Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / UNSOLVED: AMBER BERBIGLIA FOUND DEAD , CAR STILL RUNNING
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young Myrtle Beach
- 0:09Speaker 1: coed is twenty three years old, found dead under an overpass,
- 0:14Speaker 1: her car still running. What happened to Amber? I'm Nancy Grace.
- 0:20Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 0:24Speaker 2: A young South Carolina woman runs errands on her way
- 0:28Speaker 2: to work. She stops to pay her cable bill, gets gas,
- 0:33Speaker 2: but never makes it to work.
- 0:35Speaker 1: She's absolutely stunning and was just days away from graduating
- 0:41Speaker 1: from college. What happened to Amber? This is how it
- 0:44Speaker 1: all starts. Listen.
- 0:45Speaker 3: The Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina gets very busy
- 0:48Speaker 3: on the weekends, and at around four thirty pm on
- 0:50Speaker 3: a Friday, a call comes into nine one one. The
- 0:53Speaker 3: caller says there appears to be an injured person outside
- 0:56Speaker 3: of a car on Old Sanders Road under the Robert
- 0:58Speaker 3: Edge Parkway overpath in North Myrtle Beach. Officers arrived quickly
- 1:02Speaker 3: and find the woman lying next to her still running
- 1:04Speaker 3: car and no witnesses. The woman has a cell phone
- 1:07Speaker 3: inches away from her fingertips that is actively beeping with
- 1:10Speaker 3: missed calls, texts, and email messages.
- 1:12Speaker 1: With all that evidence, it seems so hard to comprehend.
- 1:17Speaker 1: We still don't have Amber answers as to what happened
- 1:21Speaker 1: to this gorgeous young co ed. Joining me an all
- 1:25Speaker 1: star panel to make sense of what we know right now,
- 1:28Speaker 1: including Amber's mother, her sister, and her very best friend.
- 1:35Speaker 1: I want to go straight out first to Amber's mother,
- 1:39Speaker 1: Michelle Robinson, when did you learn that Amber had passed away?
- 1:47Speaker 4: I and bang bag big?
- 2:00Speaker 5: I said you go. So I crossed the group and
- 2:04Speaker 5: a little bit barged away in. He said, uh, we're
- 2:10Speaker 5: investigating homicide Amber Paviilion. I said homicide, but over my head,
- 2:16Speaker 5: I said, Amber, where's she? Where's she? One of us
- 2:20Speaker 5: said she's been shot. I'm like what? And she grabbed
- 2:24Speaker 5: my arms. She's right? He said no.
- 2:32Speaker 6: I want to fall back and said no, and.
- 2:39Speaker 5: Then asked me questions. I couldn't think straight. I needed
- 2:46Speaker 5: to call my mother. My mom was on her way Pennsylvania,
- 2:54Speaker 5: I said, Mom. The officer took the boat. I couldn't die.
- 2:58Speaker 7: It was a nightmare.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Since also with miss Robinson is amber sister Amanda. Amanda,
- 3:06Speaker 1: when did you learn that your sister? She's absolutely beautiful
- 3:12Speaker 1: and so much ahead of her in life? When did
- 3:16Speaker 1: you learn that she had been killed. I was at work.
- 3:20Speaker 8: I had gotten a few phone calls throughout the night.
- 3:23Speaker 8: I was waitressing at the time, and it was a
- 3:26Speaker 8: busy Friday night and I didn't answer my phone. So
- 3:28Speaker 8: at the end of my shift, I I finally picked
- 3:32Speaker 8: up my phone and it was my uncle and told
- 3:37Speaker 8: me that she had been shot. And I didn't think
- 3:41Speaker 8: I didn't think it was possible other than you know,
- 3:45Speaker 8: like maybe she was in the hospital. So I was
- 3:47Speaker 8: just like, well, where is she, how is she doing?
- 3:49Speaker 8: And he just said, I'm sorry, honey, she's gone.
- 3:52Speaker 1: What went through your mind when you heard the phrase,
- 3:56Speaker 1: I'm sorry, honey, she's gone. It was.
- 4:03Speaker 8: Not comprehendible. I just kind of like fell to the ground.
- 4:08Speaker 8: There were still customers in the restaurant.
- 4:09Speaker 4: And nobody knew what was going on.
- 4:11Speaker 8: And my coworkers just kind of picked me up and
- 4:14Speaker 8: helped me out the back door and you know, trying
- 4:17Speaker 8: to figure out what was happening, and I just, you know,
- 4:21Speaker 8: blurted it out. My sister was shot. She's dead, And
- 4:26Speaker 8: you know, they just helped me pull myself together and
- 4:29Speaker 8: get home and get to my dad. And it's, like
- 4:34Speaker 8: my mother said, it's been a nightmare ever since.
- 4:36Speaker 1: When you first learned, Amanda that Amber had been shot,
- 4:43Speaker 1: in your mind, what did you think had happened?
- 4:46Speaker 8: I had no idea. You know, there were so many
- 4:48Speaker 8: different things that could have you know, we're going through
- 4:50Speaker 8: my mind. I just quick got home and you know,
- 4:55Speaker 8: packed my stuff and headed down to South Carolina to
- 4:59Speaker 8: try to figure out out and to make sense of
- 5:01Speaker 8: any funny bit of that.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Also joining us, in addition to Amber's mother and sister,
- 5:06Speaker 1: her best friend Karen Ritchie. Karen described for us when
- 5:12Speaker 1: you learned Amber had been killed.
- 5:14Speaker 6: Someone at the scene recognized Amber and called my manager
- 5:21Speaker 6: at overtime and told him, and they called me in
- 5:25Speaker 6: the office and.
- 5:25Speaker 5: Told me it was unbelievable.
- 5:31Speaker 9: Shot her. And that's what they said in the beginning.
- 5:34Speaker 9: And you know, he spends because some new world to
- 5:37Speaker 9: do something like that. It took me a few minutes
- 5:41Speaker 9: to get together to be able to drive home. And
- 5:46Speaker 9: it's just been unbelievable every since. It's just like one
- 5:49Speaker 9: dad and after another.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Karen Ritchie is joining us, Amanda Barbilia and Michelle Robinson.
- 5:56Speaker 1: Let me understand, Karen, when you were first told that
- 6:00Speaker 1: Amber had been killed, what did you believe happened in
- 6:04Speaker 1: your heart of hearts. When I was first told my
- 6:07Speaker 1: fiance was dead, I thought there had been some horrible
- 6:12Speaker 1: car crash, some accident, That's what I thought. Then I
- 6:17Speaker 1: found out he had been shot. And I couldn't even
- 6:21Speaker 1: imagine a scenario under which that would happen. Neither one
- 6:27Speaker 1: of us owned a gun, nobody had a gun in
- 6:29Speaker 1: their home, So how was he shot? But I was
- 6:33Speaker 1: in such shock, I didn't think it through. When you
- 6:37Speaker 1: first heard this news that Amber had been shot, what
- 6:42Speaker 1: did you think happened? And I have a reason for asking,
- 6:45Speaker 1: go ahead, well.
- 6:47Speaker 6: You know, like something random or possibly a robbery or
- 6:50Speaker 6: something to that effect. I mean, it just didn't make
- 6:54Speaker 6: any sense. She didn't hurt anybody. It didn't make any
- 6:59Speaker 6: sense that anybody would hurt her. She was the most scary,
- 7:03Speaker 6: hearing person. She had such a spirit in an aura.
- 7:08Speaker 6: I just couldn't wrap my head around that anybody would
- 7:11Speaker 6: want to hurt her for any reason.
- 7:14Speaker 1: Just days away from graduating college, her life cut down,
- 7:19Speaker 1: found underneath and overpass her car, still running, her fingertips
- 7:25Speaker 1: near her cell phone, which was buzzing, buzzing off the chart.
- 7:30Speaker 1: What more do we know? Listen.
- 7:31Speaker 10: First responders find a female victim line outside her still
- 7:35Speaker 10: running car. Injuries to her face are so severe at
- 7:38Speaker 10: first glance it appears she has been shot in the face.
- 7:41Speaker 10: The woman has died before help arrives, and no witnesses
- 7:45Speaker 10: are around to provide any context for what has taken place.
- 7:49Speaker 10: Investigators find the victim's purse inside the car with money
- 7:52Speaker 10: still in it, and rule out robbery as a motive.
- 7:55Speaker 10: They also find the victim's identification, Amber Bbilia, joining us US.
- 8:00Speaker 1: In addition to Amber Burbilia's family, Michelle Robinson, Amanda Barbilia,
- 8:07Speaker 1: her sister and best friend, Karen Ritchie. Barry Hutchinson Senior
- 8:11Speaker 1: now joining US twenty six years in law enforcement, veteran
- 8:16Speaker 1: detective now chief investigator with Barry and associates. Barry Hutchison,
- 8:22Speaker 1: thank you for being with us well. Immediately, police rule
- 8:26Speaker 1: out robbery because her purse, her pocketbook is still there,
- 8:30Speaker 1: her cell phone is still there. There's money in the purse,
- 8:35Speaker 1: so it's not robbery. We also see that she's outside
- 8:39Speaker 1: of the car, so it's not a random drive by shooting.
- 8:43Speaker 1: She's outside the car. What do you think?
- 8:47Speaker 11: I think it was somebody that was that she was
- 8:49Speaker 11: familiar with. I think it was a crime of opportunity.
- 8:53Speaker 11: My first instinct is telling me that it's probably somebody
- 8:58Speaker 11: that had romantic answers in her, but they weren't reciprocated,
- 9:02Speaker 11: and I think it was a crime of passion.
- 9:03Speaker 1: From that standpoint, what more can we deduce from the scene? Listen?
- 9:07Speaker 12: Hoory County Police Detective Jonathan Martin says, Amber Rebilia's body
- 9:11Speaker 12: is found along Old Sanders Road under the Robert Edge
- 9:13Speaker 12: Parkway overpass. There are no witnesses on scene. Although the
- 9:17Speaker 12: injuries to our face appeared to be gunshold wounds. The
- 9:19Speaker 12: coroner reveals that Amberverbilia wasn't shot as previously thought. She
- 9:24Speaker 12: was beaten to death and cause of death is blum
- 9:26Speaker 12: forced trauma. So when responders first.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Get there, they believe that Amber has been shot, but
- 9:33Speaker 1: then they realize she was beaten so badly she appeared
- 9:38Speaker 1: to have been shot in the face. Also joining us
- 9:43Speaker 1: a renowned chief medical examiner out of Terran County. That's
- 9:48Speaker 1: Fort Worth and esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of
- 9:52Speaker 1: Medicine at TCU, doctor Kendall Crown's. Doctor crowns thank you
- 9:55Speaker 1: for being with us. Explain to me in medical terms
- 9:59Speaker 1: what the that means.
- 10:01Speaker 13: So, sometimes gunshot wounds can be or blunt force injuries
- 10:05Speaker 13: can be confused with gunshow wounds because the natures of
- 10:08Speaker 13: wounds on the head can look like a gunshow wound injury.
- 10:12Speaker 13: You can get these kind of stellate tears or star
- 10:15Speaker 13: shaped tears that can look like entrance wounds from gunshots
- 10:20Speaker 13: but instead are from blunt force injuries, especially if they've
- 10:24Speaker 13: used a weapon or a rock or a hammer, It
- 10:28Speaker 13: can leave these type of stellate wounds or star shaped wounds.
- 10:32Speaker 13: The other thing is is often with blunt force trauma,
- 10:35Speaker 13: there can be so much deformation or damage to the
- 10:38Speaker 13: head that it can look like a gunshow wound, which
- 10:42Speaker 13: also causes a significant trauma to the head as well.
- 10:45Speaker 1: So you're telling me a person can be beaten so
- 10:48Speaker 1: badly that it actually resembles a gunshot wound.
- 10:51Speaker 13: Yes, they can be beaten so badly that the destruction
- 10:54Speaker 13: that happens to the head and the skull can have
- 10:57Speaker 13: the appearance of the massive trauma caused a gunshot wound.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Do we know what time of the day or night
- 11:05Speaker 1: she was attacked? Let me go out to Karen Ritchie
- 11:09Speaker 1: or Amanda Barbillia. Let me go to you, Amanda. Do
- 11:13Speaker 1: we know what time of the day or night this occurred.
- 11:16Speaker 8: It was around I think three or four in the afternoon.
- 11:20Speaker 1: It was broad daylight. My understanding, it was closer to
- 11:24Speaker 1: four pm in the afternoon. And when you say broad daylight,
- 11:28Speaker 1: that's very significant because to Barry Hutcheson Senior joining us
- 11:33Speaker 1: again twenty six years in law enforcement, this person that
- 11:38Speaker 1: attacked her was so bold and there's no way this
- 11:43Speaker 1: can be deemed self inflicted because it's not a gunshot wound.
- 11:49Speaker 1: It's blunt force trauma so severe her skull was fractured.
- 11:55Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure I understood the time
- 11:58Speaker 1: of the attack. This glsen is brazen to commit a
- 12:03Speaker 1: crime like this. It's not just a drive by shooting.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Wam bam, you're done. She has to get out of
- 12:09Speaker 1: the car and then she's beaten, beaten horribly around the
- 12:14Speaker 1: face to the point she dies, her skull fractured, and
- 12:18Speaker 1: nobody sees a thing.
- 12:20Speaker 11: Yeah, Nacy, it's just as it makes sense, and to me,
- 12:22Speaker 11: it has all the hallmarks of something to where there's
- 12:26Speaker 11: so much passion involved in the crime itself. So much
- 12:29Speaker 11: pain and injury that was inflicted that to me, it
- 12:32Speaker 11: just really stands out as somebody that knew her and
- 12:36Speaker 11: she was there for a very specific reason. Maybe that
- 12:39Speaker 11: person was following her and she pulled off the road
- 12:42Speaker 11: because she saw them. You know, we don't know. I mean,
- 12:46Speaker 11: the case it's pretty much hush hush with the Horay
- 12:49Speaker 11: County Police. They're not discussing it in any regard whatsoever.
- 12:53Speaker 11: But to me, it has a lot of key indicators
- 12:55Speaker 11: as somebody that she was familiar with. And again, I
- 12:59Speaker 11: think because of all the passion involved in the crime
- 13:02Speaker 11: that it was probably I'm really leaning towards somebody that,
- 13:06Speaker 11: for lack of better words, that she yielded, that wanted
- 13:09Speaker 11: a relationship with her, but she just did not reciprocate.
- 13:11Speaker 11: She was very happy with the person she was with,
- 13:15Speaker 11: had plans on getting married, and I think this was
- 13:17Speaker 11: kind of a confrontation by that person as the last
- 13:20Speaker 11: ditch effort to say, hey, why not me instead of
- 13:22Speaker 11: this guy? And then when she didn't go with it,
- 13:25Speaker 11: I think that passion just overcame that person and the
- 13:28Speaker 11: young lady lost her wife.
- 13:29Speaker 14: Tack, a beautiful young woman found beaten to death lying
- 13:39Speaker 14: next to her running car under a freeway overpass.
- 13:44Speaker 1: Who could do this?
- 13:47Speaker 3: Amber Bbilia is originally from New York, but calls South
- 13:50Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Hoary
- 13:53Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer.
- 13:57Speaker 3: Studying abroad in London for part of her education, She
- 14:00Speaker 3: meets Jose Tulsar and comes back home in love. After
- 14:04Speaker 3: two years of dating. Amber and Jose make plans to
- 14:07Speaker 3: marry weeks after she graduates from college, and that time
- 14:10Speaker 3: is fast approaching.
- 14:11Speaker 1: That casts some light on the theory. A quote jilted
- 14:16Speaker 1: lover or boyfriend killed her. If she had been involved
- 14:19Speaker 1: in that relationship for two years and very happy, it's
- 14:24Speaker 1: highly unlikely that there was another guy on the side.
- 14:28Speaker 1: We don't have any information about that.
- 14:30Speaker 8: No, there's no information that there was anybody on the side.
- 14:35Speaker 8: I don't think you know, she would have had anybody,
- 14:38Speaker 8: but she was. She's had a lot of friends, and
- 14:43Speaker 8: it could have been somebody that she had a friendship
- 14:47Speaker 8: with that just really wanted more than that and she
- 14:50Speaker 8: just wouldn't reciprocate.
- 14:51Speaker 1: Now, thinking all of this through, let me figure out,
- 14:54Speaker 1: can either of you three ladies her mom, her sister
- 14:58Speaker 1: or best friend, enlightened on her love interest, her relationship,
- 15:03Speaker 1: her fiance. They were a few weeks away from getting married.
- 15:08Speaker 1: She was very happy with Jose.
- 15:09Speaker 8: She was very excited to get married and start her future.
- 15:14Speaker 8: She was moving to London, and I mean she was
- 15:20Speaker 8: just so happy. They were smitten. They were a perfect
- 15:24Speaker 8: fairy tale love story too.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Michelle Robinson, this is Ambermilia's mom, Michelle. What was she
- 15:31Speaker 1: doing for a living until she moved back to London.
- 15:35Speaker 1: Where was she working?
- 15:36Speaker 15: She was working in Austria and Growth, which is very
- 15:40Speaker 15: high cross restaurant serving and she was going.
- 15:45Speaker 1: To school to see done.
- 15:47Speaker 5: Here's the picture me and her mother grandmother went and
- 15:53Speaker 5: picked up wedding dresses weeks before.
- 15:58Speaker 15: I do not believe it was someone that had passion
- 16:03Speaker 15: for I believe it was a stranger because if they
- 16:07Speaker 15: knew Amber, they would not kill her. She lit up
- 16:15Speaker 15: a room. She was happy that if someone had something
- 16:20Speaker 15: against her, they would have told her that. I don't
- 16:26Speaker 15: think it was someone she knew.
- 16:29Speaker 1: That's my let's analyze what Michelle Robinson is saying. Join
- 16:34Speaker 1: me now. Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Alexis Tereschuk Alexis,
- 16:39Speaker 1: thank you for being with us tonight. I'm trying to
- 16:40Speaker 1: analyze what I've just heard. Now. You and I, Alexis,
- 16:45Speaker 1: have handled a lot of homicide cases together, and one
- 16:49Speaker 1: thing I've always been puzzled with is that it seems
- 16:54Speaker 1: sometimes like the very best, the sweetest people end up
- 16:58Speaker 1: being homicide victim and even at random victims. So while
- 17:04Speaker 1: I understand what mom is saying, that's not always true.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Because a person is wonderful and loving and innocent and
- 17:13Speaker 1: lights up her room, that does not protect them from predators.
- 17:19Speaker 1: Anothery're saying, elzis terrestrict any light you could shed on this.
- 17:24Speaker 1: Many people, including the mom, Michelle Robinson, believe that this
- 17:29Speaker 1: was stranger and stranger for a robbery. But think it through.
- 17:34Speaker 1: And I'm going to go back to you on this,
- 17:36Speaker 1: Barry Hutchinson Senior, If you want money, you want to
- 17:40Speaker 1: rob somebody is following a woman in a car in
- 17:45Speaker 1: broad daylight, dragging her out of the car and beating
- 17:48Speaker 1: her in the face, then you don't take the pocketbook
- 17:52Speaker 1: with the money in it. That's that's just like the
- 17:56Speaker 1: job in a Ramsey case, all right, where somebody said
- 17:59Speaker 1: when they decide a kidnapper breaks in at Christmas and
- 18:06Speaker 1: leaves the ransom note for one hundred and eighteen thousand
- 18:08Speaker 1: dollars and said, oh, hey, you know what I've come
- 18:10Speaker 1: this far, but never mind, I'm just gonna kill her
- 18:12Speaker 1: in labor here. That doesn't make sense. So if you're
- 18:15Speaker 1: going to commit a robbery, why don't you mug somebody
- 18:17Speaker 1: in a dark alley, Why don't you grab somebody's pocketbook
- 18:22Speaker 1: and the mall parking lot when their bags their arms
- 18:25Speaker 1: are full of bags, or the grocery or the grocery
- 18:28Speaker 1: lot or the parking deck outside of target. Why chase
- 18:32Speaker 1: down a car, get the woman out of the car,
- 18:36Speaker 1: beat her in the face, fracture her skull. It's a
- 18:39Speaker 1: vicious beating, okay, to her face. That's full of all
- 18:44Speaker 1: sorts of psychological implications. And then you don't take the pocketbook,
- 18:49Speaker 1: you don't take the purse or the money. That doesn't
- 18:51Speaker 1: make sense, alexis what facts can you shed on this?
- 18:56Speaker 14: Well?
- 18:57Speaker 7: Also, there was not a weapon found as as far
- 19:00Speaker 7: as the police have said, at the crime scene, so
- 19:02Speaker 7: we don't know if she was hit with the person's
- 19:04Speaker 7: fist or if they had another weapon. But they did
- 19:07Speaker 7: not take the money, So you think maybe something went wrong,
- 19:09Speaker 7: Maybe she owed somebody money for some reason, they felt
- 19:12Speaker 7: they followed her. They said to get the money back,
- 19:15Speaker 7: but they left the purse. And again it is broad daylight.
- 19:19Speaker 7: While this isn't a heavily trafficked area, as you can
- 19:22Speaker 7: see from the photos, it is still a public location
- 19:25Speaker 7: where she was just found. Literally her car was running,
- 19:29Speaker 7: so she was very surprised when this happened and they left. No,
- 19:33Speaker 7: they didn't take anything. So if she was let's just
- 19:36Speaker 7: say she owed somebody some money, she was going to
- 19:38Speaker 7: meet them with the money. Something happened, she didn't give
- 19:41Speaker 7: it to them. They didn't take the money, they didn't
- 19:43Speaker 7: take anything, and they didn't take her cell phone either.
- 19:46Speaker 1: Alexis Teraeschak I specifically asked if you could shed light
- 19:50Speaker 1: on the facts not come up with the wild hypothesis.
- 19:55Speaker 1: Are you actually saying you have any facts to support
- 19:58Speaker 1: she owed anyone money? You just guessing.
- 20:00Speaker 7: I am just guessing, But I'm saying that she did
- 20:03Speaker 7: owe somebody money, they didn't take it when it was
- 20:05Speaker 7: found in her wallet.
- 20:07Speaker 1: Sh no facts support that. As a matter of fact,
- 20:13Speaker 1: facts support the exact opposite.
- 20:16Speaker 3: Listen Amber Vermilia's mother, Michelle, says the murder simply happened
- 20:20Speaker 3: to the wrong person, saying, quote, Amber was a social butterfly.
- 20:24Speaker 3: She had friends from school, she had friends from work.
- 20:26Speaker 3: She put herself through school. Her mother says she was
- 20:29Speaker 3: looking through some of Amber's bills and papers and finds
- 20:32Speaker 3: her daughter doesn't owe anything to anybody. All of her
- 20:35Speaker 3: bills were up to date and she paid off all
- 20:37Speaker 3: of her student loans. The twenty three year old hid
- 20:41Speaker 3: in the face twice with a blunt object so hard
- 20:46Speaker 3: that investigators believed she was shot.
- 20:51Speaker 1: What more do we know about the scene that can
- 20:53Speaker 1: shed light on her murder? Listen?
- 20:55Speaker 10: Investigation into the murder of Amber Rebilia is difficult. From
- 20:58Speaker 10: the first hours. There are no witnesses to describe hearing
- 21:01Speaker 10: or seeing anything. There was no robbery as her phone,
- 21:04Speaker 10: keys and wallet were left untouched. The keys are still
- 21:08Speaker 10: in the ignition in the car is running, but the
- 21:10Speaker 10: suspect doesn't use the car to get away from the scene.
- 21:12Speaker 1: It sounds to me like a crime of opportunity. Now,
- 21:17Speaker 1: Alexis Tereschuk, I just attacked you about your claim that
- 21:24Speaker 1: this young girl about to graduate college heading to London
- 21:29Speaker 1: to become a costume designer. A few weeks away from
- 21:33Speaker 1: her wedding to the man of her dreams, they're moving together.
- 21:37Speaker 1: That she owed somebody money. She even she's one of
- 21:40Speaker 1: the few in the country along with me, that paid
- 21:43Speaker 1: off all her student loans. This woman did not owe money.
- 21:47Speaker 1: What I was expecting you to describe, Alexis Terestchuk is
- 21:51Speaker 1: video surveillance. What can you tell me about video surveillance
- 21:56Speaker 1: of Amber just before her death. So, first she seen
- 22:00Speaker 1: paying her cable bill. That is on video.
- 22:02Speaker 7: The video has not been released by the police. After that,
- 22:05Speaker 7: she goes to the gas station. That video has been released.
- 22:08Speaker 7: She's wearing black pants, leperprint shirt. She has cute little
- 22:10Speaker 7: glasses on. Then so the police took the video. They
- 22:15Speaker 7: went all up and down this highway and they found
- 22:18Speaker 7: video of her car and in it she's by herself.
- 22:21Speaker 7: She's driving her car. She turns a corner, they lose
- 22:24Speaker 7: sight of her for about half an hour. Half an
- 22:27Speaker 7: hour later, her car comes background. She is driving. There
- 22:30Speaker 7: appears to be a passenger in the seat from the video.
- 22:33Speaker 1: What has been.
- 22:34Speaker 7: Described is that this passenger appeared to be a dark
- 22:38Speaker 7: person and it may have been a black man in the
- 22:40Speaker 7: car with her.
- 22:41Speaker 1: This is what was.
- 22:42Speaker 7: Seen, and then we don't see them again, and mere
- 22:47Speaker 7: minutes later, within within an hour or so, she is
- 22:51Speaker 7: murdered on the side of the road. But there is
- 22:53Speaker 7: no evidence of this person at the crime scene that
- 22:56Speaker 7: we have seen.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something like this stress chuck off
- 23:01Speaker 1: video cam? Okay, what kind of video was it? Was
- 23:04Speaker 1: it a store? Was it a red light? Do we
- 23:07Speaker 1: know what kind of video cam it was?
- 23:08Speaker 7: We do not know what kind of I think it was,
- 23:12Speaker 7: like said, they searched on the highway, so it might
- 23:14Speaker 7: might have been one of the interstate video cameras.
- 23:17Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay. It sees her turn off the roadway
- 23:23Speaker 1: onto a side street. She's alone. When she comes back
- 23:27Speaker 1: onto the roadway from that side street, there is we
- 23:30Speaker 1: believe to be a mail in the car with her
- 23:33Speaker 1: in the front seat.
- 23:34Speaker 7: Correct, correct, He appears to be a blackmail from the video.
- 23:38Speaker 1: Amanda, what have you been told about the video?
- 23:41Speaker 8: Exactly what she just said, just that they have video
- 23:44Speaker 8: of her on the street stopping to pay her cable bill,
- 23:47Speaker 8: and then she goes goes onto a side street and
- 23:49Speaker 8: comes back, but I don't know, and that there was
- 23:52Speaker 8: somebody in the car with her when she comes back
- 23:55Speaker 8: onto the highway, But I didn't. I don't know what
- 23:59Speaker 8: street or the area.
- 24:02Speaker 4: I don't.
- 24:03Speaker 8: I'm not familiar with the area.
- 24:05Speaker 1: We understand that the cameras were those installed along the roadway.
- 24:09Speaker 1: Alexis Treestchik, you're right about that, Michelle Robinson, Amber's mom.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Were you ever told what is down the street or
- 24:16Speaker 1: did you investigate what was down the street why she
- 24:19Speaker 1: went there?
- 24:20Speaker 5: Yes?
- 24:20Speaker 15: And I saw that video and to me, it was
- 24:25Speaker 15: a shadow. It was not a person. I went to
- 24:29Speaker 15: the police station and it did not appear to be
- 24:33Speaker 15: a black person or anybody. It's just a shadow, maybe
- 24:40Speaker 15: not even not even visible to being on They're saying
- 24:47Speaker 15: that it was a black person. Maybe to me it
- 24:51Speaker 15: looked like just a shadow, no clear indication of a person.
- 24:56Speaker 1: Is law enforcement telling you they believe it's a person, yes, okay,
- 25:01Speaker 1: so they believe it's a person. You believe it's a shadow? Correct?
- 25:05Speaker 5: Yes?
- 25:06Speaker 1: And how quickly after seeing what they believe is a
- 25:09Speaker 1: person in the car with her? Is she killed with
- 25:12Speaker 1: any damp hower? What do we know about defensive wounds? Listen?
- 25:19Speaker 3: The mother of Amber Burbilia, Michelle Robinson says her daughter
- 25:22Speaker 3: was hit with something in the head twice, causing two
- 25:24Speaker 3: skull fractures. She also says Amber did not go down
- 25:28Speaker 3: without a fight. According to Robinson, the funeral home suggests
- 25:31Speaker 3: putting on a long sleeve dress for visitation to cover
- 25:34Speaker 3: up the bruises and cuts on her arms. According to
- 25:36Speaker 3: her mother, Amber Burbilia put up a good fight too.
- 25:39Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns joining us out off Fort Worth, Texas.
