00:00:12
NARRATOR: A young nurse
heads out for a quick run but never comes back. She was running without her
phone and without her dog.
00:00:19
NARRATOR: As a storm rolls in,
her anxious husband calls 911. NARRATOR: While
searching for clues,
00:00:43
the cops learn of a
marriage in trouble and a husband with issues. Sadly, I think Thomas
had a volatile nature,
00:00:51
did have a penchant
for alcohol and drugs. NARRATOR: Micah Rine's
family were never
00:00:57
exactly fond of Thomas Pate. It hurts to know that
she makes that choice. NARRATOR: She had chosen a
man who claimed to love Jesus.
00:01:06
But Thomas Pate had
other loves too. I think it became clear to her
that he was having an affair.
00:01:13
And she may have
confronted him with it. Thomas Pate had charmed
a naive young woman
00:01:19
and then he persuaded
her family to accept him. But there was a
dangerous side to him
00:01:26
that neither knew existed. And all too soon, they would. It was clear that Thomas and
Micah both knew about guns.
00:01:48
Nearly half of women murdered
are killed by their partners but plenty of men also fall
victim to the same fate.
00:01:57
So if I were you, I
would pay attention to what you're about to see. It might just save your life.
00:02:08
Searcy, Arkansas, 2003. College students
Micah Rine and Thomas Pate meet for the first time.
00:02:16
Thomas was an
interesting young man. We teased, and he
said it himself, that he was the biggest
redneck city boy that he knew.
00:02:27
Because he was
from Atlanta, which is a pretty good sized city. But he enjoyed being out in the
outdoors, hunting and fishing
00:02:35
and just hanging out really by
himself a lot in God's nature. He's athletic and
so it matched up
00:02:45
with my sister wanting
to play basketball and be involved in those things. NARRATOR: Micah had
been raised in a close
00:02:54
knit religious household. We are a Christian family
and we focus on trying to walk,
00:03:07
what we talk about. We grew up at Camp Tahkodah
which is a camp about an hour north of our home town of Searcy
We love spending that time out
00:03:19
at Camp Dakota and swimming
and going hiking and spending that time together. We wanted to be authentic
and actually live our faith.
00:03:30
NARRATOR: As a young
girl, Micah attended Christian youth camps,
weekly prayer meetings,
00:03:35
and Sunday church services. She led a rather
sheltered life though. I must say. It was a small town in Arkansas.
00:03:45
It's a very, home
family-based atmosphere. There's not a lot of exposure
to the underside of the world.
00:03:55
She was very obedient and
was a pleaser, very energetic. She was very talkative.
00:04:03
She also was very driven
athletically and academically and did well on the
basketball court especially.
00:04:13
And she enjoyed running. NARRATOR: At the
age of 19, Micah met fellow student, Thomas Pate.
00:04:20
Micah and Thomas met
through a French group. He was trying to
connect one of his friends
00:04:25
with one of her friends
and that's where that relationship started. So they connected
and spent some time
00:04:32
together prior to
whenever they really did consider each other exclusive. NARRATOR: Thomas Pate's
childhood had been
00:04:40
very different from Micah's. His was a more privileged
type upbringing, I would say.
00:04:46
His parents lived outside
of Atlanta, Georgia, a much more metropolitan,
open, exposed to just about
00:04:55
everything. NARRATOR: By the time
Thomas met Micah, there were already signs he
was far from a model citizen.
00:05:02
He had a basketball
scholarship to a another college initially. But he lost his scholarship
and he had to leave the school.
00:05:10
And that's when he became
a student at Harding and eventually met Micah. He was more worldly.
00:05:17
And she considered
him tall and handsome. She seemed thoroughly
intrigued by Thomas.
00:05:24
NARRATOR: Micah's
family began making their first
impressions of Thomas a few months after he and
Micah met in late 2002.
00:05:31
We hosted a Bible study in
our home on Wednesday nights for years. We've done that for years.
