The Blackout Murder of Livye Lewis

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Speaker 3 Where's my kid?

Speaker 3 I don't care. Where is my kid?

Speaker 6 It's a blur.

Speaker 6 Will y'all tell me something?

Speaker 6 Well, well, where's my kid?

Speaker 6 Where is she at?

Speaker 7 I didn't know anything.

Speaker 6 I just wanted her to be okay.

Speaker 8 She's alive.

Speaker 9 Huh? Come here.

Speaker 5 She's not alive. I want to save my child.

Speaker 10 I just needed to know: is she alive or is she dead?

Speaker 10 Libby Lewis, where is she?

Speaker 10 Where is she at?

Speaker 7 You don't want to sound cliche, but Livy was a perfect child. She was kind and loving.
That's why she went into nursing.

Speaker 11 She obviously had something about her that she loved to take care of people.

Speaker 7 She was selfless.

Speaker 12 Where is my child? I told you she was a child. In this car.

Speaker 6 What car?

Speaker 13 She's in this car right here behind us.

Speaker 4 I didn't know if I wanted to believe that she was in that car. I didn't want her to to be.

Speaker 6 Because if she was, then she was...

Speaker 6 Then it was real and she was cold.

Speaker 14 How y'all doing?

Speaker 15 Who was the one that actually drove by? You saw it first?

Speaker 12 So I pull over and I seen throughout my passenger seat and I was like,

Speaker 12 she must be just slumped over. Maybe she's just drunk, you know.

Speaker 12 The door was already open.

Speaker 12 I was like, hey, it's like I shook her. And that's when I called 911.

Speaker 16 911.

Speaker 16 911.

Speaker 2 Somebody's dead.

Speaker 17 So what is it looking like to yell at you?

Speaker 15 That's ghosts out when you.

Speaker 18 Six o'clock in the morning. I'm at home when my telephone rings.

Speaker 18 Sheriff wanted me to come in, sit with Matthew at the hospital.

Speaker 14 Alright, Matthew. Matthew Edgar, right?

Speaker 8 Yep.

Speaker 18 And while I was there, I interviewed him.

Speaker 8 I have no clue, Bobby.

Speaker 14 No clue.

Speaker 8 You have a girlfriend?

Speaker 8 Tanda. I have his girlfriend named Levy.

Speaker 18 He was found in the fetal position behind the vehicle that Levy was found in.

Speaker 14 When's the last time you saw Levy?

Speaker 18 He remembered drinking on his porch, and the next thing he remembered, he was waking up in the back of an ambulance.

Speaker 14 You don't know how you ended up on the ground behind the car?

Speaker 14 With the dead girl in it.

Speaker 8 I don't have a clue.

Speaker 18 There was a rifle, some shoes, and a hat also on the ground.

Speaker 15 That's his bed. He was laying there beside me.

Speaker 14 How'd you get all the blood all over your face?

Speaker 14 I don't know. Because the hospital said you don't have any injuries.

Speaker 20 What are you thinking?

Speaker 18 I'm thinking that he's not telling me the truth.

Speaker 10 He's just basically telling you a Texas fairy tale, right?

Speaker 24 Correct.

Speaker 14 I'm going to be flat out honest with you. But unfortunately, there is a deceased female in that vehicle that's in front of yours.
And my job is to find out why she's dead.

Speaker 8 Who is the dead girl? Did they tell you and they maybe

Speaker 18 I informed him that Miss Lewis had passed. He started with this what I would describe as forced crying.

Speaker 25 Did you see any tears?

Speaker 18 Not a single one.

Speaker 26 The world seems to think that Matthew Edgar is a murderer.

Speaker 21 Do you believe that?

Speaker 4 I do not.

Speaker 22 Do you believe that someone else pulled that trigger?

Speaker 5 I do.

Speaker 28 I believe it was someone that was close to Matthew, someone that was involved in events of that evening.

Speaker 29 We got all the DNA results back, and there were some holes in the case. There were no fingerprints taken or DNA lifted off the gun.
There were DNA samples from Libby that showed there was another man.

Speaker 18 I have no doubt, and I'm going to make this perfectly clear: Matthew Edgar killed Miss Lewis.

Speaker 32 And you put your reputation on that.

Speaker 26 Absolutely.

Speaker 33 Peter Van Sand reports the blackout murder of Libby Lewis.

Speaker 37 In the early morning hours of Halloween, 2020, a day when the boundaries between the living and the dead become blurred, Libby Lewis was discovered draped over the steering wheel of her car.

Speaker 41 Dead from a rifle shot to the neck.

Speaker 42 Here's her ID.

Speaker 27 Libby had just turned 19.

Speaker 15 I don't know if dispatches notified

Speaker 15 her next kin or not.

