, and Federal style mansions. The

street itself is so narrow that two cars can barely

pass each other, but estrians walk on brick sidewalks worn

smooth by generations of footsteps. It's the kind of street

where everyone knows everyone, where families have lived for decades,

where daily life follows predictable patterns, mourning dog walks, evening

strolls to admire the gardens behind wrought iron fences, quiet

conversations between neighbors who've known each other for years. It was,

by all appearances, one of the safest streets in one

of Charleston's safest neighborhoods. So when a woman looked out

of her window one morning and saw a man standing

in her yard bundling underwear into a pillowcase, the image

did quite fit. It was jarring. The man didn't run,

he didn't hide, he simply stood there as if he

had every right to be doing what he was doing.

Mary Lynn Witherspoon was born in Sumter, South Carolina, on

the fourteenth of August nineteen fifty. She was one of

four girls to parents Game Well and Eleanor. There was Jackie, Kay, Jenny,

and mary Lynn, but it was Jackie who she was

the most close with. The girls were just seventeen months apart.

They shared a bedroom throughout their childhood. On Saturdays, they

worked side by side at the cash register of their

father's five and ten cents store, where Jackie found her

place on the basketball court, mary Lynn's at court side

with a board keeping score. They were two halfs of

the same childhood, but mary Lynn possessed something that set

her apart. She won beauty pageants, She earned straight a's

without apparent effort, and she graduated as valedictorian. To an outsider,

it might have seemed like the story of a girl

who had everything handed to her. But Jackie, wh knew

her better than anyone else, would later insist that people

misunderstood what they were saying. Jackie said it wasn't just

physical beauty. Mary Lynn was beautiful on the inside too.

After high school, mary Lynn left some for Charleston, pursuing

a teaching degree at the College of Charleston. She stayed

for her masters. Charleston became the place where mary Lynn

would build her life. She became a French teacher at

Charlestown Academy. Her students would remember her as the kind

of teacher who changed the trajectory of a life, not

through grand gestures, but through steady kindness and genuine investment.

Outside the classroom. R Lynne's life took shape around service.

She was a member of the French Huguenot Church. She

volunteered at m USA Children's Hospital, teaching French to children

can find the hospital beds, bringing a bit of beauty

and possibility in rooms that often held only fear and waiting.

She joined the Junior League of Charleston. She supported the

Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Jackie would later describe her sister as

having a radiant personality, somebody dignified, involved, fully alive. Mary

Lyne eventually married a doctor. Together, they had a daughter, Jane,

who would later remember her mother as someone who never

spoke a word of profanity in her entire life. For

a time, the picture was complete, but the marriage unfortunately

didn't last. Mary Lynne found herself single, raising Jane largely alone. Then,

in nineteen eighty one, she met Edmund's tenant, Brown, the third.

He was in a turn like mary Lynne. He was

raising children alone. He had two children from a previous

marriage that ended when their mother left. For eight years,

mary Lynne and Edmunds built something solid. Jane has warm

memories of those years, Edmunds cooking her breakfast in the morning,

driving her to school, integrating himself into their small family

unit with apparent ace. He was a kind man and

the relationship worked. Edmunds proposed more than once over those

eight years. Each time mary Lynne said no. It wasn't

that she didn't care for him. She loved him. That

was never the question. But there was his son, Tenant.

Mary Lynde sends something she couldn't ignore. She spoke about

it with friends. The boy exhibited behaviors she found troubling, strange,

she called them. As a teacher, she'd learned to trust

these instincts. When Tenant was younger. She tried. She attempted

to build a relationship, to communicate with him, to offer

the kind of steady presence she gave her students, but

what she saw disturbed her. He was lonely, awkward, a misfit.

Some people said sweet, but perpetually sad. His behavior was

unusual in ways that were difficult to articulate but impossible

to ignore. He gravitated towards people who teased him, who

picked on him, as if negative attention was better than none.

