Women Behind Bars in HD - Season 3, Episode 4 - Lori and Teresa - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: On this episode of "Women Behind Bars," one woman was convicted of fatally stabbing her boyfriend
and dismembering his body. LORI MCLUCKIE: He was screaming, "this bitch is killing me."
I just wanted him to be quiet. That's when I went and got the knife and just started stabbing him.
NATHAN CHAMBERS: People commit murder for a lot of different reasons-- greed, jealousy, anger.
Unfortunately, sometimes people kill because they like to kill. NARRATOR: Then Teresa Roever tells her story.
She allegedly beat a 67-year-old woman and left her to die in a storage shed. BRAD SHANNON: The temperature would
have been 16 to 18 degrees. To be beaten up, pitch black in a shed with no clothing
on, words cannot express how traumatic of an event that might have been. TERESA ROEVER: They said that I had beat up Cleo and buried
her on a neighbor's property. Why would I even bury her less than 200 feet away from someone's door?
It just don't make sense to me. NARRATOR: Two women, two brutal crimes. These are the stories of Lori McLuckie and Teresa Roever.
[THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the early morning hours of May 27, 1988, police made a gruesome discovery inside an apartment building
on the corner of 18th and Franklin. NATHAN CHAMBERS: When they got there, they found what was left of Andrew Vigil's body.
It was a horrific scene. No arms, no legs, just torso and head. NARRATOR: Fast asleep in the other room
was 27-year-old Lori McLuckie, Andrew Vigil's on again, off again girlfriend of more than two years.
Lori admitted that she stabbed Andrew, but only after he allegedly attacked her.
She then cut up his body in an attempt to hide the killing. I was sick to my stomach.
I couldn't believe that somebody could do something like that and eat and sleep and go to work.
NARRATOR: Lori was arrested and charged with murder. Then came the search for the rest of Andrew Vigil's body.
MITCH MORRISSEY: Around her apartment house, there are different alleys and dumpsters.
We found packages, tinfoil wrapped around different parts of Mr. Vigil's body. NARRATOR: From Lori came a chilling account
during the trial. LORI MCLUCKIE: It was horrible. What the f have I done? So I put something over his face,
and I just forced myself to do it. There are some crimes that even a layperson can look at
and just say, that's crazy. No one in their right mind could do those kinds of things.
NATHAN CHAMBERS: People commit murder for a lot of different reasons. Unfortunately, sometimes people kill because they like to kill.
And I was always suspicious that Lori McLuckie fell in that category. NARRATOR: Was Lori McLuckie defending herself
when she fatally stabbed and dismembered Andrew Vigil, or did she sadistically kill him in cold blood?
My parents, who had been raised in New York City and they already had two children, they had just
been able to buy this house. And they moved in, and I was born nine months later.
NARRATOR: For the McLuckie family, life in suburban New Jersey was comfortable. My dad was an executive for AT&T. We were well off.
Money was never a concern. NARRATOR: Even from a very young age, there were signs that Lori was academically gifted.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I remember that I was crying one day because I wanted to go to school.
And so they did some testing, and I started kindergarten at age 4. NARRATOR: Lori had trouble fitting in socially.
Outside of the home, I was very shy, pathologically shy. BOB MCLUCKIE: Lori was always the quiet one, just kind
of a loner I guess you'd say. NARRATOR: In high school, there was no escape for Lori, who still struggled to make friends.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I was voted most quiet in my senior class. I was a nerd. I was teased a lot.
LOIS SILLAMAN: She expressed some significant anger toward the kids who had really put her down
and bullied her a lot. NARRATOR: By the end of her senior year in 1979, Lori couldn't wait to leave New Jersey.
My plan was to go to college and become a famous writer. That was my plan. I started college in September of 1979
at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. I felt that I was going to a place where nobody would know what I'd been like before,
and I could basically reinvent myself. NARRATOR: During Lori's freshman year at college,
she had a relatively easy time making friends for the first time in her life. She also started dating.
We were sitting around with some friends. He came over, and I said something about Bob Dylan.
And he said, you're into Dylan? And that's how we started dating. NARRATOR: By the summer of 1980, Lori had fallen hard for Mike.
We were in love, and we had a great time. When we went back to school the following year,
we found out we didn't have maybe as many things in common. We broke up a few times and then got back together.
And it was very confusing to me. I got very depressed. NARRATOR: Lori says she felt so overwhelmed by her emotions
she no longer wanted to live. During the fall of her sophomore year, she tried to kill
herself with sleeping pills. LORI MCLUCKIE: I remember feeling like I just couldn't go on another day.
