Latest / Crime and Horror / New York couple’s crazy secret life led to murder - MrBallen

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New York couple’s crazy secret life led to murder - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today's story is about a murder from 2003 in Rochester,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: New York. Now, at first, when you listen to the story,
• 0:06
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• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the mill murder case if there is such.
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• 0:14
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• 0:16
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• 0:22
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• 0:26
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• 0:29
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• 0:33
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• 0:35
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• 1:30
  Speaker 1: On the morning of Sunday, July 13, 2003, 26-year-old Tabitha
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Bryant walked through the front door of her big white
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: house in Penfield, New York, which was an upper-middle-class suburb
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of Rochester. Her husband Kevin and their two young sons
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: followed her inside, and they were all dressed in their
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Sunday best because they had just come back from church. However,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: on this morning, Tabitha sort of felt like a fraud
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: because she knew she was not really living a Christian lifestyle.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So Tabitha was actually having an affair with a guy
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: named Keith.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: And her husband Kevin, who was 45 and.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Nearly 20 years her senior, he had recently found out
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: about it and confronted her about it. Tabitha, during this confrontation,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: had promised Kevin that she would end the affair. And
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: then she and Kevin had agreed that they really needed
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to work on their marriage together.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But despite sort of coming to a kind.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Of resolution, it was very obvious that Kevin was still
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: very mad at her. and so Tabitha had been sleeping
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: on the pull-out couch in the den ever since. Now,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Tabitha watched as Kevin grabbed his briefcase off the kitchen counter,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: he kissed their two boys goodbye, and then he walked
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: back out to his car. Tabitha was used to him
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: disappearing to the office on the weekends. Kevin was a lawyer,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and he worked basically all the time. And, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: they did depend on his salary, his big salary, to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: pay their mortgage and also finance their expensive lifestyle with
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: vacations and lots of nights out. Now, despite Kevin's salary
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: being so sizable, they had for a while tried to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: supplement his income by renting out a bedroom in their
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: house to Tabitha's half-brother, Cyril Weinbrenner, and his girlfriend, Cassidy Green. However,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that arrangement, despite it being profitable for the couple, had
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: ultimately soured when Cyril, the half-brother, had begun using drugs
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: inside of the house. And so Cyril and Cassidy had
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: moved out two months earlier, But despite, you know, the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: terms on which they left, the group, you know, Cyril, Cassidy, Tabitha, Kevin, you.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Know, they're family.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: They remain friends and they would still actually spend time
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: together on the weekends. It was just they were not
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: able to live together. Now, Tabitha, she did like having
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that extra money coming in. But the truth was having
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: her whole house back to herself was ultimately a good thing.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Like she felt relieved in some ways. But also there
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: was a part of her that sort of missed having,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: you know, her half brother and Cassidy around. especially when
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Kevin was, you know, gone all the time working. Like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: she just felt lonely. And also, on top of just
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: being lonely, I mean, Tabitha often was the one saddled
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: with childcare. You know, they had a toddler and a five-year-old, and,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you know, she was just sort of taking care of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: kids all the time or sort of isolated.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: It was just exhausting.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: And now, as she watched Kevin back his car out
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of the driveway, she could tell today was going to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: be another long, exhausting, lonely day. That night, around 9 p.m.,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Tabitha was fast asleep on Kevin's bed with one of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: their sons when she felt somebody shaking her and when
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: she opened her.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Eyes and looked up she saw Kevin.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Standing right over her and he leaned down and he
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: whispered to her that it was very late and that
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Tabitha should go to her bed out on the pullout
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: couch and then he picked up their sleeping son and
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: carried him off to the boy's bedroom without waiting for
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a response from Tabitha. As Tabitha got out of bed
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: She thought about just staying put and insisting on sleeping
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: in the master bedroom that night. But, you know, their
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: kids were already asleep and she also didn't want to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: risk getting into a fight with Kevin, especially at this
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: hour and waking everyone up. And so ultimately she decided
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: against it and just left the bedroom and headed downstairs
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to the den. And then when she got there, Tabitha
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: unfolded the pullout couch and lay down and.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: She tried to fall asleep. But after tossing and turning
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: for a while.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: She just pulled out her phone, and she pulled up
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the number for Keith, the guy she'd been having an
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: affair with. As she did this, she reminded herself that
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: she had promised to end things with Keith, but she
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was also feeling sort of desperate for someone to talk to,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and Kevin was clearly very intentionally shutting her out, so
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: after a moment, Tabitha hit the call button. Later that
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: same night, around midnight, 911 operator Jacqueline Sanabria had just
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: started her shift at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office when
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a call came in. Jacqueline answered it, and immediately this
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: man's voice came over the line saying his wife had.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Just been shot.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And so right away, Jacqueline followed protocol. And as calm
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: as she could, she asked the man, had he attempted CPR?
