Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- There are cases that stay with detectives

years after the investigation has closed.

♪ ♪

What they uncover,

what loved ones witnessed,

can never be unseen.

- Wow!

- Tonight on "The First 48: Critical Minutes"...

We look back at three of those homicides.

- There's no head.

- A dismembered body found in the woods...

- Did he cut it off himself?

- The kids discovered her.

- A young mother strangled in her car.

- Ooh, my God.

- And two friends burned beyond recognition.

- They never saw it coming.

- [sobs] That was my baby.

♪ ♪

- Tulsa Police!

- Come on, baby. Light up like a Christmas tree.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- There are cases that are vicious,

cases where the victim was dismembered or burned.

♪ ♪

You have to ask yourself,

"What is going on inside of a person's head

that could get them to that level of violence"

That a person that can do this

is capable of absolutely anything.

That haunts you.

[somber music]

[dog barks]

[birds chirping]

[rooster crows]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- Might've--there's no head.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: The body is missing the head and hands.

♪ ♪

- And those are burned.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- We have a torso, so that's good.

narrator: The medical examiner will have to perform

an autopsy to determine the cause of death

and the gender of the body.

- Can't tell if it's female or male.

- Yeah. - Did look a male, doesn't it?

narrator: Detectives believe the victim is a man.

[rooster crows]

♪ ♪

- I can tell you that we're behind the ball.

We need to identify this person

to see who he is,

and so the investigation can actually commence.

At this point, we're stuck.

♪ ♪

Good luck trying to solve this one.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

We have had murders, but not to this brutality.

This might be my first one, and...

♪ ♪

I don't see how anybody can do this to a person.

♪ ♪

[phone rings]

Montenegro. Can I help you?

- Hey, come look at the pictures.

[tense music]

- Are these autopsies? Wow, they cleaned it up nice.

- Mm-hmm. - Let me see.

♪ ♪

- It's a rat or a mouse with a top hat.

♪ ♪

- That's a good one.

narrator: The victim had a memorial tattoo

over his heart,

and a rat tattooed on his back.

- The tattoos that Loan identified,

it's gonna go out to the public through a newscast.

Right now, it's identifying this individual

is our most important thing.

Time is crucial, and...

the longer it takes for me to identify this guy,

the colder it gets.

♪ ♪

[somber music]

narrator: The man's son is 27-year-old John Allen Flatt.

♪ ♪

- We've checked everywhere.

- Checked out all the jails, hospitals..

- Hospitals, everything. - Okay.

♪ ♪

- OK.

- Right.

♪ ♪

- Um...

he never mentioned that he was feuding

or fighting with anybody over anything?

- No.

[suspenseful music]

- We're going to where the complainant lives,

last known address.

At this point, I'm trying to get lucky here.

And try and see if we can find anything wort.

that can lead me to the people that he was dealing w.

♪ ♪

Who's in there?

♪ ♪

narrator: Inside the house,

Montenegro finds JB's roommate.

- JB stays here?

- Yeah, he sure did. Yeah.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Angel Tovar has quite a history.

♪ ♪

This may be Yellow Boy. Johnny Ehrich.

Looks like Yellow Boy has had

a couple run-ins with the law as well.

♪ ♪

narrator: The gang unit searches

for A-Way and Yellow Boy...

♪ ♪

And come up empty.

♪ ♪

[door creaking]

[tense music]

- What happened?

- Today I wasn't aware...

narrator: She admits that three days

before JB's body was found,

she was woken up by the sound of gunfire

in her house.

- About what time did you hear?

- You hear how many shots?

- And went back in the room.

- OK.

narrator: She says she hid in the room

for a couple of hours.

At some point during the night,

A-Way and Yellow Boy left the house.

♪ ♪

- She thinks A-Way and Yellow Boy

are responsible for killing John.

♪ ♪

narrator: Montenegro and the crime scene unit

head back to JB's home

to look for evidence of his murder.

♪ ♪

- That's a perfect place to kill somebody back here.

♪ ♪

- See?

Something like that would do it.

narrator: Detectives find two small sas

that they think could have been used

to dismember the body.

♪ ♪

[indistinct voices]

- I wonder what they did with the head, man.

