Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - The Shocking Murder of 13-Year-Old Lauren Landavazo

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True Crime Documentary - The Shocking Murder of 13-Year-Old Lauren Landavazo · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

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