00:00:04
[AUDIO LOGO] NARRATOR: This time
on "Killers Caught on Camera." In the US, in Colorado,
a couple are found
00:00:15
shot dead in their own garage. KRISTEN DONOHO: To put
them out of their misery, he decided to unload
his entire magazine
00:00:22
into both of their bodies. MATT TALMON: It was a horrific,
bloody, terribly violent scene.
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BRYAN GRAY: I just
remember feeling helpless because there's
nothing you can do.
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NARRATOR: And in the UK,
a long running feud at work ends in a lethal altercation.
00:00:43
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC:
Willis made another threat to kill Mr. Darn. MICHAEL DARN: The knife
actually pierced his aorta
00:00:51
and he died from catastrophic
internal bleeding. [THEME MUSIC] MAN 1: It just
sounds like something
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bad is happening to her. WOMAN: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened.
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MAN 2: I heard twp gunshots. OFFICER: Drop it. Whatever it is, drop it. MAN 3: That does not prove
that I killed my wife.
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MAN 4: The camera doesn't lie. NARRATOR: Colorado. Between Denver and Colorado
Springs in Douglas County
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is Franktown. MATT TALMON: It is
extraordinarily low crime. It's historically
one of the fastest,
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if not the fastest growing
county in the United States. In the North, it's
very suburban,
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but in the South
county it's very rural. KRISTEN DONOHO: Franktown
is a quiet area,
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very family oriented. NARRATOR: It was home
to 34-year-old Todd Gray. LONNA GRAY: Todd was charming.
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He was funny,
independent, never had trouble making friends. He was very outgoing.
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His laugh was contagious. He would laugh a lot. You always knew he was
in the room when he was there.
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NARRATOR: He had four siblings. Todd was the middle child. BRYAN GRAY: He wasn't
an inside child.
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He was outdoors all the time. They went out and either
did horses or dirt bikes or chores or whatever.
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But he was always
the most playful one, always wanted to play. NARRATOR: From
an early age, Todd
00:02:26
was keen to follow
in his father's footsteps as a mechanic. BRYAN GRAY: Before
he had his license,
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he was buying and selling cars. He'd buy something
and fix it up a little bit and sell it when he's 15.
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He was a fantastic welder. He could weld anything. He pretty much taught
himself how to do it.
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NARRATOR: Todd and his
dad spent a lot of time together fixing up cars. - Todd was 12 when
we did this car.
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We just enjoyed doing this. We spent a lot
of time out here. He had to know how
to do everything.
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If there was a way
to do it, he wanted to figure out how to do it. NARRATOR: Todd married his
high school sweetheart,
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and together they had a child. - She was the light
of his life. BRYAN GRAY: It calmed Todd
down to have his daughter.
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It was a huge focus for him. NARRATOR: But Todd
struggled with addiction. LONNA GRAY: Right
out of high school,
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Todd was having some
issues with alcohol. That's probably why his first
marriage didn't work out.
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And then his health
was going downhill. His liver started failing
already at a very young age.
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He knew he had to do
something, so he actually showed up one day and told his
dad, you need to keep me busy.
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NARRATOR: Todd
and his first wife divorced and he was
sober for eight years. He started a new
relationship, and
00:03:40
in 2016 they had a daughter,
a second child for Todd. In 2019, the Gray family
took on a new employee,
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Jessica Mitchell,
a single mother with a love for animals
and the outdoors. - Jessica came to work
for us for a couple of years,
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always on time. LONNA GRAY: She talked
about her kids all the time. Jessica had a smile that
just lit up the room.
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She was bubbly. NARRATOR: But everything
changed when Jessica and Todd started dating.
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BRYAN GRAY: Jessica would
be more of a party person, drink, have fun,
Todd couldn't drink.
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Right there we could just
tell that, not a good match because once he'd
start, he wouldn't stop.
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And it wasn't long
for the drinking and partying kind of got out of hand. LONNA GRAY: It
went downhill fast.
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They thought that Bryan
and I were controlling them. Once we had to ask them to
leave the home they were living
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in, we really didn't have much
contact with Jessica or Todd at all. But it was definitely
the drugs that tore us apart.
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BRYAN GRAY: It was
kind of heartbreaking, you got to kick
your child out of the home
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that we built together,
but it had to be done. LONNA GRAY: To be honest,
him and I had a pretty bad
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falling out. He lost custody of his kids. NARRATOR: Jessica also lost
custody of her children
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and had a difficult
relationship with her parents and two younger brothers. But by 2022, Todd was getting
his life back together.