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And the man, in this eerily calm voice, said no,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: he hadn't. And the reason he gave was there was
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: simply no.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: At 1.45 a.m.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: On July 14, 2003, so about two hours after that
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: 911 call, Sgt. Paul Siena of the Monroe County Sheriff's
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Department pulled up in front of a large white house
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: with black shutters and an attached garage. There were a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: bunch of police cruisers and forensics vans that were already
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: on the scene, and Siena could see neighbors who were
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: kind of coming outside, watching from their lawns and driveways, trying.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: To figure out what was going on.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Sienna had been very surprised when he had gotten the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: call from dispatch about a murder in Penfield, because Penfield
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was a really nice, safe area. In fact, there had
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: not been a single murder there in more than 40 years. Now,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: he climbed out of his car and walked over to
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the front lawn, where three deputies were interviewing this middle-aged
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: man who looked like he might have just gotten out
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of bed. One of the deputies saw Sergeant Sienna, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: so he ran over to him and began to brief
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: him on what they knew. He explained to Sienna that
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the man they were speaking to was Kevin Bryant. He
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was the man who had called 911, and he was
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the husband of the victim, Tabitha Bryant. The deputy said
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that Tabitha and Kevin's two young sons had been inside
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the house at the time of the shooting, but their
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: grandparents had picked them up a few minutes ago. The
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: house itself had already been searched, and there were no
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: signs of forced entry, but it was not hard to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: guess how the killer or killers got inside. The garage
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: door had been left open, And then the door between
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the inside of the garage and the inside of the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: house had been left unlocked. So basically anybody off the
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: street could.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Have just waltzed into the house.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Now, Sienna knew that in nice, safe neighborhoods like Penfield,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: it was not unusual for people to leave.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Their doors and garage doors.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Unlocked or even open. But at the same time, you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: he did think it was a little unusual that it
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: just so happened that on the night of the shooting,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you know, The house was unsecured, so he wasn't really
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: sure what to make of that. At this point, Sienna
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: glanced over at the husband, Kevin, and he saw Kevin
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: suddenly bend over and start dry heaving. Now, Sienna definitely
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk to Kevin, but really he needed to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: check out.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: The crime scene first.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And also considering how, you know, Kevin did not appear
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: to be ready to talk right now, he figured he
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: should just go inside and have a look around. So
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: he ducked under the police tape that was roping.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Off the garage and he made his way inside.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Once inside the house, Sienna passed the kitchen and also
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a playroom, and they looked relatively normal. And then he
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: got to the den, and there was nothing normal about
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the den. There was blood everywhere, on the walls, the floor,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the ceiling, and there were all these forensic technicians that
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: were inside of the den, furiously swabbing all over the room,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: trying to take samples of all this blood, and also
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: trying to photograph the entire scene. And in the middle
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of all this chaos happening in the den, Sienna saw
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the victims. Tabitha Bryant. She was laying on the pullout
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: couch bed. As Sienna walked over to the body to
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: get a closer look, right away he saw this was
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: not just a shooting because Tabitha had, you know, more
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: than a dozen stab wounds to her chest and her neck.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: And then also right below her right eye.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: There was the small clean hole that Sienna recognized as
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: a gunshot wound. This was an excessive amount of violence
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and it made Sienna think that this could have been
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a crime of passion. And the fact that Tabitha clearly
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: had been sleeping on the pull-out couch in the den
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: instead of in bed with her husband made Tabitha's husband, Kevin,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Sienna's prime suspect. I saw something on CNBC about hiring
• 9:54
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• 9:58
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• 10:02
  Speaker 1: that makes sense because you can teach skills, you can
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: train someone how to do the job, but you can't
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: really teach someone to care.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: And when someone actually wants to be there, you notice
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: it right away.
