Women Behind Bars - Season 4, Episode 6 - Confessions From Death Row - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] hell have no fury like a woman's goal it would start getting pissed off at him so i just
emptied both guns into him they did really bad things to get drugs i killed a man i blew his face off
if if that's vivid enough for you cannibalism is not my choice i was young i was beautiful i had the
whole world in front of me the people here are miserable it's a struggle in here every day
i'm sitting on the death row how do you accept that i got my chance and i blew it
[Music] on this episode two criminals and for the first time a death row inmate tells all
she is one of only 63 women awaiting execution people have no idea what death row is we
come out three times a week we are locked down 24 hours a day two intimate confessions you did want
her to suffer so you tried to break her neck and i kind of know that i was shaking so
bad i didn't stop because i was mad they kept hitting her they started bashing in her head two shocking crimes
they taped the bag around her neck she begged for her life she was obviously struck with that concrete block her face
was totally smashed in [Music] my name's amelia carr and i was convicted of first degree murder
and i've been sentenced to death the north central part of florida is prime horse country
here manicured equestrian farms are surrounded by nature that's both beautiful and lethal
it was in this remote and sparsely populated area of the county where what first appeared to be a
missing person's case would reveal a tangled web of obsession betrayal and murder in march 2009
the marion county sheriff's office received a report that a wife and mother of two small
children had suddenly disappeared as soon as i read the report i knew something wasn't right heather had been
missing approximately 30 days 26 year old heather strong had not been seen since february 15th
after she left her job as a waitress at a local truck stop but when she went silent her distraught
family in mississippi called authorities i had a feeling that that something bad had happened she had kids
she was married she just fell off the face of the earth what ray's suspicions was that strong's
husband josh fulgium had failed to report his wife missing and was using her debit card
josh was accessing the money on her account when we first approached josh it was what was me my wife just took off
she abandoned me and the kids she would never just disappear and leave her kids josh and heather had been together 11
years but had only been married two months and had recently separated police then discovered that josh fulgin
had another woman in his life 24 year old massage therapy student emilia carr she was married twice she had two
children with her first husband she had another child with another man when detectives met with carr
she was eight months pregnant with her fourth child and the father was josh fulghim while carr was
questioned about heather's disappearance she tried to downplay her connection to
josh as she described it what they had was merely a fling i lived with josh for about three months
but police learned that emilia and josh were actually living together after heather went missing josh and
emiliac moved in together at the pine grove mobile home park emilia told detectives that heather had
gone back to live with her parents in mississippi i'd hear josh's daughter say daddy's mom gonna call tonight and he'd
tell her no baby she called while you're at school so i'm assuming everything's fine but
family and friends were adamant that heather was a devoted mother who would never abandon her children she
loved her kids she'd do anything in the world for them heather always had a smile that you
never forgot i used to call her my moon face girl in contrast folks had a different
opinion about heather's husband 27 year old josh a cold hearted no good worthless
some other words i'd use but i won't piece of garbage he was someone who had a temper
he was known for being a bully josh and heather met when they were teenagers in heather's hometown of
sturgis mississippi a few years later the couple moved to florida they had two children
and a long list of problems your standard dysfunctional on and again off again type relationship
he was just very controlling very abusive it was always like that from a year into
the relationship i said heather you keep going with josh you're gonna wind up dead but eventually heather did listen
and by february of 2009 she declared her marriage to josh over she was planning to leave the state with her two kids to
go back to mississippi she had told josh she was taking the kids and was leaving
i told her heather why would you tell josh you were going to take the kids and leave
he will kill you heather heather left work on february 15th and that was the last time
anyone would see her alive when she didn't show up for her shift the next day her friends knew it meant trouble i knew
that josh had something to do with it i knew it was him detectives too shared a gut
feeling that josh fulgum knew something about his wife's month-long disappearance
and brought him in for questioning we had been in an interview with josh for hours as
detectives were tightening the screws during his interview josh finally broke down
