00:00:03
NANCY GRACE: Jupiter,
Florida, 2009. Two families gather
for Thanksgiving at a beachside paradise.
00:00:10
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: Here are
17 people having a great time, eating and enjoying
being together.
00:00:16
They're laughing,
they're joking. It's just a normal, fun holiday. NANCY GRACE: Until the fun's cut
short by their worst nightmare.
00:00:25
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: The
killer puts a gun to her chest. ERIC FRANK: And there
was this loud boom.
00:00:30
[gunshot] NANCY GRACE: A
senseless shooting by a deeply depraved killer. [gunshot]
00:00:38
He said, I've been
waiting 20 years to do this. DR. KIMBERLIE
MASSNICK: It is pretty
00:00:42
much the most horrific type of
homicide that you can consider. MANNY PURI: He
chose Thanksgiving
00:00:47
because he knew everybody
was going to be there. That's just evil
in its purest form.
00:00:53
NANCY GRACE: The survivors
worry, who might be next? It was terrifying. This person disappeared.
00:01:01
We didn't know where he was. There's a killer on the loose. There goes your happy holiday.
00:01:09
[theme music] NANCY GRACE: Thanksgiving
leads up to the greatest time of the year, Christmas.
00:01:40
And it brings families
together for fun, food, laughter and good times. It's about giving thanks for
all we have and for the people
00:01:51
we love. November 26, 2009. A large extended family
gathers for Thanksgiving dinner and the upscale beach
town of Jupiter, Florida.
00:02:03
ERIC FRANK: Jupiter is kind
of like a hidden paradise. It's got a good mix of affluent,
very high end neighborhoods.
00:02:12
There's a lot of
waterfront properties here, a lot of big names
that live in Jupiter.
00:02:16
NANCY GRACE: Jupiter is also one
of the safest places in Florida to live and raise a family.
00:02:22
Jim Sitton and his wife, Muriel,
feel happy and blessed to live in this beautiful community.
00:02:27
This Thanksgiving, they're
hosting a Thanksgiving feast for 17 members of their
extended families,
00:02:35
mostly Muriel's relatives. Their daughter, six-year-old
Makayla is in her element.
00:02:40
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
We have a musical family, and probably the most musically
inclined at that moment
00:02:47
is six-year-old Makayla. ERIC FRANK: Makayla was
a very happy little girl. She was very active with
singing and dancing.
00:02:58
She was going to be
in a show, I believe, as a nutcracker show
coming up for the holidays.
00:03:05
NANCY GRACE: Raymond Joseph
and Dr. Antoine Joseph wouldn't miss the
party for the world.
00:03:11
They're Muriel
Sitton's, mom and dad, and they adored their little
granddaughter, Makayla.
00:03:17
They're laughing. They're joking in the kitchen. They're setting up. Here are 17 people
having a great time,
00:03:24
eating and enjoying
being together. NANCY GRACE: Carol Merhige,
who's Dr. Joseph's sister
00:03:32
is there also with
her husband, Michael Merhige and their children. Two families brought
together by marriage,
00:03:41
enjoy each other's company
with other friends. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: The
guys are sitting on the couch
00:03:47
watching TV and eating, and the
women are all in the kitchen, so it's just a
normal, fun holiday.
00:03:59
NANCY GRACE: And then
it's all destroyed. [gunshot] NANCY GRACE: This
peaceful holiday suddenly
00:04:04
shattered with a 911 call. So, Thanksgiving 2009,
it was home with my family. We had our Thanksgiving
dinner and all.
00:04:26
The phone rings. [phone ringing] ERIC FRANK: Hey,
we have a homicide. We have multiple victims.
00:04:33
We need you in here. And I remember clearly
sitting up in bed saying, you're kidding, right?
00:04:38
How many? When you get a phone
call like that, it definitely gets your
adrenaline pumping.
00:04:45
Time to get it together
and game on now. [sirens wailing] ERIC FRANK: When I get on scene,
it was very quickly established
00:04:53
that it was a shooting. We have multiple
gunshot victims. NANCY GRACE:
Sergeant Eric Frank's
00:04:58
briefed by first responders. ERIC FRANK: When the initial
officers responded to the scene,
00:05:05
they didn't know at
that point in time if the shooter was still
in the residence or not.
00:05:09
There was no time to call SWAT. So when they entered that house,
it was a very dynamic entry.
00:05:15
They're charging in to try
to neutralize that shooter if he's still there. In this case, he was not.
00:05:23
And they changed over to
immediately start rendering aid. An active shooter
in Jupiter, Florida
00:05:30
catches the media's
attention and the news spreads like wildfire. ERIC FRANK: There's already a
media area being set up aside.
