Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- After a homicide, detectives often speak

to the victim's friends to get a sense of what

might have happened to them.

- But sometimes a friend turns out to be an enemy.

- I've seen another passport with his face

on it with a different name.

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

- Detectives face a web of lies

when a woman is thrown away.

- He said, I wonder if anybody would miss Jamie.

- Then a couple turns on each other

after a gruesome discovery in their basement.

- How many shots did you hear?

- And a dispute over car repairs

spirals out of control.

- I don't want another day to go by that he walks

the streets of Birmingham.

- Hands! Hands!

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[shouting]

[siren wails]

♪ ♪

narrator: Atlanta, Georgia.

From a dog park--

[dog barking]

A man calls 911.

[line ringing]

Ummmmm

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- Wow.

♪ ♪

- Wait up.

- 1, 2, 3.

- A female.

She look beat up pretty good.

♪ ♪

narrator: The cause of death

will be determined at the autopsy.

- Fingerprints and then swabbing for DNA.

- OK.

- If she fought back, hopefully we'll find DNA

of the person who did this.

- As a homicide investigator, we are people too.

The same things that affect a regular person affects us.

We handle it, we process it in a different way.

But when you see someone who not only took a person's life

but discarded them just like they were trash,

you owe it to that person's family.

This is somebody that somebody loved,

and you owe it to them to bring justice to this case.

[shutter clicks]

narrator: Detectives canvass the area for any witnesses.

- I appreciate your assistance, OK?

Sir, how are you doing?

Detective Thomas.

narrator: Then--

- What's her name?

narrator: a man says his girlfriend has gone missing.

- And when the last time you saw her?

narrator: He hasn't heard from her in two days.

[voice breaking] Yeah.

♪ ♪

narrator: The victim is 41-year-old Tyna Bass.

She lived in Saint Louis before moving to Atlanta.

♪ ♪

Her neighbors affectionately called her "Tiny."

♪ ♪

- We have to eliminate everybody.

Is it possible we can just swab you now?

- OK, come on.

♪ ♪

I'm gonna do all I can, OK?

♪ ♪

narrator: Then--

- We got this cat named Jeff.

narrator: Detective Scott Berhalter

has found a friend of Tyna's.

- Residents told me that Jeff knows everything that

goes on in this neighborhood.

narrator: Jeff says he and Tyna

were hanging out at his house.

narrator: He says two men approached Tyna.

narrator: He says the men asked Tyna

to join them in the truck.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: According to Jeff,

his neighbor has a surveillance camera.

[suspenseful music]

- Hey, sir. - Hey.

- I'm Detective Thomas with Atlanta Homicide.

See if they have some surveillance video.

♪ ♪

He's going to email me a timeline

from 8:30 to about 11:00.

- Here's the thing.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Jeff said it was around 10 o'clock

when Tiny got in the U-Haul.

narrator: Detectives scan the video

around the time Jeff claims he last saw Tyna.

- I don't see the Hispanic guys.

I don't see the victim.

I don't see any U-Haul truck.

Let's see.

♪ ♪

Jeff has a history of being violent.

narrator: 56-year-old Jeff Bolton

has prior convictions for theft and aggravated assault.

- This video is not backing up Jeff's story.

Definitely going to have to see if I can get

a search warrant at his house.

♪ ♪

There was an autopsy this morning.

Strangulation was the cause of death.

Tyna also had defensive wounds,

so getting DNA is going to be key.

♪ ♪

narrator: Search warrant in hand,

the team meets at Jeff's house.

- The doors are locked,

and we'll have to force entry into the house.

- Atlanta Police! Search warrant!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- What's that right there?

It's dried blood.

That's a footprint.

- Let's see if it matches up with our victim.

♪ ♪

narrator: In the basement--

narrator: They discover the same kind of blanket

found wrapped around Tyna's body.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Is it possible we can just go talk in the office?

♪ ♪

- All right, Jeff, man.

Just want to try to find out what happened.

- So when you were out there,

you seen her get in a U-Haul truck.

- Your story don't make sense.

♪ ♪

Wasn't no U-Haul there on Sunday night.

I've watched video.

- You understand what happened to her?

That somebody whooped her ass and choked her out?

We're trying to figure out who did this to this lady.

- She was somebody's daughter.

So don't this make you upset?

- You know we swabbed you on the scene yesterday, right?

We swabbed your mouth.

♪ ♪

- I'm just worried about that blood that's in your house.

♪ ♪

Why you got blood in your house?

- [scoffs]

- All right.

But I want you to think about this, OK?

