00:00:04
[theme music] NANCY GRACE: 2007 Frisco, Texas,
Craig Nail is getting ready for a Christmas to remember.
00:00:14
BRYAN SARTAIN: He was the
all-American dad, working a good job, loved his kids. NANCY GRACE: Then his future
was viciously ripped away when
00:00:25
he's murdered in his own home. BRANDY DIAMOND: He
suffered 10 gunshot wounds to the body and a
close range shot to the head.
00:00:32
[suspenseful music] BRYAN SARTAIN: You know
that that was personal. Craig Nail was
essentially executed.
00:00:39
NANCY GRACE: Police uncover a
trail of surprising suspects. It was like a villain
from a Wild Wild West movie.
00:00:47
BRANDY DIAMOND: They've told him
to kill everyone in the house. NANCY GRACE: This
holiday, horror show
00:00:52
gets even scarier as police
zero in on the killer. BRANDY DIAMOND:
This was pure evil.
00:00:59
BRYAN SARTAIN: We were
totally blown away. Christmas will never be
the same for this family.
00:01:03
[sirens blaring] [theme music] [christmas music] NANCY GRACE: Christmas
is always such
00:01:32
a magical and wonderful
time of the year, especially in a place
like Frisco, Texas.
00:01:38
Frisco is known for hosting
Christmas in the square. (SINGING) It's Christmas time
00:01:44
It's the largest holiday lights
and music show in North Texas. The whole city is
covered in holiday cheer.
00:01:53
But on December 26, 2007,
all that yuletide joy is replaced with tragedy. [suspenseful music]
00:02:15
It's a unique 911 call because
it was a neighbor calling, who had no idea what was
going on, and just
00:02:23
knew that there was a lady
in her suburban neighborhood screaming, somebody
was trying to kill her.
00:02:30
[siren blaring] When we arrived at the
scene, we were told that we had a female who had been shot.
00:02:47
She's been shot once in
the arm, twice in the head. She's losing a lot of blood.
00:02:52
She's losing consciousness. She is airlifted to
Parkland Hospital. NANCY GRACE: The crime
scene is pure chaos.
00:03:02
Police treat it as an
active-shooter situation because they don't
know if there are
00:03:07
any other victims in the house. We didn't know
where the suspect was, who the suspect was.
00:03:15
Is there a robbery happening? Is there a hostage situation? At that point, they don't
know if the perpetrator
00:03:20
is still there or not. But they know that it's
time to enter and find out what's going on in that home.
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[suspenseful music] BRYAN SARTAIN: When
you entered the house, you entered through the garage.
00:03:33
I traveled into the kitchen,
which is where we started to find the physical evidence.
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[camera clicks] It was a somber walkthrough
of the crime scene. The shell casings and
the blood on the floor--
00:03:55
it was eerie because
the blood, it was trailed throughout the
house, almost like a path
00:04:03
that you could easily follow. You could see blood smears on
the walls at every light switch.
00:04:17
The house was decorated
for Christmas. There was a Christmas tree. There was lights on the tree.
00:04:27
But the weirdest thing
about this crime scene, in it didn't make any sense,
was all this white fluff.
00:04:38
It was like white,
fluffy, cloudy material. [camera clicks] We thought, well, that might
be possible decorations
00:04:47
from Christmas. And it was scattered all about. NANCY GRACE: The shell
casings recovered
00:04:58
are from a .22 caliber gun. Investigators follow the trail
of blood from the kitchen
00:05:05
and make their
way up the stairs. BRYAN SARTAIN: It
was on the walls. It was on the light switches.
00:05:11
You could follow it all
the way up the stairs. BRANDY DIAMOND: They see the
blood leading from the stairs
00:05:19
into the master bedroom. And then they see
two feet sticking out of the master bedroom closet.
00:05:28
[suspenseful music] BRYAN SARTAIN: As we
entered, I observed a white male slumped
over a duffel bag
00:05:42
with multiple gunshot wounds. The bag was partially unzipped,
and he was over the top of it
00:05:51
when he was executed. NANCY GRACE: The duffel bag
contains guns and ammunition. BRYAN SARTAIN: When you
looked at the crime scene,
00:06:00
you actually could see and feel
the desperation that the victim had to have been enduring.
