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What was supposed to be a Texas murder trial happening as we speak has spiraled completely out of control. At the center
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of it all is a husband accused of killing his wife, the mother of his young children. And I wish I could tell
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you this latest twist in the case was something no one saw coming. But what has prosecutors so frustrated is so many
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people did see it coming. We're talking major cracks in the system that the public needs to know about. So, let me
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bring you up to speed on the Texas case that's now gone international. Crime junkies, I'm Brianna Whitney, and this
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is the story of Christa Gilly. To people who saw Christa Gilly in 2024, it seemed like she had it all. And in a
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lot of ways, she did. She had the family and the career. a highly respected physical therapist, a wife, a mom of two
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living in Houston, Texas. One of her longtime childhood friends, Cara Kelly, told me Christa was one of those people
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that could do just everything really well. And that only got more evident the older she got, like having the energy to
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keep up with her very young kids and excelling back at work as a physical therapist and teaching college kids as
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an adjunct professor all simultaneously. She was also known to have a ton of friends in different circles all over
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the country. She really valued her friendships. So when Christa was killed in October of 2024, it shook her core
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high school friends from South Carolina tremendously because they not only had known her for decades, but they had all
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just been together for their 20-year high school reunion a couple months prior. One of those friends, Cara Kelly,
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told me she found out through text message. And at the time, she couldn't even comprehend what she was reading.
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There weren't many details that accompanied the text, just that Christa was dead. So, she began googling looking
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for answers. And that's when she found the press release from Houston police confirming not just that Christa had
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died, but that she'd been murdered. And her husband, Lee Gilly, was under arrest. Now, Carol will be the first to
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admit Lee and Christa's marriage was not perfect. She knew there were some issues, even possible infidelity in the
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past. But never in a million years did she think Lee would be accused of killing Christa. But she wasn't the only
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one confused. No one had the answer she was looking for as to what happened or what led up to it. So Cara and all of
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Christa's friends had to wait for the slow drip of information through court docks to learn what police uncovered,
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which is this. Police and EMTs responded to the Gilly home and took Christa to the hospital after a 911 call from Lee
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that came just before midnight on October 7th, 2024. Now, Lee told officers earlier that night they had
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gotten in an argument. So, Kristen went to bed. He stayed up and when he went to
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their room 3 hours later, he claimed he found her unconscious and that's when he
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called 911. He told police this was an overdose or a suicide. But in the same breath, he said his wife was not a drug
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user, had not been suicidal, and this all unfolded when their kids were home. Now, Cara told me she didn't for one
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second buy this overdose explanation from Lee. Her and all Chris's friends clock this as a lie from the get-go. So,
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they were 0% surprised to find out she had no drugs in her system. The autopsy results showed she died from injuries
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consistent with strangulation, specifically compression of her neck and upper back. And we know because he told
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police himself the only person home at the time with her besides her two young kids was her husband Lee. You can see
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why it only took police 3 days to issue a warrant for his arrest and take him into custody. But this is where
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devastation becomes even heavier for everyone who loved Christa. Lee isn't just charged with murder. He's charged
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with capital murder. In Texas, that means there are aggravating circumstances. Now, obviously, all
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murders are horrific, but there are some that have aspects so cruel, so heinous that the state believes they warrant
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charges and consequences with a step up in severity to capital murder. That means either death penalty or life in
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prison with no chance of parole. Examples of this, it's a murder for hire plot. The victim is a child, things like
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that. In this case, Chris's loved ones learn that there were multiple lives lost because Christa was 9 weeks
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pregnant. Her death also took the life of what would have been her and Lee's third child together. Now, most of
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Krista's friends didn't know she was pregnant yet because it was so early. So when they heard this detail, devastation
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turned to allconsuming anger. This news of her friend's pregnancy didn't come through a text or an Instagram post.
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This came in the medical report and Cara said it hit her like a ton of bricks all
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at once. She described it to me as watching moments, thoughts, pictures, memories flash in front of her face all
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at once. the good ones with her friend mixed with these vivid flashbacks she was getting of things that Christa had
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told her concerning things about infidelity and disturbing comments Lee had made. But Cara never thought that
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would turn into this, especially given how their love story unfolded because Lee really wanted to make things work
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with Christa. Cara told me Christrista had gone off to Clemson University for college after high school and it is not
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an exaggeration to say Clemson became a part of her personality. Cara said Christa is a huge Clemson fan, like next
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level fan. She was even a part of alumni groups in Texas right before her death.
