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Tonight, a traumatic case in Utah
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where a grandmother surprised in her home by an intruder
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and bludgeoned to death.
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It's October 7, 2011.
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Tooele City PD in Utah get an emergency call.
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It was overkill.
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I mean, 14 times to a 69-year-old lady.
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NANCY GRACE: The victim is a beloved grandmother,
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and her brutal murder rocks the small Utah community.
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I think people were a little--
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a little nervous and a little scared.
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GARY SEARLE: People wanted to go to bed at night safe,
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and you'd had a violent murder.
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And people just didn't feel safe.
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NANCY GRACE: A large scale investigation is launched
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and forensic evidence uncovers a number of leads.
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Early on we were just taking DNA samples from anybody
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that would consent to one.
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SUZANNE MILES: You know, it makes you scratch your head
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that a person who was capable of committing such a heinous act
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wasn't in the system yet.
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NANCY GRACE: Years pass and fears grow
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the case will never be solved.
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But determined detectives keep testing new methods.
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Any time someone called, they would follow that lead,
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but those leads were becoming fewer and fewer and fewer.
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All we had was an unknown male's DNA.
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This is the story of the senseless murder of Evelynne
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Derricott and how her killer eventually
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becomes another successful target
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of investigators, investigators using ground
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breaking forensic science.
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I'm Nancy Grace.
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This is the "Bloodline Detectives."
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[THEME MUSIC]
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It's October 7, 2011.
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Tooele City PD in Utah get an emergency call.
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There was a distraught lady.
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When she opened the front door, she was able to see
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Ms. Derricott's body.
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It was kind of blocking the front door so it wouldn't open
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all the way and on the stairs.
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NANCY GRACE: Patrol officers soon
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arrive at the two-story residential home.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: It's a little bit older of a neighborhood.
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The house is probably built in the '70s.
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Most of the homes are split entry homes.
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So you walk into a landing and you can either
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go downstairs or upstairs.
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She was kind of in the fetal position
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at the base of the stairs.
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LONNIE COLLINGS: They observed some blood and some signs that
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made them believe that this may have been something
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of a suspicious nature.
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And they backed out and got hold of the investigations division.
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NANCY GRACE: The scene is cordoned off
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and detectives and crime scene investigators
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began a walk through.
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We started looking for any type of evidence that could
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answer as to why this woman was deceased
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at the bottom of the stairs.
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We didn't know if maybe she fell
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down the stairs, hit her head.
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Obviously, we thought things looked suspicious.
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GARY SEARLE: They began to take pictures.
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They began to look if things were disturbed, if things
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obviously were missing.
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Things out of the ordinary moved from dust, you know.
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There might have been something sitting
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there in the dust around or would
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show that it had been moved.
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Because they didn't know exactly what they were looking for.
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The forensics teams start to sweep of the house
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while detectives contact the victim's family.
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I was at my husband's work, and the phone
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rang at his office.
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And he answered it.
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And I could tell something was off.
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And I just sat there and was looking at him.
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And I whispered, it's about my mom, isn't it?
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And he just shook his head yes.
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And I said, she's dead, isn't she?
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And he just shook his head yes.
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I remember I didn't even cry at the time.
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But then when I went home to get ready, I just felt lost.
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I didn't even know where to start
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to how to pack a bag to go to Tooele to talk
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to the police or anything.
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I just was numb.
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CANDICE SLAUGH: Actually, I called my husband
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and told him what happened when school got
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out and headed home to get him.
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We met my sister and her husband in Tooele.
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Well, when we got to Tooele, we were supposed
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to go to the police station.
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So we did.
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And then they said that we couldn't go to the house.
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NANCY GRACE: The medical examiner's team
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arrives at the home and undertakes
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an examination of the body before moving it for autopsy.
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GARY SEARLE: Her body was handled
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in a manner that was respectful to her
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but also preserved the evidence.
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What evidence there might be in order to move
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forward with the prosecution.
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Her hands, her feet were bagged.
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They took great care to not really move
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her in order to not lose any evidence
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that might be on her body.
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LONNIE COLLINGS: And then the body
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was removed and sent to the medical examiner's office.
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NANCY GRACE: Despite all the clutter,
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forensics gather crucial evidence in their initial sweep
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of the home.
