Original subtitles

♪♪

Narrator: The cold-blooded execution Of a middle-aged couple

Puts a community on edge.

And I can still remember.

He had his hands like that, Praying, but he was dead.

There was nothing about These two people

That would cause anyone

To believe that They would be murdered.

Do you have any suspects?

Not at this time.

Narrator: With the pressure mounting,

Detective rod demery partners up

With an ambitious young Investigator to crack the case.

You got two bodies. You need a hand?

From an old-timer like you? Sure. Why not?

I was like, "I have to be Missing something."

There was a secret part of Her life we didn't know about.

Oh, damn.

Narrator: but the road to Justice is paved with pitfalls.

It's hard to sit there And let a killer walk out.

Is he going to go on the run,

Or is he going to kill Somebody else?

It doesn't get any worse Than this.

♪♪

Demery: murder and me, We go way back.

When I was a child, Murder took my mother.

Years later, It came for my brother.

That's when I found My mission in life.

Every case I worked, I solved.

Every case I solved, I got a confession.

I'm detective rod demery.

I didn't choose murder.

Murder chose me.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

It's january 3rd, Around 10:00 in the morning.

Dalynda gilcrease is at work.

[ cellphone rings ]

Hello? Yes. This is she.

Um, no, I haven't talked To her today.

Holmes: dalynda's at work, And she gets a call finds out

That her sister, madonna, Didn't show up to work that day,

And that is unlike madonna Because madonna loves her job.

I'll tell you what. I'll ride Out right now to her place.

I'll find out what's going on.

[ telephone ringing ]Okay. I'll have her call you.

I asked my supervisor if I could leave my work

And go up there, And he said, "Sure."

And I remember telling myself Nothing was going to be wrong,

But in the pit of my stomach, I knew this cannot be good.

I parked behind her car And I called my husband.

I don't like this at all, jerry.

Jerry: Just knock. I'm sure she's fine.

Mm.

I mean, her car is here.

I just don't know why She wouldn't be at work today.

It's just strange.

♪♪

[ knocks on door ]Oh.

[ door creaking ]

And it just kind of opened, And I said,

"Oh, my god, jerry, The door opened."

Madonna? Are you here?

What do you see?

Is she in there?

I don't hear anyone.

I walked into her living room And I looked to the left...

Oh! Aah!

...And I saw stephen there.

Oh, god, jerry! Aah!

Holmes: she sees Madonna's boyfriend, stephen,

Kneeling in front of the couch, In blood.

[ screaming ]

I can still remember.

He had his hands like that, Praying, but he was dead.

Stephen! -is he alive? Where's madonna?

I don't see her!

And I backed out of the house,

And I remember hollering For jerry, "Help me."

Call 911! I'll be right there!

[ screaming ]

And I called 911 And I called my other sister,

And by that time, I heard The fire trucks and the police.

♪♪

Thompson: when officers arrive At the scene,

They come into the house with Their weapons drawn

Because at this point, They do not know

If the perpetrator Is still inside.

-we got another one. -oh, damn.

Are you clear on that end?

-I'm clear. -clear on the second floor.

All right. You want To call for homicide?

320. Go ahead and start homicide And c.S.I. To our location.

♪♪

Have you been to That new steakhouse yet?

Demery: you know, I drove by That place. How is the food?

It's good. It's not cheap, but I Think it's worth the price.

Okay, guys, listen up.

We just got word.

There are two bodies Over in highland.

Highland is one of the safer Neighborhoods in shreveport.

There's really not a lot Going on there

Other than nuisance calls,

But it's kind of rare To get a murder in highland.

-mayfield, you're up. -yes, sir.

In homicide, There's usually a rotation

Who's going to be The lead detective on the case,

And I knew when this call Came in that it was my turn.

You got two bodies. You need a hand?

From an old-timer like you? Sure. Why not?

I tell you what, though. I'm driving.

Not gonna let your young ass Crash. Let's go.

♪♪

Demery: josh mayfield was A newer detective,

So I wanted to be there to kind Of give him a few pointers

On what to do And what not to do.

♪♪

[ siren wailing, Police radio chatter ]

When we get to the house, The first thought is,

"This is going to be A murder-suicide."

Murder-suicides are common With couples.

Somebody loses control,

And they murder the person They're living with or love

And feel overwhelmed And kill themselves.

