Big Daddy Is Missing

Just to get rid of it and then get rid of it.

No, not at all. This is my safe space. You're all right, right? Yes, exactly. This is the way the story is,

which is just a story.

“The story of the job or the way the story is.”

It's not like the story is a story. The story is a story? - Save. With this story. I've got a film. I've really hoped that I'd just make foul play on this.

Scott Ferris was worried. No one had seen his father Gary in two days. We noticed anything odd at the house. I think I'd usual in the last two days. I've exchanged any unusual visitor activity.

No, everything that I found unusual was today.

It was July 5th, 2018. The hot and humid Thursday in Cherokee County, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. Scott was talking to Detective Daniel Hayes on the Ferris's beautifully manicured family farm.

Where do you live now? I live here on the property. I live above the board to the apartment. Scott was in his mid-30s, ex-military,

“and a big guy like his dad, six feet, six inches tall.”

He managed the farm for his parents. On that Thursday, he was heading out to get a haircut when he saw his sister sitting on the front porch of the main house with his mother, Melody. And she was out there with my sister.

And she's like, have you seen your father? Have you talked to him or am I now? Apparently no one in the family had. Were there any July 4th plans? No, they don't do.

He doesn't have a very social life. Scott noticed that Gary's Mercedes was still parked at the farm. He then ticked through the other clues that might indicate Gary was somewhere on the property

beginning with his dad's wallet. When Gary was home, he'd leave that on his dresser in the master bedroom. But it wasn't there. He thought about what else Gary would have taken

“if he left on a trip or was staying safely somewhere else.”

Gary used a seat-pat machine every night for his sleep apnea. And Scott knew his father wouldn't spend the night anywhere without it. So the seat-pat machine was there?

Yes. Did you all look for a cell phone or anything? Or did he carry that with him? Well, I saw a column of cell phone. My sister saw a column of cell phone.

It was going straight to voicemail. But with Gary's car and seat-pat machine all on the property, he had to be nearby. At this point, Scott's brother Chris had joined the search. Scott wondered if his father had fallen somewhere.

I've always worried about him having a hard time.

I mean, just being somewhere on this property, him have a hard time. They searched the more than 8,000 square foot main house, the barn and surrounding woods. I was going to start walking down

into the woods to see if, you know, he went off down in there. And then I saw my sister Amanda and my mother standing by the fire. The fire was a smoldering burn pile. It's where they'd burn yard waste.

She guys has a goat dot or anything. Have you thrown a dead goat? Was there a dead animal in the pile? I'm right now why haven't done that. So now we have a hanging goats to die.

She's like, "Well, come over here and look at this." Scott moved down for a closer look. I picked up normal peace. I turned it. We realized it was a skull. I immediately just set it back down gently.

I say, "Back up, I'm calling now, normal one." Jacob, you got it. I want the patient to be burnt to you. [BEEP] [BEEP] [BEEP]

[BEEP] My father has come up listening and we just searched the properties for small farms. And I just found something near a farm that doesn't. There was a huge burn in the grass.

Now there's something to follow that. It could be him. I don't know. Scott was horrified. And certain he had just picked up human remains. Remains he believed could be his father.

All right, sir. I've got him on the way out there for you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Sheriff's deputies and detectives quickly realized that what had happened that day at the Ferris family farm was no accident.

They learned that the ferrises were a dysfunctional family. Accusations went round and round, like a sinister Ferris wheel.

if any of those arguments pushed one of Gary's own kin to kill him. It has been called the Ferris wheel. And it was bedalist, our Ferris wheel.

“This Ferris wheel was powered by distrust,”

over finance, as jealousy, and personal betrayal. Is a real asshole, Barbara? And now a murder. This is a mother's worst nightmare. A nightmare that would go on for years

dragging them through a carnival of lies. Turning into a murder case,

the likes of which I have never before experienced.

I'm Peter van Satt from 48 hours. This is blood is thicker, the Ferris wheel. Episode one, Big Daddy is missing. When Gary and Melody Ferris bought their ten acre property in 2013, it was meant to be the beginning of a new era.

The two had raised four kids. Chris, Scott, Emily, and Amanda, and we're now grandparents. The idyllic well groomed acreage was lined with a winding black painted fence,

“and a long gravel road that could take you through the trees,”

past the pond, the main house, and all the way up to a huge horse barn. By 2018, Gary and Melody had owned the place for five years. They were in their fifties, and had known each other for most of their lives.

And how old are you when you first met Gary?

16. They met in Florence, Alabama. She first saw him when visiting a church there. He worked at Fuller's Big Star. There's a little grocery store that was in there.

