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Body in the Water Season 1 Episode 10
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
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Short filmTranscript
00:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:34Oyster Creek, in Fort Bend County, Texas.
00:42Named after the abundance of oyster shells once found on its banks,
00:46the slow-moving water meanders through the area,
00:50eventually joining up with the intercoastal waterway network,
00:54lacing the United States, until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.
01:05This particular area of Oyster Creek is really a lot more like a swamp.
01:10Very murky, dirty water, a lot of vegetation,
01:16and in the summertime can be extremely muggy.
01:27In the height of summer, police and water dive teams searched the creek
01:32in the hope of finding a missing person.
01:41It's a hot, hot July day in Richmond.
01:46It was over 100 degrees in that area.
01:59Creeks and other smaller bodies of water that are present in hot or very warm environments
02:06tend to also maintain that warm to hot temperature.
02:10And that is because they do have a smaller volume of water,
02:13which requires less energy from the sun to warm up.
02:17These bodies of water can get very hot and sometimes considered like bath water.
02:23Additionally, this creek was not known to have any current,
02:27meaning the water was very stagnant.
02:29The lack of movement with the heat of the water
02:32is a perfect environment for a lot of bacteria to form,
02:35speeding up the decomposition rate.
02:39As well as the time pressure,
02:42police scouring the creek faced very real dangers.
02:47Crime scene officers in a boat out on a creek.
02:50Then you've got another who's in the boat with a rifle in case an alligator comes along.
02:58Some of the main concerns the divers would have to deal with
03:01would be alligators or even other animals that could cause harm to the divers.
03:06Even turtles can become a threat to divers as they could bite if they ever felt threatened.
03:12Furthermore, creeks tend to be very hot water, high bacteria.
03:16So on top of police divers having to figure out how they're going to navigate these waters,
03:21they also have to be aware of their own safety.
03:26Despite the difficult conditions, police expanded their search.
03:36We called for a search team and did what we could
03:39to have the flow of water through there closed off.
03:44They have control gates that they were able to close down for us
03:49to at least slow the water down.
03:53Police navigating the creek were from two states.
03:56The local state police from Texas.
04:01But also a team of detectives from Raleigh, North Carolina.
04:05Over 1,200 miles away.
04:25Raleigh is a very nice area.
04:27I think now there's probably close to half a million people that live in Raleigh.
04:31The houses that are in this area,
04:33the apartment complexes that are in this area, are nice.
04:37Not a high crime area.
04:44I had come into work.
04:45I remember, I vividly remember,
04:48like, I had my list of things that I wanted to do.
04:51That I had, that I wanted to get done that day.
04:54And so when I come in at 3 o'clock and you're talking to the other squad,
04:59like, what's going on today?
05:01And they're telling us about this missing person case out of Kingston.
05:09The missing person was 27-year-old Laura Ackerson,
05:13the mother of two young boys and a busy local businesswoman.
05:18Police in Raleigh were contacted by her business partner,
05:21who hadn't seen Laura for five days.
05:34A person might go missing for a couple of different reasons.
05:37One, they run away or decide to leave the life that they have now.
05:40They want to get a better life.
05:44They commit suicide or die by suicide,
05:47and so people won't know what's happened to them.
05:49They've been in some kind of accident,
05:51and people don't know where they are.
05:53Or foul play has occurred.
05:59A lot of people have routines and schedules
06:02and things that they do on a regular basis,
06:05and the same was true of Laura Ackerson.
06:10She had a schedule of things that she did.
06:12She had a friend of Laura's and her business partner as well,
06:17Siobhan Mathis, had not spoken to Laura for five days.
06:23That was very unusual,
06:25because Siobhan and Laura would talk about every day.
06:28They had shared that Laura Ackerson
06:31had been in a relationship with Grant Hayes,
06:34and they had two small children together.
06:40The couple had met four years earlier in 2007
06:43and started dating around the time of Laura's birthday in April.
06:51Laura and Grant met at a bar.
06:54He was a musician.
06:55He was playing at this bar,
06:57and he was talking to her.
06:59They kind of hit it off.
07:00This is a relationship that developed very, very quickly.
07:05They shared the same birthday, April the 30th,
07:08which Laura, I think, saw as a sign
07:10that this was meant to be.
07:13Laura soon gave birth to their first child,
07:16but by the time she was due with their second,
07:19the relationship was under strain,
07:21with Grant pursuing his music career away from home.
07:26Grant Hayes moves to the Virgin Islands
07:29in an effort to kind of promote or boost his music career.
07:32He meets Amanda.
07:35For whatever reason, these two get together
07:37and decide to have a relationship.
07:40Laura had just given birth to their second son.
07:43She still wants Grant to be involved with the boys,
07:47but she is seeing the relationship is over.
07:51Once the couple separated,
07:53Grant went on to marry Amanda,
07:55and both set about pursuing their creative dreams.
07:59Amanda had a background in, you know, some B acting.
08:04She'd been to school for acting.