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There wasn't a lot of blood on the scene,
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but her hoodie was soaked in blood.
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GARY SEARLE: They located a hammer, a ball-peen hammer
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at the top of the stairs.
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And one of the officers noticed that it
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appeared to have blood on it.
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So that obviously was photographed
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and immediately taken into custody,
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bagged correctly so that it would preserve that evidence.
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And they found that her vehicle and her cell phone
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were missing.
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CANDICE SLAUGH: We asked them if there is anything that we could
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help them do because they had to go
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back into the house and dust for fingerprints
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and collect evidence.
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And they had told us that we could try and go to the phone
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carrier and try and find out what we could about her phone,
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her cell phone.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: Initially, I thought that maybe somebody had
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tried to break in, you know, Ms. Derricott had walked up
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on whoever it was breaking the house, whether she came home
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and they were in the house.
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And that's what startled the intruder,
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and then that's when she was killed.
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LONNIE COLLINGS: At the time, they
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believed that this person had entered through the back
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sliding door in the kitchen.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: It was unlocked so we believe that's how
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he came into the house.
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NANCY GRACE: Knowing the killer is likely an intruder,
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detectives need to quickly determine if Evelynne
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was a targeted victim.
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GARY SEARLE: He didn't want to be caught,
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and he grabbed a hammer the way that we believe was laying
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at the top of the stairs.
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And he put an end to her being able to recognize him.
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I always wondered if she just surprised somebody
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and they panicked.
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There are so many unanswered questions.
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Did the victim know her killer?
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Did he target her?
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Next, "Bloodline Detectives" began
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the painstaking search for Evelynne Derricott's killer.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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October 2011, police in Tooele, Utah
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investigate the gruesome murder of the grandmother
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Evelynne Derricott.
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CANDICE SLAUGH: My dad passed away in '97,
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so she'd been a widow for quite a while.
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NANCY GRACE: So who was Evelynne?
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And could she have crossed paths with her killer?
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She loved to crochet.
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She loved her cats.
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Growing up, we raised Persian cats.
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And so she absolutely loved Persian cats.
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She was a caring person.
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She did, you know, she did care for people.
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She didn't-- she wasn't somebody who would just hide, you know.
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She did interact with people.
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She liked to help people.
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She liked to be able to do things for other people.
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And they always remembered who she was.
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There was one boy that lives-- he's not a boy anymore.
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He's older than I am.
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But he lived around the corner and called her mom for years.
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GARY SEARLE: She had very few friends,
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but the friends she had were close to her.
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Never any complaints, never any police calls,
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never any issues with the neighbors.
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The neighbors all seem to like her.
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She was quiet.
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She just was a very sweet typical elderly lady.
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SCOTT BROADHEAD: The daughters had already been married,
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lived outside of the area.
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I was very close to my mom.
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She was my best friend.
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NANCY GRACE: As investigators interview the family,
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the autopsy is carried out.
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Two of our officers attended the autopsy.
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The results were that she died from blunt force trauma.
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So they shaved her head where we
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are able to see the number and the kind
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of severity of the injuries.
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They cut back the scalp to check the skull.
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We're able to see multiple skull fractures.
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CATHLYNN GARDINER: She had a jacket on that had a hood,
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and the hood had been pulled over her head
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because there was holes in the hood that would coincide
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with the spots on her head.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: It was soaked.
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That's why there wasn't much blood on the scene
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because all the blood had actually ended
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up soaking into the sweatshirt.
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GARY SEARLE: I don't believe she fought back, because I believe
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and I think the police believe she was surprised.
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She was caught off guard.
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And probably the first hit would have rendered her unconscious.
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SCOTT BROADHEAD: The only thing you could think of is
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the possibilities where someone is either very vicious
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or someone who was scared to death
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[CHUCKLES] and just was out of control,
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because it was completely--
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I guess the best way to say it, it was overkill.
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I mean, 14 times to a 69-year-old lady.
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GARY SEARLE: These were horrible wounds.
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They were delivered with such force
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that her skull was cracked open.
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Not just where the hammer hit, but the skull
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was cracked open from the base of the skull towards the top.
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It was violent.
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It was vicious.
