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This time on Killers Caught on camera in the west of England, a mother's life is
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stolen in a coldblooded execution. He's jealous. He doesn't want her life
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to move on without him. He shot her in the head. And in New Mexico, a family argument
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ends in death. How's he doing? Is he all right? Or is he? No, he's not. Just
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something didn't feel like it was adding up. You know why he hadn't called 911.
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It just sounds like something bad is happening to her. We know what happened because the video tells us what
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happened. I heard some gunshots. Drop it. Whatever it is, drop it. That does not prove that I killed my wife. The
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camera doesn't lie. In the UK, in Shroptshire is the quiet farming town of Newport. But on a suburban street in
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January 2018, the peace was shattered. from agency. There's a lady in the car
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next shot. That's everywhere. Cheryl, her name. Cheryl. Cheryl, can you hear me? She's not moving. Just
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looking. Emergency services responded. They were met by panicked neighbors. The police arrive at an extremely
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chaotic and panicstricken scene. That's all he can do. He shot her in the head. The only
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eyewitness is the daughter of Georgia. She's 14 at the time. Right. Okay, folks. They're they're
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doing CPR at the moment on her. So, let the ambulance crew do what they need to do. You Is that your mom? Yeah. Well, we
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don't know yet. We'll let the ambulance crew do what they need to do. All right.
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They're going to be doing dead. Do what? Did you see what happened? Did you see
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anything? [Music] The victim was Cheryl Hooper. She was seated in the driver's seat of her car,
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which was parked outside the house that she was living in at the time. Andy, they're going to need to get her
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out, mate. Cheryl was found with two shotgun injuries to her upper body caused by a
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shotgun discharge. Paramedics tried to save Cheryl, but she was declared dead at the
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scene. [Music] I want Georgia was initially hysterical, but when she'd calmed down a bit, she was
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able to tell the officers who arrived uh in simple terms what had happened to her
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mother and who was responsible. You um okay to talk to us right now and here. Okay.
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[Music] My mom was incredibly outgoing, loud, talkative, bubbly. She's really, really well known
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in Newport for being a nice, bubbly person. Cheryl was a single parent. Georgia, her only child.
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Do you love mommy? Do you love me? Yes. Yeah. I love you, too. My mom was incredibly loving. She was all over me.
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Very protective, very caring. Hello. My mom spent a lot of time with me. Being a single parent, she didn't really
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have time for doing things that she wanted to do. She enjoyed going to church, anything
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that got her out the house really. She'd spent a long time working in sales. It
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was something she really, really enjoyed. She changed career several times and ended up as a manager of a
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dental practice. In 2010, Cheryl met a local man, a farmer Andrew Hooper known as
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Jack. My mom and Jack met through friends. They were set up on a date. It wasn't
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something that my mom usually did, but she was sort of encouraged to go and do it. Um, and that's how their
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relationship started. The first time I met Jack was when we went to his farm. Morning, girl. She'll let you stroke
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her. He was lovely. He was very charming. The farm seemed to be a successful business, and Jack put across
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that it was really successful. He had a Range Rover. He made out that he was doing okay.
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And Cheryl seemed happy in the relationship. I think she liked the fact that Jack had
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his own farm. He was sensible. He was clever man and seemed really kind and caring. However, this wasn't always the
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truth. Even from quite soon into the relationship, his attitude started to change. He didn't really like her being
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around her friends. He did his best to isolate her away from them. Another issue was Cheryl's
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full-time job. Jack expected my mom to be at home, be the housewife. She cooked all the
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dinners. She did all the cleaning up. She did all the housework. Um, you know, it was a big farmhouse and she was
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expected to do everything. He did not want to lift a finger. And if she wasn't
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home cooking dinner like he expected, there would be repercussions. A lot of the time it was silent treatment. He
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wasn't he wasn't necessarily physically abusive. He wasn't a shouty man. He
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would just ice you out completely. But it's really subtle behavior and it's like dripfed. It's
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very slow and you don't realize that it's happening until it's too late.
