“I was never in her room…” he says — then detectives read her final text

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]She's not back yet?

[00:00:03]You want to take a look in her bedroom?

[00:00:06]Has she ever disappeared before?

[00:00:08]Yeah, 8:30 last night. She doesn't not text me when I text her. What does she normally take with her when she leaves?

[00:00:15]Her backpack, her phone.

[00:00:17]Her phone's not [music] in here. No, that's not Did you talk to her at all last night? I talked to her last night. Or I mean the night before or anything? Do you have any reason she would leave?

[00:00:26]>> No. I guess. Is there a rumor going around people telling us that she's trading them?

[00:00:30]Police arrive at a home to investigate the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl.

[00:00:35]Her mother leads them to her bedroom. At first glance, it looks like a typical messy teenager's room. But as officers search through the clutter, they notice something disturbing. This is the backpack Debbie said she wore, but she said the kids already went through everything.

[00:00:51]Morning.

[00:00:53]Morning, Squawny. Her belongings are all still there.

[00:00:58]Her phone, her charger, her glasses, her money, everything a runaway would take left behind. Then they see it, blood on her sheets, more blood on her comforter. The cops are now certain that foul play has occurred, and something terrible happened to 15-year-old Riley Crossman.

[00:01:15]But here's what makes this case even more chilling. The last text message Riley sent to her boyfriend said this.

[00:01:21]What if I told you her last text to her boyfriend were saying, "Don't talk because she still has to FaceTime someone. Andy's in here.

[00:01:30]I'm afraid."

[00:01:38]May 8th, 2019.

[00:01:41]Dispatchers receive a call from a concerned woman reporting the disappearance of her 15-year-old daughter, Riley Crossman. As officers arrive at the scene, they come into contact with the caller, Shantel Oakley, and her boyfriend, Andy McCauley. What's going on, man? Uh haven't seen you in a long time. It's been a long time.

[00:02:00]Any word?

[00:02:03]You mind if I take a look in her bedroom?

[00:02:08]Has she ever disappeared before?

[00:02:11]She doesn't even have a cell phone.

[00:02:13]She doesn't not text me unless I text her. According to Riley's mother, this was unlike her. She wasn't one to run off without telling anyone. A quick search of her room revealed that her belongings were untouched, except her bed, which was covered in blood stains.

[00:02:28]This was highly suspicious. So, officers quickly took a sample and sent it off for DNA testing. But for now, officers need to gather as much information as possible from people who last saw Riley.

[00:02:40]So, they decide to question Andy about his whereabouts that day. Can I talk to you about tomorrow night? I was talking to her last night. She was being nice to her or anything. Any reason she would leave? No. Okay. There's a rumor going around people don't like her and she's afraid to come home. I don't know if that's I'm going to Yeah, how people get along.

[00:02:56]There was nothing like that. Okay.

[00:02:58]According to family and friends, Andy was never an early riser. In fact, when police interviewed one of his colleagues, Johnny, he stated that he had to go to his house and repeatedly call him to wake him up. But on this particular day, things were different.

[00:03:12]I'll call him and see if he's up. So, that morning, do you remember if you called him or he called you? Tuesday morning.

[00:03:20]I want to say he called. But this was not the only strange thing about Andy that day. He also told police he was at work all day. And when cops interviewed another one of his colleagues to verify his alibi, they found out that Andy had left work and was gone for nearly 5 hours. And he gets back at roughly Probably 2:45.

[00:03:41]So, he was gone a while then. Four or almost 5 hours or something. Because of this, detectives now know that Andy hasn't been completely honest with them, at least about staying at work the full day.

[00:03:54]This is very clearly a red flag and means he's trying to hide something from them. But Andy might not be the only one hiding something, as officers would find out when they decide to look into Riley's boyfriend, Hayden.

[00:04:06]For the last 8 months, the two reportedly FaceTimed every night. So officers believe that if anyone was in contact with Riley the night before, it would be Hayden. He was soon called in for an interview, 2 days after Riley went missing.

[00:04:19]Hayden, you just tell us when you were last FaceTiming him. I was actually talking to her about the DC trip and what was going on. And do you know exactly what time? 10:30-ish.

[00:04:31]Finding out Andy's actual whereabouts and what really happened during the 5 hours that he was missing from work is crucial to the investigation.

[00:04:40]And that's why Andy is called in for questioning.

[00:04:43]I just talked to Donnie, right? Saw him leaving. Okay.

[00:04:47]Would you be surprised if you told me something completely different? Um yeah, maybe. Do you not remember leaving that job site going to Red Hill? Oh yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. We did go to and did I'm sorry. We did You're right. Okay. All right. We did go to and and did a show.

[00:05:01]How How long were you there Red Hill?

[00:05:04]Like the rest of the day. Okay.

[00:05:05]Like the rest of the day. Okay.

[00:05:07]Were you at that house the entire time fixing the shelves?

[00:05:12]No. Okay. Where were you at? I was at the I was at the dealer house. Okay. I was You got some You went to go get some I went to go get some more drugs. If Andy was off doing illegal drugs during those 5 missing hours, then that could possibly explain why he didn't initially tell the cops the truth about where he had been all day.

[00:05:31]But this also could just be his way of trying to distract the police by bringing their attention to something else.

[00:05:38]At this point, [music] detectives know that Andy is desperate to give them an alternate alibi. And his drug story could possibly be true. So to cross-check, >> [music] >> they call in Johnny again.

