The Wall Street Journal
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The Journal.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2025
9/21/2025 5:30:00 AMShare This Episode
Camp Swamp Road Ep. 2: A Game of Telephone
After Scott Spivey was killed in a shootout on Camp Swamp Road, his sister Jennifer Foley wanted to know what happened. But the police didn’t provide the family with answers. So, Jennifer began her own investigation. WSJ reporter Valerie Bauerlein goes to South Carolina to see what Jennifer uncovered.
- shootout ˈʃuːˌtaʊt 銃撃戦、撃ち合い
- investigation ɪnˌvɛstəˈɡeɪʃən 調査、捜査
- uncover ʌnˈkʌvər 明らかにする、暴く
- provide answers prəˈvaɪd ˈænsərz 答えを提供する、説明する
- begin one’s own investigation bɪˈɡɪn wʌnz oʊn ɪnˌvɛstəˈɡeɪʃən 自ら調査を始める
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- stand-your-ground law stænd jʊr ɡraʊnd lɔː 正当防衛法（特定の状況下で逃げずに自己防衛が認められる）
- castle doctrine ˈkæsəl ˌdɒktrɪn 家宅防衛原則（自宅内での防衛を正当化する法的概念）
- road rage roʊd reɪdʒ 道路での怒り運転、暴力行為
- civil suit ˈsɪvəl suːt 民事訴訟
- wrongful death ˈrɒŋfʊl dɛθ 不法死亡（他人の過失や故意により死亡した場合の法的責任）
- evidence file ˈɛvɪdəns faɪl 証拠ファイル
- 911 call naɪn wʌn wʌn kɔːl 緊急通報電話
Valerie Bauerlein: A word of warning. This series contains descriptions of violence and strong language, including unbleeped curse words. Please be advised. Previously on Camp Swamp Road.
Weldon Boyd: I've got pictures of him aiming the gun at us, everything, he's about to put the gun out again. Sir, this guy aims that gun at me, we're going to have to shoot him.
Speaker 3: There is a guy that is waving a gun in front of me trying to shoot at my car and the other one's beside us. He's all over the road.
Jennifer Foley: And I look at my cousin, I'm saying, "Either Scott's been murdered or he's murdered somebody. What is going on?" And no one will tell us
Weldon Boyd: He shot at us.
Speaker 5: Partner. We're good.
Weldon Boyd: Sorry.
Speaker 5: You're good. Don't worry about it. Things happen, like I said.
Weldon Boyd: I don't understand this one.
Speaker 5: Detectives come up and-
Valerie Bauerlein: It's the day after the shooting. The lead investigator assigned to the Scott Spivey case is Detective Alan Jones.
Alan Jones: This is for the audio recording for the phone call with Mr. Byron and Deborah Spivey, the parents of Seaton Scott Spivey.
Valerie Bauerlein: Detective Jones records himself on his body cam. In the video he looks tired. He had stayed up late. At 2:10 AM, Jones had filed his initial report, which said that the shooting on Camp Swamp Road appeared to be justified. It's now around 2:000 in the afternoon and Jones is reaching out to the Spivey family for the first time. Scott Spivey's mother answers the phone.
Deborah Spivey: Hello?
Alan Jones: Is this Ms. Deborah Spivey?
Deborah Spivey: Yes.
Alan Jones: Ms. Spivey, I'm Alan Jones. I'm a detective with Horry County Police.
Deborah Spivey: Yes. Sir. Hold on just a moment. If you'd hold on just a moment.
Alan Jones: Okay.
Deborah Spivey: It's the detective. You want to go back there so you can hear? Hold on. It's going to get my... it showed speaker.
Alan Jones: Okay.
Deborah Spivey: Where's Jennifer?
Valerie Bauerlein: Deborah calls for her daughter, Jennifer Foley.
Jennifer Foley: We were sitting in the back bedroom. We can take all the chairs back there and we're sitting around and he's on speakerphone and we're all sitting in the room. There's probably 10 of us back there.
Valerie Bauerlein: Since the early morning, family members have been trickling into this Spivey house, aunts, uncles, cousins, waiting to hear more about what had happened to Scott.
Alan Jones: Well, I still have a couple of, I guess, unanswered questions here and there and actually I was hoping maybe talking with you guys may clear some of that up for me.
Deborah Spivey: Okay. We hope we can.
Jennifer Foley: It started off immediately was Scott going through a life crisis?
Alan Jones: Just trying to understand, Scott, did he have any kind of medical issues or anything of that nature?
Byron Spivey: No
Deborah Spivey: No, not that we're aware of. No.
Jennifer Foley: "Was Scott doing drugs? Was Scott this? Was Scott that?" And I'm like, "Pump the brakes and tell us what happened first."
Alan Jones: Has Scott ever had any kind of issues with any drug abuse issues or anything of that nature?
Byron Spivey: No.
Deborah Spivey: (inaudible) No, not really. As a teenager, pot and all, but...
Jennifer Foley: We got no clue what's happened and when those questions started coming in, we were like, "This is not normal questioning. This is Scott's the criminal. We need to record this."
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer's husband takes out his phone and he starts recording.
Deborah Spivey: I will say this much. Scott, by his nature, will not start something. Now he may not back down from, but he is not one to start something.
Valerie Bauerlein: Detective Jones tells the family that they have witnesses who saw Scott Spivey waving his gun on Highway 9.
Alan Jones: Scott pointed a gun at other people.
Deborah Spivey: Other people pointing it directly at him or out the window at the man behind him?
Byron Spivey: There you go.
Alan Jones: Yes, ma'am. We have two other witnesses at two other different vehicles that say he pointed a gun at them,
Deborah Spivey: That just does not sound like him at all.
Byron Spivey: No.
Deborah Spivey: I could see him if he was frightened pointing the gun out and behind him. I don't see it. I just do not.
Valerie Bauerlein: This is not how the Spiveys expected this call to go. They thought Detective Jones might say he was sorry for their loss. He didn't. They thought he was starting an investigation into who killed Scott. He wasn't. And these cross wires would only continue. It wouldn't be until months later that the Spiveys would figure out why. I'm Valerie Bauerlein and this is Camp Swamp Road, series from The Journal. Coming up, episode 2: A Game of Telephone. Scott Spivey was killed on his way home. If he'd kept going on Camp Swamp Road, he would've made it to his trailer. Spivey lived just across the state line in North Carolina. A few months ago I made that same drive with my producer Rachel Humphreys. We're coming up, we're getting ready to cross underneath Highway 9, actually the main thoroughfare just north of the line and, hold on. Now I'm looking at the GPS.
Rachel Humphreys: The Highway 9's going across...
Valerie Bauerlein: The shooting took place in South Carolina. Had it happened across the state line, things might've been different. North Carolina has a stand-your-ground law, but multiple lawyers and legislators there told me they would not have considered this a stand-your-ground case. And driving around I realized how close Spivey was to that state line, about two miles. It's very hard to know when you've crossed it. Are we still on the North Carolina side of the line?
Rachel Humphreys: I think. It's so porous. It's so hard to tell.
Valerie Bauerlein: Scott's Spivey's trailer sits next to his parents' house where he and Jennifer grew up. As we pull in, I notice an old barn that's collapsed in on itself. The family has been farming in this area for over a hundred years. The Spivey house is small red brick, one story set back from the road on a freshly mowed lawn. As we walk through the front door, Scott Spivey's mom, Deborah and his sister Jennifer are there to greet us.
Deborah Spivey: Good morning.
Valerie Bauerlein: Good morning. How are you?
Deborah Spivey: I'm good. I'm good. How are y'all?
Valerie Bauerlein: If you can us come back.
Deborah Spivey: Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome.
Valerie Bauerlein: It's been almost two years since Scott Spivey died, but there are traces of him everywhere. In the living room there's a huge portrait of him over the mantle. The first thing I noticed is his piercing blue eyes. One family keepsake is a video that Scott Spivey made for his father, Byron Dale Spivey. It was recorded a couple months before he was killed.
Scott Spivey: Happy Father's Day. I love my dad because he knew how important it was to do the right thing even when it wasn't doing the right thing. And at times we don't understand, but as we get older we realize where we come from and I appreciate my dad for all the things he did for me. Happy Father's Day.
Valerie Bauerlein: Scott Spivey worked as an insurance adjuster. He would travel around the country in the wake of natural disasters to assess the damage done to people's houses. He moved home the year before he died just before his 32nd birthday. He wanted to be close to his family, especially Jennifer. What was y'all's relationship like when you were little?
Jennifer Foley: He did anything I asked him to do, dressing up, playing dress up, playing anything. I mean be like, "Come have a tea party with me." And he'd be like, "Okay." I mean, I could get him to do anything I wanted.
Valerie Bauerlein: Like a lot of kids who grew up out in the country, Jennifer and Scott Spivey were each other's first playmates. They were siblings but they were also friends. They went to church and youth group together. And in high school when Jennifer made homecoming court, she asked her brother to be a escort.
Jennifer Foley: Who else did I want to walk me out there on the football field than my little brother? Who's my biggest cheerleader other than my little brother? So I'm going to let him be there for me so.
Valerie Bauerlein: Scott Spivey's mom, Deborah has a calming air about her. She's a retired special education teacher. Deborah was the last member of the family to see her son alive. Tell me about September 9th. How did the day start for you?
Deborah Spivey: It was a normal Saturday doing things around the house that you would do. I've walked outside to get something out of the car and he was leaving and I waved at him and he waved and smiled. I wish I had gone over and banged on the window and knowing what I know and just pulled him out and not let him go anywhere.
Valerie Bauerlein: On the night of the shooting, Deborah was driving back from dinner with her husband when she got the call from Jennifer.
Deborah Spivey: "Have you heard from Scott? Do you know what's going on with Scott?" And my heart just about skipped a beat in my throat, began to feel like it was closing up.
Valerie Bauerlein: It was dark when Deborah arrived at Camp Swamp Road. All the cops would tell her family was that Scott Spivey had been road raging and was dead.
Deborah Spivey: It's something that you can't believe that would happen because we've never experienced anything remotely close to that in a family or an extended family. So it's just difficult to even explain. It's like the bottom of your whole being, your soul, everything just kind of drops out because here you are, a wife, a mom of two kids and now you have one and you don't know what to do with what used to be.
Valerie Bauerlein: Horry County Police said that Scott Spivey had played a major role in his own death. He'd been drinking before he got behind the wheel. And for Jennifer it was hard to hear that he'd allegedly pointed a gun at drivers on Highway 9. She and her brother both owned guns, but Jennifer didn't know how to reconcile what the police told her with how they'd been raised.
Jennifer Foley: So my dad's a veteran. We grew up respecting firearms. They were in our home. Is it something that we went and had Sunday shoot out like shoots in the backyard? No. They were used for hunting and that was the only purpose. After Vietnam, my dad said, "I don't..." Honestly, other people took Scott hunting because my dad was like my dad was like, "I-"
Valerie Bauerlein: My dad was the same after Vietnam
Jennifer Foley: Yeah and like daddy loves squirrel hunting when he was a boy, but not after he came back. It took something out of him. Guns are used for one purpose, it's to protect yourself at home or it is to go hunting to provide food for your table. Scott has tons of hunting rifles and things like that. He owned one-
Valerie Bauerlein: One handgun.
Jennifer Foley: One handgun.
Valerie Bauerlein: Scott Spivey was killed just before 6:00 PM on a Saturday. By Sunday morning, photos of his last moments are being texted around in group chats among people in the community. Friends start forwarding the photos to the family. One shows Scott Spivey in his black truck holding a gun out the window
Alan Jones: (inaudible) report. And we come through the process (inaudible)
Valerie Bauerlein: The Spiveys meet to take about the photos. Jennifer records it.
Alan Jones: Well, you see the pictures that we sent to you that was-
Byron Spivey: And I'm sorry, who took that picture?
Alan Jones: That's the shooters.
Byron Spivey: That's the shooters.
Alan Jones: That's the shooters. They took those pictures.
Valerie Bauerlein: The family is shocked to discover that the source of the photos is one of Scott Spivey's killers.
Byron Spivey: Who posted those pictures?
Alan Jones: This is the shooter sharing-
Byron Spivey: The shooter's sharing it with who?
Jennifer Foley: It's not on social media. These are things that he's sending his friends.
Valerie Bauerlein: People keep sending Jennifer photos. She's hearing rumors that an image is being shared of a brother's dead body and Jennifer also hears that the person sharing the photos is Weldon Boyd. But his involvement in a brother's death wasn't confirmed until three days after the shooting on Facebook. Boyd posted, "The events that unfolded were truly tragic and have left a lasting impact on me." He then addressed the Spiveys directly saying, "My thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope you find the strength and peace you need during this incredibly difficult time." Boyd thanked the witnesses and his supporters. He ended the post by thanking Horry police for their professionalism and empathy. All of this, Boyd thanking the police, the photos being texted around, they raised a question for Jennifer. Did the police ever take the shooter's phones as evidence?
Jennifer Foley: I do have one question for you and please don't take this the wrong way.
Valerie Bauerlein: Four after the shooting, Jennifer and her mom called Detective Jones to ask about Bradley Williams and Weldon Boyd's phones.
Jennifer Foley: We can't get Scott's phone back Because it's evidence and I understand that, but the two individuals that were let go with their phones and they walked out-
Byron Spivey: Yeah, that's right.
Jennifer Foley: ... and they were texting people at midnight that night and they took pictures-
Deborah Spivey: Of the scene.
Jennifer Foley: ... and they have shared those pictures of the scene with individuals since then. Why were their phones not taken as evidence, officer-
Deborah Spivey: And why haven't they been?
Jennifer Foley: ... and why haven't they been taken?
Deborah Spivey: They have evidential pictures on them.
Alan Jones: Short answer to that ma'am is though they were being cooperative. As a matter of fact, there's an appointment set up for them to come in and bring us to their phones so they can be downloaded.
Deborah Spivey: Why was that done immediately before they had chances to destroy the phone itself.
Jennifer Foley: Destroy.
Valerie Bauerlein: In that call, Detective Jones mentioned that Boyd and Williams were going to hand over their phones that day, but that didn't actually happen for another two months. South Carolina stand-your-ground law was protecting Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams and it was preventing the Spivey family from accessing information. In stand-your-ground cases, the killer is considered the victim, making the dead person the offender. In these cases, the dead person's loved ones aren't granted the usual victim's rights like briefings from investigators and access to police files. Essentially for the loved ones left behind the investigation is a black box. The Spiveys don't know what's going on because they aren't entitled to know what's going on, but they did get some information from the autopsy on Scott Spiveys body. Spivey was shot twice, he was killed by a bullet to the back. After the autopsy, the family scheduled the funeral for Saturday, September 16th, a week after the shooting. The Spiveys had wanted an open casket, but the body was too damaged, not just from the bullets and the autopsy, but from the way the police handled Spivey's remains.
Jennifer Foley: The right side of his body was so bruised and that was the viewing side that was the viewing side in the casket. We had to have a closed casket and Scott was such a handsome man.
Valerie Bauerlein: On the night of the shooting, the Horry County Police Department towed Scott Spivey's body in his own truck from Camp Swamp Road to the police impound lot 25 miles.
Deborah Spivey: It was like he was not treated as a human being, as something inanimate. Yes, it was a dead body, but it was the body of my son. But you would expect more compassion, more reverence for a body than he received. To me, it almost bordered on desecration.
Valerie Bauerlein: Horry County Police said they towed Scott Spivey's body in his truck because heavy rain was in the forecast, which might have compromised evidence. It's been more than a week since the shooting and what Jennifer is hearing is more rumors from other people than information from the police. Jennifer says that when she got a hold of the initial police report, it didn't contain much detail. Jennifer calls Detective Jones again.
Jennifer Foley: I guess it's put doubt in my mind not saying that y'all doing a good job and you're doing all you can. I just, you have to understand it from my point of view, I hope. I'm trying to-
Alan Jones: I do. I get it. Like I said, I understand that and that's the reason that I've been the way I have with you guys trying to give you what I had versus bad information because I'm sure you guys have gotten a lot of bad information, but that's part of my job. I get all that bad information too that I have to sort through and figure out what of it makes sense and what of it is just bad information and complete and utter hearsay.
Jennifer Foley: Yes sir.
Alan Jones: I mean it's like a game of telephone.
Valerie Bauerlein: Eventually the Spiveys game of telephone with Detective Jones does get somewhere. Even though they're not entitled to much, Jones invites the family to come to the police station so that they can hear a key piece of evidence.
911 operator: 911, location of your emergency.
Weldon Boyd: Hey, I've got a guy pointing a gun at me driving. We're armed as well. He keeps throwing the gun in our faces.
Valerie Bauerlein: This is the first time the Spiveys hear Weldon Boyd's 911 call. But instead of clarifying things, it makes them question the shooter's claims of self-defense. The Spiveys thought stand-your-ground was an extension of the castle doctrine, a centuries-old legal principle that allows a person to use lethal force against an attacker in their own home.
Jennifer Foley: The way we understand stand-your-ground is like if I'm at a stop sign, if I'm at a red light, if I'm somewhere that I have... I'm in my car minding my business and someone intrudes on my space. If you're in your home and an intruder comes in, you can take the force that you need in order to keep your home safe. I get that.
Weldon Boyd: Listen, this dude shoots at me. We're going to put him down. I mean this dude's insane.
911 operator: Are you following him or is he following you?
Weldon Boyd: He's been following us, now we're behind him.
Jennifer Foley: But if I get into my car, which is an extension of my home, I can chase them down until they turn around and say, "What the heck?"
Weldon Boyd: He's stopping. He's stopping. Hey, we're about to have a fucking shootout, dude. This dude's got a gun. He's got a fucking gun.
Jennifer Foley: And then I can shoot and kill him and say, "I'm in fear for my life," as long as I don't get out of my vehicle. That's a flaw there. There's a huge flaw there. And then when you start putting these pieces together, you're like, "Something's not right." I'm trying to ask questions to get to the root. What started this? Where did it start? And you still can't tell me any of that.
Alan Jones: I was told one time there was always three sides to the story, his, hers, and actually what happened.
Jennifer Foley: And this case, there's only two sides because there's their side and then there is what happened because Scott's not here to tell his side.
Alan Jones: Yes, and that's what I'm saying and what happened.
Jennifer Foley: And I'm sorry if you feel like if we have been a little bit pushy, but I guess we've just been trying to advocate for him-
Alan Jones: No.
Jennifer Foley: ... because we don't know his side and we want his side to be told whatever it is, if it's good or bad. When I say that we were dismissed at every turn, that's what I'm talking about.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer wanted to know her brother's side of the story, but she wasn't going to get that from the police. So she began her own investigation. That's next.
22:37
In the mid-2000s, TV shows about true crime forensics were having a moment and Jennifer Foley loved one in particular.
Jennifer Foley: CSI: Miami, everyone was watching it. Horatio taking the glasses off at the beginning.
Horatio Caine: I am going to get to the truth.
Jennifer Foley: I was like, "That's just so interesting."
Valerie Bauerlein: So you watched it every week.
Jennifer Foley: Yeah.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer was inspired. In college she studied biology and criminal justice. She got an internship at the North Carolina State Crime Lab. There, Jennifer got to actually work in forensics, examining carpet fibers, fingerprint analysis, the whole nine yards. What was satisfying to you about that type of work?
Jennifer Foley: Most of the time when you get those cases that come through, those are the voiceless. The evidence is the only thing left to speak and you have to make sense of that and you have to put those physical pieces together to create a story that that person's not here to tell.
Valerie Bauerlein: In the weeks after the shooting, Jennifer began putting together the physical pieces of her brother's story. She scoured social media for leads, she documented evidence inside her brother's truck and she began to make a timeline of everything that happened on the night of the shooting. Witnesses said that the shooting on Camp Swamp Road had begun with the dispute nine miles south on Highway 9. So Jennifer made that drive herself over and over to try to make some sense of it.
Jennifer Foley: Somewhere in here is where this thing gets kicked off at and they say that Scott comes... The right say that, Scott was driving-
Valerie Bauerlein: Earlier this year I went along with her.
Jennifer Foley: ... and the right is Bell & Bell, it's a car dealership, and there's a huge red bell, that bell's about two stories tall.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer approached businesses that her brother had passed on his final drive. She asked for their security camera footage.
Jennifer Foley: So we have Scott on camera coming here at 5:48 on the dot.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer was able to pinpoint when Boyd's white truck and her brother's black truck first pulled onto Highway 9.
Jennifer Foley: To the left of us is where the tractor supply, where Boyd's truck is leaving from and (inaudible)
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer lined up the photos taken by Boyd and Williams with locations along the drive.
Jennifer Foley: So right here, we know there's a picture taken right here because there's a snag of trees right here on the right side.
Valerie Bauerlein: Oh, yes, some dead trees.
Jennifer Foley: Some dead trees. So somewhere in here maybe is where they're saying that Boyd gets run off the road, throw a brake check, got brake checks, and he goes off into the median. (inaudible)
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer matched the location of the photos with the time they were taken in order to figure out how fast both trucks were going.
Jennifer Foley: Right through here. When we're dropping pins of GPS pictures from picture one to picture two, they're going about 80 miles an hour right here.
Valerie Bauerlein: Through here?
Jennifer Foley: Through here, 80, 85 and-
Valerie Bauerlein: Wow and I'm going 45. They're flying.
Jennifer Foley: They're flying.
Valerie Bauerlein: I've never really thought about just how long it takes to go nine miles down the highway, but on this drive it hit me. This wasn't a sudden event. There was time to think. As we drive, Jennifer points out all the places that someone could pull off the road: driveways, parking lots, intersections. To Jennifer, each one was an opportunity for Weldon Boyd to end the altercation. She logged every spot. According to her count, there were 96. By the time of the shooting, Jennifer had been a biology teacher for 12 years. She worked at the same high school that she and her brother went to. After Scott Spivey was killed, Jennifer took three months off work to focus on the case. The other teachers donated their sick days so that she wouldn't miss a paycheck.
Jennifer Foley: The day after Christmas break ended, I went into my principal's office like, "I can't do this. I've been here in body, my mind's not here."
Valerie Bauerlein: But by the end of the year, she knew she needed to spend all her time on the investigation.
Jennifer Foley: I feel like I've been a very effective teacher for the last 12 years, but I don't feel like I'm an effective teacher right now because I'm distracted and that if I don't go fight for him now, it will be no sense in fighting for him later.
Valerie Bauerlein: While Jennifer was working as an amateur detective. There was someone else looking into her brother's case, the State Attorney General's office. In the week after the shooting, the Attorney General had been asked to review the Horry County Police file and determine whether any charges should be brought against Boyd and Williams. The review process took months and the Spiveys were hoping that the AG's office would bring criminal charges. In early April 2024, the Attorney General's office came to a decision and the Spiveys got to hear it in person. Jennifer records the meeting.
Speaker 14: I thank you for y'all coming up as quickly as you did, especially on short notice. I wasn't sure how that would work out at this point. I know y'all have been waiting for what the AG's what decision they were going to make.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer and her parents, Byron Dale and Deborah Spivey sit at a conference room table. A lieutenant delivers the message.
Speaker 14: They felt that there was insufficient evidence to merit a criminal prosecution.
