Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

Everyone knew the Schoeck  were in love  and for stacey apparently in love with love itself richard was her fifth husband.

five times the charm, stacey´s  cousin connie recalls richards was the best  in ther stable of husbands

in fact he even adopted two of  stacey´s three sons .richard was a great father he brought a lot to the table when it came to the marriage.

the 46 years old had a passion for hot-air balloning. but most of all he loved scouting and was  a  leader for his boys cubs scout. richard was a  this gregarious just outgoing guy,he always  looked to include everyone in the room .

stacy worked as a head administrator for a large  medical and surgical practice in DeKalb County Georgia .but there was always time for love. on the last night of richard´s life  he was coocking  valentine´s day dinner for stacey and her grandparents an  elderly couple who required round-the .ckock  medical attention.

Lt  D. Franklin: at that point stacey and  richard had valentine´ to exchange for each other , gifts and cards ,she made that desicion that they would exchange them in the park . she told  him  to go ahead and meet her there because the nurse  that was relieving her was late.

They  made their way in separate  cars along the dark winding road ,richard arrived first. but as it turns out  he was not alone , someone  else was there lurking in the shadows.

Lt  D. Franklin:it´s a very secluded place, there was no pavement, there was no lights.it´s a very eerie place especially at night.

and eerie was about to  turn deadly,thirty minutes later,stacy pulls up and sees  richard body punctured with bullets lying  in blood and dirt.

Lt  D. Franklin: two  to the abdomen and one to the chest and  then two to the face. which is overkill .

 when cops arrive on scene they quickly  rule out  robbery as a motive

Lt  D. Franklin: when we searched his truck we found 40 dollars in the center conosole,his watch was on ,his wedding ring was on.his wallet was on him.if this were a robbery then there was about  a 40 , 000  dollar truck they could  have jumped in and taken .

one of the first to the scene lieutenant dan franklin says from the get-go something just didn´t smell right.

Lt  D. Franklin:basically red flags are the best way to put it.

the shooting appeared to be too over -the -top to be random.

Lt  D. Franklin:richard´s just a  regular guy whos  unarmed and he gets there and he´s comfortable enough to get out of his  truck and approach the the person who ultimately shot him.

and in the darkened night the mystery killer is already gone by the time stacey says she arrived at the seckluded spot.detectives scour the crime scene for evidence.

but there isn´t much to go on suddenly with police spotlights trained on the crime scene.

soft dirt that absorbed richards  blood seems  to  speak volumes to investigators  telling a  chilling  story .

Lt  D. Franklin: the soil at the scene was soft ,it was muddy and it was very conducive to preserving tire tire inmpressions.

imprinted in  the wet soil  were three sets of tire tracks .

Lt  D. Franklin:we determined we saw  richards impressions ,we saw the impressions that staceys ford explore made but there was a third set of  impressions  that came in from the park .you could fallow  them from the road  so that told us that the vehicle that left those impressions was there before richard got there and then left presumably after he was dead.

cops  believe the tire tracks had to be those of the killer . but  matching them  to a getaway car would  be like finding a needle in a  haystack or would  it? before cops can worry about how  to make a  match a frantic  stacey make a shocking admission.

Lt  D. Franklin:before  we left the seen she started telling us about an affair she´d been having witha guy named juan reyes . 

stacey was two -timing richard with her own Don juan  which  she tearfully brings up again during an interview with authorities.

stacey: i´m in deep with juan.

In deep is an understatement ,investigators quickly learned  stacey had been carrying on an affair with her latin lover for a long time.

Lt  D. Franklin:that affair had been going on for several years,immediately that sparked our  attention and got us looking at juan as a prime suspect.

and it turns out their suspect was close,working  directly in stacey´s own office.

despite  the fact he had no medical experience,  she hired juan as a surgical assistant atthe clinic she ran. 

she tells cops  juan had previously worked as  a security guard at a swanky hotel . It all appears to be a classic  crime of passion a jealouse boyfriend want stacey´s husband out of the of the picture.

