he said, we found beverly. i said, well, sh was she alive? and and, no, i m sorry. but she wasn t. we had worked so hard, i mean to find her. i mean we just we really tried to do right and it wasn t it wasn t enough. i know she pleaded. i know she pleaded for her life and to be sent come back to us. and for her grandbabies. and i just have to know that god was there to comforting her. reporter: arron lewis was charged with murder and kidnapping. and his wife crystal lowery charged as his accomplice. they pleaded not guilty, but his words to reporter shannon miller outside the sheriff s office didn t sound like those of an innocent man. why beverly? why beverly? she was a rich broker. it was just as chilling in person as it was on tv. and then he gets into the car
and they were able to start takin the email address and the phone number, start working that, sendin out search warrants, and obtain scri subscriber information to those email and and that phone number. did names pop up? uh, yes. reporter: their real names arron lewis and his wife crystal lowery. police raced over to put the couple s house under surveillance. this was a very delicate operation. yes. we were working with the expectation and the hope that she was still alive. reporter: detective allison says he wasn t sure if the couple was even involved, he first wanted to see what arron lewis looked like. remember their eye-witness had seen a skinny white man with short brown hair the night beverly disappeared. they hadn t been sitting there long when suddenly a man matching that description walked out the door. but they didn t approach him. were you hoping he might lead you to beverly? yes. is that the idea? we felt that if we made contact with him too
i thought from from the very beginning that we would need to flip crystal and it would be important for the case for her to testify. reporter: he made a deal with with crystal. she agreed to testify against her husband and plead guilty plea to murder and kidnapping in exchange for a reduced sentence of 30 years. it s good for the jury to be able to hear you know, the the backstory of what went on and the why of what went on. reporter: in january of this year, arron lewis went on trial. the prosecution s star witness, crystal lowery, took the stand and told the jury all the grisly details. she claimed it was all about money, not sex. she said he came up with the idea of kidnappin someone. but she even went so far as to suggest real estate agents. reporter: she testified that she was in class at nursing school when lewis abducted beverly. she got a text from arron lewis saying, look at this, or something like that. and it was a picture of miss
phone number, start working that, sendin out search warrants, and obtain scri subscriber information to those email and and that phone number. did names pop up? uh, yes. reporter: their real names arron lewis and his wife crystal lowery. police raced over to put the couple s house under surveillance. this was a very delicate operation. yes. we were working with the expectation and the hope that she was still alive. reporter: detective allison says he wasn t sure if the couple was even involved, he first wanted to see what arron lewis looked like. remember their eye-witness had seen a skinny white man with short brown hair the night beverly disappeared. they hadn t been sitting there long when suddenly a man matching that description walked out the door. but they didn t approach him. were you hoping he might lead you to beverly? yes. is that the idea? we felt that if we made contact with him too early, then if he was the one we were lookin for, then every
person as it was on tv. and then he gets into the car and you re going, what did he just say? reporter: two weeks later, shannon interviewed lewis in jail and he told a vastly different story than the one he d told detectives. was he willing to cop to anything? no. i didn t kill her, i didn t murder her and anything that did occur was an accident. reporter: then he tried to say beverly played a role in her own death. he implied she willingly met him at the house for a sexual hook-up that went wrong. it s didn t have nothing to do with her showing the home. just a place to meet. in your opinion, how farfetched was this new story about the sexual encounter? well, it was 100% made up. so it was completely farfetched. reporter: chief deputy prosecutor john johnson was assigned the case. he believed it was a kidnapping gone wrong, but needed help proving it in court. he turned to lewis s wife, crystal lowery.