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Dateline NBC - Season 35 - Episode 03: Bringing Jay Home
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00:00:02Tonight on Dateline.
00:00:03Jay's number one thing was people will know my name.
00:00:07People will know me.
00:00:08Jay Lee was one in a million at Ole Miss.
00:00:11He was regularly on social media.
00:00:14Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok.
00:00:16All of a sudden that stopped.
00:00:18We got the call from the University Police Department about,
00:00:22hey, Jay Lee's missing.
00:00:23I didn't know what could have happened to him.
00:00:26We start looking at who he's talking to on Snapchat.
00:00:28We see this name, Red Eye 24.
00:00:30What was it about those exchanges?
00:00:32It seemed like Jay Lee was upset.
00:00:34If you mess with those men, something bad could happen to you.
00:00:38Because of the secret, he has it all to lose.
00:00:42This is in the middle of the summer here in Mississippi.
00:00:44Somebody wearing a hoodie caught our eye.
00:00:46He looks at the trash can big enough to put a body in him.
00:00:50Lord, what type of punishment is this?
00:00:52It's like emotional torture.
00:00:54This humble, loving family,
00:00:56they were going to get everything that we had.
00:00:58We started sifting through decaying leaves,
00:01:01and there was a piece of jewelry.
00:01:03That was the only piece that we didn't have.
00:01:06Now we've got it.
00:01:07Let's go.
00:01:08A victim whose life was an open book,
00:01:11and a suspect whose life was a story of secrets.
00:01:15I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.
00:01:25Here's Blaine Alexander with Bringing Jay Home.
00:01:36By all appearances, it was just another piece of trash,
00:01:41strewn amongst the tires and tossed junk
00:01:43in these forgotten woods of rural Mississippi.
00:01:47And I'm just sifting it through my hands,
00:01:49and a flashlight catches a glimpse of something shiny.
00:01:55It was a most unlikely discovery.
00:01:58The final piece of a tragic puzzle
00:02:01that began two and a half years earlier.
00:02:04When I didn't get that call,
00:02:06I told my husband something's going on.
00:02:08This story is about outrage.
00:02:11Where is Jay?
00:02:12Where is Jay?
00:02:14And determination.
00:02:16You start stacking those pebbles,
00:02:18and all of a sudden,
00:02:19everything's starting to point in one direction.
00:02:21It's about an extraordinary friendship.
00:02:24You saw a family that was truly broken,
00:02:26that you felt so broken for them.
00:02:30And a dormant truth awakened.
00:02:32How did you find out what had happened?
00:02:35I'm sorry.
00:02:38But here, in the heart of the Bible Belt,
00:02:41this story is also about faith,
00:02:43and that eternal hope that what's done in the darkness
00:02:46will always come to light.
00:02:49I know God's going to make a way.
00:02:51Lord, I don't know what you want me to do at this point,
00:02:54but I'm going to keep saying,
00:02:56Jay's coming home.
00:03:05It was July 8, 2022,
00:03:08when Tayla Carey texted her 20-year-old brother, Jay Lee,
00:03:11a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
00:03:15She was just checking in,
00:03:17something she'd done daily since they were kids.
00:03:20Where are you at?
00:03:21What you eating today?
00:03:23What you doing tomorrow?
00:03:24You guys were literally walking each other through your days.
00:03:26Step by step.
00:03:27In real time.
00:03:28In real time.
00:03:29Jay loved his sister,
00:03:31but he was a mama's boy through and through.
00:03:34As soon as he knew that mom was up and moving,
00:03:38he was going to call.
00:03:40Jay's parents, Stephanie, a retail manager,
00:03:42and Jimmy, a truck driver and minister.
00:03:45And it's not just one time,
00:03:48it's two or three times a day.
00:03:49Ms. Stephanie,
00:03:50there wasn't a day that went by that you didn't talk to him.
00:03:53Not a day went by.
00:03:55Until that hot summer day in July,
00:03:57which was strange, inexplicable, really.
00:04:01It was my birthday.
00:04:03And me knowing Jay,
00:04:04he would call me and sing happy birthday all night long
00:04:09before two or three in the morning.
00:04:11She did get a text from Jay at 2 a.m.
00:04:14It's your birthday, lady.
00:04:15He wrote, I love you.
00:04:17But after that, silence.
00:04:20As a mom, you knew in your heart something was wrong.
00:04:24I knew, yes.
00:04:26Jay, the youngest of Stephanie's four children,
00:04:28had always shared his cell phone location with his mom.
00:04:31It started back in high school.
00:04:33So we were keeping tabs on each other.
00:04:35I can roll over in the bed at 2 o'clock in the morning
00:04:38and say, okay, he's at home.
00:04:39Can I say, it is remarkable
00:04:40that once he went off to college,
00:04:42he kept that location on.
00:04:44He did.
00:04:45But now?
00:04:46The location was turned off just like that.
00:04:49You know?
00:04:50We just didn't know what to think.
00:04:52Taylor reached out to Jay's college friend, Jose Reyes.
00:04:55Which was odd because I had never had a conversation with Taylor.
00:04:59And she kind of was just asking,
00:05:01hey, boo, have you heard from Jay Lee?
00:05:04He tried to call and text his friend, but none went through.
00:05:08So now, almost a day since Jay had last texted his mom,
00:05:12Jose drove to his friend's campus apartment to check things out.
00:05:16I went up and I knocked on his door.
00:05:18No one opened the door.
00:05:20I could hear his dog Lexi on the other side of the door.
00:05:24Another red flag.
00:05:25Jose knew Jay was obsessed with Lexi.
00:05:29Everyone knew it.
00:05:29He took her everywhere, to shops and museums, on road trips, even to class.
00:05:35That boy, he would not leave Lexi like that alone.
00:05:39Not for that long.
00:05:40That's out of character.
00:05:42Out of character for Jay Lee, for sure.
00:05:45Jay's mom knew it was time to call police.
00:05:47She reached out to the University of Mississippi PD to request a welfare check.
00:05:52The dispatcher notified Captain Jane Mahan, a 19-year veteran of the Ole Miss Police Force.
00:05:59She was very insistent.
00:06:02The mom called at 6 a.m. the next morning, looking for an update, expressing,
00:06:07I have still not heard from my son.
00:06:09This is very unusual type behavior for him.
00:06:13Captain Mahan sent officers to Jay's apartment.
00:06:17From their conversations with Jay's mom, police knew about the car Jay owned,
00:06:21a black Ford Fusion with a distinctive gold racing stripe on its hood.
00:06:26But they couldn't find it in the parking lot.
00:06:29Upstairs, Jay's door was slightly open.
00:06:32They knocked, no answer.
00:06:34So they went inside.
00:06:36He's not there.
00:06:37Nobody's in the apartment.
00:06:38Did it look like there were any signs of a struggle or anything like that?
00:06:41No, the apartment looked like a college individual's apartment.
00:06:46Food here and there on the counter, you know.
00:06:49And Jay's things were in his room.
00:06:53University police checked out the hospitals and jails in the area
00:06:56to see if somehow Jay had wound up in the ER or behind bars.
00:07:01Nothing.
00:07:03What's more, they learned,
00:07:04Jay hadn't shown up to work for the past two days.
00:07:08Captain Mahan needed a lead, and she had a hunch.
00:07:12We're looking for any clue at all,
00:07:14and there's a camera right here outside of Jay's apartment.
00:07:18Looking right at his door.
00:07:19Yes, ma'am.
00:07:20It was tremendous in this investigation,
00:07:23being able to identify when Jay was leaving his apartment.
00:07:27Not just when, but how.
00:07:31The mystery of what happened to Jay would haunt an entire community.
00:07:36I felt scared.
00:07:38As a father, I just wanted to get him.
00:07:40He said that the guy told him he was going to do something that he had never done before.
00:07:46And reveal a most unlikely suspect.
00:07:49He was giving me advice on, you know, how to stay out of trouble.
00:07:53And this is what I found.
00:07:55How long does it take to strangle someone?
00:07:57All that before one final stunning revelation.
00:08:02I was like, okay, Lord, what type of punishment is this?
00:08:19Jaylee's family was concerned on the day he went missing.
00:08:23By day two, they were panicked.
00:08:26I know I was doing at least 24 to 25 calls a minute.
00:08:32Back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back, back to back.
00:08:36Because it kept going to voicemail.
00:08:38Jay's friend Jose monitored Jay's social media accounts.
00:08:42For years, Jay had posted something almost daily.
00:08:45But now, nothing.
00:08:48He was always my mini little internet celebrity.
00:08:50Always enjoyed seeing his posts, his stories, his tweets.
00:08:53So he was very active on social media.
00:08:57As Jay's family and friends became increasingly desperate,
00:09:01university police captain Jane Mahan was pursuing her first lead.
00:09:05The security footage from that camera facing Jay's apartment.
00:09:08She rewound it to 4.01 a.m. on July 8th.
00:09:12And there he was, Jay leaving his apartment.
00:09:16It was a strange sight.
00:09:18Jay was wearing a robe, slippers, and a gold bonnet.
00:09:22Almost as if he'd gotten out of bed and just sleepwalked right out the door.
00:09:27Wearing that outfit.
00:09:29Right.
00:09:29Robe, bonnet, slippers.
00:09:30It appears maybe he's just running off campus for a minute or two and then coming back.
00:09:35Like a quick errand.
00:09:37Right.
00:09:37Absolutely.
00:09:38It tells me Jay intended on coming back, coming back home.
00:09:43And she was right.
