All language subtitles for no.one.saw.a.thing.s01e02.1080p.web.h264-flx.English

It is said that there are
no secrets in a small town.

But in Skidmore, those who know who
killed Ken Rex McElroy won't say.

Nobody deserves to be murdered.

However...

Ken McElroy terrorized the town
of Skidmore, Missouri,

for more than ten years,

then in broad daylight,

with more than 45
people watching,

Ken McElroy was gunned
down and killed.

But nobody saw a thing,
and nobody did anything.

This town was so full of sin.

It was proud
they had killed him.

If they catch somebody,

would you feel
that justice has been done?

No, because there
was a whole town.

That was the one
mistake that they made.

They didn't kill his wife.

I would've killed his wife.

Mrs. McElroy,
I know this is upsetting to you.

Yes.
I turned around and...

and he had been shot.

And... I opened the door and...

they said... The man told me
to stay in there,

they wanted to shoot me too.

Yes. Yes. I am.

I have been wondering why
they haven't done anything.

Yes, I do.

Yes, I do.

Nothing.

Oh, yes.

They haven't done nothing.

Not in Nodaway County, no.

I don't know what their problem
is, but I know who did it.

I do not know.

No, I do not want
to go out of county.

I don't believe that
I'd be safe there.

Can we take a break
just a minute, fellas?

Trena was devoted
to Ken, in a sick way,

clear all the way
through to the end.

After McElroy was killed, she...
she was still fighting for him.

This is
the tale of a small farm town,

Skidmore, Missouri,

and the bad brazen bully
who terrorized its people.

Kenneth Rex McElroy
was 47 years old,

and was known far and wide

as the meanest man
in Nodaway County.

His widow, Trena McElroy,

says he was a loving father
and a kind husband.

She was there at the D&G bar
with him when he was shot.

The first time
I actually had anybody

ask me anything
about Ken McElroy

was when I was a freshman
in high school.

My mom asked me
if I had seen Trena McCloud

get on and off the school bus
and go with anybody,

and I hadn't, 'cause
I wasn't paying attention.

My daughter and her
used to go to school together.

So she says "That girl's
gonna get in trouble,"

and I said "What do you mean?"

She said she met Ken McElroy

down at the Four Corners
from Maitland.

She couldn't wait till
she got in that truck with him.

We started hearing that he was
picking Trena up from school

and then taking her back
to get on the bus going home.

And it wasn't long after that
that she dropped out of school.

She loved him.

She followed him.

I mean she followed him.

They were lovers.

Over his life,
he had five wives,

and anywhere between
16 to 19 children.

That's a lot of McElroys.

Well, it's really no big secret

that Dad was seeing women
that were a lot younger.

Fourteen I would say was
probably pretty close to average.

The story on it was that they
wanted to get married,

and parents said no, he's...

'cause he was still
married at the time

he was asking about it.

Dad hooked up with Trena,

they were kind of
sharing Dad for a minute,

and Trena got upset
because Dad would not stop

seeing his wife,
and that's when the whole

rape thing came in.

They began seeing
each other when she was 14.

At 16, she accused him of rape.

They said he raped her.

You know, I don't
know that for sure.

You know, he'd asked for consent

from her parents again,
and they said,

"No, you can't marry him",
and next thing you knew

their house burned down.

None of that was true.

That was made up shit.

I don't believe my dad
burnt down their house.

There was a lot of
stories that circulated

around Trena's family.

Mom told me they were bullshit.

Is it true that when
you were still a schoolgirl,

sixteen years old,
that your husband raped you?

No. This is not true, no.

He was charged with rape.

Yes, he was charged with it.

But it's not true.

- You brought the charge against him?
- Yes. And it's not true.

Why did you do it?

Jealousy.
I was jealous over him,

but it's not true.

Was your
parents' house burnt down?

No, it was not burnt down,

it was defaulty wiring.

And the record should show
it's defaulty wiring.

It was...
It was just a charge to...

more trouble,
like everybody usually did.

- More trouble.
- Including you, you gave him trouble.

Yes. Yes.
And it's not true.

It wasn't true at all.

When the law enforcement
was closing in on him

to arrest him and charge him
with statutory rape

he fled to Kansas
and married her,

so that she couldn't testify.

They might have been in love.
I don't know.

What people
are gonna ask, Trena,

that how can we believe
her when she says

her husband was a fine man,

if she says she was
lying when she said

her husband raped her.

'Cause he was a fine man,
and he never did nothing like that.

He never had--He never had to do
anything like that in the first place.

He was a nice-looking,
well-mannered man,

and he never had
to do anything like that.

It's untrue.

Well, I know
Ken Rex had two wives.

Alice and Trena.

It was an odd setup.

They lived together.

Their kids got on
the same school bus everyday.

My mom was pretty young.

She was about 14 when Dad
started seeing her as well.

The relationship between
Trena and Mom

was kind of different,
I mean almost like sisters

if that makes sense.

I felt they were with Dad
because they loved him.

I'm sure there were people
who really objected to it.

There's two churches
in the town,

so I'm sure the churchy
people didn't like it.

None of the townspeople
thought that was a good idea

'cause none of us
were raised that way.

In fact, it's against the law.

You can't be married to
two people at the same time.

Bigamy, or whatever it's called.

But Ken Rex wasn't a man
that followed the laws anyway.

He was just totally
different from anybody.

He was. He was fearless.

He wasn't afraid of anything.

To be quite honest, the time that we
lived with Trena and Mom and everybody,

I don't remember anything bad.

I mean, I remember us kids chasing
each other through the house,

swimming in the horse trough
outside,

chasing lightning bugs
in the field.

Mom and Trena
they always cooked.

They made pies and
put them in the window.

I've heard Ken Rex
was really a great dad.

But at the same time,
they've had to have witnessed

abuse to their mothers.

It wasn't like all the time.

But yeah, there was abuse.

We never saw the abuse.

You might see a black eye
or something later,

but you didn't know
where it came from.

It was never done
in front of us.

I don't know if she
even knew she was abused.

You know, you grow up, you just
think that's the way the world is.

I don't know.

They've always been this
way towards my husband.

I do not know.

They've...

I don't know.

You say that 50 or 60 people

saw the gunman
who fired at your husband.

Yes, they was all there.

I looked at them to see
what they was looking at.

They were just
staring and laughing.

The gunman.
Who was that?

By the time we got it,
see, the investigation people

had stripped the inside.

When it came in,
it had two bullet holes

through the side of
the box over there

that came up, there was holes
in the back of the cab,

the front of the box,

and in through the windshield,
through the back glass.

Side glass was blown out.

New seats from the bloodstains.

And then,
there was specks of blood

all over the inside, of course,
and we had to clean all that up.

Who has a town of 400 people...

and better than 60
of them are gathered

around a pickup truck,

and you've got
people shooting a man

sitting inside of it, but yet...

there's not one
person that saw it.

First thing I think about
when I think about Skidmore is

what happened to
my dad and my family,

and pretty much how it
transformed our lives.

The day my father was killed,

I was 13 years old.

I remember we was on our way
to my dad's house.

The phone call it came,
and I seen the reaction

on my mom's face.

I don't know how else to put it,

other than the fact that...

I knew.

I didn't feel it
on the ride up there like that,

because I was just
not sure what to feel.

But there's a lot of things

that throughout these
37 years that... I forgot.

Maybe I don't wanna remember.
You know what I mean?

I put that part of my life
behind me for a reason.

The things that you
don't ever forget

is that blood running
down the streets,

you don't forget the bone,
the hair, the flesh.

You'll never, ever,
forget seeing

your father's meat and flesh

blown all over
the inside of a pickup.

You can't erase that memory.

That is something
you'll never get rid of.

I remember us all
sitting at the farmhouse,

all the kids, and them
all telling us, you know...

he went to heaven.

And I remember standing
at the back door

looking up at the sky.

All the kids were crying a lot.

I mean, I was pretty young,
so...

that's about all
I can remember of it.

You know,
I don't blame those kids

for being upset
'cause their dad was shot.

I can't imagine being them,
growing up with the McElroy name,

and having to be
associated with all that.

Pretty much when you
start looking back at things,

you understand where people were created...
and why they were created.

I think that
Ken Rex McElroy's upbringing

had a lot to do
with the man he became.

He was the 13th out of 14 kids.

You're fighting for food,
your place at the table,

you're probably fighting
for your space in the bed.

You're fighting for everything.

He was uneducated...

back then and some now.

Poor families
were looked down on,

felt sorry for,
and he didn't like that image.

I think that he refused
to feel inferior to anybody.

There's not a lot
of money in the house.

Your father is
probably pretty abusive.

Not only to you, but to the
brothers and sisters that you love.

My mom said that
my dad did love animals.

She knew that he had love
for animals a long time.

Grandpa kind of proceeded
to beat that out of him.

The one story was
where he was in the barn,

and Grandpa was wanting him
to do something that was

abusive to an animal,
and my dad, I guess,

had refused multiple times
to do what was being asked,

and so Grandpa
would keep punishing him

until he would finally
get him to break

and do what he would request.

In a situation like that,
it's pretty easy

to grow up to be a bully.

People call him
a town bully, that's not right.

He was a rural terrorist.

Do I believe that there
was bad things that Dad did?

Yes.

He wasn't a perfect man by far.

But they planned that murder.

They went in,
they had a town meeting,

they all sat down together,

they decided that they were
gonna do it, and they done it.

I mean, when you've got the law,
you've got the judicial system,

everybody in the area,
they're related to one another...

everybody covers for everybody.

We're talking to
David Baird, B-A-I-R-D,

the Nodaway County prosecutor.

Mr. Baird, how would you
describe the situation

with the investigation
at this point?

So, when we start
talking about the day

of the shooting
of Ken Rex McElroy,

we have to move out of
2018 and back to 1981.

And I say that because
it's a change in technology.

We did not have cellphones,
we did not have texting,

we did not have
any of the things

that we take for granted today.

Well, we started off
with a NOMIS squad,

which started on
the Friday of the shooting

which was the 10th of July.

NOMIS is a major case squad

made up of law enforcement
throughout northwest Missouri.

When NOMIS is activated,
it's activated for a five day period.

It's designed to be short,
quick, get in, get out.

We had anywhere
from 18 to 25 officers

working nearly around
the clock and thereafter

on all day shifts.

How can you
have this many people

near where a murder
was perpetrated

and not have anyone say
that they actually saw

the person who did it.

I can't really answer that.

Has that been one of the stumbling
blocks thus far, or what?

That's been
a big stumbling block.

The process is that you
start with what you know

at the center, and then
you see how far it expands out.

The only real witness they had
was Mrs. McElroy.

Trena McElroy
told reporters she knows

who killed her husband.

But Mrs. McElroy accused
authorities of not working

to solve the homicide.

Just tell
me what happened, right,

I mean there was
tension in the air

in that place, right?

I seen a man go
across the street,

go to his pickup,
take the gun out,

and I seen him shoot it.

Who was that?

It was Del Clement.

Del Clement was
a rancher in the Skidmore area,

lived out west of town.

And as far as why he
would have a reason

to kill Ken Rex McElroy,
I wouldn't have a clue.

He shot two times
while I was in there.

He shot two more times
when I was getting out.

And I don't know how many more.

You're absolutely
positive it was Del Clement

- who shot your husband?
- Yes. I seen him shoot it.

She said she saw Del Clement.

She saw him holding
a long gun of some type.

Sure, I believe her.
No reason not to.

Trena says
she saw who killed Ken.

Trena is a liar.
Let's make it plain.

If you knew Skidmore,
you knew that there was

lots of trouble between Ken
Rex McElroy and Del Clement.

Del Clement,
the owner of the D&G bar,

was one of the shooters,
according to McElroy's wife. He denies it.

The Clement family,
they were pillars of the community.

Del, he was the cowboy.

And he was the big cowboy
in this area.

I mean at the rodeos,
he was the pickup man.

All that. Good cowboy.

He was the one who walked
into the bar that day

and told McElroy to
get the hell out of town.

Had there
been bad blood between...

Not that I know of. I never did know
my husband even talking to the man.

The only thing that we did here

that if my husband
went into town,

they would lose $60
a day in their tavern.

Because nobody
would come in the bar.

So the suggestion is
that Ken Rex McElroy

was bad for the D&G's business.

The rumor was.

The rumor, yeah.
The rumor was.

But, he never caused no trouble.

My husband never caused
no trouble with nobody.

Don't believe everything
you hear in Skidmore.

OK?

One thing people in
Nodaway County are free with

is opinions.

Small towns are small towns.

Everybody's got their
thought of how it happened,

why it happened, who did it.

How do you tell the truth?

How do you find the truth?

You've gotta
look at it logically

because there's so
many emotions involved...

in anything like this.

She was a very staunch
supporter of Ken Rex McElroy.

She rode around in the trucks.

Had guns in her hand.

Trena was very devoted...
in a twisted way.

They were his backups,
you know a lot of time

they went to a bar,
they'd sit outside

with their shotguns, you know,
in case there was trouble.

It'd be like Bonnie and Clyde.

It's her word against
Del Clement's, I guess.

Skidmore residents deny

a vigilante group
killed McElroy.

One resident said he hopes
the case is solved soon

so the town can return
to a normal life.

Except for McElroy's wife,

no one has come forward

to point out a suspect
in his killing.

Authorities believe that

half of the town's
citizens saw it,

but no one will come forward.

I did not anticipate
that we would not have

witnesses, testimony,
and evidence

within a relatively
short period of time.

You know, it's frustrating for a prosecutor,
it's frustrating for the officers,

but that's, you know,
the situation that we're in now.

There's a bit of
pressure on law enforcement

whenever a crime goes unsolved.

There's a bit of pressure.

Understand that
the prosecutor doesn't really

have anything to do
with the investigation.

The investigation is
done by law enforcement.

My reports come from
the state investigation,

which in this case was NOMIS
and the sheriff's department.

Ken McElroy was shot
and killed last Friday

over in Skidmore Missouri,
and since that time

I know the Northwest Missouri Major
Case Squad has been called in.

What has your investigation
been focusing on?

I can't really comment
on that at this time.

NOMIS called almost immediately
for a coroner's inquest.

Coroner's inquests
are sort of a mini grand jury.

It's six people
that are in panel,

they hear testimony,
and their job

is to determine whether or not
a crime has been committed.

And the statute says
that if they come back and say,

"We find this was
by criminal means",

and name a specific individual,

that, in effect,
becomes an indictment

based upon their findings.

It was a way for
independent individuals

unrelated to the case
to hear the testimony

of Mrs. McElroy, to determine
if they would believe

her statement and her testimony

as to this is how
the incident occurred.

I'm not sure you could
find a true impartial jury

in Skidmore, Missouri.

- Were you in town the
day of the shooting? -Yes.

Where were you?

Just a block, the little
white house on the corner,

but I didn't hear, see,
or anything,

'cause I was working
out in the garden,

and I just didn't have any care.

People's afraid
to say what they seen

because they're afraid
what's gonna happen to them

and their family.

Counselor, who shot him?

His wife says that Mr. Clement.

Del Clement shot him.

Now, the prosecuting
attorney has said

well it seems that,
and I understand this is the allegation,

that probably he was shot
by more than one person.

And they've tried to
make something of that,

as far as I read
in the news media,

Mrs. McElroy says
that could well be.

But she said I saw
one of the people

who shot my husband.

She went to
the coroner's inquest and...

and she testified
that she saw Del Clement

grab a high powered rifle
out of his pickup truck

and fire the shots
that killed her husband.

I'm gonna play defense now.

He had a motive.
So did 30 other people.

Who's your eyewitness?

Trena McElroy.

Now, the truth is...

The truth is that, um,

at one point we had another
witness who we were prepared

to take in front
of the grand jury

who then got an attorney,
recanted, and wouldn't testify.

I can't put on that
he previously told the officer

here's who it was.

One person was
gonna go up to testify.

And I heard that when
he went up to testify, uh,

the prosecutor was
gonna put him in a room

to put down what he said,

well when he went back,
his fence was cut and his cattle was took.

They was gone. They had
drove them out of the lot.

So now, I'm back to Trena.

Trena McElroy
says she saw who did it.

Do you believe her?

I don't.
No, I don't believe her.