I just hated myself. NARRATOR: In January of 1981, Lori left school and headed back to New Jersey.
She never told her parents about the suicide attempt. After a brief stint as a factory worker,
Lori was accepted to Antioch College, a small liberal arts school located in Ohio's Amish country.
It felt like people accepted me for who I was. That was the best time of my life, looking back on it.
I graduated from Antioch College in 1984 with a bachelor of arts degree in literature.
At that time I decided that I just wanted to go off somewhere where nobody knew me.
NARRATOR: The 23-year-old chose Denver, Colorado. LORI MCLUCKIE: I came to Denver with $200 in my pocket
and a bag of cookies that my mom had made and a suitcase, and that was it. NARRATOR: Lori got an apartment and began
working, first at an insurance company and then a publishing company. But with her college days behind her,
the New Jersey native once again found it hard to bond with others. LORI MCLUCKIE: It seemed like everybody
that I worked with, they all had their own lives. I did start dating, but they were basically losers, people
without jobs, alcoholics. LOIS SILLAMAN: She tended to pick guys that she could feel superior to, which
helped boost her self-esteem. NARRATOR: According to police records in 1984, Lori claimed she was raped by a man she had dated.
MITCH MORRISSEY: According to her, he had beaten her up, forced her to consent to sex.
And we went to trial on it. The jury acquitted, believing that it was not a sexual assault.
LOIS SILLAMAN: It's bad enough to be raped. But then to have to share your story in court,
and then to have the guy acquitted, and basically looks like you're the bad guy.
NARRATOR: The verdict left Lori lost and depressed. Still she turned to male attention
to ease her loneliness. In 1986, she met 22-year-old Andrew Vigil. LORI MCLUCKIE: I met Andrew one day downtown.
Somehow we just started talking, and we started dating after that. We really didn't have anything in common.
I think it was just that he was there, and it was someone to be with. NARRATOR: Andrew worked as a dishwasher at Woolworth's.
According to Lori, who never touched alcohol, Andrew drank to excess. LORI MCLUCKIE: He was a good person to spend time
with, when he wasn't drinking. NARRATOR: Lori recalls one evening when Andrew came to her apartment, drunk.
LORI MCLUCKIE: He just started slapping me. I remember seeing lights flashing. I just kind of went real passive and laid still.
NARRATOR: When "Women Behind Bars" continues-- LORI MCLUCKIE: I told him, I'm going to end up killing you.
I'm going to kill you. And he laughed at me. He didn't believe me. NARRATOR: By 1985, Lori McLuckie was
climbing the career ladder at a publishing company in Denver, Colorado. But personally, the introverted 24-year-old
struggled to make friends and find lasting love. In 1986, she started dating 22-year-old Andrew
Vigil, a local dishwasher. I'd say the first month was really good. NARRATOR: According to Lori, Andrew told her
when they had first gotten together that he had spent time in the Denver county jail for an assault charge,
for allegedly hitting a woman with a belt. The charge, however, was ultimately dismissed.
Lori claims that Andrew was also abusive to her. We stayed together for almost two years.
It was horrible. We would fight all the time. I started becoming not very nice to him.
NARRATOR: Lori admits to lashing out at Andrew verbally, but claims it was he who was in control,
both mentally and physically. LOIS SILLAMAN: He would get very abusive sometimes,
when he had been drinking. One time he took her clothes off and raped her. And another time, he held a knife to her neck.
I hated it while I was in the relationship. But I couldn't see myself out of it.
NARRATOR: Andrew's family denies the allegations that he assaulted Lori, describing
him as a harmless kid who was incapable of hurting anyone. LORIANN JIMENEZ: I have never seen Andrew violent.
I have never heard him raise his voice. I'd never even heard him curse. He was always so happy.
He was a happy boy. He didn't let nothing bother him. MARY ANN HART: Andy was very, very passive.
He was almost too passive. He would let people tell him what to do. NARRATOR: Mary Ann Hart, who raised Andrew for 10 years
in a foster home, points out another key characteristic. MARY ANN HART: He was borderline retarded.
He could learn some things, but some things he couldn't learn. But he went all the way through special ed.
He brought over to the house. And she was very intelligent. She had a lot of money.
She had a good job. And I just worried about the relationship, because I couldn't understand why somebody would
want to go with somebody that didn't have that type of a background. NARRATOR: Lori claims there was another side to Andrew
and describes him as a master manipulator. He acted like he was stupid when he was around his family.
And in fact, we had some arguments about that. Why does your voice suddenly change?
Why are you trying to act stupid with them, and then as soon as we're gone, you're Mr. Suave?
