214: Erasing Laura Ackerson, Part 2

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2024

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After Laura Ackerson lost full custody of her sons, she was heartbroken, but she sprang into action. Within 2 weeks, she got another hearing but she still only got weekends. She had to completely overhaul her life. Within a year, Laura found a great apartment and opened her own ad agency—not just a stable job, but a career she was proud of. Meanwhile, Grant Hayes had blown through most of his new wife’s money. His life was swirling down the drain. And with the court ordered pysch evaluation, he knew he was about to lose custody of his kids. Laura had won. He couldn’t let that happen. So when she went missing a month before their next custody hearing, her friends immediately feared the worst. But I’m not sure in their worst nightmares, they could have been prepared to what happened to Laura Ackerson.

RESOURCES FOR VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

US National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
National Domestic Violence Hotline: thehotline.org
Canada: visit this website to find the hotline in your area
UK Domestic Abuse Hotline: 0808 2000 247
For resources in other countries, visit this website

Hosted, produced and written by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica and Andrea Marshbank
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Brandon Schexnayder & Erica Kelley
Case suggested by Marcia

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/laura-ackerson-part-2

This episode is brought to you by:

Visit SimpliSafe.com/southernfried to get 20% off any new system with Fast Protect Monitoring. There’s no safe like SimpliSafe.
They say time waits for no one, and neither should payday--See EarnIn.com/TOS for more details.
Treat yourself to the best bras and shapewear on the market and save 20% Off at honeylove.com/SFTC.
Nutrition the way nature intended, with real fruits and vegetables, not extracts. Go to FieldOfGreens.com and use promo code SOUTHERNFRIED for 15% off your first order plus free shipping.
Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code SFTC at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepod
Füm: Start the Good Habit at https://tryfum.com/sftc to save 10% off the Journey Pack today.
Don’t pull the covers over your head, your health is too important. Download the Teladoc Health app today, or go to TelaDocHealth.com, to make scheduling your next doctor’s appointment so much easier.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Southern Fried True Crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:09.0	Today's episode is much more graphic than usual.
0:12.0	Listener discretion is strongly advised.
0:15.0	Last week I told you about how Laura Ackerson had been dealt a really shitty hand in life.
0:27.0	Still, she had the guts to move across country, away from her parents to start over. She was doing pretty good until she fell
0:36.4	in love. Grant Hayes was an abusive narcissist. He didn't care about anything but himself and his laughable music career.
0:46.4	Her relationship with Grant didn't just fall apart. He blew it up spectacularly when he married another woman without even ending things with Laura first.
0:58.0	And then, unbelievably, she lost custody of her two young sons to a musician who drank and did drugs almost every day
1:08.1	who had never had a stable job.
1:11.3	Little Grant had just turned two years old and Gentle was only 10 months old.
1:16.7	It was unthinkable.
1:18.0	Except I guess to the judge, since Grant had a stable mother figure with him, after his quickie marriage to a woman named
1:25.9	Amanda. And he had an apartment in his name, so I guess he looked better on paper.
1:32.8	But Laura jumped into action quickly. She fought back in court, but only got weekend custody of her boys.
1:39.9	But she was far from done fighting.
1:47.8	It's amazing how much Laura Ackerson had changed her life in one year.
1:52.3	She didn't just find a stable job, but began a career, opening her own business, something she could personally
1:56.4	be proud of, not just something to satisfy the judge.
2:01.8	She was making new friends too to her business partner Chavan was a great friend to her and she had started
2:08.7	attending Grace Fellowship Church in Kingston joining evening Bible study classes. One of the women she met
2:16.1	there had agreed to be a character witness for her, and her steadfast best friend
2:21.6	Heidi was always there for her.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Erica Kelley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Erica Kelley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.