A quick note before you listen. This serialized podcast includes references to a theory of death by suicide.

Please listen with care if this topic is sensitive for you.

It began with a brutal murder in a quiet Asheville neighborhood.

A wealthy widow found dead.

Her throat slashed.

At first, authorities called it a suicide.

But the evidence said otherwise.

Now after weeks of accusations and a courtroom spectacle,

it had come to this.

A verdict.

Would Anna Montague leave the courthouse, a free woman?

Or was this the end of her life as she knew it?

Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring Southern history and true crime.

I'm your host, Shannon Ballard.

This is the fourth and final episode of the Southern Mystery Serial, Mystery, on Montfort Avenue.

Before the jury began deliberations, Judge Thomas Shaw gave clear instructions.

They could deliver one of two verdicts, guilty of second-degree murder or not guilty.

Anna Montague's defense team remained confident.

They argued she had been misjudged. A woman caught in tragic

circumstances, not a killer. A weak woman with a temper, they said, portrayed as something

far more sinister. The jury deliberated for three hours. When Mrs. Montague returned to the courtroom

to await the verdict, she was relaxed, smiling, even joking with reporters. She mentioned how

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