- 4 hours ago
Murder at the Motel - Season 2 Episode 7 -
America's Best Value Inn
America's Best Value Inn
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00on the walls the bloody handprint on the register here just told the story in
00:06itself she was my mom she's my mom you don't know if this was a single act or
00:13if this person is gonna go on a mass killing spree so now it's where is he
00:19and how do we find him I've never been on a manhunt quite like this before we've
00:26got a known murderer surrounded by a bunch of innocent people the crowd
00:30starts to disperse now we have a clear shot of this guy I was looking evil into
00:35the eyes
00:569-1-1 location emergency hi I need an aimless police officer out to America's Best Value
01:08Inn like ASAP on the morning of July 7 2017 a housekeeper at America's Best Value Inn in Lansing
01:18Michigan makes a bone-chilling discovery there are three sisters who work at the motel the first
01:38one who's going through is doing checks for people who were supposed to check out but never stopped by
01:42the front door so she goes to the room and she knocks and there's no response she needs to confirm
01:48that the person has checked out so she tries to open the door she can't get it open very far but
01:53she peeks her head in and sees that there's a foot and that there's blood coming out from underneath the
01:58blanket behind the door she goes to get her sister who is another cleaning person there they then go to
02:04the third sister who works at the front desk and they ask her to call 9-1-1 and that's when the police respond
02:10all right get an ambulance and the police on the way don't let anybody else go into the room until
02:18uh we get there and check on it okay okay a Lansing police officer is immediately dispatched to the
02:25motel can you start for a call at the America's Best all of these on the way there 172 172 172
02:44anytime you respond to a call where you have a potential death involved yes your emotions start to
02:51kick in and you realize that this is going to be one of those calls that you remember for the rest of
02:56your career I was actually pretty close to the call at the time that it came in I was able to make it to
03:05the scene within a minute and a half I was the first one on scene at the motel I pulled into the parking
03:12lot looked for the room number which was 172 I unholstered my gun I approached the door when I tried
03:21to open the door though I was only able to open it about a foot before it was stopped I immediately
03:27recognized that I had a body on the floor and I backed out of the room to wait for additional
03:32units to come to the scene it was more than 30 seconds to a minute and another officer appeared
03:48on scene the urgency was real we needed to go into the room we went in just the two of us together I
03:55opened the door I actually needed to push the body a little bit further so that we could get into the
04:03room we entered the room I had my gun drawn we needed to clear the room which means check the
04:09room for any other people inside of the room and make sure we had no other threats inside that we
04:14needed to deal with you don't know what you're going to come across when you go into a scene like
04:19that we walked through the room we made sure there was nobody else inside the room we checked the
04:26bathroom we checked the closet we looked under the bed we located no other people inside of the room upon
04:33being in the room I realized the severity of what we had come across what immediately we picked up on
04:41was the smell of blood there was blood on the floors the walls the bed the air conditioner
04:49the table it was one of the worst crime scenes I've ever seen
04:53detectives from Michigan State Police are called in to investigate the scene
05:12it was July when this happened it was a very very hot day
05:20but as I pull in now everything looks the same a couple cars scattered here and there
05:29the residents that have taken up a little bit permanent residency here hanging outside their rooms
05:37on this little drive this was all blocked off by yellow crime scene tape
05:55as I stood outside and I looked in the story of what happened could be followed by the blood as it
06:02started from the bed area and was sprayed up on the ceiling it was clear to those of us on scene that
06:10the fight started at the bed and moved its way over to the door there was blood on the sink where the
06:20perpetrator tried to wash off what he could this case was one of the most horrific cases that I have
06:29ever worked on in my 27 years of doing police work it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in
06:37the room there was some drugs involved as we found some drug paraphernalia in the room
06:46looking at our victim it was not immediately apparent who she was we knew she was a female by
06:59long blonde hair her anatomy but you could not look at her face and immediately tell who she was there
07:09was way too much blood on her face and too many injuries it was absolutely a scene of carnage
07:19the medical examiner assesses the extensive trauma to the victim's body and identifies the cause of death
07:25judging by the puncture wounds and everything it was very quite clear that she had been stabbed
07:34each fingertip on her hand had been cut off and in my mind I can just picture her sticking her hands up
07:44and trying to defend herself from the knife perhaps even grabbing out for the knife just to fight it away
07:54and obviously the knife is going to cut right through her fingers and those who are laying on the ground
08:00right next to her
08:02other detectives in the room had found an identification card with her picture on it
08:10but you could not hold the picture next to her body and be able to say the woman in the picture is who is laying here on the floor