00:09:44About 30 minutes later.
00:09:46He comes back in, same clothing, goes in.
00:09:49Okay.
00:09:50Then around 5.58, the same morning, Jay comes back out of his apartment.
00:09:56He gets into his car and then he leaves out of the parking lot and goes off campus.
00:10:03But this time, Jay didn't return.
00:10:06Jay Lee was definitely a night owl.
00:10:08He had a very strange sleep schedule.
00:10:12Braylon Johnson was one of Jay's best friends and his former roommate.
00:10:17He definitely wasn't a casual person.
00:10:19He didn't leave the house in his bathrobe very often.
00:10:22He would get dressed.
00:10:23He would get dressed, even if it was just to go check the mail or to walk his dog.
00:10:27There were many times that I saw him leaving the house to walk his dog, to walk Lexi in heels.
00:10:34Yep, heels.
00:10:35Jay was out and proud.
00:10:38And when it came to fashion, he loved to make a statement.
00:10:43And I'm seeing catcalling in the street and stuff, I guess because I have on this revealing outfit.
00:10:49He was the type of person, he can put on some blue pants, a purple shirt, and a red hat.
00:10:55And some cheetah print heels if he wanted to put on some cheetah print heels.
00:10:59And it was going to look good.
00:11:01And if you didn't like it or well, he was still going to shred it.
00:11:04When you close your eyes and think about your brother, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
00:11:12Unapologetically happy.
00:11:14Would you say that it takes a lot of courage to be openly gay here in Oxford, Mississippi?
00:11:20A lot of courage.
00:11:21Yes.
00:11:23Especially if, like Jay, you decide to run for Ole Miss Homecoming King.
00:11:38He was campaigning every day and getting a lot of backlash.
00:11:44Face to face.
00:11:45Face to face, yes.
00:11:46What were people saying?
00:11:48Talking about him wearing heels and using the N-word, just saying his campaign, it didn't represent Ole Miss.
00:11:59And even though he didn't win, he took that as an opportunity to advocate on campus for minority groups of,
00:12:07hey, this is what my experience is like doing something that I have a right as a student to do.
00:12:13His goal, I mean, I think from day one, to be an impact on people's lives.
00:12:20I can remember him being born.
00:12:24You know, I was in the room.
00:12:26The first thing that came out was his fist.
00:12:31So I knew he was going to be a fighter.
00:12:33You're a minister.
00:12:35You all are a family of very deep faith, living in the Deep South.
00:12:40Yes.
00:12:41A lot of kids in his situation may have been very afraid to be who they truly were and be
00:12:47open about their sexuality
00:12:49for fear that their parents wouldn't accept them.
00:12:52You know, you can't live your child's life.
00:12:54That's something that I think you as a parent should step back and let them know that regardless of what
00:13:00route you take,
00:13:01I'm here for you.
00:13:02I'm going to show you love and I'm going to have your back.
00:13:05Jimmy says he tried to instill in his son the lessons his father taught him, especially this one.
00:13:12Be who you are or nothing at all.
00:13:15Another thing Jay was?
00:13:17A fantastic student.
00:13:19He graduated top 10 in his high school class.
00:13:22And when he set off to Ole Miss, he left with a rather ambitious goal.
00:13:26Graduate in three years.
00:13:28He said, y'all watch my smoke.
00:13:30I'm going to do it.
00:13:31I'm going to get it done.
00:13:32And he did it.
00:13:33Literally.
00:13:34He wasn't playing.
00:13:34And he was 100% serious about his education and his future.
00:13:42Jay was just as serious about his faith.
00:13:45He grew up in the church.
00:13:47Each and every Sunday he would get up and have to do a testimony.
00:13:51And he was going to thank God for what he'd done in his life.
00:13:54So when people look at Jay, they see the confidence.
00:13:56But you're saying really what's underneath it is faith.
00:14:00Yes.
00:14:01And he never swayed from it.
00:14:03It was that faith that shaped Jay's plans for his future.
00:14:08He was pursuing a master's degree in social work.
00:14:11He interned at Oxford's Child Protective Services.
00:14:14And he'd organized a baby formula drive for low-income families.
00:14:18Scheduled for the very day he went missing.
00:14:21That just further confirmed my fears that someone has done something to Jay Lee.
00:14:27Because I knew if he organized an event like that, he wouldn't miss it.
00:14:31He wouldn't bail on it before it was complete.
00:14:34So where was Jay?
00:14:37Two days after he vanished, the department put out a missing persons poster, including Jay's graduation photo and a picture
00:14:44of his car.
00:14:46Jay's disappearance was now public.
00:14:49The headlines soon followed.
00:14:51Lee was last seen here at the Campus Walk apartment.
00:14:55And so did the fear.
00:14:57Every day that we woke up and there were no updates from the police, it was a nightmare.
00:15:17Not long after university police released Jay's missing persons poster, the calls started rolling in by the hundreds.
00:15:27The most promising lead came from a tow truck driver.
00:15:30He told police that hours after Jay went missing, he found Jay's car in an illegal parking spot.
00:15:37We learned that his car was towed from Molly Bar Trails Apartments.
00:15:43Molly Bar Trails, an apartment complex about two and a half miles from Jay's place.
00:15:48But it was off campus and out of the jurisdiction of university police.
00:15:54The car was here in spot 43, first here at 43.
00:15:58Enter the Oxford Police Department and Detective Ryan Baker, who would lead the investigation from now on.
00:16:04What did you find inside the car?
00:16:06Found Jay Lee's wallet with a student ID, his driver's license, credit cards, stuff like that.
00:16:11But we couldn't find the car keys or Jay Lee's phone was not in the car either.
00:16:15Are you dusting for fingerprints?
00:16:17Are you trying to get any sort of evidence from that car?
00:16:20We actually had it towed to the Mississippi Crime Lab and they actually processed for fingerprints and so forth and
00:16:27only found Jay Lee's fingerprints on the car.
00:16:30So no other prints, no other DNA, nothing else that indicated anybody else had been inside that car?
00:16:36Not from the car, no.
00:16:37We had some officers come out here and do some knocking talks and we didn't find anybody that really knew
00:16:42Jay Lee or even knew he frequented here or was even here that day.
00:16:47Investigators wondered, did Jay Lee abandon his car at Molly Bar Trails or did someone else?
00:16:54They scrolled through the complex's security video.
00:16:57It showed Jay's car entering Molly Bar Trails at 7.25 a.m., about an hour and a half after
00:17:04Jay left his apartment the second time.
00:17:06Could you tell who was behind the wheel?
00:17:08You could not, the glare from the sun and so forth, the way that camera is viewed, you could not
00:17:14tell who was driving the car.
00:17:16Was it Jay?
00:17:17His family and friends were desperately searching for him.
00:17:20We pretty much searched almost all of Oxford and a little bit outside of Oxford as well.
00:17:26Was there ever a thought that maybe he had harmed himself?
00:17:29Never.
00:17:31Never.
00:17:33Jay was the type of person that loved his life so much and so truly he lived for himself.
00:17:41So Jay harming himself or even thinking about harming himself, he would never, ever do that.
00:17:48But would someone else harm Jay?
00:17:51Maybe even kill him?
00:17:53As he searched for his son, Jay's father says he couldn't stop that thought from creeping in.
00:17:59One area I looked at, I saw tire marks near a wooded area.
00:18:04I went in.
00:18:06What were you thinking when you saw those tire marks?
00:18:09That he may have been dumped in there.
00:18:12And as a father, I just wanted to get him.
00:18:15Yeah.
00:18:16You know, I just wanted to bring him out of there.
00:18:20I'm asking that if anyone knows anything or sees anything, say something.
00:18:30This is my plea that you help find my child.
00:18:34Every day you could see Mr. Lee carrying the weight for the family.
00:18:40Oxford Police Chief Jeff McCutcheon updated Jay's family daily.
00:18:44You saw a family that was truly broken.
00:18:47This humble, loving family that you felt so broken for them.
00:18:51I think we took their burden and their hurt and we put it inside of us to drive us.
00:18:57That's why the chief made a promise and it was personal.
00:19:01I had committed one way or the other.
00:19:03We were going to bring Jay home.
00:19:04I would never have peace.
00:19:06Our team would have never had peace.
00:19:07Their family would have never had peace if we didn't bring Jay home.
00:19:11What was the feeling within the LGBTQ community as these days were passing with no sign of Jay?
00:19:18Fear.
00:19:19Every day that we woke up and there were no updates from the police, it was a nightmare.
00:19:25Mississippi has no hate crime laws protecting its LGBTQ residents and advocacy groups have consistently ranked the state as one
00:19:34of the least safe places for queer people in the United States.
00:19:38That was weighing heavily on the minds of Jay's friends, who believed he might be targeted not only because he
00:19:46was openly gay, he was also a well-known drag performer.
00:19:52There was definitely a lot of hate and homophobia towards Jay and the way that he presented himself.
00:19:59So I definitely was scared because violence in the queer community is so prevalent that I didn't know what could
00:20:07have happened to him.
00:20:08Within that year in the state of Mississippi, there had been two transgender people who had been killed.
00:20:15Of course, Jay wasn't transgender, but part of the queer community.
00:20:19Did that heighten the fear?
00:20:22Definitely.
00:20:22And we started to think the worst that maybe he was hate crime.
00:20:27Maybe someone did something to him.
00:20:28Was there ever any thought that this could possibly be some sort of a hate crime?
00:20:33We're just trying to collect all the facts and piece all the puzzles together.
00:20:37You consider every aspect of where the investigation can go.
