20/20 (1978) Season 2026 Episode 14 - True Crime Investigation | Documentary - video Dailymotion

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🔍 20/20 (1978) - Season 2026 Episode 14  In-depth journalism meets compelling storytelling. In Episode 14, 20/20 investigates [brief hook: e.g., "a shocking true crime case / a mysterious disappearance / a story of justice and redemption"]. With exclusive interviews, expert analysis, and on-the-ground reporting, this episode delivers the facts behind the headlines.  🔹 Episode Highlights: • [Hook: "Exclusive interviews reveal new details in a high-profile case"] • Investigative deep-dive: evidence, timelines & expert perspectives • Human impact: voices of victims, families & communities affected • Legal & ethical analysis: what this case means for justice today  🔹 Series Info: • Format: News Magazine / Investigative Documentary / True Crime • Original Network: ABC News / Disney Media Distribution • Series Launch: 1978 | Broadcast Year: 2026 | Episode: 14 • Hosts/Correspondents: David Muir, Deborah Roberts, Amy Robach, etc. • Language: English (Original Audio) • Runtime: ~42 minutes (full) | Clip/Highlight version: ~8-12 min  🎧 Prefer audio? Listen to 20/20 podcasts & recaps on ABC News Audio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.  👉 Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "What did you think of this investigation? 👇" Turn on notifications 🔔 so you never miss the next report!  #2020ABC #2020News #ABCNews #InvestigativeJournalism #TrueCrime #Documentary #NewsMagazine #S2026E14 #CrimeInvestigation #BingeWatch #ABCNewsMagazine  ⚠️ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "20/20" belong to ABC News, a division of Disney Media Distribution. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.

Transcript

00:00:03A Vegas showgirl is a girl who has beauty, who has talent, who can be seductive.

00:00:09You have so many women with their unique talents, and they're bringing them to this city.

00:00:14A Vegas showgirl is glamorous. She's beautiful. She's sexy. She is Las Vegas.

00:00:22Debbie breathes dancing.

00:00:24She landed a spot on one of the strip's biggest shows called Fantasy.

00:00:29Sometimes being pretty puts you at risk.

00:00:33I can tell you from personal experience how scary Vegas can be.

00:00:39Debbie was never late to practice. She was always on time.

00:00:43But then the last practice before the opening act, Debbie didn't show up.

00:00:50Red flags immediately started popping off.

00:00:54We have an employee that's been missing for about 24 hours now.

00:00:59We have to find her. Could she have been taken? Could she have been kidnapped?

00:01:03Everyone knows that she would not have missed the final dress rehearsal.

00:01:08This was her dream. And for her to not show up to rehearsal that day, it just wasn't right.

00:01:15It wasn't going to turn out good.

00:01:23My name is Celeste Flores Narvaez.

00:01:28My sister's name is Deborah Flores Narvaez.

00:01:32She loved dancing. It was her passion.

00:01:39She loved being in the spotlight.

00:01:42She loved performing.

00:01:45And she loved showcasing her ability and her creativity.

00:01:54Debbie decided that I'm going to pursue my dream of dancing and acting and modeling.

00:02:03And she moved to Las Vegas.

00:02:17Wow. Las Vegas is a city of lights and spectacle and major entertainment.

00:02:26Debbie wanted to conquer the world.

00:02:27I remember right when she moved to Vegas, she was posting auditions.

00:02:32She was posting tryouts.

00:02:33She could do jazz. She could do hip-hop, ballet.

00:02:36She was so graceful, but she had so much personality in her movement.

00:02:41Debbie's ultimate goal in Las Vegas was just like the rest of us,

00:02:45to star in a big Las Vegas show.

00:02:49She wanted to learn ballroom, theatrical arts, and also a Vegas showgirl style.

00:02:57She looked good in her costume, in a real tight bikini, a real sexy body.

00:03:02Sex sells in Las Vegas.

00:03:04If you're not sexy, you're not going to get hired.

00:03:09Debbie had that Vegas showgirl quality, and she was a hard worker.

00:03:13So when Debbie lands that coveted role as a background dancer on Fantasy,

00:03:17it is a dream come true.

00:03:19When Debbie got a part in Fantasy at the Luxor, she called all of us.

00:03:23She was so excited. She couldn't stop talking about it.

00:03:27Fantasy is an institution in Vegas.

00:03:30It's one of the strip's most popular burlesque shows.

00:03:33It's lasted decades, and it features dance performances with top musical artists.

00:03:38I was so proud of her. So proud of her.

00:03:41Because she just felt as if she was now on the same playing field as many of us featured.

00:03:46And major productions in Las Vegas.

00:03:51Debbie's ambition doesn't stop at Fantasy.

00:03:54When she starts out as a background dancer, Debbie quickly earns her way to the front of the dance line.

00:04:01And lands a solo alongside Grammy-nominated artist, Sisko.

00:04:06Debbie called and told me she was excited because she was going to be doing a show with Sisko.

00:04:10And we all know Sisko as this dynamic entertainer.

00:04:15He's so talented, so popular.

00:04:17And his song, The Thong Song, was everywhere.

00:04:21Let me see that thong.

00:04:26Baby, show us that thong, thong, thong, thong.

00:04:30The thong song was the biggest hit top 100.

00:04:38Dancing as a soloist with the pop star Sisko is the biggest break of Debbie's career.

00:04:45Debbie and Sisko, shown here, practice for weeks to perfect their routine.

00:04:51They practice to make sure that they got the roll down.

00:04:58There's a part where I think he has to, like, smack her on her butt.

00:05:02And he kind of, like, patted it.

00:05:04And she was like, no, no, no, no, no.

00:05:05You got to smack it.

00:05:15They had practice that day.

00:05:17And then they took a break.

00:05:20Everyone went home.

00:05:22And they were to reunite back that night so they could have a final practice before the red carpet opening.

00:05:30The final rehearsal is going to be at midnight.

00:05:33Very, very normal for a Las Vegas show.

00:05:37And Debbie didn't show up.

00:05:45I'm like, this is not right.

00:05:47It's not right at all.

00:05:49There's no way she's going to give up her dream opportunity and not show up for rehearsals.

00:05:55It was just so surprising because Debbie is a very timely and professional person.

00:06:00Everybody was looking for her, all the dancers.

00:06:03Debbie doesn't just miss midnight rehearsal.

00:06:05She can't be found.

00:06:07And when she doesn't show up to the premiere, the show has to replace her.

00:06:12I get a call from my mom and she says, hey, I'm worried.

00:06:16I haven't heard from your sister.

00:06:18I've been trying to call her.

00:06:20I immediately called my sister and it went straight to voicemail.

00:06:25And I sent her a Facebook message.

00:06:29And I said, hey, mom and dad are looking for you.

00:06:32Just please call them back.

00:06:38As fantasy goes on without her, Debbie has not been heard from for 24 hours.

00:06:43Nobody knew anything.

00:06:44I decided to call her roommate who then told me, I put a missing report out on your sister.

00:06:50I haven't heard from her.

00:06:52This is serious.

00:06:54Hi.

00:06:55I'm going to file a missing person report.

00:06:57And who is the person you need to file it on?

00:07:00My roommate.

00:07:01Okay.

00:07:02How long has it been since you saw this person?

00:07:05Oh, I'm thinking that was Sunday night.

00:07:07I had it on like 7 o'clock the last time I saw her.

00:07:10And what is this person's name?

00:07:23I started getting anxious.

00:07:25I went on her Facebook and I put a message out saying, if anybody's heard from my sister,

00:07:32just let me know.

00:07:34Debbie without a phone or her social media was unheard of.

00:07:40She was so very active on social media.

00:07:43She had a Facebook account with so many fans and she took pictures every night.

00:07:48And that was a dangerous thing to do because you're letting thousands of people know where you work.

00:07:55It can be very, very, very dangerous for many showgirls in Las Vegas.

00:08:00These women are exposing themselves physically to much of male audiences.

00:08:08I was certain that someone had snatched her.

00:08:11One of her fans, maybe someone was rejected and decided to maybe seek revenge.

00:08:18She's a beautiful woman.

00:08:19She's a dancer.

00:08:20She's missing.

00:08:24Surveillance footage of Debbie leaving her apartment, walking out into the Vegas night where she disappears without a trace.

00:08:46I am making pollo guisado con arroz y gandules, which is a Puerto Rican stew and it is very popular

00:08:54in Puerto Rico.

00:08:56Debbie was always extremely proud to be Latina.

00:09:01She loved a good chicken dish.

00:09:04Some of her favorites was pollo guisado, arroz con habichuela, arroz con pollo, which is rice and chicken arroz con

00:09:11pollo.

00:09:13My sister, it was a terrible cook.

00:09:15There were times when she would try to make a meal for like her boyfriend.

00:09:27We were both born in Puerto Rico.

00:09:29My mom was a housemaker taking care of me and my sister and my father.

00:09:33He worked for the military.

