- 6 hours ago
The First 48 - Season 28 - Episode 08: Deadly Connection
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01This program documents actual homicide investigations.
00:05Criminal charges are often dropped or reduced, and all suspects shown are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
00:23What is the address for emergency?
00:27See the car in the apartment.
00:29Over there tell me exactly what happened.
00:31I am security.
00:32I just checked in that property,
00:35silent died laying down on the ground in the parking lot.
00:39The eyes rolled back, mouth open.
00:42I tried to get him to respond.
00:44He's not responding.
00:46I think he may be dead.
00:49Okay, we have him on the way over there.
00:52All right, thank you.
00:57Police at DMS respond to the apartment complex
01:01and find a man lying in the parking lot, shot dead.
01:14For homicide detectives, their chance of solving a murder is cut in half if they don't get a lead within
01:22the first 48 hours.
01:24—
01:24All right.
01:42Good morning.
01:45What's up?
01:46Security guard discovered the body laying in a parking space.
01:50She didn't have a pulse.
01:52OK.
01:53Maybe go take a look.
01:54All right, let's do that.
01:56Follow me.
02:07Both pockets are turned out.
02:09Both of them?
02:10Yeah.
02:12This guy's got no wallet or no phone on him,
02:14so we don't know who he is.
02:17Let's see if we can get him printed out here.
02:20The Tulsa Police Forensic Lab
02:22will try to identify the victim through his fingerprints.
02:25He was cold in his touch.
02:26The team believes the victim has been dead for several hours.
02:31Where's he shot?
02:33Right side.
02:35The other side?
02:35The victim suffered a single gunshot wound to the torso.
02:41That looks like a close contact gunshot wound.
02:47No casings?
02:48No.
02:51His hands are dirty.
02:53I mean, like, he's homeless and been scavenging.
02:56Is the bottom of his sock dirty also?
03:00So he's been running without his shoes?
03:03Or he's just homeless?
03:06Got one shoe down here.
03:09And we have another shoe.
03:13Those shoes go with his attire.
03:15There's several shoe print impressions into the mug.
03:20CSI finds some footprints a few feet from the victim's body.
03:24Right here.
03:26And then another matching shoe print design.
03:31You can see right here where they're kind of hanging out.
03:35And more behind some nearby bushes.
03:39Somebody's been standing there and been walking back and forth from around near the body.
03:45Wow.
03:45Yeah, for sure.
03:50Those are fresh.
03:53You mean as far as shoes?
03:54Yeah.
03:55I don't know, man.
03:56I'm not a shoe connoisseur.
04:02Man, I must be a shoe moron.
04:07You know, there's a hand print in the hood of the car.
04:10Like, he's coming back this way.
04:12Really?
04:13It's like a partial palm.
04:15Yeah.
04:18And it's a rifle.
04:19Yeah.
04:20It looks fresh.
04:21So we'll print that.
04:27Then...
04:27Here, let me holler at this young lady here.
04:29The apartment manager arrives.
04:32Hey, quick question.
04:33Yeah?
04:34You came out here and looked at this guy?
04:36Yeah.
04:36No.
04:36He doesn't look familiar to you whatsoever or...
04:39No.
04:40How long have you been the manager?
04:41Three years.
04:42Three years?
04:42And he is not a tenant.
04:46Do you have any cameras in your complex?
04:48No.
04:53Two hours in...
04:54How are you, sir?
04:55The team canvases the complex, hoping to find a witness.
04:59Did you hear anything?
05:00I didn't hear anything.
05:01You would have heard something.
05:02My dog with a bone.
05:05Did you hear anything?
05:07No.
05:07Any issues going on here?
05:08Complex, homeless people, burglaries?
05:11No.
05:12We don't make this.
05:13I've been here all night.
05:14I ain't heard nothing.
05:15Any problem apartments?
05:17No.
05:18That's why this is real crazy because it's so quiet around here.
05:24What are your thoughts?
05:26I think he might be just peeking in some cards and picked the wrong one.
05:29He's not really dressed as a burglar, though.
05:33But he's not got a backpack.
05:35He's not got tools.
05:36I mean, he's a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
05:43There's absolutely nothing other than a dead guy in a parking lot.