- 25:43Speaker 1: Doctor Crowns, I want to understand something we earlier heard
- 25:47Speaker 1: that we've learned she had a skull fracture two. In fact,
- 25:53Speaker 1: could a skull fracture result from a blow from a
- 25:59Speaker 1: fist or would it have to be a blunt object?
- 26:02Speaker 13: So your skull can fracture from a punch, depending on
- 26:06Speaker 13: how much force is put behind the punch where you're
- 26:09Speaker 13: hitting your face, the skull, the bones of the skull
- 26:13Speaker 13: in these areas are easily fractured. But from a punch
- 26:18Speaker 13: you can break the nose, you can break the orbital rims.
- 26:21Speaker 13: But the type of injuries that are being described to
- 26:24Speaker 13: me sounds more like a heavy blunt object like a
- 26:28Speaker 13: pipe or a hammer, because you're not going to see
- 26:31Speaker 13: the extensive injuries that look like a gunshot wound unless
- 26:35Speaker 13: it's something that you can put a lot of force
- 26:37Speaker 13: behind causing major fractures of the skull.
- 26:39Speaker 1: This is where I'm going, Doctor Kennel Crown's, and I
- 26:41Speaker 1: want to follow up with you about how how many
- 26:45Speaker 1: veins have venous the face is that would produce a
- 26:50Speaker 1: lot of bleeding to resemble a gunshot wound. But we're
- 26:55Speaker 1: talking about potential fractures. We're talking about whether a weapon
- 27:00Speaker 1: was used. She was off camera, Doctor Kendall Crowns for
- 27:06Speaker 1: about thirty minutes. The highway cam, what we've learned was
- 27:11Speaker 1: a highway cam sees her going down the highway. The roadway,
- 27:15Speaker 1: she turns off into the side street, Doctor Kendall Crowns.
- 27:18Speaker 1: She's not seen for thirty minutes. When she comes back
- 27:23Speaker 1: on camera, Doctor Crowns, according to law enforcement, there is
- 27:27Speaker 1: a male sitting in her front seat. Within an hour,
- 27:32Speaker 1: she's dead. I'm trying to figure out was a weapon
- 27:37Speaker 1: used and if so, what weapon. It seems to me
- 27:43Speaker 1: that's the guy we need to be looking for now,
- 27:47Speaker 1: Doctor Kindall. Crown's. Two fractures to the skull. If the
- 27:53Speaker 1: fractures can a skull fracture be to the front of
- 27:55Speaker 1: the face. Who doesn't have to be saved from the
- 27:57Speaker 1: eyebrows back? What would the nose, the mouth, the cheeks,
- 28:02Speaker 1: Would that be the skull? Is that considered the skull.
- 28:05Speaker 13: So yeah, again the skull can be any portion of
- 28:09Speaker 13: this could be a skull fracture, So facial skull here, nose, cheek,
- 28:15Speaker 13: side ahead where your ear would be can also be
- 28:18Speaker 13: considered a skull fracture. So any of that can be
- 28:21Speaker 13: considered a skull fracture.
- 28:22Speaker 1: In a description, okay, doctor Kennel crowns, it looked like
- 28:28Speaker 1: a gunshot wound. Was that bad? Would there be more
- 28:33Speaker 1: bleeding if the attack was to the veinous area in
- 28:37Speaker 1: the mouth and the nose, in the eyes they bleed
- 28:40Speaker 1: so profusely.
- 28:42Speaker 13: So your head actually has a lot of vascularity to it,
- 28:46Speaker 13: your nose, your face, even your scalp has a tremendous
- 28:50Speaker 13: amount of vasculature. So anytime there's injuries to the facial
- 28:55Speaker 13: or head area, there is always going to be a
- 28:57Speaker 13: lot of bleeding. It doesn't care, it doesn't matter what
- 29:00Speaker 13: exactly the area is. It just if it's part of
- 29:03Speaker 13: the head, it'll bleed quite profusely.
- 29:05Speaker 12: Hory County Police Detective Jonathan Martin says Amber Babilia's body
- 29:09Speaker 12: is found along Old Sanders Road under the Robert Edge
- 29:12Speaker 12: Parkway overpass. There are no witnesses onseen. Although the injuries
- 29:16Speaker 12: to her face appeared to be gunshot wounds, the coroner
- 29:18Speaker 12: reveals that Amber Verbilia wasn't shot as previously thought. She
- 29:22Speaker 12: was beaten to death and cause of death is blom
- 29:24Speaker 12: Force trauma.
- 29:25Speaker 10: First responders find a female victim laying outside her still
- 29:29Speaker 10: running car. Injuries to her face are so severe at
- 29:31Speaker 10: first glance it appears she has been shot in the face.
- 29:34Speaker 10: The woman has died before help arrives, and no witnesses
- 29:37Speaker 10: are around to provide any context for what has taken place.
- 29:40Speaker 10: Investigators find the victims perse inside the car with money
- 29:43Speaker 10: still in it, and rule out robbery as a motive.
- 29:45Speaker 10: They also find the victim's identification, Amber Barbilia.
- 29:56Speaker 2: Hey mom, I just wanted to call and tell you
- 29:59Speaker 2: I love you. Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar
- 30:03Speaker 2: is sweet, and so are you.
- 30:06Speaker 1: I love you. Good night.
- 30:08Speaker 2: A mother cherishes the last voicemail from her daughter.
- 30:14Speaker 1: Alexis Teresschuk if l E Law enforcement is correct, that
- 30:18Speaker 1: could very well be her killer caught on video. So
- 30:23Speaker 1: I'm trying to learn more about that, Alexis what's the
- 30:26Speaker 1: car fully processed for DNA and fingerprints.
- 30:30Speaker 7: The police have said that they've investigated all of it.
- 30:33Speaker 7: They have never released a suspects name. They have never
- 30:36Speaker 7: released any information saying they're looking for a suspect they
- 30:41Speaker 7: and even if so, they could run this through if
- 30:43Speaker 7: there was DNA anywhere found, they could run it through
- 30:46Speaker 7: one of the genealogy sites and maybe get a match
- 30:49Speaker 7: on somebody else, but they have never released any information
- 30:53Speaker 7: about that.