00:09:36And when we were seven and eight, we moved to Maryland, which was completely new to us.

00:09:44We were in a different world.

00:09:47We didn't speak English.

00:09:48So it was like, oh my God, two new girls and they don't speak English.

00:09:54We want to know what they're like.

00:09:56My sister and I were really close.

00:09:59My mother always dressed us alike.

00:10:01We were only a year and four months apart.

00:10:03So we always had twin outfits on.

00:10:07She was just like a little ball of fun.

00:10:10She was just tiny, little Debbie.

00:10:13Everybody always called her Little Debbie.

00:10:16When we were little, we would always perform in front of my mom.

00:10:23I just remember doing these like Michael Jackson dances that we would practice in our room.

00:10:29And then we would go present these dances to my mom.

00:10:32She just loved it.

00:10:35I met Debbie in seventh grade.

00:10:38I think I fell in love with Debbie probably the moment I met her.

00:10:42Before you even see her, you're going to hear her voice.

00:10:44She has this very, very loud, raspy voice.

00:10:48Even the way she talked, it had this like accent.

00:10:52It had this like spiciness to it.

00:10:54Debbie really did love her friends.

00:10:57If I told her that I needed something for anything, she was like, I got you.

00:11:01Debbie always had a smile on her face, but she also had a very sexy look to her.

00:11:06She could really charm you with just a single look.

00:11:11When you look at her, you see this dark hair and these dark eyes and she's beautiful.

00:11:15She is beautiful.

00:11:17Of course, as friends, we all talked about goals and things we want to do.

00:11:22And she said she wanted to be a dancer, but I think she didn't think that dancing would pay the

00:11:29bills, let's say.

00:11:30So she buckled down, did good in school, went to college, got her degree.

00:11:36Debbie went to school for international business and during that international business, she fell in love with law and she

00:11:46took several classes.

00:11:48She was working at a very prominent firm in Baltimore downtown and was doing very well, very well.

00:11:55She had a nice condo, you know, things like that.

00:11:57All the things that you aspire, except she wasn't fulfilled.

00:12:01That one thing I think was missing.

00:12:05That was the dancing.

00:12:07Dancing at night in the club is fun, but it didn't fulfill her.

00:12:14She would go to salsa classes and while she was working, she also decided to try to audition for the

00:12:24Redskins cheerleaders and ended up as a Redskins ambassador.

00:12:29Debbie was hired as a cheerleader ambassador.

00:12:33That's a very important public facing role, really just a brand ambassador for one of the league's leading franchises.

00:12:41It's a big role to fill.

00:12:43She loved being with other girls, you know, like wearing the cheerleader outfit who doesn't love a good cheerleader skirt.

00:12:49She loved seeing the fans happy, you know, making them smile.

00:12:52People are cheering you on and that's what she wanted.

00:12:55I couldn't believe it, but it let me know how much potential she had.

00:13:01But still, this was not enough for Debbie.

00:13:04I remember her personally calling me one day and saying,

00:13:08Hey Celeste, I'm thinking about moving to Vegas.

00:13:12What do you think?

00:13:14I told her, absolutely not.

00:13:15I was so upset with her.

00:13:17I'm like, you're going over there by yourself.

00:13:19My thoughts of Vegas was Sin City.

00:13:21You don't know anybody out there.

00:13:22Your friends ain't there.

00:13:23Your family's not there.

00:13:25Who was out there?

00:13:25Nobody wanted her to go.

00:13:27But Debbie would not be discouraged.

00:13:29She was going to take a big risk.

00:13:31She was convinced she could do it.

00:13:33She was going to head west.

00:13:35And she was going to go and follow her dreams to Las Vegas.

00:13:41I first met Debbie after our initial auditions for what was the Michael Jackson This Is It release of his

00:13:49documentary film.

00:13:51What stood up to me about Debbie when we first met was how much she talked.

00:13:55She just had so much to say, so many questions to ask and so many ideas.

00:13:59When you're in a situation of creating a project like that, it's wise to keep your place.

00:14:06But Debbie was one to always just like jump in and say, why don't we do this this way?

00:14:13Debbie's specific goal at that time was to be at the front of the dance line.

00:14:20Every time she had a big show, she was just so excited, so excited.

00:14:26And then of course, Debbie's promoted to that feature role with Cisco.

00:14:31So for those that know her, when Debbie doesn't show up for the final rehearsal, they know something must be

00:14:37wrong.

00:14:39And the alarm started going off.

00:14:42She would have never not have showed up.

00:14:44There's no other reason that she came to Vegas except to be at this point in time.

00:14:51Debbie's been missing now for 24 hours.

00:14:54And the police are involved after the roommate called 911.

00:15:08So detectives go to the apartment to talk to Debbie's roommate to learn more about what happened the night Debbie

00:15:13disappeared.

00:15:14The roommate said she was going to visit her boyfriend and then was going to work, but she never showed

00:15:19up to work.

00:15:20Detectives then obtain the surveillance video from the apartment complex and it shows Debbie leaving her apartment just before 6pm.

00:15:27The security footage shows Debbie dressed nicely and she's walking down the hallway and gets into the elevator in her

00:15:38apartment complex.

00:15:40She was wearing knee-high boots, dark colored clothing.

00:15:43She carried a bag with her.

00:15:45In my opinion, it was going to be her dance clothes to go to the rehearsal late at night.

00:15:50Further on there's footage of her vehicle driving out of the parking area.

00:15:55If Debbie was planning to stop by her boyfriend's place on the way to this final rehearsal, detectives are going

00:16:01to have to go find that boyfriend and find out what he knows.

00:16:16Me personally, I'm thinking Debbie must have needed a break.

00:16:20She probably just left, didn't want to tell anybody.

00:16:24Parents haven't talked to her either.

00:16:27Nobody in Vegas has talked to her either.

00:16:32Well, nobody in Baltimore has talked to her.

00:16:36It's Christmas holidays, I should be thinking about my son's gifts and Christmas and family.

00:16:41Now, on my mother's birthday I flew out there.

00:16:45My main focus was to find where my sister was.

00:16:49I didn't care who, what, when, where.

00:16:51I just wanted to find her alive.

00:16:54I was out there night and day from the moment I woke up in the morning.

00:16:58I was constantly driving around.

00:16:59I was putting her face out there, setting up volunteer groups to pass out flyers.

00:17:05Any time that I would go outside, I would see the desert.

00:17:08I'm like, could she be out there somewhere?

00:17:11Look, this is Vegas.

00:17:13What's the old slogan they were using?

00:17:15That what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas or something like that?

00:17:17Since Vegas was invented, it was a place that people disappear to.

00:17:22And it's, you know, by extension, a place that people disappear from.

00:17:27And it doesn't mean that a crime's been committed.

00:17:30Again, she could have just left.

00:17:32There could have been some issue.

00:17:34We don't know.

00:17:35The media is all over this.

00:17:37There's pressure from every direction.

00:17:39Debbie's disappearance attracted so much media attention.

00:17:43On the news, Nancy Grace.

00:17:46What happened to Debbie Flores?

00:17:48She doesn't show up for a rehearsal.

00:17:50She doesn't show up for a show.

00:17:53Seeing Celeste crying and pecking for her little sister's return was so hurtful.

00:18:01There's no hope or pain.

00:18:03She is okay.

00:18:04She was everybody's sister, everybody's friend.

00:18:07She couldn't have an enemy.

00:18:09So absolutely, let's find this girl.

00:18:13Detectives learned from Debbie's roommate that she left her apartment prior to her final rehearsal for her show to visit

00:18:21her boyfriend.

00:18:21He was another successful Vegas performer, Jason Griffith, who's also called Blue Griffith.

00:18:29So when you become an artist, you have a nickname as you evolve as an artist in the entertainment industry.

00:18:35And so Jason Blue Griffith is known as Blue.

00:18:38I learned that Jason was a very skilled and trained and professional dancer.

00:18:43I learned that they were dating, and they were dating for a while.

00:18:47He danced with Tony Braxton, and he was in Cirque du Soleil Love.

00:18:52And, you know, these are like major shows in Las Vegas.

00:18:56So the missing persons detectives contacted Jason Griffith.

00:19:00Well, we went to the house where Jason and another man by the name of Louie were living.

00:19:06Jason said Debbie was there, but he said that she never exited her vehicle,

00:19:11that he only spoke to her through the open window on the driver's side of the vehicle.

00:19:15She was only in the driveway for a few minutes and then left.

00:19:18Police also learned from Jason that he had many on-again, off-again girlfriends,

00:19:23and Debbie was just one of them.

00:19:25After detectives speak with Jason, they find that he's cooperative and not particularly suspicious.

00:19:31Other than that, detectives have very little to go on until Debbie's car is spotted across town.

00:19:39Police found her car, a 1997 Chevy Prism.

00:19:43A nearby resident said it sat for several days.

00:19:46It's awful that it has happened.

