00:00:03
[THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: This time
on "Killers Caught on Camera," in St. Paul, Minnesota,
a night out ends in slaughter.
00:00:18
- Local law enforcement
could smell the blood. OFFICER: Definite bullet wound
to the right side of the face.
00:00:24
- It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make any sense. NARRATOR: And in the Northeast
of England,
00:00:32
a relationship disintegrates. - No matter what she does,
he will always be watching,
00:00:39
and she can't hide from him. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] MAN: It just sounds
like something
00:00:48
bad is happening to her. WOMAN: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened.
00:00:53
MAN: I heard some gunshots. OFFICER: Drop it! Whatever is, drop it! MAN: That does not prove
that I killed my wife.
00:01:00
MAN: The camera doesn't lie. NARRATOR: In farm
country Western Wisconsin is Dunn County.
00:01:15
In September 2021,
the tranquility of this quiet agricultural
community was shattered.
00:01:24
- On September
12, a farm worker who was working in a cornfield
noticed some tire tracks.
00:01:32
He followed the tracks,
and he found a black Mercedes. There was a woman slumped over
in the front passenger seat.
00:01:42
NARRATOR: Sheriff's
deputies responded to the macabre discovery. COLIN HALEY: Local law
enforcement approached
00:01:55
the SUV in the cornfield. And as he got closer
to that vehicle, he could smell the blood
because there was so much of it
00:02:05
located inside the car. - There were actually four
people in the vehicle. - One woman
in the front passenger
00:02:35
seat, and then two men and one
woman in the back seat. NARRATOR: All four victims
shot dead at close range.
00:02:57
COLIN HALEY: This is
a rural town in Wisconsin that probably doesn't have
a murder every decade,
00:03:02
let alone four at one time. And so the local response must
have been absolutely shocked,
00:03:08
wondering, how could
this happen here. NARRATOR: Investigators began
the grim task of searching
00:03:14
the vehicle for answers. - All the victims had
identification on them. They were able to ascertain the
victim's identity right away.
00:03:26
ANDREW JOHNSON:
Nitosha Flug-Presley was in the front
seat slumped over. There was Jasmine Sturm,
who was in the passenger
00:03:35
side rear seat. Loyace Foreman, III who was
found in the middle back seat. And then Matthew
Pettus was located
00:03:45
behind the driver's seat. NARRATOR: All four lived 60
miles East in a close community
00:03:51
in St. Paul, Minnesota. - My brother Matt
had a big heart. He was very kind. - (SINGING) Running
across the meadow
00:04:02
- He had a great head
on his shoulders, and he just offered the best
feedback and advice.
00:04:06
CHRISTI FLUG: Nitosha,
she had a smile that lit up the whole room. She had a beautiful
personality.
00:04:14
She was the life of the party. ANGELA STURM: Jasmine
and Loyace were dating. Actually, they were
probably gonna get married.
00:04:24
He was soft spoken, kind. Jasmine said, you
know, Mom, I actually-- I think I could spend
my life with this man.
00:04:33
Jasmine and Nitosha
met in grade school and just became fast friends. They're like sisters--
or were like sisters.
00:04:45
NARRATOR: All four victims
were parents of young children. DAMONE PRESLEY: Nitosha
was an excellent mother.
00:04:52
I seen that she
took pride in that. She was very warm, loving. ALL: (SINGING)
--birthday to
00:05:01
you Yay! [APPLAUSE] Yay, Madison. - Jasmine was very
in tune with the children and helping them learn
how to make decisions
00:05:12
and give them choices. Matthew has always
wanted to have children. He always wanted to be
married and have a big family.
00:05:21
So when his girlfriend
found out she was pregnant, he was ecstatic. - Oh. [LAUGHS]
00:05:34
ANGELA STURM: The baby
was a year old when Matt was taken away. DAMONE PRESLEY: I
got a call from Mom.
00:05:50
She could barely talk. And she just said,
Nitosha was murdered. Um, and I just hung up.
