Jessica McCord is an Alabama woman serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the February 2002 capital murders of her ex-husband, Alan Bates, and his wife, Terra Bates. She and her second husband, Jeff McCord, a Pelham police officer at the time, shot the couple inside the McCords’ Hoover home, then drove the bodies into rural Georgia and burned the victims’ rental car with them inside. A Jefferson County jury convicted her in February 2003.
The Custody Fight Behind the Killings
Jessica and Alan Bates had two daughters together. After their divorce, the two spent roughly six years in a custody dispute, with Alan pushing for more time with the girls, who were about ten and twelve by early 2002.1Shelby County Reporter. Former Pelham Policeman and His Wife Charged With Homicides After Child Custody Dispute Alan, 30, was a theater production manager living in Frederick, Maryland, and had remarried Terra Klugh Bates, 30, a graduate student at Goucher College.2The Washington Post. Couple Charged With Killing Ex-Spouse and His Wife
Jessica had remarried too. She and Jeff McCord met while both worked for the Birmingham Police Department. She was fired from that department in 2000 after she allegedly attacked Alan Bates and was absent without leave.3The Daily Record. Officer, Wife Charged With Killing Frederick Couple in Custody Dispute By early 2002 Jeff had moved to the Pelham Police Department, and the couple lived on Myrtlewood Drive in Hoover. Jessica was the mother of five: two daughters with Alan, a third child by another father, and two younger children with Jeff.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder
In mid-February 2002, Alan and Terra flew from Maryland to the Birmingham area to give depositions in the custody case. After a full day of depositions, they were due at the McCord house that evening to pick up the two girls and take them to Atlanta to visit grandparents.1Shelby County Reporter. Former Pelham Policeman and His Wife Charged With Homicides After Child Custody Dispute
The Night of the Murders
Alan and Terra arrived at the McCord home around 6 p.m. on February 15, 2002. They were invited inside under the pretense that the girls were going to perform a puppet show. As they sat on a downstairs couch, Jeff McCord opened fire with a .40-caliber pistol, shooting each of them four times.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder
The McCords wrapped the bodies in old blankets and drapes and loaded them into the trunk of the rental car Alan had leased at the Birmingham airport. They drove east into Georgia, cutting up the victims’ credit cards along the way, buying gasoline, and wiping down the vehicle. Near Rutledge, in Morgan County, Georgia, they set the car on fire using paper towels brought from home. Jeff McCord later told prosecutors he disassembled the murder weapon and scattered the parts across roughly a hundred miles of Alabama and Georgia roadway.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder
How the Alibi Fell Apart
Residents near Rutledge found the smoldering car around 3:15 a.m. on February 16. A deputy and a local fire chief at first mistook the remains in the trunk for an animal carcass before realizing they were human.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder The Georgia Bureau of Investigation traced the rental back through the Birmingham airport Avis counter to Alan Bates and coordinated with Hoover police.5Oxygen. Woman Kills Ex-Husband and His New Wife With the Help of Her Cop Husband
The McCords told investigators Alan and Terra had never shown up for the visit. Jeff produced movie ticket stubs as an alibi. Two days of searches at the Myrtlewood Drive house produced physical evidence that contradicted them. A spent bullet in the home matched a slug recovered from Alan’s wrist, and behind freshly hung wallpaper in the basement was a bullet hole.5Oxygen. Woman Kills Ex-Husband and His New Wife With the Help of Her Cop Husband A spot of Terra’s blood was on a basement coffee table. A roll of paper towels with a children’s design in the home matched charred fragments pulled from the burned car. Detectives also seized an opened box of latex gloves, two boxes of ammunition holding 70 shells, a large-caliber handgun, carpet fibers, and a gas can.1Shelby County Reporter. Former Pelham Policeman and His Wife Charged With Homicides After Child Custody Dispute Cell phone records placed Jessica on the road toward Georgia around the time the car was being burned.
The couple left Alabama for Florida once investigators began focusing on them. They came back on February 21, 2002, and were arrested at a friend’s home in Alabaster, then taken in separate unmarked cars to the Jefferson County Jail.1Shelby County Reporter. Former Pelham Policeman and His Wife Charged With Homicides After Child Custody Dispute Jeff had already been fired from the Pelham Police Department on February 20 for missing a disciplinary hearing.3The Daily Record. Officer, Wife Charged With Killing Frederick Couple in Custody Dispute
Conviction and Sentence
Jessica McCord was charged with two counts of capital murder and tried first, in February 2003, in Jefferson County, Alabama. Prosecutors put on 39 witnesses over four days, walking the jury through the forensic evidence and the custody-dispute motive. According to later reporting, only two people offered anything positive about her at trial: Jessica herself and her mother, Dian Bailey.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder
On February 15, 2003, one year to the day after the murders, the jury found her guilty of capital murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.6Gadsden Times. Jury Convicts McCord of Capital Murder Bailey was later convicted of perjury for testifying falsely that the McCords had been at her Hoover home the night of the killings.8Gadsden Times. Mother of Woman Convicted in Slayings on Trial for Perjury
Where She Is Now
Jessica McCord remains incarcerated in the Alabama prison system, serving life without parole.7AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder Because her sentence carries no possibility of parole, she will not appear before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Jeff McCord took a different path. Rather than go to trial, he pleaded guilty to both murders in exchange for two consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole and agreed to give prosecutors a detailed account of the killings. Even so, he did not testify against Jessica at her trial, later telling the Oxygen series Snapped that he would not be the one who “turned on her.”5Oxygen. Woman Kills Ex-Husband and His New Wife With the Help of Her Cop Husband He was denied parole at his first hearing on June 28, 2017, and denied again on May 2, 2023.9Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Parole Decisions for Tuesday, May 2, 2023
The couple’s five children were placed with various family members after the arrests; one of the children Jessica had with Jeff was born after the couple was in custody.4AL.com. Parole Denied for Former Pelham Policeman Convicted of Double Murder The case was the subject of the 2010 true-crime book Death Trap by M. William Phelps.10Google Books. Death Trap by M. William Phelps