Latest / NO FILTER / Interview with a Monster that Murdered his Parents _ Inside Story _ Australian True Crime Case(M4A_128K)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Tonight on Inside Story.
- 0:02Speaker 2: So when did you start thinking about killing a.
- 0:05Speaker 1: Can face to face with a monster.
- 0:09Speaker 3: You should have sent me to a mental hospital.
- 0:11Speaker 1: He tried to massacre his whole family.
- 0:14Speaker 4: He shut all of us.
- 0:16Speaker 5: Why then, in Perth, an obsessive husband love you lots,
- 0:20Speaker 5: who stabbed his wife eighteen times.
- 0:23Speaker 6: I can't help the image of her last moments passing
- 0:27Speaker 6: through my mind.
- 0:28Speaker 5: Two unforgivable crimes with the same unforgettable sequel.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Yes, he loaded my child.
- 0:35Speaker 6: But I love him and I have compassion for him.
- 0:38Speaker 5: Love and forgiveness. Hello, I'm Lailah McKinnon. Welcome to Inside Story.
- 0:52Speaker 5: A mother shattered by the murder of her daughter, viciously
- 0:55Speaker 5: stabbed to death. A father who lost his wife and son, devastated,
- 1:00Speaker 5: and he discovers his other son masterminded the whole thing.
- 1:04Speaker 5: You'd understand if these two people were bitter, if they
- 1:06Speaker 5: raged and wanted revenge. But what if they showed extraordinary compassion,
- 1:11Speaker 5: What if they were able to forgive the killers? Jana
- 1:14Speaker 5: as a party's been investigating how they found that inner strength.
- 1:18Speaker 2: Thanks Lailah.
- 1:19Speaker 7: Yes, tonight we're going to meet two truly remarkable people.
- 1:22Speaker 7: A mom who says she has love and compassion for
- 1:25Speaker 7: the man who murdered her daughter, and a father who's
- 1:27Speaker 7: been able to forgive his son for an unthinkable family tragedy.
- 1:30Speaker 7: And when you see just how horrific and how premeditated
- 1:33Speaker 7: these murders were, it beggars belief that they were able
- 1:36Speaker 7: to forgive.
- 1:37Speaker 2: Certainly they'll never forget.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Yes, Jane As will see two remarkable people.
- 1:44Speaker 7: A young woman loving her life as a first time mum,
- 1:48Speaker 7: stabbed to death at home, killed the man she loved.
- 2:04Speaker 7: He was a big talking salesman who sold her the dream.
- 2:08Speaker 1: I can't wait to start a family together.
- 2:12Speaker 7: But not long after they were married, he began to
- 2:15Speaker 7: feel torn between life with his wife and the tug
- 2:18Speaker 7: of his own family.
- 2:20Speaker 8: Days moren and maman.
- 2:25Speaker 7: A peacemaker. As the pressure from his family increased, his
- 2:29Speaker 7: behavior changed.
- 2:31Speaker 6: Well, he wasn't nice anymore. He he stopped, stopped the pretense,
- 2:38Speaker 6: if you like.
- 2:39Speaker 7: But no one could have predicted what was to come.
- 2:42Speaker 7: Demitrios Sekiris spiraled out of control and ferociously murdered his wife, Karen.
- 2:53Speaker 9: I just couldn't believe that she could do anything to
- 2:56Speaker 9: anybody that would make them want a killer.
- 3:00Speaker 7: It was a brutal, nasty crime, which makes it even
- 3:04Speaker 7: more astonishing to hear Karine's mother say she has forgiven
- 3:08Speaker 7: her son in law for murdering her daughter.
- 3:12Speaker 6: I love him and I have compassion for him, and
- 3:16Speaker 6: perhaps that is forgiveness. So, yes, he murdered my child,
- 3:21Speaker 6: But on the other hand, he was a severely damaged
- 3:24Speaker 6: child himself.
- 3:26Speaker 7: That story to come, and later in the show you'll
- 3:30Speaker 7: meet a father whose whole family was gunned down in
- 3:33Speaker 7: their own home.
- 3:37Speaker 4: One of my neighbors came running up and he knelt
- 3:41Speaker 4: by me and said, oh, what happened.
- 3:43Speaker 2: I said, They've.
- 3:44Speaker 4: Shot all of us, and I don't know why.
- 3:48Speaker 7: What makes this murder so extraordinary is the killer was
- 3:51Speaker 7: Kent's son, his own flesh and blood.
- 3:55Speaker 10: He said, you guys are either wrong or my son
- 3:58Speaker 10: is a monster. As politely as I could tell him,
- 4:02Speaker 10: I say, well, your son's a monster.
- 4:06Speaker 4: Everybody believed that Bart was the mask that he presented.
- 4:10Speaker 4: Nobody saw behind it.
- 4:11Speaker 7: And later will take you inside at Texas prison to
- 4:15Speaker 7: meet Bart Whittaker, the man who killed his mother and
- 4:19Speaker 7: brother and attempted to murder his father.
- 4:22Speaker 2: So when did you start thinking about killing your parents?
- 4:28Speaker 3: You know, I don't actually know. I mean it was
- 4:30Speaker 3: not just this Heuka moment.
- 4:34Speaker 7: But first winter two thousand and five at Victoria's Dandenong's,
- 4:39Speaker 7: where Karene and Demetrios Sekiris chose to marry you.
- 4:44Speaker 5: I'm btle to share my life as my wife.
- 4:50Speaker 7: But that life would be short lived. Karen was a bright,
- 4:55Speaker 7: beautiful woman whose dream was to get married and raise
- 4:58Speaker 7: a family. Dmitrios was an ambitious, charismatic salesman with strong
- 5:04Speaker 7: family ties.
- 5:05Speaker 2: Tonight you'll hear.
- 5:06Speaker 7: How in two and a half short years that dream
- 5:10Speaker 7: turned into a nightmare, and how this groom would viciously
- 5:14Speaker 7: bash and murder the woman he promised to love. But
- 5:20Speaker 7: nothing was amiss at the wedding.
- 5:22Speaker 1: You absolutely absolutely mean the world today.
- 5:25Speaker 7: I'm looking forward to spending all of my time with
- 5:29Speaker 7: you and having babies and raising a family and seeing
- 5:32Speaker 7: them grow up and us growl together.
- 5:34Speaker 8: Or was it?
- 5:35Speaker 7: In his speech Demitriov said he loved his wife and
- 5:39Speaker 7: was very happy.
- 5:40Speaker 5: Hello you, very very much, but the emotion and passion
- 5:49Speaker 5: were reserved for his parents. The two most beautiful people
- 5:52Speaker 5: in the world are on that table there, and they
- 5:56Speaker 5: are just wonderful.
- 5:58Speaker 7: The most beautiful people in the world world, not his bride,
- 6:02Speaker 7: his parents.
