Episode Transcript
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states and situations. Tonight
0:26
on Dateline. It was a young
0:29
female. She
0:29
had a high school graduation ring on.
0:34
I promised Courtney, kneeling on her
0:36
grave, I'm gonna find out
0:38
who put you here. We
0:42
end up getting a anonymous phone
0:44
call saying follow the money. I
0:47
polygraphed four, five, six different
0:49
guys.
0:50
When they asked you, did you kill Courtney?
0:53
I said, no, I didn't kill my sister. I
0:56
told Stephanie that day, yes, I'm gonna solve this case,
0:59
I'm gonna die trying.
1:01
He was going to open his podcast
1:04
up for tips. Hello
1:06
everybody, welcome to this episode of Real Life Real
1:08
Crime. The hotline was blowing
1:10
up. I get a phone call
1:13
saying her ex-husband knows who
1:15
did it. He returned home in
1:17
the middle of the night smelling of death.
1:19
You're about to tell them the
1:22
answers. All of them are crying, they're blown away.
1:25
You must have just felt such betrayal.
1:28
Yes ma'am.
1:31
I was floored. A teenage
1:33
girl is found dead. Her family's
1:35
long fight for justice reveals a
1:38
dark secret. I'm Lester
1:40
Holt and this is Dateline. Here's
1:43
Andrea Canning with Who Killed Courtney
1:46
Coco?
2:03
It was a fall morning in 2004, and
2:06
Chambers County, Texas, just east of Houston,
2:08
was already heating up. The temperature
2:10
had hit 70 degrees and was quickly climbing.
2:14
David Rabelais remembers that day well.
2:16
I was actually working that day. He
2:19
was a detective then with the local sheriff's
2:21
office. I had gone to the
2:23
main sheriff's office in Anawak, turned in some paperwork.
2:27
At 8 a.m., a call came in from a patrol
2:29
officer looking for Rabelais' captain. He
2:32
told him we have a deceased body in
2:34
an abandoned building over on 1406.
2:39
1406 is a busy highway,
2:42
a two-lane road that runs through the tiny town
2:44
of Winnie, Texas. One of the
2:46
local farmers riding by on his tractor, and he just happened
2:49
to glance over there and he saw what he thought looked like
2:51
a body.
2:52
A body? The detective
2:54
had to see it for himself. Discoveries
2:57
like that don't happen often in Winnie, mostly
2:59
farm fields and ranch homes. It
3:02
isn't a town known for crime.
3:03
I figured the guy was just seeing something
3:05
he didn't know what he was seeing. Rabelais
3:07
also didn't want to believe it. His
3:10
house is just a stone's throw from where he was
3:12
headed. 150 yards? 150 yards? Yeah,
3:15
I knew exactly what Bill and I were talking about. It
3:18
was a house that was started and never finished. Rabelais
3:22
pulled up to the abandoned house, not expecting
3:24
much. But when he got out of his
3:26
truck... As soon as I drove up, I could
3:28
tell it was a body.
3:31
A woman's body was lying at the entrance
3:33
of the garage. Young white
3:35
female. She
3:37
was nude from the waist down. A
3:40
disturbing and perplexing sight.
3:43
She had a blue LSU t-shirt
3:45
on. It was pulled up to her neck, but she still had her
3:47
bra on. There's no way that anybody
3:50
could have identified the body. Was it obvious
3:52
how she died? No, that was the thing.
3:55
No obvious signs whatsoever. But
3:58
the detective had a theory. The first
4:01
thing I thought was sexual assault. I
4:03
just had a feeling that somebody's sexually assaulted, and
4:05
then thought, oh, no, I've got to kill her or she's going to tell.
4:09
He couldn't be sure of anything without an autopsy.
4:11
It was all just speculation. How
4:14
long did you think she had been dead for?
4:17
I thought she'd been in probably at least three days. Three
4:19
to four days. How
4:22
she died and why she was left in an abandoned
4:24
building in Winnie made for a mystery unlike
4:26
any Rabelais had ever seen before. He
4:29
knew the case needed more resources, so
4:32
his bosses
4:32
called in the Texas Rangers. We
4:35
bring all the state resources with us, whether
4:37
that's crime lab or aircraft
4:40
needs, depending on what type of investigation it
4:42
is. This is
4:42
the equivalent of bringing in the big guns. Yes,
4:45
ma'am. Now retired,
4:47
Texas Ranger Skylar Hearn, who'd
4:49
grown up in Winnie, raced over to the
4:51
scene. His first impression
4:54
was that the body appeared staged.
4:56
That someone intentionally put
4:58
her in that position, especially with the clothing
5:00
missing, exposing her to the roadway
5:02
that way. He also
5:05
noticed a faint set of tire tracks. The
5:07
floor had a layer of dust where
5:10
the body was, and there were some tire
5:12
tracks that ended where the body was
5:14
found. Did it seem to you that someone had
5:16
driven the body to this location and then transported
5:19
her from the car? Right. Just
5:22
the first appearance is that those tire tracks probably
5:24
associated with a car backing
5:26
into that
5:27
garage and dumping her there. Were
5:30
there any footprints? There was a couple
5:32
of foot impressions or shoe impressions
5:34
in the dust that were visible. Detective
5:37
Rabelais had noticed them too. They
5:39
had the circles, you know, the circles they'd graduate
5:42
smaller and smaller pattern.
5:45
So I knew it was a tennis shoe cramp.
5:47
The investigators continued to comb the
5:49
area, anything giving
5:51
you some clues. There was an old
5:54
beer bottle that was probably six, seven feet away from her.
5:57
I had no clue if that was dropped by the
5:59
perpetrator if it was some kids
6:01
that had come in there before and drank and threw it down.
6:04
So many unknowns, but the biggest,
6:07
who was their victim? Was there anything
6:09
around her to give you a name, a wallet,
6:12
a purse, a phone?
6:13
No, we didn't find any of that. But you could
6:15
tell she was a young woman? Yeah, I could tell
6:18
she was probably in at least her early mid-20s. Detective
6:21
Rabelais had a strong hunch she wasn't
6:23
a local. I know, until
6:25
I worked Winnie, I live in Winnie. I pretty much
6:27
know everybody in Winnie. I looked at her and
6:30
I thought, she just doesn't ring a bell. But
6:33
he had one thing to go on. She
6:35
had a high school graduation ring
6:37
on, and I knew, because
6:40
I'd raised four boys, I knew that usually they'd put their
6:42
name on the inside of the ring.
6:43
The name of the school was engraved on
6:45
the outside of the ring, Alexandria
6:47
Senior High, located in neighboring Louisiana,
6:51
and on the inside.
6:52
When we opened the ring up, we saw
6:55
her name, Courtney Coco. Did that name
6:57
ring a bell to you? Not to me. Courtney
7:00
Coco, the graduation date
7:02
on the ring was 2003, which meant
7:04
the owner of the ring would be about 19 years old. This
7:08
is a big break that you have this class
7:10
ring.
7:10
Oh, 100%. But
7:12
it was still too early to know for sure if it was
7:14
even her. The ring could have been borrowed,
7:17
sold, or even stolen. Investigators
7:20
needed answers about Ms. Coco and
7:22
hoped the Alexandria Police Department would
7:24
have them.
7:25
I called Alexandria, Louisiana
7:27
Police Department, and got ahold of a
7:29
detective there. They
7:32
never imagined that call would spark a
7:34
15-year investigation with so
7:36
many twists and turns, starting
7:38
with Courtney's class ring and
7:40
a string of suspicious burglaries.
7:59
Two hours after a body was found in Winnie,
8:02
Texas, a call came into the Alexandria
8:04
Police Department in Louisiana, some 200 miles away.
8:08
It was Texas Ranger Skyler Hearn
8:11
asking for help in identifying the deceased
8:13
young woman who'd been found.
8:15
He was wanting to know if we
8:17
had a missing report or anything
8:19
like that on a Courtney Coco.
8:22
Sergeant Cedric Green took the call and looked
8:24
through the police database. He
8:26
didn't find a missing persons report, but
8:29
he did come across Courtney's name for
8:31
a different reason.
8:32
What I found was that she had
8:34
made several reports in
8:37
our system of her resident
8:39
being burglarized.
8:40
Burglaries that happened
8:42
less than two months earlier, which meant
8:45
someone easily could have stolen her ring. Correct.
8:48
Sergeant Green needed to find out if Courtney
8:50
Coco was actually missing and
8:52
came across a name he believed was a relative.
8:54
A lady that possibly
8:57
could have been her mother. So
9:00
I took a chance and I called the number. Stephanie
9:03
Belgard is Courtney's mom and was home
9:05
alone when the detective called and introduced
9:08
himself. He said, is Courtney there?
9:11
And I said, no,
9:13
sir. I said, but this is her
9:16
mom. I said, is something wrong? What
9:18
does he actually tell you? He told me they
9:20
found a body in Texas that
9:24
had my daughter's ring on her finger. And
9:27
I was like, no, sir. I said, it's not her.
9:29
Her house has been broken too. Maybe
9:32
someone stole her ring. Stephanie
9:35
told Sergeant Green that 19 year old Courtney
9:37
lived nearby and that she was sure her
9:39
daughter was safe and sound somewhere in Alexandria.
9:43
She hung up with him and immediately tried
9:45
Courtney's cell phone. I was just
9:47
like, Courtney answered this phone. Courtney answered
9:49
this phone. Courtney answered this phone. You
9:51
just wanted to hear her voice. Yes, but
9:54
no answer. No,
9:56
no. Still
9:58
desperate to reach Courtney, Stephanie. called
10:00
her oldest daughter Lace, who was at work. Stephanie
10:12
told her what little she knew. He
10:14
couldn't get there fast enough, so a
10:16
friend drove Lace to her
10:18
mom's place.
10:26
She
10:32
was there when Sergeant Green arrived hours later
10:35
and explained how the unidentified
10:37
body was discovered. Then
10:39
he launched into some questions.
10:48
Stephanie told him she saw Courtney just three days
10:51
before, on Friday. She'd
10:53
come over for a visit while Stephanie and her husband
10:55
were getting ready for a camping trip. Stephanie told
10:58
Sergeant Green that was
11:00
the last time she saw Courtney. Did she have any connection
11:02
to Winnie? No, she
11:04
didn't have any connection to
11:06
Texas at all. That was a good thing, she thought.
11:10
But as the hours passed and no one was able to
11:13
locate Courtney, her family began
11:15
to realize what they had to do. They
11:17
had to go to the hospital to
11:19
find out what they had to do. They had to go to the
11:21
hospital to find out what they had to do. When Stephanie
11:24
and his husband were able to locate
11:26
Courtney, her family began to realize what they feared most might
11:28
actually be true. Sergeant
11:32
Green needed a family member to travel to Texas and view the body
11:34
to know for sure. Courtney's
11:38
uncle agreed to make the trip with him.
