The Murder of Mike Williams

on the day he disappeared Mike Williams and his wife Denise had plans to celebrate their wedding anniversary a romantic break just the two of them if only Mike hadn't tried to squeeze in a little hunting trip that morning Mike never returns home a loving husband a devoted father he had vanished without Trace leaving his devastated family with nothing but theories about what had become of him maybe he'd even been killed by an alligator because Lake s old is infested or has a large number of uh alligators there was there was a rumor around that the the guy probably got snatched up by a larger alligator stuffed up under a rock and and that alligator probably prayed on him until he decomposed it would take almost two decades for investigators to uncover the truth and when they did they would learn that the Williams perfect marriage wasn't quite the fairy tale everyone had imagined [Music] [Music] Mike Williams worked harder than most to achieve his dream lifestyle he wanted a beautiful home a wife and children his own childhood featured a loving mom and father but the Williams were far from wealthy Mike had come from um modest background his daddy was a Greyhound bus driver his mom was a daycare provider and uh they had they lived in a Double Wide Trailer they saved their money up they didn't buy a fancy home they wanted to save their money to provide a good education for their sons Mike worked nights in a supermarket through high school where he was a grade a student and it was here that he met his future wife Denise Morel they became High School sweethearts both were sporty and popular he played football she was a cheerleader it was through Denise that Mike met Brian Winchester when Denise Williams and Brian Winchester went to high school they went to North Florida Christian and it was at North Florida Christian that they met Mike Williams and they met the woman who would later become Brian Winchester's wife and by all accounts the the four of them were inseparable they were fast friends they all stayed in tallah Cass after graduating from high school in 1994 Brian and Cathy married and began a family Mike and Denise married the same year and had a daughter 5 years later they seemed all set Denise and Mike had a very strong marriage they had a beautiful daughter Mike adored Denise they did everything for her really I mean he was a great husband Mike wanted more comfort for his family while Denise was taking time out to be a mother Mike was was working harder than ever Mike was a good family man he was always a hard worker before he even graduated from Florida State University he already had a good job as a property appraiser and by the year 2000 he was doing pretty well he was making a couple hundred th000 a year in fact Mike's boss worried that he worked too much he would often be found in the office before dawn after a busy day at work he'd head home cook his wife's dinner then returned to his desk after Denise and his daughter had gone to bed on one occasion his b took the office keys away so Mike couldn't come into to work at the weekend how did Denise feel about her husband being a workaholic not always well she would tell friends especially when Mike always found the time for his other passion hunting water foul when he was 15 he started duck hunting and it became his favorite hobby for the rest of his life the 16th of December 2000 Mike and Denise's sixth wedding anniversary they were going away for the night to celebrate there was even talk of taking the opportunity to start trying for a second child Something Mike desperately wanted but first he had time to get a few hours of hunting in and so on the morning of December 16th he was going to go to the Florida Georgia Line to Lake seol and in Lake seol it's a huge area but you see Mike was an avid duck hunter he had his spot he knew the areas he wanted to go he is supposed to have kep came over here duck hunting that morning and uh byself nobody else was supposed to have been with him as the week winter sun rose that morning Mike was already Gathering Together his gear hitching his boat to his truck it was a ritual he'd gone through a thousand times before Before Dawn he packed up his truck and he left for Lake seol which is um about an hour away from Tallahassee it's on the Georgia State Line This was something he just really loved doing he told his wife I'll be back in a few hours Denise stayed at home preparing for the Romantic break in the nearby Charming fishing town of appalachicola but when hours passed with no sign of Mike alarm Bells began to ring when he didn't show up for around noon time his uh his wife started calling around looking for him and she finally got a hold of somebody that had been fishing with him before that guy I got with her her father and they come over here and notified uh local off forc it the friend who responded to Denise's panic-stricken phone call that day was Mike's high school buddy a duck hunting partner Brian Winchester he and his father Marcus told Denise that everything would be fine and then headed to the lake by the time Marcus Winchester and Brian Winchester got out to Lake seminal uh the weather had gotten bad there were some local law enforcement who responded and then they contacted the Florida Wildlife Commission the FWC which oversees game and Wildlife and they began a search for what they treated as a missing person perhaps he got lost perhaps he has gotten bogged down into the shallow but Mucky Waters Mike would have gone with the proper gear in order to go duck hunting he would have had to warn waiters and rubber boots and if one was to be in shallow water they could easily sink and the waiters themselves would pull somebody down below the water surface and that was the big concern Searchers did not find Mike Williams at the lake that afternoon but they found plenty of evidence to prove that he'd been the friends see Mike's truck near a remote boat launch on the Flor at side meanwhile a helicopter pilot spots the boat floating and then law enforcement finds his shotgun in the boat so they're assuming something happened to him maybe he drowned Mike was last seen in what is known as stump Lake body of water at the deepest area is 8 ft sometimes 6 feet and other times very shallow it's called stump Lake because there were a lot of trees that grew out of this Lake there were a lot of rotted trees that had fallen and the only thing left were the stumps but they would be either hidden just below the water surface or sticking up just above conservation officers and Friends of Mike returned to the lake day after day to continue the search but before long hopes of finding Mike alive began to fade I would submit that everyone who was involved in the search for Mike Williams with the exception of maybe one or two very very optimistic very very hopeful people believed that probably after four or 5 days that there was not going to be a likely recovery at first friends and investigators believed that Mike must have drowned but a week or so after his disappearance they started to question that hypothesis if he had drowned where's his body because normally in this area it would have floated up and that hasn't happen and days go by and so since he's not there's no body you have to wonder what could have happened and you start ticking off the questions 10 days into the search investigators made another disturbing Discovery Mike's Cary camouflage hunting hat floating on top of the Lake's dark Waters this was important because it led the Searchers to believe that they didn't think Mike drown because the Hat wasn't located in particularly deep Waters or just floating in in in a huge body of water this would be an area that they should have found a body along with that hat the body should have risen to the top it wasn't a deep body of water baffled by the absence of a body investigators began to consider a sensational new Theory so all I remember was it was a a hunter who went missing and the rumors or the newspaper had started suggesting that it might have been alligators or something like that simol lake has some of the biggest alligators in the State uh they grow to between 13 14 ft at Max there's some very old ones there and they get can get up to 1,000 lb within a few weeks the search for Mike's body was scaled back soon nobody was looking for him eaten by an alligator or Not by now recovery seemed increasingly unlikely in February 2001 2 months after her husband went missing Denise Williams was looking for closure Denise has really kept a low profile during the search this has been covered by news media but Denise isn't talking to anybody she's The Grieving Widow uh when the search gets called off she accepts the fact that that Mike has drowned that Mike somehow has died and so she calls for a memorial service to honor her now deceased husband I think many many in law enforcement and many friends and family of Denise unfortunately probably believed that he had passed away and that's why there were so many people at the service most if not all of them had come to the the conclusion that Mike Williams was not coming back from Lake seminal in June a fisherman from nearby Jackson County discovered Mike's waiters in the water they were pristine was it more evident that Mike had been mauled by alligators there were no teeth marks on the victim's clothing but uh an alligator or any crocodilian doesn't have to leave a tooth Mark somewhere in order to kill a person they actually have a very sensitive bite force when they want to they pick up their hatchlings they pick up things generally they grab something very gently in some cases and sink it and drown it and can leave not even a mark on the person uh yeah it's very possible believing the floating waiters would at long last lead them to Mike submerged body police divers were brought in it was a tense moment for Mike's loved ones would the search bring the closure that they craved and this allows her to collect on their life insurance policy and Denise then will collect more than $1.5 million after the discovery of Mike Williams Waiters floating on the surface of Lake seol search and Recovery divers were called in they believed they might find his body entangled in the dense hydrilla weeds that choked the lake bed they uncovered Mike's camouflage jacket hunting license and flashlight but 2 weeks after he had disappeared there was still no sign of a body a mystery may be but Mrs Denise Williams felt the need to move on she successfully petitioned to have Mike declared officially dead veteran homicide detective Brian Harris believes granting a death certificate was a mistake the mere fact that they found those items it should have generated a murder investigation or more work should have been done Denise may have come to terms with letting Mike go but his mother Cheryl was not prepared to give up on what had happened to her son Mike's mother she's not accepting this she she's not ready to believe that her son is dead there are too many questions too many suspicious things this just doesn't make sense she's not letting go she's not giving up on her son cherl paid for billboard appeals handed out flyers and took out adverts asking the public for help she examined every possibility even her daughter-in-law came under suspicion ever since uh Cheryl Williams began essentially what i' call her Crusade um Denise Williams has been vilified by certain parts of the Tallahassee Community the great fine in Tallahassee was alive with Whispers was Denise Williams really The Grieving Widow gossip was perhaps the least of her worries with Mike gone Denise needed to become the family bread winner Denise was stole a stay-at-home mom she had an infant daughter uh she had no you know ready source of income so she needed to do things to take care of the bills that were starting to mount up in terms of her home vehicle insurance other things luckily for Denise she knew just how to get her hands on a very large sum of money she has filed a petition to have Mike declared legally dead a County Judge grants it and this allows her to move forward with getting the money from that life insurance policy and Denise collects more than $1.5 million it was around this time that friends of Denise discovered that she'd first filed a claim for life insurance Less Than 3 weeks after Mike had disappeared the cause of death she listed was accidental drowning amongst those helping her one of her oldest friends Brian Winchester it was at the direction of Denise's father and with the input of Brian that they began the process of Simply filing a claim the sad reality about life insurance is you don't want to ever need it but when you need it you actually have to ask for it and there's no set time that somebody's supposed to sit around and wait before they actually begin the process for someone to file for insurance when you haven't even recovered a body within 19 days would would seem suspicious to [Music] me from an outside view it may seem suspicious but one of the things that everyone needs to remember is that the person who was in charge of handling their insurance Affairs for both Mike and Denise was uh the Winchester group and that was the insurance company that was run by Marcus Winchester who is Brian Winchester's father Cheryl Williams remains defiant she began campaigning for an investigation into Mike's disappearance she is Relentless she never gives up on her son in 2004 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reopens the investigation into Mike's disappearance because now they have enough evidence to say this doesn't make sense they look back and they say hold on none of it adds up no body floating up no teeth marks on everything that came to the surface something's wrong here so Cheryl has finally been heard and the case is reopened none of it made sense the gas tank in the boat is completely full the location where the boat is by this time Mike's own mother has done her own research about wind speed and currents at the time that Mike went missing none of this added up to her she wasn't buying it a fresh investigation Revisited the alligator Theory and the findings revealed inconsistencies if someone had fallen off a boat and they drowned a lot of other things are going to eat them long before alligator touches them they're going to give they're going to have uh this part of the United States they're going to have crawdads on them they're going to have turtles eating them a lot of other things are going to be cleaning that up before an alligator even thinks about it that's not their food supply it's not what they're looking for and there was more alligators in essence almost hibernate in the winter time the temperatures were cool in the 50s very damp when the temperatures are in that kind of setting alligators are not feeding this was not feeding seasoning for alligators and they want to be a 88 and a half degrees optimally to be able to feed and digest their food when they're not at that temperature everything kind of changes uh they will slow down their feeding if they do eat something it takes them longer to digest it and really Gators only have to eat once a year if they they can find a good meal that feed them that one time in a year and they're good to go there were many unanswered questions but the investigation failed to find any answers years went by cherl was not to be swayed she continued her Relentless campaign even as she did Denise Williams was moving on with her life and by her side Brian Winchester Mike's best friend and the man who had arranged his life insurance we still don't know where Mike is how he died did he die but 5 years have passed now he's been declared officially dead and Denise and Brian get married and they move in together into the same home that Mike and Denise had shared and tassi as Denise and Brian went public with their relationship the Tallahassee Rumor Mill went into overdrive had their Affair in fact begun before Mike went missing the idea that Brian Winchester and Denise Williams had an affair is essentially that urban legend that develops from the fact that yes Denise Williams did marry Brian Winchester many many years after Mike's disappearance people presume that they because they got married they must have had a relationship prior to Mike's appearance and that's simply not true little by little the community began to share in those suspicions life for Denise was growing uncomfortable she and Brian Winchester were both you know talked about and gossiped