00:00:05
[Music]
00:00:10
hell have no fury
00:00:11
like a woman's goal it would start
00:00:14
getting pissed off at him so i just
00:00:15
emptied both guns into him
00:00:17
they did really bad things to get drugs
00:00:21
i killed a man i blew his face off
00:00:25
if if that's vivid enough for you
00:00:28
cannibalism is not my choice
00:00:34
i was young i was beautiful i had the
00:00:37
whole world in front of me
00:00:38
the people here are miserable it's a
00:00:40
struggle in here every day
00:00:42
i'm sitting on the death row
00:00:45
how do you accept that i got my chance
00:00:48
and i blew it
00:00:49
[Music]
00:00:52
on this episode two criminals
00:00:56
and for the first time a death row
00:00:58
inmate tells all
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she is one of only 63 women awaiting
00:01:02
execution
00:01:03
people have no idea what death row is we
00:01:06
come out
00:01:07
three times a week we are locked down 24
00:01:09
hours a day
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two intimate confessions you did want
00:01:13
her to suffer so you tried to break her
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neck
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and i kind of know that i was shaking so
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bad i didn't stop
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because i was mad they kept hitting her
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they started
00:01:22
bashing in her head two shocking crimes
00:01:25
they taped the bag around her neck she
00:01:27
begged for her life she was obviously
00:01:30
struck with that concrete block her face
00:01:32
was totally smashed in
00:01:40
[Music]
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my name's amelia carr and i was
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convicted of first degree murder
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and i've been sentenced to death
00:02:04
the north central part of florida is
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prime horse country
00:02:08
here manicured equestrian farms are
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surrounded by nature
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that's both beautiful and lethal
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it was in this remote and sparsely
00:02:17
populated area of the county
00:02:19
where what first appeared to be a
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missing person's case
00:02:22
would reveal a tangled web of obsession
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betrayal
00:02:26
and murder in march 2009
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the marion county sheriff's office
00:02:32
received a report
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that a wife and mother of two small
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children had suddenly disappeared
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as soon as i read the report i knew
00:02:39
something wasn't right heather had been
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missing approximately
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30 days 26 year old heather strong
00:02:45
had not been seen since february 15th
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after she left her job as a waitress at
00:02:51
a local truck stop
00:02:53
but when she went silent her distraught
00:02:55
family in mississippi
00:02:57
called authorities i had a feeling that
00:03:00
that
00:03:00
something bad had happened she had kids
00:03:04
she was married she just fell off the
00:03:06
face of the earth
00:03:07
what ray's suspicions was that strong's
00:03:09
husband josh fulgium
00:03:11
had failed to report his wife missing
00:03:14
and was using her debit card
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josh was accessing the money on her
00:03:18
account when we first approached josh
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it was what was me my wife just took off
00:03:22
she abandoned me and the kids
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she would never just disappear and leave
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her kids
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josh and heather had been together 11
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years but had only been married
00:03:32
two months and had recently separated
00:03:34
police then discovered that josh fulgin
00:03:36
had another woman in his life
00:03:39
24 year old massage therapy student
00:03:41
emilia carr
00:03:42
she was married twice she had two
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children with her first husband
00:03:47
she had another child with another man
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when detectives met with carr
00:03:52
she was eight months pregnant with her
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fourth child and the father
00:03:56
was josh fulghim while carr was
00:03:59
questioned about heather's disappearance
00:04:01
she tried to downplay her connection to
00:04:03
josh
00:04:04
as she described it what they had was
00:04:06
merely a fling
00:04:07
i lived with josh for about three months
00:04:09
but police learned that emilia and josh
00:04:11
were actually living together
00:04:13
after heather went missing josh and
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emiliac moved in together at the pine
00:04:17
grove mobile home park
00:04:19
emilia told detectives that heather had
00:04:21
gone back to live with her parents
00:04:23
in mississippi i'd hear josh's daughter
00:04:26
say
00:04:26
daddy's mom gonna call tonight and he'd
00:04:28
tell her no baby she called while you're
00:04:30
at school
00:04:31
so i'm assuming everything's fine but
00:04:34
family and friends were adamant that
00:04:36
heather was a devoted mother
00:04:37
who would never abandon her children she
00:04:40
loved her kids
00:04:42
she'd do anything in the world for them
00:04:44
heather always had a smile that you
00:04:46
never forgot
00:04:47
i used to call her my moon face girl
00:04:51
in contrast folks had a different
00:04:53
opinion about heather's husband
00:04:55
27 year old josh a cold hearted no good
00:04:58
worthless
00:05:00
