- 2 days ago
A shooter kills a young mom in her own home, and they leave her body locked in a sexual pose. Investigators suspect someone tries to shame her even in death, and as they dig deeper, they uncover intense family tensions with dark motives.
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00:00Got my 23-year FBI ring on, got my FBI badge here, so we're good.
00:13I would say that I've probably worked on anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 homicide cases.
00:22But this is a really different type of homicide case.
00:26It's an unusual homicide with a lot of sexual overtones to it.
00:33With the sex toy and with the videotape, with so many twists and sort of turns in it.
00:41I handed them the tape.
00:43They said, what's on this?
00:44I said, I don't know.
00:46I wasn't trying to kill you.
00:48Okay.
00:49What do you call strangling stuff?
00:561-1, police, fire, or medical aid?
01:11Emergency.
01:12I think my wife just was murdered.
01:16Are you at the house where your wife is now?
01:18Yes.
01:19Okay.
01:19And what's going on with her?
01:20She is lying on the couch.
01:22Not moving.
01:23She's cold.
01:24No heart.
01:24No pulse.
01:25Daniel Carlson tells dispatch, I think my wife has been murdered.
01:379-1-1 is sending police officers during the call.
01:42Is there any obvious signs of injury or anything?
01:44Yeah, she's been stabbed or shot.
01:46There's blood all over the place.
01:47And you do not think she can be resuscitated?
01:50I'm a nurse.
01:51I'm freaking out here.
01:52In this area of Washington, it's heavily forested, is very rural.
02:03Responding patrol officers are trying to figure out which of these houses off in the woods is the house that we're supposed to be going to.
02:10When they eventually find this residence, they see a man standing in the doorway, still on the phone, with dispatch.
02:22Sir, your last name?
02:24Carlson.
02:24And your first name?
02:25Daniel.
02:28Daniel Carlson is the husband of Lisa Carlson.
02:33She's 27 years old.
02:35They go into the house.
02:44The front door actually enters into the living room.
02:49So right in front of the deputies is Lisa.
02:53The scene is pretty gruesome.
02:58She's dead, and she's been dead for a while.
03:03You can't go in and let emotions take over.
03:07You've got a job to do.
03:11She is on her back, and there's blood on her person.
03:15She was lying on a pillow with a lot of blood on it.
03:22She has two gunshot wounds to the head, and she has one gunshot wound to the left side of her chest.
03:31These two shots to the head would have been incapacitating immediately.
03:35There were three shots into Lisa from a .22, but there's no .22 at the crime scene.
03:48And when the police look at the scene where Lisa is, they come upon something rather unusual.
03:58They notice there's a TV, and it's on.
04:01In the VCR, detectives find a pornographic tape.
04:11But there's something else.
04:15Underneath the blanket, in Lisa's left hand, is a remote.
04:22Two wires go to a vibrating sex toy.
04:31This is a very, very unusual scene.
04:37Below her blanket, her trousers that she was wearing was pulled down, and she was nude.
04:50It is not a position anybody would want to be found in by somebody else alive or deceased.
04:58When they get into the master bedroom, there are drawers pulled out.
05:07There's quite a bit of disturbance within the bathroom.
05:12It looks like this might have been a robbery.
05:14Overall, it looks like Lisa laid on the couch, engaging in masturbatory activity,
05:24while somebody came in with a gun and shot her.
05:33Did they kill her in order to steal property?
05:37Are they searching for something in particular?
05:39What's the motive for killing Lisa?
05:51My name's Sean McKillop.
05:54There were a lot of good memories growing up with Dan.
05:57We actually met in what was called sixth grade camp.
06:01Then, for a couple years after high school, he introduced his wife.
06:09Lisa was a lot of fun.
06:12She was funny.
06:14She was incredibly kind.
06:17Dan and Lisa met in nursing school, and that's where they ultimately got together, started dating.
06:23They seemed to have somewhat very different personalities.
06:28Lisa was described by some people as being confident, somebody who would speak up.
06:34She was very outgoing.
