00:00:14
Aspen has a reputation for glitz and glamour. [music] >> Love you, Mariah. I love you so much.
00:00:20
>> You know, the billionaires have replaced the millionaires here, [music] but it's so much more than that. It's
00:00:28
always been a place of pioneers, people who came out here with this western pioneer spirit to start all over again.
00:00:36
It was this wild and free-spirited Aspen that Nancy Fister belonged. >> When I met Nancy, she was beautiful and
00:00:45
vivacious. She turned wherever she was into a party. >> And this is where all the rich and
00:00:52
famous people come. >> She could turn the black plague into a party. Sorry, it was a rough night.
00:00:59
>> Nancy was an Aspen princess. Her father owned the ski mountain. My name is Mark
00:01:04
Seal. I'm a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and I call Aspen home. All doors were open to her.
00:01:11
>> Yes. >> She was known by people all over the world. >> Oh, she dated Jack Nicholson and she
00:01:17
dated Michael Douglas. Everyone knows that there was only one Nancy Fister. I was at my desk that night and heard the
00:01:25
scanner call and we heard the word murder and looked up the address and sure enough it was her. It was all hands
00:01:35
on deck. >> A common thread that we were receiving was that anyone who had ever met Nancy
00:01:42
Fister was a potential suspect. >> Can you just say that again? I want to make sure I heard you correctly. Anyone
00:01:47
who ever met Nancy Fister was a potential suspect. You didn't want to be on Nancy Fister's
00:01:54
bad side. She was a tough, strong woman. >> Woe unto you who messed with Nancy Fister.
00:02:02
>> Even Nancy Fister was really no match for a killer who approached her at her absolute most vulnerable.
00:02:10
Nancy Fister was murdered in her sleep with several blows to her head. Everybody wanted to know what.
00:02:22
Everybody wanted to know how. Everybody wanted to know why. And everybody wanted to know who.
00:02:36
[music] I'm Moren Maher. Tonight on 48 hours, murder in Aspen. [music] >> [music]
00:03:08
>> No one could believe it. One of Aspen's true originals, Nancy Fister, was dead.
00:03:15
Bludgeon in her own bedroom. >> 911. What is it? >> Her body bound with an electrical
00:03:19
[music] cord, wrapped in plastic garbage bags, and hidden underneath sheets in her closet.
00:03:26
>> I got my in the closet. >> Whoever did this really did this in an extremely horrible way. I mean, in her
00:03:36
bed, in her sleep. I mean, can you imagine? >> Suddenly, doors were being locked and
00:03:42
alarms turned on. >> The Aspen residents wanted to know that they were safe. This was a very big deal
00:03:49
for the community. >> And a very big deal for Deputy DA Andrea Bryan. >> I was feeling a little bit of fear. It
00:03:57
was her first homicide case, her first visit to a working murder scene. and you don't know what your reaction is going
00:04:06
to be to seeing um a dead body. >> And the first time she had smelled death >> could tell immediately that there was a
00:04:16
body in that room. >> Yet, strangely, the room itself did not look like someone had just been beaten
00:04:22
to death. >> It wasn't [music] particularly bloody. There was hardly any visible blood at
00:04:28
all except for a small smear on the headboard. A very small smear. >> With the death of Nancy Fister, Aspen
00:04:37
lost a piece of its history, a member of its royalty. In this part of the world,
00:04:42
the Fister family is as much a part of the landscape as the trees for which the city was named.
00:04:48
>> Behind me to the west is Buttermilk, and that's really what made the Fister family, part of the royalty of Aspen.
00:04:57
Family friend Tim Mooney is talking about Buttermilk Mountain, one of Aspen's world famous ski hills developed
00:05:04
by NY's father, Art Fister. >> Art Fister was definitely a Clark Gable kind of bigger than life kind of movie
00:05:13
star character. He had the real stuff. >> Art Fister met his match in W Betty, says CBS consultant Mark Seal. So Betty
00:05:23
[music] Fister was as epic as ArtFister. Uh she was a legendary World War II woman pilot. She flew gliders, hot air
00:05:32
balloons. She had a a brightly colored helicopter that she called Tinkerbell. I mean, these are people who were
00:05:40
adventurous to the end. >> And they passed on that adventurous [music] spirit to all three daughters,
00:05:46
especially Nancy. She was a real heartbreaker, says close friend, artist Michael Cleverly.
00:05:54
>> She had a lot of boyfriends. As a rule, they didn't last terribly long. She was
00:05:59
a complicated girl. I'm sure it was hard for her and hard for the boys in her lives.
00:06:05
>> Nancy Fister [music] was perfect casting for that moment in time in Aspen history, the era of Gonzo journalist
00:06:12
Hunter S. Thompson, an iconic figure who defined the [music] drug culture in Fear and Loathing in Las
00:06:21
Vegas. >> Nancy and Hunter were a team, and they'd laugh and cry, but they were always at
00:06:30
the top of the heap. >> Are you ready? I'll be showing you all the rich and famous people that I know.
00:06:36
>> Fister, seen here showing off her hometown in a documentary. >> This is the house of Jack Nicholson. So,
00:06:43
you can just kind of follow me and I'll show you the creek and a little pond. >> Never settle down long enough to get
00:06:50
married. >> People like to have their privacy and that's what we have here. >> But she did have a little girl named
00:06:57
Juliana. >> She absolutely loved people. [music] She was a complete social butterfly. When
00:07:04
she walked into the room, it was just like a energy force field that was, you know, like a a bright light. I've never
00:07:11
met anyone else in the whole world like my mom. She was just a really, really special person.
00:07:17
>> You, if you came into town, you would end up meeting Nancy Fister. >> When Kathy Carpenter came into town, she
00:07:24
was a single mother working as a bank teller. She met Fister and the two became fast friends.
00:07:31
>> Either you love Nancy or you hate her. And I loved her. There was just something special about her.
00:07:37
She introduced me to art, eating sushi, drinking champagne. >> It sounds like she really took you,
00:07:46
introduced you to places you you had never seen and might not have ever seen if it hadn't been for her.
00:07:52
>> Exactly. >> In return, Kathy says Fister expected her to take on a sort of personal
00:07:58
assistant role, something that occasionally led to friction in their relationship. She could be demanding,
00:08:05
you know, Kathy, would you go get that? You know, when she'd leave town, I'd watch over the house, collect her mail,
00:08:12
help her pack. And did she pay you to help her do those things? >> No. Despite their conflicts, Kathy
00:08:20
Carpenter says she cared deeply for Nancy. And on February 26th, [music] 2014, when Fister had not been heard
00:08:28
from in several days, it would be Kathy Carpenter who went to check on her. My favorite inner cage.
00:08:51
Nancy came of age in a magical era of Aspen. She was 14 when John Denver wrote his
00:08:59
Aspen anthem, Rocky Mountain High. which made the whole world fall in love with the place.
00:09:08
>> But over the years, Fister grew tired of those famous Rocky Mountain winters.
00:09:13
Each year, she would escape to someplace warm. That year, she was planning a trip
00:09:18
to Australia. However, the princess of Aspen had limited access to the family fortune. So to pay for the trip to
00:09:27
Australia, Nancy Fister decided to rent her home and took out an ad in the Aspen
00:09:33
Times. >> The ad read, "Three bedroom house, three and a half baths, house on the mountain,
00:09:41
no cats." Nancy Styler, a world-renowned lily pad expert, and her husband Trey, a retired
00:09:49
anesthesiologist, were looking to leave Denver and start over in Aspen [music] to rebuild a once prosperous life that
00:09:58
had fallen on hard times. >> Starting over at what age? >> I'm 62 and he was 65.
00:10:04
>> Their problems began when Trey developed a serious neurological disorder and could no longer practice. Then he lost
00:10:12
all their savings in an unsuccessful lawsuit. What kind of debt were you in at that point?
00:10:19
>> About a half a million. >> They had to move from their home and beautiful water.
00:10:24
>> A happy family with one small problem. >> The cultured life they had worked so
00:10:28
hard to create seen here on this HGTV special and modeling the latest in pondwear slipped away.
00:10:35
>> Gortex [music] waiters. He was so distraught that he was talking suicide. >> But Nancy Styler, who had also attended
00:10:46
medical school, decided it was her turn. >> I said, I can go back to work. So last
00:10:53
year, we went back and we both got trained in Botox and laser and thought that we'll go to Aspen and start a spa.
00:11:02
In October [music] of 2013, they answered Fister's rental ad, >> and I came upstairs and she was in a
00:11:09
bathrobe with pearls and a glass of champagne. >> Soon, the two ladies were bonding over
00:11:15
their love of organic [music] gardening and the possibility of launching a business.
00:11:20
>> She said, "I love the idea of having a spa. Do it right here. The concieres from the hotels will bring their clients
00:11:26
to you." Well, you must have just thought you >> dirt died and went to heaven. And when I
00:11:32
said that to her, she said, "It's karma darling." >> And I thought, "Okay, this is it."
00:11:38
>> The stylers agreed to give Nancy Fister $12,000 upfront, 3 months rent. >> And did you have that $12,000 cash?
00:11:46
>> We had most of it. We gave her $6,000 >> 3 days after we met her. We thought that, you know, this will work out okay.
00:11:56
Apparently, so did Nancy Fister. She invited the Stylers to live with her for the next month before she left for
00:12:04
Australia. In return, Nancy Styler, a fidious cleaner and expert seamstress, would help her [music] get ready for the
00:12:12
trip. >> Before we gave her the money, she treated me as an equal. Once we gave her
00:12:17
the money, I became kind of a slave. Get my cigarettes, get my champagne, get this, do that, rub my feet, rub my neck.
00:12:24
[music] I want you to alter 22 Brooks Brothers shirts. I've never been treated so poorly by anyone in my life.
00:12:31
>> How testy did things get between you and Nancy Fister? >> She pushed me to my limits. And I didn't
00:12:39
know I had limits. >> But the stylers had already paid Fister six grand. And fairly certain they were
00:12:47
not going to get any of it back, they decided to stick it out. >> For you, this was all about the house. I
00:12:54
just got to get this person out out the door. I'm going to fulfill my obligations, get her packed, and
00:13:01
[snorts] get on with business. >> She says her one saving grace was Fister's friend and helper, Kathy
00:13:08
Carpenter. >> Kathy Carpenter and I started commiserating [music] >> about what >> about how she used people. Kathy had
00:13:17
been her personal assistant for No Pay for many years. Did Kathy describe herself as personal assistant or friend
00:13:24
who did favors? >> I think Kathy described herself as friend who did favors. Nancy described
00:13:29
her as a personal assistant. >> The two women became close friends and even agreed to share care of Fister's
00:13:37
Labradoodle Gabe while she was in Australia. And so Nancy Fister left her dog and
00:13:44
home in the care of Nancy and Trey Styler and said goodbye to Aspen for the winter. In November 2013, Fister flew to
00:13:52
Australia, leaving Kathy Carpenter in charge of collecting the rent. >> Did they ever come up with the
00:13:58
additional 6,000? >> They did in December. >> Who did they give it to? >> To me. I put it in the safe deposit box
00:14:05
and I emailed Nancy to let her know that they did pay the six. Even though the stylers say they had paid the rent, by
00:14:13
January, Fister from the other side of the world was complaining they had not and that they also owed her for
00:14:20
utilities. >> She was on Facebook saying awful things about us, sending us emails. You're
00:14:26
liars. You're cheats. You're taking advantage of my good nature. [music] You owe me money for this. You owe me
00:14:32
money for that. In February 2014, [music] before the stylers even had a chance to
00:14:39
launch their spa business, Nancy Fister announced she was coming home 3 months early and issued Kathy Carpenter her
00:14:47
orders. >> Make sure that those effers are out of my house. She was that angry. She was
00:14:53
angry. She wanted them out. The eviction came so suddenly the stylers were unable
00:14:58
to remove thousands of dollars worth of spy equipment which was being stored in Fister's garage. On February 22nd, the
00:15:07
same day Nancy Fister arrived back in Aspen. The Stylers took a room at the Aspenol lodge. The following day, Fister
00:15:16
handed Kathy Carpenter a note to give to Trey Styler. >> Do you remember exactly what the note
00:15:22
said, Kathy? Well, it was just a list. I want money for this. I want you to pay me this. Fister had demanded almost
00:15:30
$14,000 for utilities and damages to her house, says Carpenter. She also threatened to
00:15:38
get a restraining order to keep the stylers off her property. >> She said, "I'll hold on to their
00:15:43
property until they pay me in full." >> And why does the subject of handing the note to
00:15:50
Dr. Styler bring you to tears? Had I not handed him the note as she had asked me
00:15:56
to, [snorts] she may still be here today. [music] Aspen has always been a place for
00:16:16
dreamers, but the styler's dream of a fresh start was quickly dying. Three months after arriving, they were broke,
00:16:24
homeless, and locked in a bitter dispute with Nancy Fister over property and money.
