Transcripts For MSNBCW Dateline 20200725

I thought maybe there was a boyfriend on the side. Some kind of love triangle. But on a dark highway the case would take a dramatic turn. All there my body was standing on end. A mysterious driver carrying ominous cargo. You dont. Suggest there was some sort ofom conspiracy. Unwinding aon mind bending plot revealing a shattering truth. Evil. Inhuman to do Something Like that. It was a moonless night in iowa. 4 00 in the morning. The quietest of quiet hours. A small time cop glided down the highway of des moines bound for the early shift at his rural police department. Thats where he saw out of the corner of his eye what was that in the ditch, maybe 30 yards off the highway. A car in trouble . He swung around. S someone clearly missed the k curve. Airbags deployed, dome lights on. Thenig suddenly, who was that knocking on his car window . Gentleman didnt have a shirt on. Seemed agitated, weird. Eventually a second cop appeared. Hesec excited. He seemed like a you know, if you were to talk to somebody after they got done doing a marathon, out of breath. Sweating profusely. The entire time im out here its a very, very its an uneasy feeling. My stomach was turning. But no law broken. He called the guy a cab, sent him home. No idea what was coming. How could they know . It makes you question the goodness ofon humanity. It makes you question your faith. It makes you question your believes. It isyo a point where evil outdid good. Even here in the heart of the heartland, its lovely capital, its famous state fair. All manner of deep fried delicacies and president ial casting calls here, des moines, a place known for its sweet and gentle nature, for people who are simply nice, like him. He was he was just very good. His name was Justin Michael. These are his parents. He cared about people. He was kind and considerate. Just a nice guy . Just a very nice guy. Very good person. Sort of person who volunteered forn things, like helping to build houses for habitat for humanity. He really enjoyed it. Justin was almost 31, the eldest of three. His brother nathan idolized him. All three of us stayed close. Playing sports hanging out with justin. He was just a great older brother, very supportive and caring and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. Justin saved her life when as a teenager she was caught in a riptide. It was absolutely terrifying. I felt like i was literally drowning and then all of a sudden there was justin and he was pulling me up on our boogie board and telling me that everything is going to be okay, everythings going to be fine. So you get the idea. Just a good person, a nice guy who was about to get as lucky as a person can in life, that is, lucky in love with her. I found him very attractive and interesting and he he was fun to talk to. Her name is angie verhule. What happened to angie and justin was that thing that some people dont even think exists. They fell in love at first sight. Bingo. Just like that. After our third date and i said, im pretty sure im going to marry this guy. Wow. He seemed to feel the same way about you. Yeah. It was very easy from day one. We both knew. So they did what people do, they tried out each others interests andac angie discovere the man she was in love with also loved things like sky diving which, of course, he wanted her to do too. Lured you out a time or two . Yeah. He had you jumping out of an airplane. Yes. What the heck were you a thinking . I w am terrified of heights so so he took you up there . Yeah. It was so exhilarating though. I was terrified up until the moment that we got in the plane and then i just was calm and it was so much fun. Which was a little like their court ship really. A jump that some people would find terrifying, but not them. You got engaged very quickly. Uhhuh. When you know, you know. Was there ever any doubt . I mean, no day you woke up and thought, oh, god, what have i done . Nope. So in august 2013, two months after they met, angie and justin were an engaged couple. In december she moved in with him at his house in a tiny place called grimes about 20 minutes outside of des moines and they planned theires wedding, which would be, they decided, a family event on the beach in North Carolina where his parents live. They set the date, july 20th, 2014. It was may. Excitement building when justins parents came to visit in grimes. Mothers day weekend. And on the wednesday evening before that mothers day. We were laughing and talking about Halloween Costumes for the next year and as it grew dusk we ended up making smores over theiror fire bit. Justins dad weld done was on business. Marie stayed alone. As far as she knew, all was well. Across the hall, a couple in love. All good things on their way. He dark now. Moonless dark. She closed her eyes and slept, ands then so i heard the door opening and my first thought was angie wasug coming in to grab a scarfr a piece of jewelry from the dresser. I know she kept some spare things in the bedroom. The person just stood in the doorway what did you see . Just a silhouette or i saw a dark silhouette. A person dressed in dark clothing and i could see a red laser light shining in my eyes. Then as i was laying there i noticed the red light shine acrossd the pillow and i rememe thinking, thats a strange flashlight. And thats when i saw a much bigger person than either justin or angie so i knew this was an intruder. My heart sank. Im sure i froze and a second or two later the door was shutting and i remember praying, just please take what you want and just leave us alone. But, of course, leaving them alone was not what the strange, intrusive presence had in mind. Not even close. Coming up it was something in a hundred million years you cannot imagine. It just was unfathomable. The night of terror only just beginning. No one was prepared for what would happen only seconds later. And i rolled over and saw somebody running out of the bedroom. And i knew that was bad. Ha i heard angie scream, oh, my god m oh, my god marie tells detectives a horrifying story, but theyre not sure they believe it. To me, that was very odd. When dateline continues. Els protect your pet with the 1 name in flea and tick protection. Frontline plus. Trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. My job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. You dont know him. Theyeach one suffering withds. A story that breaks your heart. Like ravette, who needed help, because every step brought her pain. Their only hope is a ship unlike any other. Mercy ships. The largest floating civilian hospital in the world to bring free surgeries and care to people who have no other hope. Only 62 cents a day. 19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for the worlds forgotten poor. If you have ever wondered how can i, just one person, make a difference . This is your answer. So many are still suffering. So dont wait. Call the number on your screen call or donate now at mercyships. Org reinventing. Its what with comcast business, your Small Business can work faster, with powerful internet from the nations largest gigspeed network. Work safer, with all your connected devices automatically protected by securityedge. And work anywhere, with comcast business at home, our new businessgrade Internet Solution for remote workers. Whatever your business needs, comcast business has the solutions to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. Call or go online to find out more. Hard to think about it now. That might in may, 2014, when Marie Michael drifted off to sleep, things were so good, so full of possibilities for her eldest child and his fiance. The save the date cards had gone out for the wedding. They were just perfect together. Then that terrifying red light in the dark woke her up and she saw him, it, whatever shrinking away, and the fear that took over her body. She froze. Maybe she prayed for those horrifying seconds. How many seconds, three, five . Across the hall, angie. I heard the bedroom door open and i had been in such a hard sleep i just assumed it was justin leaving to go to the bathroom. Then i heard a pop, pop, pop. And it sounded very muffled so im thinking, that could not be a gunshot. And unaware that her world was quite different now, angie opened her eyes. And i rolled over and saw somebody running out of the bedroom. And i knew that was bad. And i nudged justin and i said, justin, justin. I heard angie scream, oh, my god oh, my god i knew something terrible had happened. I turned on the light and i just ran out of the bedroom, down the hall. Did you see him . I didnt. You just knew . Yeah. I looked in the bedroom doorway and i saw justin laying on his back on the right side of the bed with his head tilted and i could see a bullet hole in his head and i could see blood running down his neck. My instinct was to figure out how they got in the house. We had a really big window, checked to see if that was closed. It