Original subtitles

♪♪

911, what's your emergency?

My cousin's boyfriend is laying in the bedroom.

His face is bloody.

He will not answer me.

It looks like he's been beat up pretty bad.

And my cousin is gone.

I don't even know where she's at.

Okay, Wayne.

My god.

Ma'am, I need you to find out if he's breathing.

I don't think so, and I just saw a knife in his head.

God.

You saw a knife in his head?

Yes. okay, ma'am.

I need you to clear the area.

I don't want you to eliminate any evidence, okay?

Okay. I'm going to go outside.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-- Captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

captions paid for by discovery communications

♪♪

Payette is a small town about an hour away from Boise,

really close to the Oregon border.

It definitely is a small agricultural community,

lots of farms, lots of cows.

It's a real homey feeling.

This place sucks people in.

Everybody watches out for everybody else,

and most people are related.

Everything moves a little bit more slowly here.

Lots of mosey-ers, lots of retired people.

We have generations that live here,

so the roots are deep here.

You know, people walk down the street and say, "hi" to you,

and when one of us needs a helping hand or whatever,

you know, we'll just go and help them.

You just feel safe and like nothing can disturb

this little bubble that we live in.

♪♪

I am from payette. I know this town very well,

probably a little bit too much.

In 2012, I transferred from the patrol division here

at the payette county sheriff's office

to the detective division.

♪♪

One of the things I love the most about my job

is you to have to strive to be smarter

than the people you're dealing with,

kind of a fox and hound type thing.

On November 7, 2012 a phone call came in from a female resident

of payette county,

advising that there was a male subject lying on a floor,

covered in blood and had a knife sticking out of his head.

I was the first one that responded to the incident.

♪♪

When I arrived, there was a female witness

that was standing out in the driveway next to her vehicle.

She stated that she had seen a male subject

that resides in that residence in his room on the floor.

♪♪

When you enter the crime scene, you know, the first thing

that goes through your mind

is you need to be watchful for any evidence

that you might disturb or destroy.

You also have to be mindful that there could possibly still be

somebody in this residence that you could encounter.

♪♪

Well, when I went into the bedroom,

I observed a large amount of blood.

There was casting on the walls and the ceilings, pictures.

There was blood on the bed.

I could see a curtain rod that was all bent.

It had blood on it and just based off of, alone,

the injuries inflicted to this victim,

the likelihood of any survival was very slim.

There was no movement.

There was no pulse.

And in fact, the victim was not a male.

The victim was a female.

♪♪

♪♪

I was kind of born and raised in payette county.

It was really a great childhood for me.

I had lots of friends, and it was low-crime.

You know, it was just an easygoing place

to live and grow up.

♪♪

Approximately 11:30 at night,

I got a phone call from my dispatch center

informing me of a murder,

and when I got there, my deputies informed me

that it was a female victim

and the 911 caller was standing in the driveway with me.

And so at that point, I think she knew the victim

was Elizabeth baune which was her cousin.

♪♪

I went back to my office about probably 12:30

and dispatch actually ran the driver's license,

and so when I went up to the dispatch center,

on the screen was a picture of Elizabeth baune.

That's when I first recognized her as libbi.

We were actually in the same class in elementary,

middle school, and high school.

We spent a lot of time together growing up.

And her maiden name was peutz,

and so I knew her as libbi peutz.

We were good friends.

When somebody is murdered like that, we take it very personal.

We want to find out who did it.

My first wife was killed in the line of duty,

and so I'm a victim of a homicide.

And so I understand what that family went through.

You know, that 11:00, midnight knock on the door

getting you out of bed to tell you

that a loved one has been killed is completely

and utterly devastating, and it was for me personally.

And so me and the lead investigator

for the state police actually made death notification

to libbi's parents.

That was probably one of the most difficult

death notifications I ever made.

♪♪

Our family jokes a lot

that my oldest sister is the pretty sister.

They would tell me I'm the smart sister,

and we'd always say libbi was the kind sister.

♪♪

So this is my sister reading to her nephew.

She was a big supporter of literacy and early literacy

and reading to children, so that's one of the reasons

I really love that picture.

