Chapter 76: A Murder in Memphis-The Murder of Lorenzen Wright

0:00 Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Brought to you by dark Cast Network insie Podcasts with a twist, their Sparkle farts, my trust the Unicorn. I've got to tell these good people about our show. Hey there, I'm CJ host to be on the Rainbow. True Crimes of the LGBTQ plus well.

0:53 I do have episodes on some of the more well known cases from the LGBTQ communities, such as Matthew Shepper, Brandon Tina, and the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre. I cover world cases like the London nail bombing murders, Australia's Snowtown murders, in South Africa's corrective rape and murder of lesbians. I cover lesser known cases like the murder of twenty one year old trans man Alex Van Dolson in Indiana. Police call his death a suicide. Spoiler alert, it wasn't I tell you about wrongful conviction cases, serial killers and school shooters. My Unicorn and I cover all sorts of crimes against the LGBTQ and crimes by members of the LGBTQ. You don't have to be part of the community to listen.

1:46 All walks of life are welcome to become Rainbow Warriors because you matter. And remember it's not a crime to be gay unless you're a murderer. Hello. Hello, Welcome to the next chapter. Lisa is not with me. She's not feeling well. But before we get into today's chapter, I want to correct myself from a previous chapter that we did where we covered the murder of Rowena Irani. I mispronounced her name, which was pointed out to me by a close friend of her family's. I was also given information in regards to her personal life, which I will speak about in an episode that will record soon, so keep an eye out for that. But I want to apologize for the mispronunciation. I'm usually very diligent in researching pronunciation of names and places, and I, for whatever reason, I had it in my head that I knew how to pronounce Rowena's name and did not look it up, which was an error on my part, and I apologize. So thank you to that family friend for a the very very kind email you sent me, and b thank you for pointing get out to me so that I can fix my mistake for today's episode. This is a case that is new to me, probably because I'm not well versed in the world of basketball, But for

3:20 those that follow the NBA and have for a long time, this story may be familiar to you, as it devastated the sports community as a whole. The story I'm going to tell you today is the murder of Lorenzen Right. Lorenzen, who went by the nickname Wren, was born in Oxford, Mississippi, to Deborah Marian and Herb Bright, on November fourth, nineteen seventy five. Growing up, he split his time between Mississippi with Deborah and Memphis, Tennessee with his father, and according to an article for Sports Illustrated, Lorenzen was a Memphis boy through and through. His friend Ruis Williams said that Lorenzen was quote like the king of the city, hometown hero stuff. He was so proud to say, this is where I'm from. According to an article for ABC News, Deborah said that her son was a mama's boy through and through. He had loved his family, and according to what Bill Atkins, a family friend, told Oxygen, Lorenzen was loved by everybody. He was very popular and very giving, he said, quote, he walks in the door and everybody knows it's him. The guy would give you the shirt off his back. Lorenzen was also incredibly passionate about basketball and dreamed of making it as a professional basketball player. His love of basketball came from herb who was a professional player in his youth before becoming a police officer. According to medium

4:53 dot com, he went to Lafayette High School in Mississippi, where he joined the basketball team, before moving to Memphis for the dart of his senior year. He attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he joined their basketball team and he excelled at it. While in high school, he played for the Amateur Athletic Union, coached by a man named Julius Robinson. Julius would go on to introduce Lorenzen, who was sixteen at the time. According to an article for We Got This Covered, to his daughter Sarah, who was twenty one. Apparently they got close very quickly and they would go on to begin dating. Although when exactly their relationship began I couldn't be sure, but according to medium dot com, it began when Lorenzen started college at the University of Memphis. While at college, Lorenzen, who by this point was six foot eleven, joined their basketball team, the Tigers, and he was amazing according to his stats in the University of Memphis' website. He played from nineteen ninety five to nineteen ninety six, and he was the first team selection bold years for two different teams, the All Great Midwest First Team and the All Conference USA First Team, and he was the only person in the program's history to earn these accolades. He also helped the Tigers to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, as well as a twenty game win streak. By nineteen ninety six, Lorenzen and Shara had had their first child, and Lorenzen, who was a

