45 -👦- The One in Which Our Sons Give Us the Week Off...

[00:00:04] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather.

[00:00:09] And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through a different lens.

[00:00:15] So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with us

[00:00:18] and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell.

[00:00:24] Crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate.

[00:00:35] In the middle of May each year you'll find Mother's Day. And that's where we come in.

[00:00:40] We are the kids of Crime Estate. I'm Brooks. I'm Miles. I'm Cole. And I'm Lincoln.

[00:00:46] We are the sons of real estate agents and true crime junkies that you know from Crime Estate.

[00:00:51] As kids of Crime Estate, we view things through a different lens and have our own story to tell.

[00:00:57] Join us as we get to the Mother's Day episode.

[00:01:00] Hey y'all! Today is a special Mother's Day episode and we're actually taking the week off.

[00:01:11] So we're gonna let our boys run this episode today. We hope y'all love it. I'm Heather.

[00:01:17] I'm here with my son Lincoln. Hi.

[00:01:20] And my name is Elena and I'm here with... Miles.

[00:01:25] And of course I am your producer Melanie and I am here with my son who's going to be working the sound board today.

[00:01:33] Hey. Cole.

[00:01:37] Enjoy.

[00:01:38] What's good boys? What's up man?

[00:01:40] Welcome back to another episode of Crime Estate.

[00:01:43] What's up? How's it going guys?

[00:01:44] It's going well. I'm excited.

[00:01:46] We're ready.

[00:01:47] We're ready, yeah you know. I just like sort of want to get into it you know.

[00:01:51] Yeah.

[00:01:52] We're just gonna go straight in because I'm really excited to be sharing this story with you.

[00:01:57] And we're gonna be talking about Johnny Edwards and the murder on 130 Coventry Court Fayetteville, Georgia.

[00:02:03] Alright. Sounds good.

[00:02:05] Okay so Johnny Edwards was born in sometime 1984 and one of the things you'll see a lot about this murder is we don't have a lot of information on Johnny Edwards.

[00:02:19] Because he lived his life as a standard kid there were no signs of the murder he was gonna commit.

[00:02:26] I mean that's what they said about Ted Bundy.

[00:02:29] I mean yes but Ted Bundy also has Netflix specials and stuff.

[00:02:36] This guy I mean it's a story that's not told a lot.

[00:02:40] Not to be heard of you.

[00:02:41] Oh yeah because it happened right here guys.

[00:02:43] This isn't like...

[00:02:46] Well anyways his mom was a physician at Emory healthcare and his dad was a businessman.

[00:02:55] So he was away a lot as a kid and that's one of the things some people think may have contributed to why he committed the murders but it's not really one of the focuses.

[00:03:10] People have sort of written it off because a lot of dads are away a lot and their kids don't turn out to be murderers usually.

[00:03:18] Okay okay.

[00:03:22] That was uncalled for.

[00:03:24] Anyways around three or four there's not an exact number.

[00:03:30] Some point early in his life he started to pick up the piano and from all accounts he was very good at it.

[00:03:37] It was one of his special things that he loved to show off to people whenever they came over.

[00:03:43] And this was like his main interest until he hit middle school and he discovered football.

[00:03:53] Now personally I'm more of a basketball fan.

[00:03:57] Yeah me too.

[00:03:58] But he loved football a lot.

[00:04:02] He started playing as a defensive back in middle school and he continued that all the way through high school.

[00:04:09] He was a model student throughout high school.

[00:04:12] He made the Dean's List he was like by all accounts had a great grades and he was actually a member of the National Society of High School Scholars.

[00:04:23] There's a good kid.

[00:04:24] Yeah he was a really good kid which is one of the things that like makes you think.

[00:04:30] And I actually have like to give you a perspective of how hard it is to get in these are some of the milestones he reached.

[00:04:40] He had a 3.5 cumulative GPA on a four point scale which is really good on a four point scale because it's not including APs.

[00:04:50] He had a 3.5 cumulative GPA and he had to score a higher one thousand two hundred and eighty on the SAT and one thousand one hundred and fifty on the PSAT.

[00:05:03] A twenty six on the ACT and four points are higher on any AP exam and a total combined IP test score of thirty six or higher.

[00:05:15] I can beat that.

[00:05:16] Yeah cool you don't have to be such a smartass you know.

[00:05:20] He could be a murderer if you never know.

[00:05:23] Honestly I feel like if anyone at our grade was to commit a murder it would be cool.

[00:05:28] It would be cool.

