Moment of Truth (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Chapter One - An Unfillable Void - full transcript

A gentleman by the name
of Hal Locklear was going fishing...

...in an area called the Gum Swamp.

He went down to his fishing location...

...was getting ready to fish.

The water had been high.

And he was just looking around,
and he saw what appeared to be...

...a body that was hung up on a tree.

When we approached the body,
he was more or less on the log

in some sense,

sort of way with his legs more or less
wrapped around the log.

He then examined further,



realized it was what appeared to be
an African-American gentleman.

And if you
look at that photo long enough,

you realize that this is the father of
the most famous athlete on the planet,

Michael Jordan.

And on his 57th birthday,
he was an unidentified dead man

in the swamp in the middle of nowhere.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

A battered
and vandalized car turns up

on a deserted Cumberland County road.

The vehicle belonged
to Michael Jordan's dad.

The body
located in Bennettsville, South Carolina

has been positively identified as the body
of Mr. James Jordan.

The nationwide impact
of the alleged crime

hit home in rural Robeson County.



- I don't want to know.
- You don't?

No. Because it probably
would hurt me even more.

Well,
let me explain wh-why you're scared

since you won't explain it right.

You're scared because
you're not telling us the truth.

Anything you want
to say to the Jordan family?

I didn't kill him.

Michael Jordan was
the son of two very supportive parents.

When we
went to one of Michael's games

or one of Larry's games,
we took the whole family,

and it got to be a family affair then,

and I think it has
remained a family affair.

You know, right on up
through the years.

James was
from Wallace, North Carolina.

It's a small, rural community
in the southeastern part of the state.

He had a pretty tough upbringing...

...which prepared him
to go into the Air Force.

In 1957,

he got married to his high school
sweetheart, Deloris,

and they eventually started a family.

The Jordan family, they had
this opportunity to go to New York

so James could train as a mechanic,

studying airplane hydraulics
under the G.I. bill.

After living
in New York City for a while,

Mr. and Mrs. Jordan
decided to move their family

back to North Carolina,

and they chose Wilmington.

It's a bigger place.
There's more opportunity there,

and James and Deloris decided to raise
their five children in Wilmington.

James was an absolute sports fanatic

when he was a kid, especially baseball.

That was his love,

and he was actually so good at it
that he almost went pro,

so it was natural for him
to encourage his two youngest sons,

Michael and Larry, to play sports.

People forget
Michael was a late bloomer.

He did not make his varsity team
at Wilmington-Laney as a sophomore.

He was only 5'10".

He began to grow, and by his junior year,

he was on the varsity and playing,

but he was still not heavily recruited.

By his senior year at Laney,

he was good enough to make all-state,

he attracted recruiting attention.

North Carolina was
one of the first to get involved.

When Michael came to Carolina,

he did start as a freshman.

but it wasn't his offense,
it was his defense.

Jordan comes all the way
across the lane to get this one.

By this time, he'd grown to 6'4",

and he was very good at
converting defense into offense.

Michael Jordan!

Both James Jordan and Deloris Jordan

were regulars at North Carolina
basketball games.

James
and Deloris Jordan became fixtures

at Carmichael Auditorium
during their son's Carolina career,

but attending Michael
and brother Larry's games

was something they'd always done.

Michael was so approachable

in his days at Chapel Hill.

He was just a regular student

who was pretty good at math,

who happened to be really,
really good at basketball.

There's the steal!

Takes it away from Carlyle!

Everything changed

one March night at the Superdome.

It was a classic NCAA Championship game.

North Carolina-Georgetown,
extremely well played.

The two best teams in the country.

Future superstars on both teams.

The tension in the building
was just unbelievable.

It came down to the final possession.

North Carolina trailed by one.

With 20 seconds left to play,

goes back to Michael Jordan.

And Michael put up a jumper

with 17 seconds left in the game,

and up in the stands,
his mother had said,

"Oh, no! Not a freshman!"

She did not think a freshman
should be taking that shot.

Jumper from out on the left...

Good!

63-62!

The Tarheels are going to win
the National Championship!