- 6:03Speaker 8: Long life and maybe.
- 6:06Speaker 5: She love coming up on Inside Story Love you lost
- 6:11Speaker 5: the warning signs that could have saved kren There was
- 6:15Speaker 5: just something not quite right.
- 6:23Speaker 7: In March two thousand and eight, Kreene, Securist, was savagely
- 6:27Speaker 7: murdered by her husband with two and a half years Demitrios.
- 6:37Speaker 7: Kreene was raised in Perth in the seventies and eighties.
- 6:41Speaker 7: She was close to her siblings, had long lasting friendships
- 6:45Speaker 7: and her boyfriends came and went.
- 6:48Speaker 6: She was extremely capable, very creative, very intelligent and I
- 6:56Speaker 6: reckon that might have been threatening to some people.
- 7:00Speaker 8: Just a really good listener and very caring.
- 7:02Speaker 7: Barbara Reid met Karene when Karene moved to Melbourne. The
- 7:06Speaker 7: two became great friends, sharing a passion for shopping. So
- 7:10Speaker 7: what kind of shopper was?
- 7:11Speaker 9: She A bit of a bag and shopper, never paid
- 7:15Speaker 9: full price for anything. One of the beautiful things about
- 7:19Speaker 9: our friendship was she was my confidante when.
- 7:23Speaker 2: You met her. What did she want to do with
- 7:25Speaker 2: her life?
- 7:26Speaker 9: She really really wanted a family. She wanted to be
- 7:28Speaker 9: married and she wanted to have a family.
- 7:30Speaker 7: And it seemed Demetrios Sekiris was looking for the same things.
- 7:34Speaker 7: When he met Karine at a work Christmas party in
- 7:37Speaker 7: two thousand and three.
- 7:39Speaker 9: She was pretty well swept off her feet, like, you know,
- 7:45Speaker 9: I met this guy, and you know, he really likes me,
- 7:48Speaker 9: and it was all pretty full on.
- 7:50Speaker 7: Within months, Karne took her new man to Perth to
- 7:54Speaker 7: meet her family.
- 7:55Speaker 6: Oh, I thought he was marvelous. Yes, yes, I thought
- 7:59Speaker 6: he was very sore, thoughtful and consider it. And it
- 8:02Speaker 6: looked as if he loved her.
- 8:04Speaker 7: But not everyone fell for Demitrios's charm. Barbara found his
- 8:09Speaker 7: smooth talking ways a bit too well.
- 8:11Speaker 8: Rehearsed, almost like he used car salesman.
- 8:14Speaker 9: I suppose used your name twenty times in a sentence.
- 8:18Speaker 9: You know, so what do you think, bab and oh Bob,
- 8:22Speaker 9: you know what about that? And it was like he'd
- 8:24Speaker 9: known you for twenty years but he just met you.
- 8:27Speaker 11: Sometimes people use what we call superficial charm. So the
- 8:30Speaker 11: charm's there, but we can see through the cracks. We
- 8:34Speaker 11: can see that it's just on the surface.
- 8:36Speaker 7: David Martin is a forensic psychologist at the University of
- 8:40Speaker 7: Western Sydney.
- 8:41Speaker 11: And probably part of our instinct says, this person's trying
- 8:45Speaker 11: something on me. They're trying to manipulate me, and we
- 8:48Speaker 11: probably then sort of think, well, that's phony, and we
- 8:50Speaker 11: feel uncomfortable.
- 8:53Speaker 7: And there were some other things that worried Barb.
- 8:56Speaker 9: He monopolized all her time with him and his family.
- 9:00Speaker 9: Her friends became very much a thing on the ages.
- 9:05Speaker 2: It sounds to me like you never trusted him.
- 9:08Speaker 9: I just think that she had so much to offer.
- 9:13Speaker 9: He certainly wasn't the right person for her to be with.
- 9:17Speaker 2: There was.
- 9:19Speaker 8: Just something not quite right.
- 9:23Speaker 2: Have a great day everyone.
- 9:24Speaker 7: Barbara's concerns were strong enough that she felt she had
- 9:27Speaker 7: to discuss them with Karen.
- 9:30Speaker 9: We questioned her on a number of different levels, whether
- 9:32Speaker 9: she was doing the right thing, whether she was a
- 9:35Speaker 9: little bit blinded by the charisma, She just seemed to
- 9:39Speaker 9: be under his spell.
- 9:42Speaker 7: The first time Karine's mum thought things may not have
- 9:45Speaker 7: been as rosy as they appeared was when she went
- 9:47Speaker 7: to Melbourne for the engagement party.
- 9:50Speaker 6: The men stood around the keg and the women spent
- 9:55Speaker 6: their time on their own, and I thought, this is
- 9:59Speaker 6: so different to the way we are. How is Kaaren
- 10:03Speaker 6: going to fit into that culture?
- 10:06Speaker 7: The men drank to excess and the women were kept
- 10:10Speaker 7: in their places.
- 10:11Speaker 6: That's when I first got an inkling that what sort
- 10:15Speaker 6: of background he came from, and I started to have
- 10:19Speaker 6: some growth concerns.
- 10:24Speaker 7: But Karen was chasing her storybook ending, and she seemed happy.
- 10:29Speaker 2: The thirty one.
- 10:30Speaker 7: Year old had waited a long time for her big day,
- 10:33Speaker 7: and on the sixth of August two thousand and five,
- 10:37Speaker 7: that day arrived.
- 10:38Speaker 4: We would be loyal and honest and encomfort her for
- 10:41Speaker 4: the rest of your life and now.
- 10:43Speaker 6: Our husband and wife.
- 10:46Speaker 7: The wedding was everything they'd hoped for, surrounded by people
- 10:50Speaker 7: they loved who loved them.
- 10:53Speaker 2: It couldn't have been better. I'm looking forward to going
- 11:01Speaker 2: away and having babies.
- 11:02Speaker 4: Together and living the.
- 11:06Speaker 7: Korene could never have imagined. The rest of her life
- 11:09Speaker 7: would be less than three years.
- 11:12Speaker 11: So baby, let's go and travel the world, come back,
- 11:15Speaker 11: have a family, and just keep on going.
- 11:18Speaker 8: Love you lots, I'm going to.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Make love tomort White.
- 11:24Speaker 7: Straight after the wedding, Krene and Dimitrios went on a
- 11:28Speaker 7: three month honeymoon, spending time with his family in Greece.
- 11:35Speaker 9: And when she came back from her honeymoon, I've noticed
- 11:39Speaker 9: a visible shift in her her as a person. I
- 11:45Speaker 9: think she just started to feel more and more pressure
- 11:48Speaker 9: from the from his family, wanting to be in their
- 11:52Speaker 9: pocket all the time, and she wasn't liking that.
