00:00:00
[audio logo] Narrator: This time
on Killers Caught on Camera. In Colorado. Will Snyder: It
seemed like they were
00:00:13
the perfect American family. Narrator: A loving couple
haunted by a mystery illness.
00:00:22
Ryan Brackley: How
this healthy person could walk into the hospital
and then now be brain dead.
00:00:27
It was a mystery to them. Narrator: And in Oregon-- [police siren wailing] --police follow a grim trail--
00:00:36
Jed McGuire: We see
shoe prints leading out of the shed in blood. Narrator: --to find
a missing mom of three.
00:00:42
Spencer Gwartney: You
don't know if they're being held somewhere. You don't know
if they're alive or dead.
00:00:48
[foreboding music] ♪ ♪ Man 1: Just sounds
like something bad is happening to her.
00:00:55
Woman: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened. Man 2: I heard some gunshots.
00:01:00
- I need to get rid of the gun. - Man, that's cool. Man - The camera doesn't lie.
00:01:08
[audio logo] [brisk music] Narrator: In the US,
Colorado, the town of Aurora. ♪ ♪
00:01:21
Ryan Brackley: Aurora is
a very family-oriented, safe place to live, safe
place to raise children.
00:01:28
Narrator: Since 1999,
home to the Craigs. ♪ ♪ - The Craig family were
well-known in the community.
00:01:38
Angela Craig was a stay-at-home
mother of six children. She met Jim Craig, her husband,
while he was in dental school.
00:01:51
They were known as leaders
in their church community. From the outside looking
in, this was a happy family.
00:02:01
Will Snyder: I became the piano
teacher for the Craigs for a better part
of five years.
00:02:06
Angela was a supermom. She was just so caring
and thoughtful, and really wanted
the best for her kids.
00:02:13
The family dynamic that I saw
was an incredibly loving one from everybody in the family.
00:02:20
♪ ♪ Ryan Brackley: Dr. James
Craig was a beloved dentist. James Craig:
My approach to dentistry
00:02:28
begins with sincerely
listening to the patient. I also have a very strong
philosophy that a happy team
00:02:34
makes happy patients. Ryan Brackley:
In the community, he was known as Jim Craig.
00:02:41
He was known as a great
dad, a great family man, a great husband. Will Snyder: It
seemed like they were
00:02:48
the perfect American family. ♪ ♪ [indistinct chatter] narrator: The Craigs'
everyday normality was
00:03:00
captured on home surveillance. Narrator: When Jim was at his
practice, Angela ran the home.
00:03:15
Ryan Brackley: She
was really healthy. She lived an active
lifestyle, but really, she focused
on her children
00:03:21
and raising them
and educating them and being the best
wife that she could be to her husband, Jim.
00:03:30
narrator: But in the month of
March, life in the Craig home would change forever.
00:03:36
[ominous music] Ryan Brackley: Angela got
up early, as she often did. She worked out.
00:03:43
She rode her bike. She had a smoothie. Sometime that morning,
she started to feel ill.
00:03:52
Will Snyder: I saw her at the
beginning of a piano lesson, where she normally was on
the couch in the living room.
00:03:57
I remember she wasn't
feeling that well. - She was struggling to focus,
and she texted her husband
00:04:06
and told him, "I'm
not feeling well. I'm feeling dizzy." This was an otherwise healthy,
athletic, active woman.
00:04:18
They decided it was best to
take her into the urgent care at a local hospital. Prash Patel: Angela would
possibly be thinking the worst.
00:04:31
And that's often what
patients do think, that when they come
in, they're not necessarily thinking that this
could just be food poisoning.
00:04:39
And so what we're going
to try and do is examine her, corroborate some of the things
that she's thought
00:04:44
about or suffering from. But really, it's like
a detective trying to piece all the clues together.
00:04:52
Ryan Brackley: First
they drew blood, and then they did a CT scan,
and then they did an MRI.
00:04:58
And at the end of this
visit, the doctor just simply could not figure out
what was wrong with her.
00:05:04
So they released her. They told her, if it
gets worse, come back. On March 9, she went
back to hospital.
00:05:14
And once again,
reported these symptoms but she reported that
they were getting worse
00:05:20
and the ER staff noticed
she looked worse. They drew more blood from
her and she and her husband
00:05:28
are texting back and forth. What's wrong with me? He was responsive
and he took care of her.
00:05:35
Not a day went by,
it's fair to say not hours went by, that he
didn't tell her I love you
00:05:43
and I miss you. Julia Shaw: Jim keeps
sending Angela messages, and it's so many messages
in a way that isn't normal.
00:05:52
There's something super weird
about writing to someone "I like checking in on you."
