00:00:03
[music] >> I wanted to say [music] that I know everybody doesn't agree on sharing this.
00:00:30
>> [sighs] >> I feel like I'm lost. I'm just hoping that one day Caitlin's story will help someone.
00:00:39
I definitely [music] needed somebody to be held accountable. I needed to tell Caitlin's story, you
00:00:44
know? I needed people to know about her. She was beautiful, she was smart, and she loved to shop and dance, and she had
00:00:51
so many friends. I always described her as glitter. She expressed her individuality through
00:00:59
her hair. She always had [music] different colors, and it was always so cute on her. I
00:01:04
loved the purple on her. She used to travel [music] for those music festivals. I mean, she's been all
00:01:08
around the world. Yeah, the shuffling queen. That's what we always say. She had the best sense of humor. She
00:01:19
loved Melanie. She loved her daughter. She was single. She, you know, she was getting a new apartment, and she was
00:01:28
starting over. I mean, did you worry at all about her safety there? No. I thought, "Man, she's near me, you know?"
00:01:36
And I never thought this would happen. Never crossed my mind. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. My
00:01:42
roommate's daughter just came and woke me up in my bedroom. She told me that something was wrong with Mommy, and uh
00:01:48
that Mommy wouldn't wake up. Is she breathing? Um yes. No, uh but I I don't know. We need
00:01:55
to get someone here. Sheriff's office. I was woken up to a phone call. Do you know what time it was? 5:35
00:02:05
[music] a.m. It was Jacob on the phone saying that Caitlyn is unresponsive, they're doing
00:02:11
CPR, and the EMS is there. My sister called. She's like, "Sherry, get to Caitlyn's right now, something's
00:02:19
wrong." And my only thought was, "Let me get to that baby." Who's up there with Milani? Where's the
00:02:25
baby at? I grabbed her, and she just like melted it into me. Yeah, it was it was
00:02:33
pretty bad. The way the code of Virginia is, nobody can get in trouble for overdoses.
00:02:39
They asked me, "Did she do drugs? Do I do drugs? Did you give her something? Did she take something?" I was like, "I
00:02:46
don't do drugs." >> All the signs are looking for like an overdose? The police were adamant that
00:02:52
it was a drug overdose, and I'm like, "She doesn't do drugs." Here, we're taking off at this point. Um, I think
00:02:56
she's obviously being transported. I genuinely believed she's going to be okay. She had CPR, she was alive, she
00:03:03
had a heartbeat. She was going to be okay. In the hospital, they even wanted to bring bring a chaplain in, and
00:03:11
I was like, "No. My child's not going to die. I don't need a chaplain in right now."
00:03:17
A tech came to me and walked me outside. [music] She said, "It wasn't drugs, someone hurt your
00:03:23
baby." Who would want to hurt her? And she loved everybody, and everybody loved her, you know?
00:03:31
She didn't have enemies. That you were aware of. Yeah. I will never stop saying my daughter's
00:03:37
name, and I will never stop seeking justice for her. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
00:04:29
>> I walk into the hospital, saw my daughter there, and I watched them do CPR and
00:04:35
I'll never forget that. On October 7th, 2022, as Crystal [music] Sale arrived at the hospital bedside of
00:04:44
her daughter, Caitlin Lyon Montgomery, she knew the two people she needed most. And would you say your sisters have
00:04:53
really stepped up for you? Absolutely. I don't know what I'd done without my sisters.
00:05:00
The oldest of the sisters, Sherry Cox, was taking care of Caitlin's then 4-year-old daughter, Milani,
00:05:07
while periodically checking in on Caitlin in the hospital. I knew it was bad. What did you think had happened to
00:05:15
Caitlin? I didn't know. I called Sherry. The first thing she said is something was wrong with Caitlin, but they didn't
00:05:24
know what. Sherry told their youngest sister, Tina Hopkins, nearly 5,000 mi away in Hawaii, the 28-year-old Caitlin
00:05:33
was unconscious and in grave condition. You know, Sherry told me like, you have to come home. Uh it's not it's not good.
00:05:41
I was just shocked that this was even happening and just confused. Especially when doctors
00:05:48
told her that Kaitlin sustained injuries to her neck and head. Any medical history? While first
00:05:54
responders had initially thought Kaitlin had suffered a drug overdose. She's OD'ing.
00:06:00
She's OD'ing. Her physical injuries and the lack of drugs found at the scene indicated Kaitlin was actually the
00:06:09
victim of a violent assault. That she had been strangled. We were all we were speechless. We were
00:06:16
baffled. Who did Who would have done this? I got a phone call to take a strangulation report.
00:06:24
Lead investigator Robbie Burnett with the Bedford County, Virginia Sheriff's Office
00:06:30
focused on documenting Kaitlin's injuries. I saw two distinctive marks parallel to each other on her neck.
00:06:38
Since those marks weren't visible until after Kaitlin had arrived at the hospital, Burnett says it helped
00:06:45
timestamp the attack. It was very recent. Like when you say very recent >> Within an hour or so, most likely, of
00:06:53
when the call came in. So, her apartment's on the second floor, right on the end of the building.
00:06:59
>> Yes. Shortly after learning about Kaitlin's injuries, investigator Michelle [music] Alderson was sent to
00:07:06
secure and process Kaitlin's apartment, now a crime scene. One that had been disturbed by first responders,
00:07:15
>> [music] >> EMTs, and Kaitlin and her roommate Jacob Pearcy's dogs. >> these people out of here best you can.
00:07:23
So, my scene was not as exact as I would like my crime scenes to be. Investigator Alderson set out to find
00:07:31
what could have caused the injuries on Kaitlin's [music] neck. She found a huge clue wrapped up in
00:07:38
Kaitlin's [music] comforter. It was a multiple charging cord adapter. >> [music]
00:07:44
>> Did they look like they match what had been described on her neck? >> I would call them consistent. Yes.
00:07:52
With the cords found on the bed, Alderson suspected that Caitlyn was attacked there, but she soon learned
00:07:59
that first responders, >> [music] >> not suspecting foul play at that time, had given the family permission to wash
00:08:07
Caitlyn's sheets and clean up. Doesn't that make it difficult to obtain DNA? Yes. Fingerprints.
