- 2 hours ago
The First 48 - Season 29 - Episode 02: Betrayal
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TVTranscript
00:00:01This program documents actual homicide investigations.
00:00:05Criminal charges are often dropped or reduced,
00:00:07and all suspects shown are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
00:00:20So we are going up to this area which is very secluded, very wooded.
00:00:25You don't go out there to go hiking.
00:00:29You go out there to get rid of things.
00:00:32Common sense tells me he's dumping our body.
00:00:36Man, if you'd have told me three weeks ago
00:00:38that we'd be looking for another body after Mark's case,
00:00:40I wouldn't have believed you.
00:00:42This is super rare.
00:00:44This is one of those kind of cases that she'll never forget.
00:00:52All right, let's go see what we got.
00:00:57I hope we find her.
00:01:139-1-1, what's the address of the emergency?
00:01:16I think we're 63rd place north across the street from my house.
00:01:21There's a body laying on the porch.
00:01:25Do you know if that person has been shot?
00:01:28I don't know.
00:01:30I will go ahead and put a call in for them, okay?
00:01:38First responders arrive at the home and find a young woman on the front porch.
00:01:44shot dead.
00:01:53For homicide detectives, their chance of solving a murder is cut in half
00:01:58if they don't get a lead within the first 48 hours.
00:02:15Hey, Brandon.
00:02:17Detective Mark Kennedy will lead the investigation.
00:02:21Victims shot and killed her on her front step.
00:02:25What's her name?
00:02:27Elizabeth.
00:02:3127-year-old Elizabeth Dillard grew up in Redding, California,
00:02:35and recently moved to Tulsa with her 8- and 9-year-old sons.
00:02:39She also has a 5-year-old daughter who lives in California with her ex-partner.
00:02:45Elizabeth is survived by her parents and two younger sisters.
00:02:53This neighbor and these people said they heard gunshots 330 to 345.
00:02:58No one called them.
00:02:59Elizabeth was lying dead on her doorstep for almost four hours
00:03:03before a neighbor saw her and called 911.
00:03:06She shot three times.
00:03:08Okay.
00:03:09She was struck three times in the chest.
00:03:13Cason's right in the front yard.
00:03:15.40-caliber Hornis.
00:03:17.CSI recovered three .40-caliber shell casings.
00:03:27She's not robbing her.
00:03:30She's got her car keys out.
00:03:32Her person's still intact.
00:03:34Her door keys are laying on her way.
00:03:36So she's trying to get in the house.
00:03:40our kids were at the house being watched by her sister when first responders arrived
00:03:46they found elizabeth's sons and her sister inside who seemed to know the most about her sister yeah
00:03:54okay elizabeth's sister will be taken to homicide for questioning
00:03:57while her kids stay with her sister's husband
00:04:03she's got a phone on grab that we'll take it with us
00:04:09not much to see is it no well we got some work to do yeah i think so
00:04:21one hour in you are yep ready set and they've got a camera's pointing that direction
00:04:28the team finds security cameras on the house next door to elizabeth's nathan and reggie are
00:04:34working on it they're looking at it maybe nathan can explain it to you yeah let's move here we go
00:04:43it's not it shows her coming home at like 3 46. it's dark i mean you can't really see the
00:04:52porch
00:04:53the video shows elizabeth pulling into her driveway around the same time neighbors her gunshots
00:05:00they're not sure getting out of the car no it's it's out of view but the cameras didn't capture
00:05:06the shooting we don't see any cars following her into the driveway she says ex-boyfriend's parents
00:05:13live in this yellow house right here according to the neighbor elizabeth recently broke up with a
00:05:18man whose parents live two doors down the neighbor says she thinks they broke up about three months
00:05:35ago she gives detectives the ex-boyfriend's contact information
00:05:49let's go talk to uh sister yeah let's go do that all right
00:06:06i'm sorry we're meeting under these circumstances kennedy and detective max ryden speak to elizabeth's
00:06:12sister i know this is a tough time for you and i'm really sorry to have to put you through
00:06:17this
00:06:17but we need as much information as we can get right now so you know first of all do you
00:06:26live
00:06:26there with her with your sister um yeah i just uh well i just came to visit to help out
00:06:32with things
00:06:32and okay help clean up her house and take their kids she goes to work right sure that they're not
00:06:39home alone right where does she work at lipsticks cabaret she says elizabeth worked at an adult
00:06:46entertainment club on the east side of tulsa and what does she do at the club um dance and what
00:06:54time
00:06:54does she normally get off work i think at like 2 30 she gets home maybe 3 o'clock so
00:07:02did you just
00:07:03assume she was already inside the house whenever you woke up this morning um i woke up to banging
00:07:11banging on the door was it a neighbor um officers officers okay she says she didn't know anything
00:07:19had happened to elizabeth until the police arrived i don't think you've told the kids yet about this
00:07:24have you no do they know something's happened to their mom i don't believe so but they're gonna
00:07:32never see her again and they're gonna watch it aware of the shape
00:07:38i know i'm sorry yeah i know it's almost like she was ambushed that's what it looks like
00:07:47and so that to me is somebody that we feel has a beef with her and we start looking at
00:07:55people close
00:07:55to her um she did have one boyfriend terrell okay she says elizabeth recently dated a man named
00:08:04terrell you know terrell's last name i don't terrell is a black male or white black male he had like
00:08:12a dreaded hair and he's kind of tall
00:08:19how long ago did they date like two weeks ago did he live there with her stay there he stayed
00:08:25in his truck
00:08:25he stayed in his truck just to help her okay do you know what kind of truck he had i
00:08:33don't know it had
00:08:34a bed but like no shell on it and he had like a dog that would sit in the back
00:08:39how come he didn't come
00:08:41in the house um because he would have the dog and okay she didn't want the dog against him how
00:08:48was
00:08:48their relationship was it turbulent was it it was all right he would do dishes and come in
00:08:55sometimes okay you know his number okay i want to ask you there's a house just about two houses down
00:09:05from where you live do you know even individuals in there that i know a little bit about them
00:09:11of what she told me it's um an ex-boyfriend how did they know each other facebook and then she
00:09:21moved
00:09:22in with him she moved into the house where she's at now she says about a year ago elizabeth moved
00:09:29in with the man she met online their relationship didn't work and he moved out really okay yeah
00:09:37and you know how long ago that was that the breakup occurred i want to say longer than three months
00:09:44ago
00:09:45she talked to him recently on facebook messenger and he was trying to get her to go hang out with
00:09:52him
00:09:54recently like in the last week yeah and i was telling her you know he's an extra reason
