Home Renovation Homicide | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] Aaron this is Florida nothing strange [Music] here the house was beautiful it was 4,000 square ft it had
a pool a garage apartment it was a great house the only problem was upstairs some of the rooms
were too small and just the functionality did not work for some families I could understand why they'd
want to renovate it when did you first meet Shanti and David Dave just called me on the phone
and asked if I'd come by and take a look at the project he said that they had done some work I wasn't at all prepared
for what I saw when I got there they had fully disassembled this house to a degree that I'd never seen
before it it was rather astonishing it was largely wide open like you're inside of a giant shoe
box this house became more than just a project to David tronis it was his life he obsessed on it this house is the
center point to the story and ultimately led to shanti's demise this case all started with a call
to 911 placed at approximately 3:51 p.m. M on April 24th 2018 by Dave tronis hello and Dav says that he came home and
found Shanti floating in the bathtub she's not feing did that story make sense absolutely not Shanti was extensively
beaten it makes me emotional I feel bad for her family and for her son It's upsetting that she won't get
that life with him clearly Dave tronis from the very beginning is a suspect absolutely Dave was asked to go to the
station thank you and voluntarily remain there for hours just have a seat there it'll be a little bit he did not request
councel he consented to swabs to clippings to a search of his person Dave went into that interview
with an agenda he had never been more in love was so happy and he just started getting confronted and confronted and
confronted I told you she was murdered murdered someone took her life from her and there's nothing you can't even fake
it that's how much you could give it and if it became a war of Wills in that room
I don't have any explanation for her the severity of her injuries and didn't David win that war of Wills he was not
broken well Dave didn't confess are we boring you it seems pretty clear these two detectives they
went into this room decided that David was a murderer and then went the extra mile to try to put a file together to
prove such did you guys get into an argument was she about the house is it possible that without this
house Shanti might still be alive I think that's completely true [Music] [Music]
Delaney Park is a wellestablished neighborhood it's been around for over a hundred years Tara Stevens knows Delaney
park inside and out she's a realtor who buys and sells homes there it's a great place to live to
raise a family a lot of outside activity great school system it's a it's a great
neighborhood so Delaney Park is a mile or so from downtown or Orlando Ryan vesio a former prosecutor with the
Orlando State Attorney's office got to know the area well when he led the investigation into the death of Shanti
Cooper in April 2018 did Shanti ever indicate to any friends or family that she was afraid of
anyone no so you guys knew each other approximately 5 years this month vesio and investigators dug in to
learn all they could about Shanti and her husband David trones the couple had been married for
more than a year everybody we spoke to about Dave and Dave's background said that he was highly intelligent it's what
made him successful when he worked in business how would you described Shanti Shanti Cooper was a hardworking
dedicated mom who cared deeply deeply about her son her son was her world shanti's son Jackson was then 8 years
old she shared custody with his father Jim Cooper whom Shanti had divorced in 2013 she launched a lucrative Financial
software business and worked out of her home office how did she meet Dave tronis
Dave was outside of Minneapolis Minnesota at the time they met over the internet and started exchanging messages
and profiles and that turned into emails investigators later found this document
on shanti's computer that shows just how smitten she was Dave I will have to say
I think this will be a delicious detour amazing magnificent lifechanging detour I've had a pep in my step since we
started this little email Affair in Minnesota David just ended a long marriage but within months of
meeting Shanti onine line he moved to Orlando Dave fell in love with Delaney Park and the house at 218 East Copeland
Drive a house that came complete with its own gargoyles we sold it to him for 67500 which was a really really good
deal how did he pay for it cash Dave put the house in trust for himself and his mother and soon introduce Shanti to Tara
they seemed very happy she was a beautiful very nice person I enjoyed meeting her Tara did not feel quite the
same about Dave Dave's personality changed a little bit after the contract was signed I just saw a
very different side of him he was like a a guy or a child who wants to get their
way and they don't stop until they do you were glad when the deal was over absolutely I was very
glad I didn't get a good feeling from him Cindy and Dan da are shanti's relatives by marriage they didn't like
Dave at first but it wasn't long before Cindy had a change of heart I love her so I grew to love him we absolutely
adored him the first time we had lunch he walked in and he said how lucky am I I get to have lunch with two of the most
beautiful women that I know I mean that's Charming in 2015 Dave and Chanty moved
into their new home and attempted to remodel it with Shanti footing the bill what did Dave do all day it's a great
question if you ask Dave he says that he worked on the house and worked on the renovations and took care of the
property and clean the pool contractors came and went demolition went on and on but the
renovation was an expensive failure by 2018 the main part of the house was unlivable Shanti was reduced to working
and sleeping above the garage in a small apartment where did Dave sleep I think he slept downstairs with the dogs maybe
not all the time but I'm pretty sure he was down there desperate to resolve the housing
situation Dave turned to Keith ory a local house renovator who also appeared on a reality TV show called Zombie house
flipping neighborhoods are under attack from zombie houses what is zombie house flipping
zombie house flipping is a house flipping TV show where we take houses that are the worst of the
[Music] worst is anything broken I think we have a termite problem and what we do is
bring them back to life I looked at the house I realized that the structure was suspect and uh politely stepped outside
an engineer discovered the only thing holding up the house was 2 in of Stucco it was rather astonishing they took away
all the interior Dividing Walls and basically what was left was a twostory shell weren't you tempted to just run
for the hills yeah but at the same time you rarely come across a challenge that's
that uh that bold Keith was up for the challenge and began Shing up the interior and then he got the go-ahead to
use the house in the next season of zombie house flipping this is zombie house flipping it was mid April
2018 and filming was set to begin in early may but there was a problem getting Dave
and Shanti together to talk in FA in person was proving to be really difficult Keith went to the house to
meet with the couple one last time to be sure they were on board and they both said yes we understand and then she took
off immediately just and left I got a sense that she was ped off at him fesio said Shanti had been trying for years to
get her name on the trust that owned the house but Dave never followed through and it seemed like things just sort of
culminated to a boiling point it was only days before shanti's murder she desperately wanted stability
in her life but was living in a house that was anything but her name was not on the deed and she had already spent a
lot of money on what was essentially Dave's house Shanti was the bank roll the soul bank roll to almost A4 million
doll renovation what did she get for her $250,000 well a lot of headaches and [Music]
heartaches thank you shortly after Shanti was pronounced dead Dave tronis went to Orlando Police
Headquarters go get her as soon as I can where he remained without a lawyer for 14 hours we got to figure this out
together okay of course he didn't attempt to conceal anything Richard seski is Dave's attorney he gave the law
enforcement access to everything that they needed everything that they wanted and he laid himself out there for
examination by all we want to say how sorry we are for loss at the start detectives Teresa
sprag and Barb sharp seem sympathetic take a minute okay I know this is super tough they're very good at
building Rapport and have a tremendous amount of experience if you have a suspect who's willing to talk you just
hit play and sit back and let them go on and on and on and that's what Dave does
Dave sticks with his story he took the dog dogs to a park in the afternoon and after he
returned he found Shanti still wearing her pajamas floating in the tub so I could hear the water is running you see
her laying one of her legs is kind of sticking up and out a little bit and it's just
extremely awful are you can you tell me what your address is he tells the detectives that
he tried to perform CPR but couldn't get Shanti to breathe she was dead when First Responders arrived Dave has a lot
to say and a lot to say to try to convince the detectives that he wasn't involved in his wife's death I think
something went wrong either she slipped or she fell or she blacked out why did he agree to sit down and talk to these
detectives with without an attorney because he had nothing to hide and he didn't think that it would hurt him but
the veteran detectives began to pick at his story and question how shanti's Bloody cheek and bruised eye came from a
slip in the tub any exp what I found somebody who slips and Falls doesn't receive the amount of blunt force trauma
to focused areas in the head detectives also had spotted blood on shanti's bed and suspected that's where she had
been killed but Dave says the blood likely was from shanti's period it did get on the bed spread and it did get
almost through the B there was a lot of other evidence that would be inconsistent with this being blood
associated with a menstrual cycle detectives also suspected and shanti's autopsy later confirmed that she was
strangled but celeski says as frustrating as it may have been to authorities Dave can't explain shanti's
injuries not because he's lying but because he simply doesn't know he took his best guess based upon
what he come to find he doesn't know what happened is the point the detectives press on for hours
taking turns and peppering Dave with tougher and tougher questions did you two argue no absolutely not did you
fight absolutely not did you harm Shanti in any way absolutely not sharp and sprag also question his timeline Dave
says that he called 911 about 5 minutes after he found Shanti you've got to help
us understand but detectives insist that doesn't match what they found at the house there's no splashing of water any
anywhere in the bathroom the inside of the tub is dry completely dry and she's damp she's not even wet so you got to
help us can you do that I'm telling everything they're drawing conclusions based upon observations and they're
moving forth based upon these assumptions they try to zero in on a possible motive did she catch you with
another woman did she have a boyfriend did was she about the house no but given the sorry