he denied any involvement in heather's disappearance but told police he had information about
the location of her body josh blatantly just came out if you let me go see my mom
i will tell you where heather is it was a big breakthrough and it was okay get the cars ready let's go now
before he changes his mind josh led authorities 20 miles north of ocala to a secluded run-down home
owned by none other than the family of his girlfriend emilia carr behind the property was the
an old single wide mobile home that they use as storage next to the storage trailer police found
a pile of fresh debris and beneath it a shallow grave police then dug up the decomposing body
of heather strong stuffed into a duffel bag that was covered by dirt and plywood
the missing person's case had just become a homicide coming up detectives haul emilia carr back in for
questioning josh and emil you put a plastic bag over her head they taped it around her neck
she was begging for her life heather knew she'd probably never leave that trailer alive
and later murder off the reservation she was obviously struck with that concrete block
her face was totally smashed in on february 15 2009 heather strahn wife and mother of two was last seen
leaving her waitress job at a truck stop one month later heather's husband josh fulgam
broke down and led police to the location of heather's body the corpse was buried in the backyard of
fulgam's girlfriend 24 year old emilia carr while the crime scene was still being processed
detectives questioned emilia i was at disbelief there was a body back there but police weren't buying it
we have heather's body found on amelia's property she definitely knows a lot more than
what she's telling us emilia claimed that despite being involved with heather's husband
she and the victim had been on good terms heather and amelia had a friendly relationship amelia used to care for her
children we had the children in common we got really close in the summer of away but those who knew
them both tell a different story heather and amelia were not best friends they were rivals emilia wanted josh
josh would always go back to heather because of the kids it seemed as if josh always had
heather on one side amelia on another side amelia needed to eliminate the competition
today emilia rejects that theory and insists that she never loved josh or any of the other men she ever dated i
don't get emotionally attached to men i've never been faithful to a man according to emilia
her inability to bond with men stepped from alleged sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father
and grandfather the abuse the abandonment and neglect started when amelia was very young
my childhood consisted of responsibility [Music] secrets and sexual perversion emilia says when she was five years old
she endured horrific sexual abuse that lasted for years i remember at night there's this board that creaks right
before you get to the door and i could be in a dead sleep and you'd hear that border creek
and all you could think was who was it going to be tonight that made me feel bad as a mother i felt
like i felt her the abuse continued i was 15. emilia says she suffered in silence
because she was protecting her baby sister my younger sister was born with 13 birth defects i had
spina bifida so i had lots of problems amelia looked after me my whole life amelia was
in the mother position she took care of milagro and all of her ailments my father was arrested when i was 15
because i finally spoke out i couldn't let it happen to my sister while awaiting trial behind bars
emilia's father attempted to have her murdered amelia's father solicited a cellmate
to kill the family so that they would not be a witness against him but the plot was discovered and her
father was convicted of solicitation to commit murder he was sent to prison for two years the
sexual abuse charges were ultimately dropped living in a small town is really hard
what my father did everybody knew everybody talked about it humiliated emilia dropped out of school at 15. by
17 she'd given birth to her first son and was married my um first husband was actually really good to me and i
couldn't be the woman he deserved she was taking my car sleeping with people amelia is a liar
that's all i can say after two kids the marriage fell apart and they divorced i've had several unsuccessful
unemotional relationships with men usually within the first couple weeks i get tired and i just start
being promiscuous she's had a very hard time trusting men but she really wanted to be loved
twenty-three-year-old emilia met josh fulghim through friends they would periodically hook up whenever josh was
having problems with heather in the summer of 2008 emilia got pregnant with josh's child
and while separated from heather josh proposed a month later when josh and emilia had a
falling out josh reunited with his longtime on-again off-again girlfriend heather strong and married her instead
heather was absolutely beside herself when he gave her that ring and they got married but he went right
back to the same way emilia claims that she and heather often commiserated with one another over josh
he'd beat her with the belt and told her try to leave now the kids are half mine no matter where
you go i can come get them and she said she felt like that's the only reason he married her