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He'd started his own
business, fixing cars. BRYAN GRAY: He was
building some momentum,
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getting his little business
going, so I was proud of that. NARRATOR: In January 2022,
Bryan met Todd in the car shop
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in town. BRYAN GRAY: We
just sat and talked for probably half an hour
and then just it's like, OK,
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I gotta go, so he left. And, I mean, you
never know that's the last time you're ever going
to talk to him but that was it.
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NARRATOR: Early afternoon
on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 911 dispatchers
received an alarming call.
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Investigators arrived
at a remote property South of Franktown. MATT TALMON: When
I went inside,
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I saw an adult female
and an adult male lying deceased
on the ground of the shop.
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It was a horrific, bloody,
just terribly violent scene. NARRATOR: A dog
had also been shot.
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KRISTEN DONOHO: Whoever did
this has no regard for life, leaves two people dead
and doesn't call for help.
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And so our initial
thoughts is we need to get this person
into custody as soon as we can.
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They're very dangerous. NARRATOR: Police
obtained a search warrant for the property.
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They started to look
for any evidence to lead them to a suspect. MATT TALMON: We discovered
in part, bloody thumbprint or
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fingerprint within
close proximity to the bodies on one
of the vehicles. We discovered inside the home
that it had been ransacked.
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NARRATOR: The bodies
in the garage were confirmed to be Todd
Gray and Jessica Mitchell.
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- Todd, I believe, had
suffered at least one wound to the head that was fatal. Jessica Mitchell had certainly
suffered gunshot wounds
00:07:28
to her abdomen, chest, torso. NARRATOR: News of Todd
and Jessica's death spread amongst family and friends.
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BRYAN GRAY: I just remember
it being very emotional and feeling helpless
because there's
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nothing you can do at all. And it's like, what did
he get himself into? - I was shocked when he told
me it was Todd and Jessica.
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I said, Todd and Jessica? And he's like, yes. NARRATOR: Just three
hours after obtaining
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the search warrant, police
got a major break in the case. Exterior cameras on Todd
and Jessica's property
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showed a vehicle arriving
at 12:51 AM on Tuesday, February 8. MATT TALMON: On the video
we captured, at that time,
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an unknown suspect arriving
at Jessica and Todd's residence in a flatbed Ford pickup.
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The video didn't
capture the plate, but it was a very
distinct vehicle. NARRATOR: The driver
headed into the garage.
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Todd was already inside. Moments later,
Jessica was captured on camera leaving the house
and appeared to hesitate.
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MATT TALMON: At this
point in the video, we can see Jessica Mitchell
and our unknown suspect
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exit the garage together. There doesn't appear to be
any sort of animosity. And from the video, we
believe, at that time,
00:09:19
that they were known
to one another. We see that Jessica is not
under any kind of distress
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when she returns to the garage. This is the last time we
see Jessica Mitchell alive.
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NARRATOR: Just over
a minute later, what appeared to be
a friendly visit would prove
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fatal for Todd and Jessica. MATT TALMON:
And at this point we can clearly see that
he's armed with a shotgun
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and that he enters
the garage with a shotgun. NARRATOR: Over
the next few minutes,
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the unidentified man
returned to his truck multiple times
to get more guns. MATT TALMON: We can
see that the male
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is also armed with a handgun. NARRATOR:
Investigators concluded that Jessica and Todd
had been shot and
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killed during this time frame. 16 minutes later, the man
was still on the scene.
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He went inside the house
for over half an hour. MATT TALMON: We see the male
turn off the rear porch light
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and he exits the residence. He's carrying a duffel
bag and another shotgun that he's removed
from the house.
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We know that he's
armed and dangerous. NARRATOR: The unknown man then
roamed around the property
00:10:33
for another 25 minutes. JULIA SHAW: Staying on scene
for such a long time after the killings,
to me, suggests
00:10:41
that he didn't have
a real plan as to what he was going to do next. He, obviously, went
and got his guns,
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and so he had a plan to kill
them at least in that moment, but then afterwards,
usually what
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you do is you'd start
covering up the crime scene or you'd leave and you'd
make an escape.
