00:00:04
[theme music] [ominous music] NARRATOR: Oyster Creek
in Fort Bend County, Texas.
00:00:45
Named after the abundance
of oyster shells once found on its banks,
the slow-moving water
00:00:52
meanders through
the area, eventually joining up with the
Intracoastal Waterway network
00:00:58
lacing the United States until
it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. [ominous music] - This particular
area of Oyster Creek
00:01:12
is really a lot
more like a swamp. Very murky, dirty water,
a lot of vegetation, and
00:01:20
in the summertime can
be extremely muggy. [ominous music] NARRATOR: In the height
of summer, police and water
00:01:34
dive teams searched
the creek in the hope of finding a missing person. [ominous music]
00:01:45
- It's a hot, hot
July day in Richmond. It was over 100
degrees in that area.
00:01:53
[water sloshing] - Creeks and other
smaller bodies of water that are present in hot
or very warm environments
00:02:10
tend to also maintain that
warm to hot temperature. And that is because they
do have a smaller
00:02:16
volume of water, which
requires less energy from the sun to warm up. These bodies of water can
get very hot, and sometimes
00:02:24
considered like bathwater. Additionally, this creek was
not known to have any current,
00:02:30
meaning the water
was very stagnant. The lack of movement with
the heat of the water
00:02:36
is a perfect
environment for a lot of bacteria to form, speeding
up the decomposition rate.
00:02:43
NARRATOR: As well
as the time pressure. Police scouring the creek
faced very real dangers.
00:02:51
- Crime scene officers
in a boat out on a creek. Then you've got another
who's in the boat
00:02:57
with a rifle in case
an alligator comes along. SARAH MORMINO: Some of the main
concerns that the divers would
00:03:04
have to deal with
would be alligators, or even other animals that
could cause harm to the divers.
00:03:10
Even turtles can
become a threat to divers as they could bite
if they ever felt threatened.
00:03:16
Furthermore, creeks tend to be
very hot water, high bacteria. So on top of police
divers having
00:03:22
to figure out how they're
going to navigate these waters, they also have to be
aware of their own safety.
00:03:29
NARRATOR: Despite
the difficult conditions, police expanded their search. [ominous music]
00:03:40
- We called
for a search team and did what we could
to have the flow of water through there closed off.
00:03:48
They have control
gates that they were able to close
down for us to at least slow the water down.
00:03:57
NARRATOR: Police navigating
the creek were from two states. The local state
police from Texas,
00:04:05
but also a team of detectives
from Raleigh, North Carolina, over 1,200 miles away.
00:04:14
[stirring music] JERRY FAULK: Raleigh
is a very nice area. I think now there's probably
close to half a million people
00:04:34
that live in Raleigh. The houses that
are in this area, the apartment complexes that
are in this area are nice.
00:04:41
Not a high crime area. [stirring music] I had come in to work. I remember-- I vividly
remember, like,
00:04:52
I had my list of things that I
wanted to do that I had that I wanted to get done that day.
00:04:58
And so when I come
in at 3 o'clock and you're talking
to the other squad
00:05:03
like what's going on today. And they're telling
us about this missing person case out of Kinston.
00:05:13
NARRATOR: The missing person
was 27-year-old Laura Ackerson, the mother of two young boys
and a busy local businesswoman.
00:05:22
Police in Raleigh
were contacted by her business
partner, who hadn't seen Laura for five days.
00:05:29
[stirring music] - The person might go
missing for a couple of different reasons.
00:05:40
One, they run away
or decide to leave the life that they have now. They want to get a better life.
00:05:47
They commit suicide
or die by suicide, and so people don't know
what's happened to them.
00:05:53
They've been in some
kind of accident and people don't
know where they are.
00:05:57
Or a foul play has occurred. - A lot of people have routines
and schedules and things
00:06:07
that they do
on a regular basis, and the same was true
of Laura Ackerson. She had a schedule
of things that she did.
00:06:17
A friend of Laura's
and her business partner as well, Chevon Mathes had not
spoken to Laura for five days.
00:06:28
That was very unusual
because Chevon and Laura would talk about every day. - They had shared that
Laura Ackerson had
00:06:35
been in a relationship
with Grant Hayes, and they had two small
children together.
00:06:44
NARRATOR: The couple had met
four years earlier, in 2007, and started dating
around the time
00:06:49
of Laura's birthday in April. JONI JOHNSTON: Laura
and Grant met at a bar. He was a musician.