00:06:09
It's got to be a mistake. Unbelievable. This is not true. You know, why would
somebody hurt my baby.
00:06:25
Um-- COLIN HALEY: At the time
that the bodies were found in the SUV, it would have been
anybody's guess whether or not
00:06:34
they were killed in that
car, in the cornfield or somewhere along the way from
wherever they were traveling.
00:06:41
NARRATOR: Back
at the crime scene, investigators found
further potential clues--
00:06:46
cell phones, six shell
casings, and receipts from earlier that
night, including one from a bar in St. Paul.
00:06:59
- There was also
a state-issued identification card for a person
by the name of Antoine Suggs,
00:07:04
covered in blood. So where is Mr. Suggs? And what is his identification
card doing in this vehicle?
00:07:13
NARRATOR: Investigators found
that Antoine Suggs arrived at the airport in St.
Paul late on the night
00:07:19
of September 9, three
days before the bodies were discovered. - The next step
for law enforcement
00:07:28
is to try and figure out
how and when and why the car got to Dunn County, Wisconsin.
00:07:34
And that's where the technology
side of police investigations really ends up helping here.
00:07:41
NARRATOR: Sheriff's deputies
in Wisconsin contacted local businesses hoping
to find CCTV evidence
00:07:47
of the Black Mercedes. ANDREW JOHNSON: One
of the first videos that investigators turned
up was from a gas station
00:07:56
in Wheeler, Wisconsin, which is
a short drive away from where the vehicle was found.
00:08:01
NARRATOR: One hour
before the Mercedes was found in the cornfield,
it was filmed
00:08:06
pulling in alongside another
vehicle, a black Nissan. COLIN HALEY: There
was some interaction
00:08:12
between the person driving
the Nissan Rogue and the person driving the Mercedes SUV.
00:08:18
It would appear as though
these two people know each other, for lack
of a better term,
00:08:22
in cahoots with one another. - This was hugely important
because while we couldn't
00:08:28
see the face of the driver
of the Mercedes, we could see the face of the
person that was with him.
00:08:37
NARRATOR: Investigators
visited the gas station. - And local law enforcement
did observe what
00:08:44
they believed to be blood. That would be consistent with
coming from that Mercedes SUV.
00:08:55
NARRATOR: The video
also revealed another disturbing detail. ANDREW JOHNSON: If you
look really carefully,
00:09:03
just for a quick split
second, you can see Nitosha's body slumped over. - It would seem as though
that the person that
00:09:15
was driving the Mercedes
SUV and the person that's driving the Nissan Rogue
had some sort of a plan
00:09:21
to dispose of these
four victims, and then the person
driving the SUV would hop into the Nissan
Rogue and skedaddle.
00:09:32
- Two of the victims were
wearing shirts for Shamrocks, which is a bar in St. Paul.
00:09:37
And there were also
receipts in the vehicle for various locations
around St. Paul, Minnesota.
00:09:41
[THEME MUSIC] - The area where
Shamrocks Bar is, which is where Jasmine
and Matthew worked,
00:09:52
is not known to be
a high crime area. NARRATOR: Investigators
confirmed all four victims were
00:09:59
drinking at Shamrock's Bar. SHEILA LAMBIE:
Then we knew they went over to the White
Squirrel, which
00:10:05
is another local St Paul bar. What happened after
the White Squirrel? Where did they go?
00:10:14
- There was a camera
on the firehouse adjacent to the White Squirrel. NARRATOR: In the early
hours at 1:23, a black
00:10:25
Mercedes parked outside. Another male then
joined the friends in the bar, someone who, it
seems, was known to Nitosha.
00:10:35
ANDREW JOHNSON:
Investigators talked with a waitress at the White
Squirrel that night,
00:10:38
and she said that
he ordered a drink and then also ordered
a drink for Nitosha. And then he made kind
of a crude comment
00:10:48
to the waitress about Nitosha. And the waitress took
exception to that, but it was something
that caused the waitress
00:10:54
to remember the encounter. NARRATOR: At 3:11,
Matthew Pettus was captured outside
on another camera
00:11:03
as he approached the Mercedes. COLIN HALEY: There's a bus
cam, a metro cam that captures the SUV and Matthew
Pettus talking to someone
00:11:14
inside that vehicle. NARRATOR: At 3:29,
all four friends left with the driver in the SUV.
