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Double Date Ends in Double Murder _ Homicide_ Hours To Kill · The Mind of a Man

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: It was heartbreaking. These two innocent girls were viciously murdered.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: A brutal killing.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Both victims were killed by asphyxiation, cord wrapped around their throats.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: A dark mystery with multiple suspects.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Everything was a possibility. Stalkers, someone they met at home.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: You want to try to narrow in who's the last
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: person in that apartment.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: When you find out that they have some aggressive tendencies,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: that makes them even more of a suspect.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: The truth will be revealed.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: There was something psychologically wrong with him. Dealing with people
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: like that, anything's liable to happen.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: The key to solving the toughest of these homicides lies
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: in the final 24 hours of the victim's life. To
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline, the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: minutes and hours containing evidence that can help unlock the
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: mystery and catch the killer. New York, a place where
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: anything can happen and where anyone can become someone.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: It's a big city with plenty of opportunities. This was
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: the start. If you can't make it in New York,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: you can't make it anywhere.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: But behind the glamour lies darkness.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: West Harlem in 1992.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: It was during the holiday season coming up, December 19th,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: close to Christmas, and the call came in to the
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Homicide Squad.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: There was a complaint from the woman who lived in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the apartment below about the water coming from the apartment above.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The super went up to investigate, knocked on the door,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: no answer.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: The apartment belongs to 20-year-old Nikki Silas and 19-year-old Brittany Rojas.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: After not getting any answer, he decided to go from
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the roof down to the fire escape And when he
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: looked into the apartment, he seen who he knew as
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Nikki laying in the bed. He thought she was asleep,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: so he was banging on the window. Banging hard and
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: got no response, so he forced the window open. And
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: he went to touch her to wake her up and
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: realized she wasn't going to wake up.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: She was dead.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: And he went towards the front where the water leak
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: was coming from, and he found Brittany's body floating in
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: the tub.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: He picked up the phone and called the police.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Detectives Daryl Hayes and Rudy Hall of Manhattan North Homicide
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: are assigned to the case. Inside the apartment, they find
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a grisly scene.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: As you enter the apartment door from the hallway to
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: the level of the bathroom, you can see that there
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: was a struggle. You see the sink dislodged and on
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the floor. And then you see Brittany Rojas in the tub.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: She had her cord wrapped around her neck. We weren't
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: sure at that time if that was a cause of
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: her death. Was it that she was strangled to death
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: or did she drown? As you walk to the bedroom
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: where Nikki Salas is on the bed, you can see
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: that she was disrobed and she was dead. You couldn't
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: tell at that time if there was a... She just
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: seen her laying there, it was like she was asleep.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: And same thing, Nikki had a licorice cord around her throat.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: That is strange when you find two bodies in one location.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: But this whole case was strange. I think they were
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: good girls. They didn't deserve to die, by no means.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I think in any homicide case, a team of detectives
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: see the side of the victim's family that's suffering for
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: the loss of their child, and it's our job to
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: put closure to it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: To solve the murder, detectives must piece together the last
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: 24 hours of the victim's lives.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: The ME gives you a time of death as close
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: as they can, based on the temperature of the body,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: based on post-mortem. But at the time, During the initial
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: crime scene, we didn't know that. We tried to get
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: noise complaints, if anybody heard anything. Tried to timeline it
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: when this water leak started coming into the apartment. We
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: found on the counter there was a receipt. On the receipt,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: it named a particular store in the neighborhood a couple
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: of blocks away.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: The receipt is time-stamped. December 19th, 1.15 a.m.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: A team of detectives went there to talk to the
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: night clerk that remembered a female coming in to purchase
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: some groceries about that time. So we knew that they
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: were alive from the point of the receipt going forward.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: The information gathered allows them to place time of death
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: between 1.30 and 3 a.m.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: The medical examiner told us that both victims were killed
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: by asphyxiation. The assumption was that Brittany was attacked sexually,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: but we just didn't have the concrete evidence. She was
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: submerged in water, so if there was any DNA that
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: was available, it was contaminated.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Detectives do find DNA evidence on Nikki Silas' body.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: The ME couldn't say for sure that that DNA would
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: be from the victim having sex with the murderer... Was
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: it that she had sex with her boyfriend and he
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: went off to go to work, and then somebody came
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: in and attacked her?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: They send the sample from Nikki to the lab and
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: continue to process the scene.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: The apartment, to me, looked like it was in disarray.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: You could see that somebody ransacked the place. Maybe they
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: came in and the burglar was already in the apartment.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't straight-up robbery here. The way the parties
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: were found, if it's a robbery, you don't hang around
