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Murders don't happen every day in Cherokee County. The type of murder that happened in this case doesn't happen a lot, but if it were to happen, it would be in this family. Was the Ferris family a happy family? No. This family was not like every other family. There was a lot of love there, but there was also a lot of family drama. Constant infighting, animosity among siblings for money, for their father's money.
And I think that that's where the drama always came back to, was who was going to get dad's money. The Ferris family is made up of Gary Ferris, the patriarch, Melody Ferris, the mother, and then there were four children, the oldest being Chris Ferris. Then there was Scott Ferris, and then you have Emily, and then Amanda. - Gary Ferris was a brilliant commercial real estate attorney. He was very smart. He loved his kids.
Melody is a very straightforward person who for the last 35 years had been a stay-at-home mom. I'm the mother who took care of everything, took care of everybody. I was the one that my children called when they needed help. I was always there for them. I never told them no. The Farrises lived on the east end of the county. Their property was around 10 acres, very nice piece of property. It was obvious that these people were likely affluent. Had a house, a barn.
We had four horses. We had, I don't know, how many goats? They lived a life, though, odd to a lot of us. It was normal to them. It has been called the Ferris wheel. And it was, but it was our Ferris wheel. It was our life. On 4th of July of 2018, everything changed for this family. It was brought to my attention by my sister and my mother that my father was missing.
He wasn't the healthiest man. He had high blood pressure. He smoked a lot. We were all thinking he might have had a heart attack. We decided to start searching the property. I started checking all the pastures. We had been out looking for quite some time. We had been over every square inch of that property. We couldn't find him. Something's really off here. Scott and I were standing there by the burn pile just looking.
With this being a working farm, they would pile tree stumps and rotten firewood, just kind of like a trash pile, and every now and again they'd burn it. My dad did talk about he was going to burn that stuff on that pile. I looked down and immediately I could start seeing bones. I squatted down and I'm like, "Those are human remains. I'm calling 911 right now." We heard the radio call that some remains had just been found in a fire.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the amount of fire damage done to the body. This guy's been in this fire burning for quite some time. During the excavation of the bones, there's a bullet found lodged in a rib bone. This is not an accident. It's a murder. They go through the family members and they're going to look at who had the opportunity. And anyone who lived on that property would have been in that box. How did he get on the burn pile? Who shot him? With what gun? Where? We don't have a single clue.
I called it a soap opera because the old TV show Dallas. You had money, then you had the Who Shot J.R. Except it was Who Shot Gary Farris? Peter Van Sant reports, The Farris Wheel. Detective, where are we right now? We're here at the Farris farm.
On July 5th, 2018, Detective Daniel Hayes of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, north of Atlanta, responded to a most unusual call. A human body in a burn pile. Had you ever received a call like that in your career? I had never personally responded to a call like that, no. The body was later identified as 58-year-old Gary Ferris, the larger-than-life, 300-pound patriarch of the Ferris estate,
now reduced to skeletal remains. Detective Hayes learned Gary Ferris was a wealthy commercial real estate attorney married to Melody Ferris. They raised four children, Chris, Scott, Emily, and Amanda. They're all in their late 20s, early 30s at this point, if not a little bit older.
Hayes also learned Gary and Melody were married for 38 years and lived in this house on their beautifully manicured 10-acre farm. Son Scott, who had served in the Army, managed the day-to-day operations at the farm and lived in an apartment above the barn.
Scott's main function at this point in his life is to be the foreman. It was a seemingly idyllic life until Gary Ferris' remains were discovered on that burn pile. I never thought such a tragic thing would happen there. My world was spinning. I wanted to find out what happened. Melody told Hayes the last time she saw Gary alive was during the evening on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018.
He came in and wanted to know if I was going to prepare dinner. And I said, "Gary, there's enough food in that refrigerator there to feed Cox's army." I said, "If you don't want it, then go get something to eat." And that's it? That was the last time? That was the last words that were spoken to him. Melody told Detective Hayes her husband then went down to his bedroom in the basement. Gary had sleep apnea and slept alone with his CPAP machine.
Scott said he had also last seen his father on July 3rd at lunch.
