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Murder at the Motel - Season 2 Episode 7 -
America's Best Value Inn
America's Best Value Inn
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00:00this case was one of the most horrific cases that I have ever worked on in my 27 years of
00:09doing police work her fingertips that had been sheared off were scattered on the ground right
00:16here you can't erase something you see you like that from your mind her mangled body just in a
00:22pile over here it was one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen the dark blood that was
00:29sprayed on the walls the bloody handprint on the register here just told the story in itself she
00:38was my mom she's my mom you don't know if this was a single act or if this person is gonna go on a mass
00:46killing spree so now it's where is he and how do we find him I've never been on a manhunt quite like
00:54this before we've got a known murderer surrounded by a bunch of innocent people the crowd starts
01:00to disperse now we have a clear shot of this guy I was looking evil into the eyes
01:169-1-1 location emergency hi I need an aimless police officer out to America's best value
01:38in Lansing Michigan makes a bone-chilling discovery our housekeeper found blood all
01:54over the place and someone went on the floor okay can she tell are they breathing they don't know
02:00they just freaked out ran out the room there are three sisters who work at the motel the first one
02:08who's going through is doing checks for people who were supposed to check out but never stop by
02:12the front door so she goes to the room and she knocks and there's no response she needs to confirm
02:18that the person has checked out so she tries to open the door she can't get it open very far but
02:23she peeks her head in and sees that there's a foot and that there's blood coming out from underneath
02:28the blanket behind the door she goes to get her sister who is another cleaning person there they
02:34then go to the third sister who works at the front desk and they ask her to call 9-1-1 and that's when
02:39the police respond
02:40all right get an ambulance and the police on the way don't let anybody else go into the room until
02:48uh we get there and check out okay okay a lansing police officer is immediately dispatched to the
02:55motel 31 charlie 5 k-9-1 can you start for a call at the america's vest all of these on the way there
03:06any time you respond to a call where you have a potential death involved yes your emotions start
03:21to kick in and you realize that this is going to be one of those calls that you remember for the rest
03:26of your career I was actually pretty close to the call at the time that it came in I was able to make
03:35it to the scene within a minute and a half I was the first one on scene at the motel I pulled into
03:41the parking lot looked for the room number which was 172 I unholstered my gun I approached the door
03:50when I tried to open the door though I was only able to open it about a foot before it was stopped
03:55I immediately recognized that I had a body on the floor and I backed out of the room to wait for
04:01additional units to come to the scene it was more than 30 seconds to a minute and another officer
04:17appeared on scene the urgency was real we needed to go into the room we went in just the two of us
04:24together I opened the door I actually needed to push the body a little bit further so that we could
04:33get into the room we entered the room I had my gun drawn we needed to clear the room which means check
04:39the room for any other people inside of the room and make sure we had no other threats inside that we
04:44needed to deal with you don't know what you're going to come across when you go into a scene like
04:49that we walked through the room we made sure there was nobody else inside the room we checked the
04:56bathroom we checked the closet we looked under the bed we located no other people inside of the room upon
05:03being in the room I realized the severity of what we had come across what immediately we picked up on
05:11was the smell of blood there was blood on the floors the walls the bed the air conditioner the table it was
05:21one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen detectives from Michigan State Police are called in to
05:41investigate the scene it was July when this happened it was a very very hot day
05:50but as I pull in now if everything looks the same a couple cars scattered here and there
05:59the residents that have taken up a little bit permanent residency here hanging outside their rooms
06:12on this little drive this was all blocked off by yellow crime scene tape
06:20as I stood outside and I looked in the story of what happened could be followed by the blood
06:31as it started from the bed area and was sprayed up on the ceiling it was clear to those of us on scene
06:40that the fight started at the bed and moved its way over to the door there was blood on the sink where the
06:50perfect traitor tried to wash off what he could this case was one of the most horrific cases that I
06:59have ever worked on in my 27 years of doing police work it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in
07:07the room there was some drugs involved as we found some drug paraphernalia in the room