00:20:42Which, right now, was nowhere.
00:20:45Captain Mahan, still on the case, poured over every detail in that security video.
00:20:50And then she noticed something important.
00:20:53It was the way Jay held his iPhone as he left the apartment.
00:20:57You could tell it was like illuminated.
00:20:59It was lit up.
00:21:00And he just held it in his hand like this.
00:21:03And he held it the whole way to his vehicle.
00:21:06Typically, I don't think people carry their phones like that unless they're talking on their phone.
00:21:12That's big.
00:21:13Yes.
00:21:13It shows there's somebody out there who...
00:21:16Was talking to him.
00:21:17In the last known moments of where he was.
00:21:20Yes, ma'am.
00:21:21Who was it?
00:21:23And did that person have anything to do with Jay's disappearance?
00:21:27Turns out the first real break in the case was just a phone call away.
00:21:32I'm like, who are you going to see at 6 o'clock in the morning?
00:21:51In the college town of Oxford, Mississippi, news of a missing student had been spreading like crazy.
00:21:57But the queer community was bracing for the possibility that police would do little or nothing about it.
00:22:05I mean, no one's shocked when a queer person goes missing in the South, you know.
00:22:10Blake Summers and Jay became friends after Jay started performing in drag shows at Code Pink, an event space Blake
00:22:17founded.
00:22:18You were not confident that, quite frankly, police would do their job when it came to trying to find them.
00:22:23I'm not confident in the justice system to prosecute what needs to be done, you know.
00:22:29I mean, our history with police isn't really that great.
00:22:32Did you get a sense that there was this kind of general distrust in the community toward police as they
00:22:36were coming around, asking questions, investigating?
00:22:39I mean, I think it's natural with our community to have that distrust.
00:22:43You don't know if a queer person, a black person, will be treated the same as a sorority girl.
00:22:48Some friends were worried about talking to police for fear of saying the wrong thing or anything that might diminish
00:22:55Jay.
00:22:57I was scared to talk to the police.
00:22:59I didn't want them to think like, oh, if you say someone's annoying or young or boisterous that they deserved
00:23:04it or they'd be any more worth investigating.
00:23:07There was some reluctancy early on because of just fear of, can you be trusted?
00:23:14Can I be vulnerable with you?
00:23:15Am I safe to talk in this environment?
00:23:18A lot of fear.
00:23:20Will law enforcement take this serious?
00:23:23I know what policing means to me.
00:23:26I know how passionate I am.
00:23:27But for a group that may not believe that, your words don't matter, your actions do.
00:23:34Oxford police would have to earn that trust, starting with Jay's best friend, Jose.
00:23:39He was one of the first people police interviewed.
00:23:43We were open to listening and opening to learning.
00:23:46I mean, it clicked in my head.
00:23:48We're in the South.
00:23:49Not many people know the lingo or, you know, the terminology that comes within, you know, the queer space.
00:23:56He kept his guard up, especially when they asked him for an alibi.
00:24:02Were you concerned that they were looking at you?
00:24:05I'm like, I know we're getting desperate and we're trying to look underneath every stone, but I'm not the person
00:24:11you're not looking for.
00:24:12I'm Jay Lee's friend.
00:24:13I would never hurt him.
00:24:15Jose gave police his cell and detectives determined his alibi was solid.
00:24:20He was nowhere near Jay when he disappeared.
00:24:25I do recall kind of my trust being tested a little, but the questions that they asked, I could tell
00:24:30that they definitely weren't giving up.
00:24:32Mike, come check this out.
00:24:33He was right.
00:24:34Police were determined to figure out what happened to Jay Lee.
00:24:38They hoped this person could help, the one talking to Jay on a video call when he left his apartment
00:24:44for the last time.
00:24:46Turns out, finding him wasn't hard at all.
00:24:49He reached out to them.
00:24:52His name is Khalid Fears.
00:24:54He told police he and Jay Lee were close friends.
00:24:58Our friendship consisted a lot of checking in with each other day to day.
00:25:04And that's what Khalid was doing the day Jay disappeared.
00:25:07Khalid had worked the night shift and he remembers talking to Jay throughout the night.
00:25:12Once I finished working, I proceeded to call him and I noticed that he was like leaving his apartment.
00:25:17And my first impression was, where are you going?
00:25:22I'm like, who are you going to see at six o'clock in the morning?
00:25:26Jay told him he was going to hook up with someone, but he wouldn't give Khalid a name.
00:25:30He told me he was going to see someone that he had saw earlier in the night.
00:25:34He told me that they had gotten into a huge argument and that he would tell me about it later.
00:25:40Jay told Khalid he got so mad at the guy, he blocked him from his social media.
00:25:45But the man found a way to reach him anyway.
00:25:48I was like, well, what are you going over there to do?
00:25:51He said that the guy told him he was going to do something that he had never done before.
00:25:58I want to say it was like a three minute phone call.
00:26:00And he was just like, okay, I'm here, I'm going to let you go.
00:26:03And I was just like, okay, friend, have fun, you know, talk to you later.
00:26:09For police, this was good, concrete information.
00:26:12A three minute drive from Campus Walk is still a good size area,
00:26:17but it kept us centered around where we needed to be.
00:26:20Ryan, take a look at this.
00:26:21Lieutenant Shane Fortner was in charge of Oxford Police's Criminal Investigations Unit.
00:26:26So you knew wherever he was going, it was within three minutes of his home.
00:26:29Yes.
00:26:30Who was Jay going to see?
00:26:33The search continued.
00:26:35And a closer look at that security video from the apartment complex where Jay's car was found
00:26:41would point the case in a whole new direction.
00:26:44Here's this individual running out of the complex.
00:26:47A running man.
00:26:48Was he somehow connected to Jay Lee's disappearance?
00:26:52That's somebody that wants to get out of the area.
00:26:54They don't want to be here.
00:27:11Summertime Mississippi can be an unforgiving place.
00:27:15A relentless heat that just kind of hangs there, stays with you, no relief.
00:27:24Such was the pain for Jay Lee's friends and family, now seven days since his disappearance.
00:27:31I started, like, losing faith.
00:27:33I was like, okay, Lord, what type of punishment is this?
00:27:41Investigators were trying to figure out who Jay met up with when he left his apartment that morning.
00:27:46We were able to obtain Jay Lee's call detail records, who he'd talked to previously before he went missing.
00:27:55One man stood out.
00:27:56A restaurant worker, Jay, texted shortly before Khalid called him the morning he disappeared.
00:28:02Detectives found him and brought him in for questioning.
00:28:05What was his demeanor?
00:28:06It was kind of evasive at first, kind of didn't really want to give us a whole lot of information
00:28:11about what he was doing and where he was during the time frame and so forth.
00:28:17The man said he worked that night and went straight home after.
00:28:20Detective Baker said he appeared nervous, fidgety.
00:28:23He denied having a relationship with Jay, but then admitted they had sex once.
00:28:29His reason for not being honest at first, he told detectives he wasn't openly gay and worried his family would
00:28:37find out.
00:28:39That raised the detective's suspicion.
00:28:43Jay's friend Khalid had told them about men who he described as being on the DL, or the down-low.
00:28:51My definition of DL is just somebody who's living, like, a double life.
00:28:55So it may be someone who has a family, have a wife, might even have kids.
00:29:01But on the outside, they live their life as a heterosexual person.
00:29:07But, you know, in their spare time, they're exploring all their fantasies.
00:29:13And that, Khalid told us, can bring trouble.
00:29:16The risk that you take when dealing with people who aren't comfortable with their sexuality.
00:29:21Um, I remember telling Jay that a DL man will kill you before they let their dirty little secret get
00:29:29out.
00:29:29I think that when it comes to down-low men in the Black community,
00:29:34there's definitely a warning on them that if you mess with those men, something bad could happen to you.
00:29:41So just inherently, the nature of that relationship was a risky one, a dangerous one for Jay Lee.
00:29:49Definitely.
00:29:50And there was more.
00:29:51The restaurant worker told them Jay had blocked him on social media.
00:29:56He did, to a degree, fit the profile of the person that Khalid Fears told you about, right?
00:30:01He did.
00:30:02The man was adamant he had nothing to do with Jay's disappearance.
00:30:07Detectives let him go, but they weren't done digging.
00:30:10They got a search warrant for his cell phone to extract his data, call detail records, you know, the whole
00:30:17nine yards.
00:30:18They also worked to verify his alibi.
00:30:22Could anybody confirm that he was at home?
00:30:24No, there was nobody that we could really confirm.
00:30:28Detectives pulled security video from the restaurant where the man worked, and they learned something else.
00:30:33He had left work a little early that night than he probably should have.
00:30:37An hour early, in fact.
00:30:39A detail he left out during his interview.
00:30:42Police wondered what else the man might be hiding.
00:30:45He's a person of interest, definitely.
00:30:47But for police, he was by no means the only person of interest.
00:30:51Especially after a fellow investigator noticed something on the security video from the Molly Bar Trails apartments where Jay's car
00:30:59was found.
00:31:00Something the others had missed.
00:31:03Right there, a person running out of the apartment complex about nine and a half minutes after Jay's car pulled
00:31:09in.
00:31:10What he was wearing really caught our eye.
00:31:14It's July 8th.
00:31:15It's in the middle of the summer here in Mississippi.
00:31:17We, you know, it gets warm.
00:31:19Very hot.
00:31:20Very hot.
00:31:20Somebody wearing a hoodie, a pretty heavy, heather gray hoodie, long sleeves, hood up.
