george corraluzzo was a conman, a sick person. reporter: meagan williams knew coralluzo because he and her then husband had partnered in a house painting business. knowing coralluzzo as she did, she was not surprised by a visit she got on july 1st, 2007. sheriffs came to our house. and they said, is george corraluzzo here? i actually thought they were there to talk about this kidnapping case. reporter: to meagan this kidnapping case meant one six months earlier in which coralluzzo allegedly took this woman against her will on a long scary ride across state lines. i spilled to them everything i knew up to that point. reporter: thinking you were talking about a different crime altogether? correct. reporter: deputies didn t let on, but of course they were really looking into the disappearance of paige birgfeld, three days earlier. where was coralluzzo that day? well, very interesting, said meagan. he d failed to show up for work.
did you tell ms. waylan that you had killed ms. birgfeld by putting ms. birgfeld through a woodchipper? [ laughs ] no, ma am. somebody had said something about, did you do this to paige? did you murder paige? and i said, just out of context, had i had i they wouldn t find her because i would have used a woodchipper. and it was totally out of context. reporter: the client who admitted embezzling his company s money to pay paige. did you kill ms. birgfeld? no. are you responsible for her disappearance? absolutely not. reporter: and then the defense went after jose tavera, who admitted he was so tight with coralluzzo he would have done just about anything for his friend. including burning a car to help him if he needed that done. i wouldn t do that. you wouldn t do that? no. that s the one thing you wouldn t do? yeah. reporter: meagan williams told the jury she was sure the killer was really corralluzzo. he was a pathological liar, and anything that
it just it hit me. reporter: then of course she had to know, was that wild story about a decapitating accident in new jersey just coralluzzo s excuse to run from what he had done to get out of town? i scoured the internet and made phone calls. reporter: scoured the internet looking for evidence of a big traffic accident. didn t find uh-huh. nothing there. reporter: so who did you phone? i called their local gazette newspaper, talked to a reporter. nothing happened. i called the coroner. nothing. so newspaper, coroner, hospitals. nothing. reporter: but meagan was able to locate coralluzzo and passed that tip on to lead investigator beverly jarrell, who would end up playing a key role. you ll hear more about her later. jarrell caught up with coralluzzo in new jersey. grilled him for five hours. but coralluzzo denied everything. more important he was in new jersey when paige s car was set ablaze so jarrell let him go.
reporter: if he didn t burn the car, doesn t that let him out? no. reporter: why not? because his actions lead me to believe that he did something so disgusting and vile that he had to leave grand junction and lie about his family dying. something happened. reporter: and there was something else, said meagan. he told multiple people that he did something so terrible that he could never take it to the grave and that he would never be forgiven. what was that besides murdering somebody? george was a sketchy person and he totally did this. reporter: the coralluzzo she knew she said was cunning enough to have one of his pals help him, somebody like this guy, his best friend, jose tavera. detectives suspected that too. so they found tavera, brought him in for questioning and what do you know he d recently injured his arm. i had a bandage on it and the cop asked me he s all, what what is that, you know?
tim and i said, that s what happened. i said, he murdered that woman. it just it hit me. reporter: then of course she had to know, was that wild story about a decapitating accident in new jersey just coralluzzo s excuse to run from what he had done to get out of town? i scoured the internet and made phone calls. reporter: scoured the internet looking for evidence of a big traffic accident. didn t find uh-huh. nothing there. reporter: so who did you phone? i called their local gazette newspaper, talked to a reporter. nothing happened. i called the coroner. nothing. so newspaper, coroner, hospitals. nothing. reporter: but meagan was able to locate coralluzzo and passed that tip on to lead investigator beverly jarrell, who would end up playing a key role. you ll hear more about her later. jarrell caught up with coralluzzo in new jersey. grilled him for five hours. but coralluzzo denied everything. more important he was in new jersey when paige s car was set ablaze so