Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Taken Too Soon The Chilling Case of 13-Year-Old Lauren Landavazo

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True Crime Documentary - Taken Too Soon The Chilling Case of 13-Year-Old Lauren Landavazo · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, here goes Lauren.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: She's all embarrassed.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Oh ah, flashing the peace sign in the duck lips.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: That's pretty common in pictures for her. One of her
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: early selfies.
• 0:29
  Speaker 5: I think that's when she'd realized she could take such
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: good selfies.
• 0:33
  Speaker 6: Lauren is just so friendly. She talked to everybody. She
• 0:35
  Speaker 6: knew so many people. I was always amazed, like, how
• 0:38
  Speaker 6: do you know her?
• 0:39
  Speaker 7: How do you know him?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: This social butterfly, That's how she was.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: She was one of the most popular girls in school.
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: And it wasn't because she was in the popular crowd
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: or anything, just because.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Of who she was.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: She's a stay up late at night in her room
• 0:56
  Speaker 6: trying to help her friends. She was just the most
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: compassionate person I've ever met in my life.
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: People were starting to run down the street. One of
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: our neighbors went by and stopped and said something.
• 1:12
  Speaker 8: Police raced to the scene to find two thirteen year
• 1:14
  Speaker 8: old girls shot.
• 1:16
  Speaker 6: I run in just in a panic, and I'm like,
• 1:19
  Speaker 6: you said, kids are down, and he's like what, And
• 1:21
  Speaker 6: I couldn't wait.
• 1:22
  Speaker 7: I just took off.
• 1:26
  Speaker 9: You don't know if it's gonna be a mass shooting
• 1:28
  Speaker 9: or somebody's run around shooting students or you know, if
• 1:30
  Speaker 9: this is one time deal.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: I just thought, this is crazy. There's a thousand kids
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: at that school. Whatever happened, it's not her, It can't
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: be her. And I don't know who answered her phone.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: But I just heard somebody screaming.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So I run down the street as fast as I can.
• 1:45
  Speaker 6: Oh.
• 1:46
  Speaker 7: I saw was people everywhere.
• 1:50
  Speaker 8: There was no logical reason that we could think of
• 1:54
  Speaker 8: to where someone had just gone down. A thirteen year.
• 1:58
  Speaker 6: Old girl stayed here because you know, it's a good
• 2:01
  Speaker 6: place and raise kids and it's safe.
• 2:05
  Speaker 7: You just gotten down. My daughter, m h a stranger.
• 2:10
  Speaker 7: We don't even know you. She don't know you.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: That was the first day that we didn't wake up
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: from a nightmare. We woke up to a nightmare and
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: we've been waking up to one ever since.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, yeah, I'm daddy. Are you did you get
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: a picture taken?
• 2:49
  Speaker 7: Do you have that one of cho.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: That's the haircut that you dreamed about the years before.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: It was like a watching a home movie, a premonition.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I'm shore crying. It's one of my favorite pictures. That
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: was Christmas or Christmas outfit.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: That's when she was wearing when she saw Santa Claus.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: When I was pregnant.
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: I knew it was gonna be a girl, because I
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: know I dreamed of her, so it was so real,
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: just dream behind an old fashioned camera, you know the
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: kind that you crank with the handle, and there.
• 3:38
  Speaker 7: Was this little girl.
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: So at first I didn't know who this little girl was.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: She had the short bob, she was about seven or
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: eight years old, and it was Lauren.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Hi, this is Laura, your favorite host.
• 3:54
  Speaker 7: N NY is Lauren.
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: And I just knew it was our daughters because she
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: had pulled on Ferne's pant leg, on his Jane's she
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: was pulling it.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And she looked up and she said daddy, and it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: was over. And I just knew that was our daughter.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: And as soon as they pulled her out, I was
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: in love everything I could have hoped for. I just
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: kind of spent a few minutes just looking into her eyes.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: She was just staring back, kind of just in disbelief
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: that we finally had the daughter that I had always wanted.
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: She was beautiful, the most beautiful baby. She was just
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: full of, full of life. A lot of my most
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: precious moments with her were just knowing when I'm coming
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: home from work in the afternoon that she would be waiting.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: When I pulled up, she's already opening the door and hugging.
• 5:01
  Speaker 10: Oh god, she was so funny.
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: I mean, this is like every day she'd come out,
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: she'd like to surprise us, come out of her bedroom
• 5:10
  Speaker 6: and dressed all crazy. She'd have this crazy makeup on
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: and big eyebrows, and she'd put on this like costume,
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: you know from Halloween, or a pair of weird pajamas
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: and come out and you just start laughing. I mean,
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: she just had you laughing in tears or my stomach
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: would hurt so bad from laughing with her. She's just fun,
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: just random, and I love that about her. You know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: she was unpredictable, just never knew what she was going
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: to do.
• 5:46
  Speaker 11: Well.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: Last time I saw Lauren was Thursday night before that Friday,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: and I was going to bed. I just drum on
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: the top of her head and I told, really loved room,
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: it's for a good night.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Berne goes to work and he leaves before us. Lauren
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: was running late.
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: My friend took her to school that day, and so
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: I was telling Lauren getting on her like you need
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: a hurry. She's waiting, you know, can't keep her waiting.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: But I did give her a kiss and so told
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: her I loved her. And it was a beautiful day.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: It's almost like a spring weather. It was just a
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: beautiful day.
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: And I went to work.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: And I even posted a selfie that day and said
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: life is good.
• 6:44
  Speaker 11: It was fairly early in the school year. School had
• 6:46
  Speaker 11: just started and it was a Friday before the weekend.