08:06She'd had some minor parts in The Sopranos
08:09and The Stepford Wives.
08:12Grant and Amanda had actually met in St. John.
08:15Grant had a little bit of a music career
08:17going down in St. John.
08:18I'm sure he wasn't making anything astronomical,
08:20but he had a kind of a gig going.
08:23But Amanda had actually inherited some money.
08:26Her husband before Grant had passed away
08:29in a boating accident of some kind.
08:31And so she had inherited money enough
08:33to kind of be able to live comfortably.
08:38Laura had moved on too,
08:41starting a business with her friend, Siobhan.
08:48Siobhan and Laura had this kind of brand new
08:51startup advertising business.
08:55A very smart business endeavor, I thought.
08:57She would create menus for restaurants
09:01and provide them at no cost to the restaurants,
09:04but on the menu themselves would have advertising space
09:08that other businesses would pay for
09:10to get advertising space on that menu.
09:13They were both working fairly hard,
09:16and so they would talk every day,
09:19multiple times a day.
09:21And the other thing was, she was a mother too.
09:25Everybody that we talked to all said the same thing,
09:28that her life centered around her kids.
09:33She shared custody with the father, who was Grant.
09:36She would pick up the kids on Friday,
09:38and then they would meet again on Sunday.
09:41to drop off the kids.
09:46It would be unusual to have a midweek visit,
09:48but we know July 13, 2011, which was a Wednesday.
09:52She calls a friend of hers, who lives in the Raleigh area,
09:55and basically the essence of the voicemail was,
09:59hey, I'm coming to Raleigh,
10:01I'm going to visit my boys,
10:04but I would like to meet up with you afterwards.
10:07I'll probably be leaving there at 7.
10:13The next thing we have is Laura disappears,
10:16drops off the map.
10:38In a murky creek in Texas,
10:40police teams and divers scour the water
10:43for missing mother of two, Laura Ackerson.
10:47Then, as the search widens,
10:49they make a shocking discovery.
10:53Not only has a body been recovered in Oyster Creek,
10:56but it's not just a body.
10:58We're talking about body parts.
11:00This was a big story.
11:02That first day,
11:04they were able to find part of a female torso
11:07and part of a leg.
11:12Investigators first located a torso.
11:14Both the divers and the investigators realized
11:17that they were looking for multiple body parts.
11:20This creates a whole new challenge for the dive team,
11:23especially when dealing with bodies of water
11:26that have a lot of debris.
11:29Creeks also tend to be in heavily wooded areas,
11:32resulting in a lot of vegetation,
11:35grassland, lily pads,
11:36and other forms of nature within the water.
11:41These were like monstrous lily pads,
11:44like that really were so thick on the water at this time
11:48that it was difficult to force them open
11:52just to go another foot.
11:54Lily pads have very complex stems and root systems
11:58that travel throughout the water into the bottom.
12:01This makes it very difficult
12:03for any person walking in that area to navigate through.
12:08Additionally,
12:09as you are trying to move those stems out of the way
12:12to search for any of your items of evidence,
12:14they do not stay in that spot.
12:16They will immediately come back to their natural position,
12:19making it hard to know what areas you've already searched
12:22and what areas have not been searched.
12:25Additionally,
12:26divers can easily become entangled in this,
12:29even with minimal equipment.
12:40Once dismemberment occurs,
12:42the body parts you have could be from one or several individuals,
12:47and we may not ever recover all of the parts of any one individual,
12:53and that certainly complicates things.
12:55If somebody is looking to dispose of a body,
12:59then dismemberment and then scattering the body parts
13:03in various locations would provide a unique challenge
13:05for law enforcement and other investigative agencies.
13:10I've got several cases in my career
13:12that kind of stand out to me.
13:14Usually one's involving a death of some kind.
13:16But this one stands out
13:19just because of the sort of gruesome nature
13:21of the dismemberment, gruesome and sad.
13:38The father of Laura's two children, Grant,
13:40he lived in Raleigh.
13:41He was married to Amanda Hayes.
13:45He also had an infant daughter with Amanda
13:47that was born just about a month before this happened.
13:53Laura had traveled to Grant and Amanda's
13:55to see her voice,
13:58and that was the last time she was seen.
14:01Police had spoken to Laura's ex-partner,
14:04looking for information on her whereabouts.
14:08Grant says, yeah, he didn't...
14:09She didn't show up.
14:10I don't know what's going on.
14:18The day Laura was reported missing,
14:21detectives began preliminary investigations.
14:24She had not been seen for five days.
14:28You want to do all those sorts of things
14:29to see if her credit card's been used,
14:32we're getting cell phone records, that sort of thing.
14:34And we actually were able to get some of that stuff
14:36back fairly quickly.
14:38We'd broadcast the description of Laura's car,
14:42and within just a few hours,
14:44roughly around 11 o'clock that night,
14:46our patrol guys had located that car.
14:51Based on the location of where they found that car,
14:54that's really what did it for us.
