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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 you just keep going and then you just keep going it was stopping and i saw the birds and
00:07:31turn and like just dark eyes coming toward me. She said the killer then turned on her.
00:07:43He was hitting my face and kept trying to turn me over and he hit my side and back and
00:07:51hitting
00:07:52and then all of a sudden I saw a flash of the, it was silver, the gun was silver.
00:07:58Later in the interview Jennifer and Detective Walton used her phone to access the family's
00:08:04home security system which had a camera that faced the empty house next door.
00:08:10They saw this image. It's a man walking alone around that abandoned property in
00:08:17the pre-dawn hours before the killing. Certainly something to pursue. Detective
00:08:28Walton alerted his fellow investigators and continued the conversation. Were there any
00:08:34problems lately with anyone? Jennifer confirmed what everyone else had said. That Jamie was well liked. A nice neighbor loving
00:08:54dad and husband. Whatever this was it had to be random. A robbery that became murder. And then autopsy results.
00:09:04came back. That 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 James Faith
00:09:33shot multiple times.
00:09:34Maria Guerrero covered the story for NBC5 in Dallas. We knew that a man was killed while walking his dog
00:09:45with his wife.
00:09:46And this sounds like what robbery? That's exactly what we thought it was. And that's what police were initially looking
00:09:53into this case as a robbery.
00:09:56Then the autopsy results came in and suddenly Jamie's killing didn't seem so random.
00:10:03We learned that he was shot three times in the head, three times in the chest and one time in
00:10:09the groin.
00:10:10That does not feel like a robbery. That feels like something else.
00:10:14It was overkill. To me it was very personal.
00:10:17So how could Jamie Faith generate that kind of rage? The killing made even less sense when police took a
00:10:25closer look at him.
00:10:27What kind of guy was he? What did he do for a living?
00:10:30He was one of those guys who you would want to be neighbors with.
00:10:33I learned that he was from Wisconsin. He also loved the Green Bay Packers. He was a huge fan.
00:10:40He was an IT director for American Airlines. He was one of those guys where everybody just loved. Played video
00:10:47games on Thursday nights.
00:10:51Jamie also played pool and really liked bowling. Nobody knew that better than twin sisters Monica and Monique Flores.
00:11:00They'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.
00:11:11We liked him so much that we had so much in common that he ended up getting on the team
00:11:15with us when we needed a player.
00:11:17But not dating either of you? No. No.
00:11:22What made him an eligible? He was like one of those friends.
00:11:25Friend zone. Yeah. He was a good guy. Like a nice guy.
00:11:30He was always happy. Jamie, like, always lit up the bowling 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 up the bowling alley. It's not something I hear very often.
00:11:43You know, he did.
00:11:46Police learned Jamie was smart, resourceful, and quirky. This is his friend Theresa Jensen.
00:11:53When we were in college, we would go to the dog track and he had a whole computer set up
00:12:01where he would take the information for the dogs and plug it into his computer.
00:12:08And that would be how he would make his beds. And he'd go up to the window with a big
00:12:13wad of money and he'd win.
00:12:15So not nerdy at all? No, not at all.
00:12:21But? Just a little nerdy.
00:12:23But he made money on it.
00:12:24He made enough money where I'm pretty sure he ended up buying his own Cadillac with his winnings.
00:12:32You know, here's a 21, 22 year old guy driving around in a Cadillac.
00:12:37What color?
00:12:38It was like a maroon, maroon red.
00:12:41He wore Hawaiian shirts and gold jeans.
00:12:43He did, he did, he did.
00:12:46Oh, he wasn't missing a beat.
00:12:50Investigators learned Jamie was living in Phoenix in 2005 when he met Jennifer on a blind date.
00:12:56And something clicked.
00:12:58Jamie started working at U.S. Airways in 2008.
00:13:01Four years later, he and Jennifer married.
00:13:04Jennifer was working as a speech therapist.
00:13:07A good one, according to her friend and colleague, Rob Schmidt.
00:13:11She's very intelligent.
00:13:13She's a great speech therapist.
00:13:16And she just kind of fit in with our group.
00:13:19I guess being a speech therapist, I mean, you know, you've got to have a lot of patience and you've
00:13:24got to be, you know, sort of really caring with other people.
00:13:27Right, right.
00:13:28And then when we met Jennifer, we're like, oh my God, you guys are so cute together.
00:13:32Like they were so, just so cute and like all, you know what I mean?
00:13:36Lovey-dovey.
00:13:36Lovey-dovey.
00:13:37And I'm just like, I love her, Jamie.
00:13:39I love her.
00:13:40Like you, that's a keeper for you.
00:13:42And he goes, oh, I know.
00:13:43I know.
00:13:44Jennifer had been married twice before with a daughter, Amber, from her first marriage.
00:13:50Jamie adopted Amber in 2016.
00:13:53By 2017, U.S. Airways had been swallowed by American Airlines.
00:13:59Jamie accepted a promotion.
00:14:01And then the family relocated to Dallas, where Jamie started working as an IT executive at American.
00:14:08Now flash forward to October 9th, 2020, and the news no friend wants to hear.
00:14:16I got a call and seeing it was from Jennifer, automatically picked up.
00:14:22And she's crying and, you know, having trouble speaking.
00:14:29And she let me know that Jamie had been shot.
00:14:35Had Jamie at any time in your relationship with him mentioned being afraid of anyone?
00:14:41No.
00:14:42Or concerned about his safety in any way?
00:14:45No.
00:14:45Not one time.
00:14:47Days into their investigation, police scrambled for more details about a murder out of the
00:14:52blue.
00:14:53The biggest clue so far, that truck, with what looked like a Texas Rangers decal.
00:14:59Everybody, I mean everybody, was on the lookout for this black truck.
00:15:04So, find the truck and find the killer?
00:15:25Hours after Jamie Faith's murder, Dallas detectives were pursuing their biggest lead.
00:15:31A black Nissan truck caught on a witness's phone camera.
00:15:35Police were sure that in the driver's seat was the killer.
00:15:39The biggest clue was that it had a T decal on the back windshield.
00:15:45Police put out an alert for the truck.
00:15:48Before long, they'd assembled multiple shots of the pickup moving out of the neighborhood.
00:15:53We checked all the residences.
00:15:56We saw some had cameras, some didn't.
00:15:59And from there, it's like a puzzle.
00:16:01So, if one camera showed the vehicle at 734, we received another camera at 735 and 736.
00:16:10And you put together this little movie?
00:16:11Yes, sir.
00:16:13We did that for approximately three miles until we were able to catch the vehicle heading
00:16:18north on I-35 from Illinois.
00:16:21And that's where you lose it?
00:16:22Yes, sir.
00:16:23On the highway.
00:16:24At any point, you can't get a plate number and you can't see who's inside?
00:16:27No, sir.
00:16:31Everybody was on high alert that there was a killer in our neighborhood.
00:16:35Walking your dogs are now looking behind you and watching to see who's coming down the street.
00:16:39And you're, you know, watching out for your neighbors and, you know, even more so.
00:16:43Everybody, I mean, everybody was on the lookout for this black truck.
00:16:48And we knew it was a Nissan Titan black with a T in the rear window.
00:16:53And so there were many pictures of trucks being posted online even without any kind of a T.
00:16:59Is this the truck?
00:17:00Could this be the truck?
00:17:01The Faith's neighbors wanted to pitch in and help.
00:17:05Jenna reached out.
00:17:06Everyone had that same sense that I had, which is, you know, this could have been me.
00:17:10So I texted Jennifer Faith and said, I know you don't know me, but there's a lot of people that
00:17:16want to help if we can.
00:17:18And she almost immediately responded and said that she would love that and could I come over tomorrow to talk?
00:17:23So I was over there the day after the murder to meet her.
00:17:28Jennifer Faith was there, their daughter Amber Faith, as well as Jamie's extended family.
00:17:35When Jenna saw all those people at the Faith's home, she thought they're going to need some food.
00:17:41You know, you've got to eat every day, but if you're dealing with that kind of a trauma, you might
00:17:45not be up for cooking for a while.
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.
00:18:00They wanted to do more because a widow with a daughter would have bills to pay.