00:05:40
The proverbial crime scene tape. The area is up. Everyone sees the
crime scene tape.
00:05:45
They know something's happening. MICHELLE SUSKAUER: Jim
Sitton worked for a long time
00:05:50
at our local NBC affiliate. He was one of our own. This was personal. ERIC FRANK: We had 17
people in this house.
00:06:02
Three are dead here. Two are at the hospital. We have an unknown shooter. My next step was then
getting as many bodies
00:06:10
as I can to assist me,
calling out as many detectives and agents, as I can. Because now, as the primary
detective on that scene,
00:06:18
I now have to be, for
lack of better terms, a conductor of the orchestra. NANCY GRACE: During the chaos,
Jupiter Police find out Jim
00:06:27
and Muriel Sitton
are the homeowners, and the victims are their
guests and family members.
00:06:34
So where is everyone? Sergeant Erik Frank enters
the home to find out. ERIC FRANK: We need
to walk the scene
00:06:41
and see exactly
what we have inside and where we need
to go from there. From what's inside the house
tells us what we need to do.
00:06:51
On the floor, in the doorway of
the kitchen is where Carla was, and she was still there.
00:06:55
She was deceased. NANCY GRACE: 33-year-old
Carla Merhige is the twin sister of Lisa Knight.
00:07:02
She's a child
advocate who recently took a job working with
adolescents in foster care.
00:07:08
ERIC FRANK: When you go
into the kitchen area, you transition into
that living room area.
00:07:12
There's a sliding glass
door that's standing open. One of the things that you can
see on the floor in this tile
00:07:18
floor, there's blood. We followed that blood trail
out of the sliding glass door.
00:07:28
And on the side of the house
there is where we have one of the other victims who's
deceased, and she's still there,
00:07:33
is Lisa. NANCY GRACE: Lisa Knight has an
MBA and works with her mother at Coldwell Banker.
00:07:39
She's Carla's twin sister
and singing partner. They perform at Miami's juvenile
lockup together at Christmas.
00:07:47
She obviously was shot
inside the residence and she's able to make
it outside the residence,
00:07:52
but she collapses outside
and dies on scene. NANCY GRACE: Lisa's husband,
Patrick Knight, also shot.
00:08:00
ERIC FRANK: You have the
living room where Patrick fell, where it was determined
that Patrick was shot
00:08:04
right there in the kitchen. NANCY GRACE: Patrick
Knight's still alive and rushed to the hospital.
00:08:11
And there's one
more victim clinging to life, a little angel who's
life above all others should
00:08:20
be saved. It's Sitton's beautiful
six-year-old little girl, Makayla. ERIC FRANK: I walked
in Makayla's room.
00:08:31
You can see right away
it's a little girl's room. All the little girl stuff that's
on there, the stuffed animals
00:08:38
and things like that. And you can see the
bullet casing on the bed. And the blood on the bed.
00:08:49
When you know that a
child has been harmed. A child has been shot. Makes you wonder why.
00:08:55
Why would you do
this to a child. And it raises that level
of we're going to get you.
00:09:01
You don't mess with children. We need to find
out who did this. NANCY GRACE: Who would carry out
such a deplorable act, and no
00:09:11
less a Thanksgiving dinner? [intriguing music] NANCY GRACE: Thanksgiving is
a holiday we all anticipate
00:09:22
with much enthusiasm. Everyone takes
time off from work and a few days often
expand to an entire week.
00:09:30
It's a time to relax,
make and eat great food, and enjoy family. Put differences aside and
celebrate togetherness.
00:09:41
It's not supposed to be
a time for a 911 call. But in 2009, that's exactly what
happens in Jupiter, Florida.
00:09:48
[ominuous music] NANCY GRACE: A
bloodbath shatters this year's Thanksgiving for the
Sitton and marriage families.
00:09:57
It also rocks the peaceful
town of Jupiter, Florida. ERIC FRANK: How did this start,
and how did it come to this
00:10:05
where we are now with
the everyone who was shot and deceased in the residence? What led up to this?
00:10:13
We have interviews going on in
the house, across the street, in the different rooms, and now
we have to put all that together
00:10:20
of what we saw in
the scene and to what it matches with what the
witnesses and the victims
00:10:27
are telling us. The family was set to gather at
this house, 3:30, 4:00 that day.
00:10:37
They were all there. Patrick, Carol, Lisa,
Raymonde and all the other family members.
00:10:44
It's just a typical holiday
that you or I or anybody else would probably have if we
came from a large family.
00:10:54
Where do families
always gather when you're at a family gathering? The kitchen. And that's what happened here.