some other words i'd use but i won't
00:05:03
piece of garbage he was someone who had
00:05:05
a temper
00:05:06
he was known for being a bully
00:05:10
josh and heather met when they were
00:05:12
teenagers in heather's hometown of
00:05:13
sturgis mississippi
00:05:15
a few years later the couple moved to
00:05:17
florida they had two children
00:05:19
and a long list of problems your
00:05:21
standard dysfunctional
00:05:23
on and again off again type relationship
00:05:26
he was just
00:05:27
very controlling very abusive
00:05:30
it was always like that from a year into
00:05:33
the relationship
00:05:34
i said heather you keep going with josh
00:05:37
you're gonna wind up
00:05:38
dead but eventually heather did listen
00:05:41
and by february of 2009
00:05:43
she declared her marriage to josh over
00:05:45
she was planning
00:05:46
to leave the state with her two kids to
00:05:48
go back to mississippi
00:05:50
she had told josh she was taking the
00:05:53
kids and was leaving
00:05:55
i told her heather why would you tell
00:05:57
josh you were going to take the kids and
00:05:59
leave
00:06:00
he will kill you heather
00:06:03
heather left work on february 15th and
00:06:06
that was the last time
00:06:07
anyone would see her alive when she
00:06:09
didn't show up for her shift the next
00:06:11
day
00:06:11
her friends knew it meant trouble i knew
00:06:15
that josh had something to do with it i
00:06:18
knew
00:06:18
it was him detectives too shared a gut
00:06:21
feeling that josh fulgum knew something
00:06:23
about his wife's month-long
00:06:24
disappearance
00:06:25
and brought him in for questioning we
00:06:28
had been
00:06:29
in an interview with josh for hours as
00:06:31
detectives were tightening the screws
00:06:33
during his
00:06:33
interview josh finally broke down
00:06:37
he denied any involvement in heather's
00:06:39
disappearance
00:06:40
but told police he had information about
00:06:42
the location of her body
00:06:45
josh blatantly just came out if you let
00:06:47
me go see my mom
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i will tell you where heather is it was
00:06:51
a big breakthrough and it was
00:06:52
okay get the cars ready let's go now
00:06:54
before he changes his mind
00:06:56
josh led authorities 20 miles north of
00:06:58
ocala to a secluded run-down home
00:07:01
owned by none other than the family of
00:07:02
his girlfriend
00:07:04
emilia carr behind the property was the
00:07:06
an old single wide mobile home that they
00:07:08
use as storage
00:07:10
next to the storage trailer police found
00:07:12
a pile of fresh debris
00:07:14
and beneath it a shallow grave
00:07:17
police then dug up the decomposing body
00:07:20
of heather strong
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stuffed into a duffel bag that was
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covered by dirt and plywood
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the missing person's case had just
00:07:27
become a homicide coming up
00:07:32
detectives haul emilia carr back in for
00:07:34
questioning
00:07:35
josh and emil you put a plastic bag over
00:07:37
her head they taped it around her neck
00:07:39
she was begging for her life heather
00:07:40
knew she'd probably never leave that
00:07:42
trailer alive
00:07:43
and later murder off the reservation
00:07:46
she was obviously struck with that
00:07:49
concrete block
00:07:50
her face was totally smashed in
00:07:56
on february 15 2009 heather strahn
00:08:00
wife and mother of two was last seen
00:08:03
leaving her waitress job at a truck stop
00:08:06
one month later heather's husband josh
00:08:09
fulgam
00:08:09
broke down and led police to the
00:08:11
location of heather's body
00:08:14
the corpse was buried in the backyard of
00:08:16
fulgam's girlfriend
00:08:17
24 year old emilia carr while the crime
00:08:20
scene was still being processed
00:08:22
detectives questioned emilia i was
00:08:26
at disbelief there was a body back there
00:08:28
but police weren't buying it
00:08:31
we have heather's body found on amelia's
00:08:33
property
00:08:34
she definitely knows a lot more than
00:08:36
what she's telling us
00:08:37
emilia claimed that despite being
00:08:39
involved with heather's husband
00:08:41
she and the victim had been on good
00:08:43
terms
00:08:44
heather and amelia had a friendly
00:08:46
relationship amelia used to care for her
00:08:48
children
00:08:49
we had the children in common we got
00:08:51
really close
00:08:52
in the summer of away but those who knew
00:08:55
them both
00:08:56
tell a different story heather and
00:08:58
amelia were not best friends
00:09:00
they were rivals emilia wanted josh
00:09:03
josh would always go back to heather
00:09:06
because of
00:09:07
the kids it seemed as if josh always had
00:09:11
heather on one side amelia on another
00:09:14
side
00:09:15
amelia needed to eliminate the
00:09:16
competition
00:09:18
today emilia rejects that theory and
00:09:21
insists that she never loved josh
00:09:24
or any of the other men she ever dated i
00:09:26
don't get emotionally attached to men
00:09:28
i've never been faithful to a man
00:09:30
according to emilia
00:09:31
her inability to bond with men stepped
00:09:33
from alleged sexual abuse she suffered
00:09:36
as a child at the hands of her father
00:09:38
and grandfather
00:09:40
the abuse the abandonment and neglect
00:09:41
started when amelia was very young
00:09:43
my childhood consisted of responsibility
00:09:47
[Music]
00:09:48
secrets and sexual perversion
00:09:52
emilia says when she was five years old
00:09:55
she endured horrific sexual abuse that
00:09:57
lasted for years
00:09:59
i remember at night
00:10:02
there's this board that creaks right
00:10:04
before you get to the door
00:10:08
and i could be in a dead sleep and you'd
00:10:11
hear that border creek
00:10:12
and all you could think was who was it
00:10:14
going to be tonight
00:10:15
that made me feel bad as a mother i felt
00:10:18
like i felt her
00:10:20
the abuse continued i was 15. emilia
00:10:23
says she suffered in silence
00:10:24
because she was protecting her baby
00:10:26
sister my younger sister
00:10:28
was born with 13 birth defects i had
00:10:31
spina bifida so i had lots of
00:10:33
problems amelia looked after me my whole
00:10:36
life amelia was
00:10:37
in the mother position she took care of
00:10:39
milagro and all of her ailments
