All language subtitles for Dont.Open.The.Door.S01E07.Messengers.Of.Death.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

She could completely light up
the whole room with one smile.

She just loved to draw and paint.

That craft room was her sanctuary.

Kelli has a visitor at the door.

She knows the person.

She really trusted
whoever she let into her home.

She realises she has made
a big mistake.

So, who did Kelli open the door to?

In 2017, Princeton, Texas
was a small town in Collin County

with a population of
about 10,000 people.

If you're looking for
a small-town vibe,

a rural community,

it could be a good place
to raise a family.

Princeton, Texas is north
of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

It's about 30 to 45 minutes
from downtown Dallas proper.

And it's one of those small towns

that it feels like the city
of Dallas and the metroplex

has kind of grown around it,

but it still has
that small-town feel.

Princeton has its own crime,
just like any other place,

but when it comes to working
homicide investigations,

that's just something at the time
that was really unheard of.

46-year-old Kelli Underwood
has moved to Princeton, Texas

to start a new chapter in her life.

She was very outgoing.

She was very humble.

She could walk
into a room

and completely light up
the room with one smile.

She was just a great person.

Kelli was looking
to make a fresh start.

She'd had two failed marriages
at that time.

She has three children and she needs
to find stability and a new job.

It definitely was
a change of pace for her

compared to, like,
where we lived prior.

Princeton was just a cute
little country town,

and that's where she
envisioned herself being at,

and that's just where she wanted
to build her life

and start over and start fresh.

In the fall of 2017,

Kelli was living on her own
in a rental home in Princeton.

The neighbourhood
where Kelli was living,

within a half a mile or so,
was downtown Princeton.

It was a pretty well-travelled area.

She was living on her own
cos I was living elsewhere

cos I had graduated

and I lived about
three miles down the road

in another house at that time.

We did better apart, but I tried
to visit her as much as I could.

Kelli had a craft room
upstairs on the second floor.

She loved crafting.

Her house was always decorated,
no matter the holiday.

She was big on creating her
own, like, Christmas and Halloween

and, like, New Year's decorations.

She loved to draw, and paint,
and spray paint, and cut things,

and that was just something
that she loved to do.

But that craft room
was her... her sanctuary.

So, late in the day
on September 16th, 2017,

Kelli has a visitor at the door.

And that person will be
responsible for her death.

We had plans to get together
on the weekend,

and I had reached out to her
a couple of times.

I had called her.
There was no response.

I was worried,
but I did not want to think,

like, something bad had happened.

There was just something in my body

that told me
I needed to go check on her.

When I arrived at the house,
I walked up the driveway

and I noticed that her keys
were still in the truck,

and her wallet was open
inside of the truck,

and that was not normal at all.

Kayden knocks on the door
a few times

and she realises the door was left
open and it had been unlocked.

At that point, I kinda, like,
called out to her and was like,

"Mom," you know, "Are you here?"

I remember opening the front door
and the first thing that I noticed

was there was a...
like, a table that she had made,

that it was on its side,
like it had been knocked over.

Her TV was on the floor.

It looked as if there was furniture
being moved around.

All things that are
very unusual for Kelli

because everything had its place.

There was a very distinct smell
when I walked into the house.

It was just really strong
and abnormal.

And the TV was on dubstep music.

She does not listen
to anything like that,

like, electronic music, at all.

It's always country music.

But I remember
walking around the kitchen

and there was as if somebody
had made nachos

and just left everything out.

Which was very abnormal for her.

And as I walking up the stairs,

I called out to her
a couple more times.

I remember looking into her bedroom
and everything was nice and neat.

So, Kayden walks into
the craft room

and immediately notices disarray.

Things have been toppled over,
entire filing cabinets or chairs.

I could see her legs...

...cos she was on the ground,

and I, like, said something
along the lines of,

"You're not funny,"
like, "You need to get up."

She was up against the closet door

and she was just kinda like slumped
over on the laundry basket,

as if she was asleep.

And I called out to her
a couple of times

and I just remember,

like, kinda like, lifting
her head up just a little bit,

and it's as if, like,
her eyes were white.