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But in this case, the fact that
he's just roaming around almost feels like he's
still processing
00:11:00
what he's going to do now. NARRATOR: After almost
two hours on the property, the unidentified man
leaves, hitting a car and
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then a dumpster as he exits. KRISTEN DONOHO: He pulls
out and then he goes South,
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and that's the last
we see on camera. NARRATOR: The footage
gave the police a clear image
of the prime suspect,
00:11:21
but he was unknown
and at large. KRISTEN DONOHO: It's a white
male, bigger, stockier build,
00:11:27
and his hair is
very, very distinct. We need to find this guy and we
need to find out who he is.
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NARRATOR: The police decided
to release the image of the man to the public,
and got a lucky break
00:11:40
when a woman recognized him. The name she gave
was Casey Devol. - We pull his dossier photo
from his driver's license,
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compare it to the surveillance
footage, it's identical. NATE MARSH: Casey Devol worked
for the town of Castle Rock,
00:11:56
which is in Douglas County. But what's most important
here is he's the brother of Jessica Mitchell.
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What we're looking
at is potentially a brother killing a sister. It's especially heinous.
00:12:06
It's especially grave. We don't know if any other
family members are potentially
00:12:10
at danger, this
is a axe to grind or a grudge that was
against his sister. We don't know if this
is a grudge against Todd
00:12:17
and potentially his family. - Siblicide is when
somebody kills a sibling. And it's one of the most
rare forms of murder.
00:12:27
When you hear
the term siblicide or when you hear about someone
who's killed a sibling,
00:12:30
your mind jumps to kids. But, actually, siblicide
is almost always committed after the age of 25.
00:12:39
There's a couple of theories
as to why actually the rate goes up with age. And one of the theories is that
there's more access to guns,
00:12:46
and the other is
that resentments that maybe started when you
were in your teenage years,
00:12:50
they build up and they
build up and they build up. And you've basically
got this festering
00:12:55
of wounds,
psychological wounds, over time that ends with
siblicide, with the worst
00:13:01
possible outcome. BRYAN GRAY: So the first thing
that came to my mind is like, who would kill
their own sister?
00:13:08
LONNA GRAY: When we
learned that Casey was the prime suspect
and they posted his picture
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and we're looking for him, it's
like, OK, we have a suspect. Let's find him. NARRATOR: The hunt was
on for Casey Devol.
00:13:21
KRISTEN DONOHO:
Within Douglas County, we have a system called Flock. Flock is a license
plate recognition
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system that captures
pictures of license plates. We did a workup on Casey,
and we discovered
00:13:34
that he had a green F250
Ford truck registered to him, and we put his license
plate information
00:13:41
into our Flock system. And comparing
those Flock images to the surveillance footage,
it was an exact match.
00:13:48
At this point we have
enough to obtain an arrest warrant for Casey Devol. NARRATOR: Investigators
went to Casey's property
00:13:55
in Douglas County. KRISTEN DONOHO: One
of our impact detectives, he puts a drone up
over Casey's house,
00:14:01
and he does see that
Casey's truck is there. We immediately author a search
warrant for Casey's home.
00:14:07
I find out that Casey ended up
taking his father's gold Ford truck and he left his
green truck at the property
00:14:14
and he was not home. Casey is in the wind,
Casey is on the run. REPORTER: We start with
breaking news tonight.
00:14:22
If you live in Douglas
County, deputies want you to be on the lookout
for a man considered dangerous.
00:14:27
This man here. NARRATOR: Police spoke with
Casey's family and friends for any information
about his whereabouts.
00:14:34
KRISTEN DONOHO: We knew he was
communicating with his mom and his really good friend via text
message on his personal phone.
00:14:41
He told family via text message
and one of his good friends that he was fleeing
to Nebraska.
00:14:48
NARRATOR: While
he was on the run, Casey recorded
an unapologetic video. Police gained access
to Casey Devol's phone data.
00:15:22
They discovered that he'd
driven 400 miles from the crime scene to Salina in Kansas.
00:15:32
Salina police officers
immediately tracked him down. Detectives Matt Talmon
and Kristen Donoho
00:16:08
drove through
the night to Kansas so they could interview Casey KRISTEN DONOHO:
He's very cordial.
00:16:25
He's very friendly in-person. He's very affable. You would never think that
he just committed a murder.
00:16:54
And he says at some
point he receives this gift from Jessica. And he says it's
this wooden crossbow
00:17:01
that has an inscription in it. He says they have
this argument, he basically calls him a liar.