Speaker 45 It happened in Hemphill, a tiny town in Texas with a population just over 1,000. The kind of place where no one is a stranger and news spreads like wildfire.

Speaker 49 Darcy Bass is bad.

Speaker 31 Yeah, that's what I was doing.

Speaker 48 That is how Libby's mother, Darcy Bass, heard the news when a friend called to say that Livby had been shot.

Speaker 32 You didn't know if she was dead or alive.

Speaker 5 So.

Speaker 5 I'm gonna sleep on top!

Speaker 7 So the next time I saw her, she was in

Speaker 7 a casket.

Speaker 8 I don't believe it. I won't believe it.

Speaker 8 Oh my God.

Speaker 55 By all accounts, Libby Lewis was a remarkable young woman, a straight A student and recent high school grad with a scholarship to a local college.

Speaker 49 So I'm Libby Heather Lewis. Just imagining my future and the goals that I will accomplish makes me excited.

Speaker 7 Her dream was to go on to college, become a nurse, and then become a physician's assistant.

Speaker 40 Libby was already a certified nursing assistant at a local nursing home.

Speaker 7 She was loved by all the residents there.

Speaker 24 That's a tough job, too.

Speaker 7 Yes, and she loved it. That was her passion.

Speaker 46 That's also where she met one of her best friends, fellow nursing assistant Taylor Barnett.

Speaker 60 We worked together and then she just started staying with me all the time.

Speaker 58 Taylor was nearly six years older and had a young daughter, but she says Livy fit right in.

Speaker 60 If you seen Livby, you seen me. We just clicked like automatically.

Speaker 63 Bailey Williams met Livby in kindergarten.

Speaker 11 She was a person that wanted stability. and didn't want to play like the kid games.
She was ready to be grown up.

Speaker 31 That's probably why Livby fell for an older man, Matthew Edgar, who was 23 when they met.

Speaker 60 But I was dating a guy who was actually friends with Matthew.

Speaker 7 So we all just kind of started hanging out.

Speaker 64 Livvy was still a senior in high school when she and Matthew began a secret relationship.

Speaker 48 Matthew was married to Montana Bokell.

Speaker 63 the mother of his two young sons.

Speaker 37 Phone records indicate that Livvy and Matthew began texting each other in November 2019 when Matthew wrote, You do realize you cannot say a word to anybody that we are even texting LOL.

Speaker 37 Livvy responded, well, obviously I'm not going to brag about texting a married man, but thanks for the clarification.

Speaker 41 It appears that after a very brief affair, Livy quickly and firmly ended things.

Speaker 65 But Matthew wasn't done.

Speaker 20 About four months later, he texted to complain about how unhappy he was in his marriage.

Speaker 36 I cheated again, he said.

Speaker 52 But Livy held her ground.

Speaker 51 I'm not really down for being a homewrecker, she wrote.

Speaker 69 Nearly two months later, Matthew ended his marriage in this text exchange with his wife, where he said, ain't you, it's me.

Speaker 64 Me always cheating on you.

Speaker 20 Four days later, Montana hired a divorce attorney. Matthew moved out and circled back to Livy.

Speaker 36 At just 18, Livy was now navigating a relationship with a man who had two young sons and a soon-to-be ex-wife.

Speaker 11 At first, they didn't get along. Livy and Montana didn't.

Speaker 11 I think that was out of jealousy on Montana's behalf. And then it was kind of just like the flip of a switch.
All of a sudden, Montana wanted to be Livy's best friend and they talked all the time.

Speaker 7 I think in Livby's eyes, she was definitely thinking she had a friend.

Speaker 26 And in Montana's eyes, what do you think?

Speaker 7 I think that she was jealous. I think that some people get close to people and they have another reasoning behind it.

Speaker 22 And so do you think in some ways a dangerous love triangle had formed?

Speaker 7 Yes, definitely a dangerous love triangle.

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 1 You can call it that, absolutely.

Speaker 40 Sabine County Sheriff's Investigator J.P.

Speaker 41 McDonough questioned Matthew about his relationship with Montana and Livy.

Speaker 14 What's your relationship like with both of them?

Speaker 33 It's awesome.

Speaker 14 Okay. So it's not a typical, I hate your guts.

Speaker 8 Hell no.

Speaker 8 Okay. It's awesome.
Okay. My ex-wife and her, they're big buddies.

Speaker 60 I just told Livby to just be cautious. You can get along with her for their children, but don't be too close with her.
I mean, because that's his ex-wife.

Speaker 61 But Taylor says that as time went by, it was Matthew's behavior that became the most menacing.

Speaker 60 He was pretty much abusive in more ways than one.

