This documentary examines how online dating platforms can be exploited by criminals to target vulnerable individuals, as demonstrated through two cases: the 2006 murder of Michael Sandy in Brooklyn, who was lured to his death through a chat room conversation, and the 2009 disappearance of Britney Drexel in Myrtle Beach, who was murdered by a registered sex offender. The cases highlight the importance of digital evidence preservation, the role of persistent family advocacy in solving cold cases, and the legal challenges of prosecuting hate crimes without physical evidence.
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48 Mystery Full Episode 2026 💥💥The Last Celebration💥💥 Murder Documentary Full HDAdded:
It's the last time you see pictures of all of the family together.
And when that family was entering the house, he heard the gunshots.
911.
>> Someone has just shot another.
>> Who shot them?
>> We don't know.
>> It was a small gun safe. It had been pried open. Was this just a home invasion that went bad?
>> Sit there and think, what kind of relationship did they actually have?
This is not the all-American family that everybody might think they are.
>> In my opening statement, I told the jury panel, "You're about to hear a tale of subtifuge, deception, and greed.
December 2003, Sugarland, Texas. Kent and Trisha Whitaker and their two sons, Bart and Kevin, have called this affluent suburb home for more than a decade. It's a perfect fit for their upscale lifestyle.
>> Sugarland was an amazing place to grow up. It was a community focused on faith, focused on friendships, relationships, a really tight-knit community.
The Whitaker family was a pillar in the community.
I attended a private school there in Sugarland and Kevin did too and we were fast friends.
The Whitaker family did so much together, whether it be fishing trips or camping trips, you know, times on the lake.
Kent and Trisha maintain that really sweet closeness with their kids and that high level of trust and communication.
They love to experience life as a family. I was the Whitaker's next door neighbor. They were very normal, kind, empathetic people. They seemed not troubled, unbburdened.
Life is good. That was my general vibe.
>> To friends and neighbors, the Whiters seem to have it all. A happy family where 19-year-old Kevin looks up to his 23-year-old brother, Bart.
>> Kevin was very humble. He was a man of integrity, of character, incredibly honest.
The guy was smart, very engaging.
Bart was a little bit more quiet. You didn't know necessarily what he was thinking like you did Kevin.
Kent Whitaker is the co-owner of a thriving construction company. A hard worker, his financial success means he can provide his family with everything they might want. His wife Trisha is a dedicated part-time elementary school teacher.
>> She loved and knew every kid in every class every single year. And the interesting part was is she didn't have to work, right, because of Kent's job.
But it told you a lot about her heart.
On December 10th, 2003, Kent and Trisha plan a special night out for the family to celebrate Bart's graduation from Sam Houston State University. At dinner, they present their son with a $4,000 Rolex watch as a graduation gift.
>> I know what a Rolex cost, and he bought a Rolex as a graduation gift. That's not an everyday thing. Kent is a proud dad and takes photos so they'll have a permanent record of Bart's achievement.
>> I've seen this.
>> I've seen those.
>> Sitting there smiling like that.
Very happy.
It's the last time you see pictures of all of the family together.
>> 911.
>> Someone has just shot another.
>> Who shot them?
>> We don't know.
>> I was there when they died.
That was real. And I can't necessarily make sense of what I saw that night time.
I was sitting at my computer. I heard gunshots.
I immediately dart out the front door. I get about midway down our sidewalk and I seen Kim Whitaker laid on his back. You could see his body lit up by their front porch lights and he was saying, "Brandon, Brandon, we've been shot. Call 911."
What kind of injury did I have?
>> I I don't know. They've just been shot.
>> Brandon's father, Cliff Stanley, rushes to the house and discovers that Kent Whitaker has been shot in the chest.
>> My dad runs out and starts rendering aid.
I mean, multiple trips back and forth with House just doing what we can.
It felt awful.
It was gruesome. It was a horror movie.
>> While police raced to the scene, another 911 call comes from inside the Whitaker home. It's Bart Whitaker.
>> I've been shot.
>> Where is your wound?
>> In the arm, my shoulder. I think I can't leave my arm.
>> Okay. Who else has been shot in the house with you?
>> It's my mom and my dad and my brother.
Oh god. I I need you to hang on, Bart.
Got help on the way. Okay. Do you know who shot you?
>> No. Back in here.
>> Okay. When he left, Bart, did he leave out your back door?
>> Yeah, I did that way.
>> When I arrived on scene, it was very chaotic.
>> There was ambulances. There were multiple police cars, fire trucks, a helicopter.
When detectives arrive at the Whitaker home, >> they find Kent Whitaker hanging on to life.
>> EMS personnel had went in. They had taken vitals for Kevin Whitaker and he was pronounced deceased.
Patricia Whitaker was flown by helicopter to a Houston hospital and we were told she died in route to the hospital.
Bart Whitaker had been shot.
He was being medically treated by EMS.
Two people were shot. Another two people were dead. So we knew within the first hour that it was a double murder.
Stand by your little Kent Whitaker and his son Bart are rushed to a nearby hospital.
Detectives quickly arrive to get a statement from Bart since he is the only one conscious.
Bart tells them that the family had just arrived home from their celebratory dinner when he realized he forgot something.
>> Bart Whitaker reported that he had actually walked out to his truck to retrieve a cell phone. But when the rest of the family was entering the house, there was a guy that was inside that house.
So, he heard the gunshots.
guard reported he had chased the shooter through the home and out the back of the house and he had actually been shot by the offender.
We had had several home invasion robberies.
So the thought initially was, are they connected? Was this just a home invasion that went bad?
>> But something doesn't quite add up.
Probably the biggest thing that stuck out to us was every drawer in the rooms were pulled out exactly even with each other. So this burglar basically like purposely I'm going to pull out every drawer about this distance this distance so it'll make it look like I was trying to look for stuff. But you weren't looking for anything. You were just pulling out drawers.
The officers of many knew that.
To the investigators, the scene seems to have the hallmarks of a staged burglary.
Nothing appears to have been stolen.
>> There were electronics. There were computers. There was TVs.
There was a a Rolex watch that was found. There didn't appear to be anything taken.
So, things didn't add up exactly to being some type of burglary.
Burglars come in and leave within minutes. They smash everything they can, pick up everything in 3 minutes. That's what happens. They don't sit there and wait for people to come home and walk in through the front door and shoot them.
It just doesn't happen.
>> While investigators try to make sense of why the Whiters were gunned down, they realize they have another pressing matter in front of them.
>> We had a vague description of a dark figure that ran up through the back of the house and now this person is loose in the neighborhood. So, are they on foot? Did they get picked up by a car? Did they drive a car there? And now they've driven away or are they hiding in someone's backyard and they've already shot four people? The public's in danger. And we were in a very tough spot. Where is he? Or where could he be?
Police try to unravel a bewildering attack.
>> I crawled around for a bit. I really didn't know where I was. It just felt wrong. and discover details of an inconceivable plot.
>> Was at the police station late one night and there was a knock on the back door.
>> Do you have any idea who did the shooting?
>> Who did the shooting?
>> All the puzzle pieces just immediately connected and realizing gosh, the worst possible explanation for this is true.
As police in Sugarland, Texas, begin investigating the shooting at the Whitaker home, news travels fast in the tight-knit community.
>> I got a call from a friend. He's like, "Hey, there's been an incident. There's been a a shooting.
It was Kevin who had passed away and Trisha passed away as well.
It was the most horrendous thing possible.
And so at that moment, there's so much happening. You can't reconcile anything.
You can't process. You can't grieve.
It's just all hell's broken loose.
December 10th, 2003 was a a day that is burned in my memory.
I don't feel like I ever did process it.
I I just kind of did what I had to do and kept moving forward.
It was just shocking.
Sugarland is incredibly safe. It's the kind of place where you don't even hesitate to take a walk at 3:00 a.m.
They definitely made me more aware of my surroundings, of what's capable from people.
You know, the first question is is what happened?
What went down and then why?
Detectives are urgently pursuing those answers at the Whitaker home.
As they search through the house, they find a weapon and four empty shell casings. There was a gun that was found in the kitchen area, which was odd. It's probably the murder weapon.
Usually, we don't find that the offender leaves the murder weapon on the scene.
But it was an advantage for us cuz now we had the possibility maybe for fingerprints, uh, for DNA, uh, for other types of evidence that could be recovered from this gun.
In one of the upstairs rooms, nothing in that room appeared to be touched at all except for there was a small gun safe.
It had been pried open. You could see pry marks around the the frame. It was empty.
The gun safe was small little box, maybe a foot by foot, tucked into a hidden area. Whoever did this knew what to look for and knew what was in the safe.
>> The discovery leads the investigators to question how familiar the killer was with the Whitaker family and their home.
>> It was odd that someone had targeted this small gun safe out of this whole big house. Why weren't the computers disturbed? Why weren't the the TVs taken? They just didn't make sense. So our job was to try to find out who how many people were involved with this.
>> Most people are killed by people who know them. 78%.
It's very strange you have stranger and stranger. It just doesn't occur that much.
>> 3 days after the murders, police are still scouring the evidence for leads on a motive or suspect. When Bard Whitaker is discharged from the hospital, his father, Kent, is still in intensive care.
>> Despite the trauma he's just endured, Bart agrees to assist detectives by returning home to relive that terrifying night. The investigators hope he can remember something that will lead them to the killer. It's uh 7:54 p.m.
>> Officer Dubose is going to be playing the part of the suspect and I'm turning over to Bart for his uh direction of everyone.
>> We went through the crime trying to figure out exactly what happened.
>> I was here when I was calling 911. I might have fallen forward.
>> Okay. Right after I was shot.
>> Okay.
>> I crawled around for a bit. It felt I really didn't know where I was hit. It just felt wrong. I mean, I couldn't move the my arm. I tried to push off the floor and my arm wasn't working.
I thought maybe I was hit in the side cuz it just it burned.
>> So, he went out the back door. Did you see him leave that back door?
>> No.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. I just don't remember.
>> They had him reenact the scene.
And people generally when it comes to crimes they try to be very specific like he was standing here or something like that and his was well I don't remember it was this way or it could have been this way.
>> When the shot was fired did you see any flashes of light?
>> I don't remember.
>> You ever physically make contact with the suspect?
>> I don't think so.
>> Okay. What I was trying to do I know I was trying to grab it.
I think I got you.
>> He was very vague about things you think he would remember.
>> At that point, we had no leads.
We had just a family of four that had been shot, two that were deceased.
They came home at the wrong time in the wrong place. That's the story that you typically hear, right? That's the initial reaction. It's just incredibly unfortunate, right? How does this even occur in Sugarland?
Detectives investigating the murders of Trisha Whitaker and her son Kevin in Sugarland, Texas believe their killer was familiar with the Whitaker home and may not have been trying to rob them.
So, we started doing a background on the family.
The domestic relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker was nothing but perfect that we could find out. And every friend or family that we had interviewed said they had a great relationship.
Detectives turned their focus on the Whitaker's murdered son, 19-year-old Kevin.
>> Was he targeted for some reason? Was he involved in something that he shouldn't have been? But he had no criminal history. As we were interviewing friends and family members, Kevin seemed to be a good kid and he was a tragic victim.
Detectives also take a closer look at the other Whitaker's son, 23-year-old Bart, who was wounded in the attack and is their primary witness.
It was his graduation from college that was being celebrated shortly before the murders.
Bart was supposed to graduate that coming Saturday.
So, we had contacted Sammy State University and we were told he wasn't graduating.
As a matter of fact, he was a freshman as far as their academic rating and he had like a 1.4 GPA. So, we had a story that he was giving us that wasn't matching reality.
>> He was lying about going to school for the past 3 years. And so, they zeroed in on him.
>> It sure seemed at the time it was too coincidental that this big family event had occurred and then they get home from this event and they're all shot. So, was Bart involved with what had happened?
Was he not involved? We had to gather evidence.
>> Investigators want to keep what they've learned about Bart Whitaker under wraps until they can either clear him or tie him to the murders.
But a local newspaper covering the case has also learned of his deceit and runs the story. Bart's father, Kent, still recovering in the hospital, is stunned and can't understand why Bart would lie.
>> Kent's response to it was, "Why didn't he tell us this? I just wish he would have, you know, let the music stop and confess this to us." How could you not know your kid's not going to college?
So, you sit there and think, "What kind of relationship did they actually have?
