The Moody Nazi

On Sunday July 21st, 2013, a couple pulled their car off the road while driving through a suburban neighborhood in South Carolina. They got out of the vehicle and popped the hood open, then stood and waited for help. It wasn’t long before two people came to the rescue. A mechanic named Charles Parker lived in the house that the couple had stopped outside, and he hoped that he and his wife, Gretchen, would be able to help them with their car troubles. 

For a period of around ten minutes, the Parkers casually chatted to the other couple, seeming relaxed and at ease. Then, they appeared to invite them inside their home. The security camera footage of the Parkers walking inside with the other couple was the last time either Charles or Gretchen Parker were seen alive.

On Monday, one of Charles’ clients came to the house hoping to have his car fixed. He walked up to the front door, noticing that it had been left open, but nobody appeared to be inside. The client called the police, who discovered the bodies of Charles and Gretchen shortly after they arrived at the scene. It was clear that neither of the Parkers had died of natural causes - both had been stabbed and shot multiple times. However, the initial investigation into the deaths was delayed by an unexpected hazard - a small herd of vicious chihuahuas owned by the Parkers. 

When the paramedics attempted to enter the home and check whether Charles and Gretchen were still alive, the chihuahuas began advancing on them, barking and growling. Unable to calm the dogs, emergency responders had to wait several hours for animal control officers to arrive at the house and get the situation under control. Ultimately, animal control removed almost 20 dogs from the property, as well as six chickens and a couple of cats.

Shortly after arriving on the property, investigators noticed that Charles and Gretchen had erected a bright yellow sign outside their house which read, “Smile! You’re on camera.” It turned out that the Parkers had surveillance cameras which constantly monitored the outside of their home, including the street outside - and it was the footage from these security cameras that showed the anonymous couple parking their car outside.

A team of law enforcement officers watched the tape back, and paused when they saw the Parkers appearing to invite the couple inside their house. There were no camera angles that showed the inside of the house, but it was clear that, while the couple had entered with the Parkers, they had later walked out alone, and the Parkers had not gone outside again. Despite the poor quality of the surveillance footage, one officer recognized the couple immediately, and was able to remember their names. The last people to see Charles and Gretchen Parker alive had been a pair of white supremacists named Jeremy and Christine Moody. 

It wasn’t hard to identify Jeremy. He happened to have some very distinctive tattoos on his neck and head. Bold lettering on top of his bald scalp spelled out “WHITE POWER” while underneath his chin, he had a tattoo of the word “skinhead” which stretched almost the entire width of his throat.

When Jeremy Moody was arrested for the murders, he confessed almost instantly. He also told the arresting officers that they had caught him “just in time” because, later that day, he had planned on murdering another sex offender on the register. This was how investigators learned the true motive of the seemingly random crime: for whatever reason, Jeremy and Christine were on a mission to track down and brutally murder sex offenders in South Carolina. 

Charles Parker had been almost a complete stranger to Jeremy and Christine, but after learning that he had been charged with sexual crimes against a child, they had decided to kill him. Ten years before his death, Charles Parker had been charged with “third-degree criminal sexual conduct”, which had meant that he needed to be registered as a sex offender. The Union County Sheriff, David Taylor, was familiar with the charges against Charles, saying that Charles always made an effort to register on time, and never caused any trouble. As well as the criminal sexual misconduct charge in 2003, where the victim had been a woman in her 30s, Charles had also been convicted for sexually assaulting a minor in the 1990s.

Jeremy told the sheriff that he had planned to kill Charles for a long time, and had almost gone through with the crime the previous year, but he’d lost his nerve. Instead, he’d waited - and, on Sunday July 21st, he’d decided that now was the time. He and Christine had agreed that they would park outside Charles’ home and pretend that their car had broken down, believing that the mechanic would be generous enough to invite them inside. Once they entered the home, Jeremy and Christine had revealed their weapons, and told Charles, “You think I’m here to rob you, [but] I’m not here to rob you. I’m here to kill you, because you are a child molester.”

Then, the Moodys fatally stabbed and shot both Charles and Gretchen. Gretchen had no history of crimes against children, but killing her was simply convenient for Jeremy and Christine. They didn’t want to leave a witness to the crime alive.

While in bond court, both Jeremy and Christine stated that they were members of Crew 41, a small but violently racist group of white supremacist skinheads. Crew 41 was created by online recruitment, and its members often romanticized the idea of killing off pedophiles and other sex offenders.

Throughout their trial, both Jeremy and Christine appeared to be remorseful for their crimes…but it quickly became clear that they were faking remorse in an attempt to get sympathy from the jury. Both Jeremy and Christine pleaded guilty to all of the charges against them - two counts of murder, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, possessing a firearm while carrying out a violent crime. They attempted to appeal to the jury by blaming their crimes on a history of mental health issues, as well as each experiencing sexual abuse when they were younger. Their attorney was attempting to push for a sentence of only 30 years in prison, whereas the prosecution were aiming for life sentences.

Jeremy expressed his regret for what he had done, telling the court, “Not a day goes by that I don’t regret the incident that happened, and I know what I’ve done is a sin.” Christine went even further in her display of remorse, even reading passages directly from the Bible, and claiming, “I truly believe [that] God has forgiven Jeremy and I. I hope you do, too.”

Judge Lee Alford didn’t believe that Jeremy and Christine’s remorse was authentic. They might have been saying all the right things, but their behavior told a different story. While he handed them a life sentence each, he told them, “I saw you smiling at each other in court.”

As soon as they were both found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, their demeanor changed instantly, and they no longer showed any sign of remorse. While Jeremy was being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he addressed the courtroom, saying, “See you perverts later! That's what child molesters get.”

While Christine Moody was being led to the patrol car that would transport her to prison, she gave a short statement to the media, proudly saying, “I have no regrets. Killing that pedophile was the best day of my life.” She also claimed that she believed her bond with her husband would only get stronger with imprisonment, saying that they had “a love that [would] withstand” the length of time in jail. Her husband Jeremy shared the same sentiment, proudly stating, “Child molesters do not deserve to live. If I had to do it over again, I’d kill more.”

A reporter confronted Christine about her absence of remorse, asking whether she had been lying in court when she claimed that she regretted killing Charles. She didn’t make any effort to pretend otherwise, answering, “No, it’s not true.” and admitting that her lawyer had asked her to say those things to gain the jury’s sympathy. When she was asked a follow up question about whether she had anything she wanted to say to Charles’ family, she simply answered, “May they die also.” They were her last words to the media before the doors of the police car closed, and she was driven away.