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a young man died in a mysterious car
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crash
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but was it an accident
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forensic science uncovered what really
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caused that crash
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and the truth
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devastated three different families
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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my
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just before dawn in central texas a
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motorist saw a car on fire off the side
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of the road down an embankment
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by the time firefighters got there
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there was very little left
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i've never seen a car or a vehicle burn
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that badly before where the wheels were
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melted to the rocks
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in the rubble
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investigators found
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the remains of the driver burned beyond
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recognition we need to identify the body
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that was in the vehicle which wasn't
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much of a body
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the car was a 1999 chevy cavalier
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registered to molly and clay daniels a
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young couple with two small children who
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lived in nearby leander texas
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police discovered that molly daniels was
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home with her children at the time of
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the accident
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she had called me relatively early that
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morning hysterical because clayton
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wasn't home and she had to get to work
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and he had the car
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and she didn't know where he was
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through his personal effects family
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members identified the remains as those
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of clay daniels they found the remains
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of some tennis shoes that clay's family
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members identified as clay shoes they
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found a harley-davidson
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pen that had gone on a
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hat
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that clay used to wear and a silver
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necklace that they identified as being
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clays
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i figured that clayton had been drinking
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was at a party somewhere
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or just driving fast and lost control
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clay daniels an unemployed automobile
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mechanic was just 24 years old
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surprisingly
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not everyone was sorry he was dead
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absolutely he's a loser i've always felt
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that he was not the best material for
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her
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and i wondered about being a daddy
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material but
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it was her choice to make
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others expressed the same sentiments at
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his funeral
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the memorial that was a very interesting
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thing because there was just so much
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there
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his best friend got up and spoke and he
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actually told people the clay was an ass
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no he wasn't very well liked he seemed
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like sort of a loafer and a
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layabout and
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a sex offender so i mean what good could
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you say about him clay was not a model
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citizen he had recently been convicted
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for the sexual assault
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of his seven-year-old cousin
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and was sentenced to 30 days in prison
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and 10 years probation
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the crash occurred just three days
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before he was to start serving his time
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this car fire was june the 18th of 2004
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clay was supposed to be going to jail
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that monday the 21st of 2004
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and so they thought the timing of that
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was a little bit suspicious
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and police had another angle to pursue
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the parents of the sexual assault victim
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were angry that clay was sentenced to
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only 30 days in prison the sexual
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assault victim's father made comments
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prior to this accident that he wanted
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clay to go away
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so we were thinking maybe
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the father of the victim
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made clay go away
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nevertheless
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the community reached out to molly
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daniels a widow at the age of 21 who had
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two young children to support on an
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office receptionist salary
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my gosh she had people sending her money
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people she did not know
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sent her money people would her
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co-workers would put groceries in the
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house
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they would do everything they'd been
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over backwards for her she got this
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discount babysitter in the neighborhood
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because she put up signs i'm the poor
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grieving widow and i need help with
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child care
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but that generosity ended when less than
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a month after clay died
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molly told friends that she had a new
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boyfriend and that she was the
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beneficiary of clay's 100 000
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life insurance policy
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her own mother even turned on her
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absolutely she was raised better than
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this there were days that i just kicked
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myself what did i do wrong where did i
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go wrong
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[Music]
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clay daniel's family identified his
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burned remains by some of his personal
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items found in the car
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there was very little that remained from
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the fire there's only 14 pounds of body
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mass that was remaining
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and they didn't have a head
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didn't have hands or fingers or toes
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nothing to fingerprint
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but the medical examiner wanted to be
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sure
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so he extracted the bone marrow from
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clay daniel's hip bone hoping that
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enough of his mitochondria survived the
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fire for dna testing
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since mitochondrial dna is passed
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maternally scientists would try to
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compare it to the mitochondrial dna
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profile of clay's mother laurie
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but testing would take up to six months
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it's not like on csi on tv at all so it
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doesn't happen within the span of an
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hour
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[Music]
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in the meantime
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investigators noticed some
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inconsistencies at the accident scene
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the lack of skid marks on the road
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indicated that clay took no corrective
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action before the crash
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the speed limit was 60 miles per hour
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and the car was barely moving when it
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went down the embankment there was no
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momentum coming off the cliff
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it looked as if somebody had just pushed
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it off
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or just drove off the cliff at a slow
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rate of speed because all the rocks the
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trees
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on the way down were disturbed in the
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path that the vehicle took
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and the car's gas tank was intact
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this raised questions about the source
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of the fire
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my instincts told me that this was not
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an accident that somebody was killed and
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i stayed with that feeling that's why i
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told the sergeant that i was calling the
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experts in
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that expert was arson investigator
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janine mather
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the first thing she noticed was that the
