Gail and David Witt live in the tiny hamlet of Tellico Plains, Tenn. A little more than an hour south of Knoxville, it boasts a population of about 800 and is a gateway to the Cherokee National Forest.

Which is to say, life skews slower and friendlier and more placidly there.

But after the Witts began watching Knoxville TV news stations five years ago cover the extremely disturbing story of a murdered couple, Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian, life for the Witts turned into a roller coaster ride that hasn't stopped since.

Forever Changed Documentary Chronicles the Horrific Christopher Newsom Channon Christian Murders...and the Years of Injustice That Followed More

Christopher and Channon (Credit: Gail Witt via YouTube)

"We originally didn't know the families at all," Gail Witt recalls to TheBlaze. But the more she heard about the last night on earth for Newsom, 23, a carpenter and standout baseball player, and Christian, a 21-year-old student at the University of Tennessee, the more she was compelled to research the case and learn all the details she could.

On January 6, 2007, Newsom and Christian were abducted at gunpoint in an apartment complex parking lot and taken to what Witt calls a "house of horrors" where they were beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and murdered. Five people (four men and one woman) were charged and convicted for the crime. But when it was discovered that the judge in the case had a drug addiction, the killers took advantage of the justice system.

"All but one has been repeatedly pursuing retrials and appeals," Glenn Beck explained on TheBlaze TV recently. "The lone female attacker had her sentence reduced by a third. This miscarriage of justice is forcing the family to live this horror over and over and over again each time they are dragged back into a court battle."

Which is exactly how the Witts saw things.

Gail says she began watching the trials in August 2009 then soon got the idea that people outside of Knoxville needed a chance to hear about the couple's story, as well as the terrible legal ordeal their families were going through.

She decided she would make a documentary.

Forever Changed Documentary Chronicles the Horrific Christopher Newsom Channon Christian Murders...and the Years of Injustice That Followed More

(Credit: TheBlaze TV)

Despite the fact that Witt had never before even aspired to create a documentary, she says she was simply "led to do this." (Plus, noticing how much misinformation had been circulating around the Internet about the case, Witt says she wanted to create something 100 percent accurate.)

So Witt approached the families in January 2010, meeting with them for two hours one day to see if they would be willing to tell their stories about Christopher and Channon...and their own stories, too. And they agreed.

While the crime happened almost seven years ago, Deena Christian--Channon's mother--says she's just starting to be able to sleep at night.

"We wanted the truth to get out," she tells TheBlaze. "There were stories on the Internet that weren't true. So if anybody was going to tell the story, we wanted to be the ones to do it."

Forever Changed Documentary Chronicles the Horrific Christopher Newsom Channon Christian Murders...and the Years of Injustice That Followed More

Deena Christian speaks on camera in "Forever Changed" (Credit: Gail Witt via YouTube)

"Channon was a good person; Chris was a good person," Christian adds. "I didn't want anybody trying to say otherwise."

When Witt approached her and the other family members, Christian was heartened by the fact that the Witts were from the area and were as interested in the plain truth as the families--as well as the message to be on your guard.