00:05:56
On the surface, that
looks like a good thing. That looks like someone who's
caring, who is considerate,
00:06:01
who's constantly voicing
and expressing his love. But given the frequency, and
given the amount of these texts
00:06:11
he's sending, it's,
if anything, probably quite oppressive for Angela. And the question,
of course, is why.
00:06:17
What is it in it for him
when he should be at work? He should be doing basically
anything else rather
00:06:21
than just constantly texting. And I think sometimes
you get people who almost become addicted to texting.
00:06:28
And it's not that they are
addicted to sending them, it's that they want
to get the response.
00:06:32
They want the attention. They want someone else
to think about them. And the best way to get
someone else to think about you
00:06:38
is to send them a note,
like, I'm thinking about you. Ryan Brackley: Angela
remained in the hospital.
00:06:47
They took her through
a battery of tests. On March 12, there
is some hope. She looks like
she's doing better.
00:06:53
March 13, the same. And they let her go
home on March 14. But what's remarkable
is they still have
00:07:02
no idea what's wrong with her. narrator:
As the breadwinner, Jim had to juggle Angela's
mystery illness and his work
00:07:12
schedule at the practice. Ryan Brackley: Throughout
Angela's illness, he is keeping his medical
staff posted on what's
00:07:20
happening with Angela. They're also concerned. ♪ ♪ And on the morning
of March 15, she declined.
00:07:33
She became worse,
really disoriented. Her stomach started
to give her great issues.
00:07:41
At this point, her brother
and her sister-in-law are in Colorado
taking care of her.
00:07:47
So they took her now
to a different hospital. [tense music] ♪ ♪ We see Angela Craig
arriving with her brother.
00:08:01
She's feeling worse
than she's ever felt. And she's telling
the doctors that. ♪ ♪
00:08:08
narrator: An hour later,
Jim Craig arrived and sent Angela's brother home. ♪ ♪
00:08:18
- This is James Craig walking
into his wife's hospital room and spends some time.
00:08:26
James Craig comes
out of the room and he approaches
the nurse station, and he points
at his arm and says,
00:08:32
she's saying that
her arm hurts. And you see the nurses get
up and head into the room
00:08:39
on an emergency basis. She had what is
known as a crash. She became unconscious.
00:08:48
James Craig appears
distressed and hospital staff stands by his side,
gives him some comfort
00:08:57
as they continue to rush
into Angela's room with their emergency equipment
as additional personnel goes
00:09:04
into the room. At this point,
they are fighting for Angela's life,
while at the same time
00:09:10
having no idea what's
wrong with her. And you could see James Craig
with his phone in front of him.
00:09:18
He is both taking photos
and texting that his wife is now crashing in the hospital.
00:09:23
♪ ♪ Julia Shaw: In the moment
where Angela crashes, Jim starts taking pictures.
00:09:30
And maybe this is
because he's feeling a sense of loss of control, and
he knows that taking pictures
00:09:36
is something he can do and he
can share what's going on. But if you think about
this in the context of his
00:09:42
what seems like
texting addiction, you could also say
he's hyper-sharing, over-sharing his
life, and he also
00:09:49
shares it with his colleagues. And that ends up
being a big mistake. ♪ ♪ Ryan Brackley: While
she was crashing,
00:10:00
a employee of Jim
Craig's medical practice reported something
very, very concerning.
00:10:08
Just days earlier,
on March 13, a package arrived at the dental
office and it was addressed to Jim Craig.
00:10:19
When the employee saw it
had already been opened, she panicked because she
was told by Jim Craig
00:10:26
to not open that package. Inside was marked with the
hazardous material sign on it.
00:10:34
She saw that it was a delivery
of potassium cyanide. [foreboding music] She wasn't sure why
a dental practice
00:10:45
would be getting cyanide. While concerned, she just
decided, you know what, he ordered this for a reason.
00:10:55
And I'm going to trust that. Prash Patel: Cyanide
is a highly poisonous, but a natural substance.
00:11:05
Its main use has been
in chemical warfare. So cyanide works as a poison
at a cellular level.
00:11:13
It stops the cell
from utilizing oxygen. So what you're getting is
you're getting cellular damage.
00:11:19
And if you've got
cellular damage to a large extent, what you've
then got is organ failure.
00:11:27
Ryan Brackley:
On March 15, when Angela was
in the hospital crashing, the employee reported this
suspicious delivery of cyanide.
00:11:38
When that was
reported up the chain to the doctors who were
now trying to figure out
00:11:44
what's wrong with
this woman, that just set off light bulbs
and bells and whistles
00:11:49
in their minds. And they immediately
gave her an antidote for cyanide poisoning.
