Mystery in Mustang

Speaker 1 Struggling to see up close? Make it visible with Viz. Viz is a once-daily prescription eye drop to treat blurry near vision for up to 10 hours.

Speaker 1 The most common side effects that may be experienced while using Viz include eye irritation, temporary dim or dark vision, headaches, and eye redness.

Speaker 1 Talk to an eye doctor to learn if Viz is right for you. Learn more at Viz.com.

Speaker 2 From the Creator of Homeland, Claire Daines and Matthew Rees star in the new Netflix series The Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

Speaker 2 The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt and justice and doubt, now playing only on Netflix.

Speaker 2 My husband is laying here gasping for air! Oh my god!

Speaker 6 She started telling me about a young man coming into their home and shooting Keith. My first concern was how are we going to find him?

Speaker 4 A big mystery in a small town. A fire chief murdered his wife, the only witness.

Speaker 8 She was panicking. She was crying and frantic.

Speaker 9 This detective knew them both.

Speaker 4 Her job now solve this crime and clue number one was a doozy.

Speaker 6 She said that after he had shot Keith, he turned to her and said, you know, I'm sorry, ma'am.

Speaker 4 I'm sorry? A killer who apologized? And that was just the start.

Speaker 4 A gun stashed in the dryer.

Speaker 4 A man's glove, but whose DNA? And a woman with a whole lot to reveal.

Speaker 10 No, no, no, no, no, don't pick it up.

Speaker 6 She tossed her top to me.

Speaker 10 She just whipped it off. I was shocked.

Speaker 4 What would come next?

Speaker 10 Do you feel that she realized some of her secrets were going to be exposed?

Speaker 4 Mystery in Mustang. Here's Here's Andrea Kenneth.

Speaker 10 Just about 20 miles southwest of downtown Oklahoma City sits a town called Mustang.

Speaker 10 Once farmers and ranchers dotted the land, it's bigger now, but folks still hold tight to their roots.

Speaker 6 A pretty quiet community for the most part.

Speaker 10 Faith connects community here. and people stay lifelong friends.
It is a small-town field, very much neighbors helping neighbors.

Speaker 10 In a place like Mustang, neighbors know almost all there is to know about each other, for better or worse.

Speaker 11 I don't want to stay emergency.

Speaker 10 So, when the unthinkable happened, my husband is laying here gasping for air. It would be all the more startling when the secrets came tumbling out.

Speaker 12 I heard a lot of things that shocked me that I never would have imagined.

Speaker 10 Had evil invaded Mustang?

Speaker 11 I'm a Mustang America. Well, who would f ⁇ ing do that?

Speaker 10 Or come from within? It created a lot of fear for a lot of people.

Speaker 6 That was my first real whodunit.

Speaker 10 Keith Bryan was Oklahoman to the core, proudly raised in the Sooner state. He married his wife Becky at 19, and they settled in Mustang.

Speaker 10 Pam Woodard, an old friend of Keith's, rolled out the welcome mat for the Bryans when they moved to town. They became an integral part of our church, very active, very grounded, very helpful.

Speaker 10 They had two boys, Trent and Kent. Becky was a good mom.
From what I could tell, she was a good mom.

Speaker 10 Keith worked as a fireman, his dream job in the well-to-do Oklahoma City enclave of Nichols Hills. Terry Hamilton served alongside Keith.

Speaker 10 And if the firemen were like brothers, the wives were like sisters, says Terry's wife, Kim. With the fire department, we became all families together.

Speaker 12 And Keith had a good sense of humor. He was outgoing, and he was really driven to succeed.

Speaker 10 And he did. Promoted all the way to fire chief in 1991.
But Keith never lost his personal connection with the people he served. He was one of the first responders to the Oklahoma City bombing.
He was.

Speaker 10 His bravery made headlines. That's when he worked on that lady that was trapped forever underneath the rubble.
Keith wouldn't leave her. Was he a hero in your eyes?

Speaker 12 Oh, I think so. I was pretty proud of him as a friend for that.

Speaker 10 As for Becky, she was a force in the community too. Working in real estate, her business often seemed more about the people than the money.
Becky had a very selfless side to her too.

Speaker 10 There were people that I know of if they were upside down. She even at times was known to take her own money to closing and help like that.
Keith was elected city councilman in Mustang.

Speaker 10 Becky's business was thriving and their marriage an example to others. She and Keith did some premarital counseling for several years in our church.

Speaker 10 So they were counseling other couples on how to have

Speaker 10 a good marriage.

Speaker 10 So it came as a surprise when in 2010, Keith and Becky hit a rough patch. The boys were grown and the empty nesters separated.
Becky moved out.

Speaker 10 David Reddick, Becky's brother, remained close to Keith during the separation.

Speaker 8 He said he wanted to know how could he change to show that love to her in a greater way.

Speaker 10 What advice did you give Keith?

Speaker 8 I told him to talk to her about it, that

Speaker 8 she was sensible.