was. Checked the front door. That was still locked. Found out the back door was unlocked and i went and i opened it a little bit and i was like, thats not a good idea, so i closed it. Did you understand right away that everything was different, that the man you loved was dead . It was it was one of those moments where you just want to go back two minutes. Two minutes ago he was laying beside me and he was alive. Now hes gone for forever. But in that moment her brain, her fingers wouldnt cooperate. What they say about not being able to dial 911 in an emergency was really true. I had to try like three times. Somebody just came in and shot my fiance in the head. Maam, whats your name. Angie. Can you go over and check the status of hes hes dead. Okay. I know he is. Marie called 911 too. Somebody came in and shot somebody. Do you know who was shot . My son, Justin Michael. A few minutes later deputies from the polk county sheriffs arrived and looked around the house as the two women sat in the living room in complete silence. As we were sitting there across from the tv we noticed that the dvd player had been pulled out and there was a fluorescent yellow sweatshirt laying there, which didnt belong . Didnt belong. We pointed it out to the officer and it was neither one of ours. Was that what happened, some awful mistake, a robber hitting the wrong place, the wrong person . Deputies told them, get your things, were taking you out of the house. I couldnt go back into the bedro bedroom. I didnt have my glasses on. They were in there . So, i said, i need my glasses. She asked me if i would grab her glasses from the nightstand in their bedroom, so i did go back into their bedroom one more time. I looked at justin and i told him goodbye and how much i loved him and how i couldnt imagine why that had happened to him. Is it even possible to understand what it does to you to look through the door and see your eldest son lying there with a bullet hole in his head . It was something in a hundred million years you could not imagine. Who could have done that to my son who wouldnt hurt a fly . Had never spoken ill of anybody or to my knowledge had any enemies or it just was unfathomable. The sheriffs deputies took angie and marie outside, put them in separate patrol cars, where they sat and watched the activity around them quite stunned. Before they took her cell phone, marie called her husband, we weldon. She begged him to hurry. I wondered when i heard the news whether they had gotten into the wrong house. I mean, it was so bizarre. Reality failed to gel in weldons head. On that drive from minneapolis down, i couldnt believe it. I expected to see him there when i got there. I thought it was a mistake. I asked if justin was all right and she said, no, that he was gone. It was a feeling of isolation. And i could see people in and out of the house. I could ceedee tekt tifs with flashlights combing the neighborhood. The house. Crime scene. Crime scene. It was a very long three hours of my life just sitting there not knowing what was going on. News reporters are setting up everywhere and theres so many police cars and they werent saying, we got the guy. And like i just felt, they dont have him. They need to catch him. I know im safe, but is everybody else i love safe . Eventually they drove both women separately to the sheriffs headquarters where they installed them in separate rooms for separate interviews because something about this didnt smell right. There was just a lack of emotion, and to me that was very odd. Coming up, detectives become concerned about Something Else, too. We have to find out why did someone isolate justin and want him dead . And we didnt see a lot of emotion from the mother or angie, and so that was concerning. Did it say anything to you, that these two women in the house, one of them lying right beside the victim were unharmed . Yeah. It was suspicious. When dateline continues. Tit this, john. And on demand. Its boxing, cardio, yoga, and more. Its an interactive, goal crushing, whole family, whole body fitness machine. Its so cool the future of fitness is at home. The mirror. Oh, we love our new home. Neighborhoods great. Amazing school district. The hoa has been very involved. These shrubs arent board approved. You need to break down your cardboard. Thank you. Violation. Violation. I see youve met cynthia. At least geico makes bundling our home and Car Insurance easy. And it does help us save a bunch of money. Two inches over regulation. Thanks, cynthia. For bundling made easy, go to geico. Com on the morning of may 8th, 2014, local tv trucks roared off to a most unexpected place. Peaceful little grimes, iowa. Population 9,000 was crawling with cops. Very unusual, said reporter Stephanie Moore of des moines affiliate. Its the kind of place where they have the Convenience Store and everyones there Drinking Coffee in the morning. What about crime . Much of it . No. People there probably dont lock their doors. Its just a quiet neighborhood. Sure enough, Something Big was going down, though just what . The deputy wouldnt say. When you talk to neighbors, surprised to see even more than one Police Vehicle in the neighborhood. And then the dci, division of criminal investigation van came, thats hard to miss. Its huge. People are coming out with little booties on, full suits going in and out of a house, theyre crime tape up. Nobodys saying what happened. Neighbors are starting to ask, whats going on here . Anxiety is like a virus. It spread fast in grimes. Yeah, they were nervous. People dont just get shot in grimes. They knew Justin Michael and angie and couldnt imagine anything happening there. And if reporters and neighbors were mistified about what happened, so was detective Robin Bartholomew. I was the on call detective. I got called out at 3 30 in the morning. Who confronted a messy, bloody crime scene, a victim shot point blank in the head, and here was his fiance without a mark on her. Blood tends to spatter, but there wasnt a drop on angie. I mean, how far apart were they . Right next to each other. Has that ever happened in your experience that youve encountered that before . Not that ive encountered. Did it say anything to you, that these two women in the house, one of them lying right beside the victim were unharmed . Yeah, it was suspicious. Yes. Also, if the killer was intent on robbery, he certainly didnt succeed. That dvd player pulled out of its place in the living room, that was it said detective tim hoper. Nothing else was taken or disturbed. Well, it didnt make sense. Did it make sense as a burglar ri . No. Why would somebody be messing around . Stage it. Try to throw people off track. That sweat thirteenth shirt that didnt belong in the house, had the killer left it behind . While officers try to track that down, angie and marie were at the Sheriffs Office in separate Interview Rooms answering pointed questions. Why not you, too . I dont know if he looked around angie and justin and justin woke up and he sensed trouble. I dont know. Why not kill angie . And this was weird. Somehow, said detective bartholomew, their tone didnt seem right, especially angies. I thought due to what just happened that she would be very emotionally upset and to me it was just like a regular interview. It didnt it didnt make sense. Like when she told detective hoper about the intruder who just fired several bullets into her fiance, an intruder she saw. Describe it as best you can. It was all black. Id say probably i would say pretty tall. You say black, youre talking everything was black. Shad dolly or a black person . I dont know. It was i just i didnt see any color. Did that arouse any suspicion . Maybe she was involved in this somehow . I thought so. So detective bartholomew pulled angie and maries 911 call. Hes dead. I know he is. Somebody came in and shot somebody. Same thing. I just really curiously devoid of emotion . Very much so. I think there was a panic but listening to trkts it, there was some distance there. We have to find out why did someone isolate justin and want him dead, and we didnt see a lot of emotion from the mother or angie so that was concerning. So you do. Just then, police were going in circles, nowhere. Coming up somebody came in there for one sole purpose and that was to execute him, so someone was very personal. Investigators start digging into justins past, and their line of questioning triggers concerns for angie. I was thinking, was i about to marry somebody that i had no idea who he was . When dateline continues. Els hello, im dara brown. Heres whats happening. Millions of americans will receive their final 600 unemployment enhancement. Mitch mcconnell said the next stimulus package could be weeks away and will likely scale back benefits. The cdc issued new guidance for getting kids back to school in the fall citing the importance of in Person Learning while downplaying the risk. They have mitigation measures for schools and checklists for parents. Now