On the night of January 24, 2015, 51-year-old John Michael Ferrell was killed in Simpsonville, South Carolina, in what investigators concluded was a planned attack tied to a bitter child custody dispute. Ferrell had been invited out for drinks by his estranged wife’s brother, Jacob Hughes, then lured to the family home on Stonegate Road with the promise of seeing his children. Inside the house he was struck repeatedly in the head with a hammer. He tried to escape through a kitchen window but was intercepted and shot five times in the front yard with a .45-caliber handgun; his body was found a short distance from the window.

Initial reports described a homeowner shooting an intruder, but investigators found inconsistencies in the family’s account and forensic evidence, including cleaned blood in the kitchen. Five people were arrested and charged in connection with the killing: Ferrell’s estranged wife Jane Katherine Hughes, her parents John Michael Hughes and Margaret Renee Hughes, her brother Jacob Cody Hughes, and her boyfriend Andrew Timothy Martin. Does anyone have information about Ferrell’s movements that evening or about the Stonegate Road residence?