05:46That's all we actually have.
05:48We just need to figure out who he is.
05:50Once we figure out who he is, it'll probably come together.
06:04Brandon Watkins sent a picture.
06:07That may be our victim.
06:10The forensic lab has found a match for the victim's fingerprints in the police database.
06:16That looks good.
06:18Anthony Charles Welch.
06:2231-year-old Anthony Welch was born and raised in Tulsa and attended Broken Arrow High School.
06:29He was an avid soccer player and hoped to one day coach a team of his own.
06:35Anthony leaves behind his parents, brother, and a three-year-old daughter.
06:43We've got him identified.
06:44Our guy lives in pheasant rent apartments.
06:47So we're going to go out there and talk to management and see if they'll let us in.
06:50See where else this thing takes us, because right now we don't have diddly.
06:56While Brown heads to Anthony's apartment.
07:01Hey, Carol. This is Detective Ryden, Tulsa Police Department.
07:05Detectives Max Ryden and Mark Kennedy will notify Anthony's mother.
07:12It's in reference to your son.
07:13I need to talk to you face to face.
07:16We're going to come to you.
07:18Thank you, ma'am.
07:21We really don't have a clue at this point what the motive is.
07:26Lots of possibilities have been floating around, so we've got to get Mom to tell us about him.
07:32Maybe that will lead us on the right path on how to catch the guy who killed him.
07:50Hey, Carol.
07:52I'm Detective Kennedy. This is Detective Ryden. We're at Tulsa Police Homicide.
08:07We're very sorry.
08:08What happened?
08:09We responded to a shooting at 3200 South Hudson Department Center.
08:18And, uh, he was found outside, shot.
08:26Do we have a suspect?
08:28No.
08:29That's the reason we need to talk to you.
08:31Yes.
08:38Thank you, ma'am.
08:52Horrible.
08:53Mother was very upset when she heard that we were Tulsa Police Homicide.
08:57She put two and two together.
09:00The mom got on the phone with the baby's mama, and she was flipping the hell out.
09:04I can't imagine if she's involved.
09:08Oh, you and John.
09:09Yeah, I'll call him.
09:10Call John Brown.
09:14Mom says he is a drug dealer, and she said he Ubers a lot.
09:20According to Anthony's mother, he sold small amounts of weed to supplement his income.
09:26The phone should have been on him, and she said he works at First Watch.
09:31So, we can go to First Watch and deal with his coworkers.
09:34I like it, huh?
09:36While Ryden and Kennedy head out to the restaurant where Anthony worked as a waiter.
09:40Hi.
09:41Well, howdy, ma'am.
09:42Brown and Detective Ronnie Leatherman speak to the manager of Anthony's complex.
09:48Looking for a gentleman who were told that lived out here.
09:52Do you know Mr. Welch?
09:54Yes.
09:54He's dead.
09:56Aww.
09:58Can we take a look in his apartment?
10:00Absolutely.
10:16Have a look in a wee?
10:26Where is this customer listed at?
10:29There is names and numbers in it, but nothing that's just screaming at me that-
10:32You'll meet Tommy at such and such-hour.
10:39nothing that jumps out that says he wants to go meet somebody to sell a dope
10:48mark kennedy what's up
11:01we're in the apartment there's nothing that jumps out
11:04are you guys clearing there or something we probably will be in the next 10 to 15 minutes
11:09okay bye then the guy upstairs this guy had his car last night a neighbor approaches detectives
11:20and says he let anthony borrow his car last night here this little white cord here have a seat up
11:27front me i'm so scared this can't be real please tell me this is not real
11:50what do you think you know all i know is he told me last night he had to go run
11:54an errand
11:56can he borrow my car what time was this he needed to borrow your car oh probably about
12:0010 30 11 last night and he never came back
12:08i call up his work asking if anthony was there and his manager just straight told me i'm sorry to
12:14tell
12:14you but he was shot killed last night what kind of car you got it is a 2006 gray impala
12:22how well do you know anthony not very i mean mostly we just game or he's my neighbor that's about
12:27it
12:28it here's a question need you be honest with me okay you're by dope from no you know he sells
12:34dope
12:34i did not
12:38he got a girlfriend or anything you know he's got a baby and a ex i don't know the full
12:44story but
12:46as far as i know he's not a bad guy i wouldn't believe this would happen honestly i'm in shock
12:53he was
12:54a really nice guy to me so in order to get my car back how do i go about doing
13:01that we got to find it
13:03all right thank you okay
13:08michael zanoni brown calls detective michael zanoni back at the crime scene our guy was in a gray impala
13:16last night but don't know uh that car is out there zanoni will search the crime scene for the gray
13:24impala
13:24okay bye
13:28we have a car to at least look for now don't know if our suspects may have taken the car
13:33or if it's still
13:34there at the scene
13:40michael zanoni
13:44really yeah this is kind of strange it's like it's just parked i feel like you want to run to
13:49an
13:49apartment like it's just up here though you'll see thank you sir bye
13:56okay the gray impala is right here up front the car is parked 40 feet from where anthony was found
14:05dead
14:15yeah he's here making a delivery to somebody yeah this could have been a drug deal gone bad
14:21we need to search the car see if we can find his phone and find out who's over here to
14:25meet
14:35the next day a crime scene guy searched the impala that anthony was driving unfortunately did not
14:44locate a phone in it any new thoughts john bro my only a thought is dude unless he ran from
14:53where his
14:53car was parked to get away from these guys i mean why did he park there in that 77 parking
15:00spot yeah
15:04let's talk to anthony's ex-girlfriend they share a kid they keep in touch maybe she'll know why
15:08he was out there and what he was up to
15:13my name is techie brown brown reaches out to the mother of anthony's child hey can we meet with you
15:21okay okay thank you ma'am anthony's baby mama she's at home we're gonna go pay her a visit
15:32so we'll see what she's got to uh throw into the mix here and let's go from there
15:49how are you guys
16:04as the first 48 ticks away it turns out jamesha's baby mama she doesn't know a lot
16:13she was kind of shocked that anthony was murdered she had no idea who he may have been running with
16:20or who may have wanted to do harm to him i think their relationship just revolved around the child
16:28they had but nobody knows why he was there still so we're back to square two
16:4912 days go by without a new lead on the case
16:56then homicide brown brown gets a call from anthony's uncle i'm it's work and you say you are an
17:03it guy yes he says while cleaning out anthony's apartment he found the password to anthony's email
17:10account so anthony had a google account yes and i have access to that oh you're the man i want
17:18to see
17:18then can i meet with you definitely anything i can do to help i'll see you down here okay thank
17:26you sir
17:30an hour later anthony's uncle and aunt arrive okay
17:37this is corporal showman he is one of our it guys okay so you're in on the ground floor running
17:45and
17:45kind of have an idea of what was going on yeah i got into gmail i logged into his account
17:51he says he
17:52searched to anthony's inbox well all day before he was murdered there was uh back and forth with some
17:59girl and she's saying she's pregnant with this kid and threatening to out him about his baby to his baby's
18:07mama
18:21they're going back and forth and it's she's pregnant i can't tell if it's you know real
18:28i don't even know she has anything to do with her not it's just weird that she has a message
18:33since 12 something that morning six hours before anthony was found dead the messages between him and the
18:39girl suddenly stopped which is weird because they've been going on and on and it ended
18:47what else you're ever seeing when you're in there plenty of fish the one that came at one something in
18:53the morning five hours before he was found dead anthony got an email from the dating app plenty of fish
19:00so in his gmail he received a message from this person and there was a the badass latino the message
