- 20 minutes ago
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered - Season 16 Episode 7 -
The Figure in the Hous
The Figure in the Hous
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:009-1-1, how can I help you?
00:00:02I'm starting to feel this.
00:00:04Do you need an ambulance?
00:00:06What?
00:00:08A break-in in the middle of the night, stabbed multiple times.
00:00:12I can see blood everywhere.
00:00:14It is a horrific crime scene.
00:00:17One of the scariest cases I've ever seen.
00:00:21Annie participated in pirate parties or dungeon parties.
00:00:25So we're way past Love Triangle here.
00:00:28This is like Love Trapezoid.
00:00:31Love Spider Whip.
00:00:32I ended up cheating on her.
00:00:33I'm not very good at this rush, you should think.
00:00:36There was a lot of anger.
00:00:38It started going like sideways real quick.
00:00:41They agreed to a sum of $10,000 to $50,000 to commit the murder.
00:00:45Any chance that Matthew could have gone anywhere sometime during the night?
00:00:50Oh God, every time he moves, he wakes me up.
00:00:53Somebody left that home to commit the murder.
00:00:56Can you tell who's driving?
00:00:56Nope.
00:00:58If I had known I could have done something, maybe that woman would be alive.
00:01:05Hello, and welcome to Dateline, Secrets Uncovered.
00:01:17Single mom Annie Hester worked hard to support her daughter Alice.
00:01:21In her downtime, Annie liked fantasy, role-playing as a pirate, but her 911 call was very real.
00:01:30Annie had been savagely attacked.
00:01:32The twisted trail of clues took investigators down some unusual paths before they uncovered a secret close to home.
00:01:41Here's Josh Mankiewicz with The Undoing.
00:01:44It was June 2016, around 3.30 a.m., and a car was roaring down a highway next to the Columbia River.
00:01:59Minutes before, the police detective at the wheel, Aaron Turnage, was, like most of us in the middle of the night, dead asleep.
00:02:09And I got a phone call asking me to respond in.
00:02:12It was an assault that had occurred, and this was likely going to turn into a murder investigation.
00:02:17Detective Turnage lived in Washington State.
00:02:20His job was across the river, in the Portland, Oregon suburb of Gresham.
00:02:26And that was the scene of the crime.
00:02:30If I'm getting the call, that means I'm going to be the one leading the investigation.
00:02:33I'm trying to think what I can do today to assist me 5, 6, 8, 10 years down the road to make sure that we have a successful prosecution.
00:02:41That's the way the criminal justice system works today?
00:02:43You're thinking about not only investigation, but trial and then eventual appeal?
00:02:47You have to start thinking about that on the front end, because if you don't, you'll never get there on the back end.
00:02:53As it turned out, his thoughts that night foretold the future.
00:02:59And 30 minutes after he'd been startled awake, Detective Turnage arrived at the crime scene, a ground floor unit in the East Park Apartments.
00:03:08Paramedics had already taken the victim to the hospital, a woman in her mid-30s.
00:03:16Her name was Anastasia Hester, known as Annie.
00:03:20When you get there, one of the first officers who were on scene tell you?
00:03:24They told me that the front door was unlocked, and when they went inside, they immediately saw bloody shoe prints.
00:03:31Carefully, those officers sidestepped the shoe prints.
00:03:35And they could see Annie laying down on the floor towards the rear of the apartment.
00:03:41When police arrive, Annie's still alive.
00:03:44Correct.
00:03:45So, how to get Annie to a hospital without contaminating that certain-to-be-key evidence near the front door?
00:03:54Because those footprints say the killer left through the front door.
00:03:58Correct. The determination was made that they're going to take Annie out of the rear sliding door of this apartment.
00:04:05So, the next set of responding officers tore down a six-foot wooden fence, and they were able to extricate Annie out and get her out to medical care.
00:04:15It was there, behind the apartment, that the detective saw a back window to Annie's place.
00:04:21On the ground is a cinder block, and it appeared that the cinder block was used to gain access to that elevated window.
00:04:30The window led to the bedroom of a child.
00:04:34The detective went inside.
00:04:35You see a child's bedroom, but no child.
00:04:38Correct.
00:04:39The initial thought was a kidnapping or an abduction that had occurred.
00:04:42So, there was immediate efforts to try to identify who the child was, and then try to determine if the child was safe or not.
00:04:50Detective Turnage quickly made some calls.
00:04:53The girl was Alice.
00:04:54She was Annie's daughter and just four years old.
00:04:58That's when we were able to identify that Matthew Hester was her father,
00:05:01and we started looking to try to contact him and find out if he had his daughter.
00:05:06Some good news, they found Matt.
00:05:08He had Alice at his place in Portland.
00:05:11This was like a custody-sharing arrangement, and that night was Matt's night to have Alice.
00:05:17That is correct.
00:05:18Once you realize that Alice is not in any danger, now what?
00:05:23So now we have to start taking a look at the scene.
00:05:26The apartment had only one bedroom, the little girls.
00:05:31Annie, it turned out, had been found on the living room floor, next to a sofa bed,
00:05:36where, by the looks of it, she had been sleeping when she was attacked.
00:05:41It is a horrific and very, obviously very violent crime scene.
00:05:45While you're examining the scene, you get a call that Annie didn't survive.
00:05:50That's correct.
00:05:52Annie Hester had been murdered at only 34.
00:05:55And steps from where Annie had been found on the floor.
00:06:00The detective saw a knife, a folding pocket knife, and near the kitchen, two more knives, bigger knives.
00:06:10It looked as if they had once resided in the butcher block in Annie's kitchen.
00:06:14I would guess that in a murder like that, you might expect to find a murder weapon, but not three of them.
00:06:23Correct.
00:06:23It's the only time I've seen it where killers went into the kitchen and got two butcher knives to finish the stabbing.
00:06:30It was an assault so savage that a fact the detective would later learn still troubles him to this day.
00:06:37What does it say to you when the murderer tries to cut the victim's head off?
00:06:41The amount of passion and intensity in this crime is very, very unique.
00:06:45The rage, the bloody shoe prints, the knives, the cinder block.
00:06:51So much evidence to consider.
00:06:53Using the cinder block to take the air conditioner out and go in that way suggests that Annie maybe didn't know her killer,
00:07:01or at least didn't let them in through the front door.
00:07:03I agree, yes.
00:07:05That kind of fights the whole rage-passion angle.
00:07:08I mean, somebody random, less likely to have all this fury against Annie.
00:07:15How so?
00:07:16A murder committed with that much passion, that says personal.
00:07:19But somebody who goes in through a window, that suggests not personal.
00:07:24Yeah, it could be random.
00:07:25You know, maybe they were invited in one day, but not invited the second,
00:07:28so the second day they came in through the window to commit the act of violence.
00:07:31But before long, Detective Turnage left the scene to hold a briefing with his team at the Gresham Police Department.
00:07:38That's when he heard the recording of the 911 call that had led police to the apartment.
00:07:44The call was not from a neighbor, not from a family member.
00:07:48It came from the victim herself.
00:07:52A 911 call capturing the last words of Annie Hester.
00:07:57A desperate and dying Annie begs for help and gives police a gut-wrenching account of her attack.
00:08:06Coming up.
00:08:07911.
00:08:09Oh, I'm afraid to tell you.
00:08:11Do you need an ambulance?
00:08:14What?
00:08:15I don't think there are words to describe the level of intensity in that 911 call.
00:08:19And the killer leaves a terrifying calling card.
00:08:23Some sort of message?
00:08:24Could have been, and that's what we were thinking.
00:08:26When Dateline, Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:08:36Detective Aaron Turnage did not have to go far from Annie Hester's apartment
00:08:40to gather with his team of investigators.
00:08:44The crime scene is only about 10 blocks from the Gresham Police Department.
00:08:49It's in the heart of Gresham.
00:08:50It's close to schools.
00:08:52It's close to restaurants and businesses.
00:08:53This is not a typical place where we see violent crimes erupt in the city of Gresham.
00:09:00And it didn't take long for news of a murder on uncommon ground to spread across the Portland area.
00:09:08Police say the woman stabbed at the apartments was in her 30s.
00:09:11I was just crying and howling and, you know, just like an animal.
00:09:16Well, Nicole Palazuelos considered Annie her best friend.
00:09:21They worked together at a call center where Annie trained Nicole.
00:09:25You were a little scared of her at first.
00:09:29Yeah, she was intimidating at first because if you didn't do your job well, she would call you out on it.
00:09:35I never met anybody who could do so many jobs at once and do them all well.
00:09:42Annie had always had that take-charge attitude as the big sister in her family.
00:09:48Her parents divorced when she was just seven.
00:09:51As she grew, Annie developed a reputation for reliability.
00:09:55She worked at an after-school program for children before starting at the call center, where she rose to supervisor.
00:10:04In 2008, when she was 26, she married Matt Hester.
00:10:08He worked as a salesman at a wireless store.
00:10:11Matt loved video games.
00:10:14Half-sister Tanya and sister-in-law Diana say Annie was focused on a more serious game.
00:10:21She had told my husband that he was winning the game of life because he was the first to move into a house, to buy a new car, to get married, to have a kid.
00:10:34Annie saw this as some kind of competition.
00:10:36Yeah.
00:10:37She felt, being the oldest, that those things should come to her first naturally.
00:10:43And when you feel that way, that's when people settle.
00:10:47Yeah.