• 6:51
  Speaker 11: She and her best friend Michayla were walking home from
• 6:53
  Speaker 11: school and what Michaela said was they were talking about
• 6:56
  Speaker 11: boys and what they were going to do that weekend
• 6:58
  Speaker 11: and just typical thirteen year old conversation and just having
• 7:01
  Speaker 11: a good time, smiling and laughing and joking. And other
• 7:04
  Speaker 11: children from the junior higher were also walking in the alleyway.
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: I'm waiting for Lauren to gome. I know it should
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: be soon, and a truck pulled up. My friend goes,
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: is Lauren home yet? And I'm like, know why?
• 7:26
  Speaker 7: And she said, kids are down, that's all she said.
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: I heard the front door open and I heard Bianca.
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: I saw her run, and I don't really know what
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: was going on. So I got in my truck and
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: I started a follow her.
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: So I run down the street as best as I can.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: I saw was people everywhere in the crime scene tape.
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: I didn't know about, you know, her friend being shot.
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: I know about anything with gunshots at all.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: That I keep looking at.
• 8:08
  Speaker 10: I'm look now at my daughter's later.
• 8:14
  Speaker 7: On her back.
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: Her head was during this way, so she's looking right appy,
• 8:27
  Speaker 6: and she's the only one I see. I knew she
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: was gone. I can't explain it. I knew she was gone,
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: and I know I was screaming, I guess really loud
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: and horrible screams. But I know I was calling her
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: to come back. I felt like she was going to
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: the light and I was trying to get her to
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: come back, you know, don't go, please come back, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: nobody was working on her.
• 8:57
  Speaker 7: She's just laying there by herself. I couldn't understand why.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Probably went into shock.
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: But all I remember is like a white cloud everywhere,
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: like a fog, and just seeing her laying there, and.
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: I know I kept asking what happened, what happened? Someone
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: tell me, please tell me what happened. I don't know
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: who said it, but someone just said she was shot.
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: I think I went to my knees at that point.
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: And people were trying to hold me up and I
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: couldn't go to my babe.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: And they let me ride in the ambulance in the
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: front seat, and I kept looking back and just telling
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: her to hang on. I heard him say, I have
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: a heartbeat, and I thought, oh my god, she's a lie.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: They have a heartbeat.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: I didn't know at the time it was just an
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: artificial heartbeat, but I thought she was still alive. So
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: when we got to the hospital and he took her
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: into the room, Mikayla's mom was out there in the hallway,
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: and I just remember hugging her and telling her that
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: I that I was praying for Michayla, that she would
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: be all right.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: I found out about Mikayla, I believe when I got
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: to the hospital and when yelled out she was shot.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: And that's all the information I had and story. I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: got in this room by myself.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: I'm pacing around and then finally Burne comes in and
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: I'm telling him that Lauren didn't make.
• 10:28
  Speaker 10: It, and he's just like, no, no, no.
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: They were working on her in the ambulance. They were
• 10:35
  Speaker 7: working on her.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I said, we're in this room.
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: She didn't make it. Burned telling you, I don't know
• 10:44
  Speaker 7: how long before the door opened, and.
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: I think it was a couple doctors, maybe two or
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: three people walking and just shook their head, didn't.
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: Make it, and that was it.
• 11:06
  Speaker 8: Shots are fired in an alley just off the fifty
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: one hundred block of Kingston Avenue. Police race to the
• 11:12
  Speaker 8: scene to find two thirteen year old girls shot. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 8: was in the newsroom at Channel six here in Wichita Falls,
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: so we heard the call go out as it went
• 11:26
  Speaker 8: out to police that there was gunshots, that we had
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: two victims. We had a reporter and a photographer on
• 11:33
  Speaker 8: the way. We dispatched them immediately just to get to
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: that direction so that we could find out more information.
• 11:39
  Speaker 8: When the news came out, the city felt shock. Everyone
• 11:42
  Speaker 8: was in shock. Everyone wanted to know where their kids
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: were at that moment, we had a killer on the loose.
• 11:50
  Speaker 11: Once I get there, there's a lot of chaos because
• 11:53
  Speaker 11: this was so unusual for witch Talk Falls, and they
• 11:56
  Speaker 11: didn't have a suspect. I talked to the head detect
• 12:00
  Speaker 11: and they update me with information of what they know
• 12:02
  Speaker 11: about the case.
• 12:04
  Speaker 10: People were crying and upset.
• 12:07
  Speaker 11: You can only imagine parents their children were walking home
• 12:10
  Speaker 11: and they hear on the news that two young children
• 12:13
  Speaker 11: have been shot.
• 12:15
  Speaker 9: It was one of the first times that I've been
• 12:17
  Speaker 9: mayored that the community all together paused. It's like the
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: community banded together. It didn't matter if you're a Republican
• 12:22
  Speaker 9: or a Democrat, if you were black or white. They
• 12:25
  Speaker 9: wanted to get it right, bring this killer to justice.
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: When we got here, I just remember having to go
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: into her room, which she was not the neatest kid
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: in the world, and it was just a mess.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: But I just remember going and laying down on her
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: bed and just just crying.
• 12:50
  Speaker 8: In the world would motivate someone to just drive up,
• 12:54
  Speaker 8: roll down their window, point a gun out the window,
• 12:57
  Speaker 8: and then just open fire on a thirteen year old
• 13:00
  Speaker 8: girl walking home from school. There was no rhyme or
• 13:03
  Speaker 8: reason at all as to what was behind it.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: The police, you know, had come to our house to
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: talk to us.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: They went Lauren's room and took you know, her phone,
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: and took her iPad and all this stuff get any
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: kind of information see if it's someone she was messaging
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: or new or you know, to look at all the
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: text messages and all that stuff. And then the police
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: officer did tell me that I'm just gonna be honest
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: with you. We may never catch who did this. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: I was looked at him like.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Like I can't. I don't know how do I even
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: take that. I'm like, what do you mean? He goes,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: we may never catch who did this to your daughter.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Lauren was my mini me.