- 30:53Speaker 1: Back to doctor Kendall Crowns, I'm still on the Skillfrichur,
- 30:57Speaker 1: And the reason I'm asking doctor Crowns is I'm trying
- 30:59Speaker 1: to determine if you or someone like you, another medical
- 31:03Speaker 1: examiner would be able to tell if she was beaten
- 31:07Speaker 1: with Let's just say, was she pistol whipped? Was she
- 31:11Speaker 1: attacked with a pipe? If we could figure out from
- 31:16Speaker 1: her injuries, what was the murder weapon, what was the
- 31:19Speaker 1: type of murder weapon? A hammer? For peace sake, like
- 31:23Speaker 1: doctor Teresa sever you can look at the wounds sometimes
- 31:27Speaker 1: and you can determine what type of weapon was used
- 31:30Speaker 1: isn't that true?
- 31:31Speaker 13: That's correct. So with blood force injuries, there can be
- 31:34Speaker 13: patterns that are left by the weapon. Pipes can leave
- 31:38Speaker 13: like what we call tram track bruisings where you see
- 31:41Speaker 13: bruising on either side of the wound. Hammers actually leave
- 31:45Speaker 13: kind of circular or kind of almost Mercedes Bin type
- 31:49Speaker 13: symbol of alesions as well. That can be mistaken for
- 31:53Speaker 13: gunshot wounds. It just depends what the object is, but
- 31:57Speaker 13: it will. It can leave pattern injury, but a fist
- 32:01Speaker 13: doesn't usually, but other objects can. So you can't get
- 32:04Speaker 13: kind of an impression of it based on what the
- 32:07Speaker 13: wounds look like.
- 32:08Speaker 1: If this was not to the nose or the face
- 32:10Speaker 1: facial area and it left skull fractures, this was not
- 32:15Speaker 1: done with a fist, that tells me the person that
- 32:18Speaker 1: got in her car, the man in her car had
- 32:21Speaker 1: some sort of a weapon. Was it a pipe, Was
- 32:24Speaker 1: it a hammer? Was it a gun used to pistol
- 32:26Speaker 1: whip her? I don't know, but I do believe. Barry
- 32:29Speaker 1: Hutchinson Senior joining me, Private Eye, chief investigator for Burying
- 32:34Speaker 1: Associates Investigative Services in Kansas and Missouri. Barry, we say
- 32:40Speaker 1: that you know statistics teach us you look first at
- 32:45Speaker 1: those closest to her, and that would be the fiance.
- 32:48Speaker 1: It's not the fiance. I've already investigated it myself. He's
- 32:52Speaker 1: ruled out. He has a rock solid alibi. He was
- 32:55Speaker 1: in Europe at the time, No question, it's not him.
- 33:00Speaker 1: But I'm very interested in your theory about a romantic
- 33:04Speaker 1: interest she worked as her mom just told us at
- 33:07Speaker 1: a very high end restaurant. Who was watching her, who
- 33:13Speaker 1: was sitting at the bar, watching her every move? Who
- 33:16Speaker 1: could have been obsessed with her? Because, Barry, I'm very
- 33:20Speaker 1: torn right now. Did she give some random guy a
- 33:24Speaker 1: ride and he attacked her? Because nobody can identify who
- 33:28Speaker 1: this person is, or is it someone that had been
- 33:31Speaker 1: watching her and she agreed to give him a ride.
- 33:35Speaker 1: The fact that we know it's not a robbery, we
- 33:39Speaker 1: know it's not a sex assault, we know that it's
- 33:43Speaker 1: in broad daylight. So who would have been so bold
- 33:47Speaker 1: to attack this beautiful young co ed just a couple
- 33:50Speaker 1: of weeks away from her wedding. I really want to
- 33:53Speaker 1: hear your thoughts, Barry.
- 33:55Speaker 11: The police had the ability they know a timeline of
- 34:00Speaker 11: her disappearing for thirty minutes or so. You know, there
- 34:03Speaker 11: are elements that they can use to investigate too, like
- 34:06Speaker 11: her vehicle. I don't know if her vehicle was equipped
- 34:08Speaker 11: with on Star. I don't know if she had her
- 34:12Speaker 11: cell phone with her. I'm assuming she did. I think
- 34:14Speaker 11: in the earlier conversation you said that she had her
- 34:16Speaker 11: cell phone with her.
- 34:17Speaker 1: Yes, she did.
- 34:18Speaker 11: That phone can also be pinged and they could find
- 34:22Speaker 11: out where she was in that immediate area that she
- 34:26Speaker 11: went missing for those thirty minutes. And then at that point,
- 34:29Speaker 11: what I would do, it's just good old fashioned police work.
- 34:32Speaker 11: I would canvass that area door to door, find out
- 34:35Speaker 11: anybody and everybody in that area that has a criminal record,
- 34:39Speaker 11: anybody that could match, you know, theoretically the type of
- 34:43Speaker 11: crime that was committed, if they have a history of that.
- 34:46Speaker 11: Look for people that just got out of the penitentiary,
- 34:48Speaker 11: Look for people to have that kind of a vicious
- 34:51Speaker 11: background or violent background, and see if I could come
- 34:53Speaker 11: up with a list of viable subjects that could be
- 34:56Speaker 11: possible suspects. It just does not make sense to me
- 35:00Speaker 11: that a young lady like this would get out of
- 35:02Speaker 11: her vehicle and have a confrontation with somebody in a
- 35:06Speaker 11: remote area where she's not safe and not know that person.
- 35:12Speaker 11: It just does not add up to me at all.
- 35:14Speaker 11: I think that again, I'm going to stick with my
- 35:17Speaker 11: idea that it's somebody that she's familiar with, and I
- 35:22Speaker 11: think that it's somebody that probably had an interest in
- 35:24Speaker 11: her that she just did not reciprocate because she was
- 35:27Speaker 11: very happy with whom she was with.
