Women Behind Bars - Season 2, Episode 1 - Denise and Vanessa - Full Episode | Forensic Files

on this episode of women behind bars one woman pled guilty to a bloody killing spree in a local bar
he put the gun right up to his face and told him to get down on the ground when he refused to do it he shot him in
the face he had a dream about robbing the bar and us going to oregon so i was like yeah then vanessa crawley
tells her story she was an alleged accomplice in the senseless murder of a casual friend
the fact that she didn't pull the trigger doesn't mean that she didn't lure al roberts to the car i didn't even want
to go to sleep because every time i closed my ass all i could see was out falling two women two brutal crimes
these are the stories of denise holsinger and vanessa crawley the seaside metropolis of virginia beach
enjoys a thriving tourist industry and a low crime rate but on june 30th 1994 just days before
the july 4 crowds were due a grisly crime rocked the beach community four people were found brutally slain
inside a neighborhood tavern called the which stuck in it was almost like a slaughterhouse in
there and that was our first quadruple homicide that we experienced in the city police
arrived minutes after the massacre but the killers were gone we knew that we had four people dead we
didn't have any witnesses to speak of this was a terribly violent dispatch of four lives
there was something personal in this killing the investigation led to a 29-year-old woman named denise holsinger
a former bartender who had recently been fired from the witch duck inn i'm in shock and i didn't do anything
the case would hinge on detectives abilities to get her to talk and reveal who was responsible for the
killings it was not my ideal to rob the bar without a doubt denise hulsinger was the
spider woman behind it in that interview room with denise there was a presence in there
there was almost a presence of of evil did denise holsinger just play a small part in a robbery gone wrong
or did she orchestrate a ruthless mass murder denise holsinger was born in a small
town near kansas city her parents separated when she was still a baby my father left when i was about a
year old i've never known my real father denise spent much of her childhood with her
grandparents who helped fill the void left by her absent father my grandparents got me through a lot
we'd go fishing and my grandpa taught me how to bait my hook and my love of nature
denise's mother remarried twice and two younger brothers were born at eight years old denise claims her
second stepfather began molesting her i had a daytime dad who you know took us different places
and played softball and stuff and we'd go the games and then i had a nighttime dad
who would come into my room i feel my mother did the best that she could but she just wasn't aware
when denise was 11 the family moved to phoenix arizona at 13 she started running away from home
i was extremely rebellious as a teenager started doing drugs and drinking hanging
out with a rougher crowd life on the streets forced denise to make desperate choices
being a runaway i i had sex a lot to have some place to sleep or something to eat
i feel that the molest led me to be extremely promiscuous because that's all i thought
that love was denise lived at home off and on during her troubled teen years but her rebellious streak kept her on
the streets doing drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd she says she was raped three separate
times the first two times i was raped even the third time it just felt like that's all i was good
for so it really didn't at the time it didn't emotionally phase me i started gaining
weight after the rape the last rape denise dropped out of high school and began exotic dancing to support herself
at 19 years old she moved to tennessee where she met randall holsinger who was in the navy
i was tired and here was somebody who wanted to take care of me he was everything that i had not ever
had in my life he was stable he was clean cut denise and randall married in 1984 and the
newlyweds moved to california where randall was stationed i loved him but i don't think that i've
ever actually been in love i wanted to be a good wife one year into the marriage
denise gave birth to a baby girl i was 21 when i had my oldest daughter i was so scared i remember when she was
little but we had a cradle by the bed and i would sleep with my hand on her because i just knew god was going
to punish me and take my baby because of the person the bad things i had done in my life
i don't think she was ready to be a mother i'm not sure if she ever would have been ready to be a mother i
tried to be the best parent that i could i didn't have good skills denise continued to gain weight
which she says made her self-esteem plummet two years later in 1987 she gave birth to another
daughter and then a son in 1989. as a mom she was indifferent she would sleep and the kids would be up
running around the house or whatever and she'd just sleep my memories of her were
chaotic and very far and few in between and i had to walk myself to kindergarten
denise admits she was overwhelmed as a mother and struggled with alcohol and a prescription drug addiction that fueled