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: She's taller than she got taller than me, so she
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: couldn't wear my shoes anymore. I was happy, like, he
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: can't wear my shoes anymore.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Lauren awesome, Cooler than penguin feet. That's what I like
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: to say about Lauren.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: She was very cool.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: After Lauren had been murdered, there was a lot of
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: outpouring from her friends and some of their parents. One
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: lady had written to another lady about her son was
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: a transfer from one junior high school in town to
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: another to where Lauren went. And on the first day
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: that he went there, he was kind of really worried.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: About lunch time. He didn't know anybody, so he went
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: into the lunch room that day and sat by himself.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: I guess within a few minutes Laura had gone over
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: to him and introduced herself and invited.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: That kind of stuff. And it still makes me cry.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: To think about it, just I didn't know anybody like
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: that in eighth grade. Eighth grader is usually that nice.
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: When I was in eighth grade, I remember eighth grade
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: being full of really nice people.
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: And that kid will never forget it. A man meant
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: so much. Lauren did that, But that's just what she did.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: You didn't have to tell her or do anything like that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: She just did it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: So to hear all those, you know, stories after the fact,
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: you know, we're just so proud of her daughter, and
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: I just can't even tell you.
• 15:39
  Speaker 8: Lauren lon Devoso does not survive. Michayla Smith is rushed
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: to the hospital and recovers and a manhunt begins. This
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: is the area that Lauren and Michaela was shot at,
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: and from what we understand, they were coming down this
• 15:57
  Speaker 8: sidewalk walking home from school and the car pulled up
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: right behind us, pointed a gun out the window, opened
• 16:03
  Speaker 8: fire and killed Lauren, shooting her fourteen times. Eight of
• 16:07
  Speaker 8: those shots were fatal.
• 16:10
  Speaker 9: It kind of burst my bubble telling you the truth
• 16:12
  Speaker 9: because we don't have this in our community. Situations like
• 16:14
  Speaker 9: that happened, you know, in a Chicago or la or
• 16:17
  Speaker 9: in New York City. Those things don't happen here, but
• 16:19
  Speaker 9: it was a reality check that those things can happen
• 16:22
  Speaker 9: here Winchitol Falls.
• 16:25
  Speaker 8: Mikayla Smith was shot in the chest and she turned
• 16:29
  Speaker 8: around and she said she could see Lauren laying there,
• 16:32
  Speaker 8: and she could see her feet, and she called her
• 16:35
  Speaker 8: name a few times, but she didn't move. There were
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: kids all around that saw this. This was a very
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: public murder.
• 16:44
  Speaker 11: There were a lot of children that witnessed the crime
• 16:47
  Speaker 11: that officers had to talk to, and it becomes difficult
• 16:50
  Speaker 11: because they're so young. You're dealing with twelve thirteen year
• 16:56
  Speaker 11: old children that had just seen something so horrific that
• 17:00
  Speaker 11: they never expected in their life.
• 17:04
  Speaker 12: Anyone who's ever interviewed a traumatized child, particularly one that
• 17:08
  Speaker 12: just witnessed their friend begunned down and shot in front
• 17:12
  Speaker 12: of them, knows that it's not something that comes through quickly.
• 17:17
  Speaker 12: Asking the questions alone can be so traumatizing a child
• 17:20
  Speaker 12: will just cry and scream and shut down.
• 17:26
  Speaker 11: We didn't know at the time Lauren's friend, Michayla Smith,
• 17:29
  Speaker 11: had actually locked eyes with the killer. She had a
• 17:34
  Speaker 11: description he had shaggy brown hair, that he was younger,
• 17:36
  Speaker 11: and he was a white male, so that's what we
• 17:38
  Speaker 11: were looking for.
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: We were working very hard to get descriptions out of
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: via social media, on air, every avenue, trying to bombard
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: literally the community with information so that we could find
• 17:53
  Speaker 8: who did this. At that point, no one knew if
• 17:58
  Speaker 8: he was still out there. One knew if he was
• 18:00
  Speaker 8: in the area, if he'd gone away. Nobody knew.
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: Michaelis saw him right in his eyes, and that's what
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: she recalls, you know. Thank god she had that information
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: and thank god she survived. How many people in town
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: have shaggy hair and their young men, I mean tons
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: of them.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: They didn't have any leads for one thing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: They had two different description of vehicles, you know, a
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: black truck and a suv different color.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: That's about all they had.
• 18:29
  Speaker 11: The police alerted the community about the vehicles and let
• 18:33
  Speaker 11: us know if you've seen any vehicles matching either in
• 18:35
  Speaker 11: the black truck with the chrome or the gold suv.
• 18:39
  Speaker 10: We had no success on that.
• 18:42
  Speaker 8: There was an appetite to get this guy behind bars
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: as fast as possible. I'm not kidding. Everybody was looking
• 18:47
  Speaker 8: for that car. They wanted justice done.
• 19:00
  Speaker 11: By Sunday, around eleven o'clock, I received a call from
• 19:04
  Speaker 11: the sergeant detective. He thought that Mikayla Smith might have
• 19:08
  Speaker 11: gotten a good enough look at him, they might be
• 19:11
  Speaker 11: able to employ.
• 19:12
  Speaker 10: A sketch artist.
