Knew who was in the room with her. She trusted that person. The saddest thing is, the last thing you look at in this world is not your loved ones, its your killer. I miss her so much. Tough, tenacious. As feisty as her name. She would walk into a courtroom and look like she owned the place. She loved defending those clients. She loved law. Reporter she went to read up on a murder case, but the next murder the police investigated was hers. She is investigating some really hardened criminals. Maybe somebody had beef with her. It was personal. The clues . A missing gucci wallet, mystery strands of hair. It suggested that a female killed her and she pulled the hair out. Whodunit . Who came up and did it . Somebody planned this murder. Somebody wanted her out of the way. I told her, i will make this right. I will make this right for you. Welcome to dateline. She was bold, she was brash. Chiquita tate was a rising stall star in the louisiana legal community. A star someone extinguished. The list of possible suspect was long. Could an unhappy client have wanted her dead . Or did police need to look somewhere else, entirely. Here is dennis murphy, with shining star. Cajun country is where the dreadful thing happened. Baton rouge. The Louisiana State capitol, perched on the banks of the mississippi. Three blocks off the river, on a thursday night, a Criminal Defense Lawyer was working late, preparing for a big murder trial starting monday. When did the killer take her . Sometime after 8 00 was the best guess. The news led next mornings early drive. Here on a local news station, the interrupt to say there is a Downtown Murder in a law office. Attorney burns was on her way in to work. Which alerts me, initially, my gosh. Is it an attorney . The office belongs to and up and comer named Chiquita Tate. A local woman a few years out of law school, already making a name for herself in the competitive arena of litigation and criminal defense. She had recently won a half Million Dollar jury verdict. That is pretty good for somebody out such a short time. Chiquita was one of seven, her father absent, raised in a neighborhood of boardedup houses. Smart and determined, she rose above her impoverished early years. Once the fuse was lit, she became a rocket. She was talented, she had overcome so much in a short time period. She was the star of her family. Chiquita was the first in her family to go to college. Then, she enrolled in a hometown southern law school, got grabbed up by a law firm, where she started clerking, while studying for the bar. That is when she met legal assistant lessie hopedale. She was driven. Wanting to get that next, ill call it that next high. Law school was that. Being a lawyer was that. She achieved it. She passed the bar on her first shot. She lapped up the kind of cases that made news. Accused killers and gang bangers. She seemed at ease in the spotlight, talking with reporters. Chiquita was enjoying such success, she opened her own firm in a nice building a few blocks from the court complex. Lessie hooks and went with her. What areas did she stakeout for herself . She wanted to do criminal so bad. Burns watched her in action. Chiquita it was one to speak her mind and dress how she wanted. A conservative lady lawyer pantsuit one day, and stilettos and spiky hair the next. She would walk into a courtroom, and look like she owned the place. You could hear her coming before you saw her. You could. We always joked that she would wear four inch heels, and she knew she was in the courtroom. Chiquita was all about family. She hired her sister, denita, to help in the office. And denita knew better than anyone that harddriving chiquita could be sunny one moment and a gulf coast storm the next. She fired me every week. She fired you . Yeah. And then at night she would call me and say, see you in the morning. And im like, i thought i was fired. In fact, it was a skirmish with chiquita that sparked the interest of a young man named greg harris, who, almost literally bumped into her when they were both cruising around town. Gregs brother, white, said it started when greg cut chiquita off. Shes in a car and hes in a mercedes, she is blowing the horn at him, you dont cut me off, and so they pull up to a red light. I heard a few smiles between them, and after that its all she wrote. Greg harris was doing well as a contractor. The romance blossomed, and chiquita moved into gregs home. A big step up from the falling down houses where she grew up. They got married at a small wedding in 2008. A year later, chiquita was moving into her next new office, varnishing the shells, proudly hanging up her shingle. There were some tough hombres she was defending. There were. But, i dont think that it was to the point where she or anyone else had to worry. On february 19th, 2009, chiquita was working hard, prepping her defense in a double homicide case. She told lessie she had to work late. Just a couple of hours. About, chiquita never returned home that night. Her husband, greg, called her office, repeatedly, but got no answer. Around dawn, he drove to the office, troubled, to see his wifes hummer parked where she left it. He couldnt get into the locked building. So, he called 911. My wife, she was working late last night. I need a cup over here quick. Greg spotted a patrol car and flagged down. An Office Worker let the policeman in the building, while greg called his sisterin law, denita, sounding frantic. The hummer is still parked here and they wont let me in the office. Once upstairs, it took a glance from the Patrol