Dateline NBC S32E01 Losing Faith H 264

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Transcript

00:00:09Tonight, on the season premiere of Dateline.

00:00:13A man was out walking his dog with his wife, and he was gunned down.

00:00:22I turned around, and I just saw this person shoot.

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.

00:00:38There's got to be something more to this than meets the eye.

00:00:41A black pickup truck left the murder scene.

00:00:45This individual was walking around that residence.

00:00:48He told me about a kiss that they shared in front of the Eiffel Tower over 30 years ago.

00:00:53It just unfolded and unfolded and unfolded, like out of a movie.

00:00:57The text messages, the fictitious email addresses, the level of manipulation was extraordinary.

00:01:05Kind of the definition of two-faced.

00:01:07Weren't three or four-faced.

00:01:08It's hard to keep up.

00:01:10Ever seen anything like this?

00:01:11No, and I hope to never see it again.

00:01:15Maybe some people are better left in your past.

00:01:17Did a kiss in Paris lead to murder in Dallas 30 years later?

00:01:22I'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.

00:02:00Here's Jamie, leaving his house, right behind his wife, Jennifer.

00:02:04So much of a routine, his neighbors knew their daily route.

00:02:11And then...

00:02:19Jamie Faith was dead at only 49, gunned down in front of his home, his neighbors, his wife.

00:02:27Friendly, 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.

00:02:52To his million-plus followers on Facebook, he's better known as Smashed-a-Topic.

00:03:01How'd you find out about this story?

00:03:02I was listening to the scanner.

00:03:05And when I was listening to the scanner, I heard the streets and I heard a shooting going on.

00:03:10Right away, Smashed found an eyewitness.

00:03:13I heard gunshots. Five gunshots loud.

00:03:16Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:03:18We're on the scene of a shooting homicide.

00:03:21A guy walking his dog with his wife.

00:03:24Oh, man, it's a cold world out here, man.

00:03:27Cold world.

00:03:28I woke up that morning and I checked our Oak Cliff Ladies Club page and smashed the topic, was reporting

00:03:35that there had been a shooting.

00:03:37Jennifer Svelin didn't know the Faiths, but she lived in the same Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas.

00:03:43So I immediately posted on that page to all the ladies to let them know, you know, hey, be careful,

00:03:49there was a shooting nearby.

00:03:51Jenna Schmidt-Wilson was in her backyard with her dogs and her morning coffee.

00:03:56And I noticed the police helicopter, which ordinarily wouldn't draw my attention, but it was unusual how long it was

00:04:04hovering and how close and the low elevation.

00:04:07So, of course, I grabbed my phone and I look on my neighborhood page, which my go-to is our

00:04:13ladies' club page.

00:04:14And there was already some posts saying there had been a shooting nearby.

00:04:20Well, I saw the man.

00:04:21He looked very, very out of place, like he was up to no good.

00:04:26His eyes were really big and black.

00:04:29We come out.

00:04:29The man was still standing in front where the dude got shot.

00:04:34So we took off running inside.

00:04:35So the suspect's still loose right now?

00:04:37The suspect's still loose.

00:04:39It sounded like it could have been a robbery, but I'm going to tell you something.

00:04:42But I did think, like, how would somebody know these people walking their dog every day?

00:04:53Dallas PD homicide detective Chris Walton was wondering the same thing.

00:04:58You can see him right there on Smash's feed.

00:05:02The detective went straight to his best witness, the victim's wife, Jennifer Faith.

00:05:07When I arrived, Mrs. Faith was sitting right here on the porch area of her residence.

00:05:13There were others around her that were comforting her.

00:05:19Trying to get her the treatment and the aid that she needed.

00:05:22She'd tell you what happened while you were here?

00:05:24When I was here, when I made contact with her, she informed me that there was an individual who came

00:05:31up behind them.

00:05:32He pointed the gun at her husband, Mr. Faith, and shot him several times.

00:05:36Didn't say anything?

00:05:38No, sir.

00:05:38Just opened fire?

00:05:40That's correct.

00:05:41Jennifer described the gunman as medium build, with black eyes and a blue surgical mask.

00:05:47The kind you saw everywhere during the pandemic.

00:05:51I'm guessing she was probably shattered.

00:05:53She was.

00:05:54She had just observed her husband getting killed, shot several times.

00:05:59Then the individual who committed this horrible crime duct taped her wrist and tried taking her property as well.

