- 16 minutes ago
Murder at the Motel - Season 2 Episode 7 -
America's Best Value Inn
America's Best Value Inn
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FunTranscript
00:00the cases that I have ever worked on in my 27 years of doing police work her
00:06fingertips that had been sheared off were scattered on the ground right here
00:11you can't erase something you see you like that from your mind her mangled
00:16body just in a pile over here it was one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen
00:21the dark blood that was sprayed on the walls the bloody handprint on the register
00:28here just told the story in itself she was my mom she's my mom you don't know if this was a single
00:37act or if this person is gonna go on a mass killing spree so now it's where is he and how do we find
00:45him I've never been on a manhunt quite like this before we've got a known murderer surrounded by a
00:53bunch of innocent people the crowd starts to disperse now we have a clear shot of this guy
00:58I was looking evil into the eyes
01:019-1-1 location emergency
01:30on the morning of July 7th 2017 a housekeeper at America's Best Value Inn in Lansing Michigan
01:43makes a bone-chilling discovery
01:45there are three sisters who work at the motel
02:00the first one who's going through is doing checks for people who were supposed to check out but never
02:07stopped by the front door so she goes to the room and she knocks and there's no response she needs to
02:13confirm that the person has checked out so she tries to open the door she can't get it open very far but
02:18she peeks her head in and sees that there's a foot and that there's blood coming out from underneath a
02:23blanket behind the door she goes to get her sister who is another cleaning person there they then go to the
02:30third sister who works at the front desk and they ask her to call 911 and that's when the police respond
02:35all right get an ambulance and the police on the way don't let anybody else go into the room until uh we get there and check on it okay okay
02:45a Lansing police officer is immediately dispatched to the motel
02:5131 charlie 5
02:53can you start for a call at the America's Best
02:59all of these on the way there
03:01172 172
03:06anytime you respond to a call where you have a potential death involved
03:14yes your emotions start to kick in and you realize that this is going to be one of those
03:19calls that you remember for the rest of your career
03:22I was actually pretty close to the call at the time that it came in I was able to make it to the
03:30scene within a minute and a half I was the first one on scene at the motel I pulled into the parking
03:37lot looked for the room number which was 172
03:39I unholstered my gun I approached the door when I tried to open the door though I was only able to
03:48open it about a foot before it was stopped I immediately recognized that I had a body on the floor and I
03:55backed out of the room to wait for additional units to come to the scene
03:58it was more than 30 seconds to a minute and another officer appeared on scene the urgency was real we
04:16needed to go into the room we went in just the two of us together I opened the door I actually needed
04:25to push the body a little bit further so that we could get into the room we entered the room I had
04:31my gun drawn we needed to clear the room which means check the room for any other people inside
04:36of the room and make sure we had no other threats inside that we needed to deal with you don't know
04:42what you're going to come across when you go into a scene like that we walked through the room we made
04:48sure there was nobody else inside the room we checked the bathroom we checked the closet we looked under
04:53the bed we located no other people inside of the room upon being in the room I realized the severity of
05:01what we had come across what immediately we picked up on was the smell of blood there was blood on the
05:10the floors the walls the bed the air conditioner the table it was one of the worst crime scenes I've
05:18ever seen detectives from Michigan State Police are called in to investigate the scene
05:40it was July when this happened it was a very very hot day but as I pull in now with everything looks
05:50the same a couple cars scattered here and there the residents that have taken up a little bit permanent
05:59residency here hanging outside their rooms
06:06on this little drive this was all blocked off by yellow crime scene tape
06:12as I stood outside and I looked in the story of what happened could be followed by the blood as it started
06:28from the bed area and was sprayed up on the ceiling it was clear to those of us on scene that the fight
06:35started at the bed and moved its way over to the door there was blood on the sink where the perpetrator tried
06:46to wash off what he could this case was one of the most horrific cases that I have ever worked on in my 27
06:56years of doing police work it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in the room there was some drugs
07:07involved as we found some drug paraphernalia in the room looking at our victim it was not immediately
07:18apparent who she was we knew she was a female by long blonde hair her anatomy but you could not look at
