Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / GIFTED DANCER, 22, FOUND DEAD IN BURNING CAR: WHO KILLED MERCEDES?

Transcript

GIFTED DANCER, 22, FOUND DEAD IN BURNING CAR: WHO KILLED MERCEDES? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, breaking news tonight.
0:08
Speaker 2: A gorgeous, young and gifted dancer, just twenty two, found
0:13
Speaker 2: dead in a burning car. The medical examiner discovers bleach
0:19
Speaker 2: in her throat, lighter fluid, and gloves.
0:22
Speaker 3: Found near her burning car.
0:24
Speaker 2: Tonight, her family breaking their silence with a desperate plea
0:29
Speaker 2: for justice. Who killed their daughter? Mercedes. Good evening, I'm
0:35
Speaker 2: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
0:38
Speaker 2: you for being with us.
0:39
Speaker 4: So hard to believe I'm never gonna see her again.
0:49
Speaker 1: They missed her so much.
0:52
Speaker 5: She was.
0:54
Speaker 6: So bright, she was such a beautiful, sweet, kind soul.
1:04
Speaker 1: She didn't deserve this, She didn't deserve what happened to her.
1:10
Speaker 2: You are hearing mercedes mother begging for justice. We have
1:16
Speaker 2: an all star panel to make sense of what we
1:19
Speaker 2: are learning tonight. But first, two very special guests joining us.
1:25
Speaker 2: Mercedes parents are with us, Erica and Tom Pillsbury. To
1:30
Speaker 2: both of you, thank you for being with us. Miss Pillsbury,
1:34
Speaker 2: we were just hearing you begging for justice for your daughter,
1:39
Speaker 2: who's absolutely beautiful and so young. Her life just starting.
1:46
Speaker 2: Tell me how you learned Mercedes had.
1:50
Speaker 7: Been killed a year ago?
1:53
Speaker 8: We had a knock at the door and there were
1:58
Speaker 8: two gentlemen standing outside and I shout it up to
2:04
Speaker 8: my husband. We had just come back from a cruise
2:06
Speaker 8: for my fiftieth birthday, and I said, it looks like
2:10
Speaker 8: there's cops. And we kind of assumed it was probably
2:14
Speaker 8: something going on with the neighbors or something going on
2:17
Speaker 8: throughout the neighborhood, and they asked us. They asked me,
2:22
Speaker 8: does Mercedes live here? And I said no, but I'm
2:25
Speaker 8: her mom. Is she okay? And they said does she
2:30
Speaker 8: live here? And I said is she okay? And I
2:34
Speaker 8: just kept repeating is she okay? Is she okay? And
2:36
Speaker 8: they said can we come in? And I said I
2:40
Speaker 8: just want to know she's okay, and they said no,
2:45
Speaker 8: we need to come in.
2:47
Speaker 7: And that's how we found out that she was dead.
2:51
Speaker 8: They told us that she was deceased. Those are the
2:54
Speaker 8: words that she used, and that they didn't have any
3:00
Speaker 8: other information beyond that.
3:02
Speaker 2: Mister Bilsbury, thank you for being with us as well.
3:05
Speaker 2: Do you remember that moment? What is your memory of
3:09
Speaker 2: learning your twenty two year old girl was dead?
3:15
Speaker 9: Well, it was just really really hard because when we
3:19
Speaker 9: come back from our trip, we drive by her place
3:23
Speaker 9: that she lived, and one thing I would always do
3:25
Speaker 9: is I would say to her, Oh, I love you
3:28
Speaker 9: and I miss you. I'm thinking of you. As we
3:31
Speaker 9: drove by, we did like we normally do, and in
3:36
Speaker 9: my heart, it's like if I would have just called
3:38
Speaker 9: her I, maybe things would have been different. So I
3:42
Speaker 9: had a lot of because we were tired. We had
3:45
Speaker 9: just lived and back from the Caribbean, so we're really tired,
3:48
Speaker 9: and we were hungry, and we didn't and it just
3:50
Speaker 9: it just broke my heart. I screamed, I yelled. I
3:53
Speaker 9: didn't believe it was true. I still to this day
3:59
Speaker 9: it's hard to believe that it's true. It just completely
4:03
Speaker 9: shattered our lives in a moment.
4:05
Speaker 2: What were their exact words, Tom, What did they tell you,
4:10
Speaker 2: just that she's deceased.
4:12
Speaker 3: I know you had to have questions.
4:14
Speaker 9: Yes, they said she was deceased, and we asked more questions,
4:18
Speaker 9: but they wouldn't give me answers. How I actually found
4:22
Speaker 9: out what happened to my daughter is I looked it
4:25
Speaker 9: up on the internet. They told us where our daughter
4:27
Speaker 9: was at was Intona, pa Arizona. But I looked it
4:32
Speaker 9: up on the internet and it said body found in
4:35
Speaker 9: burning car and Tonapa Arizona. That's how I found out
4:38
Speaker 9: what actually happened to my daughter.
4:40
Speaker 3: When you would ask them Tom, what happened? What would
4:43
Speaker 3: they say?
4:44
Speaker 10: We can't tell you that right now. It's an ongoing investigation.
4:47
Speaker 3: Miss Pillsbury.
4:48
Speaker 2: Do you remember asking over and over what happened to her?
4:51
Speaker 2: What happened to her? And what did they say?
