Final Moments | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Santa Cruz is a small coastal town in California. It's at the northern end of Monterey Bay. It looks like paradise.
Look at that beach. Look at these mountains. Breathe that air. It's a place where the blind could go
sightseeing. And then in recent years, it's become a place that's become more and more
favored by the people over the hill in Silicon Valley. That being the people with money.
Force Hayes started life in the Midwest in Dearbornne, Michigan. And he went out
to Silicon Valley where everything was happening. He was hired by Google. He had five kids. And then one day a friend
of his emailed him a picture of a boat that was for sale. and a couple days later he bought it.
The two things he loved were his family and being on his boat. He called it escape.
I think that some part of him really wanted to like taste that other side of life, that kind
of darker side, wilder, more exotic side of life. On the night of November 22nd, 2013,
Forest Hayes was on his yacht and he didn't come home that night and his wife became concerned
and she called the captain they retained for this yacht and he went and he got on
the boat and there's Forest Hayes lying there dead. The detectives arrive and they start looking at the scene and
it turned out he had in fact died of a heroin overdose. There was a visible injection mark in his arm, but they
don't see drugs, but you do see two wine glasses. Detective 101, someone else has been
there. And the question is who? >> At that point, we realized that's our person. That's who we're going after. at
a 157. Time is 8008. >> What is the truth behind how Forest Hayes died? How did he find himself in
this situation, in this position that [music] took his life? Who was on that boat?
>> Then they're looking around and they see there's cameras. There was indeed somebody else there. A very beautiful,
dark-haired woman. They note that she has these tattoos. And they also probably figured that
Forest didn't meet her like, you know, at parent teacher night. This is Alex Tickleman.
>> Do you think Alex Tickleman knew that Forest Hayes was dying right there in front of her?
>> I don't see how she didn't know. >> Detectives then discovered that this was not the first time Alex Tickleman had
been with somebody who died of a drug overdose. >> Is this woman a cold-blooded killer? She
certainly was cold. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> When he's not out looking for the big
wave, there's a big story that has consumed Steven Baxter, a reporter for the Santa
Cruz Sentinel and a 48 Hours consultant. The mysterious death of Google executive
Forest Hayes at the city's sprawling marina. >> Forest Hayes was 51 years old. He lived
in a pretty upper crust neighborhood. He was a pretty high-powered guy and obviously had a lot of assets. I mean,
he lived in a $3 million house in Santa Cruz. In 2013, one of the boats docked in Santa Cruz Harbor was this majestic
46 foot long yacht called the Escape. It belonged to Google executive Forest Hayes. Not surprisingly, the tech exec
outfitted his boat with some of the most expensive tech gear out there, about $200,000 worth, including a
sophisticated security system complete with highde cameras. Inside, Hayes spared no expense on
creature comforts, including a leather ceiling and an $8,000 captain's chair. >> I think he was practical and imaginative
at the same time. >> The Google executive's death caught the attention of Michael Daly. He's an
investigative reporter for the Daily Beast in New York and also a 48 hours consultant. Forest Hayes started in his
native Michigan working at the Ford Motor Company. He went to California for Sun Micro Systemystems and he went on to
Apple and then he went on to Google >> for a highpaying job at their top secret location where impossible dreams are
transformed into reality. >> He was hired to work in Google X which they called their Moonshot factory. you
know, the most extreme, wildest, imaginative, farthest reaching ideas they could have. You know, like Google
glasses, self-driving cars. He was the guy who was actually going to make some of these things happen.
>> A place so secretive that colleagues from Google X refused to divulge exactly
what Hayes did there. To get away from the pressures at work, Boris Hayes would head to the marina and
on to his prized possession. one of the larger boats in the harbor. I think that's fair to say.
>> What police would eventually discover was Hayes, the married father of five, [music] had a secret liaison. She was a
young and exotic dark-haired woman covered with very distinctive tattoos. And she would be the last person to see
For's Hayes alive. Haye's body was found lying here in the main cabin. The captain immediately
called 911, but surprisingly it would take months before the Google executive's death made headlines.
>> There was no um really report of his death. Obviously, the police in this case were trying to keep that under
wraps as they investigated. Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark. >> 1221.
>> Clark has been on this case since day one. >> The media is going to want to know right
off the bat. Who is it? Who's responsible? Is this a homicide? Is this a murder? We didn't have enough to
really even put that out. We were busy building the case, >> which wasn't easy. Despite some initial
crime scene clues, >> there [music] were two wine glasses there, both which appeared to have been
used. Investigators zeroed in on Hayes's cell phone, launching an exhaustive digital search. Then a stunning
discovery. Hayes had a profile page on a dating website called seeking arrangement.com.
It would be a critical clue in learning the identity of that mystery tattooed woman. It was just a few days before
Thanksgiving 2013. What happened that night was recorded by the boat's video cameras. This camera in
particular caught the very last moments of Haye's life in chilling detail. Initially, we were told that the video
wasn't available from that particular camera that actually showed the cabin of the boat. There was indeed video uh that
was uploaded to a cloud server and video from that camera was indeed available. That was one of those moments where you
feel like, you know, it was fourth and one and you got a first down. >> Actually, it took three months and a
court order for detectives to get their hands on that video. And when they did, it was explosive.
>> That video was shocking to me. >> What do you see on this video? >> Well, the video is everything. The video
is the case. Police have yet to release the video, but described in detail to 48 hours
exactly what they say happened that night between the couple. Essentially, it was a party for two, drugs included.
>> They greet each other, uh, a quick hug, just a quick embrace. U, you can see that they're engaged in conversation,
but there's no audio. And then eventually she uh gets to the point where she starts to prepare drugs for
injection. She brought all of the equipment with her. She brought the drugs with her.
>> As police would learn, the drug of choice that night was heroin. >> We see her prepare uh the syringe. Um we
see her, it looks like she's injecting herself at her back to the camera. He watches this happen and then she
eventually uh injects him. Do you feel like at any point when you're watching the video that this is a
guy who is afraid and doesn't want to do this? >> I get the impression he's nervous. He's
uncertain. Um, but he he's going along with it. >> And what happens then? >> Almost immediately, he starts to go into
distress. At some point, she comes to him. And it looks like she tries to revive him a bit
by patting him on the face and talking to him, holding his head as he slumped forward on the chair. And you or I, if
we found ourselves in that situation, would have been on the phone to 911 saying, "Oh my gosh, something
terrible's happened. We need help." And she does none of that. Instead, Klux says the video shows the woman trying to
remove any evidence that she was ever there wiping fingerprints and cleaning up her drug paraphernalia
>> while he's slumped over on the floor. >> While he's on the floor, >> she's stepping over him.
>> She is literally walking around the cabin of the boat, stepping over him, uh, grabbing her glass of wine, carrying
it around the boat cabin with her. Clark says that portion of the video with Haze
on the floor of the cabin goes on for seven minutes. >> And that seven minutes that emergency
medical personnel could have been there, could have done something and could have
reacted to this situation to save Mr. Haye's life, but instead she does nothing. Nothing to call for help or to
fix this, you know. And that's that's the crux of the case. Armed with that video, police hit pay dirt. They were
able to match the woman with those distinctive tattoos to a profile on the dating website Hayes had used. She was a
26-year-old aspiring model. Her name, Alex Tickleman. The wealthy Google executive found the
exotic beauty in a somewhat secret world where real names are rarely used. Technically, Alex Tickleman and Forest
Hayes met here in Las Vegas. not at an upscale casino or a fancy hotel lobby bar, but rather through an online
website, which is headquartered just a stones throw from the strip. And as 48 hours discovered, it's not your typical
dating website. [music] What year did you start seeking arrangement? >> It was started in 2006 from a bedroom uh
in San Francisco. Actually, >> it may have the look and feel of a startup, but with nearly 4 million
members worldwide, this is big business. What is Seeking Arrangement? >> Seeking Arrarangement.com is a sugar
daddy dating website. So, we match wealthy guys and girls looking to pimper and spoil and of course, younger men and
women looking to meet those wealthy people. CEO Brandon Wade, a boyish 43year-old,
says he's become a multi-millionaire from all the arranging he's been doing. Is seeking arrangement about arranging
sexual relationships for money. >> It is about finding romance and passion. I'm unapologetic about the fact that sex
is involved in a romantic relationship and money is involved in a romantic relationship, but that doesn't make the
romantic relationship prostitution. Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark, the point man in the Hayes death case,
strongly disagrees. >> It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to take a look at that website and figure
out exactly what was going on there. The titles of the individuals are sugar babies and sugar daddies. There's no
innocent connotation there behind any of that. >> What is budget? That's what he's willing
to spend. >> That's his sort of lifestyle. So, it could be going out for dinners, paying
for that, going on trips. >> Okay. So, does a woman think you're going to spend $3,000 on me? A sugar
baby thinks you're going to spend >> Yeah. on the relationship. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> Wade is proud that his membership ranks include employees of leading Fortune 500
companies, including he says, from Google. >> Was Forest Hayes a typical client of
yours? >> I would say he is uh an average client of ours. >> Married tech executive
looking for some sort of arrangement. >> Yep. 40% of the guys I married. >> It's unknown if Hayes was fulfilling the
quote expectations unquote of any sugar babies lifestyle requests which range from a,000 to over $10,000 in monthly
sugar daddy gifts. Can you tell us anything about Alex Tickleman's profile on seeking
arrangement? >> Well, the only thing I can say is that it looked like any other normal profile.
So, it was approved and uh there was no indication that she was soliciting money
for sex, at least not with that profile. >> After Hayes's death, investigators began
tracking Alex Tickleman on social media. Fearing she might leave town, they hatched a plan to catch her using
seeking arrangement.com. Reporter Steven Baxter >> when she posted on Facebook something to
the effect of, "I plan to go back to Georgia." That's when they decided to really go in and pursue her on the same
website just the way Forest had and pose as a John and lure her back to Santa Cruz.
>> We started seeing chatter from her that indicated she was either going to move
out of the country or out of the state. >> Now, there's a clock on this cuz she's
about to head south. So, they do kind of a classic sting. We sold out our detective and made him set up a profile
under a different identity and made up a whole story about him. We then posted that out there and we reached out to
Alex Tickleman through seeking arrangement. >> Code named Sebastian. That detective
began emailing and texting with Ticklman hoping for a rendevous. Eventually, we convinced her to come down and meet with
us for an agreed upon arrangement for sex, for prostitution, and um and for a sum of money.