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: or anybody. You wanna get your loot and get out.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: They showed no signs of forced entry at the front door.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: So the question comes, okay, then they either had access
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: to the apartment or were allowed in by one or
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: two or both people living.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: In the apartment.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Police then discover a handwritten note at the foot of
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Nikki's bed.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: It said, train directions to and from Queens to Manhattan
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: and getting off at the exit closer to the house.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: We were determining if somebody was visiting the apartment that
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: had never been there before, that they needed directions. We
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: didn't know if that was something old or new. You
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: couldn't put a timeline. It didn't have a date. How
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: significant at that time, we couldn't determine.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: In most instances, a murderer doesn't just kill random people.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: There's usually a connection. And if there's more than one
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: dead body at a scene, usually the police can determine
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: whether or not the second person was just an accident, essentially,
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: With no way to know which one was targeted, detectives
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: start to trace both girls' contacts.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: In most homicide cases, we always request the phone logs.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: You want to try to narrow in who's the last
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: person that somebody in that apartment spoke to. Then you
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: want to talk to that person or persons and say, well,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: did they indicate they were having problems with anybody? Normally,
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: you can get them back in a short period of time. Now,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: keep in mind, this is December 19th. close to the
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: holiday season. And at that particular time, they had an
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: active kidnapping homicide case going on. So it's delayed the
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: phone records coming back on a timely fashion.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: They now have the heartbreaking task of contacting the families.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: It's hard to make notifications to a family member saying
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: that somebody's deceased or passed away. You want to make
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: sure that there's other family members and a support mechanism
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: there that could help because you don't know how they're
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: going to react to it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: I was just going to bed, and the doorbell rang.
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: There were two policemen there. And they said, there's been
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: an accident in New York. And at the time, I
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: couldn't click it. I just couldn't think. Well, Nikki doesn't drive,
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: so it couldn't have been a car accident. And then
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: when they came in and they told us, it was
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: like somebody pulled the rug out from under me. And
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: my husband just fell apart.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Detectives learn Nikki was a college student from Massachusetts, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Brittany was from Queens.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: Brittany moved in with Nikki after Thanksgiving. Her mother still
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: lived in Brazil. I just think she was all alone
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: as far as having a parent around.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: A family had mentioned that Nikki was into dancing and
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: doing videos, and it was determined that she did a
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: video with one of the Caribbean artists named Shaba Ranks.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: They had ambitions of... Being in the show business world,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the dancing and all the glitter that goes with that.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: I think that was her goal, to make contacts. If
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: she got in the video, maybe she would have a
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: chance to do some acting. She had been home that Thanksgiving,
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: and she told me that she couldn't pay the rent anymore.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: So her plan was to finish college there for the
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: semester and come home. She came home on the 22nd,
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: but not the way I expected. She came home in
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: a casket.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Detectives also interview Nikki's brother, Damon, about his last contact
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: with her.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: About 9 p.m., Nikki's on the phone with her brother,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: who called her to see what's going on, and she's
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: telling him that she's got company. We're playing cards. No
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: names were given. Now we got to find who that
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: person or persons are.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Nikki's family does have an idea of who.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: It could be.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: When the police told me she had been murdered, both
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: Damon and I said, it's got to be Cooley.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Cooley.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Was Nikki's boyfriend.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Nikki telling her mother that Cooley was a vicious person
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: that attacked her and was abusive to her.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: I said, I didn't bring you into this world to
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: be abused. I said, you need to get away from that.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: But she wasn't going to leave New York as far
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: as Cooley was concerned.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Usually the boyfriend or the husband is the first person
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you look at as being a suspect. And when you
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: find out that they have some aggressive tendencies insofar as
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: domestic violence, that makes them even more of a suspect.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: A man named Cooley has quickly become a person of
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: interest in the double homicide of Brittany Rojas and Nicky Silas.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: He had a previous record for domestic violence. He's the
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: prime person you want to find first. We found out
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: that this person worked at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: When he's brought in, initially, we challenged him with the
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: things we had found out. He was forthcoming, saying, yes,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: we had relationship problems. We were arguing all the time,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: but he denied ever putting his hands on her. He
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: denied ever threatening her. but yet he did say that
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: he didn't want her to be around people, socialize with people,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: and felt that with her being in the video business
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: and meeting celebrities, he might lose her to somebody else
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: that was more successful. You say to yourself, you know, hey,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: he has an anger issue, but is it enough to
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: say that he would be willing to commit this type
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: of murder?
