Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Hero mom, 34, shot dead pretending to be her daughter

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Hero mom, 34, shot dead pretending to be her daughter · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:07
Speaker 1: Today we travel to Louisiana. A beautiful young mom, just
0:12
Speaker 1: thirty four years old dies as we delve into the
0:17
Speaker 1: mystery surrounding her death. Did she die because she was
0:22
Speaker 1: pretending to be her daughter? I feel for these families
0:34
Speaker 1: and it's tough. Tom Hompton is a neighbor who knew
0:38
Speaker 1: both women. The whole story is bizarre and still unnecessary
0:43
Speaker 1: and still tragicy. Hopton says his neighbors are more like
0:46
Speaker 1: family and even spent the holidays with him. He says
0:49
Speaker 1: both women were hard working with an overwhelming love for
0:51
Speaker 1: their kids, making what happened seem unreal. We're all having
0:56
Speaker 1: tough Tom, so I'm harder than others. Obviously you're hearing
0:58
Speaker 1: our friend Mike McDaniel w LTV Channel four. How did
1:02
Speaker 1: this unfold? Did a mother actually die while impersonating her daughter? Again?
1:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
1:12
Speaker 1: in series XM one eleven, let me introduce to you
1:15
Speaker 1: an all star panel with me Crime online dot com
1:18
Speaker 1: investigative reporter Alexis terres Chuck, the medical examiner for the
1:23
Speaker 1: State of Florida. You can find him at pathcaremed dot com.
1:27
Speaker 1: Doctor Tim Gallagher, former cop now probably an investigator with
1:32
Speaker 1: Crispin Special Investigations dot Com. Robert Crispin special guest joining us.
1:38
Speaker 1: Clinical forensics psychologists out of Louisiana, Doctor Brandon p. Romano
1:43
Speaker 1: at Romano psych dot com. Melissa Hottmeyer, chief of the
1:48
Speaker 1: Special Victims and Family Violence Unit, and Prince George County
1:52
Speaker 1: States Attorney's Office, co founder of Right Response Consulting, No
1:58
Speaker 1: Grey Zone Podcast Joining me. Melissa hot Meyer and special
2:03
Speaker 1: guests joining us. The mother of the victim in this
2:07
Speaker 1: case joining us is Sarah Meyer. Miss Meyer, I know
2:12
Speaker 1: that there are many, many things that you cannot comment
2:15
Speaker 1: on because the investigation the case is ongoing, ma'am, But
2:21
Speaker 1: let me take you back to that moment when you
2:24
Speaker 1: learned that your daughter had been a crime victim. What
2:31
Speaker 1: happened that day, Well, I got a call from a
2:33
Speaker 1: granddaughter just crying to his dada shooting. I talked to
2:39
Speaker 1: an officer and he would not tell me anything. He
2:43
Speaker 1: told me not to get on the road, but as
2:46
Speaker 1: a mama, I drove over there. And when I got there,
2:51
Speaker 1: they had just left with the two victims the corner
2:55
Speaker 1: and they were both pronoun to dead. Miss Meyer referring
3:00
Speaker 1: to Brittany Cormier and Hope nettledon Miss Meyer. When you
3:11
Speaker 1: heard that your daughter had been shot? What went through
3:17
Speaker 1: your mind? Why? How did this happen? She was eleven
3:24
Speaker 1: person When you were on your way to get to Brittany,
3:30
Speaker 1: what was going through your mind? Just why? Why would
3:34
Speaker 1: somebody take her in her own home just shoot her
3:39
Speaker 1: into her hand? When you got that phone call, did
3:43
Speaker 1: you say it was your granddaughter that called? Yes? Did
3:46
Speaker 1: she tell you that Brittany had passed on or just
3:50
Speaker 1: that she had been shot? Now? What did she had
3:52
Speaker 1: been shot? She didn't know yet that our mother had
3:56
Speaker 1: passed away. Guys joining me is the mother of the
4:00
Speaker 1: victim in this case, Brittany Cremier a beautiful woman on
4:06
Speaker 1: the inside and out and mother. So as you were
4:10
Speaker 1: driving over Miss Meyer, you did not know that Brittany,
4:14
Speaker 1: your daughter, had passed away. No, when you arrived, what
4:20
Speaker 1: did you see? I saw her house taped off and
4:24
Speaker 1: I got down. I wanted to see her, but they
4:28
Speaker 1: said she had passed away and the corner had just
4:31
Speaker 1: picked them up. Did you go into the home. No,
4:36
Speaker 1: they would not let me. Did you see your granddaughter? Yes?
4:40
Speaker 1: I drove to the sheriff department where she was, because
4:43
Speaker 1: they had her for questioning what happened when you saw
4:46
Speaker 1: your granddaughter a teen girl. I asked her if she
4:50
Speaker 1: knew where her mamma was deceased, and she said yes.
4:54
Speaker 1: How at that moment, Miss Meyer, how was she taking it?
5:01
Speaker 1: She was quiet up. I believe we were just in
5:05
Speaker 1: the now that it really had happen, you know, Miss Meyer.
