It was only a matter of time until the scandalous and very Southern tale of wealthy real estate attorney Gary “Big Daddy” Farris and his dysfunctional family made its way into a true crime podcast. Thankfully for listeners, 48 Hours correspondent and former Atlantan Peter Van Sant is the guy reporting the six-part Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel podcast for 48 Hours, launching March 11. As many Georgians will recall, Farris, 58, was murdered in the summer of 2018 and his remains discovered (with a bullet lodged in a rib) on a burn pile at the Farris family’s sprawling 10-acre Cherokee County farm. After a year-long investigation, Gary’s wife, Melody, was arrested for the killing and convicted on all charges in December 2024. She is now serving a 30-year sentence.
Van Sant, who served as a CBS News Atlanta correspondent from 1984 to 1989, was in the Cherokee County courtroom to hear the closing arguments in the case and devoted a 48 Hours telecast to the case. Last year, he was the only reporter to conduct a prison interview with Melody Farris. He also sat down with son Scott, who Melody accused of his father’s murder in court. In an interview with Atlanta, Van Sant said he welcomed the opportunity to spend six episodes of the Blood is Thicker podcast to dive into the case.
“We all dream of having the amount of time necessary to tell a story,” Van Sant explains. “The killing of Gary Farris had so much intrigue, so many side stories of betrayal, jealousy and greed, having the opportunity to do three hours of this case [over six 30-minute episodes] in a podcast was just irresistible.”…