Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Dateline NBC reexamines the murder case of Judy Orr Baldwin, a South Carolina mother. The upcoming episode titled “The Black Box” will air on the network this Saturday, July 6, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. A synopsis reads, “A coroner arrives at the scene of a car wreck to find a woman dead. He becomes suspicious when he notices unusual markings on her face. Was her death really an accident? Andrea Canning reports.”
On December 14, 2016, Judy Orr Baldwin died in what seemed like a tragic car crash. At the time of the accident, Judy and her husband, James Baldwin, were on their way to a medical center after an incident at home during which the mother-of-two supposedly hurt herself. However, the victim’s family raised several questions about her suspicious death, and a subsequent inquiry revealed a sinister murder plot.
Who killed Judy Orr Baldwin & how was the killer caught?
A months-long investigation into Judy Orr Baldwin’s suspicious death revealed her husband, James Baldwin, killed her. According to The Mirror, Baldwin’s plot came to light once the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) took over the investigation. The SLED believes he brutally beat Judy at home and then faked a car crash to cover up the crime.
James Baldwin had initially claimed that on December 14, 2016, Judy Orr Baldwin had been an accident at home. He alleged that Judy was hanging Christmas decorations at home using a ladder before the car crash. James claimed he went to the garage for a moment and only returned to find his wife bleeding on the floor. He assumed she fell from the ladder and tried to clean her up before eventually taking her to a hospital.
According to James’ story, he was driving Judy to the Piedmont Medical Center when the car crash happened. WBTV stated that James described the alleged crash in a recorded conversation with a Carolina Highway Patrol trooper. He claimed he swerved to miss a truck, and their Jeep went down an embankment. Once he gained consciousness, James claimed Judy wasn’t in the vehicle. He claimed to have found her in front of the Jeep.
The trooper believed “some of the stuff” James Baldwin mentioned didn’t “add up to what’s at the collision scene.” In the following months after Judy Orr Baldwin’s death, her family raised questions concerning the suspicious crash. Moreover, two months after the incident, James left their house and moved into the home of a woman named Teri King. Prosecutors claimed text messages proved James and Teri were more than just friends and suggested that he was having an affair.
During a later search of the Baldwins’ house, SLED found blood evidence high up on the wall. Additionally, the coroner who examined Judy Orr Baldwin’s body claimed the head injury was inconsistent with a car crash. Other key evidence revealed James Baldwin had complete control of the Jeep before the crash. Authorities had also found a clear tire mark at the crash site, which contradicted James’ story that he lost control of the vehicle at 50mph.
Recalling the crash to SLED, James had alleged that Judy was conscious during their drive. He said she kept talking while they were en route to the hospital. James said, “The last words she said to me was, ‘I love you.'” However, medical experts believed it was impossible for Judy to talk with such a severe head injury. SLED agents also claimed that James took out an accidental death policy in Judy’s name six months before the alleged car crash. He was the sole beneficiary of $25,000, per another WBTV report.
Authorities arrested James Baldwin in connection with Judy Orr Baldwin’s murder case in August 2018. Investigators accused him of murdering his wife and then staging the crash crash to cover up the crime. James stood trial the following year, which resulted in a conviction. He then received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Dateline NBC’s episode on the murder of Judy Orr Baldwin by her ex-cop husband, James Baldwin, airs on Saturday, July 6.