00:16:31
>> Nancy was a tough girl. She was supremely pissed off. I'm sure she was hell on wheels.
00:16:41
>> Fister was denying the Stylers access to her home and their expensive spa equipment. But after learning Fister had
00:16:50
no legal leg to stand on, the Stylers marched right back up to her house, prepared to fight for their property.
00:16:58
But they didn't have to, says Nancy Styler, because Fister was nowhere to be found.
00:17:03
>> The dog greets me at the door. He's all over me. And I was upset because I thought NY's leaving this dog alone with
00:17:11
no way to go out to the bathroom. Styler says they packed up until 4 in the afternoon and still no Nancy Fister.
00:17:19
They returned the next morning to finish the move. >> It was the same as when we left. I
00:17:26
thought that she just took off. >> Styler admits she did notice a foul odor coming from Fister's bedroom closet, but
00:17:34
says she didn't put two and two together. >> You haven't heard from her, right? You
00:17:39
know the dog is alone, right? and you're in her bedroom and it smells horrible. It didn't occur to you to look in the
00:17:45
closet. I didn't have the key to the closet. >> And yet Styler was worried enough, says
00:17:50
Kathy Carpenter, to call her three or four times that day. >> She said, "You know, I'm just really
00:17:57
concerned. Some things are fishy around here." >> Carpenter, who says she had not seen or
00:18:03
spoken to Fister in 3 days, went up to the house that Wednesday after work. I went into the bedroom, called her name,
00:18:12
looked around, >> and that's when she says there was >> she saw it. Blood, that small smear on
00:18:21
the headboard of Fister's bed. >> Then I was very concerned. I started to panic. [snorts]
00:18:30
I walked towards the closet and it was closed and it was locked and [snorts] there was a strong odor.
00:18:38
It just it wasn't right. [snorts] >> Carpenter says she tore out of the house, got a spare
00:18:46
key at her own home, and then rushed back to open Fister's closet. >> I was hit with the most atrocious, awful
00:18:55
odor. I saw that there was something wrapped. I screamed out her name. >> No. Oh my god.
00:19:07
I jumped in my car. >> Oh god. Oh my god. >> 911. What is the address? >> She immediately brought up the trouble
00:19:15
between the Stylers and Fister. >> She had some people living there. She really pissed them off.
00:19:24
>> Were you thinking at that moment that the Stylers may have had something to do
00:19:28
with her murder? >> I did. Yes. They were there in the house. They were there moving out on
00:19:36
Tuesday. They were there Wednesday. Who else but them? >> Kathy, stay in the vehicle.
00:19:47
>> Carpenter was so hysterical. >> Kathy, let's put you in here. Okay. >> She was taken to the emergency room and
00:19:53
sedated while law enforcement started following up on her lead. 5:30 on [music] Thursday morning. I hear
00:20:04
pounding on the hotel door. I looked out the door and there's all these policemen.
00:20:10
I said, "Trey, is this a dream?" And one of the policemen answered, "It's not a dream. That's a dead body." And I said,
00:20:19
"Who?" And they wouldn't answer. >> You really had no idea. Nancy Fister's been missing for a few days. There's a
00:20:25
bad odor in the room and you can't >> and Kathy went to the emergency room and I knew it had probably something to do
00:20:30
with that and they were questioning us because we had lived there. >> The stylers were separated, put [music]
00:20:36
in prison jumpsuits and interrogated. Nancy Styler's interview is audio only. >> She treated me as an equal until she got
00:20:47
our money >> and then she treated me like a slave. And what really struck out to me was how
00:20:56
she couldn't stop talking about how horrible of a person that she thought Nancy Fister was.
00:21:01
>> She's a liar. She's an alcoholic. And she is the most selflo person that I've
00:21:07
ever met. There is not one person who said a nice thing about her. >> It appeared that there could have been
00:21:14
enough anger there that she would actually have been the one who killed Nancy Fister. She told us we belonged in
00:21:20
a trailer park and basalt and that we were trailer trash. I have never been disrespected by anyone in my life as
00:21:28
much as I've been disrespected by this woman. >> With respect to Trey Styler's interview,
00:21:33
>> do you feel bad about that? She's done >> a little. >> She really exhibited some very strong
00:21:42
anger. >> She had screwed us up big time. On the other hand, Trey Styler did not
00:21:49
look capable of killing somebody, >> says DA Chief Investigator Lisa Miller. >> He's obviously an elderly man.
00:21:59
>> I couldn't beat up a kid. >> He's spinning over. He's holding his head. He's telling us over and over how
00:22:07
infirm he is, how weak he is. We came to the conclusion that Mr. Styler could not
00:22:12
have perpetrated this crime and moved the body by himself. Despite [music] their suspicions,
00:22:18
investigators did not believe they had enough evidence to show probable cause. [music] And after 12 hours of
00:22:25
interviews, the Stylers were released. But then a huge break in the case. Just 100 yards from this motel where the
00:22:35
Stylers were staying, a trash collector emptied a garbage can. And purely by accident, he happened to notice items
00:22:43
belonging to Nancy Fister. the murdered woman he'd just seen in all the news reports.
00:22:49
>> We find a vehicle registration for the Styler Jaguar in the same bag with personal items belonging to Nancy
00:22:57
Fister. >> And there it was in there with everything else. An old hammer with Nancy Fister's blood on it. The murder
00:23:08
weapon. And on one of the plastic bags, DNA that matched Trey Styler's profile. Four days later, the Stylers were
00:23:18
arrested >> in connection with the Aspen murder >> and charged with first-degree murder.
00:23:23
>> I kept thinking that I would wake up from this horrible dream, being treated like a criminal, being shackled, wearing
00:23:31
orange, being paraded in front of the media with cameras like I was walking down the red carpet.
00:23:38
Every piece of dignity in my life was taken away. >> But there was something nagging at
00:23:46
investigator Lisa Miller. >> The murder weapon was >> That evidence drop seemed almost too
00:23:51
good to be true >> right here. >> And then they found that missing key to Nancy Fister's closet
00:23:58
>> just a few yards from the Styler's motel room. >> Did these educated professionals really
00:24:04
make that severe of a mistake? Investigators started looking at the possibility that the Stylers were being
00:24:13
framed or that someone else was in on it with them. Someone like Kathy Carpenter.
00:24:21
>> She had some people living there and she really pissed them off. >> Kathy Carpenter was a little bit too
00:24:29
quick to point the finger at suspects after discovering the body. What would be her motive to kill Nancy Fister?
00:24:39
>> She did have motive because Nancy Fister treated her badly at times. She hurt
00:24:44
her. >> And investigators say Carpenters's actions following the murder confirmed
00:24:50
their suspicions. >> Just a day after the body was found, she went to Nancy Fister's safety deposit
00:24:56
box at Alpine Bank and took $6,000 of Nancy Fister's money and two family rings. But Fister had given Carpenter
00:25:06
legal access to the safe deposit box. And she insists she took the money and rings for Fister's only child.
00:25:15
>> She said to me, "Anything ever happens to me, you make make sure that Juliana
00:25:19
gets this ring." >> Investigators did not believe her. 11 days after the Stylers were arrested,
00:25:28
>> she's the third person to be charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Kathy
00:25:34
Carpenter became the third person charged with the murder of [music] Nancy Fister.
00:25:40
>> They came banging on my door [snorts] and they arrested me for for the murder
00:25:48
of [clears throat] my friend is what they said. News of a third arrest in the slaying of
00:26:07
Nancy Fister had all of Aspen buzzing again. >> If the murder wasn't shocking enough,
00:26:13
then come the suspects. I mean, first you have the doctor and his horiculturalist wife and then you see
00:26:21
the bank teller. I mean, everybody's wondering what went on here. >> Kathy Carpenter says she was as shocked
00:26:29
as anyone else. She had just bought a new outfit to wear to her friend's memorial. Instead, she sat in an orange
00:26:37
jumpsuit alone in a jail cell. >> I could hear the music and uh oh, so hurtful. I just I cried.
00:26:46
>> I have never seen anything like it. >> Defense attorney Greg Greer believes Kathy Carpenter was a scapegoat in an
00:26:53
investigation so flawed they even got the 911 call wrong. >> 911? What is the address of the
00:27:00
emergency? >> Help me. >> According to the 911 transcript, Kathy Carpenter said she saw blood on Fister's
00:27:09
forehead, but prosecutors insist no one could have seen any part of the body because it was covered with a sheet. In
00:27:17
your opinion, investigators believed this was their most important piece of evidence.
00:27:22
>> Greer was dumbfounded when he listened to the 911 call himself. I felt blood on
00:27:28
her headboard and I the closet was locked. >> I listen. I listen. I listen. It says
00:27:33
headboard. She said headboard. She didn't say forehead. >> I felt blood on her head.
00:27:39
>> Prosecutors admit the error but say it's only part of the story. >> That was one statement. She made
00:27:46
numerous statements about the body that had raised huge red flags in our mind. statements like these.
00:27:57
>> There's just one problem, says investigator Lisa Miller. >> There is no way in looking at this you
00:28:03
can say this is full of blood and you definitively cannot say this is Nancy Fister. How could she know her friend
00:28:11
was dead? How could she know it was her friend? Nancy Fister's been missing for a few days. There's a bad odor. The body
00:28:18
is locked inside Nancy Fister's closet. It seems reasonable that she would think
00:28:22
she's dead. >> And if you phrase it like that, sure, it seems reasonable. But look at how the
00:28:27
body was found. The body was covered up. But Kathy Carpenter insists she did see
00:28:33
the plastic bag wrapped around Fister's head, and it was [music] translucent enough to give her an impression of what
00:28:40
was inside. >> I looked down when I saw the there was some hair and blood. I just assumed it
00:28:49
was it was Nancy. Who else? >> So now they had three people in jail. Kathy Carpenter, Nancy Styler, and Trey
00:28:57
Styler. All there because a judge determined there was enough probable cause to make the arrests. But
00:29:04
prosecutors still helped build a case against three different people that would hold up in court. What was your
00:29:11
working theory? The theory was that they were all involved in some aspect of the
00:29:15
murder, whether it was the planning of the murder or the ultimate cleanup. Brian believes they bonded over their
00:29:22
resentment of Fister, but they still only had physical evidence against one of them, Trey Styler. That DNA they had
00:29:31
found on the bag containing the murder weapon. >> Is there any DNA found of Nancy Styler?
00:29:37
>> No. But you still think that she's involved >> even though there's no physical
00:29:42
evidence? >> Absolutely. [snorts] >> Nancy ruled the roost, if you will. William Styler didn't make any moves
00:29:48
without Nancy. >> And investigators believed she was the one who most wanted Nancy Fister dead.
00:29:56
>> I didn't have a great relationship with her, but what would that have done for
00:30:00
me >> to kill her? >> Did you hear Mrs. Styler say threatening or menacing things about [music]
00:30:09
Nancy Fister? >> You know, in the very beginning and you know, she made some threats. I'm just
00:30:16
angry at her. I I could just kill her. >> Did you say that you wanted to kill Nancy Fister?
00:30:22
>> I said at one point in time that I'd like to kill her. Yes, I did say that. >> It doesn't look good.
00:30:27
>> It doesn't look good. But if every person who said that was taken at their word, how many times have you said, "I'd
00:30:33
like to kill her." But district attorney Sherry Colloya says someone did kill Nancy Fister
00:30:40
>> after someone [music] says that people don't ordinarily end up dead. >> And Brian says even more curious.
