Nashville Neon, Benadryl, and a Gospel Singer’s Deadly Ambition
There’s something uniquely chilling about a murder plotted over a Sunday hymn. You’d think a woman dedicated to gospel music would have a bit more... soul? But Sharon Hurt proved that a failed music career and a $250,000 life insurance policy are a combustible mix. Especially when you throw a pink Cadillac and a complicit sister into the driveway.
Don Hurt was, by all accounts, a "momma's boy" in the best sense. He kept things clean, he cooked for his family, and he loved hard. Maybe too hard. Because while Don was head-over-heels for Sharon, Sharon was head-over-heels for a lifestyle his truck-driving salary couldn't quite subsidize. She wanted to be a star. When the gospel album flopped, she didn't pivot to a new career—she pivoted to a new plan. One that involved a lethal exit strategy for her husband.
The Man Who Refused to Die
Before we get to the execution in the passenger seat, we have to talk about the Tennessee River bridge. Six months before his death, Don was shot in the face with a shotgun while driving. Most people would fold. Not Don. He shifted gears with one hand, steering through the haze of blood to find help.
He survived. And what did he do? He downplayed it. He protected the very people who were trying to erase him. It’s gut-wrenching, really. His family saw the writing on the wall—the "red Firebird" seen at the scene belonged to his brother-in-law—but Don stayed. He wanted to believe in the woman he married.
- The Motive: A $250,000 policy and a side-hustle affair with her boss, Joe Rose.
- The Weapon of Choice: Not just a gun, but diphenhydramine.
- The Getaway: A pink Cadillac. I mean, talk about conspicuous. If you're going to commit a rural roadside execution, maybe don't bring the car that screams "look at me."
A Family Business of Murder
This wasn't a solo act. This was a dark, twisted ensemble performance. Sharon recruited her sister Marcy—a nurse, no less—and Marcy’s husband, James. It takes a specific kind of internal rot to use your medical knowledge to lace a man’s drink with enough Benadryl to incapacitate him just so your sister can get a payout.
They treated Don like a chore. A piece of business to be handled. They drugged him, drove him to a rural road in Goodlettsville, and finished what the shotgun blast couldn't. Two shots. One in the ear canal. Pure execution style.
The Golden Nugget
"I think she got power signs in her eyes and to hell with everything else. It's amazing how all that turned around over money, but it did."
The Snitch and the Fall
Criminals are rarely as smart as they think they are, and Joe Rose—the lover and boss—was the first to crack. When the FBI started breathing down his neck for bankruptcy fraud, he sang louder than Sharon ever did on her gospel record. He gave up the whole plot: the gun, the Benadryl, the Murray family's involvement.
It took 18 months of meticulous brick-by-brick police work, but the "grieving widow" act eventually hit a wall. Seeing Sharon arrested at a court hearing while she was trying to claw at that insurance money? That’s the kind of poetic justice that makes these cases worth following.
Don’t let the gospel music fool you. Sometimes the most dangerous people are the ones sitting in the front pew, calculating the math of your life versus their ambition.
Would you like me to analyze the specific forensic details of the ballistics used to link the first shooting to the Murray family?
Listen to Snapped: Women Who Murder: https://podranker.com/podcast/snapped-women-who-murder