They're in town. It's where you would run to to go pick up things. They dated for a few years, and then he loped in 1979. Gary was a sophomore at the University of North Alabama,

studying finance. Melody also studied there for about a year, but dropped out to start working.

“Chris was born when I was days before I was 20 years old.”

She ended up working at her parents' hardware store. I could take Chris to my parents' hardware store. He grew up in a hardware store. Jeff wore memories of that. Very nice, sir.

Three and a half years later, they had their second, Scott.

Scott was a handful, but you loved him anyway. Press this little boy. Meanwhile, Gary decided to study law. We had Emily one month to the day before he graduated law school. We moved to Birmingham.

We had Amanda. Gary practiced commercial real estate law, and quickly climbed the ladder at his firm. Melody said Gary was smart. Booksmart.

Workaholic. An absolute workaholic. When Gary opened the firm's office in Atlanta, Melody was a full-time mom. She took charge of the home and the kids,

and made sure they're upbringing was special, especially during the holidays. I understand your big Christmas decorator. I love to decorate my home for Christmas. They get became more and more,

because we would have the Christmas party at our house for the law firm. So we became more and more. One home video shows a Ferris family Christmas that could be a scene from a hallmark movie. There's a tall Christmas tree covered in ornaments,

overlooking a happy family ripping open their gifts. Gary was the provider and patriarch of it all, and he was a big presence. The people closest to him even called him big daddy. The nickname made sense.

After all, he was about to be a part of the family. Gary had gray hair, a go-t, and this deep, griggerious voice with a southern draw. You could read my dad like a book. Scott talked about his father to investigators in 2018.

He's very, very predictable. He will come in from work. Usually he will stand in driveway, smoke a cigarette, and he'll go from his bedroom. He's very, very predictable.

He will come in from work. Usually he will stand in driveway, smoke a cigarette, and he'll go from his bedroom back to the garage, grab a mountain dude, grab his briefcase, and go down to the basement in his office.

And he will stay there until dinner's ready. The family revolved around Gary, both as their father and financier. The central axle, if you will, in this Ferris wheel.

But I couldn't give you a certain amount of what he even made. I'm not pretty to that. While Gary controlled the money,

“that didn't mean he was holding back dollars from his children.”

Take all the sun crisp.

He was married to his second wife,

and had kids from his first marriage. But Melody said Gary helped him out. I mean he's had a three-interns of dollar. Cable wheel. Everyone, he's got over $300, cell phone wheel.

Now I don't know where there's just he is, or it's him and his two girls. He just put me there's Caroline taking out the union. Melody said their daughter Emily, who was married in living in Tennessee,

also counted on her dad for help. Same goes for Scott. The only adult child who Melody said wasn't depending on Gary was their youngest daughter Amanda. As detectives put it,

Gary was giving away money like it grew on trees.

“It sounds like everybody was suckling on the teeth for a farm phrase.”

They weren't except for me. He was able to find a job with Shopify and business. And to be honest, with the check-out with the world the best version was really high. The check-out with the world is the best version.

The legendary check-out from Shopify is just the shop for your website, a bit to social media, and everything else. That's the music for your ears.

How do you manage to find a job with Shopify? You can find a real help. You can also find a job for your own promotion. I'll show by 5.8, let's record it. As detectives work to figure out what had happened in the days

leading up to Gary Ferris' murder, they took a deeper look into the family. There was Chris, the oldest.

“Back in 2018, he was 38, married, and had two daughters.”

The second oldest Scott turned 35, two days after the remains were discovered.

He was single, living and working on his parents' property, and didn't have any children. Scott and Chris looked like they could be twins, even though they're three years apart. Emily, their third child and first daughter, was 30.

Married with one young daughter, and she was the only sibling who lived out of state, building a life in Tennessee. And finally, Amanda, their youngest, at the time she was 29, and engaged.

Her wedding was set for the upcoming spring. The last time Amanda and Emily saw Gary was the weekend before he disappeared. The whole family had gotten together to celebrate Gary's 58th birthday.

They had a cookout at the farm. Scott told detectives that the last time he saw his father was at a restaurant called Johnny's Cherokee Ranch, not far from the farm. This was on July 3rd, two days before finding the human remains.

We all have an energy to spend a little bit of time. I was actually having lunch. I was having lunch with my mother. He was there already. This is from an interview with Detective Hayes.

My dad, he's there. He said he was there together or not. He left before. He was already there. He was almost done already.

He left after that. Did he say what he was doing the rest of the day? I didn't. I mean, we see each other so much.

