Return to Transcripts main page
Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Murder Investigation; High-Speed Houdini? Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 06, 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): New video tonight before Crystal McDowell disappeared near Houston, a mom of two, a successful realtor, but
the hurricane had nothing to do with it, tracing her steps before the trail went dark, and why one of her friends says she did not go willingly.
A woman randomly gunned down eating lunch in her car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senselessly murdered in this random, heinous act.
BANFIELD: And the woman police say did it had a very troubled past.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They took me! I! She! (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: Now even the accused killer`s family...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We watched all the videos, like, what is going on?
BANFIELD: ... says they feared something bad was going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know she needs help and she has issues.
BANFIELD: Accused of shoplifting, she was cuffed and stuffed in the back of a cruiser. You`d think she`s stay put. But in a move that would make
Houdini proud, she somehow wriggled free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goldang!
BANFIELD: And then made off with their ride. 100 miles an hour later, police say they`ve learned their lesson.
Bobbing and weaving on a busy road.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
BANFIELD: Three women jump into action and try to stop a driver from uncertain death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll follow him as long as we can until we see a deputy.
BANFIELD: Putting themselves right in harm`s way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God!
BANFIELD: They stop an alleged DUI.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop him. Do not (INAUDIBLE) Get in front of him. Get in front of him and hit the brakes!
BANFIELD: Before anyone gets hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Oh!
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
Twelve days is not a lot of time, but it is an eternity if your wife is missing, or your daughter or your mom or your girlfriend. And Crystal
McDowell has gone silent for 12 days. She`s a mom of two, an ex of one, and a girlfriend to another. But there are plenty more friends and family
who are just as worried about where she is tonight.
And if anyone thinks her disappearance in the Houston area has something to do with Hurricane Harvey, it doesn`t. She disappeared as the storm was
rolling in. Her black Mercedes C class was found days later in the flooded parking lot of a Motel 6 miles from her home. And the rest has been a
complete mystery until tonight.
Surveillance video is now giving us a small part of the picture, at least as far as a timeline goes. Her boyfriend, Paul, has been giving police
images from his security camera, and the video shows Crystal leaving his home the morning she disappeared. But he is now also sharing different
video, video of the two of them from the night before. And we know Crystal spent the night at his home.
Here they are at 11:48 PM on Thursday, August 24th. You can see from the video as they casually do what we would all do in the kitchen, hanging out,
coming home after dinner. She is definitely wearing a different dress than we have seen in the previous videos the next morning when she`s actually
leaving Paul`s house.
She left the next morning because she was headed to her ex-husband`s house to pick up her children. Her boyfriend, Paul, has also provided us the
video that shows him arriving at work that same next morning. Timestamp shows it was about 30 minutes after we last saw Crystal leaving his home.
That`s just around 8:00 o`clock in the morning.
The next time we see Crystal`s Mercedes, though, it`s just like this, abandoned in the water at that Motel 6. Now, that Motel 6 is a very busy
place. It`s on a very busy road, plenty of businesses nearby, some of them, many of them with security cameras. Did anyone see something? Did a
camera catch something? And did Hurricane Harvey potentially destroy what could be key evidence in this missing woman`s case?
Matt Hollis is a reporter with "The Baytown Sun," and he joins me from Baytown, Texas. Matt, thanks so much for being in (ph). First, to the new
video that we`re seeing from the night before Crystal went missing. It looked so innocuous, as most of us would see an image of people in their
kitchen hanging out and think nothing of it.
Is there anything in that video? Are there any clues in that video that are helpful to this case?
MATT HOLLIS, "BAYTOWN SUN" (via telephone): All right. Thanks for having me. You may notice in the video, she`s carrying a black shoulder bag.
Speaking with the Sheriff Brian Hawthorne earlier today -- he`s the sheriff over at Chambers County -- looks like they`re interested in trying to find
that black bag. They have not been successful yet, but that is one significant thing about that video.
BANFIELD: And you know what? We`ve been talking about that bag for a couple days because the next morning, here she is walking out of Paul`s
home with the big black shoulder bag, carrying her shoes in her left hand. The sheriff told us the shoes have not been recovered. The sheriff told us
the bag has not been recovered. So that is a very interesting piece of information, especially since we saw it now in the video the night before,
as well.