00:10:47Annie Hester was not the first woman in history to settle and marry a man her family wasn't crazy about.
00:10:55And, at least for a while, it did work.
00:10:59She wanted to feel like she was staying with everybody else.
00:11:04And three years into the marriage, Annie finally was, when Annie and Matt had a little girl.
00:11:11Did having the baby live up to the expectation of having the baby for Annie?
00:11:15She was ecstatic having Alice.
00:11:18Her world revolved around Alice.
00:11:21The same could not be said for her relationship with her husband.
00:11:25Less than a year after Alice was born, Matt and Annie divorced.
00:11:30And Annie became a single mom.
00:11:32She'd always make sure to go and get their photos done for Easter and Christmas.
00:11:37They always had cute outfits and her hair done up.
00:11:40Sounds like she was really devoted to her daughter.
00:11:42Oh, she was.
00:11:43Matt and Annie worked out a peaceful custody arrangement with Alice.
00:11:49And in addition to her 9-to-5 weekday job, Annie started a side job as a face painter with her best friend, Nicole.
00:11:57We were working together on the weekends that she didn't have her daughter.
00:12:01And she worked so hard.
00:12:03And she really worked every opportunity that she could to make the extra money.
00:12:09She did such a great job.
00:12:10Along with Annie's life, that all ended early one morning in June 2016.
00:12:18It was now Detective Turnage's job to find out who'd killed Annie and why.
00:12:24In the first few hours of daylight, officers from the scene were reporting back to the police department with what they'd learned.
00:12:33There were, as it turned out, plenty of potential witnesses.
00:12:37We found multiple neighbors saying essentially the same thing.
00:12:41At 11 p.m., they hear sounds of women screaming.
00:12:46Somebody else hears a thud on the outside of the building directly below.
00:12:50Another witness hears what sounds like a conversation and moaning.
00:12:54And that person actually turned up their bathroom fan and turned on the music to drown out the sound.
00:12:59And four hours later...
00:13:03At about three in the morning, another set of witnesses are hearing a woman screaming, a door slam, a car leave.
00:13:12Okay, two things from that.
00:13:14One, nobody calls 911.
00:13:18Not one neighbor called 911.
00:13:20Secondly, so this attack took four hours?
00:13:23Yeah, about three and a half.
00:13:27So this isn't just a murder.
00:13:29This is torture.
00:13:31This is torture.
00:13:32And then Turnage finally heard who did call for help.
00:13:36You may well find it wrenchingly hard to listen to.
00:13:40Detective Turnage definitely did.
00:13:43I don't think there are words to describe the level of intensity in that 911 call.
00:13:50That's because the call was made by Annie at 2.59 a.m.
00:13:56It's a chilling six-minute-long cry for help.
00:14:00Made shortly after her attacker left those bloody shoe prints behind on the way out.
00:14:06911.
00:14:08Oh, I'm sorry to tell you.
00:14:10911, how can I help you?
00:14:13I'm sorry to tell you.
00:14:14What happened?
00:14:17I'm moving from first to everybody.
00:14:20Somebody try.
00:14:22Where is this person at now?
00:14:27I'm not here.
00:14:29Do you need an ambulance?
00:14:32No.
00:14:34No.
00:14:35Do you know the name of the person that did this to you?
00:14:39No.
00:14:41When you hear that she doesn't know this person, what's that say to you?
00:14:46I believe there's an amount of surprise.
00:14:47When the attack took place, I know that Annie is sleeping.
00:14:53And if she's taken by surprise, it makes sense to me.
00:14:56She can't identify who her attacker is.
00:14:58Are you bleeding a lot?
00:14:59At Annie's autopsy, Turnage understood why Annie was in such pain.
00:15:08There were more than 60 stab wounds, some as deep as eight inches.
00:15:14And strangely, something was carved into her shoulder.
00:15:18It was a V, an X, and then another V.
00:15:22And that's not a Roman numeral, but that's what it looked like.
00:15:26Some sort of message?
00:15:27Some sort of signature?
00:15:28Could have been.
00:15:29That's what we were thinking.
00:15:30One of the things that haunts me about this case is just the level of pain that Annie had to endure for three and a half hours.
00:15:38And still, Annie has the wherewithal to fight for herself, call 911, and give out the information to get law enforcement there.
00:15:46It was time for Detective Turnage to start getting face-to-face with those who might know who'd done this to Annie.
00:15:54Coming up.
00:15:58At this point, we're investigating this as a homicide.
00:16:02A two-timing ex-husband is always a good place to start.
00:16:06I ended up cheating on her.
00:16:08Mm-hmm.
00:16:08I'm not very good at this relationship thing.
00:16:10While Matt's current wife vouched for it.
00:16:13Any chance that Matthew could have gone anywhere sometime during the night?
00:16:18Oh, God, every time he moves, he wakes me up.
00:16:20When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:16:24Start close.
00:16:31Close to the victim.
00:16:33That's in every homicide detective's Bible of murder investigation.
00:16:37And since Annie wasn't married, Detective Turnage started with the next best thing.
00:16:43Her former husband, Matt Hester.
00:16:46Yeah, go ahead and have a seat.
00:16:47I'll be with you in a minute.
00:16:48Matt was 35, but as you can see, he moved as if he were much older.
00:16:52Thanks, he maintained, to some undiagnosed medical problems that had left him in nearly
00:16:59constant pain and unable to work for a living.
00:17:04When he comes in, how does he strike you?
00:17:08Matt struck me as an actor, and he needed an Academy Award for the acting job that he
00:17:12did when he showed up at the police department that day.
00:17:14And so I guess, obviously, I told you at the house that your ex-wife is deceased.
00:17:19But you didn't say?
00:17:21Didn't say how or anything.
00:17:22We'll talk about that in a minute or two.
00:17:23If you think Matt seemed a little disinterested in learning how the mother of his daughter
00:17:30had been killed, you are not alone.
00:17:34Minutes later, another detective told Matt what had happened to Annie and about her 911
00:17:40call.
00:17:41She said that she had been stabbed.
00:17:42Officers respotted down there.
00:17:44She had been injured.
00:17:47She was transported to the hospital, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
00:17:53And at this point, we're investigating this as homicide.
00:17:57Did your wife say any, ex-wife say anything about having any problems with anyone?
00:18:02I don't talk about her personal life.
00:18:04Okay.
00:18:04Then, as detectives do, they started locking Matt into a story about his history with Annie.
00:18:13When did you and Ann first meet?
00:18:15We first met in 1999 through a mutual friend.
00:18:19Not long after that meeting, there was a wedding.
00:18:22Not between Matt and Annie.
00:18:24He married someone else.
00:18:26That union lasted just a couple of years.
00:18:29Why did you guys get divorced?
00:18:31I did.
00:18:31I did.
00:18:32Okay.
00:18:32So it was less than two years after his first divorce that, in 2008, Matt, admittedly on
00:18:40the rebound, married Annie.
00:18:43And then, three years later, in 2011, after Alice was born, this marriage, too, was dissolving.
00:18:52I don't know, Judy, honor.
00:18:53I'm not very good at this relationship thing.
00:18:56I'm not good at this relationship thing.
00:18:58Is that kind of candor unusual in a police interview?
00:19:00Particularly when the person you're talking about has now been murdered.
00:19:05It is, yeah.
00:19:07He was good at one thing.
00:19:09By many accounts, Matt was a loving father to Alice.
00:19:13I love being a dad.
00:19:14And for about two years after the divorce, Matt and Annie amicably shared custody of their daughter.
00:19:21Then, in 2014, Matt married for the third time to a woman named Angela.
00:19:28She had children of her own.
00:19:31It wasn't long before a custody and support battle began over Alice.
00:19:35How are your feelings towards Ann?
00:19:39I'm mostly indifferent.
00:19:41I just, I want to deal with her as little as possible.
00:19:45Feelings are one thing.
00:19:47For the moment, police had more immediate questions.
00:19:51So, what were you and Angela doing last night?
00:19:53Sleeping.
00:19:54Okay.
00:19:54Do you know what time you went to bed?
00:19:56I usually get in bed around 10 o'clock.
00:19:58Okay.
00:19:59And was Angela with you, or was she staying up doing other things?
00:20:02She was with me a bit.
00:20:02They had four children under their roof.
00:20:06There was Alice, who was there part-time, as well as three children from Angela's previous marriages.
00:20:13Those kids were a handful, Matt said, and he and Angela were worn out.
00:20:18She also hadn't been feeling well.
00:20:21Have a seat right there.
00:20:23In another room just down the hall, Angela was being questioned.
00:20:28Like Matt, Angela told detectives they were in bed by 10 p.m.
00:20:32Although, she said, they were both awake.
00:20:35Matt scrolling on his phone, and Angela watching TV.
00:20:39I was on the verge of falling asleep to some criminal minds.
00:20:43When you guys are sleeping, who gets the inside and who gets the outside?
00:20:47Matt's against the law.
00:20:48Any chance that Matthew could have gone anywhere sometime during the night?
00:20:53Oh, God.
00:20:54Every time he moves, he wakes me up.
00:20:55So, it's not a possibility.
00:20:57And I sleep, like, literally right up against him in his arms.
00:21:00If he would have gotten up out of bed, you would know it.
00:21:03Most definitely.
00:21:04When the interviews were over, Angela and Matt both willingly handed over their cell phones
00:21:10because police said they wanted to download GPS and other information.