11:40
Courtney had just had braces
11:40
put on her teeth a couple of weeks
11:43
before, and
11:45
she had just had a butterfly tattoo on her back, and
11:49
I told him to look for those two things. All
11:52
Stephanie could do then was wait and
11:55
pray. I was feeling
11:57
horrible because I didn't want it to be anybody else's
11:59
child.
11:59
but I definitely
12:02
didn't want it to be my child. It
12:04
was hard for Courtney's mom to imagine that anyone
12:07
would want to hurt her sweet, bubbly Courtney.
12:10
Happy birthday
12:12
dear Courtney. Stephanie could remember
12:14
so many happy moments with her, like
12:16
this family gathering for Courtney's 16th
12:19
birthday. Mom
12:21
and Courtney were laying out.
12:23
Carefree memories, they were all so
12:25
precious. There's Courtney.
12:30
Courtney was the baby of the family, the youngest
12:33
of three. Two older sisters? Two
12:35
older sisters, and so
12:39
she was very spoiled. It
12:41
got her way a lot. Lace
12:44
had always been protective of her baby sister.
12:47
She was like the daughter I never
12:49
had. I mean,
12:50
I helped change her diapers at seven years old.
12:52
Courtney may have
12:54
been the youngest, but she'd always been
12:56
the mature one. Stephanie says
12:58
when Courtney's father died, at eight years
13:01
old, she helped plan the funeral. She
13:03
picked out his flowers, what he was going to
13:05
wear, everything. It was at
13:08
eight years old. Courtney
13:10
even chose the plot where he was buried,
13:12
and then another for herself right by
13:14
his side. She was very
13:16
close to him, and part
13:19
of her died with her daddy. She
13:21
always grieved for him. She would go out to
13:23
the graveyard constantly.
13:26
Her aunts, Lynn and Michelle, were there to
13:28
help her through the grief.
13:29
Courtney, I'd like to have you tonight. And
13:32
with her family's support, Courtney continued
13:34
to thrive. How
13:37
was she as a teenager? She was a very
13:39
good teenager, actually. She made good grades,
13:42
and I was really lucky. Stephanie
13:45
says she also excelled at sports. Softball
13:47
and gymnastics were her passions.
13:50
And she went into cheerleading when
13:52
she got to high school. She must have been good
13:54
at the cheerleading since she was a gymnast. In gymnastics,
13:57
yes, ma'am.
13:59
in Candace was the same age
14:01
and was always impressed with her outgoing personality
14:04
and generous spirit. She loved
14:07
everybody, and she saw the best
14:10
in everybody. It didn't matter who you
14:12
are, what you looked like.
14:14
After graduation, Courtney enrolled in
14:16
college and planned to major in criminology.
14:19
Where did that come from?
14:20
I think she took a
14:23
criminology class in high school,
14:25
and it really sparked her interest. And
14:28
I found some of her old notes. She was even
14:30
like, how to solve a murder, like
14:32
the steps that you go through. That's
14:34
chilling. Yes, it is. Chilling,
14:37
because back in Winnie, Texas, it was looking
14:39
more and more like the unidentified young
14:42
woman was Courtney Coco. And
14:44
what they were about to find in her home made
14:47
them even more
14:48
convinced.
15:05
As the sun rose the next day in Alexandria,
15:08
Louisiana, Courtney Coco's family
15:10
huddled together for the cold that threatened
15:12
to shatter their world. When
15:14
the phone rang, Courtney's aunt Lynn picked
15:16
it up and answered. She
15:19
was the first to hear that the body was
15:21
in fact Courtney's.
15:23
I did not want the words to come out of
15:25
my mouth to my sister. But
15:28
I told her, we need to plant a funeral.
15:32
And I passed out. I
15:34
just hit the floor. The
15:37
family's worst fears were now a reality.
15:39
They were heartbroken, but also confused.
15:42
There were so many unanswered questions,
15:45
like how did Courtney die, and what was
15:47
she doing in Winnie, Texas? That
15:51
morning, both Texas and Louisiana
15:54
law enforcement were at the autopsy. And
15:56
the medical examiner's findings would only
15:58
deepen the mystery.
15:59
Even after he examined the body, there
16:02
was no bullet holes, there was no stab wounds, there
16:04
was no ligature marks, there was no bruising around
16:07
the mouth. Like they had suffocated or, you know, there
16:09
was just nothing.
16:10
Was there any sign of drugs,
16:13
drug use, alcohol? Very, very
16:15
low alcohol concentration in her body. The
16:18
medical examiner believed those levels were normal
16:21
for a person who'd recently died, not
16:23
due to alcohol consumption.
16:25
As for drugs in Courtney's system, it was
16:28
too soon to know. Investigators
16:30
would have to wait for the toxicology results.
16:33
Are you thinking this could possibly be maybe a
16:35
drug overdose?
16:36
It's possible. It's
16:38
not uncommon for people to
16:41
have an accidental overdose or poisoning and
16:43
then panic and then leave
16:46
the deceased somewhere.
16:48
And the theory that Courtney
16:50
had been sexually assaulted? It wasn't
16:52
the case at all. According to the autopsy,
16:54
there wasn't any evidence found of sexual assault. But
16:57
the medical examiner did have enough
17:00
information to rule Courtney's death a homicide.
17:03
So what's your gut telling you now? My
17:05
gut's telling me I don't know.
17:08
The detective figured whoever left Courtney's body
17:10
inside that abandoned house had to know
17:13
his way around the area.
17:15
We went back to that house. Someone lives
17:17
there now. She was laying inside
17:19
this door. In this garage right here? Yes. She
17:21
was probably six, seven feet
17:24
inside.
17:24
Rabelle was also convinced the person
17:26
had seen the house before. I
17:28
figured it was somebody that lived off somewhere else and they evidently
17:31
passed through here from time to time and knew it was here,
17:33
knew it was dark, knew it was abandoned. And
17:36
it'd be a good spot.
17:37
Would it have been easy for somebody to get to
17:39
a location like this from Alexandria? Well, yeah.
17:41
Quarter of a mile up the road. Exit
17:44
I-10, come down here and find a spot and dump
17:46
her and get back on I-10 and go back to Alexandria.
17:50
As Sergeant Green drove back to Louisiana,
17:53
he had a hunch the killer was from Alexandria,
17:56
the city where Courtney lived. He
17:58
hoped his search of Courtney's home would be
17:59
tell him something. Do you find
18:02
anything in the house? Signs
18:04
of a struggle. The house was not
18:07
in terribly disarray or anything like
18:09
that. In the bedroom, Sergeant
18:11
Green zeroed in on one thing. Her
18:13
jeans were laying on the floor by
18:15
the bed. Shoes were there too.
18:18
It was a pretty typical mess for a young adult,
18:21
but it made him wonder if Courtney was wearing the jeans
18:23
the night she died. If she'd
18:25
gone to bed and was then abducted or killed,
18:27
it would explain why Courtney was found nude from
18:30
the waist down. And there was also
18:32
this. It appeared to be
18:34
a sort of a cash box that
18:36
was under her bed, but that
18:38
was nothing in it.
18:40
Did it look like someone might have broken into the box? It
18:42
wasn't broken into, no. He
18:44
continued searching, but neither Courtney's wallet
18:47
nor phone turned up. Her car
18:49
was missing too, a 1999 Green
18:51
Pontiac.
18:53
Robbery was on the table as a possible
18:55
motive, but there was a problem with that
18:57
theory. There was no sign
18:59
of forced entry. All the doors were
19:01
locked, the windows were locked. Did you think
19:03
that she willingly let someone in,
19:06
that this was possibly somebody she knew? Yes,
19:08
either she let someone in or someone had a
19:10
key. Green believed
19:12
Courtney recently had guests over. Beer
19:15
cans and cigarettes were still on the dining table.
19:18
A Domino's Game 2, along with a scorecard,
19:20
listing two other names.
19:22
There was Jackie
19:24
and Lewis on the scorecard.
19:27
Sergeant Green learned from Courtney's sister that Jackie
19:29
was one of Courtney's closest friends. He
19:31
asked her down to the station to answer some questions.
19:35
Jackie told us that her and
19:37
Courtney had been together
19:39
that evening. This is Friday evening?
19:41
Friday evening, yes. She gave
19:44
investigators a detailed account of that night,
19:46
the last night Courtney was seen alive.
19:49
And later, after further investigation,
19:52
she met with the detectives again and reviewed
19:54
her statement. This time,
19:56
they recorded the interview.
19:57
I'm
20:00
gonna let it fly out again. Jackie
20:02
described how she and Courtney drove around that
20:04
night, not doing much, until
20:07
they picked up Jackie's boyfriend, Lewis, from his fast
20:09
food job at Sonic, sometime around 10 p.m.
20:12
You drive right straight from Sonic,
20:14
straight to her house? I think it's
20:16
not business at all. What's that? I
20:20
don't know. Was it a gas
20:22
station? Yeah, it was a gas station.
20:24
From there, she said they all went to Courtney's
20:26
house and played dominoes for the rest of the night.
20:29
She said later, sometime after midnight,
20:32
a friend of Courtney stopped by. His
20:34
name was Mel.
20:35
How long did Mel stay? About
20:39
five minutes. Out of the church, just to see
20:41
each other. They walked outside.
20:44
She said he was
20:45
gonna do it. Yeah, take a beer, take a bath.
20:47
He's still tasting. He didn't come back.
20:50
So he didn't stay. Then
20:53
around 2 a.m., Jackie said Courtney drove
20:55
her and Lewis home.
20:57
Investigators questioned Lewis, too, and
21:00
he told the same story. They didn't know if
21:02
she was going to see anyone else, but Courtney
21:04
was supposed to come back the next
21:06
morning to pick up Lewis to take him to work.
21:09
Did she show up? No. Jackie
21:11
and Lewis were cooperative, but Sergeant
21:14
Green set out to check their stories. And
21:16
whatever happened with Mel, while
21:19
he was focused on that, Courtney's family
21:21
was locked onto someone else,
21:23
someone they felt should be at the top
21:25
of the suspect list.
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slash Dateline. That's barkbox.com
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slash Dateline.
22:42
As the days passed, a timeline
22:45
of Courtney's final hours slowly began
22:47
to emerge. Her friends, Jackie
22:49
and Lewis, told detectives they spent Friday night
22:51
at her place playing dominoes until about 2
22:54
a.m. and then Courtney drove them home.