terrible fights with her husband she definitely knew how to push my buttons we'd start yelling to each other
there was a couple times she hit me and you know so i just back off and say okay
you know i gotta go i was very very self-destructive we were separated many many many times
i wish things had been different i wish i had been the person i am now then i'd have pushed harder for
us to have therapy in 1992 randall was transferred to virginia beach virginia both denise and her husband hoped this
could be a fresh start for their family i thought by changing myself i could help the relationship you know i was
about 120 pounds overweight by then he told me for years i was fat dumb and ugly and nobody else would ever want me
well when you get in the argument you say things i'd say things like that and she would say things back at me i mean
it's tight shortly after moving to virginia beach denise underwent surgery to have
her stomach stapled when i had my stomach stapled and i started to lose weight started going to bars drinking and other
men wanted me i just i went wild i went wild it seems like her personality changed a bit and that she started
saying oh look at me i'm so pretty i'm so pretty i lost all this weight i'm so pretty look
at me look at me within months denise left her family and ran off to tennessee with a new
boyfriend she stayed for almost a year i started drinking a lot and doing crystal meth
because of years of listening to my husband you know that i was fat dumb and ugly
there was just something in me a very warped sick part that had to prove that it wasn't true
for my own self-esteem in march 1994 29 year old denise separated from her husband for the last time
she landed a job as a bartender and waitress at the witchduck inn owned by lamban's son lam was a
vietnamese immigrant who had come to the united states to live the american dream
he had just bought the witch duck inn and had opened for business when he hired denise
he's a great husband and he was a great friend we helped each other closing down the
restaurant lamb often brought his five-year-old son to work with him love him usually take joshua to the
restaurant he loved to show off joshua with the customer while working at the witchduck inn
denise met a frequent customer of the bar 32 year old michael claggett he was pretty much
a drifter a little bit of a boozer somebody who was just a shade on the wrong side of the law but
nobody would have raised any kind of terrible red flags my husband cook him food and sometimes bought him a
picture of beer or sting like that claggett lavished denise with the attention she craved
he lived in an apartment complex next to the tavern and the two became romantically involved
michael had a charisma and he was the little boy lost who needed me i think we were obsessed with each other
the sex was good we filled a void in each other just two months into the job denise was
caught stealing she says it was to help michael who needed cash i started drinking on the job dipping
into the till because michael didn't have any money the bar owner lamb had to let her go he fired her and
allowed her to come back and be a customer and he paid for it with his life when
women behind bars continues he approached each one of them and shot him in the back of the head this little
boy was inside that bar when these four people were killed in the summer of 1994 29 year old denise
holsinger says she was living a self-destructive life that stemmed from low self-esteem and
addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs separated from her husband and recently
fired from her bartending job at the witch duck inn denise went on a month-long partying
binge with her boyfriend 33 year old petty criminal michael claggett on june 30th 1994 claggett's birthday
denise and michael spent the day drinking and doing drugs we went to several bars and drank and
drank around 11 p.m that night at claggett's apartment denise claims michael suggested they robbed the witch stuck in
he had a dream about robbing the bar and us going to oregon so i was like yeah michael had a 357
revolver that he had stolen from his roommate he told me to go up to the bar and see
who was there once they got to the front of the witch duck inn denise hulsinger went in first she came back
out and told michael that there was only four people in the bar that he could come in
in the bar that night were the owner lam van sun a part-time cook wendell jr parish a
customer named abdelaziz gren and the new bartender karen rounds asleep in the back office was a fifth person
lamb's five-year-old boy joshua and i went back in i was sitting there drinking a beer and
the next thing i know he jumped over the bar he told me to lock the door he told
everybody to get on the floor and everybody got on the floor but j.r all but one laid down on the floor
wendell j.r parrish stayed in his seat at the bar he put the gun right up to his face and
told him to get down on the ground when he refused to do it he shot him in the face
it was all just a really big blur i got the money out of the register he told me to go out the back door when
i got to the office door i heard the rest of the shots he had everybody down on the ground
and approached each one of them and shot him in the back of the head surprisingly the five-year-old son of