07:29her face and immediately tell who she was there was way too much blood on her face and too many injuries
07:37it was absolutely a scene carnage the medical examiner assesses the extensive trauma to the victim's body
07:48and identifies the cause of death judging by the puncture wounds and everything was very quite clear that she
07:58had been stabbed each fingertip on her hand had been cut off and in my mind I'm I can just pick
08:07her her sticking her hands up and trying to defend herself from the knife perhaps even grabbing out
08:15for the knife just to fight it away and obviously the knife is gonna cut right through right through
08:22her fingers and those were laying on the ground right next to her other detectives in the room had
08:30found an identification card with her picture on it but you could not hold the picture
08:37next to her body and be able to say the woman in the picture is who is laying here on the floor
08:42you have no other leads to go on at that time you have to go with what makes sense here what is
08:50most likely to be true and at that time what was most likely to be true is that our victim on the floor is
08:57the one in the picture of whose identification card we found that was Christina daffenbaugh
09:03whenever a homicide in Ingham County would happen the first thing that we would do would be to contact
09:14the victim's family and ask them to come in in this case that was her parents
09:21I was at work and I got a call on my phone and they asked me the strangest question they asked me did
09:31the Pacifica that belong says when my daughter was driving were the windows broken in it I said no
09:39and then they're asking something about a motel and I didn't quite understand what it was but it was
09:47something very very strange to me anxious after the call from police Patricia leaves work and gets the bus home
09:56she gets off at her stop which is directly opposite America's best value in I could see the police
10:05and something terribly going on at the motel the lights and the police and just all kinds of things
10:16what's going on at that motel and I got home and shortly after we got a knock on the door and Detective
10:28Johnston and another detective came when they broke the news and it was terrible
10:36after the initial moments of just not even being able to understand what this
10:45victim went through and her last moments of life after that passes through your mind now it's who
10:52is this monster that put another human being through something so traumatic like this there's somebody out on
11:00the loose that is responsible for having done this and we've got to find them
11:15we had her parents come in shortly after the murder and we sat down with them and we talked
11:20to them about who Christina was what we learned is that Christina had been living with her parents
11:26she'd struggled with drug addiction they had asked her to leave for a period of time and that she was
11:31working on going to rehab around this time and they were very hopeful that she was getting better
11:35she was homeless frequenting motel to motel they spoke glowingly of her they were still involved in
11:45her life she was driving their car on this night so they were still in communication I was raised by my
11:52grandparents my mother was there she just was pretty young when she had me 18 so yes my my grandparents
12:00they they'd ran the shows mostly my grandmother bless her heart she is the one that would make sure we
12:10got off to school and got to our doctor's appointments and everything you know but she was still there I
12:15mean everybody you know like has their ups and downs but I mean she did her best and we were happy a lot
12:24of memories I have of her is always wanting me to do like her hair she loved having it like the tips
12:31dyed different colors and I would be the one to do that she would get the box dyes and be like Becca can
12:37you do my hair purple today or blue you know like a purple and blue like she let me help her do that
12:42so those are really good memories I have about 10 years before her death she had started to just spiral
12:57in a way like it just slowly just started to go down until she just couldn't get out of this rut no
13:06matter how much she tried every day just depression and anxiety and just everything just got a little
13:14much for her investigators learned that prior to her being murdered Christina had been getting her life
13:23back on track we had actually kind of hit a good breakthrough with her a little bit before you know
13:32like she was taking her meds again she was seemed a happier person seemed like she was doing really
13:39good and she was getting out of that rut and she was really trying to turn her life around at that point
13:48she was looking forward to a party the next day for her grandchild her grandson and that was something
13:57she was looking forward to and I I had talked to her the day before and I said Tina you got to get help
14:07and she says I know mom I I am going to I want to thank she thanked me for reminding her that she needed to
14:18to get help and it was hard
14:25after informing Christina's next of kin investigators focus on finding her killer investigators speak to
14:47witnesses outside the motel so Holland's like I've been senior 40 you know oh he's just noticed