He seemed to create attention from adults with an intensity

that felt off balance. And there was something in the

way he looked at her, something mary Lynn couldn't quite name,

but couldn't quite forget. She feared what life would look

like with this boy under her roof, with Jane in

the next room. In nineteen eighty eight, mary Lynne ended

the relationship with Edmunds. The relationship hit Edmund's son especially hard.

Mary Lynn moved forward. She returned her focus to teaching,

to her volunteer work, to being the mother that Jane needed.

She dated occasionally, but mostly she found satisfaction in the

quieter pleasures her students, her church, her close circle of

friends and family, her Golden retriever on walks through Charleston's

historic streets. The years passed, life continued. By the winter

of two thousand and three, mary Lynn was fifty three

years old and living alone on Trad Street. It's one

of those streets in Charleston where the house is sit

close together. The morning of fourteenth of November broke cold

and gray at Charlestown Academy. The first period bell rang.

Students filtered into class rooms while teachers took attendance, but

one class room remained quiet. Mary Lynne Witherspoon's class room.

By eight a m. Her presence was noted. By nine

a m. It had become concerning. Mary Lynne didn't miss work.

If she was ill, she would have called Principal Edward

t She dialed her number. The phone rang and rang,

but there was no answer. One of the teachers contacted Jane,

who was now living out of state. The conversation was brief.

She insounded surprised. She had spoken with her mother just

the night before. Everything had been fine, completely normal. After

the call Principal Tea, she and a staff member made

the decision to drive to Mary Lynde's home. When they

pulled up to the house, the first thing they noticed

was the empty dry mary Lynn's car was gone. They

looked at each other. Perhaps she'd been in an accident

on her way to work, perhaps she was at a

hospital somewhere. They walked to the front door and knocked.

There was no answer. Jane then called the Charleston Police Department.

Officers responded to the home, but from the outside everything

appeared secure. The door was locked, there were no broken windows,

and no sign of a forced entry. Without evidence of

an emergency or permission to enter, they left ours Ticked

by Jane's on ease grew. She called the police again

and gave them her permission to enter her mother's home.

She knew her mother, and she was terrified that something

was wrong. When officers opened up the door and stepped inside,

the air itself felt wrong. Mary Lynn's breakfast eggs and

toast sat a band and on the kitchen table as

if she had been interrupted mid bite. Clothing lay scattered

across the floor. Items were strewn through the foyer. The

neat orderly home of Mary Lynn had been turned inside out.

The officers called out mary Lynn's name and identified themselves,

but they were met with silence. They moved up the stairs.

At the end of the hallway, they noticed a slither

of light beneath the bathroom door. One of the officers

approached slowly and pushed it open. The bathtub dominated the

small room, and in that bathtub partially submerged in water

that had long since go cold. With mary Lynn, her

body was nude. There were bruises to her neck, and

her arms bore restraint marks. On the tal floor Beside

the tub lay plastic sip ties and a knife, its

handle carefully wrapped in black electrical tape. Within minutes, the

house became a crime scene. Detectives arrived, followed by forensic

experts who photographed the scene and collected evidence. When the

documentation was complete, Mary Lynn's body was removed and transported

to the medical Examiner's office. Mary Lynn had been sexually

assaulted and then strangled to death. Back at the house

on Trad Street, detectives stood in the foyer and considered

what they were saying. The lack of forced entry was significant.

It suggested one of two scenarios. Either mary Lynn knew

her attacker and had willingly opened the door, or someone

had knocked and forced their way in the moment she

turned the handle. The disarey throughout the house initially suggested

a robbery, but as detectives inventoried the home, they found

something odd. Nothing of value appeared to be missing. Jewelry

sat untouched, electronics remained in place. The only item on

accounted four was mary Lynne's car. It seemed an unlikely motive,

killing a woman just for her vehicle, but the car

was gone, and finding it became an immediate priority. Detectives

fanned out through the neighborhood, knocking on doors, checking driveways

and side streets. Charleston's Historic district is amazed of narrowed

lanes and hidden courtyards, the kind of place where a

car could be tucked away and forgotten. They found it

less than a block away. Mary Lynde's vehicle sat abandoned

in the backyard of a nearby home, hidden from the street,

as if someone had dumped it there in a hurry

and fled on foot into the morning. Cold Wen Jane

was informed of the discovery. Her mind went immediately to

one person, Edmund's tenant, the fourth her mother's ex boyfriend's son,

But that didn't make sense. Tenant should have been in jail.