14:58As the Crowfly straight line
15:00was about 400 yards away
15:02from Grant and Amanda's apartment complex.
15:06One of the other things that we did pretty quickly
15:09was we went ahead and worked on getting the phone records
15:13for Laura, for Grant, and for Amanda.
15:19As far as talking to Grant and Amanda,
15:21we didn't try to do that too quickly.
15:24We wanted to try to get a good idea
15:26before we tried to talk to them,
15:28you know, what's going on.
15:31So we were able to get their phone records
15:33and see that they were not in North Carolina.
15:36And at the time of that,
15:37when we initially got involved,
15:39they were actually in Texas.
15:43Police also started to build a picture
15:45of the relationship Laura had
15:47with her ex-partner, Grant.
15:51They were involved in a,
15:54it sounds like a pretty hotly contested
15:56child custody suit there in Raleigh.
16:02Being a mother to those two boys was her life.
16:06While she had had maybe some difficulties in the past,
16:10having sort of a stable home and a stable income,
16:12it was obvious to me that she had made
16:14a lot of attempts to try to get her life together,
16:17to get her finances together,
16:19to get a career going.
16:20And all of that was in pursuit
16:22of changing custody orders to get her boys.
16:25Things are moving forward,
16:26and she is planning to file for at least joint,
16:31if not full custody of her boys.
16:34And she's turned her life around.
16:35She's now independent.
16:37She's now making money.
16:39And her attorney is telling her,
16:41things are looking your way.
16:44And what police learned from Laura's business partner,
16:47Siobhan, and her friend Heidi,
16:49gave them serious concerns.
16:53From Siobhan, we hear about this custody battle
16:57that's going on with Grant.
16:59But it was really Laura's friend, Heidi Schumacher,
17:03that was able to give us more information
17:05about this custody battle.
17:07We're just doing it really as,
17:09from a victimology standpoint, right?
17:11Trying to find out more about who Laura was
17:13and that sort of thing.
17:14But Heidi was dead set on,
17:16I think Grant had something to do with this.
17:20Her reasons were that Laura had kind of said,
17:24if anything ever happens to me, look at Grant.
17:32Worried, police got a warrant
17:34to search Amanda and Grant's apartment.
17:39We're heading over to 4021 Bellum Park Trail.
17:42We knew from their phone records
17:44that it looked like they were in Texas,
17:46but we didn't know what was inside the apartment.
17:48I'm thinking about the first time
17:52that we went into this apartment,
17:55not really knowing what to expect
17:57when we opened the door.
18:06This is the apartment where Grant and Amanda lived,
18:10so right here on this side.
18:13When we first walked in,
18:15we get that strong odor of bleach,
18:16and we see the large bleach stain there
18:19on the carpet.
18:22Not just like, you know,
18:23I spilled a little bit of bleach,
18:24but a large bleach stain,
18:26the overwhelming odor of bleach.
18:28A home that was a little bit in disarray
18:31and not, you know, pristinely clean,
18:33but then having a hallway bathroom
18:35that I think a detective described
18:37you could eat off of any surface in there.
18:40It was so clean.
18:41What also stuck out is this was a bathroom
18:44that traditionally was used by the boys as a bathroom,
18:47one that had a shower curtain,
18:49one that had mats on the floor,
18:50but now when we go in,
18:52no shower curtain,
18:53no mats,
18:54every surface clean.
18:57And then once, you know,
18:58we continue to search,
19:00the next thing that we see
19:01is this note that's up on the kitchen counter,
19:04which talks about,
19:05in exchange for $25,000,
19:08Laura was going to drop
19:09the pending child custody litigation.
19:13I think that anybody who knew Laura
19:15would know that she would never agree to that.
19:19And if her signature was on that document,
19:21it was under duress that she signed that.
19:24It was another thing that I think
19:26that raised a huge red flag
19:28in terms of her disappearance.
19:34We're still kind of trying to figure out
19:36what's going on,
19:37and, you know,
19:38is this truly a missing person
19:39or is there more to it?
19:41Amanda had been married
19:43three previous times before Grant,
19:45and she had a daughter from,
19:48I believe, her first marriage,
19:49and that daughter's name was Shay.
19:53We have an interview with Shay,
19:55because we know at this point
19:57that Grant and Amanda are in Texas.
20:00They're not easily going to be interviewed,
20:02and we didn't really feel like
20:04it was the right time
20:05to yet approach them to interview them,
20:07but we go to Shay.
20:10Shay doesn't know anything about this trip
20:12until at some point she calls her mother,
20:15and her mom says,
20:18yeah, we're heading down to Texas
20:19to go see Aunt Karen,
20:22and Karen Barry is Amanda's sister.
20:31Shay's kind of taken by surprise
20:34with that comment
20:35because she didn't know anything
20:36about them going to Texas,
20:37and that was strange
20:38because Shay and Amanda were very close.
20:41They were, you know,
20:43they were mother and daughter,
20:44but they were, you know,
20:46almost more like sisters.
