Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / MYRTLE BEACH CO-ED, 23, FOUND DEAD UNDER OVERPASS, CAR STILL RUNNING: WHAT HAPPEN TO AMBER ?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young Myrtle Beach
- 0:09Speaker 1: coed is twenty three years old, found dead under an overpass,
- 0:14Speaker 1: her car still running. What happened to Amber? I'm Nancy Grace.
- 0:20Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 0:24Speaker 2: A young South Carolina woman runs errands on her way
- 0:28Speaker 2: to work. She stops to pay her cable bill, gets gas,
- 0:33Speaker 2: but never makes it to work.
- 0:35Speaker 1: She's absolutely stunning and was just days away from graduating
- 0:41Speaker 1: from college. What happened to Amber? This is how it
- 0:44Speaker 1: all starts. Listen.
- 0:45Speaker 3: The Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina gets very busy
- 0:48Speaker 3: on the weekends, and at around four thirty pm on
- 0:50Speaker 3: a Friday, a call comes into nine one one. The
- 0:53Speaker 3: caller says there appears to be an injured person outside
- 0:56Speaker 3: of a car on Old Sanders Road under the Robert
- 0:58Speaker 3: Edge Parkway overpath in North Myrtle Beach. Officers arrive quickly
- 1:02Speaker 3: and find the woman lying next to her still running
- 1:04Speaker 3: car and no witnesses. The woman has a cell phone
- 1:07Speaker 3: inches away from her fingertips that is actively beeping with
- 1:10Speaker 3: missed calls, texts, and email messages.
- 1:12Speaker 1: With all that evidence, it seems so hard to comprehend.
- 1:17Speaker 1: We still don't have Amber's answers as to what happened
- 1:21Speaker 1: to this gorgeous young co ed. Joining me an all
- 1:25Speaker 1: star panel to make sense of what we know right now,
- 1:28Speaker 1: including Amber's mother, her sister, and her very best friend.
- 1:35Speaker 1: I want to go straight out first, to Amber's mother,
- 1:39Speaker 1: Michelle Robinson, when did you learn that Amber had passed away?
- 1:47Speaker 4: I just started work bag bag big, I said, you go.
- 2:02Speaker 4: So I crossed the group and a little bit barged
- 2:06Speaker 4: away in. He said, uh, we're investigating homicide Amber Pavilion.
- 2:13Speaker 4: I said homicide, but over my head, I said, Amber,
- 2:17Speaker 4: where's she? Where's she? One of us said she's been shot.
- 2:22Speaker 4: I'm like what? And she grabbed my arm. She's right,
- 2:27Speaker 4: he said no. I want to fall back and said.
- 2:36Speaker 1: No and.
- 2:40Speaker 4: Asked to be questions. I couldn't think straight. I needed
- 2:46Speaker 4: to pull my mother. My mom was on her way Pennsylvania,
- 2:54Speaker 4: I said, mom. The officer took the phone. I couldn't die.
- 2:58Speaker 4: It was a nightmare.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Since also with miss Robinson is amber sister Amanda. Amanda,
- 3:06Speaker 1: when did you learn that your sister? She's absolutely beautiful
- 3:12Speaker 1: and so much ahead of her in life? When did
- 3:16Speaker 1: you learn that she had been killed.
- 3:18Speaker 5: I was at work. I had gotten a few phone
- 3:21Speaker 5: calls throughout the night. I was waitressing at the time,
- 3:24Speaker 5: and it was a busy Friday night and I didn't
- 3:28Speaker 5: answer my phone. So at the end of my shift,
- 3:29Speaker 5: I I finally picked up my phone and it was
- 3:35Speaker 5: my uncle and told me that she had been shot.
- 3:40Speaker 5: And I didn't think I didn't think it was possible
- 3:44Speaker 5: other than you know, like maybe she was in the hospital.
- 3:47Speaker 5: So I was just like, well, where is she, how
- 3:48Speaker 5: is she doing? And he just said, I'm sorry, honey,
- 3:51Speaker 5: she's gone.
- 3:52Speaker 1: What went through your mind when you heard the phrase,
- 3:56Speaker 1: I'm sorry, honey, she's gone. It was.
- 4:03Speaker 5: Not comprehendible. I just kind of like fell to the ground.
- 4:08Speaker 5: There were still customers in the restaurant and nobody knew
- 4:10Speaker 5: what was going on. And my coworkers just kind of
- 4:13Speaker 5: picked me up and helped me out the back door,
- 4:15Speaker 5: and you know, trying to figure out what was happening,
- 4:18Speaker 5: and I just, you know, blurted it out.
- 4:22Speaker 1: My sister was shot. She's dead, And.
- 4:26Speaker 5: You know, they just helped me pull myself together and
- 4:29Speaker 5: get home and get to my dad. And it's like
- 4:34Speaker 5: my mother said, it's been a nightmare ever since.
- 4:36Speaker 1: When you first learned, Amanda that Amber had been shot,
- 4:43Speaker 1: in your mind, what did you think had happened?
- 4:46Speaker 6: I had no idea.
- 4:47Speaker 5: You know, there were so many different things that could
- 4:49Speaker 5: have you know, we're going through my mind. I just
- 4:53Speaker 5: quick got home and you know, packed my stuff and
- 4:56Speaker 5: headed down to South Carolina to try to figure out
- 5:00Speaker 5: out and to make sense of any funny bit of that.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Also joining us, in addition to Amber's mother and sister,
- 5:06Speaker 1: her best friend Karen Ritchie. Karen described for us when
- 5:12Speaker 1: you learned Amber had been killed.
- 5:14Speaker 7: Someone at the scene recognized Amber and called my manager.
- 5:21Speaker 8: At overtime and told him, and they called me in
- 5:25Speaker 8: the office and.
- 5:25Speaker 4: Told me.