00:30:46
>> Here's Nancy Fister who had asked to get a restraining order and had told them
00:30:50
that they cannot come to the house. And now they seem totally unconcerned about whether or not she finds them there.
00:30:57
Well, the reasonable conclusion is because they know that she is dead. And what about all those phone calls
00:31:04
Nancy Styler made to Kathy Carpenter before the body was found? >> Why did you keep calling her?
00:31:10
>> Because she was going to be picking up the dog and it was important for me that
00:31:14
she came and got that dog and that she knew what was going on. >> While there could be an innocent
00:31:18
explanation for that communication, the explanation can also be that they're talking about the body and what is going
00:31:24
to be done with the body in the closet and how it's going to get out of the closet.
00:31:29
A good story, but where's the proof? Styler's attorney, G. Mccardi, wants to know.
00:31:35
>> Speculation and conjecture were all they ever had against Nancy Styler. >> But investigators were convinced they
00:31:44
had the right three people in jail. And in time, they would eventually turn on each other. I have them in jail and you
00:31:54
have to worry greatly what they tell me. >> So what you're telling me is your wife
00:32:00
was probably in on it then. Is that true? Did she have anything to do with NY's death?
00:32:05
>> Did you have anything to do with the murder of Nancy Fister? >> Nothing whatsoever.
00:32:09
>> At no point did you think that was there any way that Trey could have been responsible for this?
00:32:14
>> Never even crossed my mind. I thought for sure in my little courtroom in my mind that Kathy had done this.
00:32:23
>> Did you kill Nancy Fister? >> No. >> Did you take a hammer, hit your friend in the head, wrap her up in plastic, and
00:32:31
leave her to die in a closet? >> No. As the alpine snows began to melt and [music] winter gave way to spring, three
00:32:42
people, Kathy Carpenter, Trey Styler, and Nancy Styler, [music] watched the changing of the seasons from behind
00:32:50
bars, waiting, as was all of Aspen, for their day in court. >> There was anticipation of the trial when
00:32:58
everything would come out. People were eager to hear exactly what happened, why, and then all of a sudden another
00:33:04
bombshell, >> and I was blown away. I was blown away. It promised to be one of the most
00:33:20
sensational murder trials in Aspen history. >> Did you ever worry that you might be
00:33:27
convicted? No, cuz I'm totally innocent. >> Kathy Carpenter wasn't nearly as hopeful.
00:33:33
>> If they don't find this the truth out and they send me to prison, I can't live.
00:33:42
>> Then a shocking development. It was one of those moments that rarely happen in
00:33:48
real life. The courtroom is packed. Everyone is desperate to know what will happen next. And then a bombshell. Three
00:33:56
months after being hauled off to jail for murder, Trey Styler tells the judge he knows who did it. Who killed Nancy
00:34:04
Fister? He did. And he says he did it alone. Both women were released from jail. Trey
00:34:16
Styler had agreed to tell all the details of the crime in exchange for a 20-year sentence and his wife's
00:34:25
unconditional freedom >> peacefully. >> Nancy Styler can [music] never be charged in connection with Nancy
00:34:32
Fister's death. If he said, "I'll I'll take the hit. >> I'll throw myself on the sword."
00:34:39
>> Would you let him do it if you were involved? >> Well, if I had done it >> or been involved,
00:34:44
>> no, absolutely not. I couldn't have lived with myself. >> According to Trey Styler, he left his
00:34:52
wife sleeping at the motel and went to Nancy Fister's house to try to reason with her.
00:34:59
The door was unlocked. He went upstairs to her bedroom. He said it bothered him that our whole
00:35:08
lives were falling apart and she was there sleeping peacefully. and he snapped. >> And suddenly it occurred to me that I
00:35:17
could rid myself of this problem once and for all um by killing her. >> Trey Styler says after retrieving a
00:35:29
garbage bag and a hammer from the garage, he returned to the bedroom and began hitting Nancy Fister in the head
00:35:38
again and again until she was dead. And then he [music] puts the bag over her head after he kills her.
00:35:49
>> Right. And that was to keep the uh bleeding to a minimum. >> This feeble looking man in a wheelchair
00:35:57
says he then pulled Nancy Fister's body onto a sheet on the floor and tied her up with an extension cord. And then just
00:36:06
by inches at a time and by squatting and pulling, he moved her deceased body inside the owner's closet.
00:36:14
>> Trey Styler says he then threw the murder weapon and items belonging to Nancy Fister into a bag, put it into his
00:36:22
trunk, and eventually tossed it into that trash can. Lisa Miller admits Trace Styler told a
00:36:30
believable story. The problem is she doesn't believe it. >> You don't believe that confession?
00:36:37
>> No, not fully. I do not. >> You believe Nancy Styler had something to do with that murder?
00:36:43
>> I do. >> Do you believe Kathy Carpenter had something to do with that murder?
00:36:47
>> Kathy Carpenter saw that body before that body had been wrapped and packaged as it was. Kathy Carpenter had something
00:36:53
to do with the murder or the cleanup afterwards. >> Brian agrees, but says they had no
00:36:59
choice but to take the deal. that they simply did not have enough evidence against the two women to prove a case
00:37:06
beyond a reasonable doubt in court. >> We can't create evidence against them that's just not there. I saw this as
00:37:13
really one of our only opportunities to get some closure. >> But Nancy Styler's attorney says the
00:37:21
prosecution is just trying to save face after throwing two innocent women in jail for over three months. It is one of
00:37:29
the worst investigations that I have ever seen. Somebody needs to be held accountable. Somebody needs to lose
00:37:37
their job over this. >> From attorneys and investigators to family and friends, many people in this
00:37:44
town are adamant that there are still unanswered questions, including Michael Cleverly, who wants to know how Trey
00:37:52
Styler could have committed this crime on his own. >> He and I are the same age. Uh, I think
00:37:58
I'm probably in a little better shape than he is. And if I have to pick up up an 80 lb bag of cement, it's a big
00:38:05
adventure for me. It's hard for people to believe that you as his wife in no way helped him murder her, wrap the body
00:38:15
up, drag it into a closet, >> and then clean up that place meticulously where there's only just a
00:38:21
little bit of blood left on the headboard. And you want people to believe you had no idea that that
00:38:27
happened? >> No knowledge of that at all. >> Absolutely nothing. >> Nothing. >> The charges may have been dropped, but
00:38:34
both women say the prosecution's continued insistence that they [music] were somehow involved in Nancy Fister's
00:38:42
murder has convicted them in the court of public opinion. What does the name Nancy Styler mean now?
00:38:50
My reputation was shining and now I'm guilty by matrimony. >> Carpenter lost her job at the bank and
00:39:03
the employee housing that went with it. >> This was home. I I loved living here.
00:39:09
>> She now lives with her mother in another town. Unlike Nancy Styler, Kathy Carpenter still faces the threat of
00:39:17
prosecution. Should more evidence be found? >> It just really hurts me to think that
00:39:25
people might think that I was capable of something like this. There's no way. There's no way.
00:39:36
>> The snow is once again falling on Buttermilk Mountain and the murder of Nancy Fister has finally faded from the
00:39:44
headlines. But friends still [music] mourn. You just lose one of the pillars of joy when you lose a character like
00:39:53
Nancy. >> And a [music] daughter is still grieving. >> She was the person I love the most in
00:40:02
the whole entire universe. She is the person I love the most. But I bet if she wasn't my mom, she
00:40:09
would have been one of my best friends. >> Aspen endures as it always does. But [music] Nancy Fister will not soon be
00:40:18
forgotten. >> I want to do whatever I can for Nancy. >> Last April, after 13 months behind bars,
00:40:41
Trey Styler sat down for an interview with Dalene Barry. who was writing a book with Styler's wife, Guilt by
00:40:49
Matrimony, in an effort to clear her name. >> I did snap. God, I wish it never happened.
00:40:56
>> He talked about the day that he killed Nancy Fister. >> I did not intend to kill her. The
00:41:02
thought never went through my conscious mind. Oh, I think I'll kill her. Um or I'm going to kill her. Um,
00:41:12
first thought I can remember having is I did go past. >> Styler insisted he acted alone.
00:41:21
>> One thing I know beyond doubt is that Nancy not only had no involvement in it,
00:41:26
she had no knowledge of it. >> After Trey Styler went to prison, Nancy Styler changed her name, moved to
00:41:34
another state, and filed for divorce. >> I've been trying to hang on and not do something definitive
00:41:45
>> by suicide. >> Four months after this interview, Trey Styler hanged [music] himself in his
00:41:52
prison cell. 48 hours to miss it would be a crime. Were [music] you at all prepared for
00:42:07
what happened in this case? [music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> My name is Steve Mlin.
00:42:58
My wife and I have a small farm. >> Come on. >> We raise sheep. >> Market lambs and breeding stock. The
00:43:07
farm has always been a sideline. My primary job was as a special agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of
00:43:14
Investigation. Running a farm is a lot like working in investigation. Every day presents challenges, pieces of a puzzle
00:43:23
that need to be put together. Agent Modellin, set the scene for me. Where are we?
00:43:29
>> This is the Saluda Mountain Lodge in Saluda, North Carolina. And this was owned by the Mintz family. And Vanessa
00:43:35
Mintz had worked the night shift as the night manager. >> She was hilarious. She was hilarious.
00:43:42
What do you want Santa Claus to bring you? >> She had a very quick wit. She was this
00:43:46
natural maternal life of the party, too. Come back and see us in the morning. >> Okay, we will.
00:43:53
>> Ms. Mintz was very well respected in the community. She was connected through her
00:43:57
church and her activities. Ms. Mintz worked with young girls in etiquette with beauty pageantss.
00:44:04
>> Vanessa helped me with public speaking and [music] building confidence. She was
00:44:09
like my support team. She made me a very strong independent woman. February 19th, 2011.
00:44:22
Never leaves my mind. I find it really strange because mom has not text or called.
00:44:29
>> You arrive at the lodge. What do you see? >> I see the door standing open. >> Jessica came in through the employee
00:44:37
entrance into the main guest quarters here and immediately noticed her mother in the bed back in the bedroom here.
00:44:46
This is not right. >> When she got to here, she could see her mom on the bed. >> It's very dark and the only illumination
00:44:54
in the room is coming from the TV >> and her mom was on her left side and had her arm up over her face. She also
00:45:02
called her sister who was a nurse >> and Andrea said, "Jescica, is she breathing?
00:45:09
Have you checked her pulse?" and she just screamed this blood curdling scream. >> Vanessa had been shot once in the face
00:45:21
and once in the forearm area. This was certainly a very violent death. There was no forced entry. The cash drawer in
00:45:29
the front office was open and was empty. There's nothing out of place except for
00:45:33
her shoes on the bedroom floor and a shotgun shell. The fact that she is in bed in her night clothing, it is my
00:45:40
opinion she was ambushed. Does that suggest she may have known her killer? >> Yes.
00:45:47
>> My heart has been ripped out and it's laying in there dead with her. This can't be true.
00:45:54
>> This was money and sex driven. And how disgusting is that to murder someone for?
00:46:06
I'm Peter Vans. Tonight on 48 hours, the ultimatum [music] We see this picture that is mounted
00:46:42
before us of one who is very precious to our heart who gave an example in this community.
00:46:51
>> I can't imagine life without her. I won't be able to live without her. At a memorial service in Hendersonville,
00:46:59
North Carolina says >> Jessica Freeman >> and Andrea Gray paid tribute to their beloved mother. Murdered at their
00:47:09
familyowned mountain lodge. >> Your whole world shatters. Nothing looks right. Nothing feels right.
00:47:18
>> That sentiment is echoed by Vanessa's husband of two years, Travis McGra. His
00:47:24
father, Willie, will never forget his son's reaction. >> He was very emotional about the way he
00:47:31
was speaking. You know, he was just like breaking into tears. >> I think the victim here was a well-liked
00:47:36
lady. Good lady, sweet lady. >> Who would have done this to your mom? Not your mom.
00:47:42
>> There was fear that a killer was on the loose, roaming [music] this beautiful
00:47:46
community nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. >> What are you thinking? I just kept
00:47:51
thinking we're not safe >> because Jessica who whoever did this is still out there.