08:18you have no other leads to go on at that time you have to go with what makes sense here what is most likely to be true
08:26and at that time what was most likely to be true is that our victim on the floor is the one in the picture of whose identification card we found
08:35that was christina daffenbaugh
08:42whenever a homicide in ingham county would happen the first thing that we would do would be to contact the victim's family and ask them to come in
08:50in this case that was her parents
08:56i was at work and i got a call on my phone and they asked me the strangest question
09:04they asked me did the pacifica that belongs to us when my daughter was driving were the windows broken in it
09:12i said no and then they're asking something about a motel and i didn't quite understand what it was but it was something very very strange to me
09:26anxious after the call from police patricia leaves work and gets the bus home
09:31she gets off at her stop which is directly opposite america's best value in
09:38i could see the police and something terribly going on at the motel
09:44the lights and the police and just all kinds of things going on at that motel
09:52and i got home and shortly after we got a knock on the door and uh detective johnston and another detective came
10:07after the initial moments of just not even being able to understand what this victim went through and her last moments of life after that passes through your mind now it's who is this monster that put another human being through something so traumatic like this
10:29there's somebody out on the loose that is responsible for having done this and we've got to find them
10:50we had her parents come in shortly after the murder and we sat down with them and we talked to them about who christina was
10:57what we learned is that christina had been living with her parents she struggled with drug addiction
11:03they had asked her to leave for a period of time and that she was working on going to rehab around this time and they were very hopeful that she was getting better
11:12she was homeless
11:14frequenting motel to motel
11:17they spoke glowingly of her they were still involved in her life she was driving their car on this night so they were still in communication
11:25i was raised by my grandparents my mother was there she uh just was pretty young when she had me 18 so
11:32yes my my grandparents they they ran the shows mostly my grandmother bless her heart she is the one that would make sure we got off to school and got to our doctor's appointments and everything you know but she was still there i mean everybody you know like has their ups and downs but i mean she she did her best
11:53and we we were happy a lot of memories i have of her is always wanting me to do like her hair she loved having it like the tips dyed different colors and i would be the one to do that she would get the box dyes and be like becca can you do my hair purple today or blue you know like her purple and blue like she let me help her do that so those are really good memories i have
12:20about 10 years before her death she had started to just spiral in a way like it just slowly just started to go down until she just couldn't get out of this rut
12:40no matter how much she tried every day just depression and anxiety and just everything just got a little much for her
12:52investigators learned that prior to her being murdered christina had been getting her life back on track
12:58we had actually kind of hit a good breakthrough with her a little bit before you know like she was taking her meds again she was
13:10seemed a happier person seemed like she was doing really good and she was getting out of that rut
13:18and she was really trying to turn her life around at that point she was looking forward to a party the next day for her grandchild her grandson
13:30and that was something she was looking forward to and i i had talked to her the day before and i said
13:40tina you got to get help and she says i know mom i i i am going to i want to thank she thanked me for reminding her that she needed to get help and
13:58it was hard
14:12after informing christina's next of kin investigators focus on finding her killer
14:20investigators speak to witnesses outside the motel
14:24so how long has that got been seen here for do you know
14:26um the first time we the first time he got here was yesterday morning
14:30no what was yesterday yesterday would have been thursday
14:34so that was wednesday the first time i saw him
14:36and then yesterday my wife and i were at the myers gas station
14:40he pulled up he was like hey you guys um at the hotel right i'm like yeah
14:42he was like i'll give you guys a ride back but my wife out of her mouth she was like i don't feel comfortable getting in the car
14:48and so we just ended up walking and so he stopped me
14:52he was like yeah i went to the casino and
14:56what time was it yesterday at the myer gas station do you know this was
15:00i don't know it's like around five six
15:04when we came back he was standing outside his door he was like hey you guys want to smoke
15:08you want to chill i'm like no i'm like my wife and my kids down there we good
15:12so he came down and knocked on the door um like around
15:168 39 o'clock and he was like well do you know where i can get some weed from
15:20i don't know nobody up here we from detroit
15:22just played it off because i'm like i really don't know you
15:24and my wife already said she got a bad feeling from me
15:26mm-hmm so i'm standing in the door
15:28about it had to be about 11 15 maybe 11 30 and i was smoking a cigarette
15:34and i heard a bam and that's what made me come to the door
15:38and the room door he had slung the room door open
15:42and jumped in the car and just slung your room
15:44sped off like no no no
15:46his room what time was that this is about 11 between 11 15 and 11 30.
