00:00:06
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:08
one woman pled guilty to a bloody
00:00:10
killing spree in a local bar
00:00:12
he put the gun right up to his face and
00:00:14
told him to get down on the ground
00:00:16
when he refused to do it he shot him in
00:00:19
the face
00:00:20
he had a dream about robbing the bar and
00:00:22
us going to oregon
00:00:23
so i was like yeah then vanessa crawley
00:00:26
tells her story
00:00:27
she was an alleged accomplice in the
00:00:29
senseless murder of a casual friend
00:00:31
the fact that she didn't pull the
00:00:33
trigger doesn't mean that she didn't
00:00:35
lure
00:00:35
al roberts to the car i didn't even want
00:00:38
to go to sleep
00:00:39
because every time i closed my ass all i
00:00:42
could see was
00:00:43
out falling two women two brutal crimes
00:00:47
these are the stories of denise
00:00:49
holsinger and vanessa crawley
00:01:12
the seaside metropolis of virginia beach
00:01:15
enjoys a thriving tourist industry and a
00:01:17
low crime rate
00:01:19
but on june 30th 1994 just days before
00:01:22
the july 4 crowds were due
00:01:24
a grisly crime rocked the beach
00:01:26
community
00:01:28
four people were found brutally slain
00:01:30
inside a neighborhood tavern called the
00:01:32
which stuck in
00:01:33
it was almost like a slaughterhouse in
00:01:34
there and that was our first quadruple
00:01:36
homicide
00:01:37
that we experienced in the city police
00:01:40
arrived
00:01:41
minutes after the massacre but the
00:01:42
killers were gone
00:01:44
we knew that we had four people dead we
00:01:45
didn't have any witnesses to speak of
00:01:47
this was a terribly violent dispatch of
00:01:50
four lives
00:01:51
there was something personal in this
00:01:53
killing the investigation led to a
00:01:56
29-year-old woman named denise holsinger
00:01:58
a former bartender who had recently been
00:02:00
fired from the witch duck inn
00:02:02
i'm in shock and i didn't do anything
00:02:06
the case would hinge on detectives
00:02:07
abilities to get her to talk
00:02:09
and reveal who was responsible for the
00:02:11
killings it was not my ideal to rob the
00:02:13
bar
00:02:14
without a doubt denise hulsinger was the
00:02:17
spider woman behind it
00:02:18
in that interview room with denise there
00:02:21
was a presence in there
00:02:22
there was almost a presence of of evil
00:02:25
did denise holsinger just play a small
00:02:28
part in a robbery gone wrong
00:02:30
or did she orchestrate a ruthless mass
00:02:34
murder
00:02:39
denise holsinger was born in a small
00:02:41
town near kansas city
00:02:43
her parents separated when she was still
00:02:45
a baby my father left when i was about a
00:02:47
year old
00:02:48
i've never known my real father denise
00:02:50
spent much of her childhood with her
00:02:52
grandparents
00:02:53
who helped fill the void left by her
00:02:55
absent father
00:02:56
my grandparents got me through a lot
00:02:58
we'd go fishing and
00:03:01
my grandpa taught me how to bait my hook
00:03:03
and my love of nature
00:03:06
denise's mother remarried twice and two
00:03:08
younger brothers were born
00:03:10
at eight years old denise claims her
00:03:12
second stepfather began molesting her
00:03:14
i had a daytime dad who you know took us
00:03:16
different places
00:03:18
and played softball and stuff and we'd
00:03:19
go the games and then i had a nighttime
00:03:21
dad
00:03:21
who would come into my room i feel my
00:03:23
mother did the best that she could but
00:03:25
she just wasn't aware
00:03:27
when denise was 11 the family moved to
00:03:29
phoenix arizona
00:03:31
at 13 she started running away from home
00:03:34
i was extremely rebellious as a teenager
00:03:38
started doing drugs and drinking hanging
00:03:40
out with a rougher
00:03:41
crowd life on the streets forced denise
00:03:44
to make desperate choices
00:03:45
being a runaway i i had sex a lot to
00:03:48
have some place to sleep or something to
00:03:49
eat
00:03:50
i feel that the molest led me to be
00:03:52
extremely
00:03:53
promiscuous because that's all i thought
00:03:56
that love was
00:03:57
denise lived at home off and on during
00:03:59
her troubled teen years
00:04:00
but her rebellious streak kept her on
00:04:02
the streets doing drugs and hanging out
00:04:05
with a bad crowd
00:04:06
she says she was raped three separate
00:04:08
times the first two times i was raped
00:04:10
even the third time
00:04:13
it just felt like that's all i was good
00:04:15
for so it really didn't at the time it
00:04:17
didn't
00:04:18
emotionally phase me i started gaining
00:04:21
weight after the rape the last rape
00:04:23
denise dropped out of high school and
00:04:25
began exotic dancing to support herself
00:04:28
at 19 years old she moved to tennessee
00:04:30
where she met randall holsinger who was
00:04:32
in the navy
00:04:32
i was tired and here was somebody who
00:04:34
wanted to take care of me
00:04:36
he was everything that i had not ever
00:04:39
had in my life
00:04:40
he was stable he was clean cut denise
00:04:43
and randall married in 1984 and the
00:04:45
newlyweds moved to california where
00:04:47
randall was stationed
00:04:49
i loved him but i don't think that i've
00:04:51
ever actually been in love
00:04:53
i wanted to be a good wife one year into
00:04:57
the marriage
00:04:58
denise gave birth to a baby girl i was
00:05:00
21 when i had my oldest daughter
00:05:04
i was so scared i remember when she was
00:05:06
little but
00:05:07
we had a cradle by the bed and i would
00:05:08
sleep with my hand
00:05:10
on her because i just knew god was going
00:05:12
to punish me and take my baby
00:05:14
because of the person the bad things i
00:05:16
had done in my life
00:05:18
i don't think she was ready to be a
00:05:20
mother i'm not sure if she ever
00:05:21
would have been ready to be a mother i
00:05:24
tried to be the best
00:05:26
parent that i could
00:05:29
i didn't have good skills denise
00:05:32
continued to gain weight
00:05:33
