Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Beloved dance teacher gunned down in front yard, gardening: Why?

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Beloved dance teacher gunned down in front yard, gardening: Why? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Greece. What happened to a beloved
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Speaker 1: dance instructor, Carolyn High? This is Crime Stories. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for being with us here at Fox Nation and Serious
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Speaker 1: XM one eleven the Triumph Channel. How does this happen? Teens? Children,
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Speaker 1: children that had grown up suddenly get the news their
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Speaker 1: dance teacher has been murdered. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,
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Speaker 1: How does this happen? Take a listen now to our
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Speaker 1: forensict k f d X Police Department officials are asking
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Speaker 1: the public for information in a suspicious death investigation after
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Speaker 1: finding a woman's body in a driveway on Cumberland Avenue
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Speaker 1: earlier this afternoon. WFPD Public Information Officer Jeff Hughes says
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Speaker 1: officers responded to a call just before three forty five
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Speaker 1: and the thirty five hundred block of Cumberland Avenue. Who
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Speaker 1: says when officers arrived, they saw a white woman lying
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Speaker 1: in the driveway across from Jared Park. Crimes against Persons
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Speaker 1: Unit as well as the Justice of the Peace were
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Speaker 1: called to the scene. Who says the body will be
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Speaker 1: sent off to Dallas for an autopsy and the results
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Speaker 1: will be released in a few days. Officials are not
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Speaker 1: releasing the identity of the victim, Yet he was asked
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Speaker 1: the public to call crime stoppers with any information on
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Speaker 1: this crime. Well, we know the name of the dance
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Speaker 1: teacher is Carolyn High, and she had taught scores and
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Speaker 1: scores of dance students with me and All Star Panel.
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Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, California prosecutors as at Wendy Patrick PhD dot com.
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Speaker 1: Karen Start, New York psychologist at Karen Start dot com.
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Speaker 1: Joining us from Manhattan. Cloyd Steiger thirty six years, Seattle PD,
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Speaker 1: twenty two homicide author of Seattle's Forgotten serial Killer, Gary
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Speaker 1: Jane Grant, Jesus Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University,
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Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. But right now,
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Speaker 1: to Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Levi Page, le,
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Speaker 1: let me understand something before we get start on the evidence.
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Speaker 1: She's in a driveway. When I hear driveway, I think
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Speaker 1: of home, because if you're at a grocery store or
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Speaker 1: a mall, that's a parking lot. So it's a driveway.
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Speaker 1: I assume of a home across the street from a park.
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Speaker 1: And I noticed they were called in the afternoon. Police
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Speaker 1: that tells me it was broad daylight when an unarmed
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Speaker 1: female dance teacher who's been in the biz for a
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Speaker 1: couple of several years now is shot down. Who in
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Speaker 1: the world would have motive to gun down a beloved
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Speaker 1: dance instructor. I mean, it makes me think of missus Julia,
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Speaker 1: a kindergarten teacher, and she taught us actually in a barn,
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Speaker 1: and her husband, mister Bim restored the barn and turned
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Speaker 1: it into a school. Yes, who I thought of immediately
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Speaker 1: when I heard this dance teacher had been murdered. What
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Speaker 1: can you tell me about the location of the crime?
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Speaker 1: LEVI page. As you said, Nancy, it was in her
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Speaker 1: driveway and her body was found at three forty five
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Speaker 1: in the afternoon daylight, as you mentioned. And it was
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Speaker 1: January twenty six, twenty twenty. And this was the first
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Speaker 1: thomiside of twenty twenty in which it took. Did you
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Speaker 1: say Wichita Falls? Yes, you know it interesting because you
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Speaker 1: don't hear of a lot of crime in Wichita Falls,
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Speaker 1: especially as I take it. This was a residential neighborhood, yes,
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Speaker 1: a very quiet community. People there in the community said
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Speaker 1: that they saw her gardening out in her yard mowing
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Speaker 1: her wand that she was very friendly and a beloved
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Speaker 1: dance teacher that owned her own dance studio in the
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Speaker 1: nineties and still did classes at the park near where
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Speaker 1: she lived under own dance studio, still did classes. You know,
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Speaker 1: another very important thing to Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor. It
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Speaker 1: was on a Sunday afternoon. Now, the reason I say
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Speaker 1: that is because you don't think of a lot of
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Speaker 1: murders going down on Sunday afternoon after church. Statistically, that's
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Speaker 1: a time of the day and of the week that's
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Speaker 1: a low crime time. And yes, studies have been done
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Speaker 1: for years and years about the most likely time murders
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Speaker 1: are committed when murder and mayhem goes down, and it's
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Speaker 1: not on Sunday afternoon, Wendy Patrick, that's for sure. And
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Speaker 1: that's what makes this so heartbreaking is you're right. People
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Speaker 1: are getting out of church, they're going home. Their guard
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Speaker 1: is down. As this beloved dance teachers obviously was. She's
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Speaker 1: a writing home, she's in her driveway. It's familiar circumstances.
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Speaker 1: It's the last thing she expects is going to happen.
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Speaker 1: But you know what, Nancy, that makes her vulnerable. If
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Speaker 1: God forbid, there is somebody in the area looking for
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Speaker 1: a victim, not paying attention radar down to commit a crime,
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Speaker 1: and sadly, that's exactly what happened here to Joseph Scott, Morgan,
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Speaker 1: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University. Jo Scott, we have not
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Speaker 1: just us, but experts and statistics have analyzed crime waves.
