Murder or Suicide? Christian Andreacchio - Part 2 - Killer Queens: A True Crime Podcast

On February 26, 2014, Christian Andreacchio was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment. After a 45 minute investigation, the police on the scene ruled his death a suicide and closed the case. However, Christian’s family refused to believe that and their investigation would turn up a great deal of evidence that pointed to the fact that his death was more likely a homicide.

For part one, click here!

The “Investigation” and Inconsistencies

First we’ll start with the inconsistencies so you can see why the “investigation” wasn’t an investigation and why the Andreacchios started their own and hired their own experts.

Interviewing Friends and Family

Before making a decision about whether a death is a suicide or homicide, it is typical of the police to talk to friends and family and get an idea of the person’s life and his state of mind. This was not done. At all. Whitley and Dylan were asked, but that was it. Taylor, Avery, the Andreacchios, coworkers, his brother (who he lived with)…they didn’t talk to anyone before deciding this was a suicide.

The Gun and Bullet

Christian was right handed, but the gun was found between his left thigh and the tub. Even more questionable was that his gun had been manually decocked. His kind of gun didn’t do that automatically. So the assumption, somehow, is that Christian shot himself in the right side of his head with his non-dominant left hand and somehow decocked his gun putting a live round in the chamber before collapsing on the side of the tub and dying.

It was noted by the Andreacchios lawyer that this powerful gun would not have ended up underneath him. The recoil would have sent it to the right since Christian was shot in the right side. Then the bullet was found in the tub and the bullet had been found to have wall board (dry wall) in it. There was a through and through wound in Christian’s head meaning the bullet went somewhere after leaving Chrisitan’s body. There was a bullet hole in the bathroom wall by the light switch, but that’s not where the bullet was found.

Gunshot Residue Tests

It was shown that all three people in that apartment (Christian, Dylan, and Whitley) had GSR on their hands. If Dylan wasn’t in the house, how did he get GSR on his hands? When they had originally been told they were going to be tested, Whitley immediately told the police that they would find GSR on her. She had gone shooting the night before (and apparently didn’t wash her hands or shower or anything in between).

However while, what the Culpable podcast called “Gun Night,” was confirmed to have happened, the other people there were inconsistent with whether or not Whitley had ever shot a gun that night. Whitley is adamant that she did, but the guys Matt and Jett Miller (cousins) first said she never shot a gun and said she was terrified of guns. Later, Jett would say, wait, yes she did shoot like 4 shots, but Matt was sure that she had never fired a gun that night.

Matt made a statement to the police that was transcribed as: “I pacifically asked Whitley if she wanted to shot [sic] and she said no because she is terrified of guns.”

Also, no fingerprints were on the gun. Not even Christian’s.

Blood Spatter

If Christian shot himself, he would have instantly collapsed and died. The paramedic that responded noted that that gun is very powerful, and there is absolutely no life after someone is shot in the head with that. There’s no turning your body or putting the gun down. There was no indication that a bullet had hit any part of the tub, and yet that’s where Christian’s head was and where the majority of the blood was.

Weirder still was that Dylan and Whitley both said in their statements that they opened the door. But when the blood spatter was examined by the experts, there was blood spatter on the outside of the door and someone mentioned blood spatter on the stairs.

The fact that Christian’s body appeared to have been moved was explained differently by Whitley and Dylan. Whitley said that Dylan moved Christian because he went through his pockets looking for money. Dylan said that Whitley moved him going into his pockets for cigarettes. Dylan and Whitley were never photographed so we don’t know if there was blood on them.

Also in the realm of blood spatter…After Christian’s body had been removed and the apartment was open again, the Andreacchios did their own evidence collection. Anything they found that seemed important was immediately delivered to the police. They found a bloody knife that was tested and found to not have Christian’s blood on it. They also found a bloody t-shirt that was stuffed behind the toilet in the same bathroom.

Statements

First of all their statements had very different amounts of detail and in their interviews, Whitley agreed that Dylan opened the bathroom door and would say in a text later that Dylan never went upstairs. She said she opened the door and cried and held Christian’s hands. In Dylan’s statement, not only did he open the bathroom door, he had to wake Whitley up and tell her Christian was dead.