4:54
Speaker 8: I asked over and over and over and over again
4:59
Speaker 8: and ny and then I said, I said, was she
5:02
Speaker 8: in a car accident?
5:04
Speaker 7: Did she kill herself?
5:06
Speaker 5: Like?
5:06
Speaker 7: What?
5:08
Speaker 1: Why?
5:09
Speaker 6: Why?
5:10
Speaker 8: And they kept saying, we don't know, and we don't
5:14
Speaker 8: have any answer. We're trying to figure that out. They
5:17
Speaker 8: asked us three questions. Was she right or left handed?
5:23
Speaker 8: Where was the address that she actually lived at? And
5:27
Speaker 8: did she have any reason to be near Tona Pa, Arizona.
5:30
Speaker 3: How far was that from your home Tona Pa.
5:33
Speaker 8: From our homes, Probably about one hundred and twenty miles
5:36
Speaker 8: from Mercedes house.
5:38
Speaker 7: It's probably about.
5:39
Speaker 10: Seventy sixty three in that ballpark, sixty three to seventy
5:42
Speaker 10: miles from her house.
5:44
Speaker 3: Would she have normally been there?
5:46
Speaker 11: No, No, it's in the middle of nowhere. It's if
5:49
Speaker 11: you're not familiar with Arizona. It's one of the where
5:52
Speaker 11: that she was found is on the interstate that is
5:55
Speaker 11: like one of the busiest interstates because it connects Arizona
5:59
Speaker 11: to La So there's a ton of traffic that are
6:02
Speaker 11: driving on that highway twenty four to seven.
6:04
Speaker 3: When you saw that online, Tom, what went through your mind?
6:09
Speaker 2: Because why would she be there? Why would her car
6:13
Speaker 2: be on fire with her in the car in the
6:17
Speaker 2: back seat? As I've read the report, why would she
6:21
Speaker 2: be that far away from.
6:22
Speaker 1: Your home and her home.
6:24
Speaker 9: I honestly couldn't fathom why she was that far away
6:29
Speaker 9: from her home, wasn't it? But she actually was not
6:33
Speaker 9: in her own car.
6:34
Speaker 2: You're right, So I'm very curious why she had been
6:38
Speaker 2: taken there to Robin Drieke joining me, behavior expert, former
6:43
Speaker 2: FBI Special Agent, chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis
6:49
Speaker 2: Program and author of Sizing People Up, a veteran FBI
6:53
Speaker 2: agent's manual for behavior prediction. Wow, Robin Drake, you and
6:58
Speaker 2: I have seen similar scenarios, both of us have as
7:02
Speaker 2: investigators and myself as a prosecutor, and there is typically
7:07
Speaker 2: a reason a vehicle is as the Pillsbury said, out
7:11
Speaker 2: in the middle of nowhere set on fire.
7:14
Speaker 3: Explain.
7:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, obviously they were trying to whoever the assailant was,
7:19
Speaker 5: the murderer was, was trying to get rid of the evidence,
7:21
Speaker 5: trying to get rid of her. And it was this
7:26
Speaker 5: whole thing just rings of sloppiness, potential stalker in here
7:30
Speaker 5: and missing. You know, they found gloves in the car,
7:36
Speaker 5: lighter fluid. I mean, just it just rings of a
7:39
Speaker 5: lot of rough things gone sideways in a lot of
7:42
Speaker 5: different ways.
7:44
Speaker 2: Another thing, I don't know that I would say that
7:46
Speaker 2: things are going sideways because I believe that is exactly
7:49
Speaker 2: the killer's intention to take this girl look at her,
7:55
Speaker 2: a gorgeous twenty two year old, gifted dancer, to take
7:58
Speaker 2: her out in the middle of nowhere and burn that
8:01
Speaker 2: car with a hopes and also in somebody else's car
8:06
Speaker 2: so her car could be traced back to her through
8:10
Speaker 2: the VEN number, which can endure a fire because if
8:13
Speaker 2: they got that vin which is basically etched onto a car,
8:18
Speaker 2: that could trace the VEN number on the car back
8:20
Speaker 2: to the owner, which would be Mercedes. So in a
8:24
Speaker 2: different car not belonging to her, out in the quote
8:28
Speaker 2: middle of nowhere, and I guarantee you Robin Drake. The
8:31
Speaker 2: killer hoped her body would be burned beyond recognition.
8:36
Speaker 5: Right, And I agree, Nancy, And what I went by
8:38
Speaker 5: sideways on this one, I don't think it looked very sophisticated.
8:41
Speaker 5: It looks like a potential serial stalker who's just setting
8:45
Speaker 5: on his course of doing horrendous things in his life,
8:49
Speaker 5: and she might want one of the earlier victims of his.
8:53
Speaker 5: And that's why it's so imperative that the police get
8:55
Speaker 5: off their brelets and find this guy, because it's going
8:59
Speaker 5: to happen again unless they do.
9:00
Speaker 2: Doctor Michelle Dupree, joining US renowned forensic pathologists, medical examiner
9:05
Speaker 2: and author, Doctor Dupree, You can't just set a car
9:12
Speaker 2: on fire and expect to get rid of DNA in bones.
9:17
Speaker 2: That doesn't happen. What would it take in order to
9:21
Speaker 2: totally destroy a human.
9:23
Speaker 1: Body, Nancy?
