Original subtitles

A mother and daughter narrowly escape death after becoming the target of an

unknown gunman.

They didn't attempt to take the car. They didn't ask for any money.

I had eight shell casings on the street. I was hoping they weren't hit that many

times.

I thought, why would somebody want to shoot my daughter?

Their would -be killer is caught on tape.

Video depicted.

the suspect arrive and flee the scene after the shooting.

This was not a robbery. This was a straight -up execution.

But just as the health of one of the survivors improved, she vanishes.

I was thinking that whoever didn't finish the job, he found her.

The evidence leads detectives to a killer driven by jealousy and obsession.

They were in a dating relationship, but it was not public knowledge.

They didn't want me to.

She loved her so much that she didn't want to see her be with anyone else.

She was the worst of the worst.

We knew what the motive was.

If I can't have you, no one can.

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015.

It's a brisk fall evening in Linden, New Jersey, when emergency dispatchers

receive a panicked call from a young woman.

At

approximately

7 .16 p .m., Linden Central Dispatch.

The police radio broadcasted that there were shots fired on the 900 block of

Middlesex Street.

The occupants of the vehicle were Tyreida Julius

and their daughter Chanel, who was 15 at the time.

Tyreida Julius was the first victim. She's in the driver's seat of that car.

She is gravely injured. She had attempted to drive away.

from the shooting area and then subsequently had crashed the car.

Chanel had been hit. She'd been injured, but not as seriously injured as Tyreta

clearly was.

There were significant gunshot injuries to the torso area of Tyreta Julius.

She was in and out of consciousness.

They knew that they needed to get medical attention.

As Tyreta and Chanel are transported to the hospital,

officers scour the scene for evidence to help them piece together what happened.

I had eight shell casings on the street. I was hoping she wasn't hit that many

times.

One specific neighbor was able to provide information about seeing a large

walking down the street and then eventually running back to a silver SUV

car.

The second witness provided me with basically the same description, large

man, heavy, set.

The Linden Police Department canvassed the area for video surveillance

recordings, and they were able to identify a video which depicted the

arrive and flee the scene after the shooting.

The video I recovered wasn't poor quality. It was very grainy, but you

that it did fit the description provided by the witnesses.

At this point, we canvassed additional areas.

It's a big world out there. There's a lot of guys driving a sober vehicle.

As they conclude their initial sweep of the crime scene, investigators receive

news from the hospital.

Tyrata was shot eight times, both in her chest and in her abdominal area.

Her injuries were significant. She was ultimately taken into surgery.

Police contact the victims' loved ones to inform them of the shooting.

My sister called me frantic, yelling, you have to get to the hospital.

Tyria was shot.

Why would somebody want to shoot my daughter?

So I just dropped everything, grabbed my coat.

Detectives also head to the hospital to speak with those waiting for news on

Tyreta and Chanel.

It's wildly important to get information about your victims to determine what

might be the motivating factor for this type of violence.

A lot of times in these cases, the victims don't survive.

And so we're left with kind of filling the gaps and the holes by talking to...

You know, the next best thing, the people who are in their lives every day.

Tyreta Julius was born June 6, 1974, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Tyreta's father was not a constant in her life, so Tyreta's mother raised her

with the help of her family.

I really wasn't a single parent. I had my mother. I had my brothers.

I had my sister.

So Tyreta never really wanted for nothing.

From that strong foundation, Tyreta grew into a confident and charismatic young

woman.

She's very family -oriented, loved everyone around her, never really had a

bone of hate in her body for anything. She just always wanted to see everybody

around her succeed and just be together.

After graduating high school, Tyretta turned her love of caring for people

a career.

She was an administrative assistant, office administrator for Rutgers

Hospital.

While making plans for her future, she fell for a man named Jamar Colbert.

He was basically opposite of her. He was very laid -back, low -key. He wasn't...

Like the party dance type, you know, he would kind of just fill back with his

cheese and his drink.