• 10:13
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• 10:16
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• 10:20
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• 10:29
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• 10:33
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• 10:36
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• 10:40
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• 10:45
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• 10:47
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• 11:04
  Speaker 1: on July 14, 2003, so about nine hours after Tabitha
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Bryant was killed, Sgt. Paul Siena sat across from her husband, Kevin,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: at a diner in Rochester, New York.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Now, normally, Sienna would.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Conduct interviews like this at the sheriff's office, but he
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: was starving after spending all night on his feet at
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the crime scene, and he also hoped that, you know,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: this informal setting would hopefully get Kevin to be a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: bit more talkative. So, Sienna was suspicious of Kevin, one,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: because he was the husband of the victim, and right away,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: in murder cases, you know, spouses are regarded as early suspects,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and then also just This unusually violent murder. I mean,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the murder itself was rare in a town like this,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: but it was just so violent, so much gore and blood.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: It just sort of screamed, this is a personal attack.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: This is a crime of passion. Again, making Kevin seem
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: sort of suspicious here. However, the physical evidence made it
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: look like Kevin actually could not have done it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: He didn't have any blood or defensive injuries.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: On him, which would make sense if he was the killer. However,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, given how much blood was at the scene,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: there should be some on him. And Sienna had checked
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the sinks and showers at the house to see if
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: maybe Kevin had gotten blood on himself but cleaned himself
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: up before police arrived.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: But there was no sign that there had been blood
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: in the drains.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Plus, the police had spent all night searching the house
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: for murder weapons, a gun and maybe a knife.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: And so far, they hadn't found anything.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Still, though, Sienna was not ready to outright dismiss Kevin
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: as a suspect, and he was looking for any holes
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: in Kevin's story at this point. As Kevin had already
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: explained multiple times by this point, he said he had
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: come home from work around 9 p.m.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: The night before.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: He said he took the trash out, and then he
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: went right up to his bedroom to read, while Tabitha
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: was asleep on the pull-out couch downstairs. But at around 11.30 p.m.,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Kevin said he had gotten a very strange phone call.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: He had answered... And it was a.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Woman and she had said hello, but then it was
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: silent and there was just static on the line. Kevin
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: eventually had just hung up and said he thought it
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: was just a wrong number. But then he said a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: little while later, just before midnight, he'd heard gunshots and screams.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Kevin said at that point he got up and he ran.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: To his kids' bedrooms first to make sure they were safe.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: And when he saw they were, then he went downstairs
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and he found Tabitha dead in the den. And so now, Sienna,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: sitting across from Kevin in their booth, he asked him,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: you know, do you have any idea who could have
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: done this? And Kevin, he paused for a moment, and
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: then when he spoke, his voice cracked, and he actually
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: began to cry as he sort of choked out that
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: his wife's death was his fault. Now, at first, Sienna thought,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, is this guy about to confess? Did
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: he kill her? Is he going to tell me that?