[00:05:29] Like he showed me videos about and he was talking about like the best way to murder someone before this.

[00:05:34] So after he went there he decided to go to college.

[00:05:38] He got accepted to Wake Forest University in 2003 and he was relatively good playing in 10 games his freshman year which if you don't watch football.

[00:05:49] Yeah like do you watch football miles.

[00:05:51] Not much but yeah for football that's pretty good.

[00:05:54] Pretty good.

[00:05:56] Like he was very high like that was a very high number compared to a majority of freshmen.

[00:06:03] Yeah and then in 2005 he became a starter for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Demon Deacons I feel like that's sort of foreshadowing for what's coming next in his life.

[00:06:15] Would you guys agree.

[00:06:16] I would agree.

[00:06:17] I feel like this man like is the human embodiment of foreshadowing.

[00:06:24] But people didn't listen.

[00:06:27] But we'll get into that later.

[00:06:30] So in an interview with the Wake Forest newspaper Edwards mentioned that the people he admired most in his life were his parents.

[00:06:40] That didn't turn out to be bad was wrong thing to say.

[00:06:45] But anyways from what I've found Edwards never made it to the NFL.

[00:06:50] You found it pretty easy to know if he made it to the NFL or not.

[00:06:55] Well there you'd be surprised how many people in the world are named Johnny Edwards.

[00:07:00] So there are a bunch of Johnny Edwards in the NFL but had more research.

[00:07:06] As I mentioned Edwards was a star student so he wasn't just playing football while he was in college.

[00:07:13] He also studied for a history major and he I couldn't find any research about like what he did for a job.

[00:07:23] But I know for a fact he used that major because he lived in a relatively expensive part of Georgia.

[00:07:30] Either that or he just did what I was playing to do and live with his mother for the rest of his life.

[00:07:36] Before you kill them.

[00:07:37] I mean he got the house in the will I think.

[00:07:40] So he's saying I'm going to be the one to go someone though you talk about this.

[00:07:44] Moving on after graduating Edwards moved to Fayette County Georgia.

[00:07:49] So Fayette County is a small community with just under 120,000 residents.

[00:07:55] I mean yeah for a town that's pretty small.

[00:07:59] Fayette County is exactly what you would imagine a small town in Georgia to look like.

[00:08:02] It has large front yards and white picket fences and lots of historical architecture.

[00:08:09] However many homes are newer constructions that take heavy inspiration from 1800s architecture.

[00:08:17] The average house price lays just around 500 K.

[00:08:22] Little can be found about Johnny Edwards from 2006 to 2017.

[00:08:26] However we do know that during this time Edwards met his wife Venus Kwaneth.

[00:08:32] And after getting married the couple moved in with his parents.

[00:08:37] I mean like that seems like the life you know it does not having to pay for a like a house or anything.

[00:08:45] Yeah and then just gone murder to your parents.

[00:08:49] My parents aren't going to make me pay rent.

[00:08:52] This might be where the murder started.

[00:08:55] What does more about you than it does about him?

[00:08:58] I mean like my mom loves me a lot so she's just going to let me stay there.

[00:09:05] You know I mean after the story maybe not.

[00:09:09] Anyways during this time Edwards started to exhibit warning signs that he may have been in a volatile state.

[00:09:17] Admitting to family members that he felt the world was out to get him on more of a serious note.

[00:09:21] I would like to caution you guys that if anyone you know or love has is exhibiting warning signs you should get help.

[00:09:33] And one of the things you can use to get help is to say something anonymous reporting system.

[00:09:40] Now this is something we have been taught about in the schools right.

[00:09:45] And it is a great recommendation for reporting someone if they're exhibiting warning signs so you can stop things like what I'm about to tell you.

[00:09:57] Do not confuse it with the slogan see something say something from the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.

[00:10:03] It is the website created by the Sandy Hook promise and it is made to allow people to get help for others.

[00:10:17] Moving on we are going to be talking about the murder itself.

[00:10:22] What have been waiting for the whole time?

[00:10:24] One week Edwards III Johnny's father was away on a business trip.

[00:10:28] And while this happened something inside Johnny just broke.

[00:10:34] On December 7th 2019 Edwards came home from work and snapped.

[00:10:40] He flew into a blind rage and murdered both his pregnant wife and his mother.

[00:10:44] So he really did just snap like it just happened.

[00:10:47] No one knows why he did it.

[00:10:49] But at the same time we do love our mothers.

[00:10:52] But um things like this do happen.

[00:11:00] They do.

[00:11:02] Make sure you treat your kids well.

