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A College Freshman Murdered By A Predator Hiding In Plain Sight _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill · History Dark

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: You just don't wake up one morning and commit a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: crime of this nature.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Not this demented and sick and evil. A brutal killing.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: An innocent young girl should not have to worry about
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: being murdered in her own apartment.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: A dark mystery with multiple suspects.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: And there was this kind of bad blood between them.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: He was a defender.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: He paints himself as a great guy, but he's lying.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: He's lying, he's lying.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: The truth will be revealed.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: He is a walking time bomb. He is just incredibly dangerous.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: The key to solving the toughest of these homicides lies
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: in the final 24 hours of the victim's life. To
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline, the
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: minutes and hours containing evidence that can help unlock the
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: mystery and catch the killer. In the early morning hours
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: in Arlington, Texas, emergency services respond to a frantic 911 call.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: A citizen living in the apartment complex heard glass break.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: They assumed that that was a burglar, so the Arlington
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: police were called.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: When our officers showed up, they saw the smoke and
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: the flames in the apartment.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: The fire department arrives.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: They do what they're supposed to do, and that is
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: put out the fire.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Once the flames are extinguished, the true horror of the
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: scene is revealed.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: The apartment was destroyed. It was a mess.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I went into the bedroom. There was a young woman
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: laying on her back on the bed. And the very
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: first thing I saw was a circular, round puncture in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the middle of her chest.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It was clear to me that there's a stab wound.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: She was burned enough to not be recognizable, but not
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: to the point that it concealed the injuries that we found.
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: She was lying on her back on a bed, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: that part of her in contact with the bed was
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: relatively spared from the heat. Right away, we're going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: treat it like it's foul play.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office had the responsibility for
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: positive identification, and they were able to do that with
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: dental records.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And that's what led to the discovery that it was
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Missy Grubow. She was 19 years old, two and a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: half weeks from her 20th birthday.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Arlington Police Detectives Tommy Lenore and John Stanton are tasked
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: with finding her killer.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: In order to catch the assailant, you want to know
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: about your victim. So I learned a lot about Missy
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: right off the bat. As a father myself, she is
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the daughter every father would want. She was a wonderful,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: wonderful kid. She was a freshman at the University of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Texas at Arlington. She was an honor student from a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: nearby high school She was also.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: In the band.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: She had very strong religious beliefs. A young lady with
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: incredible integrity.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: We found out she was also known to still be
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: a virgin, which she apparently was not ashamed to tell people.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: The people who she worked with and associated with, they
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: all were told that she had made that decision. that
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: she was gonna wait till after she was married.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: Someone has robbed Missy of that future.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: There was some effects to her body from the smoke,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: but you could still see that she had been beaten.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Her legs were sprawled, hanging off the edge of the bed.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: She was wearing a shirt or a bra, but it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was pulled up to her neck.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: It was burnt. Her panties were around her right ankle.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And there was a pair of pants also on the floor.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: You could also see what appeared to be ligature marks.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: To solve the murder, detectives will need to trace the
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: last day of Missy Grubaugh's young life.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Missy worked two different restaurant jobs, was working her way
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: through college. We learned that within 24 hours or so
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of Missy's death, She worked.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: She would stay and kind of decompress from her night's work.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: And then they would all call it a night, and
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: she went home. The last thing one knew from the
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: workplace was that she had gone home alone sometime after
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: 11 o'clock at night.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Detectives worked to establish time of death.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: In these type of cases, what you really want to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: find out is, was she killed before the fire or
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: was she killed after the fire?