00:19:49And I just wish that somebody, you know, could have found her or something.

00:19:54The interesting thing about her car, it was kind of hidden in the backyard of an abandoned house.

00:19:58So it couldn't be seen from the street, but a neighbor had realized that it shouldn't have been there and

00:20:03called it in.

00:20:05And I noticed that there was a maroon car parked over there.

00:20:08Grabbed my binoculars and I went out.

00:20:11So I looked through the binoculars and I wrote down the license plate number.

00:20:15First thing I noticed that it said Maryland.

00:20:17I called Tuesday morning.

00:20:19I noticed that the license plate was missing Wednesday morning.

00:20:22So sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, somebody come and took the plate.

00:20:28When officers in that area of town recovered the car, they found clothing in the backseat that matched the clothing

00:20:35on the video that she had been wearing.

00:20:36They found the boots that she was wearing when she left her apartment the night that she went missing.

00:20:42When the police found her car, it was very upsetting.

00:20:46She would never leave her purse, her dance bag, you know, those types of things in the car.

00:20:52She's a girl, you know, I got to have lipstick. I got to have my whatever you need.

00:20:56That was a shock for me.

00:20:58I had been in that car many, many times with Debbie and with her belongings and everything.

00:21:04That to me was, that just indicated that this was, this wasn't going to be good.

00:21:10It wasn't going to turn out good.

00:21:12They searched the car, they searched the trunk.

00:21:15The properties around it were searched.

00:21:17We looked for video, nothing.

00:21:19There was no forced entry into the car.

00:21:21There was no blood in the car, except for the plate being removed and put inside the trunk.

00:21:25There wasn't much there.

00:21:28Discovery of Debbie's car was a critical piece of information in this investigation.

00:21:31And it also started steering the investigation towards a homicide rather than just a straight-out missing person case.

00:21:39My parents are in distress.

00:21:41They're anxious.

00:21:41They're worried, but they're hopeful.

00:21:44There were times where they kind of gave up and thinking that she had already passed.

00:21:55And I wouldn't allow that.

00:21:58So the days pass.

00:21:59There's no body.

00:22:01There's no obvious crime scene.

00:22:03It's as if Debbie just up and vanished into thin air.

00:22:06So detectives hold a news conference and they want to encourage the public to come forward.

00:22:12Has anybody seen her?

00:22:13Heard from her?

00:22:14Anything that they could go on that might be a lead.

00:22:17Good morning.

00:22:19Thank you for attending this press conference this morning to discuss the disappearance of Deborah.

00:22:24We believe that Deborah was last seen on Sunday, December 12th.

00:22:27If anyone has any information regarding the disappearance of Deborah, that they please contact the police department through Crime Stoppers.

00:22:36While detectives wait for tips to come in, they decide to pay Jason Griffith another visit.

00:22:42All we really knew at this point was he was the last person reportedly to have seen her alive.

00:22:48During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie

00:22:57had been beaten.

00:22:59And Jason suggests to police that if anyone had a reason to hurt Debbie, it might be her farmer boyfriend.

00:23:06I mean, I could make that assessment that, like, you know, this is somebody that hurt her.

00:23:28I think it's a horrible feeling when you don't know where your loved one is and you don't have no

00:23:33answers.

00:23:34Because the longer you're out there looking for her, the more you're thinking of possibilities and you just keep going

00:23:41and going and going.

00:23:42Could she be out there somewhere?

00:23:45What we know is on December 14th, a missing persons report was filed by Deborah's roommate stating that she had

00:23:53not seen Deborah for a couple of days.

00:23:56Investigators are looking at Debbie's romantic relationships to unearth any clues that might help them figure out where she is,

00:24:03including Jason Blue Griffith.

00:24:06Jason Griffith was Debbie's last known boyfriend when she disappears.

00:24:10And he is completely willing to cooperate with the investigation.

00:24:14All we really knew at this point was he was the last person reportedly to have seen her alive.

00:24:20They have surveillance video of her leaving her apartment alone in her geo-prism.

00:24:25And she tells everybody she's going to Jason's house and they're going to watch Dexter.

00:24:36It's a TV show.

00:24:38And that's the last time anybody sees her.

00:24:41We're never hopeful to discover someone dead.

00:24:44But at this point, we have a firm belief that Debbie is, in fact, dead, not just missing.

00:24:48We have some inconsistencies in how she was last seen by Jason Griffith's house.

00:24:55We have her car hidden on a different area of town from where she went missing and where she's last

00:25:01seen.

00:25:01So at this point, we're suspecting foul play.

00:25:04The reason we're here is Deborah, a very close friend of yours, has gone missing.

00:25:09And from all accounts that we have at this point, you're the last person to have seen her.

00:25:15Is that correct as far as you know?

00:25:18Yes, as far as I know.

00:25:19We all sat down and we did a rather lengthy interview of Jason Griffith.

00:25:26She's standing at your door.

00:25:27You answer the door.

00:25:28You say, oh, you're there.

00:25:29What is she wearing?

00:25:30As much as you can remember, it'd be extremely helpful for us.

00:25:34Hair was down wearing black.

00:25:37Some kind of a black shirt.

00:25:39Some kind of a black top with everything else was black.

00:25:44There was nothing that stood up.

00:25:45So I was like, everything you say to us is going to be extremely important to us.

00:25:49And I let him talk as much as he wanted to talk.

00:25:52There was no confrontation of any kind.

00:25:55And we just gathered information.

00:25:58Jason tells detectives that Debbie left his apartment that night and he never saw her again.

00:26:04During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie

00:26:12had been beaten.

00:26:13It was hard for her because she had went through an abusive relationship.

00:26:19Jason brings up a situation from over a year prior between Debbie and one of her ex-boyfriends named Jamil

00:26:25McGee.

00:26:26I was just told that he had beat her up.

00:26:30So there was a lawsuit that was going on.

00:26:33We can't overlook anything.

00:26:35You have to run everything down.

00:26:38She said that she was, you know, beat up, bruised and stuff like that.

00:26:42And then she had told me that she had a case coming up.

00:26:45So Debbie and Jamil, they met in Baltimore and they dated for a while.

00:26:52And he was on the show, So You Think You Can Dance.

00:27:00I'm just going to show the world what I got, you know what I'm saying?

00:27:03They both decide to move across the country to Las Vegas in search of achieving their dancing dreams.

00:27:09But it isn't as romantic as it seems.

00:27:12They had a relationship that at times was slightly tumultuous.

00:27:18Debbie liked broken birds, as I would say.

00:27:21When she saw something wrong with someone, she always tried to do the most in trying to fix people.

00:27:28Was she afraid?

00:27:30I could make that assessment that, like, you know, this is somebody that hurt her.

00:27:34This is somebody she would be afraid of.

00:27:38According to family and friends, the relationship was a concern.

00:27:41And I remember her getting, like, just crazy calls from him.

00:27:44And I would go to her apartment and stay with her.

00:27:47And I would just, like, be there just to stay with her, just so a guy can be there with

00:27:53her.

00:27:54There was an allegation of abuse on his part.

00:27:57And he put his hands on my sister.

00:27:59And she took him to court.

00:28:01Debbie was granted a judgment of $250,000.

00:28:06In the suit she claims that Jamil committed battery against her,

00:28:09leaving physical scarring that limited modeling and dance work that she would have been able to be hired for,

00:28:14Jamil denied those claims in court.

00:28:17He had really messed up things with her career.

00:28:21Because the things that she was doing, you know, she wouldn't be able to do anymore.

00:28:25That's what she thought.

00:28:27But Debbie had healed enough to be back on stage.

00:28:29Those close to Debbie say she was planning to collect on that $250,000 judgment before she went missing.

00:28:36Wait a minute, that's $250,000.

00:28:40People have gone missing, have gotten hurt for less than that.

00:28:45That, to me, is a huge flag.

00:28:48Detectives did look at him.

00:28:50He alibied.

00:28:51He was not in Las Vegas at the time.

00:28:53But he was fully investigated.

00:28:56Jamil is completely clear.

00:28:57So investigators decide to circle back and take another look at Jason.

00:29:01He was her most recent love interest.

00:29:03Who is Jason Blue Griffith?

00:29:05Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason.

00:29:10Jason was attracted to all pretty girls.

00:29:13But if Debbie wanted a monogamous relationship, Jason was not the guy for that.

00:29:18I mean, at one point he told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time.

00:29:22And his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby.

00:29:40Jason, Jason Blue Griffith.

00:29:43Everyone loved him.

00:29:45He was very well respected in the dance community.

00:29:49People had nothing but great things to say about him as a person, as an artist.

00:29:54Debbie called me and she said, I met this guy, he's a dancer like me.

00:30:00What drew the two of them together initially was the fact that they were both dancers.

00:30:04In top physical shape, good at what they did.

00:30:07And they were both fairly attractive.

