Reporter and then there was the new man in her life. Anybody close to brandy, we need to take a real hard, serious look at. Reporter no fingerprints. No dna. And no arrests, for years. Reporter youre grieving, how do you put all that awful time together, molly . Day by day. Reporter then hints emerge of someones dark past. Youve got robberies going on, the homicide. Reporter and one brave woman willing to talk. He told me the same that happened to brandy would happen to me. Reporter the question wasnt just who murdered a young mother. It was why . There was no money. There just wasnt a reason to do it. She didnt hurt nobody. She didnt bother nobody, why did they have to kill her . Reporter im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Dennis Murphy with out there in the dark. Reporter it was a chillier than usual monday night in may, as brandy daniels drove home from her shift at kohls. Zanesville in eastern ohio is the kind of nottoobig, nottoosmall, city where you can be off the downtown grid and into wooded Rolling Hills in just a few minutes. And out there in the dark, thats where this 25yearold single mom was heading back home to her daughter waiting to be tucked in at brandys moms house out in the country where shed been living lately. Brandy had been through a rough few months, years really. But one of the big reason things were finally turning around for her was that soothing voice on the cellphone this night, her fiance, talking her home. Im just talkin to her as shes driving home. Trying to drive a stick shift, which shed just learned, talkin on the phone. Reporter the fiance was craig berry, her older boyfriend. Im a hairstylist, have been for years. Reporter one day, brandy walked into craigs salon. We hit it off. Reporter women are very funny about who they will turn their head over to isnt it . Yeah, we turned out to be really good friends. The most beautiful eyes you ever saw. Reporter like the song, brandy turned out to be a fine girl for craig and that, right away mutual attraction, grew into something more serious. Touched my heart. Immediately. It was connection like ive never felt. And it just kept gettin bigger and bigger every time we talked. We were lookin at houses. Reporter you guys were fixin to marry . Oh, yeah. Yeah. Reporter count brandys mom, molly edwards, among the many people thrilled at the arrival of craig in her life just when you needed something nice to happen. Craig, what did you think of him . He was really nice. He put her first. He put her first. Reporter growing up, brandy wasnt much for barbie dolls but give her a sketch pad and a pencil and she was lost for hours. She loved to draw. She had a deft eye for realistic wildlife portraits. She took every kinda art class there was. If it had anything to do with art, she took it. Reporter brandy enrolled at her local college, zane state, but before her freshman year was up she left school to marry josh daniels, a parttime student shed met. Not too long after, she had news for mom. She called me up said that she was pregnant. Reporter you must have been so torn up. I was. That was my baby. Reporter brandy, husband josh, and the baby daughter were living nearby. You couldnt ask for a better mother. If it was somethin that she needed or the little girl needed, the baby got it first. Reporter and how did grandmother like her new baby . The baby got everything. Yes, yes. Reporter the marriage after seven years of trying foundered. She filed for divorce. Reporter she seemed to be on the other side, molly, of a really rough patch in her life. Yes. Reporter but on this may night as she was driving home from work, with fiance craig in her ear, he heard brandy starting to sound edgy. She says somebody was tailin her. You know, these people need to get off my butt. And the phone just went dead. Reporter went dead . I text her, you know . Whats up . So about ten minutes pass by, and i called her sister. And said, is brandy home yet . She goes, no. And i said, well her call dropped on me and she shoulda been comin in the door by now. She said, you want me to go check . I said, would ya . Reporter brandys kidsister tess, headed up the almost half milelong drive from her moms house to look for her. Just a few minutes later, her sister calls me back and is losin it. She was at the top of the driveway. And she says i see her car. Her headlights are on, but its not movin. Her heads slumped down. And then she just become hysterical. And i said, ill be there. I said, you need to call the cops. 911 your emergency . Reporter the Muskingum County 911 center fielded the call. My sister is in my driveway and her head is bloody and shes not moving. I just need someone to come quick, please. Im just scared i need someone to come now. [ crying ] stay on the line with me while i get the squad on the way. Reporter fiance craig was on his way too. There was his girlfriends little Nissan Sentra in the drive. I pull in right behind her car. And theres a sheriff there already. And im walkin up to the car. And i see her in the drivers seat. And i said, whats wrong . He goes, i think shes been shot. Reporter nothing can prepare you for that, huh . No. She was dead. Thats what he told me. Reporter he told you that at the scene . Yeah, and stay away. You dont wanna contaminate the crime scene. Reporter no bridge ahead. Into the abyss. Blew me outta the water. Reporter brandys mom was just leaving the bottle factory where she worked. 