Because I think if she
actually saw who done it,

uh... I think probably there would
have been something done about it.

While the investigation
into the murder

of Ken Rex McElroy was going on,

Trena and her kids disappeared.

The whole McElroy
family went into hiding.

Maybe they thought
they were next,

maybe they felt their
lives were in danger.

Who knows?

Right after
the incident, you know,

there was a time that people
would drive by at night

and they'd shoot into the house.

At 13 years old, you know, that's not
something you're used to growing up with.

It's like a war zone
in a small town.

Everybody was
meeting at the house,

and us kids were sitting
outside by the tree,

and a Jeep drove by
and fired a gun.

And my sister yelled,
"Oh, my God!"

And the bullet had hit
right above my head.

They attempted to shoot at me
and my little brother,

and the bullet...
I mean literally grazed my brother's ear.

You're out in the middle
of nowhere,

and they try to kill us.

The emotion was to just pack up
and get the hell out.

Mr. Baird, it must be pretty
frustrating for a prosecutor

to have a murder case in which there's
anywhere from 50 to 70 witnesses,

and you don't make a case.

As a prosecutor, my role is to
be fair and just to everyone,

it was my estimation
that we could not prove

and convince 12 jurors
beyond a reasonable doubt

that a particular defendant
committed this crime.

But it's always
possible I'm wrong.

It's always possible
that jurors would disagree,

and would in fact,
make the determination

that this evidence
is sufficient.

And so one of the ways
you can do that

is by using a grand jury.

In a little town
in northwest Missouri,

a grand jury will meet
tomorrow, and is expected

to consider
an unusual murder case.

The victim's widow says
she can identify the killer,

but at least some
people are asking

if it isn't really a case
against an entire town.

Normally,
you don't have a grand jury

in a county of this size.

In all the years
that I was prosecutor,

the only time I had
the grand jury was

for the Ken Rex McElroy
investigation.

A grand jury is being convened,

but unless the town breaks
its code of silence,

an indictment isn't likely.

A statesman once said,
"You can't indict a people."

Well, you can't indict
a whole town either.

The problem with
any witness in any case

is making sure that
that witness' testimony

is believable to a jury.

Based upon the evidence I had,
I had no reason to disbelieve her.

Why did the grand jury
not believe Mrs. McElroy?

I do not have an answer.

Could your husband ever get
a fair trial in that county?

No. No, there's
too much prejudice.

Too many talk,
everybody just talked.

And a lot of them didn't
know my husband at all.

They just heard
rumors and stuff.

They had a grand jury,

and it sat for a long time.

Grand jury on what?

On the...
into the...

Looking into the murder
of your husband.

Came up with nothing.

Oh, there's a lot of
people that seen it.

You will probably
not be surprised to learn

that so far no one's been
charged with the murder

of Ken Rex McElroy.

This grand jury decided that
there wasn't enough evidence

to indict anyone.

The coroner's inquest
was an exercise in futility.

Local investigations
have so far come up with zero.

A person, or persons,
unknown, shot and killed

Ken Rex McElroy.

Really?

Was that the determination?

They were no doubt told by
Trena who pulled the trigger.

So for them to come
up that determination

is... is...
it's a bit ridiculous.

McElroy's wife,
Trena, says she knows

who killed her husband,
but police refuse to act.

Why haven't charges then been filed
against at least that suspect?

Well, homicide is
a very serious crime,

and carries a
very heavy penalty...

and we need time for a
thorough investigation

before charges will be filed.

There has been
a conspiracy of silence.

You cannot tell me
that 40 to 70 people

standing on the sidewalk,
and a man is in his truck,

and he's shot four times
in the head,

that somebody did
not see who shot him,

and nobody has come forward.

Now, I've had some people
who tell me,

"I know who did it,
but I'm afraid.

What would happen
to me if I tell you

who shot Mr. McElroy?"

I can tell you,
but I don't want to go under oath

or go before a grand jury.

These people freeze up.

They're not going
to say anything.

It's quite
a conspiracy to buy into.

I don't believe it for a second.

The thing of it is,

we don't know what happened
in that grand jury courtroom.

None of us were there.