[00:05:49]Johnny had a history of drug use, and the two would often do cocaine together, so he can easily substantiate or discredit Andy's account. Would you say that there was enough to still do another line each? Oh, yeah. Couple lines each. Oh, yeah. Okay.

[00:06:02]>> [clears throat] >> So, you wouldn't have to You didn't need any more coke. No.

[00:06:06]So, now Andy's story about going to get more drugs isn't adding up. His colleague had already told the cops they had more than enough cocaine to get them through the rest of the day.

[00:06:18]So, there would be no reason for them to go get more drugs.

[00:06:22]Realizing that Andy has been lying, the police decide it's time to confront him and get to the bottom of his deception.

[00:06:30]What if I told you that I knew you weren't with him that day?

[00:06:32]And you didn't buy drugs off anybody that day. See where I'm going now?

[00:06:35]You went from this story to this story, and now I get a third story. This is one of these times you really need to think about what you're telling me.

[00:06:42]Okay? Cuz you're not being honest.

[00:06:44]Remember what I told you about being honest and not going to just throw [ __ ] at you?

[00:06:47]I know you weren't there. I know you didn't buy drugs off your cousin, and I know you didn't use them in that park a lot that day.

[00:06:53]Where did you go when you left?

[00:06:55]Was it my house you went to to get the drugs?

[00:06:57]Okay. All right. Yeah, in my house.

[00:06:58]Considering the discrepancies in each version of the story he tells officers, there is more than enough reason for officers not to trust Andy. The main reason for detectives pressuring Andy like this is because a record of his movements is crucial for this investigation. Usually, law enforcement can just track a suspect's movements using their phone. But in Andy's case, he had supposedly left it at home the day that Riley went missing. Knowing that the more leniency detectives show to Andy, the bolder he would become in giving shady alibis, detectives decide to ramp up the intensity of the conversation even more to make Andy nervous and slip up about his real whereabouts. Um you know, the further along this is whatever happens and whoever that is doing it, the worse off it gets for that person, too. Yes, I hope so. She was probably taken out of that house by somebody. Yeah, I'll feel I'll feel something if she was taken that way.

[00:07:52]I'll feel something if she didn't walk out of that house. Yeah, she was taken from that house, is what I'm saying. She didn't She didn't wander off. She didn't take her backpack, take her clothes, take her glasses, take her cell phone charger, take all of her money. She had most of her money. Um, someone's going to go to her room. Her wallet was still in her backpack. That's it.

[00:08:08]>> Yeah.

[00:08:08]Yeah. Even after explicitly stating the absurdity of the situation, Andy seems as calm as ever, and won't crack about where he really was.

[00:08:18]But even in this situation, detectives have one piece of evidence that would cause [music] the pressure to mount on Andy.

[00:08:25]The texts that Hayden had showed them.

[00:08:27]Once confronted with these, Andy's behavior changes immediately.

[00:08:32]What if I told you her last text to her boyfriend were saying, "Don't talk, because you still have the FaceTime on.

[00:08:40]Andy's in here.

[00:08:41]I'm afraid." That's what it said. What if I told you that? I would say that's crazy. I can put my hand on the Bible and tell you I saw those texts today.

[00:08:50]Well, I'd like to see them, because I know Riley is scared of me. And I don't I know she was Not only that, she said, "You were in here."

[00:08:57]And she was in her bedroom, because the FaceTime was still on. I was never in her room. The cops lacked probable cause at this time to arrest Andy, but there is one piece of evidence that is about to change the course of this entire investigation. It was around this time that the lab results on that blood sample would finally return, and it would be an exact match to Andy's DNA.

[00:09:17]But that's not all. They also learned that the blood they tested was also mixed with saliva. This made the cops suspect that Riley's face may have been forced into the pillow in an attempt to keep her from screaming.

[00:09:29]This is an important development, but they still haven't located Riley, and they need to find more information about where Andy was during those five missing hours.

[00:09:37]Luckily though, all of that can be answered in the CCTV footage that captured all of Andy's movements. There were cameras attached to a nearby high school that captured Andy McCauley leaving his work site. That was the starting point of the investigation for the cops. An eyewitness who knew what Andy's vehicle looked like was able to confirm that she saw his truck backed up into the driveway of Riley's home in the middle of the day when he should have been at work.

[00:10:03]At this point, the cops believe that Andy killed Riley during the late night or early morning hours, likely to keep her from screaming while he assaulted her.

[00:10:11]They believe he then hid her body in the bedroom until everyone left and then later returned to the house when it was empty to pick up her body and dispose of it. Using CCTV footage to guide them and with the help of police canines trained to pick up Riley's scent, they search a nearby mountainous area. It is there that they tragically find Riley's decomposing body left in a secluded area. Near where Riley's body is found, there are several unique looking screws discovered. These are the same screws that were located when the cops had searched Andy's vehicle the day previously.

[00:10:42]This is even further evidence that solidified the case against him. The jury deliberated for about 4 hours over the course of 2 [music] days and decided that the monster who murdered Riley was none other than Andy McCauley. It was an emotional day in Morgan County. But Andy McCauley sat emotionless in court while he received two life sentences. One for first-degree murder with no mercy and the second for child abuse resulting in a death for the murder of 15-year-old Riley Crossman. McCauley was also charged with concealment of a body that carries a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.