00:00:05
[grim music] [line ringing] - This is your, you
know, classic whodunit. - Everything is just
spiraling out of control.
00:00:38
- I had that feeling kind
of deep down where you're like, something's not right.
00:00:43
- It was horrible, horrible. - This is the oddest thing I've
ever heard in an interview.
00:00:53
[theme music] [ominous music] DALE GABBARD: A little before
5 o'clock on February 3, 2008,
00:01:30
a woman dialed
911 and called the Clearwater Police Department. [line ringing] CHRIS PRECIOUS: That particular
day was Super Bowl Sunday.
00:01:55
It was-- it's my day
off, but I'm always on call as a homicide detective
because you never know when
00:02:01
a call is going to come in. [siren wails] - It's a very risky situation
to drive towards because it's
00:02:22
the unknown. CHRIS PRECIOUS: From all
we know, the person who did this could still be out there.
00:02:36
- And when the police
arrived, they encountered Rebecca Fenton. She immediately informed
the officer that her husband
00:02:44
was inside on the floor. CHRIS PRECIOUS:
A patrol officer would go in with
their guns drawn
00:02:50
and check every area where
somebody could be hiding. It was just starting to get
dark when I got there, noticed
00:02:58
it was a very nice house. It was a two-story house, which
is not too common for Florida.
00:03:03
DALE GABBARD: They did
not find any intruders or other individuals
inside the home
00:03:09
or in the surrounding area. CHRIS PRECIOUS: When we
got close to the victim, it was very apparent that he
was deceased and deceased right
00:03:19
where he laid. There was a large amount
of pooled blood in the area. - Mr. Fenton was pronounced
dead in the home.
00:03:31
[gentle music] KAREN KENDALL: Larry
Fenton was my son-in-law, married to Rebecca.
00:03:46
Very wonderful, nice, warm man. Very quick to smile. Rebecca was over the moon
with her marriage to Larry.
00:03:57
He just doted
on her constantly. He had bought her
a lovely home. It was like a fairytale
story for her.
00:04:05
Larry worked for a company
that made hospital equipment. He was well paid for his job.
00:04:13
He loved what he did. He was very comfortable. - He seemed like
the right thing.
00:04:19
He seemed like
the best thing for her. [intriguing music] - Now, this is a marriage
between somebody who is very,
00:04:27
very successful, a millionaire,
and his wife Rebecca is a stay-at-home wife. What it means for her is that
her husband has been very
00:04:37
brutally and very, very
suddenly taken from her, and she's now
alone in the world.
00:04:43
So suddenly,
everything has changed. [grim music] - After police arrived,
they immediately
00:05:01
start collecting evidence. CHRIS PRECIOUS:
Once we methodically started going inside
the house, that's
00:05:07
when you started to see
evidence of a robbery or evidence of disarray. - In the office,
the drawers were pulled out.
00:05:20
Things were just
thrown on the floor. - So that set us off on kind of
looking at what kind of crime
00:05:28
we're looking at,
obviously murder, robbery, and we're kind
of in our initial information
00:05:34
gathering stage at that point. As we came--
approached the body, Larry Fenton was kind of face
down towards the front door.
00:05:47
DALE GABBARD: He had
been shot multiple times. [gunshots] Three of the shots
were in the back,
00:05:55
and there was one in the neck. [gunshot] - Also, we noticed a bullet
hole above the front door.
00:06:02
Obviously his back
was to the shooter. So he's looking
towards his front door,
00:06:08
so maybe he's trying to get
away out his front door when he was shot by somebody
who was behind him back
00:06:15
towards the kitchen. DALE GABBARD: Ms. Fenton
was extremely distraught, but of course,
police would want
00:06:22
to either rule her out or rule
her in because she was there. - At this point, anybody
and everybody is a suspect.
00:06:28
We just don't know until we
gather enough information. [grim music] - OK, I'm Kerri Spaulding.
00:06:39
This is my partner,
Detective Ruhlin. - How are you? - I just want to get some
general information from you,
00:06:44
and then we'll talk about-- - Have you found anything else? - Not yet, no. - In the initial interview
by the police with Ms. Fenton,
00:06:54
she was very cooperative. She never did ask
to consult with an attorney prior to speaking
to the police.
00:07:00
- When you guys first got up,
anything unusual or strange happen in the morning?
00:07:07
- I'm going to break
my anonymity. I'm an Alcoholics Anonymous,
been sober for three years.
00:07:11
- OK. - And I do a lot of work
with PAR and rehab. - Rebecca was quite
open about the fact
00:07:21
that she had had
prior addiction issues and that she had
successfully conquered those,
00:07:28
and very active
in helping other people attempt to overcome
their addiction issues.
