Original subtitles

This is not real this is a dream.

It's not real.

I immediately fell to the ground, and I cried.

We got a guy who just killed a child.

What we walked into

really turned out to be a bit of a shock.

Who knows what he can do?

One of the first things we look for --

who has a video camera?

We have to play their game.

Sometimes we have to think like a killer to catch a killer.

Long branch police dispatch officers to the scene,

a multi-level home in a quiet neighborhood.

When the call came in,

I was just a few blocks south of that,

so I basically headed directly there,

and I activated my body camera.

We didn't know at that point,

really, who the victim was,

and we didn't know the extent of their injuries when we arrived,

so what we walked into really turned out

to be a bit of a shock.

While I was walking up, you could hear screaming.

My focus at that time was just getting in the house

and getting to the victim.

Um...

As I walked in, you could see, um,

it looked like a bloody handprint on the wall,

kind of smeared down,

kind of going down to where this girl was laying.

The other people in the house actually turned out to be

members of her family.

At that point, we've learned

that her name was Madison.

Emts arrive and work

on Madison to regain consciousness.

You really never know what you're gonna have

when you show up at a scene like that.

In this case, it was very serious.

There was three of US there,

we're taking turns doing cpr on her.

At that point, you're trying to figure out

how to control the bleeding.

It was paralyzing, um, you know, I...

I hoped for the best, you know,

and I kept trying to tell myself that it's gonna be okay.

You know, she's gonna be okay.

Madison was my little sister, but she was also

my best friend.

I just heard "Madison" and "stabbed."

And so... The whole world froze.

I immediately felt, like, a big surge of anger come out of me,

because I didn't know Madison, where she was stabbed,

I didn't know how bad it was,

I just heard she was stabbed.

I was really frustrated.

I didn't know what was going on.

My adrenaline was crazy.

Back at the scene,

additional officers arrive to provide support.

Emts prepare to transport Madison

to the hospital.

It became very clear that while we did need to get her

stabilized, we did need to get her to a hospital.

People generally assume that when you get a person

in the ambulance,

the first thing you do is, you know, you slam the door shut

and then you jump in the ambulance,

and then you take off immediately to the hospital,

but sometimes the better thing that you can do is really

trying to stabilize them before you get them

moving to the hospital

so they're stable for that transport.

You have her family members in the background,

you know, screaming and calling out for her.

They're all very, obviously, upset,

and it winds up almost being kind of like

this organized chaos.

We worked very hard to save her.

I really felt like we gave her the best fighting chance,

and we really hoped that she was gonna make it through it.

I found out a little while later that

doctors at the hospital did declare her dead.

And at that point, our focus really becomes on now

finding the person who did this to her.

16-year-old Madison Wells

has died of a stab wound,

leaving behind her sister,

father, and an aunt.

We grew up in Florida. We had a smaller family.

After our mom passed away, I immediately took the role

as, you know, trying to be a role model for her.

It was really hard to pretty much raise

your little sister because the circumstances

we were in weren't that good.

So that was kind of our way

of bonding together and becoming closer.

She liked to do, like, little dance challenges.

I would always record her when she would dance.

Me and Madison were very close.

She would always play with my girls.

Um, yeah, we were very, very close.

Anybody she wanted to be friends with,

she could make friends within five minutes of talking to 'em.

She was very genuine. She was always sweet.

When I saw Madison, I kind of knew...

That she wasn't gonna make it.

I was waiting outside the hospital,

and I asked, I said, "is my sister dead?"

And he didn't answer me.

And so when he didn't answer me,

I knew that my sister was dead.

Everybody was in shock

pretty much -- I immediately, you know, fell to the ground.

I fell to the ground, and I cried.

They weren't telling US anything.

I just wanted to go in.

I just wanted to go in and see my kid.

Say goodbye.

I don't know -- I just wanted to see my daughter,

and they wouldn't let US -- it was really surreal.

Tina said, "what are we supposed to do now?

Just go home, go to sleep like nothing ever happened?"

And that's...

That's what happened.

Back at the crime scene,

the murder investigation begins.

At that point, calls are being made

to the detectives.

Their supervisor will be notified, and he'll start

calling out people to show up to the scene.

I was sent back to the scene

after Madison was taken to the hospital to help secure it.

I remember the likely murder weapon was laying on the ground

right at the end of the driveway,

right where it meets the street.

And I remember looking down,

and it was a long steak knife blade.

Seeing that blade made it clear

how Madison's injuries were so severe.

At that point, the investigation portion really begins.

Detectives Joe spitale and Mike verdadeiro

arrive and take the lead.

As I entered into the residence,

I observed the foyer area,

and it was saturated with Madison's blood.

What got me more attached to this investigation

is -- is her age.

