Peter Van Sant of ‘48 Hours’ digs into Atlanta burn pile murder via podcast

Last year, CBS’s “48 Hours” and NBC’s “Dateline” each spent an hour exploring the murder of an Atlanta commercial real estate attorney whose body was placed on a burn pile at his 10-acre Cherokee County farm.

This month, “48 Hours” correspondent and former Atlantan Peter Van Sant turns the case into a six-episode true-crime podcast dubbed “Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel.” The first episode is out now on all major podcast platforms.

The key component of the podcast is Van Sant’s exclusive 2024 interview with Melody Farris, the wife of Gary “Big Daddy” Farris, after she was convicted of murdering him and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“This is among the top three cases I’ve ever covered for ‘48,’” Van Sant told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a recent interview. “It has just about everything you can imagine.”

Van Sant said the Farris family was wealthy and “had every reason to be living happy lives, but that was not the case. This family was filled with jealousy and competition. The mom and son, Scott, had a genuine hatred toward each other. There was infidelity and betrayal. The detectives couldn’t believe what they were dealing with.”

The podcast opens in July 2018. Gary Farris had been missing for two days. His son suspected Gary was still on their property because Gary’s car was in the driveway.

Scott came across a smoldering burn pile and saw bones. He immediately called 911. Was it an accident? The detectives soon found a 38 caliber bullet in the rib cage of a man they later identified as Gary. This was a murder.

Gary, who was nicknamed “Big Daddy” because of his gregarious nature and big frame, was generous to his four children. Scott, his younger son, worked on the family farm, which included goats and horses. Melody, Gary’s stay-at-home wife, was also dependent on him for money but was also cheating on him.

The podcast details the tensions among family members.

“Accusations,” Van Sant said in the first episode of the podcast, “went round and round like a sinister Ferris wheel.”

Blood DNA in the house and Melody’s confession to the man she was seeing on the side ultimately led investigators to accuse her of murder. During the trial, they laid out a largely circumstantial case, which lacked a murder weapon.

“Some thought she might be acquitted because the prosecutors could never explain to the jury how a 130-pound woman managed to get a 300-pound man from the house to the burn pile 50 yards away with no evidence of tracks or drag marks in the dirt,” Van Sant said.

Three of her four children testified against their mother during the trial. Only one believed her innocence.

Peter Van Sant (right), host of the "Blood is Thicker" podcast, interviews Melody Farris after she was convicted of murdering her husband, Gary "Big Daddy" Farris. (Courtesy of NBC)

Van Sant was able to procure an hour interview with Melody right after the trial was over. He said she was eager to talk in part because her attorneys did not put her on the stand.

By the time Van Sant spoke to Melody, “she was chomping on the bit. … I have found over the years, most people accused of murder want to talk to the press. Some of them have sociopathic tendencies and believe they are the smartest people in the room and can convince anyone they are innocent.”

Ultimately, he said, she “reveals her soul. She reveals her value system. She’s tough as nails.”

Van Sant also interviewed Scott, the son her defense attorneys raised as an alternative suspect during the trial. In dramatic fashion in court during sentencing, instead of seeking mercy, she specifically fingered Scott as the murderer.

“Getting to hear both their stories and grilling them along the way makes for a compelling story,” Van Sant said.

Van Sant, who grew up in Seattle, worked in Atlanta as a CBS News correspondent for more than five years in the 1980s and won an Emmy in 1986 for an investigative report on medical helicopter crashes.

He now comes to Atlanta to visit his son, Eric, who works as an executive producer for the morning show at Atlanta News First (WANF-TV).

“I lived in Marietta so, of course, all directions began with the Big Chicken, no matter where you were going,” Van Sant said. “I still love the Varsity and the Georgia Tech basketball team. Back in the ‘80s, you could drive to Marietta to the airport during the day with no traffic. I know you can’t do that now!”

After his stint in Atlanta, Van Sant spent two years working for CBS in London, then came to New York, working on multiple CBS news shows before landing at “48 Hours” in 1998. The newsmagazine, which originally covered all news topics, morphed into exclusively true crime by the mid-2000s.

Van Sant, now 73 and still working with “48 Hours,” expanded into the podcast world in 2024 with the “Blood is Thicker” series. The first season, about a murder of millionaire Pam Hargan and her youngest daughter, Helen, was a big hit, briefly topping the Apple podcast charts, he said.