Speaker 10 Keith worked hard to win Becky back. With gifts and dates and loving notes, Becky came home.

Speaker 10 He was telling some people that what what all he'd been through was worth it because it had made him even that much better of a husband.

Speaker 10 In the year that followed, Keith kept up his campaign of romance. September 20th, 2011 was no different.
Becky was at a real estate conference in Tulsa.

Speaker 10 Keith texted her sweet messages throughout the day. Becky arrived home around 8.30 p.m.
A friend came over to chat. Keith, now ever attentive, made them iced tea.

Speaker 10 After the friend left, Becky says she and Keith settled down in front of the TV. On the bill that night, Keith's choice, a classic scary movie, Carrie.

Speaker 10 Then came the real horror.

Speaker 11 Not an alarm stage emergency.

Speaker 10 It was Becky.

Speaker 11 A young man, about 25.

Speaker 10 Then the phone cut out. What was she saying? Dispatchers sent police to the house.

Speaker 11 Headquarters to Velmontanina.

Speaker 10 Becky called back.

Speaker 11 You know, I just called 111 on my cell

Speaker 11 Are you coming to my house?

Speaker 10 She said an intruder shot Keith in the head.

Speaker 11 My husband is laying there bleeding on my couch right now.

Speaker 10 And the intruder was getting away.

Speaker 11 Oh my God.

Speaker 11 He's in a little itty-bitty pickup. Okay, he's going down my street.
It's like a dark color.

Speaker 10 Now the brave fire chief who dedicated his life to saving others was in urgent need of help himself.

Speaker 11 Okay,

Speaker 11 I've got to go.

Speaker 1 They're no man in the name, so stay on the line with you.

Speaker 10 EMS and police sped to the Bryan house, but the questions came just as fast. Who was this shooter? This intruder on the loose, and could he be found?

Speaker 10 An unfamiliar feeling spread through Mustang's streets and homes. Fear.

Speaker 9 Coming up.

Speaker 4 A detective is on the case, and she's about to hear something odd from Becky Bryan.

Speaker 6 After his shot, Keith, he turned to her and said, you know, I'm sorry, ma'am.

Speaker 1 A gunman who apologizes? What kind of intruder was that?

Speaker 6 My first concern was, how are we going to find him?

Speaker 6 Oh, my God.

Speaker 6 Oh, my God.

Speaker 10 Word went out that a brazen intruder had shot Fire Chief Keith Bryan in his own home. And within minutes, first responders swarmed the house, securing it as a crime scene.

Speaker 10 As Keith was rushed to the hospital, his wife Becky stayed behind. Detectives were on their way as she spoke to her brother David on the phone.

Speaker 8 She was crying and frantic. And I said, settle down.
It'll be okay.

Speaker 4 Who's with you?

Speaker 8 So her son was there.

Speaker 10 Jana Hickman, a good friend of the family and wife of a fire chief herself, rushed over to the Bryans.

Speaker 10 I went over and hugged her neck and told her how sorry I was that God would get us through this.

Speaker 10 And she said,

Speaker 10 I'm sorry. I know he was your friend, too.
Keith's deputy chief, Terry Hamilton, reached Becky on her cell.

Speaker 12 So I told her not to worry.

Speaker 12 They'll do a full investigation and they'll find, they'll figure out who did it.

Speaker 10 At the house, Becky was on the rear patio, on the phone with friends and family, repeating the story of the armed intruder.

Speaker 10 We were sitting in open light around the patio, and I was fearful that they might come back.

Speaker 10 You thought right at that moment that this person she described could come back. Yes, I did.

Speaker 6 You know, we hadn't had anything like that happen before.

Speaker 10 Cammie McNeil, a detective with the Mustang Police Department, was dispatched to the Bryan house that night. And Mustang being Mustang, the the victim and his wife were no strangers to the detective.

Speaker 10 What's your reaction when you hear it's Keith?

Speaker 6 It was concerning to me because I mean I knew this family.

Speaker 10 Becky seemed relieved to see a familiar face.

Speaker 6 She called up my name and asked me to come sit by her on the back porch. And then she started telling me about a

Speaker 6 A young man, approximately 25 years old, coming into their home and

Speaker 6 shooting Keith in the head.

Speaker 10 And what did that young man say according to Becky?

Speaker 6 She said that after he had shot Keith he turned to her and said you know I'm sorry ma'am but he should have hired me.

Speaker 10 It seemed like a key detail this apparent apology and explanation. Becky had also recounted it to 911 dispatchers.

Speaker 11 They said, ma'am, I'm so sorry. He said that your husband should have hired me.

Speaker 10 Do you have a gut reaction about that story?

Speaker 6 It was concerning to me because we are a small community. My first concern was, you know, is there somebody out there? Where is he? And how are we going to find him?

Speaker 10 Becky described the shooter as a man in his 20s with a big nose and wearing a hoodie.

