WEBVTT - BONUS: Murder at Pinetree Country Club 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.279 Hey everyone, I'm John Gonzalez, host of Sports Illustrated Weekly. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:05.600 We're gonna try something just a little bit different this 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.480 week with a special audio version of Brian byrd sayds 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.720 s I dot com Daily cover. Please enjoy this standalone 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:22.599 bonus show, Murder at Pine Tree Country Club. The reality 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.720 of it sets in when I'm at home. I had 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.479 to give the boys bath and then we'll by the way, 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.720 my best friend not here and their daddy's not here. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.800 It was like daddy went to work and there was 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.199 a bad man at daddy's work, and that batman had 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:50.400 a gun. Last summer, a forty six year old golf 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:55.520 pro was murdered under mysterious circumstances. Gene Siller was shot 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.200 on the tenth whole of the Pine Tree Country Club 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:04.480 in Georgia. We had to turn Jean over to start 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.400 CPR on him. It was a horrible, horrible thing to 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:12.480 come up to. The depth of your love determines the 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.240 depth of your grief. The depth of my loved rand 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.319 was so deep that I don't think I'll ever recover. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.160 The story made headlines at the time, but no story 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.560 has gone as deep as a new piece written by 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.840 Brian Byrne, said, a contributing writer for Sports Illustrated. In it, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.000 he digs into hugiene, what's the random and unlikely set 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.319 of events that nevertheless led to him being murdered in 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:58.520 broad daylight? And the family Siller sadly left behind? All Right, Brian, 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.800 before we get into how and why Jeane Siller was murdered, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.920 tell us about who he was. He was someone who 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.720 devoted his life to his family and to the sport 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.079 that he loved. He grew up in northwest Cincinnati. He 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.280 had two sisters, loved out the outdoors, loved playing golf. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.000 Once he was certified to be a head pro, he 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.680 spent some time in Atlanta. He moved south. There's more 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.960 courses you can play and work year round. He stopped 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.160 at a couple of courses for more than a decade 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.120 as an assistant pro. He had a brief head pro 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.919 job that was just a real grind and didn't love 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.320 it and wound up leaving that job when that club 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.760 got sold. No respect for him, no respect for his family. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.680 I mean he was in at sixth and digged home 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.440 to like eight. I mean they were It was like 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.679 borderline of emotion. All abuse by that point, he was 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.240 already married to his wife, Ashley, and they had two boys, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.400 and he was kind of a stay at home dad 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.440 for a time, and Ashley was supporting them and they 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.360 were in a really happy spot because he didn't have 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.359 those eight hour work weeks anymore. But she to tell 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.639 there was a void in him, something was missing, and 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.680 he was fortunate enough to get a call from the 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.400 general manager at Pine Tree Country Club, which is in 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.640 northwest Atlanta, a little town called Kennesaw on the suburbs, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.400 uh someone who had interviewed him for a previous job. 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.200 Brad Nikam called and said, Hey, we need a head 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.240 golf pro. Would you be interested. He had a good reputation, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.640 it was smart, and it was a family man. I 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.240 just knew he was confident. He couldn't resist. He needed 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.480 to go back out and be outdoors, working with the 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.800 sport he loved and applying an engineer's mind to improving 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.600 the club for its members. And in your piece the 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.280 way you write about it, and having talked to Ashley, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.240 it seemed like Jean really loved this job right. It 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.160 wasn't like some of the other ones that you said 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.160 previously that he wasn't crazy about this one. He was 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.160 really into that's right. He he finally had found a 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.760 place where he could scratch his professional itch and do 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.600 what he loved. But it wasn't that long slog. It 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:01.280 was good for their marriage. He was my amazing, big hearted, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.160 hard working husband. Again. They gave him two days off 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:06.360 a week, even in the high season. He got Sundays 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.280 and Mondays off, so he was able to play grounds 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.360 of golf with the boys on the weekends, work around 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.560 the house, keep the yard in shape for Ashley while 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.479 she was at work on Monday's, really devote himself to 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.000 his family and to his job simultaneously. We were so 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.479 grateful to be together as a family. Our marriage just 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:29.359 like flourished the last two years. It was just it 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.360 wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn clothes. So things 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.839 are going well at home, they're going well at work. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.680 But then we go back to last summer. Tell us, Brian, 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:43.320 about what happened on July three. I'll take you back 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.840 one day before that, July two, Gene and Ashley and 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.600 the boys were driving back from a beach vacation they'd 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.920 had with Jean's family, his parents, his sisters, their spouses, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.039 and kids, big happy family gathering. They've done one every year, 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.240 but COVID had delayed it for a couple of years, 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.480 so this was their first one in a while, and 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.799 it was just a really happy week, all of them reunited. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:10.880 Everyone was happy. I specifically remember saying, like, God, life 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.599 so good. We're like, life is so what. Our kids 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.760 are healthy, Like, we're doing all this cool stuff to 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.320 our house or were plans to Ginea and Ashley were 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.440 talking about July the third. Jeans still had off after 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.960 that vacation, but it was a big day at the club. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.760 July three was that Saturday, so they were going to 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.640 have their July four celebration there and the fireworks and 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.320 the cook out and all that, and Jean had a 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.480 handful of younger staffers. He knew that would be there 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.560 that day and knew it would be busy, and felt 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.440 kind of guilty. You know, I've been gone. I want 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.000 to go there and help him and be there for him. 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.160 That was just who he was. He's like, are you 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.400 are you cool with that? I said, yeah, just we're 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.039 going to the fireworks. Please be home by six thirty. 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:54.400 He said, of course, of course, that's what I'll do. 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.880 So he got up that morning and was dressed up, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:05:59.920 dressed to the nines as always in his golf attire, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.040 had on red pants and an American flag shirt. And 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.719 Nashley told me over and over how handsome she thought 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.800 he looked that day. I remember making making breakfast for 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:10.680 the boys and they're up and they're in their p 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.240 days and he comes down and he's like these right 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.840 red pants on. We called him Mr Fancy Pants. I 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:24.560 look you was your fancy pist And off the work 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.240 he went, strolled in at nine and uh, seemed to 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.880 be having just a normal day. And then a white 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:38.719 pickup truck showed up on the tenth tenth green that day. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.200 So why was there a white pickup truck on the green? 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:50.520 And what happened afterwards? The court cases ongoing, but in 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.359 general terms is that two men are alleged to have 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.679 abducted two others that were in the back of that truck. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.680 They were bound with duct tape and zip ties. It's 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.640 alleged by some people that we spoke with to have 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.240 have been tied to the drug trade. A few of 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.440 the people that are said to be involved have had 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.480 criminal histories in the drug trade. They have these men 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.040 tied up in the back of the truck. They drive 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.280 somewhere around forty miles from where they are alleged to 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.840 have kidnapped them, and they wind up on a street. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.600 It's a dead end street that is bisected by the 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.080 cart path that runs from Pine Trees Tenth Green too. 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.920 It's eleventh t and you can easily jump onto the 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:33.600 course from that street. When you're looking down, all you 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.080 really see is a lake. So it appeared again this 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.920 is all alleged that the men were looking to murder 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:42.640 these two men in the back and disposed of the 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.160 bodies in the lake. So they were alleged to have 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.240 killed the two men in the back. Paul Pierson and 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.520 Henry Valdez shot them there at the site and then 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.280 tried to It appeared at least one of the men 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.000 had pulled the trigger, had tried to maroon the truck hide. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.600 The Oven said, that's at least what it appeared was happening. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.040 But there's two bunkers that guard the right side of 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.200 the green, and one of that front bunker caught the truck. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.960 The front wheels came up, couldn't go anywhere, and so 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:10.720 now you look out and there's a truck stuck out 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.320 on that tenth green in the middle of the day, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.160 two pm on a Saturday, July three, at a busy 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:23.240 golf course. So Jeane looks out the middle of the day, 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:28.080 busy golf course, sees this truck. What happens. One of 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.680 his assistant pros, Harris and Bryant, was in the pro 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.120 shop that day, and it's got a big expansive view 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.440 out to the driving range and the tenth green is 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.600 visible from the clubhouse, and he saw it. He couldn't 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.080 tell what was going on, answered the call, and then 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.560 saw it really actually out on the course from where 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.839 it had been, and then told Jean about it, and 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.360 Jean said, okay, I'll go investigate. Oftentimes, a lot of 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:49.800 people I talked to at the club they said, you 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.480 know that happens in golf, will you'll have you know, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.360 maybe there's kids out there in the course, or you know, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:09:00.000 teenagers up to no good. My other thought was somebody 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.800 had seizure, hardtack, or somebody got super drunk early on 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.200 the points in July weekend. You don't assume it's something 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:08.880 to furious, but you got to go talk to him, 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.200 get him out, even off for help. They thought, in 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.200 this case, someone must have had a car accident broken down, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.280 or that's the logical explanation in a scenario like that. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.400 So Jean hops in a golf cart, drives up the 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.360 cart path that straddles the left side of the tenth fairway, 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.040 and then gets to the green, and that's where the 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.280 alleged shooter, Brian Roden, is alleged to have shot him 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:41.600 twice and killed him instantly. So Jean wasn't even supposed 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.120 to be there that day. He goes in to do 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.920 a good deed to help his younger staffers, he sees 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.480 the truck, he's murdered. What happens to the assailants? One 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.640 was only alleged to be involved in the kidnappings Justin Pruett. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.040 The other, who's the alleged murderer, Brian Roden, was twenty 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.640 three at the time, of former Metro Atlanta high school 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:03.760 football player who had quite a few run ins with 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:09.880 the law drug related defenses. He's alleged to have darted 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:11.600 off into the woods. A few of the members saw 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.760 the perpetrator runaway, leaving the truck literally idling on the 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.640 green with Geane up there. People on the range heard 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:23.160 the gunshots. People are scrambling and then when the members 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:24.880 comes running in and tells me, I need called man 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:26.719 and one of the shots were fired and they thought 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:34.120 Jean was hurt. A few other members, one of whom 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.600 was a nurse, popping golf carts to drive up to 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.960 try to help Jean because they can see he's lying prone. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.760 People in the driving range said he's been shot, He's hurt. 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:43.719 They went up there to try to help him to 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.760 administer CPR. We found him on the ground and then 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.079 we rolled him over and started CPR until the police 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.760 got there. Through her training in her years, she knew 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:55.840 that that the gene was gone, but she still tried 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.880 in vain to save him. Brian, before we continue on 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.000 to get to Jean and his family in the aftermath, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.040 I'm curious about what happened to Roden. Was he caught 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.320 and then also what happened to his accomplice. It's quite 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.640 a winding story. He was actually much later that night 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.840 he was arrested for d u I. He had not 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.960 yet been tied to the murders. He was arrested, booked, 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.560 held for a day or two, eventually let go and 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.400 they confiscated in that arrest. They pulled him over because 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.200 he had broken tail light, He had a bunch of 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.199 fake ideas on him. He had a backpack full of cash. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.480 They confiscated the cash, and then once authorities had tied 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.719 him to the murders, they lured him back to the 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.440 police station to arrest him for the murders under the 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.760 guise of returning the cash they had confiscated in the 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.600 d U I And what is his current situation, I mean, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.320 is the trial upcoming? How much time is he looking at? 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.920 The trial is ongoing, It's in Cobb County. Jury trial 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.320 is scheduled for the coming months. Prosecutors investigators have been 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.440 exceedingly tight lipped about the particulars of the case, about 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:00.120 the broader ties to any drug involvement of the drug trade. 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:01.800 I couldn't get a peep out of him and trying 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.440 to piece together what had happened at the scene beyond 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.599 eyewitness accounts and police documents. So a lot more is 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:09.920 going to come out of the trial itself here in 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.920 the coming months. So this is a tragic case of 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.360 wrong place and wrong time for Geane Siller. And while 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.800 it has all of these spectacular very difficult to believe 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.800 crime elements. It's not really a crime story that you 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.640 wrote about. It's much more about Gene and his family 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.320 and who he left behind. That was important to us, 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.760 and trying to tell that family story in the human story, 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.480 because we know things like this can get sensationalized a lot. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.120 People love a crime drama, but there's always a severe, 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.120 raw human impact, and something like this, particularly when there's 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:51.440 this sort of suddenness and this sort of violence, it 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.480 was devastating. I've reported on quite a bit of tragic 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.280 circumstances people who have passed away, but I have to 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.600 say that this one seemed more raw than pretty much 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.280 anything I've reported on before because of the violent nature 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.520 of it, and the family is still reeling. Ashley, we 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.840 stayed in contact in the many months since I started 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.240 reporting this, and she puts on a brave face. She's 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.520 a corporate sales rep for a T and T, so 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.360 she's good at putting the facade up. But she said 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.480 she's just quietly devastated. Every day it's just her and 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.320 the boys. It's almost like the reality of it sets in. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.760 When I'm at home. I need to give the boys baths, 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:28.840 and I need to put them to bed, and I 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:30.960 need to pack their backpacks, and they need to clean 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:32.280 up the house, and then I need to do this 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.040 and this and this and then and then I'll buy 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:38.240 the way. My best fast not here, and their daddy's 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:48.160 not here. She does have a massive support at home 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.319 from her her extended family. They're all live around the 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.200 Atlanta metro area and they're there for her. For her. 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.000 Mom has been someone to lean on. But just the 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:57.760 little moments along the way of what we wanted to 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.600 capture that are just so brutal. How do you break 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:01.520 the news of the two little boys the next day? 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:05.240 You cannot lie to them. Kids need answers. They have 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.320 to trust you, which means you have to tell them. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.839 It was like Daddy went to work and there was 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.240 a bad man at daddy's work and that batman had 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:20.120 a gun and that bad man shot Daddy with his gun, 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.560 and Daddy died and we're not going to see him again. 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.760 But don't worry, because that bad guy is going to 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:35.840 jail forever. Their faces were like, oh, I would have 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.040 done anything to take the being away from them. It 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:46.200 was banks. It's just confused, like, but what daddy and 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.320 the bow just I mean, he was devastated. So to 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:56.280 watch them and their pain was just like it was 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:16.280 like and then you have Jean's parents in Ohio. That's 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.120 one of the hardest phone calls I've ever done. And 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.120 I've done thousands of interviews, and that was one of 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.440 the hardest, if not the hardest, because they were there 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:30.920 in their mid seventies. I fell on the living room 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:37.000 floor and start praying our father. So with a mother, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.880 you know, you want to tell me you love them, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.760 and they'll make kiss them, you know, but we didn't 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:54.480 have that privileged at all. The sentiments they expressed were 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.360 We've been lucky to have this life that we've had 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.400 to raise successful children. They're all happy, they're all healthy. 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.120 They just said they just don't know if they'll ever 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:03.600 look at the world the same. They don't know if 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.240 they'll ever recover. I don't think I could even get 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.760 out of it. And I just, you know, it's just 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:16.440 was well they say that you know, the depth of 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:24.160 your love determines the depth of your grief. There's just 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.240 the depth of my love for him was so deep 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:48.960 that I don't think I'll ever recover. I can guess 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.000 at the answer here. But what does Ashley have to 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.160 say about Brian Roden. She doesn't let it dwell, she 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.200 tries not to let it fester, but it's inevitable. I mean, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.040 can you imagine if you were in that spot, what 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.120 you'd feel towards the from who's accused of doing that 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.720 to your life and to your boys. I think he's 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:09.280 a terrible, disgusting excuse for a human. I don't hate anybody, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:14.240 and I loathe him with every ounce of my soul. 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:18.359 A month after Jean was murdered, Pine Tree held a 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.600 memorial tournament in Jean's honor, and there are a lot 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.600 of golf luminaries who were involved tell us about that event. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.840 It was called the Gene Siller Red Pants Memorial Tournament 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:28.600 because he was wearing those red pants that day and 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.480 was known for addressing flashily and stocking the pro shop 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:33.960 with flashy clothes. So they tried to honor that, and 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.560 it was a fundraiser. People paid the donations to the 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.320 Gene Siller Memorial Grant, which Actuley has started to honor 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.439 Jeane and help young junior golfers in the state of Georgia. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:44.400 That's going to be his lasting legacy. And something they're 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.359 trying to help perpetuate his memory. And quite a few 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:53.600 p GA players professionals donated signed items, signed bags. We 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.439 had Hideki matsu Yama donating things. There were items from 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.960 Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, Justin, Thomas Bryson, dam Oh. There 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.840 were a ton that heard about this. That day alone, 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.480 they raised more than two h thousand dollars and the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.639 foundation donations have far eclipse that in the months since. 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.639 But it was it was a chance for Ashley to 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.879 address the club and the crowd. A lot of local 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.920 p G a head pros, not guys you see on tour, 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:19.920 but guys like Jean who are head pro at club. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.520 They all came. He has lots of friends, very very 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.240 close friends who came and played. One of his close 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.640 friends played with his clubs that day and really struggled 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:30.760 on the tenth hole to get on the tenth hole, 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.359 and I can't even pull it back. I can't play 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.480 the holes. So before the funeral, which was about a 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.400 week or so after the murder, Ashley and her closest 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.560 friends they went out to the Tenth Green so a 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.600 makeshift memorial had popped up. Either people that knew him 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.720 our club members are complete. Strangers had come and left 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.960 flowers and cards, and at the spot just in front 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.399 of the tenth Green where Jeane had been killed, it 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.119 was like flowers and golf balls and you know, we 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.800 are I p Mr Jean, like just the most beautiful, 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.879 thoughtful memorial. And Ashley went and brought a pair of 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.960 drawings that Bowen Banks had drawn the day after Jean's death, 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.679 and she laid them out on the memorial. Bows drawing 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:17.760 is it's particularly heartbreaking. It's of Jeane in red pants 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.360 fighting off the assailant and it says Daddy my hero 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.480 at the top and shows him standing up triumphantly, and 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:30.080 the the assailant felled on the ground, and actually they 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:31.879 placed them on the ground. They sat and they cried, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.520 and then and then a dragonfly came and it lands 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.600 right and out of all the golf balls, the state 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.520 the memorials, like by the size of this whole lands 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.040 on the red pants and we're like, everyone's like quiet, 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.040 I'm like then hopped over to banks Is drawing, and 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:48.720 then came back and nestled on the red pants for 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.040 a bit. And this happens a lot in grief, where 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.040 you probe for signs and signals. Dragonflies are. One of 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:57.840 her friends mentioned these are a symbol of rebirth and 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.520 the Christian faith and in many other faiths, and actually 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.720 clung to that, and many people that knew Gene and 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:04.879 loved Gene and were scarred by this have clung to 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.199 that notion. And now they look for dragonflies everywhere they go, 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.239 and dragonflies are drawn to color. So maybe that's why 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.879 I landed on the red pants, or maybe it was Gene. 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.080 To them, it doesn't matter because they needed that and 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.560 it means a lot to them. It's been weirdly healing 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.840 and powerful. One story that Ashley's mom told me was 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.679 that the boys went out to play nine holes one 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:30.800 day at Ryan Joyce's club and a dragon They noticed 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.200 a dragonfly kind of hovering around him for nine holes 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.480 that day and uh Banks came back and said, Nana 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.760 Daddy watched me play and that just ripped my heart 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.159 out as a writer, just and as a person, you know, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.040 just hearing that. And that's the goal with everyone in 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.080 their circles. Let's let these boys grow up seeing dragonflies 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.960 clearly a metaphor for remembering their father. Let's do all 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:53.800 we can to preserve the memory of their dad, for 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:56.640 these boys going forward, and more broadly, for people he knew, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.400 and for young golfers around, young golfers around the state 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:05.879 of the Foundation. You did a really good job with 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.320 some very difficult subject matter. You can read his excellent, 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.840 heartbreaking piece about Jean Seller's murder on SI dot com. 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.160 Brian Bird said, as always, thank you for this, Thanks 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:23.240 so much. The special edition of Sports Illustrated Weekly was 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.640 produced by Cooper McKim Our sound engineer was Isaac Lee. 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.520 Our senior producer is Dan Bloom. Our executive producers are 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.440 Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez.