dawn lavender sounded for all the world like she was boasting as she confessed to her cell mate that she murdered teresa mayfield in cold blood. in fact, in recorded conversations with her cellmate, dawn not only admitted to shooting teresa but said that she had tried once before. that strange night at the casino when teresa came home stumbling, that was her first attempt at murder. but why? why would she want to kill her friend? because listen to this the answer to the whole puzzle really comes down to one little word dawn uses it when telling her cellmate what she did. we tried.
yes. murder? didn t sound like it. we could prove that he was an adulterer. but we was trying to prove the murder. guess there s no crime against being a lying sack of you know what. it s not against the law to have a mistress. so now the corporal and the sheriff reverted to standard procedure and followed up every tip and tracked down every tenuous lead and knocked down rumors. somebody called scott from teresa s cell phone that morning, whether he heard it or not. the investigation dragged on. weeks and months went by and there was nothing. we had no idea how that anger will get the best of you, not knowing who done this and you want the person that done this to be punished for it. kelsey took on the most difficult job of her life. at 17 she stepped into her
teresa s daughter kelsey has spent a sleepless night waiting in vain for her mother to come home. how did you find out? my dad came and told my brothers and i. it was awful realizing that your worst nightmare had come true. for a brief second, i thought she committed suicide just because i knew how stressed out she was. but then i also knew how much she loved her family. everybody who knew teresa knew that. even sheriff ellis who drove out to the crime scene, if that s what it was. he was met there. this case was personal to you, sheriff. yes. my daughter and miss teresa and scott s daughter played softball together. you would see teresa at the ballpark. it felt like part of my family was gone too. they had a look around the truck.
sheriff of her town and he called the sheriff of ellis. his response to me was it s bad. it s bad. it certainly was. they had found teresa s truck on a dirt road less than a mile from home. she was slumped behind the wheel and she was dead. and this much was perfectly clear. it wasn t an accident. coming up the investigation begins. we had to ask ourselves, who would get her to this location and why was she murdered? when dateline continues. for all the noses that stuff up around daisies. for all the eyes that get itchy and watery near pugs. for all the people who sneeze around dust. there s flonase sensimist allergy relief.
i believe dawn gave them to her. remember how teresa was stressed out the last week weeks of her life? the casino trip, dawn gave her xanax, the anti-anxiety medication to calm her down, dawn told her. it certainly did that. out like a light, calm, for two whole days. i looked at her, i said teresa, you need to stay away from that woman, she is no friend of yours. how did teresa respond to that? she said i ve learned my lesson. or maybe she didn t. because the morning of the murder teresa arranged to run errands with dawn, or at least that s what dawn said. and then it all clicked together. dawn on the dirt road, a gun in a plastic bag, teresa s car window down as though she knew her killer. sheriff ellis and corporal boyd picked apart the early interview with a suspicious eye. they pulled her phone records and there it was plain as day. dawn s lies caught by cell phone