I wonder--this is the complainant right here.

♪ ♪

- Mon? - Yeah.

narrator: Then, in a back room,

Detective Leo Gonzalez makes a discovery.

- You think? - Yeah.

♪ ♪

- What do you think?

♪ ♪

I think there was a big stain of blood ther.

and I think they poured paint over it.

♪ ♪

If it happened, it happened here.

♪ ♪

narrator: Investigators prep to spray the room

with a chemical called Bluestar.

Bluestar will glow in the dark

when it comes in contact with blood.

- You ready?

♪ ♪

Spray this, that, that...

♪ ♪

- When you arrive at a crime scene,

and you find a body that's mutilated beyond recognition,

that's an investigation in itself.

Not only finding out a cause of death,

but finding out just who this person is.

People think that police officers are not huma,

but we see things that the average person

does not see.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

both: Oh, man!

- [laughs] - Man!

♪ ♪

[whistles] That's got the handles

and everything, man. - Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

- Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪

- That's all blood.

♪ ♪

That's perfect.

♪ ♪

OK, we need to find and locate A-Way and Yellow Boy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Two days later...

♪ ♪

Angel Tovar, AKA A-Way,

is tracked down and brought to headquarters

for an interview.

♪ ♪

- My guy here just located one of my suspects.

At this point, all I have is secondhand information,

and I really need for him to talk.

[door creaking]

[door slams]

I'm handling this case, mm-kay?

And, uh...

just want to let you know, Angel, that...

I would like to talk to you about it, mm-kay?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- You got every single right to do that.

Well, you're gonna be booked in for murder.

- For murder? - OK?

- Why am I being charged with murder?

- Well...

you exercised that right to remain silent, remember?

[suspenseful music]

He asked for a lawyer, so it stops right there.

Unfortunately, I got ten days to gather all the evidence

possible to charge him with murder.

At this point, we're, uh...

we're running against the clock trying to look for Yellow Boy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Seven days later...

the gang unit gets a tip on Yellow Boy's whereabouts.

♪ ♪

They find him hiding under a house

and bring him to Homicide.

[door creaks]

- All right?

Let me tell you something.

We know for a fact that you was at the he

the night that JB got killed.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

Seriously.

- Well...

we're talking about a murder charge.

And do you underst--

- I got nothing to do with the murder!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- So...

♪ ♪

- What happened after he shot JB?

- I don't know!

Yes, sir...

Sir.

- I believe you threw up when you saw what you saw.

♪ ♪

- [sniffling]

- All right. All rig.

I'm gonna get with Detective Monteneg,

and I'm gonna tell him to go ahead and do the warrant.

- If you need something, knock on the door.

He'll be glad to come talk to you.

But we can't help you unless you help yourself.

[door creaks, slams]

[tense music]

narrator: Detectives decide to let Yellow Boy

stew for a little while.

♪ ♪

[knocking on door]

♪ ♪

[door creaking]

- Here you go, John. Hear you smoke.

- [sighs]

- [sniffs, exhales]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Let's pick up from what you told Ellz.

♪ ♪

Where'd you all take him?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Then what happened?

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Did he cut it off himself?

♪ ♪

- Why?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Why did he do it?

Did he owe money? Did they go raw?

- He must've told you.

Nothing?

narrator: Yellow Boy agrees to take detectives to the lae

where Angel dumped the bucket.

♪ ♪

- You remember it was between this tree and this truck?

♪ ♪

- The orange.

[indistinct chatter]

- Pull him out. Let's pull him out.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Apparently, it's been filled with cement.

And of course, there's a...

odor of decomposition coming from that bucket.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

What they did to John Flatt was monstrous.

They need to answer up to what they did.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Investigators never forget cases

that involve children.

In this next case from Tulsa,

two children experienced a devastating trauma

when they discovered their mother dead in her ca.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Got no keys...

no cell phone.

- And who's that gal?

♪ ♪

narrator: 34-year-old Michelle Spence

was born and raised in Tulsa.

[somber music]

She was a single mother

who worked as a dental assistant

to support her two sons,

ages 14 and 10.

♪ ♪

- Part of her neck looks kind of swollen.

narrator: The M.E. believes Michelle was strangled.

