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00:00local residents have been frightened by news a killer might be loose in their neighborhood
00:10police found definite evidence of violence and foul play i couldn't sleep because i just knew
00:20that something was wrong we went down the basement the first thing that we noticed
00:26there was blood at the top of the stairs that's when the body was located i got the sickest
00:33feeling in my stomach i thought i was going to pass out many people were scared there was a killer on
00:40the woods every suspect accused of a crime has the right to remain silent many agree to be
00:51interrogated anyway but they can stop the interview at any moment making it a race against time
01:00justice hangs in the balance
01:14truly after 8 a.m we received a dispatch of a missing person
01:19i was only about four blocks away from the house where i was dispatched to meet with miss neely
01:28upon my arrival she explained that she had not heard from or seen her daughter tiffany since
01:34the previous day all calls to her cell phone were going unanswered tiffany's mom was very anxious
01:42because this was just so not normal we learned tiffany brown was a 26 year old mother who was
01:51attending the ohio beauty academy and this was extremely out of character for tiffany she was
01:56in communication with her friends her family on a daily basis she also said the children of her daughter
02:04were left in the care of a neighbor the day before and they had not been picked up we learned she had
02:11young boys at home that she cared about that she would not just leave alone without reason or without
02:18explanation and that fact alone led me to believe that we had more here than just somebody that was
02:25going out for a good time on a friday night
02:49tiffany's car was found at a apartment complex about four or five blocks
02:55from miss neely's home the vehicle was unlocked the keys were present there's no indication of a
03:03struggle or anything of a violent nature within the automobile we could not find any connection
03:10to that complex and her it was very suspicious and we were growing concerned so that sinking feeling
03:18got deeper and deeper
03:25tiffany was a devoted daughter and a mom she had two young ones she worked hard she was
03:32worked part-time was going to school full-time she just wanted to make a better life for her kids
03:39she loved taking the kids going to the zoo and the water parks and the beach it didn't matter she was
03:46always wanting to do something she loved cars she was right in there with me and clean her car wash
03:53her car show her how to take care of her car we would play this game where you could listen and tell
03:59what kind of car was coming down the street by the motor and tiffany was getting real good at that
04:04she would light up a room that's for sure she got along with everybody
04:09i didn't sleep all night i couldn't sleep because i just knew that something was wrong
04:24the text messages that we received indicated that sam littleton was the last individual to speak with
04:32her we learned sam littleton was tiffany's mother deb neely's boyfriend they'd been together for 15
04:41years and tiffany of course always knew sam so there was a parental relationship there with him
04:49sam had a conversation with her about noon on friday the 11th the day tiffany went missing
04:59in this text conversation he requested to meet with her
05:06at that point they really wanted to talk to sam littleton
05:09we had tried numerous times to get in contact with him and he wouldn't return any calls we couldn't
05:18locate sam anywhere this raised a lot of red flags
05:30we asked her about how sam was interacting with her during the past couple days deb neely was becoming
05:43concerned about sam's behavior deb indicated to us that he acted strange she told us that he also had
05:52a cut on his hand sam told deb that he had cut it while working on the fireplace upstairs although deb
05:59didn't see anything that had been changed in the fireplace at that point there's a lot of red flags going
06:06off in her mind they had asked deb if they could take a look around the house detective salyer and i
06:16went down the basement and took a look around and the first thing that we noticed actually on the landing
06:23above the stairs was a drop of blood on a floor mat at the top of the stairs then
06:30we found numerous areas of blood spatter when we continued our search of the basement there was an
06:37area of the basement that was covered in debris
06:43we started taking everything apart down there that's when tiffany's body was located
06:48the body was partially clothed and wrapped in a large piece of carpeting
06:57the apparent cause of death seemed to be a knife wound to the neck there was
07:01multiple stab wounds and other indications of maybe asphyxiation
