The Bad Nurse

by Sheila Johnson

  The writer then pointed out that Shaw’s wife had recently died, and asked if anyone had spoken to family and friends to ask how he was dealing with her loss. The supporter also said that it had been mentioned that someone in Billy Shaw’s neighborhood had been seen running in a pasture and chasing a bull. Had the bull been checked for the drug? they wondered. Also, had Shaw said anything to anyone to give a hint of what was on his mind? People needed to speak up, said the writer, and get what they knew on record, calling or writing Karri’s lawyers if they had valuable information of any kind that might exonerate her.

  For goodness sake, SPEAK UP NOW, the writer said, before this goes any further!

  Despite all the entreaties for her release on bond, Judge Rains could not and did not waver in his rulings, and Karri remained in jail. Her trial was scheduled to take place in August 2011.

  In the meantime, she was spending her time in jail writing to her supporters and getting better acquainted with some of the other inmates. Foremost among them was a man named Nathan Wilder, who was in jail while awaiting trial for the murder of his wife. The letters they exchanged during their incarceration would provide some of the most shocking materials in Karri’s case files.

  CHAPTER 11

  On one of her social media pages, Karri had described herself as a “richly blessed child of God” who fulfilled many roles in her day-to-day life. She said that she had been married to her highschool sweetheart for almost fourteen years and they had two children, a four-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. She worked as a nurse by day, she said, but loved to sew and make hair bows.

  I love the Lord and my family more than anything in this world and beyond, she wrote. Court papers would show, however, that Karri’s family, despite her professed love for them, had been the victims of her identity theft and forgery schemes for quite some time, until they learned of her activities and cut off her access to their funds.

  In the prosecution’s motion to deny bond, they pointed out that Karri had stolen her mother’s identity and had taken money from the saddlery—plus she stood to inherit a share of Shaw’s estate, which was estimated at around $300,000. At the bond hearing, the testimony of Karri’s husband, Jason, had confirmed that he and his wife had filed for bankruptcy in 2002. At the time of the hearing, they had been under Chapter 11 for three years because of their continuing financial problems.

  Ongoing money troubles seemed to have been a constant for the couple for many years despite their careers, Jason as a teacher and Karri as a surgical nurse. Their debt was listed in court records as being in excess of $500,000 at the time of their second bankruptcy filing. No information was given, however, to explain how they had accumulated so much debt.

  The supporters quickly addressed the money situation in their postings and letters to the editors of the local papers.

  What is this about financial gain? one person asked, referring to the prosecution’s mention of the inheritance willed to Karri. It certainly isn’t in Karri’s hands, is it? Karri needed everyone’s prayers, and the writer pointed out: [S]o does her family. They will lose what little they have left trying to get the best legal defense they can; lawyers aren’t cheap.

  CHAPTER 12

  Many of those who were involved in Karri Willoughby’s case—the prosecutors, members of the media, and investigators—were amazed at the online attention that was being generated touting Karri’s innocence. If one looked back at her blog and Facebook activity, however, it became easy to see how that unconditional support had occurred.

  Karri was a competent writer, and a master manipulator, who spent a great deal of time online, both before Shaw’s death, during the time prior to her arrest, and then later, by having friends post writings she had mailed to them from her jail cell. She knew exactly how to portray herself as a devoted mother, wife, and friend, and how to make other young mothers identify with her by telling them what they most wanted to hear. She wrote about birthdays, church dinners, youth group activities, her marriage and home life, and her children’s daily escapades. Her request for prayers was a constant and ongoing plea.

  Karri had also written a great deal about her work as a nurse, but after she left her job at the Chattanooga Surgery Center in 2009, she began to write about her ensuing job search and at one point she believed that she was going to be hired at Baptist Medical Center DeKalb in Fort Payne, Alabama.

  In mid-July 2009, after writing several times about how excited she was to be starting her new job, Karri wrote that she had just received a call from human resources at the hospital saying that she would not, after all, be going to work there because the economy had forced their CEO to put a freeze on hiring. Karri wrote that she had already been through her background check, drug test, and other employment preliminaries, and said she was utterly crushed to get the news only three days prior to the time she was due to be starting work.

  After her arrest, there was some speculation that the hospital had somehow gotten wind during her background check that she had, for some time, been a person of interest in Shaw’s murder. That fact could have accounted for the sudden and unexpected last-minute hiring freeze.

  Karri blogged that she had decided her bad luck was the Devil’s work, trying to kick her while she was down. She stated that she was immediately going to put in applications “all over Northeast Alabama and Chattanooga.” If none of those panned out, she would try Lowe’s and Walmart. The hospital job, she said, was evidently “not part of God’s plan” for her at the time and she believed that the situation would ultimately give her even more opportunities to prove her “love and devotion to Him.”

  This particular post ended with a highly ironic sentence pointing out that Karri had almost forgotten that it was her thirty-second birthday that day:

  [P]roud to say it, because the alternative to not having a birthday is well . . . you know . . . not so good!