00:05:37
Micah brought him
to home Bible study, I believe starting
in February or March. And that was probably
maybe six weeks
00:05:48
after they started dating. So they would be regulars
on Wednesday night then. So then it was just a matter
of trying to get to know him.
00:05:57
And seeing what he was like and
what comments he would make, how he fit in with the
other people that were
00:06:03
involved in home Bible study. Our impression of him,
he's very down to Earth. And pretty much what you see
is what you get from him.
00:06:13
As he came to home Bible
study, he had the right words and knew the Christian
lingo so to speak.
00:06:22
And so he would say some
of the right things. And do some of the right things. And even asking him to
pray at home Bible study,
00:06:31
he would say a, what I
would call a typical prayer. NARRATOR: In hindsight,
Micah's father, Dennis,
00:06:41
wonders just how
truthfully Thomas had been presenting himself. It was the game
that he was playing.
00:06:47
He knew the right lingo
and the right things to say to try to impress us. But was he really living it?
00:06:57
NARRATOR: Despite
their misgivings, Micah's family held back
their opinions of Thomas.
00:07:03
When they started
dating, of course we were paying really close attention. And early on, when we
didn't see that it really
00:07:11
appeared to be a
good fit, we started paying closer attention. He's OK. Wasn't over the top impressed.
00:07:23
But didn't have any big red
flags to start with either. We started expressing
some of our concerns.
00:07:30
And the problem
with that, though, was that we couldn't
really put our finger on what it was that
we wanted to point
00:07:39
out that was not a good fit. NARRATOR: Even Micah
wasn't sure at this stage whether Thomas was
the right guy for her.
00:07:47
There was one incident when
they were dating seriously, two springs before
they got married,
00:07:53
and we were on a ski trip
and it was just Micah and I on the ski lift. And she said, Dad, if you notice
any red flags with Thomas,
00:08:04
I want you to point
those out to me. And I said, Micah, you
can rest assured I will.
00:08:09
NARRATOR: Before long,
there were a few things Thomas had mentioned
that gave Micah's family
00:08:13
a real reason to be concerned. He shared that he had
made some poor choices during his high school years
and even the first year
00:08:23
or so of college. Part of that had to do
with a lot of partying, a lot of drinking,
some promiscuity,
00:08:32
even dabbling in some drugs. I believe that
entered into him losing his basketball
scholarship
00:08:39
with the prior college. Terri and Dennis couldn't
understand why Micah would want to date somebody
whose values seemed
00:08:47
so different from her own. But Micah believed
in second chances. So when Thomas insisted he'd
put his past behind him,
00:08:56
she and her family believed him. She says, well, he's changed. We find out later again
that that's not true.
00:09:06
NARRATOR: There were certainly
enough warnings that Thomas Pate wasn't on the up and up.
00:09:11
And it wouldn't be long
before good Christian girl, Micah Rine, realized they
weren't false alarms.
00:09:33
Micah Rine was a nursing
student at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas
when she met supposedly
00:09:39
reformed bad boy, Thomas Pate. To those who knew Micah best,
her decision to study nursing
00:09:46
was right in line
with her core values. You don't take
on that profession without having a heart
for the vulnerable
00:09:54
and for the broken
and the hurting. NARRATOR: Did Micah Rine
believe her new boyfriend
00:10:00
Thomas Pate was a broken
man in need of saving? Looking back, Micah's father
had no doubt his daughter's
00:10:06
heart was in the right place. She would stay
to try to help him. And I think she even
had a sense of I may be
00:10:14
the only one able to help him. Not long into Micah's
relationship with Thomas, her family began to see some
changes in her personality.
00:10:23
She was very bubbly and
friendly and very outgoing to everybody. And then all of a sudden,
she was very withdrawn.
00:10:33
She was stressed. She just started having these
tendencies that drew her inward rather than being outward.
00:10:43
And she was very much
an outward person. Now she was very private. But she was very outward.
00:10:48
Where if they went
out, he'd probably say, you know, why aren't you
dressing like that person?
00:10:53
Or why do you have to be
so picky about your food, you know, things that would
make her feel bad about herself.