The story of Tennant Brown and Mary Lynne stretched back

more than a decade After mary Lynne and Edmund separated

in nineteen eighty eight, Tenant seemed unable to accept it.

He began showing up at mary Lynne's house, not aggressively

at first, just appearing. He'd ride his bicycle, passed her

home slowly, as if making sure she saw him. He'd

stand in her driveway, not approaching, just watching. He'd materialize

on her porch without warning. Mary Lynne's sister Jackie would

later remember her response, mary Lynne was so kind to

people that she felt as if she was nice to him,

maybe that would make him a better person. In nineteen

eighty nine, Mary Lynn was visiting her mother outside Charleston

one afternoon. They went for a walk, just a simple

walk through the neighborhood. When they returned, they found that

someone had broken into the house. The door had been

forced open. They moved through the rooms carefully, checking to

see what had been taken. At first, nothing seemed to

be missing. No jewelry, no electronics, no cash. Then mary

Lynn went to her suitcase. Her clothing was gone, along

with her makeup, personal items that had no monetary value,

but carried something else entirely intimacy. Mary Lynn's mother suggested

it might be Tenant. Mary Lynn called him. To her surprise,

the teenager confessed immediately. She demanded he return her belongings,

and he did. He left them outside her mother's home,

as if completing an assignment. After that incident, Tenant seemed

to vanish. A decade passed, no more sightings around mary

Lynne's home, no more breakings, no more appearances on her porch.

Mary Lynn allowed herself to believe that it was over.

He'd been a teenager dealing with a difficult situation, his

father's relationship ending, his mother already gone. Maybe it had just

been a confused, inappropriate crush that he had finally outgrown.

Then one afternoon in two thousand and one, mary Lynn

came home and found Tenants standing in her backyard. He

wasn't a teenager anymore. He was twenty nine years old,

a grown man, and he wasn't hiding. He was just

standing there as if he had every right to be there,

as if the ten years between then and their last

encounter had never happened. Mary Lynn felt something cold move

through her chest. She said hello. Her instinct towards politeness

so deeply ingrained that even fear couldn't over arrived a completely.

Then she went inside quickly and locked the door behind her.

She tried to put it to the back of her mind,

tried to convince herself it was just an isolated incident,

a strange coincidence. But in April of two thousand and three,

mary Lynne noticed that items were missing from her laundry room,

which was located outside her home. It was underwear. It's

the kind of theft that crossed a line from strange

to deeply unsettling. She suspected Tenant immediately, but she didn't

file a formal complaint. Instead, she took practical measures. She

installed a security system. She added double deadlock bolts to

her doors. She kept pepper spray on her bedside table.

People had been telling her for years to get a

restraining order, but mary Lynne refused. Tenant was the son

of a man she had once loved. She remembered him

as a lonely child. She tried to help him. A

couple of months later, in the summer of two thousand

and three, mary Lynne saw Tenant in her back yard again.

This time he was holding a pillow case that contained

her clothes. This time it was too much. Mary Lynn

was frightened of what Tenant might do if she pressed charges,

frightened of making him angry, but her family insisted so

In July of two thousand and three, mary Lynne finally

went to the police. Tenant was arrested and charged with burglary.

He was held without bail. The police already had a

file on him. In two thousand and two, he'd been

charged with possession of a stolen vehicle. He had previous

charges for burglary as well. He violated his probation multiple times,

failed to contact his probation officer, failed to pay court fines,

failed to get the mental health counseling that had been mandated,

and failed to notify authorities when he changed to dresses.

