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00:00:08tonight on the season premiere of dateline a man was out walking his dog with his wife
00:00:16and he was gunned down
00:00:30shot three times in the head three times in the chest and one time in the groin
00:00:36it seems like overkill there's got to be something more to this than meets the eye
00:00:41a black pickup truck left the murder scene this individual was walking around that residence
00:00:47he told me about a kiss that they shared in front of the eiffel tower over 30 years ago
00:00:52it just unfolded and unfolded and unfolded like out of a movie the text messages the fictitious
00:01:00email addresses the level of manipulation was extraordinary kind of the definition of two
00:01:06faced or three or four faced it's hard to keep up ever seen anything like this no and i hope
00:01:12to
00:01:13never see it again maybe some people are better left in your past did a kiss in paris lead to
00:01:19murder in dallas 30 years later i'm lester holt and this is dateline
00:01:34here's josh mankiewicz with losing faith
00:01:44most people never know when their last day on earth will come what their last act will be
00:01:50for jamie faith it was october 9th 2020 a sunny morning in dallas walking his dog maggie
00:01:59here's jamie leaving his house right behind his wife jennifer so much of a routine his neighbors
00:02:07knew their daily route and then jamie faith was dead at only 49 gunned down in front of his home
00:02:25his
00:02:25neighbors his wife friendly funny jamie faith who hadn't had an enemy in the world
00:02:39this is one of the like i say the craziest stories that's going down in history
00:02:49cyrus cesar was the first reporter on the scene to his million plus followers on facebook
00:02:55he's better known as smash the topic
00:03:01how'd you find out about this story i was listening to the scanner and when i was listening to the
00:03:06scanner i heard the streets and i heard a shooting going on right away smash found an eyewitness
00:03:13i heard gunshot five gunshots loud boom boom boom boom boom boom we're on the scene of a shooting
00:03:20homicide guy walking his dog with his wife oh man just it's cold world out here man cold world
00:03:28i woke up that morning and i checked our oak cliff ladies club page and smashed the topic
00:03:33was reporting that there had been a shooting jennifer svelin didn't know the faiths but she lived in
00:03:41the same oak cliff neighborhood in dallas so i immediately posted on that page to all the ladies
00:03:46to let them know you know hey be careful there was a shooting nearby jenna schmidt wilson was in her
00:03:53backyard with her dogs and her morning coffee and i noticed the police helicopter which ordinarily
00:04:00wouldn't draw my attention but it was unusual how long it was hovering and how close and the low
00:04:06elevation so of course i grabbed my phone and i look on my neighborhood page which my go-to is
00:04:13our
00:04:13ladies club page and there was already some posts saying there had been a shooting nearby
00:04:19i saw the man he looked very very out of place like he was up to no good his eyes
00:04:27were really
00:04:27big and black we come out the man was still standing in front where the dude got shot so we
00:04:34took off
00:04:34running inside so the suspect still loose right now suspect still loose it sounded like it could
00:04:40have been a robbery but i'm gonna tell you something but i did think like how would somebody know
00:04:47these people walking their dog every day dallas pd homicide detective chris walton was wondering the
00:04:57same thing you can see him right there on smash's feed the detective went straight to his best witness
00:05:05the victim's wife jennifer faith when i arrived mrs faith was sitting right here on the porch area of
00:05:12her residence uh there were others around her that were comforting her
00:05:19trying to get her the treatment and the aid that she needed she tell you what happened while you were
00:05:23here uh while i was here when i made contact with her uh she informed me that uh there was
00:05:30an
00:05:30individual who came up behind them he pointed the gun at her husband mr faith and and shot him several
00:05:36times didn't say anything no sir no just just opened fire that's correct jennifer described the gunman
00:05:43as medium build with black eyes and a blue surgical mask the kind you saw everywhere during the pandemic
00:05:51i'm guessing she was probably shattered uh she was uh she had just observed her husband getting killed
00:05:57shot several times then the individual who committed this horrible crime duct tape her wrist
00:06:02and tried taking her property as well tried to get her wedding right i believe so yes sir
00:06:08cartridge casings from the killer's gun still littered the street some of those stunned neighbors
00:06:14turned out to be helpful they spotted the gunman drive away in a black pickup we were able to get
00:06:20a
00:06:21photo of the vehicle from one of the witnesses it had a picture of the t sticker in the back
00:06:26yes sir
00:06:26the team made sense the local baseball team is the texas rangers so now the question was who in
00:06:34dallas wanted jamie dead police wanted to talk further with jennifer faith but she was so distraught
00:06:42she had to be taken to a hospital once doctors gave her the all clear she handed police her phone
00:06:48and headed to the station where she added vital details to this awful gut-wrenching story
00:06:55several shots well a lot of shots uh six five six maybe i feel like
00:07:03it was a neighbor's security camera that recorded those horrific sounds
00:07:15and he just kept going and he was like going to stop it and then he just
00:07:21and then and then he just like shot him and my husband's expression and then i just saw the birds
00:07:31it turned and like just dark eyes and coming toward me she said the killer then turned on her
00:07:42he kept trying to turn me over and then and he hit my side and back and hitting and then
00:07:53all of a sudden i saw a flash of the it was silver the gun was silver later in the
00:08:00interview jennifer and
00:08:01detective walton used her phone to access the family's home security system which had a camera
00:08:07that faced the empty house next door they saw this image it's a man walking alone around that abandoned
00:08:16property in the pre-dawn hours before the killing
00:08:19i don't know that house is empty that's unarchedized
00:08:24certainly something to pursue detective walton alerted his fellow investigators and continued the
00:08:31conversation were there any problems lately with anyone we've never had disagreements with anybody
00:08:39who developed a really nice community i mean i love our neighbor i love our neighborhood jennifer confirmed
00:08:48what everyone else had said that jamie was well liked a nice neighbor loving dad and husband
00:08:56whatever this was it had to be random a robbery that became murder and then autopsy results came back
00:09:05that does not feel like a robbery that feels like something else
00:09:24what details there were of jamie faith's murder hit the news pretty quickly about nine gunshots the victim
00:09:32james faith shot multiple times maria guerrero covered the story for nbc5 in dallas we knew that a man
00:09:42was killed while walking his dog with his wife and this sounds like what robbery that's exactly what we
00:09:49thought it was and that's what police were initially looking into this case as a robbery then the autopsy
00:09:58results came in and suddenly jamie's killing didn't seem so random we learned that he was shot three
00:10:06times in the head three times in the chest and one time in the groin that does not feel like
00:10:11a robbery
00:10:12that feels like something else it was overkill to me it was very personal so how could jamie faith
00:10:19generate that kind of rage the killing made even less sense when police took a closer look at him
00:10:27what kind of guy was he what did he do for a living he was one of those guys who
00:10:31you would want to be
00:10:32neighbors with i learned that he was from wisconsin he also loved the green bay packers he was a huge
00:10:40fan
00:10:41he was an it director for american airlines he was one of those guys where everybody just loved
00:10:46played video games on thursday nights
00:10:51jamie also played pool and really liked bowling nobody knew that better than twin sisters monica
00:10:58and monique flores they've known jamie for more than 20 years from when they all lived in arizona
00:11:05was jamie as good as you guys are no well yes yes he was way better way better we liked
00:11:11him so much
00:11:12that we had so much in common that he ended up getting on the team with us when we needed
00:11:16a player
00:11:17but not dating either of you no no no what made him he was like one of those friends friend
00:11:25zone
00:11:27yeah he was a good guy like a nice guy he was always happy jamie like always lit up the