06:36Dan is very reserved.
06:39Until you get to know him, he's very quiet.
06:44Not to be too cruel about it, but we were virtually convinced that Dan was going to die a virgin.
06:49It seemed to be a matter of opposites attract, in terms of personality.
06:57Lisa was an absolutely gorgeous woman, and the fact that Dan found Lisa, and Lisa fell in love with him, I was amazed beyond words.
07:06I was incredibly happy for him.
07:11In 1995, they had twin boys.
07:14From what I saw, he was a good father.
07:18I mean, he was a little unattentive, but also, he was working, which meant he was out of the house at least 12 hours a day.
07:26Lisa, after having the children, had decided to become a stay-at-home mom.
07:30When raising her children, that was her job, and she went into it wholeheartedly.
07:35Detectives begin interviewing Dan in the back of a patrol car, trying to understand what happened.
07:59And what he explains is that he was at work, and he got a call from his mother.
08:03Carol Carlson.
08:07And so then you talked to your mom, and what did your mom tell you?
08:10My mom told me that my two children, who were three years old, had walked up to my parents' house with no mommy, when Lisa wasn't in sight.
08:23Parents live almost next door.
08:25It's next door, I'd say it was 150 yards.
08:28The two three-year-olds could have been at the house at the same time, as the murder of their mother.
08:40Given the way she was found, and the position she was in, it would just be horrifying to think of what they had witnessed.
08:47Inside the residence, it looks like this might have been a robbery.
08:56The scene looks like there's been a ransacking going on.
08:59Like somebody was in here searching, potentially for valuables.
09:04But when you look at the scene, something ain't right.
09:12Going to the office, this is the room that has the most valuable items in it.
09:19Computer, stereo, nothing's missing.
09:25Nothing's taken.
09:25And the bathroom's completely disheveled.
09:31Is the bathroom a good area to search for items for financial gain?
09:37Somebody murdered Lisa and then didn't take anything?
09:42It didn't make any sense.
09:46When you entered the residence, what did you see?
09:49Police officers start to delve deeper into the relationship dynamic between Lisa and Dan.
10:02What I'd like to do is describe the relationship that you and your wife, Lisa, have had for the last year and a half, two years.
10:11Our personal relationship is we were still living together, but that's about it.
10:16For the last year and a half, two years, Lisa started seeing another guy who she met through me.
10:27He was an old high school friend, Sean McKillop.
10:34When the police finally showed up, I said, well, come on in.
10:38I've been expecting you.
10:3927-year-old Lisa Carlson was found shot to death on her living room couch.
10:51Police say the woman's husband came home from work and says he discovered the body.
10:56There were no indications of a struggle.
11:03This is not your average homicide case.
11:06Why had Lisa allowed herself to be injured fatally without taking any kind of action to defend herself?
11:22Whoever was in the room firing those shots was not somebody that Lisa thought was going to be a threat to her safety until it was too late.
11:33Police now are considering Lisa's boyfriend, Sean McKillop, as a potential suspect in this.
11:43So they interview him.
11:52Sean, specifically, we're talking about your relationship with Lisa.
11:57And then Sean tells the police, she was here yesterday at my place.
12:26She came to your place in the morning on July the 18th.
12:33Is that correct?
12:34Yes.
12:34So you guys had sexual contact?
12:37Most definitely.
12:39She has told you that she intends to divorce Dan at some point.
12:42Yes.
12:43Okay.
12:44When is the last time she mentioned that to you?
12:46That she wanted to divorce him?
12:48Mm-hmm.
12:49Yesterday?
12:49Yesterday?
12:50Yesterday?
12:50Police learned that Dan and Lisa, after they had twin boys, they were starting to have some financial pressures.
13:08Now they are trying to diaper and feed and take care of these two little ones on one person's salary.
13:14Money was tight already.
13:19And then Dan, from what I understand, would go gambling, and he rarely did well.
13:27Their credit cards had been maxed out.
13:32It broke them financially.
13:34It was really reaching kind of a crisis.