In Dylan’s statement, he told the detectives that he had listened to the fight with Christian and Whitley when he and Christian got home. He told the detectives that the argument had gotten so heated that Christian was yelling “Do you love me?” repeatedly at Whitley and then put his gun to his head as though if she didn’t answer him in the affirmative, he was going to pull the trigger. However, during Whitley’s questioning, she was asked if Christian was ever suicidal or if he had ever threatened to hurt himself. She said, “I don’t think so.”

This is interesting for a few reasons. 1.) The incident Dylan described happened mere hours ago, you’re going to remember it. 2.) You’re going to remember it even more if it was out of the ordinary. 3.) Text messages were found from Christian to Whitley that directly contradicted that denial from her.

Whitley and Dylan both said in their statements that Dylan had to wake Whitley up. In this case, somehow Whitley slept through the sound of a .45 caliber gun going off in their apartment, but another woman a few houses down and the apartment office staff all recall hearing the shot (at different volumes based on their proximity).

The Phones, The Calls, and Texts

Christian’s, Dylan’s, and Whitley’s phone records were eventually examined and there were many, many text messages. During that last 24 hour period there were said to have been about 120 texts from Christian to Whitley compared to her maybe 20 to him. She had been ignoring him. Many of these texts were intense and desperate. And by the end, Christian was writing blatantly, textbook suicidal messages to Whitley:

Christian to Whitley 2/25-2/26:

Live to die right lets skip the middle shit get to the dieing
I’ll leave u alone it on u Whitley I love you by the time I get off here or make it home if we work this out then we work it out if not then ight …. U have ran me into the ground I love you if you want to let go go …. I’m sry
Personally I advise u to do the same thing because no one will ever love or care about u like I will dont u ever think it’ll happen any other way
The only thing I ever cared about I was not enought to keep in my life and after I loose that I don’t care anymore
I’m not playing a gilt trip on u I’m just lettin you kno that that is how I look at my life until u nothing made sence I was just passing days waiting my time I’m not doing that again I’m not letting myself come to that again
If this doesn’t work when I get to my apartment I’m putting my pistol in my mouth and I’m ending this once and for all becaus e whitkey your the closest I have ever been to happiness and without that it doesn’t get any better from ther I don’t want to get worst and that is it for me
Do you love me….
Dout that I am wat you want
Don’t throw away everything u have worked towards
Don’t do anything that you will wake up and look in the mirror and regret please
Please
Please don’t do this
Ur cutting me off Whitley …. Your going to loose someone who actually truly care for you
Whit will you please answer me or text atleast let me kno who u r with to make me feel better
I think we deserve atleast that
I’d appreciate it if u would let me kno when u can talk please
That’s fucked up
Ass hole
Imma need u to turn ur read receipts on
Mmm mm m
I am tired of living I’m tired of being me and I just want it all to go away I want to go away
This world would be so much easier if I could just go to sleep tonight and not wake up in the morning
Whitley what the fuck come on
I kno you had read some of my fucking messages answer me
Please answer me
I just got on a few days ago
What is ur fucking deal
Answer the damn phone or I’m cutting the mothafucker off
Whitley what the fuck
Answer the fucking phone
What the fuck
Y is ur read receipts back off and ur location
You know I do actually care where ur at or what ur doing or that ur ok ….
Fucking answer me
Whitley
Please
Please answer me
Stop this shit right now …. Tell me you love me tell me we will always be together and that we are going to make this work
Stop
Don’t push me away
Whitley
Your mine I am yours and that will never change
I am not letting this go
I want you and I am not letting you go
Please Whitley I want us
Please don’t leave
You stole my heart u swept my feet from under me and I am still stumbling I never thought anyone would drive me as crazy as you do

Whitley’s mom would later claim that these were not the first suicidal threats Christian had made and that, in fact, he had done so just 2 months before his death. Christi said, “He had gotten intoxicated…and getting angry and heated and he had put the gun to his head. And he even would put it to her [Whitley’s] head…And he was asking her if she loved him.”