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Intimate partner violence doesn't just involve physical attacks. When someone
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is ignoring you, ignoring your needs, is making themselves emotionally unavailable, that can also be a form of
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intimate partner violence, especially if it's used with the intention of making
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you feel bad. And so what we see here is a systematic use of things that aren't
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physical violence, but are other forms of control and violence. Despite the warning signs, after 4 years
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together, the couple decided to [Music] wed. The relationship was very much abusive by the time that he proposed to
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mom. But he promised her that things would change and things would get better. And I think my mom was in a
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position where she thought, "Oh, actually, okay, he is serious about this." And she said, "Yes."
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Even with all his promises, Jack's relationship with Cheryl and Georgia got worse over
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time. The farm was in debt. He was incredibly stressed over it. And it made him even more uncomfortable to be
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around. You wouldn't know what you'd done wrong. You he just wouldn't speak
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to you. And sometimes it could it could be as simple as like breathing wrong. There was no rhyme or reason for it a
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lot of the time. After seven years together, the relationship had hit rock bottom. His abuse really reached a fever
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pitch. He just became so nasty. He was drinking a lot more. He became a lot more aggressive. He was more degrading
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to my mom and things just started to get a lot more severe. Jack had come home really drunk and I
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could hear them shouting and I heard a loud bang. Jack had smashed the television. After
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Cheryl went up to bed, he went to his gun cabinet. I could hear him at the bottom
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of the staircase with his gun breaking the barrels and putting them back together again and break which is how
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you would load a shotgun. [Music] He then stamped up the stairs really slowly and and in quite a a menacing
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way. He flung the bedroom door open and and he didn't have the gun, but he led
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my mom to believe that he had the gun. Cheryl was terrified. I've never seen somebody
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shake so much. All she could say to me was, "I thought he had the gun and I
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thought he was going to shoot me." At at this point, I'd really realized what he
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was capable of. And I said to her, "Enough's enough. We're leaving right
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now." Cheryl and Georgia left the farm and went to stay with her parents near
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Newport. You're so vain, mother. Oh, showing my No, it's so vain. You're always looking at
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yourself. Jack tried everything to get Cheryl to return to him. following her, attempting
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to get her friends to change her mind, and ultimately threatening to kill himself. She went round to the house and
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he was in the living room with a shotgun between his legs. The only way that she
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really could think of of getting him to calm down was was essentially by putting
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her head over the gun, too, and saying, you know, you you need to stop this because, I'm not going to let you take
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your life. The kind interpretation of him saying, "I'm going to kill myself." is that this
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is a man in desperate need of help, of support, and someone who is in fact suicidal. The other side of this is, or
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is he a man who's using this as a form of manipulation to play into her fears
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and get her to do something for him that she doesn't actually want to do? So, we
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need to be careful with interpreting this because obviously it's delicate when we're talking about people's
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desires to kill themselves. Um, but I think here there's definitely a piece of it that feels very
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manipulative. Once we'd moved into our house, I was becoming increasingly concerned about his
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behavior. I was sat on the sofa and I heard a car engine and I thought, "That's odd. That's right outside the
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house." And then my mom comes downstairs and goes, "My car's gone. It's not on
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the drive. Jack had taken the car because it was registered to the farm business. A few days later, he returned
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it. But from then on, he started to appear in the same places as Cheryl. Control room. Oh, hi there. Hello. Yes.
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I wonder if you could help me. Right. Okay. What was the incident that happened? Um, it's it started with my my
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husband sashing the TV and um and then different things of threatening to kill himself and
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uh then he he took my car from my parents' house and I didn't know about
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it. He did sort of follow us around a little bit uh over Christmas. We didn't
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see him, but he did ring up to say that he'd been looking for us. Right. Okay.
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I suppose upset people and frustrated people just do silly things, don't they?