And he never really had an answer for that. NARRATOR: Andrew's cousin Loriann says if anyone was in control, it was Lori McLuckie.
LORIANN JIMENEZ: He was smitten. He was Colgate smiles, you know, he was so happy with her.
She just didn't reciprocate his feelings. I felt bad for Andrew, because you could
see right through her, to me. NARRATOR: By December of 1997, after two tumultuous years,
Lori and Andrew had broken up. Lori began seeing someone else. In early 1988, she discovered she
was several months pregnant. Although Lori says she had no idea if Andrew was the father,
she decided to tell him anyway. LORI MCLUCKIE: At first he was really supportive.
As I started showing, he never actually hit the baby, but he would threaten to. He'd have me backed up into a corner and say,
I'm going to hit that baby. I'm going to punch you in the stomach. NARRATOR: According to Andrew's foster mother Mary Ann,
he appeared to be happy about the pregnancy, even if the baby wasn't his. MARY ANN HART: When she was about three months,
Andy came over and said that Lori was pregnant. He goes, yeah, but don't worry, Mom.
I'll take care of her, and it will be OK. MITCH MORRISSEY: He had been purchasing Pampers, a car seat,
a crib, things that would help Miss McLuckie take care of the baby once the baby was born.
My sense was that he still cared for the defendant. NARRATOR: Lori says she tried to end the relationship once
and for all. But Andrew kept coming back into her life. LORI MCLUCKIE: He admitted to me that he
had hidden in the bushes a few times and was spying on me. He would tell me I saw you pull up
in front of the apartment building in so and so's car at this time. She saw him as someone who was really
encroaching on her space. I think she felt desperate to get him out of there. And she said she kind of fluctuated between being
suicidal-- but because she was pregnant, she didn't want to destroy the baby-- and being homicidal.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I told him, I'm going to end up killing you. I'm going to kill you.
And he laughed at me. He didn't believe me. He came over to my house about 10:00 or 10:30.
And he was already drunk. He got so drunk that he started yelling at the people on the TV.
And then he punched the TV. And then he threw my cat across the room. And he tipped over a glass top table
and broke the glass all over the floor. NARRATOR: According to Lori, at some point Andrew passed out.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I was afraid that he was going to wake up. So I dragged him and handcuffed him to the radiator.
LOIS SILLAMAN: In her desperation and in her very low moments, she just felt like she had no options.
There was no way out. I think she had a lot of rage that she could unleash in a situation like that.
LORI MCLUCKIE: He woke up. He just started hollering and screaming really loud. "I'm going to get you, you bitch"!
So I stuffed a rag in his mouth to make him be quiet. And he kept spitting it out, and he bit my hand.
And so then I tried to strangle him. And I wasn't strong enough. I had got to the point where, I don't know,
I had convinced myself that I had to do this. People commit murder for a lot of different reasons--
greed, jealousy, anger. Unfortunately, sometimes people kill because they like to kill.
LORI MCLUCKIE: Then I tried to hit him in the head with a hammer, to try to just knock him unconscious.
He was screaming, "this bitch is killing me, somebody help me"! I just wanted him to be quiet.
So that's when I went and got the knife and just started stabbing him. And blood was everywhere.
It was horrifying. I could have backed out at any time. But I felt like I couldn't.
I felt like I was in too deep, and I just had to do this. He had been stabbed 30 some times in the back.
Those blows were so vicious that they had severed his spinal cord, that he would have stopped breathing.
He would have basically been completely helpless. This was an extremely violent way to be murdered.
NARRATOR: Coming up on "Women Behind Bars." LORI MCLUCKIE: I started to cut into the trunk.
And his intestines all popped out. And I thought, oh, my god, I can't do it anymore.
NARRATOR: And later. JOHN SUTHERS: We came upon what was clearly a body in a gunny sack.
This woman had been beaten and then buried. NARRATOR: On the night of May 21st, 1988,
27-year-old Lori McLuckie brutally murdered Andrew Vigil, her boyfriend of more than two years.
I remember screaming, like a high pitched screaming, as I was doing it. It was a nightmare.
I felt like I couldn't stop until he was quiet. I wanted him to be quiet. NARRATOR: Lori, who was five months pregnant,
claims she was in an abusive relationship with Andrew and felt killing him was her only way out.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I looked in the living room. Yeah, it was really true. It really did happen.
So I went and got a towel or a sheet or something and put it over his face and went in the bedroom
and went to sleep. NARRATOR: The next morning, rather than call police, McLuckie left the apartment.
I actually remember walking down the 16th Street Mall and thinking people are looking at me,
and they're looking at a murder. And they don't even know it. NARRATOR: That night, Lori McLuckie
called an ex-boyfriend, Frank Gonzales, asking for help. LORI MCLUCKIE: I told him what I had.