- 5:28Speaker 8: It was unbelievable shot her. And that's what they said
- 5:33Speaker 8: in the beginning. And you know, he spends because the
- 5:36Speaker 8: New world to do something like that. It took me
- 5:40Speaker 8: a few minutes to get together to be able to
- 5:43Speaker 8: drive home. And it's just been unbelievable ever since, because
- 5:48Speaker 8: it's just like one dad and after another.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Karen Ritchie is joining us, Amanda Barbilia and Michelle Robinson.
- 5:56Speaker 1: Let me understand, Karen, when you were first told that
- 6:00Speaker 1: Amber had been killed, what did you believe happened? In
- 6:04Speaker 1: your heart of hearts? When I was first told my
- 6:07Speaker 1: fiance was dead, I thought there had been some horrible
- 6:12Speaker 1: car crash, some accident, That's what I thought. Then I
- 6:17Speaker 1: found out he had been shot. And I couldn't even
- 6:22Speaker 1: imagine a scenario under which that would happen. Neither one
- 6:27Speaker 1: of us owned a gun, nobody had a gun in
- 6:29Speaker 1: their home, So how was he shot? But I was
- 6:33Speaker 1: in such shock, I didn't think it through. When you
- 6:37Speaker 1: first heard this news that Amber had been shot? What
- 6:42Speaker 1: did you think happened? And I have a reason for asking,
- 6:45Speaker 1: go ahead.
- 6:46Speaker 7: Well, you know, like something random, or possibly a robbery
- 6:50Speaker 7: or something to that effect. I mean, it just didn't
- 6:54Speaker 7: make any sense. She didn't hurt anybody. It didn't make
- 6:58Speaker 7: any sense that anybody hurt her. She was the most scary,
- 7:03Speaker 7: hearing person. She had such a spirit in aura.
- 7:08Speaker 4: I just couldn't wrap my head around that anybody would
- 7:11Speaker 4: want to hurt her for any reason.
- 7:14Speaker 1: Just days away from graduating college, her life cut down,
- 7:19Speaker 1: found underneath and overpass her car, still running, her fingertips
- 7:25Speaker 1: near her cell phone, which was buzzing, buzzing off the chart.
- 7:30Speaker 1: What more do we know? Listen.
- 7:31Speaker 9: First responders find a female victim wine outside her still
- 7:35Speaker 9: running car. Injuries to her face are so severe at
- 7:38Speaker 9: first glance it appears she has been shot in the face.
- 7:41Speaker 9: The woman has died before help arrives, and no witnesses
- 7:45Speaker 9: are around to provide any context for what has taken place.
- 7:49Speaker 9: Investigators find the victim's purse inside the car with money
- 7:52Speaker 9: still in it, and rule out robbery as a motive.
- 7:55Speaker 9: They also find the victim's identification, Amber Burbilia joining us.
- 8:00Speaker 1: US in addition to Ambery Burbilia's family, Michelle Robinson, Amanda Barbilia,
- 8:07Speaker 1: her sister and best friend, Karen Ritchie. Barry Hutchinson Senior
- 8:11Speaker 1: now joining US twenty six years in law enforcement, veteran
- 8:16Speaker 1: detective now chief investigator with Barry and associates. Barry Hutchison,
- 8:22Speaker 1: thank you for being with us well. Immediately, police rule
- 8:26Speaker 1: out robbery because her purse, her pocketbook is still there,
- 8:30Speaker 1: her cell phone is still there. There's money in the purse,
- 8:35Speaker 1: so it's not robbery. We also see that she's outside
- 8:39Speaker 1: of the car, so it's not a random drive by shooting.
- 8:43Speaker 1: She's outside the car.
- 8:46Speaker 10: What do you think I think it was somebody that
- 8:48Speaker 10: was that she was familiar with. I think it was
- 8:51Speaker 10: a crime of opportunity. My first instinct is telling me
- 8:55Speaker 10: that it's probably somebody that had romantic answers in her,
- 9:00Speaker 10: but they weren't reciprocated, and I think it was a
- 9:02Speaker 10: crime of passion. From that standpoint, what.
- 9:04Speaker 1: More can we deduce from the scene? Listen?
- 9:07Speaker 11: Hory County Police Detective Jonathan Martin says, Amber Rebilia's body
- 9:11Speaker 11: is found along Old Sanders Road under the Robert Edge
- 9:13Speaker 11: Parkway overpass. There are no witnesses on sene. Although the
- 9:17Speaker 11: injuries to our face appeared to be gunshot wounds, the
- 9:19Speaker 11: coroner reveals that Amberverbilia wasn't shot as previously thought. She
- 9:24Speaker 11: was beaten to death and cause of death is bloom
- 9:26Speaker 11: forced trauma.
- 9:27Speaker 1: So when responders first get there, they believe that Amber
- 9:31Speaker 1: has been shot, but then they realize she was beaten
- 9:36Speaker 1: so badly she appeared to have been shot in the face.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Also joining us a renowned chief medical examiner out of
- 9:46Speaker 1: Terran County. That's Fort Worth and esteemed lecturer at the
- 9:51Speaker 1: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, doctor Kendall Crown's. Doctor
- 9:55Speaker 1: Crown's thank you for being with us, explain to me
- 9:58Speaker 1: in medical terms what the that means.
- 10:01Speaker 12: So, sometimes gunshow wounds can be or blunt force injuries
- 10:05Speaker 12: can be confused with gunshow wounds because the natures of
- 10:08Speaker 12: wounds on the head can look like a gunshow wound injury.
- 10:12Speaker 12: You can get these kind of stellate tears or star
- 10:15Speaker 12: shaped tears that it can look like entrance wounds from gunshots,
- 10:20Speaker 12: but instead are from blunt force injuries, especially if they've
- 10:24Speaker 12: used a weapon or a rock or a hammer, it
- 10:28Speaker 12: can leave these type of stellate wounds or star shaped wounds.
- 10:32Speaker 12: The other thing is is often with blunt force trauma,
- 10:35Speaker 12: there can be so much deformation or damage to the
- 10:38Speaker 12: head that it can look like a gunshow wound, which
- 10:42Speaker 12: also causes a significant trauma to the head as well.
