The Dead of Night

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Speaker 2 Tonight on Dateline.

Speaker 5 She opened up her boutique. She had gone to Europe.
She was going out dancing at night.

Speaker 6 She was taking lots of pictures and posting on social media.

Speaker 2 It was a whole new world.

Speaker 5 She was excited.

Speaker 5 She goes, I think somebody's breaking into my Facebook. I also think somebody's breaking into my house.

Speaker 7 She felt like she had a stalker.

Speaker 8 Neurovia, please. I haven't heard from my daughter since Trump.

Speaker 9 Inside the apartment, there's bloodstains on the carpet and blood spatter on the wall.

Speaker 2 And she's missing. And she's missing.

Speaker 10 They find a notebook. It says, I'll have great pleasure tearing her apart.

Speaker 11 The hairs on your neck, stand up.

Speaker 5 I just went, oh my God, you gotta look into this guy.

Speaker 2 He was so good at pretending. He's a monster.

Speaker 13 He's like, do you have a suspect?

Speaker 4 I said, yes.

Speaker 11 And he said, who? And I said, you.

Speaker 4 I'm Lester Holt. and this is Dateline.

Speaker 4 Here's Josh Mankiewicz with The Dead of Night.

Speaker 2 It was the dead of night, and she ran as fast as she could. Frightened, panicked.
Wearing next to nothing, she climbed over the iron gate, pounded on the door, and begged for help.

Speaker 2 Who was this woman? What or who was she running from? And would she make it out alive?

Speaker 2 Monrovia, California, a quaint family-friendly city nestled in the foothills of the rugged San Gabriel Mountains, one of the many suburbs of Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 It was the ideal landing spot for 31-year-old LaJoya McCoy.

Speaker 2 She worked hard to get here.

Speaker 14 She was the only one in my family who actually went to college the way she did being raised by a single mother.

Speaker 2 For David Clark and his wife Alicia, their niece La Joya's success always seemed within her reach.

Speaker 15 She knew what she wanted, and education was her very top thing, you know.

Speaker 2 And school is where La Joya, a star student, would shine the brightest.

Speaker 14 I went to a couple of graduations down at university and I couldn't have been more proud.

Speaker 2 For La Joya, education was a gift to share with others, like her younger sister Brianna.

Speaker 6 Growing up

Speaker 17 poor,

Speaker 6 although it didn't feel like it sometimes, she just wanted better for herself and for the rest of us.

Speaker 2 When La Joya's mom and younger siblings left California and moved to Las Vegas, La Joya stayed behind and strengthened the bond she had with her aunt and uncle.

Speaker 14 I knew it was unconditional love for me when she told me, Uncle Dave, I think you should run for mayor.

Speaker 2 I'm thinking, wow, you're really thinking a lot of me. Soon, La Joya met Jose Turner, an aspiring actor and playwright.

Speaker 12 Hello, my name is Jose Turner.

Speaker 2 Things got serious. They moved in together and had two children.
That relationship did not last, but La Joya and Jose were devoted to their kids and committed to co-parenting.

Speaker 2 And La Joya continued to pursue her dreams.

Speaker 15 Yeah, that's one thing about her. She never gave up.
You know, she was very determined.

Speaker 14 She always kept evolving.

Speaker 2 La Joya had a good job with LA County as an auditor. She also opened her own clothing boutique and was developing a smartphone app.

Speaker 14 She was just moving forward. She enjoyed her job, loved it.
And, you know, when she started her boutique after that, I'm thinking, where is she getting all this time to do these things? You

Speaker 2 La Joya's good friend, Eva Mendoza, visited the boutique and understood why success was critical for La Joya.

Speaker 5 What she wanted to do was definitely be her own boss to spend more time with her kids. She just wanted them to have like the best life.

Speaker 6 She was learning the piano

Speaker 2 to baby.

Speaker 6 She was also teaching what she learned to her kids.

Speaker 2 La Joya was spreading her wings, but was she also spreading herself too thin?

Speaker 2 Even though she shared child care duties with Jose, she needed a helping hand.

Speaker 2 So La Joya called her mom in Las Vegas and asked her to have one of La Joya's sisters come out to California to help watch the kids.

Speaker 2 The next day, the Vegas bus pulled into LA almost an hour late. La Joya's sister stepped off the bus and did not see La Joya, who was supposed to meet her.
Her uncle David then got a call.