Speaker 60 For a little while, he was staying at my house with her and he would just get drunk and crazy and either holler at her and like it got so bad that like I didn't want him there at my house anymore.

Speaker 41 Phone records show that the relationship was a roller coaster ride.

Speaker 10 While at times Matthew sent texts to Livvy like, good night, baby, I love you. Livvy's texts alleged physical abuse.

Speaker 27 I don't know why you keep putting your hands on me like that.

Speaker 65 My body hurts today.

Speaker 11 I think that she was in love with who Matthew could be because she knew who he was and knew that what he was doing to her wasn't right, but she still stayed.

Speaker 54 Livvy had been planning on moving to her new college campus.

Speaker 48 But in the summer of 2020, she stayed on that roller coaster ride, agreeing to move in with Matthew and help take care of him and his sons.

Speaker 63 She even redecorated the boys' room.

Speaker 58 But things seem to have quickly turned ugly.

Speaker 73 In August of 2020,

Speaker 24 Livy writes to Matthew, I want to be in our home with you, but I can't do the way you act when you drink.

Speaker 32 I'm scared of you.

Speaker 73 You've laid your hands on me multiple times.

Speaker 31 I deserve better than that.

Speaker 44 Had she told you at that time that she had been violent?

Speaker 7 No, she didn't tell me that. Probably figured that I would go do something crazy, and she didn't want me probably getting in trouble.

Speaker 50 Livvy did tell her cousin Sidney Ebar what was going on.

Speaker 25 She sent you a disturbing photograph.

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 23 Evidence of physical abuse, correct?

Speaker 59 Yes, sir.

Speaker 31 And do you have that photo? I do.

Speaker 45 Can you show it to me? Yes, sir.

Speaker 11 He busted her nose.

Speaker 68 It's not clear what caused the altercation, but texts would later show that Matthew was cheating on Livby with, of all people, Montana.

Speaker 26 On October 4th, 2020, Livy's birthday, Matthew texted Montana.

Speaker 2 I didn't cheat on Livy with multiple women, just you, LOL.

Speaker 7 He was continuing a relationship on with his ex-wife and had my daughter in the middle of it, not knowing that she is being manipulated by all of them.

Speaker 72 I was in an abusive relationship, so I just said, Livy, you know it gets worse. But she said, I know, and I said, okay, I love you.

Speaker 68 Livvy broke up with Matthew.

Speaker 47 But in a small town like Hemphill, you can run, but you can't really hide.

Speaker 34 In the early morning hours of Halloween 2020, Matthew and Livby would end up together again

Speaker 31 on the side of this road.

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Speaker 37 The morning Livby Lewis was killed on the side of the road, Her ex-boyfriend Matthew Edgar found himself in a hospital bed, claiming he had no idea how he got there.

Speaker 8 I have no clue why I'm there.

Speaker 36 Despite the blood on his face, Matthew wasn't injured, but he did admit to Sheriff's Investigator J.P.

Speaker 43 McDonough that he'd been drinking.

Speaker 8 How much?

Speaker 8 Bottle?

Speaker 8 Jim Bean?

Speaker 14 Anything else?

Speaker 8 A few beers earlier in the day.

Speaker 50 He said he'd been at a party the night before at his friend Bobby Ozan's house.

Speaker 37 That's when he claims he last last saw Livby.

Speaker 8 She or her, my ex-wife, oh, so

Speaker 14 you left Bobby's, went to your house. You went home?

Speaker 8 I was at my house.

Speaker 65 Okay.

Speaker 65 And that's where Matthew claims he blacked out and simply can't explain how he ended up in a fetal position between a black truck that wasn't his and Livby's car.

Speaker 14 You don't know how you ended up on the ground behind the car?

Speaker 8 That's uh,

Speaker 14 with the dead girl in it.

Speaker 34 McDonough took swabs of the blood on Matthew's face for DNA testing.

Speaker 14 All right, Matthew, I'm going to do this one on the chin.

Speaker 37 And Matthew's clothing was taken into evidence.

Speaker 14 I'm going to go through some of your clothes, okay?

Speaker 8 Yes, sir.

Speaker 37 Then McDonough placed Matthew under arrest.

Speaker 14 Charge is going to be homicide.

Speaker 8 All right.

Speaker 14 Now pay attention to me. I want you to understand why, okay?

Speaker 8 Yes, sir.

Speaker 15 Okay.

Speaker 14 You were found behind the vehicle where the decedent was.

Speaker 14 There was some kind of relationship between you and her.

Speaker 17 There is a weapon laying on the ground

Speaker 14 behind the vehicle close to where you were found. Okay?

Speaker 14 Based on that and a few other things,

Speaker 14 I'm going to place you in custody right now for homicide, okay?

Speaker 66 What's his reaction to that?

Speaker 2 He had none.