13:40And so Dan's parents, Carol and Darryl, strongly encouraged them to move out to where they were.
13:51Dan's family had several acres they lived on.
13:55It was very isolated.
13:56Dan was all for it.
14:02Lisa was dead set against it.
14:07Lisa didn't like Dan's mother, Carol.
14:11Carol creeped her out.
14:12She thought Carol was controlling.
14:16Lisa felt that Carol disapproved of her in many ways.
14:20Lisa is isolated.
14:25And the relationship between Dan and Lisa is deteriorating more and more.
14:32Eventually, they just stopped talking.
14:36Lisa grew incredibly lonely.
14:40I became a lifeline to her.
14:41I became a tender ear for her to reach out to, to talk.
14:44In this one particular instance, I go get a couple drinks.
14:52And a couple drinks led to a couple more.
14:56The next morning, we kind of wake up and went, oh.
15:02It wasn't anything we set out to do.
15:06It just materialized.
15:08I think on the surface, it looks odd, right?
15:18Dan's best friend is telling officers he's romantically and sexually involved with his wife.
15:25And that his wife spends many nights over at his house.
15:30When did she leave your residence?
15:32She drove away somewhere between 1235, 1240.
15:35And what kind of spirit was she in?
15:37She was in the best mood I've seen her in, in probably two, three weeks.
15:41I'll smile.
15:43She was happy.
15:44I love you.
15:45I miss you.
15:45I'll see you soon.
15:47My God.
15:49Everything was just perfect.
15:53Detectives are good at determining, is that real emotion we're seeing?
15:59Or is this like put up emotion, phony emotion?
16:02But clearly for Sean, he was devastated by Lisa's death.
16:07That's the kind of reaction that you would expect from somebody who is emotionally, physically involved with somebody else as a love interest.
16:19But not only that, he is able to offer to the police lots of these chat logs that he has on his computer.
16:27Sean was ruled out as a suspect.
16:43Where do we go with this now?
16:45Daniel Carlson says, hey, I was at work.
16:50I've come home.
16:51I found my wife on the couch.
16:53She's been murdered.
16:58But his mom, Carol, was at home all day.
17:01So she would have been 100 yards away from the trailer.
17:08So detectives want to interview her.
17:11We're taking a taped statement from Carol Jean Carlson.
17:17Do you recall the last time you saw Lisa Carlson?
17:23It's been a while.
17:27Did you see her at all on Saturday, July 18th of this year?
17:31No, I didn't.
17:32The first thing that they notice is Carol's very nervous.
17:36She seems apprehensive.
17:40When police talk to Carol about the events of that day, she tells them that she's at her house,
17:46and her three-year-old grandson show up at her house without their mom.
17:50Carol said, well, this was dangerous for them to come up by themselves, so I'm going to call Lisa.
18:12So she called, says she called, gets the answering machine, leaves a message, like, well, are you okay?
18:18What's going on?
18:20Lisa, answer the phone.
18:22Your kids are up here.
18:25They've been up here for a couple minutes.
18:26Come on, wake up.
18:29Damn it.
18:33Lisa's home is, like, 100 yards down the road.
18:38Why don't you just walk the boys back to find out what was going on with Lisa?
18:43And Carol's like, no, I don't go down there.
18:47We have a big problem with Lisa.
18:49Carol was very loving and very kind, unless you didn't do exactly as she wanted.
18:58And if you didn't do exactly as she wanted, she was prone to punishment to make you fall into line.
19:05She was worse than a mother-in-law from hell.
19:09You have this hostile relationship, really, between Lisa and Carol.
19:24I think that Carol took some perverse pleasure out of rattling Lisa.
19:31First time I met Carol was high school.
19:37She appeared mousy, very plain.
19:39But she had some, I'll call them questionable views on women.
19:48If you wore makeup, if you wore perfume, you were not a good person.
19:57Whether you were married or not, if you engaged in intercourse for any reason other than expressly to have children, you were a lesser human being.
20:09Carol really tried to come in and influence and control how Lisa was going to raise her children.
