Comments on: 48 Hours Mystery: Point Blank

Did A Man's Obsession With His Wife Lead To His Death?

[Scimajor]

Jury's, you have to love them don't you? People with no legal background are asked to make legal decisions that affect people's lives forever.

Judges are hadly better however. Just look at the Supreme Court. If they really were the cream of the crop then you'd think 99% of their decisions would be unanimous wouldn't you? Instead Supreme Court Justices are rarely in agreement. How can this be? They are supposed to impartially interpret the law. That they can't even agree with each other shows that they are either incompitant or corrupt or both.

As I was watching this program, I was shocked and sickened when the jury's verdict came back guilty. The injustice being perpetrated (10 years of probation being stuck in that godforsaken hellhole, not being able to pursue her chosen vocation, being believed as being a MURDERER) is obscene. The attitude of the law enforcement officers reminds me of the experience inflicted on some close friends of mine when their only son died in his sleep after an appendix operation. They were grieving in the worst way possible, yet they had to endure hours of interrogation by apathetic law enforcement officers.
I logged on to this site expecting to see a well of support for this woman. I was wanting to contribute to her defense fund so that she may pursue an appeal. And I was floored to see all the negative comments directed towards her.
This terrible situation reminds me of the incredible weight we place on the opinions reached by authority figures. And the powerful desire to vindicate wrongdoing is really slanted against any supposed presumption of innocence.
I wonder how many vile insults this woman will have to endure over the course of her life by people such as those who've posted here, each intent of inflicting their own punishment to compensate for the "injustice" of her getting probation.

[sherm456]

Ugh, what was the jury thinking? She gets to go home because she's a mommy? Many or most people in prison, including the very worst offenders, have children. Should we open up the jails and let them go free because there's a bay-bee at home waiting for you? I wasn't at the trial, so I won't decide if she deserved to be found guilty or not. But she was, and she does not deserve to go home just because there are little angels in her life! If she did not want children or could not have them, she'd be sitting in jail right now. Does that sound fair?

[capegal67]

Traci, yes, found Guilty and walked free. This woman is unbelievable, boy talk about an actress. She faked crying and never shed one tear, not one, her and Casey Anthony would get oscars for their acting. Why would anyone put a pillow over their own head to shoot themselves, get a grip. If someone is that far gone they don't give a damn about the noise. I feel if he was going to commit suicide, he would have gone away in his car somewhere or did it outside of the children's house, because he loved his kids. A boyfriend doens't make her a murderer, but if your husband committed suicide, you would be focused on your three beautiful kids. She couldn't wait to get in a motel room with the man that she said was the reason her husband killed himself. I don't buy that she even told her husband about this man, she used that as an excuse for his quick action on killing himself. Why is it everytime someone gets killed, the person just came from a walk, just got out of the shower, everything was ducky and all of a sudden, there he was lying in the bed with a gunshot to his head. She said she didn't even hear the shot. What kind of a gun was it, it sure looked big to me. Was it a 357 or something like that. The police were sure slack in not putting her hands in plastic as soon as they got to the scene. She should have been told not to wash her hands until she could have been checked for gun powder. She didn't care about her husband being dead. I mean even for the sake of the children, she should not have seen this man and said, look, our thing whatever it is cannot go anywhere right now, my family comes first. But no, she chose to go to a hotel and have sex. I don't care how possessive her husband was, LEAVE HIM, DO NOT MURDER HIM. She should be behind bars, I think. The jury did wrong and she should not have gone home with her children. No justice here, no justice.

[justiceisblind]

This is a perfect example of why you cannot entrust average people to carry out justice.

She was found guilty, how 10 years probation was even an option is beyond me. Where is the justice for the victim? His family? His children? Now they live with a murderer. She wanted out of the relationship, get a divorce.

Don't give me, he committed suicide. It is a convenient tale but one that is extremely suspect. Why weren't his fingerprints on the gun? I know what her motive was, she wanted to be free to be the ***** she claimed he accused her of. See having an affair for 2 and a half years after the murder. Going to some out of the way hotel to talk, yeah I'm buying it.

What was his motive? I'll get even with her I'll kill myself, I'll show her....Right!

Having jurors dispensing sentences is a bad idea.