And I remember him telling me, you need to do something. I decided, well, I'm going to cut up the body.
And I'll just get rid of it that way, and nobody will ever know. NARRATOR: Lori used a small hand saw to begin dismembering
Andrew Vigil's body. LORI MCLUCKIE: I did one piece. I remember wanting to vomit.
I just forced myself to do it. Physically I don't know how I did it. Because it was really hard to do, and I wasn't strong.
My plan was to get rid of the pieces as I cut them off in trash dumpsters. And I got the arms and legs cut off.
I think she disassociated quite a bit prior to the murder and then continued to be disassociated for a while
afterwards. She just saw him instead of being a human being, someone she had a hard time getting rid of.
I believe it was a planned murder, just cold-blooded. NARRATOR: Over the next several days, Lori went to work by day
and continued dismembering Andrew Vigil's body by night. LORI MCLUCKIE: Thursday night I started to cut into the trunk,
and his intestines all popped out. And by this time, it smelled really bad. And I was spraying Lysol, and I was wearing a mask.
And I thought, oh my god, I can't do it anymore. NARRATOR: People who knew Andrew Vigil began to suspect
that something was wrong. MITCH MORRISSEY: When Mr. Vigil failed to come to work,
the manager went to the police. He filed a missing person's report. Miss McLuckie in the meantime was going around, knocking
on doors, asking people if they had seen Andrew, knowing full well that Andrew was dead on the floor
of her living room. NARRATOR: Police reports show that Lori contacted Frank Gonzales one more time.
MITCH MORRISSEY: She asked him when he shot a deer or an elk how you would cut up the body.
And then she asked if he had a chainsaw. And at that point, now, he was armed with the information
that Mr. Vigil was missing. NARRATOR: On May 26, 1988, five days after the murder,
Gonzales called Denver police. Within hours, authorities stormed Lori's apartment.
LORI MCLUCKIE: When they broke my door down with a battering ram, I was actually relieved.
Because I remember thinking I don't have to deal with that anymore. Over in the corner, next to a radiator, wrapped in plastic,
is where they found the body of Mr. Vigil. His arms had been cut off at the shoulders.
His legs had been cut off basically at the groin area. And he was laying on top of a shower curtain.
This was a very methodical process. NARRATOR: Lori was taken into custody and charged with first degree murder.
Meanwhile, police began the search for Andrew's body parts. NATHAN CHAMBERS: They found pieces of Andrew Vigil that
had been hacked off, wrapped in aluminum foil very neatly and then deposited in trash dumpsters around her home.
A foot here, an arm there, a piece of calf, a piece of forearm. On one of them, I believe there was a handcuff
attached to a piece of the arm. NARRATOR: The 27-year-old was assigned a public defender
and evaluated by Dr. Lenore Walker, an expert who concluded that Lori was the victim
of battered women syndrome. DAVID LANE: This is a very skilled, trained psychologist who said, yeah, she fits the mold,
she fits the criteria. And so that became part of what would have been an important defense.
NARRATOR: A psychiatrist also determined that Lori was in a psychotic state during the time of the murder.
DAVID LANE: I think there was abundant evidence that she had serious mental health issues, where she really did
not know what she was doing. She had one of the clearest cases of not guilty by reason of insanity that I've ever seen.
NARRATOR: According to Lori, rather than plead not guilty by reason of insanity, the McLuckie family
dismissed the public defender and hired a private attorney who urged her to claim she
killed Andrew in self-defense. In August of 1998, while awaiting trial, Lori gave birth to a baby boy.
My water broke one night. And I told the officer. And they took me to Denver General,
and I ended up having him by Cesarean. I held him with handcuffs on. NARRATOR: Lori put her son up for adoption.
Seven months later, the trial got under way. The prosecution challenged Lori's story
that she felt physically threatened on the night of the murder. MITCH MORRISSEY: The crime scene showed us
that this wasn't the scene of a brutal fight or some kind of abuse. There were no knocked over tables.
There was no blood in other parts of the house. There was no indication that there had been any attack.
NARRATOR: Prosecutors also pointed out that the handcuffs found around Andrew's wrist
had been double locked. MITCH MORRISSEY: Miss McLuckie testified that there was no way
that she could have double locked the handcuff because she didn't know enough about handcuffs
to be able to double lock it. I believe Miss McLuckie talked Mr. Vigil into taking off his clothes, handcuffing himself.
It would be some kind of a sex act. He rendered himself helpless. And then this woman stabbed him over 30 times.
