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Titulo Original: EP. 82 - The Murder Of 12-year old Stephanie Ann Crowe [True Crime]
Canal Autor (Nome): True Crime Documentaries
Canal Autor (Link): https://www.youtube.com/@truecrimedocumentaries9885
Fonte do Video (Link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiCt-tcaOw
Licenca: Este conteudo e reutilizado sob a Licenca Creative Commons Atribuicao 4.0 Internacional (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Note: The original content has not been modified. / O conteudo original foi mantido integralmente.
Canal Autor (Nome): True Crime Documentaries
Canal Autor (Link): https://www.youtube.com/@truecrimedocumentaries9885
Fonte do Video (Link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiCt-tcaOw
Licenca: Este conteudo e reutilizado sob a Licenca Creative Commons Atribuicao 4.0 Internacional (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Note: The original content has not been modified. / O conteudo original foi mantido integralmente.
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TVTranscrição
00:09For a parent, it's a double nightmare.
00:13A child is dead.
00:15Her brother, the first suspect.
00:17They made an arrest in the case.
00:19And I said, who is it?
00:20They said, we've arrested your son.
00:22Police interrogated Michael Crow for 12 hours over three days
00:26without his parents and without a lawyer.
00:30Once a police officer decides to do an interrogation,
00:34there's one goal only, and that is to get a confession.
00:37But how far will police go to get that confession?
00:40And what are the rights of parents and children?
01:056.30, January 21st, 1998, in the San Diego suburb of Escondido, California,
01:1212-year-old Stephanie Crow is found stabbed to death in her own bedroom.
01:16Stephanie Crow was full of life.
01:18From the moment she woke up until she went to sleep, she was busy doing things.
01:21And she always gave 100%.
01:24Five feet tall and brown-haired, Stephanie Crow was a girl who loved the Spice Girls and the movie Titanic.
01:31In her spare time, she was a member of her church choir and worked as a volunteer at the Escondido
01:36library.
01:37Now, she lies lifeless on the floor of her room, 10 feet from her bed.
01:43One of her books, a mystery novel, lies under her right foot.
01:46It's entitled, The Twisted Window.
01:50The victim was found by her grandmother after the grandmother was awakened by the alarm clock in the victim's bedroom.
01:59When Judith Kennedy found her granddaughter lying on the bedroom floor, she yelled, awakening Stephanie's parents.
02:06Then, her father called for help.
02:09My daughter!
02:11What's the problem?
02:12Can you wait on the floor? She stopped breathing!
02:14There's blood all over the place!
02:16I was going to help her!
02:17My daughter's dead!
02:20Police and paramedics arrive.
02:22They strain to pull Sheryl Crow away from her daughter's body.
02:25The body appears to have suffered several stab wounds.
02:29Police determine the little girl is dead.
02:31Her family's home is now a crime scene.
02:34And they asked me who would want to hurt her, and I said,
02:36there's no one I would know anyone that was.
02:39She's 12 years old.
02:41Police find no evidence that an intruder entered the home.
02:45No broken locks, windows, or doors.
02:47There are several sliding track doors around the house.
02:50One of them opens into the parents' bedroom, and these door walls had been left unlocked.
02:55But police don't think an intruder could have entered this way, quietly and undetected, without clattering the vertical blinds behind
03:02the door.
03:03They pretty much inherited us into the living room.
03:06They got everyone and had us sitting on the couch.
03:09It wouldn't let us really, you know, move or nothing.
03:12While Escondido police secure the family's house, Stephanie's parents, siblings, and grandmother are all taken to police headquarters to be
03:20questioned.
03:21I asked them not to separate the kids.
03:23I said, you know, to at least let them be with either Sheryl or Sheryl's mom, and they promised me
03:27that they would not separate the kids from us.
03:30At first, detectives focus on Stephanie's father, Steve Crow, a 35-year-old auto body painter.
03:36Is it possible that this devoted dad, nearly hysterical when he called 911, could have molested his daughter and then
03:44Did he kill her to hide the fact?
03:47Authorities in Escondido declined to talk to us about the ongoing investigation,
03:51So we talked with Luis Scarcella, a former New York City homicide detective who once lived in Escondido.
03:57911 callers have been convicted of murder many times.
04:02You don't want to rush in.
04:05You want to take a good look at the big picture, and certainly with regards to the mother and the
04:11dad.
04:12Scarcella has investigated over 250 homicides, and the cases in which a child was found dead at home teach a
04:19A lasting lesson.
04:21I believe I had about 9 or 10 that fell into that category, and in every one of those murders,
04:29it was always a relative, possibly a brother, or a stepdad, someone who was in the house.