[20:05:08]So the other question I have is to the new potential surveillance information. You know, Matt, the police have had a huge job on their
hands. And I don`t need to tell you, being from that area, look, a hurricane came through and they`re overwhelmed. But at the same time, they
need to investigate this and they`ve gone business to business looking for surveillance video. We are told they actually have some. What do you
know?
HOLLIS: OK, what I do know, the Motel 6 there -- apparently, there was some surveillance video taken from that motel. Now, talking with Sheriff
Hawthorne early today, he described it as, quote, "very inadequate." OK? But...
BANFIELD: Wait, wait. "Very inadequate"? The actual video from the Motel 6 where that car was discovered -- that video is inadequate?
HOLLIS: Very inadequate. That was his words, ma`am. He didn`t elaborate (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: It seems crazy. I mean, it just seems crazy to me. Does it seem crazy to you? There`s the car. It had to get there somehow. Was it
not captured on any video, or we just don`t know?
HOLLIS: Well, there are some other businesses around there. That is a -- that particular area is growing, a lot of economic development happening
out there. There is a gas station, for instance, nearby there, and some other stores, some department stores, Walmart, and as a matter of fact, a
big old theater out there, too, and lots of other businesses.
And Sheriff told me that they are scouring through those videos, and he says there`s hours of them because some of these businesses have more than
one camera, OK?
BANFIELD: Sure.
HOLLIS: So this timeframe from when Crystal disappeared until the car was found is -- you know, you`re talking about several hours here. So as
Sheriff said, you know...
BANFIELD: And Matt, you know, real quick, what we`re showing at the same time as you talking about those businesses is an intersection nearby, and
those yellow circles are, in fact, surveillance cameras. And there were about four of them that we could count on the photographs from the nearby
intersection. So it`s not as though there aren`t a lot of pictures to go through.
Just real quick, I want to go back to that really busy area around that Motel 6, if we can put that map back up, because those businesses you were
referring to -- you talk about the Chevron, behind that is a Conoco Travel Center, McDonald`s, a Super 8, Cash America Pawn, the Waffle House, of
course, the Motel 6 right there, and then the Shell. Those are, many of them, 24/7 businesses.
But I don`t live where you live. Is this a busy area around 7:00 o`clock in the morning when Crystal was supposedly driving from her boyfriend`s
house to her ex-husband`s house, and ultimately, the car ended up at the Motel 6? Is that a busy area with potentially lots of witnesses?
HOLLIS: It is a busy area. Like I was saying, there`s a lot of economic development happening out there now. It`s been growing the last two, three
years really tremendously in the last -- during that time.
And also keep in mind, you know, this -- we had a storm come in at this time, too. So that may have factored into how many people were around.
And they may not have been necessarily going to work, but they have been, you know, preparing or getting out of the way of the storm. So (INAUDIBLE)
to answer your question, simply put, yes, that is a busy area, and I would say around that time even, so...
BANFIELD: OK, one last quick question. You actually had a chance to meet face-to-face, speak in person with Crystal`s boyfriend, Paul. We`ve talked
to him on the air, and he seems pretty messed up about this. It`s difficult when you`re talking over a television line or a TV, you know,
satellite line. What did he seem like to you? What was your read talking to him in person?
HOLLIS: Oh, distraught. When I first met him, when I walked up to him, he had his head in his hands, like the way a worried person would look and
such. And speaking to him, you know, he was emotional. He seemed very -- obviously very concerned about this, you know, and such, and just
distraught and concerned. That was my read on it. And you know, he just - - and all -- from what I could tell, he`s very upset about this, as you would normally expect someone in his position to be.
BANFIELD: All right, Matt, hold on, if you will, for a second. I want to bring in Toby Kilpatrick. He`s a friend of Crystal McDowell`s. He joins
me from Houston.
Toby, thanks so much for being on the program. We`re trying to get as many answers to this story as possible because there are a lot of people who
joining in this effort, different police agencies. Volunteers are now coming out and searching. And then there are these friends and family
members who can give any piece of a potential -- you know, key puzzle piece to this story.
You spoke with Crystal not long before she disappeared. Tell me what you talked about, what was the reason for your conversation.
TOBY KILPATRICK, FRIEND (via telephone): Well, we actually spoke on the phone probably a week before she disappeared, but we texted a lot after
that.
