Terrified Witnesses | 48 Hours Full Episodes | Forensic Files

It's so [music] powerful to see how my mom handled this situation. >> She's amazing, you know, and she's
really, really strong. >> How often do residential kidnappings happen here? >> Very rare.
>> Yeah, not very often at all. Shauna Hanley is at her home with her daughter [music] Isabella.
Her friend came over just to come and visit with her. >> We talked for about 5 or 10 minutes and
the doorbell rang and so I went to the door and it's [music] these two men. >> These two individuals essentially
present themselves to be delivery men of some sort. Shauna sees them, says, "Look, I have a friend over. Now is not
a good time." She goes to close the door on them. They force themselves in with guns.
They started to scream to get the F on the floor and don't move. They handcuffed me in front like this.
>> I was just stunned. I saw that my mom and her friend were handcuffed. >> I said, "I have valuables. I have
jewelry. I have cash. I have precious metals. I can [music] get you money." Didn't interest them at all.
>> I said, "Come with me." And she went and then they came back and asked me and I
said, "No." and they just accepted [music] that and left. >> They put her in the van.
>> I'm hooded. [music] They hooded me as soon as I went into the van. It was a van that didn't have the windows in the
back and it was just a rubber mat without seats back there and [music] laid me on the floor.
>> And then they leave. These guys are heading out of town with Sean Hanley in the back of that van.
One of the guys sat on top of me, you know, so he stayed screaming at me. He had the gun to my head. I was trying to
pay attention to where we were. I could feel when we picked up speed that we had
made a turn. I was like, "Oh no." My heart sunk. I was like, "We're on an interstate or something." And the guy
stripped me. They threatened to assault me sexually. He put a pill in my mouth and he gave me another.
I said, "What are you giving me?" And he said, "Don't worry about that." And so I
guess I started to maybe drift a little and I started praying. >> So this particular day I got out of
work. As I was traveling, there was a wreck on the interstate. I got stopped behind a white van. I could kind of see
the the driver of the van was starting to get nervous in the mirror. He was looking at me. He decided to get into
the shoulder and speed off, but it didn't sit right with me. So, I got in behind him. I put my emergency lights,
sirens on. Then I hear sirens, and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you, God."
This is where the vehicle exited. It's a dead end onto a dirt road, which had been mud cuz it just rained. Their van
got stuck. That's when they exited the vehicle and kept running. >> The siren stopped and it just sunk
again. And I was like, "What happened? [music] Did I imagine the sirens? What's going on?" And I'm full of anxiety.
>> When you approached the van, you've got your gun drawn. >> Yes, sir. I opened the rear door of the
van and in the van, what I thought was a mannequin moved. Scared me. Startled me.
So I jump back and I shut the door. Said, "Oh my god, things aren't always what they seem.
[music] >> [music] [music] >> I didn't know what was going on with my [music] mom. There was no one really
telling me what was happening. >> Police say the woman was forcefully removed from her home in Lafayette.
[music] >> With her childhood home now a crime scene and her mother, Shondaanda Hanley,
just abducted by armed intruders. [music] Isabella Cumberland found herself confused amidst a crowd of investigators
and forensic analysts. They wanted to go over the fingerprints on the doors upstairs, my phone, and it just kind of
felt like I was another piece of evidence. >> Isabella, then just 14 years old, was
trying to process the sight of the violent kidnapping [music] she had just witnessed at her family's home in
Lafayette, Louisiana on August 6th, 2017. >> As they're driving away with her, [music] did you think that was the last
time you'd ever see her? >> I thought there was a chance. Lafayette investigators and Isabella had
no idea that about an hour after the kidnapping, just across the state near Baton Rouge, Chad Martin, an Iberville
Paris sheriff's deputy, had just pulled over a suspicious white van after a brief pursuit. There were two men
inside. When they pulled into this parking spot, they got stuck in the mud. So, the men
jump out and they take off running. And right behind us is the inter coastal waterway. They jump in and disappear.
And when Martin went to clear that vehicle, he discovered Sha Handley handcuffed and naked in the back.
>> She looked at me and I'll never forget this. She said, "Are you the real police
or are you the one that's going to kill me?" >> And he was like, "You're safe. You're
safe." Just minutes before, Martin was rushing home for Sunday dinner in his squad car after clocking out, unaware of
Shondaanda's kidnapping nearly 60 m away. His biggest worry at that time was his wife's wrath.
>> I heard you were habitually late for dinners. >> I had a tendency >> Uhhuh. >> to be late for everything.
>> Now he had unwittingly made the rescue of a lifetime. >> What's going through your head? I mean,
you were just trying to pull over a couple of guys who looked a little suspicious.
>> I can't really tell you what was going through my head. Almost like I went into
like robot mode and I was just trying to get this woman help. >> Shondaanda told him a harrowing story
that the kidnappers had drugged her and threatened to rape her and kill her >> if not for Chad Martin.
>> Oh, I would be dead. I can't even imagine. But I know it wasn't [music] going to be quick and swift.
>> Martin relayed the news of Shondaanda's rescue to dispatch and it soon reached
Isabella. >> Whenever they told me that she was safe, I felt this relief. >> Law enforcement began to ask questions.
Who were Shonda's kidnappers? And why did they abduct her? But for Shondaanda, there was no mystery who was
behind it. She had said that she believed that her husband is the one that had paid them to
kill her. >> Her estranged husband, Michael Hanley. Shondaanda says that before the
difficult months leading up to the kidnapping, Michael would have been the last person she could have imagined
would harm her. They had met in 2005 through friends in Lafayette at a time when both [music] were single parents
and emerging from failed marriages. He was really catering and just sweet and compassionate.
>> Another thing they had in common, both were in recovery [music] for addiction.
At that time, I had been sober for about 18 years. >> Oh, wow. >> Michael was newly clean and sober. He
had about a year. >> The new couple hit it off and a year later, they were married in Hawaii.
Isabella took an immediate liking to Michael. >> He well was my dad from when I was 2
years old. And so that's how I saw him was really as my dad. [music] >> In 2007, Michael and Shondaanda found
success, channeling their experience in recovery [music] into a new business. >> We're going to provide care and we're
going to meet you where you are. >> Partnering with a doctor to start a chain of addiction treatment [music]
centers. So we wound up opening at one point I think there were 14 centers throughout the south.
>> Eight years later they made a decision. >> We sold the company. >> How much did y'all make on the sale?
>> The two of them, Michael and his partner, we sold the company for $21.5 million.
>> Wow. >> Yeah. >> But their life as happy millionaires didn't last long. Say prosecutors Donald
Ket and Kenny Abear. You know, money and free time with someone with an addictive
personality isn't a great combination. >> Shondaanda was seeing that firsthand with Michael in 2017, less than 2 years
after the sale of their company, when she found a bottle of Adderall with Michael Hanley's name on it.
>> So, what we believed at our treatment center was that use of something like that amphetamine
could open the doors to a world of trouble. So when I found the bottle, it terrified me. And I can remember telling
him, "This could lead to death. [music] This could lead to something devastating."
>> And soon things got even worse when Shondaanda discovered that Michael was seeing another woman.
>> He was having an affair. And all I could think was like, I don't even know who
this man is. >> Shondaa issued an ultimatum. Michael had to go into treatment. But when he
refused to get help, she made a difficult decision. >> I changed the locks and Michael was
locked out of the house and he started to lose his mind at that point. And so after a couple of weeks, he said,
"You're going to regret this." And then that turned into, "I'm telling you, it's going to get
bad." >> The Hanley's life together was falling apart fast. Michael accused Shondaanda
of assaulting him. She was charged but later acquitted by a judge. All while Shonda was begging the authorities to
see that she was the one in danger. >> If Michael wasn't apprehended, he was going to kill me.
As Shondaanda Hanley was recovering in the hospital, investigators were learning the details of her tumultuous
[music] past with Michael Hanley. They knew they had to find him and the kidnappers fast. They started scouring
the last place her abductors had been seen, this canal. There's a fisherman and he reported these two individuals
waiting by him in the water and one of them pointed a gun at him and said, "Be cool."
>> But as the kidnappers had been swimming towards freedom, the canal's unforgiving
current had other plans. >> Behind me at the Inter Coastal Canal is where two bodies were found yesterday.
>> They found them floating in the inter coastal canal drowned. Dead. Dead. They
were later identified as Sylvester Bracie and Arcenio Haynes. >> What did you think when you found out
they were dead? I >> thought I'm not going to have to worry about them hurting me. As sad as that
is. >> While investigators suspected Michael Hanley was responsible for the abduction, proving it might have been
difficult with their main witnesses, the kidnappers, dead. But Handley, it seemed, had made it kind of easy for
them. detectives are running the VIN number on the white van. That VIN number leads them to an Enterprise dealership
in Baton Rouge. Said, well, a few days ago, an individual named Lawrence Michael Hanley came in and rented the
van. And then a couple days before that, he went to Barney's Police Depot, which
is a store that carries specifically police issue merchandise. Handley was seen on store surveillance
cameras as he pulls up and purchases handcuffs. Finding evidence allegedly connecting
Hanley to the kidnapping wasn't difficult, but finding him turned out to be the challenge.
>> I'm asking if Michael's been apprehended and they said no. And so they said we
need to like lay low for a little while. With a fortune at his fingertips, investigators feared he could be
anywhere and a danger to Shondaa once she was released from the hospital. So they came up with a plan of action.
>> We decided on a safe house outside of Lafayette. >> Sid Abear, a former Louisiana sheriff,
was part of the security detail watching Sha 247. >> We had a Lafayette sheriff's deputy in a
marked unit on premises. No visitors, no package deliveries, nothing until further notice.
>> Even in hiding, Shondaanda was feeling relief that Michael was finally being recognized as a threat after living in
constant fear prior to the kidnapping. >> The terror that I was in for those 3 months, the kidnapping was nothing
in comparison. The kidnapping was a blessing. >> What? The kidnapping is what allowed me
to get to a place where people were willing to support me. >> In the beginning, how many people
believed Shondaanda? >> Not many. >> But Shondaanda had found [music] a fierce ally in Christine Mir, her
divorce attorney. Christine knew all too well what Shondaanda had experienced. >> The most dangerous case I have ever
heard about, [music] let alone been a part of. What made it so dangerous? >> Michael Hanley.
He was constantly stalking her, telling her that he knew where she was, [music] threatening her, threatening her
daughter with harm. >> Shondaa called the police several times, but felt she wasn't taken seriously.
Christine helped Shonda secure a restraining order, but says Michael found creative ways to make it
effectively worthless. >> He disguised his voice. He also used an app that picked up dummy numbers that he
used to contact her. So there was no proof that it was him that was actually violating the protective order.
>> And he seemed to be tracking Shondaanda's every move. >> He was able to spy on her through her
own laptop computers, her alarm [music] system. He compromised all of that. Nothing was out of balance.
>> Michael's behavior was growing increasingly erratic. Even though he was the one to initially file for divorce in
the spring of 2017, he soon changed his mind. And Shondaanda says now he was demanding they reconcile or she'd pay a
humiliating price. >> He says some of our private videos are going to go out to people in the community.
>> Intimate videos. >> Intimate videos. Shondaanda struggled over this but knew she couldn't take him back.
>> So videos went out to hundreds of people in the community, my cousins, uncles,
administration at the school, political friends, neighbors. I sat and cried and was sick to my
stomach. I almost didn't stand up. Just when Shondaanda thought she couldn't take anymore, on June 8th, 2017, almost
2 months to the day before the kidnapping, Michael Hanley slipped into her house through the garage.
He was enraged. He rigged of alcohol. He was he was furious. And he had me pinned up against the wall
and [music] I screamed, "Isabella." Well, he put his hand over my mouth and he pulled out a gun. A 9mm.
>> A gun. >> He pulls out a handgun and he said, "If you scream or anybody comes to
interfere, I will shoot you both. I will kill you both. Do you understand me?" >> Shondaanda says that after hours saying
anything she could think of to calm him down, she finally convinced Michael to leave. As soon as he walked out of that
gate, I ran in the house, bolted the [music] door, and I started screaming and crying. When Michael left that day
after he had attacked me, I was 100% positive he was going to kill me. >> Police were called once again, but they
didn't arrest Michael Hanley. >> I can see in your eyes that you're getting emotional. Oh, I felt as though
I was being told that that I was lying and that I was making it up. >> This is why women don't report abuse
because they fear they [music] will not be believed. >> How many times had Shondaanda filed a
report against Michael? >> I believe that the actual reports filed were a couple dozen, if not more.
As far as how many times was there an arrest made, there wasn't. >> Why? A lot of times he was out of state,
sometimes the investigators felt like they didn't have enough evidence to actually go forward and get a warrant
for the arrest. >> After the kidnapping, investigators were confident that this time they had more
than enough evidence to make an arrest. But could they find him in time? >> So somehow Michael is able to track Sha
down to the place that she's seeking refuge. Does Michael Hanley know that the cops
are on to him? Yes, because at some point he tried to charter a private plane and so the pilot essentially said,
"I am not going to be taking you anywhere u because you're a wanted man." >> The pilot reported it to police, [music]
but Michael was long gone. And as he continued to evade authorities, Shondaanda got a text message from a
strange number claiming that Michael had also been kidnapped, saying in part, "Pay the ransom for your husband and pay
us 500 large or we will send him home in pieces." A day later, friends received a shocking
photo of Michael. He was nude, handcuffed, [music] and seemingly injured. >> And he's got blood on it, right? It
appeared to be from Shauna's kidnappers, but investigators knew that couldn't be
true. >> We know that obviously wasn't from them because they're dead at this point.
>> So, Michael is behind these messages. >> On August 11th, 2017, after a 4-day manhunt, detectives finally cornered the
multi-millionaire. Once accustomed to private jets in five-star hotels, he was in this
off-ramp motel in Slidell, Louisiana. We begin with new information on the arrest
of a Lafayette kidnapping suspect. As they took an oddly smiling Michael Hanley into custody, investigators began
sifting through the nearly $10,000 in cash, pizza boxes, and illicit drugs, finding this to-do list. [music] On it
were things like burner phone, hair dye, cash. But its final task was even more ominous, says prosecutor Kenny Abear.
said Shondaanda's safe house was just 35 miles away. >> But on the bottom of that list were the
words, "Finish the job." >> And finish the job would mean, >> in our opinion, he was going to kill
her. >> With Michael Hanley now in jail, Shondaanda and her security team decided
it was finally safe for her to come out of hiding. >> It was time to go home, and that's what
she said. I just want to go home and rebuild my life. But with his track record of evading justice, Isabella was
skeptical that the worst was behind them. >> I remember thinking that it was almost
pointless that he was being arrested. It felt like he had all the power and he was going to keep all the power.
>> Michael Hanley pleaded not guilty to a litany of charges, including conspiracy
to commit seconddegree murder, and prosecutors got to work building their case against him. Anytime you're on our
side of the table, you start thinking what's the defense going to be. We could not figure out what his defense
was going to be. >> There was no question that she was a victim of a kidnapping.
>> But says Kevin Stockstill, the man who Michael Hanley hired to defend him. The
physical evidence doesn't prove his client played a part in any of it. >> Were the van and the handcuffs enough to
convict him? >> I don't think so. That is because Stock Still says there is an explanation for everything. It
started when Michael hired Sylvester [music] Bracie, not to kidnap his wife, but instead, he claims, to move some
furniture. That was the reason Michael rented the van, he says, and made no effort to hide it.
>> Mr. Hanley, you know, goes into the Enterprise uh rental car location with his credit card in one hand and driver's
license in the other. So, you thought you could explain to the jury, "Hey, listen. Nobody who's actually going to
commit this crime is going to go in with their license and ID and buy it themselves."
>> Correct. >> It was all innocent enough, Stock Still [music] says. Until the wouldbe mover
went rogue. Stock Still theorizes Sylvester Bracie saw Michael's desperation to [music] get his wife back
and decided to use it to his advantage. That's when he enlisted Arenio Haynes to
help him kidnap Shonda and hold her for ransom. So, you're thinking the kidnappers
could have wanted to extort Michael to get money from him so they would have kidnapped his wife
>> potentially. >> And of course, he did buy the handcuffs, but Stockstill says he only used them to
stage that fake kidnapping photo. >> So, as he's bound and gagged, he's bound with handcuffs. It was just the latest
example according to Stockstill. >> Hey Shondaanda >> of photos and videos that Michael had
been sending to Shondaanda for months showing him in emotional distress and in one case apparently beaten up in a
misguided attempt to try and win her back. I love you. I love you. Because Michael had he had a proclivity
to try and stage these things to to get, you [music] know, sympathy from Shondaanda.
But as the defense prepared to argue that the kidnappers [music] acted on their own, Shondaanda Hanley made a
damning discovery while cleaning out a remote Mississippi property they owned. Sha starts getting some of her personal
belongings. Well, one of the things that they found was this camera. >> It was a type of camera called Arlo, and
Michael Hanley used it for security. >> When Arlo detects sound and video, Arlo starts recording.
>> That's right. That's right. >> Well, it turns out [music] he accidentally turned the camera on
himself. >> All put together, what did the camera record? Yeah, >> I mean, hundreds of hours. Hundreds of
hours. >> One of the first videos is from 2 months before the kidnapping. Michael is by
himself in a hotel room and is apparently talking to himself. You see him moving around and at some point he
picks the camera up and he puts it in a bag and you hear him say the words, "I'm
going to kill her. I'm going to kill her. Kill her. Kill her." >> Prosecutors believe the her intended to
kill was Shondaanda and that Michael was even more explicit just days later in a
conversation with a friend in the living room of the Mississippi house. [music] They're having beers and they're
discussing the issues that he's having with >> Shondaanda, right? Yeah. She's not going to and
you're not going to. >> The friend later said he didn't recall hearing what Michael said next.
>> That's why she didn't die. >> Michael says that's why she's going to have to die.
So, matter of fact. In yet another clip from just two weeks before the kidnapping, Michael Hanley is
caught with Sylvester Bracie at that property planning how [music] it was the perfect place, prosecutors say, to bring
Shondaanda to torture her and possibly worse. He specifically says, "It's almost impossible [music] for anyone to
get in here." To which Bracie responds, "And it'll be impossible for her to get out."
>> You can't break it. >> I see you. They can't break it. because I guess it happened.
>> I mean, did you think you had a rockolid case before that? >> Yes. Well, what did you think after it?
>> Uh, I thought I must have done something right in the world. >> Then, in a move no one saw coming,
>> God gave us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Stop God. >> I do.
>> Michael Hanley agreed to tell his side of things. [music] While awaiting trial for the kidnapping
of his aranged wife, Shondaanda, Michael Hanley was held in the Lafayette Parish
Correctional Center. But Shondaanda says even though Michael was behind bars, he
continued to harass her. I've received a lot of mail letters while he's been incarcerated.
Got numerous calls. >> Can't they stop him from calling you? >> I guess not. >> On top of that, Shondaanda lived in fear
that Michael just might get out. That's because at one point the defense argued that Michael was suffering from mental
illness and was not guilty by reason of insanity. When Michael was [music] sober, he was a
fantastic individual, you know, very talented, willing to help people. When he was found at the hotel in Slidell, I
mean, there were drugs there. You know, there's no question that he was using. Again,
I don't know the level of his responsibility, but I think it's a combination of um
substance abuse and some mental illness. For prosecutor Kenny Abear, however, it
was a desperate attempt to get Michael released. >> They did it so that they could get some
psychological professionals on the stand to say he needs to be out of jail and he
needs to go to these mental health facilities. Well, we're talking about mental health
facilities that don't have nearly the security that a jail has. Michael's defense team submitted mental health
records showing that he suffered from bipolar disorder complicated by drug addiction, which they say rendered him
legally insane during the time leading up to the kidnapping. Two courtappointed doctors agreed, but
the judge ruled that Michael was competent to stay in trial and must remain behind bars.
>> Once they initially failed to get him out, they withdrew that plea. >> And what did they change it to? They
just changed it to regular not guilty. >> While Michael Hanley's criminal battle
was heating up, in March 2018, his divorce from Shondaanda became finalized. Shondaa was awarded all of
the assets. There was only one problem. >> There is no money. There's no money. You
know, millions of dollars vanished. >> Michael was a very eccentric person. He was obsessed with the collapse of the
American dollar. So much of their money was in gold bars. >> Shondaanda said she had seen gold before
and knew that there was gold somewhere on that property. I believe people actually went out with metal detectors
to try to figure out if he stashed it somewhere. >> No gold was ever recovered. >> So there's all of this money that's
unaccounted for, but we know it's got to be out there somewhere. On top of being left with nothing,
Shondaanda says she suddenly found herself responsible for repaying her now ex-husband's massive debts. How much of
a hole did he leave you in? >> 750,000. I can't comprehend how I'm now in a position where I owe this sort of money.
>> Shondaa felt like it was a slap in the face after enduring so much. But it wasn't all for not. During the
settlement negotiations, Shondaanda's divorce attorney, Christine Mir, had subpoenaed Michael for a deposition. And
surprisingly, he agreed. >> I mean, that's wild. >> It is. >> I can imagine that someone with the
arrogance that Michael Hanley had insisted that he was going to be testifying. It was going to be fine cuz
he is the smartest person in the room. Shondaanda's divorce attorney and the prosecutors had agreed to cooperate with
each other and everyone was interested in hearing what Michael Hanley had to say.
>> It was a risk >> cuz he might go into that deposition and say stuff that really jeopardizes his
criminal case. >> I've never been more nervous in a deposition than that. >> Sir, please. Do you saw me swear the
testimony about to give us the truth? The whole truth. Dressed in a striped prison uniform, Michael answered
questions for 10 hours over 3 days. >> I was hanging on every question. >> I bet you were.
>> Yeah. >> It was a chaotic and hectic time. I was living out of hotels. I've been moving
from hotel to hotel for several months. >> Michael was asked about his relationship
with Sylvester Bracie and the reason he rented that van. >> I had hired him to move furniture. I
rented the van to make a move to move the furniture. He stuck with his original story.
>> He said that he had hired movers in order to move furniture and they went rogue because they thought he had money.
>> I got a phone call. As soon as I answered the phone, I said, "Hello." They screamed um they screamed, "We've
got your mother wife." And um I just remember cuz it was like I got punched every day. It's like one of those
moments when you go into a It's not real. >> But when pressed about the details of
how he first met Bracie, >> I don't recall. Michael claimed he couldn't remember much about the weeks
leading up to the kidnapping. >> I don't remember. [music] I don't know. I don't recall. That's why I'm
hesitating. I don't remember. I don't recall. I don't recall. I don't recall. There are big gaps in my memory. I don't
know. I don't know. The reason that I don't recall is [music] because I was high. I was living like a rockstar. I
was on and off medications during this period of time and I was under the influence of [music] substances.
>> Mental illness is tough. You know, >> but he insisted despite the gaps in memory, there [music] was one thing he
knew for certain. >> I would not kidnap my wife. >> He would cry and say that he loved her
so much. >> I don't remember. >> That he was so sorry. It was that type of manipulation.
>> I have a tremendous regret. During the deposition, Christine pulled that Arlo camera [music] recording in
which prosecutors believe Bracie and Handley were caught talking about the plot to kidnap Shondaanda. The wife
Hanley [music] claimed he loved so much. >> I queued up where one [music] of the
kidnappers was telling Michael, "And you know, if she gets out of line, I won't hesitate to kill her."
And I said, "What kind of movers tell that to you?" And his fear was palpable. And he said, "Oh, I don't know,
Christine. People tell me all sorts of things." >> Michael Hanley withered under
questioning, poking holes in his own defense with his own words. >> The civil attorneys provided us with
those deposition transcripts shortly after receiving them. And with the trial date fast approaching, Michael's defense
attorney feared the worst. >> We were of the opinion that he ran a significant risk of of a conviction.
>> With the walls closing in and hours before the trial was set to start, Michael Hanley indicated he was open to
a deal. >> He would plead, you know, to seconddegree kidnapping. Um the minimum sentence would be 15 years. The maximum
sentence would be 35 years. Prosecutors Donnie Kette and Kenny Abear say there was a lot to take into
consideration. >> The problem with a jury trial is you you almost never know. But I also knew that
there's Shauna Hanley, there's Isabella, you've got victims that have to relive that moment if you go to trial.
>> Ultimately, the decision to take the deal or go to trial was shas. I was so scared that if we went to trial
that it could work out beautifully for him because Michael always lands on his feet.
Once Michael's out, I'm no longer free. In July 2021, all Sha de Hanley wanted was for her ex-husband, Michael Hanley,
to stay behind bars. So, she agreed to accept his plea of guilty to secondderee kidnapping.
>> I didn't want to take any risks. I would rather the plea deal than to take the
chance and go to trial. Less than a year later, on March 24th, 2022, Shondaanda was in the courtroom to
find out what Michael's sentence would be. Isabella was there, too, as was Michael.
>> What was it like to come face to face with him in court? It was so surreal, you know, and I think honestly for both
of us, it was this really strong, powerful emotion that we both felt, but mine was hatred.
>> Hoping to help convince the judge to give Michael the maximum sentence. Isabella chose to give a victim impact
statement. >> What did you say at the hearing? I really kind of told a story about how
difficult it really made my life and how difficult it still makes my life because
I didn't think he knew that it affected me as well as it affected her. >> Shondaanda also had something she wanted
to say to Michael. >> I told him that he wrecked everything and that he destroyed everything and
that how could you like we had like a really we had a good life. We had a good family and we we adored
each other. He was the person I most admired in this world until then. >> Do you think Michael [music] understands
his actions have had an effect on his former wife and stepchild? >> I think that he does.
>> Do you get to sense the guy's sorry? >> I think so. I think he's capable of remorse. Yet, when it was Michael's turn
to speak, instead of a tearful apology, he gave yet another new story. This time, he admitted he did in fact hire
the two men to kidnap Shonda. But he claimed it was all fake and staged so that he could swoop in, save her, and be
the hero. What he really wanted to do was emerge as the white knight who came in and rescued her. It was a way for him
to try to win her back, but he never really intended to hurt her. It was all a big game.
>> In the end, the judge sided with the prosecution and gave Michael Hanley the maximum penalty.
>> A Lafayette man was sentenced today in the 2017 kidnapping case of his aranged
wife. Lawrence Michael Hanley received 35 years in prison for the crime. 35 years
minus five for time served puts him out when he's 79. >> 79. >> Are you okay with that?
>> I'd rather he never get out. >> Are you still afraid even with him behind bars?
>> Oh, yeah. >> That concern is something Isabella shares. >> Do you fear for your safety from Michael
[music] Hanley? >> Yeah, I do. Nothing could stop him. I just see him as a villain, not a good
person. And I'm not sad about it. In my mind, he's changed to a completely different person. So, it doesn't feel
like I've lost my dad. It feels like I've lost a stranger. >> The now 20-year-old college junior
chooses to focus on the valuable lesson that she learned from her mother. >> It's so
powerful to see how my mom handled this situation. She's shown me how she can overcome something [music]
so horrible and turn it into something great and become an even better person out of it.
>> Welcome. Welcome to our house. I'm glad that um you're here. >> Shondaa has found renewed purpose
working with others like her. >> I know the ladies >> she sold property, took out a loan, and
opened two sober living homes dedicated to helping women get back on their feet.
>> We want you to feel comfortable. I want you to feel like this is a safe place
where you can start a new. >> It's been really, really rewarding. And, you know, from my experiences that I've
had, um, the challenges that I've had, I'm able to show them firsthand that we get up, we keep going, we put one foot
in front of the other, and, uh, we [music] will persevere. An important part of moving forward for
Shondaanda has been recognizing those who stood by her. And while she did speak on [music] the phone with Chad
Martin, that officer who saved her, >> she never got the [music] chance to thank him in person until now when we
arranged for them to meet. >> So good to meet you. >> Good to see you again. [music]
>> Yeah, I'm looking at you to see if I can remember. >> I remember. I'm really glad that uh I
was in the right place at the right time to help you. >> Really glad. >> Yeah. >> Thank [music] you. Feel like I owe you
everything. I guess my greatest gratitude in you saving [music] my life is that my
daughter gets to have her mom and have a good life. >> Thank you. Give you another hug. Wow.
48 hours. To miss it would be a crime. >> Were you at all prepared for what happened in this case?
[music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I've never spoken publicly before about
any of this. Never really fully healed from any of what happened. It's like waking up every morning and
having the same phone call. >> 911. What is the address? That's the emergency. >> 911 call came in October 2nd, 2017. It
was called in as a welfare check. >> Something happened at my ex-husband's house over the evening and my two
children came to my house this morning. >> Okay. And what did they tell you exactly?
>> Their dad's gone. Their older sister's gone. >> Where are we, officer? Set the scene for
us. >> This is Benson Street. [music] For me, this is just another welfare check.
But we don't know what we're walking into. >> What is your ex-husband's name? >> Aaron Frier.
>> I learned that he was a good guy. He was a good dad. [music] >> What is your daughter's name?
>> My oldest daughter's name is Ellen Frier. >> How old is she? >> She's 15. >> Ellie was in the marching band. Very
bright, very intelligent. with the older daughter missing. It was very suspicious. [music] We didn't really
know how suspicious it was until we saw what we saw when we got here. >> Left for police. Knock yourself.
[snorts] >> We clear the house and in the living room based on the blood splatter.
There was a serious assault, probable murder that occurred. [music] >> So time was of the essence.
>> Absolutely. Time is always of the essence. You know it. The only information I had was from the patrol
officers and what Sierra was able to tell us on scene. >> I remember waking up in the middle of
the night. >> We know at around 5:30 that Sierra heard the glass breaking. [music]
>> I just started listening, just listening to try and understand what was happening.
I was certain she had heard the assault, but she hadn't realized that. >> Thank God she didn't walk out and
interrupt this thing. >> I was very terrified. [music] Based on what she had seen at the house, she knew
somebody wasn't okay. She went over to the couch. She felt something wet and when she pulled her hand up, it was
covered in blood. [music] I just was in like a state of shock. >> [music] >> Sierra could not locate her father Aaron
and her teenage sister Ellie. We treated it as a missing person's serious assault
until we know otherwise. Everyone was out looking. There was also a potential that this was
what we could refer to as a nobody homicide. And those cases are always tough to work.
As of right now in my family, there are two family members [music] missing. It's still like an open wound every day.
>> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] The quiet city of Medford, Oregon, was
shaken by Maggie Frier's desperate 911 call in the early morning hours of October 2nd, 2017.
>> I don't know where my ex-husband or my oldest daughter is. >> I understand that
>> something happened at the house. Something happened over there. Maggie Frier's ex-husband Aaron Frier
and their 15-year-old daughter Ellen, nicknamed Ellie, were [music] missing. >> My concern is for the both of them. We
don't know where they are. >> You can only imagine all the things that were running around in my mind. I didn't
know who was dead and who was alive. >> When Medford police officer Logan Boyd arrived at Aaron's house, he found that
gruesome scene. >> There was blood everywhere. Blood spattered walls, shattered glass,
and a trail of blood to nowhere. [music] >> See, it starts from there and kind of
goes all the way out in the dirt. >> It goes out towards the carport. >> Yeah, that's not good.
>> This led investigators to notice what also was missing. Aaron Frier's car. Seen here on a neighbor's security
camera leaving the Frier home around 5:30 that morning. We're kind of dealing with what I would
describe as like a two-headed monster. >> An all hands on deck call went out to every Medford police detective,
including Detective Bill Ford. >> We didn't know at that particular time whether this was a missing person case
or a kidnapping. We just didn't know. >> Detective Shannon Reynolds, Bill Ford's
colleague and wife of 20 years, had a different take. In my mind, I automatically assumed that the
15year-old daughter was the victim of a homicide. >> So, a case like this, where did this one
sort of fit in? >> Probably one of the most interesting um heinous um crimes I've seen in my career.
>> Investigators [music] hoped Ellie's younger sister, 11-year-old Sierra, might shed light on
the unknown. Detective Reynolds, who specializes in crimes against children, was tasked with interviewing her. Sarah
wasn't like outright [music] crying. Um, but you could tell she was worried. Who
was she worried about? Um, her dad and Ellie. >> I try not to really think about that
time a lot. But >> Sierra, 18 years old at the time of this exclusive interview, still finds it
difficult to speak about the day her father and sister [music] vanished. I was, you know, just a child and um
I'm sorry. >> The second of three girls, Sierra says she loved being in the middle.
>> I get to be an older sister and a younger sister, so I get like the best of [music] both worlds.
I like the connection and the bonds that we have. >> Sierra says her older sister, Ellie,
loved music and could play many instruments. >> [music] >> a skill Ellie seemed to have picked up
from their father. >> One time he tried to teach me how to play the drums, but I wasn't very good
at it. So, >> in 2016, Sierra's parents, Maggie and Aaron, ended their marriage. Sierra says
the divorce took a toll on her and her sisters. >> It affected us a lot. It was actually
not a very great experience [music] for everyone involved. Sierra says that when her parents
separated, her dad moved into that small two-bedroom house. Maggie and Aaron shared custody and the girls would stay
with their dad every other weekend. [music] In September 2017, Sierra decided to live with her dad full time.
>> I want to be around him and fill my life with him. Then around 5:30 a.m. on October 2nd,
2017, the Frier family was forever broken. Sierra was asleep in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister. [music]
>> I woke up and it was just pitch black. I remember waking up to like a dinging
noise over and over and over again. Then I heard [music] glass shatter and I heard the fight that occurred. The sound
was coming from the living room. >> So then what does she hear? Because she really is sort of an ear witness to all
that happened. She heard her dad yell the f-word. She heard dragging. She heard things being moved.
>> After that, it was completely silent. >> Did she have any idea what was going on
at the time? >> No. She was frightened enough to stay in her room until she felt like it was okay
to come out. When Sierra finally did come out, she found that horrific scene. >> It had to be so scary, though.
>> So scary. >> Sierra told Detective Reynolds that before leaving her room, she had seen
something out of her bedroom window. [music] She could see people walking back and forth.
>> Sierra saw two young men outside of her dad's house. One was a person Sierra didn't know. The second was someone
Sierra immediately recognized. It was Gavin McFarland. >> He was Ellen's boyfriend at the time.
This was her big love. According to her, he was a great guy, but according to my
parents, he was not a great guy. Sierra insinuated this was a little bit of a forbidden love. Dad had forbade Ellie
from seeing Gavin. >> This was the break investigators had been hoping for. >> Once we have a name, Gavin McFarland,
now we got a picture. Now we know who we're looking for. >> The search for Aaron and Ellie Frier and
now Gavin McFarland was on. We probably had 70 75 people out on the streets of Medford.
>> Ellie and Aaron's phones were found in the house. Investigators now began tracking Gavin's phone. We started
getting cell phone tower hits up in the East Medford area. >> Patrol officers immediately headed in
that direction. >> A patrol sergeant locates the car. That was huge. >> As the officers approached Aaron Frier's
vehicle, they realized that something wasn't right. [music] >> We could see there was blood on the
outside of the bumper that had been dripping down. When this trunk is opened up, [music] there is large amounts of
blood. I mean, it is soaked into the carpet, >> but no Aaron and no Ellie. But the car
was still warm, [music] so the police knew they were close. >> We had tons of people up there driving
around looking for them. >> And then just an hour later, investigators couldn't believe who they
found next. their dad's gone. Their older sister's gone. >> Then just 4 hours after that 911 call
reporting her missing, Medford police found Ellie Frier. She was alive, seemingly unharmed, and had been walking
down a busy street with Gavin McFarland. >> They're walking down the sidewalk >> in plain sight.
>> Plain sight. So now we know Ellie's safe, >> which made two things clear. Aaron Frier
was the victim. And based on all that blood in his car and at the house, time was quickly running out to find him. We
had Aaron out there either seriously injured or deceased. >> Walking along with Gavin and Ellie was
someone investigators hadn't been looking for. >> Do you have ID with your name on there?
>> Uh, no I don't. I hardly ever carry my ID around. >> Okay. >> He turned out to be Russell Jones.
>> Have a seat real quick. >> A friend of Gavins. >> I won't make it hard on you.
>> All right. Russell had apparently made an impression on Sierra Frier, says Detective Shannon Reynolds. He matched
the description of that second young man she saw at her father's house that morning.
>> So, she got a really good look at this person. >> Investigators now had a witness placing
Gavin and Russell at the crime scene. Detective Ford says he wasn't sure what to make of Ellie being found with them.
That doesn't mean that Ellie's involved in something. >> But Ford says that she, Gavin, or
Russell might hold the key to finding Aaron. >> Ellie, we're going to walk. >> Gavin and Russell are separated. Go
>> with us. >> Detained and transported to the Medford Police Department for questioning.
>> Hi. Hello. >> Detective Stephanie Jackson was tasked with getting Ellie Frier's account of
the previous 24 hours. So, what have you been up to today? >> I haven't been home and now I'm really
concerned about what's been going on. >> Mhm. >> Where were you? >> How? >> Ellie was saying everything had seemed
normal when she left her father's house for a long walk. >> And you were walking down the street, it
sounds like today. >> Mhm. >> Who were you with? >> I was with my friends. According to
Ellie, she had run into those friends, Gavin and Russell, only by chance, not long before being spotted by police.
And so, everybody is really concerned because we actually don't know where your dad is right now.
>> That's really disturbing to hear. Maybe he was looking for me. >> We are very worried about your dad.
>> So am I. Ellie was saying she had no idea where her father was or what happened at the house. [snorts]
>> So, where did all the blood come from in your house? >> I don't know. >> Around that time, Detective Ford was
preparing to interrogate the other two detainees. Strategically, he decided to let Gavin
wait in a holding cell and began interviewing Russell. >> Spin around in your chair
[clears throat] there and face me so I can talk to you. He's a talker. Very, very talkative. So,
I kind of knew he would have a hard time keeping his mouth shut. >> Yeah, I have nothing to hide. So,
>> Russell was ready to talk, but he wanted something first. A cigarette. >> I talk better when I have a cigarette.
>> Detective Ford took him outside. >> Just kind of smoking and joking is what we call it. The camera didn't record
audio, but Detective Ford says Russell began telling him that he and Gavin had gone over to the frier house early that
morning. >> He told us that he was trying to help get Ellie out of a bad situation.
>> That bad situation, according to Russell, was Aaron Frier. >> And the first thing that he tells us is
he's not a good person. >> Aaron Frier is not a good person. >> Correct. He didn't elaborate further about Aaron,
but Russell was claiming he and Gavin were only there to secretly move Ellie out.
>> So, the next thing I tell him is, "Look, Russell, we got detectives out there
right now pulling video from every house, the alleys. So, if this ain't the truth, you need to be truthful with me
right now." And he looks me square in the eyes and he says, "Well, 95% of it's the truth and there's five 5% of it's a
lie." So, I'm thinking automatically, well, what's the lie here? >> Detective Ford decided it was time for a
new tactic and tried appealing to Russell's conscience. >> I look at him and I'm like, you know,
Russell, I don't want a child to find Aaron out there somewhere, come across something like that.
I said, can you take us to Aaron? He didn't beat an eye. He's just like, "Yeah, I'll take you to him."
The veteran detective wasted no time. >> We load Russell up. He's actually sitting in the seat that you're sitting
in now. >> Okay. >> We got him handcuffed in front. >> He's basically telling us, "Okay, turn
right, turn left." >> They were ascending a rural mountain pass 20 [music] m outside town.
>> And all of a sudden, Russell says, "Stop. Stop right here. >> [music] >> Where did you stop your car back there?
>> Uh, probably right where that rock is. Do you see the body right away? >> You could see the tarp. You couldn't see
any portion of the body >> right here in this green tarp. >> Detectives descended the wooded ravine
and pulled back that tarp, revealing that just [music] 6 hours after that 911 call, they had found Aaron Frier.
>> It was obvious that he was deceased. When you found out your husband was dead, what did [music] you think? Uh uh
>> I was just completely shocked. I didn't know what to think. >> Maggie says the police hadn't yet told
her Ellie was in their custody being questioned or even that she had been found.
>> I was very worried about the fate of my daughter. I had no idea if my daughter
was even alive, too. Maggie [music] then faced the unimaginable task of sharing the news of
Aaron's death [music] with their two younger daughters. The reality was almost too much for then 11-year-old
Sierra. [music] >> I just really didn't want to believe it for a really long time. [snorts]
>> While investigators began processing the scene, Detective Ford drove Russell Jones back to police headquarters. He
says Russell was claiming that all he had done was help dispose of Aaron's remains.
>> He's like, "I'm not going to be a witness against Gavin." >> Russell was saying Gavin was Aaron's
killer, but that Gavin had been provoked. >> His story was that Aaron had a rifle and
was pointed at Gavin. So >> So making it seem like a self-defense because if he had a gun pointed at him.
>> Exactly. >> You can sit in that chair over there. Okay. Back at the station, Detective
Ford returned Russell to the interrogation room while detectives gathered for a briefing.
>> You're listening in on my conversations, aren't you? >> That's when Russell began taunting them
through the camera. >> I can still twist your little mind. Don't piss me off. This, I imagine, got everybody to stop
what they were doing and gather around the monitor and watch this. >> That's what you do.
>> So, we can play it the easy way or the hard way. >> He would go into these rants and making
demands and stuff. >> Gavin and Ellie are to be released to me. >> And Russell was claiming he still hadn't
been totally truthful. and Mr. Ford. You want the whole story? Cuz I did miss a few parts.
>> For her part, Ellie [music] was now saying Russell was the one responsible. >> I I believe that Russell's the one that
killed my father. >> All right. >> With the conflicting claims, Detective Ford decided it was finally time to
interview Gavin McFarland. I know I'm in serious trouble, aren't I? >> Well, we need to figure out what
happened. >> Gavin started by saying how volatile Aaron Frier could be. >> He's threatened my life. He's like, "No,
stay away from my daughter. I'm going to kill you." >> One month earlier, Gavin [music] had
called the police, claiming Aaron had shown up at his house, banging on his door, threatening to kill him.
>> I don't know what caused him to not like me anymore. Detectives discovered at least one
reason, Gavin's age. He was 19 years old, dating 15-year-old [music] Ellie. And making things worse, Gavin was now
claiming Ellie was going to have his baby. >> She told you she was pregnant? >> I've known for about 2 weeks now.
While Gavin was admitting to having a sexual relationship with a minor, itself a crime, he was accusing Aaron of
[music] being the one who had been abusive to Ellie. >> The anger had just been building up
because of the things Ellie had been telling me. >> Mhm. >> Try to protect Ellie.
>> My possible trial. Gavin was claiming he and Russell had gone to the house that morning. But
unlike what Russell [music] said, that Aaron had not confronted him with the gun. Instead, Gavin was saying Aaron had
been in the living room asleep on the couch and that Gavin had crept in armed with a baseball [music] bat. Then Gavin
made a startling admission. >> I just acted on instinct. >> Okay, tell him what happened.
I just swung the bat downwards. It was dark. I couldn't see. >> How many times do you think you hit him?
>> Like five or six, maybe? >> Five or six times. >> Yeah. >> The physical evidence [music]
would back up Gavin's story. Aaron had died from blunt [music] force trauma to his head, and a bat was recovered from a
tree branch above where his remains had been found. So this is aluminum bat discoloration.
You can see it's red here. This is all blood. >> Testing would confirm the blood was
Aaron's. >> And he demonstrated for us in the interview room how hard he swung it down
on Aaron's head. >> I went over the shoulder the first time and then I started going up above my
head. >> I mean there were five distinct blows to his head. >> Explaining that dinging sound. Sierra
Frier had heard. >> I fractured his skull, caved his skull into his brain. >> I'm I'm really sorry.
>> And investigators soon found evidence that Aaron's murder had been meticulously plotted for weeks. They
discovered notes, [music] some in Russell's handwriting, at Gavin's house. We found several murder plans and they
actually had plan A, plan B. There were multiple plans and I think ultimately they come up with the bat.
>> And based on what you could see from the planning, who's the mastermind of all of
this? >> Ellie, believe it or not. Detective Ford says he believes it was Ellie who wanted
Aaron murdered, pointing to messages Ford [music] says she sent to Gavin. In one, she says, "We need to make sure
he's dead by the time we leave his house." And in another, she asked, "You want to kill him now, [music] don't you?
And then you can kill him in less than a minute, right?" >> She's pushing it all.
She wants to be with Gavin. She wants to be out from underneath the authority of
her father. >> Ellie wanted me to kill him, but I didn't want to. [music] >> Detective Ford says Ellie might have
made up those abuse allegations, possibly [music] as a way to motivate Gavin to kill her
father. >> She is very manipulative. From me watching that entire interview, she lied.
>> Are you Ellie? No. >> Then lied. >> How old are you? >> 18. >> And lied. >> How did Gavin get in the house this
morning? >> He wasn't in the house. [music] >> After several hours, Ellie did eventually admit some of her role, even
saying that she had handed Gavin the murder weapon. >> And what do you say to Gavin?
>> I said, "I'm ready when you are." >> Okay. What did you mean by that? >> When you do this, we're in it together.
What did you mean when you said when you do this? >> Kill my dad. [music] >> With evidence they all conspired to kill
Aaron. Gavin, Russell, and Ellie were charged with his murder. [music] From the day after she was arrested,
there was this narrative and her side was never told. [music] Until now, the story that the state has,
why is it the right one? My daughter left to go stay at my ex-husband's house for the weekend and
never came home. >> I imagine [music] that moment haunts you still. >> Of course it does. My child never came
home. >> After hours of worry, [music] Maggie Frier was finally told her 15-year-old
daughter Ellie had been located. I got a phone call from a police officer that they found [music] her.
>> But worry morphed into anger when she was then told Ellie had been arrested for her father's murder.
>> Go and take a seat. >> And I said, "So, you've had my daughter in your custody interrogating her, and
you never once called me to let me know so I could maybe get her some representation."
Alisa Kaplan eventually became one of Ellie's attorneys. She says the narrative about Ellie Frier has been
wrong from the very beginning. In this case, she was made out to be the mastermind or something. You know, she
planned all of this when she was 15 years old and they were 19 and 22. >> She was the manipulator.
>> She was the manipulator, right? And that this was all because of her relationship
with an older man. But Kaplan [music] says this crime actually happened because of the alleged abuse Ellie
suffered at the hands of her father, Aaron. >> She was sexually abused, emotionally
abused, and physically abused. >> Abuse that Ellie described in her police interrogation.
>> He used to be a good father, but he started getting abusive about 3 years ago.
I picked out a bunch [music] of things, but >> reading from the case file, Kaplan
recounted several allegations of molestation [music] and abuse. Warning, the following may be disturbing
to hear. >> Her father would grab at her breasts. He told her to give in to him.
>> And he tried to take my clothes off and I slapped him away. I was trying to pull.
>> He would masturbate on top of her when he thought she was sleeping. felt so dirty
and so ashamed of myself. >> He pushed her downstairs, called her [ __ ] idiot, stupid, [ __ ]
shamed her. >> And you would pin me up against the wall and you would call me those names.
>> And then when he would get drunk, it would all get worse. >> As a police [music] report shows, three
of Ellie's friends told investigators that Ellie said her dad abuses her. Ellie shared that her dad was rough on
her and emotionally and physically abused her. And Ellie said her dad mentally and verbally abused [music]
her. But Ellie admits she never told her friends about the sexual molestation. And neither Ellie nor her friends told
the [music] police about any kind of abuse before her father's murder. And as far as allegations of abuse, [music] was
there any evidence whatsoever that your detectives could find to back up what Ellen Frier was saying happened to her?
>> No, there was not. >> Detective Ford says with Aaron's death, the possibility of proving abuse may
have died with him. >> We can't go to Aaron and ask Aaron, "Were you abusing your daughter?"
We may never know the truth. if she told her mom. Did she tell her mom ahead of time?
>> Have you thought about having a conversation with your mom about that? >> No. I'm horrified to even talk about it.
>> Who have you talked to about your dad masturbating? >> I told Gavin about it, but that's it.
>> Ellie [music] told Detective Jackson that the first time she had told Gavin was 2 days before he bludgeoned her
father to death. Cuz I know this is hard to talk about. >> I know. >> Why me? Why did he do it to me? I don't I have
no idea what he's done to my sisters. >> I see a teenager who would do anything to survive and to protect her sisters.
Detective Shannon Reynolds says 11-year-old Sierra was asked if there were any problems at home.
>> She actually only had good things to say about her father. >> When Detective Reynolds interviewed the
youngest Frier daughter, she recalled the last conversation she [music] had with Ellie minutes after their father's
murder. She had said that Ellie had woken [music] her up and she said she was leaving and that she was leaving because
mom and dad were abusive. >> Before Reynolds could say anything, the 8-year-old gave her opinion on the
matter. And she told me, "My mom and dad were not abusive." Both of Ellie's sisters told Reynolds that what Ellie
had called abuse was actually their parents disciplining her for sneaking around with Gavin. cuz [music] they took
her electronics away and they yelled at her. >> What do you say to that? >> Yeah.
>> Well, they were younger, right? This is actually very common in families where
there's abuse that there's one child who takes on the majority of it and want to
protect the others in the family. [music] >> You know, you you describe her as this
protective older sister, but yet she left them there at the house. How is that [music] protecting them? Yeah. And
I think, you know, those are things that Ellen will live with for the rest of her
life. [music] And she clearly understands how much damage she has caused her sister.
Detective Ford says that with no evidence to back [music] up Ellie's abuse claims, he remains suspicious that
she may have made it all up to manipulate [music] Gavin. Seen here with Ellie on a store
security camera hours [music] after the murder. And it turns out Ellie was never
pregnant. >> I think you got to look at it two ways. Maybe she thought she was pregnant, or
maybe she's using that to influence Gavin to kill her dad. >> Ellie's legal team says Ellie [music]
did think she was pregnant, which is why she bought a pregnancy test while at the
store. Investigators say it's clear Ellie [music] Frier has an issue with the truth. She lied during that interview
for no reason. >> Kaplan says much has been made of the many lies Ellie told during her police
interrogation. >> As a parent, [music] we all we all know that our kids sometimes do that.
>> But Kaplan says the real focus should be on the hours and hours and hours Ellie
spent in that interview room. >> I have the right to remain silent. >> She asked to not talk. She said, "I want
to remain silent." Right. She was there for 10 hours straight. >> But with your wishing to remain silent,
it's really difficult to kind of get to the bottom of all of that. >> Then let's talk.
>> A minor without a guardian or attorney. Is it normal to keep a 15-year-old in an
interrogation room for 10 hours like that? >> Yeah. I mean, there's no law against it.
So, we gave her breaks. >> I found blankets. There was times where she laid on the
floor and slept. >> Kaplan [music] says that although it may have been legal in Oregon, it wasn't
right. And look, police have their jobs to do. I get it. I just think the rules are really different [music] when you
have a kid. And in that, she looks like a kid. She's acting like a kid. She's in fear like a kid would be.
A kid who [music] Kaplan says was taken advantage of by someone she calls another abuser. 19-year-old Gavin
McFarland. A grown man reaching over to a 15-year-old girl who was so vulnerable.
No matter what her text messages [music] said, no matter what her involvement was, I don't even understand how you
don't look at that as him being the controller. Detective Reynolds says she saw some of
that controlling behavior on display [music] in letters Gavin wrote to Ellie after they were arrested.
He was saying that she needed to be sure to say that her dad was abusing her and
he was [music] telling her, "We're going to take this to a jury and we're going to win the jury over."
And the way to do that is to cry. Make sure you cry. >> [music] >> I've given everything I can and [music]
when this goes to court I would like to be tried as an But there would be no trial. In January
of 2019, a little more than a year after her father's death, Ellie Frier took a plea deal. [music] How did you feel
about that decision? >> I didn't like it cuz I'm pretty sure that she did it cuz she was scared. I
don't think she wanted to go to court. >> Ellie Frier pleaded guilty to an adult
charge of conspiring [music] to murder her father, Aaron. I'm the first light to say that I'm
sorry for all the pain that I've caused to others in this whole resident. >> The deal was brokered by a different
defense attorney. [music] According to court documents, that attorney wrote that Ellie Frier's codefendants, Gavin
McFarland and Russell Jones were going to be testifying against her and say that she was the mastermind behind all
of this. It was her idea from the beginning. Ellie's text messages would have been used against her at trial,
too. Elisa Kaplan began working on Ellie Frier's behalf in 2024. >> I run the criminal justice reform
clinic. We are looking at Ellen's case mostly because we believe that she has an excessive sentence.
>> And what is her sentence? >> 25 years. McFarland and Jones also took plea [music] deals with Gavin McFarland
pleading guilty to murder and murder conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Russell
Jones entered a no contest plea to conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 15 years. Kaplan is
fighting to reduce Ellie Frier's sentence. She says Ellie should not have been sentenced to 10 more years than
Jones for the same crime. >> She was 15. He was 22. And her sentence is so much bigger than
his. the idea that Ellen is the master manipulator. I mean, she's a 15year-old. I mean, don't they bear more
responsibility because they're the adults? >> I don't I wouldn't agree with that.
Ellie is absolutely just as responsible as Gavin, except Gavin was the one that took and held the bat in his hands.
>> Detective Shannon Reynolds isn't as certain as her husband about Ellie Frier's role. I go back and forth. The
mastermind of it I initially thought was Ellie. Then reading the letters from Gavin that he wrote to Ellie telling her
what she needed to say. Then I started to think maybe Gavin was the mastermind of all this. I go back and forth.
>> Ford says regardless of who crafted the plan, all three are responsible in the
eyes of the law >> because without her this wouldn't have happened. Without Gavin, this wouldn't
have happened. I doubt without Russell it could have happened. >> I want to be very clear. She was
involved. She participated. She was a co-conspirator. No doubt. Right. She takes full
accountability for her role in this crime. Ellie Frier, now 23, has been serving her sentence in a juvenile
detention center. In December of 2026, she'll be moved to an adult prison. And she recently earned two master's
degrees. one in psychology and another in justice studies, >> which by the way is not that easy to do
when you're in prison. She's really incredible. I'm very proud of her. I've always been proud of her after what she
went through. >> Aaron's dead. Who's going to speak out for Aaron? >> Sierra Frier will. My dad was a kind man
who loved me and my sisters and always tried to fill my life with joy. He was a great father to me. He goes
with me wherever I go. >> Sierra has joined the National Guard, something she says her father always
wanted for her. >> It's mind-blowing that that the little girl I interviewed is now grown up. The
fact that she's joining the National Guard lets me know she didn't let this, you know, derail her life. A life Sierra
has had to live without her father, whose memory has been marred by those abuse allegations. A 48 hours producer
asked Sierra about them. >> Ellie claims that your father abused her. What do you have to say to that?
>> Uh, I don't really want to talk about that just cuz I have my own feelings about it. Sierra is just as guarded when
it comes to her thoughts about her sister Ellie, though the two have maintained a relationship over the
years. It's very hard to explain because a lot of people wouldn't understand. I've got my own feelings about her.
>> But Sierra's feelings about her father are very clear. >> I love him and I'm so sorry for
everything that happened. I have faith and I have hope that one day, you know, we'll meet again.
[music] 48 hours. Don't miss an episode. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> You go back to the first days after the
murder. This might have been a dispute [music] between teenagers. It might have involved a girl. It might have involved
drinking. Whoever knew about John's killing kept this secret for over 40 years. >> That's one small step for man, one giant
leap for mankind. >> September 26th, 1969 is the day that changed the lives of Bill and Neville
[music] and McCabe forever. I I don't think I've had a whole night's sleep since it's happened.
>> If it's not too painful, can you tell me about his last day? >> Went to a dance, his second dance.
>> 15-year-old John McCabe was looking forward to going to the Knights of Columbus dance that evening. took a
shower, scrubbed his hair, put his father's after shave on. He didn't shave, but he put his father's after
shave on. Oh, yeah. He got all spruced up. 11:00 I started looking out the window.
That's when the dance closes. He should be home by midnight. So, I went down to the dance and checked
the road, screaming out the window, "John. John." No, John. I started praying at that
point. >> The day after John McCabe went missing, three young kids were cutting through a
vacant lot when they made a horrifying discovery, which was the body of John McCabe.
He had been bound and gagged and tied with rope. After John's body was found, Bill
McCabe, a pillar of strength, had to do the unspeakable. That was identify the body of his dead son.
>> Never forget it. People keep talking about closure. You can't shake it. >> He then had to go home and inform his
family of what had happened. >> Bill said, "Honey, our son's dead." Well, I was a senior in high school.
>> Were you fearful? >> Yes. They hadn't caught the people that killed my brother.
>> Did you think when you looked at kids in your classes, maybe it's him, maybe it's
him? >> Maybe it was them. Maybe they knew something. How could they not know anything?
>> Without physical evidence, without a witness, this case remained unsolved for
several years. And several years became decades. >> You ready? >> This is it. I pray every day justice
will be served. >> There was only one way this case was going to be solved. >> Do you solemnly swear?
>> And how old were you in 1969? >> 17. >> And that's if someone came forward and
talked. >> How do you know how John McCabe died? I was there. [music] >> [music]
[music] [music] >> It took almost every ounce of strength left in his 85year-old body to get to
the witness stand, but Bill McCabe waited 43 years for this day and the start of this trial in January 2013.
>> Good morning, Mr. McCabe. Do you remember September 27th, 1969? >> Yes, sir. >> How old was John at that day?
>> He was 15 years, 6 months, and two weeks. >> I always visualized him as being a big
shot somewhere. John Joseph McCabe, my son JJ, you know, but I never got to see any of those things.
In the fall of 1969, two men had just landed on the moon. >> Beautiful. Just beautiful.
>> Thousands had just crashed at Woodstock. And John McCabe, 15 years, 6 months, and
2 weeks old, was living with his family in Tukesbury, Massachusetts. >> I think we have a right to be proud of
him. Yeah. John's father, Bill, was an engineer. His mother, Evelyn, worked at the school library. His sisters,
Roberta, who was six, and Debbie, who was 17, remember a brother who was always busy doing what brothers do.
>> It was pretty interesting. You open the closet door and your closet's filled with grasshoppers.
>> I just remember his hands were always dirty, like with oil or grease or a frog
in his hand. >> So, you brought home a goose once, too. >> Oh, yeah. Canadian goose. Big sucker.
>> It's fun to watch you talk about this because your eyes light up. I mean, you
have very fond memories of those days. >> Yeah. >> Evelyn holds on to any reminder of her
son. >> I have John's money. >> I can't spend it. >> And you've had it all these years.
>> Yeah. 45 years. Every now and then I the smell's gone off of it now. it. I almost
put it in the casket with him and then I thought, "No, I'll just keep it with me
and when I see him again, I'll give it to him." >> When she last saw John, Evelyn gave him
permission to go to that dance at the Nights of Columbus Hall. >> I let him go. I let him go out the door.
I shouldn't have. The next day, police came to the house and took Evelyn's husband to the
basement to talk. >> They didn't want me to know anything. >> But you heard? >> I heard them.
>> Evelyn got on her knees and pressed her ear to a vent in the bathroom. This is where I could hear everything
that was going on down SA. >> The police were telling her husband John's body was discovered in a vacant
lot in the neighboring gritty city of Lel. >> Well, what did you hear? >> I heard that he was tied up and there
was tape on [music] his eyes and his mouth. I heard a lot. I cried. I laid there and cried.
>> A huge investigation was launched by the lol Tukesbury and Massachusetts state
police. >> What evidence did they collect at the scene? >> The rope that was used to tie John up.
Uh tape that was used to tape his eyes and his mouth. Um all of his clothing. Um his shoes.
Jerry Leone was the local DA who years later took on the case. Today he's a partner in the law firm Nixon Peabody.
>> There was forensic evidence, but it wasn't really meaningful because it you couldn't tie it to anyone in particular.
>> But the case looked promising at first. A witness had spotted a car near the crime scene that night. I believe the
way he had described it was a 1965 Chevy Impala colored uh plum on maroon. >> Then another tip led police to a
schoolmate of John's, 16-year-old Mike Ferrer, who says he barely knew John. >> I probably seen him like a handful of
times in my life. I don't, you know, I didn't really, he wasn't a friend. Ferrer and his friend Nancy Williams
were questioned because they had picked up John when he was hitchhiking on his way to the dance. I picked him up and I
gave him a ride to the corner and I never saw him again. >> Ferrer told police that while the dance
was underway, he left Nancy and met up with his best friend, Walter Shel. >> Me, Walter, and Bob Ryan took a ride to
LOL try to get some beer. >> They were in Walter Shel's car. It was maroon and it was a 1965 Chevy Impala.
Police searched it but found no evidence. Still, Walter Shel was now a person of
interest. He was brought in for questioning and later polygraphed five times. The test showed he was lying in
all vital areas of the questioning. >> If you read the reports now, you start seeing Ferrer and Shelly, Shelly and
Ferrer. Ferrer was questioned multiple times. >> I know where they were going. Not
totally stupid. >> But Ferrer wasn't helping himself. At one point, while joy riding with some
friends, he suddenly blurted out that he killed John. >> I was 16. We're drinking, joking, and I
said, "Yeah, I did it." They knew I was joking. I was a joker. Leone says police
were not amused, but there was no way to corroborate what Ferrer said. >> Without physical evidence, without a
witness statement putting him at the scene, the Ferrer lead kept drying up. >> There were dozens of other people police
investigated, other teens, local drug dealers, and pedophiles. Detectives worked this case hard for two years
while Bill McCabe worked on a record of his son's life. I wasn't trying to be an author or
anything like that. I I I was just looking at ways to hold on to him, keep his keep his memory.
>> He also tried to make sure the police never forgot his son. >> I was always on the phone talking to the
police. I'd be up in the middle of the night. She'd be saying, "What the hell are you
doing? I'd get back to bed." >> Despite Bill's persistence and the intense police effort, there were no
arrests. >> Shelley and Ferrer went into the service in 1970. So, the following year, the two
of them left the area. >> And the McCabe family was left without any answers for decades.
>> [music] [bell] [music] >> This is a little compass so he can find his way home.
With each passing season, John McCabe's case grew colder. But his mother kept asking the most painful questions about
how he died. I tried to strangle myself just to visualize what it felt like. I wondered, did he call for me?
What kind of a mother was I? I wasn't there for him. >> For a time, Evelyn set a place for John
at the dinner table. His absence was a constant presence in the house. You can't just do something
wrong and not have to pay for it. >> The case stalled for some 30 years until November 2000. Sean and I went just
about everywhere. You know, >> when Jack Ward, a childhood friend of John's, made good on a decades old
promise to Bill McCabe. >> He would say, "Jackie, you hear anything about John? You keep your eyes open. Let
me know." I says, "If I ever hear anything, Mr. McCabe, you know, I'm going to tell you."
>> Ward had been at a cookout at this house in Tukesbury where he ran into a kid
from the old neighborhood, Mike Ferrer. This photo was taken that day. >> We're all sitting around drinking and
that's when he just blurted out, "I know who killed John." And he said it to me again, "I know who killed John." And you
know, finally I said, "Who?" He says, "Walter." I said, "Walter Shel." He says, "Yeah,
>> Walter Shelly." >> I said, "What would be Walter's motive to kill John?" You said Marala because
of Mara. >> Mara Shiner. Ward said she was Walter Shel's girlfriend back then, but he said
the trouble was Mara also seemed to like John McCabe. And by all accounts, Walter
Shel was one very jealous young man. The footage you see was taken a few years after the murder. Ward admits he sat on
the information for a while, worried about how to tell Bill McCabe. You go knock on somebody's door and say,
"Hey, I know who killed your son. You better have it right." >> I was shocked when he told me. So, I
scribbled it on a piece of paper and I put it in the Bible on the page beginning the book of John so I wouldn't
forget it. And I immediately called the police. But it took many more calls from Bill
McCabe and three more years for police to show up at Ferrer's door. It was now 2003. Ferrer worked as a forklift
operator, lived in Salem, New Hampshire, and Nancy Williams, his friend back in the day, was now his wife.
>> Mike wouldn't hurt a fly. Never. I know he wouldn't. Ferrer says he remembers
the cookout conversation with Jack Ward very differently. Jackie went and told them I said Walter Shelley killed him. I
never said that. And at this cookout, you know, I already had a few drinks and he's running his mouth. Shel did it.
Shel did it. And this went on all afternoon and finally I got sick of hearing that. I says, "He probably did
it." Next thing I know, 3 years, four years later, I think the cops down my house wanted to talk to me about John
McCabe. >> Ferrer also denies discussing the jealousy motive with Ward. >> That's his theory. I never said that.
>> But again, there was no corroborating evidence. So again, the case stalled. >> Well, what did they tell you about the
investigation? >> It's going fine. It was always going fine. >> And how long did they tell you that?
And you know what? It was sitting on a freaking shelf. >> But the police had not forgotten John
McCabe. >> All right. Thanks. >> In January of 2007, 37 years after the murder, Jerry Leone was sworn in as
Middle Sex County District Attorney. The lower police department took it upon themselves to visit me weeks after I'd
been elected to say, "We'd actually like you to focus on this one and and take a
hard look at it with us." >> Investigators had gone back over the files and a name jumped out at them in
Mike Ferrer's latest interview with police. In recounting the night of the murder, Ferrer said he was with Walter
Shelley, but this time he added a name and [music] said the other guy with them was Allan Brown.
>> Edward Allen Brown's name surfaces as someone who we're going to focus on. >> Edward Allen Brown was 17 and lived not
far from the McCabes when John was killed. He had long since moved away, but when
police tracked him down, he said he knew nothing about the murder. Never even heard of it. So, how likely is it that
he would never even heard of the murder of John McCabe in a town the size of Tukesbury?
>> I'd say curious at the time. >> And police got a call from Brown's wife that was even more curious.
>> His wife told police that she thought he was lying. his wife said that she thought he was lying.
>> Right. Carolyn Brown indicates to police that 20 to 25 years earlier, her husband
had told her about an evening um where he was involved in a young man being killed.
>> But even that wasn't enough. It was the same old story. There was no corroborating evidence and
no real movement in the case until 2011 when Detective Linda Coughlin was assigned to find the killers.
>> You think this case really took off when you met Detective Linda Coughlin? >> Yes, definitely.
>> Why did you feel that way? >> Because of her attitude. She She said, "I'm going to get them."
And she did. Detective Coughlin zeroed back in on Edward Allen Brown. He was retired from
the Air Force and living in New Hampshire. Coughlin interrogated Brown just twice. But when Brown learned he
failed a polygraph, he suddenly broke down. He confessed that he was there when Walter Shelley and Mike Ferrer killed
John McCabe. Why? >> Lowel police brought in the McCabes and told them Brown's story about John's
final hours. >> My dad started crying. He killed over on the table. On April 15th, 2011, nearly 42 years
after John McCabe's body was found in that vacant lot, his father's perseverance finally paid off.
>> Mr. McCabe held our feet to the fire. He never let us forget John McCabe's murder.
The DA's office announced the indictments of Edward Allen Brown for manslaughter and Michael Ferrer and
Walter Shelley for firstdegree murder. Two names known to police since day one. Two names also gathering dust here in
John's Book of Mourners. >> The murderers [music] came to the wake and they came to the funeral.
>> [music] >> Why do you think Edward Allen Brown confessed? Chat now on Facebook and X.
[music] It would take almost 2 years to bring the men accused of killing John McCabe
to trial. Two more years the Mabes would have to wait. Do you solemnly swear the
testimony? >> January 18th, 2013. >> Would you please be seated? >> Edward Allen Brown was called to testify
against his one-time friend, Mike Ferrer, the first defendant to go on trial. >> Do you see Michael Ferrara in the
courtroom today? >> Yes, over there. >> Mr. Brown, >> for the first time, Brown publicly
shared the details of the night John died. Brown says he was at home watching television when Mike Ferrer and Walter
Shelley pulled up to his house. >> They wanted me to go with them to help them. >> Helped them do what?
>> I didn't know at the time until I got in the car and we left. >> Brown testified they were on their way
to the Knights of Columbus Hall when he learned of their plan. >> They said they wanted to go u find this
kid that had been uh you know messing around with Mara to teach him a lesson. And how did you know Mara Shiner?
>> That was Walter's girlfriend. Michael noticed John McCabe was thumbming and he said, "There he is."
Then we pulled up next to John. Michael got out and grabbed him and uh pushed him in the back seat where I was.
Michael was facing back um at John trying to to to smack him and John had his arms up to try to to stop him from
doing that. We went under the spaghetti belt bridge. >> Brown says they drove up a dirt road to
the vacant lot and pulled over >> and we got him outside the car. >> Who pushed John out of the car?
>> I did. I thought they were just going to slap him around. >> What happened next? Then Michael and
Walter uh wrestled John, tripped him up and got him on the ground. >> Brown testified that he and Shelley held
John McCabe down while Ferrer tied him up. >> Michael tied his ankles, then went
around and tied his his uh wrists together. Then he took another piece of rope around his ankles and attached it
up to his neck. They had put tape on his mouth. John's uh squirming, wiggling, trying to get out. He's lying on his
belly uh with his legs up in the air and his um his head turned sideways. Then they [clears throat] said um
that this will teach you to uh to mess with Marlor anymore and we got in the car and left.
>> Brown says they drove around drinking beer for a while. Then um I I told him that we we should
go back and let him go. Brown says they eventually returned to the lot. >> Michael and Walter got out of the car
and went over to him. They were there for about 30 to 45 seconds and they came quickly back to
the car. We started to drive off and one of them said that he wasn't breathing. >> John McCabe had died of strangulation.
I wonder I wonder what he thought of that night. >> Then they uh they brought me home.
>> What did you do? >> I remember I think I cried. Brown says he kept the murder a secret
for 41 years because he was afraid of Michael Ferrer. >> Michael said if anybody talks to anybody
about this, I'll kill him. Alan Brown's a freaking liar. And I mean, they know that. According to the prosecutor, he's
been a Iraq in Afghanistan five years. Maybe he's got something wrong in his head.
>> They talk about these people that give false confessions. Either he did it with somebody else or by himself or he
is really a messed up human being. >> My sense of Edward Brown was he was easily led.
>> Eric Wilson, Michael Ferrer's attorney, believes that police pressured Edward
Allen Brown because he was someone they could force into confessing to a crime he did not commit. They also offered him
a deal, no jail time. Edward Brown did not walk into LOL Police Department headquarters and say, "Look, I got to
get this off my chest." After being interrogated by trained detectives over the course of many days, he was faced
with the threat of spending the rest of his life in jail. Uh, or he could tell the police what they wanted to hear.
>> Walter Shel and Mike Ferrer picked you up at your house at 10:30, right? >> Yes.
>> The question that I had to answer for the jury is why would he tell them that
if he didn't do it? >> Did you think you could do that? That's a tough cell. >> It was a tough cell. Um, but
Ed Brown gave me a lot to work with. >> You were fed information. It was a dirt lot, right?
>> Yes. >> Over the course of two days, Ferrer's attorney grilled Brown relentlessly.
>> And in your four or five trial prep sessions >> until Brown admitted that the
prosecution had fed him parts of his story. >> You were fed information that it was
near a rare tower, right? >> Yes. And you're being told that Shelley was jealous over Mara Shiner, right?
>> Yes. >> There are certain pieces of information that an investigator may provide to
someone who they're interviewing to see whether or not they know anything about that, to see whether or not it jogs
their memory. >> Well, but couldn't that also be a way of telegraphing to the witness what you
want him to say? Well, in this case, that didn't have to happen because Brown was the one who talked about the rope,
the tape, the binding of John. However, Brown got his story. Wilson claims it cannot be true because it does not fit
the evidence. In fact, in the 1969 police reports, detectives noted that they were unable to find any evidence of
a scuffle. There was no suggestion anywhere around John McCabe's body or the scene that
that struggle described by Edward Brown ever took place. >> Why would Edward Allen Brown lie and
implicate himself so directly in what happened unless it was the truth? >> Your testimony has not always been
10:30, has it? >> Wilson thought it was not enough to try to discredit Brown. He also had to punch
holes in the alleged motive, jealousy over a girl. He'll do it by calling that girl.
>> My name is Marla Shiner >> to the witness stand. >> That you would have known each other
from being Mr. Brown, you've lied under oath when you're scared, right? >> Yes. >> You've lied under oath when you're
nervous, right? >> Yes. >> You've lied under oath when you're frightened, right?
>> Correct. >> Prosecutors had a problem with their star witness, Edward Allen Brown. He
seemed to wither under strong cross-examination from the defense. >> You still can't get your facts straight,
can you? >> No. So, prosecutor Tom O'Reilly called Detective Linda Coughlin to counter
accusations that she'd forced Edward Allen Brown to confess and fed him details.
>> At any point, did you feed him information as to the investigation? >> Never.
>> But Eric Wilson says Coughlin also had tunnel vision and ignored evidence of other suspects. There were a number of
investigative reports and material that you either overlooked or didn't even know about. True.
>> I don't know what you're referring to. >> How about Richard Santos? >> Richard Santos was flagged in this
Tukesberry police report as a suspect in the McCabe murder in 1974. Santos was arrested for committing a
crime eerily similar to John McCabe's murder. This young woman was abducted on Route
38. Her feet were bound, her hands were tied behind her back, her mouth was duct
taped, and her eyes were taped shut. All of the facts that surround Santos as a possible subject lead you to be
suspicious. But there was never anything tying him to mode of opportunity means.
>> Information on Richard Santos. Still, the judge allowed the jury to hear about
Santos and another suspect. >> With respect to Robert Mley, >> Robert Mley, a local 25year-old who
reportedly knew both Ferrer and Shelley and was suffering from mental illness. >> He was labeled long before you were
assigned this case as a strong suspect. Right. There is a report that uses the word for
him strong suspect and the very same report mentions Mr. Ferrer as a prime suspect.
>> But it's how Mori became a strong suspect that makes him so interesting. Police learned about him shortly after
the crime from his own brothers. But more his own brothers went in and said that they thought he might have been
involved in it. Yeah, they thought he might have. >> Former DA Jerry Leone says Morley's
brothers were mistaken. >> I think what happens in matters like this is people will say, um, sure, you
should take a look at X or Y because they have a profile of somebody who would do something like this and they
were around the area at the time. But then you have to look at the evidence and see whether or not the evidence
leads you to believe that they had anything to do with it. Do the brothers have any specific evidence that you're
aware of? >> They did not. >> He split to Florida the day after he was questioned by police.
>> Mr. Morley, years later, in my estimate, committed suicide. >> You learned of his death is suicide,
right? He jumped off a bridge, right? >> His brother says he fell off a bridge. >> The defense also tried to punch holes in
the alleged motive for the murder and called a surprising witness to do it. Yes, my name is Marla Shiner and my
spelling of my last name is S H I N E R. >> Thank you. >> Mara Shiner, the girl who Walter Shelley
and Mike Ferrer allegedly killed for. Edward Allen Brown had just testified that Mara was Shel's girlfriend in
September of ' 69. And Shelley was jealous because Jon was flirting with her. But Mara says Jon never flirted
with her. Did you ever go to a dance with John McCabe? >> Never. >> Ever convey to you that he had any type
of romantic interest in you in August or September of 1969? >> None. >> The McCabe say it doesn't matter if the
flirting was real or imagined. >> She could have been just stopped and said hello to John
and Shelley could have walked by and seen it. >> And he's going to explode. >> Next, Mara threw the prosecution a
curveball. September 26th, 1969. Were you dating Walter Shel? >> No, I was not dating Walter when when
John McCabe died. >> When did you start dating him then? >> I believe it was after that death.
>> How old were you? >> 13. >> You 13 September 69. >> I don't know. I can't do the math right
here. But according to police, Mara told them she was dating Shelley at the time
and was just 12 years old when they started seeing each other. >> You didn't tell the police that you were
dating Walter Shel >> in 1969 when John McCabe was killed. >> I No, I don't believe I did tell him
that. >> Why lie about dating someone unless it was because of her that John was
murdered? 48 Hours had questions for Mara Shiner, too, but she declined our request for an interview. Mara
eventually married Walter Shel, but it didn't last. She said he was very violent.
>> Miss Sha, was Walter Shel a jealous man? >> Absolutely. >> It appears that [music] we're ready to
proceed then. >> Judge, at this point in time, the defendant would rest. This was a
hard-fought trial till the end and then it was up to the jury to decide. Did Mike Ferrer help Walter Shelley killed
John McCabe over a girl? Or was Edward Allen Brown telling a story the prosecution wanted to hear.
>> It only took jurors 5 hours to decide. >> I told Michael that we had to hope for
the best, but be prepared for the worst. And uh he was ready for that. May I have the verdict slip, please?
>> For the McCabe family, more than four [snorts] decades of waiting and working
came down to this moment. What did you think the verdict was going to be? >> Guilty.
My god, he was guilty. If for no other reason, he was there. >> It's hard to understand how the jury
could, you know, anticipate otherwise. Bill McCabe was too nervous and too sick to sit in the courtroom that day. So he
waited in another room while Evelyn and their daughters heard the verdict. >> What say you to this indictment, ma'am?
Is the defendant guilty or not guilty? >> Not guilty. >> Not guilty. >> Michael Ferrer.
>> Everyone, including Mike Ferrer, was so stunned. It took a while to sink in when
the verdict came in. When you heard that that Ferrer had been acquainted, >> I had to go tell my husband that.
>> Were you afraid to tell him? >> Yes. >> Why? >> I was afraid he was going to die.
>> Tragically, Evelyn was right. Just 4 days after the verdict, Bill McCabe's heart gave out and he gave up.
>> What do you think killed your husband? >> Stress. the stress of the trial. >> While Evelyn McCabe laid her husband to
rest next to their son, the DA's office had a decision to make after losing the case against Mike Ferrer. Would it go
ahead with the trial of Walter Shelley? There goes Jack. >> All the girls are singing love songs.
All the boys are >> I still don't believe Bill's gone. I can still hear him snore [music] in the
night and then I I feel the bed. He's not there. Evelyn McCabe was determined to honor
her husband's dying [music] wish. >> He laid in the hospital bed and I says, "I'll pick up and take over for you."
>> She'd see to it that someone would pay for John's murder. >> The jurors find Michael Ferrer not
guilty. [music] >> Watching Michael Ferrer go free was tough for some jurors, too. So, how hard
was it for you to acquit him? It was very difficult. >> One of the jurors, Michael Duket, says
the biggest problem was Edward Allen Brown. The >> plan was to teach him a lesson for
messing with Maron. >> Did the majority of the jurors believe him? >> No. >> Why not?
>> They just felt that he was not telling the truth. >> I thought they were just going to slap
him around and >> they felt that he had been fed information and that didn't make a ton
of sense to me. Maybe he wasn't the best witness, but I just can't see somebody saying I did it when they didn't do it.
>> Det came to believe Brown and wanted to find Michael Ferrer guilty of something,
but the only choices the jurors had were first and seconddegree murder. So, what
did you want to convict him of? >> Manslaughter, and it wasn't an option. >> We are extremely pleased with the jury's
verdict. Despite the Ferrer loss, prosecutors decided to try to convict the other suspect in the murder, Walter
Shelley. >> The acquitt in the Ferrer case didn't do anything to lessen our belief that we
had the right people who were responsible for killing John McCabe. >> All right.
>> September 3rd, 2013, 7 months after Michael Ferrer's acquitt, >> this murder was about John McCabe.
>> It was Walter Shel's turn to stand trial. Shelley was 17 the night of John's murder. He's now 61, remarried,
and has lived quietly in Tukesbury ever since. Just a few miles from Evelyn McCabe.
>> Walter Shel is sitting on the small of his back holding hands. >> If convicted of firstdegree murder, Shel
could spend the rest of his life in prison. >> They wrestle him to the ground. It was
the same case prosecutors presented against Michael Ferrer. The same motive, >> jealousy,
>> and the same evidence. >> The ropes that came off the victim's body >> presented by the same witnesses, Marla
Shiner, Detective Linda Coughlin, and once again, the state's star witness, >> Edward Allen Brown.
>> I heard one of them say he's not breathing. >> Was it any easier to sit through the
second trial? No, I want to say it was harder. Dad wasn't there for backup. >> You were called a liar repeatedly.
>> Yes, I was. >> Brown seemed less rattled this time, more confident, and the McCabes allowed
themselves to hope. >> I can keep my fingers, my toes, everything crossed. >> During closing arguments, the defense
called Brown a liar. >> He'll tell you whatever you want to hear. But the prosecution argued that
Brown would never implicate himself in a crime he did not commit. >> What did he confess for? He was talked
into it. >> The week-long trial went to the jury. This would be the McCabe's last chance
to see someone held accountable for killing John. >> We had faith that the jury was going to
come with the right answer this time. >> Finally, two days later, a verdict. person. Has your jury agreed upon its
verdict? >> Yes, we have. >> Pass the verdict of solo, please. >> Walter Shel's wife and family waited
nervously. Evelyn McCabe couldn't bring herself to even sit in the courtroom and
had to wait outside. >> She couldn't hear another not guilty. >> And the verdicts be reportedly.
>> She was scared she was going to drop dead. >> Charging the defendant, Walter Shel,
with the offense of murder. What say was the defendant guilty or not guilty? Guilty.
>> Guilty of what? >> First degree. >> Guilty. And life behind bars for Walter Shelley. This jury believed Brown.
>> So when you heard guilty, do you remember the first thing you thought? >> I thought my father would be proud.
We got one of them. It was the final twist in a mystery filled with them. For the same crime and
on the same evidence, one man walked free, one man went to prison. Hey, John, guess what?
We got him. Billy, it turned out beautifully. >> He didn't live to write about it, but
Bill McCabe finally got the end he was looking for to the story he wrote about John's life and death. A story that took
four decades to play out. He was 15 years 6 months and two weeks >> about his boy who will be 15 years 6
months and 2 weeks old forever. >> He's done. Please [snorts] take good care of him
till I get there. Please. And then I will [snorts] >> [music] [music] >> CBS Next. A step-daughter's trust
betrayed. >> She found naked photos of herself on her stepdad's computer. >> Hundreds. Hundreds.
>> Then Tom Marman is found dead. Was it revenge? >> Did you want your stepfather dead? 48
hours prime time double feature continues next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.
There's nothing in this world that anybody can ever do to me that's going to be worse than what I've
seen. >> [music] >> I received a call from the sheriff's department that there had been a
homicide. [music] >> It was very devastating. There wasn't a lot of murders in Washington County.
Everyone knew everyone. [music] They all knew Michael. They all went to school with him. Everyone knew Rita.
>> I was really close to my mom. She was always at my football games, my baseball game. She's always had the
camcorder out. She was recording me. >> Come on, son. >> This murder was as brutal as they come.
>> The first responders called this crime scene horrific. >> There's blood all over the room.
Some sort of object was used to hit Rita at least once. >> Mike finds her body burning on the floor
of her room. >> I was scared to death. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to call. I
didn't know I didn't know what to do. [music] >> My name is Michael Polite and when I was
14 years old, I was arrested for the murder of my mother. >> Would either [music] one of you ever,
ever think, and be honest with me, that he might hurt your mother? No, >> I never thought he would hurt our mom.
No, >> she was very close with Michael. You know, [music] he was her baby. >> Tell me about December 4th, 1998. Do you
remember that evening >> vividly? I was home and then I see headlights coming down the the driveway and it's my
mom and uh she comes into the house and she said, "I love you. Good night. I'll see you in the morning."
>> Is that the last thing your mom ever said? That's the last thing she ever said to me.
[snorts] Next thing I remember, I I woke up and I see a light haze in my room. I opened my
door, I could see her feet and she was on fire from the waist up [snorts] and I could hear it.
>> What could you hear? >> Cracking of a fire. [music] How soon did investigators focus [music]
on Michael? >> Immediately. >> Immediately. >> He is a suspect from the moment they
arrive at the scene. They said this kid [music] didn't act the way they expected. He wasn't emotional enough.
You look like a pretty good suspect. You were [music] a person who loved to set fires. You had had arguments with your
mother. You were having trouble in school. But none of that suggests [music] anything about murder.
>> Were there any injuries on Michael? On your brother? >> None. >> Any blood found on him, on his clothing?
[music] >> No. >> And no weapon? No. >> Let me ask you a question. What 14-year-old [music] kid could commit a
crime that violent and that vicious and not leave any any forensic evidence behind whatsoever? That's not possible.
Michael was convicted of murder in the second degree. >> He was sentenced [music] to life.
>> Michael, did you kill your mom? >> No. >> And there's only one individual that I
know that hates her that much to do that to her. >> [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] >> This is where the Pit family home once stood on December 5th, 1998. The day
Michael Pit says he woke up to find his mother's body lying on her bedroom floor
on fire. What I seen was hatred and evil. >> He was 14 years old. >> The individual that did that to my
mother hated her with everything inside of him. >> Rita Pite was [music] just 40 when she
died. >> There's a lot of pictures of us and mom. >> All these years later, Michael's older
sisters, Crystal and Melanie, still [music] have vivid memories. >> That's Crystal. That's mom. And that's
me. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Rita? >> Her laugh. She
>> was [laughter] always laughing, smiling. >> Michael and his sisters grew up in the
tiny rural community of Hopewell, Missouri. It's about 70 mi southwest of St. Louis.
>> We didn't lock our doors. We lived by all of our family. >> We rode bicycles and motorcycles. I was
happy. Michael went by the nickname Bernie back then. >> His middle name is Bernard. It's short
for Bernard. >> Their parents, Edward and Rita, got married as teens. And Crystal and
Melanie say the couple had their struggles. He was very mentally abusive. >> He also cheated on her a lot.
>> But she loved him. love. It outweighed any other feeling she ever had. >> Eventually though, love wasn't enough.
>> I witnessed violence between the two of them. >> There were allegations of domestic
violence on both sides. The year before the murder, there was an incident where police were called. Michael told an
officer that his dad pushed his mom to the floor and choked her. The couple ultimately divorced in the summer of
1998 after [music] more than 20 years of marriage. The divorce decree cited Edward's infidelity.
>> My dad would he would try to pay me to come live with him. I wouldn't I want to
live with mom. >> Michael ended up having to split time [music] between both parents.
On December 4th, 1998, he was at his mom's. That night she was out working at a local bar and Michael was home alone.
>> Probably 7, 8 or so. I get bored. I ride my bicycle down to a general store. >> It's there that Michael says he met up
with his friend, 15-year-old Josh Sonsy, who he invited to sleep over. The two hung out for hours until Michael's mom
got home around midnight. >> I asked him, I said, "Man, where do you want to sleep at? You can sleep here in
the living room on a fold out couch or you can just sleep in, you know, in the floor in my room. He's like, I just
crash in the floor. [bell] >> Michael says he slept through the night until just before 6:30 a.m. when he and
Josh awoke and noticed smoke in the room. >> We ran out of the room. My mom's bedroom
door is facing me and I can see the glow, an orange glow in that area. [music] He says he called out to his mom, but
there was no answer. >> Michael, what are you feeling at this point? >> Panic, fear.
>> Michael says he went and grabbed a hose outside and then ran toward his mom's
room. And what he saw he'd never forget. >> I seen blood on her legs. Then she was on fire from the waist up.
Now I turn the water hose on. I don't know how long it set to her. It could have been minutes. It could
have been seconds. I don't know. >> Josh ran to get help, but it was too late. >> Crystal would soon get a call from her
brother with the news. >> I just sat on my bed and I just kept saying, "I don't want to go.
I don't want to go. I don't want to go." Because you know then you know it's real.
>> Crystal picked Melanie up and by the time they got to the scene police cars and fire trucks were lining the
driveway. Mike was in the front seat, passenger side of the police car, and we just ran up to the window, asked him
what was like, "What happened?" And he had sit on his face and he had tear marks all down his face and he said, "I
don't know. Mom's dead." You could smell the smoke. You could smell flesh. >> [music]
>> Tammy Nash worked for the Washington County Sheriff's Office back then and was one of the responding officers.
It was clear that this was a murder. Rita had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and blood was visible on her
bedroom walls, indicating a struggle had occurred. A fire marshal quickly concluded that an accelerant was used to
set her on fire. What was your job at that point? What was your assignment? >> Together the evidence.
We was looking for anything that she could have been struck with. [music] We never found a weapon.
While Tammy processed the scene, Michael and Josh were taken away to the sheriff's office for questioning. A
police report indicates that on the way, Michael asked an officer something that
quickly put him under suspicion. He asked, "What's going to happen to my mom's truck?"
>> Isn't that an odd thing to say after you just saw your mother on fire? >> I don't think so.
>> When you lose someone, you want to hang on to things. To me, that's all it was,
you know, and our mom loved that truck. >> But it did raise eyebrows. And at the
sheriff's office, Michael was given a voice stress test. >> And then they told me that I failed.
Investigators also took Michael's shoes so that an accelerant sniffing dog could
examine them. >> They said the dog alerted to my shoes to an accelerant. >> How would you describe the tone of the
questioning after the dogs alerted on your shoes and after you failed this voice stress test?
>> They wasn't questioning me no more. They were telling me that I did something.
Michael and Josh both insisted they didn't know [music] what happened to Rita, that they had stayed in Michael's
room all night, but investigators told them they didn't believe them. The boys were questioned repeatedly, and 2 days
after the murder, Josh gave a videotaped statement [music] with an officer on each side and his
mother present. That statement seemed to poke a hole in Michael's account. He said he woke up to a noise in the middle
of the night. >> I heard a little thud and I thought I heard like a a woman's voice.
>> Did Bernie wake up too or did you see Bernie in the room at that time? >> No.
>> Bernie wasn't in bed? >> I didn't see him. >> Could you have seen him if he was you?
>> Is that yes or no? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, there's no doubt he wasn't in bed. >> Okay. And was he anywhere else in that
bedroom? >> No. >> Shortly after Josh gave that statement on December 7th, 1998,
14-year-old Michael Pit was arrested for his mother's murder. >> I always believed
that I was going to be found innocent because having anything to do with what happened to my mother.
Oh, was I in for a rude awakening. He looks like a really happy kid. He was always really happy.
>> When Melanie and Crystal learned that their 14-year-old brother had been arrested for their mother's murder, they
say they couldn't believe it. How are they coming up with that conclusion? I I just thought they were crazy. [music]
>> He didn't do it. No one had cleared. >> Chuck and Paty Skyles are Michael's uncle and aunt. They live next door to
where the crime took place. They also felt police had made a mistake. >> You know, we was the first ones to see
him after it happened. He had no scratches, no nothing on him. >> He's always giving his mom a hug.
>> He loved his [music] mom. But while Michael's family believed in his innocence, the truth is Michael was
hardly the model child. Something that even he admits. >> You failed seventh grade three times.
>> Yeah, I was on my third year uh because I became I just wasn't going. Skipping school is one thing, but 10
months before the murder, things got so bad that Michael was hospitalized for behavioral issues after he threatened to
kill his mother and himself. >> For whatever reason, I told her that I would put her six feet under just like
her mom and dad. >> Did you mean that, Michael? >> No, I didn't. And it's the biggest
regret of my life. >> Melanie and Crystal blame Michael's misbehavior on their parents' divorce.
Our dad would kind of put him in the middle. >> Michael was clearly an angry, troubled
teenager. >> Yeah, I think he was mad at our dad for sure. Was he mad at your mom as well?
>> No, I think I mean I know they didn't always get along perfectly. Um I don't think any parent and child does.
>> Three years passed with Michael in custody awaiting trial and then the prosecution came to him with a deal.
plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and he'd [music] spend a maximum of 15 years in prison.
>> I rejected it. >> You didn't [music] think about it? >> Nope. >> Why not? >> Cuz I didn't murder my mother.
>> In January 2002, Michael P, then 17 years old, went on trial. His life was on the line. The prosecutors and defense
attorney who tried the case [music] didn't respond to our calls. But Josh Hedgecourt, the current prosecutor of
Washington County, where the murder took place, was willing to talk about the case. What was the most important
evidence? >> The scientific evidence, and that would start with the shoes that he was wearing
at the sheriff's office. Not only had a dog detected an accelerant on Michael's shoes, according
to the prosecution, [music] later testing also confirmed the presence of gasoline on them. And there
was testimony that an accelerant had been used to burn Rita's body. >> And so all of these components together,
I think, solidified that he must [music] have set the fire. But Michael had told
police the gasoline found on his shoes meant nothing [music] and that he and his friends would often set fires for
fun. >> But we all did that. It was in it was in the country. [music] >> In fact, Michael told police that just
hours before the murder. He and his friend Josh used gasoline to set a fire on the railroad tracks near his house
before Rita got home. >> Does show the persistence of fire. But the prosecution used that admission as
another piece of evidence against Michael. >> See the heavy charring in it? >> They argued the burn pattern on the
tracks matched [music] the burn pattern on Rita. >> See the outlets showing nothing
electrical that could have caused the fire. >> Linda Dickerson Bell and Jonathan
[music] Peterson were jurors on the case. >> I'm like that's it's not looking good
for him. What they were telling us was that Michael had a problem with burning and that he was the only person that
could have done this. >> The jurors never heard about Michael's problems at school and that threat to
his mother, but a [music] witness testified about a disagreement that Michael had with his mother weeks before
the murder. It was over money and he sat [music] flicking a lighter afterwards. >> It happened, but not in the way that the
state portrayed it. I was flicking the wheel on the lighter. That's that. >> You weren't threatening your mother with
that? >> No. >> And there was something even more damaging. The prosecution claimed that
Michael had actually confessed [music] to the crime. during a suicide attempt at a juvenile detention center exactly
one month after the murder. Three witnesses who worked there wrote in reports that Michael said, "I haven't
cared since I killed my mom." But Michael says that's not what he said. When they asked you why you were trying
to kill yourself, you say you said what? >> I haven't cared since I killed my mom.
It's the difference of one word, but that one word carried a lot of weight, and the jury would never hear from
Michael because when it was the defense's turn, he didn't take the stand. >> Today's date is the 7th day of December,
1998. And leaving the jury with even more unanswered questions was the fact that they were told that Josh, the other
boy in the house that night, had been granted immunity. >> I kept waiting, thinking, "Okay, well,
if he's been given immunity, then he's got to have something to offer." >> But the jury never saw or heard from
Josh at all. He wasn't called to the stand, [music] and they were never shown his videotape statement. Michael's
sisters also weren't called. But I never really heard anybody in his defense say
Michael didn't do this. >> Instead, the defense hinged its case on the lack of direct evidence. No murder
weapon had been found. And despite the violence of the attack, Michael had no injuries and no blood on his clothing.
After 3 days of testimony, the case went to the jury. >> To hold someone's life in your hand,
have you ever done that? It's not a pleasant thing to do. I wanted to get it right.
>> But Linda and Jonathan say they were left with so many questions. Too many questions. And they felt pressured by
other members of the jury. >> I I think everybody finally just got to me and just like, you know, we're ready
to go home. And then I was like, yeah, but you're ready to go home and this kid's ready to go to prison.
After more than four hours, the jury filed into the courtroom with their verdict. Guilty of seconddegree murder.
>> I wept. >> Why? >> Because it was wrong. >> Michael was sentenced to life in prison.
It was um it was it was unbelievable. It was I I never thought [music] it would happen.
>> Michael would spend years in a Missouri prison before a new team of lawyers would take his case and make it their
mission to turn it around. The state essentially never really had any case against this kid, but the case that they
even did have back at trial has been indisputably proven false. After Michael Pulite was convicted and
sentenced to life at the age of 18, he was sent to the Missouri State Penitentiary, once called the bloodiest
47 acres in America. >> Being so young, I was a target. I got in a fight my first day there. Dudes were
trying to rape me. >> Michael says he became desperate for some sense of safety.
>> You became a skin [music] head? >> Yeah. Join a gang. >> That's where you got the tattoos.
>> Yep. >> It was something that I felt like I needed to do to survive. It's not the
way that I feel. Um it's not the way that mom raised me. I just didn't fit in. >> Michael says he longed to prove his
innocence and get out of prison. he needed to hire a lawyer. So he says he asked his dad for help.
>> Did he? >> Nope. >> So how did you keep up any hope at all? >> I didn't for a few years. I was heroin
addict. Um anytime I left my cell, I was looking for drugs. I was just self-medicating.