So, I called 911,
and the 911 operators

asked me to check for a pulse.

And at that point
I went to go check for a pulse

and my hand, like, grazed her legs
and she was ice.

But the 911 operators
just told me to, like, go downstairs

and, like, wait for someone
to get there,

to not touch anything
that was around me.

I went downstairs
and went to her truck,

and I opened the, like,
the truck door

to just go, like, check her truck
and sit in the truck for a second.

Shortly after six o'clock
when the 911 call was made,

the Princeton Police Department
responded within minutes.

And they, like,
blocked the doors off

and wouldn't let me go back inside.

That's kinda
when the screaming started,

cos I was like, "I don't know
how to handle this situation.

Y'all won't let me go inside
and see her again."

When Princeton Police
Department officers respond,

they go upstairs, they find Kelli.

It's clear that Kelli has been gone
for a few days

and there's no hope of reviving her.

When Princeton police officers
take a closer look,

they can clearly see stab wounds
and gunshot wounds on Kelli's body.

They can tell
by the disarray in the room,

things being toppled over,
out of place,

that there was a struggle.

And it looks like Kelli
probably fought for her life.

The Collin County Sheriff's Office
crime scene unit

collects five bullet casings
in the craft room.

They are .22 calibre bullet casings.

So, it tells them that they're
looking for a .22 calibre firearm.

It's not a revolver
because it's a firearm

that releases the casings
along with the bullet.

They notice multiple gunshot wounds,
a couple to her legs,

or her lower extremities,
a couple to her upper right arm,

and a couple to the chest.

They also notice stab wounds.

She's got two to the head,
one to the right side of her face,

and one to the right side
of her temple.

She's got stab wounds
around her neck,

and even what we call incise wounds
that aren't quite as deep.

The combination of weapons
used in this case

really provides police
with one of two scenarios,

either two offenders,

one armed with a gun,
one armed with a knife,

or a murder that perhaps
began as a knife attack

and then was required to escalate
to the use of a firearm.

Maybe she resisted,

maybe they were not as effective
with the knife as they anticipated.

There was no signs of any
sexual assault, anything like that.

It appeared to be
a crime of personal violence.

The first responders from
the Princeton Police Department,

realising that they now have
a homicide investigation,

they make the right call.

They're a small department, they
haven't had a murder in decades,

and so, they know
they need to call in help.

So, they call the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers are an elite unit

within the Department
of Public Safety

who specialise in homicide.

I was at church
with my family when I got called.

Anytime you get a call
where there's a potential homicide

or even a death investigation,

you try to get there
as fast as you can

because preservation of evidence

is essential
to an investigation like this.

The first step into that house,
it's just disarray.

It was apparent that Kelli
didn't live the way that it looked.

There were security cameras
on the outside

and inside the residence,

but unfortunately, we found out

that the ones on the outside
had been disabled

and the ones inside
were not connected either.

The mess in the kitchen
was just really unkept.

Nobody had cleaned up
from their last meal.

And so, what we were able to do

is collect some of those things,
like the utensils,

for potential forensic evidence.

The backyard shows that there
have been people there recently.

She doesn't smoke,
and yet there's cigarette butts

scattered all across
her backyard patio.

There are soda cans that she doesn't
drink, open and left outside.

When we open the dryer,

there's a flame-retardant
racing suit in the dryer.

And so,

nothing that we had seen or heard

from people that knew from Kelli

had indicated to us that Kelli
had anything to do with racing.

It was just
one more layer of evidence

that indicated to us
that there were numerous people

that had been in the home

and potentially involved
in the murder.

But based on what we're seeing...

there are certainly things that you
would suspect to have been taken,

if it was a robbery,
that are still there.

Investigators were not able to find

any signs of forced entry
into Kelli's home.

And that told them
that Kelli knew who killed her.

She had let them in.

So, who did Kelli open the door to?

It's standard
in any homicide investigation

to start looking at the people
that are closest to the victim -

the family members,
the close friends.

So, in speaking to Kayden, they find
out that, like any mother-daughter,

they had a rocky relationship, right?

They would fight. Kayden didn't want
to live with her mom.

They had a very...
at times, volatile relationship.