5:09
Speaker 1: For the longest time, years actually, but especially at the beginning,
5:15
Speaker 1: I would wake up in the morning and just for
5:18
Speaker 1: a few seconds, it didn't last very long. I would
5:21
Speaker 1: think everything was all right, and then it would hit
5:25
Speaker 1: me that Keith not only was dead, he had been murdered.
5:29
Speaker 1: Do you still ever do that? Do you ever wake
5:32
Speaker 1: up and think, for just a few moments everything's fine? Yeah?
5:37
Speaker 1: And I still wait to her to call me every date,
5:41
Speaker 1: Miss Meyer. Ken. I mean, we can talk about the
5:46
Speaker 1: angle of the bullets, or the time of the day,
5:49
Speaker 1: or the forensic evidants left behind. But one thing you
5:54
Speaker 1: know that we can never know is who is Britain?
6:00
Speaker 1: Come ye? And I say is because I think her
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Speaker 1: soul is alive. But in this life, did you tell
6:10
Speaker 1: me about your girl Brittany? First off, she was my baby.
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Speaker 1: She was a kind hearted, loving mother on a mean
6:21
Speaker 1: bone in her body. She loved everyone she met. She
6:26
Speaker 1: was a hard worker. She loved the cook she loved
6:29
Speaker 1: the singing dance. She had dreams of watching her kids
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Speaker 1: graduate high school and going to college. She loved animals,
6:40
Speaker 1: and her life was taken too soon trying to protect
6:43
Speaker 1: her child. You know, I was just thinking about what
6:47
Speaker 1: you just said about her looking forward to her children
6:50
Speaker 1: graduate from high school. I was in the car with
6:54
Speaker 1: my twins. They just turned thirteen, Miss Meyer, and they
6:59
Speaker 1: have a badge project that they're working on, and this
7:03
Speaker 1: particular for scouts. You know, girls can be Eagle Scouts now,
7:06
Speaker 1: Miss Meyer, and we were in the car and I
7:10
Speaker 1: was telling them that everything was ready for them to
7:13
Speaker 1: go door to door to collect cans for the hungry.
7:17
Speaker 1: That's what they picked to do. And they're going, Mom,
7:21
Speaker 1: we've just been working on it so hard. And I said, well, son, Lucy,
7:26
Speaker 1: my daughter. One of these days, you know, when you're
7:30
Speaker 1: applying for a job or you're trying to get into
7:32
Speaker 1: some fancy skills somewhere, you're going to have on your
7:36
Speaker 1: resume Eagle Scout and you'll see then how important this
7:44
Speaker 1: is and I'm looking forward to helping them get through
7:50
Speaker 1: what's ahead of them to make their life better. And
7:54
Speaker 1: when you said she was looking forward to them getting
7:58
Speaker 1: out of high school and graduating, that just breaks my heart.
8:03
Speaker 1: What were her dreams for her children? What did she
8:07
Speaker 1: want for them? Well, the daughter was supposed to be
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Speaker 1: graduating and going to nursing school. My mom always so
8:15
Speaker 1: proud of her, and her boys were so smart. They
8:21
Speaker 1: wasn't about to graduate yet, but it wouldn't have been long.
8:26
Speaker 1: She just wanted them to make something of themselves. Miss Meyer,
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Speaker 1: When you put your head to the pillow at night,
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Speaker 1: what do you remember and think of about your baby Brittany?
8:41
Speaker 1: All the times we shared Mother's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving East
8:47
Speaker 1: I will never get none of that back letter all
8:51
Speaker 1: I have his memories now, Miss Meyer. Thank you for
8:55
Speaker 1: being with us today. I can't thank you. Tell you
9:00
Speaker 1: what an inspiration you are, not just me, but to
9:05
Speaker 1: crime victims, mothers, fathers that are facing adversity with their children,
9:13
Speaker 1: to everyone that hears your voice. You are so strong
9:18
Speaker 1: and our real inspiration. And it's people like you that
9:25
Speaker 1: keep all us crime fighters still going. So thank you.
9:31
Speaker 1: Thank you. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are
9:45
Speaker 1: talking about the brutal murders of a gorgeous young mom
9:51
Speaker 1: just thirty four, Brittany Cormier and her best friend who
9:57
Speaker 1: was with her that day, Hope Nettleton. Take a listen
10:00
Speaker 1: to this. It's it's bizarre, it's you can't even write
10:04
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. It's beyond a pale. Two innocent
10:08
Speaker 1: women dead in a murder. For higher case, one of
10:11
Speaker 1: those women died a hero protecting a family number. I'd
10:14
Speaker 1: already say this killing was meant to silence an alleged
10:17
Speaker 1: rape victim. Instead, two innocent women are dead. You were
10:21
Speaker 1: just hearing our friends at Channel four. I want to
10:25
Speaker 1: reintroduce to you our guests that are joining us. You
10:28
Speaker 1: were earlier hearing Brittany Comyer's mother, Sarah Meyer. Now with me,
10:33
Speaker 1: Melissa Hotmeyer, doctor Brandon Romano, Robert Crispin, doctor Tim Gallagher,
10:38
Speaker 1: and Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Alexis terres Chuck. Alexis,
10:43
Speaker 1: I want to first just talk about the rudimentary aspects
10:47
Speaker 1: of this double murder. Who, what, where? When I'll get
10:51
Speaker 1: to the why take it away? Brittany and her best friend,
10:56
Speaker 1: Hope were in her home in Louisiana and they were
11:02
Speaker 1: brutally murdered. They were shot. There was This was out
11:07
Speaker 1: of the blue. This wasn't nobody had followed them home
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Speaker 1: from anywhere or anything like that. The police were called,
11:15
Speaker 1: they came, There were no suspects, There was no one there.