00:08:16
>> Yes. Yes. Investigators were unable to recover [music] any DNA or fingerprints at the
00:08:23
scene, including any on those charging cords. As they searched for evidence identifying Caitlyn's attacker, doctors
00:08:33
struggled to revive her. After 29 [music] hours, Caitlyn was officially declared
00:08:40
brain dead the next morning, October 8th. I remember going to her and one of the only things I remember is
00:08:50
telling her I'm sorry that I couldn't protect her. I can say that there are no words that
00:08:58
have been invented to describe how this feels. It's excruciating. I just can't comprehend that she's gone forever. Like
00:09:09
I can't I can't go there. Tina arrived just in time to help say goodbye. My instinct [music] is just to
00:09:18
take charge and fix whatever's wrong. That affects me greatly that I couldn't fix it for my sister and our family.
00:09:25
Tina documented the moment Caitlyn was escorted to fulfill her final wishes to be an organ donor.
00:09:33
Tina shared the video on TikTok. My family and I have been through a tragedy. She and the rest of her family
00:09:43
started posting [music] photos and videos I'm going to talk about my niece. memorializing Kaitlin.
00:09:51
She liked music, right? I loved music, specifically electronic dance music. Music that Kaitlin had discovered with
00:09:59
her older brother, Jake Lyon. There was this like dance party type thing. I know at the end of the night she ran
00:10:06
up and like bear hugged me. She's like, "I want to do this all the time." Why? What is it? Tell me. What is it
00:10:11
that she took to? I think just the the energy and the social element. How she would draw a crowd.
00:10:19
She loved [music] life. She absolutely loved life. A life that had [music] changed
00:10:25
unexpectedly when Kaitlin learned she was pregnant with Milani. >> [music] >> I mean, we were very supportive and was
00:10:31
like, you know, we'll help any way we can. But the always independent Kaitlin [music]
00:10:36
didn't need much help, says Crystal. Even with Milani's father out of the picture and while [music] working
00:10:43
full-time as a restaurant manager. Kaitlin was rocking it. She was rocking it. What do you mean
00:10:50
rocking it? She was providing for her child. Kaitlin's family now had to grapple with
00:10:56
the reality that someone had intentionally taken her from her beloved child. I still can't believe my daughter was
00:11:04
murdered. She said, "You're going to find whoever did this to my daughter." I said, "There
00:11:10
will be no stone left unturned." So, who's the first person you're looking at? We definitely looked to Jacob
00:11:15
Pearcy, the roommate. With no sign of forced entry and being the only other adult in the apartment,
00:11:22
Kaitlin's new roommate, Jacob Pearcy, [music] who had called 911 reporting her injured, was an obvious suspect.
00:11:32
Investigators told us that was 99% sure he did it. But Tina says she suspected this man, Caitlyn's ex-boyfriend Trenton
00:11:41
Fry, whom she had broken up with 10 days earlier. That was my first gut instinct.
00:11:47
>> You first saw Trenton? I did. Trenton lived 3 hours away in North Carolina. So
00:11:53
investigators gave him a call. He said that he was in North Carolina working the entire time. He agreed to come up
00:11:59
for an interview. Uh appeared to be cooperative. So focus intensified on Jacob Pearcy,
00:12:06
especially when investigators learned what Melani said she witnessed that night. [music]
00:12:12
"My brother killed my mom." Brother was the nickname she used for Jacob Pearcy. Did you have anything to do with hurting
00:12:23
Caitlyn? Absolutely not. Outfit of the day. Again, these videos are just for my sister. So I'm not going
00:12:41
anywhere today. Tina, you're not going anywhere today because your husband has stopped giving you lunch money. For
00:12:46
Tina, Crystal, and Sherry, making Tik Tok videos started as a fun way to connect their family.
00:12:56
That changed after Caitlyn's death. My niece was murdered. We don't have hardly any information.
00:13:04
We felt wronged. >> [music] >> And we weren't going to stop fighting. In those agonizing early days, Crystal
00:13:12
was too deep in her grief to speak publicly. So Tina stepped [music] up to post updates on the case. There is an
00:13:21
ongoing investigation. When did you last see her? We were hanging out south. We were out here watching TV. That
00:13:27
investigation centered on Caitlyn's roommate, Jacob Pearcy. We were looking at him pretty pretty heavy at first.
00:13:34
What do you mean? Meaning he was our number one suspect at that point. In my mind, I'm just here to tell them what I
00:13:40
can tell them, help them figure out what could have happened, what couldn't have
00:13:43
happened. I was in full denial. But after being interviewed several times, having his
00:13:49
body photographed for possible defensive wounds, >> [music] >> and his cell phone confiscated,
00:13:55
Jacob Pearcy knew he was in serious trouble. Were you scared you'd be blamed for whatever happened to her?
00:14:02
Absolutely. You know, I'm the main suspect of something so terrible. We're still at a loss at that point cuz he's
00:14:07
fully cooperating and we haven't caught him in a lie yet. What troubled investigators was
00:14:15
4-year-old Malani's statement. [music] She said she had seen Jacob killing her mother. But Burnett soon discovered that
00:14:24
she had actually witnessed Jacob performing CPR. She actually did the motions of her with her hands of what
00:14:32
Jacob was doing to her. >> Going like this. >> that's the motion she made. To be sure,
00:14:36
Burnett reviewed the 911 call. You can hear Jacob doing CPR. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 You could tell he was definitely
00:14:48
[music] putting effort in. I thought I'd done enough. But I think that's what tears me up the
00:14:56
most is just I wasn't able to save her, you know. At that point, investigators began to
00:15:09
look closer at Caitlyn's ex-boyfriend, Trenton Fry. They tried calling him in North Carolina a couple of days after
00:15:17
their initial conversation, but learned he was unable to talk to them. He checked himself into a mental
00:15:24
health facility. And what did that say to you? He had some kind of break. Something happened to him apparently. So
00:15:30
investigators turned to Caitlyn's friends to learn more about the relationship. Do you think he was the person he
00:15:37
presented himself to Caitlyn? Absolutely not. Hannah McDowell met Caitlyn 2 years
00:15:44
earlier when she landed a job at the restaurant Caitlyn managed. Sharing a love [music] for music and
00:15:52
dancing, they became fast friends and eventually roommates. They also shared their frustrations about the local
00:16:00
dating scene in Bedford County, Virginia, which prompted them to look for love online. What was she looking
00:16:09
for? Well, she wanted someone that was supportive and be a father to Melanie as well and possibly get married. In
00:16:17
January of 2022, when Caitlyn connected with Trenton on a dating app, the tall, fitness-obsessed,
00:16:26
and apparently successful North Carolina native seemed to be marriage material. How did she describe him to you? Well,
00:16:36
he had his stuff together. She was excited to have a relationship with him. When Caitlyn's aunt Sherry met Trenton,
00:16:42
she admits she was impressed. He told me that he owned a security company and he owned his own
00:16:50
construction company. We had talked about him doing my floors because he had me thinking he was
00:16:56
you know, this awesome builder. Then eventually he was at the apartment all the time.