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NANCY GRACE: Given Evelynne's age and the fact the attack
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happened in her home, there is deep shock
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and concern in the community.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: That's a pretty quiet
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small town, 35,000 people.
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LONNIE COLLINGS: It's a working class community, mostly.
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A bedroom community.
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We have a large amount of our population drives
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into Salt Lake for work.
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GARY SEARLE: I think it's a safe place.
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It's a nice place to raise your children.
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It's quiet.
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It's peaceful.
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There are not a lot of murders.
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Prior to right now in the 22 years
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I've been a prosecutor there, I think I've handled five or six.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: To have somebody killed, especially somebody
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that was at home minding their own business, just
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an elderly lady home alone, I think people were a little
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nervous and a little scared.
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NANCY GRACE: Under pressure to catch a killer quickly,
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detectives canvassed the area, searching
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for Evelynne's stolen car.
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Investigators initially canvassed
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the area, the neighborhood, where 410 Havasu is.
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They spoke with as many people as they could.
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They checked for local video surveillance.
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The police could not find Ms. Derricott's cell phone.
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They tried calling it.
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There was no response.
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It was not located in the home.
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It was not located in the garage.
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So they obtained a warrant, and they
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began to get triangulations on the cell phone
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to tell them where the cell phone was at.
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The cell phone was pinged to an area in the Western Salt Lake
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Valley.
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So they began to canvas the area.
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They were calling the phone randomly.
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And they were being very judicious
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about that because they figured the phone was sitting out
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in the open, in the elements.
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It had been a few days, so you didn't
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want to lose the battery.
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So they weren't just calling it and calling it and calling it
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because they were fearful that the phone might die,
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and they might not find it.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: Fortunately, the phone battery
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was a pretty robust battery.
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So every so often we'd make a phone call to the phone number
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to see if we could hear ringing.
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And ultimately, that's how we found it.
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Somebody thrown it in some bushes and left it there.
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It was submitted into evidence,
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and nothing of any type of evidentiary value
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was found on the phone.
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NANCY GRACE: With the phone a dead end,
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police make another important discovery.
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When we got the area where the cell phone was last located,
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ultimately, that's how we found the car.
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Her car was parked next to a home in the area,
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was parked on a street to the side of the home
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where there a fence.
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So the homeowner wouldn't have been concerned.
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It wasn't parked in front of somebody's home.
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CHRIS THOMPSON: There was some shoe prints on the scene
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that were of small size shoe.
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We found some matching shoe prints on the hood of the car.
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The seat was slid really close to the steering wheel, which
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kind of matched our theory, because this small size
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of the shoes, we believe it was a juvenile, somebody
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maybe 13 or 14 years old.
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The officers take the car and evidence and process it
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and so forth.
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And they take the--
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they take the steering wheel off the car
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and send it into the crime lab to see if they get any DNA
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matches off the steering wheel.
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There was a male DNA that was found on the hammer,
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and there was male DNA that was found on the steering wheel.
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So we had a male profile.
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NANCY GRACE: As detectives check juvenile records,
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the forensic report arrives with the results from the hammer.
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The hammer head the blood was a single source and typed
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and matched the victim.
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The hammer handle was a mixture of two individuals.
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They had DNA from Evelynne, and then the only other
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they could pull out was a male.
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JAY HENRY: The profile was entered into CODIS.
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And typically, this unfortunately happens
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sometimes, where it just stops.
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You know, there's no match.
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There's no association.
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CODIS is a database administered by the FBI.
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It's a national DNA database system that takes crime scene
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profiles and takes known profiles from offenders
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and puts them into one repository
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that states can search against.
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SUZANNE MILES: It's curious, you know.
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It makes you scratch your head that a person who
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was capable of committing such a heinous act
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wasn't in the system yet, hadn't committed or been caught
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and had been caught for any other crime.
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So it was-- it had me scratching my head a little bit.
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NANCY GRACE: With no leads from the database,
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officers start a mass swab campaign.
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GARY SEARLE: They began to put together a list of individuals
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who may have committed crimes in the past, such as burglaries
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or violent crimes, individuals who had recently been released
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from prison who may have committed crimes
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similar to this, not so much the murder
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but burglaries or breaking and entering, those type of things.
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They took those samples from those individuals,
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immediately sent them to the crime lab.