00:30:10Not many people understand being an entertainer and using your body to express yourself creatively and in a passionate way.

00:30:17And both Blue and Debbie expressed themselves in that way.

00:30:24When it came to Blue, Debbie really loved his passion and how talented he was.

00:30:31How much fun they would have together, how much they laughed, their inside jokes.

00:30:35She felt like they were soulmates.

00:30:38The problem here was that while Debbie may have felt that she and Jason were soulmates, Jason was playing the

00:30:44field.

00:30:44Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason.

00:30:48Jason was attracted to all pretty girls.

00:30:50I learned that he was a playboy.

00:30:52He had several girlfriends.

00:30:54Debbie did want her relationship with Blue to be exclusive.

00:30:58There were rumors that there was another girl or there was others and she was being cheated on.

00:31:04And Debbie didn't like that. She loved him. She cared about him deeply.

00:31:07He told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time.

00:31:10And his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby.

00:31:15One of those many girlfriends is Anya's Rue, an aerialist at a show called Zumanity.

00:31:21And she seems to have captured Jason's heart.

00:31:24She was French. She's such a sweetheart.

00:31:26I remember her and I did a couple industrial gigs together in Las Vegas.

00:31:31And I just loved her. She's very talented.

00:31:34You do want to look at Anya's to see if maybe she could be involved in Debbie's disappearance.

00:31:41Or even if she can just provide information.

00:31:43I wanted to start off by asking about your relationship with Jason Griffith, who you know as Blue, B-L

00:31:49-U.

00:31:49My name is his girlfriend.

00:31:52Okay.

00:31:52And how has your relationship with Blue progressed? How has it been recently?

00:32:01Recently?

00:32:02In the last couple of months.

00:32:04Ah, okay. No, because I was very, very happy with him.

00:32:10For the first six months when I discovered that he in fact kept three other, at least three other girls

00:32:18at the same time as me.

00:32:20One is Debbie Flores Narvaez.

00:32:22Debbie learns about Anya's and Jason dating and she calls her.

00:32:26Debbie has always kind of been in contact with me since the first three weeks we started dating.

00:32:38Anya's did receive a phone call from Debbie, where Debbie is warning her about being involved in a relationship with

00:32:44Jason.

00:32:45She was warning me because she had been hearing from common friends that I was a great girl.

00:32:52And she was like warning me not to do the same mistake she did.

00:32:57It seems that Debbie wants Anya's to know who Jason really was in her mind.

00:33:01He was a serial dater.

00:33:02Certainly Debbie was not okay with Jason seeing any other women.

00:33:07She was aware of them. You know, she was aware of Anya's and Anya's was aware of Debbie.

00:33:11And there was conflict in their relationship on both relationships because of the other woman.

00:33:17They weren't okay with it, but apparently that's how Jason wanted to live his life.

00:33:22And if they wanted to be with him, they were going to have to deal with it.

00:33:27At some point, Anya's had enough of Debbie and the volatility of that particular relationship.

00:33:33And so she had broken things off with Jason.

00:33:38Anya's and Jason get back together just in time to celebrate Jason's birthday on December 10th.

00:33:43The same weekend Debbie goes missing.

00:33:46They spent parts of the weekend together at a hotel.

00:33:49We slept at a hotel called Rumor.

00:33:53We wanted to do something different for his birthday.

00:33:56He's not partying or he's not going out to club and stuff.

00:33:59So we went to eat and we went to sleep at Rumor.

00:34:05What did he say about Debbie that night?

00:34:07Well, that night he was saying that he explained her for real, that not even to be friends is cool.

00:34:14He's telling me that he explained her and that she understood.

00:34:20And then did you have any contact from Debbie after that?

00:34:23No.

00:34:24Detectives quickly determined that Anya's is not a suspect.

00:34:28She was pretty much cleared as being a person of interest or, you know, possibly being a suspect.

00:34:34Police are stuck.

00:34:35At this point, they have no solid leads.

00:34:38And then just before Christmas, they receive a call from the Arizona State Police.

00:34:47Metro received notification that there had been a burned body found over the state line just past the Hoover Dam

00:34:54on the Arizona side of the river.

00:34:59A female with long dark hair with a very thin build, which matched the description of Debbie Flores.

00:35:07The body had been just dumped in the middle of nowhere just off the highway and doused with the flammable

00:35:14liquid and set on fire.

00:35:18A gruesome discovery today investigating a possible connection between the missing dancer and a body found out at Hoover Dam.

00:35:25We heard that they found the body in Arizona. I was scared.

00:35:32A source close to News 3 saying it's likely the body belongs to missing dancer Debbie Flores Narvaez.

00:35:38Everyone was on pins and needles to find out if this was Debbie or not.

00:35:43At this point, we're suspecting foul play. This is going to be Debbie.

00:35:48Every second is agonizing.

00:35:54The body is brought back to Las Vegas, the Clark County coroner's office.

00:36:00At autopsy, I learned that it was not Debbie.

00:36:03When it was confirmed that it was not Debbie, it kind of gave people a sigh of relief.

00:36:08There was a glimmer of hope that my sister's still out there. She's alive.

00:36:13We have to find her.

00:36:26What investigators are learning is that as a couple, Debbie Flores Narvaez and Jason Griffith may have brought out the

00:36:33very best and also the very worst in each other.

00:36:41We learned that Jason and Debbie's relationship was toxic.

00:36:48The more we learned about their relationship, very contentious, very volatile.

00:36:54I don't give a . I know legally the law, and I know what is legally wrong.

00:37:00And he recorded her unbeknownst to her, and he questioned her.

00:37:05Can you help?

00:37:06He videotaped her confession.

00:37:08Yeah, I slashed your tire. He got the whole thing on tape.

00:37:11My tires is not legal.

00:37:13Slashing my tires is not legal.

00:37:15It is damage to property that no one witnessed.

00:37:19But I knew that when you came out.

00:37:21But you're admitting it.

00:37:22I am admitting it.

00:37:23So you're admitting to property damage?

00:37:25Yeah.

00:37:26Debbie and Jason had a very fiery relationship.

00:37:30They were either on or they were very much off.

00:37:35Debbie's friend, Bethany, suspects that the tension exists between Debbie and Jason because they have different expectations of the relationship.

00:37:43She wants monogamy and is exacting revenge on her cheating boyfriend.

00:37:48Debbie for sure wanted a serious monogamous relationship.

00:37:54Debbie was not the type of woman that was not going to agree to just be someone's side piece.

00:38:04Throughout their relationship, both Jason and Debbie call 911 on each other.

00:38:10911 emergency.

00:38:12I have a domestic problem.

00:38:13My girlfriend would not leave my house.

00:38:15She just locked me out of one of my rooms.

00:38:18She doesn't live there?

00:38:20Nope, doesn't live there.

00:38:21And then, just a week later, another 911 call from Jason.

00:38:26911, I just need a squad call, please.

00:38:29Okay, what's going on?

00:38:31My girlfriend just came to the house and punched out my window.

00:38:34And she needs to go.

00:38:36What do you use?

00:38:37Her fist.

00:38:38Is she bleeding?

00:38:40She's bleeding, but that's her responsibility.

00:38:42I'm more so worried about the window.

00:38:46Okay.

00:38:48It's unusual in the moment that you would make that reaction when you're reporting that someone is hurt.

00:38:53But I do know that, ultimately, Debbie did a lot of damage to Jason's property.

00:38:58His calls to the police paint Debbie as someone who's emotional, unstable, that possibly wants to do harm to herself

00:39:08because the relationship isn't going the way that she wants.

00:39:10Now, on the other side, you have Debbie's accusations where Jason is unfaithful, Jason is violent, you know, Jason is

00:39:23somebody to be feared.

00:39:25And you can hear in the background of this call, Debbie is clearly upset.

00:39:29And what's her name?

00:39:31Her name is Debbie.

00:39:33And her last name?

00:39:35Okay.

00:39:36What's her last name?

00:39:37Flores.

00:39:38What's your name?

00:39:39I can't hear you.

00:39:40What's her last name?

00:39:40It never matter if your roommate is there or not, because they're going to go against you.

00:39:43You are a coward.

00:39:45Excuse me.

00:39:45You are a coward.

00:39:46Can you hear me?

00:39:47No, I can't.

00:39:47What's her last name?

00:39:49Her name is Debbie Flores.

00:39:51In that video that Jason secretly records of Debbie, the confessions continue.

00:39:58Nope, I couldn't take it.

00:39:59I slapped you.

00:40:00Okay.

00:40:00Oh, so now you assaulted me?

00:40:02Yes.

00:40:02This was after a huge fight they had.

00:40:05He was caught cheating, lying, manipulating, and gaslighting her.

00:40:11You're admitting that you assaulted me?

00:40:13I'm admitting that I hate you, that I look in your house, that I looked at your laptop, that I

00:40:18poured egg whites on your car,

00:40:20that I slashed three of your tires, because I said I'll give him one left.

