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This time on Killers Caught on
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camera. In
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Missouri, a young mom's early evening
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shopping trip with her children ends in
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lethal road rage.
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We have a guy that's already killed
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once. Is he going to kill again? We need
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to get this guy stopped.
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And in St. Paul, Minnesota, date night
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ends in a fight.
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That's the last time he saw her or talk
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to her. And a woman goes missing for
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months in the depths of winter. There
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was so much blood in there. I actually
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thought I was going to find her head in
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that bag.
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It just sounds like something bad is
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happening to her. We know what happened
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because the video tells us what
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happened. I heard some gunshots. Drop
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it. Whatever it is, drop it. That does
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not prove that I killed my wife. The
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camera doesn't lie.
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In the heart of the United States,
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Missouri, just east of Kansas City, is
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Independence.
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Independence is sort of almost, you
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might call it the all-American suburb.
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It feels like small town America. It's
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quiet. It's peaceful.
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It was home to 22-year-old Whitney Gray.
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Whitney Gray was a young mother of two.
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She was thoughtful. All her friends said
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she was the kind of person you could
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count on. She was somebody you wanted
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next to you when there was trouble. She
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didn't lose her temper, but she also
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would fight for people who needed help.
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By the time she was 22, she had two
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small children and was a busy, caring,
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and active mother.
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[Music]
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One night in October 2016, Whitney went
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out to the grocery store with her
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six-month old baby, three-year-old
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child, and her young niece in the
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car. Shortly after, a 911 call came in.
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About 7:38, I believe, is when the
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incident happened. The officers
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responded to a shooting.
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Police arrived on scene surrounded by
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witnesses.
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Where's he
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at? Not breathing.
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They discovered female been shot.
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She did a tent right right here.
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Hang on. I only heard one gunshot.
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I've got a faint hang on. The female was
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shot in the chest and a chest wound is
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very difficult to recover from.
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I need your medic. She's got a gunshot
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wound right there chest. That car had
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traveled a short distance and crashed
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into a front yard of a of a residence.
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Also in the car with the victim were a
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teenage niece and two very small
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children. The very small children that
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were in their car seats in the car had
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to be consoled by responding police
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officers. It was a chaotic scene.
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What's your name?
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Hey buddy. Her driver's license and
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identification were in the car with her.
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The victim was identified as Whitney
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Gray.
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Obviously, the first step is to do
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life-saving measures, but it it was to
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no avail. She she had perished.
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[Music]
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Whitney Gray lived really close to the
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area where she was found.
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[Music]
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The scene's very tragic. A you have a
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dead young female laying on the road now
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and we have her child who is an infant
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and then we have another
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juvenile female with her that's
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hysterical. It was it was very traumatic
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for everybody on scene.
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The oldest child in the car was
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Whitney's 16-year-old niece.
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She's my aunt. She's your aunt. What
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happened, sweetheart? Could you tell me?
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Some guy kept cutting us off and riding
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our and so she kept going or whatever
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and he sat around us and she yelled him
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that she had kids and he said, "I don't
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give a" and then shot us.
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We tend to think that road rage or
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confrontational driving as it's called
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is a response to something outside of
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ourselves. So somebody cuts us off,
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somebody we feel tries to run us off the
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road, somebody's too slow. We think that
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it's this external factor that's causing
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this feeling, but really road rage is an
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intrinsic thing, which means it's
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happening inside of us, and it is how
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we're reacting to a situation, often
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unreasonably. So, we blame the world,
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but really it's inside of
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us. The gunshot went through the
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windshield of of the van that Whitney
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Gray was driving.
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[Music]
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A white SUV had pulled up next to them
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and was screaming and yelling at them in
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the car. The niece said that she had a
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cup of water and that she had just
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tossed it at the car that was yelling
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and screaming at them.
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A cup of water thrown by her and the
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next thing happening is he's shooting
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out of his car into their car.
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Whitney told her she was shot and then
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she veered
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off. Over the last two decades,
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researchers have found that there is a
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400% increase in gun-related deaths due
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to road rage. And one of the reasons
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that's often cited for this increase is
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the easier access to guns. And so the
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more people who have guns in their cars,
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obviously you're more able to reach for
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a weapon when you experience road rage.
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When we're looking at Missouri as a
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state, it's actually the second most
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confrontational state for drivers in the
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United States. And that together is a
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problematic combination.
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What What does this car look like? Uh,
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white excuse me, white SUV.
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Any information that we can get about
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the suspect in terms of vehicle that
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they're in, the direction that they
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traveled is vitally important.
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What the guy look like in the car? He
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was white. How old do you think? Late
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20s.
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Where is the suspect? Where is the
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shooter? We had no idea whether or not
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this was isolated or not. We knew we
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needed to find this guy before he did
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this again.
