You Left Me For Dead

Speaker 2 At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Speaker 3 Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

Speaker 3 From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows. Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you.

Speaker 3 Black Friday deals are going on all month long. Save up to 45% off site-wide, plus an additional 10% off every order right now at blinds.com.

Speaker 4 Rules and restrictions apply.

Speaker 5 911 Lebanon Emergency.

Speaker 6 It's my next-door neighbor.

Speaker 7 She says somebody shot her roommate.

Speaker 5 We need an angel. Okay.

Speaker 12 The woman you hear in the background on the 911 call is Audrey Butler.

Speaker 9 She lives in this house with her two roommates, Lauren DeWise and Ashley Van Haymert.

Speaker 18 Audrey Butler wasn't home when the crime occurred, but she came home that morning and found her two roommates shot.

Speaker 21 She ran over to a neighbor's house, notified the neighbor, and a neighbor called 911 on her behalf.

Speaker 5 She said her roommate Ashley is the one that's still alive.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 24 and she is still alive she said she is yeah

Speaker 24 okay all right i've got the paramedics on the way i've got the police on the way okay just let her know that health is on the way

Speaker 28 roommate is a female 30 years old she is alive

Speaker 5 219

Speaker 7 Officer Jared Robinson from the Belgrade Police Department was the first officer to arrive.

Speaker 29 Jubby, yeah, I just don't know what I got. I'm just pulling up on the scene.

Speaker 30 What's going on?

Speaker 32 I just stayed with the friends last night and I just came in and I saw that my back door had been broken in so I went to the back and I could see footsteps in the snow

Speaker 6 Okay, so you don't know if there's somebody else in the house?

Speaker 34 I don't think so, but I don't know.

Speaker 36 Okay, she's unsure if there's still any

Speaker 36 Shooter inside the house, so I'm gonna wait for 206 to get here before we enter.

Speaker 38 Cobby.

Speaker 39 206-219 to get an ETA. I'm on Idaho.

Speaker 28 I'm going to be there shortly.

Speaker 40 Cubby.

Speaker 32 What do we know?

Speaker 42 Sergeant Dave Keene, also with Belgrade D, arrives just moments later.

Speaker 32 Ma'am, I need you inside the building, okay?

Speaker 14 Hi there. How you doing?

Speaker 45 Good.

Speaker 38 Good, sir. How are you? Good, good.

Speaker 46 The officers take me back to the scene to talk about that tense morning.

Speaker 26 Was it a beautiful day like this?

Speaker 49 Or was it?

Speaker 38 Almost

Speaker 38 identical to this.

Speaker 50 It's almost exactly the same. Yes.

Speaker 51 Very cold, and roads were just like this.

Speaker 39 The driveway looks almost the same. Yes, it does.

Speaker 39 Kind of eerie.

Speaker 6 One apparent dead, one still alive.

Speaker 39 She said, I ran out as soon as I saw that. I have no idea if there's still anybody else in there or not.

Speaker 52 So that's what we got.

Speaker 7 That was a very high-risk type of entry that they made into the residence. The body camera can describe it much better than my words could describe it.

Speaker 7 You can definitely feel the intensity of the situation. He's not sure what he's getting into

Speaker 10 you ready yep melgrid police

Speaker 34 police department anybody inside come out i'm going this way i didn't scare what

Speaker 53 police

Speaker 56 knowing already from dispatch that there's at least one deceased person in the house and another one that was alive asking for help and that they were shot it's incredibly intense and you can see that on all the body cam footage.

Speaker 55 Where are you at?

Speaker 33 Kitchen clear.

Speaker 57 When we first made entry into the front door, Sergeant Robinson cleared the main first floor because, again, we had no idea if there was anybody still in the house.

Speaker 57 And I stayed at the stairwell to make sure that there wasn't anybody there.

Speaker 58 It's about as dangerous as it gets.

Speaker 53 Garage clear, all right?

Speaker 18 When they're clearing the first floor, they can hear Ashley upstairs yelling for help.

Speaker 34 How many people are inside?

Speaker 55 Up the stairs.

Speaker 53 We're coming.

Speaker 34 All right, please show me your hands.

Speaker 32 We've got doors on the left and right.

Speaker 57 I went past the bedroom that Ashley was in because I had no idea whether or not Lauren was in need of help or beyond help.

Speaker 25 We have one female down. Here's the deceased.

Speaker 57 Unfortunately, she had deceased.

Speaker 59 Lauren DeWise had just moved into the house less than two months before.

Speaker 34 Jared! Yeah! What do we need?

Speaker 49 I start clearing the rest of the house and Sergeant Robinson enters into Ashley's room.

Speaker 62 They start helping her.

Speaker 38 Hello? Hi!

Speaker 25 Please! Don't shoot!

Speaker 33 I'm not gonna shoot you!

Speaker 25 Please! Don't clear!

Speaker 33 I need medical in here now.

Speaker 9 Ashley and her husky Malumute Barnson have lived with Audrea for about two years.

Speaker 63 The body camera footage of her interaction with police that day is raw and graphic.

Speaker 6 Are you the police? I'm the police, right here.

Speaker 25 Where are you?

Speaker 6 I'm right here.

Speaker 25 Can you see me?

Speaker 21 Ashley was obviously fighting for her life. And you can tell from his video that her vision was obviously impaired by the injury that she sustained.

Speaker 9 Ashley's not only unable to see, her injuries also leave her partially paralyzed.

Speaker 25 Are you the police?

Speaker 33 I'm the police, yes.

Speaker 35 Shove me your face there.

Speaker 6 I'm right here. Can you see see me?

Speaker 25 No.

Speaker 40 The video is chilling.

Speaker 44 She's asking you, are you really a police officer? Don't hurt me.

Speaker 66 Don't shoot me.

Speaker 52 Right. I just felt for her, you know.

Speaker 39 Being in that position to where you're helpless, you know?

Speaker 52 So I felt for her.

Speaker 39 Just tried to reassure her that we were going to get her the help we could.

Speaker 6 We got the medical people coming in.

Speaker 33 I'm trying to figure out what happened to you. Where are you bleeding from?

Speaker 53 I'm not bleeding.

Speaker 6 Okay, well, how do you have blood all over you?

Speaker 33 Do I?

Speaker 6 Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 34 I don't know why I do.

Speaker 32 If I can have somebody maintain the crime scene at the front door and let nobody.

Speaker 57 We don't have time to make sure that the house is completely secure. However, she needs help and she needs help now.

Speaker 57 It was apparent that she'd been in there a long time and I don't know how much longer she has. So at that point, I made the decision to remove her, which I understand.

Speaker 57 It's against their policies and protocols.

Speaker 33 Ashley, what we're going to do is we're going to pick you up and we're going to carry you down to the paramedics, okay?

Speaker 6 Can you...

Speaker 31 Oh, God. Oh, God, what what are you doing?

Speaker 33 I think I'm gonna have to get up here. You're gonna have to carry you, ma'am.

Speaker 34 What are you doing, sir?

Speaker 55 We're gonna pick you up, we're gonna carry you.

Speaker 31 Where are you carrying me? I'm coming down.

Speaker 31 Where are you carrying me, Jim?

Speaker 32 Watch your step. This is as far as I can get the door.
Where's the cot?

Speaker 55 It's straight out back.

Speaker 32 We keep going.

Speaker 33 We're not sure. We have no idea.

Speaker 33 She just keeps looking this way. I don't see any obvious.

Speaker 31 I'm not going to go.

Speaker 70 You don't have a choice.

Speaker 33 We got to get you up to the hospital.

Speaker 31 I'm not going.

Speaker 55 They want one of us to go with.

Speaker 32 That's fine. You want me to ride with?

Speaker 8 That's fine.

Speaker 9 And then one of you does something you don't normally do.

Speaker 13 You ride in the ambulance with her. Correct.

Speaker 8 Surgery.

Speaker 55 Ashley. Ashley.

Speaker 55 Ashley.

Speaker 39 Well, at that point, we still didn't know where the assailant was.

Speaker 52 So,

Speaker 39 again, we want to ensure her safety.

Speaker 55 Okay, let's go.

Speaker 31 I don't want to go to the hospital.

Speaker 55 Oh, I think we need to go to the hospital, honey.

Speaker 34 I'm refusing.

Speaker 6 You can't refuse.

Speaker 55 How old are you, Ashley?

Speaker 54 32.

Speaker 55 32. Can you tell me what happened and when?

Speaker 31 I don't know what happened.

Speaker 7 She is transported to Bozeman Deacon as hospital.

Speaker 52 We're going to take good care of you, okay?

Speaker 25 All right.

Speaker 37 Time is 9:41.

Speaker 21 Recording is. They're working on her in the ER.

Speaker 44 Meanwhile, Sergeant Keene is setting up a crime scene as investigators search for clues.

Speaker 32 Tracks out in the back, the door from the back's been broken open.

Speaker 57 There was a trail of footprints that led from the front of the residence through a side gate all the way to the back door.

Speaker 18 And Ashley, she's fighting for her life.

Speaker 22 She had been shot point-blank in the back of the head, but we weren't even sure if she would survive.