11:18
Speaker 1: They had left hiding in a closet in the house
11:22
Speaker 1: was Britney's teenage daughter. Another another friend of hers, and
11:28
Speaker 1: the police have said that they had they had no suspects.
11:34
Speaker 1: Who's hiding in the closet. Britney's teenage daughter, Okay, the
11:39
Speaker 1: teenage daughter about sixteen at the time, hiding in the closet.
11:44
Speaker 1: Brittany dead, shot in the head. Brittany's best friend, Hope Nettleton,
11:50
Speaker 1: also shot dead. The facts beginning to unfold and as
11:56
Speaker 1: of that moment, not a single suspect. Take a listen
12:00
Speaker 1: to our friend Kendria le Fleur KATCTV. Britney Cormier was
12:07
Speaker 1: laid to rest January twentieth. Her brother Bo listed as
12:11
Speaker 1: a pallbearer. We don't get these type of things happen,
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Speaker 1: double homicides, and in terrible parish, especially Montague's a small town.
12:18
Speaker 1: People are very close over there, and you know, there
12:22
Speaker 1: were good people that end up dying as a result.
12:25
Speaker 1: So with closure, the family and more importantly the family
12:28
Speaker 1: and the community down there. I mean, this really hit
12:31
Speaker 1: that community hard. So we worked real hard so we
12:33
Speaker 1: can bring peace to the families and the communities down
12:35
Speaker 1: in Moncue. Now you are not only hearing Kendria LeFleur
12:39
Speaker 1: at KATC, you're also hearing the sheriff. They're in Terribone Parish.
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Speaker 1: That's Sheriff Tim Sonnier speaking back to you, Alexis Terrescha
12:47
Speaker 1: Crime online dot com investigative reporter. First, I want to
12:51
Speaker 1: go from you, Alexis, to doctor Brandon Pete Romano, who's
12:54
Speaker 1: joining us from Louisiana right now. You can find him
12:57
Speaker 1: at romano psych syc dot com. Doctor Romano, I've dealt
13:05
Speaker 1: with many many homicides over my years prosecuting and reporting,
13:10
Speaker 1: but I can count on I would say, twenty or
13:16
Speaker 1: so of them out of the literally thousands of cases
13:21
Speaker 1: have involved mass murder in many jurisdictions. Mass murder is
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Speaker 1: referred to as any murders where there's more than one body.
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Speaker 1: So the fact that there are two dead victims here
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Speaker 1: gives me a real window into the psyche of the killer.
13:42
Speaker 1: What do you make of it? How often do you
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Speaker 1: see a double murder, not a murder suicide, but a
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Speaker 1: double murder. It's actually a very rare incident, at least
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Speaker 1: particularly here in Louisiana, and I would imagine nationwide more
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Speaker 1: often times than not. These incidents are driven by motivating factors,
14:00
Speaker 1: and there could be money, revenge, loyal to the person
14:03
Speaker 1: that's asking you to commit the crime. One common theme
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Speaker 1: we see with these individuals that they are typically callous, unemotional,
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Speaker 1: in egocentric, and they may have criminal records, They may
14:13
Speaker 1: have already committed violent crimes, They may be engaged in
14:17
Speaker 1: drug or alcohol use, they may have prior firearm offenses.
14:21
Speaker 1: And we see also some proclivity for antisocial or sociopathic
14:28
Speaker 1: tendencies in these individuals. You said three characteristics callous, unemotional,
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Speaker 1: and what was the other one? Egocentric? What do you
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Speaker 1: mean by that? Egocentric? Not all of us shrinks, doctor Romano. Yes,
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Speaker 1: so basically these individuals are all about themselves. What's in
14:44
Speaker 1: it for me? That typically defines the egocentric person, and
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Speaker 1: that could be the person that has quote ordered the
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Speaker 1: hit or the individuals that are carrying out the request.
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Speaker 1: Ego centric. Your own ego is the center of your universe. Callous, unemotional,
15:04
Speaker 1: and ego centric, callous, unemotional, and egocentric. You know right there,
15:11
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin, longtime caught, now a private investigator with his
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Speaker 1: own firm, Crispin Special Investigations dot Com. Robert, you know,
15:20
Speaker 1: under the law, and as you have investigated many many homicides,
15:25
Speaker 1: there are a lot of cases whereas let's just say
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Speaker 1: somebody gets mad out of bar, pulls a gun and
15:29
Speaker 1: shoots bam, it's over. That's still a murder because premeditation,
15:34
Speaker 1: of course, can be formed in a twinkling, the blink
15:38
Speaker 1: of an eye. But callous, unemotional, egocentric. Interesting because even
15:46
Speaker 1: someone that's caring can get angry and fire pistol. But callous,
15:51
Speaker 1: unemotional and egocentric to gun down two unarmed women in
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Speaker 1: their own home. We don't have a sex attack, don't
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Speaker 1: have anything stolen, Crispin. You've seen a lot of homicide.