- 11:56Speaker 7: In the Takira's household, Dmitrios was the shining star and
- 12:00Speaker 7: there was pressure on him to always be available to
- 12:04Speaker 7: his extended family.
- 12:05Speaker 6: The relationship between them was one of dependent parents, but
- 12:11Speaker 6: then also dependent children.
- 12:13Speaker 11: In inmeshed families, no one is an individual. The family
- 12:18Speaker 11: is the unit, the main unit, and they all work
- 12:22Speaker 11: very well together. But if one decides or needs to leave,
- 12:25Speaker 11: then the system comes together to pull that person back in.
- 12:29Speaker 11: That's why it's en missed.
- 12:31Speaker 7: Karen knew how tight knit the family were, but she
- 12:35Speaker 7: and Dimitrios had openly discussed their future plans.
- 12:39Speaker 9: The deal was that they'd get married, they'd live here,
- 12:42Speaker 9: but once they started family they would return to Perth.
- 12:46Speaker 9: There was never any secret about that. So when she
- 12:48Speaker 9: got pregnant, that's where they went. They went straight back
- 12:51Speaker 9: to Perth.
- 12:53Speaker 7: Karene wanted to raise her family here in Perth where
- 12:55Speaker 7: she grew up. All Dmitrios and his family were hell
- 12:59Speaker 7: bare on a return to Melbourne.
- 13:02Speaker 2: It became a huge problem.
- 13:04Speaker 8: And he told me this himself.
- 13:06Speaker 9: He said his family was struggling without him being here
- 13:09Speaker 9: in Melbourne.
- 13:10Speaker 8: His mother was distraught by it. He was putting pressure
- 13:15Speaker 8: on Karan to come back to Melbourne and that was
- 13:17Speaker 8: never the.
- 13:17Speaker 5: Deal, coming up the frenzied attack. But then this remarkable
- 13:26Speaker 5: act of forgiveness.
- 13:27Speaker 6: I love him and I have compassion for him.
- 13:34Speaker 7: Karen and Demitrios were both anticipating a wonderful life together
- 13:39Speaker 7: when they married in two thousand and five, but it
- 13:43Speaker 7: wouldn't be long before this love story took a grave
- 13:46Speaker 7: turn and became a living nightmare. Karen and Demitrios made
- 13:59Speaker 7: no oh secret of their desire to start a family,
- 14:03Speaker 7: and their precious daughter, Lara, was born just one year
- 14:06Speaker 7: after they were married. While Demitrios was a doting father,
- 14:10Speaker 7: he wasn't prepared to see so much of his wife's
- 14:13Speaker 7: lave and attention lavished upon their adorable baby girl. Lara's
- 14:19Speaker 7: birth was the beginning of the end.
- 14:25Speaker 6: She asked me if I'd noticed any difference in Demitrios
- 14:30Speaker 6: since she'd had Lara.
- 14:32Speaker 3: I always think.
- 14:33Speaker 6: What what would have happened if I had put my
- 14:40Speaker 6: arms around her and said, well, darling, you know, I've
- 14:43Speaker 6: noticed that things are not too good. How about you
- 14:46Speaker 6: and Lara come and stay with us for a while.
- 14:49Speaker 9: I think he felt very jealous of her time being
- 14:54Speaker 9: monopolized by Lara.
- 14:56Speaker 8: He'd come home all the time.
- 14:57Speaker 9: She felt very strangled, like almost like h checking up
- 15:00Speaker 9: on her every day.
- 15:02Speaker 11: Suddenly the man is no longer the potential center of
- 15:05Speaker 11: his wife's life, fairly or very demanding, new presence comes
- 15:10Speaker 11: in and takes away the limelight from the husband. Most
- 15:14Speaker 11: husbands adapt to that, and obviously they love their children
- 15:17Speaker 11: and they cope. But some can't and they become very resentful.
- 15:21Speaker 7: In March two thousand and eight, just a couple of
- 15:24Speaker 7: weeks before she was murdered, Karene Demetrios and their one
- 15:29Speaker 7: year old daughter, Lara, had a ten day trip to Melbourne.
- 15:33Speaker 7: While Karen wasn't thrilled to be staying with her in laws,
- 15:36Speaker 7: she was hoping for some one on one time with
- 15:39Speaker 7: her friend Barbara to discuss her husband's bizarre behavior.
- 15:44Speaker 9: He kept saying things through that visit, like I don't
- 15:47Speaker 9: know what I'd do without my girls. I'm saying, when, well,
- 15:50Speaker 9: what do you mean you don't know what you'll do?
- 15:51Speaker 9: Without your girls. Oh, I just don't know what I'd
- 15:54Speaker 9: do without them, I said, Well, why would you be
- 15:55Speaker 9: saying that, Like, what's going to happen to them? He
- 15:59Speaker 9: seemed to be anxious or quite stressed at the very least.
- 16:06Speaker 7: Barbara didn't understand Dimitrios's odd behavior, but she was much
- 16:10Speaker 7: more concerned by how troubled her friend.
- 16:13Speaker 9: Was, and she was clearly unhappy, very unhappy, and it
- 16:19Speaker 9: was difficult to get time with her alone.
- 16:21Speaker 8: He didn't want her.
- 16:22Speaker 9: To take Lara, and she didn't want to leave Lara
- 16:27Speaker 9: at his parents' house with them.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Why not?
- 16:30Speaker 9: She just didn't think that they were able to care
- 16:32Speaker 9: for her. She felt threatened by them. She didn't want
- 16:35Speaker 9: her to be left with people that were drinking and
- 16:38Speaker 9: cigarette smoking and stuff like that.
- 16:41Speaker 7: But Karen did leave her baby with Demitrios and his
- 16:44Speaker 7: family and managed to discuss her predicament with Barbara whilst
- 16:48Speaker 7: she was in Melbourne.
- 16:49Speaker 9: She definitely wasn't giving in and coming back to Melbourne.
- 16:53Speaker 9: She wanted to be in a purse and she was
- 16:57Speaker 9: just really not in a good place with the whole relationship.
- 17:01Speaker 7: When Barbara dropped Karen back to her in law's place,
- 17:04Speaker 7: she clearly remembers saying goodbye in what was to be
- 17:08Speaker 7: the last time she would ever see her friend alive.
- 17:11Speaker 9: And I got out of the car and I hugged
- 17:13Speaker 9: her and I said home. You know, I think you
- 17:15Speaker 9: need to fasten your seatbelt. I think you're in for
- 17:17Speaker 9: a fairly rough ride.
- 17:19Speaker 7: Ten days later, Kreene was dead. Karen was murdered in
- 17:31Speaker 7: a brutal and sustained attack at home in the upmarket
- 17:35Speaker 7: suburb of Buragoon. Her husband took his time killing her. First,
- 17:40Speaker 7: he hit her so hard it knocked out her forefront teeth,
- 17:44Speaker 7: and then he stabbed her eighteen times. Their one year
- 17:47Speaker 7: old daughter was at home when it happened. After the
- 17:52Speaker 7: horrific act, Demitrios phoned Karene's brother.