00:06:05Tried to get her wedding ring?

00:06:07I believe so, yes, sir.

00:06:08Cartridge casings from the killer's gun still littered the street.

00:06:13Some of those stunned neighbors turned out to be helpful.

00:06:16They spotted the gunman drive away in a black pickup.

00:06:19We were able to get a photo of the vehicle from one of the witnesses.

00:06:23It had a picture of the T sticker in the back.

00:06:26Yes, sir.

00:06:27The T made sense.

00:06:28The local baseball team is the Texas Rangers.

00:06:31So now the question was, who in Dallas wanted Jamie dead?

00:06:37Police wanted to talk further with Jennifer Faith, but she was so distraught she had to be taken to a

00:06:43hospital.

00:06:44Once doctors gave her the all clear, she handed police her phone and headed to the station, where she added

00:06:51vital details.

00:06:53To this awful, gut-wrenching story.

00:06:55It was several shots.

00:06:57Well, a lot of shots.

00:07:00Six, five, six maybe, I feel like.

00:07:04It was a neighbor's security camera that recorded those horrific sounds.

00:07:15And he just kept going.

00:07:17Yeah, like, going to stop me.

00:07:19And then, he just...

00:07:22And then, like, shot me.

00:07:25My husband's expression.

00:07:27And then I saw the birds turn and like just dark eyes coming toward me."

00:07:40She said the killer then turned on her.

00:07:59Later in the interview, Jennifer and Detective Walton used her phone to access the family's

00:08:05home security system, which had a camera that faced the empty house next door.

00:08:10They saw this image.

00:08:13It's a man walking alone around that abandoned property in the pre-dawn hours before the killing.

00:08:20I don't know.

00:08:21That house is empty.

00:08:23It's unarchitected.

00:08:25Certainly something to pursue.

00:08:27Detective Walton alerted his fellow investigators and continued the conversation.

00:08:33Were there any problems lately with anyone?

00:08:47Jennifer confirmed what everyone else had said, that Jamie was well-liked, a nice neighbor,

00:08:54loving dad and husband.

00:08:55Whatever this was, it had to be random, a robbery that became murder.

00:09:01And then autopsy results came back.

00:09:05That does not feel like a robbery.

00:09:07That feels like something else.

00:09:24What details there were of Jamie Faith's murder hit the news pretty quickly.

00:09:30About nine gunshots, the victim, James Faith, shot multiple times.

00:09:35Maria Guerrero covered the story for NBC5 in Dallas.

00:09:39We knew that a man was killed while walking his dog with his wife.

00:09:46And this sounds like, what, robbery?

00:09:48That's exactly what we thought it was.

00:09:50And that's what police were initially looking into this case as a robbery.

00:09:57Then the autopsy results came in.

00:09:59And 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

00:10:08time in the groin.

00:10:10That does not feel like a robbery.

00:10:12That feels like something else.

00:10:14It was overkill.

00:10:15To me, it was very personal.

00:10:17So how could Jamie Faith generate that kind of rage?

00:10:22The killing made even less sense when police took a closer look at him.

00:10:27What kind of guy was he?

00:10:28What 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.

00:10:37He also loved the Green Bay Packers.

00:10:39He was a huge fan.

00:10:41He was an IT director for American Airlines.

00:10:43He was one of those guys where everybody just loved.

00:10:47Played video games on Thursday nights.

00:10:51Jamie also played pool and really liked bowling.

00:10:55Nobody knew that better than twin sisters Monica and Monique Flores.

00:11:00They'd known Jamie for more than 20 years from when they all lived in Arizona.

00:11:05Was Jamie as good as you guys are?

00:11:07No.

00:11:08Well, yes.

00:11:08Yes.

00:11:09He was way better.

00:11:10Way 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?

00:11:19No.

00:11:21No.

00:11:22What made him ineligible?

00:11:23He was like one of those friends.

00:11:25Friend zone.

00:11:27Yeah.

00:11:28He was a good guy.

00:11:29Like a nice guy.

00:11:30He was always happy.

00:11:31Jamie, like, always lit up the bowling alley.

00:11:34Yep.

00:11:34And so that's what got us to like him.

00:11:36And then, of course, me and her and our personalities.

00:11:38He lit up the bowling alley.

00:11:39It's not something I hear very often.

00:11:43You know, he did.

00:11:46Police learned Jamie was smart, resourceful, and quirky.

