Deadly Secrets Of The Well

48 Hours: Investigator Returns To Crime Scene He Witnessed As Child

(CBS)  On Nov. 25, 1987, Wilkerson sued Quedens. Two days later, Quedens invited Fred over to talk about it.

That was the last time anyone saw Fred Wilkerson.

Was Quedens ever considered a suspect? "I think they interviewed her [Quedens] one time and they really didn't have any hard evidence against her," says Fred's son, Tim Wilkerson.

Today, Quedens says she can’t imagine why anyone would think she was involved in Wilkerson's disappearance: "I consider myself a devout Christian. I am a very compassionate person. I love animals. I love people."

Quedens, however, liked to tape her phone conversations, including one discussion when she and Wilkerson were arguing over dividing their property: "This morning I was going to make an amiable settlement. … But damn you, you bastard!"

Regardless, Quedens denies that there was reason for her to want to get rid of Fred, and she also denies that she and Wilkerson were ever romantically involved, even though Bryant disagrees.

"She enticed him over there with the intention of killing him, and that’s exactly what she did," says Bryant.

Where was the body? People believed that his body was in a well on Quedens' property. "Fred had to be in a place that was deep enough where he could go totally undisturbed," says Bryant, whose suspicions weren't enough to get a search warrant.

The case stalled, until a tip led Bryant to Queden's old friend, Lisa Hulderman. She had given police dynamite information nine years earlier, but it somehow fell through the cracks. Hulderman says the day after Wilkenson disappeared, Quedens asked her to come over to her house. She told Hulderman she needed to deliver a car to the Atlanta airport, and asked Hulderman to drive her car up there, pick her up and bring her back.

Hulderman says she didn't recognize the car that Quedens drove. But Bryant believed he knew whose car it was, and asked for a search warrant.

In September 2003, the Troop County sheriff's department descended on Connie's house. "We told her we were going to start the search at the location of the old well, and at that point she says, 'If he’s down there, I don’t know anything about it,'" says Bryant.

For 90 minutes, crime scene technicians searched for any sign of Wilkerson. They discovered human remains in the well, and Quedens was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

"I had no reason in the world to assume that Fred was dead," says Quedens. "None whatsoever."

Seventeen years after Livingston's disappearance, Quedens was about to go on trial.

Bryant believes the murder occurred inside the laundry room, which was downstairs in Queden's house. In the mid '90s, the well was not visible; it had been completely covered.

"Connie Quedens, again very resourceful, she knew what she needed to do," says Bryant. "She engineered her plan, she got the body to the well, and she couldn't have had a better, more convenient place to put a body."

A year has passed since Bryant hauled what he believes is Fred Wilkerson’s body out of Quedens' well. "I think we should still be looking for him," says Quedens. "Too many people have come forward to say they’ve seen him after that date."

In July 2003, a childhood friend said he saw Wilkerson at a Los Angeles hotel. He says he was so shocked that he asked hotel security for a copy of the surveillance photo.

But Skandilakis says he will prove that Wilkerson was at the bottom of Quedens' well, and that Quedens "lured him in there and she killed him" out of greed. "What this case boils down to is a woman who is not going to give up her land, is going to do anything she can do to prevent her ex-lover from getting her land," says Skandilakis. "That's the motive."

"Is she the type that would do that. We think no," says Quedens' attorney, Arthur Edge.

The prosecution’s first job at trial is to nail down the victim's real identity, because DNA tests can’t identify the bones positively as Wilkerson's. But Wilkerson's son, Tim, takes the stand and gives details that might help identify his father.

Then Bryant recalls the discovery at Quedens' well. But prosecutors believe the jurors needed to see the remains of Wilkerson themselves. In fact, over defense objections, Bryant wheeled in what he believes are the remains of Wilkerson into the courtroom.

"In my 20 years as a prosecutor, that's the first time I've done that," says Skandilakis. "We thought the jurors should see it, and we thought we could explain that this was Mr. Wilkerson in the grave."

Forensic anthropologist and war crimes expert Dr. Jay Snow begins by describing the physical evidence he found – and says the cause of death is obvious: "We have an oblong defect on the top of the skull. And I’ve seen these many, many times over in Bosnia. Primarily, they are victims of an execution."

Bryant believes that Quedens shot Wilkerson on top of the head. But prosecutors still have one big problem. If Quedens had killed Wilkerson inside their home, how did she, a small woman, move him more than the length of an entire football field – 140 yards – over to where the well was, all by herself?

"We're talking about a 170 lb., 5'10" dead weight," says Edge. "We want to demonstrate to the jury that that's just not that simple."

The defense’s demonstration comes at the expense of police Lt. Wallis Grizzard, whom they asked to carry a dummy they put together matching Wilkerson's height and weight. Grizzard had a difficult time, and had to take a minute to catch his breath, moving the dummy. "I've carried humans before, but that's a lot different," says Grizzard.

Bryant, however, insists there’s a simple explanation: "Connie was basically the same size he was and she could use a chain saw, she could tote fence posts. She’d do whatever she needed to do."

Plus, Quedens had horses, an ATV and almost a day to move the body. "For her to move it 100 yards in the time she had, I don't think she would have had any problem," says Bryant.