00:40:23I am not going to lie about anything I'm doing.

00:40:28And it was the weirdest thing to see, her admitting, yes, I slashed your tires, and I did only three

00:40:34of the four on purpose.

00:40:36I don't know why someone would do that, but it made perfect sense to her at the time.

00:40:41And I learned this from Debbie, if you want to really get under someone's skin, instead of slashing all four

00:40:51tires, slash three.

00:40:53You have to buy your tires in sets.

00:40:57But I did it because you got it.

00:40:59You do this because you think I can't prove it.

00:41:01You think when I'm slashing tires on my car, he's like, no, no?

00:41:04Do you think I had to actually tell you I slashed tires?

00:41:06No, no, no, no.

00:41:06You knew it was going to be me when you walked out.

00:41:09Basically, slashing the tires is this.

00:41:11you.

00:41:11If you think you can me, and hurt with me, and lie to me, I'm going to be out.

00:41:15But you do it, and you make sure that there's no proof that you did it so I can't take

00:41:21any legal action.

00:41:22There's going to be a breaking point.

00:41:24And she reached that breaking point where she slashed his tires because she's had enough.

00:41:28And they broke up.

00:41:31They had broken things off completely for several months and didn't have any contact with each other.

00:41:40In October, just two months before Debbie's disappearance, she and Jason get into another fight.

00:41:48She was in his face.

00:41:49He grabbed her and threw her down, and he ended up pulling some of her hair out.

00:41:54So at that point, she had contacted the police, and he was arrested for domestic violence.

00:42:00When Jason was arrested, she had got a restraining order against him.

00:42:04And even though he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near her, she would come to his house to watch TV.

00:42:11It's been almost a month since Debbie's disappearance.

00:42:14Police don't have a body.

00:42:15They don't have a crime scene.

00:42:17They don't even have proof that Debbie's been harmed until they receive a tip about a woman who has information

00:42:24vital to solving the case.

00:42:26When we were talking to her, and that was my first thought, is why didn't you tell somebody about this?

00:42:31I'm scared making a statement to you.

00:42:34And what she tells detectives is bone chilling.

00:42:38Because obviously if Blue can do that to her, he could do it to me.

00:42:57I want to leave the hospital.

00:43:00Four weeks after Debbie's disappearance, Las Vegas detectives track down a former girlfriend of Jason Griffith in a suburb outside

00:43:07of Vegas.

00:43:07and Kalei Kisorso reveals information that will break the case wide open.

00:43:14We tracked her down at her place of work and got an interview from her.

00:43:19I'm just nervous. I'm scared.

00:43:21She wanted to remain anonymous, which tells me that she has information that she wants to put out there,

00:43:28but she wants to protect herself as well.

00:43:31I'm scared making a statement to you because obviously if Blue can do that to her,

00:43:36he could do it to me. They know where I live.

00:43:39She has been involved in a relationship with Jason, so she knows how he is.

00:43:45Kalei explains that she is terrified because she believes that Jason killed Debbie

00:43:50and that someone else may be involved.

00:43:53Him and his roommate.

00:43:54Which roommate are you talking about, Louis?

00:43:56Yeah, the big Puerto Rican guy.

00:43:59Louis Colombo was Jason's roommate. Jason was popular, would have a lot of women.

00:44:05Louis Colombo was complete opposite, but he really cared about Jason.

00:44:12They were best friends.

00:44:13And he was willing to pretty much do anything that Jason asked him to do.

00:44:29It was imperative to us, find Louis Colombo.

00:44:33That was our goal.

00:44:34I got to know the problem.

00:44:35Daniel Kelly.

00:44:36I apologize.

00:44:36It cannot be overstated how important Louis' interview was to ultimately finding Debbie.

00:44:44There was just an avalanche of information that Louis gave to the police,

00:44:49helped give Debbie's family some well-deserved answers.

00:44:54Now you have the opportunity to do the right thing and have that girl's family know what happened

00:45:02and at least have that closure.

00:45:05You could tell he was scared.

00:45:07But he was playing the, you know, I don't know what you're talking about.

00:45:10You know, I don't get it.

00:45:11I don't know why I'm here.

00:45:12Louis Colombo did not want to be involved in the investigation at all.

00:45:15So what do you want?

00:45:17Tell us what you want right now.

00:45:21I just don't want to be involved.

00:45:23Oh, it's too late.

00:45:25What he's trying to tell you is it's too late for that.

00:45:28We knew he was going to be the weak link, but we had to have something to entice him with

00:45:32and the deal was the enticement.

00:45:34We made the decision.

00:45:36We're going to tell him we're not going to arrest him.

00:45:37I can guarantee this.

00:45:39You tell us what happened and you're not getting arrested.

00:45:42That's my guarantee to you.

00:45:43I don't know if he would have ever talked.

00:45:45If we didn't give him the deal.

00:45:49No, I don't want to say you're making a deal with the devil, but we wanted the information

00:45:53that he had.

00:45:54We know you wish you could rewind it.

00:45:56You can't.

00:45:56Now you got to go forward.

00:45:57You need to tell us what happened.

00:45:59From the beginning all the way to the end.

00:46:02Louis, did you kill them?

00:46:04No.

00:46:04Then talk to him.

00:46:06You need to tell us what happened.

00:46:07Early on in the interview, it was obvious that he 100% knew what had taken place.

00:46:15Debbie showed up to the house.

00:46:18There was an argument.

00:46:19Just walk us through with...

00:46:21What were they arguing about?

00:46:23I don't know.

00:46:23They were just arguing.

00:46:24They were just yelling at each other.

00:46:27Okay.

00:46:29You know, they were pushing and shoving.

00:46:31You know, he grabbed her.

00:46:32She grabbed him.

00:46:33I split them apart.

00:46:35I saw him choke him.

00:46:36During the argument?

00:46:37During the argument.

00:46:38And I pulled him off her.

00:46:39That's why I got her some water.

00:46:41And I asked him if they were going to be all right.

00:46:44I tried to tell her no more arguing, no more fighting.

00:46:48Like...

00:46:48She's still breathing.

00:46:49She's still talking.

00:46:50She is.

00:46:50All right.

00:46:51What'd she say to you?

00:46:52She said that she was all right.

00:46:54He's worried.

00:46:54And he asks both of them, can I leave you two here alone?

00:46:58And can you two be civil with each other?

00:47:01And they both say yes.

00:47:05Coloma says he leaves the house for about two hours.

00:47:08When he came home, he saw Debbie laying on the floor with a plastic bag over her head.

00:47:14And she was not moving and did not appear to be breathing.

00:47:17What did he say?

00:47:18He was like,

00:47:22Like, what are you talking about?

00:47:23And then we walked to the studio and I saw it.

00:47:27Like, I was in shock.

00:47:28I, you know, I was shaking.

00:47:30And he was like, you know, this is one of those diaper change moments.

00:47:33Jason said something to Louie about this being a change your diaper moment.

00:47:37So we had him explain that was a change your diaper moment.

00:47:39You know, like, hey, when I raised you, I used to change your diapers.

00:47:42And now it's payback time.

00:47:44You know, I took care of you.

00:47:46Now it's time to take care of me.

00:47:48He's done a lot for me, like favors and stuff, like financially and stuff.

00:47:51Okay.

00:47:51So he was like, you know, this is one of those moments.

00:47:54He was very specific about what happened afterwards.

00:47:58He said they had a big bin that they wind up putting her in there.

00:48:03You helped put her in the bin?

00:48:04Yeah.

00:48:05Was she cold?

00:48:06Was she...

00:48:06Yeah, she...

00:48:07You know, Debbie had driven her car over to the house to watch Dexter.

00:48:11And so Jason decides that we need to get rid of her car.

00:48:15And so Jason drove her car clear across town with Louie following him.

00:48:22Just parked her car there in this little desert dirt lot kind of area.

00:48:26And then Jason gets in the car with Louie and they drive back to the house.

00:48:30That night, Columbo goes to his job as a bouncer at a club.

00:48:35Jason had a date that night.

00:48:37He and Louis Columbo placed my sister in the garage.

00:48:42Jason went out that night with Anje to celebrate his birthday.

00:48:47They had a hotel room.

00:48:48He stayed the night.

00:48:49They had a good night as if nothing happened while my sister laid dead with a bag over her head

00:48:57in his garage.

00:49:01Columbo says that in the following days, Jason Griffith devises a plan to entomb Debbie's body in a block of

00:49:09concrete.

00:49:10And then Jason winds up going to Home Depot and getting a bunch of cement.

00:49:17His idea was to put it on the concrete.

00:49:19So, you know, he tells me to start mixing the concrete.

00:49:24He started mixing the concrete.

00:49:25Where?

00:49:26The garage.

00:49:27We brought it into the garage.

00:49:29Okay.

00:49:30You know, we put it in the bin, put the concrete in it.

00:49:33How was she positioned in the bin?

