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I Think My Neighbor Did It · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:08
  Discretion. During twenty thirteen, seventeen year old Tara Willenborg was excited for the
• 0:42
  rest of her life. She had moved out of her family home and started
• 0:46
  living at an apartment, which she shared with her twenty one year old partner,
• 0:50
  Josh Lewis. Despite their age gap, family and friends reported that the
• 0:55
  couple were happy together, and, even though they weren't formally engaged, started
• 1:00
  referring to each other as fiancees. Josh was in the process of saving to
• 1:04
  buy an expensive ring for Tara, which he planned on using to officially propose
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  to her in July that year. On March second, twenty thirteen, Tara
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  was sitting on the end of the staircase that led up to her apartment when
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  she was approached by a familiar face. It was forty nine year old Richard
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  Houghton, whose girlfriend lived in the apartment opposite Terra's. That night, Richard
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  had been out drinking with his girlfriend and her family at a bar, but
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  he decided to go home alone because he wasn't in the mood to get drunk.
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  When he greeted Tara, he asked her if she was interested in hanging
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  out for a while. Tara agreed and invited Richard inside her apartment. Later,
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  Richard reflected on the moment that he'd seen Tara sitting on the stairs and
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  admitted that as soon as he saw her, he knew he was going to
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  try to sexually assault her. Soon after, Tara turned on her television in
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  the two of them sat down to watch, Richard suddenly attacked her. He
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  was able to overpower Tera, who was younger and smaller than him, and
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  he proceeded to sexually assault her while choking her. At one point, Richard
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  looked at Tera and noticed during the assault she had stopped breathing. He panicked
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  and attempted to resuscitate her, but when his CPR attempt failed, he realized
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  that he had killed her. Now he needed a way to make her death
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  look nonsuspicious, and he tried to stage a crime scene to make it look
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  like Tera had taken her own life. He grabbed Terra's uniform from the time
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  she had worked at Subway and tied the apron tightly around her throat, hoping
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  that it would obscure the fact that she had been manually strangled to death.
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  Richard left Terra's body lying inside her apartment and fled the scene. Later that
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  night, Terra's fiance returned home from his shift at work. He immediately thought
• 2:54
  it was strange that the apartment door was unlocked. The couple always made an
• 3:00
  effort to lock the door, even if one of them was inside the apartment.
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  In the living room, Josh discovered Terara's dead body, with the apron
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  still tied around her neck. He cut the apron before attempting to perform CPR,
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  but deep down he knew that his fiance was already gone. Later,
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  Josh vividly recalled the moment when he found Tara. Quote. I remember staring
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  at the wall blankly, he said, I couldn't move. I wanted to
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  throw up so bad. Searching desperately for help, Josh ran to ask a
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  neighbor in the apartment directly across the hall. He saw Richard Houghton. He'd
• 3:37
  recognized him because he had seen him hanging around the complex, but the two
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  of them had never spoken. Something about Richard gave Josh a strange feeling.
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  He didn't look like he should have. Josh later said, he didn't click
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  at first, but when I got to thinking of it, he looked more
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  worried than shocked that had happened. Only a few minutes after seeing Josh,
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  Richard left the apartment come He fled to an abandoned gas station in the area,
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  where he hid in one of the bathrooms. Now my girlfriend is raped
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  and I think she's dead. I need someone here now, ok No,
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  she angered vomit. She's in beat because there's something tied around her neck.
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  I just cut it off. She's dead. I can't. I've been doing
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  CPR for the past twenty minutes. She ain't coming back. She gets someone
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  down here right now before I kill them. They're they're on that way,
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  okay, because I think my neighbor did it about the other uh setting them
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  At this time, on the day of Terra's funeral, Richard was formerly charged
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  with her sexual assault and murder. Simultaneously, the Sex Crimes Divisions of the
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  LMPD was carrying out some investigation into an unrelated assault that had taken place earlier
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  that same year, in which Richard was also suspected to be the perpetrator.