>> Police deposited some money, several hundred into her bank account with a promise of at least $1,000 upon arrival
and everything else. >> This did not appear to you that this was the first time she had negotiated such a
situation. >> No. In fact, uh she kind of called us out, called us a cheapkate, uh told us
that, you know, many of her clients pay uh twice that. >> 8 months after the death of Forest
Hayes, Alex Tickleman once again showed up in Santa Cruz County. This time at the secluded resort behind me. Once
again, she came with heroin in her bag, expecting to hook up with a sugar daddy from seeking arrangement. And once
again, it did not go as planned. When you said we're the cops and we're the ones you've been communicating with,
what was her reaction? >> Oh, she uh she cried. She panic. That's that's when we saw panic.
>> 26-year-old Alex Tickleman was stunned. Police arrested her for prostitution and
charged her in the death of Forest Hayes. >> This was a crime. This wasn't just some
accident gone arry. Mr. Hayes is a victim [music] of the murder committed by Alex
Tickleman. >> Or was he? What happened that night? Say [music] Alex's defenders is much more
complicated. Oh. for me. I mean, she was somebody completely different. Perhaps no one [music] was more
surprised by the arrest of Alex Tickleman than struggling musician Chad Cornell. [music]
He was in love with her. >> When I first saw her, you know, I couldn't help but to say something.
[music] She has a very darker style. You know, I just thought she was really beautiful. Almost like the, you know,
Angelina Jolie kind of look. >> Chad had no idea how dark her life really was. >> Did you believe she was falling in love
with you? >> I did. >> Chad thought his girlfriend was a model. There were countless images, a swimsuit
commercial, and a makeup tutorial she did online. Just going to apply liberally.
Pretty pretty pretty. Okay. >> And as far as Chad could tell, she was always answering modeling calls.
>> She get all dalled up and go to a photo shoot. She would usually make about a thousand
or so when she'd go out to these modeling shoots. So imagine how he felt to learn months
later that his beloved girlfriend was now being accused of doing something altogether different for all that money.
>> I got the text with the news link on it and kind of just fell over on the couch
like in shock. The woman he once thought he'd spend the rest of his life with was now not only
charged with prostitution, but also in the death of Google executive Forest Hayes.
>> What are you thinking? This is a woman you were in love with? >> Yeah. I mean, obviously I was
devastated. You know, I turned white. As the news sank in to his complete amazement, Chad realized that just hours
before Alex met up with Forest on that fateful night, she was with him. >> We were hanging out that day, actually.
And um she told me that some of her longtime high school friends were in Santa Cruz and had [music] a boat and
she had planned to go hang out with them. And later on that night, she actually woke me up out of bed with a
phone call. [music] She's, you know, really frantic on the phone. Um, she sounded very upset.
>> What was she talking about? >> Um, she talked about how her friends [music] had started doing heroin and a bunch of
hardcore drugs on the [music] boat and made her uncomfortable and that um that she had to leave.
>> But you believed on that call that she sounded genuinely upset, >> crying, sniffling. I mean, upset upset
>> because the truth he now knows was much worse. And it's left him wondering whether he ever really knew who Alex
was. >> Who is Alex Tickleman? Right. Who is she? >> Reporter Michael Daly did what police
investigators did. And using the tools of Forest's employer, he Googled her. >> This the police discovered was Alex
Tickleman's Twitter account. calling herself AK Kennedy X, >> 1x short of triple X, baddest
model, stylist, hustler, exotic dancer. Those are her words. These are the pictures to go with the words. This has
the charming inscription to death do us part. You might start believing less in coincidence on seeing that. But today,
Alex's postings looked more like someone trying to create an image rather than someone obsessed with killing. That's
because he came across this photo. >> My beautiful mother and I out to lunch, no makeup face. And this is a a young
woman who wants to be with mom. >> Alex posted it just months before her arrest for Forest's death.
>> It makes you think that there's a fuller story. So, how did it come to this? Childhood
pictures show a cute blonde tomboy who appeared to have all the advantages in life. [music] Growing up with her sister
Monica, who would become an investment counselor, her mother, Leslie Anne, and her father Bart, a CEO for a technology
company, and a pretty good poker player. >> And he at one point found himself playing with some of the best poker
players in the world. And he won like $400,000. Alex spent her early teens in an Atlanta
suburb [music] where she played sports and won writing awards. >> Her friends say that [music] she's very
smart, very deep, >> but also very troubled. >> Her experiences with boys were not
always happy ones. And she had eating disorders. She was taking drugs. >> [music]
>> Desperate, her parents went looking for help and located a school that they thought would give her special
attention. >> So, they found this place called the Hyde School in Maine. >> We are in Maine in route to Hyde.
>> Megan was a student at the Hyde School where Alex spent a few months. >> I can feel like pressure in my chest.
It's nerve-wracking. She asked us not to use her last name, but agreed to travel
back to the hide school campus. >> I want people to see this very pivotal part of her life that I feel probably
affected her at a very huge point in her development and why she is who she is. >> So, do you remember when you first met
Alex? Do you happen to remember the very first time you saw her? >> 100%. She was gorgeous and she was very
awkward. >> The cute blonde girl next door was long gone. >> She barely ate. She was very skinny. She
was real thin. She was emotionally kind of closed off. >> I I think the big question then is why?
What had happened to her? >> I don't know the truth to that. Um she never really told me there was a
specific catalyst. >> But Megan says Alex did hint at some traumatic events. >> We talked about the fact that we had
issues trusting men. Um we had become numb to a lot of things. Alex had started cutting herself. This
is a photo of Alex her then bunkmate put in a scrapbook. It reads psycho roomie.
Look at the cuts on her arm. Alex Tickleman was actually the first person that I met who did that.
>> Ashley Kent lived in Alex's dorm. She came to the school with the scars. She had already etched things into her arm
and she had already made this image of herself as this like devil person. like she that's how she dressed kind of like
double worshiper. >> But was that really who Alex was? >> She was actually a really nice girl. Um
it was very much like a front that she was putting on an image. >> Megan noticed it too.
>> Once you bypassed those walls, she was just a normal girl who who was scared.
>> And what was she scared of? >> I think herself honestly. I mean we all we didn't know who we were. We had
resorted to things that you know not every person chooses. We had been in trouble. And at Hyde, it seemed Alex was
always in trouble. Megan says they punished her. >> You're forced to do manual labor,
physical labor. They basically tell you what you can and can't do. >> This is the area, Megan says, where she
and Alex were forced to build a road. >> We hoed it, each person, and we weeded it, and then they made us cart like
wheelbarls, like huge wheelbarls full of rocks up and spread them. So, we basically built a dirt road on campus.
Ashley remembers one night waking up to Alex screaming. What happened sounds like a scene out of a Stephen King
movie. She like kind of walked down the halls and like was cutting herself really late at night. She began just to
hurt herself because that's what she thought she deserved. [music] When it didn't work out at Hyde,
Alex's parents tried other schools, but the worst was still to come. >> She talked about taking heroin when she
was in her teens. >> And by her early 20s, Alex was living in San Francisco, working strip clubs like
Larry Flint's Hustler and The Condor. Eventually, she found her way back home to Atlanta, where her life would take a
dramatic turn. [music] this kind of great thing happens. She meets a guy named Dean.
>> Dean was much older, but so in love with Alex, he wanted to marry her. >> So maybe there's going to be a happy
ending here anyway. >> Then in September 2013, >> um I don't know. I think my boyfriend
overdosed or something like >> two months before Forest Hayes died, Alex's fiance, Dean, died with heroin in
his [music] system. He won't respond and he's just laying on the ground. I don't know.
>> Was it an unfortunate coincidence or something more sinister? [music] >> [music]
[cheering] >> Yeah, it's good to be here. It's good to be back. >> It is one of the hottest concert venues
in Atlanta, Georgia. the masquerade. And it all belonged to this man, 53-year-old Dean Riyel.
>> A former crossdressing singer for the rock band The Impotent Sea Snakes. In September of 2013, Dean died of a heroin
overdose. His girlfriend at the time, Alex Tickleman. [music] I think my boyfriend overdosed or
something like he's he's won't respond. >> Alex made that 911 call after she says
she discovered Dean unconscious in his North Atlanta home. [snorts] That was just 2 months before Alex was with
Google executive Forest Hayes when he died. >> Time is 808. >> Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve
Clark. We were surprised the similarities in their case to our case. >> Based on Alex's arrest in Santa Cruz for
the death of [music] Forest Hayes, police in Milton, Georgia are now taking a second look at Dean Ryle's death. What
was first ruled an accidental overdose might very well become a criminal matter.
>> I think she had something to do with his death. I really do. One person who believes Alex should be
held responsible for Dean's death is his former employee Christina Brooker. >> That's cute.
>> An aspiring model. For a few months in 2012, she lived in Dean's house, taking
care of his children from a previous marriage. And his pet hobby, raising dozens of
monkeys. He said he had a dream about monkeys one day and he just started collecting them. You know, he had the
money to, so why not? >> Samson, Delilah, Jezebel, some have named >> Dean told an Atlanta TV station that he
had hopes of turning his property into a zoo. >> Anybody would spend 20 minutes or an
hour with one would see they have a little bit more personality than most other animals.
>> But Christina says his real passion was the woman also featured in that news story. Dean's live-in girlfriend, Alex
Tickleman. >> Oh, he loved her. He absolutely loved her. He wanted to marry her, and she
wanted to marry him, too. >> Dean loved everything about Alex except the drugs. By the time Alex hooked up
with Dean, she was a fullblown heroin addict. Dean, Christina says, did not share Alex's bad habits.
>> Did you ever see him drink? >> Never smoke? >> Never do drugs? >> Not once. Christina stopped working for
Dean almost a year before he died. Still, she's sure Dean would never inject himself with heroin, but she
wonders if Alex might have. >> Do you think that's what happened? >> I think it's possible, especially with
the case in Santa Cruz where she actually did that. >> The idea that she's going around
randomly sticking people with heroin needles is preposterous. These are grown men. They know exactly
what they're doing. >> So, this is the masquerade. This is Dean's Club. >> Todd is an Atlanta businessman. He has
asked us not to use his last name, but says as a close friend of Alex Tickleman, he could no longer keep quiet
about what he knows about the couple. >> She was devastated after Dean passed away. He says, "Not only did Dean drink,
he drank a lot. >> But she loved him and he loved her. If he were alive today, he would be the
first one to bail her out of jail. And he would be absolutely mortified at how the people around him have treated her."
