The Shocking Murder of 13-Year-Old Lauren Landavazo | Murdered at First Sight | Forensic Files

- [Bianka] Hey, here goes Lauren. And she's all embarrassed. - Aw, thank you! - Aw!
- Aw! - Aw! - Oh it's adorable! Oh it's got a necklace on. [indistinct] [camera clicks]
[whimsical music] - Flashing a peace sign and the duck lips. That's pretty common in pictures for her.
One of her early selfies I think, is when she realized she could take such good selfies.
- Lauren was just so friendly, she talked to everybody. She knew so many people.
I was always amazed like, "How do you know her?" Or like, "How do you know him?"
Just a social butterfly, that's how she was. - She was probably one of the most popular girls in school.
And it wasn't because she was in the popular crowd or anything, it was just because of who she was.
- She used to stay up late at night in her room trying to help her friends. She was just the most caring,
compassionate person I've ever met in my life. [sirens wailing] - People were starting to run down the street.
One of our neighbors went by and stopped and said something. - [Chris] Police raced to the scene
to find two 13-year-old girls shot. - I run in just in a panic and I'm like, "They said kids are down."
And he's like, "What?" And I couldn't wait, I just took off. [tense music] - You don't know if it's gonna be a mass shooting
or somebody's running around shooting students or you know, if this is a a one-time deal.
- I just thought, "This is crazy. There's a thousand kids at that school. Whatever happened, it's not her.
It can't be her." And I don't know who answered her phone, but I just heard somebody screaming.
- So I run down the street as fast as I can. All I saw was people everywhere. [tense music continues]
- There was no logical reason that we could think of to where someone would just gun down a 13-year-old girl.
- We stayed here because, you know, it was a good place to raise kids and it's safe.
You just gunned down my daughter, [tense music continues] a stranger, we don't even know you.
She don't know you. [tense music continues] - That was the first day that we didn't wake up
from a nightmare, we woke up to a nightmare and we've been waking up to one ever since.
[tense music fades] [gentle piano music] - [Lauren] Daddy. - [Bianka] Yeah, Daddy.
Did you get a picture taken? Do you have that one [indistinct]. - [Vern] Cheese!
[gentle piano music continues] - [Vern] That's the haircut that you dreamed about.
It's like I'm watching a home movie. - I had a premonition, I'm gonna start crying.
It's one of my favorite pictures. That was Christmas, her Christmas outfit. - That's the one she was wearing when she saw Santa Claus.
[gentle piano music continues] - When I was pregnant, I knew it was gonna be a girl
'cause I know I dreamed of her. It was so real, this dream. Behind a old fashioned camera, you know,
the kind that you crank with a handle and there was this little girl. So at first I didn't know who this little girl was.
She had the short bob, she was about seven or eight years old and it was Lauren.
- [Lauren] Hi, this is Lauren, your favorite host. My name is Lauren. Mine is Fruity Patootie.
- And I just knew it was our daughter 'cause she had pulled on Vern's pant leg, on his jeans, she was pulling it.
And she looked up and she said, "Daddy." And it was over. And I just knew that was our daughter.
[gentle piano music continues and fades] - And as soon as they pulled her out, I was in love.
Everything I could have hoped for. [camera clicks] I just kinda spent a few minutes just looking into her eyes,
she was just staring back. Kind of just in disbelief that we finally had the daughter that I had always wanted.
She was beautiful, the most beautiful baby. She was just full of life. A lot of my most precious moments with her
were just knowing when I'm coming home from work in the afternoon that she would be waiting.
When I pulled up, she's already opening the door and hugging my leg. - Oh gosh, she was so funny.
I mean, this was like every day she'd come out, she'd liked to surprise us, come out of her bedroom and dressed all crazy.
She'd have this crazy makeup on and big eyebrows and she'd put on this like costume, you know,
from Halloween or a pair of weird pajamas and come out and you just start laughing.
I mean, she just had you laughing in tears or my stomach would hurt so bad from laughing with her.
[somber music] She was just fun, just random. And I loved that about her. You know, she was unpredictable.
