Extraordinary Alibis | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

[Music] My name is Reggie Reed. Salonia Reed is my mother and Regginal Reed Senior is my father.
My mother, she was the love of my life, my first love. And I was her everything.
It was very rare I wasn't by her side. Take me back and tell me what you remember about that day. That day we
went to the mall. That's one of the things to do in Hammond. Just go to the mall. Even though if you're not buying
anything, window shop, if you will. Went to the mall, came home, and my mom went out and she never came
home. My beeper went off and it was retinal. and he asked me, "Had I seen Salonia?"
And I said, "No, not since yesterday." I was a patrol officer for the Ham Police Department. I was dispatched to a
missing person's call on Apple Street in Hammond, Louisiana. The complainant, Regginal Reie, explained to me that his
wife had left home the night before and had not returned and he was concerned and wanted to file a missing person's
report. I had received a description of the car from Reginald that I started to drive up Range Road
and I noticed the car. walked up to the car and noticed Salonia's body inside the car. It was
very, very, very obvious that she was deceased. Salonia was 26 years old at the time.
When I watched the crime scene video and saw Salon's body in that car, immediately I was sad. I was mad. It was
pretty apparent to me right away that whoever did this homicide hated this woman.
So I called Regina back. I says, "Regina, have you heard anything?" He told me, he said, "Yes." He said, "They
found her in her car." And he said that she was dead and that was I was interviewed after she was murdered
at as a six-year-old. Okay. Can you tell me your name? What's your name? When I watch that video over and over
again, okay, the day before Sunday, what would you do? What I see is a a six-year-old boy that
life has been ch changed. He doesn't understand the magnitude of it yet. [Music]
And you asking me, you trying to find out who killed my mother? Do you remember seeing her movie?
You did? Anytime a young woman Salon's age is killed the way she's killed, I think most people right away would
assume the husband did it, right? And that's the easy way. That's the stereotypical way.
But it's also not out of the realm of possibility that this was some killing for another reason. From that day on, my
life changed forever. It just begs a question why [Music] [Music] After my mother was murdered, things
moved fast. Couldn't really understand like why would somebody kill her? Like what did
she do? It's been decades since Reggie Reed Jr. last saw his mother, Salonia. I feel like I missed out on a huge part
of life that I'll never get back. Reggie was only 6 years old on August 22nd, 1987.
One of the last things he remembers is his mother buying him a chocolate chip cookie here at the Hammond Square Mall
in Louisiana. He told police his mother kissed him when she left the house later that
night. But the rest, he says, is a blur. When you think about that, what does that feel like? When I think about how
my mother's life was shortened and how my experience was shortened, I feel empty.
Somebody says to you, "Who is Salonia?" What do you say? Someone asks me, "Who is Salonia?" I
would say, "You're looking at her. cuz based on the description, the memories and what things people have
shared. When I look in the mirror, I see my mother. Reggie's memories are at the heart of
the memoir he's written about his mother's murder. The day my mother never came home. Within these pages, you will
find the memories of a six-year-old boy whose mother was murdered. A 15-year-old
young man searching for his place in the world without the guidance and encouragement of his mother. The night
my mother went out and never came home. Life for me and my father basically flipped upside
down. Charles Muse, now retired, was the police officer who found Salonia's body
after taking the initial missing person's report from her husband, Regginal Reed.
Salonia's body was in between the bucket seats of the car with her torso over into the back seat of the car.
She had 16 pinpoint like stab wounds in her upper torso, shoulder, and neck. Her
blouse had been torn off. Her pants had been removed from her. She had been sexually assaulted as well. Louisiana
State Police Lieutenant Barry Ward would eventually be assigned to the case years
later. He was only 16 years old when Salonia was murdered. In 1987, I was a sophomore in Marshall County High School
in Western Kentucky. When he eventually did pick up the case file, he took note of the lack of blood in the car. It
would suggest that she was murdered in another location and then transported to where her body was later discovered at
the John's Curb Market. That market was about 1 and a half miles from the Reed house on Apple Street.
At the scene, Officer Muse noticed something else about Salonia's naked body. I did see a substance uh that had
been placed on the body. It was a white liquid type substance on her torso and stomach area.
Police believe the white lotion may have spelled out a word, but if there was a message, it had become illeible in the
Louisiana heat. The windows were rolled up. It was August at the time. It was very hot out.
Detectives bagged any potential evidence, including the butt of a cigarette. A Winston cigarette.
Police canvased the area, but Ward says they didn't find any eyewitnesses or a murder weapon.
The following day, on Monday the 24th, a neighbor went to his mailbox and discovered a crucifix and a screwdriver.
Given the nature of Salonia's injuries, police at first believed the screwdriver
might be the murder weapon, even though it had no visible blood on it. It was early in the investigation, and
detectives looked at all the angles, including Salonia's job at Citizens National Bank. She was a teller in the
commercial section. She was described as being polite, kind, had a nice smile. Here
she is taking part in a community fashion show just one week before her murder. Selonia and Reginald, who was a Marine
and later a car salesman, met during their high school years. Salonia was known for being devoted to little
Reggie, as everyone called him. But the night she disappeared, she left the six-year-old at home with his father.
According to what Reginald told police, he and his son uh Reginald Jr. were going to stay and play video games while
she went out to a local bar with her girlfriend. Officer Muse interviewed that friend who denied she and Salonia
had plans that night. Regginal told police he suspected Salonia had a boyfriend and admitted he
and his wife had personal differences. But Ward says the police found no evidence of an affair. Based on the
research that I had conducted, her co-workers, the people that knew her said that she just went to work and came
home, that she was always seen with her little boy. The day after her body was found, investigators searched the family
home on Apple Street. The chief of police said that when he went in, it smelled like bleach in the house.
Detectives looked for evidence that Salonia may have been killed there, but all they found was a freshly vacuumed
carpet and the gold clasp of a necklace. Reginald gave investigators permission to interview little Reggie, the only
other person in the home the night of the murder. In this police video, a detective questions Reggie as his father
fidgets with a bean bag intended for his son. Tell me what you remember about that knife. Reggie Jr. became his
father's alibi. The boy said he and his father played video games and then slept
together in the same sofa bed on that August night. Did anybody come over? Did anybody leave?
Everybody stay home that night. When little Reggie agrees that everybody stayed home, his father looks at him.
Everybody, everybody see that don't be afraid. Just you know when she don't be don't don't be afraid.
Just we just talking. She she ask you just a few more questions. You're right. What's the
matter, baby? He said he didn't want to talk no more. Oh, you don't want to talk
no more? Just the emotional part of it. Okay, that's all right. Look, didn't I tell you before that I'm I'm your
friend? Oh, he's here, baby. [Music] Okay, darling. I won't talk no more. You don't have to. I just can't imagine what
it's like as a six-year-old to have to sit there and looking at that, it's still hard to
believe that that's me. Watching that video just brings back so so many questions and
and pain because I see me crying. In the aftermath of Salonia's murder, her family came forward with more
information. Some of it directed at one of Reginald's friends, Jimmy Ray Barnes.
Turns out Barnes smoked Winston cigarettes, the same brand found in Selonia's car. And Salonia's sister,
Gwen Smith, said that Salonia did not like Jimmy Ray. Apparently, she knew Jimmy Ray's voice cuz she started
screaming, "Come inside. I don't trust him." So, she was scared of him. In the days after Salonia's murder,
there was one name police kept hearing. Jimmy Ray Barnes, a friend of Regginal Senior. Jimmy Ray Barnes was an
acquaintance of Regginal Reed. He hung out with him. He worked with him. Lieutenant Ward learned about a
disturbing incident at a local beach where Salonia was swimming with little Reggie just days before the murder. They
were on inner tubes. Jimmy flipped Salonia over. She didn't feel that it was a playful thing. She
felt that it was uh deliberate and intentional. Uh she was not a good swimmer and uh she said she struggled to
make it to the bank. The next night, her sister Gwen said Salonia became frightened when a relative who was
visiting Salonia spotted Jimmy Ray Barnes near her home. And she said Salon went into hysterics like, "No, no, don't
go out there. Don't go out there." And within a few moments, Jimmy Ray Barnes walked around the corner of the house.
Jimmy told her that he was checking on Stonia and she ran him off. Ward would learn that Jimmy Ray along
with Reginald came under even more scrutiny 2 days after the murder. A witness came forward to say she had seen
two men around John's Curb Market on the night Salonia was murdered. She became suspicious and later wrote down on a
piece of scrap paper the license plate. As it turns out, that was the vehicle that Regginal Reed was known to um
operate in. That was his car. Some two weeks later, police assembled this photo array and showed it to the witness. The
witness identified the driver as Regginal Reed and the passenger as Jimmy Ray Barnes. Jimmy Ray was given a
polygraph test and police at the time said he passed. But it wasn't long before Jimmy Ray left Hammond.
Reginald denied having anything to do with Salonia's murder, but neighbors told police the marriage was trouble.
Family members say Salonia had accused her husband of physical abuse, and there was talk of divorce.
The police continued investigating, but prosecutors never brought the case to a grand jury. There's a lot of
circumstantial evidence in 1987 that pointed to Regginal Reed and Jimmy Ray Barnes. Um, as far as a a smoking gun,
it it it was not there at that time. I started feeling like nothing was going to be done about her murder and we would
not get justice. Time passed and Reginald continued to live in Hammond. He even ran for mayor
in 1998. Ariel Reggie Reed, number eight. You can count on me. Thank you. He lost that race, but he and little
Reggie stayed in the family home, which today has fallen into disrepair. So, this is it. What's it like for you to
just come back here? I know you don't like to, but what does it feel like? I feel numb. Yeah, I feel numb. This is
where it all started. You know, this is the halls I used to run. This is the TV room. This was the TV room. When you
were playing Nintendo with your father the night that your mother was murdered, was that here? That was in Israel.
Reggie went on to attend college and later got an MBA. He moved out of Hammond and began working for a
pharmaceutical company. There were no new developments on his mother's murder until 2011 when Lieutenant Barry Ward of
the Louisiana State Police got involved. After I started interacting with Sonia's
family, her sisters, I realized how important it was. Before Barry Ward came into the picture, I just felt like
nobody cared about Salon's case. This was just the last opportunity I felt before more witnesses passed away
that we would have a chance to find justice for this terrible crime that happened to Sloonia.