And Todd says Dean was determined to get Alex off heroin. He sent her to rehab and even bought her an engagement ring.
[music] He texted Todd. >> This is August 30th of 2013. [music] He was getting Alex a wedding ring. They
were going to get married. >> That's just 3 weeks before Dean would overdose. >> She gets her ring. She picked it out
today. We drug test every week. If she can stay clean for 14 months, we will get married Halloween night 2014.
>> These are text messages that have never been made public. Todd showed them exclusively to 48 hours.
>> Alex says this is the first time in 10 years she has gotten out of detox or rehab and lasted a whole week before
shooting up again. >> But Alex didn't stay clean for long. And on September 7th, 2013, just 10 days
before his fatal overdose, Dean made a shocking discovery. Alex was online advertising herself to
men. >> She hated that she was [music] compelled to do it because she had this addiction.
There were guys who wanted to rent her penthouse apartments. Men with a lot of power and a lot of
status. But she wasn't interested in anything except getting the money to support her habit.
She loved Dean. She wanted to be with Dean, but she had this deep dark secret. >> And Todd says when Dean found out, he
flipped out. >> He said, "Can I move all of the prostitute into your place tomorrow? She
is better over there, and I would like to bring her stuff to you today so I don't have to see the again."
>> But Dean didn't kick Alex out. Instead, Todd says he hit the bottle hard. Once
he discovered the ad, things began to fall apart. Dean desperately loved her. Dean wanted to keep her, but he couldn't
figure out how to reconcile all of this. So Todd believes Dean tried something new.
Alex would later tell police she was in the bathroom when she heard what sounded
like a crash. She went to the bedroom and found Dean on the floor. An autopsy would show Dean had a fatal mix of
heroin, painkillers, and alcohol in his system. >> I'm convinced that what happened was
Dean was trying to reach a connection with Alex on a deeper level. And he thought that if they could share this
thing, this thing that she was so attached to, that she couldn't let go of no matter what, that they could actually
be together. And that's what he wanted more than anything in life. Following Dean's death, Alex text
messages Todd. Why did Dean have to die? Her mother is coming and will move her to California to the family's new home 2
hours outside San Francisco. But Alex is trying to detox and tells Todd she's worried.
I know that city well. Like the tenderloin where I used to live is the third biggest open drug market in the
US. It takes two minutes to score and you don't have to know anyone. You can see why I'm worried.
Around October 30th, 2013, Alex arrived in California. She immediately went back online and
started advertising herself, texting Todd. guys out here got mad money. >> And within days, she had a prospect. She
was about to come into serious cash. >> This is on the 2nd of November. And she says, "An amazing guy found her on it.
He's the real deal. Tomorrow, she's going to go to his boat and for a few hours, he's giving her $4 to $500 cash.
Then a check for 2,000." Now, I'm relatively certain that the guy on the boat she's referring to was
Forest. Three weeks later on November 22nd, Alex Tickleman was definitely with Forest Hayes on his boat where Todd
believes she was [music] simply making money to feed her addiction. >> Tell me one thing that happened on that
yacht that was not absolutely consensual between two adults. Nothing. called the matter of people versus Alex
Tickleman. >> On May 19th, 2015, [music] Alex Tickleman is back in court to have a
date set for her trial. She's been in jail for almost a year. Her past modeling life, a distant
memory. She faces almost 20 years behind bars, charged in the killing of Forest Hayes along with drug possession and
prostitution. >> So stipulating counseling. >> Her public defenders Jerry Christensen
and Larry Bigum have insisted she is not a coldblooded killer. >> Alex Tickleman did nothing that Mr.
Hayes did not want her to do. two adults engaged in mutual and cooperative drug usage and it went wrong, but it was an
accident. >> Defense attorneys say Hayes was an eager participant that night, even using his
own cell phone light to show Alex where to inject him, and they are adamant she then simply panicked.
>> Everything about this video indicates accident and panic. Everything about it.
For months, they have investigated Forest Hayes past, asking prosecutors to hand over video from the escapees
cameras as far back as six months before he died. >> We have some indications from other
material that there may have been previous encounters on the boat. It would be highly relevant in regard to
whether or not there is uh drug usage along with sex. >> But at the hearing, there's a bombshell.
With her parents watching, Alex Tickleman pleads guilty. >> What is your plea account one? A
violation of penal code section 192B as a felony. It's involuntary manslaughter.
>> Guilty. [music] >> Guilty to involuntary manslaughter as well as the lesser charges.
>> You understand that if you plead no contest or guilty, you're admitting two felonies and five misdemeanors?
>> Yes. And through her lawyer, she apologizes to the Hayes family. >> This was in no form intentional,
malicious, or anything of that sort. It was accident and panic, and she's so so sorry for it.
>> Miss Tickleman, the total will be 6 years to be served pursuant to Penal Code.
>> Tickleman was sentenced to 6 years in a local jail, but with credit for her time
served and a reduction by the judge, she will likely serve just a little over two
years. Good luck to you, Miss Dickman. >> After the hearing, another stunning development.
>> There are two charges that were >> Prosecutor Raphael Vasquez says the family of Forests [music] Hayes told him
they never wanted Alex Tickleman charged. >> The family did not want this case to be
filed. They would have been very happy if this case simply would have been dismissed. They were terrified about the
prospect of this case going to trial. The family, he said, did not want that video from Forest's boat to ever be made
public. >> I can only imagine what further pain, what further humiliation they would
endure if that video was released out into the public. >> And what's more, he says Alex was never
a cold-blooded killer as described by law enforcement. [music] >> That was never depicted in that
surveillance video. In fact, the prosecutor agrees with defense attorneys that Alex was anything but callous when
Forest collapsed. And the fact that she actually made some efforts to try to wake him up, hit him in the chest,
smacking him in the face, holding him up, trying to lift him up, then holding him, hugging him at one point, and then
you can see her crying in one instance and yelling for him to wake up in another instance. That clearly shows
somebody who appeared concerned at that time. And that certainly is inconsistent
with somebody who acted with an obvious intent to kill. >> But he says what she is guilty of is not
doing enough. >> She was the only one that can render help and she neglected to do so. She
failed to do so and instead took liberties to destroy evidence and to make her get away while leaving the man
there to die. In the end, one of Tickleman's attorneys, Athena Ree, says Alex's time in jail has been helping her
turn her life around. >> You know, she's clean and sober. She's closer with her family than ever, and I
think she's really used this time to reflect. >> But for the family of For's Hayes, there
is no turning around, and they will have to try to put the scars of his actions behind them. From this point on, the
family no longer has to worry about the concern associated with all the scrutiny, all the ridicule, and all the
scorn that's been generated by a lot of the media attention in this case. This family has been through a lot.
[music] I can only describe it as evil, something horrible. >> From 48 hours, this is trained to kill,
the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. >> He couldn't control his obsession.
>> Who was the hunter and who was the hunted? Follow and listen on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your
podcasts. Okay, make a wish. [laughter] >> Lisa Buchanan was a very attractive young lady.
It's about love and friendship. >> She was a very creative type. >> Oh, honey, you look marvelous.
>> Very [music] freespirited. Fabio. Oh, >> my name is Terra Bentley. I'm Lisa's older sister.
When I first saw her, I just saw her [music] as a patient. And while she was waiting to see her dentist, she saw a
sign saying free consultations. [music] She walked in, she was wearing a ball cap, no makeup, this incredible little
smile in her bright blue eyes. There's something [music] we saw in each other that we enjoyed.
>> They looked like a wonderful couple, but that really was a veneer that really hid
[music] what was really going on between the two of them. It was her intention to
put an end to their relationship that weekend, >> the July 4th, 2005 weekend. Uh certainly
a weekend that you would think that folks would be out picnicking, going to fireworks, concerts,
but they're holed up in Lisa's apartment [music] having this um sex marathon. I think he really liked the way that she
reacted and responded when she was under the influence of drugs. The only time that she was [music] experiencing these
drugs was when he gave them to her. >> She was addicted [music] to Chris Kulis and their relationship. The drugs were
certainly a part of that relationship. >> He was injecting Lisa repeatedly with this concoction of oxycodone that
was pulverized, ground up. The drugs were coursing through her veins. They caused her to collapse. Suddenly, Lisa
stopped breathing. >> I immediately began CPR and called 911. >> 911. Where's the emergency?
>> She stopped breathing. >> She wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. >> Hey, breathe.
>> I think that he is a predator. I think that he is a manipulator. I'm Eric Anderson. I'm the lead
investigator in the case involving the death of Lisa Buchanan. [music] >> I didn't give Lisa any drugs. I loved
her. They're looking for someone to blame. >> He wanted [music] her under his control.
And when you're a doctor and you want control, you just have tools at your disposal that other people don't have.
[music] Addicted to love. Tonight's 48 hours mystery. >> [music] >> When police were called to Lisa
Buchanan's apartment in Franklin, Tennessee. Straight ahead is the living room kitchen area.
>> They were surprised by what they found in this quiet gated community. A cache of prescription drugs
and sex toys. >> They found needles. They found [music] a lot of syringes. [music]
>> Lisa and Chris Culis had spent most of that final July 4th weekend of 2005 in
her bedroom. They stayed in that apartment that weekend engaged [music] in this marathon sex session.
There was so much evidence to collect. [music] It was a massive undertaking. >> Most crucial say detectives was the
discovery of used syringes with traces of oxycodone. Oxycodone is a powerful narcotic used to
kill pain. It can be a very addictive and dangerous drug. abusers like the calming euphoria creates. The high is
immediate and potent. >> It's a controlled substance. It's something you can only get from a
prescribing physician. You can't just buy it. >> But when Lisa was rushed to the
emergency room, the doctors trying to save her say Dr. Kulis told them nothing about the drug she had been using. In
fact, paramedics say Dr. claimed Lisa had collapsed after a trip to the swimming pool.
>> Chris was deceptive. [music] He totally misled them. Chris stood there in that
ER room, didn't tell them about the illegal drugs, didn't tell the ER staff what could have been crucial in saving
her life. [music] >> I just wish that at some point she had [music] realized how dangerous he was.
