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I immediately had a middle picture of guys with guns right down the front door to jump out at you as anything in particular. He's not your average victim. I can't imagine who would have ever been mad about him enough to do that. Could this be a suicide?
Home invasion, they're not likely to shoot you when you're sleeping. It wasn't. Quite right. Agents had come and served the summons on them requesting tax records.
The walls were closing in. First, murder trial. Yes, sir. A dead doctor.
Deceit and doubt. We didn't have DNA. We didn't have it on video. A lot of people do bad things and get away with it when they read the verdict.
Somebody's life is about to change. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Adeline. Here's Keith Morrison with The Day The Music Died. Oh, how he loved it here.
Chose it, after all. Few places lovely. And none with a past, like the past that delighted him here, the history that still echoed in the green hills all around. But most of all, he simply loved the music.
The music rooted in these blue ridge mountains. The mountains that rolled and rise and dipped into one of America's love in Little Cities, Asheville, North Carolina. The adopted home of Dr. Frank Bacutchen.
The man everybody here knew as simply, Buddy. The doctor part was Buddy's day job, plastic surgery, his specialty. But in his heart he was a true musician, prominent and popular enough to appear on local TV. In a way, Buddy was a preservationist of the music that made America, banjo, bagpipes, more common instruments.
He knew them all. And he knew all about the people behind that famous line. The day the music died. Which in Buddy's case was a Friday night in July, 2016, sticky, hot.
Tourists brought by the summer and the town, filled the music clubs, crowded into the brew pubs. Well, a few miles away, in a fine house on an uncrowded road in a suburb just outside of town, Buddy Macutchen and his wife Brenda settled down in the air-conditioned quiet and went to bed. Was it sealed by them, the fate that awaited them, someone waiting out there in the dark? Silence rank, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., and then.
Share someone what is the address of your emergency? A head-knit shop? Okay, who shot him? Please first.
I don't know. What is your husband's name? And what is your name? Brenda.
Brenda was a nurse. Buddy's partner in life and work. Okay, where was your husband shot at? I'm on the tab, shouldn't I?
And I just see him running. Is he still out? Is he still breathing? Brenda could barely talk.
But didn't manage to get out that she had gone to sleep upstairs while Buddy had dozed off downstairs in front of the TV and then she awoke to a sound like a sharp thunderclap and the dog barked so she rushed downstairs and there he was. Do you know where on his body he was hit? Okay, could you breath? Okay, could you breath once?
Okay. Dawn was still hours away when sheriff's deputies headed to the house. Their body cams were rowing as they encountered Brenda in the pitch black darkness. What's going on?
Where's he at? I'm going on in the residence. He's supposed to be in here. Unknown for anybody else in here.
Sheriff's office? Inside? Inside? It was dark except for the glow of the TV screen.
Sheriff's office? If you're in the home, come out with your hands up. Barely visible, sprawled on the couch was the body of 64-year-old Buddy McCutchen. There's a shotgun here in the corner.
We're going to check it back, y'all. This door was unsecured with anything in there. Detective John Ledford roused from sleep, drove through the early morning light to the McCutchen house and tried to prepare for whatever he might find. You're nervous?
You're bracing yourself. We knew that going into this was probably going to be very complex in nature. And I don't think anything compared to what we would encounter. Ledford went inside.
He was lying on the couch, facing the rear of the couch. Was it obvious what kind of injury he'd received? It was obvious there was a gunshot wound. There was no exit wound.
But it was fairly apparent it was an injury wound at the top of the head. Ledford wasn't sure what to make of it. Violent crime like this was uncommon in Nashville and rarely involved a victim like Dr. Buddy McCutchen.
You've got a doctor, a plastic surgeon in an upper middle-class neighborhood deceased in his living room. That in and of itself is somewhat unusual. His partner, Detective Walt Thrower, arrived next, armed with a warrant to search the house. There was some early speculation.
Could this be a suicide? Had someone. Or something more sinister. Soon the horrible news traveled at the speed of phone calls 800 miles west of Buddy's hometown, Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Brenda reached Buddy's brother, Clutch, and his fiancé, Becca.
She just stated that there would have been a home invasion when some kind of struggle anybody had been shot in. What would you like to hear that? I was horrible. Terrible.
Well, almost physiologically I must do something to you, right? No, I didn't. I dropped down on the floor. I dropped the phone and then I told Becca, I said, come get the phone and I just dropped down on him.
I just say no, no, no, no. Clutch was once a Marine fighter pilot and, tough, but this. Now he had the grim task of calling his two other brothers, first John, followed by Mark, and then John called Melissa, the youngest member of the family. What he said to me was, some home invaders broke into Buddy's house and he's dead.
Do you remember what I was like to hear about your brother's death? That didn't make sense. I couldn't have been more confused if I got into phone calls saying, Buddy got attacked by shark in his living room and he's dead and so I said, what happened? And he was crying, I don't know.
And then I started grinding and then that was the end of inquiring at that moment. For the detectives, of course, the inquiry was just beginning. The autopsy should tell them something. Did Buddy McCutchen take his own life, did home invaders shoot him dead, or was it something else altogether?
The first question would be easy. The second two, not easy at all. When we come back, the mysterious death of a man who loved life. Buddy got them involved in different social groups.
He got them involved in civil war reenactments. He decided to take up sailing, decided to learn to fly a plane. So what had happened in that house? I immediately had a middle picture of guys with guns right down the front door, come in, be violent.
Buddy McCutchen's whole family was in a state of shock. Buddy had been something of a patriarch among the siblings. At this, it was almost too much to take in. I immediately had a middle picture of guys with guns right down the front door, come in, be violent.
So my next question was, is Brenda okay? Brenda was physically okay, but in one awful second, her husband of over 30 years was taken, and life as she had known it was over. When she met him, he was, to say the least, an eligible young man. I were both working at the same hospital.
She was a nurse, and he was a young doctor, single, good looking, with those nipples he had, that jet black hair, but 14 long they were living together, and after a few years they were married. The traditional Scottish wedding, in fact, gilts and bagpipes. Buddy's idea, naturally. Did it seem from the beginning like, okay, this is a match made in heaven?
I thought it was more like a case of opposites that must have attracted. Buddy was more of a reserved person. He wouldn't use a lot of words when a few words would do. I'll be.