LORI MCLUCKIE: When he said guilty, I looked at my parent's faces. And they were just white.
LORIANN JIMENEZ: They tried to depict my cousin as this horrible person, and that poor little Lori
was defending herself. And so when the verdict came in, I was thankful to God. I was thankful that Andrew got his justification, really.
NARRATOR: Lori McLuckie was sentenced to life in prison. Lori was sent to Colorado Women's Facility
in Canon City, a maximum security prison. For Lori, incarceration felt like a part of her died.
LORI MCLUCKIE: Not allowed to touch anyone. As a woman, I'm not allowed to show any kind of nurturing
side to my personality. So that side of myself was completely shut down. NARRATOR: 14 years into her sentence, Lori
became involved with the prison's dog program. LORI MCLUCKIE: It's unconditional love.
The dog's not going to judge me. She doesn't care what I'm here for. Sit. Good job.
Yes, that's a good girl. NARRATOR: For the last 18 years, Lori has also undergone intensive therapy with private counselor Lois
Sillaman. She has made some giant strides. She's matured a lot. I don't see her as a danger at this point.
NARRATOR: Attorney David Lane is appealing to the governor of Colorado for clemency.
He argues that Lori's trial attorney denied her the right to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
DAVID LANE: What I would like to see is her sent to the state hospital. What we're trying to get for Lori McLuckie
is justice, not vengeance; treatment, not punishment. NARRATOR: Former prosecutor Nathan Chambers
maintains that Lori McLuckie was completely sane when she killed Andrew Vigil and attempted
to dispose of his body. NATHAN CHAMBERS: Legal insanity is a mental disease or defect
that keeps one from appreciating the difference between right and wrong. There's no evidence at all that she suffered from insanity.
LORIANN JIMENEZ: I don't even think she deserves to be breathing, quite honestly.
I think that she should meet her fate the same way Andrew met his fate, painful and slow.
LORI MCLUCKIE: I didn't become that kind of a person overnight. It happened over a period of years.
I opened a lot of dark doors, and I walked right into being involved with people I never should
have been involved with and being very narcissistic and arrogant. That's what bothers me the most, that I became so evil and ugly.
NARRATOR: Next up on "Women Behind Bars," an elderly woman is tortured and left to die.
TERESA ROEVER: They said that I had beat Cleo and buried her on my neighbor's property.
NARRATOR: For more information about "Women Behind Bars," go to wetv.com. On July 11, 1994, the El Paso County Sheriff's Department
received an unusual call from someone living in a remote part of the county. JOHN SUTHERS: They'd had a tip indicating that there may be
a dead body out there, or they suspected that a body had been buried. NARRATOR: Investigators and a cadaver-sniffing dog
were dispatched to a ranch belonging to Paul Hogan and June Walker. BRAD SHANNON: And once we got a hit from the cadaver dog,
we knew we had to dig up that area to see whether there was some type of farm animal or a human.
NARRATOR: Before long, detectives unearthed the body of Cleo Lipkins, a 67-year-old mentally
handicapped woman. The victim was wrapped up. The hands and the legs had been found.
It was pretty evident that this person appeared to have been beaten. NARRATOR: Lipkins had been staying with 37-year-old Teresa
Roever and her six children in a trailer on a neighboring property. Days after the body was discovered,
Teresa was arrested, along with June Walker and Paul Hogan. All three were charged with the murder of Cleo Lipkins.
JOHN SUTHERS: I think Teresa inflicted the greatest part of the beating. And it was ultimately her decision to bury the body.
TERESA ROEVER: No, I never beat her. I never mistreated her in any kind of way. We loved her.
NARRATOR: Did Teresa Roever kill Cleo Lipkins in a violent rage and attempt to conceal the body for monetary gain,
or was she framed by the elderly woman's former caretakers? TERESA ROEVER: I thought it was a neat place to grow up.
We used to go to what we call the swimming pool, which was an old fishing place.
NARRATOR: The Brown family didn't have much. But they had each other. TERESA ROEVER: We knew we was poor.
But my mom always tried to come up with a few extra pennies to make things easier.
NARRATOR: The little girl from Muleshoe dreamed of the good life. TERESA ROEVER: I always wanted to be a chef,
having a restaurant, making lots of money, having a good husband that was good to me.
NARRATOR: At age 15, Teresa dropped out of school to give birth to a son, Lonnie.
Then she met a 19-year-old named Willy Hawkins. TERESA ROEVER: My plans were to get an education
and then support my son. But it didn't work out like that. I met another boy named Willy.
And I thought I was in love with him. And he asked me to marry him, and I did. NARRATOR: The honeymoon didn't last long.
