Ashley was a wild and funny Texan who everyone seemed to love caring loving compassionate so why did she have this strange premonition ashle she always felt like she was going to die in the call came on Black Friday she said Ashley's apartment's on fire when the corner pulled up my heart broke and this fire was no accident they had conducted surveillance at hash's apartment they're going back to the place where Ashley worked yes sir they were going after tens of thousands of dollars but was mone
y the only motive or was there something else there are a lot of rumors going around that ended up being true couldn't believe that somebody could do that to her just pure evil here's Keith Morrison with Black [Music] Friday a Hot August Night in Texas 2014 the loan figure knew where to go knew where the store kept the cash grabbed $188,000 and was gone but it was only money and no one got hurt not that time anyway The Story begins here in Fort Worth Texas which turned out to be the perfect grow
growing up plays for a rough and tumble free spirit named Ashley Harris I was around 10 when she was born and so perfect age to pretend she was my baby Melissa Hill is Ashley's eldest sister she marched to a beat of a Different Drum she um would wear just things that did not match her hair was just didn't seem combed you know she was never the little princess no no there were three girls in the family Ashley was the baby their mom Monica remembers how Ashley loved Sports and music and art and b
ingo it was our mom and daughter bonding time and she'd just get all giddy and excited by the time she got to high school Ashley had lots of friends even a boyfriend and she was devoted to her two dads her father Tommy and her stepfather Chuck but both retired police officers didn't she talk at one point about getting into actually your line of work she was interested in policing I think that she took unique interest in it but after high school she ended up working for a short time at Blockbuste
r Video and that's where she met a customer named Laura L and I walked around the store for a little bit and just kept looking at her cuz she's so beautiful Laura wanted to meet the girl behind the counter they became friends and then something more we hung out for a few months like eight months before it ever really got there by that she means she and Ashley fell in love it was a a lot of growing up she had to work through her feelings being gay isn't necessarily an easy thing and it definitely
wasn't easy 14 15 years ago oh no it wasn't was there a coming out period during which she sort of I believe it was 2014 she come over to the house and she goes mama I got something to tell you and Chuck I just wanted you to know that I was gay and I said well Ashley I already knew it but you need to give me some space I need some time so Monica took some time prayed about it came to this conclusion I can't imagine God given me this child and living with her and raising her that he would want m
e to stop loving her wouldn't make any sense at all yet for a long while Monica wasn't comfortable with Ashley's new relationship though Laura said she and Ashley were good together she was just always very giving and very what else can I do for you to make you happy the romance lasted more than 3 years then it was over but they remained friends and Laura remembers how happy Ashley was when she started working at American Eagle Outfitters at the Hulan Mall in Fort Worth how she loved it she was
an assistant manager and good at it said her boss Chris cravy just her personality caring loving compassionate she just loved life yeah and she loved taking videos of her life lots of them at work I'm extremely tired and this right here is not even helping look at my eyes it's horrible she had this laugh it was so infectious they weren't all like that however employee Lindsey green said another assistant manager Carter was very different from Ashley she taught me how to love myself to a point Ca
rter just taught me work rated things not a jokester right but Ashley polar opposite and popular this is what cole looks like I'm so good so work was going well her love life not so much and then one night Ashley went out with friends and April Moffett was there and I was their waitress and she was having a bad night and uh try I was trying to TR to pull her out of her shell she wasn't having it so I just fine April gave up on her grumpy customer until months later they connected on social media
they met for a dog walk Ashley brought her dog Nala April brought Cooper and everyone clicked what was it like when you first started going out with her she has a magnetic like force to her like it's hard to not instantly love her so by the summer of 2014 life was good for Ashley her social life her job though she did hit a bump of sorts in August when someone stole 18 Grand from the store save and it was Ashley who realized the theft had occurred and reported it to you cor she even helped ID T
he Suspect with her interest in police work ashle thought she might have a calling here she wanted to um go on to lost revention and work for our home office at American Eagle she was 31 she had all kinds of plans but on the morning after Thanksgiving Black Friday the biggest shopping day of the year Chris cra's phone rang at home it was our other assistant manager saying Chris Ashley's apartment's on fire and we can't get her on the phone I threw clothes on as fast I could get started driving t
o Fort Worth and followed the smoke Trail and the sirens coming up no one would have guessed where that trail would eventually lead we were asking um if we could talk to Ashley or where she was at they just said that she's unavailable right now when dat line continues it was the morning after Thanksgiving Black Friday Laura love had only one thing on her mind Black Friday was my favorite day of the year I'm I love to shop and save money but Laura's Black Friday was about to turn very dark indeed
I got a call from a friend of ours and she said at Ashley's apartment's on fire Ashley's friends arrived at her apartment parking lot to something like chaos there was multiple police cars crime scene was there for wor detective Jerry sadio and his partner Ernie P sped over there too there was a um a crowd that was starting to gather uh next thing you know we have about 40 to 50 friends and family and co-workers um and then we had residents that were just you know looking from balconies so we h
ad quite a crowd out here but now firefighters had squelched the flames and the detectives walked up the steps to Ashley's door when you went into that apartment what was that like it was um it was very disturbing a woman's lifeless body was lying face down on the bedroom floor we waited until she was turned over and we got a good look at her face and she was also identified by some of the tattoos and then they knew the victim had her name tattooed on her rib cage Ashley Harris outside Ashley's
friends were totally in the dark we were asking um if we could talk to Ashley or where she was at they just said that she's on a LA right now Ashley's boss Chris cravy had just arrived and was trying to get some answers for a couple hours we just assumed that she was being taken care of and while they waited for information investigators were realizing this was no accident it was obvious that she had been beaten due to the amount of blood that we found and then we observed that her arms were bou
