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The Twins Who Killed Their Mother _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill · The Mind of a Man

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The sheer brutality and sadistic nature of what went on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: that morning in that house, it's something that sticks with
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you for the rest of your life.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: A brutal killing.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: She had 80-something stab wounds on her. That amount of
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: rage is usually going to be somebody very close to
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: the victim.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: A dark mystery with multiple suspects.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: They're telling me about how their mother has two boyfriends.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a sugar daddy relationship.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: She kept yelling, no, don't come to my house.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: The truth will be revealed.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Everything told me that something wasn't right here and that
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: it wasn't over.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: The key to solving the toughest of these homicides lies
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: in the final 24 hours of the victim's life. To
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline. The
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: minutes and hours containing evidence that can help unlock the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: mystery and catch the killer. 20 miles east of Atlanta
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: lies the sleepy town of Conyers, Georgia.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: It's just a short distance from the heart of the city, basically.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: But it still, in a lot of aspects, still has
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: kind of a small-town community feel.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: We're a very safe community, very little violence. We probably
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: have maybe one or two homicides a year. It wouldn't
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: be unusual to go a year without a homicide.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: But on a calm January afternoon, a piercing noise cuts
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: through the neighborhood.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I got a phone call to report to the chief's office.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: It was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Chief
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: let me know that there had been a homicide and
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: that currently the Rockdale County Sheriff's Department was on the scene.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Jasmia and Tasmia Whitehead have made a horrific discovery.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: There happened to be a deputy just driving by who
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: they flagged down.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: The twins ran up to the side of the car
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: and literally beat on the side of the car, screaming
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: that they had found their mother dead.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: For commanding officer Jackie Dunn and lead detective Ken Swift,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: it's their first murder of the year.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: When we first arrived, there was already a number of
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: officers cordoning off the scene, and there were two young
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: girls in the back of the van crying hysterically.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: But you have these two very sweet-looking little girls traumatized.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: One of the twins was biting the inside of her forearm.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: She said, it's just a nervous habit. I do it
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: when I'm nervous. It was heartbreaking to watch. You want
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to be sensitive to their emotional state. And so you
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: treat them with kid gloves. You're very delicate in the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: way that you approach things.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: The twins direct police to the location of their mother's body,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: 34-year-old Nikki Whitehead.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: When you walked up to Nikki's home, you see chaos.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Stuff had all been thrown about. You see overturned chairs.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Broken bases on the floor. And you see and smell
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: lots of blood.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You could smell it like, you know, the rust off
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of a penny. It was really, really strong. Nikki was
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: where the daughters said they discovered her. Just off the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: master bedroom in a jacuzzi-like garden tub with water in it.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: And she's laying partially submerged with her head out.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Of the water.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Finding her naked and deceased in the tub full of water.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: All of that immediately calls your attention to a violent
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: struggle of some sort. The sheer brutality and sadistic nature
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of what went on in that house. It's something that
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: sticks with you for the rest of your life. There's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: no way to really prepare for it, but at the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: same time, you do have a job to do that
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: is important, and that ultimately comes first.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: The sheer violence of the scene gives detectives an insight
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: into her killer.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Nikki had 80-something stab wounds on her. That's a lot
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: of rage. Statistically, that amount of stab wounds, that amount
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: of rage, is usually going to be somebody very close
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: to the victims.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: They must now determine what took place during Nikki's final
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: 24 hours.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Piecing or reconstructing the last hours of somebody's life prior
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to us discovering their body is vital. It allows us
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to basically construct a timeline of the last people who
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: were to see her alive and then go from there
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: as far as eliminating individuals or focusing on individuals that
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: may or may not have been involved. With the twins
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: being the ones who discovered their mother, we wanted to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: interview them, find out what they saw, and begin that
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: aspect of the investigation. We bring them into the room,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and they're both, Jasmaya and Tasmaya, are extremely sorrowful. They
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: are crying. They are inconsolable, as you would expect for
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: young teenage girls to discover their mother deceased. I didn't
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: want to leave them alone. Nobody would have wanted to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: leave them alone.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Police begin softly, aiming to discover more about their mother.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: We learned that Nikki was a hairdresser. And she was
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: also attending Bowder College, which is a fashion college. So
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: she had aspirations of doing more than just hair. She
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: loved the twins, and Nikki had them involved in cheerleading
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: and dance. Their grades were always exceptional students.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: The interview then shifts focus to the last time the
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: twins saw her.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: They told me that the night before the murder, Nikki
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: had come in from, their words, partying.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And then when they woke up the next morning, they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: got ready for school. And when they knocked on their
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: mother's bedroom door, she did not answer. And so they
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: left for school as they normally did. They said that
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: they had not seen their mother at all that morning.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: We know she is dead at about four when the
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: twins get home from school.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: That leaves an eight to nine hour window for the attack.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: As the questioning continues, the crime scene is also being processed.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It was almost impossible to make your way through the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: living room without stepping on something. Everywhere you looked, everywhere
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you turned, there was evidence of a struggle. Everything has
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to be photographed. Everything has to be cataloged and accounted
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: for so you're very conscious about where you step and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: how you proceed through the crime scene.
