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The-Most-Calculated-Family-Murder-in-True-Crime-History · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The FBI is the most sophisticated law enforcement agency in
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the world, pursuing the most dangerous criminals. When a beautiful
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: young woman is murdered in front of her children.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: There really was not much at the crime scene that
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: gave us the aha moment of we think we know
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: who did this.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: The Bureau mobilizes.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Law enforcement officials did not rule out anybody in Sheila's murder.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: All he wanted to do was to destroy Sheila, both
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: emotionally and physically.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: FBI. Criminal Pursuit. It's November 7, 1997. And 13-year-old Stevie
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Bellish is on her way home from school. She can't
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: wait to share some big news with her mother.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: She was excited. She was going to go in and
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: tell her mother about a boy that was supposed to
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: ask her out. She was going to wait all weekend,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: waiting for him to call, that kind of thing.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: But as she steps through the front door, Stevie senses
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: something is wrong. Stevie's four young siblings, 23-month-old quadruplets, are
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: standing in the hallway alone, crying.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: There was blood in their hair, and a couple of
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: them had it on their body.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: The toddlers aren't hurt, but Stevie is alarmed. Their mother,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: 35-year-old Sheila Belish, would never have left the baby's home alone.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Where's mommy? Where's mommy?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Stevie races through the house, shouting for her mother.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Mama!
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: She runs around the corner into the kitchen and finds
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: her sprawled on the floor in a large pool of
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: drying blood.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: There was so much blood and everything mixed in with
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Sheila's hair. It did register to Stevie that her mother
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: was laying in the floor right next to her feet.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: In shock, Stevie calls 911. 911, what's the.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Matter?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: My mom is dead.
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: Okay, what makes you think that?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm playing things in the car on
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: my neck.
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: What?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: The 911 operator immediately dispatches paramedics and the sheriff's department
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to the Bellish home. Then, she tries to get more
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: information from Stevie.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Okay, calm down.
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: Do you see anything else around there? There's blood going.
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: Through the laundry room.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Paramedics and investigators arrive. and quickly confirm Sheila has been
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: dead for hours. Stevie and the children are led out
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of the house to an ambulance, while authorities try to
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: locate Sheila's husband, Jamie Bellish, a pharmaceutical salesman. Lisa Lanham
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: is one of the first officers to go inside the house.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: A crime scene investigator for just three years, she's shocked
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: by what she sees.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: From what I saw at the crime scene, it's really
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: not fit for any human to witness, let alone children.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It is apparent by the small, bloody footprints around Sheila's
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: body that the four toddlers witnessed their mother's murder. But
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: at 23 months old, they don't have the ability to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: tell investigators what they saw. Lanham follows a trail of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: blood that leads from Sheila's body into the utility room,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: where it appears the gruesome attack started.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: There was the knife that was located on the floor.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: There was a bullet hole in the wall of the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: utility room. And eventually, when latent processing was completed, a
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: fingerprint was developed on the dryer inside the utility room.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: The print is not in blood, and there is no
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: way of knowing if it is related to the crime.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Detective Chris Iorio, an 11-year veteran of the Sarasota Sheriff's Department,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: carefully searches the rest of the house and finds a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: shell casing. The round is from a. 45 caliber pistol,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: which was shot directly at Sheila's face.
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: It went through her face, her cheekbone. It exited through
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: the base of her neck and went through the dining
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: room wall into a bedroom, struck a mirror, and then
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: it was recovered from a wall in the bedroom.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: The attacker then grabbed a knife from a rack in
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Sheila's kitchen a few feet away. Blood spatter analysis and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: defensive wounds, bruises and cuts on Sheila's hands and arms
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: show that Sheila got up to fight back. As a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: parent himself, Detective Iorio believes Sheila was fighting for more
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: than her own life.