He'd been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and while ten and

sat in jail, his thoughts continued to circle around mary Lynn.

But now I can find and isolated, those thoughts began

to curdle into something darker. One afternoon, he wrote a list.

It was labeled as a to do list for when

he was released. Some items were mundane. Get new glasses,

find out grandmother's recipe for tipsy pudding that scattered throughout

were other entries purchase a stun gun to use on MLW,

and two others refinance MLW's home to obtain a loan,

get hold of her credit cards, and then at the

bottom take care of MLW and put her on ice.

Mary Lynn meanwhile, had registered for a notification that would

alert her the moment Tennant was released from jail. She'd

installed her security system, she'd reinforced her locks, She'd done

everything she could think of to protect herself. Finally, she

thought she was safe. Tenant seemed like the obvious suspect,

but Jane was certain he was still in jail. In fact,

just the day before mary Lynn was killed, she'd been

on a walk with a friend. The conversation had turned

to Tenant. The friend asked if mary Lynn had any

reason encounters with him. Mary Lynn's answer was simple, no,

he's in jail. She signed of, relieved she hadn't thought

about Tennan in some time. The security system, the reinforced locks,

the pepper spray by her bed, all of it had

become unnecessary. Tennan was behind bars. Mary Lynn was safe.

Except Tenant wasn't in jail. He'd been released just four

days before mary Lynn was found dead in her bathtub.

The details of his release painted picture of a system

that failed at every level. The judge had ordered Tenant

to seek mental health treatment. He was then released through

the county's Mental health court and transported to a local

mental health facility for outpatient treatment. When he registered at

the facility, he gave his address, but it wasn't his address.

It was Mary Lynn's address on trad Street. After registration,

he was free to come and go as he pleased.

Officials had attempted to notify mary Lynn of Tenant's release.

Charleston County Sheriff's Office used an automated victim alert system

for exactly this purpose, but somehow the system had failed

to reach her. A form letter was sent to her

home by victim advocates, but it hadn't arrived by November fourteenth,

and even if it had arrived on time, the information

it contained was wrong dated that Tenant had been transferred

to the care of the State Corrections Department, not that

he'd been released. After mary Lynn's murder, Tenant never returned

to the mental health facility. The facility failed to notify authorities,

though by that point mary Lynn was already dead. Detectives

immediately began searching for Tenant. They didn't have to search

for long. At around one thirty am on November fifteenth,

less than a day after mary Lynne's body had been discovered,

detective spotted someone walking in front of her home on

Trad Street. It was Tenant. They recognized him immediately and approached.

When they searched him, they found items in his pants pocket,

including mary Lynn's car keys, her house key, and her

pals like alert button, the very device meant to summon

help in an emergency. He was also carrying his own

driver's license, but where his address should have been he'd

written mary Lynne's address on Trad Street. Tenant was arrested

on the spot and transported to the county jail. When

he undressed a change into jail overalls, officers made a

disturbing discovery. He was wearing mary Lynn's underwear beneath his clothes.

He was also wearing her jeans. The next day, Tenant

was formerly charged with murder, first degree burglary, and grand

larceny of an automobile. Meanwhile, on the seventeenth of November,

mary Lynn's funeral was held at the French Huguenot Church.

It was the church where she'd worshiped for years. She

even had a favorite pew. At a service held before

her funeral, Reverend Paul Craven acknowledged her absence from that pew.

He described mary Lynne as a classic example of one

who nurtured her own faith and with there to share

it with others. He called her an exceptionally fine person

with a gentleness that you'd like to see in a Christian.

