00:00:08
Julia:<i> This time on Killers</i>
<i> Caught on Camera.</i>
00:00:12
- Tuesday night is the last
time I saw my daughter. Julia:<i> In the US,</i>
<i> in Tennessee, parents</i>
00:00:19
<i> search for their missing</i>
<i> 22-year-old daughter.</i>
00:00:23
Man: Is she in there? She's not in here. Julia:<i> The evidence leads</i>
<i> to a fatal conclusion.</i>
00:00:30
- They found quantities of
blood that were not survivable. Julia:<i> And in the UK,</i>
<i> in Staffordshire,</i>
00:00:39
<i> a night out ends in murder.</i> Steve: They found
a female laying
00:00:45
on the bed, clearly deceased. - This was a brutal
and sustained attack, showing no regard for Megan's life.
00:00:54
[tense music] Man: It just sounds
like something bad is happening to her. Woman: We know what
happened because the video
00:01:03
tells us what happened. Man: I heard some gunshots. - I need to get rid of the gun.
00:01:10
- Man, that's good. Man: The camera doesn't lie. Julia:<i> In Tennessee,</i>
<i> Hamilton County,</i>
00:01:24
<i> the city of Chattanooga.</i> [tense music] ♪ ♪ Julia:<i> 22-year-old</i>
<i> Jasmine Pace,</i>
00:02:06
<i> known affectionately as Jazzy,</i>
<i> was a student at the University</i>
00:02:10
<i> of Tennessee.</i> <i> Kentrell Harris went</i>
<i> to high school with Jasmine</i>
00:02:16
<i> and worked with her</i>
<i> at a local restaurant.</i>
00:02:19
Kentrell: What made Jasmine
special was her ability to be compassionate
for others, to have empathy
00:02:27
for other people, to be that
listening ear whenever you're going through something.
00:02:32
Jasmine was peaceful, loving,
caring, friendly, supportive. - Jasmine was super
sweet, outgoing.
00:02:42
She cared about people. And she had a lot of friends. She was very well-involved
in the community.
00:02:48
- All right, bye.
Love you, chick. Mwah. Julia:<i> Jasmine lived with</i>
<i> her mom in Chattanooga</i>
00:02:55
<i> and worked for her family's</i>
<i> construction business.</i>
00:02:58
<i> She was extremely close</i>
<i> to her great-grandmother.</i>
00:03:02
Nick: On November 22, her
grandmother had passed away. She was with her family when
her grandmother passed away,
00:03:08
and at some point that
evening, she left. Julia:<i> But two days later,</i>
<i> Jasmine failed to turn</i>
00:03:17
<i> up to Thanksgiving dinner.</i> - Thanksgiving is
a massive deal.
00:03:21
You're always
around your family. So if you're just randomly
not at Thanksgiving dinner,
00:03:25
it's gonna be pretty alarming. Her mom gets a message from
her that she's with her friend
00:03:32
that she's not
coming, which really prompts immediate
concern from her mother.
00:03:37
Julia:<i> Then a post appeared</i>
<i> on Jasmine's social media,</i>
00:03:40
<i> which seemed out of character.</i> - Something felt off because
the photo was quite suggestive.
00:03:48
Jasmine normally
wouldn't do that. Julia:<i> A distinctive tattoo</i>
<i> on Jasmine's right shoulder</i>
00:03:56
<i> was also missing.</i> Nick: Because of the missing
tattoo, it indicated that
it was quite old
00:04:01
and it wouldn't have
been from that day. Julia:<i> The family were</i>
<i> increasingly concerned,</i>
00:04:07
<i> so Jasmine's mother used</i>
<i> an app linked to her daughter's</i>
00:04:10
<i> vehicle to track her movements</i>
<i> and went to the car's</i>
00:04:13
<i> last known location.</i> Julia:<i> Chattanooga Police</i>
<i> joined Jasmine's parents</i>
00:04:49
at the scene.
- Hey. cop: Hello. So what's going on exactly? - She's been missing
for four days.
00:04:57
- So our daughter,
Wednesday said-- texted-- we never actually
spoke to her-- texted and said she was going
out of town for the week
00:05:07
with a girlfriend, Emma. OK? cop: OK. - I just talked to Emma today. She did not go out
of town with Emma.
00:05:16
cop: OK. - So I tracked her-- her MyChevrolet app. Tuesday night is the last
time I saw my daughter.
00:05:26
Wednesday, it came right here. It hadn't been moved since. I pulled up her phone records.
00:05:31
She has not made any phone
calls since Tuesday night. And someone has been
resetting her passwords.
00:05:39
cop: Have y'all been
in, like, any arguments or anything recently? Nothing like that?
OK.
00:05:45
man: Everybody's close. Her granny lived with us. She passed Tuesday night. cop: OK, sorry to hear that.
00:05:51
man: No, everybody's been fine. There's been no arguments. And she's never done that.
00:05:57
Julia:<i> Inside</i>
<i> the car, the driving</i> <i> position had been changed.</i>
00:06:02
- The seat was further back
than Jasmine would have had it. Jasmine was very petite.
