Original subtitles

Dead. Authorities say this is becki dillard was found

near where becki's body was found. They say she was near

her car, but her injuries were not consistent with that of a

car crash. The vehicle was still

running. The young lady was laying in the roadway with a

gunshot wound to her head. When Justin drank, he became

a totally different person. He became angry.

Every day, I've gone over what happened, if I could do

anything different. A lot of cases turn on just

luck. And that's what happened in this case.

Adrenaline was coursing through my veins. How far

behind was I from the killer? Five unique perspectives.

Five points of view. One murder.

I'm becki dillard's husband. I am becki's mother.

I was the first responding trooper to the murder.

I'm a criminal investigator. And I was the prosecuting

attorney. My name's Justin dillard.

I'm becki dillard's husband. Becki was like a little

Bumblebee. She was adhd, running around, touching

everybody, making everybody's life happy. Like a little fairy,

just as sweet as she could be. I loved that she could walk in

a room, and it could be a bad day in that room, and she'd

just turn it all around. "I'm here. Here I am. Smile now."

"It's okay." We were doing pretty good at that

happily‐ever‐after fairy tale, kind of what we wanted. Here we

are married, down the road, and kids. This is my best friend,

my wife, mother of my kids. We were supposed to be together,

arguing, bickering over her cooking 20 years from now. My

life literally changed ‐‐ all ‐‐ it changed completely in one

day. I have never felt the pain that I felt. I wouldn't wish

this on anybody. It was Friday the 13th. I remember thinking,

"oh, lord, here we go. What's gonna happen today?" Becki got

home and changed and was getting ready to go to her

sister's party. It was sarah's 21st birthday party. She was

already late. She had to get gas, she had to go back to

Walmart. She was gonna pick something up for Sarah. I

really didn't want to go. I changed my mind two or three

times and finally, I decided, "you know what? I'll just stay

"home." well, at 9:30 that night, her brother had called and said,

"where's becki?" She should be there pretty soon. She left at

9:00. 10:00 came around, and she still wasn't there. Talked

to Sarah that time, and Sarah said, "well, she should be here"

by now." And I said, "well, yeah, she should be there." And

she still wasn't. By the third phone call, I was worried. I

thought, "okay, something ain't right." At that point, I knew

it was not good. So then, okay, we need to go find out where

she's at. So I called my friend Lindsey that was also her

friend, as well. I said, "Lindsey, come up here and get

me." so Lindsey says, "I'm on my way." And she comes and gets

me, and we try to track her down, and we went where she was

supposed to be going. We actually went to the gas

station she was going to. We went the way she was going, and

she wasn't on the side of road. Nobody knows where she's at.

And that's not like her. We always knew where everybody

else was. We get to the party and there's some police that

want to talk to me. They tell me that I need to come with

them. I didn't think it had anything to do with becki. My

world was perfect. And she's not supposed to be hurt. She's

not supposed to be harmed. That never crossed my mind. When

becki and I met, we hit it off right off, right off the bat.

We became really close, really good friends. Becki was the new

girl. And, you know, when somebody is new, everybody

wants to find out about them, what they're doing, who they

are, what's going on. And I had a small, little crush on her.

Our interests were very similar. She was into fashion

and clothes and hair and appearance. And I know that

sounds vain, but back then, we were still in high school. We'd

call each other and be like, "well, what are you gonna wear?

"I'm gonna wear this." We were always inseparable, but we were,

for real, together. We graduated high school in may.

And by mid‐june, she moved in with me and my mom. I got to

the police station. I sat there, and it seemed like I sat there

forever and ever and ever before anybody even came in.

And but then this man came in. They wouldn't tell me anything.

They wanted me to answer all these questions, but they would

not answer any of mine. And finally, this older gentleman

said, "well, we found becki without a pulse." I'll never

forget the pain, the sickness. That is not something you can

describe, when someone tells you your whole world is not

alive, is gone, is dead, is over ‐‐ that blunt. You don't

just do that to somebody. They questioned me for, it seemed

like hours. They asked me questions like, "do you have"

weapons? Do you have guns? Is there anybody that would harm

her? Would you harm her? "I watch enough TV to know that"

they come after the husband or the spouse in these situations.