00:11:33bowling alley
00:11:34yep and so that's what got us to like him and then of course me and her and our personalities
00:11:38he lit
00:11:38up the bowling alley is not something i hear very often yeah you know he did police learned jamie was
00:11:48smart resourceful and quirky this is his friend theresa jensen when we were in college we would go to
00:11:56the dog track and he had a whole computer set up where he would take the information for the dogs
00:12:06and plug it into his computer and that would be how he would make his beds and he'd go up
00:12:12to the
00:12:12window with a big wad of money and he'd win so not nerdy at all no not at all but
00:12:21just a little nerdy
00:12:22but he made money he made enough money where i'm pretty sure he ended up buying his own cadillac
00:12:30with his winnings you know here's a 21 22 year old guy driving around in a cadillac what color it
00:12:39was like a maroon maroon red he wore hawaiian shirts and gold chains and cologne he did he did
00:12:46he did oh he wasn't missing a beat the investigators learned jamie was living in phoenix in 2005 when
00:12:53he met jennifer on a blind date and something clicked jamie started working at u.s airways in 2008
00:13:01four years later he and jennifer married jennifer was working as a speech therapist a good one
00:13:08according to her friend and colleague rob schmidt she's uh very intelligent she's a great speech
00:13:14therapist and um she just kind of fit in with our group i guess uh being a speech therapist i
00:13:21mean you
00:13:22know you've got to have a lot of patience and you've got to be uh you know sort of really
00:13:26caring
00:13:26with other people right right and then when we met jennifer we're like oh my god you guys are so
00:13:31cute
00:13:32together like they were so just so cute and like all you know i mean lovey-dovey lovey-dovey and
00:13:37i'm
00:13:37just like i love her jamie i love her like you that's a keeper for you and he goes oh
00:13:42i know i know
00:13:43jennifer had been married twice before with a daughter amber from her first marriage jamie
00:13:50adopted amber in 2016. by 2017 u.s airways had been swallowed by american airlines jamie accepted a
00:14:00promotion and then the family relocated to dallas where jamie started working as an i.t executive at
00:14:07american american now flash forward to october 9th 2020 and the news no friend wants to hear i got a
00:14:17call
00:14:17and uh seeing it was from jennifer automatically picked up and she's trying and you know uh having
00:14:28trouble speaking and she let me know that uh jamie had been shot had jamie at any time in your
00:14:38relationship with him mentioned being afraid of anyone or concerned about his safety in any way
00:14:45not one time days into their investigation police scrambled for more details about a murder out of
00:14:52the blue the biggest clue so far that truck with what looked like a texas rangers decal everybody
00:15:00i mean everybody was on the lookout for this black truck so find the truck and find the killer
00:15:38the biggest clue was that it had a t decal on the back windshield
00:15:45police put out an alert for the truck before long they'd assembled
00:15:50multiple shots of the pickup moving out of the neighborhood we checked all the residences we saw
00:15:57some had cameras some didn't and from there it's like a puzzle so if one camera showed the vehicle at
00:16:04734 we received another camera at 735 and 736 and you put together this little movie yes sir we did
00:16:13that
00:16:13for approximately three miles until we were able to catch the uh vehicle heading north on i35 from
00:16:20illinois and that's where you lose it uh yes sir on the highway at any point you can't get a
00:16:25plate
00:16:25number and you can't see who's inside no sir everybody was on high alert that there was a killer
00:16:34in our neighborhood walking your dogs are now looking behind you and watching to see who's coming down the
00:16:39street and you're you know watching out for your neighbors and and you know even more so everybody
00:16:44i mean everybody was on the lookout for this black truck and we knew it was a nissan titan black
00:16:50with a
00:16:51t in the rear window um and so there were many pictures of trucks being posted online even without
00:16:58any kind of a tm is this the truck could this be the truck the faith's neighbors wanted to pitch
00:17:03in
00:17:03and help jenna reached out everyone had that same sense that i had which is you know this could have
00:17:09been me so i texted jennifer faith and said i know you don't know me but there's a lot of
00:17:15people that
00:17:16want to help if we can and she almost immediately responded and said that she would love that and could
00:17:22i come over tomorrow to talk so i was over there the day after the murder to meet her jennifer
00:17:29faith
00:17:29was there their daughter amber faith as well as jamie's extended family when jenna saw all those
00:17:36people at the faith's home she thought they're going to need some food you know you've got to eat
00:17:42every day but you're dealing with that kind of a trauma you might not be up for cooking for a
00:17:46while
00:17:47so we began delivering lunch and dinner every day for however many people were going to be at the home
00:17:54dozens of people from neighbors to high-end chefs delivered meals for months they wanted to do more
00:18:02because a widow with a daughter would have bills to pay the gofundme was set up i think the next
00:18:08day
00:18:10we already had it up and going the idea was just to help with any expenses funeral expenses daily
00:18:16living expenses she was very grateful detective chris walton wanted to help too
00:18:24because when he's not chasing killers he's a baptist minister you went to pray with the family yes i
00:18:31did we wanted to make sure that you know we we let jennifer know that hey we were here for
00:18:36you
00:18:36you do that on all investigations i do i do it quite quite often with strong believing the good lord
00:18:43and a strong man of faith i also want to make sure that she felt that we were trying to
00:18:48do everything
00:18:48that we could to find out who did this to her husband police were learning a lot about jamie
00:18:55his life as a family man and his life as a boss jimmy doesn't sound like one of those guys
00:19:02who uh
00:19:03is sort of counting down the hours till the weekend like he he liked his work yes yes for sure
00:19:09100 he
00:19:10loved his work he loved the people he worked for he ever have a problem with anybody that you know
00:19:15of
00:19:15at work absolutely not or anywhere else not that i know of well there was one problem jennifer told
00:19:23detectives jamie had recently laid off some people at american wouldn't be the first time an ex-employee
00:19:30got angry enough to kill i met with the american airline director who i was able to give me access
00:19:36to the employees that were laid off it was colvin during that time right and so so a lot of
00:19:42people
00:19:42were losing their jobs about approximately 18 to 20 during that time so the plan was to talk to all
00:19:48those people yeah the detective was also looking at something else that man they spotted on jennifer's
00:19:54security camera walking around the empty house next door this individual was walking around that
00:20:01residence around about 2 30 8 in the morning so who was that guy maybe one of those just fired
00:20:08employees
00:20:09all of a sudden police had as many new leads as a company picnic
00:20:30so lord i pray that as we celebrate his life he'll be glorified and honored a week after jamie faith
00:20:36was gunned down friends and family gathered in dallas for a funeral one of two services jennifer had
00:20:43organized father we thank you for the gift of this amazing man the service was live streamed from the
00:20:51funeral home friends and family from across the country were watching along with dallas neighbors
00:20:57jennifer and jenna i remember at one point you know we both were talking about how emotional it was
00:21:03and and we were brought to tears when the camera went up to the front and just capturing everything
00:21:08all the emotion that was taking place there yeah rick calvert had never heard of jamie faith before the
00:21:15murder but he was also watching rick is a federal prosecutor in the northern district of texas
00:21:21dallas detectives asked him for help on the case the description that jennifer faith gave of her
00:21:27husband during that funeral basically is consistent with what every individual that we talked to
00:21:34how they described jamie faith he was the best husband that you could possibly ask for they had the
00:21:40perfect marriage where other couples were jealous of their relationship because they were so close
00:21:48jamie's old friend teresa jensen was watching the funeral service too