As far as Ward could determine, the crucifix and screwdriver found within days of the murder led nowhere. But the
detective was drawn to several life insurance policies Regginal had taken out on Salonia that paid out more than
$700,000. Some of those policies were taken out the same month that Selonia was murdered.
Ward wanted to reinter Reggie Jr. in 2012. Reggie was 31 years old and living in Texas. Ward sent a Texas Ranger to
begin the questioning. He told me why he was here and it was to discuss my mother's murder. And the
ranger then told Reggie something he said he'd never heard before. He was not aware that his father was a suspect in
the murder of his mother. I was like, where is this coming from? Like it's been over three decades. You talking
about a dad like killed my mom. Like seriously. I remember asking is there any new evidence that was surfaced? And
it was nothing new. It's true that the insurance policies had been discovered by the original detectives, but
Lieutenant Ward had organized them in a way that he felt was damning. The Texas Ranger asked Reggie about those
policies. He showed me a graph, a timeline that showed these insurance policies that were taken out close to
her death. Did you all of a sudden say, "I need to get to the bottom of this." Or what? It was eye opening cuz I'm
like, "Well, that doesn't look good. I got to learn what like what's all this?" Reggie struggled to make sense of it
all. I did talk to my dad about it over the phone and his response was he he took our policies on everyone. Reggie
said he finds it hard to square what the investigation revealed with the loving father who raised him. I look back I'm
like, man, he really he really did do some great stuff for me. He was a great provider.
Ward took a deep dive into the case file and focused on that Winston cigarette butt found in Selonia's car. He sent it
out for DNA testing, something that was not widely available in 1987. There was a match in the National Crime
DNA database, Cotus, but not to Jimmy Ray. It came back to a man by the name of Billy Ray Barnes. Billy Ray was Jimmy
Ray's identical twin brother. And the DNA supervisor had another surprise. He let me know that identical twins share
identical DNA. Lieutenant Ward decided he had to interview Jimmy Ray. And it turned out
that Jimmy Ray had been holding on to some key information all these years. Jimmy Ray Barnes did tell me that
Reginal Reed offered him $50,000 to quote unquote knock off his wife. [Music] In July 2012, Lieutenant Barry Ward went
on the hunt for Jimmy Ray Barnes, who had become a prime suspect in the Salonia Reed murder case after his DNA
was linked to the crime scene. Ward found Barnes in the Atlanta area, where he said Barnes told him he'd fled
Hammond because he was afraid of Reginal Reed. Barnes said back then he'd been shot at three times and hit once in the
neck. Barnes suspected the shooter was Reginal, but had no proof. Jimmy said he was known to carry a gun, but you fast
forward 25, now 30 years, Reginal Reed was now an old man. We on Barnes was ready to talk about
Reed without a lawyer. I ain't got nothing to Barnes told Ward that a few days before Selonia was killed, Reed
asked him if he would quote knock off his wife. Reginald asked you if you would quote by
your term knock off his wife and that that mean you took that to mean to kill her to murder. What was your response to
that? Hell no. Did he discuss any money with you? Yeah, he had he discussed the money. Ward
pressed Barnes to tell him how much money. More than 5,000. Yeah. More than 10,000? Yeah. More than 50,000. 50,000.
He offered you $50,000. Is is that is that a guess or is that the amount he offered? That was the amount he offered.
But Barnes told Ward that he would not repeat the story in court. I don't trust the law no more. Ward confronted Barnes
about that polygraph test from the original case file. Barnes allegedly had passed that polygraph, but Ward
suspected Jimmy Ray secretly had asked his identical twin, Billy Ray, to take that test.
I talked to Billy and he said he took that polygraph test and if Billy looked like you and was
questioned over a murder that you took part in and he doesn't know anything about it, he's probably going to pass
that polygraph test. Would that be fair to say? I don't know. I'm not going to answer
that cuz I know I'm the one took the polygraph test. Ward believed he had a solid case to
finally bring charges. He had Jimmy Ray's DNA connected to the crime scene and his videotape statement about Reggie
offering him $50,000 to kill Selonia. But Ward said prosecutors always wanted more. I would get phone calls through
the years from prosecutors who had asked me to rein family members, find out additional information, test more
evidence. It was busy work. Then in 2018, a newly hired prosecutor, Taylor Anthony, got assigned the case.
Why reopen a 35year-old case? What was the trigger? Well, why reopen it? It's an interesting question. This was a case
to me right away when I looked at it that there was a story to be told. Anthony was impressed by all the
investigative work done by Lieutenant Ward. So, he reached out. But Ward told Anthony he was too busy and that he felt
he'd been let down by other prosecutors. My initial response was to just get this
guy off the phone. He said, "Look, I've already poured hundreds of man hours into that case and y'all didn't do
anything." And he said, "You're wasting your time, kid. Have a nice life," basically. But Anthony was undeterred
and promised war that this time things would be different. I think he saw what I saw. I think that made all the
difference in the world. Like Ward, Anthony was sure Jimmy Ray Barnes knew a lot more. So he and Ward
took a road trip to Atlanta. We're able to locate Jimmy. He was staying in the camper at his employer's
place. We pulled up early in the morning when the sun was coming up and he was coming out of this camper putting a belt
in his pants and he said, "Uh, hey, who y'all looking for?" I said, "You, Jimmy." And he goes, "Oh, you again."
But this time, the new prosecutor had with him an agreement approved by a judge giving Barnes complete immunity if
he testified to everything he knew about Salonia's murder. So to the lay person,
you offered him a deal. So I offered him what I would say would be the golden ticket. But Barnes rejected the offer.
He did not trust me. He did not believe me. He did not want to talk to us. Ward and Anthony were about to drive
back to Louisiana when Barnes said something that took them by surprise. As Barry and I were getting back at the
car, Jim Ray Barnes came over to us and he said, "I want you boys to know that I'm the key to it all." And he said, "If
you think you can indict me for murder, then do it." Anthony was quick to take him up on that challenge. A couple of
weeks later, grand jury in Tansville Parish returned seconddegree murder indictments for both Reginald Reed and
Jimmy Ray Barnes. Immediately, we went to Reginald's home. I knocked on the door, identified who I
was, and that I had an arrest warrant for him for the murder of his wife. He really had no emotion.
The date was June 21st, 2019, more than 30 years after Salonia's murder. When Reginal was arrested,
it was like it's like a burden just got my chest like a burden was lifted off. I got a call that my father was indicted
for seconddegree murder and conspiracy along with a codefendant for my mother's murder.
Reggie Jr. put up his father's $250,000 bail bond. My dad being my rock for so many years, I felt the need to try to
help him. Now that you are both adults, did you ever ask him those questions that you have that you're questioning
even now as we sit here? Yeah, I asked him. I asked him and he he he maintains his innocence.
Sitting in another Hammond jail cell was Jimmy Ray Barnes. He now had a lawyer and asked to speak with Detective Barry
Ward and Taylor Anthony. So Barry and I went and met with him again, and in exchange for him telling us everything
he knew, he was offered a deal to plead to accessory after the fact to murder and was given a 5-year prison sentence.
The homicide trial of Reginald Reed was scheduled for November 2022, and Jimmy Ray had agreed to testify. Reggie Jr.
hoped to hear never before revealed details of what had happened to his mother. I want to know what happened.
[Music] in November 2022. The murder trial of Reginal Reed began in Ameat, Louisiana.
Reed was represented by the mother and daughter defense team of Vanessa Williams and Latoya William Simon. What
makes you think that he did not murder Salonia? Their entire case is circumstantial. William Simon says the
state's case was weak. There was no murder weapon. No fingerprints or DNA tying Reed to Salonia's homicide. I was
confused as to how they were really going to prove their case. There's no direct evidence.
But prosecutor Taylor Anthony believed his prosecution would deliver justice to Salonia.
The reason I became a prosecutor is to fight for people like this. I see a woman whose body has been desecrated,
violated, mutilated, and nobody spoke up for her and fought for her. And there's
a quote that I love, and it goes, "The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for
them." And that's my job. Anthony told jurors about the $700,000 from the insurance policies on Salonia's
life. So, what was your theory once you put all these pieces together? My theory
was that Salon and Reginald were in a marriage that was about to come to an end. There was a history of abuse and
that Selonia was tired of it and she was ready to leave Reginald. I think he was
angry and he saw an opportunity for some money. I think that's why he killed this
woman. the case that they're presenting, which is this man takes out all these life insurance policies on a young,
healthy 26-year-old woman. What is his rationale for having done that? But they're missing the biggest part of it.
It wasn't just on her, was on himself. It was on the child. It was family policies. So, it's not like he just went
and took out policies on Salonia only. Prosecutor Anthony was frank with jurors, telling them that the state
would not produce a murder weapon or the exact location where Salonia was stabbed. He focused on what the
prosecution did have, including that white lotion found on Salonia's body. Later, police were able to find a bottle
of lotion in the Reed household that matched that type of lotion that was on her body. The prosecutor also showed
jurors a photograph of some scratches on Reed's neck taken on the day Salonia's body was found. They wanted to take
photographs of his neck and he was very hesitant. Anthony said Reed told police two different stories about how he got
those scratches, but after forensic testing, it was determined that none of Reed's DNA was found under Salonia's
fingernails. They believe that the killer is Mr. Regginal Reed. So, anything that goes to contradict that,
they're going to completely block out. William Simon pointed to Jimmy Ray's long criminal record of arrests. It
couldn't be introduced at trial. And the reason why his criminal rap sheet couldn't be introduced at trial is
because these aren't convictions. But William Simon says Jimmy Ray's arrests were for violent crimes. False
imprisonment and aggravated assault, aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon, murder, these are things that
the jury had a right to know, but because of the law, they didn't find out. Jimmy Ray Barnes ultimately took the
stand as part of his plea agreement. Jimmy, will you please tell me there were no cameras in the courtroom. So,
this recording is taken from Barnes's police interview conducted by Ward before the trial. He told the same story
when he testified. On the night of the murder, Barnes said he promised to meet Reed in the parking
area outside John's Curb Market where Salonia's body had been found. Oh, when I got there, he was getting out the
little blue car. The blue car was parked there. Barn said Reginald asked for his
help in moving Salonia's body. I said, "No, I wasn't getting involved in that. He wanted me to move the body and I
didn't want to move and I didn't move the body." Barnes says that Salonia was fully clothed when he saw her and
sitting in the passenger seat. I did see the body in there and uh I panic. My understanding after the fact is that
Jimmy Ray Barnes talked to Reggie and said, "Where's the money? You told me $50,000." He says he never got a penny
of it. Prosecutor Anthony contends that after the men drove away, Reed returned and
staged the crime scene, stripping off Salonia's clothes, covering her with that white lotion, and leaving other
evidence to make it appear as a sex crime. And what does your dad say to that? He say it's completely BS.