11 05, i got a phone call. And i went runnin out to the truck. Tess said, somethin is wrong with brandy. We get home. Reporter see emergency vehicles, officers. We go right off into the driveway. And thats as far as i could go. Reporter the car with the driver side window down, the vehicle stalled in first gear, and brandy inside looking rag doll, shot three times execution style. The detectives were arriving. Reporter whod want brandy dead . Its always the husband, right . Maybe not this time. When we return josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. But there was someone who lived right in town. Reporter did you wonder what was goin on with the boyfriend . Anybody close to brandy, we need to take a real hard, serious look at. So one phone for you and one phone for someone in your squad. Buy an iphone 8 and get a second iphone 8 on us. Wecagefree eggs. Ng and we care about amazing taste. Because at hellmanns, were on the side of food. New aveeno® positively radiant its timbody lotion. Glow on with the moisturerich power of soy. It transforms dull, dry skin to leave you glowing. New positively radiant® body collection from aveeno®. crunching dude, your crunchings scaring the fish. Dude, theyre just jealous. Kelloggs raisin bran crunch. With crunchy clusters and the taste of. Apples and strawberries. I got one i guess were having cereal for dinner. Deliciously hearthealthy kelloggs raisin bran crunch. Powerful skincare,s now lightasair a breakthrough moisturizer delightfully whipped for instant absorption feel a lightasair finish in a flash new olay whips ageless reporter it was may 5th, 2014. The car was at the head of the driveway. Lights on and two county detectives arriving to try to figure out what had happened to the young woman dead in the drivers seat. Detective mike ryan and captain steve welker in the first minutes of what would be a years long investigation. Mike and i arrived at about the same time. Did the scene explain itself to you . We could see the basics of what had happened. Reporter their victim brandy daniels had been shot three times at close range. Crime scene techs would later recover three shell casings and a clip for a semiautomatic pistol. Brandys purse and phone were beside her. We eliminated robbery almost immediately. There was an amount of money there that somebody woulda took if it wouldve been a robbery. Reporter as the csis took their photos and estimated bullet trajectories, gathered blood, dna, brandys mom, sister, and fiancee watched on in blank horror. What do you remember about the rest of that night . Sittin in in the vehicle behind her car. Just watchin it. And theres your girl, gone. Theres my baby and i cant do nothin about it. It was 2 00. Went to the house. 4 00, detectives came down to the house, said that they removed her and the car. Reporter who would benefit from a single moms death . Of course, the questioning turned quickly to the soontobedivorced husband, the father of the little girl. Brandys mom told them about josh daniels. Said he was a perrsonal trainer at the gym and an obsessive weighlifter. When you ran him through the computer, whatd you find out about him . Did he have priors . He did not. He was not on law enforcements radar. Reporter not on law enforcements radar, but none the less, somebody they wanted to talk to right now. But, there was a problem, a big one. There was every reason to believe he wasnt in the driveway that night but 4,300 miles away in alaska. Josh had moved up there to be near his mom. Hed found work in the prudo bay oil fields. Josh was, in fact, still in alaska that night. So thats a pretty good alibi. Yes. Because theres domestic turmoil doesnt mean youd necessarily have a suspect though, does it . Not necessarily. Doesnt explain why shes dead in this vehicle, huh . But its a good idea to eliminate the husband as a suspect in the getgo. Reporter detective ryan called josh daniels on alaskas north slope. Can you discern things like demeanor or attitude through the phone line . Not really. I wasnt detectin shock or or grief, or anything like that. But nothing you can hang your hat on either, huh . No. One of the questions i asked him was, who have you been talkin to here in zanesville . And he gave me a list, about a half a dozen people. Reporter daniels told the detective hed return to zanesville as soon as he could. But there was another person much closer that the cops had to figure out craig berry, the fiancee. He is the last person known to have talked to her . Yes. Did you wonder what was goin on with the boyfriend . Hes quite an older guy. Hes got 20 years on your victim, right . Yes. So he is a person of interest until hes not, im guessing, huh . Well, at that point anybody close to brandy, we need to take a real hard, serious look at. Reporter within hours of brandys death, craig got the thirddegree. Were they askin you hard questions . Where have you been . What are you doin . Did you think, wow, they think im a suspect here . Oh, yeah. Well, thats common, right. Until youre in it and then theres a cop right in your grill. Right. They asked for my cell phone. I handed it over right then. How long did that last . I got home at 5 30 that morning. Reporter then the legwork of the investigation began in earnest. Starting with where she was last seen alive. So youre talkin to your victims coworkers. Whats the picture comin together there . They all described brandy as a very good young lady. A devoted mother in a marriage that she really wanted to get out of. Reporter patrol officers traced the route from kohls to the murder scene, hoping theyd find a security cam that recorded brandys car headed home. The boyfriends story is theres a guy right on her bumper. But that image doesnt show up anywhere, huh . No. Reporter when the lab results came back disappointment. No useful figerprints or dna. And the long slog of getting search warrants to recover data from the cellphone and the towers the signals bounce off of, had only just begun. A few days after the murder brandys husband josh returned to zanesville from alaska. They met him downtown at his lawyers office. He was fully cooperative. The detectives asked for his cell phone. He and his attorney voluntarily turned it over. Now you can look him in the eye, and you can check out his demeanor. What are you seeing . Josh was very cool and collected. He looked very confident. Reporter with the data from his phone on the way to the lab, josh returned to alaska with his eightyearold daughter. Molly and her family had buried their brandy but no one was coming to terms with the magnitude of this crime. Did the officers tell you anything about how the case would go . They figured that itd be summed up within a couple days. Reporter if only. Coming up a new suspect. But he has an alibi. Hey, hit me up on this phone right here whenever you need to talk about something. Reporter was his alibi a lie . At Eleven Oclock, he was not at your house . He was not in my house then. 