00:11:51This 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 bets.

00:12:11And he'd go up to the window with a big wad of money, and he'd win.

00:12:15So not nerdy at all?

00:12:19No, not at all.

00:12:21But?

00:12:21Just 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.

00:12:44And cologne.

00:12:45He 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.

00:13:15And 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.

00:13:23And you've got to be, you know, sort of really caring with other people.

00:13:27Right.

00:13:28Right.

00:13:28And then when we met Jennifer, we were 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.

00:13:37And I'm just like, I love her, Jamie.

00:13:40I 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.

00:14:12And 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 trying 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 blue.

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.

00:15:36Police 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?

00:16:12Yes, sir.

00:16:12We did that for approximately three miles until we were able to catch the vehicle heading north on I-35

00:16:20from Illinois.

00:16:21And that's where you lose it?

00:16:22Yes, sir, on 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.

00:16:44Everybody, 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.

00:17:04Jenna 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

00:17:16that want to help if we can.

00:17:18And she almost immediately responded and said that she would love that.

00:17:22And could I come over tomorrow to talk?

00:17:24So 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,

00:17:44you might not 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?

00:18:39I do it quite often.

00:18:41We're strong, believing 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

00:18:50to find 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

00:19:05the 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 had a problem with anybody that you know of at work?

00:19:16Absolutely not.

00:19:17Or anywhere else?

00:19:18Mm-mm.

00:19:18Not 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.

00:19:28Wouldn'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

00:19:38that were laid off.

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

00:19:58door.

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.

00:20:34A week after Jamie Faith was gunned down, friends and family gathered in Dallas for

00:20:40a funeral, one 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,

00:20:57Jennifer and Jenna.

00:20:58I remember at one point, 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

00:21:09that was taking place there.

00:21:11Yeah.

00:21:12Rick 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.

00:21:24The description that Jennifer Faith gave of her husband during that funeral basically

00:21:31is consistent with what every individual that we talked to, how they described Jamie Faith.

00:21:37He 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

00:21:46were 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

00:21:59Day.

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.

00:22:12Many 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.

00:22:20And 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...

00:22:41And maybe this is just me.

00:22:43They had been together for 15 years.

00:22:45I've been with my husband for 18 years.

00:22:47He's not getting a love book like that.

00:22:50The people I interview are not supposed to be more cynical than I am.

00:22:54Sorry.

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.

00:23:13And it was almost like a...

00:23:17I mean, I hate to say it.

00:23:18It was almost like a party where you have takeaway gifts.

00:23:21Like party favors.

00:23:22Like party favors.

00:23:23That's a great way to put it.

00:23:24Like party favors to take away from a funeral.

00:23:26The women knew those extras weren't cheap.

00:23:29But at least Jennifer had that GoFundMe.

00:23:32It could help cover costs.

00:23:34And that fund?

00:23:35It 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.

00:23:45And so 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?

00:24:14But Jennifer 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

00:24:25gotten into it with his wife and 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

00:24:35after that round 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 ax 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, the one that was so flawless,

00:25:04it made other couples jealous.

00:25:07That 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.

00:25:32She talked with NBC5 in Dallas.

00:25:34Her fear was that this case was going cold, and she really wanted to finally come forward.

00:25:40My hope is that someday, perhaps the person will realize the gravity of what they've done

00:25:44and what they've taken from myself and my daughter.

00:25:47During the interview, she said that based on witnesses and what she remembers,

00:25:54a big clue will be this black pickup 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,

00:26:07and it would help give me the closure that I'm really looking for.

00:26:11What Jennifer didn't know was that all this time, investigators had actually been moving ahead

00:26:16with evidence that might not provide the kind of closure she was hoping for.

00:26:22And 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.

00:26:37What kind of marriage do you have? It's perfect.

00:26:39Perfect, yes. That'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.

00:26:50Now, investigators read a series of texts dated April 2020, six months before Jamie was killed.

00:26:59Jennifer and a friend named Tina were chatting.

00:27:02Included was this stunner from Jennifer.

00:27:06So, 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,

00:27:20and I'm probably blowing your mind right now, lol.

00:27:23Then, a surprise admission about her perfect marriage.

00:27:27Tina, 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. I constantly try to initiate.

00:27:41I give you credit for being up front.

00:27:43I finally gave up about a year ago. I couldn't lie to him. He deserves better than that.