[00:11:05] Next time they ask to go get ice cream maybe don't say no.

[00:11:08] A lot of top C reports show that Edwards had beaten his victims before finally killing them off.

[00:11:16] And this is one of the things that we'll talk about later when we get into the court case.

[00:11:20] But it is one of the pieces of evidence he uses to try and argue for his release.

[00:11:30] Anyways both women suffered traumatic head injuries caused by a baseball bat before their throats were slit with a steak knife.

[00:11:41] At 229 Edwards called 911 to confess when police arrived at the scene Edwards was waiting on the front porch drenched in blood.

[00:11:50] From all accounts I've seen the scene was very gross.

[00:11:55] He was a very violent killer.

[00:12:00] He showed no remorse.

[00:12:03] Well I didn't know he confessed.

[00:12:06] I'm getting to that goal.

[00:12:12] When he was doing it he just brutally killed them.

[00:12:17] It's really sad.

[00:12:18] Yeah.

[00:12:20] Like he was crazy at the time which I will talk about now.

[00:12:30] At his trial on December 19th 2019 Edwards decided to represent himself.

[00:12:37] Something that you should never do.

[00:12:39] Remember lawyers get paid a lot of money for a reason.

[00:12:44] Representing yourself is never a good idea.

[00:12:47] You're almost guaranteed to lose your case.

[00:12:51] And he pled guilty to two counts of murder.

[00:12:54] But this guy is really something.

[00:12:57] First he went to court and argued that his name was City Mohamed ibn Abdullah and he was not a US citizen.

[00:13:05] Which therefore meant the US government couldn't prosecute him.

[00:13:07] This obviously did not work.

[00:13:11] So Edwards switched tactics.

[00:13:13] He realized that the only way out was the insanity plea.

[00:13:17] And he put on a show.

[00:13:20] In court he started quoting children's nursery rhymes as evidence.

[00:13:25] He stopped grooming, make himself appear insane.

[00:13:29] And he even tried to argue that the courts were treating him like property.

[00:13:33] Now this did not work.

[00:13:36] And he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

[00:13:42] Which is a fair punishment for the crimes he committed.

[00:13:46] He was really a gruesome man.

[00:13:50] And he tried to lie about it too.

[00:13:53] It was not good.

[00:13:56] That wraps up the case of Johnny Edwards IV.

[00:14:01] And now for the moment you guys have all been waiting for.

[00:14:05] Because I know it's your favorite part of crime estate.

[00:14:08] We talk about real estate.

[00:14:11] Yeah.

[00:14:13] Are you guys as excited as I am?

[00:14:15] It's not my specialty but I'll see what I can do.

[00:14:19] Let's get into it.

[00:14:21] The home where the murders occurred at 130 come and tree court is what my mom would call stately.

[00:14:26] It's a newer home designed to look like a traditional home.

[00:14:29] It's a two story red brick home with dormers and black shutters.

[00:14:34] If you need a visual think of the homelone house.

[00:14:38] In fact when I first looked at it I thought wait this occurred in the crime from homelone.

[00:14:45] I heard my mom talking about maybe a crime committing there but I was very confused.

[00:14:50] I'm going to show you guys a picture of and I want you to guess whether or not this was the homelone house

[00:14:55] or the house that's a murder committed in.

[00:14:59] It looks exactly like the homelone house actually.

[00:15:01] It's the motor. That's the motor house in Delph.

[00:15:06] Alright.

[00:15:08] Cole is reading the caption.

[00:15:10] No no no it's the trees.

[00:15:12] There's a very Georgian southern trees.

[00:15:15] And this is what you get when someone plays Geoguessir.

[00:15:19] I don't play Geo.

[00:15:21] I don't play expert in Geo.

[00:15:23] No I haven't played in sister 6th grade.

[00:15:25] Moving on.

[00:15:27] It's very southern.

[00:15:29] They're not the Chicago winter trees also the homelone house that was all in winter.

[00:15:33] There was no snow as a picture of the homelone house with much jacket have snow that did not it actually looked humid and George is very cute.

[00:15:41] You know that places that snow can get humid during the summer right?

[00:15:47] But a picture of the homelone house is more likely.

[00:15:50] I don't think there's a picture of the homelone house online that doesn't have snow.

[00:15:53] Well anyways we're going to stop arguing because it's no point debating useless matters.

[00:15:59] Because you lost?

[00:16:02] Okay.

[00:16:07] We are going to talk about some of the prices.

[00:16:12] The house was built in 1999.