00:10:41
my father was arrested when i was 15
00:10:44
because i finally spoke out
00:10:46
i couldn't let it happen to my sister
00:10:49
while awaiting trial behind bars
00:10:51
emilia's father attempted to have her
00:10:53
murdered amelia's father solicited a
00:10:56
cellmate
00:10:56
to kill the family so that they would
00:10:59
not be a witness against him
00:11:01
but the plot was discovered and her
00:11:03
father was convicted of solicitation to
00:11:05
commit murder
00:11:06
he was sent to prison for two years the
00:11:09
sexual abuse charges were ultimately
00:11:11
dropped
00:11:12
living in a small town is really hard
00:11:14
what my father did
00:11:16
everybody knew everybody talked about it
00:11:19
humiliated
00:11:20
emilia dropped out of school at 15. by
00:11:23
17
00:11:24
she'd given birth to her first son and
00:11:26
was married
00:11:28
my um first husband
00:11:31
was actually really good to me and i
00:11:33
couldn't
00:11:34
be the woman he deserved she was taking
00:11:37
my car
00:11:38
sleeping with people amelia is a liar
00:11:41
that's all i can say
00:11:43
after two kids the marriage fell apart
00:11:46
and they divorced
00:11:48
i've had several unsuccessful
00:11:51
unemotional relationships with men
00:11:55
usually within the first couple weeks i
00:11:57
get tired and i just start
00:11:59
being promiscuous she's had a very hard
00:12:02
time trusting men
00:12:03
but she really wanted to be loved
00:12:06
twenty-three-year-old emilia met josh
00:12:08
fulghim through friends they would
00:12:10
periodically hook up whenever josh was
00:12:12
having problems with heather
00:12:14
in the summer of 2008 emilia got
00:12:16
pregnant with josh's child
00:12:18
and while separated from heather josh
00:12:20
proposed
00:12:22
a month later when josh and emilia had a
00:12:25
falling out
00:12:26
josh reunited with his longtime on-again
00:12:28
off-again girlfriend
00:12:30
heather strong and married her instead
00:12:34
heather was absolutely beside herself
00:12:36
when he gave her that ring
00:12:38
and they got married but he went right
00:12:40
back to the same way
00:12:41
emilia claims that she and heather often
00:12:44
commiserated with one another over josh
00:12:46
he'd beat her with the belt and told her
00:12:49
try to leave now
00:12:50
the kids are half mine no matter where
00:12:52
you go i can come get them
00:12:54
and she said she felt like that's the
00:12:55
only reason he married her
00:12:57
just days after their wedding heather
00:12:59
filed a domestic violence complaint
00:13:01
josh was arrested for pointing a shotgun
00:13:04
at her
00:13:05
in early february heather dropped the
00:13:07
charges and josh was released after
00:13:09
serving a month in jail
00:13:11
less than two weeks later heather went
00:13:13
missing
00:13:15
as detectives learned more about the
00:13:17
twisted love triangle
00:13:19
they were certain they had a motive for
00:13:20
murder
00:13:23
the people with the motive were josh and
00:13:25
amelia josh didn't want to lose his kids
00:13:28
and he just thought that he could get
00:13:29
rid of the problem
00:13:31
amelia loved josh and heather
00:13:34
was just a block that she had to get rid
00:13:37
of
00:13:42
after hours of questioning josh led
00:13:44
detectives to heather's body
00:13:46
despite initially stating he had nothing
00:13:49
to do with his wife's murder
00:13:50
he finally admitted to his part in the
00:13:53
killing but claimed emilia was the one
00:13:55
who actually killed heather
00:13:56
he confessed to everything and gave us
00:13:59
the blatant
00:14:00
honest truth
00:14:04
him and emilia had planned to bring
00:14:05
heather to the house
00:14:08
josh had lured heather inside of the
00:14:10
trailer
00:14:11
once amelia walked into the trailer
00:14:13
heather knew that this was a setup
00:14:15
she attempted to escape but they caught
00:14:18
her and pulled her back in
00:14:19
they duct taped her legs they duct taped
00:14:21
their torso over body to the back of the
00:14:22
computer chair they duct taped her hands
00:14:24
to the handles
00:14:26
heather pleaded for a life just let her
00:14:28
go and she would be
00:14:29
out of their lives forever and josh
00:14:34
said no this was it
00:14:36
[Music]
00:14:37
i'm not going to take my kids away from
00:14:39
me amelia tried to break her neck
00:14:41
but wasn't strong enough to do it so
00:14:43
that's when they decided to suffocate
00:14:44
her
00:14:45
they put a plastic bag over her head
00:14:47
they taped it around her neck
00:14:49
and then they held their hand over her
00:14:51
mouth and nose
00:14:53
the actual way that this crime occurred
00:14:55
was just so stark
00:14:57
in its coldness and
00:15:00
cruelty and a lot of people couldn't
00:15:02
believe that it happened the way it did
00:15:05
the details of heather's last moments
00:15:07
devastated her family
00:15:09
they told me that they had found her
00:15:12
that was the hardest day of my life i
00:15:14
didn't want to believe it
00:15:17
until the sheriff's department came
00:15:21
it told me i just
00:15:25
i didn't want to live
00:15:29
josh's confession provided a vivid
00:15:31
description of the vicious homicide
00:15:33
heather's husband was charged with
00:15:35
first-degree murder
00:15:36
but detectives knew they had another
00:15:38
killer to catch
00:15:40
but without a confession or forensic
00:15:42
evidence linking her to the crime
00:15:44
police feared that amelia carr could get
00:15:47
away with
00:15:47
murder coming up
00:15:52
a killer gets caught on a wire we
00:15:54
weren't visible to them but we could
00:15:56
hear exactly what they were saying i
00:15:58
want the true story
00:16:00
from me
00:16:04
amelia went for it
00:16:09
in march of 2009 florida authorities
00:16:12
were on the verge of breaking the case
00:16:14
of the murder and disappearance of 26
00:16:16
year old heather strong
00:16:19
after her husband josh fulgium confessed
00:16:21
to helping kill his wife
00:16:22
and burying her on the property of
00:16:24
girlfriend 24 year old emilia carr
00:16:27
detectives believed that carr now eight
00:16:30
months pregnant with fulgam's child
00:16:32
also played a key role in the murder
00:16:35
but they lacked enough evidence to
00:16:36
conclusively link her to the crime
00:16:39
she would call asking how the case was
00:16:41
going wondering