Speaker 6 I was trying to get as much information out to other law enforcement agencies as well as our officers so they could start looking for him.

Speaker 10 Was it possible Keith knew the man? Keith was in no condition to help investigators. But at the hospital, hopeful news.
He was clinging to life. I told her, I said, he's going to surgery.

Speaker 10 And she said, really? Keith made it through surgery, still in terrible shape, but alive in the ICU.

Speaker 10 When Becky arrived, the halls of the hospital were filled with friends, loved ones, and Keith's firefighter brothers. It seemed half the town of Mustang was there praying for Keith.

Speaker 10 How hard was it for you

Speaker 10 to see Keith in that condition? It was very, very hard. You know, I would tell myself, you know, you never know.
I've heard so many stories of people, you know, having had injuries.

Speaker 10 And I know prayer is so powerful. And I know he had so many people praying.
First thing that happens when you see Becky in the hospital.

Speaker 8 We come up and hug each other. And she's crying.
I mean, she started crying immediately when I grabbed her.

Speaker 8 She said, What am I going to do?

Speaker 1 What are we going to do?

Speaker 10 By morning, it was clear Keith would not pull through. Those closest to him sensed it was time to say their goodbyes.
What did you say to him?

Speaker 2 I said you didn't deserve this,

Speaker 12 and I love you.

Speaker 12 Goodbye.

Speaker 1 That was it.

Speaker 10 At Keith's bedside, Becky, Keith's wife of 33 years, wept. And as Keith slipped away, along with the sorrow, was the lost hope that he could shed any light on who had done this to him.

Speaker 10 No one believed Keith Bryan had an enemy in the world. So as the search for the apologetic intruder got underway, one clue was as simple as the victim's name.

Speaker 9 Coming up.

Speaker 10 There was a theory out there that perhaps this intruder was looking for a different fireman.

Speaker 4 Could the killer have shot the wrong man? When dateline continues.

Speaker 2 Looking to crack the code on your career? Well, maybe it's time to get your degree.

Speaker 2 Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 programs you can complete online. No set class times means you can do it all on your schedule.

Speaker 2 And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., they make getting your degree affordable, too.

Speaker 2 Get started at snhu.edu slash dateline. That's snhu.edu slash dateline.

Speaker 1 Most holiday gifts end up in a drawer or the back of your closet or accidentally left at your cousin's house. Not this one.
Mint Mobile is offering unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 1 That's their best deal of the year, aka a holiday gift you'll actually use every single day. Don't get them socks.
Get them premium wireless for $15 a month.

Speaker 1 Shop Mint Unlimited plans at mintmobile.com slash dateline. That's mintmobile.com slash dateline.
Limited time offer. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for 6 months.
or $180 for 12 months.

Speaker 1 Plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra.
Initial plan term only.

Speaker 1 Greater than 35 gigabytes may slow when the network is busy. Capable device required.
Availability, speed, and coverage vary. See Mintmobile.com.

Speaker 13 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Granger.

Speaker 13 Granger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers.

Speaker 13 Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
Grainger for the ones who get it done.

Speaker 10 Fire Chief Keith Bryan, so tough, so brave, spent his career running toward danger. Now his life had been cut short inside the safety of his own home.

Speaker 10 He left behind two dear sons and the wife to whom he'd been so devoted. I think that it was just such a shock and such a huge event and such a tragedy on so many levels.

Speaker 10 At the firehouse Keith led in Nichols Hills near Mustang, Captain Roger Straka could barely believe it.

Speaker 14 You just have that gut-wrenching feeling that it's all exploded now and don't know what happened.

Speaker 10 Must be such a weird thing to hear.

Speaker 14 It was. Over the fire service years, being in this type of work, you tend to get calloused over and hide your feelings, but when it hits real close to home, you ask yourself why.

Speaker 10 Detective Cami McNeil was no rookie, but this was the first case of its kind she'd ever seen in Mustang.

Speaker 6 That was my first real whodunit homicide case.

Speaker 10 What significance does that have for you?

Speaker 6 It was very significant. I was nervous.
I wanted to, of course, do a good job and make sure that the right person went to jail for that crime.

Speaker 10 To find that person, detectives needed to comb through every detail of Becky's eyewitness account.

Speaker 10 McNeil and an agent from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation interviewed her again at the hospital the night of the shooting.

Speaker 15 Sometimes

Speaker 3 1.23 a.m.

Speaker 15 in the morning. What's your first name?

Speaker 10 Becky Brian. Becky Becky talked about how close she and Keith were, especially after they made it through that rough patch.

Speaker 10 We were quite in love. I didn't even know he loved me until I filed for divorce.
But he really came to play.

Speaker 10 And investigators went over, step by step, how the shooting went down. What are you looking for when you go into that conference room to interview Becky?

Speaker 6 How does this person know Keith? Can she describe him better? You know, things like that.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 the door opened, and we were watching a loud movie, Gary.

