Tiesh Rhue

Snapped: Women Who Murder

In coastal South Carolina, the sudden disappearance of Leon 'J.R.' Harrison Jr. unravels a complex web of love, betrayal, and family loyalty. Once a devoted father to two children with

Key takeaways

• Taish Rue allegedly lured J.R. over under false pretenses, leading to a fatal confrontation driven more by jealousy and control than love.

Main topics

• Domestic violence
• Love triangle

Notable quotes

"Blood is thicker than water. If they were going down, they were going down together."

Conclusion

Taish Rue and her brother Alex Jr. were convicted of murder and obstruction of justice, receiving 45-year prison

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:03) A devoted family Speaker 3 (0:05) man suddenly disappears. He promised to come get the kids, and he never came. Speaker 5 (0:12) She Speaker 3 (0:13) contacted his family, Speaker 5 (0:15) his friends. She was actively trying to find him. Speaker 4 (0:20) A search reveals evidence of a violent crime scene. Speaker 7 (0:27) There was blood on the floor, blood Speaker 1 (0:30) on the walls. The amount of blood that we found in that room, I don't know how anybody could have walked out of there like that. At this point, it went from a missing person to, okay, we need to find his body. Speaker 4 (0:44) Detectives questioned both his wife and his girlfriend. They Speaker 5 (0:49) do not like each other. They have clashed in the past. You Speaker 2 (0:54) really thought he was on top of the motherfucking world? Speaker 8 (1:01) But Speaker 4 (1:02) the investigation reveals a more tangled web of lies and a family who'd do anything for each other. Speaker 8 (1:14) Blood Speaker 5 (1:15) is thicker than water. If they were going down, they were going down together. Speaker 4 (1:33) Georgetown, South Carolina, is a small town where everyone seems to know each other's business. But on March 9th, 2017, one resident somehow disappears without a trace. Speaker 5 (1:50) Brittany Green came in to the Georgetown County Police Department to report a missing person. This man is Leon Harrison Jr., J.R. as everybody called him. Speaker 7 (2:02) Brittany Green had dated J.R. They were both in each other's past, but they had two children together. Speaker 4 (2:12) She says the last time she spoke to J.R. was on February 25th, nearly two weeks ago. I told the detective that he Speaker 3 (2:23) promised to come get the kids, and he never came. He didn't reach out and say why. He was very, very concerned because we know that wasn't like him. Speaker 3 (2:35) She called J.R. Speaker 5 (2:37) multiple times. She contacted his family, his friends. She was actively trying to find him through the Speaker 4 (2:47) community. However, no one close to J.R. has seen or heard from him in the last two weeks either. The detective did ask Speaker 3 (2:57) why we took so long to come to the police about him. I told them because JR lost his phone one point in time and it took him like a couple of days to come to the house to let us know. I just thought that that could have been the case or he got caught up with words. But as the days went by, we knew something had to go wrong. That's when we really started to get worried. Speaker 4 (3:36) Leon J.R. Harrison was born and raised in Georgetown, South Carolina. His early life was shaped by tragedy. J.R. lost his mom Speaker 3 (3:47) at an early age, and he lived with his father. He has, like, three brothers and a sister, and J.R. was close to all of his siblings. Speaker 3 (4:00) Most people would describe JR as jokey. He got a funny, big personality. Speaker 4 (4:10) After high school, JR enlisted in the military. He did about three years Speaker 3 (4:17) in Korea, and then he did a year in Iraq. Speaker 4 (4:21) Between deployments, JR spent time with his family in Georgetown. On one of those visits, he met a young woman named Brittany Green. Speaker 3 (4:32) JR and I met through his cousin. His cousin told me that JR had a crush on me and told JR that I had a crush on him. What attracted me to JR is his smile, his personality, the way that he loved all his loved ones. Speaker 4 (4:54) The Army sent JR back to Korea, but his heart stayed in South Carolina. When his four years of service were complete, he and Brittany picked up right where they left off. Speaker 3 (5:07) When he came home, that's when we got serious. It was the year 2005, and I found out that I was pregnant. And he was excited, and he was ready to be a father and build Speaker 4 (5:22) a family. Speaker 4 (5:25) After the birth of their son, they moved in together. Within the year, Brittany was pregnant with their second child. Speaker 3 (5:34) He always said he wanted a boy first and then his girl, and that's what we got, so he was happy about that. Speaker 4 (5:43) In 2012, after 11 years together, J.R. decided to propose. But he didn't get the answer he was hoping for. I Speaker 3 (5:56) still felt like I was too young to be married. Speaker 3 (6:02) He said, okay, we ain't got time, but we separated because I stepped out on him. And then he found out. I knew he was heartbroken, but he just said that we just had to go our separate ways and that he would still be there for me and the kids. Speaker 7 (6:25) He remained a good friend to Brittany and a better father to the kids. Speaker 4 (6:36) By 2013, J.R. was looking for love again. Speaker 4 (6:42) He found it in 29-year-old Taish Rue, a single mother of five working as a security guard at the Georgetown Steel Mill. Like J.R., she wanted someone to build a life with, and within a year, they married. J.R. was definitely Speaker 3 (6:59) a family man. That's what he wanted, marriage and stuff like that. So he was happy with his life at the moment. Speaker 4 (7:08) Over the next three years, JR did his best to balance the responsibilities of two families. Speaker 3 (7:16) During that time, he was more so just focused on his kids and not really being friends with me because he was married. She didn't want a friendship with us. It was kind of like, I'm going to respect my wife and just it's going to be about the kids. Speaker 4 (7:32) That devotion to his children is why loved ones are so troubled by his disappearance. I really Speaker 3 (7:39) had to like talk to my kids every day and just pray with them and give them hope. Maybe he's, like, out of town, you know, on a job or something. Speaker 7 (7:54) It's been 12 full days since the last time anyone has seen or talked with J.R. So that has got to have a real doom-like effect on anyone that's looking. Speaker 4 (8:08) As a part of the missing persons report, Brittany provides detectives with every detail she can think of. Brittany starts Speaker 5 (8:17) talking about JR's identifiable markings on his body, and one in particular is going to be a tattoo on his forearm that is a remembrance to his mother. Speaker 1 (8:30) We asked, is he currently married? Is he seeing anybody? And she did tell us that he was married to Ty'Eash Rue. We looked up her information. She was actually at work as a security guard at the steel mill. Speaker 4 (8:45) Police immediately contact Taish to see if she knows where J.R. is. She says, I've Speaker 7 (8:52) been out of town. I had to go pick up my kids in D.C. She did add that she was concerned about not hearing from J.R. She said that she did reach out to J.R. several times by calls and text, but to no avail. Speaker 4 (9:11) Taish comes in after her work shift for a formal interview. She says she hasn't heard from J.R. since she left town 17 days ago. Speaker 6 (9:27) According Speaker 2 (9:28) to Speaker 4 (9:34) her, they'd agreed to have an open marriage. But she recently caught him breaking the rules