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Dateline NBC S30E01 The Evil That Watches H 264
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00:00:09I'm Lester Holt.
00:00:10Tonight, on the 30th season premiere of Dateline,
00:00:13a triple murder and a couple with dark secrets.
00:00:18He showed me his phone.
00:00:20It's got a picture of my house with crime scene tape around it.
00:00:24It's just like it's not real.
00:00:26When they went into the house, they found Calvin Phillips' body.
00:00:29In the basement, shot repeatedly.
00:00:32Firefighters were called for the discovery of a burned car off the roadway.
00:00:37We find two bodies inside.
00:00:40There's been three gruesome murders.
00:00:42It's not a good feeling.
00:00:44What are we dealing with?
00:00:45What are we facing here?
00:00:46The son tells you about this apparent conflict between the neighbors.
00:00:51That's right.
00:00:51He was an RV major.
00:00:53She is drop-dead beautiful.
00:00:55They had somewhat of a volatile marriage.
00:00:57She would talk about that he was very angry.
00:01:00I thought the pattern was of a woman who was using men to get what she wanted.
00:01:05Everything started escalating.
00:01:07He said, I need you to leave your house in the next 30 seconds.
00:01:11My brother-in-law said, you need a gun.
00:01:13There's a killer on the loose.
00:01:15All of a sudden, I hear a window break and a man yelling, and I think whoever killed Calvin
00:01:20Phillips is coming to kill me.
00:01:32Here is Keith Morrison with The Evil That Watches.
00:01:39Peace is what he wanted.
00:01:43To bury the past, things best left behind.
00:01:48He wanted a real home after the army.
00:01:51They both did.
00:01:52A place to dig in, raise their boy.
00:01:57And when he saw this old place, oh yes, he knew.
00:02:01He knew right away.
00:02:03He loved the history.
00:02:05He loved the history.
00:02:05The history of this thing was, I think, what drew him, right?
00:02:08The architecture, yeah.
00:02:09Every single one of those red...
00:02:10A house with history that needed him and his handy ways and was big enough to fill with
00:02:17a lifetime of memories.
00:02:19This house was 99 and 9 tenths full of love.
00:02:23And somebody evil entered into this home.
00:02:27Into their space.
00:02:28Into their space.
00:02:31Yes, this was evil.
00:02:34Evil that watches, lies in wait, plans, and after slings away, unreachable, unknowable,
00:02:45the master or mistress of confusion.
00:02:49It's like spy versus spy or something.
00:02:52Mm-hmm.
00:02:52It's a weird thing.
00:02:54It's still a weird thing to me.
00:02:55The whole thing is a weird thing.
00:02:58So go ahead.
00:02:59Pick your dream home in that perfect neighborhood.
00:03:03Keep in mind, you cannot pick who will wind up there with you.
00:03:12It's a curious little place, Pembroke, Kentucky.
00:03:15A town that started grand, but didn't grow.
00:03:24It's where Matt Phillips grew up.
00:03:26What can you tell me about life in Pembroke?
00:03:29You know, it's 700 people.
00:03:30I got on my bicycle and went everywhere.
00:03:32No one thought twice about it.
00:03:35All around for miles and miles are corn and soybean fields.
00:03:40Though, at the Army, Fort Campbell is a short commute away from this small, safe place.
00:03:49Nobody locked doors.
00:03:51It was that safe place that, you know, you could always go back home.
00:03:56Yes, he could.
00:03:57His parents, Cal and Pam, were still devoted to this grand old house.
00:04:04Mom was a VP at a local bank.
00:04:07Dad was long retired from the Army.
00:04:09So, he studied that house, and he was redoing that house himself.
00:04:16This is Diana, Cal's sister, Matt's aunt.
00:04:20It looked like it was absolutely a work in progress.
00:04:23Yeah, it's a labor of love, you know.
00:04:27The latest improvement arrived Wednesday, November 18th, 2015.
00:04:31A new washing machine.
00:04:34Matt, by then living on his own about three hours north in Louisville,
00:04:38had bought it for his parents' upcoming anniversary.
00:04:41Dad had one job, and it was meet the delivery folks
00:04:44and get the new washing machine in for Mom.
00:04:47Instead, his mom Pam got a call at work that morning from the delivery company.
00:04:51She shared with the co-worker, you know, Cal missed the delivery.
00:04:55How could he do it?
00:04:56He knew how important this was.
00:04:58She was pretty mad.
00:04:58She was upset.
00:05:00She kept dialing.
00:05:01She couldn't reach Cal.
00:05:03She wasn't the only one trying.
00:05:06I called and left a message on the answering machine
00:05:08because Cal never answered the phone.
00:05:10He'd call you back.
00:05:14Marlene LaRock is a family friend
00:05:16and, like Cal, a true dog lover.
00:05:19German shepherds, specifically.
00:05:21Cal was devoted to his old dog.
00:05:24And just that morning, Marlene heard the dog was dying
00:05:27and Cal was distraught.
00:05:29She wanted to offer condolences.
00:05:32When he didn't call back, she drove over.
00:05:36So I come up here, and this door is open.
00:05:40They never leave their doors open.
00:05:42Never.
00:05:43It was just standing ajar?
00:05:44No, this was closed.
00:05:46But the other door was wide open.
00:05:46But the one inside was open.
00:05:47I said, well, maybe Cal just went out back.
00:05:51He was always out doing something in that big backyard of his.
00:05:55She'd talk to him later, she figured.
00:05:58And she went home.
00:05:59But Pam worried.
00:06:02It was not like Cal to ignore her phone calls.
00:06:06So she left work early.
00:06:08On her way home, Pam spoke to her next-door neighbor,
00:06:11a man called Ed Doncero.
00:06:13Hey, I'm starting to worry about Cal.
00:06:15It's getting later in the day, and I haven't heard from you.
00:06:17So now I'm not mad anymore about the washing machine.
00:06:19No, I'm worried.
00:06:20Yeah.
00:06:20I'm worried.
00:06:20Worried about Cal.
00:06:21Yeah.
00:06:21Yeah.
00:06:22Within 20 minutes or so, she was home, but still no sign of Cal.
00:06:27At around 5.30, she heard the message Marlene left and called her back.
00:06:32She said, have you seen Cal today?
00:06:35And I said, no.
00:06:36In fact, I went by there earlier, and the house was wide open.
00:06:39She said, wide open?
00:06:41She says, hold on a minute.
00:06:42Don't hang up.
00:06:43I hear something.
00:06:44And then I heard like a squeal, and she never came back on the phone.
00:06:49That was it?
00:06:50That was it.
00:06:52Well, that was odd.
00:06:54What was going on over there?
00:06:56Marlene and her daughter got in the car and drove back over,
00:06:58saw Pam's car in the driveway facing the house.
00:07:02And I opened the door, and my daughter was standing right there.
00:07:07I stuck my foot in the door and yelled,
00:07:09and then all of a sudden, I just backed out and closed the door.
00:07:15Because why?
00:07:17Because I had a chill going up my backbone.
00:07:19Something in my gut told me I did not want to go in there.
00:07:23What made her stop?
00:07:25Something.
00:07:26She didn't know.
00:07:27Let's go, she said.
00:07:29And they left.
00:07:30Did she call the police?
00:07:32No, she did not.
00:07:33She didn't think it was like that.
00:07:36Anyway, night had fallen.
00:07:39In the morning, everything would be fine.
00:07:43Wouldn't it?
00:07:46It would not be fine when we come back.
00:07:50An alarming sight, a car on fire, and something suspicious.
00:07:56A strong odor of kerosene.
00:07:58It was very pungent.
00:08:00This car may have been set afire.
00:08:01Absolutely.
00:08:01And then, back at Cal and Pam's, a disturbing discovery in the grass.
00:08:07Two things of particular interest.
00:08:09One was a cell phone, and the other was a handgun.
00:08:31It was morning, November 19th, the morning after the strange series of missed connections at Cal Phillips' old house in
00:08:41Pembroke.
00:08:41A call came in to County Dispatch, a man reporting an abandoned car, but stuck off a muddy country lane
00:08:50on the edge of town.
00:08:52The car was found to have been burning and smoldering, I think is how it was reported.
00:09:00Sheriff Brent White was a state police commander then.
00:09:03His people went out there to see what the trouble was, and it was a car, all right, or used
00:09:09to be.
00:09:10The car's make and model was somewhat unrecognizable.
00:09:14The entire vehicle had been consumed by fire.
00:09:17The car was unrecognizable, maybe, but the reason it burned?
00:09:22That seemed pretty obvious.
00:09:24They detected a strong odor of kerosene.
00:09:28It was very pungent.
00:09:29This car may have been set afire.
00:09:30Sure, absolutely.
00:09:32And then the investigator looked inside the charred metal hulk.
00:09:37Oh, no.
00:09:39Horrifying.
00:09:40Two human skulls.
00:09:41No way to know whose they were.
00:09:44Except an important bit survived the fire.
00:09:48The license plate actually burned off, so to speak.
00:09:53Came detached from the rear of the vehicle and was laying on the ground.
00:09:57So they ran the numbers.