00:10:01he still owed her money or something because he broke her phones when they were in a relationship and
00:10:07never bought her a new phone okay did you say anything about how that happened um she had apps
00:10:17that he didn't want like dating apps jealous times that things that made him jealous yeah okay and he
00:10:25broke her iphone and the new one and then and then she broke up with him she broke up and
00:10:31then he had to
00:10:32move out of his own house all right okay um give us a second
00:10:50he should only leave you out i mean this is obviously a revenge i mean they don't take her car
00:10:56they
00:10:56don't take her keys they don't take her purse i got his phone number we'll see call him get him
00:11:03down
00:11:03there next
00:11:07kennedy reaches out to elizabeth's ex-boyfriend
00:11:12hello detective kennedy with tulsa police yes sir hey um man i don't know if you've heard but uh
00:11:19elizabeth my mom already told me and i'm like hell like what happened like that don't make no sense
00:11:29then the people next door got a camera facing towards the house you know what i'm saying i used to
00:11:35stay in the house sir yeah and i ain't been over there since well hey listen is there any way
00:11:44you
00:11:44could come downtown and we could talk to you real quick and give us as much information about her as
00:11:48you
00:11:48know um not right now but i can probably like a little later yeah yeah that's fine i was nowhere
00:11:58inside don't know well i'm not saying you were i'm not saying you were okay i appreciate it no problem
00:12:07bye
00:12:10he knows about the camera so he knows exactly how to freaking avoid it right he knows the camera and
00:12:15did
00:12:15you ever ask me if he was there you didn't ask him but he volunteered i wasn't there like eight
00:12:19times in that conversation
00:12:28two hours later all right well i'm detective kennedy this is detective ryden elizabeth's ex-boyfriend
00:12:37shows up at homicide appreciate you coming down well hey man tell me tell me about you and elizabeth
00:12:45i know that you two have at one point had a relationship and i understood it that it was kind
00:12:52of an internet relationship at first yeah we was chilling you know we talked after we talked she moved
00:13:00down here so she moves to tulsa she moved to tulsa way we didn't get it was like a year
00:13:08ago or probably
00:13:10so okay when did you move out of the house like october he says he moved out five months ago
00:13:18after he and elizabeth
00:13:20broke up can i describe your relationship i mean was it physical i mean did you guys get domestic violence
00:13:29type stuff anything like that i heard basically that at some point there was a disagreement and her phone
00:13:37got broken yeah i actually then we broke her phone i heard that the disagreement might have had to do
00:13:44with
00:13:44stuff that stuff that was on her phone yeah and and that's why i don't want all that you know
00:13:50and that ain't
00:13:50none of my business why did you move out i moved out because it's just like it just kept it
00:13:57kept getting too toxic
00:14:00all right so i mean what kind of relationship have you had since you guys broke up
00:14:05anybody talking all right let's do this let's start off yesterday and let's talk about your day what
00:14:13were you doing i wasn't at that house yesterday i didn't say that i said where were you at
00:14:37where were you at out of town where'd you go out of town to i was like out in kansas
00:14:51where at in kansas
00:14:56uh um um i forgot the name of it okay when did you get back from kansas today like seven
00:15:11he claims he arrived back in town about three hours after elizabeth's murder so you got back
00:15:18in town from kansas and you don't know what the name of the town is how'd you even know how
00:15:25to get
00:15:25there gps did you use your phone for the gps that you put in your phone no i don't have
00:15:34it
00:15:36like i don't know what else to say like i didn't do nothing wrong so your phone will show you
00:15:43were in
00:15:43kansas yeah okay well let's just make this simple i have a guy here right now that can download your
00:15:50phone and if you can show you're in kansas hell we'll end this right now
00:15:55makes sense all right okay all right thank you
00:16:08nathan can you dump this we're hoping the gps in there will show what's going on here this story sucks
00:16:22a half hour later well we'll see if he's telling the truth detectives get a look at the ex-boyfriend's
00:16:29gps records there's a gps here right there
00:16:36he's freaking in is it blackwell yeah at 4 40 in the morning no way he got from four o
00:16:43'clock in the
00:16:44morning from if that's right well 4 40 it takes too long to get there that's an hour and a
00:16:49half drive
00:16:51elizabeth's ex-boyfriend was over 100 miles from tulsa at the time of the murder
00:16:56i think he's not a guy i think you're right
00:17:01we may need to start looking another direction
00:17:10phone back we're gonna give you a ride home we're out of here
00:17:15i'm gonna go call the lipstick cabaret and try to just get whatever they've got all right
00:17:2712 hours in she was at lipstick cabaret at work last night elizabeth's manager said she left the club
00:17:36about an hour before she was murdered she did say that she gave a ride to another girl last night
00:17:44when they left the video at the strip club shows her and the girl both leaving getting in the car
00:17:52nobody
00:17:53follows them out nobody follows the car they're by themselves her phone number yes kennedy calls
00:18:01elizabeth's co-worker this is detective mark kennedy i work for the tulsa police department if you
00:18:10could give me a call back i'd appreciate it thank you she's not answering we'll buy her and talk to
00:18:20her
00:18:20the next afternoon we're gonna go talk to a young lady that was given a ride by our victim as
00:18:42they left
00:18:42work at the lipstick cabaret elizabeth's co-worker gets back to kennedy and agrees to meet
00:18:52a couple questions i want to ask you so you left the club and then you came straight here yes
00:18:58exactly
00:18:59she confirms elizabeth gave her a ride home after work you didn't see her pick up anybody else no
00:19:07when you are working at the club is there one particular guy that always would hang out with
00:19:13the club that she was talking to it was a guy named t-real but i don't know his name
00:19:20how long ago did you
00:19:23see you last seen terrell um probably about a month ago i do have a number though because he tried
00:19:30to
00:19:30talk to me before too can i get that number yes she gives them terrell's phone number
00:19:36and you haven't seen him for a month no maybe a month or two honestly
00:19:44well if you're anything in the club you gotta remember all right thank you you'll be safe
00:19:58i'm gonna try to get a hold of terrell
00:20:08the text now subscriber you are trying to reach is not available please leave your meds
00:20:13i mean after texting i don't know how text now works he's calling from an app on his phone
00:20:21which is generating that phone number which is a fake number which is hard to get who that is
00:20:29kennedy sends a message to the text now number asking terrell to get in touch