Valerie Bauerlein: Insufficient evidence to merit a criminal prosecution. That's all. The Attorney General's letter was just a few lines long. There would be no criminal charges in the killing of Scott Spivey. At this point in the meeting, Scott Spivey's father speaks up.
Byron Spivey: Okay, I haven't said a word.
Speaker 14: Go ahead sir. Absolutely.
Byron Spivey: As far as I'm concerned, that young man murdered my son and I mean flat out murdered. When you go down a major highway on a weekend and you travel 9.75 miles chasing him, shooting at him and the other young man he was talking about, he was shooting too.
Speaker 14: Yes sir, that is true. All I know is the other guy said-
Byron Spivey: He's said before this he was going to take him out.
Valerie Bauerlein: The Spiveys back their chairs away. The meeting is over.
Deborah Spivey: Well, I thank you for your time and this is-
Speaker 14: Anyway, thank y'all for the information.
Byron Spivey: (Inaudible) to us. I don't know what feelings are about this or about anybody in this situation, but this stuff I want, you can go down the road and shoot somebody dead. That ain't right.
Speaker 14: I'm going (inaudible)
Jennifer Foley: He's still a daddy. He's still it.
Byron Spivey: All right, let's go.
Speaker 14: Thank y'all. Appreciate it.
Speaker 15: Thank you for your time.
Jennifer Foley: We've always said that Scott played a part. We've never denied that. Obviously, whatever happened farther up the road, there was a handgun involved. I don't know. I just don't. And had we gone, had he gone another mile, this would be a completely different story. North Carolina does not... There's a very fine line there as far as what's considered justifiable and what's not. Excessive force versus redneck justice.
Valerie Bauerlein: At a later meeting, the Spiveys would get more information. Deputy Attorney General Heather Weiss defended her office's decision, arguing that the case did meet the criteria for a stand-your-ground defense. She cited witness statements and Boyd's 911 call as proof that Spivey was threatening people on Highway 9. She said that when Spivey got out of his truck, he became the aggressor. Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams stayed in their truck. According to Weiss, once Spivey raised his gun at Boyd and Williams, "They had a right to fire because they were in fear for their lives." The Attorney General's decision was a huge blow, but the Spiveys had one final option, suing the shooters in civil court.
21:45
Jennifer Foley: That was the only way we were left to get any kind of justice for Scott, was to have to file a civil suit.
Mark Tinsley: My involvement is I am a civil warrior. At the end of the day, the only thing that I can do is try to get a jury to award money damages.
Valerie Bauerlein: Mark Tinsley is a personal injury lawyer. He made a name for himself when he led a wrongful death claim against Alex Murdoch, a wealthy South Carolina lawyer. That story got a lot of national intention after Murdoch was later convicted for the murder of his wife and son. Jennifer thought getting Mark to take her case was a long shot, but she gave his office a call and to her surprise, Mark called her back.
Jennifer Foley: I said, "The problem that we have is this law in South Carolina. They're saying it's stand-your-ground, but how can that be stand-your-ground when behind somebody?"
Valerie Bauerlein: And what did Mark say about that?
Jennifer Foley: Mark was like, "You can't, that's not stand-your-ground. I was like, "Yeah, we're saying the same thing, but that ain't what the law's saying."
Mark Tinsley: I didn't see how this could be. I didn't see how you could stand your ground while you're chasing someone else's.
Valerie Bauerlein: No one has ever challenged a stand-your-ground case in South Carolina Civil Court. That's according to the court office and a half dozen of the state's best known attorneys. This would be a very tough case to win, but Jennifer walked Mark through everything she had discovered and he was impressed.
Mark Tinsley: She is dogged in her pursuit of the what happened. She is a master of all the information and sorting through the information and finding it and going back and pulling it out. And so I'm very impressed with Jennifer.
