A spiral of mistakes and odd behavior by Tex does not go unnoticed by investigators in the death of his wife, Diane. Binge all episodes of Deadly Fortune, ad-free today by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge Crimes on Apple Podcasts and hit ‘subscribe’ or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access. The Binge – feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened three days after Diane's death?
Three days after Diane McIver's death, the digital billboard on Corrie Tower displays the photo of Diane used in her obituary and is seen by the million-plus drivers that pass by every day. Her obituary reads in part... Diane McIver, a brilliant and inspiring force of nature, died on September 26, 2016. She is survived by her beloved husband and life partner, C.L.
Tex McIver, with whom she shared 16 happy years in Atlanta, at their Putnam County cattle ranch, and on the golf courses of Reynolds Lake Oconee. When not at work, they were always at each other's side. She epitomized love and loyalty in action and lived a life out loud. One of her many godchildren was 10-year-old Austin Schwall of Atlanta, who called her Mommy Di and whose wish was her command.
With encouragement from her, he has become a straight-A student and an all-star athlete. She regularly demonstrated her role in his life as an ardent fan, tutor, disciplinarian, and pushover. He loved her for it. Instead of an official funeral, she had a celebration of life ceremony held at the Corey Company's headquarters. Hundreds of people attended. I was asked to be the emcee.
Among the people in this room, I'm the least qualified person to hold this honor. I'm humbled, but Diane loved me. And I love Diane, but there's so many people here that she's known far longer, had so much life with. Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Corey.
Chapter 2: What was Tex McIver's behavior following Diane's death?
If she was putting this on for me, it would be the same group here. Now, I'm putting it on for her. See, anything happens to me in the next couple of years, you've already been to it. You're getting two for one.
Tex, her husband, was there. But something was off. It was thick and palpable. Bill Crane, longtime friend of Tex's, remembers that day.
I would say 10 seconds after I entered the Corey building and walked into that big room, there were beautiful photographs of Diane, blowups on the wall with Austin, with friends in that circle of friends we're talking about. Picture, picture, picture, picture, picture, picture. None of the pictures. I text him.
And I suddenly realized, because I'd heard about the conversation with Mr. Corey, but I suddenly realized within that circle of friends where he was.
He was a dead man walking in Billy Corey's eyes. As I acted as the event's MC, I saw an orchestrated dance keeping Tex from jumping onto the podium to speak about Diane. Billy simply did not want him to have the stage. The body language.
I mean, not just Mr. Corey. The whole room. I've never witnessed a leper coming out of a leper colony or a true pariah being shunned by a community and sent out or, you know, a scarlet letter being painted on, but it felt like that.
It wasn't spoken out loud that day, but there was a strong message sent to Tex.
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Chapter 3: Why did Tex hold an estate sale shortly after Diane's passing?
So he arrived late. He came, I believe, I cannot remember if Austin came with him, but they were visiting. And I walked over to him and I said, before you leave, I need to talk to you. And he said, oh, I need to talk to you too. And I said, well, we don't have to do it here. You've got a lot of people you need to see. No, let's do it now. So we go out of the big room.
He sits me down and he says, the law firm is all over me about client's reaction to the Black Lives Matter comment. And he said, essentially, I need you to fall on your sword and to contact these news outlets and to recant what you told them at the time. He never made eye contact with me when he's asking me to do the whole time he's got his head down, you know, that big table in there.
And I was very shocked that he was asking. But I said, Tex, can't do that. I won't do that. But even if I would and could, It's not gonna put the genie back in the bottle. I went back in there and I was just sort of just stunned. I was stunned that this man I've known since childhood is asking me to lie. These people clearly think he's the LG. What have I done?
From Sony Music Entertainment and Waveland Road, you're listening to Deadly Fortune. This is Episode 3, Hiding. Danny Jo Carter is struggling to come to grips with what just happened to Diane and wants answers from Tex.
At the time, I thought it was an accident, but I really didn't understand his behavior. It was very puzzling to me. I hadn't come to any conclusions except that I knew that I had this list of questions that I wanted to ask him, and I did two weeks to the day. on a Sunday at one of Austin's flag football games. I said, can I talk to you?
So we went over by ourselves, and I asked him why he was doing this with the clothes and the jewelry, because it was all in the works. He says, well, I'm just doing what my attorneys are telling me what to do.
It's December of 2016, just over two months after his wife's death. Tex McIver sets an estate sale on their 85-acre Eatonton Ranch. An ad from Peachtree Battle Estate Sales and Liquidations tells of a very unique collection of a prominent Buckhead socialite and CEO, comprising of over 2,000 designer couture items from Jimmy Choo, Prada, Chanel, and Valentino, to name a few.
The photos of the sale are like nothing you've ever seen. Rugs, chandeliers, sterling silver, purses, ski apparel, and of course, quote, hundreds of hats for every season. This was odd behavior for someone that had just lost his wife. Why was Tex doing this?
I had a mutual friend by the name of Mr. Jay Grover, who I worked with many years ago in the hospitality business. And that is how... Diane ended up with me.
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Chapter 4: What unusual things did Wendy notice about Diane's cremains?
Diane was with me in a simple box, and we just kind of waited. Then there was a lady who was the sister of another woman who lived in the same residential areas, Mr. McIver. And I guess things, conversations were had about monies not being exchanged. And this particular woman called me to ask me if the invoice had been paid. And I was honest and told her no.
And on the 22nd of October, she paid that bill with the understanding that I would never divulge who she was. And I explained to her that I would honor that promise as long as I could until or if in the event that there was an investigation in Fulton County came to me with the subpoena records and then I would have to divulge who she was. She understood that. So that bill was paid on the 22nd.