Speaker 24 But he didn't say, you're going to do what?

Speaker 40 I didn't do anything.

Speaker 53 Nothing at all. Nothing at all.

Speaker 43 With Matthew jailed, McDonough was on a legal deadline.

Speaker 35 According to Texas law, the district attorney's office now had 90 days to present enough evidence to a grand jury to indict Matthew, or they would have to release him on bond.

Speaker 63 So McDonough enlisted the help of the Texas Rangers and began piecing together what happened to Livy.

Speaker 28 Matthew was just an easy arrest.

Speaker 65 Sean Dunn is an old friend of Matthew's.

Speaker 28 He told me, hey, look, you know, I didn't do this. Yes, I was there at the scene, but

Speaker 28 I did not do this. I loved her.

Speaker 27 Sean, a former Texas oil and gas man, once employed a then 20-year-old Matthew as a supervisor on his pipeline.

Speaker 3 I know Matthew.

Speaker 28 I spent a lot of time with him.

Speaker 31 He was a hard worker.

Speaker 28 You know, he loved his family. He valued his friendship with people.

Speaker 51 Sean was also once a deputy sheriff and says, in his personal and professional opinion, Matthew is innocent.

Speaker 28 When you're in law enforcement and you sit across the table from somebody that has taken someone's life as a cold-blooded killer, there's a certain feel that you get from that person.

Speaker 28 I've never seen him reach that point.

Speaker 36 Sean believes Matthew when he says he has no memory of what happened.

Speaker 14 The cause of death for that girl is not natural.

Speaker 34 And thinks this moment, did they tell you her name Libby?

Speaker 25 Was very real.

Speaker 28 I believe

Speaker 28 that was genuine. That that was the first time that he knew that she was deceased.

Speaker 56 Which raises the obvious question,

Speaker 22 if Matthew Edgar did not kill Libby, who did?

Speaker 3 That's kind of still up in the air.

Speaker 28 In my opinion, there's plenty of other people that could be involved in this.

Speaker 64 Sean won't name names, but Matthew and his mother, Cindy, have insinuated that someone else killed Livy, Montana.

Speaker 54 Listen to this recorded jailhouse call.

Speaker 76 But I'm saying, Matthew, if it turns out that Montana did this.

Speaker 76 I don't want to talk about it, please. I mean, it's not going to make you want to hurt her because she killed the woman you loved, are you?

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 46 Sheriff's investigator J.P.

Speaker 55 McDonough says Montana's unusual friendship with Livy did get his attention.

Speaker 18 My husband left me for this woman, but she's my best friend.

Speaker 4 You know,

Speaker 18 I have to question that as an investigator.

Speaker 27 This is one of the last photos ever taken of Livy.

Speaker 13 She is with Montana, and they are at that party Matthew told investigators about at Bobby Ozan's place.

Speaker 16 I'm going to say there's probably about 20 people there.

Speaker 45 Including Matthew and Montana's sons. Bobby told investigators Matthew spent the night watching watching Livy and Montana party with everyone but him.

Speaker 16 He would try to come over there and talk to him and they just really wouldn't say much to him. They were just basically ignoring him.

Speaker 21 Investigators learned that Livy had broken up with Matthew just weeks earlier and he had taken up with another young woman in town.

Speaker 43 I am

Speaker 77 trying to find out her relationship with Matthew Edgar. We were having sex.
Just I met him that Monday

Speaker 77 and we saw each other every day.

Speaker 5 So you just know him a week.

Speaker 38 Yeah.

Speaker 37 But it was clear to Bobby that Matthew wasn't over Livy.

Speaker 56 He was just hurt.

Speaker 16 And then now she don't want nothing to do with him no more. She's going on with her life just like you don't exist anymore.

Speaker 46 Bobby says Matthew was stewing at the party.

Speaker 16 He just wasn't himself. He's on edge, just drinking beer.

Speaker 22 And drinking heavily?

Speaker 16 Yes, sir. Yeah.

Speaker 22 And the more he drank, the angrier he got.

Speaker 31 Exactly.

Speaker 33 What do you think of Matthew Edgar's story? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X.

Speaker 26 As the party at Bobby Ozan's was winding down, Matthew Edgar says he called it a night.

Speaker 14 So you left Bobby's, you went to your house, you went home?

Speaker 8 Was it my house?

Speaker 37 That's where Matthew's memory goes blank.

Speaker 45 But his ex-wife, Montana Bokel, remembers much more.

Speaker 54 The day is October the 31st.

Speaker 58 In this audio recording, Montana told investigators Matthew suddenly came back to the party and learned that Livvy had decided to stay overnight at Bobby's.

Speaker 14 You think he heard Livy say she's going to stay there?