[20:10:02]As a matter of fact, the 24th was my birthday, and that was the actual last correspondence that we had. She texted to wish me happy
birthday. And I said thank you. And she sent me a text that said, I love you. And I said, I love you back, and that was our last actual
correspondence.
But -- excuse me. A week before that, right around a week, we had had a conversation talking about comparables and such because she does have my
house listed, and I wasn`t sure if we had listed it too high. And she was going to go back and look at the comparables and see what had sold since
the initial listing had been put up.
And we were just discussing generic things like that over the phone about I would say right around a week before that.
BANFIELD: And the text -- just so I`m clear on the dates here, the text that she sent you to wish you a happy birthday was on the 24th. That`s the
day before she went missing.
KILPATRICK: That`s right. That evening about 7:30, she said, Happy birthday, handsome. And I said thank you. And she said, Love you. And I
said, I love you, too.
BANFIELD: And that was the last you heard of her.
KILPATRICK: That was the last I heard until Saturday, when Jeff Walker, her uncle, called and asked if I`d spoken to her. He said, Have you heard
from Crystal? And I said, no, I haven`t since on Thursday she wished me happy birthday, you know. And I -- you know, I didn`t think much of it.
And then just very seriously, he said, She`s gone.
BANFIELD: Did you know what he meant?
KILPATRICK: I did not. I mean, it took a second to sort of register what he had said. I said, What do you mean she`s gone? He said, No one`s heard
from her since yesterday morning. And immediately, when that resonated inside me, oh, my God, I knew immediately when it clicked what he was
trying to say and it (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: Toby, have you talked to the police? Have the police talked to you? Have they questioned you?
KILPATRICK: They have not questioned me, no, ma`am.
BANFIELD: And if they did, would you lawyer up? Would you be able to meet with them?
KILPATRICK: Oh, absolutely, I would talk with them.
BANFIELD: I want to go back to you talking to the comps that you were talking about. She`s a successful realtor. I think if I`m not mistaken,
she still might have her for sale sign at your home, in your yard.
KILPATRICK: She does. She has a few houses listed in my neighborhood, and they`re all still up.
BANFIELD: So you`re looking out your window at her sign.
KILPATRICK: Yes, ma`am. And it`s -- it`s incredibly hard!
BANFIELD: I understand. Can I ask you about her peers, if you know anything about her peers in the business. It`s a cut-throat business.
KILPATRICK: It is a cut-throat business.
BANFIELD: She`s very, very good. There`s the potential for jealousy. There`s a potential for angst, potentially, among adversaries in the
business. Do you know anything about who might have been challenging her in business or who might have not appreciated her level of success?
KILPATRICK: Well, she had mentioned other people in passing, but never anything to cause me to throw up a red flag and say, Oh, my goodness, or
anything like that. And she had -- she just -- she made that statement that you just made to me several times, that it was a very cut-throat
business.
BANFIELD: Let me ask you one quick question about the other players in this story, that we know of. I`m sure there are loads of people that
police are speaking with, but we know that her boyfriend, Paul, has been very forthcoming with us and with the police. He`s taken a lie detector
test. Police say that her ex-husband has taken a lie detector test.
Do you -- can you tell me the relationship that you knew of between Crystal and Paul and her ex-husband and maybe any other boyfriends? Is there
anything all that stands out in her relationships?
KILPATRICK: She didn`t talk a whole lot about Paul because that was still sort of a newer relationship. She did tell me about him, and just said his
name is Paul, and she had told me that she was very happy. And I think somewhere during conversation about him, she said, You know, that`s what
I`ve been waiting for. And she -- I could hear her smiling when she said that. So I know that he had brought a lot of happiness to her life in a
short amount of time.
But her relationship with Steve -- you know, they were still living -- that was a very amicable separation, as far as I knew. I mean, they still lived
in the house together. When you look at pictures of them, I mean, you know, they look happy. You know, she never really elaborated too much one
way or the other.
[20:15:02]BANFIELD: And I want to be super-clear. Her ex-husband is not a suspect that we know of in this case. And Paul is not a suspect that we
know of in this case, and you are not a suspect that we know of in this case. No one has been charged in this case.
Have you spoken with Paul? Have you spoken with her ex-husband? Have you spoken with anyone else in the case?
KILPATRICK: No, ma`am, I have not spoken with any of them. I`ve only spoken with her family.
