00:00:03
[AUDIO LOGO] JULIA SHAW: This time
on "Killers Caught on Camera," in Oklahoma, a woman is
found dead in an alley.
00:00:16
- There's blood everywhere. There's gunshot wound
on the left side of her face. - The shotgun blew
her wig off her head.
00:00:24
SARAH CRUMPLER: It
was a complete shock. Who wanted to kill her. JULIA SHAW: They retrace
her final fatal steps.
00:00:31
- The fact that it was
a close-range gunshot wound indicated to me that the
crime was of the personal type.
00:00:38
JULIA SHAW: And the police
have a prime suspect. - This is the last time
Martika Ferguson is seen alive.
00:00:45
JULIA SHAW: And 700 miles
east in Alabama, a wife is found shot in her vehicle. POLICE OFFICER: Come back
here and stand behind the van.
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- She was sitting
in the driver's seat with the gun in her left hand. JULIA SHAW: But was
it a suicide?
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POLICE OFFICER:
Is there a pulse? JULIA SHAW: Or a murder? - Due to the two gunshots, it's
not a straightforward case.
00:01:07
POLICE OFFICER:
Where's the gun, Sir? - It's right here in her hands. MAN (ON RADIO): It just
sounds like something
00:01:13
bad is happening to her. WOMAN: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened.
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MAN: I heard some gunshots. POLICE OFFICER: Drop it! Whatever it is, drop it! - That does not prove
that I killed my wife.
00:01:25
DETECTIVE: The camera
doesn't lie. JULIA SHAW: In the US,
Oklahoma, in the northwest,
00:01:35
the city of Enid. 90 miles north
of Oklahoma City, it's home to about
50,000 people,
00:01:45
including 27-year-old
Martika Ferguson and her mom, Effie Ferguson. - My daughter's name
is Martika Marie,
00:01:55
and we all called her Tika. JULIA SHAW: Martika
came into Effie's care when she was three years
old, along with her siblings.
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EFFIE FERGUSON: She was
just a little bitty girl. And then three years later,
we went on to adopt her and
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her sister and brother. JULIA SHAW: Martika
was a shining light within the Ferguson family.
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EFFIE FERGUSON: She was
always very confident. This little girl would dance. She would sing.
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It was always so much
fun to be around her. When she smiled,
your whole heart lit up.
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It was adorable. She was a good girl. JULIA SHAW: Martika
was two years older than her sister, Mykalah.
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- We had so much fun together. My sister and I were
like two peas in a pod. We played in the orchestra
growing up.
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My mom had the bright
idea for us to learn how to fiddle,
which in Oklahoma is called the hoedown.
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When we'd have
family gatherings, we would get together,
and we'd play. It was very fun.
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JULIA SHAW: Martika
and Mykalah became pregnant just six months apart. In 2012, Martika gave
birth to a baby boy.
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MYKALAH FERGUSON: It was
just a beautiful thing to watch her be a mom. She was such a loving mom.
00:03:08
She loved her son so much. JULIA SHAW:
But Martika's life took a difficult turn when she broke
up with the father of her son.
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Sarah Crumpler was a close
friend of Martika's. SARAH CRUMPLER:
When they separated,
00:03:21
she got pretty depressed
and kind of self-medicated and went to drugs. Tika never really
wanted the baby around--
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all of the nonsense
that she thought she needed to do
to make herself feel better, unfortunately.
00:03:34
So she would you
know, either leave the baby with me
or with her mom while she went
and did these things.
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And that's when she
kind of lost custody. JULIA SHAW: Effie
took in her son. But Martika continued
to visit him often.
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- She knew that when
she left to her son here that he was safe. She didn't really have
to worry about him,
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and she always knew
she was welcome. JULIA SHAW: Sunday,
November 22, 2020. Martika went to visit
her then eight-year-old
00:04:14
son and her mom, Effie. EFFIE FERGUSON: It was
always like a party when Tika was here.
