Introducing Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast
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Hey there, it's Kristen. On Murder, She Told, I share with you the stories of lesser-known crimes in Maine, New England, and away.

In a similar vein, I want to recommend to you a show called Black Girl Gone, hosted by Amara Cofer. Each episode takes you on a heart-wrenching journey through the stories of missing and murdered Black women and the families they left behind. Each week, Amara works to uncover hidden truths and bring the important stories of these women to the forefront. I'm going to play a clip from Black Girl Gone, and I encourage you to find and follow Black Girl Gone in your favorite podcast app.

or by clicking the link in the show notes. I hope you enjoy. On April 16th, 2005, the bodies of 38-year-old Glenda Pulley and her 10-year-old son, Tyler Jones, were found inside their Warren County, North Carolina home. They had both been shot to death. Investigators believed that they knew what had happened to Glenda and Tyler, and within days, they were declaring their deaths the result of a murder-suicide orchestrated by 10-year-old Tyler.

No one in Tyler and Glenda's family, including his father Daniel, believed that Tyler could ever be capable of doing something like this. Like I said, by all accounts, Tyler was a normal kid. Very active, full of energy. And if you're raising boys, you know exactly what kind of energy they can possess. He'd like to ride four-wheelers and play outside with his friends and cousins. And there was no history of him being a troubled child or having behavior issues.

But when investigators spoke to Dennis at the home after the murders, Dennis sang a different tune about Tyler. Dennis told investigators that Tyler had anger issues. Now, Linda's family said that police didn't ask anyone close to Tyler if he had anger issues. According to them, they did not try to confirm what Dennis said with anyone else in Linda and Tyler's family or circle. And instead, they took what Dennis said as proof that Tyler had committed this crime.

Investigators used Dennis's words in the official report, and it was noted on the medical examiner's report. By 6 p.m. that evening on the 16th, investigators had finished processing the scene, and according to Daniel, the home was opened back up and people were allowed to come and go.

Now, that would give you the impression that police had collected all the evidence that they needed in seven hours and were not going to need to go back in the home because why else would they allow people to go back inside the house? But the reason why is because they had decided at that point that the case was essentially closed. And when a suicide note was found, all of the investigators' beliefs about Tyler being the perpetrator were confirmed.

But how and when the suicide note was found is not clear and is actually kind of confusing. Now, according to an article two days after the murder, the investigator on the case said that a suicide note was found under a pillow in the home. But he does not say who found the note. But on the episode of Still a Mystery, Daniel says that police did not find the note and that the funeral director found the note.

Which is interesting because the funeral director would not have had access to the bodies until after the medical examiner had completed the autopsies. And so that kind of makes it seem like the note was in Tyler's pocket. And if it wasn't Tyler's pocket, then that would raise the question about why police would not have found it immediately. I mean, even if it was under the pillow, if police were not the ones who found it, then how thoroughly did they actually process the scene?

Now, this is no shade, but smaller police departments don't have the resources to deal with crimes of this magnitude. And these kind of crimes don't often happen in their communities. So their experience with this sort of thing is limited. But in this case, state investigators had also been on the case the day of the murder, although they later claimed that they had a very limited role in the investigation.

The suicide note for investigators, however, was the final piece that they would need to officially rule this case a murder-suicide and close the investigation. In the note, 10-year-old Tyler allegedly writes, quote, Sorry, everybody. I'm sorry for killing my best mom. So I'm going to write a little song and then kill myself. My dad don't even care for me. He doesn't even call me. And if you want to understand me more, listen to 50 Cent, The Massacre.

He then writes the words, my life, in really large letters. And then the letter is signed from Tyler. The police photo of this letter shows that the letter was creased multiple times like it had been folded up. Now, when Daniel is shown the note, he tells investigators that his son did not write that letter. And he's not the only one who didn't believe that Tyler had not written that letter. Glenda's cousins also did not believe that Tyler was capable of writing a letter like that.

I mean, even the fact that a suicide note was left at all was suspicious. I mean, a 10-year-old had the wherewithal to compose a suicide note after he had shot and killed his mother with a shotgun? Glenda and Tyler's family didn't believe that Tyler would be able to formulate those kind of thoughts. But police, however, did not agree with them. They believed that Tyler was a troubled child and that he murdered his mother and then himself. Case closed.

For Glenda's family, however, it was far from close case. They knew that Tyler was not capable of killing his mother and then himself. But it wasn't just what they knew about Tyler that made them believe he wasn't the person who did this. It was what they knew and then soon found out about Dennis that solidified their suspicion that this was not a murder-suicide. It was a double murder. I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. Oh!

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