00:06:59
He was playing at this bar,
and he was talking to her. They kind of hit it off. This is a relationship that
developed very, very quickly.
00:07:09
They shared the same
birthday, April the 30, which Laura, I think, saw as a
sign that this was meant to be.
00:07:17
NARRATOR: Laura soon gave
birth to their first child. But by the time she was
due with their second,
00:07:22
the relationship
was under strain, with Grant pursuing his
music career away from home.
00:07:29
JONI JOHNSTON: Grant Hayes
moves to the Virgin Islands in an effort to promote
or boost his music career.
00:07:36
He meets Amanda. For whatever reason,
these two get together and decide to have a relationship.
00:07:44
Laura had just given
birth to their second son. She still wants Grant to be
involved with the boys,
00:07:51
but she is seeing that
the relationship is over. NARRATOR: Once
the couple separated,
00:07:57
Grant went on to marry Amanda. And both set about pursuing
their creative dreams.
00:08:03
- Amanda had a background
in, you know, some B acting. She'd been to school
for acting.
00:08:10
She had had some minor
parts in "The Sopranos" and "The Stepford Wives."
00:08:16
Grant and Amanda had
actually met in St. John. Grant had a little
bit of a music
00:08:20
career going down in St. John. I'm sure he wasn't making
anything astronomical,
00:08:25
but he had a kind
of a gig going. But Amanda had actually
inherited some money. Her husband, before
Grant had passed away
00:08:32
in a boating accident
of some kind. And so she had inherited
money enough to kind of
00:08:37
be able to live comfortably. NARRATOR: Laura had moved
on too, starting a business
00:08:46
with her friend Chevon. - Chevon and Laura had
this kind of brand new start-up advertising business.
00:08:59
AMANDA BOLIN: A very smart
business endeavor, I thought. She would create
menus for restaurants
00:09:05
and provide them at no
cost to the restaurants, but on the menu themselves
would have advertising space
00:09:12
that other businesses would
pay for to get advertising space on that menu. - They were both
working fairly hard,
00:09:20
and so they would talk every
day, multiple times a day. And the other thing was,
she was a mother of two.
00:09:29
Everybody that we
talked to all said the same thing, that her life
centered around her kids.
00:09:37
She shared custody with
the father, who was Grant. She would pick up
the kids on Friday.
00:09:42
And then they would meet again
on Sunday to drop off the kids. - It would be unusual
to have a midweek visit,
00:09:52
but we know July 13, 2011,
which was a Wednesday. - She calls a friend of hers
who lives in the Raleigh area.
00:09:59
And, basically, the essence
of the voicemail was, hey, I'm
coming to Raleigh,
00:10:05
I'm going to visit my boys. But I would like to meet
up with you afterwards.
00:10:11
I'll probably be
leaving there at 7:00. AMANDA BOLIN: The next thing
we have is Laura disappears,
00:10:20
drops off the map. [stirring music] [ominous music] NARRATOR: In a murky
creek in Texas,
00:10:36
police teams and divers
scour the water for missing mother of two, Laura Ackerson.
00:10:43
Then, as the search widens,
they make a shocking discovery. - Not only has a body been
recovered in Oyster Creek,
00:10:52
but it's not just a body. We're talking about body parts. This was a big story.
00:10:58
- That first day,
they were able to find part of a female torso
and part of a leg.
00:11:06
[water sloshing] SARAH MORMINO: Investigators
first located a torso. Both the divers
and the investigators
00:11:13
realized that they were looking
for multiple body parts. This creates a whole new
challenge for the dive team,
00:11:19
especially when dealing
with bodies of water that have a lot of debris. Creeks also tend to be
in heavily wooded areas,
00:11:28
resulting in a lot
of vegetation, grassland, lily pads,
and other forms of nature
00:11:34
within the water. - These were like
monstrous lily pads, like, that really were so thick
on the water at this time.
00:11:44
That it was difficult
to force them open just to go another foot. - Lily pads have very
complex stems and
00:11:53
root systems that travel
throughout the water into the bottom. This makes it very
difficult for any person
00:12:00
walking in that area
to navigate through. Additionally, as you are
trying to move those stems out
00:12:07
of the way to search for any
of your items of evidence, they do not stay in that spot.