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Speaker 1: How many have you seen where there's more than one
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Speaker 1: dead victim one? You know what? I know A lot
16:12
Speaker 1: of people don't believe that, but it's true, just like
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Speaker 1: Romano was saying, to kill more than one person on
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Speaker 1: a scene is very rare, and you got to sit
16:21
Speaker 1: up and take notice. Let me go to our other
16:23
Speaker 1: special guests joining us, Melissa Hotmeyer, chief of the Special
16:27
Speaker 1: Victims of Family Violence Unit Prince George County States Aternity's Office,
16:31
Speaker 1: and co founder of Right Response Consulting. Melissa, it's a
16:36
Speaker 1: real pleasure to have you with us. When you would
16:39
Speaker 1: if you would walk into a crime scene and you
16:43
Speaker 1: know that there are two victims, the first thing I
16:45
Speaker 1: would look for is was there a sex attack? Was
16:48
Speaker 1: the place ransacked? Was anything stolen? I would look for
16:54
Speaker 1: forced entry to help me all of those things to
16:57
Speaker 1: help me find out who did this thing. What's the
17:00
Speaker 1: first thing they should look for when they come into
17:02
Speaker 1: this scene they're in Louisiana. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
17:06
Speaker 1: I think the first thing when you see two dead
17:08
Speaker 1: women is whether or not there was a sexual assault.
17:10
Speaker 1: That's probably what I would be looking for, or what
17:12
Speaker 1: I would be asking the detectives that were on scene,
17:15
Speaker 1: and then after that whether anything was missing or out
17:17
Speaker 1: of place, and you know, kind of take it from there,
17:21
Speaker 1: because you try to work out from the crime scene
17:24
Speaker 1: to try to develop the suspects, and of course, Melissa,
17:28
Speaker 1: you start gathering evidence, don't let anybody walk around. I'll
17:32
Speaker 1: never forget trying to analyze what happened in the O. J.
17:34
Speaker 1: Simpson crime scene where Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman were killed.
17:40
Speaker 1: You know, people walking through the blood. Oh, what a nightmare.
17:45
Speaker 1: So the forensics of this scene are very important. And
17:50
Speaker 1: Melissa Hotmeyer, you've just trying a lot of cases. How
17:54
Speaker 1: often have you ever had another victim lived to tell
18:00
Speaker 1: the tale? Hiding in a closet and does not happen often?
18:04
Speaker 1: Are those are things that we don't you know, usually
18:07
Speaker 1: they don't leave them behind. So that is key evidence. Definitely.
18:11
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that. I thought it was just me.
18:13
Speaker 1: I've never I've had people run from the scene to live,
18:16
Speaker 1: but I've never had anybody hiding in a closet while
18:21
Speaker 1: the murders went down, the murder of her own mother.
18:36
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace, I guys with me, Melissa Hotmyer,
18:40
Speaker 1: chief of the Special Victims of Family Violence Unit there
18:43
Speaker 1: in Prince George County's State Attorney's office. So what happened?
18:48
Speaker 1: What happened in this little parish Tirabone Parish, Louisiana. I mean,
18:54
Speaker 1: let me ask you, doctor Brandon p Romano, how big
18:58
Speaker 1: is Tiribone Parish? Of don't know the population. I do
19:01
Speaker 1: know people that live there, but it is considered a
19:04
Speaker 1: rural area, which is very rural, very rural. Indeed, how
19:10
Speaker 1: far is it from New Orleans? Approximately an hour and
19:13
Speaker 1: an hour and a half. Right, and you know what,
19:16
Speaker 1: the two shall never meet. My point is, and I
19:20
Speaker 1: learned that growing up in Georgia, I was from rural
19:25
Speaker 1: mid county, not even a city. And we thought the
19:28
Speaker 1: people that lived in Atlanta, we're all crazy. Same thing
19:32
Speaker 1: when I moved to New York. Outside of New York,
19:34
Speaker 1: it can be very rural, and when you go upstate,
19:38
Speaker 1: very remote. So it's a whole another way of life.
19:43
Speaker 1: When people say Louisiana, they think of New Orleans. That
19:48
Speaker 1: is not necessarily true. So how do you attack this case?
19:52
Speaker 1: You got two dead bodies with a teen girl hiding
19:54
Speaker 1: in the closet. Take a listen to our cut number four.
19:58
Speaker 1: This is real one Balad Fox eight, the sheriff says,
20:02
Speaker 1: with help from a witness, investigators were able to attract
20:05
Speaker 1: the vehicle the men used through cameras, cameras like locals
20:09
Speaker 1: that have surveillance cameras on road and tract the direction
20:12
Speaker 1: that vehicle was gone. For people who live on the
20:14
Speaker 1: streets where the murders took place, they say, it's hard
20:18
Speaker 1: to fathom, kind of like a cloud bit over just
20:21
Speaker 1: count for such it happened. But I said, well, most
20:25
Speaker 1: hot my ar guests, they read your mind because they
20:28
Speaker 1: immediately start canvassing the neighborhood. They think, think that they
20:32
Speaker 1: know about the vehicle the men m e n more
20:37
Speaker 1: than one man used in the getaway, and they start
20:41
Speaker 1: trying to glean video surveillance. And right there, guys, when
20:48
Speaker 1: you hear the neighbors they saw men, not just a man.