Speaker 78 Oh, I know he heard her because that's what made him so mad.

Speaker 1 During the course of the investigation...

Speaker 18 And during my interviews with family and friends, and Matthew had intended to ask Miss Lewis to marry him. That's how significant he felt about Miss Lewis.

Speaker 18 To hear her back at the house say that I'm going to stay with Bobby was just...

Speaker 21 Meaning sleep with Bobby, correct?

Speaker 22 That was too much of it. It was just too much.

Speaker 63 According to Montana, Matthew was so angry, he even took it out on her.

Speaker 78 He tried to choke me. And then that's when I went and got Bobby.

Speaker 16 So I went outside and he had kicked all the doors in on a car and was punching on the window.

Speaker 18 At one point, Bobby had to pin Matthew against the car in order for the girls to be able to leave.

Speaker 16 The whole time I'm holding him, he's screaming the top of his lungs. I'm going to kill y'all.
I'm going to kill y'all.

Speaker 41 Montana says she and Libby left in separate cars.

Speaker 37 In search of safety, Montana says she headed toward the home where Matthew's mother and grandparents lived, and that's where Matthew caught up with her.

Speaker 78 He pulled him behind me. I went to get out and he started choking me again.

Speaker 37 Their children were in the back seat of Matthew's van.

Speaker 78 And I was ponking the horn so somebody would come outside.

Speaker 19 In all the racket, Montana says Matthew left and headed for his own home a short distance away on the same property.

Speaker 67 A sheikh in Montana says she asked to stay the night with Matthew's mother and grandparents and then began texting with Matthew.

Speaker 78 I have a message.

Speaker 15 What does he say?

Speaker 37 You took part in it and you are guilty as she is, wrote Matthew, as he angrily accused Montana of playing a part in Livby's decision to spend the night with Bobby Ozan.

Speaker 37 Those texts would become damning evidence in the case against Matthew Edgar.

Speaker 78 He said you knew what was going on.

Speaker 10 A decision that appears to have enraged him.

Speaker 78 He said, I will take your life, Marla, and his life. Mark my words.

Speaker 37 At 3.22 a.m., Matthew texts, I'm leaving. Better get here here and get your kids.

Speaker 58 McDonough says evidence shows that a drunk and angry Matthew then got behind the wheel of his truck, where he kept his rifle, and went hunting for Livy.

Speaker 18 I think she pulled over to talk to him, and I'll tell you why. She was just sitting there with her legs crossed.
Indicates to me she was not afraid.

Speaker 18 It was not a fight-or-flight thing where she was prepared to just bolt out the car. She was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with.

Speaker 27 12 minutes after texting, I'm leaving, Matthew texted, I'm home.

Speaker 10 I got Libby's keys and her phone.

Speaker 45 Montana asked, where is she?

Speaker 37 Matthew's response, dead.

Speaker 27 Montana told investigators she didn't call 911 because she didn't believe he was serious.

Speaker 45 Instead, Montana texted Matthew, can I come down there?

Speaker 54 His reply, yeah.

Speaker 42 But Montana claims that Matthew's mother wouldn't let her leave, so she just fell asleep.

Speaker 78 I never left. I didn't even know anything had happened until I woke up at around six o'clock this morning.

Speaker 50 But Matthew didn't go to bed.

Speaker 21 McDonna says evidence shows that not long after sending that text that Livy was dead, Matthew did something no one can explain.

Speaker 37 He went back to the crime scene, this time in his cousin Zach's truck.

Speaker 48 It's that truck that was found parked behind Livy's car.

Speaker 32 Why would he go back then?

Speaker 66 Why would he return to the scene of the crime?

Speaker 18 That would be a question you'd have to ask Matthew. I can't explain that.

Speaker 46 Also hard to explain, Montana's failure to call 911.

Speaker 70 It made no sense to Livvy's friend, Bailey.

Speaker 11 She knew who he was and what type of person he was. And then she was receiving all those texts.

Speaker 11 I don't think that you can just take that with a grain of salt after you've received those text messages.

Speaker 73 Yeah, it's time to to call police.

Speaker 32 Right.

Speaker 37 McDonough says he and his team of investigators wondered if Montana had been to the crime scene that morning to try and help Matthew cover up Livby's murder.

Speaker 59 Oh, I know you don't believe me, but I can't tell you stuff that I don't know happened.

Speaker 37 Two months after the crime, Montana was given a polygraph exam.

Speaker 34 Are you covering for the person responsible for Livy's death?

Speaker 40 After monitoring her physiological responses, Montana was was told she failed the polygraph.

Speaker 34 There's no doubt that you left something out or something you're not telling me.

Speaker 68 But after an in-depth multi-agency investigation, investigators concluded that Montana was never at the crime scene and had nothing to do with Livy's shooting or any cover-up.