But Brenda was very chatty, and solicitous, and what can I do for you? They seem to compliment each other, and seem to get along great. They love each other, happy together. Brenda was a true southern bell, born in Memphis, and grew up in Tennessee.
My brothers loved her. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say they loved her. They even adored her. She was very caring, and very sweet.
She was a wonderful lover. And loyal. When Buddy wanted to move or try something new, she was game. Buddy got them involved in different social hurts.
He got them involved in the civil war reenactments, and she kind of tagged along with that. He decided to take up sailing, and he was the one decided to learn to fly a plane. So Brenda went along with him while he flew away. Brenda went along to when Buddy later opened his own medical practice called cosmetic surgery of Asheville.
Instead of continuing her nursing career full time, Brenda eventually became the office manager, freeing Buddy up to focus on doing the surgeries. Buddy was meticulous, and I guess you need that in a plastic surgeon. Did he live well? Did he live an expensive lifestyle?
You know, appearances weren't important to Buddy, but he would be more likely to pull up in his toyota and get out of the toyota wearing blue jeans. They never had kids, but they had each other, and their dog and a fine house close enough to nature that bears sometimes wandered into their yard. Can I have a bird feeder up? So sore.
So life in Asheville was good. We must have been doing something right. He was excellent. He was a great doctor.
Scott Lunsford was Buddy's best friend growing up. He had a great mind, really sharp, really quick. I heard his brothers say he made straight eyes all the time. Did he talk about it?
What do you know, why you wanted to be a plastic surgeon? I know that he worked on people that had become disfigured by crashes, and so I think that tugged at his empathy gene, and I think he liked making things beautiful. Buddy also liked, loved making music. That was his true passion.
He started playing guitar when he was probably 7 or 8. He taught himself. A lot of time he'd high school, he'd been in a band. With Scott Lunsford, beginning with a very successful local Arkansas-based band called The Viscounts.
We did all the local gigs of dedication to the opening of the Montgomery Ward or Stagetty Dinner dances, even in the basement of churches. We loved flying. Wouldn't have made you the coolest guys in the room, right? We were popular.
I can say that. Yeah. Buddy, with his long rock star hair and 60s threads, played the guitar, and was the unquestioned leader of the group. He couldn't hear.
He could pick out any melody, any chord. He could score the chord changes for us all. Could he have been a professional musician if he wanted to? Oh, yeah.
There's no question. And he has said that he was using his medical career to pay for his music career, and eventually set up a studio. But now Buddy's studio is silent. He'd make music no more.
You can't really grasp that he's gone. It's a great loss. It's a great loss. As the afternoon heat began to set in, investigators completed their initial search of Buddy and Brenda's place, but the clues that might tell them what happened remain hidden in plain sight.
Coming up, Brenda has a theory about what happened and who might have killed Buddy. Nobody might kill a husband, I mean, you know, maybe it was, I don't know, a judge, what something I don't know. When Dateline continues. You don't see anything behind you, just saying that in the carpet.
In the dim light cast by Buddy McCutchen's TV, Nothing was obvious, not right away. Most responders simply saw a man lying on his side facing the back of his living room couch. There was a single gunshot wound to his head, and around him, nothing seemed disturbed. So suicide?
Sadly, it happens, even among the outwardly successful. And then, a closer look and listen to what they're saying picked up by their body cams. Check out how to get somewhere, the guns had to go somewhere. The gun had to go somewhere.
If Buddy had shot himself, wouldn't the gun still be in or close to his hand? It had to be somewhere. It just wasn't here. Besides, the entry wound was in the top rear of Buddy's skull, hard for a man to reach while lying on the couch.
So option number two, homicide, which is what Brenda McCutchen thought it must be, an intruder must have shot Buddy. She said that somebody had came in, that's what she told me. She was a little bit frantic, originally, wasn't sure if there was somebody inside the residence. Deputy went inside and began clearing the residence to ensure that nobody else was inside there.
Brenda meanwhile stayed outside, waiting to talk to detectives. The thing I'd stink to remember about was she was barefoot. She left the residence barefoot. It was still wearing her night clothes.
I think we ought to do a GSR on her if she's going to do one. GSR, gunshot residue, something that can be detected. So Brenda willingly cooperated as they swabbed her hands. That's just a normal, a routine thing to do, right?
Yes, then it's packaged up and that will go to the crime lab to be analyzed. Meanwhile, the detectives had to know what, if anything, Brenda knew about what happened. She was clearly upset. But readily agreed to go to the sheriff's department to answer questions, whatever question she could.
Brenda recounted what happened in the final hours of Buddy's life. I guess now, 730, how much is that by sandwich and get a sandwich? Okay, back home. In the home.
A, watch the little TV. They get on the computer for a while, how long are they doing, Facebook or something? You've been coaching. We have to stay around.
How many hours have my nights done? Then, little after 9 p.m., said Brenda, she went upstairs to bed. Well, Buddy, lay down on the couch. You normally think of a husband and wife sleeping together in the same room, or perhaps they had difficulty sleeping together.
Which was certainly true about him, Brenda. He'd taken the sleeping on the couch during his days as an on-call medical resident. They just got used to it. I know that sounds really weird, but the reason for it, he can't sleep without a TV and I can't sleep with a TV.
Anyway, they talked into their respective places. Brenda upstairs in the bedroom. Fell asleep. And then suddenly, a few hours before dawn, something woke me up on the cloud.
You stayed asleep and you were all awake in that loud noise. Yeah, and I thought, I truly thought it was thunder. And if we'd been having some really bad thunderstorms. But it wasn't raining.
So Brenda said she went downstairs to see what happened. Maybe a picture fell off the wall or something. But that wasn't it. It was her nose that told her first.
I could snail it. I got tired of snow flying from Civil War re-enacting, so I went over to him. It's his name. I didn't touch him, though.
I know what they didn't do with him. But Brenda knew. There was no point in trying to revive him. She knew very well what death looked like.
I'm a nurse, sir. It's not getting any bad, and I lost it. That's it. That's it.
Blue at the front door, which was locked. It was locked. In which, my neighbor. Neighbor didn't answer.
So Brenda ran back into the house and grabbed the phone and rushed out and called 911 from the street. I heard this shot. OK, who shot him? I don't know.