BANFIELD: Her family. He uncle Jeff?
KILPATRICK: I`m sorry?
BANFIELD: Her uncle Jeff? That`s, like, her father figure.
KILPATRICK: Yes. And of course, we`ve been in touch quite a lot.
BANFIELD: And I -- there`s one other interesting -- interesting tidbit. Not all divorces are amicable. This one, by all accounts, seems to have
been. You know, there`s some, you know, angst and animosity but nothing maybe out of the ordinary. But her ex-husband`s Facebook page was loaded
with the pictures of the two of them. And her Facebook and social media had a lot of the two of them together.
Did you ever sense that there were any outstanding issues or budding issues or any problems recently?
KILPATRICK: No. As a matter of fact, she joked about -- well, haphazardly joked, if you will, that her lawyer was angry at her because she had been
so good to him during the divorce and she just sort of laughed it off.
BANFIELD: So it`s curious? I mean, it becomes curious with each of these details. Toby, thanks so much. Don`t go away.
Right now I do want to bring in Sheriff Brian Hawthorne. He`s with the Chambers County sheriff`s office. Sheriff, I`ve appreciated every moment
that you have spent with us. I know that you`re overloaded.
I have one question for you, and I want to give this to you before we go to the break. I want you to contemplate the answer and the significance of
the question. And sir, you can hear me, right?
BRIAN HAWTHORNE, CHAMBERS COUNTY SHERIFF (via telephone): Yes, ma`am.
BANFIELD: OK, Sheriff, the question is today, a search organization called Equusearch joined in this endeavor to find Crystal McDowell. And around
noontime Eastern, they put out an emergency alert saying they, We want people to come and meet us, and they gave a location. The location was
quite specific. They said it was West Bay Road and highway 99 east of Cedar Bayou Bridge.
Now, I`m not from those parts, but it`s near a bayou. It`s also around an industrial park and Baytown Marina. My question for you after the break
is, why there? What took them there, and what did they find? We`re back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:21:36]BANFIELD: It`s been said that a picture`s worth a thousand words. And if that`s true, then video has got to be worth tomes (ph),
volumes, a whole lot in plain speak. So any of the pictures that have been surfacing as surveillance or security cam of Crystal McDowell since she`s
been missing for 12 days -- just what are they offering up? Because these are the most recent pictures. And these ones we knew just after she
disappeared.
Here she is the morning she disappeared leaving her boyfriend`s house, purse, shoes, on her way through a couple of rooms inside the house, on her
way out to the driveway, and then ultimately getting into her beautiful black Mercedes which ultimately would be found not where it was supposed to
be going. She did not make it to her ex-husband`s house to pick up the kids.
She got in the car, all right, but that car was found empty and half submerged in the parking lot of a Motel 6 halfway between there and where
she was going. The video most recently is video from the night before because she spent the night at her boyfriend`s house the night before. We
knew that.
So Sheriff Brian Hawthorne is with me with the Chambers County sheriff`s office. I`m going to ask you if any of these new images shed any light --
video from the night before. But not before you, hopefully, give me some information on what happened today in that industrial park where Texas
Equusearch was asking for volunteers to come help them look around. Why there? Did they find anything?
HAWTHORNE: Well, Ashleigh, first of all, the videos do shed some light. Like I say, I will tell you that every person of interest has been very
forthcoming in regards to their videos, their telephones, their computers. So Paul did get us the video that we really needed, and I appreciate it.
And that video tells us a lot and we have used every minute of it. I wish we`d had it earlier, but bottom line is we`re definitely using it. And I
appreciate Paul producing that and getting that to us.
BANFIELD: So that`s great that you appreciate it, but did that video from the night before yield any clues, like what`s she carrying? Is it that bag
we`ve been talking about for days, that overnight bag she was seen leaving with that we never found, those shoes we never found? The bag in her hand
-- is it the bag in question?
Can we just drop the banner for a minute just so we can see that bag a little more closely?
That bag that she`s holding the night before while she`s talking with Paul in her kitchen -- does that yield any information for you?
HAWTHORNE: So every one of those things that you mentioned, Ashleigh, are clues to us. And there`s a reason why I have contacted Tim Miller with
Texas Equusearch because we`re putting enough pieces to the puzzle. We`ve captured enough -- I say enough, not enough, but we`ve captured enough
video to move the investigation forward and start looking at some different places and locations to start doing some educated searches.