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Reporter but craig wasnt a total dead end. The fiance did have a tip for the detectives. He told them they should check out a fellow gym rat of josh daniels, a guy who gave brandy the creeps, someone with an unusual first name, sirius. Sirius e. Underwood when they ran the name, investigators found a son of a local preacher, whod had some juvenile offenses but in the years since had redeemed himself. He graduated from zane state, got a good job with a local manufacturer and seemed to charm every woman he met. Four days into their investigation, detective brady hittle found sirius at a girlfriends place. I asked him if i could look at his cell phone. If i could take it back to the office, and download it. He agreed to let me do that. Howd he present himself . Calm. He claimed he didnt know brandy was killed. Just calm, cool, and collected. Reporter sirius came to the sheriffs office. Well put it in airplane mode. Reporter while the squads phone expert examined his cell, sirius explained how he knew brandys husband josh. We went to zane state together. Okay. I worked out with him and stuff like that. Reporter he said he hardly knew brandy. I didnt, like, meet her meet her, i seen her one time. Reporter as for his pal josh up in alaska . Sirius said they hadnt been in contact for a while. When was the last time, he sent you a text, he called you . Ill say about two or three weeks ago. It was not this week . I didnt talk to him this week, no. Reporter sirius said hed been with his girlfriend around the time cops believe brandy died. And went to my girlfriends house and i kind of stayed the night there. Reporter officers returned siriuss iphone and thanked him for coming in. Wendy lemon, the girlfriend in sirius alibi, was next up on the detectives list of people to talk to. Wendy, a mother of five, said she met sirius a couple of years earlier at the same place brandy and josh got together Zane State College. I just knew from the moment i met sirius that this is just a new friend. Happy. Always smiling. Reporter the midlife single mom back to college and deans list student sirius were ambassadors for their school. They were just looking for a face for Zane State College that would be friendly, and that would be outgoing, and so that we could go to different events in the community, as well as giving tours on campus. Sirius had found time to work as a Campus Security guard, and thats where he met josh, who did the same thing. Sirius was an overachiever even featured in brochures about the college. Wendy liked almost everything about him. They became a couple. One year for my birthday he totally set up an entire day skydiving. Happy birthday thank you woo it was so amazing. So awesome. We took motorcycle rides, and went on picnics. Reporter now wendy found herself caught in the undertow of a homicide investigation. Cops had her downtown the same day as sirius. I just wanna let you know, youre not under arrest, okay . Reporter detective ryan asked about the night of the murder. He used wendys texts with sirius to refresh her memory. Could you put it here so we both could see . Oh, yeah. May 5th. Reporter did wendys texts that night fit in the timeline they were building of brandys murder . And did they speak to sirius whereabouts . At 11 oclock, when you type these you were sure he was not in the house at 11 00 . At eleven o clock, he was not at your house. He was not in my house then. Reporter sirius arrived, wendy said, after that Eleven Oclock text. Sirius had given the cops wendy as his alibi and shed inadvertently only made him someone detectives needed to take a closer look it. Theres a window of opportunity in there in which he could easily have done this crime. Yes. Reporter and there was another thing, the squads phone expert filled them in about some internet searches hed found on siriuss device. Sirius had opened every news article that had to do with the homicide. Reporter interesting because earlier in the day he claimed he didnt know brandy was murdered. Question was sirius the gunman in brandys driveway . He seemed to be no more than a casual friend of joshs from the gym, but when the it guys cracked josh daniels phone use history it told a different story. What had he deleted . A lot of text messages. To whom . Sirius underwood. Sirius underwood was, by far, the one he was in contact the most. Whats your thinking . When we first talked to josh he never mentioned sirius underwood. Why would they be lyin to us about that . Reporter why indeed . The story told by the phones the concealed relationship fed a growing theory of the crime they were looking at a Long Distance killing between ohio and alaska. If that was their case, then technology was going to be as valuable to them as dna or bloody fingerprints. The first big question did the killer assuming he was a man have a phone on him when he did the shooting. And, what tower near the murder