Speaker 74 Belgrade is one of the fastest growing towns in the state of Montana.

Speaker 7 Belgrade's a very tight-knit, blue-collar, working-class community.

Speaker 17 Generally, kind of a bedroom community, our citizens live here and work in Bozeman.

Speaker 20 We are completely surrounded by mountains and we have wilderness areas nearby.

Speaker 67 We get several million visitors, predominantly Yellowstone.

Speaker 67 And then for our skiing, which is some of the best. We have all of the blessings that we could ask for in the mountains.

Speaker 26 Murder is extremely rare in this town in Montana, but on that first Sunday morning of 2018, a call comes over the local police radio, possible double homicide.

Speaker 26 Law enforcement and medical personnel personnel rushed to this house on Idaho Street, preparing for the worst.

Speaker 76 All right, thank you for your help.

Speaker 25 Yeah, Maddie.

Speaker 37 We cleared everything out.

Speaker 52 So we're just gonna, I'm just gonna back everybody out till detectives get here.

Speaker 59 With the crime scene secure, detectives are able to begin their investigation into what happened to Lauren and Ashley.

Speaker 21 From that first initial appearance, it didn't appear that it was a burglary. There were no open drawers.
The place wasn't ransacked. There wasn't stuff strewn about.

Speaker 32 We got tracks out in the back. The door from the back's been broken open.

Speaker 50 There was a sign of a break-in.

Speaker 52 Yeah, the screen door on the back had been kicked in.

Speaker 58 It was very clear that obviously they had gotten in through the backyard.

Speaker 29 There's a gate, but it's not open, but it's unlatched.

Speaker 57 They went through a gate, went around the back, and gained entry through a sliding glass door in the back.

Speaker 21 You could see that there were tracks leading around the side of the house.

Speaker 7 Ms. Butler had indicated early on that those were not made by either her or any of the ladies in the household.
So those were of significant interest to law enforcement.

Speaker 29 There's tracks going around that way. Yep.

Speaker 25 We'll document all that pink light.

Speaker 9 Chief Dustin Lensing trudged with me through the snow to demonstrate the low-tech tactic police used to gather highly valuable evidence.

Speaker 9 You had vital evidence right there in the snow, but you're racing against the clock?

Speaker 64 Yeah.

Speaker 22 unfortunately, sometimes in Montana, weather conditions can change rather rapidly. In this case, we knew the snow was going to be melting, so we documented everything initially with photography.

Speaker 79 I see some red paint in some of the crime scene photos. Is that some sort of high-tech forensic tool?

Speaker 22 I wouldn't call it high-tech by any means, but we will spray paint these prints.

Speaker 66 Can you show me how you did it?

Speaker 61 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 22 If we could use this one maybe?

Speaker 64 Okay.

Speaker 22 That detail is not going to stand out in your average everyday photograph with the white and the way the light reflects.

Speaker 22 But you give it a little dusting and you can see where it really makes that detail stand out.

Speaker 80 That's amazing.

Speaker 9 You can tell the ridges and the design of the bottom of the shoe.

Speaker 64 Yeah, it kind of just produces almost like this little 3D model, right?

Speaker 56 There were two distinct patterns of boot prints, and they started doing the analysis to try to figure out what types of shoes they were actually made from.

Speaker 46 Inside the house, investigators are examining the bedrooms where the two women were shot.

Speaker 22 My first inspection of the crime scene, I remember Lauren there, and she was still, she was clutching her cell phone.

Speaker 22 That's kind of a powerful image right there because you know she's scared. and trying to call for help.

Speaker 7 Law enforcement ultimately determined that Lauren had been shot multiple times and that she had gunshot wounds to both the head and chest, and that resulted in her death.

Speaker 56 Both Ashley and Lauren had been shot in the head. For Lauren, it was fatal, and Ashley miraculously survived.

Speaker 21 As we later learned, she had been moving around in the room, and so as a result of that,

Speaker 21 there was blood everywhere.

Speaker 47 Detectives find no fingerprint or DNA evidence, but they do find shell casings, nine of them in all.

Speaker 67 There were four shell casings in Lauren's bedroom and five shell casings in Ashley's bedroom.

Speaker 22 They were from 22. There were two distinct brands of ammunition used, the Winchester X22

Speaker 22 and the Agila brand.22 caliber. So we had mixed ammunition in there.

Speaker 82 So are we looking at two weapons?

Speaker 22 Or are we looking at somebody who loaded their gun with mixed ammunition?

Speaker 9 While investigators piece together clues at the scene, Audrey Butler is interviewed at police headquarters.

Speaker 83 I'm going to tell you right now, this is not my best moment.

Speaker 69 No, don't worry about it. I'm doing my best right now.

Speaker 19 We'll get through it.

Speaker 84 It's a very tough time right now.

Speaker 30 I understand that.

Speaker 56 Audi Butler owns the house and to help cover some of the bills, Scott a roommate. That first roommate was Ashley Van Humer.

Speaker 22 She also recently started this friendship with Lauren DeWise and Lauren was having some marital problems with her husband.

Speaker 56 Paul DeWise was Lauren's estranged husband at the time and Paul and Lauren met when they were both teachers down in Florida.

Speaker 56 Paul was married to his wife Maria at the time that he and Lauren had first met and when that marriage kind of started falling apart, then that's when he and Lauren got together.

Speaker 7 When he was married to Maria, he had two children, Natalie and Joe.

Speaker 56 Lauren really cared about Joe and Natalie as if they were her own kids.

Speaker 59 The couple has their own child, Jennifer, and shortly after she's born, the DeWises sell everything.

Speaker 86 They get an RV, and they set off to see the country.

Speaker 7 They ultimately relocated to Bozeman, Montana. where Lauren was able to find employment with the local bank.
And Paul did some construction type work and things of that nature.

Speaker 63 Jessica Johns befriended Lauren when she settled in Bozeman.

Speaker 87 In photos posted on Facebook, Lauren appears to be loving her new life.

Speaker 74 This is actually a beautiful picture of Natalie and her brother Joe, and then Jennifer, the little girl. They just always seemed happy.

Speaker 83 I mean, I got the straight part. It's

Speaker 83 in the basket part.

Speaker 74 I just remember her being so bubbly and so full of life. She was just somebody that was just always so positive no matter what.

Speaker 9 Lauren kept up appearances, even though her marriage to Paul was falling apart.

Speaker 64 But then Lauren turned to Audrea for help.

Speaker 88 She said, I can't believe I've ever told anybody this, but I think I need to leave Paul. And basically, you've always got

Speaker 88 people. You're not alone here.

Speaker 89 You can come stay with me anytime you need to.

Speaker 56 So

Speaker 56 Lauren moved in with Audi in November.

Speaker 88 He made it really hard. And it was just like, when are you moving home?

Speaker 49 Why aren't you moving home?

Speaker 90 And she's like, I'm not moving home.

Speaker 26 At this point, you know, you have to talk to Paul DeWise.

Speaker 57 Correct. So you try to coordinate that as best you can.
You call in as many people as you can.

Speaker 13 In a matter of minutes, police track down Lauren's husband, Paul DeWise.

Speaker 15 They pull the car over as a homicide suspect.

Speaker 20 So they are doing a high-risk traffic stop.

Speaker 8 Let me see your hand.

Speaker 72 Keep the hands up. Everybody needs to keep their hands up.

Speaker 72 How many people are

Speaker 47 Ashley Van Hamert is in critical condition, fighting for her life in a hospital in Colorado.

Speaker 22 She had been flown out of state. We didn't have the capacity to care for her.

Speaker 20 She had been shot point blank in the back of the head.

Speaker 22 You know, for a bit there, it was touch and go.

Speaker 51 We weren't even sure if she would survive.

Speaker 91 All I did was like go back and forth in the bedroom, clenching my my hands and just praying to God that she was okay.

Speaker 14 Ashley's mother says Ashley and her dog Bronson found their paradise on earth in Bozeman.

Speaker 91 She loved it here. I mean close to the mountains, take Bronson out running, snowboarding.
She was happy. It was what she had dreamed of.

Speaker 9 While doctors in Colorado do all they can for Ashley, law enforcement in Montana is interested in talking to Lauren's estranged husband, Paul DeWise.

Speaker 92 Less than 90 minutes into the investigation, Bozeman P.D.

Speaker 77 tracks down Paul DeWise as he and his three children are returning home from church.

Speaker 93 Both of them.

Speaker 93 Blow your window down. Slowly.

Speaker 8 We're going to give you some commands, okay?

Speaker 8 Turn the car off.

Speaker 36 I have any on the channel.

Speaker 15 They pull the car over as a homicide suspect.

Speaker 18 We don't know if he still has the weapon.

Speaker 16 We don't know any of that background.

Speaker 52 So it was treated as a high-risk stop.

Speaker 8 Hands up.

Speaker 93 Walk over here.

Speaker 93 Turn around.

Speaker 36 Look away from me.

Speaker 93 Walk backwards.

Speaker 93 Keep coming.

Speaker 93 Keep coming.