22:57
Were you suspicious of Jackie and Lewis
22:59
at all, or did you feel that they were being
23:01
upfront with you?
23:02
I was feeling that they were
23:04
being upfront. His team checked
23:06
their alibis and tracked down this gas station
23:08
surveillance video. It showed
23:10
Jackie and Courtney buying drinks at 11 23 p.m. just as
23:12
she told them. That's
23:15
Courtney in the blue t-shirt.
23:16
My good feeling was that something
23:19
happened once she dropped them
23:21
off. He wondered though, did Mel,
23:23
the friend who stopped by during the dominoes game,
23:25
return to Courtney's house sometime
23:28
later?
23:28
So we made contact with him.
23:30
Did you learn anything from him? No.
23:34
At least nothing new, and detectives
23:37
found no evidence to suggest he ever
23:39
returned to Courtney's house that night. Investigators
23:42
ruled him out as a suspect.
23:43
But what about those burglaries
23:46
Courtney reported before her death? Maybe
23:48
there was something there. This is Courtney's
23:51
house that she was living in at the
23:53
time of the homicide.
23:56
Shortly before her death, it had been burglarized
23:59
three times. in one week. Her
24:01
TV, stereo, and some jewelry
24:03
were taken. Was your gut telling
24:05
you that maybe these burglaries were connected
24:08
to her death? Sure. It's a possibility.
24:10
Somebody might have thought she wasn't coming back
24:13
or whatever, and she surprised them when she came
24:15
back home.
24:16
But how did someone get inside the house if there was
24:18
no forced entry?
24:20
Courtney's mom believed Courtney's ex-roommate,
24:22
a woman named Alexandria, knew
24:24
the answer to that.
24:26
Courtney told her family she thought Alexandria
24:28
was behind two of the burglaries.
24:31
She thought it was the roommate because they had
24:33
to have had a key.
24:34
And she didn't know if the roommate maybe made an extra
24:37
key. Stephanie explained to detectives
24:39
that Courtney kicked the roommate out of the house after
24:41
a heated argument. Alexandria
24:44
didn't respond well. She threatened to cut
24:46
her guts out.
24:47
Wow. Did you look at the
24:49
roommate? Yeah, we located her
24:52
and talked to her. We did not get
24:55
an indication that she was involved.
24:57
Sergeant Green quickly ruled Alexandria
24:59
out as a person of interest and found no
25:02
evidence linking her to the burglaries or
25:04
additional leads connecting the burglaries
25:06
to Courtney's murder. But detectives
25:09
were learning something that might be important
25:11
to the investigation.
25:13
Several people in Courtney's inner circle had
25:15
criminal records involving theft and
25:17
the sale of marijuana. So
25:19
I don't know if maybe some of the
25:21
drugs was playing part to that. Courtney
25:23
was doing drugs? Yes. Her
25:26
cousin, Candace, knew Courtney smoked marijuana.
25:29
She says it started toward the end of high school.
25:32
And why do people do drugs? You
25:34
know, to escape something, to
25:37
fill a void, to fill a hole.
25:39
That void? Candace believes it was
25:41
created by the death of Courtney's father. I
25:44
think that because she had a
25:46
daddy-shaped hole in her
25:48
heart, she sought love and
25:50
attention elsewhere. And when Courtney
25:52
dropped out of college after one semester,
25:54
Candace noticed her cousin took a turn for
25:57
the worse.
25:58
She was especially concerned about the pain. company
26:00
Courtney started keeping. They
26:03
were either dealers or they had been caught
26:06
doing something or another. Courtney
26:08
had a little
26:10
life that we knew about
26:12
and one that we didn't know about. I'm assuming
26:15
you didn't love what you were hearing about
26:17
this other life. Yes, ma'am. That's right.
26:20
It was just the type of
26:21
people that she
26:23
was around that had me really
26:26
concerned. People like
26:28
a guy named Jiddy, Courtney's on-again, off-again
26:30
boyfriend, who at first seemed nice, polite
26:33
when he met her family. Courtney brought
26:35
him over to my house and
26:38
she introduced him
26:39
as her future husband. But as the
26:41
months passed, Lace learned he had a
26:43
darker side. I did know that he
26:45
sold drugs. OK, that's
26:47
not good. No.
26:49
She also began to suspect he might be violent.
26:52
She had bruises on her arms
26:55
at work a couple of times. Courtney
26:57
wouldn't say if Jiddy was responsible. But
27:00
one day out of the blue, Lace says Courtney
27:02
made a startling comment. She
27:04
told me one time, if anything ever
27:07
happens to me, Freud, Lee
27:09
Williams Jr. did it.
27:11
And I said, well, who is that? And she said, that's
27:13
Jiddy. Nobody on the street
27:15
knows his name. So she wanted me to
27:18
give that to the police. That's
27:20
exactly what Lace did after Courtney's
27:22
death. She told Sergeant Green everything.
27:25
How seriously did you take what
27:28
the family was saying about him?
27:30
I took everything that they said seriously
27:34
because nobody knew who was involved at
27:36
that point.
27:37
Sergeant Green tracked Jiddy down
27:39
and brought him to the station for questioning. And
27:42
when he asked him where he was during the weekend Courtney
27:44
was killed,
27:45
he said he was around,
27:49
around town and from different places
27:52
or whatever. So he wasn't giving you specifics?
27:54
No. What are you thinking? I'm thinking
27:56
that he's trying to keep something away
27:59
from us. The investigator
28:01
knew Jiddy had a criminal record, but
28:03
there were no violent offenses. He
28:05
also didn't believe Jiddy was capable of killing
28:08
Courtney and moving her body. He's
28:10
small in stature, I think, five, six, five,
28:13
four, something like that. He's a small guy. Did
28:16
you straight-up ask him, did
28:18
you have anything to do with Courtney Coco's
28:20
death? Yes, and he said no. Sergeant
28:23
Green believed Courtney's killer was someone close
28:26
to her,
28:26
perhaps another man in her life.
28:29
Officially, Jiddy remained a suspect, but
28:31
without evidence tying him to the murder, Green
28:33
didn't see what more he could do. Courtney's
28:36
family believed just the opposite.
28:38
They thought there was a lot more he could be doing.
28:41
I wasn't happy with the investigation, and
28:43
I have zero negative
28:47
feelings towards law enforcement, but
28:49
I felt like
28:50
proper measures were not taken.
28:53
Not taken or pursued. I
28:56
feel like because of the choices that
28:58
she made, the lifestyle she held,
29:01
or the people she hung around,
29:03
that it was almost like she was treated
29:06
secondary. You know, like, we'll get
29:08
to that case later. The family
29:11
was losing faith fast in the Alexandria
29:13
Police Department.
29:15
What they didn't know, the APD
29:17
was on the horn with the Texas Rangers, and
29:20
together they were about to catch a break
29:22
that could crack the case wide open.
29:26
It's a parent's biggest fear, having
29:28
to bury a child.
29:32
And I just kept asking
29:34
God why. Just a week earlier, Stephanie Belgarde
29:36
was staring at her daughter Courtney's
29:39
sweet face. Now, she was looking
29:41
for a child. She was looking for a child.
29:44
And she was looking for a child. And
29:46
she was looking for a child. And she was
29:48
looking for a child. And
29:51
she was looking for a child. And she was looking for
29:53
a child.
29:55
Now, she was looking down at her coffin.
29:58
Everything that I care. about.
30:02
I didn't
30:02
care about it anymore. I didn't
30:04
even want to get out the bed. I
30:06
would imagine that Stephanie's pain
30:09
is your pain. It absolutely
30:11
is. When she cries, we cry. And
30:14
then we try to be the rock
30:17
for her if she needs to melt. Hundreds
30:20
of people attended Courtney's funeral to say their
30:22
goodbyes. But no one could
30:24
forget that her killer was still on the loose.
30:27
There was lots of federal marshals and policemen
30:29
all walking around. Courtney's cousin
30:31
could feel the tension. You know, they were
30:34
convinced that whoever did that to her would show
30:36
up at the funeral. You look at everyone in
30:38
a different light. You know, did you have
30:41
anything to do with it? Did you have anything to
30:43
do with it?
30:44
Courtney's sister Lace was on edge,
30:46
but heartbroken too. She
30:48
wanted to see and touch her sister one last
30:50
time. The hardest thing
30:53
was it wasn't even an opening casket.
30:56
We couldn't even hold our
30:58
hand, kiss her cheek. We
31:01
couldn't tell her goodbye
31:03
the way we wanted to. She
31:05
was glad to have her family there as support,
31:07
especially her fiancé. Your
31:09
fiancé, Anthony, was one of the pallbearers.
31:12
He was a pallbearer. He
31:15
wanted to be a pallbearer too. They
31:18
carried Courtney to her final resting place
31:21
next to her father. Remember, it
31:23
was her wish from when she was just eight years old.
31:26
It was there at the cemetery that Stephanie
31:28
made her daughter a promise. Nilly
31:31
on her grave, I said,
31:33
I'm going to find out who put you here.
31:36
And if the Lord lets me live long enough, I'm
31:39
going to do it.
31:44
Back in Texas, Detective Rabeli was
31:46
trying to do the same, but his investigation
31:49
was stalled. He'd been striking
31:51
out since day one. take
32:00
him getting polygravity passed. But
32:03
on the very day of Courtney's funeral, he got
32:05
word of a new development. The
32:07
Alexandria Police Department crime scene
32:09
unit had subpoenaed Courtney's phone records and
32:11
sent them to Ranger Hearn.
32:13
They showed that she stopped using her phone at 4.30 a.m.
32:16
Saturday, not long after she drove her
32:18
friends home.
32:19
But then Sunday night, her phone records
32:22
registered a sudden flurry of calls
32:24
that continued after her body was found.
32:27
And when it turned back on, it
32:29
was using a Houston cell tower and
32:31
started calling Houston phone numbers. It
32:34
was the first real break in the case. Did
32:37
you feel like if you could find the phone, find the phone,
32:39
you could find the killer?
32:40
Potentially, yes. If you can get there, you
32:42
get to the person who last
32:45
saw her and took her phone from
32:47
her.
32:48
Courtney's phone was pinging off two cell towers
32:51
60 miles away in a section of Houston, Texas
32:53
called the Fourth Ward.
32:55
Detective Rabelie and Ranger Hearn followed
32:57
the pings and to their surprise found
33:00
the phone in the custody of a 15-year-old.
33:04
So what is this teenager
33:07
saying about how he got this phone
33:09
and does he know Courtney? So he says
33:11
he has no idea or any
33:14
connection to the victim. He said two guys,
33:16
one short and one tall, were walking down the
33:18
street and offered
33:21
him the cell phone for $10. Just
33:23
random strangers who approached him.