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: They need to know where he was between 1 and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: 3 a.m.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Cooley had an alibi that had to be checked and verified.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: It was sketchy.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: It wasn't enough to say he couldn't have made this
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: time frame of when we believed the homicide took place.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Detectives try another tech to link him to the crime.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: When we said, well, we want DNA, he didn't hesitate.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: But it could be, hey, that's my girlfriend. Of course
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: we had sex, so you can have my DNA. I
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: didn't do anything wrong.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Despite his shaky alibi and a potential explanation for the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: presence of his DNA, it's still not enough to physically
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: place him at the scene.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: We went back to the neighborhood and we discovered someone
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: who noticed something interesting in the apartment building or in
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the area. Daniel Ramirez was the assistant super. He would
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: have known who belonged in the building and who didn't.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: He's very observant.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: He happened to be there that particular day a little
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: later than 1 in the morning.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Renner's reports that he sees these two African-Americans leaving the building.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: One looks very upset. He's so agitated to the point
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: that he throws up, leaving the building.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: The other gentleman was carrying what he believed to be
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: either a duffel bag or a laundry bag with a
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: safe that was protruding out of his bag. Daniel Ramirez
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: helped the sketch be composed of what he saw of
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: these individuals going down the stairs and out the building.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Cooley had to stay in the lineup, which he consented to.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: And Mr. Ramirez observed the lineup with Cooley in it,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and he did not identify Cooley in the lineup as
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: a person or persons of the two people going out
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: of the building during the time that we believe the
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: homicide occurred. After the interview, the results came in that
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: it wasn't his DNA. That proved to us at that
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: time that he wasn't what caused her death.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: With Cooley ruled out, detectives revisit the crime scene evidence.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: They examine letters addressed to Brittany Rojas.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: We found out that Brittany was in communication with an
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: inmate that was being held at Rikers Island. knowing that
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: he was incarcerated at the time. That proved that he
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: couldn't have done it. But maybe he says, you know what,
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: I know that they felt threatened or they were having
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: some personal issues in their life that might have been
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: the reason that they were killed. So we had to
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: go interview this person and have a conversation to see
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: if he might have been aware of any reason anybody
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: would have been after attacking Brittany or maybe her roommate,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Nikki Salas. He said he loved her. He claims he
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: didn't know that she was having any problems with anybody
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: that he might have been aware of. But during the interview,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: it was mentioned that one of the locations that Brittany
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: and Nikki worked was in a peep show called Show World.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: It's a bombshell for detectives, and the Times Square location
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: is well known to police.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: When the Navy comes in with the big ships, the
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: sailors come in, the first thing they do is they
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: go to show world, put their money in, they want
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: to see dancers on stage take their clothes off. And
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: that's where a lot of these celebrity dance artists and
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: stuff would go to pick girls. They sit in on
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: a video shoot and perform and dance.
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: When investigators discovered that these two girls were more than students,
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: that they were working at this well-established club, For them,
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: it opened up a whole host of other potential suspects.