00:11:55
And it worked in many ways. It got her heart back
to where it needed to be. It got her breathing back
to where it needed to be.
00:12:04
But it could not reverse where
her brain was at that point. One of the doctors
explained what was happening
00:12:15
and what they could do next. And Jim Craig told
them, don't do anything. Just stop.
00:12:24
Let's let nature
take its course. And that was very
concerning to the doctors. And by the 21st of March, 2023,
Angela Craig was declared dead.
00:12:38
[foreboding music] ♪ ♪ How this healthy woman
could walk into the hospital and then now be dead, it
was a mystery to them.
00:12:51
And a full-on police
investigation started. In the police
investigation and part
00:12:59
of their search
of the Craig residence, they learned that there
were a number of cameras.
00:13:07
We believe that
Jim Craig didn't know that those cameras were
still recording, but they were.
00:13:19
Ryan Brackley: It
was this glimpse behind closed doors of life
in the Craig residence.
00:13:24
And for the most part,
it was life as normal. It was a loving family. It was a loving couple.
00:13:31
[indistinct chatter] But the cameras also
captured some really concerning video
footage that took place
00:13:40
during the course
of Angela's illness, in the course
of Angela getting sick. And that's Jim Craig
making a number
00:13:47
of smoothies for his wife. [foreboding music] narrator: His smoothie
recipes included
00:13:56
an ingredient not commonly
found in something meant for human consumption. Ryan Brackley: He was searching
for where can one buy arsenic.
00:14:09
♪ ♪ narrator: Jim Craig was
captured on camera clutching his delivery of arsenic.
00:14:19
It was 48 hours before Angela's
first trip to the hospital. - The reason that arsenic
historically has been used
00:14:29
as a poison for almost
1,000, 2,000 years is that arsenic is odorless. It's tasteless.
00:14:36
But what's mysterious about
it is on small levels, it can mimic a variety
of other illnesses,
00:14:42
so it's easy to hide. narrator: As part
of the investigation, toxicology labs
retested all the blood
00:14:51
samples taken from Angela
during her 10-day decline. ♪ ♪ Ryan Brackley: When
Angela Craig first
00:14:59
walked into hospital
on March 6, the FBI found evidence
of arsenic in her blood,
00:15:06
but not enough to kill her. The tests from
the morning of March 15 showed cyanide, but again,
not enough to kill her.
00:15:17
But most importantly, there was
a second blood draw the night of March 15, where they found
deadly amounts of cyanide
00:15:27
in Angela's blood system. So the only logical,
reasonable, believable inference was that someone
gave Angela cyanide
00:15:39
while she was in the hospital. narrator: Closer analysis
of Jim's movements in the hospital led
to a chilling revelation.
00:15:52
Ryan Brackley: We could
see James Craig walking out of his wife Angela's
room in the afternoon
00:15:57
of March 15, 2023. And he goes into a bathroom
in the emergency department, and he's in the bathroom
for a couple of minutes.
00:16:07
♪ ♪ When James Craig walks
out of the bathroom, you could see him
reach into his pocket
00:16:16
and he has in his
hand a syringe. [tense music] He walks into his
wife's room with some
00:16:25
of the medical personnel with
that syringe in his pocket. It's also notable throughout
many of the hospital visits,
00:16:34
in this case, that James Craig
is wearing the familiar blue scrubs of a physician.
00:16:40
Although he was never
there as a physician, he was always there to support
his wife or, in this scenario,
00:16:46
to administer a lethal dose
of cyanide to his wife. ♪ ♪ narrator: The lethal
dose was administered
00:16:55
in private, just out
of frame, minutes before Jim Craig called
in the emergency response team.
00:17:02
♪ ♪ Prash Patel: When Angela was
given a fatal dose of cyanide, the results would have been
very quick and catastrophic.
00:17:12
Our body has been
designed to be a highly effective transport system. Our body needs oxygen. It
needs fuel, it needs energy.
00:17:20
Obviously, our brain
is the most vital organ that requires that
oxygen. What we've got
00:17:25
is we've got
a poison, effectively hijacking that highly
efficient transport system.
00:17:29
Wherever the poison is, the
cells are unable to use oxygen. And that is the same
as putting a person underwater,
00:17:37
drowning them. Within three to four
minutes, you've got irreversible brain death.
00:17:43
Sadly, Angela didn't stand
a chance at that point. narrator: Investigators
pored over
00:17:51
Jim Craig's personal messages
to try to find an explanation. Why would a happily
married family
00:17:58
man suddenly turn to murder? Ryan Brackley: We
found out that Jim was having intimate contact
with a number of women.