When I got pregnant with his first child, he started smacking me around. I had left him a couple of times.
And he would say he was sorry, and I would go back with him. Before you know it, I was pregnant, until I
ended up with four children. NARRATOR: Daughter Tammie was born in 1977. TAMMIE HARRIS: My first memory is
I remember him punching her to the ground, and when she was on the ground, kicking her.
TERESA ROEVER: I had decided that I had enough of being abused. NARRATOR: Teresa and the children went into hiding.
TAMMIE HARRIS: As long as we was in Texas, we had to worry. NARRATOR: Teresa says Willy shot her and even held her hostage
in her own apartment. Willy was threatening to kill me and all the kids this time.
So I ran out of the house, and that's how I met Randy. He came over to save me from Willy.
NARRATOR: Randy Roever lived next door, and the two began dating. Before Teresa's divorce was final,
she discovered she was pregnant with his child. TERESA ROEVER: I thought he would be the type of man
that I could be myself with and not get beat up. I thought he would love me and my kids unconditionally.
NARRATOR: The couple got married and in 1986 moved to Randy's hometown of Colorado Springs
and settled into a mobile home park on the edge of town. Teresa felt like she was finally getting a taste of the life
she'd always dreamed of. TERESA ROEVER: I thought it was pretty neat. We had a swimming pool there in the trailer court,
so the kids could go to the swimming pool a lot. I thought it was pretty nice there.
It was like we could finally rest in peace a little bit, not wondering if Big Willy was going to find us.
NARRATOR: One day, Teresa's husband came home with a proposal. TERESA ROEVER: Randy had seen some ads about land
out east for sale. And he was telling me how much cheaper it would be to live out there on our own land.
TAMMIE HARRIS: We thought that was going to be the coolest thing, more room for us to play in.
NARRATOR: The Roever family moved into a trailer on a newly purchased 40-acre tract
of land in Yoder, Colorado. TERESA ROEVER: We had the old-fashioned windmill. And that was our source of water.
We had kerosene lanterns and heaters. And we had propane heat for the stove. It was like back 40, 50 years.
It's not the life I wanted. But at the time, I thought you had to take small steps
before you take a giant step. NARRATOR: Teresa says about a year after moving to Yoder,
Randy, the sole breadwinner, stopped coming home regularly. She also claims that he would sometimes hit her.
Randy started taking all his money when he got paid on Fridays. Bills started getting behind.
Then when I asked him about money, he started smacking me around. NARRATOR: Teresa was so desperate,
she admits to breaking the law by committing welfare fraud. TERESA ROEVER: When you are faced
with not feeding your children and fraud, you're going to go with fraud. NARRATOR: In October of 1993, things between Randy and Teresa
hit a breaking point. TERESA ROEVER: He started beating me in the face, beating me in the chest.
So I was reliving the same situation I had with my first husband. NARRATOR: This time, Teresa defended herself.
I ended up-- sorry. I ended up taking a gun, and I shot him. BRAD SHANNON: When this incident occurred,
she couldn't take it anymore. And so she elected to defend herself. And she shot at her husband, and she injured him
and ended the event. You've got a husband who's an alcoholic, who's abusive. He's not paying child support.
I can't imagine what waking up every morning, I have to face another day like this.
NARRATOR: That winter, Teresa was more desperate than ever to feed her family. But with several small children at home,
the single mother felt work was not an option. Then three elderly neighbors moved
into a dilapidated shack located on the property next to Teresa. BRAD SHANNON: Cleo Lipkins was a schizophrenic
and had some mental health issues. And she met Paul Hogan, and they became friends.
And their friendship was mutually beneficial, in that Paul took care of Cleo. NARRATOR: The two were joined by Paul Hogan's
girlfriend, June Walker. In exchange for caring for Cleo, Hogan and Walker took a portion of Lipkins's $755 a month social security check.
BRAD SHANNON: I think they tried to take good care of her. But because of Cleo's mental health issues--
she liked to drink a lot, she did not have a lot of control over her actions, her words, she would routinely wet the bed
and sometimes soil the bed-- they had just decided that they weren't going to stand for it.
And in turn, this made her very angry. NARRATOR: Records show that in January of 1994,
Cleo filed a complaint with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. TERESA ROEVER: She said that June was beating her to death.
Knowing that after she made the report Slim and June came down, and she wouldn't go back with them.
NARRATOR: Cleo asked if she could live with Teresa and her children. Although conditions were cramped, Teresa agreed.
In exchange, Cleo would now share her check with the single mother of six. TERESA ROEVER: She would have bought
food when we needed food. She helped buy propane and different stuff to make it easy on all of us.
