Sensational new documentary revisits the 2001 murder of Robert Andrew by his estranged wife and her secret lover
The bizarre tale of extramarital affairs, murder and Sunday School has been revisited in an explosive new documentary about one of America’s most sensational killings.
Sex, Lies and Murder on UK channel Crime+Investigation centres on the death of Robert Andrew, in November 2001, who was blasted in the chest and face with a shotgun by a pair who came to be known as ‘the Sunday School Killers’.
Bored of her humdrum life, but desperate to cling to her husband’s money, Brenda Andrew began a series of torrid affairs – including with fellow Sunday School teacher James Pavatt.
He would have had no clue that their fling would result in Robert’s death.
Brenda – now infamous as the only woman on Oklahoma’s Death Row – and Robert were high school sweethearts, going on to marry and have two children.
But 12 years later, at the age of 40, Brenda embarked on a series of illicit sexual relationships with local men.
Crime reporter Shiva Jahanshah tells viewers that she was “the kind of woman who will have an affair with her friend’s husband,” who shows “complete disregard for her friend and her own marriage.”
The show claims that she then began telling friends she only stayed with Rob for his money, sending local rumours swirling.
But when Rick ended things a year later, Brenda moved on to the local shop assistant.
M William Phelps, an investigative reporter, said: “She goes to the store, she begins smiling at him, showing a little more cleavage, she wears a short short skirt and starts to show a little leg and wink at him.
“One day she walks up to him and hands him a hotel room key with a number on it, gives him a smile and walks away.
“Next thing you know, she’s banging the grocery guy in the hotel up the street.”
All the while Rob was none the wiser, despite Brenda seeing the second man for two years – even getting him to do work on the family home.
But Brenda’s third affair, with James Pavatt, would prove to be the most fateful.
The pair, both Sunday School teachers , met in church, and James immediately fell for her charms.
Mr Phelps described him as a “Bible-toting, Christian-centric husband,” who was ensnared by Brenda’s “web of sexual dysfunction.”
James, a life insurance agent, often socialised with the Andrew family, and had recently sold Robert an $800,000 life insurance policy.
Brenda and James were seen in public together more frequently, fuelling rumours of their affair.
Claims of their extramarital affair were allegedly the reason for them being banned from teaching Sunday School classes.
Devastated by the rumours, Robert started divorce proceedings.
Suspiciously, it was around this time that the brakes on his car were cut one night.
Although he avoided injury, he admitted to friends he thought Brenda – or one of her ex-lovers – was out to get him.
He then asked James about removing Brenda as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy.
But James lied to him, claiming that Brenda’s ownership of the policy meant Robert had no control over who the beneficiary was.
In November 2001, Robert visited the family home, where Brenda was living, to pick up his children for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
In one of his last acts, he went into the garage with his estranged wife to help her with an electrical appliance.
Moments later, Brenda called the emergency services, telling operators that Robert had been shot dead in the garage, and that she was wounded.
She claimed that two masked gunmen had attacked them in their garage.
In fact, Robert had been on the receiving end of a 16-gauge shotgun blast to his face, neck and shoulder. Brenda, mysteriously, had been shot in the arm with a pistol.
Forensic and blood spatter investigations suggested to police that James quietly approached Robert from behind and shot him.
Brenda then took the gun from Pavatt and shot her husband in the chest.
As the theory went, she later used a pistol to shoot herself in the arm, telling police that she and Rob had been the victims of a masked robbery.
The plot thickened when, the day before Robert’s funeral, Brenda and James disappeared with her children.
They were found and arrested three months later as they tried to re-enter the United States.
James was tried and found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder in September 2003.
A month later he was sentenced to death.
In Brenda’s case, prosecutors argued that she helped her lover kill her husband, in order to profit from his life insurance policy.
They claimed she shot herself to mislead police.
Despite attempts by her defence team to pin the blame solely on James, Brenda was convicted in 2004 of conspiracy to commit murder and first degree murder.
She, too, was given the death penalty, bringing to an end an intriguing, tragic true crime saga worthy of a Hollywood movie.