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: Part of her motivation was to protect her children. I
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: think her motherly instinct kicked in and she got strength
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: from somewhere because she Typically, if you get shot in
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: the face with a. 45, that's usually enough to put
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: anybody down and leave them down.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Sheila's attacker then slit her throat twice, missing her arteries,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but slicing through two veins. Then the attacker fled, leaving
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: her to die. But Sheila was still conscious. and fighting
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to survive. Sheila dragged herself 15 feet to the kitchen counter,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: reaching for the phone. She managed to lift the receiver,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: then collapsed and bled to death.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: All victims are of equal importance to us, but it
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: certainly does affect you for the rest of your life
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: when you see crime scenes where You know that there
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: was a struggle and somebody fought for their life. I
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: can only hope that the toddlers were young enough, that
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: they have no memory of what they witnessed inside that house.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Investigators know how Sheila was killed, but they still don't
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: know why. A stay-at-home mom to her four toddlers and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: two older daughters from a previous marriage Sheila has only
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: lived in this middle-class Sarasota neighborhood for six weeks. Police
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: have to ask whether she's been the victim of a
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: home invasion.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: We examined the exterior of the residence and did not
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: find any obvious signs of forced entry, such as a
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: broken window, pry marks on windows or doors or door
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: locks or.
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: Any of that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: It seems unlikely that Sheila would allow a stranger into
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: her home. Did she know her killer, someone with an
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: insider's knowledge of the house? To find answers to these questions,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the police will call in the FBI. For Special Agent
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Michael Appleby, finding Sheila's killer will become a personal mission.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: I've been an FBI agent for over 30 years. In
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: the course of my career, I've never been mad at
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: anybody I investigated because it's a business, it's your job.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: But for the first time in my life, I met
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: someone that I really, really, really was mad at.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: But capturing the killer, a powerful and deceptive mastermind, will
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: prove to be almost impossible. In November 1997, 35-year-old Sheila
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Bellish is found murdered in her home. Evidence shows the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: brutal attack took place right in front of her 23-month-old quadruplets.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Very gruesome crime. Sheila, at the time she was murdered,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: weighed a little over 100 pounds. She obviously put up
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: a strong fight.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Because there is no sign of forced entry, the Sarasota
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department wonders if Sheila knew her attacker. Statistics
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: compiled by the FBI show that two out of three
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: violent crimes against women are committed by someone they know.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Law enforcement officials in Sarasota did not rule out anybody
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: in Sheila's murder. They had to look at the case
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: as objectively as possible, which means usually you work your
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: way inside out.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Detectives begin looking into Sheila's background. They speak to her
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: close friend, Carl Glenn.
• 11:14
  Speaker 7: Sheila was the type of person you would remember Of course,
• 11:19
  Speaker 7: her beauty, her intelligence, she was religious. I think Sheila
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: had a pretty strict upbringing.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: The daughter of an Air Force pilot, Sheila Lee Walsh,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: lost her father when she was young.
• 11:41
  Speaker 7: He was killed over North Vietnam during a flight. He
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: was kind of her hero.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Sheila was determined to go to college and become a success.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: After graduating high school, she began working as a secretary
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: at a Salem, Oregon law firm to save money. There,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: she met one of the firm's clients and the man
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: of her dreams, Alan Blackthorne.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: He was a good-looking guy, athletic-looking, generally always, in all
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the pictures I saw of him, he always had a tan.
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: I think she wanted a man that presented a strong
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: father figure. Ella was older than her. He was a
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: very successful businessman. He had a great personality.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: It was a whirlwind romance. The couple got engaged on
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: her third date. and married three months later in 1983.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Within a few years, they had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Alan started a successful medical device business and quickly became
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: a multimillionaire.
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: I'm sick of it!
• 13:14
  Speaker 7: Why are you fighting?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: But Sheila and Alan fought constantly. and in 1987, divorced.
• 13:24
  Speaker 7: She was under tremendous stress. Alan had money, attorneys. She
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: was fighting to hold a full-time job with lots of responsibility.
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: She was trying to raise her children on limited income.