00:18:03
He said to put them
out of their misery, he decided to unload
his entire magazine
00:18:07
into both of their bodies. And he said the dog
caught a stray round. NARRATOR: Casey Devol
agreed to waive extradition.
00:18:20
The detectives drove
him back to Colorado. On Thursday, February
10, autopsies were performed on Todd
Gray and Jessica Mitchell.
00:18:31
- Todd Gray had sustained
seven gunshot wounds in total. One to the head, several
were from a shotgun
00:18:38
and some were from nine
millimeter caliber. Jessica Mitchell also sustained
multiple gunshot wounds,
00:18:45
one being fatal through
her heart and lung. The coroner has deemed
both deaths as homicide.
00:18:52
NARRATOR: The autopsies
revealed how Jessica and Todd had died, but a critical
piece of evidence
00:19:00
was recovered during
Jessica's autopsy which would break the case wide open. - Jessica had hidden in her
bra a digital audio recorder.
00:19:10
It was an outstanding
piece of evidence because it fills the gap
what the video footage was
00:19:16
unable to capture,
namely what actually happened in the garage leading
up to and during the homicide.
00:19:30
- She put a recording
device into her bra, and that raises
a lot of red flags. Why would you put a recording
device in your bra?
00:19:40
That's not where
it normally lives. That's not a place that people
just casually keep them, right?
00:19:43
And so you have to go out
of your way to put it there. And you're doing
that because you
00:19:48
want to record a situation
that you think might escalate, or where there might be
some conflict that you need
00:19:53
to have evidence of later. And now that evidence
might be to hold it against the person themselves,
to say, you said this
00:19:58
and to make them somehow
pay for whatever they said, or it could be gathering
evidence because you're
00:20:05
afraid of somebody. So the question in my head the
whole time is, given how casual
00:20:10
she sounds, is she
actually masking that she's afraid because she
put this recording
00:20:16
device in her bra? LONNA GRAY: We
know that she knew her brother was coming over.
00:20:20
We knew that there
was some animosity between her and her family. The only thing I
can think of is
00:20:25
that she was just
wanting to record everything so that nothing
was thrown in her face later.
00:20:32
MATT TALMON: What
we hear in the audio is a very cordial,
friendly conversation between Todd,
Jessica and Casey.
00:20:39
At no time are we going
to hear any kind of argument. KRISTEN DONOHO: I'm
listening to the recording,
00:21:02
there is a mention
of a crossbow but there's nothing mentioning
the inscription on it.
00:21:07
That's never talked about. MATT TALMON: The conversation
is jovial, happy. They're joking.
00:21:18
However, Jessica
doesn't realize this, this is the last time she'll
speak with her brother Casey
00:21:23
before he murders her. NARRATOR: Just one minute
later, Casey pulled a shotgun on his sister and Todd.
00:21:31
The audio is
extremely distressing. JULIA SHAW: Casey
walks into the garage and immediately
starts to shoot.
00:21:39
[GUN SHOT] You can hear 10 or 15
seconds of just screaming. It's chaos. And there's so many gunshots.
00:21:50
And you hear her screaming,
you hear him screaming, you hear the dog barking. And it's harrowing to hear
the actual last moments
00:21:58
of their life. And at some point
it just goes quiet. It's a shocking escalation from
the cordial, friendly banter
00:22:08
that we had just moments ago. From the situation
alone, you wouldn't be able to POINT
at a moment and say,
00:22:15
this is where it
all went wrong. This is where it escalated. KRISTEN DONOHO: Casey is
now in this room with them
00:22:31
and is mocking them. And he's just making some very
just derogatory statements towards them, just being very
disrespectful towards them now
00:22:41
that they have died. Also in this recording,
the dog is still alive. [DOG BARKING]
00:22:49
JULIA SHAW:
The weird comments he makes at them,
at the dead bodies, and says in this
mocking tone suggests
00:22:56
someone who has
finally won and is now able to enjoy their victory. And I think him walking around
the property for a while
00:23:06
and not leaving, not
immediately trying to get out of there
points to me to someone
00:23:10
who went through
the motions of something that maybe he'd thought
about for a while
00:23:14
and then enjoyed the moment. NARRATOR: Crucially,
the audio recording completely contradicted
Casey's interview testimony.
00:23:26
KRISTEN DONOHO: Todd never
threatened him with a gun, there was nothing. It was a straight up ambush.