00:49:35Like, sort of curled up like it was an awkward fit.

00:49:39It's your typical blue Sterilite storage container.

00:49:42So when you put a 120-pound body in there and then fill the rest up with concrete, obviously it's

00:49:48heavy.

00:49:49It weighed at the minimum 600 pounds.

00:49:52How long do you let it sit?

00:49:54Until the next day.

00:49:55Okay.

00:49:55I think that's when we rent it in the U-Haul.

00:49:59We rented the U-Haul and what else?

00:50:02A dolly and a handshake.

00:50:04They rent the U-Haul and then Jason comes with a plan.

00:50:08They then drive it out to Jason's ex in Henderson.

00:50:13He had called and asked me if I would store some stuff for him.

00:50:19And I said, all right, you know, what is it?

00:50:22He's like, it's just a tub.

00:50:24She sees a U-Haul truck and she looks inside and she sees Louie and Jason trying to manhandle this

00:50:32big blue Sterilite storage tub.

00:50:37So I'm like, whoa, what is that?

00:50:39Because I kind of got a bad feeling and he just gave me this look like, do you want me

00:50:45to tell you?

00:50:45And I was like, yeah, you think you're storing that at my house?

00:50:48You're going to tell me what it is.

00:50:50And he was like, it's Debbie.

00:50:55And I was like, whoa, that's no, you need to go right now.

00:51:00And I was very upset.

00:51:01So once they leave Calais, they have to do something to me.

00:51:05What they did was found this house that they knew was abandoned on Bonanza Way.

00:51:13The body has been in this container now for a few days and it's starting to decompose.

00:51:20And now you have all this decomposition fluid starts leaking out of the crack in this tub.

00:51:25Yeah, so it leaked out, I guess it leaked out a little bit.

00:51:30And there's a trail of it from the sidewalk all the way up to the front door and inside the

00:51:34house.

00:51:36And then Jason came up with plan B and they bought more bins.

00:51:39They bought more cement.

00:51:40They bought a, like a mini sledgehammer.

00:51:42So we basically like broke it out of the concrete.

00:51:46The body?

00:51:47The body.

00:51:48Okay.

00:51:48So you actually break up the cement?

00:51:50Break up the cement.

00:51:52And take her out?

00:51:54Take her out.

00:51:54What does she look like?

00:51:56Louis tells us that he can take us to where the body is.

00:51:59So I'm going to get a man in the house.

00:52:01Now the big question is, where's the house?

00:52:04On Bonanza.

00:52:05Take us to it?

00:52:07You don't have to go in, but can you take us to the house?

00:52:13We've got to go.

00:52:14We've got to get it.

00:52:16Louis Colombo leads detectives to a vacant house.

00:52:20And what they find inside takes this case from missing to monstrous.

00:52:50Jason Griffith and Louis Colombo's problems are mounting.

00:52:54The bin they have Debbie in is cracked and it's leaking all over the wood floors in the living

00:53:00room of a vacant house.

00:53:02They came up with a plan.

00:53:04They bought more bins.

00:53:06They bought more cement, gloves, bleach, sealant, plastic bags, garbage bags.

00:53:12They bought a wood saw, a mini sledgehammer to chip her out of the cement, and a crowbar.

00:53:20Louis says that they chipped her out of the cement and then Jason dismembered her by cutting

00:53:26her legs off.

00:53:28We had to go into two separate bins and cut her legs off.

00:53:32Well, she cut her legs off.

00:53:34He did?

00:53:34Okay.

00:53:35With what?

00:53:36With soil.

00:53:38Okay, then what?

00:53:39Put it in plastic bags and then put it in the bin and put more concrete on it.

00:53:44Okay.

00:53:46You know, then put it in the closet.

00:53:48They put the legs in one bin and then her upper body in the other bin and put cement

00:53:53in with those.

00:53:54Then they take all the tools that they used and put in the closet of the other bedroom

00:53:58and seal that closet door closed as well.

00:54:01But they leave all the cleaning agents and odor masking agents that they had to buy so that

00:54:07they could work with the body.

00:54:08They leave that all out in plain view in the living room.

00:54:30It takes a lot of coaxing for Louis Colombo to reveal what happened.

00:54:34And police tell him that because he cooperated, he won't be criminally charged and while that's

00:54:39a relief, he is haunted.

00:54:42It doesn't change how responsible I feel.

00:54:45Like, you could say, oh, you don't have to feel responsible, but it doesn't change the

00:54:49things that I've done that I've had to live with for the rest of my life.

00:54:51It doesn't change any of that.

00:54:53It doesn't change, you know, the sleepless nights that I'm going to have, the smell that

00:55:00I still smell, and it doesn't change any of that.

00:55:03Like, no one thing that changes is Jay goes to jail, possibly for the rest of his life,

00:55:10and like, now I feel like that's my fault too.

00:55:13He admits to his involvement to the detectives, and he admits that he knows where the body's

00:55:19at.

00:55:19So he ultimately takes two of our detectives to the location of the body.

00:55:26They have a house where they can put her body, and it's not going to be connected to them,

00:55:33supposedly.

00:55:35They knew somebody that had this house that had been deported and that the house was empty.

00:55:42After the interview with Louie, he jumped into my truck, and we had a caravan going.

00:55:49He was directing me, and he pointed out the house, and he said, 100%, she's in there.

00:55:59So we're pulling into the neighborhood.

00:56:02This is Bonanza Way.

00:56:03This is where the house is.

00:56:05And we pulled up, and Louie told me that's the house where her body will be.

00:56:09This house right here.

00:56:15It's one of the original houses built downtown, probably back in the 30s or 40s.

00:56:21It's just this tiny two-bedroom house, but it had wood flooring throughout.

00:56:27When we got here, they opened the door.

00:56:30There was an odor of decomp, but it was mixed with chemical.

00:56:33You could literally smell it from my vehicle.

00:56:35You could smell bleach and other chemicals, and they noticed that there was decomp drips

00:56:42on the walkway itself.

00:56:44I walked in.

00:56:45There was the original bin, which was this gigantic bin that they had about 600 pounds

00:56:50of cement in with her that you couldn't lift.

00:56:53That was in the living room.

00:56:54The first thing I saw was the long black hair.

00:56:58You could see her hair mixed in with the cement because it removed all the hair from her body.

00:57:03There was chunks of cement that were in the bin and some plastic.

00:57:08The two smaller green 45-gallon bins were stacked inside of one of the closets,

00:57:13which had been sealed.

00:57:14And they had taken them out and got them open enough to where they found the body.

00:57:19She had been dismembered in two parts and put in the two bins with cement and plastic,

00:57:26thinking that would help with the odor.

00:57:30But it never does.

00:57:32They literally did the whole Dexter thing.

00:57:34If you know anything about Dexter, the way he disposed of bodies was dismembering them.

00:57:39It's kind of fitting, don't you think?

00:57:44And that was Jason's favorite TV show.

00:57:51After almost a month missing, Debbie is finally found.

00:57:58January 7th, I was in a car with my friend at the time.

00:58:04She had taken me out to kind of relax a little bit.

00:58:08And I get a call on my phone and it says private number.

00:58:14And I knew right away.

00:58:15I answered.

00:58:17And he said, this is a detective.

00:58:19And I said, you found her?

00:58:22I said, you found her?

00:58:26I knew it was, I knew it was that phone call.

00:58:29One of my friends called and said, you know, they found Debbie.

00:58:35And I'm thinking, good, where the hell has she been?

00:58:40She's like, she's not here with us anymore.

00:58:44Hey, what does that even mean?

00:58:46And she said, yeah, like they found her body and they definitely confirmed that it's her.

00:58:57Somebody with such a big personality, you don't picture things like that happening to them.

00:59:03I did not fathom that that was where it was going to go.

00:59:07When I found out what happened to her, I couldn't sleep.

00:59:11It was all over the news 24-7.

00:59:14The remains of a missing local dancer have been discovered.

00:59:17Sources have confirmed that the body of that missing dancer, Debbie Flores Narvaez,

00:59:21was found dismembered in tubs filled with concrete.

00:59:26I can't believe this has got to be a bad dream.

00:59:30And I was hoping that Debbie would call me one day and say, you ready to rehearse?

00:59:35But I never got that call.

00:59:38All I have is memories of her.

00:59:41You have someone who dances for a living.

00:59:45Their job depends on their beauty, their athleticism, their gracefulness.

00:59:51And to have a body just destroyed in the manner that her body was destroyed, it's a cruel irony.

00:59:57It's horrible.

01:00:03Detectives now have Debbie's body.

01:00:04And with the evidence pointing firmly to Jason, it's time to quickly move in.

01:00:09As Jason finishes his evening performance, detectives haul him back to the station for another chat.

01:00:23We're here to ask you some more questions about what happened to Debbie.

01:00:54At this point, we knew where the body was. We knew his involvement.