00:31:27They wanted to track this runner down.
00:31:30How close are we to the apartments from where we are?
00:31:33You're about a quarter mile from the apartments, that direction.
00:31:36So when you start pulling surveillance video, what do you see?
00:31:38The individual that ran out of Molly Bar Trails, we see that individual actually start walking down the hill and
00:31:46come in front of the gas station here.
00:31:49The mystery jogger.
00:31:51He'd stopped jogging as soon as he exited Molly Bar Trails.
00:31:55And now, here he was at a gas station up the road.
00:31:59We see a car come beside him and that car actually slows down.
00:32:03And then that same white car circles the parking lot and pulls in by a gas pump.
00:32:10They have a brief exchange, it appears.
00:32:12And that individual gets in the car and they drive off.
00:32:14So it's very clear to you immediately that this wasn't somebody out for just a morning run or a morning
00:32:20jog.
00:32:20No, it wasn't.
00:32:21That's somebody that wants to get out of the area.
00:32:24Detectives were convinced it was the jogger who had ditched Jay's car in the apartment complex before fleeing with the
00:32:31unknown driver.
00:32:33We don't have any clue who the individual is that ran out or who's in the car.
00:32:38We got to find that car.
00:32:39We got to figure out who was in the passenger seat.
00:32:41And whether they had any connection to Jay, could those answers be found in the direct messages in Jay's social
00:32:48media accounts?
00:32:49Well, the police were having trouble finding out.
00:32:52They wanted his Snapchat information.
00:32:54He'd been using the app the very morning he went missing.
00:32:57But they felt there wasn't time to file a search warrant and wait for Snapchat to respond.
00:33:02So Detective Baker says they filed an emergency request with the company.
00:33:05It was denied.
00:33:07Like basically a roadblock.
00:33:09Desperate, Jay's father, Jimmy, called Apple with a personal plea.
00:33:14Access to his son's iPhone data.
00:33:16Literally, you know, asked him, this is a missing person under the age of 21, this is my child.
00:33:22And I'm trying to see if there's any way we can get login information.
00:33:29Jimmy says the rep assured him they would send him the information.
00:33:31But a second rep told him no.
00:33:34Apple didn't respond to our request for comment.
00:33:38How frustrating was that for you?
00:33:40Very.
00:33:40It was like emotional torture to tell us you can get it and then get over there and say, no,
00:33:46we can't.
00:33:47Meanwhile, time is ticking.
00:33:48Yes.
00:33:49And you were still trying to find him?
00:33:50Still trying to find him.
00:33:52So investigators would have to find another way into Jay's social media accounts.
00:33:57And once they did, what they uncovered was well worth the wait.
00:34:02We see this name, Red Eye 24.
00:34:18Oxford police had a tantalizing new nugget, that overdressed jogger.
00:34:23So as you're trying to piece everything together, how significant is that?
00:34:27I think it's very significant because you're talking about somebody that I want to get out of the area.
00:34:31I don't want to be seen by anybody.
00:34:34But as they tried to figure out who the jogger was, they did figure out who he wasn't.
00:34:41That jittery restaurant worker.
00:34:43He went home and he'd sat in his driveway for a while playing on his phone before he actually went
00:34:50into his house.
00:34:51If someone were preparing to commit a crime, they could easily leave their cell phone someplace
00:34:56and then go about and do whatever they meant to do.
00:34:59Could that have been a possibility here?
00:35:01No, because the phone was being interacted with.
00:35:05So they cleared the restaurant worker and zeroed in on what Jay told his good friend Khalid fears before he
00:35:11vanished.
00:35:12He told Khalid that he was going somewhere that he had previously been that night.
00:35:18And it was somebody that he had previously blocked on social media.
00:35:24Since police still couldn't access Jay's social media accounts, a university officer fashioned a workaround.
00:35:31He did a search warrant for Jay Lee's Apple iCloud account.
00:35:35And he was able to find passwords and user accounts for social media and stuff like that.
00:35:42The university granted access to Jay's college email account so investigators could get his Snapchat data.
00:35:49There's a function in Snapchat that you can download your own data.
00:35:53Kind of a deep hidden thing, not a whole lot of people know about it, but you can.
00:35:57And so we used his university email account that we now have control of and sent his personal data, Snapchat
00:36:05data, to that email.
00:36:07Finally, they were in.
00:36:08Well, kind of.
00:36:10The Snapchat log only showed the messages Jay received and the username of the sender.
00:36:16The last message chain began at 5.25 a.m.
00:36:20That's the first time we see this name, RedEye24.
00:36:24And that's a screen name?
00:36:25That's a screen name.
00:36:27RedEye texted, come back.
00:36:29You coming or nah?
00:36:30What was it about those exchanges with RedEye24 that caught your attention?
00:36:36It appeared that he had met with them earlier.
00:36:40Kind of seemed like Jay Lee was upset with this person based on the previous encounter that they had had.
00:36:47To detectives reading between the lines, it appeared Jay thought RedEye wanted to break off contact with him.
00:36:53RedEye responded, you tripping.
00:36:55I do feel bad because we cool, so I ain't trying to end it like this.
00:36:59Then RedEye seemed to give in to something Jay asked for, texting, okay, I'll do it.
00:37:05The detectives wondered if that meant something sexual.
00:37:09Because we know a lot of things about Jay Lee.
00:37:12And we learned throughout the investigation, Jay Lee would go meet other men and have sexual encounters.
00:37:17At around 6 a.m., detectives believe Jay, chatting on the phone with Khalid, was driving to meet RedEye.
00:37:24Then once he kind of got close to what Khalid thought was appeared to be close, he kind of just
00:37:30ended the conversation.
00:37:31And basically, he had to go.
00:37:34That's when detectives believe Jay showed up at RedEye's front door.
00:37:38We were confident that that was the last person that saw Jay Lee alive.
00:37:42We've got to figure out who this RedEye underscore 24 is.
00:37:45And I make a phone call to a friend at the U.S. attorney's office and just say, how can
00:37:49you help us?
00:37:49The U.S. attorney filed a federal warrant and this time, Snapchat delivered.
00:37:54So that really was a turning point.
00:37:56It was huge.
00:37:57Now the detectives had RedEye's email address and found it was the same email for a podcast called Dirt to
00:38:04Diamonds.
00:38:05Another episode of Dirt to Diamonds podcast.
00:38:08Today I have a special guest.
00:38:10The host, a handsome 22-year-old man and fellow Ole Miss graduate.
00:38:15Tim Harrington.
00:38:16What do you learn about Tim Harrington?
00:38:18Highly thought of on the Ole Miss campus.
00:38:20I was a good student.
00:38:21Jay's friend Braylon knew him well.
00:38:24I definitely had leaned on Tim Harrington for help in the past.
00:38:29He was giving me advice on, you know, how to stay out of trouble and what to do if your
00:38:34grades are bad.
00:38:36I looked at Tim as a friend.
00:38:39You have those people who kind of like take you under their wing.
00:38:41Was Tim kind of like that?
00:38:43Definitely.
00:38:44Tim was very outgoing and he was definitely the life of the party type of person.
00:38:51Detectives learned Tim was from Grenada, a small town about an hour from Oxford.
00:38:56Like Jay, Tim was a preacher's kid.
00:38:59His grandfather, an influential bishop.
00:39:02Tim was active in his community too, as a youth counselor and a guitarist in the church band.
00:39:08He was also an entrepreneur.
00:39:11He started his own moving company while still in college.
00:39:14He looked to be a young man that had a very bright future.
00:39:18He was ambitious, whether that was going to be politically or in real estate.
00:39:22And he projected confidence in an interview with the Ole Miss TV station.
00:39:27My name is Tim Harrington.
00:39:28I'm from the lovely city of Grenada, Mississippi.
00:39:30Here he was laying out his career path.
00:39:32That's what I see myself doing, developing real estate.
00:39:34Even casting himself as an entrepreneur influencer of sorts.
00:39:39Don't worry about age or little things like that holding you back.
00:39:43Get started.
00:39:43You'll learn as you go.
00:39:45Believed in himself, believed that he had a future.
00:39:48He wanted greatness for himself and for his life.
00:39:51This hardly sounds like the type of person that you would look at and say,
00:39:55you are responsible for killing somebody.
00:39:57Yeah, it did.
00:39:59You just follow the evidence.
00:40:01The detectives wanted to speak with Tim immediately.
00:40:05They headed to his apartment, not knowing who or what they might find.
00:40:24Two weeks after Jay Lee walked out of his campus apartment for the last time,
00:40:29the detectives, with body cameras rolling,
00:40:32followed the trail of Snapchat messages to the door of another Ole Miss graduate,
00:40:37Tim Harrington.
00:40:42Tim opens the door.
00:40:44We introduce ourselves.
00:40:45We kind of tell Tim, hey, this is why we're here.
00:40:48All right?
00:40:49Jay Lee's been missing.
00:40:50Can we come in and talk to you?
00:40:51Just see if you can help us out.
00:40:52And he opened his door and allowed us to come in and speak with him.
00:40:56So he's cooperating.
00:40:57Oh, absolutely.
00:40:58All right, Tim, do you know it that way?
00:41:00Yes, sir.
00:41:01We were in Black School Union together.
00:41:03How well do you know it?
00:41:05We were cool.
00:41:06I wouldn't say we were like best friends, but we were like, you know,
00:41:09just, you know, acquaintance friends like that.
00:41:11He was saying, yeah, we weren't that close.
00:41:13We knew each other in passing.