Speaker 14 Mom was at work and she's crying.

Speaker 2 It was his sister, La Joya's mom.

Speaker 14 La Joya didn't show up and she's like, I'm worried because she knew she was coming. She actually sent for her.

Speaker 2 You call La Joya. No answer.
Exactly. You're texting her.
She's not at home.

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 2 David left work to collect his younger niece. He was perplexed.

Speaker 14 I was hoping she just was somewhere and would show up and say, you know what, I'm sorry. I was doing this or doing that.

Speaker 15 I thought she just lost track of time. And, you know, and we do that.
Because like I said, she was juggling the boutique, the work, and I figured, well, maybe, you know what, she lost track of time.

Speaker 2 Well, according to social media, LaJoya might have been juggling something else. Just a week before, she had posted a message on Facebook that read, okay, he made me breakfast and has a rooftop pool.

Speaker 2 He's a keeper. The man in in the photograph? David and Alicia had no clue.

Speaker 15 When I seen that, I'm like, okay, she's back in a relationship. I'm hoping this one is a good one.

Speaker 14 The way the picture looked, I'm like, what is he? A record producer? Or, you know, I don't know what he did, but I'm like, maybe they took a flight somewhere.

Speaker 14 I don't know.

Speaker 2 One day passed, then two days. Still no sign of La Joya.

Speaker 2 On Friday, June 12, 2015, her mom called the Monrovia Police Department.

Speaker 8 I'm thinking that she might be sick or unconscious in her apartment.

Speaker 2 She was worried because she knew things about La Joya. The police did not.

Speaker 4 Coming up,

Speaker 4 what LaGoya had been telling friends?

Speaker 5 She goes, I think somebody is breaking into my Facebook.

Speaker 4 Even scarier. was someone breaking into her house.

Speaker 5 She goes, I know for sure that I'm leaving some some stuff somewhere, and when I'm coming home, it's somewhere else.

Speaker 2 June 12th, 2015 was a summer Friday in Monrovia, California. Families gathered at the local street fair, leaving their hectic work weeks behind them.

Speaker 2 Not so for Summer Jackson. A long nightmare was about to begin.
Her daughter, LaJoya McCoy, wasn't answering calls or texts. And now Summer was on the phone to police.

Speaker 8 Nerovia, please. I haven't heard

Speaker 8 from my daughter to

Speaker 8 work who killed me.

Speaker 2 For many departments, that call is as routine as they come. Adult children don't always check in with their parents.
Then Summer shared this.

Speaker 8 She keeps telling me that her pirates was last

Speaker 8 a few days before,

Speaker 8 like over the weekend. Somebody get kind of stalking her a little bit, so I'm sure that's what's making me concerned.
All right, we will go and see what we'll find out, okay?

Speaker 8 Oh, thank you so much.

Speaker 8 I'm just so worried.

Speaker 2 La Joya's mom was one of the few people who knew about her daughter's closely guarded secret. She believed someone was stalking her.
La Joya also told her friend Eva.

Speaker 5 I was always, always worried about her.

Speaker 2 La Joya had just broken up with Jose when she and Eva became friends. It was a whole new world.

Speaker 5 She opened up her boutique. She started going to the beach in bikinis.
She had gone to Europe. She was going out dancing at night.

Speaker 2 Eva says La Joya loved her new freedom and was starting to date again.

Speaker 5 She was very beautiful, very beautiful. So she

Speaker 5 never had a problem. At least when she was with me, with guys coming up to her and trying to get her number.

Speaker 2 Were there guys that she was going out with that you were worried about? That you didn't trust?

Speaker 5 Me, everybody.

Speaker 5 I didn't trust any guy.

Speaker 2 La Joya rekindled old flames and started new ones, often posting about them on Facebook. Like this guy, Luther Walls.
a friend from her past she had reconnected with.

Speaker 20 She was looking for like, you know, marriage, like,

Speaker 2 you know, a life partner. Turned out, that wasn't Luther.
They did remain friends. And according to Eva, La Joya's dating life rarely blossomed into anything serious.

Speaker 2 Something seemed to be holding her back.

Speaker 5 She goes, I think somebody is breaking into my Facebook. I also think somebody's breaking into my house.

Speaker 5 And I was like, huh? What makes you think that? She goes, I know, Eva, I know for sure that I'm leaving some stuff somewhere. And when I'm coming home, it's somewhere else.