- How far in rigor is she?

narrator: Investigators think Michelle has been dead

for at least 20 hours.

[tense music]

- The kids discovered her.

- Oh, my gosh.

♪ ♪

- They hadn't seen Mom...

narrator: Michelle's sons left their home,

two miles from the crime scene,

in search of their missing mother.

♪ ♪

- As they're walking, they recognize the van.

♪ ♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Four hours in,

Michelle's sister Stephanie arrives.

♪ ♪

- OK.

♪ ♪

- Kim called me.

I said, "I'm gonna get ahold of Renese."

♪ ♪

Because Renese is always around Michelle.

There's something to be known about Michell,

he's gonna know it.

♪ ♪

So I messaged him.

I said, "Hey."

This was at 12:24.

Said, "Have you seen Michelle?"

He said, "No, I seen her Monda.

We don't talk much nowadays."

He said, "She's got different guys

she's seeing nowadays."

I said, "She's dead.

The cops found her dead in her car."

And he said, "Oh, my God."

He said, "My phone's about to die.

I'm so [bleep] up over this."

And then he deleted his Facebook.

As soon as I found out

that she was in the back of her car, naked and dead,

I knew automatically, right there,

it was Renese. - Why?

- He has done this to her in the past.

He raped her in the back of that parking lot

over there near Riverside.

♪ ♪

narrator: She says Renese

allegedly assaulted Michelle in 2013.

♪ ♪

- They ended up getting into an argum.

She said he...

threw her in the back of the car and...

he tied her up with the scarf that she had around her n.

She said, "I was seeing black."

She said, "Every time I'd sit up,

he would hit me again."

She said, "I literally thought I was gonna die that night."

♪ ♪

narrator: 44-year-old Renese Bramlett

was convicted of assault and battery

and domestic assault in 2003.

He served nearly four years in prison

before being released in 2007.

♪ ♪

- Looks like he drives a dark green

1994 Cadillac Seville.

♪ ♪

And we're gonna go back to 2013

when our victim made a police report

alleging that she was assaulted by Mr. Bramlett.

♪ ♪

According to her sister, she had a scarf on,

and the suspect used the scarf to choke her.

♪ ♪

I see nothing in here that alleges a rape.

♪ ♪

Looking at the police reports, I believe the victim

did not want to prosecute at the time.

She decided to let everything just drop.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team heads out to Renese's apartment

to see if he'll talk.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[knocking on door]

- Renese Bramlett!

♪ ♪

Tulsa Police!

Come to the front door!

[knocks on door]

♪ ♪

- In cases where domestic violence

escalates into murder,

oftentimes women stay with abusive relationships

because they're afraid.

There have been threats that, "If you ever leave me,

"I'll kill you.

I'll kill you and the kids."

It's very complicated.

The most obvious person is the significant other,

but you have to be able to prove that.

[knocking on door]

[tense music]

- Yeah, there is nothing.

♪ ♪

narrator: Renese isn't home.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: The next afternoon...

[phone rings]

♪ ♪

- Homicide. Brown.

narrator: Stephanie, the victim's sister,

calls with another lead.

♪ ♪

- OK, we will head your direction,

and I can talk to you face-to-face.

♪ ♪

- This was her Gmail account associated with that phone.

And here's the map.

♪ ♪

The last location known...

was a bus station.

♪ ♪

1:47 p.m.

narrator: Ten hours before Michelle's body was foun,

GPS puts her phone at the bus station.

♪ ♪

- I seen that, and I was like, "Aha."

- Off to the bus station.

- There is kind of some good stuff

from the Gmail account there.

♪ ♪

- If you look your side, I'll look mine.

narrator: They search the bus station parking lot

for Renese's car.

♪ ♪

- Oop.

How about a green Caddy right over here?

Is that a Caddy?

- That's a Caddy right there.

- It's green.

♪ ♪

Tow it, get a warrant, get it processed,

and see what's in it.

♪ ♪

narrator: Inside the bus station...

- I'm looking to see if that guy

got on any of the buses getting out of here.

March 20th in the afternoon.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- It appears that Mr. Bramlett

caught the 2:00 bus out the 20th,

headed for Chicago.

