investigators wanted to talk to jake, about his best friend since eighth grade, isaiah hagan. halee s ex. they asked jake what he and isaiah had been up to the night of halee s death. police had recovered security camera video from the night halee died showing isaiah picking her up at her apartment a little after 10:30. an hour or so later he met up with jake. they played video games and then went to walmart where this camera captured them at about 2:00 am. there was no sign of halee. so were you thinking, they think i might be involved in halee s murder. yeah. jake told police he hadn t seen halee that night, but isaiah had told him where he d taken her. to a local park, a few miles from the soccer field. he told me he dropped her off and he went on a separate way because she wanted to go there to meet somebody. that didn t sound right to jake. i feel like he wasn t that type of person to let her be there alone at that time of night. he was way too overprotective. s
she was brave. she was incredibly brave. why didn t i know that she needed me and that she was alone and that she was hurt? nothing was the same after that. nothing. they found her at the soccer field. the straight arrow student killed by a single bullet. i just hit the floor. i remember the pain. every time i talk about it the pain comes rushing back. that someone would shoot my child. like, why? this is a small town whodunit. oh, yeah we were afraid. what had happened that night? was the answer somewhere in her circle of friends? we re trying to find out why! i would never hurt halee. they came and talked to me. it was four fbi agents. he s there. he s got a gun. how could it not have been him? then a secret spills out in
confession, first and foremost. isaiah never said anything like, i killed halee rathgeber. so if isaiah didn t kill halee, who did? the defense pointed to thaddeus rice the man investigators had now charged with the murder of 10-month-old jackson. thaddeus pleased not guilty, had he been worried halee had evidence against him? she knew information about the suspicious circumstances of jackson wheeler s death. he and jordan were the last two people to see halee, other than isaiah, we believe based on the information that we were provided in discovery. and it just seemed curious to us that for some reason they weren t pursued. and according to the defense, there was other evidence that showed isaiah could not have killed halee. after halee s cell phone stopped sending a signal just before 11:30 on the night she died, it had mysteriously turned on about four hours later and pinged off a cell tower near the soccer field. when that happened cell phone data showed isaiah was miles a
like, she stuck out and we would go places and she would tower over all of us. it made it funny. the mom and all her kids. yeah. and so people always like, she was the first one that they noticed. the world was kind of like her catwalk? yeah. yeah, pretty much. beautiful girl? yeah. i love when i get told that i look like her. it makes me really happy. aww, that s awfully sweet. but halee s beauty was more than skin-deep. tattoos, like this one on her back, testified to her strong faith. i said prayers with the girls every night. tharon rathgeber is halee s dad. and at the end of our prayer the most important line was, and those that are less fortunate than we are. and i think she really grasped that. and drew strength from it, especially in difficult times. one night, in particular, was a defining moment for young halee. she was just 12 when she went to a friend s house for a sleepover. that night the brother of the girl that my daughter was staying with had