She was a young -- she was a young girl, 16 years old,

and, um, I have younger daughters so that --

it's all of a sudden a father --

more of a father instinct kicked in, like, you know,

"I'm gonna get this bad guy," you know.

We began collecting all the license plate information

from vehicles parked on the street outside the house.

It allows US to identify who is at or near

the scene at the time of the crime.

We're trying to find out who actually committed

the stabbing.

Pretty much any lead that could help US solve this.

We canvass the area to look for surveillance video.

Basically, good old-fashioned police work.

We knock on doors,

ask people if they saw anything,

anybody other -- you know, any witnesses in the area?

Back at the house, officers interview

Madison's family,

starting with Madison's aunt, Casey Wells,

who discovered Madison and called 911.

Casey brought her over to her house.

Casey stated that Madison went outside

for approximately an hour.

Someone called Madison outside to speak with her that night.

Upon Madison returning into the residence,

she stated to Casey, "he stabbed me,"

and collapsed to the floor in the foyer.

And that's when, Casey called 911.

Investigators can't be sure who Madison was meeting,

but Casey says Madison did have a boyfriend,

someone she only knows as Bryan.

We believed that Bryan could definitely be involved in this.

It's unclear if Bryan was there.

Nobody actually saw Bryan.

We weren't sure yet.

It's still not clear if there was any other

involvements by any other individuals at that time.

Officers investigating the murder of Madison Wells

have learned the name of her ex-boyfriend,

Bryan cordero-Castro,

and continue to collect information about him.

They speak with the boyfriend of Madison's aunt Casey

at the crime scene to learn more.

What did they -- what did they get --

Based on this new information,

detectives begin considering motive.

He described him as an hispanic male

around 19 maybe, 20 years.

Madison and Bryan were in

a relationship for approximately one year.

That's a long time.

Also, they worked together at a restaurant in long branch.

It's a red flag for law enforcement,

and we need to look at that person.

Madison's aunt, Casey Wells, volunteers to help

confirm Bryan's identity at the station.

Have a seat.

Once we find out the name of an individual,

such as Bryan cordero-Castro,

we would then do a six-pack photo array with

a witness to confirm that indeed, that picture

of Bryan cordero-Castro is the ex-boyfriend of

Madison Wells.

We need to be 100% sure that the photo of

Bryan cordero-Castro is the person

that Madison Wells was in a relationship with.

Casey positively identified the picture

of Bryan, who was in the photo array,

as Madison Wells' boyfriend.

Officers locate an address for Bryan

and send squad cars to his house.

We get a search warrant and do a search of

the house to see if we can find Bryan.

Given permission to enter,

the police k-9 unit searches the home.

I got to take my gun out, you know,

cautiously, and just protect me and everybody around me.

Yeah?

There's no trace of Bryan inside.

Officers next search the backyard.

After a lengthy search,

Bryan is nowhere to be found.

I knew, this was gonna be tough.

We didn't know where he was.

We don't know if, you know, positively

that he's our suspect.

He could be anywhere.

We need to speak to Bryan right away,

so to either clear him from this

or talk to him and see what his involvement was.

If there's somebody else out there,

we need to know about it right away.

With Bryan in the wind,

detectives decide to track his phone

to get a current location.

Unsure of which cell service Bryan uses,

investigators call several mobile phone carriers

to find out.

Investigators next call sprint

to locate Bryan's phone.

We learned that his phone

was turned off and that was,

that was unsuccessful in trying to ping it,

but it's part of the investigation process.

We have to have to use all our resources.

We have to, um -- we have to try everything.

We can't let nothing be out of the question.

Without a GPS location for Bryan's phone,

detectives return to the crime scene to

locate surveillance cameras in the area.

Video cameras have changed the way we do

investigations over the last probably five years.

One of the first things we look for as we're...

Walking around the area where it happened is

who has a video camera?

During the canvass,

I know they located cameras on ocean Avenue at a residence.

The camera is just one block from the murder scene.

Police cue up the footage to 10:39 P.M.,

around the time of the murder.

We saw an image of

a subject running across towards the ocean area.

It was an amazing feeling.

Not every day we get that lucky.

I mean, there are times that

we do have video, but sometimes

the camera's not pointing that direction,

sometimes the camera's just not working.

But in this particular case, we got lucky.

Madison Wells' family struggles with

the loss of their loved one.

The school vigil -- it was really quiet.

Everybody was still in shock.

It was only three days after.

There was hundreds of people there,

so she had a lot of people that loved her and cared about her.

The cops were there.

The whole football team from long branch high school

was there.

I was overwhelmed when that happened.

I was totally blown away.

It goes to show you how

many people that Madison's life's touched.

You know, it's like

anywhere she went, she made a friend.

It was wonderful. It was really...