Scott spent the rest of the day out with his friends. He returned home that night around 11.30 and says he immediately noticed a glow in the distance. When I pulled in the driveway, you could look off in the direction where the burn pile was and you could see it was burning. A burn pile, typically a dumping spot for yard waste and brush. My dad did talk about he was going to burn that stuff on that pile. The next day, July 4th,
Scott and Melody told investigators they didn't encounter Gary. It was not unusual not to see Gary. It wasn't until the next day, July 5th, Melody says, she realized Gary was missing. Two of the grandchildren who had spent the night asked to ride the RTV, or rough terrain vehicle, with Gary, who they called Big Daddy. And I told them, I said, go ask Big Daddy.
to go ride it with you all. And they said they couldn't find him. Daughter Amanda was there too. Son Chris arrived soon after, and all the adults started searching the property until Scott noticed some bones among the ashes at the burn pile. I'll never forget it until the day I die. His words were, "Oh, I found him. What do you mean you found him?" When the forensic team arrived, they began documenting the burn pile.
working past dark to sift through the ashes. That's when the bullet was found lodged in Gary's rib, and what had started as a possible accidental death became a murder investigation. Why would somebody want to burn a body? Cover up a crime. Destroy evidence. Elsewhere, investigators searched the house, the barn, even the pond. They found a shotgun in the house. Several other guns and ammunition were discovered in the barn.
Both Melody and Scott allowed investigators to test their hands for accelerants. The tests came back negative. Scott also told the detectives something intriguing. He had recently seen a pistol in the basement that was now missing. It was just very odd. And another thing Scott found odd was that his mom had his dad's wallet. And I said, where'd you find that? And she said, well, it's in the console of his car.
And I found that very, very odd because my dad never left his wallet in his car. As Hay's investigation continued, he was learning all about the Ferris family's dysfunctional dynamic, which came to be known as the Ferris wheel.
In a tape-recorded conversation with Melody, she told him there had been tension between Gary and Scott. He and Scott would get into it pretty heavily. I mean, you know, they'd come to blows just over things because Gary was so anal about everything. I mean, Scott's hot. I mean, he is. He's hot tempered. But when detectives asked Scott what he thought happened,
He pointed the finger of suspicion at his mother. I've always had this gut feeling if something ever happened to my dad that somebody needed to check her out. With the Ferris wheel starting to turn, detectives asked Scott if his father was having an affair.
My father did not do that. He was a one-woman type of man, and he married that woman. He was not that kind of man. Hayes then asked Melody if she was having an affair. What did she tell you? She said no. Police focused in on what appeared to be drops of blood on the kitchen floor, the stairs leading to the basement, and on the basement floor itself.
When spots in the basement were tested, they were confirmed to be Gary's blood. Police also found a .38 caliber bullet on the basement floor. The same type found lodged in Gary's rib bone from the burn pile. And does that suggest in any way some sort of progression of an attack on Gary? That's what we interpreted as, as we started looking at it, is that possibly something happened upstairs, led down the stairs and into the basement.
Detective Hayes asked Melody point blank if she had anything to do with the death of her husband. So your statement is you didn't do anything to harm Gary? No. And you don't know who did? No. Hayes was skeptical. Investigators had found in Melody's purse birth control and a credit card with another man's name on it, Roy Barton. When someone's lying to you, what does that suggest? They're guilty of something.
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When that credit card was found in Melody's purse, investigators did not recognize the name on it. It's Roy Barton. Later found out it's Rusty Barton. Rusty Barton was a farm equipment salesman who spent time on the road in central Tennessee. In 2014, Melody was helping take care of Rusty's ill stepmother, who happened to be her cousin.
That's when Rusty and Melody became intimate. We learned that Rusty is Melody's lover that she's having an affair with and has had an affair with for quite some time. Did you fall in love with Rusty? I loved him. Still love him. Was I in love with him? Investigators wanted to know more about the couple. How serious is this relationship between Melody and Rusty? Depends on who you ask.
The evidence showed that it appeared to be pretty serious. They were researching wedding bands. You know if you were planning on getting married, it sounds like a motive for murder. You don't marry the person you're having an affair with. Scott says Melody and Rusty's love affair was the world's worst kept secret. She thought she was smart enough to hide it from everybody, but we all found out, we all knew. Including Gary.