00:41:15But it was obvious to us, based on the Snapchat messages,
00:41:18that they had more of a relationship than he led into.
00:41:22We didn't know the nature of it,
00:41:24but we knew that there's more of a relationship than I knew him from school and passing.
00:41:28Have you had any contact with him lately?
00:41:29No, sir.
00:41:30I haven't heard anything from him since.
00:41:32Since he's been gone, I haven't heard anything.
00:41:34When was the last time you had any contact with him?
00:41:37Um, that night.
00:41:39It was the night, or rather the very early morning, that Jay Lee went missing.
00:41:45So you're actually the first one that's been able to say, you know what, I saw him that night.
00:41:50Yeah, I did see him.
00:41:51So like...
00:41:52Tim told the officers he was getting ready to move to Dallas,
00:41:55that he'd run into Jay while he was out looking to buy a drill.
00:41:58And Jay called him later.
00:42:00And he was like, you know, I got you a deal, blah, blah, blah.
00:42:04I was like, cool, you know, just stop by.
00:42:06I appreciate it, thank you.
00:42:08That's all you brought to you, and that was about you.
00:42:12Detectives then changed their line of questioning.
00:42:16Oh, so I'm just, we're asking everybody, okay?
00:42:18Yeah.
00:42:19Do you think he'll have a sexual relationship of any kind?
00:42:21No, I'm not sure.
00:42:22And Tim dismisses it.
00:42:23Where does the conversation go from there?
00:42:26The question that stood out to me the most was,
00:42:29what do you think happened to Jay Lee?
00:42:32What do you think happened to him?
00:42:35I don't know.
00:42:36I don't know if he just like went and had casual sex with somebody and got kidnapped like this.
00:42:41Tim goes on to say it's possible he went and had casual sex with someone and they kidnapped him.
00:42:50Out of the blue.
00:42:51Out of the blue.
00:42:52It feels oddly specific.
00:42:53It does.
00:42:54You know if Jay Lee was going to meet, talk to anybody after he left your apartment?
00:42:57Nah.
00:42:58All along in this conversation, you've got things on a simmer, let's say.
00:43:02At some point, you turn it up to a full boil.
00:43:04Oh, absolutely.
00:43:04We had to crank the heat up.
00:43:06Hey, Tim.
00:43:07Is that cool?
00:43:08Is that cool?
00:43:08Is that cool?
00:43:08Okay.
00:43:11Is that cool?
00:43:12Is that cool?
00:43:12We detained him for further questioning.
00:43:15So when you brought Tim down to headquarters, you were doing it right here in this room?
00:43:18Yes.
00:43:19So you have the right to remain silent.
00:43:21Now it's starting to get real and let's start trying to figure out how we can get him to say,
00:43:25I was lying to y'all.
00:43:27So is it possible, Tim, what you told us in the apartment was not as accurate as it was made
00:43:31out to be?
00:43:32No, sir, it wasn't as accurate.
00:43:34I didn't think so, Tim.
00:43:36So tell me about this deeper relationship you and J. Lee have.
00:43:40It was just like a sexual thing.
00:43:44It was like a night series.
00:43:45How many times have you and J. Lee had sexual intercourse?
00:43:49I'm not sure.
00:43:50Probably like maybe two or three.
00:43:52Tim changes his story.
00:43:55He admits, yes, they did have a sexual relationship.
00:43:57That's a big admission.
00:43:58Absolutely.
00:43:59The night he came over, did y'all have sexual relations that night?
00:44:05Yes, sir, we did.
00:44:06He came over and then, like, you know, he just gave me what he usually does.
00:44:12That was about it.
00:44:13Like, he just, like, we just talked and then he left.
00:44:17But you know that he went back a second time.
00:44:20Yes.
00:44:20Did J. Lee come back?
00:44:22Yes, sir, he came back.
00:44:23And Tim says, yes, it was for a sexual encounter that I was supposed to give J. Lee.
00:44:27And we come back and then, like, we do the same thing.
00:44:30I make it up to him.
00:44:32You make it up to him?
00:44:33Yeah, I did.
00:44:33So this is in direct contrast to the story that he had just told you.
00:44:38No, it's in direct contrast to everything he's told us up to that point.
00:44:41That was about it.
00:44:42It didn't, like, he just, like, left.
00:44:45And then that was it.
00:44:46Okay.
00:44:46How did he leave?
00:44:48Like, he was cool.
00:44:49Like, he was just, like, he thought, like, I wasn't going to do it because I don't do it.
00:44:53So he left the apartment walking?
00:44:56Yeah.
00:44:57Hmm.
00:44:58And then what?
00:45:01Did you leave the apartment?
00:45:04Yes, sir.
00:45:04What'd you go?
00:45:05I went to Walmart.
00:45:07That was news we had no information about.
00:45:11So he's the one who introduced that to you?
00:45:13He introduced that.
00:45:14He went to Walmart.
00:45:15Okay.
00:45:15What'd you do at Walmart?
00:45:17Nothing.
00:45:17And I have a moving company.
00:45:18I had a move around the day, so the tapes were the boxes and stuff like that.
00:45:23The detectives wanted details.
00:45:26So you bought duct tape or tape in general, not duct tape.
00:45:29The big clear tape you wrap around it?
00:45:32Yeah.
00:45:32Tim had a moving company, so he said it's what they wrap boxes in.
00:45:36Moving tape.
00:45:36Packaging tape.
00:45:37Moving tape, packaging tape.
00:45:38The detectives pressed Tim for more information about what he did that morning.
00:45:44And that's when he asked if he needed a lawyer.
00:45:46If you want to talk about everything today, I can get you to turn it down here.
00:45:51Okay, whatever.
00:45:52I don't talk about everything today.
00:45:54Well, keep investigating.
00:45:56But you're not leaving here today.
00:45:57That's fine.
00:45:58Tim had stopped cooperating, but the detectives felt they had their guy.
00:46:04So at this point now, he's charged.
00:46:06He's under arrest.
00:46:07You've charged him with murder.
00:46:08Yes.
00:46:09So what happened next came as a big shock.
00:46:12We were actually on the lawn of the courthouse just crying.
00:46:16The details were heavy.
00:46:17I was confused.
00:46:18I was disgusted.
00:46:33News of Tim Harrington's arrest hit Jay's family and friends like one of Mississippi's merciless tornadoes.
00:46:40Before you're holding out hope, you're searching for him, police are searching for him.
00:46:48Now there's an arrest and somebody charged with his murder.
00:46:52Yes.
00:46:53It was hard.
00:46:54I mean, the evidence was there to say something happened, but where he's by it, we didn't know.
00:47:00Freeland, you knew Tim Harrington.
00:47:02You were students together.
00:47:04I was very angry when I saw his mugshot.
00:47:08From that moment forward, I knew that Tim Harrington had something to do with it in some way.
00:47:1522-year-old Harrington makes his way inside to appear.
00:47:19People were shocked to learn that, one, that they had a relationship, and then, two, that Tim Harrington was being
00:47:26accused of murder.
00:47:28Tim Harrington was in jail, and DA Ben Creekmore would make the case to keep him there.
00:47:34But without Jay's body, that could be tricky.
00:47:38Typically, in a criminal case, you're going to have the body, you're going to know what form of violence was
00:47:43used.
00:47:44You're going to be able to call the medical examiner in to tell the jury the manner of death, cause
00:47:51of death.
00:47:52And you had none of that?
00:47:53I had none of that.
00:47:54So he needed to build a circumstantial case.
00:47:57By now, he had obtained Jay's side of his early morning Snapchat exchange with Red Eye 24, a.k.a.
00:48:05Tim Harrington.
00:48:06At one point, Jay seemed suspicious of Tim, texting,
00:48:10Yeah, now it seems like you're just trying to lure me over there to beat my ass or something.
00:48:15And he warned Tim against violence.
00:48:17Jay at some point says, you know if you try something fast, it won't end up good for you, right?
00:48:21What does that mean?
00:48:22It's saying that Jay Lee is kind of concerned or maybe a little fearful to come back over to Tim's
00:48:30apartment.
00:48:30But then Jay messaged, I'm coming.
00:48:33Even though Jay is suspicious, he still gets him to come over?
00:48:37Yes.
00:48:37Detectives believe Jay showed up at Tim's front door because he texted a single word, open.
00:48:43So he's saying open, basically open the door, I'm here.
00:48:46Yeah, I'm here, open the door.
00:48:48It was the final text Jay sent, the last evidence he was still alive.
00:48:53The prosecutor got Tim's phone and computer, which would turn up more clues.
00:48:58And investigators also found security camera footage that captured Tim's movements in the minutes and hours after Jay went to
00:49:05see him.
00:49:07Moments after Jay Lee enters the apartment, Tim is, you know, leaving the apartment, going to Walmart.
00:49:15He looks at where all the trash cans are.
00:49:18There's a trash can big enough to put a body in, is what he's looking at.
00:49:23At Walmart?
00:49:23That's right.
00:49:24But he ends up just buying a roll of duct tape.
00:49:28Duct tape, not clear packaging tape, as he told police.
00:49:32We had found a roll of duct tape when we searched his apartment and took it as evidence.
00:49:37After he left Walmart, a security camera captured Tim's company truck.
00:49:41He goes and gets a box truck, and then he returns to his apartment.
00:49:47About three and a half hours later, he drove the box truck to his parents' home in Grenada, where another
00:49:52camera picked up something suspicious.
00:49:55From the neighbor's surveillance camera, we're able to see Tim Harrington put a wheelbarrow and shovels in the back of
00:50:04that box truck.
