Episode 46 | Murder in Belle Mina: The Christine Garth Case

Belle Mina, Alabama, sits on the eastern edge of Limestone County. You will likely find more people at a Huntsville steakhouse on a Saturday night than those who call Belle Mina home.

With a population of just a little more than one hundred, Belle Mina is a ghostly reminder of days gone by.

Named for the plantation of the same name, it paints a dark picture of Alabama’s past. Alabama’s second governor Thomas Bibb built the Belle Mina plantation with the hands of slaves, their, sweat and tears profited the mighty Governor Bibb through the harvest and sale of cotton. Those fields remain to this day.

Belle Mina’s golden days long gone and its population, mostly black, most poor, are not what freedom should look like. The struggles that they face in modern America illustrates the inequities and racism that many in America, picture Alabama to be like.

It was this town that Christine Garth called home. It was here in a humble mobile home that she raised her children. Rarely did she lock her door as her home was welcoming to all.

Christine like many in poor rural communities fell victim to the drug epidemic of the 1980’s. Despite her addiction, she did everything possible to give her children a better life. To be thankful for what they had. To love and respect others. Most importantly, to leave the world better than they found it.

But February 16, 2015, Christine Garth’s discarded body would be discovered in a cotton field just two miles from her home. Left like rubbage, naked and beaten, the story that would be told by law enforcement was far from the truth of what happened that night. Leaving a family without answers and a killer still on the loose.

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