00:06:11
He was doing everything he could
do to get to a weapon, to fight. And you realized that all
of the blood on the light
00:06:24
switches, all of the
smears on the walls, they were from
the victim who was scrambling to get to that
closet because that's
00:06:35
where he stored his guns. We identified the victim
of this horrendous crime to be Craig Nail who
was the homeowner.
00:06:51
NANCY GRACE: Craig Nail is a
36-year-old software engineer who works in cybersecurity.
00:06:56
His neighbors tell detectives,
Craig is someone everyone likes. They can't believe
he has enemies.
00:07:04
BRYAN SARTAIN: Craig was
just a wholesome guy, just a regular salt-of-the-earth
kind of people.
00:07:14
He was the all-American
dad living in a suburb, working a good job,
loved his kids.
00:07:22
Craig's life revolves
around his two children, one, a 16-year-old daughter, who
lives with her mom in Oregon.
00:07:29
His other daughter is 6. She lives with her
mother, Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail in nearby Dallas.
00:07:37
Craig and Elizabeth are
legally married but separated. BRANDY DIAMOND: After the
separation, Craig moves out.
00:07:44
He ends up going to a support
group at his local church for people going through
separation and divorce.
00:07:50
He ends up meeting a
woman in that group by the name of Therisa. [dramatic music]
00:07:56
NANCY GRACE: The other
shooting victim is Craig's girlfriend, Therisa Johnson. BRYAN SARTAIN: Therisa
was a lot like Craig,
00:08:04
just a good, wholesome person. BRANDY DIAMOND: On the
way to the hospital, even though she is bleeding
and losing consciousness,
00:08:13
she's still asking,
where is Craig? Is Craig OK? NANCY GRACE: A forensic unit
arrives at the crime scene.
00:08:21
Meanwhile, officers canvassed
the neighborhood for witnesses. BRYAN SARTAIN: We had detectives
out knocking on doors,
00:08:28
going door to door to
talk to all the neighbors. And it's weird that
all of this turmoil
00:08:38
that you see inside
the house, but outside the house,
in the neighborhood, it was just another night.
00:08:45
People were in their houses. They were having their
holiday, and no one saw anything or heard anything.
00:08:54
While we were
searching the house, we noticed that
there was a motion detector light on the driveway.
00:09:02
But it was odd because it didn't
have any light bulbs in it. But when we stepped around
the corner of the garage,
00:09:08
we found both the light
bulbs just sitting there. NANCY GRACE: It seems the
killer removed the light bulbs.
00:09:16
Police believe he
or she lay in wait under the cover of darkness. Craig Nail and his
girlfriend, Therisa Johnson,
00:09:25
are the victims of an ambush. BRYAN SARTAIN: There was
no obvious fingerprints. There was no footprints.
00:09:39
We didn't have a murder weapon. We just didn't have
a lot to work with. At that point, as
an investigator,
00:09:49
you don't know whether
this is a completely random act of violence. Is this a home invasion, or is
there something more to this?
00:09:59
And it just-- it didn't add up. In a detective's
mind, that's one of the worst cases in the world
to get a hold of, is a whodunit.
00:10:14
[mellow "jingle bells" playing] NANCY GRACE: Christmas is taken
very seriously in the Dallas
00:10:18
suburb of Frisco, Texas. It's a time to be
with family and focus on joy, peace, goodwill.
00:10:25
But Christmas in 2007
is very different. A well-liked software
engineer, Craig Nail,
00:10:33
is found shot dead, execution
style, in his own home. His girlfriend, Therisa
Johnson, also shot.
00:10:40
She survives. Detectives, baffled
by the crime scene. Then they speak to a neighbor.
00:10:48
JAY REIM: This
person said that they had seen a suspicious
vehicle at a house that
00:10:53
was catty-corner from
the alley of where Craig Nail was murdered. BRYAN SARTAIN: They had seen
it in the neighborhood before.
00:11:02
It was described to us as a
black truck with blue on it, almost like flames. And this truck struck one of the
neighbors as odd and stood out.
00:11:18
JAY REIM: The truck had a
line of sight to his driveway. We immediately
noticed that there
00:11:23
were beer cans at the
back of the fence, like furthest away
from the house. This does not make any sense.
00:11:30
Why would you have beer
all the way back here, unless you were watching the
alley, which was a good vantage
00:11:39
point to see who was coming and
going from Craig Nail's house. NANCY GRACE: Police convinced,
the black truck with blue flames
00:11:47
belongs to the killer. They suspect he or she lay
in wait while drinking beer. BRANDY DIAMOND: The cans
still had some liquid in them,
00:11:56
so we package those
up for evidence and send them to our crime
scene unit for them to process.