back to dateline. Justin michael was shot to death while lying asleep in his very own bend while lying beside his apparently loving fiance. They adopted when in doubt suspect all about, including her. It didnt dawn on me that i could have been a suspect or angie. It didnt dawn on me a bit. You know, their minds do have to go to strange places when theyre detectives. Thats what they do. But i understand that. But it was the calm demeanor, the apparent lack of emotion in justins fiance that attracted a particular interest of the detectives. They pushed her a little, wondered aloud if angie might have known the killer or, perrish the thought, even colluded with that shadowy person, whoever it might be . Like maybe a love interest. Someone in his or her past, more likely hers. Talked with angie about justins relationships. He had no serious relationships prior to her. He did had dated, but no one that seemed to cause a concern so i went into angies relationships. Angie had been married before. Divorced in 2010. And the exhusband wasnt a concern . No. There was no bad blood . No. Nothing. There was no children involved. There was nothing other than a relationship that ended. But then angie revealed she got involved with a guy named andy. Andy wegler, moved in with him, lived with him for three years and then, this was unusual, continued living with him even after their romans ended. Andy, or so she said, was well in her past when she met justin. Hard to know what if anything to make of that. But then angie told the detective about some strange incidents, especially peculiar for grimes, the sort of thing that just doesnt happen here. One night back in november she said she parked her car on the street overnight in front of joi justins place. I saw the back window had been hit in. I was like, oh, my gosh. Then i went around and i saw two of the other windows had been hit in. She was shocked. Went back to the house to tell justin. They called the police. Police officer came and looked at it and noticed that it had been keyed, that it looked like somebody had thrown something at the wind shield because there was a big dent on the hood. That wasnt the only incident. Somebody got into the backyard and vandalized justins prized fruit tree. There were branches that were snipped off and eventually killed the trees. Why would somebody come into his yard and ruin things that he had tried to grow . So was the vandalism a warning . Did justin actually understand that he was a target . Maybe angie didnt know her fiance quite as well as she thought she did. After all, execution style murders, as the detectives knew very well, often turn out to have something to do with illegal drugs. Did you guys get high . No. Did you party a little bit . No. No drug involvement whatsoever . Did justin ever sell drugs . Not that i know of. But detective hopper felt it in his veins. Something about this didnt add up. This morning justin was singled out and murdered. You wasnt. I know. Marie wasnt. Justin was. I know. Okay . Give me a second, angie. It wasnt a burglar ri at your home. That takes away the randomness. Nothing was taken . I mean as far as were aware of right now. Okay. Okay. Somebody came in there for one soul purpose, and that was to execute him. So someone was very personal. For any reason that you would be protecting somebody that you care about, i need to know . Right. Because this is not acceptable. Uhhuh. They were doing their police thing and coming up with different scenarios, drugs and money, gambling. The question just kept being asked, is it possible that these things could have happened . And of course everythings a possibility. For a moment i was thinking, was i about to marry somebody that i had no idea who he was . Oh, but there were so many questions. One in particular that angie just couldnt seem to answer. Coming up where did you meet him at . Just at a bar. Okay. But it was intimate. It eventually did get intimate but not right away. Angie tells detectives from her past who once did something disturbing. He said some kind of nasty things about me as a person. That to me was kind of like, that was a little creepy. But does it have anything to do with the case . When dateline continues. Ntinu. To help soothe occasional digestive upsets, plus stress that can make them worse. Align digestive destress. From the pros in digestive health. But what if you could startdo better than that . Like adapt. Discover. Deliver. In new ways. To new customers. What if you could come back stronger . Faster. Better. At comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. But bounce forward. And now, were committed to helping you do just that with a powerful and reliable internet and voice solution at a great price. Call or go online today. Detective Robin Bartholomew was convinced of one thing in particular. Justin michaels fiance angie had to be the key to solving their murder case here in grimes, iowa. I maybe thought even though she was engaged, maybe there was a boyfriend on the side. Right. And if theres a boyfriend on the side, either the boyfriend wanted to get rid of the competition or she wanted to get rid of this one so she could be with the other one . Yeah, some kind of love triangle. It sounds devious to say such a thing, but these things actually do happen, right . Oh, very much so. Detective bartholomew held her suspicions in check while her partner, detective hopper, continued to press angie about the other men in her life. Very few of those, her exhusband and her exboyfriend, andy, and then three hours into the interview all of a sudden a name came up of someone that actually she had dated, an acquaintance that she had met in between the breakup with andy and her meeting justin. It was not a relationship. Did you not remember him . Well, i havent i mean, i had thought about him but it was kind of like it was like a couple of months of hanging out and it was kind of like a here or there and he i feel like i felt like he wasnt being very serious so i wasnt being very serious with it. And who was this other guy . His name is dave. Dave what . What is his last name now . I just forgot. Itll come to me, im sure. Okay. Dave, dave, i have da, i have da, dave. God, i dont know why i cant think of it right now. Wait, she couldnt remember his last name . Which is very odd. When did you first start seeing dave . The weekend after andy and i broke up. And it was kind of just like a silly thing and where did you meet him at . Just at a bar. I was like, all right, whatever. The guy is a funny guy. Angie told detective hopper she didnt spend much time with dave. They maybe texted each other and met up with each other. We had kind of had this day and age relationship. We saw each other once a week. The rest of our conversations were through text messaging. I dont think we talked on the phone. It was always just it was very like playful in nature, not like a serious type of relationship. But it was intimate. It eventually did get intimate but not right away. Okay. Okay. And then it was kind of like a once a week thing, wed hang out on friday nights generally. Then of course everything changed. And then i met justin. And she got the feeling justin just might be the real thing. And so she started avoiding dave. Did he sense something . Maybe. Thats when dave sent angie a text that referred to a Reality Television show. He had made the comment, im going to get your final red rose, and that to me was kind of like, thats a little creepy knowing i didnt feel that same way. Right. You hadnt given him any sign you felt that way . Right. We had never talked about being exclusive. I mean, when youre seeing somebody maybe once a week and talking through text messaging the other times, caught me off guard a little bit. Then just after her second date with justin thats when i told dave like i had met this other guy. So i had told dave that i was going to have to cancel our plans friday because of this. And as angie said, when you know, you know. Remember . So she asked her girlfriends how should i break up with dave . Like is it appropriate to do this through text messaging . Should i meet up with him . They were like, no, go ahead and do it through text messaging, you dont owe this guy anything. So she did, diplomatically. She tried to be kind, she said. So i just texted him and i said, hey, i want to be completely up front and honest with you. Ive met somebody else that i want to spend my time with and were done. His response was, i knew youve been running around behind my back. We hadnt seen each other for at least two weeks at this point. Its hardly a relationship. Right. He didnt take it so well. Unpleasant . Yes. I was trying to be kind. He was not. What did he say . Just said some kind of nasty things about me as a person and then at one point he told me to eat [ bleep ] and die and then that was then followed by niceties and wanting to work things out. Oh. So it was really back and forth all day. At one point it became obvious that he wasnt going to let it go, so i justifiably quit responding. You never heard from him again . He had texted me the next daze day saying i dont feel like this is over. Can you give me another chance . I didnt respond to that. So then after that, yes, i have not heard from him at all. That was in june 2013. 