00:07:35
- I had to get up a little
bit earlier than usual, because I was taking
a girl that I--
00:07:40
again, you know, I have
to tell you I'm in the program. I hate to break
my anonymity, but it
00:07:44
has a lot to do with my life. - Mm-hmm. - And one of the girls that I
sponsor is in the PAR program.
00:07:49
I had to pick her up to take
her to a morning meeting. [intriguing music] KERRY DAYNES: What
we see from Rebecca
00:07:55
here is very much
impression management. So this isn't necessarily
lying to anybody.
00:08:02
It's simply showing
somebody the parts of you that you want them
to see, and what
00:08:08
she really wants them to see
is how good a person she is. So she's talking about her
voluntary work, the work
00:08:15
that she does with AA, the work
that she does in the community. It's not strictly relevant
to the investigation.
00:08:23
So the question is, is this
important to Rebecca Fenton because she is somebody who
likes to portray herself
00:08:32
as having this perfect facade? Or is it important
to her because she wants the police to be misdirected?
00:08:42
[grim music] - Rebecca was born
April 27, 1967. When I met Rebecca's
father, I'd
00:09:02
just got out of high
school, you know, no college or anything. But my favorite
thing, what to do
00:09:07
was I was a go-go
dancer, which meant that I was up on the stage
and, you know, all the makeup
and the glitter and stuff.
00:09:18
I had no clue
about being a mom. I knew how to dance,
and I knew how to drink. I don't know any other
nice way to say it.
00:09:29
I had Rebecca for three years. I was wrapped up in drugs,
and it was affecting her.
00:09:37
Then an incident happened,
and I took her to the hospital. And they said I was
an unfit mother,
00:09:43
so they took her from me. I didn't contest that because I
knew I was in a wrong place
00:09:51
to be raising a child. I would like to say
it was devastating, but I hardly
remember those days.
00:10:01
- Unfortunately, when
Rebecca was born, she was born addicted. This is a tough start to life.
00:10:10
Now, by virtue of the fact
that her mother is involved in drug use
and involved in alcohol use,
00:10:18
the first two years of her life
are characterized by neglect. Nobody who is using drugs
can be consistently there
00:10:26
for an infant. This can leave you very,
very vulnerable to having relationship difficulties
in the future,
00:10:34
and also it can leave
you vulnerable to emotional dysregulation. - She was adopted by a lovely
family in northern Arizona.
00:10:48
They adopted two other
kids a little after her-- very loving, taught
Rebecca a lot of etiquette
00:10:55
and just a warm, good family. - Rebecca, although
she was taken into care at a very young age, she was
put into a really stable home
00:11:05
where she experienced love, she
saw what healthy relationships looked like. And so as much
as that transition
00:11:11
from being with her biological
mother to being in care would have been massively
destabilizing and
00:11:16
probably quite
formative, whether or not that is going to have long-term
negative consequences,
00:11:22
largely then also depends
on what happened next. KAREN KENDALL: She stayed with
them until she left home at 18
00:11:30
and then went to Florida. - I think she saw them
as very small-town people. She wanted much
more for herself.
00:11:39
She wanted a much
more glamorous life. KAREN KENDALL: I hadn't had
any contact or information
00:11:44
regarding her all
those years until we met again when she was 31. [sweeping music]
00:12:01
I wanted to find
her because I knew that her biological father
was diagnosed bipolar,
00:12:09
and it can be genetic. Also, I was having my issues
with my alcoholism, and I felt that she
should be able to know
00:12:20
about these things. - My mom had hired an
investigator to track her down. KAREN KENDALL: I didn't
know what to expect.
00:12:31
I didn't know if she was going
to like me, hate me, you know, none of that. STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
I remember talking
00:12:38
to her on the phone the very
first time, and she just-- she sounded like a movie star.
00:12:43
I mean, she just sounded
so bubbly and so full of life. She had a plan to come
to Arizona very, very quickly.
00:12:52
KAREN KENDALL: She jumped out
of the pickup truck of her dad and come running
up to me, and it's
00:12:58
just like she had this blonde
hair and this personality. And the whole evening was
just, like, monumental.
00:13:08
STEPHANIE KINGMAN: I was 15. I was young. I just enjoyed having
an older sister.