Now, a few hours later, sitting in that police interview room, Brenda finally had a chance to reflect on what happened, and who could have killed Buddy? I mean, you know, I don't know. A judge wants him now. A junkie and a truer, perhaps someone who actually knew the McCutcheons, but Buddy had no known enemies.
I got my own order, sir. What did I say? He was admired. People liked him, loved him, most especially Brenda, but that would never happen now.
In one split second, that life was yanked away. As Brenda ended a detective's struggle to understand, a message came in from the McCutcheon house. A clue had turned up. Weird, ambiguous.
Maybe important. Coming up. Did Buddy go on and did bar a gun? Didn't shoot your husband?
No. Questions that have to be asked, leaving Brenda demanding answers. I'm telling you, the truth, it happened to me. I hope that you can find the truth, it happened to him.
And give me some closure. I'm starting to get really mad. As the hours passed on that first terrible day, Brenda McCutcheon worked with detectives downtown and tried to process sudden whittlehood, and she reflected on those first moments after discovering Buddy was dead. I didn't know it was like it was in the house.
Investigators searched inside and outside the McCutcheon house and found no one. But they did uncover a few possible clues. A back gate was open, and exterior door near Buddy's couch was ajar. So, intruder, there was no sign of a robbery.
That point, they checked with Brenda. There's something that had been taken like, something like rummaged or anything like that. I don't know. I truly didn't know this anything.
Brenda did say Buddy kept guns, some loaded, around the house. One of them a silver-colored 38-caliber pistol. Officers found the guns. Buddy of ammo too.
Found them all. Except the pistol. One of the last times she had seen the firearm, she thought it was in a kitchen drawer. One of the things that was kind of automatic was the drawer was so full of household items that it didn't appear like the gun would fit in there.
Anyway, it was missing. Or maybe Buddy had moved it? The interview stretched well into the morning. Question after question.
I truly believe anyone from my country could see the face in the back of the house. If I saw anything, it was shot right here. As Brenda kept talking, news came from an investigator at the house. They found the gun.
And where they found it was, well, I was curious. It was found along a little small path of break in some ivy that went in between her residents and her neighbor's residents where she ran. And soon after, cops at the house found a receipt that matched the gun confirming it belonged to Buddy. Detectors couldn't wait to tell Brenda the news.
What we've looked at is one of the guns that you just wrapped. Okay, good. Not with anybody but found outside residents. But not in the house.
Okay. And that's what I'm asking. I want you to walk through in your mind how that knife got there. You're the detective.
How are you? No, if somebody shot. Thing was, the detectives were aware of cases where a family member, trying to protect reputations, hides the suicide gun. We asked Ms.
McCutchen if there was any possibility that Dr. McCutchen might have committed suicide and she moved the weapon. But she was adamant. Yes.
She did not move the weapon. He never would have killed himself. I moved a weapon. I didn't make a gun.
Did such a gun, did fire a gun? Didn't shoot your husband? No. No.
It was a standard question. It was always sounds like an accusation and blood ones sometimes don't take it so well. It happened to me. I do not know the truth that happened to him.
I'm hoping you can find the truth that happened to him and get me some closure. Because I'm starting to get really mad. Don't be upset. They took a break and after another cop continued the interview.
You and Buddy's relationship is good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Buddy's our singing class, arguing right now. We have disagreements that we talk about. We don't.. Yes, we are at each other, we have..
We've been getting with 35 years. So our portion of it has to be integrated towards involved, and it's a good relationship. Apparently devoted to each other. Everything was fine between the two.
You know, they were still intimate with one another. And together, 24-7. They worked together every day at the clinic, so maybe she knew about this. It's information that have come to light that there the IRS?
The North Carolina Department of Revenue was seeking financial statements from Buddy and Brenda's medical practice. Oh yeah, she said she knew about that. You can be there. There's entities.
1099. Checked us. We're holding power. It wasn't a big deal.
They were sorting it out. So, after that long, grueling interview, detectives were done. Except for a few routine procedures. They're photographed taking everybody to make sure there's no injuries or anything that's visible.
DNA swamps taken, and the clothes were actually submitted to the crime lab and tested for gunshot residents. Brenda was taken home and decided to stay at the neighbors for the night, afraid of that big empty house. It had been a whirlwind 15 hours for both Brenda and the detectives. They were just getting started.
Coming up, is Brenda in the clear? She didn't have gunshot residue on her hands. We arranged to take a polygraph around the question of whether she had shot her husband. When Dateline continues.
We just decided we were going to do something for fun. Buddy, but got you never liked being the center of attention. Quiet, humble, understated. But now, in death, it was suddenly big news all over town.
Dr. Buddy McCutchen, who was shot in the head. Dr. Buddy McCutchen, Jr.
was found gun down at his home. Buddy McCutchen's death remains a mystery. From the beginning, detectives had to consider all the possibilities. Accident, suicide, or murder.
When the autopsy was complete, there could no longer be any doubt. Buddy did not take his own life. There was no way this was accidental, and according to the autopsy, it could not have been self-inflicted. Murder, in his own home, with his very own gun.
And more than that, whoever killed him made absolutely sure of it. The doctor was shot on the top of his head. Somebody wanted Buddy McCutchen dead in the worst possible way. There was no ambiguity about it.
It was a homicide, and ruled a homicide. Word that Buddy had actually been executed, traveled fast to Fayetteville, where Buddy's family and friends, already reeling, now had to absorb this. In his protocol? Cool, Buddy.
I can't imagine who would have ever been mad at Buddy enough to do that. I couldn't imagine what he could have done that would have threatened someone to that level that they felt like they needed to get rid of Buddy to be safe. It just didn't equate to me. And bad enough, he's dead, but to hear that he was murdered violently.
Yeah, I knew that it was a gunshot to the head. What a waste, what a horrible loss. So now a killer really was on the loose and actual. And Buddy found he didn't think Brenda should be living in that big empty house all by herself.
Were you worried about her, too, like if this is a home invasion? I was. I told her she should come here. And she said no mistake.
So, after that long night when her husband was killed, and the exhausting round of interviews that followed, Brenda got what rest she could, and then there were issues to deal with that weren't there. She had issues to deal with that work. The staff to inform an office to close a plastic surgery business to shut down. She returned to work, had to.
