important things, like javonte s education. she always talked about, you know, his prom, or when he goes to college, or what she wanted him to do with his life and and, you know, how she wanted him to be different. so she took her job as a mother really seriously. reporter: by 2001 michelle and crystie and their kids were living in separate apartments in the the same apartment building in hawthorne. even momo lived there until her health began to fail and she moved to texas where her sister-in-law, a nurse, could take care of her. but soon came word, momo s in bad shape. come quick. that day was easy to remember. it was september 11, 2001. they couldn t fly. no one in the u.s. could. so they drove from hawthorne to texas. crystie wouldn t leave momo s side the entire time they were there. crystie s like, i m sorry, but i came here for just to see mom.
a father of two who had no reason to commission a murder just because he got someone pregnant. but detectives were still investigating. and what they heard made them more convinced than ever that derek had crystal killed. they spoke with traci, the mother of derek s children. early on in the case, she had avoided the cops. now she was eager to tell them what she said happened in 1998 when she was pregnant with derek s first child. she got lured to the back of her apartment on the promise to be taken to a doctor s appointment by smyer. and she was assaulted. and her neck was cut. by some other person? by some other person. rushed to the hospital. and she told us that she was very leery, because derek had never asked to take her to the doctor before. and instead of picking her up in front, he asked her to come into the rear of the alley, where it s darker and doesn t have much access to public view. reporter: there s the scar from the attack.
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who would shoot crystie? what s going on here? that was our question. reporter: police zeroed in on the men in her life. one, two, three of them. we re trying to find out who would have the motivation to do this. reporter: to help find her killer, her sisters would turn amateur detectives. i couldn t even sleep. i needed an answer. that was my sister, my baby sister. reporter: the twist that stopped everyone cold? there had been another attack on another pregnant woman. she was assaulted. and her neck was cut. who was targeting moms-to-be? in this life or the next, you re gonna pay for what you ve done wrong. i couldn t believe what i was hearing. how does this happen? reporter: in the mega-sprawl of los angeles county, the city of hawthorne occupies about six square miles, none of them
was afraid to tell derek she was pregnant. so jana told him for her via email. after you sent the e-mail, people s 51, to derek smyer, did you get a phone call? yes, i did. reporter: it was derek smyer, jana said, and he wasn t happy. he just didn t want no kids. he didn t want her to have the baby. did he say anything to you about trying to do something with crystal? yeah, he just said if i can get her to get rid of the baby, he said he will do whatever he can, but he don t want to have the baby. reporter: and jana recalled that the day before crystal was murdered her first day back at work after the trip to texas, derek called again. could you hear anything with respect to the conversation she was having? no. the only thing i heard is before she hung up the phone she was like, whatever. because she was crying and she was like, whatever. she got up from her desk.