Who was he!? I had seen the Joe and Mattie Harvey segment before (on Lifetime reruns with Stack as the host) and had never seen the portion involving the bearded man in a truck that was seen following Cheryl after she had fled. I was shocked when watching a rerun on my DVR (Farina) when they had that added tidbit. I was just curious what others thoughts were on who this guy was. Was he involved in the crime? Was he the actual killer?

Another question I have is who do people believe to be the true "mastermind" behind the murders? Cheryl or Eddie Wooten? I personally think Cheryl manipulated Eddie into killing her uncle and aunt for whatever sick reasons she had. Eddie was the one who confessed to police while Cheryl went on the run. Had she stayed and talked about helping take part in covering up the crime, I think she would have been seen in a more sympathetic light. But she fled. Perhaps she owed the bearded man money and this was the motive.

I think I remember reading something--and I don't say this uncharitably; it's just what I read--about Eddie having either an IQ on the low side or a disability of some sort, and that was used to argue against his being the mastermind behind the murders. In fact I may have read it in a court document. I'll have to check later.

There was a mention of a bearded stranger on the original NBC version of this segment. I think they were trying to make us wonder if Cheryl met with foul play but since she ended up being one of the murderers and fleeing they edited it out. I haven't seen it in a while so don't remember much but there's an old thread I posted about it.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=244263

I just noticed this bearded guy looks like a cross between Tony Alamo and John Yount (how he looked when they recaptured him). :lol:

I wonder why the bearded man was edited out of the Lifetime reruns. I think this may have been the guy whom Cheryl had a debt to.

Lifetime replayed this segment recently, and they did include the bearded guy. They didn't show a composite sketch of him, but he was part of the story. Cheryl stopped at a gas station to fill up, but left when she saw the guy. A little while later, she was seen sitting in a truck w/ a guy who matched the same description. They also said that Cheryl was seen writing this guy a check at her work the day before she disappeared. Maybe they edited him out of some versions of the segment, but not others?!

I wonder why the bearded man was edited out of the Lifetime reruns. I think this may have been the guy whom Cheryl had a debt to.

It might've been but it also could have been something that is not at all remotely relevant to the case. Remember at times UM had the slightly annoying habit of throwing a great deal of information at the wall, hoping something would stick. One way of looking at this is that they were trying to give their audience as much information as possible in hopes of solving the case but sometimes the excess information did little except to cloud matters even further.

The fact that the "bearded man" aspect of this case vanished from the initial "Lifetime" syndications is telling. To me it speaks of the notion that this lead was either investigated by the authorities and proven not relevant to the case or possibly was something that was in the realm of fabrication to begin with. Either way it seems once the authorities had Holland in custody, all attempts to locate anyone else connected with the crime, whether they were actually accomplices in the murder of Joe and Mattie Harvey or not...ceased.

That is why, even in the Farina syndications, which often haphazardly edit together the segments resulting in a far more slapdash presentation than either the original broadcasts or initial syndications, the composite sketch wasn't broadcast. It is a virtual lock that the authorities are no longer looking for this "bearded man" and I would go so far as to say it's possible, even probable that this man was identified at some point and was not deemed to have any significant involvement in the murder of Joe and Mattie Harvey.

PS: In my opinion Cheryl Holland masterminded the entire plot as sad as that sounds.

They definitely flashed the composite of the bearded man on the Farina rerun. They had a picture of Cheryl right nex to the composite sketch right after showing the scene at the gas station. Which makes me think there was something to this. Maybe not a guy involved in the murders, but they probably wanted to find the guy to see if he knew where Cheryl was.