19:13was from a woman with the username the baddest latina we were able to get into that account
19:19they logged into anthony's plenty of fish account and there was nothing everything's gone
19:26there's no messages everything's been cleared out from that particular date or altogether altogether
19:33it's just weird that there was nothing and i looked through all the pictures
19:40she says they searched plenty of fish for the baddest latina but her profile no longer exists
19:50my thought grabbed you gone bad maybe and that's a possibility or you know or he could have been over
19:56there and somebody robbed him i know it's difficult time i would definitely appreciate you guys coming down
20:11the victim's uncle he was able to hack into his google stuff he found the chick according to them
20:19there was a lot of previous texting going on and then the day of anthony's death it just flat out
20:25stopped
20:26who knows maybe she didn't like him and maybe she had him set up to be killed and he was
20:32using plenty of
20:34fish anthony was gonna go meet up with a girl with this the baddest latina wow but not everything is
20:40deleted off of plenty of fish hell we've got stuff around yeah i need to type that word for plenty
20:47of
20:47fish brown will get a search warrant to try to recover anthony's plenty of fish account and we're
20:53gonna go see if we can find her the team will try to track down the girl anthony was arguing
20:59with
20:59hours before he was found dead it's a marathon not a sprint well we're jogging it z
21:11the next morning she's kind of curious about what we want to talk to her about the team finds the
21:17girl anthony was arguing with the girl anthony was arguing with over email and she agrees to meet
21:27the girl anthony was arguing with the girl anthony was arguing with the police department
21:34this is detective wright you know anthony welch yes how do you know anthony i mean i know with his
21:43friends
21:44you were kind of messing around with him weren't you yes when was the last time you talked to anthony
21:51the last time i met him like texted was like me
21:57what's the gist of that conversation i was mad at him because he did stuff behind my back
22:04he didn't tell me that he was talking to other people i had to find out myself
22:10and telling him you were pregnant well no i told him that i was gonna tell his baby mama that
22:16i was
22:16around his daughter you're mad at him and then no more text messages after that right no you know anthony's
22:26dead somebody shot and killed him so do you know anything about that not really
22:39you guys are definitely having a domestic you're not getting along that'd be a fair statement yeah
22:43did you have any of your friends go meet with anthony that night no i mean i know he went
22:51to go meet
22:51up with a girl he's gonna meet a girl yes i was logged into his pof and him and her
23:00were making plans
23:02she says on the night of the murder she logged into anthony's plenty of fish account and saw that he'd
23:07made plans to meet up with a girl did you remember where they're gonna go meet i don't know and
23:14then
23:14later that night it logged me out but when she tried to log in again a few hours later his
23:20account
23:21had been deleted you remember the name that she went by i don't i have a picture of her though
23:30on
23:30your phone she took a screenshot of the girl's plenty of fish profile photo he had a snapchat picture
23:37as a profile picture so is that her name that's her name on snapchat the photo shows the girl's snapchat
23:44profile name i do that yeah well i definitely appreciate you taking your time to talk to us
23:58she has gone from a possible suspect to probably the egg number one witness that we have
24:04she and anthony were seeing each other and i think she was kind of uh spying on him on his
24:10social media
24:10account last thing she knew was anthony was going to go meet up with a girl gave us a picture
24:16of this
24:16girl gave us a username see right there that is her snapchat id okay the team searches for the girl's
24:29profile name on snapchat and facebook right there that one that's her john her snapchat's on facebook
24:38they find the same snapchat photo on the girl's facebook account yeah this same picture's right
24:44there along with her real name this is the girl that was the last person that he was trying to
24:49hook up with
25:03that's for facebook this is the girl that he was trying to meet that night
25:08that's awesome good work z because he's the man
25:15crime analyst margot heen bell looks up the girl in the police database
25:21there it is she's 15 years old lists both her parents as incarcerated it looks like
25:31we believe that we have the person identified that he was going to meet
25:37he is talking to her on plenty of fish next morning his plenty of fish was deleted we've got
25:44the records back plenty of fish was unable to recover the deleted data from anthony's account
25:52so the plenty of fish stuff's a dead end before we bring her in for an interview we probably need
25:57to get a warrant for a facebook and see if there's any messages that might tie her to
26:02his murder that could take months for them to get that back to us anthony he was very outgoing very
26:18charismatic
26:20you always wish for your kids the best and you want everything for them
