00:00:01
[music] >> I remember having a nightmare that something was terribly wrong. Jesse
00:00:17
was was killed. And when I woke up, it was just a dream. My name is Gary Bardwell. Jesse Bardwell
00:00:40
is my daughter. Go in this way. Do it, Jesse. Do it. I called her my beautiful daughter and I
00:00:46
still do. My beautiful Jesse. She lived in Orange Beach, Alabama. She just loved being around water.
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She would be in the water fighting the waves and having fun. She worked at a place called Cobalt, the
00:01:08
restaurant. Beautiful place. I don't know why she decided to move. She just up and moved to Texas.
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And she said like I'm just going out there to clear my head. I'll be back. I'm just going for a couple weeks and
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I'll be back. My name is Kimberly Asbury. I was friends with Jesse. It just went from hearing from her a lot,
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talking to her to nothing. I knew something was wrong. As the father of three girls, I was very
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determined to get to the bottom of what had happened to Jesse Bardwell. My name is Keron Hall. I was the lead detective
00:01:44
on Jesse's case. Jesse was nowhere to be found when we got to Texas. I had the fear that we
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would never find her. Tell me what it felt like then to go two days, three days,
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four days. It was hell. After so many days, it's kind of hard to believe that she's just going to come
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back with shopping bags in her arms. I was just like brace for impact. I knew she was dead. How did you know? I had
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that nightmare and I felt it. She was not on this earth anymore. This story is about [music]
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a young girl thinks she finds love and turns out he is pure evil. >> [music] [music]
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>> 48 hours taken away. Yesterday I went down to the river and just sat there and watched the boats go by and
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took some deep [music] breaths and said I don't know how much of this I can take, you know, any longer.
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There are days when it's hard for Gary Bardwell to get out of bed, but he always does. Determined to get justice
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for Jessie, his 27-year-old daughter who went missing from Richardson, Texas [music]
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in May of 2016. I'm doing it for Jessie. Taking one day at a time, one step at a time.
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Gary knew something was wrong before he even knew Jessie [music] had gone missing.
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Something from my soul was gone. And I was afraid that it was her. >> [music] >> That connection, that bond deeper than
00:04:01
words, formed the moment Jessie was born, says [music] Gary. As soon as she was born, immediately
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started crying. It was just such a happy moment, such a happy moment. Jessie grew up alongside her older
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brother, Brandon. Me and Jessie have been two peas in a pod since we were young.
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There's Brandon and Jessie. Gary, a now retired firefighter with the Pascagoula, Mississippi Fire Department,
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loved being a dad. She kind of didn't want me out of her sight. She just liked to know where I
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was. She slept with this every night. I just love those days. Daddy's little girl,
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for sure. When Jessie was 14, Gary and her mother, Carla, divorced. [music] >> She loved her mother, too, very much so.
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Jessie spent her high school years with her father >> have my coffee. You want some? and her
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new stepmother, Gina. >> [music] >> This is Jessie's graduation picture. After a few tries at college life,
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>> Somewhere along the line, she was having more fun than school. That's when Jessie moved to Orange Beach
00:05:17
and started working tables at Cobalt, a popular beachside restaurant. We talked every day.
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She text me every day. He came [music] and they went boating and they went fishing.
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Jessie's good friend, restaurant manager Kimberly Asbury, found out Gary was an accomplished musician and booked him
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[music] at the restaurant. She go to his gigs. I mean, they were friends. They [music] weren't just
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father and daughter. Jesse had been living with a long-term boyfriend, [music] but surprised everyone when she fell for
00:05:53
a new guy, Jason Low. It kind of came out of nowhere. Jesse's friend Terry saw the romance
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start. Jason seemed friendly. He definitely um was outgoing as well. He was handsome,
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had two college degrees, and ambitious. For Jesse, not just a new love, but a ticket to a more exciting life. When
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Jason went to Dallas for a six-figure job in the tech industry, [music] Jesse decided she would join him and
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pursue her own dream of cosmetology. She thought of it as more of an adventure. Like I'm I'm trying something new.
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But Jesse failed to mention that she was about to go to Dallas when she saw her family that Christmas.
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I had no clue of what was going on. She knew that she was fixing to leave [music] for
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Texas, and I would have done everything I could to try to talk her out of it. Shortly after the holidays, Jesse left
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[music] for Texas, and suddenly the girl who always had her iPhone was now [music] never on it. You couldn't reach
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her. The moment that I really started to get worried was when her phone number was cut off, and everything that we
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talked to her had to go through Jason. The only way to get Jesse was to call Jason's phone or the house phone. They
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would come to find out that Jason was monitoring all her calls. Eventually, every time Gary called Jesse, he only
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got Jason. >> I said, "Let me speak to Jesse." He said, "She said she'll call you later."
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Two months later, Gary finally [music] got his chance to meet Jason Low. Jason and Jessie came to Pascagoula for a
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visit. Gary tried to persuade Jessie not to go back to Texas. I I remember Jessie
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was was hugging me more [music] than normal. And I was going Are you okay? Yeah, yeah. I I
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definitely want to go to Texas. I just want you to be proud [music] of me, you know?
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They left. I watched the car drive [music] away. Even though Jessie never let on that
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anything was wrong, Gary had a bad feeling. >> [music] >> He went into his studio, Jessie's
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childhood room, >> She said, "Daddy, don't worry. and wrote this song. It's going to be all right."
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That song, "Taken Away", was [music] written the very last time I saw Jessie. As they were leaving,
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It was written about [music] seeing them leave. Taken >> [singing] >> away, me getting a gut feeling [music]
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that something was bad wrong. Taken [singing] away, she said, "There [singing and music] is nothing
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you can say or do to make me [music] stay." In May, 4 months after Jessie moved to
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Texas, she stopped answering his calls all together. [music] Gary called Jason and insisted on
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knowing where Jessie was. He says Jason told him he didn't know. What was he saying? I don't know where in the hell
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she is. We don't live codependent. She can go and come as she pleases. But when she didn't call her mom and
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stepmom on Mother's Day, Gary had had enough. I said, "We're leaving in the morning.
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Let's pack some bags and we're going to Texas." When Gary Bardwell got in his truck and
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headed to Texas, he was angry. Very angry. I get so angry that it scares me. His little girl was missing and he
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believed Jason Lowe was behind it. >> I text him on the way there. I said, "If Jessie is not there when I get there,
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you are in a tremendous amount of trouble." But when he got to Jessie and Jason's
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apartment, she was nowhere to be found. Gary immediately filed a missing person's report with the Richardson
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Police Department. May 8th, 2017. Over the next 24 hours, the police repeatedly visited the apartment and
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still she never showed up. That's when Detective Hale got assigned to the case. Jason Lowe, please. Uh
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speaking. He first made contact with Jason by phone. [clears throat] He stated the last time he saw her was
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on May 8th, which was Mother's Day that morning at 10:00 a.m. and she left in her Acura.
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And is that car still gone? Yes. The next day, Detective Hale made a house call and made another audio
00:11:06
recording. Still haven't heard from Jessie, right? I haven't. By then, Jessie had been reported
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missing for 3 days. >> [music] >> It seemed everybody was desperate to find Jessie except the man who claimed
00:11:21
to be in love with her. We just did our own thing always. I didn't question her,
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she didn't question me and it worked. The detective looked around the apartment and saw no sign of a struggle.
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[music] Jason stuck to his story that she left home in her Acura. There was just one problem with that
00:11:41
story. [music] The police learned that Jessie and Jason had sold that Acura [music]
00:11:46
3 weeks before Jason claimed she drove off in it. They found it in the new owner's driveway. Jason's lies were not
00:11:54
very smart. Who would lie about an Acura that had been sold? It was pretty clear that there was
00:12:00
definitely something other going on other than just a missing person. It became even clearer the following
00:12:07
day. A team of detectives, including Hale and his partner Eric Willitson, returned to the apartment. They saw what
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appeared to be a line of cocaine. Do you have coke on the counter top? A line of
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it, yes or no? Yes, sir. But it was an odor coming from the garage that really got their attention.
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So, it smells really bad in here. Yeah, I know. It stinks in here. Yeah, it does.
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It's a smell that you never forget. Once you've smelt it, you'd know instantly when you smell it again.
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It was the smell of death, and it was coming from the back of Jason Lowe's black Audi.
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Detective Hale opened the hatch door. There was no Jessie Bardwell, but a body had clearly been there. There was
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standing fluid in the back hatch, and it smelled [music] like just decaying flesh.
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It had front-end damage, >> [music] >> and did not have the bumper. The bumper was inside the vehicle,
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and it had a lot of mud on the inside and on the outside. Jason told the detectives he'd gotten
00:13:10
stuck in the mud while searching for Jessie. He still held onto the fact that he did not know where Jessie was.
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But when they sprayed the chemical Bluestar in the cargo compartment of the Audi,
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it lit up like crazy, indicating the presence of blood. It pretty much turned into a homicide investigation at that
00:13:32
point. We're wondering if you don't mind coming down to the station so we could talk.
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>> Like right now? Yeah. Jason Lowe was initially arrested on drug charges and thrown in jail. My name
00:13:43
is Detective Williamson, okay? Detectives used the opportunity to further question him on Jessie's
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whereabouts. I'm going to talk with you for a few minutes. We spent a long time speaking with him. You see this picture?
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Who did you take the picture with? Jessie. To try to relate his emotions, his feelings. The girl you were in love
00:13:59
with, the girl that you wanted to marry. And nothing seemed to work. You don't want to talk to me or anything, is that
00:14:05
it, man? He didn't seem to care. He seemed irritated and thought that we were trying to pin things on him that he
00:14:11
hadn't done. Will you tell me where she's at? I don't know anything about that, man. I'm wrapped up like I'm going
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to be I'm like going to be accused of stuff and I'm done talking. All right, cool. Even without a body,
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Jason Lowe was charged with murder. I had no doubt that he had killed her. But they did have doubts, grave doubts
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that they would ever find Jessie. Texas is a huge state. We've got lots of rivers, lots of lakes, lots of ponds,
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fields. There are 100 million different places you could hide a body in Texas. >> [music]
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>> Back home in Pascagoula, the town rallied around the family. Jessie's grandmother, Miss Kitty. They
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had a candlelight vigil at the beach. Praying that she'd be found, maybe safe somewhere.
00:15:02
On May 19th, almost 3 weeks after Jessie was last seen alive, >> [music] >> they finally got an answer.
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The police had reason to believe Jessie was on a remote ranch in North Texas. Gary says they wouldn't tell the family
00:15:18
how they knew, only that it was a reliable source. Chief Jimmy Spivey called the Bardwell
00:15:25
family into the station. >> [music] >> The chief said it's going to be a bad day for y'all today because we do not
00:15:32
expect to find your daughter alive. A team of detectives, FBI investigators, and prosecutors made their way to that
00:15:43
remote ranch. Detectives, where are we? We're in Farmersville, Texas. They arrived late afternoon
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and started walking through the fields. We saw where he'd gotten stuck in the mud. You could still see the car parts
00:15:57
on the ground. >> Okay. We found a piece of metal that looked like it was shielding something, kind of
00:16:00
a makeshift burial area. And at that point, you could start to smell you know, decaying flesh. So, we walked
00:16:06
closer. She was covered with a sheet. So, we could tell, but you could see the outline of the body under the sheet.
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Jessie Bardwell had been crudely wrapped in a blue fitted sheet and covered with
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a pile of debris, including a red blanket [music] and two red and gold towels. What was
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the condition of this body? It's one of the worst we've seen. It would take 7 days to officially
00:16:32
identify her body. The medical examiner ruled Jessie's death a homicide, but her
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body was so badly decomposed, officials could not say how she was murdered. I got Jessie's ring.
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That's her ring? That's her ring. Against his better judgment, Jessie's father read the autopsy report.
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I felt it was my responsibility as Jessie's daddy to read the report. She was brutally murdered.
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And she was thrown away like a piece of trash. Wrapped up in a sheet. Barely looking like a person.
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>> [panting] >> And they sent the hearse to Texas to pick her up. And my fireman buddies
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have loaded her into the back of the hearse. This is my life now. >> [music] [singing]
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>> Over 900 people showed up at First United Methodist Church [music] to mourn the death and celebrate the
00:17:50
[music] life of 27-year-old Jessie Bardwell. If this town could be washed with all
00:17:55
the tears that were shed over Jessie, it'd be real clean. We wouldn't even need for it to rain
00:18:03
for the tears that were shed for Jessie. >> [music] >> While the Bardwells spent the next year
00:18:10
grieving, a very different-looking Jason Lowe was in a McKinney, Texas jail cell preparing
00:18:17
his defense. One of the key issues in this case is whether or not to have our client testify.
00:18:24
Jason's court-appointed attorney, Andy Farkas, says he is sure that Jason did not murder Jessie.
00:18:32
He's not so sure Jason can convince a jury, but he has a plan. I've been a lawyer for 42
00:18:41
years. I have never done this before. Never done this before. >> [music] [music]
00:19:04
>> As the months passed after Jessie's death, her father, Gary, struggled through his grief and through his rage.
00:19:12
I'd get a 12-lb sledgehammer and I'd a stump outside the house and I would print out
00:19:20
>> [music] >> pictures of his face and I'd set it on the stump and beat the hell out of it until I couldn't
00:19:26
swing anymore. There was only one thing that kept him going. Waiting to see Jason Lowe face a judge
00:19:36
and jury in a court [music] of law and be convicted of the murder of his only daughter.
00:19:42
I think about what I think happened to her and I couldn't protect her. It's just unimaginable.
00:19:57
It's unthinkable. It's unforgivable. >> [music] >> I don't feel he's guilty of murder.
00:20:05
In August of 2017, we went to the Collin County Jail with attorney Andy Farkas to meet his client.
00:20:12
He is in which one? This one. This one right here. Jason Lowe. We met Jason Lowe,
00:20:20
but he would not talk to us on camera. [music] He told us he's saving his story for the
00:20:26
witness stand. Farkas believes that allowing Jason to tell his version of what happened to
00:20:33
Jessie will help him get acquitted of murder. And to gauge how a jury will react,
00:20:38
Okay, good morning, everybody. Farkas is doing something he's never done before.
00:20:44
He and co-counsel Maria Tu are conducting a mock trial. Be seated. It's essentially a simulated trial with
00:20:53
pretend jurors who will pass judgement. Maria Tu will act as the prosecutor. And
00:20:59
we know that the defendant put her there. And Farkas, the defense. The state can't tell you how,
00:21:07
where, when, or why this happened. While the defense maps out its strategy in mock court, the
00:21:16
real prosecutors, Wes Wynn and Cynthia Walker, are fitting together the pieces of what they admit is a mostly
00:21:24
circumstantial case. Do you know how Jessie is murdered? No. Do you know why Jessie was murdered? No.
00:21:33
And do you know where Jessie was murdered? No. So, we don't know how, we don't know why, and we don't know
00:21:39
exactly where. That's correct. >> But you have the body. And that's enough for you to create the
00:21:44
picture? Yes. They have no doubt that Jessie Bardwell was murdered by Jason Lowe, a man whose
00:21:52
dark side she didn't see, they believe, [music] until it was too late. Jessie really
00:21:58
thought she was in love with this guy, and [music] everything was good. At first, Jessie told her father life in
00:22:04
Texas was great. But then, only a month after moving, they had a big fight. Jason would later say it was because
00:22:13
Jessie had a brief affair before moving to Texas and got pregnant. He was furious when he found out. Eventually,
00:22:21
he says, Jessie had an abortion. Uh she called me uh really upset. She was crying, said, "You were right. I
00:22:29
should have never come out here. Jason kicked me out. I'm freezing." Fortunately, a friend of a friend took
00:22:37
her in for the night. Gary bought her a plane ticket to Alabama for the next morning.
00:22:43
One of her friends went to the airport the next night when she was supposed to be there,
00:22:48
and waited 7 hours for her to get there, and she never came. Jessie told her father that Jason felt
00:22:55
bad about the fight and would try to trust her again. She was 27, a grown woman, so Gary
00:23:02
reluctantly let it go. A decision that haunts him to this day. My mind never stops.
00:23:10
It never stops. >> [laughter] >> Thinking, why did you not go out there sooner? If there were any more incidents, Jessie
00:23:21
didn't let on to the folks [music] back home. And she was even less forthcoming with her new Texas friends,
00:23:27
>> up my hair. Regina and Tommy Jordan. She was just real timid and quiet. We just
00:23:33
seemed to be real shy. Mhm. We couldn't ever pull anything out of her. She didn't really talk much. Did they seem
00:23:40
like they were a happy young couple? He made it seem like that. The Jordans were so fond of the couple. We took them
00:23:47
in under our wing like one of our own children. They asked them to house sit their home and dog while they went out
00:23:53
of town for a few days. They left on May 1st. The last time you saw Jessie alive was here at your home?
00:24:00
Yes. >> Yes. When they returned, everything seemed normal. But then they heard the shocking news.
00:24:08
Jason had been arrested for murdering Jessie. Did you think he was capable of doing something like that?
00:24:14
>> Not at all. We all kind of thought he was innocent. Tommy went to the jail to talk to Jason.
00:24:19
All right, you pick up the phone and ask your business. A videotaped conversation What's up,
00:24:25
brother? What's up, man? >> that would become a key piece of evidence in this case.
00:24:31
>> back up from the monitor a little bit. It is scaring me. And I go, man, I didn't know what happened.
00:24:36
I mean, I like I up and made a mistake. Like it was an accident and I know what I'm guilty of. I'm guilty of
00:24:44
criminal negligence. It was a stunning statement. Jason was now admitting he was there when Jessie
00:24:53
died. Back at the mock trial, [music] criminal negligence. Acting prosecutor Maria Tu
00:24:59
>> everybody heard that. seizes on those words as evidence of his guilt. He know
00:25:04
he's guilty. [music] He's guilty of criminal negligence. Andy Farkas knows that tape will be one
00:25:11
of his biggest problems. >> That's the only piece of evidence they have that ties him to her death. So,
00:25:17
Farkas rewrites Jason's story. It was all an accident. So, the story that Jason is going to tell on the
00:25:25
stand, does the prosecution have any idea? Have they heard this story at all? No. [music] They have no idea. No idea.
00:25:32
But, Farkas tells Jason's entire story to the pretend jurors. He's eager to learn their verdict.
00:25:40
They deliberate [music] over lunch. We don't have any evidence to show what actually happened.
00:25:46
>> story, neither does the state. That's right. I can't believe the DA took this
00:25:51
case, frankly. [music] And the mock jurors reach a verdict. What was the verdict after
00:25:57
they heard the whole story? It was 15 to zero acquittal. I would have tried >> Not guilty.
00:26:02
Hang him of murder. Of murder. Of murder. After hearing those two words, not guilty,
00:26:09
Jason thinks there's a good chance he'll walk out of jail a free man. The time had finally come. Gary Bardwell
00:26:32
said goodbye to his fireman buddies. And then, the hardest goodbye of all. You're going to be all right in Texas.
00:26:39
>> His mother. >> You're going to do a good job. You're going to do this for Jesse.
00:26:44
Justice for Jesse. You remember that? Jess, I love you, son. I love you. I love you.
00:26:50
For the first time in 30 Gary got on an airplane as he and his wife Gina headed to Texas for the trial
00:26:57
of the man accused of murdering his daughter, Jessie. He had waited a year and 4 months for
00:27:04
this day. My stomach is in knots. I just don't know how I'm going to react when I
00:27:09
get in the courtroom. Each of you solemnly swear and you Prosecutor West Wind calls Gary as his
00:27:15
first witness. I was shaking so bad that I was afraid that people could see me shaking. Is that a
00:27:24
photo of Jessie? Yes, it is. Sir, I know this is difficult. You just take your time.
00:27:33
The state portrays Jason [snorts] Low as a man with a dark side, a man with a long history of drug abuse,
00:27:42
a pathological liar who often told people he was a Navy SEAL but was never actually in the military, [music]
00:27:50
a man who abused women. I think I would most certainly be killed by him if I had continued dating him.
00:27:59
The state managed to find two of Jason's ex-girlfriends, Haley McDaniel and Chrissy Chambers. Both say Jason drove a
00:28:08
wedge between them and their families just like he did with Jessie. It was just all manipulation and control.
00:28:16
They say he would get furious accusing them of cheating. One night, Chrissy says he pushed her to
00:28:23
the floor and sat on top of her. He had one hand over my mouth and another his another hand over my nose and was just
00:28:33
pushing pushing pushing pushing on top of me. And he wouldn't get off. Um I'm thinking that he's going to kill me
00:28:42
because he looked me in my eyes and he told me he was. He said, "I'm killing you right now."
00:28:50
Jason denies any of this happened, but the jury won't get to hear Chrissy and Haley's stories because in the end,
00:28:57
prosecutors decided it wasn't necessary and likely inadmissible. They are confident Jason Lowe's sadistic side
00:29:06
will come through. He's about as cruel of a individual as I've dealt with and I've been doing this
00:29:11
a long time. It wasn't just the act of murder, say the prosecutors, it's what he did and did not do after the murder
00:29:20
to cover up his crime. While Jessie lay dead in the back of Jason's Audi decomposing,
00:29:26
Jason was using her phone to send these text messages pretending she was still alive. That's what criminals do. They
00:29:35
want to find a way to get away with it. And one of those ways is to pretend that
00:29:40
this other person is still alive. Prosecutors think Jessie was killed on or about May 1st, the last day she was
00:29:48
seen alive by the Jordans. They believe Jason [music] kept her body in his car day after day after day, 8 days in total
00:29:58
before dumping it. And when Jessie's body was finally found on May 19th, prosecutors say the way in which she was
00:30:06
discarded said it all. This wasn't [music] some accident. It's not how you would leave someone that tragically
00:30:14
died, someone that you love, someone that you care for. It told me that she was murdered.
00:30:21
The physical evidence at the scene, the red blanket, the red and gold towels, the blue fitted sheet Jessie's body was
00:30:28
wrapped in, all led back to the home where they had been house sitting. This is your linen closet. Yes. Regina
00:30:35
still has the matching top sheet to the blue one Jessie was wrapped in. You kept
00:30:40
it. I kept it. I don't know why I kept it. It just gives me creeps just even thinking about it.
00:30:51
After the first week of trial, [music] Gary FaceTimes his mother. Our lawyers have a plan. They they know what they're
00:30:59
doing. You got to remember that. You got to remember that. But I know it's exhausting. It's got to be exhausting. I
00:31:06
have heard that Jason Lowe is actually going to take the stand. It's going to get harder this week. And
00:31:14
that's when it's going to get nasty. You've got enough prayers to hold you up and give you strength. You're going to
00:31:20
have the strength that you need. Love you. Love you, too. Bye-bye. Bye. It was the moment Gary had been
00:31:31
dreading, and Jason had been waiting for. Defense calls Jason Lowe. His chance to convince the real jury he is
00:31:40
innocent of murder. [music] The defense tries to humanize him. He admits getting hooked on drugs at age
00:31:47
13. >> OxyContin, heroin, and Xanax. With his parents listening in court, he talks [music] about growing up an only
00:31:57
child in a well-off family, working on his master's degree, and meeting Jessie Bardwell.
00:32:04
>> [music] >> We in love? >> [snorts] >> Yes, sir. He says they had plans to get married
00:32:10
and buy a house. And then, it all came crashing down. It was the evening of May 1st. He and
00:32:18
Jessie were house-sitting at the Jordans. He claims they had taken GHB, a sedative often called a date-rape drug.
00:32:26
They were getting intimate in the shower. While we're having sex, I'm standing here bracing myself, and I start to
00:32:34
slip. First, he slips, then Jessie. He says she falls and hits her head on the porcelain tub and then sits on the
00:32:44
edge. She just kept saying I I I feel hot. She was like I'm I feel a little bit dizzy and she's was I mean like what I
00:32:52
would say kind of bugging out is what I thought. Instead of getting medical help, they go
00:32:57
to sleep. When Jason woke up in the morning, he says Jessie was lying on his chest. I tried to kind of shake her and
00:33:04
kept knocking. The dog kept barking. She didn't move. She was dead. The defense [music] would claim of a possible brain
00:33:12
injury. What was it like for you to watch him get up on the stand and tell his story?
00:33:19
It was like somebody ripped my heart out and ripped my soul out. My soul. Gary does not believe a word of it.
00:33:29
But Jason continues. He says he heard a knock on the door. I just panicked and I opened the door.
00:33:36
It was Robert Gwyn, aka Cowboy. Jason says he's his drug dealer and it was he, Jason claims, who took the sheet from
00:33:45
the linen closet. He wrapped her up. And together, they put Jessie's dead body in
00:33:50
the back of Jason's Audi. West Wind wasn't buying it. And you're just watching as the love of your life
00:33:58
gets bagged up in a fitted sheet. And then, the two of you carry her outside. Right?
00:34:08
Yes, sir. And you toss her in the back of your Audi. Placed her. Oh, affectionately, I'm sure.
00:34:19
Prosecutors don't even bother to call Cowboy to the stand. Do you believe that Robert Gwyn, Cowboy,
00:34:26
had anything to do with the murder of Jessie? No. Do you Do you had anything to do with
00:34:31
covering it up? No. After Jesse's body was loaded into the back of his car, Jason admits he parked
00:34:40
it in the garage, left her there for days, and began reaching out to other women. Sexting. I love to have you been
00:34:48
over like that while giving you what you want. And sexting. I want to taste you so bad. And sexting. You were sending
00:34:56
photos of your penis to other women while the love of your life rotted in the trunk of your car.
00:35:04
What was that like for you to hear him talk about that? >> Well, first thought is I was I had to
00:35:09
find a way to get to him and kill him with my bare hands. Prosecutor Wes Windham is gunning for a
00:35:31
guilty verdict. Never once said there was an accident. And Jason Lowe is in his line of fire.
00:35:38
Never once call the police. He aims right for the bull's-eye. The love of your life sits rotting in
00:35:45
your trunk. >> [music] >> And after all, it was just an accident. And hits his mark.
00:35:55
You didn't want anyone to know she was dead. You didn't want anyone to find her body.
00:36:00
>> [music] >> After 7 hours of tears, She was asleep. excuses, [snorts] I didn't know what to say. and denials,
00:36:10
Knew I didn't willingly and intentionally kill someone, kill Jessie, kill the girl that
00:36:15
I was in love with. The defense plays its last sympathy card. Who pointed out to the police where Jessie was buried?
00:36:25
I did. Remember when the police wouldn't tell the Bardwells how they found Jessie's
00:36:30
body? Well, it was Jason Low who told them where to find her. His lawyer says Jason did it for the
00:36:38
sake of Jessie's family. But the prosecution says the only reason is because he cut a deal.
00:36:46
You're getting something in exchange for that agreement. Right? If convicted, instead of serving
00:36:52
99 years, the most Jason Low will serve is half that, 50 years. >> And why was that deal offered?
00:37:00
It's important for the family. It was important to find her. After 5 days of testimony
00:37:11
the lawyers sum up their cases. You can't trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
00:37:19
For the state, it comes down to Jason Low's character. Evil typically doesn't announce itself.
00:37:27
You rarely see it. And that's what we have here. But the defense argues the state did not
00:37:34
prove murder over accident. Their case is built on he lied to the cops. He hid the body.
00:37:43
Therefore, he's guilty. That's not proof beyond all reasonable doubt. It was now up to a jury to decide.
00:37:51
After 6 hours of deliberations, the jury hands its verdict to Judge Scott Becker.
00:37:58
>> jury please rise? We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.
00:38:04
It was so sweet to know that monster is going to be put away for a long time. Before sentencing, Gary finally got the
00:38:16
chance to face the man who killed his daughter. [music] I looked him straight in the eyes
00:38:23
and it [music] frightened me for about 5 seconds. There was nothing in his eyes. Nothing.
00:38:32
And very sad and angry. Standing beside Gary for support, Jason's ex-girlfriends.
00:38:40
If I could say anything to Jessie, >> [laughter] >> I would say run. Just save yourself.
00:38:47
That same day, Judge Becker sentenced Jessie's killer to the negotiated maximum. You can go with the deputies.
00:38:54
50 years. We took one last trip to Collin County Jail to see if Jason would finally own
00:39:01
up to what he had now been convicted of. So, I am walking in right behind me into
00:39:07
the jail and I'm going to ask him face-to-face, "Did you kill Jessie Bardwell?" Hey Jason.
00:39:16
>> Hello. Thank you for doing this. >> Yes, ma'am. Have a seat, please. Thank you. [clears throat]
00:39:24
Did you have anything to do with the death of Jessie Bardwell? No, ma'am. Did you murder Jessie Bardwell? No, ma'am.
00:39:32
Why are you sitting here for 50 years? I'm reaping what I sowed, like I said, you know, I was lying I lied. I was
00:39:39
scared and I thought I could fix this. I thought I thought about just myself. I didn't think about her family. I didn't
00:39:45
think about her. He'll have half a century in a Texas prison to think about all that pain he
00:39:51
sowed. If her parents were here right now, is there something you would want to say
00:39:56
to them? I'm sorry. And what are you sorry for? For being a piece of dirt. After the trial, Gary Bardwell and his
00:40:10
family went back to Mississippi where he used to spend long summer days on the water with his daughter, Jessie.
00:40:19
Only now is he able to get back in a boat and go to some of the places they used to go.
00:40:26
A bittersweet reminder of the daughter he lost. Jason Lowe took away a beautiful soul, a
00:40:36
beautiful heart, the life of the party, [music] a smile that would light up this dark
00:40:41
room. She will live forever. [music and singing] I always called her my beautiful little
00:40:46
girl. My beautiful daughter, Jessie. How many breaks can my heart take until it's
00:40:58
>> [singing and music] >> taken away? >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> At first [music] glance when you come to
00:41:48
this area in Oklahoma, it is very beautiful, it's serene, but we have missing people that are never found.
00:41:55
There are homicides that are never solved. There's lots of dark secrets that live here.
00:42:01
My name [music] is Dakota Black. I'm a tracker and detective with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office.
00:42:07
And I was brought into the missing person's case for Mikayla Mea Lowe. And as soon as we arrived on scene, we
00:42:14
started tracking the area and trying to locate her. We had multiple deputies and detectives
00:42:21
in the woods looking for her. We were searching every place that we could potentially think of to try to
00:42:27
locate Michaela. There's something strange. She might be in there. She might be. She may not be
00:42:32
alive. I was not looking for an individual that was breathing. I was looking for my daughter's body.
00:42:48
And I don't know why. Sometimes it's [music] hard to not take cases personal. They tug at your
00:42:54
heartstrings and this one was one of those. What was it about this [music] woman
00:43:00
that fueled you this way? Just who she was. My sister Michaela [music] is the strongest person I know.
00:43:08
Has the biggest heart. Is the most caring. Wants to take care of everyone and put
00:43:13
everyone before herself. I love you. I love you most. I love you more. Her main goal in life was to be
00:43:22
around children, to help children, especially ones in need. >> [music] >> Everybody that knew Michaela had nothing
00:43:27
but love for her. We had a huge response from our community. Everybody [music] really wanted her found.
00:43:37
We just went out there looking for her. Didn't sleep for days. Didn't eat for days. Was raining, cold. We were just
00:43:44
out there for days. Was there a part of you that say, you know, there's a chance we may not find
00:43:51
her? Yes. It seemed day after day the chances were getting more slim of finding her alive.
00:44:05
I just knew that she [music] was gone. I can't imagine how scared she was. It's just sad.
00:44:14
Sad that it ended the way it did. >> [music] >> It didn't have to end this way. I was driven and I was not going to go
00:44:20
home. I was not going to stop until this case was solved. >> [music] [music] [music]
00:45:11
>> The guys at the sheriff's office call her a cool dude with long hair, because
00:45:17
they say she's meaner than any of them in the gun range and in the field. That fence that's hanging, I had to go
00:45:27
underneath that into the water. >> Her name is Lieutenant Dakota Black. She's a trained tracker and detective
00:45:34
with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I go out to scenes when there's man hunts or trying
00:45:41
to locate individuals. Her specialty is finding the missing, whether alive or dead.
00:45:49
I have found them underneath piles of leaves and trees and abandoned homes, sheds. I've found them
00:45:57
pretty much in any area you can think of. Often by her side, her partner, Deputy
00:46:03
Haven, a trained therapy dog. For kids and other family members caught in the crossfire of tragedy, Haven provides
00:46:11
comfort and consolation. A consoling presence she herself would rely on in the coming months as she embarked on one
00:46:19
of the most heart-wrenching cases of her career. This case will stay with me forever and it will be one that I always
00:46:26
remember through my whole life because of how cruel it was. The last thing we said to each other
00:46:38
was I love you. Friday, September 15th, 2023 began like most days for Andrea Meaow V with a 7:00
00:46:47
a.m. phone call from her best friend [music] and younger sister, Michaela. I wish I would have known I would have
00:46:53
said so much more. I'm grateful for that. At least I said I love you. The next morning, Saturday the 16th, the
00:47:04
phone rang as usual around 7:00 a.m. Only this time it wasn't Michaela. It was Michaela's husband, Frank Byers.
00:47:13
He's hysterical, crying, screaming, can barely understand what he's saying and he says, "Michaela didn't come home last
00:47:21
night." He ended up telling me that Michaela went on a date the Friday night before
00:47:28
with a bald man in a white truck. They left and she never came home last night. At the time, Michaela and Frank were
00:47:38
headed for divorce, >> [music] >> says Andrea. They were still living on the same 10-acre property in Macomb,
00:47:44
Oklahoma, but in separate homes. So, at first, [music] Andrea wasn't worried. >> My first thought is she's single. I hope
00:47:52
she had fun. But, Andrea's mood [music] began to shift when her many calls to Michaela
00:47:58
went to voicemail. By noon, I was worried. And 1:00, I was really worried. Their mother, Barbara Harper, was also
00:48:08
anxious. Michaela was supposed to help out at the family restaurant that afternoon.
00:48:14
But she didn't show and hadn't called, unheard of for Michaela. >> And the more I prayed about it, the more
00:48:21
I realized that something serious had happened. Frank also reported Michaela [music]
00:48:30
missing to the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office that afternoon. My wife's been missing since late last
00:48:37
night. She left at 5:30-ish driving a golf cart and the last time that anyone has heard
00:48:44
from her has been 8:00 p.m. And your name? My name is Frank Byers, B Y E R S. What's her name? Her name is Michaela
00:48:53
Byers. The deputy on duty, Dustin Richardson, felt he needed to put eyes on the ground. He got to McComb around 4:00
00:49:03
p.m., his body cam rolling. He'd given me the information over the phone, but I just wanted to see where
00:49:09
she was coming from and and see more of the details. Frank made a point of showing the deputy
00:49:16
the last Facebook message he said Michaela sent him after she left, assuring him she was {quote} fine and to
00:49:25
back off. Did you see the guy at all? Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bald man in
00:49:32
a white truck. I would probably say 6 and 6'1". Okay. He is clearly bald and he had a beard.
00:49:43
But if I had to guess weight, I don't know. Maybe 200. Deputy Richardson then asked if he could
00:49:51
see the house where Mikaela was temporarily living. Can I go and take a look around?
00:50:00
So, she's been staying in this little thing? Yeah. Yeah. All locked up. But the shed-like home
00:50:06
was locked, and Frank said he didn't have a key, but he did have something to say about their relationship. And we
00:50:13
have an open marriage where Well, that's that's brand new thing. I don't like it, but um I agreed on it cuz
00:50:21
I'm trying to fix our marriage. At that point, the deputy decided to take a quick drive to the school where
00:50:28
Mikaela worked as a teacher's aide. Maybe she had gone there. >> [cough] >> What's up?
00:50:37
Man, this uh Frank Byers called in saying his uh wife was [snorts] missing. He called
00:50:43
his son, also a deputy, from the car. This guy is squirrely, man. This Frank guy is squirrely. The sensation was that
00:50:51
there is nothing about this story that is really true. While the deputy was at the
00:50:57
school, friends and family started showing up at the property, including Mikaela's mom, Barbara. When I first got
00:51:05
there, I didn't even speak to anyone. I was on my hands and knees crawling through brush
00:51:13
out in the pasture. We've got to find where she's at. How are you? This is Deputy Richardson
00:51:23
with his body camera rolling as he returned to the property late that afternoon.
00:51:29
Frank had smashed open the lock to Mikaela's place with a hammer. I looked and I I immediately saw
00:51:37
empty shell casings from what appeared to be .22 caliber. He told me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals,
00:51:45
the coyotes and stuff. There's a few times I've heard a shooting. By then, more deputies had arrived. I had asked
00:51:53
him where she kept that gun, and he said it was in his house. Is it in there now?
00:51:58
I had him walk me to his house. And he walked inside, and he pointed at it. I had pulled it from where it was in
00:52:05
there. She kept it like always? And put it in my vehicle. The gun, according to the deputy, appeared to
00:52:13
have been recently fired. That's pretty recent. Yeah. I made phone calls to uh get our criminal investigation team out
00:52:21
there because I just it was all off. There was something that needed to be looked into more. Hey.
00:52:27
I'm on that I'm on that missing person thing still. It's suspicious as Investigators ushered family and friends
00:52:36
off the property and blocked the driveway. I remember walking back to [music] my car,
00:52:43
just screaming at God. Asking him, "Why?" "Why did you do this? Let this happen?"
00:52:54
>> [snorts] >> "Just take me. Take me, and let us find her, and just take me." The missing person's investigation was
00:53:05
now a possible criminal investigation. And that's when the call went out to lead detective Lieutenant Dakota Black.
00:53:15
We definitely needed to figure out what was going on. As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black
00:53:35
[music] got the call that Mikaela Mayavi was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and [music] sped to McComb.
00:53:43
What was your immediate mission? To locate Mikaela. We We needed a locator. We didn't know where she was. It was
00:53:51
1366. Detective Black and her partner on the case, Detective Marcus May, now the
00:53:57
undersheriff, put out a bolo alert. Be on the lookout. It was be on the lookout for a white
00:54:05
male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck. We wanted all of the local law enforcement and surrounding agencies
00:54:12
aware that that we do have a situation developing over here. The tips from this rural area, where
00:54:18
everyone seems to know everybody, came pouring in. Every white pickup truck with tinted
00:54:25
windows was getting called into the sheriff's office. None of the sightings panned out, but
00:54:30
the search took on a life of its own. Flyers were posted everywhere. Social media ads were everywhere. Mikaela
00:54:39
Mayeux was beloved by everybody. They were demanding every resource possible to go find
00:54:45
Mikaela. And Dakota, this was a a woman with enormous heart, right? Absolutely. She loved her family.
00:54:55
She loved her friends. She loved children. Mikaela fell in love with children when
00:55:01
she herself was still a child. Her mom, Barbara, ran a daycare. We weren't just [music] a daycare. We
00:55:09
were the family. And she loved those kids, especially the babies. Sadly, Mikaela was unable to have
00:55:17
children of her own, but that didn't stop her. In her 20s, Mikaela fostered and would eventually adopt these two
00:55:25
kids, a brother and sister. She dropped what she was doing, went to and took classes, got certified
00:55:33
to make sure that she could give those kids a home. She did. Around that time, an old high school
00:55:40
classmate named Frank Byers contacted [music] her out of the blue through Facebook. Frank, who was divorced, had
00:55:47
primary custody of four young daughters. Frank was telling her a story that the current girlfriend he was living with
00:55:55
was abusing his four daughters. So, my sister took him and all four girls in and just started basically taking care
00:56:03
of them. She felt like the kids needed her and she sure needed them. Probably the happiest I'd seen her in a
00:56:11
long time with those girls. Frank and Michaela got married in 2022. They built their lives together in
00:56:20
McComb, population 24. It's just country. It's 100% country. The kids are 100% country.
00:56:30
Michaela was going to college to get her teaching degree while working at the local elementary school. And she would
00:56:37
stand up for the kids and and if she saw a child that was dirty or wasn't taken care of, she would take it
00:56:44
to the principal and you know, bring awareness to it. I think that was her biggest thing in life was
00:56:51
to help little innocent kids that needed adult's help. She always felt responsible to do that.
00:56:59
Countywide, dozens of people turned out in the cold and pouring rain to slog through mud and tick-infested woods in
00:57:07
search of their beloved teacher. But [music] one person at the heart of this mystery conspicuously appeared not
00:57:15
to search. Michaela's husband, Frank Byers. He never participated in a single search.
00:57:23
He never volunteered to go out with any of the search parties to go out and try to find Michaela.
00:57:28
>> And it wasn't like, "Oh my god, my wife is missing." He never seemed like concerned about
00:57:34
that. He seemed more concerned about himself. What were you noticing about Frank Byers? The lack of any
00:57:42
human emotion. I mean, he he did not seem scared. He just wanted to know what we knew. He just he didn't seem human
00:57:49
[music] at all. Investigators were already zeroing in on Frank. We strongly suspected Frank.
00:57:58
Three days after Michaela was reported missing, Frank Byers agreed to be questioned by Detective Black at the
00:58:05
Sheriff's Office. The interview was audio only. At this time, I just want her found. The detective tried to win
00:58:12
his trust by playing the good cop. Again, I couldn't imagine I mean, it's hard not knowing, you know.
00:58:22
And when everybody's pointing a finger at you, I'm sure it doesn't make it any better.
00:58:26
>> [snorts] >> Yeah. I feel like I got to defend myself and tell everyone that no, this is what
00:58:32
happened. This is the truth. She pressed him, but not enough to make him stop talking. Did you ask her about
00:58:39
the date before she left? >> did. And she told me it was none of my business. Same thing as if I went on a
00:58:46
date, it's none of her business. Okay. So, she never said a name or anything, how she met him, how she knew him? No.
00:58:53
After answering questions for 2 and 1/2 hours, Detective Black let him go home. The search for Michaela continued.
00:59:00
[music] Barbara remembers crawling through brush wearing snake protectors >> [music]
00:59:06
>> when she says she had a premonition. I heard Michaela tell me, "Mama, I'm in a tin horn."
00:59:16
And I said, "Oh my god, she just told me she's in a tin horn." >> [snorts] >> Barbara frantically started looking for
00:59:23
tin horns, pipes or culverts used to divert water under roads. But, there was no sign of Mikaela.
00:59:32
Then, >> [music] >> came the call to 911 on day five that would prove her [music] mother's
00:59:38
intuition was right. Ma'am, I don't know exactly where I'm at, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was
00:59:44
searching with [music] my friend for my cousin that's missing, Mikaela Meave. Mhm. And I think that we just found her.
01:00:18
The chatter of locust permeated the air. An eerie sense of foreboding. Mikaela Meave had been missing for five
01:00:27
days. I got a phone call from my friend, and she said, "I need you to sit down."
01:00:32
[music] And she said, "They found someone." And then it's a female. And I'm like,
01:00:38
"Is she dead or alive?" Earlier that day, a cousin and her friend [music] had been out searching
01:00:45
about half a mile from Mikaela's house when they were stopped in their tracks by a strong, sickening odor.
01:00:52
The friend followed the intense smell down a ditch to a tin horn. He saw something sticking out.
01:00:59
It was a hand. I was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing, Mikaela Meave.
01:01:04
Mhm. And I think that we just found her. It was the [music] call Detective Dakota
01:01:12
Black had been dreading. It was devastating to everybody. I mean, it was absolutely terrible.
01:01:20
Just as Barbara had imagined, Michaela was in a large drainage pipe beneath the road.
01:01:27
She had been dragged into the middle area and she was wrapped in the carpet. Uh she had one sock on her foot that had
01:01:33
teddy bears on it and her shirt was actually pulled up over her face to cover it.
01:01:38
I mean, it was hard. It was really hard. So dark in there. Detective Black wouldn't leave Michaela's side. The two
01:01:46
women had been born one day apart in the same year. But that wasn't their only bond.
01:01:52
I did feel a connection with Michaela. I have a history also. I've been in bad relationships.
01:01:59
It could have been me. >> [snorts] >> On more than one occasion, I just got lucky.
01:02:07
While the detectives were working the scene, >> [music] >> Michaela's family gathered just up the
01:02:12
road. You could hear hear them crying up there and they were trying to come down here
01:02:18
where she was. But the crime scene was blocked off. I never once doubted that it was her. If
01:02:32
anyone goes to the tape without permission, they immediately go to jail. I I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.
01:02:37
Can you tell them we're here? >> Of course. Of course. I felt like I needed to see her.
01:02:44
Because she'd been out there for 5 days without me. And I just needed to be with her
01:02:52
and they wouldn't let me. She needed me. But it wasn't there. Michaela's remains were placed in the
01:03:03
coroner's van for the journey to the medical examiner's office. My mom and I both realized that it was
01:03:10
probably her in there. And now we would never be able to hold her and hug her again.
01:03:21
I almost started to chase the van. >> [laughter] >> I just followed it down the road just as
01:03:26
fast as I could. And [snorts] somebody hollered at me and asked me what I was doing and I said,
01:03:33
"My [snorts] My baby's in that van." Detective Black was so angry, she had to hold herself back.
01:03:42
I wanted to leave that night and go and arrest Frank, but I knew um it's better to move thoroughly than to act quick.
01:03:51
The two investigators had already begun building a strong circumstantial case against Frank Byers. The bullet casings
01:03:59
in her home, his unlikely story that Mikaela agreed to an open marriage, She wanted to start
01:04:06
dating other people and and left with a bald man in a white truck. >> she embraced the guy in a hug and then
01:04:12
they got in the truck and left. And I never When you ask Mikaela's family about this open relationship, what did
01:04:18
they say? Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way that Mikaela would have
01:04:26
ever done that. Investigators learned from interviews and from Frank's own social media
01:04:33
accounts that he was the one who was cheating. Frank Byers is the biggest cheater.
01:04:40
He was cheating on her as soon as he moved in. Every time he would go out of town, he
01:04:45
was creating dating profiles. Frank worked for an environmental cleanup company, cleaning up hazardous
01:04:52
materials. He spent a lot of time on the road. He would meet women at gas stations. He
01:04:59
would meet up with them at hotel rooms. He would text them while he was home with Mikaela and hide it from her. He
01:05:07
was communicating with females the day Mikaela was murdered and immediately afterwards He was sending pictures to
01:05:14
women the day of her funeral asking how do I look in my tux. Frank's cheating got so bad Michaela
01:05:24
moved out about 3 months before her murder. She packed a bag and she came and stayed
01:05:30
with me for a week. I held her while she cried every night. She felt like a failure. But I am worried too.
01:05:37
>> [laughter] >> But Michaela's love for the little girls kept drawing her back, says Andrea. I
01:05:43
love you. I love you most. I love you more. I love you most. Michaela went back to the 10 acre
01:05:51
property, but not to Frank. She temporarily moved into that little structure behind his to stay close to
01:05:58
the girls. Frank tried to win her back promising [music] to change, but the cheating
01:06:03
continued. Detective Dakota Black would later discover this conversation in which
01:06:09
[music] Michaela told Frank she was done. I've never once been dead set for divorce until today. Michaela recorded
01:06:17
it 2 days before her murder. I'm just saying you have have officially lost me. Detective Black believes she recorded it
01:06:26
to expose Frank's infidelity. I'm stating to you right now that you have officially
01:06:32
broke the last string that was holding me to you. Okay. And you have nobody to blame but
01:06:39
yourself for doing it. That Friday, September 15th, Michaela returned from work to pick up her things
01:06:47
and leave for good. But Frank, it seemed, had other plans. Detectives would later recover these
01:06:55
images captured on a home security camera on his phone. Detective Black believes he thought he
01:07:03
had deleted them. Where is Michaela in this picture? This is Frank's home and she's coming through
01:07:09
the front door. Mikaela stayed for 14 minutes. The detective believes they were arguing. [music]
01:07:16
Here's Mikaela again. She's leaving. This is the last picture of the series. Frank standing at the door
01:07:26
>> [music] >> of his home. And what do you believe happened after this last photograph was taken? I think
01:07:33
this is when he exited his home and went to her home and killed her. I think this is when he killed Mikaela.
01:07:40
Within minutes. Mikaela was shot in the head. Mikaela had a gunshot wound right here
01:07:48
in the front. She [music] had one on the left side and then she had a graze wound
01:07:53
on the same side. The last image she may have seen on this earth was her own husband holding a rifle
01:07:59
and then the shot fired. Yes. It started as a simmering anger. [music] And I just got to say this because I'm
01:08:25
pretty angry. >> And it grew into a raging fury. People wanted to know why Frank was still walking free. I'm sorry.
01:08:36
The most difficult part was knowing that we were accumulating evidence to Frank's
01:08:40
guilt and Mikaela's murder, but we were unable to release that or share that with the public. We knew Frank was
01:08:47
guilty. We knew Frank was not a good husband. We knew Frank was lying. We knew lots of things, but we couldn't
01:08:54
prove everything and I wanted to prove everything to make sure he stayed in jail.
01:09:00
Detective Black spent 18-hour days at the office [music] with her sidekick Haven,
01:09:04
>> Haven here. the therapy dog now there for her. Give me a sense emotionally how tough
01:09:11
this was for you. It was tough mentally. I was drained. I was mentally exhausted.
01:09:17
I had lost weight. I was tired, but I was not going to go home until this case was solved.
01:09:24
Frank used the time to defend himself on social media. I am innocent and everything will come
01:09:31
out. He also appeared on local news. Even today, I called her. I mean >> [clears throat and snorts]
01:09:41
>> I know she's not here, but it's just a fact that I have her number still and her phone
01:09:50
still on somewheres and uh it just it would've been nice to hear her voice. Everything going
01:09:56
>> Many in the community tuned in to watch Frank Byers' interview, including Lieutenant Dakota Black. Did it make you
01:10:04
angry? It did make me angry. It was sickening to see that a beautiful woman was gone from the world and that while
01:10:12
he's on TV professing his innocence, he's still in communication with other women trying to have intimate
01:10:19
relationships with them. Detective Black tracked down scores of these women. >> [music]
01:10:24
>> Crystal Cantrell was Frank's girlfriend before he met Mikaela. He's very good at making you believe him
01:10:32
and then he's kind of like a snake. Once he gets you in there, he bites you. Detective Black learned Frank wooed
01:10:41
[music] Crystal the same way he wooed Mikaela, with a false story that his daughters were being mistreated by his
01:10:48
current girlfriend. And like Mikaela, Crystal had a soft heart. I love kids. You know, I have kids of my own, so I
01:10:56
just felt really bad for them. Shortly after they moved in together, Crystal says Frank started to show his
01:11:04
true colors. He isolated her from friends and [music] family and controlled her every move.
01:11:12
They fought. One night, she woke up to see him looming over her clutching a pair of handcuffs. I closed them so he
01:11:20
couldn't use them on me. And then after that, he just got on my back and was choking me. He had wrapped his arms
01:11:26
around me and had his hand on my throat and he just [music] didn't let go. Crystal was able to get away, but was
01:11:33
too afraid to report [music] the incident to the police. She left Frank for good, but says it
01:11:39
could have been her in that ditch. He would have killed me. If Frank ever harmed Michaela, she never
01:11:50
told her mom and sister. Sometimes they saw bruises, but Michaela always said they were just from roughhousing with
01:11:57
the kids. I think if I think about it too much, that's where I will go down a dark hole
01:12:09
and not come out. Because I did see the bruises and I just chose to believe and not question.
01:12:19
And then maybe if I would have questioned, it would come out differently. Bit by bit, [music]
01:12:27
Detective Black and her team built a profile of a murderer. So, this photo was taken at Walmart.
01:12:36
Using the date on a Walmart receipt found on Frank's property, the detective was able to track down this security
01:12:43
camera photo. What's in the cart? There is bleach, ammonia, and a mop. And mop, ammonia, and bleach equals what
01:12:54
in your mind as an investigator? Crime scene cleanup. They were also able to match the carpet
01:13:01
in the ditch I I'll help you there. Oh, I got it. to one a neighbor had given Frank and
01:13:07
Mikaela for their dogs. You You gave them that carpet about eight or nine months ago? Was that
01:13:13
>> Yes. Frank took the carpet that was given to him by the neighbor and used that to roll Mikaela's body in.
01:13:24
They believe Frank killed Mikaela around 4:00 p.m. and left her body [music] in her home.
01:13:30
He then picked up his girls after school and drove them around, returning home about 8:00 p.m.
01:13:39
That's when the detectives believe he started to move her body. The kids reported in an interviews so I
01:13:48
once they returned home that that Frank was outside most of the night. He He wasn't in his bed.
01:13:55
Detective [music] Black says there were fresh tire tracks leading to Mikaela's little house. We believe that the tire
01:14:03
tracks actually came from a vehicle backing up to load her body to take it to where that she was located.
01:14:09
The detectives believe Frank drove Mikaela's body to the edge of the ditch, pulled her out, and then let her body
01:14:17
topple the 12 to 15 ft to the creek bed. They believe Frank then climbed down and
01:14:24
dragged her into that pipe underneath the roadway. Once Frank got rid of the body, he
01:14:32
concocted a plan to cover up his crime. So, she took her phone with her or whatever?
01:14:38
Definitely. As far as I know, she took her phone with her. Remember, he told the deputy that Mikaela had messaged him
01:14:44
from her phone that evening telling him back off. But investigators would later find
01:14:52
Michaela's phone in Frank's bedroom. Detective May [music] confronted Frank in a second interview. So I'm just
01:15:00
trying to understand how if she left with her phone and was communicating with you through her phone
01:15:07
on Facebook, how that phone was in your bedroom. I understand. I mean, I I don't
01:15:15
I mean, I I don't have an explanation, honestly. But investigators did have an explanation. Michaela had two phones, an
01:15:24
iPhone and a Moto G phone. Frank had both of them. The Moto G phone was an old phone of Michaela's that she hadn't
01:15:33
been using for quite some time. You can just push in that hole, it pops the tray
01:15:37
out. >> Frank knew how to get into that old phone. So there's a SIM card, for those
01:15:41
who don't know, that's what it looks like. So he switched the SIM card from her iPhone. Why does he do that? To gain
01:15:49
full access to all of her accounts. That's how he was texting himself pretending to be Michaela.
01:15:57
And in fact, it was him the entire time. The evidence was mounting, [music] but they were still waiting on two key
01:16:04
pieces of evidence they had sent to the forensic lab for testing. I needed a smoking gun that I knew was
01:16:12
not going to let him out. I knew it was going to keep him there. What have you just unwrapped here?
01:16:17
This uh what do we have here is the projectile recovered from the 2x4 inside Michaela's bedroom.
01:16:23
In addition to the shell casings found on the floor in Michaela's home, they later found this bullet wrapped in what
01:16:30
[music] they believed was Michaela's hair embedded in the wall. They hoped it would test positive for Michaela's DNA.
01:16:40
And then, there were these boots. So, these are Frank's work boots. They were recovered on the night of the missing
01:16:46
person's report uh from his bedroom. And what did you spot on these boots that was of interest? So, we had found a
01:16:55
substance that we believed could be blood, but he also works with lots of chemicals, so we were unsure if that
01:17:01
would be something that got on there while he was at work. 38 days after Michaela went missing, they finally got
01:17:08
the results. They weren't able to get a genetic confirmation on the hair, but the boots were a different story. The
01:17:16
substance on Frank's boots was blood, Michaela's blood. But as soon as we got that, we were
01:17:24
like, "We're going right now." You had your man. >> We had our guy, yes. We were waiting for that arrest.
01:17:50
So, it moved fast after that. It was close to midnight. Flashing police lights lit up the darkness. 38 days
01:17:58
after Michaela was reported missing, Detective Black, Deputy Richardson, and a special ops team moved in to arrest
01:18:07
Frank Byers. I got with the SWAT team, organized the takedown, and went in and got him.
01:18:21
He thought he was smarter than everyone, but he was outsmarted, right? [music] >> Yes, I think he was surprised.
01:18:32
Lieutenant Black finally had Frank in her grasp, and right where she wanted him, in handcuffs, headed to jail.
01:18:40
Detective May called Mikaela's family with the news. That was a hallelujah moment.
01:18:47
That was about time moment. >> [snorts] >> We can't get her back, but we knew he
01:18:52
wasn't walking free anymore. Detective May says they were done with Frank's lies. Take it, Frank.
01:19:00
And they confronted him with the hard evidence they'd taken weeks to gather. Now [snorts] is your opportunity
01:19:08
to let us know what happened. I I did I didn't mean Why was your blood on your boots? I mean
01:19:17
I can't answer, I mean I I don't I don't know, I mean, honestly. Frank Byers was charged [music] with
01:19:26
first-degree murder. The DA was seeking the death penalty. But the defense requested a deal to save
01:19:34
his life. 15 months after Byers' arrest, he agreed to plead guilty and serve life
01:19:42
without parole. Mikaela's mom was bitterly disappointed. I feel that the plea deal was a cop-out.
01:19:55
The moment the second that she took her last breath, he chose that. And he got to choose what he got for
01:20:06
punishment, too. And that's not okay. It's not okay. The plea deal [music] isn't the only
01:20:15
thing upsetting Barbara. She doesn't think Frank >> [music] >> acted alone. You're absolutely convinced
01:20:23
that Frank had somebody helping him. I'll go to my grave believing that. I think he had to have had an
01:20:30
accomplice. I don't think that he could have moved her body on his own at all. Physically, he could not have
01:20:37
done it. No, I don't believe so. I think we all agree that it would absolutely be
01:20:42
difficult to move her. But, people are scared. They can do amazing things. What they're saying is not
01:20:51
unreasonable. If the evidence is presented to us one day and that that uh, that suggests that, we will take it
01:20:57
and we'll run with it to this fullest extent. I come and I sit and I look at that place down there.
01:21:09
I went down and hung all kinds of crosses and different things. He didn't just [music] take
01:21:18
from us, he took from his own children. Someone that loved them. That put them first.
01:21:26
It didn't have to end this way. He could have let her leave. But, he didn't. There's cold justice for Michaela.
01:21:37
For Detective Dakota Black, tracker, her painful work continues. Michaela would want
01:21:47
her life to mean something. Barbara is starting Michaela's [music] Purple Butterfly Foundation to fight
01:21:54
against domestic violence. That was her goal, her mission in life was when you see someone in need, help them.
01:22:04
When I think of Michaela, I think of sunflowers. I think of joy. She would love that though. You know she
01:22:16
would with all those sunflowers. I sure miss her smile. Her laugh. Oh, that laugh was something else.
01:22:26
She was in best friend. I strived for her to [music] be proud of me because I looked up to her even
01:22:32
though she was the little sister. I still lay in bed and talk to her like she's still right there.
01:22:39
Like she's watching over us every day. >> [music] >> There was just skies a limit for a 21
01:23:59
year old that was talented and that everybody loved. I'm Kevin Harris's dad. K, he's my son and he was named after
01:24:10
me. >> [music] >> It was going to be a Sunday like any other. Even if he didn't go church that day.
01:24:24
He was naive. Kevin, trusting soul. Maybe a little too much. He'd say, "Why you got to tell everybody
01:24:34
I'm your son?" I said, "Because I'm proud of you." My best friend, my teammate. I haven't been able to watch a
01:24:46
a father take his son to the park [music] with a ball, you know, for a while, so.
01:25:03
He was making a name for himself. Cuz I heard where Britney and Rihanna actually were interested in some of his
01:25:09
material. Kevin always had it. The beats were great. I knew he was going to make it.
01:25:22
Some people have that thing where it's like you're relentless to a point where nothing can stop you.
01:25:29
The stuff that he would send me was a lot of like an R&B [music] feel mixed with like pop.
01:25:38
Pop and hip hop. Church. Like gospel, like those chords. [music] A lot of things were happening too
01:25:49
quickly. Videos, camera shoots, Ice Cube track. And he went to that doggone studio that
01:25:58
night. And that happened. Last day. And he kissed [snorts] me on the on my left cheek.
01:26:14
He hugged me. And he just held me and I said, "What's wrong, Kevin?" And he said, "Nothing, Mom."
01:26:24
He said, "Everything's just happening so fast. I feel like something's going to happen." And I said, "Don't think like
01:26:29
that." 10 to 17 [music] shots. Two different handguns. How much do you have to kill him?
01:26:41
A lot of suspicious things happened that night. The clues are absolutely out there.
01:26:48
We just need that one piece. That one smoking gun. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
01:27:51
>> "Time is of the essence. I hate how long my breath takes." Those are the words of
01:27:56
Kevin Harris on his Twitter account in the summer of 2009. Kevin was just 21 when he was gunned
01:28:05
down shortly after 8:00 p.m. on a September Sunday that same year. He had been sitting in his car alone in
01:28:12
Inglewood, California, a small city in Los Angeles close to LAX. I got a call at 9:15. Are you at the
01:28:22
hospital? I said, "For what?" "What happened? What's wrong?" Kevin's been shot. Kevin Harris Sr. is Kevin's dad.
01:28:32
We ran every light just to be told that we couldn't see him. I was in denial. Katherine is his
01:28:38
mother. The night that he was murdered, and I do say murdered. People like to say he passed. He did pass on, but
01:28:45
someone actually took the time to murder him. The Harrises couldn't believe that
01:28:54
somebody wanted their son dead. This is This is Kevin. This was during the the the the photo shoot that they
01:29:01
had, so Handsome. Confident. Very confident. Tell me about your angel. Our angel. Our
01:29:11
angel. She called him angel face. His mother? His mother. Yeah, I wish you could have met him. He was a beautiful
01:29:17
man. And he was still close with his childhood friends like Cameron Woods. We've known each other since we were
01:29:25
like 2 or 3 years old. We continued going to the same school with each other all the way to
01:29:30
all the way to here. Um It's still so fresh. Yeah, hold on. Sorry. What are you thinking?
01:29:40
I don't want to cry. It's a little harder. A little. Mhm. Yeah. It's okay. You know that, right?
01:29:59
What do you miss most about him? His smile. His generosity. Never heard anybody tell me anything bad
01:30:08
about him, say anything bad about him. Never really heard him say anything bad about anyone.
01:30:14
Besides maybe a few, you know, I mean, no one's perfect. But he was he was close. He was close to that. And
01:30:22
The Harrises, led by example, working hard, dad at the LA airport and selling cars, and mom working retail.
01:30:32
They were regulars in church. And they sent Kevin to a Catholic school. She and I were like helicopter parents.
01:30:41
Under surveillance at all time. As a form of protection? >> Yes. If he hadn't come home at a certain
01:30:47
time, I would text a question mark. Just knowing the the possible hearts that lay
01:30:52
out there in the street. One of Kevin's hobbies, Cameron says, was hanging out with his mom.
01:30:59
Spending time with his mom. Really? >> Yeah, he loved yeah. Wait, wait, wait. A teenager enjoying spending time with his
01:31:05
parents? I don't know if I should say it, but he was like kind of like a mama's boy, but I mean, I'm a mama's
01:31:09
boy, so There's nothing wrong with that. Kevin was a perfect date. Jasmine Tanner
01:31:23
was Kevin's high school sweetheart. Not really a huge dancer, but like, you know, he had his little two-step that he
01:31:30
would do. Everything that he did was in a from a very loving place. The Harrises kept their son involved in
01:31:38
sports, especially basketball. I'll take you through my house right now. Right here in my room. But his real
01:31:46
calling was music. Much of the music you're hearing in this broadcast is his. See, this is all you need right here.
01:31:53
Just a little kid right here. See, turn up the music for a second. >> [music] >> See?
01:31:59
You got all that? Got my little turntables. Just mix it up. He taught himself to play.
01:32:08
>> He taught himself. He had rock, he had classics, he had jazz, uh East Indian music.
01:32:16
Soon [music] after high school graduation, Kevin landed a gig apprenticing at a local music studio.
01:32:23
And he start bobbing that head and then he just the next thing you know he's like, oh cool, listen to this and then
01:32:28
he'll click something. It's like going to the next level. By the summer of [music] 2009, he'd
01:32:35
stacked up hundreds of hours in the studio. He began breaking into the Los Angeles hip-hop scene.
01:32:42
But he just wanted to be the best producer ever. Kevin's vibe was he was comfortable with
01:32:49
himself. Sonya [music] Teclai is a poet and singer, one of a number of artists working with Kevin. I had never felt
01:32:58
comfortable in recording sessions until my sessions with him. And a lot of times like, you
01:33:04
know, guys are just trying to like get at girls and do all these things, but he was just he stayed in his lane, he was
01:33:12
focused on his work. As Kevin's career picked up speed, [music] he bragged about working at a big fancy
01:33:21
studio where Michael Jackson once recorded [music] Thriller. And he was like right there.
01:33:26
And like, you know, like a pinball and you get your ball ready and >> [music] >> and you pull it back and then he let go
01:33:31
and But everything would soon come to an abrupt and violent end. My naive loving
01:33:38
son probably just could have been possibly sleeping with the enemy and had no idea.
01:33:43
>> [music] >> To this day, no one has been charged for the murder of Kevin Harris.
01:34:06
They thought we going to do this sneaky stuff here and we'll get away with it. They effed with the wrong father this
01:34:11
time. Kevin Harris Sr. is determined to change that. He's spent the past 11 years
01:34:21
seeking justice for his namesake. I never got to speak to Kevin that day at all.
01:34:27
I went to work 9:00 a.m. He was still asleep and I looked in on him and I left. That Sunday morning in the summer of
01:34:38
2009, Kevin shared breakfast with his mother Katherine. I saved the plate, the paper,
01:34:45
the napkin, the last carton of juice. I have all of that from that day. You memorialized him.
01:34:55
I just love him. I I love him. Retracing their son's steps, the Harrises say nothing seemed unusual that
01:35:06
day. From what I hear, at some point he wound up at a Pop Warner football game and then later on he went
01:35:14
to his aunt's. Karen Staden is the last known person to see Kevin alive. He was his regular happy-go-lucky self.
01:35:26
Hi, Auntie. How you doing? What you cook? And he stayed, we ate, we laughed, we talked. And after a few
01:35:34
hours, Kevin left saying he was headed to the music studio. I said, "Kevin, don't go. We're having too much fun. I
01:35:41
don't want you to go yet." And he said, "Auntie, I have to go because the studio was quiet. No one's
01:35:49
there, I can record, I can go over some things, I can write. I [music] can perfect what I'm working on and we
01:35:56
hugged each other and he was out the door. He drove to the studio in his beloved
01:36:04
green Camaro. He was supposed to meet up with a friend known in the community as
01:36:09
a wannabe rapper, but that friend was a no-show. A lot of suspicious things happened that night.
01:36:19
The studio was in a converted garage in a residential neighborhood. Kevin arrived but never made it out of his
01:36:26
car. He was shot multiple times from two different guns. I never expected anything like this to happen to Kevin.
01:36:36
Kevin's friend Jasmine says he didn't have a chance. To find out that he was shot outside the studio that he loved to
01:36:44
go to so much, it was just like nowhere is safe. The Harrises went to the crime scene no
01:36:53
more than 3 hours after their son had been shot. The police >> [music] >> were already gone. It was already
01:37:00
cleaned up. It was so weird and strange. It was like, why is this crime scene already done? Car was gone, everything.
01:37:08
It seems as if they were more expeditious in cleaning up that crime scene than they were in trying to find
01:37:12
out who did this within the proverbial 24 to 48 hours. That's what it seemed like.
01:37:22
Katherine took what was left behind. I walked around in front of the studio and I saw blood, wiped the blood up off
01:37:30
the street and uh the glass from his window was on the ground. And I used my hands as a broom to gather
01:37:37
the the glass. This young man deserves better than what happened here. There was early speculation [music] that
01:37:47
Kevin's death was gang-related, an assumption that upset his father. You hear shot and killed and the first
01:37:54
thing you want to say [music] is drive-by, was he in a gang? No. No, he wasn't. He was just a loving young man
01:38:04
with a heart as big as this church. Music journalist Rahman Dukes says, "No matter how innocent the victim is,
01:38:12
people assume a crime like this is gang-related." >> Cuz he's a young black man. So, it's
01:38:18
automatic? Yeah. And and that and specifically within that neighborhood. 100%. >> Young black man shot.
01:38:27
In the music business. Yeah. Those are all elements. And the odds of solving crimes with
01:38:37
those elements are slim. For one thing, witnesses can be hard to find. People in
01:38:43
these communities, they stick together. When these situations occur, they're like,
01:38:47
"I'm not not dealing with with the law enforcement. They weren't here to help us, why we
01:38:53
going to why we going to help them?" I have seen people step forward, but the majority of the time
01:39:01
that doesn't happen. Why? A lot of times cuz they're afraid. That person still has to live in that
01:39:08
neighborhood. There might be some retaliation. There's this mentality where it's like, just mind
01:39:13
your own business. As time passed, Kevin's parents felt that the police pushed their son's case
01:39:21
to the back burner, even when they tried to help. >> would tell me, "Just go home. Just go
01:39:26
home. We'll take care of this." We let the law enforcement handle it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. It was
01:39:33
sat on. The police told 48 Hours, quote, "Our hearts go out to the parents and family of Kevin. The Inglewood Police
01:39:42
Department has done everything possible to bring closure and justice to the family.
01:39:50
The Harrises continued to push for answers. They held memorials for Kevin, [music] inviting the police and local
01:39:58
officials. But the stress of losing their son took its toll. The gun kills more than its intended
01:40:08
victim, and it always will. And after he died, not right away, but a lot of everything that meant
01:40:16
everything to our family was destroyed. Two years after Kevin's murder, the Harrises ended their 23-year marriage.
01:40:36
It was a dark time for Kevin Sr. He searched for solace. And he found it in church. A Baptist
01:40:51
church in the Los Angeles community of Watts. >> [singing] >> My heart is broken, but God has
01:41:03
piece by piece put it back together. Pastor Winford Bell helped the heartbroken father channel his grief
01:41:11
into a new-found purpose, speaking out against gun violence for Bell's organization, Silver Lining of Hope.
01:41:20
My heart has been ripped to smithereens. I really revel in this because it's medicine to my soul to
01:41:26
speak about the loss of my son. >> [music and applause] >> Kevin stepped up. When they kill your
01:41:33
baby, there's few people that want to fight to fix it so that your baby or my baby
01:41:40
or anybody else's baby doesn't suffer the same thing. Now more at peace with himself, Kevin
01:41:50
Sr. found more will to keep up the long fight to find out who murdered his son. And he was about to get some unexpected
01:41:59
help. We're going to put as much time and energy as it takes. We will not stop. We will [music] figure this out.
01:42:27
Kevin Harris Sr. continued to speak out. Six years after his son's senseless murder, his heartbreaking story finally
01:42:36
had an impact. The local police brought in the FBI to work the case. When I heard I was going to get a call from the
01:42:43
FBI, I felt that all my aggressiveness wasn't in vain. Have you met the parents? I have.
01:42:51
The parents are fantastic and as soon as I met them, we immediately bonded and they have begged us to just find the
01:43:02
people that did this and that's my commitment to them. is in charge of FBI criminal
01:43:08
investigations in Los Angeles. I'm vested. So, we'll find them and we'll hold them accountable. Welcome
01:43:16
to the new FBI. I think there was a tough case with, you know, not a lot of evidence. There was
01:43:22
no DNA. There was no actual physical touching. FBI special agent Shawn Sterling got the case. He started with
01:43:30
the crime scene photos and with what witnesses it did speak out saw, a dark [music] sedan that pulled up next to
01:43:37
Kevin Harris's Camaro. The shots were fired [music] from that car. We believe there were probably
01:43:43
three people in the car, the driver and two shooters. They were approximately about 6 in
01:43:49
door-to-door, so close that the shell casings from the shooters' guns, two of them, end up inside Kevin's car.
01:44:04
Also new to the case, former LA detective John Skaggs. I know the streets and I know how to talk to
01:44:11
people. Where are you taking us? Right now we're going to the crime scene where Kevin was
01:44:17
killed. There's a couple things I need to look at and then there's a resident that I
01:44:23
want to talk to. Skaggs came out of retirement to work with the local cold case unit and assist the FBI. So, is
01:44:31
this a hopeless case or a stalled case? Uh it is stalled and absolutely not hopeless.
01:44:39
And what's the difference? Well, there's still clues that haven't been burned out.
01:44:44
This is the street where Kevin was murdered? >> Exactly. Detective Skaggs walks into the house
01:44:58
attached to the music studio. Hey, John Skaggs from Inglewood Police. And comes out a half an hour later with owner
01:45:05
Randy Thomas. Hey. Hi, how are you? I'm Michelle Miller with 48 Hours. So, Michelle, had a really good talk with
01:45:12
Randy. Uh he was friends, he knew Kevin for about 4 years and Kevin would use his
01:45:17
studio for for his music. Randy says by the time he got outside that night, the shooters were gone. I heard cap, cap,
01:45:25
cap. I thought it was firecrackers. Then the neighbor came outside and said, "Somebody shot." And you saw Kevin's
01:45:32
car. >> the green Camaro and I said, "Oh my god. Oh my god." Then the ambulance came
01:45:38
and the fire truck and they pulled him out, tried to revive him, but it was bad.
01:45:43
To see him here on the street in front of your house. Broke my heart. It's almost like someone had to have
01:45:50
followed him here. So, you think it was someone he knew? That I don't know, but I know that no
01:45:55
one comes here on Sunday nights. The new detectives confirmed what Kevin's parents and friends had said all
01:46:09
along. Kevin Harris was really quite a remarkable kid. We probably did somewhere close to 70 to 80 interviews.
01:46:16
We could not find anybody who would say anything closely, remotely, negative about him.
01:46:25
>> [music] >> And they learned that in the months before his death, Kevin's career was on
01:46:32
a roll. This studio was his home base. There's a lot of steps. Be very careful. >> Okay.
01:46:40
So, you have a sound mixer. >> Right. You have a sound booth. >> Right. So, this is where we do the music
01:46:45
at. And Kevin had keys. He can come anytime he like to come. In the summer of 2009, Kevin was
01:46:53
becoming better known by his stage name, Track Bully. I think he was just really
01:46:59
positive about the way his life was going. I mean, his name was Track Bully for >> Exactly, cuz his tracks was crazy.
01:47:08
>> [laughter] >> Gucci nail on your glasses. >> Come on. One of the artists Kevin was
01:47:12
closest with was Jizzle, a hip-hop poet and rapper seen in this video with Diddy. I look at this picture and What
01:47:20
do you see? Oh man, I was just Bro, when he was hungry like he was trying to figure it out. He
01:47:28
got the TV on his hat. By then >> That's for Track Bully. But by then he was already like
01:47:36
Lit, kind of, huh? Yeah. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> He was lit. And I used to go by Lady G
01:47:41
at the time, so he'd be like, "What's up, Lady G?" Like, "Man, you got to mess with me on the music, man." And so he
01:47:46
finally like sent me a like a backseat beats. >> [music] >> Jizzo and Kevin worked together on
01:48:03
Poppin, a catchy tune they believed could break through and become a hit. This is Poppin. This is Poppin. Wow.
01:48:12
>> Yeah, man. Is that him right there? Yeah. Track Bully right there. Talk to the side.
01:48:19
>> Yeah. Kevin was clearly proud of that song. Jizzo may have been the star, but
01:48:25
Kevin made sure everyone knew he was the force behind it. And then there was his triumph of
01:48:32
scoring a really big sale. It was to hip-hop star Ice Cube. Once again, proudly tweeting about his feat.
01:48:41
Right before he was killed, he had sold a track to Ice Cube. I mean, how big of a deal was that?
01:48:46
>> big deal. Ice Cube is a legend in music. Not just hip-hop, it's music. It's a
01:48:51
really big deal. Kevin's career was skyrocketing, and his dad was feeling a little uneasy. If I
01:49:00
would have had a chance, I would have reeled him back in just a little bit. Looking back, Kevin Sr. believes his son
01:49:07
was playing with fire. Put it this way. There's not this evil Grim Reaper with a hood that's just
01:49:15
standing around on streets. Normally, it's someone that you know or someone that you've had an
01:49:20
acquaintance with. A friend one day, enemy the next. The new detectives continued to study
01:49:53
the crime scene photos. >> [music] >> This is kind of like you see his life right there. I mean, high school
01:49:58
basketball player, great outside shooter, his laptop, and his hard drive with all his his music. So, in his car
01:50:05
were all his loves, and horribly, that's where he died. Since Kevin's reputation was golden,
01:50:16
they wondered if his death could have been a case of mistaken identity. They learned Kevin wasn't the only one in
01:50:23
town with a green Camaro. There was an active gang member that lived less than two blocks away from Kevin at the time.
01:50:31
That gang member, they say, had a look-alike car. I was able to interview him. The guy's
01:50:37
changed his life, and he's told me about some of the stuff that he was doing back in that day that
01:50:42
could easily be a cause for somebody to retaliate against anybody driving a green Camaro.
01:50:49
When you grow up in LA, no matter how sheltered you are or how strict your parents are, you're going to run into
01:50:58
the culture. It's no secret that Los Angeles does have a gang culture. Even though he wasn't in the streets, I think
01:51:07
we all kind of know what that's like. You know, your parents can't protect you from everything.
01:51:14
But detectives now say they took a hard look at that mistaken identity theory and ruled it out.
01:51:24
They believe that Kevin rolled down his window to talk to the people who drove up next to him that night. And that he
01:51:31
would not have done that unless he knew them. So, they're looking at each other eye to eye. That kind of dispels gang
01:51:38
retaliation shooting where Kevin was misidentified for another gang member. They were convinced Kevin Harris was the
01:51:46
intended target. But why? Were there clues in his surging career? For one thing, in the hip-hop business,
01:51:55
you can get rich overnight. And you have like really young artists like 18, 19 years old and they're
01:52:03
millionaires. 2, 3 years before that, they probably didn't have $10 in their pocket. Kevin hadn't made any big money
01:52:10
yet, but he definitely was a prospect, a kid with big potential. He was really hustling, trying to get
01:52:18
artists and putting music together and getting his music heard. Kevin was all over the place.
01:52:26
He was putting himself out there. More people, more parties, and his tweets show it.
01:52:33
Party in Baldwin Hills. Pool party at the Custom. There's no other way to kind of attain
01:52:44
your goals and aspirations without going at it 24/7. I could just see that in him. You just
01:52:51
showing up where you're supposed to show up and put yourself out there. Putting himself out there, he was
01:52:59
getting a little more flashy. He put extra wide chrome wheels on his Camaro. His dad didn't approve. Now you're kind
01:53:09
of blingin' a little bit too much for maybe the average young man. You have to be less
01:53:16
visible. And Kevin was also getting louder on Twitter. Kevin got real cocky. His name was like really getting out
01:53:23
there. I did feel like, you know, maybe he was kind of feeling himself, little fluffing his uh his little feathers. "I
01:53:29
felt like blessing people with my presence." he tweeted. Word was that Kevin didn't want to work with people
01:53:36
who weren't up to his level. When you start getting hot, everybody wants a piece of you.
01:53:42
You just can't work with everybody. And sometimes some people get offended by that. Things could happen out of
01:53:50
those situations. And Kevin wasn't shy about calling some people out. That's clear in his tweets.
01:53:58
"I'm getting bored by my so-called peers." And here he says someone was quote "exceeding their talent."
01:54:06
In the music business, words like that could be a problem. There's no difference between that and
01:54:13
dissing someone in the streets. What is a diss? A diss is disrespect. It's a very real thing, and again, it goes back
01:54:20
to like these street rules. >> So a lot of this conversation is through social media, Twitter specifically. I'm
01:54:26
sure that Kevin was aware of it. Did he think it would lead to him potentially losing his life?
01:54:32
I don't think so. Just who was Kevin dissing in those tweets? No one knows for sure. Could it have
01:54:42
been that wannabe rapper who stood him up at the studio that night? Was there bad blood between them?
01:54:50
The people who knew Kevin best sensed he was uneasy in the weeks before his death.
01:54:56
His demeanor did seem a little different. I couldn't really pinpoint like what it was, but I can tell when
01:55:02
someone's vibe is off. He'll come home. Couple times I'd see him look back out the door.
01:55:09
I say, "What's wrong, man? Is somebody following you?" "Nah, no, I'm okay." The Harrises had prepared Kevin for life
01:55:18
growing up in a tough neighborhood. There was sometimes gunfire in the area, but they believed they taught Kevin how
01:55:25
to avoid it. Still, Kevin Sr. was taken aback [music] by a question his son had. At one point,
01:55:32
he did ask me, "Well, what do you think about bulletproof windows?" I said, "Why?"
01:55:39
I said, "Kevin, is somebody bothering you?" "No, it's all right. I'm okay." I said, "Just let me know. I've lived
01:55:45
here long enough. We can We can speak on it. We can get it taken care of peacefully."
01:55:51
"No, I'm all right, Dad." It was always, "I'm all right, Dad." I love you, Kevin.
01:55:57
But something must have been wrong. After Kevin died, Katherine was surprised to learn that he was thinking
01:56:04
of joining the military and getting out of town. A week after uh he was murdered, I received a letter
01:56:12
from the recruiter's office for him to go see the recruiter. You know, a lot of people say timing is everything, and
01:56:18
gosh, I wish I kind of wish it would have came a week earlier. >> [music] >> Kevin
01:56:48
Harris never lived to see his recording played on the radio, that song by Gizzle. I was at work, and then someone
01:56:56
told me that it be coming on. And then I hear it, and I kind of broke down right there.
01:57:03
Everybody came running over, you know, I said, "That's That's Kevin. That's my son."
01:57:11
11 years later, his father is putting his faith [music] into the new investigation. The clues are absolutely
01:57:17
out there. We just need that one piece, that one smoking gun that we need to solidify
01:57:25
this. This is an active case, so the detectives won't name the names of anyone they have in their sights. But
01:57:34
Skaggs did drop this clue about Kevin's last day. Uh he had made plans with one of the individuals who's definitely a
01:57:42
suspect in this case to meet him at the studio at 8:00. As far as I know, that individual was the only other
01:57:49
person that knew that Kevin was going to be at the studio at 8:00 p.m. We have now learned that that man was
01:57:57
Desmond Carter, the wannabe rapper that Kevin was supposed to meet at the studio
01:58:02
that night. He definitely caught the attention of the police. In fact, 48 Hours has learned that Desmond Carter
01:58:09
was arrested for the murder of Kevin Harris in 2017. And here's the record. >> [music]
01:58:20
>> Carter was questioned, but never charged with anything. Authorities told us the
01:58:25
evidence they had did not cross the threshold of reasonable doubt. Still, Desmond Carter remains a suspect.
01:58:35
That's partly because there had been bad blood between Desmond and Kevin. Word on
01:58:41
the street was that Kevin had dissed Desmond by refusing to give him beats. Whatever it was that brought Kevin to
01:58:53
the studio that night, authorities suspect it was a trap. >> Kevin Harris was set up.
01:58:59
>> Kevin's own words may support that theory. >> 10 days or 2 weeks before his death when
01:59:04
he [music] told one of his best friends that something's come up missing. I'm getting blamed for it. I didn't have
01:59:11
anything to do with it, but I'm really scared of what might happen. What had gone missing that Kevin was
01:59:18
being blamed for? Was it money? Drugs? Police have told 48 Hours they do not believe that Kevin was dealing drugs.
01:59:28
Somebody blamed him for doing something that they did and blamed him to some big
01:59:33
hitters that were going to seek revenge. This is a classic story of a kid who trusted too much in several other people
01:59:41
that he [music] didn't really know that well. But he gave them all his trust and he
01:59:45
ended up being killed as a result. >> [music] >> We reached out to Desmond Carter. He
01:59:53
didn't want to go on camera or comment [music] directly, but through a friend he said he had nothing to do with
01:59:59
Kevin's death and that he thought of Kevin as one of his best [music] friends. I'm angry. Yes, I'm angry. I'm
02:00:06
angry with certain people that were hanging around my son because it has all the earmarks of someone that he knows
02:00:15
well that was in the circle. I grew up at the beach. I really love the ocean and it's always
02:00:25
been part of my life. Detective Skaggs says walking on the nearby beach helps clear his head and reminds him to be
02:00:34
patient. It does not discourage me. It's If these cases were easy, they'd all be solved. I
02:00:40
know that some of the people that I'm interviewing are not telling me the truth.
02:00:44
So, you know, it just makes it so hard. Detectives are hoping for new information. There's a ton of
02:00:51
circumstantial [music] evidence that kind of ends up adding up into one big significant theory. That way I think
02:00:58
we're very close to proving. We think we're 80 85% there. I am fully confident that this case is going to be solved.
02:01:07
Yes, so anybody who has any information about what happened to Kevin that day, whether they were an eyewitness,
02:01:12
overheard something at a later date or later or got knowledge of what happened to Kevin and who hurt him, that person
02:01:18
needs to come forward [music] for so many reasons. First of all, for justice, justice for Kevin and his family. It's
02:01:23
the right thing to do and could be [music] preventing these bad guys from hurting more people. We really need help
02:01:29
from the public and anybody who knows anything about [music] this case and what happened to him and what happened
02:01:36
that night to come forward and that's what our plea is to to the public. As the case stands today, the murder of
02:01:46
Kevin Harris remains unsolved. You still miss him? What do you miss most? I just miss his spirit. I think I'm just
02:02:00
not knowing, you know? Not knowing. I'm not supposed to cry. But just not knowing like to see
02:02:09
all that potential just to see that the path that he was on, to know the support that he had from
02:02:15
everyone around him is just really unfortunate to not be able to see that. Just you know, reach his full potential, you
02:02:24
know? So I just I I I just miss his spirit. I miss having him around. I miss I miss the fact that I that we all
02:02:29
missed the chance to see how he would grow, you know? Kevin's parents say they'll never give
02:02:37
up. I have nothing else to do with the grief that I feel every day but to be motivated by when I walk out the door
02:02:42
each day. Let's kick some doors in. Let's stay relentless with this. You can't hide from God.
02:02:48
You can hide here on Earth. Duck and dodge. Go to another state. Go to another continent, whatever. But, you
02:02:53
can't hide from God. The FBI helped fund billboards to help get new information. They've also
02:03:03
contributed to a $50,000 reward. The Harrises say the reason they agreed to talk with 48 Hours is their hope this
02:03:12
will finally bring justice for their son. When I go to sleep, when I dream, he's always there with me.
02:03:21
>> [music] >> For my son, I'm never going to stop grieving. Murdered. He was murdered.
02:03:36
These pictures are in my room. And to be honest with you, since we resemble each other so much,
02:03:42
>> [music] >> I turn them backwards. It's kind of hard to look at them all the time like that. Kevin Harris Sr.
02:03:49
doesn't need to look at those pictures anymore because the image of his son is fresh in his mind every single day.
02:03:57
And he is consumed with solving this case for one reason. So, I can lay my son's soul to rest
02:04:05
properly. His mother and I will make sure his passion and his dream lives on. 48 Hours. To miss it would be a crime.
02:04:22
Were you at [music] all prepared for what happened in this case? >> [music] >> Mhm.
02:04:45
>> [music] [music] >> Mhm.