-are the victims still inside? -yes, sir.

Both of them are In the living room.

Demery: The responding officer told us

That madonna wachter And stephen bryant

Were found inside the home

And that both of them Had been shot.

-any witnesses? -not that we're aware of.

Who found the bodies?

Sir, the female victim's sister Is standing back here.

She, uh, She found stephen bryant.

She is so far unaware That her sister is dead.

Let's take a look inside Before we talk to her, okay?

Yes. I'll follow you.

♪♪

Mayfield: We entered the main living area.

To the left, I notice The body of stephen bryant.

Stephen was on his knees In what, as investigators,

We would sometimes call An execution position.

[ exhales sharply

Stephen was shot in the back And in the back of the head.

The likelihood of him doing that To himself is impossible,

So suicide for stephen was Ruled out almost immediately.

Mayfield: after we observed Stephen's body,

I looked to my left.

Then there was the body Of madonna wachter.

Demery: madonna had one Gunshot wound on the forehead.

-any weapons recovered? -no, sir.

I dismissed the thought of her Being the shooter

When there was no gun.

If the person commits suicide,

There's going to be a gun In proximity,

So whomever shot them Left with the gun.

We did recover three Spent shell casings

That were over here On the floor by the couch.

♪♪

Demery: As I look at madonna's body,

I realize that she's holding About $350 in cash.

I thought that was rather odd.

What do you make of this?

Huh.

Normally, when you see a crime, Money is involved.

Why did whoever kill them Leave money?

She had money in her hands. They had to have seen this.

Officer: you'd also Be interested to know

That we did recover A cellphone from in here.

We've not been able To determine

Whether it's a suspect's phone Or the victim's phone.

Okay.

Well, we'll need A warrant, anyways.

Demery: if the cellphone Belongs to the suspect,

And if you don't have a warrant,

You can lose whatever evidence You find in the phone,

So you need to have A search warrant.

-detectives? -yeah?

We have a bit of A situation out front.

The media is asking questions. -mm-hmm.

And we also have family outside Wanting to know what's going on.

All right. I'll talk to the family.

I'll talk to the media.

Thank you. -thanks.

[ radio chatter continues ][ wind whistling ]

Yeah.

Man over radio: 1-18-9 to the car.

Mayfield: When I went outside and spoke

With madonna And stephen's family,

I was able to confirm That madonna was in the house

And she was deceased.

Hey. Sorry about your loss.

When josh mayfield told me That she was dead,

I couldn't process it.

I don't understand this. How did this happen?

Making death notifications, You know,

Looking at family members In the eyes and telling them,

"They're not coming back," It's a hard job.

There's nothing easy about it.

She wasn't just my sister.

She was my best friend.

Madonna and I talked on A daily basis.

She had a good sense of humor.

She liked to play jokes And she loved to laugh.

When she laughed, The whole room lit up.

She had a really big heart.

She loved family.

And she wanted children so bad,

And she was not able To have children,

So she kind of lived through Her nieces and nephews.

How did her and stephen Get along?

Fine, fine, normal.

They had a good relationship.

Madonna had been married For a long, long time before,

And when she got divorced, She moved to shreveport.

She met steve, And she wasn't lonely anymore.

Stephen bryant had A background in the navy

And also was An accountant by trade

But had recently fallen On hard times

To where he could not work,

And therefore, madonna Was helping him pay bills

While living In stephen's house.

Is there any reason that anybody Would want to hurt them?

No. No!

At this point, I didn't really Have any information

That madonna and stephen may be Having any sort of troubles.

Detective demery, what can you Tell us about the victims?

The victims Have been identified

As madonna wachter And stephen bryant.

The one thing you can do is use The media to your advantage

And kind of arouse Some conversation

Or get some leads From the media.

Do you have any suspects?

Not at this time.

What we are doing is we're Appealing to the public

That if they have Any information,

We're asking them to contact The crime stoppers tip line.

-thank you, detective. -thank you.

The other thing is that Sometimes the media

Will make a story When you don't give them one.

We'll keep you updated When we learn more, okay?

-thank you. -thank you.

[ whispers ] Thank you.

♪♪

How'd it go With the family?

Pretty torn up, As you might expect.

How about you? -the usual.

Think we should get back to The station, update the chief?