00:12:01
[unsettling music] NANCY GRACE: It's surprising and
tragic that a family man, Craig
00:12:08
Nail, is targeted in a
premeditated execution the very day after Christmas. He had been looking forward
to sharing Christmas
00:12:18
with his new
girlfriend, Therisa, and they seem very much in love. Their relationship develops
quickly after they meet.
00:12:28
BRANDY DIAMOND: They start
talking, leaning on one another. And this becomes a
more romantic thing,
00:12:33
and they end up having
this relationship. [music playing] Christmas is approaching, and
Craig makes the decision to send
00:12:41
his 16-year-old daughter
back to Oregon to spend the holiday with her mother. Craig spends Christmas
with his youngest daughter.
00:12:50
The day after
Christmas, that morning, Elizabeth picks
their daughter up and heads to Waco to spend time
with her family for the holiday.
00:12:58
[suspenseful music] NANCY GRACE: Craig and Therisa
were planning to be together the day after Christmas.
00:13:04
Now, Therisa, suffering
from three gunshot wounds. Detectives head to the hospital
to see if she can help them.
00:13:12
BRANDY DIAMOND: Miraculously,
Therisa is still alive. BRYAN SARTAIN: She
was our only witness.
00:13:20
She was the only person
who knows what happened. When Therisa became
stable enough
00:13:29
for us to actually talk
to her, her recollection sounded surreal. BRANDY DIAMOND: She
tells police that it's
00:13:39
the day after Christmas,
and they're gonna go enjoy a nice dinner together. So as planned, Therisa
arrives at Craig's house
00:13:48
approximately 7:30. She hasn't even set
her purse down yet. The next thing you know, she
turns around and sees a man
00:13:56
standing there with something in
his hand, staring right at her. He then lifts the weapon, points
it at Therisa, and says, bang.
00:14:07
And shoots her in the head. He then points his
weapon to Craig, and Craig immediately starts
heading for the stairs.
00:14:18
BRANDY DIAMOND: But then, at
that moment, the perpetrator turns the gun back to
Therisa, shoots her in the arm
00:14:24
and then again in the head. BRANDY DIAMOND:
Therisa then says the perpetrator
starts to chase Craig,
00:14:37
continuing to shoot at him. And that is when she is
able to escape the house and get to a neighbor.
00:14:45
And they're able to call 911. [siren blaring] At that point,
police have to break
00:14:55
the tragic news to Therisa that
Craig Nail did not survive. BRANDY DIAMOND:
She is devastated.
00:15:11
She's been shot
in the head twice. She's been through
so much trauma. But there's a
killer on the loose.
00:15:17
So police are asking
Therisa, who did this to you? And she's telling
them she doesn't know.
00:15:23
She's never seen
this person before. JAY REIM: We didn't
know who that person was, why they picked
that location,
00:15:30
why they picked those people. All of those
unanswered questions is what we started with.
00:15:36
So we had to start looking
at everything possible. We had no basis to start with
other than one person was dead,
00:15:47
and one person was wounded. NANCY GRACE: Detectives hope
Craig's family may have answers.
00:15:56
BRANDY DIAMOND: Craig's oldest
daughter has to come back to Frisco and talk to police.
00:16:00
They ask her, does she know who
would have done this to her dad? She is heartbroken,
devastated, and complete shock
00:16:08
about the loss of her father. She says he's a good man and
doesn't have any known enemies.
00:16:16
Another person they have to
tell is his soon-to-be ex-wife, Elizabeth. BRYAN SARTAIN: Even though Craig
was estranged from his wife,
00:16:28
legally, he was still married. So we had to make legal
notification to the wife.
00:16:39
BRANDY DIAMOND:
She's visibly upset, visibly shaken,
and has no idea who would have done this to Craig.
00:16:47
JAY REIM: So as the
investigation progressed, we spent a lot of time looking
at tips that were received,
00:16:53
information that
people called in. We chased down a
lot of leads that did not develop any suspects.
00:17:03
NANCY GRACE: The autopsy
report comes back. Craig Nail suffers
10 gunshot wounds.