20:21Carol often referred to her grandchildren as her babies.
20:24Perhaps Carol saw her more as a rival than as a daughter-in-law.
20:37Lisa flat out told her, these are my children.
20:40I will raise them as I see fit.
20:42Carol did not like that.
20:44Lisa would be taking a nap and she'd wake up and Carol's inside her house snooping around.
20:57There was more than one occasion where Carol had let herself in and Lisa was in the shower.
21:05And she was like, get the hell out of my house.
21:14What detectives learn is that about five months earlier, when Lisa and Dan were estranged in their relationship, deputies had been at the house for an assault on Lisa.
21:44At this point, Lisa and I are in a relationship.
21:53Dan was away and we're having a good time, just hanging out.
22:00And Dan's parents, Carol and Daryl, had come home from work.
22:06Carol was banging on the front door.
22:08Carol is just having a screaming fit with Lisa.
22:18Detectives learned that Carol says Lisa is a terrible mother, horrible human being.
22:24She called her a whore.
22:25She's expecting to see two people undressed, having sex.
22:33And she goes over and that's not the case.
22:37She had an incredible temper.
22:39She took on an almost reptilian type of personality.
22:46It was just cold behind the eyes.
22:48Ultimately, she left.
22:52But about 10, 15 minutes after that, there was another pounding on the door.
22:58Lisa opens the door and it's not Carol, it's Dan's father, Daryl.
23:04He immediately rushes in.
23:06He grabs Lisa and he throws her to the floor.
23:09And because of that, she called the police.
23:15Daryl was arrested, taken off in handcuffs.
23:19This undercurrent of abuse seems to be escalating.
23:24What we're seeing now is violence directed from Dan's parents to Lisa.
23:39One thing we have to look for is who has an alibi, who doesn't, right?
23:46So they looked at Daryl.
23:48But Daryl actually has an alibi.
23:50At the time of Lisa's murder, he's at work.
23:54Well documented, he was there.
23:56So he clearly isn't involved in this.
24:00And Carol says she was at home all day.
24:03Do you know who killed Lisa Carlson?
24:08No, I do not.
24:09Are you involved in her death in any fashion?
24:12No, I'm not.
24:16And she left messages on the answering machine, hoping Lisa will wake up.
24:23Lisa, your kids are up here.
24:26Come on, wake up.
24:27We know how it happened.
24:34We know when it happened.
24:36And determining the who is the big one.
24:42We need forensic evidence.
24:46Evidence never lies.
24:50People can lie, but the evidence never lies.
24:53I was brought in to interpret the blood patterns in the house.
24:58Where Lisa Carlson's body was found.
25:02Looking at the blood pattern on the wall.
25:07Little tiny specks of blood.
25:10There was enough blood there to tell a story.
25:14We used a model and put her on the couch.
25:18Put labels on her head like red entrance wounds.
25:21And we were able to show that Lisa Carlson was seated one end of the couch when she was shot.
25:31But that's not where we find her.
25:34How does that happen?
25:35There is a transfer of wet hair, wet with blood, that leads like a trail from where she was shot to a position on the couch where she was found.
25:51So that means that she was moved.
25:55Somebody puts their bloody hand on the couch, anchoring themselves while they're grabbing Lisa and pulling her up the couch.
26:03When we looked at her clothing, she had no underpants on.
26:10But yet her trousers that she was wearing was pulled down and turned inside out and not pulled down by herself.
26:18Why would somebody pull her sweatpants down and expose her genital area?
26:27And then with the sex toy and with the videotape, all of this tells us that this was staged.
26:38It wasn't enough to kill her.
26:42Somebody wanted to humiliate her even in death.
26:45Because of the relationship that Lisa had with this boyfriend, Sean McKillop, when Sean was interviewed, he told the police something very important.
27:07Lisa gave me this tape.
27:11They said, what's on this?
27:13I said, I don't know.
27:14Lisa said, hold on to it.
27:15And if anything happened, to give it to you.