Lt  D. Franklin:when we asked  her if she thought juan was responsible she say she didn´t want to think that he was responsible but she didn´t know.

richard  schoeck was  exited about  a  valentine´s  day rendezwouz  with his wife stacey ,the meeting spot a remote park.

but on this night love  would turn tragic

with a bullet to the heart.

911  call.

operator: he´s been what?

 stacey: he´s been shot !he is dead!

cops are about to bring  stacey down to the station hoping  to learne more about  who would  want her husband dead. when she makes a schoking  admission. in the interrogation room stacey comes clean about  her latin lover . stacey who  ran a large  medical facility openly admits  she was not only juans boss but  also his lover

Lt  D. Franklin:juan reyes was hired sas  the surgeon´s assistant allthough he had no medical  experience.stacey had a lot of control over her life and people in her life.

and  cops  were about to discover she exercised that control with money . they aoon learn  juan is a  divorced father with a bunch of kids and hard up for cash.

stacey´s cousin connie hearn claims the family soon heard alll the lurid details . stacey  showering juan  with goodies , paying for his truck and cellphone, taking him on romantic getaways.

juan even lived in  one of staceys homes and then of course   there was the secret love nest.

stacey  also had a  apartment for her and  juan to go do their not so good deed.juan became suspect number one in richards murder .cops nabbed  him the next day at his office and noticed there´s  a suspicious change in his appaerance.

Lt  D. Franklin: he had a beard for like two weeks leading up  to the muirder and then  in the morning after the murder when we first made contact with  him he was clean -shaven.

but the change dosen´t  seem to rattle juan  at the sheriff´s station he even agrees to to talk  with detectives without a lawyer  present.

detective: did you have anything  to do with what´s happened to richard?

juan: no.

detective: do you know who did ?

juan: no. 

detectives hammer juan with questions,he agrees to a  polygraph

the results are inconclusive.

detective: she got you a job, she gives you money ,the home that you living in.. she and richard own it.you romantic  involved with her.you can see,this doesn´t look good for you. i mean  , i´m just  been straight up with you.

and juan seems straight up too. telling cops that despite his divorce  he was acctually trying to reconcile with his uinemployed ex-wife.he viewed stacey as the means to and end.

detective: does she give you any kind of money or is there anything else going on?

juan:she knows i´m low  on cash , you know.she give me money for gaz or whatever.

did richard know was he possibly trying to prevent this high-priced affair? detective  keep digging deeper and the hottest burning question remains where was juan  on the night of valentine´s day?

juan: sunday me and the   girlfriend and my seven -year  old anthony,we took him to the movies about 5 0´clock meeting my son anthony  and went to  blockbuster .

detective: did you guys eat  there .?

juan: we ate  dinner about …i want to say about  7:00. by 10  :30 i was in bed.

 To check  his alibi , detectives soon chat with juan´s ex-wife. who tells them his relationsship with stacey was close . to close.

ex-wife:  i didn´t care for her much. but was at my house for thanksgiving ,christmases , she would take my daughter to get her  hair done,her nails done.  she bought christmas present for my kids.

but then lieutenant franklin reveals the devastating news that juan´s ex-wife only suspected.

Lt  D. Franklin:i just confirmed her  worse fears and  told her  that he´d been having an affair with stacey for several years.she had suspicious because  again  stacey had a lot of control over them.

but even with that painful revelation the women scorned had  the perfect opportunity  to throw  juan under the bus,instead she confirmed his alibi.

ex-wife: he was at blockbuster while i was coocking 6 :00 and 7:00.

Lt  D. Franklin: a big part of his alibi hinged on a  statement from his ex-wife  she had  an opportunity to tell me anything  bad that he was doing  that was it . but she didn´t do  it she said  no,he was home with me  that night .

with his whereabouts confirmed juan was cleared now the question remains. if juan  is not the trigger man  who is?