00:17:15
BRANDY DIAMOND: This tells
us there's a lot of passion. And whoever did this
wanted Craig Nail dead.
00:17:20
BRYAN SARTAIN: Craig Nail
was essentially executed. You know that that was personal.
00:17:25
You know that that was up close. It means something. NANCY GRACE: 10 days
after the vicious attack,
00:17:33
Craig's girlfriend,
Therisa Johnson, is released from the hospital. Detectives ask her to
work with a sketch artist.
00:17:40
BRYAN SARTAIN: Therisa
described the assailant to us as of average height, heavyset
white male, very rugged,
00:17:51
rough look in the
face with a beard. She kept going back to
and referring to the eyes.
00:17:59
And she described it, in
her words, as a lazy eye. When we got the sketch back
from the forensic artist,
00:18:12
it wasn't helping us
find who did this. An average-height white
guy with a dad bod,
00:18:19
it was one of those pieces of
evidence that didn't tell us who had done it. NANCY GRACE: At
first, the sketch
00:18:26
appears to be much too
generic to help investigators, but it suddenly triggers
a memory for Therisa.
00:18:34
After Therisa takes a look at
what the sketch artist has put together, she realizes
that she might
00:18:39
know who this perpetrator is. It kind of looks like
someone she's never met but seen a picture of.
00:18:45
It looks very similar to
Elizabeth's brother, Johnny. At that moment, Therisa thinks
this killer might be a lot
00:19:02
closer to home than we thought. [whoosh] NANCY GRACE:
Frisco, Texas, 2007. Craig Nail set to spend
Christmas holidays
00:19:14
with his girlfriend,
Therisa Johnson. Instead, he's murdered,
and she barely survives a targeted killing.
00:19:23
Therisa works with police
and a sketch artist, and that leads to the
shooter's possible identity.
00:19:30
He's known as Johnny, and
he is the spitting image of wife Elizabeth's brother. BRYAN SARTAIN: As
an investigator,
00:19:39
you were excited when
you have something that provides you with some hope. And with this picture,
we got excited because we
00:19:50
might be on to something here. NANCY GRACE: Detectives put
Therisa in protective custody
00:19:56
under a different name. If the suspect named
Johnny is the shooter, police worry he could
still come after her.
00:20:08
BRYAN SARTAIN: We traveled all
the way to China Springs, Texas to talk with this person and see
what they were doing at the time
00:20:16
and see if they have an alibi. He had an outstanding old
warrant that was pending on him.
00:20:24
And we arrested Johnny
on some unrelated charges and placed him in jail. And he just stayed
with his story
00:20:35
that he had nothing
to do with it. NANCY GRACE: Detectives
checked Johnny's cell
00:20:39
phone records and the alibi. They confirm he's two hours
away at the time of the killing.
00:20:48
It just wasn't that guy. We're days and days
into this investigation, and we've met a dead end.
00:21:00
But sometimes, miracles happen. [phone rings] We received a phone
call from Crime
00:21:09
Stoppers telling
us that they had information about the homicide. We identified the
person as Carol.
00:21:20
And Carol, come to find out,
was Craig Nail's soon-to-be ex wife's best friend. NANCY GRACE: Detectives
know the shooter is a man,
00:21:33
and therefore the shooter cannot
be Craig Nail's estranged wife, Elizabeth. But they still believe she
has a motive for murder.
00:21:44
Elizabeth Guthrie
and Craig Nail meet in 1996 in an online chat room. He's living in Oregon.
00:21:51
She's living in Texas. BRANDY DIAMOND: They both
work for technology companies. It just starts as
mild conversation
00:21:58
but then quickly turns into a
relationship, more than that. And then, next thing you
know, he's deciding to move
00:22:05
back to Texas to be with her. NANCY GRACE: They marry in 1997. Four years later, they
welcome a baby girl.
00:22:13
The couple settles in the
affluent community of Frisco, but Elizabeth never
feels comfortable there.
00:22:21
BRANDY DIAMOND: You
think of Frisco, and you think of soccer mom. You think of luxury.
00:22:28
And she wasn't that
type of person. She was from the country,
out of her element,
00:22:35
rough around the edges. And it's hard to fit in. You have to keep up with
the Joneses in Frisco,
00:22:40
and that's a lot of pressure. NANCY GRACE: Elizabeth
becomes increasingly unhappy
00:22:46
and blames husband, Craig. In May 2006, she files for
divorce, and it turns ugly.
