Return to Transcripts main page
Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Bizarre Disappearance; Murder Investigation. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired August 30, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): Like a scene right out of a Hollywood horror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why does this happen in Fargo, North Dakota, of all places?
BANFIELD: The plot thickens. A pregnant mom whose baby was found upstairs but whose body was found downstream.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Savanna was the victim of a cruel and vicious act of depravity.
BANFIELD: Now her neighbors are in jumpsuits and chains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s still some unanswered questions.
BANFIELD: And complaining about their bail!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The state is asking for $2 million cash only.
BANFIELD: This as cops say they planned to skip town, and a newborn without a mom has to wait to see her dad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of this young lady.
BANFIELD: Beautiful and successful, a realtor mom goes missing in flood- ravaged Houston, but her family says it has nothing to do with the storm. Was she murdered as the hurricane ravaged that city? Or is she trapped and
in trouble and in need of a rescue?
A young mom on lunch break from work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senselessly murdered.
BANFIELD: Shot execution-style in her car at a quiet park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This really could have been anyone.
BANFIELD: The woman arrested didn`t even know her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no previous connection at all.
BANFIELD: But did these videos show a troubled woman about to snap?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Using -- it`s like accomplicing (ph) murder, using someone else to go murder somebody.
BANFIELD: And if so, why was Megan Dix (ph) the target?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need to acknowledge that I`m being offended.
BANFIELD: One by one, her babies kept dying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one could predict the behavior of this mother.
BANFIELD: First Niall (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our son`s not breathing!
BANFIELD: Then Gavin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) bluish right now.
BANFIELD: Then Noah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has confessed to placing a blanket over the faces of all three of her children.
BANFIELD: But if you think that admission is a slam dunk case, think again. It may just get tossed out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
Haisley Jo is a beautiful name. It is also the name of a newborn baby girl in Fargo rescued from an apartment last week as police were searching for
missing mom, who was 8 months pregnant. That mom never had a chance to say Haisley`s name because they found Savanna Greywind wrapped in a plastic bag
floating in the river after little Haisley had been rushed to the hospital. She will never meet her mother and she won`t truly belong to her family
until DNA proves what everybody already believes, that Haisley belongs to them.
She certainly doesn`t belong to the couple upstairs from whose apartment police saved Haisley. That couple today was clad in orange and bound by
cuffs and chains as they faced a judge on conspiracy to murder. And they will not be unlocked any time soon unless they can cough up $2 million in
bail, which was apparently a rather unreasonable request.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM HOEHN, ACCUSED: (INAUDIBLE) million dollar cash only is set at such a high level to be unattainable. I would request that we do something
along the lines of a -- you know, being able to use a bail bondsman, if that is a possibility. I don`t know that that would be a possibility to
me, but I know that $2 million is unattainable for any regular person. That`s not reasonable bail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Is that right, William Hoehn? Regular person? Reasonable bail? This from a guy that police say was making plans to leave town, this from a
guy who admitted, police say, to seeing his partner cleaning up blood in their bathroom before she just presented him with a newborn that she said
was their family. He may just need a small reminder of how serious the charges against both of them are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIRCH BURDICK, CASS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and false information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Jay Thomas is the host of "The Jay Thomas Show" on 970 WDAY. He joins me from Fargo, North Dakota. Jay, I nearly lost my lunch when I
heard a man who is accused of the heinous crimes that he`s accused of suggest something about it`s not a reasonable bail for a regular person.
What happened in court today?
[20:05:04]JAY THOMAS, "THE JAY THOMAS SHOW" (via telephone): Well, what happened in court today -- well, nothing happened in court today. This was
the other day. The whole area is just in shock, of course, over this heinous crime. But the fact that this guy is crying about his unreasonable
bail of $2 million? Give me a break. But let me tell you something right now, America. Hoehn and Crews -- they remain behind bars.
BANFIELD: Well, for now. I am guessing...
THOMAS: For now.