I thought, "well, surely."

I'm Clinton howell. I was the first responding trooper to

the murder of becki dillard. I was north of west plains on 63

highway working some traffic that night. And troop called me

and informed me of a motor vehicle crash with injuries on

ff highway, in the Southern part of howell county. While I

was en route, then I was advised that there may be a

fatality involved. I come around the corner, and there

was a vehicle sitting on the left‐hand side of the road in

the grass, still running. And I could see a young lady laying

near the center line, all crumpled up, and there was a

few people standing around. I jumped out of my car real quick

and went right to her right off the bat. I noticed blood on her

scalp. I assessed her real quick, and she was already

gone. There was nothing I could do for her at that point. This

young lady was still very warm. It wasn't like she'd been

laying there very long. It was an odd scenario because the

vehicle didn't have any damage on it when I rolled up. And it

was upright, sitting off in the grass like it had been pulled

off there. So my gut instinct was already going wild. Started

looking around, located a couple shell casings in the

road near her body. They shined in my patrol car headlights.

Adrenaline was coursing through my veins. Is there somebody out

just 20 feet off the road in the brush? Because there's no

lighting out there, and the only way the scene's lit up is

with my patrol car headlights. I knew that I needed some help

real quick. I immediately keyed up and told troop to get ddcc

investigators en route. As I'm waiting for my investigators

and backup to show up, I'm telling everybody to stay put

and not move because they're actively part of a crime scene.

One of them could be the shooter. So I visited with each

one of them individually to try to assess them and their story,

why they were there. There was no flags from anybody I talked

to. I moved over to her vehicle, making sure not to touch it,

looked in it through the glass. I could shine my flashlight in

there. I could see that the heater was on and it was

sitting there idling. Her purse was still there in the vehicle.

It didn't appear to be disturbed. It was, like, in the

same spot where she had set it, over in the passenger side.

When people break in and steal vehicles, of course, they

usually dump them or scatter stuff. Robbery was not a motive

with this victim. When entry was made into the vehicle, it

was made by Warren wiedemann, our ddcc investigator. He

looked in her purse, of course, so there was a driver's license

and it was easy to make positive identification right

there. Her name was becki dillard, from the west plains

area. The early assumption is that she was traveling to an

undisclosed location ‐‐ we didn't know ‐‐ and for some

reason, she got flagged down, and she exited her vehicle to

get out and talk to them, and they shot her right there in

the middle of the road. She would not stop in the middle of

the night for a stranger in the middle of nowhere on this old

backroad. It was blatantly obvious it was somebody that

she knew and that she felt comfortable with. Everything

was intact. None of her clothing was ripped. There was

no signs of no struggle. So all the obvious indicators are it

was a hit. And it was our job to find out why and get that

person. If there's a fatality involved, then I have to notify

next of kin and contact family. And we never do that by the

phone. We always do it in person. Throughout our

conversations with some of our local contacts and people, we

were able to determine that becki had a husband and his

name was Justin dillard. Of course, we don't rule out

anybody at that early stage. Everybody is a suspect at that

point, and we needed to interview him. We developed

information that becki's husband was at a party on a

county road west of west plains. So me and a deputy

rolled onto that location. We tell him that we have, you know,

some bad news for him. He's distraught. Very, very, very

dramatic. Some initial observations that made some

flags go off, from just an investigation standpoint ‐‐

he's a young male married to a beautiful young woman with two

beautiful kids, and he's wearing pink cowboy boots, a

pink shirt, and has makeup on. And that may not be a flag in a

Metro area, but in rural howell county, that's a huge flag. We

had to figure out, was there, you know, extramarital affairs

going on? Was there domestic violence? We placed him in a

patrol car, headed towards the sheriff's office as quickly and

safely as possible. At that point, it was time for me to

step back out. When I left the sheriff's office that night, he

was one of the suspect.