6 days after the murders of his mother and brother, Bart and his father join more than 1,000 friends and family at the funeral.
>> Gosh, that was a brutal day.
I remember seeing Kent and Bart sitting on the front row and watching them and, you know, what are they thinking? What are they feeling? You know, just gutted for them and heartbroken for them.
We had multiple detectives that were there. We had actually had some recording devices that were placed around the the the area um because there could be comments made because sometimes the parties involved go to the funerals.
But we didn't find anything at all.
As the family mourns, Sugarland police continue to focus on the questions that have arisen about Bart.
>> We had discovered that Bart had some involvement with the criminal justice system already. We found a 2001 incident report from the Waco Police Department that there was a female subject.
that was in an apartment with Bart Whitaker and she overheard him talking about wanting to kill his dad.
We had an officer that actually went out to the house. It was early in the morning and made contact with both Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker and told them why he was there, but they didn't believe Bart would be involved with something like that.
Later on when the father finally talks he says we're just talking about the Menendas brothers it wasn't anything serious at all and so the father just believes him miss it in the days after the murders life seems to return to some semblance of normaly for Bart and his father at least from the outside >> they were still living in the same house together where two of their family members died and the the suspicion is growing that Bart was involved and it wasn't life as normal but from the outside it was a dad and a son who had gone through this tragic event locking arms and and leaning into one another. We had to determine how much are we going to tell Mr. Whitaker because his life still could be in jeopardy with Bart still being around.
And we didn't tell him everything. We tried to be as honest as we could with him.
There were maybe a few times that Kent would say, "Hey, they're still trying to find the guy or they're still looking into it."
>> Mr. Whitaker was in a a very hard position at that point. Slowly kind of the bow is starting to unravel here where there's information about his only living son that uh at least initially isn't adding up.
>> Police know Bart Whitaker didn't pull the trigger, but they strongly suspect he is involved in the murders of his family.
>> Bart was very manipulative with friends and that was information that we received as the investigation went on.
That's when the intensity ramped up into trying to identify who does he currently hang around with and where were they at on December 10th of 2003.
This is not the all-American family that everybody might think they are.
Detectives in Sugarland, Texas, suspect Bart Whitaker knows more than he's saying about the murders of his mother and brother, and in fact may be involved in the crime, but they have been unable to find any solid evidence supporting their suspicions.
Then a week after the murders, as investigators contemplate their next move, an unexpected visitor drops by the police station.
>> The lead detective was at the police station late one night and there was a knock on the back door.
It was a gentleman by the name of Adam Hip.
Adam Hip tells the detective that he briefly went to college with Bart Whitaker and he wants police to know that Bart's statement about killing his parents in 2001 was far from the joke he claimed it was.
>> He said, "Listen, Bart Whitaker talked me about killing his family before back in 2001."
Adam tells police that Bart claimed once his parents and brother were dead, he would receive all of the family's assets, including their home and life insurance policies worth over $1 million.
He says Bart offered him a cut if he would be his trigger man.
>> The detective had Mr. hip actually draw a map that showed where he was supposed to stand inside the house and he would shoot the family members as they walked in.
And that's exactly what happened on December 10th, 2003.
Adam Hip started working for us.
We had him make recorded phone calls with Bart Whitaker to get him to talk about the crime.
>> Detectives coach Adam to tell Bart he knows he killed his parents and then threatened to go to the police with this information unless he receives $20,000.
>> And that's when Bart Wter says, "I can pay you I can pay you some money."
Basically, >> Bart never really came out directly and said, "I did it." But there were enough indicators there.
>> My opinion, we had probable cause to arrest Bart Whitaker on base of what we had with Adam Hip coming in. We did have that. Do we have enough to prosecute him and convict him? No, we didn't have any details.
But Adam Hip's call to Bart points the investigators to someone else who may be able to help them build their case.
>> When Adam Hip is on the phone, Bart Whitaker mentions Chris Basher. And what is Bart Whitaker? Chris is going to keep his mouth shut.
Adam tells police that Chris Brashier is a former roommate of Barts. Detectives track down Chris and bring him in for questioning.
>> Well, first of all, I appreciate you coming down.
>> Yeah, man.
>> After establishing the relationship between Bart and Chris, detectives hone in on the night of the murder.
>> Do you have any idea who did the shooting?
>> Who did the shooting?
>> Any ideas at all, >> man? I mean, it's it's a pretty gross incident to me. I mean, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even know where to start. I mean, that's kind of a it's kind of a blunt question.
>> Has Bart ever approached you about killing his family?
>> Wow. Never talked to you about that or anything like that. Never even joked around about it.
>> No.
>> So, did you go anywhere that night?
>> Yeah.
>> Where'd you go? uh went to what's that place?
>> Yeah, that's right.
>> And it was you and Steven.
>> It was Yeah, Steven, his girlfriend, and myself. Yeah.
>> Investigators believe that Chris Brashier is lying to them. They learn that Steven is Steve Champagne, another former roommate of Barts. And if Chris is providing Steve as a false alibi, detectives consider whether he might be involved as well.
>> Steve Champagne is enlisted in the Marines. We're looking at cell phone records, financial records, so who is communicating with who?
>> Police quickly locate Steve and bring him in for questioning.
>> They say they don't know anything about it. They denied anything. So at least that's where they start.
>> Finally, as pressure grows, the story begins to change.
>> I think Steve Champagne, I think his conscience finally got to him. Then he flat out a little information about, well, maybe I was involved.
>> Do you feel partly responsible?
>> Yeah.
>> Steven Champagne changed his changed the story and confessed.
Steve tells the detectives that Bart convinced him and Chris Brashier to join a plot to kill his family so he could inherit his parents' fortune.
Steve admits he was the getaway driver and Chris Brashier was the trigger man.
He had taken Chris Basher over to the house, parked his car a street or two over behind the house.
Chris hid inside the house and shot the family members as they walked in on December 10th of 2003.
>> Did Chris say where he found the gun in the house?
No, I I remember hearing something about a safe or something like that, but I don't know for sure.
>> Who do you think is the most responsible?
>> Probably Chris for shooting them.
I mean, Bart planning it. Yeah.
The big piece of information evidence-wise that Steve was able to provide to us is they had a bag that had a lot of evidence from the crime.
Walkietalkies, water bottle, ammunition that they tossed into Lake Conroe.
This is a big lake, man-made lake. They throw that in there.
Now, what would be the odds of somebody being able to find that?
Steve Champagne, a suspect in the murders of Trisha and Kevin Whitaker, claims a bag full of crucial evidence was tossed into Lake Conroe, 50 mi north of Houston, and agrees to take police to the spot.
the police department with their scuba tank. They to go out and look for it in water. You can't see your hand in front of you. They found the damn thing.
>> Inside the bag, detectives find the tool used to break into the Whitaker's gun safe.
They even found the pry bar, and they managed matching it up by the the scrape marks. They even found the cell phone they were using. Now, you tell me what kind of police work that is. God bless.
There was DNA that was recovered that was crisper shears from a water bottle.
There was ammunition that was consistent with the ammunition that was involved that killed the family. Tangible physical evidence that links these individuals to this crime.
>> With the evidence now in hand, detectives have what they need to confront Bart. But he's nowhere to be found. Bart Whitaker's Tahoe was found abandoned in an apartment complex in Houston. Both of the doors were found open.
We sent detectives to the scene.
We believe he's on the run.
We just lost him.
People don't run when they're innocent.
They really don't. Flight is a very good indication of guilt.
>> Kent Whitaker told us that there was money that was taken from the house. So Bard had some money to survive. Our job was now to figure out where he was.
>> The news of Bart's disappearance is one more shock for his friends and family already devastated by the murders.
>> That was the big kind of aha moment was when Bart left. So that's really when everything all the puzzle pieces just immediately connected and I realized gosh the worst possible explanation for this is true.
It's too much to really break it down into a coherent single thought. shock, disgust, and disbelief almost that someone could plot and plan out something like this.
Police send out a nationwide alert to be on the lookout for Bart Whitaker. With the cash taken from his home, he could be anywhere.
Meanwhile, Steve Champagne and Chris Brashier are charged with firstdegree murder for the deaths of Trisha and Kevin Whitaker.
>> These were kids that came from great backgrounds, but were manipulated by Bart Whitaker to kill his family. And they went along with it because Bart had promised them uh a cut in his inheritance. And he had told them that, "Hey, it's going to take a little while, but I am going to give you some money.
For months, there are no leads to Bart's whereabouts.
>> So, we worked with Crimestoppers to put out that we were looking for the whereabouts of Bart Whitaker.
>> There's a Crimestoppers award of $10,000. If you get information, the least there's arrest, we'll pay you 10 grand.
>> 18 months after the murders, police get a call from a man named Rudy Rios.
Rudy Rios said that he had known Bart Whitaker and he knew where Bart Whitaker was because Bart Whitaker had assumed his identity and he went to Mexico.
Rudy Rios claims Bart paid him $3,000 to be transported to Mexico and that Bart has been living there for more than a year.
Bart Whitaker shacks up with a with a female and begins a relationship with her.
>> Mexican officials agree to cooperate with American law enforcement. Almost 2 years after the murders, they track Bart down and on September 24th, 2005, he is returned to the US.
>> We call up Ken Whitaker said that he's going to be getting out of Mexico, but there was no deals made whatsoever. They just got him out, put him back here, and put him in jail.
We had already made a decision. The only person we were seeking the death penalty was a mastermind, Bart Whitaker.
>> But Bart's defense attorneys worked to thwart the possibility of a death sentence.
At the heart of their strategy is Kent Whitaker.
>> Mr. Whitaker did not want the state of Texas to put his son to death, which is usually just kind of a reverse of roles where the family wants the maximum.
To forgive somebody of doing the most horrendous thing possible, serves as a model of forgiveness.
Something I think about all the time.
His standard was, I believe he's changed and I'm going to forgive him. My standard is he hasn't changed and you can't forgive him.
>> I'll rise.
>> Bart Whitaker's capital murder trial begins on March 3rd, 2007, some 3 and 1/2 years since the killings at his family's home.
In my opening statement, I told the jury panel, "You're about to hear a tale of subtifuge, deception, and greed, which will lead you to one conclusion that Bart Whitaker had his family murdered, and that's the only conclusion he got."
>> Prosecutors put admitted getaway driver Steve Champagne on the stand. He explains how Bart outlined his murder for cash scheme. The conversation was about when the family came back from eating dinner that Chris would be in the house and shoot him.
The jury hears that Bart staged a fight with the gunman and they'd agreed in advance Bart would be shot in the arm to divert suspicion.
The trial lasts 6 days before the case goes to the jury on March 8th, 2007.
They deliberate for just an hour and a half before coming to a unanimous decision.
>> The guilty verdict was very quick.
>> Now the jury must decide whether Bart Whitaker should live or die.
>> Call your next witness. Bart Whitaker, he needs to be sworn, young. Bart didn't testify during his trial, but now in the penalty phase, makes a lastditch effort to save his life. Please stand before check Whitaker has been convicted of murdering his mother and brother. Now he's trying to convince the jury not to sentence him to death.
>> When Baron Whitaker was testifying, I actually had the defendant admit that he had no reason to hate his parents, but he did it anyway.
>> The only people I've ever hated, and I know it was not for the right reasons, but the only people I ever hated were my parents and my brother.
>> The prosecutor confronts Bart with his family's final moments. The photos taken by his father at the celebration for Bart's supposed graduation.
He tells the jury one photo from that night is particularly disturbing.
>> He shoots a finger at him while he's doing it. Now, some people don't make that much of it, but I'm sitting there.
You understand something? He's shooting a finger out of knowing they're going to be dead.
It's very chilling.
The jury deliberates for 10 hours before sentencing Bart Whitaker to death.
It's a hard question and people have a lot of opinions about it because they're removed from it. But when you know the people and you've been involved with them and definitely as intimately involved with this entire murder as I was, you see things a little different because I believe Bart should have received the death penalty.
Bart's accompllices agree to plea deals.
Trigger man Chris Brashier is sentenced to life behind bars. And Steve Champagne, the getaway driver, receives a lighter 15-year sentence for cooperating as a key witness.
>> How do you even begin to broach that conversation with someone? Like, there's no icebreaker for, hey, will you help me kill my family? Ace brought me to the conclusion that evil is real, very tangible, and it's has a long plan behind it. And I truly think Bart was evil.