9:24
Speaker 12: It takes a lot, a lot harder than a vehicle
9:26
Speaker 12: fire can usually get. One thing that we've also found, though,
9:30
Speaker 12: is if that car was driven there by someone else,
9:33
Speaker 12: the soot and the interior side of that car can
9:37
Speaker 12: actually still yield fingerprints if they touched that rear view Mira,
9:40
Speaker 12: That soot can act like fingerprint powder and there may
9:43
Speaker 12: have been fingerprints on the rear view Mirra or on
9:46
Speaker 12: the seat lever that moved it up or down, So
9:49
Speaker 12: there is still a lot to be done in this investigation.
9:59
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
10:05
Speaker 2: Also joining us from twelve News Phoenix investigative reporter Bianca Bono.
10:11
Speaker 3: Bianca, thank you for being with us.
10:13
Speaker 2: Tell me what you can about the discovery of that car,
10:17
Speaker 2: the discovery of Mercedes, twenty two year old Mercedes and
10:22
Speaker 2: the car and apparently bleach and her throat.
10:27
Speaker 13: Yeah, Nancy, I think that's what's made this case so
10:30
Speaker 13: difficult to grasp for our community and why it's reached
10:33
Speaker 13: people nationwide is just the horrific nature in the way
10:37
Speaker 13: that Mercedes was found.
10:39
Speaker 14: Because, yes, as you guys have mentioned, she was found in.
10:42
Speaker 13: A burning car on the Iten Freeway, a very busy
10:45
Speaker 13: freeway that connects Phoenix to Los Angeles, so it didn't
10:48
Speaker 13: take long for passerbys to report the burning.
10:51
Speaker 14: Vehicle to nine one one.
10:53
Speaker 13: But what's more disturbing is the torture that Mercedes endured
10:57
Speaker 13: before she was found burned. The medical examiner reported that
11:02
Speaker 13: they had found a bullet wound, a gunshot wound.
11:06
Speaker 14: She had bleach in her throat.
11:08
Speaker 13: Clearly, whoever did this to her, whether it was a
11:11
Speaker 13: person or a group of people, they wanted to send
11:14
Speaker 13: a clear message.
11:15
Speaker 14: And again, just.
11:16
Speaker 13: How brazen they were in doing this to her and
11:19
Speaker 13: then lighting this car on fire on the Iten Freeway,
11:21
Speaker 13: the busiest freeway that we have in Arizona. They were
11:24
Speaker 13: trying to send a very clear message. So we were
11:27
Speaker 13: aware that a body had been found that night, but
11:30
Speaker 13: we were not aware that it was Mercedes Vega until
11:33
Speaker 13: months later. Investigators have been keeping information very close to
11:37
Speaker 13: vest to the best in this case, and here we
11:40
Speaker 13: are over a year later, and there are still no
11:42
Speaker 13: answers in terms of what happened to her and more importantly,
11:46
Speaker 13: who's responsible.
11:47
Speaker 2: Well put bian Cabono to Tom and Erica Pillsbury. Mercedes parents,
11:53
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine you're suffering after you put all
11:59
Speaker 2: your love, all your time, all your energy, all your.
12:03
Speaker 3: Money, your hopes.
12:06
Speaker 2: Really a lot of parents me, all the hopes I
12:10
Speaker 2: once had.
12:12
Speaker 3: Are all in my children.
12:14
Speaker 2: Now I'm hoping for them and for their happiness and
12:19
Speaker 2: their joy and their success and their fulfillment.
12:23
Speaker 3: And then to learn this about.
12:25
Speaker 2: Your daughter, the fact the circumstance of bleach bleach in
12:33
Speaker 2: your daughter's throat.
12:35
Speaker 3: Who could do that to this beautiful girl? When did
12:40
Speaker 3: you learn this?
12:42
Speaker 6: We learned about the bleach in her throat about six
12:45
Speaker 6: months after she died. The day before they released her autopsy,
12:53
Speaker 6: they told us they called and said, just to warn
12:56
Speaker 6: you there was bleach in her throat. We've been told
13:05
Speaker 6: virtually nothing. We've found things out, mainly from the Internet
13:10
Speaker 6: and from the.
13:10
Speaker 8: Media about our child, everything from how she died she
13:20
Speaker 8: died in a fire so that there was blake in
13:23
Speaker 8: her throat, to seeing the last moments of her life
13:27
Speaker 8: on video that someone had posted on TikTok or Twitter
13:32
Speaker 8: or something.
13:33
Speaker 4: In the early morning hours of April seventeenth, the her
13:36
Speaker 4: Qualifier Department responds to our report of a burning car
13:39
Speaker 4: on the north hand shoulder of the Iten Highway west
13:42
Speaker 4: of to Nopa, Arizona firefighters find a twenty eighteen Chevrolet
13:46
Speaker 4: Malibu on fire. Once the fire is put out, a
13:49
Speaker 4: deceased human body is found in the rear passenger seat.
13:53
Speaker 4: At one fifteen am, Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputies are called
13:56
Speaker 4: to a scene to assist the Arizona Department of Public
13:59
Speaker 4: Safety on a death of investigation. Investigators are able to
14:02
Speaker 4: talk to the man who called law enforcement about the
14:04
Speaker 4: car on fire. Robert Miller tells officials he saw a
14:07
Speaker 4: person walking around the outside of the vehicle.
14:10
Speaker 2: To Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter with twelve News Phoenix,
14:16
Speaker 2: to me, that is studying the fact that we still
14:20
Speaker 2: don't have the killer, and there is a witness that
14:23
Speaker 2: spots walking around the car as Mercedes is inside and the.