Yeah. He's going to want An update asap.

Yeah.

Demery: a double homicide In highland...

Thanks, guys.

...I knew it was going to be a Case where people were watching.

It's going to be covered By the media,

And politically, The chief is going to start

To come down On the investigators

Because it needs to be closed.

Thankfully, when we got back To the station,

There was some good news Waiting for us.

Detective mayfield, Got something for you.

Somebody saw demery on the news

And called in a possible lead To your double homicide.

Anytime you get A crime stoppers tip,

Your heart rate goes up. You get really excited.

It only takes one To really break a case.

What'd they say?

They said the male vic, Stephen bryant,

Supposedly had an ex-girlfriend That wanted him dead.

What's her name?

Carol engle.

Engle.And this was a red flag.

This is something that we needed To follow up on

And do it quickly.

Wonder if we got anything On file for her?

-let's take a look. Thanks, man. -appreciate it.

Demery: old grudges Don't always dissipate with age.

Sometimes, they fester.

Could it be that An old girlfriend wanted

To kill stephen? Absolutely.

♪♪

Demery: Detective mayfield and I are Investigating a double homicide.

The victims are A middle-aged couple,

Stephen bryant And madonna wachter,

Who were found dead In their home.

Now we have received a tip That stephen had

An ex-girlfriend Who wanted to have him killed.

-tip giver name is carol engle. -okay.

Demery: so now we start to Research ms. Engle,

And I realized that there was A police report

From a couple years prior.

Seems that there was Some sort of fight

Between stephen and carol.

[ video game playing ]

-baby, you missed your turn. -what?

You're supposed to turn left On fairfield.

Well, you're supposed To be navigating.

Get off your damn phone. -hey! What are you doing?

Give me that phone.[ tires screeching ]

No, I'm not giving it.

She starts to hit him And scratch him

And do all these other things.

Well, in turn... -stop it!

-...He hits her... -give me that.

Give me that. -...And pulls her hair.

-aah! Stop! -[ shouts indistinctly ]

That's it! I'm outta here!

[ brakes screech ]

Where are you going?!

Away from you, You crazy psycho!

What'd you call me?

I'll kill you, stephen, You piece of...

Where are you going? -at some point when he gets out,

She tries to hit him With the car...

[ tires screech ] -ugh!

...And hit him with the mirror Of the car.

You psycho!

Looks like our guys charged them Both with assault.

Huh. She sounds like somebody We should talk to.

Where's she live?

Um, let's see.

-oh. That changes things. -what's that?

She's locked up.

Carol is jail On a drug-possession charge.

She obviously can't kill someone If she's in jail,

But that doesn't mean she can't Hire someone to kill someone.

I mean, she could've ordered A contract hit.

I mean, that's kind of unusual But not unheard of.

People that hire other people To kill people

Want to somehow remove themself From being a possible suspect.

It's a cowardice way Of killing someone.

Let's go see what she has To say for herself.

Yeah. Let's.

♪♪

We need to talk to you About your ex-boyfriend,

Stephen bryant.

Oh, that boy? He ain't worth [bleep].

Carol was very up front that Stephen didn't treat her the way

She felt that she should be Treated and that she was angry.

You ever tell anyone You want him dead?

Yeah, I might've,

But the angels told me Not to do it, so...

Angels?

You know, up in heaven.

♪♪

They helped Set me straight, so...

Right.

Carol appeared to be Dazed, confused,

And not really present.

I didn't get the sense That carol had the capacity

To hire someone And orchestrate a murder.

So why y'all asking me About stephen?

What's he done?

Well, somebody's done Something to him.

Mayfield: when I told carol That stephen was dead,

You could kind of just see The life come from her face.

She said that She had no idea...

[ whispers ] No. No.

...And that she would never have Had stephen harmed.

Listen, we are sorry For your loss.

After talking to carol, she was Not really a suspect any longer.

♪♪

That put us back to where We started --

More questions than answers.

Mayfield, I've been looking For you. In here now.

♪♪

Once we get back from talking To carol at the prison,

The chief is waiting For mayfield.

What's the status on this Double murder in highland?

Are you guys close to making Any kind of an arrest yet?

Demery: he wants to know What we got.

He has to brief all the people That are calling,

Whether it's the mayor Or the media,

So the pressure is starting To build up on mayfield.