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Several hundred feet south, they found a
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bullet casing.
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But what they really needed was cameras
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that recorded what happened.
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Starting at the place where Whitney Gray
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was shot in her car, we started working
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backwards from there.
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One of the patrol officers observed uh
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cameras on a house literally on the west
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side of Sterling Avenue and it was
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pointed directly at our
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seat. We're looking at surveillance from
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a house at Sterling Avenue. There is an
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intersection on the other side of the
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railroad track. We believe that's when
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the drink was thrown out of Whitney
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Gay's car, hit his car, and then he made
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the decision to then shoot out of his
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car through the middle of the windshield
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of her car right into her
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chest. So, we're looking for a large
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white SUV. We're not going to get a lot
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of detail, but all of this is helpful,
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but on close inspection, a breakthrough.
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We see this white SUV here. It's driving
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away at high rate of speed. Raises a lot
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of suspicion to us.
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They now knew which direction the
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shooter
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[Music]
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escaped. The question remained, why was
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Whitney shot? Was she involved in a
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disturbance prior to this incident
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happening?
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The clue was in the car. a bag of
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groceries from a store called Price
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Chopper.
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That was going to be the next place on
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our list to look for surveillance.
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[Music]
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They found Whitney and the children
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walking into the store. This is Whitney
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walking in on the phone with her niece
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and her
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kids. In this footage, we're just
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looking for somebody that she gets into
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it with in this store that causes the
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other events. And by all accounts, she's
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just
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shopping. She was just a normal mom. She
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has no way of knowing that this will be
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the last few moments of her
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[Music]
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life. This is Whitney's car. Here she is
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passing the groceries in to her niece.
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She's going to go around to the driver's
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side. But again, nothing out of the
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ordinary has happened. She hasn't had an
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altercation, an argument. Nothing so far
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from the grocery store and her has
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indicated that anything is wrong this
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[Music]
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evening. She pulls out of this parking
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lot. Witnesses have told us that it
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started at the intersection that's at
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the top of the screen there. So, this
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will be really important to see what we
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can see as she leaves the parking lot of
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the grocery
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store. She's waiting to turn
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out now. She pulls out and as she does
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from left to right there, you see the
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big white SUV that comes in at a high
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rate of speed behind
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her. Had to hit his brakes. He has to
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hit his brakes anyway. It's a red light.
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But I think that that is the moment that
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he decided that Whitney Gray became his
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problem.
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Detectives needed to check the cameras
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on the other side of the
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road. This is Taco Bell across the
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street. Going to give us a different
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vantage, a clearer view. You can see the
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minivan that Whitney was driving that
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she just got into. You can see the white
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SUV right behind already tailgating her.
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It gives us the clearest view yet of the
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suspect car. We still can't see the
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license plate. I still can't see the
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driver's
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face. We still had no idea what the make
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and model of this vehicle was. In fact,
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at this point in the investigation, it's
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a true who done it.
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[Music]
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and investigators started moving south
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along Sterling Avenue to check any and
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all places that could have additional
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surveillance so we could find more
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images of the suspect car and the
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suspect.
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Tracking back down south, a gas station
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looked like a promising spot for
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additional cameras.
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[Music]
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That particular gas station was
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scheduled to be demolished 24 hours from
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the time the officers went in to look at
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at at their cameras.
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They rolled the footage back 5 minutes
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before Whitney pulled out of the parking
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lot at Price Chopper. As they're looking
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at the Quick Trip surveillance, they see
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a white Toyota Sequoia. pull into the
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parking lot and pull in and park
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directly under one of their exterior
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cameras. Crystal clear view of the
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license plate. Looks like there's one
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person in the car at this point. Looks
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like a white male. This is what
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witnesses have told us leading up to
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this. We're very excited at this point
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to see this footage. You can see the
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suspect getting out of the car. You can
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tell how he's dressed. You can see the
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type of uh hat that he's wearing.
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good profile view of
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him. So, right here as he enters the
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store is the first picture we get of his
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face. Perfect. Got
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him. This is the guy that likely shot
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and killed Whitney Gray.
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At this point, we're kind of looking for
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reasons why he might be so agitated that
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he's getting ready to murder somebody.
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This quick trip was getting ready to
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close, so it was also short on some
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merchandise. He's shaking his head.
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Looked agitated to me. It was a great
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picture of his face, but he leaves
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without buying
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anything. Presumably, they didn't have
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what he wanted, so he's agitated by
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that. and to me appears to speed out of
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the parking lot. He's pulling out in
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front of traffic. I think he's already
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agitated.
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When it comes to the kind of person who
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is most likely to engage in road rage,
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there's a personality that's emerged,
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which is people who have what's called
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high trait anxiety. High trade anxiety
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is basically when somebody is in the
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world and they perceive more things as
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hostile and normal things to other
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people to you are massively frustrating
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and they trigger this anxious response.