15:50pm yes sir
15:52what does this guy look like
15:54how tall are you six foot
15:56so he he was about maybe about six one black male white male and hispanic males
16:00light skinned but i i know he's an african-american he's light skinned
16:04he has a very slim build and he has tattoos
16:08tattoos yes
16:10all over his arms and
16:12his arms and he had one on the side
16:14he had one on the side of his neck
16:16going towards like down by his shoulder
16:18remember anything about the tattoos
16:20no they were
16:22it was a lot of
16:23was it writing or anything
16:24it was a pic it was a design
16:26a design
16:27and then he had different pictures of stuff on his arms and stuff
16:30okay
16:31so what about this vehicle then it was a white you said
16:33it was a white torus
16:34older model
16:35yes it was had because i had one so it's either a 99 or a 98
16:40and it was white
16:42okay
16:44and it had like
16:46kind of like black trim a little bit
16:48not throughout the whole vehicle but certain parts had like black trim on it
16:51like on the door
16:52on the door
16:53and like in the front
16:54on the sides and stuff
16:57okay
16:58you never saw a license plate on it
16:59when
17:00he was at the myers gas station there wasn't a plate on there
17:03okay
17:04and that was one of the reasons why my wife said she didn't feel comfortable riding back over here with him
17:08did he ever give you a name or anything
17:09he just said call me g
17:11call me g
17:12that's all
17:13that's what he said
17:15staff at the motel give police a crucial lead
17:19so yeah so we would be looking we want cameras from about 11 11 to 11 30 ish
17:28surveillance video played a critical role in this and luckily just because it was meant to be there was a surveillance video right outside this room
17:38july 7th 2017 detectives are about to learn the name of their suspect in the murder of christina davenbaugh
17:56the identification of our suspect was not difficult he rented the room in his own name
18:03we found a receipt inside the room where he had ordered a pizza from a local establishment
18:10we had his phone number on that receipt we were able to contact that establishment get his name that matched the name that the room was reserved under
18:21his name is curtis eccles
18:28further investigation revealed that curtis was from the state of ohio
18:36he had driven up to michigan on that day
18:39he'd gone on a bit of a crime spree on the way down from what we understand
18:44he arrived there in a stolen car from ohio and then he checks into the motel room
18:51it showed christina arriving to the room what vehicle she was driving and it also showed that nobody else other than those two
18:59had been in that room that night
19:14further key evidence is uncovered in room 172
19:19they find a receipt from meyer which is a department store nearby
19:26they find a box for a kitchen knife and they find the kitchen knife from that box outside in the parking lot
19:34a unique characteristic about the knife which we still aren't sure why this happened but the knife was burned at the tip
19:41and then more or less melted and pushed to kind of be like a hook
19:48that's not how it came from the package so curtis must have done that before or after the fact
19:53either way the receipt that we found in the motel room
19:57it showed that he had purchased the knife and a roll of duct tape from this meyer behind me
20:02using that receipt they were able to find the surveillance video from the transaction
20:07what they found was that he had walked there earlier in that day after checking into the motel
20:13and he bought two things he bought duct tape and he bought a small steak knife
20:19and then he walked back to his motel unit
20:22you're staying in a motel room for a night you know you've got a girl coming over
20:27what are you walking across the street to the grocery store to buy duct tape and a knife for
20:32this was absolutely premeditated
20:37and then shortly after returning christina arrived
20:44we don't know what happens in the room we have a few pieces of information
20:48we have the text messaging between him and her recovered from their phones
20:52where she agrees to come to that location
20:54she expresses some concern because she thinks that she may have been banned from that motel
20:59but he convinces her to come anyway
21:02we know from surveillance video that shortly before she gets there
21:06he moves his car back to the dumpster at the back of the motel complex
21:10and then walks back to the room
21:12she enters the room closes the door
21:15we see that door open one more time
21:18the surveillance video showed her hands coming out of the doorway
21:22you could see the blood from her hands in the door jam
21:29it was very obvious that a struggle had occurred in the room
21:33and that christina was trying to get out of the room in every way possible
21:41the fact that she agreed to meet up with him that night