Over the next decade, Kent Whitaker remarries and builds a new life. He continues to fight to get his son's death sentence commuted.
>> Kent Whitaker never said he was okay with what Barb did. He always said he should be punished. Okay. But he didn't like a seeking the death penalty. That was it.
>> When Bart's appeals are exhausted, his execution is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on February 22nd, 2018.
Then with just 30 minutes until Bart is set to die, Texas Governor Greg Abbott grants him clemency.
and left and I found on the news that they commuted to life.
>> I'll never forget the night that the news came out. I never forget that moment of seeing Kent break down. Man, it was over a decade of emotions for me. I was on the side of commuting the sentence. Should he ever see the light of day? Absolutely not. That's a no-brainer.
One day Ken's going to die and Bart will have no one left fighting for him, talking to him, coming to see him, and he'll have to live the rest of his life suffering like that. So, I think he would have gotten off easy with the death penalty in this regard.
Trisha was gold. I find myself getting emotional thinking back to her. She cared for us. She loved us. She was invested in our lives.
I miss Trisha dearly. I'm gutted that Kevin is gone.
You know, Kevin was not a typical 16, 17, 18, 19year-old, right? He wasn't a typical high schooler. He was always wiser than us.
There was something in the yearbook our senior year. It was most likely to succeed, most athletic. His was who was the best, most humble, highest integrity human being and it was Kevin.
I started thinking about where would Kevin be now.
I think that's what I still probably grieve is not having that friendship for life.
She's walking.
at a quick pace. You can tell that she's comfortable with nobody behind her. And within minutes, she has vanished into thin air.
>> I said, "What do you mean they can't find her?"
>> Her mother, Dawn, left Rochester for Myrtle Beach after Britney disappeared.
helicopters, ATVs, horseback.
I saw what it was like to lose a child.
I had to find my daughter. And I wasn't going to stop until I got answers.
April 2009, Britney Drexel, a 17-year-old high school junior, is living life to the fullest as an outgoing young woman in her hometown of Rochester, New York.
Britney was just an awesome kid.
Very happy, carefree.
She was a ve, very popular in school.
Everybody just loved her.
We met through some mutual friends.
Started hanging out like normal teenagers. She just loved going and doing things. She wasn't somebody that liked to sit still.
>> When she was younger, Britney was very sassy. loved to perform in front of people. She used to sing and she would put on shows for us in the backyard.
She was a great kid.
When Britney turned seven, the Drexel family welcomes another child, Marissa.
When Marissa came along, she was very excited to have a little sister, and she was like a second mom. She would always help me. She would want to hold her all the time. She would want to feed her and and play with her. And she loved being a big sister.
>> We had that bond where we could just lay and talk about things or we could have those mother like daughter talks with each other and she was always there when I needed her.
6 years after Marissa was born, Camden came along. So, and and Britney was a lot older. Like, Camden was her baby.
Like, she just adored Camden.
My sister was a social butterfly. She had millions, billions of friends. She was full of energy. She was a spitfire.
She was full of I don't know what word I want to use. She was full of life.
That year, Britney starts dating her first real boyfriend, a classmate named John Greco.
When we first met him, he had come over to the house because he wanted Britney to go to prom with him. You know, she was going on 16 and we'd said, "Sure, bring him over. You know, we'll meet him and and stuff." John came from a great family. His parents are super nice and Britney adored him.
>> She had a lot of big big dreams and goals. She wanted to move out of Rochester. That was a huge thing.
>> My sister was into fashion.
>> Britney liked making clothes. She had quite a few drawings. She would like dye jeans like with bleach and her friends would buy them and stuff. and she also wanted to model.
She said, "I'm going to have like six kids and my husband's going to stay home with them and I'm going to go to work."
And I'm like, "Yeah, good luck with that."
When Britney is in her junior year, her parents decide to divorce. It throws her into a tail spin.
She was upset about the divorce going on. It hurt. Um, you know, and of course, as a child, you're going through emotions and, you know, there was a lot of emotion there.
It took a while for Britney to come down when she was angry to come down from it.
There was a lot going on at that time and a lot of her school work was falling behind and so um Britney had asked about going to Myrtle Beach.
Spring break here everyone leaves. It's either still really cold winy or it's rain and blooming out.
Riddle Beach was a party scene that city for teenagers who wanted to go out and have fun or people and their young adult.
I told her, I said, "Britney, I don't think that's a good idea." I said, "You know, I want you to get caught up in your schoolwork." She's like, "Well, mom, I want to go. I want to go to Myrtle Beach." And and I just told her, you know, you're not going.
And she goes, "Why, mom?" I said, "You're not going to Myrtle Beach." I said, "There's no parental supervision."
I said, "I don't know the kid you're going with." And I said, "Something's going to happen to you."
And Britney said, "Mom, nothing's going to happen to me. I'll be fine." And I said, "Well, Britney, you're not going."
So about an hour later, she said, "Mom, since it's my spring break, can I go stay at my friend's house?" And I told her it was okay for her to stay there.
On the night of April 22nd, 2009, unbeknownst to her family, Britney and two classmates, Alana and Jennifer, began a 13-hour drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
I had called her and I said, you know, I said, "Britt, what are you doing?" And she's like, "Well, you know, I'm going to go to my friend's house. We're going to watch a movie or whatever." And she says, "I love you." And I told her, I said, "I love you, too." Me and my mom thought she was here. In reality, she wasn't.
I told her I missed her.
And then I said, "Wait, before you hang up, I want to say goodbye. I love you."
uh one more time. That's the last time I heard her voice.
>> With her family still none the wiser, the girls arrive at the resort town on the morning of April 23rd.
But as her sister will later learn, after 2 days at the beach, Britney's spring break isn't going as planned.
>> She was texting John. John couldn't go because he was working, so he had to stay back.
But John knew the whole time.
>> On Saturday evening, April 25th, Britney texts John that she needs a break from the girls she traveled with.
>> The girls she went down with, I think, were a year or two older than her. And cuz they're girls, they're young teenage girls, and they were fighting. She told John she felt alienated and alone. She wanted to come back home.
Britney tells Jon that she ran into one of her classmates, Peter Brazowitz, and has decided to go visit him at his hotel.
Around 9:15 p.m., Britney abruptly stops texting John.
It's unlike her, so he worriedly calls her family.
John said, "Britney's in Myrtle Beach and they can't find her." I said, "What do you mean they can't find her?" I was livid.
I said, "I can't believe she went to Myrtle Beach because she had never done that in the past, like lied to me or anything like that."
John came to my house. We were calling the kids that were in Myrtle Beach. The girls wouldn't answer their phone. I kept calling Britney's phone and it would ring and it would ring and then it went directly to voicemail.
Every time I called Peter, Peter answered the phone every single time.
But he's like, "I'm not her babysitter."
And at that point, I said, "You know, we need to get in touch with Myrtle Beach Police Department."
>> Don calls the Myrtle Beach Police to report Britney is missing. But she doesn't stop there. She decides to drive to South Carolina herself.
My mom said, "Listen, you're going to go with your dad for a couple days. I have to go." And all of a sudden, I went to go look at my phone. There's a mass text sent out from John Greco and it's my sister's picture and missing information. And I said, "What is this?"
Then I started crying. I'm shocked that I'm like, Britney's missing. I just was in a state of shock.
We got everything together. I think we left about maybe 11:00 the next morning.
And it was a long ride. My phone was blowing up with her friends calling me, crying, screaming, you know, where's Britney? As soon as I would hang up with someone, my phone would ring again. Like alls I knew is I had to find my daughter and I'm I wasn't going to stop until I got answers.
>> A mother embarks on a relentless quest.
>> I said, "I'm done with the bull." I said, "I want my daughter found."
>> While the police drill down on one suspect after another, >> I tell you, okay, I tell you what I was doing.
>> There wasn't enough to arrest him. And he said, "You're smart. you'll figure it out.
>> It felt like a roller coaster. You're just like, is she ever going to be found after learning that her daughter Britney Drexel is missing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, her mom, Dawn, immediately begins driving there from her home in upstate New York, 800 m away.
So, I get to Myrtle Beach and I go to the police station. But officers tell Dawn that with no evidence of a crime, there's little law enforcement can do.
When she describes the argument she had with her daughter about spring break, they suggest that could be why Britney isn't responding to calls and texts.
You've got bits of evidence that's saying uh she ran away from home. She rebelled against her mama. It's the day before she's supposed to go back. The idea that a young girl has just run away, but it is something that the police consider every time.
>> My mom knew my sister was not a runaway.
No matter how much bad was going on in my sister's life at that point, she knew my sister wouldn't have ran away.
After failing to gain any traction with law enforcement, Dawn decides to take a different approach. I go straight to the media.
I went to Channel 13 and you know, I said, "My daughter's missing. You know, I want to get her name and face out there."
>> Her mother, Dawn, left Rochester for Myrtle Beach after Britney disappeared.
to feel, you know, that you don't know where your child is. You don't know if if they're alive. You don't know if they're hurt. It's horrible.
Figured I'd be able to find her, you know, and I'd have her back in a couple days and we'd just go home.
And we just started looking everywhere like on Ocean Boulevard and talking to people seeing if people seen her. Showed her picture and we were putting posters up.
So we did that probably for about a good solid week.
As Dawn continues to search, her media efforts catch the attention of the police and spurs them to action.
Detectives begin by interviewing the last person Don believes saw Britney on the night she vanished. Her classmate, Peter.
>> Peter was a little bit snarky, like, "Don't bother me." And the police were thinking, "Everybody wants to help.
He doesn't want to be bothered.
He said, "I did know Britney. I had met Britney. We had hung out. We had text back and forth, but I didn't have anything to do with her disappearance."
>> Peter claims that after Britney left his hotel, he was hanging out with friends all night. While detectives check out his alibi, they also seek out anyone else known to have been in contact with Britney in Myrtle Beach, including the girls she drove with from New York.
>> They went through um each and every one of Britney's friends for the short time that she was here, and they really um scoured everything about them, and they were able to rule them out.
Peter's alibi also checks out.
>> He was able to show that everything that he was telling them was true.
>> But the investigation into Peter does lead detectives to a major discovery.
His hotel, the Blue Water Resort, has surveillance cameras, and they captured images of Britney on the evening of April 25th.
Britney enters the hotel at 8:33 p.m.
And she appears again, exiting at 8:48 p.m.
As far as we knew, that was the last time that anybody had seen her.
You can tell that she's walking um at a fairly quick pace with nobody behind her. Um, she's comfortable, but she's determined to get to wherever she is going.
It's just after leaving the hotel that Britney exchanges her final texts with her boyfriend, John, at 8:58 p.m., expressing her desire to come home.
Within minutes, she has basically vanished into thin air.
>> Investigators request Britney's cell phone records, hoping they might shed light on her whereabouts.
>> They did a tower dump back from the day that Britney went missing on all of the cell towers.
The cell phone records arrive a week after Britney's disappearance.
At 11:57 on the night of April 25th, Britney's phone pings near the North Santi River in Mlullenville, a small town 60 mi south of Myrtle Beach.
That's nearly 3 hours after the surveillance video shows Britney leaving the Bluewater Hotel.
They started searching in a very heavily wooded area for her.
I mean, helicopters, ATVs, horseback. It It was It was overwhelming because it's a forest where they were looking for her.
And they told me if she was put out there, you know, she would be probably dead within 6 hours because of a wild boar. the alligators, just all the the wild animals.
But you have to have hope. You have to have faith.
Everybody was there. There was a lot of people that were looking for her.
It was a needle in a hay stack.
Police are searching for missing teenager Britney Drexel in a heavily wooded region of South Carolina after cell phone data shows her phone pinged in the area. It's 60 mi south of Myrtle Beach where Britney had snuck away for spring break.
>> I was just in shock and I just wanted my sister to come back home.
I was convinced Britney was coming home.
I left at the end of June and then I went back to Rochester.
But I was calling law enforcement every day. I just wanted to find my daughter.
Days, weeks, months, and then years pass with no answers for Britney's family and friends.
I felt like nothing was going on in Britney's case.
This went on for years. I mean, you're talking she went missing in 2009.
I can tell you the ball was dropped here.
The police wanted me to go away and I felt like I had to just keep after them and after them and after them and I didn't care if I was bugging them. I I don't care. You're going to answer to me. I am her mother.
Don was desperate for answers. Uh she felt like she wasn't getting cooperation from the police. Imagine trying to put yourself in the position. She's a mom.