20:49For Shay not to know anything
20:50about this trip down to Texas,
20:52she thought that was a little odd, too.
20:56There was still no trace of Laura,
20:58so detectives from Raleigh
21:00flew from North Carolina to Texas.
21:05So now we have those two separate parts
21:08of the investigation going on
21:10because of the multiple states
21:12and different things going on.
21:14She's missing under suspicious circumstances,
21:18and there's some connection to Texas,
21:21and we felt like the best way
21:24to figure out what happened
21:26is to go there.
21:49Detectives from North Carolina
21:50are in Texas
21:51investigating the disappearance
21:53of mother of three
21:55Laura Ackerson.
21:57She was reported
21:58as failing to arrive
21:59at a meeting
22:00with her ex-husband, Grant,
22:02and his new wife, Amanda.
22:05The trail has led
22:06North Carolina police
22:09to the rural community
22:11of Oyster Creek, Texas,
22:14where the pair visited
22:16Amanda's sister, Karen,
22:18in the days after
22:19Laura's disappearance.
22:22It was an unannounced,
22:24wasn't a pre-planned trip at all,
22:26which was another concern
22:28to us as investigators.
22:31They had inferred to her
22:34that this trip
22:35was an impromptu trip
22:37to bring a family heirloom,
22:39a cabinet,
22:40to Karen Berry,
22:41which had not even been discussed before,
22:44not anything that Karen
22:46had apparently expressed interest
22:48in having.
22:49But that was kind of the story
22:51of why they needed this U-Haul,
22:53was to bring this piece
22:54of unwanted furniture
22:55all the way from Raleigh
22:57to Richmond, Texas.
23:00Detectives told Karen
23:02they had grave concerns
23:03about Laura Ackerson.
23:07When they asked
23:10about her sister's
23:11and Grant Hayes' visit,
23:13she said,
23:14yes, I'll talk to you.
23:14Do you mind if we pray first?
23:19So that was kind of,
23:20okay, there's information
23:22that she has great concerns about
23:24she's about to share,
23:26and she did.
23:28So when Grant and Amanda
23:29first got to Karen's home,
23:32they had conversations,
23:33and there was a lot of
23:35kind of weird questions
23:36that Grant and Amanda
23:37were asking them.
23:40Is there somewhere
23:41we could just dig a big hole?
23:43They asked if wild hogs
23:46would eat humans,
23:48because there was a hog pen
23:49on Karen's property.
23:52He asked her about sharks
23:54being across the street.
23:55Well, we're 90 miles
23:56from the coast.
23:57There's no freshwater
23:58creek sharks here, no.
24:01They had a faux well
24:02out front,
24:03a decorative well.
24:04They'd asked about that.
24:06And then they asked
24:07about her septic system.
24:08And then he asked
24:10about how prolific
24:11alligators were
24:12and what they could do.
24:14All right,
24:14the alligators
24:15are prevalent here,
24:17and they're across
24:18the street
24:19from the very home
24:20in that creek.
24:23Then,
24:23Amanda had made
24:25an alarming confession
24:26to her sister,
24:27Karen.
24:29Amanda said to her,
24:31I need to,
24:31you know,
24:31we need to talk.
24:32Can we step outside?
24:34Karen and Amanda
24:35step outside.
24:36Amanda says to her,
24:38I hurt Laura.
24:39I hurt her bad.
24:45Karen gave us
24:46a lot of information,
24:47but it took
24:48a little bit of time.
24:50Basically,
24:51what we're asking her
24:52to do is
24:54to rat on your sister.
24:57Karen was relieved,
25:00relieved that
25:01someone came
25:02and knocked on her door
25:03because she'd been
25:03so worried
25:05about the situation.
25:10Grant and Amanda
25:11had taken this
25:12late night boat trip
25:14and asked Karen,
25:16hey,
25:16can you watch the kids
25:17while we're,
25:18you know,
25:19go out on this
25:20late night boat ride?
25:23As we're asking
25:24and saying,
25:25well,
25:25what do you think
25:26happened to Laura
25:26and where do you
25:27think she is?
25:28And she essentially
25:29told them,
25:30well,
25:30you may want to
25:30check the creek
25:31over there.
25:33I contacted
25:34the dive team
25:35for the Houston
25:36Police Department
25:37and they came out
25:38the following day.
25:46You got to think
25:47it's middle of summer
25:48in Texas,
25:49not the best conditions
25:52to search a creek
25:53in this legitimately
25:56alligator-infested creek.
26:00Working in blistering heat,
26:03a combination of dive teams
26:04and police
26:05and small boats
26:05pushed through
26:06the overgrown creek.
26:09Armed officers
26:10watched over them,
26:11ready to shoot
26:12any alligators
26:13who approached the divers.
26:15It wasn't just
26:16open water.
26:17It was vegetation
26:19across the creek.
26:21So you're kind of
26:22weeding through
26:22the vegetation
26:23and stuff.
