Larry Fenton

Larry Fenton

by Chilling Crimes June 18, 2020 18 Comments

“You’re either the victim of an extraordinary miscarriage of justice, in which case your incarceration here for the rest of your life is unspeakably unfair, or you’re a cold, calculating murderess, and the best liar I’ve ever met in my life.”

-Piers Morgan 

It was the 3rd of February 2008. Super Bowl Sunday.  Larry Fenton, like a lot of others, loved that day every year. He had the entire day planned out which mainly involved watching sport, Tiger Woods playing golf in particular, and then he planned to take a nap before ordering a pizza for 6pm and settling in to watch the Super Bowl at his home in Clearwater, Florida, United States. 

 

Rebecca and Larry Fenton

Larry lived in the house with his wife of three years Rebecca Fenton. They met at a gym and after a whirlwind three month romance, they got engaged and married within a year. They seemed happy and very much in love and kept to themselves. Rebecca said that Larry didn't socialise much after they married. Her own life changed dramatically too. She worked as a nursing assistant prior to the marriage and enjoyed being out and about, travelling and going to different places. 

When she became Larry's wife, she gave up her job and became a stay at home wife. Larry was a millionaire, he made his money selling surgical equipment and due to his financial status, Rebecca no longer needed to work. 

Larry and Rebecca Fenton

That day, the 3rd of February, Rebecca said that she went to the gym. It was a home gym in a separate building on their land. Rebecca claimed that she was there for around two hours. When she was at the gym she heard what she thought sounded like something falling off the roof. But she continued working out and heard little else as she had music on. When her workout finished, Rebecca made her way back to the main house. Immediately upon entering the house, Rebecca saw Larry on the ground. He was in the foyer at the foot of the stairs in a pool of blood. 

Rebecca noticed there had been some sort of disturbance in the house. Cabinets and drawers had been emptied and there was stuff everywhere. According to Rebecca, she took Larry's pulse. She thought he was alive as his eyes were open. Rebecca went upstairs and the same scene as downstairs greeted her. All their belongings had just been thrown across the floor. Rebecca went back downstairs and took Larry's pulse again. She then went outside and called 911. 

When police arrived, they found Larry at the foot of the stairs. He was dead. He had been shot four times, in the back, arm and neck at point blank range. Police initially believed it was a robbery. That's how the crime scene looked. Larry's Jeep was missing from the driveway. But when they investigated further they were perplexed as to why nothing else of any value was missing. The money Larry had in his wallet was still there. 

Clearwater, Florida, United States

Rebecca told police that she was in their home gym when it happened and returned to the house sometime between 4.30pm and 5pm. Rebecca's account of taking Larry's pulse twice didn't make sense to them. There was no blood on her whatsoever and the blood around Larry's body had not been disturbed at all. It looked as if he was still in the position he was in when he fell to the ground. He had not been moved.

There were a number of other factors that disturbed police about Rebecca's actions and demeanour. Firstly, they were concerned about the initial delay in calling 911. Rebecca looked around the house before making the call. The lack of blood on her was troubling too but what really caused alarm was the fact that Rebecca was smiling and joking with the police outside her house. 

But, putting gut feelings and suspicions aside, there was nothing at that point that suggested she was involved that would require the police to make an arrest. There was no murder weapon in the house and there was no gun residue found on Rebecca. 

Police later found the murder weapon just outside the house. In fact, it was inside Rebecca's car which was parked on the driveway. Under the passenger seat they found Larry's gun wrapped in a plastic bag. Larry's gun was kept in a drawer in the house before the murder. That gun was the one used to kill Larry. It had five spent casings and one empty chamber. The box of bullets in their bedroom was missing five bullets. They matched the bullets that killed Larry. They also found Larry's jewellery, a key to the gun case and the keys for his Jeep. No fingerprints were found on the gun. 

Two days after Larry's murder, police found his Jeep Cherokee. It was just a block away from the house. In the Jeep, they found Larry's laptop which added to their suspicions that he was not murdered during a robbery. So if there was no robbery, then why was Larry murdered? Did he have any enemies?

The police asked Rebecca that very question. Was there anybody who disliked Larry enough to want him dead. She told them there was not. 

Police believed that even though it appeared highly likely Rebecca killed Larry, they did not have enough to guarantee a conviction. All the evidence was circumstantial. Unidentified fingerprints and footprints were found at the scene and they wondered if there was a third party involved.