00:20:35at this point i think it's a little bit thin to get a search warrant for that number
00:20:40so we'll continue trying to figure out who he is hopefully he'll give me a call back
00:21:03in the first 48 tulsa homicide responded to the murder of 27 year old elizabeth dillard
00:21:10gunned down on her doorstep talked to her sister who said elizabeth recently broke up with two men
00:21:17interviewed one of the men but cleared him when his gps showed he was 100 miles from tulsa
00:21:23at the time of the murder and got a phone number for the other man known only as terrell but
00:21:30had been
00:21:30unable to reach him eight days later right now we don't have a lot to go on kennedy
00:21:39still hasn't heard back from terrell i've taken elizabeth's phone to our special investigations
00:21:46division and we're hoping that maybe there's something in that phone somewhere that will list
00:21:51terrell and we can figure out who he is
00:21:56i'm gonna have to go shake the idol over here a little bit on this one
00:22:00it's just kind of an ongoing joke that when we get up for a murder we shake the skull and
00:22:05hope for the best on our investigation we need a little bit of luck here
00:22:11she was ambushed and she was murdered in cold blood and
00:22:14and um it's it's something that we've got to solve
00:22:3110 days in as the investigation into elizabeth's murder threatens to go cold
00:22:38police police yes i need somebody to come do a welfare check at 30th and sheridan
00:22:44a woman asks police to check on her neighbor her keys were left to her door her purse was left
00:22:49outside and when was the last time you saw her days ago and have you knocked on her door we
00:22:59have
00:22:59officers out there as soon as we can officers arrive what's going on man i don't know if she's in
00:23:11there or not in her room saying hey guys all right here we go
00:23:44miss dancer they find the woman in her bedroom miss dancer yeah she gone shot dead
00:24:08she's been dead she is starting to decomp so it's probably been a day or two okay detective lacy
00:24:14lansdowne joined homicide eight months ago she will leave the investigation
00:24:20odd thing was her keys were still on the door okay so there's no forced entry okay
00:24:27the neighbors next door found the victim's purse outside the front door right about here
00:24:36the victim's name is rainbow dancer
00:24:4169 year old rainbow star dancer was born rhonda ruth harbolt but changed her name soon after she left
00:24:48the u.s army she supported local unhoused people by hiring them for small jobs around her apartment
00:24:55rainbow leaves behind her brother and a cousin in her home state of minnesota
00:25:13she was on her back she was covered with doctor
00:25:17her
00:25:31she's probably been shot four or five times
00:25:33rainbow rainbow was shot four times in the head and once in her back in hand
00:25:44csi collects six casings from a 40 caliber damn yeah and he was using expensive rounds are a horned egg
00:25:51really wow they're like two dollars a round
00:25:57this is screaming domestic to cover somebody up like that this is personal yeah
00:26:05don't turn her phone and just give that directly to me um swab it though first
00:26:20one hour in
00:26:22he says he probably saw her the last time on thursday okay
00:26:26didn't really talk to her very much that day but the neighbor says he saw rainbow hanging out with a
00:26:32new
00:26:32man about four days ago okay hang on just a minute sir
00:26:38we need to bring him down and formally interview him yeah
00:26:42the neighbor agrees to talk back at homicide
00:26:46i'm really hoping he's going to be able to shed some light on
00:26:49and who she was friends with who she was hanging out with
00:27:02doesn't look like anything's stolen there's no force entry
00:27:07somebody killed her but then covered her up that's personal
00:27:12this is a horrible way to to go it's just a straight up execution
00:27:31before speaking to the neighbor we're going to call try to get a hold of a family member and
00:27:36unfortunately tell him some really bad news lansdowne makes the call to rainbows next of kin
00:27:45hello hi this is detective lacey lansdowne with the tulsa police department
00:27:50okay um ma'am are you related to a rainbow dancer or star dancer rainbow star dancer yes
00:28:00okay okay ma'am i'm so sorry to tell you this um but she was murdered here in tulsa within
00:28:07the last
00:28:08couple of days oh okay do we know how um she she was shot okay okay but i will tell
00:28:24you that i'm gonna do
00:28:25everything i can to solve this and get get justice for you guys all right i appreciate your calling
00:28:32yes i'm so sorry thank you okay bye bye hopefully we can get some answers for
00:28:42because star didn't deserve this
00:28:52five hours in
00:28:56okay so i'm lacy i'm the lead detective on this
00:29:02so how do you know rainbow um she lives in the complex she's very extroverted so she just speaks
00:29:08to everyone okay tuesday i noticed that there was a gentleman there with her
00:29:15he was dressed in red he kind of looked younger he had dreads okay you know so i just walked
00:29:20up
00:29:20a little bit of a nosy person how are you doing how are things going and he didn't give me
00:29:24any eye
00:29:25contact which you know that was kind of different uh-huh did you ask who he was no i didn't
00:29:31what was
00:29:32his race black i think he's in his early 30s did she say anything about him that day no um
00:29:40so the following
00:29:41day i noticed that his truck was parked there overnight i thought that was strange so i went upstairs
00:29:51and i heard her voice yelling at someone
00:29:56i couldn't tell what she was yelling i didn't think too much about it but the following day
00:30:13she said i slashed his tires because he stole money from me and my phone
00:30:21i was like he sold money she's like two hundred dollars
00:30:26so we're talking wednesday should you talk to her thursday
00:30:30yes did you have any conversations with her after thursday i can't recall talking to her
00:30:36about it but i think i saw his truck there
00:30:41describe what his truck looked like so his truck is gray it's a primer gray so there's no shine
00:30:49was it like a chevy a dodge i don't remember if it's a chevy or dodge or it's not a
00:30:53four
00:30:55did she ever tell you what his name was or nickname or anything like that
00:31:00or what did she everything you can remember that she's told you about him
00:31:05she said that his dog had some issue i don't remember what the issue was i didn't need to ask
00:31:12okay you've been very very helpful thank you
00:31:20we've got to figure out who this dreads guy is he had motives she slashed his ties as they got
00:31:25into
00:31:25it he'd stolen a phone from her he'd stolen money from her we've at the very least need
00:31:31to identify him and talk to him
00:31:4410 days after elizabeth was found murdered on her front steps
00:31:48for those of you who don't know lacy got murdered lieutenant brandon watkins briefs the rest of the team
00:31:56on rainbow's murder she was found shot multiple times in her bed
00:32:01a man had been staying with her it was a black male with dreads