00:22:54
BRANDY DIAMOND: She
doesn't want Craig to have custody of their daughter. She wants control of not only
how this divorce goes down,
00:23:02
but she wants her daughter. And she wants Craig to have
nothing to do with her life.
00:23:07
She accuses him of physically
abusing their daughter. In 2007, they start to look
into these accusations,
00:23:16
but the court finds
no basis for this. And she ends up
losing the house. Craig moves back in.
00:23:22
The court, not only
awards him the home back, but they also give him temporary
custody of their child.
00:23:30
[gavel bangs] Up to this point, she
has everything she wants. And now, it's all being
taken away from her.
00:23:41
NANCY GRACE: By
2007, Craig moves on. He's dating Therisa Johnson. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's lifestyle
takes a complete U-turn.
00:23:50
After Elizabeth
moves out of the house, she ends up moving in
with a friend in Dallas.
00:23:55
She starts to meet new people. BRYAN SARTAIN: She had gotten
involved in things like riding
00:24:02
motorcycles and hanging
out at clubs and bars at biker establishments. So now she's not in Frisco,
keeping up with the Joneses
00:24:12
and the soccer moms. She is in Dallas hanging
out with biker gangs, hanging out with possible
nefarious people.
00:24:20
And how is this going
to look in the courts when you're trying to
get your daughter back?
00:24:26
NANCY GRACE: Frisco
detectives suspect Craig's custody battle
with his estranged wife,
00:24:31
Elizabeth, leads
to Craig's murder. They head to Waco, Texas, to
talk with Elizabeth's best
00:24:37
friend, Carol. Carol tells police
that she called her friend Elizabeth because she
saw that Craig had passed away.
00:24:46
She actually found
this in the obituary. BRYAN SARTAIN: And so she
immediately reached out
00:24:52
to Elizabeth to give
her condolences. And Elizabeth invited her to
come over and talk to her.
00:25:03
And when she gets there,
she describes to us the most bizarre behavior. She tells us that
she's been best friends
00:25:13
with this woman forever,
and then all of a sudden, it's almost mafia style. Elizabeth's patting her down.
00:25:22
And Carol said, I
don't understand. What are you doing? Then Elizabeth said,
I'm looking for wires.
00:25:30
You're not wearing
a wire, are you? And she's like, no, why would I? What is the deal?
00:25:36
What's going on? She said her behavior
was odd and strange and that it wasn't
like the Elizabeth
00:25:44
that she was friends with. It was a different
type of person. Nothing prepares investigators
for what Carol says next.
00:25:55
BRYAN SARTAIN: Elizabeth
confessed to her that she essentially was
the mastermind behind a plot
00:26:02
to have Craig killed
and that she had done it because of the
child custody issues
00:26:09
involved in their relationship. They were coming down
on the final resolution, and these proceedings
were not necessarily
00:26:20
looking favorable for her. BRANDY DIAMOND:
Elizabeth also tells Carol, the reason
she had Craig killed
00:26:26
was because he was
abusing their daughter. So she decided to take
matters into her own hands
00:26:32
and have him assassinated. We were totally blown away. [dramatic music] BRANDY DIAMOND:
Police want to know
00:26:49
from Carol, what
other evidence do you have to go with this story? How can we really
prove this is true?
00:26:56
BRYAN SARTAIN: We ask
her if there was a chance that Elizabeth had
ever given her anything
00:27:00
or told her anything, as we were
looking for physical evidence. Carol told us that
Elizabeth had given
00:27:09
her a plastic grocery bag that
contained .22 caliber shells. We were elated by this because
we knew that the murder
00:27:23
weapon was a .22. We immediately asked,
what did you do with them? Where are they?
00:27:29
Only to find out that she
gave them back to her. NANCY GRACE: The
.22 caliber shells
00:27:37
are not the only important
piece of incriminating evidence. Carol indicated to
us that at one point
00:27:45
during their conversation,
Elizabeth reached down into the seat cushions of
the couch she was sitting on,
00:27:52
and pulled out a cheap
cell phone out of there, and told Carol,
this is how I have
00:27:59
communications with the killer. And she kept referring
to the killer to Carol as her guardian angel.
