All language subtitles for The.Murder.Tapes.S03E03.The.Truth.is.Dangerous.iNTERNAL.1080p.WEB.h264-ROBOTS

This was what we would call
basically a vicious murder.

It looked like she was

doing her best to get away
from whoever did this to her

but didn't make it.

Ty was loving and caring, and
she just wanted to help people.

There was a lot of fear
that somebody

may be targeting
lgbtq people.

Tyler police
promptly dispatch

officer Joshua smedley
to the scene,

a vacant house in the northern
section of the city.

Due to it being
a major accident

and gunshots being fired,

I tried to get there
as soon as possible,

and I tried to be
as tactical as I could.

I activated my body camera.

Approached the vehicle
and noticed that it was

in the dirt
off the curb

right next to
a telephone pole.

When I looked inside
the vehicle,

the driver was motionless.

Usually, when people
get into a major accident

and they have a collision
with an object,

they're gonna have more blood
coming from their nose,

head, mouth area.

But I noticed the blood was
coming from the shoulder,

the wrists,

and was pretty heavy on
the side of the victim,

which seemed pretty strange.

I noticed that these wounds
on the victim in

the shoulder and the wrist
area appeared to be

impact wounds from gunshots.

That raised concerns
that this is

not just gonna be
an accident.

Emts are unable
to revive the woman

and pronounce her dead.

Officers also discover
the victim's cellphone still

connected to the car stereo --
they collect it as evidence.

There's no telling where

this could've first occurred.

Could be the suspect's riding
in the vehicle with the victim

while shooting them
or are they chasing

after them in
their own vehicle?

There was only one thing
we knew for sure,

and that's that
we had a homicide.

Investigators
also discover that

their victim is
a transgender woman.

I spoke to family members.

I spoke to friends.

I spoke to
a lot of classmates

and then also with some of
Ty's professors,

and they all told me about
the kind of

person Ty was, that Ty
was loving and caring,

and she just wanted
to help people.

She had gone back to school
specifically to be in

the medical field to where
she could serve others.

Back at the scene,

officers tape off the area

and begin their homicide
investigation.

We found a passenger side
mirror on the ground.

It appeared that the vehicle
had run into this brick mailbox.

And we discovered evidence,

shell casings 100 yards
to the west.

With the huge crime scene,

we knew we had quite a bit of
work ahead of US at that point.

I then began to knock on
addresses nearby

where the incident had
occurred in hopes of getting

more leads to
the investigation.

Not a lot of people
answered the door

due to it being past 3 A.M.

Bianca: I was hoping
that she had witnessed

more of the accident,

but all she saw
was the vehicle.

She didn't see anyone.

She didn't see anyone
inside the vehicle.

So she ended up not having
any more leads to

the investigation.

Police in Tyler,
Texas, have just found

the body of
24-year-old Ty Underwood...

...shot to death in her car.

She had been shot numerous
times, apparently four times

from what looked like
outside of the vehicle.

The suspect may have been
standing at the door

or sitting in the car --
it looked like

she was doing her best to get
away from whoever did this

to her but didn't make it,
and she died in her car.

We knew this was
what we would call basically

a vicious murder.

Around this time,
there was a lot of fear in

the lgbtq community about
people being who they were.

When you start talking to
family members or classmates,

it stops becoming more of
an abstract concept

and this is a real person
who had

real family and real friends
who are in real pain.

Back on the streets,

the investigation continues.

Investigators look
into Ty's background

and come up with
her current address.

Detectives Nathan Elliott
and Andy erbaugh head

to the apartment
to speak with Ty's

roommate, breonna.

When we go contact anybody
in a murder investigation,

we don't know
how they're involved,

because they could be
the suspect.

They could know
what happened.

They could have information
that is valuable as evidence,

so we don't

want to give up too much
of our hand in this.

She was touched emotionally
to the point of

crying hysterically,

almost to the point
of gagging.

So at that point in time,

we almost check her off as
somebody who's not involved.

Ty and her friend
were living together,

are best friends,

and she knows pretty much
everything that Ty does.

We were hoping that she could
provide some details about why

Ty was out at that time
of night,

especially when Ty was
supposed to be at school

that morning.

Detectives bring breonna

to the station to talk further.