Larry and Rebecca Fenton

Throughout the course of the investigation, police looked into a number of leads and also, into Larry and Rebecca's marriage. The seemingly perfect and fairytale marriage. Police discovered that Rebecca's marriage was not as perfect as she liked to make out. She was bored in her marriage and had developed feelings for a man called David. He was a chef at a local restaurant. They had a secret meeting place in a hotel but both denied being intimately involved although Rebecca did admit that she found him attractive. Police discovered that Rebecca once worked as a high priced call girl. She claimed that Larry knew that she had been an escort before they married.  

Investigators thought that the motive may have been money. There was a Life Insurance Policy that would give Rebecca half a million dollars if Larry died. She would also get his estate. If they divorced, she wouldn't get that much due to the prenuptial agreement she signed.

Rebecca Fenton

But despite all the circumstantial evidence and the possible motive, police believed they still needed more. They wanted a confession or a witness statement. The case went cold.

A couple of years later, Larry and Rebecca's house was burned to the ground. Arson investigators found evidence of fire accelerants. That brought Larry's murder back into the spotlight and a cold case unit started looking into the murder again. A man called Alfred Nolen who was dating Rebecca provided the witness statement they had been waiting for. He told police that when they were fighting, she held a knife to his throat and said:

"I'll kill you like I killed Larry."

Rebecca denied saying this. She said that Afred was trying to get a plea deal as she had reported him to police for a domestic violence incident.  

Six years after Larry's murder, Rebecca was arrested and charged with first degree murder. 

Rebecca Fenton

The Jury deliberated for two hours and found Rebecca guilty of first degree murder and she was sentenced to life in prison with no parole. 

 Rebecca maintains she is innocent. Piers Morgan met her in prison for his TV show Killer Women with Piers Morgan and she told him:

“I was very much in love with my husband. I had a lifestyle that was very grand. It would not have done me any good to hurt him. I’m not spiritually capable of hurting anybody. I did not do this.”

In all circumstantial cases, there is always a question mark as to whether the person convicted is truly guilty or not. That's because a conviction always seems more solid if there are eye witnesses, confessions, DNA evidence and so on in the Trial. But without circumstantial cases, there is no doubt that many many guilty people would be free. They would not only evade justice but they would be in a position to harm others. The only thing that can be done in such cases is for the Jury to look at all the evidence and the totality of the entire case. That's what they did in this particular case and they found Rebecca guilty.

Do you believe she is innocent or guilty?




Chilling Crimes
Chilling Crimes

Author



18 Responses

Tammy
Tammy

January 18, 2022

I do believe that she had everything to do with the murder of her husband, but she did not pull the trigger….I don’t see how you could shoot someone point blank and have no evidence of gunshot residue or blood on her anywhere?? What about the guy she met at AA? Was he looked into? Also how could the gun have been totally clean of any prints, blood…etc. I believe she planned it, I believe she is the one who ramsacked the home, but she didn’t pull the trigger! Were the footprints ever compared to anyone??

Bill Hudson
Bill Hudson

October 28, 2021

100% guilty

Great actress though

JD Bennett
JD Bennett

July 26, 2021

Guilty as sin, as my dear departed mother used to say.
What an evil, ugly, woman

Danyel
Danyel

June 20, 2021

I think she’s innocent. those neighbors heard the shots but never saw her stash the gun or drive the car away a block supposedly. The shitty boyfriend who said she confessed had every motive to saw that and nothing to lose. No residue, no evidence she was unhappy in her marriage except from her biological mother who I find very uncredible. She seems genuinely upset in every instance along the way. She literally lost everything when she lost him. Only thing that’s suspect is how she’s doing so well in prison after all this. I would probably try to kill myself.

Penny
Penny

June 10, 2021

100% guilty
Skilled narcissistic liar, but not good enough. Uses words like ‘domestic obscurity’ ‘tried to get aid’. Admits to trying to take his pulse, twice but not one drop of blood on here. The 911 call was all about her and did not sound like a woman who had just found her husband murdered. She went all through the house before calling Police; if, as she claims, it wasn’t her then a perpetrator could still be on the property. First thing you do is call Police. Police photos of her appears to show freshly washed fluffy hair, not someone who has just had a workout, in Florida. The gun was wiped clean in a bag with the key to the gun safe under the passenger seat in her car, presumably for her to get rid of later. Some of the words she uses are just bizarre ‘’the house has been ransacked’‘. I think she did some ’staging’ first but very little.
Such strange answers to Piers questions. My instincts are she is a practiced liar but not a great one. Oh and she definitely burnt down her house. If she couldn’t gain anything from it then it was either to wipe out any further potential evidence or ‘if I can’t have it, then noone can’t.