Just never knew what she was gonna do. [somber music continues] - The last time I saw Lauren was Thursday night
[camera clicks] before that Friday. And I was going to bed, and I kissed her on the top of her head.
And I told her I loved her and told her goodnight. - Vern goes to work and he leaves before us.
[somber music continues] Lauren was running late, my friend took her to school that day.
And so I was telling Lauren, getting on her like, "You need to hurry. She's waiting, you know.
Can't keep her waiting." But I did give her a kiss and told her I loved her. And it was a beautiful day.
It was almost like spring weather. It was just a beautiful day. And I went to work
and I even posted a selfie that day and said, "Life is good." [somber music continues and fades]
[edgy music] - It was fairly early in the school year, school had just started, and it was the Friday before the weekend.
She and her best friend, Makayla were walking home from school. And what Makayla said was they were talking about boys
and what they were gonna do that weekend. And just typical 13-year-old conversation
and just having a good time, smiling and laughing and joking. And other children from the junior high
were also walking in the alleyway. [edgy music continues] - I'm waiting for Lauren to get home,
I know it should be soon and a truck pulled up. My friend goes, "Is Lauren home yet?"
And I'm like, "No, why?" And she said, "Kids are down!" All she said. - I heard the front door open and I heard Bianka
or I saw her run and I didn't really know what was going on, so I got in my truck and I started to follow her.
[edgy music continues] - So I run down the street as fast as I can. All I saw was people everywhere and the crime scene tape.
[sirens wailing] I didn't know about, you know, her friend being shot. I didn't know about anything with gunshots at all.
But I keep looking. I look down and my daughter's laying there... [edgy music continues]
on her back. Her head was turned this way, so she is looking right at me, and she's the only one I see.
[edgy music continues] I knew she was gone. I can't explain it. I knew she was gone.
And I know I was screaming, I guess really loud and horrible screams. But I know I was calling her to come back.
I felt like she was going to the light and I was trying to get her to come back, you know.
"Don't go, please come back." And nobody was working on her. She was just laying there by herself.
I couldn't understand why. [edgy music continues] - Probably went into shock. But all I remember is like
a white cloud everywhere, like a fog. And just seeing her laying there. - And I know I kept asking, "What happened? what happened?
Someone tell me, please tell me what happened." I don't know who said it, but someone just said,
"She was shot." I think I went to my knees at that point and people were trying to hold me up
and I couldn't go to my baby. - They let me ride in the ambulance in the front seat.
And I kept looking back, just telling her to hang on. I heard them say, "I have a heartbeat."
And I thought, "Oh my God, she's alive, they have a heartbeat." I didn't know at the time,
it was just an artificial heartbeat, but I thought she was still alive. So when we got to the hospital
and they took her into the room, Makayla's mom was out there in the hallway. And I just remember hugging her and telling her
that I was praying for Makayla, that she would be all right. - I found out about Makayla,
I believe when I got to the hospital. Someone yelled out, "She was shot!" And that's all the information I had.
It started I got in this room by myself. I'm pacing around. And then finally Vern comes in and I'm telling him
that Lauren didn't make it. And he's just like, "No, no, no. They were working on her in the ambulance.
They were working on her." I said, "We're in this room. She didn't make it Vern.
I'm telling you." [edgy music continues] I don't know how long before the door opened
and I think it was a couple doctors, maybe two or three people walk in, they just shook their heads.
"Didn't make it." And that was it. [edgy music continues and fades] - [Chris] Shots are fired in an alley
just off the 5100 block of Kingston Avenue. Police race to the scene to find two 13-year-old girls shot.
[gentle piano music] I was in the newsroom at Channel 6, here in Wichita Falls. [gentle pulsating music]
So we heard the call go out as it went out to police that there was gunshots. That we had two victims.
We had a reporter and a photographer on the way. We dispatched them immediately just to get to that direction
so that we could find out more information. When the news came out, the city felt shock.
Everyone was in shock. Everyone wanted to know where their kids were at that moment.
We had a killer on the loose. - Once I get there, there's a lot of chaos because this was so unusual
for Wichita Falls and they didn't have a suspect. I talked to the head detective and they update me
with information of what they know about the case. People were crying and upset.