Speaker 24 And so to all those who think somehow she's involved, you say.

Speaker 5 Not true.

Speaker 73 Not true at all.

Speaker 35 All the evidence, says McDonough, points to one person,

Speaker 68 Matthew Edgar.

Speaker 48 Is there a motive in your mind?

Speaker 18 Jealousy.

Speaker 23 Jealousy.

Speaker 18 Plain and simple.

Speaker 34 In February 2021, the COVID pandemic shut down the courts and this case.

Speaker 52 With no grand juries being convened, a judge was forced by law to release a still unindicted Matthew Edgar on a reasonable bond, $50,000.

Speaker 7 For them to set it so low was insane to me.

Speaker 37 Months after Matthew's release, Darcy was at her local convenience store when Matthew just strolled in.

Speaker 7 When he came in the door, I just went, started throwing whatever at him and went for him.

Speaker 7 And I just remember saying, you killed my daughter. You killed my daughter.

Speaker 46 Matthew pressed charges against Darcy, and she was arrested.

Speaker 61 The charges would eventually be dropped, but Darcy says she just wanted some answers.

Speaker 7 She loved you and she was good to you and your kids and to your family. What made you think that this was the answer to anything that was going on?

Speaker 53 On March 16th, 2021, four and a half months after his arrest, charged going to be homicide.

Speaker 70 A grand jury finally heard the evidence against Matthew Edgar and indicted him for the murder of Livy Lewis.

Speaker 53 But Matthew, who is still out on bail, wasn't done breaking the law and tormenting Livby's family.

Speaker 7 I just was like,

Speaker 7 are you serious?

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Speaker 37 As January 2022 and the trial of Matthew Edgar approached, Darcy Bass was confident that the evidence in the murder of of her daughter Livby would finally prove that Matthew had killed her.

Speaker 32 What in this case struck you as the most powerful evidence against Matthew Edgar?

Speaker 7 From him saying that he was going to kill them, her, to him being at the scene, to it being his gun.

Speaker 67 Then there were all those venomous texts between Matthew and Montana that Taylor and Bailey say ended with a clear confession.

Speaker 60 When he texts and said she's dead.

Speaker 25 Because who would know that except the person who did it?

Speaker 54 And remember that text that read, I got Livby's keys and her phone.

Speaker 37 Well, Livy's phone was found in the truck Matthew had driven to the crime scene.

Speaker 43 Her keys were found on the driveway at his grandparents' house and reluctantly handed over to investigators by Matthew's mother, Cindy Hogan.

Speaker 25 Is it true, in your opinion, that she tried to keep Livy's keys from investigators?

Speaker 18 That was the indication.

Speaker 48 Cindy Hogan also tried to help her son by suggesting that Livvy had been killed by a drug cartel because Matthew owed them money.

Speaker 18 And that the cartel hadn't killed Livy and staged it to make it look like Matthew did it because they were out $30,000.

Speaker 24 What do you think of that theory?

Speaker 18 I think it's a far-fetched fairy tale.

Speaker 7 It was so far-fetched. It was just a crazy story to try to distract people

Speaker 7 from the truth.

Speaker 48 On Monday, January 24th, 2022, the trial of Matthew Edgar began with jury selection.

Speaker 46 Matthew, who was still out on bond, walked in and out of court every day like a free man.

Speaker 18 Due to the nature of the crime and the emotion throughout the county, we had security arrangements in place for trial. We even had Matthew wearing a bulletproof vest.

Speaker 46 On the first day of testimony, the state began presenting its case, which included DNA lab results that detected a tiny speck of Livy's blood on the pants Matthew was wearing when he was found at the crime scene.

Speaker 23 How important is that piece of evidence?

Speaker 21 It's critical.

Speaker 18 It puts him there at the time that that injury caused her death.

Speaker 40 But Matthew's court-appointed defense attorney, Rob Hughes, argued that a tiny drop of blood doesn't prove a thing.

Speaker 26 How else could that speck speck have gotten on his pant leg if not coming from blood spatter from the shooting?

Speaker 29 You can get DNA transferred from just touching someone.

Speaker 40 Hugh says there's no telling how long that blood had been there.

Speaker 39 And all that blood on Matthew's face that McDonough swabbed and had tested, it wasn't Livby's or Matthew's.

Speaker 41 And once they were excluded, investigators didn't pursue other matches.

Speaker 36 Hugh says there were additional DNA tests that also raised questions about who else may have been at the crime scene.

Speaker 29 There were other people's DNA on Matthew, and Livy was excluded as a contributor to those DNA samples.

Speaker 41 Hughes tried his best to argue that the DNA should be considered reasonable doubt, but admits that his biggest obstacle in defending Matthew were those texts and Matthew's insistence that he has no memory of sending them.