00:47:56
>> Correct. >> Vanessa's life revolved around her loved [music] ones and her deeprooted faith.
00:48:03
>> Mom's heart was so big. So big. And she was very trusting and very forgiving >> to a fault.
00:48:14
Vanessa Mintz came from one of the most prominent [music] families in this part of North Carolina going back nine
00:48:21
generations. Her father Carl was a Baptist preacher for 40 years. He and his late wife
00:48:28
dedicated their lives to their only child. >> She was our love. She was her mother's
00:48:36
heartbeat. >> Early on, they taught Vanessa the value of sacrifice and [music] helping others.
00:48:43
taking her on Christian mission trips around the world. >> She became engrossed in that.
00:48:50
>> At 18, Vanessa married her first husband, had daughters Jessica and Andrea, and continued her mission work.
00:48:58
She also became a successful real estate agent, opening her own company. >> She loved challenges.
00:49:05
Loved challenges. even if it was in a field she had no experience in, she thought, "Well, I I can figure this
00:49:12
out." She'd say, "Well, why not? We can tackle anything." She was unstoppable. >> So unstoppable, she was soon a prominent
00:49:20
leader, supporting new businesses and honoring other local women leaders. >> She was just a mover and a shaker.
00:49:28
>> Longtime friend, Marca Ble Cunningham. She did not let the grass grow under her
00:49:34
feet because she was always busy doing something. >> That something included molding those
00:49:40
aspiring young beauty queens like Heather Waldbart who in 2006 won the town pageant and today is a professional
00:49:50
dancer. >> She always wanted us to go after our dreams. She was someone who always
00:49:56
wanted like the most for you. While Vanessa was thriving professionally on [music] the personal side of life, she
00:50:04
was lonely. Her first marriage ended in divorce [music] when the couple grew apart and a second brief marriage failed
00:50:11
too. But then in early 2008, Vanessa, who had just turned 50, met someone new. >> She's like, "Ladies, I have met my
00:50:22
cowboy." It was Travis, nine years younger, a married father of two who had just separated from his wife.
00:50:30
>> She was very excited about him. >> It was just a fast friendship that moved into a budding romance that just really
00:50:39
took off like wildfire. >> One reason for this burning love was that like Vanessa, Travis believed in
00:50:47
service. He was in the Air Force reserves. He had also been a firefighter, an EMT, and was now a
00:50:54
police officer. >> She [snorts] loved that he was a civil servant, and had his commitment to the
00:51:00
Air Force. >> The romance started when Travis was looking for a new home, and Vanessa was
00:51:07
his real estate agent. Before long, he was courting her. >> Her phone was constantly going off. It
00:51:16
was just an explosion of text messages and him dropping by, >> dropping by her office,
00:51:23
>> bringing treats to the office, um, bringing dinner to her on her shifts down at the motel. Travis was charming
00:51:32
and loving to her. >> It has brought the sparkle back to mom's eye. >> Seems like the perfect fit.
00:51:40
>> It did. >> Travis's dad thought so, too. She took interest in the children. He took
00:51:46
interest in her children's children. And uh you know there was just a real good happy camaraderie going on there. After
00:51:54
Travis's divorce, the couple eloped in 2009. >> They just loved life together and they
00:52:02
loved doing things together. He was such a running partner for her. >> But someone [music]
00:52:08
wanted Vanessa Mintz dead. >> And I love Vanessa. and I miss her. She was always good to
00:52:16
me. >> We've got to find this killer. >> A killer who left behind a calling card.
00:52:23
>> We worked the crime scene in great detail and found a crucial piece of evidence that only the killer could have
00:52:29
left. [music] It was a beautiful, bright, sunshiny day for February. The details of discovering her mother
00:52:53
that Saturday morning are deeply etched in Jessica Freeman's mind. While Vanessa had been working the
00:53:04
overnight shift at the front [music] desk of the family's Mountain Lodge, her husband Travis was 12 miles away,
00:53:11
spending the night with his son, 17-year-old Taylor. >> And so the morning of February 19th,
00:53:18
2011, you get up. >> I get up and I find it really strange that mom had not called me. Jessica
00:53:28
headed right over to the lodge where she was going to take over from her mom. >> As she approached, she noticed the door
00:53:35
was partially open, which again was very unusual to her. Um, >> normally this would be closed.
00:53:40
>> Correct. >> Chief investigator Steve Mlin. >> Now, the lights were off, the shades
00:53:45
were closed, the television in here was on. >> I started calling her name. Mama.
00:53:51
Mama. And there's no there's no sound, but this TV is so loud. So loud. >> The only light in this room at the time
00:54:04
was coming off of the television. So try to imagine that light dancing on the image of her mother lying here on the
00:54:11
bed in this darkness. It's almost a macob kind of scene. >> It is. And it's confusing. And I look up
00:54:19
and there's splattering on the the mattress and her pillow and I said, "Oh, mama,
00:54:28
you've got to wake up. You have thrown up." >> In the lighting and the situation, she
00:54:32
had not put it all together. >> Her first call was to Travis. >> And I said, "You've got to get down
00:54:38
here. You've got to get to the motel. I thought you were supposed to be at the motel with mom. Mom is sick." He goes,
00:54:43
"What do you mean your mom's sick?" I said, "She's sick. you need to get down here. Well, I'm at breakfast and I and I
00:54:50
was very curt to him. I was rude. And so I called my sister and I'm like, "Oh, Andrea, you've got to get down here.
00:54:57
Something is terribly wrong with mother." >> As a nurse, Andrea had dealt with trauma
00:55:02
>> and Andrea said, "Jessica, you've got to look and see if she has a pulse and if
00:55:08
there's a rise and fall to her chest." And I saw there was no there was no rise and fall to her chest.
00:55:18
And what was making her face look so funny was that there was a hole in her head.
00:55:26
>> Modlin's investigators had quickly confirmed there had been two shotgun blasts. One hit Vanessa's arm.
00:55:34
>> The wound there would tend to be a defensive wound. and that second shot to the front of her head.
00:55:41
>> This was a brutal, brutal shooting. >> Yes, it was. >> Prosecutor Alex Bass. >> It was obvious that the money was gone
00:55:49
from the till. There was no money found there. So, the first impression you get is it's a robbery.
00:55:56
>> Just $200 had been taken. But why? Investigators wondered, did the killer leave behind an expensive ring on
00:56:04
Vanessa's finger? We also noted later that on these shelves was a stack of Vanessa's jewelry uh visible and out um
00:56:13
where she had taken it off the night before. >> There was no sign of a struggle, but
00:56:17
whoever shot Vanessa left behind a clue. >> The only thing of note in here was [music]
00:56:24
a pair of Vanessa's shoes right here on the floor and next to them was a single 12- gauge shotgun shell. A spent fired
00:56:33
shotgun shell. What thief would come in, take the money, and say, "Well, I'm now
00:56:38
going to go into the bedroom and shoot this person who's asleep. That doesn't make any sense."
00:56:43
>> Exactly my point. A robbery would get you six or seven years in North Carolina. Murder gets you life or death.
00:56:49
>> Soon, Vanessa's stunned family gathered in front of the lodge. I was so scared
00:56:58
and I just remember just falling in the dirt with her and we just held each other and cried and screamed. I've never
00:57:07
screamed like that before in my life. >> Andrea then called her grandpa Carl about his only child.
00:57:15
>> I just put the phone down, told my wife. Uh, I said, "Mama, something's something's wrong over at the lodge, and
00:57:23
I need to go quickly." And out the door I went. >> And I'll never forget the look on Papa's
00:57:28
face. This is the man that has been this strength and our foundational rock and nothing, nothing could crumble him.
00:57:41
>> The whole thing was completely unimaginable. I'm looking for some derelch that's come
00:57:48
by, stopped in and robbed and shot and gone. I even said to the FBI that I wanted him
00:57:57
to turn every stone that was necessary to find perpetrator. I said, I want to surrender that person to God for judge
00:58:07
and jury. >> Everyone wondered who it could be. >> Who was this? Is this someone against
00:58:15
our family? Is this someone who it was just a roadside robbery? You think of all those things because
00:58:22
you're trying to make it make sense. >> I think it's somebody looking for drug money or traveling money. And Jessica
00:58:30
was already angry at one member of the family, Vanessa's husband, Travis, >> had such anger that he wasn't there to
00:58:39
protect her, that he had left her vulnerable and somebody had broken in and killed her.
00:58:47
>> And the direction the investigation was heading would soon make everyone far angrier. Travis McGraw had a lot of
00:58:56
secrets. He was not wanting to share a whole another life that he had. There was blood stains on the bed.
00:59:18
There were blood stains on the wall behind her. A shocking murder of a beloved mother at
00:59:25
her family's mountaintop lodge. Cash missing from the till. A shotgun shell on the floor.
00:59:35
Despite all that, prosecutor Alex Bass wasn't buying that Vanessa Mint's murder was a robbery gone bad.
00:59:43
>> What was striking about the crime scene was that that apartment was as neat as a
00:59:49
pin. Investigators started from square one. >> They began looking at all the family
00:59:55
members and the first thing they started to do was to get the phone records for them. Once police [music] obtained
01:00:03
Travis's cell phone records from the phone company, they found some romantic text messages. The problem was they
01:00:11
weren't from his wife. >> They led to discovery that he had a girlfriend on the side.
01:00:19
This is Mary Beth Fiser. She was just 27 when she met 44year-old Travis McGra, Vanessa's husband.
01:00:29
>> He was very charming. He seemed very warm, very kind-hearted, um, eager to help, eager to give advice.
01:00:38
>> Travis had followed in his wife's footsteps and was now working for a real estate company here in Hendersonville.
01:00:44
And that's how he met Mary Beth. She was looking for a new place to live with her
01:00:49
young son after recently separating from her husband. So, you and Travis went out
01:00:54
to look at some various properties. >> He was very helpful. He definitely was there with any phone call to answer the
01:01:02
phone or answer any text with whatever question I had. >> And just like Vanessa, Mary Beth found
01:01:09
Travis to be an impressive fellow. >> He was in the Air Force. He uh firemen, EMT,
01:01:18
police department. >> What Travis left off his resume, Mary Beth says, was that he was married.
01:01:25
>> He just looked at me and said, "No, I don't have anybody. >> No one at all. >> No one. You're a good boy."
01:01:32
>> She says her relationship with Travis revolved around text messages and phone
01:01:37
calls. >> Going to come out. >> Did you guys have a romantic relationship? We were not sexually involved at all. I
01:01:44
was in such a vulnerable state. I wasn't looking so much for a romantically involved relationship.
01:01:51
>> Mary Beth says that they didn't have a sexual relationship. So, is she lying?
01:01:56
>> Depends on what sex is as a a recent president once said. >> No sex, she says, but lots of love.
01:02:05
>> At one point, we shared the words I love you. But there were warning signs about
01:02:12
Travis's commitment. He refused to introduce Mary Beth to his children. >> Did it strike you as odd that he'd never
01:02:19
invite you over to his place? >> Yes, it did. He was really adamant about his kids not knowing who I was.
01:02:27
>> Then at the hospital where Mary Beth worked, she learned from a coworker that
01:02:32
Travis was married. >> I'm mad. >> You're mad? >> I'm mad. I should have just said adios.
01:02:40
>> Mary Beth says Travis then told a new story. >> He then proceeded to tell me that he
01:02:48
wasn't with her now that they were still business partners. They were separated.
01:02:56
She lived in one of her properties that she owned. He lived in a another property that they did not live
01:03:04
together. Now, were you buying that? >> I bought it. >> Within weeks, Travis had another
01:03:10
problem. Vanessa found out about Mary Beth. >> I'm not exactly sure of the method of
01:03:18
how she learned. She just became completely withdrawn from [music] me. She couldn't eat.
01:03:27
She couldn't drink. She was so sick. Jessica [snorts] and Andrea say their mother was determined to save her
01:03:36
marriage and made the dramatic decision to confront Mary Beth face to face. >> The Wednesday night before she died, she
01:03:44
went to her apartment and begged and graveled and pleaded with her to please leave my husband alone.