Speaker 50 Stop. Get on the ground.
Get on the ground.

Speaker 94 Do not move. Do you understand me?

Speaker 56 It was intense, but Paul did cooperate with them, and the kids went into the care of child protective services until they could find out what happened.

Speaker 94 Take him to the back of my car.

Speaker 56 And then he was brought in for questioning.

Speaker 66 Paul DeWise is taken to an interrogation room like this one here at the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 47 He will spend his entire Sunday answering questions about the shooting of his wife and Ashley Van Heemert.

Speaker 20 It was one of the unfortunate things in this investigation is because they found Paul so quickly, we didn't have any kind of real profile on him.

Speaker 18 So we kind of went into it with the game plan of we were going to make adjustments on the fly.

Speaker 72 So the reason that I wanted to talk to you is there were some issues that happened

Speaker 23 over at Lauren's house last or this morning.

Speaker 72 Sorry.

Speaker 8 Well,

Speaker 8 not

Speaker 8 really. She hasn't.

Speaker 8 What happened?

Speaker 8 Well,

Speaker 8 the

Speaker 72 person that came in ended up shooting her.

Speaker 72 So.

Speaker 71 she's dead.

Speaker 71 Yeah.

Speaker 71 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 19 I told him she is dead and he was all over in his chair rubbing his hands on his legs.

Speaker 72 So that's why we're talking to you because you guys are going through a divorce and well walk me through what you did yesterday.

Speaker 72 Maybe breakfast.

Speaker 15 He goes through from

Speaker 18 the moment he wakes up and has a very, very detailed explanation of what he did the entire day.

Speaker 7 During the day, Mr. DeWise had been texting Lauren.
He wanted her to come back over and visit with the children.

Speaker 72 So I'm trying to get her to come over as much I can.

Speaker 72 She's just giving me a hard time, you know.

Speaker 8 She didn't come over.

Speaker 7 So law enforcement was able to determine that Lauren's last text message was sent just before 11 o'clock p.m. that evening, where she had indicated to Mr.

Speaker 7 DeWise that she did not wish to attend church with him and the children that following day.

Speaker 96 So what about

Speaker 72 last evening, last night?

Speaker 18 He basically painted a picture of staying at home and watching TV and just spending time with his family during the entire night leading up to and during the night of the incident.

Speaker 72 Nothing exciting. I mean, I was just in my chair all day.

Speaker 16 One of the only times that he expressed leaving that night was to go get beer.

Speaker 72 I went and got a six-pack of beer around midnight at Town Pump.

Speaker 8 Which town pump?

Speaker 8 On Main Street.

Speaker 20 One of the things that we were fairly quickly able to identify was which gas station he went to.

Speaker 20 A detective went and pulled that video very quickly and we did find Paul on video going to that town pump and buying beer.

Speaker 56 It did match up in terms of the timeline that he gave when he would have gone to the store.

Speaker 72 And you made no other trips except to go to town pump?

Speaker 48 Is that am I getting that right?

Speaker 72 So I'm going to ask you right now, I'm going to look you right in the face. I'm going to ask you, were you involved in this? Involved in this crime? No.
Did you hurt Lauren? No.

Speaker 23 Did you hurt Lauren at all?

Speaker 25 No.

Speaker 18 He adamantly denied being at Lauren's house that night.

Speaker 72 I'm going to be completely honest with you right now. I'm not completely comfortable with where we're at in this interview.
I don't think you're in a good spot.

Speaker 8 Of course,

Speaker 8 there's.

Speaker 72 And I know I'm the prime suspect.

Speaker 9 Authorities are talking to Paul's teenaged children, Joe and Natalie, and what they say surprises even veteran detectives.

Speaker 89 Was your dad home with you guys several times on Saturday?

Speaker 97 Audiences and top critics are celebrating. Rental Family is the perfect feel-good movie of the year.

Speaker 1 What do you need me for? We need a talking white guy.

Speaker 97 Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser delivers a masterful performance.

Speaker 98 This girl needs a father.

Speaker 4 I hate you. She hates me.

Speaker 2 It's worth being a parent. Yes.

Speaker 97 In this tender and funny film about the importance of connection.

Speaker 1 This is amazing. It's cool, but it's fake.
Sometimes it's okay to pretend.

Speaker 97 Rental Family, only in theaters Friday. Ready to PG-13.
Maybe inappropriate for children under 13.

Speaker 47 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 91 911, what is the address of your emergency?

Speaker 99 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 101 He's fallen asleep.

Speaker 99 So she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 102 Is there any way you can get out of the building?

Speaker 4 I don't know. We're not waking up.
I'm scared.

Speaker 99 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 98 We've got something big going on here. The first thing to hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 100 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020: The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 100 you see your hands. Both of them.

Speaker 46 When Paul DeWise is pulled over and arrested, his three children, Joe, Natalie, and Jennifer, are in the car.

Speaker 37 Okay, we've got a 15-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a four-year-old.

Speaker 72 You doing okay?

Speaker 8 Okay, you want to sit in the car and stay warm?

Speaker 12 While Paul is being questioned at the sheriff's office, his children talk to Child Protective Services.

Speaker 73 So Ms. Jennifer, my name is Erin, and I talk to kids and people every day.
I first spoke with Jennifer, who had just turned four, and she had a very brief interview. I then spoke with Joseph.

Speaker 73 We asked about what had happened Saturday night.

Speaker 74 On Saturday, we're supposed to go to, we went to church today. Okay.
We stayed up way late.

Speaker 84 We shouldn't have stayed up that late because we have to get up early to go to church.

Speaker 73 Last night, you stayed up way late?

Speaker 94 We were just hanging out watching movies.

Speaker 103 He indicated that they had stayed home and just kind of hung out.

Speaker 89 Was your dad home with you guys the whole time on Saturday?

Speaker 84 We did go to the town pump, me and him, for him to get beer.

Speaker 38 Oh, okay.

Speaker 37 And then we came back home.

Speaker 38 Oh, okay.

Speaker 89 What time do you think that was about?

Speaker 60 Around 12.

Speaker 7 Both Natalie and Joe were pretty consistent that they had been home that evening.

Speaker 35 We were watching movies, we were watching a nature show,

Speaker 80 and we watched the office,

Speaker 91 and we stayed up late.

Speaker 35 And my dad and my brother went out and got beer around like midnight

Speaker 8 and came home.

Speaker 56 They were all at home watching TV together all that night, and then pretty much just mirrored what DeWise had said.

Speaker 22 Nothing stood out about any of their statements, you know, about the events of the night. You know, we look at everything,

Speaker 22 but there was no aha moment there.

Speaker 103 When we were done with the forensic interviews, it was decided that we would let the kids know that Lauren was deceased.

Speaker 103 We had told Joe and Natalie and let Jennifer know that something bad had happened to mommy and that mommy was now in heaven.

Speaker 9 With Joe and Natalie's account of the night matching up with their father's, Paul DeWise is free to go, but not to go home.

Speaker 72 They're not done searching your house. Okay.

Speaker 72 And they're apparently going to do a forensic search instead of just the consent search that we talked about on the vehicle.

Speaker 23 Okay.

Speaker 72 So you're not under arrest. Nothing's changed in that regard, but unfortunately, the car and the house are still tied up and probably will be for quite some time.

Speaker 18 At the end of the interview, we didn't have enough evidence to hold him, so we released him.

Speaker 56 Because he was still considered a suspect at that time, CPS made the decision not to let the kids go back to his custody. So the kids went to a friend of the family's and stayed there.

Speaker 42 Detectives keep an eye on Paul.

Speaker 10 At the same time, they have to widen their net.

Speaker 22 You've got three people that live in the home where the incident occurred. Who was the intended victim? Or were they all the intended victim?

Speaker 21 Or was it just a random act?

Speaker 22 So now you start digging into the personal lives of the people involved and have to weed out each one of those potential avenues as a potential suspect.

Speaker 15 Through the interview with Paul, he brings up a couple situations where he found Lauren cheating on him, despite the fact that they were separated.

Speaker 54 First one was at Old Chicago.

Speaker 101 Investigators are interested in talking to a man named Kevin Fralsted.

Speaker 77 That's because of an incident that happened here in the parking lot of this restaurant.

Speaker 9 where Paul says he caught Lauren kissing this other man.

Speaker 72 I opened the door and I was like, what are you doing? And I was talking to the guy, he's like, this is my wife.

Speaker 30 And the guy came around and started attacking me.

Speaker 72 So I fought him off.

Speaker 105 Did you recognize it, Reno?

Speaker 72 No, but

Speaker 72 I found out. He lives in Billings.
Yeah, it's Kevin...

Speaker 72 Kevin Veralstaff. Veralstaff.
I looked up.

Speaker 105 Hey, Kevin, this is Detective Oxmeyer with the Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 8 Hey.

Speaker 105 Hey, do you got a little bit to talk?

Speaker 8 I do.

Speaker 56 Kevin was a co-worker of Lauren's.

Speaker 67 Mr. Ralsted

Speaker 67 and Lauren had become friendly with each other. They were at Old Chicago one night, and there was some drinking involved.

