Hey everyone and welcome back to Big Mad True Crime where we get Big Mad over True Crime.

I'm your host Heather Ashley and today's case is out of Kingman, Kansas.

Small talk sucks, so let's dive in. Vashti Forest was born and raised in different small towns across Kansas with her three older siblings.

She was known for her record-breaking patience, her ability to choose kindness in the toughest situations

and for just how incredibly smart she was.

And did I mention that she was stunningly beautiful?

After graduating college, Vashti married her high school sweetheart, Brett C. Cat.

They eventually settled down in Kingman, Kansas, where Vashti went to work in HR at Cox Communications,

and Brett became a deputy for the Sedgwick County Sheriff's

Department. Deputy sounds like a pretty prestigious position but Brett's time there was cut short

after a lawsuit alleged that he had used excessive force against a 50-year-old

man who had been arrested for a DUI.

According to the Wichita Eagle, the lawsuit claimed that Brett forcefully slammed the man against a concrete

wall near the booking desk at the Sedgwick jail, leaving him with skull fractures and

brain damage. The man died six days later. You'd assume he lost his job after that, but after investigations by the District Attorney's Office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Brett was actually cleared of any wrongdoing.

It was Brett who chose to leave the Sheriff's Department, but he didn't go very far. He got a new job as a police instructor at the Kansas

law enforcement training center. Yes he would be training new recruits on how to be cops. If that terrifies you, it should.

In the late 2000s, Vashti and Brett became parents to two sons. Vashti loved being a mom and spent every

spare second she had with her boys. But while her role as a mom was more than she ever could

have dreamed of, her marriage was a different story.

According to court documents, by fall of 2010, Vashti described her and Brett as incompatible.

In November of that same year, Brett and Vashti tried their hand at marriage counseling with them seeing a counselor together as well as individually. In the beginning Vashti seemed down and was showing signs of depression.

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