on the car, the steering wheel, the gear shifter, and comes back there is gunshot residue. reporter: and if all that didn t look bad enough, now shannon s alibi now started to fall apart. she had told her supervisor and detectives she was taking her child to the doctor at the time of denita s murder. but the pediatrician told police shannon didn t show up that that day. the story starts to unravel. nothing is adding up. reporter: shannon was looking like a prime suspect, but one thing was missing motive. then detective pate remembered shannon s account of how she and jermeir had decided that she would have an abortion. and the way she told the story made an impression on pate. when shannon said, jermeir, i m pregnant, what are we going to do? he said, i don t want to have a baby with you. he told me that s how he said it. and she quoted it back to me verbatim. and she said, i remember those
began harassing and stalking her. he would continuously call me on my cell phone at work. it would interrupt the radio. he would come into communications and stand in the hallway and stare at me. i decided then that it may be a good idea to have something to protect myself. reporter: in her first police interview in greensboro, shannon denied ever owning a gun. now detective pate challenged her on that changing story. do you still stand by the story that you ve never owned a gun? the gun that i bought from ronnie i had for all of a day and a half. reporter: she felt compelled to buy a weapon from a co-worker because, she said, jermeir threatened not only her but her children. i d protect them at any cost. he knew that. reporter: and she said jermeir used that fact against her when he forced her to drive with him to denita s apartment. and he said, i ll make it real simple. either your children die or you die for your children. reporter: shannon told detective pate th
reporter: and that wasn t the only thing the witness noticed, says assistant d.a. david saacks. he remembers a patch or some kind of something, you know, on the shirt. reporter: a patch like on the uniform shannon wore as a 911 dispatcher. and there was more. investigators discovered shannon clocked in at about 10:00 a.m., some two hours after denita smith had been murdered. more than enough time for the 55-mile drive from durham to her job at the 911 center in greensboro. so police obtained a search warrant for shannon s house. and we do find greensboro communication 911 center uniforms. and they are exactly as described by the maintenance supervisor down to the color of the patch and the shape. reporter: you find a gun? no gun was found. no bullets were found. nothing incriminating other than that. reporter: and then came this.
that she was taking her child to the doctor. reporter: shannon s story seemed to add up. maybe she wasn t the distraught woman the eyewitness saw leaving the scene of denita s murder, 50 miles away from where shannon lived and worked. detective pate was just about out of questions. and then an interesting thing happened. as we re leaving, getting ready to finish up the interview with her, someone hands me a note. and it s from a supervisor. and it says, a gentleman, one of her co-workers would like to speak with you before you leave. reporter: and what that co-worker had to say would raise serious questions. not just for shannon crawley but also for her former lover, jermeir stroud. did someone want shannon dead as well? coming up did someone want shannon dead as well? she says, you know, i m kind of in fear of my life. when dateline continues.
MSNBC Dateline November 18, 2019 06:22:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.