'Cause we're going to talk again.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

[door clicks]

Jeff making me a little uneasy right now.

He said he had sex with the victim.

So it's kind of like he's trying to cover up his tracks.

I don't have enough to prove it right now,

but I'm starting to believe that Jeff killed Tyna.

♪ ♪

[keyboard clacks]

Crime Stoppers tip.

Caller was told that the man that was interviewed

on Channel 2, Daryl Wright, was drinking

and getting high with the victim that night.

And he got mad at her, and hit her, and killed her.

♪ ♪

narrator: An anonymous tipster says a man named Daryl Wright

may be Tyna's killer.

- Caller also said that someone else pushed her

in the trash can to the dog park.

♪ ♪

- Longtime neighbors told us it was Tyna Marlene Bass

stuffed in the can.

- She was part of the neighborhood.

- Police are asking anyone-- - I know that guy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Detectives know Daryl Wright.

Goes by the nickname "Freeze-O."

- It's possible that Freeze-O and Jeff are involved.

Maybe he strangled Tyna and had Jeff move the body.

I've got to get with old Freeze-O

and see what he has to say.

- People are creatures of habit.

You know, you talk to the people that

are closest to that person.

Sometimes friends know a whole lot more about you

than family does.

You trust your friends.

You tell them your deepest, darkest secrets.

So in a lot of instances, they are much closer to you

than blood relatives.

narrator: A few days later, Thomas locates Freeze-O.

♪ ♪

- All right.

So you understand this is a murder investigation, right?

- Why would they say you did it?

- Y'all have gotten into a fight before, right?

- Were you drinking on Sunday?

- What about drugs?

- And were you and Tyna smoking on Sunday?

- OK, what I want you to understand is this.

I already know that you and Tyna

were doing dope on Sunday.

I already know the story.

♪ ♪

narrator: Freeze-O admits he was with Tyna

the night before her body was found.

- That's what I'm talking about.

♪ ♪

- This Freeze-O dude, if his DNA comes back on top of her,

that's going to tell the tale.

- Jeff either knows what happened,

or he and the neighbor killed her together.

I'm going to go back and talk to Jeff

and see if he can tell me what really happened.

[dark music]

♪ ♪

- Hey, Jeff.

- Can you talk for a few minutes, man?

♪ ♪

- Just tell me what happened.

- Tell me what happened, Jeff.

- Was Freeze-O at your house Sunday night?

narrator: Thomas asks if Freeze-O

was with Jeff and Tyna

the night before she was found dead.

- The street's talking, bro.

Whatever Freeze-O did, you need to come up off it.

And I want to hear your story.

♪ ♪

- Was it an accident?

- Who caused the accident?

- Are you scared of Freeze-O? - Mm.

- You want to get in front of this.

You don't want him to be the main one saying

what somebody else did, do you?

♪ ♪

narrator: Jeff says that Freeze-O

was not involved in Tyna's death.

♪ ♪

- I don't have enough to charge him

or Jeff at this point.

Hopefully, DNA will clear this up without a confession.

There's just not a whole lot to go on.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Several months later--

- It's been a long game that we've been waiting.

narrator: The DNA results have finally come in.

- None of Freeze-O's DNA showed up on Tyna.

narrator: Based on DNA evidence,

the police no longer consider Freeze-O a suspect.

But Jeff Bolton's DNA was underneath her fingernails.

♪ ♪

- The DNA under the fingernails is a smoking gun.

The way she died, the hands tell the story.

narrator: The team believes Jeff's DNA

got under Tyna's fingernails

as she struggled to fight him off.

- And the blood from Jeff's house was Tyna.

- It's him.

narrator: Jeff Bolton is currently

in jail on a drug charge.

- So let them add this murder warrant to him.

♪ ♪

narrator: Louisville, Kentucky.

9:30 PM.

The historic old Louisville neighborhood,

just south of downtown.

[sirens wailing]

♪ ♪

narrator: Patrol officers respond within minutes.

♪ ♪

They find the caller in a locked bedroom unharmed.

They arrest the caller's boyfriend, Joey Banis.

♪ ♪

Then, on the way to the station,

Joey makes a startling claim.

He says a man was killed in his house

and buried in the basement.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- All right, well, this is a-- kind of a backwards way

of working a homicide.

Right now, we're not even sure if we've got a body.

- As a police officer,

you don't get a whole lot of people saying, hey,

I got a body buried in the basement.

So when somebody tells you that,

it does get your attention.

And it does trigger something inside of your head

and tells you, I probably need to investigate this.

And when you do investigate it and you find that there's

a body there, it sends off a whole lot

of different emotions inside of you as to how in the world

can anybody do this.