Tara Bentley believed her sister Lisa did not see Kulis as she did. >> I think that the rest of us just felt
that any day now she would realize who he was. >> On paper, Kulis looked pretty good. He
was a young, handsome plastic surgeon. He was a graduate of Vanderbilt University and had a thriving practice
by the time he was 30. Lisa's mother, Peggy, was thrilled when her daughter met a doctor. I thought finally she had
met somebody that was going to make her very happy. Dr. Kulis was very charming,
was extremely confident. >> Kulis had served his internship at a Chicago hospital and loved working in
the emergency room. >> That was the most exciting for him because it was rescuing people from
death. >> It was in Nashville in the year 2000 that Kulis had that chance meeting with
Lisa Buchanan. He became her boyfriend and her doctor. You performed numerous [music] procedures on her for free.
>> Oh yes. >> How many? >> A redo breast augmentation, her eyelids, forehead, lip augmentation, lipos
suction, full face laser, Botox, collagen, the list goes on. >> Kulis also helped Lisa pay the bills.
She was struggling to make it as an actress and model. >> [music] >> Even at a young age, Lisa Buchanan had
big dreams for herself. >> She was going to get on TV and she was going to be heard.
>> Lisa Buchanan, how are you? >> She auditioned for soaps. >> I heard about this General Hospital
thing and I think I'd be really, really good. >> Tried out for TV shows. >> I can do love scenes and I can do drama.
>> Her most recent pursuit was to develop a children's puppet show. I do have quite
a lovely singing voice, don't you think? >> But things just never click for Lisa,
professionally or [music] personally. >> No matter how beautiful she was or how beautiful people saw her, there was
insecurity in her. >> Before Kulis, Lisa had a string of failed relationships. She married young
and divorced. But from that broken marriage came one of the [music] best things in her life, her daughter Jesse.
She was so much fun. We were best friends. I could tell her anything. Anything. >> Jesse was happy at first when her mother
met Dr. Kulas. >> We just moved into this big house and that was so cool. I got a huge room and
my girlfriends came over and we had a huge big screen TV on the wall and and I was cool.
>> But it wasn't long, says Jesse, before she noticed how controlling the doctor
was. >> Once I got to know him, I didn't really like him. He would always call her every
10 minutes wanting to know where she was. He is like stalkerish. [music] So protective in a creepy kind of way.
Lisa and Dr. Kulis were on again, off again for 5 and a half years. According to her sister, Tara, Lisa was just about
to break things off again that final weekend. >> You just had to hope that maybe this
time um it was really going to stick. >> Tara had wondered if Lisa could ever break away. [music] Lisa appeared locked
in Culis' grip even though the couple spent much of the relationship apart. He lived and practiced in other cities
and frequently called Lisa accusing her of seeing other men. >> There were times that she have to hand
the phone to me so that I could tell him [music] she's with me. He wouldn't trust
it. He over the years cut her off from all her friends, alienating all her friends because of jealousy on his part.
And there was something else that concerned Lisa's family. >> Lisa [music] was becoming ill more
frequently. >> In fact, her family believes that Dr. Kulis would convince Lisa she was sick
and that he alone could fix her. [music] >> In one conversation, he could absolutely
convince her that the world was coming to an end, but at the same time, he was going to save her from it.
>> Did you ever see Chris Kulas give your mother drugs? Yes. >> Jesse has a vivid childhood memory of
seeing Koulis inject her mother with an unknown drug. >> She fainted and I started screaming,
"Mommy!" He shut the bathroom door and started banging on the door and he wouldn't let
me see her. >> You saw him administer a shot to her? >> Mhm. I'll never forget it.
Investigators now believe it was Culis who introduced Lisa to the idea of using drugs to enhance their sexual
encounters. >> I don't think that there's a shred of evidence or proof that she was a drug
addict. >> Anderson, like Lisa's family, believes she only used drugs when Dr. Kulis gave
them to her. [music] But Kulas claims he knew Lisa better than anyone. And like it or not, he says
she was a drug [music] addict. >> Treat certain demons just like we all do. And one of them was drug abuse.
>> Kula says Lisa hid her IV drug use by [music] injecting herself in concealed areas of the body like her groin.
>> It's a favorite spot of people that want to conceal it. [music] >> But detectives aren't buying it. After a
five-monthlong investigation, Chris Culis is arrested and charged with murder. They say he supplied the drugs,
he injected her, and he is responsible for Lisa Buchanan's death. >> I do believe that he gave her at least
one injection, if not multiple injections, and he is absolutely responsible for her death.
It's been extremely traumatic. I am quite concerned as to what is going to happen.
>> Charged with killing his girlfriend, Lisa Buchanan, Chris Kulis faces the possibility of spending the next 25
years in prison. But he says he's innocent. >> Did you kill Lisa Buchanan? >> Absolutely not.
>> The autopsy concluded that Lisa died of an overdose of oxycodone. During the search of her apartment, detectives
found only one mostly intact oxycodone pill, but they used syringes contain [music] crush pills and liquid mixed
into a slush. Prosecutors say Lisa was injected with that slush at least three times that
weekend. And in Kulis's travel bag, detectives found an unopened 18 gauge needle, the same kind that had been
used. >> That piece of evidence is extremely incriminating. >> Chris Kulis is accused not only of
injecting Lisa Buchanan with the drugs, but of supplying them as well. Despite his denials, he's about to be put on
trial, facing four charges, ranging from simple assault to seconddegree murder. [music]
>> BC, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. >> Good morning, sir. >> The state ready to proceed?
>> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> Kim Halper is prosecuting Dr. Kulis. The evidence supports the fact that it was
this defendant who was injecting Lisa Buchanan with that oxycodone mixture. >> Lee Offman is defending the doctor.
>> So what does the evidence show? >> It shows he didn't do it. >> From the facts, I could not see how he
could be convicted of anything. But prosecutors are convinced they have a strong circumstantial case thanks in
part to this small video cassette detectives [music] found in Lisa's apartment. >> They had videotaped these sex acts all
weekend long. >> It documents the final hours of Lisa's life and provides clues to her death.
The tape is disturbingly graphic, and in some scenes, [music] Lisa seems barely conscious.
So, the jurors from this fairly religious and conservative southern city must sit through a screening of the
entire 2 hours of the sex tape in open court. It's extremely [music] embarrassing.
This was never intended to be seen by anybody else, but for Lisa, than to be destroyed.
>> Your man's perfect. That video clearly showed she enjoyed what she was doing. She participated
willingly. >> Kulis's attorneys believe the tape is more damaging to Lisa than to their
client. >> I think the prosecution made a mistake in trying to portray her as just a
victim with no fault because clearly she was not. But prosecutors are convinced Kulis
injected Lisa with drugs to control and dominate her. >> You can see in the background on
occasion where there is a needle laying on the carpet. >> The tape does not show who gave Lisa the
injections, but it does show Lisa holding gauze against her groin, covering fresh injection marks.
Incriminating evidence, prosecutors say [music] against Kulis. The evidence on the video clearly shows Chris Kulis
being aware of uh those pads and the presence of uh syringes. >> On the tape, Kulis can be heard telling
Lisa to apply pressure to the area to stop some bleeding. >> It was being portrayed as proof that I
gave Lisa narcotics. In fact, they did not show that at all. >> All right, ladies and gentlemen, that
will conclude everything for today. Culis maintains Lisa injected herself in the groin that weekend.
>> It's quite easy. >> It is >> absolutely >> not. So, according to Tennessee's chief
state medical examiner, Dr. Bruce Levy, [music] >> when you see a series of injections in a
nice straight line like that, you know that it had to have been done to her. He feels quite strongly that the injections
in her groin were made by an expert, like a doctor. >> If you're off by as much as a half of an
inch, it can be deadly. [music] >> And making it even more difficult for Lisa to inject herself, says Levy, is
the fact that she was impaired by drugs at the time. >> I think it was very clear evidence that
Dr. Kulis was responsible for the injection. And there there's just no other alternative that makes sense.
>> To bolster that claim, Lisa's family points to this picture they say was taken just days before her death.
>> There was not a mark on her body and there was not a sign of drug use in her behavior, her attitude, nothing. All
week long, she was perfectly healthy. [music] Defense would call Dr. Chris Kulis to
testify on his own behalf. All right. >> Dr. Kulis, if you come around, please, sir.
>> Chris Coulis and his attorneys [music] believe he has no choice but to take the
stand, to defend himself. >> I do. Please. >> He tells the jury that he tried repeatedly to get Lisa to stop abusing
drugs. >> Lisa promised she'd stop. She'd go up and down. She'd stop. She'd start. She'd
stop. She'd start. I told her, "Do you have to do that?" And then I told her, "I know you want to, but I don't want
you to. You're going to kill yourself. We've talked about this." >> Why didn't you just leave?
>> Aside the fact I'm an idiot, because I loved her and I wanted to be with her. I
wanted to be with her. >> And so to make her happy, you looked the other way. >> I was unable to stop her one way or the
other. She wanted to get high and she was going to get high. What precise was I supposed to do?
Tackle her? Prosecutor Kim Halper doesn't believe Kulis. She confronts him about his
callous behavior that weekend. >> Well, you've just said that in this case, Lisa was laying back because she
became high. Correct. >> In this case, she laid back. Yes, ma'am. >> So, she wasn't walking around.
>> No, >> she wasn't alert. >> She was impaired. >> But you went ahead and had sex with her
anyway, didn't you, sir? >> Yes, ma'am. In fact, the doctor repeatedly had sex with Lisa even though
she had complained of shoulder and chest pain that weekend. Symptoms that Culus concedes could have signaled a heart
attack. Lisa had a very bad headache. She was also complaining of shoulder pain and
left arm pain and uh she was having palpitations. Her heart was beating rapidly.
>> But you continued to have sex with her >> because she said everything went away.
She felt fine. It's a woman you love, sir? >> Yes, ma'am. >> And is it a fair assessment to say that
you were thinking about yourself on that day? >> I was. >> And you were not thinking about Lisa,
were you? >> I was thinking about myself. Yes. >> That may not have been the only time
Koulis was just thinking about himself. Prosecutors are about to introduce details of a previous incident, one in
which Kulis has freely admitted injecting Lisa Buchanan with addictive drugs. Prosecutors firmly believe Chris Kulis
[music] killed Lisa Buchanan that last weekend and they say it isn't the first [music]
time he put her life in danger. >> I think it's extremely relevant and important for a jury to understand that
in the past it has been his habit to inject her with drugs. >> Kim Helper points to an incident back in
2002 that was eerily similar. At the time, Lisa and Kulis were briefly living together in Kentucky.