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Speaker 1: And when we hear, oh, there must be a full moon,
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Speaker 1: that's for real, because murders go up when there are
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Speaker 1: full moons. Also on Friday and Saturday nights. Anything after midnight,
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Speaker 1: you know, it's the places up for grabs Sunday afternoon.
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Speaker 1: I'm not just pontificating. I'm not just amusing. This is
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Speaker 1: based on statistical evidence. Joe Scott, Yeah, it is. You know,
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Speaker 1: you can factor in things like the end of the month,
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Speaker 1: you can talk about when people get paid, all those
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Speaker 1: sorts of things, and its things that we say. There's
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Speaker 1: even temperature variations. At a friend of mine in graduate
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Speaker 1: school that studied instances of increased homicide rates when the
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Speaker 1: temperature increased. So yeah, there are a lot of these variables.
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Speaker 1: But it's so well, let me just take that in
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Speaker 1: for a moment. I guess because when it's cold, more
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Speaker 1: people are staying in and they're not exposed to other
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Speaker 1: people to kill them. When it's warm weather, everybody's out
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Speaker 1: and about which I guess increases the likelihood you're going
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Speaker 1: to have some kind of confrontation. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Plus,
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Speaker 1: you know, the tempers rise, this sort of thing, and
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Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to interact, and that's what it's
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Speaker 1: all about relative to crime, you know, interaction with other people,
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Speaker 1: and that's a driver many times. The fact that this
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Speaker 1: case occurred at the time that it did is absolutely striking.
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Speaker 1: And I mean, you know Cloyd Steiger thirty six years Seattle, Pt.
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Speaker 1: Twenty two of that on homicide, Cloyd. The reality is
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Speaker 1: that when you just heard Joe Scott Morgan say less
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Speaker 1: likelihood for a confrontation during certain times of the year,
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Speaker 1: even based on temperature, a confrontation. She's bent over in
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Speaker 1: her garden, gardening in the front yard, for Pete's sakes,
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Speaker 1: who's going to have a confrontation with Yeah, Well, that's
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Speaker 1: that's what. You don't want to know what's going on.
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Speaker 1: The first thing gonna do arriving at this scene having
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Speaker 1: no information and find out what's going on in this
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Speaker 1: woman's life. Who is she? Is there anybody that want
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Speaker 1: to do this to her? Then you start looking for neighbors,
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Speaker 1: maybe that have ring cameras, a dance teacher to little girls,
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Speaker 1: not a dance dance or in a strip club. What
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Speaker 1: enemies she can have? You can have, you know, I
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Speaker 1: don't know, knowing nothing about her. You could have an
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Speaker 1: ex husband, ex boyfriend, maybe a rival or something. I mean,
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Speaker 1: that's a rival. You know, Cloyd, You know how much
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Speaker 1: I respect you, But oh, you're talking like the Abbey
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Speaker 1: Lee Miller. What's the name of that dance dance moms?
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Speaker 1: That kind of rival. I would not want that woman
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Speaker 1: on my bad side. Although I didn't report on her
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Speaker 1: bankruptcy fraud, and from what I hear, she was not
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Speaker 1: happy at all with the Nancy Gray show. That aside,
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Speaker 1: that's a whole nother can of worms. A rival. This
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Speaker 1: isn't the dance moms. I mean, are you even familiar
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Speaker 1: with that? Cloyd not really add boys so well. I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't have been if I didn't have to report on
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Speaker 1: her fraud. And then my daughter sadly got sucked into it.
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Speaker 1: We had to binge on it time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
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Speaker 1: we're talking about a beloved dance teacher. But I want
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Speaker 1: you to hear very quickly our friend Crimeline dot COM's
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Speaker 1: Dave mac. When a popular dance instructor was identified as
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Speaker 1: the victim of a murder, many friends and students took
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Speaker 1: to social media to share their thoughts. Sixty five year
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Speaker 1: old Caroline High was discovered when Wichita Falls police officers
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Speaker 1: were dispatched to her home and discovered a deceased woman
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Speaker 1: lying in the driveway. Caroline High was listed as an
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Speaker 1: instructor through the Wichita Falls Parks and Recreation Department, teaching
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Speaker 1: Country and Western dance specialties were listed as two step, Waltz, shuffle,
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Speaker 1: and East Coast Swing. One of her former students, who
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Speaker 1: now owns her own dance company, Stephanie Meadenwald, the owner
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Speaker 1: of Dance, Etc. Posted on Facebook, your first dance teacher
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Speaker 1: will never leave dance from the beginning. And finally, I'm
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Speaker 1: so sorry we have to say goodbye to such a
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Speaker 1: wonderful person. You know, I want to go to Karen
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Speaker 1: Start and your psychologists joining me. You can find her
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Speaker 1: at Karen Start dot com. Karen I was asked, who's
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Speaker 1: your favorite teacher, and I immediately said Clara Belle Bryant
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Speaker 1: because I wrote my first poem with her, and she
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Speaker 1: always had our artwork all over the room. She took
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Speaker 1: special time with me. I loved miss Clara Belle. Now
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Speaker 1: there was one teacher. I had to travel to her
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Speaker 1: funeral to make sure she was really dead. And guess what,
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Speaker 1: there were like ten of us on the back road
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Speaker 1: just making sure the casket would creak open to jump
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Speaker 1: out and chase Anyway, long story short, this is one
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Speaker 1: of those teachers Carolyn High that you remember, Karen Stark.