00:21:53she was struck by the attention devoted to a book jennifer had given jamie for valentine's day
00:21:59a love book they called it happy valentine's day this is from jennifer to jamie packed with memories of the
00:22:06couple's good times together this love book was very elaborate many pages and they went through
00:22:13page by page touching as it all was there were moments when teresa tried not to roll her eyes and
00:22:21it would say i love you every day when i wake up i love that you're the first person i
00:22:27talk to
00:22:28i love that we travel together so i mean okay maybe that's a little over the top but a little
00:22:36over
00:22:36the top plus you know and and just the simple fact that and maybe this is just me they had
00:22:43been
00:22:43together for 15 years i've been with my husband for 18 years he's not getting a book like that the
00:22:50people i interview are not supposed to be more cynical than i am sorry jamie and jennifer's friends
00:22:57and neighbors noticed how expensive the service was i guess i had never seen anything like that
00:23:05where you had you know coasters and matchbooks and memorabilia and it was almost like a
00:23:17i mean i hate to say it was almost like a party where you have takeaway gifts like party like
00:23:22party
00:23:22favors that's a great way to put it like party favors to take away from a funeral the women knew
00:23:27those
00:23:27extras weren't cheap but at least jennifer had that gofundme it could help cover costs and that fund
00:23:35it just kept growing we were shocked that it went up to over 15 000 in a less than 24
00:23:41-hour period and
00:23:42less than a week it was over 60 000 so i think our takeaway from that really attests to how
00:23:49much jamie was
00:23:50loved um yes i think initially a lot of the support that for the gofundme came from the oak cliff
00:23:57community
00:23:58but i think a whole bunch of that came from the american airlines community
00:24:04while jamie's friends and family grieved investigators were working hard remember the guy caught on security
00:24:11camera next door hours before jamie was shot jennifer first told detectives she didn't know who it was
00:24:17and then she called them back she told me that neighbors had informed her that there was another
00:24:23neighbor who had uh often gotten into it with his wife and got drunk and would walk around the
00:24:28neighborhood like that and what about the theory that a former american airlines employee might have
00:24:34had it in for jamie after that round of layoffs no indications that anyone was blaming him for layoffs
00:24:41we could not find any suspects that would uh have an axe to grind with him by then the investigation
00:24:49had taken off in a whole new direction and all of a sudden you're not really looking at this grunt
00:24:55of american airlines employees anymore no all of a sudden they're taking another look at that marriage
00:25:02the one that was so flawless it made other couples jealous that was the first evidence that there was a
00:25:09crack in the facade of this perfect marriage
00:25:26jamie faith had been dead for two months when his widow jennifer decided to speak out
00:25:32she talked with nbc5 in dallas her fear was that this case was going cold and she really wanted to
00:25:38finally come forward my hope is that someday perhaps the person will realize the gravity of
00:25:44what they've done and what they've taken from myself and my daughter during the interview
00:25:49she said that based on witnesses and what she remembers a big clue will be this black pickup truck
00:25:56she said it's a black nissan titan extended cab has a texas ranger sticker in the back window any
00:26:04information leading to the arrest would be would be fantastic and it would help give me the closure
00:26:09that i'm really looking for what jennifer didn't know was that all this time investigators had actually
00:26:15been moving ahead with evidence that might not provide the kind of closure she was hoping for
00:26:21and it all started with her phone i believe without that phone uh we probably wouldn't be sitting here
00:26:29today that's because something on that phone at least appeared to refute everything jennifer had
00:26:36said what kind of marriage do you have it's perfect perfect yes that's what she says and that's that's
00:26:43the jamie and jennifer we went into this investigation believing was the case well that was before now
00:26:51investigators read a series of texts dated april 2020 six months before jamie was killed jennifer and
00:27:00a friend named tina were chatting included was this stunner from jennifer so i'm pretty much having
00:27:07a full-blown emotional affair an emotional affair you know the kind that's just texts and calls it's been
00:27:15crazy and i know i'm so stupid for doing this and i know you're at work and i'm probably blowing
00:27:21your
00:27:21mind right now lol then a surprise admission about her perfect marriage tina we haven't had sex in four
00:27:30years tina asked why jennifer's answer i told him i feel like we love each other but we are not
00:27:37in love
00:27:37with each other i don't know i constantly try to initiate i give you credit for being up front i
00:27:43finally
00:27:43gave up about a year ago i couldn't lie to him he deserves better than that he won't give me
00:27:49a reason i
00:27:50thought he was having an affair for a little while but no tina had a question does jamie say he's
00:27:55in
00:27:55love or is he content too how can a person be in love but no sex or passion he says
00:28:01he is in love
00:28:02that was my question he says it is a timing thing whatever for four years that's just it no passion
00:28:09very little physical affection at all past a hug and nothing romantic from him flowers on valentine's
00:28:16day typical stuff but i don't feel wanted by him at all other than to be his partner
00:28:22well that kind of changes things doesn't it yes it does jennifer had never mentioned to you that she
00:28:28was having an affair emotional or otherwise with anybody no she wasn't having an affair neither was
00:28:33her husband no she said the relationship was good the only thing that they weren't as intimate
00:28:38as she would like but other than that he was a great man provider and also a loving father
00:28:46so maybe this fling was just an innocent online diversion a harmless way out of the middle-aged
00:28:53doldrums nothing in person nothing physical after all as jennifer told tina things with jamie
00:29:01we're still kind of good we are super great friends and a good team and great parents to amber
00:29:08and honestly i would have been content living out the rest of my life that way and then this no
00:29:15issues
00:29:15until this guy came back and omg the emotions and the connection i feel like i am being torn in
00:29:22two
00:29:24so who was this mystery man detectives had to find out jennifer helpfully had sketched in his background
00:29:32for tina this guy i dated in high school and college we broke up because i was finishing school
00:29:38and after he got out of basic training he was deployed to south korea he ended up going special
00:29:43forces and served 26 years just retired and found me we were going to get married at the time
00:29:50then i met amber's bio dad right after he left at the end of the thread tina sent hugs jennifer
00:29:58responded thank you but i am also not making any moves or doing anything rash anytime soon but i'm not
00:30:05going to stop talking to darren either so now investigators had a name darren they also knew
00:30:11from other texts between jennifer and tina that darren had mentioned what he called a five-year plan
00:30:18to start a new life with jennifer then about two months before jamie was murdered came this text
00:30:26exchange you still talking to that guy i put the brakes on with him so hard i have such strong
00:30:33emotions for darren how did darren feel about her foot on the break investigators had no way of knowing
00:30:40it they did know this darren had been dumped and he knew his way around a weapon
00:31:02the jamie faith murder investigation had taken a surprising turn police learned the grieving widow
00:31:08was involved in what she called an emotional affair by then detective eric barnes had joined the case
00:31:16he and detective walton were drilling down on jennifer's text messages about a guy named darren
00:31:23the main thing that stuck out to me was that he had a five-year plan on how they would
00:31:27be together
00:31:28i guess one part of that could be getting jamie out of the way that's correct you know for a
00:31:32five-year
00:31:33plan that's a that's a very long-term patient plan and somebody has to be pretty dedicated to wait for
00:31:38something over five years logic suggests a lovestruck guy with a five-year plan might become at the very
00:31:46least unhappy and at the very worst furious if his beloved decided to change the schedule
