Did A Desire For Money Cause A Florida Teen To Kill Her Father?

Guenevere Hudnall told police that her father was sitting on a $6,000 settlement and had only given her $400.

November 03, 2022

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (Screenshot from ID's "American Monster")

By all accounts, Bill Hudnall was a likable guy who loved his children and tried to do right by the family he had built with a woman 10 years his junior.

That woman, however, did not have Bill’s best interests at heart.

Bill was a divorced, 30-year-old Marine Corps veteran when he met Stephanie in 1990. The couple went on just a couple dates before Stephanie got pregnant, and the pair married in January 1991, just one month before the birth of their oldest child, Joshua. Their daughter, Guenevere followed a year later.

As the family grew, Stephanie quit her job to stay home with the kids, though her spending habits did not adjust with the loss of income. According to Bill’s brothers and sister-in-law, Stephanie spent money the couple didn’t have and lived beyond their means despite Bill’s good job working as a pipefitter.

Still, despite the strain between Bill and Stephanie, he was an engaged dad who took his children to the park, cared for them, and worked hard to try and provide for the family.

It just wasn’t good enough for Stephanie.

Eventually, the money issues led Bill to move Stephanie and his children into his mother’s house in Louisiana, where he had grown up. With a roof over their head, it was a relief on their strained finances, but the tension between Stephanie and Bill’s mother grew.

Bill’s mother cooked for the family each night, but it wasn’t good enough for Stephanie — instead, she kept complaining about how much she disliked her mother-in-law and refused to help keep the house tidy despite still not having a job. Eventually, Bill’s mother told him that he would need to take Stephanie and the kids and go. The family left Louisiana and went back to Florida where Bill got another pipefitting job and Stephanie continued to stay home.

Bill’s brothers, Tim and Joe, tried more than once to get Bill to leave Stephanie, but he was always afraid that she would figure out how to keep the kids from him. Rather than risk separation from the children, he just tolerated Stephanie’s poor spending habits and the havoc her decisions wreaked on his family.

Bill finally opened a secret bank account where he began squirreling money away. It took nine long years, but in 2007, he was able to purchase a double-wide trailer for the family — which had grown to five people after the birth of a daughter in 1998. The new home didn’t do anything to quell Stephanie’s spending habits either, and finally, after more than 15 years of marriage, the couple split.

Bill settled into a small home nearby and maintained a contentious co-parenting relationship with Stephanie. She would allow the children to visit him, but she was quick to tell them that their father didn’t love them or he wouldn’t have left.

A 911 call on June 9, 2011, would reveal just how deep that perceived betrayal had affected their middle daughter, Guenevere. Find out what went so wrong on American Monster on discovery+.

Next Up

Georgia Lawyer Convicted Of Fraud Murders Mother Before Going On Lam

“It’s shocking beyond description,” the brother of convicted killer Richard Merritt says of the case.

Kentucky Woman Enraged Over Lasagna Birthday Dinner Stabbed Her Mother 79 Times

“I think Paige Conley was born evil, and she will die evil,” Ginger Goetz says of her convicted killer sister.

'Happy Face Killer': How Keith Jesperson’s Daughter Discovered His Deadly Secret

“There was just something ‘off’ about him,” Melissa Moore says of the serial killer.

A Slain Man’s Family Stood Behind His Widow Until The Shocking End

Keith Gentry’s mother told authorities they were looking at the wrong suspect if they believed her daughter-in-law, Darlene, had anything to do with her son’s death.

A New York Woman Got Her Husband To Confess To Killing His Own Son

It took years before Cindy Best worked up the nerve to confront her husband about the death of her stepson.

Two Young California Boys Forced To Watch Their Father Kill Couple During Sailboat Trip

“Even now, we don’t know the full extent of what he’s done,” the son of Silas “Duane” Boston says.

Digital Technology Helps Solve Murder Of California Nurse Found Brutally Stabbed

“I felt that there was something broken in that person,” one official said of discovering who had committed the crime.

A Florida Man Was Free For A Year Before He Killed — Again

Eric Pierson had already done two stints in prison — one for attempted murder and one for second degree murder — when Erika Verdecia went missing.

Indiana Man Who Murdered His Parents Claimed They Had Suicide Pact

“I never would have in a million years thought that he would have ever done anything like this,” says the convicted killer’s aunt.

A Doting Nevada Father Became The Victim Of His Own Daughter

Daniel Halseth believed he was protecting his youngest child, Sierra, when he filed for custody, but his act of parental sacrifice led to his untimely murder.