• 19:13
  Speaker 11: In twenty four years, I've never okayed that, and for
• 19:17
  Speaker 11: the first time, because we had nothing to go on,
• 19:20
  Speaker 11: I said, yes.
• 19:22
  Speaker 12: Sketches in crimes could be an asset if the description
• 19:26
  Speaker 12: is clear and accurate, and you can get a description
• 19:30
  Speaker 12: out that people can actually visualize and help police getting
• 19:33
  Speaker 12: them to a suspect a lot quicker, but could also
• 19:37
  Speaker 12: come with a lot of risks if your witness is
• 19:40
  Speaker 12: misremembering something and that now becomes canonized in this sketch
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: and people immediately assume that this sketch is accurate. In
• 19:49
  Speaker 12: this case, the primary witness was a child, and so
• 19:52
  Speaker 12: when accuracy of the description and the impact on the
• 19:56
  Speaker 12: public is so paramount, there was a lot writing this
• 20:00
  Speaker 12: poor young, traumatized girl.
• 20:09
  Speaker 11: Within an hour of me Okaine a sketch artist. Unbeknownst
• 20:13
  Speaker 11: to me, a woman and her fiance were going to
• 20:17
  Speaker 11: look at the makeshift memorial that people in the community
• 20:21
  Speaker 11: had made, and about that time, a gold suv slowed
• 20:26
  Speaker 11: down and stopped and then continued on and it matched
• 20:32
  Speaker 11: the description of one of the suspect vehicles.
• 20:36
  Speaker 10: They ended up.
• 20:37
  Speaker 11: Following that gold suv and a young white male with
• 20:41
  Speaker 11: shaggy hair got out of his vehicle and he looked
• 20:43
  Speaker 11: nervous and he was looking around. Went to the passenger
• 20:46
  Speaker 11: side and retrieved an item which was a long item
• 20:51
  Speaker 11: wrapped in a blanket and what they believed to be
• 20:54
  Speaker 11: the end of a rifle sticking out of that. He
• 21:07
  Speaker 11: came out without that item that looked like a rifle
• 21:11
  Speaker 11: wrapped in a blanket. And so she called nine one
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: one and they asked her to take down the license plate,
• 21:17
  Speaker 11: which she did so then she calls that into dispatch
• 21:23
  Speaker 11: and it's a suspect that matches the description of Michayla Smith,
• 21:27
  Speaker 11: and there's reasonable suspicion to pull that vehicle over that
• 21:32
  Speaker 11: that might be the suspect.
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: So there was a police officer that was just down
• 21:36
  Speaker 8: the road that heard the call that immediately got behind
• 21:39
  Speaker 8: the vehicle, followed it from a minute, and then pulled
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: it over on a traffic violation.
• 22:06
  Speaker 11: The patrol officer asked for consent to search the gold Suv,
• 22:11
  Speaker 11: which the driver consented because, unbeknownst to the police department,
• 22:16
  Speaker 11: he'd already cleaned out the vehicle.
• 22:18
  Speaker 10: So the officer searches the vehicle. They find a brass.
• 22:22
  Speaker 11: Shell casing from a weapon, and in the meantime, he
• 22:29
  Speaker 11: found a backpack. He searched it and he found brass knuckles,
• 22:35
  Speaker 11: and in the state of Texas at that time, brass
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: knuckles were a prohibited weapon, and so the driver then
• 22:41
  Speaker 11: was placed under arrest. My first reaction was relief because
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: of the safety of the community, and you just want
• 22:49
  Speaker 11: to say, heck, yes, we got him.
• 22:53
  Speaker 8: We got word. There was going to be a press
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: conference and the chief was gonna do it, And all
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: I could think was the him, He's going to tell
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: us that they've got him. I just knew it. And
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: sure enough the police you came out and said, we've
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: arrested a suspect and his name is Cody Lott, twenty
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: year old Cody Lot. It's arrested after a traffic stop
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: on Southwest park Way. Police find a gun, among other
• 23:18
  Speaker 8: things believed to be evidence that could have been involved
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: in the shooting.
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: Two days after, rumors start happening, and I do remember
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: someone coming up with a picture of this guy and
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: I'm like, who.
• 23:34
  Speaker 11: The hell is that?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Like, who is that and she goes, this is a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: guy who killed Lauren.
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: This is him.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: The fact that they caught him and the woman who
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: saw him and called the police was all because of
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: Lauren guiding us and making sure.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: That we got justice for her.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: To me, that's divine, And from the moment that this happened,
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: I feel like I had been guided from above my daughter,
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: and I know that she had everything to do with
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: that woman being there at that time to see what
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: she saw.
• 24:09
  Speaker 11: Cody Lot was not on anybody's radar. He was pretty
• 24:14
  Speaker 11: much a loaner. He didn't have a good employment record,
• 24:17
  Speaker 11: he did drugs, and he just was a young male
• 24:21
  Speaker 11: that was dysfunctional.
• 24:25
  Speaker 8: The process begins as he's taken downtown and they start
• 24:28
  Speaker 8: to ask him questions.
• 24:32
  Speaker 11: Cody Lock is right to remain silent. He doesn't have
• 24:34
  Speaker 11: to give a statement. He decided he wanted to talk
• 24:36
  Speaker 11: to the detectives and they asked him about the murder
• 24:40
  Speaker 11: and the aggravated assault. He denied it, and for forty
• 24:43
  Speaker 11: five minutes he lied to the officers.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Poll me that now, man, because I want to clear
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you and get you on your way.
• 24:50
  Speaker 13: But if it's the opposite, if you were there and.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: You have any information about.
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: It, then tell me right now, man, because I don't
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: want to.