07:08when they found her i got the sickest feeling in my stomach i thought i was going to pass out
07:13he said he looked at that wood and he said he saw her hair and he said then he looked again and he saw her hand
07:31at this point it was pretty clear to us that deb had no involvement sam littleton became a prime suspect
07:39he's hiding key information from investigators and now he's missing
07:56richard and gladys russell were an elderly couple that lived just outside the city of belfountain
08:03one of the neighbors had gone to the russell's house and noticed that their vehicle was missing from the
08:08garage they'd been missing for maybe about 12 hours when they contacted law enforcement
08:16we learned mr russell did have some health issues it was unusual for them to be gone for any length of
08:22time the logan county sheriff's office responded to the russell's residence there was no signs of a
08:29struggle in the main area of the house they continued the investigation and they were able to find a
08:36note pad mrs russell was very good at taking notes and keeping records but there was no other entries
08:44made after the 16th now prior to that there were entries made every morning at approximately the same
08:51time where she was taking his blood pressure and caring for mr russell when they took a look in the
08:58garage there was some blood found at the trunk area of where the car would have been parked
09:03at that point we're extremely concerned for the safety of the russell's
09:11richard and gladys were married in in 1950 they had been together for 61 years and by all accounts
09:17were inseparable they were relentlessly hard-working dick was a carpenter gladys was a bookkeeper
09:25each day when they would finish working eight-hour shifts at their different jobs they would come home
09:30and tend to the farm during farming season they were pillars in the community heavily active in
09:36community groups and civic organizations the bell fountain lions club the logan county fish and game
09:42club just you know to name a few they were incredible well-rounded generous people and everybody that was
09:52familiar with them loved them and and they loved everybody back without condition
10:11looking into the notepad we found it had the name sam written on it
10:15and underneath the name sam was sam littleton's cell phone number while digging into sam's background
10:22they found out that sam had actually purchased his home in bell fountain from the russell's and had
10:29on occasion from time to time helped out with a few chores at their property now that we know that
10:34there's a connection we're extremely concerned we believe that he's probably in their vehicle and might
10:41had the russell's with him and also he could be armed and dangerous and we didn't know the extent of how
10:47far he would go the case blew up exponentially once they were unaccounted for you had multiple law
11:01enforcement agencies looking for the elderly couple's vehicle as well as mr littleton 37 year old samuel
11:07littleton is wanted for the murder of 26 year old tiffany brown of bell fountain ohio and linked to the
11:13disappearance of an elderly couple richard and gladys russell a desperate plea from the family of a
11:19murder suspect we need you to come in just turn yourself in the suspect's father is clearly overwhelmed
11:26with emotion there was some nervousness many people were scared in the community there was a killer on the loose
11:37the russell vehicle was found in the parking lot of the local store they didn't see sam littleton they
11:56didn't see the russell's no sign except for some blood in the trunk so we obtained video information from the
12:05store on it we see sam littleton it showed he had purchased some camping gear and those types of items
12:15which would indicate that somebody may be living in the mountains
12:22at the same time information was relayed to us that a lineman had seen an individual living in the
12:29mountains that wasn't normally there so west virginia state police went on a mission to locate this individual
12:37and they began searching the area not too far from the store where the car was parked
12:57they found sam littleton he suddenly fled from them as when we continued our search we found he had
13:06built a makeshift cave basically a primitive camp where he'd been hiding out there was a tarp a sleeping
13:13bag an axe and some very minimal food items after maybe an hour sam littleton was apprehended by a west
13:23virginia state police canine he was subsequently arrested by state police the fugitive had been on
13:34the run since february the 18th littleton was taken to a local hospital before being transported
13:40to the state police barracks in princeton
13:42sam had been on the run for over a week now he was in a hospital gown he had injuries from the
13:54canine and his demeanor was just beat down our objective was to get as much information from