Speaker 2 La Joya said things weren't just moved around. Some of them were missing.

Speaker 5 The first thing that came into my mind is like, you're under a lot of stress. You know, it's easy to forget, you know, where you leave things or misplace things.

Speaker 5 You know, I told her it happens to all of us.

Speaker 2 I think you're just a little stressed. Now, La Joya was missing.
After her mom called Monrovia PD, they went to La Joya's apartment.

Speaker 9 Blinds were drawn. They couldn't see in the windows.
Check the doors. Door was locked.

Speaker 2 Sergeant Chad Harvey was a detective back in 2015. He says patrol officers found La Joya's apartment locked and secure.

Speaker 9 Couldn't find anything suspicious, anything out of the normal. It looked normal.
So everything looked normal at the time.

Speaker 9 So they went ahead and contacted La Joya's mother and told her, Nothing seems peculiar and left it at that.

Speaker 2 La Joya's mom wasn't alone. That night, police heard from other worried friends and family.

Speaker 8 I texted her

Speaker 8 last night and she did not respond. I have an employee that hasn't reported to her.

Speaker 2 Officers went back for a second look.

Speaker 9 They started talking to some neighbors. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary again.

Speaker 2 Police called La Joya's ex, Jose Turner, the father of their two children. He said the last time he saw La Joya was the previous weekend, weekend, when he dropped off the kids at her place.

Speaker 2 A few days later, he picked up the kids, as usual. Police also called La Joya's cell phone carrier, who told them La Joya's cell was active that day.

Speaker 2 When La Joya's mom heard that, she told police she would hold off on filing a missing persons report. Maybe La Joya would contact her.

Speaker 9 So we waited a few days.

Speaker 2 As Friday night drew to a close, news about La Joya's disappearance was already making the rounds. La Joya's sister Brianna heard it from her grandmother.

Speaker 6 She said it very nonchalant.

Speaker 6 She just told me that La Joya hasn't talked to my mom in a few days and

Speaker 2 me

Speaker 6 knowing La Joya, I felt like maybe she just wanted some space. It wasn't uncommon for her to like disconnect from time to time.

Speaker 2 Eva remembered a conversation she'd had with La Joya a week before.

Speaker 5 She told me that she wanted to, you know, just escape. She found a place in like a retreat in Arizona, no cell phones, whatever, meditation and whatnot.
I told her, I think it's a great idea.

Speaker 5 I think it's going to help you gather your thoughts.

Speaker 2 La Joya had a lot to think about. Earlier that week, she'd gone to Happy Hour with her friend Bernadette, who sometimes helped out with La Joya's clothing boutique.

Speaker 2 They talked about La Joya's decision to close her store due to financial problems. Despite that setback, Bernadette said she didn't see any signs LaGoya wanted to escape, unplug, or vanish.

Speaker 18 Things are okay now because she closed the store, so now she has that stress off of her. She was very positive about the future.

Speaker 2 She even posted this video of herself dancing in the boutique just days before the doors closed for good.

Speaker 2 So, where was she? LaGoya's brother called Luther, even though they'd never met, to ask if he'd heard from Joya. In fact, he had, Luther told him, but that was a few days ago.

Speaker 2 After that call, Luther said he went by La Joya's apartment.

Speaker 21 I want to see if I've seen her car out there, but I didn't

Speaker 21 because our parking space was like in the back and like to the side right there.

Speaker 2 So Luther said he didn't knock on her door.

Speaker 2 It had now been nearly a week since La Joya had gone silent.

Speaker 2 With a clock ticking loudly in her head, La Joya's mom again called police. Officers made a third trip to La Joya's apartment, and this time they forced their way in.

Speaker 2 And what they found was a crime scene.

Speaker 4 Coming up.

Speaker 9 I noticed that there's bloodstains on the carpet.

Speaker 2 What had happened? And where was La Joya?

Speaker 4 The answer just might be on video.

Speaker 11 A neighbor put up a motion camera. That camera was faced at the perfect position.

Speaker 4 When dateline continues.

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Speaker 2 The streets were quiet that warm summer afternoon in Monrovia. Inside La Joya McCoy's apartment, it was quiet too.

Speaker 9 I went in through the window. I yelled who I was, yelled for La Joya, no answer.

Speaker 2 Detective Harvey opened the front door for his partner.

Speaker 9 As we did, we entered, still announcing our presence. Nobody was inside.

Speaker 2 What's it look like in there?