01:00:57We didn't say, Kalei told us these things, and we didn't go, Louie mapped all this out, you know, told

01:01:03us all these things,

01:01:04because we were going to parse those details out and get his reaction to them.

01:01:10Not much further ado, I'd like for you to tell me what happened to her.

01:01:14What do you mean, what happened to her? I've given my, like, what I saw.

01:01:19What was that?

01:01:20That she came to my house and then she left. I gave that account already.

01:01:24When you're dealing with somebody who thinks they're smarter than everybody else, you have to play them a little bit.

01:01:28You got to give them enough rope to run with before you can yank them back to reality.

01:01:34On that night when she came over, there was an argument and it became physical and ultimately she didn't live

01:01:40through it.

01:01:42And this is, you guys are putting this together based on a lot of things, but that she didn't live

01:01:48through it.

01:01:48If you come in mean, angry, or heavy handed, they're not going to cooperate with you, they're going to shut

01:01:56down.

01:01:57And the ultimate goal is to elicit a confession.

01:02:01We're in a situation where if, if when confronted with some things, that you, you end up saying, okay, all

01:02:09right, look, okay, look.

01:02:11This is what happened. It went too far. It was, it, I don't know, it was an accident. I, I

01:02:17didn't realize what happened. And then I panicked.

01:02:20I see what you guys are saying. And like, we're just at a point, like, what are you reaching for

01:02:24right now?

01:02:25I'm not reaching for anything other than the truth.

01:02:27And now the interview becomes an interrogation and everything changes in the interview.

01:02:31And now you start hitting them with facts and you ask them direct questions.

01:02:36Did you kill Debbie? No, I didn't kill Debbie.

01:02:38Not on purpose or an accident? Not on purpose or not on accident.

01:02:41You didn't strangle her to the point where she stopped breathing? No.

01:02:44There came a point in the interview where Jason decided that he wanted his lawyer present before answering any other

01:02:50questions.

01:02:51You guys are going to do your jobs. You're going to do what you're supposed to do. I don't, I

01:02:56don't have anything else to do.

01:02:57And so we shut it down. He was placed under arrest.

01:03:00You are under arrest for Debbie's murder.

01:03:04At the end of the interview, he was taken into custody, booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

01:03:11Four days later, Jason was charged with Debbie's murder.

01:03:14However, he was not charged with dismembering her body.

01:03:18Morning, Judge. We received a copy of the indictment. We waived its formal meeting. It's going to be a not

01:03:22guilty plea.

01:03:24I was scared to go to the agreement. I, I didn't know what I was going to face, but I

01:03:30was sitting there.

01:03:31And I'm looking at this evil person, and I was trying to control myself, and I just couldn't, to the

01:03:41point where I just couldn't, and I screamed out.

01:03:46I, I failed.

01:03:51I hope you rot in hell, because that's exactly where I wanted to put him, was in hell. And I

01:03:56just wanted him to rot in there, the way that he allowed my sister to rot for weeks.

01:04:06Most of the families we have to deal with, this is the worst day of their life. The losing of

01:04:11a loved one.

01:04:12And I can only imagine what goes through victims' minds when they see the killer for the first time.

01:04:18And for those two seconds, it felt so good. But at the same time, I was stuck in a situation

01:04:24where I couldn't do anything about it, and I had to wait.

01:04:27Most people would be very surprised to know how much has to go on behind the scenes in order to

01:04:32get a case to trial.

01:04:33The delays in the criminal justice system can be difficult for families.

01:04:37When you watch Law & Order, it takes like two weeks, right?

01:04:41Reality is that it took about four and a half years to go to trial.

01:04:46He had no defense to, I didn't kill Debbie. The evidence was overwhelming.

01:04:54And so then how do you beat self-defense?

01:04:58In Nevada, we have to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.

01:05:03This isn't going to be a case about self-defense. It's going to be a case about murder.

01:05:07A choice to commit that murder because he wanted something. Thank you.

01:05:14Let's go ahead and have you proceed, Mr. Banks.

01:05:16The government does not have proof of criminal intent for first-degree murder.

01:05:23Our main points were Jason was afraid, and there's a hell of a lot more going on in this case.

01:05:31Okay, this guy killed his girlfriend, tried to hide the body of him. It's not that simple.

01:05:36It's a case about state of mind, self-defense, and it's about second-guessing.

01:05:43And the evidence is going to show that he was scared, that he was afraid, that she was violent,

01:05:52and that Jason Griffin was defending himself in December 12, 2010.

01:06:02Prosecutors call almost two dozen witnesses to help reconstruct the events leading up to Debbie's death and its aftermath.

01:06:09One of those witnesses was Clay Casorso.

01:06:12Clay Casorso was a former lover of Jason, who both Jason and Louis Colombo were going to attempt

01:06:20and store Debbie's body in the cement on her back patio.

01:06:25What did you do seeing this item that they wanted to place in your house?

01:06:30Of course, they didn't tell her immediately that Debbie was inside.

01:06:33I asked what the heck it was.

01:06:36And what did the defendant say?

01:06:38He asked if I really wanted to know.

01:06:40And I said, yes, if you're going to put that here, I need to know what it is.

01:06:44And kind of, he just said, it's Debbie.

01:06:48And what was your reaction?

01:06:49I was shocked.

01:06:52Kind of, my head kind of started to spin.

01:06:56Like, I couldn't comprehend it.

01:07:01State's next witness?

01:07:03Louis Colombo.

01:07:05Louis Colombo was present for the beginning of the incident and was one of the essential witnesses to what happened

01:07:12that night.

01:07:12When I walked in the door, I had to just look at him for a second.

01:07:17He was just sitting there, and then he said something like, he's like, I messed up.

01:07:24When you walked back to the studio, what did you see?

01:07:29I saw Debbie laying on the ground in the studio.

01:07:32Did she appear alive or dead to you?

01:07:35She appeared dead.

01:07:37Who does the cutting?

01:07:39Jason did.

01:07:40What did he use?

01:07:41A handsaw.

01:07:43On cross-examination, Jason's attorneys don't hesitate to tell the jury that Louis Colombo was given immunity in return for

01:07:52his cooperation in this case.

01:07:54Our attempts to undercut the credibility of testimony is, number one, any time a person testifies with a grant of

01:08:06complete immunity, that automatically makes that person's testimony potentially suspect.

01:08:13That is a big factor in what a jury will look at on whether they believe Mr. Colombo or not.

01:08:22I was so upset that he was on the stand.

01:08:27Did he take her breath? No.

01:08:29But do I consider him just as bad as Jason? Absolutely.

01:08:35Ultimately, could he have been prosecuted? He could have, and that's often the case in the criminal justice system.

01:08:41We oftentimes have to make that choice, which is, how badly do we need this person?

01:08:47It cannot be overstated how important Louis' statement was with regard to the prosecution of Jason.

01:08:55So after four days of presenting evidence, we were confident that there was no doubt that the jury knew Jason

01:09:03killed Debbie.

01:09:04It was really at that point we turned it over to the defense that the real fight in the trial

01:09:08started.

01:09:09Jason was a born performer. He was comfortable in front of a crowd, and certainly as he made his calculation

01:09:16about whether or not he should take the witness stand,

01:09:19I'm sure he looked at those jurors and he thought to himself, I got this.

01:09:32It was about two and a half weeks I think the trial lasted.

01:09:38And I have to portray this strong woman when inside I'm breaking down slowly but I'm still holding it together

01:09:47hoping that we would get justice for my sister.

01:09:53I ask at this time if the defense is prepared to call their first witness.

01:09:57We are a judge.

01:09:58While the defense calls Debbie's ex-boyfriend, Jamil, and they call Jason's ex-girlfriend, Agnes, to the stand, their case

01:10:06really comes down to just one person.

01:10:09The defense calls Jason Griffith.

01:10:11In claiming self-defense, Jason was compelled to testify, and his lawyers quickly sought to portray Debbie as someone that

01:10:19he was genuinely fearful of.

01:10:21And we never argue to the jury that Jason is, you know, Mother Teresa, an outstanding citizen.

01:10:29What we argue to the jury is he acted reasonably.

01:10:33Do you recognize that?

01:10:34It was a note that was left on my car at the Mirage.

01:10:36What's your understanding of who left you this?

01:10:38Debbie left me that note.

01:10:40I will kill you before I let another bitch have you.

01:10:42I will find you wherever you hide.

01:10:44I love always your destiny.

01:10:46Is that what it says, Jason?

01:10:47Yes, sir.

01:10:49The prior acts of domestic violence in the 911 calls would lead any reasonable person to believe, when there's another

01:10:56incident of violence, that perhaps your life might be at risk.

01:11:00What's going on?

01:11:02My ex-girlfriend is off.

01:11:05She came to my job today, harassed me at work.

01:11:08She's been making threats.

01:11:10She's been following me around town.

01:11:12Like, just harassing stuff.

01:11:13We can stop.

