Speaker 1: Hey everyone, I'm John Gonzalez, host of Sports Illustrated Weekly.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try something just a little bit different this
Speaker 1: week with a special audio version of Brian byrd sayds
Speaker 1: s I dot com Daily cover. Please enjoy this standalone
Speaker 1: bonus show, Murder at Pine Tree Country Club. The reality
Speaker 1: of it sets in when I'm at home. I had
Speaker 1: to give the boys bath and then we'll by the way,
Speaker 1: my best friend not here and their daddy's not here.
Speaker 1: It was like daddy went to work and there was
Speaker 1: a bad man at daddy's work, and that batman had
Speaker 1: a gun. Last summer, a forty six year old golf
Speaker 1: pro was murdered under mysterious circumstances. Gene Siller was shot
Speaker 1: on the tenth whole of the Pine Tree Country Club
Speaker 1: in Georgia. We had to turn Jean over to start
Speaker 1: CPR on him. It was a horrible, horrible thing to
Speaker 1: come up to. The depth of your love determines the
Speaker 1: depth of your grief. The depth of my loved rand
Speaker 1: was so deep that I don't think I'll ever recover.
Speaker 1: The story made headlines at the time, but no story
Speaker 1: has gone as deep as a new piece written by
Speaker 1: Brian Byrne, said, a contributing writer for Sports Illustrated. In it,
Speaker 1: he digs into hugiene, what's the random and unlikely set
Speaker 1: of events that nevertheless led to him being murdered in
Speaker 1: broad daylight? And the family Siller sadly left behind? All Right, Brian,
Speaker 1: before we get into how and why Jeane Siller was murdered,
Speaker 1: tell us about who he was. He was someone who
Speaker 1: devoted his life to his family and to the sport
Speaker 1: that he loved. He grew up in northwest Cincinnati. He
Speaker 1: had two sisters, loved out the outdoors, loved playing golf.
Speaker 1: Once he was certified to be a head pro, he
Speaker 1: spent some time in Atlanta. He moved south. There's more
Speaker 1: courses you can play and work year round. He stopped
Speaker 1: at a couple of courses for more than a decade
Speaker 1: as an assistant pro. He had a brief head pro
Speaker 1: job that was just a real grind and didn't love
Speaker 1: it and wound up leaving that job when that club
Speaker 1: got sold. No respect for him, no respect for his family.
Speaker 1: I mean he was in at sixth and digged home
Speaker 1: to like eight. I mean they were It was like
Speaker 1: borderline of emotion. All abuse by that point, he was
Speaker 1: already married to his wife, Ashley, and they had two boys,
Speaker 1: and he was kind of a stay at home dad
Speaker 1: for a time, and Ashley was supporting them and they
Speaker 1: were in a really happy spot because he didn't have
Speaker 1: those eight hour work weeks anymore. But she to tell
Speaker 1: there was a void in him, something was missing, and
Speaker 1: he was fortunate enough to get a call from the
Speaker 1: general manager at Pine Tree Country Club, which is in
Speaker 1: northwest Atlanta, a little town called Kennesaw on the suburbs,
Speaker 1: uh someone who had interviewed him for a previous job.
Speaker 1: Brad Nikam called and said, Hey, we need a head
Speaker 1: golf pro. Would you be interested. He had a good reputation,
Speaker 1: it was smart, and it was a family man. I
Speaker 1: just knew he was confident. He couldn't resist. He needed
Speaker 1: to go back out and be outdoors, working with the
Speaker 1: sport he loved and applying an engineer's mind to improving
Speaker 1: the club for its members. And in your piece the
Speaker 1: way you write about it, and having talked to Ashley,
Speaker 1: it seemed like Jean really loved this job right. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like some of the other ones that you said
Speaker 1: previously that he wasn't crazy about this one. He was
Speaker 1: really into that's right. He he finally had found a
Speaker 1: place where he could scratch his professional itch and do
Speaker 1: what he loved. But it wasn't that long slog. It
Speaker 1: was good for their marriage. He was my amazing, big hearted,
Speaker 1: hard working husband. Again. They gave him two days off
Speaker 1: a week, even in the high season. He got Sundays
Speaker 1: and Mondays off, so he was able to play grounds
Speaker 1: of golf with the boys on the weekends, work around
Speaker 1: the house, keep the yard in shape for Ashley while
Speaker 1: she was at work on Monday's, really devote himself to
Speaker 1: his family and to his job simultaneously. We were so
Speaker 1: grateful to be together as a family. Our marriage just
Speaker 1: like flourished the last two years. It was just it
Speaker 1: wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn clothes. So things
Speaker 1: are going well at home, they're going well at work.