00:50:05As night closed in, Tim left his parents' house for about an hour, but his phone stayed.
00:50:12Detectives had a theory.
00:50:14Tim's going to get rid of Jay Lee, disposing of his body.
00:50:17Yes.
00:50:18But it was just a theory.
00:50:21You have to prove that there's a murder.
00:50:23Afram Sellers is a Harrington family friend.
00:50:25He's also a criminal defense attorney.
00:50:28How are you going to convict this man of murder, and you don't know a manner or cause of death?
00:50:33Or even that he's dead.
00:50:34Or even that he's dead.
00:50:36Police had searched Tim's apartment, his car, and the box truck, but didn't find any incriminating evidence.
00:50:43You know that Jay Lee was at the apartment, but there's nothing that supports a violent act or a murder.
00:50:48It was just speculation.
00:50:49So you're saying even with the best set of circumstantial evidence, without any sort of physical evidence, it's just a
00:50:56theory?
00:50:56That's the argument, yes.
00:50:58Another argument, he says, murder was totally out of character for this young man.
00:51:03For his family, it was impossible to imagine.
00:51:07How did his parents respond to this?
00:51:09This belief in that he's being charged, this belief in that he could be involved in something like this, that's
00:51:14a natural part of their response.
00:51:15It's to be in shock, to be angry, to be fearful.
00:51:19And they were all of those things?
00:51:20They were all those things.
00:51:21But they were also very prayerful.
00:51:22Anything you'd like to say, Mr. Harrington?
00:51:24Some of their prayers were answered.
00:51:26About a month after Tim was arrested, as Tim's lawyers prepared to argue for his release at a bond hearing,
00:51:32his supporters came out in droves.
00:51:36These are people from church, from the community, people he knew growing up?
00:51:40Yeah, well, I think it was natural for them to give that support.
00:51:42Because what he had put out in the community, he was getting back because the people are supporting someone that
00:51:49they just couldn't imagine being involved or charged with murder.
00:51:52He had received over 70 letters from the Grenada Sheriff and other law enforcement officers in his church community, basically
00:52:01campaigning for him to get out before they had ever heard the evidence or knew what was going on, based
00:52:07on Tim Harrington being a good boy.
00:52:09It upset us. It enraged us.
00:52:13We quickly organized to make sure that if Tim Harrington was being accused of doing something to Jay, that he
00:52:18wouldn't get bond.
00:52:20That movement, Justice for Jay, started on social media and quickly grew to much more.
00:52:27Jay Lee matters!
00:52:28Jay Lee matters!
00:52:30Justice for Jay Lee!
00:52:32At this point, these are physical gatherings now.
00:52:35Rallies, retabling, community projects, drives.
00:52:38To raise awareness.
00:52:39To raise awareness.
00:52:40Justice for Jay Lee!
00:52:42Justice for Jay Lee!
00:52:44Justice for Jay Lee!
00:52:46The bond hearing got underway.
00:52:48We weren't in the courtroom.
00:52:49We were actually on the lawn of the courthouse just crying as we were getting the information from Twitter.
00:52:57As they were releasing evidence in the courtroom and a new tweet would drop, we would read it and then
00:53:02take a moment to just cry.
00:53:04So this is the first time that you were learning the details of what prosecutors were saying happened.
00:53:10Yes.
00:53:11The details were heavy.
00:53:12I was confused. I was disgusted.
00:53:15The judge initially denied Tim's motion for release, but about four months later, after his lawyers filed a civil suit,
00:53:21the prosecution agreed to release him.
00:53:24Harrington was released from jail yesterday, just before 3 o'clock.
00:53:28And the judge let him out with an ankle monitor on a $250,000 bond.
00:53:33I was like, why did they let him go when they know that they got these things on him?
00:53:37It didn't seem fair or right.
00:53:38It was crazy and everyone's taking pictures of him.
00:53:40So you're seeing him around town. He was just walking free.
00:53:42Just walking free.
00:53:44All the while, Jay's father remained stoic.
00:53:48It bothered me a little to see him walk, but I knew it was a part of the process.
00:53:53And you had faith in the process?
00:53:54Yes.
00:53:56The investigation wasn't over and Jay's father, Jimmy, had faith in Chief McCutcheon.
00:54:01He was an honorable man.
00:54:02Did you trust that he was doing everything that he could?
00:54:05Absolutely.
00:54:05To find your son?
00:54:07Absolutely.
00:54:08He's a pastor, a man of faith.
00:54:09As are you.
00:54:11Would you all pray together?
00:54:14Call on that faith together?
00:54:15Oh, we did.
00:54:15He and I got so close that I could just be honest and say,
00:54:18Hey, I'm frustrated.
00:54:19I'm worried about this.
00:54:21And he would say, Hey, let's just pray.
00:54:23It felt like friends that came together that were on one mission together.
00:54:27Nine months after Jay Lee went missing, that mission entered a new phase.
00:54:32A grand jury indicted Tim Harrington on upgraded charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
00:54:39But as the case headed to trial, Jay's family and friends wondered if the evidence would be strong enough to
00:54:45convict.
00:54:46Is it almost like you're walking in with one hand tied behind your back?
00:54:49You're having to convince these people that someone is dead without even a body.
00:54:55That's a huge reasonable doubt right there.
00:55:11In December of 2024, two and a half years after Jay Lee disappeared, Tim Harrington went on trial for his
00:55:18murder.
00:55:19Jay's father, Jimmy, was ready for it, but he was nervous.
00:55:23Were you worried going in?
00:55:26I think I was a little.
00:55:28I even remember praying one night for the Lord to give me strength if it didn't come, if he was
00:55:35to walk.
00:55:36My name is Gwen Ago.
00:55:38Gwen Ago, D.A. Ben Creekmore's co-counsel, let off the prosecution's case.
00:55:43Did you have a concern that where we are in Mississippi, in the South, that it could make a jury
00:55:49less sympathetic to Jay?
00:55:51One hundred percent because of people's just sort of ignorance and lack of understanding that Jay is just like you
00:55:58or me, that he was just a college kid whose parents supported him like anyone else's kid and their parents.
00:56:04So Coop was Jay.
00:56:07He was vibrant.
00:56:10He walked in his own feet.
00:56:13If he wanted to wear heels, that thing, he was going to wear heels.
00:56:17But he was more than just that.
00:56:19You're going to hear, he's standing oriented.
00:56:21He loved his mother more than he makes hope for you.
00:56:26And that's why Ago called Jay's mother, Stephanie, to the stand.
00:56:30What did you want the jurors to take away from your words?
00:56:34I wanted them to see that I was a mother, that was for sure, that something had happened with my
00:56:41child, and that he was no longer here with us.
00:56:46Stephanie told the jury she knew something was wrong when she didn't get that birthday phone call.
00:56:52Jay would call me every year on my birthday to sing happy birthday, no matter what time it was.
00:56:58She also told the jury she had access to his credit card and bank accounts, and all activity stopped on
00:57:05July 8, 2022.
00:57:07As you were up there, what gave you strength?
00:57:11The support of my family.
00:57:14Looking out at my children and my husband, knowing that they were there.
00:57:20And who was it a picture of? I apologize.
00:57:22It's my son, Jaylee.
00:57:24This was his first day of his first job, when he first graduated high school.
00:57:29Her heart was broken.
00:57:30I've always said that I admire her strength to do it.
00:57:35The strength that God gave her to just get up there and do that, I saw her as a hero.
00:57:40I knew I had to do this for Jay.
00:57:43I had to be a voice for him.
00:57:46Next, the prosecution had to prove that Tim Harrington murdered Jay to protect his own reputation.
00:57:53Jay's friend, Khalid Fiers, told the jury how he warned Jay not to hook up with a guy who was
00:57:59on the down low.
00:58:00I said they will kill you before their dirty little secret gets exposed.
00:58:04And that, prosecutors said, was precisely why Tim killed Jay.
00:58:09Detective Ryan Baker told the jury about another message Jay sent Tim right after he left Tim's apartment in a
00:58:16huff.
00:58:17It was 4.36 a.m.
00:58:19Jaylee sent it to Timothy Harrington.
00:58:22He says, I just wanted to be able to say I had you be DL.
00:58:28Again, fun to have been the first guy.
00:58:31Experiment over.
00:58:33The prosecution argued Tim took that message as a threat, that Jay was going to out him.
00:58:39Chief McCutcheon said the motive came down to one word.
00:58:42I wanted to say.
00:58:45Say is a key word.
00:58:46Because that is a verbal, someone's going to hear that.
00:58:51To me, that was the trigger.
00:58:52That was that hinge moment of, that's the out.
00:58:55The prosecution argued Tim lured Jay back with a promise of sex and then murdered him.
00:59:02To show Tim's true intention, the prosecutor asked Detective Baker about a Google search he found on Tim's phone.
00:59:08One the detective told us was a critical piece of evidence.
00:59:13And this is what I found.
00:59:14How long does it take to strangle someone?
00:59:18This is something that he searched.
00:59:19Yes, five minutes before Jaylee got there.
00:59:22How crucial was that?
00:59:23Extremely crucial.
00:59:24It helped us come up with intent to kill.
00:59:26And if that wasn't incriminating enough, the prosecution had an ace in the hole.
00:59:32Prosecutors showed jurors that video of the jogger running away from the Molly Bar Trails apartment complex where Jay's car
00:59:39was found
00:59:40and later getting into a white car at a gas station.
00:59:43And then they heard from this man.
