DICKSON, Tenn. -- There is a surprising development in the high-profile Joe Clyde Daniels criminal case. The little boy's mother, Krystal Daniels, is taking back key details she shared with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, which implicated her husband, Joseph Daniels. That could have big implications in the trial given that there's very little physical evidence.
Their son Joe Clyde disappeared from the family's Dickson County home nearly two years ago. He is assumed to be dead but no remains have ever been found. His father is charged with homicide and his mother is charged with aggravated child neglect.
The TBI says Krystal told them she found her husband standing with fists clenched over a motionless Joe Clyde.
"She said Joseph Daniels did take a swing at her. He didn't hit her and told her that if she told anybody that he would kill her," testified TBI agent Joe Boyd in court hearing in 2018.
That incriminating statement is key to the prosecution.
But now Krystal says she's taking that story back .
"Yes, I am very frustrated. And just, you know. And I do understand that if I wouldn't have ... if I wouldn't have felt pressured, um, at the time of the interview that was done with TBI I was not on my mental health meds and, um, I do feel like I was pressured," she told WTVF's Nick Beres. "There's, you know, there's such a thing as false confession and, I mean... I, you know, I regret every bit of what I said."
Legal analyst Nick Leonardo said that complicates the case.
"It's a real mess when you start changing your story like that."
Leonardo said after initially cooperating with the TBI, Krystal seems to now be siding with her husband. And, that could be a problem come trial because it's not the first time that this has happened. Joseph Daniels initially confessed to killing Joe Clyde, but his since recanted.
What will a jury believe?
Krystal and Joseph Daniels are scheduled to stand trial in August. Both remain locked up on one-million-dollars bond each.
This story was originally published by Nick Beres at WTVF.
