A Knoxville Affair

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. So this is Haley's health update. Alright, so we're gonna give a quick update on how Haley is doing because as I reported about two weeks ago, Haley almost died.

Yeah, she's almost murdered. It was really rough. So I have learned to live so many people that I do have for have had Lyme disease, which is wild because I never met anybody with it before I started going through this process. So long story short, I was so sick that I couldn't move.

I had all the symptoms of meningitis. I was actually diagnosed with vitamin anditis and then sephalyed us from the first and then I have a really awesome doctor who was like, you know, anytime I have anybody with a severe headache that doesn't go away, I test them for Lyme disease, which is not apparently not super common for people to do. So interesting. I was like, well, heck yeah, let's do it.

Actually, I thought she was crazy. Originally, I was like, Lyme disease, I didn't find a tick. I didn't know I'd been bitten by a tick. But got my blood work back and I had two of the antibodies for Lyme.

So we are working off of that assumption that I have Lyme disease. I'm feeling much better. Finish my antibiotics and only complication I'm still dealing with is just some elevated liver stuff. It's all the drinking.

It's all the drinking. It's the wrong canned wine. That's what, no. No.

I know. Which is what's really funny though is the Wednesday that I started getting sick. I went to a new grocery store that had been doing a while and I found my favorite beer. Then did they don't carry in my grocery store anymore for some reason?

So I bought two cases. I have not got to drink a single one of them. It's probably a good idea though. I'm not so mad because I was like so excited that I got them.

But I was starting to feel kind of sick that Wednesday and so I just got them home and just put them in my kitchen and they're just sitting in my kitchen. What kind are they? It's the red black cherry, but it's the one in the can. Gotcha.

And for some reason my grocery store in my town does not have it anymore. But I went to this other one and I had two cases and they were on sale. Why not? My livers about to.

Why not? So I bought the two cases and I brought them home and now they're just still in my kitchen floor and I have it. I haven't opened the cardboard case to put them in my refrigerator. So that's fun.

But I feel like I am just a test subject for a lot of mists everywhere because I've been getting repeat labs every two days for like a week and a half. I've been stuck so many times. They've taken a lot of blood. I do now know that I am negative for like all kinds of diseases and autoimmune diseases and that's good.

They did a hepatitis panel and I'm negative for that so they're calling it right now Lyme disease with acute hepatitis. Well so I get to go to a trendy GI doctor which will be super fun and I also get to go frequent the Center for Infectious Diseases doctor. That sounds amazing. Which I think will be fascinating.

I'm glad I have been insurance. I did do a stint in the hospital about a six hours day which I was really excited. I didn't have to keep me overnight. So I got in and got a bag of fluids and I sent me home.

I felt you know that better. What a great way to spend your Monday. Tuesday. Yeah, it was a Tuesday.

Which is funny because I felt actually felt a lot better that day and my doctor called and she's like, so get to the hospital. My parents are wild. I need to go to the ER and I was like, oh all right. How long did you wait?

I actually waited like I think we got there at 1 p.m. and I was in the back and I didn't even get a bed. I was not bad enough to have a bed which was exciting. I was in recliner number eight.

There's recliners. They're like, you know the ones that at the hospital in our area when you go like a visit somebody like you stay overnight and I'll go like a loved one. They have those recliners. Yeah, it was one of those.

Gotcha. So I just sat in the recliner and my mom and my dad actually both came with me to the hospital because they were both off work and I was like, hey let's take a family trip to the ER. So we all went and my mom came back with me and my dad you know held it down in the waiting room. But she came back because I was so dehydrated.

I could not answer questions or really focus on anything. So she was helping me out a little bit. But we got back there and I got to do the whole peeing the cup thing. I love that.

It was really not a lot of fun and it was just super super dehydrated. But my numbers and I never actually down when I was in the hospital. It was just weird. And then when they ran them again, I mean after talk I say we're back up to like 17 times what they're supposed to be.

Wait a minute isn't that always how it goes? You know you go to the ER and you're like I'm dying and then they test and you're like actually. Right. Well and I think part of it was I just willed it down.