00:13:14
She'd always want
to treat us for dinner and, you know, take us
places and buy us stuff,
00:13:19
and then, whoosh, she'd
be gone again, you know. And it was like this whirlwind
of a little blonde tornado
00:13:25
that would come
into our lives, you know. - It's amazing, isn't it,
to meet with your birth mother,
00:13:34
to really understand
your identity and where you come from? It's both a wonderful
thing, but
00:13:40
it's also a potentially
very destabilizing thing. There's bound to be some, you
know, possible resentment.
00:13:47
Why did you neglect me? Why was I taken away from you? And adjustment to that
new relationship.
00:13:54
So here comes
a great opportunity, but riding a dangerous wind
in terms of instability.
00:14:04
[intriguing music] - When I told
Rebecca the reason I was looking for her was
for the bipolar diagnosis
00:14:13
of her biological father,
she totally disregarded it. It was always, I don't
have a mental illness.
00:14:22
There's nothing wrong
with me mentally. I might have a little
problem with alcohol.
00:14:26
And that was as far
as it would go. KERRY DAYNES: What
we've got here is somebody who may have
a genetic predisposition
00:14:34
towards mood swings, because
Rebecca's father was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which
is one of the more hereditary
00:14:41
mental health conditions. Now, add to that her
very early experiences. She's been neglected during
those first two years of life,
00:14:51
and may very well have
attachment problems that have seeped into her adult life.
00:14:56
It really isn't a good
recipe for any kind of emotional stability. [upbeat music]
00:15:02
STEPHANIE KINGMAN: It was
pretty quick after I turned 16. I got my license,
and Rebecca had called and
00:15:07
told us that she had lost her
license because she had gotten too many speeding tickets.
00:15:14
She needed our help. She needed me to come to
Florida and drive her around. I was going to be
her chauffeur,
00:15:20
and I was going
to be her assistant, and she was going to pay
me money to do it.
00:15:25
And so off I went. And that was definitely
the first trip that I took that I saw
the different side of Rebecca.
00:15:34
[grim music] It starts off like
everything else. Everything's very glamorous.
00:15:39
Everything's very fun. I'm driving her to all
these fancy places. And then the next week, I was
a few minutes late picking her
00:15:48
up, and she just got
so angry and just so animated and was just screaming
and yelling in the car,
00:15:56
and I didn't even
know this person. I'd never seen
this person before. And we get to the house,
and it continues.
00:16:04
She just smashes everything
off of the top of the TV stand. All these expensive plates,
just smash against the floor.
00:16:13
And just-- it was just
the wildest scenario to be a part of. And, you know, then the next
morning, she comes out
00:16:25
and she apologizes,
and she's sorry about that. She never quite admitted
how crazy that got.
00:16:38
- Someone who rapidly
denies that there's anything wrong with them,
whether it's drinking or
00:16:42
drug use or mood
swings or other issues, I think that is
someone who maybe isn't empathetic about how
their behavior, their emotions
00:16:52
are affecting others
and is someone who is less likely to seek
help when they need
00:16:57
it and instead blame others. In some ways, you can create
a really nice life for yourself
00:17:02
because you're living
in this happy world. But the other problem is
that if it's not true,
00:17:07
then you're going
to occasionally be faced with reality,
and those moments are
00:17:11
going to be a shock to you. [grim music] - Did your husband have
a problem with anybody?
00:17:30
Was anybody angry with him? - No. Absolutely not. Larry is a nice guy. - Rebecca initially
said that, you know,
00:17:40
her and Larry kept
to themselves. They didn't have any enemies. - And your relationship,
there's no infidelity?
00:17:46
- None. None. None. We are madly in love
with each other. We're still on our honeymoon.
00:17:57
- I have known her
long enough, and I have gotten many stories
from her that she doesn't give
00:18:03
you all of the information. KAREN KENDALL: I lived
with them for a while. We did a lot of drinking,
Rebecca and I. Did
00:18:12
a lot of drinking,
and with drinking comes cordiality
and fun and, you know, all the glitz and glamor.
00:18:20
I would see things
going on even while we were drinking
that I thought was inappropriate towards Larry.
00:18:27
STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
We could see maybe some of those early cracks
in their foundation.
00:18:34
[grim music] - So a lot
of the questioning of Rebecca is kind of, you know,
what kind of life,
00:18:43
what kind of relationship
her and Larry had. Was she happy? - No marriage is perfect.
00:18:48
I wasn't-- - Nothing major?
- No. - Any financial problems? - Not at all. We're doing-- we're doing
very well financially.
00:18:57
- Larry is a successful
businessman, was able to financially
support her and give her a--
you know, a very
00:19:07
happy and comfortable life. - This is a relationship that
is based on inequality, really.
00:19:15
There's a clear
difference of power. Larry holds the power because
he holds the purse strings.