07:16looking at our victim it was not immediately apparent who she was we knew she was a female by long blonde
07:30hair her anatomy but you could not look at her face and immediately tell who she was there was way too
07:39much blood on her face and too many injuries it was absolutely a scene of carnage
07:45the medical examiner assesses the extensive trauma to the victim's body and identifies the cause of death
07:55judging by the puncture wounds and everything it was very quite clear that she had been stabbed
08:04each fingertip on her hand had been cut off and in my mind I'm I can just picture her sticking her hands
08:14up and trying to defend herself from the knife perhaps even grabbing out for the knife just to
08:23fight it away and obviously the knife is gonna cut right through right through her fingers and those
08:29were laying on the ground right next to her other detectives in the room had found an identification
08:37card with her picture on it but you could not hold the picture next to her body and be able to say the
08:45woman in the picture is who is laying here on the floor you have no other leads to go on at that time
08:51you have to go with what makes sense here what is most likely to be true and at that time what was most
08:58likely to be true is that our victim on the floor is the one in the picture of whose identification
09:05card we found that was Christina daffenbaugh whenever a homicide in Ingham County would happen the first
09:17thing that we would do would be to contact the victim's family and ask them to come in in this case
09:22that was her parents I was at work and I got a call on my phone and they asked me the strangest question
09:34they asked me did the Pacifica that belongs to us when my daughter was driving were the windows broken
09:42in it I said no and then they're asking something about a motel and I didn't quite understand what it
09:51was but it was something very very strange to me anxious after the call from police Patricia leaves
09:59work and gets the bus home she gets off at a stop which is directly opposite America's best value in
10:07I could see the police and something terribly going on at the motel the lights and the police and just all kinds of things going on at the motel and
10:24I got home and shortly after we got a knock on the door and uh detective Johnston and another detective
10:36came when they broke the news and it was terrible
10:41after the initial moments of just not even being able to understand what this victim went through
10:52and her last moments of life after that passes through your mind now it's who is this monster
10:58that put another human being through something so traumatic like this there's somebody out on the
11:05loose that is responsible for having done this and we've got to find them
11:10we had her parents come in shortly after the murder and we sat down with them and we talked to them about who Christina was
11:26what we learned is that Christina had been living with her parents she struggled with drug addiction
11:32they had asked her to leave for a period of time and that she was working on going to rehab around this
11:38time and they were very hopeful that she was getting better she was homeless frequent a motel to motel
11:45they spoke glowingly of her they were still involved in her life she was driving their car on this night so
11:53they were still in communication I was raised by my grandparents my mother was there she just was
12:01pretty young when she had me 18 so yes my my grandparents they they'd ran the shows mostly my
12:10grandmother bless her heart she is the one that would make sure we got off to school and got to
12:16our doctor's appointments and everything you know but she was still there I mean everybody you know like
12:22has their ups and downs but I mean she she did her best and we were happy a lot of memories I have of her
12:31is always wanting me to do like her hair she loved having it like the tips died different colors and I
12:38would be the one to do that she would get the boxed eyes and be like Becca can you do my hair purple
12:43today or blue you know like a purple and blue like she let me help her do that so those are really good
12:48memories I have about 10 years before her death she had started to just spiral in a way like it just
13:04slowly just started to go down until she just couldn't get out of this rut no matter how much she tried
13:12every day just depression and anxiety and just everything just got a little much for her
13:21investigators learned that prior to her being murdered Christina had been getting her life back on track
13:28we had actually kind of hit a good breakthrough with her a little bit before you know like she
13:38was taking her meds again she was seemed a happier person seemed like she was doing really good and she
13:46was getting out of that rut and she was really trying to turn her life around at that point she was
13:54looking forward to a party the next day and for her grandchild her grandson and that was something she
14:02was looking forward to and I I had talked to her the day before and I said Tina you got to get help and
14:13she says I know mom I I am going to I want to thank she thanked me for reminding her that she needed to get help
14:23and
14:25it was hard