I don't want to be in there. I told every nurse that came up to me I'm like listen what will it take for you to let me go home. And then I got some pounds. I have $20 to my name but it's yours.

I'm a traveling nurse. I'm at $150. And they're like let's see what your blood works at. But yeah it was fine.

I mean it was still high but it wasn't anything like your parent would it is now. But I'm not yellow. No I don't look at you and even though Billy Rubin is a little high. I'm not yellow.

I don't feel great but I don't feel terrible. I've been going to work this past week. We're here at my years. We're gonna talk about some murder here in a minute.

Well and I did tell Randy at the guard check not to that. I got to go straight through. We did the wave and I got to go right on it. But yeah I know some of y'all were curious.

So I got a lot of you that sent some really nice well we should be really sweet. I remember talking to Holly last week over the week that we didn't have an episode of all the weeks around and I was like I can't get off my couch. We had so for all of you who don't know this we had two episodes that were ready to go to air so we're gonna go ahead and just pop in that one. It hadn't been edited and Haley was a you know she does the editing portion of it and she has the Taylor Doo and all those things and so she just I mean there's just no way so that's why we didn't have an episode.

Yeah I thought I could do it but I was still having the which is so they're still telling me that I had viral meningitis as a result of Lyme disease. So with meningitis we ever had meningitis I'm sorry it sucks but I couldn't open my eyes because of the light. Like I'm so sensitive to the light that I just had to pretty much lay flat on my back and not move with a cloth over my face because everything hurt. And that was about 48 hours of that hell and then I started progressively any better once I had them.

So that's exactly in a really high-powered antibiotic. We were gonna on that it also sucks. It was very sick I've on it a lot so it's a new trendy diet. Right yeah I told Holly today I said well I'm a plus I've lost about 10 pounds.

Not the way I particularly went until I know. Was it planning on losing weight? I was kind of like at a point where I was like oh pretty good. I'll show me to you know feel all right.

Well we had all the cards tonight. We did. I now had two real meals in my body and they have both been Italian food so. Look at those carbs.

Go for the carbs. I will put those 10 pounds back on in about four days. Well I am so glad you're doing well. I'm very happy.

We had kind of a freak thing for that week where like you know like my mom ended up randomly with COVID. Yeah a friend of mine had an emergency happened back to me like just out of nowhere. Yeah it was absolutely insane and I really thought last week because thankfully we had that one episode ready to go that I would be able to get I was supposed to come to your house last week to report. Yeah and still it's not 100%.

I shot Haley in Texas like okay you know so I've got one episode done and this episode is gonna be blah blah blah blah she calls me and like oh Haley does not call me normally unless it's either good or it's even really bad. Yeah so she called me and just said I'm not coming this week. I'm dying. I'm very ill.

At that point I didn't know I had lime. Yeah I called you because I had meningitis. Yeah it's like with a blank. Yeah it's like a wide and that's a thing and I told people this at work I was like when I get sick I don't get like a cold or even the flu.

I get like emergency gallbladder surgery or pancreatitis or apparently Lyme disease now. Sefellitis. Sefellitis. I go big and I go home and I stay home for a while.

As you do. Yeah I probably should have not worked this past week but I do have some vacation that I want to take so I did work last week so now my body is kind of a freaking out of it but we're here. Well that means I'm so glad that you are back. Yes I know.

Ready to talk about murder and intrigue. Yeah let's do it. If you read your notes for this episode you will have seen that there is going to be about a 10 minute health update from Haley so if you're one of these people that freaks out about the before episode talking. Katrina what?

Get out of here. I'm kidding I love you. We do love you. She said Joe Haley the timer.

Well now enjoy this episode all about a Knoxville affair. Yes. Okay all right see you there. Yes I'm back Haley.

Me too. Oh Holly. Nothing happened since last episode she wouldn't let me roll her down the road just for practice I've never happened. I wanted it to but she's like no I got a lot of hills around here.