>> I was going through a very difficult time financially. Things were falling apart and one day there was deer roll
that was left over and I had the really bad idea to [music] try it and I did and
I was probably instantly addicted to it. >> Dr. Kulles says he was shooting up frequently.
>> Where'd you get the derma? >> It was from my office. I had a surgical center.
>> So, you stole it from your office? >> It's from my office. >> And in the midst of his own downward
spiral, Culis admits he got Lisa addicted as well. >> When she asked me for it, I gave it to
her. I was impaired at the time. I realized, [music] as did some certain friends of mine,
that this couldn't continue. That I was not myself. I was not as productive. And
I realized that I needed help. Things got so bad that Kulus' parents intervened and came to take him to
rehab. Lisa stayed behind. >> Someone called me and said that I needed to go check on her.
>> Lisa's mother, Peggy, says she will never forget the condition in which she found her daughter.
>> It was the most horrific sight I've ever seen in my life. [music] Bottles, syringes, blood on the
floor. They had her on a mattress. She was completely incoherent. It was horrific.
>> Peggy says she and her friend quickly scooped up some of the drugs and [music]
rushed Lisa to the hospital. >> I [snorts] mean, she had injections and sores on her body that were that big
around. >> Right over here on our left is uh where Lisa and Chris Culis lived in 2002.
>> Bobby Pate at the Boone County Sheriff's Office was assigned to investigate. She
was injected in both hands, in the arms, [music] the groin area, and in the feet. They
were infected, and her hands and feet were probably about twice the size as normal.
>> Pate met with Lisa at the hospital and says she accused Kulis of injecting her
against her will. >> There was times where she he chased her around the room to [music] get her shot
when she didn't want one, and that he called her a hyperchondriac cuz she was complaining about the infections, the
sores, and stuff, and he shot her up some more. She stated that Chris said that he this was just do it
for fun. Uh it would enhance the sexual pleasure. Let's do this for fun. Let's just do
this for fun. >> At his trial, prosecutor Kim Halper confronts the doctor about the earlier
Kentucky incident. >> She was in pretty bad shape when you left. Is that true? >> No, ma'am. She was walking, talking, and
lucid. We had breakfast. She said goodbye to me at the door. uh didn't just leave her in the basement and
leave. That's a mischaracterization. >> Maybe so, but Kentucky authorities arrested him anyway on several serious
charges, including drug trafficking. >> Lisa Buchanan was our star witness in the case.
>> Lisa gave authorities this handwritten letter she received from Dr. Kulis after
he entered rehab. In it, he takes the full blame for getting her hooked on painkillers, supplying them, injecting
[music] her, and admitting she had no prior history of drug abuse before they met. But it wasn't enough [music] to
convict him. >> He hurt Lisa in 2002. And you know, he he got away with it. >> Lisa's family believes he got away with
it because he scared her out of testifying against him. They said he convinced her she was also in trouble
and could lose custody of her daughter. >> Chris just absolutely convinced her that
she could lose Jesse and that the police were lying to her, that the DA was lying
to her and no matter what, she just believed him. I think the fear was so real. >> Kulis denies he made any threats, but
Lisa stopped cooperating and the case against him collapsed. Kulis ended up pleading guilty to just one of the 20
drug charges and was given probation, no prison time and within a short period he
was back to practicing medicine again. >> What happened in 2002? That was horrific. We went to Holland
back. She did and I did. >> But despite that hell, Lisa could not let go of Chris Coulis. For her family,
it was difficult to accept. >> You don't understand why why she was listening to him. There aren't words
because you can't because you don't understand it. >> You're the one that ejected her first.
True. >> Yes, sir. I did. >> In court, Dr. Kulis accepts blame for introducing Lisa to illegal drug use.
>> You're a doctor. What were you thinking? I know what I was thinking. That was
wrong. I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have done it to me and I should certainly sure as hell not have
done it to her. I was responsible. I felt responsible. [snorts] >> If he appeared contrite when speaking to
the jurors, it was a different Chris Kulis who spoke to us later blaming Lisa Buchanan for her own drug problems.
>> Did you get her addicted to drugs? I provided her. I made available to her. >> Did you get her addicted to drugs?
>> I think the choice of addiction is her own. When I recognized that I was addicted, I got help. I got her help.
From that point on, all bets are off. >> You realized how addictive this drug was
the first time you used it. >> Absolutely. >> And you introduced this to your girlfriend. You provided the drugs to
her. You gave her the syringes. >> I was wrong in doing so. And and you're saying that it was her responsibility to
get clean? >> Yes, it is her response to stay clean. I don't think I bear herself for her
death. >> Guilty or not. >> Call Dr. >> Kulissa's lawyers are hoping to throw a huge wrench into the case with experts
[music] who will testify that it was not a drug overdose that killed Lisa Buchanan after all.
[music] >> [music] >> An early fall morning in Franklin, Tennessee, as most of the city's police
force [music] proudly gathers for a group photograph. >> It's a department that may be
unaccustomed to the attack it's facing [music] from Chris Kulis's attorneys. We realized that they were going to hold us
under a microscope and look to exploit anything that wasn't absolutely 100% perfect.
>> Defense lawyers are highly critical of what they consider sloppy police work,
even suggesting that detectives fail to properly isolate Lisa's apartment, [music] the crime scene.
>> How do you know that those items that you say were in that apartment, they hadn't been moved around?
>> [music] >> Detective Anderson bristles at the question, saying the apartment was
secured almost immediately. >> The locks were changed. No one had access. The apartment was secure from
that point on. Unless, well, >> unless what? >> Unless your client broke in to the
apartment, then the apartment was secured. [music] >> But mistakes were made, like losing
evidence. Medicine bottles from Lisa's apartment that detectives forgot to take from the hospital the day she died. We
had been going several hours into days in this investigation. So, it had slipped our mind at that time to go get
those pills. And when we finally realized we needed to go back and get those pill bottles, by the time we went
back there, the hospital had already destroyed it. >> Slipped your mind. >> An even bigger problem for prosecutors
is a defense challenge to the very heart of this case. What killed [music] Lisa Buchanan? If she did take the oxycodone,
that's not what killed her. >> Dr. Michael Graham, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner,
testifies for the defense that the drug didn't kill her. The filler did. [music]
That's the powdery material used to give shape and form to the pills when they're
made. >> It was the filler. And then the reaction to that filler is what I think tipped her over the
edge. Drug abusers crush pills, mix them with liquid, and inject them into their veins
for a quicker high. But Graham explains that over time, tiny particles of crush filler can build up and clog blood
vessels in the lungs. And that he says is exactly what happened to Lisa Buchanan. [music]
>> Injecting crushed up pills over a long period of time caused her death suddenly. She was so plugged up that it
stopped the heart and she died of a heart attack. You don't get that from an occasional use. It took months to years
to form those things. [music] It came from Lisa injecting herself when he wasn't around.
But prosecutors argue the defense theory of what killed Lisa is only partially true. that in fact it was both the
filler and the narcotic working together that caused her death. >> The filler was impacting the lungs. The
oxycodone was suppressing some of her breathing mechanism. And I would suggest to you that the evidence fully supports
the state's assertion that Lisa Buchanan died at the hands of this defendant. >> There's no proof he did. And because of
that, you just got to find him not guilty. As the case goes to the jury, Lisa's family is concerned over what the
verdict may be. [music] >> We hope he's convicted and there's nothing he can say to me. There's
nothing he can say to that court. There's nothing he can say to my family to change what's happened.
So, Dr. Culis is left to wait, facing the possibility of spending his next 25 years in prison. Left unanswered is the
question of how an ambitious young doctor, a plastic surgeon, ended up here. >> Dr. Culis is an extremely intelligent
person. He went into medical school at age 19. If that tells you something, all he did was [music] work, work, work.
So Dr. Culis never had the time to [music] enjoy his youth. His immaturity caught up with him.
>> So he was in the middle of an extended adolescence when he met Lisa Buchanan.
>> I don't think he ever matured. >> Standing trial for murdering his girlfriend though may be very sobering.
And Lisa's family hopes the jury holds Kulis responsible for her death. >> It is just my prayer and it has always
been my prayer that he can never do this to anyone else. Over [music] the course of a number of months or
years, Lisa did something which caused her significant internal damage and ultimately that's why she died.
And that would have happened, I believe, [music] whether I was there or a day later or a week later or a month later.
She's responsible for her own actions just as I am. >> Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude
the instructions and the closing arguments. It is time for you to uh to take this case and make your decision.
They began deliberations about 9:15 this morning here at the courthouse. >> Nearly two weeks [music] after the trial
began, the jury begins deliberating in the Lisa Buchanan murder case. >> It is tense. [music] Everybody right now
waiting. >> It's been a challenge for prosecutors who've had only circumstantial evidence
to rely on. >> Do you think you'll win a conviction? I would like to think so, but I think I've been around long enough
to know uh that when it gets into the hands of the jury, you just can't predict.
>> Jurors have four charges to consider, ranging from simple assault to seconddegree [music] murder.
>> You are so beautiful. >> The wild card is there's no telling how jurors will react to the sex video.
>> Oh my god. But prosecutor Kim Halper felt she had no choice. >> The evidence on the tape from the
state's perspective was too important uh to not show it. >> They say they want to see exhibit 203,
212, and 213. That is the videotape. >> In fact, just 1 hour into the deliberations, the juror's request to
see the video again. >> We're just hoping and praying that they understand that this man is guilty.
Because of the chemistry between the two and the [music] drug use, it was just destined for something terrible to
happen. It was just a fatal attraction. >> All right. >> The jurors take less than a day to reach
a verdict. The courtroom is tense as each charge is read. As [music] to count one of the indictment on the charge of
seconddegree murder, what say you? >> Not guilty. >> As to count two of the indictment on the
charge of reckless homicide, what say you? >> Not guilty. >> As to the charge of criminally negligent
homicide, what say you? >> Guilty. >> Very well. That shall end your deliberations.
>> Guilty, but not of murder. Lisa Buchanan's family is devastated. Koulis now faces just months in prison instead
of years. Lisa's daughter, Jesse, runs from the courtroom in tears. I was really upset,
almost more upset than the night when I found out like she passed away. What was hardest was hearing the same
cries from Jesse that I had to hear the night her [music] mom died. >> For Kulis and his attorneys, the verdict
is welcome news. Even with the felony conviction, >> I'm relieved that it's over. I accept
the verdict of the jury. It's a tragedy. Lisa died. Should never have happened. Did the jury conclude that Chris Kulis
bears [music] some responsibility for Lisa Buchanan's death? With the finding of criminally negligent homicide, they
are saying that as a doctor, he should have done more to prevent her from killing herself.
