Mary Elizabeth Bailey went through something so traumatic in her childhood that she doesn’t wish upon anyone else. Now 47, Mary was only 11-years-old when her mother, Priscilla Wyers, allegedly pointed her toward a rifle so Mary could kill her stepfather, Wayne Wyers. She still remembers how scared she was at that moment and how she did not want to do it. But she felt she was stuck in a violent household with a mother who thought this was the best solution. Knowing she didn’t have many options, Mary picked up the rifle and shot Wayne in the abdomen while he was asleep. It took a while, but he eventually died from the wound.
While Priscilla’s plan was to pin the murder on Mary since she was a child, so none of them would be held liable, both mother and daughter were charged with first-degree murder since Wayne was unconscious at the time. Mary’s charges were soon dropped, and decades after this incident, she learned to face her past and collected tapes from the high-profile case to pen down the details in her 2020 memoir ‘My Mother’s Soldier.’ This incident, which took place in 1987, is also the inspiration for Lifetime’s drama film ‘Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story.’ While Mary’s life now has taken a positive turn, there’s still a lot of mystery about her parents.
Lifetime’s ‘Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story: Who Was Her Dad?
In all the discussions about the murder case and the incidents portrayed in the film, there is no clear mention of Mary Bailey’s dad. This is because her biological father was always absent from her life. Priscilla had an affair with a married man, John Bryan, in her teenage years and gave birth to Mary as a result of this affair when she was just 16-years-old. Since John was married then and he cheated on his wife with Priscilla, Mary never got to meet her real father when she was young. After her birth, she lived a peaceful life for a few years with her loving grandparents in West Virginia, while Priscilla later went on to marry Wayne and moved in with him.
After Mary’s grandfather’s death in 1981, Priscilla asked her mother to move in with her to look after her children with Wayne. This led Mary to the violent household with a loud and alcoholic stepfather who didn’t want her there, she claimed. It was much later, after the 1987 incident, as well as when Mary was out of foster care and trying to build a life for herself, that she learned of her biological father, John. She was actually 22 when she suddenly received a call from her paternal half-sister, who claimed their father really wanted to meet her. The youngster thus excitedly travelled to Columbus, Ohio, where John had been residing alongside his family for years. She only got to spend a few hours with him, but she’s genuinely glad she made the effort because he sadly passed away a month later.
Mary Bailey’s Mom Died of Cancer
Mary’s relationship with her mother was never easy, and especially not after the time Priscilla tried to blame her own 11-year-old daughter for her husband’s murder. While Mary couldn’t understand too much of what was happening at that age, she later realized how much she initially wanted to help her mother. After Wayne was murdered, the investigation cleared Mary, and Priscilla was finally convicted with Mary as the prime witness. However, it didn’t stop there as Priscilla continued trying to get in touch with Mary for all the wrong reasons. She allegedly wrote to her mother on many occasions from jail, asking her to let the child take the blame so she could be free.
Mary still tried to visit her in jail and did so a few times, but they were mostly kept apart, especially till she was in foster care. It was only after 10 years of serving her sentence that Mary requested for Priscilla to be released since she wanted to be close to her mother. Priscilla was freed from jail after this and moved in with Mary, but things weren’t as she hoped. Priscilla was still stuck in the past and in her regular ways, while Mary had significantly healed at this point. She helped Priscilla get a job and an apartment and even drove her to meetings, but eventually had to move away from her after a year because Priscilla’s behavior still hadn’t changed.
Priscilla subsequently took odd jobs to take care of herself. She even worked at a dry cleaners’ and is believed to have dated in that period, but never got involved in a serious relationship. Two decades after Mary moved away from her, Priscilla reached out after her memoir was released in 2020. Mary refers to her as Veronica in the memoir because, at that time, she did not want to see Priscilla as her mom.
This time, Priscilla apologized, and Mary finally felt healed and could forgive her. They reunited and spent their first Mother’s Day together in May 2022. Since Priscilla was battling metastatic cancer at that point, which had spread to her lungs, hips and even the brain, she died from the disease a few months later in August 2022. While it happened much later, Mary is happy she finally got closure and could reunite with her mother properly before she passed away.
Read More: Wayne Wyers Murder: How Did He Die? Who Killed Him?
