Bill Carter’s life was torn asunder on June, 19, 2015, when he walked into the kitchen of his family’s home in rural Iowa and found his wife of 52 years lying dead on the floor from a gunshot wound.
The bereaved husband and father of three grown children, 71, blamed his youngest son, Jason for killing his mother and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him, which he won in late December, just days before his son’s arrest.
Jason Carter, 45, on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to a murder charge stemming from the killing of his mother Shirley, Carter, which is the subject of a new episode of Dateline airing on NBC on Friday night.
Widowed in tears: Bill Carter, 71, broke down in tears talking about the killing of his wife of 52 years Shirley, on Dateline. His son Jason, 45 (right), has now been charged with the crime
Happier times: Bill and Shirley Carter lived in rural Iowa with their three children
Mr Carter is seen during his sit-down interview with Dateline presenter Dennis Murphy
In the latest Dateline installment, titled The Farm, an emotional Bill Carter recounts for host Dennis Murphy the moment he got a call that something happened to his wife and raced to their house outside Pleasantville, Iowa.
Bill says he got out of his truck and made his way to the front door, running past his son Jason, who was pacing in circles while talking on the phone.
As he entered the kitchen, he saw his wife, dressed in bluejeans and sneakers, lying motionless next to the wooden dinner table.
‘She looked like she was asleep,’ Bill recalled with tears running down his face. ‘I couldn’t get a pulse, and I kissed her forehead, and it was cold, and I knew she was dead.’
At first, Bill could not figure out how Shirley died, but then he says his son walked into the house and pointed out to him a bullet hole in the refrigerator and another in the floor.
Jason also told his grief-stricken father that their house has been robbed, with papers and personal belongings littering the master bedroom and the office.
Crime scene: Bill recounted the moment in June 2015 when he walked into his kitchen and saw Shirley dead on the floor (pictured)
Bill Carter said: ‘I kissed her forehead, and it was cold, and I knew she was dead’
Clues: Jason Carter pointed out to his father this bullet hole in the refrigerator
Bill said his son told him their house has been robbed; Carter’s office is seen after having been ransacked
The Carters’ master bedroom (pictured) was also in disarray after Shirley’s killing
When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found Bill hunched over his wife’s body in the kitchen.
‘He [EMT] said, ‘Bill you got to come out outside,”‘ the widower said.
In an interview with the local station WHO-TV in 2016, Bill said that the last time he saw Shirley alive, he had just dropped her off at the house after getting coffee and told her that he would see her at around 11 or 11.30am.
As months went by after Shirley’s shooting death and no arrest was made, Bill decided to take matters into his own hands and hired a private investigator who turned up evidence that allegedly implicated Bill and Shirley’s son Jason in her killing.
Bill Carter’s attorney Ron Danks said at the time that Jason’s motive was to cover up an alleged affair that would have led his father to stop supplying him with money if he found out.
A private investigator whom was hired by Bill has turned up evidence that allegedly implicated Bill and Shirley’s son Jason in her killing
In custody: Jason Carter, 45, was arrested in December 2017 on a charge of first-degree murder in his mother’s killing
‘Jason was having an affair. We know that his dad didn’t know about the affair and his dad would have been very upset. We also believe that Jason was in financial difficulties and would need his dad to bail him out as he did in the past and his dad would not have bailed him out if he had known about the alleged affair,’ Danks told WHO-TV.
In January 2016, Bill and his two other children, Jana Lain and Billy Carter, filed a civil lawsuit accusing Jason Carter of wrongful death, but Jason blamed his father for the crime.
His lawyer argued that it was Bill who killed his wife because she wanted to leave him and for financial gain.
A criminal investigator testified during the lawsuit that the home had been ransacked to look like a robbery, but police noted Shirley Carter’s purse, prescription drugs and some checks were found near her body.
On December 15, 2017, a Marion County jury later found in the plaintiffs’ favor, ordering Jason to pay $10million to his mother’s estate, and two days later the 45-year-old man was arrested on a count of first-degree murder.
Jason entered his not guilty plea in writing on Wednesday. A trial date has not been set as of yet.
The Dateline episode exploring the Shirley Carter murder is airing Friday at 10pm Eastern Time on NBC.