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The other thing that happens is that you
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get into this anger rumination spiral.
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And if you're unable to analyze the fact
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that these thoughts are irrational, then
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you might start to look for reasons and
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you might get more angry. And so it
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doesn't matter that it's trivial what
00:15:03
started it. What matters is that that
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cycle
00:15:09
begins. We have a face. We have a
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license plate. We have a guy that's
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already killed once. Is he going to kill
00:15:15
again? We need to get this guy stopped.
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And we find out it's registered to
00:15:20
somebody named James Taylor.
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It's not the same person. Is a much
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older male.
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They tracked down James Taylor. He was
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brought in for an interview the day
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after the shooting. It turned out he was
00:15:36
the suspect's father. He told us right
00:15:39
away that we were probably looking for
00:15:41
his son, Christopher. And we asked him
00:15:44
why that was so. And he said, "Well,
00:15:45
because the Toyota Seoia belongs to my
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son, Christopher."
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And I I keep thinking about that poor
00:15:54
woman or the kids in the car, too. Thank
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God. Why would he do that?
00:16:03
Michael Hunt was the district attorney
00:16:05
assigned to the case.
00:16:08
I think he's frightened for what could
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happen. His cooperation is based upon he
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wants to try and help his son so he will
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get captured and without you know danger
00:16:17
to himself or others.
00:16:20
What emerged was an isolated man who
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only found a sense of purpose while
00:16:25
doing military training
00:16:27
for quite a while. Even up to the point
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where when he went into the service he
00:16:33
just he didn't have any any outlook
00:16:37
ahead of him. He's trained in firearms.
00:16:40
He's trained in escape. He's trained in
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all different kind of things that is
00:16:45
going to make things difficult for law
00:16:47
enforcement to capture him.
00:16:50
I'll tell
00:16:51
you, don't give your life up for him.
00:16:55
And I'm serious. He's got to know that
00:16:59
he you're looking for. Yes, sir. You
00:17:02
know, and whether or not he would just
00:17:04
give up, I don't know.
00:17:09
Christopher Taylor was on the run, but
00:17:12
his car was on a payment plan installed
00:17:15
with a tracker.
00:17:18
That was a big break because they were
00:17:19
able to tell us that that car and their
00:17:22
GPS was at a hotel on I90 in Box Elder,
00:17:27
South Dakota. This is moving very
00:17:29
quickly, so we need to get him into
00:17:32
custody before he makes it further
00:17:34
north.
00:17:36
Rapid City police sent units officers to
00:17:40
this motel and sure enough there's the
00:17:43
white Toyota Seoia with the Missouri
00:17:45
license plate parked in the hotel.
00:17:48
Rapid City police moved in to arrest
00:17:51
Chris Taylor.
00:17:53
They did search the car and inside were
00:17:56
hundreds if not thousands of rounds of
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ammunition, camping equipment, tents,
00:18:01
meals ready to eat like you have in the
00:18:03
military.
00:18:09
I think he just wanted to go
00:18:11
hide. He was going to hide
00:18:15
forever. I was sitting at the
00:18:18
lights
00:18:20
at 23rd Street in
00:18:23
Sterling. There's a vehicle in front of
00:18:26
me. Couple more to the
00:18:29
right. We start light turn green. We're
00:18:32
going up the hill.
00:18:35
And the car in front of me was going
00:18:38
slow.
00:18:42
And I was just sitting there waiting for
00:18:46
them to speed up, but they didn't. So I
00:18:49
wait for something to clear off to the
00:18:50
side, and I sped up and went around
00:18:52
them, get up to the speed limit.
00:18:57
And right
00:19:00
then the van starts speeding up next to
00:19:04
me and yelling at me and I rolled out
00:19:07
the window and she says, "My kids are in
00:19:11
the car." And I said, "Okay, well, you
00:19:14
can at least do the speed
00:19:16
limit." And I started to speed
00:19:19
up. You know, they sped up, too. and
00:19:22
whoever was in the passenger
00:19:23
seat threw something at the car.
00:19:28
And with my training and everything, it
00:19:32
was almost
00:19:33
like reacting to contact.
00:19:37
Your training is not to pull a gun and
00:19:39
fire immediately. You know, I'm around
00:19:41
police officers every day. Their
00:19:43
training is never to pull a gun and fire
00:19:46
is your first reaction. So, I know I
00:19:48
don't believe that one bit. I think what
00:19:50
happened? He got mad. It was
00:19:54
instantaneous. I didn't even think it
00:19:57
just
00:19:58
happened. And I don't know
00:20:03
why. So, I fully
00:20:06
missed making the shot,
00:20:08
but God knows that didn't mean it to
00:20:16
happen. I don't buy it.