00:27:48He won't give me a reason. I thought he was having an affair for a little while, but no.

00:27:52Tina had a question.

00:27:54Does 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. That was my question. He says it is a timing thing. Whatever.

00:28:06For four years? That's just it. No passion.

00:28:10Very little physical affection at all past a hug. And nothing romantic from him.

00:28:15Flowers on Valentine's Day. Typical 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, with anybody.

00:28:32No.

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.

00:28:43Provider, and also a loving father.

00:28:45So maybe this fling was just an innocent online diversion.

00:28:51A harmless way out of the middle-aged doldrums.

00:28:54Nothing in person. Nothing physical.

00:28:57After all, as Jennifer told Tina, things with Jamie were still kind of good.

00:29:03We 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.

00:29:13And then this.

00:29:14No issues until this guy came back, and OMG.

00:29:19The emotions and the connection.

00:29:21I 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.

00:29:34This guy I dated in high school and college.

00:29:36We broke up because I was finishing school, and after he got out of basic training, he was deployed to

00:29:41South Korea.

00:29:42He ended up going Special Forces and served 26 years.

00:29:46Just retired and found me.

00:29:48We 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.

00:29:58Thank you, but 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 called a five-year

00:30:17plan 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.

00:30:31So 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.

00:31:41Logic suggests a lovestruck guy with a five-year plan might become, at the very least, unhappy.

00:31:48And, at the very worst, furious.

00:31:50If his beloved decided to change the schedule and forsake him for the sake of her husband.

00:31:58She talks about this full-blown emotional affair she's having with this guy, Darren.

00:32:03But she also, at some point, says she's cutting it off.

00:32:06That's correct.

00:32:07Were there any texts from Darren on the phone?

00:32:09No.

00:32:10None 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.

00:32:26Police still didn't have the actual texts.

00:32:28But now they could see the text and call logs, showing how often Jennifer 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.

00:32:41That'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, a little over 13,000 contacts.

00:32:50More 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.

00:33:11An 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

00:33:35who lived about 640 miles 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, that'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?

00:35:16In 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, a big black Nissan pickup.

00:35:34Okay, but who could say for sure where Darren was heading?

00:35:38Well, actually, Google could.

00:35:40We saw that he typed in the victim's address while he was in Tennessee

00:35:46and got mapped directions to the route to Dallas.

00:35:50This feels like you're moving closer and closer to an arrest.

00:35:53Yes, sir.

00:35:55Okay, 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,

00:36:04get a flyover over Darren's property,

00:36:07and we were hoping that we'd be able to find this truck

00:36:10and get a good look at his Nissan Titan 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,

00:36:30something changed on the ground.

00:36:33Agents in Nashville were doing surveillance,

00:36:35and they observed Darren's pickup truck,

00:36:38and they no longer had the T on the windshield.

00:36:40Which suggests he's onto you guys.

00:36:43That's right.

00:36:45Wondering if Darren Lopez had gotten wise to them,

00:36:48agents 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.

00:37:07That'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.

00:37:50Exactly.

00:37:51Also gnawing at Agent Sheramy was the memory of that calamitous 1993 raid

00:37:57on the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas.

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

00:38:44for a full-scale operation to arrest Darren Lopez.

00:38:49You can tell here from the aerial photographs that this is a very wide-open piece of property,

00:38:56and that would 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.

00:39:09It was pretty much all the resources of the federal government.

00:39:11On an icy January day, agents were preparing to launch their takedown when a surveillance team

00:39:19reported Darren Lopez was in a Toyota, leaving his compound with one of his daughters.

00:39:24The order came back.

00:39:26Grab 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.

00:39:42And not a shot fired.

00:39:44And 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,

00:40:09he was able to talk with Darren soldier to soldier.

00:40:13Being 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.

00:40:24But 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?

00:40:32No, 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.

00:40:43Okay.

00:40:44High school friends.

00:40:45And 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.

00:40:53Okay.

00:40:54And she was like, oh, wow.

00:40:55And so we started reconnecting.

00:40:56Reconnecting?

00:40:57Yeah.

00:40:57Once we were 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

00:41:19lost 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 rekindling that old flame, and that's a strong thing.

00:41:40So we wrapped the best.

00:41:40She told me she was married.

00:41:41Okay.

00:41:41You 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.

00:41:49I never thought we'd crossed, like, you know, a threshold where it was inappropriate.