♪♪

So in November, a little over 4 years ago,

I was traveling for work,

so I was actually in Kansas at a hotel and my cellphone rang.

It was 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning,

and it was my mom.

She just said, "libbi has been murdered."

And, you know, I couldn't believe it and she says,

"I don't know anything yet.

I'll call you when I know more."

And so I immediately got up

and took a shower

and got on the Internet

and was trying to get a flight out.

I called my youngest brother from the airport,

and when I called him,

I knew he was on the phone,

but there was, I mean, he wasn't saying anything.

And my sister-in-law got on the phone and just said,

"Joey, I'm so sorry. He cannot talk.

He physically cannot talk."

It took me 12 to 14 hours to get home from Kansas.

Pretty miserable, being in the airport by yourself.

♪♪

♪♪

My mom was a teacher for almost 20 years.

We can never go anywhere without running into somebody

that she knew.

And it's just that small town.

We used to ride our bikes to school

and walk through ditch roads,

just walking around,

exploring old barns and stuff.

I can remember that morning almost exactly to the second.

I was actually living in Casper, Wyoming.

I remember waking up to a phone call rather than my alarm.

My grandmother, the first thing she said was,

"your mom's dead."

And then I called my younger brother that was in Casper

and I told him he had to come over.

And all I can remember is my younger brother showing up

and we were literally packing as fast

as we could to get back to Idaho.

♪♪

I met Liz when I went to work

as a family advocate at head start,

and she was the teacher at head start.

So Liz and I got to work together for almost 20 years.

This is a picture of her and me,

one of our first years at the head start school.

Just across through there where the trees are,

you can see her house.

And when the trees was all out, it was all green

and that, you couldn't see but it was winter

and it was stark then.

And that's when I could see the police cars

and all of the people and everything, so...

And they told me it's Liz, everybody wanted to hug me.

I just remember trying not to scream

and my daughter-in-law said she was murdered.

And I just couldn't fathom how it could happen to somebody like

Liz because she would give you anything.

Obviously, it's a devastating experience

to see the victim's family go through that.

But I recall libbi's dad saying, "go get him, boys.

Go find out who did this to my daughter."

And I'll never forget that.

♪♪

You think this could be a robbery.

It could be a vendetta settle.

It could be all kinds of things,

but Elizabeth was murdered in a very violent and hostile way,

which your first inclination is to think anger.

♪♪

She was stabbed repeatedly and part of the blade

was sticking out of her head when she was found.

♪♪

She had defense wounds on her arms and hands.

There was blood on the bed, shooting out on the floor,

so there was a lot of time spent there during this assault.

Somebody was very angry with her.

It just felt like, to me, it was a personal attack on libbi.

A significant other, a family member,

somebody she worked with,

but you can't close off your mind to an investigation,

think that it's just somebody from here.

♪♪

The 911 caller was ruled out fairly quickly.

She had an alibi. She was at work.

She'd come home from work

and those types of things checked out.

At this point in time, what I'm doing

is I'm trying to obtain

some kind of grasp on who could have done this,

so I need to find out who has access to this residence.

I need to find out who's supposed to be here

that's not here.

We learned fairly quickly that she was engaged to a guy

by the name of Wayne.

Wayne was her fiancé.

They had been living together, but she had reservations

off and on about their wedding.

He used to date my mother

before he was dating libbi.

He likes to keep to his own.

He likes to make his way and have the things

that he likes to have.

At this point in time,

we don't know where Wayne is at.

He's not in the area.

So, you know, where is he at?

Why is he not here with Elizabeth?

It makes me think that he's possibly a suspect

in this crime.

Someone murdered a woman in payette last night.

Today that county's sheriff and the state police

continue their search for clues

and the woman's missing roommate.

Elizabeth Ann baune died of multiple wounds.

How she sustained those wounds and who inflicted them,

authorities either don't know or won't say.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

News of Elizabeth's death did spread fast

because people did know her.

It's just not something that happens here.

We're just not used to it.

I heard that Elizabeth was stabbed 22 times.

She was stabbed 27 times, I believe.

It was an uneasy feeling

because somebody was still out on the loose.

♪♪

You don't feel safe anymore.

