This is part one of a four-part series. To read the full series, click here.
Rick Watts was waiting for his sandwich at a Subway in Morristown, Tenn., when his wife called him for the last time.
He didn’t know it was her last call and he dismissed it, trying to be polite and stay off the phone at the register.
His cellphone rang at 7:06 p.m. that day, as Tiffany Watts drove home from the Atlanta airport with her two daughters and her mother. The girls, 9 and 11, had just flown in from their dad’s home in California to spend the summer with mom in Tennessee, like always.
Rick Watts knew his family, driving up Interstate 75 in Tiffany’s 2010 Scion, still had hours left to travel. So he paid for his sandwich, took his food to the car and called Tiffany back at 7:09 p.m. on June 25.