04:40Each of us were separated in our own little rooms, and with nothing but just another policeman or a cop
04:46sitting there staring at us the whole time.
04:47And we were there all day.
04:50They informed me that they were going to take pictures of us, and take our clothes for evidence.
04:54And I wasn't too happy about that because they said that they were going to photograph us naked.
04:58I take a good look at their bodies, their hands, their arms, their whole bodies,
05:04because individuals who inflict X amount of stab wounds cut themselves.
05:11While the Crow family is being questioned, police are also busy scouting the crime scene for clues.
05:17Pools of blood are visible at the foot of Stephanie's bed and near her door.
05:22Several hairs are found lodged in the ring on Stephanie's right hand.
05:26Investigators think these resemble those of the victim's 14-year-old brother, Michael.
05:30Police also find something more.
05:33The words, kill, kill, penciled on a windowsill.
05:37The medical examiner estimates the murder occurred sometime after 9.30 Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
05:44The autopsy also reveals Stephanie was stabbed eight times.
05:48We have not located a weapon at this time, and there's a pretty extensive search being conducted at the residence.
05:57Back at the police station, Cheryl and Steve Crow and their surviving children are in the midst of a 15
06:03-hour ordeal.
06:04The cop came back in and said that they're taking the kids away from us,
06:08and they're going to put them in, they're taking them and putting them in protective custody.
06:11Well, at that point, I had enough, and I just, I threw a fit.
06:16The kids were crying, and they were upset, and I just said, well, it's going to be okay.
06:19These are the good guys. They're here to help us, like we've taught them their whole lives.
06:23And I just hugged them and told them we'd get them as soon as we could, and then I had
06:28to leave.
06:28They took Michael and his little sister Shannon away from the family at the time the murder was discovered
06:35and put them in the Polinsky Center for Children, which is basically a receiving facility for abused children.
06:42Here in Escondido, California, the specter of the JonBenet Ramsey murder two years earlier in Boulder, Colorado,
06:49still looms like an unwelcome visitor.
06:52They kept saying to each one of us, it's not going to be another JonBenet Ramsey, it's not going to
06:56Be another O.J. Simpson case.
06:57They told us that day that we weren't under arrest and that we can leave at any time.
07:02So after they'd taken the kids away, I said, well, then let's go, because I'm through with this.
07:05This is ridiculous.
07:06So we walked downstairs to the police department, and the second we touched the glass doors to exit, they were
07:12Locked.
07:13But the second we did that, there was cops coming out of the woodwork with their guns drawn on us.
07:18And the one detective, Detective Risley, standing there with his gun pointed at my chest, yelling at us, getting back
07:23upstairs.
07:24And I'm thinking, you know, what is this guy? He's nuts.
07:26So we complied with him and went back upstairs.
07:30Hidden authorities deny this confrontation took place.
07:33By 10 p.m. Wednesday, the Crows are finally allowed to leave the station.
07:38Meanwhile, their children, Shannon and Michael, are being looked after at the county shelter.
07:43Michael, first of all, here's this poor kid who's emotionally distraught because his sister was murdered.
07:50He doesn't even have the adults in his life to comfort him.
07:52Nobody endeavored to give him any therapy or anything.
07:54And soon, detectives shift their attention from Stephanie's father to her brother, Michael.
07:59In fact, since the first hours of the investigation, when detectives arrived at the murder scene,
08:05they had suspicions about the teenager because Michael seemed much less emotionally distracted than the rest of the family.
08:11Police noticed the youngsters sitting on the couch playing with a handheld video game.
08:16I want to zero in on that kid.
08:18I would look at that very carefully because to me as an investigator, that did, it would mean something, yes.
08:27Police are troubled by Michael's claim that he woke up at 4.30 that morning,
08:32went from his room to the kitchen, right past his sister's bedroom,
08:36but never saw her lying dead in the doorway.
08:39This 14-year-old now becomes the sole focus of their investigation and their prime suspect.
08:46He is brought back for further questioning.
08:49I'm kind of thinking, you know, why I'm speaking to you.
08:53I guess.
08:55But what started out as a murder mystery is about to become something else.
09:00A revealing look at the power that our justice system can bring to bear to get a confession,
09:06even from a 14-year-old.
09:11Most citizens would find it very scary to be taken into custody at all to a police station,
09:19even if totally innocent.
09:21And imagine that, like Michael Crow, you are 14 years old,
09:26being questioned about the stabbing death of your younger sister
09:29without your parents or a lawyer present.
09:37Interrogation is a very unpleasant experience.
09:41It is deliberately designed to be intimidating.
09:44It is deliberately designed to make you acutely aware of the power of the state
09:50and the power of the police officers.
09:53Confession was for centuries considered the queen of proofs.