Officer to declare chiquitas office a crime scene. A bad one. The shining star light of Chiquita Tate had been cruelly extinguished. By whom . And, for what reason . Coming up, the first clue. No blood in the elevator or the lobby. Her left hand was open. There was a piece of hair in it. I was like, oh my lord. When dateline continues. Tel try air wick vibrant, with 2x more natural Essential Oils for up to 120 days of amazing fragrance per dual pack. Now thats a breath of fresh air wick. ethan i remember seeing the Menthol Cigarette ads talking about how they were fresh and soothing. Heres my tip. Smoking any type of cigarette can cause a stroke. And theres nothing soothing about that. announcer you can quit. For free help, call 1800quitnow. Looking for a smarter way to mop . Try the swiffer powermop. An allinone cleaning tool, with a 360degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just cant. Mop smarter with the swiffer powermop. As the sun was coming up over the mississippi that cold february morning, the family and friends of Chiquita Tate were converging on the street below her office. I tried to run in the office and police grabbed me and said maam, you cant go in there and i said, thats my sister. Just like denita, chiquitas legal assistant was stopped on the street outside. He came toward me and grabbed me, pretty much to hold me up, because i was going down. Thats when she told me she was dead. When veteran homicide detectives Chris Johnson and howard rolled up to the scene. Spotting officers told you that is the husband, but he is on the edge of things. That is correct but he was upset to the point where uniform patrol had to put him in the back of the unit. Did you go up at that point . Know, at that time we tried to gather as much information as possible. Detectives began there in standard investigative ritual, putting together a timeline of the victims last day. Assistant lessie hooks and knew some of it. How does that thursday fit your recollection . Pretty regular day. Reporter chiquita had gone to court. That very day, talked with reporters about her latest case. The statute is the question i would like the Appellate Court to review. After a quick check, she went back into her office. Lessie left at her regular time at 5 30, and she remembers being concerned about the smell of varnish. I said, dont stay in here too late, because the smell was overpowering. She said, im not going to stay in here late, im just going to read this. But she did stay late. Chiquitas husband, greg, told police his wife called him around 7 00 or so, and asked her to please bring him something to eat. He set out from their home about 25 minutes away. He said he went to mcdonalds and baker and got some hamburgers and fries and brought it to chiquita in her office. Chiquita met him downstairs, according to greg, at 5 30 in the evening, the building is locked. Was you have a swipe card you cannot get access. Reporter greg told the cops, he encountered a number of tenants working late. Chiquita had a client coming over to pick up some money. So, he went downstairs to pay his client and pick up some paperwork for chiquita. Greg said chiquita had more work to do and another client to see. He said he took off for home. That was sometime around 8 30. What happened next was a bloodied mystery. It would be up to detectives, and howard and burns to figure out. The one who got such a kick out of chiquita in court was a legendary prosecutor. My boss, the District Attorney was out there. There were so Many Police Officers out there, the Crime Scene Van was there. I went into that and immediately said to my boss, i want this case. She insisted, as she always does, on feeling the crime scene. As she entered the office, she noticed chiquita had been mixing things up. When you proceeded into the next room where her body was, i was like, oh my lord. She was butchered. She was laying on the floor, she had little slipper socks on her feet, the way all of us would be if we stay after work, we are not going to keep our heels on. She basically had a law book, but i think she had been reading in her hands at the time of the attack. Chiquita had been stabbed 43 times. The attack was brutal and messy. The bloodstained wall, suggesting a fight to the death. Did you have a Murder Weapon . No. Did you get lucky with a footprint or anything in blood . No, we did not. No blood in the elevator, no blood in the lobby, no blood on the buttons. The killer had improbably vanished without leaving a trail. At first glance, without having taken anything. Have the office been trashed . Were people looking for files . We didnt see that. She had expensive jewelry on. The sister to tell you some stuff about the nature of this killing . That is correct. It didnt look like a robbery. However, as Crime Scene Techs processed the scene, the investigators realized chiquitas wallet was missing from her purse. There, in the victims hand, what looks like a major clue. Her left hand was open. There was a piece of hair in it. Actually, 91 strands of hair. And her right arm was over her head, and she died like that. Had she pulled it from her killers head . The hair was long. Had the killer been a woman . What were your theories . Actually, i did not come to any conclusions. I couldnt think of a soul who would have wanted her dead. Chiquitas fatherinlaw, silver ray harris admired her courage, but wondered about the kind of clients who came with her line of work. Being a criminal lawyer, thats what you deal with. You have to accept a degree of bad people. The