No Safe Place

Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

Relief, finally, along the Gulf Coast, in the Florida panhandle. The promise of sunset brought a respite from the withering humidity, the oppressive sun. It was July 9th, a rural hamlet called Beulah, just past 7 p.m. A breeze kicked in. You could breathe again.  And then, a crime that stole that breath away.  These images were captured by the sophisticated security system mounted outside, and inside, a nine bedroom house.  A home invasion, in progress.

A double murder, about to occur. The victims: a husband and wife. But not any suburban couple.  This was no typical family.

Melanie and Bud Billings were the locally celebrated parents of seventeen children, thirteen of them adopted, many with a variety of disabilities and special needs. Nine of the children, ages four through eleven, were home when the masked intruders, wearing ninja-like garb, arrived in the fading daylight in a van and burst into the Billings residence.

The question: Which grew by the hour, fed and watered on the Internet: Why these people?  Why the Billings? Was it a robbery?  Or was it something else, too? Something hinted at darkly.

It may seem strange even to say it, but what happened as darkness fell on July the 9th is really only a small part of the story.  Before that, for example, what went on behind these woods and down that private road was a beautiful thing.  All these children, whose future in this cruel world had seemed very dark, even hopeless, now had fulltime devoted parents, and a happy tribe of siblings, and a big fine house in which to live, with its toys, pool, a pond, a backyard barbeque and security systems to keep them safe.  Hopeless to happily-ever-after is how this was supposed to go.  And it would have, had it been a fairy tale.

That it was not a fairy tale we all now know. But to understand the gravity of the story it will help to meet this remarkable young woman:

Ashley Markham: Those children were her life.  And she did not want them separated, no matter what it took.  She did not want them to be without their home.

Her name is Ashley Markham. She is talking about her mother and father, Melanie and Bud Billings.

Ashley Markham: You know, I think we're able to honor her wishes and my father's wishes.  And that's what we'll do.

Ashley is 26. She and her husband, Blue, are determined to keep the Billings children together.  And she's also determined to keep her mother's memory alive, gain strength and inspiration from her life, and tell Melanie Billings’ story in depth, for the first time:

Keith Morrison: You're the one who knew her best.

Ashley Markham: I did.  She was a young mother.

Keith Morrison: When she had you...

Ashley Markham: When she had me. And she had my sister, only two years later.  So she had both of us at a very young age.

Melanie Billings was just 17 when she had Ashley, and just 19 when her second daughter, Nikki, was born.

Ashley Markham: When my sister, she got sick when she was two months old.  She got spinal meningitis.  And so that brought a whole new world of issues for my mom.

Nikki suffered disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy, epilepsy. And Melanie's first marriage ended. 

Ashley Markham: I can remember Nikki being very sick as a child, and in and out of the hospital.  You know, it was always just us three. You know, my mom never faltered in any way taking care of me or Nikki.  She worked two jobs and provided us, you know, with the things that she could.

Keith Morrison: What'd she do?

Ashley Markham:  She waitressed. She worked in car dealerships as the title clerk.

Later, car dealerships would become a family business.  But as a single mom, Melanie struggled to take care of Ashley and Nikki, who was unable to speak.   Melanie's sister, Julie Tittle:

Julie Tittle: She was amazing with Nikki. She moved heaven and earth for her.  She was her voice.

Around 1990, when she was 25, Melanie met a man who was a big success in the used car business around Pensacola. Bud Billings was 23 years Melanie's senior. But it didn't seem to matter:

Julie Tittle: When I met him, he was wonderful.  He was very giving and loving and he was amazing to my sister.  His world was my sister.

In fact, there was a special bond between the two:

Ashley Markham: There's a story that my Dad fell in love with my sister Nikki before he fell in love with my mom.  So I think their similar interest in Nikki and being there for her really drew their bond closer."   

Melanie and Bud married in 1993. And when the families blended, dealing with issues involving disabilities and adoption became part of the fabric of their lives. Bud Billings had already adopted two children with no disabilities.  His first adopted child, from a previous marriage died, two years after Bud and Melanie married. 

Ashley Markham: That was the first adoption.  And then Justin was adopted 20 years ago.

Keith Morrison: Did you ever know this was something that would happen, that they would keep adopting kids?

Ashley Markham: I knew that they wanted to adopt.  My mom, after she was 24, she couldn't have children.  She had a surgery that prevented her from ever being able to have children. So once they were married-- they couldn't have children of their own.  So it was always something that they had wanted.

Keith Morrison: Why a special needs child?  Because of Nikki?

Ashley Markham:  I think Nikki gave 'em the inspiration.  They knew that they could care for Nikki.  And I think they knew it was kinda their calling.

And thus their big house became the refuge and salvation of children whose lives had once been marked for pain and deprivation. And of course they could not know, enveloped here in the security of a loving family, that a red van was coming- that authorities say would take it all away.

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