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In this call, she clearly needs help, which is why she's making the call. But
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at the same time as she's describing really serious things said in a voice that is very cautious and careful and
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downplaying and minimizing all of these very serious things she's talking about.
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This to me feels like a woman who is in desperate need but is not used to asking
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for help. In the wake of Jack's threatened suicide, the police decided to remove
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his weapons. There was a genuine concern that he was a danger to himself. And in those
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circumstances, the police can take and remove your firearms from you. It was a bodyb blow to him.
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Definitely. Shortly after New Year's, Cheryl and a friend arranged to go for a
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drink. Cheryl arrives at the pub. You see her walking in here with her friend. The beginnings of what is a rare
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night out for her. She's meeting up with some other friends. There's about four
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or five of them. [Music] Not long after, the pub's CCTV captured somebody else
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arriving. It was [Music] Jack. Fair to say that Cheryl is quite shocked. He's not expected to be there.
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She has no idea that he knows where she is. And it takes all of them by surprise.
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[Music] In order not to create a scene, Cheryl and Jack stepped outside. He's seen her inside the pub with
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others, including a male. He accusing her of betraying him, having started him a new relationship, which was not
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true. He's jealous. He doesn't want her life to move on without him. This was the moment where Hooper
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realized that the game was up in terms of his relationship. Her life had moved on and
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that what for him may hopefully have been a temporary separation was something which in her mind was
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permanent. After a brief conversation, Jack left. Cheryl was shaken but rejoined her
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friends. I was at her friend's house and I got a text message from mom to say, "I think
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Jack has tracked my car." I think that was really when the penny dropped. He had threatened to burn the
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remaining of our belongings at his house. I was fed up of being voiceless and that I really felt like it was my
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time to say something to him. It's over, Georgia. Yeah, I know it is. And it's your fault. No, it's not. Yes,
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it is. I'm not being funny, Jack, but it is. If you hadn't treated us badly, it it wouldn't be over.
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Well, if that's what you think, that's what you think, Georgia. That's what I know.
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You're 14, you know. That's nice. This has been going on for a long time.
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It doesn't mean you have a right to track the car. It doesn't mean you have
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a right to burn our stuff. She's clearly calling him out in this phone call. And his reaction is
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initially to be sad and say, "Well, if that's what you think." But then
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possibly because he's run out of real things to say that are excuses, good excuses. and even he realizes this
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potentially at this point. He instead attacks her as a person and says, "Well,
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you don't know anything because you're so young." And that's a pretty classic
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thing that people do when they're floundering and when they have nothing left that they can use. And even they
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know that the only thing you can do is shoot low. 12 minutes after he left the pub, CCTV
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at the farm captured Jack arriving home. Here we have Mr. The hooper arriving at
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the farmhouse, he leaves the pub clearly in a rage, clearly his mind set in some
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sort of hostile direction as to exactly what he's planning to do. No one knows
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at this stage. And then a minute or two later coming out of the house. And if you look closely at what
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he's holding. So there's his shoulders, his arm slightly wider, and you see there an
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item consistent with a shotgun under some sort of wrapping. He's highly emotional when he goes home
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and he gets this bundle, which is we can assume in hindsight a weapon wrapped in
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a blanket. Probably because in his mind he has tried basically everything else in terms of attempts at controlling his
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exartner and her child. And he's run out of other things to try. And we can see
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this kind of escalation in intimate partner homicide cases commonly where there's different things that are
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attempted and different different kinds of violence that are elicited against someone and
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ultimately it culminates in murder. When she did pick me up, she was on the phone to him. So I had to get in
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the car very quietly. As soon as the the phone had been put down, I said to her,
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"I really want to ring the police now. I'm really worried. My mom said no. She
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didn't want to phone the police and she wasn't concerned. And she said to me,
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"He won't hurt us." As we pulled up on the driveway, it was dark outside and you can't really
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see a lot. And mom stopped and said, "Oh my god, he's here." He had pulled up his truck behind
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our car, blocking us in. So mom could not drive away. He's then started banging on the
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driver's side window and I could see a long object in his hands which at that time looked to
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me like it may be a broken shovel or a piece of scaffolding pole. I made the decision at this point
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to get out of the car and burn the police. I was going to go move him. I was going to go and try and do something
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to get my mom out of the car. Unfortunately, before I was able to get round to her, uh, he broke the glass and
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he shot her. He waited a few seconds and then I watched him fire that next shot and watched my mom slump over in
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the car and I I knew she was dead. He just turned on his heel and walked away and I chased after him and I
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grabbed him and he wouldn't stop and speak to me. Police were at the scene within
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minutes. He shot her in the head. Georgia was extremely courageous. She was screaming, shouting Jack, Jack, and she
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couldn't get out the car. I thought he had a spade or a sledge. I didn't see it was a gun until I got
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around the car and he went like that. So, having learned the name of Cheryl's
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attacker, there is an urgent concern to apprehend him. The police don't know
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whether or not he's still walking around carrying a loaded weapon. They don't
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know what his next steps are going to be. Somebody there. Movement. Could our police get your hands in the air?