just days after their wedding heather filed a domestic violence complaint josh was arrested for pointing a shotgun
at her in early february heather dropped the charges and josh was released after
serving a month in jail less than two weeks later heather went missing as detectives learned more about the
twisted love triangle they were certain they had a motive for murder the people with the motive were josh and
amelia josh didn't want to lose his kids and he just thought that he could get rid of the problem
amelia loved josh and heather was just a block that she had to get rid of after hours of questioning josh led
detectives to heather's body despite initially stating he had nothing to do with his wife's murder
he finally admitted to his part in the killing but claimed emilia was the one who actually killed heather
he confessed to everything and gave us the blatant honest truth him and emilia had planned to bring
heather to the house josh had lured heather inside of the trailer once amelia walked into the trailer
heather knew that this was a setup she attempted to escape but they caught her and pulled her back in
they duct taped her legs they duct taped their torso over body to the back of the
computer chair they duct taped her hands to the handles heather pleaded for a life just let her
go and she would be out of their lives forever and josh said no this was it [Music]
i'm not going to take my kids away from me amelia tried to break her neck but wasn't strong enough to do it so
that's when they decided to suffocate her they put a plastic bag over her head they taped it around her neck
and then they held their hand over her mouth and nose the actual way that this crime occurred
was just so stark in its coldness and cruelty and a lot of people couldn't believe that it happened the way it did
the details of heather's last moments devastated her family they told me that they had found her
that was the hardest day of my life i didn't want to believe it until the sheriff's department came
it told me i just i didn't want to live josh's confession provided a vivid description of the vicious homicide
heather's husband was charged with first-degree murder but detectives knew they had another
killer to catch but without a confession or forensic evidence linking her to the crime
police feared that amelia carr could get away with murder coming up a killer gets caught on a wire we
weren't visible to them but we could hear exactly what they were saying i want the true story
from me amelia went for it in march of 2009 florida authorities were on the verge of breaking the case
of the murder and disappearance of 26 year old heather strong after her husband josh fulgium confessed
to helping kill his wife and burying her on the property of girlfriend 24 year old emilia carr
detectives believed that carr now eight months pregnant with fulgam's child also played a key role in the murder
but they lacked enough evidence to conclusively link her to the crime she would call asking how the case was
going wondering what we had learned from josh i kept calling them i said look i want immunity
she had further information about the case that she could quote put the nail in the coffin
as long as he would grant her immunity she was trying to position herself to be more of an informant rather than a
participant in this crime detectives needed help from someone who could extract the truth from carr
they got it from josh's sister michelle michelle said amelia's calling me she wants to
speak to speak to me about this case what shall i do investigators put a wire in michelle's vehicle
so that any conversations with emilia could be secretly taped we gave michelle a few details about the
case so that it would seem as though she had talked to her brother josh and then maybe emilia would open up
about the rest of the details this is a place that we instructed michelle to come we kind of parked back
behind this building here and we monitored their conversation from that area we weren't visible to
them but we could uh hear exactly what they were saying i want the true story from me i already heard
it from jobs michelle told her look if you want me to help you out you have to tell me everything
amelia went for it tell me what happened that night when he got her back there i was just
coming back there a few minutes later she tried to run for the door he dragged her back she told
michelle about how heather had fought back did heather go peacefully or did she did she fight him yeah
she fought him the more she talked the more emilia carr implicated herself in heather strong's
murder so what happened next you put the bag over her head you tried to snipe her neck that it weren't
why would you try to break her neck it's gonna be quick and painless there were times we would just look at
each other and say did she say what i think she just said emilia also was worried over what josh
might be telling police i'm trying to get a message to him that he's got to keep his mouth
shut i'm trying to get him out of this but he can't throw me under the bus either after
the little cat and mouse game that she was playing with us to hear those words finally come from
her mouth uh it was very satisfying when one time he couldn't cry but he'd almost still he had me wrap