about and so Denise Williams uh became very very guarded she was always I think you might describe her a little bit as shy uh but she essentially retreated to going to work doing her job and she was very I'd say circumspect and quiet about just her life in general in 2007 the investigation into Mike Williams disappearance prompted by his mother gr to a halt you're working up an investigation with no body and that can be very difficult cuz the body itself can tell a story it's a body of evidence and this was the challenge for law enforcement and as a result you don't get as many resources thrown in on a missing person case and hence was the case there's no crime scene documentary there's no preservation of evidence there's no preserving the items that were recovered and so in essence the case goes cold it goes dormant later that year Mike's brother Nick contacted police he wanted to report a missing gun a 22 caliber Ruger pistol that Mike had inherited from his father by 200 seven Mike's family they're wondering Denise has returned all of Mike's original weapons all of his guns and whatever he had hunting wise to his family it's part of their legacy but they're missing a weapon a 22 and through the help of the local sheriff and a court order they're able to obtain that gun back from Denise another mystery another unexplained twist why why had she kept the gun one that she'd actually claimed on insurance she'd reported it as lost once again detectives find themselves wondering if Mike's death was suspicious after all Mike has been declared dead but now he's a suspicious missing person so that causes the State of Florida to look at this case as perhaps this is insurance fraud maybe my and Denise are working together or what is the conspiracy here so it's reopened but nothing really happens and then eventually it gets closed again Cheryl keeps calling and calling and calling she's still doing the Billboards she's still doing the Flyers she's not giving up but pretty soon the law enforcement officials are saying enough is enough and they're just not even taking her calls 7 years after Mike Williams vanished it seemed all hope of solving the case had been abandoned but Cheryl would still not take no for an answer well this lady went herself made Flyers put them on light poles in Tallahassee she had a picket sign that she stood out in front of the church that the uh the Winchester Brian and Denise attended she got funding she had big Billboards erected around um Tyler hasse if you seen my son she took out ads in the paper I mean she never stopped She Wrote about 9,000 letters to the governor of the state um she kept it public she never let it die not one of them was opened not one of them they were just tossed aside it's a closed case not my job finally she found someone who would listen and when she did everything began to unravel the authorities release a three-page indictment and it spells out what they believe happened something out of a Saturday evening movie in 2008 Derek Wester a detective in the Jackson County Sheriff Department had become deeply troubled by some of the claims being made by Cheryl Mike Williams's mother there were simply too many unanswered questions once I had a opportunity to to have a discussion with Miss Williams micher Williams which was Mike's mother um some of the things that she brought up kind of just made you like want to look into it more you know want to just track down this this you know to appease this this uh this grieving mother and then it just kind of just snowballed into maybe there really was something happened here Wester deled deep into Mike's life insurance Arrangements he'd had three policies including one taken out just three months before he went missing the payouts were now bankrolling Denise and Brian's lifestyle and as having discussed with some other investigators about whether or not he actually had applied for the insurance policy that the Winchester Financial Group had had wrote for him and Brian Winchester was the agent um but I had needed his Mike Williams's picture for something so I had this his stuff L on my desk and I pulled up the application for his insurance his life insurance and I pulled up the driver's license number typed in the computer was going to get his driver's license picture and when I typed the number in it it popped up Denise Williams's picture so I was like well how is this I mean she's not the applicant investigator Wester now suspects Mike's policy was altered in the days following his disappearance did Brian Winchester go and do that using him and Denise's knowledge and information and then when they just needed a driver's license number you I would speculate he said well man we just need a number and so she pulled hers out and they they copied the number down and Wester found more he had a different policy in between the time he went missing and the time she filed for a presumptive death CIA cuz she had we had a check that she had wrote and sign to pay the premium during that 6mon period Wester also looked at Denise and Brian's relationship had it really begun after Mike's death what he found painted a complicated picture there was no evidence of that there there was no evidence that suggested that the uh Denise Williams and Brian Winchester were having an affair um they were in close proximity to each other all of them were Kathy Thomas and Mike Williams and Brian Winchester and Denise Williams would go out socially but police records told a different story one night the Tas Police Department had had called in a abandoned vehicle at a church uh down the road from Denise and and Mike williams' house they were still married at time the truck was rested to Brian Winchester they looked up the contact number for the the owners they called Brian Winchester's house and he can't see Winchester at that time answer the phone well she thought that her husband was duck hutting in Arkansas or or somewhere out of out of town so she called Brian's father and by the time the father got over there the the vehicle had already been gone Denise and Brian had gone through a lot to be together more than anyone could possibly have imagined yet 7 years after they married the relationship began to crumble by 2012 this happy couple Denise and Brian not so happy anymore apparently Brian has a little sex addiction problem and that's enough for Denise to say I'm out of here so Denise decides she's she's getting out of the marriage and she and Brian separate and so he's no longer with Denise but but he still loves her very much he still is so attached to Denise that's the love of his life or at least in his mind by 2016 the marriage is going to end they were separated some periods of getting back together but Denise has had enough she has now filed for divorce for 4 years the couple's relationship had been on and off Brian had sought therapy for his addiction but struggled to fight his demons with a divorce looming he made one last desperate play for Denise in August of 2016 something kind of bizarre happens Denise is driving on her way to her job at Florida State University when all of a sudden Brian Springs from the back seat and basically attacks her he starts shouting demands at her something out of a bad Saturday evening movie he pops up from behind the seat and he kidnaps her and he holds a weapon to her and he's pleading for her to keep their marriage together and then she's trying to calm him down and he's he's basically sort of delirious and he's angry and he's desperate and he says look I'm not going to kill you but I don't have anything to live for I don't want this divorce I don't want this divorce but if you want a divorce I just don't have any reason to live and I'm going to kill myself and she calms him down she she says please Brian just calm down just calm down you'll be okay everything will be fine so she calms him down she takes him back to his vehicle she promises him she won't talk to the police just calm down Brian everything will be okay and when she leaves him she goes straight to police and she tells them what happened and when they did eventually uh apprehend him for that he had um a tarp and he had bottles of bleach and he had other items in his truck that suggested that he was probably going to kill and and bury Denise Williams Brian is charged with kidnapping domestic assault and burglary Brian and Denise's divorce would be a GameChanger there's a law that says spouses cannot be compelled to testify but these guys are getting divorced now there's a criminal case against Brian someone's going to sing this premise of husband and wife privilege was very beneficial to Denise initially she knew that Brian would never say anything against her and vice versa because they were in on it they were co-conspirators in this de they were in on it and so by both of their actions their silence was sealed when the marriage ended so did The Pact of Silence a secret deal was struck between husband number two Brian WI Winchester and the prosecutors who had charged him in relation to holding Denise at gunpoint in her car it was a deal which meant the unearthing of Mike Williams's body Florida law enforcement officials hold a news conference as the reporters are all there with their cameras set up and they announce after all of these years 17 years Mike Williams body has been found Brian Winchester had handed information to detectives in return for a lenient sentence for abducting his estranged wife Brian Winchester got the deal of the century um Brian Winchester was facing life in prison for kidnapping Denise Williams at gunpoint uh he was two to three months away from going to a trial Ryan Winchester had been in jail um for almost a year a little over a year and when faced with the process ECT of having to go to trial looking at life in prison he approaches the state attorney's office and offers to tell them a story 17 years after her husband Mike vanished Without a Trace Denise Williams would be formally charged with murdering her husband Brian claimed that Denise had planned the murder of her high school sweetheart right down to the Last Detail Brian is the star witness and he says yes I pulled the trigger but Denise was The Mastermind in May of 2018 Denise Williams is leaving her job at Florida State University she's on her way to go find her daughter and celebrate her birthday when police show up and handcuff her and take her into custody Denise's under arrest for the murder of her husband Mike Williams everybody who's in jail facing a murder charge is very concerned and very upset because you're wondering how did I get here why am I here why am I in jail the authorities release a three-page indictment and it spells out what they believe happened for the people of Tallahassee the grand Juran indictment ended a 17-year wait to find out what had happened to Mike Williams the courtroom was kind of like a little circus I mean essentially everybody in town had thought Denise Williams was guilty for years and years and years the public Gallery was packed some had come to see Denise face Justice others believed she was the victim of a grave Injustice whilst Denise faced a life term for conspiracy to murder Brian had his deal he was going to jail for kidnapping but there was no mention of him being charged with killing his friend he knows where the body is buried because he killed Mike Williams by offering the body and by then adding a little extra which is you can go after Denise Williams I'll I'll make up a story for you for homicide detective Brian Harris the facts speak for themselves there is no chance Denise is not involved in this murder Denise gave nothing away as she sat in the leyon county courthouse she was very very very I don't know cold very not responsive kind of almost robotic she maintained her innocence her lawyer told the court that Denise had always believed that Mike had died in a tragic accident but the cops know all the details they know all the information they know where the bones were buried they know the details and the motive and the why this has happened somebody talked somebody laid out the plan this was a plan laying in weight and 17 years later it all came unraveled I mean they turned on each other ultimately bottom line is that those two turned on each other in the end and it's a direct result of Cheryl Williams's one woman Army in detailed testimony Brian told the jury how the conspiracy had begun so Brian says he and Denise start start having an affair and that Affair started 3 years before Mike disappeared 3 years before he was killed and in that time they're thinking how can we be together because see Denise's family doesn't believe in divorce and so Denise is like you know we can't really do that so how are we going to be together for 3 years they met in secret in vehicles and hotel rooms on double dates they would secretly kiss as soon as Mike and Cathy's backs were turned no n months before Mike Williams disappeared Denise and Brian started hatching their plan they conspired to kill Mike Williams she wanted Brian to kill his wife and help her kill Mike her husband but an ironic twist if you can say Brian has principles Brian told Denise I can't do that that to the mother of my children on the morning of the 16th of December 2000 Mike Williams had not gone to the lake alone as best we can gather and from what Brian Winchester testified to he had made arrangements with Mike Williams um on the evening of December 15th 2000 to go hunting with Mike out at Lake seminal no one knew that Brian Winchester and Mike Williams were going to be hunting together Mike's mom is right all along Mike would not go out hunting alone he had a buddy and his buddy was Brian it was going to be Brian and Mike they're going to do a little duck hunting he stated that he had met Mike Williams over here in Jackson County at the at the boat ramp they had launched a boat it was a little 15t Janu with a go devil mother on the back according to Brian Winchester who's really the only person who knows what happened he and Mike got in a small boat they pushed off from a landing they weren't on the water very long before Brian Winchester adjusted the boat in such a way that Mike Williams fell overboard as Mike Williams made his way to a Cypress stump Mike Williams had stood up in the boat uh Brian Winchester pushed him out they were dressed in in a duck hunting gear which which included a a set of waiters and it was Brian Winchester's thought and anticipation that he would fall into the water and the waiters would fill up the water and he would go to the bottom and drown but it did not go according to plan for a start a safety conscious Mike had practiced many times removing his waiters in the water he managed to keep his head above the surface it's not called stump field or stump Lake for nothing Mike was able to when he was tossed out of the boat grabb onto a stump he was able to to tread water so to speak stay above water and he began hollering yelling for help and uh Brian Winchester freaked out didn't know what else to do Brian Winchester circled around him approximately three times and then while looking directly at Mike Williams uh he shot him in the face with a 12 gauge shotgun um at a distance of Less Than 3 ft this wasn't part of the plan Brian couldn't leave Mike's body in the water with a gunshot wound he had to cover his tracks he drag him back up to the hill he backed his vehicle down here and loaded him up onto into the back of his his vehicle he then took the boat and drove it around to where it was found then he walked to the shore walked down the road back to his truck and then drove back to to tallah hassin Brian knew there would be a search for Mike's remains he made sure they wouldn't look in the right place to move the boat away so it wouldn't draw suspicion to the area where the bones would be and that is why the boat's final positioning is in direct contrast to where the water and the current flows and the wind speed at that time Brian explains it all it all is making sense it's not an alligator all these theories were thrown out but what was even more horrifying was the plot and the plan that he [Music] tells in the afternoon he took the body to car Lake and buried it in a shallow grave next to the water side Brian is the star witness and he says yes I pulled the trigger but Denise was The Mastermind Denise was the who came up with the idea it was all about Denise would the jury come to the conclusion that Brian had acted alone or would they accept his claim that