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[Music] being in the military in law enforcement I've seen a lot of people die I've seen a lot of really bad
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things but you never think anything's going to happen to you not that you're above
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it it always happens to somebody [Music] else nothing could have prepared me for
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what actually [Music] happened the deputy showed up at my door all he said was you need to call your
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dad my dad started crying and he told me that there had been a fire at my mom's house the only people living in the
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house was my mom Vicky her boyfriend John and my little sister Becky we're still waiting for positive
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identification on three bodies found at a burned out home in pinion Pines we knew right away that everyone was
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dead maybe my mom fell asleep with a cigarette or a gas leak but what happened was much much
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worse I learned that Becky was found in a wheelbarrow apparently she had been placed in this and set on
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fire my baby sister was gone this was the front of the house and the wheelbarrow was found here we know
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that it was brought to this spot because there were tracks rolled out that way why bring her body towards the front
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of the house we think it was to pose her and they wanted to leave some kind of symbol make it as personal as possible
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that's hate she was obviously the Target and when I heard the wheelbarrow situation that's
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when I knew it was him waiting for my precious boyfriend say hi Robert hi guys because he had threatened to kill her a
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lot of the evidence pointed toward Robert Pape and Christian Smith Robert Pape was Becky's
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exboyfriend Christian Smith was Robert Pap's best friend 7 years 7 years when by before
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anything happened yesterday police arrested 25-year-olds Christen Smith and Becky
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friedley's ex-boyfriend Robert P we know Robert and anyone who knows him knows how ridiculous the accusations
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are my son Christian saves lives he saved lives in Afghanistan he doesn't take lives there's no way it's
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all very obvious that there's no way Robert Pape and Kristen Smith are accused of three counts of
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murder and if you just look at all the evidence it just doesn't fit it doesn't work this is not the case that should be
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brought against these two men there is not a doubt in my mind that they have the right people I I know that
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they [Applause] [Music] [Music] do 48 Hours murder in pinion Pines it was a vicious triple homicide
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but there were almost no Clues Left Behind that's because a fire consumed the crime scene destroying vital
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evidence with the investigation hampered from the start it would take nearly 12 long years to bring this case to trial
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and to its emotional conclusion Troy Roberts brings us the murder in pinion [Music]
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Pines [Music] this Foundation is All That Remains of the freedley home in pinan Pines
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California on the evening of September 17th 2006 Tanya friedley's childhood home was burned to the ground there's
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not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened I miss them every day
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inside the home investigators have found the bodies of Tanya's 53-year-old mother
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Vicky friedley and her 55-year-old boyriend John Hayward it was later determined they had both been shot the
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homicide unit is treating this as a homicide outside in a burning wheelbarrow were the charred remains of
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Tanya's 18-year-old sister Becky her body too badly burned to determine the cause of death the worst part is is that
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my baby sister I was supposed to be the one to protect her and be there for her that's my
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job Tanya then a deputy sheriff in another town relayed the devastating news to her sister Drew an Air Force
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medic stationed in Japan at the time I think it's just mortifying when you find out that somebody could be that horrible
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and Sinister like something you'd seen in a a horror flick as opposed to real life for Drew and and Tanya it's hard to
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reconcile that horrific murder scene to their storybook upbringing on the property their father Ron freedley had
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built their home himself in the mountains high above the desert heat of the Coachella
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Valley it was just a nice place it was country it was definitely out of the city and I liked it it was a
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great place for the kids to grow up Ron doed on his daughters and so did his wife at Vicki my mom was just very