00:12:12
They will immediately come
back to their natural position, making it hard to know what
areas you've already searched
00:12:18
and what areas have
not been searched. Additionally, divers can easily
become entangled in this,
00:12:25
even with minimal equipment. [ominous music] - Once dismemberment occurs,
the body parts you have
00:12:39
could be from one
or several individuals, and we may not ever
recover all of the parts
00:12:47
of any one individual. And that certainly
complicates things. If somebody is looking
to dispose of a body,
00:12:55
then dismemberment
and then scattering the body parts
in various locations would provide
a unique challenge
00:13:01
for law enforcement and other
investigative agencies. AMANDA BOLIN: I've
got several cases
00:13:08
in my career that kind
of stand out to me, usually ones involving
a death of some kind.
00:13:12
But this one stands out
just because of the sort of gruesome nature
of the dismemberment,
00:13:18
gruesome and sad. [ominous music] - The father of Laura's
two children, Grant, he lived in Raleigh.
00:13:38
He was married to Amanda Hayes. He also had an infant daughter
with Amanda that was born just
00:13:45
about a month before
this happened. BRAD WHICHARD: Laura had
traveled to Grant and Amanda
00:13:51
to see her boys. And that was the last
time she was seen. NARRATOR: Police had spoken
to Laura's ex-partner
00:13:59
looking for information
on her whereabouts. - Grant says, yeah, he
didn't-- she didn't show up.
00:14:06
I don't know what's going on. [stirring music] NARRATOR: The day Laura
was reported missing,
00:14:17
detectives began
preliminary investigations. She had not been
seen for five days.
00:14:23
JERRY FAULK: You want to do
all those sorts of things to see if a credit
card has been used.
00:14:28
We're getting cell phone
records, that sort of thing. And we actually were able
to get some of that stuff
00:14:32
back fairly quickly. We'd broadcast the description
of Laura's car. And within just a few
hours, roughly around 11
00:14:40
o'clock that night, our patrol
guys had located that car. Based on the location
of where they found that car,
00:14:50
that's really what
did it for us. As the crow flies
straight line was about 400 yards away from Grant
and Amanda's apartment complex.
00:15:02
One of the other things
that we did pretty quickly was we went ahead
and worked on getting
00:15:08
the phone records for Laura,
for Grant, and for Amanda. As far as talking
to Grant and Amanda,
00:15:17
we didn't try to do
that too quickly. We wanted to try
to get a good idea before we tried to talk
to them, you know,
00:15:25
what's going on. So we were able to get
their phone records and see that they were
not in North Carolina.
00:15:31
And at the time of that, when
we initially got involved, they were actually in Texas.
00:15:39
NARRATOR: Police
also started to build a picture
of the relationship Laura had with her ex-partner, Grant.
00:15:47
- They were involved in it. Sounds like a pretty
hotly contested child custody suit there in Raleigh.
00:15:58
AMANDA BOLIN: Being a mother
to those two boys was her life. While she had had maybe some
difficulties in the past,
00:16:06
having sort of a stable
home and a stable income, it was obvious to me that she
had made a lot of attempts
00:16:11
to try to get her
life together, to get her finances together,
to get a career going.
00:16:16
And all of that was
in pursuit of changing custody orders to get her boys. - Things are moving forward.
00:16:22
And she is planning to file
for at least joint, if not full custody of her boys.
00:16:29
And she's turned
her life around. She's now independent. She's now making money.
00:16:35
And her attorney
is telling her, things are looking your way. NARRATOR: And what police
learned from Laura's business
00:16:43
partner Chevon
and her friend Heidi gave them serious concerns. JERRY FAULK: From Chevon, we
hear about this custody battle
00:16:53
that's going on with Grant. But it was really Laura's
friend Heidi Schumacher
00:16:59
that was able to give
us more information about this custody battle. We're just doing it really
from a victimology
00:17:05
standpoint, right? Trying to find out
more about who Laura was and that sort of thing.
00:17:10
But Heidi was dead
set on, I think Grant had something to do with this. Her reasons were that Laura had
kind of said, if anything ever
00:17:20
happens to me, look at Grant. NARRATOR: Worried, police
got a warrant to search Amanda and Grant's apartment.
00:17:35
JERRY FAULK: We're heading
over to 4021 Bellum Park trail. We knew from
their phone records
00:17:40
that it looked like
they were in Texas, but we didn't know what
was inside the apartment.
00:17:44
I'm thinking about
the first time that we went
into this apartment, not really knowing what to
expect when we open the door.
00:17:56
[stirring music] This is the apartment where
Grant and Amanda lived, so right here on this side.
00:18:09
When we first walked in, we
get that strong odor of bleach, and we see the large bleach
stain there on the carpet.