state of the house detectives begin to wonder if that had something to do with shanti's murder I can't imagine how
stressful it must have been you know not living in the home you want to live in and it's taken two plus years three
years um I'm I'm sick to death about what happened but nothing happened today because of there was no animosity
between us whatsoever and he says shant wasn't upset that her name wasn't on the trust
that owned the house so we had kind of talked about it and debated it and we finally just said it doesn't really
matter let's just move forward Teresa and Barb are tenacious they don't stop they're well-versed in interrogation
techniques you know we saw the good cop bad cop we saw manipulation Barb sharp even moves her hand to Dave's knee and
adopts a more subtle tone will be okay we can't help you until you help us before Teresa sprag begins another
attack she treats you like a landscaper like the pool boy probably because she's
bringing in the money as the hours tick by what do you want your mom to think about you they try anything they can to
get him to confess are you religious want to pray this almost became a game of psychological warfare
in that interview room Dave began the interview by saying how happy he had been with Shanti but almost 8 hours into
the interrogation the detectives aren't buying it you claim to love that woman I would be under the table in a
ball if I was in love with that woman and she was dead I I would be inconsolable do you think that he was
penalized because he didn't act the way detectives wanted him to act oh time time and time again you know you fake
cried for about s or 8 hours today not one tear came out of your eyes not one there's a lot of conclusions
being drawn off of what they consider to be an odd affect of Mr Tron and I think
that that's a dangerous thing to do because we all react to stress differently we all grieve differently
Dave even agrees to take a polygraph but by then it was the middle of the night an investigator couldn't find
anyone to administer [Music] it they had to let him go at the end of the interview how did they feel about
that you always want to make the arrest right up front you do with Dave Tron is free police would have to keep digging
for Clues but even they were surprised by what they found is it fair to say that
Dave tronis was living a double life at least two lives lives she didn't slip and fall it's not
a possibility even though detectives were outright accusing Dave trones of murdering Shanti you strangled her some
of her relatives like Cindy da believed him are you kidding my bet my last dollar that it wasn't him I thought he
was innocent you honestly did Cindy why I think it was just the growth of our relationship and how she adored him
absolutely adored him and it looked very mutual to everyone did she ever express
any concern or fear of Dave never never after being questioned by by detectives Dave headed straight to his
home in Delaney Park and that's where Cindy found him I stood him up and turned him around and looked at his arms
and there was not a scratch on him there was nothing Cindy did you ever ask him Point Blank did you have something to do
with the death of Shanti I did what did he say no I would not kill the love of my life
defense attorney Richard zeleski says the problem with this case is that detectives and prosecutors were
convinced from the start that Dave trones was shanti's killer soleski says the bias of the investigators is clear
from the police report they've already suggested that they have it figured out like bull in a china shop trying to just
make this work at all cost because they've done nothing to develop other suspects but vesio denies that he says
Detectives checked out every possible suspect and got lucky when an important lead fell into their laps a worker from
Club Orlando called and shared that they knew of Dave tronis because he was a patron at the club what is Club Orlando
Club Orlando is a same-sex bath house did Dave have a membership at Club Orlando several memberships every six
months Dave renewed his membership detectives headed to the club to investigate and found a longtime Club
employee who in this police recorded interview says he witnessed Dave having sex at the club I was just walking
through and I saw David uh he was giving oral sex to this guy from what everybody
who knew Shanti has said she would absolutely have not tolerated it put up with it endorse it it just wouldn't have
happened there's a significant possibility that Shanti knew all about it and why do you
believe that because none of her family members seem to know anything about it and and her family members seem to
indicate that if Shanti did know she'd be upset and and I appreciate that but uh what you tell your mom and dad about
your sex life and what you do uh behind closed doors you know people are people adults or adults and life is
messy but vesio wonders if shant ultimately did discover Dave's duplicity on the night she was murdered had that
Revelation made Shanti threatened to turn off the money spigot once and for all but she would be killed because of a
house well what would somebody do when they were about to lose the most important thing in their
[Music] life because in April of 2018 the most important thing in Dave's life was that
house [Music] Dave told Cindy and others that he believed Shanti may have been murdered
by a burglar and the defense claimed that $5,000 in cash was missing from the house also missing shanti's diamond
engagement ring valued at approximately $155,000 that was highly highly suspicious the detectives wanted to get
to the bottom of it why could have been exactly as Dave said that he leaves and someone breaks into the house beats her
leaves her there and Dave comes home why doesn't that fit well the lack of forced