which she says made her self-esteem
00:05:35
plummet two years later
00:05:37
in 1987 she gave birth to another
00:05:39
daughter
00:05:40
and then a son in 1989. as a mom she was
00:05:43
indifferent
00:05:44
she would sleep and the kids would be up
00:05:47
running around the house or whatever and
00:05:49
she'd just sleep my memories of her were
00:05:53
chaotic and very far and few in between
00:05:57
and i had to walk myself to kindergarten
00:05:59
denise admits she was overwhelmed as a
00:06:01
mother
00:06:01
and struggled with alcohol and a
00:06:03
prescription drug addiction that fueled
00:06:05
terrible fights with her husband
00:06:07
she definitely knew how to push my
00:06:08
buttons we'd start yelling to each other
00:06:12
there was a couple times she hit me and
00:06:14
you know so i just back off and say okay
00:06:16
you know i gotta go i was very very
00:06:19
self-destructive
00:06:22
we were separated many many many times
00:06:25
i wish things had been different i wish
00:06:28
i had been the person
00:06:29
i am now then i'd have pushed harder for
00:06:33
us to have therapy
00:06:35
in 1992 randall was transferred to
00:06:37
virginia beach virginia
00:06:39
both denise and her husband hoped this
00:06:41
could be a fresh start
00:06:42
for their family i thought by changing
00:06:44
myself i could
00:06:46
help the relationship you know i was
00:06:49
about 120 pounds overweight by then
00:06:52
he told me for years i was fat dumb and
00:06:53
ugly and nobody else would ever want me
00:06:55
well when you get in the argument you
00:06:57
say things i'd say things like that and
00:06:59
she would say things back at me i mean
00:07:01
it's
00:07:02
tight shortly after moving to virginia
00:07:04
beach denise underwent surgery to have
00:07:06
her stomach stapled
00:07:08
when i had my stomach stapled and i
00:07:10
started to lose weight
00:07:12
started going to bars drinking and other
00:07:15
men wanted me
00:07:16
i just i went wild i went wild it seems
00:07:19
like her personality
00:07:20
changed a bit and that she started
00:07:22
saying oh look at me i'm so pretty i'm
00:07:24
so pretty i
00:07:25
lost all this weight i'm so pretty look
00:07:27
at me look at me
00:07:28
within months denise left her family and
00:07:31
ran off to tennessee with a new
00:07:32
boyfriend
00:07:33
she stayed for almost a year i started
00:07:36
drinking a lot and doing crystal meth
00:07:39
because of years of listening to my
00:07:41
husband you know that i was fat dumb and
00:07:43
ugly
00:07:44
there was just something in me a very
00:07:47
warped sick part that had to prove that
00:07:48
it wasn't true
00:07:50
for my own self-esteem in march 1994
00:07:54
29 year old denise separated from her
00:07:56
husband for the last time
00:07:58
she landed a job as a bartender and
00:08:00
waitress at the witchduck inn
00:08:02
owned by lamban's son lam was a
00:08:05
vietnamese immigrant
00:08:06
who had come to the united states to
00:08:08
live the american dream
00:08:10
he had just bought the witch duck inn
00:08:11
and had opened for business when he
00:08:13
hired denise
00:08:14
he's a great husband and he was a great
00:08:18
friend
00:08:19
we helped each other closing down the
00:08:21
restaurant
00:08:22
lamb often brought his five-year-old son
00:08:24
to work with him
00:08:26
love him usually take joshua to the
00:08:28
restaurant
00:08:29
he loved to show off joshua with the
00:08:31
customer
00:08:32
while working at the witchduck inn
00:08:34
denise met a frequent customer of the
00:08:36
bar
00:08:36
32 year old michael claggett he was
00:08:39
pretty much
00:08:40
a drifter a little bit of a boozer
00:08:42
somebody who was just a shade on the
00:08:44
wrong side of the law but
00:08:45
nobody would have raised any kind of
00:08:47
terrible red flags my husband
00:08:49
cook him food and sometimes bought him a
00:08:52
picture of beer or sting like
00:08:54
that claggett lavished denise with the
00:08:56
attention she craved
00:08:58
he lived in an apartment complex next to
00:09:00
the tavern and the two became
00:09:01
romantically involved
00:09:04
michael had a charisma
00:09:07
and he was
00:09:10
the little boy lost who needed me i
00:09:13
think we were obsessed with each other
00:09:15
the sex was good we filled a void in
00:09:18
each other
00:09:19
just two months into the job denise was
00:09:22
caught stealing
00:09:23
she says it was to help michael who
00:09:25
needed cash
00:09:26
i started drinking on the job dipping
00:09:28
into the till
00:09:29
because michael didn't have any money
00:09:32
the bar owner lamb
00:09:33
had to let her go he fired her and
00:09:36
allowed her to come back and be a
00:09:38
customer
00:09:39
and he paid for it with his life when
00:09:41
women behind bars continues
00:09:43
he approached each one of them and shot
00:09:45
him in the back of the head this little
00:09:47
boy
00:09:47
was inside that bar when these four
00:09:50
people were killed
00:09:58
in the summer of 1994 29 year old denise
00:10:01
holsinger says she was living a
00:10:02
self-destructive life
00:10:04
that stemmed from low self-esteem and
00:10:06
addiction to alcohol and prescription
00:10:08
drugs
00:10:08
separated from her husband and recently
00:10:10
fired from her bartending job at the
00:10:12
witch duck inn
00:10:13
denise went on a month-long partying
00:10:15
binge with her boyfriend
00:10:17
33 year old petty criminal michael
00:10:19
claggett
00:10:20
on june 30th 1994 claggett's birthday
00:10:24
denise and michael spent the day
00:10:25
drinking and doing drugs
00:10:27
we went to several bars and drank and
00:10:30
drank
00:10:32
around 11 p.m that night at claggett's
00:10:34
apartment denise claims michael
00:10:36
suggested they robbed the witch stuck in
00:10:38
he had a dream about robbing the bar and
00:10:40
us going to oregon
00:10:43
so i was like yeah michael had a 357
00:10:46
revolver that he had stolen from his
00:10:48
roommate
00:10:49
he told me to go up to the bar and see
00:10:51
who was there
00:10:52