BANFIELD: ... yes, that they`re not going to be able to scrounge up the 2 millbos (ph) that they need in order to be sprung any time soon. I want to
play something from the chief of the Fargo Police Department, David Todd. Dave Todd -- you know, I think he just sheds a little light on, again, what
happened to Savanna Greywind and what this crime is really about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF DAVID TODD, FARGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: As law enforcement, through our investigative efforts, we will continue to pursue justice for Savanna.
Savanna was the victim of a cruel and vicious act of depravity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Jay, they`re only saying homicidal violence, but they are not saying -- and this is the biggest mystery that still remains. How did she
die? And how was that baby born apparently safe?
THOMAS: Right now, because it`s an ongoing investigation -- and I know Chief David Todd. This is a very respectable and it is a very thorough law
enforcement agency. And that information is not going to come out, I don`t think, any time soon, not until they know that they`ve got all their ducks
in a row -- they being law enforcement, prosecutors in this case.
I think when people find out -- this is my opinion -- what really happened, they are going to be absolutely shocked.
BANFIELD: So I want to just shift locations a little bit from where we`re looking at right now. That`s the apartment that was searched yet again,
police officers showing up at the apartment of William Hoehn and Brooke Crews, where they found that baby, rescued that baby, and ultimately, even
after having searched it three times, did not know that that baby had been in there.
Savanna -- we still don`t know where she was killed, where she gave birth, how she gave birth. But there is this very curious detail about a farm
miles and miles away, down the river, close to where her body was found. It`s an abandoned farmhouse, but there`s some information that came out
about the abandoned farmhouse and what was discovered by searchers inside. What was it, Jay?
THOMAS: Well, when searchers first -- from what we understand, what we`re hearing, when the searchers first entered that house -- and that was back
on Saturday, that was the day before Savanna was found in the river -- they apparently found some portions that were unusually clean. They also found
some unspecified items they appear to have been left there recently.
And again, because this place had been abandoned for many, many years, that drew some, Oh, wait a minute. What`s going on here? There was no dust on
these items. And that was discovered by searchers. When searchers looked into the abandoned property and saw that, they did the right thing. They
didn`t touch anything. The first thing they did was they called the authorities and stepped back and let the authorities come out.
BANFIELD: Yes, when there is -- you know, when something is clean of dust in a location that apparently has been unoccupied for 15 to 20 years, there
is definitely something amiss there. So we`ll be fascinated to find out when you discover that information. What did they find at that farm? Why
do they think it could be part of a crime scene?
The woman who`s been arrested along with William Hoehn, the fellow who seems to think $2 million is unreasonable for a guy of his ilk -- her name
is Brooke Crews. She has a sister, and her sister, not unsurprisingly, was astounded when she found out that Brooke was being -- you know, was being
broadcast with this mugshot as part of this crime and was, you know, a conspiracy -- apparently was an alleged conspirator in all of this with
William Hoehn.
She actually spoke about her sister, whom she has not had contact with in 10 years. But fascinatingly, fascinatingly, as far as the rumors of Brooke
having seven kids of her own, her sister did not even know how many kids this woman had, knew she might have had three or four, but other than that,
had no idea. Have a listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAWN DYER, BROOKE CREWS`S SISTER: Maybe my sister, you know, is, like, mentally gone. I`m not sure. I mean, maybe the train has left the
building, you know? I`m not sure. I hate to say it like that, but from the Brooke that I know then to the Brooke I know now, she`s -- I mean,
she`s literally just lost it. She is not -- she is not mentally there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:10:24]BANFIELD: You know, you have to realize that family members who discover things on television about long-lost family members can be
considered victims in their own right. This was a real shock to Dawn Dyer when she found out about this. And she talked a little bit about the
surreality of discovering on television and seeing that mugshot and realizing that she had that connection. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DYER: The Brooke that I`ve been listening to or things that I`ve been hearing about her, like, it just don`t seem like the Brooke that I knew
then. I don`t want people talking that about my sister (INAUDIBLE) but the crime that she committed was heinous. It`s just unbelievable, unreal.
It`s something you see on the ID (ph) channel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I want to bring in Dr. William Morrone. He`s the chief deputy medical examiner for Bay County, Michigan, joins me from Madison Heights,
Michigan.