21:45there didn't appear to be any kind of fear of him
21:50she went there knowingly
21:52she stayed for a while
21:54and then something happened inside that motel room
21:57that just sent curtis over the edge
21:59and he got out that knife
22:01and stabbed christina repeatedly until she died
22:07the door closes and that's the last we see of her
22:10he leaves the motel a little bit after that
22:13gets in her car
22:15takes that to the back of the motel complex
22:17gets in the car that he had stolen
22:19that he had parked there
22:20and drove away
22:22somebody would only do that
22:23they're trying to conceal
22:24that christina was at the motel
22:34you don't know if this was a single act
22:36or if this person is going to go on a mass killing spree
22:41so now it's where is he and how do we find him
22:54July 7th 2017
22:57detectives have learned the name of their suspect
22:59curtis echoes
23:00but do not know where he is now
23:03investigators contact the service provider of
23:05curtis's cell phone
23:06in an attempt to learn his current location
23:12they have the technology to be able to locate the device
23:14right away
23:17mr. echoes phone was turned on possibly in use
23:20and we received a location in indiana
23:29i would presume that curtis knows
23:31that we're going to find him eventually
23:33that we're going to find him eventually
23:38i was sitting post-command
23:53answering the phones
23:55and assisting with dispatch
23:57when i received a phone call
23:59from the lansing police department
24:01they had pinged the phone on i-80 at edwardsburg road
24:08which is the location of the service area on the indiana toll road
24:13at the 90 mile marker
24:15i dispatched to trooper hipshire
24:18who was working in that area
24:22when i received the dispatch about the report of the suspect on the interstate
24:37it was believed that he was approximately the center of the zone that i work
24:43so i started traveling from the 73 mile marker which is on the west end of my zone
24:48toward that location which is approximately 18 to 20 miles
24:53at that time my partner was just a few miles up the road from me
24:57and also was en route to that same location to locate the vehicle and identify the subject
25:06it was a white four-door 1999 ford with ohio plates
25:12however the plates may or may not be on the vehicle at this time
25:21right now we are pulling into service area five south
25:25this is the first location that my partner searched the rest area for the vehicle in question
25:37while he did that i sat at a crossover in a median of the toll road
25:42just to observe additional traffic coming by to make sure nobody got by us
25:47and from the thousands and thousands of vehicles
25:50that go across the indiana toll road
25:52it was like a needle in a haystack
25:54we also notified the indiana toll road concession company which is a company that runs the entire interstate
26:07we asked them to monitor all their cameras at the toll plazas to see if any vehicles matching the description were to exit
26:15so as we were coming westbound the indiana toll road concession company contacted us and let us know that a vehicle
26:22matching the description or at least close to matching the description was exiting at the 77 exit which is the Notre Dame exit
26:30my partner exited the toll road and went into the town of Roseland to see if he could find the vehicle in question
26:36I've never been on a manhunt quite like this before because of the allegations that were against him the fact that he had this felony warrant for rape as well as being a suspect in a homicide case that was discovered that day
26:53I was beginning to get a little bit nervous that we weren't going to find the subject while we were on the interstate because of all the different ping locations and not finding a vehicle that matched that description according to the areas that we were looking
27:08wasn't sure how long the delay was on these pings that we weren't finding this because we had already come through those areas coming eastbound and now we're traveling back westbound to try to catch up to this alleged vehicle that he's operating
27:22so it was a little concerning
27:26about 10 minutes later I received another phone call from Lansing Police Department that stated that the suspects phone was pinging near the area of US 20 and 31
27:38now I'm familiar with that area and I know that if they were to go on 20 if they went westbound it's a common way that they go into Chicago
27:45but on the other hand if they were to go east at that location they were going right to the south bend airport
27:52July 7th 2017 Indiana police are chasing Curtis echoes their prime suspect in the murder of Christina daffenbaum his phone was last pinged heading towards a crossroads to either Chicago or the south bend airport
28:07Lansing police department called back just a couple minutes later and said his phone was pinging at the airport
28:14the ping was at the car rental parking lot which is off to my left here I'm gonna be turning into