He say it's it's no way. We were at home playing Nintendo. William Simon had her own theory of what
happened that night. All of the information that we've received about Jimmy Ray Barnes is that he was
borderline obsessed with Salonia. I believe that maybe he encountered her, tried to make a passer, that was
rejected, and that's where you see that anger, that rage, that hatred. Sitting through the trial, Reggie
admitted that the relentless focus on his mother's murder was upsetting, especially as he watched that crime
scene video, which he had never seen before. And it really struck a card by just seeing my mother there um
lifeless and just alone and dead. Regginal Reed never took the stand and after less than a week of testimony, the
case went to the jury. Reggie Jr. braced for the verdict. [Music] As a prosecutor, when the jury
deliberates, it's painstaking. You're just waiting and waiting and waiting. Some of Reginal Reed's brothers and
sisters were waiting as well. Kennedy Reed, Belinda Reed Cox, and Claude Reed. Claude, you don't believe your brother
murdered Salonia? No, I don't. I don't believe Reggie did that. My brother's not a murderer. He's
not. But on this day, November 18th, 2022, Reginal Reed was found guilty of secondderee murder after the jury
deliberated for just over 3 hours. When he was found guilty, I feel like he died
without dying. And I saw myself at that same six-year-old crying out for my dad as I did in that
video. [Music] And I just wanted the end. Reggie tried to recapture the moment his father was
found guilty in his book. My father grabbed me up into a big hug. I wanted to stay there forever. He pulled back
for a moment, looked me in the eyes, and kissed me on the forehead. We embraced once more, and then they took him away
from me. I wanted to tell him, "I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. I'm sorry for your
father going to prison." I can't even imagine the grieving process that he's got to gone through.
Reggie says sitting through the trial was excruciating, but when it was over, he still wanted answers.
This parents room. Lieutenant Ward has told you that one of his theories is that your mother may
have been killed in this room. In this room, I just go back thinking of the manner in
the way which she was killed. If she was killed here, how is that possible that they couldn't
find anything? I mean, it's Where was I? Did you leave the house after I fell asleep?
Questions Reggie cannot answer because he simply cannot remember. On January 30th, 2023, everyone piled
back into the same courtroom where Regginal Reed was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole. He did not offer any kind of explanation or statement and said nothing. You know, I want justice, but I didn't
think justice was going to come at the price of my dad going to prison for life.
[Music] So, my question is, do you believe that your father murdered your mother?
I don't know. Another question. Do I think my dad had some involvement? Maybe. I don't know though. I don't know. So
that's where I'm just It's like a tugof-war game. Just knowing the type of father he is. I
can't just turn a page and just look at my father as a complete monster. Salonia's sister, Gwen Smith, always
believe Reginal was Salonia's killer. Although she and Reggie Jr. are stranged. She still worries about him. I
just kind of felt bad for him, you know, because his mom was taken away from him
when he was a little boy. What do you want people to know about this case? If you could sum it up for me. I know one
thing. My brother did not commit this murder. For Barry Ward, who worked on the Salonia Reed case for a decade, the
conviction was just, and he appreciates that Jimmy Ray Barnes agreed to testify.
Jimmy Ray Barnes was the key. Barnes served his sentence for being an accessory after the fact to murder. He
was freed from prison and shortly after on January 27th, 2024, he was killed in a car accident.
He was in Hammond to attend the funeral of his identical twin. There are several cases throughout my
career that stick out to me and this is probably the the main one. Charles Muse, the Hammond police officer
who found Salonia's body, is pleased he got to see the outcome of the case. I mean, her death, you know, didn't just
go and bang. I find some peace in that. You say that you wish you would have gotten to know her better, but then you
realize too, you must, that she's living through you, that she's here because you're here. Absolutely. And I
think about that she's in a place where she's consistently watching over me. As for Reggie's father, he calls Reggie
from a Louisiana state prison once or twice a week. This call is not private. It will be recorded and may be
monitored. Hey Re. Hey. How you doing, man? Good. How you? A 48 hours producer was present
during a recent call. Do you think you got a fair trial? No, of course not. Of course not. Was no
evidence. What you got to tell us about your son? Oh, remarkable. I thank the Lord for him
every day that he was able to understand some something that was going on, but that I would never leave him.
These days, Reggie has his own family. His son, Lean, is nearly the age he was when Selonia was killed, and they often
play games just as Reggie did with his father. And in January 2024, Reggie and his wife
Paula were blessed with a baby girl. When our daughter was born, we both agreed there's
no other name that we should name her except Salonia. You know, give that name an opportunity to live life and be
recognized in a positive way. Wow, it's beautiful. [Music] Something happened at the house. We are
very worried about your dad. A daughter's forbidden love. There is blood everywhere. Turns deadly. We found
several murder plans. Who's the mastermind of all of this? Where were you? 48 hours is all new. CBS next
Saturday, 10:9 central and streaming on Paramount Plus. [Music] When something like this happens,
when somebody goes missing, you want answers. But this case is incredibly unique. When
you started to dig a little bit deeper, nothing is what it seems. Suzanne Morphw went missing on Mother's
Day in May of 2020. And from there on out, it became a nationwide search for her. Suzanne Morphw left for a bike ride
and she never came back. She has two beautiful daughters. The family looks to be perfect from the outside. Every
picture you saw of them, they were smiling, they're laughing, they're looking like they love each other. She
grew up in Indiana. She came to Colorado and she began to mountain bike. We see pictures of a beautiful woman, an
active, physically fit woman taking advantage of the mountains. Barry Morphw was a business owner. He
was an avid hunter and a man's man. On May 9th, Barry was very happy because there had been some marital tension, but
not on May 9th. All we have to go on is what Barry says occurred. That's right. Barry says they had a nice dinner
together. They even made love and then they went to sleep and she was still sleeping the next morning when he left
for work. So the next day, Mother's Day, the daughters are out on a camping trip.
Did that strike people as odd? Family had told investigators that it was odd that their daughters would not be with
their mom. She didn't have anything else to do. and all of a sudden her daughters and her
husband are both gone. Barry Morphe said he texted his wife Suzanne to wish her a happy Mother's
Day. He received no reply. He had contact with his daughters back and forth. Can't get a hold of mother and
then someone contacted a neighbor, right? The neighbor had told Barry that her car is here. She was not home. And
Barry says, "Well, maybe go look for her bike cuz she's an avid mountain biker."
The neighbor said he could not find it. Local law enforcement responds to the scene and they do find her bicycle.
Where was that bike? It's right over here, Peter. The bike was found at the bottom of this ravine right here. The
initial thought is kidnapping. Oh, Suzanne, if anyone is out there that can hear this that has you, we'll do
whatever it takes to bring you back. So about 10 days into the investigation, they learn about a piece of technology
that we have an example of right in front of you. What is that? Right. So they find a spy pin. It looks something
like this. And they find it in the master bedroom of the Morphew home. It's like James Bond. It's a pen that looks
like a regular pen. And it records conversations. This pipe pin was given to Suzanne to
record Barry Morphw in hopes of catching him in an affair. It backfired in fact.
As a matter of fact, it backfired. Captured on the spy pen is a conversation between Suzanne Morphw and
somebody named Jeff. And it's clear that Jeff is her lover. They did not know who
Jeff was, but it put a new wrinkle into the case for sure. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Laughter]
[Music] What happened on this road is a real mystery. No one knows where is Suzanne.
[Music] In the days, weeks, and months after Suzanne Morphw was reported missing on
Mother's Day 2020, her trail went cold. But the mother of two's disappearance had become the biggest story in
Colorado. 49year-old Suzanne Morphw remains missing. Home of a missing woman from Chaffi County is now being
searched. Teams are combing the terrain, even brought in boats to search the local waterways.
And we're going to fan out and we're going to work that area very carefully. Okay.
4 months in, Suzanne's brother, Andrew Mormon, organized a citizen search. He said he felt he had to do something,
anything. I'd hoped to find her alive. and and at some point you have to realize when somebody's missing after so
long that the chances of that diminish dramatically. The thought that Suzanne may have been
abducted hit the peaceful picturesque town of Salida hard. I came home every day and my wife asked me, "Have they
found her yet?" Dan Rydenower has covered the story for his local morning show. Hippie Radio 975
with Dan R. Good morning. 827 Barry and Suzanne Morphw were not known well in Salida, Colorado. They had only been
here for a couple of years. Before moving to Colorado in 2018, Barry and Suzanne grew up in the small town of
Alexandria, Indiana, where they met in high school. Suzanne competed for homecoming queen.
Barry was a star baseball player who was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. Injury ended Barry's dreams of a
major league career. They both attended Purdue University and married in 1994. He started a landscaping business.
Suzanne taught middle school before becoming a full-time mother. They had a couple of daughters, one in
college and they had a daughter in high school. Macy, 16 years old when her mom disappeared, lived at home. Her sister,
Mallerie, attended college, and the morphuse told some friends they moved to a home just outside of Salida to be
closer to their older daughter. But there were also rumblings about the state of the Morphwus marriage. Maybe a
new place, a new home, new scenery around them would strengthen their family and therefore strengthen their
marriage. But the move did not appear to improve the relationship. It was a tough time, says her sister,
Melinda Mormon. My sister had um sent me a text message. It was very lengthy. It was very powerful. It was
very revealing. In this Zoom interview, Melinda said she received Suzanne's text
two days before she disappeared and it was boiling over with anger toward Barry. The text read in part, "He's also
been abusive emotionally and physically. I feel more angry now. Anger at what I've allowed."