14:01sam as we could about what happened to tiffany and then of course we also wanted to be able to locate
14:07the russell's as well it's very important to set the tone in the first few minutes of the interview
14:13we want sam to talk to us and the only way to get somebody to talk to us a lot of times
14:18is we have to be nice even though we may not want to be nice to this individual
14:26go in and have a seat
14:29sam i'm gonna uh take his cuffs off
14:31the man wanted for the murder of a 26 year old mother from bell fountain ohio was found hiding in
14:50the woods apparently not far from where he ditched a car stolen from an elderly couple who are still missing
14:56shortly after they found tiff we had a prayer vigil and everybody was there
15:05as the funeral was going on everybody's phone started blowing up
15:10you could hear the people's phones going off and they'd say you know we got him we got him
15:14it was like a kind of a rejoicing when he got caught
15:28when sam got arrested there was no signs of the russells so we didn't know if the russells were dead
15:35we needed to expedite as much information as we can from sam and hopefully locate the russells
15:41sam obviously we've got a million questions for you um and we realized during the through this
15:50investigation things went really wrong at some point uh and you know we just asked that
15:58you know you help us out help yourself what part is easier for you to talk about
16:04uh can you can you tell me what happened with tiffany or would you would you rather talk about uh mr
16:13and mrs russell
16:16i really don't know how it got started
16:23i think evil thoughts all the time people thoughts all the time all the time i mean
16:28that's why i keep myself away from people
16:30okay i mean it ain't one minute that i don't sit here thinking about how to snap somebody's neck
16:37crush their head i mean there's many many times
16:42i could have just cut my stepmom up
16:46why why why would people think of that like right now they're still in there they're still in there
16:53i've done a lot of bad things in my life a lot of bad things well if you're from belfoundland you know my history
17:08to be honest that's what's kind of confusing i mean you've got a
17:11couple things well what i would consider very minor uh you know with some marijuana things like
17:18that so you've done a a pretty good job of being able to control things you know what i mean i mean
17:25i mean it's really i've definitely seen a lot worse in a history you've seen that people have thoughts
17:32like this than what you have i've heard of people telling me this before that they've had thoughts
17:38but i don't have any i'll be honest i don't have any knowledge of what what that's like
17:43so i appreciate what you're telling me because it helps me understand
17:46where you're coming from a little bit
17:51so we're being honest absolutely you know the first thing popped my mind what that's
17:55how i can get your head to bounce off that thing back there and i'm being honest why
18:01does people have thoughts like that he's trying to scare us he wants to be the the big bad guy here and
18:08he wants to try to establish some point of dominance i'm sure it was a test to see what our
18:14reaction was going to be but we're just going to continue on with the interview and pretend like
18:19that part never happened i mean why can't i have good thoughts i mean why can't i have good thoughts
18:25there ain't no good thoughts they're all evil i think i think if you dig real deep you can find
18:31those good thoughts i've been digging for years you might have to dig real deep i mean i mean there's
18:37there's people out there that love you we've talked to tons of your friends your friends all believe
18:44in you i mean they were they were like shocked that any of this could have ever happened uh with you
18:50i mean they they really this blows them away it still blows me away i just want to crawl up in
18:56that hole and just die that's all i want to tell i just want to crawl up in that hole and die
19:01i deserve to die i deserve to die you need to feel better about yourself and the only way you're ever
19:08going to do that is to tell what happened and we all three of us know that you're a smart enough guy
19:14that you know exactly what happened is this something easy to talk about absolutely not
19:20we all know it's extremely tough and difficult i'm trying to make him feel like we believe he's
19:25a good person he's got to be comfortable with us he's got to think that we like him if we like him
19:31he's going to like us and if you like somebody you're more apt to tell them things that you don't
19:37want to tell see that's kind of hard to believe because i'm a lazy dude i would be scared mike would be
19:43scared if something like this happened how many days ago was this
19:50sam do you remember anything about the russells