Was it just one person?

Was it more than one?

It just makes you wonder who else they're going to murder.

♪♪

They instantly assumed, of course,

that it's the man that she was dating,

and that was Wayne buxton.

He was definitely primary suspect because he was gone.

He was out of town, and he was definitely primary suspect,

nowhere to be found.

♪♪

We learned fairly quickly that she was engaged

to a guy by the name of Wayne.

He was a truck driver, so we wanted to figure out

where Wayne was located.

He was not at the scene and so there was some phone calls made.

We determined, based on those phone calls,

through GPS and different things

that he was actually in a different state

when the incident occurred.

♪♪

I was a person of interest starting off,

just for the fact that I was the fiancé.

Kind of pissed me off that I was even a suspect

because we loved each other.

We were getting married that Saturday.

Come here, luce, you're tangled.

Come on.

There you go.

I talked to her at noon. I was in California.

And then I tried calling her a little bit after 7:00

as I was just coming into Nevada.

Didn't get an answer, and then I believe

it was 1:00 in the morning, my phone rang,

and it was detective stennett from the Idaho state police,

and he kept asking me questions and finally I'm like,

"what's going on? You know, what is this?"

And that's when he finally told me,

"I regret to tell you, but Elizabeth's dead."

♪♪

It was...

Just unbelievable.

♪♪

Wayne is no longer a suspect.

He has an alibi for where he was at.

So at this point in time, I'm looking for other suspects.

♪♪

We spent a lot of time in here,

in the dining room with family dinners,

and this is one of her senior pictures

that her family gave me.

♪♪

Libbi was a good big sister.

She was always taking care of people.

She had taken in my cousin and then she had allowed her son,

Michael, to move in.

I think she was truly just born with a big heart.

♪♪

She would give you her shirt off her back

if she needed to.

She was so kind to everybody.

I don't think I saw a mean bone in her.

She would go to work, if the kids didn't have a lunch,

she would pack some extra food

or she would give them a little extra help

trying to get them the help they needed to have a better life.

♪♪

Anyway, it was like one of our rooms we hung out in.

Liz used to always play pranks on my husband.

So she showed up one day and she had her hand under her coat.

And she's making, "aw, baby, baby,"

and she's petting her coat and she's begging my husband,

"please let me leave this kitten here, just for a little while."

Finally, he said, "well, okay, but it can't stay."

So she says, "okay," and she pulls

this little white plastic cat and hands him.

So they were always laughing and enjoying each other, so...

She says, "I hear them talking about Liz,"

and she loved Liz.

Animals loved Liz.

Little kids loved her.

I loved her.

So, anyway.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

The residence where the homicide took place

is on a dead-end street north of payette city limits.

It's maybe 300 yards long off of highway 95.

This is the residence here on the left.

♪♪

In speaking with the witness, something that I had learned

while being at the crime scene is there was a white

dodge truck and a 2002, I believe, Honda

passport that were missing from the residence.

So we began searching for any vehicles

registered to Elizabeth baune or her boyfriend,

who we were trying to locate.

♪♪

Some of the physical evidence left inside the house --

when my deputies arrived, they noticed footprints,

shoe prints, throughout the house,

and it was shoe prints with blood being the print.

♪♪

There's one of the footprints that were on the floor.

♪♪

The footprints appeared to have a weird structure to them

to where there was a tip of a footprint

and a heel of a footprint,

but no footprint really for the middle part of the shoe itself,

as you would normally see.

That makes me think that the actual print

that the shoe would leave was covered up by something.

♪♪

This homicide was probably the bloodiest that I have seen.

This is the kitchen sink.

It appeared that whoever had done this had washed up

or attempted to get rid of some of the evidence.

There's some blood here.

Some of the water droplets here actually have blood in them.

This is blood droplets on the counter.

The footprints in the residence

exited the bedroom where the victim was,

went into the laundry room, which is here.

They had actually turned into the kitchen, as well.

They went to the kitchen and also led out the back door.

♪♪

This was a blood droplet out the back door.

Covering their tracks, you know,

the impression that a shoe would leave

and washing their hands

would make me speculate

that they, in fact, entered the residence

attempting to not leave any specific trace

that would tie them to that scene.