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We'd order pizza. She'd spend the night. We'd watch movies with her son,
and they would sit and cuddle.
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JULIA SHAW: But the following
weekend, Martika's family started to worry
when she didn't
00:04:32
turn up for a planned visit. [SOMBER MUSIC] Early afternoon
on Sunday, November 29,
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2020, 911 dispatchers
received a disturbing call. Police responded to the scene.
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The person who
made the 911 call ushered them towards
the body in the back alley.
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Enid police Lieutenant
Casey von Schriltz was in charge of the case. - The body was found behind
a residence in an alleyway.
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The deceased was a woman. She had some sort
of injury to her face. In the area, near the body
was a pair of pants.
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JULIA SHAW: Police officers
also found a wig nearby. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: The wig and
the additional pair of pants
00:05:40
were definitely unusual. It indicated to me also that
the suspect may have left some of those items behind.
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JULIA SHAW: Police
gathered information from local residents
to try and piece together
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what had happened. They used a drone to get
a complete picture of the crime scene.
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The police also reached
out to the community in search
of surveillance cameras. - Our task at that
moment was to determine
00:06:44
who this victim was and-- and who is responsible. JULIA SHAW: Witnesses had seen
the victim in the area before,
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but nobody knew her name. - As of this point, we had
not had anybody come forward
00:07:10
that had reported anyone
of this description missing. JULIA SHAW: Sean Hill is
the assistant district attorney
00:07:17
in Garfield County, Oklahoma. - Someone here working
at the courthouse recognized her
as Martika Ferguson.
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- The next step from
there was to reach out to the family of--
of Ms. Ferguson to enable
00:07:29
us to help identify her. - It was on November 29. About 10 o'clock at night,
the police came to my house,
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and they showed me
a picture and asked me if that was my daughter. And I looked, and you know,
I knew Tika's face so well.
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And I was like, yes, it's her. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: The process
of making a death notification
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and speaking to the family of
the victim is often difficult. There's often a lot
of emotion involved.
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EFFIE FERGUSON: I was
just thinking, oh my god! This is my daughter, and she's
laying in this alley.
00:08:13
And the shotgun blew her wig
off her head 2 feet away. And you could see
that in the picture.
00:08:22
And so I just was
like, horrified. But I had no idea that
anybody would feel that hate enough to kill her.
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JULIA SHAW: News
of Martika's death reached extended family and friends. SARAH CRUMPLER: Her mom
called me and was crying.
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And I said, oh,
no, what's wrong? And she said, Tika is gone. My baby's gone. And she was murdered,
is what she said.
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"She was murdered." I asked her, where's the baby? Is he OK? She said, oh, yeah.
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He was here. And I kind of just went over
there and checked on him and just hugged him
as tight as I could.
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MYKALAH FERGUSON: She said they
found her dead in the alley, and I couldn't stop screaming.
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And I screamed, and I
screamed, and I went outside, and I looked up, and I
screamed some more.
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And I literally felt my heart
break because that broke me. I woke up the next day
thinking it couldn't be real.
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It couldn't be real. And then it was real. And life after that
was never the same.
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SARAH CRUMPLER: It
was a complete shock. Who wanted to kill her? You know, she didn't do
anything wrong to anybody.
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It was very
devastating and very surprising for that to happen. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
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JULIA SHAW: The police needed
to find Martika's killer. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: Now that
we have the victim identified,
00:10:03
we're able to go back and
locate her known associates, people that she may
have had interactions
00:10:09
within the recent
past, and track down her activities
to develop suspects and-- and leads
to follow up on.
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JULIA SHAW:
Detectives discovered that Martika had been living
with an older man who was
00:10:21
brought in for an interview. Initially, they didn't tell
him that Martika was dead.
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Almost an hour later,
they decided to break the news of Martika's death. The exchange revealed
a specific interviewing style.