Speaker 10 And this young kid, about 25 years old, walks into the house and

Speaker 10 comes over to the carpet. And my husband didn't even have time to turn around.

Speaker 10 I looked just in time to see. And then he came up from here and he shot him in the head right here.
Point blank. Point blank.
Right here.

Speaker 10 It was then, Becky said, that the shooter turned and spoke. It was unbelievably hideous.
But the guy, this is why he said he's actually pretty nice. I knew he wasn't going to hurt me.

Speaker 10 Because he said, I'm sorry, ma'am, but he should have fing hired me. So a polite shooter.

Speaker 6 Yes, she did describe him that way. Yes.

Speaker 10 There it was again. That odd but clearly important detail.
Along with his polite apology, the shooter seemed to give away a motive. Was he someone vying for a job in Keith's fire department?

Speaker 10 Keith's deputy, Terry Hamilton, didn't think so.

Speaker 12 I never was concerned about that.

Speaker 10 Why not?

Speaker 12 Well, for one thing, it had been four years since we had hired anybody.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 12 nobody's gonna sit and stew for four years and then all of a sudden get mad and go shoot the guy that didn't hire him.

Speaker 10 But if the shooter wasn't angry over a job job in Keith's fire department, there was another possibility, one that neighbors of the Bryans wondered about. Keith often did projects on the house.

Speaker 10 Was the killer someone who'd wanted a construction job and didn't get it? One neighbor told police that a few weeks earlier, a stranger had been driving around asking for work as a handyman.

Speaker 10 He said the man had a funny face and drove an old pickup truck. He also remembered seeing a similar truck the night of the shooting.
Are you interviewing neighbors?

Speaker 10 Are you asking people if they saw anyone suspicious in the neighborhood, if they saw a truck in the neighborhood?

Speaker 6 Yes. All of that was going on.

Speaker 10 Were they yielding, anything?

Speaker 6 Very little.

Speaker 6 Very little.

Speaker 10 Then, among the firefighters and their wives, a third, entirely different idea was bandied about.

Speaker 10 No one's sure who said it first, but soon some were wondering out loud if Keith hadn't been the intended target at all.

Speaker 10 There was a theory out there that perhaps this intruder was looking for a different fireman. And why would anyone think that?

Speaker 10 Not far from the Bryans home in Mustang lived the Oklahoma City fire chief. His name? Keith Bryant.

Speaker 10 Bryan with a T at the end.

Speaker 10 The whole Keith Bryant theory that maybe they got the wrong fire chief?

Speaker 12 You know, that did not occur to me until I got to the hospital, and that's the first time somebody had brought up maybe mistaken identity.

Speaker 10 The buzz reached Roger Straka back at the firehouse.

Speaker 14 That story did come out that possibly the person that had done this got the wrong chief. It could have been anyone's theory as to what had happened.

Speaker 10 Surely the Oklahoma City chief hired and fired many more people than Keith did. Had the shooter been angry with him? A friend reached him by phone.

Speaker 10 He was safe and and sound at a conference on the East Coast the night of the shooting. But there were problems with the mistaken identity theory.

Speaker 10 The two chiefs didn't look much alike, and the more Keith's firemen brothers thought it over, the less likely it seemed.

Speaker 12 I still didn't think that story made sense.

Speaker 10 Too far-fetched?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 12 It's real competitive to get hired on as a firefighter. So I just can't see somebody not getting hired and then killing the fire chief.
And

Speaker 12 the Oklahoma City Fire Department, I don't think the fire chief really even has anything to do with the hiring process.

Speaker 10 So around Mustang, the questions were many, the answers few. People were watchful, certainly less at ease.
I found myself wanting to close blinds early. Did you have a moment of panic? A little bit.

Speaker 10 Yeah. It was a little eerie for a day or two, not knowing what was going on.

Speaker 10 And while those around Mustang wondered who and where this invader was, investigators had found something at the crime scene. It would turn the fear and suspicion right around.

Speaker 9 Coming up,

Speaker 4 another key turn in the case. Police question a witness who has a whole lot to reveal.

Speaker 10 No, no, no, no, don't kick it off.

Speaker 6 She tossed her top to me.

Speaker 10 She just whipped it off.

Speaker 6 I was shocked.

Speaker 10 In the tight-knit community of Mustang, folks who knew each other so well for so long began to swap stories. Memories of their friend Keith, the hero, the dad, the loyal husband, and friend.

Speaker 10 But also stories about his wife and the night Keith was killed.

Speaker 10 Jana Hickman, who had rushed to the Brians' home that night, was outside with Becky and remembered hearing this not long after the crime.

Speaker 10 I heard her just say that something about it would be hard to sell the house because he had died in the house. Did that sound really callous to you?

Speaker 10 Being a realtor, I could see her thinking about that.

Speaker 1 It was a little odd, I thought.