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: Establishments like this attract a certain criminal element.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So my initial thought was whatever happened to them came
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: from Silver.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: They learn it was here where Brittany and Nikki first
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: met and decided to become roommates.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Some people believe it's a lot of seedy females that
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: work there, but 90% of the females that do work
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: there are school kids. you know, going to school, trying
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: to support their education. They got a percentage of what
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: slots money came in, and that's how they made their money.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: It pays well. On an average night, they can make
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: $ 400 or $ 500.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: But while Nikki and Brittany lived on the street in Narrow,
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: many of the customers did not.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: You have people that come in there that have drug abuse.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: You have people that come in there that are sex
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: crime perpetrators. Everything was a possibility. Stalkers, someone they met.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: The visitors, the men who were there, can see who's
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: making the money. And it's not very difficult to imagine
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: a scenario where the patrons of a strip club will
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: follow home a dancer and attempt to rob them.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: When you're dealing with people like that, anything's liable to happen.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Detectives question the girls' co-workers.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Brittany had a regular person who she used to date
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: from the showroom. Never mind. an older person.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: He was giving her a lot of attention and cash
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: to turn with Sugar Daddy.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Brittany was known to spend time with him outside the club.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: One of the theories was that because he knew where
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: she lived, that maybe he was there on that particular
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: night and something went wrong. Maybe he says, hey, you
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: can't be around nobody else. You're gonna do what I say.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: I'm giving you money. And she refused. He got angry.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: And he killed her. And if Nikki was a witness,
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: it might be you're forced to make that decision to
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: take her out because she know who you are. It
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: was a very serious offense.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: There's a high incentive for you to make sure that
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: nobody in that apartment is left to tell the police
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: what you've done.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: You want to find this person. You want to know
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: who he is, what was he about.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: The discovery that a sugar daddy dated murder victim Brittany
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Rojas has detectives staking out a Times Square nightclub.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: He comes there frequently enough that we felt comfortable to
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: pick him up whenever he showed up. You want to
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: talk to him, try to find out where he was
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: during the night of this particular case. What was his
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: interest in her? Was it solely a sex relation or
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: was it just, hey, you felt real bad, she's struggling
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: and you have money and you just wanted to give
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: her money for her to spend time with you? The
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: first thing you're looking for as any facial marks, scratches,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: any indication that they looked like they'd been in a fight.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Because it was a severe fight in there. You know,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: she put up a struggle. He had no injuries. He
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: didn't show signs. He was really upset that she was dead.
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: With someone being extremely cooperative with the police, it can
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: either be taken in a number of ways. It can
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: be a flag that that person is trying to get
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: their attention away from somebody else. Or it could be
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: that they sincerely want to work with the police to
• 22:12
  Speaker 6: try to get something solved.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: You ask him a question, he answered it as best
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: he could. I'm not gonna say it was a love relationship,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: but he really liked her. He felt real bad and said,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: if there's anything that I could do to help solve this,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I'd be willing to. And the alibi that he gave
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: was substantial enough to prove that he wasn't a part
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: of the crime. He couldn't have made it to that
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: location and did what he had to do and get back.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: His DNA didn't match Nikki's. And he was ruled out.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It was heartbreaking because these two innocent girls were viciously murdered.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And there wasn't much to go on as far as
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: clues or evidence. Every time we thought we had something,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: they were ruled out.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Every time we thought we had some valuable information, it
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: turned out to be no good. So you're trying to
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: put the time pieces together, and there was no other
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: fingerprints in there that we can come across. So the
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: case is what we call stale. You're back to ground zero.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: For Nikki's already grieving family, what the case uncovers only
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: causes more pain.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: When they told me that she was working at Show World,
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: I was shocked.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I felt awful.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I wished she had called.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: Me and asked me for some money. But the media
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: made a circus out of it. Every weekend, there would
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: be something on the front page. And they were always negative,
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: as if Nikki, because she was in Show World, that's
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: why she was murdered. That was all hurtful. But that
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: was not what made Nikki.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Show World. It just wasn't.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: She was a good soul.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: After two weeks of waiting, detectives finally received Nikki and
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Brittany's phone records.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: We noticed that a phone call was made from the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: apartment to a number listed in Queens around the time
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the murders occurred. And we were very curious about what
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that phone call was about and the substance of it.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: And keep in mind, we had the directions that was
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: given to how to get to Nikki and Brittany's apartment.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: from Queens. I want to go out and invade people's privacy,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: find out what they don't want people to know, and
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: get the results. And that's what I do.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: So we head off to the address where the phone
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: is located. Knock on the door. Female answers. And we
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: announce who we are and why we were there. We
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: had a phone call being made to that apartment And
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: she said she didn't remember. But she said, well, there
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: was a voice message left on the voicemail from somebody
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that was looking for my boyfriend, Tom, who's not here
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: right now. And this person sounded very agitated and excited.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: And we asked if we could listen to the voice message.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And she told us she no longer had the phone
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: or the tape. There was a story about having an
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: argument with her boyfriend and she throwing the phone at
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: him and the phone broke. And it was in the garbage.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Or is the phone being thrown away because you know
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: what the end result was and you was trying to
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: get rid of the evidence?