27:27When Sean learned that Lisa had been murdered, he told police, look, Lisa told me that if something happened to her, she gave me this tape.
27:37Well, the first thing I would like to know is why you tried to just kill me.
27:48I did try to kill you.
27:50What do you call strangling stuff, Pam?
27:54I wasn't trying to kill you.
27:57Okay.
27:57Well, God, I mean, you grabbed me around my neck, okay?
28:00Yes, I did.
28:01What was on the tape was Lisa, having surreptitiously recorded Dan, admitting to strangling her.
28:16It's astonishing to think that this person has just done these things, and yet does not seem at all concerned or remorseful or guilty.
28:26Lisa was really, I think, in fear of her life.
28:55She was actively trying to gather evidence in case she did get killed.
29:03Now, the investigation starts to focus on Dan.
29:14So, what did Dan say when he was interviewed at the crime scene?
29:21When you have disagreements and possibly fight with Lisa, how would you describe those fights?
29:28One-sided.
29:30She's normally the aggressor.
29:33Have those fights ever become physical?
29:36Um, they have never became physical.
29:43During Dan's interview with police, he tells several lies that are not congruent with the evidence.
29:50He denies that he's ever put his hands on Lisa, which now, with the secret tape from Lisa, we know is not true.
29:59It became clear to investigators that Dan could be, at the very least, covering up what happened.
30:08When you look at Dan and potential motives, I think there's a lot of them there.
30:16You've got all this tension, this estrangement, Dan's best friend being romantically involved with Lisa.
30:23Lisa was talking about leaving, and so this pending separation and this threat of these children being removed, I think that created a pretty combustible situation.
30:37So, now we are considering Dan as being a primary suspect, but Dan lived in this residence, so DNA isn't going to help you.
30:55DNA isn't going to help you, hairs, fibers, fingerprints, none of that's going to help you in a case like this.
31:01This is a staged homicide case, and this scene was terribly staged.
31:08But when the detectives look back at the physical evidence, what do they see?
31:17Lisa was a heavy person, and in order to put her in the position that she was in, it would take two people to be able to do it.
31:29Now, we didn't believe it was just one person involved in this.
31:35So, who would that somebody else be?
31:38They learned that Dan is a very socially inadequate individual.
31:48A lot of people would describe him as kind of this milquetoast guy who really didn't have a lot of say in what went on in his life.
31:56And then you've got his mother, who's very domineering, very controlling.
32:02Everything seemed to revolve around his mom.
32:04And he was susceptible to her and her alone.
32:10Even though Dan was an adult, Carol would still pack his lunches for him for work.
32:17She was still parenting him.
32:21In many respects, she dictated a lot of his decisions.
32:24Carol was overly protective of her son.
32:30And, you know, Dan acquiesces to Carol all the time.
32:33Carol had an ironclad control over her son.
32:40If she said something needed to be done, it was done.
32:44Because if it wasn't done, there was hell to pay.
32:48Whenever Carol spoke, Dan jumped.
32:51And he jumped immediately.
32:53Dan would do anything he could to make his mother happy, even at the cost of Lisa.
33:00But did Dan hate his wife?
33:04Not as much as Carol hated his wife.
33:09She made no bones about how she felt about Lisa.
33:13And she would tell anybody in no uncertain terms.
33:16She put her heart and soul into vilifying this poor girl.
33:23Carol's an evil woman.
33:26Now that we understand the dynamics between mother and son,
33:31the investigation starts to focus on Dan and Carol.
33:39Detectives go back to the answering machine that Lisa and Dan had in their house.
33:44And realize that is a critical piece of evidence.
33:50Lisa, are you awake?
33:53Answer the phone.
33:54Your kids are up here.
33:56That taped player was sent to the FBI laboratory for analysis.
34:01What the detectives discovered is that after the time Lisa was murdered,
34:06Lisa's mom had made several phone calls.
34:08Because Lisa was supposed to be at her house and she never showed up.
34:11And yet when they looked at the answering machine, there were no messages from Lisa's mom.