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  Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart announced his intentions to make sure that Terror received justice,
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  stating that he would be trying for the death penalty and that Richard should
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  never see the light of day again. TERA's uncle, Neil commented on Richard's
• 5:15
  arrest, saying quote, our hearts are broken and our lives will never be
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  the same. We relieved that the murderer is behind bars where he can't hurt
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  any one else, but nothing he could say or do will bring Tera back.
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  Our hearts can't yet imagine a future without her. Tera was our baby
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  and always will be. Initially, Richard was facing the death penalty, but
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  after he decided to accept a plea deal, he was sentenced to a life
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  in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional seventy years. He
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  pleaded guilty to a wide range of criminal charges, murder, criminal deviant conduct,
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  and rape, as well as being a habitual offender. He apologized to
• 5:59
  TERA's family, and he seemed accepting of his sentence. When he was asked
• 6:02
  about the decision to accept the plea deal, he responded that he was trying
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  to help everyone out in the family. Tara's uncle spoke for the rest of
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  the family, stating that they were trying to remember the good parts of Tara's
• 6:14
  life instead of focusing on her death. We don't want to focus on the
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  horrible way Tara died, he said, but on the beautiful life that she
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  lived. She brought kindness, humor and peace wherever she went. We're going
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  to miss her smiles, her curls, and her cupcakes. This law student,
• 6:32
  you know, left Rodolls, friends and my girlfriend and I came back.
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  She was sitting on the steps. I went back in my apartment.
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  I come back as she's sting after hang as? When did you know?
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  When did you decide that you were going to attacker? So you plan I
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  didn't really plan it, you know, he really planning or nothing like that,
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  because I went into her apartment and then you know, she was pretty
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  girl, you know, but I didn't know she was seventeen. I thought
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  she was like nineteen or twenty. You know, would that made any difference?
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  Not really. I never rate nobody younger than me. You know,
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  it's always older. She was crying and telling you not to do this.
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  Why did you continue to I just lost it in my head. I just
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  lost control. Were you under the influence? Were you drinking on any drugs?
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  I went on no drugs. I mean I was drinking earlier, you
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  know, the house. So she was drinking, sundering him the books.
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  I don't know she was drinks. So we see, as you said,
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  this is mark the first time this is happened. Was that great? How
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  many? How many times does this happens? I got she was great back
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  three or four times? You been in prison forreat three or four times?
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  How many rapes have there been that you haven't been to prison for them?
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  Why do you rape women? Can you help yourself? The epathy of the
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  police released yesterday and said that she or that you knew they were going to
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  straight? Is that not true? Or the usual police that you knew ahead
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  of time? But this was occur I didn't tell it. You had a
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  feeling of any sort before coming into her house, you know, I mean
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  she was a pretty girl. You know. Everyone has said, how do
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  you feel about murdering? Tread by it? I wish I could take it.
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  Bye? How did that happen? How did you go from just you
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  obviously ranked women before? Why did it increase to murder? Was his having
• 9:00
  sex with her? Anxiety on me? I guess you know, when I
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  had my hands around the throat and I just kept going and going. You
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  know, I hadn't how strong I was really putting pressure on her. You
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  know, I chold, why did you keep going when she was trying and
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  telling you no? And I just blocked her down. You know when I'm
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  thinking about that, it was too late. And then when you saw that
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  she was no longer breathing, take us through what you did next. It
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  looks like you tried to cover it up well, but I did. I
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  took her off the bed to try to get a CPR and melt them out,
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  trying to provide her. And I did that for like in fifteen minutes,
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  trying to get her back, and I couldn't. I just act like
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  you know, she did herself. So I tied out of one of her
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  aprons or whatever around her neck and I left. What do you call these
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  kind of scared? Because I ain't? Did you know I did that?
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  Crime? It's people who are challenged with murder and race usually don't speak out
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  and tell us details about what they did. Why are you doing this?
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  I'm just trying to get closure what happened in owner buying and help her family.
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