You can only imagine parents, their children were walking home and they hear on the news
that two young children had been shot. - It was one of the first times that I've been mayor
that the community altogether paused. It's like the community banded together. It didn't matter if you're a Republican or Democrat,
if you're black or white, they wanted to get it right. Bring this killer to justice.
[lilting piano music] - When we got here, I just remember having to go into her room,
which she was not the neatest kid in the world, and it was just a mess. But I just remember going and laying down on her bed
and just crying. [lilting piano music continues] - What in the world would motivate someone to just drive up,
roll down their window, point a gun out the window, and then just open fire on a 13-year-old girl
walking home from school. There was no rhyme or reason at all, as to what was behind it.
- The police, you know, had come to our house to talk to us. They went in Lauren's room and took, you know,
her phone and took her iPad and all this stuff. Get any kind of information, see if it's someone she was messaging or knew or, you know,
to look at all the text messages and all that stuff. And then a police officer did tell me that,
"I'm just gonna be honest with you, we may never catch who did this." And I just looked at him like,
like he, I can't, I don't, I don't... How do I even take that? I'm like, "What do you mean?"
He goes, "We may never catch who did this to your daughter." [solemn music] [somber music]
♪ Are you ready to find a place together with...? ♪ - Lauren was my mini-me. She was taller though, she got taller than me.
[camera clicks] So she couldn't wear my shoes anymore. I was happy. I was like, "You can't wear my shoes anymore, Lauren."
- [Bianka] Good job. That was awesome. - 'Cooler than penguin feet.' That's what I like to say about Lauren, she was very cool.
After Lauren had been murdered, there was a lot of outpouring from her friends and some of their parents.
One lady had written to another lady about her son was a transfer from one junior high school in town
to another to where Lauren went. And on the first day that he went there, he was kind of really worried about lunchtime.
He didn't know anybody. So he went into the lunchroom that day and sat by himself.
I guess within a few minutes Lauren had gone over to him and introduced herself and invited him to sit with her, so.
That kind of stuff, and it still makes me cry to think about it, just... I didn't know anybody like that in eighth grade.
Eighth graders weren't usually that nice. When I was in eighth grade, I don't remember eighth grade
being full of really nice people. - That kid will never forget it. I mean, it meant so much to him that Lauren did that.
But that's just what she did. You didn't have to tell her to do anything like that,
she just did it. So to hear all those, you know, stories after the fact, you know, we're just so proud of our daughter
and I just can't even tell you. [dismal music] - [Chris] Lauren Landavazo does not survive.
Makayla Smith is rushed to the hospital and recovers, and a manhunt begins. [quiet music]
This is the area that Lauren and Makayla were shot at. And from what we understand,
they were coming down this sidewalk, walking home from school. And the car pulled up right behind us,
pointed a gun out the window, opened fire and killed Lauren, shooting her 14 times.
Eight of those shots were fatal. [quiet music continues] - It kind of burst my bubble to tell you the truth.
'cause we don't have this in our community. Situations like that happen, you know,
in Chicago or LA or in New York City. Those things don't happen here. But it was a reality check that those things
can happen here in Wichita Falls. [quiet music continues] - Makayla Smith was shot in the chest and she turned around
and she said she could see Lauren laying there and she could see her feet. And she called her name a few times, but she didn't move.
There were kids all around that saw this. This was a very public murder. [quiet music continues and fades]
- There were a lot of children that witnessed the crime that officers had to talk to.
And it becomes difficult because they're so young. [contemplative piano music] You're dealing with 12, 13-year-old children
that had just seen something so horrific that they never expected in their life.
[contemplative piano music continues] - Anyone who's ever interviewed a traumatized child,
particularly one that just witnessed their friend be gunned down and shot in front of them,
knows that it's not something that comes through quickly. Asking the questions alone can be so traumatizing.
A child will just cry and scream and shut down. [contemplative piano music continues]
- We didn't know at the time, but Lauren's friend, Makayla Smith had actually locked eyes with the killer.