33:25
He did not know them by name or
33:27
had not seen them before. And
33:30
just like that, their only lead
33:32
vanished.
33:33
But a week later, they caught another break
33:35
and were back in Houston. They'd been looking
33:37
for Courtney's car, the green Pontiac,
33:39
and found it parked outside an apartment complex.
33:42
Is this getting you any closer to
33:45
Courtney's possible killer?
33:47
We're hoping so. The detectives
33:49
learned the description of the two men who drove
33:51
Courtney's car to Houston matched that of the
33:53
men who sold her phone. This
33:55
time they got a name for one of them, Red.
33:59
Now you have a name.
33:59
have at least a nickname. It wasn't
34:02
much, but Ranger Hernan Detective Rabelais
34:04
followed every lead they came across in
34:06
their search for Red. They knew
34:08
he could be key to solving the case. Red
34:11
might have information leading to...
34:13
He might have information leading to something. He
34:16
got the car from somewhere. The
34:18
car came from Louisiana, and he ended up with it somehow,
34:20
so... Or he could even be the killer. He could.
34:24
But law enforcement never found Red or
34:26
learned his real name. Still, they
34:28
had Courtney's car and a crime scene
34:30
team to quickly process it.
34:32
We checked it for fingerprints. We
34:34
collected cigarette butts from inside
34:36
the car. They also sprayed Luminol
34:39
and found something. We found some
34:41
blood on the trunk latch. Was it Courtney's
34:43
blood or maybe her killer's? Once
34:46
again, law enforcement would have to wait for
34:48
lab results to know the answer. Meanwhile,
34:51
the investigation back in Alexandria
34:53
was about to zero in much closer
34:55
to home in a way that would put
34:57
Courtney's own family under the
35:00
white hot spotlight.
35:20
In the weeks after Courtney Coco was laid
35:22
to rest beside her father, Courtney's
35:25
mother felt the need to cross into Texas where
35:27
her daughter's body had been found. What
35:30
did you hope to get by
35:32
going there or feel? To me,
35:35
it was sacred ground,
35:38
even though it was horrible how she
35:40
got there. And we
35:43
brought a priest with us when we went,
35:47
and
35:49
he blessed the place. And
35:51
in a more visible sign of faith, while
35:53
the whole family watched, Lace's
35:55
fiance, Anthony Burns, helped plant
35:57
this cross near the building where her body was still.
36:00
found.
36:00
Her cross was so beautiful it
36:03
stood real about five foot high. We
36:06
put it down and
36:09
they're kind of off
36:11
to the side where it wouldn't be like
36:14
right in front of the building but like
36:16
where I had a spot to at least go leave flowers
36:18
every now and then.
36:21
Courtney's family was juggling a range
36:23
of emotions sadness confusion
36:26
anger it was the lack of answers.
36:29
The Houston crime lab had finished processing
36:31
all the evidence from Courtney's car and they
36:33
found nothing.
36:35
None of the fingerprints or the DNA led
36:37
investigators to a man who went by the name
36:39
of Red or anyone else who
36:41
brought them closer to identifying Courtney's killer.
36:44
The final toxicology reports were
36:47
also in and showed no drugs
36:49
in Courtney's system.
36:50
The medical examiner determined her cause of death
36:53
was likely asphyxia or suffocation
36:55
and that she was smothered to death.
36:58
It left the family feeling like they had to solve
37:00
the murder on their own. We would go
37:02
out and we would hand
37:04
out flyers and put
37:07
flyers on every store in
37:10
town. Fliers with
37:12
Courtney's photo and her mother's phone number
37:14
asking for any information that might help with
37:16
the investigation. They wrote
37:18
down every tip they got every person
37:20
they spoke to and looked through Courtney's
37:22
phone and banking records documenting
37:25
every detail and they shared
37:28
it all with Sergeant Green. They
37:30
weren't giving up but after
37:31
more than a year passed they felt like the detective
37:34
already had. Is Detective Green
37:37
talking to you being forthcoming sharing
37:40
with you what they're doing? No Stephanie
37:42
would call very frequently to try
37:44
to get updates.
37:45
It just got to a point where it
37:48
felt like it was on the back burner. But
37:51
Sergeant Green says the murder investigation
37:53
was never on any back burner and
37:55
that he was doing the best he could with the resources
37:57
he had. I
37:58
had other homicides. that were coming
38:01
in, other things that were going on. And
38:05
no, I was not at their beck and call. I
38:07
was not.
38:07
He also denies the family's allegation
38:10
that he treated Courtney's case as less important
38:12
because of the lifestyle she led and
38:14
the people she associated with. How
38:17
did you feel about the fact
38:19
that the family was kind of doing their
38:21
own
38:22
investigation, playing the role
38:25
of detective? I thought that that
38:27
was interfering with
38:29
our investigation. How was it interfering?
38:31
They wanted to know everything we did.
38:34
They wanted to know
38:38
who we talked to, what we asked
38:40
them. And that's
38:43
not some things that
38:45
we
38:46
usually divulge.
38:49
They felt that they were calling you with tips
38:51
and leads that you
38:54
either weren't following or weren't following
38:57
well enough. Yeah. They were,
38:59
I felt like, sending me on a whole bunch
39:01
of wild goose chases. And
39:04
the detective wondered, was there more to it
39:06
than that? A year and a half
39:09
after Courtney's murder, Sergeant Green's
39:11
ears went up when he heard something that none of
39:13
the family members had ever mentioned,
39:15
something that suddenly cast real suspicion
39:18
on them.
39:19
We end up getting an anonymous
39:21
phone call at first, saying
39:24
to us, follow
39:27
the money. What did that mean to you, follow
39:29
the money? At that point, I didn't know what
39:31
it meant. So then we
39:34
started to try to track down
39:37
why was that said and who was saying it. Because
39:39
it came in anonymously at first.
39:42
Investigators soon tracked the call to Courtney's
39:45
grandfather. The man told police
39:47
that his son, Courtney's father, had once
39:49
been injured on the job. He lost
39:51
a leg and received a settlement.
39:53
And when he passed away,
39:56
Courtney was the beneficiary.
39:58
Courtney was in jail. grade
40:00
school when her father died and apparently had no
40:02
idea he'd left her what would become a
40:04
small fortune. Every five years
40:07
she got a lump sum
40:09
and it doubled
40:10
every five years all
40:12
the way up to 300, 400 thousand dollars or so. They
40:16
start coming to her and her
40:18
name. They meaning checks, $1,500
40:21
every month. That
40:24
was just the start. Researchers learned
40:26
that a few months before Courtney died she'd
40:29
received a check for $20,000 and where there's money, often
40:32
there's motive.
40:35
Through talking to people, this
40:37
is maybe had caused a little
40:39
bit of strife between her and her mom.
40:42
We had some indication that her
40:44
and her mom had argued about
40:47
the money and that was a problem
40:50
for Courtney apparently. The
40:54
Green found it strange that Stephanie had failed to
40:56
mention any of this in their many conversations.
40:59
So in March 2006, 17 months
41:02
after Courtney's body was found, he called
41:04
Stephanie down to the station for questioning.
41:06
Now you're on the potential suspect
41:09
list. Of theirs I guess. So
41:12
I gladly gave them a DNA. I
41:14
did whatever they asked me to do.
41:17
I cooperated 100%. Stephanie
41:20
even took a polygraph. They asked
41:22
me all these questions like, do
41:25
you know who killed your child? Did you
41:27
help kill Courtney? All
41:29
these horrible questions which I understand
41:31
you have to do.
41:33
As insensitive
41:36
as it seems, it
41:39
has to be addressed at
41:41
some point we had to ask.
41:43
And as far as the issue that landed Stephanie in police
41:46
crosshairs, Courtney's mom said
41:48
she'd known about the money all along and managed
41:50
it until her daughter turned 18. So
41:53
maybe you wanted Courtney's money. Right.
41:55
Because would it go to you if she died?
41:58
I assume that it would go back.
41:59
to his family, but it didn't. It came
42:02
to me. Was anything she was saying
42:04
suspicious to you that... No. She
42:06
might know something about the murder? No. Did
42:08
she pass the polygraph? She did. Courtney's
42:12
mom was in the clear, but another
42:15
member of the family was about to face the
42:17
same treatment, and her
42:19
visit to the police station ended
42:21
in far more troubling fashion. I
42:24
went ballistic.
42:26
I lost it. I ripped the stuff
42:28
off. I was about to lose my
42:31
mind.
42:46
Just days after Courtney's mom Stephanie
42:48
walked out of the police station and out
42:50
from under any cloud of suspicion, Courtney's
42:53
sister got a call.
42:54
It was Sergeant Green. He said,
42:56
Lay said, you should come down to the station tomorrow
42:59
morning, about nine o'clock, and
43:01
he said, I have some information on your sister. Are
43:03
you thinking maybe there's been an arrest? I
43:05
didn't know what it was. I just knew that there was some
43:07
information and I was all for it. Seventeen
43:11
months had passed without any promising
43:13
leads in Courtney Cocoa's murder. As
43:16
Lay set off for the police station, maybe
43:18
that was now about to change. I
43:21
went down there and he
43:23
opened this door and there were two
43:25
FBI agents and
43:28
two police officers or
43:30
detectives sitting at this long
43:32
table. First thing he said is, you're in
43:34
big trouble. So now they're
43:37
looking at you? Yes.
43:38
We felt like Lace
43:41
knew more than what she was giving
43:43
us. Lace does
43:45
have a record of misdemeanor robbery and assault.
43:49
Nervously, she agreed to answer questions
43:51
about her sister and was wired up for
43:53
a polygraph test.
43:55
Are they treating you like a suspect in your sister's
43:58
murder? Yes. start
44:00
the polygraph. The polygraph
44:03
came out, and his exact words,
44:06
it will be a miracle if she
44:08
passed this test at this point. Because
44:10
she's lying or she's just not handling the test
44:12
very well? Apparently, she wasn't being truthful
44:15
at that point. OK. Lace insists
44:17
she told the truth, but got stressed
44:19
and overwhelmed by the long, drawn-out interview.
44:22
I want to say it was like six hours
44:24
or seven hours or something. Do you think that
44:27
they think that you killed Courtney? Yeah. Or
44:29
know someone who did? Or knew someone, yes.
44:32
I mean, they were putting it on me.