On the 1st of November, I got a letter from Mr. McIver that was dated the 28th day of October, post-Martin 31st, with a check and a handwritten letter stating that he had opened an estate account through a particular bank by the name of Brand Banking. He apologized for the delay, and a check was written for the amount of services incurred.
I then turned around on the 1st of November, same day, wrote a letter back to Mr. McIver explaining to him that the bill had been paid in full, I was returning his check, and that he of course at any time could come for the cremains. Mr. McIver could never come to an urn he wanted. And then I had referred him to a gentleman that makes custom urns.
maybe he could provide Mr. McIver with what he was looking for. And on the eighth day of November is when Mr. McIver came back to me and took the 10 keepsakes and the residual amount of cremains for Mrs. McIver in a simple box.
Tex had waited months to pick up Diane's cremains. Why?
I have had people abandon cremains. Over the years that I've done this, some just leave them indefinitely. Of course, we have to keep them. We notify them that they need to come and receive their loved ones into their care. I have, but not in a situation, I guess, like this. And I know that everybody grieves differently. Shock can do different things to people.
And just in my opinion, I don't think that... in a situation like that, that I could leave cremains that low. But then again, everybody is different.
Diane's most precious hats, clothes, and elegant furnishings were now gone from the estate sale held by Tex. And Wendy discovered that Diane's cremains were set in a cardboard box.
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Chapter 5: How did Wendy feel about the handling of Diane's cremains?
Chapter 6: What does the community think about Tex's actions?
This is Wendy Adson. She works at the crematory where Diane's body was brought.
I got the call probably, I want to say about 10 o'clock on the 27th. And from a lady who lived or worked with Diane. And she called and stated that they had had a death in the family and we had a mutual friend. She didn't tell me that that was Mr. Grover at the time. And so we kind of went over a couple of pieces of information that I needed, the name of the person who had passed.
And, of course, I never knew. I didn't know Diane. I knew of her. But she gave me the name Landa, Diane McIver, so I wasn't familiar. We started the paperwork exchange, if you will, the things that I needed. And then later on that morning is when I spoke to Mr. Jack Grover about it. And then I put the two together.
Wendy knew Jay Grover. He worked for Billy Corey. And of course, side by side with Diane.
Jay always called me Wendy girl. When he would call, he would say Wendy girl. And Jay was always a very happy man. And when he called, he didn't say Wendy girl. He just said, you know, good morning, Wendy. And I knew by the tone of his voice that something wasn't right. And then he expressed to me that Diane had passed.
And when he said it, I guess it was under the assumption that I knew exactly who she was. And I was like, I'm sorry, Dad, I don't know who you're referring to. And then he explained the Diane that worked at U.S. Enterprise with him and Mr. Corey. And then I was like, whew. And then we just established that dialogue of the things that would occur.
Wendy received Diane's corpse from the county and was pleasantly surprised by the obvious care that went into preparing Diane's body.
Because of the extensive nature of an autopsy, I had to do certain things to make sure that Diane was presentable. And when I began that, I was quite shocked at the Diane looked when she came back to me she was extremely presentable which is not the case most of the time when you come from a county after an autopsy and with that I was shocked and I made a phone call to Mr. Grover and I asked him
if after the county had performed their autopsy, if maybe there was an additional private autopsy performed. And he said no. And he asked why. And I replied with how she looked. She didn't look like anyone I had ever received from Fulton County. And when I say that, I'm not being disrespectful towards Fulton County, but it was not something that was a normal occurrence. She was quite presentable.
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Chapter 7: What key questions did Danny Jo have for Tex?
When I explained to him that the death benefit of social security, because I assumed that both he and Diane were of the higher income bracket. So when a spouse passes away, you can either draw your Social Security or theirs, whichever is the greater amount of money, but not both. And that seemed as though that was a little out of sorts for Mr. McIver. He didn't quite understand that.
And then we spoke of money, the charge for our services. And it was, in my opinion, a minimal amount of money in conjunction. But he asked if he had to pay the bill today. And then I inquired, asked to kind of, I don't understand, explain a little bit more. And he expressed to me that he wanted to wait until he opened an estate account to pay the bill that he didn't want to commingle funds.
Here's Danny Jo again.
I asked him where her cremains were because he'd made a huge deal out of her cremains and if he wanted some and making this special urn for hers for him to keep them. He didn't know that I knew that he had driven down there and talked to the woman at the crematorium and walked out and said, her estate will pay for that and left them there. And I knew that. So he lied to me.
He said the woman hadn't called him. And I knew that was a lie. It just... made me put a lot of emotional space that I didn't care. I did not want to be friends with him. If it was an accident, it was an accident, but his behavior was irreprehensible. I didn't want to have anything to do with him.
Diane was with me in a simple box, and we just kind of waited. Then there was a lady who was the sister of another woman who lived in the same residential areas, Mr. McIver. And I guess things, conversations were had about monies not being exchanged. And this particular woman called me to ask me if the invoice had been paid. And I was honest and told her no.
And on the 22nd of October, she paid that bill with the understanding that I would never divulge who she was. And I explained to her that I would honor that promise as long as I could until or if in the event that there was an investigation in Fulton County came to me with the subpoena records and then I would have to divulge who she was. She understood that. So that bill was paid on the 22nd.
On the 1st of November, I got a letter from Mr. McIver that was dated the 28th day of October, post-Martin 31st, with a check and a handwritten letter stating that he had opened an estate account through a particular bank by the name of Brand Banking. He apologized for the delay, and a check was written for the amount of services incurred.
I then turned around on the 1st of November, same day, wrote a letter back to Mr. McIver explaining to him that the bill had been paid in full, I was returning his check, and that he of course at any time could come for the cremains. Mr. McIver could never come to an urn he wanted. And then I had referred him to a gentleman that makes custom urns.
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