00:11:01
I can easily see that happening. Because I think a little
of that may have happened
00:11:06
to him with his father. NARRATOR: But Micah
was head over heels. And a little over a year
into their relationship
00:11:12
Thomas proposed. It was about two years from
the time they started dating till the time they got married.
00:11:19
Before Micah and Thomas
got married he asked my dad's hand in blessing. NARRATOR: Dismayed,
Micah's parents
00:11:29
tried to change their
daughter's mind. There was this moment where
my sister called me and said,
00:11:36
Mom and Dad don't want this
relationship to continue. When I point
out the red flags,
00:11:43
because she was, as Terri said,
invested in this relationship and she had been groomed in
this manipulative relationship,
00:11:53
she wasn't willing to listen
to Dad's advice at this point. She was torn because
we are a close family.
00:12:02
And she was drawn to Thomas. NARRATOR: With the date
of Micah's wedding right around the corner,
Terri and Dennis Rine
00:12:08
continue questioning
her decision. Just the week
prior to her wedding, we were just hanging out.
00:12:15
And I said something
to her about the fact that I'm so
disappointed that you're not going to have any children.
00:12:22
She loves kiddos. And she said, well, why
would I not have children? And I said, well, Thomas
has made it real clear
00:12:30
that he does not want
to have children. And that he has no
plans of being a dad.
00:12:36
Before I walked
her down the aisle, I said, Micah, it's
still not too late. If you want to back out of
this, I'll support you 100%.
00:12:45
I want what's best for you. And she just said,
no, let's go with it. And so we did.
00:12:51
We walked down the aisle
and the marriage took place. I believe they still
lived here for two
00:13:06
semesters, almost a whole year. And then she had
received a nursing job with a clinic in Memphis
and they moved to Memphis
00:13:14
or rather to Bartlett,
which is just on the outskirts of Memphis. NARRATOR: Bartlett was a big
change for Micah Rine Pane.
00:13:22
At twice the size
of Searcy, Arkansas, it was a completely different
world than the small town
00:13:28
Christian girl was used to. Micah graduated in 2005 and
moved to Memphis shortly after.
00:13:36
And worked in labor and
delivery at Methodist and then came about to
work with us at MOGA.
00:13:41
She was the loveliest soul. Business manager,
Melissa Conklin, runs a women's clinic
in Bartlett, Tennessee.
00:13:49
She saw Micah
blossom as a nurse. Her co-workers would have said
that she was the nurses' nurse.
00:13:56
That she was the nurse that you
wanted on your side, the one that you wanted to be there
to help you with a patient.
00:14:04
She worked at an
OB/GYN group here. And they were very close. They're all women.
00:14:10
They're all very close together. NARRATOR: Micah's
personal life however, was not running
quite so smoothly.
00:14:16
I think they were a
little suspicious of Thomas. And Micah was becoming
less happy, I'll say.
00:14:27
They rarely went home. And it got to be less and less. They started missing some
of the holidays, which were
00:14:35
very important to the Rine's. The thing that
I noticed the most was her making excuses for
Thomas not wanting to be there.
00:14:45
There was an example with
my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and
my dad's birthday.
00:14:51
And we had a big celebration. And everybody was excited to
come and spend a good weekend
00:14:56
together Micah came. But she had to make
excuses for Thomas not wanting to
come and have fun.
00:15:04
Thomas was always
awkward around our family. But he knew about us
giving advice to Micah
00:15:13
and trying to have
her think about that a lot more than she did. NARRATOR: On the rare occasions
that Micah's family did get
00:15:22
a visit from her
and Thomas, they were able to catch glimpses
of his troubled personality.
00:15:27
Thomas had a hunting dog. And he told the hunting dog to
stay in the back of the truck.
00:15:37
And then Thomas went off
to do something else, working on a trailer. Well, as the dog was
still pretty much a pup,
00:15:45
it saw Thomas go over there
and work on the trailer. And then the dog
got off the truck
00:15:52
and walked towards Thomas. Thomas screams at the dog. I told you to stay
on that truck.