So Dr. Morrone, there is this issue of the child. And this baby is now only, I think, about 10 -- 9 or 10 days old, depending on when Savanna
died. But the assumption is from the moment that this man admits to police -- William Hoehn admits to police he walked into his apartment and saw his
girlfriend, Brooke Crews, cleaning up blood in his bathroom and handing him a newborn, saying, This is our child, this is our family, the child is
probably somewhere around 10 days old.
Making the ID is a big deal here, Doctor, because the entire family of Savanna Greywind is waiting for the only thing that`s left of her. And
obviously, for that baby`s father, he wants his daughter home. Why so long to establish that familial connection, that DNA test? Why so long?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, CHIEF DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, BOY COUNTY, MI (via telephone): Oftentimes, when we have to match DNA, especially in a
newborn, you want to go back to the best source. Whether or not that newborn was a male or a female, it will have exactly the same mitochondrial
DNA as the mother, and the mother`s mother, the grandmother, will also have matching mitochondrial DNA.
And they have to take those samples, and the best way to explain, they have to chemically and biologically amplify them before they can present them
and match them. That`s why we need six or seven weeks. It has to be matched, but they have samples from the mother`s mother that should match
the grandchild.
BANFIELD: Yes. I know they`re doing a big rush job on this, then, because they think they`re going to have that DNA information out by early next
week or maybe end of next week. And I know this. Savanna`s grandma has not seen that baby but has seen photos.
And we have just learned -- breaking news in this story -- that the baby`s father, which is Savanna`s long-time, seven years, boyfriend, planning to
move in with Savanna in just a week -- they were only, I think, three weeks from delivery of their newborn girl, who they`d already chosen to name
Haisley Jo. We`re just learning that that father has actually seen the daughter -- well, if it`s his daughter. And we all believe it`s his
daughter, but scientifically, we`re waiting on that answer. But he has seen Haisley Jo. He also attended something called a shelter hearing
because that baby right now is in the custody of Cass County social services.
Dr. Morrone, that is a critical meeting. A baby at this ripe young age needs that kind of contact, needs familial contact, hopefully from a mom or
a dad.
MORRONE: If not, babies tend to have a developed stranger anxiety or separation disorders. And later on, that might prevent them from
progressing and walking at the right age or feeding appropriately.
But shelter security, a medical examination and proper food, especially after having been gone for eight, nine, ten days with the strangers --
that`s what the medical evaluation really needs.
BANFIELD: I want to bring in defense attorney Kisha Hebbon, who`s here with me live. I want to recount for you a story that a witness in all of
this has now told about something that happened a year ago. And I know I`m jumping way back, but this hit her like a ton of bricks when she saw the
mugshot of Brooke Crews on TV. She know that face. She`d seen that face a year ago.
Her name is Roxanne Cartwright (ph). She says she was at a restaurant and that a woman who sure looked a lot like Brooke Crews was fixated on her and
her baby, so much so that she motioned that she wanted to hold that baby and said these words, according to the woman, She`s exactly what I want.
[20:15:14]Roxanne Cartwright was so freaked out by this, she pretended to breastfeed just so that that woman would move on. She said, My hair stood
up. I knew right away it was her. It was the most bizarre situation I`ve ever been in.
There is nothing you can do about a crazy person...
KISHA HEBBON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right.
BANFIELD: ... who bothers you in a restaurant. And ultimately, if she is proven to have done this horrible thing, murdered Savanna, stolen that
baby, there`s nothing that Roxanne Cartwright could have done a year ago, is there.
HEBBON: Right. And the thing is, with people with mental disabilities like this defendant here, you can`t really catch them until they actually
succeed in their crime. And unfortunately, she was able to achieve what she wanted with this unfortunate victim.
And clearly, this woman has a mental problem because she says to her boyfriend as she`s cleaning up blood, This is our baby, this is our family,
knowing that she wasn`t pregnant.
BANFIELD: So that`d be -- I mean, listen, we`re still in the early offings (ph) of this story. William Hoehn and Brooke Crews are charged. They`re
facing conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and false information.