14:52first time the first time he got here was yesterday morning no what was yesterday yesterday would have
14:59been Thursday so that was Wednesday the first time I saw him and then yesterday my wife and I were at
15:04the Meyers gas station we pulled up he was like hey you guys at the hotel right I'm like yeah he's like
15:09I'll give you guys a ride back but my wife out of her mouth she's like I don't feel comfortable getting in
15:14the car and so we just ended up walking and so he stopped me he was like yeah I went to the casino and
15:19want some money what time was it yesterday at the Meyers gas station do you know this was
15:23in the it's like around five six when we came back he was standing outside his door he was like hey
15:32you guys want to smoke you want to chill I'm like no I'm like my wife and my kids down there we good
15:37so he came down and knocked on the door um like around eight thirty nine o'clock and he was like
15:43well do you know I can get some weed from something I'm like I don't know nobody up here we from Detroit
15:46just played it off because I'm like I really don't know you and my wife and I already said she got a
15:50bad feeling from me so I'm standing in the door about it had to be about 11 15 maybe 11 30 and I was
15:58smoking a cigarette and I heard a bam and that's what made me come to the door and the room door he had
16:06slung the room door open and jumped in the car and just sped off like no no no his room what time
16:12was that this is about 11 between 11 15 and 11 30 p.m. yes sir what does this guy look like how tall are
16:20you six foot so he he was about maybe about six one black male white male and Hispanic males light skin
16:26but I know he's an african-american he's light skin he has a very slim build and he has tattoos tattoos yes
16:35all over his arms and his arms and he had one on the side he had one on the side of his neck
16:42going towards like down his thigh's shoulder remember anything about the tattoos you know they
16:46were it was a lot of writing or anything it was a pic it was a design a design and then he had
16:53different pictures of stuff on his arms and stuff okay so what about this vehicle then it was a white
16:58you said white torus older model yes it was had because I had one so it's either a 99 or 98 and it
17:06was white okay and it had like kind of like black trim a little bit not throughout the whole vehicle
17:14but certain parts had like black trim on it like on the door on the door and like the front on the sides
17:20and stuff okay you never saw a license plate on it when he was at the Myers gas station there
17:26wasn't there wasn't a plate on there okay that was one of the reasons why my wife said she didn't
17:31feel comfortable riding back over here with them did he ever give you a name or anything he just said
17:35call me g call me g that's all that's what he said staff at the motel give police a crucial lead
17:44surveillance video played a critical role in this and luckily just because it was meant to be
18:00there was a surveillance video right outside this room
18:04july 7th 2017 detectives are about to learn the name of their suspect in the murder of christina
18:21daffenbaugh the identification of our suspect was not difficult he rented the room in his own name
18:29we found a receipt inside the room where he had ordered a pizza from a local establishment
18:36we had his phone number on that receipt we were able to contact that establishment
18:41get his name that matched the name that the room was reserved under
18:46his name is curtis eckles
18:49further investigation revealed that curtis was from the state of ohio
19:02he had driven up to michigan on that day he'd gone on a bit of a crime spree on the way down from
19:10what we understand he arrived there in a stolen car from ohio and then he checks into the motel room
19:16it showed christina arriving to the room what vehicle she was driving and it also showed that
19:36nobody else other than those two had been in that room that night
19:39further key evidence is uncovered in room 172
19:44they find a receipt from meyer which is a department store nearby
19:50they find a box for a kitchen knife and they find the kitchen knife from that box
19:56outside in the parking lot
19:59a unique characteristic about the knife which we still aren't sure why this happened
20:04but the knife was burned at the tip and then more or less melted and pushed to kind of be like a hook
20:12that's not how it came from the package so curtis must have done that before or after the fact
20:18either way the receipt that we found in the motel room
20:22it showed that he had purchased the knife and a roll of duct tape from this meyer behind me
20:27using that receipt they were able to find their surveillance video
20:31from the transaction what they found was that he had walked there earlier in that day
20:36after checking into the motel and he bought two things he bought duct tape
20:41and he bought a small steak knife
20:43and then he walked back to his motel unit
20:47you're staying in a motel room for a night you know you've got a girl coming over
20:53what are you walking across the street to the grocery store to buy duct tape and a knife for
