Jason Scott’s Secret Life | Making A Serial Killer | Forensic Files

[Music] Prince georgees County 911 Center what is your emergency ma'am I've been shot my mother
had been shot I'm bleeding for that I was imagining how she had to have felt in that in that predicament
it's just heartbreaking to be a 16-year-old girl a monster like that comes in and takes your life from
you Jason Scott was uh an extraordinarily dangerous criminal who masqueraded as an ordinary person he's
saying to you criminal justice system I am smarter than you if you feel like somebody is
watching you they are I'm successful at doing it why stop it don't cross your mind that sick
people like that exists my life was perfect before before everything happened [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] Upper Marboro a suburb 20 mi east of Washington DC is home to the Lofton
family Dad Kirk mom Karen two sons Kirk Jr and Keon and daughter Carissa my daughter was a very inspiring
very beautiful a gift she was a gift she went through some struggles she had an open heart surgery because she
had something going on with the valve in her heart and everything and she bounced
right back like it was nothing and me she was very [Music] strong I am Keon Lofton kin L was my
mother Carissa was my younger sister my mother was a really caring person she was in the nursing field as
long as I can remember I remember uh us being a little child and going with her to um to work with her and um just all
the love that she would get from her um co-workers she was probably one of the best nurses of her
time Carissa's personality um at that around that age was typical teenage girl she was still trying to figure herself
out Pleasant kind person you can see her modeling after the characteristics and values and things that my mother
instilled in all of us and you can just see the trajectory of the type of woman that she was going to
become in 2008 Kirk moves away after his marriage to Karen breaks down I moved to
Georgia in 2008 I was remarried still Reign the contact with my daughter matter of fact that she was
supposed to move down here and go to college Prince George's County 911 Center what is your
emergency ma'am I've been s me my mother has been shot I'm bleeding for that slow down what's the
[Music] address you know if we need any kind of Testament to Carissa's courage this is a young teenager a
16-year-old who has been involved in a home invasion which is one of the most terrifying things anybody can imagine
she's been shot and she has the kind of strength of mind to call 911 while she's bleeding and to report
to them that she has been shot her mom has been shot and she tells the operator you know I'm bleeding to death please
hurry unfortunately the phone is hung up um and by the time they get there it's too
[Music] late so the night of the everything when everything happened I was at my
girlfriend's house my mother-in-law now um told me that two women have been found um killed on our Street and she
told me to call and cheat with my my mother and sister so I called and nobody answered um so I kept calling I kept
calling and nobody answered so I just I just got up and left and started you know got in my car I was driving it had
to be about 2 3:00 in the morning got there to the house probably about a 10 minute
drive police kind of had like the street blocked off whatever and I got out I was
trying to um trying to see who it was and a police officer or detective asked who I was and I was told him my name and
he said okay we got the sun uh right here and I just broke down them because I I knew it came to realization that
okay it was [Music] them I was in the room sleep and my son my oldest son Kirk junor he called me at
probably you know 3:00 in the morning 4: in the morning something like that he was crying and I said what's wrong he
said um have you talked to Keon yet Ma and Karissa got killed the first thing that I thought
was they got into a car accident or something like that and but then he said um they were
[Music] shot I immediately got off the home with him and I called my other son my younger
son and he told me that they somebody came into our house and the the family house and and killed both of
them it's just um just heartbreaking to be a 16year old girl and be in the comfort of
your own bed and a monster like that comes in and takes your life from you I was
imagining how she had to felt in that in that predicament somebody storming in you know shooting shooting you and you
have to you know call a 911 trying to get somebody to save you is you know it's it's
heartbreaking with no signs of forced entry the police suspect the murders have been committed by someone with
access to the lofton's home they kind of step by and go okay what do we do we start from the
innermost Circle and we work our way out most often sadly those are the perpetrators one of the first persons to
come on the radar is uh Carissa's older brother Keon honestly I didn't know why I was in
a police car I had no idea it was everything was a a immediate shock right there from they remember being in the
interrogation room did your mom set the alarm for the house mhm okay all the time every day every time would you have
hurt your mom and sister no you wouldn't have hurt your mom and sister at all and I remember them
letting me come out to like one of the one of their desks and letting me hear like a snippet of the 911 call ma'am
I've been shot my mother has been shot I'm bleeding for that anybody who's who's getting accused of
anything they're not they haven't done um they're going to be upset when I'm in an interrogation room
and I'm hearing um them accusing me and I'm just trying to process like did this really
happen like did my mother and sister really just get know murdered are you guys really accusing me
of doing this everything just felt like a like a nightmare or a dream like it just felt really surreal I knew a th%
wasn't [Music] me they didn't know what to think they didn't know anything about who this
person was got no fingerprints there was no forced entry and all of a sudden here it is the
48 hours have passed which of course is often the critical period for getting that first lead and they're sitting
there kind of going we have no idea and if you're going down the wrong road with
that you've allowed the individual to perhaps clean up the case to perhaps even be further away from the case so
it's very important those first initial hours of any case that you hope the investigators are on the right
path Kirk and Keon begin to develop their own theories about what happened I know how safe the Karen was
and Karen would not let anyone in that house at 2:36 in the morning without she would have the L alarm on they said the
alarm was disengaged she took that really seriously you know when I would leave out she would make sure the back door is
locked things of that so you make sure the window is locked she was always a stickler for those things but I I'm
pretty sure I thought that okay somebody forced her to put the alarm in it's it's
no it's no other explanation at the time of the lofton's murders a burglar is successfully
evading capture in the neighborhood Jason Scott came across as very mild mannered he held a part-time job with a
package delivery service it wasn't viewed as being dangerous by his friends and family so
he was uh uh you know somebody who masqueraded as an ordinary person Jason Scott was somebody who
seemed to have a lot of potential he was somebody who had a college degree he was somebody who
worked at UPS so he was somebody who at least on the surface seemed to be somebody who really had his act
together 27-year-old Jason Scott has two master's degrees and until recently was unknown
to authorities he had started committing robberies uh in his at least as a teenager and perhaps early 20s uh and
had graduated from committing robberies of unoccupied houses to home invasion robberies and violent crime
so at the same time that that Jason Scott was living this kind of law abiding life on the surface this is
somebody who in the privacy of his own home seemed to be absolutely obsessed with crime with forensics with
understanding how to get away with crime one of the notable things about Mr Scott uh is the clothing and tools that
he used during his criminal activities so he dressed like a criminal he would dress all in black uh he wore black
gloves he carried a Black Backpack so he dressed like a thief Jason Scott spent hours of his
life thinking about crime learning about crime learning about forensic techniques
almost considered him himself like a Dr Jackal and Mr Hyde I would imagine to some extent he feels kind of this sense
of impunity like or the sense that I'm untouchable nobody's going to catch me another thing that stands out about
Jason Scott is he was an incredibly diverse criminal So Not only was he interested
in burglary in home invasions he was interested in peeping [Music] he was interested in cruising the
neighborhood and taking pictures of people in the privacy of their own homes who had no idea what he was
doing it's not uncommon for that to progress to breaking into a home to some kind of sexual offense so this
progression is a natural part that we as criminologists are concerned about with
any crime that someone does does it then have an opportunity to develop to make that person a a criminal a criminal that
is looking for a career I'm doing it I'm successful at doing it why [Music] stop the murders of mother and daughter
Karen and Carissa Lofton have shocked this respectable Washington [Music] suburb there's a Spate of burglaries too
but the police are yet to track down the [Applause] perpetrators 2 months later another
murder is called [Music] in my name is Courtney Hicks my mother is Dolores DT and my sister is Ebony
DT my life was perfect before before everything [Music] happened my mom was the kindest person
that I ever met she was always there for me even still after everything that's had happened to me in my life because of
how my mom taught me to believe in myself my sister was someone I could always depend on I could always count on
just as well as my mom I missed him so much so [Music] when I got home I like I don't remember if I had to
disable our alarm or not but I just go in the house and I see my sister's uh jacket on the back of the