once they got to the front of the witch
00:10:54
duck inn denise
00:10:56
hulsinger went in first she came back
00:10:58
out and told
00:10:59
michael that there was only four people
00:11:01
in the bar that he could come in
00:11:03
in the bar that night were the owner lam
00:11:05
van sun
00:11:06
a part-time cook wendell jr parish a
00:11:08
customer
00:11:09
named abdelaziz gren and the new
00:11:12
bartender karen rounds asleep in the
00:11:14
back office was a fifth person
00:11:16
lamb's five-year-old boy joshua and i
00:11:19
went back in
00:11:20
i was sitting there drinking a beer and
00:11:22
the next thing i know he jumped over the
00:11:24
bar
00:11:25
he told me to lock the door he told
00:11:27
everybody to get on the floor
00:11:29
and everybody got on the floor but j.r
00:11:32
all but one laid down on the floor
00:11:34
wendell j.r parrish stayed in his seat
00:11:37
at the bar
00:11:38
he put the gun right up to his face and
00:11:39
told him to get down on the ground
00:11:42
when he refused to do it he shot him in
00:11:44
the face
00:11:47
it was all just a really big blur i got
00:11:50
the money out of the register
00:11:52
he told me to go out the back door when
00:11:54
i got to the office door
00:11:56
i heard the rest of the shots he had
00:11:58
everybody down on the ground
00:12:00
and approached each one of them and shot
00:12:01
him in the back of the head
00:12:04
surprisingly the five-year-old son of
00:12:06
lamb had slept through the entire
00:12:08
shooting
00:12:08
this little boy was inside that bar
00:12:12
when these four people were killed josh
00:12:14
was still sleeping
00:12:16
was surprised me josh was very very
00:12:19
light sleeper very
00:12:22
and all that gunshot
00:12:25
i don't know why he didn't wake up how
00:12:28
he survived
00:12:28
is still a a question a great debate
00:12:31
michael claggett says denise spotted
00:12:33
them and said he's got to be killed too
00:12:36
and michael klage said he couldn't do it
00:12:45
denise denies ever seen the sleeping
00:12:48
child as they fled out the back door
00:12:50
we walked back to the apartment mike
00:12:52
started throwing
00:12:54
everything that he had his clothes and
00:12:56
stuff in trash bags
00:12:58
he he was like we've got to get out of
00:13:00
here we've got to go we've got to go
00:13:02
they counted the money they got away
00:13:04
with 400 dollars
00:13:06
a hundred dollars a life
00:13:09
while denise and michael skipped town
00:13:11
and headed to north carolina
00:13:12
customers showed up to the bar just
00:13:15
minutes after the massacre
00:13:16
the entire homicide unit was called out
00:13:18
on it just because of the sheer
00:13:19
scope of the case they couldn't have
00:13:21
missed the killers by much you know when
00:13:23
they walked in
00:13:24
karen rounds is on the ground with
00:13:27
a mortal wound but she's still alive and
00:13:29
so is a bellaziz grand
00:13:31
he's still alive karen rounds and
00:13:33
abdelaziz gren
00:13:34
were rushed to the emergency room both
00:13:37
died shortly after
00:13:40
when i got there i said where's my son
00:13:42
where's josh
00:13:44
and i saw joshua was walking with one of
00:13:46
my customers behind
00:13:48
there walking and i said
00:13:51
where islam lum's dead
00:13:56
and i remember i remember i screamed so
00:14:00
loud
00:14:02
i can even hear my voice right now in my
00:14:04
head
00:14:05
and right at that time i know that i
00:14:08
just lost a best friend
00:14:12
inside the bar investigators tried to
00:14:14
piece together what happened
00:14:16
it was probably one of the most grisly
00:14:19
scenes i've seen as a homicide detective
00:14:23
we had wendell parish who was sitting at
00:14:27
the bar
00:14:28
and his head was down on the bar and it
00:14:30
appeared that he had
00:14:31
a single gun shot wound to the forehead
00:14:35
we had the owner of the business lying
00:14:38
in the prone position on his stomach he
00:14:41
also had a single gunshot wound
00:14:44
to the back of the head this was a
00:14:46
terribly
00:14:48
violent dispatch of four lives so they
00:14:51
believed there was something
00:14:52
personal in this killing we knew that we
00:14:54
had four people dead we didn't have any
00:14:56
witnesses to speak of
00:14:57
the detectives believe if they don't
00:14:59
have a suspect within 24 hours
00:15:02
they're starting to lose it within 48
00:15:04
hours if they don't
00:15:06
know where that crime is going there's a
00:15:09
high chance they'll never solve that
00:15:10
crime
00:15:11
while investigators combed the crime
00:15:13
scene denise and michael slept only a
00:15:15
couple hours
00:15:16
at a hotel then returned to virginia
00:15:18
beach i talked him into going back to
00:15:20
the beach
00:15:20
i just wanted to go i want to go home
00:15:22
want to go home want to go home
00:15:24
by 6 am they were back in michael's
00:15:26
apartment the pair then joined the crowd
00:15:29
of onlookers outside the witch duck inn
00:15:31
criminals often do return to the scene
00:15:33
of the crime whether it be curiosity or
00:15:34
what
00:15:35
both of them had come back to the scene
00:15:37
to watch us
00:15:39
process the crime scene denise was very
00:15:41
animated was demanding answers as to
00:15:43
what we were doing to find the people
00:15:44
responsible
00:15:45
she wanted them caught she wanted them
00:15:47
punished she was very animated in this
00:15:49
and she stuck out in my mind for that
00:15:53
reason
00:15:54
when police learned she had recently
00:15:56
been fired from the bar
00:15:57
they realized it was time to take a
00:15:59
closer look at denise holsinger
00:16:01
she was now at the top of their list of
00:16:03
suspects
00:16:04
when women behind bars continues michael
00:16:08
claggett did not have the capacity to be
00:16:09
a mastermind in this crime
00:16:11
michael claggett was led by denise
00:16:18
and later that's when he took the gun
00:16:20
out pointed at my head and said
00:16:23
this is the only way out our merits so