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- From a policing
standpoint, this is called strategic use of evidence. It's a very extreme
form of it where
00:11:40
you just slam down a picture. And what they're trying
to see is whether or not he shifts his strategy
in relation to the new evidence
00:11:47
that they're presenting to him. It's designed to catch liars. And so the idea is that
someone who's telling a lie
00:11:53
and doesn't have all the
evidence that the police do, might tell a story that
doesn't accommodate
00:11:58
all of the facts of the case. And someone who has
guilty knowledge, they're likely
to change their story.
00:12:04
And clearly, he doesn't. And instead he is genuinely
sad about the image. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ:
His initial reaction
00:12:13
was that of shock
and surprise that we were advising him that Ms.
Ferguson was, in fact deceased.
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And this indicates to me
that that type of reaction that we got out of him
appeared to be genuine
00:12:24
and made him less
of a suspect in our minds. JULIA SHAW: With Martika's
housemate ruled out
00:12:31
as a suspect, the police were
reliant on any video recordings from the night
before she was found.
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After an extensive search
near the scene of the crime, the police recovered hours
of video surveillance footage.
00:12:45
Suddenly, there
was a breakthrough. - In this particular case. There were quite
a few different homes
00:12:51
in that immediate vicinity
that captured relevant video. JULIA SHAW: At 9:08 PM
on Saturday, November 28,
00:13:01
a woman is captured
walking away from the house where Martika lived. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: I
was able to identify
00:13:10
Ms. Ferguson within the video
footage, based on the fact that this individual bore
a striking resemblance
00:13:15
to Ms. Ferguson. You can see in this video
that Ms. Ferguson's clothing is the same as what is
ultimately found on her body.
00:13:24
You can see that it appears Ms.
Ferguson's smoking a cigarette. She doesn't appear to be
nervous or hurried.
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There's no indication
that there's anything wrong at this moment. JULIA SHAW: Two minutes later,
at 10 past 9:00, Martika
00:13:40
was no longer walking alone. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ:
Ms. Ferguson is seen coming back the other
direction with a male subject.
00:13:49
In this frame, here you can
see that the man that Martika is walking with appears to be
wearing a cowboy-style hat,
00:13:57
which is distinctive. JULIA SHAW: Police also got
footage from surveillance cameras on a nearby church.
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It picked up Martika
in the male figure walking through the neighborhood. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ:
Here, you can
00:14:12
see that the male subject
is walking with a little bit of an unusual gait. He also appears
to be holding on
00:14:18
to something at his waistline. JULIA SHAW: And then
another breakthrough-- the man walked right under
a high-definition camera,
00:14:28
well lit by the street light. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: In this
frame of the video from
00:14:32
the church, you can
see the emblem clearly on the back of the jacket
with the eagle
00:14:39
and the words "Live to Ride." It doesn't appear
he's making any effort to conceal his identity.
00:14:47
JULIA SHAW: Police
continued checking through
the surveillance cameras to track the route taken by
Martika and the unknown male.
00:14:56
At 17 minutes past
9:00, they were captured entering the alleyway
where Martika's body was found.
00:15:04
CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: This alley
that they're walking down is in between rows of
residences that's dark and not
00:15:11
easily viewable to the public. It is not a very safe
area for Ms. Ferguson to be walking
into with this man.
00:15:19
This is the last time Martika
Ferguson is seen alive. SEAN HILL: They're
walking very casually.
00:15:26
It doesn't seem like there's
any argument going on, and they're not
moving quickly, or
00:15:31
it just looks like they're
on a walk together. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: It
was definitely surprising
00:15:37
that we knew that Ms.
Ferguson had been killed subsequent to these videos,
and it appeared in the videos
00:15:44
that this person
that she was with was not, at that time of the
video, threatening in any way.
00:15:50
JULIA SHAW: Neighbors were
oblivious to the couple walking close by. But at 20 minutes past
9:00, significant audio.