And life began
to change for Michael after that.

He becomes
the national player of the year.

He's a workaholic.

He really loves to play basketball,
and I think he'll do his best at it.

Michael will renounce
his college eligibility

and will be available
for the professional draft.

And then it was
the Chicago Bulls' choice.

Michael Jordan of
the University of North Carolina.

And once he leaves
and goes out on his own,

I'm gonna automatically
get a raise, you know.

I don't have to give him two
or three dollars and stuff like that.

He has taken the city by storm.

People wanted to be like Mike.

He's a whiz kid!

And the Chicago Bulls
have won their first-ever

NBA Championship!

No one could be
more proud of the situation

that we have brought to
the City of Chicago.

The impact he had
is almost immeasurable.

Michael transcended the game.

Jordan's agents have selected

Madison Avenue.

Michael.

- Are these your Hanes?
- Mm-hmm.

Son, is there a reason why you wear 'em?

Definitely.

Mm-hmm!

Michael had a great
relationship with his father James.

I really admired it, and in a lot
of ways was envious of it

'cause I never had a relationship
like that, uh, with my father,

and didn't see many who did.

When Michael and the Bulls

won their first
World Championship in 1991,

there was Dad.

They were as close as any father
and son could hope to be.

At the dedication of
the Michael Jordan section of I-40,

James spoke of the work ethic
he tried to instill in his son.

Hard work and dedication...

be it young or old, Black or white,

will get you someplace.
Thank you.

But most of all,
James Jordan was proud of his son.

He was thrilled to be part
of the magic of Michael.

I'm lucky to be here.

I'm lucky to be a part of it.

You ever think of that?

I'm lucky to be a part of what he is,

what he stands for,
and what he's doing right now.

On July 23rd, 1993,

James Jordan left
Wilmington, North Carolina,

traveling to his home in Charlotte,
where his family now lived.

He had been at a funeral
of a coworker in Wilmington.

The next day, he was scheduled
to fly out to Chicago

for a golf tournament
with his son Michael Jordan.

About an hour to an hour and 15 minutes
outside of Wilmington, he became tired.

He pulled off the highway in a place
called Lumberton, North Carolina.

Police believe
James Jordan stopped here,

near the intersection
of I-95 and NC 74, to rest

during his trip
from Wilmington to Charlotte.

We believe he pulled over
to the side of the road,

um, on the westbound side of 95...

...which was a common location
for truck drivers to pull over

to sleep, to rest.

We know that
James Jordan had been drinking

at this dinner that he was at
in Wilmington, North Carolina.

One of the theories
is that he was intoxicated,

and that he pulled over
to the side of the road

because he could no longer drive.

Why would you stop on the side
of the highway and fall asleep?

Even if you didn't have any money,
you're 500 yards from a hotel.

It was just an odd case for me

because, you know,
Mr. Jordan was well known.

If you didn't have any money,
if you're Michael Jordan's father,

you could walk in and say,
"I don't have any money right now, but...

...can I get a room?"

Somebody would have given you a room.

We know from statements
from friends of James Jordan,

and his secretary in particular,

he would never pull over
on the side of the road.

The Quality Inn
was right across the street

from where James Jordan
allegedly parked his car.

That inn was known for gambling

in back rooms of the inn.

Nobody heard from James Jordan

after that day for several weeks.

Nobody knew he was even missing.

Nobody reported him missing.

There were
phone calls from him the 22nd and

late at night on the 23rd,

and then the phone calls
from him stopped.

The question is,
is he missing of his own accord?

Was he having
some problem with his family

and decided to take a little time off?

Because we've seen that happen.

But then, also, why would this individual

of this amount of notoriety

just decide not to let any family members
know where he might be?

And that's one of those
unanswered questions

that I think gives a lot of people pause

in trying to figure out how a man
so beloved by his family,

a man with so many children,

would let him be missing
for more than three weeks

without reporting to authorities
that he was not around...

...and that his 57th birthday

would come and go
without anyone knowing where he is.

When Mr. Jordan did not return

to Chicago, as was planned,

we learned it wasn't a surprise.