nd behind her back and her ankles were also bound it looks at the detectives like Ashley had been fighting back against a truly vicious attack she had been beaten and possibly tortured uh we later discovered that her neck had been slit not only that the fire looked suspicious so veteran arson investigator Wallace Hood was called to the seene now I noticed that there was fire damage on the bed and I also noticed that there was some fire damage to the victim and I also saw what looked like a a bot
tle of alcohol fire damage actually on the victim so like somebody set fire to her there was some it l like there was some burn marks on her what did you ultimately determine about the fire and how it got started there was silver points of origin and that's an indicator of uh intentionally St fire sure so somebody took that rubbing alcohol poured it here poured it over there ped it here yes sir Chris cravy standing in the crowd outside watched his worst Fears Roll Up in front of Ashley's apartme
nt I think it hit me like a sack of bricks once I saw them start taping it off for a crime scene and when the corner pulled up my heart broke I lost it and then the detectives looking very Stern came outside to ask some pointed questions did someone know something see something at that point they start the police start shuffling us into the office and they tell us that even if we try to leave we could be arrested I mean that told you something something very bad happened in there yeah one person
not in the crowd that morning was Ashley's girlfriend April Moffett about 1: p.m. April got a text from one of Ashley's neighbors hey have you checked on your girl there was a fire in her apartment and immediately I got Nala Ashley's dog April assumed Ashley wasn't at home I was like holy crap and then she got a message from another friend saying simply call me and I called her and I said where is Ash like where's Ashley where's Nala and she's like no's fine and I was like well where is Ashley
and she was like Ashley's gone and he didn't register yeah like gone what do you mean gone yeah and then I said well is Ashley okay she said no April she's dead and I was sitting on my bed and I I threw my phone on the ground like that's not real when reality settled in April and all of Ashley's family and friends and even the police had to wonder who would do such a thing to such a good sweet person Ashley Harris had no enemies did she coming up I saw a vehicle parked there that I'd never seen
before but someone had seen it before I said I know whose car y'all are asking about when dat line [Music] continues Ashley's mother and stepfather were out of town when the news began arriving in awful Jagged bits first they heard about the fire [Music] [Music] about me coming over after I got off work but then I went home but someone else was there her name was Alexis Torres Alexis Torres was the last person to see Ashley alive and was the actual last person to leave her apartment that is cert
ainly somebody youd want to talk to obviously yes sir Alexa said she and Ashley had gone to an early Thanksgiving dinner with friends in Ashley's complex so you had Thanksgiving dinner and that was din was around 12 sure and then hung around for the afternoon yes but Ashley had to work that night Ashley shiff was supposed to be from 7:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. and Alexis agreed to come over during the time that she was working to basically take care of Ashley's dog then Alexis told the police and
later R Us that she went back one more time after Ashley got home from work how long did you stay I stayed for an hour that would make it 4:00 a.m. if Alexis was telling the truth the police had the beginnings of a timeline but before they could check her story or anyone else's for that matter a neighbor gave them more to work with an ex cop named Steve Lee had noticed something about 6:30 that morning so you're out here on Deck having a cigarette what' you see I saw a vehicle parked there that
I'd never seen before what was that vehicle it was a black uh older Infinity to the observant ex cop that seemed worth noting did it stay there for a long time it was there when I left work at about uh 7:40 detectives also talked to a neighbor who lived directly below Ashley he had heard noises heavy breathing coming from Ashley's apartment just before 8 a.m. a few minutes later um the fire alarm started going off uh water started coming down into his apartment that's when the neighbors saw a bl
ack Infiniti G35 driving away AR with this new information sadio went back to Alexis Taurus I asked her if she knew anyone or asley knew anyone that drove a Infinity G35 I never gave her a color I simply asked her about a G35 Alexis said no after he was done asking me questions I walked outside and sat down on the brick and um believe it was Chris that was there that would be Chris cravy Ashley's boss at American Eagle Alexis told him that police were asking about an Infinity sedan and Chris mad
e a beline for detective Sido I approached him and I said I know whose car y'all are asking about and he says I just want to make you aware that um I have a former employee that did drive a u Infinity G35 her name he said was Carter Carter cantes that businesslike assistant manager who worked with Ashley so then I asked him you know what color is the gm35 that she drove and he mentions that it's a black one what was that like to hear that well it beats here in the color red or white and by the w
ay Chris told detective Sido Carter left American Eagle because she was fired sadio filed that away and sorted through the crime scene and talked to Witnesses and the day that began at 8:30 that morning didn't end until 1:00 a.m. did you get any sleep no sir I didn't the story about car cantes and her black Infinity was just bugging him well I'm thinking about the case and I'm thinking where do I go from here might have tossed and turned all night thinking about that but something inside him sai
d nope I'm not going to be able to get any sleep I might as well go back out there and see what I can find wouldn't be his first wild goose chase he had Carter's address so we hours of Saturday morning he drove over there and what do you know I saw a black Infinity backed in right in front of their apartment but he didn't knock on her door I was going to go ahead and basically sit here and watch the vehicle to see if it moved for more than 4 hours he sat in his car cold but patient and then abou
t 8: a.m. Saturday he saw the lights of the infinity flash as if somebody was unlocking it remotely I see the male enter the driver seat of the vehicle I then see a female enter the passenger side of the black Infinity they drove off the detective followed and after a few minutes the infinity pulled into of all places the Hulan mall so there they are they're going back to the place where Ashley worked where the American Eagle was yes sir but what would they be doing there well that was the that