Denise had demanded that he kill his friend Denise is the brains behind this operation Denise had the forethought to obtain a life insurance policy she had the well-being enough to think about declaring Mike dead before his body is found and who knows if Denise had only been able to control her own selfishness if she had stuck it out with Brian perhaps Mike never would have been found we often say there's nothing better than a scorned woman I think it goes the same for men nothing better than a scorned man after 17 years without answers Justice when it finally came was Swift Brian's story is very likely and the jury believes though too and Denise Williams is convicted on all charges conspiracy to commit murder an accessory after the fact and she sentenced to life in prison we were all surprised the jury had been out approximately 8 hours we felt as the defense team the case had not been proven uh that Brian Winchester had admitted to being a murderer and being a liar uh so we were surprised it it takes it's almost like a gut punch to to have something like that happen uh when they come back and say you know guilty to investigate a Derek Wester it was the only possible outcome as soon as I heard that that that they had found his remains I knew that that eventually they would they was they was going to arrest her Denise Williams defense Council believes that Brian Winchester has been allowed to incriminate his ex-wife in a murder she didn't commit in return for revealing where he'd hidden Mike's body one of the things he said on the stand was that Denise Williams wasn't on the lake that day when he killed Mike Williams but she was in his head I mean if you kill somebody you bury them in a shallow grave you know where the body is and obviously the government won of the body and Brian Winchester was the only person who knew where Mike Williams remains were and so he turned that into you know the key component of the deal of the century I'd asked to Brian when Chester receiving immunity this case and would wouldn't be solved Mike Williams's remains wouldn't have been found and chery Williams wouldn't have got closure so I think that it's a decision that a prosecutor has to make daily about you know what you what you have to give to get Denise Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of Mike Williams and for the fraudulent life insurance claim Denise Williams was a cold calculated woman was very very manipulative of the men in her life to me it's the case that's the biggest tragedy of my career in terms of an innocent person being convicted it's not the most salacious case it's not the most violent case it's not the most complicated case but it is a case where you're left at this position that the essential mob mentality in the community based perception was more of a factor than the actual trial itself [Music] [Music] this program contains graphic violence and sexual content viewer discretion is advised Fame it can transform a small town dreamer into a superstar some people make it and others Die Trying their dreams interrupted one young woman from Maryland strives to someday see her name and lights she was the kind of girl that she got whatever she wanted in life she gives up success in the boardroom to try to be a star first as a Vegas show girl my sister was about to do this huge performance that she was so excited about then hopefully as a Hollywood Legend This was a stepping stone for her to do something bigger she definitely wanted to go into movies but in leaving her hometown life behind she finds danger these are gorgeous women they're going to have stalkers crazy people on them all the time she suddenly vanishes no credit card uses no cell phone usage no social media she was gone a crime scene straight out of an episode of Dexter doesn't even seem human to me only an animal does something like that that know she could have been in Hollywood by now for aspiring stars like Debbie Flores nvz sometimes the pursuit of Fame kills Las Vegas it's easy to get sucked into the glitz and Glam of Sin City after all it's a place where everyone is betting they'll be the one to beat the odds and hit it big 31-year-old Debbie Flores nvz is going all in on her dreams of becoming a mega star the was a beautiful girl very talented she was a very social person wherever she went people loved her the Latina bombshell gave up a career in law to begin an entertainment career here baby always had big goals in everything she did in life she wanted to become an attorney and she did she wanted to become a dancer and she did but Vegas isn't her final goal Hollywood's calling her name she definitely wanted to do something better possibly going into movies I think her ultimate goal was probably La in the end in 2010 she's a dancer in fantasy a sizzling Review called the strip's hottest teas when she would dance you couldn't help but just to watch her it was just a joy to watch her that was Debbie that was her way of captivating you she started as a backup but as about to get her first lead role as a dancer she wanted to become the best dancer in Las Vegas she wanted to be music videos she wanted to be all over for Debbie it's like a scene right out of the movie show Girls this promotion is her next big step the lady that was in charge of the girl she's like oh my God who is this girl we need to have her and she needs to be the main dancer of this show she leaves afternoon rehearsal to get some rest before the next one in 6 hours then tomorrow she'll take the stage as a lead dancer alongside hipop star Cisco the Press event will be Debbie's moment in the spotlight and the next day was going to be the grand red carpet event she just seemed happy and kind of glowing and excited excited about her career and how far she' came since she got to Vegas but that evening she doesn't show she's never missed a rehearsal and wouldn't miss one only days before her solo debut friends call her cell but get no answer be's friends and family started getting very concerned because she wasn't picking up the phone no idea where you are but you're missing practice give me a call when you get this she loved to talk on the phone she was a great texter she emailed me as well to not hear from her in any of those ways that was pretty scary has something happened to Debbie just as her star was Rising [Music] [Music] Debbie's love of the spotlight begins as she grows up in Puerto Rico be and Debbie would always do these performances for my mom and act them out and you know Michael Jackson or Tina Turner back in the day whatever we used to sing we used to make a little show out of it when Debbie's father a government contractor is transferred to Maryland the family moves to Baltimore in high school Debbie joins a dance team which ignites a thriving passion for dance Debbie loved the Rhythm the beat music to her it just does something to you it makes you escape then when she graduates reality hits her it's tough to make a living dancing in Baltimore unfortunately being an adult is a little different you learned a hard way of how expensive that can be now you're fully responsible for yourself so you put your hobbies to a back burner she earns degrees in business and law at Talon University and the University of Baltimore and begins carving out a career in the legal sector thank you for being here we have a lot to cover let's get started whatever that be set her mind to it you can believe that she was going to accomplish it and you couldn't stop her number two and she was going to give you 1,000% just go over that no matter the obstacle back then they would see you as oh she's only a pretty face they wouldn't take her seriously and that upset her but she wasn't going to take no for answer she did make good money and she did make a good living the work is interesting and she's good at it but there's something missing one night some girlfriends take her dancing and it all took just going to the club one time Sasa for her to just snap back on and realize oh my God I put this in the back burner why and I think this happens so many of us women she reach 30 years old and she said you know I'm not happy working in an office 9 to5 my dream was to become a dancer and I'm going to pursue that [Music] dream there's not much in the way of professional dancing in the area so while she's still working she auditions for a spot on the Washington Redskins dance squad and makes it when she told me she got it I was was over the moon and ecstatic my sister made the dance team for the Redskins are you kidding me that was crazy she moonlights for a while dancing for her home team she also tries out for the competition reality show So You Think You Can Dance then in 2008 potential layoffs at the firm put Debbie at a Crossroads does she look for another job at a law firm or does she risk it all to follow her dreams of Fame baby was an attorney but when she saw that she had an opportunity to make a career out of dancing she said yes I need to do this I'm 30 years old if it's not now when she leaves the boardroom with dreams of making it big she plans to head to Vegas to live the glamorous showgirl life on her way to Hollywood in the hopes of finding Fame on the big screen Debbie really loved Jennifer Lopez and thought wow this girl has it all she's smart she's beautiful she's very talented I mean her dancing you know she started out as a fight girl and then she blossomed into this you know entrepreneur and this brand International brand of JLo I think Debbie really thought that was something that she could do if you want to become a dancer if you want to be a performer you want to move to Las Vegas cuz that's where you have all these great shows when Debbie moved to Vegas you know she didn't know anybody she didn't have any connections so you know you start from scratch you start to meet a couple people here and there from going out into the NTI and the clubs you would go to workshops dancing workshops and get to know more people and that's she did she's calculated her career path carefully kicking it off as a model debie did all kinds of modeling Debbie enjoyed just to be in front of the camera she had an awesome body and uh clothes bathing suits you name it she just loved the art behind photography her portfolio helps her books small Club jobs people started telling her Debbie you have a lot of talent and what are you doing making 150 a night here you can make more she feels she's in the right spot but not everyone agrees her family at first they were very upset at her that's Vegas is known to a lot of people as in city as a crazy town where you go and you can just get drunk and you do all these crazy things I never doubted her goals it was more that I was doubting her safety there because I didn't know anything about Vegas and what Debbie doesn't know is that all too soon a Dark Twisted mind will threaten to destroy her dreams Debbie Flores nvz leaves her hometown of Baltimore and chases her dreams 2400 miles west to be a Las Vegas showgirl hoping her next step is Hollywood she beats out thousands of other girls to secure a spot as a backup dancer in the review called fantasy Debbie loves her time as a backup dancer but dreams of more and she and her fellow dancers always keep their eyes on the Stars when we put on the Beyonce video girls rule the world you know seeing these girls combine as a unit and be you know a force of Nature and be strong and beautiful and talented that was really The Motto and I know she loved that video cuz we would watch it before the show and it and it just inspired us to be a strong Fierce female like Beyonce Debbie's passion for dance lands her a solo in a new fantasy review this one has star power she'll be dancing alongside singer Cisco of Thong Song Fame it was just her confirmation that she'd made the right decision to come to veg and to give up that legal career that she could have had and been stabilized in this was kind of her confirmation of you know what um I'm glad that I took that risk I'm glad I went for it because now I'm I'm finally seeing where the hard work is paid off but now there's trouble she's missed the last rehearsal before her starring dance she was always on time she was always so dedicated and the first in line to learn the new you know Dance of the choreography the next day she misses the red carpet announcement for her big solo when she didn't show up to the second rehearsal they knew something was wrong but they figured maybe she's overworked and exhausted maybe she fell asleep but when she didn't show up to the red carpet event for the grand opening of fantasy with Cisco they immediately knew something was not right this was a big red flag her roommates say Debbie didn't return home last night and her car isn't in the driveway this was completely out of her character for her to act and do such a thing this was not her behavior at all she always made sure that if she said that she was going to be there she was going to be there worried Celeste hops on a plane from Baltimore to Vegas and files a missing person's report I had to put all my emotions aside because my goal was to find her and I didn't want to tarnish what my mission was I just I just wanted answers at first the Las Vegas Police Department thought this is a very common case for people to go missing in the Las Vegas strip especially it is very common for dancers to go out for the weekends and just not tell anybody she wasn't married she didn't have kids so she didn't really have to report to anybody somewhere between 600 and 800 adults are reported missing in any given month in Las Vegas the overwhelming majority of those individuals are voluntarily missing for a very short period of time whoever reported them missing learns that they're fine and just weren't answering their phone loved ones take action on their own and use the media to their advantage was very concerned she showed up the next day at our station she already had Flyers with different pictures of Debbie that she was asking people to post Flyers all over the city she asked us if she could leave some flyers at the lobby of our station of course we said yes it just it will never end until I find her within a couple hours ahead had media calling me from Vegas and everywhere on the west coast trying to get information on what was going on and putting my sister's face in the in the [Music] news trying to understand what could have happened Celeste looks for Clues and what she knows about Debbie's life in Vegas which wasn't perfect Debbie was very homesick I can tell that in her voice she was lonely as far as her friends and family see she did mention in some occasions you know what I better go back to what I know how to do I better go back and just do my job as an attorney as a professional had Debbie decided life in Vegas was too hard did she just pack it all in and get out of town that just doesn't seem like her she was stubborn and passionate and she was not going to fail so she was definitely going to stick it out the one thing in Debbie's life that seemed solid was her new boyfriend she was dating a cute cir to solay dancer named Jason Griffith Jason always had a passion for dancing he was so talented that he got a full scholarship to juliard school of dancing in New York it is very hard to get in there and it's even harder to get a full scholarship people that knew him describe him as someone that had a good heart someone that would even give out of his time to help children that had dreams of becoming dancers the was very attracted to Jason because he was everything she wanted to become he's a very good-looking man all the women were attracted to him everybody that saw them together like oh my God you guys look like Hollywood you guys make an amazing couple they both worked so hard at cir tole and fantasy that when they were together they loved just hanging out and watching their favorite series Dexter why would she disappear when everything in her life seemed to be going so well Celeste begins to fear the world worst she knows danger lurks by the casino stages these are beautiful gorgeous women that are performing on an everyday basis with all the glitz Glam and cameras they're going to have fans and stalkers and crazy people on them all the time she could have been kidnapped and thrown into a brothel or God forbid I didn't know I had all these crazy thoughts going into my mind as to what could have happened but I just wanted to find her and make sure that she was okay and bring her home Debbie Flores nvz has Big Dreams the