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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
00:53this 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
01:239-1-1 location emergency hi I need an aimless chief officer out of America's Best Value Inn like
01:39ASAP on the morning of July 7th 2017 a housekeeper at America's Best Value Inn in Lansing Michigan
01:48makes a bone chilling discovery our housekeeper found blood all over the place and someone went on
01:55the floor okay can she tell are they breathing they don't know they just freaked out ran out the room
02:02there are three sisters who work at the motel the first one who's going through is doing checks for
02:10people who were supposed to check out but never stopped by the front door so she goes to the room
02:15and she knocks and there's no response she needs to confirm that the person has checked out so she
02:20tries to open the door she can't get it open very far but she peeks her head in and sees that there's a
02:25foot and that there's blood coming out from underneath the blanket behind the door she goes to get her
02:31sister who is another cleaning person there they then go to the third sister who works at the front
02:36desk and they ask her to call 911 and that's when the 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 on it okay okay a Lansing police officer is immediately dispatched to the
02:55motel can you start for a call at the america's best all of these on the way there 172 172
03:11anytime 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 the
03:42parking 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 okay 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 bathroom
04:56we 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
05:21was one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen detectives from Michigan State Police are called
05:40in to investigate 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 the
06:01residents 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 as it
06:32started from the bed area and was sprayed up on the ceiling it was clear to those of us on scene that
06:40the fight started at the bed and moved its way over to the door there was blood on the sink where the
06:50perpetrator 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 hair
07:30her anatomy but you could not look at her face and immediately tell who she was there was way too much
07:39blood 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 can just picture her sticking her hands up and trying to
08:16defend herself from the knife perhaps even grabbing out for the knife just to fight it away and obviously the knife is
08:26going to cut right through right through her fingers and those who are laying on the ground right next to her
08:31other detectives in the room had found an identification card with her picture on it but you could not hold the
08:41picture next to her body and be able to say the woman in the picture is who is laying here on the floor
08:48you have no other leads to go on at that time you have to go with what makes sense here what is most likely
08:55to be true and at that time what was most likely to be true is that our victim on the floor is the
09:02one in the picture of whose identification card we found that was Christina daffenbaugh
09:08whenever a homicide in ingham county would happen the first thing that we would do would be to contact
09:19the victim's family and ask them to come in in this case that was her parents
09:23I was at work and I got a call on my phone and they asked me the strangest question they asked me did
09:36the Pacifica that belong says when my daughter was driving were the windows broken in it I said no
09:44and then they're asking something about a motel and I didn't quite understand what it was but it was
09:52something very very strange to me anxious after the call from police Patricia leaves work and gets the
10:00bus home she gets off at her stop which is directly opposite America's best value in I could see the
10:09police and something terribly going on at the motel the delights and the police and just all kinds of
10:20things going on at the motel and I got home and shortly after we got a knock on the door and Detective
10:33Johnston and another detective came when they broke the news and it was terrible
10:41after the initial moments of just not even being able to understand what this
10:50victim went through and her last moments of life after that passes through your mind now it's who
10:57is this monster that put another human being through something so traumatic like this there's
11:03somebody out on the loose that is responsible for having done this and we've got to find them
11:20we had her parents come in shortly after the murder and we sat down with them and we talked to them
11:25about who Christina was what we learned is that Christina had been living with her parents she'd
11:31struggled with drug addiction they had asked her to leave for a period of time and that she was working
11:36on going to rehab around this time and they were very hopeful that she was getting better she was
11:42homeless frequenting motel to motel they spoke glowingly of her they were still involved in her
11:50life she was driving their car on this night so they were still in communication I was raised by my
11:57grandparents my mother was there she just was pretty young when she had me 18 so yes my my grandparents
12:05they they ran the shows mostly my grandmother bless her heart she is the one that would make sure we
12:15got off to school and got to our doctor's appointments and everything you know but she was still there I
12:20mean everybody you know like has their ups and downs but I mean she she did her best and we we were happy
12:27a lot of memories I have of her is always wanting me to do like her hair she loved having
12:35it like the tips dyed different colors and I would be the one to do that she would get the box dyes
12:40and be like Becca can you do my hair purple today or blue you know like her purple and blue like she
12:46let me help her do that so those are really good memories I have
12:57about 10 years before her death she had started to just spiral in a way like it just slowly just
13:05started to go down until she just couldn't get out of this rut no matter how much she tried every day
13:15just depression and anxiety and just everything just got a little much for her investigators learned
13:24that prior to her being murdered Christina had been getting her life back on track
13:29we 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
13:53she was looking forward to a party the next day and for her grandchild her grandson and that was
14:01something she was looking forward to and I I had talked to her the day before and I said
14:10Tina you got to get help and she says I know mom I I am going to I want to thank she thanked me for
14:20reminding her that she needed to get help and it was hard
14:30after informing Christina's next of kin investigators focus on finding her killer
14:47investigators speak to witnesses outside the motel so Holland's like I've been seen here for do you
14:56know
14:56the first time we the first time he got here was yesterday morning no what was yesterday
15:03yesterday would have been Thursday so that was Wednesday the first time I saw him and then
15:07yesterday my wife and I were at the Myers gas station he pulled up he was like hey you guys
15:12at 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
15:27you know this was it's like around five six when we came back he was standing outside his door he was
15:37like hey you guys want to smoke you want to chill I'm like no I'm like my wife and my kids down there
15:41we good so he came down and knocked on the door um like around 8 39 o'clock and he was like well do you
15:48know I can get some weed from something I'm like I don't know nobody up here we from Detroit just played
15:52it up because I'm like I really don't know you and my wife and already said she got a bad feeling from me
15:56mm-hmm so I'm standing in the door about it had to be about 11 15 maybe 11 30 and I was smoking a cigarette
16:04and I heard a a bam and that's what made me come to the door and the room door he had slung the room door open
16:12and jumped in the car and just slung your room door?