chair everything just looked normal it just looked like they just weren't there my mom's car was in the driveway
everything looked normal it just they just weren't there [Music] I go upstairs and I go in my sister's
room it wasn't no bleach spot on my sister's floor so that kind of like struck me like okay maybe ebony did come
home she probably dropped some bleach or something in when I got into my bedroom
I just like sat down on my bed that's when I got the feeling that you need to get out of this
house I've run out the house I get in her car and I go to my boyfriend at the time's house and when I got to him I'm
just calling my mom and this is like now probably going on um it was late and still no
[Music] response the following day Courtney hears that her mother and sister have
been murdered their bodies are found in a stolen car that was then set on fire at
a different address police identifi Dolores and Ebony through dental records then they came to
our house I want to say was it later on that day I believe they came to our house um and that's when they did tell
us about the dent records um matching my mom and my sister they were in the berning
[Music] car when I was 15 I my dad died so I honestly didn't think that I never in my
life thought anybody like my mom my sister would be murdered or anything like that this never any I don't think
anybody would think somebody they love would be murdered my family was everything to me
my mom my dad and my sister I didn't have a worry in the [Music] world certainly in the murders of
Dolores and Ebony detet this is somebody who engages in incredibly R risky Behavior he steals a
car and the person that he steals the car from actually Witnesses this what's the nature of your emergency I just left
my house maybe an hour ago and have come back my car is missing out of the carboard that's my car okay it just zoom
past me wow so this is somebody in the middle of the day steals a car drives it to a house puts two people in there who
are no longer alive and burns this car in a relatively short amount of time I mean how much how riskier can you
be it's a horrific horrific crime scene of a burned body dental records are needed to
identify the individuals to know whom they are this does by time by moving the bodies to another place by putting them
in a car that has nothing to do with them and then burning the bodies allows for additional time for the individual
to get [Music] away I used to feel like people will be watching us outside of our house my mom
will always feel like people be watching us if you feel like somebody is watching
you they are and if you really have that oversense and urge like I feel like somebody watching me I feel like
somebody watching me they are it don't cross your mind that sick people like that
exists I think most of the time when people have a sense of being watched they they probably are and I think it's
very very important to trust your gut and investigate call the police whatever you think is going to make you feel
safe too many of us in the past have had these gut feelings had these kind of Spidey senses or the hair on the back of
our neck stands up and we talk ourselves out of it when really it's our body's way of telling us that something is
wrong even though we don't consciously know it there have been two mother daughter
murders less than 2 miles apart in just 8 [Music] weeks like Karen Lofton Dolores dwit was
a nurse and at home alone with her teenage daughter in many respects there are a
lot of similarities between the murders of Karen and Carissa Lofton and Dolores and Ebony and you know the similarities
of course they're both nurses they're both single parents they have teenage daughters yet there are some significant
differences so police know that that Karen and Carissa are murdered in their home that they are shot to
death and this is very very different from Ebony and Dolores who are removed from their home before they were
eventually found in a burned out car it would be really nice if seral Killers always did everything exactly
the same because it would be much easier to catch them and so it's it's important
to kind of step back sometimes and kind of go okay yes there's some surface differences here including the way these
people were murdered but we can't rule out the possibility given these other similarities that there's some
connection between the two at the time of the Lofton and dwit murders police are already investigating
the death of 46-year-old mother of three Vilma Butler in June 2008 she is shot dead and found in her
burning home around 15 miles from the dtz and Lofton but police still do not believe
they are dealing with a serial killer serial killers usually are not this meticulous in their acts you know we
usually see that there's opportunity as the main factor there is that of a special type of person he or she is in
interested in committing these acts with but to see intelligence put together to
see elements of information put together this is a different ball game this is a
different realm it's unfortunate that he was a was able to get away with it for so
long and then he end up getting Court [Music] there have been five murders in this
