Bad Premonitions | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[music] >> I remember having a nightmare that something was terribly wrong. Jesse
was was killed. And when I woke up, it was just a dream. My name is Gary Bardwell. Jesse Bardwell
is my daughter. Go in this way. Do it, Jesse. Do it. I called her my beautiful daughter and I
still do. My beautiful Jesse. She lived in Orange Beach, Alabama. She just loved being around water.
She would be in the water fighting the waves and having fun. She worked at a place called Cobalt, the
restaurant. Beautiful place. I don't know why she decided to move. She just up and moved to Texas.
And she said like I'm just going out there to clear my head. I'll be back. I'm just going for a couple weeks and
I'll be back. My name is Kimberly Asbury. I was friends with Jesse. It just went from hearing from her a lot,
talking to her to nothing. I knew something was wrong. As the father of three girls, I was very
determined to get to the bottom of what had happened to Jesse Bardwell. My name is Keron Hall. I was the lead detective
on Jesse's case. Jesse was nowhere to be found when we got to Texas. I had the fear that we
would never find her. Tell me what it felt like then to go two days, three days,
four days. It was hell. After so many days, it's kind of hard to believe that she's just going to come
back with shopping bags in her arms. I was just like brace for impact. I knew she was dead. How did you know? I had
that nightmare and I felt it. She was not on this earth anymore. This story is about [music]
a young girl thinks she finds love and turns out he is pure evil. >> [music] [music]
>> 48 hours taken away. Yesterday I went down to the river and just sat there and watched the boats go by and
took some deep [music] breaths and said I don't know how much of this I can take, you know, any longer.
There are days when it's hard for Gary Bardwell to get out of bed, but he always does. Determined to get justice
for Jessie, his 27-year-old daughter who went missing from Richardson, Texas [music]
in May of 2016. I'm doing it for Jessie. Taking one day at a time, one step at a time.
Gary knew something was wrong before he even knew Jessie [music] had gone missing.
Something from my soul was gone. And I was afraid that it was her. >> [music] >> That connection, that bond deeper than
words, formed the moment Jessie was born, says [music] Gary. As soon as she was born, immediately
started crying. It was just such a happy moment, such a happy moment. Jessie grew up alongside her older
brother, Brandon. Me and Jessie have been two peas in a pod since we were young.
There's Brandon and Jessie. Gary, a now retired firefighter with the Pascagoula, Mississippi Fire Department,
loved being a dad. She kind of didn't want me out of her sight. She just liked to know where I
was. She slept with this every night. I just love those days. Daddy's little girl,
for sure. When Jessie was 14, Gary and her mother, Carla, divorced. [music] >> She loved her mother, too, very much so.
Jessie spent her high school years with her father >> have my coffee. You want some? and her
new stepmother, Gina. >> [music] >> This is Jessie's graduation picture. After a few tries at college life,
>> Somewhere along the line, she was having more fun than school. That's when Jessie moved to Orange Beach
and started working tables at Cobalt, a popular beachside restaurant. We talked every day.
She text me every day. He came [music] and they went boating and they went fishing.
Jessie's good friend, restaurant manager Kimberly Asbury, found out Gary was an accomplished musician and booked him
[music] at the restaurant. She go to his gigs. I mean, they were friends. They [music] weren't just
father and daughter. Jesse had been living with a long-term boyfriend, [music] but surprised everyone when she fell for
a new guy, Jason Low. It kind of came out of nowhere. Jesse's friend Terry saw the romance
start. Jason seemed friendly. He definitely um was outgoing as well. He was handsome,
had two college degrees, and ambitious. For Jesse, not just a new love, but a ticket to a more exciting life. When
Jason went to Dallas for a six-figure job in the tech industry, [music] Jesse decided she would join him and
pursue her own dream of cosmetology. She thought of it as more of an adventure. Like I'm I'm trying something new.
But Jesse failed to mention that she was about to go to Dallas when she saw her family that Christmas.
I had no clue of what was going on. She knew that she was fixing to leave [music] for
Texas, and I would have done everything I could to try to talk her out of it. Shortly after the holidays, Jesse left
[music] for Texas, and suddenly the girl who always had her iPhone was now [music] never on it. You couldn't reach
her. The moment that I really started to get worried was when her phone number was cut off, and everything that we
talked to her had to go through Jason. The only way to get Jesse was to call Jason's phone or the house phone. They
would come to find out that Jason was monitoring all her calls. Eventually, every time Gary called Jesse, he only
got Jason. >> I said, "Let me speak to Jesse." He said, "She said she'll call you later."
Two months later, Gary finally [music] got his chance to meet Jason Low. Jason and Jessie came to Pascagoula for a
visit. Gary tried to persuade Jessie not to go back to Texas. I I remember Jessie
was was hugging me more [music] than normal. And I was going Are you okay? Yeah, yeah. I I
definitely want to go to Texas. I just want you to be proud [music] of me, you know?
They left. I watched the car drive [music] away. Even though Jessie never let on that
anything was wrong, Gary had a bad feeling. >> [music] >> He went into his studio, Jessie's
childhood room, >> She said, "Daddy, don't worry. and wrote this song. It's going to be all right."
That song, "Taken Away", was [music] written the very last time I saw Jessie. As they were leaving,
It was written about [music] seeing them leave. Taken >> [singing] >> away, me getting a gut feeling [music]
that something was bad wrong. Taken [singing] away, she said, "There [singing and music] is nothing
you can say or do to make me [music] stay." In May, 4 months after Jessie moved to
Texas, she stopped answering his calls all together. [music] Gary called Jason and insisted on
knowing where Jessie was. He says Jason told him he didn't know. What was he saying? I don't know where in the hell
she is. We don't live codependent. She can go and come as she pleases. But when she didn't call her mom and
stepmom on Mother's Day, Gary had had enough. I said, "We're leaving in the morning.
Let's pack some bags and we're going to Texas." When Gary Bardwell got in his truck and
headed to Texas, he was angry. Very angry. I get so angry that it scares me. His little girl was missing and he
believed Jason Lowe was behind it. >> I text him on the way there. I said, "If Jessie is not there when I get there,
you are in a tremendous amount of trouble." But when he got to Jessie and Jason's
apartment, she was nowhere to be found. Gary immediately filed a missing person's report with the Richardson
Police Department. May 8th, 2017. Over the next 24 hours, the police repeatedly visited the apartment and
still she never showed up. That's when Detective Hale got assigned to the case. Jason Lowe, please. Uh
speaking. He first made contact with Jason by phone. [clears throat] He stated the last time he saw her was
on May 8th, which was Mother's Day that morning at 10:00 a.m. and she left in her Acura.
And is that car still gone? Yes. The next day, Detective Hale made a house call and made another audio
recording. Still haven't heard from Jessie, right? I haven't. By then, Jessie had been reported
missing for 3 days. >> [music] >> It seemed everybody was desperate to find Jessie except the man who claimed
to be in love with her. We just did our own thing always. I didn't question her,
she didn't question me and it worked. The detective looked around the apartment and saw no sign of a struggle.
[music] Jason stuck to his story that she left home in her Acura. There was just one problem with that
story. [music] The police learned that Jessie and Jason had sold that Acura [music]
3 weeks before Jason claimed she drove off in it. They found it in the new owner's driveway. Jason's lies were not
very smart. Who would lie about an Acura that had been sold? It was pretty clear that there was
definitely something other going on other than just a missing person. It became even clearer the following
day. A team of detectives, including Hale and his partner Eric Willitson, returned to the apartment. They saw what
appeared to be a line of cocaine. Do you have coke on the counter top? A line of
it, yes or no? Yes, sir. But it was an odor coming from the garage that really got their attention.
So, it smells really bad in here. Yeah, I know. It stinks in here. Yeah, it does.
It's a smell that you never forget. Once you've smelt it, you'd know instantly when you smell it again.
It was the smell of death, and it was coming from the back of Jason Lowe's black Audi.
Detective Hale opened the hatch door. There was no Jessie Bardwell, but a body had clearly been there. There was
standing fluid in the back hatch, and it smelled [music] like just decaying flesh.
It had front-end damage, >> [music] >> and did not have the bumper. The bumper was inside the vehicle,
and it had a lot of mud on the inside and on the outside. Jason told the detectives he'd gotten
stuck in the mud while searching for Jessie. He still held onto the fact that he did not know where Jessie was.
But when they sprayed the chemical Bluestar in the cargo compartment of the Audi,
it lit up like crazy, indicating the presence of blood. It pretty much turned into a homicide investigation at that
point. We're wondering if you don't mind coming down to the station so we could talk.
>> Like right now? Yeah. Jason Lowe was initially arrested on drug charges and thrown in jail. My name
is Detective Williamson, okay? Detectives used the opportunity to further question him on Jessie's
whereabouts. I'm going to talk with you for a few minutes. We spent a long time speaking with him. You see this picture?
Who did you take the picture with? Jessie. To try to relate his emotions, his feelings. The girl you were in love
with, the girl that you wanted to marry. And nothing seemed to work. You don't want to talk to me or anything, is that
it, man? He didn't seem to care. He seemed irritated and thought that we were trying to pin things on him that he
hadn't done. Will you tell me where she's at? I don't know anything about that, man. I'm wrapped up like I'm going
to be I'm like going to be accused of stuff and I'm done talking. All right, cool. Even without a body,
Jason Lowe was charged with murder. I had no doubt that he had killed her. But they did have doubts, grave doubts
that they would ever find Jessie. Texas is a huge state. We've got lots of rivers, lots of lakes, lots of ponds,
fields. There are 100 million different places you could hide a body in Texas. >> [music]
>> Back home in Pascagoula, the town rallied around the family. Jessie's grandmother, Miss Kitty. They
had a candlelight vigil at the beach. Praying that she'd be found, maybe safe somewhere.