And when daughter Emily got married in 2016, Melody scandalized the wedding by inviting her lover for all to see. Your husband is there at the same venue and you're dancing and drinking and having a good time with this other man. It was upsetting to Gary, you know, it was upsetting to all the family. That wasn't a nice move on your part, was it? Yeah, in hindsight, no.
It seemed the Ferris wheel was spinning faster, with household drama becoming more frequent. This whole Ferris wheel turn, none of us really like it. But if you want to know who the motor was of turning that Ferris wheel, it was Melody Ferris. She always stirred up drama. Always. It's a real-life soap opera. That's it. A soap opera, Hayes believed, that revolved around what Gary had and others coveted: money.
A lot of bickering, a lot of fights over money, a lot of jealousy. Gary had always been generous toward his children, even as adults. Investigators learned he helped Emily buy a house and financially assisted son Chris with his business and children. It made Melody turn against her children because the children were spending money. But Melody claims she was only upset
because the children were taking advantage of their father's wealth. Chris, our oldest one, had been stealing money like you cannot believe. Chris says he and his father did not argue over money. Detective Hayes looked into the agreement Gary had struck with Scott. He worked on the farm and Gary gave him spending money. He had gotten where he just would not do anything. He was all the time playing golf, going to the lake, going out with his friends. And who was paying for all of this?
He was taking, you know, credit cards from Gary. But Scott says that's not true at all and that the arrangement he had with his father worked well for both of them.
I was there to help him with the farm. There was no mooching. Scott says it was actually Melody who'd run into a financial roadblock with Gary, largely because of her lavish spending on her affair with Rusty. She would leave for weeks at a time, and then thousands of dollars would be spent out of the account. We found text messages where he confronted her and said, you know, your spending is...
Done. We've got to get a handle on this. So what you're saying is that it was Melody who was facing the potential of having her money lifeline cut off? Pretty much, yes. Was he angry at your spending? No. I had a debit card. It had his name on it. I was free to use it however I wanted to.
While Melody and Rusty lived in different states, cell phone records show they lived their lives in constant communication. She's on the phone with him every hour of every day. Including the early morning hours of July 4th, 2018, a day and a half before Gary was found. When questioned by investigators, Rusty told them that Melody had said something alarming.
At that time, only the killer could have known Gary was on the burn pile.
Had Melody Ferris confessed to murder? As the investigation continued, she was now the detective's number one suspect.
I told them everything I knew. Scott remembered something that happened with his mother the day before Gary vanished. It now seems like foreshadowing. She comes out of the house with a plate in her hand, and she's screaming and cussing. She throws the plate up against the wall of the house and shatters it all into pieces. And she says, "I can't wait till that man's dead. I can't wait till I don't have to live with him anymore."
Gary Ferris himself took out his phone and recorded this video. This is what happens when you leave a plate. Of the plate shards scattered on the ground. Three days later, he was dead. On June 18th, 2019, after an almost 12-month investigation, detectives say they had gathered enough evidence to charge Melody Ferris with the murder of her husband, Gary.
Why did it take a year to arrest Melody? We were waiting on the autopsy results and the positive identification of Gary Wayne Ferris' body. But for Detective Hayes, there were unanswered questions. How did Melody get Gary's body out the basement door and to the burn pile about 50 yards away?
She weighs, what, 130 pounds? Around that, I believe. And Gary is 6'4", 6'5", 300 pounds. How in the world could that woman have moved that body?
With the tractor, with the RTV. Two pieces of machinery that were found on the farm. She admitted that she drives RTV all the time, has operated the tractor. Hayes sees the two vehicles as evidence. This is what we're looking at, these two vehicles. He took me to the lot where they are stored. How could each of these vehicles have been used to get Gary's body onto that pile? Both were capable of pulling a lot of weight. This tractor has
a bucket on the front that is designed to scoop heavy loads. We found tractor marks, but there were tractor marks all over the property, but there were none necessarily obviously leading right up to the burn pile. What did you find as your forensic people took a look at these vehicles? We found blood, evidence of blood on the vehicles. Can you show me where? I can. So on the tractor, we found
Blood evidence in this area. Gary's blood. But nothing was found in the front bucket. On the RTV, Hayes says Melody's blood was found on one of the gear shifters. Nothing was found in the back. Hayes considered other scenarios. There's also a theory that she did it under her own power, rolling him down to the burn pile. It's downhill all the way to the burn pile.