I am Debbie talbert, becki's mother. Around 2:00 that night,

the phone rang. I got up and answered it. And it was becki's

father, Benny. He was crying, which is unusual for Benny, and

he said, "something has happened to becki, and you need"

"to come to the police station right now." We got there to the

police station. Charlie, who was sarah's husband at the time,

grabbed me and sat me down, and told me that becki was gone.

Before I even had a chance to react at that particular time,

Justin comes running in the room and grabs me by the head

and said, "oh, my god, oh, my god, becki's dead," and

started crying. I immediately, instead of crying, got angry

because I knew that he had done something. I wasn't surprised

when becki told me that she was seeing Justin. I thought he was

a little feminine then, but he seemed to be a really nice boy,

and they hit it off pretty good. Justin would listen to

becki, and he knew exactly what to say to her. He was a more

softer person, more gentle. When becki found out she was

pregnant, she had a good support system on both sides.

Both becki and Justin wanted to go to cosmetology school.

Justin's mom, Debra, took care of cobey while they went to

school. And they were getting along really good living at

debra's house. When they were going to school, Justin started

to drink a little bit more. I don't exactly know why. Maybe

he was more scared of actually raising cobey and providing for

cobey as a father. He was falling down on his duties as a

provider for the family. And a lot of times, he missed school

because he over‐drank the night before. It was causing a rift

in their relationship. She didn't want to live in that

house forever. She wanted her own house, just like every

person does. Becki was hoping that once they had saved up

enough money, they could get a place of their own and they

could actually make a go of being a happy family. Well,

after cobey was about 3 1/2 years old, becki became

pregnant again. She had asked Justin to stop drinking because

she wanted to have another child. So he did for a while,

and then after she became pregnant again, he started

drinking again. When Justin drank, he became a totally

different person. He became angry at everything and

everyone. I begged her to please come and stay with us,

but she wouldn't do it. Becki did have some hope that they

would be able to be together and make a happy family. But in

my heart, I didn't see that happening. So she started

taking some of her check and hiding it so that she would

have some money, eventually, to get an apartment or a down

payment on a home. She was trying to move out of the house

with Justin and get out from underneath the chaos that was

in the dillard home. Whenever someone is murdered, you

usually look to the spouse first. On that particular night,

Justin did show up at sarah's party at a particular time, and

he was yelling and crying out, "where's becki? Where's becki?

"And they didn't know what was going on. He was crying, "oh,

"she's in a ditch somewhere, dead." My whole family knew

that Justin was involved in some way. They just had to

prove it. Whoever was in the truck following becki had

stopped her on the highway. There was a vehicle that came

from the opposite direction, and they saw both vehicles

stopped there. There's two cars. A s. U. V.

And, uh, I think a Chevy pickup. It was parked on the

side of the road. It was a big break in the

case for the detectives, because had not someone

remembered seeing that truck on the road, they probably never

would have been pointed in the right direction.