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: I know it was tough.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: In 1992, Sheila's luck seemed to change On a cross-country
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: airline flight, she met pharmaceutical salesman, Jamie Bellish. They married
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the next year. A former Marine, Jamie could be tough
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: on Sheila's girls, which made her uncomfortable.
• 14:09
  Speaker 7: He was very strict, I could tell that. He was
• 14:12
  Speaker 7: a disciplinarian, I think. And Sheila.
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: She seemed a little bit nervous. Jamie was basically a
• 14:24
  Speaker 7: tough guy. Marines are supposed to be tough.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Jamie and Sheila wanted more children, but were surprised when,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: through in vitro fertilization, she became pregnant with quadruplets. Local
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: media covered the birth of three sons and one daughter.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: She got a lot of attention in San Antonio about it.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Probably more than they wanted, you know, because you couldn't
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: get any quiet. She and Jamie really loved those babies.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Sheila became a stay-at-home mom, caring for four infants. Not
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: long after, Jamie took a work promotion. And he and
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Sheila moved with all six kids to Sarasota, Florida. Only
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: two months later, Sheila was murdered. Investigators look into Jamie's
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: financial affairs and discover that he had life insurance policies
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: on Sheila. They wonder whether he had a motive to
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: kill her.
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: Jamie Dulles was the first person we looked at. We
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: did a thorough background of where he was that day.
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: It does happen that people do kill their spouses for insurance.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Detectives question Jamie, who has a partial alibi for the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: time of the murder. He made several appointments on his
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: sales route that day and has receipts and witnesses that
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: verify where he was during his lunch hour. During an interrogation,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Jamie points investigators toward another potential suspect, a former pool
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: maintenance man who worked at the house.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: He was able to give us at least one person
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: of interest. The person of interest had said something to
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: Sheila or sent something to Jamie or both that made
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: them feel a little uneasy when he was around, and
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: Jamie told us that we might want to talk to him.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Although they have no physical evidence from the crime scene
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: for comparison, investigators ask the pool man for hair, blood,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and DNA samples. He complies and is soon ruled out.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: There is one more person detectives want to question. Sheila's
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: first husband, Alan Blackthorne. Sheila had gone through years of
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a contentious divorce with Blackthorne. could he have a reason
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: to kill her?
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: We verified that he was in San Antonio when this occurred,
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: so we could eliminate him as actually being the trigger man.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: With their three potential suspects ruled out, detectives are back
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: at square one. They begin knocking on doors, asking if
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: any neighbors witnessed anything unusual on the day Sheila was killed.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: As it turns out, Someone did. And it could be
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the lead that cracks the case wide open.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: There was a murder down the street and I said,
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: oh my goodness, I got the guy's license plate number.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Sheila Bellish made local news in San Antonio when she
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: gave birth to quadruplets in 1995. But now, less than
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: two years later, she is in the headlines again for
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: being murdered in front of her small children.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: It was hard to fathom why someone could kill a woman,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: an obvious loving mother in front of her children.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Detectives begin questioning neighbors and local workers, hoping someone saw
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: something out of place. They get the lead they're looking
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: for when Jake Mast, a gardener, remembers seeing a suspicious vehicle.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: I was mowing yard in the front there and I
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: always waved to people because there might be a customer
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: later on. And I remember when he came down through there,
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: he didn't do anything.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: A short time later, Mast spots the same car, a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Mitsubishi Eclipse, parked nearby. He notices the driver is wearing
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: camouflage pants.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: All of a sudden, it kind of hit me that
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: the guy is just out of place here. You know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: there's something wrong. It was there so vivid. I was
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: scared to look at the car. I memorized the guy's
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: license plate number. I remembered it. I made a sentence
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: out of it. Yes, Barbara and 62 girls.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Mast can't remember the name of the state on the plate.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: but tells authorities that it was a white background. Detectives
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: run plate number YBR62G through the Florida DMV system.