14:30after informing Christina's next of kin investigators focus on finding her killer
14:48investigators speak to witnesses outside the motel
14:53so how long is that guy been seen here for do you know
14:56um first time we the first time he got here was yesterday morning
15:00no what was yesterday yesterday would have been Thursday so that was Wednesday the first time I saw
15:07him and then yesterday my wife and I were at the Myers gas station we pulled up he was like hey you guys
15:12um at the hotel right I'm like yeah he's like I'll give you guys a ride back but my wife out of her
15:17mouth she's like I don't feel comfortable getting in the car and so we just ended up walking and so he
15:22stopped me he was like yeah I went to the casino and what time was it yesterday at the Myers gas station
15:27do you know this was
15:28it's like around five six when we came back he was standing outside his door he was like hey you guys
15:38want to smoke you want to chill I'm like no I'm like my wife and my kids down there we good
15:42so he came down and knocked on the door um like around 8 39 o'clock and he was like well do you know
15:48where I can get some weed from something I'm like I don't know nobody up here we're from Detroit
15:51just played it off because I'm like I really don't know you and my wife already said she got a bad
15:56feeling from me so I'm standing in the door about it had to be about 11 15 maybe 11 30 and I was
16:03smoking a cigarette and I heard a a bam and that's what made me come to the door and the room door he
16:11had slung the room door open and jumped in the car and just slung your room door like no no no his room
16:17what time was that this was about 11 between 11 15 and 11 30 p.m. yes sir what does this guy look
16:23like how tall are you six foot so he he was about maybe about six one black male white male and
16:30hispanic males light skinned but I know he's an african-american he's light skinned he has a very
16:36slim build and he has tattoos tattoos yes all over his arms and his arms and he had one on the side
16:45he had one on the side of his neck going towards like down by his shoulder remember anything about
16:49tattoos no they were writing or anything it was a pic it was a design the design and then he had
16:58different pictures of stuff on his arms and stuff okay so what about this vehicle then it was a white
17:03you said white torus older model yes it was had because I had one so it's either a 99 or 98
17:10and it was white okay and it had like kind of like black trim a little bit not throughout the
17:19whole vehicle but certain parts had like black trim on it like on the door on the door and like the
17:24front on the sides and stuff okay never saw a license plate on it when he was at the Myers gas station
17:31there wasn't there wasn't a plate on there okay that was one of the reasons why my wife said she
17:36didn't feel comfortable riding back over here with him did he ever give you a name or anything
17:39he just said call me g call me g that's all that's what he said
17:44staff at the motel give police a crucial lead so yeah so we would be looking we want cameras from
17:54about 11 11 to 11 30 ish surveillance video played a critical role in this and luckily just because it
18:04was meant to be there was a surveillance video right outside this room
18:09july 7 2017 detectives are about to learn the name of their suspect in the murder of christina
18:26davenbaugh the identification of our suspect was not difficult he rented the room in his own name we
18:35found a receipt inside the room where he had ordered a pizza from a local establishment we had his phone
18:43number on that receipt we were able to contact that establishment get his name that matched the name
18:49that the room was reserved under his name is curtis eccles further investigation revealed that curtis was
19:05from the state of ohio he had driven up to michigan on that day he'd gone on a bit of a crime spree on
19:14the way down from what we understand he arrived there in a stolen car from ohio and then he checks into the
19:21motel room it showed christina arriving to the room what vehicle she was driving and it also showed that
19:41nobody else other than those two had been in that room that night further key evidence is uncovered in
19:48room 172. they find a receipt from meyer which is a department store nearby they find a box for a
19:58kitchen knife and they find the kitchen knife from that box outside in the parking lot a unique
20:05characteristic about the knife which we still aren't sure why this happened but the knife was burned at
20:11the tip and then more or less melted and pushed to kind of be like a hook that's not how it came from
20:19the package so curtis must have done that before or after the fact either way the receipt that we found
20:26in the motel room showed that he had purchased the knife and a roll of duct tape from this mire behind me
20:34using that receipt they were able to find the surveillance video from the transaction what they
20:38found was that he had walked there earlier in that day after checking into the motel and he bought two
20:44things he bought duct tape and he bought a small steak knife and then he walked back to his motel unit
20:53you're staying in a motel room for a night you know you've got a girl coming over what are you