00:41:53And like I said, I'd never been down there.

00:41:54So I was 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.

00:42:07It doesn't have one on it today, but it did have one on it at the time of the offense.

00:42:14Okay.

00:42:16What happened to the T?

00:42:18It started just 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 the rain 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.

00:43:11Yeah.

00:43:12So we do our best to search the home.

00:43:18I 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.

00:43:24And 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, investigators landed on a piece of evidence

00:43:44almost too good to be true.

00:43:47One of the agents called out and said, hey, I found something.

00:43:50And 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, which appeared to be a small smear

00:44:12of 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.

00:44:30And that blood comes back to?

00:44:33Jamie Faye.

00:44:34So, 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 a sudden, there's this announcement of an arrest made of Darren Lopez out of Tennessee, and you're left

00:44:54stunned.

00:44:56When 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.

00:45:07We 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, it's pretty plausible that that's because I don't want to admit to an affair at

00:46:16all.

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.

00:46:23Absolutely.

00:46:24So did she do something about it?

00:46:27Investigators 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.

00:46:38We 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.

00:46:59You'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.

00:47:18It 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?

00:47:28Darren.

00:47:28Lopez, yeah.

00:47:29I asked her who was Darren.

00:47:31Her whole demeanor changed.

00:47:33He was one of my best friends.

00:47:35We dated in high school, but he doesn't know Jamie.

00:47:38And she told me that, oh, he's a 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 do you even bother listening to me about all these other people who I thought might have something to

00:47:58do 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.

00:48:18Um, but 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.

00:49:00I 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.

00:49:26Just tell him, hey, it's everyone.

00:49:27I was in love with my husband.

00:49:29I'm telling you the truth.

00:49:30So she claimed, her 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 messages and calls.

00:49:5424,000.

00:49:55I don't work.

00:49:55He's retired.

00:49:56We talk 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 it 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,

00:50:27is there some value to letting Jennifer kind of continue to play the part of, you know,

00:50:32I had no idea any of this was happening?

00:50:34Yeah, absolutely.

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,

00:50:46I'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

00:51:28between Darren and Jennifer in 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

00:51:49not 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?

00:52:02And somebody must know who has a truck like that.

00:52:05It's a black Nissan Titan, extended cab, has a Texas Ranger sticker in the back window.

00:52:11On 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 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.

00:52:37Well, at that point, you have text message clearly obstructing justice.

00:52:44And 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.

00:53:41Then 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.

00:53:51The 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-wife 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.

00:54:46It started six months before the murder.

00:54:49Jamie 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.

00:55:10Yes, 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.

00:55:37Multiple injuries, burns, bruises, Jennifer's cut lip.

00:55:42And 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.

00:55:54Jennifer 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, hey, Rob, I got your email address

00:56:08from Jennifer.

00:56:11She asked that I reach out to you for guidance.

00:56:15Jamie 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.

00:56:56I 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.

00:57:10And if it were up to me, I would tell you to go for it with your idea.

00:57:14LOL.

00:57:15I'll give you an alibi.

00:57:17Then, 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.

00:57:34That 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,

00:57:44then it's a little easier to understand why maybe she wasn't too anxious for you guys to

00:57:48arrest Darren, because he's helping her out.

00:57:52And it also could kind of explain why someone who had never broken the law in his life and never

00:58:00been arrested would be willing to possibly drive to Dallas to save someone that he believed was being abused.

00:58:07Suddenly, everything looked different, seen through a lens of pain and abuse.

00:58:14Maybe Jennifer Faith was a victim of sexual assault, and Darren Lopez a soldier on a mission to rescue his

00:58:22long-lost love.

00:58:23In 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,

00:59:00she ever talked 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.

00:59:08Now, when investigators poured over those graphic emails, everything 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, to be a sadist who'd acted

00:59:27out 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'm going to 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.

01:00:25You 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.

01:00:43And 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, and that gave us a clearer picture of what was

01:00:58going 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.

01:01:15That picture of the bruised lip.

01:01:17That's not Jennifer's lip.

01:01:18No, she 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 of abuse,

01:01:36and 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.

01:01:48That 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?

01:02:11I 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.

01:02:24And 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, 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.

01:03:16Right.

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.

01:03:22Because she wasn't just being herself, she was also being Rob Schmidt, she 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.

01:03:41Sitting 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.

01:03:57It 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.

01:04:15Exactly.