00:06:06
She was short,
and she was small. And the seat
seemed to have been further back than
a short, small woman
00:06:11
would have driven it at. cop: As far as right now, I
can get her listed as missing
00:06:16
in the national database. So if anybody comes
across her, it's gonna pop up bright red, missing person.
00:06:23
- If you look at missing
person statistics, it's not that common
for women in their 20s
00:06:28
to go missing and to not be
found relatively quickly. So most missing persons who
are female are juveniles.
00:06:35
cop: I'm gonna go ahead
and call that investigator. - OK. - Jasmine's car being
found in a random place,
00:06:44
her not making contact
with her parents and missing Thanksgiving, those
are all things that for Jasmine
00:06:50
are out of the ordinary. And so it's more
those factors that make this an important
case because those are
00:06:57
all unusual things for her. And when we look
at missing persons, just like with any other kind
of situation where there's
00:07:03
a big question
mark, we're looking for things that are
out of the ordinary for the specific individual.
00:07:09
We're looking for what are
called changes from baseline. Julia:<i> The police were</i>
<i> limited in what they could do,</i>
00:07:17
<i> but Jasmine's parents</i>
<i> were convinced something</i>
00:07:19
<i> sinister had happened.</i> <i> They did their own</i>
<i> detective work</i>
00:07:22
<i> and tracked Jasmine's vehicle</i>
<i> even further back in time.</i>
00:07:30
Nick: Because the car
was attached to an app, they were able
to track its movements,
00:07:33
and they were eventually able
to discover that car had been to Tremont Street previously.
00:07:40
Julia:<i> The exact</i>
<i> address had already been</i>
00:07:43
<i> sent by Jasmine to her mom.</i> Coty: Jasmine had dropped
her location to her mother
00:07:50
on the night she went missing
in the middle of the night at around 2:15 AM. Mom initially did
not see the pin drop.
00:07:58
It was only when the family was
really searching for Jasmine that her mother was able
to go back in her text,
00:08:04
and all of a sudden said, oh my
gosh, she sent me her location. Julia:<i> Jasmine's parents</i>
<i> went straight there.</i>
00:08:19
<i> It was an apartment</i>
<i> complex on Tremont Street,</i>
00:08:22
<i> just five miles away from where</i>
<i> Jasmine's car had been found.</i>
00:08:27
Coty: When they get
to the apartment building, they started sort of canvassing
the apartment building.
00:08:34
This couple that
lived in the building also was able
to identify a scream of what seemed like a female
around the time Jasmine
00:08:42
went missing. Julia:<i> The neighbors confirmed</i>
<i> to her parents, the scream</i>
00:08:48
<i> came from inside apartment 210,</i>
<i> the occupant, a student named</i>
00:08:56
<i> Jason Chen, a name familiar</i>
<i> to Jasmine's parents.</i>
00:09:02
- Jasmine was a young female. She was not in a serious
relationship. She was casually
seeing a student
00:09:09
at the local
university, Jason Chen. Some of her family
members had met him, but her parents had not.
00:09:18
Nick: Desperate
to find their daughter, Jasmine's parents
decided to break in to Jason Chen's apartment.
00:09:23
[tense music] ♪ ♪ - I knew that something
bad had happened when I learned that the family
found Jasmine's personal items
00:10:01
in this apartment. They were items that you
would not leave behind-- a driver's license,
your credit cards.
00:10:12
I knew that
something was wrong. Julia:<i> A few minutes</i>
<i> after the 911 call,</i>
00:10:19
<i> officers arrived to pick</i>
<i> up Jasmine's parents'</i>
00:10:22
<i> investigation.</i> cop: None of y'all are in here? woman: No, no one answered it.
00:10:26
cop: All right. Just hang out over here. We're just gonna make
sure that obviously
00:10:32
there is no one in here. cop: It smells
like rotting food. See that?
cop: Yeah. cop: Long hair there.
00:10:49
Get down here. That's definitely female. woman: Is she in there? cop: She's not in here.
00:11:00
cop: No one's inside. Paul: A missing child is
one of the greatest fears that any parent would have.
00:11:09
You instantly go
to very dark places. Is my child hurt? Is my child alive? Is she being held
against her will?
00:11:22
Julia:<i> Officers needed</i>
<i> to speak with the neighbors</i>
00:11:25
<i> who'd heard the scream.</i> - Tuesday night,
early Wednesday
00:11:29
morning, we were sitting
on the couch right there. Heard some yelling. I took a note on my phone.
00:11:37
So I just wrote the time down
around about that I heard it. That was the date. I haven't changed it since.
00:11:44
So November 23. That was Wednesday night. I wrote down
the time of 2:15 AM. Julia:<i> The time of the scream</i>
<i> exactly matched when Jasmine</i>
00:11:55
<i> sent the pin drop to her mom.</i> <i> The police urgently</i>
<i> needed to find her.</i>
00:12:02
<i> They started to look</i>
<i> for Jason Chen.</i> <i> All they knew was that he</i>
<i> was a university student</i>
00:12:08
<i> doing computer science.</i> Coty: Jason Chen was
nowhere to be found.