00:18:07
Towards the end
of Angela's life, there were three women that
he was texting back and forth
00:18:13
and seeing back and forth. ♪ ♪ narrator: Even as his
wife was dying, Jim had other
things on his mind.
00:18:24
Ryan Brackley:
At this point, they are fighting
for Angela's life, and you could see James Craig with
his phone in front of him,
00:18:30
and he is texting
at least one of the women that he's having
intimate contact with.
00:18:36
[foreboding music] ♪ ♪ Julia Shaw: What's
remarkable in this situation is that Jim Craig is also
texting one of the three women
00:18:49
he's having an affair with. And he's sending her messages. He's saying he's so concerned.
00:18:54
And that, again, feels
quite performative, like he's showing,
look, I do care about the women in my life.
00:19:01
I care about my wife. But also maybe there's
like a hint of, but I care about you more.
00:19:09
I think it could be
that he's almost, like, addicted to further get
reactions out of people
00:19:13
and to further show people
that you're a good person. So almost your whole life
becomes a sort of performance
00:19:19
in order to get attention
from other people, particularly
in his case, women. ♪ ♪
00:19:28
Ryan Brackley: Jim
Craig was arrested and taken into custody for
first degree murder charges.
00:19:35
James Craig: I have all
of the answers that you need, but I can't talk, I can't--
00:19:40
I guess the one attorney
that I've talked to has said, don't say anything because you
can just incriminate yourself.
00:19:46
And I'm totally naive at this. I don't know what I'm doing. And you both seem very nice.
00:19:50
But I know your job
is to put me away. interrogator: And our point
is not to put you away.
00:19:56
It's to put the person away
that caused this to your wife. And that-- that's
where we're at.
00:20:03
- --is my life. - Jim Craig wants
everyone to believe that Angela Craig was
suicidal, that Angela Craig
00:20:13
had this death wish. - I'm sorry that I
didn't just let her go through with this years ago.
00:20:19
Ryan Brackley: He
kept telling us this was an assisted suicide. Jim Craig was putting
all of this on Angela.
00:20:27
- I was scared to death. I don't know what to do. I want desperately to talk
to you because I trust you.
00:20:32
- And he was trying
to present himself as a grieving husband,
a grieving father of six kids
00:20:39
who just lost their mother. - Well, you have
a warrant, so you're going to go to jail today.
00:20:45
- What did you say
on the second one? First-- - With intent
after deliberation. - What does that mean?
00:20:52
interrogator: Basically,
after deliberation, that you deliberated it, you thought--
00:20:57
and had intent to do
it, had intent. Julia Shaw: What Jim
Craig is doing here is he's leaning into the fact
that poisoning is what's
00:21:05
called an equivocal death. In other words, you
can't tell by looking at someone whether a crime
has actually occurred.
00:21:11
It could be that she
took poison on purpose, as in, it's a suicide. And so I think he's
leaning into this,
00:21:18
this ambiguity that comes with
the type of murder he's chosen. interrogator: Thank you.
00:21:25
Thank you. Ryan Brackley: Jim Craig pled
not guilty to the charges. He wanted to have
his day in court
00:21:37
and that's what we gave him. ♪ ♪ Narrator: The videos from the
10 days of Angela's slow death
00:21:46
became the prosecution's
star digital witness. - Those videos showed
Angela fighting for her life
00:21:54
and trying to figure
out why she was sick. - This is after Angela
started feeling sick,
00:22:09
after she had been to hospital,
and she was frustrated. - That, to us, was very
powerful evidence that behind
00:22:25
closed doors, in a video clip
that Jim Craig probably thought nobody would ever find,
that nobody would ever see,
00:22:34
she's saying "I'm
not suicidal." [foreboding music] - In hindsight, this is
a really dark moment,
00:22:50
because he's already
starting to lay the groundwork
for the potential of her being suicidal.
00:22:55
And it almost feels
like she can kind of tell that he's using
this strategy as a way
00:23:01
to control her and to control
the way that the doctors interact with her. But I wonder if we take it
back to his attention-seeking,
00:23:08
I wonder if the idea
she's having isn't so much he's trying to kill
me, but he's
00:23:14
trying to get attention
because he's the good guy who brought in the suicidal wife.
00:23:19
And they've been
married for a long time. They have six kids together. So I think at this
point, there's
00:23:23
no world in which
she thinks that he is capable of murdering her. ♪ ♪ narrator: On July
31, 2025, a jury
00:23:35
found Jim Craig guilty
of first-degree murder by poisoning. The judge handed
down a life sentence.