So, Kayden, she was as much of
a person of interest as anyone else.

Investigators
in these types of cases

have to start considering

the history
of the family relationships.

Sometimes volatile relationships
can escalate to murder.

I think that it was fair to say

that Kelli really trusted
whoever she let into her home.

It was impossible
to rule anyone out.

I was put in a cop car
fairly quickly after I found her.

I wasn't given time to process
anything that was happening.

It was just them saying like,

"Hey, we have to take you
up to the police station."

I had communicated, you know,

to Bruce, that our relationship
was a little rocky.

He asked on multiple occasions
if I was the one who did it.

It just made me very uneasy
because it's like, I'm her daughter,

I would never in a million years
do anything to harm her.

So, to be thorough
in their investigation,

they're gonna try to build
a timeline for Kayden

in the days and hours

leading up to Kelli's murder.

They're going to interview
the people that she stays with.

Figure out where she was.

See if there are
any firearms around.

There was a boyfriend involved
that was suspicious.

The night that I talked to Kayden,

he was standing outside
the police department,

didn't want to come in.

There just... Something was off.

So, the investigation led us
to the home

where she was staying
with her boyfriend,

and the family gave us consent
to come in their home.

And they actually
identified a firearm

that the boyfriend
had recently used,

that was a .22 calibre,
which matched the same calibre

of the spent cartridges
that we found on the crime scene.

We were fairly confident
that even though he was suspicious

and the firearm matched,

it wasn't going to be
the murder weapon,

because the timeline of events
just didn't match up.

After talking to the family
that Kayden was staying with,

after searching Kayden's cell phone,

they get a bigger picture
of who Kelli is.

Investigators quickly found
and determined

that Kayden had nothing to do
with her mother's death.

And it's Kayden
that tells Ranger Sherman

that Kelli has a complicated
romantic relationship

with her boss, Ronnie Welborn.

Growing up in the small town
of Mesquite, Texas,

Kelli was close friends
with a girl named Kiersten Elworthy.

Kiersten ultimately moved
out of Mesquite, Texas

and moved to Princeton, Texas
after high school.

She got married
to Ronnie Welborn in 1997.

Ronnie was the owner
of a metal workshop,

which was a family business
that he took over.

Meanwhile, Kelli stayed in
Mesquite, Texas after high school.

But throughout the years,
Kelli stayed in touch with Kiersten,

and it was Kiersten who suggested
to Kelli, "Move to Princeton.

You can even stay with us
and get a fresh start."

Kelli and her
then 15-year-old daughter Kayden

moved in with Ronnie and Kiersten
in their household in Princeton.

I was very happy.
It was a very homey environment.

It was a cute, little house,
and my mom was very thankful,

you know,
to have a roof over her head

and have people that were willing to
help her get where she needed to be.

Ronnie was really nice.
He did everything in his power

to make me feel comfortable
and feel safe in his home.

He was always there to help me
if I was just having a hard day.

Ronnie, he was a business owner

at the metal fabrication company
there in town,

so Kelli had an opportunity
to go to work for him.

She started as a welder
in the workshop,

but about a year,
year and a half later,

she had shown her potential

and was now acting
as the office manager for Ronnie.

Ronnie and my mom
were like two peas in a pod

because of the fact
that they worked together,

they drove into work together,
they drove home together.

They were always, like, laughing.

It was always
something fun with them.

Once Kiersten
starts having suspicions

that Kelli and Ronnie
are having extramarital affairs,

their relationship
just really deteriorates.

I came home one day

and Kiersten was packing up
the house

and she had,
like, a moving truck outside.

And I was like, "What's going on?"

That's when Kiersten told me
that she thought

that my mom and Ronnie
were having a relationship.

And I was like, "That is not true.
That doesn't even make sense."

Kiersten had had enough

and she decided to leave Ronnie
and divorce him in February of 2014.

My mom decided
right then and there

that we were gonna leave.

Kelli decides to move
to an apartment in Princeton

where her and Kayden live
for about a year.

And it wasn't until
late 2015 into 2016,

that I started getting that inkling

that there was
a romantic relationship going on,

that it was just due
to the fact that I saw

that they were a little more
physical towards each other.