No I don't want to go down the hill and I'm going to find whatever. I would have let you wear a helmet. I offered it. Well I told you off-air I let you wear it but you know we've got a game more of an audience here and I think that you need to really put yourself out there more.

All right y'all this episode is crazy and before it even gets started I want to get a shout out to my friend and colleague Chanel who gave me this idea. Thank you Chanel this is awesome good story so weird. All right so it is it's so like crazy convoluted. Anyway it is March 2007 that we're going back to and like old times I'm gonna bring it on out so the number one song was what goes around comes around comes around.

Yeah Justin Timberlake. Yeah it is. The top movie at the box office was a film called 300. I've never heard of this in my life.

Is that the one that was like the 300 BC? Yeah like Spartan. Yeah I've never heard of it. I didn't really peak my interest but it was number one so clearly a lot of people were interested.

I like that. And Tornadoes struck the southern United States killing 20 including eight people who were students at high school in enterprise Alabama. Yeah I was like that does not sound like fun. I mean all of these things don't sound great for 2007 like that was not Justin's best song.

I didn't care. I mean I didn't even see that film. I don't know what it is and then the tornado sucks so it's about time. We're not gonna get any better.

I'm afraid. We're headed to our favorite place. Do you know where? What's we're gonna do?

No but that is one of our favorite places. We are going back to Tennessee because apparently we can't stop. This is our favorite place for debauchery. We're going to Knoxville.

Hey I bet every podcast is like for the love of God can you find another place. I try so much. But it keeps coming back to me. It's like it's just a wealth of murder and intrigue.

I can't help it. Which is hilarious. It's a great place to visit. It's a great place but apparently there's a lot of stuff.

Okay so it's March 10th at 2007. It's around 9 p.m. when a call is made to 911. On the other line is a 31 year old man stating that he has an intruder in his home.

When asked to clarify exactly what he meant by intruder. Which I'm gonna just say I feel like that's pretty self-explainatory. There's someone in my house who should not be in my house please come. That's what that was about right but you know let's let's take some time.

So he says in clarifying a trespasser and the man said the intruder or trespasser was some guy who was stalking my wife. Oh that is what he says. And then the man's frantic tone starts to change and he tells the 911 operator that things were now fine because the intruder or trespasser was leaving their home. So things are good where I thought before you know hurry hurry get this guy out.

Oh okay. He's just decided I didn't want anymore. You know what he's leaving up his own cord so don't worry things are good you don't have to send anybody. So okay he tells him he's fine and he hangs up the phone.

Seven minutes later 911 dispatch receives another call from the same residence. This time it's the man's wife who is screaming on the other end. Okay she told the operator that her husband the man who just made the 911 call had just killed someone. What?

Yes. That really moved quickly. Yeah. Okay.

That's okay. He's leaving the house. He's good. He's been murdered too.

Now he's dead. She stated that he had shot someone with a shotgun and asked the operator to hurry and send help. Okay. She continuously kept screaming oh god hurry hurry.

When asked by dispatch who this man was that had been shot do you know him ma'am? She says yes. He's my student. What?

Yeah. This is a crazy story. What time of night is this? Um this was 9 p.m.

I'm sorry. There's what? This is her student. Why is your student at your home?

Why is he stalking you? Why is he an intruder? Why is he dead? He's dead.

There are many many facets. I have a lot of questions. Oh I'm glad because there is more craziness to come. Thank you Shannell.

All right so when police arrive at the scene the husband had fled so he wasn't there. Okay. But they did find a young man slouched down in the driver's seat of his car dead from a bullet wound to the head the face depends on what you read. Okay.

So the young man in the car was later identified as 18 year old Sean Powell. The wife was Aaron McLean his teacher and the shooter was her 31 year old husband. Okay. When we're saying teacher was he like a freshman at high school or freshman in college or like senior in high school?

I mean freshman college is still not great but it's different. Your iqfactor is about to really go off. I said the iqfactor is there for the freshman college but it's not as icky as the senior. It's gonna increase.

It's gonna increase. It is totally totally so just strap in. Okay. I wasn't either.