BANFIELD: OK, great. So that leads me to that educated search you talk about with real specifics. The call went out around noon Eastern time
today for volunteers to come and meet at a location described as West Bay Road and highway 99 east of Cedar Bayou Bridge. Why there?
[20:25:06]HAWTHORNE: Well, I can`t get too deep into that. Maybe on another show, but this one in particular, I cannot. But we have a very
real purpose. And I`ve got to be careful because the location has been -- you`ve given the location out because Equusearch obviously was looking for
some of their trained individuals to come assist. I don`t need anything more than the professionals and the people that are out there. So I better
-- I got to keep my integrity of this investigation, Ashleigh. I hope you understand.
BANFIELD: I 100 percent completely respect that, as well. When it goes out over the internet, usually, we take that clue as that it`s public
information. I hope we haven`t compromised anything by broadcasting it, but it certainly was publicly available.
HAWTHORNE: No, you have not. You have not.
BANFIELD: OK.
HAWTHORNE: You have not.
BANFIELD: But I will say this, we do know that that location is really not far from her ex-husband`s workplace. Is that part of this story?
HAWTHORNE: Well, it`s that puzzle. We still have more missing pieces, but we`re trying to collect some more of those pieces. And obviously, you
know, in a criminal investigation like this, it`s about ruling people out. And Paul has been very helpful. Steve, the ex-husband, has been very
helpful. Jeff, the uncle, who is a realtor with her, has been very helpful. And I can`t get too deep in the investigation at this stage of
the game.
BANFIELD: I get it.
HAWTHORNE: I promise you when this puzzle is put together, I`ll explain it all.
BANFIELD: Yes, and (INAUDIBLE) I`m going to try and ask as much as I can, fully understanding your limitations.
HAWTHORNE: Oh, and I do understand. I do understand.
BANFIELD: You mentioned Paul. That`s the boyfriend. You mentioned Jeff. That`s her uncle who`s really her father, raised her since she was 11. And
you mentioned another name. I`m not mentioning the ex-husband`s name. He`s not a suspect in the case that we know of. No one is.
HAWTHORNE: No, he`s not. Nobody is.
BANFIELD: But he has declined our requests four times now. We have covered this story four times, four different shows, and he`s declined our
request to appear on television even by telephone. I always find that curious when you`re looking for a missing person, mother of your kid. I
don`t know if you found that curious. Did you?
HAWTHORNE: Well, he`s not a very talkative fellow. I can tell you that he is a -- very much an introvert. He`s a good father, but he`s very much an
introvert. So I don`t think he probably feels comfortable. In our interviews with him, we truly identified that he is an introvert. He does
not have a lot of friends. And I think he probably just does not feel comfortable doing this kind of stuff, where his...
(CROSSTALK)
HAWTHORNE: ... have a lot of passion.
BANFIELD: That`s fair. Let`s go to the whittling down of suspects. You mentioned that. We`ve been learning that you`re whittling down the
suspects, as well.
To that end, let`s talk about alibis (INAUDIBLE) try to establish right away with every player in a case like this. Have you been able to
establish alibis for Paul, the boyfriend, who has provided you with video of arriving -- he himself is arriving at his place of work about 30 minutes
after the last contact with Crystal. So to that end, how is this alibi? Does this video help you? Is the timestamp on it authenticated? And while
I`m at it any of the timestamps on any of the video -- have they been authenticated?
HAWTHORNE: Well, the authentication we`re still working on because you know there were some time issues. But the investigators still very
confident that Paul has been very forthcoming and that what he has told us appears to be accurate.
BANFIELD: So you feel good about Paul`s alibi. What about her ex-husband and her Uncle Jeff and any other people you may have spoken to?
HAWTHORNE: Well, the list is so long, Ashleigh, I just have to be honest with you. Crystal has so many friends, so many acquaintances, whether it
be from Expressjet, her 10 years there, or the success that she`s been having in real estate. So we`ve have brought in more additional
professionals to help us. Like, the Texas Rangers have brought in some more Rangers to assist me. And then also now the Texas attorney general`s
office showed up today to also lend some expertise and some of their...
BANFIELD: OK, one last question then...
HAWTHORNE: ... the equipment they have.
