Entertainment

This 'Fatal Vows' Episode Tells The True Story Of A Love Triangle Turned Deadly

by Jordan Lauf
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Love kills. At least, that's the premise of Investigation Discovery's Fatal Vows. The show chronicles what happens when romance turns deadly, from couples who killed together to those who killed each other. The Nov. 10 episode tells the true story of Opal Williams and Ricky King, who, per Fox59, conspired to kill Williams' husband. Both pled guilty to murder in 2016, with Williams receiving a 50-year sentence and King a 45-year sentence, meaning that, barring any note-yet-public developments, Opal Williams and Ricky King are still be in jail.

According to the Daily Journal, King and Williams reportedly started dating while Williams was married to a man named Steven Williams. Steven's son-in-law, Steve Bryan, told the outlet that the couple had been gong through a rough patch, and that Steven asked for a divorce after discovering Williams had connected with King, her ex-boyfriend. He also said that they were separated throughout parts of 2014 — Williams moved out, and they were both seeing other people — but that eventually, they reconciled.

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It was at some point after this that King, Williams, and her cousin Charles Lehman apparently began plotting to murder Steven. According to ABC's RTV6, authorities believe that King and Lehman lured Steven out of his home on March 10, 2016 by telling him that his wife was hurt and needed assistance. Per court documents obtained by RTV6, investigators said that King and Lehman then brought Steven to the area where they planned to kill him, and made multiple calls on speakerphone to Williams to let Steven speak with her.

"Opal told Steven Williams that he should not have been sleeping with another woman," the court documents reportedly read. "The victim told Opal that he was sorry for whatever he had done, some of which he didn’t remember ever doing." After that, police claimed Williams instructed King and Lehman to "do it," meaning kill Steven. According to the court documents, Lehman admitted that he then stabbed Steven multiple times. He and King then rolled up his body in a carpet and dumped it under a bridge, King told police.

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As reported in another RTV6 article, it was Williams who reported her husband was missing, and authorities believe that at that point, Steven had been dead for four days. His body was found five days after she contacted police — so nine days after Steven was killed — and it was then, Police Officer Rafael Diaz told the outlet, that investigators became involved. Afterward, they spoke to all three suspects and arrested them. In addition to King and Williams' sentences, Lehman pled guilty and began serving a 50-year sentence with five years suspended in 2017, according to Fox.

King and Williams' story might provide entertainment for those watching Fatal Vows, but for the family Steven Williams left behind, his murder is a tragedy that can never be erased. “Opal was the one who reported him missing. The whole time she knew," Steven's son-in-law Steve Bryan told the Daily Journal. "That’s the most demented, psychotic thing to me."