- 10:45Speaker 1: So you're telling me a person can be beaten so
- 10:48Speaker 1: badly that it actually resembles a gunshot wound.
- 10:51Speaker 12: Yes, they can be beaten so badly that the destruction
- 10:54Speaker 12: that happens to the head and the skull can have
- 10:57Speaker 12: the appearance of the massive trauma caused a gunshot wound.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Do we know what time of the day or night
- 11:05Speaker 1: she was attacked? Let me go out to Karen Ritchie
- 11:10Speaker 1: or Amanda Barbillia. Let me go to you, Amanda. Do
- 11:13Speaker 1: we know what time of the day or night this occurred.
- 11:16Speaker 5: It was around I think three or four in the afternoon.
- 11:20Speaker 5: It was broad daylight.
- 11:22Speaker 1: My understanding, it was closer to four pm in the afternoon.
- 11:26Speaker 1: And when you say broad daylight, that's very significant because
- 11:31Speaker 1: to Barry Hutcheson Senior joining us again twenty six years
- 11:35Speaker 1: in law enforcement, this person that attacked her was so
- 11:41Speaker 1: bold and there's no way this can be deemed self
- 11:45Speaker 1: inflicted because it's not a gunshot wound. It's blunt force
- 11:51Speaker 1: trauma so severe her skull was fractured. I just wanted
- 11:56Speaker 1: to make sure I understood the time of the attack.
- 11:59Speaker 1: This gerson is brazen to commit a crime like this.
- 12:04Speaker 1: It's not just a drive by shooting. Wam bam, you're done.
- 12:08Speaker 1: She has to get out of the car and then
- 12:11Speaker 1: she's beaten, beaten horribly around the face to the point
- 12:15Speaker 1: she dies, her skull fractured, and nobody sees a thing.
- 12:20Speaker 10: Yeah, Nac, it's just as it makes sense, and to me,
- 12:22Speaker 10: it has all the hallmarks of something to where there's
- 12:26Speaker 10: so much passion involved in the crime itself, so much
- 12:29Speaker 10: pain and injury that was inflicted that to me, it
- 12:32Speaker 10: just really stands out as somebody that knew her and
- 12:36Speaker 10: she was there for a very specific reason. Maybe that
- 12:39Speaker 10: person was following her and she pulled off the road
- 12:42Speaker 10: because she saw them. You know, we don't know. I mean,
- 12:46Speaker 10: the case it's pretty much hush hushed with the Horay
- 12:49Speaker 10: County Police. They're not discussing it in any regard whatsoever.
- 12:53Speaker 10: But to me, it has a lot of key indicators
- 12:55Speaker 10: as somebody that she was familiar with. And again, I
- 12:59Speaker 10: think because of all the passion involved in the crime
- 13:02Speaker 10: that it was probably I'm really leaning towards somebody that,
- 13:06Speaker 10: for lack of better words, that she yielded, that wanted
- 13:09Speaker 10: a relationship with her, but she just did not reciprocate.
- 13:12Speaker 10: She was very happy with the person she was with,
- 13:15Speaker 10: had plans on getting married, and I think this was
- 13:17Speaker 10: kind of a confrontation by that person as the last
- 13:20Speaker 10: ditch effort to say, hey, why not me instead of
- 13:22Speaker 10: this guy? And then when she didn't go with it,
- 13:25Speaker 10: I think that passion just overcame that person and the
- 13:28Speaker 10: young lady lost her wife track.
- 13:35Speaker 2: A beautiful young woman found beaten to death lying next
- 13:40Speaker 2: to her running car under a freeway overpass.
- 13:44Speaker 1: Who could do this?
- 13:47Speaker 3: Amber Bbilia is originally from New York, but calls South
- 13:50Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Hoary
- 13:53Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer.
- 13:57Speaker 3: Studying abroad in London for part of her education, She
- 14:00Speaker 3: meets Jose Tulsar and comes back home in love.
- 14:04Speaker 2: After two years of dating.
- 14:05Speaker 3: Amber and Jose make plans to marry weeks after she
- 14:08Speaker 3: graduates from college, and that time is fast approaching.
- 14:11Speaker 1: That casts some light on the theory. A quote jilted
- 14:16Speaker 1: lover or boyfriend killed her. If she had been involved
- 14:19Speaker 1: in that relationship for two years and very happy, it's
- 14:24Speaker 1: highly unlikely that there was another guy on the side.
- 14:28Speaker 1: We don't have any information about that.
- 14:30Speaker 5: No, there's no information that there was anybody on the side.
- 14:35Speaker 5: I don't think you know, she would have had anybody,
- 14:38Speaker 5: but she was. She's had a lot of friends, and
- 14:44Speaker 5: it could have been somebody that she had a friendship
- 14:47Speaker 5: with that just really wanted more than that and she
- 14:50Speaker 5: just wouldn't reciprocate.
- 14:51Speaker 1: Now, thinking all of this through, let me figure out,
- 14:54Speaker 1: can either of you three ladies, her mom, her sister
- 14:58Speaker 1: or best friend, enlightened on her love interest, her relationship,
- 15:03Speaker 1: her fiance. They were a few weeks away from getting married.
- 15:08Speaker 1: She was very happy with Jose.
- 15:09Speaker 5: She was very excited to get married and start her future.
- 15:14Speaker 5: She was moving to London, and I mean she was
- 15:20Speaker 5: just so happy. They were smitten. They were a perfect
- 15:24Speaker 5: fairy tale love story too.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Michelle Robinson, this is Ambermilia's mom, Michelle. What was she
- 15:31Speaker 1: doing for a living until she moved back to London.
- 15:35Speaker 1: Where was she working?
- 15:36Speaker 4: She was working at Austria and Growth, which is very
- 15:40Speaker 4: high class restaurant serving and she was going to.
- 15:45Speaker 1: School to see done.