00:15:59
And he picked the
dog up by the ears and threw it back in the
truck, extreme anger,
00:16:08
extreme violence. NARRATOR: There were
also hints that Tom's behavior toward his wife
could also be highly volatile.
00:16:17
We would talk back
and forth at least twice a week on the phone. I'd just ask her how
things are going.
00:16:24
And she would hint at, well,
Thomas and I had a good day. We were able to work in the
yard today without any issues.
00:16:34
Well, we had a good day today. We didn't have any
arguments or fights. NARRATOR: Looking
back, it was readily
00:16:39
apparent Micah was
in a relationship with a controlling husband. We don't know that
he ever hit Michael
00:16:45
physically, but the yelling
and screaming and belittling. You're so stupid. Why can't you get this right?
00:16:53
And then at the other extreme
of saying, oh, you're so sweet. I love you so much.
00:16:59
It wasn't like
bruises and cuts and scratches and broken
bones and cigarette burns.
00:17:06
It wasn't that kind
of domestic violence. It was the kind of scars in her
heart and her spirit dampened.
00:17:16
And all those things that made
her who she was, many of those were taken away. She was basically
wearing herself
00:17:25
down trying to be the
perfect wife, employee, and hopefully a mother. The things that we
saw in her relationship
00:17:34
were very typical
observations that you would see in someone
who is trying to manipulate another person.
00:17:43
But at the time, we didn't
know that's exactly what it was because it's so deceptive.
00:17:49
NARRATOR: Micah's friends
had similar concerns about the type of husband
Thomas Pate had become.
00:17:54
Micah kept us all very at bay. I mean she was very separate. She did have a co-worker
that she ran with.
00:18:02
And she would meet
her at Micah's house. And they would go run. She wasn't allowed
inside the house.
00:18:10
If Micah took call at night and
on weekends, and if she did, then she couldn't sleep in
the same bedroom as Thomas.
00:18:18
After talking to
co-workers, co-employees, her fellow church members,
things of that nature,
00:18:26
she was struggling with
being who she perceived Thomas wanted her to be. He just belittled her.
00:18:35
And I think that his
drinking didn't help that. Because it would be in
those spells that he would
00:18:39
drink and things would come out
of his mouth that it shouldn't. NARRATOR: Thomas swore
to Micah his drinking
00:18:44
days were behind him. But that wasn't true. Then one day in
the spring of 2009, Micah discovered alcohol
wasn't her husband's only vice.
00:18:56
He actually spent the weekend
with a young woman in Tunica. NARRATOR: The fears
Michael's family
00:19:03
had about her
husband's true nature were slowly being confirmed. This was a man who was anything
but the devout Christian
00:19:11
he had claimed to be. Easter, 2009. While Micah Pate goes to spend
the holiday with her parents
00:19:33
back in Arkansas,
her husband, Thomas, says he has other plans. She had come to our
house for a weekend.
00:19:42
And he was going
hunting, is what he said. NARRATOR: The next week,
she's back at work as usual.
00:19:49
Now, she went home one
day and surprised Thomas. And he said he was sick so he
wasn't going to be working any.
00:19:58
So she thought she would go
home and fix him some soup during the middle of the day.
00:20:03
And when she got there, he
was on the phone with somebody that he seemed to be talking
rather intimately to.
00:20:12
NARRATOR: Back at work, Micah
can't hide her distress. Thomas's supposed hunting trip
had clearly been nothing more
00:20:19
than a cover story. I remember Micah seeing
a provider in my office, being totally,
totally distraught,
00:20:25
to the point of where I
went and got her stuff, and helped her out the door. And she went home.
00:20:30
We found it out in
investigating for the trial that he actually had met a
woman on a flight to Atlanta.