S
S

May 20, 2021

I would recommend you all watch The Behavior Panel’s analysis of Rebecca Fenton. (on youtube). It’s very interesting.

Michael
Michael

May 09, 2021

I don’t know of she did it or not, most likely she hired someone to do it. However, without concrete evidence I do not think she should be in prison. They found no gunshot residue on her or her clothing, she passed multiple polygraph exams, her fingerprints were not found on the murder weapon, etc. They used a statement made by a jilted lover who she had pending domestic violence charges to put a confession in her mouth. Circumstantial evidence can be manipulated to paint whatever picture the police and prosecutors want you to see.

Jack Lavallee
Jack Lavallee

March 22, 2021

She seems so conceded, talks only of her self, tries to use big words, she’s a women of Wall Street journal and some other news print ?? What is this, she reads a newspaper and figures she’s now high class lol, what a joke she is, she answered piers other question saying she never asked for much just a new house, new car, new clothes, the shopping , the spa, the hair, the pampered etc, lol,, not much eh, she gets all this and now wanted it all to keep coming her way but didn’t want Larry anymore, so she got someone to kill Larry, it’s obvious she gave the gun to her friend, this is why she went inside the house, then went into the garage and turn the music up, there has to be gun shot residue in that house, but her buddy who did the killing left with the residue on him or her, I don’t agree with piers, she is not a good lier, she’s definitely guilty,

Karen
Karen

March 17, 2021

I believe that she is guilty. She married him because he was wealthy and she wasn’t, but probably didn’t want to be an escort anymore but was used to having money, after being a high-priced one. After getting bored with him, she had him killed or killed him herself, They said the life insurance didn’t pay so that’s when she set her house on fire to collect on insurance on that. So glad she didn’t get away with it…

Savvy
Savvy

March 03, 2021

She had someone shoot him, 100%

Jack
Jack

February 25, 2021

Why was Larry’s vehicle just up the block? Who moved it? She had to have someone else involved in this murder, the gun was found in her car, in a bag, the killer obviously new where the garage bags were in the house, where the vehicle keys were and who vehicles they belong too, she was mad at the bank going to take over the house so she burned it, this way nobody will have the house 🏡 if she can’t have it, she is guilty, but guilt with another person, ???,

Andy williams
Andy williams

February 14, 2021

Give this egotistical nutcase an Oscar,,,regards from the U.K

Nicole Wotherspoon
Nicole Wotherspoon

December 28, 2020

Without real physical evidence she should bit have been arrested and imprisoned, I’m not sure what I think about if she done it or not but I do not agree either way with her being imprisoned without real physical evidence

Hazel Treanor
Hazel Treanor

December 15, 2020

I think there’s a possibility that she hired someone to kill Larry. She knew Larry would be home (Super bowl Sunday) and she could disappear off to their gym. It would explain the lack of gun shot residue on her, the passed polygraphs and the footprints and fingerprints that were never identified. Just a thought.

JAP
JAP

November 28, 2020

I think without real evidence, she shouldn’t be in the prison like this. Is she in prison just due a hearsay ? That is travesty of justice. By they way, why so many murders in Florida and Texas (gun ?)

Erica Massa
Erica Massa

November 09, 2020

She was never proven guilty with direct proof therefore she should be set free
Not guilty

Jen
Jen

August 27, 2020

We just watched Killer Women with Piers Morgan. She is a very good actress.

Darlene DeSario
Darlene DeSario

August 10, 2020

So said. Prayers for her soul and for her mother as she is also in need of some help. She didn’t want to go back to selling her body at her age so she killed him thinking she would get away with it. He had figured out who she really was and didn’t like what he seen, thought he could change her. Paid with his life…

Leave a comment

The comments below have not been moderated


Also in True Crime Stories

Matthew Eappen
Matthew Eappen

by Chilling Crimes February 04, 2022

"The criminal justice system will take a hard look at what happened to Matthew Eappen. It is up to the rest of us to take an even harder look at who is minding our children."

- Eileen McNamara, the Boston Globe

Read More

Donnah Winger
Donnah Winger

by Chilling Crimes January 25, 2022

"The effects of abuse are devastating and far reaching. Domestic violence speaks many languages, has many colors and lives in many different communities."

- Sandra Pupatello

Read More

Sierah Joughin
Sierah Joughin

by Chilling Crimes January 17, 2022 1 Comment

 "My family and myself are good, decent and very honest people."

James Worley

Read More

Join Our Community

Check out our new Book Club!