00:11:25
- How on Earth you can
go from five people at a bar seemingly being
OK with each other,
00:11:30
then getting
into the same vehicle, and then not long after,
four of them being dead.
00:11:41
NARRATOR: Police now enlisted
the help of FBI specialists. They were able
to use cell phone
00:11:47
data to trace the approximate
route the Mercedes took. ANDREW JOHNSON: Investigators
put a huge effort
00:11:54
into collecting
surveillance video, anything they could from around
St. Paul to try to track
00:12:00
the path of this vehicle. SHEILA LAMBIE: We are checking
business establishments,
00:12:06
knocking on doors,
knocking on any address where they see a camera. NARRATOR: On the way,
one camera
00:12:13
recorded compelling evidence. - They found both video
and audio from a residence
00:12:19
where you can hear
the vehicle going by-- [ENGINE ROARING] --and then you hear
a series of five shots.
00:12:29
[GUNSHOTS] And then there's a 13-second
delay that's more muffled-- [GUNSHOT] --but it sounds
like another shot.
00:12:52
They believe that that was
the time that they were killed. - After the group got
into that vehicle,
00:13:03
it was a matter of minutes
before they were murdered. What happened either
earlier in that night,
00:13:09
or in that two or three minutes
that they were in that vehicle? ANDREW JOHNSON: After that,
then the driver starts
00:13:16
driving around St. Paul. And in particular,
we have a video from a residence about
a minute after the gunshots.
00:13:28
You can see the vehicle
pull up, come to a stop, and then there's a light
from inside the vehicle.
00:13:37
Whoever the driver was
was checking to make sure that the people were dead. - It feels, at least from
this angle, very calm.
00:13:47
It feels very methodical. He's checking that he
actually killed them. He isn't jumping out of the
car, running to this house,
00:13:55
saying, I need
to call somebody. He's not trying to call police. He's not trying
to call an ambulance.
00:13:59
He's not abandoning the car. There's no indication,
at least from the outside, that he's panicking.
00:14:03
If anything, it
seems very calm. NARRATOR: Cell
phone data and CCTV continued to track
the Mercedes as it
00:14:16
drove around the empty streets
of St Paul in the early hours of Sunday morning. - At some point,
the Mercedes SUV pulls
00:14:31
into a Holiday gas station. He gets out of the car. He goes inside
the convenience store
00:14:48
to get a cigar and maybe
something to eat. It's at this point we
were able to confirm,
00:14:56
beyond any shadow of a doubt,
that it was Antoine Suggs. NARRATOR: The CCTV
footage also revealed
00:15:07
more shocking evidence. COLIN HALEY:
As plain as day, you can see Nitosha's slumped over
a body in the passenger seat.
00:15:18
At that point, we
were 100% positive that it's him who was
driving the vehicle and who had committed
these murders.
00:15:29
- He looks pretty
normal, which itself feels shocking given
the severity of the actions
00:15:35
that he just committed. In hindsight, it's easy
to see this is weird. This is a weird
situation, and he
00:15:42
looks way too normal and calm. But at the time
for him, he's probably specifically trying to look
normal and calm and succeeding.
00:15:54
- After hearing from
the police officer about the overwhelming
smell of blood that
00:16:00
was coming from
the SUV at the time it was found
in the cornfield, what must it smelled like with
Mr. Suggs in that vehicle
00:16:08
driving around for hours? JULIA SHAW: Why is
he driving around with these bodies in the car?
00:16:20
You could overinterpret
that and say, well, maybe he's a psychopath. Maybe he was doing
it on purpose.
00:16:26
Maybe there was
some sort of intent behind driving
around for hours. But I think it's more
likely to be the case
00:16:32
that he created this situation. He killed these people,
and then he didn't really know what to do next.