I had witnessed them kiss,

and I don't think my mom knew
that I could see that.

And when I brought it up,
yeah, she was like,

"It's none of your business."

But then one day
Kelli found a note on her car

that read "Home wrecker".

Shortly after that,
Kelli found another note -

this time inside of her car -
that read "home wrecker",

and that told Kelli
it was time to move on again.

Kayden ultimately moves in
with a friend after high school,

and so, it's about this time that
Kelli decides to get her own home

and starts renting a place
in spring of 2017.

All this time, though,
Kelli has still been

working for Ronnie
at the metal fabrication workshop.

At that point,
my mom had gotten word

that there was somebody else
that was moving into the house.

She had asked Ronnie about it,
and Ronnie kinda like,

gave her the cold shoulder and was
like, "I'm not moving anybody in."

So, at that point, my mom
kinda did her own investigation,

and that's when Ronnie
told her the truth and was like,

"Well, I am seeing Kadie."

Ronnie had moved a new girl in,
Kadie Robinson,

who was much younger than he was.

Ronnie was into racing

and he met Kadie
at a local racetrack.

But even after Kadie
moved in with Ronnie,

Ronnie and Kelli were still
seeing a lot of each other,

not just during work,
but outside of work.

He would come to her house

and they still had this on again,
off again relationship.

Unfortunately,
the case is that women,

if they fall victim to murder,

are more likely than not
to have been murdered

by a current or former
intimate partner.

And it's precisely for this reason
that there's now a term

that's been coined to describe this
phenomenon, which is "femicide".

When investigators are looking
at the nature of Kelli's injuries -

for example, gunshot wounds,
but also stab wounds -

stab wounds indicate
a very personal confrontation.

Somebody had to get
up close and personal with Kelli

to cause the volume and the nature
of injuries that she sustained.

So, they're already thinking

that someone who could have done
that to her had to have known her.

Investigators are surprised

when they don't have to go
looking for Ronnie Welborn.

He just shows up
at the police department

and he has something
he wants to tell them about Kelli.

Ronnie shows up

cool, calm, and collect,
and very eager to help us.

He's willing to answer any questions
that we have for him,

stay as long as we need him to.

Ronnie was able
to provide some information

into how he and Kelli met
through his ex-wife, Kiersten,

which is one of
Kelli's best friends,

that led her there to Princeton.

Ronnie describes
his relationship with Kelli,

really as an employee-employer...

but good friend relationship,

that they care for each other dearly
as good friends.

Ronnie Welborn
tells Ranger Sherman

that he and Kelli
still have a relationship,

that they have been having an affair

while Kadie was pregnant
with their daughter.

Ronnie tells us
that Kadie has no idea

that he's been having
a sexual relationship with Kelli.

Ronnie says
that Kelli was very upset

when she found out
that Kadie was pregnant.

But at the time
that this interview is happening,

Kadie's daughter
is about three months old.

Ronnie's very up front
about his emotions

and care and love for Kelli.

He has nothing but nice,
kind things to say about her.

Ronnie told Ranger Sherman

that he would go
to Kelli's house often,

mostly for work -
to pick up paperwork,

to bring her paperwork
for her to process.

Ronnie told us
that the last time he saw Kelli

was on the Friday before,
on September the 15th,

and he'd come over to just meet
with her about some business stuff.

Ronnie made no indication at all

that he had anything
to do with Kelli's murder.

Ronnie also informs Ranger Sherman

that Kelli had been
on a dating website,

and so he might want
to look at that website

to see if there were
any men stalking her

or that she had turned away
and become upset.

The victim's dating sites
are useful for investigators.

These sites will, for instance,

tell investigators

where they've been,

who do they associate with?

We were able to assess her account

and see that there was no evidence

from her activity
on the online dating site

that she had been in
any kind of altercation

or disagreement with anyone.

All of her online relationships

seemed to be
pretty positive or expected.

Jealousy is protecting what
you have to a pathological extent.

So, it's really about control.

And when a jealous partner
feels that they're losing control,

it can become very unhinged.

