The Pom Pom Killer

October 7, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the chilling case of Wanda Holloway, a mother so determined to ensure her daughter’s success that she was willing to kill for it.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband.

I'm Payton Moreland.

And I'm Garrett Moreland.

And he's the husband.

And I'm the husband.

It's October—spooky season, everybody! Spooky season October! We're getting way spooky over here. If you're watching on YouTube, my feet are up on the table; they're going to remain here for the remainder of the episode. Legs are a little tired today—that’s what happens when you squat 800 pounds at the gym.

Yeah, I squatted 475 today, and I'm feeling it, so my legs are up here.

You haven't even gone to the gym today! Was that necessary? Like, let's just think for a second, was that necessary?

What, am I just supposed to lie to all our listeners? I thought we were on the same team.

We’re not on the same team. Don't worry, listeners, I got your back—I would never let him lie to you. We’re on different teams, it's okay.

Well, you guys know the drill: subscribe, share, leave a review, go check out our Patreon. Apple subscriptions get bonus episodes. Go watch our Twitch on Thursdays, Sundays, Tuesdays—yeah, Garrett, you got your 10 seconds for this week.

Yeah, I think for my 10 seconds, we're going to talk about donuts for a second. I know how controversial this is, but I think Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts, as far as donuts—I'm not talking about their other stuff, I mean, I don't even really drink or eat their other stuff—but as far as donuts go, I think they're at the bottom of the tier list. Like, not very good. Their donuts are... eh. I think that there are so many local and just better doughnut shops.

Their glazed donuts are too airy, you know what I'm saying? Airy—yes, I said airy. Fluffy. Yeah, fluffy, but no bread in there. Just air. They're like a Lay's potato chip bag but in donut form. They're just not that great. I think, as far as donuts go, they're just kind of there. Maybe C-tier. Not B-tier, not A-tier, just not very good.

I just thought... I don’t know. I guess that's my 10 seconds this week. And I say that because the other night, Payton wanted donuts. The only thing open was Krispy Kreme because it was like 10:00 at night. So, we grabbed some Krispy Kreme donuts, came home, and I ate one on the way home. I regretted it when I got home because it wasn’t that good, and honestly, it upset me a little bit.

But I won’t knock Dunkin', because I haven't had Dunkin' Donuts in a long time, so maybe I’ll try Dunkin' and then compare it to local doughnut shops.

That’s what I got for my 10 seconds. Hot take, I don’t know—10 seconds, however you want to take it.

Let's hop into today’s case. Our sources for this episode are: Texas Monthly, Greensboro.com, We Got This Covered, Chicago Tribune, Daily Mail, Crown.com, HubPages.com, MentalFloss.com, New York Times, and Houstonian Magazine.

Okay, so Garrett and I, well, we might not be parents—at least not to a human being just yet—but there’s one thing I definitely understand about parenting, and that’s that you always want the very best for your kid.

I mean, I know, like, I would literally go to the ends of the world for Daisy. So, I can only imagine what I would do for an actual tiny little person. Because the hope is that your kids will always do a little better at life than you did, right? That you’ll be able to learn from your own past and your own mistakes, and then pass that wisdom onto them. That they'll be a little smarter, a little kinder, maybe even a little more successful than you are.

That’s the best-case scenario. But today’s story will have you questioning just how far is too far when it comes to a mother wanting the best for her child.

Because the subject of today’s case wasn’t only willing to conspire, manipulate, and lie to help her daughter achieve her goals—she was actually willing to murder to help her daughter achieve those goals.

Okay, I’d say that’s a little too far.

For today’s story, we’re traveling to the suburbs of Houston, to a little place called Channelview, Texas. If you’ve ever watched Friday Night Lights, this is the sort of setting I imagine this story taking place in. Channelview, especially back in the 1990s when our story begins, was all about high school football.

We were actually talking about this the other day—how high school football, in different regions of the United States, is a really big deal. Have you ever seen on TikTok or social media the high school football games in Texas? Well, that’s where we are.