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Speaker 1: We've been comparing this to Abbie Lee Miller and dance moms.
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Speaker 1: Nothing like that at all. This is a mile mannered,
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Speaker 1: layback dance instructor. She owned her own studio. As she
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Speaker 1: advanced in age, she started teaching different things like the
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Speaker 1: two steps. You know, having a teacher that you love
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Speaker 1: affects you the rest of your life. And we are
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Speaker 1: seeing Facebook, Instagram pouring in about her murder as I
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Speaker 1: followed this story, Nancy, That's exactly what I honed into.
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Speaker 1: Beside the side of the tragedy of her being killed,
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Speaker 1: the fact that there was this person who wrote a
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Speaker 1: beautiful thing saying, you never forget your first teacher, and
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Speaker 1: I think you never forget your favorite teachers, and you
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Speaker 1: never forget the ones that are the worst, the best
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Speaker 1: and the worst. But I remember when I was very young,
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Speaker 1: they had a dance teacher, Rosemary, and she never was
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Speaker 1: somebody that I forgot many teachers, but I didn't forget her.
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Speaker 1: They make an impact on you because that's how you
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Speaker 1: begin to get curious about life and feel good about
13:20
Speaker 1: yourself and grow. This is a terrible tragedy, you know.
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Speaker 1: I remember my first dance classes Jackie and they were
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Speaker 1: at the Why, and I was the only girl that
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Speaker 1: did not have a two too. I just had a type.
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Speaker 1: I didn't know at the time that we really couldn't
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Speaker 1: afford to toos. It was all they could do to
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Speaker 1: get me to the class and pay for that I
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Speaker 1: bought Lucy. I kind of went overboard. I had to
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Speaker 1: like ten different twotos Karen, start you lived through my
13:44
Speaker 1: two two phase with Lucy. She went in every call
13:46
Speaker 1: or every everything, and she didn't like too toos anyway,
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Speaker 1: that's just you know my curse. Guys. This Carolyn High.
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Speaker 1: She looks like everybody's favorite aunt to me. I want
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Speaker 1: you to take a listen now to KFDX news reporter
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Speaker 1: Curtis Jackson, We've never had any problems. Floral Heights, what's
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Speaker 1: typically a quiet neighborhood, was rattled over the weekend after
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Speaker 1: the body of sixty five year old Caroline High was
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Speaker 1: found in the driveway of her own home. I didn't
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Speaker 1: know much about her except that she kept herself and
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Speaker 1: I saw her outside mowing the yard. Are working in
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Speaker 1: her flower bed. Nelta Perkins has lived in the neighborhood
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Speaker 1: for twenty years and says they've never had an incident
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Speaker 1: like this, and because the suspect has not been caught, Perkins,
14:35
Speaker 1: along with Precious McLean and Seth Winkler, say they are
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Speaker 1: living in fear. Have him one shot. I'm too scared
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Speaker 1: to take her out of the house these days, Like
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Speaker 1: it's getting crazy around here, and it's just it's scary
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Speaker 1: to take her out here. I'm a reading right now.
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Speaker 1: Another tribute to her from a student. Caroline the reason
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Speaker 1: my sister and I love the art of dance so much.
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Speaker 1: She was the first to instill that love for us.
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Speaker 1: Even after moving on to a new studio, Carolin was
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Speaker 1: there every step of the way, showing us on. She
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Speaker 1: was there for every one of our recitals, and she
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Speaker 1: always let you know how proud of you she was.
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Speaker 1: I will never forget when a teacher from the twins
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Speaker 1: school showed up at some of their piano recitals. I
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Speaker 1: was so touched that she would spend her own private
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Speaker 1: time to come see them play in a piano recital.
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Speaker 1: All the sentiment aside. Let's analyze the crime scene with me.
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Speaker 1: Forensics expert Professor Forensics, jacksonvill State University, Joseph Scott Morgan.
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Speaker 1: You come on a body in the driveway. We have
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Speaker 1: learned that earlier that day she had been gardening in
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Speaker 1: the front yard, but she had gone to the grocery
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Speaker 1: and come back. Do you remember the petit case? The
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Speaker 1: petdit case up in the northeast where the home invaders
15:53
Speaker 1: came in and they forced the mom to drive to
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Speaker 1: the ATM get money, come home, raped the mom, the
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Speaker 1: little girls set the house on fire after disabling the dad. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I believe they had been spotted at a grocery earlier
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Speaker 1: in the week, like the day before, and the home
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Speaker 1: invaders had followed them home. So this dance instructor Carolyn
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Speaker 1: High had just come back from the grocery store. Mom
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Speaker 1: on that everybody. But let's talk about the crime scene.
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Speaker 1: What do you do first? Well, you want to lock
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Speaker 1: it down very very quickly, Nancy. If you're the police officer,
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Speaker 1: this is a broad you know, this is not like
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Speaker 1: so that our listeners understand. This is not like it's
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Speaker 1: contained within a home. So everything's within the possibility. Here
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Speaker 1: you're out in the yard, you're out in the driveway.