Whitley was also texting with her “friend” Matt Miller (more on him in a minute):

February 26th, 2014 11:00 am

Whitley: Hey, Christian is kicking me out. I need you to come get me please.
Matt: I went to work.
Whitley: Please! I have nowhere to go.
Matt: Call [redacted]. I really can’t leave now.
Whitley: After last night you can’t leave?
Matt: It’s a job. I was already late. I swear I would, but I can’t.
Whitley: Did I say your name last night?
Matt: No. Why?
Whitley: Because I normally do. Duh, little boy.
Matt: What do you mean?
Whitley: I don’t remember shit from last night.
Matt: Nothing?

March 1st, 2014

Whitley to Matt: This is Whitley. What you doin?
Whitley to Matt: I feel like you’re avoiding me.

March 3, 2014

Whitley to Matt: Hey, because I had gunshot residue on my hands from us shooting guns
and they asked who it was with you’re not a suspect. They already declared it to be a suicide because they know by the ballistic tests what kind of gun that was shot and what time and the gun powder on Christian’s hands.

***The GSR results were not finished and released until March 31st.***

March 3rd still…

Whitley: When did they question you?
Matt: They didn’t. His family did.
Whitley: What did they say?
Matt: Saying that it wasn’t suicide and I better pray I wasn’t behind it. Like, I always get
caught up in shit because of you.
Whitley: I’m getting threatened too, but I can’t help it. That’s not even the issue to me.
The issue is that he’s gone and there’s no way it was a homicide either because he was shot in the side of the head. I didn’t even know that ‘til yesterday and I didn’t have his kind of gun powder on my hands.
Matt: And I’m sorry he’s gone, but I didn’t talk to him or nothing and now I’m in it.
Whitley: Because I shot guns with you the night before he shot himself, Matt!

Whitley also told Matt that she found Chrisitan in the bathroom:

March 4, 2014

Matt: Did you find Christian or did Dylan find him?
Whitley: Dylan.
Matt: You told me you woke up to a gunshot and found him.
Whitley: No. Dylan found him, told me, and I found him.
Matt: Your story has changed so much.
Whitley: What?!
Matt: So where was he shot? You told me something completely different.
Whitley: His head! I didn’t even know where he was shot when it happened because it
didn’t go through. I just found that out. How did I do that?
Matt: You told me y’all fell asleep together and you woke up to a gunshot, ran upstairs,
and found him. You said nothin’ about Dylan. You said you found him.
Whitley: Dylan didn’t even go upstairs. Dylan told me to check on him and I did and he was dead.
Matt: Dylan said he found him, but you told the police a whole different story.
Whitley: You’re tryin’ to say I’m guilty.
Matt: Fuck. I don’t know. Nobody knows. Why would he kill himself? Everybody’s
trying to find out.
Whitley: Wish I could tell you.
Matt: Yeah.

March 23, 2014

Whitley to Matt: My story did change because I didn’t want to make you feel bad. You have to consider I’ve went through more than I should have with all this. I was cleared as a suspect and it was ruled as a suicide. Did anyone stop to think my whole entire life ended by finding what I did in the bathtub from one night of fucking up? I’m not saying this because I wanna get his with you – just to clear stuff up.
Whitley to Matt: LIfe’s too short. Smoke one.

Todd Andreacchio says that he doesn’t trust any of the text messages because Dylan and Whitley had been in possession of the phone for a good amount of time before it was turned over. The DA however states, “The phone…was on the tugboat with Christian at the time that those messages were sent. And so, I do not know of any way that those messages could have been manipulated to appear that they were coming from the boat if she was in Meridian.”

What was even more odd was that Chrisitan’s phone hadn’t had any activity since 12:40 pm when he got a call from Dylan. And despite the time of death being determined to be about 3:30 pm (or earlier) – Christian’s phone was active again at 3:44 pm. From 3:44 pm – 3:54 pm, Chrisitan’s phone was used to call Matt Miller 6 times and again at 5:11 pm. Then from 4:48 pm – 4:55 pm, 2 unknown numbers were called. One turned out to be a close friend of Dylan’s and the other turned out to be Dylan’s mom.