00:20:19
I don't buy it one bit. He was pissed
00:20:22
off, made him more
00:20:24
upset, and
00:20:27
he acted
00:20:29
out. It happened like that.
00:20:32
There's, like I said, it was reactive
00:20:34
contact,
00:20:37
and it was
00:20:39
just trained response, muscle memory. He
00:20:44
pulled a weapon because a cup of water,
00:20:46
you know, got thrown at his car.
00:20:49
He was never in combat. He was never in
00:20:51
a situation where people were shooting
00:20:54
at him. So that just never made sense.
00:20:58
I'm driving forward and something comes
00:21:02
and hits the car and I always have my
00:21:04
hand Mhm. right there just like we do.
00:21:08
And as soon as it just like that, you
00:21:12
check out the window.
00:21:15
The kind of person who has their hand on
00:21:18
a gun while they're driving at all
00:21:21
times, that is someone who is high in
00:21:24
trait anxiety. So, they are worried
00:21:26
about what the world might do to them.
00:21:28
And that person is more likely to
00:21:29
overreact and to interpret something
00:21:31
like a bang as an attack. With a gun in
00:21:36
the car, we know that people are three
00:21:37
times more likely to be aggressive.
00:21:40
They're more likely to engage in road
00:21:41
rage behaviors. So, just the presence of
00:21:44
a gun emboldens people. And in this
00:21:46
moment, maybe what's going through his
00:21:48
mind is finally, I'm using my gun to
00:21:50
defend
00:21:52
myself. Christopher Taylor was charged
00:21:55
with seconddegree murder and armed
00:21:57
criminal action.
00:22:00
Murder in the second degree is
00:22:01
intentionally killing another person. My
00:22:03
argument to the jury was that pulling a
00:22:06
handgun that was loaded, cocked, ready
00:22:08
to go, firing at a windshield, hitting
00:22:11
this woman dead center in the chest was
00:22:13
an intentional act that caused her
00:22:15
death. And that was murder.
00:22:18
Christopher Taylor was found guilty of
00:22:21
the lesser charge of involuntary
00:22:23
manslaughter and of armed criminal
00:22:26
action. They gave him 17
00:22:29
years. I think it wasn't
00:22:33
enough. He robbed a 20some year old of
00:22:37
her
00:22:37
life. Her children aren't going to know
00:22:40
her mother. I think he should be there
00:22:42
for
00:22:44
life. It's one of those things that
00:22:46
never leaves you. That road rage is out
00:22:49
there all the time, but you cannot, you
00:22:52
know, get involved with it because you
00:22:53
never know if that person's going to
00:22:55
have a gun, if they've had a bad day, if
00:22:58
they didn't get the water that they
00:22:59
wanted. Uh, is it something that's going
00:23:01
to come back at you with a bullet?
00:23:05
It's just so pointless. That's the sad
00:23:08
thing. She was a 22-year-old mother and
00:23:10
he didn't give her a chance.
00:23:25
Whitney Gay's death was the result of a
00:23:27
failure to control dark
00:23:31
thoughts. In some cases, our
00:23:34
metacognition fails. In other words,
00:23:37
we're unable to think critically about
00:23:39
the thoughts and feelings we're having.
00:23:41
And that failure is instant. It's in a
00:23:44
flash of anger that we don't get under
00:23:46
control. In other cases, that emotion
00:23:50
and that metacognition is a failure that
00:23:53
lasts a lot longer and resentments and
00:23:56
emotions
00:23:58
fester. And in our next case, long-term
00:24:02
festering anger spilled over into
00:24:05
[Music]
00:24:12
murder.
00:24:14
Minnesota, the state capital, St.
00:24:18
Paul. It was home to 30-year-old Kira
00:24:23
Stagger. She was my oldest
00:24:27
daughter. Kira was one of four children.
00:24:30
She had two sisters and a brother. Kira
00:24:34
loved spending time with her siblings.
00:24:37
She was very close with each of them.
00:24:40
She loved to read. She loved to color.
00:24:44
just always a very happy, easygoing
00:24:47
little
00:24:48
girl. She loved
00:24:50
animals. She loved her baby, which was
00:24:53
her dog,
00:24:55
Cayman. In 2003, a new
00:24:59
love. Kira met Jeff
00:25:02
Trevino. He was 27 and she was
00:25:06
20. Kira got a job at the Mall of
00:25:09
America as a store manager.
00:25:12
She loved her job. When they would close
00:25:16
the store, Kira would turn up the music.
00:25:20
They would dance or sing while they were
00:25:22
finishing up for the day. It wasn't
00:25:24
work. They loved it.