lamb had slept through the entire shooting this little boy was inside that bar when these four people were killed josh
was still sleeping was surprised me josh was very very light sleeper very and all that gunshot
i don't know why he didn't wake up how he survived is still a a question a great debate
michael claggett says denise spotted them and said he's got to be killed too and michael klage said he couldn't do it
denise denies ever seen the sleeping child as they fled out the back door we walked back to the apartment mike
started throwing everything that he had his clothes and stuff in trash bags he he was like we've got to get out of
here we've got to go we've got to go they counted the money they got away with 400 dollars
a hundred dollars a life while denise and michael skipped town and headed to north carolina
customers showed up to the bar just minutes after the massacre the entire homicide unit was called out
on it just because of the sheer scope of the case they couldn't have missed the killers by much you know when
they walked in karen rounds is on the ground with a mortal wound but she's still alive and
so is a bellaziz grand he's still alive karen rounds and abdelaziz gren were rushed to the emergency room both
died shortly after when i got there i said where's my son where's josh and i saw joshua was walking with one of
my customers behind there walking and i said where islam lum's dead and i remember i remember i screamed so
loud i can even hear my voice right now in my head and right at that time i know that i
just lost a best friend inside the bar investigators tried to piece together what happened
it was probably one of the most grisly scenes i've seen as a homicide detective we had wendell parish who was sitting at
the bar and his head was down on the bar and it appeared that he had a single gun shot wound to the forehead
we had the owner of the business lying in the prone position on his stomach he also had a single gunshot wound
to the back of the head this was a terribly violent dispatch of four lives so they
believed there was something personal in this killing we knew that we had four people dead we didn't have any
witnesses to speak of the detectives believe if they don't have a suspect within 24 hours
they're starting to lose it within 48 hours if they don't know where that crime is going there's a
high chance they'll never solve that crime while investigators combed the crime scene denise and michael slept only a
couple hours at a hotel then returned to virginia beach i talked him into going back to
the beach i just wanted to go i want to go home want to go home want to go home by 6 am they were back in michael's
apartment the pair then joined the crowd of onlookers outside the witch duck inn
criminals often do return to the scene of the crime whether it be curiosity or what
both of them had come back to the scene to watch us process the crime scene denise was very
animated was demanding answers as to what we were doing to find the people responsible
she wanted them caught she wanted them punished she was very animated in this and she stuck out in my mind for that
reason when police learned she had recently been fired from the bar they realized it was time to take a
closer look at denise holsinger she was now at the top of their list of suspects
when women behind bars continues michael claggett did not have the capacity to be
a mastermind in this crime michael claggett was led by denise and later that's when he took the gun
out pointed at my head and said this is the only way out our merits so don't f up
on the night of june 30th 1994 four people were slaughtered at a small tavern called the which duck inn
it was at the time the worst mass murder in virginia beach history police suspected that denise holsinger a
former employee of the bar was somehow involved just 17 hours after the murders holsinger was brought in for questioning
they took me to the station self-preservation kicked in and i lied and i lied and i lied and i lied and i
lied and i light some more everybody who sits down across the table from a detective thinks they're smarter
than the police and almost nobody is when i began talking with her probably about a half an hour
into the interview and he's became very flirtatious with me which was very strange especially when i'm sitting
in there and talking to her about four of her friends now that had been shot and killed in a bar
i think he jumped over the bar he jumped over the bar okay okay he did what's he going on
right there i thought it was like all just a joke is everybody else going on the floor
he's going on the floor okay and uh and i looked at him i said well why would michael um kill these people
in this bar trying to show you what a man he was or what is that what he said he did it he shot
these people because you're sexy she'd go back and forth she'd be very angry and then she'd try
to be seductive toward them and she'd be invasive with her questions she would change
she didn't hear any gunshots and she said she did hear some gunshots i don't remember but i didn't see it
i didn't see him shooting anybody she was putting it all on michael nearly 24 hours after the murders