00:20:38
And he was indeed in
communication with her. And had met her for a
weekend at the casinos
00:20:44
in Tunica, Mississippi. NARRATOR: Micah is devastated. But when she heads back home
to celebrate her 26th birthday
00:20:52
with her family shortly
after, she doesn't tell them about Thomas's affair. Micah did not
confide in us at all
00:21:00
about any struggles that she
was having in her marriage. We were even unaware that
there had been indiscretions
00:21:10
with at least one other woman. We were unaware of his
promiscuity and his attraction
00:21:18
to pornography on his computer. NARRATOR: After her
birthday weekend, Micah returns to Tennessee
more determined than ever
00:21:27
to make her marriage work. Then, two days later on the
night of April 30, 2009, Michael's parents receive
an unexpected call.
00:21:38
We got a call
that Thursday night. I think it was around 10:00,
10:30 was the first call.
00:21:44
Thomas said, hey, do you
know where Michael is? She's going out for a run. She hadn't come back.
00:21:51
She normally would walk her
dog and go on runs by herself because her runs were lengthy.
00:21:56
They would be like
six miles, anywhere from six to 12 miles at a time. Thursday night, which was the
30th, Micah worked late night.
00:22:03
It was kind of a
dreary, rainy night. That was not uncommon
for her to go running.
00:22:07
It was uncommon for her to
go running late at night, in the dark, in a rainstorm.
00:22:13
Where could Micah be? Where's Micah? You know, the dog was there. She wasn't there.
00:22:20
And he just didn't know. No we haven't heard from her. But, please, call us and
let us know if you hear
00:22:26
anything of what's going on. And so there was at least
one other call, or maybe two,
00:22:32
I can't remember. But on the final
call, it was OK, Thomas, you need to be calling
the police and start a search.
00:22:57
We packed our stuff and
headed to Memphis immediately. It's about a two hour drive.
00:23:03
And at that point when
we got to the house, he had already organized
a search party.
00:23:10
And they had been at
it for several hours. He'd notified people
in the neighborhood,
00:23:15
her friends, her co-workers,
everyone was looking for Micah? Where was Micah? So there's this big search,
this big hunt for Micah
00:23:26
the evening of the 30th. We got to Memphis between
1:00 and 2:00 in the morning.
00:23:35
And so as soon as we
got there, he said, well, she's gone out for a run. So I started running the routes
that I knew that we had been
00:23:44
on, different routes
that we had run from her house around Bartlett. NARRATOR: While her husband
searches for signs of Micah,
00:23:53
Terri tries to piece together
what might have happened. There are too many things
that make no sense.
00:23:59
One of the interesting things
that Terri discovered early on was Thomas had put out
the trash that day.
00:24:07
And in the trash were quite
a few bottles of tequila and I forget what else. And Terri asked
him about it said,
00:24:17
hey, what are all these
bottles doing in your trash? And Thomas said, well, sometimes
people come by and just
00:24:24
put their trash in my trash. During the night, I
asked, Thomas, you know, just occurred to me.
00:24:32
Did you all have a fight? Or did you have a disagreement? And maybe she's just
left and spent the night
00:24:37
with a friend or something? He said, no, they hadn't
had a disagreement. Nothing had happened.
00:24:44
Detective Todd Halford is also
suspicious of Thomas's version of events. As I walked around the
house, instead of Thomas
00:24:52
sitting or talking to anybody
or talking to the officer, he actually followed me
throughout the house.
00:24:57
Made small talk with
me while I was looking at different things,
explaining things
00:25:03
that didn't need explanation. Lieutenant Halford checked
the weather reports against when
00:25:09
Thomas said she went running. And there were
severe storm warnings with lightning and severe
rain at that time when
00:25:19
she was supposed to be running. Heavy rain, heavy
thunder, most people don't go jogging in
that, even if they're
00:25:25
training for a marathon. As we were looking
through the house, you know Micah's purse
is still at the house.
00:25:30
Micah's phone is
still at the house. Her ID is still at the house. I mean, even, when you
go jogging or go the gym,
00:25:36
you take your phone with you. NARRATOR: 12 hours after
Micah supposedly went missing,
00:25:41
Casey Rine arrives in Tennessee
to help with the search. I drive to her house. And at her house, there's
yellow tape everywhere.