00:18:06The GoFundMe was set up, I think the next day.
00:18:09We already had it up and going.
00:18:11The idea was just to help with any expenses, funeral expenses, daily living expenses.
00:18:18She was very grateful.
00:18:20Detective Chris Walton wanted to help too, because when he's not chasing killers, he's a Baptist minister.
00:18:29You went to pray with the family?
00:18:31Yes, I did.
00:18:32We wanted to make sure that, you know, we let Jennifer know that, hey, we were here for you.
00:18:37You do that on all investigations?
00:18:38I do it quite often.
00:18:41I'm a strong believer in the good Lord and a strong man of faith.
00:18:45I also wanted to make sure that she felt that we were trying to do everything that we could to
00:18:50find out who did this to her husband.
00:18:53Police were learning a lot about Jamie, his life as a family man and his life as a boss.
00:19:00Jamie doesn't sound like one of those guys who is sort of counting down the hours till the weekend.
00:19:06Like, he liked his work.
00:19:07Yes.
00:19:08Yes, for sure.
00:19:09100%.
00:19:10He loved his work.
00:19:11He loved the people he worked for.
00:19:13He ever have a problem with anybody that you know of at work?
00:19:16Absolutely not.
00:19:16Or anywhere else?
00:19:18Mm-mm.
00:19:19Not that I know of.
00:19:20Well, there was one problem.
00:19:23Jennifer told detectives Jamie had recently laid off some people at American.
00:19:27Wouldn't be the first time an ex-employee got angry enough to kill.
00:19:33I met with the American Airlines director who was able to give me access to the employees that were laid
00:19:39off.
00:19:39It was COVID during that time.
00:19:41Right.
00:19:41And so a lot of people were losing their jobs.
00:19:43Approximately 18 to 20 during that time.
00:19:45So the plan was to talk to all those people.
00:19:49Yeah.
00:19:49The detective was also looking at something else.
00:19:52That man they spotted on Jennifer's security camera walking around the empty house next door.
00:19:59This individual was walking around that residence around about 2.30, 8 in the morning.
00:20:04So who was that guy?
00:20:06Maybe one of those just-fired employees?
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.
00:20:35A week after Jamie Faith was gunned down, friends and family gathered in Dallas for a funeral.
00:20:41One of two services Jennifer had organized.
00:20:44Father, we thank you for the gift of this amazing man.
00:20:49The service was live streamed from the funeral home.
00:20:52Friends and family from across the country were watching, along with Dallas neighbors Jennifer and Jenna.
00:20:58I remember at one point, you know, we both were talking about how emotional it was and we were brought
00:21:04to tears when the camera went up to the front and just capturing everything, all the emotion that was taking
00:21:10place there.
00:21:10Yeah.
00:21:11Rick Calvert had never heard of Jamie Faith before the murder, but he was also watching.
00:21:17Rick is a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Texas.
00:21:21Dallas detectives asked him for help on the case.
00:21:25The description that Jennifer Faith gave of her husband during that funeral basically is consistent with what every individual that
00:21:34we talked to, how they described Jamie Faith.
00:21:36He was the best husband that you could possibly ask for.
00:21:40They had the perfect 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.
00:22:01Happy Valentine's Day.
00:22:03This is from Jennifer to Jamie.
00:22:05Packed with memories of the couple's good times together.
00:22:09This love book was very elaborate, many pages and they went through page by page.
00:22:14Touching as it all was, there were moments when Teresa tried not to roll her eyes.
00:22:21And it would say, I love you every day when I wake up.
00:22:25I love that you're the first person I talk to.
00:22:28I love that we travel together.
00:22:31So, I mean, okay, maybe that's a little over the top, but...
00:22:35A little over the top.
00:22:37Plus, you know, and just the simple fact that, and maybe this is just me, they had been together for
00:22:4415 years.
00:22:45I've been with my husband for 18 years, he's not getting a love book like that.
00:22:50The people I interview are not supposed to be more cynical than I am.
00:22:54I'm sorry.
00:22:56Jamie and Jennifer's friends and neighbors noticed how expensive the service was.
00:23:01I guess I had never seen anything like that, where you had, you know, coasters and matchbooks and memorabilia.
00:23:12And it was almost like a...
00:23:17I mean, I hate to say, it was almost like a party where you have takeaway gifts.
00:23:21Like party favors.
00:23:22Like party favors. That's a great way to put it. Like party favors to take away from a funeral.
00:23:26The women knew those extras weren't cheap, but at least Jennifer had that GoFundMe.
00:23:32It could help cover costs.
00:23:34And that fund? It just kept growing.
00:23:37We were shocked that it went up to over $15,000 in a less than 24-hour period.
00:23:42And less than a week, it was over $60,000.
00:23:45So I think our takeaway from that really attests to how much Jamie was loved.
00:23:53Yes, I think initially a lot of the support for the GoFundMe came from the Oak Cliff community.
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.
00:24:09Remember the guy caught on security camera next door hours before Jamie was shot?
00:24:14Jennifer first told detectives she didn't know who it was.
00:24:18Then she called them back.
00:24:20She told me that neighbors had informed her that there was another neighbor who had often gotten into it with
00:24:26his wife
00:24:26and got drunk and would walk around the neighborhood like that.
00:24:29And what about the theory that a former American Airlines employee might have had it in for Jamie after that
00:24:35round of layoffs?
00:24:37No indications that anyone was blaming him for layoffs.
00:24:41We could not find any suspects that would have an axe to grind with him.
00:24:48By then, the investigation had taken off in a whole new direction.
00:24:52And all of a sudden, you're not really looking at disgruntled American Airlines employees anymore.
00:24:57No.
00:24:58All of a sudden, they're taking another look at that marriage.
00:25:02The one that was so flawless, it made other couples jealous.
00:25:06That was the first evidence that there was a crack in the facade of this perfect marriage.
00:25:25Jamie Faith had been dead for two months when his widow Jennifer decided to speak out.
00:25:31She talked with NBC5 in Dallas.
00:25:34Her fear was that this case was going cold and she really wanted to finally come forward.
00:25:39My hope is that someday, perhaps the person will realize the gravity of what they've done and what they've taken
00:25:45from myself and my daughter.
00:25:47During the interview, she said that based on witnesses and what she remembers, a big clue will be this black
00:25:56pickup truck, she said.
00:25:57It's a black Nissan Titan extended cab, has a Texas Ranger sticker in the back window.
00:26:04Any information leading to the arrest would be fantastic and it would help give me the closure that I'm really
00:26:10looking for.
00:26:11What Jennifer didn't know was that all this time, investigators had actually been moving ahead with evidence that might not
00:26:18provide the kind of closure she was hoping for.
00:26:21And it all started with her phone.
00:26:24I believe without that phone, we probably wouldn't be sitting here today.
00:26:30That's because something on that phone at least appeared to refute everything Jennifer had said.
00:26:36What kind of marriage do you have?
00:26:38It's perfect.
00:26:39Perfect.
00:26:39Yes.
00:26:40That's what she says.
00:26:41And that's the Jamie and Jennifer we went into this investigation believing was the case.
00:26:49Well, that was before.
00:26:51Now investigators read a series of texts dated April 2020.
00:26:56Six months before Jamie was killed, Jennifer and a friend named Tina were chatting.
00:27:02Included was this stunner from Jennifer.
00:27:05So I'm pretty much having a full blown emotional affair.
00:27:09An emotional affair, you know, the kind that's just texts and calls.
00:27:15It's been crazy and I know I'm so stupid for doing this and I know you're at work and I'm
00:27:20probably blowing your mind right now, lol.
00:27:23Then a surprise admission about her perfect marriage.
00:27:28Tina, we haven't had sex in four years.
00:27:31Tina asked why.
00:27:33Jennifer's answer.
00:27:34I told him I feel like we love each other, but we are not in love with each other.
00:27:38I don't know.
00:27:39I constantly try to initiate.
00:27:41I give you credit for being upfront.
00:27:42I finally gave up about a year ago.
00:27:45I couldn't lie to him.
00:27:46He deserves better than that.
00:27:48He won't give me a reason.
00:27:50I thought he was having an affair for a little while, but no.
00:27:52Tina had a question.