police apprehended michael claggett who was drunk and sleeping in some bushes near his apartment
detective paul yoakam interrogated claggett i told him a lie i told him that that the owner of the bar put little pin
cameras up in the ceiling it's going to show him robbing and killing those people
there were no cameras all of that was a big fat line michael claggett fell for and knew they
would see him in the bar if this was true he gave me a full compassion he broke down
was crying bawling i did it i didn't know the worst thing when he broke down and was telling me
what he had done he was extremely remorseful for what he had done in fact he said that he would like to be
fried right now [Music] though michael admitted to being the shooter and begged to be given the death
penalty he claimed it was all denise's idea they were at his townhouse and they were
having sex on the couch and right after that she was hinting to him that it was navy payday there could be
some money in the witch stuck in and they could sure use some money and if they pulled this off they could
be the next bonnie and clyde those were her words [Music] michael told police he hesitated outside
the witch duck inn having second thoughts she came out to him and said what i've already told you you know there's
only four people in there she kept pushing him to come in and do it once inside the bar
michael claimed he again hesitated but he said every time he looked over to denise holsinger she kept mouthing the
words to him do it do it denise insists she was not the mastermind that claggett made her out to
be i don't even know if michael remembered things wrong i think michael just wanted
to twist things to make me look worse than i was it was not my ideal to rob the bar
michael claimed that he had had a dream about it michael claggett did not have the
capacity to be a mastermind in this crime michael clegget was led by denise at that time in my life i don't think i
was emotionally capable of masterminding anything i didn't want to do it and she
kept saying do it do it i didn't know that anybody was even dead or anything until the next morning michael
was very in control of the situation well between michael clegg and denise hulsinger it's
without a doubt that denise hulsinger was the spider woman behind it michael claggett was largely witless
denise holsinger to michael claggett was a stronger drug than anything he'd ever
tried before i had spent almost about 15 years in homicide total as a supervisor and
interviewed a lot of individuals who had killed a lot of people in despicable manners but in that
interview room with denise there was some other presence in there it was almost a
presence of of evil i can't describe it to you i've never felt it since the interrogations of denise and michael
yielded more than enough evidence to put the two killers away this is a case of phenomenal police work
and this was nothing other than instincts shoe leather hunches and talent when it comes to interviewing
the people involved [Music] virginia's law in 1995 protected denise from the possibility of the death
penalty because she did not pull the trigger it's extremely hard for the victim's
family to be able to accept that fact she didn't pull the trigger but she do all the killing all the
masterminding i believe the knees should be in the ground she should have been executed just like
claggett was before michael clegg get executed his request was to speak to me to ask me for forgiveness i mean i know
i'm gonna die important i want to i'm not even gonna i don't want a lord i just want to die
his last words before he was put to death in the electric chair where that he was sorry virginia allowed
inmates the choice of lethal injection or the electric chair michael claggett chose the electric chair and i can't
help but think that was his last act of punishing himself even further [Music] i feel michael got the easy way out
i deal with it every single day fear disgust shame denise is serving her time at the fluvana correctional center for
women and coming to terms with the fallout from her life choices my life has been a tragedy waiting to
happen she volunteers for jobs that will help others such as transcribing books into
braille for the blind denise has no contact with her three children or ex-husband randall
i hope that someday they will want to talk to me i am grateful that she gave birth to me but i'm not sure if
i love her as of right now i don't want contact with her i can't say 15-20 years down the road michelle
holsinger was eight years old at the time of her mother's crime she is now a college graduate and
studying to be a nurse i do worry a lot that people do judge me for the actions of my mother
i had been told once that the sins of the mother are the sons of the children definitely not true because i apologize
to flies for killing them that i'm very passionate and compassionate person it's not a day that i don't wish i could
change what happened and not because i got caught i'm just i'm sorry i'm sorry next up on women behind bars
a young mother allegedly lures a man to his death he took the gun out pointed at my head
and said this is the only way out our merits so don't f up for more information about women behind
bars go to www.wetv.com in the late night hours of october 23 2004 five gunshots pierced the darkness along