And as you can imagine,
Kelli and Kadie did not get along,

and Kadie was jealous of the time
that Ronnie would spend with Kelli.

And there was a, a situation
that happened a couple weeks prior

where Kadie came out to the house
cos Ronnie was there

delivering a check to my mom
cos she would work from home.

And Kadie would, you know,

pick up the kids from the elementary
school that was across the street,

and she had saw that Ronnie's truck
was at my mom's house.

Kadie was furious
to see Ronnie's truck out front,

so she went over there and started
looking through Ronnie's truck.

She had been calling him and texting
him and he wasn't responding,

so she wanted to see
if his phone was there.

Kelli notices Kadie there
from inside the house,

and she comes out and tells Kadie
to get off her property.

Ronnie doesn't come out of the house
during this confrontation.

He stayed inside.

But after Kadie left,

she was sending
furious text messages to Ronnie,

"Why are you there?
How long have you been in there?"

Investigators bring Kadie in
for an interview.

When Kadie shows up,
she was very cooperative.

She came in,
she wasn't emotional either,

but I don't know if I necessarily
would've expected that

based on
her relationship with Kelli.

She acknowledged that there
had been some issues

and some confrontations
between her and Kelli

that all stemmed from Ronnie.

After Kelli learned that Kadie
was pregnant,

she even bought Kadie a gift
for her baby shower.

After my mom died,
Kadie had reached out to me

on multiple occasions with, you
know, "I completely feel your grief.

I understand your pain

because my mom also passed away,
of cancer,

and I just want to let you know
that I'm here for you."

Kadie denied having any knowledge

about the affair
with Ronnie and Kelli

and also had no knowledge

of who could be responsible
for her murder.

When we canvased the neighbourhood,
we discovered through witnesses

that they had seen the vehicle
with Illinois licence plates

recurringly at her house in the days
leading up to her murder.

Ronnie's actually the one
that helped identify the vehicle

that had been at Kelli's house
with the Illinois licence plate

and identified Robert Veal
as the driver of the vehicle.

It's very common for detectives

to go through the victim's
cell phone after their death

to try to figure out
who they've been communicating with

in the hours or days
leading up to their murder.

And from looking
at Kelli's cell phone,

it was obvious
there was a lot of communication

between Kelli and Robert Veal.

Kelli had a big backyard

and she had decided that she wanted
to install an above-ground pool.

She also had
a security camera system

that hadn't been working
for a while.

It was outdated, and she knew
she needed to upgrade the system.

She wanted to install cameras
both outside and inside.

It was clear from the messages that
it was Robert Veal that Kelli had

helping her install the above-ground
pool in her backyard

and the security cameras
at her house.

They're acquaintances,

but it doesn't seem to indicate
any romantic relationship.

Robert Veal didn't come from much.

He didn't have stable income.

He had two young children.

He was desperate for a better life.

Kelli knew Robert Veal
because Robert, at one time,

had also worked at the metal
fabrication workshop for Ronnie.

So, Ronnie suggested
that Robert could be the one

to help Kelli do the work
at her home.

The primary thing that makes
Robert Veal a person of interest

is the fact that he's repeatedly
identified in our investigation

as someone who's been in the home,

potentially the last person
that ever saw her alive.

So, we came to a point
in the investigation

where we really needed
to talk to Robert Veal.

And so, we located him at his
residence in Princeton, Texas.

He lived in a trailer.

We sat in the living room.

Robert was very nervous and fidgety

and just kind of made the situation
uneasy for everybody involved.

And so, he did answer our questions,

but some of his information
was conflicting

or it was unreasonable to believe.

We got to a point
where we asked him for consent

to collect a sample of his DNA,
and he consented to that.

We laid it out to him
and told him how we thought

his phone would be important
evidence to the investigation.

Robert Veal didn't want them
to look in the phone.

He said he would have
naked pictures of his wife,

he might have communications
about drugs in there.

But we weren't concerned
about Robert Veal being

some big drug dealer.

When we told him that we're
gonna have to take your phone,

that's when, you know, he lowers
the phone kinda underneath the table

and he's manipulating his phone
all of a sudden.