00:21:16Matt's alibi is Angela, and Angela's alibi is Matt.
00:21:19Correct.
00:21:20That's not much, but it was the middle of the night.
00:21:23So, police wondered who else could alibi Angela and Matt the night of the murder.
00:21:30And it turned out there were plenty of people who could.
00:21:36Coming up.
00:21:38Our relationship is a little weird.
00:21:40Three's company.
00:21:41It's complicated.
00:21:42That's a thing in Portland?
00:21:44It was in that house.
00:21:45Because that's kind of weird.
00:21:47It's not something you see every day.
00:21:48When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:21:58Welcome back to Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
00:22:02I'm Craig Melvin.
00:22:03Annie Hester's murder was so vicious, police thought it must have been personal.
00:22:09When questioned, her ex-husband, Matt, told detectives he was in bed with his wife that night.
00:22:14It was a simple alibi, but as investigators soon discovered, Matt's life was anything but simple.
00:22:22Back to Josh Mankiewicz with The Undoing.
00:22:26In an ordinary household, a husband might offer an alibi for a wife.
00:22:32And a wife might offer an alibi for her husband.
00:22:36And only children, unreliable witnesses for the most part, would be left.
00:22:42But none of that was true in the rather unorthodox household of Matt and Angela Hester.
00:22:49So they had roommates, and you spoke with the roommates?
00:22:52Yeah, we spoke to all the roommates there.
00:22:54All three roommates, to be exact.
00:22:58It's like a sitcom, except it's not funny.
00:23:02Yeah, our relationship is a little weird.
00:23:04Roommate number one, Aaron McCraw.
00:23:06It's a good idea to keep your scorecards handy, because Aaron was Angela's husband before she married Matt.
00:23:15Now, he's her ex, and the father of two of her children.
00:23:20And Aaron was a tenant of his ex, and her next.
00:23:26That's a thing in Portland?
00:23:27It was in that house.
00:23:29Because that's kind of weird.
00:23:30It's not something you see every day.
00:23:32Aaron told police he crashed at Matt and Angela's most of the time, for lack of a better way to put it, when he didn't have a better offer.
00:23:41Lucky for him that the night of the murder, Aaron said he did have a better offer, that is.
00:23:47You were staying at your girlfriend's?
00:23:49I was...
00:23:50You were staying at home.
00:23:51I was not at home.
00:23:52I was at my girlfriend's.
00:23:55So Aaron is basically no help to you.
00:23:57He wasn't there.
00:23:58Correct.
00:23:58You might want to remember Aaron McCraw.
00:24:02You'll be seeing his face again.
00:24:04Roommate number two, what does he say?
00:24:07He was out the evening of the murder, and that he came home, and he saw Matt and Angela laying in their bed.
00:24:17At what time did he see Matt and Angela in bed together?
00:24:20He thought it was around midnight.
00:24:21And it was around 11 o'clock that the first witnesses said they heard screams coming from Annie's apartment.
00:24:27Correct, about 11, 11, 15.
00:24:30So, if that roommate's telling the truth, he alibis Matt and Angela, at least for the beginning of that attack, and presumably if they weren't there at the beginning, they weren't there at the middle or end.
00:24:42That's correct.
00:24:43And there was also a third possible alibi witness.
00:24:47I live with Matt and Angela.
00:24:49A third roommate.
00:24:51Her name?
00:24:53Karina Walters.
00:24:55Karina had been Angela's best friend since high school.
00:24:59After a divorce of her own, even with a decent job, Portland's soaring rent prices had left Karina homeless.
00:25:08Until Angela invited her to live in their garage.
00:25:11So, on the night of the murder, the family's only vehicle, this silver Mazda, was parked just a few feet from where Karina slept.
00:25:22You ever hear them coming and going?
00:25:24Yeah.
00:25:24Like I said, I live in the garage, and the garage door is really thin.
00:25:29So, if their car starts up, I don't know if you haven't heard their car, of course not.
00:25:34It makes this really god-awful rattling noise when it starts up.
00:25:38Okay.
00:25:39And if they were to go anywhere, it would make it, I'm pretty positive it would wake me up, but they never go anywhere.
00:25:45Did Matt leave last night at all?
00:25:46No.
00:25:47Did Angela leave at all?
00:25:49No.
00:25:50What's more, Karina told police she'd use the bathroom between 3 and 4 a.m.
00:25:55And, on the way there, she had to pass by the bed in the living room, where Matt and Angela slept.
00:26:02They were asleep.
00:26:03Angela snores.
00:26:04If Angela or Matt were responsible for this, and you knew it, I would turn them in in a heartbeat.
00:26:10Okay.
00:26:11You wouldn't protect them in any aspect?
00:26:12Tell them, though.
00:26:13Okay.
00:26:13In most police interviews, that would be that.
00:26:17Except, in this one, investigators kept going and asked Karina one more question.
00:26:24One informed by some digging police had already done.
00:26:29Are Matt and Angela into threesomes, groupies, girl-on-girl, guy-guy, anything like that, or is it all pretty normal?
00:26:38It's very normal with them.
00:26:40Most of us have our own definition of what normal is.
00:26:44Annie had her own.
00:26:46I just know that the guy she was seeing was in a relationship, and Ann was in a relationship with both of them, the guy and the girl.
00:26:55So, Ann was dating both the female and the male?
00:26:59Correct.
00:27:00The circle of those closest to Annie was widening.
00:27:04And, oh yes, there was one more thing that was mentioned.
00:27:09Pirates.
00:27:11Coming up.
00:27:13Pirates love knives.
00:27:14I've heard.
00:27:15And the suspect pool was about to explode.
00:27:19We learned that Annie participated in pirate parties or dungeon parties.
00:27:24So, we're way past love triangle here.
00:27:27This is like love trapezoid.
00:27:29This is like love rhombus.
00:27:31Love spiderweb, yes.
00:27:33And you gotta talk to all those people.
00:27:35Correct.
00:27:37When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:27:40While investigating the murder of Annie Hester, Gresham, Oregon police detective Aaron Turnich soon found himself in a plethora of polyamory.
00:27:56And the more witnesses his team talked with, the deeper police found themselves in the rabbit hole that was Annie's personal life.
00:28:05One of the things that happens in murder investigations is that everybody's secrets get laid bare.
00:28:18Did anything that came out about Annie shock you?
00:28:22No, I knew most of it already.
00:28:25She shared plenty of details and information with me that I didn't really need to know.
00:28:31But it's like, okay, cool.
00:28:32She felt like she could tell me pretty much anything.
00:28:35And she told me a lot.
00:28:36Police soon learned Annie explored the full polyamory experience.
00:28:43Multiple relationships.
00:28:45Multiple partners.
00:28:47She wasn't shy about it or ashamed.
00:28:51And while investigators did have to explore some previously unheard of kinky fetishes,
00:28:57the primary result of learning about Annie's private life was that detectives had more and more leads to chase down.
00:29:04So, she was involved with a couple, a man and a woman, and some other people.
00:29:11Correct.
00:29:12And she was in that kink world.
00:29:14Correct.
00:29:14And she had an ex with whom she shared a child.
00:29:18So, we're way past love triangle here.
00:29:21This is like love trapezoid.
00:29:23This is like love rhombus.
00:29:25Love spiderweb, yes.
00:29:27And you got to talk to all those people.
00:29:29Correct.
00:29:30The first people on the list?
00:29:33That polyamorous couple with whom Annie had had a relationship.
00:29:37They asked us not to show their faces.
00:29:40They lived 90 minutes south of Portland and were part of a group Annie belonged to and loved.
00:29:47A group that took part in role play as pirates.
00:29:50Honestly, I was unaware that pirate things were a thing.
00:29:56Wait a minute.
00:29:57So, they all got together and dressed up as pirates?
00:30:00They did.
00:30:01And Annie was a part of that.
00:30:03You know, we learned that there are people that live their lives as pirates.
00:30:06So, we had to explore that a little bit.
00:30:08And investigators did explore that, keeping in mind how Annie had been stabbed to death with three different knives.
00:30:17Pirates love knives.
00:30:18I've heard.
00:30:19There's a subset of the pirate world that deals with, it's a kink or a sexual world.
00:30:26So, people will take knives and they will use them during sex acts.
00:30:30We learned that Annie participated in pirate parties or dungeon parties.
00:30:37And collectively, when we spoke to all of those people, it was pretty clear Annie was not into the knife play.
00:30:45That became pretty relevant pretty quickly.
00:30:47She had dabbled in it, but it wasn't her thing.
00:30:50What's more, detectives soon learned that husband and wife Annie had been seeing had broken up with her six weeks before the murder.
00:30:58There had been tears, but no hard feelings.
00:31:01That couple had an alibi for the night of the murder.
00:31:04They had an alibi.
00:31:05They were quickly eliminated from suspicion in this case.
00:31:08Detectives were not just looking into Annie's personal life.
00:31:12They also had to consider where the crime occurred.
00:31:14The killer had entered by scaling a fence, then standing on a cinder block to remove an air conditioner, then climbing into a window in the back of Annie's apartment.
00:31:25Just beyond that fence, there was a sidewalk, a busy road.
00:31:30And on the other side of the road, a heavily traveled path called the Springwater Trail.
00:31:36How long before you guys are out walking the trail?
00:31:40Immediately.
00:31:40It's one of our first searches that we do with a lot of searchers over several days.
00:31:46The detective wondered, could this have been a random killing, a robbery?