On May 19th, almost 3 weeks after Jessie was last seen alive, >> [music] >> they finally got an answer.
The police had reason to believe Jessie was on a remote ranch in North Texas. Gary says they wouldn't tell the family
how they knew, only that it was a reliable source. Chief Jimmy Spivey called the Bardwell
family into the station. >> [music] >> The chief said it's going to be a bad day for y'all today because we do not
expect to find your daughter alive. A team of detectives, FBI investigators, and prosecutors made their way to that
remote ranch. Detectives, where are we? We're in Farmersville, Texas. They arrived late afternoon
and started walking through the fields. We saw where he'd gotten stuck in the mud. You could still see the car parts
on the ground. >> Okay. We found a piece of metal that looked like it was shielding something, kind of
a makeshift burial area. And at that point, you could start to smell you know, decaying flesh. So, we walked
closer. She was covered with a sheet. So, we could tell, but you could see the outline of the body under the sheet.
Jessie Bardwell had been crudely wrapped in a blue fitted sheet and covered with
a pile of debris, including a red blanket [music] and two red and gold towels. What was
the condition of this body? It's one of the worst we've seen. It would take 7 days to officially
identify her body. The medical examiner ruled Jessie's death a homicide, but her
body was so badly decomposed, officials could not say how she was murdered. I got Jessie's ring.
That's her ring? That's her ring. Against his better judgment, Jessie's father read the autopsy report.
I felt it was my responsibility as Jessie's daddy to read the report. She was brutally murdered.
And she was thrown away like a piece of trash. Wrapped up in a sheet. Barely looking like a person.
>> [panting] >> And they sent the hearse to Texas to pick her up. And my fireman buddies
have loaded her into the back of the hearse. This is my life now. >> [music] [singing]
>> Over 900 people showed up at First United Methodist Church [music] to mourn the death and celebrate the
[music] life of 27-year-old Jessie Bardwell. If this town could be washed with all
the tears that were shed over Jessie, it'd be real clean. We wouldn't even need for it to rain
for the tears that were shed for Jessie. >> [music] >> While the Bardwells spent the next year
grieving, a very different-looking Jason Lowe was in a McKinney, Texas jail cell preparing
his defense. One of the key issues in this case is whether or not to have our client testify.
Jason's court-appointed attorney, Andy Farkas, says he is sure that Jason did not murder Jessie.
He's not so sure Jason can convince a jury, but he has a plan. I've been a lawyer for 42
years. I have never done this before. Never done this before. >> [music] [music]
>> As the months passed after Jessie's death, her father, Gary, struggled through his grief and through his rage.
I'd get a 12-lb sledgehammer and I'd a stump outside the house and I would print out
>> [music] >> pictures of his face and I'd set it on the stump and beat the hell out of it until I couldn't
swing anymore. There was only one thing that kept him going. Waiting to see Jason Lowe face a judge
and jury in a court [music] of law and be convicted of the murder of his only daughter.
I think about what I think happened to her and I couldn't protect her. It's just unimaginable.
It's unthinkable. It's unforgivable. >> [music] >> I don't feel he's guilty of murder.
In August of 2017, we went to the Collin County Jail with attorney Andy Farkas to meet his client.
He is in which one? This one. This one right here. Jason Lowe. We met Jason Lowe,
but he would not talk to us on camera. [music] He told us he's saving his story for the
witness stand. Farkas believes that allowing Jason to tell his version of what happened to
Jessie will help him get acquitted of murder. And to gauge how a jury will react,
Okay, good morning, everybody. Farkas is doing something he's never done before.
He and co-counsel Maria Tu are conducting a mock trial. Be seated. It's essentially a simulated trial with
pretend jurors who will pass judgement. Maria Tu will act as the prosecutor. And
we know that the defendant put her there. And Farkas, the defense. The state can't tell you how,
where, when, or why this happened. While the defense maps out its strategy in mock court, the
real prosecutors, Wes Wynn and Cynthia Walker, are fitting together the pieces of what they admit is a mostly
circumstantial case. Do you know how Jessie is murdered? No. Do you know why Jessie was murdered? No.
And do you know where Jessie was murdered? No. So, we don't know how, we don't know why, and we don't know
exactly where. That's correct. >> But you have the body. And that's enough for you to create the
picture? Yes. They have no doubt that Jessie Bardwell was murdered by Jason Lowe, a man whose
dark side she didn't see, they believe, [music] until it was too late. Jessie really
thought she was in love with this guy, and [music] everything was good. At first, Jessie told her father life in
Texas was great. But then, only a month after moving, they had a big fight. Jason would later say it was because
Jessie had a brief affair before moving to Texas and got pregnant. He was furious when he found out. Eventually,
he says, Jessie had an abortion. Uh she called me uh really upset. She was crying, said, "You were right. I
should have never come out here. Jason kicked me out. I'm freezing." Fortunately, a friend of a friend took
her in for the night. Gary bought her a plane ticket to Alabama for the next morning.
One of her friends went to the airport the next night when she was supposed to be there,
and waited 7 hours for her to get there, and she never came. Jessie told her father that Jason felt
bad about the fight and would try to trust her again. She was 27, a grown woman, so Gary
reluctantly let it go. A decision that haunts him to this day. My mind never stops.
It never stops. >> [laughter] >> Thinking, why did you not go out there sooner? If there were any more incidents, Jessie
didn't let on to the folks [music] back home. And she was even less forthcoming with her new Texas friends,
>> up my hair. Regina and Tommy Jordan. She was just real timid and quiet. We just
seemed to be real shy. Mhm. We couldn't ever pull anything out of her. She didn't really talk much. Did they seem
like they were a happy young couple? He made it seem like that. The Jordans were so fond of the couple. We took them
in under our wing like one of our own children. They asked them to house sit their home and dog while they went out
of town for a few days. They left on May 1st. The last time you saw Jessie alive was here at your home?
Yes. >> Yes. When they returned, everything seemed normal. But then they heard the shocking news.
Jason had been arrested for murdering Jessie. Did you think he was capable of doing something like that?
>> Not at all. We all kind of thought he was innocent. Tommy went to the jail to talk to Jason.
All right, you pick up the phone and ask your business. A videotaped conversation What's up,
brother? What's up, man? >> that would become a key piece of evidence in this case.
>> back up from the monitor a little bit. It is scaring me. And I go, man, I didn't know what happened.
I mean, I like I up and made a mistake. Like it was an accident and I know what I'm guilty of. I'm guilty of
criminal negligence. It was a stunning statement. Jason was now admitting he was there when Jessie
died. Back at the mock trial, [music] criminal negligence. Acting prosecutor Maria Tu
>> everybody heard that. seizes on those words as evidence of his guilt. He know
he's guilty. [music] He's guilty of criminal negligence. Andy Farkas knows that tape will be one
of his biggest problems. >> That's the only piece of evidence they have that ties him to her death. So,
Farkas rewrites Jason's story. It was all an accident. So, the story that Jason is going to tell on the
stand, does the prosecution have any idea? Have they heard this story at all? No. [music] They have no idea. No idea.
But, Farkas tells Jason's entire story to the pretend jurors. He's eager to learn their verdict.
They deliberate [music] over lunch. We don't have any evidence to show what actually happened.
>> story, neither does the state. That's right. I can't believe the DA took this
case, frankly. [music] And the mock jurors reach a verdict. What was the verdict after
they heard the whole story? It was 15 to zero acquittal. I would have tried >> Not guilty.
Hang him of murder. Of murder. Of murder. After hearing those two words, not guilty,
Jason thinks there's a good chance he'll walk out of jail a free man. The time had finally come. Gary Bardwell
said goodbye to his fireman buddies. And then, the hardest goodbye of all. You're going to be all right in Texas.
>> His mother. >> You're going to do a good job. You're going to do this for Jesse.
Justice for Jesse. You remember that? Jess, I love you, son. I love you. I love you.
For the first time in 30 Gary got on an airplane as he and his wife Gina headed to Texas for the trial
of the man accused of murdering his daughter, Jessie. He had waited a year and 4 months for
this day. My stomach is in knots. I just don't know how I'm going to react when I
get in the courtroom. Each of you solemnly swear and you Prosecutor West Wind calls Gary as his
first witness. I was shaking so bad that I was afraid that people could see me shaking. Is that a
photo of Jessie? Yes, it is. Sir, I know this is difficult. You just take your time.
The state portrays Jason [snorts] Low as a man with a dark side, a man with a long history of drug abuse,
a pathological liar who often told people he was a Navy SEAL but was never actually in the military, [music]
a man who abused women. I think I would most certainly be killed by him if I had continued dating him.
The state managed to find two of Jason's ex-girlfriends, Haley McDaniel and Chrissy Chambers. Both say Jason drove a
wedge between them and their families just like he did with Jessie. It was just all manipulation and control.
They say he would get furious accusing them of cheating. One night, Chrissy says he pushed her to
the floor and sat on top of her. He had one hand over my mouth and another his another hand over my nose and was just
pushing pushing pushing pushing on top of me. And he wouldn't get off. Um I'm thinking that he's going to kill me
because he looked me in my eyes and he told me he was. He said, "I'm killing you right now."
Jason denies any of this happened, but the jury won't get to hear Chrissy and Haley's stories because in the end,
prosecutors decided it wasn't necessary and likely inadmissible. They are confident Jason Lowe's sadistic side
will come through. He's about as cruel of a individual as I've dealt with and I've been doing this
a long time. It wasn't just the act of murder, say the prosecutors, it's what he did and did not do after the murder
to cover up his crime. While Jessie lay dead in the back of Jason's Audi decomposing,
Jason was using her phone to send these text messages pretending she was still alive. That's what criminals do. They
want to find a way to get away with it. And one of those ways is to pretend that
this other person is still alive. Prosecutors think Jessie was killed on or about May 1st, the last day she was
seen alive by the Jordans. They believe Jason [music] kept her body in his car day after day after day, 8 days in total
before dumping it. And when Jessie's body was finally found on May 19th, prosecutors say the way in which she was
discarded said it all. This wasn't [music] some accident. It's not how you would leave someone that tragically
died, someone that you love, someone that you care for. It told me that she was murdered.