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: We did run Florida at first and got nothing back.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Knowing the Bellish family had just moved from Texas six
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: weeks before the murder, Florida detectives submit the plate number
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to the Texas Rangers Law Enforcement Agency. This time, Rangers
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: run the plate and hit the jackpot. It's registered to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: a white Mitsubishi Eclipse, the same make and model as
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the car spotted at the crime scene. The driver is
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: 23-year-old Joey Del Toro, a small-time criminal with a minor
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: drug conviction.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: Del Toro was a playboy, but he seemed like he
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: wasn't a bad guy. Everybody we talked to said he
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: was a little bit of a cokehead or whatever, but
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: he was a good athlete, and he just was a
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: little bit lazy.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Texas authorities send the prints from his prior conviction to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the Florida Crime Lab for a comparison. But despite a
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: thorough background check, investigators are puzzled. There is no link
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: between Del Toro and Sheila Bellish. Police scour San Antonio
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: for Del Toro. They can't locate him. But they do
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: find his white Mitsubishi parked outside a friend's apartment complex.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: They get a warrant to search it and are shocked
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: by what they find.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Inside the car was a treasure trove of evidence implicating
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Joey Del Toro as the assailant and the murderer.
• 22:06
  Speaker 7: Of Sheila Bellish.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: A pair of camouflage pants.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Those items included a map to Sheila Bellis' house, camouflage clothing,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: and most importantly, the suspected murder weapon, a. 45 caliber pistol.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: The evidence is sent to the Florida Department of Law
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Enforcement for analysis. Ballistics. prove the gun is a match
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: for the bullet from the crime scene. Tiny blood spatters
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: on the camouflage pants match Sheila's DNA. And a fingerprint
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: lifted from the trigger matches the prints from Del Toro's
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: prior criminal record and the print lifted off the dryer
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: at Sheila's house. Detectives Believe Joey Del Toro is Sheila's killer,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: but they have no idea what motivated the murder.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: He traveled from the state of Texas over a period
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: of a couple of days for the sole purpose of
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: killing Sheila Bellish, someone he had never met in his life.
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: There was no obvious connection to Sheila. That was the
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: key question, why?
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Before investigators can answer that question, they get a tip
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that he's fled the country.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Joey had become aware of the fact that he was
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: a suspect in the murder, and he thereafter fled into Mexico.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Sheila Bellish's killer has slipped through detectives' hands. Hoping Mexican
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: authorities will catch Del Toro and extradite him back to
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the U.S., investigators continue building their case. The plot thickens
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: when they uncover another key suspect.
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: We were trying to find Del Toro, and it turned
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: out that everybody said, if you want to find him,
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: look for his cousin, Sammy Gonzalez.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Sammy Gonzalez is 27 years old and works part time
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: in the pro shop at a San Antonio, Texas golf course.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Authorities confront him with the evidence from his cousin's car.
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: Sammy Gonzalez Initially started lying like everybody does, but it
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: wasn't too long into the interview that he crumbled and
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: he started giving us information little by little.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Gonzalez eventually reveals that a hit was put on Sheila
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Bellish and that she was killed for cold, hard cash.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: According to Gonzalez, the conspiracy was initiated not by him,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: but by a third suspect.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Sammy Gonzalez, uh, laid out a set of circumstances where
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: he was approached by an individual by the name of
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Danny Rocha.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Danny Rocha, a bookie on the golf course, showed Gonzalez
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a picture of Sheila Belish taken at a birthday party
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: for one of her daughters. He claimed that Sheila was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a bad mother who needed to be punished. Unnerved by
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the idea of attacking a woman, Gonzalez instead recruited his cousin,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Joey Del Toro, to rough her up.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Ultimately, as the conspiracy rolled on, word came from Danny
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Rocha that he didn't care if she was beaten up
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: or killed. This is when the conspiracy turned from a
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: mere beating into a potential murder.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Rocha, gave Del Toro the picture of Sheila, a map
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: to her home, and promised to pay him $ 10, 000. Detectives
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: now know some of the circumstances surrounding Sheila's death, but
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: they still need the trigger man, Joey Del Toro.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Without getting Joey Del Toro back from Mexico, the likelihood
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: of convicting those responsible for Sheila Bellish's murder was doubtful.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: You have to connect the dots.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Mexican authorities quickly capture Del Toro, but they are reluctant
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to extradite him because he'll be eligible for the death penalty.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Local authorities need someone with more leverage and turn to
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the FBI for help.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: It was at this point that it was decided that
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: the best avenue to prosecute the guys that conspired to
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: kill Sheila Bellis would be through the federal system.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: The FBI pressures Mexican police, who finally extradite Del Toro
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: back to the United States. Del Toro confesses to authorities
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: that he killed Sheila Bellish, and he reveals something shocking.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: There is someone else involved in the plot. Someone above
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Danny Rocha. A mastermind that Del Toro is afraid of.