My name is Warren wiedemann with the Missouri state highway

patrol. I'm a criminal investigator, and I assisted in

the investigation in the homicide of becki dillard. When

I advised Justin of his Miranda rights, he became extremely

emotional, to the point of almost being hysterical. It was

obvious that he was under the influence of something. We

weren't really getting a whole lot out of him. He was leaning

forward and just rocking side to side and crying. He just

didn't seem that concerned to help us. He was more worried

about his own emotions than he was trying to figure out what

happened to his wife. We didn't have enough to take him into

custody, but we still felt it was very possible that he was

involved in this death. Lieutenant Gary lambe and I

began to interview numerous people that had been at the

party. Dean ellis'name came up quite a bit. We found out the

Dean Ellis was actually justin's father, who had had

nothing to do with Justin for about 15 years. And it was my

understanding that Dean Ellis was having some heart problems

and had decided he wanted to basically reconnect with his

family and get to know his son. So Dean Ellis, just a short

time before this, had actually moved back into Debra dillard's

residence with Debra dillard and her current boyfriend, and

becki dillard and her husband, Justin. So it was unusual

having your father living with your mother and your mother's

boyfriend, all in the same residence. We'd gone back to

the residence to photograph vehicles, to check for any

firearms and other weapons at the residence. And then when

Dean was there, as he came out, you know, I asked if he'd be

willing to talk to me. He was an older man, did not seem very

healthy, did not get around real well. It just did not

appear that he was involved. He didn't have the ability to

leave the residence. He was pretty open with discussing,

you know, the coming and goings at the house, of becki getting

home from work, of Debra dillard going to run errands,

about what time people got home. It did kind of stand out

to me when he told me that Billy eastep had been sleeping

all evening through all of this. Billy eastep's name had

come up during the investigation. That was Deborah

dillard's boyfriend and lived with her. I specifically asked

him, "how do you know that he was sleeping?" And that's when

he pointed out that that's what Debra dillard had told him to

tell us. Now, it seemed unusual that Debra dillard is providing

alibis for Billy eastep. That was definitely a red flag. Our

initial interview with Billy, basically, we were just trying

to kind of go through the timeline of the previous day.

It seemed like he was trying to distance himself from

everything and just say he was asleep and knew nothing. I felt

like he was holding information back. Between Debra dillard,

Justin dillard, and Billy eastep, we're really narrowing

it down, but we're not sure if it's all of them, one of them.

So we're still looking for more physical evidence. About five

days later, a witness comes forward. And that was a big

turning point in this investigation. And that was

Tyler bean. Tyler bean was driving on highway ff that

night with his girlfriend. There was a vehicle sitting

facing northbound with the headlights on. And when he went

by, Tyler described that as this black Ford explorer. And

he said behind it was a Chevrolet pickup.

Um, can you describe that truck for me again?

Um, I know it was a dark‐colored Chevy pickup. It

had a light‐colored mismatched body part on the driver's side

of it. Um, it was probably late '90s, early 2000s model.

Okay, uh, when you say light‐colored, what color would

you say the body part was? I'd say more like white.

That was an absolutely huge moment. Not only that somebody

had drove by and saw this, but somebody who knew vehicles well

and could not only just say that he saw two vehicles ‐‐ he

described them and was able to pick those vehicles out. He

actually looked at photo lineups of vehicles and picked

out the vehicle that becki dillard was driving and Billy

eastep's truck. We absolutely wanted to bring back Billy for

an interview and basically either confirm through a

polygraph that he was the one that did this or to help clear

him. The questions would be very direct of whether he

caused the death of becki dillard or whether he knew for

sure who did cause that death. Billy eastep showed deception

was indicated during that examination. But in the

post‐test interview interrogation, he did not admit

to having shot becki or even being present when she was

shot. He stuck to his story and continued to deny it until

eventually he wanted to leave, and so he was allowed to leave.

We didn't have enough at that point to charge him. His

girlfriend, Debra dillard, is requested, and she voluntarily

comes to the highway patrol headquarters. She is driven

there by Billy eastep in his vehicle with the white door.

Debra dillard comes in for her polygraph. And she also fails.

After somebody fails a polygraph examination, in the

post‐test interrogation, it's a very direct accusation, because

now you know that they either did it or they know for sure

who did it. And so you go after them. During the interrogation,

she admits that she has lied to us and that she knows who

killed becki dillard. And she's saying that Billy eastep is the

one that did. She said he threw the gun into a lake and that

the gun is gone. So, of course, with Billy eastep also being

present, officers immediately got a hold of him and began to

talk to him, also. They're letting him know that she is

telling the truth and she is blaming him and that he's the

one that did it. And at that point, he admits that he was

there and he has lied to us. But he says that Debra dillard

was the one that pulled the trigger.