Barry was very dominant in the relationship and my sister was a very passive, gentle soul. He had a great
tendency to overpower and intimidate people to get what he wanted. And what kind of boss was he? You know,
he was real quiet, stern. He knew what he was doing cuz that's what he did in Indiana. Cody Cox was part of Barry's
landscaping crew for nearly 2 years when Barry first arrived in Colorado. I talked pretty highly about Barry cuz I
was with him all the time. He's like inspiration to me almost. He was a real cool guy. Cody said he regularly heard
Barry talking to Suzanne as they drove in Barry's truck. They seemed to communicate pretty well.
She is a sweetheart. She is a real kind lady. She's almost like an angel, like something you'd see off a Hallmark
movie, you know, like real nice, almost too perfect. So when I heard about the news,
I didn't believe it. I heard it actually on the radio and I was like, did they just say Suzanne?
And I was like, oh my gosh, who would even want to hurt her? The first day authorities searched for
Suzanne, they found her mountain bike close to the Morphw home. Where was the mountain bike found? It
was found right over this little cliff right here, resting on these boulders. She was new at mountain biking, so an
accident is certainly plausible. I would only ask where's Suzanne. She would have been injured. Yeah, she
would have been injured. Investigators believe the scene was staged. And days later, they discovered Suzanne's helmet
roughly a mile away off Highway 50. The helmet was found on the south side of the road, this side of the road, which
would be to our left. So, is the thought somebody threw it out of a window? Perhaps. That's the
thinking. Yes. It appeared as though Suzanne could have been abducted. And that's when Barry made that public plea.
Please, we'll do whatever it takes to bring you back. In those early days, Barry had a theory about what happened
to Suzanne that he shared with Tyson Draper, who has his own YouTube channel. They happened to meet at the site where
Suzanne's mountain bike was found. And Tyson secretly videotaped Barry. Um, the first night there was a mountain line.
The officer seen it walk by the car. So we thought maybe she got attacked by a lion. A mountain lion killed her. If
that happened, there would have been signs of that. There would have been blood. There would have been struggle.
So that was a very short-lived speculation. Authorities began to doubt that Suzanne
even took a bike ride, especially after her sunglasses and hydration backpack were found in her car. Investigators
also found her driver's license and credit cards in her Range Rover, but her cell phone was missing. Did Barry Morphw
cooperate with investigators during the course of this? He had been interviewed by investigators through the course of
it and he talked to investigators almost every time. 11 News reporter Ashley Franco is live at the Chaffi County
Court. Ashley Franco, who reported on the case for the CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, has read the police
documents, and she says Barry has repeatedly told the same story. He came home around 300 p.m. on May 9th, 2020,
and had a pleasant evening with Suzanne. The next morning, Mother's Day, Barry says he drove to a job some 3 hours
away. He says the last time he sees his wife is when she's sleeping in their bed. As investigators began trying to
verify Barry's alibi, they were pulled in a new direction. Suzanne's spy pen had surfaced with that intimate
conversation. Now they needed to figure out the identity of Jeff, Suzanne's lover.
Could this man have had something to do with Suzanne's disappearance? It was just days after Suzanne Morphw
went missing when investigators make that intriguing discovery. They discover a spy pen. A spy pen. a
spy pet. A Gruber is a professor of law at the University of Colorado and a former defense attorney. She has closely
studied all the public investigative files in the Morphw case. She knows it was not easy for investigators to find
Suzanne's secret lover, a man named Jeff. She hid that affair so well that it took
agents 6 months to find the man she was having an affair with. Jeff turned out to be Jeff Libler and he had a wife and
six children in Michigan where he lived. He and Suzanne had a one-time fling after high school. Decades passed until
Suzanne reached out to Jeff out of the blue in 2018. When Suzanne and Barry moved to Colorado, Suzanne messaged him
on Facebook. And what did she message him? Howdy, Stranger. And from that moment, they had talked almost every
single day non-stop. In the months after Suzanne went missing, Jeff kept quiet. He only began
cooperating after he was located by investigators who learned Jeff had taken steps to hide the nearly 2-year affair.
What he did was delete all his social media accounts that he had used to communicate with Suzanne. He's got a lot
to lose if revelations of this affair come out. Jeff told agents he only took those steps because he did not want to
tarnish Suzanne's memory and worried he might lose his family and job. He was also worried agents considered him a
suspect. He asked the agents, "Am I a target?" Although he did not come forward on his own, Jeff did assist
agents after they found him, he agreed to provide access to his DNA, phone records, and his passwords for those
deleted accounts. By looking through the couple's iCloud accounts and phone records, agents were able to piece
together their relationship, including the times they met in person. Investigators also found that Suzanne,
on several instances, had gone on vacation to meet up with Jeff in many different states, ranging from Louisiana
to Florida. Investigators also discovered they'd sent intimate photos to each other, talked of becoming
husband and wife, and even mentioned leaving the United States. Jeff and Suzanne had talked about moving away,
moving to Ecuador at one point. If you were an investigator instead of a law professor, what would you want to know
about this Jeff Libler? Everything. I'd want to know everything about what he was doing, what he was thinking. Here is
somebody who arguably had the last communication with Suzanne before she went missing. The love affair between
Suzanne and Jeff became a key part of the investigation as agents tried to figure out what happened to her on that
Saturday, May 9th. the day before Mother's Day. Records show that Suzanne and Jeff messaged each other 59 times
that day, much more than usual, authorities say. At one point, Suzanne sends Jeff this selfie. Investigators
dub it her last proof of life photo. Barry was not home as the lover's texts heat up.
At 2:05 p.m., Suzanne writes, "I'm just in love with you. What you up to?" Jeff's response at 2:06 p.m., "Want to
strip down and get naked?" LOL. She responds by saying she'll load up her WhatsApp account. And then at 2:11,
Suzanne writes, "Okay, I'm on WA." Then at 2:26 p.m., Suzanne gets a text from Barry that he's heading home. Done.
Headed back. No one knows if Suzanne saw that text or was preoccupied with Jeff,
but she does not answer. Barry follows up, appearing to wonder where Suzanne is. Did you leave?
There was still no response from Suzanne and investigators speculate the next few
moments are when Barry returned home. They noticed that Barry's cell phone appears to be pinging all around the
outside of his house. Was he chasing Suzanne before a final and fatal confrontation?
Investigators asked Barry to explain that unusual phone activity. And he says, "Well, let me think about that. I
was probably walking around my house shooting chipmunks. You heard right. It was perhaps the world's first chipmunk
alibi. Barry says the chipmunks were a constant nuisance at his house and he'd been running around shooting them that
day. And then that confession to shooting chipmunks becomes a major piece of incriminating evidence against him.
There was no evidence of any chipmunk shootings around Barry's house. Part of his problem, Aas says, is that Barry
granted between 30 and 40 interviews, all without a lawyer, to everyone from a county detective to members of the FBI.
Would you have allowed him to do all these interviews? No. Absolutely not. Meanwhile, Jeff Libler was cleared. He
told agents he was in Michigan that weekend and his alibi checked out. When investigators tell Barry of the affair,
he denies knowing anything about it. But if Barry knew nothing about Suzanne's affair, what motive would he have to
kill her? One clue may be a deleted text that investigators found on Barry's phone sent by Suzanne just days before.
I'm done. I could care less what you're up to and have been for years. We just need to figure this out civily. So, the
only thing that makes sense is that Barry Morphw lost it when Suzanne finally said, "I'm leaving you."
Barry knew that his daughters would be away on their camping trip that Saturday afternoon, and authorities say he took
advantage of that opportunity to kill Suzanne and clean up the crime scene. From 2:47
p.m. until 10:17 p.m., just under 8 hours, Barry's phone goes into airplane mode. What do
authorities believe was happening during that time? Authorities say that they believe when his phone went into
airplane mode that he was disposing of possible evidence. Unable to track Barry's cell phone, investigators tapped
into a relatively new investigative technique, digital vehicle forensics, to pull a
stream of data out of Barry's Ford truck. And Barry's truck told a different story
than what he was telling investigators. They were using Barry's own car against him.
Ben Lamir is an expert in the new field of vehicle forensics. Give me a sense of how your technology
from your company helps solve criminal cases. So, a lot of times it's used to, you know, locate bodies, brings Lamir is
the CEO of the Burla Corporation. helps uh get people convicted. Um and it's helped get people not convicted.
Investigators from Scotland Yard to the FBI have learned how to use Burless software to tap into the dozens of
computers in a car. It's accurate enough to be used as evidence in court cases. Correct. Yes, sir. It's uh it's used
every day in cases around the world. cases like the disappearance of Suzanne Morphw. Investigators created a burla
report, meaning they tapped into the data in Barry's Ford truck to track its movements after his cell phone went into
airplane mode. A couple of the pieces of evidence that I think are very harmful to his case um come from the data in the
car. The prosecution's case is that Barry snapped at one point the day before Mother's Day.
Authorities believe Barry killed Suzanne that afternoon. He told agents he went to bed around 8:00 p.m. that night, but
the data pulled from the truck shows that the truck was put in reverse and moved some 96 ft closer to his house
around 9:30 p.m. Investigators think that's when he could have loaded Suzanne's body.
Initially, Barry told police that he set his alarm for 4:30 a.m. on Mother's Day
and left the house by 5 to drive to a job site in Broomfield, a town near Denver, 150 mi from Salida.
But the truck's computers showed that someone was opening and closing the truck's doors around 3:30 a.m.
Investigators believe Barry began driving toward Broomfield much earlier than he claimed. But there is a 4-hour
window, approximately 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. when no activity was recorded by the vehicle's computers. There are
events in the car that aren't recorded, so they can't give sort of a full chronological picture. And if Barry hid
Suzanne's body during that 4-hour window, the truck's data does not provide answers. Why is data missing
sometimes? Well, it gets overwritten. Um, you know, it is a computer and you know, log files, they only last so long.