was the million dollar question coming up I ask him what are you doing here at the mall he said that he had dropped his girlfriend off to pick up some papers a R errand or something else when dat line [Music] continues on the Saturday morning after Black Friday 2014 homicide detective Jerry sadoo followed a black Infinity into the parking lot of the Hulen Mall he watched as the passenger a woman dressed in darkest clothes headed inside she fit the description he'd be given of 25-year-old Carter
cantes a former coworker of Ashley Harris the male driver stayed in the car so Sido called his partner Ernie Pate asked him to check up on the guy and when I approached the car then the person identified thems as David mallerie David mallerie was Carter's live-in boyfriend he too was a former employee of American Eagle I asked him what are you doing here at the mall he said that he had dropped his girlfriend off to pick up some papers at a apostel where she was a manager so perhaps it was just t
hat David giving Carter aide to pick up some paperwork at her new job at aeropostal Soo decided to go inside the mall was open but the stores were still closed and I happen to go up to arosto and there is a a manager that's actually in there working and I was able to confirm that Carter servantes did not work for him and he doesn't even know who she is well so much for that story yes sir CIO turned his attention to Finding Carter Cervantes no luck you didn't see her own in there no sir did anybo
dy see her no sir so sadio had a disgruntled employee coming back to the mall where she'd been fired her boyfriend was telling lies about a job she didn't have and a car that looked like hers had been spotted at the scene of a murder detective Pate still had David mallerie out in the parking lot and was looking for a reason to hold him he said that he had a driver's license but he didn't have a his driver's license with him reason enough he arrested mallerie and brought him in for questioning bu
t Carter seemed to have vanished wasn't anywhere in the mall but then police went to her apartment complex and there she was where was she in the apartment complex well she initially was in the um in the laundry room calm as you please she agreed to to answer questions without a lawyer down at the station did you go by Carter or Carol Carter somehow she'd switched her dark clothes for bright pink scrubs um so how did you end up in full work um I had a job opportunity with American Eagle offs oh
yes Carter's American Eagle connection detective Sido had already heard a thing or two about that Carter had worked at the Fort worst store for about 4 months and was businesslike but unlike ly she wasn't a very friendly assistant manager she did however make an impression on some younger clerks like Lia Shon Carter was very smart very deep she was good at reading people and knowing how to converse with them you could tell that she was well educated just had a lot more to her than most sales ret
ail managers do but detective sadio knew something else about Carter and David mallerie something very important remember that burglary at American Eagle 3 months earlier Carter and David mallerie were the primary suspects and Ashley Harris was the one who discovered the money missing and when Ashley came in to open the store she found the safe open Ashley knew it was Carter who closed the night before and when she showed her boss the security video view of the burglary she pointed at the Monito
r and she said that's David mallerie I said who's David mallerie and they said it's Carter's boyfriend the math was easy Ashley figured Carter set up the burglary and David carried it out Carter got fired David sort of disappeared and both heard that it was Ashley who identified them they hadn't been charged not yet but the case was basically actively being investigated when this happened and now 3 months later here was Carter talking to the police who were growing sus supicious that she and her
boyfriend were connected to Ashley's murder why am I here well video started off easy so we you raised in Amarillo or just no I'm originally from LC is your family still there yes Mom Dad brother sisters or I don't have any brothers but I do have two sisters and they all still live in so have you seen your mom and dad in a while no I've talked to them every day on text message and Snapchat but I haven't been home more friendly questions and where did you go to school West Texas University sadio
asked about Thanksgiving small talk what did you make um I made turkey and there was stuffing and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole um and this cabbage bacon salad that my mom really likes to make but I don't think David liked it very much except this wasn't really small talk detective sadoo was paying close attention all right so let's start with this morning okay all right this morning okay what time do you get up about 7:30 7:45 and then what happens then and then we talked and I went
back to sleep when I woke up he wasn't there okay he' heard enough I know that's a lie no it's no it's not you know what I know it's a lie why do you know because I saw you come out of your apartment and get in the passenger seat of that car and I saw him drive out of there that's why I know it's a lie Soo was tough but Carter cantes wasn't giving in in coming up there's an actual human grave that's been dug fresh grave fresh grave when dat line continues it was late Saturday morning the day af
ter Black Friday 25-year-old Carter santes was talking to detectives and lying through her teeth I know what I did this morning I know where I was I know where I went detective sadio certainly knew where she went the hu and mall but she kept insisting she'd been at home all morning you're about to make the biggest mistake of your life you understand me but she still wouldn't confess to it she wouldn't budge I got up I went and put the laundry in and I went and checked my email that's all you fou
nd me on my apartment comp then when the detective stepped out of the room she did something interesting maybe incriminating she took a drink puts the bottle down she picks it up again and before she can take the second drink she stops midair spills water on herself puts the bottle down and just stares at it for about 10 to 15 seconds she then reaches over and grabs the tissue from the table and starts wiping down the bottle and then wipes down the mouthpiece what did that say to you well that s
he was afraid that we were going to obtain her DNA from the bottle after that police Let Her Go David mallerie too the detectives had a theory cookie that Carter and David killed Ashley out of Revenge for being fired for the burglary but they also wanted Ashley's keys to the American Eagle because they were planning to rob the store again those keys were the only thing missing from the murder scene and when store manager Chris cravy looked at his surveillance video from earlier that morning he t
old police but they wanted to here describe what you saw on the video T somebody dressed in dark clothes uh with their face wrapped walk right up to the store and try to get in with keys that he said was Carter trying to pull off another bigger burglary police just knew one day after killing Ashley and taking her keys Carter was trying to break into American Eagle where this time tens of thousands of dollars the Black Friday profit were in the safe but the key didn't fit because after Ashley was