00:16:38
And so he's basically
buying time, which also suggests he didn't
have a plan for this going in.
00:16:44
[THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: At the end
of the video, Suggs could be seen
gesturing to someone.
00:16:56
Shortly after, cameras
picked up the Mercedes as it traveled East
towards Wisconsin,
00:17:02
close behind the black Nissan
seen earlier in the footage at the gas station in Wheeler.
00:17:09
Investigators identified
the driver as Antoine Suggs father, Darren Osborne. Within hours, he was arrested.
00:17:26
ANDREW JOHNSON: Darren Osborne
did admit that he was there. He still denied knowing
anything about any homicides.
00:17:32
He denied knowing that
there were any dead bodies in the vehicle. And he said that
he just thought
00:17:37
that this was a drug deal that
he was helping his son with. But he talked with his son
through the open window
00:17:44
on the passenger side,
literally over Nitosha's body. It is really not possible
that he could have done that
00:17:51
without seeing
at least Nitosha, if not the other people
that were in the back. NARRATOR: Faced with the video
evidence, Antoine's father
00:17:59
admitted his guilt. - Antoine Suggs eventually
makes his way back to Arizona, and we still to this
day, don't know
00:18:06
how he got back to Arizona. He didn't fly. And then several days later,
after this was on the news,
00:18:12
he turns himself
in to the police in Arizona. DAMONE PRESLEY: When I heard
he was finally in custody,
00:18:23
I was angry. I don't know him
personally, Antoine, but his family
knows our family.
00:18:31
What evil possessed
this person to do this? JULIA SHAW: I think
turning yourself
00:18:41
in when your driver's
license was found in the car and there's enough evidence
to put you behind bars,
00:18:47
is probably, at this
point, an act of trying to get a lesser sentence. I think the question in his
mind would have been,
00:18:54
how am I not going
to get locked up for life because four people
dead, that is definitely
00:18:59
multiple life sentences. I wouldn't read
too much into that in terms of remorse or guilt.
00:19:06
NARRATOR: A his
trial, Antoine Suggs claimed that the shootings
were in self-defense.
00:19:13
- What he said was that
he got in the vehicle with this group of people. He only knew Nitosha and didn't
even know her very well.
00:19:21
And he said that the people
that he got in with were acting kind
of strange, and he said
00:19:25
they were talking in code. He actually testified he had
a very large amount of cash
00:19:30
in the vehicle, many
thousands, and he was getting nervous about it. NARRATOR: During the course
of their investigation,
00:19:37
police found one last
piece of evidence from surveillance
footage at the airport.
00:19:44
- It's just a day or two
before the murders where we have a Mr. Suggs
in the vehicle in the Mercedes.
00:19:52
And there was a woman that we
believe was Nitosha sitting in the front passenger seat.
00:19:58
Mr. Suggs gets out. Actually, before
he gets out, he makes a motion as if he had
a gun, and then reaches down
00:20:04
and puts it
underneath his seat. Then he gets out, goes off
camera for a little while,
00:20:10
and then comes back
in and drives away. NARRATOR: Police believe
this was the gun he
00:20:17
used to kill all four friends. Suggs maintained that Nitosha
had taken the gun from where
00:20:24
she'd seen him hide it. - He panicked, and he
grabbed the gun away from her and then immediately
just started shooting
00:20:32
everybody in the vehicle. And that he said that
he feared for his life, and he felt that
he had no choice.
00:20:37
That was his story. - The problem with that
story is that it just didn't match up with the evidence.
00:20:51
The injuries that were
suffered by the four victims were of marksman quality. And the way that
their bodies were positioned
00:21:00
was not an aggressive
type of posture. But you look at Nitosha
in the front seat,
00:21:06
her purse is on her lap. And she slumped over. Jasmine in the back
seat with her hand
00:21:12
up to her face in attempt
to block a bullet. Loyace was shot twice, once
in the front of the head
00:21:20
and once on the top
of the head. His hand's resting
right in his lap. Matthew Pettus
appeared to have been
00:21:27
trying to get out of that car. I think he was probably
the last person to have been killed.