>> Not according to the jurors we spoke with. I agree with >> they told us they didn't buy the
doctor's testimony or his innocence, but felt there just wasn't any hard evidence
to convict him of murder. >> A good majority of us thought that he probably did the injection, but we
couldn't. There's no way to know for sure. They couldn't prove that he directly [music] acted to kill her.
>> You still maintain that Chris Kulis killed Lisa Buchanan? >> Yes, sir. And I think the jury agrees
with me. And quite frankly, we just didn't have a photo uh putting Chris Coulis with a needle in his hand
injecting Lacy Buchanan. >> Court finds the defendant's testimony to be lacking in credibility.
>> At sentencing, Judge Jeff Bivvens showed little sympathy for Kulis. While the
court is mindful of the fact that the victim, Miss Buchanan, was in many ways a knowing and willing participant in the
activities of that tragic weekend. That does not diminish the defendant's criminal conduct and culpability.
>> He sentences Koulis to two years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed, but he's expected to serve less than
half of that. >> Can you do the time? >> Can I do the time? Do I have a choice? After he's sentenced, it's unclear just
when the doctor will be imprisoned. He leaves the courtroom not in handcuffs, but on $500,000 bond paid by his parents
to keep him free while his attorneys appeal the conviction. Kulis' limited sentence and the fact
that he's free pending appeal is hard for daughter Jesse to accept. >> I get mad. I like to tell myself that I
forgiven him because we were close. I mean, I I lived with him and I've known him for so long, too. But
when the [music] really hard days come, it's really hard to forgive him. [music]
>> She even reached out, writing a very personal letter to Coulis. >> Chris, I've been thinking about this
letter for months. It's consumed [music] me. What do I say to the man that took my
mom away? It's been a long two years and I still tell myself she's coming back. You know you're responsible for her
death [music] and you think of me and my family. Try to imagine what we have been
through and how much we miss her. >> Lisa's sister, Tara. In the end, this too shall pass and someday he'll stand
before God. >> No one could have predicted the next bizarre twist in this story.
5 years after Lisa's death, and with his appeal still pending, Chris Culis was found dead
at a friend's apartment. >> A former Nashville plastic surgeon convicted in the death of his model
girlfriend has died. Toxicology reports just released list the cause of death as bronchial
pneumonia due to opiate intoxication, a drug overdose. >> My duty to my [music] client extends
beyond his death. >> Because Kulis's case was an appeal, his attorney, David Rabin, was able to get
his 2007 conviction dropped by the state's Court of Criminal Appeals. However, the attorney general's office
is fighting to have that conviction reinstated. >> Enough is enough. This case is over
with. The conviction should be vacated. Um, and let Dr. Koulis rest in peace. >> Dr. Chris Culis never served one day of
his sentence in jail. >> There's no satisfaction. [music] There's no real peace. There's no vengeance.
There's no anger. There's no there's no hate. just [music] you're dealt a certain set of cards and
you just have to do what you can with them. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] >> This is where it all began, right? This is where it all began. April 23rd, 2018,
I received the call that a body was located off of Highway 98. I come over to this area and
approximately here was about where the head of the body was at and stretched out across the
ditch with the feet facing in that direction. She had bruises from head to toe covering her entire body. She had
lacerations on her face, stomach, legs. >> So this woman suffered before she died.
>> She suffered. I've never seen anything like it. It was extreme violence. Extreme violence overkill.
>> And who would do something like that? >> At the time, you don't know. And what
you worry about then is, are they loose in our community? What type of individual am I dealing
with or individuals? Is there one person? Is there two? You have a million questions that you
can ask, [music] but you have no answers at the time. The next day, [music] they identified
the woman as Eileen Seiden, a young 31-year-old female in [music] the Miami area.
I've known Eileen Siden for 25 years. She was my best friend. Eileena [music] called me. She had told
me it was pretty where she was. The last talk I had with Eileen was very different. She told me just these
horrific things you never think you'll hear from your best friend. She said, "I need your help."
It was like a movie. My sister's involved and I don't know what's happening. I told her to run.
>> You use the word run. Did you say run? >> 100%. I said run. Get the Get out of
there. Go. She's like, "I can't." She was scared to death. This doesn't happen. This doesn't happen
to us. This doesn't happen in real life. We received a call from the Sportsman's
Lodge motel. There was a room that they were [music] in the process of cleaning.
There was blood. >> And what goes through [music] your mind as you walk through all this beauty?
>> This right here would be the last place that you could ever imagine a homicide
taking place, especially right here in this piece of paradise. I'll >> take you to room number 15.
Now, when the housekeepers first came through this door, what did they see? >> Uh, they said the furniture was knocked
over onto the floor. As they started cleaning the room, they found more and more stuff to be wrong. They noticed
stuff missing from the beds, the sheets, anything like that. This bed here was completely covered in uh blood stain.
>> So, that tells you there was a violent scene going on. >> Yes. And what happened in room 15?
>> It's unknown. If these walls could talk, right? >> Oh, if they could talk, I'd like to hear
them. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Appalachiccola, Florida is a wonderful
[music] small place >> for Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Jared Patterson. The sleepy Gulf Coast
[music] town of Appalachiccola and surrounding countryside are among the last remnants [music] of a bygone era.
It certainly still hearkens back to a time before there was condos on every inch of the beach and before there were
highrises. We're referred to here the counties along this area of the coast as the forgotten coast. But when a couple
heading to a nearby fishing pond discovered Eene Siden's battered body on April [music] 23rd, 2018, Patterson
wondered what had brought a killer to Florida's forgotten coast. >> The horror that it really was, it
absolutely shocked people. It looked like someone was in a hurry. Whoever it was dumped the body and took
off. >> Lead investigator Lieutenant Ronnie Jones, then with the Franklin County
Sheriff's Office, says documenting Eileen's unsettling dump site was the first of two ominous events over the
next 24 hours. He was soon dispatched to the second crime scene at the Sportsman's [music] Lodge Motel.
and that bloody spectacle inside room 15. >> So, what's it like for you to be back in
here? >> Uh, brings back some pretty bad memories. >> Joan's memories live in stark contrast
to the treeshaded grounds of the otherwise [music] peaceful motel. >> As soon as I came in, I noticed the bed.
I It's you couldn't miss it. I mean, this whole area was covered and had blood stains on it.
>> And when you saw that kind of blood loss, what did that tell you? >> I just put two and two together and I
automatically put that back to the um body that was found the day before. >> You did that quickly like that?
>> Had to have. It wasn't just somebody cut yourself and bled a little bit on the
bed. I mean, the amount of blood that was on this bed tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased.
>> Jones recalled there was a smell of vinegar in the room. And what did that tell you? That someone attempted to
clean the crime scene. >> A luminol test for traces of human blood revealed what an apparently hasty
cleanup couldn't hide. >> The whole entire bathroom lit up. >> So that was the scene of perhaps some of
her most vicious attacks was inside that bathroom. >> Yes. >> And Jones says the shower curtain rod
was a possible weapon. On the rod was located a palm print and also uh blood. >> And that's significant evidence, right?
That's right. >> Testing would soon confirm that it was Eileen's blood in the motel room. Now
came the gut-wrenching duty to notify Eileen's sister, Francesca Seiden. >> He said my sister was murdered. I don't
know. Like what do you do? You look for support. That's all I could do. I didn't understand why like it was
given to me again like to handle another loss. >> While growing up in Miami, then
16-year-old Francesca and 9-year-old Eileene faced their first tragedy when their beloved mother passed away from
cancer. >> How did the two of you deal with this? We didn't talk about it because it was
so fast. >> Six years later, their father, Frank, a successful furniture manufacturer who
Francesca says shared a special bond with Eileene, suddenly died from a heart attack. It left Eileen, then 14, an
orphan, and 22-year-old Francesca with a decision to make. I signed the papers and I became her legal guardian.
>> And what did that mean? What were your responsibilities? >> I became a parent. I had to take her to
school. I had to pick her up from school. I had to finish my own school. I was working. I didn't have time to
grieve. And I don't think that she did either. >> 7 years later, Francesca moved to Los
Angeles on her own. That's when she says Eileen, now in her 20s, began grieving their parents. She started to think a
lot. She became more sensitive. Something like losing your parents has long lasting effects throughout your
life. It's obvious that it did. >> This is Eileen's best friend. Not wanting her name associated with this
case, she has asked 48 hours to refer to her as Ally. She remembers a strong and
determined Eileene making it on her own in Miami. >> She worked as a property manager. She
lived in a great apartment, you know, she paid her own rent. She made her bills. She was very independent.
>> Francesca saw that independence [music] firsthand when Eileen made an extended
visit to LA in 2016. >> Looking back, do you wish she had stayed with you? >> 100%. Because
whatever happened when she went back to Miami is when she reconnected with Zach.
Zach was Zachary Ael, who Eileen had known since they were teenagers. >> I'm not sure if I had the best
reputation in high school. At first, she wasn't really sure about him. >> But years later, she and Zach Ael
started dating. >> I think in the beginning, Eileen found Zach Fun, but I think it changed pretty
quickly. >> Investigators in Franklin County would soon learn all about Zack Ael. They
discovered that Zach, Eileene, and this woman, Christina Ajo, had all been seen in the Appalachiccola area. Detectives
also learned the three shared a room at the sportsman's lodge, room number 15. We needed to know what happened inside
that hotel room. Outside of three people entered and two came out carrying a body.
Off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Captain Mike Pikovette set sail on his 50-foot boat.
>> It's kind of weird uh trying to remember any good times. There just weren't. There was always some issue.
>> Back in 2018, Mike would play a central role in Eileen Seiden's murder investigation. He knew Eileene and her
boyfriend Zack Ael well. >> Zach is just um very entertaining. He's very extroverted.
>> Mike had met Zach by chance at a bar about 7 years earlier. >> He came up to me at Duffy's and said,
"Hey, I like your shirt." And I'm like, "Okay." >> Then uh Christina came up. >> Christina Ajo, Zach's [music] girlfriend
at the time. The two had been dating for about 4 years. Mike says Christina [music]
immediately started boasting about her powerful father. >> Right out of the gate, she said, "Oh
yeah, my dad's a major with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department, and if we ever get into any trouble with the
law, he can take care of it." I was like, "What? Who says that?" >> Despite their odd first meeting, Mike
says he began hanging out with the couple. What followed were years [music] of wild nights, wild parties, and lots
of heavy drinking. That was their go-to thing. Okay, we got to do shots of this,
shots [music] of this. >> But Mike says there was an interesting power dynamic in the couple's
relationship with Christina, who is 8 years older than Zach, calling the shots. >> She was [music] very controlling and
very directing. He would follow her lead with stuff. [music] >> One day in 2016, Zach stopped by Mike's
boat, but not with Christina. [music] Instead, Zach introduced Mike to Eileen Siden.