To know that they're having
to live in this kind of fear,

to know that they're even
scared to walk on the street,

too scared that they might be
killed just for who they are,

it just kind of lights
a fire under you,

because obviously
you definitely

don't want that to keep
happening and want to catch

who did this, you know,
even more.

While detectives work
to access Ty's phone,

they continue to speak
with Ty's friends

to learn more about
the people in her inner circle.

We didn't know what Ty
needed the money for -- was it

she was late on bills?

Was she owed somebody
some money,

where she's going to
meet somebody,

to pay 'em the money?

We didn't know if Ty was gonna

go buy something from
an individual and got robbed.

Once we learned
that Ty was dating

somebody who went to Texas
college and played football,

and from the roommate that
the name was Carlton,

so now we had
a lead to follow.

So our next step is
to go to Texas college,

find out who Carlton is.

Detectives travel
to Texas college,

where a 21-year-old football
player named

Carlton champion, Jr., is
brought in to talk.

At this point,
it was suspicious that Carlton

would delete the app,

but this doesn't make him
a murderer.

Champion:...

Carlton was adamant,
stumbling over his words,

that he hadn't
had sex with Ty --

being a football player,

being that now a trans woman
has been

killed a few blocks
from the college.

Word was getting out,
so I don't know if he didn't

want to be associated with Ty

where everybody else
would know it.

Detectives press
Carlton about his movements

that night after he returned
from Dallas.

When we told Carlton that Ty
had been killed,

Carlton was quick to say
that he had nothing to

do with it, said that other
people could vouch for him.

Just kept denying that he was
involved in any way.

He really didn't
have any emotions,

no emotion about somebody
being killed at all.

Kind of raised
some red flags.

The murder of
Ty Underwood

has left the city
of Tyler, Texas,

struggling for answers.

Ty's death was
a really scary

moment for people
in this community,

and there was a lot of community
outrage about what had happened.

Now detectives set
their sights on one suspect,

Texas college football player,
Carlton champion, Jr.

As detectives try to verify
Carlton's statements,

they focus on another hopeful
source of information --

Ty's locked cellphone.

We knew that we needed to get
in the cellphone,

but we didn't have
the pass code.

We know that if you try
the wrong pass code on an iPhone

too many times,
it's gonna lock the phone up.

And luckily,
we typed in Ty's birthday,

and it opened the phone.

When we looked
in Ty's cellphone,

we saw that Ty had been
texting another person.

We tracked down
that phone number and saw

that Ty have been texting
with another male at Tyler.

Detectives give
the man, Dalton Howard, a call.

He seemed very surprised that
a detective would be

calling him to begin with,
and he said that

he didn't know anybody
by the name of Tyrone.

Not sure if Dalton
is telling the truth,

detectives swan and Matthews
visit him at his home

and press him about
the murder.

...

He seemed pretty convincing
that he had never met her,

but as an investigator, I have
seen people who lie very well.

When he told me that he was
willing to let US look

at his phone or whatever,

he certainly seemed willing
to help in some way.

Then he tells US
that he deleted it,

and suddenly we're thinking
okay, what does he have to hide?

Detectives aren't convinced

Dalton is telling the truth,

so they return with him
to the station for

further questioning.

Any time somebody makes
absolute statements like that,

I never do things that might
cause US to want to go down

that path,

but for somebody to tell US
that they never leave the house

at night,

especially when they are
texting somebody

that closely before a crime

certainly brings suspicion
upon him.

Detectives hunting
Ty Underwood's killer

in Tyler, Texas,

have their eye on two suspects
that Ty met on social media.

Now, the one they've been
questioning, Dalton Howard,

has requested to
take a polygraph test.

As the interview
progressed, he became much more

uncomfortable
as I began to question him

more and more about the timing
and also whether or not

he ever met

Ty, so we gave him
a polygraph,

and at the conclusion of
that polygraph,

we considered the fact
that he had not

contacted or texted Ty
after the,

last text, which was about
two hours before the death,

and that,

there was no plans to meet
Ty in those texts.

I determined that he was
no longer a suspect.

Detectives next
turn their attention

back to the other man

Ty had been communicating
with, Carlton champion Jr.