Speaker 21 I mean, I had walked her out to her car.

Speaker 23 and her husband jumped me. The police came and I told them what happened and

Speaker 23 they asked if I wanted to press charges and I said no. And that was really the end of it, as far as I knew.

Speaker 7 I think Mr. Volstead's a little concerned because he is in a romantic relationship with another lady at the time.

Speaker 105 You know, I gotta ask you, and I someone should be 100% honest with me.

Speaker 105 Yep.

Speaker 105 Did you and Lauren ever do anything physically together?

Speaker 23 No, we did not.

Speaker 105 Did you guys ever kiss?

Speaker 8 No.

Speaker 7 I don't know that he's entirely straightforward with law enforcement about the nature of his relationship with lauren but it's ultimately determined that this was a one-time situation where they met in the parking lot and had a kiss and that was the end of that encounter investigators determined that kevin had nothing to do with the shooting kevin actually um had a fiancé over in billings at the time and was furniture shopping with her the morning after the homicide was found.

Speaker 41 In his police interview, Paul also claimed Lauren had a relationship with a man named Brian Ruddick.

Speaker 17 So we had to see if maybe there was some sort of love triangle gone wrong or anything like that that could have led to Lauren's death.

Speaker 106 I

Speaker 80 am calling about Lauren.

Speaker 103 It is my understanding that you guys were involved in some sort of a relationship. Is that correct?

Speaker 28 Yes.

Speaker 23 We started talking and

Speaker 23 had a lot in common and hit it off. We just got along really well.
We were really good friends.

Speaker 63 Brian admits that he and Lauren enjoyed each other's company, but he says their relationship was primarily an emotional one and not physical.

Speaker 9 Additionally, he had an alibi for the time of the murder.

Speaker 21 Yeah, he was ice fishing with a buddy over on Ennis Lake, and I called the friend and confirmed that he was there.

Speaker 9 Brian is cleared of any involvement in the shooting, but investigators are not just focused on Lauren's relationships.

Speaker 38 They look into her wounded roommate, Ashley's on-and-off boyfriend.

Speaker 22 I mean, here you have the boyfriend, who's the last person to see Ashley before she goes into the house.

Speaker 106 So when was the last time you actually had contact with her?

Speaker 46 Detectives are also interested in speaking with victim Ashley Van Haymerd.

Speaker 20 Do you remember anything at all?

Speaker 44 The hours and days following the shooting are critical for Ashley and her survival.

Speaker 47 Tell me about the first time you saw Ashley in the hospital.

Speaker 91 It was a sight I wish I could get out of my head.

Speaker 91 Just tubes running everywhere.

Speaker 91 And the hardest thing, she was just motionless.

Speaker 91 And after Geralda, she usually

Speaker 91 can't get him to stop her from moving. She was just laying there.

Speaker 48 But Ashley continues to fight.

Speaker 9 Through her tireless efforts and with her supportive family by her side, Ashley begins to recover.

Speaker 38 Okay, Bronson, come back. Bronze, come here, boy.

Speaker 46 And today, she's back in Bozeman with her beloved Bronson.

Speaker 107 I love you.

Speaker 68 I love you. Yush.

Speaker 64 Yush.

Speaker 92 Now she sits with 2020 to tell her story.

Speaker 92 So glad to meet you. How are you doing?

Speaker 35 I'm doing very well, yes.

Speaker 12 How would you describe what you've been through?

Speaker 35 How and back?

Speaker 35 But God is good and I'm still here. The Lord literally saved my life that night.

Speaker 56 Somehow the way that the bullet stayed

Speaker 56 prevented her from bleeding out. Really just a miracle that the bullet lodged the way that it did.

Speaker 35 The doctors told my family if that bullet would have moved absolutely anywhere in the nine to ten hours I was on the ground, I would have bled to death.

Speaker 86 It literally stopped the bullet.

Speaker 35 It literally plugged the hole perfectly in my carotid artery. That's why I did not die that night.

Speaker 10 A miracle?

Speaker 35 Yes, no doubt. No doubt a miracle.

Speaker 45 Yes.

Speaker 9 Ashley was shot four times and endured multiple surgeries, including removing part of her skull after she suffered a massive hemispheric stroke.

Speaker 41 The first thing she remembers is the moment she woke up.

Speaker 35 The first thing I actually remember is opening my eyes and I saw some of my family members in the room and I gave the I Love You sign to them. And that's when they knew I could see.

Speaker 35 Because until then they didn't even know if I would be able to see or not.

Speaker 48 Can you show me that again?

Speaker 35 To my family, yeah.

Speaker 59 So you survived this terrible crime.

Speaker 66 Meanwhile, there's a major homicide investigation going on here in Montana.

Speaker 12 Detectives visit you.

Speaker 77 They're trying to get you to help them solve this crime.

Speaker 35 Yeah, they visited me in Colorado.

Speaker 23 Hi, Ashley.

Speaker 56 Hello.

Speaker 36 My name's Dustin.

Speaker 28 Hi, Dustin.

Speaker 94 We're going to have some questions, but mostly we just want to hear what you have to say.

Speaker 77 Ashley tells Lensing that prior to the shooting on the evening of January 6th, she had gone out to a movie with her boyfriend, Ralph Dennis.

Speaker 35 We went and just had a good time, and yeah, I remember driving home, and he didn't get out of of the car, just gave me a kiss goodnight.

Speaker 35 And the last thing I remember is closing the door to my house and locking the door.

Speaker 22 Can you tell me,

Speaker 20 do you remember anything at all?

Speaker 35 When I got shot?

Speaker 35 No, I do not remember being shot at all.

Speaker 11 Investigators want to talk with the last person actually remember seeing the night of the shooting, Ralph Dennis.

Speaker 18 He's a pretty big guy, and he definitely would have the

Speaker 18 means to

Speaker 20 overpower these two women if that's what had happened.

Speaker 28 Okay.

Speaker 36 I'm going to record our conversation.

Speaker 30 Do you prefer the door open or close? It doesn't matter to me. It opens fine.

Speaker 59 Ralph Dennis is questioned by police the day after the shooting.

Speaker 63 He says he dropped Ashley off at 9.30, and he says their relationship was coming to an end.

Speaker 58 And how do you characterize your relationship with her right now?

Speaker 21 We've been attempting to break up with each other for several weeks. Ralph was very cooperative.

Speaker 58 He didn't appear to be nervous, didn't appear to be anxious.

Speaker 30 You guys didn't have a fight or anything like that.

Speaker 68 Not partying, not at all.

Speaker 96 Nothing like that.

Speaker 106 So, when was the last time you actually had contact with her?

Speaker 5 When I dropped her off.

Speaker 67 There's two parts with Ralph. There's one, there's this relationship that was broken up recently that we knew of.
And then,

Speaker 67 as we were trying to process the crime scene, there were prints in the blood

Speaker 67 that led us to believe possibly there was a dog there.

Speaker 75 So that became a possible clue.

Speaker 82 So Bronson's the dog.

Speaker 95 Bronson is her dog.

Speaker 30 Since we started dating, I kind of took Bronson in under my wing because she works a lot and Bronson just gets bored at the house.

Speaker 81 So Bronson stays at my place all the time now.

Speaker 22 The theory there was if the dog was in the house while Ashley was bleeding and left a paw print and now the dog is at Ralph's house,

Speaker 95 how did that happen, right?

Speaker 22 That wouldn't have happened unless he'd have been there.

Speaker 58 What I'm curious about is like, is it possible? Was the dog there? Did you come over? Did the dog leave? I mean, I'm just trying to make sense of that.

Speaker 21 No, absolutely.

Speaker 109 I can tell you. So

Speaker 52 without a shadow of a doubt, Bronson has been in my care since

Speaker 52 Thursday morning.

Speaker 16 We brought the dog in. We swabbed between its toes, trying to find any evidence of the blood from what the crime scene processing team thought was a bloody footprint.

Speaker 21 That was definitely the first time we'd ever photographed and captured the prints of a dog as part of a homicide investigation for sure.

Speaker 30 There was no blood that was either seen or otherwise swapped from the dog prints or anything like that.

Speaker 22 Turns out that that was just a blood pattern on the dog bed that remarkably resembled a paw print, which turned out not to be.

Speaker 16 Turns out the dog was never there,

Speaker 54 but we had to rule that out as a possibility.

Speaker 9 Bronze's paws proved to police that he didn't leave a footprint at the crime scene.

Speaker 68 And the same can be said for Ralph Dennis's feet.

Speaker 21 I think he had like size 13s or something.

Speaker 58 Pretty big.

Speaker 21 And definitely not what we had seen at the scene of the crime.

Speaker 22 He was very forthcoming. He provided his cell phone data.
He had, in fact, dropped her off at the house and then returned home that night. And so we're able to eliminate him.

Speaker 48 Early on, your friend Ralph becomes a possible suspect. Did you ever think maybe he was involved?

Speaker 35 No, never. Never, never, never.

Speaker 35 Not in a million years.

Speaker 64 With our list of potential leads drying up, it's back to the drawing board.