It was known that he was

subject to changing his plans
at the drop of a hat.

The family I don't really think
had that much concern

when they could not reach him.

What resulted was Michael's security team

started their own investigation.

They did not report him missing

in the sense that they contacted
any local law enforcement agency.

A highway patrolman
had gotten some information

that there was this car
parked out in the woods.

Wheels are off.
It had been vandalized.

And so he did a little investigation,

and he saw, in the glovebox,

that the car was bought
at a dealership in Chicago,

and that it was sold to Michael Jordan.

A battered and vandalized car

turns up on a deserted
Cumberland Country road August 5th.

It had been stripped,

the speakers taken out,
the windows smashed,

and all four wheels were gone.

Just yesterday,
authorities say they discovered

the vehicle belonged
to Michael Jordan's dad.

Now here's the car of the father

of probably the best-known
basketball player in the world,

so speculation about what happened
just started going rampant.

Fingerprint and a number of other tests

were done to determine
if there was any foul play.

Yes, we did a--a luminol test
of the car,

and that showed that
there was no traces of any blood.

Authorities have been in contact

with Jordan's security personnel
in Chicago.

They and the Cumberland County
Sheriff's Department are working the case,

but, so far, no one knows
the whereabouts of James Jordan.

Investigators in Cumberland County

have been swamped with calls and clues

since the story broke this afternoon.

A lot of agencies calling in
now with information

of, uh... uh...

...bodies and stuff that have been found

in different areas that's unidentified,

and we're trying to run the leads,

and, you know, hopefully
they're not Mr. Jordan,

but we gotta run
every lead out we get.

Two days
prior to the car being found,

a body was found floating in the water

at the North Carolina-
South Carolina border, by a fisherman.

Um, when we approached the body,
we approached the rear of the body.

The body was laying,
you know, across the river this way,

and we approached from this angle.

He was out fishing,
saw a body hung up on a limb,

and called the police
and--and emergency crews.

An autopsy was conducted.

The body was in very bad shape,

having been in the water
for some period of time.

Because the body
was so highly decomposed,

the medical examiner determined that
they would take the jaw and the hands,

remove the clothing,
and they cremated the body.

People are surprised to hear
that the body was cremated,

and that's become part of the suspicion

that there was some
level of foul play here.

But it was practice for a body
that highly decomposed

to be cremated
after it was not identified.

When Mr. Jordan's car is found

in Cumberland County,

Dr. Sexton from Scotland County
sees the news,

and he contacts them and says,

"I did an autopsy
on an unidentified Black man

that was pulled from the Gum Swamp
in Marlboro County, South Carolina.

This may be connected."

I was hoping
for the family's sake that it wasn't him,

but I think many of us in the community
knew in our hearts that it probably was.

At some point you start wondering,

is this what I think it's gonna be?

And then everything that you fear
ends up being confirmed.

Today it is with regret that I advise you

that a body located
in Bennettsville, South Carolina

has been positively identified
as the body of Mr. James Jordan.

I was stunned. Horrified.

It was just shocking.
It was like a member of your own family

suffering a tragedy like that

because, you know, Michael...
Michael was embraced by Chicago,

like one of its own.

Some were friends,
others just strangers

touched by the tragedy
the Jordan family has endured.

People came with fruit baskets,
flowers, and cards

to let Michael and his mother know
their thoughts were with them.

People in this community united

in... in distress, disbelief, sadness.

Several cars
passed through the gates

into the Jordan compound
near Charlotte today,

but the family remains secluded.

All of a sudden,
you sort of lose this sense

that this isn't just a celebrity,

the most famous
basketball player on the planet,

this is a 30-year-old man dealing
with the loss of his father.

Just knowing what he represented...

...that he was the mentor
and--and father figure

for the greatest player in basketball.

To lose someone like that,

I just... it's really hard
to put into words.

And then late this afternoon,
a spokesman for the Jordan Foundation

appeared at the front gate with a typed,
written statement from Michael.

It reads in part,

This is the small country church

where James Jordan and his family grew up,

so it was only fitting that
he be eulogized and laid to rest here.