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: If a person is dead from a fire, they will
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: have almost certainly inhaled some soot and smoke, and we'll
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: see that to the naked eye. And so if we
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: analyze the blood, we will see that there is an
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: elevated saturation of carbon monoxide in their red blood cells.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: In Missy Gruber's case, there was no soot to be found.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: And when we ran the laboratory studies, there was no
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: carbon monoxide detected. She actually died of a stab wound
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: to the chest that perforated her heart. She was dead
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: when the fire got to her, and she had not
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: begun to decompose. It could have been minutes or hours.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: So in order to establish the time of the fire,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: we rely on the arson investigators.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I rely on their expertise and their forensics.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Arson experts determined the fire started moments before the 911
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: call at 3.30 a.m. With Missy arriving home sometime after 11,
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: this gives investigators a four to five hour window for
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: the attack.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: When someone attaches arson to their crime, there's two reasons
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: to set that fire, and usually they go hand in hand.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: One reason is to destroy evidence.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Another reason is to do what we call staging, and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: that is to try to disguise the death as.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Something other than what the assailant actually did.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: There was information coming in from the arson investigators that
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: the source of the fire was the front door. And
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: then there was a trail of accelerant that led back
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to the bedroom where Missy was found.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: If a fire is set correctly, it can have devastating
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: consequences for an investigation as far as forensic evidence. Investigating
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: a death in which fire has been introduced to the
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: crime scene makes that investigation ten times harder.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Fortunately, there was less than complete destruction there at the apartment.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: If fire doesn't have oxygen, it will go out.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And what happened was, is the assailant shut the bedroom door,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: left the apartment, and the absence of oxygen in the bedroom.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Put the fire out.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: You can't help but destroy things when you set it
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: on fire. But he didn't destroy what he intended to destroy.
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: We were able to collect an assault kit that was usable.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: A key piece of evidence from this crime scene was DNA,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: collected during the autopsy from the vaginal swabs. But in 1994,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it usually took a minimum of six to eight weeks
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to get your results back.
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: DNA is a very helpful tool in investigating a death,
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: but it's only helpful if you have something to compare
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: it to. When you have a suspect and their DNA,
• 9:12
  Speaker 6: you can compare the DNA that you've collected from the body.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: The very nature of this crime, the arson, Assault, the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: brutality of it, and the violence really led us to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: worry that we.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Have a serial killer or a running around.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: We've got someone out among us who is a violent offender.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: You've got a bad individual out there without a doubt.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: But what we find is people who stage crime scenes,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: especially with arson, they were always.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Either associated or related to the victim.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: There did not appear to be any forced entry that
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: gave us some direction as to maybe this is an
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: associate of Missy's.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: The careful work of forensics uncovers a key clue.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: We actually found some letters in her apartment. The letters were.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Of a romantic nature. From reading it, you could tell
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: this was a male.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: They were seemingly like boyfriend-girlfriend type letters.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You could also see in the body of these letters
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: that she was battling with her abstinence.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: You could see Missy was confused.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You know, she wanted the romance and she didn't know
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: if this individual was going to.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Settle for the limitations.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: She went a little too far with him, or was
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: gonna go a little too far with him, and she
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: was feeling bad about that. The letters also expressed anger
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and maybe a little animosity towards Missy. Well, they were
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: breaking up. We identified the person who was corresponding back
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and forth with Missy on these letters, and his name
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: was Ivan.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Detectives learned that Ivan and Missy were coworkers at the restaurant.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: This guy was a very primary person for us right away.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: We did a background check on Ivan. We found that
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Ivan was a defender.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Ivan was convicted for having a relationship with a minor.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: The fact that Ivan did have a criminal background, the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: fact that there was a little bit of a volatile
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: nature to their relationship, it's certainly.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: A red flag.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Some people have a very hard time letting go of
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: someone they're involved with, and they would rather see that
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: person dead than with somebody else.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: This makes him a really good suspect because that assault
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and brutal crime could simply have been triggered in an
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: explosion from him.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Arlington detectives have identified their first suspect in the hunt
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: for Missy Grubaugh's killer, her boyfriend, Ivan.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: We had very limited information, just the letters and so forth.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But because of the state of their relationship, he's certainly
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: going to be a primary focus at that time.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: The detectives bring Ivan to the station.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Ivan's demeanor was very polite.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: He was very open, somewhat preppy, soft-spoken, was certainly not
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a gangster or a tough guy. He seemed just somewhat
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: actually to the point where he was rather meek. You
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: could tell Ivan had feelings towards Missy, but he was
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: also upset.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Despite their strained relationship, Ivan swears he had nothing to
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: do with Missy's death.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Ivan said he respected Missy.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: He was leaning more to terminating the relationship as opposed
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to pursuing it.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: It wasn't aggravated. It was basically fading away on his part.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Missy did not want it to go away. He did.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Ivan tells Lenore he was home alone on the night
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: of her death.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Ivan did not have an alibi for his whereabouts during
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the time frame that Missy was killed.