20:54
Speaker 1: That means something that is very, very significant in an
20:58
Speaker 1: area that I now know has a population of a
21:01
Speaker 1: little over one hundred thousand. To doctor Tim Gallagher, a
21:05
Speaker 1: medical examiner for the entire state of Florida, and you
21:09
Speaker 1: can find them at pathcaremed dot com. Not Gallagher to
21:14
Speaker 1: see two women come in to the morgue, we just
21:20
Speaker 1: learned it. There was a mighty struggle. If there was
21:25
Speaker 1: a struggle put up by these two women, what would
21:28
Speaker 1: you expect to see on their bodies. Well. Things that
21:32
Speaker 1: we would see on their bodies would include defensive wounds.
21:35
Speaker 1: These are wounds to their forearms where they would hold
21:39
Speaker 1: their hands up and try to defend themselves against the assault.
21:42
Speaker 1: Other things that we would look for is material underneath
21:47
Speaker 1: their fingernails that can include them scratching the person who
21:52
Speaker 1: was assaulting them, therefore getting their skin and DNA under
21:57
Speaker 1: the victims nails. Other things that we would look for
22:00
Speaker 1: we need to check fort trajectory, trajectory of the bullets
22:05
Speaker 1: and if we can't even recover some of these spent projectiles,
22:10
Speaker 1: we can use that to match it up to a
22:13
Speaker 1: gun that may have been implicated in the assault. So
22:18
Speaker 1: there are many many things that we looked for in
22:21
Speaker 1: these types of cases, and these types of cases the
22:23
Speaker 1: autops you can take up to two days per person
22:26
Speaker 1: to do to collect all of the evidence necessary for
22:30
Speaker 1: the trial. To Melissa Hotmeyer or Chief Special Victims of
22:34
Speaker 1: Family Violence Union, Prince George County States Attorney's Office, Melissa,
22:38
Speaker 1: another thing I would want to look at since I
22:40
Speaker 1: know these women were unarmed, there may not have been
22:44
Speaker 1: even though there was a struggle, there may not have
22:47
Speaker 1: been much of a struggle because we know they were shot,
22:52
Speaker 1: I would want to know were they shot point blank?
22:56
Speaker 1: So I'll be trying to find out if there was
22:58
Speaker 1: stipling or burning around the bullet wound, which would indicate
23:02
Speaker 1: a contact a wound where the gun actually was hot
23:06
Speaker 1: on the skin. I would try to look for GSR
23:10
Speaker 1: a gunshot residue. If I find gunshot residue, I can
23:15
Speaker 1: extrapolate that the perp was thirty six inches or less
23:19
Speaker 1: away from the victim. If not, then would the purpose
23:23
Speaker 1: shot at a distance? Did he miss? Are there other
23:28
Speaker 1: bullets to be found? And of course, like Gallagher just said,
23:32
Speaker 1: can you get a bullet from the room or from
23:37
Speaker 1: one of the victims so you can do a ballistics match?
23:40
Speaker 1: What would you be looking for, Melissa, Yeah, I mean
23:43
Speaker 1: all of those things. I think the other thing the
23:45
Speaker 1: doctor talks about is the trajectory. You know, whether or
23:48
Speaker 1: not the perpetrators made the victims get on their knees,
23:50
Speaker 1: whether this was an execution, or whether they were asleep
23:54
Speaker 1: and sitting up. All of those things are really important
23:57
Speaker 1: when you're piecing together a case and trying to try
23:59
Speaker 1: it and paint a picture for the jury. And obviously
24:02
Speaker 1: you know if you get a conviction, then they would
24:04
Speaker 1: be important for a judge to know in determining sentencing,
24:07
Speaker 1: or if you have a death penalty case for a
24:08
Speaker 1: jury to determine, you know, sentence. You know what, Melissa,
24:13
Speaker 1: You're so right, because the jury wants to hear a story,
24:18
Speaker 1: a true story. They don't want to hear well, we
24:20
Speaker 1: don't know exactly how this happened. They want to hear
24:24
Speaker 1: everything you can piece together from the forensics. So you're
24:28
Speaker 1: absolutely correct, as is Gallagher. Take to listen again to
24:32
Speaker 1: our friend real one ball again at Fox eight on
24:36
Speaker 1: January thirteen, Sonja says the suspect went to this home
24:40
Speaker 1: on the hundred block of Montague Street in Montague shooter
24:43
Speaker 1: asking for the rape victim by name, and Brittany Carmier
24:47
Speaker 1: tells a shooter she's the rape victim. Let's dissect what
24:52
Speaker 1: we just heard at Fox eight. Did a hero mom
24:57
Speaker 1: thirty four year old Brittany end up shot dead while
25:05
Speaker 1: pretending to be her own daughter. We now know also
25:13
Speaker 1: a rape victim from two hitmen that had come to
25:18
Speaker 1: the house looking for the teen girl. Straight out to
25:26
Speaker 1: Alexis teresta crime Onlime dot Com, investigate every reporter. This
25:31
Speaker 1: had to come from the teen girl hiding in the closet.