She's been thrust into a world of not just the justice system, but trying to maneuver. You're dealing with law enforcement. You're dealing with media.
And it's a very foreign and frightening place. I put myself more in a role of let me help her get her story told.
I held on to just a little bit of hope that she was still alive cuz I always went back to we didn't have anything.
Don Drexel wouldn't quit. She drove all of us crazy. She called me every single day since 2011. It didn't matter if it was Christmas. It didn't matter what time of day it was. And I always answered the phone. Some of my friends would say, "You have no boundaries with this woman." And I would say, "I can't.
I can't." I I saw what it was like to lose a child. I sat there with her and nobody would help her.
After more than 2 years with no answers, on August 1st, 2011, out of the blue, Myrtle Beach police receive a strange and stunning call from a young woman.
The story she tells concerns her father, a man named Ray Moody.
She said, "I think my dad had something to do with Britney Drexel's disappearance."
Mr. Moody, his main girlfriend was Angel. And there was a time that Angel called over there one night and said that Rey was going to get all of them locked up because of what he had done to that girl.
>> Uh so you guys were dating at the time?
Myrtle Beach police brought Angel in and talked with her about that uh after the kids had called. And the substance of that conversation was Ry didn't have anything to do with that.
I'm so sick and tired of people blaming Ry for everything that happens.
>> Cuz if you're trying to accuse him of anything, then I'm going to be involved in cuz I say he didn't. Okay. I say he did not.
>> I'm not. Yeah, you are. Despite Angel's denials, police take a deeper look at Ray Moody.
>> They were able to get a search warrant at Sunset Lodge, which is hotel/ long-term rental.
Raymond was staying at that area when Britney had gone missing.
>> Sled crime scene technicians with help from Myrtle Beach Police and the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office searched an apartment at the Sunset Lodge south of Georgetown today. They were looking for anything that would tie Ry uh to Britney Drexel. They went out and talked with Ry at his cabinet shop and they told him they were searching for Britney Draxel and he said, "You're smart. You'll figure it out.
After years with no leads, Ray Moody is a suspect in the disappearance of Britney Drexel. Detectives are questioning him after his daughter reported her suspicions about him to the police.
>> That investigation, that part of it, search warrant, yielded nothing fruitful. There wasn't enough to arrest him.
>> Once again, the case goes cold.
It's now been 7 years since Britney vanished on a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach. I can tell you it felt like a roller coaster ride. That's what it felt like. You know, ups and downs.
They would get tips and then it'd be like, "Oh, you know, maybe she she's getting located or or whatever the case may be." And then then there was false hope and and and then that really kills you inside, you know, because they're like you're just like, is she ever going to be found?
The fourth or fifth year into her disappearance, I knew she wasn't coming back.
I'm like, I know she she's gone.
It's a strange feeling to have to switch looking for, you know, somebody physically here and now we're just looking for, you know, what's left. And that I think was the worst thing I've ever gone through, emotionally, worst thing I've ever felt.
law enforcement would call me and and I would talk to them and this went on for years.
I spent I can't tell you how many hours just on the internet doing research.
I obsessed over watching the video of Britney walking in and out of the hotel.
I would slow it down to see if there was anything that I could pick up on. I would speed it up. I I mean I watched all different angles. I couldn't watch it enough because I always felt like I was missing something.
Then in August 2016, Britney's mother, Dawn, gets a phone call that promises to provide the answers she's been desperate for.
>> The FBI had called me. They wanted me to come down so they could talk to me and they brought me into a conference room.
We all sat down.
An informant trying to get help with his prison sentence said, "Well, don't you want to know information about the little girl that went missing?"
The informant is an inmate named Taquan Brown serving a 25-year prison term for manslaughter.
He claims that he witnessed a man named Timothy Desawn Taylor rape and kill Britney.
He tells the story that Britney Drexel had been kidnapped in Myrtle Beach, was brought to a house near Mlullenville, and she had been raped and tortured and all sort of terrible stuff. And he was over there and had saw all of this stuff. and uh she had ran out the back door and they called her and brought her back in and killed her.
So I I was just sitting there sobbing and I couldn't even talk. I couldn't do it.
The FBI told me she tried to escape and she ran out. They went to go get her, brought her back, and then they ended up shooting her, and then they rolled her up in a in a blanket or a rug, and then threw her in an alligator pit.
And I I walked out of there, and I'm like, "Oh my god."
We always had kept hope alive that maybe Britney was still out there. And that really messed me up big time, you know, having to picture that in your mind.
It's just crazy, you know, to think that someone would do that with my daughter.
Agents furiously worked to confirm the details provided by the informant.
Now, what really cooperated his story was Britney's cell phone had pinged in an area the direction of Mlenville.
Even though that's where the inmate claims Britney was murdered, investigators know their previous searches in that area were big news stories and that confidential informants will often say anything in hopes of getting a reduced sentence.
Look, CIS will lie, and I don't use C eyes unless I can back up what they're saying.
>> Timothy Deshawn Taylor is already in jail on separate robbery charges.
Authorities work to keep him behind bars while they look for any information that might support the confidential informant's claim. But Don believes the awful story could be true.
>> Don did not allow herself any time to mourn. She quickly shifted from I don't know what happened to my daughter to where's her body I want my daughter borrowed. I said I'm done. I said I'm done with the bull. I said I want my daughter found so I don't have to wonder where she is anymore.
7 years after Britney Drexel disappeared in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, investigators are looking into a stunning claim by a jail house informant that he witnessed a man named Timothy Deshawn Taylor murder her.
All of a sudden, the investigation and the media attention all of us shift to what the investigators tell us. Listen, if the FBI is out there saying, "We got a suspect. We believe that this is what happened."
You know, Taylor is under investigation being charged with armed robbery.
And I had the opportunity to confront Taylor about his involvement in this case. Did you do this? And he said, "No, I did not."
In August 2016, the Taylor family launches a media offensive, releasing a statement maintaining his innocence.
They claimed the informant lied to the FBI in a desperate attempt to cut a deal for early parole.
>> That informant said that Britney Drexel was buried at a plot in Berkeley County, which is west of Charleston.
investigators went down there and once they start digging, that informant calls in and he says, "Look, she was fed to alligators. She was not buried."
Brown later came in and said, "All of that was untrue. I lied." So, none of that went anywhere. But there were many more like that false leads.
Police eventually cleared Timothy Deshawn Taylor of any involvement in Britney's disappearance. It's another emotionally draining twist for her family and friends. And by that point, I was so frustrated. I I didn't really trust anybody. So after that, I was on the phone with the FBI every week. I mean, they would keep in contact with me, let me know what was going on.
The FBI agents since 2016 on were determined to find out what happened and bring my mom that justice that she was grieving and asking for and the justice that obviously all of us wanted.
I had a meeting with the FBI and some of the law enforcement that was involved in Britney's case. I just felt like Britney's never going to be found. This is ridiculous.
After that, I felt like nothing was going on in Britney's case.
Years passed with an investigation that seems to be stalled.
Then in May 2022, 13 years since Britney was last seen, once again, there's a phone call out of the blue. And once again, it offers hope.
>> On a Friday night, I get a call from a defense attorney, Scott Bellamy.
He said, "Well, I've got somebody that's wanting to give you some information.
He'll give the information to you, but he won't give it to the police."
And I said, "Well, who is it?" And he said, "Um, Ray Moody."
It's the same man investigators looked at earlier in the case when his daughter reported that he may have been involved.
Police were unable then to connect him to Britney's disappearance.
Now, his lawyer claims Moody has a story to tell, but he'll only tell it to state authorities and not the FBI.
>> He wants to stay in the state system. He does not want to go in the federal system because he knows he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison and he wants to be closer to family members.
And if you go in the federal prison, you may be in West Virginia. You may be in California.
>> Where are you from?
>> Alabama.
>> That's right.
>> Ray Moody sits down with state investigators and begins laying out the details of what he says happened on the night of April 25th, 2009.
Ray said that in 2009, he and Angel had uh come to Myrtle Beach. They were riding down the boulevard. He said, "So, a young lady came out of a hotel and he said that he and Angel were smoking pot and Rey asked Britney, "Do you want some of this pot?"
And she said, "Yeah."
Ray said that Britney got in the back seat. They went where he and Angel had been camping at the pole yards and they were just going to hang out there for a while.
>> We're just having a good time. Smoked some pot and stuff, you know. Angel left and while she was gone, I changed the whole subject what was going on. Can you describe the events that happened that when Angel leaves?
So, Angel's obviously not involved. Can you talk us through that?
>> I mean, take her clothes off.
>> Yeah.
>> And she was pretty, >> but it was against her will.
>> It was, you know, did she say anything to you specifically or at that time?
>> She said she was going to she'd sell Angel. And did you start to have sex with her or did it did something happen to South?
>> She stopped me. No, I did. I said, "I raped her."
>> And he said, "She scratched me. I hit her. All that was over." And he said, "Then I killed her."
He said, "I strangled her to death." Ry Moody never showed any remorse. was a very disturbed individual at a deep level.
Angel came back and said, "Where is Britney?" And he said, "You don't see her, do you?" And she said, "Uh, no." He said, "Well, don't ever ask about her again."
The next morning before daybreak, he got up and he said, "I dug the hole, buried her body, picked her right up and walked out probably about 150 ft away and more towards the landing out where they had to like grow trees and stuff, you know, >> and put her underneath the tree."
>> So, we were like, "Will you take us to their body?" Yeah, I'll take you where she's buried.
And they put him on a four-wheeler and drove him through.
He said, "I had been here in 13 years, but that's the place."
>> A search of the area begins on May 11th, 2022.
So once they start digging there was bones, there was a a nose ring and there was one contact lens.
The next day they had her as Britney by her dental records and then within two days they had DNA that said that is in fact Britney Drexler.
Brittney Drexel's family has spent 13 years desperately searching for answers in her disappearance. And now with a suspect in custody, they finally have them, but their worst fears have been realized.
I was so mad because Raymond Moody had been person of interest back in 2011.
He's a level three sex offender. He shouldn't even be in Myrtle Beach with all the kids and stuff here. Okay, you've got to be kidding me.
The most frustrating part of this whole investigation for me is I learned that the day after Britney Jackson went missing, they pulled Raymond Moody over.
When you get a speeding ticket, it came up that he was that he was a registered sex offender. He has scratches on his face. There's a missing girl in town. It doesn't take a genius to say, "Hey, wait a second. Maybe we should take this guy in. Maybe we should look at him." Nobody batted an eye. She was the perfect target. You know, we hear from him, "Oh, she wanted to party. She wanted to get in the car and smoke weed." From the friends and family that I've spoken to.
Britney Jux could not stand the smell of marijuana. She would not smoke marijuana. She would not even date a guy who smoked marijuana. And if Raymond Moody said that he lured her to the car with marijuana, Raymond Moody's lying.
It's incomprehensible to me that this guy got away with what he got away with.
I will accept your plea to murder criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and to kidnap.
>> October 19th, 2022, Raymond Moody pleads guilty to murder, rape, and kidnapping.
He is sentenced to life in prison with an additional two consecutive terms of 30 years.
His girlfriend, Angel, is not charged with any crime.
The driving force to keep this case hot was Dawn Drexel. She was hitting a lot of the same obstacles the police were, but she constantly came back into town, constantly looking, constantly calling.
And even though it had to be excruciating, this is something that she has had to endure for 13 years to make sure that she got answers. And as terrible as those answers are, she stuck it out and she got them. And I don't think it would have been possible but for her persistence. She didn't allow anybody to forget about Britney.
>> Don is a complete icon to me cuz I just I don't know how mentally, health-wise I I could have handled it.
>> That strength from me, I think I felt like I had to find her. That was like a mission.
We love you.
>> Until we reunite with my sister Britney, we will feel we got the answers we wanted, but it will never fill that missing piece in our family. She's still gone.
Britney was just a beautiful person and she would do anything for anyone.
>> About a month before um everything happened, it was my birthday party. We all went to dinner with my parents and we just had an absolute blast.
Britney was laughing and having fun. She ordered this like obnoxious steak and Britney was like 110 lb soaking wet. So my dad was kind of looking at her like, "Are you sure kid?" And was like really eyeing her and she's like, "Yeah, and I want a grasshopper milkshake, too."
The personality, her love of life, her infectious attitude, her smile, her laugh, her goofiness. There's nothing I don't miss.