murdered Chris cravy changed the locks I wasn't going to take any chance on whether it be a deposit or them harming somebody else in the store we need to lock them out the detectives pulled the surveillance video and look at this Carter slipping away from the mall having already changed from her sweat clothes into pink scrubs had to be trying to fool potential trackers they thought this was after she would have spotted police talking to David in the parking lot and then she walked all the way h
ome over the next few days police got a warrant for Carter and David's cell phon that camera act so useful well um we learned that they had conducted surveillance at uh Ashley's apartment weeks before that they had a picture of her apartment um her actual door to her apartment and they had pictures of her vehicle in the wi Dodge r pick up in early December 2014 Carter savantes and David mallerie were arrested and charged with the murder of Ashley Harris cold comfort for Ashley's sister it's just
such a loss and it so pointless um I just don't understand how people could do that they were tried separately but the cases against them were virtually identical you recognize assistant DA Kevin rouso led the prosecution on Ashley deer assisted from the witness stand detective Sido helped lay out the case were you also cond sech herment yes sir you receip that's correct the sales receipt showed some odd purchases on Carter's credit card she had purchased two shovels she had purchased a tarp sh
e had purchased gloves why was that significant because of a discovery way out in the Texas scrub a discovery worthy of a horror movie and the key to finding it was right there on Carter and David's cell phones they would text each other longitude and latitude coordinates and I led us to a remote area near abing what was there um as soon as we got to where spot says you're there we look up and there's an actual human grave that's been dug fresh grave fresh grave prosecutors believed the original
plan was to kidnap Ashley kill her and put her body in that grave she was killed in her apartment the prosecutors thought because she fought so hard what is that this [Music] is in fact investigators believed actuallyy haris was pistol whipped so when this Glock 19 was found in the black Infinity prosecutor Diner had it tested the results were both sad and conclusive it came back positive with Ashley's DNA on the gun so that was very significant was blood J bed and blood this was not easy heari
ng all this was so hard on Ashley's mother Monica and loved ones like April I thought I could handle it mm nope so I went out and I went back into the room where Monica was and she was consoling me and she shouldn't be consoling me the brutality of the murder was never far from the prosecutor's Minds I just thought how painful and how awful the last few minutes of her life would ter and absolutely terrifying absolutely terrifying but even that they said even that appeared to be part of the plan
this wasn't just about robbery or even Revenge said prosecutor rouso it was uh discussions that Carter servantes had had with people where she expressed um certain I guess you can call them fantasies involving killing people Liza shonal remembers one such discussion at work it was just us and we were folding clothes and she mentioned that she had thought about killing someone before and whether or not she could watch them die as if the murder wasn't shocking enough prosecutors were pretty sure A
shley's murder was a Thrill Kill planned by a sadistic young woman who thought she was smarter than everyone else but tiny Meek Carter santes admitted none of that she still had a plan concocted all by herself to explain why she too was a victim coming up a vicious killer you wanted to see the death penalty death penalty was what I wanted or a young woman forced into a life of [Music] crime that when dat line [Music] continues when people talk about the trial of Carter Santas this is what they r
emember my name is Carter Carol cantes against the advice of her attorneys Carter Cervantes took the stand gone was that criminal mastermind years at a helpless victim she gets up on the stand and it was insane Carter said it was all her boyfriend David mallerie controlling every aspect of her life I was very afraid of din I thought he was going to kill me this is where Carter's defense truly began she told the jury she was a woman enslaved by her sadistic lover this what to drink what to eat um
and he made me have sex with him and and he had that gun the Glock she said used it like a threat and it scared her I did not feel comfortable with that weapon she told the jury she was asleep at home when Ashley was being murdered she didn't know where David had gone but somehow he wound up with a set of American Eagle Keys D GL me and then he handed me a set of American Eagle and he said then she said he pulled out the Glock and he just pointed it at me pointed it at you yes across his body I
shook my head but I wasn't going to do it um he said you don't understand there's somebody sitting outside your parents house right now if you don't go in I'm going to kill them and then I'm going to kill you so that's why she tried to rob the store she said it was that or be killed just a couple of hours before before she showed up on this security video she said David made it very clear to her just how far he would go to make sure absolutely sure that she would do what he demanded somebody pu
shed me down right when I got into the apartment during the night before the break-in attempt she said David brought strange men into their apartment she heard an angry voice above her he said um I'll make her follow Direction and then her story got even more harrowing took off my sweatpants P down to my ankles and and they raped me raped twice she said sobbing by two different men I was scream prosecutors Kevin rouso and Ashley Diner seem to a back as the rest of the courtroom I know what I thi
nk this is not true and they needed to regroup fast this is the biggest lie she's ever told we know that but you never know what the jury's thinking Carter had an explanation for just about everything even that moment during her interrogation when she wiped the bottle she wasn't wiping off her DNA no she said the smell from the bottle reminded her of being raped I myself just water it's just water it's nothing it hates that SM she said that she suddenly was overcome with the the smell of seen in
the in the air and it had something to do with drinking out of this bottle of water and I thought now that that took some work that is one heck of a lie and it was at that point that I put my pen down and said I am not writing this I'm not going to write this down his voice dripping with sarcasm prosecutor rouso took her story apart he showed the jury a picture talking were very uncomfortable with [Music] yes it's that's the one that's laying there besid you why you're having morning then he dr