00:15:58
[GUNSHOT] CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: That
audio of the gunshot is instrumental in not
only pinpointing
00:16:05
the exact time
of the crime but also is audio that we can track
back through our other video
00:16:11
surveillance, and it helps
us do a match-up of times and sequence of events. JULIA SHAW: A further
review of the cameras led
00:16:19
to another major discovery-- in a backyard next to the
alleyway, a flash of light
00:16:26
consistent with a firearm. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ:
The muzzle flash was able to confirm
with us that that was
00:16:33
the location of the homicide. This is an important
video, because we were able to use
this to solidify
00:16:42
when exactly
the homicide occurred and where it had occurred. JULIA SHAW: The autopsy report
revealed how Martika had been
00:16:49
killed and the weapon used. - The wound that had
caused Ms. Ferguson's death was from a shotgun to the face.
00:17:00
And the shotgun pellets and
contents of the shotgun shell were contained
within her skull.
00:17:07
And the fact that it was
a close-range gunshot wound indicated to me
that the crime was
00:17:13
more than likely
of the personal type, was less likely that it was
between complete strangers.
00:17:20
- Choosing to use
a sawed-off shotgun to me speaks of two things. One, you don't have
a handgun available,
00:17:26
otherwise you just
use that because it's easier, easier to hide. Second, maybe the reason
you don't have a handgun
00:17:33
could also be that you're
not allowed to buy one. And so that's because of your
criminal record, for example.
00:17:39
You don't have access
to anything else, and this is the only
thing you've got. JULIA SHAW: The police had
identified a potential suspect
00:17:45
in the surveillance
footage wearing a distinctive hat and jacket. But Martika's killer was
still at large and unknown.
00:17:55
A $1,000 reward was
offered for any information leading to an arrest. Martika's mom, Effie,
went on the news
00:18:04
to appeal for information. - A mother is
found shot to death in an alley over the weekend.
00:18:09
EFFIE FERGUSON: Go ahead
and turn yourself in. You did it. Let us know why, and then
pay for what you did.
00:18:16
I pray a lot. And I prayed the police
would find whoever shot her and get them. JULIA SHAW:
As the police continued
00:18:27
to search through
hours of footage, they uncovered
another vital clue. After the gunshot
went off at 9:20 PM,
00:18:37
a figure could be seen walking
away from the crime scene. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: He casually
gets onto his motorcycle
00:18:44
and appears to be
in no particular hurry as he rides away. This distinguishing
feature of the motorcycle--
00:18:51
it has handlebars
above head level, commonly known
as a hanger-style handlebars.
00:18:58
JULIA SHAW: At 9:45 PM, just
25 minutes after Martika was killed, the same man
was captured on camera,
00:19:07
arriving at Walmart
and shopping for groceries. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: You
can see the male subject
00:19:13
riding his motorcycle actually
into the vestibule area of the store. The video showed
the male subject
00:19:21
was wearing the same
leather jacket as seen in the video surveillance. JULIA SHAW: The prime suspect
had been caught on camera
00:19:28
multiple times, but the police
still needed to track him down. On December 1, two days after
Martika's body had been found,
00:19:39
police got a name. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: We received
a tip on one of our tip lines
00:19:46
from a citizen
that an individual by the name of Shane
Perosi had spoke about killing Ms. Ferguson.
00:19:53
When the tipster
called, he had mentioned that Mr. Perosi had made
the threat to a woman,
00:19:57
that she should
watch out because she would end up just like Tika. JULIA SHAW: 30-year-old
Shane Perosi
00:20:03
lived very close to where
Martika's body had been found. - Shane Perosi
was known to have
00:20:10
a extensive criminal history. That history included
crimes of violence both against citizens
as well as police officers.
00:20:21
JULIA SHAW: The SWAT team
and police surrounded Shane Perosi's residence. Three people were detained,
including Shane Perosi.