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But when he pressed Kevin to continue, like, what do
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you mean by that? Kevin very tearfully would say that,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you know, he thought he maybe was the one who
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: had left the garage open when he had taken out
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the trash, and he suspected that that must have been
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: how the killer or killers got inside. And then, sort
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of oddly, Kevin continued and basically began to lay out
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: this whole theory for what might have happened that night,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: sort of unprompted. He's just, he's giving his opinion. Kevin said,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: as he saw it, a burglar must have driven by,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: saw their garage was open, and decided to rob the house. However,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: he said when they went inside the house to rob it,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: they must have been caught off guard when they saw
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Tabitha in the den, and she must have woken up,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and there must have been some sort of confrontation, and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the burglar or burglars must have panicked and killed her
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and then fled without even robbing the place.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Like, that's probably what happened.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And Sergeant Sienna did not give off how he felt about,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you know, what Kevin was doing and what he was saying.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: He just sort of nodded thoughtfully like he was considering
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: his theory. However, in reality, Sienna had already considered the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: possibility of this being a burglary gone wrong, but the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: way Tabitha had actually been killed just felt way too
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: personal to chalk it up to a random intruder. And also,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you know, again, nothing from the house had been stolen.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So what Sienna really wanted to know from Kevin was
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: why was Tabitha sleeping on the couch and not up
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: with you? And to Sienna's surprise, Kevin was actually really
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: open about these problems in their marriage. He explained that
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Tabitha was young, 20 years younger than he was, and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: she wanted to go to clubs and see friends every
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: night of the week, while he was usually too busy
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and too tired for doing that kind of stuff, so
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: she would do it alone. Kevin said that once he'd
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: realized his marriage was actually in trouble because of this dynamic,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: he said he'd put a lot of effort in to
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: try to fix it by taking Tabitha out more often.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And he'd thought things were basically back on track until
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a few months ago when he'd found.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Out that she was actually having an affair.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: He said he'd drawn up divorce papers and been on
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the verge of filing them, but Tabitha had ultimately promised
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that she would break off the affair.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: So he had decided to give her one more chance.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: As Kevin said this, Sienna watched him very closely, trying
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: to gauge whether or not Kevin was lying. Kevin definitely
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: seemed nervous as he was speaking, and he also kept
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: tapping his foot and running his.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Fingers through his hair.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: But there was a chance that was also just exhaustion
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and maybe some shock, you know, lingering shock. Sienna checked
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: his watch and saw it was almost 9 o'clock. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: he knew Kevin, by this point, had been awake for
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: about 24 hours. But Sienna didn't want to just let
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: him off the hook right now. Because if Kevin was guilty,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: if he really did kill his wife or had something
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to do with it, Sienna knew he might never get
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a better shot at a confession than right now. So
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: he decided he would just push Kevin to his breaking
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: point and see if he'd crack. Eight hours later, around
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: 4 p.m., Sienna stared at Kevin from across an interview
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: room at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office in downtown Rochester.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Kevin was sort of slumped in his chair with his
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: head buried in his hands, and he kept complaining about migraines. Now,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Sienna was not surprised that Kevin might be feeling worn
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: out right about now, because he'd been answering questions for
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the last 17 hours. And they'd covered everything from the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: details of Kevin and Tabitha's relationship to their extended families,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: including the fact that Tabitha's half-brother, Cyril, had lived with
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: them for a few months earlier in the year, and
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: it had sort of ended badly. And by this point,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Kevin had made it clear that he actually thought Keith Cromwell,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the guy Tabitha had been cheating on him with, should
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: be a suspect. And Sienna had to agree. However, what
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Sienna couldn't get over right now was just how angry
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Kevin sounded whenever he mentioned Keith.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was truly enraged.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: He clearly was not remotely over his wife's affair. And
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: so now Sienna was trying to gauge if maybe Kevin
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: was angry enough about this to have committed murder. And
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: so Sienna decided he would push Kevin a little bit
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: further and extend the interview. And he did this by
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: suggesting that they go ahead and order dinner. And at
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: that point, Kevin, who was totally mad, he jumped up
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: out of his chair and he said that unless he
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: was under arrest, he needed to go back to his kids.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: And Sienna did not have the evidence to hold Kevin,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: so he had no choice but to tell.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Him that, of course, he was free to leave.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: And as Sienna watched a deputy escort Kevin out of
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the room, he felt a little disappointed that he had
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: not managed to get a confession. But he had gotten
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: some pretty promising leads. Primarily, there was Tabitha's half-brother, Cyril,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: who definitely sounded like he knew a lot about Kevin