illed down into the heart of Carter's story just who were those mysterious rapists they have all they all spoke in a way that I would describe no sir I did not but said the prosecutor that's exactly what she was suggesting if she was going to try to play that card I was going to make her spell it [Music] out I don't know where is commonly associated with I associate it with a certain type of speech associate with the word get but if she was hoping to play to some random juror's racial bias she g
uessed wrong the jurors didn't believe it not for a second they found her guilty in less than 2 hours as for David mallerie his attorneys argued he had nothing to do with the murder he was involved with Carter yes but not with any killing the jury didn't buy that either rendering a guilty verdict in no time of the all the verdicts were some consolation for those who loved Ashley Harris so missing she saw the best in everybody even when you couldn't see it she could see it she had such a big [Mus
ic] heart and this world is [Music] worsome at least M both David mallerie and Carter Shantz received mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole it wasn't enough for arley's Mom and stepdad you wanted to see the death penalty death penalty was what I wanted it's what mon wanted and uh but it wasn't to be and now they cling to memories of their Ashley tell me it was the last time you saw your daugh daughter physically in person it was November about a week before she died
Ashley had invited Monica to play Bingo Monica was busy almost said no but something told her to stop what she was doing and go and oh is she glad she did and I walk into the bingo hall and oh my god there sat that little girl of mine and I smile her and I walk over and I kiss this side of her neck and I tell her how much I love her it you remember every syllable every moment of that day don't you yes6 these days Monica is making new memories at the bingo parlor remember how skittish she was ar
ound Ashley's girlfriends at first no longer now their family have a good weekend when Monica and I go and get our nails done they always say oh your daughter is so pretty she never corrects them as far as she's concerned she gained several daughters and when they're all together Ashley is there [Music] too that's all for now I'm Lester Holt thanks for joining us knew him all too well I started snooping and I found everything this reporter made some unnerving discoveries too he scared a lot of p
eople he swindled a lot of people the story of his Dirty Deeds rivited the nation in a hit podcast this is dirty John but dirty was about to turn dark he's got duct tape he's got all the tools ready to kidnap her would this mom and her daughter ERS learn the truth in time she was in a panic she said I saw John outside in a car a story ending in savagery that would stun even police there's no way he gets away with this unless he kills her I'm Lester Holt and this is dat line here's Keith Morrison
with the women and dirty John and I I fell in love she called me one day and told me that she met so amazing and that she really liked this guy she wanted me to meet him but true to form perhaps Deborah's daughters reacted just as they often did to a new man in her life especially tera's sister she didn't like him immediately and I thought oh she'll eventually like him he's a lot of fun he'll win her over Deborah rented a house part of her new start in a picturesque part of Newport called calle
d Balboa Island and she ran her business with a new likess and a night was loved by this accomplished doctor this sensitive man what did he do for you everything from run errands for me to back rub every night just would listen to my day we would take walks every night he held my hand I mean he was everything that you would want pinch yourself you've got it finally yeah then just before Thanksgiving as terara helped her mother move into the Balboa house he started moving his stuff into too Tera
didn't like it not a bit she confronted her mother I told her it looks fishy it don't get it she told me I needed to mind my own business and he came up behind her what' you say he was saying that you're just trying to get your mom to yourself and I started screaming back him no John that's what you are trying to do the next day was Thanksgiving and Deborah quite fed up told her suspicious daughters not to bother showing up for dinner neither one of you neither one of us what was that like reall
y hard hard for Deborah too but she needed her own life she and John asked a counselor for advice and the counselor suggested that I have rules for the girl girls boundaries the therapist said look you have a right to be happy this is your relationship and John's position was as therapist is absolutely right so Deborah weighed the options listened to her family or bracelet felt like the best thing to come along in years she chose love or what certainly felt like it what's the old expression till
death do us part the bond between mother and daughters already frang might just break thanks to a startling decision by Deborah I knew my family would be not very happy with me the daughters fight back by doing some digging into John she bought the trackers for cars and she put one on my mom's Tesla so she found out where John was going when Date Line continues [Music] Las Vegas Nevada the great glittering temples to gambling will happily take your money of course and perhaps you'll leave the c
ity a little poorer and if you want to bet your heart in Las Vegas well you can put that on the line too if you're in a betting mood and Deborah new was I felt very adored and very loved and I thought thought oh well if he's the love of my life I'm ready they had been dating 2 months when she went to Vegas on business and December 2014 John mean went along and we went to a courthouse and just got married before a judge like that just like that married nobody there but them and their secret they
decided said Deborah they wouldn't tell anyone I knew knew my family would be not very happy with me what' it feel like very mixed emotions a little empty knowing that they're not on board with this but that's all on that one side on the other side there's is Rush of happiness and Good Feeling yes so Deborah's daughters protective as usual had no idea that their mother was a NY wet the therapist Deborah had seen recommended she'd keep her relationship separate from her family but of course Chris
tmas was coming and there were very important family traditions like the one where terara would have her own special time with the nieces and nephews of her extended family so they made a deal John would stay in a different room while terara had the kids to herself she was going to be able to enjoy the kids and he had to sort of stay away didn't work out so well what actually happened well he walked in with all the presents and of course the kids congregate all around him he went straight up to
them he gave them gifts like being Santa Claus or something yeah I mean that kind of that sort of role yeah did he do it on purpose of course thought terara that made me so upset Tara was very emotional I thought just suck it up you know it's Christmas have fun instead she felt that that man had come and usurped yes something yes you not only St in their Christmas thought the daughters but both of them worried he was stealing their too trusting mother taking advantage of her she just let him dri