- 17:55Speaker 6: So he called Lane and said, come and get Lara.
- 18:00Speaker 6: I'd skit stay out.
- 18:03Speaker 7: Lane found his brother in law outside with a knife
- 18:06Speaker 7: in his hand covered in Karine's blood. He looked dazed
- 18:11Speaker 7: and confused and said, I murdered your sister. Dimitrios lamely
- 18:16Speaker 7: poked himself with the knife a couple of times. Lane
- 18:20Speaker 7: calmly suggested Dimitrios put on another shirt, so Dimitrios put
- 18:25Speaker 7: down the knife and went inside to change. Lane picked
- 18:30Speaker 7: up the knife and called for help. When Dimitrios walked
- 18:35Speaker 7: back outside, he had baby Lara in his arms, like
- 18:40Speaker 7: everything was normal outside, Come on, it's all right. Ambulance
- 18:46Speaker 7: and police were soon on the scene. Dimitrios was taken
- 18:50Speaker 7: to Fremantle Hospital before being transferred to the Franklin Center,
- 18:54Speaker 7: the maximum security psychiatric facility at Grayland's Hospital. Bar had
- 19:00Speaker 7: left a couple of messages for Karen to call her,
- 19:03Speaker 7: so when she received a call from one of Karine's
- 19:06Speaker 7: Perth friends, she knew something must have happened.
- 19:10Speaker 9: I said to her, I don't tell me that Demetrius
- 19:13Speaker 9: has committed suicide. And she said, no, it's worse. And
- 19:17Speaker 9: I said, what she said, He's murdered her.
- 19:22Speaker 8: I'm not just couldn't believe. He couldn't believe it. It was
- 19:24Speaker 8: just shocking.
- 19:28Speaker 6: I can't help the image of her last moments passing
- 19:34Speaker 6: through my mind.
- 19:39Speaker 7: During his trial, psychiatric reports were produced saying Demetrios had
- 19:44Speaker 7: been suffering a severe depressive illness at the time of
- 19:47Speaker 7: the murder, but had since fully recovered.
- 19:51Speaker 2: Did he give any explanation as to why he did it.
- 19:53Speaker 9: He says he went to bed at night and woke
- 19:56Speaker 9: up beside her body or bloodied.
- 19:59Speaker 8: He says he doesn't remember. What do you think of that?
- 20:04Speaker 8: I don't believe him.
- 20:07Speaker 7: June believes Demitrios's depression masked another condition.
- 20:11Speaker 6: I mean, people suffer depression and anxiety, but they don't
- 20:14Speaker 6: go out and have the capacity to Actually just having
- 20:18Speaker 6: the ability to put a knife into another body, to
- 20:23Speaker 6: most of us is just a borrent.
- 20:27Speaker 11: The control issues, the personality issues, the family issues, the conflicts,
- 20:32Speaker 11: the tensions, they're the main motivators. The depression anxiety might
- 20:37Speaker 11: have been maybe some fuel onto the fire. The fire
- 20:41Speaker 11: was elsewhere.
- 20:42Speaker 2: Do you think Demetrios loved karinm No, not for a moment. Never.
- 20:50Speaker 9: No.
- 20:50Speaker 3: I don't believe for a second.
- 20:53Speaker 6: That he knows what love is.
- 20:59Speaker 7: But incredible, almost unbelievably, not only does June claim to
- 21:04Speaker 7: have an understanding of her daughter's killer, but she also
- 21:07Speaker 7: forgives him.
- 21:09Speaker 6: I love him and I have compassion for him. What
- 21:13Speaker 6: he did is not only not okay, it's absolutely horrific
- 21:19Speaker 6: and almost unforgivable. But I have to forgive, if you like,
- 21:28Speaker 6: in order he doesn't control me. Because if I lived
- 21:31Speaker 6: with any ill feeling, any negative emotions involving him. He
- 21:37Speaker 6: would still be running my life and I'm determined that's.
- 21:41Speaker 3: Not going to happen.
- 21:42Speaker 7: Demetrios Sikiris was convicted of murder. He is serving a
- 21:46Speaker 7: life sentence with a non parole period of twelve years.
- 21:52Speaker 1: Still to come. On Inside story, A family gunned down.
- 21:58Speaker 4: He shot all of us. Why yeah, why?
- 22:01Speaker 5: A father forced to face the truth so well, your
- 22:04Speaker 5: son's a monster. The mastermind was his own son. Hospital
- 22:12Speaker 5: Kent Whittaker is a most unusual man. He was able
- 22:16Speaker 5: to forgive the gunman who shot his wife and son
- 22:19Speaker 5: before the killer was even named, but then came one
- 22:22Speaker 5: more devastating blow to really test his compassion. The murder
- 22:27Speaker 5: was a cold blooded plot and the mastermind was his
- 22:30Speaker 5: other son.
- 22:31Speaker 7: But Sugarland, Texas where families come to live the sweet life.
- 22:42Speaker 10: Just a typical nice community. In the past, Shirlean has
- 22:47Speaker 10: been recognized as one of the safest cities in America,
- 22:51Speaker 10: and it was.
- 22:52Speaker 7: Until December two thousand and three that.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Kick right now is shot in the arm apparently the family.
- 23:02Speaker 7: When a cold blooded killer shot all four members of
- 23:06Speaker 7: this picture perfect family. Two were murdered, the other two
- 23:11Speaker 7: forced to face uncertain futures. This story begins in the
- 23:18Speaker 7: early seventies when Kent Whittaker met Trisha Bartlett on a
- 23:22Speaker 7: blind date.
- 23:23Speaker 4: I wasn't expecting it to be anything special, but she
- 23:26Speaker 4: was beautiful, and I was just so surprised that a
- 23:29Speaker 4: blind date would be this cute. We were married, I
- 23:34Speaker 4: think two and a half years when bart came along,
- 23:37Speaker 4: and well, we were just tickled about it. We were
- 23:39Speaker 4: very happy. And Kevin came along four years later, and
- 23:45Speaker 4: we were just very happy right go down the street.
- 23:48Speaker 7: As Bart Whittaker and his little brother Kevin got older,
- 23:52Speaker 7: the vast differences in their personalities became evident.
- 23:56Speaker 4: Whytt was always very intelligent and carry on an intelligent
- 24:01Speaker 4: conversation with anybody. Kevin was more fun, He was funnier.
- 24:05Speaker 4: Kevin was everybody's best friend. Bartt was just an average athlete.
- 24:11Speaker 4: Kevin was a gifted athlete.
- 24:14Speaker 2: Was it when you were a happy family, where did
- 24:16Speaker 2: the boys?