Lt  D. Franklin:so that´s when our first break came  ,because we started looking at  this  as a murder-for -hire.

richard body was lying  cold and riddled with bullets at the very same moment Georgia cops have stacey in  a quiet room with serious  questions about her husbands murder . stacey said she has no clue but cops know there´s at least one clue found at the bloody scene.

a mystery set of tire tracks discovered in the wet soil .

Lt  D. Franklin: the tire tracks didn´t match her car or richards so we knew there were  a third person.

could that third person be the hitman ,detectives learned  stacey had been having an affair with a man named juan.but  her lover has a rock-solid alibi and he´s cleared so  cops are back to surching.obsessively trying to match  the brand of tire to the tread marks and to  a killer.

Lt  D. Franklin: we began to look on the internet,we went to  tire shops,we went to the local  sam´s ,to wallmart , anywhere  where they sold tires.

then  a stroke of good luck as Lt  franklin was checking out  a local tires store.

Lt  D. Franklin:my partner said ,” take a look at this one , and we determined that was  the brand tire that left impression ,it was a goodyear integrity 

but with countless cars using Goodyear tires in the area,searching could an  overwhelming task and just as  cops were  about  to  lose hope ….

an unexpected tip that quickly leads   cops to wonder if  stacey wanted to rub out  her fifth husband.

Lt  D. Franklin:IT techician at the spine clinic where stacey work called us .

his job  ,to clear out junk email from employees accounts.

Lt  D. Franklin: he said ,” when i went through stacey´s computer ,i went to go ahead and empty her spam out of  the inbox but her  inbox was completely empty.” from friday  , saturday and sunday , the day of the murder .

another  lucky  break. an electronic trail with markings  of different kind.

Lt  D. Franklin: he said  tht´s very unusual  and he said but i have backups of all of those if you guys  would  like to have them and we said ” absolutely”.

detectives immediately  obstained a warrant for  all of  stacey´s  emails  , after scouring 4000  emails  two  raised  eyebrows. on of them  written a few weeks before the murder  to  a bank.

Lt  D. Franklin:request to transfer eight thousand nine and two dollars from a real estate account that the docto´s office had  into the personal account of a lady  named   lenitra ross.

lynitra  ross a medical assistant at  the  practice stacey worked and then curiously  another  transpefer to ross.  just days before that bloddy valentine´s  day.

Lt  D. Franklin:the  friday before the murder  there´s aother request through  Sun Tuist  for  for another transfor   for 1,1000  and that  went through   offfice ro  lynitra ross´personal  acount.

cops  soon learn, lynitra was  renting a home from stacey ,they imemediately pay lenitra a visit. recording  the intervju.

police interview

Lt franklin:so how much money did you get overall?

 lynitra:um , it´s been about .. it was  89  and  then…

 lt franklin: 89 thousand?

 lynitra :hundred

lt franklin:hundred oh.

lynitra: 89 hundred.

Lt  D. Franklin:when you´re looking at a murde  for hire ,your looking for a transfer of money and 10 ,000 is an nice even amount but we  needed to figure out hwo the other parties were

but  lynitra seems to have a reasonable explanation  stsacey tranferred money for repairs on the rental house.

Lt  D. Franklin: lynitra  ross said she could provide receipts for the house repairs and for the waterline. repair.

police interview

Lynitra:. …and then qe got another leak . a main water valv leak. so ,they paid , she  paid for half of that . so, it´s been about  ,10. 000.

Lt franklin was frustrated at this point ,the emails and the transfers lead  nowhere but then another clue surfaces ,this time from staceys own cousin  connie hearn.

connie: that was  my grandparents car ,the Impala.

 turns out the Impala  was a car  given to stacey to sell, the money  to be used for her grandparents medical expenses. but strangely enough  the Impala  would go missing for a few  weeks out of stacey´s  driveway then suddenly popped back up what didn´t appear was the money

connie: stacey claimed that she´d gotten …i believe  14. 000 out of it, but my grandparents  never saw the money.i thought that was weird

and even more suspicious  , investigtors find the  Impala  parked  at lynitra ross´s house .  stunningly  with goodyear integrity  tires on  it.