[pulsating music] She had a description. He had shaggy brown hair, that he was younger
and he was a white male. So that's what we were looking for. [pulsating music continues]
- We were working very hard to get descriptions out via social media, on air, every avenue,
trying to bombard literally, the community with information so that we could find who did this.
At that point, no one knew if he was still out there. No one knew if he was in the area,
if he'd gone away, nobody knew. - Makayla saw him right in his eyes. And that's what she recalls, you know.
Thank God she had that information and thank God she survived. How many people in town have shaggy hair
and they're young men? I mean, tons of 'em. - They didn't have any leads, for one thing.
They had two different description of vehicles, you know. A black truck and a SUV, different color.
That's about all they had. - The police alerted the community about the vehicles
and let us know if you've seen any vehicles matching either of the black truck with the chrome
or the gold SUV. We had no success on that. - There was an appetite to get this guy behind bars
as fast as possible. I'm not kidding, everybody was looking for that car. They wanted justice done.
[haunting electronic music] - By Sunday, around 11 o'clock, I received a call from the Sergeant Detective.
He thought that Makayla Smith might have gotten a good enough look at him. They might be able to employ a sketch artist.
In 24 years, I've never okayed that. And for the first time, because we had nothing to go on,
I said, "Yes." [haunting electronic music continues] - Sketches in crimes could be an asset
if the description is clear and accurate. And you can get a description out that people
can actually visualize and help police getting them to a suspect a lot quicker. But could also come with a lot of risks,
if your witness is misremembering something. And that now becomes canonized in this sketch
and people immediately assume that this sketch is accurate. In this case, the primary witness was a child.
And so when accuracy of the description and the impact on the public is so paramount,
there was a lot riding on this poor, young, traumatized girl. [tense music] - Within an hour of me okaying a sketch artist,
unbeknownst to me, a woman and her fiance were going to look at the makeshift memorial
that people in the community had made. And about that time, a gold SUV slowed down
and stopped and then continued on. And it matched the description of one of the suspect vehicles.
[tense music continues] They ended up following that gold SUV and a young white male
with shaggy hair got out of his vehicle and he looked nervous and he was looking around.
Went to the passenger side and retrieved an item, which was a long item wrapped in a blanket
and what they believed to be the end of a rifle sticking out of that. [pulsating music]
He came out without that item that looked like a rifle wrapped in a blanket. And so she called 911 and they asked her
to take down the license plate, which she did. So then she calls that into dispatch.
And it's a suspect that matches the description of Makayla Smith. And there's reasonable suspicion to pull that vehicle over,
that that might be the suspect. [pulsating music continues] - So there was a police officer that was just down the road
that heard the call, that immediately got behind the vehicle, followed it for a minute,
and then pulled it over on a traffic violation. [sirens wailing] [pulsating music continues and fades]
[eerie music] - The patrol officer asked for consent to search the gold SUV, which the driver consented
because unbeknownst to the police department, he'd already cleaned out the vehicle.
So the officer searches the vehicle, they find a brass shell casing from a weapon.
And in the meantime he'd found a backpack. He searched it and he found brass knuckles.
And in the state of Texas at that time, brass knuckles were a prohibited weapon.
And so the driver then was placed under arrest. My first reaction was relief because of the safety of the community.
And you just wanna say, "Heck yes. We got him." [anxious music] - We got word there was gonna be a press conference
and the chief was gonna do it. And all I could think was, "They caught him." He's gonna tell us that they've got him.
I just knew it. And sure enough, the police chief came out and said, "We've arrested a suspect and his name is Kody Lott."
[anxious music continues and fades] - [Chris] 20-year-old Kody Lott is arrested after a traffic stop on Southwest Parkway.
Police find a gun, among other things, believed to be evidence that could have been involved in the shooting.
[gentle music] - Two days after, rumors start happening. And I do remember someone coming up with a picture
of this guy, and I am like, "Who the hell's that?" Like, "Who is that?" And she goes, "This is the guy who killed Lauren.