NARRATOR: Cleo even signed over power of attorney to Teresa. These were desperate times.
But she denies taking advantage of the situation. TERESA ROEVER: I think we showed her love.
BRAD SHANNON: She showed us love too. BRAD SHANNON: Cleo was the goose that laid the golden egg.
As time passed, she tried to get more and more of that money. And I think her intentions became less and less honorable.
NARRATOR: When "Women Behind Bars" continues-- BRAD SHANNON: We dug down about six inches.
And we found what appeared to be a neck and a head. We said, this is going to be a person.
NARRATOR: In the spring of 1994, Teresa Roever was struggling to support her six children.
The family was living in a trailer in Yoder, Colorado, with no running water or electricity.
They were barely surviving on food stamps and a small welfare stipend. TERESA ROEVER: It was less than $700 a month.
I felt like there had to be a better way to make a living for my children. NARRATOR: One thing had recently made life easier,
additional income from Cleo Lipkins. The elderly woman with mental health problems
had been living with the Roevers for months and handing over a part of her monthly social security check.
According to Teresa, on April 13th, Cleo decided to stay home while Teresa and her children
left for Colorado Springs. TERESA ROEVER: We was going to go into town, come back and make dinner, feed the animals, and that's it.
When we left, she was still at home, just sitting in the room on her bed, drinking coffee.
That's the last time I seen her. NARRATOR: As Teresa tells it, days, then weeks,
went by with no sign of Cleo. Although she did not file a missing persons report,
Teresa says she checked in with neighbors, June Walker and Paul Hogan, Cleo's former caretakers.
TERESA ROEVER: June told me that Cleo had went with a guy named Frank, so I believed her, because I had heard Cleo
talk about Frank before, too. NARRATOR: But records show that Teresa continued to sign
for Cleo's check each month. BRAD SHANNON: She's told the people at the check cashing
place that this is my mother. And she used to come with me, and we used to cash these checks.
But she has not been feeling well. TERESA ROEVER: I cashed, I think, two or three of them.
I can't remember exactly how many. NARRATOR: Teresa claims she was saving the money for Cleo.
Before long, a conflict arose between her and June. TERESA ROEVER: June asked me if I had money, and I told her no.
I guess they seen it as I had $700 extra a month. And I wasn't going to give it to them,
because it wasn't mine to give. NARRATOR: On July 11, 1994, three months after Cleo's disappearance, El Paso
County sheriffs received a tip from a man named Lawson Schwaber. The 57-year-old drifter was living temporarily with June
Walker and Paul Hogan. BRAD SHANNON: Mr. Schwaber told Deputy Whipple a story about a woman who had been living out there
by the name of Cleo Lipkins and that that woman was now possibly buried out on the property where
June and Paul were residing. It was decided that some investigators would respond that evening, along with a cadaver dog.
NARRATOR: The sheriff's bloodhound picked up a scent almost immediately. BRAD SHANNON: After the dog had a hit,
we dug down about 6 inches. JOHN SUTHERS: We came upon what was clearly a body in a gunny sack.
It was very apparent that this was a relatively small woman. She had been bound in a way that literally took
up maybe 3 and 1/2 by 2 feet. NARRATOR: The body was identified by the medical examiner as that of 67-year-old Cleo Lipkins.
We had information indicating that this woman had been beaten and then buried. NARRATOR: Investigators questioned
Paul Hogan and June Walker. BRAD SHANNON: Paul and June originally told us the last time they remember seeing
her was sometime in April. And Teresa Roever told them that a boyfriend by the name of Frank had come down to the property
and picked Cleo up and had taken her back to Denver. Teresa basically told us the same story.
NARRATOR: The following day, detectives interviewed Teresa, June, and Paul a second time.
There were inconsistencies across the board. So we asked Teresa Roever to come in and submit to the polygraph.
And the polygrapher indicated that she was being deceptive. Miss Roever decided that she wanted to seek legal counsel,
and the interview was terminated. NARRATOR: Detectives turned to Teresa's 14-year-old son, Theo.
BRAD SHANNON: He was telling his lies, just like his mom had taught him to do. And then, all of a sudden, he just he broke down.
And the tears started coming down his cheeks. And he basically said, they all did it.
They all killed her. At Some point he had decided I'm going to tell the truth and nothing but the truth
and see what happens. NARRATOR: According to Theo, on the evening of April 13th,
Paul and June came to the Roever's home for dinner. After dinner, Teresa had directed Cleo to do the dishes
and was angry about the way she'd gone about it. BRAD SHANNON: Teresa finds out that Cleo is
sitting around, drinking beer. This causes Teresa to get very upset. And she leaves the trailer with June Walker.