Not a lot of folks, if they had nothing

to do with anything, run free out of reason,

change the tags on your car, park your car,

and then take a bus out, so.

♪ ♪

It's frustrating that you have the right individual,

but yet you don't have enough evidence

to put them in jail.

narrator: To get a warrant, Brown needs to prove

that Renese was with Michelle on the night of the murder.

♪ ♪

- Well, I'm gonna start typing up a warrant for his record.

- Yeah, we need his cell phone records,

'cause if we can get his phone tracking

in the same places where she's been,

that would be awesome.

- Once we get the phone records from Michelle and Renese,

that information could be vital to this investigation.

♪ ♪

narrator: A week later...

♪ ♪

Michelle and Renese's phone records are finally in.

- So we're starting out when she arrives home.

And then everything just flows.

♪ ♪

narrator: At 11:30 p.m.,

Renese's phone shows up at Michelle's house.

- He stays with her the entire time.

All the way to the bus station.

I mean, they're connected

throughout the entire period of time.

♪ ♪

- We think that what he did was,

he killed her, put her in her car,

took her car down to that complex,

dumped the body, went back to his apartment,

which is right across the street.

♪ ♪

Then we believe he walked back to her house

to get his vehicle.

♪ ♪

So right now, do we have probable cause

to arrest him? I think so.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

narrator: A few days later...

- He gave us a story,

and now that he's locked into that story,

and the story he gave doesn't jive

with any of the information that we have.

♪ ♪

It's unfortunate that the kids found Mom.

Hopefully, with time,

they'll be able to get rid of some of the pain

of finding their mother deceased.

And hopefully, they'll eventually be able

to get past this.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

- Detectives frequently see senseless homicides

over drug deals gone wrong.

But this next case in Dallas had a brutality

that makes it especially hard to forget.

♪ ♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

- The fire department responded to a call I heard tonight

regarding a Ford Crown Victoria that was set on fire.

And it was only till after they put out the fire

that they discovered two victims

in the trunk that were deceased.

That's when I got the call.

Uh...fire was pretty bad.

It is burned pretty bad.

You can't read the license plate number,

all the paint has been burned off.

We found a major piece of evidence out here.

♪ ♪

narrator: Police found a cell phone

five feet from the car.

- Too dark out here right now to see anything.

Don't want us to destroy any evidence,

so we're gonna tow that car

to the medical examiner's office

with the bodies in the trunk

and process it tomorrow morning.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: The next morning...

[phone rings] - This is Thompson.

And what was he wearing?

narrator: She says he was also wearing

a Lincoln High School sweatshirt.

- According to this mother, her son left yesterday

earlier in the day with another young man.

These individuals who may be the deceased, so...

♪ ♪

- That is a hot, hot fire.

Oh, my gosh.

It got so hot that it buckled the roof.

♪ ♪

narrator: The team turns to the victims in the trunk.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: A piece of one victim's shirt

is still intact.

♪ ♪

- This is gonna be Govan.

All right.

[somber music]

narrator: 20-year-old Steven Govan

was a student at Cedar Valley College.

A former high school basketball star,

he hoped to become a basketball coach.

He leaves behind his parents, four siblings,

and a two-year-old son.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

They remove the second victim from the trunk.

♪ ♪

- His first name is Johnathan. Johnathan Williams.

narrator: Investigators believe

the second victim is Steven's friend,

19-year-old Johnathan Williams.

♪ ♪

Johnathan grew up in Dallas,

and is the father of a three-year-old girl.

♪ ♪

- This is a brutal business here.

[suspenseful music]

Tell me the story.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- At whose house?

narrator: She says the house is abandoned

and used to buy and sell drugs.

- Who are the boys?

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Daryl?

♪ ♪

OK, who else is there?

Yeah, go ahead. Well, keep going.

- And then, like...

♪ ♪

- OK, keep going.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: She says she went into a back bedroom...

then Daryl came into the room with her.

- OK.

♪ ♪

- Pow! Pow! Pow!

♪ ♪

narrator: Soon after, she saw Nate and Daryl

putting the bodies in the trunk

of the victim's car.

- And then...

♪ ♪

- You talk about cold-blooded, Sarge,

oh, my goodness.

Can you believe that?

That's the most incredible story

I've ever heard in my life.