00:11:03
And the family starts
to do the sing-alongs for the holidays,
the Christmas tunes.
00:11:10
Six-year-old Makayla is more
than happy to show her family what she's doing the next day.
00:11:18
She is going to be featured
in "The Nutcracker." She's one of the
youngest ballet dancers
00:11:23
for this particular company,
and so she's dancing and she's twirling and
not a care in the world,
00:11:29
and she's absolutely adorable. [soft music] And then, as typical,
at the end of the night,
00:11:39
everyone stands up. And it's time to
start leaving now. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: So as
they're getting ready to leave,
00:11:47
somebody comes to the door. [tense music] [gunshots] ERIC FRANK: What everyone
says is all of a sudden,
00:11:57
there's this loud boom. And some people describe it
as they thought something had
00:12:01
dropped, something had fallen. They didn't realize at that
point that it was a gunshot.
00:12:07
Carla takes a couple stagger
steps and then she drops. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
And after Carla falls,
00:12:14
you have Patrick Knight. ERIC FRANK: The round that
hits him goes through him, hits the wall.
00:12:21
He drops there. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
People are trying to figure out what's going on.
00:12:25
Lisa tries to crawl away. She is trying to escape. [gunshots] We're pretty sure that
that's where Lisa was shot.
00:12:38
And based on that blood trail
is where she drops to the floor and begins to crawl.
00:12:43
And then the trail goes outside,
where Lisa finally fell. Another family
member, Clifford,
00:12:54
is now the next victim. [gunshots] ERIC FRANK: There were
two, maybe three shots.
00:12:59
Clifford had a graze wound
on the inside of his arm. As he's now turning
and running out,
00:13:05
everyone's trying to run
out that sliding glass door from the family room. [tense music]
00:13:10
[gunshot] The next person to be caught
up in this chaotic event would be the mother
of the host, Raymonde.
00:13:22
It's chaos. ERIC FRANK: She was
actually still seated. There's a row of chairs
that's on the side.
00:13:31
As he's walking
in, he stands over her and shoots her
in the shoulder and she drops to the floor.
00:13:42
Her husband and one of the
other guests that was there were leaning over her as
she's on the floor there.
00:13:50
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
As she is receiving aid from her husband in an
attempt to save her,
00:13:55
the killer puts a gun to her
chest and pulls the trigger. [gunshot] DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: And make
sure there's no other outcome.
00:14:03
So not only does he rob
her of any chance of life, but he just did that in
front of her husband.
00:14:15
ERIC FRANK: This is when
he turns, points the gun at her husband, pulls the
trigger, does not go off,
00:14:24
racks it as he's walking,
pulls it again, does not shoot. He racks it again. And now he walks back
out through the kitchen.
00:14:35
He did go back to his
vehicle and retrieved a second firearm, which
we later determined
00:14:40
to be a 38 caliber revolver. This was the gun that he
used to execute Makayla. An act that you can't
explain is a killer
00:14:52
walking into a child's room
and shooting this child, who may or may not have survived.
00:15:00
[intriguing music] What this scene shows
us, the level of aggression and how dangerous
this person can be.
00:15:13
It just shows the levels
of depravity that he has. And one of the even
more tragic things
00:15:20
that we found in
the course of this was that Lisa was pregnant
with Patrick's unborn child.
00:15:25
So now you have another unspoken
victim for this entire tragedy. An unborn child is
now tragically added
00:15:35
to a senseless list of victims. Even more bizarre is the
identity of the shooter.
00:15:41
He's someone known to all
the victims, a family member who catches them all off guard.
00:15:49
ERIC FRANK: The shooter
was very quickly established as a
family member who was identified as Paul Merhige.
00:15:57
NANCY GRACE: Paul
Merhige is the son of Carol and Michael
Merhige, the brother of slain
00:16:02
twin sisters, Carla and Lisa. He's not supposed to come to
dinner, but at the last moment
00:16:09
he calls his dad,
Michael, for directions. ERIC FRANK: He hadn't
been to this house before.
00:16:14
He officially wasn't
really even invited, from what we find out later. It was something that had
been mentioned to his dad,
00:16:22
and dad said, it would be
great to see you kind of thing. NANCY GRACE: Paul's uncle,
Dr. Joseph tells police
00:16:27
a disturbing thing Paul said to
him during the shooting spree. ERIC FRANK: After
Paul shot Raymonde,
00:16:34
he then turned fire
him on to Dr. Joseph and pulled the trigger,
the weapon jammed.
00:16:42
And Dr. Joseph told us he looked
back and Paul said, "I've been waiting 20 years to do this."