26:27In an ideal scenario,
26:29the divers would have
26:30preferred to dive the creek
26:31using their hands
26:32to feel through the debris
26:34and find any pieces
26:35of evidence.
26:36That proved pretty much
26:38impossible in this case,
26:39which caused the divers
26:40to decide to walk through
26:42and search
26:43using other methods.
26:46In some cases,
26:47feet can be just
26:48as beneficial of a tool
26:49as hands
26:50when searching for evidence.
26:52There have been cases
26:53where the water
26:54has been very complex
26:55to search in
26:56and has required me
26:57to use sweet patterns
26:58with my feet
26:59rather than my hands
27:00to conduct a search.
27:02Anytime I felt something
27:03of interest with my feet,
27:05I would then submerge
27:06to pick up that item
27:07and see if it was
27:08of evidentiary value.
27:10When the divers
27:11change their tactics
27:12and start to search
27:13the lily beds,
27:14they soon find
27:15what they were looking for.
27:19There was a smell
27:21as you got closer
27:22and closer.
27:24Those are kind of
27:25the signs that
27:26probably getting ready
27:27to find something here.
27:30The first day,
27:31we recovered
27:32the remains of Laura,
27:34a portion of the remains,
27:35the upper torso
27:36and some lower extremities.
27:38It was confirmed
27:39that unfortunately,
27:40this is a homicide investigation.
27:49The second day
27:50was instrumental
27:51in that we recovered
27:52the head.
27:53And that allowed
27:55the investigation
27:56to move forward
27:58a lot more rapidly.
28:00Ultimately,
28:01I believe it was
28:02about 60%
28:03of the total body
28:05that they were able
28:06to find.
28:08While many people
28:09think the challenge
28:09is over
28:10as the police divers
28:11were able to recover remains,
28:13the challenge has,
28:14in fact,
28:14just transferred.
28:15At this point,
28:16the remains
28:17are very hard to read.
28:20The challenge
28:21now transfers
28:22from the divers
28:23to the pathologist,
28:24who has the responsibility
28:25of trying to determine
28:27a cause of death
28:28with very little evidence.
28:31If the skull
28:32is recovered,
28:33as was the case
28:34in Laura Akerson's death,
28:36you can proceed
28:37with a dental identification.
28:39You can also get DNA
28:41from the teeth themselves,
28:42from the roots,
28:43or even from the skull bone itself.
28:46In this particular case,
28:48they did postmortem
28:49and anemortem
28:50dental comparisons
28:51based on the circumstantial evidence
28:54that this was
28:55for Laura Akerson.
28:56and they managed
28:58to get a dental identification
28:59of the skull.
29:06We did not recover
29:08all of the body parts
29:09in this case.
29:09We've got two legs,
29:11two portions of torso,
29:12and head,
29:12but no hands or feet
29:14were ever discovered,
29:15and so it's quite possible
29:16that alligators
29:17did do some damage
29:19in this case.
29:21Next,
29:22detectives started
29:22to piece together
29:23how the suspects
29:24might have committed
29:25this shocking crime.
29:28They turned to the car
29:30and trailer
29:30that the suspects
29:31had driven to Texas
29:33and the items
29:34they brought with them.
29:37As we're going
29:37through these financials,
29:39we also see
29:40they had purchased
29:41some coolers.
29:43Grant cleaned out
29:44the coolers,
29:45but left the coolers
29:46there on Karen's property,
29:47so those were recovered
29:48by law enforcement.
29:49I mean, it was obvious
29:50they were, like, brand new.
29:51Some of them still
29:51had stickers on them.
29:53If you need coolers
29:54to make your cross-country trip,
29:56why would you not
29:56need your coolers
29:57to make your cross-country trip
29:58back home?
30:00We recovered the items
30:01that they used
30:02to clean the ice chest
30:03with that they concealed
30:04in a barn.
30:05Recovered a machete
30:07that they had left there
30:09and concealed near
30:10where they had hidden
30:12these rags
30:13and this cleaner.
30:17I can't imagine
30:18taking a normal trip
30:211,500 miles
30:22with a 3-year-old,
30:23a 2-year-old,
30:24and a 5- or 6-week-old,
30:26but to do so
30:27knowing you have
30:30the body parts
30:31of their mother
30:32cut up
30:32and coolers on ice
30:34in a trailer
30:35that you're dragging
30:36behind you
30:37the whole way.
30:45Forensic teams
30:46had also gathered evidence
30:48from the suspect's apartment
30:49back in North Carolina.
30:52Obviously,
30:52once we get
30:53into the home
30:54of Grant and Amanda,
30:55the huge things
30:56that stick out there,
30:57the manual
30:58for the reciprocating saw,
31:00that's huge.
31:01It's just sitting out
31:02in the open,
31:02not something
31:03that is hidden.
31:05We were able
31:06to sift through
31:07the trash
31:08and we found
31:09a couple gloves,
31:10rubber gloves
31:11that had blood on them
31:12and we tested
31:13those gloves
31:14and that blood
31:14came back to Laura.