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: You've got his background as a person who's been convicted
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: of assault, and you've got no alibi, and you've got
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: a dead body. That makes him a very strong suspect.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: In this particular case, we had forensic evidence.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Ivan did not have any problem with providing blood, hair,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: all of those samples necessary to do comparisons with the
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: samples that were taken at the autopsy.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: But I knew there was not going to be a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: forensic exclusion of any prior to six, eight, possibly even
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: ten weeks.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: But during the interview with Ivan, he was very.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Suspicious of an individual who he believed was responsible for
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Missy's death. That individual was Jeff Smith. He had worked
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: with Missy at the restaurant. Ivan had told us, Jeff
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Smith saw himself as a ladies' man, and Jeff Smith
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: was pursuing Missy, and he was very suspicious in probably
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: not the most respectful manner. She did not respond to
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: his advances. And that just fueled his animosity towards her.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: Jeffrey was someone who sort of had a grudge against
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: Missy because of something that occurred.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: At the restaurant.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: He's fired from where they work together, and he immediately
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: assumes that Missy is responsible for getting him fired.
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: If you were to go back in history, I think
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: that love and lust and betrayal would probably be the
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: number one reason why people end up dead.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Ivan says Jeff Smith's anger soon took a disturbing turn.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Smith started issuing threats to actually harm Missy.
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: Many death threats are emotion-based over domestic issues, financial issues.
• 15:45
  Speaker 8: Is it important in an investigation because it tells you
• 15:48
  Speaker 8: the mindset of the individual the day they said it?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's important. It's evidence.
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: And it should be treated as such.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: We were trying to find Jeffrey Smith, He seemed to
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: never be where we thought he was gonna be. When
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: we would show up to try to interview this guy,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: he was always somewhere else. The more time goes by
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: that he doesn't make himself available, it takes it to
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: a more suspicious level.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: I was actually able to locate his girlfriend. They were
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: living together in an apartment in Arlington, and she agreed
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to come to the station and speak with me.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: The girlfriend informed us.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: That Jeff Smith was emotionally unstable. He was also very volatile.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: He had a hair-trigger temper. She was very cautious of him,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: actually somewhat fearful of him.
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: Normal, non-controlling men don't typically commit murders. It's a certain
• 16:51
  Speaker 7: type of person who gets jealous, gets angry. And so
• 16:59
  Speaker 7: if friends and family members a man as being controlling,
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: that has some significance if you're a police officer or
• 17:08
  Speaker 7: a lawyer trying to figure out whether the person did it.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Jeff Smith's girlfriend implied that she believed that Jeff Smith
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: could have been responsible as well for the murder of
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Missy Grubel. Now we have somebody that has motive. We
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: have a very recent motive. that could have easily exploded
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: into violence and assault. That's everything this guy could have done.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: Detectives press the girlfriend for details on Smith's timeline.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Jeff Smith was supposed to have been with her on
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the night of Missy's death, and he was not.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And she couldn't find him.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Then the following morning, she found a note on her
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: windshield from Jeff Smith, who was apologizing because he didn't
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: come home, claiming that he was with some friends. So
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the fact that Jeff Smith should have been at the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: apartment and he wasn't, and that was the night that
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Missy was killed, and you add that into this volatile
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: relationship and the threats towards Missy, becomes a primary suspect
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: at that point.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: Jeff Smith's girlfriend has given police enough to make him
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: the prime suspect in Missy Grubaugh's murder.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: The additional information that Jeff Smith was supposed to have
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: been with her on the night of Missy's death, and
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: he was not, added fuel to that suspicion. I started
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: thinking that, wait, we may be pretty close.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: After days of chasing him, his girlfriend helps detectives track