- 15:47Speaker 4: Here's the picture me and her mother grandmother went and
- 15:53Speaker 4: picked up wedding dresses just weeks before. I do not
- 15:59Speaker 4: believe it was someone that had passion for I believe
- 16:04Speaker 4: it was a stranger because if they knew Amber, they
- 16:10Speaker 4: would not kill her. She lit up a room. She
- 16:16Speaker 4: was happy that if someone had something against her, they
- 16:22Speaker 4: would have told her that. I don't think it was
- 16:27Speaker 4: someone she knew.
- 16:29Speaker 1: That's my Let's analyze what Michelle Robinson is saying. Join
- 16:34Speaker 1: me now. Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Alexis Tereschuk, Alexis,
- 16:39Speaker 1: thank you for being with us tonight. I'm trying to
- 16:40Speaker 1: analyze what I've just heard. Now. You and I, Alexis,
- 16:45Speaker 1: have handled a lot of homicide cases together, and one
- 16:49Speaker 1: thing I've always been puzzled with is that it seems
- 16:54Speaker 1: sometimes like the very best, the sweetest people end up
- 16:58Speaker 1: being homicide victim and even at random victims. So while
- 17:04Speaker 1: I understand what mom is saying, that's not always true.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Because a person is wonderful and loving and innocent and
- 17:13Speaker 1: lights up her room, that does not protect them from predators.
- 17:19Speaker 1: Ano they're saying, Alexis Terrestrick. Any light you could shed
- 17:22Speaker 1: on this, Many people, including the mom, Michelle Robinson, believe
- 17:28Speaker 1: that this was stranger and stranger for a robbery. But
- 17:33Speaker 1: think it through, and I'm going to go back to
- 17:35Speaker 1: you on this, Barry Hutchinson Senior, If you want money,
- 17:39Speaker 1: you want to rob somebody is following a woman in
- 17:44Speaker 1: a car in broad day light, dragging her out of
- 17:47Speaker 1: the car and beating her in the face, then you
- 17:51Speaker 1: don't take the pocketbook with the money in it. That's
- 17:55Speaker 1: that's just like the John in a Ramsey case, all right,
- 17:58Speaker 1: where somebody said when they decide a kidnapper breaks in
- 18:02Speaker 1: at Christmas and leaves the ransom note for one hundred
- 18:07Speaker 1: and eighteen thousand dollars and said, oh, hey, you know what,
- 18:10Speaker 1: I've come this far, but never mind, I'm just gonna
- 18:12Speaker 1: kill her and leave here. That doesn't make sense. So
- 18:15Speaker 1: if you're going to commit a robbery, why don't you
- 18:17Speaker 1: mug somebody in a dark alley, Why don't you grab
- 18:21Speaker 1: somebody's pocketbook and the mall parking lot when their bags
- 18:24Speaker 1: their arms are full of bags, or the grocery or
- 18:27Speaker 1: the grocery lot or the parking deck outside of target.
- 18:31Speaker 1: Why chase down a car, get the woman out of
- 18:35Speaker 1: the car, beat her in the face, fracture her skull.
- 18:39Speaker 1: It's a vicious beating, okay, to her face. That's full
- 18:43Speaker 1: of all sorts of psychological implications. And then you don't
- 18:48Speaker 1: take the pocketbook, you don't take the purse or the money.
- 18:51Speaker 1: That doesn't make sense, alexis what facts can you shed
- 18:56Speaker 1: on this?
- 18:56Speaker 6: Well? Also, there was not a weapon found as as
- 19:00Speaker 6: far as the police have said, at the crime scene,
- 19:02Speaker 6: so we don't know if she was hit with the
- 19:04Speaker 6: person's fist or if they had another weapon. But they
- 19:06Speaker 6: did not take the money. So you think maybe something
- 19:09Speaker 6: went wrong, Maybe she owed somebody money for some reason
- 19:12Speaker 6: they felt they followed her. They said to get the
- 19:14Speaker 6: money back, but they left the purse. And again it
- 19:18Speaker 6: is broad daylight. While this isn't a heavily trafficked area,
- 19:21Speaker 6: as you can see from the photos, it is still
- 19:24Speaker 6: a public location where she was just found. Literally her
- 19:28Speaker 6: car was running, so she was very surprised when this happened.
- 19:32Speaker 1: And they left.
- 19:33Speaker 6: No, they didn't take anything. So if she was let's
- 19:36Speaker 6: just say she owed somebody some money, she was going
- 19:38Speaker 6: to meet them with the money. Something happened, she didn't
- 19:41Speaker 6: give it to them. They didn't take the money, they
- 19:43Speaker 6: didn't take anything, and they didn't take her cell phone either.
- 19:46Speaker 1: Anlesis terreschuk I specifically asked if you could shed light
- 19:50Speaker 1: on the facts not come up with the wild hypothesis.
- 19:55Speaker 1: Are you actually saying you have any facts to support
- 19:58Speaker 1: she owed anyone money? A just guessing.
- 20:00Speaker 6: I am just guessing, but I'm saying that she did
- 20:03Speaker 6: owe somebody money, they didn't take it when it was
- 20:05Speaker 6: found in her wallet.
- 20:07Speaker 1: Sh No facts support that. As a matter of fact,
- 20:13Speaker 1: facts support the exact opposite listen.
- 20:17Speaker 3: Amber Bermilia's mother, Michelle, says the murder simply happened to
- 20:20Speaker 3: the wrong person, saying, quote, Amber was a social butterfly.
- 20:24Speaker 3: She had friends from school, she had friends from work.
- 20:26Speaker 3: She put herself through school. Her mother says she was
- 20:29Speaker 3: looking through some of Amber's bills and papers and finds
- 20:32Speaker 3: her daughter doesn't owe anything to anybody. All of her
- 20:35Speaker 3: bills were up to date, and she paid off all
- 20:37Speaker 3: of her student loans. The twenty three year old hid
- 20:41Speaker 3: in the face twice with a blunt object so hard
- 20:46Speaker 3: that investigators believed she was shot.
- 20:51Speaker 1: What more do we know about the scene that can
- 20:53Speaker 1: shed light on her murder? Listen.