26:26and sometimes they travel a rougher road he was at the point where he was actually making a turn
26:35to get things on track
26:38it's hard because you want to see what he would have done
26:42more in a month and it's just frustrating
26:48not knowing not having any answers or you know just the why i mean there's not going to be an
26:55answer that's going to be good enough but i just don't understand
27:01i get upset i get angry for last night i was sitting in the parking lot where he was murdered
27:10till 10 o'clock
27:12last night wanting to know who killed my son
27:19it's so hard with this is you know with all the digging um researching trying to find any possible
27:27something at the end of it all you know we're just the end result that we want is is for
27:34him to
27:34to be back and we won't have that and it's just really hard we won't get what we want
27:44all we have left is caleb
27:48she reminds us of him yeah she has his smile and his personality that's all we have left
28:02three months after anthony was shot and killed i just got the lab results back from a palm print
28:09that uh i took off of a hood of a car came back to elijah rowe brown looks up elijah
28:17rowe in the police
28:18database that's him elijah who goes by the nickname mute mouth is 16 years old wait wait pull up that
28:29what picture that's from two weeks ago what the hell he's in custody two weeks ago elijah was
28:38arrested on unrelated charges and is currently being held at the tulsa county jail and they listed the
28:443200's and s's address according to his arrest report elijah lives at the apartment complex where anthony
28:51was murdered his unit's going to be in the building that anthony was found dead in front of
28:56this just gets better and better yes it does
29:02that's her facebook records just got those back yesterday
29:07the team searches the facebook records of the girl anthony was going to meet
29:11to see if she has any connection to elijah rowe
29:17what where is you here's a conversation she's having with mute mouth chilling
29:24discovers a facebook message between elijah and the girl on the night of the murder
29:32so 211 missed a call he's saying answer the phone
29:43he's saying be here i need you for real stop playing baby please you need to hit that l
29:51need to hit that lick boom he's talking about doing a robbery
30:07he's saying you weirded out on it and then what's up you see him like almost in real time planning
30:14the
30:15robbery and then her getting cold feet and leaving her and pof account is what's used to lure him there
30:23he lives there at those apartments so she sets it up and he finishes it that's her and me about
30:32correct
30:33if it was a robbery that went bad
30:39so say if you can put out a tip sheet to see if uniforms can find her
30:43okie dokie will do boom excellent please
30:46this one this girl is going to be the key because i think she ended up getting cold feet and
30:54bailing
30:55and then he just go ahead and pulls a lick so i think it's going to get her to roll
31:00and do the
31:00right thing and say okay this is what happened this is what i know
31:09the next day
31:25she ran but we got arrested so she's gonna come on down here and we'll see if she wants to
31:29give a
31:29statements john 20 minutes later
31:37i think we let her fill in the blanks as
31:40okay here's your opportunity to say i want to help myself or give us a big middle finger
31:48and you guys do whatever so we'll see what happens
31:57how are you this is detective shilling do you know why i want to talk to you yeah
32:07okay let me start with this question who's that
32:13what he locked up who is i know his name is elijah
32:17i used to talk to him well let's put elijah over here to the side because since i have that
32:27picture
32:28you probably sitting there thinking what else does he know right yeah that's there you go
32:32okay i'll tell you the truth okay i feel like i know what's going on okay let's go with it
32:40then
32:41you could have trying to force me to do this stuff force you to do what force me to go
32:45outside and
32:46he put a gun to my head and he was like you can uh whoever was in the car
32:53like basically telling me he gonna kill me if i don't do this
32:57and so when i went out there the dude handed me 20 dollars i was like so what am i
33:03supposed
33:03to do with this and he was like um i want you to top me up and i was like
33:07okay let me run back
33:08in the house and i was talk to him and see what's going on and so i ran upstairs looking
33:13for him
33:14she says when she walked into elijah's apartment he came in behind her he said he was outside in these
33:20bushes i was like he asked him for not for me and he only gave me 20 and i handed
33:27him the 20 i was
33:28like i'm not doing nothing for you for no 20 you need to go talk to him she says elijah
33:33went outside
33:34to speak to anthony i hurried up and like snuck out his back door now like i ran
33:41i still got the messages where he was like blowing me up from that night actually
33:45where was this guy's car parked at in front of his apartment she says anthony parked in
33:52front of elijah's apartment what did he say when he went out there to talk to the dude i don't
33:57know
33:57i was gone already did he tell you what he was going to say to the dude no well let
34:04me ask you this