Those who knew Jordan in this community
came to grieve with his family

and to try to accept his horrible death.

In this state,
you probably couldn't find

a more famous family than the Jordans.

It was unbelievable to a lot of people

to think that this happened
in North Carolina.

The same thing happened to him,
it could happen to me or my son,

and I feel very badly for the Jordans,
especially for Michael,

because James
was very dear to his son Michael.

As more family
and friends arrived for the service,

so did stargazers, hoping to catch
a glimpse of Michael Jordan.

Most didn't get
that chance until after the service,

when Jordan escorted his mother
outside to his father's gravesite.

But despite his own grief,

Michael Jordan took time to speak
to old friends who came to support him.

Dean Smith, Jordan's coach
at UNC, was here,

as were some of Jordan's
Chicago Bulls teammates.

Those who attended the service

said Michael had
encouraging words for everyone.

He just, um, thanked everyone
for coming to the, um, funeral,

and said he hadn't forgotten where
he came from, which was Wallace,

and, um, you know, his friends and...

...he said, you know, speaked that
the fact that his father will be missed,

and that they loved everyone
and never forget us.

I think the death of James
had a tremendous impact on Michael.

His heart just wasn't in
playing at that point.

You know, he had already
accomplished quite a bit.

He had won, I believe,
three championships at that point

and become recognized
as the game's best player.

And he was broken about it.

When I lose the sense of motivation

and the sense of to prove something
as a basketball player,

it's time for me to move away
from the game of basketball.

It's not because I don't love the game.

I love the game of basketball.
I always will.

I just feel that,
at this particular time in my career,

I have reached the pinnacle of my career,

I have achieved a lot
in that short amount of time,

if, uh, if you want to call it short.

Um, but I just feel that I don't have
anything else for myself to prove.

I guess the biggest positive thing
that I can take out of, uh,

you know, my father
not being here with me today

is that he saw my last basketball game,
and that means a lot.

Although it's been ten days
since the body was discovered,

the sheriff says this investigation
is still at square one.

This investigation then was,
"Who is this fella?

Identify this body."

And once you get that done, then you
start working the murder investigation.

That's gonna be the next phase.

Now, hope
of finding the elder Jordan alive

has turned into a burning desire
to find his killer.

This case was complicated
from the very beginning.

James Jordan goes missing
from Robeson County, North Carolina.

His car was found in Cumberland County,
North Carolina.

And then his body is found
not just in another county,

but in another state,

in Marlboro County, South Carolina.

So then you have three different
county law enforcement agencies,

two different statewide
law enforcement agencies,

and they all have to collaborate
on this one case together.

There was immense pressure
to solve this case.

Everybody was personally motivated

to try to be the one

to bring closure for the Jordan family.

Authorities say the vehicle
was found by a passerby

on this deserted firebreak.

It was located, I guess,
about a quarter mile,

maybe a half mile down the road.

You, as a reporter,

look to gather the facts
and report those things

without there being much,
uh, emotion surrounding it,

just a-a professional connection
to gathering the facts

and making sure the story
was told correctly and accurately.

Authorities say Jordan died

of a single gunshot wound to the chest,

but no blood was found in the car,

and although the car was vandalized,

there was no sign of a struggle.

For now, the investigation has turned up
more questions than answers.

One of the things that ultimately became

very important evidence in the case

was they accessed his phone records.

There was a car phone
that was connected to that vehicle.

And they got the phone records
for the car phone.

What we subsequently saw
were phone calls

that were going to places--

Charlotte, Wilmington,
Chicago, Cleveland.

And suddenly the phone calls,

the late evening of the 22nd,

the early morning of the 23rd,
started changing.

Rowland, North Carolina.
Pembroke, North Carolina.

Lumberton, North Carolina.

And he had no connections here,

so the issue became,
who was making these phone calls?

They were able to determine
who had taken the car

and placed it in the woods.

Ended up, there were four young men

who were identified as the individuals
who had possession of the car,

who had stripped the car.