Around three hundred and fifty people attended her funeral. The

sanctuary filled with students, colleagues, friends and family, people whose

lives mary Lynne had touched through her years of teaching

and volunteering. After the service, Attorney Jerry Finkel spoke on

behalf of the family and said the family is obviously

devastated but wishes to thank the members of the Charleston

Police Department. He thanked everyone for their expressions of support

and condolences. After the service, mary Lynn was buried in

the church cemetery at Church in Queen Street, where some

of the headstones date back to the seventeen hundreds. Reverend

Philip Bryant commented, we thought it was fitting for her

to be here she loved to walk the streets of

Charleston er as the family grave. The Sheriff's office announced

an investigation into how the form letter sent to Mary

Lynne had contained incorrect information. While it hadn't arrived in

time anyway, the error was significant. If mary Lynne had

have received it, she would have believed that Tenant was

still in the care of the State Corrections Department. She

would have felt safe when she wasn't. Another question loomed larger.

Why had Tenant been released at all? He had a

criminal record stretching back years. His crimes were technically classified

as non violent, mostly burglaries, but the nature of those

burglaries was anything but ordinary, stealing a woman's underwear and

clothing repeatedly over the course of years, standing in her

back yard with her belongings in a pillow case, writing

her address as his own. Why with someone with this

pattern of behavior considered a candidate for outpatient treatment mental

health court records are sealed, so that question remains unanswered.

In January of two thousand and four, prosecutors announced they

would seek the death penalty against Tenant. Prosecutor Ralph Hoysington

cited the nature of the axe, kidnapping, torture, and first

degree burglary committed during the course of the murder. Tenant's

defense him requested a psychiatric evaluation, but the judge refused.

Most observers expected Tenant would plead not guilty, but on

the fourteenth of July, he arrived in court and pleaded

guilty to the murder of Mary Lynn. During the proceeding,

psychiatrist Harold Morgan addressed the court. He explained that Tenant

had developed a fixation on Mary Lynn because she represented

something he liked and wanted. It was revealed that Tenant

had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome. His defense,

Dan's attorney argued that these conditions prevented him from understanding

the social significance of his words and behaviors. They emphasize

that violence was not typically part of Tenant's pattern, but

detectives had developed a theory about what actually drove Tenant

to murder. They believed that he didn't just want to

kill Mary Lynn, he wanted to become her, to assume

her identity entirely. The evidence supported this theory. When arrested,

he was wearing her underwear and jeens. He'd claimed her

address as his own, and investigators had found other items

in his possession phone breasts, a showgirl wig, a beard

cover kit, a how to impersonate instructional tape, and drag

queen videos. In mary Lynne's abandoned car, detectives found slips

of paper where Tenant had been practicing her signature over

and over. He'd written on her personal details, including her

phone number, dating, place of birth, work address. There was

also a letter outlineaning its plans to get sex reassignment surgery.

Mary Lynne's sister, Jackie later said he just wanted to

be her and he had to get rid of her

to become her. Detect his piece together what had happened

that morning. Tenant had knocked on mary Lynne's door, either

on the morning of November fourteenth, or possibly the night before,

when she opened it, he forced his way inside. After

he killed her, he ransacked the home, taking her underwear,

her Jane's, her car, and her panic alarm. Then, before leaving,

he made himself breakfast. It was that breakfast that sat

half eaten on the kitchen table when police arrived. Before

the sentence was imposed, Judge Danny Peeper asked Tenant and

if he had anything to say. He stood up from

his seat and began to sob through tears. He said,

I am extremely sorry. Circuit Judge Danny Peeper sentenced Tenant

to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He

commented that while the sentence was appropriate, death would have

been appropriate as well. After the sentence was handed down,

Stanley Feldman, an attorney speaking for mary Lynne's family, addressed

the court and said she was an unusually decent person.