00:16:25
don't f up
00:16:38
on the night of june 30th 1994 four
00:16:41
people were slaughtered at a small
00:16:42
tavern called the which duck inn
00:16:44
it was at the time the worst mass murder
00:16:47
in virginia beach history
00:16:49
police suspected that denise holsinger a
00:16:51
former employee of the bar
00:16:53
was somehow involved just 17 hours after
00:16:56
the murders
00:16:57
holsinger was brought in for questioning
00:16:59
they took me to the station
00:17:01
self-preservation kicked in and i lied
00:17:03
and i lied and i lied and i lied and i
00:17:06
lied and i light some more
00:17:08
everybody who sits down across the table
00:17:09
from a detective thinks they're smarter
00:17:11
than the police
00:17:12
and almost nobody is when i began
00:17:14
talking
00:17:15
with her probably about a half an hour
00:17:18
into the interview
00:17:19
and he's became very flirtatious with me
00:17:21
which was
00:17:22
very strange especially when i'm sitting
00:17:24
in there and talking to her about
00:17:26
four of her friends now that had been
00:17:29
shot and killed in a bar
00:17:31
i think he jumped over the bar he jumped
00:17:33
over the bar okay
00:17:35
okay he did what's he going on
00:17:39
right there i thought it was like all
00:17:42
just a joke
00:17:43
is everybody else going on the floor
00:17:45
he's going on the floor
00:17:46
okay and uh
00:17:50
and i looked at him i said well
00:17:53
why would michael um kill these people
00:17:56
in this bar
00:17:57
trying to show you what a man he was or
00:17:59
what
00:18:02
is that what he said he did it he shot
00:18:04
these people because
00:18:05
you're sexy she'd go back and forth
00:18:08
she'd be very angry and then she'd try
00:18:10
to be seductive toward them
00:18:11
and she'd be invasive with her questions
00:18:13
she would change
00:18:15
she didn't hear any gunshots and she
00:18:16
said she did hear some gunshots
00:18:18
i don't remember but i didn't see it
00:18:22
i didn't see him shooting anybody
00:18:33
she was putting it all on michael nearly
00:18:35
24 hours after the murders
00:18:37
police apprehended michael claggett who
00:18:39
was drunk and sleeping in some bushes
00:18:41
near his apartment
00:18:42
detective paul yoakam interrogated
00:18:45
claggett
00:18:46
i told him a lie i told him that
00:18:50
that the owner of the bar put little pin
00:18:53
cameras up in the ceiling
00:18:54
it's going to show him robbing and
00:18:57
killing those people
00:18:58
there were no cameras all of that was a
00:19:00
big fat line
00:19:02
michael claggett fell for and knew they
00:19:05
would see him
00:19:06
in the bar if this was true he gave me a
00:19:09
full compassion he broke down
00:19:10
was crying bawling
00:19:14
i did it
00:19:18
i didn't know the worst thing
00:19:27
when he broke down and was telling me
00:19:29
what he had done he was extremely
00:19:32
remorseful for what he had done
00:19:35
in fact he said that he would like to be
00:19:37
fried right now
00:19:40
[Music]
00:19:43
though michael admitted to being the
00:19:44
shooter and begged to be given the death
00:19:46
penalty
00:19:47
he claimed it was all denise's idea they
00:19:50
were at his townhouse and they were
00:19:51
having sex on the couch
00:19:53
and right after that she was hinting to
00:19:56
him
00:19:57
that it was navy payday there could be
00:20:00
some money in the witch stuck in and
00:20:01
they could sure use some money
00:20:03
and if they pulled this off they could
00:20:05
be the next bonnie and clyde
00:20:06
those were her words
00:20:09
[Music]
00:20:18
michael told police he hesitated outside
00:20:20
the witch duck inn
00:20:22
having second thoughts she came out to
00:20:24
him and said what
00:20:25
i've already told you you know there's
00:20:27
only four people in there she
00:20:28
kept pushing him to come in and do it
00:20:31
once inside the bar
00:20:32
michael claimed he again hesitated but
00:20:34
he said every time he looked over to
00:20:36
denise holsinger she kept mouthing the
00:20:39
words to him
00:20:40
do it do it
00:20:50
denise insists she was not the
00:20:52
mastermind that claggett made her out to
00:20:54
be
00:20:55
i don't even know if michael remembered
00:20:56
things wrong i think michael just wanted
00:20:58
to twist things to make me look worse
00:21:00
than i was
00:21:01
it was not my ideal to rob the bar
00:21:03
michael claimed that he had had a dream
00:21:05
about it
00:21:05
michael claggett did not have the
00:21:07
capacity to be a mastermind in this
00:21:08
crime michael clegget was led by denise
00:21:11
at that time in my life i don't think i
00:21:12
was emotionally capable of masterminding
00:21:14
anything i didn't want to do it and she
00:21:17
kept saying do it
00:21:18
do it i didn't know that anybody was
00:21:22
even dead or
00:21:23
anything until the next morning michael
00:21:26
was very in control of the situation
00:21:29
well between michael clegg and denise
00:21:30
hulsinger it's
00:21:32
without a doubt that denise hulsinger
00:21:35
was the spider woman behind it
00:21:37
michael claggett was largely witless
00:21:40
denise holsinger to michael claggett was
00:21:42
a stronger drug than anything he'd ever
00:21:44
tried before
00:21:45
i had spent almost about 15 years in
00:21:48
homicide total as a supervisor and
00:21:50
interviewed a lot of individuals who had
00:21:52
killed a lot of
00:21:53
people in despicable manners but in that
00:21:56
interview
00:21:56
room with denise there was some other
00:21:59
presence in there it was almost a
00:22:00
presence of
00:22:01
of evil i can't describe it to you i've
00:22:04
never felt it since
00:22:06
the interrogations of denise and michael
00:22:08
yielded more than enough evidence to put
00:22:10
the two killers away
00:22:11
this is a case of phenomenal police work
00:22:13
and this was nothing other than
00:22:16
instincts shoe leather hunches
00:22:19
and talent when it comes to interviewing
00:22:22
the people involved
00:22:30
[Music]