00:09:59And the car belonged to one Pamela Phillips of South Main Street in Pembroke.
00:10:05Yes, that Pam.
00:10:10State police and the local sheriff working together divided up the chores.
00:10:14And sheriff's deputies drove over to Pam and Cal's place.
00:10:17And right away, outside the house, were those traces of blood in the grass?
00:10:22They stopped in their tracks, called, and asked for a search warrant.
00:10:27When deputies entered the home, they found it to be unoccupied.
00:10:32And there was really nothing amiss at that point.
00:10:36This is video deputies shot that day.
00:10:39Eventually, they worked their way to the back porch.
00:10:43One of the deputies noticed a piece of fabric that was protruding from the door to the cellar.
00:10:49A bad sign is how the deputy would later describe it.
00:10:54And when they opened this door, they found, at the bottom of the stairs, the cellar,
00:11:01the body of what they believed to be Calvin Phillips at that time.
00:11:05There he was.
00:11:08No wonder no one could find Cal the day before.
00:11:11He must have been dead the whole time, at the foot of his own basement stairs.
00:11:17No question, this was murder.
00:11:19Cal had been shot multiple times.
00:11:22A pile of half-burned firewood was tucked up against his body.
00:11:27It was pretty apparent to them that someone had attempted to cover up the evidence by setting a fire.
00:11:34Somebody set it on fire, but then closed the trap door, and that would have put the fire out.
00:11:39Yes.
00:11:40The body in the basement had to be that of Cal Phillips.
00:11:43The burned car certainly belonged to Pam Phillips.
00:11:47So if one of those bodies in the car was hers, whose was the other?
00:11:53The deputies went outside, eyes on the ground, and they found things.
00:11:59Two things of particular interest, one which was a cell phone, and the other was a handgun.
00:12:07Both lying in the grass, the cell phone over near the house next door, Ed Doncero's place, the same Ed
00:12:15Pam called the day before.
00:12:17Now deputies noticed Ed's back door was wide open.
00:12:21The television was on, a light was on in the kitchen.
00:12:24There had been a meal that had been prepared.
00:12:26There was a beer that was freshly opened.
00:12:29So where was he?
00:12:32They weren't the only ones asking.
00:12:35I had been trying to get him all day Thursday and wondered why he had not returned the call.
00:12:41Sally Jackson, Ed's girlfriend, was puzzled at first.
00:12:44She lived an hour away in Bowling Green, and when she left messages for Ed, he'd always call her right
00:12:49back.
00:12:50But this time, he didn't.
00:12:53The whole day had gone by without a word.
00:12:56And then a friend phoned her, a friend from Pembroke.
00:12:59He told her a man's body had been found in Cal and Pam's house, and police were now inside Ed's
00:13:06place.
00:13:07And he said, Ed, it's missing.
00:13:09I'm like, what do you mean Ed's missing?
00:13:11He said, well, his back door is standing wide open, the TV is blaring, and his car is gone.
00:13:17What was that like?
00:13:19Scary.
00:13:20Yes.
00:13:22And scarier as the police kept searching.
00:13:25And there was a holster draped over a chair.
00:13:28It was empty.
00:13:28It looked like someone had left in a hurry and not come back.
00:13:32As though something had caught Ed's attention made him grab his gun and cell phone and run outside.
00:13:38And now they were lying in bloodstained grass and Ed was gone.
00:13:43So the cops put two and two together, figured Ed's might be the second body in Pam's burned-out car.
00:13:52As if by some dark wind, the news blew down Main Street to Marlene's house.
00:14:28I was a nervous wreck.
00:14:30As if I was going into the house, she may have quite literally dodged a bullet.
00:14:32It saved her own life.
00:14:35That evening, miles away in Louisville, Cal and Pam's son, Matt, was meeting a friend for dinner.
00:14:41The man had a worried look about him.
00:14:43And so he showed me his phone, and on that phone was at the top, you know, body found Pembroke.
00:14:54It's got a picture of my mom's car.
00:14:57It's got a picture of my house with tape around it.
00:15:01Crime scene tape.
00:15:02What was that like, that moment?
00:15:06It's just like it's not real.
00:15:09So he did what anyone in his place would do.
00:15:11He called home.
00:15:12I remember calling my mom frantically.
00:15:18Frantically.
00:15:20Just pick up.
00:15:21Just pick up the phone.
00:15:21When she didn't pick up, she didn't text me back.
00:15:29Willful disbelief is normal, expected even, from a son quite unprepared for the horror to come.
00:15:39Coming up, Matt breaks gut-wrenching news.
00:15:44I'll never forget the sound my grandmother made when I told him.
00:15:48It's like a gasp.
00:15:50That sound.
00:15:54As a feeling of dread spreads.
00:15:57I was just so worried.
00:15:59Terrible.
00:16:00Just horrible.
00:16:02When Dateline continues.
00:16:16Murder in any small town would be news, of course.
00:16:19But a triple murder, by gun and by fire, by a force or forces unknown in a sleepy community of
00:16:27less than a thousand?
00:16:28This was, well...
00:16:32This was extremely alarming and unique.
00:16:36Jeremy Finley is the chief investigative reporter at NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville, out an hour or so east of
00:16:43Pembroke.
00:16:44He could tell the news coming out of that little town would become a story for the ages.
00:16:49To have this grisly of a crime happen there made it something that every news department was focusing in on
00:16:56to try and get some answers.
00:16:57But no one needed answers more in those early hours and days than Sally Jackson, Ed Doncero's girlfriend, and Matt
00:17:05Phillips, Cal and Pam's son.
00:17:08Answers that help.
00:17:10The police wouldn't, or to be fair, couldn't, tell them with any certainty exactly who had been murdered.
00:17:16So brutal and thorough had the killer been.
00:17:20But police knew.
00:17:21So did Matt.
00:17:22In his heart, anyway.
00:17:24And so, alone and desperate in Louisville, he called his dad's sister, his Aunt Diana, way off in New Jersey.
00:17:31Blurted out what he had just heard.
00:17:33I said, what?
00:17:36What are you talking about?
00:17:38And I'm like, we need to get to my mom and my dad, because they need to hear it from
00:17:44us.
00:17:46Nothing they could do in Pembroke.
00:17:48Not yet.
00:17:49So Matt drove all night from Kentucky to Michigan to break the news to his dad's parents.
00:17:56Torture.
00:17:58I'll never forget the sound my grandmother made when I told him.
00:18:04It's like a gasp.
00:18:06That sound.
00:18:09Like the sound of a mortal wound to her soul.
00:18:13Terrible.
00:18:15Just horrible.
00:18:16You know, I was just so worried.
00:18:19Sally was distraught.
00:18:21Her head would not have just disappeared without telling her, without a word.
00:18:26They were each other's world.
00:18:28He was a gem.
00:18:30He really was.
00:18:32They met at a party in 2002.
00:18:34She was widowed.
00:18:36He was long since divorced.
00:18:38He called me the next day.
00:18:40I said, well, I'm kind of going out with the girls.
00:18:43And he said, well, do you mind if I tag along?
00:18:45I said, no, that's fine.
00:18:47They had been a couple ever since.
00:18:49At the time, she was a librarian.
00:18:51He was a professional pianist.
00:18:53That's him on tour with his friend Bo Haddock's band.
00:18:58When he wasn't at the piano, he was in the kitchen.
00:19:02He loved to cook, so he would cook for my kids.
00:19:05And he really thought my kids, they were his kids and the grandchildren the same way.
00:19:11What you described, you know, you are what you do.
00:19:13It sounds like he's a pretty nifty guy.
00:19:15Oh, yeah.
00:19:16Yeah.
00:19:17Ed was a commuter, really.
00:19:18He'd spend part of the week with Sally in Bowling Green, part an hour away in Pembroke,
00:19:23where he looked after one of those old historic houses for a friend.
00:19:28And he clicked with his next-door neighbors.
00:19:32Cal liked to play guitar.
00:19:34You got a band, right?
00:19:36I mean, these guys would sit around a little fire in the backyard and drink a couple of sodas and
00:19:41play music.
00:19:43Two guys who just loved music and loved these old houses.
00:19:48Matt's dad, Cal, in particular.
00:19:50Restoring this old place was a kind of therapy for him.
00:19:53And he'd made a career in the Army as a logistics officer, spent part of it in the Gulf War
00:19:59back in the 90s before retiring.
00:20:01After he had seen, you know, so much around the world and more chaotic times.
00:20:07But, you know, you could go to Pembroke and just kind of relax.
00:20:10It's about as far away from a war zone as you could imagine being.
00:20:15Yeah.
00:20:15And he was happy here and loud and gregarious and opinionated, the absolute yin to his wife Pam's yang.
00:20:25She was just the opposite, total opposite of Cal.
00:20:29Yeah.
00:20:29Very quiet, calm.
00:20:33But she knew how to work my brother.
00:20:36When she spoke, he listened.
00:20:38She was VP at a bank, after all.
00:20:41Good people, living a private, decent life.
00:20:45And now suddenly gone.
00:20:49As Matt and his Aunt Diana made the long trip to Pembroke, they dreaded what lay ahead.