Speaker 10 At the hospital, some friends noticed that Becky was agitated one minute, eerily calm the next.

Speaker 12 She wasn't emotional. She was pretty calm, talking to different people.

Speaker 10 Whenever we met her, she was very calm. Too calm.
I anticipated her needing comfort, and I went to hug her, and she just kind of held her arms down straight.

Speaker 10 and didn't seem to need that type of consoling. And instead of sticking close to Keith's bedside in his last hours, they thought it was strange that Becky was often outside.

Speaker 10 Well, she was just sitting with her legs crossed up on the bench, out with her friends and smoking and just very casual. That was just completely bizarre.

Speaker 10 Becky's brother David says he knows his sister best. And what the friends saw was just Becky's way of coping.
In your eyes, was...

Speaker 10 Becky acting exactly the way a wife would act after a random senseless shooting.

Speaker 8 Becky acted just like Becky would act if someone came in and shot her husband and she was there. She was panicking.

Speaker 8 She didn't know what to do. She was doing anything she could to get control of her emotions.
Our upbringing was control your emotions.

Speaker 10 Was Becky known for just sometimes saying inappropriate things? Maybe

Speaker 10 at the wrong time? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 8 That was whether she had, I mean, Becky wanted to control. She did not want to cry.
She didn't want to be out of control for herself.

Speaker 10 But Becky's friends weren't the only people who found her demeanor odd that night. Detective McNeil says that their taped interview with Becky was full of jarring moments.

Speaker 10 For example, after telling police how much she loved Keith, she had this to say about her fatally injured husband. I bought a condo, moved out, and

Speaker 10 he was a

Speaker 6 for 31 years. She described Keith to us in what I thought was an inappropriate manner.

Speaker 10 As a matter of routine, they'd already tested Becky's hands at the crime scene for gunshot residue. In the interview, they asked her what she was wearing at the time of the shooting.

Speaker 15 So you were wearing the shirt and the panties.

Speaker 10 Yes, yes.

Speaker 10 A tube top and panties that she still had on under new clothes. And that, says the detective, is when the interview took a revealing turn.

Speaker 10 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no, no, don't kick it off. Don't kick it.

Speaker 10 I'm going to put my shirt on my mouth. Okay.

Speaker 15 I should have clarified. Just wait till we finish.

Speaker 6 She grabbed the bottom of the top she was wearing, pulled it over her head, exposing her breasts, and then she tossed her top to me. Was she wearing a bra? No.

Speaker 10 You didn't even ask her for the top? She just whipped it off?

Speaker 6 That's right.

Speaker 10 So, what are you thinking when she's in front of her?

Speaker 6 She's shocked.

Speaker 10 To investigators, Becky's behavior was more than odd. It was suspicious.
So you walked into this interview still giving Becky the benefit of the doubt?

Speaker 6 Absolutely.

Speaker 10 And you walked out of the interview thinking that there's a possibility she's going to become an official suspect.

Speaker 6 At that time, there was definitely a possibility, yes.

Speaker 10 When the interview ended, Detective McNeil and the other investigator went back to the house. And that's where he made a key discovery.
In the utility room, in the clothes dryer, a gun.

Speaker 10 That must have been kind of a bingo moment.

Speaker 6 That was a big moment for all of us because not only was the gun in the dryer, but the gun was wrapped in a blanket, a shell casing was in there as well, and also a glove.

Speaker 10 Did you immediately think about the logistics of

Speaker 10 Becky's story as far as where this man came in, where he exited?

Speaker 6 Yes, she had told us that he came came into the home, shot Keith, and walked directly back out the same way that he had come in. She made no mention

Speaker 6 of this man going into her laundry room, placing anything in the dryer.

Speaker 10 Could there have been any explanation for why the gun was found in the dryer, a different route than the route she had described?

Speaker 6 If there was, I...

Speaker 6 I didn't know what that was.

Speaker 10 Investigators now suspected Becky of lying about details, big and small, but they wanted more.

Speaker 10 As they analyzed evidence from the scene, a call came in from someone in Becky's phone contacts, nicknamed Becky's Prodigy.

Speaker 10 In fact, they'd noticed the unusual name when they looked at her phone the night of the shooting. Becky Prodigy lives in Hugo, Oklahoma.

Speaker 15 So she's a customer? Yes.

Speaker 10 She's a realtor broker.

Speaker 10 Actually, Becky's Prodigy was a a man named Mark Holbrook. And when he learned of Keith's murder, he called up investigators.
He wanted them to know he and Becky had had an affair.

Speaker 10 When it ended, 19 months before the shooting, he apologized to Keith and promised never to see Becky again. But he wanted cops to know she had been in touch with him recently and a lot.

Speaker 6 She still loved him and that she would be moving so she could be near him, whether he wanted to be with her or not.

Speaker 10 The affair had been a reason behind Becky and Keith's brief split. Now, investigators and the ex-lover hatched a plan.
Record a conversation between Becky and her so-called prodigy.