successful vegus showgirl is looking to become the next JLo or Beyonce she has the chops to do it and so far Fame is smiling on her but on the eve of her big break she vanishes yet there's no evidence of Foul Play but at the end of the day it is a city where people go to have fun so it is common for people to go Miss in Las Vegas I think the police wanted to believe that you know what she's a young beautiful girl she's probably enjoying her life somewhere and she just you know went and and had a little weekend away but friends and family say Debbie's not like that I knew something was wrong for her not to show up for a rehearsal and then for her phone to be off and nobody hears from her for at least 3 days that was just completely out of character for her convinced Las Vegas police detectives agree to look into it they ask about Debbie's last known steps and learn she was supposed to see her boyfriend Jason Griffith that evening she tells her roommate that she's going over to Jason's house uh to watch the season finale of Dexter she is seen on videotape at her apartment complex walking to her vehicle and her car is seen leaving Mr Griffin investigators go to speak with Jason he was cooperative and he didn't appear to have any concerns that that anything had happened uh bad to deie he indicated that she had come over to the house briefly never got out of the vehicle spoke to him through the window and that she had left to go to work and he hadn't seen her since do you mind if we head over to your part he agrees to let them search his apartment during the search nothing real significance was found no blood or tissue or any type of evidence of a struggle he gives them one important piece of information Jason told us that she was pregnant and that she had a miscarriage and that she was even suicidal at some point that she was depressed over that is it possible Debbie just took off to be alone or to harm herself some of Debb's fellow show girls have their own theories if something happened to her maybe it was a stalker I thought that someone had carjacked her leaving the stage of a night that's what I thought there was a guy who loved the show you know sometimes you would see him for seven nights or something in a row he was a huge fan and he would have a a fixation I should say or fascination with one dancer and then he would kind of go to the next girl and get a fixation on her so definitely we did think well was it that guy because he has a fixation and maybe you know it's Debbie right now and maybe he couldn't handle rejection this time maybe it was so hurtful to him to not get what he wants or attention that he took it in his own hands it makes it very dangerous for a dancer especially because in Las Vegas you have this direct access with them it's not like Hollywood you just see them through the screen they in Las Vegas you can almost touch them throughing this very close to you stage you see them walking around in their outfit so it's very easy for stalker someone that's already obsessed with a dancer to follow them home if this was someone that was in the parking lot that might have taken her when she's walking out after the show it could have been any of us everyone was very scared and I didn't sleep for for 2 weeks I couldn't sleep is there a predator in Vegas right now is there somebody that would kidnap a girl and make her disappear investigators interview dancers and other employees at Fantasy but no one has names or other specifics on stalkers days pass ominously with no sign of fantasy's new star there was no contact with her no credit card usage no cell phone usage no uh social media she hadn't contacted anybody at work any family members so we knew she was gone her sister can't give up hope I won't stop until I my whole thought was being optimistic and positive and hopeful there was not a time where I wanted to think negative not that I didn't feel negative I just didn't want to think it police get their first break when a woman in a rough part of town reports an abandoned vehicle officers respond and realize it's the same kind Debbie drives the license plates have been removed but they run the vehicle I ification number it's Debbie's car the area of town where her vehicle was found was not a really nice part of town it's a high crime area so that was of concern that her vehicle was found there they checked the trunk nobody there's very limited information inside the vehicle she had a few items in the back of the vehicle including the boots that she had worn as she's seen leaving the video from her apartment the last time and some items related to her dancing but there was nothing that was suggestive of she was taken in a carjacking or that there was any violence that occurred inside the vehicle and nothing indicates where she is officers canvas the area hoping to find a witness but no residents report seeing anyone dumping a car it could have been pretty easy for someone just to drive up there at night with the lights off Park a vehicle remove the tax and walk away without being noticed by a neighbor or someone else it's been 3 days since the dancer vanished if someone grabbed her they could be long gone there are plenty of ways out of Vegas flights leave every few minutes to everywhere and driving by now a kidnapper could would have made it anywhere in the country to me everybody was suspect every single person was suspect could somebody have been jealous could somebody been a stalker just a crazy drunk guy from out of state a rapist or murderer I didn't know I knew somebody knew something I just I needed to know who and it was driving me crazy that I didn't know where to go then in Arizona's lakee National Recreation Area about 30 m outside of Las Vegas a couple hiking in a desert area make a terrible Discovery The partially burned corpse of a young woman they found a body in the desert in Arizona I was frantic I had to sit there and wait a couple hours to wait to hear some kind of response was it her or was it not this program contains graphic violence and sexual content viewer discretion is advised Debbie Flores nvz headed west from Baltimore on a quest for fame first is a showgirl and hopefully next as an actress in Hollywood the dancer is now missing and Las Vegas Police fear they might be looking for a body it was heartbreaking for me not to know where my sister was for me not to have an answer for me to constantly just be up and hoping and wishing and um praying she was my little sister I needed to know what happened to [Music] her a sad possibility emerges when hikers discover a body in the desert 30 m outside of Las Vegas The Remains are of a young woman of a similar age and with a similar body type to Debbie I remember being on pens and needles just waiting to hear if they could identify it as Debbie's body I just thought that's going to be her I I just knew it but when they finally ID the woman they realize it's not Debbie I'm like oh my gosh she's still alive and she's out there and someone just has her someone has just taken her in their car so that gave me actually hope again you kept getting your hopes up and then hopes down hopes up hopes down I just remember feeling a roller coaster of emotions one theory is that an obsessed fan did something to Debbie after the show we go and we meet the fans and the lobby it's a great time to meet everyone and they can get ass signed picture was it somebody that maybe might have been creepy to Debbie somebody that came in had an obsession with her there were a lot of people for police to look at because of you know hey this kind of guy kind of approached me he said he was attracted to me I told him he got angry that's a suspect investigators also have to consider it might have been someone much closer by talking to friends they learn more about Debbie's boyfriend Jason Griffith was a person of interest just because he was the last person that we had contact with before she disappeared Debbie thought he was amazing at first Debbie and Jason met in Thanksgiving of 2009 and shortly thereafter started a relationship he told her it was a monogamous relationship about 6 months into that relationship Debbie realizes that Jason isn't being monogamous she was aware of the fact that he was seeing at least one other woman and she was very upset about that what are you going to do what are you going to do they had some issues and they broke up there was a complete severing of the relationship at one point but on his birthday he ended up calling Debbie and started the whole thing back up again one time one time the Jason I know this is the Jason that she created a relationship was almost like a competition between each other as to who was going to be the person more in control of the relationship it's not all about me but I do have to work I have rehearsal and that created a very volatile situation with them can you hear yourself I just don't get you where neither one of them ever wanted to admit that they just weren't good for each other and that created a very toxic relationship what if I just smack them out of you right now as they dig deeper police learn it sometimes became violent there were multiple incidents that had occurred between him and Debbie there was physical Force used on a couple of occasions many Insiders had no idea it hurt me to find out that it was a volatile relationship that he was cheating on her that he was lying to her that he had put his hands on her I don't want to see my sister in pain or go through that I never saw any bruises on her I never noticed her crying in the dressing room I was shocked because I didn't see it but still nothing indicates Jason is responsible for her disappearance everyone is frustrated what happened to Debbie then a month into the investigation a new lead in early January of 2011 a missing person's detective gets a tip I I have information about that Jason had rented a rental truck earlier shortly after Debbie's disappearance the lead detective on the case at this point looks at Jason's Financial records and sees that he did rent a truck at a truck rental location they then go through a number of efforts to identify this anonymous tip and who this person is turns out the mystery caller is one of Jason's exes her story was that she was a former girlfriend of Mr Griffith he had called her one night in mid December and told her that he wanted to store something at her residence she told him sure come down check out the place she had a spot for him to to keep it to her surprise after she agreed he immediately showed up she thought it was going to be some time after that but immediately a rental truck pulled up in front of her place so she went downstairs and could see Jason Griffith and Paul Lopez trying to manipulate this plastic container hey which she recognized as being filled with cement the top wasn't on and so she could see the surface of the cement Paul Lopez is Jason's roommate what's going on but what was inside the cement filled container she asked Jason what the item was and he told her that she didn't want to know and she insisted on knowing if she was going to keep the item stored at her place Debbie it's the first real indication that Debbie Flores narvas is dead the ex-girlfriend explains she's been too scared to call before terrified Jason would kill her too she refused to let them keep the container there she doesn't know where they took it I imagined immediately that someone might have taken that cement fil container out to the center of Lake me and dropping container in there we may never ever find Debbie the tip that we received from this ex-girlfriend was a case breaker it was a confirmation that it was no longer a missing person's case it was now a homicide case with the fact that this ex-girlfriend had been told by Jason Griffith that Debbie was inside this container but they need to find the body and figure out what happened to Debbie without more proof a prosecution would fail our immediate concern was getting to Paul Lopez as quickly as possible so that we could find out where Debbie was it doesn't take long to track him down Paul Lopez was immediately contacted and brought to the detective Bureau myself along with another detective from homicide interviewed him uh extensively he is clearly somebody who is in a difficult situation ation he's conflicted he's not volunteering it right now okay what are we what are we talking about exactly detective says look if you had nothing to do with the killing and you only got involved afterwards and you didn't do anything weird to the body that's a very important moment because the roommate goes what do you mean by weird and the detective says look if it's you burn the body or you dismember the body or anything else like that what we need is the body eventually the roommate says yeah but if I tell you that my best friend goes to jail for the rest of his life and the police tell the roommate well that's not something you can worry about anymore can I can I get out of here at one point in the interview Paul Lopez wants to leave and we realized that if we didn't get an agreement that he wouldn't be charged he wasn't going to tell us the district attorney agrees to Grant Lopez immunity as long as he didn't kill her himself Lopez finally agrees to talk I mean some yeah she and his story will sicken even the hardened investigators it was over the top and it was very Dexter likee in the opinion of most of the detectives in homicide it was very difficult scene it was uh probably one of the most difficult that I handled in in 9 years Debbie Flores nvz was living the show girl's dream until she mysteriously vanishes police suspect her boyfriend Jason Griffith and his roommate Paul Lopez are somehow involved after lengthy questioning Lopez admits Debbie is dead dismembered and placed in cement filed tubs in an abandoned house he tells police where the house is there they finally find Debbie's body it's a a cruel end for the talented and vibrant star in the making now their missing person's case is truly a homicide Jason got arrested right after he got out of one of his performances the last performance of his life I along with one other detective walked up to him and said that we needed to talk with him he was very Cooperative they hope to get him talking and draw out a confession and a guilty plea to save Debbie's loved ones from the pain of going through a difficult trial when we started our interview he was very cocky about it okay um we're here to ask you some more questions about um what happened to Debbie what do you mean what happened to her I've given my my what what I saw he told us that he'd be willing to talk to us but he was only going to answer the questions that he chose to answer I understand what you're saying and I see where you're going with and once again like I haven't said anything MH like about that I don't I don't have anything else to say on that I've I've already answered that question we got to that moment where we confronted him with things that we knew everybody in the room knows what happened but we're playing a game well we're not really playing game yeah we're totally playing a game we know that you got in an argument with her and it went too far and you choked her out and she died okay and then afterwards you did this this this this and this with the body like I said again there's there's there's things that you guys know there's things that you guys are assuming you guys are trying to put you know paint a picture and that's cool I totally un understand it you guys are going to do your jobs you're going to do what you're supposed to do I don't I don't have anything else sorry you are under arrest for Debbie's murder okay okay for her murder okay so what what what do I do now he still remained you know that kind of that arrogant cocky attitude and and just accepted it like okay I'll deal with it he never admitted to us that he had killed Debbie prosecutors charg Griffith with murder at trial they outline what they believe happened the night the Debbie disappeared what if I just SM you right now the roommate he hears the verbal argument that he comes into the room I'm not going to calm down and Jason snaps you don't have Jason grabbed Debbie around the neck and was choking her Paul said that he broke the physical contact up what's wrong with you and separated the two of them Debbie believes that she's injured do this to me there's a discussion that she needs to go to the hospital and Mr Griffith doesn't want her to go to the hospital because he's been told after