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: It's incredibly important to collect as much evidence as possible.
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: Even something that may seem inconsequential, you don't know what
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: it means until The investigation is advanced and you have
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: more information.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: You could see she's got her back to the wall
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: and goes from one end of the wall all the
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: way down to the other. And you can tell it's
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: a battle. We can see that she made it to
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: the back door. You can see her blood grip on
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: the door handle. She tried to get out. The door
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: was locked. And then you can finally see at that
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: frame to her bedroom door where she's holding onto the wall.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: And then you can see the blood streaks as she
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: grips the wall and slides down. And that is the
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: largest concentration of blood. That's the fatal part. area, we think.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Looking at the carpet, you can see where she was drugged,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Bloodstreet going into the bedroom.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: As far as the house itself, there were not your
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: normal indicators that you would find in instances of a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: forced entry, broken locks or a kicked-in door or broken windows.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: So we knew that whoever had been in there had
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: been allowed into the house.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: The twins then say that when they arrived back at
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: the house, it was locked.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I came through the door, I put my key in,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I just turned.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: It, and I opened the door.
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: When a woman is killed, oftentimes the first person police
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: look at is her boyfriend or her partner or her husband.
• 11:16
  Speaker 7: And the reason for that is because that's the person
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: they're closest to and that's the person with the most motive.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Well, we learned that the girl's biological father pretty much
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: disappeared not long after their birth. They knew of him,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: but he had moved to Canada.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: He was eliminated from any sort of person of interest,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you know, right away.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: But the girls say there is a man in Nikki's life.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: The two girls told us about Robert Head and the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: relationship that he had with their mom. That he was
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: a truck driver that was gone for long periods of time,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: but that he owned the house and that they were
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: allowed to stay there. The age difference between them was significant.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I believe it was around 20 years. It's kind of
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a sugar daddy relationship that the girls were aware of.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: A unique relationship, to say the least.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: The twins then provide another key detail, which gives Robert
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: a potential motive. Does your mom have any other friends
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: or anybody else that come over that you know of?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: She talks to a lot of men.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: But the only one I've been hearing.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Her talk to lately is Joe.
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: When police are investigating a case of someone who was
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: sexually involved with another individual and they realize that there
• 12:45
  Speaker 7: is some sort of love triangle going on, they will
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: pursue that angle and they will investigate it and they
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: will see if possibly they'd rather have that person dead
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: than have them with somebody else.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Robert Head was immediately a person of interest, obviously, because
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of his relationship with Nicky. Given the fact that there
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: was another boyfriend in the picture, it became extremely important
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that we find him and speak to him.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: The discovery of a possible affair between Nikki Whitehead and
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: another man has made her boyfriend, Robert, the first suspect
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: in her murder.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: The twins said that Robert had overheard Nikki speaking to
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: a man on the phone the night before the murder.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: We had to eliminate the jealousy angle.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: To do so, they must first find him.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: We were able to contact his employer.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: He was driving his truck in another state.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: They confront him with the twins' allegations.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Robert told us the night before the murder, they had
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: argued because their agreement was she wasn't going to talk
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: to other men in front of him. He told us
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: that he loved her to no end, that she was
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: his princess. But he understood the age difference and that
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: he knew when he went out of town, that if
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: she had boyfriends, he just accepted that. But when he
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: came home, it was him.