00:25:28
Kira and Jeff had been together for 7
00:25:30
years. When they decided to take things
00:25:32
to the next
00:25:33
level, one day, Kira turned around and
00:25:36
she's like, "Mom, I have something to
00:25:38
show you." She showed me your hand with
00:25:41
the engagement ring.
00:25:44
Jeff and Kira got married in Costa
00:25:47
Rica. I said, "Kira, as long as he makes
00:25:51
you
00:25:53
happy." But after 10 years, the
00:25:56
relationship became
00:25:58
strained. Kira was seeing more of a man
00:26:01
at
00:26:02
work. At home, she'd sleep in the spare
00:26:05
room or stay with
00:26:07
friends. By February 2013, Kira and Jeff
00:26:11
decided to meet up to work on their
00:26:13
marital
00:26:16
issues. The next day, Kira missed an
00:26:19
appointment with her personal trainer
00:26:21
and stopped replying to
00:26:24
messages. 2 days later, on Saturday,
00:26:27
Kira didn't make it to
00:26:28
[Music]
00:26:30
work. Andy Johnson is an assistant
00:26:33
attorney in Ramsey County.
00:26:35
When Kira didn't show up for work, the
00:26:36
co-workers start calling her husband and
00:26:38
saying, "Hey, she didn't show up for
00:26:39
work. Do you know what happened to her?"
00:26:41
At this point, Jeff didn't seem terribly
00:26:43
concerned because he said that Kira had
00:26:45
been kind of disappearing for a couple
00:26:47
days at a time, staying with friends.
00:26:50
Kira failed to turn up for work again on
00:26:53
Sunday, February
00:26:55
24th. 3 days after his last contact,
00:26:59
Jeff reported Kira missing.
00:27:02
911. Where is your emergency? I need to
00:27:05
report my wife missing and I don't know
00:27:07
exactly how to do that. All right, I'll
00:27:08
help you with the process. What city is
00:27:10
this? St. Paul.
00:27:14
Dr. Lissa Johnson is a forensic
00:27:16
psychologist.
00:27:18
His response was that he wouldn't do
00:27:21
anything until 3 days after the fact. If
00:27:25
your partner goes missing, you would
00:27:27
well the expectation is that you would
00:27:29
be quite frantic. he would be worried,
00:27:31
concerned for their well-being and where
00:27:33
they might be.
00:27:36
After Jeff reported Kira missing, he
00:27:38
called her mother, Marcy.
00:27:42
He hadn't seen Kira. She was missing. We
00:27:46
knew that she would never just leave.
00:27:51
[Music]
00:27:52
Sheila Lambi was an investigator
00:27:54
assigned to the missing person's case.
00:27:57
Once a police report comes in that
00:27:59
there's a missing person, we start an
00:28:01
investigation. Whether it is talking to
00:28:03
family members or friends, when was this
00:28:05
person last seen, last talked
00:28:09
to Kira's phone records revealed that
00:28:12
she'd actually been texting during her
00:28:14
date night with
00:28:17
[Music]
00:28:21
Jeff. The text messages were playful,
00:28:24
flirtatious.
00:28:26
It's hard to imagine that Jeff would not
00:28:28
notice her texting throughout date
00:28:30
night.
00:28:31
Investigators went to Jeff and Kira's
00:28:34
house to speak with
00:28:36
Jeff. He told them about the last time
00:28:39
he'd seen Kira. We learned that uh Jeff
00:28:43
and Kira having date night on Thursday.
00:28:46
They decided to go bowling. They had
00:28:48
dinner.
00:28:51
Detectives reviewed surveillance footage
00:28:53
from the Mall of America to look for
00:28:55
Kira and
00:28:59
Jeff. Their night out was analyzed by
00:29:02
Kelly Fickner, a digital forensics
00:29:05
expert. When we see Kira and Jeff enter
00:29:08
the frame here, we can see that Jeff is
00:29:11
upright. He's swinging the bag casually.
00:29:14
His shoulders aren't
00:29:16
slumped. They're engaged in
00:29:18
conversation.
00:29:20
He doesn't appear to be upset in any
00:29:22
way.
00:29:24
At 9:24 p.m., Kira's car was captured on
00:29:28
camera leaving the
00:29:30
mall. We know Kira and Jeff came in
00:29:33
separate vehicles. Uh she was working
00:29:35
and he met her at the mall. So, seeing
00:29:38
her vehicle leave at specific time
00:29:41
corroborated Jeff's story of when they
00:29:43
left the mall.
