I could tell he was in shock. the news hit zach griffith particularly hard. since coming out to his mother, his relationship with her had been strained. and now this. i guess you re just beating yourself up something terrible that you had been sideways with her. yeah. and i know that if we were just given more time, that we would have been close again. that we would have been, you know, that mom and son duo that we were. but we just we didn t have the time. it was ripped away from us. and we never get it back. aaron, the elder son, had more of a take-charge reaction. got to take care of my brother, i got take care of my dad. you ve got logistics. before the grief that you can absorb. yeah, for me, it s just kind of the way my brain is wired i guess. within hours, the griffiths would head from all directions toward what used to be an anchor in their lives, the family home. just gave my dad a big hug and we were both crying. we re like, i can t believe this. you know?
Didn t lock the door. they would leave and go to dinner or go to town and leave the door unlocked. because cleo was the guard dog. fulfilled as the griffiths lives seemed to be, keith and julie were transformed when aaron and ali brought into the world their first daughter, aria. a first child, it was a greatest day of her life i think. julie lived for my little girl. she wanted to be a part of everything that she did. and julie was there for ali when she went into labor for their second daughter analiese. her white knuckled dash to the hospital earned julie the affectionate nickname nascar nana. the flashers were going and honking the horn. what is she saying to you? talking to you. don t have a baby in my car. keep your legs crossed. don t have the baby in the car. everything seemed to be going great for the griffiths in 2013. keith had weight loss surgery and dropped more than 100 pounds. julie was over the moon with two granddaughters. but also that year came the r
Support. this is the first time you were able to see him eye to eye. i could just tell he was shaken. as if the news couldn t get any worth, their great dane cleo along with a second pet daisy had also perished in the flames. craig and keith walked the property, surveying the damages. we get to the koi pond. got to get those fish out of there. julie would kill me if something happened to those fish. i was like, you know, let s not worry about that right now. overwhelmed by loss, the griffiths were faced with the question, how could this have happened? the first thought was that it was the new heating and air unit. it had just gone in. the unit had been installed just days before the fire adjacent to the master bedroom. that was my very first thought, that somehow the new heating and air unit wasn t put in properly. faulty installation? yeah. as for the cause of julie s death, that was left to the county coroner s office. deputy coroner ben bradley. what were you w
Happened. no enemies. i mean, it made no sense. just who would want to kill her. after keith was released the night of his interview with detectives, he headed straight to his friends, the bradleys. they were floored to hear the line of questioning that he recounted. what was up with his marriage, his alibi, the gun he owned? he had been questioned to the point that he almost felt like they thought he had done this. son aaron also got called down to the station that same evening. and he, too, was questioned about his parents marriage. notice anything lately in their relationship as far as any problems or anything like that? that you re aware of anything? no. nothing. was there any money troubles? was there any relationship, things that we knew of? but to a person in the griffiths circle, the very idea that keith might know something about julie s death was, well, just flat-out crazy.
Neighborhood for leads and witnesses, the investigator also had to consider the perpetrator may have been someone julie knew. you re not ruling anyone out or in. you re simply going through the motions. you re speaking to the immediate family first. working your way out. the sheriff s department did not tell the griffiths julie had been murdered. we were not told anything by the police at that point. but anyone at the scene might have guessed foul play was somehow involved. there was just cops all over the property. you said, why the cops? exactly. yep. naturally the first person detective carter interviewed was julie s husband, keith. first of all, we are sorry for your loss. appreciate that. at first, keith talked about what everyone perceived was the cause of the inferno, an accidental fire set off by a new newly installed heating unit. you had it installed tuesday? it was a whole new system. keith explained the contractor was a friend of his