Charita felt like her and Jamar would be together forever. And she never

mentioned marriage, but she always talked about Jamar being her one and

They dated about maybe a year before she got pregnant.

She got pregnant with Dante.

A couple years after that, she got pregnant with Chanel.

She loved the kid more than anything in this world.

Dante and Chanel were her first worry about every and anything on this planet.

We were a real tight -knit family growing up, you know. My mother's

was huge, larger than life.

While Tyreta thrived as a parent, Jamar struggled with the expectations of

fatherhood, and it took a toll on their relationship.

They were rocky.

Ultimately, she just realized that he just wasn't for her. It wasn't a good

And they just decided to end the relationship.

Tyreen never shared how tough those times were. She always had a positive

outlook, that there was a better outlook on the horizon.

She dated after Jamar and nothing that even compared to him.

But I think, you know, her kids were such a focus of her life that dating was

just something that came second.

She put the work in.

She's a service rep at the hospital.

She says, Mom, I want to get a big house so all of us can live together.

She was getting her life together financially.

She was just trying to reach that goal.

Now, everything Tyreta has built is at risk as she fights for her life.

As Tyreta and her daughter Chanel undergo treatment at the hospital,

focus on their witness interviews and the viciousness of the attack to narrow

down possible motives.

There's no indication that the person attempted to take anything.

They didn't attempt to take the car.

In my mind, this was not a robbery.

This was a straight -up execution.

We wanted to know if Tarita and Chanel had any kind of ongoing disputes with

anybody in the neighborhood, family members, or anything that could lead us

to the fact of who would do this to them.

Coming up.

When I heard she was in a motorcycle club, I immediately thought motorcycle

and thought the worst, right?

And a potential motive is revealed.

They had displayed elements of jealousy and obsessiveness over Tyreta. There

might be that animosity flowing.

41 -year -old Tyreta Julius and her daughter, 15 -year -old Chanel Colbert,

being treated for injuries they suffered during a brutal neighborhood shooting.

Investigators at the hospital check to see if anyone is well enough to talk.

Chanel Colbert, take one, marker.

I was grazed on my mouth and on my wrist.

Do you remember how many times that guy shot you guys?

I believe it was like eight or nine shots.

Did you feel like you was lucky to only walk away with just a graze?

I felt extremely lucky.

Like, extremely lucky.

That evening, me and my mom were supposed to go to my brother's

which was normal for us.

She had just got off work.

I was just getting out of school.

She said she was going to go out to pull the car around.

As I was coming out, that's when I noticed a guy walk around the car.

As I was getting into the vehicle, I just remember, as I was closing the

I'm looking over, and I've seen the gun pointed into the window.

I didn't even have a moment to think.

I kind of, like, just went into shock, and I just remember trying to take

I didn't realize that I was injured until I went to call 911.

I was just concerned for my mom.

Investigators leave her to rest and learn that Tyreta survived her first

surgery, but is still in the ICU on a ventilator and therefore unable to talk

them.

Detectives turn to Tyreta's loved ones to find out if she has any enemies who

might wish her harm.

Nothing made sense to me.

Honestly, when I first heard of the event, I thought it was like, you know,

a... Random act of violence. Who would want to hurt my mother and my sister?

But they share an unusual detail about her that catches the attention of

detectives.

Tyreta was a member of the Rough Riders Motorcycle Club.

When I heard she was in a motorcycle club, I immediately thought motorcycle

and thought the worst, right?

Police wonder if her association with the group led to violence.

But when they locate members of the Rough Riders to interview, they find

not quite what they expected.

Definitely not a bike gang. But with us, with Rough Riders, as a lifestyle,

we're closer to an Etsy, social clubs.

Not all of our members have bikes, but they're still part of our lifestyle.

They did things in the community for the community.

They weren't belligerent or violent.

We do book bag drives, we do feeding the homeless, passing out toiletries and

stuff. You're actually doing something for people that are in need of it, and

you can give it.

The Rough Riders say Tyreta grew especially close to one member, a woman

Jennifer Sweeney.

Jennifer Sweeney and Tyreta were in a dating relationship.