01:11:16You said on the 911 call that Debbie was making threats.

01:11:21Tell the jury what kind of threats she was making to you.

01:11:23Oh, she talked about slashing my tires again.

01:11:26She talked about burning my house.

01:11:27Talked about killing me.

01:11:29I'll kill you.

01:11:30I'm not going to let nobody be with you.

01:11:34The volume of calls, I thought we did a decent job at showing that that was part of a pattern.

01:11:42He's on the receiving end of the harm.

01:11:46Debbie's history and Jason's history and the tumultuous nature of it was particularly relevant in this case to the defense

01:11:54because they, of course, wanted Debbie to look as crazy as possible, as volatile as possible.

01:12:03Throughout the trial, I would see that my mother was angry.

01:12:07I would just kind of grab her and hold her arm.

01:12:10Like, I know, Mommy, and don't let this make you emotional.

01:12:18It was the cross-examination of Jason that the whole case was probably going to come down to.

01:12:24Some of the stuff Debbie did was true, right?

01:12:27She did slash his tire and all of this other stuff.

01:12:30But when it came to the one thing he's hung his hat on, he was lying and I could prove

01:12:36it.

01:12:36So what he testified to was that one night he came out of the Mirage and he came to his

01:12:42car and there was a note on his car.

01:12:44You find that note on his car, right?

01:12:47And so now you believe in Debbie, what you've said so far.

01:12:52Yes.

01:12:55And you guys continue to have conversations, at least now, unlike before.

01:13:01You have a written threat to killing it, correct?

01:13:05Yes.

01:13:05And he told the jury that that was written by Debbie, that he was absolutely terrified, that this was proof

01:13:13that she wanted to kill him.

01:13:15Before I get to this, do you have a chance to change your answer?

01:13:20I don't need to change the answer, sir.

01:13:23Do you recognize that number?

01:13:24Yes, I know that number.

01:13:25Whose number is it?

01:13:26It's Lou's number.

01:13:27The morning of May 22nd of 2010.

01:13:31Okay.

01:13:32Okay, so that's the morning that the incident with the car occurred.

01:13:34Yep.

01:13:36Here's Mr. Colombo's text to you.

01:13:38I really thought you would know it was me.

01:13:41The note was actually written as a joke by Louie.

01:13:45And what we knew from the text messages is that Jason knew that the note was written by Louie.

01:13:52And he absolutely knew it as he sat on the witness stand and he testified before the jury.

01:13:56His entire testimony, both direct and his cross-examination, there was no way around it.

01:14:01He lied.

01:14:04I'm going to ask the officers of the court to please come forward and be sworn to take control and

01:14:09custody of the jury.

01:14:12Once you have given the evidence to the jury and you've given the case to the jury, you literally just

01:14:18sit and wait.

01:14:20And the anxiety of what if this doesn't go the right way?

01:14:24What if he gets away with it?

01:14:27There is a rollercoaster of emotions while you're waiting for a verdict.

01:14:31Time kind of stands still.

01:14:34It just felt like forever.

01:14:36And the jury stood up and when the verdict came in and they said,

01:14:42Guilty of murder of the second degree.

01:14:45It was a moment of justification that everything I did for her was for that moment.

01:14:55I was able to breathe and just let go for a second.

01:15:01And I just remember thinking to myself, I hope that I did her proud.

01:15:09The judge didn't have a lot of discretion.

01:15:12A secondary murder conviction, there's two possible sentences.

01:15:15There's a life sentence and then there's a term of years, which is 25 years.

01:15:20Both of them have minimum parole eligibility after 10 years.

01:15:24Jason was sentenced for second degree murder to 10 years to life.

01:15:30And I've already had to go to parole twice to plea with the parole board to keep him in.

01:15:36There is no sense of closure for them, but I certainly think it's better for them to have to show

01:15:42up to a parole hearing

01:15:43than having to realize that he's completely free of the criminal justice system.

01:15:50Today, Jason continues to serve out a sentence at High Desert State Prison, waiting for his chance of freedom.

01:15:58Many of the people who helped put him behind bars have long since moved on from the case.

01:16:04But there's one final twist to the story.

01:16:10Hello, this is a prepaid debit call from an offender of the Nevada Department of Corrections High Desert Correctional Center.

01:16:30This call is from a corrections facility and is subject to monitoring and recording.

01:16:35Since his conviction for the murder of Debbie Flores Nevarez in 2014, Jason Griffith has been waiting for his chance

01:16:41at parole.

01:16:42Here I am 15 years later with excellent behavior, no infractions, no trouble, working seven days a week, taking classes,

01:16:52doing everything I can, and they won't give me a second chance.

01:16:56Jason has never agreed to a television interview before.

01:16:59He called 20-20 from prison to speak for the first time.

01:17:02Debbie Flores is dead, and she did not deserve to die.

01:17:07I'm not trying to get out of responsibility.

01:17:11I'm not trying to diminish what this situation is by any means.

01:17:16Jason's most recent parole hearing was in 2025.

01:17:20Debbie's sister Celeste was there, ready to oppose his release.

01:17:25I knew that I would be facing parole for him, and this time around, when I walk in, the assistant

01:17:36at the front desk told me,

01:17:39well, you're the first one here.

01:17:41We're also waiting for his wife.

01:17:48I'm sorry, what?

01:17:50Yeah, his wife, Kalei.

01:17:54I thought I was hearing things when she said his wife, and then she said her name, Kalei.

01:18:00There was only one Kalei.

01:18:04I was damn near shaking because I had to deal with this woman again who knew of my sister for

01:18:10three weeks that she was missing.

01:18:14There are no words.

01:18:16I just, I, I couldn't speak.

01:18:21I was so angry.

01:18:23At the parole hearing, Kalei spoke on Jason's behalf.

01:18:28And all I heard was, we just want to apologize to you, Celeste, and I'm sorry.

01:18:35And I just, I just lost it.

01:18:39And I just kept crying.

01:18:43I will never accept your apology.

01:18:46Ever.

01:18:49They both deserve each other.

01:18:51And I hope karma finds them and delivers it every day, fresh on a plate.

01:18:57I put myself in that situation.

01:18:59If it was my sister, how would I feel?

01:19:02So, I hope if never accepting my apology also provides her a level of peace, then that's what she deserves.

01:19:10There was anything I could say to Blue.

01:19:12I would let him know that you hurt a lot of people.

01:19:18You took someone from this earth that was very loving, caring, and meant a lot to a lot of people.

01:19:27Why?

01:19:29There wasn't any other way to resolve whatever it was in that moment.

01:19:34Killing somebody is not the way to resolve anything.

01:19:38I want to say that I am sorry that this situation ended the way that it did.

01:19:43And I'm sorry that it cost everyone involved.

01:19:47It cost them so much hurt, so much pain, so much loss.

01:19:52And I'm responsible for that.

01:19:55I should have been better.

01:19:57I should have done better.

01:19:58I should have figured out something else.

01:20:00Anything else.

01:20:03Depression is, it's an everyday fight.

01:20:05The more I talk about my sister, the easier it has become.

01:20:08The more I talk about my emotions.

01:20:11I think I thought that if I bottle it in, I don't have to feel it, I don't have to

01:20:16show it.

01:20:17When I should have been talking about it, and screaming about it, and yelling about it, and crying about it.

01:20:23I just really miss my friend.

01:20:24I wish she was here.

01:20:27Are you taking this?

01:20:28No.

01:20:30You can hear Debbie come into a room before you see her.

01:20:32You smile before she even walks into a room if you hear her voice.

01:20:35You already know what's coming in.

01:20:37This energy, this love, this caring person.

01:20:39She was so beautiful inside and out.

01:20:43Her spirit was so warm, so welcoming.

01:20:47It's so tragic that her life was cut so short.

01:20:50It's very heartbreaking, and she had so much to live for.

01:20:56She was a star.

01:21:01I took her home to Puerto Rico.

01:21:08And we took her to her cemetery where she lays to rest, and she sits on this beautiful mountain.

01:21:17Where she oversees, like, this beautiful valley.

01:21:21I always visit her, and I talk to her.

01:21:25I definitely feel as though her spirit is still with me.

01:21:34It's so clear that Debbie's spirit is still being felt.

01:21:37By now, Jason Griffith has served 15 years of his sentence.

01:21:41He's been denied parole twice, most recently in 2025.

01:21:44And David, Debbie's sister Celeste says while it's painful, she is attending every parole hearing in hopes that Jason will

01:21:51spend the rest of his life behind bars.

01:21:53That's our program for tonight.

01:21:55Thanks so much for watching.

01:21:56I'm Deborah Roberts.

01:21:57And I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.

01:22:01Good night.

01:22:23My name is Peter Mangusha.

01:22:27I'm David Muir from Hawaii.

01:22:29Looks great to see you in the championship.

20/20 (1978) Season 2026 Episode 14 - True Crime Investigation | Documentary

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