28:21as I'm traveling through here I'm unable to find a vehicle that's matching the description so I'm looking for a pedestrian that might have ditched the car and he's you know
28:28trying to flee the area
28:42trying to flee the area or trying to find another vehicle to takeain to find another vehicleoto
28:51trying to flee the area or trying to find another vehicle to take and as I'm
28:56driving through I notice a pedestrian that's up by the terminal entrance which
29:02we're about to pass by and it appeared to be an employee that was on a smoke
29:05break so I was gonna go over there and just ask him if he had seen anybody
29:11matching this subject's description as well as you know a white car that might
29:15have just entered the parking lot within the last few minutes
29:19as I was getting ready to speak with that individual I noticed over here off to
29:25my left that there was a bus that was getting ready to back out of the back
29:29side of the terminal from working with other pings and how we weren't catching
29:35up to any vehicles that matched that it just kind of clicked that he might be in
29:39that bus as they were looking around that bus started to leave
29:49I drove around the block then I pulled up alongside my partner's vehicle and then
29:53basically with front of our vehicles facing head-on to the bus we had our
29:57emergency lights on and and we detained the bus at that point we both walked up
30:03to the bus my partner asked the driver to step off and take the key out of the
30:10ignition and then shut the door and we did that of course in case the suspect
30:14happened to be on board we didn't want him trying to take control the bus or
30:18anything like that it was a tender situation because we've got a known
30:24murderer on the bus surrounded by a bunch of innocent people we definitely wanted
30:32to use extra caution and of course in the back of my mind I was thinking he
30:35could take one of these passengers hostage or he could he could harm somebody
30:40else in the process of trying to flee from us so those were all things we
30:44needed to consider
30:56so right over here as you can see the the blue speed limit signs it was in those
31:02areas that we had both of our squad cars positioned to block off the bus the bus
31:06was actually parked right in this area and the passengers disembarked right in
31:11this spot
31:14my partner and I decided that the best course of action at this point would be
31:18to have everybody on the bus step down the stairs one at a time and then have
31:23them stand off to the side in the grassy area and then we could clear the
31:27entire bus just to make sure he wasn't there there are only about three more
31:32passengers to come down the stairs and and probably the second to last passenger
31:37coming down kind of resembles mr. Eccles so I'm staring at him and next thing I
31:43know he's he's staring right back at me and he's got this nervous look on his
31:47face and he's his eyes aren't going anywhere other than just staring staring me
31:51down as he's walking down the stairs it appears that he's just trying to like
31:55hide behind some people like he starts to turn his body to his to the side and
31:59show me just his left side and he starts looking toward the fence line and I'm
32:03thinking he's getting ready to bolt he's gonna run from us my partner at that
32:08point comes over to me and I I described the the suspect and then both of them
32:14make eye contact at that point my partner starts screaming at him to get his
32:21hands in the air the crowd starts to disperse both directions so now we have a
32:25clear shot of this guy nobody on this bus has a clue that one of their fellow
32:31passengers just killed somebody up in Michigan at that point I drew my weapon
32:36as my partner started rushing over to the suspect and informing that he needed to
32:41get on his knees and keep his hands in the air and then he took him into custody at
32:45that point troopers ask him for his name and he just hangs his head and he says I don't have a name
32:55police uncover the journey Echols took in a bid to evade capture while going through his clothing the
33:07officer stumbled upon a bus ticket it was a Greyhound bus ticket and it showed that he had actually boarded
33:14this bus in Detroit Michigan taking the bus to a stop in Toledo Ohio and had an
33:22ultimate destination of Chicago Illinois while making a stop a brief stop in
33:27South Bend Indiana so we had just caught him on this last leg of the trip he had
33:33been on the bus for nearly seven hours at this point
33:38finding and apprehending a suspect after he's traveled through three states on the very same
33:45day that he's committed a murder and within six to seven hours of the finding of the victim and the
33:55processing of the scene is still taking place is is pretty extraordinary we were very lucky luck does play a
