Who was Judy Orr Baldwin and what happened to her?

FORMER police officer and dispatcher James “Jamie” Harold Baldwin Jr. was arrested, convicted, and found guilty of murdering his wife in December 2016.

Judy Orr Baldwin’s tragic death and Jamie Baldwin Jr.’s attempted cover-up are the subject of a true crime exposé on Dateline , airing new footage from the classic case on Saturday, July 6, 2024, at 10 pm ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock .

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Who was Judy Orr Baldwin?

Judy McWaters Orr Baldwin was born on January 12, 1963.

She was a loving mother, wife, family member, and friend.

After graduating from Chester Christian School, Judy started her own business , Judy’s Personal Touch.

She was a member of the Woodward Baptist Church , where she also joined the Women’s Missionary Union.

In 1981, she married Wallace Todd “Foot” Orr, and the duo had two children before Orr died in 2004.

Like her first husband, Judy was fond of motorcycles and was a member and secretary of the Carolina Thunder Christian Motorcycle Club.

In 2012, just eight months after they first met, Judy married James “Jamie” Harold Baldwin Jr.

Judy’s family members and friends recalled that she seemed “giddy” with Jamie, as reported by Heavy .

They were happy she was finally moving on from her first husband, who had died eight years prior in a motorcycle accident.

Judy had two children , Chris and Josh Orr, a step-daughter, Jessica Moss, a stepson, Justin Baldwin, and as of December 2016, six grandchildren.

Both her parents, Robert T. and Annie Floride Smith McWaters, and one of her brothers, Johnny McWaters, had previously passed away.

At the time of her death on December 14, 2016, she was survived by her second husband, Jamie, her children, grandchildren, her sister, Mary Ann Wilkes, and brother, Jimmy T. McWaters, who passed away in 2022.

According to her obituary , Judy was buried at the Chester Memorial Gardens.

What happened to Judy?

On December 14, 2016, Judy was found dead as a result of what appeared to be a tragic car accident.

Her husband, Jamie Baldwin Jr., told law enforcement officers that she had been hanging up Christmas decorations around their home earlier that evening.

He recalled entering the couple’s garage, where he found her on the ground, bleeding, as though she had fallen off a ladder.

Baldwin Jr. said he then tried to clean up and stop the bleeding, and placed his wife in the passenger seat of his Jeep.

On the way to the hospital , Baldwin Jr. said he swerved his car to avoid a head-on collision with a truck and then lost control of his car.

The Jeep went off the road and into a nearby embankment, where it crashed.

Baldwin Jr. said he lost consciousness, and when he awoke, his wife wasn’t in the car.

Instead, he found her in front of the Jeep, dead, as though she had been thrown from the vehicle.

Law enforcement officers initially believed Baldwin Jr.’s story, though agreed that certain aspects didn’t line up.

Once the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) took over the investigation, they found several inconsistencies in Baldwin Jr.’s story, and uncovered major clues that led to his arrest.

SLED found that Baldwin Jr. had taken out an accidental death policy in Judy’s name before the crash, and named himself as the sole beneficiary of $25,000.

Her skull fracture also indicated that she would have had trouble speaking during the car ride to the hospital.

SLED officers also found wounds inconsistent with the crash, and blood spatters in the couple’s home that didn’t line up with Judy’s alleged accidental fall.

In reality, SLED investigators and later, prosecutors at Baldwin Jr.’s trial, alleged that he beat Judy at the couple’s home , giving her a skull fracture that likely killed her.

He then drove, as though en route to the hospital, and staged a car crash, calling the police afterward to execute the final part of his cover-up.

Baldwin, who was previously arrested in 2017 on charges of arson and insurance fraud , has maintained his innocence to this day.

He claims his wife fell while hanging Christmas ornaments, and he crashed the car en route to the hospital.

Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker, who knew Judy personally, conducted two autopsies within two days of her death.

Both autopsies “showed Judy Baldwin died from massive bleeding, a skull fracture, and blunt force trauma,” as reported by WBTV News .

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What was James Harold Baldwin Jr’s trial verdict?

Jamie Baldwin Jr. was arrested in connection to Judy’s murder in August 2018, nearly two years after her death.

His trial began in October 2019 and lasted just over a week.

A jury unanimously found Baldwin Jr. guilty of murdering Judy, and sentenced him to life in prison , without the eligibility of parole.

Baldwin Jr. maintained his innocence throughout the trial, telling jurors he would never hurt his wife.

Judy’s son, Josh, was one of the last witnesses called to the stand for the state.

“I tried to ask him what happened,” Orr said, as reported by WBTV News .

“He wouldn’t say anything besides he just wished it was him,” he added.

Josh also remembers asking Baldwin Jr. about his mother’s death shortly after her funeral.

“I specifically asked Jamie multiple times, my mom would have called us, my mom loved me and my brother.”

“She would have called us. My brother lived right there. I was like, ‘Jamie did my mom say anything about me and my brother – did she – when this happened?’”

“He didn’t say anything. I asked him again, ‘Jamie did my mom say anything about me and my brother trying to call us?’ And he got up and walked out,” Orr said.

In December 2022, a South Carolina appeals court panel upheld Baldwin Jr.’s murder conviction.

Baldwin Jr. had tried to appeal his guilty verdict, claiming a Facebook photo of him with a convicted former sheriff had “tainted the trial,” as reported by The Herald Online .

While the appeals court “unanimously agreed that the trial judge made an error in allowing the picture of Baldwin and Underwood in the trial,” they also confirmed that “the picture did not change the outcome.”

As of July 6, 2024, Baldwin Jr. is serving his life sentence somewhere within the South Carolina Department of Corrections, though his exact prison location is unknown.