But Barry helped fill in some of the missing data. He told agents he took a left upon leaving his home instead of a
right because even though it was dark, he remembered seeing some elk. He saw a herd of elk and he's a hunter, so he was
interested and he wanted to get an uplose look. That admission was significant to agents because it put him
in an area where a key piece of evidence had been recovered. Investigators found
Suzanne's bike helmet up that road. So, they believe at that point when he turned left instead of turning right
that he could have been ditching her bike helmet. At 8:10 on Mother's Day morning, the
truck's computers again began recording data, and by then, Barry's cell phone had also come back to life. Agents are
able to track Barry's cell and truck movements and can see that he first pulled over at this Broomfield bus stop
where he discarded something in a garbage can. And then he moves on to a hotel trash can, a McDonald's trash can,
a dumpster in a Men's Warehouse parking lot, and then back to the hotel and dump
stuff in a dumpster there. Investigators believe that during these trash runs, he
was disposing of evidence in different places within the Denver area. This is a surveillance shot of Barry on one of
those trash runs, but investigators could not see what he was throwing away. It may have looked incriminating, but
Barry claims it was just another day at the office. He told agents he was merely
being cheap, not criminal. and his claim, well, I just always have a lot of junk in in the vehicle. I don't like to
pay to have it uh disposed at a landfill. I This is just what I do. But it's suspicious that you would go to
five different trash areas to dispose of several things. Why not just do it at once?
After checking out the work site, Barry headed back to his room at the Holiday Inn. And investigators say he stayed
there from 12:42 to 6:03 p.m. By then, he'd already spoken to older daughter Mallerie, who told him she could not get
in touch with her mother. That's when the Morphew neighbors were contacted and could find no sign of Suzanne. Barry
asked him at that time if the bike was there to go check on her. Her bicycle is not here. Barry asks his neighbor to
call 911 and that's when the call to 911 was placed that Suzanne is missing. Barry doesn't head home immediately and
he is dropping some tools off for his co-workers. Tools including a shovel. With Suzanne now officially reported
missing, Barry tells his workers there's a family emergency and arranges hotel rooms with one of those workers taking
over Barry's room. When the employee was interviewed, he told investigators that
the room that Barry checked out of it had a strong smell of chlorine or bleach, which suggests what? That he
could be cleaning up a crime scene. Just after 6:00 p.m., Barry starts driving back to Salida. On the way, Barry speaks
to sheriff's deputies who advise him they found Suzanne's bike, and he arrives at that ravine at around 8:40
p.m. And investigators say that when he arrived there, he was pretty emotional for a few minutes.
By Sunday night, Suzanne's daughters were back home, but Suzanne is nowhere to be found. no questions asked, however
much they want. Barry offered a $100,000 reward for information that was later doubled to $200,000.
Investigators later discovered many texts from Suzanne to a close friend that apparently revealed her tormented
feelings about Barry. He won't speak of divorce. I feel no peace when he's here.
I wouldn't feel safe alone with him. Barry became the prime suspect. And investigators think they know how he
killed Suzanne. [Music] The large Morphew home remains sealed off and disappearing. While
investigators searched the Morphw home and the family's cars and trucks, Barry continued to talk seemingly to anyone
with a badge. Weeks and months went by and Barry remained at the center of the investigation.
Police are absolutely correct as a statistical matter to look at intimate partners when they suspect that a woman
might have been harmed or murdered. It's something like eight out of 10 times when a spouse dies, the other one's
involved. Absolutely. Sometimes the smallest item will turn an investigation. And in this case, agents
seized on this clear plastic cap that a forensics team had found in the family's
dryer. Prosecutors believe the cap was from a syringe used to fill a tranquilizer dart. How do prosecutors
interpret that? The prosecution's theory is that at some point when Barry came home on the 9th and snapped and decided
to murder Suzanne, he used a tranquilizer dart that you would use on animals. There was no working
tranquilizer rifle found in the Morpheuse home, but Barry told investigators he was an experienced
tranquilizer dart gun shooter. He knew how to load darts with paralyzing chemicals, having used them to illegally
sedate deer and remove their antlers to sell. This is a photo of the inside of Barry's
garage with his collection of deer heads and a pile of antlers. We asked Dan Rydenower to read some of
what Barry told investigators. Barry said, "The first thing I thought of when I came here and saw deer in my yard with
big horns, I'm like, I'm getting them horns. And I'll tell you exactly what I did. I shoot them. They go to sleep. I
cut their horns off. It's totally illegal. But you're going to find tran darts around my property because I've
done that." Experts say it can take between 4 and 20 minutes for an animal the size of a deer to drop after being
shot with a tranquilizer dart. Agents theorized that Barry's phone had pinged from various locations around the house,
not because he was shooting chipmunks, but because he was chasing Suzanne after he shot her.
And what are you holding? What I'm holding is a Teladart model uh 706 rifle. They use this a lot in parks
throughout the country. Andrew Kaders, owner and CEO of Animal Care and Equipment Services, showed us a
tranquilizer rifle he'd typically use on animals. So, if Suzanne had been struck by one of
these darts, it's right here. Would she have time to run around, try to escape? She could, but I don't think she would
get very far. For a human being, it could be lethal, for sure. Bolstering the theory that Barry and
Suzanne had a confrontation the day she disappeared were apparent scratches seen
on Barry's left arm. Agents took the circumstantial evidence they gathered, Barry's apparent suspicious behavior,
his contradictory statements, the puzzling data from his truck, Suzanne's disturbing texts, and those five trash
runs, and brought it all to the district attorney. On nearly the anniversary of Suzanne's
disappearance, Barry is arrested. The moment captured on a cell phone by a passer by in May 2021. Tonight, the
husband of Suzanne Morphw is behind bars accused of killing her. The Chaffi County Sheriff says Barry Morphw was
arrested this morning. Suzanne's body has never been found and prosecutors assume she's dead. Despite
the lack of a body, Barry was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and a variety of
other allegations. He was held without bail and eventually pleaded not guilty. In their arrest affidavit, prosecutors
spelled out what they believe happened to Suzanne. It had become clear that Barry could not
control Suzanne's insistence on leaving him and he resorted to something he has done his entire life. Hunt and control
Suzanne like he had hunted and controlled animals. Suzanne's sister Melinda reacted to the
news of Barry's arrest. There are no winners in this story. There are two families who are suffering deeply.
Barry ultimately hired high-profile lawyers from Denver. And in the summer of 2021, Judge Patrick Murphy heard the
prosecution's evidence in open court. He decided to hold a preliminary hearing to see if this case had enough evidence
to go to trial. The defense tried mightily to blunt the state's case, countering that the clear
plastic cap found in the dryer means nothing because no one could say how long it had been there. Furthermore,
Barry's DNA was not found on that cap. And as for that chlorine smell in Barry's hotel room, one of the managers
from the Holiday Inn had actually communicated to agents that this smell of chlorine existed before Barry Murphy
was there because that room's directly above an indoor pool. And there was one more crucial issue the
prosecution had to deal with, one that its own forensic team uncovered. DNA evidence made public for the first time
now threatened to destroy the case against Barry. This DNA discovery is so significant. The agents swabbed the
inside of Suzanne Morphw's car and they found male DNA on the glove box and it wasn't Barry Morphw's DNA. He was
eliminated. The DNA also did not match Suzanne's lover, Jeff Libler. But it was a partial
match to the DNA of an unknown male who had attacked other women. And it raised a disturbing question. Had Suzanne
fallen into the hands of a sexual predator? [Music] In September 2021 at the Chaffi County
Courthouse in Salida, Judge Patrick Murphy heard arguments about whether there was enough evidence to try Barry
Morphw for murder. The judge named off three different scenarios, saying Suzanne Morphw left willingly. Barry
Morphw could have killed his wife or someone else abducted Suzanne and killed her. He said it was unlikely Suzanne had
run off on her own, even though she and lover Jeff Libbler had discussed moving to Ecuador. The judge says that because
of the evidence that's been presented about how loving Suzanne was toward her daughters and toward her family that she
could never do that. But the abduction theory could not be so easily dismissed, especially after that mysterious DNA was
found in Suzanne's Range Rover. Investigators learned that DNA at least partially matched the profile of an
unnamed man connected to three unsolved sexual assault cases in Tempee, Phoenix,
and Chicago. So, how can that DNA end up in her car? Well, that DNA can end up in her car if
she was the victim, for example, of a serial killer or there could also be potentially an innocent explanation. But
it is very very curious. Barry Morphw can stand up and say, "I'm not your killer.
The man whose DNA is in my wife's car tied to past sexual assaults, that's your killer." Barry Morphew absolutely
could say that. And that's what his defense is banking on in this case. In frank language, Judge Murphy gave his
opinion of the state's evidence. I find that the proof is not evident, nor is the presumption great that Mr. Morphew
committed first-degree murder. Despite that, the judge ruled there was probable cause to go to trial. But this
judge was very careful to say, "Look, I'm finding probable cause here, but it's only because I am looking at all
the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution." At that point, Barry had spent months in
jail. The judge says $500,000 cashonly bond. And are they monitoring him in some fashion? Barry Morphw is wearing an
ankle monitor for them to track him to make sure that he is staying in Chaffi County. A few days later, on September
20th, 2021, Barry Morphw and daughters Mallerie and Macy are all smiles as they leave the jail. Barry, how does it feel?
How does it feel to be out? They stand firmly behind their dad. Barry declined our request for an interview.