When I started looking at
Ty's cellphone, I turned

the airplane mode off,

which a lot of times we turn it
on to preserve evidence.

Then all of these messages
started coming through.

Then going through all
the kik messages, I saw

that Ty and Carlton were

messaging back and forth
at two o'clock in the morning,

just minutes
before Ty was shot.

They're arguing back and forth,
and they end up

agreeing to meet.

Ty says she's coming
to the college.

Carlton says,
"no meet me on 25th."

And she says,
"I'm on my way."

Detectives visit
Carlton at his dorm room

as they ready
a search warrant.

Now that we know he's lied,

that's an advantage
to US as detectives,

because now we have something
that we can

interrogate him on.

He pretty much was...

Throwing it in our face.

Like,
"how dare you ask me that?

How dare you ask me
if I killed her?"

Investigators
carry out their search.

He would not
admit to anything.

He was just adamant that
he did not send those messages,

and he did not know who did.

So we did what we did
and served a search warrant

and seized some of
his belongings.

With the amount of
blood spatter

that was sprayed
through the car,

if he had been
in the car with her

or even standing outside the car
when she was shot,

there may be
biological evidence

or blood evidence
on that shirt

or on his pants
or especially on his shoes.

But then investigators
find something revealing

as they review the security
footage from Texas college.

During the interviews
with Carlton,

he continued to say
that he never

left his dorm room past 9:30
or 10 the night before.

We were able
to attain video from

the surveillance cameras
of the dorm hall,

which showed he left
the dorm about

a little after two o'clock
that next morning

and returned
about 20 minutes later,

which would have gave him
enough time

to kill Ty and run back
to his dorm.

Given all that we had

learned up until this point,
it was time to bring Carlton in.

Tyler, Texas, police
have prime suspect,

Carlton champion, Jr.,
at the station,

where they confront him
about his relationship with Ty.

When I was
interviewing Carlton,

he knew he was at the center
of our investigation

at this point,
and for his attitude --

to be smirking,
to want me to go

buy him some food,
to be nonchalant, is not

ordinarily how a suspect
or a person being interrogated

for a homicide acts.

I could tell that Ty
wanted more in this relation,

something Carlton did,

Ty was more emotionally
invested in the relationship.

Ty tells Carlton
that she's not coming.

They're pretty much
through with,

and then Ty messages

a few hours later and says,
"no, I'm coming to pick you up."

We explained
everything we had --

the messages,
the video, everything.

It didn't seem
to matter to Carlton.

We gave Carlton every
opportunity to tell US,

you know, his defense,

what actually happened
in his words,

and during
all the interviews,

he wouldn't tell US
what happened.

He'd just continued to say he
wasn't there, he didn't do it.

Unfortunately,
without evidence to connect

Carlton to the crime scene,

detectives don't have enough
for an arrest

until they receive word
back from the lab.

There are some investigations

when you have a lot of
evidence against somebody,

sometimes people will
eventually say, "okay,

I'm guilty."

With Carlton champion,

he just dug his heels
in the dirt and continued

to say that he had
no involvement in

the homicide of Ty
when clearly there was

evidence against him.

I think Carlton
was threatened.

I think he didn't want
his football players

or his friends to know that he
was dating a transgender woman.

He didn't want that.

And so that's why
he killed her.

Based on the evidence,
Carlton champion, Jr., is

charged with the first degree
murder of Ty Underwood.

Through the trial, Carlton
was still flippant and cold,

and denying and denying it.

Going so far as to
lash out in the courtroom,

caught on news cameras.

I don't think that
sat well with the jury,

and in the end, they convicted
him of murder and sentenced him

to life in prison.

There was a vigil for Ty after
the murder, when everybody

began to learn more
about Ty as a person.

It brought together a large
cross section of the community.

We had probably about
50 people

together from all over
the community,

family members, friends, coming
together to celebrate who Ty was

as a person and the fact that Ty
was going to get justice.

When Ty's death occurred,

that also sparked a lot of
other conversations

that weren't going to be had
in this community,

and lgbtq advocates
in the community

to take a harder stance,
to speak up.

They needed to demand
humanization

in their own community,

and I don't think that
we would have the strong dynamic

base of lgbtq advocates

in this area had they not
taken that stance when

Ty was murdered.