00:27:53Does Jamie say he's in love or is he content too?
00:27:57How can a person be in love but no sex or passion?
00:28:00He says he is in love.
00:28:02He says he is in love.
00:28:02That was my question.
00:28:03He says it is a timing thing.
00:28:05Whatever.
00:28:06For four years?
00:28:07That's just it.
00:28:08No passion.
00:28:10Very little physical affection at all past a hug.
00:28:13And nothing romantic from him.
00:28:15Flowers on Valentine's Day.
00:28:17Typical stuff.
00:28:18But 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?
00:28:25Yes, it does.
00:28:26Jennifer had never mentioned to you that she was having an affair, emotional or otherwise,
00:28:31with anybody.
00:28:31No.
00:28:32She wasn't having an affair and neither was her husband.
00:28:34No, she said the relationship was good.
00:28:36The only thing that they weren't as intimate as she would like.
00:28:40But other than that, he was a great man.
00:28:44Provider and also a loving father.
00:28:45So maybe this fling was just an innocent online diversion.
00:28:50A harmless way out of the middle-aged doldrums.
00:28:54Nothing in person.
00:28:56Nothing physical.
00:28:57After all, as Jennifer told Tina, things with Jamie were still kinda good.
00:29:03We are super great friends.
00:29:05And a good team.
00:29:06And great parents to Amber.
00:29:08And honestly, I would have been content living out the rest of my life that way.
00:29:13And then this.
00:29:14No issues.
00:29:15No issues.
00:29:15Until this guy came back.
00:29:17And OMG.
00:29:18The emotions and the connection.
00:29:20I feel like I am being torn in two.
00:29:24So, who was this mystery man?
00:29:27Detectives had to find out.
00:29:29Jennifer helpfully had sketched in his background for Tina.
00:29:33This guy I dated in high school and college.
00:29:36We broke up because I was finishing school.
00:29:38And after he got out of basic training, he was deployed to South Korea.
00:29:42He ended up going special forces and served 26 years.
00:29:46Just retired and found me.
00:29:47We were going to get married at the time.
00:29:50Then I met Amber's bio dad right after he left.
00:29:53At the end of the thread, Tina sent hugs.
00:29:57Jennifer responded.
00:29:59But I am also not making any moves or doing anything rash anytime soon.
00:30:04But I am not going to stop talking to Darren either.
00:30:07So now investigators had a name, Darren.
00:30:10They also knew from other texts between Jennifer and Tina that Darren had mentioned what he
00:30:16called a five-year plan to start a new life with Jennifer.
00:30:22Then about two months before Jamie was murdered, came this text exchange.
00:30:27You still talking to that guy?
00:30:29I put the brakes on with him.
00:30:31It's so hard.
00:30:32I have such strong emotions for Darren.
00:30:35How did Darren feel about her foot on the brake?
00:30:39Investigators had no way of knowing.
00:30:41They did know this.
00:30:43Darren had been dumped.
00:30:45And he knew his way around a weapon.
00:31:02The Jamie Faith murder investigation had taken a surprising turn.
00:31:07Police learned the grieving widow was involved in what she called an emotional affair.
00:31:13By 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.
00:31:31That's correct.
00:31:32You know, for a five-year plan, that's a very long-term, patient plan.
00:31:36And somebody has to be pretty dedicated to wait for something over five years.
00:31:40Logic suggests a lovestruck guy with a five-year plan might become, at the very least, unhappy.
00:31:48And, at the very worst, furious if his beloved decided to change the schedule and forsake him for the sake
00:31:56of her husband.
00:31:58She talks about this full-blown emotional affair she's having with this guy Darren, but she also at some point
00:32:04says she's cutting it off.
00:32:06That's correct.
00:32:07Were there any texts from Darren on the phone?
00:32:09No. None that I could find.
00:32:11They did have Jennifer's phone contacts.
00:32:14That'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.
00:32:25Police still didn't have the actual texts, but now they could see the text and call logs, showing how often
00:32:33Jennifer and Darren had been in touch.
00:32:35There was a tremendous amount of contact between her phone and his phone in her phone records.
00:32:40That's correct.
00:32:41They averaged almost 500 communications a day through phone calls and texts.
00:32:45I believe a total of about 13,000, over 13,000 contacts.
00:32:49More than 13,000 calls and texts in just one month around the time of the murder.
00:32:57For an emotional affair, that's a lot of emotion.
00:33:01It's also a lot of deletion.
00:33:03None of those calls or texts were on Jennifer's phone when police saw it.
00:33:08One more thing.
00:33:09Darren Lopez lived in Tennessee.
00:33:12An interstate investigation now brought the feds on board.
00:33:16So, you know, we come up with an address for Darren Lopez in a town called Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee.
00:33:23Andrew Cheramy is a supervisory special agent with the ATF.
00:33:28He learned a lot about Darren Lopez, a 48-year-old retired Army Special Forces medic who lived about 640
00:33:37miles northeast of Dallas.
00:33:39He has got quite an extensive military record.
00:33:43He had six deployments to Iraq.
00:33:46He is a Purple Heart recipient, has a bronze star.
00:33:49So this is a man who is a highly decorated war veteran.
00:33:53And then we also find out during the investigation that he was injured in combat and suffers a traumatic brain
00:33:59injury.
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.
00:34:12So Darren's banking records tell you a little bit about where he's been.
00:34:15Yeah.
00:34:15That's correct.
00:34:16And that's the biggest thing we're trying to do.
00:34:17We're trying to place him in Dallas from Tennessee.
00:34:21The day before the killing, Darren's debit card put him here, buying gas, about 20 minutes south of his home.
00:34:28That debit card was used in Dixon, Tennessee, early in the afternoon on October 8th.
00:34:36Several hours later, that same debit card was used at a pilot gas station in West Memphis, Arkansas,
00:34:42which would have been him traveling in the direction of Dallas.
00:34:46West 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 they still have
00:35:05video surveillance.
00:35:06Because nobody has video that long after the fact.
00:35:08No, if we have video for two weeks, we're doing well.
00:35:11Right.
00:35:12But in this case, you got lucky.
00:35:13We sure did.
00:35:14What do you see in that video?
00:35:15In the video, Darren is wearing a dark colored polo shirt, blue jeans.
00:35:22But he also has the blue mask that matches the description that Jennifer gave on the day of the murder.
00:35:27More important is what Darren Lopez was driving.
00:35:30A big black Nissan pickup.
00:35:33OK, but who could say for sure where Darren was heading?
00:35:37Well, actually, Google could.
00:35:41We saw that he typed in the victim's address while he was in Tennessee and got map directions to the
00:35:49route to Dallas.
00:35:50This feels like you're moving closer and closer to an arrest.
00:35:53Yes, sir.
00:35:54OK, but what about that tea decal, the one clue everyone had been focused on?
00:36:00We were able to reach out to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, get a flyover over Darren's property.
00:36:07And we were hoping that we'd be able to find this truck and get a good look at his Nissan
00:36:12Titan to see if it actually had the decal.
00:36:14And you did?
00:36:15Yes, we did.
00:36:16And it did?
00:36:17It sure did.
00:36:18Just one pass.
00:36:19You're not circling.
00:36:20You're not doing anything that's going to attract attention.
00:36:23No.
00:36:24That's what they hoped anyway.
00:36:26Except a couple of weeks after they spotted Darren's truck from the sky, something changed on the ground.
00:36:33Agents in Nashville were doing surveillance and they observed Darren's pickup truck and it no longer had a T on
00:36:39the windshield.
00:36:40Which suggests he's onto you guys.
00:36:43That's right.
00:36:44Wondering if Darren Lopez had gotten wise to them, agents wanted to move in quickly.
00:36:51That came with some difficult questions.
00:36:54Like, how do you arrest Rambo without the Hollywood body count?
00:37:00He's a trained military operative.
00:37:03This is not some guy who spent a couple of years in the Army filing forms.
00:37:06That's correct.
00:37:08And a firearm was used in the murder of Jamie Faith.
00:37:11One 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.
00:37:18Planning that would not typically take place in a normal operation.
00:37:24Also, Darren Lopez was more than a special forces veteran with a very particular set of skills.