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: So we had the emergency service search the dumpster. They
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: found the phone, but there was no tape.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: This call may be the only link to the killer.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: and only one person can tell detectives what was said.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: She didn't know this person, but her boyfriend wouldn't know. Later,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: we got a phone call from the boyfriend, Connor. We
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: had listened to the message, and he identified the person
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: on the other end as a friend of his by
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the name Antoine Atterbury, and he lived in an address
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: in Queens.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Antoine was calling him to complain that The person he
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: was with was bugging out, attacking this female in this apartment,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: and he didn't want no parts of it, and he
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: was out of there. So now you got somebody that
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: can say, we're in that apartment on the day of
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: the incident. Two girls are dead, and the only one
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: that can speak on anything is Antoine Atterbury. But is
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: he a part of it?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Detectives dig into the background of a potential witness to
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: the brutal murders of Nikki and Brittany.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Once we had a name, Antoine Atterbury, we could do
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: a criminal check. Nothing stuck out to say he was
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: a wanted person or a known felon that got locked
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: up numerous times. We found out that he had gotten
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: a job at one of the premier department stores in Queens,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: that his mother was an upper-level manager there. So his
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: life was positive. And myself and Detective Hall, now that
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: we got where Antoine lives, we take a ride out
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: to Queens. He wasn't shocked to me, you know, when
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: we came in. He didn't look like, you know, somebody
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: that has something to hide. He treated us like gentlemen.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I'm a good interviewer, and I'm a good judge of character.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: It's something that you develop over the years by talking
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: to different people. You can usually tell when someone's hiding something.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Detectives ask Antoine about the murders.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: He first denied knowing that they were killed. He said
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: he didn't hear the scene on the news.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Then they confront him with a phone call.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: He was trying to play it down. He just wouldn't
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: give up too much information. It was like pulling teeth
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: with him. You know, he'd give you what you want
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: to hear at times, and that was true.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: He didn't come out readily and make the admissions on
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: his own.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: As the questioning continues, Detective Hayes spots something interesting.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: On the left of the living room floor, there's a
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: silhouette of a safe. That safe that we see is
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: what Ramirez sees in a duffel bag or a laundry
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: bag of one of them leaving the building. That might
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: be the safe that we're talking about. I cannot say
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: how shocking it was that it would be invisible sight.
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: In a murder investigation, there's really no such thing as coincidence.
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: It's the result of a lot of legwork, a lot
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: of door knocking, interviewing suspects. It's something that happens because
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: you make your own luck. We asked him about the safe.