The physical evidence at the scene, the red blanket, the red and gold towels, the blue fitted sheet Jessie's body was
wrapped in, all led back to the home where they had been house sitting. This is your linen closet. Yes. Regina
still has the matching top sheet to the blue one Jessie was wrapped in. You kept
it. I kept it. I don't know why I kept it. It just gives me creeps just even thinking about it.
After the first week of trial, [music] Gary FaceTimes his mother. Our lawyers have a plan. They they know what they're
doing. You got to remember that. You got to remember that. But I know it's exhausting. It's got to be exhausting. I
have heard that Jason Lowe is actually going to take the stand. It's going to get harder this week. And
that's when it's going to get nasty. You've got enough prayers to hold you up and give you strength. You're going to
have the strength that you need. Love you. Love you, too. Bye-bye. Bye. It was the moment Gary had been
dreading, and Jason had been waiting for. Defense calls Jason Lowe. His chance to convince the real jury he is
innocent of murder. [music] The defense tries to humanize him. He admits getting hooked on drugs at age
13. >> OxyContin, heroin, and Xanax. With his parents listening in court, he talks [music] about growing up an only
child in a well-off family, working on his master's degree, and meeting Jessie Bardwell.
>> [music] >> We in love? >> [snorts] >> Yes, sir. He says they had plans to get married
and buy a house. And then, it all came crashing down. It was the evening of May 1st. He and
Jessie were house-sitting at the Jordans. He claims they had taken GHB, a sedative often called a date-rape drug.
They were getting intimate in the shower. While we're having sex, I'm standing here bracing myself, and I start to
slip. First, he slips, then Jessie. He says she falls and hits her head on the porcelain tub and then sits on the
edge. She just kept saying I I I feel hot. She was like I'm I feel a little bit dizzy and she's was I mean like what I
would say kind of bugging out is what I thought. Instead of getting medical help, they go
to sleep. When Jason woke up in the morning, he says Jessie was lying on his chest. I tried to kind of shake her and
kept knocking. The dog kept barking. She didn't move. She was dead. The defense [music] would claim of a possible brain
injury. What was it like for you to watch him get up on the stand and tell his story?
It was like somebody ripped my heart out and ripped my soul out. My soul. Gary does not believe a word of it.
But Jason continues. He says he heard a knock on the door. I just panicked and I opened the door.
It was Robert Gwyn, aka Cowboy. Jason says he's his drug dealer and it was he, Jason claims, who took the sheet from
the linen closet. He wrapped her up. And together, they put Jessie's dead body in
the back of Jason's Audi. West Wind wasn't buying it. And you're just watching as the love of your life
gets bagged up in a fitted sheet. And then, the two of you carry her outside. Right?
Yes, sir. And you toss her in the back of your Audi. Placed her. Oh, affectionately, I'm sure.
Prosecutors don't even bother to call Cowboy to the stand. Do you believe that Robert Gwyn, Cowboy,
had anything to do with the murder of Jessie? No. Do you Do you had anything to do with
covering it up? No. After Jesse's body was loaded into the back of his car, Jason admits he parked
it in the garage, left her there for days, and began reaching out to other women. Sexting. I love to have you been
over like that while giving you what you want. And sexting. I want to taste you so bad. And sexting. You were sending
photos of your penis to other women while the love of your life rotted in the trunk of your car.
What was that like for you to hear him talk about that? >> Well, first thought is I was I had to
find a way to get to him and kill him with my bare hands. Prosecutor Wes Windham is gunning for a
guilty verdict. Never once said there was an accident. And Jason Lowe is in his line of fire.
Never once call the police. He aims right for the bull's-eye. The love of your life sits rotting in
your trunk. >> [music] >> And after all, it was just an accident. And hits his mark.
You didn't want anyone to know she was dead. You didn't want anyone to find her body.
>> [music] >> After 7 hours of tears, She was asleep. excuses, [snorts] I didn't know what to say. and denials,
Knew I didn't willingly and intentionally kill someone, kill Jessie, kill the girl that
I was in love with. The defense plays its last sympathy card. Who pointed out to the police where Jessie was buried?
I did. Remember when the police wouldn't tell the Bardwells how they found Jessie's
body? Well, it was Jason Low who told them where to find her. His lawyer says Jason did it for the
sake of Jessie's family. But the prosecution says the only reason is because he cut a deal.
You're getting something in exchange for that agreement. Right? If convicted, instead of serving
99 years, the most Jason Low will serve is half that, 50 years. >> And why was that deal offered?
It's important for the family. It was important to find her. After 5 days of testimony
the lawyers sum up their cases. You can't trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
For the state, it comes down to Jason Low's character. Evil typically doesn't announce itself.
You rarely see it. And that's what we have here. But the defense argues the state did not
prove murder over accident. Their case is built on he lied to the cops. He hid the body.
Therefore, he's guilty. That's not proof beyond all reasonable doubt. It was now up to a jury to decide.
After 6 hours of deliberations, the jury hands its verdict to Judge Scott Becker.
>> jury please rise? We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.
It was so sweet to know that monster is going to be put away for a long time. Before sentencing, Gary finally got the
chance to face the man who killed his daughter. [music] I looked him straight in the eyes
and it [music] frightened me for about 5 seconds. There was nothing in his eyes. Nothing.
And very sad and angry. Standing beside Gary for support, Jason's ex-girlfriends.
If I could say anything to Jessie, >> [laughter] >> I would say run. Just save yourself.
That same day, Judge Becker sentenced Jessie's killer to the negotiated maximum. You can go with the deputies.
50 years. We took one last trip to Collin County Jail to see if Jason would finally own
up to what he had now been convicted of. So, I am walking in right behind me into
the jail and I'm going to ask him face-to-face, "Did you kill Jessie Bardwell?" Hey Jason.
>> Hello. Thank you for doing this. >> Yes, ma'am. Have a seat, please. Thank you. [clears throat]
Did you have anything to do with the death of Jessie Bardwell? No, ma'am. Did you murder Jessie Bardwell? No, ma'am.
Why are you sitting here for 50 years? I'm reaping what I sowed, like I said, you know, I was lying I lied. I was
scared and I thought I could fix this. I thought I thought about just myself. I didn't think about her family. I didn't
think about her. He'll have half a century in a Texas prison to think about all that pain he
sowed. If her parents were here right now, is there something you would want to say
to them? I'm sorry. And what are you sorry for? For being a piece of dirt. After the trial, Gary Bardwell and his
family went back to Mississippi where he used to spend long summer days on the water with his daughter, Jessie.
Only now is he able to get back in a boat and go to some of the places they used to go.
A bittersweet reminder of the daughter he lost. Jason Lowe took away a beautiful soul, a
beautiful heart, the life of the party, [music] a smile that would light up this dark
room. She will live forever. [music and singing] I always called her my beautiful little
girl. My beautiful daughter, Jessie. How many breaks can my heart take until it's
>> [singing and music] >> taken away? >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> At first [music] glance when you come to
this area in Oklahoma, it is very beautiful, it's serene, but we have missing people that are never found.
There are homicides that are never solved. There's lots of dark secrets that live here.
My name [music] is Dakota Black. I'm a tracker and detective with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office.
And I was brought into the missing person's case for Mikayla Mea Lowe. And as soon as we arrived on scene, we
started tracking the area and trying to locate her. We had multiple deputies and detectives
in the woods looking for her. We were searching every place that we could potentially think of to try to
locate Michaela. There's something strange. She might be in there. She might be. She may not be
alive. I was not looking for an individual that was breathing. I was looking for my daughter's body.
And I don't know why. Sometimes it's [music] hard to not take cases personal. They tug at your
heartstrings and this one was one of those. What was it about this [music] woman
that fueled you this way? Just who she was. My sister Michaela [music] is the strongest person I know.
Has the biggest heart. Is the most caring. Wants to take care of everyone and put
everyone before herself. I love you. I love you most. I love you more. Her main goal in life was to be
around children, to help children, especially ones in need. >> [music] >> Everybody that knew Michaela had nothing
but love for her. We had a huge response from our community. Everybody [music] really wanted her found.
We just went out there looking for her. Didn't sleep for days. Didn't eat for days. Was raining, cold. We were just
out there for days. Was there a part of you that say, you know, there's a chance we may not find
her? Yes. It seemed day after day the chances were getting more slim of finding her alive.
I just knew that she [music] was gone. I can't imagine how scared she was. It's just sad.
Sad that it ended the way it did. >> [music] >> It didn't have to end this way. I was driven and I was not going to go
home. I was not going to stop until this case was solved. >> [music] [music] [music]
>> The guys at the sheriff's office call her a cool dude with long hair, because
they say she's meaner than any of them in the gun range and in the field. That fence that's hanging, I had to go
underneath that into the water. >> Her name is Lieutenant Dakota Black. She's a trained tracker and detective
with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I go out to scenes when there's man hunts or trying
to locate individuals. Her specialty is finding the missing, whether alive or dead.