We felt like he was deleting
information from his phone.

We had to forcefully remove it
from his hand.

So, we found that there was
evidence of phone calls

and communications
with Robert and Kadie,

as well as Robert and Ronnie.

At this point in the investigation,

there wasn't anything that
we had charged Robert Veal with.

We were still following up on leads
and just working the investigation

as it related
to Kelli Underwood's homicide.

They have to consider any person

that might have a grudge
against the victim.

And so, when looking back

at the relationship
between Ronnie and Kelli,

they decided
they need to at least take a look

at Kiersten Elworthy,
Ronnie's ex-wife.

Kiersten definitely
could have been a suspect

just given the fact that she tried
to blame, you know,

my mom for everything and left.

Could this murder
have been any sort of revenge

for the way
that her relationship ended?

At the time,
I didn't put it past anyone,

but Kiersten... I don't think
would've had it in her

to do something that to that extent.

It was like a crime of passion

and it didn't line up to me.

Investigators
interviewed Kiersten,

but there was nothing
from that interview

that really told them that...

she was involved
in this murder.

She had moved on
with her life.

She wasn't living
in the area anymore.

And so, nobody is ever
officially ruled out in real time,

but at that point
they had no evidence

to believe that she was involved.

During the investigation,

like that first, you know,
couple of days, that first week,

I just didn't feel that there was
much movement happening

and I didn't feel
that they were taking it

as serious as they should have.

I don't want to be
getting blamed for this

because y'all aren't doing
a proper investigation

or people don't
want to speak to you.

So, at that point,
I had knocked on my neighbour's door

and just kinda asked him,
I was like, "Did you see anything?"

I went house to house and I was,
"Y'all have to tell me something.

I understand they've already
come out here and asked y'all,

and y'all don't want
to say anything."

Handling the family members
of victims in cases of homicide

can be problematic.

There needs to be
accessibility and empathy,

but at the same time,

investigators don't always have
the bandwidth

to provide family members
with what they're looking for.

So, one of the neighbours comes out

and he kinda like
sits on the steps of his house

and he's like,
"You know, I did see someone

coming in and out of the home,

so, I definitely know who he is."

And I was like, "OK, can you
give me, like, more information?"

That's kinda when he let me know
like, his nickname is "Dee".

The neighbour knew Dee

because they had actually
spent time in county jail together.

The neighbour would later
tell law enforcement

that on that Saturday
when she was last seen alive,

Dee actually seems like
he really wants

to tell the neighbour
why he's there.

"Oh, I'm just helping this lady
put in a pool.

I'm helping her
with her security camera.

Nothing to see here."

The neighbour could tell
it all seemed really forced,

like Dee really wanted him
to believe that,

and he was trying to make a point
and an impression on him.

And this all occurred
around midday Saturday.

We believe Kelli was murdered

sometime in the late hours
of Saturday evening

into the early morning hours
of Sunday.

And then I investigated
on my own based off of my friend,

you know,
kinda knowing people around town,

and pulled his picture up
on Facebook and showed him

and he confirmed that that's who was
coming in and out of the house.

From there, I communicated to Bruce
and called him. He was like,

"That's definitely somebody
I'll follow up with and look into."

Law enforcement ultimately
identifies Dee as Delvin Powell.

Delvin Powell was known around town.

Again, it was a small town

and he worked at one of
the main gas stations in town,

so people were
very familiar with him.

We found that Delvin Powell had
an extensive criminal history.

It involved
some pretty violent crime.

He had an outstanding warrant
for choking his girlfriend.

Once we realised
that he was a fugitive,

we were able to work with several
other law enforcement agencies

and apprehend him
at a hotel in Allen, Texas,

just about 20 minutes or so
from Princeton.

So, investigators simply
knocked on the door.

The girlfriend came out,
she admitted that he was in there,

that all of his stuff was in there,

and she allowed them
to search the entire hotel room.

There are two knives
found in Delvin's suitcase,

and one of them looks like

it could have some sort of reddish
brown stain that could be blood.

They send both knives off
to the forensic laboratory

for further testing.

They find bullets in her trunk
that she says are his,

and that are the exact same
calibre and brand

that were used in this murder.