♪♪

♪♪

It's a little scary when a suspect is ruled out

and you still don't have anybody apprehended.

It's scary.

♪♪

It just makes me feel so concerned that somebody like

that would be in our quiet town

where, you know, everybody knows everybody.

Apparently, everybody doesn't know everybody,

even though we think we do.

It scares you.

It makes you think that you're not as safe

and secure as you thought you were.

So now that they're back to square one

and now they still have no answers,

I think we're all uneasy because somebody's still out there.

♪♪

♪♪

I first found out about the murder

when I was riding my bike just past that school

and I just saw a bunch of signs out saying,

"we'll miss you," and balloons

and just all of this stuff

that made me think that somebody died.

We all went up to the school

and everybody started coming to work and stuff

and then everybody found out,

and I was just -- I was in shock for days.

I was so mad.

They started a little memorial

up to the school,

and people were coming and leaving flowers

and leaving little mementos and memorials.

I just remember trying to be brave and comfort them

because they were coming crying

because they'd lost their teacher.

She had the right combination of truly caring

about their education and working very, very hard

to make sure that they were learning

but also caring deeply about their families.

The town lost a great teacher.

How do you explain that to a little kid,

that their teacher is never coming back again?

♪♪

♪♪

After learning that Wayne was no longer a suspect in this,

you're really just looking for a ghost at that point in time.

You're looking for something to chase down.

So everybody had a job to do,

whether it was checking bank records,

checking phone records, interviewing people.

We have the interstate

that runs through our county.

There's a lot of crime that happens on that interstate,

anything from human trafficking

to drug smuggling, vehicle thefts.

There was, in fact, vehicles missing from the residence,

so this could have certainly been a burglary gone wrong.

Liz lived on the highway.

There's crazy people going up and down these highways,

you know, and they take the side roads

if they're trying to evade law enforcement or something,

so I'm thinking somebody

probably stopped there to steal from her.

I did wonder if it could have been a random break-in,

someone looking for items in the house.

My sister was very trusting

and she didn't keep her doors locked.

♪♪

When I got the call that Elizabeth was dead,

I just -- I was in disbelief.

I just couldn't believe that something like that

had happened, especially to libbi.

♪♪

Jumped up, got dressed, fueled up my truck,

called up dispatch and told them,

"I'm not stopping until I get back."

♪♪

Got here just a little bit before 8:00 in the morning,

went over to the courthouse and talked to the detectives.

In talking with Wayne, they discovered that some items

were missing from libbi's bedroom.

♪♪

They took some rare coins, some electronics.

There was a bank card that was missing from the residence.

That bank card had been used at one of our local banks here

in payette to withdraw money from Wayne buxton's account.

At that time, we contacted the bank for the video footage

that they had gotten from the atm camera.

In the meantime, the bank that they had

actually used the credit card

at was just across the street from the hardware store.

♪♪

Owning the local hardware store,

people know me very well.

Sometimes they won't even call the store.

They'll call my personal phone number,

looking for things after I close,

and we open up and we help them with what they need.

And that's just the community.

♪♪

I think we found out sometime that morning

that Elizabeth had been murdered.

♪♪

And then later on that afternoon,

the police showed up looking for surveillance footage,

if we had any and they were like,

"well, do you have a dumpster?"

So this is our dumpster out back of the store.

So, this was where they found the clothes and the shoes.

The detectives crawled in.

One of them stood out here and the other one crawled in

and kind of was digging around

and found the evidence in a bag that was inside the dumpster.

♪♪

The clothing located in the dumpster

behind the local hardware store here

contained blood evidence from the crime scene.

♪♪

♪♪

One of the two vehicles missing from the residence

was Wayne's truck.

Wayne's truck was actually driven by Wayne to work.

The other vehicle was a blue Honda passport.

This vehicle was located approximately one block

from the sheriff's office in an alley behind a church.

♪♪

Inside the Honda, we did locate blood evidence

from the crime scene,

along with a purse and a wallet that did belong to the victim.

They also discovered another set of clothes next to her vehicle

that contained blood evidence.