Barry Morphw's homicide trial was to begin on April 28th, 2022. But in the months leading up to that date, Judge
Murphy recused himself and Judge Ramsay Lama replaced him. and Barry's defense team, led by attorney Iris Eton, filed
motions asking that prosecutors be sanctioned for failing to produce discovery in a timely manner, including
some potentially exculpatory evidence, like the male DNA found in Suzanne's Range Rover. There's DNA
that is placed on all the critical items of evidence in this case on the bike, on
the bike helmet, in the house, in the car that is linked to unknown males. In April 2022, Judge
Lama ruled that prosecutors repeatedly had missed deadlines and had failed to turn over important information in the
discovery phase. The judge wrote that while he did not find those actions quote willful, the court does find this
pattern to be negligent, bordering on reckless unquote. The judge's penalty was to knock out 14 prosecution
witnesses, including experts in DNA and cell phone and vehicle data recovery. They would not, he said, be allowed to
testify. This case is incredibly unique. Law professor Ya Gruber said the case was going to be an uphill battle for
prosecutors even before she heard about the most recent sanctions. There are not
many murder cases where the defendant has been charged with first-degree murder where there is no body, no blood
evidence of any foul play, no eyewitnesses. On April 19th, 2022, as a pre-trial hearing was about to begin,
District Attorney Linda Stanley filed a motion to dismiss the murder charges against Barry Morphw without prejudice,
meaning the case could be refiled at a later date. In her motion, the DA pointed to the court's decision to bar
several key witnesses. Without this crucial evidence and without the victim's body, the people cannot move
forward at this time in good faith. Neither Barry, his daughters, nor his lawyer had any advanced warning. I
didn't know a dismissal was coming today, although the writing was on the wall. In her motion for dismissal, DA
Stanley told the judge that officials believe investigators are close to discovering the location of Suzanne
Morphw's body. Court papers specifically mention a remote and mountainous region
nearby the Morphew residence that will be excavated after 5 ft of snow melts. Where is Suzanne Morphw's body? That is
the million-dollar question. Remember, there was an approximate 4-hour gap not recorded by the computers in Barry's
truck on Mother's Day morning 2020. Whether investigators ultimately were able to recover some of that missing
data or received a tip about the location of Suzanne's remains is not known. The San Isabel National Forest, again,
is 1.1 million acres. There's plenty of places to dispose of the body. Defense attorney Eton denies Barry has any
involvement in his wife's disappearance. Barry Morphw loves Suzanne Morphw. He loves her and he misses her and he wants
to know where Suzanne Morphw is. After the judge granted the motion to dismiss homicide charges against Barry,
he walked out of court a free man, flanked as usual by his loyal daughters. Suzanne's sister Melinda says she agrees
with the request to dismiss charges against Barry at this point. She said she hoped that with more time, searchers
will find Suzanne's body and win a solid conviction in her murder. This would dispel all rumors of her whereabouts.
And whatever else happens with the case, Melinda says she hopes her nieces keep one thing in mind. Mallerie Macy, your
mother would have laid down her life for you girls. She would never leave you. She would never forsake you.
She loved you with her whole being. [Music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode. [Music]
Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] To most Wisconsinites, Green Bay is a magical place.
It's where the Packers play. It's a fun town and everybody knows everybody. Drinking is part of the Wisconsin
tradition. Green Bay is a great downtown pulse and I feel it's relatively safe. Nobody
would ever think that something like this would happen in our community. Continuing coverage tonight of a death
investigation in the village of Belleview. When I had gotten the news, I just shook. I just shook. There is police
activity in a field. I was a good friend of Nicole Vanderhidens. She was my neighbor. We watched each
other's kids. She just was a ball of fire. Nicole Vanderhiden was 31 years old. She
was living with her boyfriend Doug Dietri and they had just had a baby together.
It was Friday, May 20th of 2016. Doug and Nicole decided to go out that night. This was an opportunity for them to go
out and have a great time. The night didn't end in a great time. It ended in a nightmare.
Nikki walked off into the darkness that night. She just walked off. She vanished.
That was the last anyone saw of her. About where was she found? Right down this embankment. When we arrived on
scene on this one, we kind of knew right away it was probably going to be different. At the scene, that was the
most apparent thing is the trauma to the left side of the face. When you came here, there was no way to identify her.
You had no idea who she was. Not right away. No. Doug Dri, he woke up in the morning. Um
eventually later that afternoon, he had called uh the sheriff's officer 911 to report that um his girlfriend did not
come home from the night before. They're here for a missing person's report. We sent some officers over to uh
her residence to take the missing person report. So this is not normal behavior for her? Not at all.
And this is where Nicole was living. Correct. And you believe that she was killed here? Correct. Across the street
um in the roadway. A large quantity of blood that was determined to be Nicole's. Everything's pointing to Doug
Dietri. Yeah. So that so then Monday night right now I'm going to be taking you into custody. We felt we had
probable cause to arrest Doug Dietri. I'm a I'm a I'm I'm a decent guy. Okay. I'm I'm a decent guy, too. And I get
that. I'm sure you are. I think people were shocked. People are wondering, could he have done
it? Did Doug do it? His alibi was his Fitbit that he had been wearing all night and that supposedly proved that he was
asleep at the time of her murder. The technology is really what drew me to this case.
We had this evidence wanted to check out, have tested at the lab. The DNA evidence starts to come back
and it belonged to an unidentified male. Subject outside on the porch. That was our goal is to figure out who who is
this mystery person. It's definitely a who done it. There's lots and twists and turns to it and it's hard to know who's
telling the truth. [Music] 48 hours. The Fitbit Alibi reported by Aaron Morardi.
Green Bay is supposed to be a really safe place. You know, mothers don't go missing and
police don't find their bodies in farm fields. February 2018, friends and family of Nicole Vanderhiden
gather in a packed Brown County courtroom, seeking justice for her brutal, senseless murder two years
earlier. What happens in this case could definitely come down to the technology.
Kate Brickle covers crime for the Daily Beast. Who would do this? Who would do this to Nikki?
I was just it's not real, you know. That can't be. Tiffany Hoffman was a close friend of Nicole's who everyone called
Nikki. They have been friends for years and shared a love of the outdoors. What's the first thing that comes to
mind when you think of her? Light, spirit, um, a verb and a zest and zeal. She was close with her family and loved
her children. Nikki was a mom to three, Michaela and Tyler from a previous marriage, and six-month-old Dylan, whose
father was her boyfriend, Doug Dietri. The two had met in January 2015 and soon moved in together. She was really,
really happy. When she talked to me, she said they both were excited. Yeah. That
they both were excited to have a baby. On the night of Friday, May 20th, 2016, Nikki and Doug make lastminute plans to
get a babysitter and join friends at a bar called The Watering Hole to see a Steel Panther concert.
I think Nikki was really looking to let loose and have a good time. As the concert is ending, Nikki decides
to go with Doug's friends to another bar called the Sardine Can and leave him. Doug agreed that he would finish his
conversation he was having and and find her at the next bar. [Music] As seen on this sardine can security
camera, Nikki appears to be having a great time talking and dancing with friends.
But as the night wears on and Doug still hadn't shown up here at the sardine can,
she gets upset and begins sending him angry texts. They were scorching and they were all
but accusing him of infidelity. Sometime after 11:30 p.m., Nikki tries calling Doug, but he doesn't answer.
So, another friend calls Doug and he answers. And this enrages Nikki. And so, she gets up and leaves the bar.
One of Doug's friends runs after Nicole, begging her to come back to the bar, but
she refuses. Instead, Nicole walks down this street, turns left, and vanishes into the night.
When Doug finds out that Nikki has left, he and his friend Greg drive around looking for her. When they can't find
her, they go into the sardine can where Doug, seen here in long pants, has more to drink before the two of them head
out. Park County 911. What is the address? Uh, we just found a human body laying in
some weeds. Okay, sir. Early the next afternoon, farmer Richard Vanderhigh makes a gruesome discovery
over this hill right over here. Yep. At first, I thought it was a deer because of the rust color in her hair. Then I
realized it was a young lady. She was naked other than socks that were on her feet and a pink wristband. Other
than that, we had no form of identification. Brown County Sheriff Sergeant Rick Lopn now is among the
first to respond to the scene. There was a lot of blood. There's obvious injury um trauma on the side of her face.
Obviously, the first step of the investigation is to identify who the person is. Sergeant Brian Slinger is the
lead detective on the case. That in itself was difficult due to the severity of the injuries.
Brown County Public Safety, this is Terres. Deputies get their first lead at 4:30 that afternoon when Doug Dietri
calls 911 to report Nikki is missing. And her date of birth, uh, March 29th, 1985. Her description matched what we
had found in the field as far as age, approximate size, um, hair color. Slinger sends officers with a hidden
camera to Dietri's home, which is just a little over three miles away from where the body has been found.
Okay. So, you left the Sardine Canon drove around for another 30 to 40 minutes. Yeah, we didn't get back here.
I don't even know what time it was. It was that it was late. 2:30. Doug tells deputies that after Greg
dropped him off, he fell asleep around 3:00 a.m. and except for getting up to check on the baby, he was asleep until
after 6. Did you do anything to cause her to go missing? No, not not at all. That night,
Doug's parents watch baby Dylan while Doug is further questioned at the station.
It's here they tell him that Nikki has been murdered. Ky, please no. [Music] As Dietri is being questioned,
detectives get a warrant to search his and Nikki's home. They find blood on the floor of the garage and in Nikki's car,
on the headboard, on the side, and then in the back seat area. They also discover a pair of Air Jordans in the
garage that appear to match the shoe print found on Nikki's back and seem to have blood smudges on the bottom. For
us, it's adding up. Okay, this this is our guy. Just before dawn, an offduty patrolman
reports items scattered along a highway ramp less than 2 miles from where Nikki's body has been found. There's a
purse as well as her cell phone and items that she was wearing that night. And there are more damning clues found
in a neighbor's yard who lives across the street from Doug and Nikki. And what was found here? A large quantity of
blood that was determined to be Nicole's, as well as some clumps of blonde hair. And then there was also a
cord, which I would describe as like a phone charging cord. This was a huge discovery. Now they had a murder scene
and it was 118 ft from Dietri's front door. More than 70 pieces of evidence are sent to the state crime lab.
Now detectives had a theory about how Nikki had died. There was some sort of argument between her and Doug. Maybe
when she got home somehow it ended up out in the street. Right now I'm going to be taking you into custody. Sheriff
deputies are recording when they arrest Doug Dietri, who quickly becomes emotional. I just want to answer
everything in this cleared up. Dietri isn't charged with murder, but deputies hold him on a $1
million bond while they wait for DNA results. Is there DNA on the bottom of the shoe? Is that blood on the bottom of
the shoe? 18 days later, investigators are stunned. Crime lab tests show the blood in the
car isn't Nikki's. The blood in the garage isn't human. And tests on the shoe stains are inconclusive, but appear
not to be blood at all. We had nothing on Doug, so he was released. What's more, on the night Nicole
disappeared, Doug just happened to be wearing a Fitbit, a personal tracking device. It goes on your wrist just like
this, like a watch, and it tracks your activities, the steps you take, your heart rate, even your sleeping patterns.