respectable suburb since June 2008 police don't believe they're dealing with a serial killer and are yet
to identify a suspect but separately from the murders authorities are getting closer to
catching local burglar Jason Scott the crimes that Mr Scott committed were clustered around his own
neighborhood in Prince George's County Maryland which is a suburb just east of Washington
DC in May of 2009 Jason Scott and his accomplice Marcus Hunter traveled up to Woodbine
Maryland to commit this robbery of a gun shop they stole 39 Firearms uh including
automatic weapons machine guns silencers and a large volume of ammunition someone who moves to being
involved in gun deals has a lot of spheres of activity going on you usually don't expect that in someone who's
involved in criminal activity one becomes good at one part of criminal activity but does not drift as we say in
criminology to perhaps having a a life of regular Conformity and then going to be an innov of criminal activity this is
what makes this case so special he's confident in what he does after doing this he decides to make
some money by selling some of these illegal weapons and yet I think his boldness
really does Propel him to take these ridiculous risks I mean selling illegal weapons
in the UPS parking lot I mean it seems like that's something that is not a criminal something a criminal mastermind
would do you work there Jason Scott had let it be known among some of his criminal compatriots that he had guns to
sell and an undercover ATF agent arranged to meet Jason Scott in a parking lot uh and purchased four
weapons from him where the B on cuz whoever you go there they going to be I mean it Ain it
ain't like no body or nothing just came for agents then were able to verify that
four of those weapons uh were the weapons that had been stolen on May 26th from the gun
shop well this was the moment that exposed Jason Scott to the subsequent search warrant during the course of executing
that search warrant the agents recovered 16 firearms that had been stolen from that gun shop uh in Wood bind
back in May of 2009 they also obtained from Jason Scott's bedroom many of the burglary tools that he had used to
commit the crime the clothing that he wore the black clothing uh the ski mask and the backpack containing his burglary
tools which included things like bolt cutters and screwdrivers and pry bar and also uh included a police
scanner There is almost a black comedy here if things weren't so horrific that this is somebody who is intelligent
he's graduated from college he's a personal person and yet he almost lives in this fantasy world it seems
like one of the items of evidence that we recovered from Jason Scott's Home was a video recording that he had made of
this teenage victim when he was recording the victim uh uh while she was naked during one of his home inv and
robberies and at one point Mr Scott himself crossed in front of the camera there actually was an image
captured of Mr Scott in his full regalia that he would wear to commit his crimes and when the authorities found
those recordings and photographs and the burglary tools they realized they were dealing with a master criminal not
simply somebody who had committed a uh a robbery at a gun shop but somebody who posed A continuing threat of violence in
the community the agents were working with local police who knew about the Spree of home invasion robberies in
addition to the murders that had been committed in the area and so once they found this evidence they immediately
settled on Jason Scott as a likely suspect in a whole spree of crimes I think when you think about this
kind of sexual aspect or sexual assault that is so consistent with somebody who has a history of peeping and voyerism
who then progress say most people who peep don't progress to worse things but people who do
progress to worse things often have a history of peeping and voyerism I think Jason Scott enjoyed the
sense of power and control that he exercised when he committed these home invasion robberies where he kept people
you know under control he kept people at gunpoint uh in a couple of instances he
detained people in their homes while his partner Marcus Hunter took their ATM cards and went to withdraw cash and I
think Jason Scott enjoyed that sense of power that he obtained while he was detaining innocent
victims there was one home invasion that he carried out where the victims were of
course terrified uh they had no idea they felt completely helpless the victim later on said you
know when you have absolutely no control over situation you you don't know what to do and she said I started
praying and you know Jason Scott said shut up I think that affirmed to him that I
am powerful I am a criminal Master mind I am in charge of these situations and I
do think that was very important to him and for whatever reason he really did Embrace this criminal
identity Jason Scott is now a suspect in the five murder investigations but police don't have
enough evidence to charge him but the evidence from the Firearms offenses home invasions and sexual
assault makes police believe he's linked to a vast array of crimes rather than charge him for just