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and Tabitha's relationship and he could have some good insights.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And also, Sienna was thinking, as soon as possible, he
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: needed to speak.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: To Keith, who was Tabitha's affair partner. At 10 a.m.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The next morning, Sergeant Sienna sat across from a broad-shouldered, bald,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: middle-aged man in the living room of a small house
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: outside of Rochester.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: This was Keith Cromwell, the man that Tabitha had been
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: having an affair with.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: And he struck Sienna as being a pretty tough, intense guy. So,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Sienna was actually a bit taken aback when he asked
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Keith about his affair with Tabitha, and Keith.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Just began to cry.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It just seemed sort of uncharacteristic for the way he appeared,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: you know, at least at first glance. But Keith quickly
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: wiped his eyes, and he apologized, and then he asked
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: what exactly Sienna wanted to know, and Sienna told him
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to just, you know, start at the beginning. So, Keith
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: explained that he was a machine operator at a local
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: factory in And it was a really stressful job. So
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Keith would sometimes blow off steam by going to a
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: nearby strip club. And it was at that strip club
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: about six months earlier that he had met. Tabitha Bryan.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And this really caught Sienna off guard. And he immediately
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: asked Keith, like, what was Tabitha doing there at the
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: strip club? But Keith just shrugged and said, Tabitha had
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: a wild side.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: She was a regular there.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Sienna was still sort of taken aback by this and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: really didn't know what to think of it. But he
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: just told Keith to keep telling his story. And so
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Keith continued and he explained how he and Tabitha had
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: exchanged numbers that first night and then started texting and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: calling and how that eventually turned into regular meetups when
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Kevin was at work. He said by July, they were
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: hanging out several times a week and speaking on the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: phone basically every day. And Keith said this continued right
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: up until Tabitha's death. And here, Sienna had to stop
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Keith again because Kevin had told Sienna that Tabitha and.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Keith, their affair... was over.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: But here Keith was basically telling Sienna the opposite. And
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: so when Sienna pressed him on it, Keith said that
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: actually Tabitha had called him around 11 p.m. on Sunday night,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: only about an hour.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Before she was killed.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: And so this timing just felt like way too big
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: of a coincidence, and it made Sienna wonder if Keith
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: was actually just trying to give himself an alibi. Except
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: it was not a very good one, because Keith lived
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: close enough to Tabitha and Kevin that after that last
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: phone call at about 11 o'clock, he would have had
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: time to hang up the phone and drive over to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: their house and commit the murder by midnight. So this
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: really wasn't an alibi. So now, Sienna realized he was
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: in a tough spot here. Tabitha's affair really gave both
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Kevin and Keith strong motives to want to kill her.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: And so basically, neither man could be ruled out. They
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: were kind of like equally primary suspects at this point.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And on top of that, the additional information that Tabitha
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: had been a regular at a strip club just raised
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of additional questions. He realized he really needed
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to speak to someone who really knew Tabitha. Five days later,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: on July 19, 2003, Sergeant Sienna stood inside of a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: cemetery at the back of a group of mourners and
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: watched as Tabitha Bryant's casket was lowered into the ground.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Sienna had come to Tabitha's funeral not only to pay
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: his respects, but also because he was looking for her half-brother, Cyril,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and he had two reasons he really wanted to speak
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to him. First of all, he thought Cyril might have
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: some additional unique insights into Tabitha's various relationships.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, Cyril had lived.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: With Tabitha and Kevin and their kids earlier that year.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And Sienna had heard that Cyril and Tabitha were quite close.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: And so maybe she had shared some additional insights that
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: he would know. But the second reason for wanting to
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: speak to Cyril was recently, Sienna had also.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Begun to look at Cyril as being close.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe a potential suspect. So Sienna had spoken with a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: number of Tabitha's friends. And from those interviews, Sienna had
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: learned that Cyril and his girlfriend Cassidy were also both
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: regulars at that same strip club that Tabitha went to.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And then on top of that, Sienna knew that, you know,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Cyril and Cassidy had been caught using drugs by Tabitha
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and Kevin. And that's why they had been booted from the.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: House just a few months ago.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And so who knows, there could be some bad blood there.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And so this made Sienna wonder if Tabitha's murder might
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: have had nothing to do with her affair and everything
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to do with, you know, very likely some fight that
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: she had had with Cyril and Cassidy when she caught
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: them and.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Kicked them out.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: But now, as Sienna scanned the funeral crowd, he didn't
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: see anybody who matched Cyril's description. And so when the
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: service ended and all the mourners began making their way
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: out to the parking lot, Sienna hustled over to Tabitha's
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: mother and he asked her, had Cyril attended the funeral.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And she said that, actually, no one had heard from