01:04:15And he would say, no, no, you're wrong.

01:04:17He 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 in a murderous

01:04:30scheme.

01:04:30Darren eventually agreed to speak with investigators again, and this time gave them a detailed confession of what went down.

01:04:39They recorded the audio.

01:04:41He told me that he had her tied up in the closet and he was going to do different things

01:04:48with 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?

01:05:01Yes, she 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, you know.

01:05:18And 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.

01:05:33Was 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.

01:06:06I 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?

01:06:15Yes, I can.

01:06:16In our interview, Darren was, by turns, remorseful, reflective, and regretful about his relationship with Jennifer.

01:06:24One 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, I 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.

01:07:15He 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 after the stuff had happened,

01:07:35her crying about everything.

01:07:37That's what I believed.

01:07:39I 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, why

01:08:08not 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 because 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.

01:08:41What 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 pull the 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.

01:09:13And after 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.

01:09:42When 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.

01:09:58No, 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.

01:10:10Why 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,

01:10:20Jennifer was charged with the federal crime of murder for 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,

01:10:41no matter if I'm in here or if I'm out.

01:10:44It might be easy to write off Darren Lopez as another casualty of war,

01:10:49a damaged veteran turned stone-cold killer.

01:10:53His band of brothers says it's not that simple.

01:10:57Yeah, I just couldn't, couldn't believe it.

01:11:00There's somebody that we trust with everything,

01:11:03and it's not the person that we know that would do this.

01:11:07Phil Heil and Greg Underwood know a different Darren

01:11:10after serving alongside him as Green Berets in the Iraq War.

01:11:15They witnessed Darren's courage and kindness

01:11:18as a medic who cared both for his fellow soldiers

01:11:22and for injured Iraqis.

01:11:25He was always out there with the children and talking to them

01:11:27and their parents and making sure everything was good,

01:11:29seeing if there was anything he could do for them.

01:11:31They remember a day in 2005

01:11:33when twin truck bombs exploded just outside their base south of Baghdad.

01:11:38Darren took a serious hit to the head

01:11:40and 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 repay Darren for that.

01:11:59They also know how Darren himself suffered,

01:12:02the brain injury, the PTSD, the breakup of his marriage.

01:12:07Then, in the late spring of 2020,

01:12:10Darren's friends say they caught a glimpse

01:12:12of the man they used to know.

01:12:14He said, I reconnected with an old girlfriend.

01:12:18He said, I'm just talking to her.

01:12:19This was something that just really gave him that glow of a,

01:12:24you know, okay, well, this is good for him.

01:12:26Thank you, Sheriff.

01:12:27Sheriff, you all may be seated.

01:12:29She wasn't in the courtroom,

01:12:31but Jennifer Faith's presence hung over the trial

01:12:34as Darren faced a jury in the summer of 2023.

01:12:39And while he'd confessed to pulling the trigger,

01:12:42he pleaded not guilty.

01:12:45Here's why.

01:12:46Darren killed James Faith.

01:12:48But Darren did that because Jennifer led him to believe

01:12:53that 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,

01:13:11he had to act immediately and take care of the threat.

01:13:14You can use deadly force to defend someone

01:13:16if you believe that they're in immediate harm,

01:13:18or you can do it to prevent them

01:13:20from committing a murder or an aggravated sexual assault.

01:13:24In Texas, doesn't that have to be true

01:13:27for you to raise that?

01:13:29Not necessarily.

01:13:30Darren Lopez testified that he believed

01:13:33Jennifer'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,

01:13:44argued prosecutor Brandi Mitchell.

01:13:47Even if Jennifer was manipulating Darren, she said,

01:13:51he was all in.

01:13:53He is pursuing her.

01:13:55He wants her to come visit him.

01:13:58These text emails get increasingly sexual in nature

01:14:03and increasingly graphic in nature.

01:14:07How graphic?

01:14:09Well, those emails were read aloud in court,

01:14:13resulting in a deeply cringe-inducing

01:14:16two-person command performance

01:14:18by prosecutor Mitchell and detective Barnes.

01:14:22Here's a PG sample.

01:14:24I love you.

01:14:27I so love you.

01:14:28Totally in love with you.

01:14:31Later, 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

01:14:44and 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,

01:14:53we kind of needed a shower.

01:14:54It was not good.

01:14:56More important was the question of third-party defense.