So you ask yourself why would a husband kill his wife's student? Right. Why did he say in the 911 call that the young man had been stalking his wife and why was this guy in his home? Right.

You know so at least you should believe okay so like was the husband just fearful of what this young man would do? Like was he threatening? He said you know that he was stalking his wife so it makes you seem like oh wow so maybe you know he had a thing for her she told him please you know stop and he just didn't like that's how that really made that sound. Yeah like it was a you know one-sided thing of the students a little.

Totally. Totally. He's telling him you know you need to get out of the house. It happens but it's not usually to that extent.

That's very extreme. That's like sounds almost like a lifetime movie like the student who was so obsessed. I mean I'll have that like I mean you're in high school and you have that. Grush one crush on that science teacher or substitute teacher or whatever but it's one of those things that's kind of like a joke almost.

You're like oh hey like smister Simon. Right. Yeah kind of like giggly little thing and then that teacher's like please just complete your homework. Oh my gosh look at his blonde tips he has in his hair.

Oh just my generation okay so he's frosted tips. Yeah but yes you know everybody has that innocent crush. Right. Perhaps this has gotten to the point where he's like stalking her.

Right and then it's between like crutch and a crutch. Crush and your crush. Exactly. You can have that innocent little crush or whatever on you know.

But you're not you know attempting to go into their home and get them out and 9 p.m. Right. Exactly. So it's something that's the thing.

I mean that seems to make the most sense but you'll find out really quickly that this case is very senseless. In many senses. So let's go back a little ways to talk about who the heck the players are in this story. Okay.

All right. So we've got a husband the shooter. His name is Jason Eric McLean. He went by Eric.

He was a native of Knoxville. He was born in 1975 and was one of seven children. Wow. Yeah.

That's a lot of kids. Eric was known as very personal, very outgoing. He loved music. He loved playing drums.

Everybody said he's a great guy. In 1993 Eric was 18 years old. He was a senior in high school and he fell for 16 year old Aaron Myers. And this gets complicated because his name was Eric and her name was Aaron.

So stick with me. I'll try really hard to differentiate so you know who's talking saying why here. Okay. So his girlfriend Aaron was also a native of Knoxville.

She was born in 1977 and unlike her boyfriend Eric, her parents divorced when she was young. So she was always kind of bounced between parents houses and she had moved out of state for a while and then moved back to Knoxville. So there was a lot kind of going on in her child. Aaron was very intelligent.

She loved to read and was described by friends and family as a free spirit. She loved poetry, theater, literature. So she was very much the intellectual. You know, just like us.

Right. Obviously. Obviously. All right.

So Eric and Aaron dated for about two years. And when Aaron graduated from high school, the two decided they went to move in together. They actually bought a house. Right.

By the way, Haley, you can tell this was the 90s because what 18 and 20 year old could afford a house nowadays. No, no, no, unless your family gave you money. I mean, there's no way. You can't do it on your own.

Yeah. What 18 year olds like here's $20,000 for my down payment. Crazy. No.

So a year into their living together, the two got married. Okay. And very swiftly, Aaron became pregnant. That's a lot fast.

Yeah. Like, okay, we just got married and now we're having a baby. Oh my gosh. This is a lot of things.

So the heavyweight of responsibility was really scary and the couple actually broke up for a short time. Oh, yeah. But right before their son, Eric Jr. was born in 1998, the two got back together.

So Eric realized how important an education was to his wife. And he gave up his schooling to go to work so that she could go back to college. She attended the University of Tennessee to get her bachelor's degree in English, which she did. Later, she was able to get a scholarship from Indiana University for a master's degree.

And they gave her a full ride. Yeah. You have to be pretty brilliant, you know, to be able to get that. And the entire family packed up, left everything they knew behind and they moved to India to support her.

So, I mean, it sounds like a pretty good husband. Not that he folks would be willing to say, okay, forget it. You know, and he was born and raised there. So everything he knows is in Knoxville.

Right. During the time that they were in Indiana, they had another son named Ian. And once she had graduated, they decided to move back down to Knoxville. And this is around 2006.