00:22:33
virginia's law in 1995 protected denise
00:22:36
from the possibility of the death
00:22:37
penalty
00:22:38
because she did not pull the trigger
00:22:40
it's extremely hard for the victim's
00:22:41
family to
00:22:42
be able to accept that fact she didn't
00:22:45
pull the trigger
00:22:48
but she do all the killing all the
00:22:50
masterminding
00:22:52
i believe the knees should be in the
00:22:53
ground
00:22:55
she should have been executed just like
00:22:57
claggett was
00:22:59
before michael clegg get executed
00:23:03
his request was to speak to me
00:23:07
to ask me for forgiveness i mean i know
00:23:10
i'm gonna die important
00:23:11
i want to i'm not even gonna
00:23:14
i don't want a lord i just want to die
00:23:18
his last words before he was put to
00:23:21
death in the electric chair
00:23:23
where that he was sorry virginia allowed
00:23:25
inmates the choice of lethal injection
00:23:28
or the electric chair michael claggett
00:23:31
chose the electric chair and i can't
00:23:34
help but think
00:23:35
that was his last act of punishing
00:23:37
himself even further
00:23:39
[Music]
00:23:43
i feel michael got the easy way out
00:23:47
i deal with it every single day fear
00:23:50
disgust shame denise is serving her time
00:23:54
at the fluvana correctional center for
00:23:56
women
00:23:56
and coming to terms with the fallout
00:23:58
from her life choices
00:24:00
my life has been a tragedy waiting to
00:24:02
happen
00:24:03
she volunteers for jobs that will help
00:24:05
others such as transcribing books into
00:24:07
braille for the blind
00:24:09
denise has no contact with her three
00:24:11
children or ex-husband randall
00:24:13
i hope that someday
00:24:17
they will want to talk to me i am
00:24:20
grateful that
00:24:21
she gave birth to me but i'm not sure if
00:24:24
i love her
00:24:25
as of right now i don't want contact
00:24:27
with her i can't say
00:24:29
15-20 years down the road michelle
00:24:32
holsinger was eight years old at the
00:24:34
time of her mother's crime
00:24:35
she is now a college graduate and
00:24:37
studying to be a nurse
00:24:39
i do worry a lot that people do judge me
00:24:41
for the actions of my mother
00:24:43
i had been told once that the sins of
00:24:44
the mother are the sons of the children
00:24:47
definitely not true because i apologize
00:24:50
to flies for killing them
00:24:52
that i'm very passionate and
00:24:54
compassionate person
00:24:55
it's not a day that i don't wish i could
00:24:58
change what happened
00:24:59
and not because i got caught i'm just
00:25:02
i'm sorry
00:25:03
i'm sorry next up on women behind bars
00:25:07
a young mother allegedly lures a man to
00:25:09
his death
00:25:10
he took the gun out pointed at my head
00:25:12
and said
00:25:13
this is the only way out our merits so
00:25:15
don't f up
00:25:17
for more information about women behind
00:25:19
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:25:30
in the late night hours of october 23
00:25:32
2004
00:25:33
five gunshots pierced the darkness along
00:25:36
a deserted highway in rural southwest
00:25:38
virginia
00:25:39
a led police to 911 body of 18-year-old
00:25:43
al roberts dead in a small clearing
00:25:46
what we found was a victim first shot
00:25:49
was to the chest area
00:25:50
one to the left side of the head one to
00:25:52
the right side of the head and it was
00:25:53
two in the back area
00:25:55
roberts was last seen alive getting into
00:25:57
a suburban truck with three men
00:25:59
and a 19 year old woman named vanessa
00:26:01
crawley it
00:26:03
appeared to be a robbery gone wrong
00:26:06
police apprehended vanessa her husband
00:26:08
christopher crawley and a third
00:26:10
suspect lavon rick williams christopher
00:26:12
confessed to being the shooter
00:26:14
but authorities suspected he did not act
00:26:16
alone
00:26:17
she was an accomplice to the entire plan
00:26:21
which led to murder i didn't kill
00:26:24
anybody
00:26:25
i didn't know anybody's gonna get killed
00:26:27
i was just there
00:26:29
there was no question that she played a
00:26:31
role the question was how much of a role
00:26:34
was vanessa an innocent witness to her
00:26:36
husband's murderous act
00:26:38
or did she knowingly lure a young man to
00:26:40
his death
00:26:42
[Music]
00:26:47
vanessa crawley was born in rural
00:26:49
virginia in 1985
00:26:51
the middle daughter of rory and robbie
00:26:53
gail johnson
00:26:54
i grew up in clarksonville virginia it's
00:26:57
um small town we probably got like two
00:27:01
stoplights
00:27:04
my mom and dad separated when i was like
00:27:07
two
00:27:07
so my dad pretty much raised me and my
00:27:10
two sisters
00:27:11
after ending the marriage vanessa's mom
00:27:13
moved to kentucky where vanessa and her
00:27:15
sisters
00:27:15
visited every summer as she grew up
00:27:18
vanessa was involved in her church
00:27:20
vanessa was the
00:27:24
the president of the junior choir
00:27:27
it was good foundation because
00:27:30
i always had a good relationship with
00:27:32
with god
00:27:34
at 13 years old vanessa learned that her
00:27:36
mother contracted hiv
00:27:38
the virus that causes aids from a
00:27:40
boyfriend within a couple of years
00:27:42
her mom succumbed to the disease the day
00:27:45
before she
00:27:46
passed away i went to the hospital by
00:27:48
myself
00:27:49
and stayed there with her all day and
00:27:51
that night
00:27:52
it was time for me to go and she said
00:27:54
she didn't want me to leave
00:27:56
and she she reached her hand out to me
00:27:58
and she said
00:27:59
i love you i see you tomorrow and when
00:28:02
we came back the next day
00:28:04
she was unresponsive and she passed that
00:28:07
night
00:28:08
so i was the last person she talked to
00:28:12
dealing with the emotional part of their
00:28:14
mom being sick
00:28:16
i really don't think vanessa had a
00:28:19
outlet
00:28:20
she bottled up all the inner emotions
00:28:26
vanessa met christopher crawley when she
00:28:28
was 17.