Gary Farrior, Kenneth Farrior,

Terrellis Teasley, and Jovan Carter,

all charged with the crime
and could get ten years behind bars,

but authorities say they are
not responsible for the killing.

In their interviews,
they said, "This car was brought to us.

This car was brought to us
by a guy named Daniel

and some Indian kid.

Daniel wanted us to try to sell the car,

and we were gonna split the proceeds.

They left the car here.

We took it out in the woods,
we stripped it.

We vandalized it, but Daniel and this
Indian guy were the ones who brought it.

And Daniel's got
a brother out at Fort Bragg,

and his name is David.

And they go see CID at Fort Bragg

and say,
"We need to talk to this soldier."

So, David is brought in.

He is questioned,
and he said, my br--

and he tells them,
"My brother and his friend Larry,

who's an Indian kid,
brought this car up to my house.

I live off-base.
I live in a trailer park.

They show up.
I didn't know they were coming.

I walk outside,
and they've got this red sports car."

And Daniel gives him
some song-and-dance

about how they got the car.

And then David said, "We need
to get this car away from here."

And they asked David,
"Where does your brother live?"

"Well, my brother lives in Robeson County.

He lives outside of Lumberton
in a trailer park with his mom."

When they start looking
at these phone calls again,

these calls are bouncing
off of cell towers

in the Robeson County
and in the Lumberton area.

They approach Daniel Green.

They ask him if he will come
to the Sheriff's Department.

They want to talk with him about a case.

He agrees to come.
He is not in custody.

He is interviewed for several hours.

He is allowed to walk freely

at the breaks when--
at the Sheriff's office.

He's allowed to go outside.

He never asks for a lawyer.

He never invokes his rights.

Because it's
a non-custodial interrogation,

he is not advised of those rights.

And there were multiple versions

along those same lines by Daniel Green,

as to how this car
came in their possession.

They ultimately identified

Larry Demery, who's an Indian kid.

There's an outstanding warrant
for Larry Demery.

He's taken into custody.
He is actually arrested,

not for the Jordan case,
but for the other cases,

um, that he had these
outstanding warrants in.

He comes to the Sheriff's Department.
He is advised of his rights.

He waives those rights.

Doesn't want a lawyer,
is willing to talk.

And he initially starts off

very similar to the story
that Daniel Green starts off with.

It's clear they've talked
before they're put in the rooms,

and they've said,
"Okay, listen, if we're picked up,

There's this guy Rick,
he brings us the car,

he lets us ride around in the car

in return for doing something for him."

And they've--they've contrived this story

that they're gonna try
and be consistent on.

It, um, is not unusual

in a police interrogation
where you have multiple suspects

that you have evidence
that both were involved,

to try to, um,
get one to tell on the other.

So, then, when you put it together,

you've got "A" saying "B" did this,

and "B" is saying "A" did that,

and you got a full picture.

At the same time that Green
and Demery are being interviewed,

there is a search that is conducted
at Daniel Green's mother's mobile home.

As they're searching the home,

they notice there is
a Shop-Vac vacuum cleaner...

...that is there in the residence.

The SBI opens the cannister.

And, in the bottom of the Shop-Vac

is a .38-caliber pistol.

A .38-caliber pistol

authorities believe was used
in Robeson County's most infamous murder.

It's in the state laboratory
at this time being checked out.

And... but at this time, we are
not looking for any other weapon.

The SBI also noticed that

there's a rack that contains VHS tapes.

All of them have labels except one.

That is seized.

When they get back
and they plug that tape in...

...it became very clear
Daniel Green is the leader.

♪ Rip off the shop, mutha drop,
and I'm poppin' ♪

♪ Oh, no-- hey, yo--
how ya' doin', kiddo? ♪

♪ Our poison rock you,
so how you livin', no, no ♪

♪ Yo, this is a sign for a youth,
I reckon...

They watch it in their entirety
in astonishment.

♪ Bump-bump,
two shots through the head, bro...

One of the things that happens

is the operator of the camera

is zooming in and out.

Daniel Green is posing at times,

and... as they're watching it,

in closeups,
they see what appears to be

Mr. Jordan's watch...

...and the NBA ring.