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kind-hearted wonderful woman she loved being a mom um she loved gardening she loved sewing and quilting and cooking
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you know that was really important for her to teach us how to cook even from a very very young age the youngest of the
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sisters was high-spirited Becky freedley Becky was always just an amazing person
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I mean even when she was small always had a smile on her face she was always there for you she SM art Becky used to
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actually help Tanya and Drew with their homework and and you know she's four years younger than them she got along
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with everybody she really did she was just a fun happy person but the happy times as a family
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didn't last Ron and Vicki divorce after 13 years of marriage she was a good person but we we sort of grew
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apart as the years passed t and Drew also left home Becky remained behind with her mother who eventually found
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love again with contractor John Hayward my dad called Vicki his cupcake because she was just so
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sweet kitty Hayward is John's daughter they were drawn together because they both loved the outdoors and they loved
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living up there together and I would be like Dad why are you guys living up here
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just come down to the city there's what is up here and and he would always say like it's free up here no one will ever
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bother us and this is the safest place that you can be then came that night in September at
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first no one could imagine who would want to hurt John Becky and Vicki I really had no
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idea the finger was being pointed at everyone I think there were all kinds of rumors rumors started circulating that
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perhaps they had been murdered by someone with a grudge against Ron friedley Ron had retired the year before from the
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Riverside County Sheriff's Department did you believe that this may have been some sort of Retribution for
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your work in law enforcement no I I really didn't I never really was involved in anything where
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somebody would have said I want to get back at this guy I didn't have that kind of career so you had no enemies that's
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really know investigators looked into that theory and quickly ruled it out but then rumored began swirling about Ron
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freely himself I mean it's just natural to think that um possibly the the husband or family could have been
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involved and and I understood that going into it um were you interviewed yes I was I was crying probably most through
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most of it investigators asked Ron to take a polygraph test that was probably the first time that I really felt like I
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was kind of a a suspect so I got up there I took the polygraph and uh the lady came out and she said this is one
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of the best tests I've ever given in my career she says it it was incredible you
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did fine phone records put Ron 11 hours away at his property in Northern California
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when the crime took place and police ruled him out as a suspect but there was one person a
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friend of Becky's who says she knew immediately who was responsible this was intentional and he did it and and I've
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known since day one he did [Music] [Applause] [Music] it in the first days after the murders
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Ron freedley was besieged with questions none of us really knew why it occurred or had a reason for it the last thing I
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thought was that it was something to do with Becky but once the initial shock had
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subsided Ron began looking at the crime through his investigator's eyes and came
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to believe that it was Becky who had been targeted it seemed too personal because of a fear Becky had she was
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really really afraid of fire when she was younger her mom was fixing tacos and she had a pan full of hot grease and
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Becky had pulled it down off off the stove and it burned on her chest she had third degree burns on her chest so
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someone that's with someone intimately would know that she had these scars and was scared of fire Becky's friend jeie
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McDaniel was suspicious about someone right away so immediately when you heard the murders your mind went to Robert P
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immediately nothing else in my mind there's nobody else that could have done this Robert P was Becky friedley's
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ex-boyfriend and Robert got Becky a cro the teenagers started dating in high school and were together for over a year