14:29
Speaker 3: Car is on fire.
14:30
Speaker 13: Not only is there a witness on the Iten Freeway,
14:34
Speaker 13: but there are also video cameras all over mercedes apartment
14:38
Speaker 13: complex in Tempe where she was last seen. There are
14:41
Speaker 13: witnesses in surveillance footage from the area of Tempe where
14:44
Speaker 13: her car was later found abandoned, parked illegally, and we
14:48
Speaker 13: now know that it was not Mercedes, as we've suspected
14:51
Speaker 13: all this time who left her vehicle there. So there
14:54
Speaker 13: are cameras everywhere, and where Mercedes lived is not far
14:58
Speaker 13: from ASU's campus as well, so there are so much
15:01
Speaker 13: foot traffic, There are people everywhere, there are surveillance cameras,
15:04
Speaker 13: and as you mentioned, yes, on the Iten Freeway, there
15:06
Speaker 13: are cars passing by.
15:08
Speaker 14: It was called into nine to one one right away.
15:10
Speaker 13: So the fact that there's a lack of answers at
15:13
Speaker 13: this point is just so troubling, not only for the community,
15:17
Speaker 13: for ASU students in Tempe, but obviously for the Pillsbury's
15:21
Speaker 13: family and all of Mercedes friends who have been handing
15:24
Speaker 13: out flyers on a regular basis and have been doing
15:27
Speaker 13: so much advocacy work on their own and really taken
15:30
Speaker 13: matters in their own hands to try to get this
15:32
Speaker 13: thing solved. Because yeah, I mean, the fact that somebody
15:35
Speaker 13: or people that are capable of doing what they did
15:38
Speaker 13: to Mercedes are still out there is very concerning for
15:41
Speaker 13: everyone who's seen this case, all.
15:43
Speaker 3: That video surveillance.
15:45
Speaker 2: Guys, Before I say one more thing, I've got to
15:48
Speaker 2: give you a tip line for silent witness.
15:51
Speaker 3: Repeat.
15:52
Speaker 2: Silent witness line is for eight zero witness for eight
15:57
Speaker 2: zero witness for eight zero nine four eight six three
16:03
Speaker 2: seven seven repeat four eight zero nine four eight six
16:09
Speaker 2: three seven seven. I want to go back to the
16:13
Speaker 2: Pillsbury's and then to Sarah Ford joining us an expert.
16:18
Speaker 3: Miss Pillsbury, you stated video.
16:20
Speaker 2: Of the last moments of your daughter's life, to which video.
16:26
Speaker 15: Are you referring the video of her coming out of
16:30
Speaker 15: the vestibule where there is one elevator into her Perkin garage, which.
16:40
Speaker 7: We did not we weren't aware of and had not seen.
16:46
Speaker 8: I w had gone to her apartment, and it was
16:51
Speaker 8: three or three days, I believe, after she had died,
16:55
Speaker 8: and there was still blood on the ground from where
16:59
Speaker 8: she was hit.
17:01
Speaker 7: And I saw this weird.
17:02
Speaker 8: Swirl pattern and the blood, and I was wearing her
17:09
Speaker 8: baby hat, and you know, as a mama when they're born,
17:14
Speaker 8: sometimes they put those little things on.
17:16
Speaker 16: Their heads, and there's a little bit of her blood
17:19
Speaker 16: in there. And I laid in her blood in that
17:24
Speaker 16: apartment complex, and.
17:31
Speaker 8: I looked at that weird swirl and I said, oh
17:33
Speaker 8: my god, she's wearing ten shoes. And she never wore
17:37
Speaker 8: tennis shoes. And I asked the police if she was
17:40
Speaker 8: wearing tennis shoes, and they didn't tell me. And then
17:42
Speaker 8: that video was released of her walking out and she's
17:48
Speaker 8: wearing tennis shoes, and it just there's no video that
18:01
Speaker 8: we had somebody who lived there, they took as they
18:04
Speaker 8: walked out of that vestibule in that elevator and walked
18:08
Speaker 8: all the way over to her actual parking spot and
18:12
Speaker 8: that it's thirty seconds. We know that's where she was
18:17
Speaker 8: hit because we were they didn't clean it up and
18:24
Speaker 8: we were able to see her her blood.
18:29
Speaker 7: And then when that video was released, it was very.
18:34
Speaker 8: Strange for me as a mom to be like, Wow,
18:39
Speaker 8: my kid never wears tennis shoes, but she was wearing
18:42
Speaker 8: tend of shoes.
18:44
Speaker 3: Why does that?
18:46
Speaker 2: Why is that fact so important Erica, that she was
18:50
Speaker 2: wearing tennis shoes.
18:54
Speaker 17: I asked what she was wearing. I didn't get to
19:00
Speaker 17: her at all after she died. I didn't get a
19:06
Speaker 17: lock of her hair. I didn't I wanted just to
19:10
Speaker 17: hold her hand. I just wanted something in the last
19:17
Speaker 17: moments of her life. Seeing that video.
19:23
Speaker 7: Was oh, that's so horrible.
19:28
Speaker 18: But seeing her another time, what last time?
19:38
Speaker 7: It was also a gift.
19:40
Speaker 17: But I just found it very strange that she was
19:43
Speaker 17: wearing ten of shoes, just.
19:46
Speaker 18: Because I'm her mom.