00:37:31His 20 acre home also gave him an edge over anyone approaching on the ground.
00:37:38He may have booby traps, clandestine devices, motion sensors.
00:37:45He may have his own cameras on the property.
00:37:47Creeping up and knocking on his door is not going to happen.
00:37:49Exactly.
00:37:51Also gnawing at Agent Sheramy was the memory of that calamitous 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian sect in Waco,
00:38:00Texas.
00:38:00We think about the tragedy that happened in Waco where four of our agents were lost.
00:38:05Not a dissimilar approach.
00:38:08And he's got his two daughters living in there with him.
00:38:11So worst case scenario is he ends up barricaded in that house.
00:38:14Worst case scenario.
00:38:15And the worst case scenario was not an acceptable one.
00:38:20Someone would have to blink.
00:38:37It was early 2021 and an alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies was gearing up for a full scale operation
00:38:46to arrest Darren Lopez.
00:38:49You can tell here from the aerial photographs that this is a very wide open piece of property and that
00:38:58would make any sort of covert approach to the house extremely dangerous.
00:39:04How many people are we talking about here?
00:39:06I would say approximately 75 people.
00:39:08Wow.
00:39:08It was pretty much all the resources of the federal government.
00:39:12On an icy January day, agents were preparing to launch their takedown when a surveillance team reported Darren Lopez was
00:39:20in a Toyota leaving his compound with one of his daughters.
00:39:24The order came back, grab him.
00:39:27The team blocked his truck and moved in with guns drawn.
00:39:31Darren Lopez was arrested without incident.
00:39:35He was taken into custody safely.
00:39:37He wasn't injured.
00:39:39His daughter wasn't injured.
00:39:40And none of our agents were injured.
00:39:42So.
00:39:43And not a shot fired.
00:39:43And not a shot fired.
00:39:45In this business, that's a great day.
00:39:47Detective Barnes made sure Darren's daughters were taken in by family friends.
00:39:52Barnes had more than one role in this investigation.
00:39:55He's also an ATF task force officer.
00:39:58That's why he joined the arrest team.
00:40:00And 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
00:40:11soldier to soldier.
00:40:14Being miles away from home, it makes you grow up faster.
00:40:17Then Barnes got to the point.
00:40:19Have you ever been to Dallas?
00:40:21No.
00:40:22I think I flew through there, but no, I haven't been to Dallas itself.
00:40:26And you know that's not true?
00:40:27I knew it wasn't true.
00:40:29Do you say to him, no, we know you were in Dallas?
00:40:31No, I let him lock himself into that story.
00:40:36Darren admitted knowing Jennifer, and shared some misty-eyed memories of his youth.
00:40:42We grew up together.
00:40:44High school friends, and we contacted each other almost a year ago.
00:40:48I looked her up, and I got her email address and stuff like that, and just sent her a quick
00:40:53hi.
00:40:53And she was like, oh wow.
00:40:55And so we started reconnecting.
00:40:56Oh, we're connected?
00:40:57Yeah.
00:40:57We're living in old times.
00:40:59He talked about how they met in high school.
00:41:02He told me about a kiss that they shared in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris over 30 years
00:41:08ago.
00:41:08To hear Darren talk about it, his relationship with Jennifer is all in the past, not the present.
00:41:13Right.
00:41:13He said that they communicate now just because he's going through a divorce, and she recently lost her husband.
00:41:20And so they kind of help each other through their hard times.
00:41:24She can vent to me, and I can let her vent, and then it makes her feel better.
00:41:29And so she's been using that a lot more to help get through.
00:41:33Kind of like therapeutic.
00:41:34Right.
00:41:34I get that.
00:41:35You know that we're kindling that old flame, and that's a strong thing.
00:41:39So after that she told me she was married.
00:41:41Okay.
00:41:42You know, and I saw that, and I was like, oh yeah, cool, and stuff.
00:41:45So I mean, we never breached, you know, that, I never thought we crossed like, you know, a threshold where
00:41:52it was inappropriate.
00:41:53And like I said, I've never been down there.
00:41:54So it's like, I've never had any physical contact.
00:41:56It's just kind of like more of an emotional thing.
00:41:58You didn't believe a word of that.
00:42:00No.
00:42:01Then Barnes asked Darren about the T sticker on his pickup.
00:42:05The vehicle had a T on the back of it.
00:42:08It doesn't have one on it today, but it did have one on it at the time of the offense.
00:42:14Okay.
00:42:15What happened to the T?
00:42:18It started tearing off.
00:42:19Just peeling off?
00:42:20Yeah.
00:42:20Okay.
00:42:21Once I started confronting him on some of the lies that he told, he immediately shut the interview down and
00:42:26asked for an attorney.
00:42:27Three months after Jamie Faith was shot seven times, the detective told Darren Lopez he was going to be charged
00:42:35with that murder.
00:42:36You're going to get booked into the jail here to get arraigned in front of a judge in Dallas.
00:42:41Now with Darren behind bars, officers descended on his chaotic mess of a home, searching for evidence.
00:42:49In my 22 years on the job, I don't know that I've ever seen a house that was in that
00:42:54deplorable of a living condition.
00:42:56This man is here with these two teenage daughters, animal hair, food on the counter.
00:43:04You know, something's not right here.
00:43:06The condition of that place suggested to you more than just messiness or poor housekeeping.
00:43:10Yeah, so we do our best to search the home.
00:43:17I noticed on the front porch was a large FedEx box.
00:43:21What's in this huge box?
00:43:22It was a big screen TV.
00:43:23And the label on the FedEx box was addressed as Darren Lopez.
00:43:30And the return address was Jennifer Faith.
00:43:33She sent him a TV.
00:43:34Sent him a TV.
00:43:35And then, amidst the trash, the old food, and that 55-inch TV,
00:43:40the investigators 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.
00:43:51And it was a military-style rucksack backpack.
00:43:56Inside the backpack was a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol.
00:44:01That's the same caliber as the murder weapon.
00:44:04And upon closer examination, we could see on the slide of the gun,
00:44:09which appeared to be a small smear of blood.
00:44:13It's like, hey, get it back to Dallas.
00:44:16It took just a couple of days for the Dallas Crime Lab to process and test fire the blood-smeared
00:44:22gun,
00:44:23and then compare those casings to the ones recovered from the crime scene.
00:44:27And the gun matches the cartridges?
00:44:29Yes.
00:44:30Yes.
00:44:30And that blood comes back to?
00:44:33Jamie Faith.
00:44:35So, in your view anyway, game over in convicting Darren of murder.
00:44:39We felt that we had a solid case.
00:44:42What 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.
00:44:55When Jamie's friends heard someone named Darren had been arrested, they were stumped.
00:45:01They didn't know who he was.
00:45:04You never heard that name?
00:45:05No, never heard that name.
00:45:06We just tried to figure out who Darren was and, like, why he did that to Jamie.
00:45:11Wouldn't want to hurt Jamie.
00:45:12Why do they keep talking about this Darren?
00:45:13Why do they shoot Jamie down?
00:45:15Yeah.
00:45:15You know, in front of his home, in front of his wife.
00:45:19Now, investigators needed to know if Jennifer and Darren were more than just a couple of long-distance shoulders for
00:45:26each other to cry on.
00:45:28And who better to answer that question than Jennifer Faith herself?
00:45:33Have you ever heard of a name, Darren?
00:45:52Investigators were certain Darren Lopez had murdered Jamie Faith.
00:45:56Now, they were wondering why Jennifer Faith had never mentioned Darren's name.
00:46:01Maybe 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 affair, and
00:46:10they won't admit to it,
00:46:11it's pretty plausible that that's because I don't want to admit to an affair at all.
00:46:16Sure.
00:46:16And second, I particularly don't want to admit to it now, because now it's going to look like I did
00:46:21something about that.
00:46:22Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:46:24So did she do something about it? Investigators weren't sure.
00:46:29On the same January day Darren Lopez was arrested in Tennessee, detectives in Dallas asked Jennifer to come sit down
00:46:37with them.
00:46:37We were playing cat and mouse with Darren and Jennifer, and I wanted to see if there was anything that
00:46:43maybe Jennifer said that I could use against Darren.