I have found them underneath piles of leaves and trees and abandoned homes, sheds. I've found them
pretty much in any area you can think of. Often by her side, her partner, Deputy
Haven, a trained therapy dog. For kids and other family members caught in the crossfire of tragedy, Haven provides
comfort and consolation. A consoling presence she herself would rely on in the coming months as she embarked on one
of the most heart-wrenching cases of her career. This case will stay with me forever and it will be one that I always
remember through my whole life because of how cruel it was. The last thing we said to each other
was I love you. Friday, September 15th, 2023 began like most days for Andrea Meaow V with a 7:00
a.m. phone call from her best friend [music] and younger sister, Michaela. I wish I would have known I would have
said so much more. I'm grateful for that. At least I said I love you. The next morning, Saturday the 16th, the
phone rang as usual around 7:00 a.m. Only this time it wasn't Michaela. It was Michaela's husband, Frank Byers.
He's hysterical, crying, screaming, can barely understand what he's saying and he says, "Michaela didn't come home last
night." He ended up telling me that Michaela went on a date the Friday night before
with a bald man in a white truck. They left and she never came home last night. At the time, Michaela and Frank were
headed for divorce, >> [music] >> says Andrea. They were still living on the same 10-acre property in Macomb,
Oklahoma, but in separate homes. So, at first, [music] Andrea wasn't worried. >> My first thought is she's single. I hope
she had fun. But, Andrea's mood [music] began to shift when her many calls to Michaela
went to voicemail. By noon, I was worried. And 1:00, I was really worried. Their mother, Barbara Harper, was also
anxious. Michaela was supposed to help out at the family restaurant that afternoon.
But she didn't show and hadn't called, unheard of for Michaela. >> And the more I prayed about it, the more
I realized that something serious had happened. Frank also reported Michaela [music]
missing to the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office that afternoon. My wife's been missing since late last
night. She left at 5:30-ish driving a golf cart and the last time that anyone has heard
from her has been 8:00 p.m. And your name? My name is Frank Byers, B Y E R S. What's her name? Her name is Michaela
Byers. The deputy on duty, Dustin Richardson, felt he needed to put eyes on the ground. He got to McComb around 4:00
p.m., his body cam rolling. He'd given me the information over the phone, but I just wanted to see where
she was coming from and and see more of the details. Frank made a point of showing the deputy
the last Facebook message he said Michaela sent him after she left, assuring him she was {quote} fine and to
back off. Did you see the guy at all? Then he told him the story about Michaela driving off with a bald man in
a white truck. I would probably say 6 and 6'1". Okay. He is clearly bald and he had a beard.
But if I had to guess weight, I don't know. Maybe 200. Deputy Richardson then asked if he could
see the house where Mikaela was temporarily living. Can I go and take a look around?
So, she's been staying in this little thing? Yeah. Yeah. All locked up. But the shed-like home
was locked, and Frank said he didn't have a key, but he did have something to say about their relationship. And we
have an open marriage where Well, that's that's brand new thing. I don't like it, but um I agreed on it cuz
I'm trying to fix our marriage. At that point, the deputy decided to take a quick drive to the school where
Mikaela worked as a teacher's aide. Maybe she had gone there. >> [cough] >> What's up?
Man, this uh Frank Byers called in saying his uh wife was [snorts] missing. He called
his son, also a deputy, from the car. This guy is squirrely, man. This Frank guy is squirrely. The sensation was that
there is nothing about this story that is really true. While the deputy was at the
school, friends and family started showing up at the property, including Mikaela's mom, Barbara. When I first got
there, I didn't even speak to anyone. I was on my hands and knees crawling through brush
out in the pasture. We've got to find where she's at. How are you? This is Deputy Richardson
with his body camera rolling as he returned to the property late that afternoon.
Frank had smashed open the lock to Mikaela's place with a hammer. I looked and I I immediately saw
empty shell casings from what appeared to be .22 caliber. He told me that she sits in there and shoots out at animals,
the coyotes and stuff. There's a few times I've heard a shooting. By then, more deputies had arrived. I had asked
him where she kept that gun, and he said it was in his house. Is it in there now?
I had him walk me to his house. And he walked inside, and he pointed at it. I had pulled it from where it was in
there. She kept it like always? And put it in my vehicle. The gun, according to the deputy, appeared to
have been recently fired. That's pretty recent. Yeah. I made phone calls to uh get our criminal investigation team out
there because I just it was all off. There was something that needed to be looked into more. Hey.
I'm on that I'm on that missing person thing still. It's suspicious as Investigators ushered family and friends
off the property and blocked the driveway. I remember walking back to [music] my car,
just screaming at God. Asking him, "Why?" "Why did you do this? Let this happen?"
>> [snorts] >> "Just take me. Take me, and let us find her, and just take me." The missing person's investigation was
now a possible criminal investigation. And that's when the call went out to lead detective Lieutenant Dakota Black.
We definitely needed to figure out what was going on. As soon as Lieutenant Dakota Black
[music] got the call that Mikaela Mayavi was missing, she jumped in her vehicle and [music] sped to McComb.
What was your immediate mission? To locate Mikaela. We We needed a locator. We didn't know where she was. It was
1366. Detective Black and her partner on the case, Detective Marcus May, now the
undersheriff, put out a bolo alert. Be on the lookout. It was be on the lookout for a white
male with a beard, bald head, driving a white truck. We wanted all of the local law enforcement and surrounding agencies
aware that that we do have a situation developing over here. The tips from this rural area, where
everyone seems to know everybody, came pouring in. Every white pickup truck with tinted
windows was getting called into the sheriff's office. None of the sightings panned out, but
the search took on a life of its own. Flyers were posted everywhere. Social media ads were everywhere. Mikaela
Mayeux was beloved by everybody. They were demanding every resource possible to go find
Mikaela. And Dakota, this was a a woman with enormous heart, right? Absolutely. She loved her family.
She loved her friends. She loved children. Mikaela fell in love with children when
she herself was still a child. Her mom, Barbara, ran a daycare. We weren't just [music] a daycare. We
were the family. And she loved those kids, especially the babies. Sadly, Mikaela was unable to have
children of her own, but that didn't stop her. In her 20s, Mikaela fostered and would eventually adopt these two
kids, a brother and sister. She dropped what she was doing, went to and took classes, got certified
to make sure that she could give those kids a home. She did. Around that time, an old high school
classmate named Frank Byers contacted [music] her out of the blue through Facebook. Frank, who was divorced, had
primary custody of four young daughters. Frank was telling her a story that the current girlfriend he was living with
was abusing his four daughters. So, my sister took him and all four girls in and just started basically taking care
of them. She felt like the kids needed her and she sure needed them. Probably the happiest I'd seen her in a
long time with those girls. Frank and Michaela got married in 2022. They built their lives together in
McComb, population 24. It's just country. It's 100% country. The kids are 100% country.
Michaela was going to college to get her teaching degree while working at the local elementary school. And she would
stand up for the kids and and if she saw a child that was dirty or wasn't taken care of, she would take it
to the principal and you know, bring awareness to it. I think that was her biggest thing in life was
to help little innocent kids that needed adult's help. She always felt responsible to do that.
Countywide, dozens of people turned out in the cold and pouring rain to slog through mud and tick-infested woods in
search of their beloved teacher. But [music] one person at the heart of this mystery conspicuously appeared not
to search. Michaela's husband, Frank Byers. He never participated in a single search.
He never volunteered to go out with any of the search parties to go out and try to find Michaela.
>> And it wasn't like, "Oh my god, my wife is missing." He never seemed like concerned about
that. He seemed more concerned about himself. What were you noticing about Frank Byers? The lack of any
human emotion. I mean, he he did not seem scared. He just wanted to know what we knew. He just he didn't seem human
[music] at all. Investigators were already zeroing in on Frank. We strongly suspected Frank.
Three days after Michaela was reported missing, Frank Byers agreed to be questioned by Detective Black at the
Sheriff's Office. The interview was audio only. At this time, I just want her found. The detective tried to win
his trust by playing the good cop. Again, I couldn't imagine I mean, it's hard not knowing, you know.
And when everybody's pointing a finger at you, I'm sure it doesn't make it any better.
>> [snorts] >> Yeah. I feel like I got to defend myself and tell everyone that no, this is what
happened. This is the truth. She pressed him, but not enough to make him stop talking. Did you ask her about
the date before she left? >> did. And she told me it was none of my business. Same thing as if I went on a
date, it's none of her business. Okay. So, she never said a name or anything, how she met him, how she knew him? No.
After answering questions for 2 and 1/2 hours, Detective Black let him go home. The search for Michaela continued.
[music] Barbara remembers crawling through brush wearing snake protectors >> [music]
>> when she says she had a premonition. I heard Michaela tell me, "Mama, I'm in a tin horn."
And I said, "Oh my god, she just told me she's in a tin horn." >> [snorts] >> Barbara frantically started looking for
tin horns, pipes or culverts used to divert water under roads. But, there was no sign of Mikaela.
Then, >> [music] >> came the call to 911 on day five that would prove her [music] mother's
intuition was right. Ma'am, I don't know exactly where I'm at, but I'm on Hamilton Road. I was
searching with [music] my friend for my cousin that's missing, Mikaela Meave. Mhm. And I think that we just found her.
The chatter of locust permeated the air. An eerie sense of foreboding. Mikaela Meave had been missing for five
days. I got a phone call from my friend, and she said, "I need you to sit down."
[music] And she said, "They found someone." And then it's a female. And I'm like,
"Is she dead or alive?" Earlier that day, a cousin and her friend [music] had been out searching
about half a mile from Mikaela's house when they were stopped in their tracks by a strong, sickening odor.
The friend followed the intense smell down a ditch to a tin horn. He saw something sticking out.
It was a hand. I was searching with my friend for my cousin that's missing, Mikaela Meave.
Mhm. And I think that we just found her. It was the [music] call Detective Dakota
Black had been dreading. It was devastating to everybody. I mean, it was absolutely terrible.
Just as Barbara had imagined, Michaela was in a large drainage pipe beneath the road.