00:19:23
Put that together with
somebody who is volatile and struggles to maintain
her emotions,
00:19:29
and I can't imagine that
this is the perfect marriage. - As far as work goes,
are you currently working?
00:19:36
- I do a little bit
of modeling right now, but I wouldn't
consider it work. - OK.
00:19:41
- I do a lot of charity work. [mysterious music] STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
All the things
00:19:49
were secret with
Rebecca, and Rebecca was always controlling
the narrative when it came to herself.
00:19:55
I think Rebecca struggled to
keep any sort of a normal job. She had tried her
foot in nursing
00:20:03
and maybe home health care. KAREN KENDALL:
Well, she told me she was an interior decorator,
but that didn't last long.
00:20:12
Pretty soon afterwards,
the truth came out that she was an escort. STEPHANIE KINGMAN: I
have sympathy for her.
00:20:20
I look back and I think we
all just kind of do the best with what we got, you know.
00:20:26
KAREN KENDALL:
Rebecca has a tendency to glamorize everything
in and around her life.
00:20:35
This was a way for her
to have nice conversations with a fluent gentlemen. She knew About wine.
00:20:44
She knew about good food. - She definitely
minimalized, you know, any kind of maybe
uncomfortableness or
00:20:53
pain or sort
of anxiety that comes with those sorts of things. - Rebecca Fenton seems
to have very, very
00:20:59
strong psychological defenses. The reality of Rebecca Fenton's
work behind the seemingly
00:21:08
glamorous places
that this takes place is that she has got
to give men that she probably
00:21:16
doesn't like, isn't sexually
attracted to, regardless of their hygiene, regardless
of their sexual preferences,
00:21:23
their fetishes,
regardless of whether they are violent towards
her, she has to give
00:21:30
them access to her body. That is psychologically
traumatizing. STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
Towards the end
00:21:37
of her sort of run of this
job, when she did meet Larry, she was looking for an out.
00:21:42
She was looking for a reason
to stop doing this work. [flames crackling] REBECCA FENTON: I don't
remember what time I got home.
00:21:57
Larry-- he was
in the living room. He said that he wanted to take
a nap so that he could try
00:22:03
to stay up for the Super Bowl. I said I think I'm going
to work out at the gym.
00:22:08
- Rebecca was going to go
out to an outbuilding, which was set up as a gym. REBECCA FENTON: I was
in the gym, in our gym,
00:22:17
when this happened. I was sitting on the ball
when I heard a noise. - Mm-hmm. - But it didn't
sound like a pop.
00:22:26
It sounded like somebody
dropped something. I just was, let me
just go see him again.
00:22:32
- OK. From the gym, what
route did you take? - I went through the back door. - OK.
00:22:38
REBECCA FENTON: My husband
was laying in the foyer. KERRI SPAULDING: OK. - So at this point, we were
taking her at face value.
00:22:46
Rebecca is a wife who just saw
her dead husband in her house, so she's a victim.
00:22:54
We're treating her as such. REBECCA FENTON: I realized that
my house had been ransacked.
00:22:59
I ran upstairs. When I saw how bad it
was, my first thought was I better get out of here.
00:23:04
- Some of the information
that she was saying
to the interviewing detectives was being passed along
to me to see if it
00:23:13
corresponded with the scene. JOE RUHLIN: OK, so you
came in, you saw him-- REBECCA FENTON: Saw my husband.
00:23:19
I felt for a pulse. - And then you went upstairs? - Yes, I did. - What'd you go upstairs for?
00:23:24
- Because when I turned the
corner and saw the living room had been ransacked, I
went upstairs to see
00:23:29
what the hell had happened.
- OK. - And I yelled. - I can't answer why she
would say or do that.
00:23:38
Putting myself in that
situation of seeing a loved one deceased on the ground
right there,
00:23:42
I wouldn't be running upstairs
or checking to see how bad my house was messed up.
00:23:48
- I ran back down. I checked my husband
again for a pulse. - Did he have a pulse
the first time?
00:23:53
- I couldn't tell. - What about the second time? - I didn't feel one,
but I didn't know if I was
00:23:59
feeling in the right place. CHRIS PRECIOUS:
Some of what was being told to us, they weren't
aligning with, you know,
00:24:07
what we were finding
at the scene. JOE RUHLIN: When
you checked him, you just checked his pulse?
00:24:12
- His eyes were open. I checked here. CHRIS PRECIOUS: There
was a perfectly filled-in
00:24:19
pool of blood around his body. There was no smudge
marks, smear marks, drag marks,
footprints, or anything
00:24:26
else in that pool of blood. So we knew confidently that the
area around the victim's body
00:24:33
had never been
disturbed or nobody had ever walked towards
it or been near it at all.
