and denita together on that dreadful day in 2007, when-y denita was murdered? now, three years later. two families filed into the courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction. the other and acquittal. reporter jon mccann covered the trial for the durham herald sun. the tone was definitely somber. ty shannon s family here and denita see people on the other side. he tense is a good word for it. especially tense for denita mother shannon. who for the first time made eye contact for the woman accused of murdering her daughter. or if she would look at me with this little s murky look on her face. she was very cocky. like she knew she was going to get off. no remorse. he she did not feel she had done anything. assistant da david sacks,
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 greens 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 jermeir really quick just to touch bases with him. by now, jemeir straud had left work and was racing to durham. i spoke so jermeir and i m like have you made contact with her? but i felt like i didn t get a definite answer. it seemed like it was a little bit of confusion. what do you mean? like, when i said did you
had nothing bad to say about him. this wasn t jermeir. 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 jermeir. 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 jermeir 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. jermeir? jermeir. 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. when internal affairs continues. this is what people with eczema said about how their skin feels.
unbelievable. it just makes it harder to rule him out. so there s no proof that he was anywhere. except for the fact that his phone was, you know, at his house on his nightstand plugged in. but by all accounts, jermeir stroud loved denita dearly. it didn t make sense that he would kill the woman to whom he had just proposed. they were planning a big wedding. now, after speaking with detectives, jermeir headed back home to greensboro. his life changed forever. and then two hours after the murder, detectives got a lead. 9-1-1. where is your emergency? campus crossing apartments. they discovered a second 9-1-1 call that had come in around the time denita was killed. i m hearing gunshots coming
he said, yeah, she caught my eye. i mean, she s 5 10 . long, pretty hair. thin. we spoke for a short time. that was in 2000. around 2004, they bumped in again through work. and he asked her for her number. and at this point, he s involved with denita. involved with denita. and he actually said that he told shannon in 2000 that he was involved with denita. well, in 2004, they start having a relationship that actually started kind of like friendly. but then turned sexual toward the end of 2004. and shannon drives a burgundy suv. correct. first, detectives had a murder. now, a love triangle. detective pate pressed jermeire for more details about the two women in his life. i said, well, have they ever met? and he said, no, they ve never met. but i used to have a picture of denita in my house