34:05big part in this we were looking for a white vehicle we very easily could have just bypassed these buses and
34:13went on looking for a white vehicle when you are able to close something out like that it makes you feel
34:21good inside like you did something good and that you avenged the homicide victim a lot of it was luck but a lot of
34:32it was good police work once we got word that mr Echols had been arrested by the Indiana State Police
34:40Detective Trooper Adamczyk and I drove down to Indiana the way mr Echols looked at me when we interviewed
34:49him I could tell there was no remorse he kind of had that long gaze where he was staring right through me
34:57I felt like I was looking evil into the eyes
35:01Curtis Echols is extradited back to Lansing Michigan Christina's family are notified of his arrest
35:20like many people they don't believe that something so terrible can happen in their life they trust
35:29people and they don't believe that that can happen he could have gone on and even done worse I hope he's
35:37ashamed of what he did that was just terrible she would have been able to see me get married she would
35:47have been able to see her grandchildren grow up she would have she would have been good like all the
35:56things that have happened since she's passed just thinking about if she was here for that how much better
36:03it would have been like it would have been amazing for her to see all this her family growing up
36:17the case is handed over to prosecutors who prepare for Echols to stand trial it was not a whodunit we
36:25had a lot of evidence against mr. Echols but it takes a lot of preparation going into trial to make sure that
36:33we get the conviction because it was a senseless act there was nothing to be able to tell the jury why
36:40this happened why he did this thing and you always worry that if the jury doesn't understand why it
36:46happened that they'll have some skepticism that it did happen
36:49the trial happened in downtown Lansing at the 30th circuit court started on Monday finished the
37:07following Monday that is something that is hard to get over and I got to see what he looked like
37:18because they had me come in and testify one day in court and he sat there with his hand like this
37:26looking at me Echols demeanor was very cold it was very distant throughout the trial there was at least
37:34one point where he seemed to get a little bit agitated and he indicated that he wanted to just
37:39plead guilty and get this all over with we took a break to allow him to talk to his attorney about
37:43that and he ultimately changed his mind but that was the only time that he had any real display during
37:47the trial the defense attorney mounted the best defense that he could in the circumstances pointing
37:55to the lack of motivation the lack of specific reasons that this would have happened or pre-existing
38:02relationship between the defendant and the victim but ultimately was not able to keep any of the
38:07evidence out that that so clearly pointed at Curtis Echols the jury finds Curtis Jamar Echols guilty of
38:18first-degree murder he is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole Mr. Echols was a very violent
38:26predator he had done similar crimes in the past not homicides that we know of but abused women
38:34and it was nice to to get this conviction and get him off the street not only for the all the victims
38:42that he's he's abused in the past but especially for Christina's family it's a very difficult line that you're
38:50walking in these cases particularly ones that follow so soon after the death there's nothing
38:57that you're gonna do that is gonna bring their loved one back and all you can try and do is get
39:02some measure of justice through a conviction I have seen a lot of things in 17 years of doing this job
39:11this was by far one of the most gruesome scenes I've been to it does stay with you you can't erase
39:21something you see you like that from your mind Christina did not deserve what had happened to her
39:28getting him off the street was a service to society this case stands out because of the randomness
39:37because we don't know why this happened I've seen lots of cases where they are gruesome maybe as gruesome
39:44as this maybe more but at least you know the reason that this person did this to another person and so
39:50it is the combination of randomness and how brutal this was that sets it apart she'd had a hard life the
40:01thing that the judge said at sentencing is that because Curtis Echols did this she was never gonna get
40:06a chance to get better and that has always stuck with me it's just a tragedy I never got to tell her
40:15goodbye or that I loved her that no matter how much we fought no matter how much we would yell at each
40:24other or if like I hate shoes or I never want to see you anymore it got thrown around like she was my
40:30mom 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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