- 24:16Speaker 4: We're a very happy family. The four of us did
- 24:19Speaker 4: a lot of things together.
- 24:21Speaker 7: But bart was hiding a terrible secret. He was playing
- 24:25Speaker 7: a role, pretending to be a good son. Kent and
- 24:29Speaker 7: Trisha Whittaker had no idea of the darkness that lurked
- 24:33Speaker 7: behind the mask, Bart war, Do you feel like you
- 24:37Speaker 7: knew your son?
- 24:38Speaker 4: Yes, both of us felt like we knew our children
- 24:41Speaker 4: very well. Sometimes sometimes you're wrong, and.
- 24:49Speaker 7: This time they were terribly wrong. By the time he
- 24:52Speaker 7: was twenty one, Bart was a master of deception and
- 24:56Speaker 7: was leading a double life. Bart's parents believed he was
- 25:00Speaker 7: going to university, so they brought him a home inside
- 25:03Speaker 7: this gated community. It was meant to become Kent and
- 25:06Speaker 7: Trisha's holiday house when he graduated. Instead, this is where
- 25:11Speaker 7: Bart parted and did drugs with his roommate Chris broush
- 25:14Speaker 7: Here and their friend Stephen Champagne, and where over several
- 25:19Speaker 7: months they coldheartedly plotted and planned the vicious murders of
- 25:24Speaker 7: Bart's unsuspecting family, and that plan was about to be
- 25:35Speaker 7: played out December tenth, two thousand and three. Bart's unsuspecting
- 25:41Speaker 7: family thought it was a night of celebration for the Whittakers.
- 25:45Speaker 7: They believed Bart was about to graduate.
- 25:48Speaker 4: I mean, your child graduates from college. This is it's
- 25:51Speaker 4: a huge thing and we were really looking forward to it.
- 25:54Speaker 7: Bart's parents presented him with a Rolex watch. Happy snaps
- 25:59Speaker 7: were taken to mark the occasion. Afterwards, the Whittakers came
- 26:03Speaker 7: here to one of their favorite restaurants, Babidos.
- 26:07Speaker 4: Yes, this is where we came for the celebration dinner.
- 26:12Speaker 4: It wasn't really a celebration.
- 26:15Speaker 2: How was he acting at that dinner?
- 26:17Speaker 4: Bart has just been, you know, his usual self. Bart
- 26:21Speaker 4: was happy, and yet he knew what was going to
- 26:25Speaker 4: happen when he got home.
- 26:28Speaker 7: The Whittakers left the restaurant. Bart's friend Stephen Champagne, had
- 26:33Speaker 7: been watching and waiting. He phoned their accomplice, Chris Brashier,
- 26:38Speaker 7: who was in position. The five minute drive home was
- 26:43Speaker 7: filled with laughter.
- 26:46Speaker 4: Kevin had been driving, so he led the way to
- 26:48Speaker 4: the front door, and Bart ran down the driveway to
- 26:52Speaker 4: retrieve his cell phone from his car, which was parked
- 26:55Speaker 4: on the street. Kevin opened the door, walked in side,
- 27:01Speaker 4: and there was a loud noise. Tricia was right behind
- 27:06Speaker 4: him and said, oh no, and then there was another
- 27:10Speaker 4: loud noise.
- 27:15Speaker 7: Shot at point blank range. Nineteen year old Kevin was dead.
- 27:20Speaker 7: His fifty one year old mother, Tricia was dying on
- 27:24Speaker 7: the floor beside him.
- 27:26Speaker 4: The idea that there might be a gunman, an assassin
- 27:29Speaker 4: in my own house, that was just too bizarre to
- 27:34Speaker 4: I just never have crossed my mind. The next moment,
- 27:39Speaker 4: I was hit hard in the right chest and I
- 27:42Speaker 4: spun around and I fell back on the porch. My
- 27:45Speaker 4: first inclination was to call out to Bart to warrant him,
- 27:50Speaker 4: But before I could even say anything, I heard a
- 27:52Speaker 4: fourth shot from deeper inside the house.
- 28:01Speaker 2: He shot all of us.
- 28:02Speaker 4: Why you know why.
- 28:05Speaker 7: Kent had been hit in the right shoulder but in
- 28:09Speaker 7: a left arm. Both required emergency surgery. Tricia had been
- 28:13Speaker 7: airlifted to hospital but died on the way. This was
- 28:18Speaker 7: now a double homicide.
- 28:25Speaker 10: They told me that four people had been shot, that
- 28:27Speaker 10: a family had been shot.
- 28:29Speaker 7: Sugar and Homicide Detective Marshall Slot was on call that night.
- 28:34Speaker 10: The initial information I received was that a family had
- 28:36Speaker 10: gone out to dinner and they returned home and had
- 28:39Speaker 10: surprised a burglar in their home.
- 28:42Speaker 7: But the detective knew something wasn't right. This had been
- 28:46Speaker 7: staged to look like a robbery gone wrong.
- 28:49Speaker 10: Nothing was pulled out of the drawers. There was definitely
- 28:52Speaker 10: something unusual about it.
- 28:53Speaker 7: In hospital, still unaware his son was behind the murder plot,
- 28:57Speaker 7: Kent was consumed with thoughts of revenge.
- 29:01Speaker 4: You know, you're irrational. All I wanted to do was
- 29:04Speaker 4: to hurt them myself personally.
- 29:07Speaker 7: Kent cold on his faith.
- 29:09Speaker 4: I realized he was leading me down the path, wanting
- 29:13Speaker 4: me to forgive this nameless, faithless person in the ski
- 29:18Speaker 4: mask who'd murdered my wife, and I knew I couldn't
- 29:22Speaker 4: do it.
- 29:22Speaker 7: Praying for help, Kent says he experienced something even more bizarre.
- 29:27Speaker 4: Warm golden glow just flow over me for a couple
- 29:32Speaker 4: of seconds, and that and hisself scared me, but I
- 29:36Speaker 4: knew it was real, and once I got my senses back,
- 29:39Speaker 4: I looked at my heart and I realized that all
- 29:42Speaker 4: of that anger, all of that hatred, and the desire
- 29:48Speaker 4: to get even with this person, it had disappeared. And
- 29:53Speaker 4: in its place there was a total and complete, miraculous,
- 30:01Speaker 4: unexplainable forgiveness for everyone involved. And that's scared me too.
- 30:09Speaker 7: Kent had never experienced anything like this before and couldn't
- 30:13Speaker 7: wait to tell Bart, But the following day police also
- 30:17Speaker 7: wanted to talk to Bart to ask why he'd been
- 30:20Speaker 7: lying about his upcoming graduation.