00:59:46My name is Keziah Carter.
00:59:48Keziah Carter told the jury he was driving the white car that morning.
00:59:52And he picked up the jogger because he knew him.
00:59:55It was Tim Harrington.
01:00:09The prosecutor showed jurors how Tim drove that box truck to his parents' house, loaded it with a wheelbarrow and
01:00:18shovel,
01:00:18then left his cell phone in his parents' home as he disappeared for almost an hour.
01:00:24And they showed the jury Tim's conversation with police at his apartment, where he lied repeatedly.
01:00:30And he was like, you know, I got you a deal, blah, blah, blah.
01:00:34I was like, cool, you know.
01:00:35We just chilled and talked.
01:00:37And he went back to his apartment.
01:00:39That was it.
01:00:40Yeah.
01:00:40Did you think he don't have a sexual relationship of any kind?
01:00:43Nah, no, sir.
01:00:44DA Ben Creekmore said that was the key to their case.
01:00:48Even though we didn't have a confession, sometimes I'd much prefer lies in an interview over a confession.
01:00:58He lied to his church, his family, his friends.
01:01:02He lied to Jay Lee and gave him over that time because he had a problem and he had to
01:01:06fix.
01:01:07Then he lied to the police about everything.
01:01:11In order to protect that lie, he had an interview with Jay Lee.
01:01:15And that's what he did.
01:01:16But the defense had some ammunition of its own.
01:01:20And it went right back to the prosecution's biggest problem.
01:01:23With no body, where was the proof of first-degree murder?
01:01:28Proof of any death whatsoever.
01:01:32Zero.
01:01:34DNA happening.
01:01:48The prosecution had presented a mountain of circumstantial evidence against Tim Harrington.
01:01:54Now, defense attorney Kevin Horan was about to tell the jury what evidence prosecutors did not have.
01:02:0022,000 documents we've had provided in the discovery.
01:02:04Seven law enforcement agencies.
01:02:0871 search warrants.
01:02:10And they had recovered not one bit of direct evidence.
01:02:18Horan launched his attack on the prosecution's case, telling the jury there was no evidence in Tim's apartment that he
01:02:25murdered Jay.
01:02:27He grilled Lieutenant Shane Fortner.
01:02:29I asked you if you could find any fiber or any trace evidence of any of those items ever having
01:02:38been in his apartment or left in his apartment.
01:02:41No fibers of any kind.
01:02:44No blood?
01:02:45No blood.
01:02:47No DNA?
01:02:49No DNA.
01:02:50Horan made sure the jury knew investigators hadn't found anything in that moving truck or on the wheelbarrow and shovel.
01:02:58You got a report.
01:02:59Zero evidence showing you that Mr. Lee's body was in that box truck, right?
01:03:10Mr. Lee went missing on July the 8th.
01:03:13We did not get the box truck until July 26th, I believe.
01:03:18Okay.
01:03:19But you didn't find any evidence.
01:03:22We also investigated whether or not the cleaning agents to scrub it down.
01:03:27It appeared visually that any of those things had occurred to the box truck, right?
01:03:32Nothing I'm aware of.
01:03:33No, sir.
01:03:35But there was one piece of evidence that was difficult to explain away.
01:03:39The Google search on Tim's phone.
01:03:42At 5.57 a.m., Mr. Harrington searches in Google.
01:03:50How long does it take to strangle someone?
01:03:54Horan asked Jay's friend Khalid fears about that, suggesting Tim was interested in choking because Jay was, as a sexual
01:04:02thrill.
01:04:02We pointed out that y'all had conversations about choking and things of that nature in that conversation.
01:04:10That's not sexual preference, though.
01:04:13Not sexual preference, but sexual conduct, sexual conversations about certain families.
01:04:18Okay.
01:04:19Horan had Khalid read from one of their text exchanges.
01:04:22He says, ooh, you like to choke and to be choked?
01:04:27And your response was?
01:04:29Heavy on it.
01:04:30I felt stripped naked that I was sharing my private, intimate conversations with my friend, with everybody.
01:04:37In fact, between the evidence and the testimony, the trial was full of sex talk.
01:04:43A bit of a shock for the religious crowd.
01:04:46So a lot of the stuff, I was just like, hmm, Lord, have mercy.
01:04:52Horan implied that Google search could have just been Tim researching a sex act he thought Jay wanted to try.
01:04:59Maybe, but what about that message Jay sent Tim that the prosecution said Tim perceived to be a threat?
01:05:07Horan cross-examined the Oxford police chief about that.
01:05:10Do you see anything in there that Jay Lee had threatened my client that he was going to quote-unquote
01:05:22out him at all?
01:05:24At 436, Jay Lee states, I just wanted to say, say, which is outing, that I had you on the
01:05:32DL again, which is the down low.
01:05:35Fun to have been your first guy experience.
01:05:37Jay Lee says, I wanted to say, he wanted to out him.
01:05:42But Horan told the jury Tim didn't worry about being outed.
01:05:46Even his deeply religious minister father said it would have been okay with him.
01:05:52As far as Timmy, I assume he treated him like a son or a child like he did all the
01:06:01other two.
01:06:01Sure.
01:06:02Did you accept him still as your son if he told him that he was bisexual?
01:06:06If he told him he was bisexual?
01:06:09Did you still accept him and love him like he did your other children?
01:06:11Sure.
01:06:12Okay.
01:06:13So was Tim really so afraid of being outed that he murdered Jay?
01:06:18According to the defense, that was a stretch.
01:06:21And once again, Horan said, police still had no proof that Jay was even dead.
01:06:27A painful reminder for the chief.
01:06:34We've been looking for Jay Lee's body for two years, and we're not going to stop until we find him.
01:06:41And I can guarantee you that.
01:06:44But they had not found him.
01:06:46And therefore, Horan told the jury the prosecution had not proven its case.
01:06:51Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to look at the firm of proof in this case.
01:06:59The firm of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt.
01:07:01The most reasonable verdict, and the one that's supported by the lack of evidence, is not guilty.
01:07:10The case was headed to the jury, and the court was in for a surprise.
01:07:16How did you find out what had happened?
01:07:19I'm sorry.
01:07:20It's okay.
01:07:21Holy cow.
01:07:37It seemed so simple to the people who loved Jay Lee.
01:07:42He was clearly dead, and Tim Harrington most certainly killed him.
01:07:47So as the case went to the jury, Jay's sister was counting on a quick verdict.
01:07:52And they go back, and they're deliberating.
01:07:54How are you feeling?
01:07:55I was feeling very confident.
01:07:57When I tell you my confidence was up the roof, I felt like I was Jay that day.
01:08:02But the jury had to weigh all the evidence, and the defense had argued there was no blood,
01:08:07no DNA or fibers, not even a body that linked Harrington to murder.
01:08:13After four hours, the jury sent a note to the judge.
01:08:16We have a note from the jury that says, we feel confident we are unable to reach a unanimous
01:08:22decision.
01:08:23They were deadlocked.
01:08:24He encouraged them to dig a little deeper.
01:08:26I'm going to send you back.
01:08:28I was like, okay, what in the world is going on?
01:08:32Like, why are y'all taking so long to just come to an agreement when it's there, it's clear?
01:08:38The prosecution and defense knew it could go either way.
01:08:42So as the jury deliberated, they were discussing a plea deal.
01:08:45The number one thing that any plea offer is going to require, tell us what you did with
01:08:54Jay Lee.
01:08:55We wanted Mr. Jimmy, we wanted Ms. Stephanie to be able to bury their son.
01:08:59They deserve that.
01:09:00But Harrington turned the deal down, and the jurors kept talking, to no avail.
01:09:05All right, ladies and gentlemen, the jury, I have received another note that says, we are
01:09:12unable to reach an agreement.
01:09:14I'm going to declare a mistrial.
01:09:16After a total of nine and a half hours of deliberations, a mistrial.
01:09:21Just sick, you know, just sick for the family, for your team, for justice.
01:09:29One of the things that bothered me worse than anything was to watch Timothy get up and arrogantly
01:09:37tell his folks, come on, let's go.
01:09:41The arrogance of it, you know, but I had to go through a lot of praying behind that.
01:09:48But it took a lot of prayer for you to stay calm.
01:09:50Yes.
01:09:50For you to not let that anger take over.
01:09:53Yes, it did.
01:09:53Yes, it did.
01:09:55In that moment, Chief McCutcheon wanted to be there for the man he now called his friend.
01:09:59And he took Jimmy's hand.
01:10:01He said, oh, it ain't over.
01:10:03So that, you know, that was the encouragement I really needed at that time.
01:10:09I'll never forget, we all left the courthouse.
01:10:13We go back to the district attorney's office, and it was, you know what?
01:10:18Tomorrow's a new day.
01:10:20Let's get back after it, and let's go find Jay, and let's bring this thing home for the
01:10:25Lee family.
01:10:27And then, seven weeks later, as prosecutors were preparing for a second trial, unbelievably,
01:10:33it happened.
01:10:34Right here in this patch of forgotten woods, about 20 miles from the home of Tim Harrington's
01:10:40parents.
01:10:42Jay Lee had been gone for about two and a half years when, on a cold February day, the property's
01:10:48owner happened upon what appeared to be remains, human remains.
01:10:53He called 911.
01:10:56I walked down the hill and make sure to watch where I walked to make sure I did stuff on
01:11:01any evidence.
01:11:02Carroll County Sheriff's investigators Jerry Bankston and Tucker Banks were among the
01:11:06first on the scene.