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entire driver's seat had been consumed
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by fire normal vehicle fires with a body
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inside there usually is
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body fluids and remains on the seat
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and in this case there was no body
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fluids located in the vehicle
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and no remains on the seat
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mather then checked all possible sources
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for a fire
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the fuel lines
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the ignition switch
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the starter
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the battery
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everything was intact i looked at the
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vehicle inside and out and underneath
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and ruled out all accidental causes of
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ignition
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crime scene investigators gathered the
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fire debris and placed it in sealed
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canisters
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at the lab they inserted activated
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charcoal strips and then
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heated the cans
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the strips were then put into a solvent
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and tested with gas chromatograph mass
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spectrometry
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this revealed the fire was started with
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large amounts of charcoal lighter fluid
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when the results came back that it was
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positive for charcoal starter fluid i
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knew that we had an arson and
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intentionally set fire
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[Music]
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and just as investigators heard this
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news they learned something else
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molly daniel's sister melissa had been
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visiting molly when she experienced one
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of the most bizarre incidents she had
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ever encountered melissa had gone in to
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get a q-tip out of the bathroom
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turned around and looked and there was a
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guy laying in the floor of the closet
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but his head was up in the corner she
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didn't see anything but from the waist
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down and he was wearing boxers and she
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went out to molly and she goes there's a
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man asleep in your closet she goes no
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there's not
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but when molly looked in her closet
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she didn't see anyone there
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[Music]
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but things started getting kind of weird
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after that
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needless to say
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investigators found the incident
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suspicious and now wondered whether
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molly was somehow involved in her
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husband's murder
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five months after the car crash the
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sheriff's department in burnet county
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texas finally got the results of the dna
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test on the remains found in the car
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the dna revealed that the remains were
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not those of clay daniels
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when dna came back and wasn't clayton
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we're like where's clayton and who is
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this person that was in the vehicle
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to find the answers investigators put
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clay's grieving wife molly under
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surveillance for days
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her routine was perfectly normal
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until she met her new boyfriend jake
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greg for lunch she got into that man's
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car and then the two of them went off to
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taco bell
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investigators decided to go inside to
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get a better look at molly's new
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boyfriend
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when captain paul nelson walked by their
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table he noticed that jake greg bore a
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striking resemblance to clay daniels
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although his hair color was different
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he looked identical if he could have
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crawled
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into that burrito he probably would
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[Music]
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but the man insisted he was jake greg
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and produced a texas identification card
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to prove it
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but captain nelson didn't buy it and
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placed him under arrest
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[Music]
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during police questioning he finally
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admitted he was
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clay daniels clay's brilliant disguise
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consisted of nothing more than dying his
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hair black
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and other than that he hadn't changed
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his appearance at all clay had several
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motives for staging his death
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he did not want to go to jail for 30
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days and he did not want to be a
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registered sex offender and
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he had a hundred thousand dollar life
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insurance policy
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molly insisted she knew nothing about
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clay faking his own death until he came
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home one day about a month after the
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fire and told her what he had done she
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just tried to portray it like she didn't
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know that he was alive until he just
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called her out of the blue about a month
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later and said hey baby i'm alive
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i find that very hard to believe if my
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husband came back from the dead i'd be
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asking a lot of questions and i'd be
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very mad
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clay admitted it was he who was sleeping
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in the closet when molly's sister saw
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him he said molly spoke loud enough that
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it woke him up and he was able to get
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out of the closet before his
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sister-in-law returned
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see there's no one here
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i know
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clay said he planned to start a new life
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with molly and the children after the
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100 000 life insurance payment arrived
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they were going to go to mexico and he
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was going to have plastic surgery done
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on his face and have dental surgery done
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so he'd have teeth
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and molly is going to have a tummy tuck
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too apparently a little bonus of the
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plan i guess they get so much money from
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the insurance clay daniels refused to
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identify the body burned in the car fire
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clay never
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never divulged any information to us to
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help our investigation did they murder
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somebody did they find a dead homeless
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man what did they do how did they do
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this however
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clay was more than happy to talk to his
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fellow inmates i guess they're sitting
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up late at night you know shooting the
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breeze and clay had told the cellmate
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that he had actually dug up a corpse
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from a graveyard
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and that's what they had put in the car
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and set it on fire
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investigators searched pebble mound
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cemetery the one closest to the site of
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the car fire
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they knew from experience that criminals
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don't like to travel far with a corpse
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in the car
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sure enough they found a grave close to
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the front gate that looked as if it had
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been tampered with
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i could tell that the gray was disturbed
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by the crevices and the holes that was
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left
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the marker had been moved
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the flowers had been moved
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and i knew
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by looking at the other
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grave sites that that was not normal
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the headstone bore the name charlotte
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davis she died six months before the car
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crash at the age of 81.