44:34
The questions for Lace, just like those
44:37
asked of her mother, well, they hit
44:39
a nerve. When they asked you, did
44:41
you kill Courtney? I
44:44
went ballistic. I lost
44:46
it. I said, no, I didn't kill
44:48
my sister. And I was like,
44:50
man, what are you all trying to do to me? And I
44:53
ripped the polygraph off. And
44:55
I was leaving. He said, if you
44:58
don't come back here tomorrow morning to retake this
45:00
test, it's going to look like you killed your sister.
45:02
And my mind was so blown
45:06
because I know I didn't
45:08
kill my sister. Sergeant
45:10
Green wasn't in the room at the time, but he heard
45:12
what happened. What do you think about that
45:14
when you find out that she runs out on the
45:18
interview?
45:18
Well, what would you think? I want
45:20
to know what you think. I'm thinking
45:22
that's something that she knows that she's
45:24
not telling us.
45:25
So you're thinking, like, now Lace
45:27
could be the key to potentially
45:29
solving this murder? Yes. But
45:32
you don't know exactly why.
45:33
Don't know exactly why. When Lace leaves
45:37
the station, is she a suspect now?
45:39
She is probably more
45:43
of a person of interest than she was
45:45
before she came in.
45:48
Despondent,
45:48
Lace called her mom. Did
45:50
that bother you that Lace was questioned
45:53
for hours? Very much so, yes. And
45:55
she was on seizure medicine at that time,
45:57
and they didn't even allow her to take her medicine.
45:59
or get anything to eat
46:02
or drink in like almost eight hours. And
46:05
she was in tears, but she went back the next
46:07
day and finished. Lace
46:09
passed the polygraph but remained under
46:11
suspicion. So if you
46:13
thought Courtney's family was fed up with Detective
46:16
Green before, well,
46:17
they were about to turn up the heat
46:19
by turning to his boss.
46:21
I told the police chief, I said,
46:24
I do
46:25
not want Detective Green on Courtney's
46:27
case. Please take him off. I
46:30
just wanted somebody that would give
46:32
me answers. I was told by
46:34
the chief, I've been sitting up all
46:36
night trying to figure out how to fire you. I'm
46:39
like, are you serious? Fire me
46:41
for what? He said that
46:43
you told them that they are possible
46:46
suspects. Well, yeah, I don't know
46:48
who killed her. Do you know?
46:50
Do they know? Could
46:53
you sort of see their point that a lot of time
46:55
had gone by and there was no arrest? Maybe
46:57
time for some fresh eyes?
46:59
Well, maybe. I mean, I didn't
47:01
have a problem with that. Did that hurt a
47:04
little bit? I mean, did you want to see it through? Did
47:06
you want to continue to try to solve it? I did. There's
47:09
no homicide that I've started on that
47:12
I don't want to finish. I mean, yeah,
47:14
it was hurtful, but I'm also
47:17
a professional. Yeah. So
47:20
if that was the decision to be made,
47:22
I had to move on. Sergeant
47:25
Green wasn't fired, but was reassigned. And
47:27
eventually another detective was put on
47:29
the case.
47:31
But first, a new revelation
47:33
would hit Courtney's family, one that
47:35
would challenge everything they thought they knew
47:38
about her murder. And he
47:40
said, I'm here to tell you all
47:42
that your daughter's
47:43
death was an accidental death.
47:49
And
47:54
I'm here
47:54
to tell you all that your
47:57
daughter's death was an accidental death.
47:59
until somehow it had been a decade
48:02
since the murder of Courtney Coco. The
48:04
case had gone bitterly cold.
48:07
The frustration must have just been overwhelming.
48:10
Yes. Not having answers. Yes, ma'am.
48:12
I even came to the realization
48:15
that her murder might never be solved. And
48:18
I gave it to the Lord and I said, you know who
48:20
did this? And the ultimate
48:23
justice will come from you.
48:24
You didn't give up. No. But I wanted
48:27
to. So many times, I just, I was
48:29
tired. Desperate for answers,
48:31
Courtney's family asked yet another
48:34
agency for help, the local Louisiana
48:36
Sheriff's Office.
48:37
They also joined a group called Parents of Murdered
48:40
Children. And eventually, they even
48:42
reached out to Dateline. And we featured
48:44
Courtney's story online in our Cold Case
48:46
Spotlight series. Meanwhile, they
48:48
did whatever they could to keep Courtney's case
48:50
in the public eye. We did any
48:53
march, candlelight vigil,
48:56
victim's march, anything we could do. Courtney's
48:59
family doubled down on their search for answers
49:01
and had the binders of information to prove
49:03
it.
49:05
When I look at this, all of the
49:07
materials, I think of like your own little war
49:09
room. Every little tip
49:12
that would come through, whether it was
49:14
wrote on a regular piece of paper, a
49:18
receipt, we filed it.
49:20
Courtney's grandmother saw flashes of hope
49:23
in a sea of despair. I know
49:25
you, you're the matriarch. What was your feeling
49:27
as you're watching them go through this?
49:29
It was very, very hurtful,
49:32
because I noticed every
49:34
time a new tip came in, their
49:37
eyes lit up. And there were times
49:39
when I felt like we were out there by
49:41
ourselves. And that
49:43
if we were gonna give help, we had to try
49:46
to help ourselves. The police
49:48
said they were doing their best, but that did nothing
49:50
to ease the family's frustration. That
49:53
put a strain on daily life. And
49:55
across the state line, it had also taken
49:57
a toll on Texas detective David Rabelick.
49:59
who ended up leaving the sheriff's office.
50:02
I got to the point where I couldn't do anything
50:04
else on the case. It
50:06
tore me apart. I was on depression
50:09
medication from the doctor. I
50:11
had another heart attack.
50:13
Because of this case? I just felt like I failed
50:15
the family. I'm not doing my job. I'm
50:17
not good enough. What else can I do? These
50:20
people are hurting. What if it was my child
50:22
and I'm laying in bed wondering how my child died,
50:24
who killed her? Then in 2016,
50:28
12 years after the murder, came up bombshell.
50:31
The family was called together not by the
50:33
Alexandria Police Department or by the investigators
50:36
in Texas,
50:37
but by the Louisiana Sheriff's Office. It
50:40
turned out the Sheriff's Office had answered
50:42
the family's plea for help, but hadn't
50:45
told them they'd ordered new lab tests. And
50:47
now the family stood before a detective who
50:49
was holding some documents.
50:52
He hands us each one of
50:55
a copy of a second toxicology report that
50:58
they did on Courtney's blood. The
51:01
detective told Courtney's family the Sheriff's Office
51:03
had ordered a new tox screen on a vial of
51:06
Courtney's blood that had been stored
51:08
in evidence since the murder.
51:11
He said it revealed prescription pain
51:13
medication and a large amount of alcohol in
51:15
Courtney's system. He said, I'm here to tell y'all
51:17
that
51:18
your daughter was an
51:20
accidental death. She
51:22
OD'd. I'm
51:25
like, what? But the
51:28
first autopsy, there was no sign of drugs
51:30
or alcohol. The first
51:32
toxicology report was
51:34
no drugs or alcohol in her system. But
51:37
he said if I had to classify your daughter's
51:39
death right now, it would be accidental. I was like, forward.
51:42
I was like in a state of shock. I'm
51:44
like, she was last seen
51:47
in a store that night. If
51:49
she'd have taken all these drugs, there was
51:51
no way she could have walked. I looked straight at
51:53
him and I said, hold on a second. Courtney did not
51:56
put her body in the trunk of a car and
51:58
go to the store. dump herself
52:00
in Texas. Somebody's responsible
52:03
for that. And
52:05
we will not accept this answer. Did
52:08
you have to think, though, that it was possible that she maybe
52:10
the first autopsy was messed up, that
52:13
she really did OD, and then someone transported
52:15
her body
52:16
to the scene? No, we never
52:18
doubted the first autopsy report
52:21
because they had her actual body. They
52:23
tested her actual spleen and everything right
52:25
then and there. I've never heard of
52:28
anybody going from a clean talk
52:31
screen to suddenly with all these drugs
52:33
in their system. Right, right.
52:35
We weren't going to believe it. No.
52:38
Courtney's
52:40
family believed law enforcement just wanted
52:42
to close the case, be done with
52:44
all of it, and done with them. Days
52:47
later, Stephanie called the detective. And
52:50
I said, I'm not buying it.
52:52
I don't believe it for a minute. Keep
52:56
digging. I said, now, you can tell
52:58
me who put my daughter's body in
53:00
that building that she was in. Then this
53:02
case is not solved.
53:05
But if the Louisiana sheriff wanted to be done
53:07
with the Courtney Cocoa case, well, in
53:09
one sense, it worked.
53:11
Because Stephanie and her family were now done with
53:14
official law enforcement channels.
53:16
You decide if they're not going to do it,
53:18
they're not going to solve this. I am.
53:21
I'm going to get someone. I wanted a private investigator
53:23
or somebody. A family member
53:25
happened to know someone with a passion for cold
53:28
cases.
53:29
His name is Woody Overton, a
53:31
former criminal investigator for the Louisiana
53:33
State Police with over 20 years in law
53:35
enforcement. But in 2019,
53:38
he added a new line to his resume.
53:40
Hello, everybody. I'm welcome to this episode of
53:42
Real Life, Real Crime, the podcast.
53:45
True Crime Podcaster. My wife said,
53:47
everybody loves you. Boys said, everybody loves your stories.
53:49
You need to start a podcast. She's
53:52
mom, Stephanie, had spoken to Woody years before
53:54
about her frustration with local law enforcement.
53:57
But after his podcast launched, she reached
54:00
out to him again. Could he help
54:02
crack Courtney's case? I
54:04
begged him. I said, please help me. And
54:07
he knows the law, like the back of his hand.
54:09
It broke my heart. And I'm like, I told
54:11
Stephanie that day, I said, I'll tell you what, I'm
54:14
going to solve this case. I'm going to die trying. Wow.
54:17
What was her reaction to that? She
54:20
cried. Yeah. Finally
54:22
someone was… Right. Well, you
54:24
know, people have been promising herself for over 16 years
54:27
at that point. Something tells me she could
54:30
feel that you meant it. Right. Well,
54:33
I did.
54:36
Woody took on the case and went
54:38
on the air. I'm your host, Woody
54:41
Overton. And as his
54:43
listeners responded, it wasn't
54:45
long before he came face to face
54:48
with someone who said she knew Courtney's
54:50
killer.
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56:04
Former criminal investigator and podcaster
56:06
Woody Overton has one of the most popular
56:09
podcasts in the country, and he
56:11
was now delving into Courtney Koko's
56:13
murder.
56:14
His first step was to take in all the information
56:16
Courtney's family had gathered over 15 years.