00:31:54and forsake him for the sake of her husband she talks about this full-blown emotional affair she's
00:32:02having with this guy darren but she also at some point says she's cutting it off that's correct
00:32:06were there any texts from darren on the phone no none that i could find they did have jennifer's phone
00:32:13contacts that's where they found a darren whose last name was lopez along with his phone number
00:32:20a search warrant later they also had jennifer's cell records from the phone company police still
00:32:26didn't have the actual texts but now they could see the text and call logs showing how often jennifer
00:32:33and darren had been in touch there was a tremendous amount of contact between her phone and his phone
00:32:39in her phone records that's correct they averaged almost 500 communications a day through phone calls and
00:32:45texts i believe a total of about 13 000 over 13 000 contacts more than 13 000 calls and texts
00:32:53in just
00:32:54one month around the time of the murder for an emotional affair that's a lot of emotion it's also
00:33:01a lot of deletion none of those calls or texts were on jennifer's phone when police saw it one more
00:33:08thing darren lopez lived in tennessee an interstate investigation now brought the feds on board so
00:33:17you know we come up with an address for darren lopez in a town called cumberland furnace tennessee
00:33:24andrew sheremy is a supervisory special agent with the atf he learned a lot about darren lopez
00:33:31a 48 year old retired army special forces medic who lived about 640 miles northeast of dallas he has
00:33:40got quite an extensive military record he had six deployments to iraq he is a purple heart recipient
00:33:48has a bronze star so this is a man who is a highly decorated war veteran and then we also
00:33:54find out
00:33:54during the investigation that he was injured in combat and suffers a traumatic brain injury
00:34:01they learned darren lopez was separated and living with two of his teenage daughters
00:34:07investigators started tracing his activities in the days leading up to the murder so darren's banking
00:34:12records tell you a little bit about where he's been yeah that's correct and that's the biggest thing
00:34:16we're trying to do we're trying to place him in dallas from tennessee the day before the killing
00:34:22daren's debit card put him here buying gas about 20 minutes south of his home that debit card was used
00:34:31in dixon tennessee early in the afternoon on october 8th several hours later that same debit card was
00:34:38used at a pilot gas station in west memphis arkansas which would have been him traveling in the direction
00:34:45of dallas west memphis arkansas is 200 miles southwest of darren's home
00:34:51now two months later detective barnes wondered if there were any photos of that pit stop
00:34:58i reached out to the pilot gas station just in a long shot chance to see if
00:35:04they still have video surveillance because nobody has video that long after the fact
00:35:08no if we have video for two weeks we're doing well right but in this case you got lucky
00:35:13we sure did what do you see in that video in the video uh darren is wearing a dark colored
00:35:19polo shirt
00:35:20uh blue jeans but he also has the blue mask that matches the description that jennifer gave on the
00:35:26day of the murder more important is what darren lopez was driving a big black nissan pickup
00:35:33okay but who could say for sure where darren was heading well actually google could we saw that he
00:35:42typed in the victim's address while he was in tennessee and got mapped directions to the route to
00:35:49dallas this feels like you're moving closer and closer to an arrest yes sir okay but what about
00:35:55that t decal the one clue everyone had been focused on we were able to reach out to the tennessee
00:36:03bureau of investigations get a flyover over darren's property and we were hoping that we'd be able to
00:36:09find this truck and get a good look at his nissan tight to see if it actually had the decal
00:36:14and you did yes we did and it did it sure did just one pass you're not circling you're not
00:36:21doing
00:36:21anything that's going to attract attention no that's what they hoped anyway except a couple of
00:36:27weeks after they spotted darren's truck from the sky something changed on the ground agents in nashville
00:36:34were doing surveillance and they observed darren's pickup truck and it no longer had a t on the windshield
00:36:40which suggests he's onto you guys that's right wondering if darren lopez had gotten wise to them
00:36:49agents wanted to move in quickly that came with some difficult questions like how do you arrest rambo
00:36:58without the hollywood body count he's a trained military operative this is not some guy who spent
00:37:04a couple years in the army filing forms that's correct and a firearm was used in
00:37:10the murder of jamie faith one would assume that that was his weapon and he probably still has it
00:37:15so going to get him is going to involve some significant planning planning that would not
00:37:20typically take place in a normal operation also darren lopez was more than a special forces veteran
00:37:28with a very particular set of skills his 20 acre home also gave him an edge over anyone approaching on
00:37:37the ground he may have booby traps clandestine devices motion motion sensors he may have his own cameras
00:37:46on the property creeping up and knocking on his door is not going to happen exactly also gnawing at agent
00:37:52sheremy was the memory of that calamitous 1993 raid on the branch davidian sect in waco texas
00:38:01we think about the tragedy that happened in waco where four of our agents were lost not a dissimilar
00:38:07approach and he's got his two daughters living in there with him so worst case scenario is he ends
00:38:12up barricaded in that house worst case scenario and the worst case scenario was not an acceptable one
00:38:20someone would have to blink
00:38:36it was early 2021 and an alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies was gearing up
00:38:44for a full-scale operation to arrest darren lopez you can tell here from the aerial photographs
00:38:52that this is a very wide open piece of property and that would make any sort of covert approach to
00:39:01the
00:39:02house extremely dangerous how many people we talking about here i would say approximately 75 people wow it
00:39:09was pretty much all the resources of the federal government on an icy january day agents were
00:39:15preparing to launch their takedown when a surveillance team reported darren lopez was in a toyota leaving his
00:39:22compound with one of his daughters the order came back grab him the team blocked his truck and moved in
00:39:29with
00:39:30guns drawn darren lopez was arrested without incident he was taken into custody safely he wasn't injured
00:39:38his daughter wasn't injured and none of our agents were injured so and not a shot fired and not a
00:39:44shot
00:39:44fired in this business that's a great day detective barnes made sure darren's daughters were taken in by
00:39:50family friends barnes had more than one role in this investigation he's also an atf task force officer
00:39:58that's why he joined the arrest team and barnes served with the u.s army's 16th signal battalion in iraq
00:40:05so when he sat down across from darren lopez in a tennessee lockup he was able to talk with darren
00:40:12soldier to soldier being miles away from home it makes you grow up faster then barnes got to the
00:40:18point have you ever been to dallas no uh i think i flew through there but no i haven't been
00:40:25to dallas itself
00:40:26and you know that's not true i knew it wasn't true do you say to him no we know you're
00:40:31in dallas
00:40:31no i let him lock lock himself into that story darren admitted knowing jennifer and shared some
00:40:39misty-eyed memories of his youth we grew up together okay high school friends and we contacted each
00:40:46other almost a year ago i looked her up and i got her uh email address and stuff like that
00:40:52and just
00:40:53sent her a quick hi and she's like oh wow and so we started reconnecting yeah it's reliving old times
00:40:58he talked about how they met in high school he told me about a kiss that they shared in front
00:41:05of
00:41:05the eiffel tower in paris over 30 years ago to hear darren talk about it his relationship with
00:41:11jennifer is all in the past not the present right he said that they uh communicate uh now just because
00:41:17he's going through a divorce and she recently lost her husband and so they kind of help each other
00:41:22through their hard times she can vent to me and i can let her vent and then it makes her
00:41:28feel better
00:41:29and so she's been using that a lot more to help get through kind of like therapeutic right i get
00:41:35that you know that we're kindling that old flame and that's that's a that's a strong thing so we