My name is rizwan ahad, and

my name is rizwan ahad, and I was the prosecuting attorney

in this case. I'd received a phone call from law enforcement

officers that they had asked Billy eastep to come to the

highway patrol to discuss his involvement. When I arrived,

he'd been speaking to law enforcement for probably about

30, 45 minutes. When Billy eastep was confronted with

Debra dillard's statement, I just remember the surprised

look on his face, almost like he knew he'd been caught. At

the time that Billy eastep was arrested, we knew that Debra

had knowledge of the murder, but we didn't know her

involvement. When he made that statement that he was present

at the shooting, in my mind, Debra became a stronger person

of interest. During the investigation, we'd determined

that Debra dillard and becki dillard had a tumultuous

relationship, that there was a lot of animosity between the

two of them. There were a lot of disagreements ‐‐ mostly over

Justin, but there were other things. We learned that becki

may have been thinking about leaving Justin. And Debra was

very concerned that if becki were to take the children, that

she may not have any more contact with them. Billy eastep,

in his explanation, he stated to us that Debra dillard and

becki had an argument, that becki was wanting to go to the

party and that Debra wanted her to stay so that Justin could

get ready and go with them. But becki had left. According to

Billy eastep, he didn't know exactly what was going on.

Debra told him to get into the vehicle, and they followed her.

They caught up to her, at which point, Billy says, Debra

dillard started flashing her lights. Becki pulled over.

She got out, and she said, "becki, come here. And becki"

started walking over there. Stopped in front of the truck,

and she said, "Justin wants you to go back and go get him." And

when she turned around, Deb went, "pow."

At that point, becki went down. And Billy saw Debra walk

up to becki and shoot her a second time.

Then she got back in the truck, and I looked at her and

I said, "I ‐‐ I can't believe you did it. I can't believe you"

really did it." It would have been enough to

charge her, but it wouldn't have been enough, I believe, at

that point, to take her to trial and convict her. We found

more evidence later on. What happened was, the longer Billy

stayed in jail, the more Debra was becoming a little more

guilt‐ridden. She started discussing with individuals

that Billy was being railroaded, that he had nothing to do with

it. We received information that Debra dillard had written

a several‐page letter. Law enforcement officers then went

to Debra dillard's house, where they discovered she was laying

in bed with a gun next to her, and this letter that she had

written. She's confessed in that letter that she was the

one who shot becki dillard that night on that highway.

According to the officers, she was very distraught. They

stated to me she looked suicidal at that point. The

sheriff himself, I believe, removed the gun from her. It

was loaded. Are you're afraid of sitting

in jail for what you've done? No.

No, I'm serious. I haven't done anything.

She said that she cared about Billy so much that she

figured that she was gonna write this letter admitting to

this, and then killing herself so that Billy could be

released. That's my story that I made

up to get him out. She then said that she

decided that she wasn't going to do it, but it was too late

because she had already sent out these letters.

I gotta have you tell me the absolute truth today. I am so

sick of all the drama and the bullcrap, man, I could ‐‐ I

could flush it all away. You don't, because I want to

know who killed becki. And I'm telling you.

At that point, we weren't 100 percent sure she was

confessing to the crime or she was trying to get Billy out of

it. I just want to believe with

everything that I am that Billy didn't do it.

We only have one shot to convict a person. Otherwise,

double jeopardy attaches and we would not be able to try her

again. You realize how bad this

looks, Deb? I'll take my break.

A lot of cases turn on just luck. And that's what happened

in this case. Now, west plains is a pretty small town, and one

day, the sheriff of howell county, Mike Shannon, happened

to be getting a cup of coffee at the convenience store. The

cashier made a statement to him that Debra dillard had once

stated to her that she was going to kill becki dillard,

but that she received a reprieve because she was

pregnant with a child, and that she was gonna wait a year. And

oddly enough, almost to the day, a year later, becki dillard was

murdered. When we received that information, we felt like we

had enough evidence to charge Debra dillard with the murder

of becki dillard.

I've dealt with other scenarios with in‐laws and

family members and everything, but never nothing so violent,

so cold‐blooded. They're just acting like the concerned

grandparent and her boyfriend. And the whole time, they're the

ones that done it. Every day for 10 years, I

have gone over what happened. I don't feel that my mother had

anything to do with it, the way that everybody is saying she

did. Our theory behind the case

was that Debra dillard just wanted becki out of the way.