Valerie Bauerlein: Mark agreed to represent Jennifer. In June 2024, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams. If he and Jennifer could prove this was not a stand-your-ground case, the Spiveys could be entitled to damages. Boyd and Williams have denied any wrongdoing. For months Jennifer had been fighting with the Horry County Police Department for information, but because it was considered a stand-your-ground case, her brother wasn't a victim and the family wasn't entitled to much. However, after the lawsuit was filed, Weldon Boyd's lawyer pressured the Horry County Police Department to turn over their evidence file in order to help Boyd's defense. Because of that move, Jennifer's lawyers now had access to reams of evidence connected to her brother's death. There was so much there that it was taking a long time for Mark Tinsley's office to actually go through all the files. So Jennifer decided to do it herself,
Jennifer Foley: And then I was like, "Can I see what y'all have?" Because they were saying, "Have you seen this?" I'm like, "No." They're like, "Oh, well, let me share that with you. I mean, you should be able to have access to that." And then that's when the digging started.
Valerie Bauerlein: Finally, Jennifer would get to see the evidence for herself. On February 7th, 2025, a Friday, she drove to her lawyer's office to pick up a flash drive containing the police file. She had no idea what to expect. Jennifer took it home to look through over the weekend.
Jennifer Foley: It took a day for them to download on the flash drive. I mean thousands of files.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer isn't someone with a lot of time on her hands. She has two young kids and that weekend, her family had plans to watch the Super Bowl. But Jennifer really wanted to see what was in those files. She told her husband that she needed some time alone.
Jennifer Foley: And he was like, "I'll take the babies with me and we'll go to Mama's and we'll watch the Super Bowl." And they sat over there from like 3:30 until 11:30 that night.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer sits down at the kitchen table, she opens her laptop and starts clicking through the police files.
Jennifer Foley: I didn't know what to look at first, so I just opened the first folder and there they were.
Valerie Bauerlein: What?
Jennifer Foley: The 90 phone calls. The first file I click on it says it's an audio file, and I open it up and I hear Terri Richardson's voice.
Valerie Bauerlein: Jennifer is very confused. She knows who Terri Richardson is. Richardson is a reporter with the Myrtle Beach Sun News.
Jennifer Foley: And I'm like, "I know that voice. Why is she in this dump?
Deborah Spivey: Hi, Weldon, this is Terri Richardson calling with the Sun News. How are you today?
Weldon Boyd: I'm all right. How are you doing?
Jennifer Foley: Then I realized that this is a phone call that she's talking to Weldon and asking Weldon to give comment. And I'm like, "That's weird." And then the next one, and then the next one was the 911 call.
Weldon Boyd: Hey, I've got a guy point a gun at me driving. We're armed as well. He keeps-
Jennifer Foley: Keeps, and I'm like, "That doesn't sound like what I heard in the Horry County version. There's no noise in the dispatch room. Like why the F couldn't you just left him alone?
Weldon Boyd: Oh (inaudible) I couldn't fucking leave him alone.
Jennifer Foley: There's a lot there that I couldn't hear before. And I mean, at that point, you can't stop looking.
Weldon Boyd: I chased him. Oh, I was on his ass and his truck couldn't outrun my truck, and he knew it. So yeah, he was terrified.
Valerie Bauerlein: Next time on Camp Swamp Road, Weldon Boyd's phone calls.
Weldon Boyd: Bradley I know it's fucked up to say, but I had a fucking blast. I know it's fucked up, but I'm a fucked up person.
Valerie Bauerlein: Camp Swamp Road is part of The Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. I'm Valerie Bauerlei. Our producer is Heather Rogers, our senior producer is Rachel Humphreys. Editing by Colin McNulty. Fact-checking by Nicole Pasulka. Music, sound design and mixing by Nathan Singapok. Additional music by Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by So Wylie remixed for the series by Nathan Singapok. Special thanks to Catherine Brewer, Miguel Busillo, Sam Enriquez, (inaudible) Carlos Garcia, Mack Qwalm, Jennifer Lovitz, Jessica Mendoza, Bruce Orwell, Philana Patterson, Sarah Platt, and Cam Pah. Thanks for listening. Episode three will be released next Sunday.