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Move out to the open. We have the police arriving at Hooper's farm. Get down on the floor. They're in the
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line of fire. Here is a man who is well acquainted with firearms. Cover the buildings left and right. Cover the
00:21:01
buildings. That's great. But as they get closer to him, what they're surprised to
00:21:07
see is that actually he has already shot himself. Someone get a med pack. I got a med
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pack. You okay? He's blooded. He's clearly in a lot of pain. It's a grotesque scene. In layman's
00:21:25
terms, he's blown his face off. Get on your knees, buddy. Kneel down. We're
00:21:30
here to help. Jack was taken to the hospital and police recovered the weapon he'd used to
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shoot himself and presumably Cheryl. It was a Victorian age shotgun hidden in the barn, which is what he picked up
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when he went back to the park. It was a a shotgun that nobody knew about. It wasn't on his shotgun certificate,
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otherwise it would have been removed. Jack Hooper's injuries were so terrible
00:22:01
that doctors had to reconstruct his face and police could not interview him for almost a
00:22:08
year. Finally, in June 2019, his case came to trial. It was really shocking to see his
00:22:17
his injuries, especially going from being quite a a burly man, a tall man. It was a massive contrast to see him
00:22:27
looking frail and sat in a wheelchair. Georgia was first to give evidence. The police did apply for
00:22:37
special measures for me. So, if I wanted to have a screen um so that I wouldn't
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have to be in in the main sort of court with him and see him um I had that option. However, I decided that I didn't
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want to do that and I wanted to go in open court as normal and stand in the box and give my evidence and for him to
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know that he hadn't broken me and that I was going to do everything I could to
00:23:02
make him pay for his actions. [Music] Jack's case was always that it was an accident. He'd only meant to frighten
00:23:11
Cheryl and that the use of the shotgun was to try and persuade her to come back and he never meant to fire it. He never
00:23:18
meant to hurt her. Utter rubbish. [Music] Proving the case against Jack was done
00:23:27
through the ballistics evidence, through the unlikelihood of him going with a weapon loaded and cocked, and the
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extreme unlikeliness of the weapon accidentally going off once perhaps, but twice, no way.
00:23:43
He chose to go and find an antique gun. He chose to test it and make sure that it worked. and he chose to track us and
00:23:53
turn up to our property. He chose to load the gun. There are so many choices that he made that show just how intent
00:24:01
he was on killing my mom. The jury were not convinced by Jack's defense. Jack Hooper received a sentence of 31
00:24:13
years imprisonment for the murder of Cheryl. The evidence from Georgia was pivotal.