00:46:45We put together a game plan, and the game plan was to talk to Jennifer and Darren at the same
00:46:51time.
00:46:51So they can't call each other?
00:46:52So they can't call each other.
00:46:53I appreciate you coming down here.
00:46:55Federal prosecutor Rick Calvert appreciated it too.
00:46:58You're watching that interview?
00:47:00I'm outside the room watching on a television set.
00:47:02You're trying to get some kind of read on her?
00:47:05I am, and she gave the same story that she'd been giving for the past two or three months.
00:47:11All I can really remember are his eyes, the black eyes.
00:47:15Why would somebody want to do something like this?
00:47:17If I knew that, I would tell you.
00:47:18Right, right.
00:47:19It drives me crazy.
00:47:20Then Walton asked a question that seemed to hit a nerve.
00:47:24Have you ever heard of a name Darren?
00:47:27Darren Lopez, yeah.
00:47:29I asked her who was Darren.
00:47:31Her whole demeanor changed.
00:47:33He was one of my best friends.
00:47:34We dated in high school, but he doesn't know Jamie.
00:47:38And she told me that, oh, he's the guy I used to date back in high school and college.
00:47:42And then that's when I asked her, why didn't you tell me about Darren?
00:47:45And what's her answer?
00:47:48She paused, and she got a little bit angry.
00:47:53Why even bother listening to me about all these other people who I thought,
00:47:57that might have something to do with it?
00:47:59Do you know how much I've been racking my brain?
00:48:01If you knew this all along?
00:48:03Tell me a little bit about Darren.
00:48:04Okay.
00:48:05Um, let's see.
00:48:08I lost contact with him in 93.
00:48:10We broke up.
00:48:12She says that we haven't seen each other in over 25 years, which is true.
00:48:16That they talk all the time.
00:48:19But they haven't met.
00:48:20Correct.
00:48:21And that's the truth.
00:48:22Detective Walton needed more.
00:48:24I know that there's more to you and Darren's relationship.
00:48:28I don't know what more you're talking about.
00:48:30Personally, in my heart, I believe that you knew what happened that day.
00:48:36I'm going to tell you like this, Jennifer.
00:48:39I know that Darren committed this offense.
00:48:42I know that Darren killed your husband.
00:48:46He told you we have a five-year plan.
00:48:48We were like caught up in old emotions, but I put the brakes on it.
00:48:52But you didn't put the brakes on it.
00:48:54How could you talk to somebody that killed your husband?
00:48:57I didn't know he killed my husband.
00:48:59I still don't know that he killed my husband.
00:49:01I wouldn't do that.
00:49:02Why would I do that?
00:49:04And that's the question I have for you.
00:49:06The interview became even more tense when the detective accused Jennifer of giving him false leads.
00:49:13Like those American Airlines employees.
00:49:16I'm looking at all these other people.
00:49:17What do anybody have against Jamie?
00:49:19Why do anybody want to kill him?
00:49:21If you were so in love with Darren, just dump the guy.
00:49:24I wasn't.
00:49:27I was in love with my husband.
00:49:29I'm telling you the truth.
00:49:31So she claimed.
00:49:32Her digital footprints said she was lying.
00:49:36Her calls and texts with Darren had continued at a crazy rate, even after Jamie was murdered.
00:49:43The same guy that killed your husband, Jennifer, is the same guy that you communicate with every day.
00:49:50You had over 24,000 text messaging calls.
00:49:5324,000.
00:49:55I don't work.
00:49:55He's retired.
00:49:56We talked throughout the day.
00:49:57This guy killed your husband.
00:50:00How do you know that?
00:50:01Because I have proof.
00:50:03And guess what?
00:50:04Darren right now is currently in jail, locked up for murder right now.
00:50:08Oh my God.
00:50:09She had already been Mirandized and she locked up.
00:50:12She 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 next.
00:50:21So they let her walk out the door.
00:50:23Instead of locking her up on the same day that Darren gets locked up, is there some value to letting
00:50:29Jennifer kind of continue to play the part of, you know, I had no idea any of this was happening.
00:50:33Absolutely.
00:50:34We wanted to keep building the case.
00:50:36There was still a lot of things that we didn't know.
00:50:38Like 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.
00:50:51Yes, in some of the most sadistic ways you can possibly imagine.
00:50:56Yes.
00:51:10Jennifer Faith was back on the street, but not off the hook.
00:51:15Evidence against her was piling up.
00:51:17So were her communications with Darren.
00:51:21By the time he was arrested, phone records showed more than 130,000 texts and calls between Darren and Jennifer
00:51:30in less than eight months.
00:51:32This was a couple with a lot to say to each other, except during a couple of days in October.
00:51:39There was one period of time where more than a 10 hour period elapsed where Jennifer and Darren Lopez were
00:51:48not texting each other.
00:51:50And that just happens to fall on the day before the murder and the day of the murder.
00:51:55That was the only period of time.
00:51:57That wasn't all.
00:51:59Remember that appeal on TV?
00:52:01And somebody must know who has a truck like that.
00:52:05It's a black Nissan Titan, extended cab, has a Texas Rangers sticker in the back window.
00:52:12On Darren's phone, investigators found a text from Jennifer.
00:52:16From that same day she made her heartfelt appeal.
00:52:20She texts him, you need to get that tea off the truck.
00:52:24He responds back, I will.
00:52:26She goes, you need to get it off right now.
00:52:28He responds back, tea is gone.
00:52:30I've removed the sticker.
00:52:32And her response is, yay, I feel so much better.
00:52:35Time to arrest Jennifer Faith.
00:52:38Well, at that point you have text message clearly obstructing justice.
00:52:43And so detectives arrested Jennifer Faith for obstruction of justice.
00:52:50Reporter Maria Guerrero was as shocked as anyone.
00:52:54I texted Jennifer and I said, please tell me you did not know about this.
00:52:59Do you want to clear your name?
00:53:00And she texted back, please contact my attorney and gave me his name and number.
00:53:06That was the last time that she spoke with me.
00:53:09Well, nice try.
00:53:11Yeah.
00:53:12Feels to me like you guys are getting near the end of the road at that point.
00:53:16It seems to be a love triangle that ended up costing Jamie his life.
00:53:22At first, maybe it's random.
00:53:25Then maybe it's connected to somebody who's got a grudge against Jamie because of the way he's shot.
00:53:32Then the affair comes out.
00:53:35Maybe Darren wants Jennifer for his own and he's acting to make that happen.
00:53:40Then maybe Jennifer's in on it with him and they're going to live happily ever after.
00:53:46What you find after that, I'm pretty sure you've never seen before.
00:53:50No.
00:53:50The case takes a dramatic twist for sure.
00:53:54Absolutely.
00:53:55It happened five months after the murder while Darren and Jennifer were both in jail.
00:54:02Early March of 2021, Darren's ex-wife told me that she was taking care of some of Darren's financial affairs
00:54:08and she needed to access some of his account information from his email.
00:54:12As Darren's ex looked through the files, she realized Jamie seemed to have known about the affair with Jennifer.
00:54:20And she saw several emails coming from Jamie Faith and they detailed information about an abusive relationship that was going
00:54:32on between Jamie and Jennifer.
00:54:34Those emails showed the victim, Jamie Faith, started emailing Darren.
00:54:41Jamie was also texting Darren using Jennifer's phone.
00:54:45It started six months before the murder.
00:54:48Jamie Faith is advising Darren that Jamie is abusing sexually and physically his wife as a punishment for them reconnecting.
00:55:02Jamie's emails tell Darren, I'm punishing Jennifer because she's talking to you again.
00:55:09Yes, in some of the most sadistic ways you can possibly imagine.
00:55:14Yes.
00:55:15There was acts, sexual acts of gang rapes and torture that were described to be carried out by Jamie through
00:55:23these emails.
00:55:24Rapes of Jennifer.
00:55:26Right.
00:55:26By other men in front of Jamie.
00:55:28That's correct.
00:55:29In case Darren had any trouble believing that, Jamie sent him photographic evidence of the abuse.
00:55:36multiple injuries, burns, bruises, Jennifer's cut lip.
00:55:41And Jamie actually seemed to be bragging about it.
00:55:46How does Darren respond to that?