00:16:51
[intriguing music] NANCY GRACE: For most
families, Thanksgiving dinner is a wonderful
event where they get
00:17:04
to spend time with the
people they love the most. For others, there
can be one relative
00:17:11
they hope doesn't show up. That's what happens to one
extended family in Jupiter,
00:17:17
Florida, Thanksgiving, 2009. The unwanted relative
is Paul Merhige. He hasn't been to a family
gathering for years.
00:17:26
Now, he arrives with
evil on his mind. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
You have an individual
00:17:34
that actually came into
a major family holiday and wiped out family. Familicide is pretty much the
most horrific type of homicide
00:17:47
that you can consider. This was evil. Just evil. It definitely heightens the need
to capture him because somebody
00:17:58
can go kill his own family. He could kill anybody. NANCY GRACE: Jupiter Police
released Paul Merhige's name
00:18:03
to the media. An arrest warrant has been
issued for a Florida man suspected of shooting
family members
00:18:09
after a Thanksgiving party. US Marshals have joined
the search for 35-year-old Paul Michael Merhige.
00:18:15
He's believed to
be armed and was last seen driving
away from the home where the attack took place.
00:18:22
MANNY PURI: This is a
guy who's been on the run for less than 24 hours. You try to get as much
information as possible
00:18:30
so you can try to predetermine
where he's going to go. Who's he going to contact.
00:18:36
He fled in a 2007 Toyota Camry. We got that information and
we learned that he traveled
00:18:45
southbound on the Turnpike. So these are hot
leads that we got to try to investigate quickly.
00:18:51
We try to get cameras
on the Turnpike. If he had a phone number. So we can track the phone.
00:18:57
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
Florida is so easy to go in any direction, to move
very quickly and not be seen.
00:19:06
It's a very transient state. Is he going to be
laying in wait for you and tell you to give
him a ride someplace?
00:19:14
How do you know that
Paul's not in the crowd of people that are out there? NANCY GRACE: The trail for
Paul Merhige goes cold.
00:19:22
MANNY PURI: The cameras that
are all over the Turnpike were not filming, they
were just live cameras.
00:19:28
So we could not get a
direction of when he exited or when he got on. SunPass, tolls.
00:19:37
None of that was
available to us. Because there was
only live filming. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
can't catch a solid lead.
00:19:46
All they have is Paul Merhige's
vehicle make and model, and that he's last seen
heading south on I-95.
00:19:54
MICHELLE SUSKAUER:
It was terrifying. This was a mass shooting in our
backyard with the shooter who
00:20:05
disappeared. NANCY GRACE: While US Marshals
hunt for Paul Merhige, Jupiter detectives
investigate his background.
00:20:12
They want to know what kind of
person would do this and why. Who is Paul Merhige?
00:20:19
What they learn is
deeply disturbing. When Paul was younger,
he appeared to be just
00:20:28
your average normal person. No issues. No drama. Very much the go-to
guy in high school.
00:20:37
Everybody liked him. He had plans to
go off to college. He was a good looking
guy, and very charismatic,
00:20:45
and he came from
a wealthy family. In the 70s, the 80s, when
he was growing up, he gets
00:20:51
put through a private school. He lives in an
affluent neighborhood. He has the world at his feet.
00:21:00
But when we go
through his history, he does have mental
health issues. For whatever reason,
there's a family argument,
00:21:08
and he's only 13
years old, but he pulls a gun and
nobody in the family even knew he had a weapon.
00:21:15
He went around the
country to some very prestigious mental health
centers for specific diagnoses.
00:21:22
He was also diagnosed
with depression. Now, depression
can manifest itself in a bunch of different ways.
00:21:28
It doesn't necessarily mean
that you're sitting in a corner and you're crying. It can manifest in anger.
00:21:34
NANCY GRACE: Paul
Merhige's parents seek treatment and
medication for their son,
00:21:39
but they're helpless. His mental health
continues to disintegrate. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
Paul goes off to college,
00:21:46
and he has what his mother
calls a mental breakdown at 19. He's on his own. And there's nobody there to
make sure he takes medicine
00:21:56
or to make sure he
feels comfortable or to explain anything for him. For the first time, Paul
has to do it all on his own.
00:22:04
And he doesn't. And so he fell apart. He fails out of college. His parents actually
buy him a condo
00:22:14
and provide him a
permanent housekeeper. At one point in time, Paul
actually tells his therapist,
00:22:22
I think I should move back home. My parents moved me out. If I have to suffer,
they should suffer, too.
00:22:28
NANCY GRACE: It seems
Paul Merhige blames his own family for
his unhappiness and for his fragile
mental state.