00:24:20
And it wasn't just because she was an eyewitness. It was the immediacy of the account that she gave
00:24:30
and the bravery and courage with which she gave it. It was a horrendous killing. It
00:24:40
shows just how quickly a relatively normal traumatic yes abusive familial relationship can turn into an
00:24:51
absolute tragedy. No one could ever have predicted that he'd behave in the way he
00:24:56
did. And that's the frightening thing about it really. My mom wasn't someone that someone would
00:25:08
suspect to be in this coercively controlling relationship. She wasn't walking around covered in bruises from
00:25:15
him. And I think it's really important that people understand coercive control
00:25:19
and just how dangerous it can be. It can feel so helpless and like you are so trapped, but it is possible to get away
00:25:27
and you can have a successful life. No matter how dark or bad it has been, you can still
00:25:36
recover. I would like to think that my mom's proud of what I'm doing. I'm
00:25:40
trying to focus on myself now, creating myself a good career, moving forward in my life. And I think it's really
00:25:46
important to remember that my mom was such a kind person who was so involved in the
00:25:52
community who gave so much for her family and for me her child and that she was normal and friendly and loving and
00:26:01
that she's not just a statistic for a murder case. The heavy use of alcohol is known to
00:26:22
cause short and long-term cognitive impairment. Research has shown a clear link between drinking alcohol and
00:26:32
engaging in violent crimes. But what's important to note here is that alcohol
00:26:36
does not make people violent. What alcohol does is it disinhibits you. In other words, if you already have violent
00:26:43
tendencies either towards somebody else or yourself and you drink, you are more likely to engage in bad
00:26:51
decision-m. And in the US, another family mourns a loved one lost to a deadly cocktail of alcohol and guns.
00:27:08
In southern New Mexico is the tiny community of Truth or Consequences. Truth or Consequences is a
00:27:19
small town in the southwestern part of New Mexico. It came about its name through Ralph Edwards doing a game show
00:27:28
production and a promo for his show in the ' 50s. He wanted a town that would
00:27:33
take on the name of his game show. Hello there. We've been waiting for you. It's
00:27:38
time to play truth consequent. The town voted in favor of changing its name from Hot Springs to Truth or
00:27:49
Consequences and has subsequently celebrated the name change every year since. Truth or Consequences is filled
00:27:58
with just good-hearted people. It's filled with a lot of tourists who fall in love and come back and make it their
00:28:04
home. This little community was home to 75-year-old Vietnam vet Solomon Curtis Hayhurst, also known as Butch.
00:28:16
Solomon Hayhurst served his country in the armed forces for the United States. He was wounded in battle and then he
00:28:23
came home. He worked as a New Mexico game and fish officer in law enforcement for many years.
00:28:30
Everyone who knew Saul liked Saul. He was a great guy, easy to get along with and very friendly. He loved his job and
00:28:37
loved his community and loved his friends. Saul had been with his wife Ka for over five happy
00:28:48
decades. They were longtime sweethearts. I believe even high school sweethearts.
00:28:53
And and they had a love that never failed. They leaned on each other in good times and bad.
00:28:59
They lived in King Canyon, which is in the rural part of Southern County, and they had a small, modest little
00:29:06
ranchstyle house there. Over the last few years, Solomon's days were spent as a
00:29:12
caregiver. Ka had been sick and Saul had spent most of his time recently taking care of Ka
00:29:20
and she was incapacitated and sleeping in a hospital bed in the living room. He was having to be the caretaker and
00:29:28
provider. Also living in the King Canyon property with Saul and Kea was their 48-year-old
00:29:35
son, Sam. Sam and Saul spent most of their time together and they were drinking buddies and they were friends. Sam
00:29:44
served his country, I believe, in the Navy. Then after that, he came home. He had had his struggles with alcohol and
00:29:51
was never really able to hold down employment. [Music] Hi. Security calling because we received
00:30:05
a fire alarm. The guy stated that he didn't need fire. He stated that he need
00:30:10
EMS and the police. He stated that him and his dad just got into an argument. His dad pulled a gun on him. They got
00:30:16
into an argument. He had to defend himself and he shot his father. Deputies were dispatched to the scene.
