00:00:00
She opened up her boutique. She had gone to Europe. She was going out dancing at night.
00:00:06
She was taking lots of pictures and posting on social media. It was a whole new world. She was excited.
00:00:15
She goes, I think somebody's breaking into my Facebook. I also think somebody's breaking into my house.
00:00:21
She felt like she had a stalker. I haven't heard from my daughter since prison. Inside the apartment, there's blood stains on the carpet and blood spatter on the wall.
00:00:33
And she's missing. And she's missing. They find a notebook. It says, I'll have great pleasure tearing her apart.
00:00:42
The hair's on your neck. Stand up. I just went, oh my God, you gotta look into this guy.
00:00:47
He was so good at pretending. He's a monster. He's like, do you have a suspect? I said, yes.
00:00:56
And he said, who? And I said, you. It was the dead of night, and she ran as fast as she could.
00:01:12
Frightened, panicked. Wearing next to nothing, she climbed over the iron gate, pounded on the door, and begged for help.
00:01:22
Who was this woman? What or who was she running from? and would she make it out alive?
00:01:33
Monrovia, California, a quaint, family-friendly city nestled in the foothills of the rugged San Gabriel Mountains,
00:01:40
one of the many suburbs of Los Angeles. It was the ideal landing spot for 31-year-old LaJoya McCoy.
00:01:49
She worked hard to get here. She was the only one in my family who actually went to college
00:01:54
what she did being raised by a single mother. For David Clark and his wife Alicia,
00:02:01
their niece LaJoya's success always seemed within her reach. She knew what she wanted and education was her very top thing, you know.
00:02:12
And school is where LaJoya, a star student, would shine the brightest. I went to a couple of graduations down at university
00:02:21
and I couldn't have been more proud. For LaGioia, education was a gift to share with others, like her younger sister, Brianna.
00:02:31
Growing up poor, although it didn't feel like it sometimes, she just wanted better for herself and for the rest of us.
00:02:42
When LaGioia's mom and younger siblings left California and moved to Las Vegas, LaGioia stayed behind and strengthened the bond she had with her aunt and uncle.
00:02:51
I knew it was unconditional love for me when she told me, Uncle Dave, I think you should run for mayor.
00:02:58
I'm thinking, wow, he's really thinking a lot of me. Soon, LaJoya met Jose Turner, an aspiring actor and playwright.
00:03:06
Hello, my name is Jose Turner. Things got serious. They moved in together and had two children.
00:03:12
That relationship did not last, but LaJoya and Jose were devoted to their kids and committed to co-parenting.
00:03:21
And LaGioia continued to pursue her dreams. Yeah, that's one thing about her. She never gave up. You know, she was very determined.
00:03:29
She always kept evolving. LaGioia had a good job with L.A. County as an auditor.
00:03:35
She also opened her own clothing boutique and was developing a smartphone app. She was just moving forward. She enjoyed her job, loved it.
00:03:44
And, you know, when she started her boutique after that, I'm thinking, where is she getting all this time to do these things?
00:03:50
you know. LaGioia's good friend, Eva Mendoza, visited the boutique and understood why success
00:03:56
was critical for LaGioia. What she wanted to do was definitely be her own boss to spend more time
00:04:05
with her kids. She just wanted them to have like the best life. She was learning the piano.
00:04:11
to baby. She was also teaching what she learned to her kids. LaGioia was spreading her wings,
00:04:22
but was she also spreading herself too thin? Even though she shared child care duties with Jose,
00:04:30
she needed a helping hand. So LaGioia called her mom in Las Vegas and asked her to have one of LaGioia's sisters
00:04:36
come out to California to help watch the kids. The next day, the Vegas bus pulled into L.A. almost an hour late.
00:04:46
LaJoya's sister stepped off the bus and did not see LaJoya, who was supposed to meet her.
00:04:51
Her uncle David then got a call. I was at work, and she's just crying. It was his sister, LaJoya's mom.
00:04:59
LaJoya didn't show up, and she's like, I'm worried because she knew she was coming.
00:05:03
She actually sent for her. You call LaJoya. No answer. Exactly. You're texting her. She's not at home.
00:05:10
No. David left work to collect his younger niece. He was perplexed. I was hoping she just was somewhere and would show up and say, you know what, I'm sorry.
00:05:22
I was doing this or doing that. I thought she just lost track of time. And, you know, and we do that.