00:23:31
NARRATOR: Detectives
Kristen Donaho and Matt Talmon confronted Casey
Devol with the new evidence.
00:24:40
JULIA SHAW: This is one of the
most interesting interviews I've seen in a long time.
00:24:43
The fact that he
says that he believes that there was
a heated argument, even though at this point he
knows that that's not true,
00:24:50
and then he says,
well, maybe it's because I fabricated
it in my own mind, and so what he's saying is
that he has a false memory
00:24:57
of what happened. And even when confronted
with the evidence, he still feels
like this argument
00:25:02
happened because he's been
playing it in his mind so many times. NARRATOR: The night
before the murders, Casey
00:25:09
had been hanging out
with a female friend. She told the police
that Casey said he
00:25:14
was going to collect a debt. And the next morning,
he texted her. But the police still
wanted to understand
00:25:42
why Casey shot and killed
Todd Gray and his own sister, Jessica Mitchell. JULIA SHAW: What we know
is that he had conflicts
00:26:29
with his sister for many
years, since he was a child, and the family
also considered her
00:26:34
the black sheep of the family. She had all these
substance use problems, there were neglect issues
with her own children,
00:26:39
so there was a lot
of beef going back years with his sister. So the question, of course,
is why did he kill Todd?
00:26:47
Why did he kill his
sister's partner? And it seems to me
that the answer might be a really
sad one, which
00:26:55
is that simply he was there. And that he probably wasn't
specifically a target, he was effectively collateral
damage to this murder
00:27:05
that he'd been
fantasizing about. It's possible that
he saw them as a pair and that he always
sort of thought,
00:27:11
if I'm going to kill
my sister, I'm also going to kill her partner,
but I think it's more likely
00:27:15
that he was there that night. And if he hadn't been there,
he might still be alive.
00:27:21
NARRATOR: Casey
Devol was charged with two counts of first degree
murder and animal cruelty.
00:27:27
Originally he
pleaded not guilty, but later he decided
to change his plea. NATE MARSH: The plea
that he ultimately
00:27:35
took, he pled
guilty to two counts of murder and the second degree
as well as that animal cruelty.
00:27:41
And received a sentence
just shy of 100 years. NARRATOR: The case
divided the community.
00:27:49
NATE MARSH: There
were certainly people that said there was no
way that Devol could have done
00:27:53
this, and that's why it was
so important at the sentencing to make sure that
we played just
00:27:57
a portion of that
audio recording so that we could set the record
straight for any community
00:28:01
member that wanted to know. This recording doesn't lie. BRYAN GRAY: I just
thought, what a coward.
00:28:06
He just walked
up and shot them. Nobody had a chance
there but him. He had the guns, there
was no fair fight,
00:28:13
there was no nothing. He just lost it. NARRATOR: The audio recording
was vital to bringing
00:28:18
Casey Devol to justice. NATE MARSH: Jessica's
final act was really the instrumental and key
piece of evidence
00:28:26
that put her murderer behind
bars for the next 100 years. It was in that moment
that she practically
00:28:32
solved her own murder. LONNA GRAY: I think
they could have together got their life under control.
00:28:38
They both would
have been very happy and they would have
impacted a lot of people.
00:28:42
BRYAN GRAY: He had
a really good heart. I think he could have done
really well in life once he
00:28:46
figured out his struggles. I'm still proud of what
he accomplished. He was just a person that I
could talk to all the time.
00:28:54
He was my son, but he
was also a good friend. [AUDIO LOGO] NARRATOR: The murder of a
sibling is known as siblicide,
00:29:08
and it is an incredibly
rare occurrence. JULIA SHAW: In the US,
about 150 people every year
00:29:15
kill a sibling. And when it happens,
it's usually an accumulation
of fights and arguments
00:29:19
and slights over a long period
of time, but within the family. Long standing grudges don't
just fester inside the home,
00:29:27
they can also fester
in other contexts. For example, in settings where
trivial issues, perceived
00:29:33
slights, and verbal threats
become physical manifestations and can turn into violence.
00:29:39
NARRATOR: In 2024,
a combination of these three factors
led to a brutal murder. [AUDIO LOGO]
00:29:53
In the UK, eight miles
Northeast of Newcastle Upon Tyne is the town
of North Shields.
00:30:01
AMBER HAQUE: North Shields
sits on the North bed of the River Tyne. North Shields has a really
interesting history.