00:21:32
And he was trying
desperately to get away from those gunshots. - He said that it was all six
shots in rapid succession,
00:21:44
and we know from the video that
also had the audio of the shots that that's not
the way it happened.
00:21:49
[GUNSHOTS] The idea that he
just fired six shots in rapid fire, that's
just simply not
00:22:04
consistent with the evidence. [THEME MUSIC] - For him to say,
my daughter picked up a gun
00:22:12
and held it to him and-- I was angry. ANGELA STURM: I
knew that Antoine chose the self-defense
because there was
00:22:20
no other defense to choose. It didn't even make
me angry, to be honest, because I
knew that Antoine
00:22:27
was just grasping at straws. COLIN HALEY: We know
by his own admission that Mr. Suggs had
been using cocaine,
00:22:33
had been drinking
alcohol, and had very little sleep in the days
leading up to this.
00:22:38
And so it's not
at all inconceivable that whether because of pure
exhaustion through alcohol
00:22:45
intoxication, cocaine
intoxication, just general mental paranoia, that
Mr. Suggs had it in his head
00:22:53
that these four individuals
were somehow a threat to him without reason. And he decided he
had to kill them all.
00:23:02
[THEME MUSIC] JULIA SHAW: Hostile
attribution bias is where you assume that
people are behaving in a way
00:23:08
that is hostile towards you. In other words,
they're aggressive. There's nothing inherent to
cocaine or alcohol that means
00:23:13
you're going to be aggressive. It's more about how
it mixes with where you're at as an individual
and your personality.
00:23:20
And if you are high, especially
if you're taking substances like cocaine, which are
known to create paranoia,
00:23:27
then that hostile attribution
bias is going to be amplified. And so you might overinterpret
people's behaviors
00:23:34
as an attack. NARRATOR: The court was shown
every piece of video evidence collected by law enforcement.
00:23:45
- Seeing her body, when he
drove around with their bodies for seven hours and she was
on so many videos of them just
00:23:55
sitting there
at the gas stations, and I think the worst
was, though, listening to those gunshots.
00:24:05
- I don't think I cried
during those times just because it was so surreal. I sat in trial
thinking, they're
00:24:14
talking about my children
and Loyace and Tasha, like, these are--
they're sharing stuff
00:24:21
that happened to our children. It was this happens
to other people, and we've become
the other people.
00:24:28
It was-- it was really hard. [THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: On May 15,
2023, Antoine Suggs
00:24:37
was convicted on four
counts of second degree intentional murder. - He received consecutive
sentences on all four counts,
00:24:47
and it turned out to be
a total of 1,232 months, which we believe is the longest
sentence that anybody has ever
00:24:54
gotten in Ramsey County
for something other than first-degree murder. DAMONE PRESLEY: He got
exactly what he deserved.
00:25:04
They can give all that back. I just want my daughter back. But the reality is that I have
to be satisfied with that.
00:25:20
- His children are going to be
without their father now. My brother Matthew
and my sister Jasmine
00:25:24
and Loyace and Nitosha,
their children will be without their parents. So I am happy that
he's gone, but
00:25:32
I'm sad that it's
going to affect the lives of so many children. A NARRATOR: Antoine Suggs's
father, Darren Osborne,
00:25:40
pled guilty in Minnesota
to assisting his son in disposing of the bodies. DAMONE PRESLEY: I'm still
like, how can this happen?
00:25:52
Why did this happen? What was the reason
for this to happen? It doesn't make sense.
00:26:01
It doesn't make any sense. Years later, oh, no, I'm
waiting on her to call me, you know, and just to see her
walk through the door, Dad.
00:26:21
It's still something
that I struggle with. Unbelievable. - It's been three years,
and I'm still thinking
00:26:36
this can't have happened. I still text them, tell
them about my day or-- sorry-- or how
the kids are doing
00:26:52
or how proud they
would be, you know. [CRYING] CHRISTI FLUG: They
all had children.