20:59walking across the street to the grocery store to buy duct tape and a knife for this was absolutely
21:05premeditated and then shortly after returning christina arrived we don't know what happens
21:16in the room we have a few pieces of information we have the text messaging between him and her
21:21recovered from their phones where she agrees to come to that location she expresses some concern
21:26because she thinks that she may have been banned from that motel but he convinces her to come anyway
21:31we know from surveillance video that shortly before she gets there he moves his car back to the dumpster
21:38at the back of the motel complex and then walks back to the room she enters the room closes the door
21:45we see that door open one more time the surveillance video showed her hands coming out of the doorway
21:53you could see the blood from her hands in the door jam
22:00it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in the room and that christina was trying to get out
22:07of the room in every way possible the fact that she agreed to meet up with him that night there didn't
22:16appear to be any kind of fear of him she went there knowingly she stayed for a while and then something
22:26happened inside that motel room that just sent curtis over the edge and he got out that knife and stabbed
22:32christina repeatedly until she died
22:38the door closes and that's the last we see of her
22:40he leaves the motel a little bit after that gets in her car takes that to the back of the motel complex
22:48gets in the car that he had stolen that he parked there and drove away
22:52somebody would only do that they're trying to conceal that christina was at the motel
22:57you don't know if this was a single act or if this person is going to go on a mass killing spree so
23:12now it's where is he and how do we find him
23:15july 7 2017 detectives have learned the name of their suspect curtis echoes but do not know where
23:31he is now investigators contact the service provider of curtis's cell phone in an attempt
23:38to learn his current location
23:39they have the technology to be able to locate the device right away mr echo's phone was turned on
23:49possibly in use and we received a location in indiana
23:53i would presume that curtis knows that we're going to find him eventually
24:07i was sitting post command um answering the phones and assisting with dispatch
24:28when i received a phone call from the lansing police department
24:32they had pinged the phone on i-80 at edwardsburg road which is the location of the service area on
24:42the indiana toll road at the 90 mile marker i dispatched to trooper hipshire who was working in that area
25:02when i received the dispatch about the report of the suspect on the interstate it was believed that he
25:09was approximately the center of the zone that i work so i started traveling from the 73 mile marker
25:16which is on the west end of my zone toward that location which is approximately 18 to 20 miles
25:24at that time my partner was just a few miles up the road from me and also was en route to that same
25:30location to locate the vehicle and identify the subject it was a white four-door 1999 ford
25:41with ohio plates however the plates may or may not be on the vehicle at this time
25:51right now we are pulling into service area of five south this is the first location
25:58that my partner searched the rest area for the vehicle in question while he did that i sat at a
26:10crossover in a median of the toll road just to observe additional traffic coming by to make sure nobody got
26:15by us and from the thousands and thousands of vehicles that go across the indiana toll road it was like a
26:24needle in a haystack we also notified the indiana toll road concession company which is a company that
26:35runs the entire interstate we asked them to monitor all their cameras at the toll plazas to see if any
26:43vehicles matching the description were to exit so as we were coming westbound the indiana toll road
26:49concession company contacted us and let us know that a vehicle matching this the description or at
26:54least close to matching the description was exiting at the 77 exit which is the notre dame exit
27:01my partner exited the toll road and went into the town of roseland and see if he could find the vehicle
27:06in question i've never been on a manhunt quite like this before because of the allegations that were
27:13against him the fact that he had this felony warrant for rape as well as being a suspect in a homicide
27:21case that was discovered that day i was beginning to get a little bit nervous that we weren't going to
27:28find the subject while we were on the interstate because of all the different ping locations and not
27:32finding a vehicle that matched that description according to the areas that we were looking
27:36uh wasn't sure how long the delay was on these pings that we weren't finding this because we had
27:43already come through those areas coming eastbound and now we're traveling back westbound to try to
27:50catch up to this alleged vehicle that he's operating so it was a little concerning
27:57about 10 minutes later i received another phone call from lansing police department that stated that