00:30:08
It was a real epicenter
for the fishing industry and for the shipbuilding
industry as well.
00:30:14
NARRATOR: It was home
to 35-year-old Andrew Darn. MICHAEL DARN: Andrew
was larger than life.
00:30:21
He looked very intimidating
because of the size of him, but he was as soft as anything.
00:30:28
He would do anything
for anybody. NARRATOR: Andrew grew
up 200 miles South in Northamptonshire.
00:30:35
He had an older brother and a
younger sister named Natalie. - Andrew was funny. He was always making
everyone laugh.
00:30:44
You couldn't help but laugh
at him, no matter what you did. [LAUGHS] You are watching
the same video over and over.
00:30:55
NARRATOR: As a teenager, Andrew
fell in love with fishing. MICHAEL DARN: Andrew
used to like cod fishing.
00:31:02
I think it was because it was
peaceful and relaxing for him, and he could sit
and concentrate.
00:31:09
It's the only time he
ever had any patience. NARRATOR: When Andrew
was 17, the family
00:31:15
moved to the Northeast
and Andrew started working with his dad. - He used to be
the boss at work.
00:31:21
He used to tell me what
to do and I used to do it. At the end of the day, roles
were reversed, I was the dad
00:31:30
and he was the son. And that's how we
got on so well. NARRATOR: But the job meant
Andrew spent a lot of time
00:31:37
away from home, and it
started to take its toll. MICHAEL DARN: He
turned and he said,
00:31:42
look, it's getting
too much, dad. The children are missing us. They don't want me
to go away on a Sunday.
00:31:48
He said, so I'm going
to have to get a job at home. I says, fine. If that's what
you've got to do,
00:31:53
then that's what
you've got to do. NARRATOR: In spring
2022, Andrew started working
at a garage door fitting
00:32:01
company on the Tyne
tunnel industrial estate in North shields. MICHAEL DARN: He
went up on the Monday
00:32:09
and he never looked back. He loved the job. NARRATOR: But Andrew's
boss had been
00:32:13
involved in a long running feud
with a man named Alder Willis. FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC: Mr.
Willis ran the business
00:32:22
next door to where Andrew
worked, which was a cafe deli business, which he'd been
running with his partner
00:32:30
for many years. Andrew had walked into a long
standing antagonism between the two neighboring
businesses, which
00:32:40
had started years before he
ever began working there, in about 2010, over
a parking dispute about who
00:32:49
was entitled to park
in the parking spots outside the businesses. ROBERTA BABB: A debate about
a parking space on the surface
00:32:57
feels like a trivial
matter, but, really, parking spaces are symbolic. They're symbolic of territory.
00:33:04
So what looks like
a surface disagreement actually if we look
deeper, is about space,
00:33:10
it's about territory,
it's about respect, it's about power and control. And they have to defend not
only their parking space,
00:33:17
but their honor at all costs. NARRATOR: And the defense of
honor spiraled out of control.
00:33:23
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON
KC: Over the years, there had been a series
of microaggressions,
00:33:28
quite trivial
incidents where they were winding each other up. But it came to a bit
of a head in 2021.
00:33:34
NARRATOR: Mr. Willis
assaulted Andrew's boss. He punched him
and knocked him over.
00:33:40
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC:
It didn't go to court but he was given
a caution by the police.
00:33:45
- Long running feuds are
really an interesting concept. They're not necessarily common
in the general population,
00:33:52
but they do occur frequently in
specific contexts or instances where there tends
to be interpersonal
00:33:59
or community tensions. And these tensions
kind of bubble up. The initial grievance gets
escalated because each party
00:34:06
retaliates against the other. Ultimately, this
culminates in what's known as a cycle
of revenge, which
00:34:12
is difficult for either
party to exit because each party wants
to maintain and hold
00:34:17
on to the winning position. NARRATOR: Alder Willis was
cautioned by the police for assaulting
Andrew's boss, but
00:34:25
the antagonism between
the two businesses continued, and Andrew
seemed to become the focus
00:34:31
of Alder Willis's aggression. - It was completely unclear
why he became a target.
00:34:38
It seems that he just
took a dislike to him. NARRATOR: Andrew's
boss started keeping
00:34:43
a record of any incidents
of conflict with Alder Willis. In October 2022, it was
recorded that Willis
00:34:51
had threatened to stab Andrew. AMBER HAQUE: On a number
of occasions, Willis would threaten
to have Andrew stabbed.