I think we're getting close, Sir, but nothing yet.

Now I understand this is A big case for you, so --

I've got this, sir.

We're going to figure it out.

Mayfield: at this point, I do feel some pressure,

But it's still early In this case,

And I'm certain that more Information will come forward

If you just give it time.

All right. Get to it.

Yes, sir.

♪♪

Hey, look, don't let this guy Stress you out, man.

Yeah, I know.

Tell you what. Why don't we take a look

And see if we can come up With a different angle for this?

Yeah. Okay.

Demery: there was nothing about These two people

That would cause anyone To believe

That they would be murdered,

So there are a lot Of questions still.

Okay, so there was no visible Signs of break-in at the house.

That implies to me that The killer

Must have known One of the victims.

Maybe if we start talking To the neighbors --

-hey, guys. -hey.

-here you go. -thank you.

-mm-hmm. -[ sighs deeply ]

At this point, c.S.I. Come in And give me and rod

The evidence That they have collected,

And I knew that there was A cellphone

That was found At the crime scene.

Judge already signed A warrant off on this guy.

All right.

Let's power it up And see what we got.

Was this madonna's cellphone?

Is it stephen's cellphone,

Or could it be The killer's cellphone?

Luckily, when I opened The phone,

There was a picture of Madonna's house,

And actually, at the bottom Of the cellphone on the screen,

It actually said, "Madonna."

Now we can find out a little bit More about madonna --

Who she communicates with, Who she's talked to.

Whoa.

-you got something? -yeah.

Take a look at that Text message.

-oh, damn. -[ whispers ] Yeah.

Demery: inside madonna's phone Is a series of text messages

That are explicit threats To her life.

At this point, we believe We've struck gold.

♪♪

Demery: detective mayfield and I Are investigating the murder

Of stephen bryant And madonna wachter,

And we finally receive a break.

-whoa. -you got something?

Inside madonna's phone Is a series of text messages

That are explicit threats To her life.

-oh, damn. -[ whispers ] Yeah.

The first text message that I noticed in there

Had to do with a debt That madonna had owed.

It said something To the effect of,

"This time, I'm getting Paid for sure.

"I'm getting it money Or I'm getting it in blood.

You can believe in that Like you believe in jesus."

There are dozens of messages Like this.

Looks like madonna Owed this guy about $500.

I realize the person That she owed the debt to

Needed that money for christmas,

And that's where He was lashing out.

But judging from her replies,

It looks like she was trying To set something up

In order to get This guy his money.

Madonna was like, "Look. I get paid on the 1st,

"But the 1st is a holiday, So on the 2nd, I'll get paid,

And I'll be able to pay you Once I get off work."

Hold on.

She's going to pay him On january 2nd,

But then she and stephen Are killed the next day?

Do you think That this whole thing

Is about her Owing money for drugs?

I was starting to think That madonna and stephen

Had been provided With some narcotics

That they didn't necessarily Have to pay for

Because they didn't have The money at the time

And that the dealer trusted He would be paid back.

Her family say anything About her using drugs?

No, they didn't.

I did not know madonna Was using drugs.

She'd never acted like She was on drugs.

She came to family gatherings, And she was with us quite a bit.

She covered it well, I guess.

There was a secret part of Her life we didn't know about.

What about the threats?

Is there a phone number showing Where they originated from?

Well, the threatening Text messages

Are coming from two Separate numbers.

In one of the messages, It was saved as robert duross.

The other message Just showed up as a number.

The language seems to be pretty Similar between both of them.

Okay, so it sounds like We got one person

Using two different phones To send these messages.

-yeah. -so whoever sent these messages,

We have to link them To those phones.

You have to show that either This person owned the phone

Or had access to the phones.

So who's that last message from, From duross

Or from the nameless number?

Duross.

Start there. Okay.

I want to know, Who is robert duross?

I want to know everything I can know about this guy.

So we drop behind the computer

And enter the name Robert duross.

But as he tries To research this person,

He realizes that This person is a ghost.

Mayfield: "Ghost" means There's no record of him.

It's rare that people Go from angels

To somebody who is able to kill,

And he'd never been in contact With the police ever.

All right, so look, We got to contact

The phone company And find out

Who are the owners Of these phones.

Yeah, that's gonna Take a warrant.