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: him down.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I think the best way to describe him is a
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: con man wannabe. He was cocky. He thought he was cool.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: He thought he was a smooth talker.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Thinking that he's gonna sit in there with me and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: just blow smoke all day long and I'm gonna believe it.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Jeff Smith downplayed the alleged threats and so forth towards Missy.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Matter of fact, he turned it around and said that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: she was the one pursuing him. She was the one
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: who had the hots for.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Him, which I knew was an absolute lie.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Jeff Smith denied any allegation of being violent and volatile.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, he paints himself as a great guy, I'm
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: a good guy.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Sure, I have problems like everybody else, but no, I
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: wouldn't hurt anybody. Whoever's telling you this is just feeding
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: you a bunch of bull. I don't think there were
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: two words that came out of Jeff Smith's mouth that
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I believed. We have someone who is violent towards women.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: We have someone who wants to be controlling towards women.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: We have someone we definitely know does not like to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: be rejected by women, which makes him a really.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Good suspect Assaults are power plays.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I can picture him as the kind of guy that
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: thinks he's smarter than the police.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: So he's the guy that's gonna set the fire and
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: fool us and send us off in another direction.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: However strong the detective's suspicions, everything hinges on where Smith
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: was the night of the crime.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Jeff told me that he was with his girlfriend that
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: night after midnight. I knew he wasn't because the girlfriend
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: said otherwise. That just solidified what I knew about this guy,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and that is he's lying, he's lying, he's lying. What's interesting, though,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: is he does agree to give me his blood and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: his hair and his saliva, knowing that it's going to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: be compared to assault examination of Misty Grubow. I've had
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: guilty people over the years cooperate. The bad part about.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: That, we don't know the answer for six to eight
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: weeks down the road.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So I continued the investigation, working on my victimology, wanting
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to know more about Missy, wanting to know more about
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: what her lifestyle was.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Who could have done this?
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: Detectives learned that a colleague from the restaurant stayed with
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Missy in the weeks prior to her death.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: His name was Charles.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Charles, frankly, is probably one of the closest to Missy
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that we knew. Other than Ivan, he was kind of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: down on his luck. Didn't have a lot of money.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Needed a place to stay. And Missy having the incredible
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: big heart that she has, she actually allowed him to
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: stay with her at her apartment, and he slept on
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the sofa.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Charles soon takes advantage of Missy's good intentions.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Charles steals the money out of her tip jar.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Missy being the good and wonderful kid that she is,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: she's also not going to put up with anything as well.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: She called the police department.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: The Arlington police made a report and actually issued a
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: warrant for his arrest for theft. And Charles fled. We
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: believe that he was still in Arlington at the time
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of her death. Obviously, the motive here is revenge.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And he is guilty.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Certainly an individual that we need to find and talk to.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: But of course, we're on edge because we don't know
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: where he's at. We found out that he's reportedly fled Texas.
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: If you're already focused in on an individual and they
• 22:56
  Speaker 8: disappear or take off somewhere for an extended period of time,
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: it would be of great interest to me if they
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: were a suspect. The person has a lot of explaining
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: to do as to why they didn't.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Commit the murder.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: Police now have three of Missy's work colleagues all under investigation.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: At this stage, Jeff Smith is still my primary suspect.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: We certainly are interested in waiting on lab results to
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: come back on Ivan. And we would like to catch Charles,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: who is a fugitive. But we don't have forensics on
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: him because we haven't had the opportunity.