00:16:42
what we had learned from josh i kept
00:16:45
calling them
00:16:46
i said look i want immunity
00:16:51
she had further information about the
00:16:52
case that she could quote put the nail
00:16:54
in the coffin
00:16:55
as long as he would grant her immunity
00:16:57
she was trying to position herself
00:16:59
to be more of an informant rather than a
00:17:02
participant in this crime
00:17:05
detectives needed help from someone who
00:17:07
could extract the truth from carr
00:17:10
they got it from josh's sister michelle
00:17:12
michelle
00:17:13
said amelia's calling me she wants to
00:17:15
speak to speak to me about this case
00:17:17
what shall i do investigators put a wire
00:17:20
in michelle's vehicle
00:17:21
so that any conversations with emilia
00:17:23
could be secretly taped
00:17:25
we gave michelle a few details about the
00:17:28
case
00:17:29
so that it would seem as though she had
00:17:31
talked to her brother josh
00:17:33
and then maybe emilia would open up
00:17:35
about the rest of the details
00:17:37
this is a place that we instructed
00:17:38
michelle to come we kind of parked back
00:17:40
behind
00:17:41
this building here and we monitored
00:17:43
their conversation
00:17:45
from that area we weren't visible to
00:17:47
them but we could
00:17:48
uh hear exactly what they were saying i
00:17:50
want
00:17:51
the true story from me i already heard
00:17:54
it from
00:17:55
jobs michelle told her look
00:17:58
if you want me to help you out you have
00:18:00
to tell me everything
00:18:02
amelia went for it tell me what happened
00:18:04
that night
00:18:05
when he got her back there i was just
00:18:08
coming back there a few minutes later
00:18:09
she tried to run for the door he dragged
00:18:12
her back she told
00:18:13
michelle about how heather had fought
00:18:15
back did heather go peacefully or did
00:18:18
she
00:18:20
did she fight him yeah
00:18:25
she fought him
00:18:30
the more she talked the more emilia carr
00:18:32
implicated herself in heather strong's
00:18:34
murder
00:18:35
so what happened next
00:18:39
you put the bag over her head you tried
00:18:42
to snipe her neck that it weren't
00:18:44
why would you try to break her neck it's
00:18:47
gonna be quick and painless
00:18:49
there were times we would just look at
00:18:51
each other and say did she say what i
00:18:53
think she just said
00:18:54
emilia also was worried over what josh
00:18:56
might be telling police
00:18:58
i'm trying to get a message to him that
00:19:00
he's got to keep his mouth
00:19:02
shut i'm trying to get him out of this
00:19:05
but he can't throw me under the bus
00:19:07
either after
00:19:09
the little cat and mouse game that she
00:19:10
was playing with us
00:19:12
to hear those words finally come from
00:19:14
her mouth
00:19:15
uh it was very satisfying
00:19:18
when one time he couldn't
00:19:22
cry but he'd almost still he had me wrap
00:19:25
a blanket
00:19:27
around her head because he couldn't look
00:19:29
this is a big turning point in the case
00:19:31
hearing this information coming directly
00:19:33
from amelia was was what we needed
00:19:36
detectives had heard enough nearly a
00:19:38
week after josh fulgam's arrest
00:19:40
police finally obtained what they needed
00:19:42
to arrest his accomplice
00:19:44
she was brought back to the sheriff's
00:19:45
office and again we interviewed her
00:19:48
detectives knew they had to play their
00:19:50
cards close to the vest
00:19:52
emilia had no idea she had incriminated
00:19:54
herself
00:19:55
on tape not knowing that there was a
00:19:57
recording
00:19:58
she told us another set of lies i
00:20:01
wasn't there i did not kill her to take
00:20:04
a bullet
00:20:05
i'm telling you i did not kill that girl
00:20:09
then detectives dropped the bomb i think
00:20:12
it's time for reopen pandora's box
00:20:15
at least from our name today
00:20:18
you in a conversation
00:20:22
with josh's sister we know that you
00:20:24
admitted your responsibility
00:20:26
in heather's murder and she kind of just
00:20:28
sat back at disbelief
00:20:30
as if she was she was caught in her own
00:20:32
trap
00:20:33
she then changed the story she admitted
00:20:35
to being there
00:20:36
she helped tape her body up the most i
00:20:38
did to her was i taped her up
00:20:40
and i made a false attempt to break her
00:20:43
neck because that's what he told me to
00:20:44
do
00:20:45
but taping her out was all i did with
00:20:47
each new detail
00:20:49
detectives were finally getting a
00:20:50
picture of what really happened
00:20:53
after she was taped and i put the bag
00:20:55
over her
00:20:56
head and he taped it you didn't want to
00:20:58
tape the bag around her head
00:21:00
i gave him the tape she was begging for
00:21:03
her life
00:21:04
i think heather knew at that point that
00:21:07
she'd probably never leave that trailer
00:21:08
alive
00:21:09
her body was taped her mouth wasn't
00:21:11
taped what was she saying he was trying
00:21:12
to get her to be quiet josh
00:21:14
why are you doing this josh why are you
00:21:15
doing this and he told her
00:21:17
because you keep trying to take my kids
00:21:18
and i'm [Â __Â ] tired of it and that's
00:21:20
when she started telling him he's
00:21:22
she was claustrophobic she's
00:21:23
claustrophobic that's when he hit her
00:21:25
and he said [Â __Â ]
00:21:26
i'm claustrophobic too and you had me
00:21:27
locked up in marion county jail for 31
00:21:29
days
00:21:30
amelia tried to break her neck amelia
00:21:33
told us that she tried but wasn't strong
00:21:35
enough to do it
00:21:35
i didn't worse you didn't want her to
00:21:37
suffer so you tried to break her neck
00:21:39
and i couldn't do it because i was
00:21:40
shaking so bad so that i just stepped
00:21:43
back
00:21:44
and he took over and he held his hand
00:21:47
over her nose and her mouth
00:21:49
heather ultimately died of asphyxiation
00:21:52
from the moment this entire plan started
00:21:55
either one of them could have changed
00:21:57
their minds either one of them could
00:21:58
have decided to do the right thing
00:22:00
but even as she was being suffocated
00:22:03
even as her body was fighting
00:22:05
for life and fighting for air they both
00:22:07
chose to carry on the plan
00:22:10
on march 2009 emilia carr
00:22:13
eight months pregnant was booked for
00:22:16
first-degree murder
00:22:17
[Music]