And that's gonna take time.

Mm-hmm.

-well, give me a second. -sure.

I was like, "I have to be Missing something,"

So I began scrolling Through this phone

And located a text That was very arrogant

From this robert duross, And it said,

"I just did a year for murder Behind the same [bleep].

Look it up. My last name is farris."

So now mayfield has A solid suspect

With the last name of farris.

This is an arrogant person Who is daring her,

"Go look me up," and so we went And looked him up.

There's an article about it.

I was able to locate A news article

Showing that a robert farris, Not robert duross,

Robert farris Had been arrested a year ago

For an attempted murder.

Demery: as mayfield continues To research robert farris,

He finds out that farris Was with one of his friends,

Dalando garner.

Both men spent some time In jail,

But the case fell apart when The victim refused to testify.

Do you think that when madonna Tried to save his contact,

She misspelled His last name?

It's possible,

But we don't want to get Too far ahead of ourselves.

This could be a setup.

Someone could be using Robert farris' name.

It could be anybody that has Knowledge of robert farris.

Think what we really need to do Is contact the phone company

And get these warrants and find Out who owns these phones.

I'm going to stay and do A little bit more digging,

See if I can find an address for This farris guy in our files.

-want me to stick around? -no, I'm good.

You sure?

Yeah. Get some rest, You old man.

-old man. -[ josh laughs ]

I got your old man.

All right, bro. I'm around if you need me.

All right. Have a good night.

♪♪

At this point, I'm excited 'cause this guy

Was too arrogant For his own good.

He had made a mistake, And me and rod

Were gonna capitalize on that.

So if we could just get a couple Of uniformed officers

Over there, should be pretty Standard procedure, but...

Okay.

...Don't know what To expect, so...

Hey. [ sighs ] What's happening, man?

Got the warrant approved For the house.

Demery: I come in the next day, And mayfield is planning to do

A search On robert farris' house.

What about the warrant For the cellphones?

Haven't got it Signed off yet.

Mm, a little surprised Because I told mayfield

That the priority should be

Getting a search warrant For the telephones.

The suspect is the last person You talk to

In an investigation, Not the first.

You don't think you're jumping The gun just a little bit?

I know, but this just feels Right, man.

I'm sure mayfield was excited By the fact

That he had robert farris' name,

And I know that he was under A lot of pressure

From the higher-ups To get answers.

All right. It's your case.

Whatever you want to do, I'm here for you.

-let's do this. -okay.

All right. Take care of it?

-they'll meet you there. -thank you.

Demery: he's the lead detective. It's his case.

I'm there to support him.

Mayfield: traveling To robert farris' home,

You're really optimistic You will be able

To find Some type of evidence

That would link robert farris To that crime scene,

But you always err On the side of caution

Because there's a good chance That you're about to come

Face-to-face with a killer.

All right, guys. I'm gonna be Doing the knocking.

Got any questions? -no.

All right. Let's go.

♪♪

Demery: this is A survival situation now.

The only thing that We're concerned about now

Is no one getting hurt.

It's just that simple.

[ knocks on door ]

[ dog barking ]

♪♪

Behind you!

You can't make any mistakes Or somebody can get killed.

♪♪

Demery: we are working A double homicide,

And while reviewing The victim's phone,

We find a series Of threatening text messages

And a suspect, robert farris.

We're at his doorstep.

We're about to come face-to-face With the suspected killer.

Easy, easy, easy. Easy, easy!

What the hell is going on?

This is clearly not Robert farris.

Robert farris is 23 years old. This is an older man.

We're looking for Robert farris.

Yeah, that's my son. He's not here.

I don't know where he's at.

Mayfield: It's a disappointing moment,

But there's a chance That there's something here

That may provide some type Of evidentiary value

That may link robert To this murder.

Sir, if you could Have a seat?

What's your son's Cellphone number, sir?

Robert ain't got no phone, Been using mine.

-yeah? What's your number? -3-1-8...

Demery: after john tells me His phone number,

I realize it's the phone number

That was saved under Robert duross,

One of the phone numbers That texted madonna.

What's this all about?

We're working a double murder, And one of the victims

Was receiving threats From your phone.

I didn't send them. Must have been my son.

It was completely involuntary And self-preservationist,

So john, in effort to remove Himself from the crime,

Kind of inadvertently put his Son right in the middle of it.