19:55been at their house last week
20:01no i ain't been at the russells in a long time
20:06actually me and debt was just talking about i need to get out there and talk to them
20:13you know we we've got a million theories and
20:28when it when it comes to the russells we know that that the russells liked you
20:34and that you guys had a connection there we've been told you would even be a nice enough guy and
20:40would go out and sometimes help the russells around the farm okay um
20:48lo and behold we find
20:52you in their car
20:55and there's a lot that happened in between there
21:01a lot
21:01we needed to find out if the russells were deceased so the pressure builds we knew he was holding back
21:09information he knew what had happened to the russells what he had done to them
21:14he's just a coward just a monster of a person
21:29how'd you end up with the car sam
21:32i mean the keys to their car is in your pocket
21:34your fingerprints are all over that car
21:38what if i just went there i stole the car
21:42and i believe
21:45that they more than likely went with you without a struggle
21:50because that house is a mac game
21:53yeah we're either mr and mrs russell ever sitting beside you in that vehicle
21:57do you deny the fact that you took mr and mrs russell's car
22:12no i got the car
22:15sam yes or no did you kill the russells
22:19no
22:20sam remember the very first thing that you told us when we sit down was
22:23i deserve to die for what i've done
22:27that tells us you know what you did
22:30what's left for you is to get it off your chest
22:34help you feel a little bit better give closure to those families
22:38you love the russells
22:42we know you like the russells they helped you
22:45you helped them you didn't work for them
22:47the only reason why these things happen is because you got scared
22:52and it's so hard for you to talk about
22:54sam i think because
22:56you're a good person and this is truly eat you up
23:00you've wanted to do the right thing all along
23:05so why ain't i the right thing is not always the easiest thing to do
23:10that's what's holding back
23:12sam's withholding a lot of information
23:14so we decided that we would focus on the relationship between sam and deb
23:18and hopefully that would help sam go ahead and open up and tell us what had happened
23:26deb jesus she she needs closure
23:30not only did she lose her daughter but she lost her the love of her wife
23:36she doesn't know why i don't think i'd be wrong to say sam that you can't be with deb for 18 years
23:42and i want her but i think you can certainly tell us what happened
23:49i think you remember
23:53just like it was yesterday
23:55it all started with tiffany
23:57and that's something you can't forget either
24:03can you tell me what happened with tiffany that day
24:08she walked in
24:11did you did you ask tiffany to come down the basement with you
24:15or did she come down downstairs on her own
24:17you remember arguing and after that it went bad
24:35you want to be sick yeah do you need some more water too or
24:39it's late
24:50you all right man
24:53it's hot here
24:54yeah it is
25:00won't believe the door open
25:03it's my hair
25:09i've never had a suspect get physically ill during an interview before
25:23he doesn't want to relive that event he just doesn't want to talk about those things because it
25:27it makes him physically ill everything about him is is telling us that he just wants to give up
25:33we needed to push him to keep talking okay you said you said something really bad happened to tiffany
25:43but we don't know exactly what
25:46so i guess why why does that bother you
25:49that that something bad happened to her if you don't know what happened
25:54i know something happened to her
25:55i'm having dreams what kind of dreams you have bad dreams
26:04bad dreams
26:07and that's why you want to die
26:09that's guilt
26:11you close your eyes and you see it
26:13that's not somebody who enjoyed doing what you did
26:23that's guilt
26:25the only reason you feel guilty is because you do care
26:30you do care about what dev thinks
26:34and you and you know she deserves to know what happened
26:36you get me back in the state of ohio and i'll tell you everything
27:06i'll tell you what's going to happen
27:13be honest with me
27:15i get you back in the states
27:18am i going to be able to find the russles
27:25and they're together
27:28i can't remember that
27:30but you'll be able to remember when i get you back in ohio
27:33okay i don't i'm being honest with you i don't know
27:40hey sam the only thing we have to go on are the words that you tell us
27:45but when you say stuff to us like
27:47get me back to ohio and i'll tell you everything we believe you we trust you
27:53and then when we try to talk about it here then you say you don't remember
27:57so how you know do you understand what i'm saying yeah yeah i understand y'all too completely i mean