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Speaker 1: This is a public area. Okay, So the police have
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Speaker 1: to be very very careful in locking down the perimeter
16:53
Speaker 1: because you don't want to lose anything, and you want
16:55
Speaker 1: to expand that crime Remember you can contract a crime scene, Okay,
17:00
Speaker 1: you only get that one shot to expand it out
17:02
Speaker 1: as far as you can get it so that you
17:04
Speaker 1: can incorporate everything because you don't know what you're dealing with.
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Speaker 1: Cloyd met a great point just a second ago when
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Speaker 1: he was talking about you don't know what you're dealing
17:13
Speaker 1: with when you arrived. So you got a castle wide
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Speaker 1: net and here you know, we've got a shellcases slay
17:19
Speaker 1: the drop you're cutting out on me just a tiny bit.
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Speaker 1: I think you said you've got a shellcasing lying in
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Speaker 1: the driveway to leave I page Crime online dot Com
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter. Is that true? Is there still a shellcase
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Speaker 1: in the driveway? Yes, that is true. That tells me
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Speaker 1: a lot right there to Cloyd Styke, or that tells
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Speaker 1: me she was shot right there in the driveway. She
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Speaker 1: wasn't shot in a car then dumped out, nothing like that.
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Speaker 1: The showcasing is right there. That tells me where it
17:48
Speaker 1: went down. Oh, absolutely, yeah, And I believe in reading
17:51
Speaker 1: the trunk was open on her car and she was
17:53
Speaker 1: by the rear of her car, so it looks like
17:54
Speaker 1: you may have been getting something out of her car
17:57
Speaker 1: when the assailant walked up and shot her. Yeah, jes
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Speaker 1: getting back from the grocery, Let's try Joe Scott again.
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Speaker 1: Joe Scott, back to what you would do at the
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Speaker 1: crime scene. I'd like to find out how long she
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Speaker 1: had been dead. How do you tell that as a
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Speaker 1: medical examine or a death investigator, because that will start
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Speaker 1: my timeline. Yeah, exactly. One interesting little side note they
18:18
Speaker 1: remember in the report they said the Justice of the
18:20
Speaker 1: Peace was called to the scene. People might not know this,
18:23
Speaker 1: but actually the Justice of the peace in the state
18:25
Speaker 1: of Texas access the de facto of the horn. But
18:29
Speaker 1: when they arrive at the scene, you want to check
18:31
Speaker 1: for the level of riger mortis, which is the stiffness
18:35
Speaker 1: in the body, distribution of settling a blood, which is postmortem. Leavidity,
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Speaker 1: has the blood settled and you can match time. Can
18:43
Speaker 1: we just break that down to regular people talk, Wendy Patrick,
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Speaker 1: lavidity is when say I shoot you dead and you
18:54
Speaker 1: fall down on your back, your blood is no longer
18:57
Speaker 1: pumping through your body, Wendy Patrick. So it saddles to
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Speaker 1: the lowest point and that would be your back, your
19:05
Speaker 1: here end, the backs of your legs, the backs of
19:08
Speaker 1: your arm. That's how that works, right, And how has
19:11
Speaker 1: that used, Wendy Patrick to determine cause of death? I
19:13
Speaker 1: mean time of death, that's right. So you would look
19:16
Speaker 1: and then you would have a medical expert basically go
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Speaker 1: backwards in time and say, if this is how we
19:21
Speaker 1: found her, this has had to be at the time
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Speaker 1: of death. What's interesting in this particular case, Nancy, is
19:26
Speaker 1: the fact that it was right out in the open
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Speaker 1: on a Sunday afternoon in the driveway. You have to
19:32
Speaker 1: wonder how long could she possibly have been lying there?
19:35
Speaker 1: Before somebody would have noticed this. So that's another interesting fact,
19:40
Speaker 1: is it wasn't a case of well, maybe she died
19:42
Speaker 1: elsewhere and somebody dumped her body at the scene. They're
19:45
Speaker 1: probably going back right now when they found her and
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Speaker 1: trying to see, well, who shot her and how long
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Speaker 1: was it before somebody walked by on a Sunday afternoon.
19:53
Speaker 1: Someone's going to see that. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,
20:13
Speaker 1: the case that Carolyn high is enough to make you
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Speaker 1: look around and look over your shoulder when you get
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Speaker 1: out of your car in the driveway. Take a listen
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Speaker 1: to our friends KFGX, Curtis Jackson, Winkler and McLean actually
20:27
Speaker 1: knew the victim. They met her when they were driving
20:29
Speaker 1: by her house and saw her fall, so they pulled
20:32
Speaker 1: over and helped her into her home. McClean says she
20:35
Speaker 1: was a kind hearted woman. She was a very, very
20:37
Speaker 1: kind and sweet person. She cared about her family a lot,
20:41
Speaker 1: that's all she spoke about. She was very loving person.
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Speaker 1: Gary Harley is a Floral Heights resident as well, and
20:47
Speaker 1: says he couldn't believe the news when he read about
20:50
Speaker 1: what had happened. I think that's a terrible situation. If
20:55
Speaker 1: somebody did this and then you catch them. I hate
20:59
Speaker 1: to hear that that happened to that woman. And as
21:01
Speaker 1: the investigation continues, then normally peaceful neighborhood has people fearful
21:06
Speaker 1: waiting for the killer to be caught. Right now, as
21:11
Speaker 1: it progresses, police disturbed, don't know what happened. Only when
21:16
Speaker 1: someone goes by and notices the body. Is that when
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Speaker 1: the nine one call is made. She's found around three pm.