toughest of the tough . Thats what i hear. If you went to her, she would try to help you. Could have been an unhappy client . Could have been. Or, could have been a member of the victims family. The list of potential suspects could be as long as her client. Chiquitas brotherinlaw says he cant understand how anyone could do such a thing. Heartless. Completely. To do her that way. When i get on my knees at night. I pray she will get justice. Police were confident they would get their man or woman. Outside chiquitas office were City Surveillance and Traffic Cameras. Did one of several cameras see someone enter after greg left . There may not have been a trail of blood, but with luck, those cameras might give them a portrait of their killer, or killers, suitable for framing. Will the cameras capture chiquitas killer . And, that Mystery Clump of hair , what might it reveal . If you are in a fight and pull out someones hair, you will find root hairs. The scenario, this is a woman . Exactly. When dateline continues. Tel its tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. But trelegy has shown me that theres still beauty and breath to be had. 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Aw no, its in the water. Wait a minute. Are you kidding me . You got to be kidding me. Rolling towards the cup, and its in the hole what an impossible shot brought to you by Comcast Business. Chiquita tates, vicious killing, slashed dozens of times had shaken her friends and family to their roots. And as an officer of the courts, it was also an attack on baton rouges criminal justice system. The heat was on Detectives Johnson and howard to find the killer. Most of baton rouge has cameras down here in several locations. Across from the office, theres a crime camera right there on the pole. We also have Traffic Cameras on each signal light. There are some right here. So, you could get really lucky . Hopefully. Thats correct. This camera, a block away from the office was working fine. It showed a quiet street the night of the killing. Normal activity. What they really wanted was the shot from this camera, which swept right past chiquitas office door. But, bad luck. A recent storm had knocked it out. The camera in front of the office was not working properly that particular night. So, no picture of the suspect. This was not going to be an open and shut solve. But, there was evidence to work with. The Crime Scene Detective had taken scrapings from under chiquitas fingernails and sent them for analysis. Had she scratched dna material from her killer . They would have to wait on findings. And likewise, the clump of hair found in chiquitas hand. Did it contain dna to identify the killer . If youre in a fight and pull out someones hair, you are going to find root hairs, hairballs. But, the lab work was back on the hair sample. There were no roots on the strands. But, the hair had come from a womans hair extension, or weve. The scenario that occurs to me is that this is a woman. Exactly. She has a bit of this weve and yanks it. Exactly. The theory of two women in eight a death struggle didnt make sense to the cops. The attack seemed too violent, too overwhelming. But with homicides, you never know. In the early hours of the investigation, they did catch a major break. Report came to dispatch. A Woman Driving through a high crime area called police to say she had found a wallet which belonged to Chiquita Tate. She sees the wallet on the side of the road. Amazingly enough, the finder of the wallet new chiquita. The young attorney had given a speech at her Daughters School and made quite an impression. That prompted her to call the police and advise us that she had located this wallet. Unexpected, for a wallet taken from the victims purse, and then tossed, chiquitas i. D. And credit cards were all inside. This got investigators thinking. May be the killer planted the wallet there, hoping some Street Person would find it and stumble into a homicide investigation. When you take a nice gucci wallet loaded with credit cards and leave it in the streets, somebody is going to pick it up and start going to the mall, spending some of those credit cards, and the first thing that is going to happen is that the police are going to have film of the transaction and go to that person and say, you killed Chiquita Tate. There is your suspect. Absolutely. So, this killer unknown started taking on traits in the detectives mines. The person was good or lucky enough to get out of the Office Building without leaving a trail of blood. And after what had to be a frenzied attack still have the composure to think of the red herring of the tossed wallet. The killer looks like a cool customer. Perhaps a professional. Desktops looks down the list of delete dubious characters on her client roster, they looks closely at two men accused of killing a man and his 17year old son. Possible suspects . One of them was in jail at the time of the homicide. It was very unlikely that someone who she worked so hard for would kill her. A few of the people on chiquitas client list were incarcerated at the time of her killing. Others had alibis. But, she also had clients who were free to come and go. Did one of them have an appointment . Was anybody due to come in that evening . Know. Not after hours. That would have been very unusual and i would have known. A mystery client with the worst grudge . A woman unknown . Only theories, until the cops play poker with a witness and hit the Jackpot Holding a pair of deuces. Coming up, a revealing phone call with a jawdrop