Speaker 66 Soon, detectives discover a curious text exchange between Lauren's stepchildren, Joe and Natalie DeWise, on the night of the murder.

Speaker 67 All of a sudden, just before 3 a.m., there's this text between Joe and Natalie of I love you, I love you too.

Speaker 21 Who texts their sibling at 2 o'clock in the morning, I love you? Like, that's really bizarre.

Speaker 67 Both Dustin and I feel like something's there that doesn't make sense.

Speaker 22 We decided that we were going to do some good old-fashioned detective interviews with them, despite their age.

Speaker 108 Natalie, how old are you again, can I confirm?

Speaker 38 17.

Speaker 38 Okay.

Speaker 22 You do have the right to remain silent. You do not have to answer any questions.

Speaker 60 Okay, keeping all that in mind, do you still want to kind of ask or answer a couple of questions for me? No. Jimmy, now that I have a choice, no?

Speaker 61 No? Yeah.

Speaker 61 Okay.

Speaker 56 Natalie had invoked her rights, so she actually wasn't interviewed. And then Joe was being interviewed.

Speaker 76 It's important that we're completely truthful with each other.

Speaker 22 We were really beginning to suspect at this point in time that they knew something.

Speaker 60 Help me.

Speaker 28 Help you.

Speaker 28 Melbourne, police!

Speaker 53 Police department!

Speaker 34 Anybody inside, come out!

Speaker 8 We have one few melted down. Here's the meaning.

Speaker 8 Hello!

Speaker 8 Hey!

Speaker 25 Please! Joe!

Speaker 33 Shoot! I'm not gonna shoot you!

Speaker 56 Both Ashley and Lauren had been shot in the head. For Lauren, it was fatal.

Speaker 76 Joe,

Speaker 81 you've gotta help me. I don't know.

Speaker 86 What do you see when you see that still picture?

Speaker 67 A young man who

Speaker 67 had been carrying kind of the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Speaker 8 Oh my god.

Speaker 17 Oh boy.

Speaker 17 This.

Speaker 67 It's a big deal.

Speaker 82 The amount of man hours that went into searching, trying to find the murder weapon.

Speaker 20 And I'm angry. And my children are angry.
And my baby's angry.

Speaker 51 And it's hard for me to live with.

Speaker 110 The biggest freight train that you could see coming, I saw it coming and I couldn't stop it.

Speaker 35 That's when he started to shoot me.

Speaker 86 Horrific.

Speaker 48 How do you make sense of that?

Speaker 91 Satan.

Speaker 68 It still

Speaker 68 stays with you.

Speaker 47 He'll never leave.

Speaker 26 Montana.

Speaker 101 From the Spanish word montania, it means mountainous, and Bozeman Montana is surrounded by the Rockies.

Speaker 77 They warn you about grizzlies and wolves out here.

Speaker 101 But in the Gallatin Valley, in the shadow of the mountains, another predator, the killer who shot Lauren DeWise and left Ashley Van Haymert

Speaker 65 for dead.

Speaker 59 Authorities may have released Lauren's husband, Paul, but if he thinks he talked his way out of trouble, he's terribly mistaken.

Speaker 9 The former school teacher has graduated from person of interest to prime suspect with two driven detectives on his trail.

Speaker 21 It wasn't work.

Speaker 22 It was

Speaker 22 something other than that.

Speaker 67 It was a mission.

Speaker 64 They didn't say don't leave town, but the detectives are worried he might.

Speaker 67 We were starting to get worried. More and more information was leading us to Paul.
And is Paul going to disappear?

Speaker 52 Or are we going to lose him to the wind?

Speaker 53 Hey, Paul, how are you?

Speaker 78 A detective tries to persuade Paul to come back for another interview, but the suspect is suspicious.

Speaker 23 Have you come up with any suspects besides me at this point, or am I still it?

Speaker 30 Well, we can talk about that when you come down.

Speaker 79 When police search here at Paul DeWise's home, they find some of those unusual Aguilar brand.22 caliber bullets.

Speaker 22 We did find matching or like ammo in his possession at his home that matched the shell casings at the scene.

Speaker 21 Very specifically, they found the Aguila ammunition.

Speaker 30 That's not something that's common. It's not something you can buy around here.

Speaker 46 Police are poised to make an arrest when Detective Lensing gets a call.

Speaker 61 It's Paul.

Speaker 23 I was wondering when I could get access to my house again.

Speaker 22 As I'm talking to him, we are literally following him in the car and he doesn't have any idea.

Speaker 22 Okay.

Speaker 23 Can you give me a call when I can go back?

Speaker 38 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 7 He is arrested shortly after making that phone call.

Speaker 56 He was arrested on one count of attempted deliberate homicide and one count of deliberate homicide.

Speaker 60 Paul pleads not guilty.

Speaker 9 Detectives are puzzling over boot prints at the crime scene and then where those prints might lead.

Speaker 82 There were definitely two distinct sets of footprints.

Speaker 21 Tracks in the snow that were going into the residence.

Speaker 72 Do you have a standard pair of shoes that you use when you go out? Well, I wear these sometimes.

Speaker 72 I've got a pair of boots I wear sometimes.

Speaker 9 Detectives determined one set of prints at the crime scene was made by Meryl hiking boots like these, size 11.

Speaker 72 What size shoes do you wear?

Speaker 8 11, 11, 11.

Speaker 47 They say they find Paul wearing those Meryl boots in family photos on Facebook and in the convenience store video the night of the murder.

Speaker 56 And we never found them because they were thrown away or destroyed.

Speaker 79 The footprints in the snow at the crime scene, the trail of a killer, lead police here to the shoe shoe aisle at the local Walmart.

Speaker 22 One of our detectives decided that he was just going to go to Walmart and just start pulling shoes off the shelves and looking at each and every boot that he could find.

Speaker 59 The question is, do you have a match?

Speaker 22 We had a match.

Speaker 79 Sure enough, the detective says he finds an interceptor frontier tactical boot.

Speaker 9 with a tread pattern consistent with prints found at the crime scene.

Speaker 45 The mystery now, who was in those shoes?

Speaker 13 Detectives turned to Paul's children.

Speaker 22 We were really beginning to suspect at this point in time that they knew something.

Speaker 22 We decided that we were going to do some good old-fashioned detective interviews with them, you know, one-on-one, sit them down like anybody else, despite their age.

Speaker 67 You know Lauren

Speaker 76 as well as well as anybody.

Speaker 112 What do you think happened to her

Speaker 112 week?

Speaker 2 What's your speculation?

Speaker 113 What do you think happened?

Speaker 113 She was

Speaker 94 in her home sleeping, and

Speaker 112 something unfortunate happened.

Speaker 76 Who do you think?

Speaker 112 Who do you think could do something like that?

Speaker 39 I have no idea. And it couldn't be my dad.

Speaker 72 He loves his family too much.

Speaker 41 And then there's a commotion outside the interrogation room.

Speaker 42 Police thought those boots were one size, but a crime scene tech, Mike Gurzy, suddenly realizes that's wrong.

Speaker 14 The boots are much smaller.

Speaker 22 I'm watching your interview with Joe Jr.

Speaker 22 And Gurzi runs up to me and he's like, These aren't size 10s or whatever. These are much smaller.

Speaker 75 Guys, I was off on the size.

Speaker 67 This isn't a size 10.

Speaker 67 This is a size 6 or 6 and a half.

Speaker 22 And I'm like, oh, crap.

Speaker 21 And I get a message, pause, come out.

Speaker 21 Take care of you right back, okay?

Speaker 21 All right.

Speaker 21 That

Speaker 67 kind of changed everything. Because now, I'm thinking, we got a size six probably in this interview room.

Speaker 59 Detective Cop returns with a pair of interceptor boots.

Speaker 86 And Joe can't seem to take his eyes off of them.

Speaker 38 So

Speaker 104 have you ever seen boots like that before?

Speaker 75 So you have a pair of those.

Speaker 62 I did.

Speaker 61 Okay.

Speaker 94 They got messed up for me working, so they weren't doing their job anymore, so I threw them away.

Speaker 56 And we had found pictures later on cell phones that showed Joe in those boots.

Speaker 114 What size of boot do you wear?

Speaker 88 Is this regular?

Speaker 114 Okay.

Speaker 22 We are thinking that Joe DeWise

Speaker 22 was there.

Speaker 21 His shoe prints are at the scene of the crime.

Speaker 67 We decided to stop the interview because the interview was going to take a turn.

Speaker 22 Because now Joe is implicated somehow.

Speaker 76 And I don't believe that you're being

Speaker 76 completely truthful with me.

Speaker 115 Since 2011, American Giant has been making everyday clothing with extraordinary effort. Not in far-off factories, but right here in the USA.

Speaker 115 We obsess over fabrics, fit, and details, because if you're going to wear it every day, it should feel great and last for years.

Speaker 115 From the cut of a hoodie to the finishing of a seam, nothing is overlooked. Our supply chain is tight-knit and local, which means less crisscrossing the country and more care in every step.

Speaker 115 The result is durable clothing, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and denim that become part of your life season after season.