00:22:19
coming up emilia carr faces the death
00:22:23
penalty
00:22:23
if convicted i believe he deliberately
00:22:26
set me up
00:22:27
and later mrs ignacio actually started
00:22:30
slamming miss armenta's head into
00:22:31
a concrete block and was actually
00:22:34
telling herself that she needed to stop
00:22:37
but couldn't it i don't know how many
00:22:39
times
00:22:41
i did that to her
00:22:42
[Music]
00:22:45
in march of 2009 the chilling murder of
00:22:48
a young mother in the backwoods of a
00:22:50
small residential town
00:22:52
shocked the citizens of marion county
00:22:54
florida
00:22:55
according to their confessions josh
00:22:57
fulgium and his girlfriend emilia carr
00:23:00
lured fulghum's 26 year old wife to
00:23:02
amelia's trailer
00:23:04
where they suffocated her with a garbage
00:23:06
bag
00:23:07
charged with first-degree murder both
00:23:09
defendants faced the death penalty
00:23:12
emilia carr's trial began on november 29
00:23:15
2010
00:23:16
the prosecution's strongest evidence
00:23:18
came from the killer's own lips
00:23:20
in a recorded conversation with josh's
00:23:23
sister
00:23:24
michelle i can play it off like i didn't
00:23:26
know anything
00:23:27
that was pretty much the conversation
00:23:30
that did her in
00:23:31
at trial emilia tried to explain away
00:23:34
her confession
00:23:35
as an attempt to assist police with the
00:23:37
investigation
00:23:38
she said that she was trying to get
00:23:41
details that she could bring back to the
00:23:42
detectives
00:23:43
emilia believed that if police no longer
00:23:45
considered her a suspect
00:23:47
then the state would release her kids
00:23:49
from foster care
00:23:50
when i was talking to michelle i was
00:23:52
trying to help myself and
00:23:53
get my children back but the jury heard
00:23:56
for themselves that emilia was not
00:23:58
fishing for information to help police
00:24:01
as she claimed why did she do it in the
00:24:03
backyard
00:24:04
because your brother just wanted her
00:24:06
there for a little while and he was
00:24:07
gonna move her
00:24:09
we all heard on the tape there was one
00:24:12
person asking the questions and that was
00:24:13
michelle
00:24:14
there was one person answering the
00:24:16
questions and that was amelia and as for
00:24:18
amelia's confession to police
00:24:20
according to the defense it was all a
00:24:22
lie
00:24:24
emilia told me she was making up stories
00:24:25
to the police they're threatening me
00:24:27
with my kids
00:24:28
so i started making up these stories
00:24:30
based on everything that they had told
00:24:31
me
00:24:32
she's pregnant she's tired she she just
00:24:35
wants
00:24:35
out and she made this false confession
00:24:39
when she took the witness stand she
00:24:42
claimed
00:24:42
that she was feeding law enforcement
00:24:45
lies
00:24:46
so she could get her children back false
00:24:48
confessions do happen a lot and you have
00:24:50
a lot of innocent people in prisons
00:24:52
but the defense's argument failed to
00:24:53
sway the jury
00:24:55
you can tell she wasn't repeating a
00:24:56
story she had heard
00:24:58
you could tell she was reliving all of
00:25:01
those things that she had actually done
00:25:03
in addition to claiming that she made
00:25:05
false statements to police
00:25:06
emilia insisted that she was framed by
00:25:09
her former lover josh
00:25:10
when he killed and buried heather in her
00:25:12
backyard i believe he deliberately set
00:25:15
me up
00:25:16
amelia told me that she couldn't believe
00:25:17
that he was going to pin any of this on
00:25:18
her
00:25:19
the defense was dealt a severe blow when
00:25:22
two witnesses testified that
00:25:24
carr wanted heather dead so she could
00:25:26
have josh
00:25:27
all to herself jason lotscha
00:25:30
he testified that amelia once offered
00:25:32
him 500
00:25:33
if he would go and kill heather for her
00:25:36
that
00:25:36
testimony was corroborated by another
00:25:38
witness the jury was convinced
00:25:41
and on december 7 2010 emilia carr was
00:25:44
convicted
00:25:45
of first-degree murder
00:25:49
i just don't understand how i was
00:25:52
convicted of
00:25:53
murder for nothing more than a lie
00:25:57
she thought that she was going to be
00:25:58
found innocent because like she told me
00:26:00
i am innocent
00:26:01
and they know what a monster josh is
00:26:04
emilia carr's defense team had yet a new
00:26:06
hurdle to overcome
00:26:08
to save their client from lethal
00:26:09
injection what we do is we humanize
00:26:12
killers in the eyes of the jury
00:26:13
so they're not sentenced to death one of
00:26:16
the things that i wanted the jury to
00:26:17
know was
00:26:18
who amelia was that she was a caretaker
00:26:20
she was a loving mother
00:26:22
she'll do anything for her kids she
00:26:24
loved being a mom
00:26:25
her kids always came first in an effort
00:26:27
to provide context
00:26:29
the defense revealed in court the
00:26:31
horrible details of emilia's childhood
00:26:33
abuse
00:26:34
it did come out that amelia carr was
00:26:36
sexually abused as a young girl
00:26:39
the defense called a clinical
00:26:40
psychologist to the stand
00:26:42
she discussed the sexual abuse she
00:26:44
suffered how
00:26:45
due to that amelia formed no emotional
00:26:48
connections
00:26:49
to these men she did say that i could be
00:26:51
manipulative in relationships
00:26:53
i get with men and by the time they're
00:26:56
falling for me i'm bored and i leave
00:26:58
or i start being promiscuous i wouldn't
00:27:00
necessarily say
00:27:02
it backfired but the prosecution did
00:27:05
take that point
00:27:06
and run with it but emilia's
00:27:08
dysfunctional background was not enough
00:27:10
to sway the jury
00:27:12
they took only two hours to come back
00:27:14
with their recommendation
00:27:16
on february 22nd 2011 emilia carr
00:27:19
was sentenced to death
00:27:22
part of me is waiting to wake up from
00:27:24
this nightmare
00:27:25
i'm sitting on the death row
00:27:29
how do you accept that it's really hard
00:27:33
terrifying i'm scared
00:27:36
amelia is exactly where she needs to be
00:27:39
she deserves the death penalty i don't
00:27:41
think
00:27:41
i know anybody else that deserves it
00:27:43
anymore
00:27:45
and her and josh fulgam is set to go on
00:27:49
trial for capital murder in october
00:27:51
2011.