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: Good police detectives will keep an open mind. If there
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: are numerous suspects, you've got to investigate each of them
• 23:46
  Speaker 7: equally with the hopes that at some point in the investigation,
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: you're gonna catch a break against.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: One of them.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I go by the belief that you just don't wake
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: up one morning and commit a crime of this nature.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Not this extreme. Not this demented and sick and evil.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: We want to be able to efficiently and effectively find
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: out who this offender is. As bad an individual as
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: this person is, they need to be removed from the
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: general population, and I'd like to keep them away from
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: my son and.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Daughter as well.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: What happens next takes everyone by surprise.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Jeff Smith kidnapped his girlfriend You leave the police department.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: You're telling me what a great, wonderful guy you are.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And now he kidnaps his girlfriend.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, this guy is just out of control, but
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: he's out of control in a very violent, felonious way.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: He is a walking time bomb.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And if he's capable of doing what happened to Missy,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: he can do it again, especially now. because now he's
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: really just incredibly dangerous. He was a fugitive, nowhere to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: be found. And he's a wanted felon, so to say
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: that we were on edge is an understatement. And to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: say that there was an urgency to find Jeff Smith.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Is an understatement.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: Before Smith can be found, his terrified girlfriend surfaces.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: He did eventually release her, but he didn't turn himself
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: in to the police. We found out that the girlfriend
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is okay. But in speaking with her, we were not
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: able to get any information that would have led us
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to Jeff Smith's whereabouts.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: Trying to find him was very difficult. And he was
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: in a lot of trouble for what occurred.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: At this stage in.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: An investigation, when you have a primary suspect and you
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: feel very comfortable that you're looking in the right direction,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and you can't lay hands on him, knowing how volatile
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: they are.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: We had an investigative team.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: That collectively was focused on getting Jeff Smith apprehended.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: As the manhunt continues, the DNA tests on Jeff Smith
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: and Ivan return. Both are negative.
• 26:24
  Speaker 7: If you're innocent, you're really glad there is DNA evidence
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: available because The same things that are such strong pieces
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: of evidence to convict a killer can clear an innocent person.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: We're humans.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: We have hope. God, I hope this is him. I
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: hope this is him. But at the same time, we
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: also know DNA is as solid as you can get
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: as far as excluding somebody. I've also learned through my experience,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: you are usually going to clear a multitude of suspects
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: before you ever find them. Charles is still a primary suspect.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: We don't know where he's at, but you have to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: always be aware of the possibility that there are other suspects.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: That we could also have a predator out there that's
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: not known to anyone. And we are on pins and needles.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Statistically, solvability continues to decrease as time moves forward. So
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: you've got to get to the bottom of it. the
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: offender located and prosecuted as soon as possible.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Going in the many different directions we're going was when
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I received a phone call from Missy's mother that completely
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: changed the entire course of this investigation. Just like everybody else,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: other relatives and friends, saying, who could have done this,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and trying to remember anything. And she recalled the day
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: of the murder, Missy telling her on the telephone about
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: a man.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Whose name was Luis.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: And Luis is a 32-year-old man who lives in the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: apartment complex.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: He has a common-law wife, and he has a small
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: child that Missy babysits.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Well, before the mother finished all of that, she has
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: my attention because this guy came out of the blue.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: The mother continues that Luis would come over to Missy's
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: apartment during the early morning hours, sometimes late at night, 11,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: 12 at night, wanting to talk to Missy, telling Missy
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: that he believes his wife is cheating on him. And
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: he wants to talk to her in person because he's
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: afraid his wife would hear him talking on the telephone.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: But then on this day before the incident, he was
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: apparently over at her apartment and they were joking around.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: And they had what Missy described as a sort of
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: a pillow fight.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking a 32-year-old man over here getting into a
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: pillow fight.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: When I heard all of this, I mean, my stomach dropped.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: Detectives learn that Luis Arroyo also works with Missy at
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: the restaurant.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: So he works with her. He lives in the same complex.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: She babysits his child, comes over late at night, and
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: he's 32 years old and she's 19. This was jaw-dropping.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: We need to talk to this man. This is just
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: not normal.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Detectives have focused their attention on the strange behavior of
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: Missy's neighbor, Luis Arroyo.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I asked if he'd come speak with me. We sat down.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: He was polite, cooperative, you know, fairly good-looking guy, looks
