Episode 74:
She Called 911 Crying, But Her Body Cam Revealed the Chilling Truth

Late at night, an urgent emergency call comes in. "My husband's been shot... he was trying to move my car, and then... a person suddenly..." Police arrive to find an unbelievable sight.

The victim was Robert Poynter, a respected local fire captain. He came out to help his wife, only to lose his life to a single gunshot. That's when the wife said something strange: "My husband and I had an eighteen-year age gap. Honestly, I didn't want to stay in this marriage anymore."

At 10:45 p.m. on September 9, 2016, a 911 call came in from a dirt road outside Royse City, Texas. "My husband's been shot. He came out to move my car, and then some stranger appeared... please hurry." The caller was 29-year-old Chacey Poynter.

A Wrong Turn, a Stuck Car

Her husband, 47-year-old Robert Poynter, was a captain at the University Park Fire Department — well known locally after organizing a volunteer team to search for survivors during Hurricane Katrina. Responding officers found him slumped in the driver's seat of his Jeep, dead from a single gunshot to the right temple.

Chacey told investigators the couple had planned to meet for tacos, driving separately, when she took a wrong turn and got her car stuck on an unlit dirt road. Robert arrived to pull her out, told her to stay back, and got into the driver's seat alone — the moment he turned the key, a gunshot rang out, a dark figure appeared and vanished into the trees, and the car began rolling. Chacey said she reached in to stop it, steadying his head with one hand and shifting gears with the other, before calling police.

A Story That Didn't Match the Wound

Her panic seemed genuine — bloody hands shaking, gasping for air — but her account had gaps. She described the moments leading up to the shooting in vivid detail, then went vague exactly when it mattered: the shooter came from the trees, fired, vanished, and all she could recall was that he was tall. Investigators had already determined from the wound and trajectory that the shot came from close range on Robert's right side — leaving them wondering how Chacey, standing right there, hadn't seen the shooter at all.

When asked whether the shooter carried a rifle or shotgun, she stammered — "No, I... uh, no. No." — then, unprompted, pivoted into a monologue about her marriage: the eighteen-year age gap, how young and foolish she'd been, how she no longer wanted to stay married, how tonight's dinner had really been about talking through a breakup. With her husband's body still in the car, the timing raised immediate red flags.

An Old Affair, A New One

Robert had married his high school sweetheart, Amy, and spent twenty years raising two daughters with her before an affair with Chacey — 18 years his junior — ended that marriage in 2007, after his eldest daughter Nicole found a hidden second phone full of messages between them. Chacey became pregnant in 2009, and the two built a new household with Robert's second daughter Natalie and their newborn, Addison.

That household didn't stay peaceful. Chacey spent freely and resented Robert's continued attachment to his ex-wife; the couple slept in separate rooms from early in the marriage, worsened by personality changes Robert underwent during testosterone treatment for andropause. Chacey later alleged physical abuse, though no report was ever filed, and both Natalie and neighbors said they'd never seen or heard any sign of it. Under renewed questioning, Chacey admitted to something else entirely: a five-year affair of her own, beginning two years into the marriage — one Robert had known about, and chosen to overlook rather than risk losing another daughter to divorce.

The Insurance Policy

After losing 47 kilograms for a body transformation photoshoot, Chacey grew increasingly obsessed with her appearance, treating Robert as a source of income while cycling through men she met online — including, by 2016, 37-year-old truck driver Michael Garza, whom she eventually brought into the family home, caught on the couple's own doorbell camera. Robert tried to save the marriage anyway, wearing his old wedding cologne and taking the family on a Mexico vacation just two days before he was killed — during which Chacey kept contact with Michael the entire time.

After nearly two hours of pointed questioning, an exhausted Chacey finally admitted Michael had fired the shot — insisting she never knew he had a gun and thought he only meant to scare Robert. Investigators didn't believe it. A search of over 10,000 messages exchanged with various men revealed a consistent pattern: convince them she was being abused, then hint she needed someone to "eliminate" her husband. Most men balked at murder. Michael didn't. Five months before the shooting, Chacey had quietly rewritten Robert's $800,000 life insurance policy — originally set to go to his daughters — naming herself as sole beneficiary.

Final Thoughts

Michael was arrested and initially stayed silent, but a search recovered the shotgun 400 meters from the scene, traced by serial number to his own younger brother — the link investigators needed to tie him directly to the crime. At trial in June 2018, the two turned on each other completely: Chacey claimed Michael acted alone, Michael claimed he'd only lent her the gun and knew nothing about any murder. Neither story held. Chacey was sentenced to life in prison; Michael received 99 years.

The most overlooked casualty of the case was six-year-old Addison, who lost her father and was left in the care of grandparents after growing up mostly neglected by a mother chasing money and men. Robert's insurance payout was ultimately split equally among all three of his daughters — the money Chacey had orchestrated a murder to claim ending up with the children instead, though nothing about it could undo what they'd lost.