- I'm going to go over here, and sit in,

and try to get him to talk to us

and maybe tell us what happened.

♪ ♪

Earlier tonight, you told the uniformed officers

about a homicide.

- Yes. - OK.

narrator: Joey claims that around Thanksgiving

of the previous year, his boyfriend,

who called 911, Jeff Mundt,

killed someone and buried the body

in the basement of his house.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

- You're not making this stuff up?

This is not a lie to get back at him

because you were arrested?

- No, not at all.

- So this happened back around Thanksgiving.

Today is June.

What's your motivation today to tell us about this?

He was a agent for the NSA.

♪ ♪

He's got several different identities.

I've seen another passport with his face

on it with a different name.

♪ ♪

- Do you know the victim's name?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- I'm kind of skeptical.

We get a lot of domestic disputes

where the significant others come up to the office

and give us some bogus stories.

But we need to find out if Joey is telling us the truth

or not.

narrator: King looks up the potential victim,

Jamie Carroll.

- Well, there's a James Carroll

about 70 miles outside of Lexington.

It could be our victim.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Did he ever go into detail

on how he's gonna frame you for that?

- He gave us a description of a murder

that was committed in the residence.

The body's supposed to be buried in the basement.

- Oh my God.

narrator: Jeff says he doesn't know

anything about the murder.

They decide to bring Jeff Mundt to headquarters

for further questioning.

The team heads downstairs to search the basement.

♪ ♪

- Is that loose dirt right there?

- Mm.

♪ ♪

[tool scraping]

narrator: Detectives begin digging.

[shoveling dirt]

- [grunting]

[shoveling]

Hours pass.

♪ ♪

- I think we got our body.

♪ ♪

narrator: In an upstairs bedroom,

detectives find spots of blood on a pillow

and a bullet hole in the door.

They believe the murder may have happened in that room.

♪ ♪

- I'm getting ready to go back in and interview Jeff again.

Got a couple more questions.

Then we'll find out who's telling the truth here.

♪ ♪

Well, I'm just going to lay it out there, OK?

♪ ♪

Um...

- Can you tell me if there's somebody buried in my house?

- There is. - Oh, my God.

[sniffling]

♪ ♪

- I know you guys are in a relationship,

and it's, and it's hard to--

- We are not in a relationship anymore in my mind.

- OK.

- Whatever information I have, I'm happy to share.

- OK.

Now, let's go to around Thanksgiving time.

- I went away for Thanksgiving.

narrator: Jeff says he was at his parent's house in Indiana

over Thanksgiving weekend when Joey says the murder happened.

He says Joey stayed behind to take care of their pets.

- After coming back, you didn't notice anything new?

♪ ♪

- Anything moved around in your apartment?

♪ ♪

- Not that I recall.

I mean-- well, there were a couple

of, uh, like plastic boxes.

They were just moved around

like he'd been cleaning up behind them.

- Like a Rubbermaid type of-- - Yeah.

♪ ♪

- Did Joey ever discuss his-- his drug usage?

- There were signs that he was using drugs, yeah.

I mean, part of it's, you know, you could never tell,

you know, what was fake and what was real.

Because he told all kinds of stories

that make his life more interesting, I guess.

I mean, like, you know,

I work for the CIA and the NSA.

I'm like, why is he telling people this?

I do not work for any intelligence agency,

nor have I ever worked for any Intelligence agency.

♪ ♪

It wasn't until recently that I started

to believe that actually, you know,

I was personally in danger.

I mean, I thought this was all bluff and bluster.

[ominous music]

- Give me just a second. - Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

- According to Jeffrey, he had no clue that anything was

down there in the basement.

He's being extremely cooperative.

Now, it's going to be interesting to find out

what happens when we start asking

the hard questions to Joey.

♪ ♪

- I've got some questions for you now, OK?

- I mean, everything that I told you panned out, correct?

- I've been in a hot, sweaty basement digging up a body.

♪ ♪

I need you to be totally honest with me, OK?

- I didn't do it.

- You know what happened.

- So...

God knows how much money he had on him.

Jeff, he said, I wonder if anybody would miss Jamie.

[ominous music]

He's got all these drugs and all this money.

It sure would be nice not to have

to spend money on crystal.

♪ ♪

We started to get high.

Jamie and Jeff were in the bed naked.

And before-- before I knew it,

Jeff had stabbed Jamie.

♪ ♪

Jamie jumped up. There was blood flying.

♪ ♪

Jeff had pulled a revolver out,

and before I knew it,

had shot Jamie.