01:03:54
>> They really said that. >> That's what they said that their mother told them. [sighs]
01:03:59
Lord. Absolutely not. I never met her. >> This didn't happen. >> No. If it did, then the relationship
01:04:08
would have been cut off right there. >> Then more drama. Mary Beth says one day she was spending time with Travis and he
01:04:18
ignored his ringing cell phone. >> And I say, "Okay, excuse me. Um, can I have your phone?" And I said, "Please
01:04:25
show me where your texts are." Mary Beth then read a text message from Vanessa >> and it did say, "Thank you for running
01:04:34
errands for me today." And I believe I saw the word love in there. I shut his phone. I gave it back and I said, "Get
01:04:41
out of my house." >> Mary Beth says [music] Travis burst into tears and pleaded for forgiveness. They
01:04:49
parted. >> And then once I calmed down a bit is when I text him. Her words [music] were
01:04:56
plain as day. >> You need to make a decision on who you want to be with. And I said, if you want
01:05:02
to be with her, then be with her. That's fine, but you need to make a choice on who you want to be with.
01:05:10
>> Mary Beth's ultimatum came with a deadline. It was Thursday, and he had until Sunday to decide. Less than 48
01:05:19
hours later, Vanessa was shot to death. Travis wrote me, "If you haven't heard yet, Vanessa was at the motel last
01:05:27
night. Someone broke in, robbed the cash drawer, and killed her." >> You gave Travis an ultimatum. You told
01:05:34
him to choose. The next day, Vanessa is murdered. Did you think that was just a coincidence?
01:05:46
>> It's so weird to say. In my mind, I thought it was a coincidence. I just didn't want to believe this man was
01:05:53
capable of doing something like that. >> Special Agent Steve Mellin had never believed that Vanessa was murdered by a
01:06:02
stranger. >> This is not a place you see traveling down the road and think I'll stop there.
01:06:07
You're going to have to have knowledge that this is here, that this exists. >> And once Mellin got those text messages
01:06:14
from the phone company, he was convinced that Travis was the prime suspect. And he made one crucial mistake.
01:06:25
Sitting >> right there on the floor, plain as day. That sounds like a big piece of
01:06:29
evidence. >> Well, it was. It was the big piece of evidence. That shotgun shell left behind by
01:06:53
Vanessa's killer was a telltale clue. >> Point down range, pull the trigger, and
01:07:00
then pull back on the forearm. That will eject the fired shotgun shell. >> And Shane Green of the State Bureau of
01:07:07
Investigation demonstrated for us how he tested Travis's shotgun, the same kind of gun he's using here. The fired
01:07:16
shotgun shell that was recovered at the lodge was one just like this. >> After the [music] murder, Travis McGrath
01:07:23
voluntarily gave police the four shotguns he owned. He was trying to cooperate and had no idea the police had
01:07:30
found a shell casing. [music] His truck had also been searched. in his truck. We
01:07:36
found a shotgun shell in the door compartment of the same brand and size shot uh and specifics as the shell from
01:07:46
the crime scene. >> Among Travis's shotguns was this Mossberg model. So, Green loaded the
01:07:53
same kind of shell that Travis used and fired it. You're telling me you can you can fire
01:08:02
this weapon and there will be distinctive markings on the back of this shotgun shell would tell you whether or
01:08:09
not this shell was fired from that gun. >> That's correct. There'll be microscopic
01:08:14
markings, imperfections, striations, scratches. >> And when Green compared the shells he
01:08:20
fired from Travis's gun against the one at the crime scene, they were almost identical. And how precise is that match
01:08:29
in your professional opinion? >> Uh, in my opinion, it's a 100% match. Uh, that shotgun shell was fired in the
01:08:36
shotgun provided by Travis McGro. >> Investigators now had that forensic evidence on top of the text messages
01:08:44
that included Mary Beth's ultimatum. 4 days after the murder, police arrested Travis McGrath [music] and charged him
01:08:53
with firstdegree murder. In that moment when you heard that, >> my knees buckled.
01:09:00
>> I just laid my head on the table and Papa said, "No, >> no, no." >> But the wheels of justice turned slowly
01:09:09
in this part of North Carolina. [music] Travis spent 13 months in jail and then his family was finally able to raise his
01:09:18
$750,000 bail and he was freed. The sisters say he lurked [music] around them ominously in their neighborhood.
01:09:28
>> We saw him a lot. >> He would be on the side of the road. >> Would he look at you as you drove by
01:09:33
>> and wave at us >> or do this? >> Do this. >> Mhm. >> Like a gun thing. >> I don't know. He would do this.
01:09:40
>> I guess you could interpret it how you wanted to. >> Even with the strong case against
01:09:45
Travis, [music] prosecutors then offered him a plea deal consulting with Vanessa's daughters. seconddegree murder
01:09:52
with a sentence of 16 to 20 years. They wanted him to plead [music] guilty rather than rolling the dice at trial
01:10:01
since the only physical evidence was that shotgun shell. >> And so we all just felt like that this
01:10:09
was in God's hands and if this was the way that the state felt they needed to proceed, we are supportive of the state
01:10:15
and we would move forward. On the advice of his lawyer, Travis accepted the deal.
01:10:21
But when the day came in March of 2014 to finalize it, >> please be seated. >> A shocking development.
01:10:29
>> So, at this point, the state, we asked, does the defendant wish to accept the
01:10:33
state's plea offer or not? >> No, sir. >> At the last moment, Travis changed his
01:10:42
mind about pleading guilty. I think it's because in my heart and in his heart knows he's innocent. We had a
01:10:49
conversation to that effect privately that he told me that he was innocent looking dead into my eyes.
01:10:54
>> How can you not just be horribly, horribly disappointed? I mean, we were really thinking that today at the end of
01:11:03
the day, we could be at the end of this chapter. Three long years after their mother's
01:11:12
murder. >> I'm thankful that we're finally to this point. It's We're exhausted. >> Jessica, Andrea, and their families are
01:11:21
finally headed to court for the trial of Travis McGra. >> Call your first witness,
01:11:27
>> Heidi Laam. >> I mean, it was loud enough. >> Heidi Laam, a friend of Vanessa's, takes
01:11:33
the stand. Heidi was staying at the lodge the night of the murder and was startled awake.
01:11:40
>> It was definitely a whooing sound. I I felt like something was banging against
01:11:45
the building, probably the echo. So, it was it it was pretty loud. >> Unable to fall back to sleep, Heidi left
01:11:53
the lodge. She noticed Travis's red truck. >> And where was the red truck parked?
01:11:59
>> Parked in front of the breezeway. Remember, Travis had told police that he'd spent the night with his son here
01:12:05
at Vanessa's house about 12 miles from the lodge. Heidi's testimony contradicts his story.
01:12:13
>> Captain [snorts] William, >> Air Force Major William Boschain, Travis's former commander then testifies
01:12:21
that he contacted police shortly after word spread that Vanessa had been murdered. Why? because Travis had
01:12:29
already tried to collect on the $100,000 military life insurance policy he had on
01:12:36
Vanessa. >> Why did this cause you concern? >> I was shocked that within 10 to 12 hours I was
01:12:46
>> Go ahead. >> Within 10 to 12 hours, I was receiving an email inquiring about insurance.
01:12:52
>> Miss Bishop, you come around this morning. Then it was time for the prosecution's star witness to take the
01:12:58
stand. Travis's former girlfriend, Mary Beth Fiser, who continues to insist their relationship was platonic.
01:13:08
>> It was not a physical relationship as a married couple or a boyfriend girlfriend would have that element of
01:13:17
it. It was just heavy texting and it did get emotional through texting. You're two adults, both been in marriages in
01:13:26
the past. It seems like a very normal next step that you would have been romantic, had a physical relationship.
01:13:34
>> It does. And now looking back, I kind of wondered why he didn't want that. >> Yeah.
01:13:40
>> Mary Beth tells the jury about that ultimatum she texted to Travis. If you want to be with her, then be with her,
01:13:48
but make that choice on who you want to be with exclusively is what I text him. And then I said, "Then let let me have
01:13:56
an answer on Sunday." >> Did there come a point? >> Mary Beth tells the court she only asked
01:14:02
Travis about Vanessa's death one time. >> The only thing I've ever said to him about this whole case was, "How do you
01:14:10
feel now after all this has happened?" and his response was, "I feel relieved for her because of financial issues that
01:14:18
she was having." >> Vanessa's family says money was a bit tight at that time, but no serious
01:14:25
problems. Prosecutors laid out their strong evidence about that shotgun shell, which
01:14:31
they said put Travis in the room where Vanessa was shot. Only one witness remained who could refute that story.
01:14:39
Travis himself. Did you shoot your wife with that shell? >> No, sir, I did not. >> He testifies that he went target
01:14:46
shooting the day before on this open land near the airport and had put the spent shotgun shells in his pocket.
01:14:54
>> After I went shooting that day, I felt like I'd pulled all the shells out of my
01:14:58
pocket when I changed clothes if that one fell out of my pants. That's where it's come from. But that's the only way
01:15:03
a shell got out of my gun. Got into the Solo Mountain Lodge that night. >> But there's a problem with Travis's
01:15:08
story. A cell phone expert testifies that the cell phone in Travis's pocket that day was nowhere near where he said
01:15:17
he was target shooting. >> Finally, >> I have two Air Force Achievement medals, an Air Force accommodation medal.
01:15:24
>> Travis falls back on his resume. >> And so, we did everything we could to keep the fire contained to one side of
01:15:29
the base. >> Trying to charm the jurors. >> I was given another Air Force Achievement Medal
01:15:34
>> just as he had charmed Vanessa and Mary Beth. What could he possibly have to say? It's like being in the room with
01:15:43
pure evil. It feels gross. >> You didn't feel the need to tell her that you were married to Vanessa Mix,
01:15:49
did you? >> No, sir. >> You were in love with Mary Beth, weren't you? >> Yes, sir.
01:15:54
>> You wanted to be with her, didn't you? >> Yes, sir. >> Tell the court about that.
01:15:58
>> But defense attorney Tony Dalton doesn't want the jury to think that love was
01:16:04
Travis's motive for murder. Did you kill Vanessa because of that deadline? >> Absolutely not. Nobody deserved what
01:16:11
Vanessa got? >> No. >> The defense calls Taylor McGraw. >> But Travis has one more hope to sway the
01:16:20
jury. His now 20-year-old son, Taylor, testifies that he believes his father was in the house with him all night
01:16:30
because nothing woke him up. Pretty much anyone walked past the room, they would
01:16:35
even if the door was closed because of the vibrations, it would cause the dog to bark.
01:16:40
>> So the only way your father could get out of the house, out of that room, was
01:16:44
to go past the dog. >> Correct. >> What other sign? >> But on cross-examination,
01:16:50
Taylor acknowledges he wasn't exactly a light sleeper. Do >> you recall telling the FBI agents that
01:16:58
when you sleep, you sleep like a rock? Yes, sir. >> But Willie McGra is convinced that his
01:17:04
son is innocent, and he hopes the jury will find it impossible to believe that a former military man and police officer
01:17:13
would have been so careless as to leave behind a shotgun shell and keep a murder
01:17:18
weapon at his house and then give it to police. >> My son is probably arrogant. [snorts]
01:17:25
Uh he's a little uh highrung and uh but he ain't stupid. [music] >> No, sir. After seven days of testimony,
01:17:48
17 witnesses, 85 exhibits, >> this being a first-degree murder case, it's high stakes.
01:17:56
>> Closing statements begin. >> But I submit to you, not being a faithful husband doesn't mean you're a
01:18:00
murderer. >> Defense attorney Tony Dalton reminds jurors to focus on the facts and not
01:18:07
Travis's questionable character. >> Mr. McGraw, you may find to be a person of bad judgment.
01:18:14
You may find his character to be not up to your standards, but that's not the question here. Give Mr. McGraw a fair
01:18:23
trial. And if you find a reasonable doubt, find this man not guilty. That's what I want to talk about first.
01:18:30
>> Prosecutor Bass takes his turn saying all the evidence points to Travis McGra's guilt.
