Things took a deadly turn in Georgia’s DeKalb County, and there might have been nearly half a million reasons why.

As seen in a First Look of Season 2, Episode 2 of Fatal Family Feuds, tensions rose between relatives following the 1993 death of patriarch Bill Fuss. The father left nearly $500,000 in assets and jewelry for his family, including his wife, Jackie Fuss, plus their four children.

Between them, the couple had a biological daughter, Margaret, and three adopted children: David, Charles, and Melissa, all of whom were adults at the time of the father’s death.

“After the father died, the children came home thinking that they would start getting all this inheritance,” one woman told producers in the recent clip. “However, Jackie decided not to divvy out any of the inheritance.”

Where did the Fuss money go?

David Fuss told authorities that his mother planned to use her late husband’s money to help care for Charles, “a mentally ill adult that needed constant care to keep him medicated and to keep him sustained,” so stated retired detective Brian Harris of the DeKalb County Police Department.

Angeline Hartmann, a former Fox Atlanta affiliate WAGA-TV reporter, stated the decision “did not sit well” with the siblings, adding, “They are fuming.”

“As long as Jackie was alive, she was able to keep the lid on the smoldering pot,” Harris told Fatal Family Feuds. “When she was killed, there was nothing to really keep the kids in line.”

A deeper look into Margaret Fuss

Investigators took a special look at the eldest child, Margaret, the only biological child of Bob and Jackie Fuss. Some believed that, since Jackie Fuss left no will, Margaret Fuss was the rightful heiress to the half-a-million-dollar inheritance.

However, since there was little legal ground to stand on, Harris said it would have been “a fight through the DeKalb County court system” to settle on who would benefit from the deceased couple.

“All the siblings hired lawyers to protect their piece of the estate,” Hartmann told Fatal Family Feuds.

Arguments over the inheritance went on for three years, David Fuss told investigators, and his wife, Kelly Fuss, had been dragged into the mess. The aforementioned woman featured in the recent clip said Kelly Fuss once confided she “did not have a good relationship” with her in-laws and grew “totally frustrated” by the ongoing situation.

Who was Kelly Fuss?

Retired detectives Harris and Chris Harvey explained Kelly Fuss was attached by default because of her marriage to David Fuss. Harris said she was only “involved” because, should anything have happened to David Fuss, she could have de facto inherited her husband’s cut.

“She had married into this very, exceptionally dysfunctional family,” said Harris. “I mean, if you marry into that, any reasonable person would probably think to themselves, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’”

Kelly Fuss would be the next to die in a sprawling case that featured incest, greed, and multiple convictions years later.

Learn more about the Fuss family and their secrets in Fatal Family Feuds, airing Sundays at 7/6c on Oxygen.