Also, the follow-up investigators at the residence

did locate two separate sets of footprints within the residence.

That makes me think that there would be more than one person

that was at the residence at the time of the incident.

♪♪

So when the local bank sent photos from the atm machine

taken of the person that had used the card,

we're expecting to see two male suspects.

The video depicted a female that had withdrawn money

on Wayne's card.

We were wondering, "who is she? Why does she have Wayne's card?"

I mean, it could have been that her boyfriend

had entered this residence and done this,

and she was just doing the cash transaction from the card.

I mean, all of a sudden, you get a curveball thrown at you,

that this may not be who you think it is.

♪♪

♪♪

When you're thinking something

and then all of a sudden,

you get a curveball thrown at you,

it can kind of throw you off track

and make you feel like all the steps that you've taken are,

in fact, the wrong steps in the wrong direction.

I would never think a woman could be capable.

I guess you just always assume that crimes like this

are committed by men,

but, you know, I guess women can be just as evil.

You know, why wouldn't a woman be capable?

♪♪

I don't think anger has a gender, I really don't.

That kind of brutality is in lots of people.

I couldn't visualize anybody in the world

in their right mind

that would do that to anybody,

let alone Liz or anybody that would have known Liz.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

So when we saw the photo,

we contacted the bank and said,

"are you sure that you've got

the right time that we requested?"

And they said, "whoops, we got the wrong time."

♪♪

It turned out that it was, in fact,

not the right person that had used his card.

When given the right time frame, it was two male subjects

that had taken the money from Wayne's account.

♪♪

♪♪

The detectives had me come into their office

and look at the atm footage to see if I knew who was on there.

And they showed me a picture of an hispanic kid.

I had no idea who he was.

I'd never seen him before.

♪♪

Then they showed me a picture of another kid,

and it just completely blew me away.

It was Michael culley, libbi's second cousin.

♪♪

Come on, Lucy.

Michael culley was more or less my adopted nephew.

I'd known him his entire life.

I mean, I bought clothes for him when he needed clothes.

I bought food for his family when they needed food.

Libbi helped him and gave him a place to stay.

♪♪

She honestly never told me

that she let Brenda and Mike live with them

because she knew how opposed I was from

when I let him live with me.

He stole from me and then actually got me

fired from my job.

He had been on drugs, and prior to this,

Michael had gone in and taken her laptop

and stolen her laptop.

I would expect him to steal from her, yes.

I'd expect him to lie to her.

I would never expect him to do anything like that.

♪♪

Michael was my best friend since second grade

and, you know, we just, we grew up together.

We got in trouble together.

He was my best friend, plain and simple.

I didn't find out what happened until the cops were at my door,

knocking on my door asking questions about where's Michael.

♪♪

And then I was kind of puzzled at the time

because I didn't know what had happened,

but when they started me asking questions

about Wayne and libbi and things like that,

I got a hold of Wayne and found out what was going on.

It just shocked the hell out of me

because a week before this had happened,

he was living with me.

I had given him a place to stay,

but I'd kicked him out of my house

because he was using drugs with my wife

while I was working graveyard shift.

They did show me the picture.

It was a mugshot, identified him as Michael,

and when we were living in payette together,

he had brought somebody over to my house, some hispanic man.

I told the police that that looks a lot like the man

that Michael had brought over to my house that night.

And they called him "Johnny."

His name was Johnny.

So the photos from the atm machine

were determined to be Michael culley

and a young man by the name of Jonathan Hernandez, Johnny.

♪♪

And so we were all looking for those two people.

You start looking for vehicles not acting right.

You're looking for anything that stands out.

That evening, I drove all around looking for Michael,

and I drove places that I knew the people that used

and did drugs and stuff lived.

I drove through those areas.

A couple of days later, Liz's youngest son and his wife

has gone out to Ontario to get flowers.

My phone rang, and it was libbi's son

and daughter-in-law and they said that they saw Mike.

They found him, and one of her sons was chasing him.

♪♪

♪♪

The person that actually caught Michael was Chris.

Chris is my younger brother.

Liz's son and his wife seen Michael coming down the street,

and so they pulled over real fast

and he ran back and chased him.