They are not guilty yet. They have their day in court. They have their rights, just like the rest of us, our constitutional rights. At this
point, they are not guilty. But if what they say is true, they`re in a hell of a lot of trouble.
I`m going to leave it there for now, but we`re not leaving this story. There are still so many questions about what happened to Savanna and how
was that baby born? How did they end up with that baby, yet Savanna was in the river? My thanks to all my guests. Jay Thomas, Dr. William Morrone,
thank you. And Kisha Hebbon, stay put, if you will.
A Texas mother vanishing, vanishing in the chaos of Hurricane Harvey. Her family says the floods, however, have nothing to do with this. And yet
they still have absolutely no clue where she is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:21:32]BANFIELD: Look, while this is a show about crime and justice, we just cannot avoid what`s happening in south Texas tonight. You`ve seen the
storm video from Harvey, families trying to escape fast-moving, high-rising water, also frantically trying to find their loved ones. Lives have been
destroyed. And in many cases, lives have been lost. Dozens of people are missing, if not because of the flooding, because of the gaps in
communication with all of the evacuations and the rescues and shelters.
And there is one strange story that also caught our eye, Crystal McDowell, because she somehow vanished. But she vanished hours before the storm even
hit. The 38-year-old mother of two last seen just outside of Houston in Chambers County, an area that has been badly damaged by the flooding since.
Crystal is a realtor, but nobody`s heard from her -- friends and co-workers and family. They all say it is bizarre they haven`t heard from her. It is
unusual not to hear from her. But here`s what they have found, Crystal`s car half under water, still no sign of Crystal. They also have a series of
text messages, messages that suddenly stopped.
Tonight, it is possible that her computer could hold the key to solving this mystery, but will it? Joining me now, Sheriff Brian Hawthorne and
Detective Donny Ray Walters (ph), both of the Chambers County sheriff`s office. Gentlemen, thanks so much for taking the time, especially at this
very difficult time, you know, in your state. Are we any closer, Sheriff, to getting a clue towards where Crystal McDowell is?
SHERIFF BRIAN HAWTHORNE, CHAMBERS CO., TEXAS (via telephone): Well, I don`t know as we`re getting any closer to determining where she is, but I
mean, we are definitely working on it. And I`m very proud of my team because, obviously, we`re both trying to work this missing person
investigation, and I have a handful of detectives that are working on it. At the same time, I`ve got detectives that are trying to salvage their own
families and their own belongings and then take care of another 40,000 people in this county that have been devastated by this Hurricane Harvey
flood.
BANFIELD: Sheriff, it is astounding that you are having to deal with this story because notwithstanding the immense amount of pressure that you and
your colleagues are under from unintentional natural causes, do we believe that what`s happened here is intentional? And I`ll direct that to
Detective Walters. Detective, do you think this is intentional, this disappearance has nothing to do with natural causes and everything to do
with someone`s intentions?
DET. DONNY RAY WALTERS, CHAMBERS COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): At this point, it`s really hard to say. We`re working a missing persons
case, and there`s at this time nothing else to lead us to believe any other -- otherwise.
BANFIELD: So as I understand it, you know, the car -- in any missing persons case, gentlemen, you know, you have a standard operating procedure,
and you work out of concentric circles. And a car -- discovering her car would be a wealth of information you might consider. But finding her car
like this, Sheriff, did it yield anything or was anything that was in there compromised?
HAWTHORNE: Well, here`s what I can tell you, Ashleigh, is that the team has their own suspicions, and so we`re working in lots of different
directions. Detective Walters (ph) and them (ph) have just about knocked on every door and talked to every person that they can and are getting some
pretty good ideas and some direction.
[20:25:16]But we have some different people that we`re going to still do some additional interviewing and talking to, but at this point in time, we
have not come up with any concrete evidence of a crime. Obviously, what we believe as police officers may not necessarily be exactly what we`re
finding as evidence right of a crime.
So our opinions -- we have to keep those to ourselves until we can put the substantial and substantiating evidence to go with it, before we can
determine whether it`s a crime or some other aspect of a missing person, like somebody that just does not want to be found.