00:55:47Darren responds that he's going to go to police.
00:55:50He responds that he's going to tell Jamie's employer.
00:55:55Jennifer offered another solution, asking Darren to contact her friend Rob Schmidt.
00:56:01We actually saw the original email that Darren sent to Rob Schmidt saying,
00:56:06Hey Rob, I've got your email address from Jennifer.
00:56:11She asked that I reach out to you for guidance.
00:56:14Jamie is abusing Jennifer.
00:56:16And how does Rob respond?
00:56:18Rob responds, this is terrible.
00:56:20I will do whatever I can to assist you in this to make sure this abuse stops.
00:56:25Rob Schmidt says in the emails that he spoke to Jamie?
00:56:27Multiple times, yes.
00:56:29And maybe things have turned a corner.
00:56:33Correct.
00:56:33And things started to slow down as far as the abuse for a period of time.
00:56:39For a while, things seemed to calm down, but that didn't last.
00:56:44Jennifer told Darren the assaults had resumed.
00:56:47By then, Darren was already considering a more permanent solution to Jennifer's problem.
00:56:53He wrote to Rob.
00:56:55I still feel he is very effed up in the head.
00:56:58I know I won't feel better about her situation until she is out of the house away from him,
00:57:02or she lets me put a bullet in Jamie's head.
00:57:05And Rob wrote back.
00:57:07Thanks for the update.
00:57:09I'm also very concerned, and if it were up to me, I would tell you to go for it with
00:57:13your idea.
00:57:14LOL.
00:57:15I'll give you an alibi.
00:57:16Then, just weeks before the murder, Darren received another email from Jamie.
00:57:22He was threatening a sexual assault that could kill Jennifer.
00:57:27It was something Jamie said he was planning for October 9th, and the couple's 15th anniversary.
00:57:33That 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,
00:57:43then it'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.
00:57:51Right.
00:57:52And it also could kind of explain why someone who had never broken the law in his life,
00:58:00had never been arrested, would be willing to possibly drive to Dallas to save someone that he believed was being
00:58:07abused.
00:58:08Suddenly, everything looked different, seen through a lens of pain and abuse.
00:58:14Maybe Jennifer Faith was a victim of sexual assault,
00:58:18and Darren Lopez a soldier on a mission to rescue his long-lost love.
00:58:24In the interviews that Jennifer gave, did she ever talk about her husband being anything other than a wonderful guy?
00:58:30Absolutely not.
00:58:45Before investigators found all that sickening evidence of abuse,
00:58:50all anyone had known about Jamie Faith was sunshine and rainbows.
00:58:56In the interviews that Jennifer gave to you, to other stations,
00:59:00did she ever talk about her husband being anything other than a wonderful guy?
00:59:04Absolutely not.
00:59:05So no hint of their problems in the marriage?
00:59:08Not one word.
00:59:09Now, when investigators poured over those graphic emails,
00:59:14everything they'd believed about Jamie Faith seemed dead wrong.
00:59:18The ultimate nice-guy IT geek with the cheesy Hawaiian shirts appeared, after all,
00:59:25to be a sadist who'd acted out his darkest impulses on his wife.
00:59:30Maybe that's why Darren Lopez wanted to kill him,
00:59:33and why Jennifer's friend Rob Schmidt seemed to be offering Darren an alibi.
00:59:39We asked Rob to explain himself.
00:59:43I gotta read you some emails here.
00:59:45Okay.
00:59:46This one's dated about five months before Jamie's murdered.
00:59:50Darren is emailing Rob Schmidt.
00:59:53I still feel Jamie's very effed up in the head.
00:59:56I know I won't feel better about her situation until she lets me put a bullet in Jamie's head.
01:00:01And Rob Schmidt writes back.
01:00:06If it were up to me, I would tell you to go for it with your idea.
01:00:11LOL, I'll give you an alibi.
01:00:13Yeah, it's very funny to have words be put into my mouth that never existed, that I never typed.
01:00:23You didn't write that email.
01:00:24You didn't communicate with Darren by email.
01:00:27Never.
01:00:28That's exactly what Rob told investigators when they asked.
01:00:33Their next question was, if he didn't write those emails, who did?
01:00:39Detectives had sent Jennifer's computer to the FBI.
01:00:42And when it came back, the fed's analysis left little doubt.
01:00:47It was Jennifer.
01:00:49All of it.
01:00:50We knew that Jennifer Faith had created those false accounts.
01:00:54And that gave us a clearer picture of what was going on.
01:00:59Well, just a second.
01:01:00What about those photos of Jennifer's injuries?
01:01:04She was involved in a car accident in Phoenix, Arizona.
01:01:07Those photographs were taken in 2012.
01:01:09She sent them to Darren, claiming that that was abuse that Jamie was inflicting on her.
01:01:14That picture of the bruised lip.
01:01:17That's not Jennifer's lip.
01:01:18No.
01:01:18She uploaded that off the internet at Shutterstock.com.
01:01:22So all her claims of abuse are invented?
01:01:25All of them.
01:01:26Jamie wasn't abusing her?
01:01:28Never.
01:01:29That feels like the moment where you stop thinking of Jennifer as victim of the murder and victim
01:01:34of abuse and start thinking of her as perpetrator of everything.
01:01:39I think that was one of the defining moments that just clearly hit us that the only true victim in
01:01:46this case was Jamie.
01:01:47That Jennifer's hands were just as dirty as Darren's were in this murder.
01:01:52Or maybe dirtier.
01:01:54Under the guise of helping Darren, Jennifer had convinced him to give her his psych records.
01:02:00Those would have shown her Darren suffered from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, both from combat.
01:02:07Do you think his war injuries made Darren easier to manipulate?
01:02:12I do.
01:02:12I do.
01:02:13And I think that once Jennifer learned that, that's probably something that she took advantage of.
01:02:20The more you learn about this case, the worse she sounds.
01:02:23Absolutely.
01:02:24Absolutely.
01:02:25And if the phony abuse story didn't work, investigators say Jennifer had another plan.
01:02:31Their emails were filled with 50 shades of TMI about phone sex, bondage, and other things we don't really talk
01:02:40about on network TV.
01:02:43Investigators say it was all designed to twist Darren into Jennifer's willing assassin.
01:02:50Whatever it was, Jamie never saw any of it coming.
01:02:54No.
01:02:55How did he not notice Jennifer on the phone constantly?
01:03:01My wife's on the phone constantly, but my mind does not go to, she's planning to kill me.
01:03:08Right?
01:03:09Nobody would think that without significant warning and significant reason to think that.
01:03:15Right.
01:03:16Here she is living a double life.
01:03:18But it was really a triple or quadruple life, wasn't it?
01:03:22It was.
01:03:23Because she wasn't just being herself, she was also being Rob Schmidt.
01:03:27She was also being Jamie.
01:03:30It was like a Broadway one-person show.
01:03:32It was.
01:03:33I mean, she lied to everyone.
01:03:35She's lying to her husband.
01:03:36She's lying to Darren.
01:03:38She's lying to her best friend.
01:03:40She's lying to Jamie's parents.
01:03:42Sitting in a Texas jail, Darren Lopez refused to believe it.
01:03:47He was convinced killing Jamie had protected the woman he loved.
01:03:52Even his court-appointed attorney, Juan Sanchez, had trouble getting through.
01:03:58It was really hard.
01:03:59He almost didn't trust me because I was trying to confront him with the truth.
01:04:03The world he was living in was not the reality.
01:04:06You'd say to him, by the way, she made this up.
01:04:10Those emails weren't from her husband.
01:04:13They were all from Jennifer.
01:04:14Exactly.
01:04:15And he would say, no, no, you're wrong.
01:04:16He was just adamant that Jennifer was being abused physically and sexually.
01:04:21It took Sanchez months to convince the former soldier he'd been used as a remotely controlled weapon.
01:04:28In a murderous scheme.
01:04:31Darren eventually agreed to speak with investigators again.
01:04:34And this time gave them a detailed confession of what went down.
01:04:39They recorded the audio.
01:04:42He told me that he had her tied up in the closet.
01:04:45And he was going to do different things with her.
01:04:49Prosecutor Rick Calvert asked about the messages Darren thought were from Jamie.