Lt  D. Franklin:i jumped up i  became extremely excited .

now the  only question hwo was driving the Impala the night richard was murdered

Lt  D. Franklin: there was evidence at the scene based on the layering tire impressions that the killer  lay and wait for richard.

On a hunch  lieutenant f ranklin turns his radar to cellphone records.

Lt  D. Franklin: is he gonna sit there  and twiddle his thumbs or what´s he gonna do or is he gonna make a phone call.lot of people  will text constantly.

franklin subpoenead phone records made around the time of the murder  from something called a tower dump.

Lt  D. Franklin:you make a phone call,your number,the number your dialed date and time  and the duration of  the call are all captured at the tower and that information is saved  at the tower.

The tower service for major carries thousands of pages of records  but the investigator had an idea,compares the numbers from the tower  dump to the numbers in stacie´s contact list. sand see if a match comes up

Lt  D. Franklin: i had to find a way to teach myself how to dothis,about an hour into that search i found a number that was in stacey´s  , phone that had made a call  from belton bridge parkor the tower that services belton bridge park on the   night of the murder at about 8:40 p. m. this phone call at 8:40 was very compeling  .

The phone number attached to that call was listed  in stavey´s  contacts as a guy named reggie . aka  mr sresult .even more compelling was the number  thar reggie called.

Lt  D. Franklin:so  i went back  and looked  and i should  have recognized the number because it was already on my notes because it was  lynitra ross . so at 8:40 pm.on on february 14th of 2010  whoever reggie is  who is known to stacey because he´s  in her cell phone contact list called lynitra ross from the park.

But hwo is mr .results.? lt franklin googled him the next day and found reggie is a personal trainer and former semi- profesisional boxer who held bootcamp sessions at stacey´s  office.

Lt  D. Franklin: at that point things started coming together,because we were already looking at a murder- for -hire. and this really kind of solidified that this  was  the third part of the triangle ,because we had suspected   stsacey was the linchpin.lynitrsa ross  received money  in the the  weeks leading up and now this was our third person that we felt  was involved.

an Impala with…

tires matches …..

…a bloody murder scene.

money transfers 

and  a man named  mr results.

by now.  cops believe stacey  is in deep and possible the t he mastermind orchestrating the murder for hire of  her fifth husband richard. but do they have enough to make a charge

remember those  cellphone records turns out they are a honeypot for of incriminating evidence.

Lt  D. Franklin:reggie makes the phone call from the park the night omf the murder at  8:40 pm.and  we felt that call was to let  lynitra knwo that it was done.

and then  lieutenant dan frankling uncovers a series of   bone-chilling texts .

Lt  D. Franklin: three minutes after that phone, lynitra texted stacey and  said

” i forgott to tell you i´m  coming  late for work tomorrow by the way ,happy valentine´s day.”and it turns out  that the happy valentine´s day  was the  the signal from lynitra  to stacey that richard was  dead.

all that´s needed now to maket their case proving the money trail. Lt franklin soon  scoured the banking records of stacey,lynitra  and reggie.reveling thousands of dollars  intermingling amongs different accounts .

Lt  D. Franklin: reggie´s payment for the the murder was  10. 000  in cash and  lynitra ´s payment  for being the person that distributed money ,was that stacey was going to give  the house to lynitra  to live rent- free forever.

Finally the last pieces of this  sordid puzzle are coming together .

Lt  D. Franklin: we´re looking at a murder for hire. we had to bring in the money element and so once we had that with the financiall records  then we´re ready to move forward  with the  arrests

The day is long and coming ,but cops can now make their  move and  capture the black widow.

Lt  D. Franklin: the operation was  called operation tangled web and so that was  huge   cooodinated effort  a huge team effort ,took a lot of planning,we served seven search warrants in four different counties , three arrest warrants all in one day and one operation.