00:32:06drives a pickup that's got like primered and beat up captain hold on hold on
00:32:14my victim elizabeth dillard had a boyfriend blackmail with dreads
00:32:19drives they pick up a guy by the name of terrell
00:32:26i mean look at everything that's matching up here
00:32:31she had her key still in the door and her purse was left outside
00:32:35which is which is a very similar mo
00:32:40he had a dog okay my guy has a dog and then the biggest thing is your casings are 40
00:32:48harnadays
00:32:49so are mine what are the logs here dude it's weird wow this thing got
00:32:59mark just too coincidental
00:33:02we need to have those compared yeah like asap
00:33:21hey mark hi joy so i've got a scene where we recover casings kennedy asks the ballistics lab
00:33:29to compare the key sinks found at elizabeth and rainbow's crime scenes
00:33:33okay sounds good all right thank you the lab is working on it okay we'll see if they're the same
00:33:41gun if they are we probably got the same suspect on both murders
00:33:54hold on two hours later so joy you're telling me the ones from my scene and the ones from
00:34:01the other scene all match correct all right you're awesome appreciate it thank you no problem bye
00:34:11did i hear this i think i heard brad did you hear that i heard all the casings match
00:34:19it's the same guy
00:34:23this is not good two murders very same mo in a week
00:34:30the question about now is do we get him before you get someone else
00:34:35the hell now we know pretty much probably who it is it's probably gonna be terrell now we know why
00:34:40i didn't answer my text do we have a last name no no last name but i do have a
00:34:46text now number for
00:34:46him the team will submit a warrant for terrell's text now phone records i'll see if that phone number
00:34:53pops up in her phone at all jeremy took it to cyber crimes and the special investigation division
00:34:58will search rainbow and elizabeth's phones to see if they share a contact number for terrell i think
00:35:05everything just needs to go towards figuring out who the hell terrell is
00:35:1521 hours since rainbow was found murdered i just got some new info your victim had that text now phone
00:35:23number in her phone under brooks terrell t-e-r-r-y-l so maybe terrell brooks the special investigation
00:35:32division finds a lead in elizabeth dillard's phone well somebody got traces up i've got traces up i'll pull
00:35:54out of the way to the uh... 22 year old terrell brooks has two convictions for robbery in north carolina
00:36:00he had a ticket in 2019
00:36:06he got stopped in a silver chevy 1989 pickup truck boom
00:36:14he had a 40 caliber gun on him and they gave it to him yep says they gave it back
00:36:21to him
00:36:25detective jason white pulls up body cam stills from the traffic stop that's the vehicle right
00:36:32there yeah that's it right there it's really good post that on there the team puts out a bolo
00:36:39for terrell's truck find the truck find that truck
00:36:50while patrol searches for terrell's chevy pickup
00:36:55the casings that's the only thing we got connected other than the similarities
00:36:59i mean is he pceable yet pceable i think if that photo's picked yes detectives will reach out to
00:37:08witnesses hoping to secure a positive id on terrell i want to send you a picture real quick and you
00:37:14kind of let me know what you think kennedy reaches out to elizabeth's sister okay thank you very much
00:37:21all right sister just confirmed that is true all right
00:37:28back at rainbow's apartment complex lansdowne meets with her neighbor did you say that one
00:37:34of these guys looks familiar okay can you sign and date that please
00:37:45so we have a positive id that means we have two ids
00:37:49the team now has enough probable cause to get an arrest warrant for terrell brooks
00:37:55it's coming together quickly which i'm really happy about because this guy's dangerous
00:38:01hopefully if you do the warrants can find him sometime soon
00:38:09we got everybody in our unit and the warrants units i was looking
00:38:16if he's killed two people there wouldn't be any reason why he wouldn't try to kill a third so hopefully
00:38:22we'll come up with something rather quickly if this was a baseball field first base is what you think
00:38:29second base is what you know and third base is what you can prove right now we're on second base
00:38:34we know it's probably going to be him it's just trying to get enough proof it's him which is how
00:38:39you get
00:38:47it's home
00:38:48six hours later highway patrol spotted this vehicle uh pulling out of a quick trip i believe
00:38:55our units got him in custody and now he's down here
00:39:01torell brooks is brought into homicide for questioning probable cause allows us to arrest
00:39:07him without a warrant i think he's our guy definitely he is connected to both of the victims
00:39:15the gun matches at both scenes the danger with the probable cause arrest is that he could go before
00:39:22a judge and the judge decide that we don't have enough probable cause and then he's back out on the
00:39:27street of course if he talks and he confesses that just helps our case out and you know it takes
00:39:32away any argument that we don't have the right man how's he acting pretty relaxed did you guys search
00:39:40the car any whatsoever just tow it we we did a no-touch hold terrell's truck will be towed to
00:39:45the crime lab
00:39:46and processed for evidence didn't happen to see a gun or anything did you no there's one phone in the
00:39:55floorboard of the driver's seat and then front of the phone in the passenger seat okay we'll get
00:39:59those later how's his dog sweet and friendly uh dad came to pick the dog up terrell's father who lives
00:40:07in tulsa took custody of his dog before the truck was towed okay well i'm hoping he talks to us
00:40:14and we
00:40:14get a confession let's see what happens yeah all right
00:40:28all right buddy trail i'm detective kennedy this is detective lansdowne okay we'll toss the police
00:40:34probably got a lot of questions right now okay i just want to know why y'all have me here
00:40:42you're under arrest okay for from a first degree murder for this lady right here
00:40:51okay and this young lady right here that's what you're in here for do you want to explain this
00:40:59why it happened why it happened how it happened
00:41:14i don't talk to those ladies anymore
00:41:24i was with her for a couple days like for a week she let me come stay at her house
00:41:30and she
00:41:31didn't want me there no more i left her house and her i had work for her and she took
00:41:38me up to
00:41:39the vet and tried to take my dog and say that my dog was her dog okay well this one
00:41:46so you you know her
00:41:48what do you know her by what's her name elizabeth i was with her for a little while where'd you
00:41:56meet
00:41:56her at i met at the strip club lipstick cabaret so how did you end up staying with her for
00:42:04a while
00:42:04because i'm homeless she was like it's cold outside stay with her and she ended up being my girlfriend
00:42:14right what ended up happening with that arrangement she said she said she didn't want to be in a
00:42:20relationship you like dancing and being free yeah did she kind of kick you out yeah she kicked me out
