Melody Farris
Gary Farris, the group leader of Burr & Forman’s lending practice group, was killed in 2018. According to investigators, Farris was shot and then his body burned. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab recently completed their autopsy report, and while the badly burned body created challenges for the medical investigators, law enforcement has arrested a suspect. Farris’s wife, Melody Farris, has been charged with malice murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and concealing the death of another.
As reported by Law.com, investigators believe the killing was the result of marital issues:
[Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay] Baker said Melody Farris was charged after sheriff’s investigators “recovered evidence indicating Ms. Farris shot and killed her husband inside their home and then tried to dispose of his body and evidence by burning it on their… property.”
He said that at the time, “It appears that the Farrises had been having some marital issues. … Basically we believe it culminated in a homicide.”
Melody Farris was arrested on Tuesday night in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and was extradited to Georgia. Though she has not yet entered her plea, according to one of her attorneys, Manny Arora, she maintains her innocence. However, according to a statement by one of the couple’s children, Chris Farris, to the Atlanta Constitution Journal, most of the children do not support their mother:
“Our father was the best person in the world,” Chris Farris said late Thursday. He disputed a claim by one of his mother’s attorneys that Melody Farris’ family was standing behind her. “We are shaken.”
“This is very embarrassing for our family,” he continued.
Melody Farris will be making her first appearance before Cherokee County Magistrate Court Chief Judge James Drane later today.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).