00:27:07
And they were all just getting
their lives together, getting their careers together.
00:27:12
And it was just some
days, it's still unbelievable that
I don't believe that it is really happening.
00:27:20
I just think it's a bad
dream, and there was no reason for their lives to be taken.
00:27:36
[THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: For the loved
ones of Nitosha, Loyace, Jasmine, and Matthew,
questions will always remain.
00:27:49
- For family members
to not know or be given a reason why
their loved ones died leaves this gap,
which can be filled
00:27:59
with all kinds of guesses. I think this kind
of place where you're guessing at why
your loved one was killed,
00:28:07
and not ever knowing for sure,
leaves you with this space that is really hard to heal.
00:28:13
And it makes it very
difficult to get closure from these deaths. NARRATOR: And in the UK,
a tragic killing
00:28:22
left another family
searching for answers. [THEME MUSIC] In the Northeast
of England is Gateshead.
00:28:39
- Gateshead is
a large urban area, has a diverse
population of students and young people
because of a number
00:28:47
of universities in the
Newcastle and Gateshead area. [PHONE BEEPING] NARRATOR: The victim was
24-year-old Alice Ruggles.
00:29:23
RICHARD WRIGHT: Alice was
from a very close family. She had a number of siblings
brought up in very close family
00:29:29
environment in Leicestershire. She'd been at University
in the Newcastle area. She completed her studies.
00:29:39
She was really just
embarking on the next chapter in her life. NARRATOR: Police and paramedics
responded to the address,
00:29:50
but it was too
late to save her. That evening at 7:30, Alice was
pronounced dead at the scene.
00:30:00
- Alice's body
revealed that she had been the subject
of a sustained attack with a sharp
implement, a knife.
00:30:10
There were a number
of injuries, predominantly around
her face and neck. She had injuries to her
nose, to her scalp.
00:30:19
But the most
significant injury, the injury that killed her was
a massive injury to her neck.
00:30:25
The blade of a knife had
been drawn across her neck probably five or six times. MICHELLE THURGOOD:
Detectives attending
00:30:35
this scene ascertained that no
forced entry had taken place. So that tends to suggest
that either Alice knew
00:30:46
who was responsible
for killing her, as in she let them
into the premises, or that they were
already in the premises.
00:30:53
[THEME MUSIC] What detectives will
be looking at is there any CCTV footage that
gives an idea of,
00:31:02
did Alice come home alone? NARRATOR: Police quickly
found footage of Alice as she left work that evening.
00:31:10
She was accompanied by a man. - Detectives were able to
ascertain that the last person
00:31:16
to see Alice alive was her
work colleague, who in fact had given her a lift home
from work and sights
00:31:23
they dropped you off
outside her home address. Dashcam footage shows
her exiting his vehicle,
00:31:35
her going into the address,
and then him driving away. This is really
important because it
00:31:40
means that he is the last
person to see Alice alive. NARRATOR: The dash cam
proved Alice arrived
00:31:47
home just after 5:30 PM. At 6:34, her roommate
found her dead. But during the emergency
call, her roommate
00:31:58
suggested to police
another line of inquiry. RICHARD WRIGHT: Alice's
ex-boyfriend friend
00:32:20
was Trimaan Dhillon. He was known as Harry. He was the Lance Corporal
in the British Army
00:32:27
based in Scotland. They were met on social
media and very quickly developed an intense
relationship without having
00:32:35
physically met each other. And the intensity
of the online relationship was then mirrored
by their relationship
00:32:42
when they were together. NARRATOR: But things
quickly went downhill. RICHARD WRIGHT:
Harry Dhillon was
00:32:49
seeking to completely dominate
Alice and to control her. He would tell her that her
friends were bad for her,
00:32:57
and that meant that she
would distance herself from her friends in order
to spend more time with him
00:33:02
and to please him. There was a similar
effect with her family, and this was all about
trying to isolate Alice,
00:33:09
and having isolated
her, control her. NARRATOR: Alice's
case was examined by clinical psychologist
doctor Roberta Babb.