6:25 sophomore at this point, entered the NBA Draft and became the seventh overall pick by the LA Clippers, which began a very successful career with the NBA. Lorenzen would go on to be nicknamed the Howel because of how he screamed when he blocked a shot from the opposing team or successfully made his own shot. Lorenzen would go on to have a thirteen season career with various teams such as the Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, among others. In nineteen ninety eight, according to Oxygen, Shara and Lorenzen got married and they moved to Los Angeles, where they had moved into a custom home in Plia del Rey. During this time, Lorenzen made friends with teenage ball boy for the Clippers, Anne Rice, who Shara and Lorenzen both doted on as if he was one of their children. They bought him gifts like a brand new suit and shoes for prom, and they even attended his graduation. Shara and Lorenzen would go on to have six more children, and they were always together, seemingly very much in love. Anne told Nathan Fennow of The La Times quote he was in love with her. She had a grip on him. In two thousand and two, Shara and Lorenzen welcomed a daughter, who tragically died eleven months later due to sudden inf and death syndrome. In her honor, Lorenzen established the Sierra Simone Writes Scholarship Fund and that same year. In two thousand and three, he returned to the University of Memphis to finish his degree.

7:55 When Lorenzo played for the Grizzlies, he opened up a sports bar and spread his wealth around town, setting up scholarships and paying for homes and cars for friends and family. He even set up a trust fund for a nine year old boy whose mother had died and he lived alone in the house with her body for a month before he was helped. Former NBA player Elliott Perry said, quote, pull people in Memphis from his teammates in high school to the NBA, and they'll tell you the same thing. Wren was fantastic, this big guy with a humble spirit. From the outside looking in, Lorenzo had an amazing life and with Sarah they had a beautiful life together, one that many people would envy, a life of luxury and events that most people could only dream of. But by two thousand and five, that facade had started to crack, according to the La Times, in August of two thousand and five, police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Rights home in Memphis, and while no arrest were charges were made. Shara allegedly had answered the door with cuts on her hand and scrapes along her jaw. There was another volatile incident where Lorenzen and his friend Mike Gibson had allegedly been partying in the rights RV with exotic dancers when Shara walked in, chasing off the women, ripping Gibson's shirt, and completely trashing the RV in her rage. Lorenzen, for his part, had allegedly escaped out the window now to sidestep for just

9:30 a second. In twenty fourteen, Shara had written a book, Mister Tell Me Anything, that was a work of fiction, but she had claimed that the main characters and the events of the book mirror her and Lorenzen's life together almost completely. She suggests that moments of infidelity and abuse in the novel were based on the true events that happened during their marriage. So if that is the case, their relationship continued to crumble, with Lorenzen allegedly cheating on her and Shara in it at least one instance, allegedly catching him with another woman, beating this woman, and quote slapping the hell out of Lorenzo again.

10:11 This, as far as I can tell, was not substantiated as fact, but she claims that these events that she wrote about in her book were true. Now by two thousand and nine, Lorenzo had officially retired and he and Shara had separated. They were three million dollars in debt and two of their homes had been seized by the bank as a result of overspending at the end of his career. So because of these problems they were having financially, coupled with the allegations of cheating and abuse, their relationship finally ended, although according to Sea, she said that it was the risk that came with his career that doomed them. She told Sports Illustrated that Lorenzo was carefree and would let anyone into his circle, and she was uncomfortable with the people he was bringing around. The divorce was finalized in February worry of twenty ten, and a permanent parenting plan had been filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, which required Lorenzen to pay alimony and child support in the amount of twenty six thousand, six hundred and fifty dollars a month, and this was based on his prior income as a basketball player. This was due to Sharer and Lorenzo's extremely lavish lifestyle and the need to quote continue to provide the children with benefits like a nanny and private basketball lessons. Additionally, he was also ordered to maintain a one million dollar life insurance policy on himself. According to the order, which I read from the La Times, it said, quote, if agreed upon by the parties, the father shall insure his own life in the minimum amounts of