Speaker 9 It's clean. Doesn't look like anything out of the normal.
Some clothes lying around, just normal everyday things.

Speaker 2 Then they looked in the main bedroom where it didn't look normal at all.

Speaker 9 I noticed that there's bloodstains on the carpet. I then noticed bloodstains on the mattress and blood spatter on the wall.

Speaker 2 And all of La Joya's bedding was gone.

Speaker 9 And she's missing.

Speaker 2 Well, you've been doing this a while.

Speaker 2 What are the odds that that person who is missing is still alive?

Speaker 9 We like to think that they are. We don't know that they aren't.

Speaker 2 In LA County, a small department like Monrovia often turns to the sheriff's department for a possible murder case like this one.

Speaker 2 That evening, Detective Eddie Brown and his partner were on call.

Speaker 11 We got called from our residence and we go straight to the location.

Speaker 2 Brown scanned La Joya's apartment.

Speaker 11 The kids' room was totally disheveled. The drawers were taken out.
Some of them were on the floor. Some of them were partially open.

Speaker 11 Clothing, materials on the floor. It looked a mess.

Speaker 2 Lajoya's car was gone, and detectives noticed her purse and phone were missing too.

Speaker 2 Had someone robbed the apartment and taken La Joya with them?

Speaker 2 Detective Brown didn't think so.

Speaker 11 There was no forced entry.

Speaker 2 Somebody can push their way in.

Speaker 11 If he did that, why would he take the bed sheets if something didn't occur?

Speaker 2 If this is a push-in bad guy and he disables her or kills her, he's going to leave her right there. He's going to steal what he's going to steal and her right there.
No reason to take her body. Right.

Speaker 2 Brown believed the most likely scenario was that someone staged the scene to look like a robbery, which meant La Joya was probably the target.

Speaker 11 Because the woman's bed sheets were gone,

Speaker 11 which I believe that was used to transport her out of the house. So she was either knocked out, unconscious, or dead.

Speaker 2 The apartment also smelled like bleach.

Speaker 11 Which tells me that someone probably tried to clean the crime scene.

Speaker 2 And then came a lead. Was there a video record of what had happened?

Speaker 11 A neighbor directly across from her apartment was having a problem with some petty theft. So he decided to put up a motion camera.

Speaker 11 And it's the type of camera that, you know, it has to be activated by a sensor, so an animal or a person walking by. And that camera was faced at the perfect position.

Speaker 2 Investigators downloaded the neighbor's video. You don't usually get that lucky.
No.

Speaker 11 That's why I was very excited about this camera, especially when I started watching the video, because you could see the door

Speaker 11 clear as a bell.

Speaker 2 Brown watched that video. for hours.

Speaker 11 I keep playing it over and over hoping to see

Speaker 11 her being carried out of that apartment.

Speaker 2 That's what he wanted to see, but it wasn't there.

Speaker 11 Her door is too far away for the motion to activate the camera.

Speaker 2 So you're lucky, but you're unlucky. Yeah.

Speaker 11 I needed a cat to walk past there.

Speaker 2 At just the right time.

Speaker 11 At just the right time.

Speaker 2 No cat, and still no La Joya McCoy.

Speaker 2 Police put out a bulletin for a silver Toyota Camry, La Joya's car.

Speaker 2 And hours after the alert went out, a patrol officer found it not far from her apartment, parked in a residential neighborhood. A parking ticket had been wedged into the doorframe,

Speaker 2 and there was something inside.

Speaker 11 The passenger and driver's windows were tinted.

Speaker 2 The officer took a closer look, and he saw it. It was a body

Speaker 4 coming up.

Speaker 6 I just felt like my world had ended.

Speaker 4 La Joya's loved ones get terrible news, and investigators make a discovery.

Speaker 2 That's got to make everybody sit up a little taller in the saddle.

Speaker 9 That's a red flag for us, yes.

Speaker 2 Less than two miles from La Joya McCoy's apartment sat her silver Toyota Camry. It had been parked beneath the summer sun for who knows how many days.
Inside, beneath a blanket, was a female body.

Speaker 2 She's on the passenger side of the driver's passenger side.

Speaker 11 Which tells us clearly that the perpetrator drove her to this location.

Speaker 11 She had a

Speaker 11 ligature mark around her neck.

Speaker 2 News spread quickly. A candlelight vigil was held at La Joya's apartment.
NBC station KNBC was there.