At this point, you know, Eric had put a lot of his dreams on hold. You know, remember, I told you he really liked music. He played the drums. He was really into it.

So he decided to go back to college. He enrolled and had ambitions of becoming a band teacher. And he worked many odd jobs while in school to try and support his family while going to college. Like, he was doing a lot of stuff.

Yeah. So he is working multiple jobs to support his family. And at this point, Aaron actually says, you know what, I really want to go back to school for a second master's degree. Why?

She is what you would refer to as like a professional student. I could have been that. I couldn't have. I don't know.

I just love to commit it. If I had the money to pay for more degrees, I would definitely go back. I have thought about a PhD. I actually thought about it more recently.

And then I was like, that's a lot. That's a lot. I'm tired. I'm exhausted.

I am. Like, I don't know if I can do that and have a child and work and do all the things anyway. So she goes back to school because she wants to get a master's degree in education. So she started doing an internship at West High School in Knoxville.

And during her work at West High School, she meets 17 year old Sean Powell. Sean had a pretty tough background. He was born in 1988 and raised by a mom until he was six, but was removed from her care due to her drug use and extended absence. So I guess he was removed due to maybe neglect harmful behavior that I think.

And there was no other family to take Sean and his birth father was unknown. So he was placed into the foster care system where he reportedly experienced horrific abuse. He was molested, locked in closets, and became very territorial over food. And I feel for Sean here, because I have seen so many kids like him in my career.

You worry about, you know, they worry about not being fed. So they overeat. They can be really territorial with food. So no one takes it.

And I've actually seen kids hide or steal food. So it's not to go hungry. That's a very common theme, especially when you feel like food has been withheld from you or you may not eat again. It's a very scary thought.

So and also, you know, no child should be removed from a dangerous situation and then put into even more of a dangerous situation. And I mean, listen, I know they're amazing foster homes out there and I want to shout them out because it's really sad only the bad ones garner attention. And that's really unfortunate because it's a wonderful thing that helps do it. However, this child was really treated cruelly by the system.

So eventually his mom's rights were terminated and Sean was put into a quality foster home this time, the Powell family and the Powell family adored Sean and did whatever they could to support him and he loved them equally and they wound up adopting him. So he became Sean Powell. So all along, Sean thought that his mother had died, right? So, you know, he goes into care at six and whomever along the way probably told him that his mother was dead.

I don't know who would do that. That's very cruel, but it seems like they were just very unkind to him. So anyway, he very much believes she was dead. And I'm guessing because her rights were terminated, you know, not a lot of information was given to the adoptive family about her.

This was kind of unclear to me. So I kind of take it that the Powell's did not know that, you know, she was alive. Anyway, so Sean is described as outgoing, very smart, loved to play, loved to play rugby and go for wheeling or to telly calls it. Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Sean struggled to manage his emotions. And what I mean by that is, you know, when you have that kind of trauma, when you're very young, it sort of comes out in different ways. And in his case, he was constantly challenging authority and he would get up in his parents' face, his teachers' faces in an attempt to, like, intimidate them. He would curse and purposely disobey.

Eventually, his behaviors became so much that the Powell's just didn't know what to do. They couldn't really handle it. So they send him off to a therapeutic boarding school, which would provide him with a really strict schedule and work environment. And I mean, I can see this here being both of it and bad thing.

Yeah. You know, in a way, you know, I think he's going to be getting the treatment and the care that he needs to later be successful, but then also in his mind, it's like, oh, I've just been abandoned again. Again, and that's exactly what I was going to say. I mean, it's like you read my mind.

It's like we've worked in mental health. It's crazy. It's like, huh, it's catch 22 there. It is because I think having predictability of a schedule and kind of a strictness and knowing you can't get away with it, you know, like you're on the straight narrow.

There's good in that, particularly for children who need that to feel safe and secure. Like they know what's coming next. So I think that that's a good thing. However, being sent there also feels like nobody wants me and like, okay, so the things that I'm doing, you know, kind of on purpose to kind of test you, I mean, I got my answer, you know, right.