00:18:17
AMANDA BOLIN: Not
just like, you know, I spilled a little
bit of bleach, but a large bleach stain.
00:18:22
The overwhelming
odor of bleach. A home that was
a little bit in disarray and not pristinely
clean, but then
00:18:30
having a hallway bathroom
that I think a detective described you could eat off
of any surface in there.
00:18:36
It was so clean. What also stuck out
is this was a bathroom that traditionally was used
by the boys as a bathroom.
00:18:43
One that had a shower curtain,
one that had mats on the floor. But now when we go
in, no shower curtain,
00:18:49
no mats, every surface clean. JERRY FAULK: And then once
we continue to search, the next thing that we
see is this note that's up
00:18:58
on the kitchen counter,
which talks about, in exchange for $25,000, Laura
was going to drop the pending
00:19:06
child custody litigation. JONI JOHNSTON: I
think that anybody who knew Laura would know that
she would never agree to that.
00:19:15
And if her signature
was on that document, it was under duress
that she signed that.
00:19:20
It was another
thing that I think that raised a huge red flag
in terms of her disappearance.
00:19:30
JERRY FAULK: We're
still kind of trying to figure out what's going on. And, you know, is this
truly a missing person,
00:19:35
or is there more to it? Amanda had been married three
previous times before Grant.
00:19:41
And she had a daughter from,
I believe, her first marriage, and that daughter's
name was Sha.
00:19:49
We have an interview with Sha. Because we know at this
point that Grant and Amanda
00:19:54
are in Texas. They're not easily
going to be interviewed, and we didn't
really feel like it
00:20:00
was the right time
to yet approach them to interview them. But we go to Sha. Sha doesn't know anything about
this trip until, at some point,
00:20:10
she calls her mother. And her mom says, yeah,
we're heading down to Texas to go see Aunt Karen.
00:20:18
And Karen Berry is
Amanda's sister. [stirring music] Sha's kind of taken
by surprise with that comment
00:20:31
because she didn't
know anything about them going to Texas. And that was strange because
Sha and Amanda were very close.
00:20:38
They were-- you know, they
were mother and daughter, but they were almost
more like sisters.
00:20:44
For Sha not to know anything
about this trip down to Texas, she thought that was
a little odd too.
00:20:52
NARRATOR: There was
still no trace of Laura. So detectives from Raleigh flew
from North Carolina to Texas.
00:21:01
JERRY FAULK: So now we have
those two separate parts of the investigation going on
because of the multiple states
00:21:08
and different things going on. She's missing under
suspicious circumstances,
00:21:14
and there's some
connection to Texas. And we felt like the best
way to figure out
00:21:21
what happened is to go there. [stirring music] [ominous music] NARRATOR: Detectives
from North Carolina
00:21:37
are in Texas, investigating
the disappearance of mother of three Laura Ackerson.
00:21:44
She was reported
as failing to arrive at a meeting with her
ex-husband, Grant, and his new wife, Amanda.
00:21:52
The trail has led
North Carolina police to the rural community
of Oyster Creek, Texas,
00:22:01
where the pair visited Amanda's
sister Karen in the days after Laura's disappearance.
00:22:09
- It was an unannounced, wasn't
a pre-planned trip at all, which was another concern
to us as investigators.
00:22:18
They had inferred to her that
this trip was an impromptu trip to bring a family
heirloom, a cabinet,
00:22:27
to Karen Berry, which had not
even been discussed before. Not anything that
Karen had apparently
00:22:34
expressed interest in having. But that was the story of why
they needed this U-Haul,
00:22:39
was to bring this piece
of unwanted furniture all the way from Raleigh
to Richmond, Texas.
00:22:47
NARRATOR: Detectives told
Karen they had grave concerns about Laura Ackerson. - When they asked
about her sister's
00:22:58
and Grant Hayes's visit, she
said, yes, I'll talk to you. Do you mind if we pray first?
00:23:05
So that was kind of OK. There's information that she
has great concerns about.
00:23:11
She's about to share,
then she didn't. - So when Karen and Amanda
first got to Karen's home,
00:23:19
they had conversations. And there was a lot
of kind of weird questions that Grant and Amanda
were asking them.
00:23:27
Is there somewhere we
could just dig a big hole? They asked if wild
hogs would eat humans,
00:23:35
because there was a hog
pen on Karen's property. BRAD WHICHARD: He
asked her about sharks
00:23:41
being across the street. Well, we're 90 miles
from the coast, and there's no freshwater
Creek sharks here, no.