Credit Union

Dylan claimed that Christian gave him his debit card and told him to pull all of his money out of the back. Dylan said that Christian wanted him to have the money. However, when Dylan went to the bank, he was turned away after being told that only the account holder could pull money out. Rae said that Christian knew this because he and Whitley had gone to buy furniture once, and he sent Whitley with his card to get cash for the furniture and she had been turned away for the same reason.

Christian’s Jeep

Christian’s Jeep was parked at the marina where he boarded the tugboat for his hitch in Vicksburg (about 4 hours from Meridian), but when it was checked later, it had been moved from where Christian had parked it. Chrisitan’s Jeep was where he kept one of his guns, but if he had gotten Dylan to drive him to the Jeep, why didn’t Dylan mention it and why wouldn’t Christian drive it home from there? Unfortunately, we don’t know who moved the Jeep, because the security cameras at the marina were just for show apparently and were not functioning. Even though Dylan’s statement was that they drove straight from St. Rose to Meridian, Rae had a screenshot from Dylan’s Twitter that said “Meridian to New Orleans to Vicksburg then back to Meridian before lunch.”

Law Enforcement Lack of Interest

The Andreacchios tried to talk to Detective DaMarcus Wilburn and called him multiple times, but he never returned a single call. To this day, they have never spoken to him. Rae made an appointment with the chief of police, James Lee 3 weeks after Christian’s death, but she recalls him being very arrogant and condescending. She wanted the case reopened with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), but Lee refused and suggested that the Andreacchios “go home and accept it.” Rae asked if he’d do the same if this happened to his daughter and you knew that she didn’t kill herself, would you just “go home and accept it?” Lee said he would. Rae told him that if that’s how he felt then there was no reason for them to be talking anymore.

The Andreacchios have been brushed off and led on by detectives for years in this case and after her meeting with Chief Lee, Rae became a bulldog and an investigator in her own right. Chief Lee was fired not long after this for improprieties (sexual harassment claims) that the Mayor Percy Bland said made him lose faith in his ability to run the department. Buck Roberts was appointed to the chief as interim until the new chief was hired. Roberts allowed MBI to come in (May 2014), they wrapped up in November 2014, and created a report that was given to the current District Attorney, Bilbo Mitchell. Bilbo would claim he never got the report.

Four months after Christian’s death (July/August 2014), Benny Dubose was appointed as chief, and he took over the Andreacchio case.

He said, “A lot of the stuff didn’t make sense.” When the gun was sent to the lab “they did not find any prints on the gun at all…Christian’s prints should have been on the gun…The gun was cleaned – wiped down.” He also reflected on the fact that the bathroom was “surprisingly clean” and there should have been blood “splatter.” He declared the first investigation to have been “bungled.” “Taking pictures of the crime scene with a doggone cell phone?…They all were issued cameras…And the pictures, needless to say, were terrible.”

On this point, DA Coleman agreed with Dubose stating that there was incompetence and lack of thoroughness. While Dubose agrees that this wasn’t a suicide, he also doesn’t think it was a homicide. When asked which he thought was the real manner of death, Dubose said, “neither…I don’t think Mr. Andreacchio killed himself on purpose. And I don’t think anybody else killed Mr. Andreacchio on purpose.” He feels like Christian was holding his gun to his head like before, but this time in the bathroom and this time, maybe Whitley reached for the gun and it discharged. He feels it was an accident.

See, he claimed they had new information from Whitley, and she was actually thinking about it and thinks it was an accident because Christian had gotten the gun modified to be a hair trigger. Rae and Todd don’t agree with that either. Todd said, “anything’s possible,” but he doesn’t believe that. Rae said “everything points to murder posed as suicide.” Rae was like, well what happens if you find out that the gun hadn’t been modified? She was told, well…then we’re gonna have a problem! Rae told them that that gun hadn’t been modified, because if it had been it would have been modified at a specific place and that place already confirmed they didn’t. Your move, MPD.