Oh yeah, I knew that. They have full-on arenas, like actual stadiums—it’s insane.

Were you paying attention to the beginning of the story?

I wasn’t paying enough attention.

Okay, well, we’re in Texas, and we’re talking about high school football games.

I’m aware.

Well, it’s true. Like we were saying, it’s such a big deal. Whereas the high school football games at my high school were literally in a potato field.

A potato field?

Yeah.

So, showing up to those bleachers on a Friday night was practically like church for the people in Channelview. Football players were worshipped like gods, and cheerleaders were their goddesses. Not just the most popular kids in their high school, but really the most well-known people in town. The star football players and cheerleaders were little celebrities in their own right.

This was the place Wanda Holloway came to know and love—the place she called home her entire life. Where she chose to stay, settle down, raise her family, and make sure they found their place in this little Friday Night Lights scene.

For Wanda Holloway, that was the ultimate form of acceptance. But growing up, Wanda—who was originally Wanda Webb, which, by the way, sounds like a literal Marvel superhero—lived on the south side of I-10 in Channelview. This was considered the rougher part of town. Her parents were blue-collar workers—her father had a job at a concrete plant, while her mother worked in the high school cafeteria.

This was something Wanda was always self-conscious about. She felt it made the other kids look down on her, which is probably why Wanda worked overtime to fit in while simultaneously trying to stand out.

From an early age, Wanda was described as an overachiever. She was bubbly, outgoing, and the kind of person who went out of her way to make sure everyone in the room liked her. However, despite her efforts, something about Wanda gave some kids the "ick." Maybe it was her try-hard nature or her deeply religious upbringing. Her family attended a very conservative Baptist church every week without fail.

Despite her efforts to fit in, Wanda always fell short of being part of the popular crowd at school. One major setback was that her father would not allow her to try out for the cheerleading squad or the drill team. He said it went against their religious beliefs, claiming the skirts were too short and the blouses too low-cut. It felt a bit like a "Footloose" situation in a sense, with those strict rules in place.

Wanda was devastated by this, feeling it was the one thing keeping her from becoming someone important at school. She likely vowed to herself that she wouldn’t be as strict with her own children as her father had been with her.

Her father's strictness probably didn't ease the situation when, at just 16 years old, Wanda became pregnant by her boyfriend Tony. The two married in a shotgun wedding in 1972, and by 1973, they had their first child, a boy named Shane. Wanda gave up her dreams of pursuing a degree and starting her own business, becoming a stay-at-home mother while Tony worked.

For a while, they lived comfortably, as Tony’s parents owned three gas stations in town, and his mother ran a lingerie gift shop. To break up the monotony of being at home, Wanda stayed involved with the church, the one place where she truly felt a sense of community and belonging. At church, Wanda was the "popular" one. People knew her as the pretty young woman who played the piano beautifully during services.

Wanda was likely thrilled when, in 1977, she found out she was pregnant with a little girl—someone she could project all of her unfulfilled hopes and dreams onto. She named her daughter Shauna. But like many teenage marriages, Wanda and Tony began to grow apart over the years. By 1980, when Shauna was just three, the couple decided to divorce.

Now, luckily for Wanda, she got to keep the house. At this point, Wanda focused all of her energy on her little girl, Shauna. It was clear to almost anyone who knew them that Wanda was obsessed with her daughter.

You keep saying Wanda, and you're probably not going to know what this is, but if you watch Marvel, all I can think of is WandaVision every single time you say Wanda. A lot of you guys aren't going to know that, so ignore me, but just throwing it out there for those who do know.

All I can think of is Fairly OddParents. That's a good one too. Yeah, mm-hmm.

Wanda dressed Shauna in outfits that matched her own. She paraded her around town like a mini version of herself, but Wanda couldn't provide the life she wanted for her and her kids. She felt like she needed a new person who could front the bills for the finer things in life, which is when she decided to marry an older man living in the town of Beaumont, Texas, about an hour away.

Wait, B— isn't that where Footloose is?

Yeah, Beaumont. That's hilarious.