BANFIELD: That`s good that you got a lot of hands on deck because I know you guys have been overwhelmed with the storm. But one last question. Are
you finding any inconsistencies in anybody`s stories?
HAWTHORNE: I cannot really talk about those right now. And I apologize. You just -- You`ll just have to wait. It would be inappropriate for me to
make a statement like that.
BANFIELD: Sheriff, I appreciate every moment you`ve had a chance to talk to us. It`s important that somebody is dedicated to finding Crystal
McDowell, especially in light of what`s happening in Houston. There`s so much time, energy and focus on the storm. And she went missing before the
storm. There`s something very sinister about this. Sir, thank you so much. We`ll continue to follow it. We hope you will come back on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will, thank you.
BANFIELD: A New York mother shot point blank just eating her lunch on her lunch break in her car. There are more questions than answers about why
this woman, Holly Colino, allegedly targeted her. Tragically her estranged brother has expressed relief that his sister has been arrested.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Saturday would have been a big day at Megan Dix`s home for her 34th birthday. She might have had friends or family over to celebrate,
maybe just spend a quiet day with her husband and her son.
Instead, her family was planning her funeral because Megan was shot to death while on her lunch break in her car eight days before her birthday.
Police say the shooter, Holly Colino, a complete stranger, was arrested after she pulled a gun on somebody else at a barbecue joint in upstate New
York.
And we are beginning to learn a lot about Holly Colino, especially from the very strange videos that she`s been posting on You Tube.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I want to bring attention to this one because I`m noticing as I`ve been doing this investigation and I`ve been
noticing these women mimicking my hair, eyebrows, lips and also even altering their chins and noses especially because of these entertainers.
They`re all pretty much a mirage of me except if you see them in person, OK? They`re making profit off of me. My image and my character.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So, while her brother says that`s her, and police are pretty sure they think that`s her, no one really has been able to authenticate 100
percent if that`s her, but it sure is strange. And Kelsie Smith is a reporter with CNN affiliate WHAM. She joins me from Rochester, New York.
Kelsie, you`ve talked to Holly`s pastor, you`ve talked to her neighbor, you`ve talked to her brother, you`ve talked with a childhood friend. What`s
the read you`re getting?
KELSIE SMITH, REPORTER, WHAM: You know, she started out as this young girl who was very involved in school. She was the class president of her
freshman class. She was on multiple sports teams including the JV football team. She was very outgoing during her freshman and sophomore years of high
school and then dropped out her sophomore year in high school.
And things began to change. Now, her brother tells me that they were raised without a mother and that was something that Holly always had problems
with. She always desired that mother figure. And she chose to leave home after her sophomore year. And over the years, he noticed that she would
become jealous if he had girlfriends. And he did try to get her help, and she would never take it.
BANFIELD: I want to play a quick piece of an interview that was done with Jason Colino, her brother. It was sort of a harbinger of what maybe was
going to happen. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON COLINO, BROTHER OF HOLLY COLINO: I told them, I go, well, it`s a good thing you guys got her, because you`re telling me she had two guns. And I
really felt just kind of deep down inside of me like something bad was going to happen. I just don`t see her as somebody who would do something
that bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Kelsie, you know, apart from the video of watching her being arrested and her brother, you know, having this feeling that something bad
was going to happen, there was just an array of graffiti all around town, some of it where she was Arizona, a lot of you`ve actually witnessed in
upstate New York.
I`m just going to go through a few of these and read them. Honor Holly M. Colino. There`s another location that says, honor Holly Colino, kill women.
Still a third location, hard to sort of make it out, but people hated envy, the cross with a circle and "X" through it.
At another location, you can read for yourself what`s written there. I`m not sure if these were her initials or what that is below it, but this was
-- I believe either near or on a church where her pastor actually ministered.
[20:40:00] And then this one, J Pritch extorted Holly M. Colino, with the flower, that was seen in other graffiti. Female cops. Cops too stupid, too
jealous. Imitate Holly -- Holly`s image. I`m not sure what the rest of it says.
Kelsie, do you know what the rest of it says, and what, you know, police are doing with regard to this graffiti of her found all over town?
SMITH: Yes, the graffiti is part of the overall case. Right now, we`re waiting for the grand jury to arrive to really find out more details and
more of what she has been charged with. You know, that she`s -- the grand jury has indicted her on at least one felony charge.