00:12:15
Police are calling him. They are trying to contact him. They have his information.
00:12:20
He is not responding. And they do not
know where he is at. Julia:<i> Alongside,</i>
<i> a major search operation</i>
00:12:27
<i> was also underway for Jasmine.</i> Nick: Everyone is
looking for Jasmine.
00:12:34
Her mom's frantic and trying
to find her daughter. She was clearly very popular.
00:12:38
She had clearly had a lot
of people who cared about her. And, you know, Chattanooga is
such a close-knit community
00:12:43
that when someone goes
missing like this, you'll see it spread
like wildfire.
00:12:47
reporter: Pace's
disappearance has caught the eye of social media. - Please stop scrolling
and help me find my friend.
00:12:53
- Share it. Get the word out. Kentrell: When I heard the news
that Jasmine was missing,
00:13:01
it was truly horrific. I couldn't believe
that what was going on was truly happening.
00:13:08
Coty: At this point
in the investigation, a search warrant
was then executed by the Chattanooga
Police Department.
00:13:17
They utilized a tool that we
basically refer to as luminol. It is a substance that can
identify the presence of blood.
00:13:24
With the naked eye, most
of the investigators could not really
see any blood, but
00:13:28
when they utilized that
luminol, turn the lights off. [tense music] ♪ ♪ This was not a faint
trace of blood.
00:13:43
They found quantities of blood
that were not survivable. Julia:<i> A closer</i>
<i> forensic examination</i>
00:13:50
<i> of the apartment only confirmed</i>
<i> the worst-case scenario.</i>
00:13:56
Coty: There was
clearly a cleanup job, but not good enough. It was clear that not only had
something gone terribly wrong,
00:14:03
but that most likely whosever
blood that was was not alive. Julia:<i> Investigators</i>
<i> needed to confirm</i>
00:14:11
<i> if it was Jasmine's blood.</i> Coty: Law enforcement took
a sample from her toothbrush
00:14:16
at her parents'
house to compare it to the blood in the apartment. We sent it off to the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation
00:14:22
and asked for it to be
tested as soon as possible. Julia:<i> Outside</i>
<i> the apartment by a dumpster,</i>
00:14:29
<i> the police discovered</i>
<i> items covered in blood.</i>
00:14:34
- Jason Chen, he's
gone from a-- a person of interest to the primary
suspect in possibly a homicide.
00:14:42
Julia:<i> Police were working</i>
<i> around the clock to find him.</i>
00:14:46
<i> They checked the neighborhood</i>
<i> for surveillance footage</i>
00:14:49
<i> in search of digital clues.</i> Coty: Law enforcement are
seeking out video footage
00:14:55
from different locations
that Jason may have visited nearby his residence. Julia:<i> Police got a lucky break</i>
<i> when they checked the security</i>
00:15:03
<i> footage from a nearby store.</i> <i> The morning after</i>
<i> Jasmine went missing,</i>
00:15:13
<i> Jason Chen was</i>
<i> captured on camera</i> <i> buying cleaning products.</i>
00:15:19
- What was especially
interesting to us is that throughout these
videos and throughout this day,
00:15:24
Mr. Chen wears a very distinct
hat that makes him extremely easy to identify,
and we continue
00:15:31
to see this hat throughout the
course of the investigation. Julia:<i> Another local store</i>
<i> provided the police with even</i>
00:15:40
<i> more unsettling scenes.</i> <i> Jason was buying bandages</i>
<i> and hydrogen peroxide.</i>
00:15:52
There's something
called the illusion of invulnerability, which
is when perpetrators think
00:15:56
that they can't get caught. So they're basically
overconfident in their ability
00:16:00
to get away with a crime. And in this case, having
a really distinctive hat could
00:16:07
be an oversight,
but it could also be someone who's just
incredibly overconfident
00:16:11
and thinks it doesn't
really matter what I wear. It doesn't really matter
what I'm doing because I'm
00:16:15
not going to get caught. <i> The day after</i>
<i> Jasmine went missing,</i>
00:16:22
<i> doorbell footage captured Jason</i>
<i> returning to his apartment</i>
00:16:25
<i> multiple times.</i> <i> And when investigators checked</i>
<i> footage from a street camera</i>
00:16:31
<i> outside the apartment,</i>
<i> they made</i> <i> another shocking discovery.</i>
00:16:36
- We were able
to locate video footage of Jasmine Pace's vehicle
actually leaving his apartment.
00:16:43
And this is when that hat
becomes important again, because we believe that
the figure in the driver's
00:16:48
seat of the vehicle can be
identified as Jason Chen, based on the hat he's wearing.
00:16:55
Julia:<i> But why would Jason</i>
<i> Chen be driving Jasmine's car?</i>
00:17:01
<i> As investigators continued</i>
<i> to search through hours</i>
00:17:04
<i> of surveillance footage,</i>
<i> another glimpse of Jason</i>
00:17:08
<i> aroused suspicion.</i> - The one piece of video
evidence that's really stuck,
00:17:16
drew me in and captured
my imagination was the camera that we have
installed on a street corner,
00:17:23
and it just so happened
to look up Tremont Street to Jason Chen's apartment.