00:41:40wrapped back she told me she was married okay you know and and i saw that i was like oh
00:41:43yeah cool
00:41:44and stuff so i mean we never breached you know that i i never thought we crossed like you know
00:41:51a threshold where it was inappropriate and like i said i've never been down there so it's like i've
00:41:55never had any physical contact it's just kind of like more of an emotional thing you didn't believe
00:41:59a word of that no then barnes asked darren about the t sticker on his pickup the vehicle had a
00:42:06t on the
00:42:07back of it um it doesn't have one on it today but it did have one on it yeah at
00:42:13the time of the
00:42:13offense okay what happened to the it started just tearing off just peeling off yeah okay once i started
00:42:22confronting him on some of the lies that he told um he immediately shut the interview down and asked
00:42:26for an attorney three months after jamie faith was shot seven times the detective told darren lopez
00:42:33he was going to be charged with that murder you're going to get booked into the jail here
00:42:38because the rain in front of the judge in Dallas now with darren behind bars officers descended on his
00:42:45chaotic mess of a home searching for evidence in my 22 years on the job i don't know that i've
00:42:52ever
00:42:52seen a house that was in that deplorable of a living condition this man is here with these two
00:42:58teenage daughters animal hair food on the counter you know something that's not right here the
00:43:06condition of that place suggested to you more than just messiness or poor housekeeping yeah so we do our
00:43:13best to search the home i noticed on the front porch was a large fedex box what's in this huge
00:43:21box it
00:43:22was a big screen tv and the label on the fedex box was addressed that darren lopez and the return
00:43:31address
00:43:32was jennifer faith she sent him a tv cinema tv and then amidst the trash the old food and that
00:43:3955 inch tv
00:43:41investigators landed on a piece of evidence almost too good to be true
00:43:46one of the agents called out and said hey i found something and it was a military style rucksack
00:43:55backpack inside the backpack was a 45 caliber semi-automatic pistol that's the same caliber
00:44:02as the murder weapon and upon closer examination you could see on the slide of the gun which appeared to
00:44:10be a small smear of blood it's like hey get it back to dallas it took just a couple of
00:44:17days for the
00:44:18dallas crime lab to process and test fire the blood smeared gun and then compare those casings to the
00:44:25ones recovered from the crime scene and the gun matches the cartridges yes yes and that blood comes back
00:44:32to jamie faye so in your view anyway game over and convicting darren of murder we felt that we had
00:44:40a
00:44:40solid case what happens on the story and what coverage does it receive here in town generally
00:44:46all of the sudden there's this announcement of an arrest made of darren lopez out of tennessee
00:44:53and you're left stunned when jamie's friends heard someone named darren had been arrested
00:44:59they were stumped they didn't know who he was you never heard that name no never heard that name
00:45:06we just try to figure out who darren was and like why he did that to jamie would want to
00:45:11hurt jamie
00:45:12why do they keep talking about this why do they shoot jamie down yeah you know in front of his
00:45:16home
00:45:17in front of his wife now investigators needed to know if jennifer and darren were more than just a
00:45:24a couple of long-distance shoulders for each other to cry on and who better to answer that question
00:45:31than jennifer faith herself have you ever heard of a name darren
00:45:51investigators were certain darren lopez had murdered jamie faith now they were wondering why jennifer faith
00:45:58had never mentioned darren's name maybe there was a reasonable explanation
00:46:04when you have a husband or wife whose spouse has been murdered and you know they're having an
00:46:09affair and they won't admit to it it's pretty plausible that that's because i don't want to
00:46:14admit to an affair at all and second i particularly don't want to admit to it now because now it's
00:46:19going to look like i i did something about that absolutely absolutely so did she do something about
00:46:26it investigators weren't sure on the same january day darren lopez was arrested in tennessee
00:46:34detectives in dallas asked jennifer to come sit down with them we're playing cat and mouse with
00:46:40with darren and jennifer and i wanted to see if there was anything that maybe jennifer said that
00:46:44i could use against darren we put together a game plan the game plan was to talk to jennifer and
00:46:50darren at
00:46:51the same time so they can't call each other they can't call each other i appreciate you coming down
00:46:54here federal prosecutor rick calvert appreciated it too you're watching that interview i'm outside the
00:47:00room watching on a television set you're trying to get some kind of read on her i am and she
00:47:06gave
00:47:07the same story that she'd been giving for the past two or three months all i can really remember are
00:47:12his
00:47:12eyes black eyes why would somebody want to do something like that if i knew that i would tell
00:47:18you right it drives me crazy then walton asked a question that seemed to hit a nerve have you ever
00:47:25heard of the name darren darren lopez yeah i asked her who was darren her whole demeanor changed he was
00:47:33one of my best friends we dated in high school but he doesn't know jamie and she uh told me
00:47:39that oh he's
00:47:40a guy i used to date back in high school in college and then that's when i asked her why
00:47:44didn't you tell
00:47:44me about darren and what's her answer uh she paused uh and she was she got a little bit uh
00:47:52a little bit
00:47:53angry why do you even bother listening to me about all these other people who i thought might have
00:47:58something to do with it do you know how much i've been wracking my brain if you knew this all
00:48:02along
00:48:02tell me a little about darren okay um let's see i i lost contact with him in 93 we broke
00:48:11up she says
00:48:13that we haven't seen each other in over 25 years which is true that they talk all the time um
00:48:19but they
00:48:19haven't met correct and that's the truth detective walton needed more i know that there's more to you
00:48:27and darren's relationship i don't know what more you're talking about personally in my heart
00:48:32i believe that you knew what happened that day i'm gonna tell you like this jennifer i know that
00:48:40darren committed this offense i know that darren killed your husband he told you we have a five-year
00:48:47plan we were like caught up in old emotions but i put the brakes on it but you didn't put
00:48:54the brakes on
00:48:54how could you talk to somebody that killed your husband i didn't know he killed my husband i still
00:48:59don't know that he killed my husband i wouldn't do that why would i do that and that's the question
00:49:05i have for you the interview became even more tense when the detective accused jennifer of giving him
00:49:11false leads like those american airlines employees i'm looking at all these other people what do
00:49:18anybody have against jamie why do anybody want to kill him if you were so in love with darren just
00:49:23dump the guy i wasn't just tell him hey i wasn't i was in love with my husband i'm telling
00:49:29you the truth
00:49:30so she claimed her digital footprints said she was lying her calls and texts with darren had continued
00:49:39at a crazy rate even after jamie was murdered the same guy that killed your husband jennifer is the
00:49:47same guy that you you communicating with every day you had over 24 000 sex messages and calls 24 000
00:49:54i don't work he's retired we talked throughout the day this guy killed your husband how do you know
00:50:01that because i have proof and guess what darren right now is currently in jail locked up for murder right
00:50:07now oh my god she had already been mirandized and she loaded up she didn't want to talk anymore
00:50:14jennifer's story seemed to be falling apart but investigators wanted to know what she would do
00:50:20next so they let her walk out the door instead of locking her up on the same day that darren
00:50:26gets
00:50:26locked up is there some value to letting jennifer kind of continue to play the part of you know i
00:50:32had
00:50:32no idea any of this was happening yeah absolutely we wanted to keep building the case there was
00:50:36still a lot of things that we didn't know like maybe jamie wasn't the nice guy everyone thought he was
00:50:43jamie's emails tell darren i'm punishing jennifer because she's talking to you again yes in some
00:50:52of the most sadistic ways you can possibly imagine yes
00:51:10jennifer faith was back on the street but not off the hook evidence against her was piling up