We don't always talk to each other.

He said that he and his mom didn't stay much longer before heading their separate ways. Later in the day, his brother Chris stopped by the farm with his daughter. She wanted to see big daddy. He was Chris talking to detectives in 2018.

We pulled up and he's, you know, I'm working. He said he's like, I would hug you, but I'm all hot and sweaty. I'm just going to kiss you and tell my daughter. And she said, what are you doing? Gary was in the midst of collecting items for the burn pile.

We were there for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. After Chris and his daughter left, Melody told detective Hayes that Gary let the burn pile. He started it and then he went up to the very front entrance. And then was Mr. Rand up there and it's Gary.

Don't leave that fire. Please don't leave the fire. She estimated the last time she spoke with him was around 8 or 830 on the evening of July 3rd.

she warned him not to leave the burn pile burning.

“She said you are not going to be in even the fire.”

How big was the fire when he lit it? Massive. As massive as the fire might have been, Melody said something else caught her attention that night. The horses had escaped the gated pasture.

I had two horses he got out, so I was chasing me. She called Scott, who spent the day at his friends lake house. Scott remembered getting back to the farm that night at around 11 or 1130 when he saw a glow in the distance. Immediately when I pulled in the driveway, I could see the fire going in the woods.

He assumed Gary was being irresponsible. Early the next morning, Scott said he called Melody.

He needed the debit card.

He and Melody used the same card that had Gary's name on it. She walked it out to me, headed to me after door. And I went, got some cash out of the ATM, came back, gave her the card, and I left, I went to go play golf. He had a 730 AM round of golf planned,

and then was heading back to his friends lake house. Melody was heading to the same lake as Scott, but a different area. She was going to spend the day with her daughter Amanda, along with Amanda's fiancé and his daughter.

According to Amanda, Gary didn't accept an earlier invitation to join in the holiday fun. Melody said they didn't see him when they returned in the evening. In the Ferris family, that was just normal for Gary. After spending the fourth of July at the lake,

two of the Ferris grandchildren slept over at the farm. By the time Amanda showed up at the house the next morning, the grandkids were asking Melody if they could see their grandpa. Big daddy. And they said they couldn't find him.

We'll bet that time Scott showed up at the house.

“And I said, hey, have you seen your dad over at the barn?”

He's a immediate reaction, there's a gun missing. He took off and went to the house, Amanda followed him immediately. I went on into the house, going, what is he talking about? What did he say?

For years, gun south has been a podcast about crime in the American south. But for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the south in a lot of ways,

the country itself. Follow and listen to Gun South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. Give me a sense of how this story started for you.

This difficult day at the office for me. We had just finished lunch. In 2024, Detective Daniel Hayes drove us to the Ferris' family property. He told me about the moment he got that call.

“I believe I was in the car with the dead of Guy Condol,”

and we heard the radio call. What did it say? That a body was found in a fire. The family had called, and now one said they had just found their father, and his remains in the fire.

He was familiar with this affluent part of Cherokee County, and figured what happened here was an accident. It was a hot day in July. We thought from what it sounded like. Sometimes it happens, somebody's by fire is already 90-something degrees outside.

A medical episode, and it happened any failin' to the fire. They didn't even think the case would take long. Detective Guy Condol, and I both were, you know, let's go up here and get this knocked out so we can get home on time for dinner. Once he drove up, the ferris' long driveway,

detective Hayes got out of his car and made his way to the burn pile. Give me a sense of what you saw as you're walking up to it, describe it for me. You went past their three-car garage, and a big chicken coop, and we walked through the back yard.

It wouldn't. You know, the trees, there was no grass or anything like that, and it was a downhill, a gradual downhill slip. And we were taken to this very large pile of debris that was still smotering, it's still smoking.

And while Detective Hayes had never investigated a body-found

in a burn pile before, one thing was certain. This guy didn't have a heart attack or a heat stroke, and fallen to the fire and burned the side of his arm.

Which suggested someone must have placed him there.

“I found it hard to believe that he could be missing from this property”

with this affluent family for any length of time back there burning. You know, so that indicated to me that someone likely possibly knew that he was back there burning and was helping it continue to burn.

What Detective Hayes first thought could have been a tragic accident

now looked like a murder. They brought in canines to help search the property. Detective Hayes went inside the house. Any evidence whatsoever in the house of a break-in, though. Any sign of a struggle inside that house that a battle had gone on.

The house was other than a few visible drops of blood that were left on the floor. The house was in pretty immaculate condition. Investigators then checked if there was more blood invisible to the naked eye by spraying a special chemical across the floor. You spray it on blood and take a picture of it.