[sigfell]

It seems strange that blood formed aroung the gun and the holster as if it were dripping from above, but report did not reveal this. The prosecution portrayed that the blood formed a shape by slowing around the contour of both the gun and the hollster. The gun may be heavy enough to divert the blood flow but i doubt the holster is.
Roy

[geena5]

I don't know if Traci killed him or not, but just hooking up with a guy who kissed her while she was married doesn't automatically mean she killed her husband. I was in an abusive relationship with my son's dad years ago, and when I would threaten to leave him, he would do suicidal things to get me to feel sorry for him or he was just desperate, like he carved my name with razor blades into his stomach or he would threaten me with violence, the mentality that if he can't have me no one can. It isn't disputed that the husband Scott moved her several times to isolate her from imagined affairs, that kind of behavior is abusive and I can easily see him seeing the end of his marriage as also the end of life for him, even though he may have tried to do the divorce maybe it was too hard emotionally for him after that night. if she is innocent, I hope Traci will stop being in abusive relationships and focus on being a good parent and be thankful for the second chance. If she is guilty, I hope she still tries to be a good parent, and confess her sins and take the consequences and do the right thing, it is best to be truthful, but I kind of believe her that her husband killed himself, even though these usually end with the wife usually being killed when it comes down to it in domestic violence cases.

[jstan39]

Traci Rhode is innocent? Please - she's a brilliant, cold-blooded murderer who deserves life in prison, and if you look past the emotional facade that she uses to dupe the public, her guilt is obvious.

First of all, she had a motive to commit murder. Her husband informed her the day prior to his death that he intended to file for a divorce and seek custody of the kids. Why would he commit suicide the morning after this action? If he loved his children enough to seek custody, then he would not turn around and kill himself the next morning. That makes no sense at all.

Traci wants us to believe that Scott's death was a suicide. OK, so why aren't his prints on the gun? This is a critical flaw in her story vs. the evidence - people who are going to commit suicide usually don't care one bit about whether or not their fingerprints would be found on the weapon. I'd argue the opposite - in many suicides, notes or indications of unhappiness are left behind, and even in cases where they're not, the police immediately check the gun for prints, which often allows them to determine if a death is most likely suicide or homicide. Yet the only prints ever found on the gun did not match Scott or Traci Rhode, or any of the EMTs, for that matter. I highly, highly doubt that Scott Rhode would have gone to the trouble to leave his prints off the gun if all he intended to do was commit suicide.

And why would Scott Rhode have committed suicide in the early morning, when Traci was conveniently out of the house on a jog? If he didn't want Traci or the kids to hear the gunshot, he simply could have WAITED until she went to work and the kids went to school, or he could have gone to a secluded area to die. That's a lot more plausible then getting up to shoot yourself at 4:45 AM and using a pillow to muffle the sound (the pillow wouldn't have done much of that, by the way). And that's another point - who wakes up at 4:45 AM to kill himself?

And another point - Traci's story is completely vague. She consistently uses the word "somewhere" to avoid precision, making it tough for investigators to spot inconsistencies. Oh, and to those of you who argue that her story has stayed the same for over five years: ever notice that it's EXACTLY the same? Most innocent people will tell a consistent story, and while the details will be the same, their wording will change. Traci recites her story verbatim, nearly every single time. It seems suspicious, almost like she rehearsed it in her head beforehand.

Ever notice that Traci would always get worked up and emotional, yet no noticeable tears were ever visible? She would speak in a high, weepy voice, and display a pained expression, but yet she did not seem to cry. It may be mean to point out, but I am suspicious of this emotion, and I think it's probably just a tactic to garner public sympathy. Just like her constant invocations of God and her supposedly strong Christian faith - isn't it amusing how some of the most evil people in this world try to name-drop God into the conversation when they're trying to hide their guilt?

There are many, many things wrong with Traci's story, but I will give her credit - she's a great actress, and the fact that she got off so easily attests to that fact. A sad chapter in American justice...

[bdg9214]

"I hope that Traci Rhode reads this. I could tell from the start of the show that she was innocent. I feel that the misogynistic approach of the shameful, misdirected prosecutor and his "expert" and the waffling police officers were the downfall. Her husband was clearly unstable and threatening for quite a while. He was lashing out, going to the lawyer, threatening to take the kids. The usual way a man will lash out at a woman, threaten to take the kids away from her. It breaks my heart to know she has had to endure this process and this accusation. Traci, if you read this, there are women out here on your side. You say, and mean, all the things that are TRUE. You state that you are innocent, that you tried to make it work with your husband and you even told him the truth about how your friend made you feel; attended to. You did all the right things and this is the shame our of publicly-paid misogynistic prosecutors. (I don't think a female prosecutor would've gone after you like that.) I wish you the very very best. My unsolicited advice: Don't appeal if you risk jail. Be there for your kids no matter what society says or thinks. Your freedom, as you now know, is precious, and sometime the "system" is skewed. Enjoy your children and try to find peace within yourself. I'll never forget this story, and I'm so sorry it has happened to you. ~Susie "

Please explain to me how the prosecutor's approach was misogynistic?

[carthur60]

An update on Traci Rhode who murdered her husband while he was sleeping. In February of 2009, she asked the Thirteenth Court of Appeals to dismiss the appeal of her murder conviction and they have complied with her wish. This murderess has decided to accept probation as the "punishment" for her 1st degree murder conviction.