Speaker 115 This isn't fast fashion, it's clothing made with purpose by people who care as much about how it's made as how it fits. Get 20% off your first order with code STAPLE20 at American-Giant.com.

Speaker 115 That's 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com with code STAPEL20.

Speaker 4 Give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 113 Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 4 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep coming.

Speaker 113 Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 67 We didn't actually know what happened in that house.

Speaker 54 Without eyes on the inside or someone admitting to what happened, we couldn't put all the pieces together

Speaker 54 until Joe finally started putting those pieces together for us.

Speaker 13 Joe DeWise, an alibi witness for his dad, is back in an interrogation room for the second day in a row.

Speaker 9 The dynamic has not changed.

Speaker 64 His mom is there.

Speaker 44 And you've had a heart-to-heart with her before this.

Speaker 112 We did.

Speaker 59 When Joe's mom, Maria Frazier, arrived in Montana, Detective Jeremy Copp greeted her with stunning news.

Speaker 63 Bootprints at the crime scene suggest Joe was there.

Speaker 21 That was uh

Speaker 54 that was a hard conversation.

Speaker 8 Tell them

Speaker 86 what do you see when you see that still picture?

Speaker 95 Heartbroken mom

Speaker 114 and

Speaker 67 a young man who

Speaker 67 had been carrying kind of the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Speaker 2 If I can't get you

Speaker 81 to be honest with me,

Speaker 76 I can't help you.

Speaker 56 Jeremy was very delicate with Joe.

Speaker 76 And I don't believe that you're being

Speaker 76 completely truthful with me.

Speaker 7 We were pretty sure at that point that Joe was there at the scene.

Speaker 76 Joe,

Speaker 81 we've got to be honest with you, Jenny.

Speaker 8 I've got to be completely honest

Speaker 76 How did your boots,

Speaker 112 those same prints, end up at the crime scene?

Speaker 76 Joe, be truthful.

Speaker 67 I have a son that's similar age as Joe.

Speaker 67 And I could see, you know,

Speaker 67 so much of my son and him. It made him more personal.

Speaker 76 Joe.

Speaker 76 You've got to help me.

Speaker 30 Just tell me it wasn't you that went in and shot her.

Speaker 81 It was not.

Speaker 2 Did you go in and shoot her? No.

Speaker 76 I did not. Then who did?

Speaker 48 When does the dam finally break?

Speaker 15 Several dozen

Speaker 67 denials, deviations.

Speaker 25 And

Speaker 67 but you can see it's get every every time it gets a little heavier, a little harder.

Speaker 28 How long have you been planning it?

Speaker 49 And this is it.

Speaker 114 i don't know if that he was planning it you don't think he was planning it no i think he just did it

Speaker 15 out of the blue

Speaker 112 why that night i don't know

Speaker 112 i don't know why that night it's just how it happened

Speaker 112 it's just how it happened

Speaker 14 He's torn, tortured by the loyalty to his father.

Speaker 67 There's the weight of

Speaker 67 Joe and everything that he's carrying.

Speaker 67 And then he started to

Speaker 67 slowly share

Speaker 40 that

Speaker 75 Paul had brought him with him.

Speaker 14 Joe says his father, armed with a pistol, forced him to go with him to the house.

Speaker 9 He says he was afraid his father would kill him and his sisters.

Speaker 71 Stay here.

Speaker 8 You understand?

Speaker 8 Stay here.

Speaker 72 Could you see the stairs?

Speaker 72 Could you see the stairs?

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 65 Could you hear him?

Speaker 65 Yes.

Speaker 37 What did you hear? I heard three shots.

Speaker 37 I looked down for dad.

Speaker 37 What the hell's wrong with you?

Speaker 37 I

Speaker 67 What that young man had to endure

Speaker 54 and was carrying

Speaker 112 no kid should ever be in that environment.

Speaker 8 environment.

Speaker 82 And there's just,

Speaker 17 you know,

Speaker 38 a

Speaker 22 bunch of grown men and women in there, and tears just streaming down faces because we all know it's true, but none of us wanted it to be true.

Speaker 56 It became very obvious to me that Joe is not a willing participant.

Speaker 7 His father essentially marched him up to that residence at gunpoint, and Joe simply did not have a choice.

Speaker 9 Joe was not charged with any crime. In another interview a month later, he provides more horrifying details.

Speaker 96 And he flips on the light and this woman says, who are you?

Speaker 62 And then he yells, who the f ⁇ are you?

Speaker 8 And then shoots her.

Speaker 112 I just hear shots. Okay.

Speaker 10 Joe says his father then goes into Lauren's bedroom.

Speaker 60 And then I hear Lauren

Speaker 61 scream, a very short, like, surprise, fearful scream.

Speaker 104 And then I hear three shots

Speaker 8 and it's like one, two, three, and then the last shot.

Speaker 43 Okay.

Speaker 56 Once they were back in Bozeman, they went to the town pump and got the beer

Speaker 56 and

Speaker 56 then started disposing of evidence.

Speaker 51 We searched trash cans, we searched ditches, we tried to retrace whatever possible routes we thought that Paul might have gone.

Speaker 67 The amount of man hours that went into searching.

Speaker 9 Just when they're ready to give up hope, they catch a break. The one that didn't get away.

Speaker 92 A Montana outdoors woman is out here fishing on this frozen pond, and you'd never guess what crucial clue she reels in.

Speaker 9 A lake in Montana, great spot for skating

Speaker 14 and ice fishing.

Speaker 61 All right, there we go.

Speaker 9 From recreation to a murder investigation.

Speaker 101 Cattail Lake is about to become a critical location in the crime that shook Bozeman, the shooting of Lauren DeWise and Ashley Van Haymert.

Speaker 21 We still didn't have a murder weapon.

Speaker 67 Our one person that was telling us anything, Joe, he didn't know where Paul got rid of the pistol.

Speaker 21 We involved search and rescue.

Speaker 51 We searched trash cans, we searched ditches.

Speaker 67 We were throwing everything we could, the amount of man hours that went into searching, trying to find the murder weapon.

Speaker 114 I mean, the state has to prove every element of the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt. Missing evidence is doubt, and not having a murder weapon is a significant piece of missing evidence.

Speaker 38 It's important.

Speaker 22 I mean, it's not impossible to prosecute a case without a weapon, but if you can get the murder weapon and you can add that piece to the puzzle and trace that weapon back, now you're pulling the case together the way it's supposed to go.

Speaker 9 Police are looking for a Ruger Ruger 22 caliber pistol.

Speaker 11 They believe Paul DeWise owns one, but when they search his home, they don't find it.

Speaker 22 So when we executed the search warrant on his house, we found an owner's manual for a.22 caliber Mark II pistol, but we could not find the pistol anywhere in his collection of guns.

Speaker 9 And then a gun turns up in the most Montana way you can imagine.

Speaker 101 Get yourself a bucket, some bait, drill a hole in the ice, and you can catch a mess of fish here in Montana.

Speaker 77 You might also reel in a clue like that missing murder weapon.

Speaker 26 It was found right here on this lake.

Speaker 14 How you doing?

Speaker 35 Doing good.

Speaker 74 Beautiful day to fish.

Speaker 65 I love it out here. Look at this.

Speaker 71 Paradise.

Speaker 38 Absolutely.

Speaker 44 The day the shootings are discovered in Belgrade, Andrea Larson is ice fishing about six miles away on Cattail Lake with her husband and their dog, Aldo.

Speaker 26 So take me back to that day, January 7th, 2018.

Speaker 26 You're out here fishing.

Speaker 48 Yep.

Speaker 26 Had you heard about the shooting?

Speaker 70 No, I mean, my husband and I were just having a lazy Sunday morning. We got up and made a little bit of breakfast and then decided to come out here.

Speaker 30 So, where exactly did you find the gun?

Speaker 70 So, it was kind of in this general vicinity here, in the middle of the skating track that they plow every year.

Speaker 13 Kind of sitting in the snow.

Speaker 70 Yeah, just upside down, mostly buried in the snow. When it immediately became apparent that it was the butt of a pistol that I was looking at.

Speaker 9 The gun found within hours of the crime.

Speaker 60 If Andrea turns it in right away, this case gets solved in 24 hours.

Speaker 71 But that's not how murder mysteries work.

Speaker 7 This couple found the gun, did not think too much of it.

Speaker 56 They ended up picking it up and they brought it back to their house and forgot about it.

Speaker 65 You know, people watching might ask, why did you take so long to turn it in?

Speaker 70 Well, at the time, I was in the process of enlisting in the National Guard. So I had quite a bit on my plate and quite a bit on my mind.
And at the time, it wasn't any kind of a pressing issue.

Speaker 70 It was just a lost and found.

Speaker 22 We decided that we should probably put a press release out to the public to remind them that we're still working this case and we still have evidence we need to find and we can't find it.

Speaker 70 I was actually reading an article on my phone about the murder and there was a note in the article that mentioned that they hadn't found the boots or the murder weapon and the murder weapon was a Ruger Mark II 22 long rifle pistol and

Speaker 70 in an instant my world shrank and I knew that was the exact model of pistol that I had found.