28:02y'all be in right down center of the line ain't beating around no bush i'm telling you right now
28:08man it's head just ain't let me do nothing right now
28:14just driving i ended up places i don't i can't remember i just remember getting taped
28:21that's where i went when this truck stops god i want to remember yeah my head is
28:27full or split
28:33sam the sooner that you tell us the sooner this is all over
28:36you got there you help me out he's starting to close down we needed to go in a different
28:50direction it ain't gonna get no better sam's father contacted us and asked if he could speak to sam
28:57and we felt like we were at a point where maybe his dad had some insight or influence on sam that
29:05would help us to locate the russells your dad was in here today and he's got faith in you
29:13when it comes to doing the right thing he you know he was he reassured scott and i that
29:18that you would do the right thing scott and i made a promise that we're going to keep to your father
29:25he wants to see you and tell me he loves you
29:34we're a man of our word we're going to let that happen if you wanted to yeah let's just add to my
29:38headache it's up to you man completely just brought a gun it just blow me away right here
29:44we spoke to sam's father before to let him know what we were trying to do
30:05he was there to get sam to tell us exactly what happened but we were taking a gamble on
30:12sam's father coming into the room and assisting us in the investigation
30:22mr lincoln you can sit there
30:27okay
30:30it would be very easy for a family member just to let sam know hey don't don't say another word
30:36and i'll get an attorney for you but we had decided that it would be the missed opportunity
30:42to get some more information out of him so we may as well go ahead and do this
30:45it's okay if i tell your dad what you've told us so far sam's told us that something bad happened to
30:55the two uh to the elderly couple he's not able to tell us what happened but he knows that they were
31:01alive when he was first with them right and then sam says not exactly the details about what happened
31:07with tiffany but is able to tell us that something bad happened there at the house we don't know if
31:14he's intentionally not trying to not telling us or whether you know it's truly something that he's
31:18blocking out right now
31:23so yeah i love you
31:28what happened you was doing so good
31:31i know you done bought you a truck you had your motorcycle
31:45i tell everybody a long time ago that i wasn't right in the head
31:51ain't no excuse
31:54from far you know
31:55mm-hmm can't take back what i've done what'd you do what have you done this one
32:03i don't i don't know
32:09what made you do this
32:26i've always had these thoughts now if i come to you and had these told you about these thoughts
32:30what's the first thing you're gonna think of this mother psycho he needs locked up
32:33no no if you'd come to me i took you to a doctor somewhere somehow i'd have got you to a doctor
32:44we'd have found out something about get you some help
32:53you need help what kind of help you're gonna give somebody like that
32:57come on dad have you ever had a thought of that i'm your own best bud have you ever had a thought
33:05like that in your mind now why would i i'd be setting a word grinding and when they hurt somebody
33:12why that's not my nature you didn't grow me up to be that way
33:20i didn't mean to bring this all on you
33:21yeah i don't know i don't know why i don't know why i don't know why
33:31i wish you to come get your daddy with it
33:34years ago boy i'm just tired i'm just just tired
33:40i don't mean to bring this on you but this probably could be the last time i get to see you
33:55so i know it and these guys probably went out of their way just to have you come in here so i don't
34:02be able to do the cussing and all that i don't be saying they these two right here it's been nice to
34:08me this morning of why you was at the hospital they come out here and they talk to me like i was a
34:19human man same way i'm a criminal these two guys sit down and talk to me like i was a man
34:25they treat me no different they treated me with respect than they have been ever since
34:30having the father in the room there may have been a turning point sam was talking with us more freely
34:39it seemed like he wanted to tell his dad but he didn't know how to tell his dad
34:44we just felt like he was going to tell if we pushed him at this point
34:48like we said the only way that we can end it real quick is for you to be able to tell us everything
34:52you tell us one time it's out there it's done and you don't tell anybody ever again
34:56i mean that's the that's the quickest point
35:02and you've been born or where they got at what highways was you with um i thought it was 75 so