The gun was sent for a drop test to see if it would malfunction, and it never did. Rae had also already talked to the Kimber representative about the likelihood of that type of gun malfunctioning, and they told her that was not possible. Those guns don’t malfunction. In an attempt to delay the Andreacchios, Jerry Bratu was hired. His entire job was explained to Rae as investigating cold cases and, specifically, he was going to focus on Christian’s case. Rae described him as the go-between for them and DA Bilbo Mitchell, and that she’s not sure he did anything or talked to anyone in the year and a half he was on the case.

Every time the Andreacchios contacted Jerry Bratu, he would have to run things through Bilbo. Meanwhile he would also be lying to the Andreacchios and basically convincing them to pay for things. Rae and Jerry had a conversation about the possibility and helpfulness of a crime scene reconstruction. Jerry was like, yeah that would be great, but we don’t have the budget. So, Rae researched and hired her own crime scene reconstruction specialist. Jerry wasn’t convinced with the reconstruction’s finding that this was a staged suicide.

Jerry mentioned to Rae that a DNA sample that was on Chrisitan’s gun was too small to test so Rae researched a lab that specialized in small samples. She found a company that explained that they could use that small amount to rule people out. Rae told Jerry. Jerry said he’d have to run it by Bilbo to have the sample released. Bilbo went to Jacksonville, Florida to talk to another forensics company Rae found and told the Andreacchios to hold off on the DNA, because he thinks he has enough for a murder charge. Nothing happened.

Rae started in on Bratu again, but he hemmed and hawed that he couldn’t talk to Whitley because she was a minor. Rae sends him a letter with a list of minors (14-15-year-olds) who were arrested for murder and was like, well, Jerry, maybe you could talk to the detectives in these case because they seem to be able to talk to minors. Jerry said, oh you must have misunderstood.

Jerry told Rae that they were waiting for the coroner “to get over being mad at them” so they could get his crime scene pictures. Rae was like, well I have the coroner’s cell phone number, I’ll just give him a call. The coroner told Rae that he had never once in his career taken pictures of the crime scene. So, then Rae calls out Jerry Bratu for lying. He said, oh you must have misunderstood me again.

Jerry said, gee it would be great if we could use luminal on the apartment to see if there were any other traces of blood. Rae was like, yes that would be great let’s do that. Jerry explained that they didn’t have anyone trained in that, so he was going to search it on YouTube or Ask Jeeves and watch a how-to video and then he could probably do it. Rae didn’t love that and didn’t trust that his results would be worth anything or that he wouldn’t damage anything. So she was like, I’ll find an expert in that, but then Jerry told her that they were actually not going to be able to do it because the apartment complex was wanting the city to sign a liability waiver taking responsibility for anything they damage in the process and the city wasn’t willing to do that.

Rae’s track record with Jerry Bratu led her to feel like she needed to do her own follow up. She went to the apartment complex manager who informed her that she had never talked to any one about that, but she was sure that the girl in the apartment now would let them do it if it would help the case. She checked with the tenant and she was right, the tenant was fine with it. Rae signed nothing. When she, once again called out Jerry Bratu for lying, he, once again was like, oops, looks like you misunderstood me again.

He asked to be taken off the case.

By now, Rae and Todd had accumulated their own team of forensic investigators to examine the blood spatter in the bathroom, the location of the bullet, DNA, and pretty much every other aspect that should have been the responsibility of the police department. The Andreacchios had their own private investigator (Max Mayes) and an attorney (Cynthia Speejens) on their team. Cynthia said that at first she thought she was going to be consoling a grieving mother who was having a hard time accepting that her son had killed himself, but that’s not what she found in Rae Andreacchio. Cynthia said that the more she found out about the case, the more outrageous it was. She also said that “to come to a conclusion that this was a suicide takes some real gymnastics.”

Time of Death and Coroner’s Ruling

Another part of this that comes into question is the time of death. Christian was described by multiple experts to be in partial rigor. This takes a few hours, meaning that he was dead for a few hours before 911 was called. Time for a clean up. The coroner also noted that there was lividity on the back of Christian’s legs that was still present at autopsy. This means that he was on his back or at least seated when he died and was in that position for a while allowing the blood to settle before being placed in that final position laying over the side of the tub. The coroner would also rule the manner of death to be “undetermined” not suicide. However, later a forensic pathologist labeled the death a suicide and time of death was listed as 3:45 pm.