11 months before justin was shot to death. Angie told the detective all of that. So odd, to say the least, that angie swore she could not remember the guys last name. Did you think about what his last name is yet . I keep trying to think of it. Dave, dave, dave, dave, dave. Dave. Dave. I do not know why i am drawing such a blank. Really . Detective hoper turned up the heat. About one of the first things i asked you about the very beginning who before justin who was your relationship, you said anty. Uhhuh. You left dave out, okay . Right. For whatever reason and it doesnt matter at this point either. Is there any possibility that with dave or anyone else that while youve been with justin that youve maintained any relationship with anyone . No. And then finally, after more than 30 minutes of questions about this dave guy, it suddenly came to her, she said. I remember daves last name, by the way. And that is . Moffitt. Moffitt. Moffitt. David moffitt. A name that meant nothing at all. Another dead end most likely, but remember that business about luck . The most useful investigative tool there is. Coming up new suspicions are raised as detectives realize two people in the case are connected by one in the same cubical they were. Coincidences, sometimes they come in clusters, dont they . Another Office Person heard the name and recognized dave moffitt, and she immediately said, he had a car impounded this morning approximately within 30 minutes of the homicide. When dateline continues. In. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. 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Feeling better . Im speechless. Thanks for the apoquel. Aw. Thats what friends are for. Ask your veterinarian for apoquel next to you, apoquel is a dogs best friend. That is . Moffitt. So finally angie remembered the name, the name of the man she dated just before she met justin. David moffitt. Who was he . Sometimes local accountant for one thing but also the sign of a wealthy iowa farm family. Not very memorable, said angie. Just a guy who liked having fun though there was, she said, this one remarkable coincidence. A couple of months after she stopped seeing david and just before she got engaged to david, david got a job in the same department in the same Wells Fargo Office building as justin. David left under some kind of clouds months before the murder, but really what were the chances . Their desks were just feet apart. Did he know justin was tate dating you . He figured out justin was dating me. Justin told his parents about it. He just said it was an awkward situation but there was no problem. The alignment of that is astronomical. In a company of 10,000 people here in des moines, what would be the odds they would be the same. In the same cubical. But they got along fine, no bad blood and David Moffitt had no criminal record so should they add him to the list . I dont know if i have the complete story regarding dave or not. Coincidences, sometimes they come in clusters, dont they . Not long after angies memory coughed up the name dave moffitt there was another coincidence. We figured we needed to continue and focus on dave and see where that leads us. The first thing that was done was a background makeup of dave to include to see if he had a weapons permit, and so while that check for the weapons permit was being conducted, another Office Person heard the name and recognized dave moffitt and she immediately said, he had a car impounded this morning. Not only was it impounded, it was impounded approximately within 30 minutes of the homicide, approximately 4 00 in the morning, and it was six miles approximate north of where the homicide occurred. And dave moffitt resided approximately 28 miles southeast of where the homicide occurred. That would be a red flag for sure . Through an investigation we learned he had an accident. So they pulled the accident report and read about those two cops and their strange encounters just off of highway 141 just at 4 00 in the morning, a place by which all rights cory rose should never have been that particular morning, but life happens to everybody. Early on the 8th of may 2014 officer rose was adjusting. I was traveling back from the hospital in des moines. My fiances mother was in the hospital. He was on his way to a 5 a. M. Patrol shift in the town of boon 25 miles or so up the road where officer rose is an investigator with the local police department, and it was very dark on the highway. No moon at all so he almost missed it. There in the ditch, 30 yards off the pavement. What did you see . As i was traveling up the road i saw a car, it would be off here to my right sitting on top of the ditch just on the other side of this pole. Just over here where the grass is . Yeah, sitting there with the drivers door hanging open. Airbags deployed, dome light on. It appeared the car was headed for the highway but missed a sharp curve on the gravel access. Cory pulled up near as he could to the crashed car. Just as soon as i had stopped, noticed there was nobody in the car, nobody around the car, and i was sitting in my vehicle, a male approached my vehicle, knocked on the door, and he had come from kind of off behind me to my left. The knock on the window startled me, you know . Was asking if we would give some assistance, offered to pay me to give him a ride. I told him quite frankly i didnt feel comfortable with doing so. Between doing that and having to get to work and just not being his position, he called his dispatch. Can you call the authorities in polk county to see if you can get somebody to come out here . They said they would have somebody out there as soon as possible. They were tied up on a shooting in grimes. So cory left for his shift, and when polk county deputy responded to a call a little time later, all he knew was there had been an accident. So he hit that ditch at some speed. Yeah, he was going pretty fast. Just missed the corner. Just unfamiliar with the area and driving too fast for gravel. But it was odd because once again, the driver of that car, David Moffitt, was nowhere to be seen. Coming up a roadside encounter goes from odd to downright unnerving. All the hair on my body was standing on edge. When dateline continues. Ds original crown molding, walk in closets. We do have a ratt problem. Round and round with love well find a way, just give it time. At least geico makes bundling our home and Car Insurance easy. It does help us save. Round and round with love well find a way, just give it time. Round and round what comes around, goes around. For bundling made easy, go to geico. Com its kind of my quiet, alone time. Audible is a routine for me. Its like a fun night school for adults. I could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. I never was interested in historical fiction before, but im obsessed with it now. There are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i dont have time to read, mean i might as well listen. If i want to catch up on the news or history or learn whats going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. Because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. I think theres like 180 books in my, in my library now. It changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. Its true, its so true. To start your free 30day trial, just text listen17 to 500500. Justin michael had been shot to death in his own bed, but his fiancee, angie, had been spared. About a half hour later, angies ex, David Moffett, crashed his car into a ditch about five miles from justins home. When officer jason tarp arrived, moffett appeared to be gone. So i get out of the car and immediately am thinking, okay, maybe they were ejected. I go and start searching to make sure they werent thrown out of the carment. I hear somebody yell, i need help. I was like, is this your car . Yeah, thats my car. He has a sweet smell coming off of him. I automatically was like, okay, this is an oui. It could be a drunken driving thing . The time of day and theres a car accident involved, single vehicle. Its just kind of goes with it. Definitely smelled like hed been drinking. Was he glad to see you . I dont know if he was glad to see me. You were potentially going to rescue him from a bad situation, youd think. He saw somebody that might be able to help him. I dont know if he was necessarily happy to see me. Reporter moffett told him he was on his way home from visiting his brother. I asked him, theres no way, any chance you visited a friend named grimes tonight . Why would you bring that up . There had just been within an hour a homicide in grimes. The suspect was still