00:20:31
Inside the property,
investigators uncovered key evidence. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: We were
able to locate the jacket seen
00:20:39
in the surveillance
video inside the garage of the residence, along
with the motorcycle seen
00:20:44
in the surveillance video. Upon search of the residence,
we were able to locate a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun
hidden inside of a headboard
00:20:54
in the upstairs bedroom. JULIA SHAW: They also
recovered to Shane Perosi's own doorbell footage.
00:21:01
It showed him wearing
the same jacket seen on the man with Martika
on the night of her death.
00:21:07
CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: From
an investigator's point of view, all this
evidence and information
00:21:11
being located inside
Mr Perosi's residence, it becomes very
obvious that that he
00:21:16
is in fact our guy that's
responsible for this crime. JULIA SHAW: Shane
Perosi was arrested
00:21:22
and taken into custody, accused
of Martika Ferguson's murder. - They found him
in three days--
00:21:36
three days. SARAH CRUMPLER: I was ready
for justice to be served. I felt like if they arrested
someone, they knew who it was.
00:21:44
And I was very glad they
caught him as fast as they did. JULIA SHAW: During
his interview,
00:21:51
Shane Perosi was confronted
with the evidence. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: When
shown photographs and
00:22:03
confronted with that
evidence, he became silent and didn't speak much. JULIA SHAW: The demeanor
here, it's of someone who
00:22:26
is guilty and has been caught. And the more
evidence the police officer puts on the table,
the more he realizes that.
00:22:37
And you can just see
his heart sinking, realizing the implications
of what he's done.
00:22:43
Some of the time he
doesn't say anything. And so on a verbal transcript,
you wouldn't have any response,
00:22:48
but you can clearly
see his little nods as he accepts that
that's his jacket, and that he is behaving in a
way that is clear to the police
00:22:58
officer that he's
confirming what the police officer is saying. And that's why
it's so important
00:23:01
to also see video
footage of interviews and not just read
the transcripts. JULIA SHAW: As the police
continued to press him,
00:23:33
Shane began to give
more information about the night Martika was killed. - Mr. Perosi ultimately
told us that he
00:24:01
had caught Ms.
Ferguson in his garage, and he believed that that
she was stealing from him.
00:24:07
EFFIE FERGUSON:
He thought she may have Stole something from him. But if she would have said,
Mom, I need to pay him back,
00:24:14
she knows I would
have helped her, but he didn't
give her a chance. JULIA SHAW: The idea
that a motive for murder
00:24:23
could be something as banal
as thinking that someone is stealing small
things from you,
00:24:29
it feels like
insufficient reason to kill somebody because it is. But if you look at research on
murder, the banality of murder
00:24:37
is much more common. So people typically kill
people over small, irrational perceived slights rather
than over these big reasons.
00:24:48
So this is actually more
normal than it is abnormal, even though it's
obviously completely
00:24:54
an escalation
beyond what anyone would consider reasonable. SEAN HILL: He was hiding
that sawed-off shotgun
00:25:23
in those jeans and tucked
up against his body to prevent Martika
from seeing it.
00:25:29
Ultimately, because he had
prior felony convictions, he wasn't lawfully
in possession of that firearm.
00:25:35
The fact that he had possession
of it and it led to her death, he was guilty of murder.
00:25:41
JULIA SHAW: In court,
Effie presented Shane Perosi with a letter
from Martika's son.
00:25:46
EFFIE FERGUSON: I
looked him in the eye, and I held that paper up. And I said, Shane,
have you seen this?
00:25:52
Have you read what you caused
an eight-year-old boy to feel hate for the first time?
00:25:58
I called his name loudly. And I said, have you read this? And he said, yes, I've read it.
00:26:08
JULIA SHAW: Shane
Perosi was convicted of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life
without the possibility
00:26:15
of parole. CASEY VON SCHRILTZ: The video
evidence gathered in this case was instrumental
in getting a conviction
00:26:21
and a sentence for Mr. Perosi. EFFIE FERGUSON: I
look out that window, and that's where Tika used
to come up to the house.