When the Fitbit data stored in Doug's phone is examined, it corroborates his story. He had a few footsteps throughout
the night, getting up to go to the bathroom, check on the baby, whatever. His story that he told us was absolutely
100% true. So, who killed Nicole Vanderhiden? Will more high-tech forensics blow this case
wide open? [Music] Nicole's mother and her brother Brandon struggled to understand how anyone could
murder their beloved Nikki. It was a horrendous theme and it's just so hard to let that out of your heart. What do you
miss the most? I'm I I'm waiting for her to come walking through my door again. You know,
I miss her the most. I miss her. I have a picture of me and her when we were younger.
Just look at every night and all the time. Remember, the evidence appears to clear
Doug Dietri. So, in June of 2016, his focus turns to raising his son Dylan, while Nicole's two older children live
with their father. The case torments Sergeants Brian Slinger and Richard Lop now. They are
back at square one with no idea who did this. Two of you have this horrific murder on your hands. What are you
feeling at that moment? We needed to figure out how Nicole got home. We pulled video cameras from every single
bridge in the city of Green Bay because in order for her to walk home, she would
have had to cross a bridge. They rein witnesses, re-examined phone logs. It was getting
to the point where, you know, we had looked at each other and said, "I really hope this isn't a cold case." Their
first big break comes over the course of the summer. DNA results trickle in and they are tantalizing. The investigators
learned that many of the samples taken from Nicole's clothing and from the neighbor's yard have DNA from an
unidentified man on dozens of samples. The same partial profile, but never enough for a positive ID. We had this
one consistent mystery guy, I guess you'd call it, and our job was to try and find out who that was. It was just a
very confusing time. Nobody knew who would have done this to Nikki. And then finally, that August, almost 3
months after Nicole disappeared, the investigators get a call from the crime lab. One of the socks Nicole have been
wearing has enough DNA to run through the national database and they get a name. The excitement was amazing. The
DNA belongs to a man named George Steven Burch. I was a hit out of the state of Virginia. Virginia? Yeah. Virginia. So,
it was like, okay, who is who is George Burch and and why is he in Green Bay, Wisconsin of all places? Yes, we have a
name now, but now we need to start digging on who this person is. Burch moved from Virginia to Green Bay on
March 1st, 2016, looking for a fresh start. A longtime friend gave him a place to stay and helped him find a job.
He also loaned him a car, a red Chevy Blazer. That red Blazer would provide crucial evidence. It had been involved
in a hit and run accident and destroyed in a fire a few weeks after Nicole's murder. So, when detectives run Birch's
name through the local police database, up pops the accident report, which leads
them to an address for George Burch. Swear to God, drive by the first time, who's standing out in front of the house
smoking a cigarette? George Burch. My hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had goosebumps. It was like, "Oh my
god, there's our guy." They videotape his movements and keep their suspicions to themselves. And they
learned that when Bur was questioned about the hit and run, he handed over his cell phone. And on it, a high tech
treasure trove. He gave them consent to search his phone. They extracted the entire thing. So I requested a copy of
that. It's an Android phone that had a a Gmail account associated with it. We were recently made aware of this Google
dashboard data that could potentially give us GPS data. You may not know this, but chances are if you have an Android
device with a Google account, your exact location gathered via cell phone towers,
local Wi-Fi hotspots, and GPS locators is constantly tracked and stored within Google's servers. The information can be
viewed with a tool called Google Dashboard. The investigators obtain a warrant to
view Birch's Google Dashboard. What they get back is astonishing. Birch started the night that Nicole
disappeared at Richard Craniums, a bar a half mile from the sardine can. The data tracks Burge at 2:30 a.m.
leaving Richard Craniums and driving to Nicole's house, the crime scene, where he stayed for nearly an hour.
It was very obvious that here's our guy. He is next tracked at the field where Nicole's body was found.
Then near the off-ramp where her bloody clothes were discarded and then at 4:22 a.m. back at his home.
I mean, when you saw that he was right there, what was your reaction? I mean, it's a huge piece of evidence,
obviously. Finally, enough for an arrest captured on police dashboard cameras. We
sent one guy out to the house a little bit earlier to get eyes on and he called me and he's like, "Oh my god, he's on
the move. We got to go now." We all had to rally up, get in our cars and drive. On a drizzly September day, 4 months
after Nicole's murder, George Burch is arrested and charged with firstdegree intentional homicide.
The reason you're here is in reference to a homicide investigation into Nicole Vanderhiden. So if I read your Miranda
rights, you don't want to talk to me. So I prefer a lawyer. Okay. Nicole's former brother-in-law, Shawn
Vanderhiden, says the news came as a big surprise. I had no clue who he was or where this guy came from, but I was just
happy to hear that they had they had someone Nicole's family and friends have a new
anguish, waiting for a trial. In March 2017, on what would have been Nicole's 32nd birthday, they came together on
Lake Michigan to release lanterns in her honor. It was so cold. So cold. But her
memory, you know, warmed us. We all went out on that dock on that pier and lit our lanterns and sent them off into, you
know, her memory. Why lit lanterns? Why was that used to honor her? The light, her light.
She was a light for so many in this world. [Music] All right. Nearly one year later on February 19th,
2018, George Burch goes on trial for Nicole's murder. The prosecution has a strong case. Mr. Bur must be held
accountable. But according to the defense, prosecutors have the wrong man. You will know
that Douglas Dietri, Nicole's boyfriend, murdered Nicole. [Music] For Nicole Vanderhiden's family, every
day of George Burg's murder trial is agony. Vicki, how did you get yourself to go every day to that courtroom? I
don't know. God, you must have just taken our hands and led us there because I mean, we wanted
we wanted answers. Friends say it's agonizing for Doug Dietri, too. Especially once he learns that George
Burch's defense team is planning to blame Nicole's murder on him. He was nervous, and I would be too. You know,
you were accused of a murder and it's so many things going through your head. And now Doug Dietri's testimony is
critical to the prosecution. Kind of interesting that the man who you first thought
might have killed his girlfriend is going to be one of the most important witnesses at this trial. Right. Right.
He will be very important. Just as important would be the technology evidence data collected from
both Doug Dietri's Fitbit and George Burch's phone. Prosecutors say that Dietri's Fitbit shows he couldn't be the
killer. The autopsy results, the DNA identification, the Google dashboard data, the records from Fitbit, that is
the evidence that will drive you. You will follow that evidence and you will find the truth.
Doug's Fitbit is seen here in this video captured by officers on their very first
interview, the day he reported Nicole missing. Prosecutors say downloaded data showed
Doug barely moved in the hours they believe Nicole was killed and left in the field. And is that based on the data
that you obtained directly from Fitbit? Yes, it is. Everything that I could view
directly on the device and lined up with um what had previously been stated. Did
you ever during this trial or have you thought much about it that how lucky it was that Doug happened to be wearing a
Fitbit that night and the next morning? Yeah, that was huge in this case. I think right there that pretty much said
he he wasn't there when this all happened. [Music] On day three of the trial, Dietri takes
the stand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing? Prosecutors aim to present him as a
normal guy, not the best boyfriend maybe, but an unlikely killer. Can you tell us about your family? Um, I my
mother, uh, my father, my amazing little son, Dylan, Dedri tells the jurors he and Nikki dreamed of getting married one
day. And early on in the night she disappeared, they were having fun. [Music] Nikki didn't usually drink, he says, but
that night they were both partying hard. What was the pace she was drinking that
night? Pretty quickly. I think she had like two down and I was still on my first one. Once they got separated and
Nikki went ahead to the sardine camp with friends. Doug continued drinking and smoked some
marijuana. Before long, Nikki sent him her first angry text, wondering where he was.
Nikki's texts got angrier and she accused him of being with other women at any point in response to those
messages. Did you get upset with Nikki? Uh, no I didn't. The texts kept coming. Doug said he offered to pick her up, but
her phone died. Were you concerned that Nikki was missing at that point in time? I was uh
not concerned that she was missing. I was kind of concerned like why is she upset? Did you have absolutely any
involvement in Nikki's disappearance or death? Uh no I did not. Under crossexamination, George Burch's
attorney, Lee Sugar, pushed Doug on whether things at home were really as good as he said they were. Burg's lawyer
shows jurors a text Doug sent to his mom 10 days before Nikki died saying, "I'm very seriously thinking about telling
Nikki and the kids they have to move." So, in May of 2016, though, there were times where you were seriously
considering breaking up with Nikki and the kids. I never really like seriously thought about it like like made plans or
anything like that. It was just a lie to your mom. What the jury would never hear
is that several of Dedri's past girlfriends accused him of being jealous, abusive, and controlling.
One girlfriend claimed that he put a tracking device on her phone so he'd always know where she was.
In her barrage of angry texts to Doug that night, Nicole also accused him of being abusive. Did you hurt Nikki that
night? Uh, do you mean physically or what? I No, I mean, did you physically beat her
in the past? No, I never physically beat Nikki. Had you cheated on her in the past? Uh, no, I have not. You know, Doug
is not an angel. Isn't that going to be a problem in this jury? Doug Dri is not on trial. George
Burch is on trial. Defense attorneys asked the babysitter who took care of Dylan that night to recount an odd
conversation she had with Dietri the day after Nicole died. I just asked what happened you know like what happened and
uh he just replied um I don't know she hit her head and then she just wanted to walk home. So specifically when you had
asked him what happened he said I don't know she hit her head. Correct. It came out of his mouth that comment. Would the
questions raised about Doug make jurors wonder if the right man was on trial? And would they buy George Burch's
stunning version of what happened that night? It was fairly dark. I saw someone was standing behind me. Who was it?
Where's that beach tree? It's day eight of the George Burch murder trial. Judge, at this time, the
defense calls George Steven Burch to the stand. And with it comes the testimony everyone has been waiting to hear.
George Burch's version of what happened the night Nicole Vanderhiden was murdered.
Let's start from the beginning. Okay. Prompted by his attorney, Burch tells jurors he's a hardworking family man
with an easygoing nickname. Most people call me Big Country. Public defender Scott Stevens takes Bir back to the
night of the murder. Burch claims he ran into Nicole at the local bar called Richard Craniums. How were you acting
towards her? I was flirting. And how was she acting towards you? Somewhat the same, pretty much. Um, flirting back and
forth with each other. According to Burch, they continued flirting until closing time around 2:30.