00:30:25
911 call handlers were then able to make contact with the caller, Sam Hayhurst. Can you tell me what happened? My dad
00:30:35
and I had a dispute and I ended up Okay. Is How's he doing? Is he all right or is he No, no, he's not.
00:30:48
Despite the remoteness of the house, deputies were quickly on the scene. The first responding deputies made contact
00:30:55
with Sam on the front porch of the residence and they placed him in handcuffs. Once he was secured in the
00:31:01
vehicle, we made entry into the residence. They found Solomon Hayhurst on the living room floor.
00:31:10
Solomon Hayhurst had a close-range gunshot wound to the face. There were no signs of
00:31:19
life. I did notice a semi-automatic handgun next to his legs, so we left that in place for the forensic team to
00:31:27
come in and document. Ka Hayhurst was in the bed at that time. I didn't know her condition
00:31:35
and there was a handgun laying on the bed next to her. So, I moved that firearm so if she woke up with strangers
00:31:42
in her house and and her husband on the floor, she wouldn't be inclined to react
00:31:47
to that. An ambulance took Kea to the hospital. She was still unaware that her husband was
00:31:57
dead. Later that night, Sam Hayhurst was interviewed at the sheriff's office.
00:32:03
When he was taken into custody, uh Sam did uh wreak the odor of of an alcoholic beverage and and did seem to be under
00:32:10
the influence at that time. He was just being detained. He was not under arrest. Should never have happened. I
00:32:18
was just defending myself. That's all I was doing. It's completely 100% self-defense.
00:32:25
He was after me with guns and he was highly intoxicated and he's a bad drunk, very
00:32:35
aggressive when he's drunk. He talked about his father being extremely intoxicated, threatening to
00:32:43
shoot him, um threatening harm and that uh he had to shoot him in self-defense. Had you guys been fighting
00:32:51
at all or arguing at all before the drinking? Not at all. Not at all. As a matter of fact, he was telling me he
00:32:58
goes, "I've really enjoyed talking to you tonight. I feel the same way." But then
00:33:05
we started drinking. Forensic psychologist Lissa Johnson has studied the case. He's calmer than one would expect, but
00:33:16
that's not necessarily indicative of guilt. We also have to factor in that he
00:33:21
is uh slightly at least intoxicated, and that could be playing a role here. What
00:33:26
we do know is typically there might be a level of anxiety or distress that's
00:33:30
associated um with having just taken someone's life. And so, you would typically expect to see that reflected
00:33:37
in someone's speech. [Music] Anytime there's a murder in Sierra County, though, news spreads quickly
00:33:47
because it is such a tight-knit community. So, everyone knew very quickly about Sam killing his
00:33:54
dad. My instant thought went to KA knowing that she had just lost her lifetime husband. It was
00:34:02
heart-wrenching. Having spoken with Sam Hayhurst, investigators had no reason to doubt his
00:34:11
version of events. Sheriff Joshua Baker still had his suspicions. Something didn't feel like it was adding
00:34:20
up. You know, why he hadn't called 911. So, I was doing a secondary sweep around the living room area, looking for
00:34:29
any evidence we might have missed or might have been overlooked. And on the TV stand, I noticed a what appeared to
00:34:36
be an ADT camera. In today's age, video surveillance is a major part of any criminal investigation. Um, many homes
00:34:49
have surveillance video. Businesses have surveillance video. We have dash cams and body cams in law enforcement. It's
00:34:55
instrumental in everything we do in today's law enforcement. Baker returned to the sheriff's office
00:35:02
and spoke to Sam Hayhurst a second time. In the living room, there's a camera.