- 20:55Speaker 9: Investigation into the murder of Amber Burbilia is difficult. From
- 20:59Speaker 9: the first hours. There are no witnesses to describe hearing
- 21:01Speaker 9: or seeing anything. There was no robbery, as her phone,
- 21:04Speaker 9: keys and wallet were left untouched. The keys are still
- 21:08Speaker 9: in the ignition in the car is running, but the
- 21:10Speaker 9: suspect doesn't use the car to get away from the scene.
- 21:13Speaker 1: It sounds to me like a crime of opportunity. Now,
- 21:17Speaker 1: Alexis Tereschuk, I just attacked you about your claim that
- 21:24Speaker 1: this young girl about to graduate college heading to London
- 21:29Speaker 1: to become a costume designer. A few weeks away from
- 21:33Speaker 1: her wedding to the man of her dreams. They're moving together.
- 21:37Speaker 1: That she owed somebody money. She even she's one of
- 21:40Speaker 1: the few in the country along with me, that paid
- 21:43Speaker 1: off all her student loans. This woman did not owe money.
- 21:47Speaker 1: What I was expecting you to describe, Alexis Terestchuk is
- 21:51Speaker 1: video surveillance. What can you tell me about video surveillance
- 21:56Speaker 1: of Amber just before her death.
- 21:59Speaker 6: So first she seen paying her cable bill.
- 22:01Speaker 1: That is on video.
- 22:02Speaker 6: The video has not been released by the police. After that,
- 22:05Speaker 6: she goes to the gas station. That video has been released.
- 22:08Speaker 6: She's wearing black pants, leperprint shirt. She has cute little
- 22:10Speaker 6: glasses on. Then so the police took the video. They
- 22:15Speaker 6: went all up and down this highway and they found
- 22:18Speaker 6: video of her car and in it she's by herself.
- 22:21Speaker 6: She's driving her car. She turns a corner, they lose
- 22:24Speaker 6: sight of her for about half an hour. Half an
- 22:27Speaker 6: hour later, her car comes back round.
- 22:29Speaker 1: She is driving.
- 22:30Speaker 6: There appears to be a passenger in the seat from
- 22:33Speaker 6: the video. What has been described is that this passenger
- 22:37Speaker 6: appeared to be a dark person. It may have been
- 22:39Speaker 6: a black man in the car with her. This is
- 22:41Speaker 6: what was seen, and then we don't see them again
- 22:45Speaker 6: and mirror minutes later, within an hour or so, she
- 22:51Speaker 6: is murdered on the side of the road. But there
- 22:53Speaker 6: is no evidence of this person at the crime scene
- 22:56Speaker 6: that we have seen.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Okay, let me understand something like the stroschuck goes off
- 23:01Speaker 1: video cam. Okay, what kind of video was? It was
- 23:04Speaker 1: at a store? Was it a red light? Do we
- 23:07Speaker 1: know what kind of video cam it was?
- 23:08Speaker 6: We do not know what kind of I think it was,
- 23:12Speaker 6: Like said, they searched on the highway, so it might
- 23:14Speaker 6: might have been one of the interstate video cameras.
- 23:17Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Okay. It sees her turn off the roadway
- 23:23Speaker 1: onto a side street. She's alone. When she comes back
- 23:27Speaker 1: onto the roadway from that side street, there is we
- 23:30Speaker 1: believe to be a mail in the car with her
- 23:33Speaker 1: in the front seat. Correct.
- 23:35Speaker 6: Correct, He appears to be a blackmail from the video.
- 23:38Speaker 1: Amanda, what have you been told about the video?
- 23:41Speaker 5: Exactly what she just said, Just that they have video
- 23:44Speaker 5: of her on the street stopping to pay her cable bill,
- 23:47Speaker 5: and then she goes goes onto a side street and
- 23:49Speaker 5: comes back. But I don't know, and that there was
- 23:52Speaker 5: somebody in the car with her when she comes back
- 23:55Speaker 5: onto the highway.
- 23:56Speaker 4: But I didn't.
- 23:58Speaker 5: I don't know what street or the area. I don't.
- 24:03Speaker 5: I'm not familiar with the area.
- 24:05Speaker 1: We understand that the cameras were those installed along the roadway.
- 24:09Speaker 1: Alexis Treestchuk, you're right about that. Michelle Robinson, Amber's mom.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Were you ever told what is down the street or
- 24:16Speaker 1: did you investigate what was down the street why she
- 24:19Speaker 1: went there?
- 24:20Speaker 4: Yes? And I saw that video and to me, it
- 24:25Speaker 4: was a shadow. It was not a person. I went
- 24:29Speaker 4: to the police station and it did not appear to
- 24:33Speaker 4: be a black person or anybody. It's just a shadow,
- 24:38Speaker 4: maybe not even not even visible to being on They're
- 24:46Speaker 4: saying that it was a black person. Maybe to me,
- 24:51Speaker 4: it looked like just a shadow, no clear indication of
- 24:56Speaker 4: a person.
- 24:56Speaker 1: Is law enforcement telling you they believe it's a person, yes, okay,
- 25:01Speaker 1: so they believe it's a person. You believe it's a shadow? Correct?
- 25:05Speaker 5: Yes?
- 25:06Speaker 1: And how quickly after seeing what they believe is a
- 25:09Speaker 1: person in the car with her? Is she killed within
- 25:13Speaker 1: damp hower? What do we know about defensive wounds? Listen,
- 25:19Speaker 1: the mother of Amber Burbilia. Michelle Robinson says her daughter
- 25:22Speaker 1: was hit with something in the head twice, causing two
- 25:24Speaker 1: skull fractures. She also says Amber did not go down
- 25:28Speaker 1: without a fight. According to Robinson, the funeral home suggests
- 25:31Speaker 1: putting on a long sleeve dress for visitation to cover
- 25:34Speaker 1: up the bruises and cuts on her arms. According to
- 25:36Speaker 1: her mother, Amber Burbilia put up a good fight. Two.
- 25:39Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns joining us out off Fort Worth, Texas.