Speaker 65 Andrea calls the police and as quick as you can say exhibit A, an officer is at her front door to collect it.

Speaker 76 Oh boy.

Speaker 67 It's a big deal.

Speaker 7 I can still remember when I got the phone call from Detective Copp indicating that they had found that. It was a big day.

Speaker 22 We didn't recover any prints, but what we did do was run an ATF trace on the serial number.

Speaker 7 We ultimately found through that trace of the firearm that it was in fact Mr. DeWise who had purchased that firearm.

Speaker 9 A firearms expert test fires the pistol and and determines it's the gun that killed Lauren and wounded Ashley.

Speaker 7 That was certainly a big piece of evidence that further linked Mr. Dewey's not only to the gun, but that it also linked the gun to the crime scene.

Speaker 67 I was kind of icing on that cake that

Speaker 67 that is the murder weapon.

Speaker 51 How does it feel to be a part of such a terrible crime?

Speaker 70 I'm glad I was able to add to the evidence, but it's not something I would

Speaker 70 have asked to happen.

Speaker 61 You didn't want to be involved in this.

Speaker 70 No

Speaker 70 I mean it was a terrible tragedy. It's violence against women isn't something that we want to see happening anywhere but least of all in a

Speaker 70 town that I consider to be very safe.

Speaker 14 And what if Andrea hadn't gone ice fishing that day?

Speaker 70 It was very warm that day and the slush was very thick so it wouldn't have taken very much snow to cover it back up again And it would have frozen to the ice and then melted off in spring, and no one would have ever seen it.

Speaker 9 When we come back, a friend of Lauren's recalls an online encounter with Paul DeWise

Speaker 68 just weeks before the killing.

Speaker 74 The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

Speaker 26 Nearly two years after the shooting, Paul DeWise goes on trial right here in this courtroom, 301 in Bozeman, Montana.

Speaker 26 He's charged with the deliberate homicide of his wife, Lauren, and the attempted deliberate homicide of a woman he didn't even know, Ashley Van Haymert.

Speaker 107 I don't think anyone had laid eyes on Ashley since the moment since she had been injured. So her walking into that courtroom that first time was like, all right, we're here.

Speaker 7 It was a higher profile case, I think primarily because there were so many people in the community that like Lauren.

Speaker 7 They're concerned about domestic violence and they want to see people held accountable.

Speaker 107 And after being in that courtroom, I can tell you some of the things that were said in there were quite chilling.

Speaker 54 On her work computer, we even found photographs of some bruises that she had sustained during this whole situation.

Speaker 13 Paul admits he once punched Lauren 10 times in the arm, but he denies repeatedly abusing her, and he denies killing her.

Speaker 88 He threatened her constantly. He has held a gun to her.
He has threatened to kill her. He has said, I know why men kill their wives.

Speaker 56 Her coworkers saw bruises, and one of her supervisors actually saw a handprint on her. And at that point, she denied that it was from Paul.

Speaker 88 She said, I can't believe I've never told anybody this, but I think I need to leave Paul. He beats me all the time.

Speaker 18 Other than Paul, can you think of anyone else that would have any reason to do anyone in your house harm?

Speaker 38 Not

Speaker 69 a soul.

Speaker 12 Prosecutors play evidence of Paul's behavior for the jury.

Speaker 60 Recordings preserved by Paul himself on his phone.

Speaker 20 And I'm angry. And my children are angry.

Speaker 20 My baby's angry.

Speaker 51 And it's hard for me to live with.

Speaker 80 I would say the most difficult piece of evidence and the strongest pieces of evidence came from Paul's cell phone.

Speaker 38 You choked me with that.

Speaker 38 You beat out of me when I was pregnant. Baby, I was four months, five months pregnant with her.

Speaker 20 His phone had so much information and it had audio recordings.

Speaker 16 all kind of painted the broad picture of

Speaker 19 how violent the relationship between Paul and his and Lauren really were.

Speaker 56 Hours-long audio clips of him just harassing Lauren night and day.

Speaker 90 I'm trying to express myself now.

Speaker 80 There were some

Speaker 25 pretty horrific

Speaker 80 recordings that he had made with Lauren.

Speaker 28 I think at least five times I'm going to kill you.

Speaker 68 I'm going to pound you just because around you.

Speaker 68 It

Speaker 60 was very, very dark.

Speaker 7 All of this evidence was really sort of piling up with regards to who it was that had a motive and desire to cause harm to Lauren.

Speaker 87 Paul's attorneys argue there's no evidence of repeated physical abuse.

Speaker 12 He cooperated with police.

Speaker 9 And no experts or physical evidence, neither DNA, fingerprints, nor cell phone data that tie him to the crime.

Speaker 74 The bubbly, happy personality was hiding a lot of pain, a lot of fear.

Speaker 9 Lauren's friend Jessica Johns says she saw Paul's dark side when he posted on Facebook about his breakup with Lauren.

Speaker 74 Along with the post was some very strong language about how horrible Lauren was and that she was a cheater and a liar and many things that were very shocking.

Speaker 10 She says she tried to convince Paul to take down that post.

Speaker 74 No matter what I would say about, hey, I understand your feelings, he would just spew more and more hate.

Speaker 63 Jessica says she reached out to Lauren on Facebook.

Speaker 74 She's like, I'm okay, I'm at a friend's house. I've been in a very bad marriage for a long time.

Speaker 44 Less than two months later, Lauren was dead.

Speaker 110 The biggest freight train that you can see coming, I saw it coming and I couldn't stop it.

Speaker 106 It was heartbreaking.

Speaker 41 Next, a courtroom surprise.

Speaker 71 A witness who claims the wrong man is on trial.

Speaker 26 One witness who knows for certain whether Paul DeWise shot Lauren and Ashley.

Speaker 9 And Paul DeWise caught on tape.

Speaker 63 The phone call prosecutors say exposed a secret plan to beat the rap.

Speaker 37 He needs to just step up and do us right so that we can be reunited and take care of AB.

Speaker 117 Coming to Disney Plus in Hulu. Cassidy, get us home.
Jonas, brother, you got it. It'll be the best Jonas Christmas ever.

Speaker 2 Can't wait to see you guys. We love you.

Speaker 117 If they can only make it home.

Speaker 3 What's going on? Our tour plane burned? No. We cannot miss Christmas.

Speaker 102 Nothing can stop us from getting home now.

Speaker 4 Only

Speaker 4 be alone this trip! You lost all three of your passports?

Speaker 113 It's Christmas. Anything can happen, right?

Speaker 117 A very Jonas Christmas movie, now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu, made a TVPGDL.

Speaker 98 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 73 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood, and that's gone to flames.

Speaker 27 New secrets and lies are coming out. This is gonna be catastrophic.

Speaker 104 We're fighting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell.

Speaker 102 They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 97 I can't.

Speaker 27 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

Speaker 98 Watch the Hulu original: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 118 This is a call from and paid for by an inmate at Gellatin County Detention Center.

Speaker 10 About a month after his arrest, Paul DeWise calls his daughter Natalie from jail.

Speaker 15 He made a phone call to Natalie trying to convince her to tell Joe to take the fall for the whole thing.

Speaker 23 Joe said that I took him with me, and I'm responsible for what happened.

Speaker 8 So that means to me that Joe must have done it.

Speaker 37 And it's really important that he admit it, because if he admits it, then I get the f ⁇ out of here.

Speaker 37 Understand?

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 56 Tells his 17-year-old daughter to convince her 15-year-old brother to confess to the homicide of his stepmother. And it's all on the jail call.

Speaker 72 He's scared.

Speaker 37 I understand. But he needs to understand that the jail's here, they're safe, they're nice, the food's good, and they don't have the rape problem, so he doesn't have to worry about that.

Speaker 35 Okay, good.

Speaker 14 Now, DeWise's 19-year-old daughter also took the stand.

Speaker 59 At the trial, Natalie tells the jury about that phone call.

Speaker 114 That was a damaging piece of evidence.

Speaker 18 It painted Paul in an unlikable light, I think.

Speaker 2 It did hurt our case.

Speaker 56 I didn't even know if we were going to call Natalie at trial.

Speaker 56 We had her subpoena, but we didn't know if we were actually going to call her because it was kind of a loose canon in terms of what she was going to say.

Speaker 87 For almost two years after the murder, Natalie had backed her dad's alibi that he was home with her and Joe when Lauren and Ashley were shot.

Speaker 56 But that all changed about a month before trial.

Speaker 67 Natalie, will you give me a full name, please?

Speaker 35 Natalie DeWise.

Speaker 56 She ended up confessing to knowing that her dad had killed Lauren, that she had stayed at home with Jennifer, and that when he came home, he told her everything that he had done.

Speaker 35 He says he's done something bad.

Speaker 35 Just stay calm.

Speaker 35 You don't have anything to worry about.

Speaker 35 I need your cooperation with this.

Speaker 35 I took Joe to go kill Lauren.

Speaker 60 Paul's defense attorneys remind the jury that Natalie had changed her story, but she's not the only one of Paul's children to testify against him.