00:27:52
he has pled not guilty and claims emilia
00:27:55
was the one who killed heather
00:27:57
emilia's baby was adopted and heather's
00:27:59
children are being raised by a loving
00:28:01
family
00:28:03
it weighs heavy on my heart that amelia
00:28:05
is on death row
00:28:07
i don't believe that she killed heather
00:28:08
strong i really don't believe it
00:28:11
emilia carr is one of only 63 women
00:28:14
currently
00:28:14
on america's death row she serves out
00:28:17
her time
00:28:18
in what she calls extreme isolation
00:28:21
a bed a mattress a toilet sink
00:28:25
combination
00:28:26
and that's it four white walls
00:28:31
and a window people have no idea what
00:28:34
death row is
00:28:35
we come out three times a week for two
00:28:38
hour wreck sessions
00:28:39
followed by a ten minute shower other
00:28:42
than that we are locked down 24 hours a
00:28:44
day
00:28:45
i can't accept that this is what my life
00:28:48
was meant to be
00:28:50
it doesn't make sense
00:28:54
i don't feel sorry for it because amelia
00:28:56
could have walked away but she didn't
00:28:57
she took heather's life
00:28:59
so she needs to give up her life in my
00:29:02
heart i know she's innocent
00:29:05
and i'll die with that i didn't kill her
00:29:08
the only thing i'm guilty of is telling
00:29:10
a lie nothing more
00:29:13
emilia carr will most likely appeal her
00:29:16
death row conviction
00:29:17
but until then she will live in
00:29:19
seclusion not knowing whether she will
00:29:21
live
00:29:22
or die as for heather's family and
00:29:24
friends
00:29:25
they cherish her memory while struggling
00:29:27
to come to terms
00:29:28
with her death she's my first born
00:29:32
my only daughter
00:29:36
heather will be in my heart forever and
00:29:38
ever
00:29:43
coming up a family fight
00:29:46
she was related to my mom we were on the
00:29:49
ground
00:29:50
fighting and i yields snapped
00:29:54
evidence the piece of concrete the
00:29:56
bottom was just bright red
00:29:58
with the blood
00:29:59
[Music]
00:30:03
this is one of the most violent
00:30:04
homicides that i've actually seen
00:30:06
the perpetrator takes a rock such as
00:30:08
this to bash her skull in
00:30:10
i kept hitting her i seen that rock and
00:30:13
i started
00:30:14
bashing in her head with them she didn't
00:30:16
seem like the type
00:30:17
she always tried to keep her peace
00:30:20
i'm patricia ignacio i applied to second
00:30:22
degree murder
00:30:23
they gave me 15 years
00:30:28
amid the stark and breathtaking beauty
00:30:30
of northeastern new mexico
00:30:32
lies a navajo reservation but there are
00:30:35
no tribal casinos promising fast cash
00:30:37
along these roadways
00:30:40
here many of the 180 000 navajo eek out
00:30:43
a meager existence
00:30:44
much the way they did two centuries ago
00:30:47
technology hasn't reached the
00:30:49
reservation
00:30:50
in some areas you're still hauling water
00:30:52
because there's no electricity
00:30:54
and just the isolation itself causes
00:30:56
some of the problems
00:30:58
with jobs and upward mobility and short
00:31:00
supply
00:31:01
hopelessness can give way to desperation
00:31:04
for native americans the rates for
00:31:06
domestic violence and alcohol-related
00:31:08
suicide and homicide
00:31:10
are four times the national average
00:31:13
navajo reservation is a dry reservation
00:31:15
what you get is
00:31:16
is that mass exodus on the weekends it's
00:31:19
drunken driving uh domestic violence
00:31:22
fights
00:31:23
ninety percent of our dispatch calls are
00:31:26
alcohol related
00:31:29
at seven p.m on november 25 2008
00:31:32
an anonymous tip led detectives to a
00:31:34
remote area of town
00:31:36
where transients go to drink there
00:31:39
police found a body
00:31:41
crime scene investigator detective terry
00:31:43
eagle collected evidence at the scene
00:31:45
where i'm standing is approximately
00:31:47
where the victim's body was located
00:31:50
and her head would have been somewhere
00:31:51
in this area right about here
00:31:53
initially i couldn't tell if the victim
00:31:54
was a male or female
00:31:56
her face was totally gone and smashed
00:31:59
the end
00:32:00
i took the piece of concrete off the
00:32:02
victim's head and turned it over
00:32:03
the bottom was just bright red with the
00:32:06
blood
00:32:07
using fingerprints the medical examiner
00:32:09
identified the victim
00:32:10
as 40-year-old navajo irene armenta
00:32:13
she had a blood alcohol level five times
00:32:16
the legal limit
00:32:17
and a slew of alcohol-related arrests
00:32:20
when the case originally started
00:32:22
we were starting from ground zero but
00:32:24
just as detectives began working the
00:32:26
case
00:32:26
they caught a lucky break a crime
00:32:29
stoppers tip yielded a possible suspect
00:32:31
21 year old patricia ignacio a single
00:32:34
mother of three
00:32:35
once we came up with the name patricia
00:32:37
ignacio things started falling into the
00:32:39
place
00:32:40
according to police reports at 1 30 in
00:32:42
the afternoon
00:32:43
patricia ignacio and irene armenta met
00:32:46
up
00:32:46
and walked to the park with a bottle of
00:32:48
whiskey once i ran into her
00:32:51
i decided to ask her she wanted to go
00:32:53
drink
00:32:54
for a while everything was good
00:32:58
that was the last time anyone saw irene
00:33:00
armenta
00:33:01
alive
00:33:04
it was 1988 in shiprock new mexico
00:33:07
when patricia ignacio the third of four
00:33:10
children