This is him." - The fact that they caught him and the woman who saw him and called the police was all because of Lauren guiding us
and making sure that we got justice for her. To me, that's Divine. And from the moment that this happened,
I feel like I have been guided from above by my daughter. And I know that she had everything to do
with that woman being there at that time to see what she saw. [gentle music fades]
- Kody Lott was not on anybody's radar. He was pretty much a loner. He didn't have a good employment record.
He did drugs and he just was a young male that was dysfunctional. - The process begins as he's taken downtown
and they start to ask him questions. - I did not ... - Kody Lott has the right to remain silent.
He doesn't have to give a statement. He decided he wanted to talk to the detectives
and they asked him about the murder and the aggravated assault. He denied it. And for 45 minutes he lied to the officers.
- [Officer] Then tell me about it now man, because I wanna clear you and get you on your way.
But if it's the opposite... if you were there and you have any information about it,
then tell me right now, man. 'Cause you know, I don't wanna get you hemmed up in something that you didn't have
anything at all to do with. You know what I'm saying? - So, it looks like he knows that he's busted
and he is trying to get himself out of it. But I notice here a detective is speaking
in a very soft voice. He's not yelling, he's not screaming, he's not acting angry in any way.
What he's trying to do is start that rapport going to where the defendant thinks
that they have a relationship enough that he can get him to tell him what he has done.
And if you notice, Kody Lott has his arm crossed, that's defensive. He wants to hide something.
And when the detectives see him opening up, they know it's working. After about 45 minutes, the detectives do their magic.
They're really good at what they do. And they finally saw a way in and ended up getting him to confess to the murder
and aggravated assault. - I saw her. I drove by her in my car like a couple days before and I made eye contact with her
and her eyes looked like gems or something to me. Like that was all, I was like,
"How could someone have such beautiful eyes?" And like I just said, "What's up?" to her as I drove by.
I just, you know, said, "What's up?" I didn't mess with her or nothing, I just drove by her and I said,
"Dude I'm not gonna let nobody else enjoy that." - So you pretty much knew where her routes...
- Oh yeah, I had watched her for about a year, man. For a year, I had seen her walking with her boyfriend.
I hadn't had access to a gun. - For four hours, he talked to detectives about everything.
Everything that had happened that day, everything that had happened since then. - He then ends up slowly confessing to what he did that day,
that Friday that he murdered Lauren Landavazo and injured Makayla Smith. - They stopped in their tracks, is what I'm trying to say.
They stopped in their tracks. And Lauren looked at me like I was joking, or she kind of looked at me like, "Oh, please," you know?
She kind of just like turned her head like that with a kind of smirk on her face.
And that's when I decided, my eyes changed and I just like, felt, I was like, uh huh.
- [Officer] And you fired at her first? - Yeah, I fired at her. And then when her friend was like right beside her man.
I pointed up and I did aim at Lauren, but not at her head. Like, I thought it would jam on me or, you know,
you would think a gun would jam on you. But I was just pulling that trigger as fast as I could.
It sounded like it was da da da. And I shot... - It was hard to fathom everything he was saying.
He was talking like he was proud of it. There was almost a proud presentation, if you will,
from him about when he was shooting her and explaining it to the police. How he was using the gun,
and how he made sure he was in the right place and that he could get the gun out of the window
so he could shoot it. I mean, it was calculated. - After watching the confession
and seeing how cavalier he was in his description of the crime. Describing it, like I would describe
my experience at a vacation. He was almost enjoying it. He's very animated and excited.
He was reliving it quite enthusiastically. - He was telling detectives, he had talked to the devil.
He had said that it wasn't 'a senseless killing'. He was mad about that. He wanted us to report it as an assassination,
a calculated assassination. - In Kody Lott's confession, he talked about having watched Lauren walk home
from junior high, from school for approximately a year. And when she was in seventh grade,
she had a boyfriend and he wasn't happy about her having a boyfriend. - Just get ready man. This is a story, okay?
So just have patience. Let me finish if you don't mind. I've had a problem, you know, with females for a while now.
You can ask anybody I know and they'll tell you, "Absolutely, that's something Kody would do."