00:23:48
But they had a faux well
out front, a decorative. Well, they'd asked about that.
00:23:53
And then they asked
about our septic system. And then he asked about how
prolific alligators were
00:23:59
and what they could do. All right, the alligators
are prevalent here, and they're across
the street from the very home
00:24:07
in that creek. NARRATOR: Then Amanda had
made an alarming confession to her sister, Karen.
00:24:16
- Amanda said to her, I need-- we need to talk. Can we step outside? Karen and Amanda step outside.
00:24:22
Amanda says to her,
I hurt Laura. I hurt her bad. JERRY FAULK: Karen gave
us a lot of information,
00:24:34
but it took a little
bit of time. Basically, what we're
asking her to do is to rat on your sister.
00:24:44
BRAD WHICHARD:
Karen was relieved. Relieved that someone came
and knocked on her door
00:24:49
because she had been
so worried about the situation. JERRY FAULK: Grant and Amanda
had taken this late night boat
00:25:00
trip and asked
Karen, hey, can you watch the kids while we go out
on this late night boat ride.
00:25:10
As we're asking
and saying, well, what do you think
happened to Laura and where do you think she is?
00:25:15
And she essentially told
them, well, you may want to check the creek over there.
00:25:20
BRAD WHICHARD: We
contacted the dive team for the Houston
Police Department, and they came out
the following day.
00:25:27
[stirring music] - You got to think it's
the middle of summer in Texas. Not the best
conditions to search
00:25:40
a creek in this legitimately
alligator-infested creek. NARRATOR: Working in blistering
heat, a combination dive
00:25:50
teams and police
in small boats pushed through the overgrown creek. Armed officers
watched over them,
00:25:58
ready to shoot any alligators
who approached the divers. JERRY FAULK: It wasn't
just open water,
00:26:04
it was vegetation
across the creek. So you're kind of weeding
through the vegetation
00:26:10
and stuff. [water sloshing] SARAH MORMINO:
In an ideal scenario, the divers would have preferred
to dive the creek using
00:26:19
their hands to feel
through the debris and find any
pieces of evidence. That proved pretty
much impossible
00:26:25
in this case, which
caused the divers to decide to walk through
and search using other methods.
00:26:33
In some cases,
feet can be just as beneficial of a tool as hands
when searching for evidence.
00:26:38
There have been
cases where the water has been very
complex to search in, and has required me to use
sweep patterns with my feet,
00:26:46
rather than my hands
to conduct a search. Any time I felt something
of interest with my feet,
00:26:52
I would then submerge
to pick up that item and see if it was
of evidentiary value.
00:26:57
When the divers
changed their tactics and start to search
the lily beds, they soon find what
they were looking for.
00:27:06
JERRY FAULK: There was a smell
as you got closer and closer. Those are kind
of the signs that probably
00:27:13
going to find something here. BRAD WHICHARD: The first
day, we recovered the remains of Laura--
00:27:21
a portion of the remains,
the upper torso and some lower extremities. It was confirmed that,
unfortunately, this
00:27:27
is a homicide investigation. The second day
was instrumental, in that we recovered the head.
00:27:40
And that allowed
the investigation to move forward a lot more rapidly. JERRY FAULK: Ultimately,
I believe it was about 60%
00:27:50
of the total body that
they were able to find. SARAH MORMINO:
While many people think the challenge is over,
as the police divers were
00:27:58
able to recover the remains,
the challenge has, in fact, just transferred. At this point, the remains
are very hard to read.
00:28:07
The challenge now
transfers from the divers to the pathologist, who
has the responsibility
00:28:12
of trying to determine
a cause of death with very little evidence. JIM CARUSO: If the skull
is recovered,
00:28:20
as was the case in Laura
Ackerson's death, you can proceed with
a dental identification.
00:28:26
You can also get DNA from
the teeth themselves, from the roots, or even
from the skull bone itself.
00:28:33
In this particular case, they
did postmortem and antemortem dental comparisons based
on the circumstantial evidence
00:28:41
that this was Laura Ackerson. They managed to get a dental
identification of the skull.
00:28:53
AMANDA BOLIN: We did not
recover all of the body parts in this case. We've got two legs, two
portions of torso, and head,
00:28:59
but no hands or feet
were ever discovered. And so it's quite possible
that alligators did
00:29:05
do some damage in this case. NARRATOR: Next,
detectives started to piece together how
the suspects might have
00:29:12
committed this shocking crime. They turned
to the car and trailer that the suspects had driven
to Texas and the items
00:29:21
they brought with them. - As we're going through
these financials, we also see they had
purchased some coolers.