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Speaker 1: And as Joseph Scott Morgan was telling us, based on
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Speaker 1: rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body and postmorder levidity,
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Speaker 1: the settling of the blood and the body, the medical
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Speaker 1: examiner may be able to get eight time of death
21:37
Speaker 1: very quickly. Leave my page. Who discovered her, who saw
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Speaker 1: her body? Her own daughter Tanya Florida discovered the body
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Speaker 1: and called, oh my stars, oh my stars, her own daughter.
21:48
Speaker 1: Oh so, Joe Scott back to you, I want to
21:51
Speaker 1: get that time of death. So yeah, one of the
21:54
Speaker 1: other things that we would look for is also, you know,
21:57
Speaker 1: how cool is the body? You know, we have something
22:00
Speaker 1: that's actually referred to as algor mortar. Algor mortis, which
22:03
Speaker 1: is the cooling or postmortem cooling of the body. You know,
22:06
Speaker 1: we maintain at ninety eight point six throughout our life,
22:09
Speaker 1: and we can actually measure that on an hour to
22:13
Speaker 1: our basis a relative because we lose roughly a degree
22:18
Speaker 1: of body temperature for every hour after death. So that
22:21
Speaker 1: gives us an indication as to how long the individual
22:24
Speaker 1: would have been down. This is going to be also
22:29
Speaker 1: kind of combined with all the other information, and that
22:31
Speaker 1: will give us an idea as to how long she
22:33
Speaker 1: had been down. Plus it has to be coupled with
22:36
Speaker 1: statements from people who last saw her alive. That's where
22:40
Speaker 1: we're going to start from as investigators, and then we'll
22:43
Speaker 1: kind of marry that up together and come up with
22:45
Speaker 1: a scientific estimation, if you will. And Cloyd Steiger thirty
22:49
Speaker 1: six years Seattle, PD and author Cloyd I didn't realize
22:54
Speaker 1: this until my first Arson case Arson homicide, that medical
23:00
Speaker 1: examiners also use extrinsic evidence, evidence outside the dead body.
23:06
Speaker 1: For instance, in that case, the cops the arson detectives
23:12
Speaker 1: looked at the last time the victim was alive, the
23:14
Speaker 1: last time she used her cell phone. They look at
23:16
Speaker 1: other evidence to help them pinpoint the time of death.
23:19
Speaker 1: And in this case, Cloud Steiger since as I believe
23:24
Speaker 1: it was. You mentioned that her trent was still open,
23:28
Speaker 1: she was near the back of her vehicle. I would
23:30
Speaker 1: look at the grocery store receipt. I would look for
23:33
Speaker 1: surveillance video at the grocery store, surveillance video in the
23:36
Speaker 1: neighborhood to help me as I determined time of death.
23:40
Speaker 1: Cloud Steiger. Yeah, the time of death is a very
23:43
Speaker 1: inact in in precise science for cloners. So they're looking
23:47
Speaker 1: for any outside information, and that's exactly the right. You'd
23:50
Speaker 1: go to the store to pick her out in the video,
23:53
Speaker 1: see if anybody was falling her around anything suspicious. Maybe
23:55
Speaker 1: you can see the parking lot cat, anybody follow her
23:58
Speaker 1: car out. Those are the type of things you're going
23:59
Speaker 1: to look for, you know, Wendy Patrick, If you watch
24:01
Speaker 1: TV enough, you find out that in all of the
24:05
Speaker 1: crime mysteries, the medical exandra look said the last food
24:10
Speaker 1: that they had in their stomach, and then suddenly they
24:12
Speaker 1: have a time of death, like, aha, she had French
24:14
Speaker 1: toes at eleven am. You know what, It's not like that.
24:17
Speaker 1: You don't know what times she had French toes. You
24:19
Speaker 1: don't it gets it's that's funny, ironic that it's boiled
24:25
Speaker 1: down to that. But I guess that's one of the
24:27
Speaker 1: things you would look at, right, It is one of
24:29
Speaker 1: the things you would look at, because sometimes when you
24:31
Speaker 1: see a dead body, it might be obvious as to
24:33
Speaker 1: what the cause of death is, but usually it's not.
24:35
Speaker 1: For example, you might see a lot of blood at
24:37
Speaker 1: the scene, but somebody didn't die of bleeding out. There
24:40
Speaker 1: might be some other cause of death. So that's why
24:42
Speaker 1: autopsy results are so important. But you are correct that
24:45
Speaker 1: you can't just look at one thing and then do
24:47
Speaker 1: that extrapolation backwards, which is why common sense clues like this,
24:52
Speaker 1: what time, what's the timestamp on the receipt? When did
24:55
Speaker 1: somebody see her? When did she last use herself phone?
24:57
Speaker 1: If in fact it was her. Sometimes the very sense
25:00
Speaker 1: clues are a better indication of cause of death than
25:02
Speaker 1: the medical things that we think might be obvious. And
25:05
Speaker 1: another thing here and start. I don't want to live
25:07
Speaker 1: in fear, But this woman had been gardening in her
25:10
Speaker 1: front yard. Low crime area. Neighbors saw our gardening. She
25:13
Speaker 1: went to the grocery store. She came back getting her groceries,
25:16
Speaker 1: apparently out of her trunk. She's shot dead. It makes
25:19
Speaker 1: you afraid to even get out from under the bed.