It was known to the Rough Riders, known to certain members, and known to certain

friends of Tyreta's, but it was not public knowledge to her family.

She never told me that they were involved.

Some things you just know.

You can just put two and two together.

They said that they had been in a relationship for upwards of three years.

and in fact had started to end right before this shooting occurred.

As of the date of the shooting on November 24th of 2015, they were

broken up, which was kind of the first sign of, okay, we've got to look into

this more.

In interviewing a few of the Rough Riders, it became known to us that they

at a fundraising event in New Jersey.

And Jennifer was highly upset at this time because Tyreta was dancing with a

named Hassan Nicely.

To investigators, it sounds like a potential motive.

Jennifer Sweeney had displayed elements of jealousy and obsessiveness over

Tyreta. That's when they're kind of clued into the fact that there might be

animosity flowing.

happened about three days before.

This information in itself is very important to us because now we're

little bit of framework on the events leading up to the shooting. This

could be part of it.

New Jersey investigators are looking for the gunmen that shot Tyreta Julius and

her teenage daughter while they sat in a car outside their home.

They explore the possibility that Tyreta's relationship with Jennifer

led to the attack, and they dig into Jennifer's life before she joined the

Riders.

Comes from a very good family.

Her mother and her grandmother, both in the education business, and they were

pretty high up.

She lived with her mother. Her mother was very involved in her life.

Despite that close relationship, Jennifer didn't follow the family legacy

become an educator.

Jennifer was a technician for the utility company.

She had a decent job that she was there for for many years.

She was financially stable.

Her mother and family loved her. She was generally described as even -keeled.

She's not a person who speaks too much or says too much.

She got educated, an intelligent girl.

On the peripheral, she rode motorcycles.

She had some friends that rode motorcycles too.

And some of them would ride with the rough riders.

Jen was brought in by a previous member.

She was quiet.

She was cute to herself until she got to know you.

We had to get her out of her shell a little bit, you know.

But after that, we got to know her, and she was cool.

You could talk to her and make jokes.

Tyreta's outgoing personality helped break through Jennifer's shy nature, and

their friendship quickly turned romantic.

In the beginning, Tyreta, she enjoyed being around Jen.

They hung out a lot.

So I thought they were just friends, and then it got close.

Like, okay, now y 'all besties.

But after that, I found out, like, oh, you know, okay, cool. Like, it makes

sense now because they was close.

They looked great together, you know. She broke a smile on Jennifer's face.

Jennifer made sure she was smiling.

However, friends say Jennifer's dependence on Tyreta bordered on

Tyreta eventually broke things off.

Jen. It was overprotective.

She was always the one sitting next to Tyreta, saying, you can't do this, you

can't do that.

Tyreta was tired of the arguments.

Tyreta didn't want to be controlled.

And when Tyreta moved on to a man, Jennifer did not seem happy about it.

It became known that by August, she was indeed dating Haseen Nicely.

So with that...

I wanted to now speak with Jennifer Sweeney.

What the detective was trying to do is figure out, you know, where she was on

the night of the shooting.

She was very calm, noticeably upset, concerned, and more than willing to

She said that she was the only woman that Tyreda had ever been with.

Jennifer did.

admit that there had been about three days prior to the shooting that they had

not been speaking or that they had been on a break, as she worded it.

She advised me that on the night of the shooting, she was en route to London

because it was a Tuesday and that was their normal meeting night.

She received a phone call from a fellow club member who advised her that the

arena was shut.

They detoured and she went right to the hospital.

The timeline puts Jennifer nowhere near the scene of the shooting.

Plus, surveillance video and eyewitness statements show a male shooter.

So investigators rule her out for the time being.

Ten days after the attack, there is miraculous news from the hospital.

Tyreta is awake and is going to survive the shooting.

I was there, and the first thing she said was, with my kids, how's Chanel?

It was extremely relieving for me.

That was just the only thing I wanted to hear, that she made it out and would be

okay.

Tyreta is also well enough to speak with detectives at the hospital.