They'd say, "Absolutely he is, he has hate in his heart." I'd seen that girl walking multiple times
with her boyfriend. And her boyfriend was just a little punk looking kid that wasn't no man.
So it kind of just sparked a jealousy in me, man. And... - Despite the fact he'd never met Lauren,
he had never met Makayla. They didn't know who Kody Lott was. But he watched them from afar,
from his parents' apartment through the window. And he was a lonely, selfish, terrible person, evil person
that didn't think about anything but himself. His whole confession was really about him.
- It's just all these girls were just ignoring me and disrespecting me. And all I ever wanted was an opportunity
to be respectful and treat a girl right. - It just made no sense to anyone to do that.
He was mad that he was not gonna be her boyfriend. It was just a sick feeling. It was sick to read it, it was sick.
It was sick to report it. I mean, you just didn't feel good at all. It was just upsetting, very upsetting.
- Never heard of him. Total stranger. Kody Lott was 20-years-old. Our daughter's 13, no way.
You know, and they weren't friends on Facebook, on any social media. There was no links whatsoever to this person.
He fixated on her. He watched her walk home from school. He watched her for quite a while apparently,
and planned the murder. - I remember seeing the picture of him, how evil he looked and just like nothing.
He looks like nothing. He's a little coward. If he had tried to take Lauren, you know,
go and grab her and try to take her, she probably would've kicked his arse. But he had the power of life and death that day
'cause he had a assault rifle. [somber music] - We knew that from the time that he was arrested,
that he had some mental health issues. He was diagnosed in 2015 with schizoaffective disorder.
And so from the very beginning we knew we were going to have to look for things like him covering the weapon,
him throwing the weapon in the field, him retrieving it, him lying. We started making a list showing
that Kody Lott knew right from wrong. - We know that Lott had a previous diagnosis
of schizoaffective disorder. So that is a combination of schizophrenia and an affective disorder.
Schizophrenia is a state of psychosis where people typically hear voices or they have paranoid delusions.
And an affective disorder is related to mood. So people who suffer from this either are quite depressed or they're quite manic
or they can be overexcited and disinhibited. But crucially, despite all of that,
I still think he knew what he was doing was wrong because he tried to cover up his tracks.
- Kody Lott told them he drove away from the scene. He got on a highway and he stopped at a field
that he was familiar with, went into the field, hid the weapon in a place he knew
he'd be able to find it later. Then he went to Archer City, which is about 20 minutes south of Wichita Falls.
Met up with the girl he knew and they went to her house and did drugs. It wasn't until Sunday that he went back
and retrieved the weapon, then ended up taking it back to put it back in his stepdad,
I believes, gun locker that was in that apartment. It was clear because of his actions
that he knew what he had done was not right. That it was against civil norms and against the law.
[gloomy music] - Merry Christmas. - Thank y'all. - Love you. - Thank you. - [Bianka] Love you, Prucia.
[camera clicks] [gloomy music continues] - After Lauren had been murdered, nothing was important.
Nothing mattered anymore. Work didn't matter, money didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
[gloomy music continues] - I don't remember much about the funeral. Vern was so busy doing the service
and I was totally outta the picture, honestly. I was in the background. I didn't know really what was going on.
- There's things you have to do. You have to plan your child's funeral. Something you never thought you would have to do,
to plan a funeral. How you're gonna sum up your child's life in an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, whatever?
How you gonna do that? - Had to wait a couple years before the trial happened. I was anxious. I was scared.
You know, I was thinking, "What if they don't find him guilty? What if something's messed up?
What if they didn't do something right?" I mean, I was scared. I mean, I really didn't know what was gonna happen,
the outcome. [pulsating music] - I first saw Kody Lott in the courtroom and he was physically how Makayla Smith had described him.
He was very thin, white, young male. He was 20-years-old, shaggy brown hair. Didn't communicate very much in the courtroom.
And he's exactly the profile of a young killer in Texas that commits stranger offenses.
And I say that because the profile typically, like you have at these school shootings
or these mass shootings, is typically a young, white male. - [Judge] Kody Lott. - They started that trial with children
coming to the witness stand that had seen this happen, which to me is just unfathomable.