00:28:09
And she told Carol, she kept
that phone at her mom's house. And she goes, my mom is
under strict instructions
00:28:18
to destroy it in case the
police ever come after it. BRANDY DIAMOND: Carol's
statement to police
00:28:26
kicks this investigation
into overdrive. And we knew at that point
that that phone was going
00:28:34
to be one of the best
pieces of evidence that we could possibly have. And we wanted to find it.
00:28:47
While people in Frisco, Texas,
enjoy the Christmas spirit in 2007, someone is plotting the
murder of a software engineer
00:28:55
and father, Craig Nail. [suspenseful music] [gunshot] Police suspect it may be his
estranged wife, Elizabeth.
00:29:06
Frisco detectives head to
Waco, Texas to interview her. BRYAN SARTAIN: We
wanted to know if she
00:29:14
had an alibi,
where she was, what she was doing during that time. She provided us with
evidence of an alibi.
00:29:33
She had receipts from
dollar stores, gas stations, all of these things she produced
willingly and provided to us.
00:29:53
She was not at the scene of
the homicide when it occurred. She was in Waco,
almost two hours away.
00:30:03
NANCY GRACE: Estranged wife,
Elizabeth, has an alibi, but she's also the only person
that hated her husband, Craig.
00:30:11
Frisco Police believe
she's the mastermind behind Craig's murder. But now, they've got
to get solid evidence.
00:30:19
JAY REIM: We all
drove down to Waco, where Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail's
mom and family lived.
00:30:26
And we executed a search
warrant on the premises. I happened to walk
in to the kitchen area
00:30:35
and happened to glance over
and see the same blue phone that Carol had described to me.
00:30:46
That phone had a text
message displayed on it when I picked it up. And to paraphrase it,
it said, I hope you
00:30:55
and the little ones have
a very merry Christmas. Love your GA. I knew instantly
that "GA" had to have
00:31:06
stood for "guardian angel." I made the inference that it
was the message from the killer,
00:31:16
the, quote unquote, "guardian
angel," that the job was done. Y'all can rest easy now.
00:31:24
JAY REIM: In the trailer,
we also found two gun boxes for .22 caliber handguns. Once we found those
pieces, we had to figure
00:31:34
out who guardian angel was. We automatically
got the phone number associated with the person
who sent that text message.
00:31:42
Unfortunately, this was a
store-bought burner phone that no one puts a name to. There's nothing to identify
who that person is yet.
00:31:56
BRANDY DIAMOND:
They want to know, is this burner phone still
being used by the perpetrator?
00:32:01
They have the phone company
keep a lookout for it and if there's any
activity, to let them know.
00:32:07
Well, they get a break. The phone company calls
them, tells them that minutes were just added to this phone.
00:32:15
JAY REIM: That minutes
were purchased at a Walmart in McKinney, which is the
next city over from Frisco,
00:32:23
where the murder occurred. We were able to
quickly go to that store. And they had
surveillance footage
00:32:32
which gave us our
first glimpse at who the person on the other
end of that line was.
00:32:39
BRANDY DIAMOND: They can see
from the cameras on the register that there is a
suspicious character
00:32:44
adding minutes to this phone. BRYAN SARTAIN: You
could definitely make out that this
individual was unique.
00:32:51
He wore a cowboy hat. And he had a weathery
face and a beard. It was almost like a villain
from a Wild Wild West movie.
00:33:04
NANCY GRACE: Moments
later, detectives see something in the footage
that confirms their suspicions.
00:33:09
We were able to
see this person get into a truck,
which was a black truck with blue flames on it.
00:33:20
That truck description
then immediately fed back to that night during a
canvas of the neighborhood,
00:33:29
where they saw a black truck
with blue flames on it. Now, you have reason to
believe that that person is
00:33:38
the same person that was in that
alley that day after Christmas. Working in conjunction
with the phone company,
00:33:52
we were able to employ
some investigative tactics, like pinging that cell phone.
00:34:00
JAY REIM: The cell tower
data that we had showed that that phone was staying
in a neighborhood close
00:34:05
to the Walmart in
McKinney as well. BRYAN SARTAIN: We were
able to narrow down an area
00:34:13
in which we could search. And we physically had
detectives driving up and down streets looking
for that black truck
00:34:22
with blue flames on it. JAY REIM: And we were lucky
enough, one of our detectives
00:34:28
was driving through and
saw the truck at a house. [camera clicking] BRYAN SARTAIN: You
have an address now.