56:19
What did you make of the family's files?
56:21
I thought it was just amazing. It was
56:23
an amazing testament to this family, not ever
56:26
giving up. People would call them the tips
56:28
or tell them this and tell them that. They had everything
56:30
written down. Woody chased
56:32
down leads from the family's files. It
56:35
just morphed into what I used to do. Working
56:38
the case actively, boots on the ground is what
56:40
I call it. And every week
56:43
I would release an episode of what I was doing
56:45
on the podcast. Today we're
56:47
going to be getting a new chapter.
56:50
In September 2019, Woody
56:53
said Courtney's name on his podcast
56:55
for the first time. Who
56:57
murdered Courtney Koko?
57:00
Who indeed?
57:03
The Alexandria Police Department didn't know, and
57:06
Woody was highly critical of the department.
57:08
Now I'm playing an armchair quarterback,
57:10
right? But the things that weren't
57:12
done that were throwing up red flags
57:14
for me. Woody also wanted
57:17
to eliminate any suspects he could, including
57:20
members of Courtney's family.
57:22
My sister Lace remained under suspicion
57:24
in the police investigation. And
57:26
Woody, an experienced polygrapher,
57:28
wanted to satisfy himself that she wasn't
57:31
involved. Did you take offense to
57:33
it that he wanted to give you a polygraph?
57:35
No, I will cooperate with
57:37
anything. Because he's a podcaster now,
57:40
and he's giving you a polygraph. Right, I know
57:42
it can kill my sister. So if you want to do a polygraph
57:44
on me, do one on me.
57:46
Once again, Lace took a polygraph
57:49
and passed.
57:51
Now, just like the police, Woody had
57:54
no obvious suspects. So he
57:56
turned to his fans. I'm 18
58:00
years old now, and I do not
58:03
think it can be solved without the help
58:06
of the public.
58:07
And you lifers out there? Lifers
58:11
is the endearing term Woody uses for his most
58:13
loyal and hardcore listeners. He
58:15
set up a Facebook page and a tip line for
58:17
them to share their thoughts and theories. I
58:20
just went and gobbled up every episode I
58:22
could. It kind of reignited a fire for
58:24
me.
58:25
The series attracted new fans, like
58:27
Karen Fowler, a high school friend of Courtney's.
58:30
I got in contact with people that I went to high school
58:32
with, and we had group messages going
58:34
of, well, did you know about this, and what did you think
58:36
about that? Just kind of getting
58:39
information for the first time. As
58:41
the tips started rolling in,
58:43
Woody set up shop in Alexandria and
58:46
took digs at the Alexandria Police Department
58:48
to step up and solve the case.
58:50
We don't get satisfaction. We're going
58:52
to take it to the media, and we're going to blow it up.
58:55
Woody's in-your-face style apparently didn't
58:57
sit well with some. Woody says
58:59
he received not so subtle messages
59:02
to drop the case. I had several
59:04
incidents, including the window being
59:06
shot out of my truck, wires
59:09
ripped out of the vehicle another time. I
59:11
had to leave Alexandra and
59:13
get a cabin in the woods while I was still working
59:15
the case for my own safety.
59:18
In spite of the danger he felt, Woody
59:20
stuck with it. As he dug deeper,
59:23
wading through paperwork and speaking with witnesses,
59:26
a name emerged as Courtney's possible killer,
59:29
a name he was hearing again and again.
59:31
Talking about suspect number
59:34
one. Woody gave him the moniker
59:36
Suspect Number One, and
59:38
his suspicions only grew when one of his podcast
59:41
lifers made a startling revelation
59:43
about Suspect Number One.
59:45
I get a
59:47
phone call saying, hey, we have a lifer.
59:50
It says her ex-husband
59:52
knows
59:54
that Suspect Number One did it.
59:56
So she's saying her ex-husband,
59:59
his friend. His best friend. Has
1:00:01
confessed to him that he did this, that
1:00:03
he killed Courtney. And it even goes
1:00:06
deeper.
1:00:06
Her now ex-husband was gone
1:00:09
that we can also return home in the middle
1:00:11
of the night smelling of death.
1:00:13
That tip from a woman named
1:00:15
Tiffany sounded more than promising
1:00:17
to Woody. But he needed proof.
1:00:19
A recorded conversation, perhaps. I'm
1:00:22
like, can we wire her up? Can we get
1:00:24
her on a cell phone? How'd you get her to agree?
1:00:27
Because that could be dangerous for her. She
1:00:29
wanted help. And she did it.
1:00:32
Oh my God, listen to this. Tiffany
1:00:36
agreed to secretly record her ex, named
1:00:38
Sheamus, talking about Courtney's murder.
1:00:41
Sheamus, have you been following the broadcast?
1:00:44
You haven't listened to the broadcast at all? No. I'm
1:00:46
under what? It's
1:00:49
under broadcast, Courtney
1:00:51
Coco. As they were driving,
1:00:54
Sheamus, unaware he was being recorded,
1:00:56
confirmed his best friend had killed Courtney.
1:00:59
When
1:01:11
Tiffany called Woody and told him what she had on tape,
1:01:13
Woody couldn't contain himself. Back
1:01:17
home, with a recording in hand, Woody prepared
1:01:19
a new podcast with a message to the man he believed was
1:01:21
Courtney's killer.
1:01:40
Meanwhile, he'd called a meeting with Courtney's
1:01:42
family to finally answer the
1:01:44
question. Who killed Courtney
1:01:46
Coco? You must have just
1:01:48
felt such betrayal. Yes,
1:01:51
ma'am.
1:02:00
15 years after Courtney
1:02:03
Koko's murder,
1:02:05
podcaster
1:02:07
Woody Overton believed he knew
1:02:09
who did it. He
1:02:12
gathered Courtney's family together to reveal
1:02:14
the name.
1:02:15
And now you're about to tell them the answers,
1:02:17
that they've been desperately wanting
1:02:20
all these years. Right, and I
1:02:22
prayed hard before I did it. Your heart
1:02:24
must have just been pounding. It
1:02:26
certainly was hard. And it was
1:02:28
hard for Courtney's family to comprehend
1:02:30
what Overton told them. Who was it?
1:02:33
Who did he believe had done this? I was floored, I was floored.
1:02:35
It was Anthony Burns. Anthony
1:02:38
Burns, Lace's fiance.
1:02:41
It's since broken things off, but he was once
1:02:43
so beloved by Courtney's family. Are
1:02:46
you asking yourself how's this possible? Anthony
1:02:48
was a pallbearer at Courtney's
1:02:50
funeral. He helped you erect
1:02:52
the cross. Yes. Lace's
1:02:55
fiance.
1:02:56
Yes. Your fiance. My
1:02:58
fiance. Your former fiance. You're
1:03:00
sleeping with a killer. With a killer. Potentially,
1:03:04
if Woody's investigation is right. Yes,
1:03:07
I started thinking of all
1:03:09
them times, he came in
1:03:12
and laid in the same bed with me, knowing
1:03:15
that he was a killer. And
1:03:17
he could have easily killed
1:03:19
me. You must have just felt
1:03:21
such betrayal by Anthony.
1:03:24
He'd been such a big part of your lives. Yes,
1:03:27
ma'am. I didn't want to believe
1:03:29
it.
1:03:30
Stephanie cried and ran out
1:03:32
of the room. All of them are crying,
1:03:34
they're blown away. Woody's podcast
1:03:36
wasn't enough to arrest Anthony, but
1:03:39
it was enough to get the Alexandria
1:03:41
Police Department to revive its investigation.
1:03:43
The podcast gained significant
1:03:47
momentum. It brought the case
1:03:49
back to life. Tanner
1:03:52
Dryden was the detective who took it over and
1:03:54
told Courtney's family, how did the family
1:03:56
react?
1:03:57
Oh, they were so happy. They were ecstatic. Pretty
1:04:00
much all they ever asked for was to
1:04:02
not be put on the back burner or forgot about.
1:04:06
Woody was happy too and handed his evidence
1:04:08
to Dryden. And man, I called Flagford.
1:04:11
My fans were mad that I turned back over to the
1:04:13
Alexandria Police Department because it blasted
1:04:16
him so hard in the beginning.
1:04:18
But Dryden couldn't rely on Woody's podcast
1:04:20
investigation. He had to do his own. And
1:04:23
that meant starting back at square one. I
1:04:25
started going through the case files,
1:04:27
re-investigating every lead
1:04:30
from every agency, starting over. He
1:04:33
questioned Anthony Burns' friend Seamus who'd
1:04:35
been captured on that secret recording. Did
1:04:38
he confirm what he had said on that recording,
1:04:40
that Anthony killed
1:04:42
Courtney? Yes. As
1:04:45
he dug deeper, Dryden discovered two
1:04:47
more former friends of Anthony Burns had come
1:04:49
forward years before saying Burns had
1:04:51
confessed to the murder. Their stories were
1:04:53
compelling, but one friend had a criminal
1:04:55
record and the other said Burns was drunk
1:04:58
when he confessed. Dryden needed
1:05:00
more to bring charges. And
1:05:03
then he got a big break. As
1:05:05
you're going through all these documents,
1:05:08
you find a tip that's almost
1:05:11
buried in all this stuff that's
1:05:14
going to take you on quite an interesting
1:05:16
ride. Yes.
1:05:18
The tip was from a Texas man named Jude
1:05:20
Wilson who'd come forward a few days after
1:05:23
Courtney's body was found. He
1:05:25
said he'd seen her car, the green Pontiac,
1:05:27
around the supposed time of her murder.
1:05:29
And he calls in and says, hey, I
1:05:32
saw that car. I know it's
1:05:34
that car because it almost
1:05:37
backed into me. We almost had a wreck. Where's
1:05:39
the location? The dump site
1:05:42
in Winnie, Texas. Where she was
1:05:44
found. Courtney's body was found. Jude
1:05:46
Wilson's statement might have been a game changer
1:05:48
to the investigation back then. But
1:05:51
the officer who took the incident report typed
1:05:53
in the wrong date. And so it was
1:05:55
pushed aside.
1:05:57
back
1:06:00
into me. It was only
1:06:02
when Dryden found Wilson and recorded
1:06:04
an interview with him that he was able to confirm
1:06:07
the near-miss incident did happen
1:06:09
during the window of Courtney's murder. Sunday
1:06:11
evening before midnight around that time frame. Did
1:06:14
he get a look at
1:06:15
the driver of the car? Yes.