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The crime lab immediately processed
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those because we're dealing, again, with a heinous murder.
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SCOTT BROADHEAD: They really very much shooting in the dark
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because they really didn't have really any leads.
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And as I kept talking to individuals,
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nobody seemed to know really what happened.
00:18:32
So they would hope they talked to one person who had maybe
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heard something from somebody else
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and had started giving them some leads
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as to where to take the case.
00:18:42
But they just kept hitting dead ends.
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For now, disappointment for investigators.
00:18:48
The killer evades detection.
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But next, "Bloodline Detectives" break open
00:18:53
the case with new groundbreaking forensic science.
00:19:00
SCOTT BROADHEAD: We have finally got a pool of people
00:19:02
to look at.
00:19:03
It's like we've narrowed down this mass of suspect pool
00:19:05
to a small pool.
00:19:06
And I thought, well, if they've got somebody,
00:19:09
then we have something we can do now.
00:19:11
I mean, we have somewhere to search.
00:19:21
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19:24
NANCY GRACE: By 2014, Tooele police in Utah
00:19:28
exhaust all the leads and the murder
00:19:31
of a 69-year-old grandmother, Evelynne
00:19:34
Derricott, beaten dead with a hammer three years earlier.
00:19:40
She was coming out a little set of stairs.
00:19:42
And he was at the top of the stairs,
00:19:44
and she had a jacket with a hood on.
00:19:46
And he pulled the hood over her head
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and started hitting her with a hammer.
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This wasn't just one blow to the head and run.
00:19:53
This was repeated 14 times.
00:19:57
And it was quite vicious.
00:20:06
NANCY GRACE: Looking for a new approach,
00:20:07
investigators learned of an advanced
00:20:09
crime-solving technique, familial DNA searching.
00:20:17
It was just a bit of luck, I guess.
00:20:19
I was at a training where some of the analysts that work
00:20:21
at the crime lab were there.
00:20:23
And I happened to be familiar with one of them, went
00:20:27
to college with one of them.
00:20:28
Him and his colleagues were talking
00:20:29
and thought that this case might be one
00:20:32
that they would be able to use this new forensic familial DNA
00:20:35
for.
00:20:36
SCOTT BROADHEAD: It was kind of one
00:20:37
of those things where you're like, well, maybe that'll work.
00:20:39
And so we contacted the state crime lab
00:20:42
and asked about to get more information on it
00:20:45
and whether it would be possible for them
00:20:46
to do a familial DNA search.
00:20:49
The way DNA works as you get a crime scene sample
00:20:52
and you get a comparison sample, and they match.
00:20:57
The difference with familial test
00:20:58
is that you take the crime scene sample and now you're saying,
00:21:02
we don't have a sample.
00:21:03
Doesn't match the victim, doesn't match consent partners.
00:21:05
So it's just this unknown sample.
00:21:07
Is there more information there that we can get?
00:21:10
And the question is, potentially,
00:21:12
if you take that sample and searched
00:21:14
against a known database of samples, for me,
00:21:18
it was sort of the next step in the evolution of DNA
00:21:22
testing to be able to provide not just a resolution
00:21:25
to the case, but if the case hadn't been resolved,
00:21:28
to be able to provide some forensic intelligence
00:21:31
to the investigators.
00:21:33
GARY SEARLE: Familial DNA had not been
00:21:35
used in Utah to this point.
00:21:37
The crime lab was very concerned about the legalities of it.
00:21:39
They were very concerned about Fourth Amendment searches
00:21:43
and conducting this random search into a database.
00:21:47
They were very concerned about the privacy
00:21:49
rights of the person it would have matched familial to.
00:21:54
We sat down in the crime lab with the crime lab individuals,
00:21:58
the police department, myself, and worked through how this
00:22:01
would happen and the steps we would
00:22:03
take to ensure that this DNA could be used in the future
00:22:07
and that we weren't going to create bad loss, so to speak.
00:22:14
NANCY GRACE: With legalities resolved,
00:22:15
a familial search run on the database
00:22:18
and immediately comes up with a hit
00:22:22
SCOTT BROADHEAD: There was someone
00:22:24
in the system that had a familial DNA
00:22:26
match to our suspect.
00:22:29
LONNIE COLLINGS: They provided us with a name, a name
00:22:32
of a relative to our suspect.