00:26:29
And I could see her coming. And I still watch for her. Sometimes somebody will
look like her, and I'm like,
00:26:37
oh, I wish that was you. - To know that she left
something in this world behind,
00:27:06
that's an image of her. I still get glimpses of her,
and it makes me really happy.
00:27:13
[AUDIO LOGO] JULIA SHAW: Martika Ferguson
was shot dead in an alleyway, helpless when faced with
Shane Perosi's shotgun.
00:27:25
In the United States,
there's been a big increase in female gun ownership. - The perceived threat
is coming from men.
00:27:34
And we say "perceived,"
but there is actually-- there's an actual threat. If I am walking down
a street at night
00:27:42
and I see someone approaching
me who might look like a male, it's likely that I'll cross
the street to protect myself.
00:27:48
The risk is pervasive. It's always there. And it's quite
difficult to quantify, but it is something that most
women feel and understand.
00:27:59
JULIA SHAW: In our next
case, a woman who purchased a gun
for protection ends up dead in suspicious
circumstances.
00:28:07
[LIGHT MUSIC] In Alabama, between
Huntsville and Birmingham is Cullman County. AVA GLASS: Cullman's is
the kind of place where
00:28:17
people go to raise a family. It's considered sort of a safe,
lovely community where
00:28:23
you can get a bit of space. You can have a bit of land. It's not crowded at all.
00:28:27
JULIA SHAW: It was home to
32-year-old Tiffiney Crawford. AVA GLASS: Tiffiney was
popular and well-liked.
00:28:34
She was described by friends
as having a beautiful soul, as being a kind person
and someone you could rely on.
00:28:43
JULIA SHAW: Growing
up, Tiffiney's ambition was always to help others. AVA GLASS: Tiffiney
went to college.
00:28:49
She got a bachelor's degree in
education and became a teacher. She seemed to have a sort of a
natural affinity with children.
00:28:58
JULIA SHAW:
Tiffiney was already married when she met and fell
in love with Jason Crawford,
00:29:03
a divorcée and a father. - I think Tiffiney saw in him
somebody with whom she could
00:29:09
start a family of her own. Jason Crawford was
drawn to her because she was so striking and outgoing.
00:29:15
JULIA SHAW: After Tiffiney
divorced her first husband, she married Jason in 2011.
00:29:21
They had two children together. AVA GLASS: She wanted
to be a mother, and this meant a huge amount
to her to have this family
00:29:29
and to be able to raise
them with someone she loved. That's what she'd wanted. JULIA SHAW: In her spare
time, Tiffiney set up
00:29:37
a group to help other mothers. AVA GLASS: This was a group
called Mothers Helping Mothers.
00:29:42
She set it up online, and it
grew very quickly to the point where it had thousands
of followers.
00:29:48
- It doesn't matter
your background. We wanna be there
to love and support you. And so we have moms
that are teen moms
00:29:53
on up to grandmothers. It really does not matter. You can ask all
sorts of questions,
00:29:58
and we're there to support you. JULIA SHAW: From the outside,
life in the Crawford home
00:30:03
appeared good. But after six years
together, the relationship had become strained.
00:30:10
AVA GLASS: There was
already considerable tension between the two
of them-- tension
00:30:14
they'd hid from many people. Tiffiney wasn't
as happy as she seemed. [SOMBER MUSIC]
00:30:23
JULIA SHAW: Tuesday,
May 2, 2017. Cullman County Sheriff's Office
received a disturbing call.
00:30:51
Police responded to the scene. Jason Crawford directed
them to his wife's van. - The Cullman County
Sheriff's Department
00:31:27
found her slumped
over in the van as she appeared to be
shot in the head. When one of the deputies was
assessing Tiffiney's wrist
00:31:40
for a pulse, there was
a pistol in her hand, and it immediately fell
to the floorboard of the van.