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: People have open relationships, but in every open relationship, there
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: comes a breaking point where the person or one of
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: the persons involved has definitely had enough.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Robert downplays the argument, but the truth lies with the timeline.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: They have GPS on the truck that he drives. And
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: so we were able to see when he left town.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: He was out west and would not have been possible
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: for him to commit the crime.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Satisfied, police move on to the other man in the
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: love triangle.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: She's got a live-in boyfriend, and she's got a second boyfriend.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: That's definitely a relationship we was going to investigate.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Once again, Nikki's daughters provide a critical clue.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: They brought up that their mother had been arguing with
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend, Joe, on the phone the night before the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: actual incident.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: This was about 3 a.m., She kept yelling at Joe, no,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: don't come to my house.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: This is the second fight for Nikki in her last
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: 24 hours. What do you know about Joe?
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: Like, they argued a lot.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: Was it a argument that went bad? It is a
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: viable motive for murder, and it has to be investigated.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Then, a witness from that day heightened suspicions even further.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Canvases of a neighborhood are always good in crime scenes
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: like this and incidents like this. The neighbors revealed that
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: there was a black car parked out front, either on
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the curb or in the driveway.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: The car was spotted at 1.30 p.m.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: We wanted to identify and find out who it belonged to.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Pretty quickly, we looked up Joe Carter, and he had
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: a black vehicle registered to him.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Police tracked Joe down at his workplace.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Joe is a barber, and his barber shop happens to
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: be right beside the salon that Nikki did hair at.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: When we went in to speak to him, everybody inside
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the barbershop initially was very reluctant and dismissive of us.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: We said, this has to do with Nikki Whitehead. It's
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: very important. And I guess by the tone of our voice,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: he understood that this wasn't just some idle questions that
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: we had. When we told Joe what had happened, Joe's
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: reaction was shock and, you know, he was trying to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: light a cigarette and his hands were shaking. Seeing anybody's
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: reaction to news like that is always important.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: As an investigator, you're looking for the responses Are they genuine?
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Are they fake? What we do is we look at
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: it and say, that's interesting. What did they have to hide?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Joe Carter's admission to arguing with Nikki Whitehead the night
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: before she is killed prompts police to bring him downtown.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: We told him, we're here to see if you're a
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: suspect or to eliminate you as a suspect.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Joe described their relationship as somewhat rocky. It's investigation 101.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: You begin to probe about what the argument was, what
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the disagreement is, why, what was causing the tension. They
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: had been arguing about her use of alcohol and the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: status of their relationship.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Joe also claims that on the day Nicky was killed,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: he spent the entire time working at the barbershop over
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: 16 miles away.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: We asked him to go take a polygraph exam.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: A polygraph examination, in essence, is to provide you with
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: information only and not necessarily evidence to perhaps corroborate a
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: feeling or information you have. If you believe the witness
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: is not telling you the total truth, a polygraph may
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: help you to prove they're being deceitful about something.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: But he passed. He was not showing any deceit. We
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: also interviewed his coworkers, who all confirmed his alibis.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: His concern appeared to be genuine and for Nicky.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: The one question left unanswered is the black car.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: The post office had actually logged that car because if
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: it sits in front of a mailbox too many days,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: then they'll write a little complaint note and put it
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: on the car. And so we were able to determine
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: that that car was actually visiting someone just slightly up
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: the street a little bit and was there innocently. When
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: you work criminal investigations, you're going to follow some leads
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: that look hot and they're going to be dead ends.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: But the neighborhood canvas turns up another lead.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Well, we were interviewing everybody that would come in. What
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: have you seen at this house? We learned that someone
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: had seen a red car parked in Nikki's driveway during
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: that day. The red car is spotted at 3 p.m.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Right within the timeframe, police believe Nikki's unknown attacker gained
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: access to the house.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: The red car was important. We wanted to identify and
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: find out who it belonged to.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: We found that Nikki had a friend that drove a
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: red car. And so obviously we go in and talk
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: to that friend and said, hey, you know, did you
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: happen to go by Nikki's house today? And she was
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: very forthcoming. Yes, I did. I had an appointment for