She had been dragged into the middle area and she was wrapped in the carpet. Uh she had one sock on her foot that had
teddy bears on it and her shirt was actually pulled up over her face to cover it.
I mean, it was hard. It was really hard. So dark in there. Detective Black wouldn't leave Michaela's side. The two
women had been born one day apart in the same year. But that wasn't their only bond.
I did feel a connection with Michaela. I have a history also. I've been in bad relationships.
It could have been me. >> [snorts] >> On more than one occasion, I just got lucky.
While the detectives were working the scene, >> [music] >> Michaela's family gathered just up the
road. You could hear hear them crying up there and they were trying to come down here
where she was. But the crime scene was blocked off. I never once doubted that it was her. If
anyone goes to the tape without permission, they immediately go to jail. I I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.
Can you tell them we're here? >> Of course. Of course. I felt like I needed to see her.
Because she'd been out there for 5 days without me. And I just needed to be with her
and they wouldn't let me. She needed me. But it wasn't there. Michaela's remains were placed in the
coroner's van for the journey to the medical examiner's office. My mom and I both realized that it was
probably her in there. And now we would never be able to hold her and hug her again.
I almost started to chase the van. >> [laughter] >> I just followed it down the road just as
fast as I could. And [snorts] somebody hollered at me and asked me what I was doing and I said,
"My [snorts] My baby's in that van." Detective Black was so angry, she had to hold herself back.
I wanted to leave that night and go and arrest Frank, but I knew um it's better to move thoroughly than to act quick.
The two investigators had already begun building a strong circumstantial case against Frank Byers. The bullet casings
in her home, his unlikely story that Mikaela agreed to an open marriage, She wanted to start
dating other people and and left with a bald man in a white truck. >> she embraced the guy in a hug and then
they got in the truck and left. And I never When you ask Mikaela's family about this open relationship, what did
they say? Absolutely not. They said there was absolutely no possible way that Mikaela would have
ever done that. Investigators learned from interviews and from Frank's own social media
accounts that he was the one who was cheating. Frank Byers is the biggest cheater.
He was cheating on her as soon as he moved in. Every time he would go out of town, he
was creating dating profiles. Frank worked for an environmental cleanup company, cleaning up hazardous
materials. He spent a lot of time on the road. He would meet women at gas stations. He
would meet up with them at hotel rooms. He would text them while he was home with Mikaela and hide it from her. He
was communicating with females the day Mikaela was murdered and immediately afterwards He was sending pictures to
women the day of her funeral asking how do I look in my tux. Frank's cheating got so bad Michaela
moved out about 3 months before her murder. She packed a bag and she came and stayed
with me for a week. I held her while she cried every night. She felt like a failure. But I am worried too.
>> [laughter] >> But Michaela's love for the little girls kept drawing her back, says Andrea. I
love you. I love you most. I love you more. I love you most. Michaela went back to the 10 acre
property, but not to Frank. She temporarily moved into that little structure behind his to stay close to
the girls. Frank tried to win her back promising [music] to change, but the cheating
continued. Detective Dakota Black would later discover this conversation in which
[music] Michaela told Frank she was done. I've never once been dead set for divorce until today. Michaela recorded
it 2 days before her murder. I'm just saying you have have officially lost me. Detective Black believes she recorded it
to expose Frank's infidelity. I'm stating to you right now that you have officially
broke the last string that was holding me to you. Okay. And you have nobody to blame but
yourself for doing it. That Friday, September 15th, Michaela returned from work to pick up her things
and leave for good. But Frank, it seemed, had other plans. Detectives would later recover these
images captured on a home security camera on his phone. Detective Black believes he thought he
had deleted them. Where is Michaela in this picture? This is Frank's home and she's coming through
the front door. Mikaela stayed for 14 minutes. The detective believes they were arguing. [music]
Here's Mikaela again. She's leaving. This is the last picture of the series. Frank standing at the door
>> [music] >> of his home. And what do you believe happened after this last photograph was taken? I think
this is when he exited his home and went to her home and killed her. I think this is when he killed Mikaela.
Within minutes. Mikaela was shot in the head. Mikaela had a gunshot wound right here
in the front. She [music] had one on the left side and then she had a graze wound
on the same side. The last image she may have seen on this earth was her own husband holding a rifle
and then the shot fired. Yes. It started as a simmering anger. [music] And I just got to say this because I'm
pretty angry. >> And it grew into a raging fury. People wanted to know why Frank was still walking free. I'm sorry.
The most difficult part was knowing that we were accumulating evidence to Frank's
guilt and Mikaela's murder, but we were unable to release that or share that with the public. We knew Frank was
guilty. We knew Frank was not a good husband. We knew Frank was lying. We knew lots of things, but we couldn't
prove everything and I wanted to prove everything to make sure he stayed in jail.
Detective Black spent 18-hour days at the office [music] with her sidekick Haven,
>> Haven here. the therapy dog now there for her. Give me a sense emotionally how tough
this was for you. It was tough mentally. I was drained. I was mentally exhausted.
I had lost weight. I was tired, but I was not going to go home until this case was solved.
Frank used the time to defend himself on social media. I am innocent and everything will come
out. He also appeared on local news. Even today, I called her. I mean >> [clears throat and snorts]
>> I know she's not here, but it's just a fact that I have her number still and her phone
still on somewheres and uh it just it would've been nice to hear her voice. Everything going
>> Many in the community tuned in to watch Frank Byers' interview, including Lieutenant Dakota Black. Did it make you
angry? It did make me angry. It was sickening to see that a beautiful woman was gone from the world and that while
he's on TV professing his innocence, he's still in communication with other women trying to have intimate
relationships with them. Detective Black tracked down scores of these women. >> [music]
>> Crystal Cantrell was Frank's girlfriend before he met Mikaela. He's very good at making you believe him
and then he's kind of like a snake. Once he gets you in there, he bites you. Detective Black learned Frank wooed
[music] Crystal the same way he wooed Mikaela, with a false story that his daughters were being mistreated by his
current girlfriend. And like Mikaela, Crystal had a soft heart. I love kids. You know, I have kids of my own, so I
just felt really bad for them. Shortly after they moved in together, Crystal says Frank started to show his
true colors. He isolated her from friends and [music] family and controlled her every move.
They fought. One night, she woke up to see him looming over her clutching a pair of handcuffs. I closed them so he
couldn't use them on me. And then after that, he just got on my back and was choking me. He had wrapped his arms
around me and had his hand on my throat and he just [music] didn't let go. Crystal was able to get away, but was
too afraid to report [music] the incident to the police. She left Frank for good, but says it
could have been her in that ditch. He would have killed me. If Frank ever harmed Michaela, she never
told her mom and sister. Sometimes they saw bruises, but Michaela always said they were just from roughhousing with
the kids. I think if I think about it too much, that's where I will go down a dark hole
and not come out. Because I did see the bruises and I just chose to believe and not question.
And then maybe if I would have questioned, it would come out differently. Bit by bit, [music]
Detective Black and her team built a profile of a murderer. So, this photo was taken at Walmart.
Using the date on a Walmart receipt found on Frank's property, the detective was able to track down this security
camera photo. What's in the cart? There is bleach, ammonia, and a mop. And mop, ammonia, and bleach equals what
in your mind as an investigator? Crime scene cleanup. They were also able to match the carpet
in the ditch I I'll help you there. Oh, I got it. to one a neighbor had given Frank and
Mikaela for their dogs. You You gave them that carpet about eight or nine months ago? Was that
>> Yes. Frank took the carpet that was given to him by the neighbor and used that to roll Mikaela's body in.
They believe Frank killed Mikaela around 4:00 p.m. and left her body [music] in her home.
He then picked up his girls after school and drove them around, returning home about 8:00 p.m.
That's when the detectives believe he started to move her body. The kids reported in an interviews so I
once they returned home that that Frank was outside most of the night. He He wasn't in his bed.
Detective [music] Black says there were fresh tire tracks leading to Mikaela's little house. We believe that the tire
tracks actually came from a vehicle backing up to load her body to take it to where that she was located.
The detectives believe Frank drove Mikaela's body to the edge of the ditch, pulled her out, and then let her body
topple the 12 to 15 ft to the creek bed. They believe Frank then climbed down and
dragged her into that pipe underneath the roadway. Once Frank got rid of the body, he
concocted a plan to cover up his crime. So, she took her phone with her or whatever?
Definitely. As far as I know, she took her phone with her. Remember, he told the deputy that Mikaela had messaged him
from her phone that evening telling him back off. But investigators would later find
Michaela's phone in Frank's bedroom. Detective May [music] confronted Frank in a second interview. So I'm just
trying to understand how if she left with her phone and was communicating with you through her phone
on Facebook, how that phone was in your bedroom. I understand. I mean, I I don't
I mean, I I don't have an explanation, honestly. But investigators did have an explanation. Michaela had two phones, an
iPhone and a Moto G phone. Frank had both of them. The Moto G phone was an old phone of Michaela's that she hadn't
been using for quite some time. You can just push in that hole, it pops the tray
out. >> Frank knew how to get into that old phone. So there's a SIM card, for those
who don't know, that's what it looks like. So he switched the SIM card from her iPhone. Why does he do that? To gain
full access to all of her accounts. That's how he was texting himself pretending to be Michaela.
And in fact, it was him the entire time. The evidence was mounting, [music] but they were still waiting on two key
pieces of evidence they had sent to the forensic lab for testing. I needed a smoking gun that I knew was
not going to let him out. I knew it was going to keep him there. What have you just unwrapped here?
This uh what do we have here is the projectile recovered from the 2x4 inside Michaela's bedroom.
In addition to the shell casings found on the floor in Michaela's home, they later found this bullet wrapped in what
[music] they believed was Michaela's hair embedded in the wall. They hoped it would test positive for Michaela's DNA.