Mike could tell Zach now had two women in his life. >> It was the weirdest thing. If your
relationship's not working, just end it and move on. >> However, Mike says that Zach couldn't
make a clean break from Christina, who was also his business partner. >> He tried so many times. He just didn't
know how to. And then also all the threats all the time that she couldn't make him disappear. Every time she got
drunk, she would say some weird things. >> Eileen's best friend, Ally, [music] says
Zach and Eileen began to secretly date. >> She seemed to love him so much that she
was still hoping that he would, you know, decide to be with her. He would lead her on to things. He was trying to
end it with Christina. >> In 2017, Eileen unexpectedly lost her job as a property manager.
>> She was really starting to lose control of her own life. Ally says that may explain why Eileene eventually started
working at Zach and Christina's used car dealership. >> It wasn't the independent life that she
had always lived. >> Ally says Eileene continued to pressure Zach to break up with Christina for
good. But when Zach finally tried to end things with Christina, she countered with an unconventional proposal.
>> It was not the answer that anyone expected. Christina came back and said, "Well, why don't we try and all be in a
relationship?" Then it now became this opportunity for this throppple, three-way kind of relationship.
>> A thrpple is a romantic relationship among three people. Ally says Eileene was against the idea.
>> Eileen said, "Absolutely not. There's no way. It's never going to work." And there was kind of a crickets for a few
weeks. >> But Ally says Eileen later changed her mind. The trio was now a throppple.
>> I was in shock really, but also a little bit happy for them that maybe this could
work. >> But it didn't work. Before long, there was trouble. >> This whole dynamic started to change
where one of them always seemed to be the odd man out or was jealous. And at that point, it just started to spiral
out of control. According to Mike Pikovette, things escalated, leading to irrational behavior and
fights fueled by alcohol. He says Eileen and Christina [music] traded punches often, usually resulting in black eyes
on one or both of the women that they'd sometimes hide behind big sunglasses. >> It was a everyday thing, pretty every
second day thing, I could say. >> Ally remembers things differently. She says Zach was the main aggressor in the
relationship. >> Eileen would call me and say, "You have to come over here." Like, "He hurt me
again." And I'd rush over there and photograph her and beg her to go to the police.
>> But Ally says Eileene refused, fearing Christina's law enforcement connections
would work against her. Eileen's sister, Francesca, was furious [music] when she
learned of the abuse. >> I wanted my sister out of this situation. I wanted her out.
>> It's hard to leave. It's hard to leave. And I had this feeling that Christina
was more violent of the two. It was really difficult to see her going through a time like this.
It was just so hard and she was scared to death. >> Once Ally says the abuse got so bad, she
took Eileen to the emergency room. >> They took her to the hospital because they have to report things, but she
wouldn't say where the bruises came from. Eileen's best friend had to deliver a hard truth.
>> Eileen, you have to break up with this guy. Someone's going to end up dead. [music]
>> When Eileen was in real trouble, it was hard to get anyone to come rescue her.
[music] The path that led to Eileen Seiden's murder may have begun weeks earlier. In
2018, Alli was surprised that despite the physical violence in their relationship, Eileen had decided to move
in with Sack Ael and Christina Ajo. The throppple was now working together, sleeping together, and living together.
Eileen was trapped in the relationship because she was trapped financially, but she felt that that was one last chance
to make it work. It was like a one month or two month trial. >> But within a few weeks, Ally says
Eileene had had enough. >> Eileen was just going to move out. She was really done with the relationship.
But Eileen's plans to leave were halted on April 7th, 2018 after Zach and Christina had gotten into a violent
fight. Ally says she got a call from Eileen on Zach's phone. >> She was going to leave and get Zach out
of the house, but like to go to a coffee shop. The next call I got was from Christina. She was angry and furious.
Ally says Christina threatened to report the car Eileen and Zach were driving in
as stolen in an apparent attempt to keep them from leaving her behind. Ally immediately warned Eileene and Zach.
Instead of coming around and coming back like I thought they would, they hit the
gas and went to Georgia. I said, "What are you doing, Eileen? You don't have your phone. You don't have a wallet.
This is crazy." She said, "We're going on a road trip. This is a good thing. But the road trip wasn't a good thing to
Christina AO. She began harassing Zach and Eileene, sending a storm of angry texts. You two deserve each other.
Christina sent more than 150 texts in roughly 24 hours. All went unanswered, including this one. My dad will be
calling you. Later, Christina issued this threat. You effed me over and now I'm effing you over.
>> I was just trying to tell her, Christina, why don't you worry about your own life?
>> About 48 hours into the [music] road trip, Zach and Eileen were heading to Texas, and Christina seemed to have a
change of heart, texting, "If you want to come back home, come back. You never have to question my [music] love." for
reasons that are unknown. Instead of coming home, Zach invited Christina to join them and she flew to Dallas. But
with a [music] throple united, the old problems returned. Eileen started to call me from Zach's
phone at night saying, you know, this is getting bad and I I don't know what to do. It wasn't until Christina arrived
that that started to happen. I was really worried someone would get hurt. By day 10 of the road trip, Eileen's
older sister, Francesca, was also worried. She hadn't heard from Eileen in a while. When the trio stopped in New
Orleans, Eileen finally called Francesca and shared an alarming suspicion. >> She's like, I think they're going to
kill me. No joke. So's like, Eileen, run to the nearest gas station. Go tell the
person. >> Call 911. >> Yeah. Run to like I said, run. Get the get out of there. Go. She's like, I
can't. >> Francesca, desperate to help, tried to get more details from Eileen. >> If I had where the address was, I would
have called the police then and there, but she had to go. She had to get off and she hung up. I was extremely
frustrated, but I and and I was scared. >> With no way to help her sister, Francesca hoped Eileen would stay safe.
The road trip continued into its second week. The trio then headed to Panama City, Florida, but a missed exit led
them to the forgotten coast. >> The road trip is difficult to understand. Partying one day and
murdering the next. >> David Adlerstein is a reporter for the Appalachiccola Times, one of the oldest
newspapers in Florida. >> I've been covering the Eileen Siden case since the week it happened.
On the evening of April 21st, the trio, seen here in this screenshot [music] from surveillance footage, stumbled into
the quiet peace of Franklin County. They [music] went to a popular restaurant, the Red Pirate, played
miniature golf, partied. At the recommendation of a local, the throppple headed to the nearby
Sportsman's Lodge motel. They reserved the last vacancy of the night, room 15. The next morning [music] on April 22nd,
2018, the throppple made a plan. >> They decided [music] they'd spend another day there, not get back on the
road and make it a a party. So, they got up in the morning and went to the liquor
store. >> Here they are in these screenshots from the store's surveillance footage. While
there, the trio purchased large bottles of vodka and fireball whiskey. >> When I went to investigate their path
that day and went to the liquor store, the clerk, she pointed out that the fireball that they bought was the
largest bottle you could buy. And this is just the three of them. The throppple then returned to the sportsman's Lodge
motel. >> I don't think Eileen was having fun. And I think she was just trying to maybe get
by and stay alive. >> Ally says she spoke to Eileen that day. >> Eileen said, "I need to leave him. I'm
telling you, I'm like a sex slave. He has this really scary look in his eye. It's very scary. It's different." And
she said, "I need your help." >> Ally says the two friends had crafted an escape plan. Eileen would get on a bus
from Tampa, the trio's next destination. I bought her a Greyhound ticket because
she didn't have a wallet. >> The bus would drop Eileen off near Miami and Ally would take her home. Eileen
just needed to get on that bus and she'd be safe. >> And then, you know, I never heard back.
I never heard anything after that. >> The next night, hundreds of miles away in Fort Lauderdale, Mike Pigette was
home and alone. There was a knock at the door. It was Christina Ajo and Zack Ael.
[music] >> I was like, "Okay, where's Eileen?" And right away, Christina says, "Oh, she ran
away." And I said, "Bull." I said, "Where is she?" And Zach right away it started to choke up and he said, "She's
dead." >> The news was shocking enough, but Mike says once Christina was out of earshot,
Zach told him what happened. He said Christina killed her. He woke up. She was dead next to him and uh he tried to
give her CPR. Then uh wanted to call 911. Christina said no and told him you can't call 911. For some reason he kept
on saying he had to protect Christina. I'm like what do you got to protect her for?
>> Mike says he wanted to protect both of his friends. He feared a violent outcome
if he called 911. >> I didn't want them to get killed. Just wanted to make sure that they were
brought in a safe way. And the only thing that I could think about is to go talk to her father.
>> Christina's father, Colonel Tony Ajo. The one Mike says Christina had always bragged could make her problems go away.
When Zach and Christina fell asleep, Mike took this photo and says he went online to search for Christina's father,
a man he had never met. So, I was panicking trying to find his phone number. >> When Mike finally got a hold of Colonel
Ao, he didn't immediately reveal the deadly news. >> I said, "I got to talk to you. It's
about Christina. It's very important." >> Mike says Christina's father directed Mike to meet him at an odd place, a gas
station. >> So, I went up there. I said, "Christina killed somebody." And he says, "You know
I'm a cop, right?" I'm like, "Yes, sir, I do." He right away said, "Wait right there."
>> Mike says Christina's father then brought him to the sheriff's office to make a formal statement.
>> He did what was the right thing to do. He got two other people to ask me all the questions. [music]
>> Later that day, Mike was shown a photo and he was the one to identify the battered body of Eileen Seiden. With
that confirmation, police descended on Mike's home as Zach and Christina were about to leave. [music]
They were arrested and brought back to Franklin [music] County. The pair were later charged with firstdegree murder.
It would take [music] almost 6 years before Zach Ael and Christina Ajo would face a jury, and by then only one of
them would stand trial. >> [music] >> You're healing. You're doing the things that you need to heal and then
>> you're stopped. For almost six years, Francesca Siden lived in agonizing limbo
as her sister Eileen's case complicated by having two defendants face delay after delay after frustrating [music]
delay. >> And now you're going to get ready for this big moment and it stops again.