01:15:00The prosecutors said under the law,

01:15:02the killer would have to believe the action was necessary

01:15:05to save a life and the danger imminent.

01:15:09That means now, right this moment, action is needed.

01:15:16Fear of future danger is never enough.

01:15:21Ladies and gentlemen,

01:15:23Darren 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,

01:15:35Darren 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,

01:15:44I think if they would have come back with an acquittal,

01:15:47you probably would have to pick me off the ground.

01:15:49And the day that it happened, we celebrated.

01:15:51We all celebrated.

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,

01:16:06but maybe he wouldn't be a murderer

01:16:08if he hadn't hung on to that memory of Jennifer Faith.

01:16:11It's, it's very possible.

01:16:13It's a cautionary tale

01:16:14that maybe some people are better left in your past.

01:16:17And someone in Jennifer's past

01:16:19has a story that will sound very familiar.

01:16:24She specifically said,

01:16:25I wish my husband was dead.

01:16:27Yeah.

01:16:28And what would happen

01:16:29even when Jennifer faced justice

01:16:31for Jamie's murder?

01:16:50Jennifer Faith, wife, mom, speech therapist,

01:16:55and maybe the biggest mystery

01:16:57in this whole tale of murder and betrayal.

01:17:00Remember what the twins said about her?

01:17:03I 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 Erlob.

01:17:21I feel like a fool.

01:17:25I know you were a little reticent

01:17:28to sit down here because of that.

01:17:30Sure.

01:17:31You don't want to look bad

01:17:33in front of the world.

01:17:35When Rick heard about Jennifer's role

01:17:37in the murder,

01:17:38he says he was horrified.

01:17:40Back in 2000,

01:17:42he and Jennifer had an affair

01:17:44while she was still married

01:17:45to husband number one.

01:17:47Rick says she pursued him.

01:17:50Not 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

01:18:05come over and rape her.

01:18:06He would torture her

01:18:08with implements.

01:18:10So this was a woman

01:18:12in 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

01:18:20until she makes it think

01:18:23that it's your idea.

01:18:25Tell me.

01:18:26She'll tell you about it

01:18:28and just say, you know,

01:18:31I wish I could get out.

01:18:33I wish he was dead.

01:18:37She specifically said,

01:18:38I wish my husband was dead.

01:18:41Yeah.

01:18:43Together, he says,

01:18:44they came up with a plan.

01:18:45I was supposed to shoot him

01:18:47when he was tending his garden.

01:18:49It was to that point.

01:18:52Was this a real plan

01:18:53or was this some kind of like fantasy

01:18:54that the two of you

01:18:56were talking about?

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

01:19:03ended abruptly

01:19:04when Jennifer got a divorce.

01:19:06And then Rick became

01:19:08husband number two.

01:19:10Before long,

01:19:11he says he started receiving

01:19:13emails from a couple of strangers.

01:19:15One was a surgeon,

01:19:17the other an airline pilot.

01:19:20Each man talked about

01:19:21how hot Jennifer was

01:19:23and how Rick didn't appreciate her.

01:19:27You never met the surgeon?

01:19:29No.

01:19:29You never met the pilot?

01:19:30No.

01:19:31Finally, Rick said enough

01:19:33and got a divorce.

01:19:35Today, Rick believes

01:19:36the pilot and the surgeon

01:19:37were phantoms

01:19:38and Jennifer sent

01:19:40all those emails.

01:19:41He also believes

01:19:43her first husband

01:19:44was not the monster

01:19:46Jennifer described.

01:19:47That guy declined

01:19:49an interview with Dateline

01:19:51and police in Arizona

01:19:52told us

01:19:53there's no evidence

01:19:54he ever abused Jennifer.

01:19:56You got pretty bruised

01:19:58by that whole thing,

01:19:58didn't you?

01:19:59You know,

01:19:59I wasn't hurt physically,

01:20:00but I lost that time

01:20:02that I could be doing

01:20:03something different

01:20:04that really mattered

01:20:05and not be swimming

01:20:07in a sea of lies

01:20:08and manipulation

01:20:09and pain.

01:20:14Maybe she thought

01:20:15she'd always get away

01:20:17with lying

01:20:17and manipulating.

01:20:19Truth is,

01:20:20she almost did

01:20:22until Darren reappeared.

01:20:25He pulled the trigger.

01:20:27Yes.

01:20:27But she pulled the strings.

01:20:29Yes.