Is there any blood that was discovered going from the house to the burn pile? Not that we found. So this still remains a mystery, doesn't it? It does. A mystery, too, for prosecutors Megan Frankish and Jeffrey Fogus. We don't know exactly how she got him to the burn pile. She was a farm girl. She was resourceful. We know she killed him. How she did it doesn't really matter because we know she did because he was there.
The case took more than five years to bring to trial. During that time, a deep divide formed in the Ferris family. Three of the children, Chris, Scott, and Emily, were all convinced their mother murdered their father. Gary and Melody's youngest child, Amanda, believed in Melody's innocence.
What did it mean for you that your daughter Amanda stood by you during all this time and has believed in your innocence? She's a good girl. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. When the trial finally began in October 2024, prosecutors Megan Frankish and Jeffrey Fogus spoke to jurors with absolute certainty. The answer to the question, who did it, sits right there. Melody Walker-Ferris.
The motive? Money, sex, new life. According to prosecutors, Melody wanted Gary dead so she could cash in on his multi-million dollar assets and live happily ever after with her lover of the past four years, Rusty Barton. Why shouldn't people believe you had the greatest motive to murder Gary? I knew nothing about our financial situation. Absolutely nothing.
Prosecutors say on the evening of July 3rd, two days before Gary's body was found, Gary and Melody got into a fight in the kitchen, and Melody shot him. He goes downstairs, trying to get away. She shoots him again. There was a blood trail from the kitchen, and they went down the steps. Those blood trails never leave out of the house, upstairs or downstairs.
In their opening statement, defense attorneys Michael Ray and John Luke Weaver attacked the prosecution's claims and told jurors there's a harmless explanation for those blood drops.
Gary had been bitten by one of Melody's dogs on the ankle and was bleeding as he walked down the stairs. We're talking tiny little droplets of blood. That would not be consistent with a shooting. You would expect far more blood. And daughter Amanda would testify she saw that wound on her dad's leg.
The defense also argued Melody is innocent. Questions without answers. And raised those questions about how Gary's body got to the burn pile. Melody Ferris, at her size, it is impossible that she moved that body from the location where the state says his body was to a burn pile. It is absolutely impossible. The defense also raised questions about the murder weapon. Where is the gun? No idea.
they offered up an alternative suspect, Melody's own son. And his motive would be? Financial. He wanted the property. One big thing you're going to hear, and you're going to hear it a lot, is Scott Ferris.
The defense argues that Scott, from the very beginning, tried to draw attention of investigators away from him. 13 minutes after law enforcement arrives, Scott Ferris is already blaming his mother. From the very beginning, Scott is saying, Melody, Melody, Melody, leading law enforcement down this trail. Raise your right hand. When the prosecution put Scott Ferris on the stand, they asked him directly...
Did you murder your father? I absolutely did not murder my father. I love my father. He was the backbone. He was the glue to our family. Sitting just feet away, Melody says Scott's testimony was an act. The Scott that was in that courtroom was not my son. He was well rehearsed. Could you stand for the jury, please? Sure.
On cross-examination, the defense pointed out that Scott, at 6'8", 280 pounds, was the only person on the farm physically capable of moving Gary's 300-pound body. Because of my size and the size of my father, yes, I was going to be looked at like that. But I had nothing to do with it. Raise your right hand.
To help establish a motive for murder, prosecutors called Melody's lover, Rusty Barton, to the stand. You're from Alabama, is that right? Excuse me, Tennessee. I apologize. I'm from Tennessee.
And you are a big difference. That's true. He's charming. He's smart. And he says he captured the heart of married Melody Ferris. You were in love with her, fair to say? Yes. And she was in love with you, fair to say? Yes. Do you recall searching for wedding bands on the Internet? I do. What type of wedding bands did y'all have in mind? We talked about plain gold bands.
Tell the jury what you said. Fogus also asked Rusty about that incriminating call. She said that Gary was on the burn pile. Remember, Rusty had told investigators that call had taken place before Gary was found. But a year later, after Melody was arrested, Rusty changed his story, saying the call happened after the body was discovered. He said he had the dates wrong.
