Hi there, everybody, and welcome to 2020 The After Show.

I'm Deborah Roberts, and today we're going to take you behind the scenes on a story that is so fascinating.

It's a story we're calling the Rose Petal murder.

Christina Parcell was a young woman living in Greer, South Carolina, and then her fiance finds her stabbed to death

in her home in what was a gruesome scene. And then there's a bizarre twist, rose petals scattered

all around her. While police zero in on a suspect, Juilliard-trained pianist Zach Hughes,

who's a friend of Christina's ex-boyfriend, John Mello. And when Hughes goes to trial,

there is a shocking development. He confesses on the stand to killing Christina and then accuses her

ex-boyfriend of offering him money to do it, something Mello denies. Well, Hughes says he did it to protect Christina's daughter, whom he

alleges, was being abused. This is truly an unbelievable story of twists and turns. And joining me

today to share some of the details about this strange case is my friend and colleague and ABC

senior national correspondent Eva Pilgrim. Hey, Eva. Hey, Debra.

Well, this is good. We always run into each other in the hallway and just chit-chat about stuff,

but rarely do we get a chance to sit down like this. And actually chat. And actually really chat.

Well, this story, I mean, what was it that just grabbed you right away about the story because you were involved in the beginning. Yeah, I mean, we, one, it's my home state,

so I feel like I'm very comfortable there. And it took place in Greer, South Carolina, which isn't too far from Greenville, sort of to place it in everyone's mind. Bob Jones University is in that area,

very religious, very conservative area of the state. We found out about it right away. So in a lot of ways, it reminds me of Alec Murdoch's case,

which you covered as well. Because we didn't know what was going to happen. Yeah. We were literally

along for the ride with investigators as they were trying to figure out what was going on.

And the twists and the turns, we had interviews that we didn't know when we talked to them

what would develop later down the road. Yeah. You got a tip't know when we talked to them what would develop

later down the road. Yeah. You got a tip though kind of early on to watch out for this story,

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