the crimes they have evidence for Scott is taken into custody and offered a profer interview in a profer interview
the government promises a defendant that uh things that he says in the interview
won't be used against him directly in court and so the profer an opportunity for the defendant to come in with the
promise of immunity and reveal to the government the criminal activity in which he
[Music] participated they're thinking this is somebody who's going to help us catch
other almost arms dealers or people who you know who are selling illegal guns and so
Jason takes advantage of this during the interview with uh Federal authorities Mr Scott admitted
that he had committed approximately 28 burglaries and nine home invasion robberies law enforcement is absolutely
stunned by this he's saying to you criminal justice system I am smarter than you that I was able to be
successful with these crimes I am good at what I do and I am better than you at this time The Jig Is up so if it is up
let me just go ahead and tell you and show you how much smarter I was than you how much intelligence and research goes
into this and of course Jason sitting there smug as can be thinking I've got immunity from all
these things nothing I said to today can be used against me he was a little misguided I think in thinking
that police cannot charge Scott with the burglaries and home invasions he's confessed
to but he can still be charged for other crimes because of new evidence or if implicated by an
accomplice once uh authorities realized that Jason Scott had been involved in a crime spree in the area uh they started
to review all crimes that had been committed in the area over the past couple of years to identify which ones
were likely to have been committed by Jason Scott Marcus Hunter revealed that he was
a friend of Jason Scott and that he had participated with Mr Scott in many of the robberies and burglaries that Mr
Scott had committed in the community Marcus Hunter used the term spooky house to refer to an abandoned property that
he and Jason Scott would go to after the crimes to split up the proceeds uh so on
multiple occasions Jason Scott and Marcus Hunter went to the so-called spooky house with the proceeds of their
robbery and then divided the property among them the most compelling evidence uh I
recovered from the spooky house that we was used in the state case uh was that they found charred bits of fabric and
hair at the spooky house that were uh connected to the murder because they matched evidence that was found on the
bodies when they were recovered from the car that had been burned this vital new piece of evidence
links Scott to the crime scene of Dolores and ebony dwit Jason Scott is charged with their
murders while being investigated for the others this is the beginning of the end
for Jason [Music] Scott it's 1 and a half years since Jason Scott was charged with the murders
of Dolores and Ebony dwit as a case is building against him he's first facing trial for the crimes
that investigators have more evidence of in the federal system uh we prosecuted defendants for the most
readly provable offenses and so uh in this case uh we identified four home invasion robberies and which the proof
was the strongest and the Witnesses were the most uh credible and compelling and
we charged Mr Scott with those four home invasion robberies in addition to the child pornography he had produced during
one of those robberies and then the possession of the stolen firearms that uh had been taken from
that gun shop in Woodbine most important piece of evidence in the case was the video
recording that Jason Scott had made uh of this teenage victim Mr Scott at one point actually crossed in front of the
camera so in this case the federal sentence for the series of crimes 11 violations in total amounted to 100
years in federal prison I know the family members of the murder victims were present at the sentencing
and they were very relieved they were confident that Mr Scott had been held accountable and would no longer pose a
threat to the community regardless of whether or not he ultimately was convicted on the state charges for the
murder what we do see is someone who's become very good at being a criminal someone who's intelligent someone who
looks at information that's publicly accessible plus perhaps has a charm that allows for many people not to feel
threatened we hope that these elements don't come together and thank goodness that person is no longer on the street
causing these heinous [Music] [Applause] acts Jason Scott is is in jail police suspect him of the murders
of Vilma Butler Dolores and Ebony DT and Karen and Carissa Lofton but they only have strong evidence linking him to the
dtz murders in order to prosecute him for the provable crimes police strike a deal
using an alord plea it's been around since about the 1970s here you have an environment in
which one pleas to say I'm not saying I'm guilty of doing this act but I am going to go ahead and move
the process in order to perhaps receive a lesser sentence as part of the Alfred plea for
the murders of Dolores and Ebony DT Jason Scott now won't face trial for the murders of Vilma Butler or Karen and