20:57this was absolutely premeditated
21:01and then shortly after returning christina arrived
21:05we don't know what happens in the room we have a few pieces of information
21:13we have the text messaging between him and her recovered from their phones
21:17where she agrees to come to that location
21:19she expresses some concern because she thinks that she may have been banned from that motel
21:24but he convinces her to come anyway
21:28we know from surveillance video that shortly before she gets there
21:31he moves his car back to the dumpster at the back of the motel complex
21:36and then walks back to the room
21:37she enters the room closes the door
21:41we see that door open one more time
21:44the surveillance video showed her hands coming out of the doorway
21:48you could see the blood from her hands in the door jam
21:55it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in the room
21:59and that christina was trying to get out of the room in every way possible
22:07the fact that she agreed to meet up with him that night
22:10there didn't appear to be any kind of fear of him
22:15she went there knowingly she stayed for a while
22:20and then something happened inside that motel room that just sent curtis over the edge
22:25and he got out that knife and stabbed christina repeatedly until she died
22:30the door closes and that's the last we see of her
22:37he leaves the motel a little bit after that
22:39gets in her car takes that to the back of the motel complex
22:43gets in the car that he had stolen that he had parked there and drove away
22:47somebody would only do that they're trying to conceal that christina was at the motel
22:52you don't know if this was a single act or if this person is going to go on a mass killing spree
23:06so now it's where is he and how do we find him
23:10july 7 2017 detectives have learned the name of their suspect
23:24curtis echoes but do not know where he is now investigators contact the service
23:30provider of curtis's cell phone in an attempt to learn his current location
23:37they have the technology to be able to locate the device
23:39right away mr echo's phone was turned on possibly in use and we received a location in indiana
23:54i would presume that curtis knows that we're going to find him eventually
24:03i was sitting post command um answering the phones and assisting with dispatch when i received
24:23a phone call from the lansing police department
24:27a phone call from the lansing police department they had pinged the phone on i-80 at edwardsburg road
24:34which is the location of the service area on the indiana toll road at the 90 mile marker
24:40i dispatched to trooper hipshire who was working in that area
24:49when i received the dispatch about the report of the suspect on the interstate it was believed that
25:04he was approximately the center of the zone that i worked so i started traveling from the 73 mile marker
25:11which is on the west end of my zone toward that location which was approximately 18 to 20 miles
25:19at that time my partner was just a few miles up the road from me and also was en route to that same
25:25location to locate the vehicle and identify the subject
25:28it was a white four-door 1999 ford with ohio plates however the plates may or may not be on the vehicle at
25:43this time right now we are pulling into service area of five south this is the first location
25:53that my partner searched the rest area for the vehicle in question
26:02while he did that i sat at a crossover in a median of the toll road just to observe
26:08additional traffic coming by to make sure nobody got by us and from the thousands and thousands of
26:14vehicles that go across the indiana toll road it was like a needle in a haystack
26:22we also notified the indiana toll road concession company which is a company that runs the entire
26:31interstate we asked them to monitor all their cameras at the toll plazas to see if any vehicles
26:39matching the description were to exit so as we were coming westbound the indiana toll road concession
26:44company contacted us and let us know that a vehicle matching this the description or at least close
26:50to matching the description was exiting at the 77 exit which is the notre dame exit my partner exited
26:57the toll road and went into the town of roseland and see if he could find the vehicle in question
27:04i've never been on a manhunt quite like this before because of the allegations that were against
27:08him the fact that he had this felony warrant for rape as well as being a suspect in a homicide case
27:16that was discovered that day i was beginning to get a little bit nervous that we weren't going to
27:23find the subject while we were on the interstate because of all the different ping locations and
27:27not finding a vehicle that matched that description according to the areas that we were looking
27:33wasn't sure how long the delay was on these pings that we weren't finding this because we had already
27:38come through those areas coming eastbound and now we're traveling back westbound to try to catch up to this
27:45alleged vehicle that he's operating so it was a little concerning about 10 minutes later i received
27:54another phone call from lansing police department that stated that the suspect's phone was pinging