I did all this stuff and now you don't want me in it for the long haul. Right. Nobody wants me. And it's that resounding feeling of being unwanted and the hurt that comes with that, which I'm sure was not the pals intention.

Exactly. And it's just like how it could be how it's perceived by the one who has experienced this quite frequently in his life, you know. So his behaviors were really in my mind a protective mechanism, you know, to keep him from being physically and emotionally hurt again, he was going to put up that wall and he was going to get in your face and he was going to kind of be the bully so that you couldn't hurt him. Right.

This, you know, really things seem to go well for Sean at the school. He did well and after a year, they discharged him. They were like, he's doing really well. He's able to come back home.

His parents are like fantastic. This is great news. Yeah. It's at this point that his birth mom found him.

Oh God. He's 17 years old, but it's good. And she wanted to be a part of his life. And he was like, what the hell?

I thought you were dead. You were dead. So then that brings up. Okay, where my parents lined him in this whole time.

How do I feel that now you're back in my life? Do I want to be with you? Do I love you like crazy? Do I hate you for what you did?

Like, I mean, there's got to be all these emotions that are coming out in this poor kid who just thought I just got my shit together. Now what? And again, you know, he had been on the right path. So this couldn't have helped.

Birth mom was now sober, wanted desperately to find him. And I'm not sure about Tennessee, but I know in North Carolina that adoptions are closed. So that means that birth families cannot have any interaction with the children unless the adoptive parent allows it under 18. So I'm guessing the pals were like, yeah, come on, mom, which is very brave of them.

So bravo. Yeah. Really great to keep those maintain those connections to your past. But at this point, there's so much going on emotionally for Sean that he's pretty much open about his bad behaviors.

He went back to school, started telling teachers off and would openly drink and smoke at school, like, but like bring some japanos and just have that in the classroom like we're gonna do very, very challenging behaviors, absolutely. And also he's self-medicating at this point. So in the fall of 2006, Sean meets his new teacher, Aaron. The two shared many similar interests, including literature and poetry.

And of course, similar childhoods in that she was kind of bounced around to from house to house and never really had that stability. Sean had an instant liking for his teacher and felt that she understood him in a way that most people either couldn't or wouldn't. By December of that year, Sean was caught with alcohol on school property and suspended. His parents were concerned about how much he was drinking, obviously, and sent him away to a rehab facility again.

He's being sent away, not their fault, you know, not their intention to cause this trauma, but it's sort of, it's kind of a trauma trigger. I think that that's the thing that doesn't make it better. So side note here, it seems like Sean's adopted parents worked really hard to give him the best life possible. So I do want to say that.

And they like, I mean, obviously, that's probably actually what he needed. Yeah, he probably did need that. And it's just sucks. They put up with a lot of stuff.

Yeah. And they didn't give up on him. They wanted to make him like better. No, I mean, they're sending him to these programs to help him.

Funding it, working hard to make sure he got what he needed. Right. Yeah. So if anything, they truly loved him.

In January 2006, however, Sean was kicked out of his rehab facility for poor behaviors. At this point, Sean kind of didn't know what to do. So he reached out to his old teacher, Aaron, for support. Aaron was more than happy to help Sean because she felt such a kinship to him and wanted to make sure that he was supported.

She had even told her husband, Aaron, excuse me, Eric, that it would be good if he had somewhere to go, maybe, you know, not his parents' house, maybe took a break. So Eric actually called his own family who lived in Knoxville and tried to persuade them to take in Sean. Oh, his parents thought that was weird. No, I don't think we want to randomly.

We just yeah, no, that feels uncomfortable. So that's yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, but no, I think I probably also passed on that. Well, and also, you know, they did take a beat and say, we know that Aaron is great in helping and mentoring this these youths, but taking them in feels a little too close. Right.

It's one of those things like I work with young people regularly, like I work with young people that have trauma and have things going on in their lives. I'm not taking them home. How many people have you heard? Oh, I would just take them home.

Don't take them home. That's not helping them because we have set up boundaries. Yes. As a professional, you have to have those boundaries.

