Crime

2014 Grape Creek Murder Trial Featured in Investigation Discovery Documentary

By Joe Hyde, Apr 25, 2018
 

SAN ANGELO, TX — A 2014 murder trial in San Angelo was dramatized in an Investigation Discovery documentary Tuesday evening.

Titled “Forbidden: Dying for Love,” the episode was filmed primarily in the San Angelo area to document the murder of Heather Shane Felts, who at the time of her murder, was married to Matthew Salazar. The murder happened in August 2013 and involved what our court reporting termed as a “love pentagram.”

The episode describes San Angelo as, “A place of opportunity with a population dedicated to the church.” Matt met Heather at a nondenominational Bible church in 2008. The two were basketball coaches, according to the documentary. Both were in failing marriages to other people. The two lost their jobs at the church because of committing adultery. The documentary makes a big deal out of being shunned by the San Angelo community because of their sin.

Eventually the couple reconciled with the church and the couple married. Business opportunities became plentiful.

Matt’s drug addiction to prescription pills and Heather’s temptation to find an escape led to another budding affair. “But the eyes of the church were everywhere,” the documentary narrated.

The love story ended with Matt Salazar’s jealous rage in the Grape Creek trailer home after he found a family friend nude and his wife’s purse, which indicated she was there. He shot them both, killing his wife, Heather.

Back in August 2014, we covered the “Grape Creek Murder Trial.” Much of the content of the documentary followed the trial narrative. An interesting tidbit from that trial is that John Stacy Young was Matt Salazar’s criminal defense attorney. Young would later be sentenced to 11 years in prison for his part in the forging of John Sullivan’s will.

The documentary aired April 24, 2018. If you have a Dish or DirecTV login, you can watch the episode on ID Discovery here.

The Grape Creek Murder Trial, as it unfolded in the Tom Green County Courthouse in August 2014:

 

 

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The church shouldn't "approve" of those actions should they? It doesn't sound like the church did anything that was not biblical...

Perhaps, the concept that they were "shunned" comes from the situation's only survivor, the murderer. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of his brother... The church is supposed to help fellow believers to be overcomer's and to disciple them as they learn to follow Jesus... Not everyone who shows up really wants to live that life.

It is safe to say that a church that really believes the Bible will not be able to ignore sin that occurs in the public arena and It's also safe to say that if you are just going to church to go to church because it's just what you do and you still want to keep sin in your life that you intentionally commit then you probably aren't going to benefit much from being there.

A man can't serve two masters or else he will love one and hate the other.

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Slate, Wed, 04/25/2018 - 16:33

Give him a couple of years and let him go. Cheating wife got what she deserved.

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MjNS, Thu, 04/26/2018 - 12:30

This is the kind of fame San Angelo doesn`t need. Trash TV at it`s finest....

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It doesn't surprise me that the media wants to paint the picture that way, nowadays they'll say anything if it can put a black eye on Christianity... I could be wrong but from reading through here, it sounds like neither one of the 2 had surrendered their life to Christ... Not saying that they didn't have salvation or anything but an encounter with Christ should evidently bring change and these 2 had their own separate lives going on... How close to Jesus do you want to be when you're cheating and doing pills?

Now let me qualify myself for some of my statements... I have had a rough road since I met the Lord when I was 13... I chose not to allow him control in my life until 2007 and even then I've had some periods of ups and downs until the last quarter of 2016 when things got messy and I was completely broken down... People who have endured much will have much to give to God when they come before Him as broken people with no hope outside of Him... It is a process called "transformation". We don't meet Jesus and "Pow" now we're like Him... It takes time... A Christian will be going through this process their whole lives in different areas of living...

I understand that the 2 had undertaken a 40 day love dare and I'm familiar with the process so at some point it must've been quite important to at least one of them to have a better marriage that grew closer to God so I'm not just picking these guys apart, I just know that when you start out on that road, it isn't easy to stay on track and diligence is the key... God didn't fail these 2, the church didn't fail these 2, I think what happened is they gave up seeking after God because of all the worldly things that got in their way...

It is sad to see but the scripture is riddled with verses that talk about those who want what Jesus has to offer but they don't want to pay the cost to be His disciple... It isn't easy to have your pride smashed and be humbled before the Lord, it isn't easy to give up the pleasures of this life and walk the narrow path... In fact, it takes more to follow Christ than it takes to follow anything else in the world, I feel bad that people have been told that walking with Christ will make everything O.K., in fact, walking with Christ will most assuredly cost you quite a bit and be very difficult and hurtful at times but the reward is Jesus Himself...

As the Apostle Paul said in Phillipians 3:8
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ!

As a side note, I was one of the guys who went to Jesus while incarcerated... I am an anomaly in the matrix because of Jesus...
I did my first stretch as a juvenile and have been in 3 times for extended stays with multiple arrests between the stays.
The data puts people with a past like mine in a pretty low position when it comes to success... I'm proud that my God has changed my life and I can say that I haven't had trouble with the law in 11 years, I'm not a drug user anymore and I don't victimize my community, in fact, I have paid in full my debt to society by all means and I still follow Jesus so, there is hope... Even when other's don't think you will succeed.

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I must've missed the "black eye" slant that the program allegedly showcased. It seemed like any other crime reenactment TV show: D list acting, a loose portrayal of actual events.