00:29:29
AMANDA BOLIN: Grant
cleaned out the coolers, but left the coolers
there on Karen's property.
00:29:34
So those were recovered
by law enforcement. I mean, it was obvious
they were, like, brand new.
00:29:38
Some of them still
had stickers on them. If you need coolers to make
your cross-country trip,
00:29:42
why would you not
need your coolers to make your cross-country
trip back home? - We recovered
the items that they
00:29:48
used to clean the ice
chests with that they concealed in a barn. Recovered a machete that
they had left there and
00:29:56
concealed near where
they had hidden these rags and this cleaner. AMANDA BOLIN: I can't imagine
taking a normal trip 1,500
00:30:08
miles with a three-year-old,
a two-year-old, and a five- or six week old. But to do so knowing
you have the body parts
00:30:18
of their mother cut up
in coolers on ice in a trailer that you're dragging
behind you the whole way.
00:30:26
[ominous music] NARRATOR: Forensic
teams had also gathered evidence from
the suspect's apartment
00:30:36
back in North Carolina. - Obviously, once we get into
the home of Grant and Amanda,
00:30:42
the huge things that
stick out there. The manual for the
reciprocating saw, that's huge.
00:30:48
It's just sitting
out in the open, not something that is hidden. JERRY FAULK: We were able
to sift through the trash.
00:30:55
And we found a couple
gloves, rubber gloves that had blood on them. And we tested those gloves, and
that blood came back to Laura.
00:31:05
BRAD WHICHARD: They
left a physical trail and a digital trail. We recovered the receipt
that they used at a hotel
00:31:10
that they stopped
at along the way. They left it there
at Karen's home. So we know where they
stopped and stayed,
00:31:17
including the video
surveillance of them at all the locations
that they went to.
00:31:25
AMANDA BOLIN:
The surveillance video from Walmart seeing Grant Hayes
at 2 o'clock in the morning
00:31:31
after the last
time Laura is seen. Walking up and down
the aisles of Walmart, picking out
a reciprocating saw.
00:31:39
But he's walking
around almost like he's trying to pick what flavor
cereal he's going to buy.
00:31:46
We had Amanda at an ATM
withdrawing cash. Right after that,
Grant is using cash to make purchases
at a nearby Home Depot
00:31:53
for muriatic acid. Then Amanda is seen later
dumping that muriatic acid. Fort Bend County is not a small
county, but at that time,
00:32:05
we had one camera set
up in the entire county in a location that had
been a problem for illegal
00:32:12
dumping and littering. And where that one camera
is set up near Oyster Creek is exactly where
Amanda Hays drives.
00:32:20
She drives by herself
and dumps this muriatic acid. JERRY FAULK: When
they found the skull,
00:32:27
there was some tissue on it. But the skull looked different
than the rest of the body
00:32:35
parts in that it looked
like it had been melted. - The forensic odontologist
was able to confirm
00:32:44
a likely exposure
to muriatic acid, or an acid, because of etching
that had taken place
00:32:52
on portions of the skull. JIM CARUSO: Hydrochloric acid
is extremely caustic to tissue,
00:33:00
and can be caustic
enough to dissolve tissue if the tissue is exposed
for a prolonged period of time.
00:33:07
Certainly, it denatures
any DNA that it would come in contact with. Eventually, one could
completely de-flesh a body
00:33:17
and be left with skeletal
elements due to immersion in hydrochloric acid
or dousing the body
00:33:24
with hydrochloric acid. AMANDA BOLIN: There was
sort of a dark stain inside that hog pen that was
consistent with the acid.
00:33:33
The dumped acid did
have some missing. NARRATOR: With such
strong evidence, police arrested both Grant
Hayes and his new wife, Amanda.
00:33:50
- Grant and Amanda were staying
at Grant's parents' house. And we had some
covert units that
00:33:56
were kind of watching the house
to make sure that Grant and Amanda were there. There were no issues as far
as they tried to fight
00:34:06
or they tried to run
or anything like that. Pretty immediately,
they both said, I'd like to talk
to an attorney.
00:34:12
I'm not going to say anything. - I think when you
have an offender who is incredibly calculated,
not only in terms of planning
00:34:22
a murder, particularly
of somebody they once cared about, and then systematically
goes about finding ways
00:34:29
to destroy that person's body. This, to me, means that
this perpetrator has such disdain for this
person and truly
00:34:37
is interested in just
wiping this person from the face of the earth,
like Laura never existed.