And then, there were these boots. So, these are Frank's work boots. They were recovered on the night of the missing
person's report uh from his bedroom. And what did you spot on these boots that was of interest? So, we had found a
substance that we believed could be blood, but he also works with lots of chemicals, so we were unsure if that
would be something that got on there while he was at work. 38 days after Michaela went missing, they finally got
the results. They weren't able to get a genetic confirmation on the hair, but the boots were a different story. The
substance on Frank's boots was blood, Michaela's blood. But as soon as we got that, we were
like, "We're going right now." You had your man. >> We had our guy, yes. We were waiting for that arrest.
So, it moved fast after that. It was close to midnight. Flashing police lights lit up the darkness. 38 days
after Michaela was reported missing, Detective Black, Deputy Richardson, and a special ops team moved in to arrest
Frank Byers. I got with the SWAT team, organized the takedown, and went in and got him.
He thought he was smarter than everyone, but he was outsmarted, right? [music] >> Yes, I think he was surprised.
Lieutenant Black finally had Frank in her grasp, and right where she wanted him, in handcuffs, headed to jail.
Detective May called Mikaela's family with the news. That was a hallelujah moment.
That was about time moment. >> [snorts] >> We can't get her back, but we knew he
wasn't walking free anymore. Detective May says they were done with Frank's lies. Take it, Frank.
And they confronted him with the hard evidence they'd taken weeks to gather. Now [snorts] is your opportunity
to let us know what happened. I I did I didn't mean Why was your blood on your boots? I mean
I can't answer, I mean I I don't I don't know, I mean, honestly. Frank Byers was charged [music] with
first-degree murder. The DA was seeking the death penalty. But the defense requested a deal to save
his life. 15 months after Byers' arrest, he agreed to plead guilty and serve life
without parole. Mikaela's mom was bitterly disappointed. I feel that the plea deal was a cop-out.
The moment the second that she took her last breath, he chose that. And he got to choose what he got for
punishment, too. And that's not okay. It's not okay. The plea deal [music] isn't the only
thing upsetting Barbara. She doesn't think Frank >> [music] >> acted alone. You're absolutely convinced
that Frank had somebody helping him. I'll go to my grave believing that. I think he had to have had an
accomplice. I don't think that he could have moved her body on his own at all. Physically, he could not have
done it. No, I don't believe so. I think we all agree that it would absolutely be
difficult to move her. But, people are scared. They can do amazing things. What they're saying is not
unreasonable. If the evidence is presented to us one day and that that uh, that suggests that, we will take it
and we'll run with it to this fullest extent. I come and I sit and I look at that place down there.
I went down and hung all kinds of crosses and different things. He didn't just [music] take
from us, he took from his own children. Someone that loved them. That put them first.
It didn't have to end this way. He could have let her leave. But, he didn't. There's cold justice for Michaela.
For Detective Dakota Black, tracker, her painful work continues. Michaela would want
her life to mean something. Barbara is starting Michaela's [music] Purple Butterfly Foundation to fight
against domestic violence. That was her goal, her mission in life was when you see someone in need, help them.
When I think of Michaela, I think of sunflowers. I think of joy. She would love that though. You know she
would with all those sunflowers. I sure miss her smile. Her laugh. Oh, that laugh was something else.
She was in best friend. I strived for her to [music] be proud of me because I looked up to her even
though she was the little sister. I still lay in bed and talk to her like she's still right there.
Like she's watching over us every day. >> [music] >> There was just skies a limit for a 21
year old that was talented and that everybody loved. I'm Kevin Harris's dad. K, he's my son and he was named after
me. >> [music] >> It was going to be a Sunday like any other. Even if he didn't go church that day.
He was naive. Kevin, trusting soul. Maybe a little too much. He'd say, "Why you got to tell everybody
I'm your son?" I said, "Because I'm proud of you." My best friend, my teammate. I haven't been able to watch a
a father take his son to the park [music] with a ball, you know, for a while, so.
He was making a name for himself. Cuz I heard where Britney and Rihanna actually were interested in some of his
material. Kevin always had it. The beats were great. I knew he was going to make it.
Some people have that thing where it's like you're relentless to a point where nothing can stop you.
The stuff that he would send me was a lot of like an R&B [music] feel mixed with like pop.
Pop and hip hop. Church. Like gospel, like those chords. [music] A lot of things were happening too
quickly. Videos, camera shoots, Ice Cube track. And he went to that doggone studio that
night. And that happened. Last day. And he kissed [snorts] me on the on my left cheek.
He hugged me. And he just held me and I said, "What's wrong, Kevin?" And he said, "Nothing, Mom."
He said, "Everything's just happening so fast. I feel like something's going to happen." And I said, "Don't think like
that." 10 to 17 [music] shots. Two different handguns. How much do you have to kill him?
A lot of suspicious things happened that night. The clues are absolutely out there.
We just need that one piece. That one smoking gun. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
>> "Time is of the essence. I hate how long my breath takes." Those are the words of
Kevin Harris on his Twitter account in the summer of 2009. Kevin was just 21 when he was gunned
down shortly after 8:00 p.m. on a September Sunday that same year. He had been sitting in his car alone in
Inglewood, California, a small city in Los Angeles close to LAX. I got a call at 9:15. Are you at the
hospital? I said, "For what?" "What happened? What's wrong?" Kevin's been shot. Kevin Harris Sr. is Kevin's dad.
We ran every light just to be told that we couldn't see him. I was in denial. Katherine is his
mother. The night that he was murdered, and I do say murdered. People like to say he passed. He did pass on, but
someone actually took the time to murder him. The Harrises couldn't believe that
somebody wanted their son dead. This is This is Kevin. This was during the the the the photo shoot that they
had, so Handsome. Confident. Very confident. Tell me about your angel. Our angel. Our
angel. She called him angel face. His mother? His mother. Yeah, I wish you could have met him. He was a beautiful
man. And he was still close with his childhood friends like Cameron Woods. We've known each other since we were
like 2 or 3 years old. We continued going to the same school with each other all the way to
all the way to here. Um It's still so fresh. Yeah, hold on. Sorry. What are you thinking?
I don't want to cry. It's a little harder. A little. Mhm. Yeah. It's okay. You know that, right?
What do you miss most about him? His smile. His generosity. Never heard anybody tell me anything bad
about him, say anything bad about him. Never really heard him say anything bad about anyone.
Besides maybe a few, you know, I mean, no one's perfect. But he was he was close. He was close to that. And
The Harrises, led by example, working hard, dad at the LA airport and selling cars, and mom working retail.
They were regulars in church. And they sent Kevin to a Catholic school. She and I were like helicopter parents.
Under surveillance at all time. As a form of protection? >> Yes. If he hadn't come home at a certain
time, I would text a question mark. Just knowing the the possible hearts that lay
out there in the street. One of Kevin's hobbies, Cameron says, was hanging out with his mom.
Spending time with his mom. Really? >> Yeah, he loved yeah. Wait, wait, wait. A teenager enjoying spending time with his
parents? I don't know if I should say it, but he was like kind of like a mama's boy, but I mean, I'm a mama's
boy, so There's nothing wrong with that. Kevin was a perfect date. Jasmine Tanner
was Kevin's high school sweetheart. Not really a huge dancer, but like, you know, he had his little two-step that he
would do. Everything that he did was in a from a very loving place. The Harrises kept their son involved in
sports, especially basketball. I'll take you through my house right now. Right here in my room. But his real
calling was music. Much of the music you're hearing in this broadcast is his. See, this is all you need right here.
Just a little kid right here. See, turn up the music for a second. >> [music] >> See?
You got all that? Got my little turntables. Just mix it up. He taught himself to play.
>> He taught himself. He had rock, he had classics, he had jazz, uh East Indian music.
Soon [music] after high school graduation, Kevin landed a gig apprenticing at a local music studio.
And he start bobbing that head and then he just the next thing you know he's like, oh cool, listen to this and then
he'll click something. It's like going to the next level. By the summer of [music] 2009, he'd
stacked up hundreds of hours in the studio. He began breaking into the Los Angeles hip-hop scene.
But he just wanted to be the best producer ever. Kevin's vibe was he was comfortable with
himself. Sonya [music] Teclai is a poet and singer, one of a number of artists working with Kevin. I had never felt
comfortable in recording sessions until my sessions with him. And a lot of times like, you
know, guys are just trying to like get at girls and do all these things, but he was just he stayed in his lane, he was
focused on his work. As Kevin's career picked up speed, [music] he bragged about working at a big fancy
studio where Michael Jackson once recorded [music] Thriller. And he was like right there.
And like, you know, like a pinball and you get your ball ready and >> [music] >> and you pull it back and then he let go
and But everything would soon come to an abrupt and violent end. My naive loving
son probably just could have been possibly sleeping with the enemy and had no idea.
>> [music] >> To this day, no one has been charged for the murder of Kevin Harris.
They thought we going to do this sneaky stuff here and we'll get away with it. They effed with the wrong father this
time. Kevin Harris Sr. is determined to change that. He's spent the past 11 years
seeking justice for his namesake. I never got to speak to Kevin that day at all.
I went to work 9:00 a.m. He was still asleep and I looked in on him and I left. That Sunday morning in the summer of
2009, Kevin shared breakfast with his mother Katherine. I saved the plate, the paper,
the napkin, the last carton of juice. I have all of that from that day. You memorialized him.
I just love him. I I love him. Retracing their son's steps, the Harrises say nothing seemed unusual that
day. From what I hear, at some point he wound up at a Pop Warner football game and then later on he went
to his aunt's. Karen Staden is the last known person to see Kevin alive. He was his regular happy-go-lucky self.