00:20:55Police had a photo waiting for him.
00:20:58It was a partial photo of a face.
00:21:02It was a picture of my father's nose from here up.
00:21:06And so I identified my father by his eyebrows, because he had significant trauma to his face.
00:21:17The trauma, a product of a vicious beating, wasn't quite enough to kill him, but five bullets into his body
00:21:24made sure of it.
00:21:25Sadly, that was the easiest identification.
00:21:29The bodies in Pam's car were another matter.
00:21:33Someone from the ME's office asked Sally if Ed had ever had surgery.
00:21:3825 years ago, he had a compound fracture of his left shin, and they put in a rod and screws.
00:21:45When he asked me that, I pretty much knew it was Ed.
00:21:49DNA testing confirmed that it was, as feared, Pam and Ed.
00:21:54They, too, had been shot before their bodies were driven to that field and set on fire.
00:21:59Sally could not understand.
00:22:01Why them?
00:22:03Why her Ed?
00:22:05It just didn't make sense.
00:22:07These victims were not the usual victims of violent crime, including murder, that we normally see.
00:22:15And yet, someone wanted them dead.
00:22:18Someone who went to a great deal of trouble to make sure the deed was done.
00:22:22And who left behind, so it seemed, virtually nothing to go on.
00:22:30Coming up.
00:22:31As locals try to come to grips with a triple murder, gossip goes into overdrive.
00:22:38What people were saying.
00:22:40Ed and Pam were having an affair, and they had Calvin murdered.
00:22:44We were just, like, scratching our heads, going, are you flipping kidding me?
00:23:02What is it about humans in little towns or big?
00:23:07An awful event is partially revealed.
00:23:10And sure as there is air, we will grow, like weeds in springtime, the most remarkable theories.
00:23:18To fill in the blanks, of course.
00:23:21The more scandalous, the better.
00:23:25I was hurt, but furious at the insensitivity.
00:23:31In the days after the murders, Cal's sister and son, Diana and Matt, were hearing all sorts of rumors.
00:23:38The fact that Ed and Pam's bodies were found together in her car.
00:23:44My, my, how that stoked local gossip.
00:23:47Ed and Pam were having an affair, and they had Calvin murdered.
00:23:53And, you know, we were just, like, scratching our heads, going, are you flipping kidding me?
00:23:59The ordinary just-the-facts work of real detection, however, had determined there was no evidence of any affair between
00:24:06Pam and Ed.
00:24:07Detectives hadn't even been able to sort out who was killed where or in what order, let alone who did
00:24:13it.
00:24:13Did it seem as if there might be some sort of serial killer at work in Pembroke?
00:24:18We didn't know, but obviously when you have that many victims, it definitely crosses your mind.
00:24:24Police, of course, were hoping to find something in that big house, now a crime scene, that might lead them
00:24:30to the killer or killers.
00:24:31But then, just a few days after finding the bodies, they had a surprise announcement.
00:24:38At least it was a surprise to Cal and Pam's son.
00:24:42They said, look, we're going to hold the house for a day, maybe two.
00:24:45But after that, it's not our responsibility anymore.
00:24:48It seems pretty quick somehow.
00:24:50In this day and age, they usually hang on to a place longer.
00:24:52It seemed very quick to us.
00:24:55They took us back there, to that house.
00:24:58Told us about walking inside so soon after the murders.
00:25:02Still in some sort of stupor of shock.
00:25:05It's like, here's the house, here's all of their things, but where are they?
00:25:12You're coming in and it looks perfectly fine.
00:25:15I mean, everything was normal.
00:25:18So, what do you do?
00:25:20You keep busy.
00:25:21They started cleaning up the cluttered house.
00:25:25But then, a few days later, another surprise.
00:25:29The police came back.
00:25:31Said they needed to test for blood.
00:25:34Now?
00:25:36After they'd already released the house,
00:25:38the timing didn't make sense to Matt and Diana,
00:25:40but they let the police in.
00:25:43Were you worried that that might be,
00:25:45this scene might have been contaminated by that time?
00:25:47It's possible, but when you look underneath the floor,
00:25:51or the floor covering,
00:25:53you can get blood up that is not visible to the naked eye.
00:25:57And there it was.
00:25:59Pam's blood soaked in the floor near the phone Pam used to call Marlene.
00:26:04The woman who heard Pam gasp.
00:26:06And then the line go dead.
00:26:08So, this is where then they found her blood and found her hair.
00:26:12So, a lot happened right here.
00:26:16Yes.
00:26:17And at the end of that hallway in the back porch where they were sure Cal was murdered.
00:26:23And then his body dumped down the cellar steps.
00:26:27Blood marked that spot.
00:26:30I specifically said to the police,
00:26:32where is it that we shouldn't go?
00:26:34And they said, you know, don't go down the steps.
00:26:38So, of course, you went there.
00:26:39Yeah.
00:26:40I did.
00:26:41I did.
00:26:42Went down there and sat down.
00:26:45I just put my hand down on the step and I, you know, I made a promise then.
00:26:50I said, I'll, we'll fight to make sure that the people or persons responsible for this are brought to justice.
00:26:58And I sobbed.
00:26:59I did.
00:26:59I sobbed like a flippin' baby.
00:27:03Their emotions clearly running high.
00:27:06It didn't help that they kept finding things in the house that police no longer considered an active crime scene.
00:27:12A family friend was sweeping out the kitchen.
00:27:15And she finds something.
00:27:17She finds a projectile.
00:27:19It was a .22 caliber bullet, the same caliber used to kill Pam and Ed.
00:27:24They gave it to the police.
00:27:26And then there was this.
00:27:29We were cleaning and so I had reached up onto a bookshelf and I pulled down.
00:27:36It was obviously a dog tag.
00:27:38I just clenched it.
00:27:41And I started to cry.
00:27:43Diana thought she was holding a memento from her brother's time in the Army.
00:27:47She handed it to Matt.
00:27:50He looked at me and he said, Aunt Diana, you need to get your glasses on.
00:27:54Coming up, the focus shifts across the street to the neighbors.
00:28:00Here he is, a handsome member of the military.
00:28:02She is drop-dead beautiful.
00:28:04They made a statuesque couple.
00:28:07But what about beneath the surface?
00:28:09I think it's safe to say they had somewhat of a volatile marriage.
00:28:13When Dateline continues.
00:28:26Matt and Diana were turning into their own detectives and they found a clue and a surprise.
00:28:33The clue was a dog tag, but it didn't belong to Diana's brother, Cal.
00:28:40No, there was someone else's name on it.
00:28:45Kit Martin.
00:28:47It wicked me out and I was very upset.
00:28:51And we closed the doors and we left for the night.
00:28:54I mean, it stopped us in our tracks.
00:28:59They knew Christian Kit Martin.
00:29:02He was one of Cal and Pam's neighbors, lived across the street in this big yellow house.
00:29:07So what was his old dog tag doing here?
00:29:11Matt and Diana alerted the police who did their own digging.
00:29:16Christian Martin was a U.S. Army major.
00:29:19He'd served a couple of tours.
00:29:20That's right.
00:29:21That's right.
00:29:22He was a helicopter pilot that served in Iraq.
00:29:26At the time of the murders, Kit was based out of Fort Campbell.
00:29:29He'd lived his professional life with the military precision you might expect of an officer.
00:29:34He was Major Kit Martin.
00:29:38But in Pembroke, Kit had finally found a place to relax, just be a regular guy.
00:29:44It was the small town innocence that drew him in, he said, when he was shopping for a new home
00:29:48four years earlier.
00:29:50When we first pulled in there, there was like a wagon at a hitching post at the Dollar General.
00:29:54And I was like, this is awesome.
00:29:56This small little town is like a time capsule.
00:29:58And I was like, yeah, I want to live here.
00:30:00He, his wife, and her three kids moved into the big yellow house right across from Ed's place, diagonal to
00:30:09Cal and Pam.
00:30:11What did you make of the neighborhood, of your neighbors?
00:30:13They were all very friendly.
00:30:15Just like Kit.
00:30:17I got along with everybody.
00:30:18I was just an easy-going guy.
00:30:19I just tried to get along with everyone, like I always have.
00:30:21And he said it was easy to make friends with the people here in Pembroke.
00:30:25Most of them were retired.
00:30:28A lot of them had been military, or they were a couple military guys around me.
00:30:32Well, like Cal across the street, right?
00:30:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, like Calvin.
00:30:35He was a veteran like me, and we hit it off pretty good.
00:30:39His wife, Joan, said Cal and Pam felt like family.
00:30:43They were beautiful people.
00:30:45Reporter Jeremy Finley interviewed both Joan and Kit months after the murders.
00:30:50They invited me over, and they came over to my house for dinner.
00:30:54When I interviewed her, she stated, I kind of considered Pam to be another mother.
00:30:59Kit and Joan, likewise, impressed those around them.
00:31:03He was an Army major, really decorated.
00:31:06Here he is, a handsome member of the military.
00:31:08She is drop-dead beautiful.
00:31:10They made a statuesque couple.
00:31:13But as we all know, appearances can be deceiving.