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: I was debating whether or not to do it, you know?
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: In my mind was, this man who ordered this, obviously
• 27:37
  Speaker 8: is a means, and if this does not get done,
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: and if I don't do it, then something might happen
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: to me, or maybe even to my family because of
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: this guy.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Now, the question is, who is the mysterious man behind
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the murderous plot? Who ordered the killing? of Sheila Bellish.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Ten days after the murder of Sheila Bellish, Florida and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Texas investigators have learned that there is a mysterious mastermind
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: behind the murder of Sheila Bellish. They figure out the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: man's identity when they uncover what motivated Danny Rocha to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: orchestrate the bloody plot.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: It was determined that perhaps Danny Rocha had agreed to
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: participate in the conspiracy because he was attempting at that
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: time to get funding for a sports bar he wanted
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: to operate. That funding was to come from Alan Blackthorne.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Alan Blackthorne, Sheila's ex-husband. On the surface, Blackthorn seems to
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: be beyond reproach. A successful San Antonio businessman worth $ 40 million,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: he's a member of the local country club and married
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: with two young sons. But as investigators interview family and friends,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: they discover that Blackthorn has a secret life that few
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: know about.
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: His personality, he could disarm you with that. But It
• 29:27
  Speaker 7: makes you wonder, wow, this guy's into some strange things.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Born Alan William Van Hoot, Alan claims his childhood was difficult.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: Alan has on numerous occasions said he was abused as
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: a young person, as a youngster. Instances where his mother
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: set him on fire. I've never seen any concrete evidence
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: that he was abused.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: In 1973, 17-year-old Allen married his first wife and joined
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the Army. Both commitments were short-lived.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: She announced to him that she had become pregnant, and
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: he kicked her. The woman felt that the fetus may
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: have been damaged, and she thereafter had an abortion.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Frightened for her life, His wife divorced him in 1978
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: and went into hiding. A second marriage also ended after
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: three years, with more allegations of abuse. Alan was at
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: his divorce lawyer's office when he met Sheila.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: His glibness, his personality, his looks, his apparent success in business,
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: it kind of left Sheila in awe, and I think
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: she was taken in by him But it didn't take
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: her long to figure out that she had made a big,
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: big mistake and that she didn't know the man she
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: had married.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Soon after, Alan changed his last name from Van Hoot
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to Blackthorn.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: This name was taken from a novel, the novel Shogun.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: And the main character in that novel was a guy
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: named John Blackthorn.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Business began booming, and Alan and Sheila seemed to be
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: living the dream.
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: You know, Alan loved the high life and the good life,
• 31:29
  Speaker 7: but there was a price with some of the bad
• 31:30
  Speaker 7: times that she went through with him.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Those bad times included Alan's fondness for prostitutes.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Numerous sources had said that Alan had a penchant for
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: prostitutes and that oftentimes he would bring prostitutes home.