00:22:36
He becomes deeply
resentful of his older twin sisters, who are successful
and happy with their lives.
00:22:43
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK:
When Paul was younger, he idolized his sisters. He said it quite often
that I am so lucky,
00:22:50
I have the most amazing sisters. I have the best relationship. And then, all of a
sudden that changed.
00:22:57
Several years go by
and then lo and behold, Carla turns around and files for
a protective order against him
00:23:04
and is granted that order. He lunged at her with a knife. He said specifically, he
was going to slit her throat
00:23:11
and kill her. NANCY GRACE: It's
clear, Paul Merhige has a diabolical agenda when
he shows up for Thanksgiving
00:23:19
at the last minute. [intriguing music] DR. KIMBERLIE
MASSNICK: His father is the one that invited
him or facilitated
00:23:27
him getting to Thanksgiving
dinner that day. He was not invited to
Thanksgiving the year before.
00:23:33
He was told the year
before by the uncle, you're not welcome here. So he was not invited and
the father abided by that.
00:23:42
However, this year, the father
decides that maybe it'll be OK. So imagine their surprise
when they opened the door.
00:23:58
The Sittons weren't
real happy when they were the hosts of this event. This family get together.
00:24:02
And somebody they didn't
invite was now there. He didn't partake in
any food, but he did sit.
00:24:09
And he was talking with some
family on the back patio at some point in
the living room,
00:24:14
he was talking with
other family members. There were no indications. Everyone we talked to
there were no indications
00:24:20
that this was about to occur. As Paul gets
there, everybody's a little bit on
edge, but then things
00:24:27
seem to calm down a little bit. He does participate
when the family starts to do the sing-alongs for the
holidays, the Christmas tunes,
00:24:35
and little Makayla
is dancing around. Paul's there for three
hours before he decides,
00:24:45
OK, now's the time. He was very jealous of the fact
that other people had normalcy.
00:24:53
He is jealous of his sisters. Makayla, the little
six-year-old. She got a lot of
attention that night.
00:25:01
The family loved and adored her. She's a child. And she got to show off and
be the center of attention.
00:25:08
That probably didn't
play well in Paul's book. And so it's almost right after
that that the mood shifts
00:25:18
and Paul decides it's time to
do what Paul's going to do. "I've been waiting
20 years to do this."
00:25:28
My personal opinion
is that he chose Thanksgiving because he knew
everybody was going to be there.
00:25:32
What better place to
get everyone together? He wanted everybody together. And he knew everybody would be
there, including his parents.
00:25:41
And he did not attempt
to kill his parents. He wanted his parents to see. He wanted his parents to suffer.
00:25:49
NANCY GRACE: Three
victims now dead, two others fighting for their
lives, including little Makayla.
00:25:57
We had sent
multiple detectives to do interviews and such. And one of those detectives was
also sent to the hospital down
00:26:04
in West Palm to attempt to
one, interview the victims, if possible, and two, also
gather evidence from them,
00:26:13
clothing, whatever
else may be recovered. The detective called
and said at that point
00:26:19
that when he got there that
Makayla who had been flown down by helicopter,
had been declared
00:26:26
deceased at the hospital. [somber music] My next job was then
to tell Jim and Muriel
00:26:35
that their daughter was dead. NANCY GRACE: What
type of monster would target an innocent,
precious six-year-old
00:26:44
little girl? MANNY PURI: He switched to
another gun to continue it. So this was evil.
00:26:55
This is a guy that
we definitely need to catch and bring to justice. [tense music]
00:27:08
NANCY GRACE:
Resentment runs deep for relatives who feel alienated
and excluded from family.
00:27:14
In the case of Paul Merhige,
resentment turns into something malignant and dangerous.
00:27:20
[intriguing music] NANCY GRACE: The
Merhige family massacre and the cold blooded execution
of a six-year-old little girl,
00:27:30
Makayla, Thanksgiving,
2009 is pure evil. And now, a maniac
is on the loose. Police must find him.
00:27:42
There is nothing more
important than finding Paul. He had already
killed four people.
00:27:49
He had tried to kill multiple
other people at that residence. So the propensity for violence
was very high with him.
00:27:57
We needed to find him,
and we needed to find him as fast as we could. We have to get into his mind to
find out what is he thinking.
00:28:06
Where is he potentially
going to go. MANNY PURI: The only way
to be a successful fugitive
00:28:14
is to abandon everything
you know and who you know. And that is the only way you're
going to stay on the run.
00:28:21
Because as soon as
you contact somebody you know or you go
someplace that you have gone before, the jig is
up, you're going to be caught.