BANFIELD: Well, I -- and I understand how you operate. I know that your gut is a critical tool in the job that you do. And when you say you have
your suspicions and that you`re going down those roads, we know -- and we know very little -- but we know that Crystal was staying with her boyfriend
and was on her way to her ex-husband`s house to meet up with her children.
And there is a timeline of, effectively, you know, the last we heard of Crystal. And correct me if I`m wrong, but it starts at about 7:00 o`clock
in the morning where she is leaving her boyfriend`s house -- and there are pictures of her leaving. They`re, you know, I guess, surveillance
pictures. I don`t know if you`ve been able to authenticate a timestamp on those pictures.
Do we have the pictures of Crystal leaving her boyfriend`s house? I`m going to ask our control room to pop -- there. You can`t see any timestamp
on the pictures we`re showing on television, gentlemen, but do you know that those pictures are accurate, that somewhere around 7:00 o`clock-ish in
the morning, she`s leaving her boyfriend`s house on August 25th, on Friday?
HAWTHORNE (?): Well, here`s the one thing I will tell you. You may have information that we don`t have, Ashleigh. So I would like to -- they tell
me that Jeff is on this call. So I`m curious to know what pictures you may have.
BANFIELD: I`ll bring him in. OK, I`m going to bring in Jeff.
HAWTHORNE (?): (INAUDIBLE) because we`re in a storm-devastated area at the time.
BANFIELD: Totally understand. And if we can help in any way, this would be -- you know, this would be Kismet. Jeff is Jeff Walters, and Jeff
Walters happens to be Crystal McDowell`s uncle, but really her father figure. She lost her parents at about age 11, and Jeff has really been her
father figure ever since. He joins me now live from Baytown (ph), Texas.
Jeff, can you help the detective and the sheriff on the line right now about the photos, leaving -- leaving...
JEFF WALTERS, CRYSTAL`S UNCLE (via telephone): I have sent this information to them. I`ve given them the names and the addresses of the
people.
BANFIELD: Are they...
J. WALTERS: It`s been since Saturday when I originally filed the complaint. I don`t understand why no one`s doing anything!
BANFIELD: Jeff, I understand the frustration and sort of the desperate feeling that you`ve got. This is...
J. WALTERS: I`ve called the sheriff`s department on their cell phones twice in the last hour-and-a-half, and I`ve received no call back. This is
continuous through this whole process.
BANFIELD: All right. I understand how you feel. I do want to say, Jeff, as we continue to try to get to the bottom of this, there is a natural
disaster that`s taking place, and all hands are on deck trying to save people and rescue people. This may be playing into it.
But just this critical information, the photographs we`re seeing of Crystal leaving her boyfriend`s apartment on Friday morning -- it`s sometime around
7:00 AM, but do you know if they`re timestamped? The versions we have are not. But do we know...
J. WALTERS: No, but the...
(CROSSTALK)
J. WALTERS: Why hasn`t the sheriff talked to that gentleman?
HAWTHORNE (?): So Ashleigh, if you don`t mind, I`d like to ask him. The only thing we`re showing is he sent some information to the detectives this
morning at 11:10 that we have.
And I think he does not realize the methodical aspect that we use when we investigate a crime of this nature or a missing person of this nature.
So...
(CROSSTALK)
HAWTHORNE: ... background to do on people before we actually go in and start interviewing.
J. WALTERS: It has been five days. And the ex-husband nor the boyfriend have been talked to directly except over the phone, I believe, except when
they went through the ex-husband`s house, they walked through it.
BANFIELD: So Jeff, I do have this question, Jeff Walters, as the uncle of Crystal -- again, it`s confusing. We have a lot of players. But really,
as her father figure, do you have a suspicion that someone...
J. WALTERS: Crystal is very methodic in everything she does. She messages me every morning and all throughout the day. She has totally -- she
answers every Facebook. You can look at her entire Facebook. She answers every client within minutes. All of it stopped Friday morning. And nothing
that we know of has happened. I mean --
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, PRIMETIME JUSTICE SHOW HOST: Jeff, let me get our viewers up to speed on Friday morning, because I think they`re missing a
critical piece of the picture that you all have, the detective, the sheriff and you, Jeff, you have. Let me go over Friday morning. Those pictures you
saw of her leaving her boyfriend`s home, five pictures in all. We`ve got about three of them.