00:42:27she said she didn't want me living with her anymore she said we can be friends and everything and that
00:42:33that she still likes me and everything but she never she never contacted me she never talked to
00:42:38me or nothing right okay this lady right here what do you know her by what's her name i don't
00:42:46even
00:42:46know her name how'd you meet her i just ride through the apartments i sleep at apartments right
00:42:54i sleep in the parking spot and i just pull up but i asked her if she wanted to buy
00:43:00my dog
00:43:01if she wanted to buy your dog look my dogs just ran away from me not want to come to
00:43:06me he learned
00:43:08that from being around females and then kind of sweet talk him stuff like that
00:43:17right before she was about to buy him he barked so it brought back back to my senses like hey
00:43:23you
00:43:24know that dog might be a good protective dog so you said you wanted to decide i wanted to keep
00:43:29him
00:43:29and she was like uh you can come in you can stay with me you know and i went over
00:43:35there i stayed over
00:43:36there and cleaned her house she started paying me okay so when's the last time you saw her it was
00:43:45probably like a week ago okay anything happened there no i just told her that she wasn't going to
00:43:52keep my dog she was like i got half the ownership of the dog since i paid at the vet
00:43:58i just said uh
00:44:01don't you're not taking my dog and she said i'm not going to deal with a mouthy ass and put
00:44:05me out
00:44:09right here's the thing some bad things happen these women okay they have families they deserve closure
00:44:17okay she's dead and she's dead and i think you know that already these women don't know each other
00:44:28the only connection between these women are you okay you seem like a pretty good guy all right
00:44:37i think there's some stuff weighing really heavy on your heart right now that i think
00:44:41can tell you're a little bit scared to get it out there but i promise you you're gonna feel better
00:44:47by telling the truth okay the truth already know i don't i'm not with them anymore i know you're not
00:44:55with them i'm not going to argue that but i do know that you know what happened okay
00:45:03this is your opportunity trail to tell us what happened i think maybe your emotions got a hold of
00:45:10you i know she cut your tire i know she probably got broke your heart
00:45:13broke your heart okay okay well we'll get that lawyer for you all right you're being arrested
00:45:23are two counts of first degree murder for the murder of elizabeth dillard and star rainbow
00:45:29to answer you you'll be booked in the tulsa county jail okay and you'll have your day in court
00:45:36sound good all right we'll talk to you later
00:45:46we got a little out of him we got him connected with both victims
00:45:52so better than nothing i mean he puts himself at both scenes and the odds of him randomly knowing
00:46:00both of these women that's hard to know obviously he's got some issues with women and anger elizabeth
00:46:09was ambushed at her front door so was a rainbow star so that seems to be his motive on how
00:46:15he he
00:46:15gets back at the women he doesn't like 32 hours after rainbow was found dead and 10 days after elizabeth
00:46:23was shot on her doorstep terrell brooks is charged with their murders
00:46:36he's in custody but we've got a lot more investigation to do we've seized his truck we hope we find
00:46:42some more
00:46:42evidence in that we've met the threshold of probable cause but as far as proving it beyond a reasonable
00:46:49doubt that's an ongoing effort there's still a lot of work to do mark and i have a lot of
00:46:56follow-up that
00:46:57we have to do to make sure that he gets convicted and put away because he does not need to
00:47:01be on the
00:47:02streets it was only a matter of time before he found another vulnerable woman that he could do the
00:47:08same thing to kill two women senselessly within a week of each other there's no telling how this
00:47:16would have escalated or how this would have ended i don't even have a year in the unit and i
00:47:21have
00:47:22someone who could potentially have turned into a serial killer
00:47:38the next morning while kennedy and lansdowne continued to build their cases against terrell
00:47:45is that the last time you saw her ryden fields a call from a woman who reported her daughter missing
00:47:50two months ago and what kind of vehicle did she leave in with him the woman says she saw a
00:47:57news
00:47:57report about terrell's arrest and recognized him as the last person seen with her daughter
00:48:04how about we talk in person thank you bye-bye
00:48:12she said the last person she's 100 positive that saw her daughter alive was driving an older chevy
00:48:17primary grade truck and she's never been seen from since she said that's the boy that picked my
00:48:23daughter in do it please wow that's not good we got a possible third victim
00:48:47the last person that she's ever seen alive with was mr brooks basically mom says i went to the
00:48:53family dollar to pick her up from work and she had a choice to get in my car or her
00:48:57boyfriend's truck
00:48:58and she chose the truck so what was that girl's name tyra whitaker
00:49:0524 year old tyra whitaker was reported missing by her family two months ago
00:49:11she was born and raised in tulsa and had been working several jobs to support her four-year-old son
00:49:19this is a really good investigation to check all the hospitals i mean no one's ever seen her alive
00:49:25since then the missing persons unit investigated tyra's disappearance for over a month but were unable
00:49:31to find any leads there's a decent chance she's been killed
00:49:38without a body we're not able to prove a whole bunch
00:49:41the team will start working tyra's case as a possible homicide we really need a good workup on
00:49:48that truck crime scene detectives are processing terrell brooks's truck for evidence we're going to
00:49:54search it i think there's two phones in the truck so we'll have to get left the team will get
00:50:00phone records
00:50:01for the cell phones in terrell's truck this is starting out not very promising i'm finding her alive
00:50:10it's hard to do a nobody conviction in oklahoma so she'll be a missing person until we can find a
00:50:17body
00:50:18me and sergeant styles are going to go talk to the victim's family get a little more intel
00:50:23so we'll uh go from there take that sucker up two hours in
00:50:43hi is ladona home detective ryden and sergeant jeremy styles speak with tyra's family at her mother's
00:50:51house so the last time you saw her was on the 19th is that right yeah she had called and
00:50:58asked me to
00:50:58pick her up from work she comes out and she gets in the car and she calls this guy on
00:51:06the telephone
00:51:07to tell him don't come and get her i'm there so he was like oh i'm just around the corner
00:51:13did he arrive in a vehicle yes it's an older model truck and when you prime in a car to
00:51:22paint it it's
00:51:23that gray
00:51:27tyra gets her stuff and they leave okay on the original report you listed this as her phone
00:51:34number was that the phone number you're you had for it at that time yes okay here's the deal we're