unaccounted for. And you got a guy sweating and smelling sweet. Exactly. What did he say . I dont even know where the town is. Everything about David Moffett made the deputy feel anxious. All the hair not on my head but all the hair on my body was standing on edge. Thats weird. I mean, hes just a regular guy, right, didnt seem to be armed. Youre a cop, youve got your weapon, and youre feeling nervous . I knew he wasnt armed because i did a patdown for weapons if youre going to sit in my car, youre not going to have a weapon on you. Turned out david hadnt been drinking, there was no reason to arrest him. Still, the deputys instincts kicked in. I looked through his car and couldnt find insurance. I impounded it for not having insurance with an accident. Not that it was drivable anyway. He sent david home in a cab. After reading deputy tarps report, detectives bartholomew and harper knew they had to act fast. There could be clues still on highway 141, and surprises, too. The media people, angie and marie, saw hovering around the patrol cars on that awful may morning had no idea what it just happened in Justin Michaels bedroom middle of the night. The reporters knew only this theyd been sent here because of a suspicious death, and it was related somehow to this house. Then as they waited for somebody to tell them something, they got a tip. Local reporter Stephanie Moore we heard that sheriffs deputies were walking the fields along highway 141. So that would be the highway you would take from des moines to go to grimes. And they were just walking these fields. And we asked, are you looking for a body . No. Are you looking for someone . No. Are you looking for a weapon . We cant say, but the publics not in any danger. We think what happened in grimes is related, and its an isolated incident. Walking the fields. You know, in a line so they dont miss anything. Kind of how they do if theres a missing child. But we thought maybe they were looking for a gun or weapon. Good guess. In fact, that small army of cops was looking for anything that looked like evidence. Hours earlier, David Moffetts car went off the road here, and facts were piling up. Moffett had worked with justin, dated angie, and wrecked his car the morning of the murder, just six miles away. Of course that piqued our interest very quickly. That moved David Moffett to the top of the list. Polk county prosecutor steve foratano and bret lucas had been involved all along. We sent the detectives and the patrol officers to that location, highway 141, to see what else they could find in that area that might be of use or might be telling in terms of the investigation. Thats why the locals saw all these Police Officers wandering up and down the field as if they were looking for something they were. They were. And imagine what they found there in the ditch along the highway. Probably the most important thing was they found loaded magazines, they had the same type of ammo that was found at the crime scene. The shell casings found at the crime scene matched that type. Ammunition found in the ditch at highway 141. Right in the ditch near where the car crashed. It was actually across the highway and a little bit farther town. But within 500 yards of where the crash occurred. They also located in that ditch some paper targets that you would use for shooting target practice. Some shooters earmuffs. A camo neck cloth that youd wear could wear as a mask. Like somebody preparing for an act of terror or an execution. Clearly David Moffett was their killer, had to be. And then well, you know what they say about assumptions. The cops found Something Else near the accident scene. The sort of thing that could make a person wonder what in heavens name is going on here. It was one little thing in a sh shoebox. Shoes were not in it, but there was various paperwork. One of the things was a receipt from a local car dealership. The receipt was for the purchase of three oil changes, had the name of andrew wagner. Andrew waggoner, the boyfriend angie lived with before justin. Weird. Another guy without a criminal record, another apparently ordinary person. A des moines funeral director in his case. And yet, there it was in black and white, among all those other pieces of evidence. Andrew waggoner. How did he explain that . At that time you dont. So did andy wegener kill Justin Michael, the man who replaced him in angies party . We immediately went to andys place of business and brought him back to headquarters for questioning. And we asked him about his relationship with angie. And more to the point perhaps, his relationship or the lack of it, with justin. Have you ever met justin . Once. Where was that at . At joes pub in johnston. Random runin, or was it a gathering no. It was a gathering with a group of friends. It was an engagement party. Was justin the person who she was in the relationship after you broke up with her, or was there someone les . There might have been somebody else. You dont have any idea . No. The last time you talked to angie would have been when . She sent a text that said, happy birthday, i said, okay, thanks, that was it. Im asking whether or not hes missing anything and he never tells me about the receipt for the oil changes. The receipt in the shoebox. The reason for suspicion and all these questions. I stay on the receipt because thats thats where my interest is at. He believes hes in possession of the receipt. Andy said he thought the receipt was in his car or at his house. If it turned up somewhere else, how would that happen . If its somewhere other than your car or at home i threw it away . Thats about it. I dont know any ideas how it could turn up in this investigation . No. Then detective hopper asked andy about guns. Do you go shooting at all . Shooting . Yeah. Do you have any i have a. 12 gage. I havent shot it in six years. Do you have any handguns . No. Okay. And what he did the night before. Yesterday, what time did you get off work . Yesterday got off at 4 00. Okay. Can you walk me through what occurred from 4 00 yesterday until we showed up at your doorstep this morning and you were so thrilled to see us . Andy said he spent the evening and night with his current girlfriend. You spent the night with your girlfriend . Yeah. How long has she been there . Three years, 3. 5. They have good security . Not really is it gate tod to get in, cameras . No. No. He had spent the night with his current girlfriend at that time. We verified that before he left the office. Before he had a chance to make a phone call or anything else. At least cording to the girlfriend . According to the girlfriend. Yes. But that would give him an alibi an alibi, whether it was preconceived or whether or not it was legitimate, we did not know. Andy swore detectives would find no evidence against him in grimes. When was the last time you were in grimes for any reason . Oh, theres a Basketball Court in the u is what they call it. That was a while ago. Whats a while mean to you . Three weeks to a month or three to four weeks at least. Theres a bunch of guys who get together. We pay 5, and were able to shoot around this place for a couple of hours. Let me double check, make sure were going to go. Sure. The detectives exhausted their questions, took andy back to work. Apparently in the clear. Unaware that andys name box office to turn up one more time in a very suspicious place. Coming up investigators have been looking for a single killer. But a fresh clue may send this investigation in a whole new direction. Ive been pretty stable with my schizophrenia for a while, and then my kids asked me why my body was rocking back and forth. My doctor said i have tardive dyskinesia. Td can affect different parts of the body, and it may also affect people who take medications for depression and bipolar disorder. [narrator] in todays trying times, were here to help you manage td. Visit talkabouttd. Com for a doctor discussion guide to prep for your next appointment in person, over the phone, or online. I was glad to learn there are treatments for td. Reinventing. Its what with comcast business, your Small Business can work faster, with powerful internet from the nations largest gigspeed network. Work safer, with all your connected devices automatically protected by securityedge. And work anywhere, with comcast business at home, our new businessgrade Internet Solution for remote workers. Whatever your business needs, comcast business has the solutions to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. Call or go online to find out more. Justin didnt deserve this. He always thought of everybody else. Always wanted to do for other people. As much in love as angie said she was, the detectives had learned over the years you never know. They needed to search her phone, see who she talked to in the hours and days just before justin was shot to death. They also got a search warrant for David Moffetts house, and inside no, they didnt find the murder weapon, but they