the last time he got arrested in a domestic with Miss FL is that if he gets arrested again he's going to lose his job I was clearly out a line I apologize okay good Paul had to go take his daughter back to her mother so he was going to need to leave he got an agreement between the two of them that their argument was over with and that they were okay before he left the the residence when Paul returned to the house he saw a debie lying on the floor she wasn't breathing and she was cold to the touch they put Debbie's body in a plastic tub and filled it with quick set concrete but then Jason's ex-girlfriend turned them away they didn't know what to do with her at that point they make the decision to take the body over to this abandoned residence on West Bonanza by now they realized the container was leaking they then went to a local department store and purchased tools like a hammer uh a saw um several other items and inside the front room of this abandoned house Jason and Paul broke Debbie's body out of the concrete following the lead of his favorite TV character Dexter Jason dismembered the woman he claimed to have loved and separated her remains into two containers then filled them with cement once more and stored them in the abandoned house Debbie had come over on the night that she went missing on the night that we know that she was killed by Jason to watch an episode of Dexter and it's somewhat ironic that uh instead of watching Dexter it appears Mr Griffith sort of acted out as the character what they did to get rid of her body was just evil on itself who does that he doesn't even seem human to me only an animal does something like that but why Jason had already been arrested for domestic violence he was aware that this second instance of domestic violence was going to result in a more serious charge his career was on the line on May 22nd 2014 a jury finds Jason Griffith guilty of second degree murder and sentences him to 10 years to life he never throughout the case or the trial showed any remorse during court he would refer to her as it not as his girlfriend or his ex she was just an it which was arrogant narcissistic evil cold just a cold blood of killing she was searching for fame she wanted to make big she wanted her name to be known she wanted to leave a footprint and I believe she did got know she could have been in Hollywood by now I respected her for coming out to Vegas like she did to pursue her Dream It's just sad that she wasn't able to see how it her dreams that she'd reached could play out Debbie was so talented that I don't think that there would have been a stopping point for her she could have made it this case was so crazy it was almost hard to believe a stripper a sugar daddy a Hitman sex money greed and lie after lie after lie it appeared she was a wholesome housewife by all indications I mean their life looked almost perfect little did they know she was a stripper at a place called knockers going by the name Rea she ended up becoming very promiscuous you could tell she was lying because her lips were moving 911 where's your emergency something's happening something bloody he comes outside the house and he's armed with a gun she's actually covered in blood apologizing over and over again I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry so now they got to go into the house they know there's something in the house something bad something dark the murder was so heinous it's one of the bloodiest gorest most horrific scenes you can [Applause] imagine Marissa Suzanne Reese Dev Vault grew up in a beautiful place called Lake Havasu in Arizona it's a very pretty Place very Scenic and not far from Phoenix she came from a childhood that was rather dysfunctional her mom was a moody alcoholic who abused her severely she would whip her with belts pull her hair and make her stand in the corner for hours on end and it gets worse when she turned 12 her stepfather started to sexually abuse her there was really no father figure around for her to really look at you know how to live a good life with a good man she had no skills in that area she learned to lie and use sex to get what she wanted and what she wanted the most was attention from met fortunately for her her boyfriend in high school was this great All-American guy Dale Harold Marissa meets Dale actually in high school she's a freshman he's a senior but her life really is in disarray I mean her life is really all over the place at this point I look at Dale and he's got everything going for him he's popular he's smart they did it for a couple of months but when he graduated high school he went to trade school to become an air conditioner repair man Dale was ambitious he was tall and handsome everyone in town knew that Dale was going to be something he was very smart and he set himself up after college he went to trade school and found success in business After High School Dale and Marissa lost [Music] touch Dale Harold graduated and moved on to trade school while Marissa Deval 3 years his Junior was still completing high school she continued living in an abusive environment with her parents as their lives moved in different directions devault and Harold ended their relationship and began to see other people she ended up becoming very promiscuous and had sex at a young age Marissa was called derogatory and degrading names like [ __ ] and [ __ ] by her mother all through her childhood and so she had low self-esteem and as she Grew Older that low self-esteem resulted in those names becoming a reality there's no authority figure at home or really no parenting going on and she becomes pregnant the problem with that is she has no idea who the father [Music] is it's like her life was going great when she was with Dale in high school but then after they graduated and he went off to trade school they lost touch and her life really started to go south so it's very fortuitous that they met years later and reconnected so in 1997 Dale and Marissa hook up again they reunite it had been 5 years but there was this strong sexual attraction between them so 6 months later when Dale was offered a job he asked Marissa and her 2-year-old daughter Ranna to move in with him Dale Harold's career moves the couple to a new city Gilbert Arizona just 30 minutes outside of Phoenix Dale's career flourished as an air conditioner repairman working in the sweltering desert heat of Southern Arizona Marissa however struck to gain Traction in any one career often hopping from job to job Gilbert is a very much a bedroom community um quiet suburb on the outskirts of Phoenix Arizona lots of families it's a place where people go to raise their kids they work in the city they go back to Gilbert for their homes his career is starting to really take off and that's his Focus whereas she is kind of not doing anything I mean she has no goal no dreams they talk about marriage but then they don't talk about marriage while Marissa was very much in love and wanted to get married Dale remained focused on his business and wasn't ready for that finally they do marry and they have kids together and Marissa still has that child from high school so they have a really large family Dale's making good money Marissa believes she's living the quintessential middle class life they seem like a really nice young family Marissa and Dale had a lot of friends in common um he was very successful he seemed to be an accomplished man that was on uh on his way up and providing a very nice lifestyle for him and his wife and his kids they had money and by all indications I mean their life looked almost perfect Marissa wasn't really the stay-at-home type so she started working for a real estate investor named Alan Flores they found that they needed some help around the house and someone to look after the children so they asked an old high school friend to move in with them Stanley cook who was someone they both knew in high school Stanley's having a bit of a rough going life he got in a motorcycle accident and he's having these psychological and brain issues really from the accident where his memory is really out of whack but you know they open up home and their heart to him and he moves in this wasn't the first time they'd opened their doors to a friend and neat they had a similar arrangement in the late '90s with a friend named Amy Dewey now when Amy got back on her feet she moved out so they made a similar arrangement with Stanley cook Stanley was This brilliant computer software technician but he'd hit a truck while driving his motorcycle and his brain was kind of fried he was slow and had difficulty holding a fulltime job because of his brain injury Stanley had difficulty with memory and memory things Stanley starts to help out around the house he helps out with the kids he helps out with some of the chores uh he doesn't work obviously it's kind of a strange situation but it seems to be working for the three of them and then in the middle of the night less than a month after Christmas in 2009 Marissa calls 911 9911 where's your emergency hello help I what's going on ma'am what's going on ma'am so dispatch calls her back Marissa answers dispatch says what's going on she's crying she's frantic and she says my husband is trying to hurt me how is he trying to hurt you [Music] I have the police on the way where is your husband right now he's in the room is he in the room with you Marissa calls back and this time she's in hysterics and screaming and yelling and saying things like he's trying to hurt me he's trying to kill me he has a hammer in his hand and then she hangs up 911 where's your emergency they here are they coming ma'am is this Marissa Marissa I need you to try to calm down for me okay ma'am I have the police who are on the way okay they should be there any second what I need you to do is to just take a breath for me and try to calm down all right where is he right now what room are you talking about he's in the bedroom where are you ma'am when police arrive at the scene Marissa is standing outside her house covered in blood when I think of that I think of like the movie Carrie that scene where the bucket of Blood Falls on her this is what you're seeing and as soon as they arrive she's going crazy and Stanley comes out of the house what police see is this rumpled looking guy confused wearing a blood soaked t-shirt they want to talk to him and they do a quick search and find he's packing a pistol so they detain him I mean why does he have a pistol so now they got to go into the house they know there's something in the house something bad something dark two police officers had arrived at the scene one officer remained outside with Marissa and Stanley while the other slowly entered the unlit residence with his gun drawn they find Dale naked in his bedroom covered in blood severely injured but still alive it was horrific it was like a scene you couldn't unsee Dale was bleeding everywhere it was like that bedroom scene from Nightmare on Elm Street Dale was bleeding so much that when they loaded him into the ambulance blood was dripping from underneath the door truma as Dale has rushed to the hospital Marissa is put in a squad car Stanley's put in a squad car and they begin to ask them questions what the hell went on in that house how did he end up naked and bloody near death police respond to a 911 call at the residence of Marissa Deval and Dale haral in the small town of Gilbert Arizona Marissa is crying so hard she has the hiccups after three frantic phone call she's now telling police that her high school sweetheart and her husband of 10 years was choking her and raping her until she passed out and that Stanley came to her defense and attacked Dale with a claw hammer longtime friend and house guest Stanley cook told police the exact same story Marissa did he heard the commotion he went into their bedroom and he saw Dale strangling Marissa so he hit him in the head with a hammer the stories mesh however investigators are wondering about Stanley they know something's wrong with him he's not a very credible witness and police uh aren't sure that he's qualified to give a statement something seemed very off about Stanley and in a way there was he had suffered a brain injury which really impacted his cognitive abilities he couldn't remember any details you know where did the hammer come from what were they shouting about were they on the floor or on the bed he couldn't remember any of that it was like he was repeating something somebody had told him Marissa was taken to the hospital too for treatment of her injuries Marissa asked to be seen by a doctor because she said her neck hurt from being strangled by Dale but when she was examined they couldn't see anything beyond a couple of small bruises and because she was so hysterical the doctors gave her a sedative and as Marissa starts to calm down her story changes and that right there is a red flag because truth is inherent inside you it should never change when it comes to Crime police look for inconsistencies in people's stories and in Marissa's case they didn't have to look too far Marissa's story now is that she was woken up out of a sleep Dale was choking her demanding sex from her getting ready to beat her and she was terrified for her life then she goes into kind of a blackout and when she comes to again she explains there's Stanley beating Dale with the hammer this isn't a kinky 50 Shades of Gray situation Marissa is describing fullon rape here she says Stanley kept yelling at Dale to get off of her and hitting him in the head repeatedly with a hammer until he passed out on top of her then she pushed him off and called 911 the way she describes this is really like a uh a self defense thing like as if Stanley came rushing in saw that Dale was raping his wife and decided to come to her rescue Dale Harold sustained massive injuries from the hammer attack his injuries included multiple skull fractures and severe blood loss according to medical reports the impact of the hammer left multiple visible holes in his head one of which was the size of a soft he's rushed into surgery and nobody knows if he's going to make it I mean how could you survive an attack like that with a hammer Dell's injuries are horrific he's got a hole in his head the size of a softball multiple skull fractures and he's been bleeding a long time police are worried that he might not make it through surgery the doctors take him into the emergency room but no one's sure he's going to make it everyone was hanging on by their fingernails the doctor the police his family if Dale died the truth would inevitably die with him incredibly he comes out of surgery hours and hours of surgery and now he's in a coma will he make it will he not make it will he even be able to speak what will he remember despite the massive head injuries that Dale had he was still alive he was even moaning and complaining about how bright the lights were inside the ambulance Dale was young and he was strong there was a small chance that he might survive while police were waiting for Dale to regain Consciousness and maybe give a statement they continued to question Marissa despite uh outside appearances of being a nice happy couple Marissa reveals that their marriage was anything but as Marissa begins to tell her side of the story she describes a marriage that was in disarray that was violent abusive that Dale really in order to get sex from her would rape her Marissa says she feared for her life and that the trouble started a few months after they got married she says he fractured her skull and she did go to the hospital but didn't file a police report if you look at their life leading up to this point it really was kind of a white picked fence type of Life at least that's what she was telling people so although it's common for victims of domestic violence not to come forward Marissa said she did tell her boss Alan Flores Allan was so concerned for Marissa's safety he even gave her a gun the same gun that police found in Stanley Cook's pocket Marissa's relationship with Alan Flores is very interesting although he is her boss she also states that he used to be in an intimate relationship with her stepfather who's now deceased she and Jeff this new person into the drama if you will uh this Flores guy her dead stepfather's homosexual lover someone who can back up her story when you look at Flores you know we're talking about a credible guy I mean he's got a doctorate he went to Yale financially independent allaround good guy investigators look at the crime scene