11:43 one million dollars by whole life or term insurance until the child support obligation has been completed. Each policy shall name the child or children as so a revocable primary beneficiary, with the other parents as trustee for the benefit of the children, to serve without bond or accounting. So Lorenzen did take out this policy that his children were the beneficiaries of, but Shara would have control over as trustee in the event of his death. So they were officially divorced, co parenting their children. Lorenzen was living in Atlanta and Sharif stayed in Memphis. According to Lorenzen's oldest daughter, Lauren, a few months after the divorce was finalized, Lorenzen wanted to be with Shara again, which, to be fair, it seems as if she was his first love, so it would make sense that he would want to be with her again, considering they had spent pretty much his whole adult life together. According to The La Times, Laurence said quote he would tell us every day he was working to win her back.

12:48 According to medium dot com, Lorenzo and Shara had started seeing each other again when Lorenzo would fly in to see his children. He was also contemplating going to Israel to play basketball there. Now, according to police, on July seventeenth of twenty ten, Shara sent a stirring of sexually explicit messages to Lorenzen, so under the assumption that they were going to get back together, at least for the night, Lorenzen flew out to Memphis the very next day. Now, based on what I could gather, this was actually a planned trip. Lorenzo was heading to Memphis to see his daughter perform in a dance recital, and he was also going to attend his sister's baby shower. The text from Shara would have been an added perk. According to a close friend of Lorenzo's, Phil Dotson. He drove Lorenzen and his son Lorenzo Junior to Scherf's home that night, dropping them off around ten pm. Lorenzo had also planned to go back to Atlanta the next day, the nineteenth, because he had arranged to go back with his friend Jeremy Orange as well as with his children, and they had planned to stop at six Flags White Water on the way to have a fun day with the children. But when Jeremy arrived at Sharif's home to pick everyone up, Lorenzen wasn't there, so Jeremy called him, but Lorenzo never answered. Now, when Shara was contacted by Jeremy and Mike Gibson asking where Lorenzen was, she said that he was probably off with

14:18 another woman and that he was quote probably in one of his little holes lol. On July twenty second, twenty ten, three days later, Debora, Lorenzen's mother, filed a missing person's report. Lorenzo missing his sister's baby shower had been bad enough, It's something she knew he would never have done, but the fact that no one had seen him in days was more than enough cause for alarm. So police start looking into Lorenzen's disappearance, retracing his steps and they talked to Shera. Now Initially, Shara says that everything was fine, he had no enemies, and he left the house around two am on the nineteenth, getting into an unknown car with an unknown driver. Shara thought he might have gone to Vegas. His father thought maybe Lorenzo had decided to go to Europe to clear his mind, and others suggested that maybe he had decided to go to Israel after all. A week after Lorenzo disappeared without a trace, Shara spoke to reporters tearfully, saying she wouldn't believe anything other than Lorenzo was fine and he would return home. But the very next day, Shara was telling police that Lorenzo was involved in drug dealing and that on the eighteenth he had left the home of drugs and money, adding that week's earlier strange men had shown up looking for her ex husband. During this time, Deborah was also speaking to police, saying that Shara was acting strangely. Although the statement wasn't elaborated on, it seems, based on at least one source,

15:52 that Deborah thought that Shara might have been behind Lorenzen's disappearance based on her behavior to backtrack slightly. Around mid UAE night, on the night Lorenzen disappeared, Germantown, Tennessee, police received a nine one one call. The caller was mail and was based on what was heard on the call, clearly being shot at, with eleven shots being identified on this call. Now, Germantown is ten minutes away from Collierville, where Shara lived, and it seems as if because the dispatcher identified the caller as being in Collierville, which was outside Germantown jurisdiction, he didn't report the call. Police investigating Lorenzen's disappearance finally heard about this call that involved an unidentified mail and were able to match the voice to Lorenzen. Based on this, they traced the call to a wooded area by a golf course near Shar's home. On July twenty eighth, ten days after he went missing, police discovered Lorenzo's body in this wooded area, as he had been exposed to the elements in the middle of a Tennessee summer.

