being a doctor, about her husband and child being killed in an accident, cetera, et cetera, those stories, she says, werej- she admits it of a con artist. that s what i do, that s who i am, that s the way i ve learned how to survive. keith morrison (voiceover): but remember, in court the prosecutor called heather the mastermind who lied to con kate, lied to manipulate ethan, lied about murder. you were the decision-maker, you were the person who caused kate s death. i don t take it as that. keith morrison (voiceover): stole from her, yes, but kill kate? no. heather kamp will not cop to that. instead, this was the story the grifter had for us. it was all ethan, right from the start. my husband wanted to rip her off because she had money. keith morrison (voiceover): but wait, why would ethan want any harm to come to his good friend, kate? the trouble was that ethan never considered her friend.
keith morrison: meanwhile, andy savage s a-team of detectives was making progress. and when they flashed that fat grocery bag of cash around the neighborhood, they certainly got a rise out of ethan and heather. a furious ethan called andy. he said, your investigators are out here and they re accusing me of being involved in this homicide. kate was my best friend in life. as he s on the phone, kamp calls. she starts out in this rage about, you know, what are you doing out here? you re accusing me of this. we had nothing to do with that. keith morrison: fascinating reaction, thought andy savage. and perhaps, an opportunity. we had done a lot of background on kamp. and so we knew her, and we knew her personality. and we knew a little bit about what buttons to push. so the reaction we had towards heather, was one of comfort not one of angst. and during that time, we planted the seeds that, as a mother, she must know the feeling of janice waring missing her daughter.
he began to make the choice to join in the scam to rip off kate waring. keith morrison (voiceover): finally, the prosecutor, scarlett wilson, felt ready and almost a year to the day after kate was found, she launched the trial of ethan mack, the sole defendant in the courtroom, heather having taken that plea agreement. the warings tried to prepare themselves, though what they saw defied preparation. we had to see images and see what it was like when they found her and then go through all the forensics. and we were seeing that for the first time along with the jurors and all those other spectators in the courtroom. keith morrison (voiceover): one by one, the a-tam took the stand, as did detectives and experts from the charleston police department, to present the evidence. over a stupid forgery. keith morrison (voiceover): prosecutor wilson told the jury that ethan and heather had killed kate to avoid getting caught for forging kate s checks and using her credit cards.
and tried to ply to her empathy for a mother. keith morrison: but the call from heather wasn t all that fat bag of money accomplished. before long, it reeled in a fish. that neighbor heather was sneaking off to see called, too. the a-team went to talk to him. and he said, i know ethan and heather did something to kate. and terry went in the back room, came back out, and had this ipod. and terry said, i believe this ipod is going to belong to kate. keith morrison: now that was huge. last time kate was seen with that ipod, it was at the gym the day she went missing. now, a man kate never met said heather gave him the ipod days after kate disappeared. but just to be sure this was in fact kate s ipod, tech expert bill capps got the serial number. and within minutes, had the proof. i examined the registry files from all the computers
keith morrison (voiceover): and so it was decided. soon after ethan and his mother had their talk, he appeared before the judge and admitted he did participate in the murder of his good friend, kate. he agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. judge: you understand that the court still faces a guilty plea. yes, ma am. judge: and that your criminal record will reflect it as a guilty plea. yes, ma am. keith morrison (voiceover): of course, since heather pleaded guilty to murder and forgery and obstruction of justice, they didn t need a trial for her either. guilty, but mentally ill, by the way. at her sentencing, her therapist told the judge that heather developed after a deeply traumatic childhood a whole basket of serious psychological disorders, some of which rendered her virtually incapable of separating truth from her elaborate fictions and which led into her years of failed marriages, abandoned children, and constant grifting. if h