00:51:40gonna see if we can figure out a lead to follow and if we find her we'll definitely give you
00:51:44a shot
00:51:44right away okay thanks guys
00:51:52fingers crossed she's alive and she's somewhere we haven't found her yet
00:51:55so we just got done processing the truck no gun no ammo no ammo boxes no gun boxes no nothing
00:52:13like that
00:52:14we blew started and there was a reaction in the passenger seat and and the where his shoulder would
00:52:21be if he's driving all right up in there it's gonna get sent over to the lab the swabs will
00:52:27be sent to
00:52:28the crime lab to see if the substance found on the seats in terrell's truck is blood if it actually
00:52:35is blood then we're going to start comparing it to our victim's blood to see if it's theirs we'll just
00:52:41have to send this stuff off and time will tell yep
00:52:53the next day detectives turn back to terrell me and ronnie went to jail and picked up mr brooks
00:53:02and we brought him down here and we're gonna see if he wants to have a conversation about tyra
00:53:06we're legally we can still do that we won't ask him any questions about mark or dixie's case
00:53:12this is a brand new case we just learned about so we'll see what he has to say
00:53:24okay tyrell i'm detective right and this is detective 11. you're in jail for other things
00:53:29and i'm not going to ask you questions about those at all
00:53:32i'm investigating a missing person
00:53:37who is that
00:53:40tyra
00:53:43and how do you know tyra we met at the bus stop i kind of took her in under my
00:53:48wing
00:53:50and anytime she needed to ride to work or a ride home she she knew who to call
00:53:56and where was she working she worked at dollar general for for like two weeks before she died
00:54:05okay um was she a girlfriend just uh i mean wherever she's at i understand so was she your girlfriend
00:54:16no okay and mom says that she was at the store going to pick her up and that tyra called
00:54:22you
00:54:23and that you arrived and the way i understand that tyra got in your truck yes sir okay so where
00:54:29did you
00:54:30guys go that night she stayed with me near my truck okay whenever we split she couldn't stay with me
00:54:38how many days weeks or months did you guys split up after you talked to the mom at the family
00:54:42dollar
00:54:43it's probably like a week we split up because i woke up one day and i was sleeping on my
00:54:50back
00:54:50and she had slid her leg up under my leg uh-huh and uh it was like right close to
00:54:55my butt
00:54:56and i was like don't ever do that again you know you know that's uncomfortable i've already been
00:55:01molested while i'm asleep tarrell says that three years ago he was sexually abused while he was
00:55:07sleeping so then you said you confronted her yeah i told her never not to do that again
00:55:14after that she was just like oh uh i was just getting comfortable with you i said no that's not
00:55:19how it goes don't don't do that so after that me or her relationship was not cool at all
00:55:27i told her me and you we can't be together so she had a friend come and pick her up
00:55:34did you see the friend no okay have you had any contact with her since that day
00:55:43no if you said something's interview that i know detective levin caught and i caught too
00:55:49you said she was dead i said i'm investigating a missing person but you said she's dead
00:55:56i agree with you she is dead i think you know exactly what happened
00:56:16try look at me i think you have some issues and i think she did something to set you off
00:56:22and i think when you get set off you do some stuff that you regret
00:56:30did you and her get in a fight at any point and something happened
00:56:36sure yes sir
00:56:40i just don't like betrayal
00:56:46what she did i mean yeah it made me mad and everything but i wouldn't i wouldn't hurt her
00:56:54one of the issues i see trail is that the last person we can confirm that she's been seen with
00:57:00was you the thing that makes sense to me is that all this stuff you've talked about that that bothers
00:57:08you and then she starts doing some of those things and that that you did something where where she
00:57:15i told you i told you everything that i wanted to talk about
00:57:22come over with some evidence it's just hearsay like just like the other two women
00:57:29just because i knew them just because i know her don't mean that i'm responsible for that
00:57:35for what for their death i know these people betrayed me and we've split up and everything
00:57:43did y'all can't just tell me oh yeah you were the last person seen with her so you did
00:57:48it
00:57:50it makes no sense that it's anyone else you're the last one that she's been seen with she hasn't
00:57:55went to work since then she hasn't talked to family and friends since then
00:58:01she left that's the last time i seen her that's that's the end of it
00:58:10okay okay what's it like did he do it definitely think he did it yeah
00:58:20he said all three of them betrayed me right yeah that's his whole thing it's betrayal
00:58:26and the first thing he said when they sat down was she's dead
00:58:34and i was like oh crap he doesn't mean she's dead he's gonna confess and he got close but he
00:58:40said
00:58:44what's the next dad do we get her his phone records and see where her phone might have gone
00:58:49yes the team will get a warrant for tyra's cell phone records hoping to get location data from the
00:58:55day she disappeared hopefully some phone stuff will help out but the problem is we don't have anybody
00:59:00saying he did it there's no gun there's a lot of common denominators same casings that's the best
00:59:08thing yeah i've got a lot of work to do we all got a lot of work there's a lot
00:59:15of work to do on all
00:59:16three of these cases we find a body find physical evidence a witness um there's lots of things that
00:59:23can go right and just patience is on our side so we'll uh see
00:59:38two weeks later this data is super accurate detective lansdowne takes over the case and gets the location
00:59:48data from tyra's phone it's basically showing which towers the device was connected to
00:59:56where these two arcs overlap is a pretty good indication that that device was in that area at
01:00:03that time we know where her phone was at january 19th which is in north new gallus tyra's phone was
01:00:11tracked to a house in west tulsa the night before she disappeared 6 33 a.m on december 20th her
01:00:20phone
01:00:21goes all the way out east early the next morning her phone moves to a wooded area 20 miles east
01:00:31and then after this it goes off there's a very good possibility maybe she could be there we need a
01:00:40check
01:00:47so we are going up to this area which is very secluded very wooded detectives head out to the
01:00:53last location where tyra's phone hit to search for her body you don't go out there to go hiking you
01:01:01go
01:01:01out there to get rid of things common sense tells me he's dumping her body right
01:01:15all right so you think he drove back in here then check it out i think it's worth a shot
01:01:25all right
01:01:27i hope we find her
01:01:49after searching for two hours it's just so wooded back here