♪ ♪

He wrapped Jamie into a bunch of bed linens

and dragged him downstairs to the basement.

♪ ♪

- Did you have more involvement in this?

♪ ♪

- Jeff had me help him clean up,

and I eventually ended up downstairs

helping him dig the hole.

♪ ♪

I thought at that point

that he was going to kill me.

♪ ♪

- Can you imagine walking around with the guilt of

not just killing somebody,

but the body being buried in your basement?

You'd think, I need to be the first

to get to the table to tell this story

so I can minimize my role.

But when you talk about going to jail for the rest

of your life or maybe even losing your life,

the dynamics completely change.

- We know that there's a dead guy,

and he was there.

He put himself at the scene, dug the grave,

cleaned the scene, told us where the body was.

He's running in circles.

[phone ringing]

♪ ♪

Homicide, Lesher.

[examiner chatting]

All right, thank you.

Bye-bye.

One gunshot wound, six stab wounds.

♪ ♪

narrator: The results confirm Joey's description

of how Jamie was murdered.

- Joey knows a lot about the details of this murder.

Jeff seems like a straight-laced guy,

and he says he knows nothing about the murder

until we told him.

And we're going to get Jeff to take a polygraph test.

And hopefully that will lend some credibility to his story.

♪ ♪

narrator: Polygraphist Mark Bratcher

will conduct a preliminary interview

before administering the polygraph.

- You have to understand today that this is very important.

OK?

You're here to clear your name.

I'm just going to ask you--

- No, I mean--

- Did you kill somebody?

- To murder somebody is not something I can

ever even contemplate doing.

♪ ♪

- If you knew about this murder

or if you've told the investigators something

different than what you're going to tell me,

all right, you're not going to do well on this test.

- Right.

♪ ♪

- So if I ask you if you knew anything about this case...

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Come on out.

narrator: After admitting knowledge of the murder,

Jeff is sent back to the interview room.

♪ ♪

- Golly.

♪ ♪

- You're going to get him.

♪ ♪

- Hop on him. Block him in. - Yeah.

- Go from there.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- Man, I'm shocked right now.

I'm way off on this.

♪ ♪

- I don't remember his name.

He was a drug dealer.

narrator: Jeff admits that he, Joey, and the victim,

Jamie, got high on meth and were having group sex

when Joey pulled out a knife.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: Jeff claims that, after Joey threatened him,

he assisted Joey in burying the victim's body.

♪ ♪

- So he was there.

He knew about this the whole time.

Now, we've got two guys pointing

the fingers at each other.

They both were there now at the crime scene,

when the murder happened.

They just don't want to take the rap, saying, OK, I did it.

We are going to be charging these two

with murder, robbery, and tampering

with physical evidence.

♪ ♪

[door creaks]

There is no remorse for that victim at all.

Between the two of them,

not one drop of remorse.

If these two would not have had

a domestic dispute last night,

none of this would have came out.

♪ ♪

narrator: Birmingham, Alabama.

10:15 PM.

A call comes in from the Ensley neighborhood.

[sirens wailing]

♪ ♪

narrator: The victim has been shot several times,

once in the face.

♪ ♪

narrator: 29-year-old Terrez Watkins

made his living fixing cars in the neighborhood.

He leaves behind three daughters.

[somber music]

- There's a piece of brass right here.

narrator: Investigators find several .45 caliber

shell casings and bullet fragments.

- So there's bullets all over the place.

There's seven to eight shell casings

in a circle around this car.

narrator: Various tools and a car transmission

are lying next to the victim.

- He was getting ready to swap,

and he was swapping transmissions.

♪ ♪

narrator: Detective Jerry Williams

finds a friend of the victim's

who says he was there when Terrez was shot.

He says that he and Terrez were working

on a car for their friend, Denaris Montgomery.

narrator: He told Denaris they would have to wait

until tomorrow to get the missing part.

- How many shots did you hear?

♪ ♪

- Yellowman.

Have you ever had a problem with him before?

- They grew up together?

- You know, you have friends that are well intending,

doing what friends are supposed to do,

being there when you need somebody, doing you a favor.

And sometimes it does not go to script

or how the other person thinks it's supposed to turn out,

and it turns deadly.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- He might be in this apartment over there.

♪ ♪

narrator: They hit Montgomery's apartment,

20 feet from where the victim was shot.

[knocking on door]

- Police. Open the door.

- Hey, what's going on, man?

Can I step in for a minute? - Yeah.

- OK.

narrator: The man says he is the suspect's brother.

He says his brother no longer lives there,

and he does not know where he went after the shooting.

