children lived in charlotte, almost a three-hour drive from durham. on my way there, i did call jamere. that was jamere straud, her fiance, a police officer who worked in greensboro. much closer to durham. i said i need you to get to durham now. denita has fell. she s unconscious. they re trying to revive her. so he said okay. because i knew from greensboro to durham, he would be there. he didn t let on like he was aware. word spread fast that something had happened at the apartment complex. edith called to check on denita. she wasn t answering, which was, you know, after i call your phone several times as a best friend, you know, somebody s going to call you back. so i was like that s strange. so my instinct just said call jamere really quick just to touch bases with him. by now, jamere straud had
disbelief because i had i had nothing bad to say about him. this wasn t jamere. yes. i mean, that s exactly, more or less, how i felt. it was just like a nightmare. like, this wasn t reality. denita had trusted jamere. the man investigating her death did not. now, the man who once made denita so happy was in the cross hairs of a murder investigation that was quickly ramping up. and though jamere stroud seemed genuinely devastated by denita s death, openly crying throughout his interview with detectives, he wasn t getting much sympathy. when i first spoke with him, i thought i had my man. jamere? jamere. coming up. what does shannon know? and what is she hiding? as we re leaving, getting ready to finish up the interview with her, someone hands me a note.
he was, apparently, even perfect enough for denita s cautious mother, sharon smith. who came to trust that jamere was the right guy for her precious daughter. i knew what he would be getting. but i didn t know what she would be getting. so i tried to find every reason to not like him. how d you do? i failed because he was very polite. he was very respectful. i would always tell jamere, you take care of my baby. this is precious cargo. and he promised me that he would. that he wouldn t let anything hurt her. i said, okay. now, police wanted to talk to jamere stroud. greensboro police have confirmed smith was engaged to officer jamere stroud. stroud has been an officer with the greensboro police department for four years. the fact that he was her fiance, immediately made stroud
shannon crawley. the woman who owned an suv similar in model and color to the one seen leaving the crime scene with a distraught woman behind the wheel. so if the maintenance guy doesn t see the burgundy suv, then you never ask jamere about the burgundy suv. exactly. wouldn t have went to greensboro looking for a suspect when durham has plenty of people here. so the day after the murder, detective pate headed westbound on interstate 40. anxious to speak with shannon crawley, the other woman in jamere stroud s life. by now, shannon s parents, her father keith and her mother anne, were shocked to hear their daughter was about to be interviewed by police. she was a responsible single mom who lived quietly raising her children.
asked her do you think that jamere is capable of murder? and she said no. not at all. just like that. no, not at all. but you re telling a co-worker that you re in fear for your life from jamere. conflicting stories that cast suspicion on shannon and on jamere. so that next day, detective pate spoke with jamere stroud once again. he denied ever harassing shannon at work. and said there was no reason why she would be afraid of him. but jamere s answer to one particular question got detective pate s attention. i asked him, do you think that shannon is capable of killing someone? and he said, yes. as the investigation continued in durham, police showed shannon crawley s photo to that maintenance man, who had seen a woman driving away from the crime scene on the morning of the murder. and he could not identify shannon as