00:31:18Living in Kentucky, that was the first time we'd really been together for, like, an extended period of time.
00:31:23Most of the time, I was deployed or in the field doing training or something like that.
00:31:27And she started acting really strangely, started trying to get into fights all the time.
00:31:31I think it's safe to say they had somewhat of a volatile marriage.
00:31:35Joan would talk about that he was very angry.
00:31:38He would say that she was untrustworthy.
00:31:41Kit asked Joan for a divorce not long after they moved in, in September 2012.
00:31:47They fought.
00:31:48It turned ugly.
00:31:50She called 911.
00:31:52What's going on, Lynn?
00:31:53My domestic abuse.
00:31:55My husband.
00:31:56What's he doing to you?
00:31:58Poking me in the head, screaming in my face, and threatening me.
00:32:02A family court judge said later, there wasn't enough evidence to prove Joan's domestic violence claim,
00:32:08but he granted her and Kit restraining orders, each against the other.
00:32:14The marriage was certainly over.
00:32:17Joan and her young kids had nowhere to go.
00:32:20So Pam and Cal offered them sanctuary.
00:32:25You know, Mom was driving those kids to elementary school.
00:32:27You're talking to little kids.
00:32:28You know, and Mom and Dad together saw someone that needed help.
00:32:33And this is a small town.
00:32:35If someone needs help, that's what you do.
00:32:38They sure did.
00:32:39They moved Joan into a rental property they owned, loaned her a car.
00:32:45Diana heard about all this and worried for her brother Cal.
00:32:49In the very beginning, it was just, he was trying to help someone, a woman and her children.
00:32:56But anything beyond that, I was very, very, very concerned.
00:32:59And it did go beyond that?
00:33:01Absolutely, it did.
00:33:02She's talking about that extra favor.
00:33:06One day, Joan asked Cal to help her retrieve her things from the big yellow house.
00:33:11They went over there when Kit was out.
00:33:14So I took the old quilts that my great-grandmother had made.
00:33:18Here's Joan telling reporter Jeremy Finley about that moment.
00:33:22And I took that box, and in those quilts was a laptop and some discs.
00:33:28Well, I went to put them back in the garage, and Cal said,
00:33:32No, no, that's property of the Army.
00:33:33You need to give that back to the Army.
00:33:36And he said, These discs say classified.
00:33:38Cal, as an ex-logistics officer, would know you can't keep things like that in your house,
00:33:43even if you are a major.
00:33:44Don't get in too deep, his sister had warned.
00:33:48Too late now.
00:33:50Cal took the laptop and discs home.
00:33:53He contacted a colonel who said, I suggest you take it to the FBI.
00:33:59Get yourself out of it.
00:34:00You know, so Cal did that.
00:34:03But that was three years before the murders.
00:34:06What could that possibly have to do with a very current triple homicide?
00:34:11Maybe nothing.
00:34:13Or maybe everything.
00:34:17Coming up, someone else in town is about to experience her own moment of terror.
00:34:24All of a sudden, I hear a window break downstairs and a man yelling,
00:34:28and I think whoever killed Calvin Phillips is coming to kill me.
00:34:43Now, the investigation into the Pembroke murders traveled back in time.
00:34:49To 2012, to the moment when issues came between Kit Martin and Cal Phillips.
00:34:57Domestic, professional, legal issues.
00:35:00First, Cal got involved in the domestic dogfight between Kit and soon-to-be ex-wife Joan.
00:35:06And then, he took the laptop and discs from Kit's house and turned them over to the FBI.
00:35:13Then gave them to the military.
00:35:15The United States Army began investigating the specifics of what had been provided to them.
00:35:24And that investigation became the worst thing that could happen to Kit.
00:35:29A court-martial.
00:35:31And it wasn't just about a computer or classified discs.
00:35:34There was something else, too.
00:35:37Cal told Army investigators about a photograph.
00:35:41A photograph of bruises on what appeared to be a boy, what appeared to be Joan's son.
00:35:48Cal said Joan told him she'd taken the picture years earlier after Kit beat her son.
00:35:55The military did not like what it was seeing and hearing about Major Christian Kit Martin.
00:36:01They were able to say, you know what?
00:36:03But not only did you mishandle this classified information, you're not telling the truth that
00:36:10you mishandled the classified information.
00:36:12And, oh, by the way, you assaulted a boy.
00:36:15This court-martial could quite possibly ruin his military career and even send him to prison.
00:36:20A conviction of this magnitude would not only require prison time, but that he could lose
00:36:26his career, he could lose his rank, he could be dismissed from the U.S. Army.
00:36:31But Kit's day in court kept getting put off.
00:36:35It happened again and again, until finally a trial date was set in stone, first week of
00:36:42December, 2015.
00:36:46Timing.
00:36:47It certainly made the police sit up and take notice.
00:36:51Calvin Phillips was going to be one of their primary witnesses and that that court-martial
00:36:56was days in the future from the time he was found murdered.
00:37:00Dead, days before he was set to testify against Kit Martin.
00:37:07Coincidence?
00:37:08Or motive for murder?
00:37:10And if it was the latter, and Cal was the intended target, were Ed and Pam just in the wrong
00:37:17place at the wrong time?
00:37:19Collateral damage?
00:37:20To use a military term?
00:37:21So now, Kit's life needed a thorough examination, starting inside his big yellow house.
00:37:33Investigators petitioned the court for a search warrant for Christian Kit Martin's house right
00:37:38across the street.
00:37:40Inside that house was Laura Spencer, Kit's fiancé.
00:37:45Laura and her two kids moved in with Kit about two years after his breakup with Joan.
00:37:51And Laura was at home, alone, when police arrived with that warrant.
00:37:55All of a sudden, I hear a window break downstairs and a man yelling, and I think, whoever killed
00:38:01Calvin Phillips is coming to kill me.
00:38:03Must want to jump out of your skin.
00:38:06Yeah.
00:38:06And I ran down the stairs in my socks and out on the porch, and there's five rifles at my
00:38:12head.
00:38:13And people yelling at me to drop my phone and get down.
00:38:18Laura would be questioned.
00:38:20And investigators got to work.
00:38:22They received numerous items of evidence, including guns, a surveillance system, and
00:38:27also a safe that was locked.
00:38:30Kit was at Fort Campbell.
00:38:32I went out to go to the gym at lunchtime, and I just got swarmed.
00:38:38Swarmed by Army special agents.
00:38:40They grabbed me, and then they SWAT raided our house.
00:38:43That kind of lets you know you're a suspect.
00:38:45Did you think you were going to be arrested right away when they connected that raid?
00:38:50No.
00:38:50No, because, said Kit, there was not a shred of evidence that he killed anybody.
00:38:57He said, just look at the security camera footage from the back of his house.
00:39:01This was the only way in and out, because the front door was broken and nailed shut.
00:39:08Here's Kit on video coming home from work on the day of the murders, right before Ed and
00:39:12Pam were killed.
00:39:15And there he is that night, in sweats, taking his dogs out, around the time the murderer had
00:39:21so much left to do.
00:39:23A crime scene to finish cleaning up, bodies to load into a car, and drive out to a country
00:39:28road to set them on fire.
00:39:31The only time I got up was to go out and close the gate for a minute when the dogs
00:39:34were barking.
00:39:35And it was like a minute.
00:39:37Plus, Laura was with Kit all evening, too.
00:39:40He was home with me the whole night.
00:39:42He had an alibi.
00:39:44As for that court-martial, Kit said he was sure to be exonerated.
00:39:48Once the military figured out just how diabolical Joan and her plans against Kit were.
00:39:54Those photos purporting to prove child abuse?
00:39:57He didn't know where she got them, he said, because he'd never hit the boy.
00:40:02And he didn't take that laptop and disk saw of base.
00:40:06He said that had to have been Joan, who must have sneaked it out of his military office and
00:40:11then kept it hidden until she could use it as a weapon to take him down.
00:40:16Are you saying that this was all part of her, you know, revenge against you?
00:40:21Yes, I believe so.
00:40:23So, those murders across the street?
00:40:26Maybe have a look at Joan.
00:40:29And whatever new man, new enabler, was in her life.
00:40:35Far-fetched?
00:40:37Not exactly.
00:40:38Detectives were hearing more about Joan from others, too.
00:40:44Such a peaceful little town.
00:40:46So many strange stories.
00:40:50Coming up...
00:40:52Joan had her own secrets.
00:40:53Secrets that she hadn't even revealed to Kit at the time of their marriage.
00:40:57What might those be?
00:40:58I thought the pattern was of a woman who was using men to get what she wanted.
00:41:03When Dateline continues...
00:41:19Homicide detectives are trying to understand what happened at Cal and Pam's house.
00:41:23And they were wondering about Joan.
00:41:26Matt told us he knew next to nothing about her.
00:41:29I met Joan maybe two or three times total.
00:41:32Matt had first heard about Joan back in 2012, when his parents were helping her out of a bad situation.
00:41:38They seemed to like her a lot.
00:41:40But so much she didn't know.
00:41:43Maybe none of them did.
00:41:45Joan had her own secrets.