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looks like you guys are getting married at first Becky and Robert seemed happy I
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think it was her first love I just think she was madly in love with him a but Jeannie says Robert soon grew
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possessive of Becky when her and I went on vacation about 10 months before she died he called about 20 30 times in a
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night night just harassing her wanting to talk to her while we were hanging out with friends 20 to 30 times in one night
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mhm with I mean minutes within each other in January 2006 Becky and Robert broke up and started seeing other people
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but according to jeie Robert's obsessive behavior only grew worse and took an even darker turn shortly before the
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murders in September she came to my house three weeks before she died and said he had
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even threatened to kill me those are her exact words even threatened to kill me why she said because he wasn't taking
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the breakup well and he wanted her and didn't want anybody else to have her that's what she said to me so were you
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concerned for her I was but she gave me the impression that it wasn't a big deal
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and so I kind of just took her word for it and let it go but after the murders Jeanie says she
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went straight to the Riverside County Sheriff's apartment with her suspicions as it turns out Robert Pape was already
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on their radar everyone was whispering about Robert they moved pretty quickly in in the direction of of Robert there
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was a lot of little tiny bits of information from different sources one of those sources was Becky's close
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friend Javier Garcia Jr who had given investigators an interesting bit of information on the night of the murders
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he says Becky had told him she was going hiking on her property with Robert and his friend Christian
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Smith Tanya freedley believes her sister probably just wanted to smooth things over with Robert my sister was a fixer
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she loved with all of her heart and she gave herself to everything she did Garcia Jr's lead placed Robert Pape and
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Christian Smith at the scene of the crime the night of the murders with rumors pointing towards the
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two men the freedley were sure that the case would soon be solved I kind of felt
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a sense of relief um the that they would be arrested but as surely as the momentum had started it seemed to stop
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the Riverside County Sheriff's Department never publicly shared any details of the investigation or named
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any suspects it was frustrating but they just kept saying they they didn't have it they didn't have enough to to make an
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arrest private investigator Lewis balanos saw his friend Ron grow increasingly despondent about 2 or 3
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years into this I'm getting updates from Ron and I'm find out that nothing's happening it this case has stalled it's
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gone cold Lewis and Ron had met years earlier at the Sheriff's Office where Ron had been one of Lewis's first
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training officers now it was time for Lewis to help his old teammate I begged Ron for years two or three years let me
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do this for you Lewis had also worked in the Riverside County DA's office although they parted on bad terms he was
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certain he could get things moving again I knew that we can get to back on the front page where it needed to be um and
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get those phones burning again I really wasn't ready because I really felt in my
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heart that I I thought the sheriff's department was going to solve it I really did but as the sixe anniversary of the
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crime approach with no arrest in sight Ron finally gave Lewis the green light the media Savvy Pi got to work and one
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of his first orders of business was putting up this provocative billboard we wanted to do it before before and after
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a beautiful picture of Becky and then a simulated picture of Becky in the wheelbarrow on fire it really really
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pulled at heartstrings and sickened people we believe the following to be true Lewis also held a press conference
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at the murder site with Drew and Tanya friedley we are in this because we believe this case can be solved we know
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somebody out there knows something over the next year tips started coming in one
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of them from Becky's cousin Daniela Zeno who remembered something that might help
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investigators I had spoken to Becky um the night before the murder and she told me that her ex-boyfriend Robert had come
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into her work at Denny's and um was harassing her he had harassed her to the point of being removed from the