It was a brief relationship, which caused her to actually run back to Tony temporarily after it ended. But after running it back with her ex-husband, and that not really working out, Wanda was introduced to another wealthy bachelor through her church. This man was 20 years her senior, named Sid Holloway.

Now, Sid had owned a series of oil fields. He had his own private plane. You can imagine how wealthy he must have been at this Baptist church. To Wanda, this was like striking gold. The two married, which gave Shane and Shauna a brand-new stepdad, and Wanda had more money to spend on her kids. She got to move to the nice part of town, and she felt like she could now provide Shauna the life she never had.

At this point, Wanda could throw Shauna the lavish birthday parties she had always dreamed of. She could invite all the neighbors, and it was a surefire way to make Shauna one of the most popular kids on the block. She also bought her expensive clothes and got her dance lessons—pretty much anything she asked for.

But I don’t want you to think Shauna was just a little spoiled girl. She was a good kid, and as many said, none of this seemed to get to her head. She was an excellent student. She was polite and kind, and she didn't seem to complain about the fact that her mother had enrolled her in rigorous gymnastics classes, despite not really taking an interest in the sport.

But for Wanda, this was the path her daughter needed in order to make the middle school cheerleading squad that was coming up, and this was something that Shauna wanted more for her mother than for herself. Shauna bit the bullet and hopped in the car early every weekend to make her own way down to Alpha Gymnastics Studio, where she trained with the best of the best teachers who were certified with the National Cheerleading Association. They could teach her everything from tumbling to form to dance.

But over time, Wanda pushed Shauna further and further, encouraging her to practice despite an ugly cold or a twisted ankle. Suddenly, Shauna started to feel like this isn’t very fun anymore, Mom.

And the more that Wanda pushed, the less Shauna wanted it for herself. The one saving grace was that Shauna's good friend was there with her through it all. Her friend was named Amber Heath. Now, Amber and Shauna were actually neighbors, so they had known each other since elementary school. They were basically growing up together, just a one-minute walk from each other's homes.

I was just talking this morning to somebody about how sports these days are so much different. I mean, I guess this was back then, but these days, there are so many club teams and thousands and thousands of dollars spent year-round. It's just crazy how advanced the level of sports is these days, with how many extras there are. It’s kind of mind-blowing.

So, Shauna and Amber would have sleepovers at each other's homes. They would attend gymnastics together. Wanda and Amber's mom, Verna, were even a lot alike. I mean, you basically had two daughters and two moms who were very similar. But I think it's important to note that, in many ways, Verna was the woman that Wanda always wanted to be.

So back in their day, Verna was a twirling champion in high school, like color guard. Yes, okay. While Wanda, you know, sat on the bleachers as we know. I'm not sure whether they were in high school together at the same time or place, but just knowing that Verna had this history and also had an extremely competitive nature when it came to her daughter rubbed Wanda the wrong way. I mean, it felt very competitive, and it was everything Wanda had made up in her head her entire life.

I don't know what's going to happen right now, but there’s no way she kills her best friend or her best friend's daughter. If that's where we're going, that's nuts. This is nuts.

So, in Wanda's mind, there was an instant rivalry between her and Verna, even though their daughters were best friends and having sleepovers and faking nice. Great. But it wasn't just Wanda; I mean, Verna was also very competitive and saw this mom and daughter as competition for her and her daughter. This was something that Amber and Shauna actually refused to acknowledge, or if they did, they didn't take it too seriously. The girls were like, "Our moms are just, you know, our moms."

But it wasn't just Verna that Wanda was annoyed with; it was Verna's daughter Amber, her daughter's best friend as well. Wanda hadn't been crazy about Amber ever since a recent event. So when it came time to choose seventh graders for the cheerleading squad, Amber had beaten Shauna out of a spot.

The worst part is, she didn't even go to Shauna's school yet. Amber was still transitioning from her old school into Alice Johnson Junior High, where Shauna went. This made Wanda furious over the situation, and she ended up going to the school board and complaining.