Hi, Auntie. How you doing? What you cook? And he stayed, we ate, we laughed, we talked. And after a few
hours, Kevin left saying he was headed to the music studio. I said, "Kevin, don't go. We're having too much fun. I
don't want you to go yet." And he said, "Auntie, I have to go because the studio was quiet. No one's
there, I can record, I can go over some things, I can write. I [music] can perfect what I'm working on and we
hugged each other and he was out the door. He drove to the studio in his beloved
green Camaro. He was supposed to meet up with a friend known in the community as
a wannabe rapper, but that friend was a no-show. A lot of suspicious things happened that night.
The studio was in a converted garage in a residential neighborhood. Kevin arrived but never made it out of his
car. He was shot multiple times from two different guns. I never expected anything like this to happen to Kevin.
Kevin's friend Jasmine says he didn't have a chance. To find out that he was shot outside the studio that he loved to
go to so much, it was just like nowhere is safe. The Harrises went to the crime scene no
more than 3 hours after their son had been shot. The police >> [music] >> were already gone. It was already
cleaned up. It was so weird and strange. It was like, why is this crime scene already done? Car was gone, everything.
It seems as if they were more expeditious in cleaning up that crime scene than they were in trying to find
out who did this within the proverbial 24 to 48 hours. That's what it seemed like.
Katherine took what was left behind. I walked around in front of the studio and I saw blood, wiped the blood up off
the street and uh the glass from his window was on the ground. And I used my hands as a broom to gather
the the glass. This young man deserves better than what happened here. There was early speculation [music] that
Kevin's death was gang-related, an assumption that upset his father. You hear shot and killed and the first
thing you want to say [music] is drive-by, was he in a gang? No. No, he wasn't. He was just a loving young man
with a heart as big as this church. Music journalist Rahman Dukes says, "No matter how innocent the victim is,
people assume a crime like this is gang-related." >> Cuz he's a young black man. So, it's
automatic? Yeah. And and that and specifically within that neighborhood. 100%. >> Young black man shot.
In the music business. Yeah. Those are all elements. And the odds of solving crimes with
those elements are slim. For one thing, witnesses can be hard to find. People in
these communities, they stick together. When these situations occur, they're like,
"I'm not not dealing with with the law enforcement. They weren't here to help us, why we
going to why we going to help them?" I have seen people step forward, but the majority of the time
that doesn't happen. Why? A lot of times cuz they're afraid. That person still has to live in that
neighborhood. There might be some retaliation. There's this mentality where it's like, just mind
your own business. As time passed, Kevin's parents felt that the police pushed their son's case
to the back burner, even when they tried to help. >> would tell me, "Just go home. Just go
home. We'll take care of this." We let the law enforcement handle it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. It was
sat on. The police told 48 Hours, quote, "Our hearts go out to the parents and family of Kevin. The Inglewood Police
Department has done everything possible to bring closure and justice to the family.
The Harrises continued to push for answers. They held memorials for Kevin, [music] inviting the police and local
officials. But the stress of losing their son took its toll. The gun kills more than its intended
victim, and it always will. And after he died, not right away, but a lot of everything that meant
everything to our family was destroyed. Two years after Kevin's murder, the Harrises ended their 23-year marriage.
It was a dark time for Kevin Sr. He searched for solace. And he found it in church. A Baptist
church in the Los Angeles community of Watts. >> [singing] >> My heart is broken, but God has
piece by piece put it back together. Pastor Winford Bell helped the heartbroken father channel his grief
into a new-found purpose, speaking out against gun violence for Bell's organization, Silver Lining of Hope.
My heart has been ripped to smithereens. I really revel in this because it's medicine to my soul to
speak about the loss of my son. >> [music and applause] >> Kevin stepped up. When they kill your
baby, there's few people that want to fight to fix it so that your baby or my baby
or anybody else's baby doesn't suffer the same thing. Now more at peace with himself, Kevin
Sr. found more will to keep up the long fight to find out who murdered his son. And he was about to get some unexpected
help. We're going to put as much time and energy as it takes. We will not stop. We will [music] figure this out.
Kevin Harris Sr. continued to speak out. Six years after his son's senseless murder, his heartbreaking story finally
had an impact. The local police brought in the FBI to work the case. When I heard I was going to get a call from the
FBI, I felt that all my aggressiveness wasn't in vain. Have you met the parents? I have.
The parents are fantastic and as soon as I met them, we immediately bonded and they have begged us to just find the
people that did this and that's my commitment to them. is in charge of FBI criminal
investigations in Los Angeles. I'm vested. So, we'll find them and we'll hold them accountable. Welcome
to the new FBI. I think there was a tough case with, you know, not a lot of evidence. There was
no DNA. There was no actual physical touching. FBI special agent Shawn Sterling got the case. He started with
the crime scene photos and with what witnesses it did speak out saw, a dark [music] sedan that pulled up next to
Kevin Harris's Camaro. The shots were fired [music] from that car. We believe there were probably
three people in the car, the driver and two shooters. They were approximately about 6 in
door-to-door, so close that the shell casings from the shooters' guns, two of them, end up inside Kevin's car.
Also new to the case, former LA detective John Skaggs. I know the streets and I know how to talk to
people. Where are you taking us? Right now we're going to the crime scene where Kevin was
killed. There's a couple things I need to look at and then there's a resident that I
want to talk to. Skaggs came out of retirement to work with the local cold case unit and assist the FBI. So, is
this a hopeless case or a stalled case? Uh it is stalled and absolutely not hopeless.
And what's the difference? Well, there's still clues that haven't been burned out.
This is the street where Kevin was murdered? >> Exactly. Detective Skaggs walks into the house
attached to the music studio. Hey, John Skaggs from Inglewood Police. And comes out a half an hour later with owner
Randy Thomas. Hey. Hi, how are you? I'm Michelle Miller with 48 Hours. So, Michelle, had a really good talk with
Randy. Uh he was friends, he knew Kevin for about 4 years and Kevin would use his
studio for for his music. Randy says by the time he got outside that night, the shooters were gone. I heard cap, cap,
cap. I thought it was firecrackers. Then the neighbor came outside and said, "Somebody shot." And you saw Kevin's
car. >> the green Camaro and I said, "Oh my god. Oh my god." Then the ambulance came
and the fire truck and they pulled him out, tried to revive him, but it was bad.
To see him here on the street in front of your house. Broke my heart. It's almost like someone had to have
followed him here. So, you think it was someone he knew? That I don't know, but I know that no
one comes here on Sunday nights. The new detectives confirmed what Kevin's parents and friends had said all
along. Kevin Harris was really quite a remarkable kid. We probably did somewhere close to 70 to 80 interviews.
We could not find anybody who would say anything closely, remotely, negative about him.
>> [music] >> And they learned that in the months before his death, Kevin's career was on
a roll. This studio was his home base. There's a lot of steps. Be very careful. >> Okay.
So, you have a sound mixer. >> Right. You have a sound booth. >> Right. So, this is where we do the music
at. And Kevin had keys. He can come anytime he like to come. In the summer of 2009, Kevin was
becoming better known by his stage name, Track Bully. I think he was just really
positive about the way his life was going. I mean, his name was Track Bully for >> Exactly, cuz his tracks was crazy.
>> [laughter] >> Gucci nail on your glasses. >> Come on. One of the artists Kevin was
closest with was Jizzle, a hip-hop poet and rapper seen in this video with Diddy. I look at this picture and What
do you see? Oh man, I was just Bro, when he was hungry like he was trying to figure it out. He
got the TV on his hat. By then >> That's for Track Bully. But by then he was already like
Lit, kind of, huh? Yeah. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> He was lit. And I used to go by Lady G
at the time, so he'd be like, "What's up, Lady G?" Like, "Man, you got to mess with me on the music, man." And so he
finally like sent me a like a backseat beats. >> [music] >> Jizzo and Kevin worked together on
Poppin, a catchy tune they believed could break through and become a hit. This is Poppin. This is Poppin. Wow.
>> Yeah, man. Is that him right there? Yeah. Track Bully right there. Talk to the side.
>> Yeah. Kevin was clearly proud of that song. Jizzo may have been the star, but
Kevin made sure everyone knew he was the force behind it. And then there was his triumph of
scoring a really big sale. It was to hip-hop star Ice Cube. Once again, proudly tweeting about his feat.
Right before he was killed, he had sold a track to Ice Cube. I mean, how big of a deal was that?
>> big deal. Ice Cube is a legend in music. Not just hip-hop, it's music. It's a
really big deal. Kevin's career was skyrocketing, and his dad was feeling a little uneasy. If I
would have had a chance, I would have reeled him back in just a little bit. Looking back, Kevin Sr. believes his son
was playing with fire. Put it this way. There's not this evil Grim Reaper with a hood that's just
standing around on streets. Normally, it's someone that you know or someone that you've had an
acquaintance with. A friend one day, enemy the next. The new detectives continued to study
the crime scene photos. >> [music] >> This is kind of like you see his life right there. I mean, high school
basketball player, great outside shooter, his laptop, and his hard drive with all his his music. So, in his car
were all his loves, and horribly, that's where he died. Since Kevin's reputation was golden,
they wondered if his death could have been a case of mistaken identity. They learned Kevin wasn't the only one in
town with a green Camaro. There was an active gang member that lived less than two blocks away from Kevin at the time.
That gang member, they say, had a look-alike car. I was able to interview him. The guy's
changed his life, and he's told me about some of the stuff that he was doing back in that day that
could easily be a cause for somebody to retaliate against anybody driving a green Camaro.
When you grow up in LA, no matter how sheltered you are or how strict your parents are, you're going to run into
the culture. It's no secret that Los Angeles does have a gang culture. Even though he wasn't in the streets, I think
we all kind of know what that's like. You know, your parents can't protect you from everything.