00:31:51After all, on that 911 call Annie made before she died, she'd said a couple of times that she didn't know her killer.
00:31:59Did you recognize this person at all?
00:32:03No.
00:32:03We had thought, like, maybe a transient, or she lived right off of the Springwater Trail.
00:32:10Lots of homeless.
00:32:11This is Karina Walters, Angela's best friend who lived in the garage at Matt and Angela's place,
00:32:17who told police she would definitely have heard the family's silver Mazda pull away
00:32:23if it had been taken from the driveway the night of the murder.
00:32:27She says the random robber from the trail angle was the prevailing theory over at their place.
00:32:35That was honestly what we thought.
00:32:38The air conditioner had been removed.
00:32:41Somebody came in, killed her, took a bunch of stuff, and left.
00:32:46So was that what had happened?
00:32:49It was a theory the detective had to consider.
00:32:52This could have been a robbery or a burglary gone bad.
00:32:55Annie might have been collateral damage in a robbery.
00:32:58Okay, but a burglar doesn't stab you that many times and carve mysterious letters into you.
00:33:04Yeah, not typically.
00:33:05I would agree.
00:33:05Not typically.
00:33:06Is it outside the realm of possibility?
00:33:08No, it's not.
00:33:10Anything missing from the apartment?
00:33:12Not that we could tell.
00:33:14All the big stuff that you would go for, the jewelry, the phones, the wallet, the purse,
00:33:18all that stuff was still there.
00:33:19So we were pretty quickly able to rule out the idea of a botched burglary or botched robbery.
00:33:27No one deserves to die the way Annie did.
00:33:30And no matter which trails or avenues detectives explored,
00:33:34they found no evidence that any of the choices Annie made in her personal life or anywhere else
00:33:40had anything to do with her death.
00:33:43Except maybe in one area.
00:33:46Her choice of friends.
00:33:49Coming up.
00:33:53I'm sure you've seen TV.
00:33:54When we have situations like this, you know, everybody points to the ex-husband did it.
00:33:58Matt issues a challenge to detectives.
00:34:00If you thought I did, you were charged.
00:34:02Nope.
00:34:02Not necessarily.
00:34:03Nothing to do with her death.
00:34:05When Date Line Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:34:07About 12 hours after police first interviewed Annie Hester's ex-husband, Matt, and his current
00:34:21wife, Angela, the couple was back at the Gresham Police Department for a late-night round two.
00:34:28Matt was still displaying difficulty walking from those unexplained medical problems he told
00:34:34police about.
00:34:35Detective Turnage thought they represented something other than illness.
00:34:40You're convinced that's for your benefit.
00:34:42He's not actually in pain.
00:34:44I believe it's laying a foundation that he's incapable of committing such a violent act because
00:34:49he can barely move across our waiting room.
00:34:51Sure, Matt and Angela had two roommates who'd alibied them and said they were home during
00:34:57the night of Annie's murder.
00:34:59That didn't quite do it.
00:35:01To detectives, Matt was still a person of the strongest possible interest.
00:35:07I mean, obviously, we've got to consider all possibilities here, and I'm sure you've seen
00:35:13TV.
00:35:13When we have situations like this, you know, everybody points to the ex-husband did it.
00:35:17I want to help you guys because, sorry, the thing I'm worried about is my daughter.
00:35:28Okay.
00:35:29Matt, if you had anything to do with Anne's death, I need to know about it right now.
00:35:32I did not.
00:35:33I would never do anything that would endanger my child.
00:35:36Okay.
00:35:36And I'm glad to hear you say that because that tells me what kind of parent you are.
00:35:39Is there any reason where I find your DNA involved in that murder scene?
00:35:43No.
00:35:43Detectives asked Matt to take off his shirt, knowing that if he'd been involved in such
00:35:49a violent stabbing, his body would show some sign of it.
00:35:53They found nothing.
00:35:56Then they asked about those bloody shoe prints, presumably left by the killer fleeing Annie's
00:36:01apartment.
00:36:03Someone who wore a size 9 1⁄2 or 10.
00:36:06Do you know what kind of shoes you have?
00:36:08These are boots.
00:36:09Yeah.
00:36:09What size?
00:36:1011 1⁄2 wide.
00:36:12Okay.
00:36:12That didn't fit either.
00:36:15Nonetheless, Detective Turnage tried a tactic you may be familiar with, suggesting to Matt
00:36:21that police had more than they really did, and trying to rattle him.
00:36:26I need to let you know that my investigation clearly shows that you're responsible for
00:36:33Ann's death, and you're involved in it intimately.
00:36:37Well, then you would have charged me.
00:36:39No.
00:36:39No, I wouldn't.
00:36:40I wouldn't.
00:36:41If you thought I did, you would have charged me.
00:36:42No, not necessarily a thing to do with her death.
00:36:45He made the comment in the interview, if you had enough on me, you would arrest me right
00:36:48now, which I thought was a very, very arrogant comment.
00:36:52So that was a little bit of a red flag for me.
00:36:55Do innocent people say to you, historically, well, if you had enough, you'd arrest me?
00:37:02Not at all.
00:37:02They say, you're crazy.
00:37:04I had nothing to do with this.
00:37:05I couldn't kill anybody.
00:37:06They're strong denials.
00:37:07Absolutely have the wrong person.
00:37:09They get mad.
00:37:10I would expect anger and frustration.
00:37:11Those are the signs of a truthful person.
00:37:13That told me as the investigator and the detective, I need to dig a little bit deeper and look a
00:37:18little bit more into this conversation.
00:37:20Down the hall, detectives were also questioning Matt's current wife, Angela.
00:37:24She wasn't feeling well, she said, but she was willing to answer questions about Annie's
00:37:31murder.
00:37:32I'm just going to keep my eyes shut and my head down.
00:37:35Okay.
00:37:37How did it make you feel when you heard about her being killed?
00:37:43Shocked.
00:37:48Non-believing.
00:37:49Then, as detectives once again took Angela through the timeline of Annie's murder, she
00:38:03volunteered something that made her interrogators sit up straight.
00:38:08Did you guys sleep well?
00:38:09What happened?
00:38:09Did you get through the night?
00:38:11For the most part, we slept just fine until my dog started whining.
00:38:15Guess what time Angela said the dogs woke her up?
00:38:20Remember, neighbors heard screams and Annie called 911, all about 3 a.m.
00:38:27Do you remember looking at a clock?
00:38:29I half opened my eye to look at the clock slightly and see that it was around 3.
00:38:35Okay.
00:38:36Did you actually end up having to get out of bed to let them out?
00:38:38Yeah, I got up, walked downstairs, put their leashes on, took them potty, came back upstairs.
00:38:45Put them in their kennels.
00:38:49Mm-hmm.
00:38:50And then I went to go potty and ended up puking and f***ing myself at the same time.
00:38:57Oh, that's horrible.
00:38:57I'm sorry.
00:38:58And that's why I called Matt to help me and he came and helped me.
00:39:04He took a shower to help get the poop off and rinse some of the sweat off of me because
00:39:11apparently I was sweating.
00:39:12So now, according to Angela, they're both showering at, coincidentally, the time the
00:39:20murder was committed.
00:39:22That's not suspicious.
00:39:24No, not at all.
00:39:25And it wasn't suspicious when I spoke to Matt and asked Matt about that.
00:39:29And Matt said he woke up at 3 a.m. and heard her go out and let the dogs out, but he never
00:39:34got out of bed.
00:39:35Matt didn't remember it, says he never got out of bed.
00:39:38Angela's saying she got out of bed and Matt helped her take a shower.
00:39:41So things just weren't adding up.
00:39:42The focus was narrowing.
00:39:45Annie's polyamorous relationships hadn't generated any murderous rage.
00:39:50Her friends in the pirate community had no intention of making her walk the plank.
00:39:55And this didn't feel like a burglary or something random.
00:40:00Well, thought Detective Turnage, now we're getting somewhere.
00:40:08A week after Annie's murder, family and friends gathered to say goodbye at this funeral home
00:40:14in Gresham, Oregon.
00:40:15We had 10, 12 detectives scattered throughout the property there.
00:40:24Detectives took this video of Annie's four-year-old daughter, Alice, there with her stepmother, Angela,
00:40:30and father, Matt.
00:40:32The couple considered by police and by Annie's family to be prime suspects.
00:40:38It didn't be strange to see Alice being taken care of by people that you at least suspected
00:40:44of possibly having some involvement in her murder.
00:40:48It was hard knowing that she's with somebody that we didn't want her to be with, and there
00:40:55was very little that we could do at that point in time, but just hope that she's safe.
00:41:02Inside the chapel, more detectives, including one undercover officer who sat right next to
00:41:09Matt and Angela, and who made a game-changing observation.
00:41:14One of the things that the detective noticed on the back of Angela's right hand, she has
00:41:20about a one-and-a-half-inch cut on the, you know, top side of the webbing between the
00:41:26thumb and the index finger.
00:41:27Investigators, who'd so far focused more on Matt, now had another direction.
00:41:34Did seeing Angela with that cut on her hand at the funeral change the level of suspicion
00:41:38that she was under?
00:41:41Absolutely it did.
00:41:42So then, what would make Angela angry enough to drive across town in the middle of the
00:41:47night and torture Annie for hours before killing her?
00:41:51And, how would Angela, and presumably Matt, benefit from Annie's death?
00:41:59Well, therein lies a tale.