01:20:31This murder doesn't happen

01:20:32without both of them.

01:20:35Jennifer Faith declined

01:20:37our request

01:20:37for an interview.

01:20:39So we're left to wonder

01:20:40why she wanted

01:20:42Jamie killed

01:20:43and right in front of her.

01:20:46Maybe it was about more

01:20:47than getting him

01:20:48out of her life.

01:20:49Maybe it was also

01:20:51about greed.

01:20:53How much was

01:20:53the life insurance?

01:20:54I believe it was

01:20:55$639,000

01:20:57plus an additional

01:20:58almost $400,000

01:21:00in benefits

01:21:02from American Airlines.

01:21:04So a total

01:21:05in excess of $1 million.

01:21:06Jennifer never got

01:21:07that money.

01:21:08She did not.

01:21:09If you're wondering,

01:21:10she did try.

01:21:12And remember

01:21:13how her nice neighbors

01:21:14started that GoFundMe?

01:21:16It raised $60,000.

01:21:18A lot of that money

01:21:20went to Darren.

01:21:22Jennifer gave him

01:21:23two credit cards

01:21:24and some expensive gifts.

01:21:26They're still

01:21:27talking about that.

01:21:28said that she sent money

01:21:31from the GoFundMe

01:21:32to him

01:21:33to buy like

01:21:34airplane tickets

01:21:35or something.

01:21:35A TV.

01:21:36And I was like,

01:21:38are you kidding me?

01:21:39Because immediately

01:21:39what flashes in my mind

01:21:41when I read that part

01:21:43was remembering

01:21:44her messaging me

01:21:45and saying,

01:21:46I don't know

01:21:47how to access

01:21:47the GoFundMe.

01:21:49I can't do it.

01:21:50She played

01:21:50computer illiterate.

01:21:51And she's able

01:21:52to create

01:21:52two fake email accounts.

01:21:54So I physically

01:21:55went to her house

01:21:56and oh man,

01:21:58I felt like an idiot.

01:21:59Jennifer ended up

01:22:00draining that

01:22:01GoFundMe account.

01:22:02She never did pay

01:22:03for those

01:22:04splashy funerals.

01:22:07Long after her arrest,

01:22:09Jennifer insisted

01:22:10she'd been just

01:22:11a helpless bystander

01:22:12in Jamie's killing.

01:22:14Then once Darren

01:22:15confessed,

01:22:16she folded.

01:22:18Jennifer pleaded guilty

01:22:19to the federal crime

01:22:20of murder for hire

01:22:22and was sentenced

01:22:23to life

01:22:24without parole.

01:22:26And after that,

01:22:27she sends a note

01:22:28to Jamie's parents

01:22:29saying she still

01:22:30loves him.

01:22:31Correct, yes.

01:22:32That she did nothing

01:22:33but love Jamie

01:22:34and she would never

01:22:34do anything to harm him.

01:22:36Yes, she did.

01:22:36All evidence

01:22:37to the contrary.

01:22:38Correct.

01:22:41For those who

01:22:42did love Jamie Faith,

01:22:44this remains

01:22:45the final image of him.

01:22:47His last act,

01:22:48a daily routine,

01:22:50walking the dog

01:22:51with his wife.

01:22:53except she was

01:22:54leading Jamie

01:22:55to his death

01:22:57and she knew it.

01:22:59What kind of person

01:23:00does that?

01:23:01I don't know.

01:23:02A crazy person,

01:23:03obviously.

01:23:04But it's so much

01:23:06more than that.

01:23:07Poor Jamie.

01:23:08I mean,

01:23:09he really had no idea

01:23:10what he was getting into.

01:23:11Yeah.

01:23:12Sad.

01:23:13He let his heart

01:23:14go to her

01:23:17and she took his life.

01:23:22That's all for this

01:23:24edition of Dateline.

01:23:25We'll see you again

01:23:25Thursday at 10,

01:23:279 central

01:23:27for the premiere

01:23:28of Dateline Thursday.

01:23:30And of course,

01:23:31I'll see you each weeknight

01:23:32for NBC Nightly News.

01:23:34I'm Lester Holt.

01:23:36For all of us

01:23:37at NBC News,

01:23:38good night.

01:23:40Good night.

01:23:42Good night.

01:23:44Bye.

01:23:45Good night.

01:23:47Bye.

Dateline NBC S32E01 Losing Faith H 264

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