• 25:03
  Speaker 13: Get you himed up in something that you didn't have
• 25:05
  Speaker 13: anything at all to do with, you know what I'm saying.
• 25:08
  Speaker 11: So it looks like he knows that he's busted and
• 25:10
  Speaker 11: he's trying to get himself out of it. But I
• 25:14
  Speaker 11: notice here the detective is speaking in a very soft voice.
• 25:18
  Speaker 11: He's not yelling, he's not screaming, he's not acting angry
• 25:21
  Speaker 11: in any any way. What he's trying to do is
• 25:24
  Speaker 11: start that rapport going to where the defendant thinks that
• 25:27
  Speaker 11: they have a relationship enough that he can get him
• 25:31
  Speaker 11: to tell him what he has done. And if he noticed,
• 25:35
  Speaker 11: Cody Lot has his arm crossed, that's defensive. He wants
• 25:38
  Speaker 11: to hide something, and when the detectives see him opening up,
• 25:42
  Speaker 11: they know it's working. After about forty five minutes, the
• 25:47
  Speaker 11: detectives do their magic. They're really good at what they do,
• 25:52
  Speaker 11: and they finally saw a way in and ended up
• 25:57
  Speaker 11: getting him to confess to the murder and aggravated a song.
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: Yes, but I sung her.
• 26:02
  Speaker 13: I drove by her in my car like a couple
• 26:04
  Speaker 13: of days before, and I made eye contact with her
• 26:07
  Speaker 13: and her eyes looked like like gems or something to
• 26:09
  Speaker 13: me like that was I was like, how could someone
• 26:11
  Speaker 13: have such beautiful eyes? And like I just said what's
• 26:14
  Speaker 13: up to her? As I drove by, Like I didn't,
• 26:16
  Speaker 13: I just you know, said what's up. I didn't mess
• 26:17
  Speaker 13: with her or nothing. I just drove by her. But
• 26:19
  Speaker 13: I said, there's I'm not going to let nobody else
• 26:22
  Speaker 13: enjoy with that.
• 26:23
  Speaker 14: So you you pretty much knew what we oh.
• 26:26
  Speaker 13: Man, I rapped her for about a year. Man for
• 26:29
  Speaker 13: a year, I'd seen her walking with her boyfriend. I
• 26:32
  Speaker 13: hadn't had access to a gun for four hours.
• 26:35
  Speaker 8: He talked to detectives about everything, everything that happened that day,
• 26:40
  Speaker 8: everything that had happened since then.
• 26:43
  Speaker 11: He then ends up slowly confessing to what he did
• 26:48
  Speaker 11: that day, that Friday that he murdered Lauren Lndovoso and
• 26:52
  Speaker 11: injured Michayla Smith.
• 26:54
  Speaker 13: They stomped in their tracks, is what I'm trying to say.
• 26:56
  Speaker 13: They stopped, and Lawren looked at me like like I
• 26:59
  Speaker 13: was joking, or she kind of looked at me like
• 27:01
  Speaker 13: oh please, you know. She kind of just like turned
• 27:03
  Speaker 13: her head like that with a kind of smirk on
• 27:04
  Speaker 13: her face and that's when I just my eyes changed
• 27:08
  Speaker 13: and I just I fell. I was like, and he
• 27:10
  Speaker 13: fired at her first? Yeah, I fired at her, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 13: then her friend was like right beside her.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: Man.
• 27:17
  Speaker 13: I pointed up and I did aim at Lauren, but
• 27:19
  Speaker 13: not at her head like I thought it would jam.
• 27:21
  Speaker 13: I mean, or you know, you would think a gun
• 27:23
  Speaker 13: would jam on you. But I was just pulling that
• 27:25
  Speaker 13: trigger as fast as I couldn't.
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: It sounded like it was.
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: It was hard to fathom everything he was saying. He
• 27:32
  Speaker 8: was talking like he was proud of it. There was
• 27:35
  Speaker 8: almost a proud presentation, if you will, from him about
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: when he was shooting her and explaining it to the police.
• 27:42
  Speaker 8: He was using the gun and how he made sure
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: he was in the right place and then he could
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: get the gun out of the window so he could
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: shoot it. I mean, it just it was calculated.
• 27:57
  Speaker 12: After watching the confession and seeing how cavalier he was
• 28:01
  Speaker 12: in his description of the crime, describing it like I
• 28:07
  Speaker 12: would describe my experience as a vacation. He was almost
• 28:11
  Speaker 12: enjoying it. He's very animated and excited. He was reliving
• 28:16
  Speaker 12: it quite enthusiastically.
• 28:19
  Speaker 8: He was telling detectives he had talked to the devil.
• 28:22
  Speaker 8: He had said that it wasn't a senseless killing. He
• 28:25
  Speaker 8: was mad about that. He wanted us to report it
• 28:27
  Speaker 8: as an assassination, a calculated assassination.
• 28:32
  Speaker 11: In Cody Lott's confession, he talked about having watched Lauren
• 28:38
  Speaker 11: walk home from junior high from school for approximately a year,
• 28:42
  Speaker 11: and when she was in seventh grade she had a
• 28:46
  Speaker 11: boyfriend and he wasn't happy about her having a boyfriend.
• 28:49
  Speaker 13: This is just getting ready, man, this is a story, okay,
• 28:51
  Speaker 13: So I just have patience. Let me finished. And you
• 28:53
  Speaker 13: know I've had a problem, you know, with females.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: For a while.