00:24:41
REBECCA FENTON: I
checked his neck. When I came back down
the stairs, I checked his arm.
00:24:46
- Either she's confused
of what she's saying, that she actually
went up there,
00:24:50
or she's just outright
lying that she went up there near the body
and checked for a pulse.
00:24:55
- Was anything ransacked
on the first floor? - Yes, the living room. All of my self-help
books had been pulled out
00:25:02
- I'm inside the house
asking, why are books just knocked off a bookshelf? Why are drawers pulled
out of a dresser
00:25:10
and then just neatly set on the
ground and the contents inside of them not gone through?
00:25:14
We couldn't get any
rationale as to why this scene was like this. - You didn't try CPR?
00:25:21
You didn't try to revive him? - No, I didn't. I didn't think it was a good
idea to touch anything.
00:25:30
I just-- - What did you think happened? - Because I've just
watched too much TV
00:25:34
and it's like, don't
touch, don't bother. - What kind of TV
would tell you that?
00:25:40
- Just-- I don't know. Um, "CSI," I guess. - If anybody sees
their loved one down there,
00:25:47
that's the last thing they're
going to think about is incriminating themselves.
00:25:51
They're not going to worry
about getting blood on them or disturbing the body or the
scene or anything like that.
00:25:57
KERRY DAYNES:
There is something that seems a little bit
off with Rebecca Fenton,
00:26:04
and I think that
we as human beings tend to be really quite
good BS detectors at times.
00:26:12
And I think that
that would certainly have raised some interest
and maybe raised some eyebrows,
00:26:18
but it's not evidence. [grim music] - As far as firearms
in the house-- - Excuse me?
00:26:28
- Guns, firearms. - We did own a gun. We bought one very,
very recently. - You just have one
gun in the house?
00:26:35
- Yes. - She acknowledged
that there was a gun in the house,
what kind of gun it was, where it was usually
kept, in a safe place.
00:26:42
- Is it registered
to you or your husband? - Don't quote me. I think Larry told me that
it was legal for both of us
00:26:51
to use. - She is sharing a lot of
information, but in doing so, she's got this illusion
of transparency
00:27:00
and this illusion
of cooperation. She also says, don't
quote me on this. And then she tries
to excuse herself
00:27:07
so that if the story
changes or if they find information that
contradicts her statement,
00:27:11
she's got a way out. - Do you have a life
insurance policy? - I think Larry does, yeah.
00:27:17
- For how much? - I don't know. - Who's the beneficiary? - I think I am
because I'm his wife.
00:27:24
- Rebecca was
close to, I think, coming away with
close to a million if Larry was
to tragically pass away.
00:27:33
[grim music] [flames crackling] DALE GABBARD: One of the things
that police discovered
00:27:45
was that Mr. Fenton's
vehicle, a white Jeep, was gone from the home. At some point during
the investigation,
00:27:53
the Jeep was located-- not a great distance
from the home. CHRIS PRECIOUS: The car
didn't seem damaged.
00:28:02
It wasn't hotwired. But the key wasn't
found at this time. The house is a mess.
00:28:07
The car is stolen. But the car's now just
found a block away. So whoever did this had
a conscious all of a sudden
00:28:15
and said, I'm going to leave
the car and walk away. That made no sense at all.
00:28:20
- All right, the other
thing that we're going to do is just do forensics. - They swapped
her hands for what
00:28:29
they call gunshot
residue, which is basically something that
a gun emits when it's fired.
00:28:35
[gunshot] - And when it was
done, she was released. [grim music] DALE GABBARD: Ms. Fenton's
vehicle, a Hyundai Sonata,
00:28:51
was still at the home,
and during the course of the police investigation,
they went through that vehicle.
00:28:58
- By just sticking your hand
under the front passenger seat, you could feel the handle
of what was clearly a gun.
00:29:06
And then we found
the key to the Jeep that was driven a block
away right next to the gun.
00:29:13
There were only
five bullets inside the cylinder at the time. Going back to where
the victim was,
00:29:21
he had four gunshot wounds
and then the bullet hole above him, so there
was five shots.
00:29:29
So we believe that we had
found the gun that was used to kill Larry at this time.
00:29:34
[grim music] Rebecca was the prime
suspect the whole time. It was just that we needed
one or two more items
00:29:49
to bring it all together. DALE GABBARD: All
of the forensic testing done by the police was
negative as far
00:30:04
as Ms. Fenton was concerned. There was no DNA of any kind
of Ms. Fenton on the gun.