- 30:23Speaker 10: Bart hadn't been at the university as a student for
- 30:26Speaker 10: several years. He had been suspended and put on academic
- 30:29Speaker 10: probation during his freshman year. We took that information to Kent,
- 30:33Speaker 10: and Kent seemed shocked, but one of the things that
- 30:35Speaker 10: he said was that he thought they had conquered that problem.
- 30:39Speaker 10: He explained to us that Bart had a problem with
- 30:41Speaker 10: lying and had been caught in several lives.
- 30:44Speaker 7: When detectives confronted Bart, he was unfazed.
- 30:48Speaker 10: He goes, yeah, I was wondering when you guys were
- 30:49Speaker 10: going to figure that out, and so it started making
- 30:52Speaker 10: us really question anything that he was saying.
- 30:55Speaker 7: The deeper they delved, the worst things looked for Bart Whittaker.
- 31:00Speaker 7: Going through their records, Sugarland detectives found they had received
- 31:04Speaker 7: a call from Texas State Police in two thousand and one,
- 31:08Speaker 7: two years before the shootings.
- 31:11Speaker 10: They received word that Bart Whitaker was driving down from
- 31:14Speaker 10: Wicco during the middle of the night to kill his parents.
- 31:18Speaker 7: Back then, when police went and warned the Whittakers, Kent
- 31:22Speaker 7: made some calls and told police it was all just
- 31:25Speaker 7: a silly misunderstanding. Years later, the prosecution would refer to
- 31:30Speaker 7: this event as the second attempt.
- 31:33Speaker 1: Next on death Row, confronting the monster, So.
- 31:37Speaker 2: When did you start thinking about killing him?
- 31:44Speaker 7: On December tenth, two thousand and three, Kevin, Trisha Kent,
- 31:48Speaker 7: and Bart Whittaker were all gunned down by a masked
- 31:52Speaker 7: shooter as they walked through the front door of their
- 31:55Speaker 7: family home.
- 32:05Speaker 4: So right here at the eleven twenty two, I put
- 32:08Speaker 4: in all of those trees. Now some of the shrubs
- 32:12Speaker 4: they've put in since I moved.
- 32:14Speaker 2: It looks like a beautiful family home.
- 32:16Speaker 4: Oh, it was great.
- 32:18Speaker 7: Initially, Kent had no idea his surviving son, Bart, was
- 32:22Speaker 7: involved in the murders. He and Bart moved back into
- 32:25Speaker 7: the house after being released from hospital, making police very uncomfortable.
- 32:31Speaker 7: What was it like for you living with him in
- 32:33Speaker 7: that house?
- 32:34Speaker 4: Immediately the police were telling me that I was in danger,
- 32:39Speaker 4: that they knew that Bart was responsible for this, and
- 32:43Speaker 4: I thought, how in the world could you possibly know
- 32:47Speaker 4: that this quick?
- 32:48Speaker 7: They knew because a former school friend of Bart's had
- 32:51Speaker 7: gone to police and told them about Bart's earlier plot
- 32:55Speaker 7: in two thousand and one to kill his parents, and
- 32:58Speaker 7: his story was really similar to the murders.
- 33:02Speaker 10: At the end of that conversation, but definitively pointed to
- 33:05Speaker 10: Bart Whittaker's having some hand in the planning and carrying
- 33:09Speaker 10: out of the shooting of his family.
- 33:12Speaker 7: In fact, Bart had organized two previous attempts to kill
- 33:16Speaker 7: his parents. Along with that knowledge, seven months of DNA testing,
- 33:21Speaker 7: surveillance and phone monitoring, detectives had enough information to warn Kent.
- 33:27Speaker 10: We knew at that time as definitively as we could
- 33:31Speaker 10: that Chris Burschuer was the shooter. Stephen Champagne's role was
- 33:35Speaker 10: still a little unclear, but Bart's role as the mastermind
- 33:40Speaker 10: of this case, of this shooting, of this homicide, the massacre.
- 33:45Speaker 2: Was very clear.
- 33:47Speaker 10: And so that was what gave us the confidence to
- 33:48Speaker 10: sit down in front of Kent and say, Kent, your
- 33:52Speaker 10: son is.
- 33:53Speaker 8: Responsible for this.
- 33:54Speaker 2: How did he take it?
- 33:55Speaker 10: He said, you guys are either wrong or my son
- 34:01Speaker 10: is a monster. As politely as I could tell him,
- 34:04Speaker 10: I said, well, your son's a monster. He's responsible for this.
- 34:07Speaker 10: All the evidence points to him.
- 34:09Speaker 7: The heat was on, so Bart took off. For three
- 34:13Speaker 7: thousand dollars, an acquaintance named Rudy Rios sold Bart his
- 34:17Speaker 7: identity and a room in the Rios family home in Serralvo, Mexico.
- 34:23Speaker 7: Bart lived there for fifteen months until a ten thousand
- 34:27Speaker 7: dollars reward was posted for his capture. The real Rudy
- 34:31Speaker 7: Rios then confessed to police and claimed the reward. Bart
- 34:36Speaker 7: was caught and Detective Marshall Slott had one burning question
- 34:40Speaker 7: for him.
- 34:41Speaker 10: I said, with the previous plots and this murder, how
- 34:46Speaker 10: did you get so many people to go along with
- 34:48Speaker 10: your scheme to kill your family? He simply looked at me.
- 34:53Speaker 10: She said, it was easy. That confirmed to me at
- 34:55Speaker 10: that point in time that Bart Whittaker viewed people as
- 34:58Speaker 10: tools and met would as a law enforcement professional understood
- 35:03Speaker 10: to be a sociopath.
- 35:04Speaker 7: Bart was brought back to Sugarland Police station and Kent
- 35:09Speaker 7: confronted his son.
- 35:11Speaker 4: The very first thing he said was Dad, I'm so sorry.
- 35:16Speaker 4: I'm going to do everything I can to make this
- 35:19Speaker 4: as quick and painless.
- 35:21Speaker 3: As possible for everybody. And I just lost it.
- 35:25Speaker 4: I just lost it because he was guilty, he was responsible.
- 35:30Speaker 4: There wasn't any there wasn't any room for any questions anymore.
- 35:36Speaker 7: But Kent wasn't about to withdraw his support for his son.
- 35:40Speaker 7: He stood by Bart throughout the trial, listening to sickening
- 35:44Speaker 7: details of how Bart and his friends Chris Brasher and
- 35:47Speaker 7: Stephen Champagne plotted to kill Kent Trisia and Kevin.
- 35:53Speaker 4: It's important to recognize that forgiving somebody it isn't justifying
- 36:00Speaker 4: that they did. It isn't saying I forgive you, so
- 36:03Speaker 4: it's all right.
- 36:05Speaker 7: In Zebra trials, Chris Brusheer was sentenced to life in
- 36:09Speaker 7: prison for the shootings, while Stephen Champagne gave evidence against
- 36:13Speaker 7: Bart and received fifteen years evidence that helped Bart get
- 36:18Speaker 7: convicted and given the death penalty. For the past seven years,
- 36:24Speaker 7: Bart Whittaker has lived here on death row.
