The newest episode of Deadly Deception features the case of James “Brian” Quilliams, who was charged with and convicted of stabbing his girlfriend, Teresa Sue Compton, to death in January 2014, after she discovered he wanted to get back together with his ex-wife.
Compton had been found in the home that the couple shared, stabbed and slashed with a samurai sword approximately 5 to 10 times. She had some defensive wounds, meaning she fought her attacker.
The couple had recently gotten into an argument when Compton discovered Quilliams had texted his ex-wife wanting to get back together. Furious, Compton put Quilliams’ belongings out on the porch and told him to get out, which he did, but returned with a knife and slashed their mattress.
Police were called to the scene, but Quilliams had left by that point. Shortly thereafter, Compton allowed Quilliams to move back in.
She was dead less than a month later.
Police discovered Compton’s body while performing a welfare check, and by that time, Quilliams was on the run. He’d booked a ticket to Knoxville, Tennessee, and from there headed to nearby Pigeon Forge courtesy of his ex-wife, Kristi Quilliams, who gave him a ride to a nearby national park.
After dropping him off at the park, she was pulled over by the police and arrested for a DUI charge. When the police asked if her ex-husband could come pick up her car, she said that he couldn’t because he “was running from the police for killing a woman in Florida.” She then told them she had dropped him off at Smokey Mountains National Park.
Quilliams was apprehended in a cabin in Wears Valley in Tennessee. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Deadly Deception airs on Saturdays at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.