Now, the last piece of graffiti that you brought up on the red building, that was actually found a few days before, behind the restaurant where she
was arrested for menacing an employee with a gun. And this graffiti seems to have a path from one side of the county to the other.
And the ironic thing is she grew up in east Rochester, which is on the east side of Monroe County. And the graffiti kind of ends in Brockport where the
murder happened. That`s on the west side of the county. She hasn`t been accused -- or she hasn`t been convicted of this graffiti, but if the --
BANFIELD: Least of her worries. Trust me, that`s the least of her worries at this point. Kelsie, hold for a second. I want to play some more of that
material that she`s been posting. And again, it`s part of the police investigation. Her brother says it`s her.
We can`t see her. It`s all branded with her name. It sort of speaks to her state of mind in a way that only she really could demonstrate. Have a look
at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Knit-picker, petty, pulls wrong side of nothing. (INAUDIBLE) ignorance. While initiating rightfully in the knowing.
Tying to entice one into an act. Why? Because I can kill him. That`s why he`s lucky.
I`m building my case. I was here sleeping. I`ve been in three different states in the woods. I`m telling you, you people, petty, knit-pick
everything. You`ve already blacklisted me out of jobs. I`ve had women tell me I`m too authoritative for an authority position.
Why? Because she`s jealous. Activated damning in my contempt. You want to pull off of me and mimic. You want to make money. You want to make a career
extorting my face and my person and you`re all in on it. So how am I going to live? Where am I going to go?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That is a very troubled individual. Those are graphics posted by the poster, not by us. I also want to play you this. This happened in 2012
at a college where Holly Colino was attending. It`s a college of Brockport. This was a speech with Sister Helen Prejean. It was about the death
penalty. This is what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HELEN PREJEAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN: The gospel of Jesus was about a lot more than just being a good nun, praying for people, being --
HOLLY COLINO, ACCUSED OF KILLING MEGAN DIX (voice-over): Objection. For the love of humanity, justice, you have lied.
PREJEAN: Lady, who are you?
COLINO (voice-over): My name`s Holly Colino (INAUDIBLE) humanity and justice. And I can no longer listen to your lies.
PREJEAN: Just tell me one lie I have said so far.
COLINO (voice-over): You have lied from the gospel of Jesus.
PREJEAN: No, I don`t think this is the right time for this.
COLINO (voice-over): No. You are speaking about (INAUDIBLE) and devotional manner to God. We have prostitution that would separate the church from the
state. This is not right.
PREJEAN: Holly, I`m sorry.
COLINO (voice-over): All the realities of criminal justice.
For the love of humanity and justice, get the facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So that happened. Chief Daniel Varrenti with the Brockport Police Department. He joins me live from Brockport, New York. Chief, thanks so
much for being with us. This whole story is so disturbing, and she seems so incredibly disturbed.
There is something else that was upsetting. We`ve learned that before she was apprehended, she was actually in the presence of other citizens. What
happened? Who were they? How close were they to imminent danger?
DANIEL VARRENTI, CHIEF, BROCKPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Good evening, Ashleigh. Thanks for having me on again. I guess I don`t fully
understand the question. When you say she was affiliated or associated with other citizens, you mean the public in general?
BANFIELD: The allegation is that she shot Megan Dix dead execution style, and then before she was actually put away in the back of the cruiser and
taken off to face these unbelievable charges, she was actually with other people who probably had no idea of the kind of person that was in front of
them.
VARRENTI (via telephone): Well, that`s true. I mean, thankfully it was only for three days. Obviously there`s been other times people have committed
[20:45:00] a murder or egregious acts equally as bad as this one and have gone unnoticed or gone unarrested --
BANFIELD: Did she threaten anybody?
VARRENTI (via telephone): -- for years. I`m sorry?
BANFIELD: Did she threaten anybody while she was -- you know, in between the alleged murder and her apprehension, did she threaten anyone or
frighten anyone? Have you been able to get any witnesses?
VARRENTI (via telephone): The incident obviously at sticky lips where she threatened the employee by pulling out a handgun. That certainly would
qualify as, I believe, a threat. As far as other individuals, that`s still part of the investigation.