00:17:04
Which made Hannah wonder how Trenton, who lived 3 hours away, could spend weeks on end at their apartment while
00:17:12
also running two businesses. And when I would leave in the morning, when I would come home from lunch, when
00:17:19
I would get home from work, he would always just be on the couch. And she says over time it seemed Caitlyn
00:17:26
wasn't leaving the apartment much, either. She's quiet, she didn't hang out with friends. She was just very
00:17:33
isolated. >> Did you get the feeling that it was because of him that she wasn't going out as much,
00:17:41
dancing as much? Yes. And he would track her location on her phone. I feel like she was
00:17:50
chained to him, almost. >> [music] >> I can't say that I liked him, but I can't say that I didn't like him. While
00:17:57
Crystal had her concerns about the relationship with Trenton, Caitlyn never confided that anything was wrong. She's
00:18:05
always been so strong, so I knew my daughter could handle herself. But Caitlyn did express some frustration
00:18:11
with the relationship to her aunt Sherry. She said, "I'm so tired of paying for everything." She said, "If
00:18:18
he's got all this money, I mean, these businesses, why does he have money?" And I said, "Well, Caitlyn, that's a red
00:18:23
flag right there." More red flags appeared when he tried to convince her to move with him to North
00:18:30
Carolina, where he said he would find them an apartment. In reality, he was not reliable and
00:18:39
wasn't fulfilling what she thought he was going to do. In early September 2022, Trenton admitted the truth. He couldn't
00:18:50
find an apartment because he lacked the credit [music] and source of income to qualify.
00:18:56
Caitlyn called me from work, and she was screaming and crying, I mean, just like bawling,
00:19:01
crying. And she was like, "He's a liar. He lied about everything. He doesn't have a job." Days later, Caitlyn
00:19:08
announced she was breaking up with him. She was done? She was done. So she cut him off. She did.
00:19:15
She blocked him? Oh, she actually blocked him, too. She blocked him? Yeah. And that's when Caitlyn learned her
00:19:21
friend Jacob Piercy was also looking for a place. And as if he wanted to find an
00:19:26
apartment with her and Melani. I finally found this one apartment and we were so
00:19:31
excited um that they were going to be so close to us. While Caitlyn was making a fresh start,
00:19:38
it seemed Trent Fry did not want to let her go. He was actually sitting in the parking
00:19:45
lot of her apartment watching everything Caitlyn was doing. Have you seen a big change in your
00:20:03
sister? Mhm. She just sad all the time. She has bags under her eyes now where she didn't have them before because she
00:20:14
don't sleep. She's not sleeping. I woke up this morning and she would panic. In the days following Caitlyn's [music]
00:20:22
death, Crystal began sharing her grief with others on TikTok. I'll get a text message and
00:20:32
for an instant I'll think that it's Caitlyn. I end up seeing some of her TikToks by
00:20:39
accident. She was completely innocent. She didn't do anything wrong. Investigator Burnett was convinced that
00:20:48
Trent Fry had somehow gotten into Caitlyn's apartment and strangled her. Why did Trent Fry kill the woman
00:21:01
he said he loved? I think it's cuz she told him no and he couldn't he couldn't take the rejection from her.
00:21:09
Investigator Burnett now needed to prove it. We start looking at the obviously more
00:21:16
of his cell phone records tracking that history. We found that his phone pings were in the area of Forest, Virginia.
00:21:25
Commonwealth Attorney W. Nance was assigned the case. He says investigators were able to obtain Trenton Fry's cell
00:21:33
phone after he checked himself into that mental health facility in North Carolina.
00:21:40
And that's how they learned that the device had started pinging off a cell tower in Virginia on October 4th, 3 days
00:21:49
[music] before Kaitlin's attack. He wasn't just in Virginia. He was in at least the area of Kaitlin's new
00:21:59
apartment complex. Investigators canvassed the apartment complex and found two of Kaitlin's
00:22:07
neighbors who remembered seeing an unfamiliar man sitting at a picnic table for hours. One snapped a photo of the
00:22:17
stranger on the afternoon of October 6th, the day before Kaitlin's attack. Who do you believe that is?
00:22:25
>> Well, we later determined it to be Trenton Fry. How close to Kaitlin's apartment is
00:22:32
that? Why there? >> So, this is an elevated vantage point. It looks directly down on her building.
00:22:38
Did Kaitlin Montgomery have any idea that somebody had been watching her for days?
00:22:43
>> No, no, ma'am. [music] And does it appear that she wasn't just being watched, she was being followed
00:22:50
and stalked? >> Yeah. Investigators learned 2 hours after that photo was taken, [music]
00:22:58
Trenton Fry's SUV was recorded by a surveillance camera pulling into a gas station near the apartment complex. He
00:23:07
was seen inside the store now wearing all black. It was around that time that Fry texted Aunt Sherry. He wanted to
00:23:17
know if I still wanted my floors finished and I didn't respond back to him. I immediately called Caitlyn. Well,
00:23:24
she unblocks the number and tells him do not call my aunt anymore. The text between Caitlyn and Trenton Fry, says
00:23:31
prosecutor Nance, became heated. Fry made it clear he knew she was living with Jacob Pearcy and he didn't like it.
00:23:40
So, there's an anger and jealousy underlying those text messages. Um, he starts to call her a piece of
00:23:50
and tell her that karma is a Jacob Pearcy says that Caitlyn called him sounding frightened. At one point
00:23:57
she told me that she wanted to go to her mom's house and pick up her self-defense
00:24:03
weapon that she has, her pistol. Caitlyn didn't go through with that plan. Later, Jacob, Caitlyn, and Milani
00:24:13
had dinner together and watched TV. Around midnight, Jacob says he heard a noise near their second floor balcony.
00:24:23
Spread open the curtains real quick to look. I didn't see anything. Did you lock or unlock the sliding door?
00:24:30
Yeah, I believe I locked it. But investigators later learned the lock on the sliding glass door was broken and
00:24:37
they suspected that's how Trenton Fry gained entry. His Google searches revealed that he had looked up the
00:24:45
layout of the unit which they believed helped him find Caitlyn's bedroom. I think it was absolute, brutal, sudden,
00:24:55
sneak attack on a then sleeping Caitlyn. Fry strangled Caitlyn, investigators say, with those charging cords while her
00:25:06
daughter, Malani, slept nearby. With her child laying beside her, I don't think it gets much worse.
00:25:16
After Fry left, says Nance, Malani alerted Jacob Pearcy that something was wrong with her mother.
00:25:26
Trenton Fry's digital footprint from that morning, says Nance, [music] gives him away.
00:25:32
Mr. Fry started to Google breaking news and [music] specifically, he looked to see if he had any arrest warrants out
00:25:39
for himself. There weren't any warrants for him at the time. But 13 days later, investigators have
00:25:47
one in hand as they travel to the mental health facility in North Carolina. I'm not stupid. I know you guys are here to
00:25:56
take me in. Trenton Fry agreed to talk to investigators and denied any involvement in Caitlyn's death. He said
00:26:03
he had checked himself into the hospital because the only person he had ever considered harming
00:26:10
>> [music] >> was himself. Knowing who I am, I can never hurt her on how much I care about her.
00:26:18
He did finally admit he had been in Virginia, >> [music] >> but claimed he was only looking for a
00:26:23
job and apartment, hoping that he [music] could eventually convince Caitlyn to get back together.
00:26:29
I was trying to give her space um while I figured everything out. But when challenged with evidence that he was at
00:26:36
her apartment complex, >> I'm missing pieces of time for like the last month. Trenton Fry claimed he had
00:26:42
no memory of it, that he sometimes blacked out for long periods of time, including the hours around Caitlyn's
00:26:51
attack. Is there anything else that could contribute to your memory loss? Drugs? No, no. I'm alcohol. No, you guys
00:27:00
can test me. Investigators had heard enough. And took Trenton Fry into custody. And how did you feel that he had been
00:27:14
arrested? Relieved that somebody was going to be, you know, held accountable. Trenton Fry was charged with
00:27:24
first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty. There's no evidence, no hard evidence,
00:27:32
nothing you can point to to prove that Trenton was ever in that apartment. Trenton Fry's defense
00:27:39
attorney, Joseph Sanzalone, insists his client didn't kill Caitlyn. He prepared to argue [music] at trial that there
00:27:48
wasn't a murder at all. I don't think anybody tried to kill Caitlyn. I think it was a purely an accident.
00:28:11
Today marks 2 months. 2 months from the last time that I told my daughter I loved her.
00:28:18
Tomorrow marks 3 months. Today is 16 months. It's been 25 months since my 28-year-old daughter was murdered.
00:28:27
As the months [music] dragged on awaiting trial, Crystal and her family demanded justice for Caitlyn on
00:28:34
billboards purchased around town. We now have a new court [music] date. This one should be it and I pray to God
00:28:41
that it is. Trenton Fry entered the courtroom [music] in March of 2025, 2 and 1/2 years after Caitlyn's death.
00:28:52
Her family was there, her brothers were there, her aunts were there. CBS Roanoke reporter Layla Mitchell
00:28:59
covered the trial. Prosecutors argue that Trenton Fry stalked, obsessed over, and ultimately strangled Caitlyn Lyons.
00:29:07
Layla Mitchell reported on TV. Caitlyn's family updated their growing community of supporters on TikTok. While
00:29:16
prosecutor Wes Nance made his case to the most important audience of all, the jury. Law enforcement called him later
00:29:25
that same afternoon. Mr. Fry told them I wasn't in Virginia. I was working in North Carolina. I
00:29:33
didn't even know where Caitlyn lived. Mr. Fry had given a number of inconsistent statements. What I would
00:29:42
absolutely characterize as lies because they were all in conflict with one another. And so they approached him
00:29:47
again. And this time he relied on an excuse out of a bad soap opera. Claimed he had amnesia. I don't remember
00:29:55
any of it. My whole head has been messed up. But prosecutor Wes Nance didn't have to
00:30:01
rely on Fry's memory. Not only did he have the digital data from Fry's phone placing him in the area, investigators
00:30:10
had also discovered that his device made one very important connection after Caitlyn and her daughter went to bed. At
00:30:20
4:15, right after they go to bed, Trenton Fry's cell phone connects to the iPad. And the iPad shows
00:30:28
the connection. Fry's phone had [music] automatically connected to Caitlyn's iPad via
00:30:35
Bluetooth, providing the only evidence, says Nance, that placed [music] Fry inside Kaitlin's apartment. Now, we have
00:30:45
the two of them within feet of each other during the window of the injuries. And what about that sound that Jacob
00:30:52
Pearcy heard earlier that evening? Nance believes that it was [music] Trenton Fry
00:30:58
positioning this metal bench that belonged to their downstairs neighbor [music] on the brick wall under their balcony.
00:31:07
Perfect extra circumstantiality. And if Mr. Fry would need to get to that side of Florida.
00:31:15
Trent Fry's defense attorney, Joseph Sanzone, concedes [music] that Fry, devastated after the breakup,
00:31:23
was in the area and admits that Fry [music] was at Kaitlin's apartment complex, but says
00:31:31
>> [music] >> he was only outside. I agree with the billboards in this case. Justice for Kaitlin, but it should
00:31:39
happen after a review of all the evidence. He points to the lack of DNA evidence at
00:31:47
the scene and disputes the prosecution's iPad Bluetooth connection theory. We don't know where the iPad was.
00:31:57
And that's because the iPad was recovered [music] by investigators at Aunt Sherry's house. She told them she
00:32:04
grabbed it from Kaitlin's apartment when she picked up Milani after the attack. But it was in the apartment, right?
00:32:13
>> we don't know that. We just know it connected. Would you admit, though, that he's a pretty unlucky guy that he
00:32:20
happens to be >> [music] >> outside the apartment when someone else kills his ex-girlfriend? Yeah, and
00:32:26
whoever did it in that circumstance is the luckiest guy. Jacob Pearcy, the man who found Kaitlin
00:32:32
Lyon unresponsive, took the stand to testify today. Jacob Pearcy, Sand Zone argued, was the
00:32:39
more likely killer. What would be Jacob Pearcy's motive for killing Caitlyn? I don't think anybody tried to kill
00:32:47
Caitlyn. I think it was a purely an accident. Sand Zone suggests that Jacob Pearcy strangled Caitlyn in a consensual
00:32:55
sex act, one that went too far. I was furious. He degraded He humiliated my daughter.
00:33:07
Oh, I was I was so mad. The medical examiner found no evidence of any sexual assault or even
00:33:15
recent sexual activity. This is not sex gone wrong. This is a murder. A murder, Sand Zone says, Trenton Fry
00:33:26
couldn't have committed, saying it was impossible for Fry to get into Caitlyn's apartment, kill her, and get away
00:33:35
without waking anyone, especially the dogs. >> Isn't it possible that someone slipped
00:33:42
into the apartment quietly, strangled her, and left, and not alarm the dogs? >> Only Tom Cruise can do that as far as I
00:33:51
know. I just can't imagine in in real life. Sand Zone has a witness whom he believes
00:33:57
can help make [music] his case, Trenton Fry himself. Did you expect Trent to take the stand?
00:34:20
I didn't. I was shocked. When Trenton Fry took the stand to tell the jury his story, [music] he appeared
00:34:30
to have regained his memory of his actions that night. Did you do anything except the walk?
00:34:36
No, I that's that's all I did was watch. And walk around. If they don't hear from your client,
00:34:44
they're not going to believe what you say. They need to hear from the person. I don't ever remember
00:34:50
being in the apartment because I never was. Prosecutor Wes Nance challenged Fry's
00:34:55
story. You were spying on her. Yes. You were gathering intel Yes. But Fry remained adamant that he could
00:35:05
not have killed Caitlyn. [music] And I could not have climbed that balcony without making a sound. I would
00:35:11
have to be a ninja of some sort. >> [music] >> But Nance says that gas station surveillance photo of Fry, taken hours
00:35:18
before the murder, proves that he dressed [music] the part. A ninja is known for being in stealth mode, and I
00:35:26
think changing his outfit to black is him going into stealth mode. Don't let any
00:35:32
excuses. Don't let the word play. Don't let the memory past confuse you. Trenton Fry is guilty
00:35:41
of first-degree But would that add up to reasonable doubt for the jury? Until they have some proof
00:35:50
that my client was inside that apartment, nothing in this case can be proven. Not
00:35:58
one thing. >> [music] >> Today, the jury will be told that they can either find Trenton Fry guilty of
00:36:06
first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or they can find him not guilty at all.
00:36:11
All of our nerves are on edge. So, wish us all luck today. >> [sighs and gasps] >> It's going to be rough.
00:36:18
We weren't going to leave, whether it was an hour or 20 hours. But you didn't have to wait very long, did you? No.
00:36:26
The jury wasted no time today, deliberating for just about an hour. Because it came back so quick, I was
00:36:34
very concerned that it didn't go the way that we wanted. Moments later, Crystal heard the three
00:36:40
words she had been praying [music] for. Guilty, first degree. Trenton Fry was found guilty of
00:36:49
first-degree murder in Caitlyn's death. I was staring at his face the entire time, and he had no reaction when the
00:36:57
verdict was read. Caitlyn's family burst into tears. Having Trenton Fry be accountable for his actions does bring
00:37:04
our family a little bit of peace. Tina, flanked by her sisters and Caitlyn's brothers, announced the verdict to their
00:37:12
supporters. >> This entire process has been brutal for our family. 4 months later, they returned to court
00:37:21
for Trenton Fry's sentencing. [music] This man didn't just take a life, he destroyed a family.
00:37:27
Caitlyn's brother spoke about the impact on Milani. He left my niece to wake up next to her
00:37:33
mother's lifeless body. She now lives in fear of the dark and the monsters that come in your home
00:37:38
while you're sleeping. I've begged God too many times to count to please please take me.
00:37:44
Let me die because the pain is unbearable. Crystal was clear what she hoped for her
00:37:49
daughter's killer. I was sentenced to a lifetime without my daughter. Milani was sentenced to a lifetime
00:37:56
without her mama, so he needs life. Mr. Fry, would you stand, please? Sir, is there anything you wish to say? Yes,
00:38:09
um Trenton Fry turned to Caitlyn's family. I probably have not felt it on the level
00:38:15
that you all have, but I have felt it for her loss, and I truly am sorry for the loss that
00:38:22
you have experienced. But he never took responsibility for Caitlyn's murder. The amount of terror, the amount of
00:38:32
horror inflicted upon this young innocent woman is unimaginable. Responsibility that Judge James Updyke
00:38:41
reminded him was his alone. Unimaginable to anyone to everybody except you. Cuz you were there.
00:38:52
You saw it. You caused it. I hereby sentence you to imprisonment for life. Life in prison.
00:39:04
Even though we got the verdict we wanted my daughter's still not here. If I could walk out of that courtroom
00:39:11
and hugged her then I would have won. Nobody won. I think that everyone that has lost
00:39:24
their lives to domestic violence their names need to [music] be said. Crystal's TikTok videos are now focused
00:39:32
on sharing Caitlyn's experience and hoping her story could help save someone else. I don't want another mother,
00:39:40
another family to go through what we're going through. I have to be my daughter's voice and I
00:39:45
have to help save other women. She and her family have embraced the man who did all he could [music] to save
00:39:53
Caitlyn, Jacob Pearcy. He's a hero. She needed him and he was doing everything he could to help her.
00:40:00
They opened up and welcomed me to Christmases and Thanksgivings and hangouts and birthdays and cookouts and
00:40:09
they really made me feel like part of the family. >> [laughter] >> A family's still adapting in Caitlyn's
00:40:15
absence. >> In my head, it's up. Crystal enjoys a familiar role as Melanie's grandmother.
00:40:23
While Ann Sherry, who always shared a special bond with Caitlin and her little girl, has become Melanie's guardian.
00:40:32
What does she call you? She calls me Mama now, Mommy. Was that hard for you at first? Yes, because
00:40:39
I didn't want my sister to be upset because I didn't want her to think I was taking Melanie from Caitlin. Erasing
00:40:45
Caitlin, I was like, absolutely not, you know. You are her mommy [music] now. And she
00:40:50
knows she's got Mommy number one that had her, Caitlin. But you're her mommy now.
00:40:57
Melanie will get to know her first mom through the journals she left. Your younger self would be so envious of
00:41:04
where you are now. You're such a hard worker and such an amazing mother. Caitlin, as she saw herself.
00:41:13
You're beautiful, powerful, [music] and so strong. Her final entry focused on one subject,
00:41:21
love. I am loved. I deserve to be loved. I am worthy of love. She knew that she was loved.
00:41:30
She still is. Very much so. >> [music] [music] >> Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host
00:42:20
Anne Marie Green, and today we are discussing the case of 28-year-old Kaitlin Lyon Montgomery, who was found
00:42:28
unresponsive by her roommate in October of 2022. When she later died of her injuries to
00:42:36
her head and her neck at the hospital, the case evolved into a homicide investigation, and it sparked a social
00:42:42
media fight for justice from her family. So, joining me today is 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty to talk
00:42:49
about this case. Thank you, Erin. It's another tough one, Anne Marie, because Kaitlin's mother
00:42:57
described her as glitter. She was such a loss. So, it's a tough case to discuss.
00:43:03
All right, so let's get into this case. In the early morning hours of October 7th, 2022, Kaitlin Montgomery was rushed
00:43:10
to the hospital after her roommate Jacob Pearcy called 911. Now, and this is a heartbreaking part of
00:43:18
this, it was her 4-year-old daughter who first alerted Jacob that her mom would not wake up. But Kaitlin's home wasn't
00:43:26
initially treated as a crime scene, and that's because first responders thought that Kaitlin
00:43:34
probably overdosed on drugs. At the hospital, doctors discovered the bruises around her neck.
00:43:40
So, my question to you is, how did first responders miss this? How did they miss
00:43:45
that there was a a possible strangulation here? Anne Marie, this was a new one for me because as it turns
00:43:52
out, she had been so recently attacked that those bruises didn't come out, and they didn't see anything. And because
00:44:02
she was unresponsive, and because she was young, they assumed she must have taken something. It must
00:44:09
have been an overdose. And this case really serves as a reminder, and I hear this all the time, of why every
00:44:17
uh scene, death scene, has to be treated like a homicide. But, the other side of
00:44:23
this is, of course, that the first responders, you know, she was still alive. Their priority was not that
00:44:30
scene. They wanted to save her life. Yeah, and now that I'm talking it out with you, I can count the number of
00:44:37
times that I've maybe hit my thigh on a a table and said to myself, "Boy, that's
00:44:43
going to bruise." And I know the bruise isn't going to pop up probably for another hour or so. And so, when I think
00:44:48
about that, it makes sense that the bruises would not have been visible by the time um the first responders were
00:44:55
there. >> You're absolutely right. In fact, in many strangulation cases, I mean, there
00:45:01
may be no bruises at all or they may be internal and not show up on the outside.
00:45:07
Um and this was an attack that was very quick. Uh she was probably asleep, so there
00:45:13
were no uh defensive uh wounds. But, those bruises did become visible um at the hospital. And I
00:45:21
thought it was really interesting that actually those bruises helped a lot in terms of creating like a timestamp for
00:45:28
the attack. The fact that the bruises didn't immediately appear actually, in a weird way, helped the investigation
00:45:35
because it helped the lead investigator to determine approximately what time the
00:45:42
attack happened. And what they believe is that it happened about an hour before Jacob Pearcy called 911, which would
00:45:51
make it somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. And that becomes very important during the trial. Mhm.
00:45:59
Do investigators know where Caitlyn's daughter, Milani, was when the attack happened. Oh, this is so sad. Yes, she
00:46:05
was in bed with her mother. Um hopefully she won't have any memories if she saw any of it. She
00:46:14
was just 4 years of age when this happened. Um but because she was there, she was either awakened by it or awoke
00:46:22
on her own right afterwards and thank God that she ran to get Jacob because to be honest, if she had not gotten Jacob
00:46:29
right away, um those certainly the bruises would have appeared, but they might not have been able to figure out
00:46:36
exactly when she had been murdered. So, after Caitlyn dies of her injuries, investigators almost immediately zero in
00:46:44
on Jacob Pearcy, her roommate. At one point they actually tell Caitlyn's family that they're 99% sure
00:46:51
that it's Jacob. So, what made them sort of pivot from being 99% sure that it's the roommate to
00:46:58
looking at Well, what could that 1% be? Well, I mean there's a a reason why investigators first looked at Jacob
00:47:06
Pearcy for one reason, he was the only other adult in the apartment. It was Caitlyn, her
00:47:11
daughter, and Jacob Pearcy. There is no sign of forced entry. This was actually Jacob Pearcy's first night living in the
00:47:20
apartment. Um he had just moved in the evening before she was attacked. And they learned that he had tried to ask
00:47:32
Caitlyn out. Um and so they're thinking, you know, maybe she spurned him. But on
00:47:38
the other side of that, you know, he was so cooperative and handed over his phone
00:47:44
right away and wanted to do whatever he could to help out the investigation. And
00:47:50
that just didn't fit with someone who was trying to hide what he had done. And I should point out, they're also hearing
00:47:58
from the family that there was somebody else that the family suspected. But I have to tell you, they were looking hard
00:48:07
at Jacob Pearcy, and he knew it. He was scared. He was. Yeah, you know, I felt I
00:48:12
felt for him, but he he looks a little suspicious. The investigator, which I thought really helped him,
00:48:18
before they really moved off of Jacob, he went back and listened to the 911 call,
00:48:25
and you could hear that Jacob was trying to do what he could to save her life. Right.
00:48:32
>> So, it did make investigators finally look at somebody else. Right, and you mentioned that her family was
00:48:39
mentioning, "Hey, there is someone else you should look at." Investigators start looking at
00:48:44
Caitlyn's ex-boyfriend. His name is Trenton Fry, and he's got a motive, because 10 days before the attack, she
00:48:52
dumped him. She had discovered that he was really kind of overplaying this idea that he was a successful businessman,
00:49:00
and he spun this whole story about who he was and what he did for a living. And so, she wastes no time. She breaks up
00:49:08
with him. She blocks him. Um you know, Aaron, the investigators and the prosecutor, they're really kind
00:49:15
of characterizing this as a case of domestic violence. I know you've covered many domestic violence cases. When women
00:49:24
leave their partners, they are particularly vulnerable. Uh you know, I've covered too many of
00:49:30
these stories, Anne Marie, and if there's anything that viewers and listeners take away from this story,
00:49:38
I want it to be that. And that certainly seems to be the case in Caitlyn's case.
00:49:44
Uh so, Trenton Fry, on paper, looked like the perfect guy. He had done a lot to promote this image of himself as the
00:49:53
owner of a security business and construction business. And he apparently, according to the
00:50:00
prosecution, um, was very upset when Caitlyn held him accountable for the lies. You know, when it turned out that
00:50:10
he may have had those businesses, but he wasn't making any real money. He didn't
00:50:15
have good credit. And she was upending that image that he had created. Mhm. And there's one other, I think, important
00:50:25
point. We find out later that that Caitlyn wasn't the only woman in his life. He had other girlfriends. You're
00:50:33
kidding me. Yeah, no, it's true. And apparently, um, this fact that Caitlyn could walk away
00:50:40
so easily, according to the prosecutor, was enough to make him angry. See, to me, that's
00:50:48
you know, those one of those red flags. Like, this is not about love. This is about ownership.
00:50:55
>> That's certainly what the prosecution believes was the motive. So, you know, Fry, of course, tells investigators he
00:51:01
wasn't anywhere close, uh, to Caitlyn, uh, when this attack happened. That he was hours away. He was working in North
00:51:09
Carolina. Um, except they find some pretty solid evidence that he wasn't. For one thing,
00:51:16
they noticed that there were cell phone tower pings that occurred in Virginia when he had told investigators he was in
00:51:24
North Carolina. And those pings started 3 days before the attack. And then another interesting thing is that two of
00:51:33
Caitlyn's neighbors saw an unfamiliar man sitting outside the apartments. And one neighbor was so scared of this
00:51:43
guy that she actually went home to her parents. So, he must have been sending off
00:51:48
really creepy vibes. And the other person actually took a picture and it's timestamped on October 6th, which is a
00:51:57
day before she was attacked. Then we get to what investigators uncover with the the browser history. They figure out
00:52:06
that he's been actually looking at the layout of her apartment. >> And that is very helpful because this is
00:52:13
a case um where you have to wonder how did he get into the apartment? Her apartment was on the second floor.
00:52:21
Um there isn't like a fire escape or anything. So, you're wondering that and how was someone able to find her room so
00:52:28
quickly? Kill her, get out, and get away um in a very short period of time. So, that
00:52:36
layout really mattered because it showed that he was trying to figure out where everybody was in the apartment. And he
00:52:44
had, as you point out, Amari, those 3 days sitting out there. So, I think the prosecution's theory was that he was
00:52:53
outside looking where the lights were and could figure out where was her bedroom as opposed to Jacob Pearces. I
00:53:01
do find kind of that part of the case challenging that he was able to slip in and slip out
00:53:09
without anyone noticing, without making noise. And there were dogs in the apartment.
00:53:15
>> Amari, that was I had the biggest problem with that because dogs bark at everything. Now, I understand why
00:53:23
Caitlyn's dog might not have barked because Caitlyn's dog knew Trenton Fry. But what troubled me was that there were
00:53:30
also two dogs in the in Jacob Pearces' room. But the prosecutor says those dogs were in a closed room with Jacob. Jacob
00:53:40
wasn't being threatened. And so there wasn't a reason for the dogs to bark. >> And the other thing is, you know,
00:53:49
often it's very difficult to disturb a scene without leaving something behind. And investigators found nothing that
00:53:59
really placed Fry inside Caitlyn's apartment. That is true, and that was the strongest
00:54:06
argument that the defense leaned on at trial. Um but that scene was so contaminated by dogs and people and
00:54:16
first responders and made it more difficult for investigators later on. Now, the only real evidence that pointed
00:54:25
to uh Trenton Fry being in the apartment is this time when Trenton Fry's phone connects to Caitlyn's iPad, which is
00:54:37
very damaging, and the prosecution uses that to say, "He had to be in the apartment to make that connection." But
00:54:45
what the defense argued was, "How do you know that iPad was actually in the apartment at that time?" Because when
00:54:55
Caitlyn's aunt came to the scene, when they first thought it was an overdose, uh Aunt Sherry took the iPad home with
00:55:04
her, and that's where investigators got it. When investigators sort of confront Fry with the evidence that they have
00:55:10
about allegedly being in Caitlyn's apartment, he claims he has no memory of it. Then he starts to talk about, you
00:55:17
know, he has periods of of blacking out. We've heard this before, Aaron. >> And Em Marie, [music] if we've heard it
00:55:24
a lot, think how often the investigators have heard that. October 20th, 2022, Trenton Fry
00:55:33
>> [music] >> is charged with Caitlyn's murder, and he pleads not guilty. Now, before Trenton Fry's trial even
00:55:42
began, Kaitlin's mother, Crystal, her two aunts, Sherry and Tina, they took to social media. They started posting
00:55:49
videos on Tik Tok to talk about the case, and it's definitely something that we've been seeing, whether it's the
00:55:55
families of victims wanting more attention on a case that hasn't been solved, or wanting more attention on a
00:56:02
suspect who has been charged. I just did a a case involving Molly Bish, and her sister used Tik Tok to try
00:56:10
to get new tips and new evidence. So, yes, it's happening all the time. In this case, though, as reporters, you
00:56:18
really get a sense of what this family went through in a way you couldn't any other way.
00:56:24
Kaitlin's mother, Crystal, happens to have two sisters, and these women all are very supportive of each other. And
00:56:32
so, when Crystal was having difficulty grappling with her pain and her loss, her sisters come through, and the way
00:56:40
they support her is on Tik Tok in telling people what's happening and how we have to have justice for
00:56:47
Kaitlin. You know, they really were pushing for that. A lot of these videos really brought Kaitlin to life. Like,
00:56:55
she pops off the screen. Oh, she does. Um I often feel this, but I felt this in particular in this case that I wish I'd
00:57:05
known Kaitlin Montgomery. As I mentioned, her mom called her glitter, and she does remind you of
00:57:12
glitter. She was very adept at a dance called shuffling. I was not familiar with that
00:57:20
before I start on this story. It's this very, very quick step dance that Kaitlin had learned from her
00:57:28
brother. And remember, Kaitlin Montgomery was this tiny little thing. And so really what you see when you see
00:57:34
videos of her are just her little feet moving moving moving. And so she does pop. Yeah. Um Trenton Fry also had
00:57:44
support from his family. Trenton Fry he has a sister who clearly loves him and I think she felt she had to defend
00:57:54
him if there were all these Tik Toks pointing the finger at him. And so when the trial started there were a lot of
00:58:01
Tik Tok videos that she produced to say wait a minute. You know, maybe he didn't
00:58:07
do it. Here's why he didn't do it. Why are we looking at him? He actually takes the stand in his own defense which is as
00:58:14
we've said every time it happens it's unusual despite the fact that it seems to happen more often than not on 48
00:58:19
hours. It's not it's not normal. It is not. You know, the general view of defense attorneys is you do not put your
00:58:29
client who's standing trial for murder on the stand. But what I've heard in this case is that this particular
00:58:38
attorney often puts clients on the stand and he said to me that he felt in this case
00:58:46
Trenton had to take the stand. That the jury needed to hear from him. And Trenton Fry had to make that decision as
00:58:54
well. But he was the one who would take the stand and he wanted to. The defense tried to raise doubt during the trial by
00:59:03
suggesting that Jacob Pearcy had had been the one who strangled Kaitlin because of some sort of consensual sex
00:59:10
act that that went too far. I understand the role of the defense. Um but I just kind of personally it felt a little icky
00:59:21
to kind of throw this out there. I have I have with you Anne Um, the defense often and has certainly
00:59:30
has the right to raise reasonable doubt where the defense attorney feels it's best. What's wrong with that is the
00:59:38
defense knew that there was evidence that contradicted it. Um, the medical examiner actually
00:59:44
testified that there was no evidence that she had had recent sexual activity. So, I was troubled that that would be
00:59:53
raised because it probably wasn't going to be enough to sway the jurors when there was no evidence of it and they
01:00:00
heard that, but it did hurt the family. Mhm. Um, particularly Caitlyn's mother was so upset. And so,
01:00:08
I that one oh, I struggled with. The defense has the right to do it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right
01:00:16
thing to do. Mhm. So, it doesn't take the jury long to come to a conclusion here. They only
01:00:24
deliberated for about an hour before delivering the verdict. Trenton Fry was found guilty of first-degree murder in
01:00:30
in Caitlyn's death. Four months later, they returned to court for Trenton Fry's sentencing. Aaron, you were there for
01:00:37
the sentencing. What was it like in the courtroom? Well, of course, I really wanted to go because the defendant might
01:00:46
say something, um, uh, accepting responsibility or at least apologizing or something that might give
01:00:54
some peace to family members, but in this case, he accepted no responsibility for it. So,
01:01:04
it upset, I think, people belonging to Caitlyn's family, but it really upset the judge. And I think you need to hear
01:01:13
it for yourself because, um, it really shows and explains why the judge ended up sentencing him
01:01:24
the way he did. This murder was as cold-blooded, premeditated, and calculated as any I've seen.
01:01:33
The manner of death was strangulation. Death was not instantaneous. The amount of terror, the amount of
01:01:44
horror inflicted upon this young, innocent woman is unimaginable. Unimaginable to anyone,
01:01:54
to everybody, except to you. Cuz you were there. You saw it. You caused it. I hereby sentence you to imprisonment
01:02:06
for life. Because in my opinion, a sentence for anything less would be less than what you justly
01:02:15
deserve. Uh you can hear people responding in the courtroom. Um I think it was from both sides. Um cuz I
01:02:26
know that Caitlyn's family, there were like tears, but there were tears on the part of Trenton Fry's family, too, who
01:02:35
um from all appearances, and certainly they testified on his behalf, supported him.
01:02:41
But this was a judge who had been both a prosecutor and then a judge for 47 years, and you would think had seen
01:02:49
everything, and this case really set him off, as you can tell. I that gave me chills hearing it again. Mhm.
01:02:58
Um Milani, she is with Caitlyn's aunt now. But she's not Why is she not living with
01:03:05
her grandmother, Caitlyn's mom? Aunt Sherry has always been the mother hen of the family. She's the oldest of the
01:03:12
three sisters. And she had a a close relationship with uh Caitlyn and Milani. And so, at this
01:03:20
point, she is raising uh Milani, but Crystal is all good with that because she can see her granddaughter anytime
01:03:28
she wants. And um and I think from the family's perspective, they all have said this is definitely the right way to do
01:03:38
it. And um and you could just see she is blossoming as a child. And I think We have a little bit more sound about how
01:03:47
she's doing. There were moments in the beginning that, you know, it was heartbreaking,
01:03:52
but we do everything we can to keep her busy, and she's just a happy little girl.
01:03:58
What does she call you? She calls me Mama now, Mommy. Was that hard for you at first? Yes, because I didn't want my
01:04:05
sister to be upset because I didn't want her to think I was taking Milani from Caitlyn and erasing Caitlyn, and I'm not
01:04:11
trying to do that, but how can I tell Milani not to call me Mama when I'm doing everything, you know? She's used
01:04:18
to being with me. I was the first one to be at the apartment to get her, and from
01:04:23
that day on, it was like I've been her person. Um I rescue It's like I rescued her, and
01:04:29
she has clung to me. She she feels safe with me. Um and the way we have it works for us.
01:04:38
This is a story of a wonderful wonderful, warm family that lost a very important member, and they are trying to
01:04:48
get through it and make it the best they can for her daughter. It's It's inspiring and heartbreaking at the same
01:04:54
time. Um [music] Erin, it's always great talking to you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Amarie.