Carissa Lofton we never had our day in court he was going to spit the rest of his life in jail anyway so so I guess
they assume why spend money to satisfy the family Carissa Lofton I always speak her
name and I always say she's such a strong girl cuz she comes home only to find someone killing her mom and then
she gets shot in the head from what um the story tells to be able to pick her strength to pick up the phone to call
911 ma'am I've been shot me my mother had been shut I'm beding for that sweee slow down what's your address
it's just heartbreaking when you hear her it's heartbreaking it's so heartbreaking cuz she didn't they didn't
deserve it none nobody deserves it there's still a very empty void in myself and my family's Hearts because we
don't know we we didn't get the satisfaction that uh the dits got of a of a trial and a and a killer that
admitted and was found guilty of their crime we didn't get [Music] that I I used to hate him for a while um
but I had to get over that at first I used to want him dead I pray to God that like while he's
uh locked up every time he Clos his eyes he sees them as he left them now I just feel like
no what he got is the best thing for him I don't even want to give him any um real estate in my mental space so um
he's where he needs to be I think that Jason Scott has all the Hallmarks of a serial killer in terms of
so many different things his interest in forensics the way he he researched his crimes and most importantly the way he
carried out so many different crimes and really exhibited no compassion no empathy whatsoever for his
victims this was probably the most memorable case that I personally prosecuted in my 30 years with the
United States Department of Justice because of the scale of the harm that Jason Scott had visited
on the community uh and obviously the particular harm on the victims of the murders the home invasion robbery and
the child abuse you save lives by taking somebody like Jason Scott off the [Music]
street my parents my mom my dad and my sister they always told us if you believe in yourself you could do
anything so with that even through all the tragedy in my life I'm could pack myself on the back that I just never
gave up and that's only because of them life has never been the same life will never be the same I'm um just been
trying to adjust to it it's just uh I was shattered I had nothing now I compare everybody in this world to
my family and it's like I said I haven't met anyone that just measure up to how great they
were you know I have three kids now with my wife um and my mother or sister has met none of them so um she was robbed
from having three beautiful grandchildren that she could be interacting with I still feel lost like it's a loss
um I've grown a lot I had to learn how to turn a tragedy into something uh helpful and that's the only
way that you can get through something like that Jason Scott feel like that they not
responsible for two murders they responsible for three because in my family because uh my son Kirk Jr never
recovered he went through a very dark period he uh was drinking very depressed and everything for
years 6 months ago well a little more than 6 months in a month after his birthday uh exactly a month after his
birthday then he died they found him in a hotel and the cause of death is alcohol
and uh poisoning you know he had died from alcohol so Jason Scott definitely played the
part in [Music] it I used to call Carissa my butterfly and she loved the color green that year after she passed then it
was a influx of green butterflies all through Georgia the main thing that I had to remember is
that God didn't make mistakes and that my story had to help somebody else [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Jason Scott was a master of disguise and deception – he worked at a package delivery firm and appeared to be a nice guy by all accounts. But he held many secrets.

Police were hunting a serial burglar – little did they know their prime suspect would also be wanted in connection to two double homicides.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the murders of two families and the criminal behind them, Jason Scott, revealing the impact on the victims' loved ones.

Key points

The 911 Call. A young girl calls for help after being shot, showing incredible courage.
Heartbreaking Realization. A son learns of his mother and sister's tragic deaths in a shocking call.
Mysterious Murders. Two mother-daughter pairs are murdered in a suburb, raising alarms.
Jason Scott's Criminal Mastery. Authorities uncover evidence of Jason Scott's extensive criminal activities, revealing a master criminal.
Profer Interview Confession. Jason Scott admits to numerous burglaries and robberies during a profer interview, shocking law enforcement.
The Impact of Tragedy. Family members express the deep emotional scars left by the murders and the ongoing struggle to cope.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If you feel like somebody is watching you, they are.

A warning about trusting your instincts regarding safety.

0:55WatchNov 14, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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