But detectives now say they took a hard look at that mistaken identity theory and ruled it out.
They believe that Kevin rolled down his window to talk to the people who drove up next to him that night. And that he
would not have done that unless he knew them. So, they're looking at each other eye to eye. That kind of dispels gang
retaliation shooting where Kevin was misidentified for another gang member. They were convinced Kevin Harris was the
intended target. But why? Were there clues in his surging career? For one thing, in the hip-hop business,
you can get rich overnight. And you have like really young artists like 18, 19 years old and they're
millionaires. 2, 3 years before that, they probably didn't have $10 in their pocket. Kevin hadn't made any big money
yet, but he definitely was a prospect, a kid with big potential. He was really hustling, trying to get
artists and putting music together and getting his music heard. Kevin was all over the place.
He was putting himself out there. More people, more parties, and his tweets show it.
Party in Baldwin Hills. Pool party at the Custom. There's no other way to kind of attain
your goals and aspirations without going at it 24/7. I could just see that in him. You just
showing up where you're supposed to show up and put yourself out there. Putting himself out there, he was
getting a little more flashy. He put extra wide chrome wheels on his Camaro. His dad didn't approve. Now you're kind
of blingin' a little bit too much for maybe the average young man. You have to be less
visible. And Kevin was also getting louder on Twitter. Kevin got real cocky. His name was like really getting out
there. I did feel like, you know, maybe he was kind of feeling himself, little fluffing his uh his little feathers. "I
felt like blessing people with my presence." he tweeted. Word was that Kevin didn't want to work with people
who weren't up to his level. When you start getting hot, everybody wants a piece of you.
You just can't work with everybody. And sometimes some people get offended by that. Things could happen out of
those situations. And Kevin wasn't shy about calling some people out. That's clear in his tweets.
"I'm getting bored by my so-called peers." And here he says someone was quote "exceeding their talent."
In the music business, words like that could be a problem. There's no difference between that and
dissing someone in the streets. What is a diss? A diss is disrespect. It's a very real thing, and again, it goes back
to like these street rules. >> So a lot of this conversation is through social media, Twitter specifically. I'm
sure that Kevin was aware of it. Did he think it would lead to him potentially losing his life?
I don't think so. Just who was Kevin dissing in those tweets? No one knows for sure. Could it have
been that wannabe rapper who stood him up at the studio that night? Was there bad blood between them?
The people who knew Kevin best sensed he was uneasy in the weeks before his death.
His demeanor did seem a little different. I couldn't really pinpoint like what it was, but I can tell when
someone's vibe is off. He'll come home. Couple times I'd see him look back out the door.
I say, "What's wrong, man? Is somebody following you?" "Nah, no, I'm okay." The Harrises had prepared Kevin for life
growing up in a tough neighborhood. There was sometimes gunfire in the area, but they believed they taught Kevin how
to avoid it. Still, Kevin Sr. was taken aback [music] by a question his son had. At one point,
he did ask me, "Well, what do you think about bulletproof windows?" I said, "Why?"
I said, "Kevin, is somebody bothering you?" "No, it's all right. I'm okay." I said, "Just let me know. I've lived
here long enough. We can We can speak on it. We can get it taken care of peacefully."
"No, I'm all right, Dad." It was always, "I'm all right, Dad." I love you, Kevin.
But something must have been wrong. After Kevin died, Katherine was surprised to learn that he was thinking
of joining the military and getting out of town. A week after uh he was murdered, I received a letter
from the recruiter's office for him to go see the recruiter. You know, a lot of people say timing is everything, and
gosh, I wish I kind of wish it would have came a week earlier. >> [music] >> Kevin
Harris never lived to see his recording played on the radio, that song by Gizzle. I was at work, and then someone
told me that it be coming on. And then I hear it, and I kind of broke down right there.
Everybody came running over, you know, I said, "That's That's Kevin. That's my son."
11 years later, his father is putting his faith [music] into the new investigation. The clues are absolutely
out there. We just need that one piece, that one smoking gun that we need to solidify
this. This is an active case, so the detectives won't name the names of anyone they have in their sights. But
Skaggs did drop this clue about Kevin's last day. Uh he had made plans with one of the individuals who's definitely a
suspect in this case to meet him at the studio at 8:00. As far as I know, that individual was the only other
person that knew that Kevin was going to be at the studio at 8:00 p.m. We have now learned that that man was
Desmond Carter, the wannabe rapper that Kevin was supposed to meet at the studio
that night. He definitely caught the attention of the police. In fact, 48 Hours has learned that Desmond Carter
was arrested for the murder of Kevin Harris in 2017. And here's the record. >> [music]
>> Carter was questioned, but never charged with anything. Authorities told us the
evidence they had did not cross the threshold of reasonable doubt. Still, Desmond Carter remains a suspect.
That's partly because there had been bad blood between Desmond and Kevin. Word on
the street was that Kevin had dissed Desmond by refusing to give him beats. Whatever it was that brought Kevin to
the studio that night, authorities suspect it was a trap. >> Kevin Harris was set up.
>> Kevin's own words may support that theory. >> 10 days or 2 weeks before his death when
he [music] told one of his best friends that something's come up missing. I'm getting blamed for it. I didn't have
anything to do with it, but I'm really scared of what might happen. What had gone missing that Kevin was
being blamed for? Was it money? Drugs? Police have told 48 Hours they do not believe that Kevin was dealing drugs.
Somebody blamed him for doing something that they did and blamed him to some big
hitters that were going to seek revenge. This is a classic story of a kid who trusted too much in several other people
that he [music] didn't really know that well. But he gave them all his trust and he
ended up being killed as a result. >> [music] >> We reached out to Desmond Carter. He
didn't want to go on camera or comment [music] directly, but through a friend he said he had nothing to do with
Kevin's death and that he thought of Kevin as one of his best [music] friends. I'm angry. Yes, I'm angry. I'm
angry with certain people that were hanging around my son because it has all the earmarks of someone that he knows
well that was in the circle. I grew up at the beach. I really love the ocean and it's always
been part of my life. Detective Skaggs says walking on the nearby beach helps clear his head and reminds him to be
patient. It does not discourage me. It's If these cases were easy, they'd all be solved. I
know that some of the people that I'm interviewing are not telling me the truth.
So, you know, it just makes it so hard. Detectives are hoping for new information. There's a ton of
circumstantial [music] evidence that kind of ends up adding up into one big significant theory. That way I think
we're very close to proving. We think we're 80 85% there. I am fully confident that this case is going to be solved.
Yes, so anybody who has any information about what happened to Kevin that day, whether they were an eyewitness,
overheard something at a later date or later or got knowledge of what happened to Kevin and who hurt him, that person
needs to come forward [music] for so many reasons. First of all, for justice, justice for Kevin and his family. It's
the right thing to do and could be [music] preventing these bad guys from hurting more people. We really need help
from the public and anybody who knows anything about [music] this case and what happened to him and what happened
that night to come forward and that's what our plea is to to the public. As the case stands today, the murder of
Kevin Harris remains unsolved. You still miss him? What do you miss most? I just miss his spirit. I think I'm just
not knowing, you know? Not knowing. I'm not supposed to cry. But just not knowing like to see
all that potential just to see that the path that he was on, to know the support that he had from
everyone around him is just really unfortunate to not be able to see that. Just you know, reach his full potential, you
know? So I just I I I just miss his spirit. I miss having him around. I miss I miss the fact that I that we all
missed the chance to see how he would grow, you know? Kevin's parents say they'll never give
up. I have nothing else to do with the grief that I feel every day but to be motivated by when I walk out the door
each day. Let's kick some doors in. Let's stay relentless with this. You can't hide from God.
You can hide here on Earth. Duck and dodge. Go to another state. Go to another continent, whatever. But, you
can't hide from God. The FBI helped fund billboards to help get new information. They've also
contributed to a $50,000 reward. The Harrises say the reason they agreed to talk with 48 Hours is their hope this
will finally bring justice for their son. When I go to sleep, when I dream, he's always there with me.
>> [music] >> For my son, I'm never going to stop grieving. Murdered. He was murdered.
These pictures are in my room. And to be honest with you, since we resemble each other so much,
>> [music] >> I turn them backwards. It's kind of hard to look at them all the time like that. Kevin Harris Sr.
doesn't need to look at those pictures anymore because the image of his son is fresh in his mind every single day.
And he is consumed with solving this case for one reason. So, I can lay my son's soul to rest
properly. His mother and I will make sure his passion and his dream lives on. 48 Hours. To miss it would be a crime.
Were you at [music] all prepared for what happened in this case? >> [music] >> Mhm.
>> [music] [music] >> Mhm.

48 Hours probes cases that involve dark premonitions. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Taken Away," "Tracker Dakota Black" and "The Ambush of Kevin Harris."

00:00 Taken Away 41:41 Tracker Dakota Black 01:23:23 The Ambush of Kevin Harris

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Jessie Bardwell's disappearance leads to a father's fight for justice and the uncovering of a tragic murder case.

Key points

The Nightmare. Gary recalls a haunting dream about his daughter, foreshadowing tragedy.
The Discovery. After weeks of searching, police find evidence that leads to a homicide investigation.
Mock Trial Verdict. The mock jurors acquit Jason, raising hopes for his release.
Guilty Verdict. The jury finds Jason guilty of murder, bringing a sense of justice to Jessie's family.
Mikaela's Disappearance. Mikaela Mayeux goes missing, prompting a frantic search by family and friends.
Suspicion on Frank. Investigators begin to suspect Frank Byers, Michaela's husband, as the case unfolds.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I had that nightmare and I felt it. She was not on this earth anymore.

Gary's haunting premonition about his daughter's fate.

2:11WatchMar 7, 2026

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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