00:29:46
The police still had no idea where Kira
00:29:49
could
00:29:50
be. The timeline corroborates Jeff's
00:29:53
story of what they did that evening,
00:29:55
dinner, bowling, and then heading home
00:29:57
from the
00:29:58
mall. It doesn't appear that there's any
00:30:01
kind of argument happening. Neither of
00:30:03
them is gesturing or being quite violent
00:30:06
with their hand
00:30:08
[Music]
00:30:11
motions, but the police still needed to
00:30:14
corroborate Jeff's version of what
00:30:16
happened when they returned
00:30:19
home. They came home and watched the
00:30:23
movie and then Cara had said that she
00:30:25
needed gas in her car. So Cara went to
00:30:28
bed and Jeff took her car and got gas in
00:30:30
the car.
00:30:33
The next morning, she left to go to the
00:30:35
gym, and Jeff said that's the last time
00:30:37
he saw her or talked to
00:30:40
her. Investigators checked his timeline
00:30:43
of events against local surveillance
00:30:46
footage. They found one camera which
00:30:48
gave a direct view of Kira and Jeff's
00:30:51
house. It was moving fast and the
00:30:54
footage was hard to work with.
00:30:56
and watching this frame by frame took a
00:30:59
long time.
00:31:01
A few hours after Kira and Jeff got
00:31:04
back, a car was spotted at the house.
00:31:09
The neighbor surveillance camera
00:31:10
actually shows the vehicle backing up.
00:31:13
It doesn't show it driving out, but it
00:31:15
does show it backing up towards the
00:31:16
garage very late at night. This is
00:31:19
strange behavior. Why would somebody do
00:31:21
that?
00:31:23
A few minutes
00:31:25
later, the car leaves.
00:31:28
[Music]
00:31:30
Appeared to be an odd time for someone
00:31:32
to be leaving their
00:31:36
home. Jeff's trip to get gas in Kira's
00:31:39
car was confirmed by surveillance
00:31:45
footage, but he didn't appear to head
00:31:48
home.
00:31:50
When the car leaves the gas station, the
00:31:53
car should be heading east to go back to
00:31:57
Kira and Jeff's house. The car did not
00:32:00
go
00:32:02
east. The next time Kira's car was seen
00:32:06
was the morning after date
00:32:09
night. According to Jeff, it was Kira
00:32:12
going to the gym.
00:32:15
The pixel values inside the window area
00:32:17
here are different and they form the
00:32:19
outline of the driver of the vehicle.
00:32:21
But without any further pixel
00:32:23
information, we can't tell who's
00:32:25
[Music]
00:32:27
driving. We start to wonder, is Jeff
00:32:30
telling us everything? Is Jeff not
00:32:33
sharing everything with the status of
00:32:36
their marriage? Was Cara done with this
00:32:38
relationship?
00:32:41
Kira's mom, Marcy, had her own view.
00:32:45
It was not any kind of 50/50
00:32:47
relationship. If he liked something, she
00:32:51
would like it. It was all about
00:32:54
control. After they got back from Costa
00:32:57
Rica after the wedding, the controlling
00:33:00
behavior started to turn into
00:33:03
possessive behavior. And this was
00:33:06
something that could be seen throughout
00:33:08
the relationship like she couldn't be
00:33:11
too far from
00:33:13
him. In general, all of us engage in
00:33:16
some kind of controlling behavior in an
00:33:19
attempt to manage what's happening
00:33:21
around us. So in an attempt to maintain
00:33:25
control, we start trying to mold things
00:33:27
into how we think they should be. It
00:33:29
gets ramped up now when we start putting
00:33:32
limits. we are putting actual limits on
00:33:35
other human beings. Um, and so they no
00:33:38
longer really had their own identity. So
00:33:40
that's a different level of of control.
00:33:44
3 days after Kira went missing, police
00:33:47
got their first breakthrough.
00:33:50
Kira's vehicle has been located at the
00:33:52
Mall of America in a parking
00:33:55
ramp. The car had two timespecific
00:33:58
parking citations and was due to be
00:34:01
towed.
00:34:03
What's more disturbing, the tow truck
00:34:06
driver noticed that there was what he
00:34:09
suspected to be dried blood on this
00:34:13
vehicle. You could see there was a trunk
00:34:16
liner. It almost looked like it had been
00:34:19
thrown from where Kira's vehicle is out
00:34:22
into the snow. And it did look like it
00:34:25
had possibly blood on that trunk liner.
00:34:30
Inside the car, the police also found
00:34:33
Kira's
00:34:34
purse. It is not likely that she left
00:34:38
her purse behind in a car
00:34:42
willingly. Any piece of information you
00:34:45
get is like almost like a lifeline at
00:34:48
that point cuz the not knowing the not
00:34:52
knowing is the worst part.
00:34:57
It's like a an early grieving when
00:34:59
you've lost someone. You don't know
00:35:00
what's happened. You you don't know if
00:35:02
this is a choice that they have made or
00:35:05
if someone has done something to harm a
00:35:08
loved one. So, it's really scary and the
00:35:13
uncertainty can leave you feeling a bit
00:35:16
lost and helpless and hopeless.