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restaurant Daniela says after the altercation they had discuss going on that hike and I think talk about
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whatever their relationship was how it was finishing and where it was and on the seventh anniversary of the crime
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Lewis held yet another press conference at the murder site with danela by a sign
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the suspects then ignited the accelerant and in turn engulfed Becky in Flames Ron
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believes all the media pressure paid off a few months later the DA's office subpoena Robert Pape and Christian Smith
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to appear before a grand jury it was just stirring the pot it was something on the news every day about it and I
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think they just said all right let's go do something and they did as the grand jury Drew to a close there was news
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you're watching KQ the desert's News Leader two arrests after nearly 8 years in the pinion Pines
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murderers Pape and Smith were arrested for triple homicide I was very happy it was probably the happiest day of my life
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but as investigators were sure the killers were finally in custody two families say they are just as certain
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the men are wrongfully accused innocent till proven guilty is a myth it's guilty
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till proven innocent and the truth's going to come out it will come out for over 7 years the families of
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Becky freedley her mother Vicky and John Hayward have been waiting for this moment my heart was in my stomach seeing
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them in the jumpsuits and seeing them in the flesh and seeing them handcuffed Robert Pape and Christian
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Smith both 25 found themselves in a Riverside County Courthouse charged with triple homicide both pled not guilty I
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think they thought they were going to get away with it but these two men hardly fit the image of typical
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defendants neither have criminal records Christian Smith is married and a decorated war hero Robert Pape is also
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married in an active member of his church I had a really hard time just keeping it together you know Robert
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sister Christie struggled seeing him accused of the brutal murder and burning of three people somebody like
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him someone like him being put in that position it's really hard to watch Christie and Robert's mother
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Kathleen say he is innocent and not the man he has been portrayed as in the media they tried to make him out to be a
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monster a jealous monster and he just isn't that what kind of man is he Robert is an amazing person he's got a good
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heart he's got a gentle heart hardworking patient honest he's always there when you need him he sort of takes
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care of all of us takes really good care of wife Robert started dating his wife Sarah after his breakup with Becky he
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and his wife both have this tremendous heart for Animals he cares about people he cares about animals he's just got the
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utmost integrity and Christie and Kathleen aren't Robert's only supporters we've had no less than 10 or 11 people
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at every single hearing and there's been 30 33 or 34 people at one of the hearings just
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coming to to support and the courtroom can't even fit that many of us people called us immediately after he was
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arrested and they were like no this isn't right uh this is not the Robert I know also looking on in disbelief has
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been Christian Smith's Father John Conrad Smith I know my son didn't do that I know he's not capable of that
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Smith says his son is an honorable man and was living his dream serving his country in the military as part of the
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Army's Elite 75th Ranger regiment it was in Afghanistan that Smith says his son became a hero he saved another man's
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life who was actually shot through the lung and I have a picture of him pulling him out and two of his battle buddies
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and chrisan has one hand on a rifle and pulling his his comrade out and firing back at Afghanistan Christian has won
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commendations for Valor and has been awarded two purple hearts this one is when he was wounded did and he was shot
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through the arm he got this one this one was when he took the grenade shrapnel he
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deserves better than this I mean he's put his life on the line for five years now he's a good guy
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Christian Smith may be a war hero now but investigators believe back when he was 17 he committed murder with his
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18-year-old best friend Robert Pape Christian Smith and Robert Pape had been really really good friends in high