Her gifts were felt throughout the community. The fact that

the defendant will never see the light of day is

nothing to celebrate. Tenant's father, Edmunds Brown iid Mary Lynn's

ex boyfriend, was present for the plea. He read from

a prepared statement. My family and I extend the greatest

sympathy to the Witherspoon family and recognize what a tragedy

they have experienced. Regarding my son, I wish my attempt

during his childhood to discover what his problems were had

resulted in an appropriate diagnosis. As part of the play agreement,

Tenant had agreed to explain to Mary Lynde's family exactly

what had happened the day of the murder to give

them the answers they needed, but he never delivered on

that promise. When his defense team asked him to fulfill

his obligation, he told them tell them to figure it out.

Marylyn's family wanted something positive to emerge from the tragedy.

They were determined that her death wouldn't be meaningless. They

focused on South Carolina's stalking laws, which they believed were

dangerously inadequate. In Charleston County alone, thirty three people had

been arrested on stalking charges in the previous two years,

but the laws didn't do enough to protect victims. The

system that had failed mary Lynn was still in place,

ready to fail someone else. The family spearheaded a bill

that would enhance victim rights in several key ways. It

would require psychologic evaluations before stalking suspects could be released

on bail. It would mandate that someone physically contact a

victim when an offender is released from jail if the

automatic notification system fails to reach them, the exact failure

that left mary Lynne unaware and unprotected. The bill was

announced in March of two thousand and five, and it

was named mary Lynne's law Jackie spoke at the announcement

her life was lost so unnecessarily. What this has done

to our family, you cannot imagine. This has left a

hole in our souls that cannot be repaired. Police and

other agencies agreed that changes were needed, but they disagreed

on whether this particular bill was the right solution. Mark Binkley,

a general counsul for the state Department of Mental Health,

pointed out that they couldn't realistically complete psychiatric evaluations within

ten days of a person's arrest on stalking or harassment

charges as the bill proposed. Jeff Muer, executive director of

the South Carolina Sheriff's Association, said one recD ammendation that

made sense was requiring judges to review copies of incident

reports and criminal records of stalking suspects before setting bail.

But he argued that what had happened that mary Lynne

came down to human error. He said, the system we

have is a pretty darn good system, but I don't

know how you legislate out human error. Still, Jackie and

the family pushed forward. Jackie said, it's just almost impossible

to describe what the family feels she couldn't bear family

gatherings anymore. Mary Lynne's absence was too painful, the empty

chair at the table, the silence where her laughter should

have been. The murder haunted them in ways that wouldn't fade.

Jackie said she'd done everything she could to protect herself,

short of selling her house and moving somewhere, but his

was the last face she saw. Thinking about that, and

the fear that must have overcome her, that has just

about devastated us. In April, the House approved mary Lynne's law.

Representative Merle Smith said, though we can't go back and

make amends for that horrible crime, this bill will hopefully

strengthen the system for every one else. The next month,

the Senate approved the bill as well, and it was

sent to Governor Mark Stamford's desk and went into effect

on the first of January two thousand and six. The

following year, plans were announced for a garden near river

Front Park to be dedicated to people in South Carolina

who were victims of murder, assault, or domestic violence. It

would be called South Carolina's Victim Memorial Garden, the only

such garden in the state. Jackie helped select the location.

The city of Columbia donated a parcel of land about

one hundred and fifty feet by sixty feet. The garden

would cost around one hundred fifty thousand dollars, with donations

coming from various organizations including the South Carolina a Victim

Assistance Network. People could purchase a brick paver or bench

plaque in honor of a crime victim for one hundred dollars.

Jackie said of the project, I don't like to have

the thought of this perpetrator in my mind and want

my sister to be at the forefront. Mayor Bob Coble

spoke at the dedication and said, those who've had love

the ones lost to crime, have one big fear that

their loved one will be forgotten. This garden will ensure

they're not. In August of that year, a new system

was implemented that allowed registered users to check on prisoners

statuses twenty four hours a day. State officials announced plans

to build a new state white victim notification system. The

goal was to prevent another error like the one that

had cost Mary Lynn her life, to ensure no other

victim would be left in the dark when their stalker

walked free. Jackie now served as president of the South

Carolina Victims Council. When asked about the new system, she said, simply,

if this will work, anything's in improvement. Mary Lynn's family

ultimately filed a lawsuit. They alleged that authorities had failed

to alert and protect mary Lynn when Tenant was released

from custody. The system had broken down at multiple points,

they argued, leaving her vulnerable when Tenant appeared at her

home just four days after walking out of jail. The

lawsuit named Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, the Sheriff's office,