01:04:54That text message you're talking about, was that from Jennifer's phone?
01:05:00Yes.
01:05:00She had told me that he would take her phone.
01:05:04He was like mad that I was back with her.
01:05:06And because of that, he started hurting her.
01:05:10And she's like, I think I was going to kill him.
01:05:13And I was just like, you can't do that.
01:05:17And so that's where I guess the idea kind of started.
01:05:22This son of the volunteer state says he made her mission his own.
01:05:28Darren told me that and a whole lot more when I asked him.
01:05:32Was it hard to bullet trigger?
01:05:50Their high school romance fizzled in the early 1990s.
01:05:54And from then on, Darren Lopez thought of Jennifer Faith as the one that got away.
01:05:59You really never stopped thinking about her, did you?
01:06:03No, 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.
01:06:14Can you hear me okay?
01:06:14Yes, I can.
01:06:15In our interview, Darren was, by turns, remorseful, reflective, and regretful about his relationship
01:06:23with Jennifer, one that started with a kiss by the Eiffel Tower on a high school trip to Europe.
01:06:29And why didn't it last?
01:06:31We grew apart.
01:06:33I mean, we lasted for three, four years.
01:06:36I tried to go to college.
01:06:38I had to drop off after a year.
01:06:40And then during that time frame is when I joined the reserves.
01:06:43Sounds like maybe she stopped thinking about you, but you did not stop thinking about her.
01:06:48No, like I said, because before each deployment that I have to take, you know, we have to fill
01:06:53out these forms, questions where if I ever get captured, the, you know, rescuing force
01:06:59can't ask me specific questions that only I'm going to know.
01:07:02Something personal that no one would be able to guess or look up.
01:07:05Exactly.
01:07:06So I used Jennifer.
01:07:07So before each deployment, she was with me.
01:07:12Along the way, Darren married, helped to raise five daughters.
01:07:16He says his life grew bleak after he left the army.
01:07:20Then in March, 2020 came that reconnection with Jennifer and a short burst of happiness,
01:07:27followed by a descent into hell.
01:07:30It was her telling me these things over and over again.
01:07:34After the stuff had happened, her crying about everything.
01:07:37That's what I believed.
01:07:38I trusted her.
01:07:41Darren told me he finally decided to do what soldiers are trained to do.
01:07:45Take out the enemy, the mission, protect Jennifer and her daughter Amber.
01:07:51Jennifer's in danger.
01:07:53She's going to be hurt, possibly killed Friday night.
01:07:58If you don't do something.
01:08:00If I didn't do something, she was going to die.
01:08:03Even if you believed every single thing she said and were fooled by all the emails,
01:08:07why not go to the police?
01:08:09Amber, Jennifer, every single time I tried to bring it up, she wanted to protect.
01:08:15Amber's memory of Jamie has a good father.
01:08:17Don't tell me the only way out of that is killing them.
01:08:20At the time, yes, I truly believed it.
01:08:23Because I believed in her.
01:08:24You know, I was trusting her.
01:08:26So, he got in his truck, drove 10 hours to Dallas.
01:08:31He said Jennifer told him to hide in the yard of the vacant home next door.
01:08:35Yes, that was Darren on the video Jennifer showed police the day of the murder.
01:08:41Who was that?
01:08:42Who was that?
01:08:42I don't know.
01:08:43That house is empty.
01:08:44She knew all along.
01:08:47Darren waited until morning.
01:08:49Hey!
01:08:53Was it hard to bullet trigger?
01:08:56Well, yes.
01:08:57I mean, it was...
01:09:01I mean, I was on a mission in the military, but I was in the same type of mindset with
01:09:07it.
01:09:08But I was doing what I had to do to protect Jennifer.
01:09:12Now, keep this in mind.
01:09:13After the shooting, when he shoved Jennifer onto the pavement as a staged robbery,
01:09:19that was the first time Darren had touched her or even seen her in close to three decades.
01:09:27It was also the last time.
01:09:31You think she was ever in love with you?
01:09:36I don't know.
01:09:37When I got arrested, I went to jail, truly believing I saved Jennifer and Amber.
01:09:43When your attorney showed you the evidence that Jennifer wasn't abused,
01:09:48Jamie wasn't this monster, he wasn't beating her up, the threats weren't real,
01:09:53you said, that's not true.
01:09:56You didn't want to believe that.
01:09:57No, no.
01:09:58When my lawyer first told me, you know, it was just that thought never registered in my mind.
01:10:04That she could use me this way.
01:10:07She told me that we were soulmates.
01:10:09Why would she put me through all this torture?
01:10:13Good question.
01:10:15Months later, as Darren cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Jennifer was charged with the federal crime of murder
01:10:23for hire.
01:10:24Darren was left to wrestle with the awful truth.
01:10:28He had assassinated an innocent man.
01:10:32She used me.
01:10:34I became her weapon.
01:10:36I understand that.
01:10:37And I don't have to live with what I did for the rest of my life, no matter if I'm
01:10:42in here or if I'm out.
01:10:44It might be easy to write off Darren Lopez as another casualty of war, a damaged veteran turned stone-cold
01:10:52killer.
01:10:53His band of brothers says it's not that simple.
01:10:57I just couldn't, couldn't believe it.
01:11:00There's somebody that we trust with everything, and it's not the person that we know that would do this.
01:11:07Phil Heil and Greg Underwood know a different Darren after serving alongside him as Green Berets in the Iraq War.
01:11:15They witnessed Darren's courage and kindness as a medic who cared both for his fellow soldiers and for injured Iraqis.
01:11:24He was always out there with the children and talking to them and their parents and making sure everything was
01:11:29good,
01:11:29seeing if there was anything he could do for them.
01:11:30They remember a day in 2005 when twin truck bombs exploded just outside their base south of Baghdad.
01:11:38Darren took a serious hit to the head and then saw Greg was out cold and in real danger.
01:11:46Darren pretty much brought me back to life.
01:11:48He saved my life.
01:11:50And, I mean, he was a close friend and brother before that.
01:11:54But after that, I could never, I could never repay Darren for that.
01:11:59They also know how Darren himself suffered, the brain injury, the PTSD, the breakup of his marriage.
01:12:07Then, in the late spring of 2020, Darren's friends say they caught a glimpse of the man they used to
01:12:13know.
01:12:14He said, I reconnected with an old girlfriend. He said, I'm just talking to her.
01:12:19This was something that just really gave him that glow of a, you know, okay, well, this is good for
01:12:25him.
01:12:25Thank you, Sheriff. Y'all may be seated.
01:12:29She wasn't in the courtroom, but Jennifer Faith's presence hung over the trial as Darren faced a jury in the
01:12:37summer of 2023.
01:12:39And while he'd confessed to pulling the trigger, he pleaded not guilty.
01:12:44Here's why.
01:12:46Darren killed James Faith.
01:12:49But Darren did that because Jennifer led him to believe that she was being abused, beaten.
01:12:57James is going to kill me, is what Jennifer told Darren.
01:13:02In Texas, it's called the third party defense.
01:13:05Darren'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.
01:13:13You can use deadly force to defend someone if you believe that they're in immediate harm.
01:13:19Or you can do it to prevent them from committing a murder or an aggravated sexual assault.
01:13:24In Texas, doesn't that have to be true for you to raise that?
01:13:29Not necessarily.
01:13:30Darren Lopez testified that he believed Jennifer's lies about Jamie's abuse.
01:13:37Did you feel she was in danger that day?
01:13:39Yes, mortal danger.
01:13:42Maybe and maybe not, argued prosecutor Brandi Mitchell.
01:13:47Even if Jennifer was manipulating Darren, she said, he was all in.
01:13:53He is pursuing her.
01:13:55He wants her to come visit him.
01:13:57These text emails get increasingly sexual in nature and increasingly graphic in nature.
01:14:07How graphic?
01:14:09Well, those emails were read aloud in court, resulting in a deeply cringe-inducing two-person command performance
01:14:18by Prosecutor Mitchell and Detective Barnes.
01:14:21Here's a PG sample.
01:14:24I love you.
01:14:26I so love you.
01:14:28Totally in love with you.
01:14:30Later, a steamier exchange.