00:23:45
Ryan Brackley: In my 35
years of doing this work, I have never seen such
a calculating, cold,
00:23:55
planned, deliberated murder. Jim Craig watched
his wife get sick. And rather than help
her, made her sicker.
00:24:05
And when she just did not die
as quick as he wanted her to, he murdered her
in her hospital bed.
00:24:15
♪ ♪ Will Snyder: Angela should
be remembered as the supermom that she was. She was over the top caring.
00:24:33
She was a special person. So I'd like her to be
remembered for that, how special she really was.
00:24:43
♪ ♪ [audio logo] [foreboding music] Julia Shaw: In murder
cases where you've got false promises
of monogamy, you've
00:24:59
got someone telling
their partner, their spouse, their husband, their wife that
you are the only one for me,
00:25:03
but they're actually cheating
on them, either by sending hundreds of texts
a day to other people,
00:25:08
or by engaging in romantic
relationships otherwise, that might be something
you can get away
00:25:14
with in the context
of a relationship where you can
conceal your phone, you can conceal all the digital
footprints you have.
00:25:21
But as soon as a murder
investigation takes place
in the digital age, and they are forensically examining
every message you've ever sent,
00:25:29
what this false
monogamy can reveal is a bad character,
a pattern of lies. And it can lead
police to motive.
00:25:40
♪ ♪ [audio logo] narrator: In the US, Oregon,
the Emerald city of Eugene. Jed McGuire: Eugene
is a beautiful area.
00:25:59
We're about an hour
and a half from the coast and from the snow
and the mountains.
00:26:05
Spencer Gwartney: We have,
in Lane County, a lot of rural areas, and there's
forest everywhere around you.
00:26:11
That whole area is basically
a great place to hide a body. [foreboding music] Jed McGuire: On August 5,
2016, at about 10:00 PM,
00:26:26
one of our patrol
officers was driving in the north part of Eugene,
and he saw a vehicle.
00:26:31
officer: [on radio] 1, can
you confirm that's a stolen Oregon plate on a Buick?
00:26:35
Jed McGuire: License
check of the registration showed that the vehicle was
stolen out of another county.
00:26:40
That officer tried to make
a traffic stop of that vehicle. officer: [on radio] Get
on your face, buddy.
00:26:46
I want to talk
to you real quick. Jed McGuire: When
the vehicle pulled over, the driver fled on foot.
00:26:50
officer: [on radio] 1, pursuit. Northbound of New York. You're under arrest! - He failed to obey lawful
order for him to stop.
00:26:57
officer: [on radio]
Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Spencer Gwartney: They
did manage to arrest him.
00:27:02
But that fleeing added to the
concern about the whole case. The driver was Jeremy Milutin.
00:27:10
Police officers tried
to ask him about the car, and he immediately requested
to speak to a lawyer.
00:27:18
The police officer
searched the vehicle. What he found was
a little bit bizarre.
00:27:25
Found a pair of bloody
female underwear, and he also found a wallet
belonging to Cheryl Hart.
00:27:35
Jed McGuire: They did
ask him about the ID that belonged to this woman. He claimed that he
did not know her.
00:27:43
The trunk release
had been disabled and the officers were not
able to get into the trunk.
00:27:51
That suggested there
was more to the story than just a stolen vehicle. Patrol officers contacted
Cheryl's mother.
00:28:01
Sheri Melling: It was
2:00 AM, August 5, the police come to my door here
and they said, where's Cheryl?
00:28:08
And we said, what are
you talking about? We don't know. She's with Jeremy. Jed McGuire: Mr.
Milutin said that he did
00:28:16
not know his own girlfriend. That really raised our hackles. That really told us
that something bad might
00:28:22
have happened in this
case, and we needed to figure out what that was. Sheri Melling: I
was up all night
00:28:31
calling around, even waking
people up, I didn't care. Lisa Hart: My mom called and
said that my sister was missing
00:28:38
and Jeremy's in jail. I remember thinking, no,
she's hiding somewhere safe and she'll come back, you know.
00:28:47
Spencer Gwartney:
When police learned that she hadn't been seen or
communicated with in some time,
00:28:52
that became less of a yellow
flag and more of a red flag. Sheri Melling: Cheryl was
very, very kind person.
00:29:02
On Christmases,
she would always bring in the people that didn't
have anywhere else to go.
00:29:09
We would just talk, talk, talk. I could just stop by her house
and just see what's going on,
00:29:15
or she'd just stop up here. narrator: Cheryl was 35
and had two boys and one girl.
00:29:23
Sheri Melling:
She loved babies. Loved her children. Dylan Hart: I was her
youngest, I was 10.
00:29:31
She was really strong headed,
very independent, you know. As long as you knew mom
was around, you're fine.
