and i was like, what s going on? and he s like, lisa s been shot. i held her hand and i just said, my lisa. my lisa. everyone s like, do you want justice? do you want revenge? i just want the truth. lisa techel, newly married, pregnant, starting the career of her dreams. she always put everybody before she put herself. then, one morning, a single shotgun blast rocked the newlyweds home. she s been shot. a young husband, out of his mind with grief. it was a tragedy. but for lisa s dad, a sheriff s deputy, it was no mystery. he was sure he knew who the killer was. go get him. go get him now. a neighbor with a gun and a grudge. i thought, they better get to him before i do. but some said this couple was having trouble. that seth had a secret. did he tell you, she sent me some topless pictures ? yes. others said the real murderer was someone else, right under cops noses. here s a legitimate suspect that should have been investigated
his right to an attorney. and no one stopped him from doing that. so thomas kept asking questions, and seth kept answering them. have you ever lied to lisa about rachel? no. she found out and that was that was that. meanwhile, both dci agents birmingham and thomas had now learned more complete details from the scene from seth s best friend, the guy with the puppy. the friend, colton, had explained that seth was using his special trac phone as a steamy hotline. i know they were exchanging photos. did he tell you, she sent me some topless pictures? yes. did you see them? yes. armed with this information, agent thomas decided to show his cards and see what happened. we ve talked to colton. did colton know about you texting rachel? mm-hmm. did you tell him about it? yeah. this is an ongoing investigation, and it s up to you to be honest. there s obviously more to this rachel thing. she was under the impression that lisa was going to be packing her
there was the mossberg in the tall grass, about 20 yards from the back door of the trailer. boy, that was a huge development in that case. it was. i think everyone s, you know, mood doubled or tripled when they found that gun. ballistics would later match the mossberg with the slug that killed the pregnant lisa. investigators could fill in one big box on their checklist murder weapon. next, they worked on possible motives. was it a neighbor with a vendetta or a husband lusting after another woman? state agent birmingham and deputy phillips decided to have a talk with seth s work friend, rachel. we interviewed her on tuesday, may 29th. there s no tricks here. someone has lost their life. actually two people have lost their life. over the course of two hours, birmingham and phillips peeled back the layers of rachel s relationship with seth. they were having kind of an ongoing relationship. there are sexually explicit text messages. there are pictures, sexually explicit pi
stuff up and leaving. when? last night, today. he said he d talked to rachel about him divorcing lisa as recently as the night before at work. she just asked if i was going to go through with it and i said, yeah. i mean, i shouldn t have lied, obviously. he admitted he liked rachel s attention but said he really was just stringing her along. we were having a baby. i wasn t going to leave her. i couldn t leave. lying to rachel was wrong, he said. but he claimed that lying earlier in the interview was a way to spare his grieving father-in-law, todd caldwell, the embarrassment. this is something i didn t want todd to find out. the interview had been going on close to four hours now, and agent birmingham was well aware that seth s father and a lawyer wanted to shut it down. agent thomas then took a break, leaving seth inside the room to stew. he met with birmingham, and they decided he had to go nuclear. be confrontational, because
sex. yes. that s correct. he always used to tell me how pretty i was and how he d like to be with me. but i always made it clear that he is married and has a wife, and he s having a baby, and i don t wreck families. rachel told the investigators the seth she knew couldn t be a murderer. would it surprise you if he did this? honestly? yes, it would. but seth was a suspect, and if he did fire that shotgun blast, that would place rachel at the heart of a murderous love triangle. i think that s why i feel so guilty, because i don t want it to be because of me. the next day, deputies phillips and wonderlin were back at the neighbor brian tate s house. deputy wonderlin and myself deputy phillips are pulling up here at the tate residence to re-interview mr. tate. this time, they asked him point blank about the murder of his neighbor. we re just trying to figure this all out, you know. did you have anything to do with lisa s death?