19:47
Speaker 17: And my husband will tell you she used to lay
19:50
Speaker 17: out her clothes every morning, so.
19:53
Speaker 7: She like would choose an outfit before.
19:56
Speaker 18: She went anywhere, and she just never more tennis shoes,
20:01
Speaker 18: which is why we were like, she's going to David
20:04
Speaker 18: Busters because she wouldn't have been going out to sushi.
20:09
Speaker 17: She wouldn't have been.
20:11
Speaker 8: Going anywhere that we could imagine other than daven Busters
20:19
Speaker 8: wearing tennis shoes, because she was.
20:21
Speaker 7: You know, ready to play, ready to.
20:25
Speaker 1: Go have fun.
20:27
Speaker 7: And you could see her face in that still shot
20:32
Speaker 7: that she's smiling and she has no idea what's about
20:38
Speaker 7: to happen to her.
20:39
Speaker 2: Miss Pillsbury, you stated that you did not see her
20:43
Speaker 2: again after she died.
20:46
Speaker 3: Is that right?
20:47
Speaker 7: Yeah?
20:49
Speaker 8: They let me walk into a room and she was
20:55
Speaker 8: in a body bed with the zipper on the back
20:59
Speaker 8: of it so we weren't able to access it, with
21:04
Speaker 8: a heavy blanket on top of her. I've never seen
21:08
Speaker 8: a photo of.
21:13
Speaker 7: Her deceased.
21:17
Speaker 8: I know that sounds strange, but as a mom, it
21:21
Speaker 8: makes me think, well, maybe she's still here. I mean,
21:25
Speaker 8: because all I can do in this world that I
21:29
Speaker 8: found myself in is wish that I wasn't in this place.
21:35
Speaker 3: Miss Pillsbury. I've got to tell you something.
21:38
Speaker 2: I understand what you're saying because when my fiance was murdered,
21:45
Speaker 2: he was shot so many times and his face, his head,
21:50
Speaker 2: his snack, his back. I didn't at that young age,
21:55
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't want to see him, So my
21:58
Speaker 2: last memory of him it's when he drove away that morning.
22:03
Speaker 3: And since that time, it's been many many.
22:06
Speaker 2: Years ago, to this day, I still have dreams that
22:12
Speaker 2: he's alive, about the black body bag, about being zipped open,
22:17
Speaker 2: but then there's nothing in there, just all sorts of bizarre,
22:22
Speaker 2: horrible nightmares because I never saw him dead. So your
22:28
Speaker 2: desire to have seen her is justified.
22:33
Speaker 7: Thank you.
22:34
Speaker 3: I get it.
22:34
Speaker 2: And I want to ask, mister Pillsbury, as your wife
22:37
Speaker 2: is recounting what she has lived through, what does it
22:41
Speaker 2: do to you as you hear her tell this horrible
22:45
Speaker 2: story again?
22:47
Speaker 10: It hurts me deeply.
22:50
Speaker 11: Because I'm here for my family, my other children and
22:53
Speaker 11: my wife, and to see us to.
22:56
Speaker 10: Go through this, and we're living a nightmare every single day.
23:01
Speaker 9: You know, a lot of people are moving on with their.
23:05
Speaker 11: Lives and doing what they have to do. But we,
23:07
Speaker 11: as a husband and wife, this is all we focus on.
23:10
Speaker 11: What I'm at the age in my life that all
23:12
Speaker 11: that matters to me is my wife, my children, and
23:16
Speaker 11: my granddaughter.
23:17
Speaker 6: That's it.
23:18
Speaker 11: That's all I really care about. And to lose one
23:20
Speaker 11: of my children and see what it's doing to my wife.
23:23
Speaker 9: It just it tears me apart. It's like that video
23:28
Speaker 9: that you showed. It's just to sit there and watch it.
23:31
Speaker 9: It's so hard to know that my daughter didn't have
23:33
Speaker 9: a care in the world and she just and then
23:37
Speaker 9: literally thirty seconds later, she was taken from us. And
23:43
Speaker 9: I just it's hard to put into words of what
23:47
Speaker 9: my heart is lost and what my wife is heart
23:52
Speaker 9: is lost, because it's just like she said, it's hard
23:55
Speaker 9: to realize that she's not here.
23:59
Speaker 10: Because she is.
24:00
Speaker 9: You know, she's only twenty two and she was just
24:03
Speaker 9: starting her journey in life, and for someone to take
24:08
Speaker 9: her away from us at the nature of what they did,
24:14
Speaker 9: it just doesn't make any sense. And back to the
24:16
Speaker 9: gentleman's statement earlier where he said it was sloppy, it
24:19
Speaker 9: was done very sloppily.
24:20
Speaker 10: I agree one hundred percent.
24:22
Speaker 19: Using fingerprints, investigators are able to identify the woman found
24:26
Speaker 19: inside the burning Malibu as twenty two year old Mercedes Vega.
24:30
Speaker 19: The twenty eighteen Chevrolet Malibu in which her body was
24:33
Speaker 19: found does not belong to Vega. That car has a
24:36
Speaker 19: salvage title, vehicle registered to State Farm Insurance, and the
24:39
Speaker 19: burning car is sixty miles from Vegas Tempe, Arizona apartment.