An altercation follows. And both of the females start beating on Cleo. NARRATOR: Theo went on to describe the vicious attack
against Lipkins. It continues outside. And then they start taking her clothes off.
They were using sticks, they were using boards. Based on the condition of the deceased at autopsy,
there was contusions in the face, on the arms, legs, rib cage. And then they take her over to a small shed,
and they lock the door. NARRATOR: According to Theo, the elderly woman was left in the shed overnight.
BRAD SHANNON: The temperature would have been somewhere down around 16 to 18 degrees.
To be beaten up, pitch black, in a shed with no clothing on, nothing to keep you warm.
I don't really have words that could express how traumatic of an event that might have been.
JOHN SUTHERS: Theo indicated the next morning, his mother sent him out to get Cleo.
And he found Cleo unconscious. He wasn't sure whether she was dead or alive. NARRATOR: Both Theo and June's testimony shows rather than
call 911, Teresa ordered June Walker to help her get rid of Cleo's body. BRAD SHANNON: They tie her up.
They put the plastic bags around her and then actually put a pillowcase over Cleo's head, once the plastic bags were around her.
And then they'd leave her there for an hour, just to make sure that she is dead.
NARRATOR: According to investigators, the two women dug a shallow grave, not far from June
and Paul's house. BRAD SHANNON: Teresa Roever buried Cleo in the hole and then returned home.
In Theo's interview, he tells us how she threatens him to never say anything about what happened to Cleo.
TERESA ROEVER: They said that I had beat up Cleo and buried her on my neighbor's property.
They said that I buried her less than 200 feet away from June and Slim's backdoor.
Why would I take someone and bury him less than 200 feet away from someone's door?
It just doesn't make sense to me. NARRATOR: Three days after Cleo's body was found,
Teresa Roever was arrested and charged with first degree murder. TERESA ROEVER: I think that he was scared, a 13-year-old boy.
I believe that he was told what to say. I felt sad. I felt hurt. I felt ashamed.
NARRATOR: In the days that followed, June Walker and Paul Hogan were also arrested.
They eventually plead guilty to lesser charges and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
With no physical evidence tying Teresa to the murder, the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony
from her son, Theo. JOHN SUTHERS: It's very difficult to be the key witness against your own mother.
But I wanted this young man to know that he was doing the right thing. This was an abhorrent act, the killing of an elderly woman.
I just encouraged him. I said, Theo, the truth and nothing but the truth. And it was compelling.
NARRATOR: The prosecution also called on June Walker, who claimed Teresa was in complete control
the night Cleo was killed. But defense attorneys argued that their client was framed for a murder that she did not commit.
TERESA ROEVER: I'm here, I think, because I got set up, in a way. I believe that she was trying to save herself.
I believe that another neighbor helped them do what they did. And I believe they all used me as their way out.
To hear the judge say life without parole, it made me more aware that I was going to prison
for the rest of my life. TAMMIE HARRIS: My mom told me that she's innocent, so I've got to believe her.
NARRATOR: Teresa's daughter Tammie, who is now a mother of three, is finally living the life
her mother always dreamed of. TAMMIE HARRIS: I try and be supportive for her. And I forgive her for everything that we had to go through.
I want her to know that I love her, and she's always going to be my mom, and that my kids don't know who she is.
I want her to be happy. TERESA ROEVER: I'm guilty of cashing a check. But I didn't know that she was dead
when I cashed those checks. I regret a lot of things. I regret that my children had to testify.
Mainly, I regret that Cleo is dead.

One woman is convicted of murdering her boyfriend, while another woman shot her husband during an argument.

Brief Summary

Lori McLuckie killed her boyfriend and dismembered him; Teresa Roever was involved in the murder of an elderly woman.

Key points

The Gruesome Discovery. Police find Andrew Vigil's dismembered body in Lori's apartment.
Lori McLuckie's Confession. Lori admits to stabbing her boyfriend Andrew Vigil after he allegedly attacked her.
Lori's Struggle with Mental Health. Experts evaluate Lori's mental state, suggesting she suffered from battered women's syndrome.
Lori McLuckie's Verdict. Lori McLuckie was sentenced to life in prison after a contentious trial.
Teresa Roever's Struggles. Teresa Roever faced severe domestic abuse and financial hardship, leading to desperate actions.
Cleo Lipkins' Murder. Cleo Lipkins, a vulnerable elderly woman, was brutally murdered, leading to a shocking investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just wanted him to be quiet.

Lori explains her mindset during the stabbing.

0:13WatchSep 23, 2014

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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