Speaker 1: But then we go back to last summer. Tell us, Brian,
Speaker 1: about what happened on July three. I'll take you back
Speaker 1: one day before that, July two, Gene and Ashley and
Speaker 1: the boys were driving back from a beach vacation they'd
Speaker 1: had with Jean's family, his parents, his sisters, their spouses,
Speaker 1: and kids, big happy family gathering. They've done one every year,
Speaker 1: but COVID had delayed it for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: so this was their first one in a while, and
Speaker 1: it was just a really happy week, all of them reunited.
Speaker 1: Everyone was happy. I specifically remember saying, like, God, life
Speaker 1: so good. We're like, life is so what. Our kids
Speaker 1: are healthy, Like, we're doing all this cool stuff to
Speaker 1: our house or were plans to Ginea and Ashley were
Speaker 1: talking about July the third. Jeans still had off after
Speaker 1: that vacation, but it was a big day at the club.
Speaker 1: July three was that Saturday, so they were going to
Speaker 1: have their July four celebration there and the fireworks and
Speaker 1: the cook out and all that, and Jean had a
Speaker 1: handful of younger staffers. He knew that would be there
Speaker 1: that day and knew it would be busy, and felt
Speaker 1: kind of guilty. You know, I've been gone. I want
Speaker 1: to go there and help him and be there for him.
Speaker 1: That was just who he was. He's like, are you
Speaker 1: are you cool with that? I said, yeah, just we're
Speaker 1: going to the fireworks. Please be home by six thirty.
Speaker 1: He said, of course, of course, that's what I'll do.
Speaker 1: So he got up that morning and was dressed up,
Speaker 1: dressed to the nines as always in his golf attire,
Speaker 1: had on red pants and an American flag shirt. And
Speaker 1: Nashley told me over and over how handsome she thought
Speaker 1: he looked that day. I remember making making breakfast for
Speaker 1: the boys and they're up and they're in their p
Speaker 1: days and he comes down and he's like these right
Speaker 1: red pants on. We called him Mr Fancy Pants. I
Speaker 1: look you was your fancy pist And off the work
Speaker 1: he went, strolled in at nine and uh, seemed to
Speaker 1: be having just a normal day. And then a white
Speaker 1: pickup truck showed up on the tenth tenth green that day.
Speaker 1: So why was there a white pickup truck on the green?
Speaker 1: And what happened afterwards? The court cases ongoing, but in
Speaker 1: general terms is that two men are alleged to have
Speaker 1: abducted two others that were in the back of that truck.
Speaker 1: They were bound with duct tape and zip ties. It's
Speaker 1: alleged by some people that we spoke with to have
Speaker 1: have been tied to the drug trade. A few of
Speaker 1: the people that are said to be involved have had
Speaker 1: criminal histories in the drug trade. They have these men
Speaker 1: tied up in the back of the truck. They drive
Speaker 1: somewhere around forty miles from where they are alleged to
Speaker 1: have kidnapped them, and they wind up on a street.
Speaker 1: It's a dead end street that is bisected by the
Speaker 1: cart path that runs from Pine Trees Tenth Green too.
Speaker 1: It's eleventh t and you can easily jump onto the
Speaker 1: course from that street. When you're looking down, all you
Speaker 1: really see is a lake. So it appeared again this
Speaker 1: is all alleged that the men were looking to murder
Speaker 1: these two men in the back and disposed of the
Speaker 1: bodies in the lake. So they were alleged to have
Speaker 1: killed the two men in the back. Paul Pierson and
Speaker 1: Henry Valdez shot them there at the site and then
Speaker 1: tried to It appeared at least one of the men
Speaker 1: had pulled the trigger, had tried to maroon the truck hide.
Speaker 1: The Oven said, that's at least what it appeared was happening.
Speaker 1: But there's two bunkers that guard the right side of
Speaker 1: the green, and one of that front bunker caught the truck.