00:25:51
There's police cars everywhere. And it starts to make
me even more alarmed. I believe Lieutenant Halford
came to the house about 7:00.
00:26:04
And that's when he moved
us to the police station to continue the
investigation there.
00:26:10
So I go on to
the police station. And the first person I see
when I walk in is Thomas.
00:26:15
And I walk in. And we meet in the middle
of the lobby and we hug. And I'm crying and he's crying.
00:26:22
And I'm like, we're
going to find her. It's going to be OK.
We're going to find her.
00:26:25
It's going to be OK. And he's telling me, I'm sorry. I don't know where she is. I'm sorry.
00:26:32
I don't know where she is. And that's the last time
that I've spoken to Thomas. NARRATOR: In the meantime,
word of Micah's disappearance
00:26:42
spreads. We called husbands. We went and got four
wheelers, side by sides. And we went to the Loosahatchie
Bottoms to look for her.
00:26:50
NARRATOR: The
Loosahatchie Bottoms is a remote wooded
area just a few miles from Thomas and Micah's home.
00:26:57
We did that for a few hours
and came up with nothing. NARRATOR: Back at the
Bartlett Police Department,
00:27:03
investigators are already
working on the assumption that Micah had not
simply had a fall
00:27:09
or become lost while jogging. The interrogations started
at the police station. One of my first questions
for Lieutenant Halford,
00:27:20
why are you taking Thomas
to this other place? He goes, well, typically
in these situations,
00:27:26
the first person we have
to eliminate is the spouse. And so we're going to question
him separately from the family.
00:27:33
And I was like, OK. And of course, the husband
is one of the suspects. Almost 75% to 90% of the time
that someone ends up dead,
00:27:44
the spouse ends up as a
suspect at some point. NARRATOR: This is the
moment when it suddenly
00:27:50
dawns on the Rines that
their son-in-law had a hand in their
daughter's disappearance.
00:27:56
That's when our conversation
started to move to, well, does he know something about it?
00:28:02
So that's when
it began to sink in that we've got a problem. When we were interviewing
him up here at headquarters
00:28:12
without the door closed,
just a regular room, just sitting there
talking to him,
00:28:16
any time we would ask him a
question that was the least bit pointed, that would
maybe position him to give
00:28:24
us an answer, he
didn't want to give us, he'd start dry heaving. Around noon is when we
started to move towards,
00:28:30
I think Thomas knows
something, where she's at or-- so as that progressed, we
became more and more concerned.
00:28:40
NARRATOR: As Bartlett
Police go through the home they have one question in mind.
00:28:44
Had Thomas Paine
harmed his wife? They take computers. They take phone bills. They take the actual phones.
00:28:56
The police uncover a
lot of different things, from multiple
bottles of alcohol, to a history of pornography.
00:29:06
All through that search
afternoon, more and more doubts began to arise about,
what's going on here?
00:29:14
We're not getting
the whole story. There's things here
that don't add up. And they start going
through more personal items.
00:29:22
And it turned out that
Micah kept a journal. The journal was very revealing. This journal was intended
to be between Micah and God.
00:29:35
There was one entry
in her prayer journal in February before
this happened in April.
00:29:40
And she had a whole
paragraph that spoke to Thomas's indiscretions
and unfaithfulness.
00:29:48
Through Micah's
journal, cops begin to build a picture of the
troubled days and weeks
00:29:52
before her disappearance. I think it became clear to her
that he was having an affair.
00:29:57
And she may have
confronted him with it. And they were
beginning to argue. And they were arguing.
00:30:04
And I think it got
more and more frequent. I was one of the last
people that saw Micah alive.
00:30:35
NARRATOR: Confronted
by police with evidence of his infidelity, his
drinking, and his wife's
00:30:41
obvious unhappiness with
the state of their marriage, Thomas Pate begins to crack
while being interrogated.