00:29:38
She didn't need anyone,
but she always wanted someone. narrator: In 2015,
Cheryl rekindled
00:29:46
a relationship
with her childhood sweetheart, Jeremy Milutin. Dylan Hart: I
looked up to Jeremy,
00:29:54
and I cared about Jeremy a lot. He told me that he would try
to teach me how to be a man.
00:30:01
Sheri Melling: He was kind. He was fine. He helped out. It was good. And then it got bad.
00:30:07
♪ ♪ He wouldn't let us see Cheryl. He just kept her inside. And it was this gradual
controlling thing.
00:30:19
Dylan Hart: She tried her best
to shield us all from him, but I was scared. I was always scared.
00:30:24
When you see someone
else, the strongest person you know get knocked
down, it drives you like wild.
00:30:29
And you're like, well,
if she's not strong, then what am I supposed to do? Lisa Hart: She just thought
she loved him, I guess.
00:30:38
You can't tell somebody
who they can be with. But I didn't understand
why she would be with him.
00:30:43
He didn't bring
anything to the table. He didn't provide
in any way for her. We would be in each other's
faces, me and him, at times.
00:30:50
♪ ♪ Sheri Melling: I think it
made him even more controlling when he knew we were angry.
00:30:59
Shawn Katz: Family
members, people outside a relational
system, are going to see things a little
clearer, and possibly
00:31:05
sooner than before the people
in the relationships. There's a tricky
dynamic and dance
00:31:11
going on between Cheryl, her
support system, and Jeremy. And the nature of coercive
and controlling relationships
00:31:19
is that you try to isolate
the person from their support system so that they don't have
undue influence against you.
00:31:28
While Cheryl might have had
concerns about his behavior because she spoke
to her family,
00:31:31
it seems like she wasn't
in full acknowledgment of it and it was a little
bit in denial,
00:31:38
and it's going to have
felt really frustrating and scary for her family
to see Cheryl stay
00:31:44
in a relationship that was not
healthy, and not good for her, and had many abusive elements.
00:31:51
narrator: In the last
days of July, Cheryl and Jeremy went
on a spontaneous road trip.
00:31:57
Sheri Melling: It was very
unusual for her to just take off and we were very angry.
00:32:01
There was a lot
of anger, mostly at him like, what in the world
is going on? Why would you be with
him over your kids?
00:32:07
So we didn't know
what to think. narrator: It was
just days after they left together that
Jeremy was stopped
00:32:14
by police without Cheryl. officer: [on radio] 1, can
you confirm that's a stolen
00:32:19
Oregon plate on a Buick? narrator: In custody,
Jeremy refused to talk to investigators.
00:32:29
But in a phone
call with his mom, he insisted he dropped Cheryl
off at a campsite near Eugene.
00:32:37
Sheri Melling:
When Jeremy said he dropped her off at a campsite,
you're hoping that's true.
00:32:41
You're hoping beyond
hope that that is true. ♪ ♪ Spencer Gwartney: Cheryl's
family made a huge effort
00:32:48
to try and find her. They had people, volunteers,
putting up missing posters and
00:32:52
things like that in Eugene. Lisa Hart: You're driving down
a road and every side road,
00:32:57
you have to go down there. You have to search it. Because what if it
was that one?
00:33:02
narrator: Police went
back to the stolen car to look
for more clues about Cheryl's last known journey.
00:33:10
Jed McGuire: When we
searched the vehicle, we found a bottle of bleach. It was the house brand
for a grocery store in Eugene.
00:33:19
Spencer Gwartney: We're then
able to get surveillance footage from that store
at about 7 o'clock
00:33:22
in the morning on August 5. ♪ ♪ Jed McGuire: It showed a man
driving up in the same car
00:33:30
that the patrol officers
found, and then going in and purchasing a bottle of bleach.
00:33:37
We were able to identify
that person on the video as Jeremy Milutin. ♪ ♪ Why is he buying bleach?
00:33:50
Bleach is used
to clean things up. And that added another
layer of concern that he was trying
to destroy evidence.
00:33:59
narrator: The bleach
in the stolen car appeared to be related
to a clumsy attempt
00:34:04
to hide evidence. Spencer Gwartney: The trunk
couldn't be opened. It had been tampered with.
00:34:11
We actually had to crawl
through the car into the trunk to search it. And what they found inside
the trunk of the car
00:34:17
was a lot of blood. ♪ ♪ Jed McGuire: We released that
image of Mr. Milutin buying
00:34:31
the bleach,
and requested assistance from anybody in the community. Narrator: The images circulated
of Jeremy buying bleach
00:34:40
prompted a lead from a friend
who'd recently seen them both. Jed McGuire: He told us Cheryl
and Jeremy had the desire
00:34:47
to elope to get married,
but when they ran out of money, they had to turn
around and come back.
