William Thomas Bolton was born July 11, 1965, in Oxford, Mississippi, to Chadwick and Martha Bolton. Chad was a land developer, and Martha stayed home to raise their three children: William and twins Rebecca and Roger.

Early in the marriage, Chad inherited a good sum of money from his father, which he decided to use to buy up property for development. His first venture was a shopping mall, and it was a success. He quickly became a wealthy man.

When William finished high school, he opted not to attend college because he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. After graduation, he went to work for his father. Chad taught him well, and William was soon handling projects on his own.

In 1988, while taking a well-earned vacation in Florida with his friends, William met a young woman named Pam Marshall. She was a beautiful girl with long, blonde hair. It was love at first sight. With some coaxing from his friends, he got the nerve to talk to her. The couple had a long distance relationship at first, but William convinced Pam to relocate to Oxford after she graduated from nursing school.

William and Pam were married in August 1990 and settled into a nice three-bedroom house. William promised her one day she would have the house of her dreams. In 2001, Pam gave birth to their only child, and she stayed home with their son until he was five years old when she resumed working as a nurse.

Now that William had a family of his own, he decided to start his own business with his inheritance from his grandfather. He bought up property and built his first subdivision. It was a success, and he became wealthy like his father before him.

When his son was 10 years old, William decided it was time to build a bigger and better house for them. He found the perfect spot in a great neighborhood and convinced Pam to stop working to help design the house. Pam poured her heart and soul into the project, which took two years to complete, and early in 2013, they moved into their new home.

William wanted to get to know all their neighbors, so they had an open house and invited the entire neighborhood. This was William's first encounter with Victor Jennings. William thought Jennings was obnoxious from the start, and Victor made Pam very uncomfortable. He bragged he was a literary agent and that he knew a lot of important people, but William thought he looked like a thug and didn't trust him or particularly like him.

In June 2018, Victor decided to put up a fence along the property line he shared with the Boltons. According to William's estimates, Victor had placed the fencing eight feet into the Bolton property. An official survey of the land proved William was right, and he asked Victor to move the fence. Victor refused, and William hired a lawyer. The case was still pending at the time of Victor's death.