00:51:17so were her communications with darren by the time he was arrested phone records showed more than 130
00:51:26000 texts and calls between darren and jennifer in less than eight months this was a couple with a lot
00:51:34to say to each other except during a couple of days in october there was one period of time
00:51:42where more than a 10-hour period elapsed where jennifer and darren lopez were not texting each
00:51:49other and that just happens to fall on the day before the murder and the day of the murder that
00:51:55was the only period of time that wasn't all remember that appeal on tv and somebody must know who has
00:52:04a
00:52:04truck like that it's a black nissan titan extended cab has a texas ranger sticker in the back window so
00:52:12on darren's phone investigators found a text from jennifer from that same day she made her heartfelt appeal
00:52:20she texts him you need to get that t off the truck he responds back i will she goes you
00:52:26need to get it
00:52:27off right now uh he responds back t is gone i've removed the sticker and her response is yay i
00:52:34feel
00:52:34so much better time to arrest jennifer faith well at that point you have text message clearly obstructing
00:52:43justice and so detectives arrested jennifer faith for obstruction of justice reporter maria guerrero
00:52:51was as shocked as anyone i texted jennifer and i said please tell me you did not know about this
00:52:58do you want to clear your name and she texted back please contact my attorney and gave me his name
00:53:05and
00:53:06number that was the last time that she spoke with me well nice try yeah feels to me like you
00:53:13guys are
00:53:14getting near the end of the road at that point it seems to be a a love triangle that uh
00:53:19that ended up
00:53:21costing jamie his life at first maybe it's random then maybe it's connected to somebody who's got a
00:53:28grudge against jamie because of the the way he's shot then the affair comes out maybe darren wants
00:53:36jennifer for his own and he's acting to make that happen then maybe jennifer's in on it with him and
00:53:44they're going to live happily ever after what you find after that i'm pretty sure you've never seen
00:53:49before no the case takes a dramatic twist for sure absolutely it happened five months after the murder
00:53:58while darren and jennifer were both in jail early march of 2021 darren's ex-wife told me that she
00:54:05was taking care of some of darren's financial affairs and she needed to access some of his
00:54:10account information from his email as darren's ex looked through the files she realized jamie seemed
00:54:17to have known about the affair with jennifer and she saw several emails coming from jamie faith and
00:54:26they detailed information about an abusive relationship that was going on between jamie and jennifer
00:54:34those emails showed the victim jamie faith started emailing darren jamie was also texting darren
00:54:43using jennifer's phone it started six months before the murder jamie faith is advising darren
00:54:52that jamie is abusing sexually and physically his wife as a punishment for them reconnecting jamie's
00:55:02emails tell darren i'm punishing jennifer because she's talking to you again yes in some of the most
00:55:11sadistic ways you can possibly imagine yes there was acts sexual acts of gang rapes and torture
00:55:19that were described to be carried out by jamie through these emails rapes of jennifer right by
00:55:26other men in front of jamie that's correct in case darren had any trouble believing that jamie sent him
00:55:34photographic evidence of the abuse multiple injuries burns bruises jennifer's cut lip and jamie
00:55:42actually seemed to be bragging about it how does darren respond to that darren responds that he's going
00:55:49to go to police he responds that he's going to tell jamie's employer jennifer offered another solution
00:55:57asking darren to contact her friend rob schmidt we actually saw the original email that darren sent
00:56:04to rob schmidt saying hey rob i got your email address from from jennifer she asked that i reach
00:56:13out to you for guidance jamie is abusing jennifer and how does rob respond rob responds this is terrible
00:56:20i will do whatever i can to assist you in this to make sure this abuse stops rob schmidt says
00:56:25in the
00:56:26emails that he spoke to jamie multiple times yes and maybe maybe things have turned a corner correct
00:56:33and and things started to slow down as far as the abuse for a period of time for a while
00:56:40things
00:56:41seemed to calm down but that didn't last jennifer told darren the assaults had resumed by then darren
00:56:49was already considering a more permanent solution to jennifer's problem he wrote to rob i still feel
00:56:57he is very yaft up in the head i know i won't feel better about her situation until she is
00:57:01out of the
00:57:01house away from him or she lets me put a bullet in jamie's head and rob wrote back thanks for
00:57:08the
00:57:08update i'm also very concerned and if it were up to me i would tell you to go for it
00:57:13with your idea lol
00:57:15i'll give you an alibi then just weeks before the murder darren received another email from jamie
00:57:22he was threatening a sexual assault that could kill jennifer it was something jamie said he was
00:57:29planning for october 9th and the couple's 15th anniversary that was also the day jamie was killed
00:57:37if darren really is this guy who sort of saved jennifer from this horrible abusive relationship
00:57:43that's a little easier to understand why maybe she wasn't too anxious for you guys to arrest darren
00:57:49because he's helping her out right and it it also uh it also could kind of explain why someone who
00:57:58had
00:57:58never broken the law in his life had never been arrested would be willing to possibly drive to
00:58:04dallas to save someone that he believed was being abused suddenly everything looked different seen
00:58:11through a lens of pain and abuse maybe jennifer faith was a victim of sexual assault and darren lopez a
00:58:19soldier on a mission to rescue his long lost love in the interviews that jennifer gave she ever talk
00:58:26about her husband being anything other than a wonderful guy absolutely not
00:58:46before investigators found all that sickening evidence of abuse
00:58:51all anyone had known about jamie faith was sunshine and rainbows in the interviews that jennifer gave
00:58:58to you to other stations she ever talked about her husband being anything other than a wonderful guy
00:59:04absolutely not so no hint of their problems in the marriage not one word now when investigators poured
00:59:11over those graphic emails everything they'd believed about jamie faith seemed dead wrong
00:59:19the ultimate nice guy it geek with the cheesy hawaiian shirts appeared after all to be a sadist who'd acted
00:59:27out his darkest impulses on his wife maybe that's why darren lopez wanted to kill him and why jennifer's
00:59:35friend rob schmidt seemed to be offering darren an alibi we asked rob to explain himself i gotta read you
00:59:44some emails here okay this one's dated about five months before jamie's murdered darren is emailing rob
00:59:52schmidt i still feel jamie's very effed up in the head i know i won't feel better about her situation
00:59:58until she lets me put a bullet in jamie's head and rob schmidt writes back if it were up to
01:00:07me i would tell
01:00:08you to go for it with your idea lol i'll give you an alibi yeah it's very funny to have
01:00:17words be put
01:00:18into my mouth that never existed that i never typed you didn't write that email you didn't communicate
01:00:25with darren by email never that's exactly what rob told investigators when they asked their next
01:00:34question was if he didn't write those emails who did detectives had sent jennifer's computer to the fbi
01:00:42and when it came back the fed's analysis left little doubt it was jennifer all of it
01:00:50we knew that jennifer faith had created those false accounts and that gave us a clearer picture
01:00:57of what was going on well just a second what about those photos of jennifer's injuries
01:01:04she was involved in a car accident in phoenix arizona those photographs were taken in 2012
01:01:09she sent them to darren claiming that that was abuse that jamie was inflicting on her that picture
01:01:15the bruised lip that's not jennifer's lip no she uploaded that off the internet at shutterstock.com
01:01:22so all her claims of abuse are invented all of them jamie wasn't abusing her never that feels like
01:01:30the moment where you stop thinking of jennifer as victim of the murder and victim of abuse and start
01:01:36thinking of her as perpetrator of everything i think that was one of the defining moments
01:01:42that just clearly hit us that the only true victim in this case was jamie that jennifer's hands were
01:01:49just as dirty as darren's were in this murder or maybe dirtier under the guise of helping darren
