The Brutal Murder of Genore Guillory

Means, opportunity, motivethree things a good homicide investigator wants to know.

Phillip Skipper had the means and the opportunity to kill Genore Guillory.  He had access to guns, to knives, and probably had a baseball bat lying around his trailer somewhere.  He lived across the street from her.  His wife even had a key to her house. 

But why? 

On the surface it didn't make sense.  The Skippers were Genore's neighbors.  They were her friends. 

At least they had been, until the incident with the goat.

Early in his investigation, McKey learned that a rift had opened between Genore and the Skippers a month or so before her death.

Phillip had a thing for pit bulls and Genore had been keeping one of his dogs in a kennel.  One day, the dog broke out and killed a goat that belonged to the Skippers.

Amy had been furious.  She stormed over to Genore's house to use the phone.  She called Genore at work, shouting and cursing at her.

The call so upset Genore that she started crying.  One of her co-workers heard Genore tell Amy to leave the key on the kitchen counter and to get out of her house.

Genore told friends at work that she'd had enough of the Skippers and was severing all ties with them.

McKey wondered if a dead goat was enough of a reason for Phillip Skipper to commit murder.

Then Donny Fisher told McKey about Genore's $25,000 life insurance policy.  She had named Phillip and Amy Skipper as the beneficiaries.

According to Fisher, after Genore's death, Phillip had been mad about the amount of the death benefit.  He'd been expecting a lot more. 

"She told him that it'd be a hundred thousand dollars," Fisher said.  "That's what he was expecting."

Now McKey had a motive.