Sketchy People

Whitley and Dylan are by far the most prominent suspects, but many other people in their circle of friends have been brought in as well. First was Matt and Jett Miller. They were at “Gun Night” with Whitley and have given contradictory accounts of that night in regards to whether Whitley shot the gun.

Matt was also the guy that Whitley was driving around with that made Christian come home in the first place. He was Whitley’s side piece, and she had slept with him the night before Christian’s death. He has stated that he thinks Whitley is a compulsive liar, manipulative, and sneaky. He believes that she killed Christian because Christian was threatening to take everything from her, but he doesn’t think that Dylan was part of it.

Also included in the circle of sketch was Hayes Mitchell. Hayes was the son of then DA Bilbo Mitchell. After Chrisitan’s death, he was on the tugboat where he worked and started running his mouth. A guy on the boat was from Dalewood and knew Christian, but Hayes didn’t know that…yet. Hayes was saying a bunch of things and ended up saying that “it wasn’t supposed to go down like that.” Then when the coworker started asking questions like, what do you mean, Hayes asked where he was from and then stopped talking. Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to get the rest of Hayes’ version, because he died of a drug overdose.

Rae said she felt like whatever he knew was eating at him, and he used the drugs to silence the feelings. She said that what she believes happened was that someone knew that Christian had money, and they were planning to rob him. But Christian had no fear of anyone or anything and would have fought whoever. Maybe they tried to rob him, he fought, they killed him, and then everyone cleaned and staged the scene. All these people were deep into drug addictions (Whitley, Dylan, and Hayes specifically) and were probably thinking Christian would hand over the money and they’d all move on. Rae’s brother, Chris also thinks there had to be more than just Whitley and Dylan. He doesn’t think the 2 of them would be able to get the jump on Christian.

The Evidence Found by the Andreacchio’s Team

On Team Andreacchio were world renowned, highly respected experts such as Dr. Jonathan Arden. Dr. Arden had previously worked on the DC Snipers case and the Anthrax cases in the DC area. He was the Washington DC medical examiner and a forensic pathologist. Dr. Arden looked over everything and came to the same conclusion as the Andreacchios – Christian was murdered. He explained that there were multiple points in the crime scene and with Christian’s body that did not line up with the suicide theory. Dr. Arden was quoted as saying, “I’ve performed about 3,000 autopsies on my own…From the beginning, my reaction was – something is wrong here.”

First was the gun. Christian’s gun was a Kimber .45 caliber, and it was a powerful, semi-automatic pistol. He reiterated the fact that Christian is right handed and was shot in the right side of the head, but the gun was found between him and the tub. He also commented on the final location of the bullet: “Somehow the bullet ends up in the bathtub and he’s leaning over the bathtub. So, none of this lines up for him to have shot himself in the position where he was found. It simply makes no sense…Clearly, somebody put him there. It’s a staged scene.” He also believes that the time of death was earlier than reported based on rigor mortis and lividity.

Dr. Arden also suggested that maybe Christian was already dead before Dylan left for the credit union. The staged scene was also considered accurate by the private investigator from Culpable, Sheila Wysocki. She thinks someone is hiding something. Three years after Dubose became chief, he was replaced by Captain Jay Arrington. Arrington was a 30 year veteran detective with the Meridian Police Department and he also came to the conclusion of homicide and stated that he had no doubt that Christian’s body was moved and that he had died hours before the 911 call.

However, Arrington told the DA, Kassie Coleman, that he would like to change the charges to culpable negligence manslaughter and present it to a new grand jury. Coleman agreed to resubmit it if they had new evidence. Arrington wrote the arrest warrants for Whitley and Dylan, but they were never served.

In October of 2017, the Mississippi State Prosecutor presented the case to a grand jury, but Arrington was not allowed to attend. He expressed his confusion and said that this was the only time in his career that he’d seen a grand jury go on without hearing from the detective. In 2017 a grand jury decided not to indict Whitley and Dylan for the murder of Christian without hearing all the evidence according to 48 Hours. The jurors explained their decision saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove one way or the other beyond a reasonable doubt.