24:44
Speaker 19: Mercedes twenty nineteen white Dodge Charger is found illegally parked
24:48
Speaker 19: near First Street and Farmer Avenue, one and a half
24:51
Speaker 19: miles south of where she lives. According to her mother,
24:54
Speaker 19: the car is parked while running with the keys in
24:57
Speaker 19: the ignition, so it would be stolen or the MCSO
25:01
Speaker 19: has video surveillance of Vegas charger from the time it
25:04
Speaker 19: is left parked on the road until the time it
25:07
Speaker 19: is recovered by police. Vega did not park it where
25:10
Speaker 19: it was found.
25:11
Speaker 2: So if they've got video of it from the time
25:13
Speaker 2: it was parked till it was found by police, who
25:15
Speaker 2: parked it, who got out of the car, it's not
25:18
Speaker 2: self driving, it's not a tesla, So who parked the
25:22
Speaker 2: car obviously connected to who killed who murdered Mercedes joining
25:29
Speaker 2: me Mercedes parents. But I want to go out to
25:33
Speaker 2: Sarah Ford, a legal director of South Carolina Victim Assistant Network,
25:38
Speaker 2: former prosecutor of Crimes on Women and Children.
25:41
Speaker 3: Sarah, thank you for being with us. Sarah.
25:43
Speaker 2: The burning aspect leaving her by the side of the interstate,
25:49
Speaker 2: burning her like it burned, trash out in the front
25:52
Speaker 2: yard ditch, just treating her like she's less than a person.
25:56
Speaker 20: It's absolutely awful, Nancy. It's devastating for these for mister
26:01
Speaker 20: and missus Pillsbury, but even worse is how they appear
26:04
Speaker 20: to have been treated by law enforcement throughout the investigation.
26:07
Speaker 20: It's certainly understandable for investigators to want to keep information
26:11
Speaker 20: close to the best, but for survivors of homicide to
26:15
Speaker 20: find out information from the internet, for the media, for
26:18
Speaker 20: the public to have information before mister missus Pillsbury is
26:23
Speaker 20: absolutely inexcusable.
26:25
Speaker 7: Absolutely, you know, I'm curious.
26:28
Speaker 2: Back to Bianca Bono joining us investigative reporter twelve News
26:33
Speaker 2: in Phoenix, Bianca, you mentioned earlier and I'm hearing it
26:37
Speaker 2: again from our reporters at Crime Online that there's video,
26:43
Speaker 2: and we were just hearing Dave Matt reporting that there's
26:46
Speaker 2: video of her Mercedes car from the time it was
26:52
Speaker 2: parked till the time police found it.
26:54
Speaker 1: So who parked it, that's not in the video. There's
26:57
Speaker 1: everything in the video but the perp right.
27:00
Speaker 13: And we have so many questions about this video, and
27:02
Speaker 13: we only recently got confirmation from the Maricopa County Sheriff's
27:06
Speaker 13: Office that that surveillance video even exists months ago. The
27:11
Speaker 13: Pillsbury's were asking publicly when they finally started speaking out,
27:15
Speaker 13: because to their credit, they remain quiet relatively about this case,
27:21
Speaker 13: giving investigators time to put all the pieces together. But
27:25
Speaker 13: for months they've been asking where's the surveillance footage?
27:29
Speaker 14: Where are the cameras? There are cameras everywhere.
27:32
Speaker 13: And also, you know, for them to find out that
27:34
Speaker 13: there's surveillance footage from the apartment complex via social media,
27:38
Speaker 13: somebody at the apartment complex choosing to record this video
27:41
Speaker 13: and posted online and not from investigators is just really troubling.
27:45
Speaker 13: But yes, we know that there is surveillance footage out there.
27:48
Speaker 13: We've put in records requests, as have several other investigative
27:51
Speaker 13: reporters to try to get our own hands on this
27:54
Speaker 13: footage to see what work we can do to try
27:57
Speaker 13: to track down individuals. We haven't received any of that yet.
28:00
Speaker 13: We're hoping to get it soon. But yeah, no question,
28:03
Speaker 13: there is video evidence in this case. What is in
28:06
Speaker 13: those video images that's just.
28:08
Speaker 7: Unknown at this.
28:16
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
28:21
Speaker 3: To Erica Pillsbury joining us.
28:24
Speaker 2: This is Mercedes mom along with her dad Tom Erica.
28:28
Speaker 2: Have you asked La law enforcement? Where's the video? Can
28:34
Speaker 2: I see the video?
28:36
Speaker 7: Of course, I asked for all of the evidence.
28:40
Speaker 8: I've asked. I've asked, why won't you show it to us?
28:44
Speaker 8: Maybe we can identify the people in the video. Why
28:47
Speaker 8: haven't you brought us in and questioned.
28:51
Speaker 21: Us a A Why Why are we finding all of
28:57
Speaker 21: this out via other avenues besides law enforcement?
29:03
Speaker 3: What in the hey is going on?
29:06
Speaker 1: Bianca?
29:07
Speaker 3: Why that's not right?
29:09
Speaker 14: It's not and it's not how cases should go.
29:12
Speaker 13: Ever, and unfortunately it's been an issue with this case
29:15
Speaker 13: from the beginning, as they mentioned, and now it's to
29:17
Speaker 13: the point where you know, I'll get information from the
29:20
Speaker 13: Sheriff's office and I'll reach out to Tom and Erica
29:23
Speaker 13: and let them know what I'm hearing, just to confirm
29:27
Speaker 13: that they've heard it too, because the last thing as
29:29
Speaker 13: a journalist I would ever want is for the victims,
29:32
Speaker 13: family and friends to be finding out information when they
29:35
Speaker 13: turn on the evening news.