Speaker 4 Throughout the night, more and more gathered.

Speaker 2 Word spread.

Speaker 23 La Joya McCoy was not missing anymore.

Speaker 6 I just felt like my world had ended. It was tough.

Speaker 2 Her aunt and uncle kept hoping it was all some kind of mistake.

Speaker 14 It's not gonna be her. They're gonna say she's okay or it was somebody else.

Speaker 15 You know, she's a mother. She's a sister.
She's a daughter.

Speaker 15 Who would want to do this to her?

Speaker 2 I just

Speaker 24 couldn't understand it.

Speaker 2 They couldn't think of anyone who had an issue with La Joya, except maybe the father of her children, Jose Turner.

Speaker 15 She moved on. And I think he didn't like that.

Speaker 2 According to Alicia, Jose would sometimes do things to spite La La Joya, like the times he'd pick up the kids from the youth center without letting La Joya know about it.

Speaker 2 He's just kind of being a pain.

Speaker 15 It's a jerk. Yes, a jerk.
You know, trying to make her mad.

Speaker 14 Yeah, and it was definitely a,

Speaker 14 no, it had to be some envy in there.

Speaker 2 Bernadette thought the same.

Speaker 18 I believe

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 2 he

Speaker 18 became very jealous

Speaker 18 of La Joya after after a while.

Speaker 2 Because her life was going somewhere and his kind of wasn't.

Speaker 18 Right. I believe he was an inspiring actor that

Speaker 18 really wasn't getting many offers.

Speaker 2 And there was something else that bothered David and Alicia. The day after La Joya didn't show up to meet her younger sister at the bus station, Jose showed up at their house with the kids.

Speaker 2 And during that visit, they say, not once did Jose ask about La Joya.

Speaker 2 No matter what was going on between them, that's the mother of his kids.

Speaker 15 Yes, and that's why I didn't understand it.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 2 what?

Speaker 15 You're that selfish of a person?

Speaker 2 Of course, Detective Eddie Brown heard all these stories about Jose,

Speaker 2 including a comment Jose had made to the Monrovia PD.

Speaker 2 the second time they called him while La Joya was still missing.

Speaker 9 Mr. Turner said, I'm going to stop answering any questions and you can talk to my lawyer.

Speaker 2 That's got to make everybody sit up a little taller in the saddle.

Speaker 9 That's a red flag for us, yes.

Speaker 2 Well, there was another side to Jose. Tammy Devon was a journalist and aspiring filmmaker who got to know Jose and La Joya.

Speaker 24 I remember seeing La Joya and Jose with their kids together, and I was like, oh my goodness, I wish that, you know, I was cool, calm, and collected like these guys are.

Speaker 16 There was

Speaker 24 kindness there.

Speaker 2 Jose respected La Joya, said Tammy. And Detective Brown knew that just because Jose had clammed up, that didn't mean he was a killer.

Speaker 11 We didn't zero in on him,

Speaker 11 and we can't. You know, initially in an investigation, everybody is a suspect.
We look at everything, you know,

Speaker 11 and everybody.

Speaker 2 Tips started coming in to police. One from a local chiropractor who'd seen the news reports about La Joya.
He told detectives he met LaGoya and a friend of hers at a restaurant about a week earlier.

Speaker 2 Turns out that was the night Bernadette was out with La Joya.

Speaker 2 Detectives reviewed the restaurant's security cameras, and there was the chiropractor. He's seen talking with La Joya and later leaving the restaurant.

Speaker 2 La Joya and her friend leave a a couple of minutes later.

Speaker 2 Doesn't look like anybody's following her, and she doesn't look like she's having trouble with anybody on her way out of the restaurant or way to the car. Correct.

Speaker 2 So whatever happened, doesn't happen there. Correct.
The chiropractor was one of the last people to see La Joya alive, but his story was corroborated by what detectives saw on the security cameras.

Speaker 2 He was nothing more than a helpful citizen. And then there was something La Joya had left behind.
Something in her own words.

Speaker 2 We

Speaker 11 locate her journals. Her journals tell us a lot.

Speaker 11 We find out that

Speaker 11 there was a boyfriend she had had before.

Speaker 2 And there was a new man she was falling for.

Speaker 11 And I remember reading that she had met somebody and that she was looking forward to seeing him again.

Speaker 2 Was it the man she had posted about on Facebook just days before she went missing? Detectives needed more.