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But two big things would happen at Clemson that would change the trajectory of Christa's life. One, choosing to
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pursue a career in physical therapy. and two, one of the very last dates she went
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on with a boy before grad school. Now, dating in college, that's always a loose term because it can often be so casual.
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And in this case, Christa met up with a guy named Lee Gilly. It was fun. But Christa was focused on physical therapy
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and heading to grad school. So, that was it. Just one date for now. Carol told me
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Christa ended up traveling all over the country doing physical therapy until she
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finally decided to put down roots in Houston since their hospitals and medical centers there are just so
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top-notch. And as it goes, Christa was thriving, single, and unexpectedly reconnects with that one guy she went on
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a date with back in college, Lee. He doesn't live in Texas, though. He was out in San Diego. But the two start
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dating long distance anyway. And we all know how long distance goes, right? It's
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fine until it isn't. So Chris's friends are thinking at some point as these months go by, one of them is going to
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have to move, right? But before anyone got word of a move, they got another big announcement. Christa and Lee were
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engaged. Now, this was semi-shocking because Cara said they'd been dating less than a year, and their friends in
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South Carolina barely knew Lee at all. Like, he hadn't really spent any time with them. So, at this point, they were
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just hoping their friend was marrying a good guy and chose to be supportive. Not
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the best feeling, but it was what it was. They leaned into what they knew about Christa, her absolute desire to be
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a wife and a mom. She came from a family of four girls. She was the eldest daughter, and she wanted to have a big
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family, too. So, if Lee was a part of this dream life, then the friends were on board. They got married in 2017. Cara
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was there and it was after the wedding she told me they were honestly relieved to learn that Lee would be the one
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moving to Houston to end the long-distance relationship. He worked in IT and tech consulting. So, he was the
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one able to relocate. The Gillies were making their dream life a reality. Christa got pregnant with her first
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child just a month after Cara. So, naturally, they got even closer. And Christa was so excited to be a mom. Not
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long after that came baby number two. Now, Cara knows from the outside looking in, the Gilly family is what people
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strive to be. But, as is the case with social media, things aren't always as they seem. And that went for Lee and
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Christa's marriage. Cara noticed Christa becoming a little more distant in 2024.
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But at the time, she chocked it up mostly to busy schedules, you know, kids, work, they lived in two different
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states. But obviously now as she was reflecting on it, she felt haunted by knowing so much more was at play. Though
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it would take almost a year for her to find out exactly how much more. While Lee Gilly was out on a $1 million bond
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awaiting trial with an ankle monitor, of course, court documents continue to shed
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light on the secrets of the Gilly marriage. legally had no intentions of staying faithful to Christa during their
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marriage based on what the prosecution found. He was constantly trying to hook up with other women and being skezy
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about how he did it. According to the court records, during instances between 2019 and up until Christa's death in
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2024, Lee was sending inappropriate Instagram DMs. He tried to get with another physical therapist. He even went
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on to Reddit and posted he was in a quote bored marriage and seeking a collegeage female for a friends with
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benefits situation. Ew. Sometime in 2023, he escalated this to a full-on affair with a woman in San Diego where
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he used to live. And it seemed his cruelty didn't stop at just his marriage, but trickled down to behavior
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toward his own children. The court documents showed he said horrific things about his young son in the past and he's
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quoted in these court docs, but I don't want to even repeat his words because his child should never have to hear them
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again. So, what was the tipping point? Why that night? Had Christa learned something? Had she threatened to leave
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him? Did she say something specific in that argument that set him off? We don't know. Her friends don't know because
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that's not in the documents. That was likely going to be something that the prosecution saved for trial. So,
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everyone was having to wait. Except, and this is the twist I warned you about, that trial that everyone was building
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towards, the one that was supposed to happen, it didn't because all hell broke loose. Literally, the worst thing that
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could go wrong did. Christa's friends had done a ton on social media to spread awareness about
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her case, and they were finally just a couple weeks from trial starting. They had been posting about it on Instagram
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and Facebook. They were all ready to show up in support, even if it was just virtually. But they couldn't because
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legally didn't show up for his court hearing on May 5th. Why? Oh, because he was in Italy. Yeah, he somehow fled the
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country right before trial. And I know what you're thinking. Uh, how could that happen? He had on an ankle monitor,
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right? And that would have alerted right away. And what identity did he use to get to Italy? Well, it turns out the
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first they got wind of this was back on May 4th. Not when his ankle monitor alerted, but when the United States
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marshals got an alert from the International Criminal Police Organization. They said someone
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traveling under the name Leun Jeanluke Olivier landed at the Milan airport on an Air Canada flight on May 3rd. And
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when he had to go through customs and show his Belgian ID, the Milan border police were like, "Yeah, no, this is
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fake." They immediately knew. So this Leune Olivier guy is taken into immigration custody and he's facing
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deportation out of Italy. And that's when the guy is like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Uh, my true identity is Lee Gilly,
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and I'm about to go on trial for the murder of my wife, but I'm innocent and I'm claiming asylum."
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And Italy was a strategic play for Lee. You see, extradition does happen between
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Italy and the United States, but there's a caveat. Italy has banned the death penalty and won't extradite someone who
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could be facing the death penalty. In order for that to work, though, you have to be facing the death penalty. And
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guess what? I couldn't find in all of my reporting on this case, any mention of the death penalty being sought up until
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now. And usually, you have to file a notice of intent to seek that. So, I asked the Harris County District
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Attorney's Office if they plan to pursue it or not, and they said they can't say
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anything due to a gag order the judge put on this case back on May 8th. This is also why Christa's close family
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members can't talk to me about the case right now either, and why their legal team can only put out official
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statements, which certainly makes everything harder. Now, as poor of a job as he did with this getaway plan, you
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might be thinking this is something he pulled together last minute. Absolutely not. What I found in the court docs had
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me floored. This man had been planning to flee since day one, and he was telling everyone. Remember I told you
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Lee Gilly was having an affair with that San Diego woman back in 2023? Well, that
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isn't the last time he talked to her. According to the court records, as he is out on bond in 2025,
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one year before trial, he reaches out to her over a phone app. He full-on tells her he plans to flee to Mexico and other
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countries, that he could remove his GPS ankle monitor, and he provided her a plan on how he would do that. He also
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brought up the possibility of marriage and asked if she knew a Mexican identity he could get to get out of the US. And
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as if that wasn't enough to, I don't know, keep extra tabs on him, the records also show he told family on the
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day of the murder he intended to flee or leave the country. That this was all a setup. he was being targeted and he
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needed to quote take care of himself. Now, the evidence in these court docs shows since day one of this case, he
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intended to flee the country. He made that known to multiple people. He even had it in writing and he still was able
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to pull this off. So, I was trying to figure out how. The court records document him cutting off that ankle
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monitor on May 1st, but they don't show any action being taken until May 4th. They don't explain why or what anyone
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was doing in those three days. He was unaccounted for. I started researching more about this so I could ask the right
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questions to the Harris County Pre-trial Services. And then my jaw hits the floor
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again. Multiple articles come up immediately with headlines that say, quote, "Second Harris County murder
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defendant cuts off ankle monitor and vanishes before trial." What? According to Houston news outlets, just days after
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Lee Gilly cut off his ankle monitor, so did another guy named Walter Posos, who was supposed to be going to trial right
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before Lee. Walter was out on bond for leading a 2023 police chase and crash that killed his passenger. Clearly,
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there's a massive public safety problem here. It has leaders and officials calling for change. The Houston director
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of Crimestoppers not only talked to multiple news outlets, but he posted on his own social media concerned about the
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number of ankle monitor and GPS violations the county has had. Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on his
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own social media that murder suspects disappearing before trial quote happens too often and he wants stronger
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legislation passed to combat it. So, I tried to ask the Harris County Preservices Trial Director and the team
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about all of this. How did this go wrong? Why are multiple murder suspects able to cut off their ankle monitors and
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successfully flee? And how are they responding to officials calling them out and demanding change? After multiple
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follow-up emails, they finally got back to me and said, "Reach out to the DA's office for comment." That's the same
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office that can't comment due to the gag order. So, where does this mess leave the murder trial for Lee Gilly? I don't
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know. It got moved to June and it's now completely off the docket while they work to get him extradited back to the
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US. And honestly, nobody really knows how long that will take. Could be a couple months, could be a year. This is
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all excruciating for Christ's family and friends. The more this gets dragged out,
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the more trauma they have to go through to even get their day in court at all. Those who aren't subpoenaed in the case
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are doing what they can to get Chris's story out there, and it's working. Cara helps run the Justice for Christa social
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media pages on Instagram and Facebook. And they now have thousands of followers who post wearing purple in honor of
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Christa Gilly every single week. People as far as Australia have joined the fight. And those who love Christa hope
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that all our crime junkies out there will join this, too. Christa's friends chose purple because it represents
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domestic violence awareness, something they hope to be able to talk more about as soon as this nightmare is over. Crime
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junkies, we will keep you up to date on Lee Gilly's extradition process back to the United States and when the murder
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trial gets rescheduled. So, make sure to follow us, subscribe, and hit the bell icon for breaking updates on this and
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other cases our team covers.