My sister was very kind and caring. She would never hurt us all.
And that's something that we're missing from the world now. And this world is such full of hate that I hope one day it can be peaceful for all of us.
Sometimes I'll go back and look at video of her when she was younger and I do look at her pictures a lot, but you know, her memory will always be in my heart. You know, I'll always remember the good times I had with her.
>> That's mom. That's her going into the house.
She walks in. That was it.
A mom is missing. This beautiful blonde, very young and vivacious woman.
>> Everybody was starting to reach out and like nobody had heard from her.
>> I've tried to message her to her. I've tried to call her on messenger. Police had to look at those facts and say she could just be off the grid right now.
>> We don't have a crime scene. We don't have an obvious crime.
>> There's no body. There's no murder weapon.
>> Right here. Right here.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> It's going to look like he's dragging something.
>> What the hell did you just watch?
Billings, Montana, 2018.
The fiercely independent city on the edge of the Rocky Mountains is in the middle of an economic boom.
It's here that 49-year-old Laura Johnson has come to experience her own independence after years of raising her children.
>> Yep. Yeah, that's that's probably the best picture of my mom. All I know is my mom got some 80s hair going on and my dad actually has a full set of hair.
Seeing all of us as a actual family, holy smokes.
Laura grew up in Vancouver, Washington, and met her future husband, Howard, there when she was 18. By the time my mom was 23, she had five boys.
She loved the fact that she was a mother. She always told us, "I would never regret having all of you kids."
She was extremely loving and she was amazingly funny as well. And she gets that from her dad who is just a jokester at every turn.
She was a wonderful mom. Always helped with everything. Always treated everybody like their family.
>> My dad worked the regular 9 to5. Mom stayed at home, raised the kids. She was very nurturing.
She did everything. Every night she'd cook dinner. And for the amount of people that we had, I felt like it was a lot, but she made it look always easy.
So, >> she always made it a deal to have a good meal, big old feast. My entire career has been in food service, and that's mostly due to the fact that I grew up cooking in the kitchen with my mom.
But in 2012, their children grown and out of the house. Laura and her husband Howard separate and Laura moves to the Las Vegas, Nevada area.
>> I definitely think she wanted to find her own sense of happiness.
You know, a woman in her 40s having that for the first time. That's got to be empowering. You know what I mean? So, she did tell me that she had joined a dating app.
>> And it isn't long before Laura meets someone she really likes.
His name is Greg Green.
>> Greg was one of the people who she was matched with. He worked in Vegas right there.
They went out on a couple of dates and then it went to the point where she was living with him in Nevada.
>> Although she now lives a thousand miles away from her family in Vancouver, Washington, Laura keeps in regular touch with her sons.
>> My mom's never really good about keeping a cell phone. So, our main points of communication were Facebook.
She was consistently on Facebook. Like you can click on Messenger and her little thing would be green.
In July of 2018, Greg Green gets a job in Billings, Montana. Laura follows him there in August and soon after she lands a job at a Papa John's restaurant. After her first day at work, Laura calls her son Steven.
I remember the last time that I talked to her on the phone was when she was driving home. It was literally just, you know, talk to each other, see how life's going, have some laughs.
But it's not until you look back you wish you did more with your time. You know, >> on September 18th, 2018, Laura's sons become concerned that she has stopped communicating with them.
>> My older brother, Howard Jr., he spoke to my mom every day. He called me and said, "Hey, have you guys heard from mom?" And I haven't heard from her.
I looked on Facebook. It said that she hadn't been active for a couple days. So then I called Stephen.
I was like, "Hey, have you talked to mom?"
>> Jonathan called me on the 18th. The fact that Jonathan had even called me in the first place was a huge red flag.
Cuz if there was a way to get a hold of her, he totally could have. You know what I mean? But now he's at the point to where he's like, I need help.
I called my mom and every time the phone goes straight to voicemail. I've tried to message her to her. I've tried to call her on messenger. I've tried to call her job and the job is just like, "Yeah, she hasn't shown up for work since September 13th."
Like all of this and I'm coming up with nothing.
Nobody had heard from her.
I called Greg. He picked up. He says, "Came home from work on the 13th and she was gone. All of her stuff's gone. All of it. I don't know anything. He doesn't know where she is."
>> September 24th, 2018. Laura's sons have been trying to reach her for 6 days.
>> So then I started calling the police department out there.
We asked the Billings, Montana Police Department to do welfare checks.
>> Officers went to Miss Johnson's residence to attempt to make contact and speak with her. The gate was locked.
There was two large dogs in the yard.
They weren't friendly.
The house was quiet and they weren't able to make any contact.
Officers went to Miss Johnson's work and was advised that her last day of work was on the 13th and she had not been to work since then.
>> Detectives tracked down her boyfriend, Greg.
When officer spoke with Gregory, he told him that on the 13th, he had gone to work. And when he returned that day, he found that she was gone and she had packed her two red suitcases that she had brought with her and and had left.
The majority of people that contact police departments looking for their loved ones or wanting welfare checks done, um those people are are found uh eventually. You know, maybe they did go on a vacation and they didn't tell somebody.
I think a lot of people in with the fast-paced life that we have, people want to take a break. They want to disconnect from life. And that can be something you have to take into consideration when looking for people.
What the law enforcement officers told me was, "You're telling us that she's missing. We're not saying wrong, but we don't have enough information to say that you're right."
the fact that it was a grown woman.
People believe that if they aren't being found, it's because they don't want to be found.
And anybody who knows my mom in this situation know that that's fundamentally not true.
So the sense of like something's happened became very real.
It's been 13 days since anyone has had any contact with Laura and her family is getting anxious.
I posted a picture of my mom and he said, "We have not heard from my mom and just explain the situation."
A lot of people commented on there.
>> The post was getting a ton of shares.
I thought that the whole thing was just strange. the fact that, you know, her sons haven't heard from her. We don't know where she is. She hasn't showed up to her job yet. She's not responding to text messages.
The first thing that I do when I see something like that is I do reach out to law enforcement.
September 27th of 2018, I did receive a call from one of the local reporters regarding a Facebook post involving Laura Johnson.
So the next thing I did after I got off the phone was started to research the case.
While we haven't reached the level that there was a crime committed, things were starting to fall in place that not everything was right.
>> Investigators find baffling clues in Laura's disappearance.
There was a recent phone ping from Washington that showed that the phone had been there on September 26th and learn of a troubling past. She had a prior addiction and she could just be off the grid right now.
>> I'm not just going to sit here.
So, the next logical step was to go to Montana.
September 27th, 2018. Laura Johnson's family has not heard from her in 2 weeks. Her boyfriend, Greg Green, tells police he hasn't seen her since September 13th, which was also the last day she was at work. At this point, it's still unknown where she's at, unknown if there's foul play involved. We just had not gotten any information conclusive one way or the other.
>> Police ask Laura's son, Steven, if there is anything going on in her life they should know about.
Steven tells them that years before she was injured and that she became addicted to prescription painkillers, but at the time of her disappearance, she was getting treatment and doing well.
There was a feeling that potentially she may have relapsed due to her addiction.
>> Police had to look at those facts and say, "Well, she does have a history of use. She had a prior addiction and she could just be off the grid right now."
Detectives reach out to the clinic where Laura has been going for treatment.
The clinic advised me that she had been there every single day for 3 weeks prior to the 13th.
If Laura has relapsed, detectives know she could be in hiding somewhere. They go back to Greg Green, hoping he can help focus the search. But he doesn't have anything to add to his previous statement that Laura had moved out on September 13th and he hasn't seen her since.
>> He was quite cooperative. He consented to a search of his home. Officers didn't locate any items that they thought were suspicious at that time.
And Gregory had allowed them to look through his phone, which he showed them some messages that he had sent to Laura after she had left.
We don't have an obvious crime.
We just know that she's been missing.
>> Investigators subpoena Laura's phone records. And when the data comes in, there's a glimmer of hope that Laura is alive and well.
>> There was a recent phone ping from Washington that showed that the phone had been there on September 26th.
Detectives wonder if Laura went back to her hometown of Vancouver, Washington, where her sons and ex-husband live.
From an investigative standpoint, it made sense because that's where some of her support network would be.
>> Sergeant Billings called and said, "I got some great news for you." I was like, "Oh, she did show up in town." I got excited.
Laura's sons immediately start searching all over Vancouver for her.
>> Me and my wife drove around for 2 hours to every business that was open showing pictures of my mom asking if anybody had seen her. So I was like, if she's in town, she's obviously would be at one of the hotels for sure. None of the hotels.
They're like, "Nope, haven't seen her.
Haven't seen her." Nobody's seen her.
Not a single person.
Laura's sons are disappointed that there is no sign of her. Then they get disturbing news. The investigators made a mistake when tracking Laura's phone.
>> When they pinged my mom's phone, they pinged the last incoming call and it was my dad and it was on his birthday cuz he spoke to my mom every year on his birthday. He knew everything that was going on and he's like, "Well, it's my birthday, so hopefully she answers."
>> Laura never answered that call and detectives realized that she was never in Vancouver.
It's been 18 days since Laura Johnson disappeared and her son Steven decides he has to take action.
and being all the way in Washington and realizing that I wasn't going to get an answer. That was the next logical step was to go to Montana. I was like, I'm not just going to sit here.
>> I couldn't let him go alone. They said to themselves, we're going to just get in the car and we're going to drive 14 hours over to Billings and we're just going to go look for ourselves.
>> So, the first place that we went was the police station. And what they tell us is as long as I didn't break the law, I could do anything.
I had inclinations about who the person Greg was, and none of that ever sat right with me.
>> Steven calls Greg looking for more details about the last time he saw his mother.
>> He picked up, it was him. You know, who are you? What is this? Hangs up the phone.
So, I went to his house. I was yelling my mom's name. I'm yelling Laura. I'm yelling Ma.
I think that she's in there.
And then that's when he lets the dogs out.
So, I go up to the dogs and they're loud, but they're not dangerous at all.
So, I just bent down and started petting the dog. You know, that's when he came out of the trailer and lights a cigarette and he's, you know, can I help you? you. And I tell him, I was like, "I'm Steven Johnson. Like, Laura is my mother. I believe you know where she is and I would like you to tell me."
And he's like, "No, I came home and she was gone."
He's very cocky. He's just standing there smoking a cigarette.
I told him, "I believe you know where my mother is. I will be the one to put you behind bars and I'll be the end of you."
So, he tells me to leave and he calls the cops on me.
October 1st, 2018.
Steven Johnson has driven from his home in Vancouver, Washington to Billings, Montana to try to find his missing mother, Laura.
After a disturbing encounter with Laura's boyfriend, Greg Green. Steven's next step is to create flyers and post them all over Billings.
>> When we went anywhere, we handed these out. So, we went to Greg's work and we put them all over his window at work and then he tore them all off.
We were like texting. We're like, "All right, is anybody heard? Anybody heard?"
like we want to know like what's going on.
>> We woke up 8:00 every single morning with a place to go to, an idea in mind, with somebody to talk to to just try to find something.
So, at the end of every day, I'm calling my brothers, telling them, "Here's what we did.
Here's who we talked to."
>> It was very frustrating cuz this is like what you see on TV. I never thought in my life I would ever go through it.
>> One of the hardest things for me was dealing with frustrations with the family, understanding their concerns, understanding their desire to have, you know, swift justice.
We can't just go to Mr. Green's residence and knock the door in and do a search without a warrant. we've got proper legal procedure. And at that time, we were we were lacking enough information to use the search warrant process in order to further develop Miss Johnson's case.
>> It was frustrating not being able to get a real reaction.
So, it just felt like our duty to prove it.
We've talked to everybody who we've can.
We've been to the doctor's office. We've been to the Salvation Army.
Everything comes up empty.
We had gone through every single dead end.
We had been through all of Greg's neighbors with no answer, with no solution.
We were nowhere closer on day five than we were on day one.
And the last thing before we leave town that we figure we can do is go knock on the neighbor's houses again.
As they are knocking on the door of the neighbor across the street from Greg, Steven sees something he hadn't noticed before.
>> I basically stopped and I said, "Hey, I think we found something."
There is a camera at the one place that we're interested in.
It points right at the driveway of where Greg and Laura lived.
Steven and Casey had talked to the owner a few days before. Now they ring his doorbell again, hoping to get access to the footage.