My initial contact with Tyreta, she had difficulty breathing, she was struggling

to speak.

So we just went for the basics.

Do you have any problems with anybody?

Tyreta is open about the tensions in her relationship with Jennifer.

At the time, she felt that Jen would not have been behind the shooting.

She was just as in the dark as everybody else about who would have wanted her

dead.

As detectives work to formulate new leads...

Tyreta continues her recovery, and Jennifer remains by her side.

Tyreta felt obligated to have Jen there because she felt like Jen was there for

her throughout the whole deal.

I don't know if they were still, like, romantically, like, there, but she

her there, I guess, as a friend.

Jennifer would call and tell us updates aren't.

Jennifer made it seem like she was back, her and Tyreta was back together

because of all the stuff she, you know, Jennifer was doing with being at the

hospital.

Jennifer was showing people pictures of engagement rings that she was getting

for her.

So without Tyreta's input, Jennifer decided that they were back together and

told other people that they were together.

39 days after the incident in January.

Tyreta was released from the hospital.

She was in not best of condition at this time.

It was decided by her family that she was going to go stay at her mom's house.

Two months pass without any progress identifying the shooter.

Then, in March 2016, three and a half months after Tyreta was first shot, The

case takes an alarming new turn.

When my aunt received the phone call that my mom was missing, she had went

and she did not make it back home.

Coming up, Tyreta's disappearance renews efforts to identify her shooter.

When I came home, she wasn't there.

We know that Tyreta is not answering her phone.

And a new suspect emerges.

You could see his whole demeanor just change. He was like, oh, they got me.

On March 9, 2016,

Queen Julia, the mother of suiting victim Tyreta Julius, contacts

She says that over the past few months, Tyreta's recovery had been difficult.

She was very dependent on others. Her arm was stiff and she really couldn't

do nothing for herself. So you had to...

Cook, feed her, help her bathe.

Jim was just there as a partner, you know.

She was playing a role of caring, being there, you know, help her

with her daily needs.

But now, Queen is worried something else has happened to her daughter.

Mars to Ace.

I got up and I told Tyree before I went to work, I said, get up and move that

arm.

When I came home, she wasn't there.

So I called Jen and I said, Jen, is Tyree with you?

She said, no, I dropped her off at the train station.

She had dropped her off at the Long Branch train station at approximately 7

7 .03 p .m.

with the means of taking a 717 train back to Linden.

Then I asked her, I said, well, why would you drop her off at the train

if you picked her up from home?

And she said, well, she told me to drop her off there.

We, as an investigator, found this kind of odd.

Being that she was recently shot and her shooter has not yet been apprehended.

I was thinking that whoever they didn't get got her.

The person that didn't finish the job, he found her.

It was vitally important to talk to Jennifer Sweeney because she's the last

person to have seen her.

You went down and picked her up?

Mm -hmm.

Cool. What time was that about?

Like 11 .15, something.

Jennifer explained that they ran a few errands in the evening hours.

Jennifer had driven Tyreta to the Long Branch train station to drop her off so

that she could return home to Linden.

Tyreta insisted that she be dropped off as she didn't want to inconvenience

Jennifer from having to travel back to her home.

That was the next one that came.

She indicated that after dropping Tyreta off, she went to her friend Donna

Hafner's house in Long Branch.

Donna was not home at the time, so Jennifer said she remained there for

approximately one hour with Donna's husband.

Jennifer was cooperative, and she was committed to assisting us in locating

Tyreta.

While Jennifer is not considered to be a suspect in Tyreta's disappearance,

Investigators want to confirm the details of her statement.

We wanted to go back and search her vehicle and her house just to ensure

everything that she had told us was factually accurate.

They were able to find a receipt from Ichiban which showed that they had been

there. They were able to corroborate that the two of them went to the DMV

together because they had video from inside and everything appeared normal.

When detectives follow up with Jennifer's friend, Donna Hafner, she

that Jennifer visited her husband that evening, but admits it was very odd.