00:41:46She had some secrets that she hadn't even revealed to Kit at the time of their marriage.
00:41:52This woman knew all about Joan's secrets.
00:41:55Because she, Mary Martins, is a private investigator.
00:42:00And back in 2014, she took on a new client.
00:42:04Kit Martin.
00:42:05He told Mary all about his contentious breakup with Joan.
00:42:10I'm always skeptical about taking those cases.
00:42:12It's not something I like to take.
00:42:15And when he came in, it was...
00:42:16You kind of put yourself in the middle of these things.
00:42:17You do.
00:42:18But I listened to him, and he was in the midst of a court-martial.
00:42:22And he wanted information that, if it was out there, would prove she was not credible.
00:42:27Kit told Mary he'd never abused Joan or her kids.
00:42:31And now he doubted everything she'd ever told him about her past.
00:42:35So Mary looked up Joan's previous partners.
00:42:38Like the father of Joan's son.
00:42:42And she had told her son that his father was killed in a logging accident.
00:42:48So Mary looked.
00:42:50And what do you know?
00:42:52No, this guy wasn't killed in a logging accident.
00:42:55He was still alive and living out in the Oregon area.
00:42:58And Kit said Joan complained a lot about the father of her other children, too.
00:43:04She had married him and claimed he was a violent man.
00:43:08Well, Mary tracked him down.
00:43:10And he denied ever being violent.
00:43:13And then...
00:43:14What I find out is even more interesting is that there was no domestic violence,
00:43:18but that they were still married.
00:43:20Well, wait a minute.
00:43:22How could he still be married to that guy and be married to Kit?
00:43:24Exactly.
00:43:24Which makes her marriage to Kit, I mean, what are you going to do?
00:43:28She's still married to this guy.
00:43:30They never divorced.
00:43:31In other words, Joan was a bigamist.
00:43:35Kit reported Joan to authorities.
00:43:37And in 2014, a local DA charged her.
00:43:40So before the court-martial, and only weeks before the murders,
00:43:44Joan pleaded guilty to bigamy.
00:43:46And was ordered into a court diversion program for first-time offenders.
00:43:51When Mary considered everything she'd dug up from Joan's past,
00:43:55she wondered if the woman had an M.O.
00:43:58I thought the pattern was of a woman who was using men to get what she wanted
00:44:03and trying to maybe move on and find a new one.
00:44:07And Kit heard Joan found a new man before they were even separated.
00:44:12People around town had told them so.
00:44:14They started telling him,
00:44:16I believe your wife and Mr. Phillips, your neighbor,
00:44:20were having an affair while y'all were married.
00:44:22Mr. Phillips, as in Cal Phillips.
00:44:27Was it just the talk around town?
00:44:29Or did you hear anything, any sort of credible evidence?
00:44:33I interviewed two different witnesses
00:44:35who said they observed and witnessed the affair in action.
00:44:40Joan denied having an affair.
00:44:42And others in town who knew Cal said the rumors were ludicrous.
00:44:47But what would Cal have to say about it?
00:44:49In 2015, in the lead-up to the court-martial,
00:44:53Kit asked Mary to talk to Cal.
00:44:55He wanted me to find out if Cal was still on Joan's side.
00:45:00My name's Mary Martin.
00:45:02Mary dropped in on Cal twice, unannounced,
00:45:05and secretly recorded the interviews.
00:45:09Let me grab a couple of chairs here.
00:45:11Cal loved to talk, talked about all sorts of things.
00:45:16You've got three generations of puppies.
00:45:18I turned 59.
00:45:19Mary had brought a colleague with her,
00:45:21and now her colleague got right to the point.
00:45:24One of the things, the information that the Army has
00:45:29is the fact that, apparently, you are having an affair with Joan.
00:45:35Okay.
00:45:36Okay, that's what they have.
00:45:38And so what?
00:45:39If you're having an affair with a woman that's involved in this situation,
00:45:43the thing is...
00:45:44Everybody's going to make that out to be what they will.
00:45:46And that's fine.
00:45:48Cal didn't answer the question one way or the other.
00:45:50But when Mary brought up Joan's past, her bigamy...
00:45:54Okay.
00:45:55I'm sorry.
00:45:56I just...
00:45:57That was a shock to Cal.
00:45:59And Mary planted seeds of doubt
00:46:01that maybe Joan had been using Cal this whole time.
00:46:07Nobody wants to feel that they've been used.
00:46:10Sure.
00:46:11It's insulting.
00:46:12And she has a history of using men like that.
00:46:14And I think you were her next person that she used.
00:46:18And she'll pay a price.
00:46:19Cal admitted he'd never witnessed Kit abusing Joan's son.
00:46:24He'd seen the photos of a boy covered in welts.
00:46:27These were pictures of the boy you didn't take.
00:46:29I didn't take.
00:46:30He also said on one occasion the boy claimed Kit had been abusing him,
00:46:34and Cal took the boy's word for it.
00:46:37I didn't see it.
00:46:38Okay, this is a kid.
00:46:39He could have made it up.
00:46:40I don't know.
00:46:41I wasn't there.
00:46:42You know, but all I can tell you is that
00:46:46that was what was said by the young man.
00:46:49Cal sounded frustrated that Kit had snowballed into a court-martial.
00:46:54He'd expected it to settle before things went this far.
00:46:58Well, this is a mess.
00:46:59I mean, this is a mess.
00:47:00This has turned into a complete mess.
00:47:02Cal had talked quite freely to people he knew were working for Kit.
00:47:07But when the conversation turned to what his testimony would be at the court-martial,
00:47:12he clammed up.
00:47:14And I'll explain that on a stand-by.
00:47:16I won't do it here.
00:47:18So whose side was Cal on?
00:47:21When Kit listened to those tapes, he said he thought he knew Cal had turned against Joan.
00:47:28And maybe that meant Cal would testify in his favor.
00:47:32He got pulled into her manipulations, and eventually I think he figured it out.
00:47:36Why would you say that?
00:47:37Because we had the audio recording.
00:47:38He went through every accusation.
00:47:41He's like, no, I never saw that.
00:47:42So, said Kit, maybe Joan had figured out that Cal had turned against her, and perhaps she
00:47:48had done something to take care of him.
00:47:51Why would she kill Cal?
00:47:53I mean, what motive would she have to do that?
00:47:55He'd helped her.
00:47:56He was going to mess up the case, the court-martial.
00:48:00Meanwhile, police had been investigating another suspicious incident involving Joan.
00:48:06Joan discovered a cellular phone that was in her yard, and her and her family had taken
00:48:14that item to a local AT&T store.
00:48:16This video, recorded over a month after the murders, reveals Joan showing the phone to a
00:48:23sales rep, apparently trying to find out who owned it.
00:48:26It ended up being Pam's phone, so you have to wrap your head around that.
00:48:30When a manager contacted police, Joan seemed to bolt for the door.
00:48:36Why do you have possession of one of the murder victim's phones?
00:48:39So many questions about Joan, but about Kit, too.
00:48:44Two persons of interest, apparently intent on destroying each other, and three victims who
00:48:52seemingly got in the way of one of them.
00:48:55But which one?
00:48:58Coming up, at the scene of Cal's murder, what could be a case-cracking clue.
00:49:04I said, what is that?
00:49:07And he said, Aunt Diana, it's a 45 casing.
00:49:25Matt and Diana hoped that police would soon figure out who killed Pam and Cal and Ed and
00:49:32were killed.
00:49:32Make a quick arrest.
00:49:34Make a quick arrest.
00:49:35But days went by without news, and then weeks, and then months.
00:49:40Be patient, they were told.
00:49:43So they kept their minds on busy work.
00:49:46They kept coming back here to pack things up.
00:49:48But that only made them more anxious.
00:49:52We know there's been two, three gruesome murders.
00:49:56And I'm standing right smack in the middle of the place where that happened.
00:50:00It's not a good feeling.
00:50:02They also couldn't shake another feeling that whoever killed their loved ones was watching them.
00:50:10They installed a security camera on the back porch.
00:50:13You just get conditioned to be on alert all the time.
00:50:16including a day in April 2016, about five months after the murders.
00:50:22They were back at the house, cleaning and cleaning.
00:50:25Matt in the front yard.
00:50:27Diana on that cluttered, cobwebbed porch.
00:50:31That's when she saw it.
00:50:33I was moving the wood around, and I saw something silver, and I thought,
00:50:40this has something to do with ammunition.
00:50:43The new camera caught her reflection of the storm door the moment she spotted it
00:50:48and bolted through the house.
00:50:50So I went to the front where Matt was, and I said, I need you to come here.
00:50:55And we made a beeline back here, and I said, what is that?
00:51:01Then he said, Aunt Diana, that looks like it's a .45 casing.
00:51:05We had heard from the coroner that a .45 had killed Dad.
00:51:13And by the way, we're three feet, four feet from where the cellar door is.
00:51:17Could be.
00:51:17Could be important.
00:51:19They called police, who collected the casing.
00:51:22Matt and Diana hoped finally this would be the evidence that would lead to an arrest.
00:51:28But no, police seemed no closer to solving the case.