Speaker 10 Maybe Becky would give something up to him. Three days after Keith was shot, Becky's ex dialed her up.

Speaker 3 Becky, how are you doing?

Speaker 3 Thank you for coming.

Speaker 10 Becky seemed concerned about covering up the affair. You could say that you knew you think you remembered a realtor by that name that he went to Brooker School with.
That's it.

Speaker 10 And while she stuck to her story about the intruder who shot Keith, she said she had news about him.

Speaker 10 And the guy that shot Keith, he killed himself yesterday in the other city, so I'm no longer in danger.

Speaker 3 Oh, that's good. That's good news.

Speaker 3 I know.

Speaker 6 We didn't have any information like that, and law enforcement had not given her any information

Speaker 6 like that.

Speaker 10 The call rang all kinds of alarm bells for investigators, but didn't yield a lot in the way of hard evidence. But cops thought they had the goods on Becky in another way.

Speaker 10 By now, they had examined that weapon found in the dryer and concluded it belonged to Becky. On September 23rd, the day before Keith's funeral, Becky was arrested and charged with his murder.

Speaker 10 What was her reaction?

Speaker 6 She seemed shocked. She was yelling things at us.

Speaker 10 An open and shut case? Becky's brother said, far from it.

Speaker 8 Law enforcement here, let us all down.

Speaker 8 Because what I want is the truth.

Speaker 10 In court, evidence would be examined. And the truth, it would turn out to be more bizarre than anyone could have guessed.

Speaker 4 Coming up, the secret life of the fire chief's wife.

Speaker 10 She just openly told me I had sex with a 29-year-old client this morning, and I have a picture on my phone.

Speaker 4 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 4 Hey, everybody.

Speaker 2 It's Rob Lowe here.

Speaker 1 If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's called Literally with Rob Lowe.

Speaker 16 And basically, it's conversations.

Speaker 16 I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Aaron Sorkin or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J.

Speaker 2 Fox.

Speaker 16 There are new episodes out every Thursday. So subscribe, please, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 10 If you're an experienced pet owner, you already know that having a pet is 25% belly rubs, 25% yelling, drop it, and 50% groaning at the bill from every vet visit, which is why Limonade Pet Insurance is tailor-made for your pet and can save you up to 90% on vet bills.

Speaker 10 It can help cover checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, basically all the stuff that makes your bank account nervous. Claims are filed super easy through the Lemonade app and half get settled instantly.

Speaker 10 Get a quote at lemonade.com slash pet and they'll help cover the vet bill for whatever your pet swallowed after you yelled drop it. Fun fact, you can't get pregnant every day.

Speaker 10 You're only fertile for six days, ovulation day and the five days leading up to it.

Speaker 10 Natural Cycles is the only birth control app that can pinpoint your fertile window by analyzing your hormone-driven temperature trends. It's more than just a basic cycle tracking app.

Speaker 10 Natural Cycles is the only FDA-cleared and CE-marked birth control app and has helped millions prevent and plan for pregnancy naturally. Save 15% when you sign up today with code RADIO15.

Speaker 10 Learn more at naturalcycles.com.

Speaker 10 Becky Bryan, the once well-liked wife of fire chief and city councilman Keith Bryan, stood accused of a vicious crime.

Speaker 10 Her tight circle of friends drifted away, but not everyone in town believed she was a killer.

Speaker 3 I don't believe that Becky Bryan shot Keith Bryan.

Speaker 10 Gary James is a friend of a friend of the Bryans and a prominent Oklahoma defense attorney. He says the case against his client, Becky, doesn't add up.

Speaker 10 You believe an innocent woman is sitting behind bars? Sure.

Speaker 7 She had a lot of bad circumstances, but I do believe somebody shot Keith and ran from that house.

Speaker 10 Her attorney says there was a rush to judgment against Becky, and as a result, the state just didn't have the proof to back up the charge.

Speaker 3 I do believe that law enforcement agencies in this day and age have the ability to do a lot of things that were not done in this case.

Speaker 2 I don't believe they ever looked for anyone, which was a huge part of our defense.

Speaker 11 He's in a little itty-bitty pickup, okay? He's going down my street.

Speaker 10 You know Becky probably better than anybody else. When you listen to that 911 call, you truly believe Becky is being truthful.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I really do.

Speaker 8 And it's because she was a very detailed person. She's not being panicky.
She's trying to describe. She's trying to think through the process.
She's very analytical.

Speaker 10 19 long months after that awful night, Becky's trial began. If half the town had rushed to pray for Keith when he was shot, just as many flocked to court.
It's been a tough year and a half.

Speaker 10 Very tough.

Speaker 10 No cameras were allowed inside the courtroom as the prosecution came armed with a simple, powerful narrative.

Speaker 10 Becky Bryan wanted out of her marriage, so she shot her husband and invented the tale of an intruder.