00:28:31
ERIC FRANK: Search
warrants were conducted at his residence in Miami. What they found in the
course of the search
00:28:38
warrants is that Paul,
leading up to this, started destroying
his computers. He removed the hard
drives from his computers.
00:28:47
He was pre-planning this. He was ready to run, right up
to the day of this incident.
00:28:53
And he did just that. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
focus on digital trails like ATM visits that Paul
Merhige may leave behind.
00:29:04
They're hoping for clues
as to his next move. ERIC FRANK: As we're going
into the bank accounts,
00:29:10
we're seeing that this is
something Paul was planning. Every day he would
go to an ATM and he
00:29:15
would take money out from these
ATMs, different bank ATMs. The day before
Thanksgiving, he goes
00:29:23
to a bank and takes out a huge
amount of money, $10,000 plus. We received a phone call
from a gentleman who
00:29:33
owned a gun store
in Fort Lauderdale, and he said he had
seen the story. He saw Paul's name and photo
on the news and the reason
00:29:42
he was calling, because he
said this guy was just here to purchase multiple firearms,
several handguns, I believe,
00:29:50
as well as a Remington 700,
which is a sniper rifle. What SWAT teams
and military use.
00:30:01
He then went to
a nearby Bass Pro Shop and they had 22 caliber
rifle and of Ruger 1022,
00:30:09
I believe that was there. And ammunition. Adding more to his inventory. Obviously, we knew he was armed.
00:30:18
We started learning
how well armed he was. All this is telling
us, he's building up.
00:30:25
This plan is going to happen. There's no argument. There's no question. This was 100% premeditated.
00:30:31
This is someone who knew
exactly what he was doing. NANCY GRACE: The
family's terrified.
00:30:36
Paul Merhige will return
to finish what he started. At this point, we
don't know where Paul is,
00:30:42
so we want to make
sure they're safe. So we gave them
24 hour protection starting right then and there.
00:30:50
There was a memorial service
that was held by the family for all the victims. So all the family was together.
00:30:56
We had counter-sniper
team set up just in case he was going to
show up to try to take
00:31:02
out additional family members. We didn't know. NANCY GRACE: Sure
enough, a member
00:31:06
of Paul Merhige's family
calls police in a panic, certain Paul is in his building.
00:31:13
We had a tip from
a relative that was residing in a condo
complex/hotel complex,
00:31:18
the DoubleTree. Investigators didn't hesitate
to jump on a tip out of Miami, dispatching dozens of
officers to a popular hotel.
00:31:25
Police, SWAT teams and US
Marshals moved in last night surrounding the
DoubleTree Grand Hotel
00:31:30
and condominium after
a man spotted someone who looked like Merhige. Tourists and locals
were caught off guard
00:31:36
by the large police presence. We basically locked down a
two block area and we evacuated.
00:31:44
We just thought
that oh, this is it. He came back. He's coming to finish the job.
00:31:48
The relative had told us
where he had seen the suspect. I proceeded to the security
office to review video footage.
00:31:59
It wasn't Merhige on the film. The days, countdown to
Christmas and still no sign
00:32:08
of Paul Merhige. ERIC FRANK: There was no
activity on the bank accounts. There were no
activity on his phone.
00:32:16
We didn't know if he was going
to try to flee the country or if he already had
fled the country.
00:32:21
We exhausted all the leads
we could with known associates, with phone records,
bank statements.
00:32:28
Everything we could do on
a paper trail was done. You have to start changing the
way you're going to conduct
00:32:35
the investigation because he's
not doing the typical things normal fugitive is going to do.
00:32:41
So you have to start
changing your way of thinking and planning about how
you're going to capture him.
00:32:46
NANCY GRACE: Jupiter
Police and the US Marshals turned to the
media for assistance
00:32:50
in a national manhunt. So now I took
the stance of I've got to flood the media
with this guy's picture.
00:32:59
REPORTER: Palm
Beach County State's attorney's office
has issued a warrant for four counts of murder.
00:33:05
US Marshals have joined
the search for 35-year-old Paul Michael Merhige. He's believed to be armed.
00:33:10
He was last seen driving
away from the home where the attack took place. Anything I could find
on him, I was going
00:33:16
to put on TV, on newspapers. I needed the public's
help, the media's help to flush this guy out,
to get him nervous
00:33:25
for him to make a mistake. REPORTER: US Marshals
now offering a $10,000 reward for information leading
to the arrest of this man here.
00:33:33
MANNY PURI: We used
billboards, which was a new thing at the time. Every time the media
would call and wanted
00:33:39
to do an interview with me
for an update, I did it. So it was always on the
news, almost every day.