34:05how did he find this dude he told me to send him some pictures so you sent elijah some pictures
34:14yeah what did mute mouth do with these pictures i don't know i guess he sent them to the dude
34:21or
34:21whatever i don't know there's a little bit more to it than that okay i have all your facebook records
34:34all your messages in your facebook would tell a completely different story than what you're trying
34:39to convince us of right now let me refresh your memory okay i'm on it i'm hitting mf's up right
34:46now i'm low key trying to hit this l real quick you tell elijah you're lining dudes up for an
34:53l what's
34:54an l a lick but now all of a sudden oh he's putting a gun in my head
35:13when he says he's got your facebook records he's got your facebook records okay yeah
35:20he made an account in my name to rob she admits that elijah used her photo to create a plenty
35:28of fish
35:29account and he asked me to help him get this money and i agreed to but i didn't really rob
35:39nobody i didn't
35:40shoot nobody you know they killed him right i left i left after he tried to force me to go
35:45out there and
35:46do that i left anything else you want to add
35:54hang tight
36:02she tried to minimize her involvement but ultimately she admitted that she said anthony up
36:06to get robbed so she's responsible for his death she's only 15 so she's going to get charged as a
36:13juvenile
36:16so it's the other guy here elijah roe here yeah the team takes elijah out of jail and brings him
36:24in for questioning
36:27how are you sir i am doing well this
36:34my name is mr roe you have an idea of why
36:42you're down here talking to us
36:47okay here i'll explain it to you city gardens apartment there's an incident that happened out
36:53there at that apartment complex does your mama still live there okay an individual shows up out there
37:02and he gets shot and he dies well there's been a lot of research and a lot of investigating
37:10things going on that leads us to you
37:16how does it lead you to me
37:20you know that gal
37:26how do you know how do you know her i used to talk to him
37:31so we've talked to her and also
37:36your friend tells us this crazy story about you and her at a social media app called plenty of fish
37:46you got a facebook account yeah under what name
37:52under mute mail
37:56let me ask you this were you home the 28th of may i don't know where you going with this
38:01because i
38:02don't know nothing about what you're talking about i've got evidence that puts you at a murder scene
38:08how's your evidence to anything well belongs to nobody else but you i either have dna or fingerprints
38:17how does that stuff end up in a murder scene
38:19i broke some cards like you got some fingerprints it's probably only some cards your facebook message
38:27shows that this was the two of you working in concert the two of you together that's why you're asking
38:35her where are you he's here where are you he's leaving what are you doing you out on me
38:45you know somebody it had my facebook page somebody hacked your facebook
38:50i didn't ask her why she didn't take me we did we did ask her that
39:01i remember doing that i didn't murder nobody she murdered me
39:08okay well i said if that's the story you want to stick to dude by all means stick to that
39:13story
39:14we're gonna do what we need to do hug it up
39:25i think the interview really hadn't helped us a lot it was just a lot of freaking white noise
39:33unfortunately we're still left with a lot of questions at the end of this that are
39:36probably going to remain unanswered we don't know why his shoes were off we don't know why the
39:41car was parked up at the front of the complex it could be that they were just moving it to
39:46make
39:46it farther away from the actual crime scene we never did find out why anthony was shot we just don't
39:52know
39:53the full story long story short anthony welch he got lured out there by a dating site and he bit
40:02uh showed up
40:05the unfortunate part is uh these individuals were up to no good and killed him
40:14this has been an exhausting few months i'm sure the family's happy that there's been an arrest
40:23this has been an arrest i'm glad to kind of put this on the bed
40:54this one i took
40:59five years after anthony was killed his daughter and her mother are still learning to cope with their
41:06loss
41:07sometimes i might have a dream about him when i wake up the next morning i start really wishing that
41:17he
41:17would be here the day that we found out she was supposed to go to her dad's house
41:23she was excited his mom called me and then she just broke down and and told me um that he
41:34was gone
41:35and then i broke down
41:38and everything else outside of that really felt like a blur
41:45but i think what helped her was when she went to the service she saw him because she had this
41:53big fear
41:53of like oh he's hurt he's hurt and so whenever she was able to see him that gave her peace
42:01uh play a tag
42:09i watch her struggle a lot we talked through some memories for her um because i do understand it
42:17at this point she's she's you know been here longer than she got to spend with him
42:25and that's hard for her you know trying to keep that memory alive that way she doesn't forget him
42:36so
42:39so
42:40so
42:51you
Comments