Speaker 22 In your entire career as a defense attorney, have you ever had a client who was functioning during the course of a crime, texting, conversing with people, driving an automobile, who then said they had no memory whatsoever of the events?

Speaker 4 I have not.

Speaker 22 And you understand why that would be hard for people to believe.

Speaker 31 Yes.

Speaker 57 Hughes also asserted that the murder weapon had not been tested for fingerprints or DNA, but conceded the rifle belonged to Matthew.

Speaker 36 After a second day of testimony, the prosecutor notified Hughes that he would be resting his case the next morning, and it would then be Hughes' turn to call witnesses.

Speaker 37 Sean Dunn says that he had been Snapchatting with Matthew, who was feeling optimistic about his chances.

Speaker 28 He was so confident that he was going to need a job and asked me, would I find him a spot to go to work?

Speaker 67 But the next morning, as Rob Hughes arrived at the courthouse, he got a panicked call from Matthew's mother, who told him her son was now a fugitive.

Speaker 29 She just started frantically telling me that Matthew was gone. Matthew had run and he had taken a gun with him.
She was afraid he was going to kill himself.

Speaker 7 Are you serious? Like, he's gone? He shouldn't have even been out on bond.

Speaker 62 Then he had an ankle monitor on.

Speaker 7 What happened with that?

Speaker 37 Authorities say Matthew had simply waited for the battery on his ankle monitor to die and then left home, most likely on foot.

Speaker 18 We started getting assets from all over, Lufkin, PD, SWAT, DPS, Texas Rangers.

Speaker 1 We even had tracking dogs from the prison unit.

Speaker 4 They followed a trail through the woods roughly two miles.

Speaker 31 Meanwhile, Matthew's trial went on without him.

Speaker 37 That very same day, Defense Attorney Rob Hughes began presenting his case.

Speaker 46 The jury was not told that Matthew had fled, but they must have wondered.

Speaker 23 So a case that's already very difficult for you has now become, I'll use the word impossible.

Speaker 4 It made it much, it didn't help, that's for sure.

Speaker 31 No one was surprised when after deliberating for about an hour and a half, the jury found Matthew Edgar guilty of murder.

Speaker 19 But he was still on the loose, out there, somewhere, an armed threat to himself.

Speaker 63 and the community.

Speaker 11 I mean, I think that it was like a scary time because it's himpille, he knows where everybody lives at.

Speaker 7 That was a terrible, crazy time for me knowing that he's out there, supposedly loved my daughter, but murdered her.

Speaker 7 And me, the one that's actively trying to make sure that he goes to jail, what would he have done to me?

Speaker 27 Darcy says it felt like no one was searching for Matthew, so she became a mother on a mission and hung this homemade wanted poster all over town.

Speaker 19 But she wasn't alone.

Speaker 63 J.P.

Speaker 39 McDonough had been joined by Jeff Coulter, a special deputy with the Eastern District U.S.

Speaker 65 Marshal Service, and they were on the hunt for Matthew.

Speaker 32 Do you consider him right off the bat to be a dangerous fugitive?

Speaker 30 Oh, absolutely. From what I was told from the murder to crime scene, yes, no doubt.

Speaker 33 See a timeline of the night of the murder at 48hours.com.

Speaker 7 But her car was right here before the sign.

Speaker 48 This is the very spot where 19-year-old Livby Lewis was murdered.

Speaker 27 Now a memorial lovingly tended to by her mother Darcy.

Speaker 7 I just want everyone to remember what happened here, what Livy had to go through.

Speaker 63 It's also a place that Darcy is convinced Matthew Edgar visited after becoming a fugitive.

Speaker 59 I just felt it as a mother. I I was like, he's coming here.
He's not far.

Speaker 37 Darcy says she also heard rumors that Matthew's mother had been spotted buying her son's favorite cigarettes and liquor in large quantities.

Speaker 7 Where is she taking them to?

Speaker 19 One week after Matthew ran from the law, Jeff Coulter, a special deputy with the U.S.

Speaker 46 Marshals, was asked to take over the manhunt.

Speaker 22 When you first begin your investigation, do you start with his family to see if they've heard anything?

Speaker 2 No, no, I don't like being lied to.

Speaker 17 I've already heard their stories claiming she was killed by the cartel. So, no, I didn't even waste my time.

Speaker 41 Coulter says he quietly spent nearly a year working with the sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies around the country to chase down every lead that came their way.

Speaker 17 We had put in a lot of hours, a lot of weekends, a lot of late nights.

Speaker 63 Then, a tip that Matthew might actually be hiding in plain sight, just yards from his grandparents' property in this house.