• 28:56
  Speaker 13: Now, you know, and you can you're already. You can
• 28:58
  Speaker 13: ask anybody I know and they'll tell you absolutely, that's
• 29:00
  Speaker 13: something Cody would do. They'd say absolutely, he is. He
• 29:04
  Speaker 13: has hated in his heart, like I'd seen that girl
• 29:06
  Speaker 13: lock in multiple times with her boyfriend, and her boyfriend
• 29:09
  Speaker 13: was just a little punk looking kid that wasn't no man.
• 29:12
  Speaker 13: So it kind of just sparked a jealousyeing me man.
• 29:16
  Speaker 11: And despite the fact he'd never met Lauren, he had
• 29:20
  Speaker 11: never met Michaela. They didn't know who Cody lot was,
• 29:23
  Speaker 11: but he watched him from afar from his parents' apartment
• 29:27
  Speaker 11: through the window. And he was a lonely, selfish, terrible person,
• 29:34
  Speaker 11: evil person that didn't think about anything but himself. His
• 29:38
  Speaker 11: whole confession was really about him.
• 29:40
  Speaker 13: It's just all these girls were just ignoring me and
• 29:43
  Speaker 13: disrespecting me, And all I ever wanted was an opportunity
• 29:47
  Speaker 13: to be respectful and treat a girl right.
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: It just made no sense to anyone to do that.
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: He was mad that he was not going to be
• 29:59
  Speaker 8: her boyfriend. It was just a sick feeling. It was
• 30:02
  Speaker 8: sick to read it. It was sick. It was sick
• 30:05
  Speaker 8: to report it. I mean, it just made you just
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: you just didn't feel good at all. It was just
• 30:09
  Speaker 8: it was upsetting, very upsetting.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Never heard of him.
• 30:15
  Speaker 7: It's a little stranger.
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: Cody Lai was twenty years old, our daughter's thirteen, no way,
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: you know. And they weren't friends on Facebook, on any
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: social media. There was no links whatsoever to this person.
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: He fixated on her.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: He watched her walk home from school. He watched her
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: for quite a while apparently, and planned the murder.
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: I remember seeing the picture of him, how evil he looked,
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: and just like nothing. He looks like nothing. He's he's
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: a little coward. He's if he had tried to take Lauren,
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: you know, go and grab her and try to take her,
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: she probably would have kicked his ass. But he had
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: the power life and death that day because he had
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: an assault rifle.
• 31:05
  Speaker 11: We knew that from the time that he was arrested
• 31:08
  Speaker 11: that he had some mental health issues. He was diagnosed
• 31:12
  Speaker 11: in twenty fifteen with schizo effective disorder, and so from
• 31:17
  Speaker 11: the very beginning we knew we were going to have
• 31:19
  Speaker 11: to look for things like him covering the weapon, him
• 31:22
  Speaker 11: throwing the weapon in a field, him retreating it, him lying.
• 31:27
  Speaker 11: We started making a list showing that Cody Lot knew
• 31:31
  Speaker 11: right from wrong.
• 31:33
  Speaker 15: We know that Lot had a previous diagnosis of Schitzo
• 31:36
  Speaker 15: effective disorder, so that is a combination of schizophrenia and
• 31:40
  Speaker 15: an affective disorder. Schizophrenia is a state of psychosis where
• 31:44
  Speaker 15: people typically hear voices or they have paranoid delusions, and
• 31:48
  Speaker 15: an effective disorder is related to mood, so people who
• 31:51
  Speaker 15: suffer from this either are quite depressed or they're quite
• 31:54
  Speaker 15: manic when they can be overexcited and disinhibited. But crucially
• 32:00
  Speaker 15: by all of that, I still think he knew what
• 32:02
  Speaker 15: he was doing was wrong because he tried to cover
• 32:04
  Speaker 15: up his tracks.
• 32:07
  Speaker 8: Cody a Lot told them he drove away from the scene.
• 32:11
  Speaker 8: He got on a highway and he stopped at a
• 32:13
  Speaker 8: field that he was familiar with, went into the field,
• 32:16
  Speaker 8: hid the weapon in a place he knew he'd be
• 32:18
  Speaker 8: able to find it later. Then he went to Archer City,
• 32:23
  Speaker 8: which is about twenty minutes south of Wichtaft Falls, met
• 32:26
  Speaker 8: up with the girl he knew, and they went to
• 32:29
  Speaker 8: her house and did drugs. It wasn't until Sunday that
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: he went back and retrieved the weapon, then ended up
• 32:39
  Speaker 8: taking it back to put it back in his stepdad,
• 32:41
  Speaker 8: I believe's gunlocker that was in that apartment. It was
• 32:46
  Speaker 8: clear because of his actions that he knew what he
• 32:49
  Speaker 8: had done was not right, that it was against civil
• 32:52
  Speaker 8: norms and.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: Against the law.
• 33:01
  Speaker 10: Merry Christmas, you.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Love you, Love you, Apprecia.
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: After Lauren had been murdered, nothing was important. Nothing mattered anymore.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: Work didn't matter, money didn't matter, nothing mattered anymore.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I don't remember much about the funeral. Verne was so
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: busy doing the service and I was totally out of
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the picture. Honestly, I was in the backgrounds. I didn't
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: know really what was going on.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: There's things you have to do.
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: You have to plan your child's funeral, something you never
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: thought you would have to do to plan a funeral.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: How you're going to sum up your child's life in
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, whatever?
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: How are you to do?
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: That had to wait a couple of years before the
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: trial happened. I was anxious. I was scared, and I
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: was thinking, what if they don't find them guilty, what
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: if something's messed up, what if they didn't do something right?
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: I mean I was scared. I mean I really didn't
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: know what was going to happen, the outcome.