Speaker 11 He shot my husband in the head.

Speaker 10 The case against Becky began with a slew of secrets from her personal life. They called to court two men who received explicit texts and pictures from Becky days before the shooting.

Speaker 10 And this man, a former client of Becky's, came to the stand and testified they'd had sex the day of the crime.

Speaker 10 Pam Woodard said Becky told her about it at the hospital after the shooting. She just openly told me.

Speaker 10 She said, I had sex with a 29-year-old 29-year-old client this morning, and I have a picture of his private area on my phone. That's not the word she used.

Speaker 10 And she said, and I feel kind of bad because when I got home, Keith had made me a tea.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 5 you just have alarm bells going on?

Speaker 10 It was the oddest conversation. But Pam and some of Becky's other girlfriends weren't brought to court just to talk about that dalliance.

Speaker 10 What was the purpose of you taking the stand, and what was was that experience like? I did not want to take the stand. I was made to take the stand.
I was subpoenaed by the prosecution.

Speaker 10 The prosecution wanted Pam to testify about Becky's obsession with her ex-lover, Mark Holbrook, aka Becky's prodigy.

Speaker 10 Becky had confided her feelings for him months earlier when Becky and Keith appeared to be happier than ever. I said,

Speaker 10 Becky, you and Keith seem to be really committed to making this work. And she said to me, oh, I'm a great faker.
Once I've made my mind up about something, I'm a great faker.

Speaker 10 And my heart just kind of sank. The prosecution argued this was Becky's motive for murder.
She was fixated on her ex-lover and elaborately scheming to get him back.

Speaker 10 She proceeded to tell me that she was going to tell.

Speaker 10 The ex-lover that she was pregnant. So she's saying she's pregnant with his baby.
Yes.

Speaker 10 I said, Becky, you're 50 plus years old.

Speaker 10 And she said, 50-year-old people get pregnant all the time. And I said, who?

Speaker 1 Where?

Speaker 6 How does this happen?

Speaker 5 I've never heard of that.

Speaker 10 Her reasoning had just kind of gone out the window at that point. How far had she gone with the baby story? She wanted somebody that could provide her with positive pregnancy tests.

Speaker 10 She wanted to have a birth announcement printed up. birth announcement.
A birth announcement. She had a name picked out.
She had a name picked out.

Speaker 10 Mark, that object of Becky's obsession, also testified, adding this potentially incriminating detail.

Speaker 10 He said that on the day Keith was shot, Becky left him a voicemail saying she planned to buy a house near him because she was about to inherit some money.

Speaker 10 To many in court, the implication was that Becky had been expecting a life insurance payout.

Speaker 10 Becky and Keith's grown sons kept their feelings about their mother's guilt or innocence to themselves, but both testified briefly for the prosecution, as did a parade of investigators and forensic experts who laid out the physical evidence.

Speaker 10 There were two microscopic components of gunshot residue detected on Becky's hand. And in that dryer with the gun that belonged to Becky, a blanket with holes in it, a shell casing, and a glove.

Speaker 10 A forensic biologist testified that the glove had Becky's DNA on it.

Speaker 12 I tried to be as open-minded as I could and wait and hear all the evidence, but as it went on, I was convinced that she was guilty.

Speaker 10 The state argued it was premeditated murder by a woman who'd been living a double life.

Speaker 10 But Becky's brother and chief supporter wasn't buying it. Did you feel like the evidence was overwhelming against Becky?

Speaker 8 If you wanted to convict her of being a schlut,

Speaker 8 greedy schlut, yeah.

Speaker 1 Not a murderer.

Speaker 9 Coming up.

Speaker 4 Questions about the evidence.

Speaker 3 They didn't fingerprint the dryer. They didn't fingerprint the gun.
I mean, how do you not fingerprint a gun?

Speaker 4 And the verdict?

Speaker 12 I was so nervous my hands were shaking.

Speaker 10 The Becky Bryant who sat accused of murder no longer resembled the woman she once was, the popular and perfectly groomed wife of a community leader. But if her looks had changed, her story had not.

Speaker 10 She was innocent.

Speaker 3 Keith and Becky had grown apart over time. Can you condone affairs?

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 3 but

Speaker 3 it happens. That does not make one a killer.

Speaker 10 Are you disappointed in your sister?

Speaker 8 Lord, no.

Speaker 8 I don't like some of the things that I heard, but she's my sister.

Speaker 1 I love her.

Speaker 10 Becky's attorney didn't try to rehabilitate her reputation in court. The evidence of her affairs was overwhelming.
But when it came to the crime, the defense told the jury the proof was lacking.

Speaker 10 Can you break down for us the biggest errors you feel law enforcement made in this case?

Speaker 7 I think tunnel vision.

Speaker 3 I think that dictated this case from the night it happened. They did no other fingerprinting on any other door.
They didn't fingerprint the dryer. They didn't fingerprint the gun.