They`re slightly blurry, but you can see her figure as she walks out of the home. Again, still to be determined whether they are effectively time-
stamped or authenticated time-stamp, but we do have a text message she sends to her ex-husband on Friday morning at 7:01 a.m. She says, on my way.
Do you have water? Looks like I may stay here with the kids. It seems just like rain.
That`s at 7:01. He answers right away, no water. But an hour later, he says, how much longer until you are here? Just pick them up from the PDP. I
can also get water from there. And then almost four hours later, he`s texting her, they finally delivered the dishwasher. I want to go back in
time to 17 minutes after she sent that text message to her ex-husband, Jeff, she text messaged you at 7:18 a.m.
And she texted you a photograph of a billboard as she was presumably driving by. She sees a billboard of her business, of her advertising her
business. That`s something that would be picture-worthy, something you would want to send. So she sends you at 7:18 that text message. She sends
her boyfriend at 7:25, just a few minutes after you got that photograph, she sent the same photograph to the boyfriend, and it says, no traffic
today.
I may end up taking them out if they want to go somewhere, presumably the kids, have an amazing day. And sends the picture of her on the billboard.
And you are so sweet, and she sends a heart. And the boyfriend messages back, I love you and I`ll always support you. And really small print
underneath that you can see that that text message was read.
But later at 1:00 in the afternoon, he sends a note saying, hey, just checking on you, please let me know if you need anything at all, miss you.
And then at 8:45 at night, I`m so worried about you. I hope you`re OK. I tried calling, but it went to voice mail. I have an iPhone for you, it
works. Please let me know something if you can. I love you.
Jeff, is there anything I`m missing in that timeline, and those text messages and those photographs. Is there any evidence, any information
especially since the detective and the sheriff are on the line that you can share with us that might fill in some gaps?
WALTERS (via telephone): No, other than she would not go without responding. She has never went without responding to anyone, and her car
was found. We found it. They did not find it. We found it. Through Snapchat and Facebook.
BANFIELD: I`m going to get to that. Her last message out was at 7:27 a.m., and that was to her boyfriend saying, you are so sweet with the heart.
Before I get to finding the car, Jeff, I still want to press you a little on whether you suspect someone. There are no suspects officially announced
in this case, not the ex-husband, not the boyfriend, but, Jeff, are you leaning somewhere? Do you feel --
WALTERS (via telephone): She did not walk away without contacting anyone and just disappear. I know she didn`t. I know her husband has threatened
her before and told her that she would never go out of their house, she would never leave them. Her ex-husband. And --
BANFIELD: Sheriff -- go ahead, Jeff.
WALTERS (via telephone): -- and I don`t understand why no one -- why will they not at least -- I mean, they insinuate things, but they never say
anything. And I don`t know, you know -- I don`t know.
BANFIELD: So, I will jump in here again only, Jeff, because the police work in very different ways than you and I would. And there is a science to it.
And, of course, again, there is this natural disaster going on in your community and everyone is taxed to the limit. At the same time, sheriff and
detective, it is -- these are fascinating developments and these are very intriguing pieces of evidence.
There is also the notion that Crystal`s uncle, Jeff, found her car through social media, discovered that it was flooded, and we have been told, we`ve
learned that two people were detained and questioned. Were these looters? Were these curious people? Were these people connected in any way to this
disappearance?
[20:35:00] BRIAN HAWTHORNE, SHERIFF, CHAMBERS COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): So Ashleigh -- and thank you for understanding that there is a
method to law enforcement and a way we investigate. So although I will tell you as the elected sheriff, I do not think that Jeffrey Walters is a
suspect, but when we investigate a potential missing person that we may think is a crime, I want my detectives to be very open-minded.
As the sheriff, I will tell you that I personally think that there is some wrongdoing in this. I think that there is some suspicious nature. I don`t
think that she`s left on her own. I think that there is obviously some foul play at this point. That`s the reason I have four detectives working on it.