a blanket around her head because he couldn't look this is a big turning point in the case
hearing this information coming directly from amelia was was what we needed detectives had heard enough nearly a
week after josh fulgam's arrest police finally obtained what they needed to arrest his accomplice
she was brought back to the sheriff's office and again we interviewed her detectives knew they had to play their
cards close to the vest emilia had no idea she had incriminated herself on tape not knowing that there was a
recording she told us another set of lies i wasn't there i did not kill her to take
a bullet i'm telling you i did not kill that girl then detectives dropped the bomb i think
it's time for reopen pandora's box at least from our name today you in a conversation
with josh's sister we know that you admitted your responsibility in heather's murder and she kind of just
sat back at disbelief as if she was she was caught in her own trap she then changed the story she admitted
to being there she helped tape her body up the most i did to her was i taped her up
and i made a false attempt to break her neck because that's what he told me to do
but taping her out was all i did with each new detail detectives were finally getting a
picture of what really happened after she was taped and i put the bag over her head and he taped it you didn't want to
tape the bag around her head i gave him the tape she was begging for her life i think heather knew at that point that
she'd probably never leave that trailer alive her body was taped her mouth wasn't
taped what was she saying he was trying to get her to be quiet josh why are you doing this josh why are you
doing this and he told her because you keep trying to take my kids and i'm [ __ ] tired of it and that's
when she started telling him he's she was claustrophobic she's claustrophobic that's when he hit her
and he said [ __ ] i'm claustrophobic too and you had me locked up in marion county jail for 31
days amelia tried to break her neck amelia told us that she tried but wasn't strong
enough to do it i didn't worse you didn't want her to suffer so you tried to break her neck
and i couldn't do it because i was shaking so bad so that i just stepped back and he took over and he held his hand
over her nose and her mouth heather ultimately died of asphyxiation from the moment this entire plan started
either one of them could have changed their minds either one of them could have decided to do the right thing
but even as she was being suffocated even as her body was fighting for life and fighting for air they both
chose to carry on the plan on march 2009 emilia carr eight months pregnant was booked for
first-degree murder [Music] coming up emilia carr faces the death penalty if convicted i believe he deliberately
set me up and later mrs ignacio actually started slamming miss armenta's head into
a concrete block and was actually telling herself that she needed to stop but couldn't it i don't know how many
times i did that to her [Music] in march of 2009 the chilling murder of a young mother in the backwoods of a
small residential town shocked the citizens of marion county florida according to their confessions josh
fulgium and his girlfriend emilia carr lured fulghum's 26 year old wife to amelia's trailer
where they suffocated her with a garbage bag charged with first-degree murder both
defendants faced the death penalty emilia carr's trial began on november 29 2010
the prosecution's strongest evidence came from the killer's own lips in a recorded conversation with josh's
sister michelle i can play it off like i didn't know anything that was pretty much the conversation
that did her in at trial emilia tried to explain away her confession as an attempt to assist police with the
investigation she said that she was trying to get details that she could bring back to the
detectives emilia believed that if police no longer considered her a suspect then the state would release her kids
from foster care when i was talking to michelle i was trying to help myself and get my children back but the jury heard
for themselves that emilia was not fishing for information to help police as she claimed why did she do it in the
backyard because your brother just wanted her there for a little while and he was
gonna move her we all heard on the tape there was one person asking the questions and that was
michelle there was one person answering the questions and that was amelia and as for
amelia's confession to police according to the defense it was all a lie emilia told me she was making up stories
to the police they're threatening me with my kids so i started making up these stories
based on everything that they had told me she's pregnant she's tired she she just
wants out and she made this false confession when she took the witness stand she
claimed that she was feeding law enforcement lies so she could get her children back false
confessions do happen a lot and you have a lot of innocent people in prisons but the defense's argument failed to
sway the jury you can tell she wasn't repeating a story she had heard you could tell she was reliving all of
those things that she had actually done in addition to claiming that she made false statements to police
emilia insisted that she was framed by her former lover josh when he killed and buried heather in her