  An odd statement for her to make, as she had most likely put an end to any further birthdays her stepfather might have had.

  CHAPTER 13

  After blogging continually for such a long time, Karri’s posts had abruptly ended on March 18, 2010, two months prior to her arrest for murder. She was obviously well aware by that time that the grand jury was about to convene and that she would very likely be indicted for capital murder.

  Her last post consisted of two sentences, the announcement that her blog had moved. But on going to the new address, there was nothing to be found except a blank page.

  Instead of a personal blog, the Facebook site called “Truth for Karri” had quickly sprung up and had become the hub of information for all her supporters. Updates on the case against her were constantly posted, along with indignant denials of her guilt. Karri’s letters to her faithful followers, her poems, and her claims of innocence were sent to her husband and friends, who then placed them online for all her other friends and acquaintances to read, share, and comment on—and comment they did. They also used every opportunity to post comments on Internet and newspaper message boards and write letters to the editor every time a news item concerning the case was published. It was a masterfully planned and conducted publicity campaign.

  Well I just have to say that I know her and believe in her one hundred percent, one person wrote, saying, She did not commit this crime.

  Another person wrote a very long and detailed post about just exactly why such a large number of Ider’s citizens were such doggedly steadfast believers in Karri’s innocence: The fact of the matter is, we the community, her loved ones, her family and her friends, stand beside [Karri] and this is a horrible nightmare to us all.

  The writer said that many of the townspeople had grown up with Karri, taking part with her in beauty pageants, band, cheerleading, athletics, church activities, and attending school for thirteen years, and then graduating high school with her.

  We went on her family vacations with her, and she went on our vacations with us, the post said. If the readers had children, then the write
r said he or she assumed that those children had friends whom they played with, spent the night with, and went to school with. These children had become a part of their lives and their families.

  The post explained: This is how so many people say we know and love Karri. No one spends 24/7 with her, but that doesn’t stop so many of us from knowing her as well as you know your spouse or best friend. We WANT to believe Karri is innocent and that would be no different than if it were somebody you all know and love.

  The writer continued, saying that if that made the town of Ider a bad place with uneducated, gullible people living there, at least it showed that they “loved their neighbor the way God wanted us to,” as the Bible instructed them: We are her sisters, her aunts, her cousins, her uncles, her husband, and most importantly, HER FRIENDS, and we love her and we will support her until this thing is over!

  One person who was obviously a close friend of Karri’s, and was refusing to believe there was even a possibility of her guilt, wrote another very long post that attempted to cast doubt on the prosecution’s case. The writer claimed that there had been many other people who had access to Billy Junior Shaw the day of his death, both before and after his body was discovered. Just because the media was the only source of information on the case, they wrote, that did not make Karri guilty. The defense obviously had a lot of information they were keeping to themselves in order to exonerate Karri, they said.

  The post also ranted about the money that figured so largely as the motive for murder.

  This is really making me furious, the writer asserted, then pointed out that it was hard to steal money or commit identity theft if you’re a “partner in the company” and your name is placed upon “all the accounts as well”!

  This lengthy defense of Karri was answered by an individual who made it clear that he or she did not share such certainty of Karri’s innocence.

  If you know for a fact that she did not commit this crime, have you called the DA’s office and told them of the evidence you have? asked the writer, also asking the person if they had given any information about the alleged “other people” that needed to be investigated. Do you have ANY information, other than knowing Ms. Willoughby?

  The writer also asked why anyone who was said to be a partner in a successful business would need to file bankruptcy two times in the past eight years.

  I respect you for wanting to support your friend, the post continued, but someone needs to start presenting evidence to help Ms. Willoughby or she is never going to be home with her children any more.

  The writer pointed out that a grand jury had already found that there was enough evidence for a capital murder charge, and it was highly unlikely that a regular jury would see things differently.

  Another one of Karri’s most vocal defenders wrote at length about how they and many other people in small towns often ran errands for their friends and neighbors by taking those people’s charge cards and personal identification numbers (PINs) to the store for them and buying what they needed, saving their friends or neighbors a trip to the store. That did not constitute identity theft, the writer claimed, only lending a helping hand.

  There is just so much in this case that can be explained by our small-town culture, the post concluded. We live in a town that has a population of around 800. (It was also a twenty-mile trip to the nearest Walmart.)

  A skeptic on the other side of the debate answered, You better be careful; you appear to be incriminating yourself, and the poor fools for allowing you to do it.

  The Karri supporter countered with more opinions on small-town life, saying that everyone in towns like Ider knew everyone else, and knew everything wrong that anyone had ever done. The poster also added that he or she could tell stories about the town’s finest citizens that “would make your hair crawl!” The writer went on to say that Karri Willoughby was one of the few people in the town about whom no one ever said anything bad.

  We all know you can’t keep secrets in a small town. All you have to do is tell one person and the cat is out of the bag. I just think they got this all wrong! the defender wrote.