Nobody knows what's been asked,

nobody knows what's been
talked about... at all.

They're totally secret.

A lot of people
told me in the town

that they really don't
care if the man who shot,

or the people who shot McElroy,
are ever caught.

Do you think that
they'll get their wish?

Generally said,
"no witness, no case".

And in fact whoever,
or how many ever shot him,

they're free today on the same
principle he lived by:

"No witness, no case."

The townspeople have returned to
their normal way of life again

after Ken McElroy's death.

A death some say
has erased the fear

that reigned
while McElroy lived.

After Ken was shot,
it was almost as if

Skidmore was trying
to forget the legacy

that he gave to that town.

Skidmore killed its bully,

and most are happy he's dead,

but the town is uncomfortable
with how it was done,

and the notoriety that followed.

It's over and done with.
We'd like to start forgetting about it.

I hope and pray that they
never find out who did it...

because I think the fellow
got what he deserved.

I'm very sympathetic
to those people.

The wheels of justice
turned too slow

or weren't turning at all.

I'm very sympathetic to the fact

that they took justice
into their own hands,

vigilante style,

and got rid of the problem.

They did what had to be done.

I appreciate that.
I respect that.

I respect that kind of courage.

Was it good? No.

Was it justified?

Only because
there was no justice.

A lot of people
in Skidmore feel that--

that whoever... whoever
killed him was justified,

that since the law
couldn't protect them

they had to take the law
into their own hands.

I don't think that
anyone is ever justified

in taking the law
into their hands.

That's why we have laws.

The same laws which protect

the citizens of
the United States,

anyone including the laws which
would protect Mr. McElroy.

And at this point, you know,
it remains an active case

and will be handled as such.

My personal opinion
is anytime that there is a crime

for which a person
is not held accountable,

then justice was not done.

Do you think there is

a kind of conspiracy of silence?

I believe without any shadow of a doubt
that there was a major cover-up here.

Not only by law enforcement,
but of all the people in that town.

When he got killed
and they got away with it,

at that point,
they felt protected.

They felt that, you know what,
there ain't a whole lot we can't do here,

that we're not gonna be able
to get away with.

I get a little angry sometimes
in this whole scenario,

because that's how it was done.

I know the sheriff
and them were involved.

I don't care what
anyone has to say,

whether it ever comes to light.

I know they were involved.

I believe that it
was a conspiracy,

I mean, till they
hold to this day,

and they're gonna
keep holding it

until the day they die.

So, if this is a town
divided between those

who despised McElroy,
and those who disapprove of murder,

it is also a town united
by fear on both sides.

A fear that is
holding truth hostage.

Do you feel that whoever shot your
husband is gonna be charged with murder?

They're not gonna do anything
in that county... to him.

Yes.

Today.

What is
the significance, if any,

of the FBI's entrance
into the case?

Really, I don't know.

I know that Mrs. McElroy,
by and through her attorney,

contacted the FBI
in regards to allegations

that we were not
fully investigating.

I know that in response to that,
the FBI is making routine checks into it,

and that is about the entirety of my
understanding of their investigation.

Trena McElroy
named her husband's shooter,

but neither a coroner's jury,
nor a grand jury,

decided there's enough
evidence to file charges.

Now, the FBI
is getting involved.

I mean,
they're all in it together.

It was set up, and they're
all gonna stick together.

I mean, every one
of them seen it.

The FBI became
involved when Gene McFadin

who represented McElroy,
and his wife Trena,

contacted the FBI.

When the federal government
gets involved

it becomes, for some people,
more serious.

Suddenly having
the federal government present

inquiring through the FBI,
I'm sure had an impact on the community.

FBI agents came
to town dressed like farmers.

And now few will talk
to outsiders at all.

My strategy was
to subpoena the individuals

who were present
when McElroy was killed.

The FBI then sent out agents,

maybe as many as 10,

to subpoena the people
who were present

during the murder of McElroy.

Of course, they were obligated
to respond to the subpoena

by being present.

And they were asked, each of
them, what they observed

when McElroy was killed.

And they told us what they saw.

The fear has been
replaced by a new anxiety.

There could be
federal indictments,

and some of the town's
leading citizens

could face a long
and costly trial.