backyard i believe he deliberately set me up amelia told me that she couldn't believe
that he was going to pin any of this on her the defense was dealt a severe blow when
two witnesses testified that carr wanted heather dead so she could have josh all to herself jason lotscha
he testified that amelia once offered him 500 if he would go and kill heather for her
that testimony was corroborated by another witness the jury was convinced and on december 7 2010 emilia carr was
convicted of first-degree murder i just don't understand how i was convicted of murder for nothing more than a lie
she thought that she was going to be found innocent because like she told me i am innocent
and they know what a monster josh is emilia carr's defense team had yet a new hurdle to overcome
to save their client from lethal injection what we do is we humanize killers in the eyes of the jury
so they're not sentenced to death one of the things that i wanted the jury to know was
who amelia was that she was a caretaker she was a loving mother she'll do anything for her kids she
loved being a mom her kids always came first in an effort to provide context the defense revealed in court the
horrible details of emilia's childhood abuse it did come out that amelia carr was
sexually abused as a young girl the defense called a clinical psychologist to the stand
she discussed the sexual abuse she suffered how due to that amelia formed no emotional
connections to these men she did say that i could be manipulative in relationships
i get with men and by the time they're falling for me i'm bored and i leave or i start being promiscuous i wouldn't
necessarily say it backfired but the prosecution did take that point and run with it but emilia's
dysfunctional background was not enough to sway the jury they took only two hours to come back
with their recommendation on february 22nd 2011 emilia carr was sentenced to death
part of me is waiting to wake up from this nightmare i'm sitting on the death row
how do you accept that it's really hard terrifying i'm scared amelia is exactly where she needs to be
she deserves the death penalty i don't think i know anybody else that deserves it
anymore and her and josh fulgam is set to go on trial for capital murder in october
2011. he has pled not guilty and claims emilia was the one who killed heather emilia's baby was adopted and heather's
children are being raised by a loving family it weighs heavy on my heart that amelia
is on death row i don't believe that she killed heather strong i really don't believe it
emilia carr is one of only 63 women currently on america's death row she serves out
her time in what she calls extreme isolation a bed a mattress a toilet sink combination
and that's it four white walls and a window people have no idea what death row is
we come out three times a week for two hour wreck sessions followed by a ten minute shower other
than that we are locked down 24 hours a day i can't accept that this is what my life
was meant to be it doesn't make sense i don't feel sorry for it because amelia could have walked away but she didn't
she took heather's life so she needs to give up her life in my heart i know she's innocent
and i'll die with that i didn't kill her the only thing i'm guilty of is telling
a lie nothing more emilia carr will most likely appeal her death row conviction but until then she will live in
seclusion not knowing whether she will live or die as for heather's family and friends
they cherish her memory while struggling to come to terms with her death she's my first born
my only daughter heather will be in my heart forever and ever coming up a family fight
she was related to my mom we were on the ground fighting and i yields snapped evidence the piece of concrete the
bottom was just bright red with the blood [Music] this is one of the most violent
homicides that i've actually seen the perpetrator takes a rock such as this to bash her skull in
i kept hitting her i seen that rock and i started bashing in her head with them she didn't
seem like the type she always tried to keep her peace i'm patricia ignacio i applied to second
degree murder they gave me 15 years amid the stark and breathtaking beauty of northeastern new mexico
lies a navajo reservation but there are no tribal casinos promising fast cash along these roadways
here many of the 180 000 navajo eek out a meager existence much the way they did two centuries ago
technology hasn't reached the reservation in some areas you're still hauling water
because there's no electricity and just the isolation itself causes some of the problems
with jobs and upward mobility and short supply hopelessness can give way to desperation
for native americans the rates for domestic violence and alcohol-related suicide and homicide
are four times the national average navajo reservation is a dry reservation what you get is
is that mass exodus on the weekends it's drunken driving uh domestic violence fights
ninety percent of our dispatch calls are alcohol related at seven p.m on november 25 2008
an anonymous tip led detectives to a remote area of town where transients go to drink there
police found a body crime scene investigator detective terry eagle collected evidence at the scene
where i'm standing is approximately where the victim's body was located and her head would have been somewhere