You have to have those. I don't give out my number, my personal number. She won't even give me her number. No, I know.

Send it in the mail or by your pigeon. I do every time I do it. But yeah, I don't even have her number. So no, boundaries are important here.

Yes, especially in the teaching profession, the mental health profession. Like any time you're working with vulnerable people, you have to have boundaries because it could those lines could blur very easily and quickly and it could have started as like an innocent thing and like I know early in my career I was tempted to be like you know I'd form a connection with somebody I was working with and be like you know if you ever need anything you know you call me anytime you know you can't do that you can't know because you get to the point where you were helping and now you're just enabling or hurting or all those things and you know there's guilt that comes with that and it comes to you in a danger can put you in a dangerous position it does I mean you know this is somebody who is unstable and they have your information I mean that can end up being a dangerous situation they could be in your house with your husband calling 911 or it could be you know that it's perceived as something different that it may not be you know and that's and you're putting your career on the line it's just not worth it so you're everything and you just have to we have to play by the rules and follow those boundaries that's why those are in place yes so don't just don't sadly Hayley Aaron did not take your advice it's about her it yeah so she felt like I can help him I can hear him out well her sensitive talks and time with him turned into a sexual relationship that's a bad time it's not that's not it like give me a call you know if anything crazy happens as opposed to take me here now that's different right I mean it's okay I know I mean I can get like if you have a work phone or something that you use to communicate with clients or you know whatever saying like hey this is my work number you can call it between the hours of this and this if you need something or just need to check in that's fine but no no there's so many lines and rules and we should follow them a lot and not only did she traips over the like oh here's my personal number line here's my personal everything's my personal body exactly like show be oh is no um turns out Aaron was in an open marriage uh meaning that you know both junior husband were allowed to have relationships outside of their that's fine do what you want I mean that's someone of age of age and they're not in a power of a differential relationship with yeah if you want to be in an open relationship and it's your you know do what you want with Joe blow down the street that's fine but not the 18 year old high school kid did you know my lover Joe blow down the street like whatever do what you want 65 but he's a stunner that's fine mentally confident for now okay that's all we need don't only one all right so yeah they're in this open marriage but turns out her husband did not approve of the open marriage like he wasn't down for it he did not have any relationships of his own so she was in it yeah however in later interviews Aaron would claim that he was having a fair so I mean it's kind of a he said she said really know what we do know is that she was having this relationship with Sean so Aaron actually began to flaunt her relationship in front of her husband and she wasn't really quiet about it um and Sean took joy in rubbing Eric's nose in it and bragging about how he was the their lover and how Aaron was so unhappy with him and started to taunt him it almost feels like a nanananan and there's a lot to him and I just don't think I can do it right now it's tough it really is um so one night Eric and his wife Aaron get in a fight about her relationship and Eric says listen I don't want to see Sean around here anymore you need to have her boundaries like you can be open to Joe Blow down the street but you cannot do this with a student well that evening after the fight Sean pulls up to the family home of course yes yeah and having had enough Eric then calls time in one saying there's intriguing so basically he told Sean like get out and Sean's like no you know make me and so this was an attempt to get the police there to try and make him get down right okay so now we're we're back we're back at the time of the crime we have Sean dead Eric's missing and Aaron is home with the two children you know mourning her loss she had yes she yeah yeah okay wonderful role model so all right cops eventually find Eric and he's charged with murder right um it ends so before this goes to court you've got Eric who's sitting in jail and his wife um decides yan done so she files her divorce and takes the kids to Austin pexas yeah okay yeah um and coming back from Austin she actually was made to come back from Austin because they saw it as contempt of court of like kidnapping right so she served night days in jail that's it yes yes what's I mean is it contempt of court and she can't really be charged because he was 18 right well she wasn't charged with that right charge but taken her in the state yeah yeah yeah it's just so weird so anyway she ends up going to Nashville so she stays within the state right and she starts working at a private school under her maiden name she starts working as Aaron Myers and when school officials find out who she really is you know the teacher who