Oh no. She bothered other parents about it. Don't be that parent! I mean, she's literally going to parents and the school, saying, "This isn't fair! My daughter actually goes to this school, and this girl's just transitioning here!"

This is her daughter's best friend. She felt like if it weren't for Amber, Shauna definitely would have had a spot on the team, but it only caused her to push Shauna harder.

There was no way her daughter was not going to make the cheer team next year—not if Wanda had anything to do with it. But Shauna didn't share the same resentment for her best friend, Amber. In a way, she might have even felt like she'd done her a favor. It actually seemed to make the two girls even closer. When Amber finally made the full transition to Alice Johnson Jr. High, both girls were in honor classes. Shauna became vice president of her class, and Amber became president.

This was probably something that bothered Wanda to no end—that Amber was president and her daughter was vice president. On top of that, Amber was voted most spirited and friendly for the yearbook at the end of the year. But when the summer came and went, and it was time for eighth grade to start, Wanda saw it as a fresh new opportunity for Shauna to get a leg up on Amber. Wanda even started volunteering at Shauna's school, hoping she might find new opportunities and ways for Shauna to become the most popular girl at school.

Oh dude, she needs to chill the F out!

But what she didn't realize was that her close involvement was going to be detrimental to Shauna's cheerleading career. So, in order to understand what happened next, I actually have to explain how cheerleading worked at this school back in the ’90s in Texas.

Okay, because apparently, cheerleading at Channel View, at least, was not totally a matter of skill. It really began as a popularity contest. From what I can tell, this is how it happened: kids were elected to try out for the cheerleading squad by other students who voted. So, you would vote for who you wanted to be on the cheerleading squad, and then there would be tryouts.

That's interesting! Okay, and this is probably where like cheerleaders being the most popular in school comes from, because back then, it actually was a thing. It was a popularity contest. I mean, obviously, cheerleading has probably come a long way since then.

So here's where Wanda saw an opportunity to sort of control the narrative. She figured maybe Shauna could campaign a little harder this year to get her fellow students to vote for her, and Wanda could help with that. So Wanda called her ex-husband, Tony, and said, "Hey, could you help us get some rulers made up that say ‘Vote for Shauna Harper for cheerleader’?"

Her dad, Tony, was like, "Yeah, that's a great idea!" And this is how literally what it's called, Ruler Gate, began.

What does that even mean, Ruler Gate?

Okay, so the rulers come in, Shauna starts passing them around to kids at school, saying, "Vote for me to try out for cheerleading," and then she gets pulled into the principal's office. Those rulers apparently go against the school election code—probably because they are seen as gifts or briberies. So Shauna stops. She doesn't want to get in any more trouble. But when she tells her mom, Wanda's like, "Absolutely not!" Like I said, she’s now volunteering at the school.

Gosh, I just know—and this is going to piss so many people off—I just know that I can't say it. Never mind.

Okay, so Shauna stops handing the rulers out, right? Remember, Wanda's volunteering at the school. When Wanda goes to her daughter's school to volunteer, she starts handing the rulers out after her daughter got pulled into the principal's office, and they said, "Absolutely not."

Okay, I have to say, I just know one of you out there is like this, and you need to stop it. You need to stop it right now. I'm not mad at you yet; just stop it. Do not be like this!

Wanda is like, "My daughter is going to get this cheerleading spot," and she starts handing out the rulers to the kids, thinking it’ll change things. Obviously, it makes it worse. Wanda is now called into a meeting at the school with some of the other cheerleader moms. My gosh, PTA to the max!

All the cheerleader moms come in, and they have a council with some school representatives. They bring Wanda in and say, "Listen here, sit down, Wanda." Guess what they decide at this little meeting? The rulers are okay—no! That Wanda’s daughter, Shauna, is disqualified from trying out for the cheerleading squad because Wanda went and handed out the rulers.

Oh shoot! So most moms would probably just tuck their tails between their legs, buy their kids some ice cream, and apologize, saying, "Sorry, I ruined your chance." But not Wanda. She reaches out to the school board and says, "Please reconsider! This is nuts!"