>> The first thing he says is, "Do you want to see?"
And I said, "What are you talking about?" And he goes, "I have my camera footage pulled up cuz you were asking me about your mom."
He invites me in and for the next like 35 minutes I'm just on his floor looking at a bunch of video.
So the first thing we pull up is September 13th, the last day she went to work and then Casey's recording it on her phone.
>> You could uh speed it up.
>> So we're going through going through.
So, we're watching the camera footage, and then this is where it gets very interesting.
>> That's him right here.
>> Keep playing.
>> What happens is Greg gets home first.
Greg gets home and parks his truck and goes inside. And 35 minutes later, >> right here, a >> my mom gets home.
right there.
>> So that's mom >> blonde hair.
>> It is 7:07 on September 13th.
>> That looks exciting.
>> That's her going into the house.
>> We were told time and time again that Greg's story is I came home and she was gone.
I came home and she was gone. She had taken all of her stuff and it was gone.
So, we got him.
He was lying. But, well, where is she?
So, we're watching the footage. Day turns to night.
>> What time is it?
>> Right now.
>> 11:27. 10:27.
>> 10:27. There he is.
The headlamp. The >> head lampamp on.
>> We see Greg throughout the entire night.
Right here. Right here.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> It's going to look like he's dragging something back.
Just moving. Going back and forth between the house.
That's when we call the detectives like you need to come see this.
Steven Johnson has discovered home security footage of his missing mother, Laura.
It shows her at the house she shared with Greg Green after the time Greg told police she had left. Realizing the importance of the discovery, he calls the police.
Approximately quarter to 11 that night, I go to that neighbor's house and we watch the footage in question.
We then start uh viewing the the video in greater detail and it was definitely uh very concerning.
>> The detective's trained eye spots something that Steven and Casey missed.
The footage shows uh the area of the driveway where Laura Johnson is observed coming home that evening and she's exiting the vehicle and walking toward the trailer.
Gregory is also seen going back into the garage and coming out with two red colored suitcases in that vehicle as well.
the same two red suitcases that Greg told officers that Laura had taken with her when she moved out. And then the detective sees something that changes the investigation from a missing person's case to something much more disturbing.
And you can see him walking out with that large heavy object that's zoomed in to show that area of the vehicle where he puts uh what we believe is Laura's body into the vehicle.
And then ultimately he's observed putting a shovel in the back of the pickup bed before he leaves that evening just after 7:00 p.m.
We believe that mo more than likely that is her body, but we need a lot more evidence uh to prove that at this point.
That was kind of a gut-wrenching feeling to know that you just observe somebody's last moments.
What the hell did we just watch?
The only logical answer is, you know, Greg ended my mother's life that night.
And finally dawns on me like after all of this that I'll probably never get to see my mom again.
is that I'll never get another goodbye.
I'll never I'll never get that closure.
I'll never get the last I love you. I'll never get any of it. It's just gone.
But unless police can prove that it is Laura's body on the video, they don't have a crime.
On October 5th, 3 weeks since Laura was last seen, Billings police asked Greg to come into the station for questioning.
Gregory told us what he had initially told officers. He told us that on the 13th when he got home that that evening, she was gone and her two red suitcases were gone.
In that video, it shows Greg pulling those suitcases out of the house and packing them up in his truck.
>> He seemed very surprised when we told him that there was video and then he decided that he didn't want to talk to us anymore.
We informed him that he was not going to be allowed to go back to his home. Uh we believed that that was a crime scene at this point.
The vehicle he drove to the police department was impounded. At that point, >> we have now crossed into full-on criminal investigation. We do believe a crime has committed.
>> We had probable cause at that point um to seek a search warrant for his residence, but we didn't have enough information to that point to make an arrest.
We executed that search warrant that evening and began to process uh the trailer where Gregory and Laura lived.
One of the first things that we noted was the strong order of new carpet smell in the back room of Gregory's home. It was obvious that the carpet had been replaced very recently and that was suspicious to us.
But because police find no proof that Laura is dead, they have to release Greg.
>> At this point, we still don't have a body. We still haven't located Miss Johnson.
There was not enough to arrest Mr. Green for the disappearance of Miss Johnson.
It's a crushing blow to the family.
>> After them basically telling him, "Hey, we know you're lying." They let him go.
>> The entire family was like really upset because you have all this video, but you don't arrest them. Why?
There's a lot of frustration, but I would say it was mainly based around like this guy did all of this and we could just see right through him.
We work closely with the county attorney's office and trying to determine, you know, what more we need to get to to get to that point to make an arrest.
I had to remain focused on what needed to be done to build a case against him.
>> While the forensics team examines Greg's seized work truck, detectives have a strategy to keep an eye on Greg.
>> One of the last things we did when we searched the residence is we placed a tracker on his vehicle. We believe that he did more than likely take Laura's body to some location to bury her.
We placed the tracker on with with the hope of he might go back out to the location.
>> The tracker is placed on Greg's personal car, the same one that Laura is seen driving on surveillance video on September 13th.
On October 5th, hours after his interview with detectives, Greg Green starts to move.
And then approximately 10 p.m. that evening, his vehicle started to move towards the interstate heading west outside of Billings.
So we began to follow him.
He drove straight through the night and we realized that he is leaving the state.
October 5th, 2018. Greg Green is the prime suspect in the presumed murder of Laura Johnson. Lacking evidence of a crime, detectives have to let Greg walk free. But they have placed a tracker on his car, and he appears to be leaving Billings, Montana in a hurry. His vehicle started to move towards the interstate and uh heading west outside of Billings.
Detectives track Greg as he drives for 16 hours across five states to his old hometown in Henderson, Nevada. If you're being interviewed by police about the whereabouts of your ex-girlfriend and you just hightail it out of town, it's not a good look.
We were coordinating with law enforcement where he was at. They knew that we were tracking him. They would do drivebys, make sure that we knew his whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Billings police continued the search for evidence to arrest Greg.
Using his cell phone data, they track Greg's movements during the night of September 13th, which leads them to the local Walmart.
>> We were able to locate footage of him going to Walmart that evening, and when he went through the selfch checkout, we did see a very distinct abrasion on his face, which we thought was very suspicious at that point.
Then another crucial piece of evidence emerges from the forensic search of Greg's impounded work truck.
I noticed that the vehicle was very clean. It had been washed recently.
So after 2 days processing that vehicle for biological material, taking swabs from various locations on the seat, we found three very, very small 1 to 2 mm stains that appeared to be blood.
>> That evidence came back from the crime lab and sure enough, it was Laura's blood.
the totality of all of the evidence that we had located, including the blood on the door of that truck and together with video footage showing him carrying out what we believed was Laura's body.
At that point, there was enough evidence to arrest him.
>> Hey, Greg, >> I remember you. You're universal.
>> All right.
>> So, you know why we're here?
>> Um, I imagine so. Yes.
>> Okay. So, the hospital changed for something like this or >> Well, we have a warrant for your arrest for homicide. So, that's what's changed.
That's why you're here and test.
>> Okay. Okay. And you'll be expected back to villains.
>> Huh? For for deliberate homicide.
>> Deliberate homicide.
>> Deliberate homicide.
>> Do you want to tell us what happened with her when she come home that night and what you did with her? That's That's your decision. I'm not going to press you. That's what I want to know.
>> I do everything that uh I that I know.
>> All right.
>> Okay. Well, we both know that's not true. So if if you don't want to talk to me, we'll end that there.
>> Okay.
>> After being held for 7 months in a Nevada jail, Greg is extradited to Billings.
More than a year later, in February 2020, his trial is set to begin. But without Laura Johnson's body, a conviction is far from a sure thing.
We had a theory of what we believed happened, but we just didn't have a body.
This is the very first case that I've ever had that involves a nobody homicide arrest.
When you're trying to convict somebody of deliberate homicide and you don't have a body to go along with that, it can be very stressful.
>> What is your evidence? Can you really make it stick? drug surveillance video and murder testimony begins in the trial of a Billings man accused of killing Laura Johnson.
>> We sat right behind him the entire time.
I was not happy at all.
>> He was not taking anything seriously.
I don't know if he was just in disbelief like this is really happening. So he just kind of like went numb to it.
He maintained his innocence the entire time, even though there was video being played in the courtroom of him carrying what appeared to be Laura's body out of his house.
>> The evidence in this case will show you that the defendant took great lengths to cover up his murder of his girlfriend, Laura.
>> Prosecutors present jurors with a possible motive for the brutal murder.
Laura was about to permanently end her rocky relationship with Greg.
>> One of the things we did learn from the trial was she had moved into a separate bedroom and she was saving money to try to leave.
He acted like he was at home sitting on his couch and yeah, he didn't care whatsoever.
He thought he was like at home watching Netflix or something.
>> He knew exactly where the cameras were from news media. There was a moment where he turned around, looked into the lens of our camera, and gave a little smile.
Greg's behavior at the trial only adds to the heartbreak felt by Laura's family.
that if this situation didn't happen, like I could have had my mom back. She would have been living in my town. She would have been.
She would have been here.
That's not fair.
How will this trial pan out without evidence of Laura Johnson's body?
>> This case has had so many unanswered questions. It's had so much heartache with it.
And there's no body. There's no murder weapon. There's no evidence that shows he actually killed her.
Two years after Laura Johnson's final moments were captured by a home security camera, a jury in Billings, Montana is set to decide whether her boyfriend Greg Green is guilty of murder.
>> This trial lasted what? 2 weeks.
>> Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day.
didn't leave that city hall building for two weeks. Basically, >> that footage was the the critical piece in the investigation and in the trial.
It was a piece of evidence that the the jury actually got to take back with them to deliberations to view. Can't escape the silent witness. You can't escape that video surveillance.
Any person with common sense to see all the evidence and especially the video would know he was guilty.
I just got home the day before and Steven called and said, "Hey, they can't they have a verdict already. We're headed back."
The jury was out maybe 2 hours.
>> You don't know.
You you put 12 people in a room to make a decision and I hope it's the right one >> to the charge deliberate homicide.
>> Guilty.
>> Ultimately, he was convicted of deliberate homicide and he received a sentence of 100 years in the Montana State Prison.
In my 16-year career, uh, this is the first case I've been involved in that went from a welfare check to a missing person's to a homicide without a body to a even prosecution of a homicide without a body.
And the fact that the contribution that we had was as impactful as it was.
That's where the bittersweet part comes.
You know, had to extend ourselves that much.
>> Go through something you could never prepare yourself for.
>> Exactly.
>> If he didn't do that, then we would still be searching.
One of the key pivotal moments here was the persistence from family and then Miss Johnson's son coming to Billings and locating the surveillance footage.
And I can only speculate if that video had not been located or recovered. I'm not sure where we would be now.
Today, Steven and his brothers are focused on keeping their mother's memory alive.
>> My mom is a part of my life every single day. I uh I got married last year to my beautiful wife, Casey, here. Uh we had our daughter, Eliza, and Eliza's middle name is my mother's name. So, her name is Eliza Laura Johnson.
big part of how my mom was as an everyday mother is the ways that I've been able to cope with her loss. So, making the meals that she made, having the family dinners, you know, bringing her into my life in those little ways to keep her alive. That's that's what I do. She's there every time I make dinner. You know, >> the only thing I have that I can hear her voice now is April 2018. She called me, but I was at work and she left me a voicemail to tell me happy birthday.
That's the only thing I have to like hear her voice.
>> We still have the fact that we don't know where my mother lies to this day.
That we have not been able to bring her home. We haven't had the sense of closure for peace. There's been no funeral, there's been no memorial, there's been nothing.
If there's anything that anybody can tell us, if there's anything that sticks out, if there's a piece of property you own, if there's something you can do, if there's something you've seen to just, you know, to please come forward.
I'm hoping this outcome that people come forward with actual real information and it helps us find her and bring her home.
This is Mike's first apartment in New York City.
>> The online dating scene was still pretty new and fairly unregulated.
>> I've been single for like 5 years. I lived in Long Island forever. All of a sudden, I'm in Brooklyn. I moved and everyone's like, "Oh, what are you doing? Do you want to hang out? I thought you want to hang out." You know, it's like, "No, I can't hang out. I'm in Brooklyn." Crazy.
>> You know, I moved here to find a husband.
Numerous calls come in to 911 stating that someone's been struck by a vehicle on the Bell Parkway.
Those last seconds of his life were seconds that he didn't deserve.