  The skeptic answered, So you were aware that [the husband of] one of Karri’s main supporters was having an affair. Maybe she should spend more time focusing on HER family and not Karri’s. Just saying.

  CHAPTER 14

  While the controversy raged over Karri Willoughby’s indictment and arrest, her new best friend, the accused killer Nathan Wilder, was also being held in the DeKalb County Jail. Wilder, thirty, of Fort Payne, had been arrested for killing his wife, Elizabeth—the murder had occurred a short time before noon on December 10, 2009. Nathan had strangled his estranged wife with a belt, then called Fort Payne 911 and told the dispatcher that he and his wife had gotten into an argument that had escalated into a fight. He said that he had hurt her very badly and thought she was possibly dead.

  A Fort Payne Police Department squad car, with two officers, happened to be in the immediate area and responded to the call within one minute. When they arrived at the scene, Nathan Wilder walked out onto the porch and surrendered to Detective Lieutenant Andy Hairston and Chief of Detectives Mike Grant.

  “I think I have killed my wife,” he told them.

  When the detectives entered the house, where Nathan Wilder was living alone, they found Elizabeth Wilder’s body lying on the bedroom floor. They also noted lots of obvious signs of a struggle having taken place. When personnel from the Fort Payne Fire Department and DeKalb Ambulance Service arrived and examined the body, they called for DeKalb County’s assistant coroner. Charles Williams arrived and pronounced Elizabeth Wilder dead at the scene. Arrangements were made for her body to be taken to the state forensic laboratory for an autopsy.

  During the frenzied activity that took place while the authorities rushed to the scene of the crime following Nathan Wilder’s 911 call, a miscommunication between the Fort Payne Police Department and the Department of Human Resources resulted in a lockdown of Wills Valley Elementary School. One of the Wilder family members was believed to be at the school, and the ensuing lockdown was immediately ordered. The confusion was quickly cleared up and the lockdown lasted only a few minutes, according to officials.

  Wilder and his wife were separated but still married, and he had no previous charges of domestic violence on his record. Within days of the murder, however, neighbors began reporting to the authorities, as well as to the media, that the couple had often been heard arguing. The investigators were told by those neighbors that there had definitely been some obvious issues of domestic violence between the Wilders.

  A court advocate at the Marshall County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, located in the adjoining county, also reported that Elizabeth Wilder had been a client there on several occasions, looking for guidance and asking for help in dealing with her situation.

  Nathan Wilder, convicted of murdering his wife, was Karri Willoughby’s main love interest while they were both in the DeKalb County Jail waiting for their trials to begin.

  When confrontations escalated to extreme physical violence, the court advocate said, “We start thinking what we could have done differently in this person’s life.”

  Detective Grant said that if a domestic situation got to the point when it became actually physical, “Someone should be calling [the authorities], a neighbor, friend, whatever.”

  After surrendering to the detectives, Wilder was taken to the DeKalb County Jail and charged with second-degree murder. He was booked in and held without bond on the orders of Judge David Rains. The couple’s two small children, who had been taken into the custody of the Department of Human Resources, were eventually turned over to their grandparents.

  On Tuesday, January 18, 2011, Nathan Wilder entered a guilty plea to the murder of his wife. He initially had pled not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, a plea that has seldom stood in Alabama courtrooms. And since he was quite obviously neither diseased nor defective, he and his attorney decided the best course
of action for him would be to plead guilty, especially since he had admitted to the 911 operator and to the officers who showed up at his residence, within minutes following Elizabeth’s death, that he had killed his wife.

  As part of his plea deal, Wilder was sentenced to serve twenty years in the state penitentiary, with eligibility for parole after fifteen years. Had he not entered the plea, his trial would have been due to start the next month, in February.

  CHAPTER 15

  Karri Willoughby had been initially set to go to trial in August 2011; in July, though, her attorneys requested a continuance. They told the court that one of their expert witnesses was expected to be absent on the August date. The defense lawyers said that the expert was essential to the presentation of their case. Judge David Rains granted their continuance, as requested, and Karri’s trial would now be scheduled to begin in February 2012.

  Most of her supporters viewed this development as an opportunity to continue their relentless advocacy on her behalf. The yard signs and letter-writing campaign continued without diminishing. In fact, as the trial date neared and preparations began at the courthouse, the Karri legion considerably stepped up its activity. Letters and e-mails proclaiming her innocence flooded all the local and regional newspapers and television stations every time a news item about the upcoming trial appeared. In fact, all those news outlets made plans to cover the trial closely because of the intense and ever-increasing public interest in the case.

  The Ider rumor mill had also stepped up its activity as time for the trial grew closer. When the case was being discussed at one of the local charity functions, one of the workers was heard to tell a group of friends, “Well, you know, there’s a lot that ain’t come out about it yet,” claiming she knew for an absolute fact that Karri’s defense was keeping a lot of the information in her favor a secret from the media. When the case finally got to court and all the cards were laid out on the table, the woman said, everyone would know that Karri was innocent.