Peter Van Sant (left) interviews Melody Farris for 48 Hours.Photograph courtesy of 48 Hours It was only a matter of time until the scandalous and very Southern tale of wealthy real estate attorney Gary “Big Daddy” Farris and his dysfunctional family made its way into a true crime podcast. Thankf ully for listeners, 48 Hours correspondent and former Atlantan Peter Van Sant is the guy reporting the six-part Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel podcast for 48 Hours, launching March 11. As many Georgians will recall, Farris, 58, was murdered in the summer of 2018 and his remains discovered (with a bullet lodged in a rib) on a burn pile at the Farris family’s sprawling 10-acre Cherokee County farm. After a year-long investigation, Gary’s wife, Melody, was arrested for the killing and convicted on all charges in December 2024. She is now serving a 30-year sentence. Van Sant, who served as a CBS News Atlanta correspondent from 1984 to 1989, was in the Cherokee County courtroom to hear the closing arguments in the case and devoted a 48 Hours telecast to the case. Last year, he was the only reporter to conduct a prison interview with Melody Farris. He also sat down with son Scott, who Melody accused of his father’s murder in court. In an interview with Atlanta, Van Sant said he welcomed the opportunity to spend six episodes of the Blood is Thicker podcast to dive into the case. “We all dream of having the amount of time necessary to tell a story,” Van Sant explains. “The killing of Gary Farris had so much intrigue, so many side stories of betrayal, jealousy and greed, having the opportunity to do three hours of this case [over six 30-minute episodes] in a podcast was just irresistible.” The name of the podcast originated from the Cherokee County detectives assigned to the murder investigation. “They couldn’t believe what was spinning in front of them,” says Van Sant. “All of the intrigue and anger. The parallels with the TV show Dallas are striking. Gary Farris, this multi-millionaire is at the heart of all the jealousies and infighting within this family. ‘Who shot Gary?’ became the great unanswered question.” Gary FarrisPhotograph courtesy of the Cherokee County DA's Office/48 Hours With lengthy interviews conducted with both Melody and Scott Farris, Van Sant says he hopes to place listeners at the family table to eavesdrop on “this soap operatic life they had with one another.” Van Sant will also be able to plop podcast listeners in a chair across from Melody Farris during his hour-long prison interview with her. “She is tough as nails,” says Van Sant. “She’s self-absorbed, she’s angry. I have never seen a mother who has more issues with her children than Melody Farris. She has four children and only one stood by her, the youngest, Amanda, during the trial. The others, she’s convinced were involved in the conspiracy to set her up and send her off to prison so they could cash in on their father’s estimated $4 million fortune. To sit across from her is riveting.” For serious true crime podcast aficionados, Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel offers ample opportunity to relitigate the case since one huge mystery has never been revealed—how did Melody Farris, a five-foot, four-inch 120-pound person, lug Gary, a six-foot-four, 300-pound guy, from the house where he was killed to the burn pile, an estimated 80 yards away? “It’s a question that was never answered during the trial,” says Van Sant. “How the heck did she get that 300-pound body placed on the burn pile? There are so many twists and turns to this story that lend itself to the intimacy of a podcast. The nature of this family’s relationships, the language they use, their wealth, and their dysfunction all make this a quintessential Southern tale.” Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel, a six-part podcast from CBS News 48 Hours begins streaming Wednesday, March 11 on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast streamers. The post Cherokee County’s infamous 2018 burn pile murder becomes the focus of a new 48 Hours podcast appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less