00:17:30
On that, I could see Jason
Chin coming and going. And ultimately, I
could see him taking
00:17:37
a suitcase out the front
door of his apartment and then driving away. Julia:<i> The contents of the</i>
<i> suitcase remained a mystery.</i>
00:17:48
<i> Jasmine was still</i>
<i> nowhere to be found.</i> <i> Then the DNA results came back.</i>
00:17:55
<i> The blood in the apartment</i>
<i> was confirmed to be Jasmine's.</i>
00:18:01
Coty: The moment
with the family in which we had to tell
them that we did not expect to find Jasmine alive
based on the blood found
00:18:07
in his apartment
was when we just had to be honest with them. At that point, we were
all realistic that we were
00:18:14
simply looking for a body. Julia:<i> Eight days after</i>
<i> Jasmine went missing,</i>
00:18:22
<i> police were finally able</i>
<i> to access Jason's cell</i>
00:18:25
<i> phone location data.</i> <i> It led them on a drive two</i>
<i> hours away from Chattanooga</i>
00:18:32
<i> to Nolensville, Tennessee.</i> [knock on door] <i> A house owned by Jason</i>
<i> Chen's parents.</i>
00:18:55
Julia:<i> He emerged</i>
<i> from the shadows.</i> Julia: Asking
the police officers
00:19:18
whether they have
probable cause, it feels like legal
language, which could suggest that he's been
researching the kinds of things
00:19:24
the police need to have
in order to arrest him, but also in terms
of the kinds of evidence
00:19:29
they need to prosecute him. And that, to me, given
the circumstances, does feel suspicious.
00:19:41
- Chattanooga Police say blood
spatters found in a young man's apartment led
them to charge him
00:19:45
with homicide
in the case of missing 22-year-old Jasmine Pace. Coty: When Jason was
taken into custody,
00:19:53
police tried to conduct
an interview with him. And at that point in time,
he chose not to say anything.
00:20:01
Julia:<i> But a search</i>
<i> of Jason's parents' house</i>
00:20:04
<i> led to more</i>
<i> incriminating evidence.</i> Coty: They had
a one-car garage,
00:20:11
and it was his vehicle
that was meticulously cleaned that was
in his parents' garage
00:20:16
while his parents' vehicles
were in the driveway. Julia:<i> Police also</i>
<i> discovered handwritten notes</i>
00:20:22
<i> about Jasmine's life</i>
<i> and a complete timeline</i>
00:20:26
<i> of their interactions.</i> <i> Jason Chen was now in custody,</i>
<i> but Jasmine was still missing.</i>
00:20:38
<i> All search efforts were focused</i>
<i> on finding Jasmine's body.</i>
00:20:45
- In any homicide prosecution,
we always want to have a body. It is vitally
important to prove
00:20:53
one of the essential
elements in that there was an unlawful killing. Absent a body, there's
always a reasonable doubt
00:21:00
that that person
is still alive. - We knew that he was
a suspect in a homicide, but we did not
have Jasmine Pace,
00:21:07
and that's what we needed. Julia:<i> Using Jason Chen's</i>
<i> cell phone location data,</i>
00:21:13
<i> investigators worked</i>
<i> on pinpointing</i> <i> his movements around the time</i>
<i> Jasmine went missing.</i>
00:21:21
Coty: When law
enforcement began to go through those
records, we found that he was all over
town, but in a very
00:21:27
suspicious place at one
point on the bank of the Tennessee River. [tense music] ♪ ♪
00:21:38
- When the investigators
arrived in the secluded area off
of Suck Creek Road west
00:21:44
of Chattanooga, they
immediately noticed a suitcase. They dragged that suitcase
up onto the flat ground,
00:21:57
opened it up, and immediately
felt what they recognized to be a human body. Julia:<i> The medical</i>
<i> examiner took X-ray images</i>
00:22:09
<i> of the suitcase's contents.</i> - The body was wrapped
in three separate garbage bags.
00:22:18
It was curled
into what's described as the fetal position. Julia:<i> The body was</i>
<i> confirmed to be Jasmine Pace.</i>
00:22:28
Paul: Jasmine Pace
was handcuffed twice, once with a handcuff
to her wrist attached to her
right leg, another
00:22:39
with a set of leg shackles. One of the shackles was
affixed around her elbow area and the other one
to her opposite left leg.
00:22:49
The report of our medical
examiner was very chilling. It told us that
Jasmine Pace had
00:22:55
been stabbed 60 times, in her
shoulder, in her throat, in her head, in her abdomen.
00:23:07
It described a large
portion of a large knife being broken off in her lung. She died of blood loss
and aspirated on her own blood.
00:23:21
♪ ♪ - When the body of Jasmine
Pace was positively identified, it really shook
the entire city.
00:23:32
People just wanted
to understand why could someone do this to this girl. Julia: This is
a really brutal find.