  Their biggest  challenge ,synchronizing the arrests so the murderous players don´t tip each other off .

Lt  D. Franklin:we realized that when we moved on these people we needed toi move on them all at once ,if we didn´t get what we needed from that one person then they could communicate with the others and  tthe whole thing would fall apart and we could lose evidence.

first to go down is reggie  then …

lynitra is nabbed at a traffic stop

and police now confidently swoop  in on stsacey at  the location where so much of her planning took place ..

the office. but in a crazy turn of events she  gives cops the slip

Lt  D. Franklin:somebody in that office told stacey the police were there and to run  and so stacey  retreated in the hospital and basically got herself to a place where she was inside a room that only had card access, so we couldn´t get to her.

It didn´t take long for police to find her . barricaded in thatroom she eventually surrenders.finally .

three months after the bloody valentine´s day murder of  richard Schoeck.

lynitra ,stacey and reggie  faced some harsh questions

In the  interrogation room lynitra plays  the innocent bystander card.

and reggie has his  own tactics-  denial.

cops say lynitra and reggie fell for the murder plot all for the money.but the burning question.

why di stsacey want her husband dead?in a stunner , she tells cops  that richard was molesting her kids stacey´s claim is based on something she says one of the kids told her .stacey tells investigators she was  molested as a kid.

so to protect her boys  ,she wanted richard killed.she confided in her workbuddy lynitra ross.

according to stacey , ross tells her ,she knows the guy for the job.her sometime boyfriend and baby daddy Reggie  aka  mr results.stacey tells cops lynitra arranged a meeting where they cooked up a plan to murder richard  in cold  blood

 casey: then i was like,well how much cash and he was like  well , you know  i was  thinking around 10.000 dollars. i´m like ok.

to  sweeten the deal ,stacey agreed to give reggie her grandparents  Impala.

yeas ,that Impala. 

lynitra ´s cut  she´d get  the house  she was renting from stacey.

a week later all three went to  scout out the crime scene belton bridge park.

but the night of the murder reggie botched things up .

L.Darragh .D.A : stacey  schoeck wanted to set it up to make it look like a robbery in fact, she was  very angry because  the victims watch wasn´t taken,his money wasn´t taken, the truck that richard  schoeck drove to the scene  were not taken to make it look like  a robbery .

and that´s not  all  stacey says reggie screwed up . remember how over the top cops describesd the shoting.

three to  richards´s chest ,two to his  face .

stacey:it was   supposed to be one shot to the head . i don´t know want him to suffer i  don´t wont him to see anything  you know…

as for the molestation story in the end police discovered  stacey´s son admitted richard  never laid  a finger on him.

L.Darragh .D.A :her son she said later told her  that the comment that he made didn´t  have anything to do with anything like that, but rather he was a little more restrictive then she was  on what they could do  as children.

stacey later revealed  a different and real reason she ordered the hit on her husband now she claimed she feared losing of the kids if she and richard divorced

Lt  D. Franklin:ultimately i think her motive was to just live a life free of richard and that this was in her eyes the only way to make that happen. she knew what that  the life that she was living ,would not be good for her in a divorce case and  divorce was not an option for her .

L.Darragh .D.A : stacey schoeck  was controlling and conniving and manipulativ she used people to the extent  that she needed them and beyond that that  just dsidn´t matter .

the district attorney says the trio thought they commited  the perfect murder and they could easily outsmart small-town cops.but they were wrong.

L.Darragh .D.A :they just thought that tihs was not metro Atlanta they ´d just  a bunch of  rednecks who simply weren´t gonna be able to find out what happened  but they did .

with so much evidence against them ,stacey and reggie  pleaded guilty and was convicted of malice murder.

lynitra  stood trial but was convicted of the same charge.

all three will spend the rest of their lives behind bars and as for stacey schoeck it´s  unlikely she will ever tie  the knot with husband number six. 

L.Darragh .D.A :stacey schoeck received eventually a sentence of life without parole. she will never be released from prison expect in a box.