00:31:46
[THUD] JULIA SHAW: Emergency Medical
Services arrived quickly. JOE PARRISH: EMS
removed her from the van
00:32:23
and performed
life-saving measures. So, in my experience,
when somebody's been shot in the head
with a gun,
00:32:30
they usually don't have
a chance of making it. When deputies were speaking
with Jason at the scene,
00:33:20
he appeared to be upset,
and he was asking if Tiffiney was OK if she was alive. MEDIC: Pulse is fading.
00:33:35
JULIA SHAW: Tiffiney
was declared dead. Jason's mother, Rhonda,
who lived next door,
00:33:44
was on hand to comfort her son. But her presence compromised
the police investigation.
00:33:59
Investigators began documenting
the scene to try and find out what led to Tiffiney's death.
00:34:30
Tiffany's body was
taken for an autopsy. JOE PARRISH: An autopsy
is not standard procedure
00:34:37
for a suicide. But when foul
play is suspected, one could be ordered. JULIA SHAW: Jason's mother
worked at the Sheriff's Office,
00:34:46
so the case was handed over to
the investigator, Joe Parrish, at the Alabama State
Bureau of investigations.
00:34:55
- Due to the possible
conflict and Rhonda Crawford working
at the Sheriff's Office,
00:35:01
the State Bureau
of Investigation was requested to conduct
the investigation. JULIA SHAW: But when Joe
began his investigation,
00:35:09
Tiffiney's white van had
already been released to Jason and his family. - I had to go
to the district attorney
00:35:16
and ascertain if we
could get the van back. JULIA SHAW: When investigators
finally got the van,
00:35:22
it was spotless. - All the blood was cleaned up. You could still
smell the blood,
00:35:27
but there were some
items of evidence that we did take
out of the van, such as a right-handed
Kydex paddle holster that
00:35:35
fit a revolver,
and notebook that had some handwritten notes,
and some other documentation
00:35:41
that Tiffiney Crawford
had written down. JULIA SHAW: The gun was found
in Tiffiney's left hand.
00:35:48
Her holster was right-handed. The autopsy on her
suspicious suicide also came up with
a surprise conclusion.
00:35:57
The preliminary report
concluded that Tiffiney's death was a homicide
because there wasn't one,
00:36:04
but two gunshot
wounds to her head. - Due to the two
gunshots, it's not a straightforward
case of suicide,
00:36:12
so there had to be
a further investigation. JULIA SHAW: Case agent Joe
Parrish brought Jason Crawford
00:36:19
in for an interview. He began by discussing
the state of their marriage. JOE PARRISH: The way
Jason portrayed Tiffiney,
00:36:52
that she could have
committed suicide, plus she was seeing a counselor
recently, drinking excessively,
00:37:00
and just her mental
state at the time that he portrayed
she could have been a suicide-risk person.
00:37:07
JULIA SHAW: The day
Tiffiney died, Jason had found some
messages that she had sent to her counselor.
00:37:55
Tiffiney's messages
to her counselor also revealed that she'd
been seeing another man.
00:38:01
JOE PARRISH: Jason
Crawford discovered that Tiffiney was
having an affair because he found some messages
she had left on the computer.
00:38:09
As an investigator,
if it's determined that people are having marital
problems or having an affair,
00:38:15
that could be an issue. JULIA SHAW: Larissa Johnson
is a forensic psychologist specializing in trauma therapy.
00:38:47
- He met Tiffiney
as the other man and entered into this
relationship, potentially hoping
that this was going
00:38:56
to be his forever future. And then the woman
that he was with had an extramarital affair.
00:39:04
And so you could think like,
what does that say about Jason? He might be thinking, what
does that say about me?
00:39:09
Is it that when I go
into these relationships that women take me for a fool? Why am I being used?
00:39:15
Why am I being
taken advantage of? Why can't I just be
loved and respected? And maybe he didn't want
to be disrespected anymore.
00:39:24
JULIA SHAW: Jason
explained what happened when Tiffiney arrived home. LARISSA JOHNSON:
If you are cheated on,
00:39:50
anger is not a wrong emotion,
nor is it a bad emotion. You might feel as the man
that someone has essentially
00:40:01
insulted your relationship,
disrespected your union, and disrespected you
as a man of the household.
