head just inside just enough to holler out for her. and i i didn t get no response. reporter: he tried calling kay s phone. no answer there either. he came back out front and noticed a young man sitting on a rock across the street. his name was michael, the oldest of kay s friend becky s five kids. michael had overheard the contractor talking on the phone. i walked up to him. and i said, hey, did you say something about this house being broken into? and he was, like, yeah. and i was, like, well, mine has been, too. reporter: so now two broad daylight break-ins of across the fence neighbors. was the thief still lurking? i carry a firearm in my vehicle. so and so actually i i went out and got one just in case. you know, the i mean, the somebody could run out or whatever. reporter: he called 911. yeah, the back door is broke in and the next door neighbor s door is broke in. i d called the owner, but she s not here. and i don t think if she s gone. i mean, i h
the scene and met up with her older son michael. they re both there, so your mother and christopher are there? yeah, they pulled up together at the same time, with columbia county officer. we all walk around back to kay s house, and my mom, she sounds very distraught. she s she s screamin kay s name. she shows up at her house while you were all in the backyard there? right. they show up on scene and and they re, wondering what s going on, and they re they re pretty pretty shaken up. reporter: everyone else in becky s family was accounted for, her husband tony, a long haul trucker, was away on the road, her three younger children were fine at school and day care. the investigator said becky s focus then turned to kay. understandably she was upset. you know, she didn t know what happened to her neighbor. she just knew her neighbor had had left in an ambulance. reporter: and in fact, edmunds says, becky was less concerned about that burglary in her own home and mo
reporter: investigators talked to michael s brother chris the son who d arrived at the scene later with their mother becky. chris seemed to have his life together in a way that michael didn t he had a job even his own house. that morning he was helping his mom at the therapy center where she worked. your mom picks you up about what time? i got up at 7:00, brushed my teeth. she she pulled up 7:10. then you go to work with her? yes. reporter: then they asked him about michael. chris said he knew his brother took drugs but he said michael wouldn t have killed anyone. do you think your brother did this? or do you think somebody? absolutely not. i don t think my brother has it in his heart. i just want to make sure that that that at this point, brotherly love is not outweighin common sense. well because i just saw some stuff in your brother just talkin to him for about 20 minutes. and i m sittin there goin , what? people get on methadone. they don t have a
well, out of everybody that your brother hangs around with who would be the most likely to do somethin yes, uh-huh. yeah, yeah. you might need to get a bigger piece of paper. because of those drugs, man. i d go for seventeen hours. reporter: so michael s brother confirmed the troubled young man ran with a shady crowd. investigators were all ears. reporter: does his association with the house, his back story, make him a person of interest to you? he s definitely a person of interest. reporter: the deputies kept michael at the station for nearly three hours but they didn t hold him that day. he gave them a number for his alibi witness that friend he d gone to see that morning. would he vouch for michael? coming up another mystery. we had some blank checks in one of our offices that disappeared. and a new theory of the crime.
he d gotten there around 8;30 that morning only to find his house had been burglarized and he d promptly called his mom. but he hadn t called the police, which seemed a bit strange to investigators. what s more there was no forced entry to that residence. reporter: there wasn t? there was no forced entry. reporter: that was odd too, and they were about to learn a lot more about michael. he was becky s oldest son. he and his brother chris were from a prior marriage. and michael came with a history of trouble, mostly drugs. so, that s gotta make your nose twitch a little bit. most definitely. he s on the scene when we get there. he s had a lotta problems in the past with with with drugs. so that raised a lotta red flags. reporter: opportunity to get quick cash? most definitely. drug habit? make a buy? you know, they gotta get money. and the best way to do that is is burglaries, you know? get the quick cash. reporter: did you have trouble with drugs at the time