00:22:37
JAY HENRY: That's kind of the idea
00:22:38
that familial test is to kind of just
00:22:40
jumpstart the investigation and get them to find
00:22:43
another potential lead for us to take DNA samples
00:22:47
from and potentially link up.
00:22:50
GARY SEARLE: They told us, the name we're about to give you is
00:22:52
within one or two generations from the person
00:22:57
you are looking for.
00:22:58
SCOTT BROADHEAD: We have finally got a pool of people
00:23:00
to look at.
00:23:01
I mean, it's like we've narrowed down this mass of suspect pool
00:23:04
to a small pool.
00:23:05
And we thought, well, if they've got somebody,
00:23:08
then we have something we can do now.
00:23:10
I mean, we have somewhere to search and have some direction.
00:23:13
And that was just really--
00:23:15
that was just really exciting.
00:23:18
Officers now start to build out the family
00:23:20
tree to identify a suspect.
00:23:24
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:23:31
It hit to a very close family member.
00:23:34
And then further down the list, to another close family member.
00:23:37
And then a little further down, another.
00:23:39
So now they've got the last name.
00:23:41
They needed to take this individual,
00:23:43
and they needed to create a family tree.
00:23:45
And that family tree had to be complete.
00:23:48
It was either going to be a brother.
00:23:50
It was going to be a father.
00:23:51
It was going to be a grandfather.
00:23:53
It was going to be an uncle or possibly a cousin,
00:23:56
but that's as far out as they really needed
00:23:58
to look from this individual.
00:24:00
So it took some time.
00:24:02
It took a lot of investigation in order to put
00:24:04
this family tree together.
00:24:06
And they just started building the case
00:24:08
and building the case so they could
00:24:09
substantiate who it is that they would need to get DNA from.
00:24:14
GARY SEARLE: So they had narrowed it down.
00:24:15
And they narrowed it down to an individual who they
00:24:18
had researched, who they'd investigated,
00:24:21
looked on social media.
00:24:24
This personal was smaller.
00:24:26
This person fit the physical profile as far as the shoe
00:24:30
prints, as far as the things they were looking for,
00:24:34
this person fit that.
00:24:36
They didn't have a DNA sample.
00:24:38
So now they get to go after that.
00:24:44
NANCY GRACE: With the suspect identified,
00:24:46
investigators now need clearance from the DA
00:24:49
to retrieve further confirmation he's the killer.
00:24:53
GARY SEARLE: We didn't have at that moment probable cause
00:24:56
to get a warrant to just go take his DNA.
00:24:58
We decided and they decided it would be best to try and get
00:25:02
a profile off of something he would have left behind,
00:25:05
something he had used, touched, where
00:25:08
the right to privacy, the expectation of privacy
00:25:11
no longer existed.
00:25:13
The process is grab some discarded DNA from your suspect
00:25:18
and bring that DNA sample to us.
00:25:21
We'll do the test.
00:25:22
If it matches, then we'll take those DNA samples
00:25:25
and you can write a search warrant
00:25:26
and get us a blood sample or a saliva sample
00:25:29
from your suspect.
00:25:30
And we'll test it and match it up
00:25:32
against the crime scene sample.
00:25:35
Unable to get a warrant, "Bloodline Detectives"
00:25:38
don't give up.
00:25:39
As we see next, they use stealth methods to get
00:25:43
the DNA they need desperately.
00:25:54
2014 and at Tooele, Utah, "Bloodline Detectives"
00:25:58
have a dilemma.
00:26:00
They need DNA evidence from a suspect brought
00:26:03
to light by familial DNA.
00:26:06
But they don't have enough evidence for a warrant.
00:26:10
There just might be a way, however,
00:26:13
to get that DNA from the suspect more discreetly.
00:26:17
We needed to actually develop probable cause to get a warrant
00:26:24
from real regular police work.
00:26:29
CHRIS THOMPSON: We set up some traffic stops
00:26:31
to try to get, you know, citation science
00:26:33
if we get a DNA off of [INAUDIBLE]..
00:26:36
LONNIE COLLINGS: We surveilled his home or the places
00:26:39
he was staying for many weeks.