01:18:37
>> The defendant did it. He had every reason to do it. He had the means and the motive and the ability and the
01:18:44
smarts to try to frame it up as a robbery, but he wasn't nearly as smart as he thought he was. That's because
01:18:52
Travis left behind that shotgun shell, the critical piece of physical evidence tying him to the crime. And that was the
01:19:01
defendant's biggest error cuz that shell landed on the floor. But in the passionate heat of trying to
01:19:10
escape, he didn't go back in that darkened room. >> Bass tells jurors the motive for murder.
01:19:18
>> He was in love or what passes in the mind of Travis McCra love because we all
01:19:24
know that that's an infatuation. And by killing Vanessa, Travis thought he would
01:19:29
have what he craved, $100,000 of insurance money, maybe even Vanessa's house, enough to impress his new girlfriend.
01:19:41
>> The defendant had every reason in this case to kill his wife. He can go on being a white knight from Barry Beth.
01:19:47
When you start putting all those facts and circumstances together and then put the evidence of motive on top of that,
01:19:55
you get a complete picture of this defendant. The picture that you have of this defendant
01:20:01
is guilty. >> All right, members of the jury, all the evidence has been presented. It is now.
01:20:06
>> Now, after some final instructions, >> when you have unanimously agreed upon a
01:20:11
verdict, notify the baiff by knocking on the jury room door. The judge sends the
01:20:16
jury out [music] and the wait for that knock begins, hoping for a quick verdict. No one
01:20:23
strays too far from the courtroom. Vanessa's family on one side, Travis's on the other.
01:20:30
>> I'm really nervous about the whole thing. I'm on edge a little bit, especially since the juryy's not come
01:20:36
back in yet. Travis, he's got a confident feeling about it. >> Two hours pass. What's that weight like?
01:20:45
>> It's so hard. The minutes are heavy. Every sound, every creep in the old courthouse room, you just Is that the
01:20:55
knock at the door? >> We'll be in recess till 9:30 in the morning. >> The jury is dismissed for the day.
01:21:02
>> I was sheriff. He'll bring a jury in >> and returns the next morning. >> You're just sitting there just praying
01:21:09
on nice edge. Lunchtime passes, but still no knock. More waiting in the courtroom. Throughout deliberations,
01:21:19
Vanessa's family prays. It's all too much for Jessica. >> All right, ladies and gentlemen, I
01:21:29
understand there is a verdict. Finally, after eight hours of deliberating, >> the feeling in the room, the energy, it
01:21:36
was just electric when that knock came upon that door that the jury was ready. >> All right, Madame Clark, would you take
01:21:43
the verdict, please? >> Judgement day. >> Mr. Poor person, you have returned to open court as a unanimous verdict of the
01:21:51
jury that the defendant Travis Lee McGraw is guilty of first degree murder. The verdict of the jury
01:21:58
>> guilty. guilty. >> And when you hear that word, after all you've been through,
01:22:05
>> it's just members of the jury. >> And just minutes after the verdict, he's slapped with the maximum sentence.
01:22:12
>> The sentence would be by the court a life in prison without parole. Good luck. And to hear those words guilty
01:22:20
and you will spend life in prison. I felt like since February 19th, 2011 that I finally took a deep breath.
01:22:33
>> The former police officer is now a convicted murderer. >> You could have walked away and left. You
01:22:41
did not have to kill her. I don't want to have feelings of anger because he's going to be getting his
01:22:50
just reward. >> Do you sit at night and wonder to yourself, I may have been the motive
01:22:57
that Travis used to murder his wife? I have thought about that and I feel bad that that thought is out there because
01:23:07
honestly nobody thinks that when they're involved in this situation or give some
01:23:12
somebody an ultimatum that that person would go and shoot the person that they're involved with to get out of the
01:23:19
situation. That's just not reasonable. Normal people don't do that. Time is almost
01:23:24
over >> for the Mintz family and the community she once served. >> Come back and see us.
01:23:30
>> Vanessa's spirit lives on. >> Hey Jessica, it's mom. >> Jessica treasures this last voicemail
01:23:37
from her mom. >> I was just calling to say hello and to check on you. I hope everything's going
01:23:43
well for you. I love you. >> And the influence she had on everyone around her. I want my mother to be
01:23:50
remembered for who she was, not how she died. A passionate Renaissance woman that was
01:23:59
able to tackle the world and to be near her was to be blessed. >> [music] [music]
01:24:34
[music] [music] [music] >> So, right here in this general area is where the caretaker was living at
01:25:05
when he went for a walk up this little off road when he found her initially. I wasn't even sure if it was real at
01:25:18
first. I thought it might be some kind of a prank, you know. Actually, I did reach down and touch her
01:25:24
hand. That feels like flesh and bone to me. When we found Anna Repkina's body, we
01:25:34
were able to see that her feet were probably down in about this location [music]
01:25:41
and her head was pointed back towards the forest here. >> [music] >> One of the first things we noticed when
01:25:48
we made it our way to this landing is there's pieces of trash and there was garbage.
01:25:55
One of the biggest pieces of evidence that we found in this case, there was a KFC bag.
01:26:01
Along the edge of that clear bag, there was a receipt that had the date of the 14th. So, April 14th, which is only a
01:26:08
few days prior. Who was Anna Rkina? >> Anna was 27 years old and she came from a good strong family in Russia.
01:26:25
She wanted somebody to love her, wanted to have kids. And so that's why she went
01:26:30
on [music] to the dating websites. She happened to find Will Harrove. He's always trying to make people laugh,
01:26:44
making sure that everybody else is happy, trying to push them to [music] become the better person that they can
01:26:51
be. >> He was complimentary to her. Uh he sent her flowers from the United States to
01:26:58
Russia. He paid attention to her. >> With everything that he had explained to me, everything he had told me, Anna was
01:27:06
the love of his life. The sense that you got from [music] Anna Revkina was that she was in love.
01:27:15
This wasn't coming to the United States as some mail order bride. >> How does Michelle Chavez fit into this
01:27:23
case? >> Well, Michelle Chavez is the other woman. She is that third part of the triangle.
01:27:31
>> He made me feel special. He has a charisma about him. It's like everything he's saying, he truly
01:27:38
believes and you believe it. He makes you believe it. >> Especially if you're in love and you
01:27:41
want to believe it. >> Yeah. And you were in love. I was. >> And it was always I choose you. It was.
01:27:50
>> How much pressure was he getting from Michelle to end it with Anna? >> I know for a fact that Michelle didn't
01:27:58
want Anna even over here in the States. He was basically given the ultimatum of one or the other. And two days later on
01:28:08
it was found dead. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> This is outside of Corvalis quite a ways
01:29:03
out in [music] the Alcier and up a remote logging road. Ryan Joselyn and Amy Matusco, both
01:29:16
deputy district attorneys in Benton County, Oregon, received an urgent call that a body had been found on April
01:29:22
17th, 2017. He and I were both on scene to take a look for ourselves. So important in a
01:29:33
prosecutor's role that you understand the scene, not just from photos, but having been there.
01:29:41
Not too many people are going to be up in that area, but frankly, the fact that the body was discovered as quickly as it
01:29:47
was uh was pretty extraordinary. >> Lead detective Lieutenant Chris Duffett says a local caretaker happened to be
01:29:55
out walking his dog that day when he came across the body. >> The caller was walking on this road on a
01:30:04
day and a time in a place that he really should have never been. So, we were very, very lucky to find her body. If it
01:30:10
would have been any more time, we might have never found her. >> The victim was identified as 27-year-old
01:30:16
Moscow native Anna [music] Repkina. She had been shot. >> She was smart, intelligent. She had an
01:30:25
office [music] job working for IKEA. She loved cats. She loved to travel. Anna had a lot going for her. A lot of people
01:30:35
liked her. So, how did a Russian woman who had a seemingly happy life meet her end [music] on a remote logging road
01:30:42
nearly 5,500 miles from home? She had broken up with her boyfriend of 7 years [music] and was really looking
01:30:52
for that connection. A year earlier, newly single Anna started looking for love online and joined a Russian social
01:31:00
networking site. She found what she was looking for halfway [music] across the world when she met 26-year-old Oregonian
01:31:07
William Harrove. >> Then they started really chatting. They chatted a lot over Facebook. Then uh
01:31:14
they started video conferencing and that was happening on an almost daily basis.
01:31:19
>> Anna and Will found that they had a lot in common. >> They really bonded over music. She very
01:31:26
much loved music. She liked to go to rock concerts. They would have discussions about bands. She had a good
01:31:32
sense of humor. She would constantly send funny memes and she connected with her friends and her [music] family that
01:31:39
way. >> Will and Anna exchanged thousands of messages imagining their future together. If Anna came to Oregon,
01:31:48
>> he [music] definitely had the gift of gab. >> The gift of gab. He could talk a good
01:31:52
game. He could. He could talk a very good game. >> Will's friend and former roommate, Jamie
01:31:58
Clots. He and I had things in common. Cars. He works on cars. I work on cars. >> I'm more Harry Potter. He's more the
01:32:06
Avengers kind of genre, but we could nerd out on things like that. He actually took me to see my first
01:32:13
Avengers movie. He was a likable guy. A jokester. He just liked to laugh and have fun. I enjoyed being around him.
01:32:20
>> Will worked as a mechanic at a local auto dealership. In his free time, he'd meet up with friends like Joseph
01:32:26
Thompson at the Peacock Bar and Grill. >> We would play pool over there on Sunday
01:32:32
nights and just basically ended up hanging out doing karaoke. I don't know how many times me and him would be
01:32:38
sitting there playing pool and he'd just have women walk up from the bar, just sit there, talk to him. He was very
01:32:47
charismatic. He had the personality, the presence. Was he a player? >> No, not necessarily.
01:32:55
>> Will was such a good friend that Joseph called him his brother. >> We were both in the military. A lot of
01:33:02
the training and stuff we had went through was similar and it helped pull us together.
01:33:07
>> What branch of the service were you in? >> Army. >> And Will, >> I believe he was Marines. He said that
01:33:13
he used to be stationed in Russia. Will seemed to have an affinity for all things Russian, and his online
01:33:20
relationship with Anna took off. Anna decided to fly to the States to spend the holidays with Will in Oregon
01:33:29
and see if their virtual love would feel the same in reality. >> December of 2016, she traveled here and
01:33:37
spent a couple weeks with um William Hargrove. >> But the road to romance had an
01:33:42
unexpected detour. There was a problem when she first came out in December to see Mr. Harrove. She
01:33:51
mistakenly mixed up Portland, Maine for Portland, Oregon, and she was stranded in Portland, Maine.
01:33:59
Amidst the chaos of flight changes, Anna messaged Will, building the anticipation
01:34:04
to finally be together. Anna eventually made it to the right Portland and into the arms of Will
01:34:13
Harrove. During her visit, she posted highlights of their whirlwind romance, including photos of their trips to the
01:34:19
coast, Will's cars, and even a Christmas wish scrolled out to her family back home.
01:34:26
>> She came here for love. >> At the conclusion of this trip, she actually became engaged to William
01:34:32
Hargrove and they had plans to get married in the future. Anna returned home to Russia after 10 days with a
01:34:39
souvenir, an engagement ring from Will, and plans to pack up her life in Russia and move to Oregon with the promise of
01:34:47
marriage. >> She was excited about the wedding. She was talking about um all the different
01:34:52
style dresses and what she really wanted. >> But there was going to be an obstacle
01:34:57
[music] in Anna's path to love. >> I'm Michelle Chavez and I was Will Hard Gro's girlfriend.
01:35:21
In 2015, 33-year-old Michelle Chavez was living with her husband and two children
01:35:26
in Albany, Oregon. Unfortunately, all was not right in the marriage. Our relationship at that point in time
01:35:35
really wasn't one. It was like roommates that just happened to be married. Slept
01:35:40
in the same bed, but that was about it. Didn't really talk. Michelle met Will Harrove while [music]
01:35:47
she was working as a cab driver. It was a kind of slow time in the summer and I was waiting at [music] the bar waiting
01:35:53
for people to call to go pick people up. What was your first impression of him? >> God, he's short.