29:37
Speaker 14: It's completely unacceptable.
29:39
Speaker 13: And we've been asking why are authorities keeping this information
29:43
Speaker 13: so private? Why are they releasing it in the way
29:46
Speaker 13: that they are. We know that the Sheriff's office is
29:49
Speaker 13: now working with federal partners it's unclear exactly who, but
29:52
Speaker 13: we know they're not working alone in this case. But again,
29:55
Speaker 13: to go over twelve months without any answers, any really
30:00
Speaker 13: semblance of closure for these family and friends, it's just
30:03
Speaker 13: really disheartening. And we're hoping that things changes, they move forward,
30:07
Speaker 13: but at this point, the fact that the Pillsburys are
30:09
Speaker 13: still learning new information to this moment is really troubling.
30:14
Speaker 11: Mercedes Father, I want to thank silent Witness. I want
30:19
Speaker 11: to thank all agencies that are involved in trying to
30:22
Speaker 11: solve this case and bring me peace for my wife
30:26
Speaker 11: and my other children. I want to thank the media
30:30
Speaker 11: for being here. I understand it's been kept quiet. We
30:34
Speaker 11: kept it quiet because we wanted the justice system to.
30:40
Speaker 10: Run its course.
30:42
Speaker 11: And now I think it's time that you all know
30:45
Speaker 11: what's going on and we need to get these people caught.
30:48
Speaker 2: Straight back out to mister and missus Pillsbury. You are
30:52
Speaker 2: hearing mister Pearlsbury speaking begging for justice, begging for his
30:58
Speaker 2: daughter's killer to be caught. Miss Pillsbury, I see you
31:05
Speaker 2: breaking down in tears. Is it because you're learning new information?
31:12
Speaker 3: What is it?
31:14
Speaker 1: I miss my.
31:14
Speaker 7: Little girl that frustrated. I'm I feel alone, miss. I
31:26
Speaker 7: feel that there's so much more that could.
31:32
Speaker 16: Be done that hasn't been done.
31:37
Speaker 7: I miss Merceding.
31:40
Speaker 17: So much, and I'm.
31:45
Speaker 18: Just can't understand why and how we are being told.
31:52
Speaker 8: If things were being told, and we're how, I'm worried about.
31:58
Speaker 17: My little girl, how she died.
32:03
Speaker 2: I'm trying to make sense of what we are learning.
32:06
Speaker 2: To doctor Michelle Dupre joining, US renowned pathologist and medical examiner,
32:12
Speaker 2: what is conflagration?
32:15
Speaker 3: What is that?
32:16
Speaker 12: It's actually thermal injuries from fire. This unfortunate young lady
32:23
Speaker 12: was in the fire, was in a car that was burning,
32:25
Speaker 12: and she was still alive during part of that time.
32:28
Speaker 12: This is torture, no matter how you look at it.
32:31
Speaker 2: So when you say thermal injuries, what are you talking about.
32:35
Speaker 12: I'm talking about actually heat. Heat can cause damage as
32:38
Speaker 12: well as actually fire burning the body. This person was
32:42
Speaker 12: on fire part of the time.
32:44
Speaker 2: It's my understanding that she died of smoke inhalation. Would
32:50
Speaker 2: that be consistent with conflagration.
32:53
Speaker 12: Yes, it would. She was not alive for very long
32:56
Speaker 12: because there was no discussion of soot in her lungs,
33:00
Speaker 12: but there was in her nasal passages, so she would
33:04
Speaker 12: have died from the carbon dioxide carbon monoxide rather from
33:10
Speaker 12: the smoke.
33:11
Speaker 14: She would have died relatively quickly.
33:13
Speaker 2: From that, guys, I'm trying to piece together what happened
33:17
Speaker 2: just before Mercedes Vega was kidnapped and murdered.
33:22
Speaker 3: Listen.
33:23
Speaker 22: Mercedes Vega talks to her mom and dad. On April sixteen.
33:27
Speaker 22: Erica and Tom Pillsbury are on the last day of
33:30
Speaker 22: their vacation in the Caribbean. Mercedes tells her mom she
33:34
Speaker 22: has plans to meet friends at David Buster's for dinner.
33:38
Speaker 22: Erica and Tom Pillsbury returned to Santane Valley, Arizona the
33:41
Speaker 22: next day, April seventeen.
33:44
Speaker 2: Straight back out to Mercedes parents were what was your
33:47
Speaker 2: understanding of what she was doing that day?
33:51
Speaker 3: That evening.
33:53
Speaker 8: We knew she had gone to Chipotle and gotten food
33:58
Speaker 8: and gone back up to her apartment, and we believed
34:03
Speaker 8: at that point, or I believe at that point, she
34:06
Speaker 8: was probably just considering stately in for the night, but
34:12
Speaker 8: there were several people asking her to come out and
34:15
Speaker 8: meet them, and ultimately she made the worst decision to
34:25
Speaker 8: leave her apartment, and I believe that there was someone
34:29
Speaker 8: there waiting for her and.
34:35
Speaker 9: They took her right, is that statement that we had
34:38
Speaker 9: talked to her and said that she was going to
34:40
Speaker 9: We did not talk to her. We were flying when
34:43
Speaker 9: all this took place, so we weren't even in We
34:47
Speaker 9: were probably still in Miami at the time, so we
34:49
Speaker 9: actually physically never talked to her and knew she was
34:53
Speaker 9: showing to David. Butser's at all. That's just what we
34:56
Speaker 9: have found out. It's through information. I just wanted to
35:00
Speaker 9: clarify this was that via text we didn't talk to Yeah,
35:03
Speaker 9: she was talking to someone via text, not us.