28:03the suspect's phone was pinging near the area of us 20 and 31. now i'm familiar with that area and i
28:10know that if they were to go on 20 if they went westbound it's a common way that they go into chicago
28:17but on the other hand if they were to go east at that location they were going right to the south bend
28:22airport
28:32july 7 2017 indiana police are chasing curtis echoes their prime suspect in the murder of christina daffenbaugh
28:42his phone was last pinged heading towards a crossroads to either chicago or the south bend airport
28:49lansing police department called back just a couple minutes later and said his phone was pinging at the
28:54airport
29:00the ping was at the car rental parking lot which is off to my left here i'm going to be turning into
29:10as i'm traveling through here i'm unable to find a vehicle that's matching the description so
29:15i'm looking for a pedestrian that might have ditched the car and he's you know trying to flee the area
29:22or trying to find another vehicle to take and as i'm driving through i notice a pedestrian that's up by
29:29the terminal entrance which we're about to pass by and it appeared to be an employee that was on a
29:35smoke break so i was going to go over there and just ask him if he had seen anybody matching this
29:41subject description as well as you know a white car that might have just entered the parking lot
29:46within the last few minutes
29:50as i was getting ready to speak with that individual i noticed over here off to my left
29:56that there was a bus that was getting ready to back out of the back side of the terminal
30:01from working with other pings and how we weren't catching up to any vehicles that matched that
30:08it just kind of clicked that he might be in that bus as they were looking around that bus started to
30:15leave i drove around the block then i pulled up alongside my partner's vehicle and then basically
30:24with front of our vehicles facing head-on to the bus we had our emergency lights on and and we detained the
30:29bus at that point we both walked up to the bus my partner asked the driver to step off and take the
30:39key out of the ignition and then shut the door and we did that of course in case the suspect happened to
30:45be on board we didn't want him trying to take control of the bus or anything like that
30:52it was a tender situation because we've got a known murderer
30:56on the bus surrounded by a bunch of innocent people we definitely wanted to use extra caution
31:03and of course in the back of my mind i was thinking he could take one of these passengers hostage
31:09or he could he could harm somebody else in the process of trying to to flee from us so
31:13those were all things we needed to consider
31:27so right over here as you can see the uh the blue speed limit signs it was in those areas that we had
31:33both of our squad cars positioned to block off the bus the bus was actually parked right in this area
31:39and the passengers disembarked right in this spot
31:45my partner and i decided that the best course of action at this point would be to have everybody on
31:50the bus step down the stairs one at a time and then have them stand off to the side in the grassy
31:56area and then we could clear the entire bus just to make sure he wasn't there there are only about three
32:02more passengers to come down the stairs and and probably the second to last passenger coming down
32:09kind of resembles mr eckles so i'm i'm staring at him and next thing i know he's he's staring right
32:15back at me and he's got this nervous look on his face and he's his eyes aren't going anywhere other
32:20than just staring staring me down as he's walking down the stairs it appears that he's just trying to
32:25like hide behind some people like he starts to turn his body to his to the side and show me just
32:30his left side and he starts looking toward the fence line and i'm thinking he's getting ready to bolt
32:35he's going to run from us my partner at that point comes over to me and i i describe the the suspect and
32:42then both of them make eye contact at that point um my partner starts screaming at him to get his hands
32:51in the air the crowd starts to disperse in both directions so now we have a clear shot of this guy
32:56nobody on this bus has a clue that one of their fellow passengers just killed somebody up in
33:04michigan at that point i drew my weapon as my partner started rushing over to the suspect and
33:10informed him that he needed to get on his knees and keep his hands in the air and then he took him
33:14into custody at that point troopers ask him for his name and he just hangs his head and he says
33:24i don't have a name police uncover the journey eckles took in a bid to evade capture while going
33:35through his clothing the officer stumbled upon a bus ticket it was a greyhound bus ticket and it showed
33:42that he had actually boarded this bus in detroit michigan taking the bus to a stop in toledo ohio
33:52and had an ultimate destination of chicago illinois while making a stop a brief stop in south end
33:58indiana so we had just caught him on this last leg of the trip he had been on the bus for nearly seven
34:04hours at this point finding and apprehending a suspect after he's traveled through three states on the very