>> That's the way [music] things were until Michael finally found something that
gave him hope. >> [music] >> 5 years after his conviction, he wrote a letter to the Midwest Innocence Project
and they agreed to take his case. The organization worked on it for years and eventually attorneys Trisha Bushnell,
Megan Crane, and Mark Emerson became involved. >> Mike [music] was convicted because he
was a kid, pure and simple. They said he wasn't emotional enough. Trauma doesn't
look like what people think it should [music] look like. Trisha, Megan, and Mark picked apart the case against
Michael. [music] They say it was based on bad science. >> Break his trips. >> Started with the prosecution's claim
that an accelerant was used to set the fire that killed Rita. When the fire investigator came to the scene, they
immediately determined it was a fuel-fed fire based on just visual patterns just
based on looking at the scene which at the time violated gold standards of fire investigation. There has to be lab
testing. >> Control sample taken there >> and lab testing was done on carpet samples from the crime scene. No
accelerant was detected. The prosecution explained that away by saying it could have burned up, but defense attorney
Megan Crane says that suggestion isn't reasonable. >> There's no scientific basis for that
being possible. >> Do you believe that the jury believed that in fact there was an accelerant
used to set Rita on fire? >> Absolutely. The main case against Michael was that it was a gasoline fire
and in order to attempt to tie Mike to the crime, the only physical evidence was the gasoline that the state alleged
was on his shoes. >> But Michael's new lawyers say that Michael's shoes didn't have gasoline on
them either. >> Another footprint found. >> They say [music] a chemical used in the
shoe manufacturing process was wrongly identified as gasoline at trial. And even the Missouri State Crime Lab
agrees. In this 2020 [music] letter, officials say it is now known that solvents found in footwear
adhesives have similarities to gasoline, [music] but that in the late 1990s, this
knowledge was not widely known. Could the dogs have been alerting to the chemicals used in the shoes?
>> Absolutely. >> The jurors cared about the gas on the shoes. They asked to see the shoes. It
was the nail in the coffin. >> But what about Michael's alleged confession at the juvenile detention
[music] center? Witnesses wrote that they heard him say, "I haven't cared since I killed my mom." But Michael
insists he said, "I haven't cared since they killed my mom." In the same way we talk about tunnel
vision, people can hear what they want to hear. [music] We're talking about one word in a room where there's lots of
activity happening. They have a a kid in the detention center that they believe has probably committed this crime,
right? And so that's their view of him. There is one big question that remains. What about Josh Sansi? Remember, the
jury was told he got immunity and there was that videotape statement where he told police that he woke up in the
middle of the night and [music] Michael wasn't there. >> So, there's no doubt he wasn't in bed.
>> Okay. And was he anywhere else in that bedroom? >> No. >> Now, many years after the crime, Josh is
[music] speaking publicly for the first time about what he says really happened that night. I spent the majority of my
life just trying to forget about it. I've done pretty good just moving on with it.
But I mean it's it's still it's always there, you know. Josh Sansusi is now 39 years old.
He says he's never been quite the same since he woke up from that sleepover at Michaels at the age of 15 and found
himself in the middle of a murder investigation. He says he was questioned by police
repeatedly for hours at a time. Every time I tell them something, they would be like, "No, that's not what happened.
This is what happened." I remember telling my mom, I said, I said said, "They keep saying [music]
that I'm lying." I said, "I don't even know if I'm telling the truth anymore." >> But the truth, Josh says, is that
nothing out of the ordinary happened on that night in question. >> It was just like a normal night.
>> I couldn't sleep very good at night. I was kind of waking up. I woke up one time. But what about that videotape
statement where Josh told police that he woke up in the middle of the night and Michael wasn't there?
>> So there's no doubt he wasn't in bed. Okay. And was he anywhere else in that bedroom?
>> No. >> I don't remember ever saying that. And I feel like if I said that, then it was
maybe at a weak point or something. >> Michael's attorneys say they've seen this all too often in interrogations.
What we see in Josh's interrogation is the result of hours and hours of interrogation. And every other time he
has never ever said that that was what happened. >> In a deposition right before Michael
went on trial, Josh said that he never sat up from where he was sleeping on the floor and that it's not that I did not
see him in his bed. It's I couldn't see him in his bed. >> There's no way I could see anything
that's on top of the bed. So, why did Josh take that immunity deal? >> I just wanted it because I knew they was
going to try to pin it on me or Bernie. I was like, well, if they'll give me immunity, then maybe I don't have
anything to worry about. You know, >> Michael's lawyers say the prosecution was likely trying to get Josh to flip on
Michael. And the fact they didn't even put Josh on the stand says it all. They didn't [snorts] call him because it
wasn't going to go well for them. He had nothing helpful to say for the state. Why didn't the defense call Josh? That's
a great question, Aaron. And there's a lot of great questions about what the defense didn't do and who they didn't
call. >> Michael's trial attorney was a public defender back then. In a court affidavit, he admits that Michael's case
was the first homicide case that he had tried on his own and that today he would
handle his representation of Michael differently. Michael's new legal team was committed
to getting him out of prison. They filed court documents suggesting an alternative suspect, Michael's father,
Edward Pit. >> I believe he is responsible for what happened to the mother. If that's true, [music] that means
Michael's own father stood by and let his son take the fall for a murder that he was behind.
Michael's sisters say their father was furious over the financial terms of the divorce. A judge had finalized them just
4 days before the murder. >> She got half of his retirement >> maintenance >> maintenance child support
>> alimony. And the one thing that I remember about growing up with our dad is you don't mess with his money. You
just don't do it. He had an outburst in the court. He said, "You'll never live to see a
dime of that money." Police did interview Edward Pit after the murder. He had an alibi. He was home
more than 80 miles away at the time of the murder. But Michael's defense team says investigators didn't look hard
enough. >> They didn't at all investigate the possibility that perhaps Ed did this
with someone else. >> And Michael says he believes his dad did arrange the murder and had help.
>> I think he hired Johnny to murder my mother. >> Johnny is Johnny Pite, Edward's [music]
cousin. Michael's legal team identified witnesses who placed Johnny near the crime scene on the morning of the murder
just [music] as first responders were arriving. >> Well, I'd heard sirens and uh as I'm
coming up the road and I'm approaching the railroad tracks, Johnny Polley was walking down railroad tracks.
>> Larry Lee is one of those witnesses. He's known Johnny for years. As he's walking up to my truck, he asked
me if I I heard about Rita. He said, "Somebody killed her." And I'm like, "Do what?"
>> About a week later, [music] Larry's wife, Carolyn, says Johnny came to their door
>> and it was like 6:00 in the morning. He said, "I [music] need to know what you know about Rita's death." He said,
"Me and Edward are doing our own investigation and we heard you were up at the store talking about it." And I
said, "Johnny, I don't know nothing." "No, we need to know what you know," he said. And I said, "You know, I [music]
think it's time for you to go." >> Were you scared? >> A little bit. >> Did the two of you talk to investigators
about this? >> No. We think back now and we wish we would have. >> And I ain't saying he had anything to do
with anything either. I I don't know. But you know, >> another man places Johnny Pit's truck
near the same spot that Larry Lee says he ran into Johnny on the morning of the murder. In an affidavit filed by
Michael's team, the man says he saw the truck just as emergency vehicles were coming down the road. Former
investigator Tammy Nash says she doesn't remember hearing that Johnny Pit had been seen that morning, but she does
recall something that happened in the days after the murder. Once the crime scene had been released,
somebody came in to the sheriff's department and said that they had found a tire iron or tire tool or something
[music] in the closet. Whose closet? Michael's [music] closet. >> Police records show the person who found
that tire tool was Johnny Pit. >> Could you have missed that in your first search?
>> No. >> Are you absolutely sure? >> I am positive I did not miss that. >> If it wasn't there when you searched,
what does that mean? >> That somebody placed it there. >> Tammy went and retrieved the tire tool
from Michael's closet. It was later ruled out as the murder weapon. >> Do you believe that tire iron was put in
your closet to set you up? >> I do. >> Johnny and Edward P didn't respond to our request for an interview. Neither
has been charged in the case. It's been years since Michael and his sisters have
spoken to their father, but they say they did ask him whether he had anything to do with their mother's murder, and he
denied it. It's not our our job and it's not our focus to say who who did commit
this crime. But what we do know is it was not Michael Pulite. >> And while Michael's lawyers were trying
to prove that, [cheering] the case would take a turn. >> Best day in the world. >> I never thought this day would come.
It's amazing. Take an in-depth look at the case at 48 hours. It's hard. It's real hard here in
Missouri to get these convictions overturned. It's a battle. >> I don't know why they don't want to have
a hearing. >> Michael's legal team was shut down [music] by appeals courts at every turn.
It is a constant fight [music] with, you know, Goliath really is what it feels like.
>> Despite the letdowns, Michael and his sisters kept up hope that one day he would be freed. And in 2021, there was
an unexpected development. A bill passed in Missouri giving juvenile offenders convicted of serious crimes a second
chance. >> It gave me an immediate pole hearing. Michael went before the parole board
asking for his release. >> I told him I was innocent and I told him, "This is why I'm innocent. This is
why you should believe I'm innocent." >> It worked. >> On April [music] 22nd, 2022,
Melanie and Crystal brought friends and family >> and a change of clothes to the Jefferson
City Correctional [music] Center. It was a really great day. It was a dream come
true really. >> On that [music] day, Michael Pipe walked out of prison. [laughter]
I love you. I love you. >> Incarcerated at just 14 years old. >> Oh, man. I love you guys, man.
>> He was now 38. >> Where's my lawyer? >> It's overwhelming to see all the love.
All the nights sitting in my cell wondering what it would be like to be out here and have this moment
>> and have it finally come through. It's awesome. >> Yeah, it's it's finally here.
>> I'm free. >> How you doing? Can I have a hug? Michael says he felt his mom's presence when a
bird flew by overhead. >> Hey, mom. >> She's always in my thoughts. She's always in my mind. And everything I do
and everything that I process through today is guided by her. >> Michael [music] left prison that day
doing one of the things he enjoyed most before he went in. >> We're going to take a bike ride from the
parking lot to the railroad tracks. >> You ready to go, man? >> I'm ready. >> I'm leaving here the same way that I
came in here. Riding a bicycle. [laughter] Justice for Rita. Let's go. >> Let's go, man.
[applause and cheering] [laughter] >> Felt good. It was the best bike ride in the world.
>> Welcome home, Mike. >> This is it. >> Welcome home. >> Following his release, Michael moved in
with his sister, Melanie. >> You ready? >> Drum roll. Hey, >> he started getting those reminders of
prison, his tattoos, covered up with this new art. He also found job as a carpenter and got his driver's license.
>> You're now out. Is that enough? >> No, it ain't enough. >> Because as you sit right now, you are a
convicted felon on parole. >> You have a criminal record that says you killed your mother. Yep.
>> Michael wants to clear his name, and it just might happen because Josh Hedgeorth, the current prosecutor in the
county where the murder took place, has filed a motion asking for Michael's conviction to be overturned.
>> To me, it all always comes back to the science. >> Hedge court agrees with Michael's
attorneys that the scientific evidence used to convict Michael is problematic. So, I don't believe that Michael
received a fair trial. I can't say that the prosecutor at the time knew what he was putting on was false. It just
shouldn't have been presented. >> Could you retry Michael Pulite for the murder of his mother based on the
evidence you have today? >> On the evidence I have today, I don't believe I would file this case.
But while the local prosecutor believes Michael's conviction should be thrown out,
>> another public official, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmidt is fighting it.
>> And every exoneration Missouri, the attorney general fights it because they say we have to respect, honor, and
protect the verdict of these jurors. Well, that goes out the window when the jurors themselves want this verdict
overturned. In sworn affidavits, five jurors have questioned whether Michael got a fair trial, including Jonathan
Peterson and Linda Dickerson Bell. >> I do not believe that Michael Pit killed his mother, but I don't know how to fix
it. >> The Attorney General's office didn't reply to our request for comment, but in
a court filing, they say that Michael cannot meet the standard for actual innocence. And the AG has argued that
the evidence against Johnny and Edward Pit would have been inadmissible at trial.
>> There you go. >> Michael hopes that a judge will hear the case and decide to overturn his
conviction. But in the meantime, prosecutor Josh Hedgecourt has revealed to us that the local sheriff's
department has reopened the investigation into Rita's murder. >> We want to do the right thing. If
someone else did this, we want to know that even if it's new evidence that it was Michael.
>> Neither Hedgecourt nor the local sheriff would comment on the specifics of the
investigation, including whether Johnny Ped or Edward Pit are persons of interest.
And I feel bad for Bernie and his family. I mean, everything they had to go through, Bernie lost his whole
childhood. Josh Sonsy hasn't seen Michael Pit since they were kids, but they hope to one day reunite.
The night of [music] that sleepover and its aftermath has haunted Josh all these
years. >> What would you say to him? >> I'm sorry. And that you know he didn't do anything wrong.
In Possi, Missouri, not far from where the murder took place, Rita's truck has sat all these years.
>> It's going to need new tires. >> So much smaller than I remember. >> Her family says they held on to it
because it's [music] one of the only things they have left of her. >> That's her truck. You know, it's a part
of hers that that belongs to her. >> They hope to [music] fix it up and get it running again.
>> We're going to get justice for her. I believe that one day we're going to we're going to get justice for Rita.
[music] [music] >> [music] [music]

48 Hours looks into the witness accounts involved in these true-crime investigations. Watch the YouTube super marathon, which includes "The Kidnapping of Schanda Handley," "First Love, Then Murder," "The Pact" and "The Case Against Michael Politte."

00:00 The Kidnapping of Schanda Handley 41:59 First Love, Then Murder 1:23:57 The Pact 2:07:02 The Case Against Michael Politte

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

Shondaanda Hanley recounts her kidnapping, rescue, and the investigation into her estranged husband Michael's involvement.

Key points

The Shocking Revelation. Shondaanda suspects her estranged husband orchestrated her kidnapping.
The Final Confrontation. Michael Hanley is arrested after a four-day manhunt, with chilling evidence against him.
Shondaanda's Tough Decision. Facing uncertainty, Shondaanda opts for a plea deal to ensure her safety.
The Gruesome Discovery. Officer Logan Boyd finds a horrific scene at Aaron's house with blood everywhere.
Murder Confession. Gavin admits to killing Aaron with a baseball bat, claiming it was instinct.
Ellie's Plea Deal. Ellie Frier takes a plea deal for conspiring to murder her father, Aaron.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The kidnapping was a blessing.

Shondaanda reflects on her experience post-kidnapping.

14:21WatchJan 24, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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