entry this scene did not have any sort of evidence of a struggle there's thousands of dollars of valuables that
are left in plain sight a private investigator hired by defense lawyers canvas Neighbors asking
them about a particular homeless man who reportedly had been seen around Delaney
park it was said he resembled the actor Woody harelson what about the transient that everyone describes who looks a lot
like Woody harelson I mean when you got nothing better you throw everything against the
wall and see if something sticks this home is at 218 East Copeland Drive detective Teresa sprag tracked
Woody down and recorded this interview and you see there's a large Blue dumpster in the driveway have you ever
been there no nothing placed Woody inside DAV and shanti's home but vesio says his interview shows police chase
down every lead including checking out her ex-husband Shanti had had a bad divorce this was not an easy end of the
marriage did you look at Jim Cooper yes Mr Cooper was interviewed and Jim Cooper was eliminated as a suspect very
early on he had an alibi on August 29th 2018 4 months after shanti's murder Dave tronis was arrested
on a charge of first-degree murder and held without bail and how did the two of you react when you heard that I wasn't
believing it whatsoever I thought were just trying to solve a murder easily I always had the suspicion Dave's
arrest gave prosecutors another piece of the puzzle shanti's missing engagement ring the ring is probably one of the
most powerful and damning pieces of evidence in this case as long as that expensive ring was missing Dave tronis
could argue that a burgler had murdered Shanti but the day he was arrested police found it among his
possessions we searched the room at his mother's house where he was living and lo and behold we found the Rings in his
suitcase in his bedroom still Dave's arrest was not the end of the investigation it led to a cascading
series of New Revelations that surprised even a veteran prosecutor like Ryan vesio this was a case that had so many
twists and turns I would no longer make assumptions of anything you don't learn this stuff in law
[Music] school after the arrest of Dave tronz investigators received a tip that took
them completely by surprise it led them to Minnesota and back in time to win a much younger Dave was married to a woman
named Carol former close friends of Carol told detectives that they beli Dave may have been poisoning her as soon
as Carol got married to Dave she started suffering a bunch of unknown health issues that made prosecutor rhyme vesia
wonder if Shanti could have been poisoned in shanti's case she had appendicitis and had to have an
appendectomy Shanti had had that emergency appendectomy 8 weeks before her death appendicitis and poisoning
have similar symptoms and Dave told detectives that Shanti had digestion problems right up to the day she died
she hasn't found since the abct a diet that she can be ready regly and feel good vesio needed more information so he
and detective Teresa sprag went to Minnesota in November of 2018 to meet Carol face to face and
recorded this interview I have issues with chronic pain and immune system issues that are not necessarily
definitive Carol told vesio she also struggled with gut issues and that Dave cooked most of their meals has it ever
come into your frame of thought that your marriage to David tronis or him cooking or making you
drinks was making you sick no have you ever thought that any of your issues related to your health problems was him
poisoning you no Carol said her health issues continued even after her divorce from
Dave yet vesio says he remains suspicious it very well could have been a scenario to where Dave was providing
both of them with items that caused them to be ill we just could never have real concrete proof of
it fesio wondered if there was another reason Carol seemed to be protecting her former husband and whether it had
anything to do with Dave's finances we saw thousand pages of bank records belonging
to Dave tronis one thing that we noticed was that Dave and Carol still had a joint bank account
together that account at times contained hundreds of thousands of dollars but Carol said she simply had forgotten to
take her name off that account people who are divorcing each other don't leave assets on the table and they sure as
heck don't leave them together it's unclear where that money came from vesio believes that car who
was not charged with any crime could be helping Dave manage his money while he's
in jail I think that Carol is involved in David's finances and has some level of
control the surprises in the case kept coming soon after shanti's death detectives have placed a surveillance
camera pointed toward the outside of Dave's house detective sprag was interested to see who was coming and
going out of the house and that camera camera ended up actually turning into a pretty valuable piece of evidence that
camera captured images of private investigators hired by Dave's original Law Firm coming and going detectives
believe that when one of those lawyers Robert Mandel realized that the pis were on camera he placed a called aesio I
never ever expected that he was going to tell me that he in fact had an item of physical e evidence that he had been
holding on to for 11 months never would have expected it in a thousand years and
what was that evidence they were a set of purported bloody sheets and it literally literally took
my breath away that defense attorney Robert mandelle told vesio that the defense team had acquired the bloody
sheets from the garage apartment where Shanti was found dead but had never turned them over to the
prosecution but Ryan as shocking as that is that wasn't the only evidence that later turned out was it no I ended that
call with the defense attorney and said listen if you have anything else now is the time to tell
