It was a large property, the Farris estate. Ten acres.
So maybe it wasn’t unusual that no one in the family had heard from the patriarch, Gary “Big Daddy,” on July 4th.
Not his children; not his wife, Melody.
But when July 5th came around and there was still no sign of Big Daddy, his kids got worried.
Maybe there had been some medical event. Big Daddy wasn’t in the best shape, after all.
His two sons searched the property. Chris on an ATV, Scott with their mother.
Then Chris remembered his father had mentioned he was going to light the burn pile a couple of days earlier, so he headed that way.
Scott and mother Melody were there, too.
It was Scott who found it.
A skull.
Big Daddy.
But it was no medical emergency. It was murder.
To find out what happened, watch the full episode, “A Little Patch of Perfect,” on Peacock now.
You can also watch on the NBC app or listen to it on our podcast.
After you’ve finished the episode, watch Gary’s family remember him as a loving giant of a brother and father.
You can also listen to this week’s episode of Talking Dateline, in which Andrea Canning and Keith Morrison go behind the scenes of the making of the episode and producer Keith Greenberg answers your questions from social media.