34:20And what the FBI uncovered was that Lisa's mother did call, but that that message had been erased.
34:28Lisa, wake up.
34:33Damn it.
34:34So what does that suggest?
34:37It suggests manual manipulation of the tape by Carol.
34:43Carol's messages had recorded over it.
34:45After the very long investigation, Dan and Carol are both arrested.
35:01There were just so many things in this case that led police to believe this was a crime committed by mother and son.
35:09One in shooting, one creating the stage scene, moving together.
35:18And then we have manual manipulation of the tape at the scene.
35:24Erasing Lisa's mother's message after Lisa had been murdered.
35:30And only having the messages from Carol.
35:32A mother and son murder trial.
35:46That to me was very shocking.
35:48Like a Hollywood movie.
35:52But we didn't have a murder weapon.
35:55There weren't any witnesses.
35:56And that's the whole job of a juror.
35:58You're going to decide, could these two very ordinary people do this horrible, gruesome thing?
36:08I remember being on the witness stand for four days, testifying for the prosecution.
36:15I told the court that Dan had been violent with Lisa.
36:20And Carol was controlling and manipulative.
36:23The jury could see the big picture.
36:31This toxic mix between mother and son for what they saw as the greater good.
36:37And the greater good was, we have to get rid of Lisa.
36:40We can't let Lisa have the twins in this divorce.
36:47Dan is likely the shooter.
36:49Carol is the person who helped him.
36:54But that wasn't enough for Carol.
36:58She hated her so much, she concocted this whole scenario.
37:04She wanted her found like that.
37:08My personal opinion is the staging was a last act of control.
37:13Carol was trying to impose the final word.
37:17Both Carol and Dan were found guilty by the jury of murder.
37:27And both of them are sentenced to exceptionally long prison sentences.
37:32They had no defense because it was a very poor job of staging.
37:38They didn't watch enough TV to be able to see how crimes are committed.
37:42I recall seeing them in the courtroom.
37:47I never made eye contact with Carol.
37:49At that point, I was convinced she was subhuman.
37:54But he and I made eye contact a couple times.
37:57And I'm just like, why?
37:59Why?
38:00And all I ever got out of it was the barest of shrugs.
38:05After everything that had gone on, I had to get out of Washington State and make a new life.
38:28And that's the first time I'd felt any sort of real peace.
38:36But then the prosecuting attorney calls me to let me know that there was an appeal.
38:43The two pleaded guilty to killing Carlson's wife in 1998 and then setting up the scene to make it look like a random rape and burglary.
38:53I can't think of anything more repugnant than what you did with your son.
39:16And if it were within my power, then you'd get 200 years and then some.
39:27I don't feel justice will serve.
39:30But I'm glad somebody else felt the outrage that we did.
39:36The most tragic aspect is what happened to Lisa.
39:39The kids never knew their mother.
39:51They have no memory of their mother.
39:56What that's done to her children.
40:00And for what?
40:03For what?
40:06These two twin boys
40:08How do you square those relationships
40:11with those people in your life
40:14who committed the murder of your mother?
40:19With the tragedy they all have had to endure,
40:22I hope they understand that their mother loved them beyond anything else.
40:27You ever walk into a room and you could tell something just isn't, right?
40:39Who's the first person that you killed?
40:43Sick, twisted people.
40:45They were more than mother and son.
40:47There was rumors that they were in an incestuous relationship.
40:51Her having sex at her house,
40:53having sex in her van.
40:55There was sex parties.
40:57I have walked up on an open mouth kissing.
41:01I was like, wow.
41:03You've got a tragedy after tragedy.
41:05Something's not adding up.
41:07She found a weakness and then she played on his emotions.
41:09Houses are nasty after somebody's died in it.
41:13What the f**k?
41:14Kniving, vindictive, underhanded.
41:18This is disgusting and twisted.
41:20She's been murdered and she's stuffed in a garbage can.
41:23I don't even think the devil would be that evil.
41:26You go shoot him and mommy will be right here.
41:28I don't even think the devil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be that evil would be
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