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Nicky to fix my hair today.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Nicky did makeup and other cosmetic work for people. They
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: would set up appointments and come to her house. The woman,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: she had gone to the house, she had knocked on
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the door. She knocked repeatedly, thinking that maybe she was
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: napping or that there was some other reason why she
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: was not home. Nobody coming to the door, nobody answering,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: she left.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: They traced the woman's cell phone records, which confirmed she
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: was only at the house for a few short minutes.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: We know from looking at our scene, this was probably
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: a 20-minute battle that she fought for her life. So
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: we were able to eliminate her being involved with the incident.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: She's probably grateful she didn't go in at that time.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: It's their last solid lead in the hunt for Nikki's killer.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: Nikki had a business card that had her actual picture
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: of her eyes on the business card. I kept that
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: card at my desk because I didn't want to forget
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: that I needed to be Nikki's advocate. It was special.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: I saw a woman that grew up rough, but she
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: saw a better life. and not only saw a better
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: life and was doing better for herself, but she wanted
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: better for her children. I'm like, man, I wonder what's
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: going to happen to these girls. I hope some family
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: member is able to take care of them.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: The woman the twins call Grandma is actually their 75-year-old great-grandmother,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Della Fraser. Police learned that until very recently, Della was
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: the twins' legal guardian.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: We learned that Nikki grew up on the streets, so
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: to speak. She was raised by Della, her grandmother. She
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: was pregnant with the twins at age 17.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Nikki was still present in their lives, but the main
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: role of raising the girls belonged to Della.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: When Nikki met Robert, she became somewhat stable. Nikki wanted
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: to provide a stable environment for him and thought she
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: could with Robert's help.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: And Nikki felt because of Della's age, she wasn't able
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to provide the sort of stern rules and guidance that
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the girls needed at the time. The Rockdale County Juvenile
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Court had decided that it was important for the girls
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to establish a relationship with their mother And in order
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: to do so, they needed to move in with their mom.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: The two girls had just been brought back into their
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: mom's life just a couple weeks prior to the murder.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: The records indicate a fractured family history.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: The relationship with Della Frazier, being the twins' great-grandmother, was
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: very much at odds with Nikki.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: She loved the twins, and she thought it best that
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: she raise them. The relationship had become strained.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: This elevates Della from doting grandmother to person of interest.
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: Family murders are more common than people think. Sometimes it's planned,
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: sometimes it's done in a fit of rage. Despite how
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: appalling it is to many of us, family murders tragically
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: aren't all that rare.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: When you are investigating something of this nature, you cannot
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: eliminate anyone without having run them through, you know, every
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: possible scenario and vetted where they've been and what they've
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: been doing and the nature of their relationship with the victim.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Police also learn there are other things at stake.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: The situation with the two miners living with Della, she
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: was able to get some state assistance. So losing them
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: back to Nikki when she lost them had been a
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: little financial cost and so might have been motivation.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: A motive for family or domestic murder could be money,
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: could be the loss of money. It's a very strong motivator.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: A custody battle has made Della Fraser the latest person
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: of interest in the murder of her granddaughter, Nikki Whitehead.
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: One of the key traits of, I find, the more
• 27:23
  Speaker 7: seasoned homicide detectives is separating emotion from fact. To do that,
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: you have to look at the basics. You have to
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: look at their motive, their means, their opportunity. And, you know,
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: in certain cases, it may not always be that apparent.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Della is requested to come to the station for questioning,
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: but shows up. Six hours later.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: When we initially interviewed her, I would talk to her.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I would say, you know, what do you think? Do
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: you think that Robert or Joe could have done this?
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Or do you think somebody else or somebody you can
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: think of?
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: When questioning family members, it is very difficult. You have
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: to protect your case. And you have to realize you're
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: dealing with the victims, potentially. and your victims being the survivors,
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: one of them could be the killer.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Detectives need to determine not only where she was at
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: the time of the murder, but whether Della had the
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: means to do it.
• 28:23
  Speaker 7: This is a rage killing, and that's shown in the
• 28:27
  Speaker 7: viciousness of the attack and the number of times the
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: mother was stabbed.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: To look at Nikki's body and the amount of rage and...