00:30:13
There was absolutely no
gunshot residue on MS Fenton. CHRIS PRECIOUS: There's
a little bit of frustration.
00:30:20
You just want to see this case
through to the end to court and you get a conviction.
00:30:27
DALE GABBARD: Although she was
a suspect in the beginning, once all of this forensic
evidence came back,
00:30:32
she's not involved,
and the investigation pretty much came to a stop. [birdsong]
00:30:39
[mysterious music] - We had no choice
but to 100% believe Rebecca. She was the only source
of information for us.
00:30:48
Like, you talk about
sort of that gut instinct and, you know, that feeling
kind of deep down where you're
00:30:52
like, something isn't right. But we did not want
to ask too many questions if police weren't
asking those questions,
00:31:00
you know. We wanted to ask questions
like, well, why was his car only two blocks away?
00:31:08
So we felt like we
could go back home and she would be OK, you
know, until we heard more.
00:31:14
And we definitely thought
that we would hear more much more quickly than we did.
00:31:20
[grim music] CHRIS PRECIOUS:
In the meantime, Rebecca, I believe, is just
living her life.
00:31:36
STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
After Larry died, Rebecca continued
to live in the home that she owned with Larry.
00:31:44
- And as time is
going on, Rebecca develops some type
of a relationship with a man named Alfred Nolan.
00:31:52
STEPHANIE KINGMAN: He was
the complete opposite of Larry. CHRIS PRECIOUS: Alfred was
in jail multiple times,
00:32:01
had multiple arrests. STEPHANIE KINGMAN: Her
life was just so 180 different than anything
we were used to.
00:32:10
She didn't have any luxuries. She didn't have any
of the fancy stuff. She didn't have any of the
lifestyle that we were used to,
00:32:16
and it just wasn't normal. - So life after Larry,
whatever support existed within
that relationship,
00:32:26
whether it was emotional or
financial, is no longer there. Alfred is somebody with
a long criminal history.
00:32:34
This is somebody who is
a drug and alcohol abuser. And of course, things
start to spiral for her.
00:32:42
She starts to burn
through her money. This is when she's
likely to lose control
00:32:46
of her emotional state again. CHRIS PRECIOUS: Rebecca
and Alfred Nolan are in a relationship
for a certain period of time
00:32:56
before they break up
and go their separate ways. KAREN KENDALL:
There was no funds
00:33:02
available to keep up the house
payments or anything else that she needed taken care of.
00:33:09
She had moved somebody
into her home. Was taking care of this
veteran for a little bit
00:33:13
of extra money. [grim music] TV PRESENTER: Developing
at this hour in Clearwater,
00:33:20
two people are homeless
this afternoon after fire practically destroyed
their house overnight.
00:33:25
REPORTER: Take a look inside. The fire just ripped through
this place, gutting it.
00:33:29
- There was a fire on June
14 at the Fenton home. REPORTER: The two
people who were inside--
00:33:35
they were lucky
to get out alive. This video was shot
by one of her neighbors as the fire raced through
and gutted her house.
00:33:42
Before it got to this
point, though, Rebecca, who cares
for an 80-year-old veteran,
00:33:46
had to get him out. - Assist me to walk back. I said, no. I turned him around,
and out the door we went.
00:33:55
- Whoever holds the insurance
policy could benefit from a fire at a house. Fire investigators work to
determine if it was accidental
00:34:06
or not. - How fast does
the house go up. - Just gone. Three minutes, four minutes.
00:34:12
It's that quick. - It was
of an undetermined nature, as far as the fire
was concerned.
00:34:18
REPORTER: A total loss, but
that has not been the only loss at this address, 1051 Nokomis.
00:34:25
- My husband died tragically. REPORTER: Rebecca didn't
want to talk about it,
00:34:28
but back in February of 2008,
her husband, Larry Fenton, was found shot to death
on the front porch.
00:34:35
That murder has still
not been solved. - But it's just
a house, and we're OK.
00:34:41
And, uh-- yeah,
it's just a house. KERRY DAYNES: When Rebecca
is interviewed by the media
00:34:49
about the fire, she's smiling. She's smiling at times when
you wouldn't expect it,
00:34:55
particularly when she
says, oh, well, you know, it's just a house. She's absolutely right.
00:35:00
It is just a house. But it's a house that's
been absolutely devastated. And these little
flashes of smiles--
00:35:10
we call them microexpressions--
this is either characteristic Rebecca Fenton
used to smiling through all
00:35:17
of life's problems
or this is somebody who is experiencing duping delight. What duping delight
is is the pleasure
00:35:27
that one feels when
somebody is telling a lie and they feel that they're
getting away with it.
