Another Killer Wife Tries To Play The Grieving Widow

On a Florida roadside in August 1989, Karen Newell told police she was bent down looking under her car when she heard gunshots and saw her husband John fall dead. She said she froze in fear as a dark car with a "Bad Boys" sticker sped away. She gave a partial license plate. She called 911. She played the grieving widow on television, insisting the police were harassing her and that she had nothing to do with it. But detectives weren't buying it. The story she told kept shifting, and the evidence pointed somewhere else entirely.

The Roadside Story That Didn't Hold Up

Karen Newell's account of the night of John Newell's murder was detailed and emotional. She said she was driving because John had been drinking at the beach. They pulled over on State Road 520 after feeling a vibration in the steering wheel. John got out to check the tires, and she leaned under the front bumper to look for debris. While she was down there, she heard a car pull up, a voice say "Carl, get his wallet," and then a series of pops. She claimed she stayed frozen on the ground until the car drove away, then jumped up and tried to flag down help. She gave police a description of the vehicle and a partial tag: SR2 and something with a 1.