00:51:33Sure, Kit Martin seemed like a plausible suspect.
00:51:36But they couldn't make a case against him any more than they could against Joan.
00:51:42They checked out her alibi, questioned her at the station.
00:51:46And if she was behind these murders, maybe she had help.
00:51:51We had to look at it all different angles.
00:51:54All angles yielded few answers.
00:51:57Even Jeremy Finley, who was reporting on the case and had interviewed Joan and Kit, was stumped.
00:52:04I never will forget when the first of our investigations aired, and I walked back into the newsroom,
00:52:09and my executive producer turned around and she said, so who did it?
00:52:12And I said, I have no idea.
00:52:14You really did have no idea.
00:52:16You really did have no idea.
00:52:16There were so many possibilities that you could see why investigators were really probably dumbfounded as well.
00:52:25The military trial was finally held, and even without Cal's testimony, Kit was found guilty of mishandling classified information
00:52:33for holding onto those military disks and laptops.
00:52:36And assault of a child under 16.
00:52:38He lost his career, his pension, his freedom.
00:52:42For a time, anyway.
00:52:44He went off to serve a pretty brief amount of time in a military jail.
00:52:49Three months, I heard.
00:52:50Three months.
00:52:51He was in and out, time to move on with his life.
00:52:54You had, in the course of all of these events, after coming out of your court-martial, restarted your life,
00:53:04reinvented yourself?
00:53:05Yeah, I tried to.
00:53:06I mean, I did the best I could.
00:53:08Kit landed a job with a subsidiary of American Airlines.
00:53:12They had already moved to North Carolina, Kit, his fiancée Laura, and her kids.
00:53:17But, of course, suspicion followed them.
00:53:21You know, you could have left him after that.
00:53:24Sure, any time.
00:53:25And nobody would have blamed you?
00:53:26I could have left him when the accusations were made in the first place.
00:53:30Nobody would have blamed me, but I chose him, and I choose him every day.
00:53:36He's loving.
00:53:38He's deeply committed.
00:53:41I know who he is, and he's the man that I need in my life.
00:53:48But moving on was not possible for the people who love Cal and Pam and Ed.
00:53:53They just kept on checking in with police.
00:53:57Ed's girlfriend, Sally.
00:53:58I would just say, you know, how are things going?
00:54:02Are you making some progress?
00:54:04And they'd say, yes, we've sent DNA to the lab.
00:54:07Or we're trying to analyze fingerprints from different places.
00:54:11And they would just tell me, you know, but we're still investigating.
00:54:15This is definitely not a cold case.
00:54:17But there wasn't nearly enough movement to satisfy Matt and Diana.
00:54:23I want to know that people wake up every day and think about it like I do.
00:54:27And if it's your job, I want you to be on the job.
00:54:30Were you seen as a pain in the rear sometimes?
00:54:32Of course.
00:54:34That's fine.
00:54:36That's fine.
00:54:37Oh, they did more than pester law enforcement.
00:54:40We put up a billboard for $100,000.
00:54:43Wrote letters, lots of them.
00:54:45Gave interviews.
00:54:47Yes, they were persistent.
00:54:50But they were scared, too.
00:54:52The depth of the fear of someone still at large
00:54:57and is capable of doing whatever they want
00:55:00because no one's held them accountable.
00:55:04Determination can accomplish amazing things, mind you.
00:55:07Even getting a meeting with Kentucky's top law enforcement officer
00:55:11two years after the murders.
00:55:13How did you manage to get a meeting with the Attorney General?
00:55:17Well, we scratched and clawed to get meetings with the Secretary of Justice,
00:55:24the Attorney General, the Governor.
00:55:27I would have gone to the President if I could.
00:55:29After the meeting, then Attorney General, now Governor Andy Beshear,
00:55:33agreed to take over the case, and it felt like a breakthrough.
00:55:38Out of pocket.
00:55:38But two more years went by with no arrests, no suspects named, and no hint of progress.
00:55:45We went from one prosecutor at the local level to a special prosecutor.
00:55:51That prosecutor was named a judge, so he had to remove himself.
00:55:56I've never heard about a case with so many musical chairs from day one.
00:56:00It was very unfortunate for the case, but it was also very frustrating emotionally for the family.
00:56:07And then, one day, Matt was at home in Louisville.
00:56:11The phone rang.
00:56:13Remember that fear he told us about?
00:56:16Suddenly, in a flood of adrenaline, fear was all there was.
00:56:22I got a call from a representative of the Attorney General's office, and he said,
00:56:27Where are you?
00:56:28And I said, I'm at home.
00:56:29And he said, I need you to leave your house in the next 30 seconds.
00:56:34Time to run.
00:56:49The triple murder in Pembroke looked headed for the cold case file.
00:56:53An investigation approaching four years, with nothing happening.
00:56:59And then, it was May 10th, 2019.
00:57:03Something happened.
00:57:05All right.
00:57:05Phone call.
00:57:07Matt recognized the number in the Attorney General's office.
00:57:11And he said, I need you to get on the highway, going a direction you don't normally go, quickly.
00:57:17And when you're in that car, you need to call me back.
00:57:20So I got at my computer, a charger, and a handgun, and got to the car and got on the
00:57:25highway.
00:57:26Heart in his throat, Matt just drove.
00:57:29Then, he called back and was told they were finally ready to arrest Kit Martin for the murders of Callan
00:57:35Pam and Ed.
00:57:36But there was a problem.
00:57:38A big one.
00:57:39They couldn't find him.
00:57:41He said, we expected to arrest him in North Carolina, but he's not there.
00:57:45And I said, well, where is he?
00:57:48And they said, he is actually in Louisville right now.
00:57:54Louisville, where Matt was.
00:57:57What did that feel like?
00:57:59His terror.
00:58:00And it also, you know, in the back of my mind, I'm going, is he coming for us?
00:58:04And so I drove to Cincinnati and went to a hotel.
00:58:09Well, drama, terror, and Kit Martin was utterly unaware of any of it.
00:58:17Oh, he was in Louisville, all right, because he'd flown a plane full of people there.
00:58:21He was an airline pilot, remember?
00:58:24I was on day two of a trip.
00:58:26So the first day, we had flown out, and we were spending the night in Louisville.
00:58:30Just work, he said.
00:58:32Nothing diabolical about it.
00:58:34He was scheduled to leave Louisville early the next day, and he got up and went to Muhammad Ali Airport
00:58:39at 6 o'clock in the morning.
00:58:41No clue that police were there, too, in great numbers, waiting for him.
00:58:48I was talking with two of our flight attendants.
00:58:50I was looking down to see what gate we were going to.
00:58:52I remember it was 5B.
00:58:54I was like, hey, we need to go to 5B.
00:58:55And I hear, there he is.
00:58:56And I see these guys running, and I'm like, where are they going for?
00:58:59And all of a sudden, they grabbed me.
00:59:01And so these four guys started tearing my bag apart while the other four guys were, you know, grabbing me
00:59:05and handcuffing me and stuff.
00:59:07And I think I told them, I was like, I think you got the wrong guy, man.
00:59:10The wrong guy?
00:59:12Police had no interest in debating that with Kit Martin.
00:59:14They arrested him and hauled him off to jail.
00:59:17Sally Jackson heard from a friend who saw the whole wild thing go down.
00:59:23She said it was something else.
00:59:25I mean, there were Jefferson County police.
00:59:28There were sheriffs, you know, Christian County State Police.
00:59:33Pretty much closed down everything at the airport until they got out.
00:59:37Kit's fiancee, Laura, back home in North Carolina, was not prepared.
00:59:42I just kind of went into like a cold shock for a minute.
00:59:47My heart broke for him because I know he doesn't deserve this.
00:59:53Attorney General Bashir announced the arrest and said Martin had been charged with murder and arson, burglary, tampering with evidence.
01:00:03He also had a message for Matt and Diana Phillips.
01:00:07And for Matt and the family that came in here a couple years ago, I hope this is a day
01:00:12that brings some justice.
01:00:14And we're just thankful we could be a small part of that.
01:00:18It was the culmination of a long investigation, frustrating years for the victim's families who'd been kept in the dark
01:00:25and who didn't even know that one suspect, Joan Harmon, had been officially cleared.
01:00:31From the very beginning, we did look at Joan Harmon as a potential suspect in this case.
01:00:38But every time we turned the corner, all roads led back to Christian Martin.
01:00:44So surely the announcement of Kit Martin's arrest would finally reveal something about the case against him.
01:00:50It did not.
01:00:52What happened? What was the trigger that was pulled to finally make this arrest?
01:00:57At a press conference, reporters peppered the AG with that same question.
01:01:02What was the evidence?
01:01:04We can't talk about any specific piece of evidence.
01:01:09I can't comment on the evidence.
01:01:11Again, that's evidence that I can't comment on.
01:01:13And then, into that void, stepped Kit Martin's defense attorney, Tom Griffiths.
01:01:19He was scathing.
01:01:22You know, the case was open for nearly four years by the time that arrest was made.
01:01:27What, A, took them so long?
01:01:29And, B, what was the one thing that made them decide, okay, let's go arrest him?