DA Coleman was still adamant that it was a suicide. She said, “Well, at this point, there has been further investigation by multiple agencies…that have determined it to be a suicide.” Rae feels that if all the information is presented fairly to the grand jury, people will be indicted and a trial will commence.

The Fight Continues

After Christian’s death, the Andreacchios encountered a new kind of horror where they were confronted with their son’s autopsy photos posted on Facebook after the attorney general office released the casefile for FOIA requests. Rae said they were downloaded over 2,000 times. The Andreacchios were able to find out that a man named Frankie Wagner was the one who (allegedly) uploaded the photos originally and was a loud voice pushing that Christian had killed himself. The Andreacchios have filed a lawsuit to sue Mr. Wagner. He denies the allegations, but he does admit to sharing the photos with his friends claiming, “anything that is obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request is public record.”

The Culpable podcast announced that they were offering a $100,000 reward for new information about this case that led to a conviction. ($50K was for new information that led to an arrest and the other $50K was for a conviction.) There are 2 petitions on Culpable’s site to call for the US Department of Justice to investigate corruption in Meridian. In November of 2019, the city council asked the DOJ to investigate how the city handled this case.

Todd Andreacchio feels like the whole system and case need to be investigated by the Department of Justice. He has been vocal about his “distrust of the people in Meridian.”

Whitley wouldn’t grant interviews until the 48 Hours team contacted her when she said:

“Two weeks ago, it just came to me, like out of nowhere.” She had written a poem that she was going to read to the program…”The title is ‘Moist’ by Whitley Goodman: I miss who I was, the person I once was allowed to be, before the anxiety, the pain and the notoriety — before your name was used in vain as the main source of my pain. Oh it has been such a war…I guess it’s me who we should hate. I’ll be everyone’s escape.”

Whitley has also begun a crusade of her own where she has hired attorney, Bradley Clanton and has filed a lawsuit for $47 million against the Andreacchios, the Culpable podcast, Black Mountain Media, and Tenderfoot TV for “defamation and emotional stress.” Clanton stated, “You can’t torture people for the rest of their lives because they got accused of a crime.” Their lawsuit also wants to have the “Justice for Christian” Facebook page taken down due to the accusations that get posted on this public forum.

Whitley said, “I was so confused whenever I started being blamed. I really was…You know, if they were so weak minded that they took pride in, you know, hurting me without even asking me or confirming, you know, what the truth is then I don’t want anything to do with them.”

Whitley was contacted on Facebook by Melissa McCarty of Crime Watch Daily and she ended up engaging in a conversation with her. Whitley would tell McCarty:

“I have never even been named a suspect. the arrest warrants they claim are out there are have never been activated, but were simply written up to shut Rae up…all Rae has done is publish lies and try to get money and attention from her own sons death…If anything was up with the ballistics or the body positioning, I would be in jail…Christian died! I can tell you he killed himself and so can his threatening texts while he was STATES away…There are NOT active warrants for me and dylan. If you publish that, it’s false information. I’m sure it won’t be the only false information you choose to publish but I was just told to tell you that”

Her last comment to McCarty was, “There’s a special place in hell for people like you!”

Despite thinking she’s the victim, Todd made sure to make it known that “there’s only one life destroyed, actually destroyed, and that’s my son. He’s not here anymore.”

Christian’s uncle, Chris said that none of their actions are about vengeance. It’s about closure. He said that Rae is doing everything she can to make sure Christian’s story is told, and that this doesn’t happen to someone else. He noted that Rae is not the only person to lose a child and she won’t be the last, but the difference is, when you lose a child in a car wreck, at least you know the details – who, what, when, where, why, how. They don’t care who did it as long as whoever did it goes to trial.

Avery has said that knowing who killed him would help. It wouldn’t heal her, obviously, but it would help her in day-to-day survival. She said Chrisitian will be with her until the day she dies.

Rae said, “People can argue about his state of mind, but they can’t argue against forensic evidence.” Then on the Magnolia Son site, she wrote, “One of the greatest fears of a parent who loses a child is that their child will be forgotten, and the facets of their personality that made them so special to their family and friends will be lost in the movement of time.”