- 36:30Speaker 2: So when did you start thinking about killing your parents?
- 36:36Speaker 3: You know, I don't actually know.
- 36:37Speaker 12: I mean, it was not just this Eureka moment where
- 36:40Speaker 12: it just kind of came up, and it was sort
- 36:45Speaker 12: of a way of thinking, this really awful thing in
- 36:48Speaker 12: my head, the worst thing that I could think of
- 36:50Speaker 12: as a way of kind of like venting, you know,
- 36:52Speaker 12: if that makes any sense. It wasn't real. It was
- 36:54Speaker 12: not a it's not a plan or applied at that point.
- 36:58Speaker 12: It was just sort of a way of, you know,
- 37:00Speaker 12: shaking my fist at them in my head.
- 37:03Speaker 7: That there would be people that think that way about
- 37:04Speaker 7: their parents, though, that we wouldn't make the jump to say.
- 37:06Speaker 2: I want to share one sure, yeah, so.
- 37:09Speaker 7: I meany there were three attempts that you made. You
- 37:12Speaker 7: must have waited serious.
- 37:14Speaker 12: I don't actually believe that any one of us, even
- 37:16Speaker 12: the last attempt, which was obviously very real, ever actually
- 37:18Speaker 12: thought Chris was gonna pull that trigger until he did it.
- 37:21Speaker 2: How did you convince these other two to go along
- 37:23Speaker 2: with your plan?
- 37:24Speaker 12: There was really no convincing required. I think that it's
- 37:27Speaker 12: easier for the public to believe that there's this one
- 37:30Speaker 12: really evil person that's capable of doing this, and to
- 37:33Speaker 12: believe that there was this whole cloud of individuals that
- 37:38Speaker 12: were perfectly capable with the ID, you know, comfortable with
- 37:40Speaker 12: the idea of murder.
- 37:42Speaker 3: Because these are randomly selected people.
- 37:44Speaker 12: And if you underste what I'm saying, it's easier for
- 37:48Speaker 12: them to believe in the monster working about in the
- 37:50Speaker 12: shadows than to think that every person around the campfire
- 37:53Speaker 12: is capable of this.
- 37:54Speaker 2: But it was your family, it was your ID.
- 37:56Speaker 3: Right, and i'd I never stated otherwise.
- 38:00Speaker 2: But you didn't manipulate them.
- 38:02Speaker 12: There's plenty of sorrow to go around on this, and
- 38:04Speaker 12: I extend a lot of that to my codefindits. You know,
- 38:06Speaker 12: they're in prison right now because of this situation. I
- 38:10Speaker 12: don't absolve them of, you know, complete responsibility of this,
- 38:13Speaker 12: but you know they wouldn't be here if it weren't
- 38:15Speaker 12: for me. We were all really, really miserable human beings,
- 38:18Speaker 12: and this was sort of our game of chicken.
- 38:19Speaker 3: We were playing with each other. How evil can we get?
- 38:21Speaker 2: You know? Do you know how that sounds though? Playing
- 38:24Speaker 2: a game of chicken about killing your family before?
- 38:27Speaker 3: Right? I get it, you know, I trust me, I
- 38:30Speaker 3: get it.
- 38:31Speaker 12: And there's so many things that a person in my
- 38:35Speaker 12: position can say here, but they all sound like excuses,
- 38:37Speaker 12: and I've never done that.
- 38:39Speaker 2: While not making excuses.
- 38:41Speaker 7: At the time of the murder, Bart was usually off
- 38:43Speaker 7: his head on alcohol and drugs, mostly ice, and since
- 38:48Speaker 7: being in prison, psychiatric tests have revealed he suffers from
- 38:52Speaker 7: Asperger's add and psychotic disorders, with paranoid, narcissistic, and anti
- 38:59Speaker 7: social feet.
- 39:00Speaker 12: Had I known that what was wrong with me was
- 39:03Speaker 12: not some sort of spiritual stain or you know, the
- 39:07Speaker 12: black mark on me that I couldn't see. Had I
- 39:10Speaker 12: known that this was a matter of biochemistry, it would
- 39:12Speaker 12: have framed everything differently. I would have been able to
- 39:16Speaker 12: look at myself and say, it's not you, it's your brain.
- 39:21Speaker 7: In court, it was claimed Bart wanted to kill his
- 39:24Speaker 7: family for insurance money. Bart maintains it was never about money.
- 39:29Speaker 7: In his troubled mind. He wanted revenge on his parents
- 39:33Speaker 7: for being alive, for being who he was, for not
- 39:36Speaker 7: being able to connect with anyone.
- 39:38Speaker 12: I didn't know how to relate to them. They did
- 39:40Speaker 12: not know how to relate to me, and they did
- 39:43Speaker 12: not even realize there.
- 39:43Speaker 3: Was a deficit in that.
- 39:45Speaker 12: That was sort of the problem. I guess that's really
- 39:48Speaker 12: the root of all of this is that I felt
- 39:51Speaker 12: like I was drowning in a very public pool and
- 39:53Speaker 12: nobody was noticing.
- 39:55Speaker 7: Certainly, Bart believes if his parents had given heed to
- 39:58Speaker 7: the warning signs of the second attempt in two thousand
- 40:01Speaker 7: and one, his mother and brother may still be alive.
- 40:06Speaker 12: I was like, you know, we had this thing with
- 40:08Speaker 12: the cop show up at the house and hey, you
- 40:10Speaker 12: know what, your someone's parting to kill you, and.
- 40:12Speaker 3: It just vanished.
- 40:13Speaker 12: You know, It's like, you guys can't even you should
- 40:16Speaker 12: have sent me to a mental hospital.
- 40:18Speaker 3: I should have, you know something, right.
- 40:19Speaker 7: But instead Bard is being warehoused in isolation on death
- 40:24Speaker 7: row until his appeals expire and the state is allowed
- 40:28Speaker 7: to execute him. Having just spent an hour with Bart
- 40:31Speaker 7: Or Thomas, as in our prefers to be known, I'm
- 40:34Speaker 7: finding it really hard to reconcile the man I just
- 40:37Speaker 7: met with the awful, terrible things that I know he's done.
- 40:41Speaker 7: He comes across as extremely intelligent and self aware, and
- 40:45Speaker 7: though both he and his father admit that he's a
- 40:48Speaker 7: very good liar, today I believed him.
- 40:51Speaker 10: I believe wholeheartedly that Bart Whittaker's are sociopath I don't
- 40:55Speaker 10: believe he's mentally ill where he needs medication. Bart Whittaker's
- 40:59Speaker 10: highlight intelligent.
- 41:01Speaker 2: Do you think I was taken in?