Now, by this point, everyone at school knows what's going on, so Shauna is embarrassed. She’s in eighth grade, and Ruler Gate has happened. All the other cheerleaders know because their moms were at the council meeting. Shauna goes to her mom and says, "Mom, please, I don't want to be a cheerleader anymore. I don't care! Can we stop? I don't even want to try out."

But Wanda's like, "No, Shauna, you are going to be a cheerleader!" It really pours salt in the wound when she learns that, yet again, Amber has made it to tryouts, but Shauna hasn’t. This is when Wanda Hollow snaps.

Now, Wanda's gut reaction is that Amber is the crux of her problem. If it weren't for Amber, there would have been that one remaining spot on the team back in seventh grade, and the only natural fit would have been for her daughter. This has now led to all of this—Ruler Gate, the meeting, and Shauna at school. So Wanda starts wondering, "How can I get Amber off the team?"

This eighth-grade mom is wondering how to get this other eighth-grade girl kicked off the cheer team. She starts poking around for ways to get Amber disqualified, but there’s nothing on Amber or her mother, Verna, for that matter, that is controversial enough to get her removed. I mean, Amber is a model student.

That’s when Wanda comes up with an idea. She needs to pay a visit to her ex-brother-in-law, who is Tony’s 36-year-old brother, Terry. Now, this is sketchy for a few reasons, mainly because Terry has a bit of a reputation around town for being an alcoholic with a violent streak. He’s had several run-ins with the law, mostly minor charges like drunk driving.

So Wanda thinks, "Okay, my ex-husband's brother, Terry, probably needs my money, and since he's the closest thing I know to a criminal, he’s the perfect guy for the job." One night, around December 1990, Wanda pulls up to Terry’s home. She knocks on the door, and when he answers, she says, "I need to talk to you about something, but not here. Meet me at Bose." This is a little convenience store just around the corner in Texas.

Minutes later, I imagine Terry climbing into the passenger seat of Wanda's car, and she starts asking him, "How much do you love your niece, Shauna?" He replies, "I love her." Then she asks, "What would you do for her?" Terry says, "I'd do anything for her. Why?" That’s when Wanda breaks the news: she needs Shauna's rival and her mother killed.

I just—what? What is going on? Wanda says to Terry, "Can you please take a hit out on Amber and Verna Heath?" Terry responds, "Well, Wanda, I don't kill people. I'm just a drunk driver. I don’t kill people, let alone 13-year-old girls." He adds, "I don’t know anyone who would," especially after hearing Wanda's reasoning. "Why do you need them dead?" he asks. Wanda insists, "My daughter needs to be on the cheer team!"

Not only was Terry insulted that Wanda thought he could be capable of something like that, but he had also been working hard to turn his life around recently. He had stopped drinking and going to clubs, focusing instead on strengthening his connection to his faith.

After Terry turned Wanda away that night, he lay in bed wondering, "Should I go to someone with this information? My sister-in-law just asked me to do this." It’s a good point; I think I’d be offended too if someone approached me and said, "Hey, can you kill someone for me?" But he decides, "Okay, she’s just being crazy. She’s obsessed and taking it a little too far. Nothing’s going to happen. Certainly, Wanda is not serious about killing a 13-year-old girl and her mother." He brushes it off and forgets about it until he sees Shauna on Christmas Eve that year.

Shauna is over at Terry and Tony’s parents' house opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa, celebrating that night. Later in the evening, she goes over to her Uncle Terry and slips him a piece of paper that says, "Mom wants you to call her at this number."

Terry calls the number, thinking maybe Wanda is going to apologize for asking him to kill those people. But when he calls, he finds out the opposite is true. Wanda is on the phone asking if he has reconsidered her offer. Terry is baffled. If he doesn’t do something about this, who knows what Wanda will resort to in order to get the job done? Will she find another hired hitman? Will she be desperate enough to do it herself?

Terry knows something has to be done to stop her, especially since she has now doubled down. So, he goes to his brother Tony, Wanda’s ex-husband, and tells him the whole situation. "Listen, your ex-wife came to me asking me to kill a 13-year-old and her mother so your daughter can get on the cheer team."