25:22
Speaker 1: And it's a small town, and as you said, Nancy,
25:25
Speaker 1: there's really very low crime. They don't really know things
25:28
Speaker 1: like this, so don't be afraid. I think that this
25:31
Speaker 1: was a fluke. I think that whatever happened here, it
25:35
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the fact that she was
25:37
Speaker 1: out in gardening. Something went very, very wrong. Guys, I
25:40
Speaker 1: want you to take a listen to news Channel six.
25:43
Speaker 1: Is there a break in the case, reporter Alyssa ostrodoc
25:47
Speaker 1: suspects who then demanded property and later shot her before
25:50
Speaker 1: fleeing a scene. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank
25:55
Speaker 1: our citizens for the tips that they called in, texted us,
25:58
Speaker 1: and emailed with appreciate if you would continue that as
26:01
Speaker 1: this investigation continues, citizens to be alert of their surroundings
26:05
Speaker 1: and be aware of that. But I would just say
26:09
Speaker 1: exercise caution as you normally would. Detective Laughlin said citizens
26:14
Speaker 1: did come forward with information that helped point investigators in
26:17
Speaker 1: the right direction. The investigation is still ongoing, but Chief
26:21
Speaker 1: Arrego says that WFPD is always open to any information
26:24
Speaker 1: that the public can provide. But what super secret information
26:30
Speaker 1: that is apparently pointing cops in a particular direction to
26:33
Speaker 1: take a listen to KFDX Darryl Franklin and Melanie Townsend
26:37
Speaker 1: twn Arctics officers found a white male with a bag
26:41
Speaker 1: in the twenty three hundred blog and they say right
26:43
Speaker 1: next to them was a fire on the sidewalk and
26:45
Speaker 1: they quickly put it out. They say they found charred
26:48
Speaker 1: remains of cards and papers with High's name on them,
26:52
Speaker 1: as well as her purse. Coy was then taken to
26:54
Speaker 1: the police station, where they say he was read his rights.
26:57
Speaker 1: They say Coy weighed his rights and con yes that
27:00
Speaker 1: he knew the purse belonged to the woman who was murdered,
27:03
Speaker 1: and that he started the fire to destroy the evidence.
27:06
Speaker 1: Autopsy reports have not been released. Crime stoffers as still
27:09
Speaker 1: asking for tips and is still offering a twenty five reward.
27:13
Speaker 1: Please are also asking residents in this area to check
27:17
Speaker 1: their surveillance camera recordings to look out for anything that
27:20
Speaker 1: may be related to this murder. You know, so, now
27:23
Speaker 1: what am I? Is this? Correct? To leavipage crime online
27:26
Speaker 1: dot com investigative reporter that two narcotic drug cops are out,
27:32
Speaker 1: I guess on their regular beat and they see a
27:36
Speaker 1: guy burning papers. They go over and they find a bag.
27:41
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if they're talking about a pocketbook, and in
27:44
Speaker 1: it they discover items and they look at what was
27:47
Speaker 1: being burned, and it's Carolyn High's papers that would have
27:51
Speaker 1: been in her pocketbook. What can you tell me? Yes,
27:54
Speaker 1: Forty six year old Toy Davenport. He was arrested for
27:58
Speaker 1: campering with evidence in the Caroline High murder investigation. And
28:02
Speaker 1: he started a fire and was burning her belongings and
28:06
Speaker 1: some of them were credit and debit cards that were
28:09
Speaker 1: attributed back to Carol and High. And what's interesting is
28:12
Speaker 1: the guy that has her purse and her credit cards says, yeah,
28:16
Speaker 1: I know they belonged to the dead dance instructor Crime
28:32
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. What happened to a beloved dance instructor,
28:39
Speaker 1: Carolyn High? Take a listen to kf DX. This is
28:43
Speaker 1: Melanie Townsend and Darryl Franklin again. Forty six year old
28:46
Speaker 1: COI Lead Davenport was arrested on a charge of tampering
28:49
Speaker 1: with physical evidence. Record searches show no previous arrests or
28:53
Speaker 1: convictions for Devenport. Sixty five year old Caroline High was
28:56
Speaker 1: found dead on her driveway Sunday in the thirty five Cumberland.
29:00
Speaker 1: The affidavit for Davenport's arrest states the victim's daughter, Tanya Florida,
29:05
Speaker 1: called nine one to report she'd found her mother in
29:08
Speaker 1: the driveway unresponsive. The first officer on the scene Sunday
29:12
Speaker 1: afternoon said Hi was on her back, apparently dead, and
29:15
Speaker 1: there was blood on the ground. At a shell casing nearby,
29:18
Speaker 1: The officers said Florida told him her mother had gone
29:21
Speaker 1: out the night before and that she always keeps her
29:23
Speaker 1: purse in the trunk of her car, which was open
29:26
Speaker 1: and the purse was missing. Police say a confidential informant
29:30
Speaker 1: contacted the Organized crime Unit just after midnight on Tuesday
29:34
Speaker 1: and said a man named Koi had highest purse and
29:37
Speaker 1: credit cards. Now we know she was in her yard
29:40
Speaker 1: gardening that day that Sunday and had been to the
29:43
Speaker 1: grocery store in broad daylight. She's attacked that a purse
29:48
Speaker 1: ends up elsewhere. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags.
29:53
Speaker 1: That's kind of tough to believe. This guy has her pocketbook,
29:56
Speaker 1: but says he had nothing to do with her murder.