01:01:36What took them so long is that they didn't have a case.
01:01:40And I know the police pretty well in this state.
01:01:43And if they think they have even half a case, they'll usually go forward and make the arrest.
01:01:48And they didn't do that.
01:01:50So why arrest Kit Martin now?
01:01:54What had changed?
01:01:56What changed was that there was a great deal of political pressure brought by the family.
01:02:04And they kept pressure up on the attorney general.
01:02:09And they kept pressure up on the Kentucky State Police.
01:02:13So who was Kit Martin, really?
01:02:17A cold, calculating killer?
01:02:19Or the unwitting dupe of an ex-wife's cunning plot to frame him?
01:02:24Hard questions for a jury to decide.
01:02:29Coming up, trial begins and a new witness reveals what he saw just a few days before Pam's car was
01:02:38burned.
01:02:39I come up to the top of the hill and I saw Christian Martin come out the fence right there.
01:02:56The courtroom was packed.
01:02:59TV cameras were in place for live coverage.
01:03:02It wasn't going to be easy to sit through Kit Martin's murder trial.
01:03:06Certainly not for Matt and Diana.
01:03:09There I sit.
01:03:10With a camera facing us.
01:03:13And it was just, it was very hard to have to sit there and listen.
01:03:18Mind you, they were cheering silently for the prosecutors.
01:03:22This is Barbara Whaley from the attorney general's office.
01:03:25But Christian Martin had motive, had the means, and the opportunity.
01:03:34Most important, the motive.
01:03:37Which was, she said, to silence the man set to testify against him at his court-martial.
01:03:43So Kit shot Cal, then pushed his body down the basement steps.
01:03:48Pam was killed when Kit Martin returned to the crime scene and discovered her at home.
01:03:53Ed Doncero was simply acting as a good citizen, checking on his neighbors next door.
01:03:58When he was shot, more tragic collateral damage.
01:04:03The wrong place at the wrong time.
01:04:06But with Cal, it was personal.
01:04:10His face battered.
01:04:11Surely in a fit of rage, said the prosecutor.
01:04:15Well, the cleanup was cold-blooded.
01:04:17The mark of a highly trained army ranger.
01:04:21Here was the man who prosecuted the court-martial.
01:04:24Major James Garrett, who confirmed Cal Phillips would indeed have been the star witness against Kit Martin.
01:04:31Because...
01:04:32He was prior military and knew that discs labeled secret and classified should not be in someone's home.
01:04:40So he insisted on it being turned into authorities.
01:04:43And then, Cal told the Army, too, about Jones' allegations of abuse.
01:04:48And he showed me four photos depicting abuse of the step sign.
01:04:54Those charges, what would it have done to his military career?
01:04:59I would have ended it.
01:05:01There would have been no court-martial without Calvin Phillips.
01:05:06Motive?
01:05:07That there certainly was.
01:05:10But when could he have done it?
01:05:12Most of Kit's time was accounted for.
01:05:15Except, maybe, this.
01:05:18Did you perform digital forensics on a cell phone belonging to the defendant?
01:05:23I did.
01:05:23It was an Apple iPhone 5S.
01:05:26Detective Mike Luttrell said analysis of Kit's cell phone and computer showed they were not in use at the time
01:05:33the prosecutors believed the murders took place.
01:05:35And after the murders?
01:05:37There was plenty of activity.
01:05:40Some of it could be considered suspicious.
01:05:42At 11.27 p.m., the alarm application was open.
01:05:46And that alarm was set to go off or to alert at 1.10 a.m.
01:05:51The prosecutors spelled it out for the jury.
01:05:54Kit Martin set his alarm to ensure he would get up at the right time to go out and burn
01:06:00Pam's car in the dark of night.
01:06:02And, Whaley suggested, the alarm ringtone he chose from a famous movie spoke volumes about what Kit thought of himself.
01:06:10He set the alarm on the phone for 1.10 a.m. to the Top Gun ringtone.
01:06:19Thought so highly of himself.
01:06:23But Kit had long claimed his own home security camera proved he never left his house that night.
01:06:31Showed he didn't leave the house through their one working door, the one out back where the camera was.
01:06:36No cameras at the front door, but it wasn't operable, he'd said.
01:06:40It was nailed shot.
01:06:42An alibi the prosecutor took pains to attack.
01:06:47Ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing wrong with that front door, and there's no nails.
01:06:52In other words, no alibi at all.
01:06:55Pam and Ed's charred remains were found here, a farm on the edge of town.
01:07:01James Matlock works nearby, and he testified about something he said he remembered seeing a few days before the car
01:07:09was discovered.
01:07:10When I was coming around the corner, I come up to the top of the hill right behind us,
01:07:15and I saw Christian Martin come out the fence right there.
01:07:19If it was him, was he making a plan?
01:07:24Then there was the weird discovery of the dog tags.
01:07:28Remember then?
01:07:29They were found on a shelf up above eye level in Cal's house, right next to Cal's wallet.
01:07:37The dog tags with Kit Martin's name on them.
01:07:41What were Kit's dog tags doing in the crime scene?
01:07:45Lots of theories.
01:07:46Most plausible explanation in your view?
01:07:50Don't know that we'll ever know, but they didn't walk in there on their own, I can tell you that.
01:07:55But it was one small piece of evidence that went to the heart of the prosecution's case.
01:08:00The .45 caliber shell casing Diana found on the back porch.
01:08:05This ballistics expert offered a firm opinion.
01:08:08I determined in my opinion that cartridge case was fired by this .45 caliber pistol.
01:08:15Kit Martin's pistol.
01:08:18So that was a positive identification?
01:08:20It was.
01:08:21The state rested, having presented a compelling but largely circumstantial case.
01:08:27Now it was defense attorney Griffith's turn.
01:08:30We may not know who committed these murders, but it was not Chris Martin.
01:08:38And the defendant himself would tell the jury why.
01:08:43Kit Martin was going to take the stand as his own star witness.
01:08:48I'm going to fight it because I'm innocent.
01:08:51Good idea.
01:08:53Sometimes it is.
01:08:55Sometimes it isn't.
01:08:58Coming up, the defense focuses the jury's attention on Kit Martin's ex.
01:09:05Could she be responsible for critical evidence at the crime scene?
01:09:09Joan had access to all of the belongings in the house.
01:09:14She had Kit's dog tags.
01:09:17And what about that .45 caliber casing?
01:09:20The police, when they first go there, don't find it.
01:09:23Why is there a shell casing there?
01:09:25My answer is because somebody planted it there.
01:09:28When Dateline continues.
01:09:40Kit Martin sat silently through the state's case against him.
01:09:45Now it was his turn.
01:09:47The defense calls Christian Martin.
01:09:49He took the stand, eager to declare his innocence and tell his side of things.
01:09:55Did you murder these three people?
01:09:57No, sir.
01:09:58I did not.
01:09:59Did you have someone else kill them?
01:10:02No.
01:10:03I think the evidence and the expert testimony has shown that.
01:10:07The defense didn't want to just challenge the state's evidence.
01:10:10They wanted the jury to think about the case in an entirely different way.
01:10:15That Joan could have been the one behind the whole thing.
01:10:19And that she framed Kit in an act of vengeance.
01:10:23So the long and the short of it is, you believe that because you told Joan you were done, you
01:10:29were leaving, she ruined your life.
01:10:31That's what she said she was going to do.
01:10:33You took steps to ruin your life, concrete steps.
01:10:36Yep.
01:10:37Getting jurors thinking about Joan was a path toward reasonable doubt and an acquittal.
01:10:44Defense attorney Griffiths invoked her name no fewer than a dozen times, just in his opening statement.
01:10:51This is a name you heard from the prosecution, but I'm going to say it and you're going to hear
01:10:55it a bunch during this trial.
01:10:56And that name is Joan Harmon.
01:11:00According to the defense, the key evidence against Kit Martin was tainted because of Joan.
01:11:08Joan had access to all of the belongings in the house.
01:11:14She had Kit's dog tags.
01:11:17The state had made a big deal about the dog tags that were found in Kyle and Pam's house.
01:11:23The defense made that an even bigger issue.
01:11:27They're suggesting that you left a copy of your dog tags after you committed a murder.
01:11:31Yeah, that's real logical.
01:11:33No, I heard that, yeah.
01:11:36Like I said.
01:11:36And I'm asking, let me be clear of my question.
01:11:38Yeah.
01:11:39Is that true?
01:11:40No, sir.
01:11:41The most ridiculous thing is the idea that my client went over and committed a murder,
01:11:47brought a set of his dog tags, and decided he was going to leave them there.
01:11:53Does that make any sense at all?
01:11:55Not to me, anyway.
01:11:56Kit said any discussion of dog tags is ridiculous for another reason.
01:12:01The ones entered as evidence were not even his.
01:12:05It's so obviously fake.
01:12:07It's on a white string.
01:12:09Nobody would put a dog tag on a white string.
01:12:11The name on there is not my name.
01:12:13Martin, Kit.
01:12:14Mine would say Martin, Christian R.
01:12:16The state's most devastating evidence was the .45 caliber shell casing found at the crime scene.
