Kriti Mehrotra
NBC’s ‘Dateline: Secrets in the Smoky Mountains’ examines the tale of 56-year-old Robert “Bob” McClancy, who was found lifeless in his Tennessee home on the afternoon of May 15, 2006. Because of all the hard evidence, the authorities first thought that the Vietnam War veteran took his own life after spending years grappling with his post-traumatic stress disorder. But years of investigations helped prove them wrong and brought to light that his wife, Martha McClancy, and her boyfriend, were behind the matter. So now that it’s been a while, let’s find out where Martha is today, shall we?
Who is Martha McClancy?
Martha Ann had met Bob McClancy while working at the Manatee County Sheriff’s Department in Florida. She was a secretary, whereas Bob served as a detective. Their office romance grew into a genuine relationship soon after, and they decided to marry. Subsequently, Bob took early retirement, and the couple relocated to Tellico Plains, Tennessee, nestled right within the Smoky Mountains, to get away from the bustling city life. There, years later, while her husband suffered from PTSD due to his combat time in the Marines, Martha warmed up to Charles “Chuck” Kaczmarczyk, Bob’s friend, and began an affair with him.
Eventually, the new couple decided that it would be better for them if Bob went away for good. Thus, they conspired to kill him by slowly overdosing him with his anti-depressants. After a couple of hospitalizations, with claims that he was abusing his medications, it worked. When Bob passed away, Martha told investigators all about his previous alleged overdoses as well, and no concrete suspicions on her were raised. That is, until 2013, when images of Bob sitting dead on a recliner chair were found on her computer, showcasing that she and her now-husband, Chuck, had meticulously arranged his death to look like a suicide.
Having married Chuck merely five months after Bob’s passing, Martha had started living a life full of expensive exploits. After all, not only did her late husband’s will stipulate that he had left everything to her (this was later determined to be a forgery) but she and Chuck also defrauded the federal government of $800,000 over the years by collecting support checks. He falsely claimed to be a Vietnam War veteran, whereas Matha alleged to be disabled, needing to use a wheelchair to move around. Although she pled guilty on several counts for the latter in 2012, she refused to make a deal with the prosecutors for murder in 2013.
Where is Martha Ann McClancy Now?
Martha Ann McClancy stood trial for the charges against her in November 2015, where her defense was that her husband, Chuck Kaczmarczyk, was the mastermind and that she was innocent when it came to Bob’s murder. Yet, since all the evidence and testimonies, including from her own son Sean McGavic, were against her, it took the jury less than two days to determine that she was guilty of attempting to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. She was consequently sentenced to 50 years behind bars — two consecutive 25-year terms for each count.
However, when Martha appealed this verdict on the grounds that the law “prohibits dual convictions for attempt and conspiracy” when the offense is the same, the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals cut her sentence in half. As for her other claims surrounding the case, though, in 2019, the court said, “We find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision to deny the defendant’s motion for mistrial.” Therefore, today, Martha Ann McClancy is incarcerated at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, where she will remain until, at least, her parole date in June 2022.
Read More: Where is Charles “Chuck” Kaczmarczyk Now?