00:23:43
And specifically, the fact that
she was stabbed so many times makes it really clear
that this had nothing
00:23:49
to do with self-defense. It had nothing
to do with someone who is acting impulsively
maybe once or twice.
00:23:55
This is someone who is
intentionally going back and back and back in order
to cause either maximum damage
00:24:02
while she's still alive
or maximum damage to her body afterwards. So this is an obvious
and clear case
00:24:08
of overkill, where someone
is maybe emotional, but in a way that is
sustained, not in a way that
00:24:15
is sort of a rash reaction. ♪ ♪ Coty: This was a tough
case for everybody, just the gruesome nature
of it, the-- the uniqueness
00:24:28
based on what we typically
see in terms of violent crime in Chattanooga. So this had been
a tough process.
00:24:34
It was a tough process to go
through with her family. So as trial approached,
it was somber.
00:24:40
Julia:<i> And while</i>
<i> they were preparing</i> <i> for the trial, a crucial late</i>
<i> discovery of more evidence.</i>
00:24:47
- We got a call
from the detective in the case, who said
we found her SIM card, and it was in Jason
Chen's backpack.
00:24:55
The fact that
the criminal defendant has the victim's SIM
card in his possession
00:25:00
is just great evidence. There is no
explanation for that. And so we put that on top of
everything that we already had,
00:25:06
and it was sort of the cherry
on top of this case. Julia:<i> A vital</i>
<i> piece of evidence</i>
00:25:11
<i> that proved Jason had</i>
<i> been impersonating</i>
00:25:14
<i> Jasmine after she was killed.</i> - She was murdered around
2:15 in the morning AM.
00:25:21
And then it wasn't until that
night, around 6:00 to 6:30 PM, that we know that he
takes her body to the bank
00:25:29
of the Tennessee River. During that day,
he's also texting her as if she is still
alive and ensuring
00:25:37
that her phone, which he
had in his possession, appears that these
messages were read.
00:25:44
Paul: He posted
a picture of him holding a drink in his hand. The problem with that is
the photograph metadata.
00:25:53
Well, it showed that it was
actually taken months and months before the homicide.
00:25:58
So it was fake. He knew that Jasmine
Pace was dead, and he was trying to create
a digital alibi for himself.
00:26:06
Julia:<i> The trial</i>
<i> began in January 2025.</i> Coty: It was shocking to us
when in the defendant's opening
00:26:17
statement, his attorney
admits, yeah, he did kill her, but he did it
in a state of passion.
00:26:23
He was provoked. Julia: The defense that
something is a crime of passion is a line of defense
that has long
00:26:30
been used by people, especially
by men killing women, especially men killing
intimate partners.
00:26:35
And that is something
that is changing in terms of the societal
perception of acceptability.
00:26:41
It's no longer
seen as something that should excuse murder
or even potentially
00:26:45
be a mitigating circumstance. The question we should
also be asking as a society
00:26:50
is do we care? Because really,
people should be able to control
their emotional responses,
00:26:55
even to strong
and threatening situations. And murder is never
an acceptable option,
00:27:00
no matter how angry you get. Nick: The defense
claim that Jasmine had attacked Jason
with a wine bottle
00:27:07
after discovering
that he was messaging other girls on Tinder. It seemed basically
impossible that one,
00:27:14
that she could have posed
any physical threat to Jason, and that two, with
the cell phone data,
00:27:19
it was revealed that the day
before Jason killed Jasmine, he had not received
one message on Tinder.
00:27:28
Julia:<i> But the cell</i>
<i> phone data revealed</i> <i> Jason did use a dating</i>
<i> app within six</i>
00:27:33
<i> hours of killing Jasmine.</i> Nick: Jason had been messaging
other girls mere hours after he
00:27:42
had killed Jasmine Pace
and was telling them, hey, I guess we're
boyfriend-girlfriend now.
00:27:49
And also, he was playing
video games after. Like, with her body
still in the apartment,
00:27:53
he was talking
about, like, hey, let's run some<i> Call of Duty.</i>
00:27:57
Julia: All of this is
happening while Jasmine is dead in the apartment. It does feel like
the act of a psychopath.
00:28:04
It feels like someone who
doesn't care and is getting on with his life,
rather than panicking
00:28:08
and trying immediately
to deal with the consequences. <i> After an eight-day trial,</i>
<i> Jason Chen was found guilty</i>
00:28:16
<i> and sentenced to life</i>
<i> in prison without parole.</i>
00:28:21
- What he did was
so heinous in this case, was so unprovoked,
so uncalled for, that I think Jason Chen
has forfeited his right
00:28:30
to ever be back in society
because we don't need monsters like that in our society.
00:28:37
Kentrell: I miss
Jasmine's personality, her compassion, her empathy. Jasmine should be remembered
for her kind spirit.
00:28:47
We did a vigil,
a candlelight for her, you know, celebrating her life
and who she was as a person.
