08.17.2009 Docs. released

Snipped from a link provided by solomisskitty in the media thread

According to documents released on Monday, an autopsy after the July 9 deaths showed Melanie Billings, 43, was shot twice in her chest, once in her left nostril, once in her right eye and once in her left temple. Byrd Billings, 66, was shot twice in the back of his head and once in each of his legs.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_COUPLE_SLAIN_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

OMG! Melanie was shot 5 times and Byrd was shot 4 times - this was brutal!! After seeing this, I really don't understand why LE thought this was NOT a contract hit.

RANT: Why am I reading about this in a Tampa paper? WTH is up with local media?? Yeah, we had TS Claudette come through here, but come on! Get the docs. out, already!!:(
 
OMG! Melanie was shot 5 times and Byrd was shot 4 times - this was brutal!! After seeing this, I really don't understand why LE thought this was NOT a contract hit.

(
OK, my apologies to Gene. Yes, you both are right. The number of shots makes it seem more like a hit. Sad.
 
Snipped from a link provided by solomisskitty in the media thread



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_COUPLE_SLAIN_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

OMG! Melanie was shot 5 times and Byrd was shot 4 times - this was brutal!! After seeing this, I really don't understand why LE thought this was NOT a contract hit.

RANT: Why am I reading about this in a Tampa paper? WTH is up with local media?? Yeah, we had TS Claudette come through here, but come on! Get the docs. out, already!!:(

:eek: Overkill much? I feel so bad for them.
 
Byrd Billings, 66, was shot twice in the back of his head and once in each of his legs.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1189708.html
Shot once in each leg! Shot twice in the back of the head!

THAT sounds like a contract hit, not a robbery-gone-bad! Why did LE seem to avoid investigating this as a contract hit?!?!?!?!


Add the Billings' lawyer trying to protect the reputations of the Billingses and the saying 'proof is stranger than fiction' becomes relevant.
 
I just found this article too.



THAT sounds like a contract hit, not a robbery-gone-bad.

Shot once in each leg! Shot twice in the back of the head!

Why did LE seem to avoid investigating this as a contract hit?!?!?!?!


Add the Billings' lawyer trying to protect the reputations of the Billingses.


This case is proving the 'proof is stranger than fiction' saying to be true.


It is weird.

* Rick has sources saying it is a contract hit
* LPG names names who wanted a hit
* The murder seems very "execution style"

And yet, the Sheriff's office spokesman (not Morgan, but his spokesman) comes out with a statement just three weeks ago denying that it is a contract hit.

Do you get the feeling that if Rick had not reported this as a hit, that this avenue would not have been seriously investigated?
 
Do you get the feeling that if Rick had not reported this as a hit, that this avenue would not have been seriously investigated?
Eventually, someone in the media would have caught on since the number of adopted children caused this to go national from the start.

I'm an average middle-aged mother living in Pittsburgh, and I thought something was fishy in the first news reports. I've never been a sluther until this story! My quest for answers lead me to this site! From the start, I thought that someone must have wanted the Billingses killed. People just don't get murdered within a span of 4 minutes during a robbery. Now that these documents have been released, my suspicions have been validated. I'm very disappointed that it took the media to get LE to investigate. It was the Sheriff's public release statements refusing the possibility that raised red flags for me to begin with!

It's not like Byrd was shot in the back of the head trying to escape. Afterall, his legs were shot. Very execution style IMO. I'll BET that the shots to his head were fired at close distance too!

If this story has taught anyone anything, it's that nobody should try a contact hit on a family with a ton of adopted children. Too much news attention. If the Billingses had never adopted so many children with special needs, this story would have never gained any attention. They should have made it look like an automobile accident. Then again, the Billings' murders are probably a message to others----an unquestionable accidental death wouldn't have sent as strong of a message to others perhaps.
 
Do you get the feeling that if Rick had not reported this as a hit, that this avenue would not have been seriously investigated?
Then again, maybe yes.

The New York Times thinks Rick's blogs played an important role.