did find these strange notes. Seemed to have been written by someone whod been watching justin and angies neighborhood. Those surveillance notes listed addresses in the immediate area around the crime scene. And they were specific about when patients in were turning on and off their lights. The creek behind the house is is it wide enough where i can jump across that. It looked like a way to make an escape once the murder was done. But then they found what looked like the mother lode, a bill of sale. It was in andys name but there in david modifiyests house. Moffetts house. That is the bill of sale for a. 9 millimeter carving and the name was andy wegenr. How was that remotely possible . More evidence to suggest theres a conspiracy. We wanted to find out if andy was the the purchaser of the weapon. Fortunately that bill of sale gave us the lead to where the weapon came from. His name was right here, drew ballman. Here he is. Hes a small town, High School English teacher in a little place called sigourney 90 miles or so from des moines. There is something you can do with a degree yes, there it. I love my job. An english teacher who likes to tell stories. And this one the sort of thing that would make an interesting plot for a novel. A novel perhaps, yes. Drew was a selfdescribed nerd. He also is a target shooter and a metal detector enthusiast. Hes forever digging up old coins and such. Loves it. Mind you, theres only so much a person can ferret out using equipment thats, well, to say down market may sound cruel but the metal detector i wanted was about 600. Are you out of your mind . No. You buy a 600 metal detector . Thats the midrange. You can spend upwards of 900 if you want to. You get to be an uppercase nerd. Very much so, yes. He figured hed sell the gun and use the cash to buy that new metal detector. Its what the state of iowa calls a long gun. Its something that you put to your shoulder and you shoot like a rifle or a shotgun. I listed it on line on arms list, like craigslist for guns. What did you ask for it . 360. About a month later he got a nibble via email. I told him that i needed cash and needed a photo i. D. So i knew he who was he said he was and he was at least 21. He said his name was andy wegener. That was the email address he contacted me from. I work part time at a gas station. Its public. There are cameras in the area. And if something bad were to happen, i know of at least two or three people that are there that would probably come to my rescue. Is that the kind of thing you have to do when you sell a weapon . Thats the thing i do when i sell a weapon because ive got entirely too much to lose. I have a family. I have a job that i love them both. I did not want to jeopardize those. We met at the station. I showed him in the rifle in the back end of my car. I filled out a bill of sale because i wanted to make sure that this was trackable. I kept a copy. He kept a copy. We reviewed everything to make sure it was what he wanted and made sure everything was up to snuff. You saw his photo i. D. I saw his photo i. D. How carefully did you, you know, store the information . Im kind of a pack rat by nature. By teacher nature you dont throw anything away. All of the email conversations that he and i had, i kept. All the Text Messages between he and i, i kept. I still had pictures that i had originally posted on arms list, those are still on my home computer. As he was leaving, again, to cover myself, i wrote down his license plate number. You are a careful guy. I am. Was he a nice fella . For the very limited interaction we had, yeah, he seemed very nice, very normal. He asked me how to load it. I showed him how. That was it . Off he sfwhwent . Off he went. A few days later, the School Secretary gave drew a message. A polk county detective wanted to talk to him right away. And my first thought was i interpreted the law wrong when i looked up the iowa codes, and im going to jail. You immediately thought about selling that weapon . Thats the first thing that came to mind. Why else would a doctor be calling me . I was going to jail. It was very scary because i had taken so many precautions. I called the detective, and he said, drew, did you sell a firearm recently . That was my second thought, yes, i am going to jail. I have completely screwed everything up. I told him, be forthright, be honest, i said, yes, i did. I told him it was a. 9 millimeter. He said, drew, we have reason to believe that that weapon was used in the commission a crime. My heart sank. What happened . I have no idea. He told me it was used in a murder. I about dropped my phone. What that does to you i unwittingly took part with an accessory in somebodys death. I felt terrible about that. You felt that way, i was an accessory . How would you feel . I sold something to a man, to a person who later used that to take somebodys life. Terrible. Just god. And i still today, i ive rationalized it, gone to a do s counselor about it. Whats the expression, guns dont kill people, people people kill people. I still believe that, but i provided him that method. Later that day, detective hopper drove out to meet with drew who turned over all the emails and Text Messages hed saved, as well as photos of the rifle. Three ammo magazines, a scope, and a red laser pointer attached to the weapon, part of the deal. And i asked him if he had any shell casings from the weapon that he told. He went, left, came back and had 63 casings. Wow. Person who likes to keep things. Yes. Most of those casings were. 9 millimeter. The same ones found at the murder scene. And the crash set. Who bought the car beam . We still dont know where were at with david versus andy. Could drew i. D. The guy in a photo lineup . Coming up detectives show drew pictures of david and andy. He said, thats very odd, he said, this is strange. When dateline continues. When dateline continues around the world, 5 billion people lack access to safe surgery. Children are suffering from treatable causes, living with conditions many have never seen. For more than 40 years, mercy ships has deployed floating hospitals with volunteer doctors who give their time to provide the free surgeries these children desperately need. I feel like my reason for being here is driven by love. I think its the love that changes the patients first. Join us. By calling or going to mercy ships dot org now. 19 a month will give children and families the hope and healing they never thought possible. And turn lives of pain into futures full of potential. Its a mission powered by love. Made possible by you. Call the number on your screen or donate now at mercyships. Org hello, im dara brown. Heres whats happening a hurricane warning is in effect for southern texas as Tropical Storm hanna barrels toward the coast. Its expected to make landfall saturday afternoon or early evening, passing through corpus christi, a city hit hard by the coronavirus. And congressman john lewis will cross the Edmund Pettus bridge for the last time this weekend as parts of a sixday celebration of life. His body will lie in state at the u. S. Capitol next week. Now back to dateline. I really thought it was a random act, a home invasion. During the course of that day you were completely buffaloed. Correct. The investigation raced forward. The polk county Sheriffs Office told Justin Michaels family virtually nothing, didnt tell them they found the man who sold the murder weapon, nor that they had to figure out who he actually sold it to. Because surely whoever bought the gun must have been the killer. I asked him at that point to look at the four lineups. The first set of six photographs i showed him contained the photograph of David Moffett. Mr. Ballplan lo dsballman looke cant be certain. The guy had a hat and glasses on. Wish he had taken it off. He pointed at the picture of David Moffett and said, im 90 sure thats the person i sold the gun to. What happened when he looked at the picture with andy wegener . When i showed him, he looked and immediately looked and pointed to andy and said, thats for odd, he said, this is strange. He was confused. He goes that looks like the i. D. That looks like the person i sold the gun to. He picked out both of them. So we still have our questions. It was all very confusing. Didnt help that David Moffett and andy wegener looked similar. So one last thing to try. Earlier when deputies searched David Moffetts house, they found the bill of sale for that car beam. They also discovered a receipt for lemonade and a candy bar bought at a Dollar General store in the very town where the rifle was purchased. So i requested video from that store. Person walks into the store, still wearing a hat, but the sunglasses are hanging off his shirt. And the video depicts David Moffett. Well, well, well. And he purchase the lemonade and the candy bar. Which may have settled the question whove picked up the murder weapon. But here was another question how did David Moffett get hold of andy