00:33:19
- Part of being
in a coercive relationship is that it's
shrouded in secrecy. This is because the individual
has experienced
00:33:26
emotional manipulation. They've been slowly
and strategically isolated from
their friends, their family,
00:33:32
their sources of support. Their self-esteem, and their
self-worth have been eroded,
00:33:37
so it can be difficult
to take that first step. RICHARD WRIGHT:
The relationship
00:33:44
ended essentially
because Harry Dhillon was serially unfaithful. And so whilst
on the one hand, he
00:33:52
was telling her that she
couldn't see anybody else and could only
spend time with him,
00:33:56
he was meeting other
women for casual sex. And when Alice discovered
some of his behavior,
00:34:04
that led to the breakdown
and ended the relationship. NARRATOR: Alice told Harry she
didn't want to see him anymore.
00:34:13
- But it became clear that
he was not willing to take no for an answer. Essentially, only he would
decide when it was over.
00:34:32
NARRATOR: Alice asked
Harry to leave her alone. Instead, he began to ramp
up his obsessive behavior.
00:34:41
- What began as not accepting
the relationship was over very quickly turned into some
quite sinister behavior,
00:34:47
constant messaging,
constant phone calls. He seemed to know
what she was doing before she was going to do it.
00:34:56
And so she was
convinced that he had access to her social media. He was reading her messages.
00:35:03
ROBERTA BABB: We know that
Harry wanted to know more and more where Alice was
and what she was doing,
00:35:08
and one way that
he did this was to hack into her
social media accounts. This is quite
an extreme action.
00:35:15
It highlights a level
of entitlement to information that
doesn't belong to him. There's also a sense of wanting
to assert dominance and
00:35:23
power and control,
and also communicate to Alice that no
matter what she does, he will always be there.
00:35:30
He will always be watching,
and she can't hide from him. NARRATOR: CCTV revealed
that Harry's car
00:35:38
was seen around Alice's
apartment in the days before her murder. It meant he was driving
down from Scotland in order
00:35:47
to keep her under observation. - I think the real
turning point for Alice was when one evening she
was alone in her flat,
00:35:58
and she thought she
heard somebody outside. She drew back the curtains
of her bedroom,
00:36:03
and Harry Dhillon was
standing outside her flat in the darkness. And he backed away from the
window, hands up, as if to say,
00:36:12
he wasn't going to hurt
her and left the area. NARRATOR: He'd left her
flowers and chocolates.
00:36:44
- That was extremely
distressing for Alice. And that's what caused
her to call the police.
00:37:39
- The giving of gifts, turning
up uninvited or announced are key hallmarks
of stalking behavior.
00:37:46
The aim is to invade
the person's privacy, to destabilize their sense
of security and safety,
00:37:53
and evoke feelings of anxiety,
fear, and intimidation. NARRATOR: As a result
of her call,
00:38:02
Dhillon was issued with
a police information notice, warning him to ceasefire
all contact with her.
00:38:10
But just a few days later,
Alice received a package containing a handwritten
letter from Dhillon,
00:38:17
photographs, and a notebook. Once again, Alice was
forced to call the police. RICHARD WRIGHT: Alice
took sensible precautions.
00:38:49
She restricted Harry
Dylan's ability to contact her on social media. She took steps
to make sure she was
00:38:56
given a lift to and from work. She didn't like to be
alone in the flat. She would make sure that
the door was locked.
00:39:04
She took all sensible steps. NARRATOR: The police
knew Harry Dhillon was stationed at a military
base just South of Edinburgh.
00:39:13
They checked his
car registration against ANPR camera records. - ANPR is automatic
number plate recognition.
00:39:22
If we have a registration
number that's of interest to us, it allows
us to do enquiries to ascertain
00:39:28
where that vehicle has been. NARRATOR: The ANPR
data showed he'd driven from Scotland
to Gateshead
00:39:36
on the day of the murder. He was captured by CCTV
at a gas station en route. And so, just hours after
Alice's death, Dhillon
00:39:47
was arrested and brought
back to Gateshead, where he was interviewed. - One of the things I
noticed about this video
00:40:13
is that when Harry's been
asked direct, closed questions, he's in a very formal position.