to try and substantiate Marissa's Second Story the one where she says she was lying down and Dale was over her choking her but investigators say no way uh-uh the blood soap pillow on the bed says Dale was the one that was lying down not Marissa as investigators look at the forensic side of the case and the fact that Stanley was carrying a weapon of course did he use the weapon no was the weapon used to maybe beat Dale no so there's really no forensic connection between Stanley and this beating that was put on Dale where do you go to next Stanley cook was released from custody after police investigators determined he was not a viable suspect Marissa was brought in for questioning a third time and according to investigation notes she changed her story yet again she was put into one of those interrogation rooms the ones you see in the movies you know like the one from Basic Instinct where shared stone is all DED up in that beautiful white dress well this was a little different Marissa had no makeup on and she was in a blue track suit but one thing that remained the same was they were both lying you woke up to explain it tell me exactly what it was and then I I woke up to to this okay and I mean he was bent down a little bit lower and Marissa said that he had been hitting her attacking her demanding sex my head was Fuzzy but I just woke up too so I was I wasn't quite sure what but he relaxed and I screamed she claims that she woke up and he was raping her and choking her until she passed out you black out and then the next thing I see is um I saw the hammer go in F that and I kind of jumped over okay so when you and he was heavy on me so I couldn't get him off me but I just did like that okay and when you did like that was something still hitting him in the head yes Dale had started to go limp and then I touched him and pushed him and that's when he rolled off the bed when investigators begin to really comb through the forensic evidence and and look at really what science is telling them a different narrative emerges so they go back to Marissa and they say look what you've said is not adding up with the science so we need another statement from you when I listen to you it comes across to me as this is a self-defense case but Marissa this is your opportunity to tell me everything for me to believe it's a self-defense case confronting her with the fact that her story and the blood evidence did not match made her come up with a new story that seemed a little more true Marissa then tells another story and this one involves her not fighting him she let him rape her and then when she went to the bathroom to clean herself up she came back and Dale was asleep in the bedroom Mara said that in that moment uh all the rage and abuse just boiled up in her and she grabbed the hammer and she was the one who attacked him with the hammer she says she snapped she lost control after years of enduring abuse she picked up the hammer and started hitting him in the head and said You Don't Own Me and I picture it this way she's sitting there and she's staring in the mirror and and she's just building up this rage from all the years of abuse and it just has to come out of her in some way and this is when she grabs a hammer she goes back in and she wants to kill the guy and attacks him with a hammer as Marissa is beating him with this Hammer all that rage that volcanic rage coming out of her Stanley rushes into the room sees what's going on and stops her what are you doing that story matched with the forensic evidence and Marissa was arrested for attempted murder she claims she attacked him Stanley didn't he stopped her so the question is was this self-defense can she use that abuse excuse here why not everyone that knew Marissa and Dale are shocked by the developments they appeared to be a happy loving couple and to hear the violence that took place behind the scenes everyone is shocked by what happened as family and friends begin to look at this they're overwhelmed by the violence the blood the attack itself I mean how could she go through her life with Dale and not say anything and then have it all come out at once the investigation continues and things are coming to the Forefront new information's coming forward people are saying things that are not aligning with what Marissa says well wouldn't you know Marissa's story unravels again young Gilbert Arizona mom and wife Marissa Deval is in custody as police investigate the brutal attack on her husband Dale she's changed her story so many times that they have to keep investigating the latest version and really they have to go through a spiderweb of information Marissa starts claiming that you know there were times when the beatings by Dale would actually send her to the hospital she tells us one story about him dislocating her shoulder one time and a friend of hers popping it back into place while Marissa had these claims that there were multiple people who could back up her stories that there was someone who once helped her fix her shoulder after Dale dislocated it um police weren't able to to find anyone to verify her claims so as an investigator what do you do you begin to comb through medical records see if she's ever been in the hospital and they find nothing so just another series of Lies she's building a foundation of pathological lying is what she's doing Dale and maris's friends and family claimed that they had a happy relationship and no one had witnessed the abuse further her medical records never backed up her claim of abuse meanwhile 3 and 1/2 weeks after the attack Dale is in Hospice Care still in a coma and clinging to life when it's clear that he's not going to be waking up Dale's family makes the difficult decision to remove him from life support they pull the plug and allow him a peaceful death Dale succumbed to his injuries on February 9th 2009 after his death this was no longer considered just a brutal assault this was now a murder prosecutors upu the charges from attempted murder to first degree murder and in Arizona that meant Marissa Deval was eligible for the death penalty Deval was initially sent to go to trial in 2011 but the trial was postponed until 2014 Mera was taken into custody um where she would stay for the next 5 years while the case waited to go to trial [Music] jury selection for the Devol murder trial started January 2014 when we get to the jury selection something interesting happens it was 6 months after the first jod Aras trial and 6 months before the second and the cases were so similar that the judge said he didn't want anyone on the jury who was following the Aras case the jod Aras trial case was huge both Jody arus and Marissa Vault were young pretty women who had killed these guys in brutal ways U because of that the judge uh compared Marissa's case to jod aras's Case and the judge was very concerned about anyone being on the jury that was obsessed with the jod arus case that can taint what's going on because the cases are similar the timing is similar and they don't want any bias I mean I agree with that death penalty case is a big responsibility for jurors so you got to look at all angles Marissa's attorney had years to prepare her defense which stated she had battered women's syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder while the defense had years to prepare so did the prosecution the prosecutors reveal Marissa's secret past while it appeared she was a wholesome housewife they discovered that before she met Dale she had worked as a stripper when the prosecution dropped the bomb that Marissa went by the name reesei cup and worked at a place called knockers and her specialty was Bachelor parties in Vegas while everyone at the defense table went pale the prosecution also claimed that Dale knew about Marissa's stripping and he encouraged her to stop during the relationship Dale argued that he made enough money that he could support Marissa and so she gave up stripping to be with him the prosecution's goal was to expose Marissa and all of her Secrets showing that there's more to her than meets the eye their next step to discredit the star witness Alan Flores this is the guy that she claimed was her boss and her dead stepfather's gay lover Alan Flores was the one witness that was going to verify Marissa's claims that Dale was abusive so what do you got to do as an investigator prosecutor you got to look into his life and what did they find oh my goodness so the dead stepfather's gay lover is also into child porn so they find this child porn in his house on his computers well you know what maybe he was not the guy he said he was his credibility just went from a th000 to zero you can have a Yale doctorate you can be well educated but he's into child porn and suddenly Flores the guy who's going to swear up and down that Dale was abusive and that's why Marissa killed him well now Flores is going to jail Allan was charged with possession of child pornography and because of that he made a deal where he was no longer a cooperating witness in Marissa's case and now instead of testifying for the defense Flores is going to testify for the prosecution it was a huge flip-flop he asked for immunity you know give me immunity from the child porn and I'll give you the goods on her believe me Marissa deval's lawyers were not happy about what Flores had to say in court Allan confesses that he actually met Marissa on a sugar daddy website that he had been supplying her money in exchange for sex the relationship between Marissa and Dale seemed to be going well until one night in the early morning hours of January 14th 2009 Marissa makes a 911 call and says her husband is bleeding in his bed Dale is assaulted by by someone with a hammer investigators questioned Marissa but pinning down her story is like playing waca the only consistency in her stories is that Dale was abusive it takes five different stories before Marissa confesses Dale dies he succumbs to his injuries so now we don't have an attempted murder here we have murder the stakes are way up now Marissa's facing not only first-degree murder she's facing the death penalty she's set to go to trial but it takes about 5 years before she actually sits in a court room Marissa claims that she snapped during one of Dale's frequent attacks on her the prosecution claims Marissa is a cold calculating killer and then the prosecution really hits the jackpot when they get Alan Flores on the St in exchange for Immunity on the child pornography charges Alan Flores agrees to testify against Marissa and he reveals that during the course of their relationship she had been manipulating him too he had given her over $300,000 during the course of their relationship now when we look deeper at the Flores Marissa connection we see motive coming into play here because they weren't old friends they didn't run into each other at the coffee bar Marissa found him on a sugar daddy website and what does that mean that means that he was on there willing to take care of somebody and she steps into his life she begins to borrow money from him he said that he didn't give Marissa the money and that it was a loan and Marissa completely agreed to that Arrangement well now this throws Marissa under the bus what does that say about her it says she didn't want to work she didn't want to do anything everything becomes about Marissa Flores says that Marissa was in the process of inheriting this 8 million trust fund from her stepfather's estate when police investigate well there is no trust fund she was lying her stepfather was still alive and he didn't have a bank account with anywhere near that kind of money you know not 5,000 here or 10 there but she's into this guy for $360,000 and guess what there came a point where he wanted his money back Flores says he eventually realized that Marissa was lying and pressured her to pay him back so Marissa finds herself backed into a corner and she's going to be receiving money but how she's going to receive that money is a whole another story things were looking worse and worse for Marissa as the trial went on she had purchased one of two life insurance policies on Dale just weeks before he was attacked and she was planning on collecting $1,250,000 worth of insurance money here we have two life insurance policies on Dale one of them is going to be active on January 9th and guess what Dale's murdered on January 14th 5 days later this gave a motive for the crime um Marissa knew she was going to get money if if they all died because of the life insurance policy so police believed that that was part of the motive she needed that money to pay Allan back she had originally tried to pin the murder on their mentally disabled house guest Stanley cook because of course if she's the killer she'd miss out on the insurance payout nothing was what it seemed Marissa had become increasingly desperate she owed Allan hundreds of thousands of dollars he was bugging her for the money and she had no trust that she had claimed that she had so Marissa waited until one night when Dale was fast asleep and she grabbed a hammer and started beating him while while he was lying in his bed stle came in and did stop her and they called the police and fabricated the story the defense presents a very different story the defense claims that Marissa was a victim that she had been victimized when she was a child by her mom and her mom's boyfriends that she had grown up abused by her husband and that she acted out in self-defense after years of being battered lawyers brought in a forensic psychologist the same one that also worked on the jod Aras case Marissa had told the psychologist that Dale liked to have thre Sims and watched while she had sex with other men well the judge didn't want this to turn into a sleazy drama like the Aras case so the doctor just testified that Marissa had post-traumatic stress disorder psychologists are brought into this case you know what we see is according to them and the defense is a pattern here and the pattern is Marissa's mother abused her physically mentally emotionally and then her stepfather sexually abused her and then what does she do she meets this guy he abuses her a clinical psychologist who taught at the University of Washington was also called to the stand by the defense he specialized in the effects of child abuse M was interviewed by many psychologists who all agree that she is suffering from batter woman syndrome so of course this buildup of PTSD throughout her whole life leads to that rage inside of her that ultimately just [Music] erupted next up Marissa's eldest daughter ranan she was 13 at the time of the murder but now this is 5 years later so she's 18 the prosecutor asked her about her parents relationship she backs up the claims that that for years Marissa had been beaten by her husband but she also admitted that she hit him back the daughters claimed on the stand that Marissa and Dale fought often and that she and her siblings often had to hide in the bedroom and push a dresser against the door to protect themselves when asked if Marissa had ever hit Dale the daughter admits yes but not as much as Dale hit Marissa so it sounds to me like there was a talk IC abusive relationship the psychologists on the prosecution side who evaluated Marissa uh determined that she has antisocial personality disorder prosecution pushes back on this because they asked Marissa at one time you gave custody of your children to your stepfather and your mother if they were so abusive especially your stepfather if he was sexually abusive why would you allow ow your kids to go into that situation it just doesn't add up it seems that the stories Marissa tells seem to fit her narrative Marissa's daughter is interesting on stand because it tells me that Marissa manipulated her own child you got to do this for me and it just shows that she's a classic narcissistic sociopath you know she's willing to manipulate her own children for her own benefit Marissa's case isn't perfect it comes out that she used to be a stripper she owes money she had a sugar daddy and she took out a life insurance policy out on Dale but the defense is playing off the claim that Marissa was a battered woman and the jer's tends to be sympathetic to that sort of thing but then another huge grenade is thrown into the proceedings she claims PTSD due to abuse the prosecution says Marissa is a coldblooded killer who was out for insurance money it comes out during the trial that Marissa was a stripper at a place called knockers going by the name reesi cup while she was