>> I was just shocked.
Just kind of go through this point of disbelief.
>> It was Michael Chen. You could have been anyone. They weren't looking for a black man. They weren't looking for a white man. They were looking for a victim.
You can feel how he must have felt when he saw these guys coming down and then running for his life.
>> Imagine the sheer terror that he was probably feeling.
>> This guy was lured to his death.
We had a rogue device on this wireless network.
So the idea was, "All right, well, where are they?"
>> Kind of just feel your whole body collapse in that moment. literally takes your breath away.
July 2006, Brooklyn, New York. 28-year-old Michael Sandy is on top of the world. He's just landed a job as a designer for IKEA and is finally pursuing his dreams in the big city.
>> This is my new apartment. This is Mike's first apartment in New York City.
>> And his best friend Patrick is by his side.
>> Mike was really excited about his first Brooklyn apartment. I mean, he was all joy. He had a laugh that could like carry a room.
I think it's cool.
Well, it's a wrap. We finished the bed.
Made much more space out of this tiny little room. It's wonderful. I'm glad my hair has changed. It's rocking.
>> Oh my gosh.
I mean, what did we look like there, right? We were just absolute best friends. Um, comfortable, really comfortable with each other. He was that friend that would like do anything for you. loyal, sensitive, compassionate.
Okay, those people don't come around very often.
>> Life hasn't always been easy for Michael. Growing up as a young gay black man in conservative Bport, New York, >> his struggle with being gay in Long Island was definitely a thing.
Some parts of it was because he wasn't necessarily like out to his parents, but I think that they all had this beautiful kind of unspoken understanding.
I've known Michael Sandy since we were kids.
And Michael spoke very closely with his friends about who he wanted to make connections with. than being in a small town, a conservative town and a conservative family, these things were kind of hard to explore.
He wanted to work in Brooklyn, live in Brooklyn, breathe Brooklyn. So, I think what was very attractive to him was really that social element, and to really find a connection, to find love.
I feel like he had to make that move to survive and to express who he was and to be who he was meant to be.
Michael is now living his dream in hip Williamsburg, Brooklyn. An artsy neighborhood just a quick subway ride from Manhattan.
>> Michael is very agile and he made everything he did look very easy.
Okay.
Yeah, that was great. But he was a very natural dancer.
So that was Michael dancing in a parking garage. Actually, I was filming this. We were one and two and three and punch and, you know, turn and spin. So we had it all choreographed, you know.
It's tough to kind of think about the last time you see someone but it was a good last inerson memory.
Um as much as he was so gregarious and outgoing personally he was very shy.
He had never dated anyone in 11 years of me knowing him. Never had a boyfriend.
He was on the hunt to find love.
>> In the early fall of 2006, just a few months after moving to Brooklyn, Michael goes out with Patrick and a small group of friends.
Another friend captures a light-hearted moment on video.
>> I've been single for like 5 years. I lived on Long Island forever. No one ever wanted to take me to dinner. No one ever go out. All of a sudden, I'm in Brooklyn when I moved and everyone's like, "Oh, what are you doing? Do you want to hang out? I thought you want to hang out. You know, it's like, no, I can't hang out. I'm in Brooklyn.
>> What happened 5 years ago, right? It's insane. You know, I moved here to find a husband.
>> The last time I hung out with Michael was very close to the time that he had died.
So, On the evening of October 8th, 2006, numerous calls come in to 911 stating that someone's been struck by a vehicle on the Bell Parkway.
>> It's 1000 p.m. and the scene is a dark section of the highway near Sheep's Head Bay, Brooklyn, in an area known as Plum Beach.
>> That car never stopped.
It was a hit and run.
very serious car accident from injuries.
He's unconscious.
>> The victim, a young black male, gravely injured but still clinging to life, is rushed to Brookdale Hospital.
>> We have a victim. We don't know who he is. We don't know necessarily how he got there. Now, we have to figure out why this occurred.
>> Investigators question witnesses at the scene.
This incident occurs at night when it's dark and everyone's vision is limited.
No one really has a good description of the vehicle and or the license plate.
>> Police search the area and soon make a crucial discovery.
>> They come across a vehicle that's parked in a parking lot across the highway. The car was still running.
>> Police recover a photo ID from the vehicle. It's an unmistakable match with the man gravely injured on the Parkway.
>> And through the documentation that they find, they come to find out that this vehicle is owned by a young man by the name of Michael Sandy.
So, we have a victim.
We know his address and we wanted to know why he would have driven from Williamsburg to the other side of Brooklyn at night in the dark.
>> Plum Beach is just a dead stretch of sand, kind of a weeded beach where nobody really takes the sun and it's just a quiet little stretch of beach.
>> So, something's not adding up here.
What's What's going on?
Later that night, some eyewitnesses reveal a disturbing detail.
>> So, some of the accounts that the officers are getting are stating that this young black male is being chased by a number of white males from the parking lot along the Bell Parkway and then being struck by a vehicle as he's being chased.
So, based on witness accounts, these young men now start to pull him off the highway. His body got dragged back to the side of the road. They rifled through his pockets before running off.
Witnesses saw that. Given the races that people are specifically noting, we're wondering, is this something racially motivated?
You know, this may have been a targeted attack.
>> A new detail about Michael's final moments comes to light. The computer logged into America Online and a conversation was visible on the screen.
>> The more police learn, the more personal and tragic the case becomes.
>> It all is a thing to me that stems from his willingness and wanting connection.
>> He left pointers. He left the bread of comments and like that I'll see you in 20 minutes was his final moments as he walked out the door.
Eyewitnesses tell police they saw Michael Sandy being chased by several unidentified white men alongside a New York City highway before he was struck by a hitandrun driver. Hours later, in the early morning, Michael lies in a coma at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn.
He's unconscious, so he can't speak to us to tell us how this all went down.
>> Meanwhile, word of the shocking incident is slowly spreading among Michael's loved ones.
>> I got a phone call and I don't believe anyone knew the full details. I didn't really receive any information other than the fact that he was in the hospital on life support.
One of my good friends called and he said, "Michael was in a pretty severe accident."
Like I just felt my whole body fall to the ground hearing that. Then you started seeing it on the news.
>> I was working as a reporter for the New York Post when this happened.
>> We were told that he was still alive. He was in critical condition and he was unable to communicate to police exactly what happened.
We're talking to the family kind of getting a clearer picture as to who Michael is and they find out that Michael is 28, soon to be 29year-old male and he was an interior designer and was just a super nice guy, probably had zero enemies. And we wanted to try to figure out why he may have suddenly find himself in a conflict with other people.
When I was at the hospital, his parents were just desperately trying to find any resource and help that they could.
It wasn't until I spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Sandy to really know the severity of the impact they were holding up. They had wonderful support with their family, but it was hard to see them hurting the way that they were.
we were able to see him and he looked rough. I mean his head was completely swollen and you know being on life support there was very little kind of hope in the outcome and I was just shocked.
Yeah. You just kind of go through this point of disbelief.
all the machines beeping and blaring and all the hustle and bustle in the hospital to begin with. It was it was hard to fully absorb what was happening, but it was tough to see him in that position.
Feels like a dream happening. Very bad dream. Um, detectives have little to explain the attack on Michael other than the vague possibility it was racially motivated.
So, they head to Michael's apartment in Williamsburg, hoping his roommates can shed some light on his plans that evening.
>> So, the investigators are now looking to interview his roommates. Want to find out if he has any problems. Did he have a beef with somebody? Was he looking to settle a score? you know, we need to figure out why he may have gone from Williamsburg to Chief's Head Bay and to see maybe is there any conflict that was occurring that evening.
>> His roommates don't recall anything out of the ordinary that evening, but they mentioned that they saw Michael chatting on the internet earlier in the night.
They chalk it up to some innocent online dating.
We are hearing from Michael Sandy's roommates that he is single and like many people were doing when this whole online dating thing was starting to really take hold. He was going out and talking to people online and and going out to meet them.
The internet really emerged when we were young adults and this is one way where we could connect to people of our age and have that social interaction even if it was a digital form of connection.
>> So back in 2006 the online dating scene was still pretty new and fairly unregulated.
So you were talking to people online and not really knowing who was on the other end.
Now, investigators begin to question if race had anything to do with the crime, or whether Michael's innocent search for love online may have led him down a dangerous path.
>> Every new thing has its benefits and its drawbacks. And we had seen certainly by 2006 that the online environment was one that was being used pretty heavily by gay men in particular. And one of the drawbacks of the internet and online dating is that people will use them as avenues to target others.
So now we potentially want to look at Michael Sandy's computer to see if that is going to give us any investigative evidence to corroborate that.
>> Investigators find Michael's laptop in his bedroom.
Now we start to shift their attention to did Michael Sandy maybe talk to somebody online and went to go meet them and maybe that scenario went wrong.
>> To explore the possibility that a crime may have originated on the internet, investigators reach out to computer specialist Denise Draos.
>> The New York City Police Department had one of the very first computer crime units in the country. It was called CIT back in those days. computer investigation and technology unit.
Eventually, it uh became the computer crime squad.
The detective squad, they needed assistance to actually handle the laptop as evidence and preserve what was visible on the screen and whatever else may be on that computer.
So, um I got my my kit together, which we would bring out to digital crime scenes, hard drives, USB drives, other tools potentially that may come in handy. And we responded The computer was logged into America Online and a conversation was visible on the screen.
New York City police believe a computer chat may have lured Michael Sandy into an attack. As Michael lays gravely injured in the hospital, NYPD computer specialist Denise Draos discovers that Michael's computer is still logged into a chat room on America Online.
>> The chat conversation happened the evening of the ETH before the incident.
Basically, it's two users, Fishey Fox, and a second account, which went by the screen name drum and bass07, which is Michael's account.
They're having a conversation. They're talking about potentially smoking marijuana together, and you know, they they say how old each of them are, what they look like.
So, in the initial conversation that Michael Sandy's having with this fisheyed fox, they agree to meet up.
They talk about meeting up in Plum Beach, Brooklyn, which is where he is struck by a vehicle.
>> They make plans to meet there at 8:00, but it's clear that things didn't go as planned.
So, searching through Michael's AOL chat history, when they meet up, Fishey Fox is not alone. There are other people around, which makes Michael Sandy feel uneasy.
So, he gets spooked and he leaves.
By 8:45, Michael returns to the chat from his apartment in Williamsburg and >> he goes back to his computer and Fishey Fox is saying, you know, "Hey, what happened to you and why'd you leave?"
And Michael Sandy says, "Well, I thought we were meeting oneonone." And there were other people around, so it just felt weird. So, I left.
And now Fishey Fox is trying to convince him, "Oh yeah, I don't know who those guys were or you know, we can just meet one-on-one. and it'll just be the two of us. So, come on back out and we'll meet up again.
>> By 10:00, Michael is found by the side of the parkway just yards from the Plum Beach parking lot.
>> It all is a thing to me that stems from his willingness and wanting connection.
like so much went out of his brain for that possibility.
And the real hard part is that he just didn't listen to his instinct that day.
And he went back.
Looking back, got the impression that he might have had an idea of what he was doing was potentially risky. I don't think it was an accident that he left his computer on with the chat window open. He left pointers. He left the breadcrumbs and like that I'll see you in 20 minutes was his final moments as he walked out the door.
Police now believe this online chat between Michael and Fisheye Fox is a key piece of evidence and they're hoping it may lead them to a suspect.
>> We started doing live system analysis at the time just to preserve the information that was there. So even without touching it did little old school took pictures of it just to make sure that even if it crashed at least we had that. We were running special software on the machines which copied out all of the system memory to an external drive. So that in that case we were able to get a lot of information and preserve it forensically in real time.
>> For investigators it's now imperative that they track down the man Michael was chatting with who goes by the screen name Fisheye Fox. But due to privacy laws that will require a court order.
You have to remember back in 2006, the internet was a very different place.
Some of these social media companies were not necessarily forthcoming with information about their clients.
>> We started doing the process to subpoena America Online to see who owns this Fisheye Fox account if we could, you know, identify that person.
On October 9th, a day after Michael Sandy was struck on the Belt Parkway, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office issues a subpoena to America Online to disclose the name of the individual who goes by the chat handle Fisheye Fox.
So, in the investigation, we come to find out that Fisheyed Fox is a screen name that is owned by someone by the name of John Fox, who has an IP address that comes back to Brooklyn.