00:42:02Coming up.
00:42:04Matt said he considered himself a professional parent.
00:42:07He and Angela received benefits from their children.
00:42:10Was money behind the tug-of-war over little Alice?
00:42:14It sounds like Matt and his wife saw Alice as almost like an ATM car.
00:42:19Yeah, a meal ticket.
00:42:21When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:42:30Welcome back to Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
00:42:33I'm Craig Melvin.
00:42:34Detectives suspected Angela Hester and her husband, Matt, were involved in the murder of
00:42:39his ex-wife, Annie.
00:42:41There were troubling inconsistencies in their alibis, and Angela had a suspicious wound on
00:42:47her hand.
00:42:48Digging deeper, police were about to uncover a secret scheme to take away what Annie loved
00:42:55most.
00:42:56Back to Josh Mankiewicz with The Undoing.
00:42:59Police investigating the murder of Annie Hester wondered if her ex-husband, Matt, and his
00:43:05wife, Angela, had anything to gain from Annie's death.
00:43:09They found out that Matt and Annie had an amicable divorce in 2012 and shared custody of their
00:43:17daughter Alice.
00:43:18Matt paid about $200 a month in child support.
00:43:22Two years later, when Matt met Angela and they married, the good relationship continued.
00:43:28Karina Walters lived with Matt and Angela.
00:43:32Like, they all had this great relationship all together.
00:43:35Like, we took vacations together.
00:43:38What changed?
00:43:38I'm not 100%, but, like, the only catalyst that I've been able to put together is that
00:43:43Annie wanted her mom to watch Alice more often, and Matt didn't want to give up that time.
00:43:49That doesn't seem like a huge issue, but it provoked a huge problem.
00:43:53Yeah.
00:43:53So then there ended up being the custody word, like, being thrown back and forth.
00:43:58As often happens, a tug-of-war involving a child ended up in court.
00:44:06Was the custody battle nasty?
00:44:08It got pretty nasty.
00:44:09It got bad.
00:44:10How bad?
00:44:12Angela soon called Oregon's Department of Human Services to report Annie for child neglect.
00:44:19In response, Annie sent this email to a friend, writing, and I'll paraphrase,
00:44:25I just cannot comprehend what I did to deserve this level of, in my life.
00:44:32I am so done dealing with this.
00:44:35The state found no evidence of neglect.
00:44:40Then Angela started taking a larger role in the child exchanges, after Matt suddenly claimed
00:44:48to remember that Annie had abused him during their marriage.
00:44:52Matt stopped paying child support, and Annie, who friends said had initially sought a resolution
00:45:07everyone could live with, now dug in her heels.
00:45:12In an email, Annie called Matt antagonistic, uncooperative, and more.
00:45:17As detectives dug deeper into the case file, they discovered one possible reason Matt and
00:45:24Angela seemed desperate to gain custody of Alice, and it was this.
00:45:30Neither Matt nor Angela had a job.
00:45:34Matt said he considered himself a professional parent.
00:45:38He and Angela received benefits from their children.
00:45:41Their children were being diagnosed with various medical conditions, which get state benefits
00:45:46or payouts, so they reap those benefits to the sum of approximately $2,000 a month total,
00:45:52and that is their payment for being professional parents.
00:45:56And if Matt and Angela saw children as a means of earning money, what would gaining custody of
00:46:02Alice mean for them?
00:46:04Well, detectives soon found out the couple seemed to have plans for Alice, too.
00:46:08A court-ordered custody evaluation found that three-year-old Alice was having some trouble
00:46:14adjusting to going back and forth between two households.
00:46:17That's common for children of divorce.
00:46:20Matt and Angela both said they believed Alice's behavioral problems could be related to bipolar
00:46:25disorder.
00:46:26Annie's lawyers suggested in court filings it was all part of a scheme.
00:46:31More children with disabilities equaled more money from the state.
00:46:35It sounds like Matt and his wife saw Alice less as his daughter and more as almost like
00:46:43an ATM card.
00:46:45Yeah, a meal ticket.
00:46:46I mean, that was the word that was thrown around at the time.
00:46:50In the end, a judge had no doubts about who was the better parent.
00:46:55Six months before her murder, Annie was awarded full custody of Alice.
00:47:00Matt got something, too.
00:47:03A bill.
00:47:05$29,000 in court and lawyer's fees.
00:47:08And about $13,000 in back child support.
00:47:12The total?
00:47:13A little more than $42,000.
00:47:16Did Annie ever expect to see any of that money?
00:47:19Not really, because he didn't work.
00:47:21And if things could get worse for Matt, they soon did.
00:47:24In Oregon, one of the penalties for not paying child support is losing your driver's license.
00:47:31Then, a month before Annie's murder, a warrant was issued for Matt's arrest.
00:47:37What was the reaction to that in the house you were living in?
00:47:41A lot of banging and a lot of screaming.
00:47:44And Angela was crying about how the effing courts didn't know what they were effing talking
00:47:50about and how are we going to pay this.
00:47:52What I thought was weird was Matt's reaction, because there was none.
00:47:55There was nothing.
00:47:56He wasn't even, like he wasn't even paying attention.
00:47:59Really?
00:48:00Angela was furious.
00:48:01He was like, whatever.
00:48:03Yeah.
00:48:04That bothered me.
00:48:05This, to me, was a, was a dad who gave up, who didn't care anymore.
00:48:10Well, if Matt didn't care, Angela seemed to care more than enough for both of them.
00:48:15In fact, the day of the court judgment, Angela made a remark, Karina won't forget.
00:48:23At one point, Angela says, if I killed her, nobody would even miss her.
00:48:28Yeah.
00:48:29And I was like, okay, you're mad, you're angry, I get it.
00:48:32It's inflammatory, it's a stupid thing to say, but it's not exactly somebody plotting a crime.
00:48:38No.
00:48:39I just thought she was mad.
00:48:40Just blowing off steam.
00:48:43No reason for Karina to call police or mention it to Annie.
00:48:48Was there?
00:48:51Coming up.
00:48:52Video cameras essentially captured that car all the way to the driveway of Annie's apartment.
00:49:00A killer's car caught on camera.
00:49:02No question that's Matt and Angela's SUV.
00:49:04No question, somebody from that house left that home to commit the murder and then returned to that home after the murder.
00:49:11Can you tell who's driving?
00:49:12Nope.
00:49:13We're in Dateline.
00:49:14Secrets Uncovered.
00:49:15Continue.
00:49:16Gresham Police Detective Aaron Turnage and his team had solid suspicions about Matt and Angela Hester's possible roles in the murder of Annie Hester.
00:49:34They also had no solid evidence.
00:49:39That was about to change, starting with a search for security video that night around their home just before 11 p.m.
00:49:49Oh, look at that.
00:49:51Their neighbor had a video camera that recorded the street in front of their house.
00:49:58That camera captured a light-colored or silver SUV coming out of the area of Matt and Angela's driveway.
00:50:07There it was.
00:50:10No question that's Matt and Angela's SUV.
00:50:12There's no question.
00:50:13Can you tell who's driving?
00:50:14We can't tell who's driving, nope.
00:50:16So this isn't like TV where you can blow it up and see exactly who it is.
00:50:20Enhance, enhance, enhance, zoom.
00:50:22No, it's not like television.
00:50:24Still, for investigators, this was astounding because that silver Mazda SUV had a cameo on each of nine more cameras on its way across Portland to the suburb of Gresham.
00:50:40Video cameras essentially captured that car all the way to the driveway of Annie's apartment.
00:50:47The trip took 26 minutes, putting the silver Mazda at Annie's at 11.23 p.m., right around the time neighbors reported hearing screams.
00:51:01Then, about four hours later, about 3 a.m., the time of Annie's 911 call reporting her attacker had just left.
00:51:09Do you see that silver Mazda returning to Matt and Angela's house?
00:51:13We do. We were able to follow it essentially right back to the very first camera that we started with at the neighbor's house.
00:51:21The driver, as you can see, turned off the headlights before stopping, apparently trying to sneak the Mazda back into its driveway.
00:51:31Well, there go Matt and Angela's alibis.
00:51:34Indeed.
00:51:34What are you thinking when you're looking at that video?
00:51:37I think that I don't know who the killer is, but somebody from that house left that home to commit the murder and then returned to that home after the murder.
00:51:46So then what about that alibi given by Angela's best friend, Karina, who said from her bed in the garage, she was certain she would have heard a vehicle start up and drive away?
00:51:57I think that when they pulled out, they didn't start the car.
00:52:00How'd you miss it?
00:52:02How did you not hear it?
00:52:03I don't know.
00:52:06How could I have not known?
00:52:08If I had known, I could have done something.
00:52:11If I had even remotely thought, I could have done something.
00:52:14If you had noticed something, it would have been too late.
00:52:18I don't think you could have saved Annie's life.
00:52:20If I had taken those threats seriously, maybe I could have.
00:52:26Detective Turnage, as you might guess, has a slightly more cynical explanation.
00:52:31I think she was lying to protect her friend.
00:52:34You don't think she could just be wrong?
00:52:36I don't think she was wrong.
00:52:37Karina's statement of the car is loud, I would have heard it leave and it never left.
00:52:42I think that's a blatant lie.
00:52:43We may never know the truth, but with that damning security camera footage in hand, detectives next started combing through Matt and Angela's cell phones, which the couple had voluntarily surrendered.
00:52:57There they found another clue, this one about the bloody shoe prints found leaving from Annie's apartment.