01:14:34Glad to see you are wearing clothes.
01:14:36Ha, ha, ha, ha.
01:14:38No panties, though.
01:14:40My sexy brat.
01:14:42I'll just bend you over my lap and give you a quick spanking.
01:14:45It gets way racier.
01:14:48Just take my word for it.
01:14:50By the end, we all kind of, honestly, we kind of needed a shower.
01:14:54It was not good.
01:14:56More important was the question of third-party defense.
01:14:59The prosecutors said under the law, the killer would have to believe the action was necessary to save a life
01:15:07and the danger imminent.
01:15:09That means now, right this moment, action is needed.
01:15:15Fear of future danger is never enough.
01:15:21Ladies and gentlemen, Darren Lopez had so many options that he did not take.
01:15:28They didn't deliberate long.
01:15:30No, they weren't very long.
01:15:31We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, Darren Lopez, guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.
01:15:39Darren's defense had always been a long shot.
01:15:42You knew.
01:15:43As a matter of fact, I think if they would have come back with an acquittal, you probably would have
01:15:48to pick me off the ground.
01:15:49And the day that it happened, we celebrated.
01:15:51We all celebrated.
01:15:52Mm-hmm.
01:15:52We all celebrated his life.
01:15:54What'd you do?
01:15:55We all got together.
01:15:56Yeah, we all got together, had some drinks.
01:15:58It was, it was a good time.
01:16:00Darren Lopez was sentenced to 62 years in prison.
01:16:03He's appealing the sentence.
01:16:05He's a murderer, but maybe he wouldn't be a murderer if he hadn't hung on to that memory of Jennifer
01:16:10Faith.
01:16:11It's, it's very possible.
01:16:13It's a cautionary tale that maybe some people are better left in your past.
01:16:17And someone in Jennifer's past has a story that will sound very familiar.
01:16:24She specifically said, I wish my husband was dead.
01:16:26Yeah.
01:16:28And what would happen when Jennifer faced justice for Jamie's murder?
01:16:50Jennifer Faith, wife, mom, speech therapist.
01:16:55And maybe the biggest mystery in this whole tale of murder and betrayal.
01:17:00Remember what the twins said about her?
01:17:02I love her, Jamie.
01:17:04I love her.
01:17:05Like you, that's a keeper for you.
01:17:07Jamie Faith loved her too.
01:17:09Probably still did.
01:17:11Even at the moment he was murdered.
01:17:14This way.
01:17:15Here's someone else who loved Jennifer.
01:17:18His name is Rick Urlaub.
01:17:20I feel like a fool.
01:17:25I know you were a little reticent to sit down here because of that.
01:17:30Sure.
01:17:31You don't want to look bad in front of the world.
01:17:35When Rick heard about Jennifer's role in the murder, he says he was horrified.
01:17:40Back in 2000, he and Jennifer had an affair while she was still married to husband number one.
01:17:47Rick says she pursued him.
01:17:49Not your plan, but there you are.
01:17:52Yes.
01:17:54Now, stop me if you've heard this.
01:17:56But he says Jennifer told him.
01:17:58Her marriage was hellish.
01:18:00And her husband, a monster.
01:18:03He would have friends come over and rape her.
01:18:06He would torture her with implements.
01:18:11So this was a woman in a terrible place.
01:18:14Yes.
01:18:14And you could help her.
01:18:16Yes.
01:18:16Was that your idea or her idea?
01:18:18It's her idea until she makes it think that it's your idea.
01:18:25Tell me.
01:18:26She'll tell you about it and just say, you know, I wish I could get out.
01:18:33I wish he was dead or...
01:18:38She specifically said, I wish my husband was dead.
01:18:41Yeah.
01:18:42Together, he says, they came up with a plan.
01:18:45I was supposed to shoot him when he was tending his garden.
01:18:49It was to that point.
01:18:52Was this a real plan or was this some kind of like fantasy that the two of you were talking
01:18:56about?
01:18:56A what if?
01:18:57It was close.
01:18:58I 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 two.
01:19:10Before long, he says he started receiving emails from a couple of strangers.
01:19:15One was a surgeon, the other an airline pilot.
01:19:19Each man talked about how hot Jennifer was and how Rick didn't appreciate her.
01:19:27You never met the surgeon?
01:19:29Nope.
01:19:29You never met the pilot?
01:19:30Nope.
01:19:30Nope.
01:19:31Finally, Rick said enough and got a divorce.
01:19:34Today, Rick believes the pilot and the surgeon were phantoms and Jennifer sent all those emails.
01:19:41He also believes her first husband was not the monster Jennifer described.
01:19:47That guy declined an interview 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?
01:19:59You know, I wasn't hurt physically, but I lost that time that I could be doing something different that really
01:20:05mattered and not be swimming in a sea of lies and manipulation and pain.
01:20:14Maybe she thought she'd always get away with lying and manipulating. Truth is, she almost did until Darren reappeared.
01:20:24He pulled the trigger.
01:20:26Yes.
01:20:27But she pulled the strings.
01:20:29Yes.
01:20:31This murder doesn't happen without both of them.
01:20:35Jennifer Faith declined our request for an interview.
01:20:38So we're left to wonder why she wanted Jamie killed and right in front of her.
01:20:45Maybe it was about more than getting him out of her life.
01:20:49Maybe it was also about greed.
01:20:52How much was the life insurance?
01:20:54I believe it was $639,000 plus an additional almost $400,000 in benefits from American Airlines.
01:21:04So a total in excess of $1 million.
01:21:06Jennifer never got that money.
01:21:08She did not.
01:21:09If you're wondering, she did try.
01:21:11And remember how her nice neighbors started that GoFundMe?
01:21:16It raised $60,000.
01:21:19A lot of that money went to Darren.
01:21:22Jennifer gave him two credit cards and some expensive gifts.
01:21:26Yeah.
01:21:26They're still talking about that.
01:21:28She said that she sent money from the GoFundMe to him to buy like airplane tickets or something.
01:21:35And a TV.
01:21:35A TV.
01:21:36And I was like, are you kidding me?
01:21:38Because immediately what flashes in my mind when I read that part was remembering her messaging me and saying,
01:21:45I don't know how to access the GoFundMe.
01:21:49I can't do it.
01:21:51Right.
01:21:51And she's able to create two fake email accounts.
01:21:54Right.
01:21:54And I'm like, so I physically went to her house.
01:21:56Right.
01:21:56And oh man, I felt like an idiot.
01:21:59Jennifer ended up draining that GoFundMe account.
01:22:02She never did pay for those splashy funerals.
01:22:07Long after her arrest, Jennifer insisted she'd been just a helpless bystander in Jamie's killing.
01:22:14Then once Darren confessed, she folded.
01:22:18Jennifer pleaded guilty to the federal crime of murder for hire and was sentenced to life without parole.
01:22:26And after that, she sends a note to Jamie's parents saying she still loves him.
01:22:31Correct.
01:22:32Yes.
01:22:32That she did nothing but love Jamie and she would never do anything to harm him.
01:22:36Yes, she did.
01:22:36All evidence to the contrary.
01:22:38Correct.
01:22:41For those who did love Jamie Faith, this remains the final image of him.
01:22:46His last act, a daily routine.
01:22:50Walking the dog with his wife.
01:22:53Except she was leading Jamie to his death.
01:22:57And she knew it.
01:22:59What kind of person does that?
01:23:01I don't know.
01:23:02A crazy person, obviously.
01:23:04But it's so much more than that.
01:23:07Poor Jamie.
01:23:08I mean, he really had no idea what he was getting into.
01:23:10Yeah.
01:23:12Sad.
01:23:13He let his heart go to her.
01:23:17And she took his life.
01:23:22That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:23:25We'll see you again Thursday at 10, 9 central for the premiere of Dateline Thursday.
01:23:30And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.
01:23:34I'm Lester Holt.
01:23:36For all of us at NBC News, goodnight.
01:23:39Sure thing you look forward to.
01:23:39Good night.
01:23:42I'm a good day.
01:23:45If you'd like to check something out to.
01:23:47is a carrier Purely. And
01:23:47of course, we're
01:23:47eager to win a deepÑ–! Compared to
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