00:34:45
It certainly speaks to a lack
of empathy, a lack of caring, a lack of in, some respects,
emotions that most of us have.
00:34:55
- To dismember someone
you don't know, it takes a different
kind of person. To dismember someone that
presumably you once loved and
00:35:04
had a relationship with and who
bore two children of yours is just hard to understand.
00:35:12
[stirring music] NARRATOR: Police
in Texas have now confirmed that dismembered
body parts found
00:35:23
in an overgrown creek
are those of missing mother Laura Ackerson. Now, they must gather evidence
from this watery crime scene.
00:35:32
[water sloshing] SARAH MORMINO:
In aquatic scenes, it's very important to collect,
not only the items of evidence,
00:35:41
but the environment surrounding
the evidence, such as the mud, soil, or water. These items can later
be used to compare
00:35:50
against other items of evidence
to place someone at the scene. For example, if mud
from the water
00:35:57
was found on a suspect's
shoes, they could compare the mud
sample in the shoes
00:36:01
to the mud sample in the water
and place the two together. Using the information that has
now been found in the case,
00:36:09
it is clear that
the water did not cause those remains
to be skeletonized, but instead the presence
of muriatic acid placed
00:36:16
onto the body
or exposed to the body prior to the body being
placed in the water.
00:36:22
[stirring music] NARRATOR: Police
and prosecutors started building the case
against their two suspects--
00:36:33
Grant Hayes,
Laura's ex-partner, and his new wife, Amanda. JERRY FAULK: Grant and Amanda
Hayes both had dreams.
00:36:43
They had goals. And those included things like
being a successful musician, being a successful actress,
you know, in Amanda's case.
00:36:54
And, you know,
those type of people that kind of live
with their head in the clouds sort of thing.
00:37:03
- We certainly see
early on that Grant appeared to have some beliefs. We see him as somebody
who's a musician who thinks
00:37:13
he's above a menial job. Who is very, very happy to let
his significant other support
00:37:20
him and carry all the weight. NARRATOR: The police
also uncovered a major factor in the ongoing
child custody case.
00:37:32
- The turning point
in this custody battle, though, is when
the psychologist gave her report to the court.
00:37:39
And she had some not-so-good
things to say about Grant. In fact, I think she
believed he had some kind
00:37:45
of personality disorder. JONI JOHNSTON: We
can certainly say that this is somebody
who was self-centered,
00:37:52
who was violent, who was
narcissistic in many respects. And we can certainly say
that in many, many occasions,
00:38:01
he acted psychopathically. AMANDA BOLIN:
Things were starting to turn in Laura's favor.
00:38:08
On top of that, you've
got Amanda and Grant basically running out of money
to be able to continue
00:38:12
this custody battle. And in just a matter of weeks
after the date of the murder was supposed to be a final
hearing, where from all those
00:38:21
involved seemed to think
that Laura was probably going to be granted custody. JERRY FAULK: Grant
and Amanda wanted
00:38:30
to go do something different. And I believe that Laura
threw a monkey wrench into those plans for them.
00:38:36
Everybody felt like
this child custody arrangement was, at minimum,
going to be a shared custody.
00:38:44
That messed up the plans
that they had because that tied them down to Raleigh. AMANDA BOLIN: I think
they lured her there.
00:38:57
Grant and Amanda
together physically did something to overcome Laura. Some sort of struggle
or fight that took
00:39:06
place either knock
Laura unconscious or maybe strangulation
that killed her there.
00:39:12
And then you're presented
with the problem of, now what do we do? I mean, can you imagine?
00:39:18
I mean, like, the physical
act of using a reciprocating saw to cut off a limb, to cut
off a hand, to cut a torso
00:39:27
in half, to cut off a head. There's only one word
that comes to mind, and that is a monster.
00:39:39
- If Grant Hayes ever loved
Laura, which I wonder about, that had ceased long ago.
00:39:47
And I think, from
the very beginning, it really was all about him. Everything was about him.
00:39:53
The world revolved around him. And people would be plugged
into his life to the extent
00:39:59
that they served
a purpose for him. And when they no
longer did that, he was perfectly
happy to remove
00:40:06
that person from his life. NARRATOR: Prosecutors
now had to convince a jury that Grant
and Amanda both had
00:40:18
a part in murdering Laura. JERRY FAULK: So,
you know, there were two different
trials, one for Grant,
00:40:23
and then one for Amanda later. Grant's trial's first. And, you know, again,
there was so much evidence.