Jennifer did not particularly get along with Donna's husband, Jr.

Jennifer ended up awkwardly sitting with Donna's husband for a good amount of

time before then leaving.

Detectives suspect Jennifer may have been trying to create an alibi for the

night of Tyreta's disappearance.

Our next efforts were focused on reviewing video surveillance recordings

effort to locate Tyreta or Jennifer traveling to the Long Branch train

The footage ultimately makes extremely clear that neither Jen Sweeney,

nor Tyreta Julius, was ever there on March 8, 2016.

Being the last person that saw her alive and then having her give information

that is inconsistent with known evidence, that's going to lead them to

suspicious of her.

After uncovering evidence that Jennifer Sweeney lied about the disappearance of

Tyreta Juliet, investigators revisit the possibility she was also involved in

the shooting that took place four months prior.

We decided to go to the phones. Communication data warrant was prepared

Jennifer Sweeney's telephone number.

Records show Jennifer added Tyreta to her account, giving her full access to

Tyreta's phone.

She was really utilizing that to really stalk where she was and who she was

stalking.

One of the numbers belongs to the man Tyreta's friend said Jennifer became

jealous over.

The night before the shooting, she is constantly calling Hassan Nicely's

like Darcy Sevening, the number.

Basically blocking a number so that they can't see who's calling.

Building herself up, like, basically into a fury that whole night.

Though he ignored Jennifer's harassing calls, the same pattern repeated just

before Tyreta vanished.

February 1st, there was a bevy of lookups in these phone finders and

that where she's starting to do intel.

That leads us to believe that she was becoming more and more jealous in the

before both the shooting and then the disappearance.

However, the most damning evidence comes from Jennifer's GPS data.

Jennifer Sweeney's phone was accessing cell phone towers in the Linden area the

same time that Tyreta was shot.

This was contrary to what Jennifer had told.

Us, when we first met with her.

The data showed that she'd been lying and she was at the same tower at the

time that Tyreta was.

Not only was Jen in Linden, but she was speaking to an individual with a prepaid

cell phone.

She spoke to this individual 19 times on the day of the shooting and 25 times

the following day.

Investigators track the prepaid cell phone to a user named Andre Harris.

We learned that Jan Sweeney and Andre Harris went to high school together.

They were friends for sure. Somewhat more recently, they kind of reconnected

little bit.

From first glance, he certainly fits the general description of what we were

given for the shooting.

Andre Harris is a big guy.

And he happened to drive a silver vehicle.

They also were able to look at the location of his cell phone around the

the shooting. His phone is at the same tower location that Jennifer Sweeney's

and that Tyreida Julius' is.

So that puts them all in the same area at the same time on the night of the

shooting.

We found that he had an outstanding long branch.

warrant for his arrest at this point a motor vehicle stop was effectuated by a

marked unit and he was taken into custody he was questioned about his

relationship if any with ty rita julius as well as his relationship with

jennifer sweeney and he provides information that he does in fact know

sweeney he considers her to be an acquaintance that he's had for a long

Andre claims he does not know Tyreta and denies the evidence placing him near

the scene of the shooting.

While interviewing Andre, there were search warrants prepared for Andre, his

vehicle, and his residence.

The field team was out there.

We received a phone call advising that they had located human remains in the

yard of Andre's residence.

Once myself and Detective Mikulajczyk were informed about the information and

were then able to confront Andre Harris.

You could see his whole demeanor just change.

He was like, they got me.

While Andre initially denied having any information, he ultimately confessed

that it was Tyreta Julius's remains that were buried on his property.

Andre admits to being the gunman in the shooting nine months earlier, but

insists Jennifer is the one who killed Tyreta.

He said on the evening of the homicide, Jen appeared at his door. She had called

him shortly before, saying, hey, gonna stop by.

This was highly unusual because he tells me he tries to keep his distance from

Jennifer.

She asked him for a cord. She gives him apparently the explanation she's having

issues with her trunk, so he supplies her with a white electrical cord.