• 31:54
  Speaker 7: And she loved them. would be told to sit there
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: and watch. She told me he had brought men home
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: at times and made her have sex with them while
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: he watched things look out.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Blackthorn also enjoyed cross-dressing games.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: He would dress up in a little Bo Peep dress
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: and be taken away from his home and somehow wander
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: back home in various straits of disarray, dirty and everything,
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: and then he would have to be bathed, and this
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: was part of some type of sexual ritual.
• 32:34
  Speaker 8: Sheila!
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: Sheila!
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Sheila was living in a private hell where Alan controlled
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: her every move.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: There was a lot of emotional abuse. He would actually
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: deny food because if she gained weight, He would get
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: angry because she was supposed to be this perfect person.
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: Sheila!
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Sheila could no longer tolerate the marriage. In 1987, she
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: filed for divorce and began fighting for custody of their
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: two daughters. The battle would stretch over 10 years.
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: Once they did file for divorce and he knew he
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: couldn't control her any other way than to try and
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: control her through the girls. It seemed more like all
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: he wanted to do was to destroy Sheila, both emotionally
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: and physically.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Alan retired at age 44 and became obsessed with golf.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Through bookies like Danny Rocha, he gambled away a small
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: fortune on the sport.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: Alan was thought of as a sucker on the golf course.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: There were several local area golfers here in San Antonio
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: that were routinely fleecing Alan on the golf course to
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: thousands and thousands of dollars.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: It's only money, boys.
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: It's only money.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Alan Blackthorn believed he had everything except control of his ex-wife.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: After Sheila married Jamie Bellish and had the quadruplets, he
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: coerced his daughters to turn against her, claiming in court
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: that she was physically abusing them.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: If they stubbed their toe or anything at her house,
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: he would claim she was hitting them.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: In classic sociopathic behavior, Alan Blackthorne was manipulative. He manipulated
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: his children with Sheila on numerous occasions. He manipulated Sheila.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: He manipulated the law enforcement community into thinking that Sheila
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: had been abusive to the girls on occasion, which was
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: all fictitious.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Allen continued to fight Sheila for custody of their daughters.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: But in the summer of 1997, he suddenly dropped the battle,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: claiming it was hurting the children. But his friends revealed
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to investigators Sheila was worried her ex was up to
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: no good. The Bellish family fled in the middle of
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: the night to Sarasota, Florida.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: She just says, we have to leave and I can't
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: tell you where we're going. I had a feeling she
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: knew something was about to happen.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Blackthorne had no intention of letting Sheila get away. He
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: approached Danny Rocha on the golf course, who in turn
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: went to Sammy Gonzalez.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Danny Rocha indicated he knew someone that wanted to have
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: his wife beaten up Sammy indicated he might be interested.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Danny Rocha said that this particular person had a lot
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: of money. He had a wife that was in custody
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: of his children, and the wife was being abusive to
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: the two children, and that he wanted her beaten up.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: Sammy indicated immediately that I'm not the type of guy
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: that can hurt a woman, but I might know someone
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: that would. Sammy then brought out the name of Joey
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: Del Toro, and Joey Del Toro was offered money to
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: beat up Sheila Bellish.
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: Alan Blackthorne would not let it go. He basically was
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: not used to losing anything, and this was just one
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: more thing he was not going to lose.