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and shape, good manners, very pleasant individual, very smart individual.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I explained to Luis that I was investigating the death
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of Missy Gruball.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: He projected himself as just, oh, it's horrible. He was sad.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I knew her.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: This is really horrible. I hope you solve the case.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: What can I do to help? So I just started
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: explaining to Luis what my goal was. And he immediately
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: asked me if I found the gas can. The cause
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and the origin of the fire was not public.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: No one said anything about a gas can. No reason
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: he should have known that.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: When somebody tells you that they have information that's more
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: than what you would read in the morning newspaper. You
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: need to sort of take another tactic and look at
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: this person in a different way. That changed the complexion
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: of this interview to where Detective Lenoir had to advise
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Luis that the things that he might say could be
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: used against him in a court.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: With Missy's call to her mother confirming his visit the
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: previous day, police need to determine if he was in
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: the apartment the moment she died.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I explained to Luis, the way I'm going to exclude
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the innocent in this particular case is we have forensic
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: evidence that will not only identify the perpetrator, but it
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: will exclude innocent parties. That's when Luis started getting very nervous.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: And he said, what evidence wasn't she burnt up? And
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: I said, well, Luis, the problem with the perpetrator in
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: this case is he didn't do a very good job
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: at destroying evidence if in fact that was his goal.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Because we do have evidence.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: We have DNA evidence that the perpetrator left behind. But Luis,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the good news for you is this DNA will also
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: exclude you and then I can move on. So with
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that said, I would like you to give me your
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: blood and your saliva sample so that we can compare
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: it to the DNA and get you excluded. And he said, well,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I can't do this right now. I have to take
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: my son to the park. And I said, Luis, come
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: with me for a minute. I had Luis stand up,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and we walked over to a window, and I said,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: it's pouring down rain. You're not going to the park
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: and pouring rain. He goes, well, I've got to go.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I just remembered it.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I have to leave.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: It was very odd that suddenly this individual who was
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: thought to be agreeable to having his samples taken and
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: do whatever it would take, in his own words, to
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: get himself eliminated as being involved in this murder, suddenly
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: wasn't able to make the time to provide the samples.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: We had no probable cause.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I had no evidence to arrest him. I mean, I
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: don't issue an arrest warrant based on my gut. I
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: issue it based on evidence.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: So I said, well, are we gonna do this? And
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Luis said, yes, we're gonna do it. And I said, when?
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: And Luis says, call me tomorrow and we'll set it up.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: I said, okay. And he left.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: With Arroyo now their top suspect, the detectives go back
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: to the coworkers he shared with Missy.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: One of the employees was talking about how Luis was
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: so distraught over the death of Missy Grubow. and that
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: he really hoped they'd catch the killer and murdered Missy.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: The fact that Missy was assaulted was not public.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: It wasn't revealed to Luis Arroyo when I interviewed him
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: that day.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: We just simply said we have DNA and that it
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't burnt up. That can be anywhere. That can be anything.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: But he specifically said to co-workers that she was assaulted.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Only the killer would know that.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: When police visit Arroyo's home, they hit another problem.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: He had left. And at that time, his wife wasn't
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: sure exactly where he went, but that he'd gone out
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: the previous evening, and she hadn't heard from him since then.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: I had to explain to her, listen, I'm investigating the
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: murder of Missy Grubal. I need to speak.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Because he knows her, she babysits your son. Because of that,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: he's a suspect. What can you tell me about that night?
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: So Louise's wife came to the station voluntarily and provided
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: a lengthy written statement.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: On the night of Missy's death, about 10 o'clock at night,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Louise's wife heard Louise go out Now, that's not unusual,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: because he normally goes for a jog. She's awakened later
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: by the sound of Luis coming inside and taking a shower.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: In her mind, he's done his jog, but then he
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: leaves the apartment a second time. He returns. He takes
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: a shower again. So she gets up. She demands to
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: know what's going on.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Luis tells his wife that while he was out jogging,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: he heard a woman screaming. Running in the direction of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: those screams led him to an apartment and he sees
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: that the door is ajar. So he runs in there
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and he sees a woman laying nude on the bed.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: There was blood in the middle of her chest. There
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: was no pulse.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So he attempts CPR, but he couldn't stay there because
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the smoke and the fire was so overwhelming.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: And he told his wife, I believe that was Missy,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: who I saw. He didn't call 911.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Why would you not call 911 after you've seen all
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: of this?