00:34:54
Shawn Katz: It's
an unfortunate but common thing where people think,
if we get married,
00:35:00
if we have children that that
will fix the relationship. In some ways, I would
blame Hollywood.
00:35:06
We are fed this narrative
that you find your soulmate and will live
happily ever after.
00:35:12
But given that the relationship
was already disturbing, there was already
violence in it,
00:35:19
we all have to face
reality, and we often don't want to face reality. And we just put
our heads in the sand
00:35:24
and have wishful
thinking that, you know, it's fine when it's
really not fine. ♪ ♪
00:35:33
narrator: The friend
told investigators that Cheryl and Jeremy
had camped out in a shed owned by his sister.
00:35:41
Jed McGuire: When we
walked into the carport of this residence,
I immediately saw
00:35:46
something that kind
of looked like an oil spot. I said, that looks
like blood to me.
00:35:53
♪ ♪ We see shoe prints leading
out of the shed in blood. ♪ ♪ Inside the shed, we found
blood on the mattress.
00:36:08
♪ ♪ We also found a package
of bungee cords, packing tape, and we thought
that was relevant.
00:36:20
We just didn't know exactly
how it was at the time. Spencer Gwartney: That
blood that's right there,
00:36:27
that's Cheryl Hart's. You don't know if that person
is being held somewhere. You don't know
if they're alive or dead.
00:36:37
narrator: Without knowing
whether Cheryl was OK, detectives needed
a break to find Jeremy.
00:36:44
Spencer Gwartney:
The owner of the shed was missing money
and credit cards. We got the bank
records, and it showed
00:36:50
a number of transactions,
not just in Eugene but also in Klamath Falls. We were able to get
surveillance footage from each
00:36:56
and every one of those stores. One of the most stunning
videos that we got was from a car wash.
00:37:04
narrator: Security
cameras filmed the same stolen
vehicle that Jeremy was driving when he was arrested.
00:37:14
Jed McGuire: One
of the things I've never come across
in my career was somebody washing a stolen car.
00:37:21
Spencer Gwartney:
What that video shows us is he's trying to get
rid of Cheryl Hart's blood.
00:37:26
♪ ♪ narrator: With the car
washed, Jeremy continued his clean up operation. The stolen credit card led
detectives to more cameras.
00:37:38
Jed McGuire: He purchases
a shower, exits the store. Shortly, he'll come
back in and he's
00:37:46
carrying this large backpack. He enters the code,
goes into the restroom. You notice what he's wearing.
00:37:52
45 minutes or so later, you'll
see him come out and, look, he's wearing a totally
different outfit.
00:37:57
Pants are rolled
up, different hair. His tattoos are still
visible, and you can see he's
00:38:02
now wearing a different hat. He's still got the same
backpack, though. This is the clothing that he
was wearing at the traffic stop
00:38:10
the night of August 5, 2016. ♪ ♪ What this does is
it tells us he's in there not just showering,
but he's washing away evidence.
00:38:22
He's washed the car so far. Now he's washing himself. ♪ ♪ Spencer Gwartney: The one
thing that we never see in all
00:38:31
of this video is Cheryl Hart. And that's pretty notable. And if we weren't sure before
that she had been murdered,
00:38:39
that did it. ♪ ♪ Sheri Melling: When we
were standing in the police department, the Eugene
Police Department,
00:38:47
we were shown the videos
and Cheryl wasn't there. Jeremy's in jail. He was not saying anything.
00:38:55
I think it was cruel
and pretty evil of him, really. We're blindly searching. We have no clue where to go.
00:39:07
narrator: Jeremy was
still in custody, but not for much longer. Spencer Gwartney:
At this point,
00:39:12
Jeremy was still only
charged with, at best, unlawful use of a vehicle. We didn't have a body.
00:39:20
And you can prove
a murder without a body, but it is extremely hard. But on August 9
at 12:21, Jeremy
00:39:27
makes a terrible mistake. He's on a phone
call with his mom. - That, to us, was a huge
indicator that if he's saying
00:39:43
he's looking
at a life sentence, then Cheryl must be deceased. Because you don't go to jail
for life for a stolen car.
00:39:56
♪ ♪ Spencer Gwartney:
The picture this is building for investigators
is that something happened
00:40:04
in Eugene, and that
Jeremy almost certainly took Cheryl Hart
somewhere near Klamath Falls.