a deserted highway in rural southwest virginia a led police to 911 body of 18-year-old
al roberts dead in a small clearing what we found was a victim first shot was to the chest area
one to the left side of the head one to the right side of the head and it was two in the back area
roberts was last seen alive getting into a suburban truck with three men and a 19 year old woman named vanessa
crawley it appeared to be a robbery gone wrong police apprehended vanessa her husband
christopher crawley and a third suspect lavon rick williams christopher confessed to being the shooter
but authorities suspected he did not act alone she was an accomplice to the entire plan
which led to murder i didn't kill anybody i didn't know anybody's gonna get killed
i was just there there was no question that she played a role the question was how much of a role
was vanessa an innocent witness to her husband's murderous act or did she knowingly lure a young man to
his death [Music] vanessa crawley was born in rural virginia in 1985 the middle daughter of rory and robbie
gail johnson i grew up in clarksonville virginia it's um small town we probably got like two
stoplights my mom and dad separated when i was like two so my dad pretty much raised me and my
two sisters after ending the marriage vanessa's mom moved to kentucky where vanessa and her
sisters visited every summer as she grew up vanessa was involved in her church vanessa was the
the president of the junior choir it was good foundation because i always had a good relationship with
with god at 13 years old vanessa learned that her mother contracted hiv the virus that causes aids from a
boyfriend within a couple of years her mom succumbed to the disease the day before she
passed away i went to the hospital by myself and stayed there with her all day and
that night it was time for me to go and she said she didn't want me to leave and she she reached her hand out to me
and she said i love you i see you tomorrow and when we came back the next day she was unresponsive and she passed that
night so i was the last person she talked to dealing with the emotional part of their
mom being sick i really don't think vanessa had a outlet she bottled up all the inner emotions
vanessa met christopher crawley when she was 17. chris was 18. we talked on the phone for
about three or four months and he ended up coming to my house one day while my dad wasn't there
and that's when i got pregnant i was fierce i was upset i really didn't have no rational thinking going on at
that time jaylen was born october 23 2003 it was the happiest day of my life the
18 year old embraced motherhood she was a very good mom she always loved this love to give him a bath and she played
with him she was a very very good young mother chris the baby's father joined the army
my purpose for joining the military was to take care of my family and i considered us a family but the
young couple's relationship was already plagued with problems he was an alcoholic he drank on a
regular all day every day i used to get a lot of fights when i was younger because i always thought people would
have to get me i've been back and forth with mental health since i was 12. and i stopped treating me when i went to
the military against her father's advice vanessa married chris in december of 2003.
i really feel that he had some kind of strong hold on her that actually pulled her away
from her family and pulled her closer to him vanessa and baby jalen moved to georgia where chris was
stationed when i got down there he started abusing me he's a very abusive person i've seen him
like when she was pregnant i've seen him push her down to the floor i was always scared of him
because he would hit me for no reason he beat her she wanted to get out and she told me one time it was like she
couldn't the abuse pushed vanessa to a breaking point borrowing a friend's gun she says she was ready to kill chris one
night while he slept i was standing at the doorway when i pointed the gun up that's when the neighbor started
knocking on the door i was going to shoot him and come back to virginia but god saved him that day the couple agreed
to live apart for a while in september 2004 vanessa moved back to virginia and into the home of chris's
grandmother but chris came to visit often and the two continued their rocky relationship
both admit to cheating on their marriage and the resulting fights turned violent he would choke me up pull
me out the car around my neck she loved me but at the same time she was afraid of me
i was putting up with it just to keep my family together her choices that she made some were good
some are bad but that was the worst mistake that she made was being with him he claimed that he was in a gang is all
he talked about on saturday october 23 2004 chris crawley drove up from his army
base to celebrate his son's first birthday he brought along a friend lafon rick williams he
also brought a nine millimeter handgun he recently purchased that night after the birthday party
vanessa says chris threatened her with the gun i was sitting in the car talking to him
and he was like you know anybody i can get some money from i was like this dude named greg davis