Tony offers some sound advice. "I’m not going to confront Wanda myself," he says. "Instead, I think this is serious enough that you should just go to the police and tell them what she said." This is smart because Terry also needs to consider that if Wanda does do something and he doesn’t mention to the police that she had come to him twice asking him to do it, he could be liable. Could he be considered an accessory to murder? At the very least, would he have their blood on his hands?

At this point, Terry heads down to the Harris County Sheriff's Department, and shockingly, he has a hard time convincing the authorities that this isn’t a prank. I mean, think about it: you have this middle-class town in Texas where football is life, and a woman trying to take a hit out on her daughter’s cheerleading rival in middle school? It sounds like something out of a cheesy crime novel! I’d be so pissed if I were in Terry’s position, thinking, "I’m going to tell the police," and they just laugh at me. That sucks.

To make matters worse, the last—and maybe only—hit these detectives had investigated in this town was a man trying to kill his wife for insurance money, which seems a lot more real and probable. So, it takes some time, but eventually, the police find Terry’s claims legitimate enough to act on them. They start coaching him, telling him that if they are going to catch Wanda in the act and prove that this is real, they need Terry to play along.

Over the next few weeks, Terry pretends to change his tune with Wanda. Every conversation they have is being recorded by the police. He tells Wanda, "Okay, look, I can get this done for you, but here’s what it’s going to take: $2,500 to kill Verna, but $5,000 to kill Amber since she’s a minor." This is something Wanda hemmed and hawed about for several days. Amber was certainly the immediate problem; with her gone, there would definitely be a spot open on the team that Shauna could step into. But $7,500 in 1990 is a lot of money to just have lying around for both hits.

However, if she just got rid of Verna, maybe Amber would be so distraught that she would drop out of cheerleading. So, she calls Terry back and says, "Listen, let’s just go with Verna since that’s all I can afford." The one thing he can’t get her to say out loud is that she explicitly wants him to kill Verna. He has to sort of lead her to the water, saying, "You want her dead, right?" During one phone conversation, Wanda says, "I don’t care what you do with her. You can keep her in Cuba for 15 years. I just want her gone."

Terry responds, "Okay, I hear you, but I need the down payment before I can complete the job." He needs to make it clear that they need money upfront. At this point, Wanda still doesn’t realize she’s being set up.

This is when Wanda makes plans to meet Terry in person. On January 28, 1991, Wanda drops Shauna off at church and heads over to a motel a few miles away, where Terry is waiting, miked up. She sits down with Terry and removes her 1.2-carat diamond earrings, handing them over to him as a down payment. During the conversation, she’s overheard saying, "I couldn’t pull the trigger myself, but I can sure do it this way."

The following day, while Shauna is in the garage practicing her gymnastics, police show up, surrounding the family home with a warrant for Wanda's arrest.

As officers swarmed the house, Shauna watched Wanda remove all of her jewelry and calmly place it on the kitchen counter. Looking at her daughter, she said, "Grandma's coming over, and I'll be back." Shauna had no idea why her mother was being handcuffed and placed into the back of a police cruiser. Not going to lie; it was insane—absolutely insane.

By the following day, Wanda was released on bail and returned home to face her daughter with an explanation. Shauna was horrified to learn that her mother had been conspiring to kill her best friend and her best friend's mother. Had Wanda gone to someone other than Terry Harper—someone with a little less conscience—who knows what would have happened to Amber and Verna? But at this point, they were alive and just as stunned to hear about Wanda's plan as Shauna was. As you can imagine, so was the entire town.

Now, poor Shauna was the one who really suffered through all this. As the story hit the media, her entire world seemed to crumble. How do you go to school knowing everyone's parents are talking about how your mom was trying to kill another mom and daughter just so you could make the cheerleading team? School became a walking nightmare for Shauna. Ironically, the social life that Wanda wanted for her daughter all along was decimated in seconds after the release of those headlines. Shauna was never invited to parties, dropped out of dance and gymnastics, and avoided any place where someone might be whispering about her and her mother. She became riddled with depression and anxiety and even began blaming the circumstances on God, turning her back on the church.