No update on the life insurance policy scheduled to give $600,000 to her kids but gives this psychopath control over the money.

[lovetheskull]

I hope that Traci Rhode reads this. I could tell from the start of the show that she was innocent. I feel that the misogynistic approach of the shameful, misdirected prosecutor and his "expert" and the waffling police officers were the downfall. Her husband was clearly unstable and threatening for quite a while. He was lashing out, going to the lawyer, threatening to take the kids. The usual way a man will lash out at a woman, threaten to take the kids away from her. It breaks my heart to know she has had to endure this process and this accusation. Traci, if you read this, there are women out here on your side. You say, and mean, all the things that are TRUE. You state that you are innocent, that you tried to make it work with your husband and you even told him the truth about how your friend made you feel; attended to. You did all the right things and this is the shame our of publicly-paid misogynistic prosecutors. (I don't think a female prosecutor would've gone after you like that.) I wish you the very very best. My unsolicited advice: Don't appeal if you risk jail. Be there for your kids no matter what society says or thinks. Your freedom, as you now know, is precious, and sometime the "system" is skewed. Enjoy your children and try to find peace within yourself. I'll never forget this story, and I'm so sorry it has happened to you. ~Susie

[geena5]

I can't seem to load the last page of this story. When I googled their names, it said Traci was found guilty but only spent 2 days in jail and got probation for the rest, which caused Texas to change the law that someone convicted of murder cannot be given just probation.

[melanie230-2009]

curious975, why does iowanurse have it right? Does that mean Scott''s former employer, AND Scott and Traci''s friends have it wrong. They both went on camera to tell a totally different story. Why would they side with Traci? Their friends were just that THEIR friends, not just her''s.

[melanie230-2009]

edgewater19 They noted that he was right handed in the story. As for her washing her hands, so what? She wasn''t hiding it, she did it in front of the officer. I am married to a police officer. I asked him what are the odds that her story hasn''t changed in 4 years IF she were indeed guilty. He said he has never had a suspect maintain a story that was guilty, not one single time in 16 years. That is very telling. As for her boyfriend I don''t know. But a boyfriend does not make her a murderer.

[edgewater19]

I find it interesting that Traci thinks that everyone will fall for her story about how innocent her rendezvous with her boy friend was at the Red Roof. Whether they planned to have *** at the hotel is irrelevant. She consciously knew what she was doing was wrong. Why else would she not simply choose to meet with her boy friend in the kitchen of her own home? There would not have been any police watching her there. That in itself sounds of paranoia. Did she choose not to meet at her own home because she was trying to hide her boy friend from the kids? Maybe she was trying to hide him from other members of her family. She was not 24 hours from all of her family when she met her boy friend at the hotel. She had family members from out of town staying with her at the time. This is an example of a flat out lie.

[edgewater19]

curious975 - I agree with you. I thought the same thing in regards to Traci flipping this story around. Her description of Scott is more accurately applied to herself. She%u2019s a control freak.

[edgewater19]

Melanie230 - The fact that they didn%u2019t find blood in any of the drains does not prove anything either way. Traci admitted to washing blood off of her hands IN THE SINK. What happened to that blood if this is such a major point? Also, are you really sure Scott was right handed, or is that simply second-hand information?

[curious975]

iowanurse is right, i also knew these people and i sure dont remember it that way, she seemed very jealous and controling, i was shocked when i saw this show it was almost like she got it backwards! im not saying she shot him but something isnt right with her story, maybe she told the rest to 48 hours and they edited it out, but if anyone had a dark side i think it was her, if she thought you were a threat to her, watch out.

[mecury69]

"The gun was in between his hand somewhere on the bed," Traci says.

"The gun was somewhere on the bed," she says.

"I know when I lifted the pillow the gun was somewhere up between his hands."

Three quotes and ''somewhere'' in each one.

Seems to be a pattern of making sure that one of the most important details in the trial is left vague.

Also, meeting someone at a hotel to ''talk''? Are you kidding me? That is not going to be believable by any standard or reach. Once you''ve found dishonesty, everything is subject.

Murder victims rights are far too often put aside for those that are still living. They cannot tell their side of the story and that is what murders depend upon. They can accuse them of untold abuse and behavior.

As tragic as it may be, the kids future has no bearing on the case or the victims rights whatsoever.

"And I went into the bedroom and I started packing a suitcase, I was just going to go stay in a hotel. But he started crying. And he begged me not to go," Traci says. "And then he said, ''Come lay down here with me.'' And I laid my head on his chest. It wasn''t anger anymore%u2026it was just a loving couple just trying to work out our problems."

Thanks a chick''s story if I ever heard one.

[enough7]

jbrown...it wasn''t a volitale relationship. You need to read the post from iowanurse...she spoke the truth. How Traci portrayed Scott was not the truth at all.