00:21:27
school school and they both kind of beat to the same drum Robert Pape and Christian Smith both had an extreme
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fascination with fire Becky had complained about Robert and Christian to close friend Brandon cougler Harrison
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there's one time that they were playing with fire him and him and Christian and that they were they set something on
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fire I think it was a match it's not 100% sure though but I remember her getting mad at him over that and not
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talking to him for a couple days did your son have a fascination with fire no no there was no Fascination they were
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not troublemakers they were good kids but prosecutors plan on using Robert's words against him just a few months
00:22:06
before the fire here in pinan Pines Robert had an instant message conversation with his then girlfriend
00:22:11
Sarah in that exchange Robert seemed to offer a solution to Sarah's problems with an ex-boyfriend well if you know
00:22:19
where he lives we can professionally burn his house down considering how Becky Vicki and John were killed it's a
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very concerning statement this is 8 month 8 months prior to the homicide the Riverside County Sheriff's
00:22:31
department and DA's office wouldn't comment on the investigation but 48 Hours obtain a copy of the grand jury
00:22:38
transcripts during the proceedings both men pled the fifth but when questioned by police years earlier they denied they
00:22:45
ever went near Becky's house and said they never had any intention of hiking with her Robert and Christian told
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police during the interview that they were heading to church that night apparently they made a phone call on the
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way there and the church was in fact closed when those plans fell through the boys said they headed back to
00:23:03
Christian's dad's home to hang out and play video games where was your son the night of the
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murders you know what I wasn't in town well what did he tell you when you eventually saw him we were here the boys
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said they eventually wound up at this Middle School where they shot paintball guns nobody saw Christian or Robert at
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the school playing paintball nobody the their only Alibi is each other but it was the boys cell phone activity that
00:23:32
night that raised the most red flags to investigators they put themselves on the
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other side of town and the cell phon say differently at 7:13 p.m. Robert's cell phone pinged near the start of Highway
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74 the road leading up to the freedley home minutes later both Christian and Robert's cell phones went silent from
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about 7:30 to 10: p.m. the time frame investigators believe their murders took place they came out of their way to find
00:24:03
Becky hard to say of John and Vicki were collateral damage tracks and Footprints
00:24:09
at the scene Place Becky's attack near the desert behind the house Becky was then placed in a wheelbarrow and rolled
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back towards the house and set on fire what kind of evidence was recovered from the scene that links this crime to
00:24:24
these two young men well we know that at at the point where the wheelbarrow rolled from where they put Becky in the
00:24:32
wheelbarrow that they found a business card and on that business card they eventually found DNA that was consistent
00:24:39
with DNA belonging to Christian Smith inside the home it was determined Vicki had been shot with a 40 caliber
00:24:46
handgun and John Hayward with a shotgun before the house was set on fire when investigators searched the
00:24:53
boy's homes a year later they found shotguns similar to the one us used in the crime no handguns were ever
00:25:00
recovered but in Robert's house there were accessories to the type of gun that may have killed Vicki in that search
00:25:07
warrant they recovered ammunition to 40 cal and recovered a holster to a Glock 40 that's a powerful
00:25:15
piece of evidence you believe that police have the right men oh I'm confident they have the right to guys
00:25:21
absolutely but defense lawyers charge investigators ignored other possible suspects and the evidence will never
00:25:29
hold up at trial you have the wrong person [Music] here for Tanya freedley hearing the
00:25:53
specific details of the murders has been difficult to think about how they must have been pleading for their lives how
00:26:02
scared all of them were is horrifying and believing that one of their alleged Killers was someone Becky once loved has
00:26:09
been especially painful for Ron friedley she loved him a lot and and that's probably one of the saddest Parts about
00:26:17
the whole story is you know she loved him to death and he threw it all away threw it all
00:26:25
away for nothing but nothing is what defense lawyers say the state's case is based on and I kept
00:26:34
looking for the proverbial other shoe I went over it I just didn't see it Richard Blumenfeld represents Robert P
00:26:42
and says the case against his client is built entirely on questionable and hearsay evidence he points to Becky's
00:26:49
cousin Daniela Zeno who said Becky had told her about a fight at Denny's the day before the murders Robert had gone
00:26:57
to Becky restaurant and there' been a scene an argument and they'd been asked to take
00:27:02
it outside and so on and so forth that never happened never happened never happened nobody could substantiate that
00:27:09
that anything like that ever happened bloomenfeld says a grand jewelry should have never heard daniela's testimony or
00:27:15
the evidence about the IM exchange between Robert and Sarah in which he seemingly suggested burning down her
