Try to get in with keys. reporter: that, he said, was carter trying to pull off another, bigger burglary. police just knew one day after killing ashlea and taking her keys, carter was trying to break into american eagle where this time, tens of thousands of dollars the black friday profits were in the safe. but the key didn t fit, because after ashlea was murdered, chris cravey changed the locks. i wasn t gonna take any chance on whether it be a deposit or them harming somebody else in the store. we needed to lock them out. reporter: the detectives pulled the surveillance video, and look at this carter, slipping away from the mall, having already changed from her sweat clothes into pink scrubs. had to be trying to fool potential trackers, they thought. this was after she would have spotted police talking to david in the parking lot. then she walked all the way home. over the next few days, police got a warrant for carter and david s cell phones.
Me. reporter: the brutality of the murder was never far from the prosecutors minds. i think i just thought how painful and how awful the last few minutes of her life would ve been on this earth reporter: how terrifying. and absolutely terrifying. absolutely terrifying. reporter: even that, they said even that appeared to be part of the plan. this wasn t just about robbery, or even revenge, said prosecutor rousseau. it was discussions that carter cervantez had had with people where she expressed certain i guess you would call them fantasies involving killing people. reporter: liza schoenthal remembers one such discussion at work. it was just us. and we were folding clothes, and she mentioned that she had thought about killing someone before and whether or not she could watch them die. reporter: as if the murder wasn t shocking enough, prosecutors were pretty sure ashlea s murder was a thrill kill planned by a sadistic young
And was looking for a reason to hold him. he said that he had a driver s license. but he didn t have his driver s license with him. reporter: reason enough. he arrested mallory and brought him in for questioning. but carter? seemed to have vanished. wasn t anywhere in the mall. but then police went to her apartment complex, and there she was. where was she in the apartment complex? well, she initially was in the in the laundry room. reporter: calm as you please, she agreed to answer questions without a lawyer down at the station. do you go by carter or carol? carter. reporter: somehow she d switched her dark clothes for bright pink scrubs. so how did you end up in ft. worth? i had a job opportunity with american eagle outfitters. reporter: ah, yes, carter s american eagle connection, detective cedillo had already heard a thing or two about that. carter had worked in the ft, worth store for about four months and was businesslike.
Transcripts for MSNBC Morning Joe 20191225 12:40:45 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
reporter: ashlea deenor assisted. from the witness stand detective cedillo helped lay out the case. were you able to conduct a search of her apartment and her vehicle, things like that? yes, sir. and did you find a receipt that proved to be helpful? that s correct. reporter: a sales receipt showed some odd purchases on carter s credit card. she had purchased two shovels. she had purchased a tarp. she had purchased gloves. reporter: why was that significant? because of a discovery way out in the texas scrub. a discovery worthy of a horror movie. and the key to finding it was right there on carter and david s cell phones. they would text each other longitude and latitude coordinates, and it led us to a remote area near abilene. reporter: what was there? as soon as we got to where the spot says, you re there, we look up and there s an actual human grave that s been dug. reporter: fresh grave? fresh grave.