01:12:23That was a match for Kit's Glock pistol.
01:12:26How would the defense respond to that?
01:12:29I think it's suspicious that the police, when they first go there, don't find it.
01:12:34Why is there a shell casing there?
01:12:37My answer is because somebody planted it there.
01:12:40Perhaps planted by, no surprise, Joan Harmon.
01:12:46Kit testified that she had access to the Glock and the ammo, which he kept in his pickup truck.
01:12:53Did Joan use any of the guns, any of the family guns?
01:12:59Yeah.
01:13:00Which ones?
01:13:01So the Glock was the only one we had for a while.
01:13:03I think I kept that in my truck mostly.
01:13:05Did Joan have keys to your truck?
01:13:08Yeah.
01:13:08We both had keys to both vehicles.
01:13:11The defense also had an answer for that one 10 a.m. alarm Kit set on his phone.
01:13:16There's nothing nefarious about that.
01:13:18It was simply to check on a new kerosene heater Kit had installed.
01:13:24With a kerosene heater, you need to keep the wick wet, so I was a little concerned about it.
01:13:29And so I set my alarm to refill it and check the, you know, check to make sure everything was
01:13:35going right.
01:13:35And what'd you do after that?
01:13:37I went back to bed.
01:13:39No, Kit could not have been the killer, said the defense.
01:13:43But Joan?
01:13:44Why, asked the defense, would Joan have had possession of Pam's cell phone after the murder?
01:13:51This phone is brought in by Joan to the store.
01:13:56Not brought to the police, right?
01:13:59And when they say they're calling the police, Joan hightails it out of there.
01:14:05And what would Joan say?
01:14:08The woman at the heart of the defense's case.
01:14:10What would she have to say on the stand?
01:14:12The defense was eager to question her, but never got the chance.
01:14:17Because Joan invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.
01:14:22You have to imagine what the jury was thinking.
01:14:25They've heard this woman be accused and scorned in court, and they'll never hear from her.
01:14:30Can we find this gentleman guilty when we haven't even heard from the woman who the defense believes did it?
01:14:37Even without appearing in court, Joan remained the centerpiece of an aggressive defense.
01:14:42Griffiths argued the entire foundation of the state's case was bogus.
01:14:48There was no reason for Kit to silence Cal Phillips to prevent his testimony of the court-martial none.
01:14:54Because Kit wanted Cal to testify for him.
01:14:59Calvin Phillips and Joan had been close at the time that the court-martial was initiated.
01:15:05But by the time the court-martial was going around, they weren't as close anymore.
01:15:11And she, I believe, realized that Calvin Phillips wasn't going to go in and necessarily give her version anymore of
01:15:21this court-martial material.
01:15:23In fact, Kit had subpoenaed Cal to compel his testimony.
01:15:28People usually don't kill their main star witness, you know?
01:15:32Yeah, but as far as everybody else was concerned, he wasn't your star witness.
01:15:37He was going to take you down.
01:15:38Listen to the audio tape of what he says.
01:15:40In his own words, he was going to blow that trial apart when he testified.
01:15:44That's why I really needed him to be there.
01:15:47That's what you believed anyway.
01:15:48Yes, absolutely.
01:15:50For Diana sitting in the courtroom, trying her best not to show any emotion,
01:15:54the assertion that Cal was going to testify for Kit was especially galling.
01:16:00That's always been a big issue for me personally, to suggest that Calvin was his star witness at the court
01:16:06-martial.
01:16:07It's absolutely laughable.
01:16:10But what would the jury think?
01:16:12Of course, that was the only thing that truly mattered.
01:16:18Coming up, what would the jury think?
01:16:22No one had a clue.
01:16:24None of us had any idea how this was going to go.
01:16:27There was no smoking gun evidence, no testimony that was just game-changing.
01:16:33This could have gone either way.
01:16:49Joan Harmon took the fifth and did not testify at the trial of her ex-husband, Kit Martin.
01:16:55But was her presence felt?
01:16:58Oh, yes, it was.
01:17:00I sure wish we had seen her.
01:17:02She has a lot to answer for.
01:17:04In his closing argument, defense attorney Tom Griffiths said key evidence, like the shell casing and the dog tag,
01:17:11were likely planted by Joan to frame Kit, the ex-husband she so despised.
01:17:16At the end of the day, once you remove the planted evidence, this case has no evidence.
01:17:24Prosecutor Barbara Whaley quickly reframed things.
01:17:27Joan Harmon wasn't on trial, remember?
01:17:30She'd been cleared by police, never charged.
01:17:32The case was about Kit Martin.
01:17:35Who has the motive and the capacity to commit these crimes?
01:17:41No one else.
01:17:42You all know the truth.
01:17:44And I'm asking you to find that with your verdicts.
01:17:47Guilty of the murder of Calvin Phillips.
01:17:50Guilty of the murder of Pamela Phillips.
01:17:53Guilty of the murder of Ed Donsero.
01:17:56So what was your sense when the jury went out?
01:17:59None of us, I think, that had been watching this trial, had any idea how this was going to go.
01:18:05There was no smoking gun evidence.
01:18:07There was no testimony that was just game-changing.
01:18:11This could have gone either way.
01:18:14Matt tried to be patient, telling himself the jury would need time to deliberate.
01:18:20I thought that it was going to be within six to eight hours, so it just felt like, just sit
01:18:24here and wait.
01:18:25We've been waiting for five years.
01:18:27As for the defendant, well, he was confident.
01:18:31Everybody was telling me, even the deputies in the back who had to shackle me and everything that go to
01:18:35see trials all the time,
01:18:36they're all like, hey, you know, you're out of here.
01:18:38Hey, this is in the back.
01:18:39That was the word I kept hearing.
01:18:40For me, it was this nightmare of being in jail for over two years is over.
01:18:45Kit Martin sat through the jury's deliberations in a holding cell.
01:18:50And then after seven long hours, there was notice.
01:18:55They were ready.
01:18:57So they come and they let you put your shoelaces back in, you put your belt back on, put your
01:19:02jacket back on, you come back out and you sit in the chair, you know.
01:19:05And I was just hoping it was like, you know, please let this be over the Lord.
01:19:09I have reviewed the verdicts.
01:19:11The judge read the verdicts.
01:19:13We, the jury, find the defendant, Christian Martin, guilty of murder, guilty of first degree burglary, guilty of first degree
01:19:21arson under instruction.
01:19:23Guilty on all counts.
01:19:26I just couldn't believe it.
01:19:28I was just like, took my breath away.
01:19:31I don't know what else to say.
01:19:32And apparently everybody watching on TV was the same way that people have been, you know, writing to me and
01:19:37emailing me about how they cried all night and they feel so bad for me.
01:19:41And, you know, I've got thousands of new supporters and friends out there that I really want to tell them
01:19:46thank you for everything that they're doing.
01:19:48Of course, there are those who cannot be counted among Kit Martin's supporters and friends, like the 12 men and
01:19:55women of the jury who convicted him.
01:19:57Jurors have a look at a person. They're looking at you and they're thinking, do I believe this guy who's
01:20:02saying things like everybody else is making mistakes but me?
01:20:08I am as pure as a driven snow.
01:20:10And, you know, when a person makes an argument like that, the average observer will say he's full of .
01:20:15I did everything I could to prove my innocence. I'm not saying everybody else's fault but mine. I'm just saying
01:20:21that I didn't have anything to do with this.
01:20:23The jury still had one more piece of business. They deliberated again and decided Kit Martin should be sentenced to
01:20:32life in prison, no parole.
01:20:35The bailiffs let him away. And then, to everyone's surprise, they brought the man convicted of three murders back into
01:20:44the courtroom.
01:20:44They had granted a special request for us to at least hug him because we hadn't been able to touch
01:20:50for two years. So he got to hug his family. He got to hug me. He still has my full
01:20:56support. I will always be there for him. I will always be his support.
01:21:01Joan, such an integral part of the whole tragic story, made no public comment after the trial. And she turned
01:21:10down our request for an interview.
01:21:13For those who loved the three people killed, the long search for justice had the right conclusion. But there were
01:21:21no celebrations. Ed's girlfriend, Sally.
01:21:26You know, grief hits you at different times. It does, yeah. It can come and hit you at the weirdest
01:21:31times. And you'll be a mess.
01:21:34We keep saying it's our new normal into this awful depth of emotions. You know, there's the loss and then
01:21:42there's the scratching and clawing for justice. And they're both equally traumatic.
01:21:46Somebody said, you must be so happy. I said, no, I'm not happy. How can I be happy? Look at
01:21:51all the humanity that's been lost.
01:21:53And I'm relieved at the verdict. But I recognize, too, that I'm in a bit of a fog. Now what
01:22:03do I do?
01:22:08The old Victorian house is still in the family. It's Matt's now. The house that was once so full of
01:22:16love. And Pembroke goes on as ever. A sweet small town. A throwback of sorts.
01:22:24Where children not yet born will learn the story of Cal and Pam and Ed and the major across the
01:22:34street.
01:22:38That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central. And of course,
01:22:44I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, goodnight.
01:22:52I'm Lester Holt.
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