he told me if i ever need anything all i had to do was ask vanessa claims chris gave her an
ultimatum and that's when he took the gun out pointed at my head and said this is the only way out our merits so
don't f up after that i said let's go find greg davis that's when i really knew that he was
serious and that he would hurt me if i didn't do what he wanted me to do or told me to do
vanessa and chris cruised the streets of chase city looking for greg davis also in the car were two of chris's
friends lavon rick williams and joseph pickett as well as vanessa's one-year-old son
they were looking for a particular drug dealer to rob that particular drug dealer was not at
home vanessa claims that chris then hatched a new plan he was like okay well go find somebody else they went to
the tasty freeze area of chase city where there was a group of men out there vanessa got out
and asked to buy some marijuana i like faith like i wanted some marijuana just so
somebody would come with me that somebody was al roberts also known by the nickname black al
roberts was 18 years old thought he was being given a ride home with the intention of selling them some
marijuana he got in the car with me on the passenger side because my husband was in the back
vanessa claims chris ordered her to drive down spanish grove road and stop along a deserted stretch
my husband got out i wanted to get out behind him joseph pickett along with vanessa and
her baby stayed in the vehicle my husband had a blue bandana over his face and lavonda had a black one over his and
they told black al roberts to get out put his hands up told him put everything he had on the hood
mr roberts put everything on the hood he only had one dollar and a cell phone that's all i've got man
i knew he was scared because of the look on his face next thing i know he holds his chest and
as soon as he do that i put my head down because i didn't want to see no more crawler shot him in the chest he spun
around he started falling and my husband had shot him like five times and it wouldn't say is that the
last shot he heard was mr crawley leaning down and one last shot when women behind bars continues the
prosecutor tried to say that i was cold-hearted she didn't have anything to do with her
husband's actions he killed that boy on a chilly october night eighteen-year-old al roberts accepted a
ride home from vanessa crawley and a car full of men they drove him to a patch of woods
off a secluded highway vanessa claims she watched in horror as her husband chris crawley and accomplice
levon rick williams allegedly pulled the victim from the suburban robbed him then shot him five times point blank
i was like shocked for one because i never thought my husband would do that after the shooting vanessa drove to a
nightclub and dropped off joseph pickett then the group went home chris and lavon
rick went to sleep but vanessa says she couldn't i read some bad word and i just sat in the up
for a couple hours joseph pickett immediately called 9-1-1 to report the murder he had just watched
happen before his eyes dispatch called me on october the 24th approximately 5 o'clock in the morning
the murder occurred just a few miles outside of chase city vehicle made a loop into this field pulled back around
facing the woods and the victim was found lying in this general direction face down
victim was shot five times we recovered five shell casings here at the scene police rushed to apprehend the three
suspects and took them to the mecklenburg county sheriff's office for questioning
while we were speaking to chris and vanessa as well as lavondrick they changed their
stories a few times vanessa admits she lied to police in her first statements because she was scared and trying to
protect her husband my first statement i told them that i would tell them that i shot them
before i told them they did but eventually she decided to tell the truth she was terrified and and she was
basically trying to tell them something so it would all be over with what she had told in the statement was
that chris instructed her to do this we discovered that she also helped lure mr roberts into the vehicle and she knew
that a robber was going to occur chris ultimately confessed to shooting our robbers
all three defendants were held in separate jails pending trial there would be no holds barred in this
prosecution the prosecution wanted convictions of all three of these people chris crawley chose to forgo a trial he
pled guilty and was sentenced to 60 years but vanessa and lavon rick would take their chances in court
john greenbacker was the defense attorney for levon rick williams who claimed he was outside of the
vehicle vomiting at the time of the shooting they had been drinking a huge amount of
alcohol and all that booze is making him sick to his stomach and while he was there he vomited
next thing you know he hears all the shooting going on towards the front of the car
doing the walk around i did not see any evidence of any vomit now granted it was raining at lavon rick
williams trial chris crawley backed up william's version of events presence at the scene
of a crime does not make you an accessory but vanessa maintains it was a lie the truth is that he got out right
behind my husband and was standing right beside him when he robbed him he never went to the back of the truck