• 34:24
  Speaker 11: I first saw Cody Lott in the courtroom and he
• 34:29
  Speaker 11: was physically how Michayla Smith had described him.
• 34:33
  Speaker 10: He was very thin, white, young male.
• 34:35
  Speaker 11: He was twenty years old, shaggy brown hair, didn't communicate
• 34:42
  Speaker 11: very much in the courtroom. And he's exactly the profile
• 34:49
  Speaker 11: of a young killer in Texas that commits stranger offenses.
• 34:55
  Speaker 11: And I say that because the profile typically like you
• 34:58
  Speaker 11: have these school shootings, were these mass shootings, is typically
• 35:02
  Speaker 11: a young white male.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: God.
• 35:07
  Speaker 8: They started that trial with children coming to the witness
• 35:10
  Speaker 8: stand that had seen this happen, which to me is
• 35:13
  Speaker 8: just unfathomable. But I think we were all ready for
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: this trial to start, and from the moment that the
• 35:22
  Speaker 8: district attorney warning Shelton in which Talk County opened her mouth,
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: that jury was ready to listen.
• 35:29
  Speaker 11: My concern from the very beginning is that the jury
• 35:32
  Speaker 11: would feel sorry for Cuddy Latt.
• 35:34
  Speaker 10: He was very young offender, He had.
• 35:36
  Speaker 11: Drug issues, and his mental illness was the major concern.
• 35:45
  Speaker 11: He was found incompetent to stand trial before the September trial,
• 35:49
  Speaker 11: so he was sent to a maximum security mental institution
• 35:53
  Speaker 11: to regain his competency before we went to trial so
• 35:56
  Speaker 11: he could have a fair trial.
• 36:00
  Speaker 12: Cody had schizo effective disorder that may have led him
• 36:04
  Speaker 12: to have ideas and think that he needed to kill somebody.
• 36:09
  Speaker 12: The fact that someone would even have murder on their
• 36:13
  Speaker 12: menu that they could enact that has nothing to do
• 36:17
  Speaker 12: with mental illness. That has to do with his need
• 36:19
  Speaker 12: for power and control, right.
• 36:22
  Speaker 13: Because I knew this girl was gonna end up getting
• 36:24
  Speaker 13: raped during a couple of years and there's all kinds
• 36:26
  Speaker 13: of evil going on then, so on my mind, I
• 36:29
  Speaker 13: saved her from the evil of this world. And also
• 36:31
  Speaker 13: it was kind of a sacrifice to the devil, because
• 36:34
  Speaker 13: like I've been talking to the devil a lot, and
• 36:36
  Speaker 13: he's the one that that told me to do that,
• 36:38
  Speaker 13: because I was sitting there with the gun and I
• 36:40
  Speaker 13: was I was, I was watching, I was watching out
• 36:43
  Speaker 13: the window man waiting for them to or I was
• 36:46
  Speaker 13: she'd be walking by herself every day.
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: Cody log gave many reasons. He said that he was
• 36:54
  Speaker 6: angry because he didn't have a girlfriend. He was angry
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: because he was jealous because she's so beautiful. He sacrificed
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: her to God so he could have a mansion and
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: all the drugs that he wanted.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: As a gift. So he's had a lot of different
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: reasons besides just the devil made him do it.
• 37:16
  Speaker 11: Coddy Lyde was never able to justify what he had
• 37:19
  Speaker 11: done because it's unjustifiable and his statement made it all
• 37:24
  Speaker 11: about him and that somehow Lauren was his possession, even
• 37:27
  Speaker 11: though he'd never had any interaction with her, Mikayla at all.
• 37:31
  Speaker 11: He was just selfish, you know, and didn't get beyond that.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: When I first saw him, he just looked so scary
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and evil. He's never said he's sorry, He's never said
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: anything to Michaela's family or else.
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: When we saw him after they had put him in
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: the state hospital, medicated him, and he came back into
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: court for that first hearing, I was immediately st by
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: the difference in his face. He didn't look evil anymore.
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: He didn't have that same evil look on his face.
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: He looked scared. He looked like a scared little boy.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: To me, that's what he looked like. And I actually
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: felt bad for him that day. I pitied him.
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: I felt bad for him until I watched his confession,
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: until I watched and listened to the doctor's talk about
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: how he still had really no remorse for what he
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: had done. And that's when I knew that I'll never
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: forgive him for what he did.
• 38:27
  Speaker 11: On top of all that other evidence that we play,
• 38:30
  Speaker 11: we also have to play the in car videos that
• 38:34
  Speaker 11: are in patrol cars that day, and you could hear
• 38:38
  Speaker 11: Bianco land of Ozo arrive on the scene, and it's
• 38:41
  Speaker 11: that blood curdling screen the jury got to hear and
• 38:44
  Speaker 11: it was very emotional, and that was my strongest piece
• 38:49
  Speaker 11: of evidence, I think, to bring out the emotion of
• 38:52
  Speaker 11: the jury because they were all parents themselves, and it's
• 38:57
  Speaker 11: emotional and it's the last thing the jury heard, and
• 39:00
  Speaker 11: it brought tears to my eyes.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: The day he was found guilty, we knew it was coming.
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: It was something that we had known for two years.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: The only thing it was surprising was how fast it was.
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: Within an hour. There was no time at all that
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: they were able to come back with those verdicts. So
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: God bless Terren County.
• 39:26
  Speaker 8: Jury's Cody Lott was found guilty of first degree murder
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: and was sentenced to life in prison. And then he
• 39:32
  Speaker 8: was also found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly
• 39:36
  Speaker 8: weapon and was sentenced to twenty years in prison for that.