She took the cord and went back to her vehicle where she remained for several

minutes.

He's wondering what Jen's doing out there.

He exited his home, and at this time, he noticed that Dorito was in the front

seat with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck.

Jen is now pointing a gun at him, demanding, He did the grave.

The details Andre provides are vague, but evidence from the grave site seems

confirm his statement.

Tyreta is found inside two trash bags, and the electrical cord was still

around her neck.

He has no known connection or really anything to do with Tyreta Julius.

which tells us that the motive is still lying with Jennifer Sweeney.

Now we're thinking, why would Jen kill Dorita in such a fashion?

Because Jen's intention was to propose to Dorita. She also wanted Dorita to

move in with her, but Dorita wasn't quite ready for this yet because she

healthy.

Maybe what triggered it this day was she...

did propose or she did ask Tyreida to move in with her, but something occurred

that Jen did a full 180 on.

Shortly after this interview, Jennifer misplaced into custody.

Andre Harris and Jennifer Sweeney were charged with the murder and desecration

of human remains of Tyreida Julius.

When they told us that they found Sarita, I just held my brother. I

even think at that point in time. I just felt numb.

It's hard.

Your child's supposed to outlive you. You're not supposed to bury your child.

Prosecutors begin preparing the case for trial.

But without direct evidence tying Jennifer to the murder, They know the

is less than certain.

Even if you think you have the strongest case imaginable, you never know what's

going to happen with the jury.

Following his arrest, Andre Harris, the confessed shooter of Tyreta Julius and

Chanel Colbert, accepts a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against

Jennifer Sweeney.

He pled guilty to the attempted murder of Tyreta Julius, and

he was sentenced to 16 years of New Jersey State Prison.

Naturally, we ask Andre, how did you ever get involved in this?

He told us that Jennifer Sweeney was threatening his, basically his life and

kids.

She would make mention to him that she knew where his kids were at school or

what they were doing.

Jennifer just couldn't take that.

Tyreda wasn't happy. You couldn't take the rejection.

She enlisted Andre Harris to shoot her.

And Jen had to kind of play her role as the caring girlfriend.

I think maybe even legitimately, Jen tried to make it work, but ultimately,

you know, she got suspicious again and killed Tarita in Andre Harris's driveway

and made him bury the body.

He said, I went along with it because I had no choice. It was either my people

or Tarita, and I don't know Tarita.

After multiple delays, the trial finally gets underway in August 2021.

Prosecutors paint a picture for the jury of a woman driven by jealousy to commit

murder.

We knew what the motive was. If I can't have you, no one can.

She did plan on proposing. She had showed several of her friends an

ring she wanted.

Tyretta was moving on.

Jennifer snapped because she loved Tyretta so much that she didn't want to

her be with anyone else. She was that jealous, and she couldn't handle her

moving on.

But the defense argues that the evidence proves Jennifer had nothing to do with

Tyretta's death.

Andre, we know, attempted to murder Tyreda up in Linden. And then

second time, her body is dead in the backyard of his house,

having been choked to death.

Our theory was that Andre was jealous of Tyreda

because he wanted to have a relationship with Jen.

So he was wiping out the competition.

On September 3rd, 2021, the jury renders its verdict.

Jen Sweeney was found guilty of every count of the indictment except the

attempted murder charge against.

As it related to Chanel Culver was dismissed.

In May 2022, she is sentenced to 95 years in prison.

Jennifer's sentence, I found fair.

I want her to be in jail, in prison, suffering for the rest of her life. She

should never see the light of day.

She's the worst of the worst.

I just couldn't stand how she could just sit up in my house and look you in the

face at all the time, knowing what you did.

for shooting and then plotting this.

My mom was like the glue. She made sure we stayed in contact with each other.

She just set things up so that we can be a family.

My grandmother She lost her daughter. We lost our mother.

It's a huge loss. You know what I mean? And all for what?

For nothing.

For nothing.

My cousin asked me one time, well, how can we get the OU back?

And I told him, that part is gone.

I don't think that part is ever coming back.