01:01:56you think a dog would help they decide to come back in the morning with the canine team
01:02:04it's just such a big area that she could be anywhere tomorrow we'll be out there with the
01:02:10cadaver dogs i know she's dead and so now the next best thing is to be able to find her
01:02:17these two cases we have right now are circumstantial and we have to get something solid for this third case
01:02:24the more we can do on any one of these cases to strengthen it it's going to strengthen all three
01:02:28of them
01:02:41the next afternoon what's up girl canine officer robin mendenhall makes a discovery it's right in the
01:03:01so i always look
01:03:14i came up here just to get a layout of the area and when i was walking through i saw
01:03:19the red
01:03:20and i just came down and checked it out looks like a female's jacket to me it does look like
01:03:26a female jacket
01:03:28that looks like tissue that definitely smells like a body yes it stinks you might have found her
01:03:41so
01:03:52those are for sure genes oh undoubtable yeah no doubt those are genes
01:03:59you've got uh the anthropologists coming here in 10 minutes 10 minutes okay
01:04:04thank you dr barry yeah and when you look at this specific area
01:04:08all of this is freshly overturned and it is right where her phone was
01:04:35i'm trying to figure out what this thing is right here i feel
01:04:39it's like part of the pelvis this is the ischium this is the greater trochanter of a femur so you've
01:04:47got pelvis that's what i was thinking and you've got a femur
01:04:53this is definitely human
01:04:59you didn't expose this no it was like that i think an animal was probably just kind of
01:05:03rocked around in here we have a storm coming so i don't think we should address this right now
01:05:10if we can wait we can put a tarp on it put an officer here yeah let's do that
01:05:18we've got a storm coming in this evening heavy hail heavy rain and so what we're going to do is
01:05:23we're
01:05:24going to tarp this over and then we'll have to have an officer sit here all night and then we'll
01:05:28start an excavation tomorrow
01:05:37one hour later we're going to go talk to la donna whitaker and just tell her that
01:05:43we have found a body lands down in white head out to meet with tyra's mother we don't know that
01:05:50it's
01:05:50tyra yet but we wanted to let her know just so that they can start preparing for the possibility
01:06:13of the
01:06:15hello hi are you la donna yes la donna hi i'm detective lanson that's detective white
01:06:20i want to tell you something and i can't say this within a definitive uh 100 positive but we have
01:06:26found
01:06:27remains of someone and
01:06:34and i i want to prepare i want to prepare you
01:06:39before this hits the news and everything i just want to let you know um i will tell you that
01:06:45there's
01:06:45a very good chance of it
01:06:46come on sit down baby yeah yeah have a seat sweet
01:06:54we don't like to do you know notifications and stuff until we're positive but
01:07:00i feel strongly enough that this is tyra that we came to talk to you guys
01:07:06i'm glad y'all i'm glad
01:07:26you just want to phone call from me or do you want me to come in person
01:07:31call renee okay we'll be in touch very soon all right guys you're welcome thank you
01:07:50the next morning and now we're going to get out there and recover the body
01:07:57i'd like to get like a circle of people around lifting the soil out once we have that soil out
01:08:03then we'll start actually on the recovery so we'll be working around where we think the body is
01:08:08buried and working our way down to her
01:08:32after an hour of digging is that plastic
01:08:38it feels like a trash bag plastic i think he might have put her in a trash bag yeah that's
01:08:46sad man
01:08:48this poor girl threw away like a piece of trash
01:08:54trying to keep it intact as much as we can
01:09:06just pull it back and then
01:09:11we've got her out
01:09:17good job guys
01:09:23she's going to get taken down to the medical examiner's office
01:09:26hopefully we'll uh you know get her positively identified
01:09:38the next day
01:09:43hi lacy hey angela lansdowne reaches out to dr burr
01:09:47just calling to see about an update on the body that we found
01:10:06okay so we have positive id
01:10:09your fingerprints as tyra whitaker okay
01:10:18she has sharp force trauma
01:10:20to her head and neck with cut marks into the bone also wow
01:10:27the autopsy revealed that tyra was stabbed 20 to 30 times in the head face and neck
01:10:35she also has what appears to be maybe blood force trauma to her mouth
01:10:40and she has three chipped teeth okay
01:10:44okay okay thank you so much angela all right take care bye you too bye
01:10:50this girl suffered a very painful death
01:10:54i'm going to call renee which is tyra's aunt and let her know the really bad news
01:11:04hello
01:11:05renee
01:11:06yes hey it's detective lansdowne well i i have some bad news we did get a positive id and the
01:11:13body
01:11:13that we found was tyra
01:11:19yeah i'm sorry renee i really am
01:11:35well i can promise you that everybody here in the office is doing everything to make sure that
01:11:40there is justice for her thank you yeah you're welcome you're welcome bye-bye okay bye
01:11:52later that day
01:11:58the team decides to confront terrell with the new evidence all right buddy that far
01:12:02chair i'll be right back with you
01:12:06ronnie and i went over to the jail to bring him over here
01:12:08before he had wanted to see some evidence and before we transported him over ronnie showed him
01:12:13the picture of the coat and he acknowledged the picture and i'm sure that he's sitting over there
01:12:20and it's it's driving him crazy there's a possibility we may get something here but we'll see
01:12:33here if you stand up
01:12:38first off i wanted to say that i want to get some help
01:12:44i know that i've got trauma from not being able to wake up when something's happened to me in my
01:12:50sleep i should have woke up okay i'm found guilty i want to know that y'all understand the trauma
01:12:57i have
01:12:58and present the trauma okay i can't imagine that man i really can't that's got to be tough that you
01:13:04went
01:13:05through that it's definitely stuff that we will document and that will be presented to attorneys
01:13:12the counselors and all that stuff okay so um that being said as we came to the jail earlier today
01:13:20i
01:13:20showed you that picture you remember that what was that picture of that picture was of tyrant jacket okay
01:13:29so we've found that jacket okay where where do you think we found it at wherever she was buried okay
01:13:40where where was she buried at i don't want to answer that question
01:13:50he just feels like i'm traumatized for what happened to me before
01:13:55if i found guilty i wanted i want to know i understand i really do i understand that and
01:14:01i promise you that stuff that is going to be documented without a doubt
01:14:05but i think you're going to feel a little bit better if you're honest and tell me some more of
01:14:09these details and i'm not because i know i got a problem i know that everybody in my corner is
01:14:18telling
01:14:18me you need help you need help you need help you do i think you do i really do