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: sadistic premeditation to go through all of this.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: This was a battle.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: The physical limitations make it seem unlikely, so they turn
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: to her alibi.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: When we looked at Della, we were able to put
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: her somewhere else at the time we thought the incident happened.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: We eliminated Della as a potential suspect.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: But the work involved in examining the family dynamic uncovers
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: a new lead.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: We found that there was previous incidents that had taken
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: place at her house.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: I got dispatched to a call at the house. As
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: I pulled up in front of the house, I see
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: Nikki running out of the garage screaming. Nikki had marks
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: on her neck, scratches on her arms. indicative of someone
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: that had been in some sort of a tussle.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Officer Myra Scruggs attempts to calm Nikki down.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: Anytime you're involved in any kind of a domestic situation
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: or disturbance or any kind of physical altercation, you're going
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: to have people that are in an elevated state of emotion.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: They're usually very upset. They're crying.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: They're yelling.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: They're trying to tell you what happened, which is what
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: the case was with Nikki.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Through tears, she reveals her assailants.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: She said the girls jumped on her. When I spoke
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: to the girls, they showed zero emotion. Their faces were stoic.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: They were angry. The girls had no marks on them whatsoever.
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: It was so alarming. to see these stoic faces. And
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: I've been doing this long enough to know that no
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: one is going to have that much calm about them.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Certainly not 14-year-old girls who have been in an altercation
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: with their mother. After they went to court on the
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: assault on their mother from my case, the girls were
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: placed back in the care of their great grandmother. Everything
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: told me that something wasn't right here and that it
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: wasn't over.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: The attack on their mother two years prior to her
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: death introduces a new pair of suspects.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: In the very beginning, we had a very established timeline
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: set by the twins themselves. They left the house at
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: a normal time, they got to school, and then they
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: came home. And they discovered their mom's body.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: The twins' hidden history of violence drives investigators to scrutinize
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: their account of that day in greater detail.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: You look for irregularities. What's different today than happens every day? Initially,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: the twins told us they missed the bus. But they
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: tell us they were able to walk to school and
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: only missed 15 minutes of class. So I put my
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: special operations team on foot. It's about 2 and 1
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: half miles from their house to the high school. And
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: I had them walk the route looking for any surveillance
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: cameras between the house and the high school. I have
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: our school resource officer pull the video at the high school.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: The school surveillance camera shows they arrived at 10.15 a.m.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: It's two, two and a half hours later than what
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: they're telling us. So that's our first irregularity. That's a lie.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: How many times have you lied to me?
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: Zero.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: The only individuals we kept finding holes in stories and lies...
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: were the twins.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: With their story now in question, police revisit the twins'
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: original account of their mother's final 24 hours.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: The first suspicion at Joe was planted by the twins.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: They had alleged that Nikki had been in an argument
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: with Joe the night before the murder. We were able
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: to send subpoenas to the phone company and get phone records.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: And the phone call that she had been on was
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: not to Joe. It was to a family friend that
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: the family considers a relative. Once we interviewed this person,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: not only had he spoke to Nikki, but he spoke
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: to both of the twins and thought all was well,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: never would have that a few hours later that Nikki
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: would have been dead.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: They now see, from the beginning of the investigation, the
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: twins were in control.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: They were so dedicated to getting out of that house
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: and going back to their own lifestyle that they would
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: have done anything. They would have told any lie to
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: make themselves the victims.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: But was this motive enough for murder?
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: They were given free reign to come and go as
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: they pleased from Della's house. With their mother, she had rules,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: she had curfews. She had limits as to what was
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: allowed and what was not.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Nikki was strict on them.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: Nikki could foresee that these are beautiful young girls. They
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: were getting into boys. They were getting into a little
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: too much partying. She saw the forest for the trees.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: She knew what was coming, as with any child that age.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: I think they're very manipulative, and they know exactly what
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: they're doing. And it had worked for them as younger girls.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: You know, as you get older, you're playing adult games now.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: You know, everything changed.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: With focus squarely on the twins, they then discover a
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: key item hidden deep within the evidence collected from the scene.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: We located a journal And the journal had specific writings
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: about how both Jasmia and Tasmia felt about their mom,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: how unhappy they were, how angry they were with her.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was a detailed plan about what was
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: going to happen as far as a timeline for the future.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: They wrote something to the effect of, If we're ever
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: going to get back to Della's, it's going to have
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: to be soon. And the other one responds, yeah, she's
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: got to go.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Police now have written evidence implicating Nikki Whitehead's twin daughters
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: in her murder.