00:28:29
chris was 18. we talked on the phone for
00:28:33
about three or four months
00:28:34
and he ended up coming to my house one
00:28:36
day while my dad wasn't there
00:28:38
and that's when i got pregnant
00:28:42
i was fierce i was upset i really didn't
00:28:44
have no rational thinking going on at
00:28:47
that time
00:28:48
jaylen was born october 23 2003
00:28:52
it was the happiest day of my life the
00:28:54
18 year old embraced motherhood
00:28:56
she was a very good mom she always loved
00:28:59
this
00:29:00
love to give him a bath and she played
00:29:02
with him
00:29:03
she was a very very good young mother
00:29:07
chris the baby's father joined the army
00:29:10
my purpose for joining the military was
00:29:12
to take care of my family
00:29:14
and i considered us a family but the
00:29:17
young couple's relationship was already
00:29:19
plagued with problems
00:29:21
he was an alcoholic he drank on a
00:29:24
regular
00:29:25
all day every day i used to get a lot of
00:29:28
fights when i was younger
00:29:30
because i always thought people would
00:29:32
have to get me
00:29:33
i've been back and forth with mental
00:29:37
health since i was 12.
00:29:39
and i stopped treating me when i went to
00:29:42
the military
00:29:43
against her father's advice vanessa
00:29:45
married chris in december of 2003.
00:29:48
i really feel that he had some kind of
00:29:50
strong hold
00:29:52
on her that actually pulled her away
00:29:55
from her family
00:29:56
and pulled her closer to him vanessa and
00:30:00
baby jalen
00:30:00
moved to georgia where chris was
00:30:02
stationed when i got down there
00:30:06
he started abusing me
00:30:09
he's a very abusive person i've seen him
00:30:12
like when she was pregnant i've seen him
00:30:15
push her down to the floor
00:30:17
i was always scared of him
00:30:21
because he would hit me for no reason
00:30:26
he beat her she wanted to get out
00:30:29
and she told me one time it was like she
00:30:32
couldn't
00:30:33
the abuse pushed vanessa to a breaking
00:30:35
point borrowing a friend's gun
00:30:37
she says she was ready to kill chris one
00:30:39
night while he slept
00:30:41
i was standing at the doorway when i
00:30:43
pointed the gun up
00:30:45
that's when the neighbor started
00:30:46
knocking on the door
00:30:48
i was going to shoot him and come back
00:30:50
to virginia but
00:30:52
god saved him that day the couple agreed
00:30:54
to live apart for a while
00:30:56
in september 2004 vanessa moved back to
00:30:58
virginia and into the home of chris's
00:31:00
grandmother
00:31:01
but chris came to visit often and the
00:31:03
two continued their rocky relationship
00:31:06
both admit to cheating on their marriage
00:31:08
and the resulting fights
00:31:10
turned violent he would choke me up pull
00:31:13
me out the
00:31:14
car around my neck she loved me but at
00:31:17
the same time she was afraid of me
00:31:20
i was putting up with it just to keep my
00:31:23
family together
00:31:25
her choices that she made some were good
00:31:28
some are bad but
00:31:29
that was the worst mistake that she made
00:31:31
was being with him
00:31:32
he claimed that he was in a gang is all
00:31:35
he talked about
00:31:37
on saturday october 23 2004
00:31:40
chris crawley drove up from his army
00:31:42
base to celebrate his son's first
00:31:44
birthday
00:31:45
he brought along a friend lafon rick
00:31:47
williams he
00:31:48
also brought a nine millimeter handgun
00:31:50
he recently purchased
00:31:52
that night after the birthday party
00:31:54
vanessa says chris
00:31:55
threatened her with the gun i was
00:31:56
sitting in the car talking to him
00:31:59
and he was like you know anybody i can
00:32:02
get some money from
00:32:04
i was like this dude named greg davis
00:32:07
he told me if i ever need anything all i
00:32:09
had to do was ask
00:32:11
vanessa claims chris gave her an
00:32:13
ultimatum
00:32:14
and that's when he took the gun out
00:32:16
pointed at my head and said
00:32:17
this is the only way out our merits so
00:32:20
don't f up
00:32:21
after that i said let's go find greg
00:32:23
davis
00:32:24
that's when i really knew that he was
00:32:26
serious and that he would hurt me if i
00:32:28
didn't do
00:32:30
what he wanted me to do or told me to do
00:32:32
vanessa and chris
00:32:34
cruised the streets of chase city
00:32:35
looking for greg davis
00:32:37
also in the car were two of chris's
00:32:39
friends lavon rick williams and joseph
00:32:41
pickett
00:32:42
as well as vanessa's one-year-old son
00:32:44
they were looking for a
00:32:46
particular drug dealer to rob
00:32:51
that particular drug dealer was not at
00:32:52
home vanessa claims that chris
00:32:55
then hatched a new plan he was like okay
00:32:58
well go find somebody else they went to
00:33:01
the tasty freeze area of chase city
00:33:04
where there was a group of men out there
00:33:06
vanessa got out
00:33:07
and asked to buy some marijuana i like
00:33:10
faith
00:33:11
like i wanted some marijuana just so
00:33:15
somebody would come with me that
00:33:17
somebody was al roberts
00:33:18
also known by the nickname black al
00:33:21
roberts was
00:33:22
18 years old thought he was being given
00:33:25
a ride home
00:33:26
with the intention of selling them some
00:33:27
marijuana he got in the car with me
00:33:30
on the passenger side because my husband
00:33:32
was in the back