00:35:01
He would be constantly
giving him dirty looks and making these threats
that he would get someone
00:35:06
to come and stab
him, which obviously are quite terrifying threats. NARRATOR: March 26, 2024, there
was another incident involving
00:35:16
the female partners
of the warring businesses, but, once again, Andrew
became the target.
00:35:23
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON
KC: That was the point at which Willis made another
threat to kill Mr. Darn.
00:35:29
NARRATOR: But Willis's
threatening behavior didn't end there. - 20 minutes after
the incident,
00:35:36
Andrew leaves work to run a few
errands, but he isn't alone. Willis tails Andrew for a few
minutes, at this point,
00:35:44
Andrew notices him and pulls
over onto the curb. - He was clearly very anxious
about what was going on.
00:36:03
He got out of the car
and shouted something in Willis's direction. After, Andrew went home
and he was anxious.
00:36:15
MICHAEL DARN: He'd spoke
to myself and the wife on the phone. He sounded very worried.
00:36:22
I think he wasn't
so much worried for himself, if he was
worried for his partner and
00:36:28
the children. ROBERTA BABB: Stalking involves
repeated unwanted attention, harassment or contact,
or any sort of behavior
00:36:39
which aims to intimidate
someone and provoke feelings of anxiety and fear. And it can include
behaviors such as following.
00:36:47
If you look at what
Alder Willis did, he decided to follow
Andrew down in his vehicle.
00:36:52
When a person is
a victim of stalking, it's incredibly unsettling. It's distressing.
00:36:58
There's a sense
that your space has been intruded
upon in a way that feels incredibly threatening.
00:37:04
NARRATOR: The next morning,
March 27, 2024, Andrew set off for work as usual. Less than an hour
later, paramedics
00:37:15
were called to the Tyne
tunnel industrial estate and found a man with
severe injuries.
00:37:23
They tried to save
him, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. He was confirmed
to be Andrew Darn.
00:37:33
Police went to Andrew's
parents' house to tell them what had happened. MICHAEL DARN: They said
that Andrew had been killed.
00:37:41
Just couldn't believe it. You go numb. You don't comprehend
what's happened. You think it's a dream.
00:37:50
It just doesn't hit home. NATALIE DARN: I had entered
the front door of my mom and
00:37:55
dad's house, and mom
just stood and told us that Andrew had been murdered. And I just dropped
to the floor.
00:38:02
I was like, no, he's not. He's not. NARRATOR: Police searched the
area for surveillance footage
00:38:14
and found a crucial camera
inside the garage door company. - We're seeing
on the main screen
00:38:23
the view directly from
the front of the office. NARRATOR: As the police tracked
back through the footage,
00:38:30
they were able
to piece together the events of that morning. At 7:55 AM, Andrew Darn pulled
into the parking area outside
00:38:40
the garage door company. - This car here is
Andrew Darn's car parked on the right hand
side of the parking area.
00:38:51
And up here we see
Alder Willis's van. You see the back
doors of the van are open because he
is in the process
00:38:59
of unloading boxes with his
supplies for the cafe that day. NARRATOR: Andrew's dash cam
recorded what he said to Alder.
00:39:16
At 7:59 AM, Andrew
got out of his car. FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC:
Well, this is the beginnings
00:39:23
of a conversation, certainly. And it looks as though
Andrew is quite animated. He's gesturing quite a lot.
00:39:34
The important thing to notice,
as far as Willis is concerned, is where his hands are.
00:39:39
His left hand is
out and gesturing, but his right hand stays
firmly stuck in his pocket.
00:39:46
Andrew Darn then throws
a punch at Willis. Willis reacts by taking his
right hand out of his pocket
00:40:00
and he strikes two blows
towards Andrew's torso. NARRATOR: After
the altercation,
00:40:09
Andrew walked back to his car. FRANCIS FITZGIBBON
KC: Andrew appears to be walking quite normally.
00:40:15
He is walking to his
car, turning away from any additional violence. NARRATOR: Andrew then remained
inside the parked vehicle.
00:40:24
- We see Willis heading
back towards his business. He goes in for a bit,
he comes out.
00:40:31
You can see him looking in
the direction of Andrew's car, and you can see
him moving his hand
00:40:37
across his throat,
which we took to be a very hostile gesture. This is about 20 minutes
after their confrontation.