- 25:43Speaker 1: Doctor Crown's, I want to understand something we earlier heard
- 25:47Speaker 1: that we've laurened she had a skull fracture. Two. In fact,
- 25:53Speaker 1: could a skull fracture result from a blow from a
- 25:59Speaker 1: fist or would it have to be a blunt object?
- 26:02Speaker 12: So your skull can fracture from a punch, depending on
- 26:06Speaker 12: how much force is put behind the punch where you're
- 26:09Speaker 12: hitting your face, the skull, the bones of the skull
- 26:13Speaker 12: in these areas are easily fractured. But from a punch
- 26:18Speaker 12: you can break the nose, you can break the orbital rims.
- 26:21Speaker 12: But the type of injuries that are being described to
- 26:24Speaker 12: me sounds more like a heavy blunt object like a
- 26:28Speaker 12: pipe or a hammer, because you're not going to see
- 26:31Speaker 12: the extensive injuries that look like a gunshot wound unless
- 26:35Speaker 12: it's something that you can put a lot of force
- 26:37Speaker 12: behind causing major fractures of the skull.
- 26:39Speaker 1: This is where I'm going, Doctor Kennel Crown's, and I
- 26:41Speaker 1: want to follow up with you about how how many
- 26:45Speaker 1: veins have venous the face is that would produce a
- 26:50Speaker 1: lot of bleeding to resemble a gunshot wound. But we're
- 26:55Speaker 1: talking about potential fractures. We're talking about whether a weapon
- 27:00Speaker 1: was used. She was off camera, Doctor Kendall Crowns for
- 27:06Speaker 1: about thirty minutes. The highway cam, what we've learned was
- 27:11Speaker 1: a highway cam sees her going down the highway. The roadway,
- 27:15Speaker 1: she turns off into the side street, Doctor Kendall Crowns.
- 27:18Speaker 1: She's not seen for thirty minutes. When she comes back
- 27:23Speaker 1: on camera, Doctor Crowns, according to law enforcement, there is
- 27:27Speaker 1: a male sitting in her front seat. Within an hour,
- 27:32Speaker 1: she's dead. I'm trying to figure out was a weapon
- 27:37Speaker 1: used and if so, what weapon. It seems to me
- 27:43Speaker 1: that's the guy we need to be looking for now,
- 27:47Speaker 1: Doctor Kindall Crown's. Two fractures to the skull, if the fractures.
- 27:53Speaker 1: Can a skull fracture be to the front of the
- 27:55Speaker 1: face or doesn't have to be saved from the eyebrows back?
- 27:59Speaker 1: What would the nose, the mouth, the cheeks? Would that
- 28:03Speaker 1: be the skull? Is that considered the skull.
- 28:05Speaker 12: So yeah, again, the skull can be any portion of
- 28:09Speaker 12: this could be a skull fracture. So facial skull here, nose, cheek,
- 28:15Speaker 12: side ahead where your ear would be, can also be
- 28:18Speaker 12: considered a skull fracture. So any of that can be
- 28:21Speaker 12: considered a skull fracture.
- 28:22Speaker 1: In the description, okay, doctor Kennel crowns, it looked like
- 28:28Speaker 1: a gunshot wound. Was that bad? Would there be more
- 28:33Speaker 1: bleeding if the attack was to the veinous area in
- 28:37Speaker 1: the mouth and the nose and the eyes. They bleed
- 28:40Speaker 1: so profusely.
- 28:42Speaker 12: So your head actually has a lot of vascularity to it,
- 28:46Speaker 12: your nose, your face, even your scalp has a tremendous
- 28:50Speaker 12: amount of vasculature. So anytime there's injuries to the facial
- 28:55Speaker 12: or head area, there is always going to be a
- 28:57Speaker 12: lot of bleeding. It doesn't care, It doesn't matter what
- 29:00Speaker 12: exactly the area is. It just if it's part of
- 29:03Speaker 12: the head, it'll bleed quite profusely.
- 29:05Speaker 11: Hory County Police Detective Jonathan Martin says, Amber Babilia's body
- 29:09Speaker 11: is found along Old Sanders Road under the Robert Edge
- 29:12Speaker 11: Parkway overpass. There are no witnesses on sene. Although the
- 29:15Speaker 11: injuries to her face appeared to be gunshot wounds, the
- 29:18Speaker 11: coroner reveals that Amber Verbilia wasn't shot as previously thought.
- 29:22Speaker 11: She was beaten to death and cause of death is
- 29:24Speaker 11: bloom forced trauma. First Responders find a female victim laying
- 29:28Speaker 11: outside her still running car. Injuries to her face are
- 29:31Speaker 11: so severe at first glance it appears she has been
- 29:33Speaker 11: shot in the face. The woman has died before help arrives,
- 29:36Speaker 11: and no witnesses are around to provide any context for
- 29:39Speaker 11: what has taken place. Investigators find the victim's purse inside
- 29:42Speaker 11: the car, with money still in it, and rule out
- 29:44Speaker 11: robbery as a motive. They also find the victim's identification,
- 29:48Speaker 11: Amber Verbilia.
- 29:56Speaker 2: Hey mom, I just wanted to call and tell you
- 29:59Speaker 2: I love you. Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar
- 30:03Speaker 2: is sweet, and so are you. I love you. Good night.
- 30:08Speaker 2: A mother cherishes the last voicemail from.
- 30:12Speaker 1: Her daughter, Alexis Tereschuk. If l E Law enforcement is correct,
- 30:18Speaker 1: that could very well be her killer caught on video.
- 30:22Speaker 1: So I'm trying to learn more about that, Alexis what's
- 30:26Speaker 1: the car fully processed for DNA and fingerprints.
- 30:30Speaker 6: The police have said that they've investigated all of it.
- 30:33Speaker 6: They have never released a suspects name. They have never
- 30:36Speaker 6: released any information saying they're looking for a suspect they
- 30:41Speaker 6: and even if so, they could run this through if
- 30:43Speaker 6: there was DNA anywhere found, they could run it through
- 30:46Speaker 6: one of the genealogy sites and maybe get a match
- 30:49Speaker 6: on somebody else, But they have never released any information
- 30:53Speaker 6: about that.