At that point, we know For certain that that cellphone

And john farris Are related to this crime.

But the phone is not the only Thing tying robert farris

To this double murder.

-detectives. -yeah?

Found something In the front yard.

Okay. Thanks.

♪♪

What do you think, demery?

Well, I think we're getting Closer, but we're not there yet.

They found two shell casings Of .40 caliber,

And they were identical To those shell casings

At the crime scene.

Problem is, we're still Going to have to try and tie

That shell casing To robert farris.

Yeah.

Even though robert farris Is looking better,

We still have the challenge

Of whether or not Someone at that house

Is actually setting robert up.

Now what do we got here?

And just as c.S.I.S are bagging The shell casings,

Another person of interest Rolls up to the house.

What the hell is going on here?

Is everything okay? -yes, ma'am.

It's all right. May I ask your name?

I'm diane farris.

But I just came to drop off Some papers to my ex.

-are you robert's mother? -yes.

Ma'am, we're looking At speaking with your son.

Well, I just dropped him Off earlier

At his girlfriend angelia's House.

Diane tells us that robert is With his girlfriend, angelia.

-okay. Do you have that address? -yeah. It's in my phone.

I'll have to get it. -thank you.

Well, I say that we go By angelia's house

Before he decides to leave. -yeah, I agree.

Hey, guys, let's go.

When diane tells me Angelia's phone number,

I realize that it's The other phone

That sent threatening Text messages to madonna.

That's huge.

Naturally, we're going to see Robert at angelia's house.

This time, it's even more Dangerous because his mother

And father could alerted him That we're on our way,

And he can prepare himself To go to battle.

Officer: put your hands up. Put your hands up.

Step out here slowly. You got anything on you?

Nah, I'm good, cuz.

♪♪

Guys, put your hands down.

Gentlemen, we're with The shreveport police.

Do you live here?[ siren wailing in distance ]

Nah.

What's your name?

Robert.

Robert what?

Farris. What's it to you?

Mayfield: When we made contact with him,

There was something about Robert's eyes.

They just pierced Right through you.

-what's your name? -dalando garner.

I realize that he's the person That was in the report

Of the drive-by shooting.

Now I'm wondering if both farris And dalando are suspects.

Woman: hey! Hey!

Who the hell are you, and what Are you doing on my property?

-you angelia? -yeah. Why you want to know?

Demery: Angelia was a very young girl.

She was definitely protective Over robert.

She was loud, Obnoxious, and irritating.

We're going to need to talk To the three of them.

We'll start with her.

Officer: hey, step over here With me.

Demery: Guys, step over there.

Being that angelia is The least of suspects,

We interview her first,

And there's only one thing that I really want to know from her.

Are you in the habit Of letting other people

Borrow your cellphone?

Robert uses it sometimes. Why?

Does he send text messages From your phone?

Yeah. I think so. I don't know.

I've seen him delete messages Off my phone after he uses it.

She says that he's a very slick And crafty guy,

And he deletes messages,

So now we do know That he used her phone.

I knew that we were on The right track.

This case would be closed soon.

Think we need to take the other Two back to the station

And interview them there.

-I agree. -thank you.

♪♪

Now we bring dalando and robert To our office,

Which is A much better environment

To conduct an interrogation.

The first person To be interviewed is dalando.

Dalando denied being With robert in this homicide.

He denied knowing anything About this murder.

Mayfield is not getting a whole Lot of information from him,

So I stepped in And began to ask him questions.

I wanted to let dalando know That I'm not even

The least bit interested in him Unless he killed somebody,

So it's a lot of Cut through the chase,

And let's just get to it.

Dalando at no point gave Any indication

That he was deceptive.

If anything, robert may have Told dalando of the murder,

But dalando certainly Did not play a part in it.

Hey, chris, do me a favor.

Bring this next suspect Down to intero.

-you got it. -thank you.

So now it's time to talk To robert farris.

We give him the opportunity To tell us

What he knows about the murder.

Robert comes across As very arrogant,

Which I suspected from reading His text messages to madonna

That he would be that way.

In my experience, the only way To deal with a cocky guy

Like robert is to lay your cards On the table and call his bluff.

Farris explains he was At the house

The day prior to them Being killed,

And he was there to get paid,

But he knows nothing About a murder.