[music] Finally, in January of 2024, at the Franklin County Courthouse in Appalachiccola, Florida, Zack Ael was
about to face trial. He had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and would stand before the jury alone. 8 months
earlier, Christina Ao took a plea deal for a lesser charge of secondderee murder. So, she admitted taking part in
this. Yes, she implicated herself in the actual beating of Eileene. [music] >> After studying the mountain of evidence,
prosecutor Jared Patterson believes Zach Ael was more responsible in Eileen's murder. [music] And the state is relying
on the jury believing Christina Ajo's version of what happened inside room 15. The only one who has told us anything
about what happened in that room is Christina Arau. >> Once Christina made her plea deal, she
would become the prosecution star witness. >> Print reporter David Adlerstein, camera
in hand, was there as Christina Auo transported the courtroom back to the evening of April 22nd, 2018.
A Rajo testified that she, Zach, Ael, and Eileene were relaxing in the room at the sportsman's lodge after a day of
heavy drinking. >> When Zach drinks, does he act differently? >> He becomes very aggressive,
very mean. >> Zach Ael became violently enraged, says Ajo, when Eileene posed a seemingly
innocent question. But she said, "Christina, guess what?" >> And she looks over at Christina and
says, "Hey, Christina, guess what? How would that sentence be finished?" >> I have no idea cuz she never got to
finish it. >> Zachary got up immediately and went over to her and was in her face, hitting her. He's
just yelled at her, telling her, "You always start problems." A Rajo admits to also hitting Eileen as she demanded to
know what she was about to say. She never got an answer. >> And I got so frustrated. I just went I
left the room. >> After stepping outside room 15 for a few minutes, AO claims she returned to find
Ael and Eileene in the bathroom. [music] When I opened the door, he had something white in his hand, like if he
was poking hot. >> The medical examiner was able to identify small circular bruising to the
body of Eileen that could be consistent with a shower curtain rod. >> Like the shower curtain rod
investigators recovered that had palm print impressions in Eileen's blood. >> Whose palm was it? The palm print
belonged to Zachary Ael. >> The assault continued near the bed, says Ajo, where she says Abel reached for his
wooden walking stick. >> He hit Sarah several times with it. When he hit her in the back, though, the
stick broke. >> We had actually found pieces of that wooden staff in the hotel room. We
didn't realize the significance of it until we found the other piece in the vehicle that contained our victim's DNA.
>> Ajo says she watched in terror as Abel began using that stick to sexually assault Eileene.
>> Christina's description of the crime was horrifying to listen to. Eileen clearly
suffered terrible death. Adlerstein recalls the medical examiner saying Eileen's injuries reminded him of those
he had seen in motor vehicle crashes. As a reporter, I try very hard to not be emotional.
I distinctly remember fighting back tears. [music] >> AO claims she eventually put herself
between Abel and Eileene and the attack finally stopped. Eileen was badly beaten, but still alive, she says, and
the exhausted trio just fell asleep. >> I didn't think she was going to die for me.
>> Ajo claims it wasn't until she woke up the next morning that she realized Eileen was dead. She says she only
participated in the cover up of fear of what Abel might do to her. >> She seemed to me genuinely remorseful.
Others had different opinions. Who is Christina Ao in your book? >> Manipulative,
cunning, chameleon. I think that there's evil in her. >> Alex Morris is Zach Abel's attorney.
>> He says Christina Ajo acted alone. >> I believe that she is the murderer. >> Let's talk about her story. Morris says
it was Christina Ajo who beat Eileen. And that photo taken by Mike Pikovette at his home after the murder shows she
had injuries to her hands and feet. >> Which tells you Christina must have been the attacker.
>> That's right. [music] >> Christina Ajo was the one with homicidal intent, says Morris. Triggered when Abel
and Eileene took off with her in the rear view mirror. And he says those threatening texts that [music] she sent
to Abel's phone before joining them on the road trip read like a confession. >> There are threats of bodily harm to both
Eileen and Zach and the messages. You come near me hoe, I will kill you. >> I think it speaks for itself. And that's
exactly what happened. After Eileen's murder, Morris says Ajo wiped down the motel room using the
vinegar that Ronnie Jones would later smell. He says Abel's palm prints on the curtain rod got there when he moved it
during the cleanup. [music] >> He was instructed to pick the curtain rod up over there and put it over there
by Christina. This toll booth surveillance photo from [music] after the murder shows that Christina Ajo and
not Zack Ael was the one driving the car and therefore Morris says she was the one in control.
>> The evidence [music] indicates Christina to be the one giving the directions and
had everything to be able to manipulate the situation. manipulating Zach Ael says Morris
because of those threats she had been making for years about her father's influence in solving her problems.
>> Bottom line is Zach was fearful of Christina's father. >> Abel chose not to testify. When Morris
made his final arguments to the jury, he concluded the evidence showed there was
only one person who wanted Eileen Seiden dead. They haven't proven any motive as
to why Mr. Abel would be interested in murdering Miss Sid. But I'll tell you where motive lies and it's clear as day
and that's with Mr. Rajo. The motive being I want rid of the person who's taken my man. So jealousy.
>> Yes. >> In his closing, Patterson said Christina Ajo already accepted her role in this
crime. He asked the jury to hold Zack Ael accountable for his part by finding him guilty of murder.
>> They lived together. They worked together. They own a business together. They went to the sportsman's lodge
together. They emptied out the room together. They ran away together. They got arrested together. The only thing
they didn't do together was kill Eileen Sid. No way. But who would the jury believe?
[music] [music] She wasn't born here and she didn't live here, but she was left here and she'll
always be remembered by Franklin County. Residents of Florida's forgotten coast will now long remember Eileen Seiden,
says Ronnie Jones. Almost 6 years after her death, the community waited for justice for the stranger they now had
come to embrace as one of their own. >> What was going through your mind as the jury begins its deliberation? Make it
quick. I was told by the jury foreman that when they first went in, there was 10 in
favor of first-degree premeditated murder with two hold outs. >> All right, everyone, please be seated.
>> After about 5 hours of deliberations, the jury reached a consensus. >> In the case of the state of Florida
versus Zachary Ray Ael, the defendant is guilty of the lesser included offense of
seconddegree murder. [music] seconddegree murder just like Christina Ao Adlerstein says the jury foreman told
him they just couldn't decide [music] if Zack Abel had actually intended to kill
Eileene. >> They knew that Christina [music] had plead guilty to second and I think they
eventually said we're going to give him the same. >> It doesn't tell me that they're equally
responsible. Mike Picovet says even with the verdict, he is convinced his friend
played no part in Eileen's death. >> To me, there's an innocent man sitting in jail.
>> I think they're both just as guilty as the other. >> Now retired from law enforcement, Ronnie
Jones spends his days tending his bar in Appalachiccola. He says he's still left wondering what
really happened inside room 15. >> Is this case a mystery to you? It's not a mystery on exactly what happened, but
exactly why it happened. That is what still bothers me to this day. Why? >> Like what Eileene might have been about
to say that sparked the attack. >> It was my understanding and the rumors that she was fixing to disclose the fact
that she was pregnant. >> Pregnant? And was she pregnant? Did you learn that at autopsy?
>> I was at the autopsy and she was not pregnant. I don't know if she thought she was or not.
When it was time for sentencing, Zack Ael finally spoke and told the courtroom another twist in this tortured story.
>> I had stopped and I grabbed a ring pop and I proposed to her with a ring pop and asked her to marry me. She said yes.
And me and Eileen were going to go our way and leave Christina out of it. [snorts]
Zach spoke at his sentencing and said that he'd actually proposed to Eileen during this trip.
>> I think that is just BS. It's a great story, but no. >> I have been in the justice system in one
form or another for 40 years. Rarely have I seen the sort of injuries that [music] I saw on Eileen Siden. The judge
told Abel he wished he could impose a harsher punishment before sentencing [music] him to the maximum, life in
prison. In >> the state of Florida, life means life. We don't have parole. >> At her sentencing, [music]
Christina Ao's father, Colonel Tony Ajo, set the record straight. He said he never used his influence [music] to
benefit his daughter. And he recalled the conversation he had with her after the murder. You will own up to the
truth. You will accept responsibility. You will be the voice of the victim. And you will testify under oath in a court
of law. And then whatever is sentenced to you, that's fine. >> There was no agreement with her as to
the length of sentence. She gave her statement with the knowledge that she could still receive life in prison.
>> I think about that day every day of my life. The details haunt me. and the memories keep me up.
>> The judge acknowledged her cooperation and sentenced [music] Christina Ajo to
25 years. >> Justice has been served. They won't beat up any more females. Neither will she.
>> I think that every woman kind of thinks I would leave if I was in that situation. I would just get up and
leave. I would never tolerate that. Eileen's best friend, Ally, hopes there will be more compassion for those
trapped [music] in abusive relationships. >> It's always the I'm sorry, it's never
going to happen again. And you believe it cuz you're in love and things are good 95% of the time, but the 5% that
are bad are so bad. >> With your sister gone, how do you want her to be remembered? I want her to be
remembered as a sweet, loving human being who unfortunately had lost her parents at such a young age. But she was
still so sweet. Like she was such a sweetheart. Her soul was so kind. >> [music]
>> 48 hours. Don't miss an episode. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music] [music]

48 Hours investigates the final moments before these tragic deaths. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Kiss of Death and the Google Exec," "Addicted To Love" and "Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?"

00:00 Kiss of Death and the Google Exec 42:39 Addicted To Love 01:24:10 Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?"

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

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Brief Summary

Forest Hayes's death from a heroin overdose leads to the arrest of Alex Tickleman, revealing a complex relationship and troubling past.

Key points

The Role of Alex Tickleman. Detectives discover a mysterious woman, Alex Tickleman, linked to Hayes' death.
The Shocking Video Evidence. Video footage reveals chilling details of the night Hayes died, raising questions about Tickleman's actions.
The Death of Dean Riyel. Dean's overdose raises questions about Alex's involvement and the nature of their relationship.
Alex's Guilty Plea. In a shocking turn, Alex pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in court.
The Dangerous Relationship. Lisa Buchanan's relationship with Dr. Chris Kulis becomes increasingly toxic and controlling.
Trial and Accusations. Chris Kulis faces trial for the murder of Lisa Buchanan, claiming innocence despite evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happened that night?

18:04WatchJan 31, 2026

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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