01:01:56jennifer had convinced him to give her his psych records those would have shown her darren suffered
01:02:02from ptsd and a traumatic brain injury both from combat do you think his war injuries made darren easier
01:02:10to manipulate i do i do and i think that once jennifer learned that that's probably something that
01:02:19she took advantage of the more you learn about this case the worse she sounds absolutely absolutely
01:02:25and if the phony abuse story didn't work investigators say jennifer had another plan
01:02:32their emails were filled with 50 shades of tmi about phone sex bondage
01:02:38and other things we don't really talk about on network tv investigators say it was all designed
01:02:45to twist darren into jennifer's willing assassin whatever it was jamie never saw any of it coming
01:02:54no how did he not notice jennifer on the phone constantly my wife's on the phone constantly but my
01:03:04mind does not go to she's planning to kill me right nobody would think that without significant warning
01:03:13and significant reason to think that right here she is living a double life but it was really a triple
01:03:20or quadruple life wasn't it it was because she wasn't just being herself she was also being rob schmidt
01:03:27she was also being jamie it was like a broadway one person show it was i mean she lied to
01:03:34everyone
01:03:35she's lying to her husband she's lying to darren she's lying to her best friend she's lying to jamie's
01:03:41parents sitting in a texas jail darren lopez refused to believe it he was convinced killing jamie had
01:03:50protected the woman he loved even his court appointed attorney juan sanchez had trouble getting
01:03:57through it was really hard he uh almost didn't trust me because i was trying to confront him with
01:04:02the truth the world he was living in was not the reality you'd say to him by the way she
01:04:09made this up
01:04:10those emails weren't from her husband they were all from jennifer exactly and he would say no no you're
01:04:16wrong he was just adamant that jennifer was being abused physically and sexually it took sanchez months
01:04:23to convince the former soldier he'd been used as a remotely controlled weapon in a murderous scheme
01:04:31darren eventually agreed to speak with investigators again and this time gave them a detailed confession
01:04:37of what went down they recorded the audio he told me that he had her tied up in the closet
01:04:46and he was going to do different things with her prosecutor rick calvert asked about the messages
01:04:52darren thought were from jamie that text message you're talking about was that uh from jennifer's phone
01:05:00yes she had told me that he would take her phone he was like mad that i was back with
01:05:06her and because
01:05:07of that he started hurting her and she's like i think i was gonna kill him and i was just
01:05:13like
01:05:13uh you can't do that you know um and so that's that's where it says that i guess the idea
01:05:21kind of
01:05:21started this son of the volunteer state says he made her mission his own darren told me that and a
01:05:30whole lot more when i asked him was it hard to bullet trigger
01:05:50their high school romance fizzled in the early 1990s and from then on darren lopez thought of
01:05:56jennifer faith as the one that got away you really never stopped thinking about her did you no i didn't
01:06:05i met darren at the dallas county jail his home for 30 months while he waited for trial
01:06:13hello can you hear me okay yes again in our interview darren was by turns remorseful reflective
01:06:20and regretful about his relationship with jennifer one that started with a kiss by the eiffel tower
01:06:27on a high school trip to europe and why didn't it last uh we grew apart i mean we we
01:06:34lasted for
01:06:34three four years i tried to go to college uh i had to drop off at it after a year
01:06:40and then uh during
01:06:41that time frame is when i joined the reserves sounds like maybe she stopped thinking about you but you did
01:06:46not stop thinking about her no like i said because before each deployment that i have to take you know
01:06:52we have to fill out these these forms questions where if i ever get captured the you know rescuing
01:06:58force can't ask me specific questions that only i'm going to know something personal that no one would
01:07:04be able to guess or look up exactly so i used jennifer so before each deployment she was with me
01:07:11along the way darren married helped to raise five daughters he says his life grew bleak after he left
01:07:19the army then in march 2020 came that reconnection with jennifer and a short burst of happiness followed
01:07:27by a descent into hell it was her telling me these things over and over again after the stuff had
01:07:35happened her crying about everything that's what i believed i trusted her darren told me he finally
01:07:42decided to do what soldiers are trained to do take out the enemy the mission protect jennifer and her
01:07:50daughter amber jennifer's in danger she's going to be hurt possibly killed friday night if you don't do
01:07:59something if i didn't do something she was going to die even if you believed every single thing she
01:08:05said and were fooled by all the emails why not go to the police amber jennifer every single time i
01:08:12try
01:08:12to bring it up she wanted to protect amber's memory of jamie has a good father don't tell me the
01:08:18only way
01:08:18out of that is killing them at the time yes i truly believe it because i believed in her you
01:08:24know i was
01:08:24trusting her so he got in his truck drove 10 hours to dallas he said jennifer told him to hide
01:08:33in the
01:08:33yard of the vacant home next door yes that was darren on the video jennifer showed police the day of
01:08:40the murder i don't know that house is empty she knew all along darren waited until morning
01:08:53was it hard to pull the trigger well yes i mean it was
01:09:01i mean i was on like on on a mission in the military but i was in the same type
01:09:06of mindset
01:09:07with it but i was doing what i had to do to protect jennifer now keep this in mind after
01:09:14the shooting
01:09:14when he shoved jennifer onto the pavement as a staged robbery that was the first time darren had
01:09:22touched her or even seen her in close to three decades it was also the last time
01:09:31you think she was ever in love with you
01:09:35i don't know when i got arrested i went to jail truly believing i saved jennifer and amber
01:09:42when your attorney showed you the evidence that jennifer wasn't abused yeah jamie wasn't this
01:09:49monster he wasn't beating her up the threats weren't real you said that's not true you didn't
01:09:56want to believe that no no when when my lawyer first told me you know it was just that thought
01:10:01never registered in my mind that she could use me this way she told me that we were soulmates
01:10:09why would she put me through all this torture good question months later as darren cooperated with
01:10:18the u.s attorney's office jennifer was charged with the federal crime of murder for hire darren was left
01:10:25to wrestle with the awful truth he had assassinated an innocent man she used me i became her weapon
01:10:36i understand that and i don't have to live with what i did for the rest of my life no
01:10:42matter if i'm
01:10:42in here or if i'm out it might be easy to write off darren lopez as another casualty of war
01:10:49a damaged
01:10:50veteran turned stone-cold killer his band of brothers says it's not that simple i just couldn't
01:10:59couldn't believe it here's somebody that we trust with everything and it's not the person that we
01:11:05know that would do this phil heil and greg underwood know a different darren after serving alongside him
01:11:12as green berets in the iraq war they witnessed darren's courage and kindness as a medic who cared
01:11:20both for his fellow soldiers and for injured iraqis he was always out there with the children and talking
01:11:27them and their parents and making sure everything was good seeing if there's anything he could do
01:11:30for them they remember a day in 2005 when twin truck bombs exploded just outside their base south
01:11:37of baghdad darren took a serious hit to the head and then saw greg was out cold and in real
01:11:45danger
01:11:46darren pretty much brought me back to life he saved my life and i mean he was a close friend
01:11:52and
01:11:53brother before that but after that i could never i can never repay darren for that they also know how
01:12:00darren himself suffered the brain injury the ptsd the breakup of his marriage then in the late spring
01:12:08of 2020 darren's friends say they caught a glimpse of the man they used to know he said i reconnected
01:12:15with
01:12:16uh old girlfriend said i'm just talking to her this was something that just really gave him