00:05:28
Because like I said, she was juggling the boutique, the work. And I figured, well, maybe, you know what, she lost track of time.
00:05:34
Well, according to social media, LaGioia might have been juggling something else.
00:05:39
Just a week before, she had posted a message on Facebook that read, OK, he made me breakfast and has a rooftop pool.
00:05:48
He's a keeper. The man in the photograph? David and Alicia had no clue. When I seen that I like OK she back in a relationship I hoping this one is a good one The way the picture looked I like what is he a record producer Or you know I didn know what he did but I like maybe they took a flight somewhere
00:06:09
I don't know. One day passed, then two days. Still no sign of LaGioia. On Friday, June 12, 2015, her mom called the Monrovia Police Department.
00:06:23
I'm thinking that she might see Chick or Unconscious in her apartment. She was worried because she knew things about LaGioia.
00:06:31
The police did not. What LaGioia had been telling friends. She goes, I think somebody is breaking into my Facebook.
00:06:43
Even scarier. Was someone breaking into her house? She goes, I know for sure that I'm leaving some stuff somewhere.
00:06:51
and when I'm coming home, it's somewhere else. I was always, always worried about her.
00:07:14
June 12, 2015 was a summer Friday in Monrovia, California. Families gathered at the local street fair, leaving their hectic work weeks behind them.
00:07:26
Not so for Summer Jackson. A long nightmare was about to begin. Her daughter, LaJoya McCoy, wasn't answering calls or texts.
00:07:36
And now Summer was on the phone to police. I haven't heard from my daughter since two days.
00:07:47
For many departments, that call is as routine as they come. Adult children don't always check in with their parents.
00:07:56
Then Summer shared this. She keeps telling me that her parents were flat two days before, like over the weekend.
00:08:06
Somebody just kind of stalking her a little bit, so that's what's making me concerned.
00:08:11
All right, we will go and see what we can find out, okay? Oh, thank you so much, son. I'm just so worried.
00:08:19
LaGioia's mom was one of the few people who knew about her daughter's closely guarded secret.
00:08:24
She believed someone was stalking her. LaGioia also told her friend Eva. I was always, always worried about her.
00:08:33
LaGioia had just broken up with Jose when she and Eva became friends. It was a whole new world.
00:08:39
She opened up her boutique. She started going to the beach in bikinis. She had gone to Europe.
00:08:43
She was going out dancing at night. Eva says LaGioia loved her new freedom and was starting to date again.
00:08:51
She was very beautiful. Very beautiful. So she never had a problem. At least when she was with me, with guys coming up to her and trying to get her number.
00:09:03
Were there guys that she was going out with that you were worried about? That you didn't trust?
00:09:08
Me, everybody. I didn't trust any guy. LaGioia rekindled old flames and started new ones, often posting about them on Facebook.
00:09:19
Like this guy, Luther Walls, a friend from her past she had reconnected with. She was looking for, like, you know, marriage, like, you know, a life partner.
00:09:31
Turned out, that wasn't Luther. They did remain friends. And according to Eva, LaGioia's dating life rarely blossomed into anything serious.
00:09:41
Something seemed to be holding her back. She goes, I think somebody's breaking into my Facebook.
00:09:49
I also think somebody's breaking into my house. And I was like, huh? What makes you think that?
00:09:57
She goes, I know, Eva, I know for sure that I'm leaving some stuff somewhere. And when I'm coming home, it's somewhere else.
00:10:06
LaGioia said things weren't just moved around. Some of them were missing. The first thing that came to mind is like you're under a lot of stress.
00:10:13
You know, it's easy to forget, you know, where you leave things or misplace things.
00:10:17
You know, I told her it happens to all of us. I think you're just a little stressed.
00:10:22
Now LaGioia was missing. After her mom called Monrovia PD, they went to LaGioia's apartment.
00:10:29
Blinds were drawn. They couldn't see in the windows. Checked the doors. Door was locked.
00:10:33
Chad Harvey was a detective back in 2015. He says patrol officers found LaGioia's apartment locked and secure.
00:10:43
Couldn't find anything suspicious, anything out of the normal. It looked normal.
00:10:47
So everything looked normal at the time. So they went ahead and contacted LaGioia's mother and told her nothing seems peculiar and left it at that.
00:10:58
LaGioia's mom wasn't alone. That night, police heard from other worried friends and family.
00:11:03
I texted her last night and she did not respond. I have an employee that hasn't reported to work.
00:11:11
Officers went back for a second look. They started talking to some neighbors. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary again.
00:11:19
Police called LaGioia's ex, Jose Turner, the father of their two children. He said the last time he saw LaGioia was the previous weekend, when he dropped off the kids at her place.
00:11:30
A few days later, he picked up the kids, as usual. Police also called LaGioia's cell phone carrier, who told them LaGioia's cell was active that day.
00:11:41
When LaGioia's mom heard that, she told police she would hold off on filing a missing persons report.
00:11:48
Maybe LaGioia would contact her. So, we waited a few days. As Friday night drew to a close news about LaGioia disappearance was already making the rounds LaJoya sister Brianna heard it from her grandmother She said it very nonchalant
00:12:06
She just told me that LaJoya hasn't talked to my mom in a few days. And me knowing LaJoya, I felt like maybe she just wanted some space.
00:12:19
It wasn't uncommon for her to disconnect from time to time. Eva remembered a conversation she'd had with LaGioia a week before.
00:12:29
She told me that she wanted to, you know, just escape. She found a place, like a retreat in Arizona, no cell phones, whatever, meditation and whatnot.
00:12:38
I think it's a great idea. I think it's going to help you gather your thoughts. LaGioia had a lot to think about.
00:12:44
Earlier that week, she'd gone to happy hour with her friend Bernadette, who sometimes helped out with LaGioia's clothing boutique.
00:12:51
They talked about LaGioia's decision to close her store due to financial problems.
00:12:56
Despite that setback, Bernadette said she didn't see any signs LaGioia wanted to escape, unplug, or vanish.
00:13:05
Things are okay now because she closed the store, so now she has that stress off of her.
00:13:10
She was very positive about the future. She even posted this video of herself dancing in the boutique just days before the doors closed for good.
00:13:20
So, where was she? LaGioia's brother called Luther, even though they'd never met, to ask if he'd heard from LaGioia.
00:13:29
In fact, he had, Luther told him, but that was a few days ago. After that call, Luther said he went by LaGioia's apartment.
00:13:36
I wanted to see if I'd seen her car out there, but I didn't, because her parking space was like in the back and like to the side right there.
00:13:45
So, Luther said he didn't knock on her door. It had now been nearly a week since LaGioia had gone silent.
00:13:53
With a clock ticking loudly in her head, LaGioia's mom again called police. Officers made a third trip to LaGioia's apartment,
00:14:04
and this time, they forced their way in. And what they found was a crime scene. I went in through the window.
00:14:15
I yelled who I was, yelled for LaGioia, no answer. I noticed that there's bloodstains on the carpet.
00:14:23
What had happened? And where was LaGioia? The answer just might be on video. A neighbor directly across from her apartment was having a problem with some petty theft.
00:14:37
So he decided to put up a motion camera. That camera was faced at the perfect position.
00:14:45
The streets were quiet that warm summer afternoon in Monrovia. Inside LaGioia McCoy's apartment, it was quiet too.
00:15:08
I went in through the window. I yelled who I was. Yelled for LaGioia. No answer.
00:15:15
Detective Harvey opened the front door for his partner. As we did, we entered, still announcing our presence.
00:15:22
Nobody was inside. What's it look like in there? It's clean. Doesn't look like anything out of the normal.
00:15:28
Some clothes lying around. Just normal everyday things. Then they looked in the main bedroom, where it didn't look normal at all.
00:15:36
I noticed that there's bloodstains on the carpet. I then noticed bloodstains on the mattress and blood spatter on the wall.
00:15:44
And all of LaJoya's bedding was gone. And she's missing. Well, you've been doing this a while.
00:15:52
What are the odds that that person who was missing is still alive? We like to think that they are.
00:15:57
We don't know that they aren't. In L.A. County, a small department like Monrovia often turns to the sheriff's department
00:16:04
for a possible murder case like this one. That evening, Detective Eddie Brown and his partner were on call.
00:16:11
We got called from our residence, and we go straight to the location. Brown scanned LaJoya's apartment.
00:16:20
The kids' room was totally disheveled. The drawers were taken out. Some of them were on the floor.
00:16:26
Some of them were partially open. Clothing, material was on the floor. It looked a mess.
00:16:34
LaJoya's car was gone, and detectives noticed her purse and phone were missing, too.
00:16:39
had someone robbed the apartment and taken LaGioia with them? Detective Brown didn't think so.
00:16:47
There was no force entry. Somebody can push their way in. If he did that, why would he take the bedsheets if something didn't occur?
00:16:54
If this is a push-in bad guy and he disables her or kills her, he's going to leave her right there.
00:17:00
He's going to steal what he's going to steal. Leave her right there. No reason to take her body.
00:17:04
Right. Brown believed the most likely scenario was that someone staged the scene to look like a robbery,
00:17:12
which meant LaGioia was probably the target. Because the woman's bedsheets were gone,
00:17:20
which I believe that was used to transport her out of the house, so she was either knocked out unconscious or dead.
00:17:29
The apartment also smelled like bleach. which tells me that someone probably tried to clean the crime scene.
00:17:37
And then came a lead. Was there a video record of what had happened? A neighbor directly across from her apartment
00:17:46
was having a problem with some petty theft. So he decided to put up a motion camera.
00:17:54
And it the type of camera that you know it has to be activated by a sensor So an animal or a person walking by And that camera was faced at the perfect position
00:18:07
Investigators downloaded the neighbor's video. You don't usually get that lucky.
00:18:11
No. That's why I was very excited about this camera. Especially when I started watching the video.
00:18:19
Because you could see the door clear as a bell. Brown watched that video for hours.
00:18:29
I keep playing it over and over, hoping to see her being carried out of that apartment.
00:18:36
That's what he wanted to see, but it wasn't there. Her door is too far away for the motion to activate the camera.
00:18:45
So you're lucky, but you're unlucky. Yeah, I needed a cat to walk past there. At just the right time?
00:18:51
At just the right time. No cat, and still no LaJoya McCoy. Police put out a bulletin for a silver Toyota Camry, LaJoya's car.
00:19:02
And hours after the alert went out, a patrol officer found it, not far from her apartment,
00:19:09
parked in a residential neighborhood. A parking ticket had been wedged into the doorframe, and there was something inside.
00:19:17
The passenger and driver's windows were tinted. The officer took a closer look and he saw it.
00:19:26
It was a body. I just felt like my world had ended. LaJoya's loved ones get terrible news and investigators make a discovery.
00:19:40
That's gotta make everybody sit up a little taller in the saddle. That's a red flag for us, yes.
00:19:46
Less than two miles from LaJoya McCoy's apartment sat her silver Toyota Camry. It had been parked beneath the summer sun for who knows how many days.
00:20:14
Inside, beneath a blanket, was a female body. She's on the passenger side or the driver's side?
00:20:21
Passenger's side, which tells us clearly that the perpetrator drove her to this location.
00:20:28
She had a ligature mark around her neck. News spread quickly. A candlelight vigil was held at LaJoya's apartment.
00:20:42
NBC station KNBC was there. Throughout the night, more and more gathered. Word spread.
00:20:49
LaJoya McCoy was not missing anymore. I just felt like my world had ended. It was tough.
00:20:57
Her aunt and uncle kept hoping it was all some kind of mistake. It's not going to be her.
00:21:04
They're going to say she's okay or somebody else. She's a mother. She's a sister.
00:21:10
She's a daughter. Who would want to do this to her? I just couldn't understand it.
00:21:21
They couldn't think of anyone who had an issue with LaGioia, except maybe the father of her children, Jose Turner.
00:21:30
She moved on, and I think he didn't like that. According to Alicia, Jose would sometimes do things to spite LaGioia, like the times he'd pick up the kids from the youth center without letting LaGioia know about it.
00:21:44
He's just kind of being a pain. It's a jerk. Yeah, it's a jerk. You know, trying to make her mad.
00:21:51
Yeah, and it was definitely, I know it had to be some envy in there. Bernadette thought the same.
00:21:58
I believe that he became very jealous of LaJoya after a while. Because her life was going somewhere and his kind of wasn't.
00:22:11
Right. I believe he was an inspiring actor that really wasn't getting many offers.
00:22:19
And there was something else that bothered David and Alicia. The day after LaJoya didn't show up to meet her younger sister at the bus station,
00:22:28
Jose showed up at their house with the kids. And during that visit, they say, not once did Jose ask about LaGioia.
00:22:38
No matter what was going on between them, that's the mother of his kids. Yes, and that's why I didn't understand it.
00:22:45
Like, why? You're that selfish of a person? Of course, Detective Eddie Brown heard all these stories about Jose,
00:22:56
including a comment Jose had made to the Monrovia PD the second time they called him while LaGioia was still missing.
00:23:05
Mr. Turner said, I'm going to stop answering any questions and you can talk to my lawyer.
00:23:10
That's got to make everybody sit up a little taller in the saddle. That's a red flag for us, yes.
00:23:16
Well, there was another side to Jose. Tammy Devine was a journalist and aspiring filmmaker
00:23:22
who got to know Jose and LaGioia. I remember seeing LaGioia and Jose with their kids together, and I was like, oh my goodness.
00:23:32
I wish that, you know, I was cool, calm, and collected like these guys are. There was kindness there.
00:23:42
Jose respected LaGioia, said Tammy. And Detective Brown knew that just because Jose had clammed up, that didn't mean he was a killer.
00:23:51
We didn't zero in on him, and we can't. You know, initially in an investigation, everybody is a suspect.
00:24:00
We look at everything, you know, and everybody. Tips started coming in to police.
00:24:10
One from a local chiropractor who'd seen the news reports about LaGioia. He told detectives he met LaGioia and a friend of hers at a restaurant about a week earlier.
00:24:20
Turns out that was the night Bernadette was out with LaGioia. detectives reviewed the restaurant's security cameras and there was the chiropractor
00:24:29
he's seen talking with la joia and later leaving the restaurant la joia and her friend leave a
00:24:37
couple of minutes later doesn't look like anybody's following her and she doesn't look like she's
00:24:41
having trouble with anybody on her way out of the restaurant or way to the car correct so whatever
00:24:46
happened doesn't happen there correct the chiropractor was one of the last people to see
00:24:51
LaGioia alive, but his story was corroborated by what detectives saw on the security cameras.
00:24:58
He was nothing more than a helpful citizen. And then there was something LaGioia had left behind,
00:25:05
something in her own words. We locate her journals. Her journals tell us a lot. We find out that there was a boyfriend she had had before. And there was a new man.
00:25:21
she was falling for. And I remember reading that she had met somebody and that she was looking
00:25:28
forward to seeing him again. Was it the man she had posted about on Facebook just days before she
00:25:35
went missing? Detectives needed more. And we do a warrant on her phone. We do get the return on
00:25:43
her phone. LaGioia's cell phone record showed that on the evening she was out with Bernadette,
00:25:49
the last time LaJoya was seen alive she was texting with someone. And the last person to be in contact with LaJoya
00:25:58
was not Jose Turner. Nope. Investigators head back to the scene of the crime hoping to smoke out a suspect.
00:26:10
I did that on purpose, that location so that he would be uncomfortable. And then they spring their trap.
00:26:18
He's like, do you have a suspect? I said, yes. And he said, who? And I said, you.
00:26:41
In any modern-day criminal investigation, a person's digital footprint can be as valuable as their actual fingerprints.
00:26:50
Unfortunately, in this case, LaJoya McCoy's cell phone was nowhere to be found. It last pinged several miles away from her home.
00:27:01
And in that area, there's a lot of dumpsters. There's a lot of dumpsters. Never find the phone.
00:27:05
Never find the phone. Or the bedding. Or her purse. Nothing. him. Detectives were able to obtain LaGioia's cell phone records. They discovered the cell
00:27:17
number that LaGioia last texted belonged not to her ex, Jose Turner, and not to the new
00:27:23
guy with the rooftop pool, but to LaGioia's friend, Luther Walls, the guy who'd helpfully
00:27:31
driven by her apartment to check on her. Like LaGioia, Luther owned a boutique. Brown
00:27:37
and his partner found him there. We are speaking with Mr. Wall's first name, Luther, correct?
00:27:44
Correct. He said that they had been involved romantically, but now they were just friends.
00:27:49
Correct. My experience is that when guys say that, what they mean is I wanted to be involved romantically
00:27:56
and she wanted to be just friends. Yeah, that's probably, that's what I took out of that too, but I didn't want to push
00:28:03
that. Luther knew what was coming I knew they was probably going to go through text messages and I knew I was probably going to learn the last text messages she sent Luther had kept the texts he received from
00:28:15
LaGioia and he shared them with Detective Brown. You got a good vibe off Luther. I did. You know,
00:28:23
doing this job for a long time, you can tell generally when someone's lying. He didn't seem
00:28:29
to be lying? Not at all. Detectives came to believe Luther Walls had nothing to do with LaGioia's
00:28:35
murder. You can tell by his phone that he wasn't at her apartment. Correct. Instead, Luther helped
00:28:42
detectives with an understanding of what was going on with LaGioia just prior to her disappearance
00:28:47
because Luther had heard some of the same stories LaGioia had told her mom and her friend Eva.
00:28:54
She has expressed concerns that someone could be stalking her. And who was that?
00:28:59
She never told me exactly who. Even without a name, Luther did know exactly who LaJoya was talking about.
00:29:07
She did tell me if somebody did do something to me. Check her baby daddy. And that was Jose Turner.
00:29:17
She told me that he was abusive. Like, she didn't really go into details. She did tell me he was abusive.
00:29:25
I think it was more like a controlling relationship. Luther also told detectives that LaGioia believed Jose had a locksmith make a key to her apartment while she wasn't there.
00:29:37
I believe her sixth sense of fear was kicking in. This was a woman who knew she was in danger.
00:29:43
She knew she was in danger. Yes. She knew. Just not in time. Correct. which unfortunately I've seen that occur a lot in my career.
00:29:55
And perhaps this was about the time in the investigation when Jose Turner's sixth sense was kicking in
00:30:01
because Jose picked up the phone and called Monrovia PD. The call was recorded. I want to be able to pick up some things for the kids if that's possible.
00:30:13
Kids' games and things he said that were still in LaJoya's apartment. Monrovia PD told Jose to call the detectives.
00:30:20
And when Brown's phone rang, he saw an opportunity. I want you to get sold or some of your belongings.
00:30:28
Is that not possible? I understand. Yeah, but we need to talk to you about whatever happened to your ex, the baby's mom.
00:30:37
I don't know. I don't have anything to say about that, sir. Oh, you're not concerned about it?
00:30:46
I didn't say that. The detective told Jose he would be happy to meet with him. What about, I don't know, 1.30 at the apartment?
00:30:58
At the apartment? I did that on purpose, that location, so that he would be uncomfortable.
00:31:06
And so they met at the scene of the crime. So when you meet him there, how does he see him?
00:31:12
Like a suspect. Detective Brown had a surprise for Jose. He would hand over the kids things, sure.
00:31:20
But he wanted something in return. I also was going to get a DNA swab from him. And I told him that and I showed him the paperwork.
00:31:29
Which was a search warrant. And here we are and here's our swab. So open your mouth.
00:31:35
Exactly. Brown also had a question for Jose. I said, Jose, how come you haven't asked anything about LaGioia?
00:31:44
You don't want to know about the investigation or anything? And, oh, yes, yeah. He said, how's the investigation?
00:31:52
Now that you bring it up, I do. Yeah, he's like, well, do you have a suspect? And I said, yes.
00:31:59
And he said, who? And I said, you. They submitted Jose Turner's DNA to the lab. and they waited while LaJoya's family and friends mourned.
00:32:12
It was very hard. Very hard sitting there It shouldn have happened We shouldn have been at her funeral And at the funeral with LaJoya kids was Jose Turner
00:32:27
To see him there was disturbing. Just acting like nothing happened, like nothing.
00:32:33
David and Alicia knew something had happened. They'd seen it with their own eyes.
00:32:42
An eerie conversation. It was like I was speaking with LaGioia. Could a single phone call crack this case?
00:32:50
That's the missing piece. Yes. Pasadena, California, April 2013. It was close to 2 a.m.
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David and Alicia were jolted awake. Just heard some frantic banging, banging. It grew louder.
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At first we were thinking maybe it's the police and then maybe somebody's trying to break in.
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Someone was pounding on their front door. David got up to see who it was. And then we just hear Uncle David.
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Yeah, and I'm like, who is that? Remember the desperate woman at the start of our story?
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That was LaGioia, standing at her aunt and uncle's doorstep half naked and terrified.
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I immediately seen the way she was dressed and crying. I knew it had to do with him.
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Him, meaning Jose Turner. David pulled his niece inside as she wept. I've never in my life seen her that way.
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And for her to come the way she did, I mean, I have a wall that's probably three feet tall in front of that apartment building.
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and then it has the cast iron rods with points on the tip. She jumped over that to get to my place, to get away from him.
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LaGioia said she and Jose were arguing when Jose suddenly turned violent. She said, I just came out the bathroom and he just flipped out.
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She said Jose choked her and she found the strength to hit back. Then he went down and she ran out the door.
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in terror la joia ran to her aunt and uncle's home and romantically anyway she never looked back
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she dumped jose moved on with her life at least that was the plan two years later la joia was
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murdered and now her uncle couldn't understand how jose turner was still a free man you know you
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start having doubt like this isn't going to get resolved and you need closure. That's when
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Detective Brown heard from the crime lab. They tested the DNA found on LaJoya's car and under
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her fingernails against the swab Brown had taken from Jose. It was enough of a match to make an
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arrest. That's the missing piece. Yes. Jail tonight in Temple City, 47-year-old Jose Roberto
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Turner, arrested this morning on suspicion of killing his ex-girlfriend, 31-year-old
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LaJoya McCoy. LaJoya's mom, Summer, found it hard to accept. Her mom didn't want to believe it, of course, because that's her grandkid's father.
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No one wants to believe that. Least of all, a woman who came forward to say that long before LaJoya McCoy, she knew
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exactly what Jose Turner was capable of. Jose was so good at pretending. When we go in public, everything is wonderful.
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He's mannered. He's respectful. When we get home, he's a monster. Her name was Adrienne, Jose's ex-girlfriend from years ago.
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She came forward when she learned Jose had been arrested. Detective Brown recorded her interview He beat me so bad I ran out the house naked You see he kept me naked I had to stay naked
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that way you don't go out the house. For Adrian, LaJoya's story was like a bad memory.
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I felt sick. That could have been me. You know, that could have been me. It was like I was speaking with LaJoya.
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The stories were that similar? Yes. In summer 2017, Jose went on trial for LaGioia's murder.
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When you take this to a jury, you want to be able to prove it beyond any possible doubt.
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Veteran prosecutor Fernanda Barreto said the evidence was overwhelming. A blood-soaked note found in LaGioia's car in her own writing, documenting Jose's stalking.
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That read, I get a flat tire after he says he's in my area. Jose Turner's DNA at the scene of the crime.
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Plus, the jury heard from Jose's former girlfriend, Adrienne, whose own story echoed LaGioia's.
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And there was one more thing. Those items missing from LaGioia's apartment? Detectives found them in Jose's car,
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along with this, a green notebook with notes in Jose's writing. They find almost a stream of conscious writing, a vent session on this one page.
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And it says, you know, I'll have great pleasure tearing her apart. Jose's defense, the writing was fiction.
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He was, after all, an actor and playwright. As for Jose's DNA at the crime scene, his attorney argued there was no way of knowing how and when it got there.
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Jurors didn't buy it. After just eight hours of deliberation, they found Jose Turner guilty of first-degree murder.
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His sentence? 26 years to life. I was heartbroken, yet very relieved that my sister got justice.
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Looking back on LaJoya's story, there is one obvious fork in the legal road. That night, she said Jose choked her and she ran to her uncle's house.
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How is Jose not locked up that night? She didn't call the police and she didn't want the police involved.
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Because she thinks that'll make it worse? Yes. And she's not wrong. I have cases where the women call the police, they agree to prosecute, and they end up being murdered.
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So what is the right way? I wish I knew. LaGioia did do her best to move on. She was acutely aware of the danger in front of her,
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but she just hoped that he wouldn't go that far. She hoped that he would not take that ultimate step and kill her.
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It's crazy when all you have going for you is hoping. I don't disagree. I think that she started reaching out to people towards the end
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when his behavior was escalating. In fact, detectives say her murder came just a few days
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before an appointment LaGioia had made with a security company to have an alarm system
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installed at her apartment. LaGioia's aunt and uncle became parents all over again.
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LaGioia's two children came to live with them. We adopted them, so they're our kids.
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And how are they? They're doing well. I mean, you wonder what's going through their mind.
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David and Alicia say that when LaGioia disappeared, Jose told the kids she had abandoned them.
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You've told them the truth about what happened to her. They ask in certain ways, and then when I tell them I won't hide anything from you,
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I'll tell you as much as I can. I mean, the oldest son, he told me, my dad tricked us, huh?
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And I said, yeah, he did. Your dad didn't tell you the truth, but we will. Yes, yes.
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The Truth About a