♪ ♪

narrator: Thompson looks up the three suspects.

The first suspect is 19-year-old Daryl Dotson.

Daryl has no prior convictions.

The second suspect is 18-year-old Nathan Scott.

He also has no prior convictions.

- OK, we need her to show us where the crime scene is

because there's gonna be a bloody crime scene over there.

♪ ♪

Which one is it?

- Where?

- The beige one right here?

♪ ♪

- I think they just forgot the AK-47.

They were in such a rush to clean up

and get out of there they just simply missed i.

♪ ♪

They made some mistakes,

and that's what's gonna get 'em caught.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[somber music ]

narrator: They have already been notified

about Steven's death.

- So this is where it gets a little tough, OK?

But you're gonna--you know, you're gonna hear it later on.

You know, so I would prefer to be the one to tell it.

Uh...moment they walk in the door...

you know, you got one guy with an AK-47.

- No.

[sniffs]

- And, uh, they never saw it com.

- [sobs]

- Then, uh...

they took blankets and covered the bodies up in blankets...

♪ ♪

And set 'em on fire. - [wails]

- That's the story. That's the st.

♪ ♪

- [crying] They didn't have to do him like this.

He wasn't that type of child.

He wasn't--

- Do you have these guys,

uh, these suspects in custody?

Or not yet?

- I'm working on it.

I'm working hard as I can work on it.

I've got one in custody.

Two running.

- You police, you tell him how much he hurt...

- I will, I will. - He don't understand.

- I know, ma'am. I know.

- Promise me, you'll tell him I'm--I'm--

- And I will tell him how bad he's hurt you and your family.

- That was my baby.

- I know.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Two weeks later...

♪ ♪

They catch Nathan Scott at a relative's house.

♪ ♪

- I just wanna know what happen.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

narrator: Nate says he was in the middle

of the drug deal...

♪ ♪

When Daryl suddenly entered the room.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- I know that Daryl had the chopper,

and you had the other gun.

I already know that.

- Listen to me.

We can't change the horrible thg

that has happened.

I just need to know why.

♪ ♪

- OK.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK, Nate.

♪ ♪

Do they ever pull out any guns?

♪ ♪

- Steven's mom wanted me to tell you

that she's hurting pretty bad, man.

♪ ♪

- Now that it's all over, Nate,

how do you feel about it?

♪ ♪

- I'll be right back.

♪ ♪

I can't make sense of it, ma.

He didn't help me make sense of it.

You know, a detective told me this years ago.

He said, "Man, you need to quit wondering why."

[snorts]

When he said it, I thought it was the most horrible thing.

I mean, I see now that he's right.

♪ ♪

The next step in this deal is Daryl.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

What happened in the trap, man?

♪ ♪

- You weren't in the trap?

- Nah. - [laughs] Really?

- No. - So why you running?

- Man, this is your chance to be a man...

about what happened in the trap!

You know you came out from behind the wall

with the chopper!

It is what it is, Daryl!

- Were you in when they got murdered?

- You wasn't there? Wow.

So what would you say if a whole slew of people

said that you were?

Would they be lying?

- You're cool with that? - I have my day--

- You're cool with that?

- I am very cool with that.

- That's a good thing. There we go.

Have a good trip, man. All right.

Get that young boy and take him to jail.

♪ ♪

That's where he goes, you know, out there,

they're tough out there.

Then when they get in here, it's a whole different story.

♪ ♪

You know, I expected that, though.

I didn't expect for Daryl Dotson

to show any signs of being a man.

♪ ♪

I'm a little empty.

I'm a little empty now that the case is all over with,

and now it seems like every single day...

♪ ♪

You know, we learned one more tragic thing

on top of another tragic thing.

And it's just hard to fathom the thought that,

in cold blood, load 'em up in a car,

burn 'em like trash.

♪ ♪

- Homicide detectives see and experience things

that the average person can't even begin to imagine.

It is difficult to go home and reconnect

with the regular world after you've been dealing

with these type of things all night.

You have to find ways to decompress.

You have to have a very understanding family

that understands the things that you're dealing with.

It's tough, but it does make me

see the world differently.

It makes me appreciate the good in people.

♪ ♪