25:35
Speaker 1: What do we know? That's exactly what we do know
25:37
Speaker 1: that she was hiding it when the men broke into
25:40
Speaker 1: the house. We don't know the exact minute by minute,
25:43
Speaker 1: but there was the mom knew that these men were
25:47
Speaker 1: perhaps outside the house, sent her daughter to hide in
25:50
Speaker 1: the closet, and then these men came in and said
25:53
Speaker 1: to the mom, where's Brittany, where's Brittany along those lines,
25:56
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, not worth Brittany, where's the young girl? And
25:59
Speaker 1: Brittany said to me, and she's so young. She is
26:02
Speaker 1: only thirty four years old. She could look like a teenager.
26:05
Speaker 1: And they shot her, believing that she was her daughter
26:11
Speaker 1: and they're her friend that was in the house. Hope.
26:13
Speaker 1: She tried to fight back against seed men and they
26:16
Speaker 1: shot her too. She couldn't escape. She was killed too.
26:19
Speaker 1: Luckily they did not find a teenager who was hiding
26:22
Speaker 1: in the closets. They believe this woman. They thought, oh,
26:24
Speaker 1: our job is done. We have killed the right person,
26:27
Speaker 1: and we had to kill a second one. But we
26:29
Speaker 1: did our job and we're out of here, and they
26:31
Speaker 1: drove away. You know what's interesting to Robert Crispin PI,
26:35
Speaker 1: former cop now his own PI from Crispin Special Investigations
26:40
Speaker 1: dot Com. Very often in movies and in books, you
26:46
Speaker 1: see the perp kill the witnesses. It's actually real. It
26:51
Speaker 1: does happen, Robert, Sure does happens in a lot of
26:55
Speaker 1: different cases. Happens in drug cases as well. This particular
26:59
Speaker 1: case happen could be the exact same thing. But the
27:02
Speaker 1: problem is they left their star witness, the victim, the
27:07
Speaker 1: original victim that they were trying to go get a mister.
27:12
Speaker 1: You did thanks to mommy. You know Melissa Hotmeyer joining me,
27:18
Speaker 1: chief of the Special Victims and Family Violence Unit Prince
27:21
Speaker 1: George's County States Attorney's Office and co founder of Right
27:25
Speaker 1: Response Consulting. Melissa, that's why people don't want to come
27:31
Speaker 1: forward and testify. You know how many times I had
27:35
Speaker 1: to go around when nobody would answer to the front door.
27:38
Speaker 1: I'd have to sneak around to the back of an
27:40
Speaker 1: apartment or a house to try to lure them to
27:43
Speaker 1: the back door so no one would see a witness
27:45
Speaker 1: cooperating with the state. People don't want to get involved,
27:49
Speaker 1: and this is why they don't want to get involved.
27:52
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, Nancy. This is exactly why people don't
27:55
Speaker 1: want to help and victims don't want to come forward
27:57
Speaker 1: with good reason. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, who had
28:12
Speaker 1: gotten down two women than King, one of them had
28:17
Speaker 1: been a rape victim. Take a listen to our friends
28:20
Speaker 1: at KATC. This is Kendria l Fleur. Investigators say this
28:25
Speaker 1: murder for higher applied goes back to March of twenty twenty.
28:28
Speaker 1: That's when Bokarmier was arrested here in a Kadiana over
28:31
Speaker 1: accusations that he raped a family member. To the Terribone
28:35
Speaker 1: Parish Sheriff's off is, Cormier hired Andrew Eskin and Dalvin
28:39
Speaker 1: Wilson to kill the rape victim to prevent her from testifying.
28:43
Speaker 1: Bo Andrew and Dalvin travel to Montague to conduct surveillance
28:47
Speaker 1: on a residents, sometimes after July, but before November. A
28:51
Speaker 1: November twenty twenty, Andrew and Dalvin returned to Montague to
28:55
Speaker 1: commit the homicide using a family member's vehicle, but there
28:59
Speaker 1: was a failed to deputc Wilson returned January thirteenth, went
29:03
Speaker 1: inside Brittan Cormier's home and ask for the rape victim
29:07
Speaker 1: by name, but Britney stepped in saying she was the victim,
29:12
Speaker 1: and Brittany Cormier tells a shooter she's the rape victim,
29:15
Speaker 1: accepting her fate to save the life of an actual victim.
29:18
Speaker 1: Hold Netilson actually struggled with the shooter and was shot,
29:23
Speaker 1: fighting him off to dodger. Brandon P. Romano a clinical
29:27
Speaker 1: forensic psychologist expert joining us out of Louisiana. This is
29:31
Speaker 1: in his backyard. You can find him at romano psych
29:35
Speaker 1: dot com. You know, doctor Romano. It's a phrase that's
29:40
Speaker 1: bandied about very frivolously, that there is nothing more powerful
29:46
Speaker 1: on this earth anyway than a mother's love. And I
29:51
Speaker 1: would have to agree that so many mothers would risk
29:56
Speaker 1: their own lives to save their child, and that is
30:02
Speaker 1: what happened here. Why a doctor Romana. My first thought
30:08
Speaker 1: about this is that Brittany must have had some idea,
30:14
Speaker 1: She had a suspicion or prior knowledge. When two grown
30:18
Speaker 1: men show up at your house and ask for your children,
30:21
Speaker 1: the first thing that most parents would do, including myself,
30:23
Speaker 1: would be to ask who are you. You would step
30:26
Speaker 1: in the way, and you said it, there's no love
30:29
Speaker 1: like the mother of the love of a mother. I mean,
30:31
Speaker 1: it's a bond. When it's solid, it can't be broken.
