York County 911… What’s your emergency?
In late November 2001, a 911 call was made from the Cope residence in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The caller stated that his daughter was “cold as a cucumber.” That caller was later identified as Billy Wayne Cope, who called after finding his daughter, Amanda, deceased in her bed. No one was prepared to see the horror that lurked within the four walls of their Rich Street address, they shared. Cope’s wife worked a 3rd-shift cleaning job at the time to make ends meet, while Billy worked part-time delivering food. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time the couple had a run-in with the law. According to an NBC News article dated July 9, 2010, Billy and his wife pleaded guilty to neglecting the proper care of their children just two years before. The mobile home the family shared was so filthy that an undisclosed person reported them to Social Services, and the girls were put into foster care. Billy and his wife had to attend counseling sessions and clean the home before the girls were returned.
Things were beginning to look up for the family; the girls were returned to their care, and they found a new home, even though it was still in a bad neighborhood. Billy had earned a degree in computer electronics and seemed to be thinking of becoming a preacher. The family appeared happy, according to those close to them, but that would soon change.
When investigators arrived at the Cope home that morning in 2001, they checked the windows and doors but found no sign of forced entry. Billy had reportedly been at the house with the girls alone all night. Billy even stated that when he woke around 3 a.m., he found the lights on, which was odd because all the lights were turned off when they went to bed around 1 a.m.
Soon after the crime, the two remaining girls were put back into foster care while Billy was looking at the possibility of serving life behind bars or even the death penalty.
Cope would still keep in touch with his remaining daughters through phone calls while incarcerated:
BILLY WAYNE COPE: Are you okay, Jessica?
JESSICA COPE: Yes, sir.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I love you.
JESSICA COPE: I love you, too.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: We’re gonna get through this, okay?
JESSICA COPE: Yes, sir.
Roughly a year later, Cope’s new attorney received a call from the prosecutor’s office requesting a meeting. During this meeting, it was revealed that DNA was found on Amanda’s body, but it didn’t belong to Billy Wayne Cope. DNA is often compared to the holy grail of evidence. It was first used in South Carolina in 1991, when Ken Register of Conway was convicted of the brutal murder of Crystal Faye Todd.
It was discovered that the DNA belonged to a man who just happened to be in the same jail as Cope. But Cope remained a prisoner even after the findings were released. After all, he did confess not once but four times to the crime.
The authorities recorded three hours of interrogation of Billy Wayne Cope.
POLICE: Somebody killed Amanda last night in your house. You were the only one in the house.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: Honest to God, I cannot believe that.
POLICE: Why can’t you believe it?
BILLY WAYNE COPE: ‘Cause I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t hear anything.
Cope told authorities about his sleep disorders and his use of a C-PAP machine, but they didn’t seem to buy it.
POLICE: Billy, you can stick to this till hell freezes over.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I’m tellin’ you the truth, sir, I will not change my story because I’m tellin’ you the truth. As God is my witness, I did not harm my child in any way.
God? The officers seemed to know about Billy’s faith. They used it to try to trigger an admission.
POLICE: You’ll burn in hell for lying, you will, for killing your daughter
BILLY WAYNE COPE: Yes sir.
POLICE: Is that not true?
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I am not lying to you. If all this was going on, how come my other two daughters were laying in bed beside her and didn’t hear anything?
The officers assured Cope they had all the evidence they needed.
POLICE: There’s no forced entry into your house.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I’m telling you the truth, sir.
POLICE: There’s no signs of anybody coming in any of the windows.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I’m telling you the truth, sir.
At this time, the DNA results were not known, but officers told Cope that when those results became available, they would convict him in the case.
Billy kept pleading his innocence, even asking for a polygraph test. The next morning, he was strapped in, but failed it. After the test, Cope confessed, thinking that he was responsible for the death of his daughter. It’s even more strange that he would write a detailed confession. Again, that question depends on how it was asked.
The exact question asked that day was: “Why don’t you tell us what you think you might have done if you did do it?”
This would be the first of his four confessions.
Authorities escorted Cope back to his house for a videotaped reenactment of the crime. But it seemed that Billy snapped back to his original plea that he was innocent.
According to the same NBC News article:
KEITH MORRISON: Here you are in your daughter’s room.
BILLY WAYNE COPE: I was tryin’ to confuse ’em.
KEITH MORRISON: Why would you confuse ’em?
BILLY WAYNE COPE: Because I knew I didn’t do it, and I figure – with my ignorance of the law – I didn’t think a confession carried the weight unless they could prove it.
But he was wrong.
It should be added that the multiple confessions that Cope gave to the police never matched, and not once had he ever mentioned the name of the person whose DNA was found at the scene.
As soon as Billy Wayne Cope was arrested for the crime and the events that followed, it seemed that something was off in this case. Cope was appointed a public defender, who was told that he couldn’t see his client when he showed up at the jailhouse. Sadly, it wouldn’t be until Cope gave his final written confession that his attorney was allowed to see him.
At first, B.J. Barrowclough represented Cope. One of the first questions asked between the two was: “Why did you sign this?”
And Cope’s response was, They told me I would get the death penalty if I didn’t sign it. Now, Phil Baity and Jim Morton, Barrowclough’s successors, represented Billy Wayne Cope, and they were about to find out about other similar crimes that occurred in the Copes’ neighborhood, and more about James Sanders…