If there's blood there, it's supposed to glow. They found some on the floor upstairs. They found some on the floor downstairs in the basement. They found some on the stairs leading down to the basement on the carpet. There was blood evidence.

And to set suggestivity away some sort of progression of an attack on Gary.

“That's what we interpreted as as we started looking at it.”

Spots of blood weren't the only things they found in the basement. One of detective Hase's colleagues later noticed something on the floor. He sees it, kind of sees a shiny object or something. It gets closer to that support. Outside, sheriff's deputies found more evidence.

It was pointed out to us that the tractor was parked in a area, a position that is uncommon. Scott told detectives that the tractor Gary regularly used was parked in the yard. And not under the shed, work Gary usually parked. This tractor has been moved by someone who left it there on purpose. Forgot that Gary's rules about it.

Once detectives got a closer look, they noticed something. Gary's blood was found on the tractor around one of the steps.

“We were talking about a couple of the drops, right?”

Not much. Yeah. There was also blood on an RTV. Detectives talked to the oldest, Chris Ferris. Chris was already in route to pick up his daughter from her sleep over at the farm that morning.

When Amanda called with news that their father was missing. Chris recounted his movements in an interview with detectives a few weeks after the remains were discovered. I was mad because nobody seemed to have any sense of urgency about this. Chris said that he was on the RTV, looking for his father when he spotted melody walking towards the burn pile. He was suspicious no one in the family had checked that area until after he arrived.

It's like, well, so my bad to find something out. So let's get it over with. I mean, that's just what pops into my mind. Why did it take me getting there for this step? Scott also told detectives about something he thought was strange.

Back on the first day of the investigation, Scott noticed more than just his father was missing.

A few weeks before Gary disappeared, Scott said he saw an unfamiliar 38 snub nose revolver in a basement drawer. It wasn't the gun that I've grown up seeing. However, when he searched the house the day of his father's disappearance, the gun was gone. Later he told detectives that during that same search, melody walked up to him, holding something that belonged to Gary. She came back out of his wallet.

That didn't sit right with Scott. He had looked earlier for that wallet because he said his father only kept it in two places, a dresser or his back pocket. I'm like, where did you get this? Well, it was in the car. It was underneath the cigarettes.

He never leaves his wallet on any cigarettes in the car.

Detective spoke to Scott that night until the early morning of July 6th. That's when Detective Hayes decided to let Scott in on a major new discovery. I gotta tell you something, and it's not easy, but there's no good way to say it. Detective Hayes told Scott that investigators had recorded a temperature of 230 degrees Fahrenheit in the spot where they found the remains. Destroying a ton of DNA, but the extreme heat hadn't destroyed an ominous object.

So they haven't had such a show on that the remains, if they are in fact your father, has been shot.

I was in the rear, it's not the head. Great. So far, this will take time. Did you have a search on the house for about 38? They're doing it right now.

Due to the conditions of the remains, the autopsy report would take almost a year to confirm it was Gary Ferris, who had been shot and killed.

And that it was his body placed in that burn pile.

He weighed 300 pounds, but when the bones were actually the skeletal remains were actually removed. How much did they weigh?

“It was around 33, 34 pounds I believe is what was recovered of him.”

And why would somebody want to burn a body? Cover up a crown? Destroy evidence. Detectives knew for sure they were dealing with a murderer, a missing murder weapon,

and that a killer was on the loose.

The Ferris wheel was spinning. Melody told detectives she worried one of her children might be the killer. That's next time on blood is thicker. The Ferris wheel.

“From 48 hours, this is bloodest thicker.”

The Ferris wheel produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host Peter Vansat. Judy Tigard is the executive producer of 48 hours. Original reporting by 48 hours producers, Betsy Schuler, Ryan Smith, and Hannah Verre. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for CBS News Podcasts.

And Mara Walsh is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Alana Myers. Special thanks to CBS News Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus.

“Blood is thicker was written and produced by Alex Schumann.”

Stephanie Sorano is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris. Our associate producer is Zoe Kolken. Theme and original music composed by Hans Dale Shee. Sedrick Wilson is our sound designer and mix the episodes.

We also use music from Epidemic Sounds. Fendell Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Tamika Balance Colassini. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and here are reporting.

Thanks for listening. This year on NPR Stooline, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. For centuries, America's pursuit has changed the world. Now, 250 years later, who are we? Where are we headed?

Join us every Tuesday for a brand new series, America in pursuit. On throughline, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.