the state Department of Mental Health, and the South Carolina

Department of Corrections. Jackie was clear about their motivations and said,

this is not about money. We just felt in our

hearts that those people who caused such a gap in

the system should be held accountable. This was avoidable if

they had just done their jobs. Sheriff Cannon responded publicly

he'd known Mary Lynn for years. He called her murder

a bizarre, sad, and tragic situation, but said it had

been difficult to foresee much of Tenant's stalking had gone

on reported. He pointed out. It was unclear whether anyone

in law enforcement could have realized the potential danger Tenant

posed or understood the depths of his obsession. Richard Rosen,

an attorney representing the family, disagreed, they just let this

kid loose on the street when everyone knew he was

a danger. Then, in March of two thousand and seven,

Tenant appeared to have a change of heart. He announced

that he wanted a new trial. He claimed he had

no recollection of actually committing the murder and had only

pleaded guilty to escape the death penalty. Tenant and his

new attorney questioned whether his original defense team had acted appropriately.

They argued that more should have been done to prove

he was mentally unstable at the time of the murder.

At a hearing, Tenant claimed he hadn't actually understood the

play and that it had been forced upon him. Former

defense attorney Jennifer Sheeley defended her work. She said she'd

done everything possible for her client, including hiring multiple medical professionals,

none of them could prove that Tenant was legally insane

at the time of the murder. It was definitely not

a situation where I was making mister Browne plead. She said,

according to Tenant, mary Lynde's murder didn't wear on his conscience.

He said it hadn't bothered him at all because he

had no memory of it. Circuit Judge Roger Young rejected

his request for a new trial. In twenty sixteen, Tenant

made a request to the Corrections Department. She now used

she her pronouns, and asked the department to help her

transition from male to female after thirteen years behind bars.

She said her rail prism was the male body she'd

been trapped in since birth. In a letter, she wrote,

I truly believe my outward appearance does not match or

correspond with my inner self. But as a female, I

would be complete and a productive member of society because

I would actually be comfortable in my own skin. She

spoke with the Post and Career and insisted she had

nothing to do with mary Lynne's murder. She claimed that

mary Lynn had been a friend and a mentor who

kept an open mind. According to her version of events,

mary Lynn had loiter her to stay at her home

after she left jail. She suggested that mary Lynn had

been killed by someone who was angry because mary Lynne

was planning to move to Paris. Mary Lynn's family and

detectives stressed that this was categorically false. All evidence pointed

to Tenant. Mary Lynne had been terrified of Tenant. She

had no idea Tenant had been released from custody. The

idea that she would have welcomed her stalker into her

home was absurd. Tenant also accused her former defense attorney

of not allowing her to dress as a woman in court.

She said, if I had not been such an emotional

basket case, I would have played not guilty and taken

my chances with a jury trial. If I had been

able to dress the way I would have felt more confident.

I would have dressed in a cream colored channel skirt

suit with a pair of four and a half inch

spike heeled Jimmy choos and makeup. Tenant remains incarcerated, serving

a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Well that

is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank

you so much for listening, and I'd like to say

a massive thank you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Chris.

The link to Patreon is in the show notes. If

you'd like to join I upload AD free and early

release episodes behind the scenes, and I also send out

some merch along with a thank you card. I also

do bonus episodes of Morbidology Plus that aren't on the

regular podcast platforms. AD free, early release and bonus episodes

are also available on Apple subscriptions. Remember to check us

out at morbidology dot com for more information about this

episode than to read some true crime articles. Until next time,

take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.