00:33:45
REPORTER: I'm curious, though,
why he hasn't been caught, because usually this
kind of publicity,
00:33:50
this amount it gets the suspect. REPORTER 2: Take a look at these
pictures of the man who police
00:33:56
say fatally shot
four of his relatives on Thanksgiving, including his
cousin's six-year-old daughter.
00:34:01
These pictures are from
an ATM taken November, 22. Several days before the murders.
00:34:06
You had print media,
you had national media and you had local media. While the suspect
allegedly targeted his family
00:34:14
based on years of
resentment, police are now worried that
he's so desperate he'd
00:34:18
be willing to turn the gun on
anyone who tried to capture him. There was an intense
interest for the country
00:34:25
to see what was going
to happen and what was going to be written
in this final chapter
00:34:30
of this terrible story. [intriguing music] ERIC FRANK: We're
approaching Christmas now.
00:34:37
We're putting his face out
there, his name out there. There's very few people who did
not know what was happening.
00:34:45
For the family,
though, everyone has to remember they're all still
under 24 hour protection
00:34:51
from the Jupiter
Police Department. The stress levels,
I could tell you, in that house were immense,
because they don't know
00:34:57
what's the potential to happen. We don't know where he is. Is he going to come
back on Christmas now?
00:35:10
NANCY GRACE: It's been almost
five weeks since Paul Merhige unleashed horror on his own
family and he can't be found.
00:35:17
Four of his relatives are dead. One in a coma, clinging to life. Christmas, 2009 passes.
00:35:27
Then, New Year's
2010 comes and goes. Paul Merhige still at large. Investigators now turn to the
TV show "America's Most Wanted",
00:35:39
hoping for help from the public. ERIC FRANK: "America's
Most Wanted" ran several versions of it.
00:35:45
They were huge in helping
us, putting the word out there to the world of
who Paul Merhige was
00:35:53
and that we wanted him. MANNY PURI: So me
and Detective Erik Frank flew up to DC for the
"America's Most Wanted" show.
00:36:02
They were going to air a piece
that we had filmed on January, 2nd. And what happens is the case
investigators go up prior
00:36:11
to the show being
aired, and they talk to the
operators, the people who actually answer the phones.
00:36:16
And what we do is we give
them pieces of information that the public doesn't have.
00:36:20
So, you know if an operator
raises your hand or something and they're getting a
piece of information
00:36:25
that the public doesn't
know, it's a hot tip. It's good because the
public doesn't know it.
00:36:32
Me and Eric had sat
down for dinner with two of the producers,
and we just ordered,
00:36:39
and one of the "Americas'
Most Wanted" operators calls me on the phone. Now, this is roughly 6:30
and the show hasn't aired.
00:36:53
And the person is saying
that we've got a tip. I was shocked on why
am I getting a tip now.
00:36:59
NANCY GRACE: The tip is
from a couple who own a motel in Long Key, Florida. And she told me that the hotel
owners were watching the college
00:37:08
football game and saw a
commercial of "Americas' Most Wanted", what was going to air.
00:37:13
When this commercial
came up for the show, and it flashed a
picture of Paul on there
00:37:19
and the vehicle, possible
description, they freaked out. MANNY PURI: I called
the owners of the hotel
00:37:28
and they started telling
me that they recognized him from the commercial, and
that he's been in the hotel
00:37:34
and his car is in the parking
lot, but has a tarp on it. Now, they went and lifted
up this tarp, which
00:37:43
I did not tell them to
do, because we don't want to put them in danger. And they came back
with a license plate
00:37:48
and I nudged Eric and I
said, run this tag for me while I'm talking and
getting more information.
00:37:55
NANCY GRACE: The license plate
is in the system as an expired tag registered to
none other than Paul's
00:38:01
father, Michael Merhige. Now, alarms go off. Now I know it's the real deal. NANCY GRACE: US
Marshal Manny Puri
00:38:12
calls his office in Key West. I said you need to head to
mile marker 67 on the highway
00:38:19
and get eyes on. ERIC FRANK: Local
sheriffs were called. They set up roadblocks
immediately on the island.
00:38:27
We had an army coming. Marshals, detectives, local
agencies, sheriff's office. Everyone was coming to
set up to make sure he
00:38:36
did not escape that island. They very slowly, quietly
started evacuating everyone
00:38:44
from the surrounding rooms. They're going to get this
extremely dangerous person.
00:38:50
We don't know what
we're sending them into. We knew that Paul has this
huge amount of firepower.
00:38:55
What's going to happen? MANNY PURI: They got
there and they put eyes on and he was still inside.