And, knowing there'd be more questions about Buddy's death, she had asked his and her attorney, Sean Devereaux, to represent her, because he isn't the spouse, always a person of interest. Attorney Devereaux, to quickly dispel any doubt about her innocence, had an idea. We arranged for a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation polygraph examiner, took polygraph on the question of whether she had shot her husband. She passed.
The needle never flickered on the machine. If that wasn't enough, those gunshot residue chests also had a lot to say. Remember, Brenda's hands were swabbed right after Buddy died. And...
She didn't have gunshot residue on her hands. Meaning, no evidence she fired a gun. At least, no evidence on her hands. As for her clothes.
There was a trace amount of gunshot residue on the clothing. Which really didn't mean much. Lots of ways that little bit could get on the clothes of a woman bending over her husband who'd just been shot to death. There could be secondary transfers she could have touched something or particles in the air when she entered the room.
So there are a lot of different explanations on how the gunshot residue might have arrived on her clothing. So with no real evidence connecting Brenda to the crime, detectives moved on, kept digging, checking every lead while looking for a pattern or profile of that possible intruder who may have murdered Buddy. We followed up with the reporting crimes within the community in the air, breaking interrings or any other type crime. And close vicinity to the residents, those people were sold out and interviewed.
Yeah. It's a process of elimination. You checked, I'm sure to see if you had any other enemies. Anybody.
No, sir. No. No. I've had no trouble wound in a family.
And at Buddy's family along with a pain. A great yawning absence of any information at all. We've all been left bewildered and trying to make sense of something that you can't make sense out of, it's like a bad Kafka short story. I began to feel dismayed.
I began to think this was going to be one of those cases that they never get an answer for. Mind you, things were happening. Whether they made sense or not was another question. Coming up, a sudden sale at the doctor's office.
They were selling everything down to a gauze bandages. All the equipment was all being liquidated. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention.
They made a life together. Then one night the Marine died and then the death Investigation took a wild unexpected and utterly bizarre turn Unjudged make what's and this is trace of suspicion and all new podcast from data. Listen to all episodes of trace of suspicion now wherever you get your podcasts As the day wraps up get the scoop on what's been happening with here's the scoop But you podcast from NBC News with me your host Gazzman to sue you We'll take a deep dive into the day's top stories with NBC News's trusted journalist It's a fresh take that sharp thoughtful hands informative bringing closer to headlines and conversations They're shaping our world the front page the zeitgeist here's the scoop from NBC News listen daily on Amazon music Hey guys Willie guys here reminding you to check out the Sunday sit-down podcast on this week's episode I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world Mumford and Sons as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one Album prize fighter and the evolution of that irresistible foot-stomping sound you can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts A few days after Buddy McCutchen was murdered the investigation shifted from his house to his office as detectives Well-thrower and John Ledford showed up to talk to the staff See if they knew anything or anyone who could have killed their boss perhaps a disgruntled patient They wanted to look at the paperwork too for any possible clues all normal parts of a homicide investigation Brenda had stepped out but soon arrived to finish something she had started something that to the detectives at least did not seem normal She was actually disposing of records some were being thrown in a dumpster there in the parking lot of the complex It's a couple of days after his death. Yeah, they were selling everything down to like gals bandages all the equipment was all being liquidated Brenda was polite to the cops as she facilitated the liquidation sale and disposed of patient records Did you ask her about these things we're there to search the business we inquired about speaking with her further She consulted an attorney she wanted attorney present and the attorney asked us to delay our interview with her That you'll recall was attorney Sean Deverell She called me because they weren't some documents or you know Whatever wasn't she was perfectly happy to cooperate with him But she wasn't clear exactly why they were asking the questions they were asking they seem to be suspicious said attorney Deverell about the abrupt office sale and the disposal of records and closing up shops so quickly after the murder But Deverell pointed out that Brenda had very good reasons for all that She had a $13,000 a month nut between his medical practice that was shut down in their mortgage and bills that they had to pay She had to deal with all that They was buddy and Brenda's business was not exactly robust He shared with me that since the recession that yet in 2008 2009 2010 half of his business the purely cosmetic side that people pay cash for Because insurance won't cover had dried up because of the recession Even in 2016 the year buddy was killed finances were tenuous there were debts were the McCutcheons money problems somehow related to his murder The man was not flush.
He wasn't bringing in a lot of income It was very very modest for a plastic surgeon So I think his passion was being a musician and that he did the other just to pay the bills And remember Brenda's specialty was nursing not being a business manager But it did seem a little strange to detectives if Brenda was also tossing out what appeared to be buddy's personal stuff His medical certificates from his graduation from medical school and different things like that that might have been on the wall of his office all that was disposed of so we were actually retrieving files out of the dumpster and See his computer. She'd already thrown away. She'd already thrown away But that wasn't all there were files in an off-site storage unit too Work records patients files a lot of different information Calling around to hire a shredding company. She was very determined to liquidate herself of anything surrounding the business or Mr.
Recutchen, it's just unusual behavior We prepare to search for him to recover all those files and take him in his evidence Again said the Trinity Deborah there were good reasons for Brenda pulling all those files out of the office She was besieged at that moment He was a solo practitioner and she was the de facto office manager in addition to being a practicing nurse herself So what she needed to do was to get patient charts to other doctors or to patients The detectives shut down the sale and then they spoke to Brenda and buddy's office staff Who were there watching it all the murder had hit them hard and seeing what Brenda was going through they felt for her The office workers were cooperative with us past information to the investigation Information about buddy and Brenda and how they run their business They described miss McCutchen's almost obsessive about anyone coming into the office with any type of financial record They can only speak with her then you start to talk to the account and you find out that all the interactions as far as the preparation of tax information He dealt with miss McCutchen and you start to see a pattern evolve that in fact She took care of all the finances did buddy have anything to do with it Did he even know about what was going on there was no indication that dr. McCutchen was involved in the financial business of the office He did the surgeries and she was the office manager But that wasn't the only story about money. There was another one too rather more serious in fact It was criminal There's nothing flashy or glamorous about the North Carolina Department of Revenue office in Asheville Just a non-descript red brick building and their mission statement which reads in part collect the taxes due is even more mundane But a few days after the murder detectives throw her and let her discover that do are had been having a little problem collecting taxes Do from buddy McCutchen's medical practice Agents had come and visited dr. McCutchen and miss McCutchen at their place of business and served the summons on them requesting some tax records related to the business What did you think about that when you saw that material that was concerning?