01:35:59
>> God, he's short. Yes, Scotty's short. Yeah. Um, he is short. >> But that first impression gave way to
01:36:08
something much more for [music] Chavez, who was so unhappy at home. He made you feel like you were in the sun when he
01:36:15
talked to you. He had a way of being able to look at me and I I felt like I was actually seen. I felt beautiful. I
01:36:22
felt like I was wanted. >> And so Michelle and Will became much more than friends.
01:36:27
>> It wasn't a planned thing. It wasn't like it went off in my head. I was like,
01:36:30
I'm I'm going to have a relationship with him. It just progressed that way. >> This is one of him and our mutual friend
01:36:38
Jamie. >> He was willing to give her what she needed, affection, attention. >> The following year, 2016, the
01:36:49
relationship grew to a new [music] and somewhat unusual level with Will renting a spare bedroom in Michelle's house. the
01:36:58
same one she shared with her husband [music] and kids. Though it's not clear what Michelle's husband knew about her
01:37:05
relationship with Will. [music] >> He only had to pay $300 a month and his own food unless he liked whatever it was
01:37:11
we were making at the time. Honestly, pretty sweet deal. >> Michelle even gave Will her wedding
01:37:17
ring, a promise that she'd leave her husband soon. But it wasn't enough for Will. If Will had this relationship with
01:37:24
Michelle and was in love with Michelle, why was he going on internet dating sites?
01:37:29
>> I think that it had to do with jealousy. Michelle was going to leave her husband
01:37:36
on her terms and it wasn't going fast enough. If he could make her jealous, then maybe it would speed things up.
01:37:44
Which may explain why when Anna visited Will over Christmas, they stayed at Michelle's house under Michelle's nose.
01:37:52
It seems Anna knew nothing of Will's other relationship. They were in his room most of the time. On New Year's
01:37:59
Eve, they were getting ready to go out. Will was like, "Oh, maybe I should introduce you guys." And then she shook
01:38:03
my hand and she said her name was Zanna. I said it was nice to meet her. But Michelle wouldn't be quite that
01:38:09
welcoming when Anna returned a few months later on March 1st, 2017 with the intention of becoming Will's wife.
01:38:17
>> I was like, "Well, she's not staying here. She's not staying [music] in my house."
01:38:20
>> So Will and Anna rented an apartment in Corvalis, a small college town not far
01:38:25
from Michelle's home. With Will working and without a job herself, Anna spent time on her own,
01:38:32
even joining the local gym, life wasn't as easy for Michelle. What did you want?
01:38:39
>> Simple. Just to be happy. >> And you thought you'd found that with him? >> I thought I had,
01:38:45
>> but you have to actually know some way to find those things. I think >> turns out actually knowing Will was
01:38:52
going to be a bit of a challenge for everyone. Even with his new fiance in America, he
01:38:58
split his nights between his two love interests. He really continued to float between those two uh places. Back at
01:39:05
Michelle's place and then back at the apartment with Anna. >> With no clue as to why Will kept
01:39:10
disappearing, Anna often had to resort to contacting his friends to find her own fiance.
01:39:16
>> She's seeing him gone. In the text messages, she's reaching out to his friends. Do you know where he is? What's
01:39:23
going on? She's becoming suspicious. Where is he going? What is going on with this time? As [music] it happened,
01:39:30
Anna's instincts were right on the money. >> This man was a fraud and relied heavily
01:39:36
on deception to convince other people he was the type of person he wanted to be perceived as.
01:39:43
>> And he wanted to be something greater than he was. [music] He told a number of
01:39:48
people he was in the armed forces. He was never in the armed forces. >> Then there's the matter of a certain
01:39:54
engagement ring, Anna's ring. Or was it? Her and I had friended each other on Facebook
01:40:01
and then I saw her wearing my wedding ring. >> What? Yeah. >> The ring that had been Michelle's
01:40:08
wedding ring had been repurposed [music] when Will proposed to Anna. >> Will told Anna that this ring belonged
01:40:16
to his grandmother and had sentimental [music] value to him. >> Anna had no idea she was wearing
01:40:22
Michelle's ring. And on [music] March 22nd, she was shocked to get a Facebook message from Michelle about sharing
01:40:29
Will. >> At this [music] point, all Anna knows is that Michelle Chavez is the crazy
01:40:36
ex-girlfriend because that's what Will Harrove has told her. And so Anna says, "No way. You get out of our lives."
01:40:47
>> Something about me being a I believe. And I was like, "I'm just getting started being one. [music] Were
01:40:54
you threatening her? >> No, just being mouthy. I just meant [music] that if you think I'm being
01:40:58
now, like just watch. >> Just 3 days later, Anna and Will headed to the Oregon coast for their wedding
01:41:08
ceremony. >> Anna brought a wedding dress with her from Russia. She had her ring that
01:41:14
William proposed to her with. On the way, Will decided to stop at the local Walmart to buy their wedding
01:41:21
bands, leaving bride to be Anna in the car. >> While he's in Walmart shopping for his
01:41:27
wedding ring, he is on the phone with Michelle Chavez. And he is discussing their relationship and whether or not
01:41:34
he's going to come see her [music] that night. >> And you had no clue when he said he was
01:41:39
in Walmart that he was like headed to a [music] wedding. >> No. No, not at all. >> But as it would turn out, Anna and Will
01:41:45
were not headed to a wedding. They go to the beach and the officient doesn't show
01:41:52
up. So, he has a phone call in which he relays to both the witnesses and to Anna
01:41:59
that the officient couldn't make it. He was ill. Something came up. And William Hargo was actually calling a
01:42:07
couple video game stores to [music] presumably pretend he was talking to a wedding official to show him how mad he
01:42:15
was about this day. He never arranged for an officient. He never got a marriage license. He didn't
01:42:22
have anything set up. >> Sadly, there'd be only one portrait of the bride that day, picking up some fast
01:42:29
food. >> The McDonald's drive-thru video is the only [music] video or photo taken on
01:42:36
Anna Repina's wedding day. And you can actually see Anna Repkina in her wedding dress uh in William Hargo's vehicle.
01:42:46
Seemingly oblivious to Will's feelings for Michelle, Anna set her heart on a rescheduled [music] wedding date. But
01:42:53
Michelle had other plans. So, did you give him an ultimatum? At one point, I did.
01:43:02
Told him it was he had to pick one. I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. I just didn't want her here.
01:43:08
So, you pressured him to choose. I did. In April 2017, the relationship between Michelle and Will hit a crossroads with
01:43:35
Michelle insisting Will finally choose between her and Anna. Will told Michelle she was his choice.
01:43:46
So, April 19th was the deadline, right, for both of you. Correct. >> You were going to be done with your
01:43:52
marriage and he was supposed to >> she was supposed to be gone or whatever. He was going to leave her.
01:44:01
>> How much pressure did Michelle put on Will to get rid of Anna? >> A lot. There was a lot of pressure.
01:44:11
There's a lot of back and forth [music] in there between all the text messages where one minute it's like clean out
01:44:18
your stuff and get out. The next minute is I love you. I want to be together. But we can't do that if she's here.
01:44:28
There are texts between the two of you with you pressuring him to choose. [music]
01:44:33
And at one point you told him to fix it. Yeah. What do you mean by that? in the general sense, fix it in the
01:44:40
sense that you would take care of it, not take care of it like take somebody out and you would end the relationship,
01:44:46
that you would be done. >> Will told Michelle he'd tried to send Anna packing many times, but she
01:44:53
wouldn't go. >> So Michelle perceived Anna as this girl who kind of never got the hint that she
01:45:00
was being told to leave and she kept coming back. Although Anna never knew any of this was really happening.
01:45:09
On Saturday night, April 15th, just 4 days shy of the deadline they'd set, Michelle was supposed to have dinner at
01:45:16
Will's apartment. >> It wasn't until about 8:00 p.m. that night that William Harrove tells
01:45:20
Michelle Chavez [music] that she actually can't come over that Anna showed back up. The Anna's back again.
01:45:27
He'll take care of it. >> What followed was yet another heated text conversation.
01:45:35
Not a surprise, according to detective Chris Dale, who says Michelle and Will exchanged more than 13,000 texts during
01:45:43
their relationship. >> Constant checking in every morning to make sure that he's woken up on time uh
01:45:51
to get to work. Didn't seem as if there was a an hour in a day that went by where they were not uh communicating.
01:46:01
But on that day, there was one critical text. So, Will Harg Grove sent a message
01:46:07
to Miss Chavez. I will have this permanently fixed by 18800 tomorrow. >> So, [music] he'll have the situation of
01:46:13
Anarkina handled by 6:00 p.m. uh the following day, which was Easter Sunday. >> That assurance was not enough for
01:46:23
Michelle. She continued texting and calling Will, who turned off his phone. As the hours passed with no reply,
01:46:34
Michelle's hope that Will was truly fixing the problem with Anna vanished. >> I guess you made your choice.
01:46:42
Okay, I'll let you be. >> Why? I just want to know why. I'll let you be. But I just want to know why.
01:47:03
>> The next morning, Michelle headed to her mother's house for Easter. Jamie was
01:47:07
there as well. >> She said that she'd spent the night ugly crying. And even though I knew what the probable
01:47:14
answer was going to be, I still asked her like, "Why?" And she looks at me and she goes, "Why do you think?" And I
01:47:19
said, "Because of Will." Meanwhile, back at his apartment, Will was dealing with a very different but
01:47:28
urgent problem, his car insurance policy. >> They've been [music] sending him notices
01:47:32
that if he doesn't have it paid by midnight on the 16th, they're going to cancel his insurance.
01:47:38
>> He tells them that he knows his insurance lapses [music] that evening and he needs to get it uh
01:47:44
extended uh for free uh because if it doesn't, he's going to lose his uh vehicle loan and they're going to
01:47:51
repossess it immediately. Okay. Can you guys hold off until the 21st so I can get you paid?
01:47:58
>> Um, unfortunately once it is pending cancellation for non-payment, we don't have the ability to move the dates at
01:48:04
all. Um, and this one. Yeah. So, it'll be effect canceled effective tonight at midnight.
01:48:12
>> Just after 4:30 p.m., Michelle's phone rang. It was Will. >> And what did he say?
01:48:18
>> That he had been out at the coast. [music] He was on his way back in and he'd almost had a deer. He ran off the
01:48:23
road and he had a flat tire and he needed help. How did he sound? Shaken, sad. >> And so Michelle left her family's Easter
01:48:33
celebration to go and meet Will in the town of Alsie. He waited for her at a local convenience
01:48:40
store. >> You can see him walk to the uh cooler where he gets a Pepsi. He goes and gets
01:48:47
his candy [music] bar. And then he ultimately gets a pack of cigarettes. >> About an hour later, Michelle arrived.
01:48:56
>> She parks on the side of that store. [music] Uh we see her get out of her Prius.
01:49:00
>> I asked him, "What what happened? Where have you been?" And he told me that he
01:49:05
after we had talked that they got into an argument and he said horrible mean things to her and that she had turned
01:49:12
around and taken her suitcases and had walked out. Thinking Anna had finally left the apartment for good, Michelle
01:49:18
says she and Will got into his car. >> We drove for a little bit and we pulled off and we were talking for a few and
01:49:25
then honestly we end up having sex in the front seat. >> So you had makeup sex essentially.
01:49:30
>> Yeah, Essentially makeup sex in the front seat. >> Michelle and Will then went their
01:49:33
separate ways with Michelle returning to her family's Easter celebration. >> She came back. She was in a good mood.
01:49:40
She was smiling. She was, you know, she was happy. She looked total 180 from what she looked like in the morning.
01:49:48
>> Will headed home, but he made a few stops along the way. first at an ATM where he withdrew money
01:49:57
from Anna's bank account, >> made a $200 withdrawal from this machine, and then engaged in some
01:50:04
conversation with some employees um at that gas station where he actually ended up hugging one of them and crying about
01:50:11
the fact that his girlfriend and a repina uh had left him. >> His girlfriend, whose account he just
01:50:18
took $200 from. >> Yes. Will then headed to a second ATM. >> He goes to the Chase bank and withdraws
01:50:26
an additional $600 of Anna Repkina's money. [music] So now William Hargo has $800 uh that he stole from Anor Kina's
01:50:33
bank account. At about 9 9:30 p.m. on that same night, he drives to another bank and he ends up depositing $160 of
01:50:44
that cash uh into his bank account. Will had just one more chore to take care of that evening.