00:30:48
It became clear that
he was more involved in the disappearance and
the ultimate demise of Micah
00:30:55
than he was letting on. NARRATOR: Under
intense questioning, Thomas denies that
he knew anything
00:31:01
about his wife's
whereabouts and demands to speak with his father. And he's not telling the
Bartlett Police anything
00:31:07
except for her leaving,
she's gone jogging, he doesn't know where she is. And the father comes in
and just wants him to tell
00:31:14
the police where Micah is. Just tell them where she is. He went from being very
aggressive and telling Thomas,
00:31:34
you know, don't lie to me. Tell me if you hurt-- tell me where Mike is. He went from that, within
a matter of minutes,
00:31:42
to Thomas confessing. Around 8:00 that night, the
police pulled me and my mom and my dad into the side room.
00:32:24
We found that Thomas had made
the statement that he had shot her and left her lying in
this low lying area that
00:32:33
was real muddy and marshy
and during a rainy season, it floods. NARRATOR: This area was
the Loosahatchie Bottoms,
00:33:19
the very place that
Melissa Conklin and Micah's other
worried colleagues had searched for
much of the day.
00:33:26
Thomas had taken Micah there
just a few days before. It was her birthday just
two days prior to this.
00:33:34
And so we had visited with
her on the weekend, I had. And said, oh, what did you do?
00:33:40
And she said, well Thomas
found this new place for us to go target shooting,
I believe, and run the dogs.
00:33:50
But it's not very
far from our house. It's just you know
just down the road. NARRATOR: Thomas told detectives
that on Thursday, April 30,
00:33:58
they had gone out for another
target practice session, but that a terrible
accident had occurred.
00:34:04
According to
Thomas, they would go target shooting out there. And that somehow
there was a mistake
00:34:12
and he accidentally shot
her in the back of the head. The fact that he
knew that whole time
00:34:20
and was lying to us the
whole time, it's so painful. It's so, so painful. But we were just so eaten
up with anger, just so mad,
00:34:31
that this man allowed her family
to drive in, her mom, her dad, her brother, her
friends, to spend
00:34:42
this time looking, looking
for her, hoping to find her. for you to know
all along that you
00:34:50
shot her and left her at the
bottoms with ants and mud. NARRATOR: As Micah's
family processed the news,
00:34:57
a police search party was
set out to recover her body. I personally walked out
to where they found her.
00:35:04
And it is way off the road
in the middle of thorns, brambles, mud, leaves. And it looked as if he had
probably carried her there.
00:35:16
Probably with the
intention of throwing around the Loosahatchie River. Typically, if that rain would
have continued, and it did,
00:35:23
her body probably
would have washed away had he not taken her to-- taken us there to get her.
00:35:30
Many bodies end up in the
Loosahatchie unfortunately. But he couldn't make
it quite to the river.
00:35:39
So he left her there,
face down, with a gunshot hole in the back of her head. And the interesting thing is,
she's not wearing her shoes.
00:35:50
And she's wearing
white socks, which are not dirty on the bottom. And this is a muddy, muddy place
where she is, full of you know,
00:36:01
dried leaves, dead grass,
thorns, things of that nature. He will tell you that some
extraordinary, unbelievable--
00:36:17
that her boots fell off her
feet is why she had no shoes on. She had all the same
clothes that she had on when
00:36:24
she was at my office that day. NARRATOR: It was yet
another piece of evidence that this may not have
been a terrible accident.
00:36:32
On May 2, 2009, Thomas
Pate was charged with second degree murder. The only time I got a true
impression of Thomas was
00:36:43
when I was cross-examining
him on the stand for that bond hearing. NARRATOR: Thomas succeeded
in securing bail.
00:36:51
As he awaited
trial, investigators set out to prove
that Micah's death had been a deliberate act.
00:36:57
The gunshot wound is in
the middle of her back, the back of her head. It goes through her ball cap.
00:37:04
And it's not quite a contact
wound, but it is close. We spent a lot of time
at a Christian youth camp.