09:56After all, what seems like more probative evidence
10:00than what a person says with his or her own lips?
10:03My main objective is to get them to say that I pulled the trigger,
10:11that I stabbed the individual numerous times,
10:15that I strangled this individual.
10:18Sometimes we don't get that,
10:19but we get enough to put them in the soup.
10:23I'd like to tell you what your rights are.
10:27You have a right to remain silent.
10:29Do you understand that?
10:31Even though suspects don't really have to answer questions, most do.
10:36Now, over 80% of criminal suspects do waive their Miranda rights.
10:41We all subscribe to the notion that silence equals guilt, right?
10:45That if you're innocent, if you've got nothing to hide,
10:49then you're not going to remain silent.
10:51If you can't afford an attorney, you won't be appointed before you create a charge.
10:54All parents ask their children to fess up when they've done something wrong.
10:59If they don't confess, then it's a sign
11:02that they're really obstinate, recalcitrant, maybe bad people.
11:07Do you have any ideas who may have wanted to harm your sister?
11:11Node.
11:14If you had anything to do with it, would you tell me?
11:16Yes.
11:17Police are allowed to question a juvenile without a parent being present
11:21as long as the child clearly understands his Miranda rights
11:24and has agreed to waive them.
11:26But if a child asks to see a parent, the police must comply with that request.
11:31There would be no reason for your heir to be in Stephanie's room.
11:39She was found for you.
11:42After 14 minutes of questioning Michael,
11:44Detective Claytor leaves the room and his suspect alone.
11:48I want to take a good look and see what they're doing,
11:50to observe, let them collect their thoughts, take a good look at them.
11:53It helps sometimes.
11:54It helps.
11:55Seven minutes later, Detective Claytor returns
11:58and seems a lot more impatient with Michael.
12:01We're really trying to believe what you say.
12:04We want to believe what you say.
12:07Would you have any problems with taking a truth verification?
12:12None at all?
12:14Node.
12:16Do you act like they're depressed?
12:21I've told some people I was blind.
12:25What's the problem, Mike?
12:26I spent all day away from my family.
12:29I couldn't see them.
12:31I like feel I'm being treated like I killed my sister.
12:36I did.
12:37It feels horrible.
12:39Detective Claytor tells Michael he's not blaming anyone
12:42and wants to believe him.
12:44Again, he leaves.
12:46And once more returns minutes later,
12:48this time with Officer Chris McDonough.
12:52And they can, of course, use the Mutton Jeff,
12:56Good cop, bad cop routine.
12:59One cop leaves the interrogation room
13:01and the other says,
13:03Now, I'm with you on this.
13:05I don't think you're really guilty.
13:06You know I'm a pretty good guy.
13:08You can obviously sense that.
13:10I mean, I'm not hitting you with a rubber hose, am I?
13:14Detective McDonough, who has a son Michael's age,
13:17devotees the next half hour trying to bond
13:19with his 14-year-old murder suspect,
13:22posing more relaxed questions about school,
13:25friends, and computer games.
13:27I'm here to verify what you're saying.
13:30Okay?
13:33We're going to work through this together.
13:36Okay?
13:36Okay.
13:38I can tell you, this instrument here
13:43is what they call a computer voice stress analyzer.
13:47Now, you'll appreciate this, being into computers.
13:50This thing purports to tell the difference
13:56between the truth and a lie.
13:58The computer voice stress analyzer
14:00is a lie detector device introduced in 1988.
14:03Its manufacturer, the National Institute for Truth Verification,
14:07claims it is almost foolproof,
14:09cheaper and easier to use than a polygraph.
14:12Its accuracy rate is phenomenal.
14:15Okay?
14:16And that's what makes it such a great tool.
14:19The device works on theory
14:20that the voice emits inaudible vibrations
14:23called micro-tremors,
14:24which can be measured on a graph.
14:26Under stress, when a person lies, for example,
14:29their vocal muscles tighten
14:31and cause a decrease in the tremors.
14:33A truthful response tends to look like a Christmas tree.
14:36A deceitful response is more squared off.
14:39However, independent studies
14:41of the stress analyzer's accuracy
14:42do not inspire much confidence.
14:45The result of these studies was that
14:48the reliability of the machine
14:51It was less than a coin flip.
14:54in determining deception.
14:56Yet the device does give police
14:58one more way to approach
15:00or perhaps intimidate a suspect.
15:03When we showed Detective Lou Scarcella
15:05the interrogation tape,
15:07he was much more familiar with the strategy
15:09than he was with the machine.
15:11I personally thought it was a ruse.
15:13Using a tool to deceive the individual,
15:15which is beautiful as far as I'm concerned,
15:17I had no idea what this machine was.