01:50:52
>> Thank you for calling Progressive. >> Y'all should have a card on file for me
01:50:56
and I need to make a payment, please. >> Several hours earlier, he has no money.
01:51:00
>> All good, then. Everything's done. >> Yeah, everything is taken care of. You are insured as we're speaking.
01:51:06
>> Excellent. Thank you very much, ma'am. >> My pleasure. Have a good night, William.
01:51:12
All of a sudden, he has money and he's taking it out of honor Kina's bank account
01:51:20
who's found dead the next day. On April 17th, 2017, the day after Easter Sunday, Anna Repkina was found
01:51:42
with a shotgun blast to the back of her head. Her body left [music] like one more piece of garbage.
01:51:49
Anna was discarded in this landing with the other trash, [music] fast food bags, uh cigarette cartons,
01:51:59
candy wrappers, uh that were that were here. And at that point, we don't know what's evidence and what's not because
01:52:05
that could either be huge evidence in this case or it could be just trash. >> While investigators hope to find a
01:52:13
connection to Anna's killer, Will was sending Anna text showing concern about her whereabouts after the fight he said
01:52:20
they'd had the day before. Will also launched a bizarre deep dive online researching time travel. is uh trying to
01:52:31
ask for help in how [music] to uh travel back in time back to April 16th in order to correct a
01:52:39
horrible mistake. >> His words, correct a horrible mistake. >> Yes. He even went so far as to message
01:52:46
strangers on WhatsApp for advice to help someone he called his best friend. Will was apparently so desperate for
01:52:55
this information, he offered a reward, [music] his soul. In addition to his strange internet
01:53:03
search, Will went on a shopping spree, spending more of that cash he stole from Anna, buying candy, video games, and
01:53:12
toys. >> He bought a hundred and something dollar set of Legos from a Walmart. Will
01:53:18
reached out to a friend named Kevin Thomas, >> saying that he's spending money he
01:53:24
shouldn't trying to distract himself. >> On Wednesday, April 19th, investigators
01:53:30
struck a lead with the trash found next to Anna's body. A KFC receipt from 3 days earlier with a crucial timestamp.
01:53:39
Was there a name on the receipt? >> So, on the receipt, there was no name. KFC told us that there was uh actually a
01:53:46
car that pulled up on that Friday. [music] Uh and there was two purchases made from that car. There was one made
01:53:52
with a debit [music] card that came back to Kevin Thomas and another uh purchase
01:53:57
that was made with cash. >> With only one name to work with, investigators headed to Kevin's Corvalis
01:54:04
home. >> I was trying to put some pieces together. Um, the garbage we found was I
01:54:10
think something you bought last week from KFC. >> Okay. >> Do you know about that?
01:54:15
>> Yeah. Me and my brother go to KFC. >> Go to KFC >> on Fridays. >> What's your brother's name, Kevin?
01:54:19
>> Uh, Will Harrove. >> Kevin and Will became pals at the Peacock Bar and Grill. Kevin, like
01:54:27
Joseph Thompson, called Will his brother. Police continued talking to Kevin at the sheriff's office, where he
01:54:34
offered a revelation. A few weeks earlier, Will had asked to borrow something that belonged to Kevin,
01:54:41
his shotgun. >> Did he say why you wanted to borrow it? >> Just said he was going to go up and go
01:54:46
shooting in the woods and just kind of blow off some steam. >> What's more, Kevin told police that Will
01:54:52
had yet to return the gun. With this new information, investigators headed straight to Michelle's house, where Will
01:54:58
was staying to question him. He answered the door. We're here following up on a case we're working and uh uh your name
01:55:06
came across and we want to talk to you. >> Okay. >> Will then lied to investigators, telling
01:55:11
them that he and Michelle drove up to Alcie together on Easter Sunday. >> Drove into Elsie, stopped at the little
01:55:18
market there, picked up a pack of cigarettes, and drove back. >> Did you dump some trash there when you
01:55:22
were there? >> Yeah, I did. On the side of the building on the side of the general store.
01:55:28
But that trash that Will claimed to have left at the store was the very same that
01:55:33
was found next to Anna's body. Investigators asked Will to come to the sheriff's office. While Will was getting
01:55:39
ready to leave, he [music] texted Michelle to ensure their stories matched. >> At the sheriff's office, [music]
01:55:47
investigators got to the question of Anna. >> What do you know about her? >> Almost nothing.
01:55:54
>> How' you How did you guys meet? >> Met her down. just walking around. You know,
01:56:00
>> Will played down their relationship, even calling Anna psychotic. >> We went on two dates and then decide I I
01:56:07
told her it wasn't going to be anything more than that. And I was happy to keep hanging out with her, but that was all
01:56:13
it was going to be. >> How long ago was that? >> Uh, last time I saw her was middle of March.
01:56:24
>> Middle of March. cut it off because she decided to put on Facebook that we were
01:56:29
engaged. >> She posted that. >> Yeah. After two days. >> Oh, yeah. And it brought hell down upon
01:56:36
me. >> From who? >> Lieutenant Duffet [music] turned up the heat on Will and got right to the point.
01:56:45
>> So, Will, your trash was found where somebody was killed. I'm sorry to what? >> Okay,
01:56:58
that's what we're talking about here. >> You guys are looking at me for this. >> Your trash, like my partner said, was
01:57:04
found there. >> Your your stuff was found at a scene where somebody died. >> Yeah.
01:57:10
>> Okay. Talking to you, there's a lot of inconsistencies with your story about what what happened.
01:57:17
>> That's when Will stopped talking and asked for a lawyer. >> No offense, guys. You've been really
01:57:23
kind and I like you and I don't mind that. But the moment that you say somebody was killed out there that no, I
01:57:33
it's just no. >> Okay. So, uh, William Harrove, I need you to stand up and put your hands
01:57:39
behind your back. You're under the arrest for the murder [music] of Anna Repina.
01:57:46
>> Will Harrove was placed under arrest. But did police have the right person in
01:57:52
custody? If anyone [music] on the face of it looks like they have a motive to kill Anna, it's the other woman. It's
01:57:58
Michelle. How can you be so sure that she had nothing to do with Anna's murder? >> Just hours after Will Hargrove was
01:58:16
arrested for Honor Repa's murder. She's going to go over it at this point. >> Michelle Chavez was brought in for
01:58:22
questioning about what she was doing Easter Sunday. >> Can you tell me what this is about, dog?
01:58:27
>> She starts out on the wrong foot, telling police what Will had texted her to say, that they'd driven to Alcie
01:58:34
together. >> And he picked you up at your mom's house at that time. >> He did. >> Okay.
01:58:40
>> Take your >> Immediately, Michelle reverses herself, admitting what she had just stated was
01:58:46
false. That's a little bit of a lie. He called me. He was going to pick me up and then he didn't.
01:58:55
>> Why did you lie to them? Honestly, I wasn't thinking and I don't have a good answer.
01:58:59
>> I want you to know right now the Will's under arrest for murder. >> Okay. [snorts]
01:59:07
>> Okay. Investigators say Michelle didn't seem at all surprised when they told her Will
01:59:14
had just been arrested for killing Anna. >> How are you not extremely upset right
01:59:20
now to know that the person who you were romantically involved with? >> I am very upset right now. I'm very
01:59:25
upset right now. I don't understand how that can be a person that I have spent the last year and a half with.
01:59:35
>> I was numb. It didn't make sense. Over a year later, in July 2018, Will was formally indicted for Anna's murder.
01:59:48
The defense would go on to spin an entirely different theory of the crime, one that had Michelle pulling the
01:59:54
trigger after arriving from her family's Easter celebration. According to them, >> the defendant had taken Michelle Chavez
02:00:01
up to the location to have a conversation with Anna, and Michelle had taken the gun out
02:00:08
from him and shot Anna. A few pieces of evidence had given investigators cause for concern. For one
02:00:17
thing, Michelle mysteriously ended up in possession of Anna's phone. Michelle blames Will.
02:00:24
>> I didn't realize it was hers. He had given it to me, I guess, the night before he got arrested.
02:00:32
Michelle's own cell phone records showed that a month before Anna's body was found, Michelle had visited that exact
02:00:39
spot on the logging road. Michelle claims that's only because Will brought her there. But could she have
02:00:47
been scouting the location? The defense says that Will loved Anna, that he was starting a life with her, that you're
02:00:55
the one with all the reasons to kill her. What do you say to that? I had no reason to want her dead. No reason to
02:01:02
kill her. I do get how it looks, but her being dead is nothing I ever wanted. I wanted her to go home.
02:01:17
Did you ever tell Will to kill Anna? >> No. >> Days after Will's arrest, his friend
02:01:25
Kevin's shotgun was recovered from the back of Will's vehicle. Evidence supports there had only been one killer.
02:01:32
Will Hargro's fingerprint was on the shotgun. Michelle Chavez's DNA was never on that shotgun. Michelle Chavez's
02:01:41
fingerprints [music] were never on that shotgun. Piecing together various security
02:01:47
cameras, investigators tracked Will's drive with Anna to Alsie. >> We see the defendants's car that's
02:01:54
distinct for various reasons, traveling along a certain path and gave us location as well as time frames. [music]
02:02:02
>> But it was GPS tracking that gave police an even bigger piece of the puzzle with
02:02:06
Will's phone pinging from the murder site from 4:35 to 4:48 that afternoon. The reason we have that is because he
02:02:15
called Michelle Chavez. >> Michelle Chavez, who was still at her mother's house at that Easter
02:02:21
celebration. We don't have any forensic data or information that was left at that crime scene to suggest that
02:02:27
Michelle was at the crime scene on that day. >> And remember that video of Will shopping
02:02:33
at the Alcience Store as he waited for Michelle to arrive. towards the top of his bald head, you can see what appears
02:02:41
to be smaller black dots, >> raising the question, could it have been blood spatter?
02:02:49
>> We can't tell you if that was blood. We can't tell you what that was, but we can
02:02:54
tell you it was there before he met Michelle Chavez. Subsequent photo comparison afterwards showed that those
02:03:02
spots weren't moles. They weren't anything that was there permanently. There was one more heart-wrenching piece
02:03:10
of evidence found in the trash alongside Anna's body from another fast food drive-thru.
02:03:17
>> A receipt from McDonald's uh in Newport, Oregon, dated on March 25th of 2017.
02:03:23
>> March 25th, the day that should have been on his wedding day. Will's trial got underway in October
02:03:35
2019. >> The original witness list was 131 people. Eventually, I believe close to
02:03:42
70 people testified. The trial took a month. Will Hargrove was found guilty of Anna's
02:03:55
murder as well as identity theft and two counts of seconddegree theft for stealing that money from Anna's bank
02:04:02
account. >> I want to talk about Anna Ripkina for a minute and I placed her photo on the
02:04:07
witness stand to remind everyone of a life that was lost. Contrary to speculation,
02:04:13
>> Will sentencing was held in January 2020. She came here with hopes and dreams
02:04:21
to find somebody that was loving her and start a family. She doesn't have that anymore. The
02:04:28
defendant very nearly got away with this crime. It was his own trash that betrayed him.
02:04:35
>> Uh, you were receiving a sentence of life imprisonment. >> Will received a life sentence with a
02:04:42
possibility of parole after 25 years. Michelle says [music] living under the scrutiny of people in town wondering
02:04:49
what she knew or didn't know became all too much. How bad [music] did it get for
02:04:55
you? Bad enough. Bad. Bad. >> She had an incident uh in which she couldn't take the stress uh anymore.
02:05:14
um and uh almost didn't get the police there in time. Michelle says that in June 2018, she
02:05:27
tried to take her own life. >> I tried to die. I'm still here. It didn't work. As for the young Moscow native [music]
02:05:42
who flew to the US with the promise of love, I think you have to remember Anna as the
02:05:51
[music] sweet, loving, caring person who put herself out there to be loved. Because Anna
02:06:04
was loved. She was loved alive [music] and she was loved after. [music] [music] >> [music]
02:06:49
[music] [music] [music]