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Cyril since the night Tabitha was killed. And she said
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: that she was really worried about him because Cyril's mental
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: health was quite fragile. About a year earlier, he'd suffered
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a huge mental breakdown after the death of another sibling,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: which was why Tabitha had invited him to live with
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: her in the first place.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: And so now Tabitha's mom.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Was afraid that Cyril had spiraled again and might be
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in trouble. But as empathetic as Sienna was... Ultimately, this
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: information he was getting from the mother did not paint
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Cyril as like a guy in need of help. It
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: painted Cyril as being really suspicious. And so as politely
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: as he could, Sienna asked the mom if she had
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: any idea of like how he could go about trying
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to find Cyril, like any way he could even begin
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that process. And Tabitha's mom, she thought for a moment
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and then said that if anyone knew where Cyril was,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: it was his girlfriend, Cassidy Green. One night, about a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: week after Tabitha's funeral, Sergeant Sienna sat in the back
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of an unmarked van in downtown Rochester. And through the windshield,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he watched a man standing alone in an alley, pacing
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: back and forth, constantly checking his phone. This was all
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: part of a sting operation that Sienna hoped would finally
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: lead him to Tabitha's half-brother, Cyril. Ever since Tabitha's funeral,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: he and his fellow deputies have been trying to track
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Cyril down, but so far they'd had no luck. It
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: looked an awful lot like Cyril had either left town
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: or was actively hiding from the police. However, Sienna had
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: managed to locate Cyril's girlfriend, Cassidy, who, it would turn out,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: was well known to the police for being a drug
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: dealer and an escort, who went by the working name
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: of Angel. Now, Sienna doubted that if he approached Cassidy directly,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: that she would just immediately give up Cyril's location willingly.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: And so what he needed to do was like get
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: leverage on her first. So Sienna went to an informant
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of his with a plan. The informant would reach out
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: to Cassidy or Angel looking to buy some cocaine. And
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: then once they had clear evidence that she had broken
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the law by selling these drugs, Sienna would arrest her
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and then try to strike a deal to get her
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: to talk about Cyril.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: And so now through a pair of binoculars.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Sienna watched as a small blonde woman appeared at
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the far end of the alley. His heartbeat picked up
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: as he realized it was definitely Cassidy, and he watched
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: as she walked right up the alley and began talking
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to the informant, the man who had been pacing before
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: on his phone.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: And when Sienna saw the.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Money and drugs change hands, he gave the command on
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: his radio to go ahead and move in. In an instant,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: two police cars rounded the corner with their sirens blaring,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: cutting off both ends of the alley immediately. Cassidy looked
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: completely startled and started to run before the arriving deputies
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: boxed her in, and moments later, they had her in handcuffs.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: The following morning, Sienna stood outside of an interview room
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: at the sheriff's office in Rochester, New York. He looked
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: through a two-way mirror, and on the other side of
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the glass, he watched a deputy question Cassidy, the girlfriend
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of Tabitha's half-brother Cyril, who was still missing and still
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: a major suspect. Now, Cassidy had been completely stonewalling police
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: since they'd arrested her for selling cocaine the night before,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and she was still insisting that she had no idea
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: where Cyril was or why he'd disappeared. Now, to this point,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the deputy who was speaking to Cassidy had not brought
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: up Tabitha's murder. And so at this point, Cassidy seemed
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to think that her only problem was the cocaine charge.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And so as Sienna watched this interview just kind of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: go in circles and drag, because she Cassidy just was
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: not giving them anything. Finally, Sienna just couldn't take it anymore.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: And he just busted in the room and he slammed
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a folder down right on the table. Totally shocking, not
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: just the deputy, but Cassidy. They both looked at him like,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? And then before Cassidy could say
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: or do anything, Sienna looked right at her and just said,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: I don't care about your drug charge. What I want
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: to know is what you know about Tabitha Bryant's murder.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: And at first, Cassidy just stared back at Sienna and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: said nothing. And for a minute, Sienna thought maybe he
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: had sort of miscalculated here. But then after a long,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: awkward pause, Cassidy's whole demeanor shifted and she started to talk.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Based on witness testimony, evidence collected at the crime scene,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and the killer's eventual confession, here is a reconstruction of
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: what police believe happened to Tabitha Bryant on the night
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of July 13, 2003. Around 11.50 p.m., the killer very
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: carefully crept through the first floor of the Bryant home
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: carrying a rifle, and they went straight to the den
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: where they found Tabitha asleep on the pull-out couch. For
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: a moment, the killer paused, just staring down at Tabitha, wondering,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: questioning whether they could really go through with this. But then,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: after just a little bit of deliberation in their own minds.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: They raised the rifle and they fired.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: The bullet entered Tabitha's skull right under her right eye,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: but it didn't kill her. And so as the killer...