In fact I thought the storyline was making a very odd supposition, speaking of San Angelo as if we're a population of 90 who all attended the same church. I got that the members were a tight-knit bunch, maybe a little too close to each other for personal comfort, but hey...what ISN'T entertaining about two adult puppets with their pastor's hands up their backsides?

The people in the story remind me of many young "Christians", who've spent their entire lives acting on the behalf of their parent's and church's version of morality, and inevitably panic when real life takes them a bit off script. Sexual romps outside of one's marriage is a touchy and complicated issue. Sure, it's keeping Jesus up at night, but it feels great. It's not at all the cut-n-dry simplicity that someone and God can typically 100% agree on, like hating gays.

In defense of the two star lovers, was the church ultimately 'surrendering to Christ' when welcoming them back to the flock? God's gone serial killer on people for much less than adultery!

Say what you will about the "sanctity of marriage", but human beings were simply not designed for monogamy. We give it a good faith effort at times, however the old Horace adage rings true: You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but she'll always return.

The TV show was watchable. Even in the context of a murder story, it was nice for a change to see San Angelo featured in something that didn't beat the viewer over the head with RODEO-this and COWBOY-that. Yes, real things happen here too, good and bad -- and not always to the soundtrack of Bluegrass music.

My favorite parts were the creepy pastors popping out of every corner to suspenseful music swells, like they were Jason Voorhees or Chuckie, waiting to drop the hammer of God's ever-loving judgement and guilt on these two fornicators.

I found myself cheering on the pastors, in true horror flick mode. I almost always tend to root for the monsters.

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I always liked Jim Croce's style RR... Thanks for the feedback!

To my friend Lares,

To be honest, I like you man... I think that you and I aren't so different. I do have to say though, that you seem to have skirted around any possibility of having a meaningful conversation and have avoided looking at the Bible and it's claims with anything more than it being surface research for your witty comebacks.

Here's the deal Lares, "IF" God is real and the Bible is true, where do you think that you will go after you die and meet Him. Both of us seem to have agreed on previous rant's that any day we could be taken out of this life by negligent criminals who exist among us... If you died today and you met God and He judged your life by the keeping of the 10 Commandments... Where would you end up?

I know that you justify your goodness by comparing yourself with those who aren't good, I did the same thing when I was acting a fool in society, I looked at people who from my perspective were way worse than I was just so I could justify my own misdeeds within the framework of my own conscience.
You see Lares, God won't give ear to your justifications if they don't meet up with His standards. Although you may not have murdered anyone, He's going to ask if you were adulterous as well, if you somehow managed to be neither of those, He would ask if you were ever a liar and on that day, nothing but the blood of Jesus' sacrifice for sins will be able to cover your transgressions, be they the big no no's or just the little one's.

I'll just let that simmer with you man, I don't say this to you to you because I'm the preacher man and I want to look at you instead of myself... On the contrary, I wouldn't apply anything like this on someone else if I hadn't first gone through that same process... You remind me of myself and if there was hope for me, than there is hope for you too.

I hope you have a good day Lares.

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I've read the Bible, and I'll have you know that the most devout Bible bangers with pockets full of scripture to hurl would be among the few who did more than ''surface research''. Most don't fully comprehend their little life's handbook because to begin with, it's maxims and precepts are entirely foreign to the majority of modern Americans. Second, ever since it became legal to translate scripture, the Bible has been revamped and remixed countless times since the 16th century, rendering much of it as definitive as the final message in a game of "Chinese Whispers".

I recall a discussion on the validity of the 'doctrine of eternal punishment' with a buddy...an adult, mind you, who actually believed a little red man with horns was waiting to terrorize him for eternity, for things like touching himself or whatever his guilty conscience spoke into his masochistic, paranoid delusions. Skip all the 'thou shalt' babble and philosophical bickering, it was much easier to go into the very REAL and historically documented location of SHEOL, and how a makeshift dumping ground and crematorium for garbage and dead convicts eventually became known as what most of us now conceptualize as "Hell".

The point being, we could go back and forth in a game of Sunday school 101, but our time is probably better spent otherwise. You believe, I don't, and there's probably nothing short of a literal miracle that would change this -- and I'm fine with it.

As for my "goodness", well I'm far from it, or much further than the definition of what most would coin "good", anyway. One seldom treads the path of the Libertine without inadvertently stepping on a few toes. If my passions or aspirations lead to virtuous acts, then may the glory be mine. If not, well, maybe tomorrow. I've got no one to impress but myself.

I fully understand sir, you made some mistakes which landed you in the pen and you made a grab for religion. Most inmates do, and whatever gets you through your days behind bars, fine. Religion, in my opinion, should be a personal venture, rather than something solicited like girl scout cookies. Like the cookies, many people patronize you out of guilt, few may indeed have a sweet tooth, but most would politely decline.

If one day I'm faced with your inquisitive, perpetually offended God, there's nothing I can probably do or say which would redeem myself in his eyes. Would it do any good to plead my case, as an imperfect individual who relied on sensory utilization, rather than the required sensory integration of religion to tell me what's real and what isn't? If God is anything like his capricious and bullheaded spokesmen here on Earth, he'd more than likely cut me off mid statement and do away with me entirely. In such a case, I'm not sure I particularly like this God or care to spend my short, sometimes chaotic life dancing to his tune.

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