- 30:53Speaker 1: Back to doctor Kendall Crowns, I'm still on the stillfrichur
- 30:57Speaker 1: And the reason I'm asking doctor Crowns is, I'm trying
- 31:00Speaker 1: do you determine if you or someone like you, another
- 31:03Speaker 1: medical examiner would be able to tell if she was
- 31:07Speaker 1: beaten with Let's just say, was she pistol whipped? Was
- 31:11Speaker 1: she attacked with a pipe? If we could figure out
- 31:15Speaker 1: from her injuries, what was the murder weapon, what was
- 31:19Speaker 1: the type of murder weapon? A hammer? For peace sake,
- 31:22Speaker 1: like doctor Teresa sever you can look at the wounds
- 31:26Speaker 1: sometimes and you can determine what type of weapon was used.
- 31:30Speaker 1: Isn't that true?
- 31:31Speaker 12: It's correct. So with bloom force injuries, there can be
- 31:34Speaker 12: patterns that are left by the weapon. Pipes can leave
- 31:38Speaker 12: like what we call tram track bruising, where you see
- 31:41Speaker 12: bruising on either side of the wound. Hammers actually leave
- 31:45Speaker 12: kind of circular or kind of almost Mercedes bin type
- 31:49Speaker 12: symbol of allsions as well. That can be mistaken for
- 31:53Speaker 12: gunshot wounds. It just depends what the object is, but
- 31:57Speaker 12: it will. It can leave pattern injury. Well. A fist
- 32:01Speaker 12: doesn't usually, but other objects can. So you can get
- 32:04Speaker 12: kind of an impression of it based on what the
- 32:07Speaker 12: wounds look like.
- 32:08Speaker 1: If this was not to the nose or the face
- 32:10Speaker 1: facial area, and it left skull fractures, this was not
- 32:15Speaker 1: done with a fist, that tells me the person that
- 32:18Speaker 1: got in her car, the man in her car, had
- 32:21Speaker 1: some sort of a weapon. Was it a pipe, Was
- 32:24Speaker 1: it a hammer? Was it a gun used to pistol
- 32:26Speaker 1: whip her? I don't know, but I do believe. Barry Hutchinson,
- 32:29Speaker 1: Senior joining me Private Eye, chief investigator for Burying Associates
- 32:34Speaker 1: Investigative Services in Kansas and Missouri Barry, we say that
- 32:41Speaker 1: you know statistics, teach us, you look first at those
- 32:45Speaker 1: closest to her, and that would be the fiance. It's
- 32:48Speaker 1: not the fiance. I've already investigated it myself. He's ruled out.
- 32:53Speaker 1: He has a rock solid alibi. He was in Europe
- 32:56Speaker 1: at the time, No question, it's not him. But I'm
- 33:01Speaker 1: very interested in your theory about a romantic interest she
- 33:05Speaker 1: worked as her mom just told us at a very
- 33:08Speaker 1: high end restaurant. Who was watching her, who was sitting
- 33:13Speaker 1: at the bar watching her every move? Who could have
- 33:16Speaker 1: been obsessed with her? Because Barry, I'm very torn right now.
- 33:22Speaker 1: Did she give some random guy a ride and he
- 33:25Speaker 1: attacked her? Because nobody can identify who this person is,
- 33:29Speaker 1: or is it someone that had been watching her and
- 33:32Speaker 1: she agreed to give him a ride. The fact that
- 33:36Speaker 1: we know it's not a robbery, we know it's not
- 33:40Speaker 1: a sex assault, we know that it's in broad daylight.
- 33:45Speaker 1: So who would have been so bold to attack this
- 33:48Speaker 1: beautiful young co ed just a couple of weeks away
- 33:51Speaker 1: from her wedding. I really want to hear your thoughts, Barry.
- 33:55Speaker 10: The police had the ability they know a timeline of
- 34:00Speaker 10: her disappearing for thirty minutes or so. You know, there
- 34:03Speaker 10: are elements that they can use to investigate too, like
- 34:06Speaker 10: her vehicle. I don't know if her vehicle was equipped
- 34:08Speaker 10: with on Star. I don't know if she had her
- 34:12Speaker 10: cell phone with her. I'm assuming she did. I think
- 34:14Speaker 10: in the earlier conversation you said that she had her
- 34:16Speaker 10: cell phone with her.
- 34:17Speaker 1: Yes, she did.
- 34:18Speaker 10: That phone can also be pinged and they could find
- 34:22Speaker 10: out where she was in that immediate area that she
- 34:26Speaker 10: went missing for those thirty minutes. And then at that point,
- 34:29Speaker 10: what I would do, it's just good old fashioned police work.
- 34:32Speaker 10: I would canvass that area door to door, find out
- 34:35Speaker 10: anybody and everybody in that area that has a criminal record,
- 34:39Speaker 10: anybody that could match, you know, theoretically the type of
- 34:43Speaker 10: crime that was committed, if they have a history of that.
- 34:46Speaker 10: Look for people that just got out of the penitentiary,
- 34:48Speaker 10: Look for people to have that kind of a vicious
- 34:51Speaker 10: background or violent background, and see if I could come
- 34:53Speaker 10: up with a list of viable subjects that could be
- 34:56Speaker 10: possible suspects. It just does not make sense to me
- 35:00Speaker 10: that a young lady like this would get out of
- 35:02Speaker 10: her vehicle and have a confrontation with somebody in a
- 35:07Speaker 10: remote area where she's not safe and not know that person.
- 35:12Speaker 10: It just does not add up to me at all.
- 35:14Speaker 10: I think that again, I'm going to stick with my
- 35:17Speaker 10: idea that it's somebody that she's familiar with, and I
- 35:22Speaker 10: think that it's somebody that probably had an interest in
- 35:24Speaker 10: her that she just did not reciprocate because she was
- 35:27Speaker 10: very happy with whom she was with.