Speaker 11 And we do a warrant on her phone. We do get the return on her phone.

Speaker 2 La Joya's cell phone record showed that on the evening she was out with Bernadette, the last time La Joya was seen alive, she was texting with someone.

Speaker 2 And the last person to be in contact with La Joya was not Jose Turner. Nope.

Speaker 4 Coming up, investigators head back to the scene of the crime, hoping to smoke out a suspect.

Speaker 11 I did that on purpose that location, so that he would be uncomfortable.

Speaker 4 And then they spring their trap.

Speaker 13 He's like, do you have a suspect?

Speaker 11 I said, yes. And he said, who? And I said, you.

Speaker 4 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 2 In any modern-day criminal investigation, a person's digital footprint can be as valuable as their actual fingerprints. Unfortunately, in this case, La Joya McCoy's cell phone was nowhere to be found.

Speaker 2 It last pinged several miles away from her home.

Speaker 2 And in that area, there's a lot of dumpsters.

Speaker 11 There's a lot of dumpsters.

Speaker 2 Never find the phone.

Speaker 11 Never find the phone.

Speaker 2 Or the bedding or her purse.

Speaker 11 Nothing.

Speaker 2 Detectives were able to obtain La Joya's cell phone records.

Speaker 2 They discovered the cell number that La Joya last texted belonged not to her ex, Jose Turner, and not to the new guy with the rooftop pool, but to La Joya's friend, Luther Walls.

Speaker 2 the guy who'd helpfully driven by her apartment to check on her.

Speaker 2 Like La Joya, Luther owned a boutique. Brown and his partner found him there.

Speaker 11 We were speaking with Mr. Wall's first name, Luther, correct?

Speaker 4 Correct.

Speaker 2 He said that they had been involved romantically, but now they were just friends. Correct.

Speaker 2 My experience is that when guys say that, what they mean is I wanted to be involved romantically and she wanted to be just friends.

Speaker 11 Yeah, that's probably what I took, you know, out of that too, but I didn't want to push that.

Speaker 2 Luther knew what was coming.

Speaker 21 I knew they was going to probably go through text messages, and I knew that I was probably alone in the last text messages she sent.

Speaker 2 Luther had kept the texts he'd received from La Joya, and he shared them with Detective Brown. You get a good vibe off Luther.
I did.

Speaker 11 You know, doing this job for a long time, you can tell generally

Speaker 11 when someone's lying.

Speaker 2 And he didn't seem to be lying. Not at all.

Speaker 2 Detectives came to believe Luther Walls had nothing to do with La Joya's murder. You can tell by his phone that he wasn't at her apartment.
Correct.

Speaker 2 Instead, Luther helped detectives with an understanding of what was going on with La Joya just prior to her disappearance, because Luther had heard some of the same stories La Joya had told her mom and her friend Eva.

Speaker 20 She had expressed concerns that someone could be stalking her and who was at. She never told me exactly who.

Speaker 2 Even without a name, Luther did know exactly who who La Joya was talking about.

Speaker 20 She did tell me if something, somebody did do something to me,

Speaker 20 check her baby daddy.

Speaker 2 And that was Jose Turner.

Speaker 20 She told me that he was abusive. Like, she didn't really go into details, but she did tell me he was abusive.
I think it was more like a controlling relationship.

Speaker 2 Luther also told detectives that La Joya believed Jose had a locksmith make a key to her apartment while she wasn't there.

Speaker 11 I believe her sixth sense of fear was kicking in.

Speaker 2 This was a woman who knew she was in danger.

Speaker 11 She knew she was in danger. Yes.

Speaker 11 She knew.

Speaker 2 Just not in time.

Speaker 11 Correct. Which, unfortunately, I've seen that occur a lot in my career.

Speaker 2 And perhaps this was about the time in the investigation. When Jose Turner's sixth sense was kicking in, because Jose picked up the phone and called Monrovia PD.

Speaker 2 The call was recorded.

Speaker 8 I want to be able to pick up some things for the kids if that's possible.

Speaker 2 Kids' games and things he said that were still in LaGoya's apartment. Monrovia P.D.
told Jose to call the detectives. And when Brown's phone rang, he saw an opportunity.

Speaker 8 I want to get my kids' clothes or somewhere belonging. Is that not possible? I understand.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but yeah, but we need to talk to you about your whatever happened to your

Speaker 2 the baby's baby's mom.