stripping she was dating a bouncer that worked there named Travis Travis was called To The Stand he shows up to trial 6'5 bearded dressed in all black with a red tie it was like something straight out of Pulp Fiction according to court testimony claimed he was in a sexual relationship with Marissa back in 2002 he said he liked her but couldn't deal with her compulsive lying Behavior so they broke up they lost touch until 2009 when Marissa contacted him out of the [Music] blue Travis said that he agreed to meet with her and it was at that point that Marissa asked him to take care of Dale he says this was not a crime of passion I know this because she came to me and wanted me to kill her husband for money over the course of Marissa deval's trial the prosecution brought many of Marissa's secrets to light including her past as a stripper and her relationship with Alan Flores Flores was the only witness that was coming forward to substantiate Marissa's claims of abuse but he flipped before the defense got him on the stand he was offered a deal to testify for the prosecution in exchange for immunity from child pornography char chares and he went on to testify that Marissa owed him $360,000 so we have another brick on this Foundation Building up to prove that she is a pathological liar and that the motive here was money the trial lasted nearly a month and deliberations began on April 8th [Music] 2014 the jury comes back and decides Marissa is guilty of of the murder of her husband it was clear that Marissa killed her husband it came down to what would be the punishment the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole the prosecution argued that excessive cruelty was involved in this crime so her attorneys do the best they can they argue that she suffers post-traumatic stress from being abused for so long she didn't know know what she was doing all she did was try to protect herself what they're trying to do really is save her life Marissa doesn't want to die so she's pulling out all the stops Marissa has three daughters begging the court to spare her life often in these cases of females on trial and the death penalty is involved you know the children come in and in this case no different missis's children come in and plead for Mercy they need their mother I've seen it time and again Marissa makes a final statement and apologizes in front of the jury for murdering her husband and she kind of admits guilt in this statement a little bit taken some responsibility and that's what jurors on a death penalty case want to hear they want to hear that you've taken responsibility the jurors decided that the murder was so cruel that she was eligible for the death penalty the judge confronted Marissa and said that Marissa was still lying she was still manipulating and that if she got out of jail one day she would still be a hindrance to her children the judge in this case she says no way in fact what she says hammers home all of the evidence it supports everything she says look Marissa you have no remorse you're a danger to society and you're certainly a danger to your children and you will not see light of day on your back back as a free woman again on June 6th 2014 Marissa was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and was sent to jail within the Arizona Department of Corrections was she sorry had going to jail taught her anything was she remorseful Marissa had refused to relinquish custody of Dale's remains to his parents so they sued and won they were able to get custody of his body and chose to bury him uh in a location of their choosing you know this is a really complicated case and so many sorted details came out during the trial the stripping the Hitman the sugar daddy the insurance money but what this really boils down to is a wife killing her husband with a hammer in Cold Blood for insurance money the truth came out and Justice prevailed in these situations the last thing really that anybody suspects especially in small town America is that something nefarious took place can you blame me they get into an argument and he completely vanishes he's like gone missing there's no Trace certain things that just weren't completely adding up the last thing you'd expect is not only murder but dismemberment put them in garbage bags and carried them up and put them in the back of the car it's heinous it's gruesome it's disgusting this is a real life Horror Story that family should have been able to bury their son not boners in the real world murder evil can be in a small town can be in a big city it can be anywhere here we have a case that takes place in Ontario County Upstate New [Music] York and what you have to understand about Upstate New York is that it's completely rural about 100,000 people live in the county total it goes from the town of Victor to the Northwest to Naples as far south as we go and then Geneva is the east eastern boundary houses are scattered 5 miles apart Farmland cows horses a general store Adam and Rose Chase quintessential High School sweethearts to match their quintessential Hometown we have two kids really who met in high school started dating get out of high school get married have a kid they stay in that rural Country [Music] Town you have Adam who's kind of feels comfortable and safe in that environment and you know what this is my life you have Rose who is looking Beyond onario County she wants more she yearns for more and you have to ask yourself do two people who meet in high school and then get married and have kids later does that last is that the fairy tale is that the white picked fence for some people yes but for some people no life happens people change and they really struggle to keep their marriage [Music] together their marriage was troubled it sounded like Rose had several of Affairs through the course of their marriage she had several boyfriends that was no secret according to his parents he knew and he bought two cell phones that were just alike so when she'd come home from work he'd switch them while she was taking a shower he'd look at her phone he knew what was going on a good foundation for a healthy relationship is trust so you know they're in a bad place when Adam resorts to checking Rose's phone every [Music] night Rose was spotted with a man at a local park by one of Adam's sister's friends the woman took a picture of the two and passed it on to Adam's sister and her mom Sylvia [Music] chase the photo showed her in a park up in with this guy it was supposedly according to her her gay friend but she was kissing him so if if he's gay then I maybe he's playing both sides I don't [Music] know the next day Adam's mother confront Rose about her Affair what does this mean Rose says that the photo is meaningless but Adam's mother decides to show him the photo anyway he was live it 3 days later on June 14th 2012 Rose and Adam decided to discuss their marital problems after they both called in sick to work they argued about the incriminating cell phone photo and according to Rose a furious atom stormed out of the house they were supposed to be talking about certain things that were happening in the relationship and some issues that was the whole point of having their conversation which turned into this big argument what's this you kissing another man what the hell Adam really thought they could work things out he knew about the infidelity but he thought if they could lay everything out on the table they could start fresh and live happily ever after what about Tristan you don't need a DNA test Tristan just told me that her and Adam had gotten in a fight and he wandered off well she didn't see him wander off but that he had left and that she hadn't heard from him and and that was that they had a fight and he just vanished how horrible that the last thing she said to her husband was whatever Angry Words she said during that argument Adam's family is distraught I mean days go by they haven't seen him they just have this gut instinct this personal connection to him that something is wrong and and they believe somebody did something to him but you know what it really is something that doesn't feel right near their house there's a relatively organized trail system you know wouldn't be out of the ordinary for somebody just to walk off I've worked on cases that we had missing persons where the guy had been out hiking and we didn't find him for like a year and a half so the police are investigating and they think that Adam went off for a hike he may have gotten stuck somewhere he couldn't call for help kind of like in the movie 127 Hours where James Franco gets stuck underneath a boulder and he can't call for help so the police are kind of thinking that this is what happened to Adam at this point nobody knows what happened to Adam you know he could be alive he could be dead he could be missing he could be [Music] anywhere Adam's mother is immediately worried about her son because this is so unlike him so like any worried mother she quickly reached out for help she worked for the school district Marcus Whitman School District and she'd gotten a hold of the school resource officer to say that her son was missing according to police reports officer Lee Martin was assigned to Adam Chase's case Martin began the investigation by visiting Rose at her home you might have to come take a look around sure I talked to her that day that I got the report the night that I went to the house she allowed us to search it [Music] when we searched the house and we we didn't find Adam you're kind of walking on eggshells with her allowing you in the house to search in the beginning because you know people have an absolute right of refusal to let me in their house for any reason so the fact that she did you're you know you're trying to be very cautious the sheriff's dogs go searching for a body body they come back with nothing there needed to be a bit more investigative work at that point uh but I think that left a big question mark for them you have to focus your efforts on where you think you might be and in my mind we had cleared the house where is Adam Adam's mother Sylvia ch asked Rose for Adam's cell phone so she and her husband could use it to help track him down at this point Rose realized that Adam must have returned when she wasn't home because his cell phone wallet and laptop were all missing Adam's mother had contacted me saying that she had gotten a text message from his phone that's weird I just got a text from Adam there had been a couple of messages that had been sent from his phone I have to call right to voicemail it's completely possible that Adam left on his own terms you know people were getting text messages from him uh you know there was reported communication from him so you know after this argument he might have actually stormed out and left on his own terms Adam always called his father talk to him every night now he's gone and when when he talked to his father he never text him he called him they you get two text messages from him being pinged off of a tower in near candid a text from Adam are you sure all the family said that's not itam it's very Scenic picturesque area to live in our County in particular I wouldn't say it's crime-free but as far as violent crimes in Ontario County there's not a lot of them it's a safe place to live generally so this case really begins as somebody that goes missing Rose and Adam were having issues in their marriage and one of the main reasons was Rose's infidelity she was even caught in photos kissing another man and this infuriated Adam why don't we talk about this on June 14th 2012 Adam is last scene now what happens before he is last seen well according to Rose he punched a wall was really angry and took off and since then not a peep he didn't have a lot of friends that we were aware of but the people that we did talk to didn't seem to indicate that this would have been behavior that was completely out of the ordinary that he could have just wandered off there was one friend of his in particular that we had talked to that had said oh he could he could just wander off and be off the grid and he'd survive just fine at this point there's no sign of Adam but there's no sign of fou play so there's a lot of questions but Adam's still [Music] missing I have to call Adam's mother tried calling Adam on his cell phone but it kept going straight to voicemail something didn't feel right to them Adam never texted his parents he always called them when we sent out the missing person's flyer with his photograph attached we did get leads from several different parts not just in this area but there was other leads farther out indicating that I think one of them was in Rochester somebody thought they saw him there there might have been um somebody that had had a sighting of them in the Southern Tier all of which didn't pan out enter Rodney Miller here's this guy who he knows the chase family knows him well he's lived in this town his whole life he has a good Instinct about people places things he's a farmer but you know what Rodney also has a private investigator's license and soon Rodney gets involved start from the beginning in law enforcement the politics of it all is so important to how your life plays out within that Circle because we look at Rodney and he worked for the sheriff's department and he didn't want to play politics cuz Rodney's kind of this loner guy who goes on Instinct follows his nature he didn't want to go along with the boys club so he was kind of kicked out of it I don't dwell on it it is what it is can't undo it uh I didn't get fired cuz I didn't do my job you know the dynamic in these small towns the culture surrounding you know how a sheriff is elected is based on their fan following so if you're not a fan of a sheriff then you're certainly not going to be working for him so that's what Rodney Miller's thought this guy Phil P was the sheriff and Rodney didn't support him that ticked people off and he got fired so basically Rodney just didn't want to play along Adam was quiet but Adam stayed to himself I mean he was a gamer and he but his wife even admitted that Adam was quiet I mean he had friends he liked to party with family very jolly he went to school with my son same age same grade Rodney Miller is this straight shooter guy he's going to tell it like it is and sure enough he tells the father of Adam look I'm going to get involved I will find your son but you know what I believe your son's [Music] dead and we look at that two ways he doesn't want to give the dad any expectations but he also wants to be honest with the dad because you know why Rodney knows things about people that nobody else knows Rodney has seen things that nobody else has seen Rodney knows how the real world works I went to his father's house and walked in and I knew about Adam and I just said to his father I want to help you find your son I think Rodney Miller knew something was suspicious the second Adam went missing when I first got on the case everything that I'd learned I got from the chase family don't know where he is he was very critical of our investigation but I needed to maintain the things that I was maintaining the bigger picture in all of this is that if this case ever did break open if this turned into a criminal case I need to be able to maintain the investigation so I can charge somebody with the worst possible thing that they did they had all the tools I had nothing but my feet my [Music] heart he kind of had his own way of doing things which in the end was very [Music] beneficial familiar to the chase family Rodney Miller had a vested interest in this missing person's case he began his investigation immediately after learning about Adam's disappearance at which point Adam had already been missing for several weeks I'm hoping you could help me my first interview with her was out in the yard and I had introduced myself and who was and we chatted for a while and I actually got close enough and I touched her and she shook like a leaf and she had her heads down in her hand and she was rocking back and forth and I got down and I was almost whispering in her ear and I said Rose I know about the fight you and Adam had upstairs if something happened it's an accident it's forgivable and just like that she stood right in front of me and looked me right in the eye and she said he walked out of the house I'm sorry I didn't see which way he [Music] went I think you killed him I left her house went to the sheriff sat right on his porch right beside him and told him what I felt and knew