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: Her days were numbered then.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: January 2000, it's been more than two years since Sheila
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Bellish was brutally slaughtered in front of her four toddlers.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Authorities have thoroughly investigated Sheila's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorn, and are
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: convinced that he paid bookie Danny Rocha to orchestrate her death.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: One by one, the men involved in the plot face
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the courts. Sammy Gonzalez pleads guilty to his role in
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: coordinating the killing and receives a 17-year sentence. Then, a
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Sarasota jury sentences Danny Rocha to life. Joey Del Toro,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the trigger man, waits for his day in court. Everyone
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: in the bloody conspiracy is behind bars, except for its mastermind,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Alan Blackthorne. He appears to be getting away with murder.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: It had been in the local newspapers here in San
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: Antonio and elsewhere and was readily discussed throughout the city.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Despite this, Blackthorne maintained this demeanor of calmness and matter-of-fact
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: attitude that he hadn't done anything. He even flaunted his
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: notoriety over the murder of Sheila Bellish. When you see
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: a guy like this, you really want to convict this
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: guy and get him put in a place where he
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: really needs to be.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Blackthorn seems untouchable until a new law enables prosecutors to
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: pursue a federal case against him. Because the murder plot
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: was hatched in Texas and carried out in Florida, it
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: is an interstate crime. Suddenly, the FBI has the ammunition
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: it needs.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: There are two statutes that they were looking to use.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: One was the use of interstate communication facilities in the
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: furtherance of a crime, and secondly, interstate travel to commit
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: domestic violence.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: On January 5, 2000, FBI agents arrest Blackthorne on a
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: golf course.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: It's ironic that Alan Blackthorne was arrested while playing golf.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: because that is how he met Danny Rocha and that
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: is how the conspiracy was hatched.
• 39:21
  Speaker 8: But the FBI still.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Needs hard evidence to back the charges. They get a
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: search warrant to go through Alan Blackthorne's mansion. They hit
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: pay dirt.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: The evidence included a map finder guide, a computer-driven map
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: finder guide, and also a printed-out page showing the address
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: in Sarasota, Florida.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: The evidence team also finds a set of photos of
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Sheila and her daughter. One print of Sheila at a
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: birthday party is missing. The same image Danny Rocha showed
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Gonzalez when he first proposed the deadly plot.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: This photograph was to be used by Rocha, Gonzalez, and
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: del Toro to locate and identify Sheila Belish.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Two and a half years after Sheila Bellish's death, Alan
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Blackthorne goes on trial in a federal courtroom for arranging
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Sheila's murder.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: He maintained his innocence throughout, cocky almost.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: His defense claims he knew nothing of the plot. They
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: say Rocha took it upon himself to kill Sheila, to
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: win Blackthorne's favor, and parlay it into a business loan
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to build a sports bar. The jury doesn't buy it.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: On July 6, 2000, they give Blackthorne the surprise of
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: his life.
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: It was a sweet day for me when he got
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: prosecuted and convicted.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: That same afternoon, in a Florida courtroom, Joey Del Toro
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: pleads guilty to first-degree murder. He then agrees to tell
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: detectives about the moments leading up to Sheila's murder. On
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: the morning of November 7th, 1997, Del Toro arrived at
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: the Bellish home after an all-night drive from Texas.
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: I parked and just waited. I saw Sheila leave, and
• 41:36
  Speaker 8: that's when I went inside the house.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Sheila took her two older daughters to school, then returned
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: to the house.
• 41:47
  Speaker 8: I was looking at her for a while, to see
• 41:50
  Speaker 8: if she mistreated her kids in any way. I'm going
• 41:54
  Speaker 8: to say something, and that's probably the only thing that
• 41:58
  Speaker 8: I'll say concerning what happened in the house. I was
• 42:02
  Speaker 8: about to leave when she noticed that the door was open. See,
• 42:07
  Speaker 8: I had left the door open to the laundry room
• 42:11
  Speaker 8: that goes into the garage. Like I said, she noticed it.
• 42:14
  Speaker 7: She stood right in front of me.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: He had watched... Sheila Bellis for approximately an hour, and
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: their eyes met, and then he said at that point
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: in time, there was no going back.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Seven months after his conviction, Alan Blackthorne is sentenced to
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: two concurrent life sentences without parole in a federal prison.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: It's a just sentence in the eyes of those who
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: worked tirelessly to catch him.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Alan Blackthorne has shown no remorse. No sorrow whatsoever. He
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: truly thought that he would get away with this, and
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: finally it caught up to him.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: But even with all four conspirators convicted, it brings little
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: peace over the loss of Sheila Bellish.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: He took away a beautiful woman that loved her kids
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: more than her own life. A person that does that
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: to somebody, especially in front of their own children, that
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: person's not human. And I think prison's too easy.