I don't believe robert farris For a second,

But just as I'm about to call B.S., he flips the script.

Demery: right.

When farris said That he has been drinking

And he's possibly intoxicated,

The interview Has to be terminated.

You can't take a statement Legally from somebody

Who's been drinking Or who is intoxicated.

Hey, chris, do me a favor?

Would you mind showing Mr. Farris out, please?

-you got it. -thank you.

This way.

I smell alcohol on farris At that point,

And I'm not going to Take a chance on whether or not

He's had enough to drink To make him waive his rights,

So we don't have enough Evidence to charge him,

So we have to let him go.

[ sirens wailing ]

♪♪

It's a hard thing to do,

Especially as A young investigator.

It's hard to sit there And let a killer walk out.

Demery: it doesn't get Any worse than this.

What's he going to do When he leaves?

Is he going to go on the run,

Or is he going to kill Somebody else?

♪♪

Demery: detective mayfield and I Are working the double murder

Of madonna wachter And stephen bryant.

Our suspect is robert farris,

Who we believe killed The victims over an unpaid debt.

But after interviewing farris,

We don't have enough evidence To charge him,

So we have to let him go.

Mayfield: if you can Make it in later today,

We'd love to talk to you.

Okay, see you then.

You're never gonna believe Who that was.

-who? -robert farris' sister.

-really? -yeah. She's coming in today.

All right. That's what I'm talking about.

A couple hours after We release robert farris,

We get a call From farris' sister.

She believed her brother, Robert farris,

Is the person who committed The double murder.

So a few days ago, I was going Through my dad's phone,

And I saw two Threatening text messages.

What'd they say?

One was saying that, "You messed up my christmas,"

And something about, "I'm going To take that out on blood,

And that's on jesus"?

My daddy said, "Hurry up and erase that.

Robert done lost his mind."

So the text messages are now Being corroborated

By farris' own sister.

So do you know Who the victims are?

-the guy and a girl? -yes.

Yeah. My brother sells to them.

I know because she called My phone a couple times

Looking for robert To get some.

Mayfield: I was excited.

It was just one more thing to Connect robert to these murders.

Demery: a couple days later, The crime lab contacts us.

Hey. -hi!

Good news. We got a match On that evidence.

The crime lab confirmed a match Of the shell casings

Found at robert farris' Father's house

To the shell casings found At the crime scene.

So the shell casings definitely Came from the same gun?

There's no doubt.

Mayfield: it's relief. It's excitement.

Every emotion that you can feel Is running through your mind

Because robert's arrogance Had run out

Because he wasn't gonna Walk away this time.

I'm feeling really good now Because I believe mayfield

Can secure a warrant For the arrest of robert farris.

Now we can actually go get him.

So what do you wanna do?

Start at His father's house again.

I'm with you.

Securing an arrest warrant Is one thing.

Going out and actually Finding the suspect

And taking them into custody is Something completely different.

Mayfield: when we talked to Robert the first time,

He knew we were close. So at this point,

I was concerned That maybe he had fled.

♪♪

♪♪

-sir, please step out. -sorry.

He ain't here, fellas.

When we get to farris' Father's house,

We find that farris isn't there.

All clear. Thank you.

We have a warrant For farris' arrest,

And his father welcomes us To look for him.

We search. He's not there.

So where's he at?

And don't even think About lying.

I will lock your ass up For obstruction of justice.

I don't know for sure, but I Think he's at his mom's place.

-got an address for that? -yeah.

♪♪

Thank you. Have a good evening.

So our next place to look for Farris is his mother's house.

I don't know what type Of demeanor

Or how he's going to behave once We confront him, if he is there.

It's just as tense.

Where's robert?

He's in there.

Let's go.

♪♪

Let me see your hands. Hands.

Demery: Our guns are trained on him.

Farris has an opportunity.

Either he's going to come Towards us peacefully,

Or he's going to try To attack us.

We don't know what's going To happen at that moment.

Put your hands in the air.

Come on, baby. It's over.

Stand up and put your hands In the air.

Farris sees us, And he comes towards us.

We take him into custody.

I want a lawyer!

For all of this to happen, A double murder,

It's the most peaceful Arrest ever.

Take a look around in here.

You want to handle him? -yeah.