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: These girls realized that they weren't going back, that this
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: was it. They were going to have to live with
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: their mother. So they made their decision. and the decision
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: was to kill their mother.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Right now, it's just a theory. They still have to
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: prove it.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: The autopsy was able to reveal that there was actually
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a hair lodged in between the teeth of Nikki. That
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: hair was matched to one of her daughters as having
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: come from her.
• 36:55
  Speaker 6: The interesting thing in this case was that hair was
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: found in Nikki's teeth. That is not someplace where you
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: would anticipate finding DNA of a relative, of somebody that
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: you're cohabitating with. So that's the importance of not only
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: finding DNA, but interpreting its significance.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: This connects back to something police noticed when the twins
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: were first questioned.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: We see one of them biting herself. And of course
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: we're like, hey, what are you doing? And she said,
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: I bite myself when I'm stressed out like this. Matter
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: of fact, we look at those bite marks and there's
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: a little space in the two front teeth. And we
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: know that Nikki's got a little gap in her two
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: front teeth. So we have an odontologist make a mold
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: of Nikki's teeth and compare it. And that odontologist said
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: that to a probability, Nikki bit the twin defensively as
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: the twin had her from behind trying to break the hole.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Ultimately, the bite mark is what sealed her fate. I
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: do believe that she left that bite mark for us.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: On May 21, 2010... The twins are arrested just before
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: their high school graduation. Confronted with the evidence, they eventually
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: make a stunning on-tape confession, revealing the true series of events.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: The day began as the girls waking up and getting
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: ready for school and then getting into an argument with
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: their mom about something minor. something related to boys or
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: a curfew, something of that nature. Maybe it was the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: resentment of going from a house with her grandmother with
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: no rules or restrictions to living with their mother, who
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: suddenly was enforcing these rules. Regardless, it created a hostile
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: sort of environment and relationship between the two of them.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and erupted into a physical fight.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: She didn't scream out, didn't stop. her same build and stature.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Nikki's a small frame woman. She's fighting for her life.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: The girl's choking her from behind, and Nikki just using
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: everything that she can, because she's outnumbered and out-weaponed and everything.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: She's doing everything she can, and she bit the twin
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: trying to escape.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: They began repeatedly stabbing their mother.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: I think I picked up the knife, and I stabbed her.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: In the head, in the neck, in the breasts, in
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the back.
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: And then like nothing happened, the twins go to school.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: And as they walked down the hall, one of them
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: veers off from the other one to a trash can.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: We don't know if that was the knife. By the
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: time we saw that video, sanitation had already picked up
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: the school's trash, so we'll never know.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: At one point, they tried to claim self-defense, but it
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: was so ridiculous. There was no way anybody was ever
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: going to wrap their head around a story about self-defense,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: given what the inside of the house looked like.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: And I think it was at that moment that I
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: realized that these girls are sociopaths. How do you kill
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: your mother and then go to school and continue your
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: day like it never happened and then come in the
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: door and act like you found her that way? It's
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: hard to imagine that your own children could inflict that
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: upon you. It's heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: In exchange for a guilty plea, the pair are offered
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: a deal, 30 years each for voluntary manslaughter.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: So those girls won't be out until they're in their
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: late 40s, which I think that served justice. Because you
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: had two young ladies that I think are, they're just evil.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I think most people are uncomfortable or unwilling to accept
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: that as something that could exist in 16-year-old girls. But
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: knowing that they did plead guilty and that they're behind
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: bars and justice was found ultimately for Nikki, you're able
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to move past it.
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: They're ultimately where they need to be. It breaks our
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: heart having listened to Nikki talk about these girls and
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: the potential for these girls how intelligent they were, beautiful
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: young girls. I hate it that their mother couldn't make
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: it work, that Nikki tried her best. And I don't
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: think she should have had to pay for that love
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: with her life.
• 43:12
  Speaker 6: Thank you.