31:18They left
31:19a physical trail
31:20and a digital trail.
31:21We recovered
31:22the receipt
31:22that they used
31:23at a hotel
31:23that they stopped
31:24at along the way.
31:25They left it
31:26there at Karen's home
31:27so we know
31:28where they stopped
31:29and stayed,
31:31including the video
31:32surveillance of them
31:34and at all the locations
31:35that they went to.
31:38The surveillance video
31:39from Walmart,
31:41seeing Grant Hayes
31:43at 2 o'clock
31:44in the morning
31:44after the last time
31:45Laura is seen,
31:47walking up and down
31:48the aisles of Walmart,
31:50picking out
31:51a reciprocating saw,
31:52but he's walking around
31:53almost like
31:55he's trying to pick
31:56what flavor cereal
31:57he's going to buy.
31:59We had Amanda
32:00at an ATM
32:01withdrawing cash.
32:02Right after that,
32:03Grant is using cash
32:04to make purchases
32:05at a nearby Home Depot
32:06for muriatic acid.
32:10Then Amanda
32:11is seen later
32:12dumping that muriatic acid.
32:15Fortman County
32:15is not a small county,
32:17but at that time
32:18we had one camera
32:21set up in the entire county
32:22in a location
32:23that had been a problem
32:25for illegal dumping
32:26and littering.
32:27And where that one camera
32:29is set up
32:30near Oyster Creek
32:31is exactly where
32:32Amanda Hayes drives.
32:33She drives by herself
32:35and dumps this muriatic acid.
32:38When they found the skull,
32:40there was some tissue on it,
32:45but the skull
32:46looked different
32:47than the rest
32:48of the body parts
32:49in that it looked like
32:52it had been melted.
32:53The forensic odontologist
32:55was able to confirm
32:57a likely exposure
32:59to muriatic acid
33:01or an acid
33:02because of etching
33:04that had taken place
33:05on portions of the skull.
33:09Hydrochloric acid
33:10is extremely caustic
33:12to tissue
33:13and can be caustic enough
33:15to dissolve tissue
33:17if the tissue
33:18is exposed
33:18for a prolonged period
33:20of time.
33:20Certainly,
33:22it denatures
33:23any DNA
33:24that it would come
33:25in contact with.
33:26Eventually,
33:27one could completely
33:28deflesh a body
33:30and be left
33:31with skeletal elements
33:32due to immersion
33:34in hydrochloric acid
33:36or dousing the body
33:38with hydrochloric acid.
33:40There was sort of
33:42a dark stain
33:43inside that hog pen
33:44that was consistent
33:45with the acid.
33:46The dumped acid
33:48did have some missing.
33:55with such strong evidence,
33:57police arrested
33:58both Grant Hayes
34:00and his new wife,
34:01Amanda.
34:03Grant and Amanda
34:04were staying
34:05at Grant's parents' house
34:07and we had
34:08some covert units
34:09that were
34:09kind of watching
34:11the house
34:13to make sure
34:14that Grant and Amanda
34:14were there.
34:16There were no issues
34:17as far as they tried
34:18to fight
34:19or they tried to run
34:20or anything like that.
34:21Pretty immediately,
34:22they both said,
34:24I'd like to talk
34:25to an attorney.
34:25I'm not going
34:26to say anything.
34:28I think when you have
34:29an offender
34:30who is incredibly calculated,
34:34not only in terms
34:35of planning a murder,
34:37particularly if somebody
34:37they once cared about,
34:39and then systematically
34:40goes about finding ways
34:42to destroy that person's body.
34:44This to me means
34:45that this perpetrator
34:47has such disdain
34:49for this person
34:49and truly is interested
34:51in just wiping
34:52this person
34:53from the face
34:53of the earth
34:54like Laura never existed.
34:57It certainly speaks
34:59to a lack of empathy,
35:01a lack of caring,
35:03a lack of,
35:03in some respects,
35:04emotions
35:05that most of us have.
35:08To dismember someone
35:10you don't know,
35:11it takes a different
35:11kind of person.
35:12To dismember someone
35:14that presumably
35:15you once loved
35:17and had a relationship
35:18with and who bore
35:20two children of yours
35:21is just hard to understand.
35:40Police in Texas
35:41have now confirmed
35:42that dismembered body parts
35:44found in an overgrown creek
35:46are those of missing mother,
35:48Laura Ackerson.
35:49Now they must gather evidence
35:52from this watery crime scene.
35:58In aquatic scenes,
35:59it's very important
36:00to collect not only
36:01the items of evidence,
36:02but the environment
36:03surrounding the evidence.
36:06such as the mud,
36:07soil, or water.
36:09These items can later be used
36:11to compare against
36:12other items of evidence
36:13to place someone
36:15at the scene.