Heartwarming for my family that so many people cared.

She was just -- just a --

just a lovable person.

I remember sitting at the service, and there was

this boy she went to school with,

and he was such a wreck.

And I sat down with him and, you know,

I tried to console him the best I could, but you know,

I couldn't help my heart.

I felt it, you know, Madison...

You know, she was loved by many people and, yeah,

she's gonna be missed.

Back at the station, police track

the killer's movements immediately after the murder.

I'll never forget -- there was a couple of surveillance cameras

right there,

pointing to a side street where we see him walking

toward a house.

Another camera showed him walking into the back area,

where there were some people hanging out, drinking.

So our objective was to get the subject

as soon as possible.

Detectives dispatch officers to the house

seen on camera to make an arrest.

We got a guy who just killed a child,

and he's out there.

Who knows what he can do?

We made a decision, let's -- let's go to this house.

We got to the house. We knocked on the door.

When you open the door, the kitchen's right there,

and I see him -- it's Bryan.

After we, take Bryan out of the house,

but then, as I escort him to the patrol unit,

Bryan does not say that he was actually involved with

the murder of Madison.

Due to the fact that we had conflicting

witness statements.

At night, sometimes people get the description of clothing

wrong due to ambient lighting.

One witness stated that he may have had a white shirt on.

Detectives transport Bryan back to the station

for questioning.

They were taking off his sneakers,

and he uttered the word, "bye," like saying goodbye to them.

He tried to run out the booking area.

There was a big sergeant at the time

that was able to grab him before he got away.

That was pretty wild that he tried to escape,

and to me, my personal belief,

not as the detective talking or any legal way --

to me, that's a sign of guilt,

you know, why you gonna run if you didn't do anything?

Myself, detective, Joe spitale,

and detective Wayne raynor,

we, um, we do a little huddle, and we come up

with this plan and how we're gonna interview him.

Police leave Bryan to sit in the interrogation room.

Detective spitale is great in the box,

as we call it, great to getting people to talk,

and he's been doing that job for a very long time,

so he's very, very good at it.

When I'm about to interview a suspect,

it's so important to have a rapport with these individuals,

because if you don't,

they're not gonna -- they're not gonna want to talk to you.

Whatever makes them comfortable, they'll give you more.

He basically gave US a load of crap,

excuse my language.

Detectives ask Bryan about

the last time he saw Madison.

Bryan, during this interview process,

is starting to, you know, tell US little bits and pieces,

so we have to continue to press him

and keep the pressure on him.

We can't rule out there is no person named angel.

If there's even a -- a little bit of

a doubt that there's somebody else involved,

it could compromise the whole investigation.

Investigators working the Madison Wells homicide are

interviewing her ex-boyfriend,

Bryan cordero-Castro, who has identified his friend,

angel, as her killer.

We let him say whatever he wants.

He'll say that he was with -- angel was there,

he was with him, he saw angel do it.

You know, we'll go along with that for some time,

and then we put a stop to it.

We had him believing that Madison was alive,

and that she -- she told US he did it.

Sometimes we might have to lie a little

ourselves to get him to talk.

You know, "a neighbor saw you there by yourself,"

or "a camera across the street saw you there."

We have to play their game. We have to think like them.

Sometimes we have to think like a killer to catch a killer.

It was a little difficult.

He didn't want to say that he actually committed the crime,

but Bryan started opening up.

He told US pretty much everything.

He even demonstrated how he stabbed her.

It was like the weight was off our chest.

We knew we had our guy, but, there's a lot of

investigative work still left to do.

While we were in the interview with Bryan,

we were downloading Madison's cellphone.

It showed that Bryan texts Madison hundreds of times

that day, just obsessed with her.

It created a motive for the crime.

And all know, from watching a lot of movies,

jealous rage people do hor --

horrific things when their relationship has ended.

Some people handle it well. Some people want to kill.

Bryan cordero-Castro is charged

with the first-degree aggravated manslaughter

of Madison Wells

and pleads guilty to 30 years in prison,

plus five additional years for trying to escape

police custody.

It's an amazing feeling to get justice

for not only Madison but Madison's family.

It was a good feeling to know

that the family knows the truth.

Yet, you know, there was no happiness

in this -- they just lost a loved one.

I wish I could have told her that I'm sorry

that I couldn't protect her

how a big sister should.

Madison was well on her way, well on her way.

She'd just got to the point of being

what she wanted to be -- this guy ended her life.

It's just not fair.

It's not fair.

The hardest part...

Seein' her picture every morning.

You know...

I just want my niece back.

You know, I miss, and I love my niece.

I just want my niece back.

I want people to remember Madison as innocent

as a nice,

sweet young girl with a lot of personality

and somebody who would have had a lot going for them

in their future if they would let alone to have it.