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: I'm glad that he was found guilty and he did
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: get life, but life in Texas is only sixty years,
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: which I did.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Now, that's not justice.
• 39:56
  Speaker 6: To me.
• 39:59
  Speaker 11: In thirty years, he's eligible for parole hearing. It doesn't
• 40:02
  Speaker 11: mean he's going to get it, but he can have
• 40:05
  Speaker 11: a parole hearing after he serves thirty years day per day.
• 40:08
  Speaker 11: That to me is not good enough. But it's the
• 40:11
  Speaker 11: same law that I was sworn to uphold. I couldn't
• 40:14
  Speaker 11: do anymore. Lauren was a sweet, kind soul that had
• 40:19
  Speaker 11: he stopped and talked to her and said he needed help.
• 40:22
  Speaker 10: She would have talked to him.
• 40:23
  Speaker 11: And that's what's so ironic about all of this is
• 40:27
  Speaker 11: she was just such a nice person. Had he gone
• 40:29
  Speaker 11: up to her, I think she would have talked to him.
• 40:34
  Speaker 14: Today we are in front of McNeil Junior High. This
• 40:36
  Speaker 14: is kind of the place right now in her life
• 40:39
  Speaker 14: where she'd be twenty years old. This is as far
• 40:42
  Speaker 14: as she got eighth grade, first week of eighth grade.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: This is as far as she made it.
• 40:47
  Speaker 14: The spot that we're coming up on is the memorial
• 40:51
  Speaker 14: horse that they put up in her honor after she
• 40:53
  Speaker 14: was murdered. It was actually not just for her, it
• 40:56
  Speaker 14: was for Michaela as well, so that makes it kind
• 40:58
  Speaker 14: of special. It's not just a symbol of what we
• 41:01
  Speaker 14: lost that day, but it's a symbol of hope.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: Of hope.
• 41:05
  Speaker 8: Yeah, after Lauren's death, this community rallied, They came together.
• 41:13
  Speaker 8: They guaranteed that she would not be forgotten. And you know,
• 41:18
  Speaker 8: you can still say her name in this community and
• 41:20
  Speaker 8: people know exactly what you're talking about.
• 41:23
  Speaker 9: Lauren didn't get to get married, she didn't get to
• 41:25
  Speaker 9: graduate college, but she didn't get to develop friendships like
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: we all got to develop.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: You know, that's tough.
• 41:31
  Speaker 9: That's tough for a community. No parents should bury a
• 41:33
  Speaker 9: young child. It makes you chaish your family in the
• 41:35
  Speaker 9: time you have with your family.
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: For parents who are going through what we're going through
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: to have a murdered loved one, I'll what'sh on anybody,
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: and it's difficult, But I think what's helped us the
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: most is to find the positive. We were able to
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: find that. You know, with Lauren's Law, he has to
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: do with capital murder. In Texas, you have to be
• 42:04
  Speaker 6: under ten for it to be capital murder, and we
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: didn't know that until this happened to our daughter. She
• 42:10
  Speaker 6: was thirteen, so it was not capital murder and that's
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: why he will be eligible for Pearl one day.
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: Laura's law raised the age now in Texas where if
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: you murder a child between the age of ten and fifteen, you.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: Are eligible for life without the possibility of parole.
• 42:29
  Speaker 11: When I first met Bianca and Vern, they were broken.
• 42:32
  Speaker 11: I watched them sad, I watched them mad. I've watched
• 42:35
  Speaker 11: them work to be better people, if that's even possible.
• 42:39
  Speaker 11: I watched Vern confront the defendant in the courtroom, and.
• 42:45
  Speaker 10: The thing that stuck.
• 42:46
  Speaker 11: Excuse me for crying, but the thing that stuck in
• 42:49
  Speaker 11: my mind was he told the defendant in the courtroom
• 42:52
  Speaker 11: everything you said in your statement was a lie except
• 42:54
  Speaker 11: two things. That my daughter was beautiful, and she was
• 42:58
  Speaker 11: an angel, and he was composed as can be, and
• 43:03
  Speaker 11: he was a parent that day to Cody Lott in
• 43:05
  Speaker 11: a way, it was just kind of a strange dynamic.
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: It's actually not the last picture I haven't learned, but
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: one of the last that night is the one where
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: she's going to kiss me and we can't really see
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: her face as the last.
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: Picture I have over, you know, looking back on all
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: that and the way that she lived and so adventurous
• 43:30
  Speaker 6: and spontaneous and random and always wanted to go somewhere,
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: it's like she wanted to see what life had to offer.
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: She wanted to go out and explore, she wanted to
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: try new things. And it's almost, you know, to me,
• 43:44
  Speaker 6: her soul new, her soul new, she didn't have a
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: long time here.
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: That's that's how I felt. And so Lord just lived,
• 43:53
  Speaker 7: you know, the fullest life she could in a short time.
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: If the world were full of people like we wouldn't have.
• 44:02
  Speaker 6: Problems.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: We wouldn't need laws, we wouldn't need guns, We wouldn't
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: She's just a pure soul, pure love, purest love. I've
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: ever met anybody who knew her, knew how kind she was,
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: how loving she was.
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: That's what she'll always be remembered for, just the ability
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: to bring a smile to your face. No matter what.
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: I told her before she passed, I think she would
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: be helping people, whether it be a therapist, you know,
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: counselor I just really feel like she would have been
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: helping people.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I just know she would have done good. We always
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: told Laura that wherever you go, that's where we're going.
• 44:47
  Speaker 10: And we're right.
• 44:49
  Speaker 7: We know where she's at now and we're going to
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: we'll catch up with her, alright. Merry Christmas until next year.