What I told you was correct, but when it happened was not correct. But prosecutor Fogus didn't buy it and claims Rusty was trying to help Melody. Do you believe him? No. He was still in a relationship with her. He didn't know how this was going to turn out. At the time of the murder, Rusty was hours away in Tennessee. He was never charged with anything relating to the death of Gary Farris.
More witnesses would testify. And later, Melody, who was silent throughout the trial, would address the court in a dramatic and explosive statement that would leave her family reeling.
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Day after day, Melody Ferris faced witnesses determined to see her pay for the alleged murder of her husband. How is it that you know the defendant in this case? She's my mother. None seemed more dogged than her own children, like Chris. I just had my suspicions that she had something to do with this.
Her daughter Emily. She became more hostile. She was more aggressive with us. She was demanding money. Did you see your mom sitting in court? Yes, sir. And Scott. I mean, she always, you know, talked bad about my dad. It's like she always tried to brainwash us, like he was, you know, such a horrible person. Can you describe what it was like to watch each of your children take the stand?
the most heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching thing I had ever sat through in my entire life. Because? I knew they were lying. I have to tell you, you seemed so stoic during all of it. It was at the time that I'd walk out of that courtroom at nighttime, I was ready to scream at the top of my lungs. Melody says three of her children are trying to pin their father's murder on her for one simple reason. Money. Absolutely money.
One of the final witnesses called by prosecutors was Lindsay Harris, who leads the Intelligence Division in the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. I was asked in 2018, July of 2018,
to analyze some phone records. Harris says she was able to track the precise movements of Gary Farris' cell phone on the family farm because Gary had an Android phone with its Google location services turned on. So this helps us know when the device is traveling even within a certain area. Harris discovered that on the morning of July 4th,
When investigators believe Gary's body was already on the burn pile, his cell phone moved from the house to the burn pile and back to the house. 100% the device moves from 758 to 905. Someone must be moving it. Prosecutors say that someone could only have been Melody Ferris. We knew that the only person home was Melody.
Lindsay Harris says that during that time, Scott's phone was miles away from the farm. Scott leaves the residence around 6.30 a.m. on July 4th. He does not return to the home until 8 p.m.-ish, 8.30 p.m. on July 4th.
The defense tries to challenge this seemingly powerful evidence by questioning the accuracy of Harris' findings. You can clearly see that sometimes the circle's very large, sometimes it's small, and sometimes it says you're absolutely nowhere close to where you are. The defense called seven witnesses. One of them was Gary and Melody's youngest daughter, Amanda.
She has told me that she's not guilty and all I can do is believe that until somebody can prove she is guilty. So I would like to believe that my mother had nothing to do with this. There's just so much pain. I'm just, there's no good outcome. He's never coming back. He'll never be there again. That's just the worst part about it all. Knowing that my mother could potentially spend the rest of her life in prison is terrifying.
Ms. Frankish, you can go ahead. It was now time to wrap this case up with closing arguments. She had plenty of motives. She despised Gary. She hated that he was giving away their money, her money. That was the main motive. Rusty was a bonus. In their closing, the defense did some heavy lifting.
to demonstrate how difficult it would be for someone Melody's size to somehow get her 300-pound husband onto that burn pile. This is 320 pounds. And I am 185 pounds. And that's all I have. I just-- it's not realistic. And then the fact that they've presented no actual evidence as to how she did that, that means there's doubt.
On October 30, 2024, the jury got the case. But after three days of deliberations, they sent a note to the judge saying they were deadlocked. The judge told them to give it one more try. I was absolutely numb. You don't know what to think. And just a few hours later… All right, I understand y'all reached a verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty.
Melody Ferris was found guilty on all five counts against her, including malice murder, felony murder, and making false statements. It was horrible. They carried me immediately over to the jail. I was alone.
curled up, the fetal position. Jurors Sheila Albright and Chris Hyatt say the cell phone evidence convinced them of Melody's guilt. Once we agreed on the time of death, then it was, okay, well, how is this phone moving after Gary's body? It was in the burn pile. Who was on the property at that time? And who was? Melody.