The more the detectives learned about the meeting between the McCutchen's and the Department of Revenue the more concerned they became We were able to speak with one of their agents And that's when they kind of laid the foundation that this is not something that just came up We've been involved with miss McCutchen almost since the business has been open It turned out cosmetic surgery of Asheville was a few years behind in filing corporate tax returns But according to the Department of Revenue, there was evidence of something even worse It seemed the business had deducted payroll taxes from its employees paychecks, but did not send that money on to the state They've had accountants who were preparing tax information to be turned into the Department of Revenue But there were no indication any payments were ever being made That's why the DOR issued this summons ordering buddy to explain why his practice didn't pay the state employee withholding tax total about $39,000 Not a huge sum, but if true a serious crime. So this was fraud fairly significant scale It had to be fairly significant to get to the criminal division Department of Revenue. They were actually criminal investigators Criminal investigators from the Department of Revenue that's who showed up unannounced at the medical office staff members told the detectives The visit seemed to catch buddy off guard. This would have come as a big surprise to him as a shock It seemed to be maybe not so much to miss McCutchen Not so much to Brenda maybe because as detectives learned she did all the bookkeeping often by hand and provided all the financials to the Accountant for filing their taxes.
Miss McCutchen had been delinquent in paying state with holdings on employees Taxes for many years. This was an ongoing problem and all of a sudden Dr. McCutchen becomes aware of it and soon after But he put the brakes on that meeting and he's completely surprised stops the interview and requests to be able to consult an attorney That's how attorney Sean Deverell got involved buddy and Brendan knew him socially So but he called him right after he met with those agents from the revenue department So he worried about it. He didn't know what to do you get a subpoena from the Department of Revenue and a tax investigation Most people are probably gonna talk to a professional But attorney Deborah told us contrary to what the police heard buddy was not surprised by the tax issues for years and years There had been problems with with taxes.
I mean everybody clearly knew what was going on with the taxes There were lots of confirmed communications to Dr. McCutchen about the problems In fact the very same day after the DOR visit buddy sent attorney Deborah an email saying they were dealing with it Brenda has gotten the documents from our tax guy and has made copies she and I will go through them this weekend to make sure things are in order That distinction whether buddy knew or didn't know about the tax issues Turned out to be a very big deal because what really caught detective's attention wasn't just a taxes It was the timing of the Department of Revenue visit Was it your assumption that this might have had something to do with what occurred? It did because the Department of Revenue agents came in visited him on the 11th. It was a Monday It was a Monday and then he was killed on a Saturday morning The very same weekend buddy said they'd be going through the tax records coincidence quite possibly or possibly not No way to prove it either way and Brenda.
She was leaving Asheville in her rearview mirror Coming up an unexpected visit may hold a clue what I heard her say we always leave the bad door open a lot I'm going. Oh, well, that's not true. Let's kickstart your wellness journey with the doctor. Yeah workouts meal plans It's your fast track to a healthier you and now during the XFINITY member celebration members begin an exclusive 50% off an annual subscription Head to XFINITY dot com slash membership to learn more XFINITY and imagine that subscription automatically reduce each year at 6599 plus taxes and fees until cancel all grants may 20 It's 26 prices subject to change visit today dot com slash XFINITY for full-on for terms of details Autumn 2016 the loveliest time of the year in Asheville About 800 miles away in Arkansas buddy McCutchen's brother clutch was in a deep depression What did buddy's death do you how devastating was it?
How did you handle a grief? You wake up in the first thing to do Just think about that loss. I think it was like almost six weeks It was just a home and in your room and you didn't really come out of it. Yeah, it was the way That he left this earth wasn't his time.
Well clutch was grieving. He was also thinking about Brenda Cutch adored Brenda. They've been close for years But something one of the investigators said about buddy's murder kept flowing around in his tortured mind and it seemed to conflict with Brenda's account I was under the impression from her description that there had been a Invasion and I remember asking the deputy was it one guy two three? I mean how bad was it and that's when he said well your brother was asleep home invasion They're not likely to shoot you when you're sleeping.
Oh that got me thinking that something wasn't not quite right If the murder wasn't part of a home invasion, why would Brenda say it was? That's when his grieving mind began to go to an even darker place And before long he was making his views known around the family Clutch was definitely the first one to suspect her. What do you think when you heard about that? I didn't know Brenda did it or didn't do it I just felt we needed facts in front of us before we just accused her But Missy and her siblings did find it suspicious that Brenda didn't respond to Missy's texts and voicemails about organizing buddies funeral Eventually they took on the planning themselves Okay, where was your husband shot at?
Is he still alive? Is he still breathing? But then when a Fletch's daughter is discovered online the recording of Brenda's 9-on-1 call She listened and then urged him to do the same. It took a few days of convincing but then Clutch finally hit the play button What is your husband's name?
And what is your name? Clutch listen closely and then heard Brenda say something that made his head snap Do it and then open that switch Five little words the back door was open and with that Clutch flashed back to a trip He and Becca had taken the Asheville visiting buddy and Brendan at their home just a few days before the murder It was just Providence that we were there that weekend But he lived in a nice neighborhood But everybody had an anchor to land, you know, but there were a lot of bears and he made a point You know evens whenever I go out back and he'd say like the door because we have bears come up here We always keep it locked and he was that way every night But he even showed them that home video of the bears in the backyard The bears the back door Brenda's 9-on-1 call her Clutch suddenly it all clicked When I heard her say we always leave the bad door. I open it a lot. I'm going.
Oh, wow. That's not true. Oh That wasn't true Melissa listen to she hadn't been quite sure what to think about Brenda's possible role in buddy-skilling But when she heard that 9-on-1 call At that point I believed she did it What was it about the 9-on-1 call it made you think that it sounded like she was a junior high girl reading a script From the play that she tried to memorize the lines for her putting that aside If I found my husband God forbid murdered in our home in the middle of the night, and I called 911 I would be a blithering idiot. I would be freaking out Oh my God whereas she was expounding upon the theory of how the intruder must have gotten in and when I heard this my thought was She's making her alibi.
