Too Pretty to Live

Murder begins with the click of a button in this true crime story of Facebook, catfishing and deadly jealousy—as seen on Investigation Discovery.

Chris was a CIA agent worried for the safety of Jenelle Potter. Contacting her parents and boyfriend, Chris warned them that Billy Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth were bullying Jenelle online and posed an imminent, physical threat. Something needed to be done, Chris said. And he’d have their backs if they took action to protect Jenelle. And so they did.

Jenelle’s father and boyfriend murdered Payne and Hayworth in their own home—mercifully leaving the couple’s infant unharmed. But when they told their story to the police, they discovered a devastating truth: there was no Chris. It had been Jenelle the entire time, catfishing them to exact revenge over a Facebook feud.

Using forensic linguistics and diving through the brambles that Jenelle laid to cover her tracks, police were able to put together a chilling portrait of a sociopath who set a double murder in motion from the shadows of the internet. Dennis Brooks, the lead prosecutor in this strange and tragic case, examines the crime and trial from all angles in Too Pretty to Live.

What the police investigation turned up, though, made this crime all the more terrifying. Jenelle had been Chris the entire time, catfishing her family and her boyfriend to act in vengeance on her behalf. Using forensic linguistics and diving through the brambles that Jenelle laid to cover her tracks, police were able to put together a chilling portrait of a sociopath, made all the more ruthless by the anonymity of her online life.

Bizarre and unforgettable, Dennis Brooks examines the crime and trial from all angles, bringing his expertise as the lead prosecutor in the strange and disturbing case.