15:20Before giving the truth verification test,
15:22Detective McDonough actually works together
15:24with Michael to formulate the questions.
15:27What are some things we want to learn here,
15:28Do you think?
15:30If I know who did it, if I did it.
15:33Okay, well, let's do that then.
15:35Do you know who, let's say,
15:37Did Stephanie take over his life?
15:40Node.
15:40Okay, would that be a good, fair question?
15:43Yes.
15:43Okay, do you know who took it?
15:47Do you know how she died?
15:49Node.
15:50Soon the test questions are agreed upon,
15:52and McDonough asks Michael to sign a form
15:54declaring he's about to take the test voluntarily.
15:57So you don't realize what's happening.
15:59You've now been sucked into a process,
16:03and that process is going to roll forward
16:06for as long as you let it roll forward.
16:08So Michael's interrogation continues,
16:10all the while his parents take over
16:13he's being looked after at a children's shelter,
16:15unaware he is in police custody.
16:18They just kept grilling and grilling and grilling,
16:20and to think that we were at home
16:21not even knowing he was near the police station.
16:24If we would have known, we would have been there.
16:25Now, however, Michael seems almost relieved
16:28to be cooperating and submits readily
16:30to the voice stress analyzer.
16:32Are you sitting down?
16:34Yes.
16:35Do you know who took Stephanie's life?
16:38Node.
16:39Today, Thursday?
16:40Yes.
16:41Did you take Stephanie's life?
16:43Node.
16:45Eight minutes later,
16:46The truth exam is complete.
16:48Let me go over these charts,
16:51and I'll be back here in a couple minutes, okay?
16:54When we come back,
16:55what will the voice stress exam reveal?
17:02It is 4 p.m. Thursday, January 22nd, 1998,
17:07and 14-year-old Michael Crow of Escondido, California
17:10is in the midst of a four-hour interrogation
17:13at police headquarters
17:14without an attorney or his parents present.
17:18His younger sister, Stephanie,
17:19was found murdered at home the day before,
17:22and investigators suspect Michael may be involved.
17:26He has just completed a voice stress exam.
17:29Now, Detective Chris McDonough returns with the results.
17:33What did you think?
17:35What were your thoughts
17:36through the whole thing?
17:38I don't know.
17:39Nervous.
17:40Nervous?
17:41Okay.
17:42Let's move on from that.
17:43What were you nervous about?
17:44I don't know.
17:45It might be wrong.
17:47Okay.
17:47In what way?
17:49It might say I did kill Stephanie.
17:52Okay.
17:53And why would it say that?
17:55I don't know.
17:55Because everybody treated me like that.
17:57And I can understand your feelings there, okay?
18:00I mean, you're 14,
18:02and you've been through a lot, okay?
18:05But this instrument doesn't know you, does it?
18:08Node.
18:09Science is on our side.
18:12Okay?
18:12Technology's on our side.
18:15Okay?
18:16I mean, can you understand that?
18:18The detective shows Michael
18:19the charts of his performance
18:21on the so-called truth exam.
18:23They indicate he lied
18:24when he answered no to question 12,
18:28do you know who took Stephanie's life?
18:30Maybe there's something we need to understand
18:32about Michael
18:33and about your sister
18:34that we didn't understand
18:36and maybe somebody could have helped.
18:38It's okay.
18:40It's okay to feel the way you feel.
18:43All right, really?
18:43Okay?
18:44I don't know.
18:45Okay?
18:45I don't know why I'd say that.
18:46I swear.
18:47I swear to God, I don't know.
18:49But the police think they know.
18:51Their theory on this second day
18:53of the investigation
18:54is that a very smart,
18:56very lonely,
18:57and very angry Michael Crow
18:59stabbed his sister to death.
19:01His likely motive,
19:03a rage-fueled case of sibling rivalry.
19:06I'm looking at you right now, okay?
19:09And inside, you're about ready to burst.
19:12We can't bring her back.
19:14She's gone.
19:17Okay?
19:18You're fighting it.
19:21You don't know what to do anymore.
19:23I understand.
19:25Do you know what I mean?
19:26Don't let him lie.
19:27I'm not saying that.
19:28Michael, I'm not saying that.
19:30Have you heard me say that?
19:32What if they come back and say to you,
19:35Michael, do we have your hair?
19:39While the search for truth
19:40is at the heart of the interrogation process,
19:42the police are not required to tell the truth.
19:46They can use false polygraph lie detector test results
19:51to say your polygraph showed you were guilty
19:54when that was not the case.
19:55And this is all considered legitimate interrogation tactics.
20:00As far as I'm concerned,
20:01there are no rules of what I'm saying.
20:04No rules.