Speaker 90 He has his own

Speaker 28 guilty both of his life.

Speaker 80 Our theory at the trial was that Joe gave two very inconsistent statements and tried to attack his credibility.

Speaker 114 If Joe was at the house and admitted to being at the house, and there was some suspicion that he pulled the trigger, he has a motive there, doesn't he? To change or modify a story.

Speaker 114 And that's certainly something I think that we seized upon.

Speaker 7 It just further showed the degree of control and manipulation that Mr. DeWise had over those two children, Natalie and Joe.

Speaker 56 It was very clear that

Speaker 56 he used the kids as pawns.

Speaker 7 The most important witness to me was Ashley Van Heemert.

Speaker 7 She is a miracle.

Speaker 89 I think we should do it. Okay, let's stand up.

Speaker 56 She had done, at that point, years of physical therapy.

Speaker 49 I'm standing in clouds.

Speaker 38 Thank you, Jesus.

Speaker 56 And was able to walk up to the stand by herself.

Speaker 56 And that was incredible. I was shot in the back of the head.

Speaker 35 I was shot in the right carotid artery.

Speaker 44 What was it like to testify?

Speaker 35 It wasn't really anything at all. They just wanted to know what my life was like before I got hurt and what I was able to do and clearly what I was not able to do now.

Speaker 61 Yeah.

Speaker 13 Ashley has no memory of it, but she now knows what police say Paul DeWise

Speaker 14 did that night.

Speaker 35 That's when he started to shoot me.

Speaker 48 Horrific.

Speaker 49 Yes.

Speaker 48 How do you make sense of that?

Speaker 35 Satan.

Speaker 35 Yeah.

Speaker 35 He uh got it. Evil.
Pure evil. Yes.

Speaker 35 And he didn't want somebody moving on with her life without him.

Speaker 66 And sadly, Lauren died.

Speaker 35 She did, yes. Very sadly, yes.
She left behind a three-year-old daughter.

Speaker 35 It still

Speaker 68 stays with you.

Speaker 64 It'll never leave.

Speaker 26 The final witness to be sworn in and sit in this chair is the one one witness who knows for certain whether Paul DeWise shot Lauren and Ashley.

Speaker 26 He's the one witness who knows for certain whether Paul DeWise is guilty or not.

Speaker 13 That final witness,

Speaker 65 Paul DeWise.

Speaker 90 I have been in jail for 22 months waiting for an opportunity to explain to a jury that I'm innocent.

Speaker 107 You got the idea that he thought he was the smartest person in the room all the time.

Speaker 80 Paul decided to waive his Fifth Amendment right and he testified.

Speaker 96 I have been falsely accused here.

Speaker 8 I didn't do it and I don't deserve to go to prison.

Speaker 90 And what you've done is wrong.

Speaker 67 I think it worked out poorly.

Speaker 43 On the seventh day, the defense arrested.

Speaker 14 The jury did not.

Speaker 83 After two hours of deliberation, the jury found Joseph Paul DeWise guilty.

Speaker 80 Paul was found guilty of count one, deliberate homicide. Count two, attempted delimit homicide.

Speaker 47 Two months later, at his sentencing hearing, Paul gets another chance to talk.

Speaker 62 I could go on for hours about the injustices, but I won't. I'm not guilty of what I've been convicted of.

Speaker 60 Paul DeWise had his say, but he didn't get the last word.

Speaker 48 And you get a chance to speak to him directly.

Speaker 7 Ashley, what are the things that you would like to say to the court and the defendant?

Speaker 107 When she said it, she was looking right at him, and he was looking right at her.

Speaker 9 Ashley Van Hambert confronting the man who left her for dead.

Speaker 64 This

Speaker 17 you have to see.

Speaker 56 To the charge of deliberate homicide of Lauren DeWise,

Speaker 71 Paul DeWise has been found guilty of murdering his wife, Lauren, and for the attempted murder of her roommate, Ashley Van Hambert.

Speaker 47 Now at his sentencing, the courtroom falls silent as Ashley takes the stand.

Speaker 56 Ashley wanted to testify at sentencing, which is her right as a victim, and she

Speaker 56 got up on the stand and talked about how her life had been changed due to being shot.

Speaker 35 I've had to learn to live with only the use of my right hand and arm.

Speaker 35 So I've had to learn to dress all over again. I had to learn how to eat all over again and swallow.
I can't do any of the stuff that I enjoyed doing before.

Speaker 7 She is a miracle. The degree of courage and compassion that she displayed in getting up to confront Mr.
DeWise about what he did

Speaker 7 is remarkable.

Speaker 48 What was it like looking him in the eye?

Speaker 35 They just walked in and I saw the back of them and I just thought, well, that's the man that shot me. And I don't know why God fully chose to save my life yet, Paul.
I don't.

Speaker 35 But one thing I do know that I've gained from this is I understand people's hurt on a whole new level.

Speaker 35 You may have tried to have killed me, but you don't have the final say on when somebody's life is over.

Speaker 47 Despite all the harm she suffered, Ashley's message to Paul is one of forgiveness and redemption.

Speaker 35 If God can forgive me in a limited amount of times, then how can I withhold forgiveness from you, Paul? This doesn't have to be the end of your story. You can still do good while you're in prison.

Speaker 35 You can still be kind to people.

Speaker 9 She even brings with her a gift.

Speaker 35 I brought a Bible, Paul, that I want to give to you.

Speaker 114 Holy smokes.

Speaker 107 You get someone that can not once but twice go to a witness stand, let alone enter the same room as someone who did this to you, and say right to their face, I forgive you.

Speaker 107 It changed everybody in that room.

Speaker 64 I'm forgiving.

Speaker 9 While Ashley may be forgiving, Judge Holly Brown has other ideas when it comes to Paul's sentence.

Speaker 80 For count one, deliberate homicide, he'll be committed to the Montana State Prison for the period of 100 years.

Speaker 56 He got 220 years, no parole. So 100 years for the count for Lauren, 100 years for Ashley, and then 10 years per count for the weapons enhancements.

Speaker 74 It doesn't bring Lauren back and it can't

Speaker 74 kill his children in the way that they deserve. You know,

Speaker 74 in such a

Speaker 74 short span of time, he ruined so many lives.

Speaker 26 Both Natalie and Joe DeWise returned to Florida to live with their mother.

Speaker 44 Little Jennifer DeWise now lives with her maternal grandmother.

Speaker 74 I kept thinking about her daughter.

Speaker 110 She never got the chance to

Speaker 69 really know how wonderful her mom was, and that was heartbreaking.

Speaker 7 Silence is the worst thing. that you can have with regards to domestic violence.
Not talking about it, not bringing it out into the open, not pursuing it with law enforcement or your family members.

Speaker 30 A victim is most in danger, especially when they leave the relationship. That's the most dangerous time.

Speaker 68 How often do you think of her?

Speaker 35 I think of her quite often, most often on the anniversary.

Speaker 59 On the anniversary of the shooting, Ashley posted a heartfelt letter addressed to Lauren.

Speaker 92 She shared it with me.

Speaker 9 when I sat down with her.

Speaker 35 I'm sorry, Lauren. I'm sorry you're not here anymore, and I can't tell you why God didn't stop him.
Believe me when I say I would trade places with you in a heartbeat.

Speaker 35 Please know you will never be forgotten.

Speaker 48 Do you think she can hear you?

Speaker 35 Yeah, I do.

Speaker 35 Good boy.

Speaker 65 Today, Ashley is back to the things she loves, like being outdoors with her dog Bronson and spending time with her family.

Speaker 77 How did it feel to be out there on the mountain?

Speaker 35 It's awesome. I'm learning to snowboard again.
I mean, it's learning all over again, you know, a whole new way. Awesome! So much fun.

Speaker 35 I mean, I look pretty unorthodox going down the hill now, but I mean, I can still do it.

Speaker 77 Are you amazed, Caleb?

Speaker 111 Amazed, yes, but not surprised. Just with her grit, her tenacity, her

Speaker 111 unwillingness to give up.

Speaker 77 And Linda, you wear a bracelet that says what?

Speaker 35 I do.

Speaker 91 And it says you are stronger than you think you are.

Speaker 91 And she is definitely one of the strongest people that I know.

Speaker 35 I'm more vibrant today than I have ever been in my whole life.

Speaker 48 Thanks to this horrible tragedy?

Speaker 47 You know what?

Speaker 47 Yeah.

Speaker 12 I love you.

Speaker 68 I love you. Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 116 What amazing resilience, Ashley tells us that she hopes to raise awareness of domestic violence in honor of her roommate Lauren.

Speaker 104 Paul DeWise appealed his murder conviction, but it was denied. That's our program for tonight.
Thanks so much for watching. I'm Jebra Roberts.

Speaker 116 And I'm David Muir from All of Us here at 2020 and ABC News.

Speaker 43 Good night.

Speaker 43 Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

Speaker 43 You wanna play games?

Speaker 43 We're gonna play games.

Speaker 43 Oh my god, are you kidding me? This is gonna be a war!

Speaker 109 Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPN app.