35:11i don't know dad i mean that's the order road i know it's a straight shot you know what i'm saying
35:17tell us where those people are i mean i want you i want you and you don't know
35:32i'm just a bad person i tried to tell you that the other day
35:36i'm so sorry that i know it and i hope you absolutely
35:48sam are you okay with that
35:54i love you pretty sore sam mommy and i would
35:58having his dad in the room really helped the situation sam basically admits to his dad that he
36:06did it uh he doesn't come out and say that but he never tells his dad he didn't do it that was big
36:23i don't know what he's doing but i don't know what he's doing but i don't know what he's doing
36:29he's making sure he's all right he's got bad back bad legs we will make sure that he's okay
36:36now we're at a point where he's already decided
36:40my dad knows this bad thing has happened he's just about ready now if the opportunity is given to
36:46him he's going to speak about committing the crimes like i said both of us have been in trouble with
36:52each other you know that we know you know that you're we believe that you're trying to help us
36:58okay so that's why we're working with you on it i'm going to be as direct as i can possibly be
37:04regarding tiffany how did you kill her
37:16you know what happened it's just way way too hard to say i just hope you can find in your heart to do
37:28the right thing here tell us what happened they got strangled her okay any other type of weapon that
37:37you used you gotta mind to stab her once or twice now where she was placed that obviously was so
37:49she wouldn't be easily found is that a fair statement i can't remember where she was now
37:54i know the basement okay and the russells did you strangle both of those too i mean i was strangled i i
38:11for sure and then did you stab them afterwards too just like tiffany
38:17i think i might have done dick did you tell us if it was after you left the house or whether
38:29it was still there at the house i think it was at the house after you had killed them were they in
38:39the trunk or did you put him in any other part of the car we finally got his confession that he killed
38:49them i think he was tired and he was ready to just admit to what he had done at this point the only
38:57thing we don't know is exactly where the russells are located sam is there any way we can recover
39:02their bodies railroad tracks and cotton fields real road tracks and cotton fields do you think you
39:10think one body is by the railroad tracks and one by the cotton field what do you think yeah all that
39:16knows i didn't get off 75 barry park all right man thanks sam
39:34sam's information about the location of their bodies was vague
39:39and he couldn't ever tell us what exit he'd gotten off what road they were on
39:45you would only say near a cotton field and near railroad tracks
40:01outside of catanooga tennessee local law enforcement were able to find the remains of dick russell
40:08he was next to some railroad tracks covered in debris we were doing a search on the area but we
40:18we couldn't locate gladys
40:31a week later gladys russell was found in georgia
40:35he had laid gladys in a cotton field a few hundred miles south of where dick russell had been located
40:45without the confession if sam littleton had decided to end the interview the families would have just
40:52been devastated because they would have never known what happened to them or or got their bodies back for a
41:00the burial
41:02we have mixed emotions he never gave us the exact reason why things happened why he decided to kill
41:09the russells and why he decided to kill tiffany and i'm sure it haunts her family to this day
41:20hundreds of mourners came to the first church of god for tiffany brown's funeral
41:24they say they're consoling the family and helping them get through the burial of tiffany brown at the
41:29bell fountain cemetery just a few blocks away from the church the outpouring was just unreal
41:38and even the even the police officers uh friends of ours that we know it just they it almost seemed
41:45like they hurt as much as we did when we got to the funeral
42:03sam littleton's hands were shaking so bad that he could barely sign the plea agreement that keeps him
42:09alive but puts him in prison until he dies
42:11that brought a lot of great relief to the families i know that there were some that wish for the death
42:19penalty but in the end justice was served
42:35every day you know i miss seeing her and she's not here to see these boys grow up
42:39and that bothers me her oldest is going to graduate next year and she's not here to see that
42:47i miss her every day every minute you miss the communication that's gone
42:56the text messages in the morning kiss on the cheek and love you dad that's the hardest thing about it
43:01it's it's gone she is missed dearly every day
43:09you
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