But, I think we were all ready for this trial to start. And from the moment that the district attorney,
Maureen Shelton of Wichita County opened her mouth, that jury was ready to listen.
- My concern from the very beginning is that the jury would feel sorry for Kody Lott.
He was a very young offender, he had drug issues. [edgy music] And his mental illness was the major concern.
He was found incompetent to stand trial before the September trial. So he was sent to a maximum security mental institution
to regain his competency before we went to trial, so he could have a fair trial.
- While Kody had schizoaffective disorder, that may have led him to have ideas and think that he needed to kill somebody.
The fact that someone would even have murder on their menu that they could enact,
that has nothing to do with mental illness, that has to do with his need for power and control.
- And treat a girl right. Because I knew this girl was gonna end up drunk, getting raped in a couple years,
and there's all kinds of evil going on, man. So in my mind, I saved her from the evil of this world.
And also it was kind of a sacrifice to the devil because like I've been talking to the devil a lot
and he's the one that told me to do that because I was sitting there with the gun
and I was watching them. I was watching out the window, man, waiting for them...
She had been walking by herself every day. [melancholy music] - Kody Lott gave many reasons.
He said that he was angry because he didn't have a girlfriend. He was angry because he was jealous
because she's so beautiful. He sacrificed her to God so he could have a mansion and all the drugs that he wanted,
as a gift. So he's had a lot of different reasons besides just the devil made him do it.
- Hey, Kody Lott was never able to justify what he had done because it's unjustifiable.
And his statement made it all about him. And that somehow Lauren was his possession,
even though he'd never had any interaction with her and Makayla at all. He was just selfish, you know, and didn't get beyond that.
- When I first saw him, he just looked so scary and evil. He's never said he is sorry.
He's never said anything to Makayla's family or us. [melancholy music continues]
- When we saw him after they had put him into the state hospital, medicated him,
when he came back into court for that first hearing, I was immediately struck by the difference in his face.
He didn't look evil anymore. He didn't have that same evil look on his face. He looked scared, he looked like a scared little boy to me.
That's what he looked like. And I actually felt bad for him that day. I pitied him, I felt bad for him,
until I watched his confession. Until I watched and listened to the doctors talk
about how he still had really no remorse for what he had done. And that's when I knew
that I'll never forgive him for what he did. - On top of all that other evidence that we play,
we also have to play the in-car videos that are in patrol cars that day. And you could hear Bianka Landavazo arrive on scene
and it's that blood-curdling scream the jury got to hear. And it was very emotional.
And that was my strongest piece of evidence, I think, to bring out the emotion of the jury
because they were all parents themselves. And it's emotional and it's the last thing the jury heard
and it brought tears to my eyes. [melancholy music fades] [somber piano music] - The day he was found guilty, we knew it was coming.
It was something that we had known for two years. The only thing that was surprising was how fast it was.
Within an hour, was no time at all, that they were able to come back with those verdicts.
So God bless Tarrant County Juries. - Kody Lott was found guilty of first degree murder
and was sentenced to life in prison. And then he was also found guilty of aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for that. [somber music continues]
- I'm glad that he was found guilty and he did get life. But life in Texas is only 60 years, which I didn't know.
[somber music continues] That's not justice, to me. [somber music continues] - In 30 years he's eligible for a parole hearing.
It doesn't mean he's going to get it, but he can have a parole hearing after he serves 30 years, day for day.
That to me is not good enough. But it's the same law that I was sworn to uphold,
I couldn't do anymore. Lauren was a sweet, kind soul that had he stopped and talked to her and said he needed help,
she would've talked to him. And that's what's so ironic about all of this is she was just such a nice person.
Had he gone up to her, I think she would've talked to him. - Today we are in front of the McNiel Junior High.
This is kind of the place right now in her life where she'd be 20-years-old. But this is as far as she got, eighth grade.
First week of eighth grade is as far as she made it. The spot that we're coming up on is the memorial horse
that they put up in her honor after she was murdered. It was actually not just for her,
it was for Makayla as well. So that makes it kind of special. It's not just a symbol of what we lost that day,
but it's a symbol of... - Hope. - Of hope, yeah. - After Lauren's death, this community rallied.