So, little pieces of evidence
start lining up.

Investigators go back
to Kelli's phone

and they're trying to see
if her communications

can help them
put the pieces together.

The texts
between Ronnie and Kelli

were very contradictory
from day to day.

Ronnie is telling her
that he loves her

and that he promises
he's going to leave Kadie,

and she's gonna be
Mrs Ronnie Welborn someday.

And so, it was clear
that they still had

an ongoing romantic relationship.

She didn't believe
that he was gonna leave Kadie

and a newborn child for her.

And so, she was constantly
in this pull back and forth of,

"Do I love him? Do I believe him?

And do I ever believe
we're gonna be together?"

We ended up having an anonymous,
but credible, source of information

come forward and tell us that
Kadie Robinson had disclosed plans

to plant drugs in Kelli's truck
to get her arrested,

because she had become a problem
between Kadie and Ronnie.

And that this plan went on
for some time, weeks,

and they never could make it work.

Robert Veal was supposed to be
planting these drugs,

and the pool and the security
cameras were somewhat of a ruse

in order to get him to be able
to plant these drugs

and then make a call to the police
and set her up to have her arrested.

We got to a point where
we felt like we had the ability

to get a search warrant
for Kadie and Ronnie's phones.

And so, I called them in

and asked them to just come up
and visit with me

at the Princeton Police Department,
and I asked Kadie first.

She breaks down and confesses.

Kadie comes up there
and I confronted her

with the information that I had

about the plan to plant drugs

just to see, you know, what
her rebuttal was to those things.

Kadie Robinson cracks
and actually admits to her part

in the murder of Kelli Underwood.

So, she ends up telling me that
after the plan to plant the drugs

and have her arrested didn't work,
murder was on the table.

And so, her and Ronnie

had paid money to Robert Veal
to commit this murder.

And she learned that Robert
had recruited Delvin Powell

to help him get the job done.

Kadie kind of tries
to distance herself

from knowing exactly

how the murder unfolded,

but she still knew Ronnie was
putting something in motion.

Ronnie came in
after I talked to Kadie

and... he owns it all.

He accepts responsibility
for setting it all up

and claims that Kadie
had nothing to do with it.

Ronnie admits to hiring
Robert Veal to commit this murder.

He knew that Robert was going
to find a second person to help him

and that on the Saturday
before the murder,

he knew that second person
to be Delvin Powell.

Ronnie ends up telling me

that he went and took money
out of his bank,

and that Robert Veal
came over to his house.

And he paid him $8,000 cash

and provided him the firearm.

Described it.

Same calibre
that was used in the murder.

Ronnie admitted to providing
Robert Veal's name to Kelli

as a possible person
who could help her

with the work
that she wanted on her house.

He knew that she was
looking for somebody,

and he knew that Robert and Kelli
knew each other.

Ronnie Welborn and Kadie Robinson

were both placed under arrest
for capital murder.

I was really shocked,
but also, again,

I kinda felt a little bit
of, like, peace

because of the fact of,
I had told Bruce

that Kadie was my,
like, number one person.

I really didn't have
any thought of Ronnie.

I really didn't want
to think that way

because of the fact
that he was so close to us.

But it's almost kinda like
I felt a sense of relief as well,

that they had finally found
who did this.

Ranger Sherman got search
warrants for their phones,

and their phones were
a goldmine of evidence.

It was clear from Kadie's phone
that Kadie was extremely jealous

and extremely suspicious

of any time that Ronnie spent
over at Kelli's house.

She didn't even want her working
at the business anymore.

Investigators could see
from Kadie's phone

that she had even reached out
to Kelli directly at some point

to ask, please just tell me if
you're in a relationship with him.

Kelli told her
that there was nothing going on.

It was revealed that Kadie
had given an ultimatum to Ronnie

that if Kelli wasn't out of
the picture by September 18th,

she was taking their newborn
and leaving.

There were text messages
in Kelli's phone

clearly showing
Kelli was frustrated with Robert.

The cameras weren't working.

She wanted her old cameras back.

She was just gonna find
somebody else to do it.