28:00near the area of u.s 20 and 31. now i'm familiar with that area and i know that if they were to go on
28:0720 if they went westbound it's a common way that they go into chicago but on the other hand if they
28:13were to go east at that location they were going right to the south bend airport
28:27july 7 2017 indiana police are chasing curtis echoes their prime suspect in the murder of christina
28:35daffenbaum his phone was last pinged heading towards a crossroads to either chicago or the south bend
28:42airport lansing police department called back just a couple minutes later and said his phone was pinging
28:49at the airport the ping was at the car rental parking lot which is off to my left here i'm going to be
29:01turning into as i'm traveling through here i'm unable to find a vehicle that's matching the description so
29:10i'm looking for a pedestrian that might have ditched the car and he's you know trying to flee the area
29:17or trying to find another vehicle to take and as i'm driving through i notice a pedestrian that's up by
29:24the terminal entrance which we're about to pass by and it appeared to be an employee that was on a
29:30smoke break so i was going to go over there and just ask him uh if he had seen anybody matching this
29:36subject's description as well as you know a white car that might have just entered the parking lot
29:41within the last few minutes as i was getting ready to speak with that individual i noticed over here
29:49off to my left that there was a bus that was getting ready to back out of the back side of the terminal
29:56from working with other pings and how we weren't catching up to any vehicles that matched that
30:03it just kind of clicked that he might be in that bus as they were looking around that bus started to
30:10leave i drove around the block then i pulled up alongside my partner's vehicle and then basically
30:19with front of our vehicles facing head on to the bus we had our emergency lights on and and we detained the
30:24bus at that point we both walked up to the bus my partner asked the driver to step off and take the
30:34key out of the ignition and then shut the door and we did that of course in case the suspect happened to
30:40be on board we didn't want him trying to take control of the bus or anything like that
30:46it was a tender situation because we've got a known murderer on the bus surrounded by a bunch of
30:53innocent people we definitely wanted to use extra caution and of course in the back of my mind i was
31:00thinking he could take one of these passengers hostage um or he could he could harm somebody else
31:06in the process of trying to to flee from us so those were all things we needed to consider
31:20so right over here as you can see the uh the blue speed limit signs it was in those areas that we
31:28had both of our squad cars positioned to block off the bus the bus was actually parked right in this
31:33area and the passengers disembarked right in this spot
31:40my partner and i decided that the best course of action at this point would be to have everybody on
31:45the bus step down the stairs one at a time and then have them stand off to the side in the grassy
31:51area and then we could clear the entire bus just to make sure he wasn't there there are only about
31:57three more passengers to come down the the stairs and and probably the second to last passenger coming
32:03down kind of resembles mr eckles so i'm staring at him and next thing i know he's he's staring right
32:10back at me and he's got this nervous look on his face and he's his eyes aren't going anywhere other
32:15than just staring staring me down as he's walking down the stairs it appears that he's just trying
32:19to like hide behind some people like he starts to turn his body to his to the side and show me just
32:25his left side and he starts looking toward the fence line and i'm thinking he's getting ready to bolt
32:29he's going to run from us my partner at that point comes over to me and i i describe the the suspect
32:37and then both of them make eye contact at that point um my partner starts screaming at him to
32:45get his hands in the air the crowd starts to disperse in both directions so now we have a clear shot of
32:51this guy nobody on this bus has a clue that one of their fellow passengers just killed somebody up in
32:59michigan at that point i drew my weapon as my partner started rushing over to the suspect and
33:05informed him that he needed to get on his knees and keep his hands in the air and then he took him
33:09into custody at that point troopers ask him for his name and he just hangs his head and he says i don't
33:19have a name police uncover the journey echoes took in a bid to evade capture while going through his
33:31clothing the officer stumbled upon a bus ticket it was a greyhound bus ticket and it showed that he
33:37had actually boarded this bus in detroit michigan taken the bus to a stop in toledo ohio and had an
33:47ultimate destination of chicago illinois while making a stop a brief stop in south end indiana so we had
33:54just caught him on this last leg of the trip he had been on the bus for nearly seven hours at this
34:00point finding and apprehending a suspect after he's traveled through three states on the very same day