20:05You have to stay within the law.
20:07You have to be aware that people have rights.
20:10But there are no rules.
20:13And yes, we can use deception.
20:15I think many of the American public
20:16would be surprised and shocked by this.
20:19They're allowed to lie to their suspect.
20:22Courts have allowed them to lie.
20:24They say, Michael, we have your hair in her hand.
20:28And all of a sudden, you go, now what?
20:33I mean, what are you going to do at that point?
20:35At that point, I would have to completely break down
20:38that it was not knowing it.
20:40Because I don't know.
20:43Hypothetically.
20:46Could that have happened?
20:48No, not that I know of.
20:51Not that you know of.
20:54Like I said, I would have to be completely unaware of it.
20:57Okay.
21:02Have you ever blacked out before?
21:04No, never.
21:05Okay.
21:06I believe you.
21:08I believe you.
21:10If I knew who did it, you would know.
21:14Everyone would know right now.
21:17Okay, why?
21:18Because whoever did it, I...
21:21If I ever find out, it's good forever.
21:24I love this.
21:25I love this.
21:26I love this.
21:27I love this.
21:27I love this.
21:27Soon after, Michael Crowe, once again, is left alone.
21:37The next thing is to convince the person that their situation is hopeless.
21:47They can say that there was evidence found at the scene of the crime, blood, semen, whatever,
21:53that points to the suspect.
21:56Now, Ralph Claytor, the lead detective on this homicide case, an investigator with 23 years
22:02of experience, returns with his toughness, less patient style and more false evidence.
22:08You know there was a lot of blood.
22:10You know there was a lot of blood.
22:10It's very difficult.
22:13It's very difficult.
22:15You need to speak with Michael.
22:17It's very difficult for the person who did it not to get blood on him.
22:24Yeah.
22:25And not to transfer that blood to other parts of the house.
22:29Yeah.
22:30We found blood in your room, Ralphie.
22:33God.
22:34You're talking to a 14-year-old kid.
22:38Wasn't it possible that the...
22:40Did he turn up in the room?
22:44What is that telling the kid?
22:46I'd better confess to this.
22:48We used processes called...
22:52Where did you find it?
22:54Pardon me?
22:55What's your part of the boy?
22:56I'm sure you know...
22:58What?
22:59God, I don't...
23:00No, I don't know.
23:02I didn't do it.
23:04I swear to you.
23:06Does that mean you can't tell me about the mice?
23:08I don't.
23:08What are we talking about?
23:10Okay.
23:12I...
23:13I don't know what I'm talking about.
23:14You're 14?
23:15Yes.
23:16You got your whole life ahead of you, don't you?
23:17Yeah.
23:18At that point, he's being accused of the unthinkable.
23:21He's being accused of murdering his own sister.
23:23And he's insisting, look, I didn't do it.
23:26I didn't do it.
23:27But they wouldn't take no for an answer.
23:29God.
23:30Oh, God.
23:35God.
23:38Why?
23:39You tell me.
23:42Why are you doing this to me?
23:44If I did this, I don't remember it.
23:46I don't remember it then.
23:49And you know what?
23:49That's possible.
23:54Like many boys his age, 14-year-old Michael Crow spent much of his free time playing video
23:59games.
24:00Very often, perhaps too often, he was alone in his room, absorbed by the violent imagery.
24:08On Friday, January 23rd, 1998, Michael Crow once again enters the all-too-real world of
24:16a murder investigation, where he is seen as the demon.
24:19With advice from a psychologist, detectives Ralph Clater and Mark Risley confront their
24:24teenage suspect with the theory that there may be two Michaels.
24:28And now, they need the good Michael to help them expose the bad one.
24:50One way to get this help, detectives suggest, is for Michael to write a letter to his dead
24:55sister, asking for her forgiveness.
25:00Outstanding tool.
25:01I never used the letter, but I have used other emotional tools.
25:08Tools like this one that tend to ease a suspect's burden of guilt.
25:12Left alone in the interrogation room for the next 24 minutes, here is some of what Michael
25:17Crow writes to his sister the police believe he killed.
25:39When detectives Clater and Risley return, they focus on the words in Michael's letter that,
25:44for the very first time, speak of his guilt.
25:46They push him for details of the killing, asking him which parts of his sister's body he might
25:52have stabbed in order to kill her.
25:54God, I don't want to.
25:59It's fleshy that I can't remember.
26:01Please don't make me.
26:03But making Michael remember is exactly what investigators are here to do.
26:08They tell him he faces two paths.
26:10If he doesn't talk and the case against him is made without his help, he'll go to jail.
26:15But if he does provide details, he can help in return.
26:19And you have my personal guarantee that the help you need to accept this is going to be forthcoming.