We`ve asked the public to report any sightings of Holly Colino or any potential contact, whether it be through e-mail, voice mail, et cetera. And
we have received calls and e-mails from individuals stating that they believe they have come in contact with her and that`s all part of the
investigation as well.
BANFIELD: So tell me a little bit about the -- about her take down. It was so odd. There was a fast food restaurant employee who actually was part of
this story, pretty heroic. She was trying to make her way in the back area and there he is with the red shirt stopping her from getting in the back
door of a restaurant.
There`s one of the officers apprehending her, throwing her down, stopping her. What do we know about this moment?
VARRENTI (via telephone): I believe what you`re looking at is part of her apprehension. I believe that was potentially the second time she was
apprehended. I`m not certain whether or not that was the initial time or not. But ironically enough, had Holly Colino not been arrested initially
for the menacing, I don`t know if we`d be having this conversation today.
When the incident occurred on that Friday afternoon, we met with the media the following day and asked for citizens to please get involved and report
any suspicious findings that they may have seen or heard of during the time of the incident. We received numerous tips from the public, thanks to the
media, and one of those tips was that they saw a black-matted Toyota-type vehicle in the area that didn`t seem like it belonged in the area.
So that`s something that we knew. Subsequent to the murder investigation itself, we were able to recover the bullet that killed Megan, and we
believe we had associated that bullet with a particular type of caliber weapon. When Holly was initially arrested, there was a menacing,
unfortunately happens every day, people are arrested for that every day.
BANFIELD: Well, it sounds like now --
VARRENTI (via telephone): After she escaped -- after she escaped, was when they put out a description of the vehicle she was driving and the weapon
she was in possession of. That`s when we started putting two and two together that that escapee may very well be our suspect in the murder.
BANFIELD: And there she is in the apprehension there. She is in mugshot. Chief Daniel Varrenti, I appreciate the time you`ve taken. And I think it`s
a good thing that she is not on the streets, has not made bail, and indictment process continues as we have heard. We will continue to watch
this story.
You have probably heard of escape artists before like Harry Houdini, but in Texas, this might be the closest that anyone`s come to a live Houdini act.
You`re about to watch it all.
[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: I got a former prosecutor here, Randy Zelin is joining me to get through this next segment. You know, every cop show ending with the same
kind of narrative cop case. Perp gets like cuffed, stuck in the back of the cruiser.
But in Lufkin, Texas, there is a drama that began after shoplifting suspect was caught and from here, you just got to sort of go to the body cam. Watch
this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD (voice-over): So that`s Toscha Sponsler. They`re cuffing her. Notice how tight it is. Notice what they`re doing. She`s on the ground.
Body cam is catching it. They`re about to pick her up and eventually walk her over to a cruiser nearby, because they want her taken to the cop shop.
They want to deal with this charge.
When they put her in the cruiser, I want you to notice the most important thing. She`s cuffed, she`s put in the cruiser, and they actually seat belt
her in. Are we getting to the next one? Let`s try to get to the next tape as much as we can. No, that`s not the one. Unfortunately, we`re out of
order. Oh, man, this one really got botched.
OK. Folks, let`s see if we can get the -- there we are. They seat belted her in, but watch what she`s doing. She got out. She got her hands free.
She got the seat belt free. She looks at the cop checking on her. Looks around. Yes, I`m out of these cuffs, baby.
[20:55:00] Toscha Sponsler wasn`t just out of the cuffs. She`s taken a good gander. And then she`s climbing through a 12-inch gap in the partition from
the backseat to the front seat of this cruiser. Watch her wiggle like a snake, wiggling through a 12-inch gap all the way until she`s in the front
seat. And that wasn`t enough. She turned that ignition on. And this is what happened.
Yes. I guess (INAUDIBLE) would be what you say if the perp is chasing off with your vehicle. So they jump in one of the vehicles themselves and they
go on a chase. They go on a chase that leads upwards of 100 miles an hour. Some of the video you`re seeing from their perspective, some of the video
you`re seeing from her perspective.
Basically, she crashes this thing out though, and she hits it hard. She crashes hard. Bye-bye. That`s it. Tasha`s done. She`s being held on $18,000
bond. Randy, I got to get your comment on why bond anyway. Isn`t that someone who is a flight risk?
RANDY ZELIN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CBSN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Slightly.
BANFIELD (voice-over): Back right after this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[21:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