Speaker 1: The front wheels came up, couldn't go anywhere, and so
Speaker 1: now you look out and there's a truck stuck out
Speaker 1: on that tenth green in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: two pm on a Saturday, July three, at a busy
Speaker 1: golf course. So Jeane looks out the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: busy golf course, sees this truck. What happens. One of
Speaker 1: his assistant pros, Harris and Bryant, was in the pro
Speaker 1: shop that day, and it's got a big expansive view
Speaker 1: out to the driving range and the tenth green is
Speaker 1: visible from the clubhouse, and he saw it. He couldn't
Speaker 1: tell what was going on, answered the call, and then
Speaker 1: saw it really actually out on the course from where
Speaker 1: it had been, and then told Jean about it, and
Speaker 1: Jean said, okay, I'll go investigate. Oftentimes, a lot of
Speaker 1: people I talked to at the club they said, you
Speaker 1: know that happens in golf, will you'll have you know,
Speaker 1: maybe there's kids out there in the course, or you know,
Speaker 1: teenagers up to no good. My other thought was somebody
Speaker 1: had seizure, hardtack, or somebody got super drunk early on
Speaker 1: the points in July weekend. You don't assume it's something
Speaker 1: to furious, but you got to go talk to him,
Speaker 1: get him out, even off for help. They thought, in
Speaker 1: this case, someone must have had a car accident broken down,
Speaker 1: or that's the logical explanation in a scenario like that.
Speaker 1: So Jean hops in a golf cart, drives up the
Speaker 1: cart path that straddles the left side of the tenth fairway,
Speaker 1: and then gets to the green, and that's where the
Speaker 1: alleged shooter, Brian Roden, is alleged to have shot him
Speaker 1: twice and killed him instantly. So Jean wasn't even supposed
Speaker 1: to be there that day. He goes in to do
Speaker 1: a good deed to help his younger staffers, he sees
Speaker 1: the truck, he's murdered. What happens to the assailants? One
Speaker 1: was only alleged to be involved in the kidnappings Justin Pruett.
Speaker 1: The other, who's the alleged murderer, Brian Roden, was twenty
Speaker 1: three at the time, of former Metro Atlanta high school
Speaker 1: football player who had quite a few run ins with
Speaker 1: the law drug related defenses. He's alleged to have darted
Speaker 1: off into the woods. A few of the members saw
Speaker 1: the perpetrator runaway, leaving the truck literally idling on the
Speaker 1: green with Geane up there. People on the range heard
Speaker 1: the gunshots. People are scrambling and then when the members
Speaker 1: comes running in and tells me, I need called man
Speaker 1: and one of the shots were fired and they thought
Speaker 1: Jean was hurt. A few other members, one of whom
Speaker 1: was a nurse, popping golf carts to drive up to
Speaker 1: try to help Jean because they can see he's lying prone.
Speaker 1: People in the driving range said he's been shot, He's hurt.
Speaker 1: They went up there to try to help him to
Speaker 1: administer CPR. We found him on the ground and then
Speaker 1: we rolled him over and started CPR until the police
Speaker 1: got there. Through her training in her years, she knew
Speaker 1: that that the gene was gone, but she still tried
Speaker 1: in vain to save him. Brian, before we continue on
Speaker 1: to get to Jean and his family in the aftermath,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about what happened to Roden. Was he caught
Speaker 1: and then also what happened to his accomplice. It's quite
Speaker 1: a winding story. He was actually much later that night
Speaker 1: he was arrested for d u I. He had not
Speaker 1: yet been tied to the murders. He was arrested, booked,
Speaker 1: held for a day or two, eventually let go and
Speaker 1: they confiscated in that arrest. They pulled him over because
Speaker 1: he had broken tail light, He had a bunch of
Speaker 1: fake ideas on him. He had a backpack full of cash.
Speaker 1: They confiscated the cash, and then once authorities had tied
Speaker 1: him to the murders, they lured him back to the
Speaker 1: police station to arrest him for the murders under the
Speaker 1: guise of returning the cash they had confiscated in the
Speaker 1: d U I And what is his current situation, I mean,
Speaker 1: is the trial upcoming? How much time is he looking at?
Speaker 1: The trial is ongoing, It's in Cobb County. Jury trial
Speaker 1: is scheduled for the coming months. Prosecutors investigators have been
Speaker 1: exceedingly tight lipped about the particulars of the case, about
Speaker 1: the broader ties to any drug involvement of the drug trade.
Speaker 1: I couldn't get a peep out of him and trying
Speaker 1: to piece together what had happened at the scene beyond
Speaker 1: eyewitness accounts and police documents. So a lot more is
Speaker 1: going to come out of the trial itself here in
Speaker 1: the coming months. So this is a tragic case of
Speaker 1: wrong place and wrong time for Geane Siller. And while
Speaker 1: it has all of these spectacular very difficult to believe
Speaker 1: crime elements. It's not really a crime story that you
Speaker 1: wrote about. It's much more about Gene and his family
Speaker 1: and who he left behind. That was important to us,
Speaker 1: and trying to tell that family story in the human story,
Speaker 1: because we know things like this can get sensationalized a lot.