They came together. They guaranteed that she would not be forgotten. And you know, you can still say her name in this community
and people know exactly who you're talking about. - Lauren didn't get to get married,
she didn't get to graduate college. She didn't get to develop friendships like we all got to develop.
You know, that's tough. That's tough for a community. No parent should bury a young child.
It makes you cherish your family and the time you have with your family. - For parents who are going through what we're going through
to have a murdered loved one, I wouldn't wish it on anybody, and it's difficult.
But I think what's helped us the most is to find the positive. We were able to find that, you know, with Lauren's Law.
It has to do with capital murder in Texas, you have to be under 10 for it to be capital murder.
And we didn't know that until this happened to our daughter. She was 13, so it was not capital murder
and that's why he'll be eligible for parole one day. - Lauren's Law raised the age now in Texas
where if you murder a child between the age of 10 and 15, you are eligible for life without the possibility of parole.
- When I first met Bianka and Vern, they were broken. I watched them sad, I watched them mad.
I've watched them work to be better people, if that's even possible. I watched Vern confront the defendant in the courtroom
and the thing that stuck, excuse me for crying, but the thing that stuck in my mind
was he told the defendant in the courtroom, "Everything you said in your statement was a lie,
except two things that my daughter was beautiful and she was an angel." And he was composed as can be.
And he was a parent that day to Kody Lott in a way, it was just kind of a strange dynamic.
- It's actually not the last picture I have of Lauren, but one of the last. That night is the one where she's going to kiss me
and you can't really see her face in the last picture I have of her. [camera clicks]
- You know, looking back on all that and the way that she lived, and so adventurous and spontaneous and random
and always wanting to go somewhere. It's like she wanted to see what life had to offer.
She wanted to go out and explore. She wanted to try new things. And it's almost, you know, to me, her soul knew.
Her soul knew she didn't have a long time here. That's just how I felt. And so Lauren just lived, you know,
the fullest life she could in a short time. - If the world were full of people like Lauren,
we wouldn't have problems. We wouldn't need laws, we wouldn't need guns. She was just a pure soul.
She was pure love, purest love I've ever met. [camera clicks] Anybody who knew her, knew how kind she was,
how loving she was, that's what she'll always be remembered for. Just ability to bring a smile to your face no matter what.
- Like I told her before she passed, I think she would be helping people. Whether it be a therapist, you know, counselor,
I just really feel like she would've been helping people. I just know she would've done good.
We always told Lauren that wherever you go, that's where we're going and we're right.
We know where she's at now and we're going too. We'll catch up with her. [melancholy music]
- [Bianka] All right, Merry Christmas. Until next year. [melancholy music fades]

On September 2nd, 2016, the parents of 13-year-old Lauren Landavazo never imagined that when their daughter left for school that morning, they’d never see her alive again or that she had been actively stalked by a deranged community member.

While walking home from school with her friend, Makayla Smith, they are attacked, and Lauren is fatally shot. As police investigate, they uncover a twisted tale and a killer whose confession shocks even seasoned detectives.

Murdered At First Sight is a true crime documentary series that tells the first-hand stories of the most complex and hard-to-solve homicide cases: murders committed by strangers.

Brief Summary

The episode recounts the tragic murder of 13-year-old Lauren Landavazo and the community's response to her death.

Key points

Lauren's Popularity. Lauren was one of the most popular girls in school, known for her caring nature.
Tragic Incident. Two 13-year-old girls were shot, leading to panic in the community.
A Mother's Nightmare. A mother discovers her daughter has been shot and struggles to comprehend the tragedy.
Community Shock. The community bands together in shock and grief after the shooting.
Arrest of Suspect. Kody Lott is arrested after a traffic stop, believed to be involved in the shooting.
Kody Lott's Confession. Kody Lott confesses to the murder of Lauren Landavazo, revealing chilling details of the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You just gunned down my daughter, a stranger, we don't even know you.

2:07WatchSep 18, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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