- 35:29Speaker 3: Amber Rebilia is originally from New York but calls South
- 35:32Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Horay
- 35:35Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer.
- 35:40Speaker 3: Studying abroad in London for part of her education, she
- 35:42Speaker 3: meets Jose Tulsar and comes back home in love. After
- 35:46Speaker 3: two years of dating. Amber and Jose make plans to
- 35:49Speaker 3: marry weeks after she graduates from college, and that time
- 35:52Speaker 3: is fast approaching.
- 35:54Speaker 2: Years later and still no suspects. Her family deserves closure.
- 36:01Speaker 2: What happened to Amber Berbilia?
- 36:04Speaker 1: When you don't know where to go, you start over
- 36:08Speaker 1: and you look at who is your victim? Listen?
- 36:11Speaker 3: Amber Burbilia is originally from New York, but calls South
- 36:14Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Hora
- 36:17Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer
- 36:22Speaker 3: studying abroad in London for part of her education. She
- 36:25Speaker 3: meets Jose Tulsar and comes back home in love. After
- 36:29Speaker 3: two years of dating, Amber and Jose make plans to
- 36:31Speaker 3: marry weeks after she graduates from college, and that time
- 36:35Speaker 3: is fast approaching.
- 36:36Speaker 1: What more do we know? Listen?
- 36:38Speaker 10: At age twenty three, Amber Burbilia doesn't live at home,
- 36:41Speaker 10: but talks to her mother daily. When one of her
- 36:43Speaker 10: calls to her mother isn't answered, Amber leaves a message
- 36:46Speaker 10: for her mother. Roses are red, violets are blue, Sugar
- 36:49Speaker 10: is sweet, and so are you. I love you good night.
- 36:52Speaker 1: Oh my stars, Roses are red violence or blue, sugar
- 36:57Speaker 1: is sweet and so are you. I love you, good night,
- 37:02Speaker 1: a message she leaves her mom and joining me right
- 37:06Speaker 1: now is Amber's mother, Michelle Robinson. Miss Robinson. I almost
- 37:13Speaker 1: hated to say those words back, because I know it's
- 37:16Speaker 1: like a knife to your heart to hear that rhyme,
- 37:20Speaker 1: that message she left to you, that little poem. But
- 37:23Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the facts. We keep
- 37:26Speaker 1: saying she went to go pay a cable bill, but
- 37:29Speaker 1: there is something very probative about her paying the cable bill.
- 37:34Speaker 1: Have you been informed about the video from inside the
- 37:37Speaker 1: Time Warner Cable office where she paid her bill, that
- 37:42Speaker 1: while she's in there, there is a man standing behind
- 37:46Speaker 1: her staring at her, and it's been described as in
- 37:51Speaker 1: an aggressive manner. But it's my understanding, Miss Robinson that
- 37:56Speaker 1: the guy, for all I know he's angry about having
- 37:59Speaker 1: to wait in line, has been investigated thoroughly and he
- 38:03Speaker 1: has been cleared. Correct. That's what I was still to
- 38:08Speaker 1: Karen Ritchie joining us, Amber's best friend, and to her sister,
- 38:14Speaker 1: Amanda Rebelia. Amanda, was there anything else happening in her
- 38:20Speaker 1: life that she seemed disturbed about or worried about that
- 38:24Speaker 1: you know?
- 38:24Speaker 11: Of No, not at all.
- 38:28Speaker 8: I just a couple of weeks before she was killed,
- 38:32Speaker 8: she came to visit me for Easter. I had to
- 38:37Speaker 8: I had some things I had to take care of,
- 38:38Speaker 8: so she had come to take care of my daughters
- 38:42Speaker 8: while I was away. And then when I came home,
- 38:45Speaker 8: you know, we spent Easter Sunday together before she went
- 38:49Speaker 8: back home.
- 38:49Speaker 15: And you know, she didn't mention at all anything.
- 38:53Speaker 1: Nothing at all. Would she have told you she was
- 38:55Speaker 1: worried about someone or something. Yeah, we were pretty close.
- 39:01Speaker 8: She used to call me all the time, but she
- 39:06Speaker 8: would have made me aware if there was something bothering her.
- 39:10Speaker 1: Alexis Tereschuk crimeonline dot com. Where does the case stand
- 39:13Speaker 1: right now?
- 39:14Speaker 7: The case is still open. There have been no suspects
- 39:17Speaker 7: released to the public. There has been nobody arrested for it.
- 39:21Speaker 1: Nothing.
- 39:22Speaker 7: The police have not given any leads as to what
- 39:25Speaker 7: anybody should look for. They have not said anything. They've
- 39:28Speaker 7: never identified publicly a murder weapon at all. So this
- 39:33Speaker 7: is a case that is still very open and still
- 39:37Speaker 7: all of the evidence has not been released, and they're
- 39:40Speaker 7: still looking for the murderers or murderer.
- 39:43Speaker 1: To ease their broken hearts, Amber's family erected a memorial photos, mementos,
- 39:52Speaker 1: flowers underneath the freeway overpass where she lost her life.
- 40:00Speaker 1: They've also set up a website with information about her murder.
- 40:05Speaker 1: Justice for Amber dot org. Repeat Justice for Amber dot org.
- 40:11Speaker 1: If you know or even think you know anything about
- 40:16Speaker 1: the murder of this beautiful young co ed, please call
- 40:22Speaker 1: toll free eight eight eight crime s c eight eight
- 40:28Speaker 1: eight two seven four sixty three seven two eight eight
- 40:34Speaker 1: eight two seven four sixty three seven two. There is
- 40:39Speaker 1: a six thousand dollars reward for information leading to the
- 40:45Speaker 1: discovery of the facts behind the murder of Amber Rebelia.
- 40:52Speaker 1: We wait as justice on false. Goodbye man
- 41:00Speaker 6: Ey