16:57 The once two hundred plus pound thirty four year old was almost skeletal in appearance, and dental records were used for his identification. According to Action News five, it was discovered at autopsy that Lorenzen had sustained five gunshot wounds, two in the skull, two near his heart, and one in his forearm. He had sustained four different skull fractures as a result of the gunshot wounds, and he had also sustained multiple rib fractures as well as a fractured shoulder. According to toxicology reports, Lorenzo was not under the influence of any substances at the time of his death. The investigation of the crime scene turned up shellcasings from two different guns, but not much else. Given the high animal traffic and the rain that the Urraa had seen since Lorenzin had been killed, it also threw Memphis as a whole into a frenzy, demanding the justice be served.

17:52 In a slew of theories being given to police, many people pointed their finger at Schera, citing the death that they had been in as a motive, and others thought that, given Lorenzen had been found still wearing jewelry, that his murder was a hit, that he had crossed the wrong person and was killed to send a message. In August, a neighbor came forward claiming that they saw two people using the fire pit in Sharer's backyard on the night of Lorenzen's murder, which was unusual because it was so hot out. It was about ninety three degrees outside and the humidity was through the roof, so not exactly an environment conducive to starting a fire. Depending on the source you read, some say that the neighbors saw Lorenzen and an unknown mail by the fire, and others say it was Shara with an unknown mail. Investigators, according to medium dot Com, did investigate the ashes from the fire, and they found the burns remnants of what appeared to be paper clips, but nothing else was found that could be useful to the investigation. They also searched Shara's home, but it seems as if they did not find anything. Now what's interesting is that sometime during the initial investigation, two different tips came in claiming that a man named Billy Ray Turner, who was a convicted felon, was involved in Lorenzen's death. But it seems as if the tipsters hadn't offered any additional evidence to support this accusation because nothing came of it. As I mentioned

19:25 earlier, as part of the divorce settlement, Lorenzen was to maintain a one million dollar life insurance policy on himself that was to be distributed to his children in the events of his death. However, due to all of his children being underage, Shara was made the executor of this money, and not even one year after his death, Shara had spent all but five dollars of the insurance money. According to the La Times, the money was used for a fifteen hundred dollars custom headstone for Lorenzen's grave, furniture, three different luxury vehicles, a fifty t three hundred square foot house, a pool, and a very expensive trip to New York, as well as various cash withdrawals and personal checks were written out, totaling around three hundred and forty four thousand dollars.

20:12 According to Lorenzen Junior. He said that all of that money was spent on the children and not used for herself, but I will admit that seems a bit hard to believe her bright. Lorenzen's father did end upsuing Shara over the mishandling of the insurance money in twenty fifteen, and the resolution by the Tennessee Circuit Court was to establish a trust for the children. Shara would be the trustee, but she had to file with the court all money received into the trust, as well as anything that was paid out. Additionally, Lorenzen's pension totaling one hundred and eighty four thousand dollars paid by the NBA was to go into the trust as well. Shara, it turns out, failed to provide accounting statements to the court and she ended up withdrawing as the execut gutter of this trust. As a result, herb was granted guardianship over the pension funds, and he and Shera, who had been battling over other matters related to Lorenzon's estate, settled out of court to sidestep again just to keep the timeline straight. In twenty thirteen, Shara's cousin, Jimmy Martin, was arrested and found guilty of second degree murder of the two thousand and seven death of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to twenty years and according to Oxygen, in exchange for immunity and a lighter sentence. He told the police that he knew something about Lorenzen's murder. According to Jimmy, he said that Shara had asked him to help Billy ray Turner, who was her landscaper at the time, kill

21:45 Lorenzen, who she was luring to Memphis with the explicit text messages. He claimed he wasn't in town on the night of the murder. But he helped Di Spoth of the guns used by throwing them in a lake in Mississippi. Now police did dredged the lake in question, but never found anything, so they figured it was a bad tip. Now the whole time this is going on, Lorenzo's case is stone cold, and Debra seemed to be the only person actively investigating. She had an entire storage locker filled with newspaper clippings talking about her son's murder, as well as anything she deemed relevant to the case.