wegeners i. D. . The detectives had all kind of reasons for wanting to talk to David Moffett. They picked him up about 15 hours after the shooting, took him to headquarters, installed him in an Interview Room and no dice. He requested a lawyer. Just like that, youre done. I sat there for approximately an hour with him, offering him a phone book, a means to reach his attorney because we still wanted to attempt to talk with him even if his attorney was present. He never reached an attorney. David moffett wouldnt talk, but it hardly mattered. The evidence they had was enough to arrest him and charge him with firstdegree murder. By now detectives understood that angie had nothing to do with the murder, that what seemed like a lack of emotion in angies demeanor and maries, too, was shock, pure shock. In fact, the thought that david could be the man who killed the love of her life hit angie while she was still being questioned. And finally, after her apparent calm, she was overcome. When dave came up, we talked about that, and the detective came back with a picture of him. Do you know this person . Thats dave. And i said, thats him. And i immediately started shaking and was very visibly upset. Im just afraid that he had something to do with it and what if i caused all this . The detective was like, whats whats going on . And i said, if hes the one who did it, then its all may fault. What do you mean by that . Because i was the one who had broken off the relationship. I was the one who ignored him the next day. You really think if you hadnt ignored him hed suddenly become mr. Sweetness and light . Well, no, but i felt like i brought this monster into justins life. But the prosecutors needed more evidence if they wanted to prove that David Moffett was the man angie saw as a monster. How, for example, did david get an i. D. With andy wegeners name unless andy was somehow involved . One of the discoveries during that first search warrant was a a computer box for a laptop. And that laptop was never found during that first search warrant. So the prosecutors wrote a second search warrant, and voila, they found it but maybe too late. They discovered it in the bottom. A red tub that had a few inches of water in the bottom of it. And you know how computer hate water. The waterlogged laptop wasnt all that found. The red tub ended up being a gold mine of evidence. Like what . They found ammunition that ended up being consistent with the ammunition found at the crime scene. And remember that shoebox they found near the car crash . It was a navotos brand. And in the red tub, what do you know in that red tub were those nevada shoes, size 11. Its almost like he was laying the trap for himself. Absolutely. They sent the wet laptop off to the computer lab hoping maybe the techs could find something on it, and surprise, surprise, they did. And off of that computer we were able to find the work that David Moffett had done to create a fake i. D. In andy wegeners name. Thats the one he presented to the School Teacher drew ballman. He also created a fake andy wegener address and stole the oil Service Receipt from andys car, all of which made it obvious, said the prosecutors, David Moffett planned to get away with murder by framing a perfectly innocent man, andy wegener. What kind of a mind is behind that sort of behavior . It was very cold, very calculating. Tremendous amount of planning and premeditation that went into this murder. And he tried to execute it so that he would. Be blamed. That he would get away with it. And remember that sweatshirt left behind after the shooting . As if the killer had been sloppy. In the sweatshirt was a boat registration that we could not figure out why it was there, and what its meaning was at the time. Ultimately, several months later, we learned that that boat registration belonged to the father of the registered sex offender that lived within a few blocks of the crime scene. So it appeared to us once we made that connection that that was just another attempt to cast the blame for this on somebody else. So convicting David Moffett of firstdegree murder would surely be about as easy a task as a prosecutor could ask for. Or maybe not. Coming up revelations no one will believe. Thats pretty crazy, isnt it . . Trials are really interesting because you get to really hear the whole picture. Several detectives, as well as Law Enforcement officials finally said reporter Stephanie Moore after months of secrecy, they gathered in june, 2015, at the polk county courthouse in des moines for the trial. And the prosecutors revealed all those wild Details Behind the murder of Justin Michael. First time the public heard any of it. First time justins family and fiancee finally understood what happened. The detectives and the prosecutors had shared no information with us other than the fact of who they arrested. And the little they learned during the pretrial hearings could be confusing and painful. As things started to come out a little bit, i texted andy and said, how did he get your i. D. . And he was like, i i dont know. And i just had that feeling of what if andy had something to do about it. But prosecutors have good reason for keeping the details of their cases from the public and even from the family. We dont want the publicity of the evidence to taint the jury panel. Now as the trial began, they were quite confident they had all the evidence they needed. Even without the stillmissing murder weapon. What happened to it . I mean, he he crashed the car apparently right away. Either got rid of it before then or our theory at least is that sometime between him getting home after the murder before officers were back out there doing that extensive search. And being arrested that evening, he was able to get back and retrieve the weapon and throw it into the lake. And then once its in the lake, theres no way youre going to find it. Not without a lot of work. With all the evidence collected prosecutors felt they had enough. With the physical evidence that we were able to get specifically from drew ballman and at the homicide scene and at David Moffetts house from a ballistics perspective we were able to connect all of dots. Reporter the ohio state stowed the jury the state showed the jury bullet casings and magazines, practice for target shooting, a kindle containing a map of justins neighborhood, a can of pepper spray, even a flashlight that for all of David Moffetts careful planning ultimately betrayed him. It was something that caught the attention of justins sister sydney and brother nathan. There were two times that he reacted significantly in the trial. One was they found a fingerprint on the battery in the flashlight. So he wore gloves when he was carrying the flashlight but not when he was putting the batteries into the flashlight. When they said that, he goes, ahh. As if david just then understood his error. It was at the trial, said justins mom, that she finally learned what this red light in her eyes was. It was not some kind of strange flashlight as she thought. It was a red laser pointer most likely attached to the murder weapon. Pointed at my face. Thats a very sobering thought. Thats sitting at the trial brought back a lot of trauma issues, and that being one of them. And the other thing that bothered me was finding out that this guy had the gun six inches from justins face when he shot him four times. Because we had thought he in the hallway at the doorway. Somehow it makes it even more invasive that hes that close and and just executed somebody and you look at somebodys face and make that choice to kill them. To me, thats just beyond troubling. Its just unfathomable still. Like the twilight zone. The prosecutors say David Moffetts computer searches were last, and then the jury and everybody else heard what david looked up on his laptop in the days before the murder. A window into the mind of a killer. The only murdering murder guide youll ever need, seriously. Convicted crimes of passion in polk county. Traffic cameras in grimes. What does hell look like . And so on and so on. Interesting that he would ask what hell looks like. There was some reference to the confessional times. That is times when some local priest would be available, a priest whose oath would swear him to secrecy. He obviously was concerned about what was going to happen if he committed this murder. That day that all of the computer stuff came out was a particularly brutal day in court for me. It was hard for me to handle. I had to leave and decided i couldnt go back in the afternoon because it was just it was overwhelming. You say it was too hard to hear, you couldnt actually go back. But what made it so hard . Just seeing my name, seeing justins name. You know, hed googled my name, looked at my Facebook Page or whatever for months, seen the locations from where he was to our house. And i mean, that he was that close. Here you were totally oblivious living through the happiest days of your life. Uhhuh. Uhhuh. In his closing, the prosecutor told the jury what must have happened. David moffett i think was obviously fixated on angie, she broke off with him which caused him some pain and hurt. And then that wound was probably reopened when he started working with justin. And justin wound up getting engaged. And david obviously would be concerned about the fact that it was justin that was with angie, and that he couldnt be with her because of him. So he gradually formed a plan that small he was going to get rid of justin, possibly get angie back again. I realize that theres a high bar to cross to be considered insane by the legal system. But thats pretty crazy, isnt it . Well, he had a goal, and he worked to achieve that goal. So his trying to commit this murder, trying to plan and make sure that he got away with it. Maybe and maybe Something Else was going on. Maybe David Moffett could blame somebody or Something Else. And sure enough, he did with a Legal Defense that could defend the worst evidence in the world. David moffett had no intention of going to prison. Coming up the verdict. Almost gave you chills up your spine. Your spine you care for your baby. Is absolutely perfect and that inspired our perfect diaper. 