At home, things were just as bad. While Wanda awaited her trial, her ex-husband, Tony, sued for custody of their kids, saying, "Obviously, they're not safe in your custody." All the money that Shauna's brother Shane had set aside for college went to Wanda's defense. Wanda's trial began in August 1991, where she pled not guilty to the charges against her. In fact, during the trial, her defense team took an interesting stance. They suggested that Wanda was framed by her ex-husband and ex-brother-in-law as part of an attempt to gain custody of her children.

Holy crap! They claimed all of this was a setup in a custody battle. I don’t understand how this part of the justice system works. You’re not supposed to lie in court—obviously, everyone does, but how is it legal for attorneys to deliberately make up stories? How is that allowed? If someone is pleading innocent while they’re guilty, any defense can be a lie. Some are more outrageous, like this one, but others can convince people.

I just don’t understand why, when we go to court, they say, "Okay, no lying; we're telling the truth," while the whole defense is a complete lie. It seems so hypocritical. I get that it’s the attorney's job, but it just feels wrong that there’s no punishment for that.

So obviously, this defense didn’t work well when it came to the tapes of the conversations between Terry and Wanda. I mean, between her saying, "Send her to Cuba," and "I'd pull the trigger myself," Wanda looked pretty darn complicit in the entire thing. Verna Heath might have been the deciding factor in her fate. When Verna took the stand, she told the jury that she'd been having nightmares ever since she found out about the murder-for-hire plot. She was afraid to get in and start her car out of fear it might blow up. Imagine how scary it would be to think that someone was actually taking a hit out on you—someone you weren't even suspecting. The anxieties around the entire scheme were more than she could bear.

On September 3, 1991, the jury returned with a verdict for Wanda. After two hours of deliberation, they decided she was guilty of solicitation of capital murder. Whoa! She was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but that sentence didn’t last long due to a technicality. It turned out one of the jurors was on probation for a drug-related charge and should never have been placed in the jury box to begin with, which meant that Wanda's entire trial was thrown out.

Her sentence was overturned, and when it came time for a redo in 1996, Wanda's defense smartened up. This time, she pleaded no contest and ended up with a 10-year sentence. The Heath family then sued her for $150,000, which she had to pay, but Wanda got off pretty easy—she only served 6 months of that 10-year sentence.

During that time, Cidi Holloway, her husband, who had been unusually quiet throughout the case, quietly divorced her. Aside from Verna and Amber, the real victim in this case is Shauna. In 2012, the then-34-year-old Shauna broke her silence about the case to the media for the first time. She said her relationship with her mother was rocky after Wanda's release from prison, but since getting married and having her own kids, they have reconnected.

Shauna says the whole ordeal taught her a big lesson on how to parent. She never pushes her two sons to pursue things they don't feel passionately about and has learned from her mother's mistakes. She sees the irony in the situation, which is pretty profound if you think about it. Had Wanda not pushed so hard to control the situation, you have to wonder if things would have just worked out for Shauna on her own. Perhaps Shauna's shining personality would have won her the tryouts anyway, and her talents likely would have shown through after so many hours at the gymnastics school. But instead, by pushing Shauna, Wanda lost it all. In wanting the world for her daughter, she effectively stole it from her.

And that is the story of Wanda Holloway. It is sad because you think about how Shauna is the real victim in all this. I mean, I get that Amber and her mother were emotionally harmed, but Shauna definitely bore the brunt of it. She lost her childhood, her mother, and so much more. I don’t want to speak for her, obviously, but even her trauma is significant.

It’s pretty crazy how far parents will go. You see it all the time. We joked about making a YouTube channel for parents at kids' games who are just screaming at the refs and their children, and the kids are literally 7 years old! Come on!

But that’s our story for this week. We hope you enjoyed it, and we’ll see you next time with another episode.

I love it.

I hate it.

Goodbye!

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