00:53:05And we were able to take a look at some of the pictures in both of their phones.
00:53:09And we saw that on November 8th, Matt sent Angela a Payless Shoes coupon to save money off of a purchase.
00:53:18About an hour later, Angela sent Matt a picture taken at a shoe store based on the background.
00:53:24And there were two boots in that picture where we showed the picture to a manager at Payless Shoes.
00:53:31And the manager said, yes, those are Airwalk Myras.
00:53:34So we know based on our investigation, that is the tread pattern that we're looking for.
00:53:39Then the manager told detectives something they hadn't expected.
00:53:43And the manager said that picture was taken at our Clackanus, Oregon location.
00:53:49And the reason we know that is because that's the only store in our district that didn't have the carpet replaced.
00:53:55And that's the old carpet you see in that picture.
00:53:57That Payless store was about 10 minutes from Matt and Angela's apartment.
00:54:03And the detectives were actually able to walk over and find the exact tile square where this photograph was taken.
00:54:08Detectives pulled records showing that on that day, November 8th, seven months before Annie's murder, only one pair of Airwalk Myras was sold.
00:54:20They were purchased with a credit card.
00:54:22The credit card holder was Angela McCraw Hester.
00:54:26So our investigation shows that Angela McCraw Hester purchased a pair of size 9 1⁄2 Airwalk Myras.
00:54:34That is the same shoe design that was stamped at our crime scene in blood.
00:54:39That's pretty good police work.
00:54:40Solid, it seems.
00:54:42Solid gold, that is.
00:54:44Especially if you're looking to get a judge to issue an arrest warrant.
00:54:51Investigators have tough questions for Angela, but first, she has a few of her own.
00:54:57Coming up.
00:54:58Why am I being arrested, you stupid f***?
00:55:02But what about Matt?
00:55:03The murder victim is his ex.
00:55:06He's on the hook for 40-something large.
00:55:10He's just the innocent bystander?
00:55:12Or he didn't know anything?
00:55:13You buy that?
00:55:14Not at all.
00:55:15At this point, I know he had something to do with it.
00:55:17I can't prove it.
00:55:19When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
00:55:22Detectives had powerful new evidence tying someone in Matt and Angela's household to that silver Mazda caught on camera driving to Annie's apartment on the night of the murder.
00:55:42And now it looked as if Angela Hester had been wearing the boots that had made those size nine and a half bloody shoe prints.
00:55:50It sounds as if you can pretty definitively tie Angela to Annie's murder at that point.
00:56:03Absolutely.
00:56:03But not Matt?
00:56:05We don't have anything on Matt at that point.
00:56:07The murder victim is his ex.
00:56:10He's on the hook for 40-something large.
00:56:14He's just the innocent bystander?
00:56:16Or he didn't know anything?
00:56:17You buy that?
00:56:19Not at all.
00:56:19At this point, I know he had something to do with it.
00:56:22I can't prove it.
00:56:23So investigators kept looking.
00:56:25And the calendar kept flipping.
00:56:27Hello.
00:56:28Today is September 5th, 2016.
00:56:30And this is my weekly writing video log of what I've been up to in regards to writing.
00:56:34Matt had begun posting updates about his life on YouTube.
00:56:39And what he had been up to was exactly what detectives wanted to know.
00:56:45Still, six months, a year, no arrest.
00:56:49Annie's daughter, Alice, celebrated her fifth birthday in the care of Matt and Angela,
00:56:56the prime suspects in her mother's murder.
00:56:59I was very fearful for Alice.
00:57:02I was also fearful for my own family.
00:57:04I was fearful for myself.
00:57:07I started walking around with pepper spray in my purse and a stun gun and a coup of tong
00:57:12because I didn't feel safe.
00:57:15And I definitely didn't feel like my niece was safe.
00:57:18It's hard to wait and not know and kind of be in that limbo state.
00:57:24That limbo went on because detectives were waiting on DNA results.
00:57:28Nothing had matched Matt or Angela.
00:57:31Until a lab analyst told police about an advance in forensic technology
00:57:36that made it possible to generate a DNA profile with a smaller sample of material.
00:57:42Bingo.
00:57:43It was in October of 2017 that Detective Turnage was finally ready to make his move.
00:57:51By that time, Matt and Angela had moved their family, including young Alice,
00:57:56650 miles from the Portland area to a new home here in Pocatello, Idaho.
00:58:01First, though, investigators did some surveillance and they noticed the Rocky Mountain air
00:58:09must have had some magical healing powers for Matt Hester.
00:58:13They're going to Costco.
00:58:14Matt is slinging cases of water and soda all over the place without any kind of ailments
00:58:18or issues.
00:58:19In fact, the man who wanted police to believe he could barely walk was caught on camera doing
00:58:26chores like mowing his lawn.
00:58:29And then, on a few weeks ago, the lawn was moved in.
00:58:34Angela Hester was arrested barefoot and in her pajamas.
00:58:38She was charged with Annie's murder.
00:58:41And she did not go quietly.
00:58:44Then, at the police station during questioning, Detective Turnage observed a telling clue.
00:59:09Remember, at Annie's funeral, an undercover detective saw a large cut on the back of Angela's right hand.
00:59:18The more we spoke, the more she became focused on what is now a scar on the back of her hand.
00:59:23She is subconsciously massaging that scar as we're having this conversation.
00:59:27And that nonverbal was a telltale sign as to we were talking to the right person.
00:59:33And I'm going to cut to the chase, okay?
00:59:35You are under arrest for asking the murder.
00:59:37So, you're saying that I killed her?
00:59:40Yeah.
00:59:41Okay.
00:59:41I would like a lawyer if that's the case.
00:59:43Okay.
00:59:45All right.
00:59:45Because I didn't.
00:59:46I was at home.
00:59:47By now, detectives knew that wasn't true.
00:59:51Using that new testing method, they'd already matched DNA from Angela to blood left on the
00:59:57knife block in Annie Hester's kitchen and to bloodstains in the silver Mazda.
01:00:02Still, Angela hadn't seemed to understand that DNA had been her undoing.
01:00:09We provided Angela some water during this interview.
01:00:12At the end of the interview, Angela took the water cup and a tissue that she had, and she
01:00:17held the cup by the rim.
01:00:19She used the tissue to wipe what would essentially be her DNA off and then used the tissue to hold
01:00:25the cup as she threw it down into the garbage can.
01:00:27She's already given you her DNA at that point, right?
01:00:30Correct.
01:00:31But she's had 18 months or 16, 18 months of wiping her DNA and cleaning up her trails,
01:00:36and the switch just didn't flip inside her mind, and she wiped her DNA like she'd been
01:00:41doing forever.
01:00:42Not often that you see a murder suspect trying to dispose of evidence right in front of you
01:00:48in the interview room.
01:00:50It's not often.
01:00:51Police had suspected Matt and Angela of murder.
01:00:55Now they had a case against Angela.
01:01:00Oh, and speaking of Matt, he was at the police station too, shuffling around, as usual, with
01:01:06great effort.
01:01:07I just want to get done so I can get a hold of my kids.
01:01:10It seems fair to say that Matt Hester had no idea what he was in for.
01:01:16Here's the deal, okay?
01:01:17Our investigation clearly shows that Angela committed the murder against Anastasia.
01:01:23We're not here to discuss if it happened.
01:01:25I don't care what you think.
01:01:26In fact, you've been under shabellos for the last two weeks by the U.S. Marshals.
01:01:30So we've got you walking across the parking lot at Costco, picking up soda boxes and water
01:01:34bottles, whatever the f*** you were doing.
01:01:36You're not limping.
01:01:37You're not walking where they came.
01:01:38I'm not buying the fiber myosia.
01:01:40I'm not buying it, okay?
01:01:42The detectives pulled out photos of Annie's autopsy.
01:01:46That's her.
01:01:48She's touched his s***.
01:01:50And they tried to decapitate her.
01:01:52Cut all the way through her jaw.
01:01:55Stabbed all over her face.
01:01:56Carved a Roman numeral on her chest.
01:01:58Using knives to make those numerals felt to police, like an attempt by the killer or killers
01:02:04to focus investigators on Annie's friends in the pirate community.
01:02:10If that's what it was, it didn't work.
01:02:12And before long, Matt Hester had an epiphany about Angela.
01:02:19Based on the evidence, I don't have a choice but to accept what she did.
01:02:23Okay.
01:02:24From there, Matt folded faster than the overnight crew at The Gap, admitting that on the evening
01:02:30of the murder, he was sleeping when sometime around 3 a.m., Angela woke him up.
01:02:37Wait a minute.
01:03:00He's washing blood out of her hair.
01:03:02Blood's pooling in the bottom of the shower.
01:03:04But at no time do the words, honey, what happened, cross his lips.
01:03:10That is correct.
01:03:11According to his story.
01:03:13So the next day, the cops knock on your door.
01:03:16They tell you Anastasia's dead.
01:03:17Okay.
01:03:19You know that your wife came home in the middle of the night, cut up in bloody, and you hope
01:03:25to take a shower.
01:03:27What are you thinking?
01:03:29In your mind.
01:03:30Even though you don't want to believe it, what are you thinking?
01:03:32It's possible that she's done.
01:03:33Okay.
01:03:34That day, the day after the murder, Matt admitted cleaning bloodstains from the silver
01:03:40Mazda and lying to police about all of it.