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: is standing there watching, expecting Tabitha to basically be motionless.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Tabitha wasn't. Her body began jerking around, and then she
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: suddenly reached up and grabbed at her cheek, and she
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: sat up, and she looked at the killer and began
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to scream.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: And so the killer immediately.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Fired two more times, but Tabitha was moving around so
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: much in her own panic that both shots missed. And
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: then on the fourth shot, when the killer pulled the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: trigger for the fourth time, the rifle jammed. And so
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: at this point, the killer completely panicked. And so the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: killer turns and they run. run into the kitchen. All
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the while, Tabitha is flailing around in the den. She's screaming,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: blood's going everywhere. And the killer, they grab a butcher's
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: knife from the kitchen. They run back into the den.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: And when they get there, they see Tabitha is now
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: standing there. And she's clutching at her face, she's screaming,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: and the killer tackles her back onto the bed and
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: begins stabbing her over and over again in the neck
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and the chest until she does finally go limp. When
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the killer climbed off of Tabitha and stood back up,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: they realized they, like the rest of the room, were
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: covered in blood. And so the killer began just sort
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: of backing away from the scene, not really sure what
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: they were going to do. And as they're doing this,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: they hear a noise behind them. And they whip around
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and they see there was a figure coming down the stairs.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: And when this figure got to the bottom of the stairs,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: they walked right up to the killer and handed them
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: an envelope. And the killer took the envelope, you know,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: blood all over them. They take the envelope.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: They open it up.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: They look inside to confirm that, yes, it was stuffed
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: with $ 100 bills. It would turn out the person who
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: actually wielded the rifle and the knife and literally killed
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Tabitha was her half-brother, Cyril. He got covered in blood
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: so that the real mastermind, Tabitha's husband, Kevin, could keep
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: his hands clean. Kevin paid Cyril and his girlfriend Cassidy $ 5, 000
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to do his dirty work for him. Cyril committed the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: murder and Cassidy drove the getaway car. But long before
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: they got to the house that night, Kevin was setting
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: things up so that the murder would go according to
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: his plan. Kevin opened the garage and unlocked the door
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to the house so that Cyril could come inside no problem.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: And when he found Tabitha in their bed upstairs, he
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: woke her up and told her to head on down
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: to the den where he knew Cyril would look for her.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Kevin was motivated by anger.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Over Tabitha's affair with Keith and also the fear that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: he would lose his kids if they got divorced. But ironically,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: it was actually Kevin's own actions that drove Tabitha literally
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: into Keith's arms. Kevin portrayed himself as this, you know,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: hardworking lawyer who basically was a workaholic and All he
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: did was provide for his family.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: But in reality, he.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Was a drug and sex addict who routinely brought sex
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: workers to his law office. His idea of working on
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: his marriage, as he said he and Tabitha were doing
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: after he discovered her affair, really just involved taking Tabitha
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to strip clubs and then pressuring her into having group
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: sex with other sex workers. And then he would also
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: pressure her to give lap dances to the other clientele.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: One of those other clientele was Keith.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: That's how they met.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Kevin and Cyril were both convicted of first-degree murder and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: sentenced to life without parole. As for Cassidy, she ultimately
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: took a plea deal and received 15 years.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.