00:40:11
♪ ♪ Jed McGuire: This investigation
spans several hundred miles. In between Eugene and Klamath
Falls, it's a lot of forest,
00:40:20
it's a lot of high
desert, which really leads to endless
possibilities of where could Cheryl be.
00:40:27
We really wanted to solve
this case before the snow hit, because with the snow
on the ground,
00:40:31
it would be near impossible
to find any remains. ♪ ♪ narrator: But after
four weeks, police
00:40:39
got some new information. Spencer Gwartney: Law
enforcement received a tip from a gentleman who
was aware of the case
00:40:47
and aware of the vehicle
that Jeremy was driving. He actually recalled
seeing that vehicle
00:40:53
on a very remote back
road in Klamath County. That caused a search
effort from volunteers.
00:41:03
On September 10, they
found human remains. They found Cheryl. [somber music] Dylan Hart: My grandma
pulled me in and hugged me,
00:41:17
and told me she had passed. And I don't quite
remember how I reacted. My brother told me I'd
screamed or something,
00:41:25
but my brains blocked that
out, like, for a long time. ♪ ♪ Lisa Hart: It took
a month, but it
00:41:35
was definitely
a relief to have found her because we wouldn't stop. We'd be searching to this day.
00:41:42
It was also heartbreaking
because she was my best friend. Yeah. ♪ ♪ Jed McGuire: At the scene, we
had found electrical cords and
00:41:53
some bungee cords that had been
used to wrap up Cheryl's body. Spencer Gwartney:
During the autopsy,
00:42:00
the medical examiner
noted the ligature around her neck, damage
that is typically
00:42:05
associated with strangulation. Cheryl Hart had
a pacemaker implanted. And from that, we were able
to determine her heart stopped
00:42:15
at 11:17 PM on August 4. ♪ ♪ Sheri Melling: You don't
die just with a pacemaker.
00:42:24
I mean, it kicks you back on. And that's a tough one
to think about, because so many women are strangled.
00:42:31
And if I even hear
a story, then that comes back that she had a pacemaker. I don't know.
00:42:36
I try not to think about it. ♪ ♪ narrator: In search
of a motive, police downloaded the messages
off Jeremy's phone.
00:42:51
- One of the things that
we found on his cell phone were messages to other women.
00:42:57
Sexual messages. narrator: It looked
like Cheryl had caught wind of Jeremy's infidelity.
00:43:05
- Cheryl, posing as Jeremy,
had been texting, saying, I found the woman of my dreams.
00:43:11
I'm not interested in you. Please don't contact me again. Well, Jeremy found
out about this.
00:43:17
One of the first
messages he sent after he came back
into town was to this woman,
00:43:22
and she asked, who was that? And he said, oh,
that was nobody. Well, that nobody is
Cheryl who he just killed.
00:43:32
He's already out looking
for another relationship. This is another view into
the soul of Jeremy Milutin.
00:43:43
Shawn Katz: You're getting
to the kind of common nature of domestic violence
and coercive,
00:43:49
controlling relationships,
where traditionally it's a man who wants to maintain
control, whose self-esteem and
00:43:57
self-worth is based
on feeling loved and getting the attention that
they feel they deserve or want.
00:44:03
And when they don't
get what they want, they will turn to extreme
acts of either violence
00:44:10
or worse-- in this
case, murder-- instead of actually processing
and managing and handling
00:44:15
their own emotional reactions. ♪ ♪ Spencer Gwartney: Now that
we have Cheryl's body,
00:44:21
we are able to finally
charge Jeremy with murder. ♪ ♪ On May 22, 2018,
Jeremy pled guilty.
00:44:32
On June 1 of 2018,
he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. ♪ ♪ Lisa Hart: Shortly
after that, everybody
00:44:46
moved to our family house. We're all closer. We are closer. We cherish each other
more because we lost
00:44:56
someone we cherished so much. Dylan Hart: We all
just feel her presence. If we're all
in the same room, I
00:45:04
already know she's just there. How could she not be? So I always feel like
she's always around.
00:45:09
♪ ♪ Jed McGuire: When Cheryl's
body was recovered, she had a necklace on. Took it from evidence,
cleaned it up,
00:45:22
and I went to a jewelry store
and I asked them for a box, and I mailed it to her mother.
00:45:30
I felt that was maybe what
Cheryl would gift her mother. ♪ ♪ Sheri Melling: She was wearing
that when she was-- she
00:45:52
was taken and when
they found her. And it means a lot. It's a part of her. It's been hard, but she's
touched a lot of people.
00:46:09
Her positivity has
really helped us. ♪ ♪ She's my baby girl. ♪ ♪ [audio logo] [intriguing music]
00:46:34
♪ ♪