00:33:11
was born to an alcoholic mother and a
00:33:13
father she didn't know
00:33:14
her mom was living in farmington walking
00:33:18
the streets and drinking
00:33:20
my mom she would just take off
00:33:23
i don't know my dad my auntie lucia
00:33:26
raised me life on the reservation was
00:33:29
hard
00:33:29
we had to haul water we stayed out
00:33:32
without electricity until
00:33:35
2000. according to patricia when her
00:33:38
aunt started a family
00:33:39
she and her siblings were shipped to
00:33:41
their grandmother patricia was a very
00:33:43
difficult child
00:33:44
i think grandma just couldn't handle her
00:33:47
she was rebellious i felt like i was the
00:33:50
problem
00:33:51
like i wasn't meant to be alive i was
00:33:54
just invisible to everybody
00:33:57
by age 12 patricia was already on her
00:33:59
way to becoming an alcoholic
00:34:01
at 14 she dropped out of school and a
00:34:04
string of group homes foster homes and
00:34:06
juvenile detention centers
00:34:08
followed what i really wanted was this
00:34:11
for my mom and my dad to just be there
00:34:14
instead of saying oh
00:34:17
i don't know who they are at 17 patricia
00:34:20
met rodriguez lee
00:34:22
and although the relationship was rocky
00:34:24
they had three babies
00:34:25
in rapid succession despite the fact
00:34:27
that rodriguez was not good to her
00:34:30
she still hung on to him i started
00:34:33
to drink and to get high again
00:34:36
it was like a daily basis but the basics
00:34:39
were precisely what patricia could not
00:34:41
provide for her children
00:34:43
she would have to ask people they could
00:34:45
buy pampers for her
00:34:47
with no money no prospects and nowhere
00:34:49
to go
00:34:50
patricia pitched a tent near her
00:34:51
grandmother's shack and moved in with
00:34:53
her toddlers
00:34:55
when social services were notified her
00:34:57
children were placed in foster care
00:35:00
when i lost custody of my kids it hurt
00:35:03
so bad
00:35:04
i would go into farmington to drink and
00:35:07
get high
00:35:08
do crazy things like i was on a mission
00:35:12
in early november of 2008 patricia's
00:35:15
mission of self-destruction
00:35:16
landed her a 23-day stay in san juan
00:35:19
county detention center
00:35:20
for assaulting a police officer she had
00:35:23
been involved in a fight
00:35:24
an officer responded probably wasn't
00:35:27
going to arrest her
00:35:29
and then she started to confront the
00:35:30
officer so she was arrested
00:35:33
released from jail at 6 a.m on november
00:35:35
25 2008
00:35:37
the 21 year old was spoiling for a fight
00:35:39
and by lunchtime
00:35:40
she had attacked a man at the indian
00:35:42
center soup kitchen
00:35:44
but the violence was just beginning a
00:35:47
few hours later
00:35:48
full of rage and thirsty for alcohol
00:35:50
patricia ignacio then bumped into
00:35:52
40-year-old irene armenta
00:35:54
a cousin i met irene at
00:35:57
the indian center that day i decided to
00:36:00
ask her she wanted to go drink she said
00:36:03
yes
00:36:04
so this is a place that's kind of
00:36:06
obscure the perpetrator
00:36:08
and the victim walked over had a whiskey
00:36:10
bottle and basically they came here to
00:36:12
consume alcohol
00:36:13
but the more whiskey patricia and irene
00:36:15
consumed the more belligerent they
00:36:16
became
00:36:17
according to patricia the first round of
00:36:19
fighting was over armenta's boyfriend
00:36:21
dean
00:36:22
who patricia had met a couple of times
00:36:24
she thought that
00:36:25
i was messing around with dean i didn't
00:36:28
even know what she was talking about
00:36:30
there was no evidence of that but
00:36:32
obviously at this point they were
00:36:33
intoxicated
00:36:35
and then it started this fiasco there
00:36:38
was some pushing and shoving
00:36:39
we kind of got in a fist fight because i
00:36:42
didn't want to be
00:36:44
around arguments and all that patricia
00:36:46
ignacio said that she picked the victim
00:36:48
up
00:36:49
gave her a big hug continued drinking
00:36:51
for a while
00:36:52
got into it again maybe two or three
00:36:54
times
00:36:55
as the afternoon wore on patricia's rage
00:36:58
continued to build
00:37:00
it was the perfect storm for the tragic
00:37:02
events that followed
00:37:03
my analogy would be something kind of
00:37:05
like a boxing match where there would be
00:37:08
around the action ceased
00:37:12
and then resumed and then we have the
00:37:15
final
00:37:17
coming up fighting words
00:37:20
she said that was a bad mom just a
00:37:23
stupid drunk
00:37:25
inside a fight to the death i got her
00:37:28
down
00:37:28
i kept hitting her and when i seen that
00:37:31
rock i started
00:37:32
bashing in her head with it
00:37:42
on november 25th 2008 single mother of
00:37:45
three patricia ignacio
00:37:47
was released from jail for assaulting an
00:37:49
officer
00:37:50
by noon the 21 year old was looking to
00:37:52
numb her anger with hard alcohol
00:37:55
she met up with distant cousin and
00:37:56
fellow navajo 40 year old irene armenta
00:38:00
the pair walked toward a park to share a
00:38:02
bottle of whiskey
00:38:04
i would run into her she she's always
00:38:06
happy she was a happy person
00:38:08
but happiness was short-lived after
00:38:10
hours of drinking
00:38:11
the intoxicated women got into a violent
00:38:14
wrestling match
00:38:15
we have these two people arguing cooling
00:38:18
off
00:38:19
drinking confronting each other
00:38:21
physically cooling off