00:28:54
There were about 200 people
at the vigil candlelight, and just seeing all
the students come out and
00:29:00
show their love and support,
it was a positive atmosphere for anyone to come
out and to celebrate
00:29:07
the memory of Jasmine. And she left a really big
impact on the community. And that shows with
a lot of people
00:29:15
coming to her candlelight. Coty: We would like
Jasmine to be remembered as the ray of sunshine within
her friends and family group
00:29:25
that she was. She was vibrant. She was beautiful. She was always there. She was loyal.
00:29:32
She had everything
going for her. And that's part of why
this was so tragic.
00:29:37
But she certainly was
a ray of sunshine. And that's a message that we'll
continue to try to get across.
00:29:43
[somber music] ♪ ♪ Julia: In murder cases,
victims almost always know and trust
the perpetrators,
00:29:59
which is why the perpetrators
are able to get them into compromising situations
in the first place.
00:30:04
They effectively hijack
the victim's intuition. And what they're doing is
they're overriding all the cues
00:30:12
that you could be looking
for, all the red flags, and they're turning them
around and making themselves
00:30:17
instead seem like nice guys. Julia:<i> In the UK, in</i>
<i> Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent,</i>
00:30:33
<i> one of the largest cities in</i>
<i> the Midlands with over 250,000</i>
00:30:36
<i> people, known as the home</i>
<i> of pottery in the UK with</i>
00:30:42
<i> a football team</i>
<i> nicknamed the Potters,</i> <i> but statistically a higher than</i>
<i> average crime rate, it was home</i>
00:30:51
<i> to 18-year-old Megan Newton.</i> <i> Megan was studying sports</i>
<i> science at Newcastle College.</i>
00:31:03
<i> She was a talented</i>
<i> football player</i> <i> and recently got a tattoo</i>
<i> to show her love for the game.</i>
00:31:09
- Megan had three jobs. She not only did that,
in her spare time, she coached an under seven
girls' football team.
00:31:17
She was a caring person,
dealing with children. She loved children. She gave up her spare time
to help them get better.
00:31:26
Julia:<i> Megan's dream was</i>
<i> to get a sports scholarship</i>
00:31:29
<i> to study in America.</i> - She had real
ambition for her life. Julia:<i> Friday, April 19, 2019.</i>
00:31:45
<i> Megan was working her</i>
<i> usual evening shift</i>
00:31:48
<i> in a local fish and chip shop.</i> - Megan finished at around
9:30 working in the chip
00:31:54
shop that she worked in. Julia:<i> After her shift, Megan</i>
<i> went home to get changed.</i>
00:32:03
- She went to meet
some friends in a pub. And then they all went
to a club together.
00:32:07
They were having
a lovely evening. Megan was happily showing off
a new tattoo that she had.
00:32:14
Julia:<i> At 2:45 AM, Megan left</i>
<i> the club and took a taxi home.</i>
00:32:26
<i> The next morning, a worrying</i>
<i> discovery-- neighbors</i>
00:32:29
<i> found a set of keys covered</i>
<i> in blood in a car park</i>
00:32:33
<i> outside Megan's apartment.</i> Steve: Some people who
live in the block were
00:32:37
able to establish
it belonged to one of the ground floor flats. So out of concern
for the occupant there,
00:32:44
they opened the door. They went in. And what they found was
there was a naked female
00:32:56
laying on the bed,
quite clearly deceased and quite
clearly suffering from some horrendous injuries.
00:33:02
So they came away
and dialed 999. [sirens blaring] Julia:<i> Police immediately</i>
<i> responded to the scene.</i>
00:33:12
Steve: When
the officers arrived, the witnesses took
them to the flat, and it was quite obvious from
her injuries and the blood
00:33:21
at the scene that this
wasn't an accident. Inside, they also found
a knife, a knife that they
00:33:28
believed was
the one that caused the injuries, making this
a crucial piece of evidence.
00:33:34
They would have
been in no doubt that this was now
a murder investigation. Julia:<i> The woman was</i>
<i> confirmed to be Megan Newton.</i>
00:33:47
Steve: Her flat was
now a crime scene, meaning it would
be locked down and it would need to be
forensically examined
00:33:53
to look for any trace
that could indicate not only what had
happened there, but who it was that killed her.
00:34:02
Julia:<i> Investigators urgently</i>
<i> needed to find Megan's killer.</i>
00:34:08
- The next important
step was to build up a picture of her movements
that night, that evening.
00:34:12
Where had she been? Who'd she been with? Julia:<i> Police needed</i>
<i> to track Megan's route,</i>
00:34:18
<i> retracing how she got to the</i>
<i> nightclub the night before.</i>
00:34:22
- Police will be looking for
what we call quick wins, CCTV that could potentially
give some clues as
00:34:28
to what went
on and importantly, who the killer may have been. Julia:<i> Police found CCTV</i>
<i> footage from outside the club.</i>
00:34:39
<i> They were able to identify</i>
<i> Megan leaving in a</i> taxi.