00:35:22
One parking citation is for 3:00 in the
00:35:25
morning Saturday morning. So, we know we
00:35:29
need to work
00:35:32
backwards. Traffic cameras picked up
00:35:34
Kira's white Chevrolet driving back to
00:35:37
the Mall of America the morning after
00:35:39
Jeff and Kira went on the date.
00:35:43
It went into a specific parking area
00:35:45
where the car was found. And it was from
00:35:48
that parking area we watched for any
00:35:51
either other vehicles leaving or anyone
00:35:54
on foot.
00:35:57
When they looked through the footage,
00:35:58
they discovered a lone
00:36:01
figure. This individual appears to be
00:36:04
male based on body type and build and
00:36:07
gate, dark top, dark pants, and white
00:36:10
shoes.
00:36:13
We are able to keep an eye on those
00:36:14
white shoes as the individual walks
00:36:18
across the street to the taxi
00:36:20
stand. Police needed to know if this was
00:36:23
the person who left Kira's car in the
00:36:25
parking lot. They tracked the
00:36:35
taxi. The destination was just a block
00:36:38
away from Kira's
00:36:40
home. Moments later, a figure emerges
00:36:43
into
00:36:45
frame. We see dark colored top, dark
00:36:50
pants. We see the logo on the front of
00:36:53
the shirt and with light colored or
00:36:55
white
00:36:57
shoes. This person is now heading
00:36:59
towards the home that Kira and Jeff
00:37:03
share. It was enough to warrant a search
00:37:06
of Jeff and Kira's house.
00:37:10
They started looking in the in the
00:37:13
bedroom. They noticed a number of
00:37:15
things. It looked like the furniture had
00:37:17
been moved because there were
00:37:18
indentations in the carpet suggesting
00:37:20
that at least sometime recently the the
00:37:22
furniture had been in a somewhat
00:37:24
different
00:37:25
order. Then they started looking at the
00:37:29
walls and they noticed a spot on the
00:37:31
wall that appeared to be blood.
00:37:35
And then they started looking around
00:37:36
again and they found more spots and more
00:37:38
spots and more
00:37:44
spots. There was some clothing that had
00:37:46
been freshly washed and it was hanging
00:37:49
up to
00:37:50
dry. It was the same hoodie Jeff was
00:37:54
wearing at the mall the last time Kira
00:37:56
was seen alive.
00:38:00
We found receipts for cleaning supplies
00:38:03
that had been purchased over the
00:38:08
weekend. Forensic investigators used
00:38:12
luminol, a chemical that will fluores
00:38:14
and glow when blood is detected under UV
00:38:17
light.
00:38:21
It became very obvious to us that there
00:38:25
was a fight and a struggle that happened
00:38:28
in the Trovina home and it looks like it
00:38:31
happened in that master bedroom.
00:38:36
We could see a line of the lumininal
00:38:41
coming out of the
00:38:42
bedroom into the living room through the
00:38:47
kitchen and it looked like the carpet
00:38:50
cleaner had been used.
00:38:55
15 days prior to Kira going
00:38:59
missing, Jeff stopped at my house to
00:39:02
borrow my carpet
00:39:05
shampooer. My carpet shampooer was used
00:39:08
to clean up all the
00:39:12
blood, even to the point of the human
00:39:16
tissue from her being stuck in the
00:39:21
bristles. and a selfie revealed a cover
00:39:25
up. We knew the furniture had been
00:39:27
rearranged clearly an attempt to cover
00:39:30
up the blood spatter.
00:39:35
When we saw the amount of blood in that
00:39:37
house, we believed we were looking for a
00:39:40
body. As the video evidence stacked up,
00:39:43
Jeff's red car was spotted at the gas
00:39:45
station the morning after Kira and
00:39:47
Jeff's date.
00:39:51
When I saw this video, I knew it was
00:39:53
Jeff. He's getting cash from the ATM.
00:39:56
Uh, it's the cash he uses to pay the
00:39:59
taxi home from the Mall of
00:40:01
[Music]
00:40:03
America. When I saw that video and I saw
00:40:07
that
00:40:10
sweatshirt, that exact sweatshirt is in
00:40:14
the kitchen of Jeff and Kira's house.
00:40:21
The logo on the sweatshirt seemed to
00:40:23
match the hoodie worn by the man getting
00:40:26
out of the
00:40:27
[Music]
00:40:31
taxi. Inside of Kira's vehicle, they
00:40:34
also found some divorce papers, the kind
00:40:37
that you fill out yourself. They
00:40:39
suggested that her marriage wasn't going
00:40:40
well.
00:40:43
Jeff Trevino is no longer our person of
00:40:46
interest. He is our number one suspect
00:40:48
in this case.