00:38:23
when irene armenta allegedly insulted
00:38:25
ignacio as a mother
00:38:27
patricia says her temper and self-hatred
00:38:29
exploded
00:38:30
she said that i was a stupid mom that
00:38:34
was a bad mom
00:38:35
miss armenta continued that she was
00:38:37
worthless that her kids were better off
00:38:40
without her
00:38:41
it hit me so hard when she mentioned my
00:38:43
kids was
00:38:46
she was right she kept telling ms
00:38:48
armenti
00:38:49
stop you're going to be sorry i'm going
00:38:51
to lose control and
00:38:52
she actually did i got her down
00:38:56
hers just robbed right there
00:38:59
and i started bashing in her head with
00:39:02
it
00:39:03
the victim was much older much smaller
00:39:05
and at this point once she's on the
00:39:07
ground she does not have the strength to
00:39:08
withstand
00:39:09
the rage that this younger person was
00:39:10
delivering he kept hitting her
00:39:12
i don't know how many times i did that
00:39:16
to her
00:39:18
my conscience was telling me stop stop
00:39:21
didn't stop because i was mad hurt by so
00:39:25
many things
00:39:27
i let everything get to me from my
00:39:29
childhood
00:39:30
i let it just all out
00:39:34
patricia claims she thought irene was
00:39:36
still alive when she left the scene at 6
00:39:39
30 p.m according to witnesses patricia
00:39:42
then called a friend for a ride
00:39:44
she told him that she had gotten in a
00:39:46
fight i didn't know if the girl was
00:39:48
alive
00:39:50
he was looking at me like why do you
00:39:52
have blood on your face
00:39:53
i told him that i got a and then the
00:39:56
subject of foodie come up
00:39:58
she leaves goes to a fast food
00:40:00
restaurant has something to eat
00:40:02
after they had eaten she wanted to go
00:40:04
back and and check
00:40:06
and see if everything was all right i
00:40:08
felt bad
00:40:09
i went back and she was still laying on
00:40:11
the ground
00:40:13
so i kicked her a little kick and she
00:40:16
moaned
00:40:17
she never called the police she never
00:40:19
called emergency medical people
00:40:22
she then leaves and goes back to the car
00:40:25
that says ah the victim is okay while
00:40:28
patricia laid low on the reservation
00:40:30
an anonymous tip gave detectives the
00:40:32
jump start they needed
00:40:33
we obtained information that mrs ignacio
00:40:36
was
00:40:37
possibly involved in a fight that day we
00:40:40
began an attempt to locate her
00:40:42
detectives posted ignacio's mug shot in
00:40:44
their briefing room
00:40:45
four days later a policeman conducted a
00:40:48
routine traffic stop
00:40:49
and spotted her in the back of a car
00:40:51
upon seeing miss ignacio he remembered
00:40:53
her picture from a briefing
00:40:55
he recognized me it's always thinking
00:40:58
thank god stun i'm tired of running
00:41:03
when patricia arrived at the police
00:41:05
station she wasn't talking
00:41:07
the first interview was like a roller
00:41:10
coaster when asked if she had
00:41:12
known miss armenta she denied that and
00:41:14
stated she did not know who she was
00:41:17
i tried denying everything but one way
00:41:19
or another
00:41:21
the truth comes out at first patricia
00:41:24
claimed that on the day of the crime
00:41:26
after being released from detention she
00:41:28
had lunch at a farmington charity
00:41:30
and promptly hitched a ride back to the
00:41:32
reservation we confronted her with
00:41:34
evidence that she had been in certain
00:41:36
areas at certain times
00:41:37
and she continued to to leave out a
00:41:39
majority of her day
00:41:41
her story wasn't matching up when
00:41:43
detectives inquired about the clothing
00:41:45
patricia had worn the day of the murder
00:41:46
she lied again i told the officers that
00:41:49
i burned it
00:41:51
and
00:41:54
he didn't believe me after several hours
00:41:57
of playing cat and mouse with police
00:41:59
patricia finally had a change of heart
00:42:02
she took a break
00:42:04
she came back and she told the officer
00:42:06
okay i'm going to tell you the truth
00:42:07
i know i'd done something wrong and i
00:42:09
can't bring her back
00:42:11
i got tired of just trying to lie my way
00:42:14
out patricia ignacio finally came clean
00:42:18
and admitted to bludgeoning irene
00:42:20
armenta to death
00:42:22
facing 30 years in prison patricia pled
00:42:24
guilty to second-degree murder
00:42:26
she was sentenced to 15 years
00:42:30
when they told me that i was getting 15
00:42:32
years
00:42:33
i cried because i was thankful
00:42:37
she should pay some time for what she's
00:42:39
done
00:42:40
it's not right to let someone lose their
00:42:42
life because you get upset with them
00:42:45
at the same time i feel sorry for
00:42:48
patricia because she had a hard life
00:42:49
already
00:42:50
patricia is serving her time at the new
00:42:52
mexico women's correctional facility
00:42:55
she is a level four inmate which is
00:42:57
considered high risk
00:42:59
i like the level 4 i like to be confined
00:43:02
it keeps my anger in check
00:43:04
the most chilling part about this case
00:43:06
was the brutality
00:43:08
the violence actually taking a concrete
00:43:12
block and beating somebody over the head
00:43:13
with it then leaving the area and
00:43:15
basically going to eat lunch
00:43:17
sometimes i'll think it was an accident
00:43:21
and then other days like i'm a really
00:43:23
bad person
00:43:24
makes me sick all i see is just her face
00:43:28
i do miss her i miss her every day