according to Rodney Miller's investigation notes because there was no indication of file play and Adam's Body had not been found the sheriff's department theorized that either Adam left of his own free will or he was so distraught over his failed marriage he took his own life and I was told off the Record he committed suicide we're going to find him in the field of the wood and I told him no you're not I said Phil we got we got 100 105 Degree Days in that month if he was out in the fields of the woods the buzzards would have told him where they were weeks went by and still no break in the case the only thing everyone could pretty much agree on was that Adam was still missing yet another twist the man from the controversial Park photo moves in with rose when she was questioned about that she told the chases oh he's just he's he's a friend but he's gay but that gay friend moved into the house 2 days after Adam went missing we knew during the course of the investigation that she was involved with uh another guy not long after Adam's disappearance he moved in with her so that was certainly another red flag that there was more here than met the eye did Mark and Rose conspire to kill Adam and get him out of the picture so they could be together you know when we crack open Rose's life in this rural Town while she's married to Adam you know what we see inside that crack we see SE sex sex and more sex we see someone who is just sleeping around town we see someone who a picture circulates of her kissing another man we see someone who actually had sex in the days after Adam went missing so immediately red flags pop up and they all have Rose's name on this case in particular while it was always in the back of my mind that things just weren't adding up the way that she was explaining them there wasn't a lot that I could confront her with because I didn't have anything other than a missing person Adam goes missing after a huge fight with his wife Rose he suspected her of cheating on him for quite a while but after these photos came out of her kissing another man it sent him over the edge everything that I'm picking up at this point is coming from her to the chase family to me what the hell they' had the fight he punched the hole in the wall he walked out of the house he supposedly had a cell phone because it pinged twice out of canida when they put the trace on it he just walked out of the house but she didn't see which way he went at least once a month she would stop in unannounced um one month she brought in his toothbrush and said that this might have his DNA on it because one of the things that you know you're always looking for if you want to get as much information about the person that's missing as possible so having his DNA would have been helpful almost every time that we would see her we would ask her if she had anything to do with it a couple of days after searching the house we went to her place of employment and talked to her there and flat out asked her if she killed him and she no immediately denied it no I didn't in August 2012 Adam's Family staged a protest on Rose's front lawn demanding to know the truth about what happened to Adam Rose calls the police there's basically a riot in front of her house and one of the chase family members is even holding a sign that says Sheriff search the house she was in the yard when I when I pulled in and she come out and we chatted a little and then I asked her I said do you mind if I walk through the house yes you can but not the basement why well the basement's wet I said well whatever whatever so she took me in took me upstairs showed me the hole in the wall that supposedly Adam punched when he was upset about her and the the boyfriend and the folded what had taken place so as we come back down the steps and we're walking back out to The One porch Mark the boyfriend sitting on the couch and there's the Cellar Door and I so I say to her do you mind if I look down cellar and she's shaking and trembling well what well I guess she turns the light on that some floor is as dry as can be and I said do you mind if I walk down well if you have to and on the third step my nose ran I could smell something and I knew it was death as you walk down she taken a bunch of dead animals and threw them around on the floor when you walked in the back part of the basement she' taken out all the lights so it was dark and me not being as good of a police officer investigator as I was didn't bring a flashlight so as we walked back upstairs I asked her a question that I was looking for a specific answer and what I said to her was your boyfriend's sitting in there on the couch I said what are you going to do rose if one of these Knights Adam comes back and walks in the house and catches you in bed with another man that's a good way to get killed I was looking for an answer and she gave it to me she said he ain't I'm not taking him back she was going to tell me he ain't coming back then I knew I'd hit where I wanted to be my main concern was the find Adam Chase and I knew with the time that I'd spent on it if I didn't find him by winter I was in trouble cuz once the snow came then you don't know what to [Music] do Rodney's got to make a move and sometimes you got to play a trump card so this is what he does he decides that you know what investigators are held to restrictions of the law and all that and they're not going to do this but you know what I got to do this and if I'm wrong I'm wrong but if I'm right I'm going to find Adam what does he do he goes right after Rose Rodney Miller devises a plan 5 months after Adam's disappearance he asks Rose's babysitter Sandy Armon to tell Rose that there's been a break in the case and someone is about to get arrested Sandy was really close to Adam this is a small community everyone talks to each other and so when Rodney had approached Sandy to help out she agreed to it sure just tell me what you want me to say I wanted her to tell Rose when she came to get her son that she'd heard news from another person if that would have worked I I was done I I had no other place to turn she asked me what I wanted to do and I told her well tell her that you heard breaking news and you're going to arrest and charge somebody with Mur in in a day or two for Adam's death and and I said call me so it got around 5 5:25 and she doesn't call me so I call her and I said Sandy was she there yes didn't you get my text and I told Sandy not to text me I don't read Texas but anyway she told me if you're going you better go now cuz she left here as weight as a she and all she could say was oh oh I went to her house and I asked her if she remembered me and she said she did and I said unfortunately for you I think I've got enough evidence against you to charge you with murder with murder just like that she popped on the steps hands come up in their face and she rocked back and forth and I walked up to her and I said Rose you got to give them up you're never going to be at peace or neither am I till you tell me me where you buried him and just like that she popped her head up out of her hands and she said I didn't bury him I said well we is he I took him to my mother's Rodney gets it in his mind that Rose did this and he won't stop and sure enough here she is admitting to it and where is he I burned him I think it was eating her up and and I honestly think she was tired of it Rose begins her narrative I thought we were going to talk about this we got into a fight that night we talk about Adam saw the picture of meiss and the man and we started fighting so I admitted to it and I also admitted to all the infidelities and this just enraged Adam and he punched that hole in the wall and as he did he stumbled and he fell down the stairs how she said that he was dead when he fell down the first steps and she left them there but he was still bleeding up but then she pushed him down the second step and she went shopping she had better things to do and I said to her I said well he was too big a man for you to take out of the basement by yourself who helped you and she looked right at me she said I took him out Peace by piece private investigator Rodney Miller calls police and tells them that Rose is confessed now police go to her house with a warrant we got into pretty graphic detail during the interview about how she was able to move him Adam was a big man he was probably twice her size uh he was certainly over 200 lb my understanding was he was at least 6 ft tall she was really under the impression that at the time when she was going to be ready to move him out of the house that her her exact words to me were I I just figured it would just be a giant bag of bones which really wasn't the case she didn't chop him up she literally pulled him apart piece by piece [Music] now did when you were taken him out of the house did you cut him up or anything did you need any tools or anything or no cuz if you did where would those be he just fell apart okay all right how long had you been there he been there about 6 to 8 weeks okay when Adam's mother had contacted her to let her know that she had reported Adam missing that's when she started uh moved him around and concealed him within the basement where in the basement was he the part that I told you the life wouldn't work mhm I had SKS along the wall mhm and he was underneath all that stuff that was in that corner okay all right how'd you get in there I draged she said that she had folded him up crisscrossed his legs and then folded his torso down onto his legs inside this you know heavy plastic she called the plastic bag and then she tied that off and then she just stacked a bunch of things up over the top of them to make it look like um like a work table type thing I can remember seeing what she described to me in the interview from the night that I had been there initially but in the basement was dimly lit very cluttered and I was putting my faith into what I thought was a dog that would be capable of senting a a deceased [Applause] human if you get to see her confession she she says in her oh no problem the hips came off just like nothing he he just pulled apart he was soft and so rotten that he just came apart and she talks under her confession about carrying a torso up and trying to put in the back of the car and it slipped out of her hands hit her leg and her alarm went off on the car is everything and the neighbor come out and asked her if she needed any out everything's [Music] fine head arms legs came off no problem all right no off you mean off fell off I mean the legs fell off right about needs [Music] mm in her confession Rose even admitted that she drove the pieces of Adam's Body to her mother's property while her four-year-old son Tristan sat in the back seat of the car so you're driving around with Tristan Adam in the back of the car yeah and he stunk did trist didn't say anything about it smelling so bad no he has why is the windows down I will mom is trying to on the car she put him in the back of her car and then put her son right in beside his father's dead body and transported him to her mother's she left him there for at least a [Music] day using Rose's confession police were able to reconstruct the events surrounding the death of Adam [Music] Chase so Rose paints this picture of a really unhappy marriage you know Adam I guess is on the computer a lot they're fighting all the time and she wasn't satisfied sexually Rose was having a lot of Affairs and she had a lot of lovers throughout the course of their [Music] marriage him and I called into to work so this way we could work things out okay So Adam wanted a DNA test he didn't believe that his son was his and uh him and Rose got in a bit of an argument and Rose said there's no need for a DNA test your son's not yours and I think that devastated Adam Rose admitted that she told Adam that Tristan wasn't his son this news made Adam Furious and he punched a hole in the wall that's a really tough thing to hear that your child isn't actually yours that would make anyone Furious you've seen Jerry Springer right and he goes well you told me last night that we're going to get a DNA test done on Tristan I told him I told him then no need Tristan's not yours he got Furious punched the wall okay and that was the that was the hole that we saw right I went to grab him he did push me away I went to gra him again and I don't know how if he tried to push me away again or if I tried to grab he grabbed him wrong but he his foot caught the stairs and he tumbled down the stairs well in her confession she admitted that she gave him an extra shove at the first stairs and then supposedly she felt he was dead at the bottom of them stairs because in her confession he peed himself but at that point when she was asked what she what she do she never she didn't call 9911 she went and looked out the curtains to make sure the neighbors didn't hear or see [Music] anything that night when I found him I gone home when I went home and give my family a hug uh but my phone rang and of course it was Mr Pavo and he says to me I'm asking not to talk to the media that's going to turn into a major murder case or it could be a Mur and I said I don't need to talk to the media I want to talk to you I want to know why you didn't believe me me when I told you what I knew and he quote unquote says to me over the phone Rodney I honestly thought he'd be home by Christmas I said well you can't come home if you're effing dead and I hung up I'd had enough she supposedly killed him on Thursday Friday she pushes him down the second set of stairs The Cellar stairs and then in her conf she went shopping she had better things to do she left them I was within feet of them yeah it was yeah there was a wide range of emotions that that I felt after the fact not frustration just for the sake of how long this had gone on but to have been that close to finding him that night and been able to put this whole to rest essentially that night um yeah it was it was frustrating to say the least there was instances where she had told us during the interview that you know there was there was a couple of times I was ready just to come in and tell you what I did but she would start thinking about the things that Adam's family was saying about her and that would get her angry and she just wouldn't come in certainly she was uh willing to go to pretty much any length that she needed to to maintain her freedom and at some point it became too much for her which is why she finally made an admission that led us to Adam's Body which brought us to a conclusion of the case at Rose's tribe in October 2013 her defense attorney maintained Adam's death was accidental that Rose's confession was coerced and there was no way the prosecutors could prove murder Beyond A Reasonable Doubt the jury disagreed they found Rose Chase guilty of tampering with physical evidence endangering the welfare of a child and second degree murder in January 2014 nearly 3 months after her guilty verdict judge William Coker sentenced Rose Chase to 23 years to life for the murder of Adam Chase and one and 13 to four years on the tampering of evidence conviction she was incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County and is not eligible for parole until 2037 my big biggest concern was if she had got away with that murder what would have happened to the son when she got tired of him did he disappear too that was my biggest concern Adam Chase's parents have been granted custody of their grandson Tristan this is a case where there's dismemberment and manipulation and lies and such a greedy selfish person that for me I just think Rose is just complete evil you know this is a real life Horror Story the story is so horrific it's like how could something like this even happen it's almost like you're watching a horror movie like silence the Lambs she never expressed any remorse to me during the interview and you know even in the end maintained that she wasn't responsible for what happened to him [Music] this is typical with someone who commits a murder and they confess to it and then they get to trial and they're poisoned by some defense attorney who convinces them that this could have been an accident and oh yeah this was an accident so now I got to make up this story that well I when I confessed I meant that it was an accident but you know what the evidence says it was not an accident and if it was an accident why did didn't she call the police right away let's be honest you can't accidentally dismember your husband's body