in this area right about here initially i couldn't tell if the victim was a male or female
her face was totally gone and smashed the end i took the piece of concrete off the
victim's head and turned it over the bottom was just bright red with the blood using fingerprints the medical examiner
identified the victim as 40-year-old navajo irene armenta she had a blood alcohol level five times
the legal limit and a slew of alcohol-related arrests when the case originally started
we were starting from ground zero but just as detectives began working the case they caught a lucky break a crime
stoppers tip yielded a possible suspect 21 year old patricia ignacio a single mother of three
once we came up with the name patricia ignacio things started falling into the place
according to police reports at 1 30 in the afternoon patricia ignacio and irene armenta met
up and walked to the park with a bottle of whiskey once i ran into her i decided to ask her she wanted to go
drink for a while everything was good that was the last time anyone saw irene armenta
alive it was 1988 in shiprock new mexico when patricia ignacio the third of four
children was born to an alcoholic mother and a father she didn't know her mom was living in farmington walking
the streets and drinking my mom she would just take off i don't know my dad my auntie lucia
raised me life on the reservation was hard we had to haul water we stayed out without electricity until
2000. according to patricia when her aunt started a family she and her siblings were shipped to
their grandmother patricia was a very difficult child i think grandma just couldn't handle her
she was rebellious i felt like i was the problem like i wasn't meant to be alive i was
just invisible to everybody by age 12 patricia was already on her way to becoming an alcoholic
at 14 she dropped out of school and a string of group homes foster homes and juvenile detention centers
followed what i really wanted was this for my mom and my dad to just be there instead of saying oh
i don't know who they are at 17 patricia met rodriguez lee and although the relationship was rocky
they had three babies in rapid succession despite the fact that rodriguez was not good to her
she still hung on to him i started to drink and to get high again it was like a daily basis but the basics
were precisely what patricia could not provide for her children she would have to ask people they could
buy pampers for her with no money no prospects and nowhere to go patricia pitched a tent near her
grandmother's shack and moved in with her toddlers when social services were notified her
children were placed in foster care when i lost custody of my kids it hurt so bad
i would go into farmington to drink and get high do crazy things like i was on a mission
in early november of 2008 patricia's mission of self-destruction landed her a 23-day stay in san juan
county detention center for assaulting a police officer she had been involved in a fight
an officer responded probably wasn't going to arrest her and then she started to confront the
officer so she was arrested released from jail at 6 a.m on november 25 2008 the 21 year old was spoiling for a fight
and by lunchtime she had attacked a man at the indian center soup kitchen but the violence was just beginning a
few hours later full of rage and thirsty for alcohol patricia ignacio then bumped into
40-year-old irene armenta a cousin i met irene at the indian center that day i decided to
ask her she wanted to go drink she said yes so this is a place that's kind of obscure the perpetrator
and the victim walked over had a whiskey bottle and basically they came here to consume alcohol
but the more whiskey patricia and irene consumed the more belligerent they became
according to patricia the first round of fighting was over armenta's boyfriend dean
who patricia had met a couple of times she thought that i was messing around with dean i didn't
even know what she was talking about there was no evidence of that but obviously at this point they were
intoxicated and then it started this fiasco there was some pushing and shoving we kind of got in a fist fight because i
didn't want to be around arguments and all that patricia ignacio said that she picked the victim
up gave her a big hug continued drinking for a while got into it again maybe two or three
times as the afternoon wore on patricia's rage continued to build it was the perfect storm for the tragic
events that followed my analogy would be something kind of like a boxing match where there would be
around the action ceased and then resumed and then we have the final coming up fighting words
she said that was a bad mom just a stupid drunk inside a fight to the death i got her
down i kept hitting her and when i seen that rock i started bashing in her head with it
on november 25th 2008 single mother of three patricia ignacio was released from jail for assaulting an
officer by noon the 21 year old was looking to numb her anger with hard alcohol she met up with distant cousin and
fellow navajo 40 year old irene armenta the pair walked toward a park to share a
bottle of whiskey i would run into her she she's always happy she was a happy person
but happiness was short-lived after hours of drinking the intoxicated women got into a violent