Here's the NYT story about Rick:

Blogger Stirs a City by Suggesting That a Florida Couple’s Murder Was a Contract Killing
by DAMIEN CAVE
Published: August 16, 2009

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The official storyline was clear. The state attorney said it was a robbery; Byrd and Melanie Billings, the parents of 13 adopted children with special needs, were murdered in their nine-bedroom house just a few miles from here because they were rich.

But Rick Outzen, a local blogger and publisher of a small alternative weekly, heard a darker tale....Rick Outzen has been blogging and raising new questions in the case of Byrd and Melanie Billings.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/us/17pensacola.html
 
Today the State Attorney’s Office released discovery documents in the Byrd and Melanie Billings murder case.

Among the more than 700 pages of documents from the homicide investigation: interviews with witnesses and suspects, crime scene investigation reports, medical examiner’s reports.

http://www.pnj.com/article/20090817/NEWS01/90817024

No docs. yet, but according to Mark O'Brien's blog, they'll be up on the PNJ site soon.

Victory, my friends!!!

The PNJ hopes to post the statements within 45 minutes or so. This involves some 700 pages.

Mark O'Brien
 
http://www.pnj.com/article/20090817/NEWS01/90817024

"Jimmy Seaton, 45, of Pensacola told investigators that in mid-June, Gonzalez Jr. contacted him asking if he would participate in a robbery"

So, LPG was selling this as a robbery. Probably it is true what we have heard that from LPG up it was meant to be a hit, and from LPG down, it was believed to be a robbery.

"Byrd Billings struggled against the men who came into his home, grabbing one of them by the neck"

As some speculated, Byrd fought. Why was he shot in the legs? To cause pain and get him to talk before murdering him?
 
Anyone pick up the alleged connection between Poff and Justin? Wonder if there is any validity to this? Wasn't he one of the adopted kids, maybe the first one that BB got in trouble for adopting. Also wasn't he the one that didn't go to the funeral> curious?
 
I think that it's strange that the family attorney was there at the very start of the investigation.

The daughter knew where the combination of the safe was kept on her own. It's not like the lawyer was needed to provide the combination.

I see no need for a lawyer to be present from the onset of a murder investiagation into the death of parents.

Calling a lawyer would be the last thing on my mind if my parents had been murdered.
 
I believe some of us have been reporting for quite some time that we KNEW it was a hit - there were a few posters who felt we were entirely off the wall....................
we even mentioned the mafia - and that LPG was the hit man.........................
 
I believe some of us have been reporting for quite some time that we KNEW it was a hit - there were a few posters who felt we were entirely off the wall....................
we even mentioned the mafia - and that LPG was the hit man.........................

I'm sure you can understand that it's important to prove what you know even if it's true.

I've suspected it was a hit from the very start, but I would never say I know it, just that it's what I think.

I have no proof. I still have no proof.

If anyone has proof, I'd sure like them to share it instead of just saying they know it.
 
Eventually, someone in the media would have caught on since the number of adopted children caused this to go national from the start.

I'm an average middle-aged mother living in Pittsburgh, and I thought something was fishy in the first news reports. I've never been a sluther until this story! My quest for answers lead me to this site! From the start, I thought that someone must have wanted the Billingses killed. People just don't get murdered within a span of 4 minutes during a robbery. Now that these documents have been released, my suspicions have been validated. I'm very disappointed that it took the media to get LE to investigate. It was the Sheriff's public release statements refusing the possibility that raised red flags for me to begin with!

It's not like Byrd was shot in the back of the head trying to escape. Afterall, his legs were shot. Very execution style IMO. I'll BET that the shots to his head were fired at close distance too!

If this story has taught anyone anything, it's that nobody should try a contact hit on a family with a ton of adopted children. Too much news attention. If the Billingses had never adopted so many children with special needs, this story would have never gained any attention. They should have made it look like an automobile accident. Then again, the Billings' murders are probably a message to others----an unquestionable accidental death wouldn't have sent as strong of a message to others perhaps.

If the video wasn't on, we wouldn't have a CLUE! Someone WANTED this crime on surveillance tape. High profile murders go unsolved, execution style or not. MS-13 is a prime example. In the old days, there was a lot of speculation surrounding JFK's murder. Do you "really" believe that case was solved?
 

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