1:06:18
He was definitely not a heavy-set person, probably
1:06:20
a younger person. He described the
1:06:22
driver as being
1:06:25
slim with small
1:06:28
features. Like Anthony
1:06:30
Burns. But the incident happened
1:06:32
in a flash. It was dark and Wilson
1:06:34
got only a side view of the driver. So
1:06:37
maybe it wasn't him after all. Dryden
1:06:40
wanted to find the truth. So in October 2019,
1:06:43
he decided to confront Burns himself
1:06:46
and brought him in for questioning. All
1:06:48
right. I don't even know Courtney.
1:06:51
I met Courtney after I
1:06:53
started dating Lace.
1:06:55
The detective got to the point. Where
1:06:57
was he the weekend Courtney was murdered, starting
1:07:00
with that Friday. Did
1:07:01
you work that Friday? Did you have to work the white Friday?
1:07:04
You did? I'm pretty sure I did. Did you
1:07:06
have been with Lace Friday night? I
1:07:08
was really interested in him.
1:07:11
On Saturday and Sunday, he said he was in bed
1:07:13
with Lace.
1:07:14
Me and her stayed in
1:07:16
bed. I always ran in with it. One of
1:07:18
those ways.
1:07:23
On Monday morning, he said he went to work and then
1:07:25
surprised Lace with a romantic gift of
1:07:27
flowers.
1:07:28
I want to say with chocolate
1:07:30
roses, I'm not for sure. It might have been red
1:07:32
roses. That was his story. I
1:07:34
went and talked to Lace. You
1:07:37
think she could help verify some of
1:07:39
this? Hell
1:07:41
yeah.
1:07:43
So Detective Dryden questioned Lace.
1:07:45
And her version of events differed sharply
1:07:48
from Burns's. We didn't
1:07:50
even argue. We got into a big fight. Probably
1:07:53
started Friday and then it got worse. At
1:07:55
about midnight. He left another Friday?
1:07:58
He left, yes.
1:07:59
No, you can't tell me
1:08:02
where to go or anything.
1:08:03
She said the next time she saw Anthony was
1:08:05
after Courtney's body was found. Lace
1:08:07
is saying they were not making
1:08:09
love all weekend. That's great. And
1:08:11
there was something else, something
1:08:14
huge. Not long before Courtney's
1:08:16
murder, Lace had called Anthony and
1:08:18
heard Courtney's voice in the background. And
1:08:21
I heard my sister in the background say, who is
1:08:23
that? She believed Anthony and
1:08:25
Courtney were seeing each other behind her back.
1:08:28
What's more, she said Anthony purchased a
1:08:30
set of two gold promise rings and
1:08:33
gave Courtney the one with a special
1:08:35
meaning. She had a gold ring and a
1:08:37
heart on it. She had like the pretty
1:08:39
part
1:08:39
of the ring and had the banner. It's like
1:08:41
he bought that set and gave her
1:08:45
the ring and gave me the ring.
1:08:47
Lace said Anthony and Courtney denied
1:08:49
seeing each other. She never told anyone.
1:08:52
She suspected an affair and didn't make
1:08:54
a connection between Burns and Courtney's
1:08:56
murder.
1:08:57
Dryden still didn't have enough to arrest
1:09:00
Burns. However, he did persuade
1:09:02
him to take a voice stress test conducted
1:09:04
by another detective that would maybe
1:09:06
show if Burns was lying.
1:09:09
Is today Monday? Yes.
1:09:12
Are you involved in the death of Courtney
1:09:14
Coco? No. Is
1:09:17
this the month of November? Yes.
1:09:21
Are you involved in the disposal of
1:09:23
Courtney Coco's body? No.
1:09:26
Burns failed the test. I'm
1:09:28
going to take you over to the next room. I'll take Dryden
1:09:30
and speak with you soon. Are you convinced
1:09:33
now that you're sitting across from Courtney
1:09:36
Coco's killer? Yes, I
1:09:39
am. When I brought him back in there to ask
1:09:41
him about the questions that he felt, he just immediately
1:09:44
got mad and lawyered up. The
1:09:47
detective believed he had the right man, but
1:09:49
the evidence was circumstantial. It
1:09:51
took the prosecutor another year to put
1:09:53
together a case and present it to the grand jury.
1:09:56
What's their decision?
1:09:57
Their decision was unanimous.
1:10:00
to indict him for the murder of Courtney.
1:10:02
You're going to go make your arrest? Let's
1:10:05
go, Tom. As Dryden set
1:10:07
off to arrest Anthony Burns, he
1:10:09
was counting on eyewitnesses to help
1:10:11
put him away. One in particular
1:10:14
had a doozy of a story to tell.
1:10:16
It's one of the most bizarre and
1:10:19
startling eyewitness stories that
1:10:21
I've ever run across, and I've been doing this a long
1:10:23
time.
1:10:28
The
1:10:32
murder
1:10:32
of Anthony Burns is a very interesting
1:10:35
and interesting story to tell.
1:10:38
In April 2021, Detective
1:10:40
Tanner Dryden and his partner approached Anthony
1:10:42
Burns' workplace with their guns drawn.
1:10:45
So we sneak inside. You know, we have him at gunpoint.
1:10:49
I said, Anthony, you're under arrest
1:10:51
for the murder of Courtney Cuckoo. Did
1:10:54
he say anything? He just kind of grinned. Grinned?
1:10:57
Oh, yeah. He was so arrogant. Dryden
1:11:00
immediately called Stephanie, who was in her car.
1:11:03
She just started crying.
1:11:06
She was so happy. I was at a red light.
1:11:08
I think I ran through the red light. I
1:11:11
don't even remember, but I wanted to
1:11:13
jump for joy.
1:11:17
More than 16 years after Courtney's murder, Anthony
1:11:19
Burns was in jail, and Courtney's family
1:11:22
had some hope for justice. Lace
1:11:24
hoped he'd never be free again. I
1:11:27
suffered with nightmares because
1:11:29
I would think that
1:11:31
he was going to hurt my
1:11:33
mama or my grandma because
1:11:35
he knew where they lived. Or you? Or
1:11:38
me. To keep Burns behind bars
1:11:40
for the rest of his life, the DA brought
1:11:43
in a big gun for hire, Hugo
1:11:45
Holland, one of the most formidable prosecutors
1:11:48
in Louisiana.
1:11:49
Would you say you're the guy they call when they
1:11:51
can't win, or when it's a tough win?
1:11:54
When the DAs need somebody
1:11:56
that's had a lot of experience, they
1:11:59
usually call me. Holland
1:12:01
works across the state, bouncing from parish
1:12:03
to parish. You travel around in
1:12:06
this airplane to
1:12:09
all these cases around the state.
1:12:11
Either this one or another one I have an interest
1:12:13
in, but yeah. And you've built this yourself? Me
1:12:16
and a few other guys. Yeah, this
1:12:18
is a home-built aircraft. So your
1:12:20
career is pretty unconventional. You're like, you're
1:12:23
a roving prosecutor. It's extremely
1:12:26
unconventional. He's controversial,
1:12:28
too. In 2014, Holland
1:12:31
was forced to resign from his assistant DA position
1:12:33
after trying to make a dubious weapons purchase,
1:12:36
but was immediately hired by other parishes
1:12:38
because of his success in court.
1:12:41
However, even with Holland's impressive
1:12:43
record, the circumstantial case against
1:12:45
Anthony Burns would be an uphill battle.
1:12:48
You had no eyewitness to the crime. Correct.
1:12:50
You had no DNA from your suspect, no physical
1:12:53
evidence. Correct. You had conflicting toxicology
1:12:56
reports. Was it overdose? Was it murder? Correct.
1:12:58
And years had
1:12:59
passed. Yes. So
1:13:02
Holland cautioned the family. I
1:13:04
was concerned enough about this case, so
1:13:06
I'd already started preparing them for a not
1:13:09
guilty before the trial
1:13:11
even started. Really? Yes, ma'am. In
1:13:14
October 2022, 18 years after Courtney Coco's murder, Anthony
1:13:19
Burns went on trial. Local
1:13:21
reporter Brooke Buford was there on day one.
1:13:24
There were a lot of people there. Courtney's family
1:13:26
had a lot of supporters. Anthony Burns
1:13:29
did, too.
1:13:30
A lot of people who felt that he
1:13:32
was getting the blame placed on him
1:13:35
for not a lot of evidence pointing to
1:13:37
him. Stephanie was there with Woody
1:13:39
Overton and some of his podcast lifers
1:13:42
as prosecutor Holland addressed the jury.
1:13:45
There was a mother who'd
1:13:47
lost a child, sister who'd lost
1:13:50
a sister, somebody that's never had
1:13:52
children because of what Anthony
1:13:55
Burns did. To tell that story,
1:13:57
he didn't focus on the means and motive, but
1:13:59
on the witness. witnesses. He put on
1:14:01
the stand those two former friends of Anthony Burns
1:14:04
who said he confessed to killing Courtney.
1:14:06
One testified Burns said he'd smothered
1:14:08
her and wrapped her in a blanket. The other
1:14:10
said Burns told him he choked Courtney to death.
1:14:13
I try to make clear the only way
1:14:15
that they would have gotten the information would be from
1:14:18
Anthony Burns. Then
1:14:21
the prosecutor rolled out his star witness,
1:14:23
Jude Wilson.
1:14:25
Wilson was the local Texas man who said he'd
1:14:27
nearly been T-boned at night by a car
1:14:29
backing out of the abandoned home where Courtney's body
1:14:31
was found. But he had a much more elaborate
1:14:34
story to tell.
1:14:35
It's one of the most bizarre and
1:14:38
startling eyewitness stories that
1:14:40
I've ever run across. It turned out
1:14:42
Wilson said he had a photographic memory.
1:14:45
In fact, he'd picked out Anthony Burns from
1:14:47
a police photo lineup. But Wilson
1:14:49
was also an illustrator and was able
1:14:52
to draw a sketch of the driver he said he
1:14:54
glimpsed from the side.
1:14:56
I've never ever had
1:14:58
a witness say, oh, well, give me a piece of paper. I'm
1:15:00
going to draw you what this guy looks like. Never
1:15:02
had that. That's unheard of. I thought
1:15:04
it was pretty crazy. With a flourish,
1:15:07
Holland produced a moment of drama on the courtroom
1:15:09
monitor. I took the silhouette
1:15:11
that Jude drew and I put it on like
1:15:14
the left half of the screen. Then he showed
1:15:16
an image of Anthony Burns driving lifted
1:15:18
from home video. And I put him side
1:15:20
by side. You could lay him over the top of each
1:15:22
other. And Wilson, the
1:15:25
witness, had another surprise for the court.
1:15:28
He remembered part of the license plate of the
1:15:30
car believed to be Courtney's that nearly
1:15:32
T-boned him.
