Dateline: Consumed - Who was Julie Griffith and what happened to her? Disturbing details of a 2014 murder, revealed

The NBC Dateline episode titled "Consumed" unwraps a case in a noiseless suburb in Reidland, Kentucky, where a fire lit up in the early morning hours of January 17, 2014.

The house that turned into an inferno belonged to Julie and Keith Griffith, a couple known for their peaceful nature in upholding community-centric lives. Inside the burnt remains of their house, emergency responders found Julie's lifeless body along with the family’s two adored dogs.

At first, the incident that was thought to be a tragedy soon disentangled into something far more ominous.

As Dateline plunged into the story years later after the incident, viewers were met head-on with layers of deceitfulness, an outrageous confession, and an investigation that verified how evil can every so often wear a mask of the most familiar face.

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Behind the fire: What Dateline uncovers beneath the ashes

The investigation, as seen on Dateline, led by correspondent Dennis Murphy, uncovered the horrendous reality that Julie Griffith’s being dead in a house fire wasn’t a measly accident—it was an intended murder.

While the house fire may have seemed like a disastrous calamity, an autopsy report later revealed that three bullet wounds in Julie’s torso were found. Isn’t this crazy for someone dying in a house fire? It is this important discovery that completely altered the case from being looked at as an accident to a fully-fledged homicide.

Murphy’s report for Dateline depicts the frightening conversion of Keith Griffith from him being a grief-stricken husband to a prime murder suspect.

Julie was a loving person, mom, grandmother, and an active churchgoer, who had no known rivals. That made her murder all the more shuddering to everyone else who knew her.

Dateline’s storytelling brought forth visions and understandings from various people, like the detectives attached to this case, friends, and family, all trying to make sense of how a woman so loved met such a vicious end.

The episode highlighted how vital small choices were—like a medical examiner inquisitive regarding the cause of death and a detective scrutinizing a phone ping—that in the end led investigators down to the correct path.

Without those choices, the NBC show suggests, the truth might have remained hidden forever.

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The deception of Keith Griffith: A husband turned killer

As Dateline went on to dive deeper into the case, it became clear that Keith Griffith was the one who had carefully played out the entire crime. While Murphy visited Keith in jail, he made a note of Keith’s character while saying;

“This is a pretty cold, calculated character…”

However, in the due course of time, Keith later confessed to shooting his wife before starting a fire in their home, hoping to obliterate all of the evidence that could be found.

When Murphy asked Griffith about why he’d committed the crime, Griffith said;

“All I can tell you is I had a lot of bad thoughts, wrong thoughts, mistakes. I really can’t tell you. I don’t know…”

According to Murphy;

“He says that he pulled into the driveway. He says he kills his wife. She did not know that it happened…”

While waiting for his trial, Keith once again lost his marbles. He made an effort to hire a hitman from inside jail, and his target was Captain Matt Carter, the lead investigator for the case. According to a report, Griffith put forward a prize of $10,000 for the hit.

When the hitman he tried to employ went to the officials instead, the FBI sprang an investigation and established the plot.

Keith’s trial originally concluded in a verdict of a hung jury, but as the NBC true crime show publicised, he eventually did plead guilty, just a week before a second trial was about to begin. He then received a 30-year in-prison sentence.

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The woman they remember: Julie Griffith beyond the headlines

While Dateline narrated the crime, it also paid respect to Julie Griffith as a person, not just a victim of a horrible crime.

Her friends and church community talked about a woman who emitted warmth and gentleness. A close friend, Kim Tate, says;

“She was very loved…”

Debbie Riley, another friend, recalled how Julie always reached out to lend a helping hand without ever needing to be asked beforehand.

Julie’s love for her grandchildren, her devoutness to her church and God, and her simple enjoyment in being there for others were all frequent themes running throughout the episode.

The episode on NBC made space for these peaceful memories in the middle of the darker and colder narrative, paying respect to the life that Julie lived before it was taken away from her.

For her friends and family, who might’ve watched the episode, was might’ve had a bittersweet feeling—a kind of closure, possibly, but certainly not a replacement for the harm done.

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Dateline’s coverage of the case of Julie Griffith shed light on a troubling crime that one could not possibly dare think of.

Through razor-sharp reporting, the episode peeled back the layers of deceptiveness to expose a disturbing truth, and gave voice to a woman whose life was of importance far beyond the newspaper and article headlines.