00:34:44
- In that taxi was one of her
female friends and a male. This clip shows the three
of them getting in the cab,
00:34:56
Megan in the middle
and the friend closest to the passenger side. They all look comfortable,
and all intents
00:35:04
and purposes, there's nothing
suspicious going on here. Julia:<i> Police searched</i>
<i> for surveillance</i>
00:35:11
<i> cameras close to Megan's home.</i> <i> They found footage</i>
<i> of Megan and the man</i>
00:35:17
<i> walking towards her apartment.</i> Steve: By now, the cab
has dropped them off,
00:35:22
and there are just
the two of them now. Julia:<i> As police tracked</i>
<i> Megan's movements on camera,</i>
00:35:28
<i> they got a major breakthrough.</i> Steve: There was
actually cameras
00:35:37
in and around Megan's
flat, cameras that overlooked her front door. Julia:<i> When detectives</i>
<i> searched through the recording,</i>
00:35:50
<i> they identified</i>
<i> Megan arriving home.</i> Steve: The footage showed her
arriving at around 3:45 AM,
00:35:59
and she wasn't alone. She was with a male,
tall, slim, young, white with dark hair.
00:36:08
This is the best
quality CCTV so far. They're smiling. They look happy. There was no aggravation
between them.
00:36:16
There was definitely
nothing at this point that you would point out
as looking suspicious.
00:36:22
Julia:<i> Analysis</i>
<i> of the man's behavior</i>
00:36:24
<i> revealed a subtle</i>
<i> change in his demeanor.</i>
00:36:28
Roberta: What was once
quite relaxed shifts. He stands quite close to Megan. He looks around.
00:36:34
We don't know if he's
responding to a noise or just scoping out to see
if someone's watching him,
00:36:39
but there's definitely
something that's shifted. [tense music] ♪ ♪ Julia:<i> Two hours passed, then</i>
<i> he appeared on camera again.</i>
00:36:56
Roberta: As the man
leaves Megan's apartment, it looks like he is quite calm.
00:37:00
He walks. He doesn't run. He seems very composed as he
makes his way to the door.
00:37:07
Steve: The footage
is on her front door, so there's no dispute as to who
went in and who came out.
00:37:15
Julia:<i> An exterior</i>
<i> camera captured the man</i>
00:37:18
<i> as he left Megan's building.</i> Steve: This, to me,
looks really very casual.
00:37:27
And with his right hand, we
see him throw something down. Julia:<i> The object appeared</i>
<i> to land in the same spot</i>
00:37:38
<i> where the neighbors had found</i>
<i> Megan's keys covered in blood.</i>
00:37:44
Roberta: Again, he seems
quite calm, doesn't particularly seem fazed. He's even checking his phone.
00:37:50
It doesn't seem to be
that anything's amiss. - Of all the video
footage, this clip, to me,
00:37:58
is the one that
really hits home. As he's walking
away, he looks down. And we can see that there's
something on his hand.
00:38:11
You can see the color of it. It's red. Julia:<i> When police spoke</i>
<i> to Megan's friends,</i>
00:38:22
<i> they discovered the man in</i>
<i> the footage was Joseph Trevor,</i>
00:38:30
<i> a 19-year-old semi-professional</i>
<i> footballer who had attended</i>
00:38:35
<i> the same school as Megan.</i> <i> Both of his parents</i>
<i> were police officers.</i>
00:38:42
- Remarkably, it
wasn't the first time he'd come to notice of police
because that evening,
00:38:47
before he met Megan, he'd
been stopped by bouncers and found to have
white powder on him,
00:38:52
and they called the police. And he was dealt with by them
for this white powder that
00:38:57
turned out to be ketamine. The police detained
him, but the decision was made that he
was not fit to be
00:39:05
detained, i.e.
he'd been drinking, potentially taking drugs. So those drugs were
taken from him,
00:39:11
and he was given a bail date
to come to the police station at a later time. Julia:<i> After Joseph Trevor</i>
<i> was released from the police</i>
00:39:19
<i> station, he went straight</i>
<i> to the Kiln Nightclub</i>
00:39:22
<i> where he met Megan.</i> <i> And just a few hours after he</i>
<i> left Megan's apartment alone,</i>
00:39:29
<i> officers were called out</i>
<i> to a potential suicide threat.</i>
00:39:33
- The police were
called to a male who was sitting on the side
of a bridge over the A500.
00:39:44
And when police arrived,
they found that that male was Joseph Trevor. He was sat there in a way
that caused concern.
00:39:55
He's on this side of a bridge
overlooking a road. Is he somebody that may be
looking to take their own life?
00:40:03
Julia:<i> Joseph was</i>
<i> taken to the hospital.</i> <i> He was seen by a mental</i>
<i> health worker</i>
00:40:09
<i> and picked up by his dad.</i> Roberta: We don't know
exactly what was going
00:40:14
through Joseph Trevor's mind. It could be guilt.
It could be remorse. It could be shame.
00:40:20
However, in these instances,
self-preservation outweighs guilt. And what unfolded may
have been much more in response
00:40:28
to a fear of the consequences,
rather than true remorse for what he had done. - Joseph Trevor had
gone home to his house.