Speaker 8 I don't know, and I don't have anything to say about that, sir.

Speaker 2 Oh, you're not,

Speaker 2 you're not concerned about it?

Speaker 2 I didn't say that. The detective told Jose he would be happy to meet with him.
What about,

Speaker 2 I don't know, 1.30 at the

Speaker 20 apartment?

Speaker 8 At the apartment.

Speaker 11 I did that on purpose, that location,

Speaker 2 so that he would be uncomfortable and so they met at the scene of the crime so when you meet him there how does he seem like a suspect

Speaker 2 detective brown had a surprise for jose he would hand over the kids things sure

Speaker 11 but he wanted something in return but i also was going to get a dna swab from him

Speaker 2 and i told him that and i showed him the paperwork which was a search warrant and here we are and here's our swab so open your mouth Exactly.

Speaker 2 Brown also had a question for Jose.

Speaker 11 I said, Jose, how come you haven't asked anything about La Joya?

Speaker 11 You don't want to know about the investigation or anything?

Speaker 2 And oh, yes,

Speaker 11 yeah. He said, how's it going?

Speaker 2 Now that you bring it up, I do.

Speaker 13 Yeah, he's like, well, do you have a suspect?

Speaker 11 And I said, yes. And he said, who?

Speaker 11 And I said, you.

Speaker 2 They submitted Jose Turner's DNA to the lab, and they waited while La Joya's family and friends mourned.

Speaker 6 It was very hard.

Speaker 6 Very hard sitting there.

Speaker 6 It shouldn't have happened.

Speaker 6 We shouldn't have been at her funeral.

Speaker 2 And at the funeral with La Joya's kids was Jose Turner.

Speaker 14 To see him there was disturbing.

Speaker 15 Just acting like nothing, nothing happened.

Speaker 2 Like nothing.

Speaker 2 David and Alicia knew knew something had happened. They'd seen it with their own eyes.

Speaker 4 Coming up, an eerie conversation.

Speaker 11 It was like I was speaking with LaGoya.

Speaker 2 Could a single phone call crack this case? That's the missing piece.

Speaker 11 Yes.

Speaker 2 Pasadena, California, April 2013.

Speaker 2 It was close to 2 a.m.

Speaker 2 David and Alicia were jolted awake.

Speaker 14 Just heard some frantic banging, banging.

Speaker 2 It grew louder.

Speaker 14 At first, we were thinking maybe it's the police, and then maybe somebody's trying to break in.

Speaker 2 Someone was pounding on their front door. David got up to see who it was.

Speaker 14 And then we just hear Uncle David.

Speaker 15 Yeah, and I'm like, who is that?

Speaker 2 Remember the desperate woman at the start of our story? That was La Joya, standing at her aunt and uncle's doorstep, half naked and terrified.

Speaker 14 I immediately seeing the way she was dressed and crying, I knew it had to do with him.

Speaker 2 Him, meaning Jose Turner. David pulled his niece inside as she wept.

Speaker 14 I've never in my life seen her that way. And for her to come the way she did, I mean, I have a wall that's probably three feet tall in front of that apartment building.

Speaker 14 And then it has the cast iron rods with points on the tip. She jumped over that to get to my place to get away from him.

Speaker 2 La Joya said she and Jose were arguing when Jose suddenly turned violent.

Speaker 15 She said, I just came out the bathroom and he just flipped out.

Speaker 2 She said Jose choked her. And she found the strength to hit back.

Speaker 15 Then he went down and then she ran out the door.

Speaker 2 In terror, La Joya ran to her aunt and uncle's home. And romantically, anyway, she never looked back.
She dumped Jose, moved on with her life. At least, that was the plan.

Speaker 2 Two years later, La Joya was murdered. And now her uncle couldn't understand how Jose Turner was still a free man.

Speaker 14 You know, you start having doubt like this isn't going to get resolved and you need closure.

Speaker 2 that's when detective brown heard from the crime lab they tested the dna found on lajoya's car and under her fingernails against the swab brown had taken from jose

Speaker 27 it was enough of a match to make an arrest that's the missing piece yes jailed tonight in temple city 47-year-old jose roberto turner arrested this morning on suspicion of killing his ex-girlfriend 31-year-old lajoya mccoy lajoya's mom Summer, found it hard to accept.

Speaker 18 Her mom didn't want to believe it, of course, because

Speaker 2 that's her grandkid's father.