ve her car but why would he need to wasn't he a prosperous doctor an anesthesiologist couldn't he afford a car well there was a reason Deborah told him that while John was in Iraq working with Doctors Without Borders he was robbed his house his clothes his cars he was working with um Insurance Company of getting the claim so I let him borrow my car John would get all his money back soon enough said Deborah didn't wash with Terror sounded like a Shaggy Dog tail at that time I had lots of suspicio
ns and that's when she and her sister decided to do some snooping she bought these trackers for cars and she went and put one on my mom's Tesla so she found out where John was going where was he going he was going to multiple doctor's offices not so unusual perhaps for an anesthesiologist but the sisters noed something he was there for not that long of time not long enough to conduct any medical procedure so what were those quick visits all about seemed more like a man trying to get access to so
mething like maybe drugs it was just a hunch but they went to Deborah with that said maybe he's an addict and Deborah refus to entertain their wild suspicions this is more like stop interfering in my life somewhat yes but I'd fallen in love 's daughters were not about to be put off one of her daughters is particularly suspicious she doesn't know why he wears surgical scrubs everywhere it seems to be a costume he's wearing she thinks his fingernails are dirty and this does not look to her like th
e hands of an actual doctor and so they started digging an investigation that would lead halfway across the country to the depths of evil to an appointment with death coming up troubling Revelations about John they learned that he was not a doctor discoveries that were about to go from disturbing to terrifying I said he's very very dangerous when dat line continues [Music] Dara n and cash her miniature Australian shepherd were inseparable he has unconditional love and he wants to be there no mat
ter what darot went to cosmetology school but chose to work with four-legged clients instead as a dog groomer what do you like about dogs I really like that they're innocent they don't have any evil in them unless they were taught to have evil in them and Tera was something of a student of evil she was a fan of the TV show The Walking Dead zombies she had a feeling that evil was lurking in the life of John me so did her sister they knew he was hiding something said reporter Christopher Crawford
and they were determined to find out what it was they hired a private investigator to look into his past Deborah meanwhile was in love the newly Woods had settled into a simple life on newport's Balboa Island Deborah convinced she'd found the perfect man even when sometimes things didn't quite make sense like the time she picked up the mail and saw a strange return address on a letter to her husband uh you opened a a letter to him yes I did I was so curious and he was iate that's fraud you know
I can't believe you did that but what had got her attention was that letter was from an inmate of the Orange County Jail did you read the letter I did what was in it it was talking about how lucky he was that he had found love and that his life had turned around and I'm thinking life had turned around H so so I questioned him and he said that he writes and sends care packages to people in prison sounded plausible enough to Deborah but not to the sisters especially not once their private investig
ator began reporting his findings on John mean they learned that he was not a doctor he was not an anesthesiologist John had worked as a nurse anesthetist but not recently and he had certainly not been in Iraq with Doctors Without Borders instead just before he met Deborah they learned that one of his recent addresses was the Orange County Jail John was not a sender of care packages he had been an inmate and then in March 2015 4 months after John moved in with Deborah the sisters snooped around
the Balboa house and jackpot they found a St dash of paperwork John had left there legal documents police reports reports that he stalked other women and that other women had restraining orders on him John's papers outlined a long criminal history multiple arrests and incarcerations drug convictions alarming stuff and Deborah was uh hesitant to believe this stuff she believed John even after her daughters told her what they' found their Rowan straight to John and he said they had the wrong guy h
e said there's going to be allegations that other John mians did I thought well okay you've got a point John said he was a victim of mistaken identity in some cases and in others he was framed and he said I was set up and I said but you lied to me he goes because I knew you would never date me if you knew the truth and I said you're right I wouldn't have thing was John was so sad seemed so sincerely contrite he started crying and crying and crying and he said please forgive me I love you so much
I can never live without you and it was true that he made her feel like she was the only woman in the world and when they were alone together she felt truly loved and I'm thinking okay 90% of me doesn't believe him but there's that 10% that maybe he's right right and I'm going to throw away the person that I fell in love with without trying to work it through and so she accepted his explanations and she forgave him there's always a reason yes in March 2015 soon after they found that stash of pa
pers Tara and her sister discovered their mother was married to the guy that was it they were fed up refused after that to speak to her this is a bar big bad problem in your life yeah just how big and how bad they didn't know yet but buried in that stash of John's papers was the name of someone who did a detective way off in Ohio one of the sisters picked up the phone called him what' you think when you got her call I said he's very very dangerous you need to talk to your mother you need to have
her call me I will tell her everything that is the strange and disturbing tale that begins with her coming up thousands of miles away this woman also had questions about John I started snooping and I found everything and when she spoke up that's when things got really scary T you enjoy your time left on this Earth okay because that's what it's going to come down to when dat line [Music] continues who was this man so Deborah's heart this John mean Tanya Bales had no idea either when he stole her
heart decades ago he was playful he was interested engaging smiley it was the late 1980s Tanya was a young nurse and esst at Dayton Ohio John was in law school there until he met her that is and said he had a kind of epiphany he said you know I'm not even sure I'll be happy being an attorney I think I want to be a nurse and athetist and I think my jaw fell to the ground because I thought he was you know a seconde law student in fact he wasn't he' been kicked out though he didn't tell her that a
ll the days my life days so in her Blissful ignorance she married him in her family's Church in 1990 Mr and Mrs John and she helped put him through nursing school they had two daughters before things stopped adding up and I found out that he was having an affair da wondered what else did she not know about her soon to be ex-husband like why did he refuse to invite his family to their wedding why not let her even meet them she decided to call his mother I said Dolores this is Tanya I'm married to