01:03:44He continued to deny any part in the planning of the murder until that story changed too.
01:03:52Who else was involved in this?
01:03:54And this is where you need to think about it, because of whether you or somebody else.
01:03:57Who else was involved in this?
01:03:59She talked about hiring someone.
01:04:02And the name Matt mentioned?
01:04:05Well, it was one that had crossed his wife's lips before.
01:04:09Something about, in good times and bad.
01:04:15Coming up.
01:04:16Had Angela been shopping for a hitman?
01:04:19She talked about hiring her ex-wife.
01:04:22And Aaron did.
01:04:23Matt threw Angela under the bus on those conversations and said she's the one that did all the talking.
01:04:28When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
01:04:38Welcome back.
01:04:39Police had hard evidence tying Angela Hester to the murder of her husband's previous wife, Annie.
01:04:47But what about Matt Hester?
01:04:48He insisted he did not kill his ex.
01:04:51But as police turned up the heat, Matt let a secret slip.
01:04:56He now said Angela tried to hire a hitman.
01:04:59And it was someone she knew very well.
01:05:03Back to Josh Mankiewicz with The Undoing.
01:05:08Detective Aaron Turnage had just about had it with Matt Hester's evasive answers
01:05:13to questions about who might have helped his current wife, Angela, murder his ex-wife, Annie.
01:05:21Then, about 90 minutes into the interrogation, Matt dropped this.
01:05:26She talked about hiring her ex-wife.
01:05:30Okay, Aaron did.
01:05:32Aaron McCraw.
01:05:34Remember him?
01:05:35Angela's ex-husband.
01:05:37The father of two of her children.
01:05:39And an occasional roommate at Matt and Angela's place.
01:05:43Someone police had already asked about his whereabouts on the night of the murder.
01:05:49I was not at home.
01:05:50I was at my girlfriend's.
01:05:53It made sense.
01:05:54Then.
01:05:55Now, police weren't sure.
01:05:59According to Matt, what was the reasoning behind hiring Aaron McCraw to do the murder?
01:06:03Is he a killer?
01:06:05He's not a killer, you know, according to Matt.
01:06:09But he was somebody they knew and trusted and would agree to do it.
01:06:12Matt told police the discussions with Aaron happened months before the murder, in the thick
01:06:22of the child custody fight over Alice.
01:06:25He said he was able to recall some of what they'd talked about.
01:06:29Just on the mic.
01:06:31And I recall that the number was done on the 50,000.
01:06:34Ultimately, Matt said the plan fell apart because, given their financial situation, he and Angela
01:06:42didn't actually have the cash to hire a killer.
01:06:46And according to Matt, that's the only reason the plan failed.
01:06:49Not that Aaron said, I won't have anything to do with that.
01:06:52Matt threw Angela under the bus on those conversations and said she's the one that did all the talking.
01:06:57And the thing was, nobody really seemed to know if Angela committed the murder on her own.
01:07:04And that gave the detective an idea.
01:07:07Here's what I would like to ask you to do.
01:07:11With Aaron McCraw and his fiancé on their way to Idaho at that very moment to pick up the
01:07:17kids he shared with Angela, the detective asked Matt to get on the phone and get Aaron to talk.
01:07:25We can call him, discuss those murder-for-hire plots, meetings, re-driving, what do you need to know?
01:07:31I gotta know what the fellow talks.
01:07:33Matt agreed.
01:07:35And, minutes later.
01:07:38Hello?
01:07:39Hey, is Aaron there?
01:07:40Yeah, hold on.
01:07:41Thanks.
01:07:42Let me put you on the picture.
01:07:43Yep.
01:07:44Okay, what's up?
01:07:46Hey, um, I don't know if you guys know, but, uh, Angela got arrested.
01:07:50I heard you were arrested.
01:07:52No, Angela's the one who got arrested.
01:07:54I just got out of the police station.
01:07:57I want to make sure that our story is the same, um, when I go in and talk to them again.
01:08:02So, I'm not sure what you know.
01:08:06Like, did she talk to you at all?
01:08:09You know nothing.
01:08:09No.
01:08:10So you weren't involved in this at all?
01:08:13No.
01:08:14Didn't help her drive or anything like that?
01:08:16No.
01:08:16I just want to know if, if Angela got a hold of someone to help her or if she did it on
01:08:23her own so I know what to tell the cops when they ask me.
01:08:28Erin?
01:08:32Erin?
01:08:35Yeah.
01:08:36After we hung up, I was going, that's a really weird conversation.
01:08:40I bet he's still in police custody.
01:08:42This is Emily.
01:08:43Now Erin McCraw's wife.
01:08:46And Erin McCraw.
01:08:48What's it been like to be caught in the middle of this?
01:08:51It's been very much like being caught in a tornado.
01:08:57Erin?
01:08:58I'm just trying not to have a PTSD moment at the moment.
01:09:01You didn't have PTSD before all this?
01:09:04No.
01:09:05I had panic attacks.
01:09:07That's right.
01:09:08Erin McCraw says that after that call, police brought him in for an interrogation and a
01:09:14polygraph.
01:09:15And that's what gave him PTSD.
01:09:18For which he says he's been diagnosed.
01:09:21And takes medication.
01:09:22I don't remember any of the interview or anything like that in Pocatello.
01:09:29Like, my brain is completely blocked it out.
01:09:31You didn't get the PTSD in the military and you didn't get it from some violent event in
01:09:35your own life.
01:09:37No.
01:09:37You got it from being asked questions about that murder, just like I'm asking you now.
01:09:44Mm-hmm.
01:09:45The difference is I'm not threatening to arrest you afterwards.
01:09:48Mm-hmm.
01:09:49Mm-hmm.
01:09:50You don't remember the call where Matt says to you, remember that time I tried to get you
01:09:56to kill Anastasia?
01:09:58No.
01:09:59But you remember that that didn't happen.
01:10:02Yeah.
01:10:03You never had any conversation with Matt about killing anybody.
01:10:06No.
01:10:08Okay.
01:10:08That's, I just want to be clear.
01:10:09That's not something that you don't remember.
01:10:11You remember that that didn't happen.
01:10:13Mm-hmm.
01:10:14Aaron, hypothetically, if Matt ever had asked you to kill Anastasia, Annie, what would you
01:10:21have said?
01:10:22Hell no.
01:10:23And the story had walked away.
01:10:25Why would he make that up?
01:10:27Why would he drag you into this?
01:10:29The only thing I can think of is to keep the kids from me.
01:10:32This whole process, they've never wanted Aaron to have custody of the kids.
01:10:36So you think this whole thing about you being a proposed hitman is just made up from them?
01:10:43Yes.
01:10:44Detective Turnage does not buy Aaron's denials.
01:10:48I do believe there were conversations between Matt and Angela and Aaron McCraw about the murder.
01:10:53Well, depending on when and how you ask him, Aaron either says that didn't happen, or he
01:10:58says, if it did happen, I don't remember it.
01:11:02And he says he has PTSD from you asking him questions about it.
01:11:06Do you believe any of that?
01:11:07No.
01:11:07You think his PTSD is an act?
01:11:09I do think it's an act, to get away from answering the tough questions.
01:11:13Police admit there is no evidence, none, other than the claims made by Matt Hester, that Aaron
01:11:19McCraw talked about hiring on as a hitman to kill Annie.
01:11:23Why do you think they would just take Matt's word?
01:11:26I have no idea.
01:11:27They did believe Matt.
01:11:28In fact, they think you're lying now.
01:11:32Nothing you can do about that, I guess.
01:11:34No.
01:11:35No.
01:11:35A lot of questions, not as many answers.
01:11:40And so, both Aaron McCraw and Matt Hester walked out of the police station as free men.
01:11:47So, the end?
01:11:50Not by a long shot.
01:11:54Coming up.
01:11:56You know what they say.
01:11:58Follow the money.
01:11:59She said that she'd received a call from Matt Hester, and Matt Hester wanted to know how
01:12:04he could get a payout of the $100,000 life insurance policy that Annie had, that he believed
01:12:09he was the beneficiary of.
01:12:11Gwen Gateland, Secrets Uncovered, continues.
01:12:14Angela Hester was under arrest in Idaho, and then investigators served a search warrant and
01:12:29collected from her any evidence they needed for their case.
01:12:32Before long, Angela was on her way back to Oregon in handcuffs on a charge that carried the death
01:12:40penalty.
01:12:41It was one of the most brutal crimes that I've ever participated in, in the investigation
01:12:48and prosecution.
01:12:49Prosecutor David Hannan.
01:12:51It was a home invasion, a break-in in the middle of the night.
01:12:55Someone startled from their sleep, stabbed multiple times.
01:12:58It's one of the scariest cases I've ever seen.
01:13:00And not just murder, like torture.
01:13:03That's how we charged it, absolutely.
01:13:05The amount of violence that Annie had to endure is really unspeakable.
01:13:09Angela was facing a lethal injection, and Matt, well, he wasn't facing much of a life change
01:13:18at all.
01:13:19In fact, even though he'd admitted to participating in discussions related to Annie's murder, cleaning
01:13:25up blood afterward, and then lying to police, Matt faced only a resisting arrest charge, which
01:13:33was later dismissed, and he returned to the house he'd shared with Angela in Pocatello.
01:13:38The place was mostly empty.
01:13:41All four kids dumped into foster care, including little Alice.
01:13:46Only their very committed roommate, Angela's best friend Karina, was still there.