36:16For example,
36:17if mud from the water
36:18was found on a suspect's shoes,
36:20they could compare
36:21the mud sample on the shoes
36:23to the mud sample
36:23on the water
36:24and place the two together.
36:27Using the information
36:29that has now been found
36:30in the case,
36:30it is clear that the water
36:31did not cause those remains
36:33to be skeletonized,
36:34but instead,
36:35the presence of muriatic acid
36:37placed onto the body
36:38or exposed to the body
36:39prior to the body
36:41being placed in the water.
36:50Police and prosecutors
36:51started building the case
36:53against their two suspects,
36:54Grant Hayes,
36:56Laura's ex-partner,
36:57and his new wife,
36:59Amanda.
37:00Grant and Amanda Hayes
37:03both had dreams,
37:04they had goals,
37:06and those included things
37:07like being a successful musician,
37:11being a successful actress,
37:14you know,
37:14in Amanda's case,
37:16and, you know,
37:17those type of people
37:19that kind of live
37:20with their head in the cloud
37:22sort of thing.
37:24We certainly see early on
37:27that Grant appeared
37:28to have some beliefs.
37:31We see him as somebody
37:32who's a musician,
37:33who thinks he's above,
37:35a menial job,
37:36who is very,
37:38very happy
37:39to let his significant other
37:41support him
37:42and carry all the weight.
37:46The police also uncovered
37:48a major factor
37:49in the ongoing
37:50child custody case.
37:53The turning point
37:54in this custody battle,
37:56though,
37:56is when the psychologist
37:58gave her report
37:59to the court,
38:00and she had some
38:01not-so-good things
38:02to say about Grant.
38:04In fact,
38:05I think she believed
38:06he had some kind
38:06of personality disorder.
38:09We can certainly say
38:10that this is somebody
38:12who was self-centered,
38:13who was violent,
38:15who was narcissistic
38:17in many respects,
38:18and we can certainly say
38:20that in many,
38:21many occasions
38:22he acted psychopathically.
38:26Things were starting
38:27to turn in Laura's favor.
38:29On top of that,
38:30you've got Amanda and Grant
38:31basically running out
38:32of money to be able
38:33to continue this custody battle.
38:35And in just a matter
38:36of weeks after
38:38the date of the murder
38:38was supposed to be
38:39a final hearing
38:40where it, you know,
38:42from all those involved
38:43seemed to think
38:44that Laura was probably
38:45going to be granted custody.
38:49Grant and Amanda
38:50wanted to go
38:51do something different,
38:52and I believe that Laura
38:54threw a monkey wrench
38:55into those plans for them.
38:58Everybody felt like
38:59this child custody arrangement
39:00was at minimum
39:03going to be
39:04a shared custody.
39:05That messed up
39:07the plans that they had,
39:08and because that
39:10tied them down
39:11to Raleigh.
39:15I think they
39:16lured her there.
39:18Grant and Amanda
39:19together
39:20physically did something
39:22to overcome Laura.
39:24Some sort of struggle
39:26or fight
39:27that took place,
39:28either knock Laura
39:29unconscious
39:30or maybe strangulation
39:32that killed her there,
39:33and then you're presented
39:34with the problem
39:35of now what do we do?
39:38Can you imagine?
39:39I mean, like,
39:40the physical act
39:41of using a reciprocating saw
39:44to cut off a limb,
39:46to cut off a hand,
39:47to cut a torso
39:49in half,
39:50to cut off a head.
39:52There's only one word
39:53that kind of comes to mind,
39:54and that is a monster.
40:00If Grant has ever
40:03loved Laura,
40:04which I wonder about,
40:07that had ceased long ago,
40:08and I think
40:09from the very beginning,
40:10it really was
40:11all about him.
40:13Everything was about him.
40:15The world revolved
40:16around him,
40:17and people
40:18would be plugged
40:19into his life
40:20to the extent
40:21that they served
40:22a purpose for him,
40:23and when they
40:24no longer did that,
40:25he was perfectly happy
40:26to remove that person
40:28from his life.
40:34Prosecutors now
40:35had to convince a jury
40:36that Grant
40:37and Amanda
40:38both had a part
40:40in murdering Laura.
40:41So, you know,
40:42there were two different trials,
40:44one for Grant
40:45and then one
40:45for Amanda later.
40:47Grant's trial was first,
40:49and, you know,
40:50again,
40:50there was so much evidence.
40:51It was a pretty long trial.
40:55In Grant's case,
40:56the nail in the coffin,
40:57if you will,
40:58was all the evidence
41:00and all the information
41:02surrounding the saw
41:04and the dismemberment.
41:06In the hands
41:07of a skilled
41:08forensic anthropologist,
41:09the tool marks
41:10that they identify
41:12on the skeletal remains
41:14can actually be tracked
41:16back to specific instruments.
41:19In Laura Ackerson's case,
41:21not only did the anthropologist
41:23track the tool marks
41:24to a specific tool
41:26that was used,
41:27but then further investigation
41:29found that the tool
41:31was purchased
41:32by her ex-husband.