She's using the 9-on-1 call to make her alibi Except detectives throw her and let her could find no physical evidence that Brenda killed buddy Their case was stuck all they really had was this This was a case of if not Miss McCutchen then who would it have been? By now Brenda was long gone from Asheville Gone back to Tennessee where she'd grown up still had family and because of buddy sudden death the tax investigation had stalled One less thing for Brenda to worry about but buddy siblings were all on the same page now They believed Brenda killed their brother to them her every move seemed suspicious She saw the home he lived in went home to every day. She saw the business. He drove to every day She saw any value he had so maybe it was no surprise the McCutchen's rarely heard from Brenda anymore Meanwhile the detectives remained relentless.
They've searched for anything that might definitively connect Brenda or someone else to the murder As Halloween approached they found something buried deep in the computer a long-held secret and a possible new suspect Coming up a closer look at buddy's past leads detectives to someone new We interviewed her and we were gonna also have to interview her husband when date line continues Buddy McCutchen had been dead for almost three months when they found it. Thanks to this search warrant It had been hidden all along inside one of buddy's computers We were able to find emails going back and forth between dr. McCutchen and this particular staff member Did it seem to rise to the level of something that needed to be included in the investigation? Definitely the emails told a story which stretched over a few years an office romance But he had an affair with a member of his staff a married woman That was something that we needed to nail down when did the fair take place how long ago?
But the husband have found out about that and potentially he had something to do with that Question being did an angry husband have a motive for murder So what do you do about them like that? We interviewed her and then we were gonna also have to interview her husband Did he know about this? No, he didn't we had hoped that she was going to share that with him So that we would not have to be the individuals to tell him what had taken place between his wife and dr. McCutchen But you were we were that's correct.
Oh is that like uncomfortable? Still both the office worker and her husband insisted they had nothing to do with buddy's murder We were able then to go through phone records. We could pretty well tell at the time of dr. McCutchen's death He was not involved both he and his wife were at home when this took place and one more thing about the affair It was over long ago It happened several years ago and nobody seemed to know that it had taken place So now detectives refocused on the only person of interest they still couldn't eliminate Brenda McCutchen There was still one test pending that might provide some answers Remember the murder weapon found in the ivy near the house.
It had been swabbed for DNA Now months after the murder the results were finally in Which indicated three contributors one of whom was buddy the second one did not match Brenda and the third sample was inconclusive I don't think it was sufficient enough information to build up a full profile So it was unable to determine who that could have belonged to Remember there was no gunshot residue on Brenda's hands only a speck on her clothes Go to go there from just being in the house that night and now no DNA connection to the gun that killed her husband Investigation cooled As the first anniversary of buddy's death approach the McCutchen family began to lose hope that buddies murder would ever be solved I just pretty much gave up. There came a point after a certain amount of time. You had to move on I felt like she was never gonna be charged with anything got away with it I thought she was gonna get away with it. Yeah But detectives weren't about to let the case go I think you just try to follow the evidence where it leads each time we received information that could have taken the investigation any Number of directions.
We tried to follow those leads and everything always came back to Brenda During their investigation detectives had presented the case to the DA Todd Williams He'd been following it. He was eager to get justice for the McCutchen family But Williams needed something more something to persuade a jury. It actually was Brenda who killed buddy This was the case characterized by an abundance of caution. We didn't have the DNA.
We didn't have it on on video We didn't have those things that you know juries are expecting they want that stuff iron-clad evidence right iron-clad evidence Didn't seem iron-clad or jury-proof to the DA So detectives were compiled an exhaustive PowerPoint presentation laying out the entire case clue by clue What were the key points of this circumstantial case against her where the gun was found who the gun belonged to the gun Happened to be in the same proximity in which she supposedly ran to to knock on her neighbor's door and There was something else about that gun Miss McCutchen stated that one of the last times she had seen the firearm She thought it was in a kitchen drawer somebody would have to know where that handgun was Yep, that's not a normal place. She would keep a firearm What's more Brenda's story that buddy left the back door open didn't add up because of those bears in his backyard Sun bears And she was a nurse shouldn't she have tried to help him before calling 911 and finally the behavior of her in days follows Desperate to get the business closed to get liquidated to get the house soldiers. She could move away The DA took a long hard look at detective throwers PowerPoint He did a really good job of putting all the pieces together that basically said that if this were a who done it There's only one person who could have done it brought it into focus way he brought it in the very clear focus This is a case with no other suspect of Brenda McCutchen But Williams wanted to be sure and he called a meeting of his assistant DA's to get their opinions one of them was Megan Lock To me it was obvious from the beginning that it was going to be a difficult case Do you recall what you felt like as you read through that material? Did you have an opinion about it yourself?
There was no doubt in my mind that Brenda was the one who had murdered buddy Candice in your office staff is one thing going to trial with 12 unknown jurors That's quite another so now DA Todd Williams had to make a big decision about whether to take this highly circumstantial case to trial We do take risks in the DA's office. We don't just try to slam dunks There's a lot of complexity to this case, but the case needed to be tried it needed to be presented to a jury Coming up the arrest she knew it was coming the prosecutor first murder trial. Yes, sir And a furious family she doesn't get to kill my brother And then use the money she inherits from killing him to get herself out of jail for killing him Hey, I'll know Get the best of NBC news with a subscription you are adds deeper access and exclusive content and now during the XFINITY member celebration members can get an exclusive 50% off an annual subscription head to XFINITY dot com slash membership to learn more XFINITY imagine that subscription automatically renews each year at 6599 plus taxes and fees until canceled October ends May 20th 2026 prices subject to change visit NBC news dot com slash XFINITY for full offer terms and details It didn't take long After reviewing all that circumstantial evidence DA Todd Williams referred the buddy McCutchen case to a grand jury seeking to indict Brenda for murder And in less than a day the grand jury found a true bill Which meant Brendan McCutchen would be charged with first-degree murder and could face life in prison It's a murderer that rocked in North Carolina town now investigators want to arrest the wife of a plastic Brenda had been living quietly outside of Memphis She was in Tennessee because both of the sisters lived fairly close by she spent a lot of time with her nieces and her sisters But now almost a year and a half after buddy's murder she was officially accused of killing her husband the arrest warrant for first-degree murder From North Carolina list this address for Brenda McCutchen wanted in the death of her plastic surgeon husband I don't think she saw the indictment as inevitable or she was surprised by it But it was like just one more bad hand that she'd been dealt that she was gonna deal with and she did she got her little Honda and she drove all the way across Tennessee to Western North Carolina and turned herself in To the Buncombe County Jail where she was greeted by detective Walt thrower It's a matter of putting a set of handcuffs on her. She'll be processed.