00:26:43
CHRIS THOMPSON: was a tattoo artist
00:26:45
so we would talk to him about getting tattoos
00:26:48
or what kind of work he does.
00:26:52
LONNIE COLLINGS: Some of the detectives or myself would
00:26:54
dress as if we were homeless and had
00:26:56
sat outside the apartment complex
00:26:59
he was known to frequent.
00:27:01
We commonly used attractive females so that guys
00:27:07
are more willing to talk.
00:27:08
We followed him to local restaurants.
00:27:12
CHRIS THOMPSON: We had a person that
00:27:15
was going to go meet with him and talk to him about tattoos
00:27:18
and hopefully have lunch or coffee or something like that
00:27:21
so that we could obtain a drink straw, or a cup, or a utensil,
00:27:26
or something like that that would
00:27:28
have a high probability of DNA.
00:27:30
We had some detectives that followed him from his house
00:27:33
to a job site.
00:27:34
He was working masonry works.
00:27:36
LONNIE COLLINGS: Some of the detectives
00:27:38
met with the manager of the apartment complex
00:27:40
and asked if we could use an empty apartment, one
00:27:44
that faced where the wall was being constructed.
00:27:49
We're able to watch his actions as he spent the day working.
00:27:55
GARY SEARLE: They were just hoping,
00:27:56
right, were just waiting to get that DNA sample that's legal.
00:28:00
He left for lunch one day.
00:28:03
And when he left for lunch, he discarded his gloves
00:28:06
under a tree.
00:28:08
He went over to his work truck.
00:28:11
And he had a Rockstar energy drink.
00:28:15
And he took that drink, and he was drinking it
00:28:18
as he walked over to the truck.
00:28:19
And when he got to the truck, he took
00:28:21
that one last swallow that you take at the end
00:28:24
of a canned beverage.
00:28:27
And he set that down next to his truck.
00:28:32
So when he drove off, we went and picked up the can.
00:28:36
GARY SEARLE: Once he abandons it, it's in a public place.
00:28:39
It's a free for all.
00:28:40
This was the holy grail to us.
00:28:45
He's come into a lab right away.
00:28:46
That's the first thing they want in us.
00:28:48
We need this tested.
00:28:49
And so they would brought it to us.
00:28:50
We were checking into the evidence, run the test.
00:28:52
Called them back probably the same day.
00:28:55
They were able to verify and confirm that the DNA on the can
00:28:59
was the same that was on the hammer and the steering
00:29:01
wheel of Mr. Derricott's car.
00:29:03
JAY HENRY: Anytime you have new technology,
00:29:06
they're always a wonder.
00:29:07
There's always saying in the back of your mind is like,
00:29:09
will this work?
00:29:10
You know, will we be able to provide that?
00:29:13
And so the first thing I thought, well, wow.
00:29:16
It worked.
00:29:18
NANCY GRACE: So who is this suspected killer
00:29:21
investigators have identified?
00:29:23
LONNIE COLLINGS: His name is Rogelio Diaz Jr.
00:29:26
People described him as being someone
00:29:28
who was kind of a wannabe gang member but never really
00:29:33
a gang member.
00:29:35
GARY SEARLE: He had a girlfriend and kids.
00:29:39
A young man that is very small in stature.
00:29:43
He claims to be 5 foot.
00:29:45
His information from jail records
00:29:48
has him listed at 4 foot 11".
00:29:51
His father and a couple of his brothers
00:29:54
had been deported back to Mexico,
00:29:56
but he was actually born in the States.
00:30:01
But his older siblings and parents were from Mexico.
00:30:06
We could never get any type of real history, work history
00:30:11
from him.
00:30:12
It appeared that he would work for temporary agencies that
00:30:16
would give him temporary work.
00:30:19
At the time of the homicide, lived with another sister
00:30:22
here in Tooele.
00:30:24
He'd gone from job to job, didn't really have
00:30:27
a steady job, so just kind of bounced
00:30:31
around, stayed with friends.
00:30:33
Police must ensure that Rogelio Diaz Jr. doesn't flee,
00:30:39
and they start planning his arrest.
00:30:43
GARY SEARLE: Across the street from his home is a grocery
00:30:45
store where he and the individual who is with him
00:30:48
stopped, we assume, to either get breakfast
00:30:51
or to get lunch for the day.