As for the question of how Gary got to the burn pile, Sheila Albright had a theory. But in my mind, I thought that she first shot him inside the house because there was evidence of that. I thought maybe he had run out the door trying to get away from her. And maybe she took him by gunpoint down to the burn pile. I think that maybe the burn pile is the last place she shot him.
For Scott and some members of the Ferris family, the guilty verdict brought relief, even though their own mother was now a convicted murderer. Because we got justice from my father. We fought six years to get answers. My father loved my mother. He fought for my mother. He was a very loving father.
But there would be no love shown by Melody at her sentencing, when she was given the opportunity to express remorse and ask the judge for leniency. I have waited for years to make this statement to everyone. But instead of asking the judge for mercy... I want the world to know who did this. ...she named who she said was the real killer. I know Scott killed his father.
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When Melody Farris used her sentencing hearing to accuse her son Scott of being Gary's true murderer, some of those in the courtroom were floored. I'm back at the prosecution table and we're all kind of like, I cannot believe this is happening. So I was not prepared for that. It was shocking that that is the opportunity she believed was hers to take.
Scott, sitting behind his mother with his family, simply stared in disbelief. Oh, I was furiated. She did her last, final jabs. That shows you what she was like. One last turn of the knife. One last turn to make somebody's life a living hell because it didn't go her way. Judge David Cannon had little patience. Ms. Ferris?
I'm gonna cut you off. But Melody persisted. And I plead with you to roll this verdict out. Help me get justice for the correct person.
As bad as it sounds, I want to be there to watch him chained and shackled and brought to justice. Instead, it was Melody who would be led away in chains. The penalty for murder is life. The 64-year-old was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
She also received an additional five years for concealing Gary's death by burning his remains and making a false statement to police. Melody didn't take the stand in her trial. Instead, she chose to tell her story exclusively to 48 Hours. I just watched one of the most extraordinary moments inside a courtroom.
that I have ever seen in my career. What do you want people to know about you and this case? I want everyone, but especially my children, my grandchildren, and at this point, the world. I didn't do this. I know who did, and it's our son Scott. Without a shadow of a doubt, I know he did it. I absolutely had nothing to do with my father's death.
It was 100% Melody Ferris who murdered my father. That is the truth. Why do you think she accused you of killing your father? Because I was an easy target. I lived on the property. I'm a former military. Melody claims she hadn't spoken up until now out of maternal loyalty. She says her own mother, now deceased, suspected Scott all along and asked Melody to take the blame.
But now her time as Scott's shield was over. Melody says she believes Scott set her up from the beginning. And she says she knows why. Scott wanted that property to be his. He had made that known to countless people. It's the perfect murder. You kill your daddy, you set your mother up, she goes to prison, you get everything. You understand, though, that to people listening to this, they're thinking,
Here is a mother willing to sacrifice her son to save her own skin. What would you say to that? This is a mother's worst nightmare. Melody stands by her claim that Gary was getting ready to cut Scott off financially. Gary had made it very well known that Scott needed to get a job. Things were fixing to change on that property.
But Scott says Gary never issued an ultimatum that he'd get a job and never accused him of not pulling his weight. My dad actually made comments to me saying, "Hey, leave some work for me." You know, 'cause
He wasn't there during the week. He's like, well, don't cut the pasture yet. Let me do it. Melody says she told Detective Hayes she'd seen Scott acting suspiciously the day before Gary's body was found. I said, I saw Scott come from that burn pile. Did she tell you that? No. And why would she lie now? You have to look at the timing of the statement. She has nothing to lose. She's going to make all kinds of off-the-wall claims at this point that are just not provable.
Despite a sentence that will likely mean spending the rest of her life in prison, Melody remains determined to prove her innocence. One day you believe you will walk a free woman again. I certainly hope so. I do. But I will be sitting there right behind my son in court. And for those who believe you got exactly what you deserved, you say... I didn't do it. I did not do it. She knows she did it. She needs to stop with the lies. Just come clean.
Melody Ferris will be eligible for parole in 2054. She will be 94 years old.
Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case. Now streaming. When everything's on the line, real heroes rise to the occasion. TV's hottest show is Fire Country. We're firefighters. We're gonna find a way to get you out of here.
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