- 35:29Speaker 3: Amber Rebilia is originally from New York, but calls South
- 35:32Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Horay
- 35:35Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer.
- 35:40Speaker 3: Studying abroad in London for part of her education, she
- 35:42Speaker 3: meets Jose Toulsar and comes back home in love. After
- 35:46Speaker 3: two years of dating. Amber and Jose make plans to
- 35:49Speaker 3: marry weeks after she graduates from college, and that time
- 35:52Speaker 3: is fast approaching.
- 35:54Speaker 2: Years later and still no suspects. Her family deserves closure.
- 36:01Speaker 2: What happened to Amber Barbilia?
- 36:05Speaker 1: When you don't know where to go, you start over
- 36:08Speaker 1: and you look at who is your victim? Listen?
- 36:11Speaker 3: Amber Burbilia is originally from New York but calls South
- 36:14Speaker 3: Carolina home now. She is a college student at Hora
- 36:17Speaker 3: Georgetown Technical College with designs on becoming a costume designer.
- 36:22Speaker 3: Studying abroad in London for part of her education, she
- 36:25Speaker 3: meets Jose Tulsar and comes back home in love. After
- 36:29Speaker 3: two years of dating, Amber and Jose make plans to
- 36:31Speaker 3: marry weeks after she graduates from college, and that time
- 36:35Speaker 3: is fast approaching.
- 36:36Speaker 1: What more do we know? Listen?
- 36:38Speaker 9: At age twenty three, Amber Burbilia doesn't live at home,
- 36:41Speaker 9: but talks to her mother daily. When one of her
- 36:43Speaker 9: calls to her mother isn't answered, Amber leaves a message
- 36:46Speaker 9: for her mother. Roses are red, violets are blue, Sugar
- 36:49Speaker 9: is sweet, and so are you. I love you good night.
- 36:52Speaker 1: Oh my stars, Roses are red violence for blue, sugar
- 36:57Speaker 1: is sweet and so are you. I love you you
- 37:00Speaker 1: good night, a message she leaves her mom and joining
- 37:06Speaker 1: me right now is Amber's mother, Michelle Robinson. Miss Robinson.
- 37:12Speaker 1: I almost hated to say those words back, because I
- 37:15Speaker 1: know it's like a knife to your heart to hear
- 37:19Speaker 1: that rhyme, that message she left to you, that little poem.
- 37:23Speaker 1: But I want to ask you about the facts. We
- 37:25Speaker 1: keep saying she went to go pay a cable bill,
- 37:28Speaker 1: but there is something very probative about her paying the
- 37:32Speaker 1: cable bill. Have you been informed about the video from
- 37:36Speaker 1: inside the Time Warner cable office where she paid her
- 37:40Speaker 1: bill that while she's in there, there is a man
- 37:45Speaker 1: standing behind her staring at her, and it's been described
- 37:50Speaker 1: as in an aggressive manner. But it's my understanding, Miss Robinson,
- 37:56Speaker 1: that the guy, for all I know he's angry about
- 37:58Speaker 1: having to wait in line, has been investigated thoroughly and
- 38:03Speaker 1: he has been cleared. Correct. That's what I was still
- 38:08Speaker 1: to Karen Ritchie joining us, Amber's best friend, and to
- 38:13Speaker 1: her sister, Amanda Rebelia Amanda, was there anything else happening
- 38:19Speaker 1: in her life that she seemed disturbed about or worried
- 38:23Speaker 1: about that you know.
- 38:24Speaker 12: Of No, not at all.
- 38:28Speaker 5: I just a couple of weeks before she was killed,
- 38:32Speaker 5: she came to visit me for Easter. I had to
- 38:37Speaker 5: I had some things I had to take care of,
- 38:38Speaker 5: so she had come to take care of my daughters
- 38:42Speaker 5: while I was away. And then when I came home,
- 38:45Speaker 5: you know, we spent Easter Sunday together before she.
- 38:48Speaker 4: Went back home. And you know, she didn't mention at
- 38:51Speaker 4: all anything.
- 38:53Speaker 1: Nothing at all. Would she have told you she was
- 38:55Speaker 1: worried about someone or something. Yeah, we were pretty close.
- 39:01Speaker 5: She's to call me all the time, but she would
- 39:06Speaker 5: have made me aware if there was something bothering her.
- 39:10Speaker 1: Alexis Tereschuk crimeonline dot com. Where does the case stand
- 39:13Speaker 1: right now?
- 39:14Speaker 6: The case is still open. There have been no suspects
- 39:17Speaker 6: released to the public. There, there has been nobody arrested
- 39:21Speaker 6: for it.
- 39:21Speaker 1: Nothing.
- 39:22Speaker 6: The police have not given any leads as to what
- 39:25Speaker 6: anybody should look for. They have not said anything. They've
- 39:28Speaker 6: never identified publicly a murder weapon at all. So this
- 39:33Speaker 6: is a case that is still very open and still
- 39:37Speaker 6: all of the evidence has not been released, and they're
- 39:40Speaker 6: still looking for the murderers or murderer.
- 39:43Speaker 1: To ease their broken hearts, Amber's family erected a memorial photos, mementos,
- 39:52Speaker 1: flowers underneath the freeway overpass where she lost her life.
- 40:00Speaker 1: They've also set up a website with information about her murder.
- 40:05Speaker 1: Justice for Amber dot org. Repeat Justice for Amber dot org.
- 40:11Speaker 1: If you know or even think you know anything about
- 40:16Speaker 1: the murder of this beautiful young co ed, please call
- 40:22Speaker 1: toll free eight eight eight crime s C eight eight
- 40:28Speaker 1: eight two seven four sixty three seven two eight eight
- 40:34Speaker 1: eight two seven four sixty three seven two. There is
- 40:39Speaker 1: a six thousand dollars reward for information leading to the
- 40:45Speaker 1: discovery of the facts behind the murder of Amber Rebelia.
- 40:52Speaker 1: We wait as justice un false. Goodbye man
- 41:00Speaker 10: Ay