16:15bed off like no no no his room what time was that this is about 11 between 11 15 and 11 30 p.m. yes sir
16:22what does this guy look like he how tall are you six foot so he he was about maybe about six one
16:29black male white male and Hispanic males light skin but I know he's African-American he's light skin
16:34he has a very slim build and he has tattoos tattoos yes all over his arms and his arms and he had one
16:44on the side he had one on the side of his neck going towards like down by his shoulder remember
16:49anything about the tattoos no they were writing or anything it was a pic it was a design the design
16:57and then he had different pictures of stuff on his arms and stuff okay so what about this vehicle then
17:02it was a white you said white Taurus older model yes it was had because I had one so it's either a 99
17:09or 98 and 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 like on the door on the door and like the front
17:24on 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 didn't
17:36feel comfortable riding back over here with them did he ever give you a name or anything he just
17:40said call me G call me G that's all that's what he said staff at the motel give police a crucial lead
17:49surveillance video played a critical role in this and luckily just because it was meant to be there
18:05there was a surveillance video right outside this room July 7 2017 detectives are about to learn the
18:23name of their suspect in the murder of Christina Davenbaugh the identification of our suspect was not
18:31difficult he rented the room in his own name we found a receipt inside the room where he had ordered
18:39a pizza from a local establishment we had his phone number on that receipt we were able to contact that
18:46establishment get his name that matched the name that the room was reserved under his name is Curtis Eccles
19:01further investigation revealed that Curtis was from the state of Ohio he had driven up to Michigan on
19:10that day he'd gone on a bit of a crime spree on the way down from what we understand he arrived there in
19:18a stolen car from Ohio and then he checks into the motel room it showed Christina arriving to the room what
19:38vehicle she was driving and it also showed that nobody else other than those two had been in that room that
19:44night further key evidence is uncovered in room 172 they find a receipt from Meyer which is a department
19:55store nearby they find a box for a kitchen knife and they find the kitchen knife from that box outside in
20:03the parking lot unique characteristic about the knife which we still aren't sure why this happened but the
20:10knife was burned at the tip and then more or less melted and pushed to kind of be like a hook that's not
20:18how it came from the package so Curtis must have done that before or after the fact either way the receipt
20:25that we found in the motel room it showed that he had purchased the knife and a roll of duct tape from
20:31this Meyer behind me using that receipt they were able to find the surveillance video from the transaction
20:38what they found was that he had walked there earlier in that day after checking into the motel and he
20:44bought two things he bought duct tape and he bought a small steak knife and then he walked back to his
20:51motel unit you're staying in a motel room for a night you know you've got a girl coming over what are
20:58you walking 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 in the room we
21:17have a few pieces of information we have the text messaging between him and her recovered from their
21:22phones where she agrees to come to that location she expresses some concern because she thinks that
21:28she may have been banned from that motel but he convinces her to come anyway we know from surveillance
21:34video that shortly before she gets there he moves his car back to the dumpster at the back of the motel
21:40complex and then walks back to the room she enters the room closes the door we see that door open one
21:47more time the surveillance video showed her hands coming out of the doorway you could see the blood from her
21:55hands in the door jam it was very obvious that a struggle that occurred in the room and that
22:05Christina was trying to get out of the room in every way possible the fact that she agreed to meet up with
22:14him that night there didn't appear to be any kind of fear of him she went there knowingly she stayed for a while and then
22:25something happened 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
22:35the door closes and that's the last we see of her he leaves the motel a little bit after that gets in
22:44her car takes that to the back of the motel complex gets in the car that he had stolen that he had parked
22:50there and drove away somebody 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 now
23:12it'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 he
23:32is now investigators contact the service provider of Curtis's cell phone in an attempt to learn his
23:38current location they have the technology to be able to locate the device right away mr. Eccles phone
23:48was turned on possibly in use and we received a location in Indiana I would presume that Curtis knows
24:01that we're gonna find him eventually I was sitting post command answering the phones and assisting with
24:26dispatch when I received a phone call from the Lansing Police Department they had pinged the phone on I-80 at
24:37Edwardsburg Road which is the location of the service area on the Indiana toll road at the 90 mile marker
24:45I dispatched to Trooper Hipshire who was working in that area
24:56when 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 approximately 18 to 20 miles at that
25:24time my partner was just a few miles up the road from me and also was en route to that same location to
25:31locate the vehicle and identify the subject it was a white four-door 1999 Ford with Ohio plates however the
25:44plates may or may not be on the vehicle at this time
25:48right now we are pulling into service area of five south this is the first location that my partner
25:59searched the rest area for the vehicle in question while he did that I sat at a crossover in a median of
26:11the toll road just to observe additional traffic coming by to make sure nobody got by us and from
26:17the thousands and thousands of vehicles that go across the Indiana toll road it was like a needle in a