She was making justin's life miserable, that Debra had had

enough. She wanted those children,

and the only way that she saw she was gonna keep them is by

getting rid of becki. Because Justin ‐‐ there's no way that

he would ever get custody with his alcohol problems.

Becki is gonna get the babies, she's gonna get child

support, and then she's gonna go on with her life.

Debra knew that once those children left, that becki's mom

and the rest of her family was not gonna let those children go

back. We believe that was the

motivation that pushed her over the edge. That night, becki had

angered Justin, and we believe Debra had just had enough, and

that she was going to cure the problem.

When I walked into the courtroom, Debra dillard looked

at me, but I tried to ignore her as much as possible. I saw

the hatred in her eyes. Deb dillard felt like she

could control things, like she could make this happen and that

she could get away with it. The defense focused on Billy

eastep, stating that Billy was actually the one that did it.

She had to put the blame on someone. So she chose Billy, to

put him as the scapegoat. He knew that she had extra

money because it was Christmas. He robbed her. And so she

wouldn't tell on him, he killed her and played it off like

nothing had ever even happened. We believed we had enough

evidence to prove Debra dillard guilty beyond a reasonable

doubt without him. But we wanted him to testify. We found

out when we arrived for trial, is that somebody had hit Billy

eastep, had given him a black eye. And at that point, Billy

refused to testify. Debra dillard also took the stand,

and she testified on her own behalf. And she explained that

she and becki had a wonderful relationship, that she was a

great daughter‐in‐law. She is my child. I love her.

She didn't even know what a mama was until she ‐‐ until she

moved into my home. She wanted me to be with

becki. She liked becki. She still will say "my daughter"

when she talks about becki. The entire focus of her

cross‐examination was the letter that she had written. I

went line by line with her on that and actually gave her the

opportunity to explain it away. And she tried, and it was

obvious to me that she was not being truthful.

Her brother testified against her and actually told

the whole court that she had conspired to do this a year

before when she found out becki was pregnant, that she was

going to be the one that murdered becki because she was

bad for her son. If she was gonna kill

somebody, it wouldn't be her children. It wouldn't be me. It

wouldn't be becki. It wouldn't be our kids. It would be

somebody that hurt us. My mother confessed because if she

didn't, she was afraid that they would come after me and

the kids. Whenever a case goes to the

jury, I'm always concerned. Did they believe the witnesses? Did

they believe debra's version? Every prosecutor has that

concern because, of course, we have to prove a case beyond a

reasonable doubt. The jury found her guilty. She broke

down. I mean, she basically fell apart.

Not until the jury came back and said "guilty" did she show

any kind of emotion. That just tells me she was guilty, with

no remorse whatsoever. She didn't kill anybody. She

wasn't there. She couldn't have been there. Whoever killed

becki, I don't think we will ever know why.

In a first‐degree murder case in Missouri, the only

sentence in this case would have been life without parole.

So when the verdict came down and the sentencing came down, I

just felt like justice had been served.

We were never able to prove that Justin dillard had

anything to do with becki's death. There is suspicion. But

even today, I couldn't tell you for sure who pulled the

trigger. Becki's family has done a

very good job of making me look bad. Feel like I have been

victimized, very much so. I lost my house, my kids, my wife,

my mom. 10 years, and it still hurts just as much. It's never

gonna go away, ever. Whatever Justin did, Debra

told him to do. Whatever Billy did, Debra was in control of

that. She was the more dominant one in that home, and there was

only one person in that home that wanted to defy her, and

that was becki. The wolf followed becki to

that roadside spot where she was killed. And so, we work

hard for every victim, but it's especially difficult when you

see somebody that isn't doing the wrong thing and bad things

come and find them. My best friend, my wife, my

everything is in the ground. I pray every day that heaven's

real, because that's where she's at. And I know that all I

have to do is keep praying and I'll see her again.