26:29That is what the system is geared for.
26:32I want to go down the path.
26:33No, no, no.
26:34Cut it out.
26:34Cut it out, Mike.
26:36Cut it out.
26:36Let's get out.
26:37The reason I'm sounding impatient, Mike, is the 11th hour is rapidly approaching.
26:43All this evidence is going to be in.
26:45Rush on some things that, quite frankly, are going to bury you, my friend.
26:54And you need to head that off at the pass.
26:56You need to take the step over here first, but hit with this avalanche.
27:03But at this point, the police do not have any such avalanche of evidence.
27:07They're bluffing Michael, and he falls for it.
27:19The pressure to get him to talk is working, yet he insists that the only details he can
27:24give them are ones he'll have to make up.
27:26But it was, I'll lie.
27:29I'll have to make it up.
27:29What's the story, Michael?
27:32That night, I'm better.
27:37I can't take it anymore, okay?
27:41So, I, we've done a knife, went to the room, and I stabbed you.
27:54How many times did you stab her?
27:58Can you lie three times?
28:00The autopsy report has already shown that Stephanie Crow was stabbed eight times.
28:05I told you to tell me what the truth is.
28:09The reason I'm trying to lie here is because you presented me in 2000.
28:15I was definitely afraid I'd rather die than go to jail.
28:20Where did you get the knife?
28:22What did you do with the knife afterwards?
28:24I don't know what I'd do with the knife.
28:26Give me, give me some of these details.
28:29Not your, not your hollow line.
28:33The questioning is now in its fourth hour, but what happens in the next few minutes will
28:37prove to be more critical than anything Michael has said so far.
28:41The teenager accepts the detective's offer to end the day's session and be taken back
28:45to the children's shelter, where he's been staying since his sister's murder two days before.
28:50While the camera continues to record the empty room, Michael exits with the detectives, who
28:55continue talking with him elsewhere in the station house.
28:58They tell Michael he is under arrest for killing his sister.
29:02According to police, Michael responds flatly, I thought so.
29:06I really didn't like her anyway.
29:08But he and his father insist there's a whole other side to the story.
29:12They took him off camera.
29:14He wanted to see us.
29:16And what they told him was that your parents, you know, know that you murdered their daughter
29:20and they don't want to have anything to do with you no more.
29:22They hate you.
29:22We're the only ones that you have now.
29:25And they bring him back on camera and his demeanor changed.
29:28He seems much calmer, almost relieved, and much more forthcoming.
29:39For the first time, the 14-year-old reveals resentment toward his parents and the favoritism
29:45they showed the victim, his younger sister, Stephanie.
29:52Michael says he as if there are three people inside him feels and one of them is evil.
30:02But through the final hour of questioning, he never does provide police with a single
30:07accurate detail of how he stabbed his sister to death.
30:19Yet Michael is charged with murder and taken off to a juvenile prison.
30:23At home, his parents receive a very unexpected call.
30:271230 at night, we got a call from the police station.
30:30And it was Detective Sweeney saying that they made an arrest in the case.
30:33They arrested the murderer of our daughter.
30:35And I said, who was it?
30:36Who is it?
30:37And they said, we've arrested your son.
30:39We thought he'd done it.
30:40I mean, because at that point, because when a police officer tells you that someone did
30:44something, you think that they did it.
30:46I mean, we had trust in police until this point.
30:49The first thing I asked Michael when he got on the phone was, did you have anything to do
30:54With this?
30:54Did you murder Stephanie?
30:55And he said, I don't know, Dad.
30:57They keep telling me I did it, but I don't know.
30:58When we return, police report they've found the murder weapon and Michael's accomplices.
31:10A week after the murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crow, family and friends grieve at her funeral.
31:17Her brother Michael, however, cannot attend.
31:20He is locked away in juvenile hall, charged three days earlier with stabbing her to death.
31:26It's a crime police tell his parents that Michael confessed to.
31:30Why would Michael murder his sister?
31:32I mean, there was never, they had never fought.
31:34There was never any, you know, what they, the police called intense sibling rivalry.
31:39The night before, Michael had helped her with her homework.
31:42They were lying on the floor, sharing a pillow, watching TV together.
31:45It just didn't make sense to me.
31:47And now the case takes an even stranger turn.
31:50Three days after Michael Crow is charged with killing his sister, detectives visit the home
31:55of his best friend, Joshua Treadway.
31:58They find a knife under the 15-year-old's bed, one that he stole from another friend.
32:03The police think it's the type of knife that could have been used to kill Stephanie Crow.
32:08Convinced that he is involved in the murder, police bring Josh in for questioning.
32:12The evidence is going to screw you in a wall.