34:15same day that he's committed a murder and within six to seven hours of the finding of the victim
34:25and the processing of the scene is still taking place is is pretty extraordinary
34:32we were very lucky luck does play a big part in this we were looking for a white vehicle we very
34:40easily could have just bypassed these buses and went on looking for a white vehicle
34:47when you are able to close something out like that it makes you feel good inside like you did
34:52something good and that you avenged the homicide victim
35:00a lot of it was luck but a lot of it was good police work
35:06once we got word that mr eckles had been arrested by the indiana state police detective trooper adamcheck
35:12and i drove down to indiana the way mr eckles looked at me when we interviewed him i could tell there was no
35:21remorse he kind of had that long gaze where he was staring right through me i felt like i was looking evil
35:31into the eyes
35:43curtis echoes is extradited back to lansing michigan christina's family are notified of his arrest
35:52like many people they don't believe that something so terrible can happen in their life
35:58they trust people and they don't believe that that can happen he could have gone on and even done worse
36:06i hope he's ashamed of what he did that was just terrible she would have been able to see me get
36:15married she would have been able to see her grandchildren grow up she would have
36:21she would have been good like all the things that have happened since she's passed just thinking about
36:30if she was here for that how much better it would have been like it would have been amazing for her to
36:39see all this her family growing up the case is handed over to prosecutors who prepare for eckles to
36:51stand trial it was not a whodunit we had a lot of evidence against mr eckles but it takes a lot of
36:59preparation going into trial to make sure that we get the conviction
37:03because it was a senseless act there was nothing to be able to tell the jury why this happened
37:11why he did this thing and you always worry that if the jury doesn't understand why it happened
37:16that they'll have some skepticism that it did happen
37:32the trial happened in downtown lansing at the 30th circuit court
37:35started on monday finished the following monday
37:38that is something that is hard to get over and i got to see what he looked like because they had me
37:49come in and testify one day in court and he sat there with his hand like this looking at me
37:59eckles demeanor was very cold it was very distant throughout the trial there was at least one point
38:05where he seemed to get a little bit agitated and he indicated that he wanted to just plead guilty
38:09and get this all over with we took a break to allow him to talk to his attorney about that and
38:14he ultimately changed his mind but that was the only time that he had any real display during the trial
38:21the defense attorney mounted the best defense that he could in the circumstances pointing to the lack
38:25of motivation the lack of specific reasons that this would have happened or pre-existing
38:32relationship between the defendant and the victim but ultimately was not able to keep any of the
38:37evidence out that that so clearly pointed at curtis eckles
38:45the jury finds curtis jamar eckles guilty of first degree murder he is sentenced to life without the
38:52possibility of parole mr eckles was a very violent predator he had done similar crimes in the past not
39:01homicides that we know of but abused women and it was nice to to get this conviction
39:09and get him off the street not only for the all the victims that he's he's abused in the past but
39:15especially for christina's family it's a very difficult line that you're walking in these cases
39:21particularly ones that follow so soon after the death um there's nothing that you're going to do that
39:27is going to bring their loved one back and all you can try and do is get some measure of justice
39:34through a conviction i have seen a lot of things in 17 years of doing this job this was by far one of
39:43the most gruesome scenes i've been to it does stay with you you can't erase something you see like that
39:52from your mind christina did not deserve what had happened to her getting him off the street was a
40:02service to society this case stands out because of the randomness because we don't know why this
40:09happened i've seen lots of cases where they are gruesome maybe as gruesome as this maybe more but at
40:16least you know the reason that this person did this to another person and so it is the combination of
40:22randomness and uh how brutal this was that sets it apart she'd had a hard life the thing that the
40:31judge said at sentencing is that because curtis eccles did this she was never going to get a chance
40:37to get better and that has always stuck with me it's just a tragedy i never got to tell her goodbye
40:45or that i loved her that no matter how much we fought no matter how much we would yell at each
40:54other or if like i hate yous or i never want to see yous anymore and got thrown around like
41:00she was my mom she's my mom and i love her so much i will never stop loving her and wishing she was here
41:15so
41:22you
41:24you
41:26you
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