And thus, the investigators now go to that address in Brooklyn where the ping of this IP address is coming back to.
The address on Brigham Street is just a few blocks from Plum Beach in Sheep's Head Bay, Brooklyn, where Michael was struck.
It was a rowous on this block on Bringham Street. We pretty much set up a surveillance operation with, you know, numerous detectives and different cars.
And as you know, all the teams are sitting there, somebody shows up at that house and walks up to the front gate.
All of the police cars, you know, come screeching up and, you know, the detectives jump out and approach the individual.
We identified ourselves as being detectives NYPD.
And he says, "What's going on, guys?
NYPD detectives have tracked the source of a computer chat room message they believe was used to lure Michael Sandy to a vicious attack. Based on the IP address linked to the message, they descend on a house in Brooklyn.
>> Gentleman lived at that address. He said, "I just got off work. You know, can I help you guys?" So, we asked him his name.
The chat room message was from a user called Fisheye Fox, who police have identified as John Fox, but that is not the man's name. And there's no one named John Fox who lives at his address. So, that was a little bit of a a pucker moment, you know, like, oh crap.
He asked, "Do you have internet service?" He goes, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, you know, I just got a new router."
So, we're like, "All right, can we come inside and talk to you about a situation?" He says, "Yeah, you know, come on inside."
As soon as we walk into the kitchen, right there on the kitchen table, we can see a brand new wireless router.
>> So, new that no security has been set up on it yet. Detective Draos realizes that means anyone could have tapped into this internet service and a quick check reveals her theory to be correct.
>> It appeared that now we had a rogue device on this wireless network. The homeowner just had a new router and it wasn't secured and was logged into surreptitiously by this Fishey Fox user.
Detective Draos knows that if the rogue device is logged into this router, it must be close by, within range of the Wi-Fi signal.
>> All right. Well, where are they? They have to be within a stone's throw. So, let's try and figure out where they are right now.
So, I'm like, I can try to talk it to them and stir the pot and see what happens. So, I have an undercover account. And I'm like, hey, what's up?
It was just a shot in the dark to see, you know, if if I could figure out where the heck this computer was. I got a response from Fisheye Fox.
So now I'm talking to Fisheye Fox myself.
And so I'm like, "Hey, what's going on?
How you been? When are we getting together?" And he's uh you know, I'm back at school.
So we're confounded right now.
Detective Draos reaches out to her contact at America Online who is able to determine that John Fox aka Fishey Fox is now chatting from a different location entirely.
And we're like, well, what's this other location?
They said it goes back to Sunni Maritime, which is State University of New York Maritime College, which was a college, you know, in in the Bronx.
A check with the campus security office reveals there is a sophomore enrolled at Sunni Maritime named John Fox.
It was after midnight, I'm sure, at that point. And basically, we all responded in a caravan from that location.
Everybody drove out to the Bronx to go and talk to John Fox.
The investigators coordinate with Sunni campus police to locate John Fox's dorm room.
>> It's 1:00 a.m. in the morning and now you're going to talk to someone whose part in this whole thing is still unclear.
We do know that John Fox is connected to the screen name that Michael Sandy was talking to.
So, everyone's antennas are up.
>> When the 19-year-old student comes to the door, he appears surprised, but his demeanor is calm.
So, the investigators now talking to John Fox at his dorm, and they're asking him, "What was your weekend like?" And he proceeds to tell them, "Well, I was just hanging out with some friends, and we were just drinking some beers, just chilling out for the weekend. Just a few friends having a good time.
During this interview, John Fox starts to get nervous and his answers start to contradict themselves.
This is going from an interview turning into an interrogation.
>> John Fox agrees to accompany the detectives to the 61st precinct in Brooklyn.
John Fox is saying in his statement that he and Anthony Fortunado and Gary Timonss and the Russian kid Alex are hanging out by a local deli. They decide to go back to the house where John Fox logs into the computer and he admits that Fisheyed Fox is his screen name, but that his friends must have been using his screen name to have a conversation cuz he knew nothing about this conversation.
But then he starts to turn around and say, "Well, you know, we were just looking to have a little fun."
What does that mean?
what does it mean that we're looking to have a little fun?
and he starts to basically incriminate himself and he claims Anthony Fortunado is the one who sort of hatched this scheme to go into a gay chat room, talk with someone who's looking to meet up with another man and then meet up with that person to rob them under the assumption that the gay man won't go to the police.
the reality that some folks actually feel a certain amount of shame and so they would be less likely to report.
They would be less likely to make a complaint.
It was very powerful set of facts.
There was something particularly chilling about how this man was lured out to his death. Basically, >> could have been anyone. They they weren't looking for a black man. They weren't looking for a white man. They were looking for a victim. And unfortunately, they chose Michael Sandy.
John Fox admits to NYPD detectives that he, Anthony Fortunado, and a group of their friends used the screen name Fisheye Fox in a chat room to set up a meeting with Michael Sandy under the guise of a date with the intention of robbing him.
>> So, they met on the street. John Fox and him had a brief conversation and Fortunado and then a couple of their other friends actually were in the area.
So, Michael got spooked. You know, his spidey sense was tingling. He laughed.
All was good.
>> Detectives believe that while Michael returned home, John Fox and his friends didn't want to give up.
>> They start drinking beers again and they say, "Oh, maybe we can find somebody else." You know, in the interim, Michael reaches back out. I said, "Hey, I just want to hang out with you. I don't want to do a group thing, so let's just me and you hang out." So John was like, "All right, cool. We'll do that." So he came back.
They all get to Plum Beach and they approach a blue Mazda, which is Michael Sandy's car. Alex tries to assault Michael Sandy.
Michael Sandy breaks away from the assault and they start to chase him.
Where was he going to go if they were going to prevent him from getting into his car?
He's going onto the highway.
Imagine the sheer terror that he was probably feeling when he's chased onto a busy highway running for his life and running into a speeding vehicle.
Those last seconds of his life were seconds that he didn't deserve.
>> That car takes off, never stops, and then the men, they drag him to the side of the road.
One of them goes into his pockets, empties everything, and they take off.
>> John Fox, he says they all fled the scene, and then they all went back to the house, and they were all shaken up by this whole scenario.
It's almost like classic stupid kids, but there's a there's a coldness about it as well.
Police begin to investigate the friends John Fox says took part in the scheme.
And when they learn the home address of Anthony Fortunado, the pieces of the puzzle start to come together.
Fortunado's house is next door to the Brooklyn home the detectives visited the night before where a rogue computer was logged into the Wi-Fi.
>> So they go to Anthony Fortunado's house to talk to him and he claims, "Yeah, I'll come talk to you. I'm just going to get a lawyer and I'll come down to the station to talk to you guys."
>> But Fortunado never shows up at the precinct as promised.
Then suddenly we get a call from his mother stating that well Anthony can't come talk to you because he's in the hospital.
He tried to kill himself.
However, John Fox has implicated two other people, Gary Timmons and this other kid known as the Russian kid, Alex. So the investigators looking through MySpace with the information given to them by John Fox find out Russian kid's true identity is now revealed by someone by the name of Elia Shurov. So now investigators can go talk to them.
>> Fox, Timmons, and Shirro all confessed to their roles in the attack, pointing to Fortunado as the mastermind of the plan.
Meanwhile, at Brookdale Hospital, Michael Sandy's family is facing a terrible choice.
So, Michael Sandy's in the hospital unconscious. He's dying. He's not going to recover. The doctors know this.
Doctors make the family aware of this.
And he will never be the person that he was.
On October 12th, Michael Sandy spends his 29th birthday with his family holding Vigil in his ICU room. They know they are spending their final moments with him.
>> They wanted to wait so that he didn't die on his birthday.
>> So, a day after his 29th birthday, his family made that awful, awful decision.
I received a call from Mrs. Sandy and said, you know, we took Michael off life support.
So, just always thinking that this can't be true, but you know, these these emotions just kind of come over you, still trying to process it. Um, but you know, you kind of go through those moments when you can and be supportive for the family, but you kind of just feel your whole body collapse in that moment. Literally takes your breath away, you know, in that moment. Um, >> you need to let him go.
You feel robbed, you know, you really especially when it comes with an act that has such malice for anything of joy and life and love.
Investigators now have statements from three of their suspects, but they still can't speak with Anthony Fortunado, the alleged mastermind of the scheme, who remains hospitalized after his suicide attempt. While they wait for his condition to improve, they execute a search warrant at his home.
We go back out to the location and when law enforcement gets there, they said, "All right, you're looking for computers. Here's our computer. This is the only computer we have."
But we're able to actually look at the computer. And immediately say, "No, that's not the computer we're looking for." Because, you know, it is mapped to the manufacturer.
And in this case, we knew we were looking for a Dell computer. the computer that they happened to like pull out of a hat and and say was the only computer in the house was not a Dell.
So, we were like, "No, try again."
And they didn't have any other computers that they were willing to voluntarily turn over. So, a search of the residents commenced as as authorized by the search warrant. Hidden in the basement was a Dell laptop.
That was the computer that was connected to the IP address that was connected to Fishey Fox during the crime.
So, we knew we found what we were looking for.
It basically was the smoking gun.
By the time Fortunado is released from the hospital, Kings County prosecutors are prepared to act. They now have everything they need to file charges of attempted robbery and manslaughter. But they're also considering a unique enhancement to the charges that's rarely been tried before.
>> This was a real social problem that people were being targeted as victims of crime because they belong to to certain groups and in this case they were looking to select a gay person and that's what they did.
That is the element that establishes the hate crime.
Four men are facing charges in the attack that killed Michael Sandy and prosecutors are prepared to also try them on a rare and untested set of charges.
This was one of the first cases I can recall clearly where the hate crimes enhancement was actually used in New York State for an anti-gay murder.
And I think it was important for the community for this to be called what it was. It had a lot of meaning for people.
On October 25th, 2006, John Fox, Ilia Shurov, and Anthony Fortunado are indicted on charges of secondderee murder, attempted robbery, and manslaughter as a hate crime.
That same day, Gary Timonss, who was a minor at the time of the crime, pleads guilty to attempted robbery in the second degree.
You want to make sure that when a case is tried as a hate crime, it has to specifically plug into the statutes of the hate crimes law. And the sentence that is usually handed down is a much heavier sentence.
But as the date of trial approaches in October 2007, nearly a year to the day from the attack on Michael at Plum Beach, Anthony Fortunado's attorney mounts a stunning defense to the hate crime charges.
Fortunado tried to pull a rabbit out of the hat and said it can't be a hate crime cuz he came out of the closet himself.
He identified himself as being a gay man and said that because he's gay, it can't be a hate crime because you can't hate gay people if you're gay. Also, >> it was an extremely flimsy defense legally because hate is not an aspect of the crime itself. That's not something that the prosecution has to establish in order to establish somebody's guilt of a hate crime.
He could have mixed motives, but it doesn't get him off the hook. From the get-go, the whole plan was based on targeting a gay person.
John Fox and Anthony Fortunado are acquitted of murder, but convicted of manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes, receiving sentences of 7 to 21 years.
A month later, Ilia Shurov pleads guilty to the same charges and receives a sentence of 17 and 12 years. Gary Timmons, who testifies as a prosecution witness, receives a 4-year sentence.
When they were found guilty, it was a natural release to have some vindication, but I don't know about the justice part.
I absolutely cannot say as to whether or not justice was served in this case.
Maybe it's for Michael's parents to answer that question, for Michael's solar spirit to answer that question.
Even in an odd way, for his perpetrators to answer that question, cuz I would have a hard time feeling that justice were served if they did not come to understand the gravity and tragedy of what they did.
This case sort of impacted me on a personal level. Back in 2006, I was a single gay man on the internet talking to people and meeting up with people. For all practical purposes, I could have been Michael Sandy.
Michael Sandy's closest friends are left with nothing now except their memories and a few artifacts of his last days.
Like this video from the fall of 2006 when he enjoyed a final evening out in Brooklyn with his friends.
>> Can I put my glasses on?
>> I've been singing for 5 years. I lived on Long Island forever. No one ever wanted to take me there. No one to ever go out. You know, I moved here to find a husband.
>> That is too much.
>> Um, you heard his laugh.
>> You know, I moved here to find a husband.
>> He was a wonderful human being from head to toe.
>> Wonderful.
Okay, let's rock him. He exudes this wonderful light that shines and magical laughter and smiles and he we love life to the fullest.
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