29:59
Speaker 1: He just got her pocket book that's a little tough
30:00
Speaker 1: to swallow and is in the process of destroying evidence,
30:04
Speaker 1: and that's what makes it so incriminating looking just from
30:08
Speaker 1: the outside. But even though it looks really bad, this
30:11
Speaker 1: is one of those scenes that just begs for more
30:14
Speaker 1: investigation because of the nature of this particular crime. Without
30:18
Speaker 1: any forensic evidence or eyewitnesses tying this man to the scene,
30:22
Speaker 1: there has to be more of a timeline to automatically
30:24
Speaker 1: think this is the suspect, even though to the untrained
30:28
Speaker 1: ear and eye it sure seems suspicious at first glance. Yeah,
30:31
Speaker 1: it takes more than just wrong place, wrong time, wrong
30:34
Speaker 1: pocketbook to get a murder conviction. Apparently cops are going
30:38
Speaker 1: along with the fact that he's got the dead woman's
30:40
Speaker 1: pocketbook and burning the contents because listen to this kf
30:45
Speaker 1: DX Lauren Lynville officers responded to a call from High's daughter.
30:50
Speaker 1: When officers arrived, they saw High lying in the driveway
30:53
Speaker 1: across from Jared Park. Crimes against Persons Unit, as well
30:56
Speaker 1: as the justice of the piece we're called to the
30:58
Speaker 1: scene knows something, no matter how insignificant they think it
31:02
Speaker 1: might be. Please let us know. Call crime stoppers because
31:06
Speaker 1: it may be that one piece of evidence that we're
31:08
Speaker 1: looking forward to connect some other dots that we already
31:10
Speaker 1: have on the board. Please say, forty six year old
31:12
Speaker 1: COYLEI Davenport, who was arrested Tuesday after officers found charred
31:16
Speaker 1: remains of cards and papers with High's name on them,
31:19
Speaker 1: as well as her purse, is not connected to the murder.
31:22
Speaker 1: They say he got the purse after the incident. Okay,
31:25
Speaker 1: now that's a stretch, but it could be true. The
31:28
Speaker 1: guy found with her purse burning, the contents of the
31:31
Speaker 1: purse not connected to the murder. Okay, but how can
31:36
Speaker 1: he help us? How can he help us find the killers?
31:39
Speaker 1: If he's not connected, how did he find the purse?
31:41
Speaker 1: Who gave it to him? Take a listen to k
31:43
Speaker 1: f d X Lauren Linville. Officers with the Witch off
31:46
Speaker 1: Falls Police Department arrested eighteen year old Seandre Ransom and
31:50
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Xavion Denson yesterday. WFPD officers executed two
31:56
Speaker 1: search warrants after interviews and follow up investigations. They're charged
32:00
Speaker 1: with engaging in organized criminal activity, capital murder, and in
32:04
Speaker 1: the Wichita County jail on a one point five million
32:07
Speaker 1: dollar bond each According to an arrest Affidavid Denson confessed
32:11
Speaker 1: to going with Ransom and two other males who have
32:14
Speaker 1: not been identified to look for someone to rob. WFPD
32:18
Speaker 1: Detective John Laughlin says it appears that on Saturday, January
32:21
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, Hi had been out and when she returned
32:24
Speaker 1: home and pulled into her driveway, Ransom and Denson approached
32:27
Speaker 1: her and demanded her purse before shooting and killing her,
32:30
Speaker 1: then taking her purse. Coming back from the grocery store
32:33
Speaker 1: in her own driveway, a dance instructor gunned down by
32:38
Speaker 1: a robbing crew, as it is called levi page Crime
32:44
Speaker 1: online dot com. Explain to me, so these guys what
32:47
Speaker 1: they just get in a car and roam around looking
32:50
Speaker 1: for somebody to rob. Do I understand that correctly she
32:52
Speaker 1: had to die. You're Craig Nancy. Police received a tip
32:56
Speaker 1: and led them to these two teams, Shandre Ransom eighteen
33:00
Speaker 1: and Xavion Denson, seventeen, and police actually went to their
33:04
Speaker 1: apartment and they were in possession of a stolen car
33:07
Speaker 1: that was connected to another robbery separate from this in Waco, Texas.
33:11
Speaker 1: And then they questioned the girlfriend of one of the
33:14
Speaker 1: suspects and she said that the two had bragged about
33:17
Speaker 1: killing and robbing Carolyn High, and when police started interrogating them,
33:22
Speaker 1: Xavion Denson confessed that he murdered Caroline High. He said
33:27
Speaker 1: he and his friends were trying to find anyone random
33:30
Speaker 1: to rob. They came across sixty five year old Carol
33:33
Speaker 1: and High in her driveway. They pointed a gun at her,
33:36
Speaker 1: asked her for her purse. She resisted them, and then
33:39
Speaker 1: they shot her dead and took her purse. You know
33:43
Speaker 1: what really caps it off from me, Justice Scott Morgan.