00:40:09
And that might be in the heat
of the moment, kind of pushing forward, aggressive
and then violent and then
00:40:16
fatal behaviors. - During an interview, Jason
made his finger like a gun. And he said, I heard a shot,
a scream, and another shot.
00:41:00
But it's the motion
of his finger, and it is so consistent
the whole time he was describing it.
00:41:06
It's not like he
took his knuckle and did that on the table
to make that sound. He actually pointed
his finger like--
00:41:12
like a-- like a gun. He would had a gun in his
hand and made the sound. It could be that
subconsciously,
00:41:18
Jason was remembering
that night that he had a gun in his hand. So he was describing a shot,
a scream, and the second shot.
00:41:40
When Jason said that Tiffiney
was right-handed, not left-handed, I
thought that was odd
00:41:47
because she shot herself
in the left side of the head using her non-dominant hand.
00:42:08
JULIA SHAW: 19 days later,
Jason was brought in again, this time for a polygraph test.
00:42:14
JOE PARRISH: A polygraph test-- some people call it
a lie detector test. And that's not what
it actually is.
00:42:20
It measures
people's stress when they're answering
certain questions, and it could indicate
there's a problem
00:42:27
in that particular area. During the polygraph
examination, the examiner asked Jason
Crawford if he killed
00:42:48
his wife, Tiffiney Crawford. And it did show stress
under that question. It was a very erratic response.
00:43:04
Jason's response
to he had failed a polygraph test was that, no,
he wasn't lying about anything.
00:43:19
Jason stormed out
of the Sheriff's Office. Jason's reaction
was very angry, and it looked like it was
a different person than who
00:43:28
I'd interviewed initially. JULIA SHAW: A whole year passed
before the final autopsy report
00:43:34
and ballistics tests came in. - It takes a while to get it
because they do toxicology.
00:43:41
They do the firearms
testing and toolmarks. And they test all
the organs to determine
00:43:47
a definitive cause of death. The medical examiner
concluded there was lack of gunpowder on Tiffiney.
00:43:56
So in order not to have the
gunpowder present on your skin, the gun would have
to be an 8 to 12 inches
00:44:02
away from the target area. The reason it's a problem
for Jason's story immediately is because he said
that the van door was closed.
00:44:11
There wouldn't be a lot
of room to move the gun out. If the door was closed
and Tiffiney shot herself,
00:44:18
there should have been
some blood on the door. There wasn't blood
blowback on the door.
00:44:24
All that indicated
that Tiffiney couldn't have shot herself. So at that time,
the chief suspect
00:44:30
would be Jason Crawford,
Tiffiney's husband. JULIA SHAW: On May 21, 2018,
Jason Crawford was arrested
00:44:39
but later released on bond. Due to COVID restrictions
and other factors, the trial was delayed.
00:44:46
Five years after
Tiffiney had been killed, court proceedings
began in November 2022.
00:44:55
In court, the defense
team argued that Tiffiney had taken her own life. But when the jury
listened to the 911 call
00:45:05
and watched the body
cam footage, they realized there was a major
inconsistency between the two
00:45:11
pieces of evidence. In the 911 call, Jason said
the gun was laying beside her, but the body cam footage
showed otherwise.
00:45:40
This inconsistency
was the key factor which led the jury to find
Jason guilty of murder.
00:45:47
He was sentenced
to 99 years in prison. Under Alabama law, he'll
be eligible for parole
00:45:55
in 15 years. - I do think about it often. It was a complex case. I'm sorry for the families.
00:46:03
Just this one
incident, you know, you've had families that are
broken apart because of it.
00:46:08
AVA GLASS: Tiffiney will always
be remembered as somebody who was dedicated to her
family, who loved teaching,
00:46:14
and who just wanted
to help other people. That will be her legacy. [SOFT MUSIC]