30:35
Speaker 1: There's a cognitive, there's emotional, there's an instinctual process in
30:38
Speaker 1: protecting our children. Many parents will say, you will hear
30:43
Speaker 1: them comment that they would do anything for their children,
30:45
Speaker 1: including taking a bullet, and that's clearly what Britney did
30:50
Speaker 1: for her child. Many parents would live an unbearable grief
30:56
Speaker 1: if they had a chance to save their child's life
30:58
Speaker 1: and they did nothing. You know, Alexis Terret Chuck, you're
31:03
Speaker 1: a new mom, and you never know when that moment
31:10
Speaker 1: is going to happen where you leap in and try
31:14
Speaker 1: to save the child's life. And I'm just trying to
31:17
Speaker 1: imagine Brittany there with her girl and her friend and
31:22
Speaker 1: these two thugs come to the door looking for the
31:26
Speaker 1: teen rape victim, and she had where with Paul to
31:31
Speaker 1: tell her daughter to hide. Showed her to go hide,
31:35
Speaker 1: and what she did which saved her life too, because
31:37
Speaker 1: if she had maybe been in the living room, maybe
31:40
Speaker 1: the guy would have figured out the way, this isn't her,
31:43
Speaker 1: this is a mom. But instead she told her to
31:45
Speaker 1: hide and they believed her, which is just amazing. She
31:48
Speaker 1: was so convincing and so honest and appealing to these
31:51
Speaker 1: guys that they believed her and shot her dead. Yeah,
31:55
Speaker 1: and been said something, well, you don't look like you're
31:57
Speaker 1: a teenager. Let me well they know the age of
32:00
Speaker 1: the victim. I don't know that they did. True, guys.
32:04
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. Who is this person is
32:09
Speaker 1: Beau Cormier? Who is this? Take a listen to our
32:12
Speaker 1: friend tie our hunt at crime online bou Cormier's long
32:18
Speaker 1: history of abusive crime began when he was a teenager.
32:21
Speaker 1: At seventeen years he was charged with the forcible rape
32:24
Speaker 1: of a twelve year old family member. He entered into
32:26
Speaker 1: a plea agreement to a lesser charge of felony colonel
32:28
Speaker 1: knowledge of a juvenile. Cormier was sentenced to seven and
32:31
Speaker 1: a half years of hard labor, but that sentence was
32:33
Speaker 1: suspended for five years of supervised probation and registry as
32:37
Speaker 1: a sex offender. During the same time frame, Cormier also
32:40
Speaker 1: faced two counts of cyberstalking for threatening, terrifying, and or
32:44
Speaker 1: harassing a man. He agreed to plead no contest to
32:47
Speaker 1: one of the charges and was sentenced to sixty days
32:49
Speaker 1: in jail, but that too, was suspended for one year
32:52
Speaker 1: of unsupervised probation in it. Melissa Hotmeyer, I wanted to
32:56
Speaker 1: take a listen to our next information and about this
33:01
Speaker 1: perp I will never forget as a crime victim handling
33:06
Speaker 1: cases in the DA's office, and I thought, every case, well,
33:09
Speaker 1: this guy get out and kill somebody like what happened
33:14
Speaker 1: to Keith, my fiancee. And I felt this huge burden
33:18
Speaker 1: to think of reducing a case to straight probation when
33:24
Speaker 1: you have raped a toyelve year old girl. Yeah, I
33:28
Speaker 1: mean it should be. It's mine. It should be every
33:31
Speaker 1: prosecutor's worst nightmare and stuff that keeps me up at night.
33:35
Speaker 1: And I you know, I'd rather take a keys to
33:37
Speaker 1: trial then you know, possibly let someone out and you
33:42
Speaker 1: know they harm someone else, they kill someone else, because
33:45
Speaker 1: you know, we know that sex offenders they typically recidivate
33:50
Speaker 1: at a much higher rate than other offenders. They really do.
33:54
Speaker 1: And I'm saying that anecdotally. I don't have a stat
33:57
Speaker 1: that I've written down, but I know what I know
34:00
Speaker 1: from all the years I prosecuted in covered cases. Melissa,
34:02
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, guys, take a listen again, Who is
34:06
Speaker 1: this evil due or is the only word I can
34:09
Speaker 1: think of. Take a listen to Tyler hunt Crime online.
34:13
Speaker 1: Thirty five year old bo Cormier's list of crimes include
34:16
Speaker 1: forcible rape, third degree rape, intimidation of a witness, cyberstalking,
34:20
Speaker 1: armed robbery, and animal cruelty. Plea bargains allowed him to
34:24
Speaker 1: serve time in prison concurrently for burglary and armed robbery charges.
34:27
Speaker 1: Last year, Cormier was arrested and charged in the third
34:30
Speaker 1: degree rape of his then sixteen year old niece and
34:33
Speaker 1: intimidation of the victim's mother. Bond was set at fifty
34:36
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for the first charge and five thousand for
34:39
Speaker 1: the second. Cormia bailed out of jail the same day.