Speaker 1: People love a crime drama, but there's always a severe,
Speaker 1: raw human impact, and something like this, particularly when there's
Speaker 1: this sort of suddenness and this sort of violence, it
Speaker 1: was devastating. I've reported on quite a bit of tragic
Speaker 1: circumstances people who have passed away, but I have to
Speaker 1: say that this one seemed more raw than pretty much
Speaker 1: anything I've reported on before because of the violent nature
Speaker 1: of it, and the family is still reeling. Ashley, we
Speaker 1: stayed in contact in the many months since I started
Speaker 1: reporting this, and she puts on a brave face. She's
Speaker 1: a corporate sales rep for a T and T, so
Speaker 1: she's good at putting the facade up. But she said
Speaker 1: she's just quietly devastated. Every day it's just her and
Speaker 1: the boys. It's almost like the reality of it sets in.
Speaker 1: When I'm at home. I need to give the boys baths,
Speaker 1: and I need to put them to bed, and I
Speaker 1: need to pack their backpacks, and they need to clean
Speaker 1: up the house, and then I need to do this
Speaker 1: and this and this and then and then I'll buy
Speaker 1: the way. My best fast not here, and their daddy's
Speaker 1: not here. She does have a massive support at home
Speaker 1: from her her extended family. They're all live around the
Speaker 1: Atlanta metro area and they're there for her. For her.
Speaker 1: Mom has been someone to lean on. But just the
Speaker 1: little moments along the way of what we wanted to
Speaker 1: capture that are just so brutal. How do you break
Speaker 1: the news of the two little boys the next day?
Speaker 1: You cannot lie to them. Kids need answers. They have
Speaker 1: to trust you, which means you have to tell them.
Speaker 1: It was like Daddy went to work and there was
Speaker 1: a bad man at daddy's work and that batman had
Speaker 1: a gun and that bad man shot Daddy with his gun,
Speaker 1: and Daddy died and we're not going to see him again.
Speaker 1: But don't worry, because that bad guy is going to
Speaker 1: jail forever. Their faces were like, oh, I would have
Speaker 1: done anything to take the being away from them. It
Speaker 1: was banks. It's just confused, like, but what daddy and
Speaker 1: the bow just I mean, he was devastated. So to
Speaker 1: watch them and their pain was just like it was
Speaker 1: like and then you have Jean's parents in Ohio. That's
Speaker 1: one of the hardest phone calls I've ever done. And
Speaker 1: I've done thousands of interviews, and that was one of
Speaker 1: the hardest, if not the hardest, because they were there
Speaker 1: in their mid seventies. I fell on the living room
Speaker 1: floor and start praying our father. So with a mother,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to tell me you love them,
Speaker 1: and they'll make kiss them, you know, but we didn't
Speaker 1: have that privileged at all. The sentiments they expressed were
Speaker 1: We've been lucky to have this life that we've had
Speaker 1: to raise successful children. They're all happy, they're all healthy.
Speaker 1: They just said they just don't know if they'll ever
Speaker 1: look at the world the same. They don't know if
Speaker 1: they'll ever recover. I don't think I could even get
Speaker 1: out of it. And I just, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: was well they say that you know, the depth of
Speaker 1: your love determines the depth of your grief. There's just
Speaker 1: the depth of my love for him was so deep
Speaker 1: that I don't think I'll ever recover. I can guess
Speaker 1: at the answer here. But what does Ashley have to
Speaker 1: say about Brian Roden. She doesn't let it dwell, she
Speaker 1: tries not to let it fester, but it's inevitable. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine if you were in that spot, what
Speaker 1: you'd feel towards the from who's accused of doing that
Speaker 1: to your life and to your boys. I think he's
Speaker 1: a terrible, disgusting excuse for a human. I don't hate anybody,
Speaker 1: and I loathe him with every ounce of my soul.
Speaker 1: A month after Jean was murdered, Pine Tree held a
Speaker 1: memorial tournament in Jean's honor, and there are a lot
Speaker 1: of golf luminaries who were involved tell us about that event.