00:40:30
It was a pretty long trial. In Grant's case, the nail
in the coffin, if you will,
00:40:37
was all the evidence and all
the information surrounding the saw and the dismemberment.
00:40:45
- In the hands of a skilled
forensic anthropologist, the tool marks
that they identify
00:40:51
on the skeletal remains
can actually be tracked back to specific instruments. In Laura Ackerson's case, not
only did the anthropologist
00:41:01
track the tool marks to a
specific tool that was used, but then further investigation
found that the tool was
00:41:10
purchased by her ex-husband. JERRY FAULK: When you're able
to show these side by side
00:41:18
pictures and comparisons
and the video from Walmart that
shows Grant purchasing this exact type of saw
and this exact type of blade,
00:41:27
you know, right after
Laura goes to their house and then disappears, that
was pretty damning evidence.
00:41:37
The other thing that kind
of sticks out in my mind as far as his trial was
Grant had written a song,
00:41:43
and it's about how Grant
wants to kill his ex. So we played that
song during the trial.
00:41:51
And as the song is
playing, you know, Grant is sitting
at the defense table. And he starts kind
of bobbing his head
00:42:02
to the beat of the song. And for the jurors
to sit and watch that and to see the person
that he was,
00:42:12
I believe that was
really good evidence too. Grant was convicted
of first degree murder.
00:42:19
So here in North Carolina,
that's kind of the highest charge that you can get.
00:42:23
And for that, he got
a life sentence in prison. A few months later,
Amanda was convicted
00:42:31
of second degree murder. And for that, she got
a sentence of 13 to 16 years. That was a little
bit upsetting.
00:42:40
NARRATOR: But this wasn't
the end of their bid to bring Amanda to justice. - We packaged up all the
information that we had learned
00:42:49
and presented it to the
district attorney's office. They were in agreement
of pursuing charges
00:42:55
for the disposal of Laura
here, which is, you know, destruction of evidence
with the human corpse.
00:43:01
Second degree felony here. NARRATOR: Amanda Hayes was
brought before a court in Texas
00:43:07
to stand a second trial. [stirring music] - I was fully expecting
a well-rehearsed actress.
00:43:21
And I also seen her testimony
in the North Carolina trial, and so I knew she was
very well-rehearsed and
00:43:27
poised in that trial. Amanda's defense was, I did
all of this under duress. I did all of this under fear
of some kind of injury or harm
00:43:36
from Grant. And my issue always was, then
why do I have you on game cam by yourself dumping
some of the evidence?
00:43:44
If you are so scared for your
life of what this man may do to you if you don't help,
you know, when you're at an ATM
00:43:50
by yourself, if you
are so scared about being involved in this
and what Grant may do to you,
00:43:55
ask to use a phone
and call the police. Like, just none
of it made sense that this was
something that she
00:44:01
was doing only under duress. What became important
for the Texas case is that we're talking about
two sets of gloves, two sets
00:44:10
of goggles, two sets of masks. So if Amanda had
nothing to do with this and didn't know what was
happening at the time,
00:44:17
why do we need
two of everything? NARRATOR: The jury agreed. Amanda Hayes was found guilty
of destruction of evidence,
00:44:26
in this case, the body
of Laura Ackerson. - Punishment range from
2 to 20 years in prison.
00:44:34
And that's what she
got, 20 years in prison. And it was
consecutive sentence.
00:44:41
She had to complete her
sentence in North Carolina. Once that was completed, she's
transported here to Texas
00:44:48
to sit in prison here. - It's been several
years since this trial. Just the gruesome nature of it,
first and foremost, is one that
00:45:00
is a case I'll never forget. And I think probably
a big part of it for me, too, is those two boys.
00:45:08
Being two and three and no
longer having a mom, having a father who's
going to be locked up
00:45:15
for the rest of his life, a
stepmother, who is going to be locked up for a long time.
00:45:22
Being a mother
myself, I didn't want them to have to face
a situation of Amanda
00:45:28
being out of prison until they
were adults, to be able to cope with the whole situation.
00:45:34
I think we accomplished
that with the sentence here in Texas. JERRY FAULK: Being back here,
you know, it reminds me of--
00:45:44
just kind of takes you back
to when this case happened. I never knew Laura, but I
felt like I did know her.
00:45:53
And to look back
at the apartment and think, that's where she
took her last breath.
00:46:00
I can't drive over this way,
you know, or come over this way or come by here, obviously,
without thinking about that.
00:46:10
[theme music]