While mayfield is searching Farris' mother's home,

I take him to the police car.

Watch your head.

[ grunts ] Man, I didn't do No murder, mang.

Brother, I can't take A statement from you.

Farris wants to talk to me For whatever reason,

And he begins A conversation.

I just want to tell you What went down.

All right?

Just slide over.

Detective demery Is smart enough to know that,

Under louisiana law, once An individual requests a lawyer

That he must not be questioned Any further by law enforcement.

However, if the suspect

Continues to talk of his own Free will and volition,

Then those statements Will come in.

So I activated my recorder: one, To ensure

That I recorded Everything correctly;

Two, that farris made His statement voluntarily

And without any prompting Or foraging

Or questions from me.

Farris tells me that He sold drugs to those people.

He told me that They owed him money.

He went to collect his money.

This statement was Very important

Because the first statement Was compromised,

The fact that farris Had been drinking.

The second statement Was completely voluntary.

Farris then told me That he did,

In fact, send the text messages, But he didn't kill anyone.

Even though farris never said That he pulled the trigger,

The fact that he corroborated

Every other piece Of evidence there,

At that point, I have no doubt That robert was the killer.

Based on everything we learned,

It's clear to me what happened On the night of the murder.

Oh, my god. He's gone crazy.

-what's wrong? -it's farris.

He says he's going to kill us If we doesn't get his money.

You know he's full of it.

He sounds serious.

Nothing is going to happen.

Going to be okay.

I believe that robert farris

Had been dealing narcotics To madonna.

You know he ain't going To do nothing.

It's going to be okay.

When madonna failed To pay robert

On a couple Of different occasions,

He had decided that he was Gonna demand his money.

Open up!

I know you in there!

Hey! What's going on?

I think you know What's going on.

Robert. Oh, hey, robert.

Demery: s He showed up at their home.

They let him in.

Once he went inside the house,

Madonna produced $350.

She owed him $500.

-this don't cover it, bitch! -no!

Hey! Hey! Leave her alone! You'll get your money!

Please, robert.

I think madonna legitimately Wanted to give farris

What she owed him, but she just Didn't have enough money.

Robert was upset,

But clearly, robert just wanted To be in control

Because if he wanted money, He would've taken the $350.

-[ madonna speaks indistinctly ] -stephen: you're low.

Back up off me! Back up off me! Get out of my face!

-no! -on your knees!

I told you what would happen If you didn't pay!

Robert, I'm sorry.

♪♪

I...Robert, no! [ crying ] No! No!

[ gunshot ]No!

Demery: After robert shot madonna,

Stephen pled for his life.

Please, please, I'll give you Everything she owes you.

I-I...Please, no.

He was on his knees, begging Somebody not to shoot him.

I'll go get the money tonight. Please, I swear!

-no, man! -I swear.

It's too late for that![ gunshot ]

And robert shot him twice.

[ gunshot ]

[ thud ]

♪♪

Then robert simply Exited the house

And went home.[ door closes ]

[ voice breaking ] It broke my Heart, you know, that she tried.

Sorry.

You know, she worked every day.

To think that she stood there And tried to pay this debt,

But it wasn't good enough, You know?

So she paid that day With her life.

♪♪

When farris was arrested, The reaction of the police chief

Was one of relief.

A political hot potato Was no longer in his lap.

-thank you. -good job, mayfield.

That's not bad for a rookie. -better watch it, demery.

Coming for your spot. -[ laughs ]

Mayfield did a really Good job on this case.

He was in charge, And he needed to do

What he thought was best.

Yeah, we'll see about that. Get out of here.

Mayfield: being the lead Detective on this case,

I guess it meant A little bit more to me

To bring some closure To madonna's family

And to stephen's family.

That's what makes me proud.

Carter: madonna didn't Deserve what she got.

Nobody has the right to come in

And take somebody else's life Like that.

Nobody has the right To play god,

And he played god that day.

Gilcrease: madonna was A good person.

Steve was a good person.

[ crying ] It still affects me 'cause I still miss her.

Demery: farris was convicted

Of two counts Of second-degree murder

And sentenced To a life sentence

Without the benefit Or possibility of parole.

This case was not about money. It wasn't about drugs.

It was about ego, and it Was about power and control.

Two people were killed, And it's pointless.

It's just unbelievable to me.