22:26 She was actively questioning friends and acquaintances, and she was very vocal about her suspicions of Sarah, who had by this point not only remarried, but had written her book that she claimed was heavily based on her marriage with Lorenzen, which again painted him as this adulterist, criminally involved abuser. She had also become an Ordines minister and became heavily involved in her church. In a Facebook status referencing this, she said quote, over the past few years, I have been called all sorts of things, including backhead, gold digger, stripper, murderer, whorer, and all other various terms. I gave it all to God and he worked it out and works it out in two thousand and five. In addition to writing the book that put Lorenzen in such a bad light, she was also interviewed by Kelvin Cohen's, who she would end up leaving her second husband for, and when asked how she felt about being suspected and murdering Lorenzen even five years later, she said, quote that bothered me that the first time they would try to find out who I was would be when they're trying to tie me to a murder of somebody. I spent half my life with somebody that I loved more than myself. That was so hurtful. Kelvin, in an interview with The La Times, actually spoke about how Shara's behavior was strange sometimes after they had started dating. He said that frequently she would hide away in her closet that was filled with furs and rolexes,

23:56 and she would cry and talk to herself in there. Another time, she had played the recording of Lorenzen nime when one call for Calvin and asked him if a voice that could be heard sounded like a man or a woman. He also claimed that she had nightmares involving Lorenzo quite frequently. And she would wake up in a panock. In February twenty seventeen, Shara and Kelvin broke up and she moved with her children to Riverside County, California, to be closer to her brother Marcus. During this time, the investigation into Lorenzen's death was finally heating up on beeknownst to the Wright family. In twenty sixteen, based on a credible tip that was received, the Shelby County Multi Agency Gang Units started re examining the case in an effort known as Operation Rebound.

24:42 They went back and examined the case as if it had just happened, trying to retrace Lorenzon's movements that night. They also re examined the tips and leads that came in and came across with Jimmy Martin had said in twenty thirteen. So they head to the lake in Walnut, mississipp and search it again. This time they were successful. On June twenty seventh, twenty seventeen, the FBI found a semi automatic Smith and Weston pistol in the lake, and the ballistics testing were a match to the bullets obtained during Lorenzen's autopsy. Police four months later obtained a warrant to tap into Scherff's phone calls and leaked the finding of the pistol to the press. Police intercepted a phone call soon after the announcement of the murder weapon being found that Shara made to an unknown person where she said, quote, someone done, sent somebody somewhere to get something.

25:37 They were also able to intercept a text that Kelvin sent mentioning the finding of the murder weapon, which he thought would make Sheryl really happy that they had a lead, but Sherff seemed very panicky when he mentioned this. Four days later, Sharff flew out to meet with Billy ray Turner, and they also intercepted an other phone call where Shre told another unknown person that during the initial investigation in search of her house in twenty ten, police failed to find three different guns in the home. On December fifth, twenty seventeen, based on evidence that had been collected during the reinvestigation, police arrested Billy ray Turner and charged him with first degree murder, and a week and a half later, they pulled Schera over as she drove home with her two sons and arrested shreff for the murder of Lorenzo, charging her with first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and to tempted murder. Now, Chevro did not go to trial. She actually took a plea deal in twenty nineteen because had she gone to trial and lost, she would be looking at one hundred years in exchange for a thirty year sentence. She pled guilty to facilitation to commit murder and facilitation to commit first degree murder because police had learned in speaking with Jimmy again that there was an attempt in Lorenzo's life. Before the murder. He and Billy ray Turner had snuck into Lorenzen's home through an unlocked window in an attempt

27:11 to kill him, but Lorenzo wasn't home. The first count carried a thirty year sentence and the second carried an eight year sentence. They were to be served concurrently, and Shara is eligible for parole after serving thirty percent of her sentence, which is nine years. That means that Shary could be released as early as twenty twenty seven. During sentencing, Debor said quote, Shara, I want to thank you for giving me my grandchildren back. I just hate what happened to my child, but he left me nice looking kids for his grandma. Shara, while in prison, has maintained her innocence despite pleading guilty, and has gone on to promote her second book. Billy Ray Turner was supposed to go to trial in September of twenty nineteen, but this was delayed so his attorney could go over new evidence. It was then delayed again due to the COVID nineteen pandemic. When he finally went to trial in twenty twenty two, Jimmy was brought into testify where he spoke about how Shara had planned everything out and it was she and Billy who had killed Lorenzen. According to his testimony, he claimed that, based on conversations after the fact, Shara had told Lorenzo on the night of July eighteenth, that she was going to meet up with someone in the woods by her home to collect money. Instead, she met up with Billy Ray and they lured Lorenzen into the woods where they ambushed him. As he tried to escape, they shot him in the back. Jimmy claimed that both Shara AND's Billy Ray had weapons. She had