00:40:19
He answers
the questions quickly, quite assertively, and with
confidence, and he says no.
00:40:25
But NARRATOR: Dhillon did
admit to visiting Alice on the day she was killed. - His body language changed.
00:41:05
It becomes less formal,
which may indicate a sign of nervousness
or uncertainty because he's no longer having
to answer direct questions.
00:41:14
He's now having
to construct a narrative. NARRATOR: He then gave his
account of what he claimed
00:41:22
was their last interaction. MICHELLE THURGOOD:
In that interview, he attempts to account
for the fact
00:41:56
that he has some
injuries by saying that some sort of altercation
did happen between them.
00:42:05
It's clearly a clever way of
being able to give reason and rationale for why
Alice's DNA might
00:42:13
be found within those
injuries or on his hands. NARRATOR: Detectives
searching for CCTV uncovered
00:42:21
footage from cameras
in the street close to Alice's apartment. Earlier on the day
of her murder,
00:42:30
Dhillon's car was outside. - This not only puts
him at the location, but also supports
the element of stalking.
00:42:41
It was he sat there watching,
you her movements, her comings and goings, who she was with.
00:42:48
NARRATOR: Around the same time,
Alice was messaging a friend. CCTV then caught Dhillon's car
leaving the area 24 minutes
00:42:59
after Alice's final message. Nine minutes later, Alice's
roommate called 999. Digital records showed exactly
where Alice's phone went.
00:43:12
It connected with a mast near
Newcastle airport at 6:39 PM. MICHELLE THURGOOD: The fact
that Alice's phone was moving
00:43:22
after the time that we
believe she was attacked suggests it's
in the hands of whoever
00:43:28
was responsible for her death. This is the route that
police know Harry took home.
00:43:35
This is all damning evidence
that points the finger directly at Trimaan Harry Dhillon.
00:43:43
NARRATOR: Armed with
this information, police interviewed
Dhillon for a second time.
00:44:17
- What we notice here is
that when the police confront Harry and let him
know that they
00:44:21
have evidence that links him
to the crime, Harry changes. His whole demeanor changes.
00:44:26
He's no longer chatty. He's no longer forthcoming
with personal information. He essentially
goes to no comment.
00:44:33
And this can be an attempt to
stonewall the conversation and the investigation
because it feels like an act
00:44:39
of self-preservation. He doesn't want to say
anything that can incriminate himself further.
00:44:45
NARRATOR:
In the following days, Alice's blood was
found on a wristband that Dhillon had been wearing.
00:44:52
More of Alice's blood
was found on the steering wheel of his car. When his case went to trial
at Newcastle Crown Court,
00:45:02
Harry Dhillon
pleaded not guilty. But after hearing two
weeks of evidence, the jury came to a verdict.
00:45:10
- On May 26 of April,
2017, Harry Dhillon was sentenced
to life imprisonment with a minimum
term of 22 years.
00:45:22
He had been previously
in a number of relationships in which he had exhibited
coercive and controlling
00:45:28
behavior over his partners,
in which he had subjected them to domestic violence,
in which he had engaged
00:45:36
in stalking-type
behavior, and he had actually previously
been the subject of a restraining order.
00:45:44
ROBERTA BABB: This
is a tragic case. It feels like there were lots
of opportunities where things
00:45:49
could have been
done differently, and Alice's death could
have been prevented. It also highlights
the seriousness
00:45:55
of stalking, the fact that
coercive behaviors can quickly escalate into stalking
behaviors, which
00:46:00
in turn can escalate
into violent behaviors, which culminate in death. RICHARD WRIGHT: The death
of Alice Ruggles
00:46:08
was clearly a tragedy. Alice was a young
woman, full of potential with her whole life
in front of her.
00:46:16
And it was a death
that devastated all of her friends
and family, and continues to do so and always will.
00:46:23
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