01:12:22that glow of a you know okay well this is good for him thank you sheriff y'all may be
01:12:27seated
01:12:29she wasn't in the courtroom but jennifer faith's presence hung over the trial
01:12:35as darren faced a jury in the summer of 2023 and while he'd confessed to pulling the trigger
01:12:42he pleaded not guilty here's why darren killed james faith but darren did that because jennifer
01:12:52led him to believe that she was being abused beaten james is going to kill me is what jennifer told
01:13:01darren in texas it's called the third party defense darren's lawyer laid it out for the jury
01:13:08he felt at that time in order to save her he had to act immediately and take care of the
01:13:13threat you
01:13:14can use deadly force to defend someone if you believe that they're in immediate harm or you can
01:13:19do it to prevent them from committing a murder or an aggravated sexual assault in texas does that
01:13:26doesn't that have to be true for you to raise that not necessarily darren lopez testified that he
01:13:32believed jennifer's lies about jamie's abuse did you feel she was in danger that day yes i did mortal
01:13:41danger maybe and maybe not argued prosecutor brandy mitchell even if jennifer was manipulating darren she
01:13:50said he was all in he is pursuing her he wants her to come visit him these texts emails get
01:14:00increasingly
01:14:02sexual in nature and increasingly graphic in nature how graphic well those emails were read aloud in court
01:14:13resulting in a deeply cringe inducing two-person command performance by prosecutor mitchell and detective
01:14:20barnes here's a pg sample i love you i so love you totally in love with you later a steamier
01:14:32exchange
01:14:34glad to see you are wearing clothes ha ha ha no panties though my sexy brat
01:14:42i'll just bend you over my lap and give you a quick spanking it gets way racier just uh take
01:14:49my word
01:14:50for it by the end we all kind of honestly we kind of needed a shower it was not good
01:14:55more important was
01:14:57the question of third-party defense the prosecutors said under the law the killer would have to believe
01:15:03the action was necessary to save a life and the danger imminent that means now right this moment action
01:15:14is needed fear of future danger is never enough ladies and gentlemen darren lopez had so many options
01:15:25that he did not take they didn't deliberate long no they weren't very long we the jury unanimously find
01:15:34the defendant darren lopez guilty of murder as charged in the indictment darren's defense had always been
01:15:41a long shot you know as a matter of fact i think if they would have uh come back with
01:15:47an acquittal you
01:15:47would have to pick me off the ground and the day that it happened we celebrated we all celebrated his
01:15:53life what'd you do we all got together yeah we all got together had some drinks it was it was
01:15:59a good
01:15:59time darren lopez was sentenced to 62 years in prison he's appealing the sentence he's a murderer but maybe
01:16:07he wouldn't be a murderer if he hadn't hung on to that memory of jennifer faith it's it's very possible
01:16:13it's a cautionary tale that maybe some people are better left in your past and someone in jennifer's
01:16:19past has a story that will sound very familiar she specifically said i wish my husband was dead
01:16:26yeah and what would happen when jennifer faced justice for jamie's murder
01:16:50jennifer faith wife mom speech therapist and maybe the biggest mystery in this whole tale of murder
01:16:58and betrayal remember what the twins said about her i love her jamie i love her like you that's
01:17:06a keeper for you jamie faith loved her too probably still did even at the moment he was murdered
01:17:14this way here's someone else who loved jennifer his name is rick erlob i feel
01:17:24like a fool i know you were a little reticent to sit down here because of that sure you don't
01:17:31want
01:17:32to look bad in front of the world when rick heard about jennifer's role in the murder he says he
01:17:39was
01:17:39horrified back in 2000 he and jennifer had an affair while she was still married to husband number one
01:17:47rick says she pursued him not your plan but there you are yes now stop me if you've heard this
01:17:56but he
01:17:57says jennifer told him her marriage was hellish and her husband a monster he would have friends come
01:18:05over and rape her he would torture her with implements so this was a woman in a terrible place yes
01:18:14and you
01:18:15could help her yes was that your idea or her idea it's her idea until she makes it think that
01:18:24it's your
01:18:24idea tell me she'll tell you about it and just say you know i wish i could get out i
01:18:33wish he was dead
01:18:37or she specifically said i wish my husband was dead
01:18:42yeah together he says they came up with a plan i was supposed to shoot him when he was tending
01:18:48his
01:18:49garden it was to that point was this a real plan or was this some kind of like fantasy
01:18:54that the two of you were talking about a what if it was close i think it was close
01:19:01he says the talk of murder ended abruptly when jennifer got a divorce and then rick became husband number
01:19:09two before long he says he started receiving emails from a couple of strangers one was a surgeon
01:19:17the other an airline pilot each man talked about how hot jennifer was and how rick didn't appreciate her
01:19:27you never met the surgeon nope you never met the pilot no finally rick said enough and got a divorce
01:19:35today rick believes the pilot and the surgeon were phantoms and jennifer sent all those emails
01:19:42he also believes her first husband was not the monster jennifer described that guy declined an
01:19:49interview with dateline and police in arizona told us there's no evidence he ever abused jennifer
01:19:56you got pretty bruised by that whole thing didn't you you know i wasn't hurt physically but i lost that
01:20:01time that i could be doing something different that really mattered and not be swimming in a sea of lies
01:20:08and manipulation and pain maybe she thought she'd always get away with lying and manipulating truth is
01:20:20she almost did until darren reappeared he pulled the trigger yes but she pulled the strings yes this
01:20:31murder doesn't happen without both of them jennifer faith declined our request for an interview
01:20:39so we're left to wonder why she wanted jamie killed and right in front of her
01:20:46maybe it was about more than getting him out of her life maybe it was also about greed how much
01:20:53was
01:20:53the life insurance i believe it was six hundred and thirty nine thousand dollars plus an additional
01:20:58almost four hundred thousand dollars in benefits from american airlines so a total in excess of one
01:21:05million dollars jennifer never got that money she did not if you're wondering she did try and remember how
01:21:13her nice neighbors started that gofundme it raised sixty thousand dollars a lot of that money went to
01:21:21darren jennifer gave him two credit cards and some expensive gifts they're still talking about that
01:21:29she sent money from the gofundme to him to buy like airplane tickets or something a tv and i was
01:21:37like
01:21:37are you kidding me because immediately what flashes in my mind when i read that part was remembering her
01:21:44messaging me and saying i don't know how to access the gofundme i can't do it she played computer
01:21:50illiterate yeah she's able to create a fake email account and i'm like so i physically went to her house
01:21:56oh man i felt like an idiot jennifer ended up draining that gofundme account she never did pay for
01:22:04those splashy funerals long after her arrest jennifer insisted she'd been just a helpless bystander in
01:22:13jamie's killing then once darren confessed she folded jennifer pleaded guilty to the federal crime of
01:22:21murder for hire and was sentenced to life without parole and after that she sends a note to jamie's
01:22:29parent saying she still loves him correct yes that she did nothing but love jamie and she would never
01:22:34do anything to harm him yes she did all evidence to the contrary correct for those who did love jamie
01:22:43faith this remains the final image of him his last act a daily routine walking the dog with his wife
01:22:53except she was leading jamie to his death and she knew it what kind of person does that i don't
01:23:01know
01:23:02a crazy person obviously but it's so much more than that poor jamie i mean he really had no idea
01:23:10what he
01:23:10was getting into yeah sad he let his heart go to her and she took his life
01:23:22that's all for this edition of dateline we'll see you again thursday at 10 9 central for the premiere
01:23:28of dateline thursday and of course i'll see you each week night for nbc nightly news
01:23:34news i'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news good night
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