00:37:12
And one of the things we do at
Camp Tahkodah is target shoot. She was well aware of the
safety issues involved
00:37:19
with guns and to not
be in front of someone that was with a loaded gun. NARRATOR: Micah had plenty
of experience with firearms
00:37:29
and so did her husband. Thomas was very experienced
in firing weapons. He was also experienced at
being with other people who
00:37:39
had weapons. He went hunting all the
time with his friends. And going through the
autopsy and seeing the crime
00:37:46
scene photos, and looking at
the clothing, which was a ball cap with the hole
in the back of it,
00:37:56
and the blood and a
little powder burn-- NARRATOR: The pathologist
and ballistics experts
00:38:01
believed the shot had
been fired at close range and with some precision. To them, this was
no stray bullet.
00:38:09
Other evidence considered
were his actions after Micah's death. There's no accident
when you shoot somebody
00:38:15
in the back of the head. One shot with her own gun? And you don't call anybody? And you don't call nine one one?
00:38:23
That wasn't an accident. That's not an accident. And I think that speaks
something to the manipulation
00:38:49
and the heart. That's a very telling thing to
me that's very difficult for me to give up.
00:38:59
He left Micah out there for
over 24 hours, wild animals, elements, it didn't matter.
00:39:06
And I do think
that the evidence from the texting, the leading
us on a wild goose chase,
00:39:15
all of those different
things led to that this was more than an accident. NARRATOR: To further prove
that, there was the evidence
00:39:22
that police had found in
the couple's home, signs that their marriage was
increasingly troubled.
00:39:28
The officers tracked back
through his phone records. And there were many
texts with another woman
00:39:36
who was from New Jersey. And then they got into the
bills for the credit cards. And that's when they
discover that there was
00:39:43
a charge, charges made
at Tunica, Mississippi, charges made for actually
the slot machines.
00:39:50
He used the credit card to
play on the slot machines and to pay for the hotel room
that he and this woman from New
00:39:58
Jersey spent the night in. I believe that she caught
him in his adulterous exploits.
00:40:11
I believe that she
caught him in some lies. And she realized
what was going on. I don't know that to be true.
00:40:20
But in my mind, I believe
that was the turning point that led to her death. NARRATOR: Micah's loved
ones waited almost two years
00:40:31
for Thomas Pate's trial to
begin with mixed emotions. We wanted to hear
what he had to say.
00:40:37
We wanted to know why. Early on, he was offered
a plea deal of second degree murder and 15 years.
00:40:44
And we asked our friends to
pray that he would take that. And he did not. It was a disappointment
to us that he did not
00:40:56
take the plea on the front end. He could have saved us
all those months of grief.
00:41:00
We wanted to grieve the
loss of our daughter. We wanted to get used to this
new normal of having a daughter
00:41:08
that was no longer with us. Instead, we had to concentrate
on all the stuff that was going
00:41:14
on in Memphis and make
trips over there that were very emotionally laden. NARRATOR: On Monday,
March 7, 2011,
00:41:22
Pate entered an Alford plea. The Alford plea says, I'm
not confessing to doing this
00:41:30
but the evidence against
me is overwhelming. And so therefore, I
wave the white flag.
00:41:37
So there's not a confession. There was part of me that felt
some relief that this is over.
00:41:45
And so I say, that is
God's way of saying, here's the best blend
of justice and mercy.
00:41:55
We get to feel some
justice, that there's a consequence being paid
for what happened to Micah.
00:42:04
Micah Rine trusted she was
marrying a good Christian man and her faith gave her comfort
when things began to go bad.
00:42:12
But in the end both
her trust and faith had been tragically misplaced. I'm Michelle Trachtenberg.
00:42:21
And I'll see you next time
on "Meet Marry, Murder." Micah was stubborn. Michael had a very
willful personality.
00:42:30
And so I do believe that she
was trying to make it work. Even though the
marriage was pretty bad,
00:42:40
she kept her faithfulness
and her love for God. And that lets us live with hope.
00:42:48
There will be a
day when I'll see Micah again because of
the resurrection of Jesus.