28:42 a pistol and he had a shotgun, and after the murder, Shara picked him up so that Jimmy could help them clean up the scene, which included the use of a metal detector to find straight bullets. Then they drove to Mississippi and disposed of the pistol and shotgun and other items, including two other guns, which were thrown in a dumpster nearby. In March of twenty twenty two, Billy Ray Turner was found guilty of first degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy, and he was sentenced to forty one years on top of the sixteen years he had been given in twenty seventeen after his arrest for weapons charges because he was a convicted felon after being arrested on federal charges in nineteen ninety two. In response, Deborah said the sentence quote would never be closure because I'll never see my son again. This is just some satisfaction for me and my family. As for the motive, while Shara has never spoken about what led her to plan the murder of Lorenzo, Deborah says she knows the answer. Money. That's what it was about, and honestly, I'm inclined to agree. They divorced over money, troubles, and upon his death, she gained control over his insurance policy that could keep her and her children in the life to which she had become a custom to. Sharah was up for parole in twenty twenty two after serving less than half of her required minimum sentence, but she was denied and she is currently incarcerated at the Deborah K.

30:11 Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Tennessee. Billy Ray Turner attempted to appeal his sentence but was denied. As for Lorenzen's children, they are doing well. His sons have followed in his footsteps and were basketball stars in college, with his eldest son becoming a basketball coach, and his daughters are doing just as well, with one of them becoming a nurse, and I believe she is also a mother now. So it's great to see that given the tragedy in their lives, losing their father and their mother being behind, it hasn't stopped them from living their dreams. And I'm sure that Lorenson would be so proud of his children for the lives they are leading. Thank you so much for joining me today while I tell you this story again. Lisa was not with me today.

30:59 She is it's not feeling well, and to be quite honest, I believe I am getting sick as well. So I apologize in advance for what is probably a slightly scratchy voice. I also wanted to point out in response to a review that was left saying that my voice was boring and dull, which is fine. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. My response to that really is, I try very hard to keep my voice in a certain tone and a certain level, primarily because what I'm speaking about is death, the murder of innocent people who lost their lives in devastating, in horrible ways, and I don't think it would be right for my tone to be anything other than neutral and respectful. But if that's not your cup of teeth, it's not your cup of tea. Not mad about it, it's just it's something I wanted to point out. I don't think it's respectful of me to speak about the loss of people's lives in an upbeat tone. But if you find my tone boring, I apologize. This is this is simply my voice.

32:20 I don't think I sound like a robot. That is something that my brother sounds like. He knows that he owns it, and he has in fact been punched in the face for it. So I don't think I sound like a robot. I don't think I sound dull or boring. But if you do, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, and that's fine. But I wanted to point that out or respond to it additionally in the next chapter. I believe the next chapter, I will be having back a guest that I had on a few months ago. I'm very excited to have them back, and we will be discussing a topic that I have covered, so it'll be interesting to look at it from the view of someone who has been investigating and researching these crimes for a very long time. So I'm very excited and I hope you all thoroughly enjoy it. But with that being said, I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys, thank you so much for listening to this chapter of the Book of the Dead, and don't forget that you can always connect with us on Instagram, you can connect with us on Twitter, and you can absolutely connect with us on Patreon.

33:43 We also have a marchure as well that we have frequent discount codes coming out for so that you guys can get March hand drawn by myself at a better cost. We hope you have a lovely rest of your week and just remember please be kind and don't forget to always stay safe, stay curious and stay vigilant. Bye guys, Bye,