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: He said, it's not mine. That's my roommate's. He brought
• 29:50
  Speaker 6: that stuff here.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And we went around and around until he finally admitted
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that he did make the phone call.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: That says that Antoine Atterbury is at that apartment. So
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: we put him in the car to go back to
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: the 2-4 precinct. He started realizing that he's in trouble
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: and that I might as well just tell the truth.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Antoine tells detectives his roommate, Kevin Ladson, met Brittany in
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Queens a few weeks earlier.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: He was coming out of getting a haircut, ran into
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: in front of the barbershop, and struck up a conversation.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: They exchanged phone numbers. Some weeks to a month later,
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: he bumps into her again and said, well, I thought
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: you was going to call me. She said, look, yeah,
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: we can go out, but I got a roommate now.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: He said, oh, that's strange. I got a guy there
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: for me, too. Maybe we could do a double date. Basically,
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: they set up this day to go out, December 18th.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Brittany had given Kevin written directions for the train.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Those were the directions that we found to how to
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: get to Nikki and Brittany's apartment from his house in Queens.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Antoine says that he and Kevin got to the girls'
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: apartment around 8 p.m. They spent several hours playing cards. Then,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Antoine claims, late in the evening, he left the apartment
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: with Nikki.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: And when they came back, They found Brittany's body, and
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Kevin was all agitated.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: He tells us that Kevin snatches Nikki, and that's when
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Antoine starts making the call. And when he makes that
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: call and he leaves that voice message, he says he
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: runs out the apartment, and he made it clear. I
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: left that apartment. I didn't leave with anything. I ran
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: out there with nothing. He don't know exactly what time
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Kevin came down. but he was already out before Kevin.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: But the question always is, besides calling your friend, why
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: didn't you call the police?
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: People put themselves into a crime scene and realize they
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: have to get themselves out with minimal guilt.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: So we don't know. Did they both do it?
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: The only way to verify Antoine's story is to find
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: the other man who was there that night.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: We went back to Queens looking for his roommate, Kevin Ladson.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: We found him on the street heading toward the apartment.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: And we scooped him up and brought him back to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: 24th and 37th. We walked him by, Antoine, to make
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: sure they both know that they were both there.
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: Officers will often play someone against the other person. Well,
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: what they'll do is they'll go talk to one person, say,
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: did you know this person.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Mentioned this about you?
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: It may not always be true, but it's a way
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: to try to find out who the true culprits are.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Kevin was upset because he thought Antoine was talking. He
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: was more upset about that than anything else.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: There's a huge amount of contempt on the streets for rats.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: If you talk to the police, or you get called
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: out as being a rat, even if you're not one,
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: your life can be in danger.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: Detectives need to break Kevin's silence and discover who really
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: killed Nikki and Brittany.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: He didn't show any signs of remorse. He didn't show
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: any signs like he didn't care. He just was one
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: of those like, all right, if y'all ain't got no evidence,
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: I'm out of here.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: He was cold. We was telling him, you know, you're
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: going to go down. This is your opportunity to come
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: clean because your buddies are giving it all up and
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: he's blaming you. Enough broke them. Kept denying. We were
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: in Atterbury, it was very open, remorseful. Kevin was just
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the opposite, which made me believe Antoine more than I
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: did Kevin.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Investigators have one more card to play in Daniel Ramirez.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: The witness, who can possibly place both of them at
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: the scene.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: There was a positive hit on both of them. Daniel
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Ramirez says that both Kevin Latson and Antoine Atterbury were
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: the two people he saw leaving the building. I had
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: a bury with nothing in his hands and throwing up,
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: looking distressed. And Kevin with the duffel bag with the safe,
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: you could say, wow, that's what we were waiting for.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: It gave probable cause that we know that both of
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: them were involved at the time of the homicide.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: This confirms Kevin was outside the building, but it's still
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: not enough to prove which of them did it. They
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: now need something that puts him inside the girls' home.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Antoine told us that Kevin Ladsen took a lot of
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: music CDs that the girls had in the apartment.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Jewelry.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: And one of the biggest things was the coat that
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Kevin gave this girl, saying he bought it for her
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: for Christmas. Well, once we knew the coat came from
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: the girlfriend, we had her statement saying that she received
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: this coat from him. He was presented with that, but
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: he couldn't deny it because he knows he gave it
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: to her. You would have thought Kevin would have rolled
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: over and said, wait, I didn't do this by myself.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: I did Nikki, but he did Brittany. And that never surfaced.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: The only thing I can surmise is that he didn't
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: want to snitch on his friend. We're talking, well, we
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: got DNA there, so you might as well tell us
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the truth.