01:13:53What's going on with him?
01:13:54Absolutely nothing.
01:13:57He's still sitting in his recliner playing video games?
01:14:00No, he sat on his bed.
01:14:02Played video games the whole time while I worked, and worked overtime.
01:14:07I mean, look, if you think he's involved, then why are you letting him live with you?
01:14:14Because I had my computer on, and I was hoping he would say something, so he'd go.
01:14:19And turned out to be, all he did was sit in his room.
01:14:24Finally, said Karina, she kicked him out.
01:14:27Matt went to live with a friend in Washington State.
01:14:29As for police in Gresham, they kept working, trying to find evidence tying Matt to Annie's murder.
01:14:35And now would seem a good time to tell you they did find this.
01:14:39A week after the murder, Detective Turnage received a phone call.
01:14:43It was from a woman who worked at a life insurance company.
01:14:46She said that she'd received a call from Matt Hester, and Matt Hester wanted to know how
01:14:52he could get a payout of the $100,000 life insurance policy that Annie had that he believed
01:14:57he was the beneficiary of.
01:14:59$100,000.
01:15:01Okay, minus the money Matt owed in back child support and legal fees.
01:15:06I'll do the math for you.
01:15:07Matt apparently thought he'd come away with a clean slate and more than $50,000.
01:15:13That's a lot of money if you're in his shoes.
01:15:17A piece of knowledge that somehow eluded Matt was that Annie actually had two life insurance
01:15:24policies, one from work, another personal.
01:15:29Total value of both policies?
01:15:32I believe $125,000.
01:15:34The surprise for Matt?
01:15:36He was entitled to neither.
01:15:39Who was the beneficiary?
01:15:40Well, when the policy was originally initiated, it was Matt.
01:15:46They were married at the time.
01:15:47But after they got divorced, Annie went in and had it changed.
01:15:51The main one is Annie's mom, beneficiary.
01:15:54The work one of $25,000 was in the daughter's name.
01:15:59And the woman from the insurance company told you that Matt clearly had not known that he
01:16:03was no longer the beneficiary?
01:16:05Correct.
01:16:05To a suspicious guy like Detective Turnage, the idea that Matt thought Annie's death might
01:16:12get him out of debt felt significant.
01:16:16And together with all the other evidence, what it felt like was motive.
01:16:22And so in June 2019, a full three years after Annie's murder, investigators finally made their
01:16:30move and took Matt Hester into custody.
01:16:33I have no idea what's going on yet, so...
01:16:35If that was true, it might have meant only that Matt didn't yet know the specific charge
01:16:42he'd be facing.
01:16:43You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder,
01:16:49the murder of Anastasia Hester.
01:16:51That is why we're here talking to you.
01:16:52Signature on that line, please.
01:16:54If you choose to waive your rights.
01:16:56But no, I would like the lawyer.
01:16:57We charged Matt for solicitation based on his own admissions that he solicited Aaron McCraw
01:17:02to kill Annie.
01:17:03We had corroborative evidence to that confession based on his behavior before the homicide with
01:17:09his motive and after the murder based on him trying to collect on what he thought was the
01:17:15beneficiary of the life insurance policy, as well as the fact that we knew physical evidence
01:17:21was destroyed and him admitting to it by cleaning up Angela after the murder.
01:17:26All right, Matt.
01:17:28Thank you so much.
01:17:29It was nice seeing you again.
01:17:31Matt and Angela Hester would soon be under one roof again.
01:17:35Not at their home.
01:17:37At a Portland area slammer.
01:17:39So now the question was, who'd turn on who?
01:17:44You already know how it goes.
01:17:46First squeal gets the deal.
01:17:49Coming up.
01:17:54Matt gets locked up and Angela's locked up.
01:17:58This is the time when one of them rolls on the other, right?
01:18:02Correct.
01:18:02Who, if anyone, talks first?
01:18:05Love's a wonderful thing.
01:18:07It's a tight bond.
01:18:08When Dateline Secrets Uncovered continues.
01:18:11There's an old saying in criminal law.
01:18:21Whoever gets to the courthouse first wins.
01:18:25Meaning, the first one to spill can cut a deal in exchange for cooperation.
01:18:32And maybe less time in the joint.
01:18:35So, Matt gets locked up and Angela's locked up.
01:18:40This is the time when one of them rolls on the other, right?
01:18:44Correct.
01:18:45Matt had pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder Annie.
01:18:51As well as to solicitation.
01:18:53In connection with what prosecutors said was a plot to hire a hitman.
01:18:58And to hindering prosecution.
01:19:02Angela had pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder.
01:19:06She faced the death penalty.
01:19:09We believed that this was a very strong case that we felt very comfortable taking to trial.
01:19:15The big development came from Oregon's state capitol.
01:19:18Before Angela could be tried, state legislators in 2019 narrowed the crimes eligible for the death penalty.
01:19:26When the legislature changed the murder statute prior to our trial, our charges did not qualify as aggravated murder when the law changed.
01:19:37It qualified as murder in the first degree.
01:19:39So immediately when the law changed, the death penalty was never a possibility in this case.
01:19:47That was one complication.
01:19:49The other was this.
01:19:50Angela wasn't talking with police or prosecutors about a plea deal or anything else.
01:19:57We actually never had a conversation with her.
01:20:00As for Matt, who was facing only eight and a half years behind bars.
01:20:05I absolutely thought that by the time, you know, Matt's defense counsel read through discovery, that there would be a conversation.
01:20:12And that conversation would have been, if you testify against your wife, you might knock some years off.
01:20:18Correct. But when we went to those interviews with Matt, Matt continued to tell obvious lies, things that just defied reality.
01:20:26And we decided that he was not willing to have an honest conversation with us.
01:20:32But he won't roll on her and she won't roll on him.
01:20:35Correct.
01:20:36Love's a wonderful thing.
01:20:37It's a tight bond.
01:20:39And so the first shoe fell in November 2020.
01:20:42If you've been keeping track, it was a size nine and a half.
01:20:48Angela Hester pleaded guilty to murdering Annie.
01:20:52Her sentence, 25 to life.
01:20:55She'll be eligible to apply for parole in 2042 when she'll be 60.
01:21:03From our perspective, given the brutality of this offense, we felt that the possibility of parole was far more remote than other types of cases.
01:21:12You're going to show up at her parole hearing 25 years later?
01:21:14I hope so.
01:21:15If I'm still walking around on this earth, absolutely.
01:21:18Angela has not responded to our many requests for an interview.
01:21:23However, her best friend, Karina, still visits Angela in the big house and says that when she asks Angela about the case, she gets this answer.
01:21:34She said she wasn't talking about that.
01:21:36That was between her and God.
01:21:37As for Annie's best friend, Nicole, she's taken a perhaps unorthodox and sympathetic view toward Angela.
01:21:47I can't believe that Angela would let herself get played like that because, you know, she's a victim here in this too, in a sense.
01:21:57Angela is?
01:21:58Yeah.
01:21:58She did Matt's dirty work.
01:22:00And now her life is ruined as well.
01:22:02I mean, Angela was in Annie's apartment.
01:22:07Angela did the stabbing.
01:22:08But you think it might as well have been Matt's hand on the knife.
01:22:12Absolutely.
01:22:13Angela was Matt's weapon.
01:22:16And Matt, he didn't respond to our requests for interviews either.
01:22:20But he did eventually take a deal.
01:22:23One that did not require flipping on his better half.
01:22:27In August 2021, prosecutors dropped the conspiracy to commit murder charge in an effort to preserve their shot at maybe one day filing murder charges against him and avoiding any issues with double jeopardy.
01:22:43In exchange, Matt pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution and to soliciting Aaron McCraw to kill Annie.
01:22:51A judge sentenced Matt to less than five years in prison, and he was paroled in 2023.
01:22:59It's an outcome that left many feeling as if justice was both delayed and denied.
01:23:06You think Matt's getting away with murder here?
01:23:08I really do.
01:23:09He should have also been charged with murder.
01:23:11When we last spoke with Detective Turnage, he said he hoped that day will come.
01:23:17You think we've seen the last charges filed in this?
01:23:19I don't think so.
01:23:20You don't think so, or you hope not?
01:23:22Both.
01:23:23The courts have left it open where if we find more evidence, specifically Matt Hester could be charged, you know, with murder, if we find evidence showing that he is responsible for it or knew about it or participated ahead of time.
01:23:33You think that's what happened?
01:23:35I think Matt Hester had a lot more to do with this murder than he has let on.
01:23:40Here's what police think happened that night.
01:23:42After losing the custody case, Matt and Angela were angry due to both the decision and the debts they now owed.
01:23:51Detectives believe they tried and failed to hire a hitman before Angela decided to just do it herself.
01:23:58There's no sign anyone but Angela was in Annie's apartment.
01:24:02So, did Matt or someone else help her, advise her, or drive her across town?
01:24:10Right now, there's no way to know.
01:24:13As for Alice, the product of Matt and Annie's marriage, it took years of fighting in court, but Annie's mom was allowed to adopt her.
01:24:27Alice, we were told, is a happy and well-adjusted little girl, and after the parental whirlwind she was caught in, where the lines between love and hate and money were blurred again and again, maybe coming through it in one piece is the best possible news.
01:24:47So, we saved it for last.
01:24:48That's all for this edition of Dateline Secrets Uncovered.
01:24:55I'm Craig Melvin.
Be the first to comment