And he took off running to the truck stop,

screaming for them to call the police

because someone is after him.

♪♪

Michael culley actually entered the gas station

and called for law enforcement

because he was afraid that the victim's son

was going to harm him.

So here's a kid wanted for murder

telling people to call the police to protect him.

And when they realized what was going on,

some of the employees and some truckers

kept Mike in a little arcade over here,

and then some other employees and truckers

kept libbi's son outside of the truck stop.

And I guess there was a lot of police officers

that showed up real quick

because everybody was looking for him,

and they hauled him off.

♪♪

It wasn't too long later,

they went to Hernandez's house and arrested him.

♪♪

When he was caught, I wanted to kill him

but I also wanted to talk to him and ask, "why?"

♪♪

♪♪

From my understanding,

they wanted to steal my valuable stuff

so they could sell it and get drugs,

and they actually put duct tape on their shoes

so they wouldn't leave footprints.

♪♪

Well, libbi was in the room asleep,

and culley figured he could sneak in

and sneak out without waking her up.

♪♪

"But she woke up and things went wrong," is how he put it.

♪♪

The assault was very violent.

♪♪

She was beat with the curtain rod, casting blood on the bed,

on the walls, on the ceilings, pictures.

They hit her with a hammer

and they stabbed her a bunch of times

and then I know that they used a kitchen knife,

stuck her through the head.

I believe they stole the vehicle

just because they were so bloody.

You know, there was blood all over.

♪♪

♪♪

We met once, quite a few years ago,

and then we met again and we just clicked.

She was just a great person, and her little smile and giggle

was just something to see.

It was --

I miss her tremendously.

I'll...

She was the love of my life.

Life is not forever, love is.

♪♪

She loved everybody.

♪♪

♪♪

The state police detectives interviewed Mr. Culley,

so they had a pretty good statement from him.

He said the other person made him do it.

Let me tell you what.

I think he's twice as big as the other person.

That's bull crap.

No. I... no.

Each one says a different story,

but culley did admit that he is the one

that stabbed her through her head.

His explanation was, "to put her out of her misery."

♪♪

They needed money.

They needed money for dope and they killed Elizabeth to get it.

♪♪

We couldn't go to trial with Michael

because I knew that it would put a hard strain on our family

going through exactly every detail.

We decided to take a plea deal,

and so it wasn't a trial,

but it was a sentencing.

The judge stated that he felt that neither man should be out

before they were 60 years old.

♪♪

Both Jonathan Hernandez and Michael culley

got 45 years to life.

♪♪

I still can't believe she's gone.

I still hope she'll come walking through the door.

I know it will never happen,

but you always get that little fantasy.

It's like, yeah.

She's just going to come through.

♪♪

It really is hard to have closure.

I still miss my mom.

The biggest parts are, she never got to meet her grandson.

She never will.

Yeah. There is a lot of things I miss.

My sister became a grandmother

10 months after she left.

She would have been an amazing grandmother.

We were lucky that, you know, I grew up with her

and got to share a room with her.

We both didn't go very far from the family farm.

Every day.

♪♪

Every day.

♪♪

I feel that the community up here

is maybe not as open.

I just think that they have fear built up inside of them

because what if this could happen to us

if we allowed somebody to stay with us?

And when I'm up at the head start,

I think if my families are in stress

and I can't do something for them, I say,

"Liz give me the strength to show me

what I need to do to help this family."

And I always, always,

always figure out a way to help a family.

She is my guardian angel.

♪♪

You just learn to move on and still hold

that memory of the gift

that she give to some of our kids in our town.

Her love and caring for those kids

played a vital role in our future.

I mean, it's still there.

You'll never forget something like this

happening in this town,

but it's not something that they want to say,

"this is what happens in payette, Idaho," you know?

It's not that kind of town.

We are hurt by each tragedy,

but we do band together, and we get stronger.

♪♪

Time helps to ease the anger.

It's easier to celebrate her a little bit more,

so I keep thinking, "I'm going to live for you.

I'm going to do things that you would have done

if you would have been here."

And so that's what I try to do for Liz.

I keep her alive in those ways, you know?

♪♪

I keep her alive in those ways, you know?