00:27:21
ex-boyfriend's house weld argues it was said in a joking fashion there were probably over a 100 pages of these
00:27:30
conversations and they took one excerpt out of context it was clearly not seriously said bloomenfeld also denies
00:27:42
that Robert threatened Becky's life and says there would be no reason for him to
00:27:46
be jealous or want to harm Becky because he had already moved on he wasn't seeing
00:27:51
Becky any more seriously she was trying to uh revive their relationship but he moved on he was with Sarah
00:27:58
whether Robert had a motive or not Christian Smith's alleged role never made any sense to his attorney John
00:28:04
Patrick Dolan the motive if you can believe this is he's Robert's friend and he went along with
00:28:12
him that's it there's no connection with Kristen and Becky there's nothing that suggests he has any animosity toward her
00:28:20
it's a pretty weak argument Dolan thinks all the evidence is weak starting with the boy's lack of sell phone activity
00:28:26
around the time frame of the murders he says it doesn't prove anything it is unusual for for a
00:28:33
teenager not to use their phone for 2 and a half hour well you could say that you could also say that he was having a
00:28:39
shower having dinner and he had a paintball gun and he went out and tested it out near a middle school and he
00:28:45
didn't make any calls for 2 and a half hours it's really not that uncommon at all but before the boy's phones went
00:28:50
silent there was that sell Tower ping that put Robert and presumably Christian at the start of Highway 74 up to p
00:28:58
Pines didn't the Ping show that Christian and Robert were somewhere near Becky's home well that's one of those
00:29:05
really interesting anomalies CU a ping doesn't show at all that Kristen was anywhere near that home Dolan says that
00:29:12
3 minutes before Robert's phone pinged near Highway 74 Christian's phone pinged off a cell tower miles away and I can
00:29:20
tell you that uh prosecution is going to have a hard time getting over Mr Smith's
00:29:24
phone being on the other side of the Coachella Valley when they say Mr P's phone was pinged sometime near
00:29:31
the time that there would had to been an Ascent up the mountain but the states FBI experts say
00:29:37
cell phones at higher elevations sometimes bounce off other Towers pinging phones are not investigators say
00:29:44
there is hard evidence putting Christian at the scene that DNA on the business card and that puts him there and we know
00:29:51
that he has denied ever being there Dolan questions whether the DNA na is Christians as the prosecution says it
00:29:59
unequivocally is and argues that even if it is a match Becky could have previously picked up the card from his
00:30:06
client She carries it up to her house she drops it on the ground that doesn't prove he was there it simply proves he
00:30:13
touched a card and they have to have something more than he touched a card to prove he was there committing homicide
00:30:20
and if Dolan dismisses the DNA evidence he says the gun evidence is almost laughable what the argument was by the
00:30:27
district attorney was he had access to the kinds of guns that were used do does that make anybody guilty because they
00:30:35
have access to the kind of gun that was used with no ballistics with no measurement with no slugs with no
00:30:40
nothing and Christian's father says that the entire argument is moot anyway as far as his son is concerned because the
00:30:47
guns were with him in another state the weaken of the murders they were with me they got put in the trunk of my car the
00:30:55
defense believes that other people should have been looked at more closely like Javier Garcia Jr that friend of
00:31:01
becku who had first turned investigators towards Robert and Christian saying they
00:31:05
were all going hiking so Javier says Becky says something how do we find out whether or not that's just him making up
00:31:14
something because it points things elsewhere some friends say Garcia Jr wanted to be more than friends with
00:31:20
Becky and Dolan and Blumenfeld point out that while their clients phones didn't ping up in the mountains where Becky
00:31:26
lived Garcia Jr's did if you follow the route that he alleged that he took it puts him right by Becky's
00:31:36
residence why was he driving in the area near the time that this took place and I
00:31:41
was told that Javier garciaa would not testify at the Grand Jury unless he was granted immunity why does he need
00:31:48
immunity if he doesn't have anything to do with this Dolan also points out that Garcia Jr's father is an investigator in
00:31:54
the DA's office raising question questions about a possible conflict of interest interesting question about that
00:32:02
there was an investigation by the way and to be fair we have to say the Attorney General came down and looked at
00:32:06
it said doesn't look like there's any conflict of interest here and and I accept that for now but I don't accept
00:32:12
it forever he was extremely forthcoming with the police and was instrumental in their investigation former Federal
00:32:18
prosecutor Eduardo Roy represents Javier Garcia Jr he says Javier's only role is
00:32:24
that of key witness and not as a suspect he was asked to testify before a grand jury yes he was did he he did not why we
00:32:33
were there and then it was decided that they didn't need him did you ever ask for immunity for
00:32:41
Javier I asked to for them to be clear before I made him available that he was not a Target or a suspect of the
00:32:51
investigation why because I'm a very good lawyer that's why Roy says the reason why
00:32:58
Garcia Jr was driving in the area before the murders was because he wanted to join the group going hiking but Becky
00:33:06
told him not to come so he turned around and went home and what the police did was track where he was police determined
00:33:13
Javier Garcia Jr was back on the desert floor at the time of the murders and ruled him out as a suspect and Daniela
00:33:20
zmenu independently backs up Javier's story that Becky planned to go hiking with Robert and a friend
00:33:27
the night of the murders they had a definite plan to go hiking the three of them the freedle believe the evidence
00:33:34
circumstantial or not paints a damning picture when you put it all together it's them I can only hope and pray that
00:33:44
a jury of their peers will hear the evidence and come back with a guilty verdict
00:34:04
I call it the drive of Tears almost every Saturday for the last 6 months John Conrad Smith makes the
00:34:12
hourong drive to visit his son at the Riverside County jail I just think about Christian and I cry all the way up and
00:34:20
all the way back Smith says Christian has missed a deployment with his unit and is all but certain to miss out on a
00:34:27
huge life event his wife Jackie is about to give birth to their first child he's
00:34:33
not going to be there for that birth he's not going to be able to see that birth and it's horrible I mean he's
00:34:38
taking it he's taking it hard and to see him in that orange jumpsuit it breaks my
00:34:43
heart it breaks his heart Robert Pap's mother Kathleen has also been having a hard time seeing her son Behind Bars the
00:34:52
thought goes through your head like will I ever be able to touch him but there is another parent out there
00:34:59
who wakes up each morning thinking these men are exactly where they belong one of the first things I do in
00:35:06
the morning is I get a cup of coffee and I go outside I think about Becky and I think about those two boys in jail after
00:35:13
years of waiting the freedley and haywards feel they are one step closer to justice as they wait for a trial date
00:35:20
to be set it's a nice feeling knowing that they're going to have to answer for what they did if the jury finds them not
00:35:28
guilty so be it if they found guilty then they're going to pay for the crime that they committed but the case was
00:35:34
about to take an unexpected turn 8 years after the murders the prosecutor assigned to this case walked inside this
00:35:41
courthouse and asked that all charges against Robert Pape and Christian Smith be dropped a bombshell out of an India
00:35:48
courtroom today charges dropped really emotional yeah I mean I'm just happy I I'm not
00:35:58
yeah I'm happy he's coming home as a matter of fact I'm going to go get him right now the DA's office offered little
00:36:04
explanation for their decision in a prepared statement they said legal issues had Arisen during the grand jury
00:36:10
proceedings against Robert Pape making it appropriate to ultimately dismiss the charges against both men the system
00:36:18
worked I have faith in my son and that's that's all I can tell you the dismissal
00:36:24
was so unexpected that neither man was in the courtroom that day Christian's dad broke the news to him from outside
00:36:31
the jail you've been released you you've been released your mom and I and everybody everybody's here the baby's on
00:36:38
her way we're just waiting for you to get the paperwork done and for you to walk out that door we're all waiting
00:36:44
outside for you son and just a few hours later Christian Smith with Robert Pape closely behind want out
00:37:02
together Christian held is the two Meek old daughter Zoe for the first time just
00:37:08
want to be with my beautiful baby girl and my amazing wife and loyal family and my brother's over over in the
00:37:17
military that have been loyal to me throughout this whole thing I just hope I can just move on
00:37:25
with my life and put this behind me Robert's family was waiting for him at a location
00:37:32
nearby what was it like hugging your son when he want out oh my gosh that first time holding him you know I just I
00:37:40
didn't want to let him go but I had to scoot over and let let her hug him let his wife hug
00:37:45
him but it may not be completely over for papen Smith the da can technically refile charges against the men if new
00:37:54
evidence emerges Tanya fre has always been convinced that they had the right man and I have thought about if they get
00:38:04
away with murder to know in my heart that Christian and Robert took my family from me and could get away with it I
00:38:15
hope that they have to think about this every day for the rest of their [Music] life
00:38:28
in June 2016 Robert Pape and Christian Smith were rearrested for the murders the state says the charges were based on
00:38:36
a new informant who claimed Smith had made an incriminating statement better cell phone tracking and more evidence
00:38:44
that links Christian Smith to that business card founded the crime scene and they say in 2018 in January oh we
00:38:53
had a fingerprint match that we couldn't make since 2006 sounds a little fishy Christian Smith's
00:38:59
lawyer John Patrick Dolan says investigators had tunnel vision I think they began with the conclusion that my
00:39:07
client and Mr Pape are guilty and tried to collect evidence to support that rather than evaluating the evidence and
00:39:13
see where it takes them the trial began in April 2018 almost 12 years after the crime Dolan and pape's new attorney Jeff
00:39:23
Moore launched a vigorous defense raising question about The credibility of the State's new informant who has had
00:39:30
his own legal troubles and the accuracy of the cell phone tracking and forensic evidence this is about as paper thin
00:39:38
case as I've ever seen after more than a month of trial the case went to the jury
00:39:44
they would deliberate 10 agonizing days before giving word that they had finally
00:39:50
reached a verdict Robert Pape and Christian Smith were found guilty of first deegree
00:39:56
murder in the deaths of Vicky freedley and John Hayward Pape was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of
00:40:04
Becky freedley I waited 11 years 9 months for this day and I'm I'm very happy there is no closure Becky's gone
00:40:12
Vicky John they'll never come back but what the victim's family see as the right verdict is viewed as a terrible
00:40:19
Injustice by two other families Robert Pap's mother was devastated a jury has finally decided who was
00:40:29
responsible for the murder of three people in pinion Pines but the destruction left by that terrible night
00:40:39
remains my sister was a beautiful person inside and out and I want that remembered I want to remember her for
00:40:50
her not for how she [Music] died [Music]