00:30:53
When they stopped at that grocery store,
00:30:56
West Valley City Police made a stop upon him.
00:30:59
The Tooele City detectives then came in
00:31:02
and took custody of him.
00:31:05
CHRIS THOMPSON: We let him know that he
00:31:07
needed to come in and talk to us regarding a case.
00:31:10
He was 4 and 1/2 years after it happened
00:31:13
before he was even arrested.
00:31:16
We were not in Tooele City police cars.
00:31:18
And none of our police stuff that we were wearing indicated
00:31:23
Tooele city at the time.
00:31:24
They didn't want him knowing that it was Tooele.
00:31:28
The element of surprise is still there,
00:31:31
because he didn't know at that moment
00:31:33
when he was put in the police car
00:31:35
that it concerned Ms. Derricott.
00:31:37
He didn't know that until he got to the Salt
00:31:39
Lake County Sheriff's Office.
00:31:42
NANCY GRACE: So did Diaz know Evelynne Derricott?
00:31:44
And if so, why did he kill her?
00:31:47
He told us that on one occasion, he had gone over
00:31:50
and asked her if he could help her with her groceries out
00:31:53
of her car and she declined.
00:31:55
So I believe when she looked at him and he looked at her,
00:31:58
he panicked.
00:31:59
To look at him, he looked like he was, I guess you'd say,
00:32:04
gang related, but they didn't say he was gang related.
00:32:11
Police have a prime suspect in Evelynne
00:32:14
Derricott's murder in custody, but can
00:32:18
they make the case stick?
00:32:20
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:32:31
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:32:34
In May 2016, Tooele PD finally have Rogelio Diaz
00:32:40
in custody for the vicious murder of 69-year-old Evelynne
00:32:44
Derricott in 2011.
00:32:46
Their interview with him is crucial.
00:32:50
Can they get a confession?
00:33:04
He never freaked out.
00:33:06
He never, at that point, got angry.
00:33:09
He never showed his hand.
00:33:10
He was very calm.
00:33:19
And they began with asking him about his relationships
00:33:21
in Tooele, if he had any reason to be in Tooele.
00:33:25
And these are answers they already knew.
00:33:42
They asked him if he had ever done any work inside
00:33:44
of anyone's home in Tooele, if he would have any reason to be
00:33:47
in anyone's home in Tooele.
00:33:49
And he said he didn't and there was
00:33:51
no reason he would have been in anyone's home in Tooele.
00:34:09
We wanted to eliminate any alibis he might
00:34:12
have for being in her house.
00:34:14
At that point, they pull out the photographs.
00:34:18
They pull out photograph of Ms. Derricott.
00:34:33
GARY SEARLE: They then begin to present
00:34:34
him with the DNA evidence.
00:34:49
GARY SEARLE: They tell him that we have your DNA at the scene.
00:35:02
You knew he is setting himself up, and they had--
00:35:05
they had him, and he didn't know it.
00:35:20
SCOTT BROADHEAD: You had very much the attitude
00:35:22
of, you know, of, you can't get me,
00:35:25
'you don't have anything on me' type of attitude.
00:35:30
As I was watching him, he was in that room
00:35:32
alone while the police were talking amongst ourselves.
00:35:36
And he just sat there stoic for a couple of minutes.
00:35:39
And to me, it was defeat.
00:35:42
They've got me.
00:35:43
I'm not walking away from this.
00:35:45
You could see it just from common human behavior.
00:35:50
We charged him with murder.
00:35:51
We charged him with aggravated burglary,
00:35:53
being the fact that he entered someone's home,
00:35:57
and there was a death caused by him in that home.
00:36:02
NANCY GRACE: From evidence from the crime scene,
00:36:04
detectives pieced together the events of that fateful night.
00:36:08
I believe he had watched her.
00:36:10
I believe he knew she lived alone.
00:36:11
I believe he knew she was elderly, knew her comings
00:36:14
and goings.
00:36:15
I believed when he went into that home,
00:36:17
he was there to burglarize the home.
00:36:20
I believe that he came in through that back sliding door
00:36:23
and Ms. Derricott was downstairs.
00:36:27
She heard a noise or a disturbance
00:36:28
upstairs, came to see what it was and confronted Rogelio
00:36:35
on the stairs leading upstairs.