00:40:50
Jeff was arrested. Go have a
00:40:53
seat, Jeff. Kira was still missing, but
00:40:57
her husband didn't seem to be helping to
00:41:00
find her. I'm going to use my right to
00:41:03
remain silent until I can speak to my
00:41:04
attorney.
00:41:06
Despite his silence on where Kira might
00:41:09
be, Jeff was charged with seconddegree
00:41:12
murder.
00:41:15
[Music]
00:41:16
Kira's friends and family did all they
00:41:18
could to find her. The search for Kira
00:41:21
was extraordinary. Her family was very
00:41:24
involved. Her friends were very
00:41:26
involved. Everyone was looking
00:41:28
everywhere
00:41:31
possible. Even Kira's 70-year-old
00:41:34
grandfather turned detective.
00:41:38
My dad decided to walk up along the side
00:41:42
of the road and he he just by chance, I
00:41:45
mean, he looked into the woods and he he
00:41:48
saw something up against a tree and it
00:41:51
was a
00:41:54
bag. There was so much blood in there.
00:41:57
He goes, "I actually thought I was going
00:41:59
to find her head in that bag."
00:42:02
[Music]
00:42:05
We recovered this evidence and it turned
00:42:07
out to be Kira's
00:42:10
blood. I didn't have to get my hopes
00:42:15
up. I knew that Kira was
00:42:19
[Music]
00:42:22
dead. The search continued.
00:42:26
Then on May 8th, almost 3 months after
00:42:29
Kira went missing, a barge worker on the
00:42:31
Mississippi River made a
00:42:35
discovery. Now that the river was free
00:42:38
flowing with water and not frozen, the
00:42:41
body was
00:42:44
found. We found out through dental
00:42:47
records and DNA this person was indeed
00:42:50
Kira.
00:42:53
The autopsy report revealed that Kira
00:42:56
had suffered a broken finger and
00:42:58
multiple blunt force injuries that
00:43:00
ultimately caused her
00:43:02
death. I can only imagine the level of
00:43:06
pain she went
00:43:07
through. to not know
00:43:11
if did she call for
00:43:15
me. That still haunts me what she must
00:43:19
have gone
00:43:21
through. In court, the prosecution had
00:43:24
to present a solid timeline to prove
00:43:27
that Jeff Trevino was Kira's
00:43:30
killer. The video evidence was crucial
00:43:32
for revealing Jeff's movements the night
00:43:35
that Kira was killed.
00:43:38
Jeff is very obviously trying to hide
00:43:41
what happened and without that video of
00:43:44
those actions, it would have been very
00:43:47
difficult to prove the wrongdoings.
00:43:50
The footage also shed light on what
00:43:53
really happened in the early hours of
00:43:55
Friday, February 22nd.
00:43:59
When Jeff leaves the gas station and he
00:44:01
is heading west, not towards his house,
00:44:04
I believe Kira is in that vehicle in the
00:44:07
trunk and Jeff is going to dispose of
00:44:10
her
00:44:12
body. But the question remained, why did
00:44:16
Jeff kill
00:44:19
Kira? She had just turned 30. She's
00:44:22
rethinking her life. And I I believe
00:44:25
that when she got home from date night,
00:44:28
she
00:44:29
realized there's there's nothing more
00:44:31
for me
00:44:32
here. She had made up her mind. She had
00:44:36
decided, "No, I'm I'm going to go on my
00:44:41
own." And then that's when she told him,
00:44:45
and he couldn't handle it.
00:44:50
Jeff Trevino was found guilty on one
00:44:53
count of secondderee unintentional
00:44:56
murder. He was acquitted on an
00:44:58
additional count that alleged he
00:44:59
intended to kill his
00:45:02
wife. The jury concluded that after a
00:45:05
fight, Jeff Trevino used a pillow to try
00:45:08
to silence Kira, not to kill her.
00:45:12
I think maybe he felt he lost control
00:45:15
and so you regain control in this case
00:45:18
unfortunately by taking taking their
00:45:21
[Music]
00:45:29
life. So this is a Mother's Day card
00:45:33
from
00:45:35
Kira. She always knew what to say.
00:45:40
Joyce chose the perfect
00:45:42
card. I love you, Kira. I love you,
00:45:47
baby. I think about you every every
00:45:52
day. What I hope that happens when
00:45:56
anyone that hears Kira's story is
00:45:59
believe it can happen to anyone.
00:46:02
Anything that does not feel right, trust
00:46:05
yourself.
00:46:09
and get out of that
00:46:11
situation. It's better to be extra
00:46:14
careful or upset your significant
00:46:19
other. Take that chance. Don't take the
00:46:22
chance to to stay.
00:46:27
[Music]
00:46:34
[Music]