35:05
Speaker 10: We were not involved in that text. She knew we
35:07
Speaker 10: were out of the country.
35:08
Speaker 3: I see.
35:09
Speaker 10: Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear.
35:10
Speaker 2: We did not to Robin Drake joining us, a former
35:14
Speaker 2: FBI special agent. I want to talk to you about
35:17
Speaker 2: the forensic evidence because I can see video surveillance a
35:23
Speaker 2: Mercedes coming out from the elevator going to her car
35:27
Speaker 2: that is where she was attacked. I don't believe she
35:31
Speaker 2: was dead at that time because later bleach was poured
35:35
Speaker 2: into her mouth.
35:37
Speaker 3: Okay, so if.
35:39
Speaker 2: She had already been dead at that time, I don't
35:41
Speaker 2: think the bleach would have occurred. That said, her car
35:47
Speaker 2: is caught on video surveillance. Remember, she's not taken in
35:51
Speaker 2: her car. Her car is taken there, and it's left
35:57
Speaker 2: far away, still running keys in ignition, hoping somebody would
36:00
Speaker 2: steal it and they would be pinned with a murder.
36:04
Speaker 2: But the car should be full of forensic evidence, such
36:08
Speaker 2: as fingerprints or even DNA.
36:10
Speaker 5: I totally agree, Nancy, it's the fuddling that we don't
36:14
Speaker 5: know more at this point. I think the victim assistance
36:18
Speaker 5: program has failed miserably, has been pointed out, and the
36:22
Speaker 5: amount of evidence DNA evidence, video evidence, fingerprint evidence, I
36:26
Speaker 5: think should be overwhelming. It leads me to think that
36:31
Speaker 5: again I'm still caught on the stalker side of this thing,
36:34
Speaker 5: the serial potential serial stalker, but also potentially someone is
36:37
Speaker 5: either so isolated that we can't find them, or they're
36:41
Speaker 5: being protected by someone and potentially someone undocumented, so there's
36:45
Speaker 5: no footprint to follow up on, or gross incompetence of
36:49
Speaker 5: the investigators.
36:50
Speaker 3: Now let me understand from you.
36:52
Speaker 2: Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter twelve News, explain to
36:57
Speaker 2: me one more time. Her car, her car that she owned,
37:01
Speaker 2: was taken from where to where.
37:03
Speaker 13: It's unclear exactly where it was taken but we know
37:06
Speaker 13: where it was found. It was found in Tempe, Arizona,
37:09
Speaker 13: not far from Mill Avenue, which is the busiest street
37:12
Speaker 13: in Tempe. It's essentially on Arizona State University's campus, and
37:17
Speaker 13: it was outside of a very popular restaurant. So authorities
37:21
Speaker 13: tell us that they found the car on April eighteenth.
37:25
Speaker 13: We know that Mercedes was last seen leaving her Tempe
37:28
Speaker 13: apartment complex late on April sixteenth, So where it was,
37:34
Speaker 13: you know, taken from, exactly when it was dropped off
37:37
Speaker 13: yet that information has not been publicly released. But again,
37:41
Speaker 13: investigators confirmed that they do have surveillance footage showing the
37:45
Speaker 13: car being dropped off at that spot in Tempe, where
37:48
Speaker 13: again it was left running with the keys inside.
37:51
Speaker 2: To the Pillsbury's Tom and Erica Pillsbury speaking out for justice,
37:57
Speaker 2: what is your message tonight?
38:00
Speaker 8: The most important thing that I can say is to
38:05
Speaker 8: anyone here in Arizona. Any child, any mother, any father, anyone,
38:15
Speaker 8: Please just be aware.
38:18
Speaker 18: I just look around, share your location, tell.
38:24
Speaker 7: People where you're going.
38:29
Speaker 8: Make it a habit to say mom, dad, friend, brother, sister.
38:36
Speaker 8: I don't care who I'm heading out down to my car.
38:42
Speaker 8: I'll text you when I get there. Just give accountability
38:50
Speaker 8: to yourself that you're gonna share your location and where
38:58
Speaker 8: you're at, because the people that did this to my
39:03
Speaker 8: child are less than human and they're still there, They're
39:09
Speaker 8: still out in walking around.
39:13
Speaker 2: Let me remind everyone that there is a reward for
39:20
Speaker 2: information leading to the discovery of the person that murdered
39:25
Speaker 2: the Pillsbury's little girl Mercedes Vega the tip line for
39:32
Speaker 2: eight zero witness four eight zero nine four eight six
39:37
Speaker 2: three seven seven. We stopped to remember American hero police
39:43
Speaker 2: officer Luis Weska, just thirty years old. Officer Jusca shot
39:49
Speaker 2: multiple times before having his badge, gun and vehicle stolen,
39:54
Speaker 2: leaving behind grieving brother Emiliano, mother Edith so Lily. American
40:02
Speaker 2: hero police Officer Luis Huesca. I want to thank all
40:08
Speaker 2: of our guests, especially the Pillsbury's for being with us tonight,
40:14
Speaker 2: but especially also to you for joining us. Easy grace,
40:18
Speaker 2: signing off good night,