- You mind if I just look?

- Yeah. - OK.

- All right. Appreciate it.

narrator: Their suspect is not inside.

- At least I have a name,

but I'ma need somebody to ID him to get a warrant.

There's more people who saw this,

so hopefully they'll come forward.

[phone ringing]

narrator: Walker receives a tip from an informant.

- So the car you saw last night was a Black Lincoln LS?

narrator: The caller says that one of the suspect's friends

was allegedly at the crime scene

and drove the suspect away in a black Lincoln.

- Where you get that, that he was finna leave

and go out of town?

narrator: The word on the street

is that Yellowman's friend is about to drive him

out of town.

The informant tells Walker

where the Black Lincoln is parked.

[tense music]

- Hey, Chris.

Is that a black Lincoln right there?

- Yeah, 10-4.

♪ ♪

narrator: While CRT units stake out the car,

Walker sets up two blocks away.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Chris, can you tell if anybody else got in

the Lincoln beside the driver?

♪ ♪

- That's 10-4.

♪ ♪

[intense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: They follow the Lincoln as it

pulls into a gas station.

♪ ♪

- Your hands. Hands!

- Hands! Hands!

♪ ♪

- How you doing? - Fine.

- Step out for me, OK?

narrator: The driver is the man who was allegedly

planning to skip town with the suspect.

Yellowman is not there.

The driver is taken to headquarters for questioning.

♪ ♪

- Tell me about last night.

narrator: He admits that the night of the shooting

he was in the parking lot with Yellowman

and two other men while Terrez worked on Yellowman's car.

♪ ♪

- Your story would be more believable if, you know,

I had been born, you know, two or three days ago.

OK, if I got two people out here arguing,

I ain't finna go take no piss right after that.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Terrez dead and gone.

Man, you saw how that boy was shot, man?

That could have been you.

You don't think Yellowman going to say, man,

I got to take all these dudes out.

They know something.

♪ ♪

- Did you see Yellowman shoot Terrez?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- At any point in time,

Yellowman get in your car last night?

♪ ♪

- Have you talked to him today?

- We'll be right back. [door opens]

[door closes]

- It's a done deal right now.

He said he saw our boy shoot him.

You know? - He finally gave it up.

- Yeah.

Hey.

Sit down for a minute.

♪ ♪

Look at that and see if anybody on there you recognize.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- He wasn't able to tell us where Yellowman is,

but he was able to pick him out of a lineup.

So now I have enough to get a warrant

to have Yellowman arrested for this crime.

♪ ♪

narrator: The next morning, the crime reduction team

prepares to hunt for Yellowman.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Yellowman, I don't want another day

to go by that he walks the street of Birmingham.

♪ ♪

We need to get him.

[quiet music]

♪ ♪

- Coming down the alley.

narrator: Denaris "Yellowman" Montgomery turns himself in.

♪ ♪

- He did what he said he was going to do.

And now take him down to headquarters

and wrap this thing up tonight.

♪ ♪

narrator: Yellowman says he left the parking lot

before Terrez was shot.

- So we've got a little problem.

So I'm going to be honest with you, OK?

- Yes, sir.

- 'Cause there was three or four other folks out there

when all this happened, OK?

I know there was an argument.

You and Terrez got into an argument somewhat.

- Well, I'm going to be honest with you, you was.

If you felt threatened or something like that,

now's the time to talk to us and tell us that.

OK?

- Something took place out there.

Everybody make mistakes.

I feel I know you made a mistake.

Because if you didn't,

you wouldn't be so willing to come talk to me.

Because it's eating you up.

- Well, who did?

♪ ♪

- So why are all these folks just lying on you?

Do they don't-- they don't like you?

Y'all have some beef with these guys or something?

Tell me why, because I can't understand it.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- OK. Fine.

All right.

Stand up, put your hands behind your back.

You've been charged with murder.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Two days later...

♪ ♪

Walker meets with the victim's girlfriend,

aunt, and grandmother.

My job was to come out here and give you all some closure,

and let you know that we caught Yellowman

and that we did everything we can to get him.

- But Mama and my sister was best friends.

Both of them died the same year.

- That's what hurts so bad.

- You don't know how much I thank you again.

[sobbing]

- Yes, ma'am.

♪ ♪

- There's a ripple effect of murder.

It doesn't just affect the perpetrator and the victim.

It affects everybody that has a relationship

with the perpetrator.

It affects everybody that has a relationship

with the victim.

And it especially affects everybody

that had relationships that are intertwined

with both of those people.

So there's a definite ripple effect to homicide.

[somber piano music]

♪ ♪