Accident or Murder?

On February 26,2001, Edward Lee Matthews of Parksley, Virginia was fatally shot in the head. Statements were taken from two witnesses, Betty Gale Matthews (the wife of the deceased) also from Parksley, Virginia, and Norman Carl Smith of Pungoteaque, Virginia.They both claim the gun had accidently fired when Mr. Matthews handed it to his wife Betty. Betty Matthews claims the gun slipped from her hands and accidently fired killing her husband instantly. If it was an accidental shooting how was Mr. Matthews shot right behind the ear if his wife was in front of him and he was handing her the gun? Betty had her husband's body cremated immediately. His ashes were never laid to rest anywhere or given to his blood related family. They were placed in the trunk of Betty's 1995 Delta 88 Oldsmobile, where they still remain. She hates his family and will not give them the closure they so need in laying their family member to rest in the family plot.She does not want them to have a grave where they can visit or put holiday flowers on Mr. Matthews grave. Was Mr. Matthews death an accident? No! I believe it was a planned thought out murder. There are witnesses to the fact where they seen the .22 rifle being taken apart and supposedly being fixed, 3 days before the death of Mr. Matthews. Betty and Norman made one mistake. They let someone see them working on the weapon that killed Mr. Matthews. Betty and her husband met Norman at the dump. The 3 of them became friends and would spend alot of time together. After a while Betty would come around alone, later I found out she and my Dad, Norman were involved, romantically. Norman moved to Pungoteaque to a cabin that was owned by Betty, left to her by her parents. betty would go there and meet Norman almost everyday. They took trips to New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina. Just Betty and Norman. Giving her husband a reason of she is driving him to visit family, or there's been a death in his family and he needs to go there. Mr. Matthews wasn't stupid, he knew something was going on. he even asked me if I knew anything, and at the time I didn't. She would tell stories of how for 30 years of her marriage, she was physically and mentally abused by her husband.So, let's look at this picture. A man in his 70's 5'5, 130 pounds, bad heart, bad arthritis. Betty is 5'10 300+ pounds, and has a nasty attitude. Never seen her with a mark on her, seen Mr. Matthews with bruiseon his face once and a cut on his chin.

Betty and Norman hid their relationship for quite a while. They wanted to be together, they said. Betty (and I heard her say this) told Norman that if she left her husband, she would lose millions of dollars and land. The only way she can have it all is if her husband crokes, as she put it.A while passed and Betty and her husband were invited to Norman's for a deermeat stew dinner. Later they say the gun was brought out to see why the trigger was so sticky. And one shot behind ear, Mr. Matthews lay dead on Norman's kitchen floor. Gun was sent to Richmond, Va for ballistic's testing. It showed it had a tricky trigger, of course it showed that. Norman was very good at building and working on guns. He built his own guns, crossbow's, bow and arrows. I know, cause I seen him do it when I was a child. Corriner, says, death by accidental shooting. As the month's went by Betty and Norman cleared of any misdoing, Betty and Norman were spending money left and right. She bought a 3 bdrm 2 bath mobile home brand new off the lot and had it put in Pungoteaque, had a new well dug, new septic system, satellite tv, brand new kitchen appliances, washer and dryer, and a new pick-up truck. Bought Norman a brand new tv, vcr, stereo, food every week, clothes, rented him movies every week, bought him his booze everyday, 100.00 worth of lottery tickets every day. Fishing poles, tackle, and a new set of dentures. They visited family in Virginia both highly intoxicated, and Betty would state, that bastard deserved to die, for what he put me through, and if I'd of known I couldn't of had kids, I would never of married him.Norman's children were told never to ask question's about what really happened to Mr. Matthews, because if they knew anything, Betty had the money and the power to make things happen. She could and would have something bad happen to anyone who tries to ruin her life. Money talks, we were told. Betty paid her way to becoming a free rich woman by having her husband murdered. An innocent man lost his life, because the woman he married over 30 years ago, was evil, cruel, greedy and a slut.A sentence in her statement says: I am not good with guns, I am actually afraid of them, and can't shoot a target 5 feet wide. Well, I found a journal she was writing in, at the house we were living in that belonged to her husband. One of the pages tells a story of how the birds were attacking her cats while they were outside, so she sat at her kitchen window with her small hand gun and would shoot the birds right out of the tree before they attacked her cats. Showed the detective that page, he said it was not submisible in court. You mean she paid him off, like she did anyone else. Told the detectives she loved her husband dearly. Hmmm, found a few pages where she wrote she was meeting men at a certain spot, riding her bike to meet them and they take her to a cemetary in Onancock, Va where she would have sex with them. Detective again, that is not submisible in court. So, a murder was commited, evidence was tampered and corriner says accidental death. Betty in front of her husband when he handed her the gun, but yet he is shot behind the ear. She moves to Pungoteaque, spends thousands and thousands of dollars, and all this because Mr. Matthews death was accidental?

Will there ever be justice in this case? Will his family ever be allowed to feel some sort of closure, and allowed to burry their brother's ashes in a proper grave? Did she pay off the one's investigating the shooting? Only God know's.