In hindsight, in the investigation,

we believe that Robert

wasn't setting up
the security cameras on purpose.

That he knew
that if he activated those cameras

inside or outside her home,

that it would capture them
executing the plan.

We did get Delvin Powell
and Robert Veal's DNA

on some of that silverware

that was sitting
on the counter with the nachos,

like plates and stuff weren't clean.

It's just that the defence was able
to say, "Yeah, they were there.

They were allowed in the home,
they were helping her do this work."

We did find
a relatively small amount of DNA

underneath her fingernails

that the analyst can say

was consistent
with Delvin Powell's profile.

On September 16th, 2017,

Kelli Underwood had invited Delvin
Powell and Robert Veal into her home

to set up the above-ground pool
in her backyard.

They were both seen at Kelli's home.

Kelli being the host
that she is, she makes them food,

she makes them nachos,

and we know that Robert and Delvin
enjoyed some of that meal.

In the very late hours
of September 16th, 2017,

possibly even the very early
morning hours of September 17th,

Delvin and Robert decide it's time.

They turn the music up
on her TV really loud.

They both head upstairs
and they attack her.

Perhaps realising
what was about to happen,

Kelli ran into the craft room.

Maybe she was looking for scissors
or something sharp

to protect herself with.

But we know, based on who Kelli was,
that she was gonna fight back.

Ultimately, one of them
shot her multiple times

with a .22-calibre firearm.

And despite the fight
that she put up,

the disarray and the mess
in that room,

and the struggle that ensued,

the two attackers
were able to overpower her.

We're able to figure out through
communications in Kelli's phone

that communications ceased
in those early morning hours.

Around 2:00am,
Robert Veal texts Ronnie Welborn

to let him know that it was done.

Between the early morning
hours of September 17th

and Wednesday, September 20th,

Kelli's body remains
undiscovered in her home.

On Wednesday, September 20th,

Kayden Graham
goes to check on her mother

after not hearing from her
for several days.

Kayden found her mom upstairs
and immediately called 911.

Ronnie was the one person

that I would've never thought
in a million years

would've ever had anything
to do with something like this,

just cos he was literally like
a big, old teddy bear

and I really thought that he
absolutely adored my mom.

I definitely felt betrayed by him
in a lot of ways.

Ronnie Welborn,
Kadie Robinson,

Delvin Powell, and Robert Veal
are all charged with capital murder.

Robert Veal and Delvin Powell
are sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole.

Ronnie Welborn
ultimately pleads guilty to murder

and gets a sentence
of life in prison

with eligibility for parole
after 30 years.

I was at the court hearing
when he pled guilty.

And he, like, he turned to me
and looked at me -

after they said that, like,
you know, he's pleading guilty -

and mouthed that he was sorry.

And at that point,
I just kinda like looked away

because I was like this...

like, I don't even want you saying
anything to me at this point.

Kadie Robinson is given 30 years
and eligible for parole in 2032.

Honestly, I don't feel
that justice has been served,

especially with Kadie,

because I feel like
she should have got

the same sentence
that everybody else got.

And I don't feel like
she should be able to ever get out

because she was
the mastermind of all of this.

I feel that justice
was served in this case,

that every single person
was held responsible.

Their outcomes
were slightly different,

but the two people
who were willing to take money

to kill somebody that they barely
knew, or didn't know at all,

they were held
to the fullest extent of the law

and will serve the rest
of their lifetimes behind bars.

Our team spent
countless hours and days...

taking naps in our pickup trucks,

and at the office...
with no or little sleep,

just seeking that justice

and to be able to cross that
finish line for her and her family.

It was special.

So, criminal investigations
are like anything in life.

They have a beginning, they have
a middle, and they have an end.

And nowhere is this more true

than in resolving
a complex murder investigation

where the end is closure,
it's a solution and it's justice.

Kelli's life was ended because she
opened the door to people

that she thought were supposed to be
there to help her in a time of need,

and ultimately ended up being
responsible for taking her life.

I don't want people to remember
my mom as what happened to her.

I just want her to be remembered
as a good mom,

a good sister, a great friend...

...just an overall...

just an absolutely wonderful
individual.

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