00:36:38
And that's when the altercation occurred.
00:36:42
And he used the hammer and hit her on the head.
00:36:48
Tooele PD and the prosecution start prepping for trial.
00:36:53
But on the Eve of trial, Diaz's attorney makes an announcement.
00:36:59
I get notice from his attorney on Friday.
00:37:02
The trial's starting Monday, and he's going
00:37:06
to take the plea agreement.
00:37:08
The plea agreement would be that he pleads
00:37:10
guilty to aggravated burglary, which carries a lifetime
00:37:14
sentence at the Utah State Prison
00:37:17
and that he would be willing to plead
00:37:18
to manslaughter, which carries a 15-year sentence
00:37:21
at the Utah State Prison.
00:37:24
CATHLYNN GARDINER: I wanted him to go to trial to have it done,
00:37:29
but I didn't know if I could sit through a whole week.
00:37:35
I think when you're in those type situations,
00:37:37
I think one of things you're looking
00:37:38
for when you're a victim is someone just
00:37:39
at least to say they're sorry.
00:37:42
And he didn't give any of that, nothing at all.
00:37:48
NANCY GRACE: Rogelio Diaz is finally behind bars.
00:37:52
But what kind of a person is he?
00:38:00
I don't even know if I have words to describe him.
00:38:06
My sister said "lost" and I kind of agree.
00:38:10
He's got to be lost.
00:38:12
I would describe him as a young man
00:38:16
that has little man syndrome.
00:38:18
He's very antagonistic and kind of aggressive.
00:38:23
And I believe he probably developed
00:38:29
those attributes for having--
00:38:31
out of self-preservation growing up in a rough area
00:38:35
and being as small as he is.
00:38:39
NANCY GRACE: Officers that worked tirelessly
00:38:42
to solve the murder can finally close
00:38:44
the case after nearly a decade.
00:38:48
GARY SEARLE: Was I personally satisfied?
00:38:50
Absolutely.
00:38:52
The hard work of the police department had paid off.
00:38:54
The hard work of the crime lab had paid off.
00:38:57
The hard work on behalf of this family had paid off.
00:39:00
There was relief it was over.
00:39:04
You like to say you can block things off, but you don't.
00:39:08
You carry these type of things with you.
00:39:10
I know officers do and prosecutors do.
00:39:12
You carry this stuff.
00:39:14
And it was so much relief to feel like we had done it well.
00:39:20
We had done it right.
00:39:21
We had done it the right way.
00:39:25
We felt relieved that it was over,
00:39:28
that we were able to provide some closure
00:39:31
to the Derricott family.
00:39:33
Absolutely honored.
00:39:36
NANCY GRACE: Would Rogelio have committed
00:39:38
another crime in the future?
00:39:40
Who knows.
00:39:41
But forensics caught up with him before he ever had a chance.
00:39:46
We had been chasing a ghost.
00:39:48
We had nothing to go on.
00:39:51
We were taking shots in the dark,
00:39:53
hoping that we would at some point
00:39:55
stumble across our suspect that had the same match, same DNA.
00:40:01
GARY SEARLE: Without that familial DNA,
00:40:03
I, as the prosecutor, do not believe this case
00:40:06
would have been solved.
00:40:09
NANCY GRACE: Justice has been served.
00:40:10
But for Evelynne Derricott's family, there is no justice.
00:40:14
They must live with her loss for the rest of their lives.
00:40:19
CANDICE SLAUGH: a way people are like well you've got closure.
00:40:21
I'm like, well, we do to a point,
00:40:23
but it's just a new chapter that's been opened up.
00:40:27
It's not really the end of the book.
00:40:30
I won't do me any good to hold a grudge.
00:40:34
To an extent, I probably could say that it's not something
00:40:40
that rules every day of my life, but it's
00:40:46
not going to be, you know-- it's always going to be there.
00:40:53
I guess as much closure as you can have,
00:40:57
but it's never going to go away.
00:40:58
When I hugged them, I told them your closure
00:41:03
can start to begin.
00:41:05
Whether that ever fully happens, I don't know.
00:41:11
But I believe--
00:41:13
I believe, I hope and pray that they started to heal.
00:41:24
[MUSIC PLAYING]