Detective Walters is the lead investigator. So I don`t want Jeff Walters to think that we`re not working on this. I will tell you that we`re looking at
every aspect.
I obviously don`t want to give too many clues away. And I`m going to let Detective Walters talk a little bit, but we just don`t go interviewing
people just because somebody else said that person is the person you need to interview. First, we look at the background, we try to determine how
they may be attached to them, circumstance. Because that`s how people have the ability to destroy evidence or hide things from us.
BANFIELD: So sheriff or detective, either one of you, can you just answer the question about those two people who were detained and questioned that
the witnesses say poking around or looking through Crystal`s submerged car? What is -- put a pin on that story for me and let me know if that`s going
anywhere?
DONNIE RAY WALTERS, DETECTIVE, CHAMBERS COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): Ashleigh, I`ll say this, true enough we received a phone call
from Jeff and his family that they had spotted the car. Once we received that call, we responded immediately through flood waters and everything
else that we had to get around to get to that location. We did that.
Before this was all over, there was six, seven employees at work here at the sheriff`s department on that location, walking in waist-deep water
around this hotel searching every room, going over every aspect, pulling the log from the front office, checking everything that we could to see
where this car and this motel linked together.
We were told by one of the patrons there at the motel that they had observed what they thought someone was around the car. Lo and behold, we
found those two individuals. They were brought into the office. They were sat down and interviewed. After a lengthy interview, they were found to
have nothing to do with that car.
BANFIELD: OK. Well, I mean, it is frustrating, but you have to oftentimes go through the methods of elimination to get to where you need to go.
Sheriff, detective -- sorry?
D. WALTERS: It`s just like any race. You have to have a starting line before you can get to the finish line.
BANFIELD: Listen, I want to thank you, and I know that sounds trite, but Jeff Walters, for starters, I want to thank you for taking the time to help
us to get through the facts and the details and the evidence in this case, as you are in probably the most trying time of your life.
Sheriff Brian Hawthorne and Detective Donnie Ray Walters, I want to thank both of you for taking time to help us get through. I`ve said it before and
I`m going to say it again. When you have a natural disaster, it`s unintended and the tragedies are horrifying and they are sad and they are
unintentional. And so to load something intentional potentially on top of this, it just makes that tragedy that you are all living through down in
south Texas that all the more worse.
So, our hearts go out to you all as you live through this. Not only the storm, but what has happened to Crystal and we hope the best for you. We
are going to stay on the story. We hope you will come back and join us as we discover more, hopefully more clues. Thank you to all three of you.
I want to take you to New York. A mother in New York simply on a lunch break goes to a beautiful park where she often watches the deer play while
she has her lunch. And then she takes a bullet to the back of her head. And the woman they arrested has You Tube videos that are nothing short of
bizarre.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLLY COLINO, DISTURBED WOMAN ACCUSED OF KILLING MEGAN DIX (voice-over): They only acknowledge me, these men, when they want to try to take money
from me or take something. They came over the back. A second one within an hour that came over the back, he`s now in contempt as well as she.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: We all cherish our lunch breaks. Thirty-minute reprieve from the daily grind. Kind of keeps you sane, doesn`t it? Well, that`s how Megan Dix
felt. She was using her lunch break the other day to just relax in her car, eat her sandwich. But that ended up being her final lunch break. Not
because she changed her routine and not because she was fired.
Because Megan was shot and killed execution-style in cold blood. And police say they have a suspect. It didn`t take long to find. It is a random
shooting and this random woman is Holly Colino. Investigators say Holly Colino has a history of erratic behavior, both before and after the
shooting of Megan. You`re now looking at her posts. Her posts online. They believe that Colino was posting
[20:45:00] pretty prolifically on You Tube. Couldn`t authenticate that it was her, but these videos are a big part of the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLINO (voice-over): I`m catching them around this city and I just start researching mugshots and arrest records and I`m catching them. The ones
that are robbing, imitating my hair, eyebrows and or lips and altering their face. To suit the lips, eyebrows and hair that they don`t have. OK?