34:42
Speaker 1: So let me understand, alexis Tourez Chuck. Earlier joining us
34:46
Speaker 1: was miss Meyer. So she is the mother of the
34:49
Speaker 1: victim in this case, Brittany Cormier and the defendant Britney's brother.
35:00
Speaker 1: Let me understand if I've got this right, Beou Cormier
35:04
Speaker 1: was charged with raping his teen girl niece. Do I
35:09
Speaker 1: have that right? You do? That's exactly right. So Bou
35:12
Speaker 1: and Brittany brothers and sisters. Their mom was on today
35:16
Speaker 1: and he is the one who was arrested and charged
35:20
Speaker 1: with raping his niece and threatening her mom, threatening Brittany.
35:24
Speaker 1: That was last summer, So then he was the one.
35:29
Speaker 1: And as you heard the listeners heard in the beginning,
35:33
Speaker 1: he was actually a pallbearer at his sister Brittany's funeral,
35:37
Speaker 1: he carried her coffin. But instead he's now been arrested
35:41
Speaker 1: for this murder, these two murders, as well for masterminding
35:45
Speaker 1: these two murders. Guys, take a listen to our cut
35:48
Speaker 1: twelve Seula kim at wdsu Oh Cormier, Andrew Eskin, and
35:53
Speaker 1: Dalvin Wilson are now each facing one count of criminal
35:57
Speaker 1: conspiracy to commit murder and one count of a did
36:00
Speaker 1: first degree murder. Cormier allegedly hired two of his friends
36:04
Speaker 1: to silence a rape victim to keep her from testifying.
36:07
Speaker 1: The rape victim was not killed, and instead someone else
36:10
Speaker 1: at the home, Brittany Cormier and her neighbor, Hope Nettleton,
36:13
Speaker 1: died as a result of their injuries. Investigators say the
36:17
Speaker 1: new charges stem from two prior incidents when the suspects
36:20
Speaker 1: conducted surveillance on the home and attempted to commit the crime.
36:25
Speaker 1: So this guy Cormier Bo Cormier, Brittany's brother charged with
36:34
Speaker 1: raping her daughter his niece he remains unnamed, comes back
36:40
Speaker 1: to sens hitman to kill the niece to keep her
36:43
Speaker 1: from testifying, and the idiots he sends end up killing
36:49
Speaker 1: Brittany and her best friend while the team girl hides
36:53
Speaker 1: in the closet. May they all burn in hell with
36:56
Speaker 1: a little pit stop at old spark Key the electric chair.
37:03
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think you could have written a
37:09
Speaker 1: more tragic story than this. And what about it, doctor
37:13
Speaker 1: Brandon p Romano. This guy boat Cormier started probably before
37:20
Speaker 1: he was even seventeen, raping people, and now there's rape,
37:25
Speaker 1: double murder, animal cruelty. I don't know where that fits in.
37:29
Speaker 1: But the list goes on and on and on. That's
37:33
Speaker 1: a real argument against rehabilitation. I for one, believe there
37:38
Speaker 1: can be rehabilitation in certain cases, but not sex cases.
37:42
Speaker 1: I don't think sex offenders can ever change what's with him? Romano.
37:47
Speaker 1: So you know, in Louisiana, sex offender designation can go
37:53
Speaker 1: out for many types of cases, and we often say
37:56
Speaker 1: that not all sex offenders are the same. I think,
37:59
Speaker 1: when you get to this level. We have a entirely
38:02
Speaker 1: new level of offender. We have someone although I've never
38:05
Speaker 1: met this individual, never evaluated this individual, what we are
38:08
Speaker 1: seeing is a pervasive pattern of disregard, lack of respect
38:14
Speaker 1: and dignity for others that began in adolescence. Based on
38:18
Speaker 1: the information I'm hearing. Um, you know, that's one why
38:22
Speaker 1: you're putting perfume on a pig, Romano, because when I
38:25
Speaker 1: think of don't respect, that's when my daughter. It's usually
38:28
Speaker 1: her or not my son. I'm sad to report that
38:30
Speaker 1: says yes and no instead of yes ma'am and no, ma'am.
38:33
Speaker 1: That to me is not disrespect. Gunning down to innocent,
38:38
Speaker 1: defenseless women while a teen girl, right victim, cowers in
38:42
Speaker 1: a closet. I think that goes beyond disrespect. Dot Romano.
38:47
Speaker 1: We agree to disagree, but to you, you guys do
38:50
Speaker 1: have the death penalty in Louisiana, right, yes, alexis rst Chuck.
38:54
Speaker 1: What happens next? They have they were just arrested a
38:58
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. They and this district attorney has said
39:01
Speaker 1: they're still looking at everything. They have all these details
39:04
Speaker 1: though about those past history and pointantly, this is eighteen
39:09
Speaker 1: years that we know of crime and he is only
39:12
Speaker 1: thirty five years old. So they have to get everything
39:16
Speaker 1: in the road. The debt, I mean the d The
39:17
Speaker 1: devil was the devil on the day he was born.
39:20
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfalls. Nancy Grace crime store signing
39:25
Speaker 1: off goodbye friend,