00:40:38
He lived there with
his mum and dad. Julia:<i> He decided</i>
<i> to confess to his family.</i>
00:40:45
- He says to them, I've
done something bad. Roberta: For Joseph Trevor's
parents, who were both police
00:40:52
officers, hearing
the news about what he did must have been devastating. But the reality is there
was only one outcome.
00:41:00
In order for Megan
to have justice, they had to forgo
protecting their son. Steve: His parents
phoned the police
00:41:09
and informed them that
the murderer of Megan Newton was, in fact, their son,
Joseph Trevor.
00:41:14
[tense music] Julia:<i> Joseph Trevor</i>
<i> was arrested and</i>
00:41:20
<i> charged with the murder</i>
<i> of Megan Newton.</i>
00:41:24
Steve: When someone commits
a crime such as this, it's important to understand
well, is this a one-off?
00:41:30
Have they done anything
like this in the past? In the case of Joseph Trevor,
it appeared that he had.
00:41:37
When he was 15 years
old, he'd been arrested for a sexual assault.
That was never prosecuted,
00:41:47
but it gave a clue as to why
and how this happened to Megan. Julia:<i> The autopsy report</i>
<i> revealed the full extent</i>
00:41:57
<i> of Megan's injuries.</i> <i> Dr. Brett Lockyer is</i>
<i> a forensic pathologist.</i>
00:42:05
Brett: In Megan's
case, the pathologist was able to determine that
there were nine stab wounds
00:42:10
to the back of her neck. Those stab wounds had
entered into her chest and had injured both her lungs.
00:42:16
The pathologist
had found injuries to her neck, which
would indicate that she had been
strangled, that there had
00:42:23
been a period
of neck compression followed by nine stab wounds. This sustained
and brutal attack
00:42:32
is the reason why Megan died. Julia:<i> The autopsy</i>
<i> also confirmed Megan</i>
00:42:39
<i> had been sexually assaulted.</i> Roberta: This is a very
disturbing and violent crime.
00:42:45
From a psychological
perspective, this is overkill, and overkill really
does often suggest
00:42:50
there is an intense emotional
experience like rage, sadism. It's about power and control.
00:42:58
We also have to acknowledge
that the throat is where our voice resides. So strangulation can
also be seen as a way
00:43:04
to silence a victim, especially
if they've been rejected or if there's resistance
or even to silence the victim
00:43:10
from speaking about
what actually happened. In that moment, the perpetrator
has that person's life
00:43:16
literally in their hands. They choose if they
live or die. It's about inflicting
anxiety, terror in the victim,
00:43:24
but also exerting dominance. Julia:<i> In court, the full</i>
<i> details of the evening Megan</i>
00:43:33
<i> was killed came to light.</i> - On that evening,
she'd taken him home
00:43:39
in order to stop him getting
into trouble with his parents, and Trevor has repaid her by
raping her, murdering her, and
00:43:46
then leaving her dead
in her own apartment before fleeing the scene. This was a brutal
and sustained attack, showing
00:43:54
no regard for Megan's life. Roberta: Joseph Trevor
had expressed a desire not to go home because he
was intoxicated
00:44:01
and he didn't want his parents
to see him in that state. Megan, being the understanding
friend that she was,
00:44:07
offered to share her
sanctuary with Joseph Trevor, but he abused it,
took advantage of it
00:44:12
and attacked her and killed
her in her own home. This really does highlight
how Megan's act of kindness
00:44:19
was met with betrayal and
ultimately her losing her life. Julia:<i> The video</i>
<i> evidence gave police</i>
00:44:26
<i> a rare insight into the mind</i>
<i> of Joseph Trevor.</i>
00:44:30
- It's quite
unusual to actually get a glimpse of a killer
soon after the murder
00:44:36
has taken place. You don't often get that
look into their eyes as you do in this instance when
he's coming out of that flat.
00:44:45
- Knowing that this
man's the killer invites us to look
at this clip differently.
00:44:49
The calmness that we're seeing
takes on a different quality. It's quite chilling.
00:44:54
It's cold. It's callous, and it has no
indication of what's just taken place moments before.
00:45:06
Julia:<i> In February</i>
<i> 2020, Joseph Trevor</i> <i> was sentenced to 21</i>
<i> years for the murder</i>
00:45:12
<i> and rape of Megan Newton.</i> Roberta: It's really
important that talking
00:45:17
about Megan's murder doesn't
take away her dignity. Why it's an important case that
real lessons can be learned.
00:45:25
We have to hold in mind that
a real woman, a young woman, a woman who had her
whole life ahead of her,
00:45:31
is at the center of this. Megan brought lots
of joy to many people. She was kind,
compassionate, and caring,
00:45:39
and she will be missed
by not only her friends and her family, but her community.
00:45:45
Megan was a keen
footballer, not only in terms of playing, but also
teaching the younger
00:45:50
generation to play
the sport and encouraging women to get involved. This is inspiring.
00:45:56
This is incredibly hopeful. This is what Megan
should be remembered for. [somber music]
00:46:02
♪ ♪ [tense music] ♪ ♪