01:11:08I see what appears to be a human skull laying on the ground right over here.
01:11:13There were a few other bones.
01:11:15I believe there was a pelvis bone and an arm bone or another leg bone laying in close proximity
01:11:21to this tree also.
01:11:23Some of the remains were found wrapped in a blanket.
01:11:25It was laying here beside this stump.
01:11:30It had duct tape on the outside of it.
01:11:32I'm just picking up dirt basically like this and I'm just sifting it through my hands and
01:11:39a flashlight catches a glimpse of something shiny and I was able to see at that point that
01:11:45it was a piece of jewelry.
01:11:46It was a gold necklace and when Chief McCutcheon got the photo on his phone, he knew.
01:11:53As you're racing down to get here, what are you thinking?
01:11:58A lot.
01:11:59Is it real, you know, excitement that of all the sadness that everyone had been through,
01:12:04that there was this real possibility that we were going to get to make that phone call
01:12:08that we had promised that we were going to get to make?
01:12:10Talk to me about the moment when you called Jay's father.
01:12:14Oh man, yeah.
01:12:16So it was such a cool moment.
01:12:17I called him and I could tell he was in his truck.
01:12:20You could just hear the wind noise and I said, hey, are you by yourself?
01:12:24And he said, no, Stephanie's with me.
01:12:27He said, can you pull over?
01:12:29And I'm like, okay.
01:12:31When he said pull over, I was like, okay, something's going on.
01:12:35So we pulled over and he said, we found Jay.
01:12:39What was it like to hear that?
01:12:41Well, it was like the dream.
01:12:42I mean, I've always dreamed of.
01:12:44Take me to February, 2025.
01:12:47How did you find out what had happened?
01:12:49I'm sorry.
01:12:50It's okay.
01:12:53I didn't know what to expect.
01:12:54That just came up.
01:12:56Just thinking about that day.
01:12:58Holy cow.
01:13:02I can see it just impacts you still.
01:13:04I was very, very relieved.
01:13:06Yeah.
01:13:08And in my mind, I always felt that something was missing, even if we got a conviction, because we would
01:13:22never know where Jay Lee was.
01:13:25They'd finally fulfilled their promise.
01:13:28They brought Jay home.
01:13:30Chief McCutcheon had no doubt that it was Tim who got rid of Jay's body.
01:13:34What do you believe happened?
01:13:36That he just tossed here?
01:13:38When we got here and was kind of explained what was found initially, you have to believe he pulled up
01:13:44in the box truck, pops the top, and then just pitches him off into the woods.
01:13:48But could they prove it?
01:13:50They found a body that was, well, not a body.
01:13:56They found a skeleton.
01:13:57It got us the direct evidence that he was dead.
01:14:02Now, was he killed?
01:14:04That question still remained.
01:14:21Jay Lee was finally home, and it was time to say goodbye.
01:14:28Two weeks after Jay's remains were found, hundreds of people came to his funeral to bid him a tearful farewell.
01:14:37What stand out to you the most about that funeral?
01:14:41The gold casket.
01:14:42Hmm.
01:14:44I know Jay would have been, like, over-extounded.
01:14:50Like, oh, y'all got gold.
01:14:55It was a sense of closure.
01:14:57It was a sense of, okay, he came home.
01:15:02Hmm.
01:15:03Yeah.
01:15:03Jay came home.
01:15:05Yeah.
01:15:08But prosecutors still had work to do.
01:15:11I want to talk about the state that you found Jay Lee in.
01:15:15His body was decomposed.
01:15:18There was no DNA evidence to take from it.
01:15:22The hyoid bone, which typically indicates strangulation if it's broken, that was still intact.
01:15:29There were some things there that the defense could certainly poke holes in.
01:15:35Finding the body, did that yield as much evidence as you expected it would?
01:15:40Yeah.
01:15:41Yeah.
01:15:42Um, I'll tell you about that.
01:15:44Um, didn't really know.
01:15:46But when the crime lab reported back, investigators realized they did have something, and it was big.
01:15:53The prosecution knew it, and so did the defense.
01:15:57Yes, absolutely.
01:15:58And it was the tape that was found on that body.
01:16:00The duct tape?
01:16:01The duct tape, yes.
01:16:03And I walk out of here.
01:16:04Defense attorney, Abram Sellers, had taken over Tim Harrington's case.
01:16:08This is objectively a very damning piece of evidence.
01:16:11Yes.
01:16:12For your client.
01:16:12Very much so.
01:16:14Now, why would that be?
01:16:16Remember, investigators had found a roll of duct tape in Tim Harrington's apartment.
01:16:21They sent that tape and the duct tape from the body site to the FBI.
01:16:27And they were able to, I'm going to say, perfectly match the tear pattern from that roll of duct tape
01:16:34out of Tim's apartment to an end that was wrapped around Jay Lee's body.
01:16:40Match like puzzle pieces.
01:16:42Like a puzzle piece.
01:16:43Wow.
01:16:45Given this new evidence, the defense attorney decided it was time to talk to Tim Harrington and his family.
01:16:52I just walked it piece by piece from a standpoint of this is what they're about to try.
01:16:56So you're giving him a reality check at this point.
01:16:58Reality check.
01:16:59Suddenly, Tim Harrington was very interested in a plea deal.
01:17:03At this point, you all found Jay.
01:17:06And now he's asking for a plea deal.
01:17:08Were you thinking, you're a little too late?
01:17:11I was thinking in that sense.
01:17:13But more importantly, my thought was averted her from going through that.
01:17:21To spare Stephanie the pain of testifying at yet another trial, the family was leaning toward a deal.
01:17:28But prosecutors needed some convincing.
01:17:30More than anything, they wanted Tim Harrington to admit to what he did.
01:17:36I needed to know that he was going to say that he killed Jay Lee, that this wasn't an accident.
01:17:46Gwen Ago met with Harrington and his attorney, and that's when Harrington confessed to everything.
01:17:53He told me through a lot of tears that he had strangled him.
01:17:58Did he seem genuinely remorseful?
01:18:00To me, he did.
01:18:01And it wasn't just, you know, slow cry.
01:18:05It was a lot of tears and it was physical.
01:18:08You could see the physical reactions in his body.
01:18:10Did he give you details?
01:18:11What did he tell you?
01:18:12He confirmed that text message was a trigger for him.
01:18:15The down-low message?
01:18:16The down-low message, yeah.
01:18:18Harrington told Ago that he'd intended to bury Jay, but when he looked into his dead face, he panicked and
01:18:25dumped him.
01:18:26He said that he couldn't call the police because he just knew that he had killed somebody.
01:18:30And he just knew it was his fault.
01:18:33So on December 1st, 2025, just as jurors were being selected for trial number two, Tim Harrington pleaded guilty to
01:18:41second-degree murder and tampering with a body.
01:18:45At the sentencing hearing, Jay's father had a message for his son's killer.
01:18:49I hadn't said much in this entire trial, but with my broken heart, I'm standing God's love to you.
01:19:02I want to remind you of God's redemptive plan.
01:19:10The judge sentenced Harrington to 40 years in prison.
01:19:14He will be eligible for parole at the age of 58.
01:19:18That's still enough time to get out of prison and live a whole second life.
01:19:23Yeah, it is.
01:19:24Are you okay with that possibility?
01:19:27I am.
01:19:28We can't talk about God's grace and not be completely understanding of how it works.
01:19:35It's always been about the family.
01:19:36I mean, if they felt like it was justice, then it was justice for me.
01:19:40And once the Lees felt that that was justice, it gave me some relief and reprieve to know that they
01:19:48have that closure that they've been lacking for so long.
01:19:52And through closure, action.
01:19:55I'm asking for a bipartisan bill.
01:19:58Jay's family is now pushing for a federal law that would require tech companies to share user data with police
01:20:05and parents when someone under 21 goes missing.
01:20:08The Jay Lee Information Act.
01:20:11I'm hoping that this bill will allow law enforcement to reach out to any social media or communication giant, making
01:20:23it possible that they can get some leads much faster.
01:20:29Jay's family is determined to keep his story and his spirit alive.
01:20:34And that's what Taylor did as she led the Oxford Pride Parade, holding Jay's almost life-sized picture.
01:20:41For victims who are members of the LGBTQIA community, what do you hope this means for them?
01:20:46I hope this means that there is some type of hope out there.
01:20:50Keep fighting because justice is right around the corner.
01:20:53In an extraordinary statement at Tim Harrington's sentencing, the judge had something to say about that.
01:21:00The state of Mississippi does not have a good reputation in matters concerning this, quite frankly.
01:21:06I may say more than I should say.
01:21:09But when I heard that we'd been getting national publicity over Mr. Lee's death
01:21:19and the fact that he lived a lifestyle that was different from most people in Mississippi,
01:21:28I assume that a lot of people in this country thought that there will not be justice in this case.
01:21:38I want the world to know that Mississippi got it right this time.
01:21:43Mississippi did get it right this time.
01:21:46Because they didn't give up on Jay.
01:21:49They didn't stop fighting for Jay.
01:21:52And that's a beautiful moment that they did not give up.
01:22:00That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:22:02And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast,
01:22:05in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.
01:22:09Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
01:22:13We're off for the next three weeks as NBC brings you coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina.
01:22:20So we'll see you back here February 27th at 9, 8 central time.
01:22:25I'm Lester Holt.
01:22:26For all of us at NBC News, good night.
01:22:29New Mexico, good night.
01:22:31New Mexico, good night.
01:22:33New Mexico, good night.
01:22:35OK.
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