And just as the Google dashboard evidence showed, he drove Nicole the 8 miles to her house and pulled up to the
curb across the street. We sat there and talked for a few minutes. Okay. What happened after that? Started just
fooling around, messing around a little bit, started kissing. Burch then detailed what he says was
consensual sex. Nicole was in the back seat and Bur too big to fit in the back seat with her stood just outside the
rear passenger door. I was standing outside the blazer. Nikki's family and friends had to sit there silently and
listen. Anyone who knew Nicole knew that that was nothing that she would ever ever do. That was not her. She was. But
it's what Bur says happened to him while he says he was having sex that was perhaps the most difficult to accept. He
says he was knocked out. The next thing that I remember apart from us having intercourse was
literally waking up on the ground outside the truck. Did you hear anything? The first thing I heard was,
"Don't even think about it." Burch said he turned and saw someone standing behind him holding a gun. At
that point, did you know who that individual was? Never seen him before in my life. Do you know who that individual
is now? Now I do. Who was it? It was Doug Dietri. Burch says he saw Nicole laying on the
pavement. I didn't know if she was alive. Um there was a lot of blood. The 6'7", 250 lb Birch said Dietri told
him to put Nicole's body in the blazer and then drive to the field. Dietri, he said, ordered him at gunpoint to carry
Nicole's body down an embankment. That's when I turned and with everything I had,
I lunged at him and pushed him as hard as I possibly could. Bert said he ran back to the blazer and
headed for home, throwing Nicole's clothes out the window on the way. The next day, he met up with friends and
went fishing. You didn't call 911? No, sir. But he didn't tell anyone else either.
You don't tell them people. People get killed all the time where I'm from for that.
As Bur told his story, two women were in the courtroom listening to every word. They have traveled more than a thousand
miles to be here every day. We just wanted him to see our face every day and know that we haven't forgotten what he
did and we've never forgotten Joey. Joey is Joey White. It's Joey and Audrey. In 1997, he was murdered in Newport
News, Virginia. The man accused of killing him, neighborhood rival George Burch.
But this jury will never hear about it. He was out on bond when he killed Joey. Shaina Stowe was Joey White's fiance and
the mother of his child. I'm 16. Joey's 22 there. He was my first love. He was it. Carla Rhodess is Joey's sister. I
miss him a lot. Birch testified at that trial, too. He looked at us, laughed at us the whole time. Smirked. And what
happened? Not guilty. It was shocking when they said not guilty. Neither was surprised that Bur had been accused of
another murder. I'm not shocked. at all. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he's
killed other people. Look what he did. I mean, it's brutal. When it was finally District Attorney
David Lassay's turn to cross-examine Bur, he had one thing in mind to show how ridiculous his story was. And he
says he had plenty to work with, like Burch's claim that Nicole would have agreed to have sex in the car. So Nicole
would rather have sex with you in front of her neighbor's home with your butt hanging out the door of the car than ask
the babysitter to go home. Sir, I don't know. I wasn't the one making decisions.
And if Bur was hit hard enough to knock him out, why didn't anyone see bumps or bruises on his head when he went fishing
the next day? I'm I'm 6' 7, so it's hard for someone to see the top of my head. And why would Dietri murder Nicole and
let Birch get away? So rather than just beating you or killing you in the middle
of the street, he decided to enlist you, a total stranger, to help him dispose of
the body of his girlfriend. I don't know what his plans were. At one point, lay pushes Bur on a
possible motive. What really happened was you drove Nicole home fully expecting that you were going to have
sex, right? I was hoping that we would. And when you get there and it becomes clear that Nikki isn't going to have sex
with you. When she attempts to go into her house and leave your vehicle, that's when your mood changes, right? No, sir.
That's when things get aggressive, don't they? Not at all. That's when you grab that cord and strangle her, don't you?
No, sir. Not at all. That's when Nikki gets slammed on the ground repeatedly when she's trying to run toward her
house. None of that is true. And Bur loses his cool when lay presses him on an inconsistency in his story.
So, clear this up for me. You're backing down the embankment with Nicole's body in a fireman's carry position. Right.
No. What are you doing? I told you before and I'll say it one more time for you, sir. I was carrying her over to
this area. I think there was a big turn when you saw him lose his temper. I think we both said, "Well, there's the
real Steve Burch coming out. Not George, not big country. This is how we know him." You're assaulted. You're held at
gunpoint. You carried the mangled body of a woman to her final resting place. And the next day, you're going fishing
with your buddy with a smile on your face and not a care in the world. I wouldn't say not a care in the world.
That definitely would not be something I would say. Who will the jury believe? No further
questions. [Music] [Music] Morning everyone. Be seated. [Music] Does the state have any rebuttal
witnesses? The prosecution got one last chance to present witnesses to rebut the story
George Burch told the jury. During George Burch's testimony, he specifically said, if I recall, that
they were having sex. Her pants were off already at that point. So during the rebuttal, we brought those
pants to enter into evidence and make sure they were viewed. If she had been disroed in her car, how do those clothes
get not just bloody, but dirty and hairy? Those clothes are filthy and they're demonstrative of being worn
during a struggle. Carefully and respectfully, Sergeants Brian Slinger and Rick Lopn now
unwrapped and displayed the pants that Nicole wore the night she died. Found blood soaked and muddy on the highway.
It goes to George's credibility, which is zero, that this was not a consensual act. She fought, escaped the vehicle. He
bludgeoned her, strangled her, and um with her clothes on, and then transported her body to the scene. His
story was a lie. He disroed her at the scene and forgot her socks. And then the final arguments. Go right
ahead. Thank you. The prosecution reminded jurors of the weight of evidence against George Burge. Whose DNA
is on her socket? Who's with Nikki at the four key areas of Brown County? Their explanation is ridiculous and it's
insulting to your intelligence. While the defense hoped to plant doubt, justice for Nicole is not going to be
delivered by a wrongful conviction of George Burch. Doug Dri had the motive, the
opportunity, and the connection to this crime. The man that met this woman in a bar and admitted admitted by his own
account to dumping her body in that field looks like this the next day. Who does that? Ladies and gentlemen, the
bailiffs will escort you to the jury room. Good luck. What was the feeling in the courtroom as the case went to the
jury? It was very tense and I was surprised that I think 45 minutes later, I mean, not even an hour
later, the jury had a question. The jury asked to see the bloody wire used to strangle Nicole as well as cords
found in Doug Dri's garage to see if they were possibly a match. You know, the fact that they're thinking
about that is telling me, okay, are they actually believing George Burch's story
here? It really made me wonder where this was going to go. After a 9-day trial and more than 50
witnesses, the jury took just over 3 hours to reach a verdict. I just had this horrible feeling that was coming
back, not guilty. It just was really hard. I could not breathe and you could feel everybody was like shaking. We the
jury find the defendant George Steven Burch guilty of firstdegree intentional homicide is charged in the information
it is signed by our four person indictated this first day of March 2018. Everybody was just like oh my god thank
god he was killed me. Thank God. What sticks out in my mind was the gas hearing that from the family and knowing
the relief that they had at that moment. Um, that'll stick with me in a good way,
right? Absolutely. I know Joey was there for this. It's just 20 years later. It was his 20 year
anniversary of his death in October. It's just try not to get upset. Could you see Doug Dri? Doug Dree, I
think, was relieved. Doug Dree was holding his mother. Doug wasn't even on trial in this case, but he was finally
free of any suspicion. Doug, what's your reaction? So, what you found from this case is
that this technology can do more than connect someone to a crime. It can actually exonerate a person. Absolutely.
Yeah. I feel bad that he sat in jail for 18, 19 days. I mean, technology is very
important and our goal is to exonerate people just as it is to find them guilty.
If we didn't have these Google data locations on George's phone, if we didn't have the Fitbit, would it be Doug
Dree sitting in prison as opposed to George Burch? Back in court two months after the
verdict, the judge speaks to George Burch before sentencing him while Doug Dietri and his mother look on. This
family is destroyed. It's ruined. It'll never be like this again. In a state with no death penalty, the
sentence is as harsh as possible. Life without parole. This is a crime that I believe merit the death penalty. And for
that, you have to die in prison. It is what the families wanted. And yet, this is no time for celebration.
To Vicki, to the Dietri family, prayers of support of this community are with you. Good luck and God bless.
This court is in recess. [Music] The only comfort for Nicole's family is that George Burch can never destroy
lives again. When they convicted George of being guilty, I still like it was a feeling of
happiness, but yet still like somewhat of realization that he's she's actually gone now. And it was hard. What's the
first thing that comes to mind when you think of your daughter? Her big smile. Her big gorgeous smile. She just
radiates. She just does. She's always happy. What do you all tell her children? Nicole is looking over them all the time
and that she loves them and she'll see him again. And every night I know Tyler and Michaela always say a prayer and
talk to their mom and say good night. We gained an angel. We lost a breath of fresh air. The memory lives on through
the stories we share, things we never forget. And and she's okay. She's okay. I love you.
She had a passion for life, for living. She had good morals. What more can a mom
ask for? [Music]

“48 Hours" reports on cases involving noteworthy alibis. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "The Day My Mother Never Came Home," "The Suzanne Morphew Case: Nothing Is What It Seems" and "The Fitbit Alibi."

00:00 The Day My Mother Never Came Home 41:35 The Suzanne Morphew Case: Nothing Is What It Seems 1:24:34 The Fitbit Alibi

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.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

Reggie Reed Jr. recounts his mother's murder and the investigation that led to his father's trial for the crime.

Key points

The Discovery of Salonia's Body. Officer Muse discovers Salonia's body in her car, marking a tragic turning point.
A Shocking Revelation. Reggie learns his father is a suspect in his mother's murder, changing everything.
Jim Ray Barnes' Challenge. Barnes challenges the authorities, leading to a significant turn in the case.
Reggie's Emotional Turmoil. Reggie Jr. grapples with the impact of his father's conviction on his life.
The Search for Suzanne. Authorities search for Suzanne after her mountain bike is found near the Morphw home.
Barry's Alibi. Barry claims he was home with Suzanne before her disappearance, but evidence suggests otherwise.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

When I look in the mirror, I see my mother.

Reggie shares how he feels connected to his mother through his appearance.

6:00WatchJul 5, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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