wrestling match we have these two people arguing cooling off drinking confronting each other
physically cooling off when irene armenta allegedly insulted ignacio as a mother
patricia says her temper and self-hatred exploded she said that i was a stupid mom that
was a bad mom miss armenta continued that she was worthless that her kids were better off
without her it hit me so hard when she mentioned my kids was she was right she kept telling ms
armenti stop you're going to be sorry i'm going to lose control and she actually did i got her down
hers just robbed right there and i started bashing in her head with it the victim was much older much smaller
and at this point once she's on the ground she does not have the strength to withstand
the rage that this younger person was delivering he kept hitting her i don't know how many times i did that
to her my conscience was telling me stop stop didn't stop because i was mad hurt by so
many things i let everything get to me from my childhood i let it just all out patricia claims she thought irene was
still alive when she left the scene at 6 30 p.m according to witnesses patricia then called a friend for a ride
she told him that she had gotten in a fight i didn't know if the girl was alive he was looking at me like why do you
have blood on your face i told him that i got a and then the subject of foodie come up
she leaves goes to a fast food restaurant has something to eat after they had eaten she wanted to go
back and and check and see if everything was all right i felt bad i went back and she was still laying on
the ground so i kicked her a little kick and she moaned she never called the police she never
called emergency medical people she then leaves and goes back to the car that says ah the victim is okay while
patricia laid low on the reservation an anonymous tip gave detectives the jump start they needed
we obtained information that mrs ignacio was possibly involved in a fight that day we
began an attempt to locate her detectives posted ignacio's mug shot in their briefing room
four days later a policeman conducted a routine traffic stop and spotted her in the back of a car
upon seeing miss ignacio he remembered her picture from a briefing he recognized me it's always thinking
thank god stun i'm tired of running when patricia arrived at the police station she wasn't talking
the first interview was like a roller coaster when asked if she had known miss armenta she denied that and
stated she did not know who she was i tried denying everything but one way or another
the truth comes out at first patricia claimed that on the day of the crime after being released from detention she
had lunch at a farmington charity and promptly hitched a ride back to the reservation we confronted her with
evidence that she had been in certain areas at certain times and she continued to to leave out a
majority of her day her story wasn't matching up when detectives inquired about the clothing
patricia had worn the day of the murder she lied again i told the officers that i burned it
and he didn't believe me after several hours of playing cat and mouse with police
patricia finally had a change of heart she took a break she came back and she told the officer
okay i'm going to tell you the truth i know i'd done something wrong and i can't bring her back
i got tired of just trying to lie my way out patricia ignacio finally came clean
and admitted to bludgeoning irene armenta to death facing 30 years in prison patricia pled
guilty to second-degree murder she was sentenced to 15 years when they told me that i was getting 15
years i cried because i was thankful she should pay some time for what she's done
it's not right to let someone lose their life because you get upset with them at the same time i feel sorry for
patricia because she had a hard life already patricia is serving her time at the new
mexico women's correctional facility she is a level four inmate which is considered high risk
i like the level 4 i like to be confined it keeps my anger in check the most chilling part about this case
was the brutality the violence actually taking a concrete block and beating somebody over the head
with it then leaving the area and basically going to eat lunch sometimes i'll think it was an accident
and then other days like i'm a really bad person makes me sick all i see is just her face
i do miss her i miss her every day

Brief Summary

Emilia Carr recounts her role in the murder of Heather Strong and her life on death row.

Key points

A Death Row Confession. For the first time, a death row inmate shares her story of murder and regret.
The Disappearance of Heather Strong. A missing person's case reveals a tangled web of obsession, betrayal, and murder.
A Shocking Murder Confession. Josh Fulghim confesses to his wife's murder, implicating his girlfriend Emilia Carr.
Emilia Carr's Conviction. Emilia Carr was convicted of first-degree murder in 2010, despite claiming innocence.
Life on Death Row. Emilia describes the harsh realities of living on death row, including extreme isolation.
Patricia Ignacio's Confession. Patricia Ignacio ultimately confessed to bludgeoning Irene Armenta to death after initially denying it.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How do you accept that? I got my chance and I blew it.

0:45WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.