How'd she hold up? She was fine cool Didn't seem terribly upset in other words It's kind of like vanilla the whole time didn't appear to be upset. She knew it was coming But buddy's family didn't see it coming especially after waiting so long for an arrest I felt good the prosecutors must think they have a case or an arrest wouldn't be happening and that gave me hope that she wasn't gonna Get away with it 67-year-old Brenda sat in jail unable to make bail set at seven hundred fifty thousand dollars She wanted to access money from buddies IRA, which had enough cash to cover the bail bond fee But because of the pending murder charges Brenda was not allowed to access the account After she'd been in jail about a year awaiting trial Brenda's attorney had requested a hearing that was gonna ask the judge if Rindick had tapped into those frozen assets to make bail and get out That's kind of a conundrum, isn't it? The judge wanted to know buddy's siblings opinions.
My opinion was Hell no, she doesn't get to kill my brother and then use the money She inherits from killing him to get herself out of jail for killing him. Hey, I'll know So no bail at least from buddies estate another year passed But through her attorney Brenda got a surety company to help cover the bail and then she returned to Tennessee to await her day in court We were able to get her on a kind of a home detention she had a call in I think she wore a GPS tracking launcher for a little while Meanwhile back in Asheville DA Todd Williams had another decision to make picking his prosecutors One of them was in that meeting when he first evaluated the case Megan Locke Mr. Williams came to me one day and just said what I like to be a part of that case and help prosecute it and I said absolutely I would love to you first murder trial. Yes, sir And what does it do to the better your stomach to give you a kind of boy cow?
This is it it was nerve-wracking there was certainly a lot of Internal pressure, I mean you have the pressure of wanting to be successful for the family and to get justice for the victim So taking a difficult case as the first one that was that was hard Hard also because Locke would be squaring off against two savvy experienced defense attorneys Steve Cash and Sean Devereaux who were emphatic There was no case against Brenda It was just absolutely no evidence regardless of motive that she had pulled the trigger that killed her husband in fact There was evidence that absolutely contradicted that all of this would be hashed out of trial Well, the attorneys on each side were preparing the McCutcheon family kept asking Brenda to give them buddy's personal items Which they had been seeking ever since his murder at this point It's been three and a half years since he was murdered my brothers had been begging Brenda Could they please have some of buddy's mementos? But Brenda kept them and rarely talked to buddy's family until one day when Brenda was out on bail Brenda phones my brother John and says yes, it's all in a storage unit and I've made arrangements You could show up and get whatever you want out of that storage unit but when buddy's brother John got there He calls me crying Because not only did he find buddy's cherished prized possessions ruined by vermin Rodents had peed and pooped and chewed up the things that meant the most about he But Brenda had tossed buddies remains in that storage room Buddy's ashes from his cremation three years earlier in the box like this one had never been interred Just left it there. Yeah, three and a half years after he's gone who puts their spouses remains in a rented storage unit It was horrible and can you imagine what it was like for him? I'm sorry I'm just My brother John driving down the highway at night with his bird brothers remains in a seat beside him Crying We asked Brenda's attorneys about this She had ashes in her apartment She had kept the ashes and because of the fallout between her and the McCutcheon family She went and left those ashes in the storage unit for them to pick up and it was only in there a very brief period of time I mean hours But when prosecutor Megan Lock heard about all this well I don't really know how you respectfully put your dad husband in the storage unit for any period of time The ashes incident set the stage the trial would be contentious And one of the key witnesses would be Brenda McCutcheon Coming up She would tell us I want to have a moment when I can stand up in public and tell people what really happened Brenda tells her story to the jury Will they buy it?
Who brings into a house decides to just shoot somebody while they're sleeping and then doesn't take anything When Dateline continues The Asheville courthouse is a stately old place built nearly a century ago Here in January 2020, Brenda McCutcheon went on trial She was almost 70 Did she look like a different person to you? Well, I'll be honest with you I didn't I didn't play much things to her I couldn't I just didn't I couldn't I couldn't I didn't I both I just didn't I chose not to So emotionally what was it like to be in there? Was that good? Cameras were not allowed and the prosecutors began presenting their case Which featured all that circumstantial evidence they said pointed only to Brenda She was given every benefit of the doubt at every turn of the corner until there was nowhere left to turn Hey, what's going on?
I had to say shut They played Brenda's 911 call insisting it wasn't true Brenda's entire police interview was also shown Where she claimed an intruder entered the house and killed Buddy A pretty unbelievable possibility Why do you say it's unbelievable? Who breaks into a house to rob somebody digs around Finds a gun, decides to just shoot somebody while they're sleeping And then that entire process doesn't take anything Then make a mock detail what the prosecution believed was Brenda's motive for murder Pretending it unfolded after she and Buddy learned they were under investigation by the Department of Revenue It was a criminal investigation There were real consequences at play at this point in time Serious consequences, possible prison time The tax agent testified Buddy was surprised and had no clue about the withholding tax issues It was all Brenda's doing She was concerned she would not only be in trouble but she would be the only one in trouble So why would she kill him there? Because she was able to pin it all on him She was able to it fixed all her problems Yeah, she killed him She didn't have to stay in Asheville, she didn't have to keep cosmetic surgery afloat She didn't have to worry about anything to do with the Department of Revenue Once he was dead it could be Buddy that did it Isn't it's not really just speculation The evidence in the Department of Revenue file was going to point to Brenda McCutchen as being the one that embezzled That's a motive In fact, the IRS found over 385,000 in federal taxes were never paid But when the defense's turn came up, it argued the so-called motive was bogus, no substance at all The state was fishing for a theory and ultimately everything that was brought in by this huge net that the state tried to employ fell out of the net Fell out for one simple reason for the defense An utter lack of physical evidence tying Brenda to the murder They didn't come in and say, Aha Brenda, your DNA is on this weapon They didn't say Aha Brenda, your fingerprint is on his guns They didn't say Aha Brenda, you have blood splatter all over your blouse They didn't say Aha Brenda, you're covered in gunshot residue None of that was reality But what we suggested to the jury is the police, the DA's office, the detective's department of revenue They haven't brought you enough evidence here to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did that Back in Arkansas, Buddy Sister Melissa was getting daily updates on the trial The lawyer herself, she knew juries were unpredictable So to ease her anxiety during the trial, she painted Art is my therapy She painted pictures of her feelings Including this one done during the trial It's called waiting And it's a person waiting What does that feel like to be that person waiting? You painted it but can you describe it with words?