Speaker 17 It looked great, it sounded great, but we physically have to put eyes on him before we make a move on his residence.

Speaker 51 The house, which belonged to a family friend, was surrounded by woodlands.

Speaker 50 So Coulter enlisted the aid of two wardens with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Speaker 37 The plan?

Speaker 10 To get as close as possible.

Speaker 48 under the cloak of darkness using night vision to ID their man.

Speaker 17 We were going to enter into the woods, make our way up to the back of the property, get as close as we could, and sit there and see if we could get a visual of him.

Speaker 37 While Coulter led a team of three men into the woods, J.P.

Speaker 21 McDonough and his deputies were on the opposite side of the house, near the driveway, but out of sight in their vehicles.

Speaker 30 My job was to sit right there at the front door of that house.

Speaker 47 If Coulter and his men made a positive ID on Matthew, they would finally have him cornered.

Speaker 17 We went in about 4.30 in the afternoon. We knew it was going to get dark about 5.30.
We got to probably about 100 yards of the house and we heard barking.

Speaker 17 Come to find out they had a pretty good sized Ratwaller in the backyard. Then we're out there for an hour or so.
We could hear voices. We could hear a female voice.
We could hear a male voice.

Speaker 17 But it's so thick we can't see.

Speaker 17 Then we catch a violent thunderstorm.

Speaker 17 Lightning and thunder and torrential rain. It was miserable, but it was a blessing in disguise.
And the noise covered our movement.

Speaker 66 They were 30 yards from the house when a second storm hit, but there was no giving up.

Speaker 17 That's 11 months and two days. This needed to end tonight.

Speaker 40 Drenched and exhausted, Coulter and his team could hear voices on the back porch of the house, but couldn't see faces until about 8 p.m.

Speaker 10 when a man stepped off the porch.

Speaker 17 Walks around the side of the house and he stands there.

Speaker 66 One of Coulter's men immediately recognized that man as Matthew Edgar.

Speaker 30 He goes, he's here. I got eyes on him.

Speaker 18 We got word that they had made a confirmation. Drove down, pulled in the driveway.

Speaker 29 Mac and Matt, Matt, Matt.

Speaker 14 Watch the front. I got moved.
They're in the house.

Speaker 17 Once we saw the lights, it was a 30-yard sprint, all four of us. We break the corner and we started screaming law enforcement police.
Sheriff's office, anybody inside? Come on with your hands up.

Speaker 17 He jumps up and he throws himself against the wall like, oh, crap.

Speaker 2 You got me. Yeah.
It was our whip.

Speaker 26 Did you guys make eye contact? Absolutely.

Speaker 18 He said, hey, JP. I said, hey, Matthew.

Speaker 18 And then he asked me, you hadn't proven my innocence yet?

Speaker 18 And I said, no, Matthew.

Speaker 4 I have not.

Speaker 37 Coulter says, that's not all Matthew had to say that night.

Speaker 17 He said, please don't shoot my mother.

Speaker 75 Mother, please come out of the house.

Speaker 26 His mother is in the house. The mother's at the house.

Speaker 22 Was she crying?

Speaker 17 Was she upset? No, I think she acted amazed that he was there, like she didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 2 Really? Yes.

Speaker 54 Surprised he was there.

Speaker 81 I'm going to jail for something I don't even know nothing about.

Speaker 17 Was she arrested as well? Not at the time. She was not.

Speaker 81 Can somebody get my parasites and my seizure medicine?

Speaker 41 Cindy Hogan was eventually charged with hindering apprehension.

Speaker 37 We reached out to her attorney for comment, but did not hear back.

Speaker 42 On January 3rd, 2023, Matthew Edgar was formally sentenced for the murder of Livby Lewis, 99 years in prison prison with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.

Speaker 23 Does it give you, I don't know what the word is, not any peace, but in prison he will likely suffer for decades.

Speaker 7 Can only hope. But he doesn't suffer like

Speaker 5 her brother.

Speaker 6 He doesn't suffer like her little sister.

Speaker 39 Darcy hopes to be there when Matthew comes up for parole and Taylor and Bailey say she won't be alone.

Speaker 11 And I don't care however he says that he changes while he's in there. I don't think that that's something you can ever come back from because she's definitely not coming back.

Speaker 35 Meanwhile, Darcy is trying to save up enough money to buy a headstone for Livby's grave.

Speaker 22 How do you carry on and honor your daughter's memory?

Speaker 7 I just got to get up every morning and just remember the good things.

Speaker 6 And I want to make her proud.

Speaker 11 I don't want her to be remembered as the girl that got killed in the small town. I want her to be remembered for the way that she carried herself and the happy person that she was to be around.

Speaker 33 Cindy Hogan is awaiting trial. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.