your son John and the the phone was quiet for a minute and she said oh Tanya I knew you'd call me someday wow and so then of course my heart was racing my knees were shaking just to make the phone call and then she just unloaded on me you know all the details of trouble in the past according to his own mother John had been cheating and stealing and lying for years even lied to Tanya about his age locked off 5 years oh and he'd been convicted of cocaine trafficking she said you know is he still
using drugs and I said what so it's something like shock Tanya became a sleuth who was this man I started snooping and I found everything it's under my nose all the time evidence of a criminal double life and something else a cedar box full of Fentanyl and ver head and some other things that aren't Controlled Substances she started watching that cedar box and things did come and go so now I thought it's a stash it's a stash yeah was he using his position as a nurse to steal drugs like getting a
ticket to be in the candy store all they long right I mean it's like U putting an alcoholic as a bartender she told the author authorities she had to it was the law he had to be stopped he was going to hurt patience and on a dime he turned on me you flipped like a switch now the man she once thought she knew turned scary threatening she began recording their phone conversations listen to me Kanye I'm listening I got a big smile on my face and you know why because it's going to get done what's go
ing to get done you're not making any sense well it don't happen you will understand understand when the time comes and that's all I got to say when it happens T and you see it in your eye you remember it was me okay remember what John keep that in mind it was me Tanya you enjoy your time left on this Earth okay because that's what is going to come down to he was arrested for making threats against Tanya in June 2001 was convicted of menacing and put on probation he wasn't the man she thought he
was that's exactly right there was another version of John Dennis lukan was a police detective back then he investigated the source of those drugs Tanya found in the Cedar box he started at Jon's house and found a gun illegal because Jon was on probation so he was arrested again and sent to jail when he went to mcgomery county jail I called a supervisor I said you've got an individual there John Mian and he's going to try to con you out of drugs he says he already has he claim he fell out of th
e top bunk and he got pain medication you're dealing with an incorrigible person here yes sir you're dealing with an addict a very smart articulate addict eventually thanks to luuk and John did jail time for stealing drugs in Ohio and Michigan and Tanya felt guilty wondering if she'd missed warning signs wondered what else John might have hidden from her never thought about the clue way back at the beginning on her wedding video and the groomsmen who' had some drinks and have their arms around e
ach other and they're talking about how they met him one of the groomsmen said joh isy [Music] joh filthy John over the years became dirty John and the nickname stuck you found out later on there was a story to that yes he was basically conning little old women out of money for jobs that he didn't do and also that he had away with the ladies lcan discovered darker Secrets as well John supplied the opioids that killed his own addicted brother he was alone with his sick father and the Old Man Died
rather suddenly John wasn't charged in those cases but there were others said lukan and as the years went on he developed a certain criminal specialty he would go on dating websites would find women that usually hit Good Financial backing mhm he always told people he was a doctor he seemed like a an ideal catch I suppose for a lot of these women he was a true con man he'd take their money and when they would find out about him John would threaten him he would terrorize him how bad was he John w
as the most dangerous treacherous manipulative deceitful criminal that i' had investigated in 40 years of law enforcement once terara learned about Jon's past she was consumed with worry I was very distraught at the time because this dangerous man was now married to a very successful businesswoman who happened to be tera's mother you couldn't get enough of me that's a good feeling it is the trickery of Love Yes trickery but something far worse worse than that was coming [Music] soon coming up on
e of Deborah's daughters is about to make an ominous Discovery she was in a panic she said I saw John and I said where she goes outside in a car are this terrified family's worst fears about to come true when dat line continues [Music] Deborah new had fallen in love with a con man and when her daughter spoke with a detective who' been investigating John Bean for years says this guy is bad news you need to get your mother away from him Deborah had bought a house near Las Vegas where John could li
ve away from her family she split her time between there and Orange County but the do ERS went into rescue mode one thing they found especially alarming was yet another police report about dirty John this one from Just 2 years earlier and much closer to home the police in Laguna Beach had arrested John ban for stalking a woman and they discovered he had rented an office space in which they found zip ties Cyanide and two loaded guns what did all that say to you he might be a killer and she has to
get out of this has to has to John had an explanation of course even for that cyanide he says he has multiple sclerosis and that he kept the capsules around in case he needed to kill himself if it got too painful for him this time however John's story didn't ring true not even to Deborah he still continued to treat me incredibly well but he tried to isolate me from everyone especially your family especially my family and now Chase and afraid she reconciled with her daughters and read everything
they had uncovered about John mean's past I assume by this time you didn't feel in love with him anymore no what did you feel confusion I thought how could this man fake it to this degree did he love me or was this all a game and I realized I was his newest victim in April 2016 16 months after marrying John mean she fled from the home they shared in Vegas back to Orange County and from a safe distance she filed for an analment and soon discovered just as Tanya Bales had discovered years before
that JN could turn on a dime he started by trying to ruin her reputation sent weird inappropriate emails to her colleagues or clients did he send photographs of you to anybody he sent nude photos yeah that's a nightmare for any woman to be in oh yeah there are so many things that did but one of them he burnt my car he took it stole it and then set it on fire did he threaten you physically yes but not in a direct way he would say boo I know where you are it's not going to be for long the same way