00:35:09
Yeah. ADT camera. Do you know how that camera system works? It doesn't. I tried
00:35:15
to get it to work on my computer, but it's just never never worked. Despite Sam's insistence that the camera
00:35:27
didn't work, ADT were able to confirm that in actual fact, the camera in the
00:35:32
living room was recording video. When we learned that there was actually video footage on that camera, we were
00:35:43
pretty excited. It showed the entire living room and the entry to the hallway where Solomon
00:35:52
Hayhurst had been shot. The footage had no audio, but investigators were now able to piece
00:36:01
together what happened in the Hayhurst residence. This video is from earlier in the
00:36:07
evening. This is Solomon Hayhurst and this is Sam sitting in the chair next to Kea who's in the bed.
00:36:15
And you can see Solomon coming over and appears to be consoling Sam, patting him
00:36:21
on the [Music] shoulder. Appears to be a normal family [Music] evening. This video clips from later on
00:36:34
in the evening. You can see Sam sitting in the chair. The living room light is on. Solomon's sitting here next to Ka.
00:36:42
And Sam has some papers in his hand. and seems to be agitated about something, but Solomon seems to be sitting in his
00:36:50
chair quietly listening. In the next clip, Sam walks out from the hallway with two handguns,
00:37:02
one in each hand, and walks up to Solomon and just hands him the two firearms and turns around and walks out
00:37:08
of the room. You can see he seems somewhat surprised. Immediately sets one on the bed and then
00:37:14
begins to check to see if the other one is loaded. When I first saw this video, it
00:37:24
explained where the firearms came from and how Solomon came in possession of the firearm that was by him, which
00:37:31
contradicted Sam's statements that Solomon had retrieved the firearm. And this was the first evidence we had that
00:37:38
Sam's story was not honest. Then Solomon walked out the front door and there was a camera
00:37:50
outside the front door as well. It did not shoot video, but it took an image of Solomon on the front porch with the
00:37:57
firearm. The next video clip showed him walking back into the house and he was now
00:38:05
holding the firearm with the grip reversed in his hand. So, not in a firing [Music]
00:38:13
grip. What they saw next shocked investigators. Solomon comes in, stops abruptly in the
00:38:26
doorway to the hallway, appears to be talking, shows the weapon that he's holding it backwards in his hand, his
00:38:34
arms clearly bent below waist level as he's talking, and then he's shot and
00:38:41
falls to the floor. [Music] It's clear in the video that Solomon was was not acting aggressive. He didn't
00:38:56
come back in the house in a threatening manner. He wasn't even holding the firearm in a firing position. It was
00:39:02
facing backwards in his hand. You can see him quickly retreat back using the doorway kind of as protection and
00:39:11
putting his right arm up in a defensive posture. When we moved the body of Solomon
00:39:18
Hayhurst, we found that firearm had a loaded magazine but an empty chamber, but there was a loose bullet uh under
00:39:26
his body as well. So, that was very indicative that he had gone outside and removed the bullet from the chamber of
00:39:33
that weapon and had it in his hand whenever he was shot. In Sam's interview, he said that he knew
00:39:42
his dad was coming to hurt him and he had to defend himself. U the video clearly shows that was not the case, but
00:39:49
he was in fact laying in wait with his shotgun for his father to walk around that corner.
00:39:56
What Sam did next only deepened their suspicions. It shows Sam walking right over the
00:40:07
deceased body of his father, right past his mother in the bed and walking outside. Doesn't stop to check on his
00:40:13
father. Doesn't try to render aid. Just walks right outside like nothing. After seeing the video footage
00:40:22
of what had transpired, I was absolutely convinced that this was a cold-blooded premeditated murder.
00:40:33
Now armed with the video evidence, Sam Hayhurst was interviewed for a third time.
00:40:40
All right, Mr. Hayhurst, you still doing okay? Just exhausted. Besides tired, you have
00:40:46
any back with the cameras? Well, a little bit. What happened? We again got him to reaffirm his original
00:40:54
story. Do you know where he got the guns from? I I was racking my brain about that. He
00:41:01
must have gone. I was thinking maybe he had them in the his recliner in one of the like the
00:41:07
sleeves. Uhhuh. Or he must have went out to his room to get them. We slowly eased
00:41:13
into the fact that we did have the video surveillance and that we had seen what occurred.