00:34:36
And from that, we were able
to start pulling together information and
actually identify
00:34:43
the owner of that vehicle
as Mark Lyle Bell. We were able to match him with
the surveillance footage that
00:34:52
tied it to the same person
who had the phone, who had re-upped the minutes on it.
00:34:58
NANCY GRACE: Mark Lyle Bell
is a biker and an ex-con. BRYAN SARTAIN: He
was not a good guy.
00:35:06
He'd spent more time in
jail than he had spent free. [eerie music] BRANDY DIAMOND: They know he
has a criminal history based
00:35:13
on the information they
have in their records, and they decide this guy
needs to get off the streets.
00:35:19
[siren blaring] We were able to locate that he
had some old outstanding traffic tickets, so we were
able to get him arrested
00:35:27
on those outstanding warrants. Investigators
noticed Mark Lyle Bell has the same features and lazy
eye consistent with Therisa's
00:35:36
description. BRYAN SARTAIN: We got Mark
Bell into an interview room and sat down with him.
00:35:43
And we handed him a
picture of Elizabeth Nail. And I'll never forget this. He looked at me, and he
said, I don't have any idea
00:35:52
who that scooter tramp is. It instantly set off
bells and whistles to us. And my partner and I
looked at each other.
00:36:02
We're like, how does he know
that she rides motorcycles if he's never met her? BRANDY DIAMOND: They asked
him, how do you know Elizabeth?
00:36:15
How do you know Craig? He denies everything. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
get a search warrant
00:36:33
for Mark Lyle Bell's truck. BRYAN SARTAIN: We
were lucky enough to find a .22 casing in the
center console of that pickup,
00:36:46
almost as if it was a souvenir. And that .22 casing forensically
matched to the shell casings
00:36:55
from the murder scene. We found a beer can. And it just so happened
to be the same kind
00:37:03
of beer that was found across
the alley from the murder scene. I don't know. You just don't have
coincidences like that occur.
00:37:15
It's hard for me to
describe the elation that was in my soul at the moment. You have that emotional
reckoning that you
00:37:29
have found the right person. BRANDY DIAMOND: They immediately
charged Mark Lyle Bell
00:37:35
with capital murder, which
carries the death penalty here in the state of Texas.
00:37:55
[surging music] [music playing] NANCY GRACE:
Frisco, Texas, 2008. Investigators note they've got
to get a confession from Mark
00:38:13
Lyle Bell for the
execution-style Christmas killing of Craig Nail. He's continuing to maintain
his innocence in this crime.
00:38:28
BRANDY DIAMOND: So police,
they collect his DNA. And what do they find out? His DNA matches the DNA
found on the beer cans
00:38:36
at the crime scene. So he knows he's
caught red handed. He tells police, I will
tell you everything
00:38:43
you need to know if you take
the death penalty off the table. BRYAN SARTAIN: He
accepted a plea deal.
00:38:50
And so I asked Mark Bell,
did you kill Craig Nail? The man leaned
forward on the table
00:38:57
and looked me square in the eye. And he said, you
damn right I did. I shot him to death,
and I'd do it again.
00:39:07
It was at that
moment in time when I knew that he was pure evil. NANCY GRACE: Mark Lyle Bell
tells investigators what
00:39:16
happens that fateful night. He had entered the
house, shot Therisa. He then saw Craig run.
00:39:26
He gave chase to him, was
continuously shooting him the whole way until they ended
up in the bedroom closet,
00:39:35
where he executed him. [suspenseful music] JAY REIM: He told us that
those were his beer cans.
00:39:43
He drank the beer to get the
courage to commit the murder. And then he took
the murder weapon,
00:39:48
and he threw it in a lake. [water splashes] NANCY GRACE: Mark Lyle Bell also
explains one of the mysteries
00:39:56
that baffles police. Inside the
initial crime scene, it looked like there was like,
fake snow all over the house.
00:40:06
It turns out that Mark Lyle Bell
had made a homemade silencer with a water bottle
stuffed with cotton,
00:40:12
that he attached to the end
of the barrel of the gun. It turns out that all that it
did, is as he was firing rounds,
00:40:18
it just blew cotton out of
the holes with the bullets as he was firing. BRANDY DIAMOND: After telling
police this information,
00:40:28
he tells them that even
though he was the killer, he's not the
mastermind behind this.