00:35:33
- When I saw that there was a
fire at Rebecca Fenton's house where she was living,
I didn't think
00:35:40
it was a coincidence
or an accident in any way, shape, or form. [grim music] - After the fire
at the Fenton home,
00:35:51
police reopened
the investigation regarding Mr. Fenton's death. CHRIS PRECIOUS: I think
her mindset was that she
00:35:58
had gotten away with this. It just tells you that you
have to work that much harder.
00:36:10
At this point, Alfred
Nolan comes forward with this information
saying at some point,
00:36:14
there was some kind
of a argument or confrontation, where Rebecca makes
a threatening and incriminating
00:36:22
statement towards
Alfred Nolan about she would kill him the way
she killed Larry.
00:36:29
DALE GABBARD: Mr. Nolan, who
was a multiply convicted felon, who was in jail at the time
when all of this was coming out
00:36:38
and was receiving
a much lighter sentence for his testimony
and cooperation, this man would probably
say anything about anyone
00:36:49
if it benefited him. [intriguing music] On March 21 of 2014, police,
again, questioned Mrs. Fenton.
00:37:04
- I just had a question. - Sure. - Why am I here? - OK. I started investigating an
unresolved case in Clearwater,
00:37:13
and it's your husband. And I just want to lay this
out for you so that you can--
00:37:16
- --what happened to him? - I just want you
to listen, and I-- OK, we're going to get-- we're
going to get to all this.
00:37:22
- Obviously, she was totally
distraught over this. It had been over six years
since her husband's death.
00:37:33
- I just want to let you
know up front my position-- - And I appreciate that. - --and where I'm coming from.
00:37:38
- OK. - When Rebecca
Fenton was brought in for another interview,
well, the line of questioning
00:37:43
is different. It's now more confrontational. - This-- - This was found in my car.
00:37:49
- This bag is right there. This is a handgun, a revolver. - You are 100%
the suspect, so now we're
00:37:58
going to confront you on we
found the gun that was used to kill Larry under your car.
00:38:03
- These are the keys
to the Jeep. - You're not being
honest with me. - I'm absolutely being--
00:38:09
I have no-- just listen. I have no benefit to lie. - I agree. - This interrogation,
they needed, really,
00:38:19
a confession,
because a confession was going to be the most powerful
piece of evidence,
00:38:23
especially given that
the other evidence was all circumstantial. They've got this statement
from her partner, who
00:38:32
said that she threatened him
and that she said that I'll kill you like I killed Larry.
00:38:37
But there are also questions
that I'm sure the police had, which are, how reliable are
you, really, as a witness?
00:38:46
- At this point, I've
laid out this case, and I want to give
you the opportunity
00:38:54
to respond to any of this. - In almost all
cases, the police look at the forensic
evidence, and quite
00:39:02
frankly, the forensic
evidence clearly showed Ms. Fenton was innocent. - What I've learned about you
is that you are a good person.
00:39:15
You have given up
hours and hours and hours of your own time
trying to help others.
00:39:23
I don't know-- I never met Larry, so there's a
lot of time, just in the house,
00:39:33
where it's only Rebecca
and Larry and nobody else. And only those two
people know and
00:39:40
have truly a full understanding
of their relationship. - When you commit
the crime of murder,
00:39:48
whether you confess
to it or not, this gives you
the opportunity to maybe enlighten detectives as to
the reason why you did it.
00:39:58
- What sometimes people
on the outside don't know is what life is
really like privately.
00:40:11
So what I don't know, because I
don't know Rebecca and Larry-- - Our life was good.
00:40:16
- I don't know Larry at all. - We were having a good day. - Rebecca continued
to just steadfastly deny
00:40:23
that she was the one who did
it and not giving any reason why she might have done it.
00:40:28
- Larry and I did
not have problems. DALE GABBARD: She was
taking it very hard. And through
the testimony of a person
00:40:38
who would have very
high unreliability, she was arrested. - Rebecca, will
you stand, please.
00:40:49
Remember Officer Kanicki? - Yeah. - Rebecca, you're under arrest
for the murder of Larry Fenton.
00:40:56
You were indicted this
morning by a grand jury for first-degree murder. - When Rebecca is told
she's under arrest
00:41:06
for murdering Larry
Fenton, I think she did not see that coming. - Rebecca has a choice, and she
absolutely sticks to the fact
00:41:17
that no, she had
the perfect marriage and there's no evidence
to say otherwise.