I`m catching them. It`s robbery, fraud, theft. Using -- it`s like accomplishing murder, using someone else to go murder somebody. They rob my
image. Every one of them -- every one of them in the media, every one of them. Everywhere I go. They took me! I she! Holly M. Colino.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Ms. Colino was caught just a few days later. This is her perp walk. Just a couple days after the murder. And the reason she was caught
and brought in was because police were called to a barbecue restaurant.
Somebody there called them to say Holly was pointing a gun at one of the workers and scaring her. And when they tracked Holly down, the officers
say, she actually admitted to murdering Megan Dix. And now Holly Colino is facing murder and weapons charges.
Chief Daniel Varrenti of the Brockfort Police Department joins me now live. Chief, this just sounds like it could have happened to anyone, and that
Megan Dix had the unfortunate bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Is it that awful? It was just a random unconnected killing?
DANIEL VARRENTI, CHIEF, BROCKPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Unfortunately, yes. You hit the nails on the head. Everything you said is
100 percent accurate. And there`s really no other way of putting it. I`ve been doing this now for 39 years.
You always try to find some type of rational reason as to why certain things happen. And I believe in this type of case, specifically this one, I
don`t know that I`ll ever be able to come up with a rational reason as to why this occurred. This woman was good --
BANFIELD: It`s just so sad.
VARRENTI (via telephone): -- this woman was a good mother.
BANFIELD: Yes.
VARRENTI (via telephone): A good wife, a good employee, a good person. And as you stated, simply went to a parking area which she routinely did on
occasion to enjoy her lunch in peace and quiet, read her kindle, have some crackers, watch the deer, and, unfortunately, she was met by an individual
who had no regard for life.
BANFIELD: I want to, if I can, bring in Donnie Duncanson. He is Megan Dix`s brother. And he joins me from Brockport, New York. Donnie, thanks so much
for being with us. I don`t even know how you can process this. How are your family coping with this and her little boy, C.J, eight years old?
DONNIE DUNCANSON, BROTHER OF MEGAN DIX (via telephone): Hi. It`s hard. It`s very hard. But first, I want to say thank you for Brockport Police
Department and Rochester Sheriff`s Department. You know, because it was them guys that did it. And it`s tough. You know, I`ll heal, you know, but
the little -- C.J., her little son, he`s never going to get over it. And it`s going to be just tough for him. And I feel just so bad for him.
BANFIELD: If I cannot imagine seeing these You Tube videos of the person who is accused of killing your sister, Holly Colino, I want to show you
again something from her where she seems to think that a lot of people are extorting her and stealing her look, and she has some kind of hell bent
strategy on getting back at them. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLINO (voice-over): They only acknowledge me, these men, when they want to try to take money from me or take something. They came over the back. A
second one within an hour that came over the back, he is now in contempt as well as she, and she did nothing.
While the rest of them, like Kylie Jenner (ph) can solicit my lips, eyebrows and my hair, and make millions off of it. And the rest of the
women can make You Tube channels and make money off of it. It`s my three main futures. I collected the evidence. They`re all showcasing and making
money off of extorting my hair, eyebrows and lips. Why is everyone robbing from me? Then they`re mimicking my person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Donnie, there`s just no answer to this. But with the few seconds I have left, can you just tell me the best things about your sister.
DUNCANSON (via telephone): What`s really ironic about listening to that is Megan, at least
[20:50:00] three times I know of, had her hair cut for Locks of Love. You know, she gave -- she never -- she never asked for anything. She gave,
gave, gave. She was always caring. A special person. You know? She made baskets for basket raffles. She volunteered for like marathons. They`re
doing another one in Brockport this coming month for the run on the canal or something for one of her co-workers that lost a child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Donnie, I am so sorry for your loss. The fact that you just told me she donated her hair three times to Locks of Love, that says so much
about your wonderful sister. I am so sorry for your loss. I`m thankful to the chief for helping us wade through this. We`re back right after this.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: My great thanks to Kisha Hebbon. Thanks for being here. Thank you, everyone, for being here too. Stay tuned. "Forensic Files" is up next.
[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