- 41:03Speaker 10: I believe you could have been taken in by Bart Whittaker.
- 41:05Speaker 10: He's charming, intelligent, engaging. My personal feeling is that he
- 41:13Speaker 10: gave you what you wanted to hear.
- 41:15Speaker 5: Coming up after all the horror, a new love and
- 41:20Speaker 5: a new life for Kent.
- 41:22Speaker 4: Not only do I have a beautiful wife who loves me,
- 41:25Speaker 4: a new career, I have a new relationship with my son.
- 41:28Speaker 1: As his son awaits execution.
- 41:31Speaker 3: Good always comes out of you.
- 41:40Speaker 7: It's been more than ten years since Bart Whittaker masterminded
- 41:44Speaker 7: the plot to execute his family, killing his mother Tricia,
- 41:48Speaker 7: and brother Kevin. Meanwhile, his father Kent, has written a
- 41:54Speaker 7: book about his journey with Bart called Murder By Family
- 41:58Speaker 7: and Kent met and married Tanya.
- 42:02Speaker 13: I remember thinking, Okay, do I really want to get
- 42:06Speaker 13: in to a relationship with someone who's going to have
- 42:09Speaker 13: an ongoing situation like this. It's going to affect everyone
- 42:13Speaker 13: around me as well. But we were in love, and
- 42:16Speaker 13: that's what you do.
- 42:17Speaker 2: You stay in it for that.
- 42:18Speaker 4: So I have fallen in love again. I am married,
- 42:23Speaker 4: and I have a brand new career. I'm able to
- 42:26Speaker 4: speak all over the country about forgiveness and about reconciliation
- 42:32Speaker 4: and about hope.
- 42:33Speaker 13: I think we ought to just focus on that and
- 42:36Speaker 13: talk about what it would look.
- 42:38Speaker 8: Like to reconcile with people.
- 42:40Speaker 13: We work together, we speak together, we do counseling with
- 42:45Speaker 13: other people who have forgiveness issues.
- 42:48Speaker 2: We love what we do.
- 42:49Speaker 8: We're getting to write a book.
- 42:51Speaker 13: We've been able to meet with people all over the
- 42:54Speaker 13: country who are really pursuing a life beyond bitterness.
- 42:58Speaker 7: Most Fridays, Hanya and Kent go and visit Bart. People
- 43:02Speaker 7: of questioned Tanya about why she goes to the prison.
- 43:07Speaker 13: I know a lot about Tricia from Kent. What I
- 43:11Speaker 13: know is that if Kent had died and Tricia were
- 43:15Speaker 13: still alive, she'd be at that prison every week visiting
- 43:19Speaker 13: her boy.
- 43:20Speaker 8: And that's something I can do.
- 43:22Speaker 13: I can do that out of honor and respect for
- 43:26Speaker 13: her and the wife and mother she was, out of
- 43:29Speaker 13: love for Kent, and also out of love for Bart.
- 43:33Speaker 13: I can't be his mom. I don't want to be
- 43:34Speaker 13: his mom. I'm his friend.
- 43:36Speaker 2: They wouldn't have met if it wasn't for you. How
- 43:39Speaker 2: do you feel about her?
- 43:40Speaker 12: I like her what She's had a girly good effect
- 43:42Speaker 12: on him too, So yeah, she's very genuine.
- 43:47Speaker 2: So could that possibly be something good that's come out
- 43:49Speaker 2: of this?
- 43:50Speaker 3: Good?
- 43:50Speaker 12: You know, that's whatever your religious beliefs.
- 43:55Speaker 3: Good always comes out of you.
- 43:57Speaker 2: Do you think about witty kid deserves to die for
- 43:59Speaker 2: what he did.
- 44:03Speaker 10: I believe that the death penalty that Bart Whittaker received
- 44:06Speaker 10: is appropriate.
- 44:08Speaker 7: This is where Bart Whittaker will be brought to draw
- 44:11Speaker 7: his final breath.
- 44:13Speaker 2: Behind these walls.
- 44:14Speaker 7: Is the Texas execution Chamber, and watching on behind the
- 44:18Speaker 7: glass will be Kent Whittaker, whose heart will be broken
- 44:22Speaker 7: by his older son all over again, but with forgiveness
- 44:27Speaker 7: in his heart and Tanya by his side. Kent Whittaker's
- 44:31Speaker 7: future is looking bright.
- 44:33Speaker 4: One blessing that I thought that I would never have
- 44:37Speaker 4: it was grandkids. And Kanye has three children, and both.
- 44:44Speaker 3: For girls have kids.
- 44:46Speaker 4: So not only do I have a beautiful wife who
- 44:50Speaker 4: loves me, a new career, a new relationship with my son,
- 44:55Speaker 4: I have grandchildren.
- 44:58Speaker 2: Life is good.
- 45:07Speaker 7: And in Perth it's been more than eight years since
- 45:10Speaker 7: Demitrios Zakiris coldheartedly killed his wife Karen. Karen's mom, June
- 45:19Speaker 7: Van Smarlin and her husband has become full time parents again,
- 45:23Speaker 7: raising Karen's daughter Lara.
- 45:26Speaker 6: Actually, what her mother did for her in those sixteen
- 45:29Speaker 6: months was pretty amazing. When she arrived, she knew about
- 45:34Speaker 6: fifty nursery rhymes, could count from one to seventeen. I
- 45:38Speaker 6: knew the entire alphabet at sixteen months.
- 45:43Speaker 2: What's she like now? She's an incredible person.
- 45:47Speaker 6: She's gifted, running on the literary sea side and the
- 45:50Speaker 6: art side.
- 45:52Speaker 8: She's beautiful.
- 45:54Speaker 7: Do you think if and when Demetrios gets out he
- 45:57Speaker 7: will want to have a relationship with Lara?
- 45:59Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised, Yeap.
- 46:02Speaker 2: How do you feel about that?
- 46:04Speaker 6: Well, hopefully that'll be up to Lara. When she's old enough,
- 46:09Speaker 6: she will have to make up her own mind. The
- 46:11Speaker 6: main thing is to understand her father, understand where he
- 46:14Speaker 6: comes from, reach the understanding that I've come to.
- 46:17Speaker 7: But Karen's friend Barbara sees things differently. She won't ever
- 46:22Speaker 7: forgive Dimitrios and believes he gave up all of his
- 46:25Speaker 7: rights the day he murdered Lara's mum.
- 46:28Speaker 8: Karen's not coming back.
- 46:31Speaker 9: Lara's got a dead mother and her whole life's been
- 46:35Speaker 9: compromised through his actions. I see her as Karen's daughter,
- 46:39Speaker 9: and I don't think he's worthy of the right to
- 46:42Speaker 9: her in any way anyway at all.
- 46:46Speaker 8: I don't think he deserves that