The Collins murder case is based off an event that happened on Saturday April 15th, 2006 in the town of Gulfport, Mississippi. On this day Mr. Jacob Collins and his wife, Maria Collins, were found murdered in their Mississippi home. His cousin, Simon Collins, and his wife, Caroline, was arrested on Tuesday May 16th, 2006. They were tried on Monday May 22nd, 2006 and was given their sentences. Simon was only given a fifteen year sentence due to not being to fully understand his actions and Maria was given two life terms.

Introduction

Jacob, age thirty-nine, was a well known doctor in Gulfport and Maria, age thirty-five, was a real estate agent, that also bought, flipped, and sold houses. Together they had three boys, Ricky, age thirteen, Casey, age eight, and Michael, age four. Ricky was Jacob's son from a previous marriage. As a family they attended First Baptist Church and were very active members. When Jacob wasn't working he was often helping others out with moving, showing new members around the town, and just doing anything he could help. Maria was a Sunday school teacher for third through fifth graders and would often help out with the pantry drive. As a family they we're always doing activities together, such as going on picnics, participating in school or church event.

The couple was also very well off. Together they owned five houses, three of which they rented out to people and the other two they used for their purposes. Jacob also owned a 1969 Pontiac GTO and Maria drove a 2004 Chevrolet Corvette. Also over the years they had saved up more than $700,000 in cash and quite often would lend money to others in need.

Simon Collins and Maria Collins

Jacob didn't have a very big family and the family he did have, mostly lived in Arizona and Tennessee, except for his cousin, Simon, and his wife, Caroline. Maria was adopted and so she didn't have any known family in the area. Simon was a construction worker and only worked nine months out of the year. His wife, Caroline, was college teacher at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and also only worked nine months out of the year. Simon, age forty-two, was slow and probably only had the mine of a teenager whereas his wife, Caroline, age forty-five was very smart and very controlling. Together they weren't very well off and so they would often go to Jacob and Maria for help.

As the years went by and they continued to borrow from them, Maria slowly started to develop a hatred towards Caroline and would often become hostile towards her. Caroline feeling the need to defend herself would too become hostile back. Eventually it got to the point where they could not be in the same room alone because of the risk of them breaking out in fights.

The Murders

On April 15th, 2006 at about three o'clock in the morning several neighbors of Jacob and Maria reported hearing gunshots throughout the neighborhood. They also reported seeing a black or blue four door truck speeding off from the Collins house. Police wouldn't respond til the later that morning at around seven o'clock.

When police got to the Collin's residence, they found the front door unlocked. Their children had stayed the night at a family friends the night before.They looked around the ground floor and found the couch covered in blood with a gunshot bullet in it, along with blood on the carpet. In the hall near the entrance of the front door was another puddle of blood. The motive seemed to be robbery for Maria's purse was found emptied on the kitchen table with her wallet and check book missing. Later they would find her check book in the glove compartment of Simon's truck covered in blood. They also noticed several antique dishes from their china cabinet were missing.

The police moved upstairs and found the body of Jacob and the body of Maria in their bed with a sheet draped over their faces. Jacob had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the shoulder. Maria had been shot once in the chest, along with multiple stab wounds and had her throat cut. The gun was put in Jacob's hand to make it look like an apparent murder and then suicide attempt. Police also noticed that several items were moved and missing around the bedroom, including all of Jacob's Rolex Watches, all of Maria's jewelry, some of Maria's expensive make up, and two pairs of Maria's shoes.

Jacob's wallet had been tossed on the ground and the knife that had been used to stab Maria was found in the Master Bathroom sink, that was also full of soap and blood. They also found all of Jacob's credit cards cut up and shoved into once of dresser drawers. Several of Jacob's suits and Maria's dresses were placed on the bed and there were several holes in the walls of their closet. Police aren't sure if the murders did it or if it was always like that.

Police calculated that $4,457 cash was stolen, along with ten antique china dishes, over $4,000 worth of jewelry, and several other items.

Evidence

Police found multiple pieces of evidence that could find them a suspect including:

• A black or blue colored truck that had four doors and a toolbox in the back
• Several blood samples that could possibly be the killers
• A finger print found on Jacob's wallet
• A partial finger print found on knife found on the sink in the Master Bathroom Sink
• A .44 Magnum Revolver (Two bullets still in the chambers)

The Search and Finds

Police immediately went looked at anyone the Collin's had known with a dark colored truck. They also tested the blood samples for the killers blood but not with really good results. 99.9% of the blood they collect was either Jacob's or Maria's blood and so they couldn't get an accurate result of the killer's blood.

The finger print on Jacob's wallet didn't match Maria or Jacob, so they now had the finger print of the killer, but the partial finger print on the knife seemed to belong to match up with Maria.

Suspects/Aftermath

The police immediately looked at Simon and Caroline because several neighbors told informed them of Simon's new truck. But when they got to his cousin's house they realize two small problems with the description of truck that was seen at the Collin's residence the night of the murders. Simon's truck wasn't blue or black, in fact it wasn't a color that could be mistaken as dark, even in the night. Simon's truck was a neon green truck and didn't have a toolbox. They also asked them if they had where they were the night of the murders and Maria said that she had stayed the night at friends house. Simon told them that he was at home by himself.

They asked to look around Simon's truck and noticed that as they were looking at it, he seemed kind of nervous. When they looked inside his truck they found several bullets lying loose in the floor boards, but didn't look in the glove compartment. They asked him if he ever owned a gun and he said that he did. When they asked to look at the gun they found that the gun he had and the bullets in truck didn't match. They confiscated the bullets and took them to a lab to be tested.

The bullets did indeed match with the gun found in Jacob's hand. They immediately asked Jacob again what he was doing the night of the murders and he eventually broke down in tears, and admitted to murdering his cousin and wife. They finger printed him and found that his finger prints didn't match the finger print found on Jacob's wallet. When they asked if there was someone else with him when he murdered them, he answered no.

Eventually one of Maria's friends accused Caroline of being the other killer when they found her wearing one of Maria's missing watches. The police finger printed her and found a match with the finger print found on the wallet.

Trial

They tried both Simon and Caroline and found them guilty. Simon was sentence to only fifteen years in prison due to not being fully capable of his actions and Caroline was sentenced to two life terms without parole.