1:15:34
I remember the letters from the license plate. He
1:15:36
said, and the reason I remember that is because some
1:15:38
of those letters in that license plate
1:15:40
are my initials. And he said, I remember
1:15:43
an eight as well. Well, as soon as
1:15:45
he said that, I popped Courtney's plate
1:15:47
up and guess what? There's an eight in it. I think it was
1:15:49
a big win for the prosecution and that he was confident
1:15:52
in what he saw, whether the jury
1:15:54
would believe that all these years later
1:15:56
would be another matter.
1:15:58
The prosecution seemed to be a on a roll.
1:16:01
Another important witness was Tiffany,
1:16:03
who'd secretly recorded that conversation
1:16:05
with her ex-husband, Sheamus, for Overton's
1:16:08
podcast. I don't know about that,
1:16:09
but, uh, you can't go Courtney. Let
1:16:12
me tell you that. Tiffany
1:16:14
testified not only had Burns confess
1:16:16
to her ex-husband, she also said
1:16:18
Sheamus was M.I.A., the weekend of Courtney's
1:16:21
murder.
1:16:22
That his regular truck driving route would take
1:16:24
him right past the site where Courtney's body
1:16:26
was found,
1:16:27
and that she found a pair of women's underwear in his
1:16:30
truck.
1:16:31
That testimony about Sheamus fed into Holland's
1:16:33
overall theory of the murder.
1:16:35
He believes it took place after Anthony
1:16:37
Burns and Courtney started an affair. Take
1:16:40
us through what you think happened. So
1:16:42
he goes over to Courtney's to have
1:16:44
sex with Courtney, be with Courtney? He
1:16:47
believes Courtney rejected Burns.
1:16:49
There's a struggle. He murders her on
1:16:52
her bed in her bedroom. Burns
1:16:54
calls his buddy Sheamus. I murdered
1:16:56
Courtney. Get up here and help me.
1:16:58
Then he thinks Sheamus helped move
1:17:00
Courtney's body. Sheamus knows
1:17:02
the area. Sheamus knows that that
1:17:05
house is unoccupied. Let's go dump
1:17:07
the body there.
1:17:08
Tiffany testified that, that
1:17:10
when Sheamus came home after disappearing
1:17:13
for the weekend, she said he smelled like death.
1:17:15
She said I wouldn't even let him come in the
1:17:17
house. He smelled so bad. But prosecutor
1:17:19
Holland could never prove Sheamus was an accessory
1:17:22
to the crime.
1:17:23
Sheamus denies any involvement
1:17:25
and was never charged.
1:17:27
When he took the stand for the prosecution, he
1:17:29
did so reluctantly. But did
1:17:32
testify Burns told him he killed Courtney.
1:17:35
Sheamus was friends with Anthony
1:17:37
Burns, had been long time friends with Anthony Burns.
1:17:39
He changed
1:17:42
his story sometimes up on the stand. Sheamus
1:17:44
was sort of a hostile witness
1:17:47
for you? Oh, he is very hostile. I had to
1:17:49
threaten him a couple of times while he was testifying. It
1:17:51
was clear to the jury that he was hiding
1:17:53
information.
1:17:55
As the prosecutor's case began
1:17:57
to wobble, he would also have to contend
1:17:59
with an expert witness for the defense, a
1:18:02
doctor with a different take on
1:18:04
Courtney's death. Maybe, after
1:18:07
all, there was reasonable doubt that
1:18:09
Anthony Burns killed Courtney.
1:18:24
Anthony Burns was on trial for the murder
1:18:26
of Courtney Coco, facing life in
1:18:29
prison. Now, his defense
1:18:31
attorney Chris Lacour rose to address the
1:18:33
court, and he wasted no time pouring
1:18:36
cold water on the prosecution's circumstantial
1:18:38
case. For
1:18:39
him, the biggest one was Courtney's official cause
1:18:56
of death.
1:19:06
To prove his point, he put the author
1:19:09
of that second toxicology report on
1:19:11
the stand.
1:19:12
Remember, that report found high
1:19:14
levels of prescription painkillers and alcohol
1:19:16
in Courtney's system. He
1:19:36
cast doubt on those two
1:19:38
witnesses who testified Anthony Burns
1:19:40
had confessed to killing Courtney. do
1:20:00
things that you normally wouldn't do. Well,
1:20:02
confessing to a murder, I don't know that
1:20:05
a lot of people have been intoxicated
1:20:07
and confessed to
1:20:08
murder. Well, that's the thing. What
1:20:10
did he really confess to? La Cour
1:20:12
argued the witnesses had two different stories,
1:20:15
so it wasn't clear exactly what Burns had said.
1:20:18
And as for Seamus, that former friend of Anthony's
1:20:20
who changed his story, the attorney
1:20:23
explained he only added to the doubt his
1:20:25
client was guilty.
1:20:26
His stories just wasn't adding
1:20:29
up. You think he's an unreliable witness.
1:20:31
He is completely, totally
1:20:34
unreliable. And what about the prosecution's
1:20:36
star witness, Jude Wilson, the illustrator
1:20:39
who picked Burns out of a lineup and testified
1:20:42
to seeing him in Courtney's car the night before her body
1:20:44
was found? Wilson testified
1:20:46
that he only saw the driver's silhouette that
1:20:48
night.
1:20:49
He said he didn't see their face, and
1:20:51
he just drew a regular profile. And
1:20:54
they put a line up in front of him and said,
1:20:57
who most closely matches this silhouette?
1:21:00
He did pick the right man if you believe
1:21:02
that Anthony did this. He
1:21:04
picked the person that matched a
1:21:07
profile he drew. The
1:21:09
defense argued that lineup was shown 15 years
1:21:12
after Courtney's death, and Wilson's
1:21:14
sketch never included specific
1:21:16
facial features.
1:21:18
Would you be OK with someone picking
1:21:20
you out of lineup if they say they never
1:21:22
saw your face? I could match
1:21:24
a profile. That doesn't mean
1:21:26
it's me. The attorney
1:21:29
said the witness's stories didn't add up and
1:21:31
should not have been enough to arrest Anthony
1:21:34
Burns. Why would he kill her?
1:21:36
It just made no sense. The family
1:21:38
was suggesting that she was cheating
1:21:40
with
1:21:40
her sister's fiancee, with no
1:21:42
proof, though. The defense
1:21:44
rested, optimistic Burns would
1:21:47
be acquitted. Was it venturing
1:21:49
into slam dunk territory in your mind?
1:21:52
I never liked to be overly confident, but
1:21:54
I was pretty confident about this one. The
1:21:57
prosecution was concerned. the
1:22:00
family, I feel like we got a 50-50 shot
1:22:02
at a conviction. That's it. I
1:22:05
mean, those aren't great odds.
1:22:08
No, they're not. As the jury
1:22:10
began its deliberations, everyone stayed
1:22:12
in the courtroom, including local
1:22:14
reporter Brooke Buford. Both
1:22:16
families were nervous, you know, asking
1:22:19
each other, what do you think will happen? But
1:22:21
no ill will existed between the families.
1:22:24
In fact, every day something truly
1:22:26
extraordinary happened.
1:22:28
His family and Anthony Burns'
1:22:30
family, all strong Christians, stood
1:22:33
together and prayed. They came
1:22:35
and we held hands and we prayed for justice
1:22:38
because we were all hurting. They were hurting
1:22:41
and we were hurting. Less
1:22:43
than two hours after deliberations began,
1:22:45
the jury came back with a verdict. Anthony
1:22:48
Burns was found guilty of second-degree
1:22:51
murder.
1:22:52
I can't even explain how I felt. It
1:22:54
was almost like I was in like a euphoric
1:22:56
state.
1:22:59
Like, is this really happening? And
1:23:01
we were all shaking, shaking
1:23:03
and shaking so bad.
1:23:05
Like, thank you, Jesus. Thank
1:23:08
you. Lace,
1:23:11
for the last time, looked at the man she
1:23:13
once loved.
1:23:15
Did he have any reaction? He
1:23:17
just grabbed his stomach and went
1:23:19
down. Podcastor
1:23:21
Woody Overton had a much-needed emotional
1:23:23
reaction to the verdict.
1:23:25
That deserved a cry and
1:23:27
it was a beautiful moment. Your
1:23:29
investigation played a major role
1:23:32
in this arrest. Right. I've
1:23:34
done a lot of great things in my career. This
1:23:38
probably is the best I've ever done. Forty-five-year-old
1:23:41
Anthony Burns was sentenced to life in
1:23:43
prison without the possibility of parole.
1:23:46
But before he was taken away, Stephanie
1:23:48
turned to address him.
1:23:50
And that's when I told him that I had
1:23:52
zero mercy for him and I hope he rotted
1:23:55
in jail and then hell. He
1:23:58
still claims he didn't do it. Absolutely.
1:24:00
That's what cowards
1:24:02
do.
1:24:04
And he'll probably never admit it.
1:24:06
Anthony Burns plans to appeal his conviction,
1:24:10
but that doesn't bother Stephanie. You
1:24:12
made a promise to Courtney that you would
1:24:14
find out who killed her. And you lived up
1:24:16
to that promise. I did. I did.
1:24:20
She now wears Courtney's class ring, the
1:24:23
ring Courtney was wearing when she was murdered, that
1:24:25
started this mother's quest for justice.
1:24:29
Does it make you feel closer to her? Yes. And
1:24:32
I, it
1:24:35
makes me sleep good at night. Sometimes
1:24:37
I just hug it.
1:24:39
This is priceless to me. How
1:24:41
do you think Courtney would feel about how hard
1:24:44
you fought for her? Oh my God, she'd
1:24:46
be so happy that I kept my word
1:24:48
to her. I did things that I never
1:24:51
knew I would have to do in my life. You
1:24:53
needed to protect Courtney even
1:24:56
in death. Even in death. Yes, I did. I did
1:24:59
it. And I know she'd
1:25:01
be happy. I know she
1:25:03
is happy.
1:25:08
That's all for this edition of Dateline.
1:25:10
We'll see you again Sunday at 7, 6 central. And
1:25:14
of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC
1:25:16
Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For
1:25:19
all of us at NBC News, good
1:25:21
night.
1:25:29
Hi, I'm Andrea Canning and Friday on
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an all new two hour Dateline mystery.
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One of the strangest cases I've ever covered.
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A story that took me from the States to Scotland
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to investigate the lifetimes and curious
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death of a man on the run. You
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might say he was a nave, who became
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a knight. That's Friday at 9, 8 central
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on NBC.
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I hope you'll join me. Whatever your business is next step, first
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Financial Bank is ready to take it.
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