How Candy Montgomery Met Betty Gore

Candace "Candy" Montgomery murdered her friend Betty Gore by hitting her more than 40 times with an ax, as Oxygen reports. They had been having a fight over Allan Gore, Betty's husband, who Montgomery admitted to sleeping with. Montgomery claims that when the fight escalated, Gore pulled out an ax and hit her in the foot. In court, Montgomery contended that she fought back in self-defense (via Audacy). Courts later determined that Betty Gore had already been unconscious when she was repeatedly and fatally attacked.

To rewind for a moment, people who watched the case unfold wondered: What could have led the two friends to have such a vicious and tragic fight? Things seemed fine in the months before Gore's murder. Their children were close friends, constantly sleeping over each other's houses and attending school and swim lessons together (via Texas Monthly). Montgomery even threw a surprise baby shower for Betty Gore when she had her second child. Their friendship seemed strong until the tragic day of the murder — and the way they first met might surprise you.

The Montgomery and Gore families met for the first time at their local place of worship, the Methodist Church of Lucas. At the time, both Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore were 30 years old with young children, so the church was a good way to connect with the local community (via The Dallas Morning News). According to Texas Monthly, the Texas church was nestled between wheat fields on three sides and a county road on the other side.

In fact, it was especially meaningful to Montgomery because it was where she and Allan Gore, Betty's husband, first felt a romantic spark. She had already decided to have an affair after becoming bored with her husband. Then, Candy and Allan were playing volleyball together and collided, which made her realize that he "smelled sexy" (via Texas Monthly).

Betty liked that he was also an active member of their church, and as time went on, he began to flirt with her after the services. After a choir meeting one day, she finally mentioned that she was attracted to him, and about a week later, after another church volleyball game, Allan kissed her for the first time. Their religious habits even factored into their eventual affair — the only time Candy Montgomery was free to meet him was when her child was at preschool there. Allan and Candy's affair went on for months without them ever being discovered, and it was all because they met at church.