00:41:19
So we know where he got the guns. You walked in there and gave them to him. No kidding. Yes, sir. I don't remember
00:41:27
that at all. Yeah, that's that's pretty clear on video. His demeanor did change.
00:41:32
I could see his stress uh levels going up. Like I said, he was screaming and cursing at me. Mhm. And I knew he had a
00:41:40
gun. At least one gun. When he came back inside, slammed the door, and I knew he
00:41:45
was coming after me. I I just knew it. That's when I got my shotgun. I could see the blood vessel in his
00:41:52
neck. I could see his pulse in it. Sam, I'm going to be honest with you. Your
00:41:57
dad can be seen in that video. And he never levels that gun off at you. He started to, Sam. He never does. As a
00:42:05
matter of fact, that gun is is pointed down here at the ground the whole time he's in that doorway.
00:42:12
And as we pressed him harder, he had some sort of medical episode. What were y'all arguing about on those
00:42:19
papers? Sam, I I know you're holding back telling me what it was, but [ __ ]
00:42:36
Breathe, Sam. Breathe. Sam, breathe. I think he's having a seizure. I'm not
00:42:42
sure 100% if if it was a legitimate medical episode or or if he was faking it. But either way, we had to treat it
00:42:51
as if it was a real medical episode and call emergency services. Investigators now had enough evidence to
00:43:04
prove Sam Hayhurst murdered his father. The trial took place 2 years after the murder happened. The defense
00:43:14
side was working to show that it was a case of self-defense and not a case of murder.
00:43:21
Sam plead not guilty in court. The district attorney's office did offer him a plea deal prior to going to trial. He
00:43:28
refused it um and insisted on going to trial. Given the video evidence, I was a little bit surprised that he chose to go
00:43:38
to trial um maintaining a self-defense claim, but he did. A clue to the likely motivation for this
00:43:46
murder could be found in the video recordings. Soul and Ka had two children, Sam and
00:43:53
Carrie. Carrie had a daughter. They raised their granddaughter for 10 years of her life, and they were very happy
00:44:01
doing so. They were happy to be able to share their love and their knowledge in their home with
00:44:06
her. It appeared as though Sam had issue with the will and their intent to leave
00:44:11
the goods from the family to their granddaughter and not to Sam. Sam did not want their granddaughter's name to
00:44:17
be listed in the will. He felt that he should be inheriting the items and the family goods instead of the
00:44:27
granddaughter. In the field of forensic psychology, when we are evaluating risk of violence, particularly risk of future
00:44:34
violence, we can focus on what we call the 3Ds. Drivers, destabilizers, and disinhibitors. In Sam's case, a driver
00:44:43
might be financial uncertainty or financial dependence. A destabilizer might be ongoing father-son conflict and
00:44:53
a disinhibitor might be alcohol. So when we combine heavy drinking with the circumstances that Sam Hayhurst was in,
00:45:01
so this is losing job opportunities, ongoing stress, potential ongoing familial conflict. This creates kind of
00:45:09
a toxic cocktail. It leads to a pressure buildup within this small home environment. And then there's nowhere
00:45:15
for this pressure to go. Sam was convicted for first-degree murder and received a life sentence in
00:45:24
the state of New Mexico. Without the video evidence, I don't think we would have ever charged
00:45:32
Sam with homicide because I don't think we could have ever disproved his account
00:45:37
of the events. The video evidence made this whole case. Any murder is a tragedy. However,
00:45:51
this one has completely destroyed the Hayhurst family. Saul didn't get to see
00:45:56
his wife to the end. And they moved Ka to a nearby nursing home where she finished out her days passing away just
00:46:02
a short time after the murder. [Music] It's an extremely brutal case mainly because of how things transpired. Sam
00:46:12
shooting and killing his father who was a great man, a great father, a great grandfather and had a lot of loving
00:46:18
family and he took that away from them. [Music] [Applause] [Music]