Speaker 2 No one wants to believe that, least of all a woman who came forward to say that long before La Joya McCoy,

Speaker 2 she knew exactly what Jose Turner was capable of.

Speaker 2 Jose was so good at pretending.

Speaker 2 When we go in public, everything is wonderful.

Speaker 12 He's mannered.

Speaker 2 He's respectful.

Speaker 12 When we get home, he's a monster.

Speaker 2 Her name was Adrienne, Jose's ex-girlfriend from years ago. She came forward when she learned Jose had been arrested.
Detective Brown recorded her interview.

Speaker 12 He beat me so bad,

Speaker 12 I ran out the house naked.

Speaker 12 You see, he kept me naked. I had to stay naked.
That way he don't go out the house.

Speaker 2 For Adrian, LaJoya's story was like a bad memory.

Speaker 25 I felt sick.

Speaker 2 Like, that could have been me.

Speaker 2 I'm, you know, that could have been me.

Speaker 11 It was like I was speaking with LaGoya.

Speaker 2 The stories were that similar. Yes.

Speaker 2 In summer 2017, Jose went on trial for La Joya's murder.

Speaker 10 When you take this to a jury, you want to be able to prove it beyond any possible doubt.

Speaker 2 Veteran prosecutor Fernanda Barreto said the evidence was overwhelming. A blood-soaked note found in La Joya's car, in her own writing, documenting Jose's stalking.
That read,

Speaker 2 I get a flat tire after he says he's in my area. Jose Turner's DNA at the scene of the crime.
Plus, the jury heard from Jose's former girlfriend, Adrian. whose own story echoed La Joya's.

Speaker 2 And there was one more thing. Those items items missing from La Joya's apartment? Detectives found them in Jose's car, along with this, a green notebook with notes in Jose's writing.

Speaker 10 They find almost a stream of conscious writing, event session on this one page, and it

Speaker 10 says, you know, I'll have great pleasure tearing her apart.

Speaker 2 Jose's defense, the writing was fiction. He was, after all, an actor and playwright.
As for Jose's DNA at the crime scene, his attorney argued there was no way of knowing how and when it got there.

Speaker 2 Jurors didn't buy it. After just eight hours of deliberation, they found Jose Turner guilty of first-degree murder.
His sentence, 26 years to life.

Speaker 6 I was heartbroken,

Speaker 6 yet very relieved that my sister got justice.

Speaker 2 Looking back on La Joya's story, there is one obvious fork in the legal road. That night, she said Jose choked her, and she ran to her uncle's house.
How is Jose not locked up that night?

Speaker 10 She didn't call the police, and she didn't want the police involved.

Speaker 2 Because she thinks that'll make it worse? Yes. And she's not wrong.

Speaker 10 I have cases where

Speaker 10 the women call the police,

Speaker 10 they agree to prosecute, and they end up being murdered. So what is the right way? I wish I knew.

Speaker 2 La Joya did do her best to move on.

Speaker 10 She was acutely aware of the danger in front of her, but she just hoped that he wouldn't go that far. She hoped that he would not take that ultimate step and kill her.

Speaker 2 It's crazy when all you have going for you is hoping.

Speaker 9 I don't disagree.

Speaker 10 I think that she started reaching out to people towards the end when his behavior was escalating.

Speaker 2 In fact, detectives say her murder came just a few days before an appointment La Joya had made with a security company to have an alarm system installed at her apartment.

Speaker 2 La Joya's aunt and uncle became parents all over again.

Speaker 2 La Joya's two children came to live with them.

Speaker 2 We

Speaker 15 adopted them, so they're our kids.

Speaker 2 And how are they?

Speaker 14 They're doing well. I mean,

Speaker 14 you wonder what's going through their mind.

Speaker 2 David and Alicia say that when LaJoya disappeared, Jose told the kids she had abandoned them.

Speaker 2 You've told them the truth about what happened to her.

Speaker 14 They ask in certain ways, and then when I tell them I won't hide anything from you, I'll tell you as much as I can. I mean, the oldest son, he told me, my dad tricked us, huh? And I say, yeah, he did.

Speaker 2 Your dad didn't tell you the truth, but we will. Yes.

Speaker 15 Yes.

Speaker 2 The truth about a woman who never gave up on herself or the future she wanted.

Speaker 4 That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again Friday at 9-8 Central.
And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 4 For all of us at NBC News, good night.

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