34:11that he's committed a murder and within six to seven hours of the finding of the victim and the
34:20processing of the scene is still taking place is is pretty extraordinary we were very lucky luck does
34:30play a big part in this we were looking for a white vehicle we very easily could have just bypassed
34:37these buses and went on looking for a white vehicle when you are able to close something out like that
34:45it makes you feel good inside like you did something good and that you avenged the homicide victim
34:55a lot of it was luck but a lot of it was good police work
35:00once we got word that mr eckles had been arrested by the indiana state police
35:05detective trooper adam check and i drove down to indiana
35:08the way mr eckles looked at me when we interviewed him i could tell there was no remorse
35:19he kind of had that long gaze where he was staring right through me i felt like i was looking evil into
35:26the eyes
35:38curtis eckles is extradited back to lansing michigan
35:42christina's family are notified of his arrest
35:47like many people they don't believe that something so terrible can happen in their life
35:52they trust people and they don't believe that that can happen he could have gone on and even done
36:00worse i hope he's ashamed of what he did that was just terrible she would have been able to see me get
36:10married she would have been able to see her grandchildren grow up she would have
36:16she would have been good like all the things that have happened since she's passed just thinking about
36:25if she was here for that how much better it would have been like it would have been amazing for her to
36:34see all this her family growing up
36:37the case is handed over to prosecutors who prepare for eckles to stay in trial
36:48it was not a whodunit we had a lot of evidence against mr eckles but it takes a lot of preparation
36:55going into trial to make sure that we get the conviction
37:01because it was a senseless act there was nothing to be able to tell the jury why this happened
37:05why he did this thing and you always worry that if the jury doesn't understand why it happened
37:11that they'll have some skepticism that it did happen
37:27the trial happened in downtown lansing at the 30th circuit court
37:30started on monday finished the following monday
37:32that is something that is hard to get over and i got to see what he looked like because they had
37:44me come in and testify one day in court and he sat there with his hand like this looking at me
37:54eckles demeanor was very cold it was very distant throughout the trial there was at least one point
37:59where he seemed to get a little bit agitated and he indicated that he wanted to just plead guilty
38:04and get this all over with we took a break to allow him to talk to his attorney about that and
38:09he ultimately changed his mind but that was the only time that he had any real display during the trial
38:15the defense attorney mounted the best defense that he could in the circumstances pointing to the
38:20lack of motivation the lack of specific reasons that this would have happened or pre-existing
38:27relationship between the defendant and the victim but ultimately was not able to keep any of the
38:32evidence out that that so clearly pointed at curtis eckles
38:40the jury finds curtis jamar echoes guilty of first degree murder he is sentenced to life without the
38:47possibility of parole mr eckles was a very violent predator he had done similar crimes in the past not
38:56homicides that we know of but abused women and it was nice to to get this conviction and get him off
39:05the street not only for the all the victims that he's he's abused in the past but especially for christina's
39:11family it's a very difficult line that you're walking in these cases particularly ones that follow so soon
39:19after the death there's nothing that you're going to do that is going to bring their loved one back
39:24and all you can try and do is get some measure of justice through a conviction
39:32i have seen a lot of things in 17 years of doing this job this was by far one of the most gruesome
39:40scenes i've been to it does stay with you you can't erase something you see like that from your mind
39:48christina did not deserve what had happened to her
39:56getting him off the street was a service to society
40:00this case stands out because of the randomness because we don't know why this happened
40:05i've seen lots of cases where they are gruesome maybe as gruesome as this maybe more but at least you
40:11know the reason that this person did this to another person and so it is the combination of
40:17randomness and uh how brutal this was that that sets it apart she'd had a hard life the thing that
40:26the judge said at sentencing is that because curtis eccles did this she was never going to get a chance
40:32to get better and that has always stuck with me it's just a tragedy i never got to tell her goodbye
40:42or that i loved her that no matter how much we fought no matter how much we would yell at each
40:49other or if like i hate yous or i never want to see yous anymore and got thrown around like
40:54she was my mom she's my mom and i love her so much i will never stop loving her and wishing she was here
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