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: Once police have you in their sights... If you, as
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: a suspect, think you're getting away with murder, you're sadly mistaken.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Detectives Daryl Hayes and Rudy Hall close in on key
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: evidence needed to deliver justice for Nikki and Brittany.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: When they got the DNA results back, it's what I suspected.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: DA was a match with Kevin Larson.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: He knew then, I think, that he was going to
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: see freedom that it was done.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Detectives arrest and charge Kevin Ladsen with double homicide, as
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: well as criminal possession of stolen property.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Antoine pled guilty to burglary. If he had picked up
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the phone and called the police, I think the DA
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: would have looked at him in a different light.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: They now know the details behind the last 24 hours
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: of the young women's lives and how a casual date
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: brought them into the orbit of a heartless killer.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: Antoine leaves Queens with Kevin. They get on the train.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: They decide they're going to the movies and maybe go
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: somewhere to eat. That was their initial plan. But as
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: they get to the station of 94th Street where the
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: girls live and they come out, it's pouring down rain.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: So when they get to the apartment, they said, well,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: you know what, let's just wait the rain to go
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: past and then we'll go out. So in the meantime,
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: they're socializing, gathering, and it just never stopped. It just
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: kept raining, kept raining. Nikki's on the phone with her
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: brother who called her to see what's going on, and
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: she's telling them that she's got company that are playing cards.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: They decide, look, instead of y'all going back in this
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: rain because y'all came through the subway and it's still raining,
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: y'all can stay here tonight. They decide Brittany and Nikki
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: are going to sleep in one room and Antoine and
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Kevin will be in another room. It started unraveling when
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: they decided to sleep in separate rooms. So in Kevin's mind, what?
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: We sleep in separate rooms. I don't want to sleep
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: with him. I want to sleep with you, being Brittany.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: Nikki decides that she's going to walk her dog and
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Antoine Atterbury goes out with her. and Nikki purchased something
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: from a store. While Nikki and Antoine are outside walking
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: the dog, it's apparent that Kevin Latson attacks Brittany in
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: the bathroom. And a struggle ensued which caused the sink
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: in the bathroom to dismount off the wall and her
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: being found with a cord in the tub wrapped around
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: her throat.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Nikki and Antoine come back to the apartment and they
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: find Brittany dead in the bathtub. And Kevin, very agitated,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: grabs Nikki, pulls her into the bedroom, and strangles her.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: Antoine decides to pick up the phone and call a
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: friend of his out in Queens and tell him that
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Kevin is bugging out, he's attacking these girls, and I
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: don't want to be a part of it, and I'm
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: out of here.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: They leave the apartment after taking the safe, some jewelry,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: and some clothing, and they're seen by the super helper,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Daniel Ramirez, downstairs, leaving the building. Kevin Ladson was there
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: for sex. I think he killed Brittany because he mixed
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: sexual advances toward her and she refused. And it angered him.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: And he strangled her.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: In March 1995, Kevin Ladson is convicted and given 40
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: years to life.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Ladson, there was something psychologically wrong with him. If it
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: hadn't been this, it would have been something else.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Antoine Atterbury is sentenced to 7 to 21 years for burglary.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: But in a twist of fate, it becomes a life sentence.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Antoine ended up dying in prison in 2002. Antoine, I
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: just think it was a person caught in the wrong
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: place at the wrong time.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: In an attempt at closure 20 years later, Karen Silas
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: asks to meet with Kevin Lutzen.
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: I wasn't a bit nervous going in. It was like,
• 41:23
  Speaker 5: I'm supposed to do this. I started talking first and,
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: you know, told him that I didn't hate him, but
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: I hated what he did to Nikki, what he did
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: to us. how he changed so many lives and how
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: it affected so many lives. He said he made a big,
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: stupid mistake. He wished he had never done it. He
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: apologized many times for what he did to us. I
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: truly believed he was remorseful. There was nothing cocky or
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: put on about him. He was real. I came out
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: of that prison like someone had taken a weight off
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: my shoulder.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: In this particular case, after it was all over, I
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: thought to myself, I said, well, how sad that they
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: had to come to this fate.
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: Nikki, she'll be young forever. I think about her and think,
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: would she be married I think about her kids. If
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: she had kids, I miss that that's not going to be.
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: But I still have a lot of blessings. That's what counts.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: It's not what's missing, it's what you have.
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you.