00:40:46
And Willis goes over
to Andrew Darn's car-- he may have thought there
was something amiss--
00:40:53
and he reaches into the open
driver's door window. Can't quite see what he's
doing, but he's peering in
00:40:58
and possibly shaking or trying
to rouse Andrew at that point. And then he walks away again.
00:41:05
NARRATOR: Alder Willis
went back to his shop. Then 30 seconds later he
returned again to Andrew's car.
00:41:14
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC: He
opens the door this time and he, again, he seems to be
looking or reaching inside.
00:41:20
Whatever he has seen, Alder
Willis does not call for help. You can see how shocked his
partner looks because she
00:41:30
puts her hand across her face. Alder Willis walks away from
Andrew's car, gets into his van
00:41:36
and drives off. NARRATOR: Andrew remained
in his car for a further three minutes before his boss's
partner found him severely
00:41:49
injured and unconscious. Five minutes later, emergency
services arrived on the scene
00:42:05
and attended to Andrew. Six miles away at his
home in Camperdown, Alder Willis was recorded
on a doorbell camera.
00:42:24
- It shows him having
just reached his street, speaking to his partner
who has traveled
00:42:31
separately from the cafe. He says, and I'll
see you in 15 years time, meaning he knows that
he's done something seriously
00:42:48
wrong and that he's
going to be going away for a long, long time. It's quite difficult to tell
what he was feeling or thinking
00:42:57
just by looking at this,
but on the face of it he seems pretty calm. AMBER HAQUE: A little later,
Willis had a conversation
00:43:05
with one of his
friends where he said, I don't think I'm going
to be going to Benidormson.
00:43:10
I think I've killed someone. Just after 10:00 AM,
Willis called a solicitor, he handed himself in at a
police station and was arrested
00:43:19
on suspicion of murder. NARRATOR: The autopsy
concluded that Andrew had died from a single stab wound.
00:43:27
AMBER HAQUE: The knife
actually pierced his aorta, a major
vessel in the body, and he died from catastrophic
internal bleeding.
00:43:35
The police seized the knife
which Willis still had in his pocket
at the time, and
00:43:41
there was blood on this knife. They DNA tested it, and it
was a match for Andrew Darn.
00:43:47
NARRATOR: The footage
clearly captured the moment Alder Willis
killed Andrew Darn.
00:43:54
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC: Quite
often the critical moment is not captured,
it's just off camera,
00:43:58
but here it was right
in front of our eyes. MICHAEL DARN: It's
hard to comprehend
00:44:02
how it happened when it had
nothing to do with Andrew. You look back and you
still say, why him?
00:44:11
He had so much going for him. He loved his job. He loved his partner. He loved his children.
00:44:21
He loved his fishing. And in the space of two
seconds, it's all gone. NARRATOR: In court, Alder
Willis argued self-defense.
00:44:33
FRANCIS FITZGIBBON KC: We had
to prove that the killing was unlawful, which in this case
meant we had to prove it
00:44:38
wasn't done in self-defense. Willis gave evidence
at the trial and had to be asked
about what he'd done.
00:44:46
He did accept that using
a knife in response to a punch was out of proportion. The jury rejected his
defense of self-defense.
00:44:57
- After an almost two week
trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Willis was found guilty
of murder and possession
00:45:04
of a bladed article. He was sentenced
to life imprisonment with a minimum
term of 18 years.
00:45:10
- He's going to be
86 when he gets out, but he's still
going to get out, he's still going
to have a life.
00:45:23
There's no life for Andrew now. FRANCIS FITZGIBBON
KC: The jury clearly thought that whatever
had happened in the past
00:45:29
and whatever happened that
morning did not justify what Willis did to Andrew. He had done nothing
to deserve that.
00:45:37
He didn't deserve to die. Not in that way, not
at the hands of Alder Willis. MICHAEL DARN: I'd like
people to remember Andrew
00:45:45
for being here fishing, his
happy place where he was most at home, he was relaxed.
00:45:51
It was just his
own little world. He loved this place. - For Andrew's birthday, we'd
gone down to his favorite place
00:45:59
where he liked
to fish, and would set off balloons with family. - Happy birthday, Andrew.
00:46:06
NATALIE DARN: It's
the worst situation you could ever possibly imagine
going through but you just
00:46:14
have to try to look
on the brighter side because that's what
he would have done.
00:46:22
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