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their suspicions were confirmed when
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they exhumed charlotte's casket
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and discovered
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it was empty
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investigators now wanted to know whether
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molly daniels was involved and if so
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they needed evidence to prove it
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clay daniels confessed to starting the
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arson fire and defrauding the insurance
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company of 100 000
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in life insurance
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his wife molly denied any involvement
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but investigators didn't believe her
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when molly first talked to the police
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and told him that ridiculous story that
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she didn't know that clay was still
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alive until a month later
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she was sticking by that story for quite
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some time and apparently that's what
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she'd been telling her lawyer too
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investigators examined molly's work
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computer
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but they weren't optimistic
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by this time six months had passed since
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the car crash
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depending on how often the computer is
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used there's a possibility that
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some of the evidence that we would have
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recovered ordinarily would be
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overwritten
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but investigators got a huge break
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molly's computer had been invaded by a
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keystroke virus right before the staged
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accident
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what the worm actually did was it
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recorded every
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letter every window she opened every
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email just any kind of thing that she's
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typing in the computer it recorded and
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into a text file and saved it
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computer forensic experts did a word
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search to identify what kind of
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information molly had been looking for
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on the internet
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we were finding words like
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unidentifiable body
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forensics on a body burned body burned
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car gasoline fire
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1500 degrees fahrenheit just words like
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that
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this proved
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that molly
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not only knew about clay's plans
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but was actively involved
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it was the happiest day of my life when
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we got that computer forensic exam it
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was just
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i mean there was no way she could deny
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that she had been involved from day one
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of the planning
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when we saw that computer forensic
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evidence
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what does surprised me is that she was
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too stupid to do this she was so stupid
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that she did this kind of thing and
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didn't think about the consequences and
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didn't think about possibility of
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getting caught
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police obtained a search warrant for
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molly's house and found
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even more forensic evidence
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during the search warrant of their
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residence
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we found
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in the kitchen two containers of
00:16:54
charcoal starter fluid both of them were
00:16:57
tested and one was consistent with what
00:17:00
was found in the vehicle
00:17:04
prosecutors believe that clay and mali
00:17:07
planned this crime for months
00:17:10
they looked in the obituaries to
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identify a grave to rob
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ideally
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someone elderly who didn't have many
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family members visiting her grave
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they chose
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81 year old charlotte davis
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six months after her death they dug up
00:17:35
her body drove to the ravine
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and set fire to their car
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with charlotte's body inside
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[Music]
00:17:52
play through some of his personal items
00:17:54
in the fire so they could be used for
00:17:57
identification
00:18:00
but the dna testing proved
00:18:03
the body wasn't clay daniels
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and gas chromatography found
00:18:08
remnants of the lighter fluid
00:18:14
when confronted with all this evidence
00:18:17
molly daniels finally confessed
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she said that they watched a lot of law
00:18:23
and order and csi
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and they got the idea to do this from
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those shows
00:18:29
and i asked her do y'all not watch the
00:18:31
end of the shows because usually the
00:18:32
criminals get caught and she just
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laughed
00:18:37
molly daniels pleaded guilty to
00:18:39
insurance fraud and hindering her
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husband's apprehension
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she was sentenced to 20 years in prison
00:18:48
you do the crime you do the time
00:18:51
clay daniels pled guilty to insurance
00:18:54
fraud arson and desecration of a corpse
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he was sentenced to 30 years in prison
00:19:01
plus
00:19:02
an additional 20 years for the sexual
00:19:05
assault charge
00:19:07
the body of charlotte davis was
00:19:10
reinterred
00:19:11
the people carrying her casket with the
00:19:14
ones who put clay and molly
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behind bars
00:19:20
texas investigators say
00:19:22
it is among the most bizarre cases
00:19:25
they've ever seen
00:19:28
they were also appalled by the deception
00:19:31
molly and clay perpetrated
00:19:34
on their own children
00:19:36
to tell a little boy who's four almost
00:19:38
five years old that the man that he has
00:19:41
known his whole life as his father is
00:19:43
not his daddy when he runs to him and
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hugs him and says hey daddy i love you
00:19:48
to have the man say
00:19:50
oh i'm not your daddy i'm mommy's new
00:19:52
boyfriend jake and to have molly tell
00:19:55
him that over and over no no that's not
00:19:57
daddy that's jake
00:19:59
you can't even imagine what that would
00:20:01
do to a child's mind we just hope that
00:20:04
their children
00:20:06
get proper
00:20:08
mental care the next couple years and
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get get raised well by their
00:20:12
grandparents because
00:20:14
otherwise you can have another one there
00:20:16
clayton daniels on our hands in
00:20:18
15 years without the science
00:20:21
investigators were convinced that
00:20:24
clayton and molly daniels might have
00:20:26
gotten away with it they thought that
00:20:29
the fire would destroy all evidence and
00:20:31
there wouldn't be enough remains
00:20:34
for dna testing and they were almost
00:20:36
right
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lowest
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scum
00:20:42
walks of life i mean they don't they
00:20:43
don't deserve to be on this planet but
00:20:45
that's just my personal opinion
00:20:47
if it hadn't been
00:20:48
for everybody being on their toes in
00:20:51
this case listening to their gut
00:20:53
listening to their instincts and then
00:20:55
pursuing all the dna
00:20:58
the forensic investigation the arson
00:21:00
investigation we wouldn't be where we
00:21:02
are today with these two people in
00:21:03
prison
00:21:04
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:33
[Music]
00:21:45
you