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: All of this was very suspicious.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: The bond between a husband and a wife that's tight
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and by nature, even in illegal acts, they'll want to
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: cover for their loved one or they'll want.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: To protect them.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I have to ask myself, well, why didn't the wife
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: come to me and tell me this the day of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: the murder?
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Was it denial?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: And so as I'm explaining to her what we know,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I believe that during the course of that interview with her,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: she just realized, my God, he did this.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: The wife of Luis Arroyo's statement to police places him
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: in Missy Grubaugh's apartment. They must now track him down.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: She informed me that Luis is in San Antonio and
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: he's staying with her parents. He was arrested by the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: San Antonio Police Department and transported to the county jail.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: When I came face to face with Luis, this was
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: not the same person that I had talked to a
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: short time earlier. Completely different human being. Incredibly withdrawn, slumped over,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: head down. I guess one of the ways you want
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: to describe it is just a beaten person. I don't
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: know what made Luis suddenly just open up as much
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: as he did, because what's interesting is this, he does
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: open up.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Luis started with that they were gonna have and that
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: it was completely agreed upon by Missy that that would occur.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: He claimed that it was a tender, wonderful moment, which
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: we know to be absolutely hogwash.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: That didn't happen.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: He had found the knife, which was just a kitchen knife.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: We pretty much allowed him to indicate where he stabbed
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: the victim.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Then he puts on what I believe is this show
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: of falling on the floor and crawling around and acting
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: like you're losing your mind.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: That was just a show.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: With all that said, he provided enough and to.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Support evidence it was him that he did do it.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: With Arroyo's confession in hand, detectives put together everything they
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: know of the events leading up to Missy Grubau's death.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: At approximately 10 p.m., he leaves his apartment under the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: pretense of doing his jog. After 11 o'clock, he goes
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: to see Missy. He knocks on the door.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: He does that all the time. She's not alarmed by him.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: She allows him inside.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: And during the time Luis Arroyo is in that apartment
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: with Missy Grubon, he murders her.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: After he kills Missy, he has to do something. He
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: has to destroy the evidence.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: So he gets in his car, goes to a gas station,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and fills up a one gallon gas can.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Goes back to.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Missy's apartment, goes into her bedroom, and douses her with gas,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: and all around the bed, in the apartment, in the bedroom,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: up to the door, lights the fire, shuts the door
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: and leaves.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: He goes back home.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: He showers. After he showers, he wants to go back
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to the apartment to make sure that it's on fire.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: He goes back to the apartment and it's not on fire.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: The reason being is because there was not enough oxygen
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: in that room from shutting the door.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: He sets a second fire.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: After that, he goes back to his apartment again He showers,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: cleans up. Luis Arroyo is a textbook psychopath. I mean,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: this guy's a predator.
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: A case like this is a sad thing. It makes
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: you angry that somebody would waste somebody else's life like
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: this for such a thing as assault.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: The DNA analysis returned. And as we expected, the matches
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: were statistically amazing that it would be anyone else but Luis.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: Despite the overwhelming evidence, Arroyo backtracks.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Luis Arroyo pled not guilty. We had a trial. The
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: defense tried to explain the actions. It's something other than
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the psychotic predator that he is. And the jury didn't
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: buy it and convicted Luis Arroyo of capital murder.
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: In January 1997, Luis Arroyo is sentenced to life without parole.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Charles was never prosecuted for the theft charge. Jeff Smith
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: was sentenced to four years in prison for the kidnapping.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: What's justice? Nothing compares to what happened to Missy Grubow.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: It would never bring back your family member. It would
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: never bring back a daughter. But in the society in
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: which we live, that's about all that we can hope for.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: That we do identify the offender and let the justice
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: system do the rest.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I feel better knowing that Luis Arroyo is no longer
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: on the streets. But once that sense of comfort wears off,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the fear sets in that there's hundreds and hundreds and
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: hundreds of Luis Arroyos running around out there.
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: Thank you.