the jury believed williams and acquitted him of first degree murder charges now it was vanessa's turn to face the
jury it had been two and a half years since the crime and vanessa's father believed she was
already convicted by the local press when the newspaper was printed from week to week
they were saying that she was guilty so how you going to find a fair jury within a 200 mile radius
the prosecutor tried to say that i was cold-hearted because i didn't cry when vanessa was explaining her side of
the story she was hard to believe i didn't see the remorse they might have felt like i didn't have
no remorse but i think it's because it took so long for them to try me so when the time comes for me to go to
court it's like i can't cry chris crawley took the stand chris admitted that he pulled the
trigger i think he was trying to take the blame away from vanessa at this point vanessa didn't know i was going to kill
him because i didn't know i was going to kill him the fact that she didn't pull the
trigger doesn't mean that she didn't lure al roberts to the car that she didn't know their robbery
was going to occur the law says if you knowingly participate in a robbery and there is a fire
arm involved and if it leads to murder then you're an accomplice to the murder she had made statements
implicating herself i believe that her goose was cooked i don't i don't think i got a fair trial
she had no one called on that stand in her path they would have been able to give key
information about how chris actually dominated her abused her key people that could have spoke up on her
character i felt like i was about to pass out i couldn't believe that they had found me
guilty virginia is pretty much a law and order state i don't think that people are very
forgiving about crime especially violent crime the guilty verdict hit vanessa's family
hard i still ray to this day no deep down in my heart that she didn't have anything to do with
her husband's actions he killed that boy and they still convicted her of 33 years
in prison for something that a husband did she was protecting herself and her son
that night he put a gun to her head how can you say no to somebody who does that and your child
is in the car this is not fair at all for somebody to be as young as she was uh a
a first-time offender it shouldn't just been the hammer dropped on 33 years before vanessa is a lifetime
there was no need for this crime to have happened victim was only 18 years old mr roberts
only had a one dollar bill and a cell phone he was shot for nothing and killed for
nothing chris basically ruined my sister's life and he ruined part of mine too because i
can't sit here out anywhere and have a conversation with my sister nothing's going to take
the place of val robbins but the victim you know the thing the victim's family has closure
that the perpetrators have done to us is in jail vanessa was sent to fluvana correctional
center for women and is still haunted by what happened that october night in 2004
literally weeks after that happened i didn't even want to go to sleep because every time i closed my ass all i
could see was out falling it hurts it still hurts today i think about owl a lot because i know he got sisters
and two brothers and i think about them too and they're lost vanessa and chris's son jalen is now
five years old and lives with vanessa's father it was hard not being around him when you're used to him being there with
you all day every day me and my wife we keep in the church and we raise we rate him up with some mores and
some values to be a different and a better man the way his father is i just hope that he'll be successful
in his life vanessa tries hard to stay connected to family being away from my family
that's hard that's all i ever knew she is still married to chris and they write to each other while
incarcerated we just thought about communicating because i really wasn't talking to him
but now he wants to stay with me work it out and be a family vanessa harbors regrets
but holds out hope that she can come home soon i regret letting him have my control over me i
regret driving that night and i'm gonna fight and keep fighting until somebody hears
my side of the story

Brief Summary

Denise Holsinger and Vanessa Crawley share their stories of involvement in brutal murders and the consequences they face in prison.

Key points

A Bloody Killing Spree. One woman pled guilty to a bloody killing spree in a local bar.
The Witch Duck Inn Massacre. Four people were found brutally slain inside a neighborhood tavern called the Witch Duck Inn.
Denise Holsinger's Troubled Past. Denise's childhood was marred by trauma and rebellion, leading to a life of chaos.
The Night of the Murders. On June 30th, 1994, Denise and Michael committed a robbery that turned deadly.
Denial and Deception. Denise lied repeatedly during police interrogation, claiming innocence.
The Presence of Evil. Denise Holsinger describes an indescribable feeling of evil during an interrogation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I didn’t do anything, I’m in shock.

Denise Holsinger's reaction after the crime.

2:06WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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