00:41:23
What goes on behind closed
doors between two people, only two people really
know what happened
00:41:31
and what that
marriage was like. But Rebecca isn't going to say
that there were any problems.
00:41:38
Maybe there weren't
any problems. I doubt it. STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
Once we heard
00:41:43
that she had been arrested,
albeit on charges of murder, I wish I could say that
sadness was my first feeling,
00:41:49
but unfortunately
it was more relief that there was going to be
some sort of a conclusion.
00:41:55
[grim music] - Rebecca Fenton's trial
began on November 25, 2015. - We're pretty
convinced that she
00:42:07
was responsible for both
the murder and the fire at that time. - I can't say that I've
led a sheltered life or
00:42:15
anything like that,
but the life I have lived has not quite prepared
me for the trial.
00:42:20
- The state put on an admirable
case, quite frankly, of what I would call
almost character
00:42:26
assassination of Ms. Fenton. They used Mr. Nolan
as somewhat of a star witness. - So the prosecutors
said Rebecca
00:42:35
killed Larry to financially
benefit from it. DALE GABBARD: I don't believe
there was any reason Rebecca
00:42:45
would want her husband dead. Clearly, Ms. Fenton's life
went down after Larry passed,
00:42:52
and there's no
way someone could do this and be forensically
as clean as she was.
00:43:00
CHRIS PRECIOUS: I wasn't
worried about the lack of forensic evidence. You have almost a direct line
between where the victim was
00:43:07
found, where
the shots were fired, and where Rebecca claims
to be the entire time,
00:43:12
so she puts herself
at the scene. - The verdict was guilty
of first degree murder.
00:43:17
Rebecca was sentenced
to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. - It's always
rewarding in the end
00:43:26
when you get a conviction
and all the work that you put into this pays off. [grim music]
00:43:40
KAREN KENDALL: The telephone
calls from jail give us a glimpse
inside her mind. REBECCA FENTON (ON PHONE):
And I've done nothing wrong,
00:43:46
and that's how I'm feeling. And the truth is
going to come out. - She would just
talk in circles
00:43:52
and go round
and round and round. She would repeat things
over and over again. REBECCA FENTON (ON PHONE):
I'm tired of being accused
00:43:57
of things that I haven't done. - I think she has
told the narrative that she is innocent
so many times that she is
00:44:06
now convinced herself of it. REBECCA FENTON (ON
PHONE): When detectives know it would such
a big fad, people
00:44:11
have a tendency
to believe them, and it doesn't make it true. - And I think that's her
ability to sort of separate
00:44:17
herself from the negative. It probably did
her well to have that ability in her
line of work,
00:44:23
you know, when things got crazy
and things got uncomfortable. REBECCA FENTON (ON PHONE):
I'm horrified that I can
00:44:28
be behind bars based on that. It's like, you've
got to be kidding me. - She is my sister,
and I do have
00:44:35
unconditional love for her. I certainly don't have any
objective to, you know,
00:44:39
try to teach her
that, you know, that she needs to know
that she did this. It doesn't-- it
just doesn't seem
00:44:45
to matter very much, you know. [solemn music] KERRY DAYNES: I think that
Rebecca Fenton was somebody
00:44:53
with a troubled mind
and somebody who didn't have control or mastery
over their emotions and
00:45:05
somebody who had a degree
of trauma in her life, and I think it sought solace
through wearing a mask
00:45:14
rather than actually facing
up to her difficulties in some form of therapy. And that's very sad,
because now she's in jail
00:45:22
and there's an innocent
man has lost his life. JULIA SHAW: There's so many
unanswered questions
00:45:27
in this case. Surely, Larry would
have been a provider and would have been
there for her in life
00:45:33
better than in death. There's that
question, and there's questions around, really?
00:45:38
Is this kind
of financial payout enough to motivate someone
to commit this kind of crime?
00:45:43
And I think there's a big
question mark there. And it feels like it could
have been that there's
00:45:48
something else going
on in their relationship, or maybe there was
something else about Larry
00:45:54
that she knew
that she could use to rationalize this kind of
extreme violence against him.
00:46:00
STEPHANIE KINGMAN:
I don't think it's because she was adopted
or because our mother was
00:46:05
an alcoholic
or because she didn't meet us till later in life. I believe that she
made choices and
00:46:10
decisions as an adult that
ultimately led to her downfall. KAREN KENDALL: I'm sorry about
the drugs and the alcohol
00:46:18
before she was born. I have to live with that. I have times when it
keeps me from sleeping,
00:46:26
but I am the mother
of a murderer. [theme music]