00:33:34
vanessa claims chris ordered her to
00:33:35
drive down spanish grove road and stop
00:33:38
along a deserted stretch
00:33:40
my husband got out i wanted to get out
00:33:42
behind him
00:33:43
joseph pickett along with vanessa and
00:33:45
her baby stayed in the vehicle
00:33:47
my husband had a blue bandana over his
00:33:50
face
00:33:51
and lavonda had a black one over his and
00:33:54
they
00:33:54
told black al roberts to get out
00:33:59
put his hands up told him put everything
00:34:02
he had on the hood
00:34:04
mr roberts put everything on the hood he
00:34:06
only had one dollar
00:34:08
and a cell phone that's all i've got man
00:34:11
i knew he was scared because of the look
00:34:15
on his face
00:34:16
next thing i know he holds his chest and
00:34:19
as soon as he do that i put my head down
00:34:21
because i didn't want to see no more
00:34:23
crawler shot him in the chest he spun
00:34:25
around he started falling
00:34:27
and my husband had shot him like five
00:34:30
times and it wouldn't say is that the
00:34:33
last shot he heard
00:34:34
was mr crawley leaning down and one last
00:34:37
shot
00:34:40
when women behind bars continues the
00:34:43
prosecutor tried to say that i was
00:34:44
cold-hearted
00:34:46
she didn't have anything to do with her
00:34:47
husband's actions
00:34:49
he killed that boy
00:34:55
on a chilly october night
00:34:57
eighteen-year-old al roberts accepted a
00:34:59
ride home
00:35:00
from vanessa crawley and a car full of
00:35:02
men they drove him to a patch of woods
00:35:04
off a secluded highway
00:35:06
vanessa claims she watched in horror as
00:35:08
her husband chris crawley and accomplice
00:35:10
levon rick williams
00:35:12
allegedly pulled the victim from the
00:35:13
suburban robbed him
00:35:15
then shot him five times point blank
00:35:22
i was like shocked
00:35:25
for one because i never thought my
00:35:27
husband would do that
00:35:29
after the shooting vanessa drove to a
00:35:30
nightclub and dropped off joseph pickett
00:35:33
then the group went home chris and lavon
00:35:35
rick went to sleep
00:35:37
but vanessa says she couldn't i read
00:35:40
some bad word and i just sat in the up
00:35:43
for a couple hours
00:35:44
joseph pickett immediately called 9-1-1
00:35:47
to report the murder he had just watched
00:35:49
happen before his eyes
00:35:52
dispatch called me on october the 24th
00:35:56
approximately 5 o'clock in the morning
00:35:58
the murder occurred
00:35:59
just a few miles outside of chase city
00:36:02
vehicle made a
00:36:03
loop into this field pulled back around
00:36:06
facing the woods
00:36:07
and the victim was found lying in this
00:36:10
general direction face down
00:36:12
victim was shot five times we recovered
00:36:16
five shell casings here at the scene
00:36:18
police rushed to apprehend the three
00:36:20
suspects and took them to the
00:36:21
mecklenburg county sheriff's office for
00:36:23
questioning
00:36:24
while we were speaking to chris and
00:36:26
vanessa
00:36:27
as well as lavondrick they changed their
00:36:30
stories a few times
00:36:32
vanessa admits she lied to police in her
00:36:34
first statements
00:36:35
because she was scared and trying to
00:36:37
protect her husband
00:36:38
my first statement i told them that i
00:36:41
would tell them that i shot them
00:36:43
before i told them they did but
00:36:45
eventually she decided to tell the truth
00:36:47
she was terrified and and she was
00:36:51
basically trying to
00:36:52
tell them something so it would all be
00:36:54
over with
00:36:55
what she had told in the statement was
00:36:57
that chris instructed her to do this
00:37:00
we discovered that she also helped lure
00:37:03
mr roberts into the vehicle and she knew
00:37:06
that a robber was going to occur chris
00:37:09
ultimately confessed to shooting our
00:37:12
robbers
00:37:14
all three defendants were held in
00:37:16
separate jails pending trial
00:37:19
there would be no holds barred in this
00:37:22
prosecution the prosecution wanted
00:37:25
convictions of all three of these people
00:37:28
chris crawley chose to forgo a trial he
00:37:30
pled guilty and was sentenced to 60
00:37:32
years
00:37:33
but vanessa and lavon rick would take
00:37:35
their chances in court
00:37:37
john greenbacker was the defense
00:37:38
attorney for levon rick williams
00:37:40
who claimed he was outside of the
00:37:42
vehicle vomiting at the time of the
00:37:43
shooting
00:37:45
they had been drinking a huge amount of
00:37:47
alcohol and all that booze
00:37:49
is making him sick to his stomach and
00:37:50
while he was there he vomited
00:37:52
next thing you know he hears all the
00:37:55
shooting going on towards the front of
00:37:57
the car
00:37:59
doing the walk around i did not see any
00:38:01
evidence of any vomit
00:38:03
now granted it was raining at lavon rick
00:38:06
williams trial
00:38:07
chris crawley backed up william's
00:38:09
version of events presence at the scene
00:38:11
of a crime
00:38:12
does not make you an accessory but
00:38:15
vanessa maintains it was a lie
00:38:17
the truth is that he got out right
00:38:19
behind my husband
00:38:21
and was standing right beside him when
00:38:23
he robbed him
00:38:24
he never went to the back of the truck
00:38:26
the jury believed williams
00:38:28
and acquitted him of first degree murder
00:38:30
charges
00:38:35