Speaker 1: It was called the Gene Siller Red Pants Memorial Tournament
Speaker 1: because he was wearing those red pants that day and
Speaker 1: was known for addressing flashily and stocking the pro shop
Speaker 1: with flashy clothes. So they tried to honor that, and
Speaker 1: it was a fundraiser. People paid the donations to the
Speaker 1: Gene Siller Memorial Grant, which Actuley has started to honor
Speaker 1: Jeane and help young junior golfers in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: That's going to be his lasting legacy. And something they're
Speaker 1: trying to help perpetuate his memory. And quite a few
Speaker 1: p GA players professionals donated signed items, signed bags. We
Speaker 1: had Hideki matsu Yama donating things. There were items from
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, Justin, Thomas Bryson, dam Oh. There
Speaker 1: were a ton that heard about this. That day alone,
Speaker 1: they raised more than two h thousand dollars and the
Speaker 1: foundation donations have far eclipse that in the months since.
Speaker 1: But it was it was a chance for Ashley to
Speaker 1: address the club and the crowd. A lot of local
Speaker 1: p G a head pros, not guys you see on tour,
Speaker 1: but guys like Jean who are head pro at club.
Speaker 1: They all came. He has lots of friends, very very
Speaker 1: close friends who came and played. One of his close
Speaker 1: friends played with his clubs that day and really struggled
Speaker 1: on the tenth hole to get on the tenth hole,
Speaker 1: and I can't even pull it back. I can't play
Speaker 1: the holes. So before the funeral, which was about a
Speaker 1: week or so after the murder, Ashley and her closest
Speaker 1: friends they went out to the Tenth Green so a
Speaker 1: makeshift memorial had popped up. Either people that knew him
Speaker 1: our club members are complete. Strangers had come and left
Speaker 1: flowers and cards, and at the spot just in front
Speaker 1: of the tenth Green where Jeane had been killed, it
Speaker 1: was like flowers and golf balls and you know, we
Speaker 1: are I p Mr Jean, like just the most beautiful,
Speaker 1: thoughtful memorial. And Ashley went and brought a pair of
Speaker 1: drawings that Bowen Banks had drawn the day after Jean's death,
Speaker 1: and she laid them out on the memorial. Bows drawing
Speaker 1: is it's particularly heartbreaking. It's of Jeane in red pants
Speaker 1: fighting off the assailant and it says Daddy my hero
Speaker 1: at the top and shows him standing up triumphantly, and
Speaker 1: the the assailant felled on the ground, and actually they
Speaker 1: placed them on the ground. They sat and they cried,
Speaker 1: and then and then a dragonfly came and it lands
Speaker 1: right and out of all the golf balls, the state
Speaker 1: the memorials, like by the size of this whole lands
Speaker 1: on the red pants and we're like, everyone's like quiet,
Speaker 1: I'm like then hopped over to banks Is drawing, and
Speaker 1: then came back and nestled on the red pants for
Speaker 1: a bit. And this happens a lot in grief, where
Speaker 1: you probe for signs and signals. Dragonflies are. One of
Speaker 1: her friends mentioned these are a symbol of rebirth and
Speaker 1: the Christian faith and in many other faiths, and actually
Speaker 1: clung to that, and many people that knew Gene and
Speaker 1: loved Gene and were scarred by this have clung to
Speaker 1: that notion. And now they look for dragonflies everywhere they go,
Speaker 1: and dragonflies are drawn to color. So maybe that's why
Speaker 1: I landed on the red pants, or maybe it was Gene.
Speaker 1: To them, it doesn't matter because they needed that and
Speaker 1: it means a lot to them. It's been weirdly healing
Speaker 1: and powerful. One story that Ashley's mom told me was
Speaker 1: that the boys went out to play nine holes one
Speaker 1: day at Ryan Joyce's club and a dragon They noticed
Speaker 1: a dragonfly kind of hovering around him for nine holes
Speaker 1: that day and uh Banks came back and said, Nana
Speaker 1: Daddy watched me play and that just ripped my heart
Speaker 1: out as a writer, just and as a person, you know,
Speaker 1: just hearing that. And that's the goal with everyone in
Speaker 1: their circles. Let's let these boys grow up seeing dragonflies
Speaker 1: clearly a metaphor for remembering their father. Let's do all
Speaker 1: we can to preserve the memory of their dad, for
Speaker 1: these boys going forward, and more broadly, for people he knew,
Speaker 1: and for young golfers around, young golfers around the state
Speaker 1: of the Foundation. You did a really good job with
Speaker 1: some very difficult subject matter. You can read his excellent,
Speaker 1: heartbreaking piece about Jean Seller's murder on SI dot com.
Speaker 1: Brian Bird said, as always, thank you for this, Thanks
Speaker 1: so much. The special edition of Sports Illustrated Weekly was
Speaker 1: produced by Cooper McKim Our sound engineer was Isaac Lee.
Speaker 1: Our senior producer is Dan Bloom. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez.