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He told me they found a body that had my daughter's ring on her finger. She was my pride and joy.
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I didn't want it to be anybody else's child, but I definitely didn't want it to be my child.
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There was no bullet holes, there was no stab wounds, there was no ligature marks, there was just nothing.
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Nobody knew who was involved at that point. They asked me, do you know who killed your child?
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Did you help kill Courtney? you're on the potential suspect list. First thing he said is you're in big trouble.
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So now they're looking at you. Yes. I went ballistic. I said, no, I didn't kill my sister.
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This case is 15 years old now. That's how I'm going to solve this. I'm going to die trying.
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Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of Real Life, Real Crime. The hotline was blowing up.
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The podcast brought the case back to life. It's one of the most bizarre and startling stories that I've ever run across.
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I just kept asking God why. I promised Courtney kneeling on her grave. I'm going to find out who put you here.
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It was a fall morning in 2004, and Chambers County, Texas, just east of Houston, was already heating up.
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The temperature had hit 70 degrees and was quickly climbing. David Rabelais remembers that day well.
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I was actually working that day. He was a detective then with the local sheriff's office.
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I had gone to the main sheriff's office in Anahuac to turn in some paperwork. At 8 a.m., a call came in from a patrol officer looking for Rabelais' captain.
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He told him we have a deceased body in an abandoned building over on 1406. 1406 is a busy highway, a two-lane road that runs through the tiny town of Winnie, Texas.
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One of the local farmers riding by on his tractor, and he just happened to glance over there,
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and he saw what he thought looked like a body. A body? The detective had to see it for himself.
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Discoveries like that don't happen often in Winnie, mostly farm fields and ranch homes.
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It isn't a town known for crime. I figured the guy was just seeing something. He didn't know what he was seeing.
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Rabelais also didn't want to believe it. His house is just a stone's throw from where he was headed.
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150 yards. 150 yards? Yeah, I knew exactly what building they were talking about.
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It was a house that was started and never finished. Rabelais pulled up to the abandoned house, not expecting much.
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But when he got out of his truck... As soon as I drove up, I could tell there was a body.
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A woman's body was lying at the entrance of the garage. Young white female. She was nude from the waist down.
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A disturbing and perplexing sight. She had a blue LSU t-shirt on. It was pulled up to her neck, but she still had her bra on.
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There's no way that anybody could have identified the body. Was it obvious how she died?
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No, that was the thing. No obvious signs whatsoever. But the detective had a theory.
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He couldn't be sure of anything without an autopsy. It was all just speculation.
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How long did you think she had been dead for? How she died and why she was left in an abandoned building in Winnie
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made for a mystery unlike any Rabelais had ever seen before. He knew the case needed more resources,
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so his bosses called in the Texas Rangers. We bring all the state resources with us,
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whether that's crime lab or aircraft needs, depending on what type of investigation it is.
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This is the equivalent of bringing in the big guns. Yes, ma'am. Now retired Texas Ranger Skylar Hearn,
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who'd grown up in Winnie, raced over to the scene. His first impression was that the body appeared staged.
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That someone intentionally put her in that position, especially with the clothing missing, exposing her to the roadway that way.
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He also noticed a faint set of tire tracks. The floor had a layer of dust where the body was, and there were some tire tracks that ended where the body was found.
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Did it seem to you that someone had driven the body to this location and then transported her from the car?
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Right. Just the first appearance is that those tire tracks probably associated with a car backing into that garage and dumping her there.
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Were there any footprints? There was a couple of foot impressions or shoe impressions in the dust that were visible.
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Detective Rabelais had noticed them too. They had the circles, you know, the circles that graduate smaller and smaller pattern.
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So I knew it was a tennis shoe print. The investigators continued to comb the area.
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Anything giving you some clues? That was an old beer bottle that was probably six, seven feet away from her.
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I had no clue if that was dropped by the perpetrator or if it was some kids that had come in there before and drank and threw it down.
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So many unknowns, but the biggest, who was their victim? Was there anything around her to give you a name, a wallet, a purse, a phone?
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No, we didn't find any of that. But you could tell she was a young woman? Yeah, I could tell she was probably in at least her early, mid-20s.
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Detective Rabelais had a strong hunch she wasn't a local. I know, because I worked Winnie, I live in Winnie, I pretty much know everybody in Winnie.
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I looked at her and I thought she just doesn ring a bell But he had one thing to go on She had a high school graduation ring on and I knew because I raised four boys I knew that usually they put their name on the inside of the ring
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The name of the school was engraved on the outside of the ring, Alexandria Senior High, located in neighboring Louisiana.
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And on the inside... When we opened the ring up, we saw her name, Courtney Coco.
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Did that name ring a bell to you? Not to me. Courtney Coco. The graduation date on the ring was 2003, which meant the owner of the ring would
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be about 19 years old. This is a big break that you have this class ring. Oh, 100%.
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But it was still too early to know for sure if it was even her. The ring could have been borrowed,
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sold, or even stolen. Investigators needed answers about Ms. Coco and hoped the Alexandria
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Police Department would have them. I called Alexandria, Louisiana Police Department and got a hold of
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a detective there. They never imagined that call would spark a 15-year investigation
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with so many twists and turns, starting with Courtney's class ring and a string of
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suspicious burglaries. Less than two hours after a body was found in Winnie, Texas,
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a call came in to the Alexandria Police Department in Louisiana, some 200 miles away.
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It was Texas Ranger Skylar Hearn asking for help in identifying the deceased young woman who'd been found.
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He was wanting to know if we had a missing report or anything like that on a Courtney Coco.
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Sergeant Cedric Green took the call and looked through the police database. He didn't find a missing persons report, but he did come across Courtney's name for a different reason.
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What I found was that she had made several reports in our system of her resident being burglarized.
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Burglaries that happened less than two months earlier, which meant someone easily could have stolen her ring.
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Correct. Sergeant Green needed to find out if Courtney Coco was actually missing
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and came across a name he believed was a relative. A lady that possibly could have been her mother.
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So I took a chance and I called the number. Stephanie Belgard is Courtney's mom and was home alone when the detective called and introduced himself.
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He said, is Courtney there? And I said, no, sir. I said, but this is her mom. I said, is something wrong?
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What does he actually tell you? He told me they found a body in Texas that had my daughter's ring on her finger.
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And I was like, no, sir. I said, it's not her. Her house has been broken, too. Maybe someone stole her ring.
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Stephanie told Sergeant Green that 19-year-old Courtney lived nearby and that she was sure her daughter was safe and sound somewhere in Alexandria.
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She hung up with him and immediately tried Courtney's cell phone. I was just like, Courtney, answer this phone. Courtney, answer this phone. Courtney, answer this phone.
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You just wanted to hear her voice. Yes, but no answer. No. No. Still desperate to reach Courtney, Stephanie called her oldest daughter, Lace, who was at work.
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I got on the phone with her, and all I could hear was, Lace, tell me you talked to Courtney.
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I said, no, Mama, why? Stephanie told her what little she knew. I lost it at that point.
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I did. First thing I did was I called Anthony. Your fiancé? That was my fiancé. I called him and I said, I need a ride from work to go to my mama's house.
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He couldn't get there fast enough, so a friend drove Lace to her mom's place. She was there when Sergeant Green arrived hours later and explained how the unidentified body was discovered.
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Then he launched into some questions. We started to ask her mother the last time she'd seen her if she had contacted her during the weekend.
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Stephanie told him she saw Courtney just three days before, on Friday. She'd come over for a visit while Stephanie and her husband were getting ready for a camping trip.
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We were packing up the truck, and I asked her if she wanted to come with us. She said, Mom, you know, I don't do the woods.
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Stephanie told Sergeant Green that was the last time she saw Courtney. Did she have any connection to Winnie?
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No, she didn't have any connection to Texas at all. That was a good thing, she thought.
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But as the hours passed and no one was able to locate Courtney, her family began to realize what they feared most might actually be true.
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Sergeant Green needed a family member to travel to Texas and view the body to know for sure.
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Courtney's uncle agreed to make the trip with him. Courtney had just had braces put on her teeth a couple of weeks before.
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And she had just had a butterfly tattoo on her back. And I told him to look for those two things.
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All Stephanie could do then was wait and pray. I was feeling horrible because I didn't want it to be anybody else's child.
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But I definitely didn't want it to be my child. It was hard for Courtney's mom to imagine that anyone would want to hurt her sweet, bubbly Courtney.
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Happy birthday, dear Courtney. Stephanie could remember so many happy moments with her,
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like this family gathering for Courtney's 16th birthday. Mom and Courtney are laying down.
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Carefree memories, they were also precious. There's Courtney. Courtney was the baby of the family the youngest of three Two older sisters Two older sisters and so she was very spoiled
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It got her way a lot. Lace had always been protective of her baby sister. She was like the daughter I never had.
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I mean, I helped change her diapers at seven years old. Courtney may have been the youngest, but she'd always been the mature one.
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Stephanie says when Courtney's father died, at eight years old, she helped plan the funeral.
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She picked out his flowers, what he was going to wear, everything at eight years old.
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Courtney even chose the plot where he was buried, and then another for herself, right by his side.
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She was very close to him, and a part of her died with her daddy. She always grieved for him. She would go out to the graveyard constantly.
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Her aunts, Lynn and Michelle, were there to help her through the grief. Courtney, I'd like to have them tonight.
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And with her family's support, Courtney continued to thrive. How was she as a teenager?
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She was a very good teenager, actually. She made good grades, and I was really lucky.
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Stephanie says she also excelled at sports. Softball and gymnastics were her passions.
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And she went into cheerleading when she got to high school. She must have been good at cheerleading since she was a gymnast.
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In gymnastics, yes, ma'am. Courtney's cousin Candice was the same age and was always impressed with her outgoing personality and generous spirit.
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She loved everybody, and she saw the best in everybody. It didn't matter who you are, what you looked like.
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After graduation, Courtney enrolled in college and planned to major in criminology.
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Where did that come from? I think she took a criminology class in high school, and it really sparked her interest.
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And I found some of her old notes. She was even like, how to solve a murder. Like the steps that you go through.
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That's chilling. Yes, it is. Chilling, because back in Winnie, Texas, it was looking more and more like the unidentified young woman was Courtney Coco.
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And what they were about to find in her home made them even more convinced. The End
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it up and answered. She was the first to hear that the body was in fact Courtney's.
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I did not want the words to come out of my mouth to my sister, but I told her we need to plan a funeral. And I passed out. I just hit the floor.
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The family's worst fears were now a reality. They were heartbroken, but also confused. There
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There were so many unanswered questions, like how did Courtney die? And what was she doing in Winnie, Texas?
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That morning, both Texas and Louisiana law enforcement were at the autopsy. And the medical examiner's findings would only deepen the mystery.
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Even after he examined the body, there was no bullet holes, there was no stab wounds,
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there was no ligature marks, there was no bruising around the mouth like they had suffocated.
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There was just nothing. Was there any sign of drugs, drug use, alcohol? Very, very low alcohol concentration in her body.
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The medical examiner believed those levels were normal for a person who'd recently died,
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not due to alcohol consumption. As for drugs in Courtney's system, it was too soon to know.
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Investigators would have to wait for the toxicology results. Are you thinking this could possibly be maybe a drug overdose?
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It's possible. it's not uncommon for people to have an accidental overdose or poisoning and then panic and then
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leave the deceased somewhere and the theory that courtney had been sexually assaulted
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that wasn't the case at all according to the autopsy there wasn't any evidence found of sexual
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assault but the medical examiner did have enough information to rule courtney's death a homicide
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so what's your gut telling you now my gut's telling me i don't know The detective figured whoever left Courtney's body inside that abandoned house
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had to know his way around the area. We went back to that house. Someone lives there now.
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She was laying inside this door. In this garage right here. Yes. She was probably six, seven feet inside.
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Rabelais was also convinced the person had seen the house before. I figured it was somebody that lived off somewhere else,
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and they evidently passed through here from time to time and knew it was here, knew it was dark, knew it was abandoned.
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and it'd be a good spot. Would it have been easy for somebody to get to a location like this from Alexandria?
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Well, yeah, a quarter of a mile up the road. Exit I-10, come down here and find a spot and dump her and get back on I-10 and go back to Alexandria.
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As Sergeant Green drove back to Louisiana, he had a hunch the killer was from Alexandria,
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the city where Courtney lived. He hoped his search of Courtney's home would tell him something.
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Do you find anything in the house? Signs of a struggle? The house was not in terribly disarray or anything like that.
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In the bedroom, Sergeant Green zeroed in on one thing. Her jeans were laying on the floor by the bed.
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Shoes were there too. It was a pretty typical mess for a young adult, but it made him wonder if Courtney was wearing the jeans the night she died.
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If she gone to bed and was then abducted or killed it would explain why Courtney was found nude from the waist down And there was also this It appeared to be a sort of a cash box that was under her bed but there was nothing in it
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Did it look like someone might have broken into the box? It wasn't broken into, no.
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He continued searching, but neither Courtney's wallet nor phone turned up. Her car was missing, too, a 1999 green Pontiac.
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Robbery was on the table as a possible motive, but there was a problem with that theory.
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There was no sign of forced entry. All the doors were locked, the windows were locked.
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Did you think that she willingly let someone in, that this was possibly somebody she knew?
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Yes, either she let someone in or someone had a key. Green believed Courtney recently had guests over. Beer cans and cigarettes were still on the dining
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table. A Domino's game, too, along with a scorecard listing two other names. There was Jackie and Lewis on the school car.
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Sergeant Green learned from Courtney's sister that Jackie was one of Courtney's closest friends.
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He asked her down to the station to answer some questions. Jackie told us that her and Courtney had been together that evening.
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This is Friday evening? Friday evening, yes. She gave investigators a detailed account of that night, the last night Courtney was seen alive.
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And later, after further investigation, she met with the detectives again and reviewed her statement.
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This time, they recorded the interview. Jackie described how she and Courtney drove around that night,
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not doing much, until they picked up Jackie's boyfriend, Louis, from his fast food job at Sonic sometime around 10 p.m.
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I don't know. What's that? Gas station. Yeah, it's a gas station. From there, she said they all went to Courtney's house and played dominoes for the rest of the night.
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She said later, sometime after midnight, a friend of Courtney's stopped by. His name was Mel.
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How long did Mel stay? Not even five minutes. Our children just sit together. They walked outside.
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She said he was going to do it. Yeah, take them back. Then around 2 a.m., Jackie said Courtney drove her and Lewis home.
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Investigators questioned Lewis, too, and he told the same story. They didn't know if she was going to see anyone else,
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but Courtney was supposed to come back the next morning to pick up Lewis to take him to work.
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Did she show up? No. Jackie and Lewis were cooperative, but Sergeant Green set out to check their stories.
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And whatever happened with Mel? While he was focused on that, Courtney's family was locked onto someone else,
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someone they felt should be at the top of the suspect list. As the days passed, a timeline of Courtney's final hour slowly began to emerge.
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Her friends, Jackie and Lewis, told detectives they spent Friday night at her place playing
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dominoes until about 2 a.m., and then Courtney drove them home. Were you suspicious of Jackie and Lewis at all, or did you feel that they were being up
00:21:31
front with you? I was feeling that they were being up front. His team checked their alibis and tracked down this gas station surveillance video.
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It showed Jackie and Courtney buying drinks at 11.23 p.m., just as she told them.
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That's Courtney in the blue t-shirt. My gut feeling was that something happened once she dropped him off.
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He wondered, though, did Mel, the friend who stopped by during the Domino's game,
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return to Courtney's house sometime later? So we made contact with him. Did you learn anything from him?
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No. At least nothing new, and detectives found no evidence to suggest he ever return to Courtney's house that night.
00:22:12
Investigators ruled him out as a suspect. But what about those burglaries Courtney reported before her death?
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Maybe there was something there. This is Courtney's house that she was living in at the time of the homicide.
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Shortly before her death, it had been burglarized three times in one week. Her TV, stereo, and some jewelry were taken.
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Was your gut telling you that maybe these burglaries were connected to her death?
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Sure, it's a possibility. somebody might have thought she wasn't coming back or whatever and she surprised them when she
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came back home but how did someone get inside the house if there was no forced entry courtney's mom
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believed courtney's ex-roommate a woman named alexandria knew the answer to that courtney told
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her family she thought alexandria was behind two of the burglaries she thought it was the roommate
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because they had to have had a key and she didn't know if the roommate maybe made an extra key
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Stephanie explained to detectives that Courtney kicked the roommate out of the house after a heated argument.
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Alexandria didn't respond well. She threatened to cut her goods out. Did you look at the roommate?
00:23:21
Yeah, we located her and talked to her. We did not get an indication that she was involved.
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Sergeant Green quickly ruled Alexandria out as a person of interest and found no evidence linking her to the burglaries
00:23:34
or additional leads connecting the burglaries to Courtney's murder. But detectives were learning something that might be important to the investigation.
00:23:43
Several people in Courtney's inner circle had criminal records involving theft and the sale of marijuana.
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So I don't know if maybe some of the drugs was playing part to that. Courtney was doing drugs?
00:23:55
Yes. Her cousin, Candace, knew Courtney smoked marijuana. She says it started toward the end of high school.
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And why do people do drugs? You know, to escape something, to fill a void, to fill a hole.
00:24:10
That void? Candace believes it was created by the death of Courtney's father. I think that because she had a daddy-shaped hole in her heart, she sought love and attention elsewhere.
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And when Courtney dropped out of college after one semester, Candace noticed her cousin took a turn for the worse.
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She was especially concerned about the company Courtney started keeping. They were either dealers or they had been caught doing something or another.
00:24:38
Courtney had a little life that we knew about and one that we didn't know about.
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I'm assuming you didn't love what you were hearing about this other life. Yes, ma'am. That's right.
00:24:50
It was just the type of people that she was around that had me really concerned.
00:24:58
People like a guy named Jiddy, Courtney's on-again, off-again boyfriend, who at first seemed nice, polite when he met her family.
00:25:05
Courtney brought him over to my house, and she introduced him as her future husband.
00:25:11
But as the months passed, Lace learned he had a darker side. I did know that he sold drugs.
00:25:17
Okay, that's not good. No. She also began to suspect he might be violent. She had bruises on her arms at work a couple times.
00:25:27
Courtney wouldn't say if Jiddy was responsible. But one day, out of the blue, Lace says Courtney made a startling comment.
00:25:35
She told me one time, if anything ever happens to me, Floyd Lee Williams Jr. did it.
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And I said, well, who is that? And she said, that's Jiddy. Nobody on the street knows his name.
00:25:47
So she wanted me to, like, give that to the police. That's exactly what Lace did after Courtney's death.
00:25:53
She told Sergeant Green everything. How seriously did you take what the family was saying about him?
00:26:01
I took everything that they said seriously because nobody knew who was involved at that point.
00:26:07
Sergeant Green tracked Jiddy down and brought him to the station for questioning.
00:26:12
And when he asked him where he was during the weekend Courtney was killed? He said he was around town and from different places or whatever.
00:26:23
So he wasn't giving you specifics? No. What are you thinking? I'm thinking that he's trying to keep something away from us.
00:26:30
The investigator knew Jiddy had a criminal record, but there were no violent offenses.
00:26:36
He also didn't believe Jiddy was capable of killing Courtney and moving her body.
00:26:40
He's small in stature, I think 5'6", 5'4", something like that. He's a small guy.
00:26:46
Did you straight up ask him, did you have anything to do with Courtney Coco's death?
00:26:51
Yes, and he said no. Sergeant Green believed Courtney's killer was someone close to her,
00:26:57
perhaps another man in her life. Officially, Jiddy remained a suspect, but without evidence tying him to the murder,
00:27:04
Green didn't see what more he could do. Courtney's family believed just the opposite.
00:27:09
They thought there was a lot more he could be doing. I wasn't happy with the investigation,
00:27:14
and I have zero negative feelings towards law enforcement. but I felt like proper measures were not taken.
00:27:24
Not taken or pursued. I feel like because of the choices that she made, the lifestyle she held or the people she hung around,
00:27:34
that it was almost like she was treated secondary. You know, like, we'll get to that case later.
00:27:40
The family was losing faith fast in the Alexandria Police Department. What they didn't know, the APD was on the horn with the Texas Rangers,
00:27:50
and together they were about to catch a break that could crack the case wide open.
00:27:54
It's a parent's biggest fear having to bury a child And I just kept asking God why
00:28:21
Just a week earlier Stephanie Belgard was staring at her daughter Courtney's sweet face.
00:28:27
Now she was looking down at her coffin. Everything that I cared about, I didn't care about anymore.
00:28:36
I didn't even want to get up out the bed. I would imagine that Stephanie's pain is your pain.
00:28:42
It absolutely is. When she cries, we cry. And then we try to be the rock for her
00:28:50
if she needs to melt. Hundreds of people attended Courtney's funeral to say their goodbyes.
00:28:56
But no one could forget that her killer was still on the loose. There was lots of federal marshals and policemen all walking around.
00:29:03
Courtney's cousin could feel the tension. You know, they were convinced that whoever did that to her would show up at the funeral.
00:29:10
You look at everyone in a different light. You know, did you have anything to do with it?
00:29:14
Did you have anything to do with it? Courtney's sister Lace was on edge, but heartbroken too.
00:29:21
She wanted to see and touch her sister one last time. The hardest thing was, it wasn't even an opening casket.
00:29:29
We couldn't even hold her hand, kiss her cheek. We couldn't tell her goodbye the way we wanted to.
00:29:37
She was glad to have her family there as support, especially her fiancé. Your fiancé, Anthony, was one of the pallbearers?
00:29:45
He was a pallbearer. He wanted to be a paw bearer, too. They carried Courtney to her final resting place next to her father.
00:29:54
Remember it was her wish from when she was just eight years old It was there at the cemetery that Stephanie made her daughter a promise Kneeling on her grave I said I going to find out who put you here
00:30:09
And if the Lord lets me live long enough, I'm going to do it. Back in Texas, Detective Ravely was trying to do the same, but his investigation was stalled.
00:30:23
He'd been striking out since day one. A lot of people called my office. I saw that girl.
00:30:29
I saw that girl with so-and-so at the right sister. Okay, well, I'll go snatch up so-and-so, take him, get him polygraphed, he passed.
00:30:35
But on the very day of Courtney's funeral, he got word of a new development. The Alexandria Police Department Crime Scene Unit had subpoenaed Courtney's phone records
00:30:44
and sent them to Ranger Hearn. They showed that she stopped using her phone at 4.30 a.m. Saturday,
00:30:50
not long after she drove her friends home. But then, Sunday night, her phone records registered a sudden flurry of calls that continued after her body was found.
00:31:00
And when it turned back on, it was using a Houston cell tower and started calling Houston phone numbers.
00:31:06
It was the first real break in the case. Did you feel like if you could find the phone, you could find the killer?
00:31:13
Potentially, yes. If you can get there, you get to the person who last saw her and took her phone from her.
00:31:21
Courtney's phone was pinging off two cell towers 60 miles away in a section of Houston, Texas, called the Fourth Ward.
00:31:28
Detective Raveli and Ranger Hearn followed the pings and, to their surprise, found the phone in the custody of a 15-year-old.
00:31:36
So what is this teenager saying about how he got this phone, and does he know Courtney?
00:31:43
So he says he has no idea or any connection to the victim. He said two guys, one short and one tall, were walking down the street and offered him the cell phone for $10.
00:31:56
Just random strangers who approached him. He did not know them by name or had not seen them before.
00:32:02
And just like that, their only lead vanished. But a week later, they caught another break and were back in Houston.
00:32:09
They'd been looking for Courtney's car, the green Pontiac, and found it parked outside an apartment complex.
00:32:15
Is this getting you any closer to Courtney's possible killer? We're hoping so. The detectives learned the description of the two men who drove Courtney's car to Houston
00:32:25
matched that of the men who sold her phone. This time they got a name for one of them.
00:32:30
Red. Now you have a name. Now we have at least a nickname. It wasn't much, but Ranger Hearn and Detective Rabelais followed every lead they came across
00:32:39
in their search for Red. They knew he could be key to solving the case. Red might have information leading to...
00:32:46
He might have information leading to something. He got the car from somewhere. The car came from Louisiana and he ended up with it somehow.
00:32:53
Or he could even be the killer. He could. But law enforcement never found Red or learned his real name.
00:33:00
Still, they had Courtney's car and a crime scene team to quickly process it. We checked it for fingerprints.
00:33:06
We collected cigarette butts from inside the car. They also sprayed luminol and found something.
00:33:12
We found some blood on the trunk latch. Was it Courtney's blood or maybe her killer's?
00:33:18
Once again, law enforcement would have to wait for lab results to know the answer.
00:33:23
Meanwhile, the investigation back in Alexandria was about to zero in much closer to home
00:33:29
in a way that would put Courtney's own family under the white hot spotlight. In the weeks after Courtney Coco was laid to rest beside her father,
00:34:00
Courtney's mother felt the need to cross into Texas where her daughter's body had been found.
00:34:05
What did you hope to get by going there or feel? To me, it was sacred ground, even though it was horrible how she got there.
00:34:17
And we brought a priest with us when we went, and he blessed the place. And in a more visible sign of faith, while the whole family watched,
00:34:31
Lace's fiancée, Anthony Burns, helped plant this cross near the building where her body was found.
00:34:35
Her cross was so beautiful. It stood about five foot high. We put it down and there, kind of off to the side where it wouldn't be right in front of the building,
00:34:50
but where I had a spot to at least go leave flowers every now and then. Courtney's family was juggling a range of emotions, sadness, confusion, anger.
00:35:02
It was the lack of answers. The Houston Crime Lab had finished processing all the evidence from Courtney's car,
00:35:08
and they found nothing. None of the fingerprints or the DNA led investigators to a man who went by the name of Red,
00:35:16
or anyone else who brought them closer to identifying Courtney's killer. The final toxicology reports were also in, and showed no drugs in Courtney's system.
00:35:26
The medical examiner determined her cause of death was likely asphyxia or suffocation,
00:35:31
and that she was smothered to death. It left the family feeling like they had to solve the murder on their own.
00:35:37
We would go out and we would hand out flyers and put flyers on every store in town.
00:35:46
Flyers with Courtney's photo and her mother's phone number asking for any information that might help with the investigation.
00:35:53
They wrote down every tip they got every person they spoke to and looked through Courtney phone and banking records documenting every detail And they shared it all with Sergeant Green
00:36:05
They weren't giving up. But after more than a year passed, they felt like the detective already had.
00:36:11
Is Detective Green talking to you, being forthcoming, sharing with you what they're doing?
00:36:16
No, Stephanie would call very frequently to try to get updates. It just got to a point where it felt like it was on the back burner.
00:36:26
But Sergeant Green says the murder investigation was never on any back burner and that he was doing the best he could with the resources he had.
00:36:34
I had other homicides that were coming in, other things that were going on. And no, I was not at their beck and call. I was not.
00:36:43
He also denies the family's allegation that he treated Courtney's case as less important
00:36:48
because of the lifestyle she led and the people she associated with. How did you feel about the fact that the family was kind of doing their own investigation,
00:36:59
playing the role of detective? I thought that that was interfering with our investigation.
00:37:06
How was it interfering? They wanted to know everything we did. They wanted to know who we talked to, what we asked them,
00:37:16
And that's not some things that we usually divulge. They felt that they were calling you with tips and leads that you either weren't following or weren't following well enough.
00:37:33
Yeah, they were, I felt like, sending me on a whole bunch of wild goose chases. And the detective wondered, was there more to it than that?
00:37:43
A year and a half after Courtney's murder, Sergeant Green's ears went up when he heard something
00:37:48
that none of the family members had ever mentioned. Something that suddenly cast real suspicion on them.
00:37:54
We ended up getting an anonymous phone call at first saying to us, follow the money.
00:38:03
What did that mean to you, follow the money? At that point, I didn't know what it meant.
00:38:07
So then we started to try to track down Why was that saying who was saying it? Because it came in anonymously at first.
00:38:18
Investigators soon tracked the call to Courtney's grandfather. The man told police that his son, Courtney's father, had once been injured on the job.
00:38:26
He lost a leg and received a settlement. And when he passed away, Courtney was the beneficiary.
00:38:34
Courtney was in grade school when her father died and apparently had no idea he'd left her what would become a small fortune.
00:38:40
Every five years she got a lump sum. And it doubled every five years, all the way up to $300,000, $400,000 or so.
00:38:51
They start coming to her and her name. They, meaning checks, $1,500 every month. That was just the start.
00:39:01
Detectives learned that a few months before Courtney died, she'd received a check for $20,000.
00:39:06
And where there's money, often there's motive. Through talking to people, this maybe had caused a little bit of strife between her and her mom.
00:39:17
We had some indication that her and her mom had argued about the money, and that was a problem for Courtney, apparently.
00:39:29
Sergeant Green found it strange that Stephanie had failed to mention any of this in their many conversations.
00:39:34
So in March 2006, 17 months after Courtney's body was found, He called Stephanie down to the station for questioning.
00:39:42
Now you're on the potential suspect list. Of theirs, I guess. So I gladly gave my DNA.
00:39:49
I did whatever they asked me to do. I cooperated 100%. Stephanie even took a polygraph.
00:39:57
They asked me like all these questions like, do you know who killed your child? Did you help kill Courtney?
00:40:04
All these horrible questions, which I understand you have to do. as insensitive as it seems. It has to be addressed at some point. We had to ask.
00:40:18
And as far as the issue that landed Stephanie in police crosshairs, Courtney's mom said she'd known about the money all along and managed it until her daughter turned
00:40:27
18. So maybe you wanted Courtney's money. Right. Because would it go to you if she died? I assume
00:40:34
that it would go back to his family, but it didn't. It came to me. Was anything she was saying suspicious to you, that she might know something about the murder?
00:40:43
No. Did she pass the polygraph? She did. Courtney's mom was in the clear, but another member of the family was about to face the same treatment,
00:40:54
and her visit to the police station ended in far more troubling fashion. I went ballistic. I lost it.
00:41:02
I ripped the stuff off. I was about to lose my mind. Just days after Courtney's mom, Stephanie, walked out of the police station and out from under any cloud of suspicion, Courtney's sister got a call.
00:41:32
It was Sergeant Green. He said, Lace, how did you come down to the station tomorrow morning about 9 o'clock?
00:41:38
And he said, I have some information on your sister. Are you thinking maybe there's been an arrest?
00:41:42
I didn't know what it was. I just knew that there was some information and I was all for it.
00:41:47
17 months had passed without any promising leads in Courtney Coco's murder. As Lace set off for the police station maybe that was now about to change I went down there and he opened this door and there were two FBI agents and two police officers or detectives sitting at this long table
00:42:10
First thing he said is, you're in big trouble. So now they're looking at you. Yes.
00:42:16
We felt like Lace knew more than what she was giving us. Lace does have a record of misdemeanor robbery and assault
00:42:25
Nervously, she agreed to answer questions about her sister And was wired up for a polygraph test
00:42:32
Are they treating you like a suspect in your sister's murder? Yes We start the polygraph
00:42:38
The polygrapher came out and his exact words It would be a miracle if she passed this test at this point
00:42:47
Because she's lying or she's just not handling the test very well? Apparently she wasn't being truthful at all.
00:42:53
Lace insists she told the truth, but got stressed and overwhelmed by the long, drawn-out interview.
00:42:59
I want to say it was like six hours or seven hours or something. So you think they think that you killed Courtney?
00:43:06
Yeah. Or know someone who did? Or know someone, yes. I mean, they were putting it on me.
00:43:11
The questions for Lace, just like those asked of her mother, well, they hit a nerve.
00:43:17
When they asked you, did you kill Courtney? I went ballistic. I lost it. I said, no, I didn't kill my sister. And I was like, man,
00:43:28
what are y'all trying to do to me? And I ripped the polygraph off and I was leaving. He said,
00:43:34
if you don't come back here tomorrow morning to retake this test, it's going to look like
00:43:38
you killed your sister. And my mind was so blown because I know I didn't kill my sister.
00:43:47
Sergeant Green wasn't in the room at the time, but he heard what happened. What do you think about that when you find out that she runs out on the interview?
00:43:56
What would you think? I want to know what you think. I'm thinking that there's something that she knows that she's not telling us.
00:44:03
So you're thinking like now Lace could be the key to potentially solving this murder?
00:44:08
Yes. But you don't know exactly why. Don't know exactly why. When Lace leaves the station, is she a suspect?
00:44:16
now? She is probably more of a person of interest than she was before she came in.
00:44:25
Despondent, Lace called her mom. Did that bother you that Lace was questioned for hours? Very much
00:44:31
so, yes. And she was on seizure medicine at that time, and they didn't even allow her to take her
00:44:37
medicine or get anything to eat or drink in like almost eight hours. And she was in tears, but she
00:44:44
went back the next day and finished. Lace passed the polygraph but remained under suspicion.
00:44:50
So if he thought Courtney's family was fed up with Detective Green before, well, they were about to turn up the heat by turning to his boss. I told the police chief, I said,
00:45:01
I do not want Detective Green on Courtney's case. Please take him off. I just wanted somebody that
00:45:08
would give me answers. I was told by the chief, I've been sitting up all night trying to figure
00:45:14
out how to fire you. I'm like, are you serious? Fire me for what? He said that you told them that
00:45:22
they are possible suspects. Well, yeah, I don't know who killed her. Do you know? Do they know?
00:45:30
Could you sort of see their point that a lot of time had gone by and there was no arrest?
00:45:34
Maybe time for some fresh eyes? Well, maybe. I mean, and I didn't have a problem with that.
00:45:40
Did that hurt a little bit? I mean, did you want to see it through? Did you want to continue to try to solve it?
00:45:45
I did. There's no homicide that I started on that I don't want to finish. I mean, yeah, it was hurtful, but I'm also a professional.
00:45:57
So if that was the decision to be made, I had to move on. Sergeant Green wasn't fired, but was reassigned.
00:46:04
And eventually, another detective was put on the case. But first, a new revelation would hit Courtney's family,
00:46:12
one that would challenge everything they thought they knew about her murder. And he said, I'm here to tell y'all that your daughter's death was an accidental death.
00:46:31
Years passed until somehow it had been a decade since the murder of Courtney Coco.
00:46:44
The case had gone bitterly cold. The frustration must have just been overwhelming, not having answers.
00:46:51
Yes, ma'am. I even came to the realization that her murder might never be solved.
00:46:57
and I gave it to the Lord and I said, you know who did this and the ultimate justice will come from you.
00:47:04
You didn't give up. No, but I wanted to so many times. I just, I was tired. Desperate for answers, Courtney's family asked yet another agency for help, the local Louisiana Sheriff's Office.
00:47:17
They also joined a group called Parents of Murdered Children. And eventually they even reached out to Dateline.
00:47:23
and we featured Courtney's story online in our Cold Case Spotlight series. Meanwhile, they did whatever they could to keep Courtney's case in the public eye.
00:47:32
We did any march, candlelight vigil, victim's march, anything we could do. Courtney's family doubled down on their search for answers
00:47:41
and had the binders of information to prove it. When I look at this, all of the materials, I think of like your own little war room.
00:47:50
Every little tip that would come through, whether it was wrote on a regular piece of paper, a receipt, we filed it.
00:48:00
Courtney's grandmother saw flashes of hope in a sea of despair. Ina, you're the matriarch. What was your feeling as you're watching them go through this?
00:48:10
It was very, very hurtful because I noticed every time a new tip came in, their eyes lit up.
00:48:18
And there were times when I felt like we were out there by ourselves. And that if we were going to get help, we had to try to help ourselves.
00:48:27
The police said they were doing their best, but that did nothing to ease the family's frustration.
00:48:32
That put a strain on daily life. And across the state line, it had also taken a toll on Texas detective David Rabelais, who ended up leaving the sheriff's office.
00:48:42
I got to the point where I couldn't do anything else on the case. It tore me apart.
00:48:47
I was on depression medication from the doctor. I had another heart attack. Because of this case?
00:48:54
I just felt like I failed the family. I'm not doing my job. I'm not good enough. What else can I do? These people are hurting.
00:49:01
What if it was my child and I'm laying in bed wondering how my child died, who killed her?
00:49:06
Then in 2016, 12 years after the murder, came up bombshell. The family was called together,
00:49:13
not by the Alexandria Police Department or by the investigators in Texas, but by the Louisiana Sheriff's Office. It turned out the Sheriff's Office had answered the family's
00:49:23
plea for help, but hadn't told them they'd ordered new lab tests. And now the family stood before a
00:49:29
detective who was holding some documents. He hands us each one of a copy of a second toxicology report
00:49:38
that they did on Courtney's blood. The detective told Courtney's family the sheriff's office had
00:49:44
ordered a new tox screen on a vial of Courtney's blood that had been stored in evidence since the
00:49:49
murder. He said it revealed prescription pain medication and a large amount of alcohol in
00:49:55
Courtney's system. He said, I'm here to tell y'all that your daughter's death was an accidental death.
00:50:03
She OD'd. I'm like, what? But the first autopsy, there was no sign of drugs or alcohol. The first
00:50:12
toxicology report was no drugs or alcohol in her system. But he said, if I had to classify your
00:50:19
daughter's death right now would be accidental. I was like floored. I was like in a state of shock.
00:50:25
I'm like, she was last seen in a store that night. If she'd have taken all these drugs,
00:50:31
there was no way she could have walked. I looked straight at him and I said, hold on a second.
00:50:36
Courtney did not put her body in the trunk of a car and go dump herself in Texas.
00:50:42
Somebody's responsible for that. And we will not accept this answer. Did you have to think, though, that it was possible that maybe the first autopsy was messed up, that she really did OD, and then someone transported her body to the scene?
00:50:57
No, we never doubted the first autopsy report because they had her actual body. They tested her actual spleen and everything right then and there.
00:51:06
I've never heard of anybody going from a clean talk screen to suddenly with all these drugs in their system.
00:51:14
Right, right. We weren't going to believe it. No. Courtney's family believed law enforcement just wanted to close the case, be done with all of it, and done with them.
00:51:27
Days later, Stephanie called the detective. And I said, I'm not buying it. I don't believe it for a minute.
00:51:35
Keep digging. I said, until you can tell me who put my daughter's body in that building that she was in, then this case is not solved.
00:51:44
But if the Louisiana sheriff wanted to be done with the Courtney Coco case, well, in one sense, it worked.
00:51:51
Because Stephanie and her family were now done with official law enforcement channels.
00:51:56
You decide if they're not going to do it, they're not going to solve this. I am.
00:52:00
I'm going to get someone. I wanted a private investigator or somebody. A family member happened to know someone with a passion for cold cases.
00:52:08
His name is Woody Overton, a former criminal investigator for the Louisiana State Police with over 20 years in law enforcement.
00:52:17
But in 2019, he added a new line to his resume. Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of Real Life, Real Crime, the podcast.
00:52:25
True crime podcaster. My wife said everybody loves your voice, everybody loves your stories. You need to start a podcast.
00:52:31
Courtney's mom, Stephanie, had spoken to Woody years before about her frustration with local law enforcement.
00:52:37
But after his podcast launched, she reached out to him again. Could he help craft Courtney's case?
00:52:44
I begged him. I said, please help me. And he knows the law, like the back of his hand.
00:52:49
It broke my heart. And I'm like, I told Stephanie that day, I said, I'll tell you what.
00:52:54
I'm going to solve this case. I'm going to die trying. What was her reaction to that?
00:52:59
She cried. Finally, someone was. People have been promising herself for over 16 years at that point.
00:53:08
Something tells me she could feel that you meant it. Right. Well, I did. Woody took on the case and went on the air.
00:53:19
I'm your host, Woody Overton. And as his listeners responded, it wasn't long before he came face to face with someone who said she knew Courtney's killer.
00:53:34
The End was just amazing It an amazing testament to this family, not ever giving up. People would call them with tips or tell them
00:54:10
this and tell them that. They had everything written down. Woody chased down leads from the
00:54:15
family's files. It just morphed into what I used to do, working the case actively, boots on the
00:54:22
is what I call it, and every week I would release an episode of what I was doing on the podcast.
00:54:28
Today, we're going to begin a new chapter. In September 2019, Woody said Courtney's name on his podcast for the first time.
00:54:39
Who murdered Courtney Coco? Who indeed? The Alexandria Police Department didn't know, and Woody was highly critical of
00:54:49
the department. Now I'm playing armchair quarterback, right? But it was the things that weren't done that were throwing up red flags for me.
00:54:58
Woody also wanted to eliminate any suspects he could, including members of Courtney's family.
00:55:04
Courtney's sister Lace remained under suspicion in the police investigation. And Woody, an experienced polygrapher, wanted to satisfy himself that she wasn't involved.
00:55:14
Did you take offense to it that he wanted to give you a polygraph? No, I will cooperate with anything.
00:55:20
Because he's a podcaster now. Right. And he's giving you a polygraph. Right. I know it at Kill My Sister.
00:55:25
So if you want to do a polygraph on me, do one on me. Once again, Lace took a polygraph and passed.
00:55:33
Now, just like the police, Woody had no obvious suspects. So he turned to his fans.
00:55:39
This case is 15 years old now. and I do not think it can be solved without the help of the public.
00:55:49
And you lifers out there. Lifers is the endearing term Woody uses for his most loyal and hardcore listeners.
00:55:57
He set up a Facebook page and a tip line for them to share their thoughts and theories.
00:56:01
I just went and gobbled up every episode I could. It kind of reignited a fire for me.
00:56:07
The series attracted new fans like Karen Fowler, a high school friend of Courtney's.
00:56:11
I got in contact with people that I went to high school with and we had group messages going of, well, did you know about this and what did you think about that?
00:56:19
Just kind of getting information for the first time. As the tips started rolling in, Woody set up shop in Alexandria and took digs at the Alexandria Police Department to step up and solve the case.
00:56:32
We don't get satisfaction. We're going to take it to the media and we're going to blow it up.
00:56:37
Woody's in-your-face style apparently didn't sit well with some. Woody says he received not-so-subtle messages to drop the case.
00:56:45
I had several incidents, including the window being shot out of my truck, wires ripped out of my vehicle another time.
00:56:53
I had to leave Alexandria and get a cabin in the woods while still working the case for mine and safety.
00:57:00
In spite of the danger he felt, Woody stuck with it. As he dug deeper, wading through paperwork and speaking with witnesses,
00:57:08
a name emerged as Courtney's possible killer. a name he was hearing again and again.
00:57:13
Talking about suspect number one. Woody gave him the moniker suspect number one.
00:57:20
And his suspicions only grew when one of his podcast lifers made a startling revelation about suspect number one.
00:57:27
I get a phone call saying, hey, we have a lifer, says her ex-husband knows that suspect number one did it.
00:57:38
So she's saying her ex-husband, his friend, his best friend, has confessed to him that he did this, that he killed Courtney.
00:57:47
And it even goes deeper. Her now ex-husband was gone that we can also return home in the middle of the night smelling of death.
00:57:55
That tip from a woman named Tiffany sounded more than promising to Woody. But he needed proof, a recorded conversation perhaps.
00:58:04
I'm like, can we wire her up? Can we get her on a cell phone? How'd you get her to agree? Because that could be dangerous for her.
00:58:11
She wanted to help, and she did it. Oh my God, listen to this. Tiffany agreed to secretly record her ex, named Seamus, talking about Courtney's murder.
00:58:23
Seamus, have you been following the broadcast? You haven't listened to the broadcast at all?
00:58:29
No. It's under what? It's under Broadcast Courtney Coco. As they were driving, Seamus, unaware he was being recorded, confirmed his best friend had killed Courtney.
00:58:52
When Tiffany called Woody and told him what she had on tape, Woody couldn't contain himself.
00:59:04
back home with the recording in hand, Woody prepared a new podcast with a message to the
00:59:11
man he believed was Courtney's killer. Pardon my friends, but you're and we're coming for you.
00:59:18
And you're going to know it real soon. Meanwhile, he'd called a meeting with Courtney's family
00:59:24
to finally answer the question, who killed Courtney Coco? He must have just felt such
00:59:31
betrayal. Yes, ma'am. Fifteen years after Courtney Coco's murder, podcaster Woody Overton believed he knew who did it.
00:59:55
He gathered Courtney family together to reveal the name And now you about to tell them the answers that they been desperately wanting all these years
01:00:05
Right, and I prayed hard before I did it. Your heart must have just been pounding.
01:00:10
It certainly was hard. And it was hard for Courtney's family to comprehend what Overton told them.
01:00:16
Who was it? Who did he believe had done this? I was floored. I was floored. It was Anthony Burns.
01:00:20
Anthony Burns, Lace's fiancé had since broken things off but he was once so beloved by Courtney's family
01:00:29
are you asking yourself how is this possible? Anthony was a pallbearer at Courtney's funeral
01:00:35
he helped you erect the cross Lace's fiancé your fiancé your former fiancé you're sleeping with a killer
01:00:46
potentially if Woody's investigation is right Yes, yes. I started thinking of all them times he came in and laid in the same bed with me,
01:00:58
knowing that he was a killer, and he could have easily killed me. You must have just felt such betrayal by Anthony. He'd been such a big part of your lives.
01:01:11
Yes, ma'am. I didn't want to believe it. Stephanie cried and ran out of the room. All of them are crying. They're blown away.
01:01:20
Woody's podcast wasn't enough to arrest Anthony, but it was enough to get the Alexandria Police Department to revive its investigation.
01:01:28
The podcast gained significant momentum. It brought the case back to life. Tanner Dryden was the detective who took it over and told Courtney's family.
01:01:40
How did the family react? Oh, they were so happy. They were ecstatic. Pretty much all they ever asked for was to not be put on the back burner or forgot about.
01:01:49
Woody was happy, too, and handed his evidence to Dryden. And man, I caught flack for it.
01:01:55
My fans were mad that I turned back over to the Alexandria Police Department because it blasted them so hard in the beginning.
01:02:02
But Dryden couldn't rely on Woody's podcast investigation. He had to do his own.
01:02:07
And that meant starting back at square one. I started going through the case files,
01:02:12
reinvestigating every lead from every agency, starting over. He questioned Anthony Burns' friend Seamus,
01:02:19
who'd been captured on that secret recording. Did he confirm what he had said on that recording,
01:02:25
that Anthony killed Courtney? Yes. As he dug deeper, Dryden discovered two more former friends of Anthony Burns
01:02:33
had come forward years before saying Burns had confessed to the murder. Their stories were compelling, but one friend had a criminal record,
01:02:41
and the other said Burns was drunk when he confessed. Dryden needed more to bring charges.
01:02:46
And then he got a big break. As you're going through all these documents, you find a tip that's almost buried in all this stuff that's going to take you on quite an interesting ride.
01:03:01
Yes. The tip was from a Texas man named Jude Wilson, who'd come forward a few days after Courtney's body was found.
01:03:09
He said he'd seen her car, the green Pontiac, around the supposed time of her murder.
01:03:14
And he calls in and says, hey, I saw that car. I know it's that car because it almost backed into me.
01:03:22
We almost had a wreck. Where's the location? The dump site in Winnie, Texas. Where?
01:03:28
Where she was found. Courtney's body was found. Jude Wilson's statement might have been a game changer to the investigation back then.
01:03:35
But the officer who took the incident report typed in the wrong date. And so it was pushed aside.
01:03:41
I actually had to swerve because I thought he was going to back into me. It was only when Dryden found Wilson and recorded an interview with him
01:03:50
that he was able to confirm the near-miss incident did happen during the window of Courtney's murder.
01:03:55
Sun evening, before midnight, around that time frame. Did he get a look at the driver of the car?
01:04:01
Yes. He was definitely not a heavyset person, probably a younger person. He described the driver as being slim with small features.
01:04:13
Like Anthony Burns. But the incident happened in a flash. It was dark and Wilson got only a side view of the driver.
01:04:21
So maybe it wasn't him after all. Dryden wanted to find the truth. So in October 2019, he decided to confront Burns himself and brought him in for questioning.
01:04:32
All right. I don't need you to go. I met Courtney after I started dating Lace. The detective got to the point.
01:04:41
Where was he the weekend Courtney was murdered, starting with that Friday? On Saturday and Sunday, he said he was in bed with Lace.
01:04:58
On Monday morning, he said he went to work and then surprised Lace with a romantic gift of flowers.
01:05:17
That was his story. I went and talked to Lace. You think she could help verify some of this?
01:05:25
Oh, yeah. So Detective Dryden questioned Lace, and her version of events differed sharply from Burns's.
01:05:34
We didn't even argue. We got into a big fight. Probably started Friday and then it got worse at about midnight.
01:05:41
He left, you know that Friday? He left, yes. Did you say where he left? No, he didn't tell me where he went or anything.
01:05:47
She said the next time she saw Anthony was after Courtney's body was found. Lace is saying they were not making love all weekend.
01:05:55
That correct And there was something else something huge Not long before Courtney murder Lace had called Anthony and heard Courtney voice in the background
01:06:08
She believed Anthony and Courtney were seeing each other behind her back. What's more, she said Anthony purchased a set of two gold promise rings and gave Courtney the one with a special meaning.
01:06:25
It's like he bought that set and gave her a ring and gave me a ring. Lace said Anthony and Courtney denied seeing each other.
01:06:35
She never told anyone she suspected an affair and didn't make a connection between Burns and Courtney's murder.
01:06:42
Dryden still didn't have enough to arrest Burns. However, he did persuade him to take a voice stress test conducted by another detective that would maybe show if Burns was lying.
01:06:52
Is today Monday? Yes. Are you involved in the death of Courtney Coco? No. Is this the month
01:07:02
of November? Yes. Are you involved in the disposal of Courtney Coco's body? No. Burns failed the test.
01:07:13
I'm going to take you over to the next room. Detective Drive will speak with you soon.
01:07:16
Are you convinced now that you're sitting across from Courtney Coco's killer? Yes.
01:07:23
I am. When I brought him back in there to ask him about the questions that he felt,
01:07:27
he just immediately got mad and lawyered up. The detective believed he had the right man, but the evidence was circumstantial.
01:07:36
It took the prosecutor another year to put together a case and present it to the grand jury.
01:07:40
What's their decision? Their decision was unanimous to indict him for the murder of Courtney.
01:07:46
You're going to go make your arrest? It's go time. As Dryden set off to arrest Anthony Burns, he was counting on eyewitnesses to help put him away.
01:07:57
One in particular had a doozy of a story to tell. It's one of the most bizarre and startling eyewitness stories that I've ever run across, and I've been doing this a long time.
01:08:19
In April 2021, Detective Tanner Dryden and his partner approached Anthony Burns' workplace with their guns drawn.
01:08:32
So we sneak inside. You know, we have them at gunpoint. I said, Anthony, you are under arrest for the murder of Courtney Cooker.
01:08:40
Did he say anything? He just kind of grinned. Grinned? Oh, yeah. He was so arrogant.
01:08:46
Dryden immediately called Stephanie, who was in her car. She just started crying. She was so happy.
01:08:54
I was at a red light. I think I ran through the red light. I don't even remember.
01:08:59
But I wanted to jump for joy. More than 16 years after Courtney's murder, Anthony Burns was in jail,
01:09:07
and Courtney's family had some hope for justice. Lace hoped he'd never be free again.
01:09:13
I suffered with nightmares because I would think that he was going to hurt my mama or my grandma because he knew where they lived.
01:09:24
Or you? Or me. To keep Burns behind bars for the rest of his life, the DA brought in a big gun for hire, Hugo Holland, one of the most formidable prosecutors in Louisiana.
01:09:36
Would you say you're the guy they call when they can't win or when it's a tough win?
01:09:40
When the DAs need somebody that's had a lot of experience, they usually call me.
01:09:47
Holland works across the state, bouncing from parish to parish. You travel around in this airplane to all these cases around the state.
01:09:57
Either this one or another one I have an interest in, but yeah. And you've built this yourself.
01:10:02
Me and a few other guys. Yeah, this is a home-built aircraft. So your career is pretty unconventional. You're like you're a roving prosecutor.
01:10:12
It's extremely unconventional. He's controversial, too. In 2014, Holland was forced to resign from his assistant D.A. position after trying to make a dubious weapons purchase, but was immediately hired by other parishes because of his success in court.
01:10:28
However, even with Holland's impressive record, the circumstantial case against Anthony Burns would be an uphill battle.
01:10:35
You had no eyewitness to the crime. Correct. You had no DNA from your suspect, no physical evidence.
01:10:40
Correct. You had conflicting toxicology reports. Was it overdose? Was it murder?
01:10:44
Correct. And years had passed. Yes. So Holland cautioned the family. I was concerned enough about this case, so I'd already started preparing them for a not guilty before the trial even started.
01:10:58
Really? Yes, ma'am. In October 2022, 18 years after Courtney Coco's murder, Anthony Burns went on trial.
01:11:07
Local reporter Brooke Buford was there on day one. There were a lot of people there. Courtney's family had a lot of supporters.
01:11:15
Anthony Burns did too. A lot of people who felt that he was getting the blame placed on him for not a lot of evidence pointing to him.
01:11:24
Stephanie was there with Woody Overton and some of his podcast Lifers. as Prosecutor Holland addressed the jury.
01:11:31
There was a mother who'd lost a child, sister who'd lost a sister, somebody that's never going to have children
01:11:39
because of what Anthony Burns did. To tell that story, he didn't focus on the means and motive,
01:11:45
but on the witnesses. He put on the stand those two former friends of Anthony Burns
01:11:50
who said he confessed to killing Courtney. One testified Burns said he'd smothered her and wrapped her in a blanket.
01:11:56
The other said Burns told him he choked Courtney to death. I try to make clear the only way that they would have gotten the information would be from Anthony Burns.
01:12:07
Then the prosecutor rolled out his star witness, Jude Wilson. Wilson was the local Texas man who said he'd nearly been T-boned at night by a car backing out of the abandoned home where Courtney's body was found.
01:12:19
But he had a much more elaborate story to tell. It's one of the most bizarre and startling eyewitness stories that I've ever run across.
01:12:28
It turned out Wilson said he had a photographic memory. In fact, he'd picked out Anthony Burns from a police photo lineup.
01:12:35
But Wilson was also an illustrator and was able to draw a sketch of the driver he said he glimpsed from the side.
01:12:42
I've never, ever had a witness say, oh, well, give me a piece of paper. I'm going to draw you what this guy looks like.
01:12:48
Never had that. That's unheard of. I thought it was pretty crazy. With a flourish, Holland produced a moment of drama on the courtroom monitor.
01:12:56
I took the silhouette that Jude drew and I put it on like the left half of the screen.
01:13:02
Then he showed an image of Anthony Burns driving lifted from home video. And I put them side by side. You could lay them over the top of each other.
01:13:10
And Wilson, the witness, had another surprise for the court. He remembered part of the license plate of the car, believed to be Courtney's, that nearly T-boned him.
01:13:20
I remember the letters from the license plate. He said, and the reason I remember that is because some of those letters in that license plate are my initials.
01:13:28
And he said, I remember an eight as well. Well, as soon as he said that, I popped Courtney's plate up.
01:13:34
And guess what? There's an eight in it. I think it was a big win for the prosecution in that he was confident in what he saw.
01:13:40
Whether the jury would believe that, all these years later would be another matter.
01:13:44
The prosecution seemed to be on a roll. Another important witness was Tiffany, who'd secretly recorded that conversation with her ex-husband Seamus for Overton's podcast.
01:13:55
I don't know, but Courtney, let me tell you that. Tiffany testified not only had Burns confessed to her ex-husband,
01:14:04
she also said Seamus was MIA the weekend of Courtney's murder, that his regular truck driving route would take him right past the site where Courtney's body was found,
01:14:14
and that she found a pair of women's underwear in his truck. That testimony about Seamus fed into Holland's overall theory of the murder.
01:14:22
He believes it took place after Anthony Burns and Courtney started an affair. Take us through what you think happened.
01:14:29
So he goes over to Courtney's to have sex with Courtney, be with Courtney. He believes Courtney rejected Burns.
01:14:36
There a struggle He murders her on her bed in her bedroom Burns calls his buddy Seamus I murdered Courtney Get up here and help me Then he thinks Seamus helped move Courtney body
01:14:48
Seamus knows the area. Seamus knows that that house is unoccupied. Let's go dump the body there.
01:14:55
Tiffany testified that when Seamus came home after disappearing for the weekend, she said he smelled like death.
01:15:01
She said, I wouldn't even let him come in the house he smelled so bad. But Prosecutor Holland could never prove Seamus was an accessory to the crime.
01:15:10
Seamus denies any involvement and was never charged. When he took the stand for the prosecution, he did so reluctantly,
01:15:18
but did testify Burns told him he killed Courtney. Seamus was friends with Anthony Burns, had been longtime friends with Anthony Burns.
01:15:27
He changed his story sometimes up on the stand. Seamus was sort of a hostile witness for you?
01:15:34
Oh, he was very hostile. I had to threaten him a couple of times while he was testifying.
01:15:38
It was clear to the jury that he was hiding information. As the prosecutor's case began to wobble, he would also have to contend with an expert witness for the defense,
01:15:48
a doctor with a different take on Courtney's death. Maybe, after all, there was reasonable doubt that Anthony Burns killed Courtney.
01:16:04
Anthony Burns was on trial for the murder of Courtney Coco, facing life in prison.
01:16:19
Now his defense attorney, Chris LaCour, rose to address the court, and he wasted no time pouring cold water on the prosecution's circumstantial case.
01:16:28
I thought the case was riddled with doubt. It's like they took puzzle pieces from different puzzles and tried to mash them together.
01:16:36
What was your strategy? My strategy was just to point out all the inconsistencies in the case.
01:16:43
For him, the biggest one was Courtney's official cause of death. I mean, they still don't even know how she died.
01:16:48
They claim it's a homicide, but they don't know. What would it be then if it wasn't a homicide?
01:16:54
I think it's undetermined. To prove his point, he put the author of that second toxicology report on the stand.
01:17:01
Remember, that report found high levels of prescription painkillers and alcohol in Courtney's system.
01:17:07
He says, well, it's my opinion that this possibly could have been an accidental overdose based off of what was in her system.
01:17:14
Did you see that working in your favor? That's doubt. You got one doctor saying, I don't know how she died, but it's a homicide.
01:17:21
And then you have one doctor saying because there no trauma to her body the only possible thing I could see is an accidental overdose And I definitely thought that was working in my favor
01:17:32
He cast doubt on those two witnesses who testified Anthony Burns had confessed to killing Courtney.
01:17:38
So here's my question then, though. Why say you killed someone if you didn't? Well, I think we've all done crazy things on alcohol.
01:17:47
They make you say and do things that you normally wouldn't do. Well, confessing to a murder? I don't know that a lot of people have been intoxicated and confessed to murder.
01:17:58
Well, that's the thing. What did he really confess to? La Cour argued the witnesses had two different stories, so it wasn't clear exactly what Burns had said.
01:18:07
And as for Seamus, that former friend of Anthony's who changed his story, the attorney explained he only added to the doubt his client was guilty.
01:18:16
His stories just wasn't adding up. You think he's an unreliable witness? He is completely, totally unreliable.
01:18:24
And what about the prosecution's star witness, Jude Wilson, the illustrator who picked Burns out of a lineup,
01:18:30
and testified to seeing him in Courtney's car the night before her body was found?
01:18:34
Wilson testified that he only saw the driver's silhouette that night. He said he didn't see their face, and he just drew a regular profile.
01:18:43
And they put a line up in front of him and said, who most closely matches this silhouette?
01:18:48
He did pick the right man, if you believe that Anthony did this. He picked the person that matched a profile he drew.
01:18:58
The defense argued that lineup was shown 15 years after Courtney's death, and Wilson's sketch never included specific facial features.
01:19:07
Would you be okay with someone picking you out of a lineup if they say they never saw your face?
01:19:13
I could match a profile. That doesn't mean it's me. The attorney said the witness's stories didn't add up and should not have been enough to arrest Anthony Burns.
01:19:24
Why would he kill her? It just made no sense. The family was suggesting that she was cheating with her sister's fiancée.
01:19:31
With no proof, though. The defense rested. Optimistic Burns would be acquitted. Was it venturing into slam-dunk territory in your mind?
01:19:41
I never like to be overly confident, but I was pretty confident about this one. The prosecution was concerned.
01:19:48
I told the family, I feel like we got a 50-50 shot at a conviction. That's it. I mean, those aren't great odds.
01:19:57
No, they're not. As the jury began its deliberations, everyone stayed in the courtroom,
01:20:02
including local reporter Brooke Buford Both families were nervous you know asking each other what do you think will happen But no ill will existed between the families In fact every day something truly extraordinary happened
01:20:17
Courtney's family and Anthony Burns' family, all strong Christians, stood together and prayed.
01:20:23
They came and we held hands and we prayed for justice because we were all hurting.
01:20:28
They were hurting and we were hurting. Less than two hours after deliberations began, the jury came back with a verdict.
01:20:37
Anthony Burns was found guilty of second-degree murder. I can't even explain how I felt.
01:20:43
It was almost like I was in like a euphoric state. Like, is this really happening?
01:20:49
And we were all shaking, shaking and shaking so bad. Like, thank you, Jesus. Thank you.
01:20:57
Lace, for the last time, looked at the man she once loved. Did he have any reaction?
01:21:05
He just grabbed his stomach and went down. Podcaster Woody Overton had a much-needed emotional reaction to the verdict.
01:21:14
That deserved a cry, and it was a beautiful moment. Your investigation played a major role in this arrest.
01:21:22
Right. I've done a lot of great things in my career. this probably is the best I've ever done. 45-year-old Anthony Burns was sentenced to
01:21:32
life in prison without the possibility of parole. But before he was taken away, Stephanie turned to address him. And that's when I told him that I had zero mercy for him,
01:21:42
and I hope he rotted in jail and then hell. He still claims he didn't do it. Oh, absolutely.
01:21:49
That's what cowards do. And he'll probably never admit it. You made a promise to Courtney that you would find out who killed her.
01:21:59
And you lived up to that promise. I did. I did. She now wears Courtney's class ring, the ring Courtney was wearing when she was murdered,
01:22:08
that started this mother's quest for justice. Does it make you feel closer to her?
01:22:13
Yes. and I it makes me sleep good at night sometimes I just hug it this is priceless to me
01:22:24
how do you think Courtney would feel about how hard you fought for her oh my god she'd be so happy
01:22:30
that I kept my word to her I did things that I never knew I would have to do in my life
01:22:36
you needed to protect Courtney even in death yes I did I did it And I know she'd be happy.
01:22:45
I know she is happy.