had a sexual relationship with the student and her husband kills she was quickly let go i mean either gosh you don't want that in your school craziness you'll let in Haley but not the boy getting teacher gosh so when the trial began for her husband the jury was presented both sides they were given details about Sean's history and how he longed to have someone to share his interest and encourage him while they didn't improve of the sexual nature of the relationship um they stated that you know it really came from a place of just him hurting and having someone to believe in him and listen to him and that was what was presented to the jury that someone just wanted you know that this child just wanted someone to care about you know and Aaron took it too far allowed it to go too far right the defense presented a whole other side of Sean there's a great deal of evidence presented regarding Sean taunting eric about the relationship and it's believed that that night Sean came to tawn eric and was openly romantic with Aaron and they just had this confrontation eric tried to call the police to remove Sean from the house um but Sean was like okay fine so he leaves and this is when eric just had enough takes the shotgun and kills him and of course he was parked in the couple's driveway on their property right so erin the wife never appeared at her husband's trial she never she was supposed to be a witness and just didn't her lawyer stated that she was kind of shell shocked and that the whole scene of her husband shooting her young lover had traumatized her so much so that she was in no condition to testify but she wasn't a condition to go off to austin texas with her children and um get another job so right yeah no no no during the trial eric spoke to knowing his wife was having an affair um he had seen her on the phone with Sean multiple times talking you know daily to him um but he just couldn't bring himself to leave her he loved her and he felt like the children needed a home with a mother and a father and he tried really hard to make the marriage work eric mcclean stated a trial that the death would haunt him forever and he said quote i don't know what else to say eric was not the type of person who would you know even think of any kind of murder like he had done everything he could to support his children and family and from all appearances he just snapped which you know i mean if you're kind of tawned like that you know and you kind of take a hit to your ego like all these things start to happen and you just snap you know yeah i mean maybe i'll snap with a shotgun yeah that's not a good idea no no so the jury was really taken by eric story and actually had something for him um they felt like he just lost it in that moment eric was charged with reckless homicide and wait for it he served an additional 47 days in jail oh my god so he had served the time while waiting for trial right and then was given additional 47 days you know granted time served and uh got 12 years of probation that's insane he served well with the additional time though but he essentially served less time for the conviction than his wife served for taking the kids across the state lines yeah i mean somebody's still dead here yeah i lost your child someone's dead yeah so yeah so that doesn't really add up it doesn't does it no just kind of like so it gets a little stranger um he was let go in 2008 right so he's on probation in 2009 the next year he goes to court uh for custody of the kids they're trying to figure that out he wouldn't support custody of his children and she has to pay him child support i mean i do think the real villain in all of this is erin i agree but eric did kill a man but apparently he is more the quality parent so i i don't know the whole other side of her but i would like to see like what else was she doing did she not have a safe home was she not making such you know like i don't know but ultimately the court was like no we would rather give it to the man who killed somebody than the you know a high school boy chaser that yeah okay so the kids are now adults um and little is known about eric or them but i can tell you that the ex-wife erin uh did end up moving to taxes where she now works as a writer i mean it's a great story all right then that's my story haley that is a story shanel told me this story like just briefly and i said oh cool can you google it for me and she goes oh yeah sure and and with every story she now tells me she tells me like the teeny bit of it and like oh intriguing and then i get in and i'm like wow this is just chaos but i am so grateful for it so thank you shanel yeah that was awesome that's that's where we're at so you know haley just keep her boundaries for sure i mean that's just that's nuts okay all right all she can say is that's just too much for me it's it's a lot that's enough all right well if you want to send us an email that i don't know where to go with that um you can do so worth thoughts on this story yeah you do that at mount miseries.appelachian.com find us on facebook mount miseries tales from Appalachia find us on our instagram mount miseries.appelachia or on our patreon at patreon.com and i want to give a shout out today to drift kentucky hey we did a story yesterday for yesterday yesterday i feel like yesterday last week from kentucky yeah all right well y'all have a wonderful week we'll catch you next time haley keep those boundaries nice and firm as i will the tone of my body bye bye