33:47
Speaker 1: They bragged they were bragging the big guys overpowered a
33:52
Speaker 1: little sixty five year old lady with groceries in her hands. Wow,
33:58
Speaker 1: they're the badasses into aren't day? I mean? And then
34:03
Speaker 1: they bragged about it to their girlfriend, Joe Scott. Yeah,
34:06
Speaker 1: real big men that would do this to this poor
34:09
Speaker 1: woman who had served her community and served, you know,
34:12
Speaker 1: impacted so many lives. I've got a little girl and
34:14
Speaker 1: she took dance. I've seen the nutcracker more times than
34:18
Speaker 1: I can count in my life. But you know, my
34:21
Speaker 1: daughter loved her dance teacher. She had a big impact
34:23
Speaker 1: and this woman had a big impact. But you know,
34:25
Speaker 1: something that's really interesting to me is that they would
34:28
Speaker 1: be so bold to shoot this poor woman in her driveway.
34:31
Speaker 1: And that gives me an indication forensically that if we
34:34
Speaker 1: can take that casing that we mentioned just a moment
34:37
Speaker 1: ago and tied back to that weapon, if they're so
34:40
Speaker 1: bold to do this right now, I wonder how many
34:42
Speaker 1: other crimes that weapon may have been involved in. Remember,
34:46
Speaker 1: we've got an indication that something has happened down in Waco.
34:49
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if maybe this weapon has been used before.
34:53
Speaker 1: These people are so bold to do this, who knows
34:56
Speaker 1: what they would have done in the dark at night.
34:58
Speaker 1: You know, josephs got Morgan, that's a really good point.
35:01
Speaker 1: We know, we've got APHIS, the Fingerprint Data Bank wheat
35:05
Speaker 1: to so they find a fingerprint in a crime. That fingerprint,
35:08
Speaker 1: if you can lift it, can be plugged into in
35:11
Speaker 1: and into APHIS to see if it matches any convicted
35:15
Speaker 1: founds or anybody in the APHA's data bank codas DNA
35:18
Speaker 1: data bank. There's actually a data bank for weapons as well. Explain. Yeah,
35:23
Speaker 1: it's actually managed by ATF. And the reason it's managed
35:27
Speaker 1: by ATF is, you know, they examine firearms from all
35:30
Speaker 1: over the country, and they're really involved in examining gang
35:34
Speaker 1: violence and they have this network that's really plugged in
35:37
Speaker 1: with weapons, and it's amazing, Nancy. In the cases I've
35:40
Speaker 1: worked over the course of my career, how many weapons
35:43
Speaker 1: are passed around many times to other people. There was
35:46
Speaker 1: actually a group of people in Atlanta that would rent
35:49
Speaker 1: weapons to individuals that wanted to go do strong arm
35:52
Speaker 1: robberies and this sort of thing. So over that period
35:55
Speaker 1: of time, this weapon has a history, and you can
35:58
Speaker 1: tie it back on that shell casing. In particular, there's something,
36:01
Speaker 1: because I'm assuming it's a it's a semi automatic, there's
36:04
Speaker 1: something that are called extraction marks. That means when that
36:07
Speaker 1: spent casing is pulled out, there is a specific ballistic
36:11
Speaker 1: fingerprint or machining imprint that's left on the sides of
36:16
Speaker 1: that shot. You know, I love it when you talk
36:18
Speaker 1: like that, but let me just try regular people talk.
36:21
Speaker 1: When a gun is created, as you know, it's metal
36:25
Speaker 1: and it's forged, and as that hot metal dries on
36:30
Speaker 1: the inside of the barrel, there are little marks, like
36:34
Speaker 1: little specs, and when a bullet hurtles down the inside
36:39
Speaker 1: of a barrel, the metal of the bullet hits the
36:41
Speaker 1: metal of the barrel and it makes permanent striation of
36:45
Speaker 1: scratch marks on the bullet. And every bullet is shot
36:49
Speaker 1: from that gun makes those marks. It's like a fingerprint. Yeah,
36:53
Speaker 1: we know about a stolen car connected to this gun.
36:57
Speaker 1: You know another issue, what do we know by page
37:01
Speaker 1: the four suspects das seventeen dents and seventeen morales nineteen
37:06
Speaker 1: ransom eighteen, all teens, but all part of the same act,
37:11
Speaker 1: Wendy Patrick, There is the death penalty in that jurisdiction. Now,
37:16
Speaker 1: supremes say you can't put DPA death penalty on anybody
37:20
Speaker 1: eighteen or under, but there's one here that's nineteen. Yeah,
37:24
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things that probably takes this
37:26
Speaker 1: case out of the norm is that you're right, you
37:28
Speaker 1: have four people that are both that are all charged
37:30
Speaker 1: with the same crime. Obviously we're going to have to
37:32
Speaker 1: figure out respective levels of culpability. But you can imagine
37:35
Speaker 1: a defense argument if you're going to have three that
37:38
Speaker 1: are not eligible and they're all culpable. You can see
37:40
Speaker 1: how that's an argument to the court that may actually
37:43
Speaker 1: be persuasive. I say that because of the trend across
37:47
Speaker 1: the country towards not imposing those types of penalties on juveniles.
37:51
Speaker 1: We've seen it over the years, but you are correct,
37:53
Speaker 1: But technically that's something the prosecution can go for if
37:56
Speaker 1: they decide to. Yeah, I don't think it's going to
37:58
Speaker 1: work because the other three code IF would not be
38:00
Speaker 1: able to be facing the death penalty. Also nineteen years old,
38:05
Speaker 1: we wait as justice unfolds and the at random shooting
38:13
Speaker 1: death of a beloved dance instructor Nancy Grace crime story
38:19
Speaker 1: signing off Goodbye friend,