now it was vanessa's turn to face the
00:38:37
jury it had been two and a half years
00:38:39
since the crime
00:38:40
and vanessa's father believed she was
00:38:42
already convicted by the local press
00:38:44
when the newspaper was printed from week
00:38:47
to week
00:38:48
they were saying that she was guilty so
00:38:51
how you going to find a
00:38:52
fair jury within a 200 mile radius
00:38:56
the prosecutor tried to say that i was
00:38:58
cold-hearted because i didn't cry
00:39:01
when vanessa was explaining her side of
00:39:05
the story
00:39:06
she was hard to believe i didn't see the
00:39:09
remorse
00:39:10
they might have felt like i didn't have
00:39:11
no remorse
00:39:13
but i think it's because it took so long
00:39:16
for them to try me
00:39:17
so when the time comes for me to go to
00:39:19
court it's like
00:39:21
i can't cry chris crawley took the stand
00:39:24
chris admitted that he pulled the
00:39:25
trigger i think he was trying to take
00:39:30
the blame away from vanessa at this
00:39:32
point
00:39:34
vanessa didn't know i was going to kill
00:39:36
him because i didn't know i was going to
00:39:37
kill him
00:39:38
the fact that she didn't pull the
00:39:40
trigger doesn't mean
00:39:42
that she didn't lure al roberts to the
00:39:44
car that she didn't know their robbery
00:39:46
was going to occur
00:39:47
the law says if you knowingly
00:39:49
participate
00:39:51
in a robbery and there is a fire
00:39:55
arm involved and if it leads to murder
00:39:59
then
00:39:59
you're an accomplice to the murder
00:40:03
she had made statements
00:40:06
implicating herself i believe that her
00:40:08
goose was cooked
00:40:10
i don't i don't think i got a fair trial
00:40:13
she had
00:40:13
no one called on that stand
00:40:17
in her path they would have been able to
00:40:20
give key
00:40:21
information about how chris actually
00:40:24
dominated her abused her key people
00:40:27
that could have spoke up on her
00:40:36
character
00:40:40
i felt like i was about to pass out i
00:40:43
couldn't believe that they had found me
00:40:44
guilty
00:40:46
virginia is pretty much a law and order
00:40:48
state
00:40:49
i don't think that people are very
00:40:51
forgiving about crime especially violent
00:40:54
crime
00:40:55
the guilty verdict hit vanessa's family
00:40:57
hard
00:40:58
i still ray to this day
00:41:02
no deep down in my heart
00:41:05
that she didn't have anything to do with
00:41:07
her husband's actions
00:41:09
he killed that boy and
00:41:12
they still convicted her of 33 years
00:41:17
in prison for something that a husband
00:41:20
did
00:41:20
she was protecting herself and her son
00:41:24
that night he put a gun to her head how
00:41:27
can you say no
00:41:29
to somebody who does that and your child
00:41:32
is in the car
00:41:35
this is not fair at all for somebody
00:41:38
to be as young as she was uh a
00:41:42
a first-time offender it shouldn't just
00:41:45
been the hammer dropped on
00:41:47
33 years before vanessa is a lifetime
00:41:50
there was no need for this crime to have
00:41:53
happened
00:41:54
victim was only 18 years old mr roberts
00:41:57
only had a one dollar bill and a cell
00:41:59
phone
00:41:59
he was shot for nothing and killed for
00:42:01
nothing
00:42:02
chris basically ruined my sister's life
00:42:05
and
00:42:06
he ruined part of mine too because i
00:42:08
can't sit here
00:42:10
out anywhere and have a conversation
00:42:11
with my sister nothing's going to take
00:42:13
the place of
00:42:14
val robbins but the victim you know the
00:42:16
thing the victim's family has closure
00:42:18
that the perpetrators have done to us is
00:42:19
in jail
00:42:22
vanessa was sent to fluvana correctional
00:42:24
center for women
00:42:25
and is still haunted by what happened
00:42:27
that october night in 2004
00:42:31
literally weeks after that happened
00:42:34
i didn't even want to go to sleep
00:42:36
because every time i closed my ass all i
00:42:38
could see was
00:42:40
out falling it hurts
00:42:43
it still hurts today i think about owl a
00:42:46
lot because i know he got sisters
00:42:48
and two brothers and i think about them
00:42:50
too and they're lost
00:42:54
vanessa and chris's son jalen is now
00:42:56
five years old and lives with vanessa's
00:42:58
father
00:42:59
it was hard not being around him
00:43:03
when you're used to him being there with
00:43:05
you all day every day
00:43:07
me and my wife we keep in the church and
00:43:10
we
00:43:11
raise we rate him up with some mores and
00:43:13
some values
00:43:14
to be a different and a better man the
00:43:16
way his father is
00:43:18
i just hope that he'll be successful
00:43:22
in his life vanessa tries hard to stay
00:43:25
connected
00:43:26
to family being away from my family
00:43:28
that's hard
00:43:30
that's all i ever knew she is still
00:43:32
married to chris
00:43:33
and they write to each other while
00:43:34
incarcerated we just thought about
00:43:36
communicating
00:43:38
because i really wasn't talking to him
00:43:41
but
00:43:41
now he wants to stay with me work it out
00:43:44
and
00:43:45
be a family vanessa harbors regrets
00:43:48
but holds out hope that she can come
00:43:50
home soon i regret
00:43:53
letting him have my control over me i
00:43:56
regret
00:43:58
driving that night and i'm gonna fight
00:44:02
and keep fighting until somebody hears
00:44:05
my side of the story