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Everyone does right up here. It happens to all of us. We buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. What i do is help new homeowners overcome this. What is that, an adjustable spanner . Good choice, steve. Okay, dont forget youre not assisting him. You hired him. If you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. Who else reads books about submarines . My dad. Yeah. Oh, those are progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Look at that. Its very common to havehave sensitivity a gum Health Concern as well. You know, i talk to dentists every day and theyre able to recommend new sensodyne sensitivity gum. Its really good dentistry to be able to recommend one product that can address two conditions. Rarely as a prosecution so replete with evidence of a killers motives and awful deeds. Rarely does that evidence so clearly portray such planning, such deviousness. A man who knew exactly what he was doing when he murdered Justin Michael, said the prosecution. And then it was time for the defense. It was the worst day of the trial. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury defense attorney keith rigg did not dispute the wealth that was presented. David moffett did kill justin said the defense because he was legally insane. And therefore, not guilty. What the facts are in this case are not really in dispute. The fact that this happens because of a mental disease isnt really in dispute because this makes no sense otherwise. What happens here for lack of a better term is crazy. And why should the jury believe that . This was the defenses star witness, dr. Peter bragen, a famous if controversial psychiatrist with a resume of television and other appearances in which he has condemned the use of psych tightropic drugs. He testified that andy had been taking drugs on and off for gree years and what happened was the drugs fault. It evolves out of a an aggressive hammering of the brain by the drugs. It was druginduced violence, he told the jury, druginduced murder. In the courtroom, angie listened to this and upset would not not quite the right word. It was laughable almost. And just that you can how much money they had to spend to find this guy whos going to say exactly what the defense wants him to say. Were auryou afraid the jury would bee uy it . Of course year always a little afraid because its scary to think that he could potentially get off with an insanity plea. And the more he talked, the more it was it was frustrating to sit there and listen to him. You walked into somebodys bedroom with an assault rifle. Yes. Its horrible. He told you he thought about whether it was right or wrong, right . No. He told me in the beginning he thought about whether it was right or wrong, and that it didnt enter his mind anymore. It was like he was in a video game or like in an activity that was outside of the normal reality. He even thought about killing somebody else so toward the end, hes just become a victim i believe the victim of this manic episode driven by the drugs. Just not him. Its the jury that gets to make the decision, right . Of course. They do. You never know quite what a jurys going to do. Its always an anxious moment when youre trying to wait for them to return a verdict. Oh, but it wasnt the moment. Hour after hour they waited. Then almost seven hours later judge asked do we have a verdict. The jury says they do. We find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. If David Moffett felt anything in that moment, he didnt show it. Nothing. Stonecold reaction. Almost gave you chills up your spine. The insanity defense clearly did not work. The threshold that you have to reach for an insanity defense is that you dont understand the nature and consequences of your actions or you dont understand the difference between right and wrong. Thats an incredibly high threshold. Yeah. You look at the degree of premeditation, the degree of planning that went into that. Those are not the actions of an insane person. It does nothing to bring justin back. But it would have been history ink if he had not horrific if he had not been found guilty so it did help. Can you imagine if that person was still free in our society . Who knows who he would have attacked next. And he would have. I think he would have. I think he enjoyed the planning the planning and seeing if he could accomplish his task. The verdicts are always hard, i think, because nobody ever wins in this situation. His family is obviously still in pain. The moffett family is obviously in pain, as well. So there really is no winner here. We want to hold him responsible for what he did. The jurys verdict did that. Would they have caught him without the lucky breaks . If David Moffett had not lost control of the car, had the cop not spotted the wreck off in the park. If you went on your merry way my involvement was just the citizen driving up the road, stopping to check on somebody that morning, you know. Had the deputys instinct not pushed him to seize davids car, he probably would have been caught eventually. But what do you think about this now when you look back on it . Thankful. Very thankful that i, one, trusted my gut because were trained ed ted to do that from. s the only thing you got to back yourself up on calls when youre by yourself. Sure. If somebody seems a little hinky maybe he is. And you investigate further. Its not prying, its trying to figure out if theres something more to the story than what youre hearing. A lot receive times when you trust lot of times when you trust your gut its right. Neither David Moffett nor his attorney agreed to be interviewed. His sentence was mandatory in atlanta, life without parole. Cold comfort for justins family. Only photos of him now and memories of the good person he was. Habitat for humanity, his favorite charity, built a house in his honor. His colleagues at wells fargo worked on it. Its one of those a perfect memorial i think for him. He would like to see something good come out of the terrible thing that happened. The thing that happens to people when they truly grieve it isnt voluntary, and it takes a long time. Grief is a wave. And sometimes its it just fills you, and it takes you away. And it happens lets frequently now than it did six months or nine months ago. Yeah. But its still debilitating. And we knew then that physically he was gone and, in our hearts, we still havent let him go. Its still hard to believe that a person could be that evil. Evil is the only word i can think of, inhuman, to do Something Like that. He just seems like he was he didnt get his way. And he took justins life for no reason. And the woman at the center of it all, what kind of a life would she have had with him . A thought perhaps best packed away like a lot of things. Had the had the Wedding Dress, had the houses booked, had the venue booked, had catering booked. I mean, we were just a little over two months out. Yeah. Boy oh boy, a Wedding Dress is such a symbol. What do you do with a thing like that in a situation that youre in . Havent even looked at it. Where do you put it . Its in my moms basement. Shes moved a couple of times, and its in her basement. Ill kralg ill kralg. Im craig melvin. And im natalie morales. And this is dataline. You can lose a child without knowing it in a second. It wasnt an if, it was a when are they going to tell us that shes not coming home. This is not what was supposed to happen. The note was under her blanket. I saw it sticking out and i grabbed it. Their daughter was a runaway. I am frantic because i didnt know how to find her. They called police. They searched. Then a jogger found a red shoe and a pool of blood. Here they are, three people at the doo