he threatened Tanya Tanya you enjoy your time left on this Earth okay because that's what it's going to come down to I went into hiding I bought a dark wig changed my clothes got got a rental car stayed in different hotels I went everywhere that he wouldn't suspect how long did that go on 6 months wow yeah now stories John had told her before she left played over and over in dea's worried mind disturbing stories he told similar ones to Tanya years before stories about the mafia if they want to
get back at you say you took money from them or something they don't kill you you they kill someone you love because then you live in pain the rest of your life knowing that your actions caused the death of the loved one and now you don't have them I learned that from him and the man Deborah once loved she now feared that had to be a very very strange feeling very much yes scared for my life and not just her own life I was afraid he would kill my mom I was also afraid he would kill me or my sist
er or someone after all they'd ruined all his plans in the summer of 2016 Deborah began staying in secret with her other daughter hoping she was safe there and then it was the night of August 19th she came home and she was in a panic she said I saw John I saw John and I said where she goes outside in a car watching he was supposed to be in Las Vegas why was he back in Orange County she didn't have to wait long to find out someone's been stabbed someone's been stabbed coming up the evil that had
been gathering for almost 2 years explodes in broad daylight he's planned this out this was a Revenge killing and the shattering end that would stun even the cops when dat line continues [Music] August 20th 2016 5:00 p.m. a 14-year-old named Skyler saula was returning home from her Junior lifeguard training when she heard a woman screaming out of the parking lot of her Newport Beach apartment building I've never heard anybody else scream like that before now a lot of people would just dive under
the covers and say I hope that stops yeah once I found out what was going on I knew what I had to do she raced to the parking lot Tre and then she saw this guy just raising his hand up and down up and okay we have officers on the way with LIC sir she said she saw blood I don't know Skyler reached the parking lot saw a man running I could see everything that was going on so I saw him actually stab her that woman being stabbed was teror who with her dog cash had just stepped out of her car to fin
d someone waiting dirty John he said do you remember me he looked me right in the eyes there was no pause no time to think terara sitting here talking about it was still struggling with what happened still visibly keeping an emotional distance as if it happened to somebody else he was trying to push me into the car he actually had the trunk wide open trunk so he wanted you in the trunk of his car yes John was 6'2 a foot taller than Tera as he pushed her he began hitting her with a bag something
hard in it it just felt like I was getting punched over and over again but it wasn't that there was a knife in the bag cutting her slicing into her and I put my arm up with my prayers above my heart and I tried to get away from him and I was screaming he put his hand hand over in my mouth and I bit as hard as I could cash the dog my right hand side and then full of adrenaline she did something astonishing I picked up the knife and I started just whing on him and stabbing him and I pushed him dow
n I stabbed him at the top of his head and then the last time was in the eyeball did you aim for that I did that's the zombie kill that show The Walking Dead her education for Fighting Evil what did you understand from watching that show about how you deal with zombies you have to kill them in the head like you have to kill their brain the police arrived their dash cam video picked up Skyler the junior lifeguard leading a very shaken Terror to the curb where still terrified she told her mother I
think I might have killed him I'm sorry I knew this Happ did I not tell you he was going to try to hurt us she said Mom I just killed your husband I'm so sorry and I'm thinking what they're rased over there you could see police cars blocking it off fire engines it was crazy they would they said it was a crime scene John mean never regained Consciousness and 4 days later dirty John was dead right after the attack Newport Beach detective Rick Henry found John's killer terara at the hospital her d
og still guarding her and she told me the whole story the whole story is a pretty complicated mess yes as doctors treated tera's wounds detective Henry began investigating and the whole family waited and worried so what were you afraid of well I didn't know if they would for sure know that it was him attacking her and she it was self-defense so you were afraid that they might charge her with something yes there's a process the law must follow careful consideration August became September October
November Deborah didn't know it but the detective had discovered something in the trunk of John's car we found a backpack with numerous other knives inside we found zip ties we found duct tape we found his passport it took some organization it took thinking he's planned this out this was a Revenge killing Orange County Deputy district attorney Matt Murphy believed the evidence spoke for itself there's an image of this young woman in the hospital with her dog sitting on her bed talk about a pict
ure saying a thousand words it screams out that this is an innocent woman who came very close to being murdered by a really bad guy and fought bravely and survived the prosecutor said it was an easy decision this was self-defense Case Closed did a feeling come with that a sense of relief that it's like finally okay John mean's ex-wife Tanya BOS was working when she got the news do you remember that moment oh yeah it made me tremble I was in the middle of the case and I just it popped up on the s
creen as a notification John was killed by the time I took the patient out of the room I was in tears yeah I wasn't in tears cuz he died I was in tears cuz I had to tell his children and that made me very sad to have to tell them it was awful her daughters 16 and 21 at the time said they regretted not being able to show him how well they turned out in spite of him and now Deborah still struggles with guilt I would have never ever in my entire life put my kids in fear or put them in danger that w
as the last thing on my mind is that he would be going after one of my kids you feel lucky in a way oh I feel very lucky I believe tra saved many lives saved my life saved many other victims so what goes through your mind Tera was diagnosed with PTSD she still has some healing to do but she returned with us to that parking lot I don't want to poke and prod too much but what happens inside your stomach when you're here I just get a lot of anxiety I just have flashbacks of me running down the ramp
and just like going to the cement she gamely showed us the spot where she looked death in the eye and struck back this wasn't an easy thing to do I'm just taking it all in right now mhm I think you were a tough cookie right yeah that's what a lot of people say I guess so and dirty John mean is an Ever more distant memory now his trail of victims safe from his Terror thanks to a young woman and a little dog who fought for her life and won that's all for now I'm Lester Holt thanks for joining us
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