[00:16:15] It is a single family home and it last sold for $665,000 in 2021.

[00:16:22] It has a three car garage which is pretty big.

[00:16:27] And these are all according to realtor.com.

[00:16:32] It's a four bedroom 300 and 3100 square foot home on just over an acre last sold in 2021 for $665,000.

[00:16:43] Interestingly enough in the listing photos the agent chose to use the back exterior image as the main photo.

[00:16:50] And while this might not be the whole reason I personally think it's so people didn't confuse it with the homelone house.

[00:16:59] Yeah.

[00:17:01] Obviously based on the Georgian trees, the environment and the Southern style architecture it is a Georgian.

[00:17:11] Oh, uh, should you guess or everyone?

[00:17:14] Don't! I don't!

[00:17:16] I don't.

[00:17:17] So now we're going to go into my second favorite section after we talk about the house is would you live there and would you list it?

[00:17:26] Live there, um, probably not. Especially because it looks like the homelone house.

[00:17:31] Like I wouldn't want people getting confused.

[00:17:34] I mean come over to my house, you live at the homelone house.

[00:17:37] List it?

[00:17:40] I think I would.

[00:17:42] It's like, I don't know.

[00:17:44] Okay. Would you let your mom list it?

[00:17:47] She'll be fine.

[00:17:51] Uh, Cole, what about you?

[00:17:53] She doesn't need more money, doesn't she?

[00:17:58] I've been talking about live there.

[00:18:00] Oh, live there.

[00:18:02] No offense to anyone living in Fayetteville, Georgia.

[00:18:05] Yeah, the location.

[00:18:08] And then I wouldn't list it either.

[00:18:11] I mean, we all gain value and then I don't want my mom to gain anymore.

[00:18:17] This is where the murder starts.

[00:18:18] Yeah, I'm telling you Cole is the most likely to commit the murder.

[00:18:22] He's over here talking about how he doesn't want his mom to get money.

[00:18:26] Like it's not cool, Cole.

[00:18:29] Don't you want college money?

[00:18:31] That's true. All right, Lincoln, what about you?

[00:18:33] I mean, I could give you some of mine.

[00:18:35] Personally, I'm going to Katie Conservatory, which is a college located in a shopping mall.

[00:18:40] My mom just sticked me the middle finger.

[00:18:44] Uh, me, uh, live there.

[00:18:48] I feel like just because the violent nature, I wouldn't want to live there.

[00:18:54] Cause like as I mentioned, there was blood everywhere and I don't want to be living around that mess.

[00:19:00] It would be a monster nightmare to clean.

[00:19:03] And I feel like like dogs would get excited around the blood, you know, dog person.

[00:19:10] The blood would be cleaned up.

[00:19:12] Are you aware of that?

[00:19:14] But the dogs can still smell it.

[00:19:17] Six years ago.

[00:19:19] Dog because no blood from six years ago.

[00:19:23] Uh, list it.

[00:19:25] Hmm. I feel like I would feel morally wrong listing a house like that.

[00:19:35] Uh, because of such the violent nature, as I mentioned, the man just snapped.

[00:19:42] And I feel like if I were to list it, it would have to have murder and like describe the murder vividly in the

[00:19:51] detail of the house.

[00:19:53] And I feel like any house that you have to describe that is probably not going to go for a lot because I would feel morally wrong,

[00:20:01] not describing the murder in detail.

[00:20:03] And now let my mom list it.

[00:20:05] Hmm. This one's a bit more tough.

[00:20:09] I hear.

[00:20:11] I won't call it paid for.

[00:20:14] So I'm going to say yes.

[00:20:15] But I would like to go with her because like I want to visit the house.

[00:20:22] I just won't live in the house if that makes sense.

[00:20:24] That makes sense.

[00:20:26] Okay guys, we hope you enjoyed this special Mother's Day episode.

[00:20:29] Remember to like, share, follow, um, post.

[00:20:34] Tell all your friends, tell all your friends, and your friends, kids.

[00:20:37] I mean, I know a few people from school that are listening to the podcast.

[00:20:41] There are a few others.

[00:20:42] I'll tell you after.

[00:20:44] Don't work.

[00:20:46] Okay, can you give me the names of the people you think will commit murder at school?

[00:20:50] Anyway, we'll see you guys next time.

[00:20:53] Yeah, we'll see you guys next time.

[00:20:55] Hope you enjoy.

[00:21:51] Remember, let us know.

[00:21:53] Shoot us an email at crimeestatepodcastatgmail.com.

[00:21:56] Until next week.