I really couldn't describe it with words The painting is my best expression of what it felt like to be honest Everyone in the courtroom also waited and wondered Would she testify? But Brenda McCutchen take the stand and tell the jury her story Brenda insisted on testifying From the very beginning she would tell us that I want to have a moment when I can stand up in public and tell people what really happened Putting any defendant on the stand is risky But Brenda's attorneys first did a little test run They had her take another polygraph test before the trial And once again, she passed said attorney devoral Absolute, no question at all, not even there wasn't a gray area Polygraphics M's are not admissible to trial But it wasn't a short Brenda who took the stand Reciting much of the same story she told detectives after Buddy was murdered We always think about whether or not to put on a defendant to testify But we were confident that she was going to say the thing she always did and she did I thought she did fine and I think she did make a good witness But as prosecutor Locke listened to Brenda tell her story of her life with Buddy It suddenly came to her Mutive Maybe she'd only got it half right It wasn't just the alleged tax fraud It went deeper than that Much deeper Megan Locke felt sure of it It was just very clear that everything she had ever done Was for Buddy built around what Buddy wanted Built around what Buddy's dreams were And so he sticks her in this office having to do this paperwork Not even utilizing her as a nurse in that office Even though that's what she truly was And she very much I believe resented him for that Which gave the prosecutors an idea The night before they began their cross-examination We decided we need to make her mad They need to see that she is capable of this That nice people can do bad things Getting her mad was an intentional thing on your part Yes Prosecutor Locke thought she knew just how to push Brenda's buttons I referred to her as a secretary And she got very upset about it And snapped back, I'm not a secretary And you could see in her demeanor And hear in her tone this resentment about leaving her career So why would that tax issue have led to that shooting that night? I think it was a straw that broke the camel's back Suddenly this business that she never wanted That she had put her whole life into That she had been made to figure out how to operate Was in trouble And she was about to be solely responsible for what had happened Feeling even more resentment The prosecutors argued Adding to what already have been brewing for decades Had that last night I think she laid down in that bed that night And thought about everything that had been making her mad And I think that she snapped And she went downstairs and shot him in the head while he slept It was only a theory of course There was no proof And then the case went to the jury A largely female jury They would decide if Brenda was going home or they're prisoners Twelve people were about to decide the fate of Brenda McCutchen When you said it off to the jury, how confident were you? As confident as I've ever been Same for me, I've never been as confident Sending a case back as I was that day And prosecutor, Megan Locke I was cautiously optimistic at that point Yes, because when it comes down to giving it to a jury You just really never know, right?
You cannot predict juries So we talked to a few of the jurors When you realize your decision is Sending someone to prison for life Or letting someone off you Happen to make sure that justice is served That is a huge responsibility It was one of the most difficult things I've done in my life I found myself waking up at night Stinking about this thing And having nightmares about it When they got to the jury room, they took a preliminary vote It was for Nogilti and A Gilti So they kept talking About the circumstantial evidence, about the possible motive About Brenda's story that an intruder must have killed Buddy It was a difficult process There were many moving pieces There was a lot of witnesses And there was a lot of evidence that was brought out for us to review They voted again and still couldn't agree We still need to talk about this Because this woman's life is on the line Buddy deserves justice And then we had to drag in more evidence They kept reviewing it And then by day two, Valentine's Day They voted one more time The moment they walked back into the room, the nerves hit I was very nervous Your heart's pounding in your chest That's about as nerve-wracking as it gets I remember looking at the family I remember looking to the other side of the courtroom And seeing Miss McCutchen's sisters there And there was a heaviness in the air Somebody's life is about to change And then they read the verdict And to breaking news, the jury and the Brenda McCutchen murder trial finds her guilty Finally, justice for the McCutchen family But there was no celebration We had left the day before the verdict I wouldn't be there Why? It really didn't matter I mean it mattered but in a big scheme It didn't bring Buddy back I wasn't gleeful or joyous that she got convicted But I would have been outraged Had she walked off scot-free And gotten away with it Bird defense attorneys watched devastated It was gut-wrenching moment in my life To hear them say guilty I believed entirely and continued to believe In the innocence of Brenda McCutchen I wish I could look back and think of the decision that we made that lost the case Or the piece of evidence that, you know, convinced the jury that she was a murderer So we asked the jurors Who were very clear about how and why they convicted Brenda Sheriff's office And Twitter wouldn't come running in the house Go to that drawer, grab the gun and shoot Buddy And then run out and throw the gun in the yard There's no one else that could have come in And shot Buddy, it had to be Brenda This woman did not act normal to me She should have been an emotional rollercoaster When I started showing all this evidence She didn't show no emotion at all I am certain that we got it right No regrets, no regrets Would you bet your life on it? And I thought, well, yes I really would And I am betting her Brenda's life on it I have no doubt in my mind Brenda was stoic As she was sentenced to life without parole As she was walking out, Buddy's cousin and his wife stepped out of the audience Buddy's cousin hugged her And what she said to them was, I didn't kill Buddy That happened in the courtroom She's been led away to life in prison with handcuffs on The verdict won't bring Buddy back, of course And among his siblings, the pain lingers It'll always be hard The tears dry up a little bit But if we think about it very often, you know, it'll break your heart Buddy's sister, Melissa, couldn't quite find the words for what she feels So she painted it This one's called erasure There's a cold blue hand holding a gun shooting And there's a figure falling back And then there's a giant pencil with an eraser already A racing part of that person Because I feel like that's when she did it, Buddy But the McCutcheon family does take solace In finally having a place to honor Buddy They brought his ashes here To his hometown, Fayetteville, Arkansas The final resting spot of Buddy McCutcheon Medical doctor, musician, Renaissance man No erasing him Or his voice Which will live on in digital perpetuity forever That's all for now I'm Lester Holt Thanks for joining us