00:40:35
Elizabeth wanted her
soon-to-be ex-husband murdered. NANCY GRACE: That's
not the only revelation
00:40:42
Mark Lyle Bell tells police. Elizabeth told him to
kill everyone in the house. BRYAN SARTAIN: And
you're like, why?
00:40:54
God! BRANDY DIAMOND: Her order to
kill everyone in this house just adds an extra layer
of evil to this crime.
00:41:02
NANCY GRACE: Mark
Lyle Bell tells investigators he meets Elizabeth
through the biker community.
00:41:08
Then another bombshell falls
into the laps of investigators. Elizabeth's mother,
Shirley Guthrie,
00:41:15
goes to Frisco Police
with a story that incriminates her own daughter. BRANDY DIAMOND:
Elizabeth's own mother
00:41:23
walks into the police station
and tells them a bombshell. She is terrified of
her own daughter.
00:41:30
She tells police
that she overhears this conversation
with her daughter, Elizabeth, and Mark Lyle Bell.
00:41:37
They are discussing the
murder of Craig Nail. And Elizabeth was irate that
Therisa was still alive,
00:41:44
and she was telling Mark that he
should have been a better shot. NANCY GRACE: Elizabeth
Guthrie-Nail's
00:41:50
arrested January 29, just
over a month after the murder. She denies the charges
and says she's innocent.
00:41:58
The case goes to trial,
September 10, 2012. Mark Lyle Bell,
the star witness. Mark Lyle Bell
gets on that stand,
00:42:09
and he tells the court
exactly what happened, that Elizabeth wanted Craig Nail
dead because he was abusive.
00:42:15
He was an abusive father. He wasn't a good husband. And Mark Lyle Bell thought he
was really doing a good thing.
00:42:23
He thought this man has to go,
and he was doing it for her. BRYAN SARTAIN: He was
easily manipulated
00:42:33
by Elizabeth and her story. And when I say
story, I mean fable. Mark Bell had been
told by Elizabeth
00:42:43
that her daughter was being
sexually assaulted by Craig. Things of this nature, which had
been cleared by Child Protective
00:42:54
Services and courts several
times, it was fabricated, it was concocted. And she just happened
to stumble upon somebody
00:43:04
who was weak enough
to believe her fable. All the steps that she took in
preparation for this to happen
00:43:14
is nothing but evil. She was gonna get
her way at all costs. NANCY GRACE: The
evidence is stacked
00:43:20
against Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail. Just two days after
the trial begins, she changes her plea to guilty.
00:43:27
[gavel thuds] BRANDY DIAMOND: At
the end of the trial, they find Elizabeth
guilty of conspiracy
00:43:33
to commit capital murder. She is sentenced to
50 years in prison. Because of his
cooperation at the trial,
00:43:42
the death penalty was
taken off the table, and Mark Lyle Bell will
spend the rest of his life
00:43:46
in prison without the
possibility of parole. Elizabeth and Craig were
married on December 31.
00:44:00
There was once a time when this
season was joyous for them. But with the looming divorce,
the custody battle, and all
00:44:08
of the things going wrong in
Elizabeth's life at the time, she used Christmas time
as an opportunity to put
00:44:17
this evil act into place. JAY REIM: Elizabeth
Guthrie-Nail had their daughter for the holidays the
day after Christmas,
00:44:25
so she wouldn't
be in harm's way. And it was the perfect
day to execute the plan
00:44:31
because Elizabeth didn't
care about anybody else but their daughter. BRYAN SARTAIN:
Elizabeth was a person
00:44:38
who just, during the holiest
and best times of the year, just perpetuated some of
the most horrendous evil
00:44:48
that this community
has ever faced. BRANDY DIAMOND: The holidays are
supposed to be a joyous time,
00:44:56
but Christmas will never be
the same for this family. Craig Nail will never get
to spend another Christmas
00:45:01
with his daughters. These girls are gonna miss their
dad the rest of their lives.
00:45:06
JAY REIM: I know
Christmas time must be hard for Craig's daughters. But I hope that at least
the job that we did
00:45:12
gives them a little bit of
peace during the holidays. [music playing] NANCY GRACE: What once was love
turns into hate and deadly rage
00:45:26
for Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail. But now, she's got up to 50
years behind bars to decide,
00:45:33
was it all worth it? And from now on, two young
girls will remember Christmas as the time daddy was murdered.
00:45:44
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "The Christmas Killings." [theme music]