32:16What do I do to Josh?
32:17I charge Josh with the murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crow.
32:22That's the only option I have.
32:25Why?
32:25Josh has a murder weapon.
32:28Over the next 12 hours until 8 the next morning, police interrogate Josh the same way they did
32:34Michael, alone, without a lawyer.
32:37Josh's father is on hand and does get a chance to comfort his son.
32:41But for the most part, he allows detectives to interrogate Josh in his absence.
32:46They lied to him about evidence.
32:48They made express and implied promises of leniency.
32:52They didn't feed him.
32:54They didn't let him use the men's room very frequently.
32:58They deprived him of sleep.
33:00They did everything that you're really not supposed to do.
33:03Josh is shaken.
33:04He knows Michael has already been arrested, and the cops are also talking to his friend,
33:09Aaron Houser, the original owner of the knife.
33:12We've talked in depth with Michael.
33:16We've talked in depth with Aaron.
33:19Who's to say they're not blaming you for this whole thing?
33:22That's why I'm free to...
33:23Okay.
33:24Oh, wait, stop.
33:25Despite this order, Josh admits nothing and is free to leave the station house.
33:30Two anxious weeks later, he is called back in for a second session with police.
33:35By now, he's a nervous wreck, especially when he is led to believe his friends have set him up as
33:41The fall guy.
33:42Only then does Josh spill out his story.
33:45He was only the lookout in this violent crime, he tells police.
33:48It was his friends who killed 12-year-old Stephanie.
33:52I knew that Michael was supposed to go in there and sort of take care of keeping Stephanie quiet.
33:59And Aaron was supposed to go in and take care of the business.
34:02It was going to happen, and I was going to dispose of the knife when it was done.
34:06Michael came back a little while after that, and he was rinsing the knife in the sink.
34:12Within a day, 15-year-olds Josh Treadway and Aaron Houser are also arrested and charged with Stephanie's stabbing death.
34:20They join Michael in juvenile hall.
34:23Just as quickly, when all three teenagers are finally lawyered up as police would...
34:27There's no great surprise when they deny their confessions.
34:30People are always like, oh, I didn't do it, you know.
34:33You know, not people in the state prison are claiming their innocence.
34:37And so, you know, you get a little bit jaded in this business after a while.
34:40And so I started looking at the videotapes with my jaded eye, and all of a sudden I realized that
34:45I actually had the real thing.
34:46I had a false confession case on my hands.
34:48People would like to believe that they would never confess to a crime they didn't commit, short of being tortured.
34:56Most people would like to believe they wouldn't even confess under torture.
34:59People confess to things that they don't do when their own will is overborn by their interrogator.
35:06They make them feel so hopeless that the only thing they can do to save themselves is to confess, even
35:11if they didn't do it.
35:11And I just got that horrible pit in your stomach, feeling like, oh my God, these kids are innocent, they're
35:18Looking at life.
35:19What am I going to do?
35:20One thing Mary Ellen Attridge did was bring in Richard Afshie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning expert in false confessions.
35:31My reaction was that they ripped out Michael Crowe's heart on camera.
35:36It was the most horrible interrogation I've ever watched because of what they did to that child.
35:45The superior court judge agrees.
35:47In December 1998, after Michael and his teenage co-defendants have been locked up for eight months,
35:53he throws out Michael's confession on the grounds that it was illegally obtained, psychologically coerced.
36:00But the judge does allow part of Josh's confession, the part with the most incriminating details.
36:06So the case will proceed to trial, with all three boys being tried for murder as adults on the strength
36:13of Josh's statement.
36:15I thought, okay, fine.
36:16You want to do it the hard way, I'll do it the hard way.
36:18If you want to let in the last confession, I'll bring all the other ones in and I'll show the
36:21jury where they came from.
36:22We will do this the long way.
36:24One month later, in January 1999, in the midst of jury selection for Josh's trial for murder, there's a dramatic
36:32break in the case.
36:33Hard work and a hunch pay off for lawyer Mary Ellen Attridge.
36:38A year earlier, on the same night Stephanie was murdered, neighbors of the Crow family had complained to police about
36:45the intrusive behavior of a transient.
36:47Richard Raymond Tewitt, 28, was knocking on neighbors' doors looking for an old girlfriend.
36:53Tewitt was brought in for questioning.
36:55He had a history of mental illness and a conviction for car theft.
36:59He was briefly considered as a possible suspect.
37:01Police took his clothing and tested it, but they didn't find any blood evidence.
37:07Just as quickly, investigators dismissed Tewitt as too mentally unstable to have silently carried out a murder in a house
37:14filled with people.
37:15The police let him go free.
37:17I'm still going with the detectives on this case, on their hunches, on what they did.