Speaker 3 I mean, how do you not fingerprint a gun?

Speaker 10 The defense had an explanation for how an intruder could have easily used Becky's gun to commit the crime. Becky usually left it in her purse, which investigators found in her car in the garage.

Speaker 10 Do you believe that the perpetrator she spoke of came through the garage, found her gun in the car, and then went in and shot Keith?

Speaker 3 Well, that's really what I thought happened.

Speaker 2 A perpetrator came in,

Speaker 3 got the gun out of the vehicle.

Speaker 10 What's more, that glove with Becky's DNA on it also had someone else's DNA. But the CSIs couldn't narrow it down.
Not to Keith or anyone else.

Speaker 3 It was actually a very large man's work glove.

Speaker 10 Was there gunshot residue on the glove?

Speaker 3 Yes, there was gunshot residue on the glove.

Speaker 10 It was the theme of the defense's case. CSI investigators from the state had been so quick to zero in on Becky as the suspect, they'd committed crime scene malpractice.

Speaker 3 They didn't do any contact DNA on the gun.

Speaker 3 And that's a very simple process. They didn't do any gunshot residue testing on her clothes.
They didn't do a gunshot residue test on her face, which would have been very, very telling.

Speaker 3 I mean, they're just things that would have given us reasonable doubt.

Speaker 10 The defense told the jury, investigators all but ignored any evidence that pointed to an intruder.

Speaker 10 Becky's neighbor came to court with that story about the suspicious handyman he'd seen in the neighborhood and the truck spotted speeding around the night Keith was shot.

Speaker 3 It was something that we felt maybe the perpetrator had been canvassing the area or spying on what was going on in the neighborhood.

Speaker 10 And another witness testified he told police at the time he saw a truck matching the one Becky described driving aggressively near the Bryans the night of the shooting.

Speaker 3 That was the key to the case.

Speaker 4 He had a person in a matching truck speeding, driving erratically that had come up on him, had almost hit a vehicle, all within blocks.

Speaker 10 But the statement that witness gave investigators only surfaced a few weeks before trial.

Speaker 8 They didn't follow up on it.

Speaker 7 There were cameras at two different businesses right there at that intersection.

Speaker 10 And one additional detail to contradict the prosecution's case. Becky's brother David testified that there was an innocent explanation for that inheritance she mentioned to her ex-lover.

Speaker 10 She wasn't talking about life insurance. Becky was about to inherit a diamond ring.

Speaker 8 It was my aunt's ring.

Speaker 10 Was it an expensive ring? Very expensive.

Speaker 8 Two full carrots of diamonds. Appraisal on it at one time was $19,000, and that was some years earlier.
So obviously it had a little more value.

Speaker 10 More than enough reasonable doubt, said the defense. But would a jury agree?

Speaker 10 The wait for a verdict began.

Speaker 12 I was so nervous waiting for it, my hands were shaking.

Speaker 8 I was holding out hope that

Speaker 8 the jury would recognize the mistakes that were made and understand that because

Speaker 8 of those mistakes, we may never know who really did it.

Speaker 6 Afternoon turned to evening and then the news the jury was back very nervous very anxious my thoughts were with keith's family

Speaker 10 the verdict guilty of first-degree murder and then when he read guilty

Speaker 1 i really didn't feel a whole lot

Speaker 10 but i didn't feel happy how was your first meeting with becky after her conviction she cried said she couldn't believe it What has Becky told you?

Speaker 8 That she didn't do it.

Speaker 8 But I still don't know the truth. There are either one or two people on the face of this earth that knows the truth.
If Becky did it, she's the only one that knows.

Speaker 8 If somebody else did it, she knows it, and that person knows it.

Speaker 8 If one of those two people come forward and say, I did it, then we'll know the truth. Other than that,

Speaker 10 Becky was sentenced, as the jury had recommended, to life in prison without parole.

Speaker 10 For Keith's friends, the trial and its conclusion were only one sort of an ending. Tangible reminders of their friend and hero live on, especially in the fire department Keith led for so many years.

Speaker 10 What is life like now without your friend, without your chief, without Keith?

Speaker 12 We still talk about him,

Speaker 12 some of the funny things he did, and he's a part of our history here now and he always will be and

Speaker 12 we miss him.

Speaker 10 And if Keith was listening, what would you say to Keith? That I know he's in a great place

Speaker 10 and Keith would tell us to forgive Becky, not to say that she doesn't have to be held accountable and that she doesn't have to suffer consequences because that's a given and that's the right thing.

Speaker 10 But Keith would actually want us to forgive Becky.

Speaker 10 And I know that. And I would just tell Keith, well done.

Speaker 10 Your time on Earth here was well done.

Speaker 8 That's all for now.

Speaker 4 I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1 This time of year, many are checking off their holiday gift lists. But identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them.
Protect your identity with LifeLock.

Speaker 1 LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back.

Speaker 1 Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com/slash dateline. Terms apply.