01:14:24and you're saying you want to get help which is good but in order to do that in my opinion
01:14:29you've got to take responsibility for stuff you've done in the past also
01:14:34i want you to be straight up with me and tell me more of these details about tyra
01:14:40what happened to her what you did to her where you buried her
01:14:46let's start right here take the first step but i can't do that
01:14:53what why i can't do that why why can't because you haven't came to me with evidence
01:15:00showed me like terrell this is what we have we know what you did you know what i'm saying
01:15:07i can't tell you everything you know i showed you the code you already said she was buried and i've
01:15:13confirmed for you yeah she was buried i know how she was killed okay right
01:15:21i'm not sure tyra deserves justice her family deserves some answers and you're the one holding
01:15:26those i told you everything no you didn't i told you the problems i had i i know that but
01:15:36you didn't
01:15:36tell me what how you killed her you didn't tell me where you buried her how did you kill tyra
01:16:00i can't answer that question do you not remember or you just not want to tell me
01:16:09i don't know anybody that killed someone and it you know what i'm saying they don't tell anybody how
01:16:16they did anything they don't tell anybody i need the evidence i've told you the evidence that i can
01:16:24tell you up to this point if you answer my questions and are truthful i will give you more but
01:16:30you're not
01:16:30giving me anything well i'm gonna wait i'm gonna wait until my time to talk to my lawyer
01:16:39my lawyer he's gonna be the one to tell me what y'all have
01:16:43all right well then we're done
01:16:57i have no doubt he killed all three of those women but i just i don't think he's ever going
01:17:02to tell
01:17:02us he's admitting to things he's not giving the details but he's admitting something bad happened
01:17:09and i just don't want to talk about it because he knows that if he tells us he's going to
01:17:14end up
01:17:14going to prison forever
01:17:26two days later
01:17:29tarrell has made some comments on his jail calls about people snitching on him people knowing what's up
01:17:35on a recorded jail call tarrell mentioned the name of a friend who he thinks may have talked to police
01:17:41about tyra's murder he was like i know he's talking because of the questions they were asking me
01:17:49they were at his house the night before tyra was murdered we know that her phone was over at his
01:17:56house because we looked at her phone records detectives discovered the friend lives at the
01:18:01house where tyra's phone hit on the night she disappeared he got arrested this weekend just some
01:18:08traffic tickets and he's in city jail so we'll go grab him and um see what he has to say
01:18:16yeah
01:18:27that's all we had we are scraping the bottom for candy
01:18:33all right you already know where we're here so i'm gonna let you take the floor okay this is about
01:18:38tarrell just tell me everything that you know i really can't tell you too much about him i would
01:18:45stop calling him stop talking to him because i really don't like the type of that he does
01:18:54so what would be weird in your world
01:19:09like the girl be doing something to him when he sleep or something like that and i'd be like bro
01:19:15like anybody nah bro he really just made me distance myself like away from me let me ask you this
01:19:23who was
01:19:24his girlfriend at the time i don't even remember her name we showed you a picture you know her hell
01:19:30yeah
01:19:33lansdowne shows him a photo of tyra that's her okay
01:19:40what do you know about her nice person wonderful wonderful
01:19:47i'm gonna be real with you we found her in a hole in the ground buried
01:19:59it's a lot tyra deserved better
01:20:05yeah that she did
01:20:08did he ever tell you that he did anything to her
01:20:13said he dumped the lights
01:20:17did he give you a clue as to where
01:20:27when did he tell you all this stuff
01:20:29like two months ago
01:20:31how did you know that he met tyra
01:20:35you really want to know yeah they told me he's gonna do it before it happened
01:20:42okay so share with me that what did he say he was gonna do
01:20:45him he said he was gonna kill her did he tell you why he wanted to kill her
01:20:51tell me about some when i'm sleeping up some
01:20:56i don't believe that girl alone all right don't do nothing to that girl let that girl be
01:21:02so when he tells you that he did do it what did he say exactly again
01:21:06what i got rid of all right we do appreciate it yeah thank you
01:21:26so
01:21:37this is huge just puts this case over the top now
01:21:40it's went from circumstantial to actual witness who's talked to terrell that said this
01:21:46i'm super stoked about it this is our strongest case now
01:21:51i think it's pushed it to the point that without question we could go ahead and do an add-on
01:21:55charge
01:21:56for uh for tyra's murder i think he killed these three women and didn't give it a second thought
01:22:03we're extremely lucky that we got him when we did i have no question that there would have been more
01:22:10yeah
01:22:44this whole case is really sad from tyra to elizabeth to rainbow
01:22:49i used to work in domestic violence before i came over to homicide and i know that the most
01:22:56dangerous time for victim is when they're trying to leave the relationship elizabeth tried to leave
01:23:02she did leave and he killed her a short time later he knew rainbow all of three days she was
01:23:08nice
01:23:08enough to give him a place to stay and the day that she had kicked him out i believe he
01:23:14came back and
01:23:14killed her that night i don't know what happened with tyra she very well could have tried to leave him
01:23:19as well if anyone male or female is in a domestic violence situation there's things that you can do
01:23:27to protect yourself to get out of this situation there's 24-hour hotlines that you can call you can
01:23:34get a protective order there is help available domestic violence is very common and it affects
01:23:41everyone it doesn't matter who you are it can affect you
01:23:44it doesn't matter who you are it can affect you can affect you can affect you can affect you
01:24:14enjoyed life I should have seen her.
01:24:16Yeah, yeah.
01:24:19It was very difficult to hear that my child was deceased.
01:24:27Having to tell her child that he won't be able to see
01:24:33or hear from his mother again is difficult.
01:24:39She won't be at her son's graduation.
01:24:41She won't have a first dance with him at his wedding.
01:24:48People have to still live with what somebody else did.
01:24:55Yeah, he's going to have to answer to the things that he did,
01:24:59but we all have to suffer.
01:25:03And so do the other victims' families and friends,
01:25:07their children.
01:25:10He can be sentenced to the maximum sentence,
01:25:14and it wouldn't be good enough for me.
01:25:17He took away something that never can be given back.
01:25:24So I'm gonna take me Irish.
01:25:29And I felt like it,
01:25:30I felt like the other man did such things in me.
01:25:31You
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