37:26However, where else do you get this Manson-like individual?
37:35When I looked at that, I took two or three steps back.
37:41Police had held on to Richard Tewitt's clothing as evidence.
37:44Now, a year later, his red turtleneck catches the eye of the defense team.
37:49Our mouths weren't hanging open because the fact was that when you looked at the shirt, you realized there
37:55It was something on the shirt.
37:57You couldn't tell what it was.
37:58I couldn't look at the shirt and say, oh, that's a blood stain.
38:00But I did see a lot of staining on the shirt.
38:03Attridge demands this time that Tewitt's clothing be sent for DNA testing.
38:07After all, if these stains include blood, Stephanie Crow's blood, then Richard Tewitt might once again be a suspect.
38:15After weeks of waiting, the news is almost too good to be true.
38:20This was such a strong DNA result that you could rule out anyone who ever walked on the planet Earth
38:26as a donor of this blood, except Stephanie Crow.
38:31And Stephanie's blood on Tewitt's shirt seems set in a splatter pattern, one consistent with a violent stabbing.
38:38For Attridge, the results also prove that her defendants are innocent and that their confessions are false.
38:45I cried. I called my husband. I opened a bottle of champagne.
38:47I was like, that's it for me.
38:50But that wasn't it. Not yet.
38:55Welcome to the Rick Roberts Show.
38:56On the same day the case is dismissed, Detective Chris McDonough calls into this radio show to defend his role
39:02in the interrogation process.
39:04I did not wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning and sit down and say, do you know what?
39:09Today's the day I'm going to plant and frame Joshua Treadway for murder.
39:14Well, I don't think that anybody, Detective McDonough, I don't think anybody is saying that this is born of hostility
39:21rather than stupidity.
39:23If I may finish, secondarily on top of that, videotape it at the same time. It's ridiculous.
39:29I am in a job to bring justice to that family, but I'm also in a job to bring justice
39:35to Mr. Tewitt if in fact he is not the perpetrator.
39:38Despite the fact that Stephanie Crowe's blood was found on Richard Toot's shirt, a year later he still has not
39:46been indicted for her murder.
39:47The investigation has been reassigned to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office and is still ongoing.
39:53And the reason you have not heard directly from the police or district attorney in this story is because they
39:59have refused to comment on this case since the families of the teenage defendants filed a federal lawsuit against them.
40:05The suit seeks compensation for the harm done to their sons by illegal interrogations and the resulting false confessions.
40:13But it is important to remember that the overwhelming majority of confessions police obtain every day in this country are
40:21fairly sought and freely given.
40:24Voluntary statements made by guilty people confessing to crimes they did commit.
40:30I hope false confessions are a very rare phenomenon.
40:34I hope that we would be talking about something that is a small fraction of 1% of the number
40:43of people who are convicted in this country in any given year.
40:48And even if it's that small, it's still a lot of people.
40:53I have had people confess who didn't do the crime.
40:57There was one case where we put a guy in for nine months.
41:00Who didn't commit the murder.
41:02He felt that he, by stating that he was there and didn't do it, was going to be treated less
41:11harsher than if he did it.
41:14There are good cops.
41:15There are bad cops.
41:17There are also poorly trained cops.
41:19There are also cops who will step over the line to make a case knowing that they shouldn't do it,
41:24But do it anyway.
41:25And it was just a, it was a bad case.
41:29And it happens.
41:31In Michael Crow's case, his entire interrogation was recorded on videotape.
41:36So a judge was able to see for himself how the teenager's confession of murder was illegally obtained.
41:41What if all police interrogations were videotaped?
41:45I think there's only one reason why police resist recording.
41:50They want to preserve the right to break the law when they feel they need to do it.
41:53I don't see any other reason not to tape record.
41:56No one believes detectives.
41:59No one believes police officers.
42:00I have been accused many times of beating confessions out of people.
42:07Take a look at the video.
42:09I have been accused of coercing people many times.
42:13Take a look at the video.
42:14Yet only two states, Alaska and Minnesota, legally require the videotaping of all interrogations.
42:22Taping that often pays off in unexpected ways.
42:25We had one case where a man was accused of murder.
42:29And he claimed to be blind in the interrogation room.
42:33So the police were asking him questions the entire time he maintained he was blind.
42:38And then the police went out of the room to get some coffee.
42:41And he picked up the paper and started reading it.
42:44The jury can see that.
42:45And so it really gives us an opportunity to deflect any accusations about police coercion or about a violation of
42:54constitutional rights.
42:55And it's done there right on tape.
42:58Stephanie Crow's parents remain convinced that Richard Tewitt killed their daughter.
43:02in February 1998.
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