00:39:00
They could see the light. They could see
him moving around. And they're getting
the operations plan
00:39:04
together, which is
setting up a perimeter, getting the entry team. How are they going
to make entry.
00:39:09
All the tactical decisions
you need to make. Remember, the man is
armed and dangerous.
00:39:13
[tense music] Authorities
surround the motel. They don't know if Paul
Merhige has detected them yet.
00:39:22
And they went through
the sliding glass door. They did a rake and break,
and they threw a flashbang in
00:39:28
and they got him
running to the bathroom. There were several
weapons in the house,
00:39:32
but he didn't get to them. He wasn't compliant
and he was tased and he was handcuffed
and brought out.
00:39:38
Everything was done
perfectly because he had no idea were outside his door. NANCY GRACE: Paul Merhige
is now in the custody
00:40:11
of US Marshals who transport
him back to Jupiter. The question remains,
how has he eluded
00:40:17
authorities for five weeks? Once Paul was arrested, his
hotel room was now sealed.
00:40:23
And that was a
search warrant was executed to get all the property
and all the evidence in there.
00:40:28
And part of what we
wanted to do with that was to see where did Paul go,
how did he end up in this room.
00:40:34
NANCY GRACE: The motel owners
tell investigators Paul paid cash for the room six
months before the murders,
00:40:42
and he checks in shortly
after Thanksgiving. ERIC FRANK: He basically was at
that hotel from only a couple
00:40:49
of days after this occurred,
till right to the day we arrested him. Our belief is that we put
this out there to the world
00:40:57
so quickly, and with such
volume of keeping this on the front lines of the
media and the front page
00:41:06
of every newspaper, that it
forced him to go to ground, and hopefully that it did save
any other family members' lives
00:41:14
if he was going
to go after anyone because everyone was on alert. Florida was on alert.
00:41:19
The nation was on alert. MICHELLE SUSKAUER: But for this
media blast, who knows if he
00:41:28
ever would have been captured. And the media really was
the hero in this case, in making sure that the
shooter was brought to justice
00:41:39
and was captured before he
could hurt or kill anyone else. NANCY GRACE: Paul Merhige's
surviving relatives
00:41:46
relieved he's
finally in custody, but it's a bittersweet
consolation. The fear of him
being out there
00:41:53
and coming to kill
him maybe is over. But nothing brings back Makayla. Nothing brings back
the people they lost.
00:42:00
The memories are still there. NANCY GRACE: Two months
after Paul Merhige's capture,
00:42:05
Patrick Knight
wakes from his coma. To him, this was
still the very next day. He did not know of anyone
else who had gotten shot.
00:42:16
He had no knowledge of this
because he was in a coma. Patrick had no idea that his
wife and unborn child were dead.
00:42:25
Michael and Carol not only
lost their daughter Lisa, their unborn
grandchild, and Carla,
00:42:32
they also lost their son, Paul. They lost their entire family
in one disastrous moment.
00:42:42
The Sitton family wants the
death penalty for Paul Merhige but prosecutors believe
his mental health
00:42:47
history makes that
almost impossible, so they offer a plea deal. Seven consecutive
life sentences,
00:42:57
one for each murder and
attempted murder, with no right to appeal. Paul Merhige takes the deal.
00:43:06
MICHELLE SUSKAUER: Life
in Florida is life. There's no parole,
meaning you're sentenced.
00:43:13
The only way you get
out is feet first. So it was effectively over. [soft music]
00:43:19
MICHELLE SUSKAUER: If
there was ever an ability to have any semblance of
closure, having him sentenced,
00:43:27
done and goodbye would be it. How do you get past something
that's impossible to get past?
00:43:39
NANCY GRACE: Michael Merhige
is the only family member still in contact with Paul.
00:43:46
We all hope that in time
with new children, new family members, new traditions, new
values, that they too can
00:43:56
once again have Thanksgiving. And it just be Thanksgiving. ERIC FRANK: One of the
most important things
00:44:05
as an investigator in
dealing with homicide is to get justice
for those victims.
00:44:14
And in this case, to get
justice for Lisa, for Carla, for Raymonde, but
also for Makayla,
00:44:21
who was executed at
six years of age, not being able to live her life. That's what was important.
00:44:30
And that's what we did
to put Paul Merhige away. It doesn't define
what Thanksgiving is.
00:44:37
He's going to die in jail. And the family
has their justice. [soft music] It said that no
feeling runs more deeply
00:44:51
than love within a family. In the case of one extended
family, the opposite is true.
00:44:58
Hate run as deep as
the evil that drove it, and the consequences are tragic. I'm Nancy Grace.
00:45:08
Thank you for joining us here
on "The Christmas Killings." [suspenseful music]