26:24haystack we also notified the Indiana toll road concession company which is a company that runs the entire
26:36interstate we asked them to monitor all their cameras at the toll plazas to see if any vehicles matching the
26:44description were to exit so as we were coming westbound the Indiana toll road concession company contacted
26:50us and let us know that a vehicle matching this the description or at least close to matching the
26:55description was exiting at the 77 exit which is the Notre Dame exit my partner exited the toll road and went
27:03into the town of Roseland and see if he could find the vehicle in question I've never been on a manhunt
27:10quite like this before because of the allegations that were against him the fact that he had this
27:15felony warrant for rape as well as being a suspect in a homicide case that was discovered that day I was
27:25beginning to get a little bit nervous that we weren't going to find the subject while we were on the
27:30interstate because of all the different ping locations and not finding a vehicle that
27:33matched that description according to the areas that we were looking wasn't sure how long the delay
27:40was on these pings that we weren't finding this because we had already come through those areas
27:46coming eastbound and now we're traveling back westbound to try to catch up to this alleged vehicle
27:51that he's operating so it was a little concerning about 10 minutes later I received another phone call
28:00from Lansing police department that stated that the suspect's phone was pinging near the area of us 20
28:07and 31. now I'm familiar with that area and I know that if they were to go on 20 if they went westbound
28:13it's a common way that they go into Chicago but on the other hand if they were to go east at that
28:19location they were going right to the south bend airport
28:32july 7 2017 indiana police are chasing curtis echoes their prime suspect in the murder of christina
28:40daffenbaum his 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 the 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's description as well as you know a white car that might have just entered the parking lot within
29:46the last few minutes
29:47as 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
30:07it just kind of clicked that he might be in that bus
30:12as they were looking around that bus started to leave
30:17i drove around the block then i pulled up alongside my partner's vehicle
30:23and then basically with front of our vehicles facing head on to the bus we had our emergency
30:27lights on and and we detained the bus
30:32at 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
30:44the suspect happened to be on board we didn't want him trying to take control of the bus or anything
30:48like that
30:51it was a tender situation because we've got a known murderer on the bus surrounded by a bunch of
30:58innocent people we definitely wanted to use extra caution and of course in the back of my mind i was
31:05thinking he could take one of these passengers hostage um or he could he could harm somebody else in
31:11the process of trying to to flee from us so those 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 and the
31:39passengers 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
31:49the bus step down the stairs one at a time and then have them stand off to the side in the grassy area
31:56and 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 his
32:30left side and he starts looking toward the fence line and i'm thinking he's getting ready to bolt
32:34he's going to run from us my partner at that point comes over to me and i i describe 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 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
33:51and had an ultimate destination of chicago illinois while making a stop a brief stop in south end
33:57indiana 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
34:31we were very lucky luck does play a big part in this we were looking for a white vehicle we very easily
34:40could 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
35:05once 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
35:21no remorse he kind of had that long gaze where he was staring right through me i felt like i was looking
35:30evil into 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 stand trial
36:53it was not a whodunit we had a lot of evidence against mr eckles but it takes a lot of preparation
37:00going 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
37:31the trial happened in downtown lansing at the 30th circuit court
37:35started on monday finished the following monday
37:37that 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
38:13he 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 echoes 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 and get him off
39:10the street not only for the all the victims that he's he's abused in the past but especially for christina's
39:16family it's a very difficult line that you're walking in these cases particularly ones that follow so soon
39:24after the death there's nothing that you're going to do that is going to bring their loved one back
39:29and all you can try and do is get some measure of justice through a conviction
39:37i have seen a lot of things in 17 years of doing this job this was by far one of the most gruesome
39:45scenes i've been to it does stay with you you can't erase something you see like that from your mind
39:53christina did not deserve what had happened to her
40:01getting him off the street was a service to society this case stands out because of the randomness
40:08because we don't know why this happened i've seen lots of cases where they are gruesome maybe as
40:14gruesome as this maybe more but at least you know the reason that this person did this to another person
40:20and so it is the combination of randomness and uh how brutal this was that sets it apart
40:29she'd had a hard life the thing that the judge said at sentencing is that because curtis eccles did this
40:35she was never going to get a chance to get better and that has always stuck with me it's just a tragedy
40:43i 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 it 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
41:15um
41:24so
41:25so
41:25so
41:26so
41:27so
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