me and about 10 12 hours later the next morning I got another call from him and that's when he said I have one other
item that I think we have to turn over that item turned out to be a green cord Mandel told vesio that a private
investigator removed it from the house and preserved it in an Evidence bag because Dave was threatening to kill
himself does that make sense to you no makes zero sense to me why go get the item and then treat it
as if it were a piece of evidence remember the autopsy revealed that Shanti had been strangled and vesio
believed there was a real possibility that the green cord could be the murder weapon with the prosecution now in
possession of that green core tests were conducted to see if indeed it was the murder weapon used to strangle Shanti is
there any evidence to indicate that in fact that cord was used to kill Shanti no that cord did not have any DNA on
[Music] it but the cord wasn't picked up until weeks after shanti's death and authorities believe Dave had plenty of
time to clean it investigators had spent months examining all the evidence leading vesio to craft his own theory
about when Shanti was killed we found one single earring was placed on the nightstand the other
earring was in shanti's ear and what does that say to you that tells me that Shanti was most likely sitting on the
side of her bed preparing for bed taking those earrings out and that's when the attack happened the sheets and bed frame
did have shanti's blood on them and Shanti didn't use her phone after 11:30 p.m. the scene was consistent with this
attack happening somewhere in the midnight to 23 a.m. time period but David called 911 late in the afternoon
saying he had just found Shanti floating in the tub celeski says investigators are jumping to unfair conclusions a few
hours of time off the grid doesn't allowed them to shift the timeline prosecutors continued to build
their case even as Dave sat behind bars listening to anyone who had information about shanti's death no matter how
surprising the source I met David Chis in three whiskey three whiskey is a housing unit
in the Orlando jail where Edward gizi shared a cell with Dave tronz he slept next to me and I slept next to him after
getting out of jail giz Mandi met with vesio and sprag he says that he and Dave began talking and bonded over a shared
interests in obscure hallucinogenics including sapo a poison derived from a South American
frog he said that you could use sapo to put in people's salsa and kill them quietly killer salsa might sound
ridiculous but not so far-fetched when you consider that authorities suspected that Dave had poisoned both his wives
gizi supplied even more information that if true was truly damning he says Dave admitted that he and chanti had a fight
before she died he just said there there was an app on his phone that there was messages on that she had found
apparently that suggested he was having sex with men and she was going to show everybody and what did Dave say he did
he snapped he said he fre freaked out and did what he didn't specifically say that what he did but that he had killed
his wife investigators were unable to corroborate giz mandi's story about the app we didn't have any purchase records
of apps and we did not see it on Dave's phone I've read your statement and at no
point do I see anywhere where you had told them that David actually said I killed my wife wife but sitting here now
you said Dave told you I killed my wife yes ma'am in jail he said I killed my wife word for word is what he told me
but why wouldn't you tell the State's Attorney's office that I did I told him that he had snapped that's the word that
I used I don't remember if she had asked me did he admit to murdering her like word for word like
that one of the few things both the prosecution and the defense do agree on is that neither is sure they can believe
gizi he plad guilty to one count of LW or lascivious behavior and is now a registered sex offender and still on
probation this individual certainly has credibility issues zeleski took over Dave's defense
in early 2020 after the original attorneys withdrew from the case raising doubt isn't going to be ult
here but shanti's family has no doubt about what should happen to Dave he has to be found guilty he is
guilty Cindy da who once found Dave so Charming feels very differently about him now he should be sentenced to
death I want him to remember when he looks at me I want him to remember remember every lie Every
Lie when Cindy remembers Shanti her heart still breaks she was happy giving kind
fun loving person who had a mission in this life and she didn't get to fulfill it
[Music]

Did an out-of-control home makeover lead to murder? "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty investigates. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "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

Shanti Cooper's murder case reveals her husband's suspicious behavior and a complex investigation into her death.

Key points

David's Obsession. David Tronis's fixation on the house becomes central to the story.
The Call to 911. The case began with a call to 911 about Shanti's tragic death.
Shanti's Injuries. Shanti's death reveals extensive injuries, raising immediate suspicions.
The Interrogation. David Tronis undergoes a lengthy and intense police interrogation.
The Missing Ring. Shanti's engagement ring goes missing, adding to the mystery of her death.
The Missing Ring. The engagement ring is a pivotal piece of evidence in Shanti's case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's upsetting that she won't get that life with him.

Reflecting on Shanti's son and her death.

2:08WatchJul 2, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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