41:36When you're able
41:36to show these
41:38side-by-side pictures
41:40and comparisons
41:41and the video from Walmart
41:43that shows Grant
41:44purchasing this exact type of saw
41:47and this exact type of blade,
41:48you know,
41:49right after Laura goes
41:51to their house
41:52and then disappears,
41:53that was pretty,
41:55pretty damning evidence.
41:58The other thing
41:59that kind of sticks out
42:00in my mind
42:01as far as his trial was,
42:03Grant had written a song,
42:04and it's about how
42:06Grant wants to kill his ex.
42:09So we played that song
42:11during the trial,
42:13and as the song is playing,
42:17you know,
42:18Grant's sitting
42:18at the defense table,
42:20and he starts kind of
42:23bobbing his head
42:23through the beat of the song.
42:25And for the jurors
42:28to sit and watch that
42:29and to see the person
42:31that he was,
42:33I believe that was
42:34really good evidence, too.
42:38Grant was convicted
42:39of first-degree murder,
42:40so here in North Carolina,
42:41that's kind of the highest
42:42charge that you can get,
42:44and for that,
42:45he got a life sentence
42:47in prison.
42:49A few months later,
42:51Amanda was convicted
42:52of second-degree murder,
42:53and for that,
42:54she got a sentence
42:55of 13 to 16 years.
42:58That was a little bit upsetting.
43:01But this wasn't
43:02the end of their bid
43:03to bring Amanda to justice.
43:07We packaged up
43:08all the information
43:09that we had learned
43:10and presented it
43:11to the district attorney's office.
43:13They were in agreement
43:15of pursuing charges
43:17for the disposal
43:18of Laura here,
43:19which is, you know,
43:20destruction of evidence
43:21with a human corpse,
43:22second-degree felony here.
43:25Amanda Hayes was brought
43:26before a court in Texas
43:28to stand a second trial.
43:37I was fully expecting
43:39a well-rehearsed actress.
43:42And I'd also seen her testimony
43:44in the North Carolina trial,
43:45and so I knew
43:46she was very well-rehearsed
43:48and poised in that trial.
43:51Amanda's defense was,
43:53I did all of this under duress.
43:54I did all of this
43:55under fear of some kind of injury
43:57or harm from Grant,
43:58and my issue always was,
44:00then why do I have you
44:02on game cam by yourself
44:04dumping some of the evidence?
44:06If you are so scared
44:07for your life
44:08of what this man may do to you
44:09if you don't help,
44:10you know,
44:10when you're at an ATM
44:11by yourself,
44:12if you are so scared
44:13about being involved in this
44:15and what Grant may do to you,
44:17ask to use a phone
44:18and call the police.
44:19Like, it just,
44:20none of it made sense
44:21that this was something
44:22that she was doing
44:23only under duress.
44:25What became important
44:27for the Texas case
44:28is that we're talking about
44:29two sets of gloves,
44:31two sets of goggles,
44:33two sets of masks.
44:34So if Amanda had nothing
44:35to do with this
44:36and didn't know
44:37what was happening at the time,
44:38why do we need
44:39two of everything?
44:42The jury agreed.
44:44Amanda Hayes
44:45was found guilty
44:46of destruction of evidence.
44:47In this case,
44:49the body of Laura Ackerson.
44:52Punishment ranged
44:53from two to 20 years
44:54in prison.
44:55And that's what she got,
44:5620 years in prison.
44:58And it was
44:59a consecutive sentence.
45:03She had to complete
45:04her sentence
45:05in North Carolina.
45:06Once that was completed,
45:08she's transported here
45:09to Texas
45:10to sit in prison here.
45:15It's been several years
45:16since this trial.
45:18Just the gruesome nature
45:20of it, first and foremost,
45:21is one that is a case
45:22I'll never forget.
45:23And I think probably
45:24a big part of it
45:25for me, too,
45:26is those two boys.
45:29Being two and three
45:31and no longer
45:33having a mom.
45:34Having a father
45:35who's going to be locked up
45:36for the rest of his life.
45:38A stepmother
45:38who is going to be locked up
45:41for a long time.
45:44Being a mother myself,
45:45I didn't want them
45:46to have to face
45:47a situation of Amanda
45:49being out of prison
45:50until they were adults
45:51to be able to cope
45:52with the whole situation.
45:55I think we accomplished
45:56that with this sentence
45:57here in Texas.
46:01Being back here,
46:03you know,
46:04it reminds me of,
46:06just kind of takes you back
46:07to when this case happened.
46:11I never knew Laura,
46:13but I felt like
46:13I did know her.
46:15And to look back
46:17at the apartment
46:17and think,
46:18that's where she took
46:19her last breath.
46:22I can't drive over this way,
46:24you know,
46:25or come over this way
46:26or come by here,
46:27obviously,
46:28without thinking about that.
46:33I don't know.
46:59I don't know.
47:00I don't know.
47:02I don't know.
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